The Wake-Up: Sri Lanka turn off social media, A-Commerce continues to rise + the digital giants doing print

Tuesdays are the new Monday, it's official. Or at least, that's my excuse for being a day late with this week's Wake-Up. Read on for 3 things that you need to know this week:

1.NEWS: Sri Lanka turn off social media to stop the spread of misinformation around bombings

This weekend brought with it sunshine, yes, but also the terrible news of the bombings in Sri Lanka on Sunday. The death toll has now reached over 300 people.

I surely don’t need to echo the words in your head, and those of others around the world, by describing how senseless and abominable this was.

But I would like opinions on the move that the Sri Lankan government made to stop the spread of misinformation: they switched off social media. This included Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Viper, WhatsApp and Twitter.

The idea was presumably to avoid the behaviour seen around the New Zealand bombings, with Facebook users in particular sharing videos of the massacre. Sri Lanka have been known to sake similar steps before, to prevent the spread of religious hate messages.

However, it also cuts off tens of thousands of distressed relatives from contacting loved ones. ABC News also commented that it can lead to a vacuum of content - that is to say that any content uploaded and viewed before the cut-off then becomes gospel, unless users seek out news via other platforms.

More comments available via NY Times.

2. NEWS: Netflix, the kings of digital revolution, turn to print to boost their credibility

Netflix have to be right up there as champions of the young digital upstarts. Prime examples of success amongst tech firms determined to do things differently, who have harnessed the power of digital, and driven real change in how we consume entertainment thanks to the internet.

So, you can hardly blame people for getting their knickers in a twist when Netflix announced recently that they’ll be using print to better boost their credibility. Well, the last bit they didn’t say, but that’s certainly the assumption. They’re calling it ‘Wide’ and promise 100+ pages of interviews, essays about and by people who work on Netflix. With over 700 releases last year alone, many have been calling for some time for more of a focus on new talent, declaring the provider as something of an abyss; unless you’re met with hype, you’re doomed to fall away without being noticed. And the shows have famously lacked the kind of critical acclaim they wanted, particularly when it comes to award nominations.

Could this be the start of a turn towards greater acclaim for Netflix content? Is print enough to start changing minds? Or will we fail to take them seriously as a true author?

Sourced from Bloomberg.

3. DEVELOPMENT: A-Commerce continues to grow - despite consumers saying they don’t want it

We think we know what we want. We’re sure we are 10/10 against automated retail process coming over here, stealing our jobs… But just as we vote ‘Leave’ and still happily enjoy our cheap car washes, we also can’t help but love the automated retail process that are creeping into our lives.

Amazon Go was slated when mentioned in 2016, but when it finally opened for real in 2018 consumers couldn’t get enough. Sure, its sheer gimmickry helped a ton, but as an exceptionally cheap model to run, gimmickry might well carry them far.

China in particular is going fairly crazy for this concept, with a whole host of staff-less stores and a similarly wide range of methods for enabling this. Tao Cafe for example auto detects your shopping as you leave via scanners, with funds later leaving this accounts automatically.

Virtual examples cited by TrendWatching include:

• Revolut: UK-based digital banking service which uses geo-locations to detect when you’re abroad and auto-enroll you for travel insurance.
• Freda: another UK company, these nice people make stylish tampons (yes, that’s possible), and automatically send them to you each month in line with your cycle.

Taken from Insider Trends and TrendWatching.

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That's all for now, check back on Monday for more. And please let me know what you think, plus any suggestions for next week.