Facebook to take on TikTok within weeks
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is gearing to cash in on the potential demise of social video platform TikTok should it be banned.
Welcome to The Download, The Australian’s technology blog for the latest breaking tech news.
Chris Griffith 3.10pm: Facebook readies to cash in on TikTok’s demise
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is gearing to cash in on the potential demise of social video platform TikTok, readying the global launch of a rival to take place within weeks.
TikTok is fighting for its existance with bans on the cards in the US and Australia.
NBC News in the US reports that Facebook will launch its Instagram Reels globally within weeks, according to its source.
It says Facebook had launched Reels in Brazil last November, and then added France and Germany last month.
Facebook then launched Reels in India a week ago after TikTok was banned there. The platform was readying to go global within weeks after a year’s preparation.
NBC says Facebook will launch Reels in the US, UK, Japan, Mexico and about 50 other countries soon.
Facebook had been losing younger users who had flocked to TikTok; the company now will hope it can brings the younger generation back to Facebook under the Reels umbrella.
While the banning of TikTok is political, there is also the financial dimension, with one estimate citing revenue of more than $US50 million in the last quarter of 2019.
That augers well for whoever soaks up TikTok’s market if it is forced out. If the Trump administration issues a ban, Facebook could gain substantial revue, but there are alternatives including several music video services.
However, it’s likely an existing player will have the market pull to attract TikTok’s large audience should a ban take place.
David Swan 2.10pm: Penn hands down recommendations
A cyber security industry panel chaired by Telstra boss Andy Penn has handed down 60 recommendations to government, as Australia continues to weather a sustained campaign of cyber attacks from a foreign nation state, presumed to be China.
Amid rising tensions with Beijing, and growing calls to ban Chinese government-linked apps including TikTok, the panel called for Australia’s digital supply chain to be better secured as a matter of urgency.
Huawei for example has been barred from building Australia‘s 5G network amid concerns the Chinese government could infiltrate the country’s telecommunications infrastructure, and the US and the UK have followed suit.
The panel said the first priority for government should be to work with industry to accelerate the adoption of cyber security standards in Australia.
10.35am: IBM beats profit estimates
IBM beat estimates for second-quarter profit on Monday and signaled that demand in its cloud computing business would get a boost as large corporations accelerate their digital shift due to the coronavirus crisis.
The company’s shares rose 5 per cent in after-hours trading.
IBM has jettisoned some of its legacy business to focus on the high-margin cloud computing business, an area that has seen a lot of action in recent years as companies ramp up their digital shift to boost efficiency.
“The trend we see in the market is clear. Clients want to modernize apps, move more workloads to the cloud and automate IT tasks,” IBM’s new boss Arvind Krishna said on a post-earnings call with analysts.
Revenue from the cloud business, previously headed by Krishna, rose 30 per cent to $US6.3 billion in the second quarter.
Krishna took over as chief executive officer from Ginni Rometty in April, while appointing former Bank of America’s top technology executive, Howard Boville, as the new head of the cloud business.
IBM’s global business services unit was impacted as clients cut or delayed spending on discretionary projects due to COVID-19, CFO James Kavanaugh told Reuters. Sales in the unit fell 7% to $3.9 billion.
While Western Europe and Asia Pacific showed a pickup in client spending during June, U.S. and Latin America customers pulled back as the pandemic impact got worse, Kavanaugh said.
“From a client perspective, our business is more concentrated in large enterprises, which in total have been relatively more stable throughout the pandemic,” Kavanaugh said.
IBM’s total revenue fell 5.4 per cent to $US18.12 billion, but came in above analysts’ estimates of $US17.72 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Excluding the impact from currency and business divestitures, revenue declined 1.9 per cent.
Excluding items, the company earned $US2.18 per share, above estimates of $US2.07.
Reuters
David Swan 10.15am: Panel to deliver cyber recommendations
A government advisory group helping prepare Australia’s 2020 Cyber Security Strategy will publish its recommendations today, as previously revealed by The Australian.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion with the Business Council of Australia, Telstra boss Andy Penn said the panel’s report would include about 60 recommendations to the government, urging it to increase spending in Australia’s cyber security industry.
The industry group chaired by Mr Penn includes Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, former US secretary of homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen, Vocus chair Robert Mansfield, NBN Co chief security officer Darren Kane and others.
It comes weeks after Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned of a sophisticated ongoing cyber attack by a nation state, presumed to be China, affecting “all levels of government”, and just days after it was revealed Russian hackers were behind a campaign to steal data relating to a COVID-19 vaccine.
“It’s encouraging to see the government is already taking action and initiatives in relation to a number of the recommendations. But seeing that follow through is going to be important,” Mr Penn said.
“If we want to accelerate the digital economy and as we’ve all moved to work and study from home, and we do more business online, we are putting ourselves in a more cyber-vulnerable environment. Therefore we’ve got to build the cyber defences to match that.”
Mr Penn will hold a media briefing at 11.30am.
Chris Griffith 9.00am: iPhone 5G rumours take off
Rumours are taking off that this year’s iPhones will support the fastest type of 5G known as mmWave.
Millimetre wave (aka mmWave) spectrum is a bit different to regular 5G. It’s faster and can work effectively in crowded environments such as stadiums and crowded city areas. The downside is that the signal is short range.
Today the Apple focused news service MacRumours is running a report that the 5G on the coming iPhone range will support both regular 5G and mmWave. MacRumours has sourced a new report by Taiwan’s Digitimes which publishes news about electronics, communications and computers and well embedded with the technology manufacturing industry.
The report suggests Apple 2020 phones will support both mmWave and more regular (sub 6GHz) 5G networks in 2020 but they may support one or the other networks the following year. That could vary country by country.
Telstra has been rolling out 5G in Australia for some time and Optus now offers it in some areas. MmWave however is not publicly available yet and won‘t be until the Federal Government auctions the available spectrum to telcos. Telstra and now Optus however have some mmWave test sites up and running.
Regulators ‘overlap’ in scam prevention draft
The draft Scam Prevention Framework could penalise telcos for abiding by one code while breaking another, the Communications Alliance has warned.
TPG aims rapid fire broadside at NBN
TPG Telecom is targeting apartment owners with its cheap and fast broadband offering – some 10 times faster than the NBN – that is achieved by ‘hot-rodding up’ old copper wire.