Tech Roundup: DeepMind AlphaCode, Facebook User Decline & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Facebook's user base shrinks for the first time since its debut 17 years ago, losing about half a million global daily users in the fourth quarter of 2021 (1.929 billion) compared to the previous quarter (1.93 billion), as Meta struggles to retain its relevance among younger users, many of whom are drawn to competing apps like TikTok; reports 2.82 billion daily active users (and 3.59 billion monthly active users) across its products, and revenues of US$ 2.3 billion in 2021 from its AR/VR-focused Reality Labs unit, up from US$ 1.1 billion in 2020 (losses also ballooned from US$ 6.6 billion to US$ 10.2 billion in 2021), and warns that Apple's anti-tracking privacy changes in iOS will result in $10 billion revenue hit this year.
• Creator and music streaming company Spotify reports Q4 revenue of €2.69 billion, up 24% YoY, 406 million monthly active users (including 180 million paid subscribers), up 18% YoY, and ad-supported revenue of €394 million, up 40% YoY and a record 15% of total revenue.
• Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind details AlphaCode, a new AI coding engine which "uses transformer-based language models to generate code at an unprecedented scale" and "writes computer programs at a competitive level."

• LogMeIn, the company that owns remote collaboration software like GoTo Meeting and password management tool LastPass, rebrands to GoTo following its plans to spin out LastPass as a standalone company in December 2021.
• French health wearables firm Withings acquires workout/meal planning app 8fit, as hardware makers ranging from Apple and Samsung to Peloton and Mirror increasingly set their sights on the fitness space.
• Match group, the owner of a number of popular online dating services such as Tinder, Match.com, Meetic, OkCupid, Hinge, PlentyOfFish, Ship and OurTime, reports 16.2 paying subscribers for Q4 2021.
• Meta's WhatsApp readies iMessage-style message reactions to its apps, joining the likes of Google Messages, Signal, and Telegram.
• Google to do away with Web & App Activity Admin console setting for Workspace accounts starting March 29, 2022 and add a new Google Workspace search history option that's enabled by default for all users.