Top tech stories of first six months of 2018
December 26, 2018 | Investopaper
Let us summarize the most captivating tech stories of the year 2018 by month.
In January, the rise of the cryptocurrency Ripple ($80 billion XRP) and the overall crypto-market grabbed the attention of all. Since then, the cryptocurrencies lost around 80% in market capitalization.
In February, Facebook was hit hard by the public relations crisis which was further worsened after it admitted that it had known since 2015 that Cambridge Analytica, which worked as the consulting firm for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign improperly accessed data of 50 million of its users.
In March, Fortnite, an online video game generated around $223 million in revenue. The news was further ignited after Tyler Blevins, known as Ninja admitted that he makes $500,000 a month playing video games.
In April, Mark Zuckerberg responded to the company’s data usage by answering the questions of lawmakers. But the problem continued throughout the year and Facebook shares were hit hard by the issue. Similarly, the announcement of the merger of two U.S. major wireless companies Sprint and T-Mobile was one of the breaking news to US consumers and businesses.
In May, after Netflix announced that former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have entered in an agreement to produce films and series for Netflix, it actually topped Comcast and Disney in May in overall valuation for the month. Netflix was the world’s most valuable media for the month for the first time even though it didn’t last long enough.
In June, Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion. Microsoft recent acquisition strategy has also led to the company’s further success making it the world’s most valuable in recent weeks outshining tech giants like Apple and Amazon.