Alibaba to split into 6 units in a historic overhaul

Here is the top trending news from the world of technology. News that we feel every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.

1)

Alibaba to split into 6 units in a historic overhaul

China’s tech giant Alibaba announced on Tuesday that it will split company in a six different business group, unveiling a new chapter in the company’s history. Alibaba’s Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang said these separate business units will separately pursue their own fundraising and IPO plans that will help in unlocking more value for shareholders. However, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, which operates e-commerce platform Tmall, won’t be part of the restructuring plan. It will continue to remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group. Alibaba’s historic overhaul is probably the result of Chinese government’s massive crackdown against the big tech companies over the last few years.

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Disney to shut down its Metaverse Division

Media and entertainment giant Disney announced that it will be shutting down its metaverse division and also sack its entire metaverse team consisting of nearly 50 employees. The decision to shut down the metaverse division is a part of Disney’s overall layoff plan that was recently announced by CEO Bob Iger. The company plans to layoff nearly 7.000 employees in the next two months. Disney had started its metaverse division last year with plans to bring fantasy sports and theme park in its metaverse platform. But with hype around metaverse fading out completely, Disney probably concluded that it is better to pull the curtains on its metaverse ambition.

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Microsoft owned platform GitHub announces Layoffs

Microsoft owned Git repository platform GitHub has said that it is laying off nearly 10 percent of its total global work force. GitHub’s India division will be highly impacted by its layoff decision as the company reportedly plans to shut down its entire Indian engineering team. A move that will put at least 140 Indian tech engineers out of work. For all those who are not aware GitHub was recently in news for taking down the Twitter’s source code, which got leaked on GitHub.

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Apple Launches Buy Now, Pay Later Service in U.S.  

Apple Inc on Tuesday announced its official entry in buy now, pay later (BNPL) service in the United States. Apple’s BNPL service will allow Apple consumers to pay for purchase over time without incurring any additional fees or interest. Apple’s US consumers can avail BNPL service through Apple Pay, which is accepted by almost 85% of U.S retailers. The U.S. consumers can also enjoy BNPL service through Mastercard’s installment program. Following Apple’s entry in BNPL space, this niche space is likely to witness hyper competition that has established players like Affirm  and Uplift.

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Now Only Verified Accounts Can Vote In Twitter Polls

In yet another sweeping change, Twitter’s owner Elon Musk announced on Monday that only verified twitter accounts will be eligible to vote in polls starting from April 15th. Musk also added that only verified accounts will be permitted in Twitter’s ‘for you’ recommendations, which usually shows stream of tweets from accounts on Twitter. The Tesla boss is hopeful that with this latest move Twitter will be able to reduce the presence and influence of bot accounts on the platform. If you remember guys the presence of bots on Twitter had snow-bowled into a main talking point even before Musk officially took over the ownership of the microblogging platform.