In Brazil and China consumers are spending the most on top games, report finds

When we hear gaming, the thing that generally comes to mind is a huge setup with 3 monitors RGB lights, and state-of-the-art CPUs, but what if we told you that Gaming isn’t necessarily all this extravaganza and at times all it needs is a good mobile phone and a working microphone.

Even though mobile gaming includes some of the biggest game franchises such as PUBG mobile and if we look at the global market then, it is very democratic. According to Data.ai’s intelligence, globally the games that come in the top ten constituted only 17% of the total market in mobile game consumer spending in the first half of 2022. In addition to that, 65% of the global market shares come from titles ranging from the ranks of 21 to 1000. This data gives us the idea that there is still hope for any newcomers in the market with lots of breathing space. While competition from other apps is still a huge factor it is not the one that decides the main value.

If we look at the regional results, they show that most of Europe and the United Kingdom also lean a bit towards the less popular games. As for the latter, the top games contribute only to 18%of the total consumer spending. This puts in the implication that for new and forthcoming titles there is a way to carve a place for them in the market shares despite them being out of the top 10.

However, in other places, there is a different story going on. In Brazil, 42% of the total consumer spending is in the top 10, and in China reaches 50%. If you are thinking of ever going into these markets some tools can help you overcome a lot of hurdles and correctly analyze and identify a lot of things.

But, hold on, if we talk about Sub-genres then it is not as hopeful looking as the regional ones. At the top is the Open World RPG and at the bottom is the Slot genre. In the Open World RPG genre, there is only one party up, Genshin Impact which leads with 100% consumer spending. On the other end, we are faced with Slots from where the top game only generates about 6% of consumer spending.

However, losing hope is not an option or even a possibility because there is a reason to be optimistic about both these two scenarios. As we said, the former is a very top-heavy market, and the con of this market is that when the users lose their interest in the given game or the hype dies down opportunity will automatically make its place in that particular market. As for the latter, it is the same a more dispersed market will lead to further and better opportunities for newer games to cement their place in the market.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google Lens Will Now Allow Users To Conduct Image Search Via Google’ Search Engine

Google Lens has a new shortcut for Android users via which said individuals can directly access Image Search.

Google Lens is the hip image recognition technology of the future. More accurately, it will be once all the kinks are ironed out, but there’s already been a lot of headway made into its features and inner workings. The feature that first brought Lens to my attention, and by far my favorite addition to it, is its ability to translate languages via text, which enables users to read signs, menus, and the like in foreign countries. All of this boils down to Lens as an app having surprisingly good image recognition technology backing it up, which Google keeps updating on the flip. With a deep learning algorithm to boot, Lens is the app that keeps on updating itself and gets better with age. Well, we certainly hope at least, and we also hope that said AI decides to stop before Skynet enters the picture. At any rate, Lens isn’t the only image recognition technology that Google has employed in its history.

The Google Search engine allows users the ability to conduct image searches; all an individual has to do is drag a certain image into the search bar, and the engine in turn will pull up similar images and relay them to the users. It’s a feature that’s incredibly useful in tracing the origins of certain images, or even for recognizing stuff that people may not know by name or any other significant keywords. We do, after all, rely on sight more than most other senses as a species. Of course, when a technological giant has two features that rely heavily on image recognition technology that it has painstakingly worked on, what’s the next best step? Combining them, of course, or at least if the likes of Marvel Studios are to be trusted.

That’s exactly what Google did with a recent update of Lens as well. Users who recently opened the app may have found a new icon on the bottom right corner of their in-app cameras, which appears in the form of a typical magnifying glass. Clicking on it will allow users to conduct an image search on whichever image they were currently analyzing. It’s a simple way of easily accessing the Google feature, and adds yet another tool to Lens’ burgeoning arsenal.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

The Reports Signal Malware drawback in the Zoom Websites

People around the globe have relied heavily on the Zoom meetings feature during the pandemic. It is deemed to be the most trusted app while working from home. However, the sources have warned people from downloading the legitimate version of Zoom meetings.

Multiple criminal gangs are making fake versions of the app to download their IP address and steal banking data with other information. The problem could lead you to download nasty viruses and malware into phones and laptops.

Threat Researchers at Cybersecurity firm Cyble have found six fake zoom sites. These sites have instilled viruses to download all the personal information from your laptops and give access to third-party. The info-stealing virus and other malware variants have been installed to target potential operators of Zoom.

One of the criminal gangs has been unleashed by the Cyble Research and Intelligence Lab (CRIL). Vidar stealer malware can steal banking information, passwords, browser history, IP address, cryptocurrency wallet access, and MFA information. The hacking of the system will later provide the necessary initial access to the stealer.

The researchers have observed that these sites run campaigns to spread information. Furthermore, after gaining access to the private documents of the victim, they sold them to the cybercrime marketplace. The Stealer log has access to breached compromised endpoints.

Whereas, Zoom gained popularity during the pandemic. A wide range of operators has downloaded the app to connect with their colleagues and family members. It has become easier for hackers to prey on broad operators of Zoom. The number of operators has skyrocketed in the past few years.

Zoom reported 204,100 enterprise customers and an 18% increase year by year. The company has also seen a revenue boost, almost reaching $1.1 billion, an 8% jump over the same year. The news has spread all over the world in a short period.

Therefore, the attackers get activated and start targeting the users. The researchers have exposed the six sites uncovered zoom-download[.]host; zoom-download[.]space, zoom-download[.]fun, zoomus[.]host, zoomus[.]tech, and zoomus[.]website. The Register said that they are still operational.

Furthermore, after downloading one of these links, the operator would be redirected to GitHub URL to show options for which application to download. If the user chooses the malicious one, it offers two binaries–ZOOM IN-1. EXE and Decoder. exe—into the temporary folder. The malware also installed itself into MSBuild.exe, which automatically accesses the IP address and fetches configuration data.

Cyble wrote that these threat actors have overlapping Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures with Vidar Stealer. The malware astutely hides the error in the Telegram description. It also hides the IP address of its command and control (C&C) server.

Checking twice where you're obtaining your Zoom programs from is the greatest approach to avoid this infection.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

New Report Shares The Mind-Blowing Amount of Data Swirling On The Internet In One Minute

If we told you to accurately guess the correct amount of data that swirls around on the web in just one minute, we bet you’d go crazy. Yes, that’s just how mind-blowingly large the figure can be, and it’s actually dizzying, to say the least.

Take a moment and shut your eyes while standing still. If you feel a whirlwind of something making swirls around you, then you guessed it, it’s the data of this world. We are not telling you this to scare you but data is everywhere. Not only is it picking up the pace, but it’s also taking up the space located in each nook and corner of a room. And thanks to Domo, we’re getting more information for its 2022 report linked to how Data really never sleeps.

This particular report is analyzing just how much data can be found on the web in one minute. And in case you happen to be scared of communication, it’s best to steer clear of this next finding.

On average, in just one minute, we’re seeing nearly 16 million messages released via texts and around 232 million emails sent out. How’s that for some mind-boggling news?

Then let’s move on to social media and see how much data is really shared. For instance, through Facebook, users are sharing around 1.7 million types of content, whereas nearly 348,000 tweets are released.

Coming to Instagram, we’re seeing around 66,000 images be filled up on user feeds and then about 2.4 million Snaps appear on the Snapchat app. Then we’ve got eager daters coming forward and swiping left and right 1 million times. As far as funds are considered, users are using Venmo to generate hundreds of thousands of transfers while $90 million worth of crypto is bought in one second. And lastly, people are somehow spending a total of 104,000 hours across Zoom.

Yes, that’s the world of data on the internet and it’s mind-blowing!

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

WhatsApp Is Currently Working On Adding Voice Messages To A User’s Status Updates

I’m honestly sort of intrigued by the thought process that went on behind such a feature and its implementation. Were the developers at any point thinking of social media platforms such as Clubhouse, or the heavy push that Twitter has been driving towards Spaces? I’m not saying that anything audio-based on a social media site has to be influenced by such, but I would find it just a little bit funny if WhatsApp and its developers decided to jump onto a bandwagon that’s very well on its way to breaking down at the side of the road. The clubhouse isn’t doing as well as it was in its heyday, with dwindling active users owing to both the feature’s novelty wearing off combined with an unfortunate number of supremacists and white power sympathizers joining the platform. Spaces are doing worse since no one wants Twitter, but with a podcast, add-on attached. In all honesty, we as a society probably went down the wrong road the literal second that podcasts become this commercialized.

At any rate, WhatsApp’s audio statuses don’t seem to be as inspired by Clubhouse since they’re not live and are probably limited to some extent by time constraints. Rarely do individuals record voice messages on the messaging social media platform that last literal hours; allow me to also mention that this is not a concrete statement, as I’m sure at least one individual out there has tried this. Coming back to the point, this is essentially what the new feature is: voice messages can now be added to one’s status. This new addition has been identified by WABetaInfo as a part of the 2.22.21.5 update but was first heard of in the earlier 2.22.16.3 update. However, there was no interface provided, so I’m counting the former update as its first official sighting.

Since the feature is currently under development, users can’t freely access the beta either. WAB did, however, get their hands on the current iteration, and the interface isn’t anything particularly new. It entirely utilizes the text-based status update screen, and simply adds a button for voice recording at the bottom. Much like a typical WhatsApp voice message, all one has to do to record is press on it and start speaking. However, since the feature is currently under development with no release date on site, the result may end up looking markedly different than what we have on our hands.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

85% of Islamophobic Tweets Came From India, US and UK According to This Report

Twitter can be a great place for staying up to date in the goings on around the world, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it has also become a bit of a hub for extremist ideas. Radicals of various origins turn to Twitter to spout their ideologies because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making them more widespread, and Islamophobia is becoming a particularly notorious issue on that front.

According to a study conducted by the Islamic Council of Victoria, around 85% of posts that are inciting hatred towards Muslim communities across the globe come from three nations, namely India, the US as well as the UK. India is the recipient of the dubious honor of most Islamophobic country on Twitter, with over 870,000 hateful tweets coming from that nation in just two years. The US came in second with 289,000, followed by the UK with 196,000.

Much of the rise of Islamophobia in India can be attributed to the ruling BJP political party, which has been known for using anti-Muslim rhetoric to gain power. The BJP has also collaborated quite openly with various extremist Hindu organizations and helped to further their agenda, such as the Hindu nationalist organization known as the RSS.

As for the US, Islamophobia became a major issue there in the fallout of the pandemic. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the rise of Donald Trump to the presidency made matters much worse than they already were. Much like Narendra Modi of the BJP, Trump used inflammatory rhetoric to drum up votes, and members of the Muslim community were among his most popular targets with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Moving on to the UK, this nation has seen a similar rise in its staunch 21st century Islamophobia in the nationalist environment of the Post Brexit landscape. Recently ousted Boris Johnson also contributed to this with his casual racism, although he did not take as much of a heavy handed approach as his counterpart across the Atlantic.

While the people that make these hateful posts should be held accountable, Twitter also shares some of the responsibility for not doing as much as it could have. The ICV noted 3.75 million posts of an Islamophibic nature between 2019 and 2021. Less than 15% of these posts, or 14.8% to be precise, were removed. That means that 85% of them are still up for the world to see, so clearly Twitter is failing to mitigate the rising tide of Islamophobia on its website.

Additionally, the organization conducting this research noted that only 3% of tweets that were flagged as Islamophobic ended up being removed. That is making the problem worse than might have been the case otherwise, and Twitter needs to step up otherwise it will become a hostile environment to an already beleaguered and disadvantaged Muslim population. Conspiracy theories, calls to violence and numerous other types of Islamophobia abound on the platform, and this problem will continue to worsen if Twitter doesn’t take action.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Users Don’t Trust Social Media Platforms Anymore According to New Study

Trust is the name of the game as far as social platforms are concerned, and a consumer will only be able to experience a fair amount of digital trust if they are sure that their social media platform of choice will protect their data and secure their content online. In spite of the fact that this is the case, it seems that social media platforms are failing to meet the needs of their consumers. The sixth iteration of Insider Intelligence’s annual survey sheds some light on this issue.

This survey was conducted between the months of May and June in 2022, and it involve asking questions of around 2,225 adults who are based in the US. All of these users were between the ages of 18 and 75, so they represent the vast majority of the population of the US. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that trust in social media platforms has plummeted in the past three years.

Facebook is the worst offender here. Back in 2020, around 30% of Facebook users felt that they could trust the platform. That has now dropped to just 18%, which just goes to show how untrustworthy Facebook has become with all things having been considered and taken into account. However, Facebook is not the only social media platform that has seen a decline in how much trust users place in it.

The second least trusted platform turned out to be Twitter, with just 23% of respondents saying that they felt that they could trust this social media company. That has gone down from a relatively stable 40% in 2019, so Twitter is also seeing a similar drop in trustworthiness and in fact its decline in these numbers has been even more drastic than that of Facebook.

The rising social media star that is TikTok is also facing a lot of issues on this front. In the year of 2020, approximately 41% of TikTok users said that they could trust the platform. This has now fallen to just 24% by 2022.

Moving on to Instagram, this social media company is not giving Meta any relief. Only 25% of Instagram users say that they placed trust in the platform which is down from 41%. Interestingly, slightly more users trust Instagram than TikTok, and that might impact the growth rate of the Chinese app moving forward.

What all of this suggests is that user trust in social media platforms is at an all time low. They can no longer afford to ignore this issue, although some like Facebook will definitely try to act like there is no problem in the first place.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World