Going Green and being sustainable is all the rage now as corporations continue to find their footing in a market where consumers continue to look for more sustainable goods and services. While there have been many companies who have been boasting about their “green” efforts, not many have done anything tangible or impactful. In Malaysia, DHL is joining the ranks of those who have tangibly implemented policies and followed through. The company will be deploying electric vehicles (EVs) for their last-mile deliveries starting in October 2022.
DHL will be kicking off their sustainability efforts with an initial deployment of 6 electric vans in the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor regions. By 2023, this number will be increased to 61 EVs deployed nationwide. The deployment of these vehicles will undoubtedly go a long way in their efforts to become more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint in Malaysia. DHL Malaysia is targeting to have 60% of its fleet be EVs by 2050 with a shorter-term goal of 30% of its fleet by 2024.
The EV being deployed by DHL is the CAM EC35. This van has about 4.8m3 of cargo space with a payload of more than 1 ton. The CAM EC35 is rated for a running distance of about 266km on a single charge of its 38.7kWh battery. According to DHL, the company has optimized its delivery routes to ensure that the vans will be able to complete deliveries efficiently within a single charge. Of course, the EV35 can be charged overnight (8 hours) for a complete charge and, if needed, can be fully charged with a DC fast charger in 2.5 hours.
When asked about the impacts of fast charging on the battery itself, representatives from CAM confirm that fast charging will have minimal impact on the battery itself. They also emphasized the 5-year warranty for the vehicle and reiterated the durability of the CAM EV35.
The deployment of the CAM35 EVs into their Malaysian fleet is the latest effort by DHL in their efforts to become a sustainable company by 2050. However, its a big step in their efforts to greenify their operations by 2030 and reduce their carbon footprint from 33MT to 29MT in the same timeframe.
This isn’t the first step that DHL has implemented to go green. In fact, if their international track record is anything to go by, we can expect to see them adopt more technologies in the near future to become more sustainable. In Malaysia alone, the company has accelerated their sustainability journey with warehouse solutions and logistics technologies powered by AI and cloud computing with partners like AWS which allow them to minimise energy consumption and maximise efficiency.
iQIYI, for those unfamiliar, is one of the bigger streaming platforms in Malaysia beside Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and Amazon Prime Video. The contents you can find on iQIYI, compared to the other streaming platforms, are quite unique as well. They offer mostly Asian based contents mainly from places like China, they are a China based streaming platform, after all.
iQIYI is unique not just because it offers their own Asian based contents. Now they are going into making their own localised contents for their platform. When we say localised, we mean that they are funding Malaysian production houses to create exclusive content. The shows available on iQIYI will also be available in other regions where the platform operates giving even more exposure to local production,
The first of many to come is ‘Rampas Cintaku’. It is a Bahasa Melayu title that translates to ‘Snatch My Love’ in English. It is also the first locally produced show that is produced and distributed exclusively by iQIYI in over 191 countries.
In comparison, there is one locally produced show exclusively funded by and for Netflix, but there are no plans for more yet at this conjuction. The show is also only available in select regions. Then again, there are plenty of Netflix shows and movies available in other regions that are not available locally and vice versa,
We said that ‘Rampas Cintaku’ is the first of many locally produced shows on iQIYI. That is also because iQIYI has a proper roadmap that outlines more locally produced shows to be published on their platform and to be available in over 191 countries they operate in. They have not mentioned any titles yet, but they have teased that their next locally produced show will be in partnership with FoodPanda.
The premise of more Malaysian films to be aired on an international streaming platform is quite significant. It is a sort of validation or indication that there is demand for locally produced films. It also signifies that the demand for locally produced films is not limited to the local market, but also foreign markets like China.
Source: iQIYI
Source: iQIYI
Source: iQIYI
Source: iQIYI
IQIYI is not really playing guessing games when it comes to deciding where their money goes to as well. Before their exclusively produced ‘Rampas Cintaku’, iQIYI has been licensing plenty of locally produced shows with Bahasa Melayu as the spoken language. Following the increasing number and consumption pattern of the locally produced shows on iQIYI, it only makes sense for the platform to take things to the next level and start funding the local production houses to produce iQIYI exclusive shows and develop local talents even further.
Of course, there is also the aspect that iQIYI offers more creative freedom to scriptwriters in their storytelling. Taking ‘Rampas Cintaku’ as a sort of benchmark, the romance melodrama touches sensitive topics that cannot usually be shown on local television. The show touches on certain taboo topics like extramarital relationships. Obviously, the show is really made for the more mature audience group.
‘Rampas Cintaky’ is now available for viewing exclusively on iQIYI. You can either download the app from Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store or access their website directly to view the series. You must also have a subscription plan to access iQIYI’s full library and ‘Rampas Cintaku’. More on ‘Rampas Cintaku’ can be found on their website.
Put simply, edge computing is computing that takes place at or near the physical location of either the user or the source of the data being processed, such as a device or sensor.
By placing computing services closer to these locations, users benefit from faster, more reliable services and organizations benefit from the flexibility and agility of the open hybrid cloud.
Challenges in Edge Computing
With the proliferation of devices and services at edge sites, however, there is an increasing amount to manage outside the sphere of traditional operations. Platforms are being extended well beyond the data- centre, devices are multiplying and spreading across vast areas, and on-demand applications and services are running in significantly different and distant locations.
This evolving IT landscape is posing new challenges for organizations, including:
Ensuring they have the skills to address evolving edge infrastructure requirements.
Building capabilities that can react with minimal human interaction in a more secure and trusted way.
Effectively scaling at the edge with an ever-increasing number of devices and endpoints to consider.
Of course, while there are difficult challenges to overcome, many of them can be mitigated with edge automation.
Benefits of Edge Automation
Automating operations at the edge can reduce much of the complexity that comes from extending hybrid cloud infrastructure so you are better able to take advantage of the benefits edge computing provides.
Edge automation can help your organization:
Increase scalability by applying configurations more consistently across your infrastructure and managing edge devices more efficiently.
Boost agility by adapting to changing customer demands and using edge resources only as needed.
Focus on remote operational security and safety by running updates, patches and required maintenance automatically without sending a technician to the site.
Reduce downtime by simplifying network management and reducing the chance of human error.
Improve efficiency by increasing performance with automated analysis, monitoring and alerting.
7 Examples of Edge Automation
Here are some industry-specific use cases and examples demonstrating edge automation’s value.
1. Transportation industry
By automating complex manual device configuration processes, transportation companies can efficiently deploy software and application updates to trains, aeroplanes and other moving vehicles with significantly less human intervention. This can save time and help eliminate manual configuration errors, freeing teams to work on more strategic, innovative and valuable projects.
Compared to a manual approach, automating device installation and management is generally safer and more reliable.
2. Retail
Establishing a new retail store and getting its digital services online can be complex, involving configuration management of networked devices, configuration auditing and setting up computing resources across the retail facility. And once a store is set up and open to the public, the IT focus shifts from speed and scale to consistency and reliability.
Edge automation gives retail stores the ability to stand up and maintain new devices more quickly and consistently while reducing manual configuration and update errors.
3. Industry 4.0
From oil and gas refineries to smart factories to supply chains, Industry 4.0 is seeing the integration of technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, analytics and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) into industrial production facilities and across operations.
One example of the value of edge automation in Industry 4.0 can be found on the manufacturing floor. There, supported by visualization algorithms, edge automation can help detect defects in manufactured components on the assembly line. It can also help improve the safety of factory operations by identifying and alerting hazardous conditions or unpermitted actions.
4. Telecommunications, media and entertainment
The advantages edge automation can provide to service providers are numerous and include clear improvements to customer experience.
For example, edge automation can turn the data edge devices produce into valuable insights that can be used to improve customer experience, such as automatically resolving connectivity issues.
The delivery of new services can also be streamlined with edge automation. Service providers can send a device to a customer’s home or office that they can simply plug in and run, without the need for a technician on site. Automating service delivery not only improves the customer experience, it creates a more efficient network maintenance process, with the potential of reducing costs.
5. Financial services and insurance
Customers are demanding more personalized financial services and tools that can be accessed from virtually anywhere, including from customers’ mobile devices.
For example, if a bank launches a self-service tool to help their customers find the right offering — such as a new insurance package, a mortgage, or a credit card — edge automation can help that bank scale the new service while also automatically meeting strict industry security standards without impacting the customer experience.
Edge automation can help provide the speed and access that customers want, with the reliability and scalability that financial service providers need.
6. Smart cities
To improve services while increasing efficiency, many municipalities are incorporating edge technologies such as IoT and AI/ML to monitor and respond to issues affecting public safety, citizen satisfaction and environmental sustainability.
Early smart city projects were constrained by the technology of the time, but the rollout of 5G networks (and new communications technologies still to come) not only increase data speeds but also makes it possible to connect more devices. To scale capabilities more effectively, smart cities need to automate edge operations, including data collection, processing, monitoring and alerting.
7. Healthcare
Healthcare has long since started to move away from hospitals toward remote care treatment options such as outpatient centres, clinics and freestanding emergency rooms, and technologies have evolved and proliferated to support these new environments. Clinical decision-making can also be improved and personalized based on patient data generated from wearables and a variety of other medical devices.
Using automation, edge computing and analytics, clinicians can efficiently convert this flood of new data into valuable insights to help improve patient outcomes while delivering both financial and operational value.
Red Hat Edge
Modern compute platforms powered by Red Hat Edge can help organizations extend their open hybrid cloud to the edge. Red Hat Edge represents Red Hat’s collective drive to integrate edge computing across the open hybrid cloud. Red Hat’s large and growing ecosystem of partners and open methodologies give organizations the flexibility they need to build platforms that can respond to rapidly changing market conditions and create differentiated offerings.
A few months back WhatsApp announced that they were launching a new major feature that could make the platform a powerful one for organisations and communities It is also fittingly called Communities. WhatsApp made the announcement back in April 2022 and teased it as a “coming soon” feature. Months later, Communities might finally be a reality. As with any other major features platform providers want to release, they have to go through their testing phase first, WhatsApp included.
While it may seem odd, WhatsApp is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, communication platform in Malaysia. While other countries still rely on the regular messaging app, WhatsApp is a mainstay in Malaysia and is the preferred communication tool of the nation. It is not just personal communication that relies on WhatsApp in Malaysia, companies and organisations rely on WhatsApp Groups to get messages across, essential team communications, and even announcements going.
The reliance and usage patterns for the platform in Malaysia makes it the perfect test bench and sample pool for WhatsApp communities.
Source: WhatsApp
As per the announcement back in April, Communities will be a powerful tool for administrators looking to run multiple groups in their organisations. It allows an admin to include and exclude groups in a single Community group. At that, it also allows admins to start smaller and more controlled conversation groups within the community itself with select members. Communities allows admins to send a community wide announcement if the need arises. At the same time, only the admin has the power to invite members into the community and its groups, also to remove members when they deem necessary.
There are other features that are being added as well with WhatsApp Communities. To be fair, these are improvements done for WhatsApp Groups. Some of the improvements have been introduced before Communities in preparation for the arrival of the new feature too. Reaction, for example, was introduced so users can quickly react to messages via emoji without flooding group chats with new messages and drown the messages out. Group admins can also remove messages from chats for everyone in the group, if they deem it to be problematic. File sharing limit has been pushed to 2GB for more versatile collaboration efforts. Voice calls can now include up to 32 users while you can now mute other people in the call just to ensure that discussions and presentations can go on without distractions. WhatsApp Groups has also increased its member limit from 256 members to up to 512 members. If you wish to leave groups, you can now do it silently, only notifying group admins.
Currently, WhastApp’s Communities is being tested by Gabungan Anak-Anak Palsi Serebum (GAPS) community and Entrepreneurs and Startups in Malaysia communities. It is rolling out to select users in Malaysia currently. It will eventually be available for all WhatsApp users in Malaysia. For the latest updates on WhatsApp and its features you can visit their blog.
Whenever manufacturers shout about their new monitor products recently, it is always about gaming and their new monitors are made for them. Products made for the creative professionals and productivity are not hard to find. They just rarely get attention these days. Manufacturers tend to quietly add new monitors to their line-up because of that.
LG’s new monitor deserves attention though. Not it is not some breakthrough thoroughbred with some exclusive display tuning that makes it the brightest most clear display on the market. Technically, there is nothing new about the monitor. The display panel is the same type as most displays out in the market currently. There is something different about this monitor though; it is shaped rather differently from other monitors you can find in the market.
No, it is not a round display, nor is it a pentagonal shaped monitor. There are still four sides to make it a rectangle, just not the regular display rectangle. It boasts an aspect ratio of 16:18, which also means that it is a tall display, and it is almost square-ish in shape.
Source: LG
If you think about it, the display size is really a combination of two 16:9 displays stacked on top of each other. This form factor also eliminates the bottom bezel of the top display when you stack it up. The design is not without its reasons though.
The expansive LG DualUp Monitor Ergo display comes with LG’s Nano IPS panel that should offer vibrant colours and excellent contrast ratio. Important when you are going to be using it most of the day for work. The panel boasts dual QHD resolution (2,560 x 2,880) for good measure too. In that sense, movies should look excellent on it, save for the two very large black bars you will get when you watch movies on the display the size of two 21.5-inch displays stacked on top of one another.
Source: LG
The design of the DualUp Monitor Ergo is such to save as much desk real estate as possible. It is also the most ergonomic way of working with two displays, since you do not really have to turn your neck or body around to read through your documents or scroll through emails. At the same time, you get more real estate for your documents, which is always nice. On top of that, to reduce the strain on your neck even more, the LG DualUp Monitor Ergo comes with LG’s Ergo Stand that mounts and clamps directly on the table for not just more desk real estate. It also allows you to swivel and position your display in any configuration you prefer or can think of.
The LG DualUp Monitor Ergo comes with HDMI and DisplayPort inputs. It also packs USB Type-C thunderbolt and display port for an added versatility for the modern thin-and-light laptops. There is also USB 3.0 ports for you to work with. You can even rely on its two 7W built-in speakers with WavesMaxxAudio to enjoy music.
To protect your eyes, the LG DualUp Monitor Ergo comes with built-in ambient LightSensor to automatically adjust the display’s brightness accordingly. Live Color Low Blue Light also ensures that blue light emissions are reduced. To allow for a more flexible working environment, the monitor also packs a Picture-by-Picture mode to divide your area of work on the display real estate.
Source: LG
Source: LG
Source: LG
Source: LG
The LG DualUp Monitor Ergo is now available via LG’ authorized retailers nationwide or their online stores on Shopee and Lazada. It will set you back MYR 2,948, which is still considered rather premium. You are getting LG’s Ergo Stand though, and you are investing in an ergonomic set up for long term use case. For more information on the LG DualUp Monitor Ergo display, you can check out LG’s website.
Google Cloud is stepping up its services for Malaysia with plans to roll out a new region in the country. The new region joins Thailand and New Zealand as Google Cloud continues its expansion throughout the Asia Pacific Region. With the addition of the three new regions, Google Cloud expands its total regions to 14 within the Asia Pacific region and 37 globally.
The rollout of the Malaysia region will bolster the government’s plans to accelerate the country’s digital economy to contribute 25.5% of the national GDP by 2025. According to reserach by AlphaBeta that was commissioned by Google, the country is poised to reap the benefits of an MYR257.2 billion (USD 61.3 billion) annual economic value by 2030 if digital transformation is properly leveraged.
The rollout of these regions will bring world class connectivity and compute to the quickly expanding number of ccompanies depending on the cloud. In addition to access to high performance compute and access to Google’s Tensor capabilities, better latency will help accelerate workflows. Google’s new Cloud Region will also be complemented by the existing Dedicated Cloud Interconnect locations. In Malaysia, these are located in Cyberjaya and Kuala Lumpur. Organisation on Google Cloud will be able to leverage interconnectivity and access on-premises and through direct connections via Google Cloud.
Source: Gooogle Cloud
Being one of the foremost in the industry, data security, data soverignty and privacy is paramount when it comes to rolling out new regions for Google Cloud. When asked about data privacy and sovereignty when it comes to rolling out a new Region in Malaysia, Google Cloud Managing Director for Southeast Asia, Ruma Balasubramaniam, had this to say, “We will work with local customers to ensure that each local cloud region, including the one that’s coming soon to Malaysia, fits their specific needs. Our aim is to provide solutions that help customers meet their local requirements for data security, privacy, and sovereignty – without compromising on considerations like functionality, cost, and the developer experience.The Malaysia cloud region will ultimately give local organizations more options regarding where they would like to run their workloads and store their data, whether this is in-country in the Malaysia cloud region or in another cloud region that is part of our global network. Ultimately, it is solely up to the Google Cloud customer to choose where they would like to run their workloads and store their data.“
In addition, she emphasized Google’s commitments to data security and privacy even internally. Google Cloud has ensured that all data on their service is securely encrypted and that no Google employee will be able to acceess it. They also have strict guidelines and tools for customers to ensure data security including preventing Google decryption access. This includes government requested access which require valid legal processes. Government requests for data is also reported in their transparency report.
Google Cloud hasn’t announced any timelines just yet when it comes to the rollout and availability. The new regions will join Google Cloud’s 11 existing regions across Asia Pacific and Japan including ones in Jakarta and Singapore. In total, Google Cloud currently has 34 regions and 103 zones worldwide. The company has been working public sector agencies, large corporations and even small and medium entrerprises across the world. In Malaysia alone, Google Cloud is working with Capital A (Airasia Aviation and airasia Super App), Hong Leong Bank, JB Cocoa, KPJ Healthcare, Malaysia Airlines, Mass Rapid Transit Corporation, Maxis and Media Prima.
Disney+ is coming off a pretty good quarter when it comes to subscribers. The streaming service is now the largest of its kind with 152.1 million subscribers worldwide. However, it looks like the House of Mouse is still struggling to make its streaming businesses profitable. Yep – businesses – Disney has more than one streaming service repertoire; Disney+ is its most widely available. Hulu, ESPN+ and Live TV are also part of the catalogue but aren’t widely available. Altogether, the businesses have seen an aggregated USD$1.1 billion in losses.
It would seem that to make the business more profitable, Disney+ will be introducing a Disney+ Premium subscription while the current tier will become an ad-supported one. You read that correct, Disney isn’t introducing a brand new tier, it’s turning its current tier into an ad-supported one. The new ad-free “Premium” tier will be priced at USD$10.99 (MYR48.85), a 37.5% increase in price. It would seem like the ad-supported tier will be screening 15- to 30-second ads for every hour of viewing which can be pretty disruptive especially if you’re watching a movie. The change will be introduced on December 8, 2022.
The change in the subscription structure has, so far, only been confirmed for the United States. Disney hasn’t commented on the change in other regions. In Malaysia, the service is currently available for MYR54.90 for 3 months that’s equivalent to USD$3.09 a month. However, it’s available under its Disney+Hotstar brand which carries a whole other catalogue including local content and licensed content under Hotstar. If the service is to follow the repricing the U.S. is doing, yearly commitment for the service would be MYR301.95 from the current MYR219.60. At which point, it may be cheaper to simply get it as part of a bundle from Astro.
That said, Disney+ isn’t the only service looking at introducing an ad-supported tier. Just recently, Netflix announced that it would be doing the same in a partnership with Microsoft. However, Netflix’s implementation of the ad-supported tier will limit the amount of content accessible to the user in its ad-supported tier. For now, Disney+ seems to not do this. However, we shall wait and see.
Google is rather funny, if not indecisive. If you remembered, Google launched a few of their own services that seemed like a great idea. Google+ for example, seemed like a good idea for a Google social media platform. It failed miserably though, even though it comes with Google account as standard. Then there is Google Workspace, which was a rather great implementation of a collaboration platform that is like Trello. They axed the project a little later though.
A little while ago, Google had something called Hangouts, a video calling platform available to users for free. It is now known as Google Meet, but there is also a separate app called Google Chats as well. But there is also another video calling app from Google called Google Duo. Google Duo did not really take off though, despite being a mobile first app. It will also be known as Google Meet soon.
In some sense, you can say that this is Google consolidating their video calling apps into one. In the coming months, Google’s blue coloured Duo icon will replaced by the colourful Google Meet logo. Which also means that you might have two Google Meet on your smartphone in the future.
The Google Duo app will still be constantly updated for the time being, which means you should not be too alarmed about not being able to enjoy the Google Duo app any longer. New users should be downloading the new Google Meet app with Duo integrated into the app though. There is a possibility of an app overlap, in this case, but you may not have to worry about that entirely with the new updates.
The move to integrate Duo into Meet is not a surprise move by Google. Google has announced that their Google Duo app is meant to be integrated into Google Meet in the coming months since June 2022. Consolidating these apps are essentially the best way for Google to single-handedly manage their apps. Managing a single app will also proof much more viable and straightforward for Google. Users can expect to see their Google Duo app turn intot Google Meet in September 2022.
It is August, for Malaysia that means it is the month leading to the National Day and Malaysia Day. It means we get two extra holidays for the month of August and September. But it is also a celebration of what of Malaysia and all that is Malaysian.
Digi, one of the biggest homegrown telcos celebrates the month of August and September the only way it knows how; giving more good deals. In anticipation of National Day and Malaysia Day, Digi launches the Juara Internet Malaysiaku promotion. Of course, since it is also a promotion for Malaysia Day, it lasts through August and September 2022.
Starting from today new and existing Digi customers are entitled to free devices when they sign up for a new internet plan. If you sign up for a new Digi Postpaid Family Unlimited plan, you get a new Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite for free. With the Pakej PowerJimat postpaid plans, you are entitled to a number of free Samsung, Redmi, vivo, and OPPO smartphones.
If you are thinking of getting a new home internet plan from Digi, there is no better time than now to get it. New customers to the Digi Fibre 190 plan and above are entitled to rebates totalling up to MYR 240. Current Digi customers are entitled to up to MYR 60 a month in savings when they pair their postpaid plans to select Digi Fibre plans.
Postpaid customers are entitled to enjoy 10GB more data for 12 months if you switch or upgrade to Digi Postpaid 40, 60, and 90 plans. If you go for the 120 or 150 plans, you get 50% more quota than what is offered on the brochure. Customers who are on Digi Postpaid 90 programs and above also get to enjoy up to MYR 15 of additional rebate every month for the next 12 months. You are also entitled to a Gadget SIM free for two months so that you can share your internet plans with your other devices via a second line for the promotion period. A Gadget SIM usually sets you back MYR 10 a month. Postpaid customers are also entitled to an MYR 200 GadgetFreedom Plus voucher within the MyDigi app. The voucher can be used to purchase anything from Digi’s official online store on Shopee Mall.
Of course, prepaid customers are not fogotten. New customers to the Prepaid NEXT 35, NEXT 45, Raja Kombo 35, and Raja Kombo 45 plans gets 65GB of additional high-speed video quota for 30 days so that they can enjoy contents from Netflix, Viu, Astro Go, and YouTube without worrying about running out of data. Loyalty pays here, current prepaid customers get an additional 130GB of high-speed streaming quota with any 30-day Internet plan purchase via MyDigi Box of Surprise. Digi’s Unlimited Video Pass is also now extended to all Digi Prepaid customers. From MYR 5 onward you get to enjoy unlimited streaming from Netflix, Astro GO, Viu, Dailymotion, or Unifi PlayTV for three days.
The Juara Internet Malaysiaku promotion starts today onward (1st of August 2022) until the 30th September 2022. You can find out or sign up for these attractive offers by visiting any Digi Store, Digi Store Expess, Digi authorised dealer, or their website.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, still is known for Facebook, has just posted their quarterly earnings report. For the first time since 2007, they have posted a decline in revenue, US$ 28.82 billion versus US$ 29.07 billion in the second quarter of 2021. That is a whopping 1% drop in revenue year-on-year. No, that is not a lot, to be fair. It is not that alarming either, if you ask us. What could be more alarming is that the drop in revenue comes with a larger drop in net income for Meta, about 36% loss compared to the same quarter last year (Q2 2021).
The drop in revenue could be due to many reasons. One of the reasons could be also because of the loss in user base and daily user counts thanks to the ongoing crisis over in Russia and Ukraine. The loss in revenue and profits could also be largely due to Apple’s new “opt out” policy that significantly changes how ads are being served on iOS devices.
While a decline in revenue and profits is bad news, it is not something we should really feel bad about. After all, Meta still rakes in profits in the billions. What could be bad news to us though is what Mark Zuckerberg is planning for Instagram to make it more profitable than before.
Instagram primarily does photos and images. It started its life to be a one-stop shop for sharing your photos with your friends and family with no fuss or frills. When Meta, or then Facebook gotten a hold of Instagram, they saw it as an opportunity to level the playing field with Snapchat and introduced Instagram Stories, a sub platform within Instagram to share photos with your followers available for the next 24 hours. A sort of “what’s on my mind”, or “what am I doing right now” kind of thing for the masses.
Recently, Instagram has started to favour more video contents. Understandably, the rise in short form video contents had an astronomical rise thanks to the likes of TikTok. Instagram tried to introduce more video features within their platform starting with Instagram TV, a long format video platform within Instagram to encourage content creators to post longer format videos on Instagram. Then there is Reels now, a short form video platform within Instagram that is supposed to encourage content creators to post more bite sized chunks of videos on their profile.
While more contents from our friends is great for us in the grand scheme of things, Instagram has also tweaked their algorithms alongside all the new features they have added. Your Instagram main feed is now loaded with posts from strangers and accounts you have never followed. They are recommendations based on the posts you have been responding to or interacted with. Nothing wrong with that, except you are seeing less of your friends and more strangers on your feed. It is starting to be more like TikTok, and people have mentioned that they hated it.
Unfortunately, their woes will fall on deaf ears. Meta’s CEO has mentioned that the company will be doubling the amount of ‘recommended’ contents to users by 2023. The same changes apply to Facebook as well. This also means that at least 30% of our feeds on Instagram and Facebook will be filled by contents from people we do not know or have never followed suggested by Meta’s recommendation algorithm.
If you want to only see feeds from people you are following, there is a way. All you need to do is to hit the ‘Instagram’ logo on the top right corner of your display or the app and select ‘following’ there. That way you are seeing feed only from people you are following. It is an extra step, but hey, it is better than seeing strangers on your feed all the time.
