While doubling the revenue, European cloud infrastructure vendors lost market share

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Synergy Research released some seemingly paradoxical numbers from the European cloud market this week. The good news was that for the period beginning in 2017 through the second quarter of this year, the market grew fourfold, to €7.3 billion ($8.8 billion USD), while European cloud vendor revenue doubled.

The bad news? Those same European-based cloud vendors actually lost ground in market share. You may be wondering how such a scenario is possible, but the vast majority of that revenue went to the Big Three U.S.-based cloud infrastructure vendors: Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

What else is new?

These are the same three firms that control the vast majority of the cloud infrastructure market across the world, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Synergy sees a similar pattern in Europe. But Synergy’s principal analyst John Dinsdale says that in spite of that, the EU vendors should be happy about the good news instead of fretting over the bad.

“While they have missed out on the higher-growth opportunities afforded by mainstream public cloud services, some have carved out sustainable positions for themselves as national champions or strong niche players,” Dinsdale said in a statement about the numbers.

The Big Three account for almost 70% of the total revenue in Europe over the four-year time period. The European cloud leader over that time was Deutsche Telekom, with just 2% of the pie. Others with even smaller slivers included OVHcloud, SAP and Orange, with countless others having even smaller bits.

While these numbers are clearly paltry compared to the market leaders, the fact is that the market is so large, and growing so fast, that even a small amount can add up to a good chunk of revenue. In Deutsche Telekom’s case, that 2% share translates into €146 million ($170.7 million USD), which isn’t terrible as a side hustle for its wider telecommunications business.

To give these regional numbers some context, worldwide cloud infrastructure revenue was $42 billion last quarter after reaching $129 billion in 2020. It’s growing at a rapid rate, and as cloud adoption increases across the world, Europe is no exception to this trend. In fact, Dinsdale projects that the market will continue to expand in the coming years.

The Big Three certainly recognize this, as these companies continue to invest heavily into building data centers in Europe, spending ​​€14 billion ($16.3 billion USD) in capex over the last four quarters. In spite of this, the European vendors can still rake in hundreds of millions of euros simply by sticking to their strengths.

“The key for them is to stay focused on use cases that have stricter data sovereignty and privacy requirements and on customer segments that require a strong local support network,” Dinsdale said.

Group chats with attendees will now be included in Google Calendar events

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Google is adding a new button to Google Calendar events on mobile and the web that will immediately open a chat with meeting attendees. Google launched its rebranded version of Hangouts Chat to customers earlier this year and has slowly added more features to the main Gmail landing page, including its Zoom-like Google Meet video chat.

The new Chat button appears next to the attendee list in a Calendar event. Previously, Google only offered the ability to email attendees about a meeting, but since the company has closely integrated Chats and Gmail — seemingly to popularize Chats — this new addition makes sense. You can start a chat before, during, or after the meeting with attendees, and the feature will be toggled on by default.

It’s worth noting, though, the automatic group chats “only [apply] to participants within your organization, external attendees are not included in the chat group,” Google writes in a post. So some participants might be spared (or miss, whichever you prefer) the extra messages.

Google clearly wants you to use its messaging apps, despite what its confusing, ever-changing strategy might suggest. It might be annoying to be funneled towards Chat in yet another section of Google’s software suite, but for anyone who’s committed themselves to Google Workspace — or been forced to do so by their employer — here’s some added convenience.

After 13 years at the company, Facebook’s CTO will step down

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Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer just announced that he will be stepping down from the role next year and transitioning to a part-time position as a “Senior Fellow” at the company. It’s one of the biggest leadership departures for Facebook in recent memory.

He will be replaced in the role by long-time executive Andrew Bosworth who has most recently led the company’s Facebook Reality Labs. Bosworth will continue to lead the AR/VR organization in his new role.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a note on the departure in the company’s newsroom:

“I want to take a moment to thank Schrep for his extraordinary contributions to our community and our company over the last 13 years. He has played a critical role in almost everything we’ve done — from building and scaling our teams to mentoring many of our key leaders, and from helping us develop new technologies like AI and VR to operating our infrastructure and business services at global scale. Schrep and I have had a close partnership over the years, and in addition to being a great leader, he’s also a great person and a close friend.” 

Schroepfer joined the company in August of 2008, according to his LinkedIn, a time when Facebook was riding high on a $15 billion valuation but was soon to encounter a harsher investment environment during the recession that led it to raise a series of down rounds. The company went on to have the biggest technology IPO in history and is currently trading at a market cap just south of $1 trillion.

The road to riches has left Facebook with plenty of tech challenges that have led to more than a handful of controversies. Schroepfer’s lengthy tenure has been most notably marked by Facebook’s embrace of artificial intelligence and the algorithmic news feed that promotes content to users based on what Facebook believes will interest the user the most. 

The company also relies heavily on artificial intelligence for tasks like content moderation. The company’s reliance on algorithmic promotion and data collection have been controversial, to say the least, at times.

Schroepfer’s exit from Zuckerberg’s inner circle is an important moment for the company. Though Facebook has seen a handful of high-profile exits in recent years, including Facebook app chief Fidji Simo, ad boss Carolyn Everson, Chief Revenue Officer David Fischer and VR head Hugo Barra, none have been as close to the CEO as Schroepfer.

Bosworth, who joined Facebook in January of 2006, has been one of the company’s more vocal executives, sharing, at times, controversial opinions about the company and technology industry at large. He has previously led the company’s hardware divisions and ad divisions, most recently helming AR/VR operating, which Facebook has long promoted as a major pillar for the company.

“This is a difficult decision because of how much I love Facebook and how excited I am about the future we are building together,” Schroepfer wrote in a Facebook post. “This change in role will allow me to dedicate more time to my family and my personal philanthropic efforts while staying deeply connected to the company working on key initiatives including recruiting and developing technical talent and continuing to foster our AI investments in critical technologies like PyTorch.”

Facial gesture controls and handwriting recognition accessibility features added in android

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Google’s raft of new features coming to Android this fall includes some interesting new accessibility features. There are new facial gesture controls designed for people with motor impairments, as well as a new handwriting recognition feature for Lookout, a Google app that uses a phone’s camera to help people with low vision or blindness. There are also improvements coming for Google Assistant, Digital Wellbeing, Nearby Share, and Google’s Android keyboard.

There are two parts to Android’s facial gesture controls. Camera Switches (which has previously been spotted in Android 12’s beta) sits within Android’s existing Accessibility Suite and lets you use gestures like opening your mouth or raising your eyebrows to activate various commands. 

The second part is Project Activate, a standalone app that’s designed to help people communicate. Here, facial gestures can be set to trigger actions like playing audio or sending a text message.

Meanwhile, Google says Lookout’s handwriting recognition will be able to read out Latin-based languages and is accessible from its Documents mode. Euro and Indian Rupees are also being added to the app’s Currency mode.

Beyond accessibility, Gboard is also seeing improvements. Most interesting is that on all devices running Android 11 and up, Google’s Android keyboard will be able to use Smart Compose to finish sentences, similar to what’s already possible in specific services like Google Docs and Gmail. 

This feature has previously been exclusive to Pixel phones. Copying and pasting is also being updated to automatically separate out contact information and details like phone numbers and email addresses when they’re copied in a single chunk of text. 

Finally, Gboard will also proactively suggest sharing a screenshot if you immediately switch to a messaging app after taking one.

The “Heads Up” Digital Wellbeing feature, which reminds people to stop looking down at their phones while they’re walking, is expanding from just Pixels to all Android phones, while asking Google Assistant to “open my reminders” now offers a one-stop-shop for managing all reminders added to the voice assistant. 

Nearby Share is also being updated to offer new visibility settings, letting you control who can see your device and send files. It’s a real grab bag of features that should offer something for everyone.

Google isn’t offering exact release dates for any of these features, and there’s no mention of whether any of them will be exclusive to the upcoming Android 12. So expect most of them to gradually roll out over the course of this fall, which is generally considered to run until the start of December.

COVID-19 vaccination cards can now be verified from Apple wallet

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There’s a real chance you’ll need proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to enter certain venues, and Apple is hoping it can save you the hassle of digging up an email or carrying a physical card in your pocket. The company is bringing verifiable COVID-19 vaccination cards to Wallet as part of a future iPhone software update. 

The feature will take advantage of the international SMART Health Cards standard (already in use in several states) to produce proof of vaccination, sign it with a private key and create a public key to verify your info.

The just-released iOS 15 already lets you store verifiable vaccination and test results in the Health app using the same standard. You’ll receive your records through QR codes, downloadable files or healthcare providers who use Health Records on iPhone.

Apple is promising strict privacy for all your data. The company won’t have access to your imported or shared records, and all info must be encrypted and securely stored when transferred elsewhere. The tech giant also can’t see your vaccination card or how you’ve used it. You can share information with “approved” third-party apps, but only on a one-time basis.

Apple didn’t say when it might release the card update. This won’t thrill you if you’re anxious about the very concept of sharing your vaccination status with a concert venue or restaurant. However, it should at least streamline the process — important when you’re already running late for a show.

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