Since movie theaters have been closed due to COVID-19 quarantine, some NBC Universal films that were supposed to premiere in theaters in the coming weeks such as Emma, The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Trolls World Tour have been announced to be available on-demand as early as Friday and throughout the next two months. Therefore, the films will be able to be watched in-home for the price of $19.99. This was really interesting to me because of the box-office crash last week many films were hurting. This also made me think if we do have the availability to do this if it is successful will we go in this direction in the future?
This photo was posted on Instagram by activist Shaun King where he @’ed the Mayor of New York City and the NYPD.
King says this photo was taken by a friend of his on May 2nd, 2020, in West Village, Manhattan. He points out the obvious- that there is no social distancing being practiced in the photo. No masks, no gloves, just very very crowded. But also, you can really only see one particular kind of person: white people.
He asks why the NYPD aren’t going there to break up the congregation and to brutalize, punch, choke, taser, handcuff, and send ‘THESE PEOPLE’ to Rikers? King states that that is what the NYPD typically does, just not to white people. On the other side of town, in black neighborhoods police brutalize and arrest black kids and young adults who are simply sitting outside for some fresh air, mind you, they are only in a group of four, yet you still make an example of them and send them to prison where they are actually likely to contract the virus.
Hundreds of white people do the same thing yet with 50 times the amount of people, and the police and mayor have no response? Why must people of different races live in different realities in the same city?
An article from the Tampa Bay Times discusses how medical examiners were told to stop releasing data surrounding the deaths and cases of COVID-19 in the state of Florida. This comes after the concern amongst the public grows that the state government is intentionally under-reporting the number of cases, and therefore underreporting on the severity of the virus and the situation/implications it has caused.
The inquiry into data numbers and statistics came after discrepancies were found between death numbers reported by individual counties and the Florida Department of Health. I wanted to write about this article because I find it interesting how many media outlets, national, local and online, are pointing their finger at, and blaming China for their underreporting of cases and deaths. I understand the supposed scale difference in the omission of data between China and Florida, but does that mean that it’s okay? We are so quick to put the blame elsewhere and criticize others, but shouldn’t we sometimes be critical of ourselves a little more? Each state and its governor needs to be held accountable.
Another topic that made me want to write this article was due to the recent protesting of the ‘lockdown’ across the United States. I want to emphasize how ridiculous it is that there are Trump supporters who are protesting social distancing measures and claiming that the government is over-reporting and exaggerating the data- it is clear that is not the case, but rather, Florida (who’s probably not alone in this endeavor) are systematically hiding cases and deaths.
The FCC announced that all carriers must adopt the STIR/SHAKEN protocol by June 30, 2021. The protocol is designed to combat robocalls, specifically aimed at the calls trying to hide their caller ID. The protocol requires carriers to verify phone numbers. The FCC estimates fraudulent call schemes cost Americans approximately 10 million per year. For the implementation to work carriers must test it with other networks. It will require cooperation among telecommunication companies. A way to display a “call verified” stamp when a unknown or unsaved number calls your device. Robocalls won’t disappear overnight but this is a step in the correct direction to preserve our privacy.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the government is using data from the mobile advertising industry. Government officials at the federal and state level, as well as those at the CDC, having been tracking the movement of the public to better understand the COVID-19.
Data collection doesn’t include personal information, such as name or number. This still raises privacy concerns nonetheless. The government says they is all to make sure citizens are complying with the stay at home and shelter-in-place order. These circumstances reduce our privacy to less than what it is. We are uncertain of how the government will use this data after the threat of COVID-19 drops.
Taking a different view the data could come in hand can see this data as invaluable to tracking the spread of the virus. The issue is people have to volunteer the rights to their location at all times.
The lobbying efforts of an alliance known as Financial Innovation Now, has finally paid off, as PayPal, Intuit & Square have all been approved to participate in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program, it provides aide in the form of forgivable loans. These forgivable loans are for small businesses that keep all employees on their payroll for atleast two months. The $350 billion small business loan program is a part of Congress $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package, it is aid at those businesses with fewer than 500 employees.
Since 2013, PayPal has provided loans and cash advances to business owners. Those efforts to date have provided access to more than $15 billion in funding for over 305,000 small businesses. PayPal become the first non-bank institution to be approved to distribute loans under the SBA Program. Intuit and Square followed as approved by the government to provide loans for small businesses. Financial Innovation Now leader wrote to lawmakers about these specific companies because of their ability to “reach those businesses most vulnerable, in a more timely fashion than traditional financial institutions.”
This article gave an interesting look into the measures snapchat is taking to help businesses reach their audience during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are providing marketers with resources, insights and tools to reach their audience in this unique time we are living through. The article pulls directly from the resource itself and provides some very interesting insight into the current trends in snapchat use. Of the most interesting was the graph at the end reflecting how much snapchat use has increased, as well as other digital media streaming services and their projections. Of the other numbers, snapchat expects that their users will see a 35% expected increase in online shopping, and an overall increase in the use of shopping and food delivery apps. The insights that snapchat is providing will be important for marketing professionals to take advantage of when business is no longer functioning as usual
The Pentagon has released three short videos showing an “unidentified aerial phenomenon” that had been previously released by a private company. The videos show service members reacting in awe. The Navy previous acknowledged the videos back in September but are releasing them now due to “misconceptions by the public”.
“These aircrafts are displaying characteristics that aren’t currently within the inventory of the United States or foreign inventory that we’re aware of,” Luis Elizondo says, former head of a classified program. Elizondo resigned in 2017 in protest of the secrecy surrounding the program and funding disputes.
With the Pentagon releasing classified footage of UFO’s Elizondo expresses his thoughts on Twitter. He’s glad that the government released the sightings but says it only scratches the surface. We should really think about the national security risk surrounding this issue.
Due to the new protocol established by the CDC, Airbnb has changed its policies for Airbnb hosts.
According to the Forbes article I read this week, “The CDC recommends a 24-hour wait period before entering a recently-vacated property. Listings enrolled in the new protocol can be available for stays immediately after the enhanced cleaning is performed.
Airbnb hosts who are unable to commit to the new cleaning protocol can alternatively opt to use “Booking Buffer,” a tool that will automatically block reservations for an established period, such as 72 hours, between stays. Cleaning would be the only permissible activity during this period. This option includes the same CDC-recommended 24-hour wait period before entering, and hosts should still observe CDC recommendations and other applicable local guidance.
The concept of longer periods between occupancies was first developed for Airbnb’s “Frontline Stays” project, which offered over 200,000 places to stay for medical workers and first responders around the world”.
Spotify usage has completely been derailed from the usual statistics. Obviously, spotify usage in cars have dropped because of the Stay-at-Home order. But Spotify usage at home on T.V. or game consoles have soared, reaching an increase of over 50% of usual number.
From their data, Spotify has found that everyday usage seems like a weekend. In the mornings, people are constantly streaming music on the apps that would often only happen more on the weekends.
More Spotify usage has been happening around their family during cooking, chores, family time, and relaxing at home with their numbers doubling. Spotify descriptions such as “chill” or “instrumental” have also seen an increase. This is most likely because an ambient sound is looked for while performing activities with the family.
More US consumers are seen to be using music as a stress reliever according to surveys. Spotify is proud of the fact that they are able to continue providing service with little disruption during this time of chaos.
Opposite of Spotify usage in the US, Italy and Spain has seen a decrease in streams.
People cancelling their subscriptions have said there reason for cancelling was due to the pandemic. They were also said to have renew their subscriptions when economic balance is restored.
Spotify has reached 130 million paid subscriptions, which is above forecasted numbers. But ad-supported revenue has been below forecasted numbers as a result of Covid-19.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, said the company is in better position because the company relies less on revenue derived from advertisements.
Spotify has also began investing more into podcasts which has seen a tremendous leap this year, especially due to the Coronavirus.
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