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Today's top tech news: WhatsApp and ByteDance are looking for ways to make more money

Today's top tech news: WhatsApp and ByteDance are looking for ways to make more money
Tech3 min read

This Tech Insider’s daily dose of tech news. This is everything that’s happening in tech that you need to know about today:

1. WhatsApp’s plan to finally turn a profit involves brings ads to your status
The messaging mobile app, WhatsApp plans on bringing ads to the status tab on WhatsApp starting 2020. The Facebook-owned enterprise hasn’t turned a profit since it was acquired and bringing ads onto the platform goes against the promise made by one of its founders, Jan Koum.

Why you should care:
Facebook is assuring users that bringing ads onto the platform won’t compromise their privacy but considering their track record, it’s a calculated risk for WhatsApp to take.

2. One of India’s OG YouTube channel says good bye to its fans
All India Bakchod (AIB), one of India’s first YouTube channels to go viral, has announced that they’re going to be shutting down for a while. The company issued their statement on Twitter via Vidhi Jotwani, the Head of Human Resources for AIB with the titled ‘AIB YouTube channel is for all intents and purposes, dead for the foreseeable future’.

Why you should care:
Two of the entertainment company’s founders, Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, will be removing themselves from all aspects of the company after Utsav Chakraborty, another parter, got embroiled in the #MeToo storm in October.

3. JioSaavn goes the Spotify way by integrating Facebook and Instagram
One of India’s leading music streaming service, JioSaavn, is integrating Instagram and Facebook into its platform. The news comes in within days of Spotify announcing that its going to bring Instagram like Spotify Stories on its platform.

Why you should care:
Integration between JioSaavn and Instagram means that you can now look up a song, album, playlist or podcast, build a post, customise it and share it with friends on Instagram and Facebook as a picture on Stories.

4. The exit of another Netflix India exec could indicate trouble
Swati Shetty, a key executive behind Netflix’s original content in India, has decided to leave the company behind. She reportedly did not want to move to India in order to keep her position at the company.

Why you should care:
Netflix has pumped quite a bit of money into India and the company has shown growth in the market as well. But it remains behind the likes of Amazon Prime and Hotstar. Enlisting more executives to actually move to India shows the importance that the video streaming giants places on the local market.

5. This is what COAI has to say on fall in number of mobile subscribers in India
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is attributing Airtel and Vodafone-Idea’s loss in subscribers to an increasing number of connections becoming inactive. The industry body says that it nothing to worry about since this will only yield better average revenue per customer.

Why you should care:
There may have been a decrease in subscribers for Airtel and Vodafone-Idea but Reliance Jio has shown a growth of 9.4 million users. While users loss of subscribers can be attributed to numbers that are no longer in service, there is a trend of users switching over Mukesh Ambani’s telecom network.

6. The company behind TikTok just hired a Vice President for monetisation
Former Group M employee, Sameer Singh, is now joining the ranks of ByteDance’s monetisation division as Vice President. At GroupM he was head of operations in South Asia and now, at ByteDance, he will be handing the their portfolio of mobile applications that are spread out across 150 markets.

Why you should care:
ByteDance’s plans for TikTok already include bringing ads onto the platform. The Chinese mobile app publisher has also announced plans to a launch a paid music streaming service in the country.

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