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StatCounter: Bing ended 2023 with 3.4% global search market share, up less than one percentage point after ChatGPT

— Search engine has steadily increased usage but remains tiny

— Google meanwhile is racing to add its own AI enhancements

 

Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg:

 

 

When Microsoft Corp. announced it was baking ChatGPT into its Bing search engine last February, bullish analysts declared the move an “iPhone moment” that could upend the search market and chip away at Google’s dominance.

“The entire search category is now going through a sea change,” Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said at the time. “That opportunity comes very few times.”

Almost a year later, the sea has yet to change.

The new Bing — powered by OpenAI’s generative AI technology — dazzled internet users with conversational replies to queries asked in a natural way. But Microsoft’s search engine ended 2023 with just 3.4% of the global search market, according to data analytics firm StatCounter, up less than 1 percentage point since the ChatGPT announcement. (Google had 91.6%, Yandex 1.6%, and Yahoo 1%).

Google still dominates

Bing’s AI features have not shaken Google’s hold on the global search market

Source: StatCounter
Note: Data as of 12/31/2023. Other encompasses smaller search engines including Baidu and DuckDuckGo.

Bing has long struggled for relevance and attracted more mockery than recognition over the years as a serious alternative to Google. Multiple rebrandings and redesigns since its 2009 debut did little to boost Bing’s popularity. A month before Microsoft infused the search engine with generative AI, people were spending 33% less time using it than they had 12 months earlier, according to SensorTower.

The ChatGPT reboot at least helped reverse those declines. In the second quarter of 2023, US monthly active users more than doubled year over year to 3.1 million, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis of SensorTower mobile app data. Overall, users were spending 84% more time on the search engine, the data show. By year-end, Bing’s monthly active users had increased steadily to 4.4 million, according to SensorTower.

To build on the momentum, Microsoft has been adding more AI tools to Bing. In October, the company integrated the latest version of OpenAI’s image-generating model, DALL-E 3. Visitors can use it to create realistic-looking images with simple text prompts.

The offering does nothing to enhance Bing’s search abilities. But its addition generated a spike in usage, according to Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of search and AI.

“We noticed an increase in usage by 10 times and that took us by surprise because if you think about it, DALL-E 2 was already quite good,” he said in an interview. “It really made a difference in the engagement and the users that came to our product.”

Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s consumer chief marketing officer, declined to specify how many active users Bing has.

“Look, it’s still early days and new behaviors are being built,” he said. “We’re still learning new things, but have millions and millions of people using the new tools.”

Even as the Bing team adds crowd-pleasers, Google has been racing to develop its own AI tools. In May, it launched an experimental version of its search engine called the “search generative experience,” which delivers conversational responses atop the familiar list of links. Dubbed SGE for short, it’s still not widely available. However, Google plans to embed its most powerful large language model, Gemini, into SGE sometime this year.

The Alphabet Inc. division also retains considerable advantages. It has more than 90% of the market and is the default search engine on Apple Inc. hardware, including iPhones, giving Google crucial critical mass. The more people who use it, the more the search engine knows and the more Google can use that data to deliver and rank results in a way people find useful.

Bing’s ChatGPT boost

More people are using the search engine since it added generative AI features

Source: SensorTower

The retooling of search by both technology giants reflects a shared conviction that generative AI will fundamentally change the way people seek and receive answers online. For Microsoft, the shift is an opportunity to propel Bing forward. But the incremental gains so far make clear that buzzy AI features alone probably won’t transform it into a formidable search player.

“We are at the gold rush moment when it comes to AI and search,” said Shane Greenstein, an economist and professor at Harvard Business School, who has studied the commercialization of the internet. “At the moment, I doubt AI will move the needle because, in search, you need a flywheel: the more searches you have, the better answers are. Google is the only firm who has this dynamic well-established.”

 

 

 

— Techmeme

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Apple’s commissions from third-party iOS apps seemingly confrontational stance at odds with regulatory pressure

As of Thursday, developers can begin exercising their court-established right to tell US customers about better prices on the web. These awful Apple-mandated confusion screens are over and done forever.

 

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

 

 

—  That take didn’t last long.

 

Sweeney, on Wednesday at 7 p.m., after Apple released the details of its intended compliance with the anti-steering (anti-anti-steering?) mandate from the Epic v. Apple case:

 

A quick summary of glaring problems we’ve found so far:

  1. Apple has introduced an anticompetitive new 27% tax on web purchases. Apple has never done this before, and it kills price competition. Developers can’t offer digital items more cheaply on the web after paying a third-party payment processor 3-6% and paying this new 27% Apple Tax.

[Sweeney’s points 2–4, complaining about Apple’s stringent design, presentation, and privacy demands regarding external links, omitted.]

 

Epic will contest Apple’s bad-faith compliance plan in District Court.

 

Sweeney’s description makes it sound as though Apple is demanding its commission from all web sales for apps and services that have an iOS app. They’re not. They’re only demanding the commission from web sales that occur within 7 days of a user tapping through to the web from the new External Purchase Links entitlement in an app. Any app or service that already sells over the web, without paying a cent to Apple, can continue to do so in exactly the same way.

 

 

Also, Apple has done this before: what they announced yesterday is almost exactly in line with their compliance with Netherlands regulations pertaining to dating apps in 2022.

 

Before yesterday:

  • iOS app developers could sell digital content and subscriptions over the web, without paying Apple any commission.
  • iOS apps outside the “reader” category could not link to, nor even tell users about, those web purchases from within their apps.

After yesterday:

  • Apps that wish to link to — or, I think, even inform users about — web purchasing options from within their iOS apps must (a) still offer Apple’s IAP for those items; (b) pay Apple its adjusted 27/12 percent commissions on web sales that come from inside iOS apps; (c) send Apple sales data monthly and submit to audits of their sales; and (d) follow Apple’s stringent design edicts for these in-app links to the web.
  • Apps that do not link out to their web stores from within their iOS apps using Apple’s new External Purchase Links entitlement can continue whatever they were doing before yesterday. For apps that do nothing new, Apple is collecting nothing new.

 

I’m only surprised that Sweeney was seemingly surprised by any of this. He genuinely seemed to think that Apple not only would, but had to allow links from within apps to the web for purchases without collecting any commission on those sales, and that developers could present those links however they chose.

 

I’m glad that Sweeney and Epic plan to contest this, because I’m genuinely curious whether Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sees Apple’s solution as complying with her injunction against their prior anti-steering rules. But I think it does comply.

 

To be clear, I think Apple should allow apps other than games to just tell users they can pay/buy/subscribe/whatever on the web, without any commission. That the rules which have applied only to “reader” apps since early 2022 should be extended to all apps other than games, perhaps alongside a requirement (which doesn’t apply to “reader” apps) that apps taking advantage of this also offer in-app purchasing.

 

I’d draw an exception for games — an exception that surely Sweeney would disagree with completely, given that he’s in the games business — because games are different, and hefty un-circumventable revenue commissions to platform owners are clearly standard for the video game industry. The iPhone and iPad are not PCs; they’re consoles for games and apps.

 

But I’m not sure at all that Apple is doing anything contrary to the law. Sweeney (and other critics of Apple’s stewardship of iOS as a tightly controlled console) believe Apple both shouldn’t and legally can’t comply with the anti-steering injunction this way. I only believe Apple shouldn’t, not that they legally can’t.

 

Most critics of Apple’s control over all iOS software are seemingly of the view that iPhones and iPads should, on principle, be largely like the Mac, where the App Store is an option, not the only game in town for software distribution. Personally, I am on the record wishing that Apple would allow some sort of “expert” or “developer” mode — chock full of warnings, perhaps even requiring a developer account to enable — that would basically offer the same options for installing third-party software on iOS as there are on the Mac. That’s me, personally, an expert user. But even setting aside every penny of revenue generated by the App Store,1 I see and understand many of the reasons why Apple wouldn’t want to do this. There are a lot of Mac users whose Macs are overrun by adware and other scammy software. I’m not talking about viruses or malware, even — but apps that just abuse the largely free-for-all nature of the Mac platform.

 

Basically, there’s an argument that iOS devices should be more like traditional PCs (including the Mac), on ethical or moral grounds. The “it’s my device, I should decide and control what software runs on it” argument. I get it. But I also get that most consumers’ Windows PCs, and many Macs,2 are riddled with bad software (privacy invasive, resource hogging, and all sorts of anti-user shenanigans you’d never think of) that App Store policies forbid. App Store review is far from perfect — I mean come on, that should go without saying — but it is undeniable that adversarial software is not a problem for any typical users on iOS. Nothing you install from the App Store can damage your iPhone or iPad experience. Nothing you install from the App Store is difficult to uninstall if you don’t like it. The same is true of dedicated game consoles like Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox — and to a lesser degree (because Google’s Play Store review seems comparatively lax) for Android.

 

But the cynical take is that it’s all about the money for Apple. Maybe the cynics are right! Let’s just concede that they are, and that Apple will only make decisions here that benefit its bottom line. My argument remains that Apple should not be pursuing this plan for complying with the anti-steering injunction by collecting commissions from web sales that initiate in-app. Whatever revenue Apple would lose to non-commissioned web sales (for non-games) is not worth the hit they are taking to the company’s brand and reputation — this move reeks of greed and avarice — nor the increased ire and scrutiny of regulators and legislators on the “anti-Big-Tech” hunt.

 

Apple should have been looking for ways to lessen regulatory and legislative pressure over the past few years, and in today’s climate that’s more true than ever. But instead, their stance has seemingly been “Bring it on.” Confrontational, not conciliatory, conceding not an inch. Rather than take a sure win with most of what they could want, Apple is seemingly hell-bent on trying to keep everything. To win in chess all you need is to capture your opponent’s king. Apple seemingly wants to capture every last piece on the board — even while playing in a tournament where the referees (regulators) are known to look askance at blatant poor sportsmanship (greed).

 

Apple’s calculus should be to balance its natural desire to book large amounts of revenue from the App Store with policies that to some degree placate, rather than antagonize, regulators and legislators. No matter what the sport, no matter what the letter of the rulebook says, it’s never a good idea to piss off the refs.

 

 

    1. That’s a metric buttload of pennies to set aside, to be sure. ↩︎
  2. iOS App Store policy critics often point to the Mac as all the evidence they need that Apple could open up software distribution on iOS with no ill effects to users. I wrote about this back in 2021, in a piece titled “Annotating Apple’s Anti-Sideloading White Paper”. Quoting from that column, which begins with a quote from Apple’s white paper:

    Page 9:

    iPhone is used every day by over a billion people — for banking, to manage health data, and to take pictures of their families. This large user base would make an appealing and lucrative target for cybercriminals and scammers, and allowing sideloading would spur a flood of new investment into attacks on iPhone, well beyond the scale of attacks on other platforms like Mac.

     

    Here Apple dances around the elephant in the room — the question of why iOS shouldn’t just work like the Mac with regard to non-App Store software. Apple’s deft argument is that there are far fewer Macs than iOS devices, making the Mac a less enticing target for scammers and crooks (including privacy crooks). That’s more or less the argument Windows proponents used to explain the profound prevalence of malware on Windows compared to the Mac back in the day, whilst Apple (and Mac proponents) argued otherwise, that the Mac actually was far more secure at a technical level.

     

    But the truth Apple won’t come out and say is that it’s both. The Mac was more secure by design, but also a far less enticing target because of how many more users were (and still are) on Windows. And, today, iOS is more secure and private than the Mac. That’s the nature of the Mac as a full PC platform.

     

    I’ll admit it: if Mac-style sideloading were added to iOS, I’d enable it, for the same reason I enable installing apps from outside the App Store on my Mac: I trust myself to only install trustworthy software. But it doesn’t make me a hypocrite to say that I think it would be worse for the platform as a whole.

     

    The Mac is fundamentally designed for users who are at least somewhat technically savvy, but tries its best to keep non-savvy users from doing things they shouldn’t. But you can always hurt yourself, sometimes badly, with any true power tool. The iPhone is the converse: designed first and foremost for the non-savvy user, and tries to accommodate power users as best it can within the limits of that primary directive.

     

 

— Techmeme

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Vicarius remediation service for supply-chain attacks, raised a $30M Series B led by Bright Pixel, for total funding of $57M

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

 

 

—  If the pitches reaching my inbox are any indication, one of the hot new things in generative AI is “copilots” for cybersecurity.

Microsoft has one. Google, too. So does Vicarius, the vulnerability remediation platform — recently, it launched a text-generating AI tool, vuln_GPT, that helps write system breach detection and remediation scripts.

Perhaps it’s Vicarius’ trend following that caught investors’ attention — as well as (I’d wager to guess) the startup’s 5x year-over-year growth. Vicarius co-founder and CEO Michael Assraf tells me that the company’s customer base recently eclipsed 400 brands, including PepsiCo, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Equinix.

Whatever put Vicarius on backers’ radars, the company recently closed a $30 million Series B round led by Bright Pixel Capital, with participation from AllegisCyber Capital, AlleyCorp and Strait Capital, Vicarius announced today. The round, at double Vicarius’ previous valuation — a valuation Assraf declined to disclose, unfortunately — brings Vicarius’ total raised to ~$56.7 million, the bulk of which Assraf says is being put toward advancing Vicarius’ product roadmap and doubling the size of its 43-person team.

 

“Vicarius automates much of the discovery, prioritization and remediation workload plaguing security and IT teams,” Assraf said. “An early adopter of product-led growth, Vicarius’s self-service model changes the cybersecurity solution buyer’s paradigm by letting customers transparently test and find value … before purchasing.”

 

Vicarius was founded several years ago by Assraf, Yossi Ze’evi and Roi Cohen, who noticed — at least the way Assraf tells it — that attackers were reusing the same “building” blocks to carry out cyberattacks.

 

“Those building blocks are third-party and operating system APIs provided by software and operating system-compiled libraries,” Assraf said. “The main idea [with Vicarius] was to build an intelligent permission manager for system-level APIs.”

 

Today, Vicarius analyzes apps for vulnerabilities and alerts customers to these vulnerabilities. When a patch isn’t available, Vicarius applies what Assraf calls “in-memory protection,” which ostensibly secures the app without the need for a software upgrade (color me a bit skeptical, though).

Vicarius also offers access to a community of security vulnerability researchers where researchers can share remediation and detection scripts and get rewarded for it with a virtual currency, as well as a community dataset that Vicarius uses to train the aforementioned vuln_GPT. Vuln_GPT, speaking of, doesn’t run completely unsupervised — Assraf says that all AI-generated scripts are “validated” before being pushed to Vicarius’ customers. (Customers can give feedback on the scripts from a module).

 

“We wish to emphasize that Vicarius is looking to lead AI-based vulnerability remediation at any stage,” Assraf said, “from detection to prioritization to proactive remediation.”

 

Vicarius is ambitious, to be sure, with plans to allow security researchers in its community to spend their currency on products, launch educational courses and integrate the Vicarius platform with existing ticketing platforms like ServiceNow and Jira. The startup also aims to grow into new markets, in particular Asia Pacific, while expanding into markets in which it currently does business, including North America and Europe.

 

“For years, enterprises have been struggling with deploying vulnerability management processes that require too many tools and create too many alerts and too much work for overburdened security teams,” Assraf said. “While most security processes advanced one or two generations, the vulnerability remediation cycle management lagged, exposing businesses to cyber risk. As a result, customers are looking for a single platform that consolidates, personalizes and scales the vulnerability remediation process.”

 

 

 

— Techmeme

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The EU Council, Parliament reach a provisional deal on Anti-Money Laundering for crypto companies

—  Crypto firms have to do checks on transactions of 1,000 euro or more, and the framework adds measures to mitigate risks in transfers with self-hosted wallets

 

 

Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk:

 

 

Policymakers in the European Union on Wednesday reached a provisional deal on parts of a comprehensive regulatory package to combat money laundering that will force all crypto firms to run due diligence on their customers.

 

The Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) is a broad-stroke effort to combat sanctions evasion and money laundering. It includes the creation of a single rulebook and sets up a supervisory authority that will also have purview over the crypto sector.

 

The European Parliament and Council (which gathers finance ministers from the bloc’s 27 member states) have agreed to measures, including for crypto firms to apply “customer due diligence measures when carrying out transactions amounting to €1,000 ($1,090) or more.”

 

The deal also adds measures to mitigate risks in relation to transactions with self-hosted wallets, Wednesday’s announcement said.

 

The EU last year finalized specific AML checks on crypto fund-transfers alongside its landmark Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation. In December, the European Parliament and Council agreed on setting up the AML supervisory authority. Wednesday’s agreement specifically concerned the EU’s sixth money-laundering directive and the rulebook as part of the AMLR.

 

The package may have got tougher as it went through the EU’s complex legislative process in light of U.S. sanctions against crypto anonymizing tool Tornado Cash, as well as fears that crypto was being used to evade sanctions by Russia and even Hamas. A lawmaker leading the discussions on the package in Parliament last year assured the measures won’t seek to outlaw privacy-enhancing crypto.

 

Industry body, the EU Crypto Initiative, urged lawmakers in May 2023 to remove planned restrictions on privacy-preservation tools or, failing that, to include a “clear delineation between prohibited anonymous high-risk accounts and high-risk anonymizing instruments.”

 

“This agreement is part and parcel of the EU’s new anti-money laundering system. It will improve the way national systems against money laundering and terrorist financing are organized and work together. This will ensure that fraudsters, organized crime and terrorists will have no space left for legitimizing their proceeds through the financial system,” Belgian Minister of Finance, Vincent Van Peteghem, said in a press statement.

 

 

 

— Techmeme

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RASA Film Group launches collective focusing on strong female protagonists and positive Muslim characters

U.S.-based RASA Film Group is launching a film collective at the Sundance Film Festival.

 

The collective is actively exploring projects featuring strong female protagonists, narratives centered around social justice and stories that portray Muslim characters in positive and empowering roles.

 

RASA is in talks for future projects involving Muslim or Pakistani women talent such as Aizzah Fatima “(Americanish),” Mehreen Jabbar “(Farar),” Afia Nathaniel “(Dukhtar),” Mahnoor Euceph “(Eid Mubarak)” and Rehana Lew Mirza      (Wishtree).”

 

RASA is the brainchild of four partners of South Asian origin. Asad Butt is the founder and CEO of Rifelion Media, a film and podcast studio elevating diverse voices. He is the executive producer of the forthcoming “Ramadan America” film anthology and the “King of the World” podcast series. Butt is also a startup advisor and investor, primarily working with pet care and education founders and accelerator programs.

 

Sujit Chawla was a producer on the groundbreaking independent film “American Desi,” one of the seminal films chronicling the South Asian community in the U.S. Rohi Mirza Pandya is co-founder of Box Office Guru Media, Inc., a multicultural marketing agency, a creative producer and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging consultant (DEIB) for Desipina Productions. She is also one of the founders of the first ever South Asian House at SXSW and Tribeca Festival in 2023 and was an executive producer on Oscar-qualified short film “Eid Mubarak” which played at last year’s Red Sea International Film Festival.

 

Atul Prashar individually, or as founding partner of KMH Group, has invested in more than 200 public-private tech-first companies in media, entertainment and sports. With previous stints in music and Bollywood, he has increasingly focused investing and advisory efforts towards global film projects that positively promote the South Asian diaspora.

 

“We are thrilled to be a diverse group of partners with a deep love for film and storytelling,” said Rohi Mirza Pandya. “Our combined wisdom and financial support will allow innovation in the industry and make a lasting impact.”

 

 

— Variety (EXCLUSIVE) 

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‘Hanu Man’ Indian superhero film emerges as hit, adds screens in North America

Telugu-language Indian superhero film “Hanu Man” has emerged as a hit and is adding screens in North America. The film is set in the fictional village of Anjanadri and follows Hanumanthu, who miraculously awakens Hindu god Lord Hanuman’s power after being involved in an accident near the sea.

 

It is directed by Prasanth Varma “(Zombie Reddy),” stars Teja Sajja “(Adbhutam),” Amritha Aiyer “(Arjuna Phalguna),” Varalaxmi Sarathkumar “(Kota Bommali PS)” and Vinay Rai “(Gandeevadhari Arjuna).” It is produced by Niranjan Reddy Kandagatla for Primeshow Entertainment.

 

“Hanu Man,” distributed by California-based Nirvana Studios in North America, opened in 430 locations to a three-day weekend debut of $2.3 million, according to numbers released by Comscore.

 

“It was a crowded release weekend but we were well prepared and put in a lot of thought, had a release strategy planned for the film, and we covered every city. For a film of this scale, opening across 430 locations is pretty good,” Nirvana’s Sundeep Yerramreddy told Variety.

 

India celebrates the Pongal/Sankranthi holiday on Monday, Jan. 15, which is also MLK day in the U.S., and several films released during the period to benefit from the long weekend. In the Indian film release lineup “Hanu Man” opened against Telugu-language action films, “Guntur Kaaram,” starring superstar Mahesh Babu, and “Saindhav,” headlined by veteran Venkatesh Daggubati and Nawazuddin Siddiqui; Tamil-language film period action epic “Captain Miller,” starring A-lister Dhanush; Sriram Raghavan’s thriller “Merry Christmas,” featuring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi, in Tamil and Hindi-language versions; Tamil-language sci-fi film “Ayalaan,” starring Sivakarthikeyan; Telugu-language period action drama “Naa Saami Ranga,” headlined by Akkineni Nagarjuna; and Malayalam-language crime thriller “Abraham Ozler,” starring Jayaram.

 

Made on a modest budget of approximately $2.5 million, “Hanu Man” released Jan. 12 and has already grossed $9 million worldwide, including $6 million in India, $188,000 in the U.K., $181,000 in Australia and $136,000 in the U.A.E., besides the U.S. collections.

 

In North America, the film was promoted across radio and social media, especially Instagram. This was backed up by offline, on the ground promotions via tie-ups with South Asian restaurants and grocery stores. In Hindu mythology, Hanuman is the devoted companion of Lord Rama, in whom interest is exceptionally high these days ahead of the consecration of a temple in his name at Ayodhya, India, next week.

 

“The film received a tremendous response and we are receiving requests to add cities that we couldn’t get due to the competition in the first week,” Yerramreddy said. Nirvana is adding at least 100 locations across North America from Jan. 18. Yerramreddy anticipates that the film will cross $3 million during the extended MLK weekend. “The film is going very well and $6 million to $7 million is achievable at this point,” Yerramreddy said. If it does, “Hanu Man” will join the ranks of “RRR,” the “Baahubali” films and “Salaar” as one of the highest grossing Telugu-language films in North America.

 

As revealed at the end of “Hanu Man,” a sequel titled “Jai Hanuman” is due in 2025.

 

Meanwhile, the team is basking in the success of the film. Varma told Variety, “The response is overwhelming. It feels surreal. I’m humbled by all the praises and love.” Sajja added, “This is possible only because of the audience. This is their success. Just one word – gratitude.” Kandagatla said, “We are incredibly grateful to our amazing audience whose overwhelming support turned our film into a blockbuster. Your enthusiasm and love have made this journey truly unforgettable. Thank you.”

 

 

 

— Variety (EXCLUSIVE) 

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Kristen Stewart’s ‘Love Lies Bleeding,’ ‘Supersex’ Netflix series added to Berlin Film Festival Special lineup

“Love Lies Bleeding” starring Kristen Stewart and Netflix’s “Supersex” series have been added to Berlin Film Festival’s Special lineup.

 

A romantic thriller centered on a bodybuilder and gym manager, “Love Lies Bleeding” is directed by “Saint Maud” helmer Rose Glass and will have its world premiere at Sundance this month. “Love Lies Bleeding” also stars Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov and Dave Franco.

 

 

“Supersex,” based on the life of porn star Rocco Siffredi, is created and written by Francesca Manieri. The series, which premieres on Netflix March 6, will look at how “Rocco Tano — a simple guy from Ortona [a small town in central Italy] — became Rocco Siffredi, the most famous pornstar in the world.”

 

Another standout is “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger,” a documentary by David Hinton that features rare archival material from the filmmakers and is narrated by Martin Scorsese.

 

Other additions include Nicolas Philibert’s documentary “Averroès & Rosa Parks; Heo Myeong-haeng’s “Beom-Joe-do-si 4 (The Roundup: Punishment),” the latest chapter of the successful Korean action series; the documentary “Elf Mal Morgen: Berlinale Meets Fußball (Eleven Tomorrows: Berlinale Meets Football);” “Exergue – on documenta 14” by Dimitris Athiridis, the second-longest film ever made at 840 minutes; “Gakuryu Ishii’s “Hako Otoko (The Box Man),” described by the Berlinale as a “surreal story based on the iconic book by Kobo Abe in which a cardboard box becomes the perfect shell for men who want to withdraw from society and gaze without being seen”; “Das leere Grab (The Empty Grave)” by Agnes Lisa Wegner and Cece Mlay; “Shikun” by Amos Gitai; and Abel Ferrara’s Ukraine documentary “Turn in the Wound.”

 

Berlin Film Festival runs from Feb. 15-25.

 

 

 

— Variety

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Popular Israeli series ‘Shtisel’ changes US home to Amazon Prime Video

“Shtisel,” the popular series following the lives of a tight-knit ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem, is changing its U.S. home.

 

Previously available on Netflix, all three seasons of “Shtisel” have been acquired by Amazon Prime Video from Yes Studios.

 

 

The award-winning drama, which helped launch the international careers of Shira Haas “(Unorthodox)” and Michael Aloni “(Beauty Queen of Jerusalem),” will begin its rollout on Prime Video this month with Season 1 debuting on Jan. 16.

 

The deal comes on the heels of “Shtisel” launching last month on global Israeli content platform Izzy, as well as the Jewish storytelling platform ChaiFlicks for the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

 

Created and written by Ori Elon and Yehonatan Indursky, the series became a global phenomenon when it first aired on Netflix, offering unique insights into Haredi society. “Shtisel” is produced by Abot Hameiri Barkai for Yes TV. The series won 17 Israeli Academy Awards, including best drama series, script, actor (twice) and actress.

 

“With its endearing characters and compelling look into everyday life in an ultra-orthodox community, ‘Shtisel’ has quickly become an addictive and binge-worthy series wherever it has been made available,” said Sharon Levi, Yes Studios’ managing director.

 

“Its reputation and huge word-of-mouth support means that it is in constant demand, so we are excited to now introduce the Shtisel family to a whole new audience through this latest partnership with Amazon, as well as the recent deals with Izzy and ChaiFlicks.”

 

In related news, Yes Studios recently struck a new deal with Izzy for three more titles. The drama “Just for Today,” which won the special jury prize at Series Mania in 2019, launched on Izzy Dec. 28; and the romantic comedy “Who Died?” and Season 1 of “The Chef” are slated to drop later this month. Another show on Yes Studios’ slate, “Fire Dance,” the TV series debut of Rama Burshtein-Shai, will debut on ChaiFlicks in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand in early 2024.

 

 

 

— Variety (EXCLUSIVE) 

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‘Dalida’ star Sveva Alviti and Newton Mayenge board Cannes-set romance ‘The Other Side of Fame’

Italy’s Sveva Alviti “(Dalida)” and U.S. actor Newton Mayenge “(Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty)” are attached to star in Cannes-set romantic drama “The Other Side of Fame” to be directed by Erik Bernard “(Free Dead or Alive).”

 

 

Alviti is a model and actor who played the iconic Egyptian-Italian singer in the 2017 “Dalida” biopic by French director Lisa Azuelos. In “The Other Side of Fame,” she will play a young woman who becomes romantically entangled in Cannes with an elusive American played by Mayenge, “compelling her to confront the profound choice between the allure of fame and the promise of true love,” according to the project’s synopsis.

 

Besides Mayenge – who played NBA legend Jim Chones in the HBO series about the Los Angeles Lakers – “The Other Side of Fame” will also feature Alejandro De Hoyos, who recently appeared in action comedy “The Man From Toronto” with Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson, and in Bernard’s indie thriller “Free Dead or Alive.”

 

Bernard, who besides planning to direct also wrote the script for “The Other Side of Fame,” said in a statement that the story stems from attending the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 and that the South of France “will definitely be a character in the film.” The plan is to shoot in Cannes and the surrounding area this winter.

 

“The Other Side of Fame” is being produced by Bernard, Denise Bernard and Jasmin Espada under the Rebel 6 Film banner along with Untold Content’s Joel M. Gonzales and Pejman Partiyeli.

 

Alviti is represented in Europe by Diberti & Company. Mayenge is repped by Eris Talent Agency, Eleven 7 Talent Agency & Feig Finkel. De Hoyos is repped by Marlene Agency & Daniel Hoff Agency.

 

 

 

— Variety (EXCLUSIVE) 

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French IT group Atos names Paul Saleh as CEO, and forecasts H2 2024 cash flow to drop below targets

Sudip Kar-Gupta / Reuters:

 

Summary — 

  • CFO Paul Saleh to become new CEO
  • Jacques-Francois de Prest joins as CFO
  • Atos warns that it will miss second-half cash flow target
  • Company has yet to request creditor conciliation proceedings
  • Shares down 16%

PARIS — French technology company Atos (ATOS.PA) named Paul Saleh as its new chief executive on Monday and warned that free cash flow would be slightly below its initial target for the second half of the year, sending its share price tumbling.

Atos said Saleh, currently chief financial officer, would become CEO – the company’s fourth in less than two years as it has grappled with a series of profit warnings.

The logo of Atos is seen on a company building in Nantes, France, March 11, 2022. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atos shares were down by 16% in early trading. The stock has fallen by about 40% since the start of the year.

Saleh takes over from Yves Bernaert, who leaves the company “after an intense period of transformation,” Atos said, with Jacques-Francois de Prest coming in as CFO after finance roles with car parts business Mobivia and telecoms group Vodafone.

Les Echos newspaper reported on Monday that the company’s restructuring plan was facing difficulties.

Atos, which is taking longer than expected to negotiate the sale of its loss-making Tech Foundations arm, said it has not filed a request to open conciliation proceedings with creditors.

The potential Tech Foundation sale to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EPEI seems a long way off. Les Echos on Monday cited an unnamed source as saying a “last chance” meeting between the parties was slated for the next few days.

Representatives for Atos and the Kretinsky camp did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the report.

Atos said on Monday that CEO Saleh will still focus on refinancing debt, the sale of the Tech Foundations business and the sale of the company’s Big Data & Security (BDS) activities to Airbus (AIR.PA).

 

Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta Editing by Tassilo Hummel and David Goodman

 

— Techmeme