Microsoft has six weeks to close one of the strangest deals in tech industry history. On Sunday, the company publicly announced it was in talks with President Trump to buy portions of TikTok from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. For months, Trump has been raising national security concerns about TikTok, even threatening to ban the app, and now he’s presenting a sale to Microsoft as a last chance effort to save it. If the deal goes through, it would give Microsoft a new vantage on social networks and solve a variety of US national security concerns around TikTok’s newfound popularity.

But there’s a problem at the heart of the deal that no one on either side has addressed — and it’s serious enough to doom the entire project if it can’t be resolved. Microsoft isn’t bidding for TikTok; it’s bidding for the portion of TikTok in four countries: the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. No one has ever split up a social network along regional lines, much less under threat of a national ban from the president. Peeling those four countries away from the rest of TikTok would be enormously difficult, and even if it were successful, it would leave Microsoft with an undersized and strangely regional social network, presenting significant investment and revenue challenges. Trump, ByteDance, and Microsoft have a lot to hash out over the next six weeks, but if they can’t solve that central problem, then none of it matters. And that central problem is much harder than anyone is willing to admit.

In practical terms, Microsoft is probably limiting the deal to four countries because it has to. Through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Trump has the power to force ByteDance to sell its US holdings. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are the countries most closely aligned with the US in national security matters — most notoriously, as part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network (minus the UK) — and it’s likely that they’re on this list because they’re willing to make a similar move. When the US raised similar doubts about Huawei, the UK followed America’s lead, but only under duress, and Europe still hasn’t made the leap. Given the muddled justification and Trump’s pariah status among other major democracies, this is likely as far as the US can extend its influence in this particular fight.

But while the four-country approach makes sense for Trump, it’s not clear that it makes sense for Microsoft. No one has ever acquired a regional section of a social network before, and peeling away the Microsoft-owned portion of TikTok will be harder than it looks. As TikTok officials keep reminding us, the app is based in California, but the majority of its users are still in Asia or Europe. India’s TikTok ban has put a dent in those numbers, but Microsoft would still be buying less than a third of the total platform. We don’t know exactly which portions of TikTok’s operations Microsoft would get in the deal, but if the point is to sever TikTok from China, the company will have to rebuild any teams or infrastructure that are currently operated by ByteDance.

In essence, TikTok will split into two apps (let’s call them MS-TikTok and BD-TikTok), with separate servers, a separate codebase, and separate users. That would impact nearly everyone who works with the app: advertisers would reach fewer users with a single ad buy, influencers would have a smaller pool to go viral in, and users would have less content to pick from. TikTok succeeds when it can show users interesting posts, and without K-Pop stans or African dance memes, it will be harder to deliver on that. Even letting users share content from one network to another — sharing a Turkish TikTok to a US account, say — would require significant engineering work, work that would only be more difficult as the two apps continued to develop on different tracks. Given the concerns about algorithmic propaganda, it’s not clear such sharing would even be allowed.

Splitting the network would also be expensive. Even after the initial shock of rebuilding the ByteDance infrastructure, Microsoft will be stuck with a smaller audience and a smaller pool of revenue. Any investments into the platform — important work developing new features, say, or a new ad format — will be spread out over a much smaller pool of users, which means less money, less investment, and less growth. This is the iron law of scale, the power that let Facebook become so profitable so quickly as its user base grew. MS-TikTok would be taking that journey in reverse, assuming similar costs with far fewer users and far less revenue as a result. That new version of TikTok would be wildly less profitable, and with BD-TikTok already owning the market in the rest of the world, it’s not clear how much room there would be to scale up.

That’s not the only factor in the deal, to be sure. As Tom Warren laid out yesterday, there would be lots of advantages for Microsoft in owning a social network, even a small, region-locked one. The threat of CFIUS action really is an extraordinary circumstance, and it’s possible that ByteDance will sell at fire-sale prices, making the whole thing worthwhile. There’s so much we don’t know about the deal and so much still to be determined, so it would be foolish to discount it completely.

But the deal that’s been proposed relies on an unprecedented kind of corporate and technological fission. The internet is borderless by nature, and most social networks take advantage of that to run globe-spanning empires from comparatively regional headquarters. Paring the network back into national terms, with users in Korea seeing a different app from those in Hawaii, is a monumental task. It would be difficult under the best of circumstances. But doing it on a frantic six-week timetable, cheered on by a belligerent president and an ever-changing set of national security restrictions, seems downright impossible.

Startup uses spatial intelligence tech to build 'mirror worlds'

BEIJING -- As more 5G mobile networks come online and artificial intelligence matures, a relatively new technology is emerging that enhances views of the real world by linking spatial elements, images and data.

Called spatial intelligence technology, Chinese startup Deep Mirror is using it to create a "mirror world" -- a three-dimensional digital duplicate of environmental features such as land, roads and buildings that can be shared by multiple users in real time.

The technology has the potential to become integral to the development of even newer technologies and services through the use of 5G, AI and augmented reality.

According to Deep Mirror Chief Technology Officer Lei Jiabei, spatial intelligence transforms the current, two-dimensional human-computer interface into a three-dimensional one, enabling people to generate information in a more efficient and intuitive manner.

Helping develop smart cities is a good example of putting spatial intelligence technology to work, as Deep Mirror has shown in its Pearl Bay Mirror World, a joint project with Nansha District in Guangzhou.

The startup is led by an impressive cast of tech notables, including Hu Wen, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Pony.ai, a Chinese autonomous driving startup, and Qi Zichao, a gold medalist at the International Olympiad in Informatics. Other top brass include CTO Lei, a former member of Google X, a skunk works lab that has since been renamed X, as well as graduates of prestigious universities from around the world.

According to the company, the roughly 30 founding members have all put in time at some of the world's most respected tech companies, including Waymo, Google, Facebook, Baidu and drone developer DJI. Over half have worked for autonomous driving developers.

Deep Mirror has drawn support from Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, dean of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences at Tsinghua University and the only Chinese to have won the A.M. Turing Award, often called computer science's Nobel Prize. The dean is also offering the startup the services of Yao Class, a crack computer science group from the university.

Deep Mirror wants to build its core technology around a spatial intelligence cloud, natural language understanding, deep learning and other technologies.

Established in the Nansha District, Guangzhou in July 2019, the startup has tied up with the local government on a number of projects using spatial intelligence and augmented reality, including Pearl Bay Mirror World.

The virtual world is modeled on the current environment, with simulated buildings, landscapes and other features superimposed over the real world and viewed with Microsoft's HoloLens 2 mixed-reality headset.

Pearl Bay Mirror World provides a robust interactive experience that transcends other platforms, which Deep Mirror is using to design a virtual free trade zone in Nansha.

According to Qi Zichao, the leading architect at Deep Mirror, spatial intelligence and mirror worlds will become increasingly important as 5G, AI and augmented reality technologies mature and merge.

The mirror world that the company has been developing with Nansha will help lay the foundations for future projects.

Deep Mirror has raised several millions of dollars through an angel round and other means. Yang Fei, a former IDG Capital partner, and several tech company founders have jointly invested in Deep Mirror.

Publicis Beehive wins creative duties of Club Factory, will play integral role in brand launch in India

Publicis Beehive, the full-service ad agency from Publicis Worldwide, has won the creative mandate of Chinese e-commerce fashion brand Club Factory. As its creative partner, Publicis Beehive will play an integral role in launching the brand in India.

Club Factory has a strong presence in South Asia, Europe, the United States, the Middle East and other regions. It allows users to shop through multiple products that are trendy and fashionable and available at unbeaten prices.

Commenting on the partnership and the launch of the brand in India, Aviva Wu, Marketing Director, Club Factory said, “Club Factory has managed to carve a unique niche in the hearts of the consumers across various markets where we operate. India is no exception with consumers, especially the youth, having taken a liking to the brand in a very short span of time. We have ambitious plans for the market and are glad Publicis Beehive is our creative partner.”

Paritosh Srivastava, COO, Publicis Beehive, said, “The Indian online retail market is at an interesting juncture right now with a plethora of brands vying for some share of the customer’s attention and also his wallet. Though a late entrant, Club Factory is already a well-known brand and our task was to make it a popular and regular online partner of its patrons and keep them coming back for more. With the inaugural launch communication already out, we are confident of achieving that.”

Club Factory recently announced Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh and Miss World Manushi Chhillar as brand ambassadors. The two together star in a high-decibel brand campaign that has been executed and conceptualised by Publicis Beehive. The film portrays the broad range of products available on the platform and how users can own these trendy and factory priced brands at just the click of a button.

Shyamashree D’Mello, ECD and Head of Creative Services, Publicis Beehive, said, “It was great fun working on the Club Factory launch campaign, as it challenges the notion of fashion being the fiefdom of expensive brands. The bonus was getting the energy of Ranveer Singh and the elegance of Manushi Chhillar, paired together for the first time ever, to do that. The light-hearted reverse snobbery they bring to the fore hits home as it’s all about being trendy and original in style choices, but paying a fair price for it. Fashion pundits be damned!”

The film has been launched on various digital platforms and has been receiving some rave reviews from the viewers. It has already surpassed 24million views on Youtube since it went live a few days ago. The campaign has also been launched across various platforms including television, digital, outdoor and print.

The TVC:

Credits:

Client: Club Factory

Client Team: Aviva Wu

Agency: Publicis Beehive

MD & CCO: Bobby Pawar

MD: Srija Chatterjee

COO: Paritosh Srivastava

Creative Team: Shyamashree D’Mello, Avinash Parab, Savita Nair, Nikhil Warrier, Harish Iyengar, Shreyas Shetty

Account Management: Smita Das, Khushbu Hisaria

Account Planning: Binita Tripathy

Production House: Prodigious

Production Team: Vandana Watsa, Anup Das, Andalib Patel, Sajid Shaikh

Director: Karan Kapadia

Resource: http://bestmediainfo.com/

This Week In Science History: Marie Curie Dies

In its obituary for Marie Curie, who died on July 4, 1934, The New York Times wrote: “Few persons contributed more to the general welfare of mankind and to the advancement of science than the modest, self-effacing woman whom the world knew as Madam Curie. Her epoch-making discoveries of polonium and radium, the subsequent honours that were bestowed upon her – she was the only person to receive two Nobel prizes – and the fortunes that could have been hers had she wanted them, did not change her mode of life.

“She remained a worker in the cause of science ... And thus she not only conquered great secrets of science but the hearts of the people the world over.”

Born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867, Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel prize and, as The Times noted, at the time she was the only person to win the award twice.

In 1891 she went to Paris and studied at the Sorbonne, where she was recognised in physics and mathematics. She met Pierre Curie, professor in the School of Physics, in 1894 and they were married the following year. She succeeded her husband as head of the physics laboratory at the Sorbonne, gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and following Pierre’s death in 1906 took his place as professor of general physics in the Faculty of Sciences. It was the first time a woman had held the position.

The Curies built upon the work of French physicist Henri Becquerel, who in 1896 had been investigating X-rays, which had been discovered the previous year.

According to Nobelprize.org, “By accident, [Becquerel] discovered that uranium salts spontaneously emit a penetrating radiation that can be registered on a photographic plate. Further studies made it clear that this radiation was something new and not X-ray radiation.”

The Curies took Becquerel’s work a few steps further. Marie was studying uranium rays and found they were not dependent on the uranium's form, but on its atomic structure. Her theory created a new field of study, atomic physics. She coined the phrase "radioactivity”.

Marie and Pierre worked with the mineral pitchblende, a form of the crystalline uranium oxide mineral uraninite, which is about 50 to 80% uranium. Through this research, they discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium. In 1902 the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique chemical element.

In 1903, Marie and her husband won the Nobel prize in physics for their work on radioactivity. In 1911, Marie won her second Nobel, this time in chemistry.

By the late 1920s her health was beginning to deteriorate. She died from leukaemia, caused by exposure to high-energy radiation from her research. The Curies' eldest daughter Irene was also a scientist, and also won a Nobel prize for chemistry.

German Science Facility Is Very Flash

One is linear and the other circular, one underground and the other outside, one opened just 12 months ago, the other has been operating for years – but together they comprise one of the world’s largest science facilities. Their names are European XFEL and DESY, and they are located not far from the famous harbour of Hamburg in Germany.

The European XFEL is a collaboration between 11 countries. The acronym stands for X-Ray Free-Electron Laser. It is the world’s largest and most powerful device able to generate ultrashort laser X-ray light flashes.

X-rays are electromagnetic waves, similar to radio waves, microwaves, or visible light, but with a much shorter wavelength.

Conventional optical microscopes cannot see objects smaller than the wavelength of visible light, but X-rays detectors exploit their shorter wavelengths to “see” matter down to an molecular level of detail.

Scientists classify X-rays in two sub-classes: “soft”, which are less energetic and with wavelengths comparable to large molecules, and “hard”, with even shorter wavelengths comparable to small molecules and even atoms.

What are Free-Electron Lasers, or ‘FELs’? In conventional lasers light is emitted by the electrons of excited atoms. Since these electrons are bound to specific levels of atomic energy, this kind of device can produce light only at pre-determined wavelengths. In FELs, instead, light is emitted by electrons that are stripped from their atomic bounds.

The wavelengths at which they can emit are determined by their velocity, so in principle can produce light at any band in the electromagnetic spectrum.

To generate X-ray flashes, bunches of electrons are first accelerated to high energy and then directed through special arrangements of magnets called “undulators.” The accelerated particles emit radiation that is increasingly amplified until an extremely short and intense X-ray flash is finally created. Undulators can be arranged in several ways to generate flashes with different characteristics.

The European XFEL generates its intense X-ray flashes – typically lasting between a few tens and a few hundreds of femtoseconds, or quadrillionths of second – through high-energy electrons from a super-conducting particle accelerator.

The device comprises a tunnel 3.4 kilometres long and was built over the past seven years by a consortium of 17 research institutions. The project was led by scientists at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), which is located at the other end of it.

The accelerator releases up to 27,000 flashes per second, each with a brilliance that is a billion times higher than that of the pulses made by DESY itself, which was considered the best source for X-ray radiation before the development of free-electron lasers.

This is important, because with its extraordinarily bright, highly energetic and extremely intense X-ray flashes, the European XFEL will yield new insights in a wide range of research fields.

For instance, it will enable scientists to take 3D images of nanoparticles, to produce images of viruses and biomolecules at atomic resolution, and investigate how materials behave under the extreme conditions that reign deep within giant gas planets or stars.

The high number of flashes per second will also make it possible to film chemical reactions in super-slow motion.

There are many fields of application, including photonics, biology, energy research, medicine, pharmacology, chemistry and physics, astrophysics, materials science, electronics, nanotechnology, and environmental research into artificial photosynthesis.

The “first lasing”, or the first laser light, was produced at the beginning of May 2017, delivering one X-ray flash per second. The European XFEL started user operations in September the same year, attracting research teams from all over the world.

Microsoft opens “startup for big business” in Denver Tech Center

Microsoft opened a new tech center Thursday that caters to business professionals, community members and children who want to learn more about technology — and Microsoft’s software and services.

The new Microsoft Technology Center, one of dozens around the globe, moved into space carved out of the company’s existing sales operation in the Denver Tech Center. The center has eight dedicated employees, while Microsoft’s sales group employs about 120 at the same location.

The 10,000-square-foot facility, at 7595 E. Technology Way, was turned into lounge areas and meeting spots plus a small amphitheater. Tracey Kelly, director of MTC Denver, said the space is open to businesses looking for free advice (“Basically, we’re a startup for big business,” she said). It’s even open to business partners who want to have meetings with prospective clients — but they’re not allowed to charge a cent while on the premises, Kelly said.

It’s also a spot where the company hopes to host community events and student programs promoting science, technology, engineering and math or STEM.

“A lot of companies are very far behind the eight ball in technology, they’re almost in Lotus Notes. We help them think about not catching up but leapfrogging,” Kelly said. “… And the second focus is education. If you want to come back next week, we’re going to have DigiCamp with 80 middle school kids. We’re going to get them exposed to VR, AR, data and bots and help them understand what that means because they’re our future.”

Dark matter isn’t interacting with itself after all

Dark matter is still the shyest particle in physics. New observations show that dark matter in galaxy cluster Abell 3827 stubbornly ignores all other kinds of matter — including itself, astronomers reported April 6 at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Liverpool, England.

The research, also posted online at arXiv.org, negates an earlier finding that stars were separated from their dark matter in Abell 3827, a cluster including four colliding galaxies about 1.3 billion light-years from Earth (SN: 5/16/15, p. 10). At the time, cosmologist Richard Massey and colleagues suggested the dark matter may have lagged behind its galaxy because it was interacting with another clump of dark matter — something dark matter is not supposed to do, according to standard theory. Dark matter, which makes up most of the mass of the universe, is only known to interact with ordinary, visible matter via gravity.

But more recent observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile show that the dark matter was actually behaving exactly as expected.

“We looked for longer and found the dark matter was hiding just where it ought to be,” says Massey, of Durham University in England. “It’s a sort of eating humble pie on some level.”

It’s still possible that other galaxy clusters will reveal lagging clouds of dark matter, Massey says. His team has designed a balloon-borne telescope called SuperBIT, which they hope to use to check hundreds of galaxy clusters for misbehaving dark matter.

“We just know embarrassingly little about it,” says Massey. “We keep trying to take a step forward, and find ourselves going back to the beginning.”