The company rounded out 2019 by announcing
a rebrand, following in the footsteps of Google
with its Alphabeat parent company. However,
rather than building a new brand to house
its apps and projects, Facebook’s new name
is Facebook - the parent company of social
networking apps and technology products
like Facebook Portal and Oculus Rift.
Outside of Facebook, it’s worth mentioning the
meteoric rise of Chinese social networking app
TikTok, a short-form video app that’s become
one of the most popular social platforms among
teens and Generation Z. Indeed, the app has
attracted more than a billion downloads around
the world and is currently one of the most
popular apps on the Apple App Store.
Finally, a quick word on Twitter. As well as
rolling out a new look on desktop and mobile
and introducing support for Dark Mode, the
company announced it was to ban all political
advertisements on the platform, a move many
have said is great news for democracy. Now,
Google and Facebook are in the hot seat to
do the same, but it’s unlikely that they will.
POLITICAL TENSIONS RISE
What nobody could have expected in 2019 was
the jaw-dropping stories to come out of the
US and China. Though sanctions now threaten
many industries, most agree that the battle
is over technology, with Donald Trump and
President Xi locking horns to win the ultimate
prize: global leadership. The US started the trade
war by targeting China’s hi-tech industries, with
half of the US$250 billion affecting high-tech
or high-end manufacturing businesses.