The coronavirus has scared off two major companies from attending Mobile World Congress, YouTube released its revenue for the first time, and Google to curb annoying video ads.
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Thank you for tuning into Hashtag Trending, it’s Thursday, February 6th, and I’m your host, Tom Li
Trending everywhere, the coronavirus has scared off two major companies from attending Mobile World Congress. LG, the Korean appliance and smartphone maker, announced earlier this week that it would no longer be attending. ZTE, a major Chinese telecommunication company, said it has cancelled its press conference but will still attend the show. In order to defend against potential xenophobia, ZTE has listed several self-imposed precautions including staff quarantine and sanitization rules. Despite the outbreak, GSMA, MWC’s organizer, has maintained that the show would continue as planned.
Trending on Google, YouTube has released its revenue report for the first time. According to the Q4 2019 earnings report, YouTube reeled in $15 billion in revenue in 2019. The number is a bit confusing, however, as the CNBC pointed out that it doesn’t include YouTube’s nonadvertising revenue like YouTube TV. Those services are instead grouped with YouTube’s other services. In comparison, Google’s 2019 search engine revenue was almost 10 times higher, amounting to $134 billion (Statista).
And here’s another piece of news from Google, the company has announced plans to curb disruptive video ads. No, it didn’t mean the ads on YouTube, but rather the unskippable ones that cover too much of the screen. Those, of course, isn’t the only criteria. Google has defined a completely new set of rules according to the Coalition for Better Ads. Google Chrome has given four months for site owners to comply with the new rules or risk having those ads blocked come August.
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 Tom Li, thanks for listening.