China’s TikTok beats Facebook, Google as 2021 most visited website. 2 other things and a trivia

This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today.

1. China’s TikTok beats Facebook, Google as 2021 most visited website

Chinese social media product, TikTok, has surpassed both Facebook and Google as the most visited website in 2021.

This is according to an analysis of web traffic for the year under review by storage software company, Cloudflare.

Cloudflare noted that TikTok was the most visited website and most widely used social media platform, judging from how much web traffic these sites generated in 2021.

Chinese startup ByteDance launched TikTok in 2016 but did not get much attention until it acquired rival app Musical.ly a year later.

The app’s popularity surged in the U.S. in 2020 with notable videos including one that showed Idaho resident Nathan Apodaca skateboarding and drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice while listening to Fleetwood Mac.

TikTok’s new feat as world’s number one website is happening for the first time.

Commenting on the development, Cloudflare’s João Tomé and Sofia Cardita noted that the chances of topping the list first was noticed in February and later became a reality in August.

He said: “It was on February 17, 2021 that TikTok got the top spot for a day. Back in March, TikTok got a few more days and also in May, but it was after August 10, 2021, that TikTok took the lead on most days.”

After TikTok, other top websites include Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

Tech Trivia: Which programming language was developed by Apple?

A Perl
B Python
C Java
D Swift
Answer: See end of post

2. Skio closes $3.7M seed fund from multiple investors

New York-based software company, Skio, has announced closing a $3.7 million seed funding round from multiple investors.

READ ALSO: Google Map to warn users of crowded malls. 1 other thing and a trivia

The Canadian startup helps brands on Shopify sell subscriptions with pocket friendly prices.

The startup was founded by Kennan Davison, an engineer who previously worked at Hulu and Pinterest.

According to Kennan, Skio is a fintech and an infrastructure company which he pivoted from an earlier idea that had gone through Y Combinator.

The New York-based startup helps Shopify brands sell subs by managing and scheduling payments as well as anything consumer-facing around the process, such as building a customer portal to manage subscriptions and SMS subscription management, among other things.

3. Sankalp Africa Summit set to host 9th edition in Nairobi

The ninth edition of the Sankalp Africa Summit is set to take place in Nairobi, Kenya in March.

The edition will focus on entrepreneurship and impact investing, and will be held as a hybrid event.

The event looks to dedicate two days to virtual meeting of delegates while and two other days to in-person content.

According to organisers, over 2,500 delegates from 90 countries are expected to attend the event in March 2022.

The theme of the 2022 edition of the event, which is convened by Sankalp Forum, is “Mainstreaming Impact”, with the event focusing on unique innovation, learning, and networking with entrepreneurs and leaders from across the world.

The summit will support the regional entrepreneurship ecosystem and build channels for significant impact outcomes between emerging markets in the Global South.

Trivia Answer: Swift

Swift is a high-level programming language developed by Apple and made available in 2014. It is designed for writing apps for Apple platforms, including macOS, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

The Swift language is based on Objective-C, which was used for NeXTSTEP development in the 1980s, and later macOS and iOS. Swift has similar syntax and maintains the object-oriented features of Objective-C, but provides a more simplified programming experience.

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