Check out what’s been happening in business and tech news!
Top Tech, Digital and Business News from 10 – 14 May 2021
Monday, 10 May 2021
Nearly one in three Aussie small business owners were diagnosed with depression, anxiety, stress or other similar mental health issues last year. To help support Australian small business owners, two new mental health programs are rolling out, including:
- Counting on U: A mental health first aid and relationship training program, teaching accountants how to have sensitive and supportive conversations with clients.
- NewAccess: Beyond Blue’s confidential program using trained coaches to work with entrepreneurs over six sessions, helping them overcome stressful obstacles.
Twitter announced Tip Jar, a new monetisation feature, allowing journalists, creators and other users to make money on the platform. Tip Jar is one of many money-making features to come, and Twitter will not take a cut of the tips.
Users with the Tip Jar icon next to the follow button are enabled to receive tips, which currently can be sent via PayPal, Cash App, Bandcamp, Patreon and Venmo or sent through Android devices using Spaces.
You can start receiving tips on Twitter if you use Twitter in English.
Messaging on Instagram and Facebook has new updates and new features:
Facebook Messenger:
- Chat Archives: Instead of deleting conversations to clear out your inbox, you can now archive chats to keep your inbox clean.
- Voice Recording: Users can now start recording their audio message by tapping the record button rather than holding it down.
- Themes: Users can enjoy a range of new themes for their chats.
Instagram DMs:
- Visual Replies: Users can reply to a photo or video with a photo or video.
- Seen Messages: Users can now see when recipients have seen a message.
- Themes: Users can also enjoy the new themes on Instagram DMs too.
Tuesday, 11 May 2021
The 2021–2022 Federal Budget is set to be announced today.
Key expected measures to be announced include:
- Injection into infrastructure to boost the construction and related industries, including road and rail.
- Direct assistance for businesses impacted by the end of JobKeeper.
- Upskilling opportunities to meet Australia’s labour shortage.
- Reduction in red tape to help businesses progress with growth plans at a faster rate.
- Enhancement of supply chains, including in technology.
- Further tax breaks for hard-hit industries, such as brewing.
Facebook is following the path of Twitter and showing users a warning if they attempt to share a post without having opened the article first.
- Users will need to select Continue Share or Open Article to remove the alert.
- Measure aims to help make people aware and limit the spreading of misinformation.
- Facebook says this is a test at this rate but may become a permanent feature.
Audio-based social media platform Clubhouse has announced they will be starting to rollout their app to Android users, starting with users in the United States.
- U.S. Android Clubhouse users to test the app before rollout to other countries, including Australia.
- The slow rollout will allow new features, like payments, to be tested on a smaller audience and fixed before going global.
- Statistics reports as of February 2021, there are around 10,000 weekly active users on the Clubhouse app.
Wednesday, 14 May 2021
The Federal Government Budget for 2021–2022 was announced last night, aimed at helping Australia recover. For businesses, this includes:
- $20.7 billion additional tax relief for businesses through extending full expensing and loss carry-back programs by another 12 months.
- Estimated $300 million to support creative and entertainment sectors.
- $15.2 billion additional support to infrastructure projects throughout Australia.
- $1.2 billion package to support the tourism and aviation sectors.
- New SME Recovery Loan Scheme building on the SME Guarantee Scheme, which has helped 45,000 already to date.
- $780 million to extend the HomeBuilder construction commencement period from 6 to 18 months.
2021–2022 Federal Budget Jobs Announcements
In the 2021–2022 Federal Budget announcement last night, many initiatives to help get Australians back working were revealed, including:
- $1.7 billion to further reduce child care costs to help create more flexibility for working families.
- $4.6 billion to help vulnerable Australians into the workforce, this includes support for Transition to Work and ParentsNext Wage subsidies, and investing in youth employment services.
- $1.2 billion to be invested into a Digital Economy Strategy, including upskilling and digital infrastructure.
2021–2022 Federal Government Regional Announcements
Regional communities have been recognised in the 2021–2022 Federal Budget, including support through:
- $895.5 million for initiatives to help improve long-term resilience in communities throughout Australia, including ongoing recovery for those impacted by the 2019–20 bushfires.
- $850.4 million to help farmers attract and retain technology-skilled agriculture workers, which is aimed to help farmers reach a $100 billion output by 2030.
Thursday, 13 May 2021
Localsearch Launches the Help Me Grow My Business Podcast
Localsearch is launching the Help Me Grow My Business Podcast today on Spotify, Amazon Music, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Pocket Casts, Podcast Index, Player FM, Listen Notes and Deezer.
The Trailer is now live, with the first episode sharing how businesses can be prepared for the June 2021 Google Page Experience Update to launch later today, featuring Localsearch’s Head of SEO, Mike Andrew.
Follow the link in our bio to listen on Spotify now.
TikTok has released a new feature, Green Screen Duets, which will allow users to duet videos with a green screen format. Essentially, this means creators will be able to use another TikTok video as the background of their new video.
The short-form video platform is also testing new ways to find videos through a new feature called Topics. This will incorporate interest-based feeds displaying the top videos in particular categories.
YouTube Shorts Fund to Give Monetary Rewards to Top Shorts Creators Monthly
YouTube has established a $100 Million fund called the Youtube Shorts Fund, which will run until the end of 2022. Each month, the platform will award thousands of creators who made the top Shorts content of the month with monetary rewards.
This initiative will launch in the coming months, with more details to come.
Friday, 14 May 2021
Businesses to See Harsher Penalties for Non-COVID-19 Check-In Compliance
On Thursday, the Victorian Government introduced new on-the-spot fines of $1,652 to businesses breaching coronavirus rules.
This comes as a Victorian Indian restaurant has been forced to close due to not being able to contact patrons who did not check-in.
The business said half the patrons present when close contacts of a positive case had been in the restaurant had not signed in.
With fines now in place for complacent businesses, the Victorian Government hopes to remind locals of the on-going threat.
Snapchat has released a new report analysing the impact augmented reality (AR) will have on consumers and marketers.
In their report, Snapchat claims, “AR adoption is tracking with the mobile usage boom we saw in the mid 2000s. By 2025, nearly 75% of the global population and almost all smartphone users will be frequent AR users.”
With AR even impacting consumer’s shopping process, there’s a lot of potential for marketers to incorporate AR into their marketing efforts, with a large push for social media platforms to release AR tools for businesses.
With Google to phase out third-party cookies to track user behaviour, they have announced how they will keep data accurate for Google Analytics users.
For site owners and advertisers, Google will:
- Provide seamless access to Consent Mode (changing how Google tags work based on user’s consent for cookies).
- Improve conversions, allowing tags to use first-party, consented data tracking how users convert after they’ve engaged with an advertisement.
- Develop its advanced machine learning models to behavioural reporting.