The U.S is currently leading the increase in avg. amount of online orders with 24%

The global consumers in these past years were not very thankful for Online Shopping until Covid-19 came along and put them all into quarantine and forced them to stay in their homes.

On the other hand, Inflation is a huge problem in the whole world and the Third World countries especially, who are the main victims of economic downfalls. eCommerce is also directly related to it and the high prices that come with inflation are not at least discouraging for consumers.

In fact in the second quarter of 2022 (April 22- June 22), with the prices, the sales of different products across many markets also went up. According to an analysis by Klaviyo, the average order value skyrocketed into a 19% increase in Q2, if put in comparison to Q1.

But, with all these increases, brands are offering 18% fewer discounts in Q2 than they did in Q1 as they try their best to cope with the increasing price of the raw goods that they need to make their best quality products.

And within all of this, the small businesses (businesses with less than $5 million as revenue) that sent emails saying that their product(s) was back in stock, saw a 9% increase in orders.

Some specific types of products and categories saw a spectacular increase in orders in the second quarter of this year including; Apparel and Accessories with a 13% increase, Food and Beverage had a 12% increase, and last but not least Jewelry witnessed a 4% increase.

While many people expected Health and Beauty products to be on the list above, they saw only a meager 2% increase with electronics going in the negative with 5% fewer orders.

If we look at the worldwide chart the U.S. is currently leading with a 24% increase on avg. orders, followed by Europe, Middle East, and Africa all of whom saw a 9% increase while the Asia-Pacific saw only a 2% increase in average order value.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

60% of Cybersecurity Professionals Lack Confidence in Secure Cloud Access

Cloud adoption has been increasing rapidly these past few years, with many organizations switching to this method of data storage because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up reducing server costs and the like. However, a recent study called the Global Study on Zero Trust Security for the Cloud conducted by the Ponemon Institute suggests that these organizations aren’t doing enough to provide the requisite security for their cloud based data.

This study involved a survey of around 1,500 professionals who work in the field of IT and cybersecurity, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that 60% of them said that they weren’t confident in the security of cloud access. There are some key problems that are preventing organizations from properly securing their cloud data, with 48% saying that monitoring the network was a prime challenge.

45% of organizations also stated that they lacked in house experts who can aid them in developing the right security protocols. 38% cited an increase in the number of attack vectors that they need to prepare for as well, with 62% of all organizations who participated in this survey stating that normal security solutions that involve perimeter controls are no longer viable with all things having been considered and taken into account.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, zero trust networks can provide an adequate solution to many of these issues. According to this survey, 65% of respondents said that their IT team became more productive after using ZTNA, with 58% saying the same about DevOps. 61% also said that zero trust network access provided more secure identity authentication.

Adopting zero trust protocols can help secure cloud based data for organizations without requiring an expensive investment. It will be intriguing to see if this advice is followed, since the recent and incessant rise in cyberattacks is something that should be treated with a lot of urgency although most organizations are slow to respond to such situations in many cases.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Snapchat Has Rolled Out Paid Subscriptions But Are Users Really Ready To Pay For Nothing?

Believe it or not, after months of hype being created about the rollout of Snapchat's Paid Subscription, the company has finally done it. But what effect, if any, has the change brought forward for the firm.

Last month, the company’s unveiled its Snapchat+ with the hopes that it would fall in the same league as Twitter’s blue subscriptions. But it’s not hard to see that there’s no comparison to other leading social media platforms because the paid ordeal literally offers nothing, for the time being at least.

We’re not being mean but we’re reporting everything that tech experts and analysts have to say in this regard. It’s more or less like being an active beta tester and that means availing of features a little ahead of time, in comparison to those getting the app for free.

If that’s the case, we’d much happily wait patiently than pay extra but that’s just our personal preference. Nevertheless, we don’t think it’s an absolute failure as the platform did notice some users being keenly interested and coming on board with the paid version.

At a staggering price tag of nearly $4 each month, you can read more details on the app’s Support Page. But for now, we were more curious as to what difference it has made to the company’s stats because, at the end of it all, that’s what really matters, right?

We did predict that the whole launch would turn out to be a major miss instead of a hit. While Twitter is definitely doing so much better, we can’t ignore the fact that to our surprise, Snapchat has greatly improved too.

The new paid subscription offer has put forward $4.5 million in terms of total revenue gained, ever since the launch that took place nearly 14 days back, reports App Figures.

Remember, these figures are pertaining to net revenue so that means it’s the actual figure that the company gets to take back home, after tech giants like Apple and even Google take a slash of their earnings.

Reports from the company showed how the majority of the earnings for this subscription came from Apple’s App Store. On the other hand, Google Play users accounted for just 4.5% of the sales for this subscription.

As a whole, the firm has a total of 1.6 million paying subscribers on board, and considering the fact that the launch took place two weeks back, hats off because that’s definitely not bad. What do you think?

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

WhatsApp is soon going to launch a new feature and is in the process of releasing another

WhatsApp has long since been one of the most used apps in the world with millions of people who use it daily to keep in touch with their loved ones and acquaintances. The app was launched in 2009 by app developers Jan Koum and Brian Acton and was later bought by Facebook for 19.3 billion dollars in 2014.

As we all know, every app needs updates and new features to further provide its services to its users and the same is the case with WhatsApp. At the moment there are two updates lined up with one already undergoing release.

The first update, spotted by WBI, is that WhatsApp is releasing a new feature that will allow users to filter unread chats. This feature was previously seen in some beta users’ phones and now this feature while still in beta is available for a larger spectrum of people.

This feature lets users filter their WhatsApp chats so that they only show whatever unread messages that they have. But due to some reasons unbeknownst to us, this feature has been disabled for the next update.

However, the users who have the WhatsApp Beta Android 2.22.16.14 update are in luck because somehow this update has found its way into that version and is available for them.

As seen in a screenshot posted by WABetaInfo, when you search for a specific chat you will be able to apply this feature that will only show the unread chats that you have.

This feature has only been released for a few beta testers at the moment, but more advancements are underway, so make sure that you keep up your version of WhatsApp using the Play Store.

Now as for the second feature, this feature is still under development and is for the iOS version of the app. If a user doesn’t want to be part of a specific group or the group has been dissolved then they leave the group using the leave group option on the menu. But the only downside is that everyone will be able to see that this user has left the group.

Now WhatsApp is working on a feature that will allow users to leave the group without alerting everyone. With this feature, users will be able to leave the group without a message announcing their leave, but the group admin would be alerted, and the group participants will still be able to see who left in the past participant's tabs.

Read next: WhatsApp Rolls Out The Ability To Transfer Data From Android To iOS Devices
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Climate Tech Funding At A Glance: What Role Does Big Tech Play In Sustaining A Greener Future?

Last year, some of the biggest names in climate tech received funding worth nearly $37 billion as a part of a venture capital investment. The whole idea was related to sustaining a greener future or one that could be appreciated for being carbon neutral.

And when you actually look at figures from the year 2018, the giant increase in investments cannot be denied.

As far as leaders in the tech industry are concerned, we’re talking about the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, and of course, Google who have all united on one front, and that is to achieve a healthier environment that’s full of technological advancements and free of carbon.

A new report by Statista showed a comparison entailing data received from leading firms such as HolonIQ and CB. And according to that, the mega increase in climate tech funding has been relatively slow by Big Tech.

Three years back, we saw a few investments come forward from these leading tech firms and their associated subsidiary companies. The figure reached was nearly $100 million while the total amount estimated was in billions.

The reason why these figures mean so much and why top tech firms are being called out has to do with one simple logic and finding. The carbon footprints that some of these tech companies leave behind are immense and that is what puts a halt to a greener future.

But this time around, we’re seeing more interest and intrigue being generated in this regard. Big Tech is making sure it has increased its funding in this aspect for both large-scale and big-scale tech firms that are clear about their goals to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

The principle is simple, the more the interest shown, the more the investment you’ll get.

This in turn means we’re going to have the three tech giants outlined above, serve as leaders for a greener future as they’re getting a quarter of the entire funding outlined.

Let’s not forget how Amazon was the leader in this aspect as it invested greatly, as far as the transportation sector is concerned. So many billions were allocated to car making, recyclable elements, and more through its fund for Climate Pledge.

Some hiccups are definitely seen and would also be taking place along the way, however, we can’t help but realize that it’s a great start and one that should stay strong for longer periods of time if we actually wish to see results.

Meanwhile, analysts at Dealroom revealed how most of the funding during the last quarter of 2022 went toward the UN’s goals for sustainable development projects. But we still feel that this is just the start as startups get only a chunk of what top firms receive.

Read next: Meta Provides A Massive Pool Of Insight On Climate Change And How The Crisis Can Be Tackled
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Tests Out New Label to Legitimize Reviews

Google’s addition of reviews on its SERP was meant to help businesses establish an online presence for themselves, but in many ways this attempt has gone awry. Many businesses have complained about users mixing them up with other businesses that have a similar name, and some have also suffered review bombing wherein users leave bad reviews because they dislike the owner or due to some other irrelevant concerns that shouldn’t be a part of their reviewing process.

It seems that Google is now trying to fix this by adding a label that marks reviews as unverified because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping users contextualize them properly. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this label can be seen above the average rating that the business has been given based on what users have said.

Clicking on this label will reveal text that says that these reviews are not verified, although Google does add that it attempts to remove fake reviews whenever it notices them. This might help businesses to avoid incurring a loss due to unfair or unreasonable bad reviews, although it also represents a step back for Google since it is an admission that their review feature did not pan out the way they were hoping it would.

Some are wondering what the point of this feature is if Google is openly admitting that they are unverified and therefore not all that useful for the average consumer. We might see Google doing away with this feature entirely, since most businesses are not all that happy with it being there given the lack of control they have over it. This might be a bit of a blow for Google considering it needs to compete with Facebook’s review feature which has become an important part of most business’s marketing strategies when they first open up.

However, Facebook’s reviews aren’t entirely reliable either, so this might just be Google’s way of being transparent to rise above its competitors in some way.

H/T: Robin Dirksen

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Is Telegram's Premium Feature Really Helping The Messaging App Grow?

The popular messaging platform, Telegram, just recently released a paid subscription feature that allows users to take advantage of improved features on the platform. Compared to other useless subscriptions such as Snapchat+, the Telegram paid subscription includes features that users can benefit from.

Paid subscription dubbed ‘Telegram Premium’ allows users to upload up to 4 GBs to upload files such as images, videos, gifs, etc. Moreover, you get faster download speeds, premium stickers, and exclusive reactions, as well as other cool perks such as animated cover pictures.

From the statistics, we can see Telegram has generated over $480 thousand worth of net revenue. To analyze this, we can see that 17% of this boost came from Google Play. It is worth noting how the Russo-Ukraine conflict has played a major part in Telegram’s success as the highest-rated spender count came from Ukraine which was only second to the US. Similarly, the rest came from Apple Store where Ukraine was again the second most popular spender after Russia.

Telegram is aiming to reach sustainability by relying on its user base to purchase its services. Telegram’s founder was quoted saying that all they need Is just 2-3% of their users to subscribe to their premium feature and they would make enough to sustain the platform. Now 2-3% might not sound like a big deal but with a user base of 700 million, what you need is 14 million subscriptions so it’s not as easy as you might think.

Considering that Telegram’s users are more accustomed to free features and haven’t spent anything on the platform, this could be a hard task to accomplish for Telegram. The same is the case with Twitter with its premium features.

We can expect Telegram to pull through in some time even if the low revenue is making the process slower.

H/T: AF

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World