Celebrating Black History Month from home, Google Cloud lost $5.6B in 2020, and South Korea returns to number one on the Bloomberg Innovation Index.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Thursday, February 4, and I’m your host Baneet Braich.
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Honouring Black History Month will look a bit different this year amidst the pandemic but there are still plenty of opportunities to get virtually involved. Several news outlets have shared ideas this week: The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) which is launching virtual events and conversations about the accomplishments of African Americans throughout history. Events are free and open to all — but registration is required. Another idea is to take a virtual field trip with Google Arts and Culture and it’s 360 street view technology. This offers online experiences to more than 80 partner institutions across the world. Among the featured exhibits are the Civil Rights Movement Exhibit; Fredrick Douglass—from Slavery to Freedom: The Journey to New York, and Kansas City Jazz. Lastly, consider investing in Black businesses to bridge the gap and economic disparities experienced by African American businesses. One example is Brava which connects people to Black-owned restaurants in their area.
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The internet is buzzing after Google Cloud announced it lost $5.6B in 2020. But experts are quick to point out that the tech giant is investing heavily as well. For the first time Google disclosed operating income for its Google Cloud business. Although the total revenue was a stomping $13 billion the losses are increasing yearly. Rising from $4.3 billion in 2018 to $4.6 billion in 2019. But on the other hand revenue is also increasing. What this really means is that Google is heavily investing in its cloud business. One example is Google Workspace known commonly as G Suite. Google is making some hefty investments there and as we all know, data centres are not cheap. Google Cloud also launched four new regions in 2020 and is working on others.
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South Korea Leads World in Innovation; U.S. Drops Out of Top 10 from technology
South Korea has returned to the number one spot on the Bloomberg Innovation Index. Meanwhile, the US has tumbled out of the top 10. Singapore took home the second spot and Switzerland rounded out the top 3. The Bloomberg Innovation Index analyzes research and development spending, manufacturing capability, and high-tech public companies. The 2021 rankings reflect innovation surrounding COVID-19, from added digital infrastructure capacity to rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine. The importance was seeing how countries diffused and adapted as well. Korea’s return to the top highlights increases in patent activity, and strong performance in R&D, and manufacturing. It’s worth knowing that most of the information considered for the 2021 rankings feature data from before the virus as well.
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 Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening!