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Monthly Brandtech Blend - January 2023

Yasmine Toussaint
Published on
3/1/2023
For this first issue of 2023, we’ve put together a recap of what went on in the last few weeks in the tech world leading up to the new year, as well as a roundup of the most significant tech news in 2022. Get all the latest from Twitter with Elon Musk stepping down as CEO of the social media platform, to Microsoft’s hefty €60 million fine, and the dramatic collapse of FTX!

Elon Musk steps down as Twitter CEO

Is it already the end for Elon Musk as CEO of Twitter? It would seem so…

ollowing a series of controversies and an abundance of chaos around his new policies since taking over the reins of the social media platform company, Musk decided to launch a poll on Twitter asking users to vote on whether he should resign from Twitter CEO, and promising to comply with the results. Unsurprisingly, 57% voted in favor of Musk stepping down which led to him tweeting: “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams."All that is left to do is see whether or not Elon Musk actually goes through with his promise of resigning from the company and, if so when he will find a replacement when, as he says himself “no one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive”.

Read more about the latest at Twitter in The Tech Portal, Reuters, and The Guardian.

France's CNIL fines Microsoft a hefty €60 million

The CNIL, France’s data Privacy watchdog, has fined the US technology company Microsoft €60 million over its use of advertising cookies.Following a complaint filed back in 2020, criticizing how the company obtained their users’ consent to the use of cookies, the French regulator set up an online audit on the bing.com domain. It discovered that when users visited Microsoft's search engine, cookies were placed on their terminal without their approval and that there was no system set up to enable users to refuse these cookies.The tech giant now has three months to amend the issue.

Read more about this topic in Le Monde and France 24.

Experts fear ‘consumer bias’ against crypto following FTX crash

Following the dramatic collapse of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange, experts fear major and lasting damage to the industry as a whole, with consumer trust in cryptocurrencies falling as a result. This was evidenced by the number of withdrawals on other exchanges as soon as FTX's collapse was known. So what does the future look like for the industry? Will consumers regain trust in cryptocurrencies?Many believe that greater regulation of the industry will be required to shield consumer protection - but without destroying innovation. Others believe that brands will simply move on to a new sponsor, tempted by lucrative crypto partnerships. Amongst the ongoing Blockchain believers is the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who claims that blockchain technologies have "far-reaching implications for the global economy". In the meantime, with Sam Bankman-Fried facing fraud charges, the main objective for industry experts will be to better control the industry as a whole to ensure that something like the FTX collapse never happens again.Watch this space!

Read more about it in The Drum, Reuters, and nbc news.

A roundup of 2022 tech stories

Finally, before 2023 gets underway, here’s a roundup of some of the most pivotal moments in the world of tech in 2022.  2022 has been a very challenging year for the tech giants, with the likes of Amazon, Meta, Google, and Apple having to cut down on their workforce. For some of these companies, these were the biggest job cuts in their history!In the midst of an increase in competition from streaming services like Disney and Amazon, Netflix faced a loss in subscribers in the second quarter of the year for the very first time in a decade. To address this problem, Netflix launched its ad-supported plan offering a cheaper option to its consumers back in November.And last but not least, as you may have noticed in our monthly brandtech articles, the last few months of 2022 have been dominated by scandals and controversies since Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter.

Read more about it in The New York Times and Rappler.

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