Facebook's latest breakdown on Monday highlighted the need for alternative applications and is seen as an opportunity for home-grown mobile apps in emerging markets to make their presence felt in the daily activities of billions of users, according to Tellimer Research.
The survey, which covered 14 markets, shows that Facebook's products typically takes a 40 per cent share of the most frequently used apps. The breakdown gives regulators, businesses and consumers reasons to favour a more diversified playing field, providing an opportunity for smaller players to claw into Facebook's dominant market share.
"Facebook is best known for its messaging and content-sharing platforms, where it is the dominant player in all but a handful of markets. But Facebook [and its stable of companies] is also increasingly an enabler of online commerce, both at the business-to-business and business-to-consumer levels," Rahul Shah, head of financials equity research at Tellimer, said in the report.
Any outage in an ecosystem as large as Facebook – along with its associated services WhatsApp and Instagram – has far-reaching consequences, including severe financial losses for its users who heavily rely on the platform for communication, e-commerce, news and information on an almost round-the-clock basis.
The services went dark on Monday for six hours – its longest and biggest outage by far – caused by a domain name server issue, bringing a big chunk of online activity to a halt and prompting its users to scramble for alternative apps. Collectively, these apps have almost 6.24 billion users worldwide, according to Statista. It also caused the wealth of its chief executive and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to plummet by $7bn.
Downdetector, a site that monitors reports of outages across the internet, said the Facebook service interruption is the largest it has ever seen.
The countries Tellimer surveyed – where Facebook's products are dominant – include Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Kenya, the Philippines, Russia and China.
Individually, Facebook does best in Vietnam, Instagram in Indonesia, WhatsApp in South Africa and Messenger in the Philippines, the study added, with Google's services a distant second.
Individually, Facebook does best in Vietnam, Instagram in Indonesia, WhatsApp in South Africa and Messenger in the Philippines. Google's services, overall, are a distant second, the study added.
Home-grown apps already have a considerable following in countries where they are the top local or regional platform, and are gearing up to expand further.
Noon, the e-commerce platform from Mohamed Alabbar, the founder of Dubai's Emaar Properties, occupies the top spot in Saudi Arabia, according to Tellimer. On Sunday, the company announced it was going to raise $2bn in funding from investors, including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.
India's Flipkart, which is owned by US retailer Walmart, recently launched a direct-to-consumer programme to help made-in-India brands.
Meanwhile in China – the world's second-most populous country – Facebook services are severely handicapped owing to tight internet restrictions on global technology giants.
Russia used Facebook's debacle to magnify the need for internet sovereignty. Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said the huge disruption “answers the question about whether we need our own social media and internet platforms".
She issued the statement on Telegram, the WhatsApp rival from Dubai-based Russian developer Pavel Durov, whose platform gained 70 million users while Facebook was down.
We think Monday’s outage will give individuals and businesses pause for thought. Some of them use Facebook’s platforms for critical tasks and may have suffered financial losses or severe disruption to their activities as a result
Rahul Shah,
head of financials equity research at Tellimer Research
Vkontakte, Russia's largest social media network, also reported a 20 per cent rise in traffic during the Facebook breakdown.
In addition, Facebook, should it learn from the outage, may decide, or be impelled, to develop a more decentralised model with greater on-the-ground resources in key markets like Brazil and India, which has a combined population of almost 1.6 billion.
"We think Monday’s outage will give individuals and businesses pause for thought. Some of them use Facebook’s platforms for critical tasks and may have suffered financial losses or severe disruption to their activities as a result," Mr Shah said.
"Regulators that have already been jittery about the key economic role being played by foreign tech giants, could also use this episode to tighten oversight," he added. "The net result is likely to be favourable for home-grown apps that have hitherto been forced to work under the large shadows cast by global tech firms."
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Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
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What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
The specs: 2018 Infiniti QX80
Price: base / as tested: Dh335,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.1L / 100km
Company%C2%A0profile
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
SQUAD
Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Adel Al Hosani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Bandar Al Ahbabi, Mohammed Barghash, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Hassan Al Mahrami, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Yousef Jaber, Saeed Ahmed, Majed Sorour, Majed Hassan, Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Khalil Al Hammadi, Fabio De Lima, Khalfan Mubarak, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Ali Saleh, Caio Canedo, Muhammed Jumah, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, Group B
Barcelona v Inter Milan
Camp Nou, Barcelona
Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
Company profile
Name: Infinite8
Based: Dubai
Launch year: 2017
Number of employees: 90
Sector: Online gaming industry
Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEric%20Barbier%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EYoussef%20Hajdi%2C%20Nadia%20Benzakour%2C%20Yasser%20Drief%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Most wanted allegations
- Benjamin Macann, 32: involvement in cocaine smuggling gang.
- Jack Mayle, 30: sold drugs from a phone line called the Flavour Quest.
- Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
- Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
- Calvin Parris, 32: accused of buying cocaine from Naveed and selling it on.
- John James Jones, 31: allegedly stabbed two people causing serious injuries.
- Callum Michael Allan, 23: alleged drug dealing and assaulting an emergency worker.
- Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
- Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
- Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a £60,000 watch.
- James ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
- Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
