Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan risks losing investment in collapsing crypto exchange, TikTok readjusts its ad revenue target, and Amazon loses US$1 trillion in market valuation.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Friday, November 12, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
The collapsing crypto exchange FTX is now looking for any financial lifeline it can get. The platform halted withdrawals and onboarding new clients as it tried to manage the massive influx of withdrawal requests. In response, Reuters reported that Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s founder, is looking to raise a $9.4 billion rescue package for the platform. Meanwhile, the Bahamas Securities Commission froze the assets of FTX Digital Markets. The crypto market felt the shockwave. According to the Globe and Mail, prices of bitcoin and ether fell to new lows this week. Additionally, a US$95 million investment in the platform, held by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is at risk of being vaporized.
Source: Globe and Mail
The Financial Times has reported that TikTok has cut its global ad venue target by US$2 billion due to slumping sales. The company isn’t in the proverbial hole yet, however, just that it’s struggling to meet its ad revenue forecast. The company blamed its staff for underperforming, but its workers say that the company’s also at fault for needlessly wasting money. According to four unnamed sources who spoke to Financial Times, TikTok often offered junior employees inflated salaries to poach them from competitors. It also spent lavishly on luxury venues to host events.
Source: Business Insider
Amazon has shed around $1 trillion in market valuation this year. According to Gizmodo, the company fell from its mind-boggling $1.9 trillion valuation on June 21, to $878 billion currently. At its peak, Amazon briefly surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable company. The company’s lower-than-expected revenue was a disappointment to investors. Further, the company forecasted a slower-than-usual holiday sales season and a year-over-year growth of between two to eight per cent. But, unlike Meta and Twitter, Amazon hasn’t aggressively cut staff just yet, although it did extend its hiding freeze.
Source: Gizmodo
With Twitter in absolute chaos, smaller microblogging sites are seeing a resurgence of users. Tumblr, founded in 2007, has recently attracted a few big names like Ryan Reynolds and Lynda Carter. To both jab at Twitter and play on one of the current hottest topics on the web, Tumblr has rolled out its own Blue Checkmark. The checkmarks, called the Tumblr Important Blue Internet Checkmark, do absolutely nothing for the user’s account and simply add two blue checks next to a blog. There are no subscriptions either. The checkmarks can be had for a one-time payment of $8.
Source: The Verge
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.