On Monday, 19th April, Mark Zuckerberg announced a new range of audio-only products. 

In a community chat on Discord, Facebook CEO Mark gave a product roadmap for how it plans to build out its audio suite in the next 3-6 months.

He explained that Facebook's goal is to build audio products that will be as strong as text, photo, and video products. 

A version of Rooms, which is similar to Clubhouse, is included in the audio products by Facebook. 

The audio products also feature soundbites which is a short form audio product that will feature a stream of brief clips.

The soundbites will be like an audio version of Reels, a short video format introduced last year. 

The users will be able to share individual clips to their timeline, or they can consume a string of audio clips joined together and algorithmically distributed.

Facebook will also release podcasts and podcast discovery tools for creators to share their podcasts with users on the platform. 

Users will be able to listen to podcasts in the background while using Facebook. 

Creators will be able to turn a live conversation into a podcast for everyone to listen to later.

The captions are also available on all audio experiences to make them accessible to everyone. 
 

A report in AFP states that American billionaires continue to make money while the Covid-19 pandemic destroys tens of millions of jobs in the United States, according to data compiled by two think tanks.

Between March 18 and May 19, the 600 ultra-wealthy Americans saw their fortunes increase by $ 434 billion, an increase of almost 15% in two months, according to these data published by Forbes magazine Thursday.

Containment measures, the closure of restaurants, and shops have boosted online shopping and the need to stay connected via social media.

This has pushed up the value of Amazon, Facebook, and high-tech companies in general.

Between March and May, the fortune of Jeff Bezos (Amazon) increased by more than 30%, and that of Mark Zuckerberg, boss of Facebook, by more than 46%, according to this report by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies Program for Inequality, which compiled data from Forbes.

Since March 16, the beginning of the first containment measures in the United States, the value of the Facebook title has jumped by almost 60%, that of Amazon has increased by 45%, that of Netflix by 46%, that of Apple. 31%.

And that does not seem to stop since the titles Amazon and Facebook reached this week their highest historic level.

Conversely, billionaires in the travel, hotel or retail sector saw their fortunes melt during this same period, these sectors being directly affected by the drastic measures to stem the coronavirus.

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Elon Musk is now the third-richest person in the world.

Musk passed Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg Monday as shares of Tesla Inc. continued their unrelenting rally after undergoing a forward stock split. Musk is now worth $115.4 billion compared with $110.8 billion for Zuckerberg, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Also Monday, Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife MacKenzie Scott became the world’s richest woman, passing L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers. Scott, 50, who received a 4% stake in Amazon.com Inc. as part of her divorce from founder Bezos, is now worth $66.4 billion.

Musk, 49, has seen a meteoric rise in his wealth, with his net worth growing by $87.8 billion this year as Tesla shares surged almost 500%. Also helpful: an audacious pay package -- the largest corporate pay deal ever struck between a chief executive officer and a board of directors -- that could yield him more than $50 billion if all goals are met.

Tesla’s $464 billion market value now exceeds that of retail behemoth Walmart Inc, the largest company in the US by revenue.

Last week, Musk joined Zuckerberg, Bezos and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates in the rarefied centibillionaire club as tech stocks rose.

The heady pace of wealth accumulation in recent months is in stark contrast to the state of the global economy. Growth has slumped sharply since the pandemic began with companies laying off millions of workers and consumer demand cratering. The brunt of economic pain has been borne by young and lower-wage workers, whose jobs are typically more vulnerable to COVID-related layoffs.

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Beginning next year, Facebook Inc is said to add physical security keys as a way that allows users to verify their identity before logging in to the social network's mobile app. Known by the name Facebook Protect, this feature was used recently by political officials during the 2020 US elections.

The company currently offers an option to require a hardware security key to connect to a desktop computer before each log-in.

Users will be able to purchase a hardware key from retailers, and register it with Facebook, the company said, confirming an earlier report. Facebook is said to have plans for expansion of its security program for high-profile accounts i.e Facebook Protect globally next year. 

The physical security keys will help users enable two-factor authentication. The rollout of new security services follows a July hack of a companion social network. As Twitter Inc compromised many celebrity accounts, including those of President-elect Joe Biden and Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.

Currently available in the United States, Facebook Protect offers a way for politicians, government agencies, and election staff to set up additional security provisions such as two-factor authentication and real-time monitoring for potential hacking threats.

The feature is soon to be available for public figures, Journalists, and human rights activists who are prone to become a target of hackers.

source: Reuters

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