Twitter Shares Take Wing on Subscription Platform Plan

FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this picture illustration on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this picture illustration on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
TT

Twitter Shares Take Wing on Subscription Platform Plan

FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this picture illustration on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this picture illustration on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Twitter shares closed the formal trading day up more than 7 percent after word spread of a team codenamed "Gryphon" working on a subscription platform.

Shares in the social network were up nearly 7.4 percent at the close of the New York Stock Exchange, and rose more than a percent more in after-market trades.

The free one-to-many messaging service has become a seemingly indispensable online venue for the latest news or commentary, with US President Donald Trump among those who post frequently.

A subscription platform could be a way for Twitter to overcome challenges making money.

A Twitter job posting said the San Francisco-based company is looking for a senior software engineer to lead payment and subscription work as part of a new "Gryphon" team.

"This is a first for Twitter," the job posting read.

"We are building a subscription platform, one that can be reused by other teams in the future."

The Gryphon engineer is to collaborate with the team handling Twitter.com, according to the posting.

Twitter confirmed the job posting, but declined to comment further.

Twitter swung to an $8 million loss in the first quarter of this year as the global pandemic hit, even as revenues edged up three percent to $808 million and its user base increased 24 percent.

Chief executive Jack Dorsey during an earnings call that the platform was working to be a useful resource for people during the pandemic.

He said Twitter's goal is to "serve the global conversation" and that the platform is "helping the world stay informed, and providing a unique way for people to come together to help or simply entertain and remind one another of our connections."

Twitter's preferred measure -- "monetizable" daily active users -- hit 166 million, a leap of 24 percent from a year ago.



Oracle to Invest $6.5 Bn in Malaysian Cloud Services Region

(FILES) US multinational computer technology company Oracle's logo is pictured at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2024. (Photo by PAU BARRENA / AFP)
(FILES) US multinational computer technology company Oracle's logo is pictured at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2024. (Photo by PAU BARRENA / AFP)
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Oracle to Invest $6.5 Bn in Malaysian Cloud Services Region

(FILES) US multinational computer technology company Oracle's logo is pictured at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2024. (Photo by PAU BARRENA / AFP)
(FILES) US multinational computer technology company Oracle's logo is pictured at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2024. (Photo by PAU BARRENA / AFP)

Tech giant Oracle on Wednesday said it plans to invest more than $6.5 billion on cloud services data centers in Malaysia, joining a list of US titans rushing to build up their AI infrastructure in Southeast Asia.

The firm said the cloud region would help organizations in the country modernize their applications, migrate their workload to the cloud and innovate with data, analytics and artificial intelligence.

Oracle is working to expand its cloud infrastructure business globally. The company recently projected it will surpass $100 billion in revenue in fiscal 2029, driven by increasing demand for cloud services.

Malaysia's new cloud region will be the firm's third in Southeast Asia, following two facilities in neighboring Singapore.

"Malaysia offers unique growth opportunities for organizations looking to accelerate their expansion with the latest digital technologies," Garrett Ilg, Oracle's executive vice president for Japan and Asia Pacific, said in a statement.

"Our multi-billion-dollar investment affirms our commitment to Malaysia as a regional gateway for cloud infrastructure as well as a comprehensive suite of software as a service applications deployed within Malaysia."

The statement also quoted Malaysia's Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz as welcoming the investment, saying it would help firms with innovative and cutting-edge AI and cloud technologies to boost their global competitiveness.

"Oracle's decision to establish a public cloud region in Malaysia underscores Malaysia's infrastructure readiness, and its growing position as a premier Southeast Asian destination for digital investments," he added.

Oracle is the latest global tech giant to announce major digital investments in Southeast Asia. Google-parent Alphabet said in May it would invest $2 billion to house the firm's first data center in Malaysia.

Google on Monday said it plans to invest $1 billion to build digital infrastructure in Thailand, including a new data center.

Amazon and Microsoft have also announced investments worth billions of dollars in the region as demand for AI hots up.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday announced that the country plans to develop a National Cloud Policy.