Facebook's Safety Check Feature Debuts In US

The American social network operator switched the safety tool on to help its users find whether their relatives are secure or not after the Orlando shoot out

After the heinous attack in the Pulse nightclub of Orlando, Facebook Inc.’s most popular social networking site, Facebook has enabled its “Safety Check” feature for the first time in the US. The feature helps the users to locate the safety of their friends and relatives when the latter check themselves as “safe” after any disastrous situation. The attack that took place during the early morning hours of Sunday left 53 injured and 49 people murdered.

The tool was launched two years ago and it works in the following manner: It thoroughly scrutinize the registered city of the users, disclosed in their profile, along with the locations from where the users have had maximum internet usage. If some unfortunate event happens in the vicinity of the places mentioned then the site will switch on the “security feature” for the user to enable him to mark his safety. Until now, this feature wasn’t operated in the US however since its launch, it has been used around 12 times to respond to natural calamities including, but not limited to last year’s Nepal earthquakes and the terror attacks in Brussels and Paris.

Back in March, the Menlo Park based organization turned it on for most of the world responding to the bombing in Lahore, Pakistan. The increasing pains of the feature were joined by criticism regarding when turning it on was appropriate, but previously in June 2016 the company began to test a version that lets users activate themselves “identify and elevate local crises”- which it implemented in the city of Orlando, revealed the organization’s Disaster Response Page.

As per reports by Adweek, CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg stated the following on his Facebook page, "Waking up this morning, I was deeply saddened to hear about the shooting in Orlando. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the LGBT community."

Daily Mail reports that the feature automatically sends a notice to Facebook users in an affected region questioning them if they are safe.  When any user taps on “yes let my friends know” the feature sends a notification to his or her Facebook friends.

Family members of the victims have been posting on the social platform to seek help in searching for their loved ones  as they are having trouble finding the whereabouts of their loved ones. By switching on the security feature, Facebook is playing its role to better serve the community.

Alibaba's Financial Affiliate Purchases a Crucial Stake in Shanghai Suntime

The Hangzhou based organization has acquired the stake to dominate the financial data industry

Alibaba’s Financial affiliate  has purchased a 20% share in the Chinese hedge fund data tracking company Shanghai Suntime Information Technology Company, revealed people aware of the issue.

Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group also known as Ant Financial paid cash worth $38 million (250 million yuan) for the share previously this week, stated the person, who asked to be kept anonymous. With the acquisition of the stake, the Chinese e-commerce company’s financial affiliate, turns into the biggest Shanghai Suntime owner after Liao Bing, who is the chairman of the data service provider, revealed a person.

Founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Jack Ma controls Ant Financial. He has been developing his financial and media Information Empire. The financial partner, which is the controller of the organization that does management of the biggest money-market fund of China Yu’E Bao is negotiating to make an investment in the China based business magazine publisher Caixin Media Company.

The online retailer purchased Hong Kong based publication South China Morning Post(SCMP) and in 2015 also established a joint project with the Chinese media organization Shanghai Media Group to establish a financial information and data service. With the recent acquisition, the financial affiliate is exploiting the potential of the country’s rapidly-expanding hedge fund sector as more rich Chinese people become private managers.

In 2003, Shanghai Suntime was founded by Liao. It runs a very huge database that tracks Chinese hedge funds, offers profit forecasts for registered organizations and provides wealth management services. The figure of private securities funds, which are equivalent of hedge funds in China have increased by over 140% to 18,297 on 31^st May from 2015, and Assets under management( AUM) grew by two times to a sum of $340 billion during that time period, revealed Asset Management Association of China.

The web retailer’s financial affiliate, which is stated to have a valuation of around $60 billion after receiving $4.5 billion previously in 2015, has grown from an outside organization in a strictly controlled sector to an internet company currently collaborating with the biggest stated controlled entities sovereign wealth fund of China as well as with the country’s second biggest bank.

The organization also provides the Chinese largest online payment facility Alipay, with a user base of 450 million. In its emailed statement, Ant financial refused to comment. Phone calls to Bing’s office were not answered on a holiday in China.

In other news, Alibaba has released the first Indian first free application-lock with a feature face lock permitting users to crack their secured applications by taking a 1 second selfie. Alibaba claims that blink detection and face lock setting ensures accuracy of 99.7% for face identification. With the huge increase in smartphone users, India has turned into the biggest consumer base for safety applications across the globe.

SoftBank to spin off its stake in Alibaba

The Japanese telecom will spin off its shares in Alibaba to pay back its huge debt

 When Alibaba Group Holding Limited was just 12 months old in 2000, the Chinese E-Commerce company got an early investor and believer in the outspoken Japan based telecom mogul Masayoshi Son, 16 years later, Mr Masayoshi and his telecom company SoftBank, are ultimately spinning off a part of that stake after its worth has grown to billions of dollars.  On 31^st May 2016, the Tokyo based organization stated it aimed to spin off its Alibaba shares worth approximately $8 billion .

The reason behind this decision is that the Japanese organization seeks to pay back its huge debt. SoftBank stated it would continue to be amongst the online retailer’s shareholders, with a share of around 28% after the stake sale. The measure comes as the telecom tried to cut down costs as well as concentrate on turning around its controlled American telecom company Sprint Corporation it controls. Though the residual part of SoftBank, which includes its extensive Japan based wireless network as well as its Yahoo Japan business, is well-performing, Sprint continues to remain behind its US rivals in terms of sales and customers.

That has prompted the company, presided by its President, Nikesh Arora, to concentrate on shedding debt and lowering costs in its strategy “SoftBank 2.0”. The organization recording holding a long –term debt of about less than $77 billion or $8.5 trillion yen as of 31^st March, revealed a research service provider Standard & Poor’s. The web retailer has turned into a very valuable asset in the company’s business portfolio. The online trading platform operator debuted as a public company on the NYSE 2 years ago and currently has a market valuation of around $209 billion.

The stake sale, which was expected for months, hasn’t been caused by concern regarding Jack Ma’s organization’s financial prospects, revealed people directly aware of the matter. In recent times, the Hangzhou based organization revealed that the US had been investigating its accounting methods, and the organization has stated it’s co-operating.

Under the conditions of the plans of SoftBank, almost sale of share worth $5 billion would be packed into a financial security, which would convert into Alibaba shares after 3 years. The online trading platform operator will purchase back shares worth around $2 billion from the telecommunications organization. The Chinese organization’s tie-up, a group that principally controls it through its capability to do nomination of most of the directors, aims to purchase extra shares worth $400 million.

“As SoftBank looks to strengthen its own balance sheet, Alibaba determined that it was the best use of our capital to reinvest in our own business through an efficient buyback of a large number of shares in our own company that is accretive to our stockholders,” Executive Chairman and founder of Alibaba Jack Ma stated.

SoftBank will spin off  shares worth half a billion dollar to an anonymous investment fund of the government. The two organizations stated even in the aftermath of the sale they would keep partnering with each other.