Latest Technology News

19 Jan Latest Technology News

In Mobile Texting

We have just passed the one-to-one ratio of cell phones to people in Canada. There are now more cell phones than people in this country. The number one use of smart phones is texting, which is now the preferred form of communication as 98% of all text messages are read!

– contributed by Alain Chevalier, Head of Mobile Marketing Division

In Payment Processing

Outgoing US President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order banning WeChat Pay and Alipay use in the United States. If you heard about this story and wondered what the heck WeChat Pay and Alipay are, they’re both digital wallets that are astoundingly popular among Chinese Nationals.

Although both services are available to international populations, uptake has been low. Within the US, the latest number I’ve heard for Alipay is a total of just 207,000 downloads.

Among payment industry experts sought for comment there’s almost universal agreement that the order’s economic impact will be minimal even if the incoming Biden administration chooses to uphold the policy.

– contributed by Tom Bremner, Head of Payment Processing Division

In Website Development

What is WordPress and why is it now so popular? WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System) that specializes in helping to create and manage websites. It’s been around since 2003, but has really only been widely used for around 10 years.

A few stats:

• WordPress powers about 34% of all websites on the Internet.
• WordPress currently has a 60.8% share in the CMS market.
• 500+ sites are built each day using WordPress while only 60-80 per day are built on platforms like Shopify and Squarespace.
• The WordPress Plugin Directory features 55,000+ plugins.
• WooCommerce (one of the most popular WordPress ecommerce plugins) powers 22% of the top 1 million ecommerce sites in the world.
• The total collaborative effort behind developing WordPress is estimated to have taken 151-people years to build, with an estimated cost (if it had to be replicated by yours truly) of over $8 million.

– contributed by Paul Drummond, Head of Website Development Division