Cihan Balkan

Well there’s surprise (not!). Barely two weeks after styling itself ‘Europe’s largest store network for ultrafast grocery delivery’, Istanbul-HQ’d grocery delivery start-up Getir is to withdraw from the UK and Continental Europe. The start-up, founded in 2015, had also just completed a $550m+ Series D funding round which valued the company at $7.5bn. Evidently that was not going to be enough to support Getir’s much trumpeted rollout across Europe and US expansion. Getir aimed to be a consolidator in the on-demand delivery industry acquiring, among others, London-based Weezy. Founded in 2019, Weezy (I assume the state their cyclists were reduced to after furiously pedalling around the capital) had raised over $20m before being snapped up by Getir a couple of years later. As far as I know, Getir has never made a profit. Now repeat after me: If you spend more than you earn you will eventually run out of cash. #ondemanddelivery #grocerydelivery

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Recently, we introduced new robotic solutions, Sequoia and Digit, that support workplace safety and help Amazon deliver to customers faster. With this system, employees will no longer have to regularly reach above their heads or squat down to pick customer orders, supporting our efforts to reduce the risk of injuries. Discover more about how we're using technology to make the work experience of our employees safer, easier, and less repetitive at Amazon.

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𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿! After 10 amazing years at Google (role relocated), I am pursuing a different path. It was a tough but right decision for me. The thoughtful conversations and incredible support from many of you have been inspiring. It's a powerful reminder that these 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁. Sometimes, magic ✨ happens from unexpected changes. For now, I’ll be taking a break to travel and pursue my coaching training (reach out for a sample session). I’ll explore new opportunities later this year. These past 10 years have been filled with incredible learning: • 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀: Sales honed client savvy (theme party pro!). - Anne Beuttenmüller Silvia Albert Birte Gloy André Schäbel Andreas Weihs Anna Takihara    • 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Skills > titles opened doors (e.g., People Mgmt, Product, genAI) - thanks, Dimitra Christodoulou Maryam Naeim Chirag R Salim Kassam Aman Govil Paolo Gabriele Falcone David Rohan    • 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: International work = adaptability (thanks, Weddad Naziri, Francesco Renzo) and and DEI education.    • 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁: Skill mix = high potential (thanks, Diana Alvarez Kaba, Covadonga Soto, Dimitra Christodoulou).    • 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Mentorship & support mattered (thanks, Theodore Ludwick, Covadonga Soto Sara Bonfioli Sara Scurfield Elana Chan Margot Neebe Judy Chang Branimir Iossifov, my team, and everyone who became friends). #newbeginnings #coaching #gratitude #xoogler #googlelayoffs

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Amazon Web Services AI expert Nashlie Sephus, Ph.D. meets three entrepreneurs and shares her tips for using free generative AI tools to help grow their businesses. Understand the thought process behind solving problems with generative AI.

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What an exciting Google I/O, packed with so many product innovations, news and announcements – and of course #AI! Or, as our CEO Sundar Pichai said during his keynote: “Google is fully in our #GeminiEra”. Now - what did you like the best? ▶️ Gemini 1.5 Flash and Gemini 1.5 Pro are now generally available, coming with our 1 million token context window by default on Google AI Studio and Vertex AI. And we’re expanding it even to a 2 million context window for developers and Google Cloud customers via waitlist. ▶️ That’s the longest token context window of any widely available consumer chatbot in the world – and it means that soon, Gemini 1.5 Pro will be able to handle an hour full of video content or more than 30,000 lines of code. ▶️ We’ve announced the next generation of open models, Gemma 2, and took a look at future of universal AI agents with Project Astra, a responsive agent that can understand and react to the context of conversations. ▶️ We unveiled the 6th generation of our TPUs, called Trillium, which delivers a 4.7x improvement in compute performance per chip over the previous generation, TPU v5e, and which we’ll make available to Cloud customers later this year. ▶️ We’re developing a cutting-edge technique we call AI-assisted red teaming, that draws on Google DeepMind's gaming breakthroughs like AlphaGo and expanding our technical watermarking innovations like SynthID in two new modalities — text and video — so AI-generated content is easier to identify. Check out all our I/O highlight announcements in Sundar’s blog post here 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/d46_ARs3 #Google #AI #GoogleIO #Gemini

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Meta reported Q1'24 earnings today, highlighting the growth momentum for our community and businesses around the world. Here are some key insights from the earnings call: 🌎 An estimated 3.2 billion people use at least one of our apps each day, an increase of 7% year-over-year. 🔋 Total revenue grew 27% year-over-year. Revenue flowing through our AI-powered tools, Advantage+ Shopping and Advantage+ App Campaigns, has more than doubled since last year. 🤖 We had the major release of our new version Meta AI, powered by our latest model, Llama 3. The initial rollout is going well, and tens of millions of people have already tried Meta AI. 👍 30% of the posts on Facebook feed are delivered by our AI recommendation system, which is up 2x over the last two years. For the first time ever, more than 50% of the content people see on Instagram is AI recommended. 💬 Tens of millions of people have already tried Meta AI, and over the long term, we believe that eventually every business on our platform will use a business AI to help customers buy things and get customer support. 📹 Video now represents more than 60% of time spent on both Facebook and Instagram. On Instagram, Reels now account for around 50% of time spent within the app. 🧵 Threads continues to gain traction and now has more than 150 million monthly active users. 💙 As always, I prefer to put these numbers in context by highlighting the success of the businesses we support in Vietnam, especially with Business Messaging capabilities. Huong Ho, a Vietnamese-based health and beauty product retailer, tested Click-to-Messenger purchase optimization to drive more purchases. The test saw 32% more purchases and 24% higher ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). #MetaEarnings #MetaVN #businessmessaging with Camelia Le Tran Le Van Le Bryan Vo Trang Quynh Paradee Sinthawanarong Chi Doan Nhung Truong Hong

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✅ Closing an amazing chapter at Amazon The last 4 years at Amazon have been a whirlwind of innovation, global collaboration and excitement. My focus has been on how we can use AI to help customers shop better, across GenAI, Voice and Touch experiences in the Amazon app. It was a privilege to make history by launching Alexa into the Amazon app, and be part of the team that launched the conversational AI Amazon Rufus to US customers. This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible global talent that our team has. Special thanks goes out to my wonderful manager Vishnu Vijay, who created our amazing London team. I’m going to miss our talented global team, who are too many to mention, but some people who made a big impact over the years include Brandon Knapp, Matilde N., Estelle Yuen, Lisa Brown S., Athena Towsley, Cedonia Peterson, Tom Haines, Thomas Pregenzer, Craig Holloway PhD, Corliss Y. Collier, Chris Morrow, Tiago Wright, Mark E. and Simon Walsh. I’ve deliberately kept myself open to find the next adventure. In the meantime: 1. I’d love to have exploratory conversations over coffees, to discover what’s out there! 2. I’m free to consult if my expertise is needed. I can help you: - Understand how AI might be used to improve your products and grow your business - Set product strategy to expand your business and products - Create a culture of innovation and experimentation - Explain how to get your idea to market, and how the full product lifecycle works (including how to make your idea an actual tech product) - Help you set up processes for listening to customers - Help you expand your product or team internationally - Help you understand who’s the right team to hire to build your product (including what not to do) Let's get coffee! #Amazon #ProductManagement #GenAI #ProductLeader #LLMs #AmazonAlexa #AmazonRufus

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#GoogleIO is here! Check out what CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, had to say about how Google is building more helpful products and features with AI.

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$1 billion for self-driving A.I.? 🚗🤖 London-based Wayve, an AI start-up for autonomous vehicles, has just raised $1 billion from investors like SoftBank, Microsoft, and NVIDIA. This shows strong confidence in A.I.'s potential to transform transportation. Founded in 2017 by Alex Kendall, Wayve's unique "embodied A.I." system uses cameras and sensors, not high-definition maps or lidar. Their technology, tested on British roads since 2018, will soon expand globally. Why the excitement about #self-#driving #cars? Self-driving cars can reduce accidents, ease traffic, and provide mobility for all. Wayve's innovative approach aims to make transportation safer and more efficient. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, "I’m incredibly proud that the U.K. is the home for pioneers like Wayve." Btw - thats me trying a Waymo in SF for the first time. Waymo boasts a fleet of around 250 self-driving cars cruising the streets of San Francisco. Exciting future ahead! 🚀✨ #Wayve #SelfDrivingCars #AI #SoftBank #Microsoft #Nvidia #TechInnovation #FutureOfTransport #AlexKendall #ArtificialIntelligence #StartupSuccess #Innovation

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This seems bigger than Microsoft trying to acquire Steam.. How can small and midsized business compete in a society that allows for huge enterprises to acquire huge industry leading businesses? Acquisition is the path for many startups, but this is a surprising acquisition for such an established company What do you think, should acquisitions of big industry leaders be allowed for such massive organizations? Is anyone happy about this acquisition? Sidenote, I like that Google had to sell it's domain division to Squarespace forcing my domains to a provider I did not choose ... but they are cleared to acquire HubSpot 🙄 https://lnkd.in/gJprZXbQ #acquisition #google #hubspot

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🧑‍💻🤖 We're rolling out our next-generation custom chips, designed to supercharge AI across Facebook and Instagram. These enhancements mean faster and more accurate ranking and recommendations, improving your experience every day. Dive into how our latest AI innovations are powering better, smarter interactions. #Meta #AI

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Recent restructuring at Getir has led to significant layoffs and a strategic pullback from various international markets. During times like these, it's crucial to understand how to move forward, whether you are exiting or staying. 🌍 For those leaving, this is an opportunity to rebuild and grow. Lean on your network, invest in new skills, and keep an eye out for new opportunities. The strength you gain now will be your foundation for the future. 🌱 For those staying, adaptability and focus are key. Your role is vital in helping the company navigate through these changes and toward a new vision. Support your teammates and approach the transformation with a positive mindset. 🌟 Let's support each other through these transitions and remain resilient. Change can be challenging, but together, we can turn it into a stepping stone for greater success. 🤝 #Leadership #Resilience #Adaptability #SupportNetwork #PositiveMindset #ChangeManagement #Getir

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Unleashing our #immersive #future - with a new era of Mixed Reality 🌐✨ Opening our Quest store was big news yesterday, but that was just the beginning. We are changing the mixed reality landscape with the introduction of Meta #Horizon #OS and a robust new hardware ecosystem. Here’s what you need to know: 🔹 #Meta #Horizon #OS: This new operating system for Meta Quest headsets is designed around social connectivity and advanced #mixed #reality technologies. Expect features that enhance social presence, scene understanding, and spatial navigation. 🔹 #Open #Ecosystem: We areopening its doors to third-party hardware makers, fostering a more diverse and accessible platform. This initiative promises to expand consumer choices and provide developers with new avenues to showcase their applications. 🔹 #Partnerships and #Hardware Innovations: - ASUS and Lenovo are crafting devices that merge cutting-edge gaming and productivity with immersive mixed reality. - Xbox collaboration continues, bringing cloud gaming experiences into new dimensions. 🔹 Expanding #Developer #Opportunities: The transformation of the Meta Quest Store into the Meta Horizon Store, alongside a more open app ecosystem, means developers can more easily reach audiences and monetise their creations. 🔹 Future #Prospects: With support from industry giants like Qualcomm, the new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 Platform enhances the capabilities of our mixed reality devices, setting new standards for performance and interactivity, and leverage the full power of #ai. We are just 1% finished! #TechTrends #MixedReality #MetaHorizonOS #Innovation

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📢 Exciting News! 📢 Check out the latest insights from Andrew Bunten, our COO of Video Entertainment, on how to boost subscribers and ARPU in the video streaming industry. In his article, he discusses innovative strategies such as super aggregation, enhancing user experience and leveraging data analytics to stay ahead in the competitive streaming market. Learn more from Andrew Bunten. 👇🏼 #Cybersecurity #Security #Video #OTT #Streaming #Irdeto

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