Saudi Communications Minister Attends Inauguration of New Cloud Region of Google Cloud in Dammam

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha attended the inauguration ceremony of Google Cloud's new cloud region in Dammam. SPA
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha attended the inauguration ceremony of Google Cloud's new cloud region in Dammam. SPA
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Saudi Communications Minister Attends Inauguration of New Cloud Region of Google Cloud in Dammam

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha attended the inauguration ceremony of Google Cloud's new cloud region in Dammam. SPA
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha attended the inauguration ceremony of Google Cloud's new cloud region in Dammam. SPA

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha has attended the inauguration ceremony of Google Cloud's new cloud region in Dammam to offer its services to public sector institutions, big companies, small and medium sized enterprises, and start-ups in the Kingdom and the Middle East.

Al-Swaha emphasized the significance of Google Cloud investing in the new region, highlighting that this investment marks a significant stride towards achieving the goals and aspirations of the Kingdom to emerge as a leading regional hub for advanced computing technologies.

He further stated that this investment will play a vital role in supporting promising digital business initiatives, hastening innovation in artificial intelligence applications, and diversifying models of businesses in both the public and private sectors.

Dammam's new cloud region is part of Google Cloud global network, consisting of 39 cloud region and 118 regions that provide cloud services to over 200 countries and regions around the world.

Institutions in the region will benefit from key controls that allow them to maintain the highest standards of safety and the availability of local data storage premises and compliance standards, including specific data storage requirements.



WhatsApp to Start Showing Ads to Users in Some Parts of the Messaging App

A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
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WhatsApp to Start Showing Ads to Users in Some Parts of the Messaging App

A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)

WhatsApp said Monday that users will start seeing ads in some parts of the app, as owner Meta Platforms moves to cultivate a new revenue stream by tapping the billions of people that use the messaging service.

Advertisements will be shown only in the app's Updates tab, which is used by as many as 1.5 billion people each day. However, they won't appear where personal chats are located, developers said.

"The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads," WhatsApp said in a blog post.

It’s a big change for the company, whose founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton vowed to keep the platform free of ads when they created it in 2009.

Facebook purchased WhatsApp in 2014 and the pair left a few years later. Parent company Meta has long been trying to generate revenue from WhatsApp.

WhatsApp said ads will be targeted to users based on information like the user's age, the country or city where they're located, the language they're using, the channels they're following in the app, and how they're interacting with the ads they see.

WhatsApp said it won't use personal messages, calls and groups that a user is a member of to target ads to the user.

It's one of three advertising features that WhatsApp unveiled on Monday as it tries to monetize the app's user base. Channels will also be able to charge users a monthly fee for subscriptions so they can get exclusive updates. And business owners will be able to pay to promote their channel's visibility to new users.