Martech news roundup: Amazon acquires CloudEndure $250M, an egg beats Kylie Jenner, new Intel AI products
We review the top news in martech from the week of December 31, 2018–January 7, 2019.
We review the top news in martech from the week of December 31, 2018–January 7, 2019.
In our roundup of last week’s martech news, we highlight:
What it is
CloudEndure is an Israel-based advanced computing platform. They specialize in things including:
Why it matters
This move demonstrates Amazon’s interest in expanding their reach beyond the US.
It also aligns with their dominance in the cloud product market. This acquisition will likely benefit Amazon’s cloud users by helping streamline the process of moving data from one cloud to another.
Amazon Web Services (their cloud product) holds 52% of the market, as compared to against (13%), Alibaba (5%), and Google (3%).
What it is
A picture of an egg — just a regular egg — is the most-liked post on Instagram as of last night, Sunday January 13.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsOGulcndj-/
The egg’s profile, @world_record_egg, has just that one post, and 3.7 million followers.
Their description simply reads, “Official world record holders of the most liked picture on Instagram. Now where’s our blue tick?”
Why it matters
The egg was posted on January 4. We’re not sure why the people behind this account chose an egg, nor how it gained such traction.
Further proof that people are weird, content goes viral for inexplicable reasons, and social media management is a wild thing.
Or as @world_record_egg themselves added in the comments of the post, “What a time to be alive.”
What it is
At CES 2019, Intel announced two particularly interesting new products in the works.
With Facebook, they’re working on a new, cost-efficient AI chip called Nervana Neural Network Processor for Inference (NNP-I).
The chip will essentially accelerate the production and deployment of machine learning for companies such as — obviously — Facebook.
With Alibaba, Intel will be developing a technology that tracks athletes. It will apparently use deep learning to extract 3D forms of athletes in training or competition. They hope to deploy this tool at the Olympic Games 2020.
Why it matters
CES this year boasted a lot of shiny new products and plans. These two announcements from Intel struck me because we often forget the companies, such as Intel, who power so much of what we use today.
They invented the microprocessors found in most personal computers, such as laptops by Apple, Lenovo, Dell, and HP.
They do semiconductors, microchips, cognitive computing, deep learning, autonomous driving, and probably much else.
In an industry of excessive hype, they’re one of the companies that you’d be more inclined to believe can really make something new.
Ps: Entries for the Marketing Technology Awards 2019 are open through January 25!
See something we missed? Leave us a comment below!