|
|
|
Partner(s)
|
|
|
|
Good morning!
|
Elon Musk was in the news all through yesterday for a myriad of reasons. First, Twitter staff grilled him at the "all-hands meeting," he had on the future of the company with him as their new boss. Elsewhere, SpaceX staff sent a letter critical of his leadership style at the company to executives.
|
|
Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.
|
|
|
|
|
Summary of the news
|
- SpaceX employees sent an open letter to the company executives denouncing Elon Musk’s behaviour
- Highlights from Elon Musk's meeting with Twitter staff
- Binance boss Changpeng Zhao speaks out on the crypto crash
- NCC says that Nigerians consumed 350,165 terabytes of data in 2021
|
|
|
Staff of SpaceX revolt against Elon Musk
|
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70982694/1240264224.0.jpg)
|
The staff of Elon Musk's SpaceX are not having it from the billionaire CEO. In a letter shared internally, The Verge reports that the staff of the company “across the spectra of gender, ethnicity, seniority, and technical roles" have collaborated to bring to the attention of SpaceX president, Gwynne Shotwell what they describe as a "distraction" from the company's aims and objectives.
|
|
|
|
Elon’s behaviour in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks. As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.
|
|
The letter also claims that the company is not living up to its "zero tolerance for sexual harassment policy." It also called for more stringent policies on how Musk conducts himself on the internet, especially on Twitter.
|
This underscores the rising tension inside Musk's companies, raising questions about his leadership style.
|
Twitter employees have chatted to the press that they are not enthusiastic about having Musk as CEO, leading to Musk holding a meeting with them yesterday. He is currently in negotiations to buy the company.
|
|
Musk had also recently sent a memo to Tesla's employees to return to the physical office for at least "40 hours a week" or leave the company.
|
|
|
|
Highlights from Elon Musk's meeting with Twitter staff
|
|
As SpaceX staff staged an intervention on Musk, perched in a hotel, he held a meeting with Twitter employees about his plans for the company. He said his goal with the company is "to better understand the nature of the universe, as much as it is possible to understand.”
|
- On free speech, a topic that has been a top priority for him, he said that people "should allow people to say what they want."
- On success, he said that a successful Twitter is one where there is an increase in daily active users, with 1 billion users or beyond on the platform.
- On his tweets, he said that people are the ones choosing to write "a two-page article about it."
- On leadership style, he said he will be hands on as he currently in Tesla.
- On bots on Twitter, he said that he will be working to make it more difficult for spammers and bot buyers to exist on the platform.
- On working remotely, he said that Telsa is different from Twitter adding that people who are “exceptional at their jobs" can work remotely. Remote work he said reduces “esprit de corps.” He added that it is “much better if you are on location physically.”
- On layoffs, he said that "right now, costs exceed revenue. That’s not a great situation."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Binance co-founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao on the crypto winter
|
|
Binance co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao in a new interview with Fortune magazine said that the crypto crash will have a very negative impact on the space in the future.
|
|
|
I’m not debating that it is disastrous. It is bad,” he said on the matter.
Although it is painful for a lot of people, it weeds out the weak projects, and only the strong ones stay...Everyone who lasts, who survives, will be stronger.
|
|
Even as the crypto world is reporting losses with CoinBase laying staff off this week, Binance has been on a hiring spree and is poised to be hiring more before the year runs out.
|
|
|
|
“We do not need to raise money. Based on my knowledge, we have a much larger budget than anybody else in the industry.
|
|
He said that with the industry layoffs, “offers are much more reasonable.” He also revealed that he is in the market for acquisition "this year for sure."
|
He also said that the future of the metaverse is very bright.
|
|
|
|
"Twenty years from now, you’ll be sending money to England, Latin America, China. You won’t think about crypto, you’ll just say you paid $1 for an article written in Latin America. You’ll be in the metaverse, interacting with people, and you won’t think about the technology. It will be everywhere.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NCC says Nigerians consumed 350,165 terabytes of data in 2021
|
|
Nigeria’s telecommunications subscribers consumed 350,165 terabytes of data in 2021. This was disclosed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in its 2021 Subscriber/Network Data Annual Report released yesterday, according to Nairametrics.
|
|
The report shows that the amount of data being used by an average Nigerian increased last year. According to the data, the 2021 figure was a 68% increase compared with the 205,880 terabytes consumed in December 2020. This was in spite of an 8% decrease in internet subscriptions in the year.
|
Affected by the directive from NCC in December 2020 to all GSM Operators to suspend the sale and registration of new SIMs, SIM swaps, and all porting activities, subscriptions for internet decreased from 154.3 million as of December 2020 to 141.9 million as of December 2021.
|
The increase in the volume of data consumption by the subscribers, however, covered the network operators in terms of revenue. This is reflected in the 2021 financial results of two of the leading network operators, MTN and Airtel, which showed a surge in earnings from data.
|
MTN, for instance, recorded 55% increase in data revenue for the year as it raked in N516 from its internet customers. Airtel Nigeria also raked in N304 billion as data revenue for the year, representing a 41.1% increase.
|
|
The two operators acknowledged that their 4G expansion across the country was the driving force for the increase in data usage by their customers.
|
|
|
|
Latest in funding
|
|
|
|
|
Other stories we are following
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
    
|
|
|
|
|
|
