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Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts

Wednesday, 10 May 2017

07:45

India with 200 mn users leads WhatsApp video calling in total minutes per day

India with 200 mn users leads WhatsApp video calling in total minutes per day

India leads WhatsApp’s video calling market in terms of total minutes, new data from the copy indicates.

“India is the top country for video calling minutes with a total of over 50 million video calling minutes per day,” the company said in a statement.
Last year in November 2016, WhatsApp announced the rollout of its WhatsApp video calling feature with more than 1.2 billion monthly active users globally across platforms such as iOS, Android and Windows.
The report also goes onto say that WhatsApp sees a total of over 340 million video calling minutes per day, globally along with users making over 55 million video calls per day.
WhatsApp in India has currently 200 million monthly active users. The Facebook-owned messaging app is also expected to soon make a foray into digital payment services starting with India and is looking to hire a digital transactions head for the country.
In February, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton had met IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss ways in which the company could contribute to India’s vision for digital commerce.
According to a job advertisement on WhatsApp’s website, the company is looking for a candidate with technical and financial background, who also has an understanding of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), BHIM payments app and Aadhaar number.
The job responsibilities would include collaboration with banks to resolve WhatsApp user issues and being “an advocate for the users of our digital transactions service to the rest of the company”, it added.
When contacted, a WhatsApp spokesperson said the company is keen to understand how it can contribute more to the vision of Digital India.
“We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users,” the spokesperson added.

Source:IBEF 
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Monday, 16 January 2017

08:59

Facebook could be working on a project that reads brain waves to communicate thoughts

Facebook could be working on a project that reads brain waves to communicate thoughts

During a Q&A session, Mark Zuckerberg once said:

One day, I believe we’ll be able to send full rich thoughts to each other directly using technology. You’ll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too if you’d like.

Spotted by Business Insider, several recent job postings originating from Facebook’s uber-secretive ‘Building 8’ group describe a project involving “neuroimaging” and “electrophysiological data” to create a “communications platform of the future. Another seeks a Ph.D. in neuroscience to help with “inception to product” over a two-year timeframe. A third calls for an engineer who can “develop audio signal processing algorithms” for a “communication and computing platform of the future.”

We can’t be sure, but it seems Zuckerberg is settings his sites on making the 2015 quote a reality in the next two years.

Building 8 is still mostly a mystery, but indications suggest it’s a sort of ‘moonshots’ division comparable to Alphabet’s ‘X’. All Facebook has revealed publicly about the secretive division is that it intends to further Facebook’s mission of connecting the world. We do know, however, that Facebook’s poaching of Google’s Regina Dugan in April of last year offers an additional clue about Building 8, and Facebook’s new project: Dugan is in charge of building “technologies that fluidly blend physical and digital worlds,” according to Facebook after her hire.

Like, um, reading brainwaves to send status updates, perhaps?

Source:TheNextWeb


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08:54

Facebook introduces fake news filter in Germany in time for federal elections

Facebook introduces fake news filter in Germany in time for federal elections

The Financial Times is reporting that Facebook is to roll out its fake news filter in Germany. The move comes in time for Germany’s federal elections, which are due to take place later this year.

German lawmakers are troubled by the potential for hyper-partisan fake news to unduly influence the outcome of the upcoming election, and in recent months there have been a number of fake stories and hoaxes, the majority of which are critical of Merkel.

Now, Facebook users will be able to report suspected fake news stories. These will then be sent to the Berlin-based media non-profit Correctiv. If they deem that story to be false, the article will be marked as “disputed”, along with an explanation of how Correctiv came to that conclusion.

In addition, Facebook will warn users before they share a fake news story. They will also appear lower in the news feed, thereby reducing their visibility.

The roll-out of Facebook’s measures against the menace of fake news won’t stop with Germany and the United States. Speaking to the Financial Times, a spokesperson confirmed that the company confirms they intend to bring it to other countries. “Our focus is on Germany right now but we’re certainly thinking through what countries will unveil next.”

The upcoming election promises to be every bit as fraught and toxic as last year’s general election in the United States, and will see incumbent Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union face stiff competition from Alternative für Deutschland – a populist, anti-immigration political party that’s experienced significant growth in recent years, especially in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis.

By taking the initiative, Facebook reduces the chance of the German government wading heavily-handed into the issue. German lawmakers have openly considered handing down severe fines to Facebook and other social media websites that permit the spread of fake news, and last year Justice Minister Heiko Maas suggested treating Facebook like a media company, and therefore making it responsible for any content it publishes.




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Tuesday, 29 November 2016

20:20

The Future of Retail Banking: Are Bots Ready to be Your Next Banker?

The Future of Retail Banking: Are Bots Ready to be Your Next Banker?

Text-based services have been around since the dawn of time, but not until the past year have we seen the rise of chatbots, in part led by Facebook’s unveiling of Bots for Messenger towards the beginning of the year. Mark Zuckerberg led the reveal, saying: “I’ve never met anyone who likes calling a business, and no one wants to have to install a new app for every service or business they want to interact with … we think you should just be able to message a business, just as you would a friend.”

Since the Facebook launch, developers have created more than 11,000 bots, and some banks have been brave enough to dip their toes in the water already, keen to explore the role that bots can play within retail banking.
American Express recently launched a Messenger bot that gives customers access to their accounts, also telling them when a purchase has been made with their AMEX card, and also providing information about past purchases. Danish bank Lunarway has also introduced a Facebook bot that responds to simple customer queries, such as checking balance and making transfers, but has plans to rapidly increase its sophistication. In France, Société Générale has just launched a bot on Facebook Messenger and Bank of America has announced plans to do the same.

The promise is that, pretty soon, customers will be able to use their favorite messaging app, be it Slack, Messenger, Skype or Telegram etc., to communicate not only with friends and family, but with all sorts of online services (including banking) in a natural and conversational way.
But while a few banks might be in a position to experiment, for the majority it’s an ambiguous space which needs to be exceptionally well understood before significant investment is made. Where money and private information is involved, the stakes are currently very high. A recent Forrester report advised that banks should hold off and wait a further two to three years before investing in customer-facing chatbot services. Instead, for the time being, it states that banks would be better off working with their technology partners to focus on foundational digital initiatives that will enable better bots and artificial-intelligence-based services in the future.

There are several reasons for this, but fundamentally the technology simply isn’t mature enough yet and AI hasn’t quite progressed to the point where it can really carry on a conversation and always give a customer what they’re asking for. In order for banking bots to go mainstream, it’s essential that they’re easy to use, with high-functioning natural language processing capabilities. Within Forrester’s recent research it found that although some chat bots offered a quick and effective answer to a consumer’s question, about one-third of the time, existing chat bots either failed to complete the consumer’s request or provided a clunky, awkward experience. Banking customers can be unforgiving and if there’s an issue with a payment or a funds transfer, the repercussions can be significant.

There’s little doubt that AI and bot technology will improve, and there’s much being invested in this space at present by some of the world’s largest technology companies, as well as some innovative startups. With opportunities within apps dwindling, the greater opportunity is undoubtedly within bots, but according to Forrester it will be the tech companies that drive development and take the AI capabilities to the next level, not banks.

Are bots the new apps?

Studies consistently show that smartphone users have condensed their daily screen time into just a handful of favorite apps, often a browser, a couple of chat and social apps and maybe a game or two. It’s clear that consumer enthusiasm for new apps is waning, and a quarter of all downloaded apps are abandoned after a single use. Achieving a competitive edge in this market is harder than ever with the 20 most successful developers grabbing almost half of all revenues within Apple’s app store, presenting a significant challenge for banks. With the app economy maturing in this way, it seems certain that the text-based chatbot market is poised to take its place. But the question banks are probably asking themselves right now is “are bots the new apps?”

We are currently at an interim stage, where the line between apps and bots is a little blurred, and this is quite noticeable within the banking industry. Digit, for example, is an intelligent app that connects to an individual’s current account, analyzes their income and spending habits, and every few days identifies a small amount of money it can safely move to a savings account without the customer becoming overdrawn. ING has also rolled out a peer-to-peer-payment app called Twyp, which allows consumers to pay small amounts to contacts on their mobile devices in just a few seconds.

Another factor to consider is that instant messaging remains incredibly popular. Over 2.5bn people have at least one messaging app installed on their phone, with Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp (also owned by Facebook) topping the charts. WhatsApp users average nearly 200 minutes each week using the service. These usage figures are only predicted to rise and within a couple of years will reach 3.6bn—approximately half of the entire human population. It’s a trend that cannot be ignored when weighing up the consumer attention economy, and the continuing popularity of messaging apps suggests people will happily talk to bots in the future.

Bots will need much experimentation to find their place, but there’s no reason that they couldn’t co-exist on people’s smartphones with apps and other future technologies yet to be invented.

The long and winding road to digital banking

Speaking within the Forrester report referenced above, Zor Gorelov, CEO of AI company Kasisto, explains: “To build a truly smart banking bot we need access to clean, properly structured data from banks. The banks creating lifestyle banking with conversational AI are the ones that are investing in their data infrastructure right now. Our AI and machine learning rely on that data to create intelligent banking conversations with consumers.”

There’s no doubt that banks need to ensure they have an infrastructure in place to cope with the digital changes afoot. This requires time and money and a deep understanding of where efforts would be best placed. Instead of spending heavily on chat bots now, or other newly emerging innovations, such as voice assistants, digital teams at banks should use the next couple of years to get their houses in order, focusing on the integration of back-end systems, improving data infrastructure, and removing any restrictive legacy systems and silos. They need to be able to serve their customers now and in the future, while developing brand new services, incubating ideas and integrating FinTechs.

For many, this presents a sizeable challenge, best answered by the bimodal IT model, which is the practice of managing two separate but coherent styles of work: one focused on predictability; the other on exploration (as defined by Gartner). So, while banks should be focusing on digital transformation that is expected and well understood (including the evolution of their legacy infrastructure), they also need to be exploring and experimenting with ways to solve new and emerging problems, while also keeping customers happy!

Striking the balance between technology and human interaction

The global race for banks to be digital first is on, but it is still early in the game. Leading banks are in the process of learning how to take a mobile-first approach and re-imagine their customer experiences, from opening up a current account to buying a home or taking out a small business loan. While many have begun migrating their customers from the branch or call center to their digital channels, it’s critical to take a country-specific view and carefully consider the cultural differences and preferences before deciding on the pace of change. The Netherlands, for example, has among the highest mobile adoption rates for banking within the world, and according to recent research by Bain, Dutch mobile usage has risen fourfold in two years while the branch now plays a minor role. Contrast this situation with Italy, which is lagging behind quite significantly in the role digital plays within banking (Italy is at the bottom of European rankings, with 26% of the population using internet banking vs. 44% in the EU-28)

For the average bank, a current priority is how to migrate routine activities out of the branch to self-service digital channels. But it’s critical that the mobile or digital experience is enough to truly delight the customer and remove any frustrations they might have in a branch. Right now, customers aren’t ready to be faced with a purely automated customer experience, although they increasingly view having to use branches and call centres as an inconvenience for many transactions. Getting the balance right is critical. Human interactions still count for a lot, and according to Bain, those customers who use both physical and digital channels still tend to be more loyal and more valuable to their primary bank.

There’s little doubt that the role of the branch, and front desk staff, is evolving significantly. Employees still have an important role to play, and particularly within complex transactions, but increasingly they will see themselves conversing more with customers through online chat or video. This will enable banks to better pool their specialist talent and achieve higher levels of productivity. Dutch bank ABN Amro, for example, has begun advising customers on mortgages via webcam, so that customers don’t have to physically hand over documents at a branch.

Exciting times lay ahead for banks, particularly so in Europe. While chatbots might be our future bankers, right now, it’s critical to consider the bigger picture, and focus on the initiatives that will help drive customer loyalty. It’s important to stay ahead of the competition, but not every emerging innovation needs to be frantically implemented.

Source:CITRIX
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Sunday, 6 November 2016

08:47

Android malware targets bank and social media apps

Android malware targets bank and social media apps
Cybersecurity experts are warning about new Android malware that can steal the login credentials from 94 different mobile banking apps around the world. The malware masquerades as a Flash Player app that, once installed, appears in a phone launcher, says Fortinet. If a phone owner launches the app they see a fake Google Play screen asking for permissions that grant the malware administrator rights.

Then, when a banking app is opened, the malware creates a fake overlay, tricking victims into entering their login credentials. Among the bank apps being targeted are those of NAB, ING Direct and Citi, as well as PayPal.

In addition, the malware is also taking aim at social media apps. When users launch Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and more, they are faced with a screen overlay asking for payment card details.

Meanwhile, due to its ability to intercept SMS communications, the malware is also able to bypass SMS-based two-factor authentication. 

Fortinet says users can disable the device administrator rights through their phone settings and then uninstall the fake Flash Player.

Source:finextra.com

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Sunday, 3 July 2016

18:48

State Bank of India launches 3 new digital offerings

State Bank of India launches 3 new digital offerings 

SBI has partnered with Flipkart to offer its consumers the facility of pre-approved EMI Facility on purchases. Under this partnership SBI will provide overdraft facility to pre-qualified set of customers for transacting on Flipkart for a minimum purchase of Rs. 5000. 

The EMI facility will be available in 3 tenures - 6, 9 and 12 months. The bank will not charge any fees to process the facility.

The bank also launched 'SBI Mingle' - its social media banking platform for Facebook and Twitter users. Using SBI Mingle, its customers can do a host of banking services like checking balance and requesting mini statements on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. 

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Monday, 6 June 2016

16:08

Here’s how Facebook Messenger will change banking

Here’s how Facebook Messenger will change banking

The Facebook Messenger platform opens many doors for easier, better digital interactions by enabling businesses to embed codes in chat conversations. Businesses can now obtain user messages, translate them into action requests, and send back automatically generated or manually-typed-by-human responses to the users. This is a faster, simpler, and richer experience than mobile app interactions, which require users to navigate through a mobile app, click on different links, load new pages, and wait for confirmation.

The new Messenger platform will affect the banking industry significantly because most banking services are tasks that can be automated, and instructions can be provided in simple human language (e.g. “pay my Internet bill”).

Today, if I want to send money to someone, I must complete the following tasks:
  1. Open my banking app
  2. Login to my account
  3. Wait for authentication
  4. Navigate to Send Money
  5. Enter payee information, my account, and amount
  6. Submit request
  7. Confirm order
  8. Receive confirmation

There are usually a few seconds of wait time between each of these steps as new pages are loaded and I navigate to the right buttons in order to interact with the app.

With Facebook Messenger, I can just type “Send $200 to Jack Nielson” in a message to my bank. By looking at my list of payees, my bank will know who Jack Nielson is (if it doesn’t know, it can ask for more information) and which account the money is coming from (if it can’t decide, it can ask again). Of course, some technologies must be built to make sure that the correct action is taken upon receiving a user’s message, but such programming challenges will easily be overcome over time.

Chat bot applications for banking
Thanks to mobile banking and online banking, visiting a branch is no longer necessary for day-to-day banking. In fact, many digital banking startups feel there is no need for a branch-based business model and run their whole business on the web and mobile. Chat bots will help banks automate tasks further by making it seamless for the users to submit their inquiries.

Chat bots are also a great tool for the banks to simplify their digital interfaces, while being easier to maintain than an app. To support a new Messenger command (e.g. “what’s my credit card balance?”), there is no need for an app to be developed and published in the App Store. All the bank has to do is to write code that translates the message to a certain set of actions in the back end. Thanks to new solutions such as Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence and Microsoft Bot Platform, turning a message into a request is simple.

Here are some of the immediate applications of chat bots for banking.

Alerts: Chat bots are great tools for delivering alerts to users’ accounts. You can get a quick sense of the experience by subscribing to CNN’s Messenger bot, a great alert tool that sends a summary of news items to subscribers every day. Banks can leverage the alerts capability to enable features such as “send daily account summary” or “low balance alert” for users.

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Friday, 6 May 2016

08:52

Would you bank with Facebook or Google?

Would you bank with Facebook or Google?

The world of banking is set for rapid change, with new research revealing just how keen consumers are to use new technology like wearables and cryptocurrencies for payments - and some folks would be prepared to do their online banking with the likes of Facebook or Google.

A study from Fujitsu (taking in the opinions of 7,000 European consumers) highlighted the generally progressive attitude of banking and insurance customers. While 44% of respondents said they still used cash on a daily basis, many are shifting to modern payment methods, with 32% using their mobile device to pay for goods or services, and 22% using wearables.

One in five of those surveyed said they used cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and these were particularly strong in Eastern Europe where 44% of respondents said they used virtual currencies.

But perhaps most strikingly - and worrying for the financial services industry - a fifth of consumers said they would be prepared to use Facebook, Google or Amazon to buy banking or insurance services.

On the flipside, respondents also said they would be prepared to buy more services from banks and insurance providers - a third said they would consider going with a bank for energy services, and 30% said they would do so for broadband.

Cutting-edge or bust

Whatever happens in the future, customers are definitely expecting their bank to keep fully up-to-date with technology and new payment methods - if they fail to do so, 37% said they'd consider leaving their banking or insurance provider.

Francois Fleutiaux, Senior Vice President and Head of Sales, EMEIA, Fujitsu, commented: "Today's customers are no longer guarded. When it makes interaction more convenient they are willing to embrace innovation. They may not know where they need it until it is offered, but this is where technology comes to the fore - it is the engine that is driving consumer expectations forward and the financial services sector has to live up to this new pace of change."

Fujitsu's survey also found that many consumers were happy to allow their bank to use their data to recommend relevant services - 47% of respondents in fact, a surprisingly high figure. And the majority, 59%, said they'd be happy for their bank to use their data to lower their mortgage premium.

So clearly, if savings are to be had, then data is definitely up for grabs for a lot of people.


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Tuesday, 19 January 2016

23:01

WhatsApp is now free and ads-free

WhatsApp is now free and ads-free

New Delhi: There is good news for WhatsApp users—the popular messaging app will not charge a fee after one year of use. “We’re happy to announce that WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees,” the company said on Monday in a blog post .

WhatsApp has always been free to download and use for the first year. In fact, original users of the app, who joined WhatsApp when it started out six years back, were given a free lifetime service. But in recent years, the company introduced a subscription fee of 0.99 cents after the first free year. Technology website Recode reports that it may be a few weeks before the payments infrastructure is completely out of all versions of the app and if you’ve already paid the 99 cents for the year then there won’t be a refund, though subscription fees will cease immediately.

The announcement also implies that the Facebook-owned WhatsApp may potentially be forfeiting hundreds of millions in annual revenue. The messenger app that allows a quick, easy and inexpensive way to send messages, photos and videos, particularly popular in Europe, parts of Asia and South America, has seen incredible growth over the past few years and is just weeks away from hitting the billion user milestone, according to figures reported by Statista . It has currently 990 million users and growing.

Although the fee is negligible, the company admits that it has harmed its growth, particularly in developing countries where access to banking services is not so good. According to a report in The Guardian , developing markets are a key focus area for Facebook and WhatsApp since Messenger, Facebook’s home grown messaging service, has a strong penetration in the western markets, particularly the US. In contrast, WhatsApp leads the way in developing nations, including Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa.

The blog post reiterates the same: “As we’ve grown, we’ve found that this approach hasn’t worked well. Many WhatsApp users don’t have a debit or credit card number and they worried they’d lose access to their friends and family after their first year. So over the next several weeks, we’ll remove fees from the different versions of our app and WhatsApp will no longer charge you for our service.”

Does this mean then that the company will stay afloat by generating revenue via third party advertising?

“The answer is no. Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organizations that you want to hear from. That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today—through text messages and phone calls—so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on WhatsApp, while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and spam.”

This strategy sounds uncannily familiar to the strategy adopted by Facebook for its Messenger service—overhauling it to make it a one-stop shop to communicate with people and businesses across the world.

Interestingly, while both Messenger and WhatsApp are different in appearance, it is these differences that lend themselves to strengths that are complementary. WhatsApp relies more on the old-school SMS messaging, while Messenger is a hip, instant messaging service replete with rich media. “Messenger works better in places that have good data connectivity, while WhatsApp, by contrast, has achieved much of its success by appealing to price-sensitive consumers who want to avoid paying a fee for every text-message sent.”

It also makes perfect business sense for Facebook to roll out WhatsApp as a free service and focus on chat apps, as messaging apps account for 91% of all time spent on mobiles and desktops by US users according to a recent report by Comscore.

Facebook purchased WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion and since then has been on a growth trajectory. Being part of the Facebook stable allows WhatsApp access to the social network’s powerful infrastructure, which includes financial and technical support that it needs to grow, while WhatsApp gives Facebook access to a nearly 1 billion user base. Together, the two can become a formidable combination.
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