spotify

Spotify seen cutting staff as soon as this week to cut costs

The music streaming giant has about 9,800 employees, according to its third-quarter earnings report

Botim

UAE’s Astra Tech acquires Botim in a bid to create an ‘ultra app’

Botim has 90 million registered users and 25 million active users

TikTok

TikTok celebrates the most inspiring creators and popular communities

The #ForYouParty which included an immersive event was held at Sound Stage 2, Dubai Studio City

Twitter

Twitter will restore more accounts weekly over next 30 days

Earlier this week, the social network suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists

Uber

Uber conducting probe after vendor hit with cyberattack

Teqtivity, which helps manage and track information technology equipment such as phones and computers, on Monday confirmed the cyberattack

Oversight Board

Meta’s Oversight Board criticises ‘shortcomings’ in protection of VIP accounts

The Oversight Board, which was conceived by and funded by Meta and is comprised of 20 journalists, academics and politicians, began assessing cases last year

Dubai Tabby

Two malls in Dubai introduce buy-now-pay-later option

Al-Futtaim Malls have partnered with Tabby to offer BNPL services at Dubai Festival City Mall and Festival Plaza, Jebel Ali

Meta

Meta fined $277m for leak of half a billion users

The Irish Data Protection Commission levied the fine following a probe that found the social-media company had failed to apply strict safeguards

Uber

Uber appoints new general manager to lead business across the UAE and Levant

Pia El Hachem will be leading Uber’s strategy, operations, policy and business development, while overseeing the company’s end-to-end business

Twitter head of France quits, says ‘it’s over’ in staff exodus

Damien Viel had led the region for about seven years

Saudi’s KHC, Prince Alwaleed’s private office are Twitter’s second largest investor after Elon Musk

Elon Musk has also said that Twitter’s verification process is ‘being revamped right now’

Twitter

Twitter tells staff there aren’t plans for companywide layoffs

Twitter General Counsel Sean Edgett warned workers to expect “tons of public rumours and speculation” as the closing of the deal nears

Microsoft Teams

New partnership brings Microsoft Teams to Cisco meeting room devices

Customers now have the option to run Microsoft Teams by default on Cisco Room and Desk devices

Gitex Global 2022 concludes on Oct 14

Gitex Global, the UAE’s annual tech event, began on October 10 and ended on October 14

Latin America’s biggest startup Kavak expands footprint into Middle East

The Mexico City-based company is branching into the UAE and Oman

Abu Dhabi Data Program

New ‘Abu Dhabi Data Program’ to help emirate’s government entities leverage data to drive growth

Abu Dhabi Data Program aims to harness data powered by a future-ready cross-government technology backbone built on UAE’s national sovereign cloud

Facebook asks users for more help improving its algorithms

Users will soon see “show more” and “show less” buttons on posts that appear in their feed

agility

Kuwait’s Agility Ventures invests in India’s e-commerce platform Shiprocket

The investment was part of Agility’s strategy to expand across digital logistics and e-commerce in high-growth markets

Gaming strategy

Saudi Crown Prince unveils National Gaming and Esports Strategy

The strategy will be implemented through 86 initiatives covering the entire value chain, launched and managed by over 20 government and private entities

Anghami

Streaming platform Anghami expands global footprint via telecom partnerships

Anghami joins hands with Danish telco Hallo and Virgin Mobile Kuwait to provide unlimited access and downloads of songs, podcasts and other audio content

vertical farm

In pics: Sheikh Mohammed tours world’s largest vertical farm in Dubai

The hydroponic facility is capable of producing over 1,000,000kg of leafy greens annually

Tabby Egypt

UAE’s buy-now-pay later platform Tabby expands to Egypt

Tabby works with multiple brands including Lacoste, L’azurde, Faces, In Your Shoe, Kai Collections, Ariika, Marcqa, Dresscode and Floward

Twitter launches an edit button for paying subscribers

Edit Tweet, as the feature will be called, will let users make changes to their tweet for up to 30 minutes after it’s originally published

Twitter's new feature

Twitter’s new feature is out: What is it and how does it work?

Starting August 31, this feature will be available on iOS, Android and Twitter.com globally

Careem Express

UAE-based Chatfood announces partnership with Careem Express

The collaboration will help restaurant merchants access a delivery fleet at the click of a button

NMDC and Oracle sign agreement

National Marine Dredging Group selects Oracle cloud applications for business efficiency

By utilising a wide range of applications for finance, supply chain, HR and customer service, NMDC will be able to simplify and integrate critical business processes

Payermax

How PayerMax empowers global merchants to achieve borderless growth

In an exclusive interview, Sianna Wu, SVP and managing director of MEA at PayerMax sheds light on how the company is helping global digital enterprises grow and scale outside of their geographical presence

Facebook TikTok

Facebook changes users’ feeds to look more like TikTok

The main feed on Facebook will now be called ‘Home,’ and will be a place for people to discover new content

Motor

Motor launches electric car-sharing platform in the UAE

The platform aims to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility in the UAE through flexible and convenient electric car-sharing

Facebook Profiles

Facebook users will be able to have up to five profiles

Additional profiles are required to adhere to Facebook’s content policies and will tie back to user’s core account