Following announcements that Twitter under Musk will generate revenue by blue tick subscriptions, we look at what this means and at the blue tick chaos that followed the announcement.

What Is this ‘Blue Tick’ ? 

Twitter’s paid-for Blue service, launched last year, is a subscription service – $7.99 (£6.99) per month in the US, also available in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and now in the UK since 10th November. Primarily, the Blue service is a way for users to verify (by use of a blue tick next to their name) that their account is genuine. The Blue service also gives subscribers other editing and customisation options that free accounts don’t have.

Why Blue Tik? Why The Need To Signal That An Account Is Genuine? 

Back in 2021, the service was introduced following reports that perhaps as much as 19 per cent of Twitter accounts could be fake and untrustworthy. This problem appears to have persisted.

Back in June, for example, When Elon Musk was in the process of trying to buy (i.e. a takeover of) Twitter, he threatened to pull out of the sale over the amount of spam and fake accounts / bot accounts (not run by humans) which Twitter said made up 5 per cent of Twitter accounts.

These fake / bot accounts, and parody accounts are a problem, not just from Twitter’s (and Musk’s personal) point of view in that they affect the platform’s quality and could reduce value for money for advertisers but mainly because, from the user’s point of view, they are used to (for example) send adverts or scams to users, influence public debate by tweeting political propaganda, and generally spread disinformation.

What Should The Blue Service (Blue Tick) Provide? 

Subscribers to Twitter’s Blue service should receive:

– The verifying tick next to the name in the user’s profile.

– The ability to edit their tweets, e.g. to correct typos or clarify meanings, up to five times within the first 30 minutes of tweeting. However, the tweet shows that it’s been edited and shows users the previous versions.

– An ‘undo’ function which gives a short “cooling-off” period before a tweet goes live. This could, for example, be used to tag more people.

– The ability to change the colour of the app icon, change the general colour theme, and change the text size.

– The ability to upload longer (up to 10 minutes) and better-quality videos (1080p HD quality).

– The ability to use NFTs (non-fungible tokens) as profile photos, e.g. a piece of digital art they’ve purchased.

– Top Articles and priority ranking for subscribers. Users can use this section to see what which articles are creating a buzz.

Other points of interest about the blue tick system are:

– Whereas the old blue checkmark (prior to Musk taking over) indicated active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest that had been independently verified by Twitter based on certain requirements, the new post-Musk blue checkmark could mean:

– Either that an account was verified under the previous verification criteria, or that the account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue.

– Accounts verified under the old system can keep their own blue badges.

There is also news that features coming soon to the Blue service will include fewer adverts, priority ranking in search, and mentions and replies for “quality content” posted by subscribers.

Backdrop Leading To Blue Service Chaos  

Elon Musk’s Blue service introduction, however, has been born out of great change and turmoil for the social media platform which has led to a chaotic week for blue tick. Some of the turbulent backdrop which has fuelled the chaos includes:

– Musk’s $44 billion takeover leading to mass job cuts – Twitter cutting roughly 50 per cent of its workforce.

– Twitter top executives reportedly being sacked, i.e. Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadd.

– Fears that Twitter could change for the worse under Musk’s ownership, i.e. reinstating unpopular banned users and controversial figures and allowing the wrong kind of ‘free speech’. Also, the dropping of thousands of (outsourced) content moderators have led to fears of a drop in quality and possible rise of misinformation.

– Elon Musk warning that Twitter could face bankruptcy unless more (non-advertising) revenue could be generated, e.g. by the Blue service.

– Elon Musk announcing that all but “exceptional” Twitter employees need to come back to working in the office for at least 40 hours per week or their resignation will be accepted.

– Reports that Twitter users are leaving the platform in protest over Musk’s ownership and moving to competing, and decentralised social network ‘Mastodon.’

– America’s Federal Trade Commission warning that “no chief executive or company is above the law”, fears over Twitter’s approach to security, and questions about this in relation to possible Saudi involvement in the Twitter takeover.

Blue Chaos 

It is against this backdrop that the introduction of the Blue service, a way to generate revenue at a time of falling ad sales, appeared to be in chaos as the following, and more, happened:

– A wave of blue tick verified (but fake) accounts impersonating influential brands and celebrities tweeting fake news plus having to be suspended and removed. Fake/parody accounts included those for Apple, Nintendo, BP, Chiquita, Mark Zuckerberg, President Joe Biden, Donald Trump, George W Bush, Tony Blair and, almost inevitably, fake Elon Musk and Tesla accounts.

– Reports that US far-right activists have been able to purchase Twitter blue ticks, and of accounts purchasing blue ticks using AI generated images of fake personalities.

– Confusion over the introduction of new grey “official” badges instead of blue ticks on some high-profile accounts, which were then suddenly scrapped by Elon Musk, only to be re-instated on some Twitter profiles.

– Some US users reporting that the Twitter Blue subscription system was no longer available to them.

– Elon Musk announcing that parody accounts would need to include parody in their name going forward.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The takeover, the speed and apparently drastic nature of the job cuts (mass layoffs by email) and other changes and concerns about what Twitter could now become under the ownership of the controversial Elon Musk have created a turbulent environment in which to try and quickly introduce a new and apparently flawed blue tick service.

Falling ad revenues were the main reason for the introduction of the blue tick service as a much-needed extra source of revenue. However, an air of chaos and parody and fake accounts may have seriously dented confidence in blue tick, and it appears that a general unease about what Twitter will be under Musk may account for many users apparently switching to Mastodon. Given that Tesla’s fate may also be linked to the fate of Twitter, despite Musk optimistically tweeting that “Usage of Twitter continues to rise. One thing is for sure: it isn’t boring!”, chaos, turbulence, uncertainty, and security fears are not attractive to businesses (and advertisers), and news of brutal mass layoffs by email ordering people back to the office and acting too much like a billionaire are not attractive to many social media users.

Also, there is a fear that Twitter could now be much more easily exploited by bad actors to spread disruptive disinformation and other malicious activities. Events are still happening thick and fast at Twitter but for the time being, confidence in blue tick appears to have been seriously dented.

Meta has announced that it is laying off a masive 13 per cent of its workforce globally in re-structuring market uncertainty about the Metaverse vision.

Losses Lead To Layoffs 

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the 11,000-employee layoff from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, after Reality Labs, the division building the metaverse, suffered £3.16bn losses between July and September this year (the largest loss the company has made). The previous quarter also showed disappointing results.

Expensive Re-Brand 

It should also be noted that Meta also spent around $15 billion last year on its re-brand which, coupled with the lack of growth and the losses may also have contributed to the need for re-structuring and layoffs.

Told By Email 

Mr Zuckerberg reportedly emailed staff about the layoffs, blaming his own over-optimistic view of post-pandemic demand for e-commerce. Employees were informed that the layoffs will mean:

– There will be reductions in every organisation across Meta’s Apps and Reality Labs and some teams will be affected more than others.

– Recruiting will be disproportionately affected because fewer people will be hired next year.

– The business is being restructured “more substantially.”

Thanks For The Impact

In the US, as well as being thanked for their “impact” on Meta’s business, those being laid-off were reportedly told in their emails that they would receive at least 16 weeks salary plus two weeks’ wages for each year served with company.

Remind You of Twitter? 

The big Meta layoffs are painfully similar to Twitter’s recent massive job cuts with 50 per cent of the company’s global workforce (7,500 people) being given their marching orders. Elsewhere in the big tech company world, Amazon, Alphabet and Apple are reported to have hiring freezes in place.

Ploughing On With The Metaverse 

Despite half a year’s poor financial results due to cash being shovelled into the slow-moving Metaverse vision, Mark Zuckerberg appears to be fully committed to it and ready to plough on. Also, despite little investor confidence betraying a lack of understanding of the Metaverse vision, some commentators have noted that society is moving more towards the virtual world every day. This could mean that Mark Zuckerberg is on the right track but may not be moving fast enough with it yet.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Meta, like other big tech companies has faced challenges like a lack of growth and declining ad revenue since the pandemic, as well as stiff competition from the likes of TikTok. Meta, however, appears not to have been able to communicate to investors exactly what the Metaverse and its value is while at the same time appearing to plough a lot of money into a vision that is not delivering yet. This combination of the investors’ responses to a lack of certainty, tough times, plus outside competition have therefore led some people to speculate that big tech itself may be in trouble and this has prompted Meta’s need to shed jobs to steady nerves.

Amazon is reported to be testing the machine learning ‘Sparrow’ robot arm that could handle 65 percent of its 100+ million diverse parcels.

Challenge 

Although Amazon already uses robot arms called ‘Robin’ and ‘Cardinal’ to re-direct boxed-up pre-delivery items around its warehouses, the challenge has been to create a robot arm that can detect, recognise, select, and handle a huge variety of different shapes and sizes of products prior to packaging, in the handling part of its business.

Sparrow 

The Sparrow robot arm leverages the technologies of computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to help detect and select items.

The Benefits 

Amazon sees the potential benefits of Sparrow as:

– Enabling the company to work smarter, not harder, and to operate efficiently and safely.

– Enabling employees to focus their time and energy on other things by taking on repetitive tasks for them.

– Helping to drive efficiency by automating a critical part of the fulfilment process.

Replacing Human Workers?  

Although Sparrow’s unique capabilities may be good news for Amazon’s Ecommerce future, it could be bad news for its human workers. The effects on jobs by increased automation at Amazon have been a concern of labour unions (the Amazon Labor Union) for some time now, although a recent study suggested that more robots were needed anyway to plug a labour shortage at Amazon. Also, some commentators have suggested that rather than creating large-scale job losses, an increase in the use of robots in Amazon warehouses could simply mean a de-skilling of the labour force (saving on training), job stagnation and insecurity.

Supporting, Not Replacing 

Amazon, however, chooses to frame Sparrow as “a major technological advancement to support our employees” rather than a machine learning, highly dextrous robot that could cost many of them their jobs.

Back in September, for example, Amazon’s robotics chief Tye Brady, however, was reported as saying that the robots are not intended to replace workers but to collaborate with human workers to do a job.

Create New Kinds Of Jobs Too 

Amazon has highlighted how it believes the use of Sparrow and other robots in its business has already created (and could create more) new kinds of jobs related to maintaining the robots. Amazon says, for example, “The design and deployment of robotics and technology across our operations have created over 700 new categories of jobs”. 

On its ‘About Amazon’ website, the company gives the example of its Amazon Mechatronic and Robotics Apprenticeship which it says helps employees “learn new skills and pursue in-demand, technical maintenance roles” and leads to a 40 per cent increase in the pay of participants.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

With Amazon being the largest manufacturer of industrial robots in the world, and with Sparrow being another of several types of robot arms already in use in Amazon warehouses, it is highly likely that automation plus the pursuit of benefits like efficiency, safety, and 24-hour / 365 days a year working (and no protests) looks likely to continue. Although unions have protested about automation, some have suggested that more unionisation could simply mean a harder push for automation.

Amazon’s re-framing of Sparrow being a robot that will help rather than replace workers and even create more tech maintenance-based jobs sounds good, but with more than 1.6 million people on the Amazon payroll, and more robots like Sparrow that can ‘learn’ to keep improving, its hard to see how many people at the company’s warehouses aren’t going to end up being made redundant over time. For Amazon, however, the efficiencies automation could bring are likely to make the company even more competitive and powerful.

Zoom has announced that its new (beta) productivity tools, Zoom Mail and Calendar (clients and Services), combined with its existing features will mean that workers will have everything they need in one app.

Give Workers A ‘Toggle Tax’ Break 

Zoom says that the new productivity tool, working together with existing features within Zoom, such as Zoom Meetings, Phone, Whiteboard, and Team Chat will mean that “teams can move quickly and seamlessly from email to a video meeting, elevate a chat message to a phone call, collaborate on projects, and early next year, they can share out whiteboards, all without ever leaving the Zoom app.” 

The New Tools 

Zoom’s new (beta) productivity tools are:

– Zoom Mail and Calendar Clients. These will let any Zoom user (free or paid) access their existing email accounts from popular third-party email services directly in the Zoom desktop app. Zoom says that this is designed to help users to focus more on their work by saving them the trouble of having to toggle between different apps.

– Zoom Mail and Calendar Services. The Zoom Mail service will allow customers (in the U.S. and Canada at present) with Zoom One Pro or Zoom Standard Pro plans to be set up an email account hosted by Zoom at no additional cost. Also, customers with a Zoom One Business or higher plan will be able to set up a custom domain. The Zoom Mail service also gives end-to-end encryption for any emails sent between active Zoom Mail Service users and expiring emails with access-restricted links for external recipients. Zoom says that its Zoom Mail Service is “designed for small-to-medium businesses without dedicated IT resources who also have a need for enhanced privacy in their business communications, such as law firms or any business needing to share private information within their team.”  

More Planned 

Zoom is also set to introduce features like Zoom Spots in early 2023. The feature “virtual coworking space” enables more spontaneous video calls to replicates the “working alongside” aspect of an open office. Zoom also offers cloud VoIP services with ‘Zoom Phone.’

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

These new tools are squarely aimed at SME businesses and see Zoom competing with platforms like Teams, Slack, Google Meet, Skype, and the likes of WhatsApp which has been introducing a raft of new features, thereby widening its appeal to business customers. As Zoom points out, it hopes that these tools, which relate to “business critical” communications will make business customers more dependent on (and loyal to) just the Zoom app for most of their business comms needs and stop them from “hopping between apps”, i.e. using competing apps. The end-to-end encryption and expiring emails aspects of the new tools are reminiscent of valued features of WhatsApp (Teams also offers E2EE for calls). Ever since the pandemic dramatically swelled the numbers of users for Zoom and other comms apps and collaborative working platforms, there has been a battle raging for market share with an expansion of features to cover more and more business needs to make themselves more of one-stop-shop.