Tech Wire Asia spoke to Niko Walraven, Neat’s Area Vice President for APAC, about the impact videoconferencing has had on the region and Neat’s plan to take things one step further.

TWA: What do APAC businesses typically look to achieve with meeting technology?

NW: “It’s a different playing field in different countries –Japan is very different from Australia, which again is very different from India. Each country has its own unique properties and unique ways of conducting meetings.

“Going back, let’s say, five or ten years, during video meetings, users would ask things like ‘Hello, can you hear me?’, ‘Can you see me?’. But, when Microsoft came out with Teams and Zoom came out with Zoom Rooms, everything became much easier. Then COVID happened, and that changed the dynamic from simply meetings to collaboration. The question, besides, ‘Can you hear and see me?’, then became ‘Can you see my content?’, and people started to work together on the shared documents. Now, as Microsoft Teams and Zoom have matured, we got that sorted as well.

“Today, the question is about meeting equity. Say I have a team of people around me in the same room, and we’re all discussing things with each other. How do we make sure that the remote attendees over video don’t feel like they are separated from the discussion? We’re trying to solve this with technology as much as we can. Body language and facial expression can be more important than our voices. Neat focuses on technology that brings out the full spectrum of how we as humans communicate and work together. No matter the customer and what they want to achieve with their meeting technology, simplicity and the ability to communicate naturally are key.”

TWA: [How is remote or hybrid work impacting the use of video conferencing technology in APAC? What are the main reasons businesses are adopting conferencing solutions?]

NW: “In Asia, a lot of organisations we work with have brought their staff back in the office at least four or five days a week, and the whole COVID discussion is gone. Therefore, talent is very concentrated in the main cities, so the technology is primarily used for communicating with subsidiaries or external contacts.

“In places like Australia, the situation is similar to the US and the UK with a hybrid model, combining work from home or in the office. There, the technology is really being used to connect people from different locations. For example, great talent could be based in Perth or Cairns, so how do you bring all these people into your organisation so that everybody can perform and feel part of a team? Technology helps to solve that problem.

“From a global perspective, Neat itself is a great example. We started this company with very talented people in 2019 and have grown with a mostly remote workforce. Bringing the development team in Oslo and the sales and marketing teams in Europe, USA and APAC together can only be done over video.“

TWA: [AI is a major consideration for businesses around the world. What do you see as the impact on AI in collaboration for businesses in APAC?]

NW: “There is so much going on in artificial intelligence (AI) at this point, which is why it is amazing to get in this now, compared to last year. We are getting so close to where AI simplifies technology even more and brings people much closer together.

“Products are evolving pretty fast, and AI makes them evolve even faster. For instance, in the Neat Center, which will be out soon, there is a lot of AI trying to understand simple things. For example, in a multiple-screen videoconferencing solution – the remote attendee is visible on one screen, their content on another screen and the in-person attendees could be on another screen.

“The Neat center has three cameras that take a 360 view from the table in the middle of the room. It shoots people from the front regardless of whether they look at each other across the table or face the screen in front of the room. The strength of Neat is to make this as simple as possible. AI built into Neat Center identifies the people in the room and shows them just once on the screen. Every screen or room layout is different. We feed a lot of room configurations to the AI to learn and understand who should be shown and who should not in the meeting.

“Another example is with framing things properly. I can walk around, sit down and stand up, all while staying clearly in the camera frame. It also ensures that the colleagues next to me are also in the frame and visible in the same way as me, so we get equity.”

TWA: How do you see the role of AI in shaping the future of workspaces in the APAC market?

NW: “The discussion around AI is very focused on handling repetitive tasks so that employees can focus on creative solutions, complex problem-solving, and be more impactful with their work.

“The way that applies to videoconferencing is taking the complexity away so you can communicate and collaborate freely without having to think too much about the technology itself. That is the hardware perspective. Our focus at Neat is thinking about how you incorporate artificial intelligence into the hardware itself. You always have the base layer of the hardware that helps the software become smarter; they go hand in hand.

“On top of this, Microsoft and Zoom have a big role to play in how we incorporate AI in our devices. We work very closely with these two really large providers to make a Zoom meeting or Teams meeting on a Neat device better and smarter, which sets us apart.”

To find out how Neat devices can enable hybrid work for all types of workspaces in your offices, take a virtual tour of ‘The Modern Office’ today or visit the website.

The post Meeting equity in 2024: Overcoming challenges through videoconferencing innovation appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Transmedia storytelling is a narrative approach that tells a story across multiple platforms and media formats. It enables creators to craft more complex and immersive stories, exemplified by multiplayer games like Shrapnel. Players increasingly crave these storytelling experiences, which allow them to engage with the stories on a deeper level.

Tech Wire Asia had the opportunity to interview Marc Mercuri, chief blockchain officer at Shrapnel, for deeper insights into how transmedia storytelling extends gaming across various media platforms.

In transmedia storytelling, creators enhance experiences by allowing audiences to interact with the stories through diverse media, such as comic books or short films.

Mercuri notes that digital distribution has simplified and economized this process for Shrapnel. “Our comic books, for instance, are available in print, but we also release them as NFTs and give them out as awards. This has been a great way for audiences to connect with the content,” he added.

Shrapnel‘s innovative approach in game development and storytelling

Shrapnel‘s foray into short films, including live-action ones, has seen widespread distribution. These films have been well-received, garnering attention at film festivals and winning awards. They offer a unique opportunity to tell diverse stories within the game’s world.

Generally, the title alone excites people about games. Allowing them to further explore and engage with the game world enhances this engagement. Mercuri points out that Fortnite‘s collaboration with DC Comics featuring Batman, and Call of Duty‘s similar approach, exemplify this.

Mercuri elaborates on the lasting impact of transmedia storytelling, stating that it authentically creates awareness and attracts players more effectively than paid promotions. It fosters a deeper connection between players, the game world, and its characters, especially in first-person shooters like Shrapnel. The more players understand the game world, the more connected they feel to their characters.

“With so many things competing for our time these days, entry points vary,” Mercuri says. “You might have time to read a comic book on a flight, or watch a video while on the subway. These moments allow us to digest different aspects of stories and feel more connected to that world. Just like the games have to be fun, the stories must be engaging.”

He emphasizes that mediocre storytelling or game development won’t forge a strong connection with players. In fact, we’ve seen the cross-media narratives’ impact with Halo‘s novelizations and series by Paramount as examples of how expanded storytelling brings players closer to the game world. Assassin’s Creed‘s expansion through movies and films has similarly created engaging stories that captivate audiences.

“Moving away from that gaming genre to something like Pokémon, you’ll find an array of transmedia efforts, including great movies featuring Ryan Reynolds. In contrast, with manga, they got comics, collectibles, and cosplay,” he adds.

This approach has successfully created rich, immersive worlds for fans to explore beyond the game, allowing them to engage fully with characters and stories.

Challenges and opportunities in developing Shrapnel‘s gaming universe

For developers, however, this model presents unique challenges. Mercuri acknowledges the difficulty in managing a complex story across multiple platforms. While keeping track of different story threads is challenging, the goal is to unite them cohesively. Each story element must be accessible and contribute uniquely to the overarching narrative.

Mercuri cites game designer Neil Young’s term “additive comprehension,” which describes how each new piece of information reshapes our understanding of the fiction. Whether consumed together or separately, each element should provide a fulfilling experience, deepening the connection to the world.

Shrapnel integrates transmedia storytelling across different platforms, which presents a unique challenge. As a multiplayer first-person shooter game, Shrapnel inherently has limited opportunities to narrate its story within the game itself.

“Therefore, we’ve produced a series of comics and a collection of live-action video shorts. These pieces explore the origins of its world and the backstories of its factions and characters,” he explained. “We shot the videos on a virtual production stage, similar to the techniques used in shows like The Mandalorian.”

Mercuri believes Shrapnel is pioneering in using actual game assets and the Unreal Engine for production. The game’s assets are brought into the production, blending the characters’ on-stage actions with the game’s world displayed on the screen. It’s not just an approximation of the game; it is the game, which is an innovative approach.

Using blockchain technology in the new era of first-person shooter games

Shrapnel‘s use of blockchain technology in creating the world’s first blockchain-powered transmedia first-person shooter game is notable. Mercuri shared insights into how this integration plays a crucial role in the company’s strategy.

In Shrapnel‘s near-term future setting, asteroid mining is common. As many sci-fi narratives suggest, things often go wrong. A collision with the moon has led to asteroids, termed ‘Shrapnel,’ raining down on Earth. This event has given rise to ‘sacrifice zones’ where a unique material called sigma is found. People venture into these zones to collect sigma and sell it to interested families.

Shrapnel‘s game uses blockchain primarily to empower creators. Players can create and sell stickers, skins, and other items for characters and weapons within their profiles.

“We’ve enabled the combination and remixing of these assets, termed ‘Insignias,'” Mercuri said. “If someone creates something exceptional from our work, we can also benefit from it. Our goal is to have assets that can be created, sold, and include embedded royalties to compensate the creators.”

He discussed another common scenario where players purchase various in-game items. Typically, these assets are non-transferable, locked within the game. Some players even resort to selling their accounts. However, in Shrapnel, players have complete ownership of their assets, allowing for free trading.

Shrapnel‘s assets are designed to be ‘bridgeable,’ meaning they can be transferred across different blockchains. This flexibility is vital, as players may choose to use their assets on other chains, possibly as collateral for loans. Shrapnel incorporates innovative blockchain features to support this functionality, something which has not been available in new first-person shooter games before.

Additionally, Shrapnel is developing the GameBridge platform, which aims to simplify blockchain item composability and interoperability. This platform allows the integration of Shrapnel‘s features into other platforms. “The game world we’ve created incorporates elements of finance, commerce, manufacturing, and supply chain management. Despite this complexity, the blockchain component is seamless and unobtrusive to the gaming experience,” Mercuri emphasized, comparing it to the unnoticed TCPIP protocol in multiplayer games.

A unique feature of Shrapnel‘s game is its extraction shooter format, where the stakes are real. Players can create, trade, and in-game, claim items from other players. Successfully extracting these items allows players to keep, sell, or trade them, adding a thrilling layer to the gameplay.

Data security is always a factor for any new first-person shooter games

In the context of data security and user privacy, balancing innovative technology like blockchain with the imperative of safeguarding user data is crucial.

Mercuri reflects on the importance of trust, noting that it takes a lifetime to earn but only a moment to lose. Treating privacy and security as paramount is essential, particularly when handling assets that players can own and trade.

He recounted his experience leading the blockchain business at Microsoft, emphasizing the permanence of blockchain transactions. “We’ve implemented multiple layers of security, drawing on our experience working with some of the world’s most security-conscious companies,” Mercuri said. This approach uses the insights gained from thousands of hours spent with top IT professionals globally.

We also explored concerns surrounding not just blockchain, but also generative AI in terms of security. When it comes to influencing developers, especially in integrating it into game development, balancing security is crucial. This is particularly important, considering the code generated by AI platforms can sometimes be incorrect. It’s essential to know when to use it and when not to, especially for a game like Shrapnel.

One challenge with generative AI is the confidence in its output, whether correct or incorrect. In coding, it depends on what you ask it to do and how you structure the prompts. For instance, writing code for a specific task is usually divided into several steps. Some of these may be commodity code—standard and time-consuming—while others could be more innovative and require problem-solving.

Generative AI can significantly expedite the process of writing commodity code. However, while AI can provide a general direction for new challenges, its solutions are not always 100% accurate. Current AI models perform well for most tasks, including smart contracts, although Shrapnel does not utilize them.

“The key is not to unquestioningly accept AI-generated code,” said Mercuri. “We conduct thorough testing, including integration tests, to ensure functionality. In my experience, generative AI can save considerable time when used judiciously, allowing us to focus on the creative aspects of game development.”

In the gaming industry, the focus is on nurturing innovative ideas. Automating routine coding tasks frees up resources to add value to the game, creating exciting and engaging experiences for players following Shrapnel‘s transmedia content and anticipating new developments.

Future trends: blending gaming and cinematic narratives

Looking ahead, Mercuri shared his and Mark Long’s (CEO of Shrapnel) excitement about recent adaptations of games like The Last of Us and Sonic. Reflecting on the original Super Mario Brothers movie, they note it likely wasn’t made by those who grew up loving the game. Today, however, we see big-screen stories told by people who have deeply engaged with these games for hours, and this passion is evident in the storytelling.

Previously, game adaptations seemed more driven by financial opportunity than passion. They were often made because arcade games were popular among children. Now, these film adaptations are passion projects, crafted by those eager to tell great stories and reach a wider audience.

As Shrapnel continues to push the limits of what’s possible in gaming, it stands as a beacon for future developments, promising a landscape where gaming, storytelling, and technology converge to create experiences that are as enriching as they are entertaining. With its innovative approach and forward-thinking vision, Shrapnel is poised to redefine the gaming experience for players of new first-person shooter games around the world.

The post Shrapnel unveils a new era in first-person shooter games with transmedia storytelling using blockchain appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Generative AI offers various advantages for marketers, from creating highly personalized customer experiences to allocating resources for more complex tasks. Meta recently revealed plans to employ generative AI for producing ads for various companies by the end of the year.

The tech giant intends to launch tools utilizing AI to assist companies in designing customized images for diverse audiences. However, Creative.ai has already taken the lead, introducing its platform to bring generative AI to video ad creation for mobile game publishers.

Surpassing Meta with generative AI in advertising

Creative.ai employs generative AI to revolutionize video ad production and ad analytics. Users input their desired ad parameters, and Creative.ai’s AI algorithms take care of the rest, generating data-driven, measurable, and high-quality ads within minutes. This process accelerates ad creation by sixfold, allowing creative teams to focus on new ideas while Creative.ai produces high-performing iterations. This method eliminates the labor-intensive and time-consuming aspects of manual ad production.

In the current digital landscape, where Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework has changed online advertising, a robust and innovative creative strategy is crucial for marketers to succeed. As privacy becomes a central concern and tracking signals grow scarce, creative assets have become the most critical factor in driving profitable ad spending and achieving marketing excellence.

The advances in generative AI technology, made available through Creative.ai, now allow for generating data-driven, high-performing, and engaging ads that captivate target audiences.

Athar Zia, co-founder and CEO of Creative.ai, characterizes the platform as a Generative AI Video Platform that leverages millions of dollars’ worth of creative testing data from the gaming sector to decipher the critical components of a successful ad.

“By generating data-driven, high-performing ads within minutes, our platform empowers businesses to elevate their advertising strategies. We are poised to revolutionize the way companies approach marketing, and we eagerly anticipate the unparalleled success our clients will experience,” Zia stated.

Zia also observed that performance marketing in the gaming industry is highly scientific and quantifiable, but creative production and measurement remain outdated, with limited knowledge of the ingredients for a winning ad and an assumed 95% failure rate. It’s time for the sector to evolve and utilize advancements in Generative AI to create data-driven advertisements that are measurable and capable of delivering scalable performance.

The connection between Creative.ai and Meta

Interestingly, Creative.ai and Meta share a connection. Creative.ai was founded in January 2023 by a group of seasoned professionals from the advertising and technology sectors, including former Meta ads auction expert Athar Zia and former Meta solutions engineer Jay Shah. William Hughes, a renowned creative production specialist with experience at EA, PopCap, BigFish, Social Point, and Tilting Point across over 59 game titles, joined as Chief Creative Officer.

William Hughes, Chief Creative Officer at Creative.ai, emphasizes that user acquisition managers and creative teams struggle to produce high-performing campaigns with limited resources. Currently, decisions are based on human interpretation of performance data, market analysis, and production constraints, which can lead to subpar performance.

On the other hand, generative AI can remove human bias and outdated production methods, enabling studios to reduce overhead, increase production volume, and enhance performance. Hughes noted that this allows creatives more time to concentrate on their creative pursuits.

Creative.ai’s team is convinced that the future of gaming advertising involves equipping user acquisition managers with tools that allow them to generate creative iterations more quickly to support their growth objectives without requiring creative production skills. This will expand the scope of user acquisition managers to include data-driven creative iteration production while allowing creative teams to focus on their strengths, such as devising new concepts for business growth.

Acknowledging the significance of user-generated content in today’s digital landscape, Creative.ai plans to roll out new technology features that enable advertisers to reduce the cost and time associated with producing user-generated content. This will allow businesses of all sizes to tap into the power of user-generated content and leverage it to drive growth and engagement.

“The goal is to be the one-stop-shop where you can produce, test, iterate, and get analytics on your creative strategy and production. We will do this by demystifying creative challenges and helping companies scale their advertising efforts profitably,” said Zia.

The post Creative.ai takes the lead over Meta in generative AI ad solutions appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Today’s players desire more character control, and the lead character must appear as real as feasible. This means a character’s facial animation in a game, for instance, must showcase incredibly lifelike expressions and emotions. By developing more sympathy for the character, gamers then get more invested in the game.

Needless to say, gamers naturally want their characters’ surroundings to be as interactive as possible.

The studios are aware of this and want to see the characters given life. Because of this, there is now a need for more animators to produce an enormous variety of animations for any circumstance. The use of subtle character qualities found in animated films and close-up face animation by the studios is increasing in video games.

Game developers are pushing the envelope to create more realistic experiences as technology advances and more images can be produced in real-time. To keep users connecting with the character, a realistic amount of facial motion is required if the game is focusing on realistic aesthetics and body mechanics.

In fact, Virtuos recently held a webinar with experts on “The Evolution of Facial Animation and Facial Motion Capture,” including Kyle Renteria, Creative Director at CounterPunch, and Alex Bittner, Senior Artist/Animator at NetherRealm Studios, to talk about how advancements in facial animation and motion capture have changed how video games are developed today.

Game changers in facial animation

Bittner and Renteria both concurred that one of the greatest game changers recently is facial scanning. Facial scanning is the use of facial scan data to produce blendshapes driven by facial action units and be able to use these in engines.

Put it simply, this is where a model or actor will usually come in and sit on a chair while being completely around by cameras. Their face and head will be scanned in three dimensions by the cameras, creating a 3D model that the game and animation designers can use.

According to Bittner, using a model to act out the desired facial expressions facilitates the creation of precise face shapes and muscle movements.

“Mortal Kombat 11 was the first Mortal Kombat game where we’ve used the facial scanning,” said Bittner. “Johnny Cage, a character from the game, is one where we actually use a real person’s face, that has been tweaked and modelled a little bit to become our character, and make it higher quality, and more realistic version.”

Renteria added that Facial Action Coding System (FACS), is another key technological development in the field. FACS is a comprehensive system for describing all visually perceptible face motions. It is physically based. It divides face emotions into discrete muscle movement parts known as Action Units (AUs).

“Before (FACS), when it was just joints, you could only get so far with the expressions. But building it off how the muscles work, it really improved how much more emotion, expression, and different feelings you could get, and it feels more real to the audience,” Renteria shared.

Motion capture transforming games

Bittner claims that motion capture is an amazing tool that has allowed creators to significantly boost not only the speed and quantity of facial animation that they produce, but also the quality and detail.

Renteria added on Alex’s point by mentioning motion capture, which enables animators to “trace” the video data of an actor’s performance and convert the point data into the postures of the digital character, significantly speeding up production.

“The (motion tracking) dots also help us with consistency, improve accuracy, and help us to get closer to the end result that we’re trying to obtain, especially in large quantities of work,” Renteria added.

The future of animation – at least in the next five years

The animation industry is evolving quickly, and this change won’t stop anytime soon. According to Bittner and Renteria, the gaming business will alter as a result of four major factors:

• Bigger, longer games with more content
• Technology will encourage the arts and enable games to demonstrate more inventive methods of engaging the player. Better animation and more relatable stories.
• More realism in terms of quality.
• More detail and audience engagement.

Bittner has observed that PCs and consoles are gradually increasing their capabilities for disc removal, and use cloud storage, to run games with no size restriction.

“Downloadable content expansions, for instance, expand the size of games since they require a lot more content and things to fill them. That allows these characters more opportunities for stories, more room for development, and more time than they previously had to do all the little moments and events that make up a story,” Bittner concluded.

The post The evolution of facial animation and facial motion capture appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Imagine being a passenger on a long car ride with nothing to do but play with a phone, browse social media, or watch a favorite TV show or movie. If you don’t use your phone, staring out the window or, even better, sleeping, become the likely pursuits. When you think about it, there are numerous things to do in a vehicle. What if you’re capable of doing more than that, though? What if you could enjoy gaming in a car?

No, this isn’t personal mobile phone gaming, although it does require the usage of smartphones; rather, it serves a different function. This gaming goes on literally integrated inside a car.

The BMW Group and AirConsole recently announced a partnership to include casual gaming into new BMW vehicles starting next year. Featuring a sizable and varied selection of titles, AirConsole is a gaming platform that seamlessly integrates with the BMW Curved Display. Through the use of smartphones as controllers, games can now be instantaneously supplied over the air thanks to the AirConsole technology.

According to Stephan Durach, Senior Vice President of BMW Group Connected Company Development, the company will utilize cutting-edge technologies in conjunction with a wide range of entertaining and multiplayer games on the AirConsole. This will make every waiting scenario inside the car enjoyable, even when charging.

The revolution of in-vehicle entertainment

Over the past few years, there has been a significant change in how in-car entertainment has evolved.

Previously, there were only drivers waiting to pick up their friends or relatives on the curbside. Then, passengers would listen to music, or even on lengthy family vacations, kids would be handed tablets, phones, or portable gaming systems to keep them occupied. Nowadays, both drivers and passengers are looking for alternatives to music and map navigation for entertainment as an escape to pass the time spent in their vehicles.

Automakers are now building systems to meet that demand as they have seen the gaming trend and how more people are using games to fill time gaps.

The innovative entertainment systems may not fancy some older drivers, but the customers who will soon be driving the market in the years to come have made it quite clear that they demand a transformed in-vehicle experience. Additionally, while safety restrictions will prevent active drivers from playing games, the introduction of full autonomy will free up the time of former drivers and raise demand for in-vehicle entertainment.

How gaming in a car has evolved

In-vehicle gaming has advanced significantly as well. A handheld gaming system such as the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Portable (PSP), or Game Boy, used to be the traditional method, and that’s still an option. You can still take these great portable gaming options on a long car trip.

Along with more traditional portable gaming systems, playing games on smartphones and tablets while travelling gains popularity every year. There are countless games to pick from now that they are constantly being added to the Google Play Store or the App Store. Although devoted gamers may criticize these platforms for not being actual gaming platforms, the truth is that a good tablet or phone can keep you entertained for hours on the go.

Anthony Cliquot, CEO of N-Dream, the company behind the AirConsole brand: “We are extremely proud to spearhead gaming inside vehicles with BMW and are excited to create new games for in-car entertainment. Our ingenious architecture coupled with the ease of access of our platform will change the way people get entertained in their vehicles.”

With AirConsole, setting up the gaming experience is simple. Players only need the BMW Curved Display and their smartphone, which doubles as the game controller. By scanning a QR code in the vehicle, for example, a connection between the smartphone and the car is established. Hours of gaming goodness is then immediately available to the players.

The post Gaming in cars have been revolutionized with BMW’s new in-vehicle entertainment system appeared first on TechWire Asia.

In fact, ‘ultra-popular’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. In the short time since the ByteDance-owned short video platform began gaining traction, it became the most popular social app globally, overtaking Facebook. TikTok even became the most popular website in 2021, toppling web browser and search engine heavyweight Google from the top spot for the first time in years and years.

Alongside this record-breaking popularity surge, App Annie’s State of Mobile 2022 report further cemented TikTok’s domination with its short-form video content engaging app users on an unprecedented scale: the average TikTok user spends about 19.6 hours a month on the social platform – and that’s not even including mainland China, where parent company ByteDance has a localized version called Douyin.

India quickly emerged as the single biggest market for TikTok, but following a violent border skirmish with China in 2020, a slew of China-made apps were banned. One would think that removing the most popular video app would stunt the market for awhile, but instead, a number of competing services have stepped into the void – including several from major technology players.

Google owners Alphabet Inc and Facebook, Instagram parent company Meta Platforms Inc are now locked in competition for the burgeoning video app market in India, expected to be valued at nearly US$20 billion. Alphabet’s Youtube Shorts service is right alongside other Google-backed homegrown competitors like Moj, Roposo and Josh, which have become home to many content creators that used to be TikTok influencers.

In fact, India’s 200 million plus former TikTokers had to seek out alternatives – and so far the biggest substitute is Reels, the short video component of Meta’s Instagram. India is Instagram’s biggest user base, and Reels was launched to clone the TikTok user experience directly, and Instagram is investing heavily to both attract creators and to help them monetize, as well as in the digital infrastructure so that the app can provide some of the recommendation algorithms that mimic TikTok functionality.

Bangalore-based consultancy Redseer highlighted how both Google and Meta are eyeing a potential-laden short video app economy, which the agency is projecting to generate as much as US$19 billion in sales by 2030. Of that amount, short video ad content is expected to make up around a fifth of the entire Indian digital ad market in that timeframe – another reason why Meta and Google are so interested, as the technology titans both derive a sizable portion of their revenue from ads on their digital platforms.

With its spread of digital offerings, huge user base potential, and English language capabilities, the Silicon Valley giants might also see India as a testbed for their user and product development initiatives that will eventually target US users. Alphabet and Meta might see India as a safer alternative to test out these ideas before releasing them in the US, where TikTok is steadily eating into the duo’s digital ad market stranglehold. Youtube Shorts was first beta tested in India ahead of its global release, and both Shorts and Instagram’s Reels are struggling to find the right advertising formats that brings together the right blend of promotional content, influencer product placements, and non-intrusive, organic user experience.

The regional short video app providers are not to be undone, and are likewise investing heavily – several with investment support from the likes of Google and Temasek Holdings Pte. These partner apps get to benefit from the search giant’s advertising as well as technological expertise, while Meta gets to test out innovations to its largest single user base, and see if their worth rolling out elsewhere.

The post The tech giants coming for TikTok’s video app market appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Remember when Zuckerberg said that Meta would be the cheaper alternative to Apple? Given that both companies’ headsets are undergoing a “mixed reality,” they won’t be priced similarly to virtual reality (VR) headsets; instead, they will cost more.

Depending on how “cheap” it is, the people will decide.

Apple and Meta mixed reality headsets

CNBC reported that mixed reality headsets from Apple and Facebook parent Meta could finally deliver on the industry’s promise to make head-worn gadgets the next significant development in personal computing.

Earlier this year, Meta said that the upcoming high-end headset, code-named Cambria, is anticipated to cost at least US$800. It was also reported that Apple’s upcoming product could cost thousands of dollars. That’s a heavy burden for goods in a market that is still developing. According to IDC, just 11.2 million VR systems were shipped in 2017.

To put that into perspective, Apple sells that many iPhones every several weeks.

To expand the market, Meta and Apple will need to persuade customers that more advanced systems are worthwhile investments. Both companies are reportedly betting on passthrough mixed reality, a new innovation that necessitates larger displays and more processing power.

The potential for applications and real-world use would be increased if passthrough mixed reality performed as promised. This would enable augmented reality (AR) glasses to be used in conjunction with a VR headset.

Currently, the VR experience is constrained by what can be seen on the headset’s display with current technology. In passthrough AR, a VR headset’s powerful exterior cameras take pictures of the surrounding area and transmit them to one or more screens that are positioned in front of the user’s eyes.

It means that this will enable developers to experiment with mixed reality by adding software or visuals to videos of the nearby real world.

The optical transparent displays are far from being ready for prime time, making the passthrough approach the favored short-term choice. Due to the expensive cost of passthrough mixed reality and the requirement for a powerful headset, the market is still fairly limited.

In addition to advanced cameras, passthrough devices require depth sensors that can record in-depth video and measure the user’s surroundings. They must also track the user’s eyes in order to avoid wasting energy on creating visuals that will not be seen. Also, they require powerful processing capabilities and software to cut down on latency so that the user’s experience within the headset isn’t delayed or distorted.

The most important is the high-resolution screen, which must be significantly denser than a smartphone display because it is placed so near to the user’s eyes. According to CounterPoint Research, smartphone screens typically have 550 pixels per inch, whereas mixed reality devices need displays with roughly 3,500 PPI.

Apple is notoriously secretive when it comes to its product strategy, especially when it comes to new categories. However, according to sources from Bloomberg and The Information, Apple is creating a mixed reality headset that resembles ski goggles and has a powerful processor similar to the one that drives its MacBook laptops as well as higher-resolution displays than those seen in the current market.

This headset is also said to support passthrough video and provide access to games and other applications.

People will buy the headsets

There is no denying that the virtual reality market has been expanding over the past few years, and out of all the players in the market, Meta has perhaps made the biggest impact on that growth.

According to GamingBolt, since its release in October 2020, the Meta Quest 2 has sold 14.8 million units globally. The sales figures also mean that the Meta Quest 2 is currently the most popular VR headset. In fact, it has helped fuel a rise in overall VR sales, which increased by 97% in 2021 and a staggering 242% in the first quarter of 2022.

Regardless of price, people will undoubtedly purchase either Apple’s or Meta’s mixed reality headsets. Customers are usually driven to purchase these cool gadgets because of curiosity.

For those on a budget, there are always the Chinese-made alternative models. In fact, a search online showed that Xiaomi branded VR headsets would cost almost almost 70% to 80% cheaper from Apple and Meta’s headsets.

The post Apple and Meta headsets are set to revolutionize the world, but at a hefty price appeared first on TechWire Asia.

And while video calls seemed like an elegant solution to remote work, ‘Zoom fatigue’ is almost inevitable. Zoom, a video conferencing company that originated from San Jose, California, is actually a nine-year-old platform. On March 23, 2020, Zoom was downloaded 2.13 million times worldwide, according to app tracking firm Apptopia. Two months prior, the app had just under 56,000 global downloads in a day.

Whether Zoom or another video conferencing platform is used for work, for school, with family and friends, or, like most people, all of the above, the increased time spent in front of a camera is taking a toll. One thing is for sure – teleworking was an enforced necessity for business continuity amid lockdowns.

A survey by Gartner revealed 82% of company leaders now plan to allow employees to continue working remotely, at least some of the time, as we begin to return to the workplace. Another 43% of companies will grant employees flex days, and 42% will offer flexible working hours.

In hindsight, mentions of ‘Zoom fatigue’ have popped up more and more on social media, and Google searches for the same phrase have steadily increased since early March. The best way to make it through these video meets, would be to know and digest the proper Zoom meeting etiquette.

But how do we make video calls less draining?

First and foremost, with millions of people working and learning from home during the pandemic, internet networks are strained to the hilt. To avoid tech snafus, everyone should make it a habit to test run their video collaboration software before the meeting, to ensure the call both looks and sounds good. 

Secondly, if it is going to be a video conference instead of a brief call, set a clear agenda to make the session more tolerable for everyone. There are a number of approaches to a more organized videoconference. For starters, each employee, ahead of the meeting, can be assigned talking points or can be addressing specific issues, so that everyone involved is engaged in the meeting and can stave off distractions.

To avoid a hard time interjecting during a team conversation, icebreakers would allow each participant the space to make themselves heard from the start. Everyone on a video call should also be on ‘mute’ by default until it is their turn to speak.

Additionally, if you are finding that your team meetings are getting stale and the team is checking out, it might be time to change up your meeting and bring in a Zoom icebreaker to energize and engage the team. It is also necessary to limit the number of video meetings because even in offices, many detest back-to-back meetings, and it is highly likely employees feel the same while working remotely.

Perhaps, a good rule of thumb is to book video meetings sparingly. Ideally, reserve them for discussions that require visual aids, like presentations and documents. After all while visual aid is sometimes helpful, there is no universal rule requiring you to use video chat to work from home. Sometimes, the old-fashioned telephone is just as good.

Most importantly, breaks inbetween longer video calls will give participants the room to stretch, relax, and come back fresher. Tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom have built-in options that reinforce this virtual meeting etiquette, like video/audio on and off options, ‘raised hand’ button to indicate someone wants to speak, and privacy options to reinforce users’ security – especially in light of the heightened cybersecurity vulnerabilities in this era of remote communication. 

According to Zoom itself, its typical in-person basecamp training is delivered eight hours a day, over four days. Its virtual basecamp, however, had to be structured in a way that enabled participants to learn, retain information, and be engaged. That meant breaking up the agenda into digestible chunks.

The team at Zoom believes breaks at every hour are critical in keeping participants engaged. A go-to rule is 50 minutes of learning and 10 minutes to stretch those legs or get coffee, allowing all participants to focus for a set period of time with limited distractions. 

Since collaboration platforms often allow the sharing of pre-recorded video clips and PowerPoint presentations, demo live products, whiteboard key points, and annotated slides to reinforce the impact during a presentation, companies can make use of that to engage participants.

Finally, organizations should consider mixing work and some level of recreation while operating remotely. This can be done by mixing work-related video calls with virtual happy hours, in which similar casual and social discussions can evolve while physically isolating.

The post Making the most of Zoom meeting etiquette appeared first on TechWire Asia.

It has been around for nine years but it wasn’t until 2020 when the pandemic struck that Zoom Video Communications Inc. became the platform where millions of peoples’ work and social lives unfold. Now, Zoom is a household name, and since Covid-19 has forced everyone in the world into remote working, revenue for the company soared by four-fold to US$2.65 billion in the 2020 fiscal year ended in January. 

For the fourth quarter alone, revenue surged by 326% to US$882.5 million, making it the third consecutive quarter of growth exceeding 300% on an on-year basis. Yet, worries about what Zoom’s business will look like once the pandemic ebbs are still hanging over the company of late.  As Zoom Chief Executive Eric Yuan put it, 2020 has made the company “one of the most popular apps of the year”. He also said the fourth quarter marked a strong finish to an unprecedented year for Zoom. “As the world emerges from the pandemic, our work has only begun,” he added.

The company’s customer base also increased that too by 470% YoY to 467,100 on the back of more than 10 employees. Of those, 1,644 contributed more than US$100,000 in trailing 12 months revenue, up 156%. It also reported a trailing 12-month net dollar expansion rate in customers with more than 10 employees of 130%. Overall, these customers accounted for about 80% of its incremental revenue, up from 59% one year ago. 

How will 2021 fare for Zoom?

The nine-year-old company has become synonymous with video conferencing during the pandemic and despite the talks surrounding ‘Zoom fatigue’, Covid-19 is continuing to spread and traditional office life is still on hold for many.

To begin with, the company is projecting 175% growth for the quarter ending in April. Zoom also guided for 42% to 43% growth for the fiscal year ending January 2022, reaching more than US$3.7 billion, and although it did not expect growth to continue at the pace it enjoyed last year, the company said so far business remains strong. The company also expects the shift to continue well into 2021 with revenue in the first three months of this year is expected to be between US$900 million and US$905 million, well above analysts’ estimates.

On where the future growth will come from, Zoom stressed the potential of its two-year-old Zoom Phone product, which is a simple and straightforward cloud-calling service without video calls. It was pointed out that Zoom Phone was the company’s fastest-growing product on a quarter-over-quarter basis in Q4. They said it ended the year with 10,700 Zoom Phone customers with more than 10 employees, up 269% YoY.

The company may also have other options to grow its business though, as it’s rumored to be trying to expand its presence in the overall productivity market such as a web-based email service to compete with Gmail and Outlook, as well as a Calendar service. The company may also be able to extract some revenue from a new product called OnZoom that debuted in October.

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Street said, Zoom’s fate would depend on how it manages to compete against firms such as Microsoft and Google, which have introduced similar features. “Although it stole an early march on other players in the first few months of the crisis, it does now have much stiffer competition from the likes of Microsoft and Google who have significantly upped their game,” she wrote in a research note.

“It may be that we have become so used to pandemic habits that we will stick with our virtual social lives, particularly for long-distance friendships and work relationships. But just how large a slice of the live video pie Zoom manages to hang on to will depend on how it matches up to its powerful rivals,” she added.

The post Zoom earnings soared in 2020. What will 2021 look like? appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Zoom has been one of the technology high-performers for 2020, supporting the way people communicate and stay in touch around the world in this pandemic-hit climate. But the company now valued at US$100 billion could see all its forward momentum crushed by allegations that it cooperated with the Chinese government to monitor and to, in some cases, interfere with users’ video calls.

The allegations came to light after a criminal complaint lodged by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents was unsealed in a US federal court last week. The complaint alleged that a China-based Zoom executive, Xinjiang Jin, worked as the company’s primary liaison with Chinese law enforcement and intelligence services, sharing user information and terminating video calls at the Chinese government’s request.

According to the complaint, Jin surveilled Zoom’s system for political and religious topics deemed unacceptable by China’s ruling Communist Party, and he gave government officials the names, email addresses and other sensitive information of users – even those of users outside of China.

Several of the accusations were related to the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square, according to US Justice Department officials, with Jin reportedly working to cut off a minimum of four video calls in May and June 2020, including video memorial calls with US-based dissidents who had survived the 1989 crackdown by Chinese military forces that killed thousands of students and protesters.

Human-rights activists in the US had said their Zoom accounts had been abruptly terminated, either shortly before or after they’d hosted video calls commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.

Over thirty years after the massacre, China still attempts to minimize any acknowledgment of the Tiananmen Square incident, including on foreign-controlled outlets like social media. Zoom rose to videoconferencing prominence earlier this year in the wake of pandemic lockdowns, and today employs over 500 people in China.

Questions over content censorship have been surfacing alongside allegations of state-endorsed data gathering and potential spying, as Chinese startups started to earn worldwide recognition and user bases off their popular platforms. The most noticeable recent example is TikTok, the wildly popular short-video app owned by Beijing-based firm ByteDance.

In a parallel to the Zoom incidents, searches on TikTok regarding topics unfavorable to the Chinese government such as Tiananmen Square or the recent Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, returned few or no results outside of China. In the country, access is almost certainly blocked behind what is termed China’s ‘Great Firewall’.

There have also been reports that after creating dedicated moderation teams to monitor content sensitive to different regions, but that key content moderation decisions were still being dictated from China. Former employees also purport that TikTok’s internal guidelines are closely in tune with the national censorship policies of the Chinese government.

In the FBI complaint, agents said that Zoom employees in the U.S. had agreed to a Chinese government “rectification” plan that entailed migrating data on roughly 1 million users from the U.S. to China, thereby subjecting it to Chinese law. Zoom also agreed, the complaint states, to provide “special access” to Chinese law enforcement and national security authorities.

This spring, researchers at the Citizen Lab in Toronto found the company had routed American users’ data through Chinese servers, potentially opening it to Chinese-government data requests. The company later said it had “mistakenly” sent American video calls to Chinese data centers at a time when it was inundated with calls.

The post Did Zoom collude with China to surveil users? appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Instead of a daily standup meeting on Zoom or Webex each morning, what about pre-recording your update and adding it to your company’s version of Instagram Stories? 

That’s what business communication platform Slack seems to be going for, bringing voice and video into channels, in efforts to break up the drudgery and inconvenience of repeated daily meetings and overreliance on text-based messaging. 

Slack’s CEO Stewart Butterfield didn’t shy away from the comparison between the similarities between the feature and that of the social image sharing giant: “It’s very much like Instagram stories, or Snapchat Stories, but in Slack,” he told The Verge.

“There was a joke going around that soon all software will have it, and I thought that was funny at the time. But especially during the pandemic, and the difference in how we as a company are approaching work means it’s an idea that’s time has come.”

In addition, Slack users can also ‘push-to-talk’ and share voice messages with one another. The functions aim to offer a quick way to share team messages or status update without having to go through the rigmarole of an all-hands video conferencing session. 

The update, which is expected to come into effect at the end of the year, comes as the firm is looking to adopt user experience features that are familiar to the public from regular life in the consumer world and bring that to the enterprise. Communications tools providers are innovating to cater to a new way of working, and intuitive user experience that adds to productivity can help these platforms secure loyalty and market share. 

The company’s direct video and audio calling features haven’t been its strong suit as videoconferencing was never a core part of Slack, to begin with. However, Zoom’s success in 2020 has left Slack, and many other tech companies racing to adjust and offer something new. Slack partnered with Amazon earlier this year to switch to Chime for voice and video calling, and now it’s experimenting with features beyond traditional video calls.

“Let’s take what we love about video — seeing faces and places — and separate it from the constant pressure of video conferences and packed meeting schedules to help us stay aligned with teammates,” read an announcement from Slack. 

“Imagine the daily standup meeting that happens from 9 to 9:15 every morning. What if you could record your update at 8:53 am and watch the others at 10:51 when it’s more convenient for you? This gives people the information and updates they need, with a measure of flexibility that is usually missing in today’s setup.”

Additionally, Slack Connect — a secure direct messaging across the organization — will be created to allow companies to chat with each other, and is introducing a new verified badge so you know if the company contacting you can be trusted. A verified organization on Slack will be denoted by a checkmark. Slack is already working on verifying a select group of companies.

This is on top of the Managed Connections to be launched by Slack, which essentially lets your company’s IT admins pre-approve channel requests from certain trusted organizations. All of these new services are set to arrive in early 2021. 

The post Why Slack is taking inspiration from Instagram appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Zoom Video Communications has had a stellar year so far, owed to the Covid-19 pandemic that has forced companies around the globe to transition to remote work. If it felt like everyone was suddenly using the video conferencing tool, it’s because they were. In April, Zoom peaked at over 300 million daily meeting participants – up from ten million in December 2019. 

Its measurement of “annualized meeting minutes” jumped 20-fold, from 100 billion at the end of January to over two trillion in April. For the quarter ending April 30, 2020, Zoom reported total revenue of $328.2 million, a 169% increase from the same period last year.

Now, the videoconferencing service provider is looking at growth opportunities beyond the crisis, with further expansion specifically in Asia-Pacific (APAC).

In August this year, Zoom opened its first Southeast Asian facility, a data center in Singapore. But just months before, the video-conferencing tool had been subject to a ban for use in home-based education by Singapore’s Ministry of Education, after hackers were able to access private sessions and begin posting obscene images.

Fortunately, and thanks to the company’s quick security response and conversations with the ministry, the ban was short-lived. In a recent interview with Tech Wire Asia, Magnus Falk, Zoom’s CIO Advisor said Zoom “fully engaged with the government” in “intense” conversations, explaining how the tool could be tailored according to specific needs of education. 

“That was one of a series of fantastic opportunities Zoom had with a forward-thinking ministry that didn’t just ban and go away,” Falk said. “And by actually then learning what we could do, and how they could ensure that Singapore-based teachers could operate securely, we put in place the controls that they needed, and then it was made available again for teachers.”

More than 400 Singaporean schools and 45,000 educators have since made use of the videoconferencing tool to keep classes running remotely. 

“This sort of thing was so important to engage and get it right in Singapore,” Falk said.

Indeed, Zoom’s relations and interests in the regions have proven highly lucrative. Abe Smith, Zoom’s head of international told ZDNet recently that regionally, Asia-Pacific — including China, Australia, and Japan — registered similar growth rates to those in the US and Europe. Smith said for the second quarter, revenue from the region increased 572% year-on-year to some US$81 million, or about 12.2% of the company’s total revenue.

In Singapore, in particular, Zoom clocked a 65-fold increase in the number of free accounts — where meeting sessions are capped at 40 minutes — in April compared to January while paying customers with at least 10 employees grew three-fold. 

In recent years, Singapore has emerged as a leading hub for data center operations and management services. Like other markets, this market has seen growth owed to the rise of hyper-scale cloud computing vendors who have huge data center leasing capacities, and the evolution of cloud-native businesses.

The island has recently attracted new interest from Chinese tech giants Tencent and Bytedance. These types of businesses are basing themselves in Singapore for its status as one of the most connected cities in the world, and stable, pro-business government, as well as other economic incentives for the enterprise.

The post Why Zoom had to ‘get it right’ in Singapore appeared first on TechWire Asia.