Google's DeepMind, Facebook Outage, Netflix's Squid Game Hits Record
1. Facebook Network Traffic Disruption
Last week, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp suffered a major outage during a routine maintenance exercise where Facebook’s engineering team learned that configuration to the backbone routers of the network has caused all services to be halted.
With Facebook’s 3 billion users worldwide, the outage has caused many users to flock to other platforms like Twitter where users were looking for the reasons why Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp service was severely affected.
2. Google’s DeepMind DNA Sequencing
Alphabet, the parent company of Google (GOOGL) succeeded in mapping the DNA sequence of the human genome by using a powerful software called Enformer. The neural network architecture or called Enformer has greatly increased accuracy in predicting gene expression from DNA sequence.
The main application of the new model that leverages natural language processing (NLP) principles and has more than 5x existing gene expression such as Basenji2, which is still based on convolutional neural networks (CNN). Enformer will help move forward the understanding of genomic sequences complexities by using AI.
We believe that DeepMind’s expanding collaborations with other researchers and organizations will help accelerate the understanding of DNA mutations and diseases by building new systems to advance genomics.
3. Netflix’s “Squid Game” Hits Record of 82 million
Netflix’s new series ‘Squid Game' creator was rejected for 10 years to endure financial hell. Today, the series has become the most popular series on Netflix ahead of ‘Bridgerton’. Search volume for ‘Squid Game’ has also spiked and the series is predicted to hit 100 million viewing households.
Squid Game audience engagement continues to build and has surpassed another Netflix hit, Bridgerton.
4. Is Chinese Tech like Alibaba still “Investable”?
In recent months, Chinese authorities have imposed restrictions on video gameplay, Cryptocurrencies trading and mining, and user data privacy by internet firms.
Given the regulatory uncertainty in China, US listed Chinese companies become “uninvestable” from August until Late September.
However, we believe the most attractive opportunities are entry points before an investment’s hardest questions have been answered.
This week, Charlie Munger, also the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway BRK, now has about 18% of Daily Journal’s portfolio in Alibaba (Nasdaq: BABA) , at a basis of between $180 and $200 per share, doubled down this investment on the Chinese Internet Giant.
Based on 13F filings, Munger’s Daily Journal DJCO nearly doubled its stake in Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group Holding BABA in the third quarter, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing released this week showed. (Holdings in Bank of America BAC, Posco PKX, US Bancorp USB and Wells Fargo WFC were unchanged.)
“For starters, successful people do what unsuccessful people won’t. He’s willing to take some short-term pain for long-term gain. Not on the basis of wishing or hoping, but on the basis of facts and data,” says Tom Hayes, chairman and managing member of Great Hill Capital.
Granted, yes, Alibaba has been fined for monopolistic practices, and China has aggressively sought to tame its big businesses. There also are efforts afoot by the Securities and Exchange Commission to delist Chinese companies, Alibaba’s auditor is PwC, and we don’t believe Chinese listings with big four auditors will be removed.
We believe Beijing’s views the “market mechanism” as an efficient and healthy way to grow its economy and right now, Xi and his allies are focusing on boosting China’s manufacturing capabilities instead of consumer technology.