THE BIG STORY

Meta's Race to Build a Twitter Rival

Meta, a company in crisis, went back to basics to deliver its answer to Twitter. Over seven months, a lean, engineer-heavy team of fewer than 60 people hacked together a bare-bones app on a breakneck timetable more reminiscent of a startup than an entrenched tech giant, the Washington Post reports. Threads became one of the most successful app launches ever.

But Threads' long-term success is not guaranteed. Its daily active user count has dropped by around 70 percent since going live on July 5, and downloads have slowed significantly. But Threads' strengths should not be discounted: 117 million people have created a Threads profile, Social Media Today reports, which equals almost half of Twitter’s active user base.

This week, Threads received another round of updates, features that further leveling the playing field with Twitter.

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ANALYTICS

How Data Fuels Netflix's Success

The proprietary technology that Netflix uses to gather and analyze data remains key to the company’s success, the Wall Street Journal reports. Its ability to use data, including detailed information on every piece of content a user has ever engaged with, has helped it retain subscribers with original content, without breaking the bank.

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TECHNOLOGY

The War and Ukraine’s Tech Boom

At least one sector of Ukraine’s is thriving a year and a half into its war against Russia: tech. The war conditions have proven to be a valuable testing site for domestic and foreign technology, Semafor reports.

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DESIGN

Spatial UI’s Creative Possibilities

Spatial user interface is a type of UI design that leverages spatial and immersive technologies to enable users to interact with digital content in a three-dimensional space. Designers worldwide are captivated by the potential of spatial UI, and they’re eager to explore its creative possibilities, Renee Fleck writes on Dribbble.

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SPONSORED

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QUICK HITS

• In one of the year's largest private equity deals, Francisco Partners and TPG this week announced plans to take software observability company New Relic private for $6.5 billion.
• A new report from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for A.I. Safety spotlights how anyone can circumvent AI safety measures and use any of the leading chatbots to generate harmful information.
• For the first time in its history, Uber this week reported a quarterly operating profit, boosted by a 22 percent increase in trips on the platform.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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"If you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We're not there yet."

—Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, on the sharp decline in Threads users soon after its launch

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