What’s the Most Innovative Country in the World? Hint: It’s Not the US

With research and development spending tripling in the past 20 years to reach the staggering sum of $2.4 trillion, it has become clear that countries are emphasizing innovation in whatever way they truly can. The US used to be the global leader in innovation spending back in the 1960s, comprising 70% of global R&D spending in that era.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, many other countries have entered the fray thereby reducing America’s share to just 30%. The UN just put out its innovation index which assigned a score to various countries based on 7 pertinent factors.

The first of these categories was Business Sophistication, which gauged how much foreign investment a country received as well as its own spending on business related R&D. Second was Market Sophistication which factored in how big a country’s GDP was as well as the level of competition in its market.

Infrastructure was yet another factor, as was Human Capital which measured the quality of the research institutions as well as government spending per student. The ease of doing business, creative output as well as knowledge and tech output rounded off the list.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Switzerland topped the list with a score of 64.6. That might come as a surprise, but Switzerland has topped the list for the past twelve years thanks to its world class IP laws as well as strong links between academic institutions and industrial ones.

The US missed out on the top spot despite R&D spending in excess of $700 billion and four out of the five highest R&D spenders being located there. It still managed to reach number 2, with a score of 61.8.

• Also read: Study reveals the most innovative U.S cities of 2022

Sweden came in at a close third with 61.6, followed by the UK with 59.7. The Netherlands rounded off the top five with 58. Following the Netherlands we had the highest scoring country from Asia, namely South Korea, with a score of 57.8. Singapore was not far behind with 57.3, confirming that these two nations are driving much of the innovation outside of Europe and the US. Germany, Finland and Denmark rounded off the top ten with scores of 57.2, 56.9 and 55.9 respectively.

Zeroing in on South America, one might assume that Brazil would be the most innovative country in that region. However, Brazil’s score of 32.5 was surpass by Chile’s 34. Chile has a huge tech industry of 8,000 companies which is useful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up driving a lot of innovation. The least innovative country in South American turned out to be Ecuador.

Moving on to the Middle East and Central Asia, Israel managed to reach the top spot with an impressive score of 50.2. That is thanks in no small part to 5% of its GDP being focused on R&D, the highest proportion out of any country in the world. Kuwait performed dismally despite being wealthy, with a paltry score of just 9 which put it at the bottom of the rankings.

H/T: VisualCapitalist

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

New Study Proves Consumers Are Ready To Embrace The Metaverse But Have Concerns

A new report is shedding light on the metaverse and how much consumers are willing to welcome it with open arms.

According to the statistics highlighted in this study, 66% feel comfortable calling it out as an effective means of communication with the brand’s customer service. One of the major concerns was safety when you take another recent report into consideration from Telus International.

Around 45% of the shoppers feel brands are ready to allow for content moderation in the platform to keep users safe. And about 67% claim that the failure of the platform to be a safe space would really cause an impact on the company’s reputation.

On the other hand, around 16% of individuals are talking about the metaverse providing the best customer service out there and they really hope it adds a new sense of personalized interactions with different brands involved.

Other than that, 53% of such interactions on the metaverse would be more engaging than that seen in person when dealing with brands on a more personal level. A mere 50% of people feel it would be more customized as per their likes and interests. At the same time, 47% of people claim that the metaverse would assist them in discovering new products that they weren’t aware of in the past.

In other words, a new finding did go on detailing this point where Telus pointed out how 86% of consumers were consulting online reviews, right before making a purchase. Out of this, Google is leading the pack at 60% versus other platforms such as Youtube which stood at 43%, and Facebook at 36%.

Of those people who were actually surveyed, 64% were linked to having personalized CX over a single one that took less time. And if they really did end up obtaining customer service in a single way for the end of their lifetime, around half of the people studied would use communication through the phone more than anything else.

It’s so important that brands begin to take notice of all this. Around 60% of Shoppers would prefer to sit inside a traffic jam than have to deal with matters related to poor customer service or experiences.

For this particular survey, we saw Telus embarking on an international poll comprising 5500 American consumers in four different surveys.

Read next: Study reveals the most innovative U.S cities of 2022
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Updates Its Search Quality Rater Guidelines In An Extensive Manner

Google has really taken a bold step by updating its search quality rater guidelines in a really big manner.

For those who might be aware, the initials happened to be E-A-T in the past but now, it’s getting a new E addition to that which represents experience right after the term expertise, and then the likes of authoritativeness, and trustworthiness as seen in the past.

The app has mentioned how trust is pivotal or the most crucial aspect among them all. And with the addition of the new element of E, we can see the document getting bigger by almost 9 pages so it’s a staggering 176 pages, slowly increasing over the years.

But what exactly changed in this document is a question that many people are wondering. And most of it was related to the last page of this revised PDF that highlights the changes.

Google mentioned how the Double-E-A-T feature is the most notable as delineated above where experience counts. In the same way, we saw the company broadly refresh some concepts and even rated criteria in the document’s part 1. It’s mostly applicable to various kinds of web pages and models for creating content.

Google similarly has made some huge clarifications on terms like ‘Findings whose responsible for the webpage and who is the creator of this page’ on a number of website types. At the same time, we’re seeing a new summary table that has the ‘Page Quality Considerations’included in PQ ratings that carry through to every section.

More guidance was similarly added to the likes of core pillars and their respective ratings such as main quality, the reputation for webpages and content creators, and the E-E-A-T aspect. The ratings on the PQ section had been sequenced again, starting from the lowest to the highest and such sections became streamlined too.

Google has really gone on about how the experience was required in this document as it adds a whole new level of quality for assessing the search results. But what is this search engine looking for in terms of such an experience?

Google highlighted that it’s all about the content being produced in a manner that shows some kind of experience. For instance, it could be linked to the product’s actual use or connecting with a person that is on the experienced end of the spectrum.

The best example provided by the search engine giant was when there’s the content linked to how to appropriately fill out a form entailing tax returns. It’s a situation where a user would prefer having information produced by experts in this accounting field. And the same would be the case for others situations.

In case you’re wondering, how does the term experience differ from the likes of expertise? Well, pages do end up sharing first-hand life experiences regarding topics and it could be deemed to have a higher E-E-A-T provided the content being spoken about is safe and consistent and has expert consensus.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Infographic: Smartphone Market Activity Trends For Q3 Of 2022

The Market Monitor Report for Q3 of 2022 has been published by CounterPointResearch and it’s talking about the happening trends observed in the world of smartphones during this period. For those who may not be aware, it’s a summary of the smartphone market activities taking place and we’ve outlined the few observations made so far.

For starters, the global market for smartphones underwent a decline of 12% YoY but it grew 3% when compared to the previous quarter. The only tech brand for smartphones that grew from the previous year was Apple.

On the other hand, it was Samsung who really witnessed a dramatic decline by nearly 7% since the last year in Q3 of this year. And that’s even if shares remained constant from the previous quarter.

Both OPPO and Vivo managed to strike it big and continued to produce results that arose in double digits but still, a YoY decline was witnessed in terms of shipments. Meanwhile, the Asia Pacific is known for contributing just 52% in terms of the smartphone market and that’s followed by the European continent which currently has a 14% share.

As far as the global smartphone shipments’ market share is concerned, Samsung held the lead at 21% followed by Apple at 16%. In third place was Xiaomi at 13% and then Oppo at 10%, Vivo at 9%, and the tail-ending position went to HONOR.

The market size stood at 302 million and then a growth of 3% was seen when compared to Q2 of 2022. As far as which region dominates the market for smartphones, no surprises here. It was definitely the Asia Pacific that contributes more than 50% of the shares, followed by Europe which claimed 14%.

So overall, not too bad considering the uncertain economic situation around the globe that has been at the center of attention as there was growth from the previous quarter.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Despite His Flaws, Elon Musk Has One Good Management Trick Up His Sleeve

Few public figures are capturing as much controversy as Elon Musk these days. The Tesla owner made waves after acquiring Twitter for three times its actual worth, and he has come under fire repeatedly for his exploitative labor practices as well as his confrontational and controlling management style. In spite of the fact that this is the case, Musk may have a single nugget of wisdom that may help managers to better handle their affairs.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Musk recently sent out a Thanksgiving email to all of his employees in which he made a surprisingly pertinent point. In this email, he stated that managers need to be able to know how to code because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping them better assess their employee’s performance.

It is quite common for managers to only focus on the administrative aspects of their role. This often leaves them without much knowledge about the work that their employees are supposed to do. The distance between managers and employees is growing at a startling rate, and this can lead to managers making unreasonable demands of the people that they are responsible for with all things having been considered and taken into account.

It is quite ironic that such statements are coming from Elon Musk, given that he is in many ways the archetypal out of touch manager. He asks his employees to work many times more than their contracts require, and this is frequently criticized for being a bad way to do business. Workers have a limited amount of mental fortitude at their disposal. While making them work all night long may seem like it would improve productivity, in reality it only leads to employee burnout and completion times that are longer than might have been the case otherwise.

Regardless, Musks’s statement addresses a massive issue with current management culture. This paradigm needs to shift, and requiring managers to know the work can help with that.

Musk at a SpaceX demonstration / Public Domain

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Researchers Claim Video Game Addiction Leads To Poor Psychological Performance

The world of video games is a popular activity for many users around the globe. But did you know the hazards that come with an addiction linked to the ordeal?

Well, most of us aren’t even aware of the fact that we could be addicted to video games or the risks that are attached. But thanks to a new study published, the world is gaining more knowledge on the matter.

Common effects include poor psychological performance like the inability to regulate emotions correctly and even response inhibition in some cases. And that’s just the start of indicators for risks of gaming disorders out there today.

As with any other activity, overuse or overindulgence comes with its fair share of drawbacks and serious impacts. Online gaming disorders were included in the recent manual published linked to mental disorders. It spoke about uncontrollable gaming which really affects an individual’s ability to engage in the social world, carry out daily functions, or even study appropriately.

The study even goes as far as understanding some striking differences in mental performance among individuals at high or low risk for the disorder.

This particular research comes to us by Shuai Wang and respective colleagues who included 57 high-risk individuals for gaming disorders and 52 low-risk ones in their sample size. The samples were mostly males and there were specific criteria for inclusion and exclusion. Moreover, the samples were asked questions regarding demographics, intelligence, impulsiveness, and response inhibition through means like eye-tracking.

The results proved how those with a higher risk for internet gaming disorders had lower emotional regulation, scored low on tasks linked to eye tracking, and had higher impulsiveness too. Moreover, those at high risk also proved to have greater game usage than those at a lower risk.

The reason why this study is being hailed is linked to the fact that it carefully evaluated the huge differences between people that were at a higher risk and those who were not for the online gaming disorder. Keeping all of this in mind, there are a few limitations worth noticing that the researchers face and outline in the end.

One of them had to do with the fact that the risk for the condition was measured through a scale administered at a single point in time. And that may lead to issues of bias and not provide a proper picture of gaming usage. In addition to that, the sample size was quite small and skewed as it entailed mostly males.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Musk Reaches Out To Investors For Twitter At Similar Price He Paid To Make Company Private

In what is being termed as a surprise turn of events, new Twitter chief Elon Musk is seeking investors at a similar price that he paid while acquiring the firm.

In case you didn’t know, so many investors have fled the company after they glanced over Elon Musk’s decisions to moderate content on the app and police various tweets.

The news comes to us as the company’s managing director is seeking new investors as mentioned by two people who are close to this effort for fundraising.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s manager has opted to set out an offer for shares at the price worth $52 which is the same that the Tesla CEO paid out when making the company private in October of this year.

For now, both Musk and Twitter didn’t exactly respond to requests for comments on the matter but it’s definitely a prospect that they hope to achieve success with soon.

At the start of this week, Musk was seen selling out shares for his own firm on the app and that is what made it $40 billion in total for shares sold in 2022 by Tesla. If we look at previous statistics, it’s actually the second biggest chunk of shares Musk has made since he bought the Twitter app. And it’s surprising, to say the least as the billionaire vowed that the wouldn’t be selling any more shares.

In the meantime, it was interesting as we witnessed the app’s advertisers walk away as so many feared the fate of this application in terms of Musk’s policing strategy. That certainly affected revenues and the ability to pay out interest on this mega $13 billion debt that Musk took to purchase this social media firm.

On the other hand, one of the app’s investors mentioned boldly how he did put out $1 million in the original investment made when Twitter was purchased. His name is Ross Gerber and now, he’s been contacted again as reported by Semafor.

In other news, after banning and reinstating some influencers and journalist accounts, the billionaire issued an apology by tweeting that "Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes."

Elon Musk is also looking for people's opinion on should he step down as head of Twitter? For now over 12 million users have participated in the poll and 56.4% want him to step down as Twitter's CEO, while only 43.6 percent still want him to be Twitter's Chief.

Read next: Have Opinions on Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Changed?

by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World