THE NEWS WRAP: Alibaba to launch “Netflix” like streaming service in China

One of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, Alibaba, will launch an on-demand video streaming service in China in the next two months.

The new service will be called TBO, and draw on local and international content.

Alibaba’s head of digital entertainment, Patrick Liu, told Reuters the streaming platform will aim to shake up the Chinese entertainment market.

“Our mission, the mission of all of Alibaba, is to redefine home entertainment,” he said.

“Our goal is to become like HBO in the United States, to become like Netflix in the United States.”

Facebook to measure how long users look at items in their newsfeed

Facebook will now examine how long people look at items in their newsfeed in a bid to improve its content algorithms.

Previously, liking, commenting or sharing a post were the main factors Facebook used to determine what should sit at the top of a user’s newsfeed.

Software engineers Ansha Yu and Sami Tas said in a joint statement that they hoped the update would make the content on Facebook more relevant.

“We’ve started rolling this out and will continue over the coming weeks,” they wrote.

“We do not expect Pages to see significant changes in distribution as a result of this update.”

One in four mobile apps are discarded after just one session

One quarter of mobile apps are discarded after being used just once, according to new research from analytics firm Localytics.

This year saw a decline in user retention globally, with 25% of apps abandoned after one session – up from 20% last year.

While China was particularly bad for user retention, the US actually saw app engagement improve slightly.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 140.53 points, falling 0.78% on Saturday to 17,898.84. The Aussie dollar is trading at around 77.38 US cents.

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