GAFA et al

• 5G will determine whether the world's next Google, Apple, Amazon or Uber is created in the US or in China.
• By the end of 2020 Google Pay and Samsung Pay are expected to have about 100 million users each, compared to the 227 million users of Apple Pay 3.
• An apple touted as the first in the world to be resistant to climate change could be grown in Australia as early as next year.
• CarbonCure, is a company producing stronger, more sustainable concrete, which will help Amazon and other companies meet The Climate Pledge, a commitment to be net-zero by 2040.
• Sales of wearables are expected to improve in the second half of the year when devices such as the Apple Watch are updated.
• In just a few years, Amazon has built its own UPS and will deliver 67% of its own packages in 2020 and increase that to 85%.
• Preserving the Amazon rainforest is of global importance in the fight against climate change, but it is under threat from forest fires, mostly started to clear land for agriculture.
• The Franco-German partnership is the first attempt to offer a European alternative to Amazon, Microsoft and Google in cloud computing, a business expected to grow by 6.3% in 2020 to $257.9 billion.
• When implemented, indigenous property rights reduce deforestation inside indigenous territories in the Amazon rainforest, and could provide an important positive externality for Brazil and the rest of the world in terms of climate change mitigation.
• The UK government has denied reports that it is to drop a recently introduced levy on global technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon due to fears the so-called Facebook tax could jeopardise a post-Brexit trade deal.
• Since India is far from having NFC Terminals in every other Kirana stores, and with the increasing number of iPhone users in India, Apple might implement Pay in a different way.
• The current administration of President Jair Bolsonaro has made it clear that Indigenous peoples will not be allowed to comment on infrastructure projects affecting Indigenous territories in the Amazon.
• As unemployment surges in the United States, Facebook has pledged US$ 100 million in grants to small businesses, while Amazon has said it will hire 100,000 people.
• Alerts of deforestation in the Amazon region are also a third higher than last year, which increases the risk of fires due to dried-out vegetation.
• Mercedes on Friday joined The Climate Pledge, started by Amazon last year, which calls on signatories to be net zero carbon across their businesses by 2040.
• Amazon plans to get to net-zero emissions by 2040, Microsoft vowed to go carbon negative by 2030, and Lyft plans to have an entirely electric fleet of vehicles by 2030.
• Healthcare providers and officials fear that medical facilities already struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 will face further stress caring for people affected by fires, potentially collapsing the health system in parts of the Amazon region.
• Alibaba has a big opportunity in the Chinese cloud market, which is still in its early stages and has the potential to grow more rapidly than cloud computing in the United States.
• A new law will require Facebook and Google to share revenue from news content with Australian media companies.
• Amazon is delivering two-thirds of its own packages, and with e-commerce sales so strong due to the coronavirus pandemic, it could hit 80% as early as next year.
• Investment funds managing close to $4 trillion in assets called on Brazil Tuesday to halt deforestation of the Amazon in an open letter warning that biodiversity loss and carbon emissions pose a systemic risk to their portfolios.
• In total, year-on-year deforestation in the Amazon is estimated to have increased by as much as a half in the first three months of the year, prompting environmentalists to fear that 2020 could end up seeing the highest deforestation rates on record.

Last updated: 04 October 2020