The Year That Wasn’t: Tech Recap 2022

Rising from the ashes of the carnage seen in the hard-fought two COVID-struck years, the world was expected to go on a hyperdrive riding on the unforeseen bull-run of technology sector. No one foresaw the great tech pointbreak in 2022, not even the gods sitting on the Mount Olympus of technology, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk.

While the remarkable tech boom was expected to hit overdrive in 2022, the outbreak of Ukraine-Russia war put an immediate, massive dent on the bull run. And the impact was felt world-over as tech stocks took thorough beating. In the last year, Meta has lost 66 per cent of its share value, while Alphabet and Amazon shares are down 40 per cent and 51 per cent. Even Microsoft’s stock value is down by 30 per cent this year. 

Similar trends were observed in India across tech companies but the impact was quite measured in comparison to international markets. Moreover, attrition on the Indian companies-front got better as the year progressed. But outside India, layoffs dominated headlines as the year dragged on due to recessionary fears.

The so-called Tech Bull was tamed in 2022 due to macroeconomic pressures catalysed by the Ukraine-Russia war. But a lot happened in the year. Here’s a quick recap: 

Musk’s Twitter Takeover    

It would be fair to say that every day at Twitter has been eventful since Elon Musk’s USD 44 billion takeover on Oct. 27. What began with the famed business tycoon lugging a sink into the Twitter HQ grew into an ouster for the majority of top executives at the social media company. This was followed by company-wide layoffs that saw around 3,700 employees out of jobs.

And if the drama unfolding in the first two weeks of the Twitter takeover were not enough, the third week saw utter chaos on the platform as Musk’s confusion and insistence to democratise the ‘blue checkmark’ for USD 8 per month unleashed impostor accounts, which shaved billions of dollars from many companies’ market caps. While the confusion persists around Twitter and Musk’s handling of the platform, it remains to be seen how the social media company will stabilise its base. 

Reports suggest that Musk might be looking at a new CEO to take over his role as Twitter’s “chief twit”.

Emergence of AI Messiah – ChatGPT 

Early this year, NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang highlighted the importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the near future. But nobody could have thought about AI applications to have come so far as OpenAI’s revolutionary conversational chatbot ChatGPT.

Thus far, chatbots were being seen with disdain and as an inconvenience by consumers who were used to speaking to human operators to solve small service-related issues. Chatbots have begun to be handy and resourceful but they weren’t expected to apply themselves at a level demonstrated by ChatGPT. 

“The quick popularity of the chatbot has got the conversation going on the possibilities of Generative AI in the near future and what’s to come. The world is abuzz about ChatGPT. It will most certainly contribute to lowering the barrier of entry for anyone who is not a professional in fields such as coding and content writing. At the same time, it will also raise the ceiling for output for those who are already skilled in those functions,” says Jaya Kishore Reddy Gollareddy, CTO and co-founder at Yellow.ai.

Meta Layoffs

Riding on the wave of the massive, unanticipated tech acceleration during the last two years, the tech community went broke on investments – expecting the acceleration to last forever. While most companies did not give a comprehensive explanation on why the mass layoffs were happening in 2022, recent statements by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that the industry (much like himself) had misread the tech acceleration.

“At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” Zuckerberg had noted in his statement. 

Meta investors rejoiced and welcomed the move by the company to cut costs and be more conservative in its approach. The result? Meta’s stock price had gained 4 per cent on the day in reaction to the development.

Meta laying off 11,000 employees from its payroll meant that writing was now on the wall about recession fears and how most companies would proceed with streamlining their workforces in the coming times. With companies like Cisco, HP and Amazon undertaking layoffs too, 2022-23 could possibly see the biggest number of layoffs ever recorded in tech.

Fall Of Crypto

Cryptocurrencies across the board have mimicked Bitcoin's nosedive. While there was some genuine expectation of a crypto market dip for some time now, most investors were not ready for it to go below USD 20,000. Now, the idea of Bitcoin going under (and staying there) USD 15,000 is something that stokes fear amongst most crypto enthusiasts. 

International strategists have looked at crypto rallies of the past, and they suggest that Bitcoin tends to drop about 80 per cent from all-time highs. For instance, it fell to nearly USD 3,000 after hitting USD 20,000 in 2017. More recently, the cryptocurrency breached USD 68,000, reaching its all-time high in November 2021, and now it continues on its downslide. The comparisons should perhaps help enthusiasts pace their expectations even as it hangs around the present level.

But things are looking quite grim with crypto values nosediving, platforms filing for bankruptcies, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) going after Indian crypto platforms and much more. If all this wasn’t enough, the FTX fiasco has pushed crypto world to an absolute brink. 

EU Mandates USB-C Charger 

European parliament in October passed a law that would require all smartphones, tablets and cameras to have a single standard charger. The law in its first phase will require the smartphones, tablets and cameras sold in European Union (EU) to have a single standard charger. 

The law will be implemented from late 2024 and will force every phone, tablet and camera manufacturer selling in EU to add USB Type-C charging port to the devices.

“Regardless of their manufacturer, all new mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems, earbuds and laptops that are rechargeable via a wired cable, operating with a power delivery of up to 100 Watts, will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port,” EU had said in its statement.

This move has got the conversation around single charger going all over the world, including India. In fact, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has released standards for USB Type-C charging ports that will be used for mobile phones, smartphones and tablets in the country. The government is likely to implement this order from December 2024.