Facebook has launched a new feature to help small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) monetise online events free of cost on its platform in an effort to help them ride out the pandemic.
Facebook page owners – including businesses, entrepreneurs, educators, publishers and content creators – can create an online event, set a price, promote the event, collect payment and host the event all in one place, the company said.
“We remain committed to supporting SMBs, and we will keep finding ways to make it easier for them to bring their businesses online,” Fidji Simo, vice president and head of Facebook App, said.
“By combining marketing, payment and live video, paid online events meet the end-to-end needs of businesses. Pages can host events on Facebook Live to reach broad audiences,” she added.
Businesses are using Facebook to host various events including expert talks, podcast recordings, cooking classes, meet-and-greets and fitness classes after the pandemic necessitated social distancing and put a temporary halt to large gatherings around the world. The social networking giant has seen an uptick in such events as more businesses turn to online platforms to reach wider audiences in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company said it is also testing paid events with Messenger Rooms – a video chat room where users can share links to connect with more people – for more personal and interactive gatherings.
In the first phase of the release, Facebook launched the feature in 20 countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, India, Spain, Singapore and Belgium.
To support small businesses and creators who have been affected by the coronavirus, Facebook will not collect any fees from paid online events for at least the next year, the company said.
More than a quarter of SMBs around the world closed their doors at some stage in the first five months of the year due to the Covid-19, according to a survey released last month by Facebook, the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
However, this number surged to more than 50 per cent in some countries such as Ireland and Bangladesh.
“Many businesses are struggling and every cent matters. Shifting in-person events to online is costly enough that businesses shouldn’t have to worry about fees charged by platforms,” said Ms Simo.
“For transactions on the web and on Android in countries where we have rolled out Facebook Pay, small businesses will keep 100 per cent of the revenue they generate,” she added.
The social media giant, which has more than 2.6 billion users globally, also launched Shops – an e-commerce platform that is likely to compete with industry titans such as Amazon, Alibaba and eBay – in May as more people make digital transactions during the stay-at-home measures.
This service allows businesses – irrespective of size and budget – to list and sell products directly to consumers across Facebook’s apps for free.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
French Touch
Carla Bruni
(Verve)
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Tips to avoid getting scammed
1) Beware of cheques presented late on Thursday
2) Visit an RTA centre to change registration only after receiving payment
3) Be aware of people asking to test drive the car alone
4) Try not to close the sale at night
5) Don't be rushed into a sale
6) Call 901 if you see any suspicious behaviour
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
