Following are a handful of stories from around the tech world for this week 24-30 December 2022.
Twitter announces Twitter Blue for Business
Twitter has officially rolled out Twitter Blue for Business. The idea behind this new feature is to have separate subscription services for businesses and in this way to “further enhance and distinguish businesses on Twitter”. Twitter Blue for Business is a subscription service offered by the social media channel Twitter only to businesses and organizations. Based on a blog post by Twitter, as a Twitter Blue for Business subscriber, a company can link any number of their affiliated individuals, businesses and brands to their account. “When they do, affiliated accounts will get a small badge of their parent company’s profile picture next to their blue or gold checkmark,” said Twitter in the blog post.
The purpose of this new subscription service is to offer businesses a chance to affiliate their leadership, brands, support handles, employees or teams. For example, a news publication can get its journalists affiliated with Twitter Blue, or even a sports team can get its players affiliated. This will help users know that the concerned person is actually associated with a particular business or an organisation.
Twitter has not shared any information regarding the eligibility and pricing for Twitter Blue for Business. Twitter said that it is currently piloting Twitter Blue for Business with a limited number of businesses but plans to expand the program next year.
Netflix to end password sharing next year
The long-coming end to the practice of password sharing is nearing, at least for Netflix, as the streaming giant plans to crack down on password sharing starting in 2023. According to the Washington Journal reports Netflix plans to stop users from sharing their passwords from next year, hoping to turn these users into new subscribers. The streaming platform was planning to stop password sharing before the beginning of the pandemic; however, the COVID-19 situation delayed its plans, which also brought a lot of new customers. Unfortunately, now a downfall has begun, and the company has decided to go ahead with its plan to end sharing and increase its users.
Netflix has considered that ending password sharing may not go well with customers, and to tackle the backlash, the streaming giant will proceed gradually, so the end may not come suddenly. The streaming giant even considered adding pay-per-view titles, similar to its competitor, Amazon Prime Video, so users would refrain from sharing passwords with others, as it may increase their bills. However, people familiar with the development say that the company decided to scrap the idea because executives thought it would take away the “simplicity.”
Mastodon has gained millions of new users since Elon Musk bought Twitter
According to an update from Mastodon, a decentralized, open-source Twitter alternative has been gaining traction fast ever since Twitter was taken over by its new owner, Elon Musk. Mastodon creator Eugen Rochko said in a statement “Mastodon has recently exploded in popularity, jumping from approx. 300K monthly active users to 2.5M between the months of October and November, with more and more journalists, political figures, writers, actors and organizations moving over”.
In just a month the users increased from 300,000 to 2,500,000, a pretty substantial growth. At the beginning of November just days after Musk became owner of Twitter, Mastodon shared that it had around 655,000 users. This recent update shows that the growth trend was not one-time swing with new users joining at a specific moment. Elon Musk’s continuously changes appear to be helping Mastodon sustain that growth.
