Welcome to your newsletter featuring the most essential insights curated in tech and innovation this week.

Facts and Stats

Why did The Metaverse Die? Because Silicon Valley Doesn’t Understand the Concept of Fun. In order to illustrate just how dead the metaverse is, I could resort to citing the single-digit user numbers in Decentraland, or the abrupt, mass pivot of venture funding away from the whole idea, or the fact that the majority of people who have no idea what Facebook Horizons even is.

Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2024. Gartner, Inc. today announced its list of 10 top strategic technology trends that organizations need to explore in 2024. Analysts presented their findings during Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, which is taking place here through Thursday.

Tech Workers Are Dissatisfied With Their Jobs, New Data Shows.Tech workers are facing a morale decline, a shift from the industry's historically high job satisfaction. The allure of shaping the future, high salaries, and modern work environments seems to be losing its grip.

Opticon 2023 Reveals Marketing's Future. Takeaways from Opticon 2023: Discover the future of marketing, from AI-powered content to customer experience evolution.

Businesses Seeing Increased Employee Demand for Wellbeing. A study across UK and US offices have found that staff attribute higher value to employers who work to improve their wellbeing.

The Number

42%

of European Millennials Want an All-in-One App to Streamline Digital Activities

Who’s Innovating?

New Innovation Challenge Launched to Tackle Bias in AI Systems. UK companies can apply for up to £400,000 in government investment to fund innovative new solutions that tackle bias and discrimination in AI systems.

8 Tips for Cultivating a Winning IT Culture. Winning IT organizations aren’t built in a day. Long-term success is generally the result of leaders who make a committed effort to connect directly with their teams, rather than simply issuing memos, edicts, and other top-down commands.

Inside Ikea's Innovation Strategy: Stores, AI, and supply chain  Swedish furniture retailer Ikea was established in 1943 and operates 460 stores across 62 markets. The business reported a total sales increase of 6.5% to €44.6bn (£38.5bn) for fiscal 2022.

Startup Stories

Why S’pore Makes an Ideal Launchpad for Startups to Launch a Business Before Going Global. Launching a startup is a thrilling yet challenging endeavor that involves countless decisions, one of the most critical being the location to kickstart your business.

5 Lessons Every Founder Needs to Know, From the Techstars Sydney Accelerator Program. The inaugural Techstars Tech Central Sydney cohort has just completed the accelerator program and in the wake of their success, were keen to share 5 valuable lessons they learned, in the hope that other startup founders don’t make the same mistakes.

Live Commerce Startup TalkShopLive Launches New App for Sellers to Broadcast on Mobile. Live commerce platform TalkShopLive announced today its new Studio app for creators and brands, bringing an array of management and broadcast tools to mobile, including the ability to virtually collaborate with four people in a livestream, pin comments, simulcast on Facebook and more.

Klarna Unveils AI-Driven Photo Shopping Tool. Klarna has debuted an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered shopping tool with the help of OpenAI. The Swedish payments company announced the new feature Wednesday (Oct. 11) as part of a broader rollout of new shopping-related offerings.

Best practices

Cut-price Disney+ offer Drives Summer Surge in Streaming Subs. Disney+’s “£1.99 for three months” campaign drove a significant boost in new subscriber adds across all streaming services this summer amid a longer-term trend of rising prices.

Amazon, Expedia, Glassdoor Launch Coalition to Fight Fake Reviews. Some of the biggest names in online commerce have formed the Coalition for Trusted Reviews, a cross-industry collaboration seeking to define best practices for hosting online reviews and sharing methods of fake review detection.

Spotify is Launching a Personalized in-App Merch Hub. Spotify is launching a dedicated in-app Merch Hub that provides personalized merch recommendations based on your listening habits, the company announced on Monday.

Why Advertisers Should Keep an Eye on Amazon Fresh. Amazon Fresh, despite failing to gain traction with its brick-and-mortar endeavors, is trying to assert itself in the grocery space. Its customer base, though much smaller than competitors like Walmart and Target, is attractive to consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertisers because those shoppers are open to trying new products.

Amazon’s ‘Buy Again’ May Help Rekindle Subscription Momentum. Companies want to have an installed base of avid users — enthusiastic buyers who remain loyal, transact frequently, and don’t need much outreach in terms of marketing and promotion. These customers help margins.

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