What Country Has the Fastest Internet?

Access to high speed internet is essential because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping people to stay fully connected with one another. However, some countries have managed to create vastly superior internet infrastructure, and this has allowed their citizens to enjoy a higher standard of living than might have been the case otherwise.

Cable.co.uk recently put out some data that revealed which country has the fastest speed of all. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Taiwan is the winner in this race with an average broadband speed of over 135 Mbps, or 135.88 to be precise. Taiwan is about twelve Mbps faster than the second country on this list, namely Japan. Japan’s average internet speed hovers at around the 122 Mbps mark, and several other countries are close at its heels.

One thing that many might notice about this list is that East Asian countries feature rather prominently with all things having been considered and taken into account. Singapore comes in fifth, with its 116 Mbps average speeds being quite close to those of other high speed internet countries. In spite of the fact that this is the case, the US and France surpass Singapore, with internet speeds of 118 and 120 Mbps respectively.

Unsurprisingly, a number of European countries have seen massive improvements in average internet speeds over the past few years. Spain, the Netherlands as well as Romania all have impressive internet speeds of 115.6, 113.98 and 112.39 Mbps respectively. Canada is somewhat short of its neighboring country, but this northern nation also has excellent speeds of around 106.8 on average.

Rounding out the top ten list is Hong Kong where the average speed is just above 100 Mbps, and that just goes to show that North America, Europe and East Asia are the world leaders when it comes to internet speeds. These are the parts of the world with the highest levels of human development, and their excellent internet speeds definitely have a role to play in that.

H/T: Statista.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Extreme Weather Increases Hateful Tweets by 22%, New Study Shows

Twitter can be a hub for obtaining useful information, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it also has a reputation for being a place where hateful rhetoric and aggressive interactions can run rampant. Scientists working at the Lancet Planetary Health recently conducted a study which revealed that temperatures in excess of 42 degrees Celsius can increase hateful tweets by as much as 22% with all things having been considered and taken into account.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that cold weather can also result in a similar uptick of hateful tweets. Temperatures that dip below the negative 3 degrees Celsius mark resulted in a 12% increase in the number of hateful tweets that users put out onto the platform. That suggests that extreme temperature of any variety can strongly impact the sentiments of people online, and it adds a new dimension to the risks that climate change currently poses to our planet.

It seems that temperatures in between 15 to 18 degrees Celsius resulted in the lowest proportion of hateful tweets, so this was used as a baseline for the study in question. Anything below 12 degrees or above 21 degrees resulted in an immediate increase, which is unsurprising because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up putting anyone on edge.

Interestingly, this trend remained consistent regardless of political affiliation, cultural background or economic position. That shows that this a global trend, one that will impact all members of our species equally for the most part.

However, social media platforms themselves have a role to play here. For example, Facebook was revealed to promote all kinds of hateful content in order to boost engagement. That is similar to adding fuel to the fire, so social media platforms should be held accountable for making matters worse. Hateful tweets can harm people in the real world, and they should be taken seriously lest the situation continues to spiral out of control and quickly spill out into people’s lives.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

TikTok Surpasses Facebook and Instagram Among British Users

The rise of TikTok has been nothing short of meteoric, and while the social media platform has faced controversies related to potentially harvesting data for the Chinese government, its popularity continues to increase unabated. For example, the British legislative assembly recently suspended its own TikTok account for fear of leaking sensitive data to a foreign power, but in spite of the fact that this is the case the citizens of the island nation have been using TikTok more and more frequently as of late.

TikTok is now the best performing social media platform out there in terms of average time spent by users, with British consumers spending an average of 49 minutes on it per day. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this has put it in the lead ahead of Facebook, whose average time spent fell to 43 minutes this year after reaching a high of 47 minutes in 2020.

TikTok has also turned into yet another competitor that is giving Snapchat a run for its money, turning into the third most popular social media platform in the UK after taking this position from Snapchat. Both Instagram and Snapchat have seen a muted rate of growth in terms of average user time spent, with both platforms being stuck at 29 and 25 minutes per day respectively.

It is estimated that the total number of British users who use TikTok will go up to 21.1 million by 2026, which would represent about half of all mobile users in the island nation. This is resulting in a whopping 192% increase in TikTok’s in app revenue from British users, and as it enters the social commerce arena this rate of revenue will have nowhere to go but up.

The UK is lagging behind in social commerce, which leaves TikTok well poised to introduce the concept to the market before its better established competitors such as Facebook and Instagram get the chance to. Britain is only behind China in terms of ecommerce adoption, and that creates the perfect storm for TikTok to make its entry.

H/T: InsiderIntelligence
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Amazon and Instagram Face Off For the Title of Most Popular Ad Environment

Different social media platforms and digital platforms can offer their own unique benefits to brands who are placing ads on their servers. TikTok has seen a huge increase in terms of user receptiveness to ads, but in spite of the fact that this is the case the success of this platform has been eclipsed by that of Amazon with all things having been considered and taken into account. Amazon is relatively new to the digital ad game, but that hasn’t stopped them from overtaking TikTok for the top spot.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that marketers tend to tell a different story as far as their preferred ad channels are concerned. The most popular platform for marketers turned out to be Instagram, although TikTok has seen tremendous growth to bring it into fourth place just behind YouTube and Google, as highlighted by Kantar.

This information comes from a series of surveys conducted across 29 markets which asked questions of over 18,000 consumers. It also involved surveys of 400 major brands which represent 90% of the digital ad spend that will be seen throughout 2022.

Surprisingly, Spotify has been making a name for itself as a great resource for digital ads as well. The music streaming platform has a very receptive audience, and that makes it an excellent option for marketers because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up bringing more eyes to their marketing campaigns.

Video based ads are the most preferred marketing channel for professionals in the industry, so it is rather surprising that Amazon managed to supplant TikTok and reach the highest position on this list. Interestingly, the platforms that have the highest level of user receptiveness are not automatically popular among marketers. That suggests that marketing professionals have a different metric for gauging the various platforms that they are placing ads on. Instagram might be the most user friendly digital ad channel for marketers to use, especially since it prioritizes video clips and images to such a great extent.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

This Influencer Ran a Crypto Scam to Educate Consumers

Crypto investments have been on the rise as of late, and that has resulted in a huge uptick in the number of scams that try to use them to trick people with all things having been considered and taken into account. An influencer by the name of FatMan Terra recently came under fire for trying to run a crypto scam of his own, but with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that the purpose of this scam was not to defraud people.

Rather, this scam was meant to educate consumers about the pitfalls of investing in crypto schemes that they have not yet done the requisite due diligence for. According to FatMan Terra, he recently saw a scam being run by a Twitter account under the name of Lady of Crypto. He used this as an opportunity to run a similar kind of scam, and this revealed just how little research people do before investing their money into the scams.

Just two hours after announcing his investment scheme, prior to revealing that it was not actually legitimate, the influencer managed to acquire around 5.45 bitcoin worth of investments from Twitter and Discord. These investments totaled around $100,000, and the speed at which the money came in showed that people are too gullible when investing in this space.

The basic premise of the argument that FatMan Terra was trying to make is that nobody is going to give you free money. Anyone that is claiming that they can do so is lying because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making it easier for them to defraud people.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, some are criticizing the influencer for attempting to take money in the first place. It remains to be seen whether this was an awareness campaign or a scam attempt gone awry, but the information that it has made clear is hard to dispute. Crypto scams are rife online, and consumers should be wary of them.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

8 Out of 10 Websites Will Leak Your Search Data to Google According to This Study

Cybersecurity is a top priority these days, and much of the focus in this arena goes towards mitigating the attempts of malicious actors to hack into user accounts and the like. In spite of the fact that this is the case, major websites are also contributing to the leaking of sensitive user information to online advertisers such as Google. Security experts at Norton Labs recently conducted a study that revealed that about 80% of top websites leak search terms to Google and other similar platforms.

These websites all possess a search bar because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing users to navigate their pages more efficiently. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that they often send the search terms that users put in to Google for the purposes of earning commissions through third party tracking which has become difficult through applications these days.

A lot of these websites claim that they inform users that their search data will be sold to advertising platforms, but this information is usually contained in the user policy which most people don’t end up reading. 81.3% of the search results that Norton researchers used ended up being referred to third parties, which might make it difficult for users to maintain control over their personal data.

Additionally, the user policies don’t specify what kind of data they will be sharing with third parties. They often use generic terms that will understate the sheer extent of data sharing that is occurring. This leads to a confusing system that the vast majority of users will face a lot of difficulties in parsing.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for the average internet user to maintain an appreciable amount of privacy in their digital lives, and websites that are collaborating with Google and other third parties are making matters worse. Users need to start blocking third party tracking from their browsers or consider switching to more privacy friendly browsers and search engines.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Telegram’s Revenue Massively Multiplies With Figures Doubling Each Month

For a while now, we’ve come across several different types of apps that have jumped on the bandwagon of paid tiers. Yes, they’re keener on making users pay for the services as compared to offering things for free.

The whole concept behind that idea is related to establishing a line of revenue that’s best aligned with users on the app and much less on advertisements.

There are no surprise guesses here as to which apps those may be. It began with Twitter around one year back, and then Snap decided to come through with the decision, closely followed by Telegram as well.

During the initial three months, we saw Telegram's revenue grow immensely, almost doubling on a monthly basis. And now, estimates for August mentioned how the revenue reached the million dollar mark on Apple’s App Store and even Google’s Play Store.

In total, that’s more than $800,000 linked to net revenue that the app will now cherish after giving a due share to both Google and Apple as their fixed cut fees.

For those wondering how, well, around 80% of the total arose from Apple’s App Store. And you might be shocked to learn that the majority of those paying hailed from Russia.

By August, estimates for the number of those subscribers who paid a price to attain the service was around 250,000 and it has increased from the initial value of 154,000 seen in July. Yikes, so much difference in just one month is beyond jaw-dropping.

All of this data is very interesting because many expected Twitter to experience something similar because its user base was much bigger. Hence, experts predicted the app to monetize like never before seen. But when we saw the firm’s MRR last month, it was not even close to such figures. Moreover, it didn’t even come close to being half.

See, the app’s revenue each month is half of the Telegram’s revenue last month. And considering the fact that Telegram’s paid subscriptions were only launched around three months back, well, this app must be doing something that’s paying off. What do you think?

We’ve got all of these statistics thanks to the App Intelligence website. They have really done a great job at comparing Twitter with Telegram and seeing how the estimated figures contrast with each other.

H/T: AF

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World