Microsoft joined the $2 trillion club not too long ago under their CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft has over the recent years thrived as a company and has been working hard particularly on its cloud computing division which it calls Azure. It also holds on to it’s position as the most popular choice for PC users and their collaborative Teams software has also helped.
With such high value there is always danger that regulation from the government may be on the horizon especially after bills were passed. All of these essentially want the government to be able to block any anti-competitive tactics that are used by Microsoft so other businesses have a fairer platform to compete in. However investors do not see any of these supposed regulations affecting Microsoft as of yet.
It was in 2014 that Satya Nadella became the third CEO of Microsoft and at that time the company was only worth around $300 billion. At the time Microsoft did not have a good presence among the growing cloud services market such as Amazon had with Amazon Web Services (AWS). With the previous CEO, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft had actually fallen behind on the technology landscape.
Nadella’s brilliant tactic was to get rid of the Windows Phone and to develop apps for iOS and Android instead. He also looked to greatly develop the cloud-based services and now it is the world’s second-largest cloud infrastructure platform after AWS. Nadella’s “mobile-first, cloud-first” strategy was difficult for the company at first but it clearly took the growth to what it is now at $2 trillion.
The data is clear as to the biggest movie franchise when comparing the cumulative box office gross. Marvel is ahead of Star Wars and even James Bond but it wasn’t always like this. Back in 2007 it was Star Wars and James Bond that the biggest grossing movie franchises in the US. Since the success of Iron Man, which came out in 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been experiencing continued success and is now on top of their game.
It was in 2009 that Disney made the shock purchase of the Marvel Universe at a cost of around $4 billion. At the time, it was difficult to predict whether that was a good thing and many Marvel fans actually complained that there was going to be a strong Disney influence which would destroy Marvel. But to everyone’s surprise it has been Marvel movies who have led the way to making even Disney’s stock so valued, which was $26 at the time and now it above $100.
Nevertheless, there have been some complaints over the years, with fans saying that Disney has made the Marvel Universe too diverse. Furthermore, they say that the stretching of storylines is Disney’s attempt to squeeze as much profit as they can from each film. It is important to note, that one of the other main reasons Disney bought Marvel was to add to it’s already large merchandising portfolio and to add Marvel themed attractions to Disneyland in California.
An important trend which is being noticed is the successful use of sequel films, of which Marvel has greatly capitalised on. A look at the most popular movies in recent years reveal that remakes and spin-offs are extremely popular in Hollywood right now. Just think of the 2019 movie Joker, and nearly all the most popular movies have been sequels with the likes of Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2 and so many more.
Sources: chartr, the-numbers
Statistics from Dating apps reveal just how much things have changed over the lockdown period and how Tinder especially is changing to meet the new demands. While dating apps have been around for some time now, and finding love online is nothing new, recent data from Tinder suggests that there is currently a lot more engagement with users as compared to before the pandemic. Apparently the swiping activity is 15% more now than it was last year.
In the US, the Biden administration has been working with dating apps to introduce new features which show the benefits of getting vaccinated. These features, which include showing vaccination badges on user’s profiles, are to be implemented on apps like Tinder, Bumble, Match, and Hinge. Some apps such as OKCupid will even let users filter out partners just based on whether they have been vaccinated or not.
For those who don’t know, the dating app Tinder works by matching people based on their geographic proximity. There is an extremely simple interface where people swipe right or left, in order to ‘like’ or pass someone. It is only when two users like each other that they are both able to chat through the app and that is known as a match.
Further information of the data reveals that the length of conversations is increasing and is now up around 30% post pandemic. That is a substantial increase and it is perhaps people discussing plans for summer or whether they have been vaccinated or not. One thing to note, is that there has been a shift in priorities for single people and many perhaps feel they have missed out on a whole year of opportunities to find the right partner.
Sources: apnews, businessghana
In the US alone, the delta variant is now the most common form of the virus. It has now accounts for nearly 51.7% of all the known cases. Just previously it was the Alpha variant which was the majority but that has currently decreased to around 28%. America’s disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, recently spoke of how he was “very concerned” with how quickly the Delta variant is spreading.
This is a pattern which was seen most notably in the United Kingdom, which has the Delta variant as the dominant strain as well. The problem is that this variant is between 30% to 100% more transmissible than the previous Alpha variant. To understand why this, it is important to note that a variant is basically when a virus makes of copy of itself and that copy is slight different. Covid-19 is actually changing all the time and there are perhaps hundreds of new variants occurring all the time.
However when a more deadlier variant is made then it has the possibility to spread more rapidly. This is the reason why in the UK the leaders have been very cautious not to ease the lockdown too early, with the current opening set on the 19th of July. India reported a new Delta plus variant which could be many times more transmissible than the Delta variant itself.
For everyone in the UK, the health advice is to keep following the government guidelines and getting vaccinated is highly important when it is offered. There is also a high encouragement for people to work from home and currently people are advised to meet people outside where possible and keep abiding with the social distancing rules. Ultimately, every death from these Covid strains is avoidable if everyone plays their part.