iWorld
Magnifi revolutionises the Vietnam Pro Basketball League with AI-powered capabilities
Mumbai: Magnifi by VideoVerse – an AI-driven video technology company and powerful video-editing SaaS platform founded by Indian founders – has announced the support of the 2023 season of popular the Vietnam Pro Basketball League (VBA) with AI-powered video highlights of the matches, video on demand and social media features. The league has already witnessed over one million collective views on Facebook and Youtube till July 2023.
Magnifi’s offering for the VBA league includes full match highlights and player highlights, featuring dynamic graphic overlays and multiple aspect ratios of 16:9, 9:16, and 1:1. Additionally, the league benefits from Magnifi’s expert social media publishing on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, along with the customisable video on demand (VOD) packages and self-served dashboards, ensuring an exceptional fan experience throughout the entire season culminating in September.
The impactful results achieved since the VBA embraced Magnifi’s Highlights tool in early June show a staggering 773 per cent higher video production resulting in a 76 per cent increase in overall viewership. Social media engagement has also skyrocketed across all platforms.
Magnifi by VideoVerse CEO and co-founder Vinayak Shrivastav, highlighted the company’s commitment to forging robust collaborations with leagues and associations, stating, “As a company dedicated to providing sports broadcasting highlights, it is our priority to create powerful partnerships like the one with the VBA. Through our leading AI-powered platform, we have demonstrated how we can enhance efficiency and boost content engagement with sports fans.”
“VBA has always endeavoured to deliver the hottest play of the season in real-time and keep the engagement with our viewers ongoing. Keeping our fans happy and allowing them easy access to highlights and short videos was the challenge. Magnifi has played a pivotal role in making this season exceptional, and the VBA hopes to extend this fruitful collaboration for many years to come,” expressed Phuoc Truong at VBA.
Magnifi’s growth in the sports media highlights sector has been fueled by the surging popularity of social media platforms, the ascent of short-form video content, and the rising demand for real-time and personalised experiences.
iWorld
Snapchat parent Snap cuts 16 per cent of workforce in AI-driven restructuring
The Snapchat parent is axing around 1,000 jobs and closing 300 open roles to save $500m, as artificial intelligence makes smaller teams the new normal
CALIFORNIA: Snap is snapping. The Snapchat parent has confirmed plans to cut around 1,000 employees, roughly 16 per cent of its full-time workforce, as it bets that artificial intelligence can do what headcount once required. Shares jumped more than 10 per cent in premarket trading on the news, a brisk vote of confidence from a market that has watched the stock shed about 31 per cent this year.
The restructuring, which also closes more than 300 open roles, follows pressure from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which holds an economic interest of about 2.5 per cent in the company and has been loudly pushing Snap to tighten its portfolio and lift performance. The firm got what it asked for, and then some.
Chief executive Evan Spiegel told employees the cuts would reduce annualised expenses by more than $500m by the second half of the year. The company expects to incur charges of between $95m and $130m related to the layoffs, mostly severance, with the bulk landing in the second quarter. Staff in Snap’s North America team were asked to work from home on the day of the announcement.
The financial backdrop is not without bright spots. Snap expects first-quarter revenue to rise around 12 per cent to approximately $1.53 billion, broadly in line with analyst estimates. Adjusted core profit for the January to March quarter is forecast at about $233m, comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of $186.8m.
The harder question surrounds Specs, Snap’s augmented reality smart glasses subsidiary, which Irenic has urged the company to spin off or shut down entirely. The unit has absorbed more than $3.5 billion in investment and burns through approximately $500m in cash annually. Snap is pressing ahead regardless, with a consumer product expected later this year, even as Meta leads the market in the segment.
Spiegel is betting that leaner teams, smarter machines and a consumer AR play can restore Snap’s credibility with investors who have run out of patience. The redundancy notices have gone out. The harder restructuring, the one that requires a hit product rather than a headcount reduction, is still very much pending.
