We once quipped that all anyone ever wanted to do over the internet was to . Didn't matter whether that was something you actually wanted or needed or even if it was something useful — as long as you were on the internet, you were a potential customer. sell you stuff And nothing proves that point more than an by this past week to begin charging users for a so-called subscription bundle. Yes, Papa Zuck wants to ride the by asking users to pay at least $11.99 per month to receive the coveted (?) verified badge on and that indicates you are who you say you are and not somebody . announcement Meta subscription-as-a-service train Facebook Instagram pretending to be George W. Bush $11.99 also gets you a slew of other benefits, including "help when you need it" with "access to a real person for common account issues," which presumably means that non-paying users will be relegated to a merry-go-round of automated messages that leaves them more confused than ever. So why now? Well, 2022 really wasn't kind to Meta or its founder Mark Zuckerberg, with both in their worth because of an insistence on a technology (aka the "metaverse") that is yet to gain widespread appeal. Despite laying off (with more expected in the ), Meta — which owns , , and (among others) — is on the hook for improving profitability and sales after it burned through billions in getting people to give a damn about VR (and by extension the metaverse) with nothing to show for it. losing billions 11,000 employees near future Facebook Whatsapp Instagram Whether this experiment — which will initially be rolled out in Australia and New Zealand later this week — will bear fruit is yet to be seen. Though the last time a billionaire offered users the ability to purchase the verified check mark on their social media website, it turned out . 🙄 as well as you'd expect Instagram ranked #1 in this week's while Facebook was trending on the #2 spot. Tech Company Rankings 👋 You’re reading HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday! here Microsoft Seeks Dominance in AI, But Also Gaming.. 🏌️ 's latest plan to monetize the internet has less to do with selling subscriptions and more with monopolizing its in artificial intelligence (though we wouldn't just yet.) Microsoft new-found relevance rule out subscriptions Ever since ChatGPT was released to the public at large, users have been with what the chatbot can do — prompting Microsoft to bake that technology within its search engine Bing. Well, sadly for the more freaky ones out there, Microsoft has now decided to the number of times users can interact with the Bing chatbot because it simply wasn't capable of and spewed nonsense like wanting to steal nuclear secrets. going nuts limit prolonged conversations In the background, however, Microsoft is already selling the idea of AI-powered Bing to advertisers so that when users ask something like "what are the best hotels in Mexico?", the chatbot could display hotel ads, Reuters . reports Meanwhile, the company is , trying to convince antitrust regulators in the EU to please, please, please let them acquire Activision-Blizzard — the producer of hits such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft — so that the video game industry becomes more "competitive." (lol) hard at work is having none of it and wants regulators to block the deal. Sony Microsoft was trending on the #46 spot this week. Amazon Asks Employees to Return to the Office 🏃 , one of the largest employers in the U.S., an advisory to employees asking that they commute to the office at least three times a week. In a note explaining the decision, the e-commerce giant's CEO, Andy Jassy, said that learning and collaborating were a lot easier when employees worked in person, and teams bonded a lot better when they were face-to-face with each other. Amazon issued More power to Amazon, I guess.. The company was trending on the #38 spot this week. In Other News.. 📰 China's has taken heed of Meta's and decided it wants with VR and the metaverse. Tencent Holdings failures nothing to do Investors are of due to regulatory scrutiny. pulling out Binance in droves Elon Musk's fired some employees that happened to be unionizing at its Buffalo, New York facility. It said its decision by the unionizing efforts. Tesla was not prompted An Indian firm is taking work-life balance seriously, to ensure that employees leave the office after their shifts are over. taking steps And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon

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