logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2022
18m 27s

What's happened to the titans of big tec...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Big tech is facing a big moment. With plummeting stock prices, and mass lay-offs, the likes of Google, Twitter and Meta are all - for different reasons - facing some tough questions over how they're being run.

Some see this as primarily a result of post-pandemic blues, the rise in interest rates, and a general cost-of-living crisis affecting the business environment. However, Twitter and Meta especially have seen wholesale desertions by a number of major advertisers, worried about the regulation of hate speech, and therefore by association the safety of brands' reputations.

Does this mark a deeper crisis for the ad-based business model of the major social media platforms? And what can they do about it?

Presenter / Producer: Ed Butler Image: Phones; Credit: Getty

Up next
Oct 9
Business Daily meets: Fani Titi, Investec CEO
The South African grew up under the racist apartheid system as one of 14 children. He looked set for a life in farming, until a chance event took him down a different path – ultimately becoming CEO of the multinational banking group, Investec. Presenter: Leanna Byrne Producer: El ... Show More
17m 27s
Oct 8
Small country: Big tariffs
We head to Switzerland, a small but very successful country with a population of just 9 million.And now coping with some of US President Donald Trump’s highest tariffs. In August the original threat of 31% tariffs was raised to 39%. Two months on, efforts to negotiate with Washin ... Show More
17m 30s
Oct 7
Should we expect more airline delays?
Passengers are suffering more disruption as technology at airports, airlines and air traffic control is failing.But why is aviation software becoming more prone to failure and vulnerable to cyber-attacks, and what is the solution to preventing delays?Presented and produced by Rus ... Show More
17m 28s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2023
Meta's Big Pop, Google's New Threat
For the first time in a while, Facebook's parent company gave shareholders reason to smile. (00:21) Bill Mann discusses: - Meta Platforms starting the fiscal year with a bang - The Reality Labs division posting an operating loss of (gulp) $4 billion - The current state of regiona ... Show More
21m 44s
Jul 2023
Meta Has 3 Billion Users. Now What?
Meta has our attention but will we follow Mark Zuckerberg into the metaverse? (00:21) Asit Sharma and Deidre Woollard discuss: - Meta’s soaring ad impressions amid a tough advertising market. - If Mark Zuckerberg will need to choose between AI and the metaverse. - How Chipotle is ... Show More
33m 22s
Oct 2022
Reality bites for Meta
Social media giant Meta has posted more disappointing results as it struggles to drum up support for its Metaverse concept. Sales and profits are down once again at the Silicon Valley company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. We'll discuss what it means for the wider ... Show More
50m 40s
Apr 2016
Why Twitter matters
First, let's establish something. Despite all the Wall Street belly-aching about Twitter, The Bird is a powerful force in our world. It is a place for innovation, conversation and collaboration. It is where news breaks and politicians rant. It is the place for real-time commentar ... Show More
36m 9s
Jan 2021
Left holding the mic: Will shareholders still love Twitter and Facebook?
Shares in Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, all slid at the start of the week. But analysts said they won’t fall far. This week, co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner dig into the unfolding drama at the world’s biggest platforms and ... Show More
19m 28s
Jul 2023
Has Twitter Meta its match?
Meta is debuting Threads, its riff on Twitter, to rival the legacy social media platform. We’ll get into where the app might sit in today’s social media landscape and question why Meta would want a piece of Twitter’s notoriously unprofitable pie. And, how the U.S. workforce is ch ... Show More
19m 50s
Nov 2022
Money Talks: The tech reckoning
Most of America’s biggest technology firms are having a bad time - and not just the ones who have been recently acquired by a mercurial billionaire. More than $1tn has been wiped from their market value in recent weeks. Is the sell-off just investor jitters? Or is it a symptom of ... Show More
35m 28s
Nov 2022
Money Talks: The tech reckoning
Most of America’s biggest technology firms are having a bad time - and not just the ones who have been recently acquired by a mercurial billionaire. More than $1tn has been wiped from their market value in recent weeks. Is the sell-off just investor jitters? Or is it a symptom of ... Show More
35m 28s
Jul 2022
Why Instagram Broke Its Square
When Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram in 2012, he promised he would be hands-off with the company’s curated aesthetic and simple features. But as Facebook scaled the startup into a social media juggernaut, tensions flared. Instagram’s founders would leave, and it’s now a very dif ... Show More
37m 41s