Tag Archives: money

‘Crowding out’ the competition: Study reveals surprising livestream chatting and tipping behavior (Notre Dame News)

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Notre Dame News: ‘Crowding out’ the competition: Study reveals surprising livestream chatting and tipping behavior. “Tips and chats are displayed on a livestream along with a viewer’s identity, so viewers are publicly recognized for those actions, but viewers who ‘like’ a livestream are not acknowledged. Because identities and payments are publicly viewable in livestreams, understanding how they influence broadcasters’ emotional reactions and other viewers’ engagement becomes relevant and meaningful. A new study from the University of Notre Dame examines these exchanges through a popular livestreaming platform in China.”

WIRED: TikTok Streamers Are Staging ‘Israel vs. Palestine’ Live Matches to Cash In on Virtual Gifts

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WIRED: TikTok Streamers Are Staging ‘Israel vs. Palestine’ Live Matches to Cash In on Virtual Gifts. “TIKTOKKERS ARE USING a little-known livestreaming feature to cash in on the huge interest in the Israel-Hamas war despite having no links to the crisis. TikTok, meanwhile, is taking up to 50 percent of the earnings”

Rolling Stone: Verified Hate Speech Accounts Are Pivoting to Palestine for Clout and Cash

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Rolling Stone: Verified Hate Speech Accounts Are Pivoting to Palestine for Clout and Cash. “The weekslong Israeli assault on Gaza in response to a deadly surprise attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 has already cost thousands of lives, and the bloodshed will only continue as a ground invasion gets underway. But thousands of miles distant, paid clout-chasers on X, formerly Twitter, are using the conflict to boost their profiles — and a few who have successfully pivoted to pro-Palestine content were formerly known for hate speech, extremism, and conspiracy theories. Some may also be gaming social media algorithms through viral misinformation and reckless sharing of graphic imagery.”

The Verge: Here’s a rare look at Google’s most lucrative search queries

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The Verge: Here’s a rare look at Google’s most lucrative search queries. “This week, during the US v. Google antitrust trial, we got a rare glimpse at a closely guarded secret: which search terms make the most money. The list is only for the week of September 22nd, 2018, and it is the list of top queries ordered by revenue and nothing else. Still, we’ve never seen anything quite like this before, and the list was only made public after long deliberations from Judge Amit Mehta, who has, over the course of the trial, begun to push both sides to be more public with information and data like this.”

BBC: Inside the deadly instant loan app scam that blackmails with nudes

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BBC: Inside the deadly instant loan app scam that blackmails with nudes. “A blackmail scam is using instant loan apps to entrap and humiliate people across India and other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. At least 60 Indians have killed themselves after being abused and threatened. A​ BBC undercover investigation has exposed those profiting from this deadly scam in India and China.”

Gizmodo: So Far, AI Is a Money Pit That Isn’t Paying Off

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Gizmodo: So Far, AI Is a Money Pit That Isn’t Paying Off. “Silicon Valley has bet big on generative AI but it’s not totally clear whether that bet will pay off. A new report from the Wall Street Journal claims that, despite the endless hype around large language models and the automated platforms they power, tech companies are struggling to turn a profit when it comes to AI.”

Wall Street Journal: The World’s Biggest Crypto Firm Is Melting Down

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Wall Street Journal: The World’s Biggest Crypto Firm Is Melting Down. “After FTX crashed, the world of crypto seemed to belong to the largest exchange, Binance. Less than a year later, Binance is the one in distress. Under threat of enforcement actions by U.S. agencies, Binance’s empire is quaking. Over the past three months, more than a dozen senior executives have left, and the exchange has laid off at least 1,500 employees this year to cut costs and prepare for a decline in business.”

Lifehacker: You Can Now Get Your Free Credit Report Every Week, Forever

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Lifehacker: You Can Now Get Your Free Credit Report Every Week, Forever. “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, each credit bureau offered one free credit report per year, meaning consumers generally could obtain three reports annually before having to pay as much as $14 per request. Those same reports were made available weekly at no additional charge in early 2020, a program that was extended several times, ultimately through December 2023. Now, free access to weekly credit reports has been made permanent so it’s easier to monitor your report regularly.”

Bloomberg: NFTs, Once Hyped as the Next Big Thing, Now Face ‘Worst Moment’

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Bloomberg: NFTs, Once Hyped as the Next Big Thing, Now Face ‘Worst Moment’. “Nonfungible tokens, most popularly associated with the digital artwork and other collectibles recorded on crypto blockchains, have lost most of their value after once capturing the imagination of crypto enthusiasts as the next big thing. The hype and FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” around NFTs has faded since their all-time peak in January 2022, leaving beaten-down buyers and sellers struggling to find long-term value in the speculative assets. Monthly trading volume for NFTs plummeted 81% between January 2022 and July 2023, data from DappRadar shows.”

Notre Dame News: Researchers decipher the secrets of Benjamin Franklin’s paper money

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Notre Dame News: Researchers decipher the secrets of Benjamin Franklin’s paper money. “Benjamin Franklin may be best known as the creator of bifocals and the lightning rod, but a group of University of Notre Dame researchers suggest he should also be known for his innovative ways of making (literal) money. During his career, Franklin printed nearly 2,500,000 money notes for the American Colonies using what the researchers have identified as highly original techniques, as reported in a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

Mashable: Twitter and Reddit’s high-priced APIs are bad news for the internet’s future

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Mashable: Twitter and Reddit’s high-priced APIs are bad news for the internet’s future. “APIs help developers access your data. Yet, the social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit, which already use your data to monetize via advertisers, want to now charge exorbitant fees just for access to your data. Which platform will be next? There’s relatively few major social media platforms to begin with. What happens when they all want to box you in to only use their official apps to access your own data? What happens to the tech industry when only a student developer can no longer afford to create apps and software?” The answer, my friend, is RSSin’ in the wind… or on the Internet in any case.

New York Times: The Younger Brother Caught in the Middle of the FTX Investigation

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New York Times: The Younger Brother Caught in the Middle of the FTX Investigation. “The money flowed freely at a pandemic-prevention organization run by the younger brother of Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul. Just over $375,000 financed a failed campaign in Colorado to increase taxes on cannabis sales in order to support pandemic research. Another $1 million was spent on consulting and advertising expenses in a single year. And $3.3 million went toward the purchase of a luxurious townhouse a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.”

Mashable: HustleGPT is a hilarious and scary AI experiment in capitalism

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Mashable: HustleGPT is a hilarious and scary AI experiment in capitalism. “The internet is overflowing with examples of what GPT-4’s advanced intelligence can accomplish. It can write usable lawsuits, build websites from text prompts, automate online dating, and is generally freaking people out about all the jobs it can replace. [Jackson Greathouse] Hall has taken this a step further by harnessing its capabilities into an age-old ambition that’s the backbone of capitalist society: making money with as little effort as possible.”

Vox: What YouTube hustle gurus are really selling you

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Vox: What YouTube hustle gurus are really selling you. “These self-anointed gurus often share interests — sports cars, wristwatches, combat sports, strict diets, rocket ship emoji, lengthy Twitter threads, Sun Belt states with relatively low tax burdens — but tend to make their millions in a few different ways.”

Canadian Coin News: Ferguson Foundation launches ‘long overdue’ digital repository

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Canadian Coin News: Ferguson Foundation launches ‘long overdue’ digital repository. “Its creators hope the CNR [Canadian Numismatic Resources] will soon serve as the most complete resource of Canadian numismatic documents with at least 20,000 pages of digitized material added each year. As of mid-January, the website holds more than 10,000 pages of original sources, including numismatic periodicals, club journals, catalogues, price lists plus government and archival records.”