Facebook is acquiring Giphy, a popular website for making and sharing animated images, or GIFs, and will integrate it with its rapidly growing Instagram photo-sharing app, Facebook said in a blog post on Friday. The cost, which Facebook and Giphy declined to disclose, was placed at around $400 million by news website Axios. According to Reuters, the announcement comes at a time when the largest social media network is under scrutiny from regulators over antitrust concerns. In 2015, Giphy rebuffed a Facebook offer, choosing instead to continue integrating its products with multiple social media platforms, according to news site TechCrunch.…
Author: DigitalTimesNG
A subscribers’ group under the aegis of Association of Telephone, Cable TV and Internet Subscribers (ATCIS), has asked MultiChoice, operators of DStv and GOtv to drop its proposed new tariff based on the new Value Added Tax of 7.5 per cent. In a letter to MultiChoice, the group expressed their displeasure at the plan to increase monthly DStv/GOtv tariff in Nigeria starting from June 1. The group’s national president, Adesina Bilesanmi and national secretary, Mrs Loris Anger, in a letter, said “We write on behalf of Board of Trustees, Elders Forum, Executives and entire members with over 185 million subscribers…
China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, STC, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC have announced that they will partner to build 2Africa, which will be the most comprehensive subsea cable to serve the African continent and Middle East region. The parties have appointed Alcatel Submarine Networks (“ASN”) to build the cable in a fully funded project which will greatly enhance connectivity across Africa and the Middle East. At 37,000km long, 2Africa will be one of the world’s largest subsea cable projects and will interconnect Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in…
DStv and GOtv customers can turn up and dance in the comfort of their homes with a brand new Africa Magic show, ‘Turn Up Friday With Pepsi’, available on Africa Magic Urban (DStv Channel 153) and Africa Magic Family (DStv Channel 154 & GOtv Channel 2) from Friday, 15th May 2020 for the next 10 weeks! “As Nigerians spend more time at home amid the pandemic ‘Turn Up Friday with Pepsi’ is bringing DJ music party to everyone right in their living rooms and Africa Magic remains at the forefront of giving them a great time of fun and excitement. “We consistently look for innovative ways to thrill and…
TD Africa has reached out to the less-privileged with a visit to the Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care and Treatment Home, Akoka, Yaba, where it donated food items and other essentials to the children of the institution. The visit was part of the activities to mark TD Africa’s 21 years of groundbreaking strides in the distribution ecosystem in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the meantime, plans have also been finalized to commemorate the 21st anniversary with a digital party in line with the on-going regime of social distancing occasioned by the COVID-19 crisis. The party, which featured popular disc jockey, DJ Big…
Four months after all the governors under the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) reportedly committed to reducing Right of Way charges on telecom services providers, Ekiti State government on Thursday became the first state to fulfil its promise. Confirming this on his twitter handle on Thursday, Governor Kayode Fayemi said the fee has been dropped from N4,500 to N145 per metre in the state. DigitalTimesNG understands that the reduction became effective with the signing of an Executive Order reducing the Right of Way charges related to laying broadband or any other telecommunications infrastructures. The governor said the move was to make…
The upcoming Fidelity Bank ‘SME Forum Online’ airing from Friday, 15th May 2020, will be targeted at SMEs in specific sectors like Foods, Beauty, Hospitality, Entertainment, Fashion & Lifestyle, and will be graced by experts in these industries. Fidelity Bank has always been at the forefront of SME empowerment and that’s why in this time of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and with businesses being unsure of what to do next, the bank has kept its promise of empowering SMEs by debuting the SME Forum Radio Show Online. The SME Forum is housed on the brand’s Instagram platform as…
Solar companies in Nigeria are pitching in to provide electricity to the front-line healthcare facilities fighting COVID-19. In rural areas all of over the world, two things can be really scarce: reliable electricity and adequate healthcare. Lumos Nigeria is one of four renewable energy companies that have been selected to receive a share of the $500,000 Solar Relief Fund from Shell-backed off-grid energy impact investing company All On, according to a report by Forbes. Adepeju Adebajo, the CEO of Lumos Nigeria said the company’s off-grid solar units are being provided to rural and low-income-area healthcare facilities at no cost to the…
Facebook is throwing a new $100,000 challenge to developers to create models that can recognize hateful images and memes. As a part of the challenge, Facebook said it’ll provide developers with a dataset of 10,000 ‘hateful’ images licensed from Getty Images. Memes are now an integral part of how people communicate on the internet. While a lot of these memes have an ability to cheer you up, a lot of them are hateful and discriminatory. At the same time, AI models that are trained primarily with text to detect hate speech, struggle to identify hateful memes. “We worked with trained third-party…
MultiChoice Talent Factory Academy (MTF) West Africa will in continuation of its virtual classes, on Friday, hold a 30-minute online class tagged ‘Produce Like a Pro!’ for its students. The online session will give the students an insight into practical, industry expert-led skills to produce content like professionals. According to Femi Odugbemi, Academy Director, MTF West Africa, the ‘Produce Like a Pro!’ series is part of MultiChoice’s mission to upskill emerging creatives and seasoned professionals in the Film and TV industry. “The Produce Like a PRO! Series is our answer to the industry need for easier access to training material,…