Tech

Instagram to develop paid verification service. 2 other stories and a trivia

Published

1 year ago

February 3, 2023

Ripples Nigeria

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

1. Instagram to charge user for verification like Twitter

Video-sharing app, Instagram, is allegedly considering to charge users for verification, similar to paid verification earlier rolled out by Twitter under new owner, Elon Musk.

Alessandro Paluzzi, a developer and reverse engineer, hinted on the possibility on made on Friday.

Alessandro may be right, again, this time as he has previously identified several new Instagram features before their public release.

“At the moment there are only a few small references in the code about this, nothing visible so, until I post a screenshot that can confirm my assumption, consider it a mere rumor,” Paluzzi tweeted.

#Instagram is working on a subscription plan which includes the blue badge 👀

— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) February 2, 2023

If this becomes the reality, numbers of celebrities and influencers on the video-sharing app may drop as some verified handles are in-active or belong to dead popular personalities.

What is certain, however, is that the development will further stiffen the competition in the industry as prices for service charges may vary.

The additional revenue from verification will be expected to boost the Meta’s bottom line.

Tech Trivia: Which data type stores only character-based data?
A. CLOB
B. Integer
C. Float
D. Struct
Answer: see end of post

2. Twitter Blue brings back Spaces curation, launches in six new markets

Twitter Blue, under Elon Musk, has expanded into six new countries as it brings back Spaces curation.

The Microblogging platform updated the six countries on its website, as seen by Ripples Nigeria on Friday.

With the addition of Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, there are now 12 regions where users can subscribe to the subscription plans.

Ripples Nigeria understands that Twitter is also reintroducing themed stations that categorize Spaces stations.

A new Spaces tab with curated stations for live and recorded spaces, along with podcasts, has also been launched.

3. Nigerian clean tech startup, SunFi, secures $2.325M seed funding

A Nigerian clean tech startup, SunFi, has secured $2.325 million in seed funding.

The startup’s CEO, Rotimi Thomas, disclosed the funding in a statement on Friday.

The startup claims it connects people and businesses who want solar energy access to payment plans that match their needs.

Thomas, who co-founded SunFi with COO Tomiwa Igun and CTO Olaoluwa Faniyi, already co-founded Aspire, a solar installation company.

The Nigeria-based energy company offers two payment options to clients: a subscription model, where customers pay to use the solar system monthly after making an initial deposit, and payments in installments before owning the solar system.

“Customers would always ask us if there was a way for them to pay for the solar systems in installments,” Thomas said.

Since it launch, SunFi has added more than 40 solar system providers to its marketplace.

Trivia Answer: CLOB

Stands for “Character Large Object.” A CLOB is a data type used by various database management systems, including Oracle and DB2.

It stores large amounts of character data, up to 4 GB.

By Kayode Hamsat

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