Hello from SHIFT, bringing you this week’s roundup of the most notable news from the technology world. These are the stories that have caught our B2B tech PR team’s eye:
Uber makes its IPO
The much talked about Uber IPO filing finally landed Thursdayafter markets closed. Uber Technologies filed its IPO prospectus, reporting its2018 revenue – and losses of $1.8 billion, quite out of the norm for a companyright before they go public. Still, this could value Uber around $100 billionand be one of the biggest technology IPOs ever.
Uber is so entrenched in our day-to-day lives and has completelydisrupted the market, but how it performs as a public company is yet to beseen. Still, what Uber has made clear is there’s a new order when it comes tohow technology companies are valued, as shown in the “Monthly Active PlatformConsumers” number it reported on in the filing. Physical assets and productsaren’t the only measure of worth – platformsthat make connections and provide services, and the complex technologies behindthem, are worth a lot in today’s on-demand economy.
Tech infrastructure takes center stage in real estate
An article in The New York Times shedslight on just how important “high-tech” has become to commercial real estate.Corporate office developers used to be able to get away with building in thebasics: plumbing, heating, walls, electricity. Now, it’s not just location andfloor plan wooing tenants. It’s advanced technology capabilities. This spanstelecommunications infrastructure, video screens, smart windows that self-tintand more. Internet connectivity was another big one, with one major developmentproject in Cambridge, Massachusetts laying 10 miles of fiber-optic cable foruninterrupted Wi-Fi in every part its six office buildings with 2.1 millionsquare feet of space. These examples are likely just the beginning of what’s tocome, and a trend that hardware, software, “smart” device, IoT and many othercompanies will have play in as high-tech real estate expands.
Amazon workers are listening to your conversations
Apparently, thousands of people are employed by Amazon to listento voice recordings captured by Amazon Echo devices. Bloomberg explains it’s part of an initiative to “eliminate gaps in Alexa’sunderstanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands,” but it’sa bit unsettling to know employees and contractors around the world arereviewing audio clips from our home lives.
In the age of smart devices and GDPR, diligence around privacypolicies and data sharing is key for both consumers and businesses. But withpeople wanting everything personalized (from Netflix movies, to Amazon productsuggestions, to relevant Instagram ads), there is a trade-off between privacyand sharing data to fuel those experiences. The good news? There’s an option inAmazon Echo and Alexa’s privacy settings to disable the use of our personalvoice recordings for the development of new features.
The cloud wars continue
The rivalry for cloud market share continues – in the governmentsector. The Pentagon announced this week Amazon and Microsoft were the final twocandidates in a $10 billion bid for a cloud computing contract with the DefenseDepartment. This cloud migration project is one of the largest federal ITcontracts in history. And while many enterprises are employing multi-cloudstrategies, meaning they run different applications and tools through differentcloud providers, this contract will go to just one cloud vendor.
AWS is the dominant cloud platform today, with Microsoft andGoogle as other major players. But with the global cloud computing market expected to reach $278B by 2021, and cloud success reliant on players in infrastructure-as-a-service(IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS), there’sa lot of opportunity to go around.
Related pro tip
Want to hone in on trends to fuel your PR program? There’s lotsof data and tools we can tap into to uncover new storylines and areas ofopportunity. Check out the resources on the SHIFT blog thatcan help. Try starting with How to Research Industry Trends Hassle Free, which provides an overview of easy ways to research industry trends. Or, just give us a call!
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
