People are spending less time on Facebook, according to the company's latest earnings report. On average, users are spending 50 million hours less on the platform, a drop of about 5%. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg says this is intentional. In a statement, Zuckerberg said the company intentionally featured fewer viral videos to "make sure people's time is well spent." The social media company also reported increased ad revenue.
Twitter doubles the number of users who interacted with Russian-linked trolls. The social company now says 1.4 million users in the U.S. engaged with these accounts, more than double what the company originally reported. Twitter is sending out notifications to users who liked, retweeted, replied to, or quoted a Russia-backed account.
And eBay is parting ways with longtime partner PayPal in favor of Dutch payment processing company Adyen. Consumers will still have the option to check out using PayPal but will now be redirected towards an external site. This is an attempt by the company to take more control of sales on its platform. PayPal and eBay used to be part of the same company but parted ways in 2015.
Plus, we bring you a full hour on the Business of Sports heading into Super Bowl weekend. President of the San Francisco 49ers Al Guido discusses how the NFL is trying to turn around declining viewership. He also talks about the team's thoughts on Colin Kaepernick and protests within the NFL. Guido says he's inspired by the work Kaepernick has done and wants to turn these protests into progress.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
