Which nations are Uber thriving in? What nations are best for Uber? You would probably say the United States, China, Germany, Canada. What about Saudi Arabia?
It’s not that far fetched. Uber announced it got $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. It’s one of the all-time largest investments into a private owned business. Uber leaders are convinced the Middle East is a critical part of the company’s global expansion. Saudi Arabia would win too. Uber would help create jobs and reduce oil dependence. You never heard of Saudi Arabia making capital investments? That’s because they rarely do. This is how revolutionary this is. This investment was born in March 2016, when Uber leader David Plouffe visited the oil rich nation and the negotiating began. Now, the it’s official. Uber coming to Saudi Arabia may have a deeper meaning: the meaning of social justice. There is no legal law against women driving. But women drivers are strictly forbidden by religious customs. Uber didn’t say they would hire Saudi Arabian women drivers, but one spokesperson hinted they’d love to break that barrier. Around 80% of Uber Saudi Arabian customers are women. And the country wants to double women employment by 2030. Could female Uber drivers assists them in that goal?
This part of the world is really good to Uber. The Middle East has nearly 900,000 riders and nearly 20,000 drivers. Uber is now running in 69 countries. But in Saudi Arabia, Uber has a good opportunity to break centuries old social barriers. Once again, I’m reminded not every nation have the freedoms we virtually take for granted here in the US. But Uber can change that. Uber should start hiring women drivers in Saudi Arabia. I know it’s controversial for Saudi Arabia. Change usually is controversial. But you know what: It’s always worth it! Uber is one of the fastest growing and most powerful companies in the world. Shouldn’t they use this power to bring social justice and break barriers?
What’s the most important website/social media outlet today for retail? Is it Ebay? Is it Amazon? Is it Walmart.com (I hope not!)? Let’s see how Facebook and the retail game are answering, and changing, that question.
Retailers like Best Buy, Macy’s JC Penney’s, and others have been struggling lately. For the last couple of years, they’ve endured profit loss and falling stocks. They’ve had to shut down stores and lay off employees. Part of that’s due to an economic recovery that really wasn’t. But part of it’s due to online retail like Amazon. Part of it is because of Facebook, which commands at least an hour of our time each day. Since more Americans spend more time on Facebook, why not shop there? Over 15 million businesses have an official Facebook page. Imagine potential consumers spending hours on that app, then sharing it on their page. Their bots and ads communicate through the Facebook Messenger app. This kind of promotion brings big businesses for companies. Facebook promotion can come from nowhere. We can partially thank Facebook video for that. You know Star Wars Chewbacca masks have been flying off the shelves since Candice ‘Chewbacca Mom’ Payne’s Facebook video. That video has over 156 million views and still counting. Retailers like Kohl’s use that video, and Payne’s Facebook charisma, to bring in sales.
Facebook and the retail game shows you the new era we’re in. No longer can businesses depend on glossy newspaper ads, a smooth voice radio ad, or a funny TV ad and think they’re going to be successful. That’s so 20th century. A good social media campaign is critical if you want to compete in today’s market. Facebook is perhaps the best way to do so. Millions of people use it and use it often. Gone are the days of in and out shopping as well. People want to be entertained when they shop. Is Facebook contributing to that as well?
Do you have friends and family literally on the other side of the world? Would you like to know where they are and what they’re doing, or should I say streaming?
Now you can, thanks to yet another Facebook new feature, Facebook live video map. It’s available only through their desktop site. It’s purpose is to show you where people are streaming worldwide through Facebook Live. Streams are indicated by blue dots on a global map. The bigger the blue dot, the more streaming there is going on in that area. Over a dot, a corresponding stream shows you where people are streaming through. Let’s say you’re watching a big blue dot over the Rio de Janeiro, while the Olympics are on. You’ll likely see lines and arrows pointing at places around the world. Think of how many internationals will be streaming through Facebook during the Olympics. But according to those who have tested it out, these streamers aren’t winning medal, trophies or sports awards. Most streamers are doing regular stuff, like playing music, eating at the new restaurant in town, working on the job, etc. It gives you a choice of streams. Suppose you hit a blue dot and get two options, one from ‘regular people’ and one from a major outlet. Which would you like to see: Celebs playing poker or your cousin in Germany and his dog performing cool pet tricks? That’s a tough choice.
One thing Facebook Live’s video map streaming service does, or tries to do, is respect your privacy. The videos that can be followed are videos the streamer make public. Private videos will be kept private. Locations will be kept vague enough to respect and protect your privacy. For example, your city may be known, but your personal address, email, social media information will not be. Because when you’re streaming around the world, who wants a bunch of crazies and stalkers to deal with?
Facebook has been the place where people keep up with family members and friends. It’s the place people reach out to classmates from yesteryear. It’s also the place where many get their news. But revelations leave many asking: Is Facebook bias against conservatives?
According to a former Facebook worker, employees are often instructed to suppress conservative based articles from the ‘trending’ news section. It’s been said they were told to inject other stories in trending mode, even those that weren’t popular with Facebook users. They would use an injection tool promote articles. Before too long, the injected article would be the most popular thing trending because it got readers’s attention. This would often block conservative based stories. One former Facebook employee says if one news story is making front page with mainstream news sites like CNN or Fox News, they could inject it. But left-leaning groups, like Black Lives Matter, says their stories have been suppressed by the ‘trending’ section of Facebook too. Facebook released a statement denying any bias based on political sides. They emphasized their strict guidelines to achieve neutrality. They are taking these allegations so seriously they’re even reviewing their Trending Topics guidelines. According to various news media, Facebook will lend support to both Republican and Democrats conventions this summer.
If what this former Facebook worker is saying, it’s really no different than what mainstream news sites do. They choose from the many news stories that come across their desks, and choose what they think they will see. But we’re heading into the most brutal and contentious election of our lifetime, if not all time. Facebook needs to have conservatives stories trend. There are a lot of conservative Facebook users who are going to demand it. Now, more than ever, we need fair and balanced reporting and neutrality. The people deserve nothing less. Do you think Facebook is deliberately bias against conservatives?
How many of you have seen The Jimmy Kimmel Show segment Mean Tweets? I admit, some of it is pretty funny. But for some of us, mean tweets can be degrading and even life threatening.
Twitter is making it easier to report abusive posts. Due to it’s new rule, Twitter will let you report up to five abusive posts. When they’re are more abusive posts, it will give to Twitter a better chance to take action and what action to take. This has been months in the making. Earlier this year, Twitter strengthened his it’s anti-abuse policy and vows to crack down on everything from violent threats to copyright violations. Maybe this is the wake of outcries that Twitter isn’t doing enough to protect their 320 million views. The new abuse policies aren’t yet viewed on Twitter, but it will be.
I have mixed reactions on this one. First, Twitter should NOT be a place to deliver threats of violence, to threaten lives, to start fights, to threaten somebody’s family and close friends. Nobody should be using Twitter to blackmail, extort, hack or use it for a sextortion tool. And Twitter should definitely not be a tool to promote or commit or brag about acts of terrorism and mass shootings. The cowards who hide behind alias names and commits such actions should be shut down, and probably criminally prosecuted. In facts, most of these acts can be prosecuted. So there’s that. But equally is concerning to me is the overt and overdone political correctness. Sometimes a ‘mean tweet’ could be a criticism, a disagreement, or a not so politically correct joke. When I hear Jimmy Kimmel’s mean tweets, most of them fall into the latter category. This is where this generation needs to lighten up and toughen up. But Twitter needs to draw a line between real mean tweets and just tweets that may be taken the wrong way. If you ran Twitter’s anti-abuse policy, where would you draw the line?
Are you ready for the Olympics this year? Well, the host city doesn’t seem to be ready either. But Twitter is doing it’s part to celebrate and promote the once in every four year occasion.
The Olympic torch has opened up a twitter account. This isn’t a joke: someone really did open a twitter account just to celebrate the running of the torch. It’s under the username @OlympicFlame. The torch sends out tweets about it’s journey and will continue to do so until the games start in Rio on August 5, 2016. The torch will travel over 100 days, be carried by over 12,000 runners for over 12,500 miles, and travel throughout the host country of Brazil and Greece, the nation that gave us the modern Olympics back in 1896. One tweet says, “After spending years in the darkness I can?t wait to see the light of day again. Almost time to return.” Another tweet features the first torch runner, a Greek Olympic competitor expressing honor in upholding this tradition. You can also follow the torch on social media sites Vine and Periscope. The modern Olympic torch tradition started in 1936. The games were held in Berlin that year, among a whirlwind of controversy. In ancient times, they practiced this tradition as well.
And just like Berlin in 1936, Rio, and Brazil, are facing lots of challenges and controversies. A few days ago, a bridge collapsed, killing several innocent people. This bridge was going to be raced on by Olympic cyclists. There are stories of political unrest, like the possible impeachment of their president, Dilma Rousseff. There are stories of natural calamities, such as severe drought, mass animal deaths and sewage backups. There are stories of record high unemployment and inflation. They say many of the facilities won’t be ready by August 2016. Shouldn’t social media do a better job covering these issues? Is the torch running the only bright spot in this upcoming Olympics?
