?? How a side project turned into an essential tool in the Ukrainian war

Hopefully, you had a better month than Pavel Durov, the Telegram CEO who recently got arrested in France. How far can freedom of speech go? And are digital platforms responsible for the content that is shared? It's a hot topic at the moment. You know what to talk about on your next after-work drink.

Someone please send him this newsletter, so he has something to read while being in detention. He’ll get to know everything about the legal accusation against Google for being a monopolist and how a side project became essential in the Ukrainian War.

Stuff we’ve found interesting

• Good news for the two Starliner astronauts. They were on a mission to the ISS but got stuck there (that’s not the good news obviously). Issues with the Starliner propulsion system made the journey back home too risky. They’ve now received a promising update: in February, they’re set to return home with Crew 9 aboard a SpaceX Dragon. The Starliner itself will return soon without a crew.
• You've probably heard of Mike Lynch, one of the victims of the luxury yacht that recently got struck by a tornado and sank off the coast of Sicily. But who is this billionaire and why does everyone seem to know him? Mike Lynch was the former CEO of Autonomy, once a major name in the British tech scene. The company was sold to HP in 2011 for over $10 billion. However, it wasn’t long before accounting fraud was uncovered, leading to a $5 billion write-down and multiple lawsuits. Just before the accident, Lynch had been found not guilty of fraud in the US.
• The only Belgian chipmaking company, BelgaN from Oudenaarde, filed for bankruptcy at the end of July. The Chinese-American owner announced this after revealing that the company was struggling with cash flow issues. BelgaN produced gallium nitride chips used in electric chargers and electric vehicles. Although the doors are currently closed, this is not necessarily permanent. The curators are said to be in negotiations with potential acquirers.

How a side project became an essential tool for the Ukrainian population

Some things in life take an unexpected turn. Just like Roman and Ruslan probably hadn’t planned to track Russian and Ukrainian troop movements in their early twenties. The two Ukrainian founders built an interactive online map, called Deep State, of the military operations of the Russian?and?Ukrainian armies. The map was created on 24 February 2022, the day of the invasion.

Originally the two focused on posting content related to global news and politics on the messaging app?Telegram. Fast forward to today, and their interactive map is now used by more than 3 million people on a daily base. Ukrainians rely on it to see the latest frontline shifts, while the creators now manage a team of over 100 people to keep things running. What started as a passion project has now turned into something much bigger.

The Deep State map now includes advanced features like the direction of Russian attacks, range of nuclear weapons, weapon simulation, environmental data, the location of trench networks…

This tool has also caught the eye of an unlikely group: Russian soldiers. Some have reportedly used it to surrender. Talk about unexpected users.

Read the full article or check out the map itself!

Tech gossip of the month

Is Google a monopolist?

Google might be feeling the heat after a U.S. judge labelled the tech giant as a monopolist. The judge, Amit Mehta, stated that "Google is a monopolist and acted accordingly to maintain its monopoly”. That’s clear language. Controlling 90% of the market, and even 95% for smartphones, Google’s grip is indeed quite unbeatable. A juicy (yet critical) detail? Google paid Apple around $20 billion in 2022 alone to keep its search engine as the default on iPhones. A deal that’s beneficial for both, and designed to preserve Google’s monopoly, according to the judge

What happens next is still unclear. Potential consequences could include a forced breakup of its search activities from other parts of its business, such as the Android system and the Chrome browser. The termination of the multi-billion dollar deal with Apple might also be on the table.

The ruling is seen as a significant victory for the US government against the market dominance of big tech companies. However, don’t expect any immediate sanctions— The exploration of potential solutions may take years, and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) won’t leave the battlefield without appeals.

What happened at we are this month?

What happened at we are this month in numbers?

Between the summer, holidays, lovely weather, and pressing deadlines, there's not much to write home about this month. We could ramble on, but that's not really our thing.