A giant digital sign is seen at Facebook's corporate headquarters campus in Menlo Park, California, ... [+]
Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
1 — According to a new report, Facebook usage has dropped a stunning 26% since 2017.
According to research gathered by Active Inc., we have been spending significantly less time on Facebook over the last two years. The study gathered that Americans typically spent approximately 14 hours a month in 2017. However, in 2019 the average usage was 9 hours per month, falling 26%. The survey also revealed that social media users in the U.S. currently belong to approximately 5.8 different social media networks, predicting that the number will go up to over 10 in the next 4 years. Data has revealed that younger users—between the ages of 12-34— are gravitating toward other social media sites such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook-owned Instagram. (Source: Fast Company)
Why this is important for your business:
Although Facebook still remains extremely popular among small businesses and a potentially powerful way to find and serve customers, its problems cannot be ignored. This may be a good year to take a deep dive into TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram, for example, and see if perhaps those sites may offer better - or additional - opportunities.
2 — Apple Pay overtakes Starbucks as the top mobile payment app.
With 30.3 million users this past year, Apple Pay has pulled ahead of Starbucks as the most popular mobile payment app, as revealed by recent data from eMarketer. The reason for the growth is believed to be due to more point-of-sales terminals starting to accept NFC-based payment apps. According to the data, 39.4% of proximity mobile payment users will be Starbucks users, while Apple will have 47.3%. Google Pay and Samsung Pay are also benefitting from the upgrade to point-of-sale terminals. (Source: ZDNet)
Why this is important for your business:
It’s been slow, but it’s definitely happening: more and more people are paying with their phones. It took some time for people to adopt and for the technology – particularly point of sale technology – to catch up. But mobile payments are a reality and if your small business isn’t accepting these types of payments you’re soon going find yourself losing business to a competitor who does.
3 — Some corporate tech spending disappears into a black hole, according to a recent survey.
A recent survey revealed this week that a large amount of corporate revenue spent on technology gets lost due to what is believed to be a lack of organization and transparency. A survey done by Flexera found that between 12-30% of Information Technology spending is wasted according to the survey, and it’s unclear where exactly the funding goes. According to 61% of the executives participating in the study, visibility into certain areas of spending proves to be incredibly difficult and partly to blame for the disappearing funds, particularly in the areas of reporting by business service, collecting the data, and reporting by application. (Source: ZDNet)
Why this is important for your business:
This isn’t surprising, considering the complexity of tech spending. But one of the advantages a small business has over its corporate counterparts is that the issues, people, organization and activities are fewer and less complex. That means that getting your arms around your tech spending isn’t as difficult as it is for big companies. You should fully understand all the services your IT people or firms are providing for your company and regularly review the work they’re doing.
4 — Visa has announced their launch of Visa Infinite Businesses.
This past week, Visa announced that they have launched Visa Infinite Business. The new launch— considered to be an expansion of their business card product suite— is juxtaposed with the reality that 52% of small businesses leverage the use of their credit cards in order to manage and run their business. Additionally, there is a growing demand where small businesses require access to higher limits when using credit cards, and consumer cards often do not have what small business owners require. (Source: PYMNTS)
Why this is important for your business:
Too many of us are still making payments old school, and the environment is changing. Offerings like Visa’s are serving the need for small businesses to move away from making cash or check payments to suppliers and buyers and gravitate toward electronic processes.
5— Google has confirmed their ‘quantum supremacy’ breakthrough.
Nearly a month after the accidental leak that Google achieved quantum supremacy, the tech giant officially announced that all we have been hearing is true. According to Google, their 54-qubit Sycamore processor was able to work through a calculation in 200 seconds, something that would take the world’s most advanced supercomputer 10,000 years to complete. Essentially, Google’s processor has achieved the impossible. However, IBM—which operates the supercomputer that had previously been considered the most powerful quantum computer— isn’t buying it, saying that Google’s claims left out details, were inaccurate, and that IBM’s system could complete the task in 2.5 days, which is significantly less time than Google had alleged. (Source: The Verge)
Why this is important for your business:
We can let Google and IBM battle it out over the details, but the facts are clear: computing is getting much, much faster and technologies like the Sycamore processor will be what’s behind future robotics and artificial intelligence applications that will change the way we’re doing business.
2019-10-27 11:00:03Z
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2019/10/27/facebook-usage-drops-26-percentand-other-small-business-tech-news-this-week/
CAIiEAB5sYA521x-jPifFpe_JnMqFQgEKg0IACoGCAowrqkBMKBFMI_CEg
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Facebook Usage Drops 26 Percent…And Other Small Business Tech News This Week - Forbes"
Post a Comment