Can you believe – England are in the finals of Euro 2020! (Being played in 2021 – because Covid 19 disrupted a few things last year).
Tonight – 8pm GB time – against Italy.
But first – let me share my Top Two Tech Stories from the week…
- First up, we have Facebook Market place!
That’s right – Facebook market place has grown to 1 billion users!
Whilst I personally have used it occasionally and quickly realised a) there’s a few people that can waste your time and b) then there’s an influx of folk if something is for free – and how to manage that (usually whoever responds first works) – but overall, great place to sell items.
Facebook does not release standalone financial details for Marketplace. It is in fact free for non-business users to put up a simple sales listing, as the firm makes it money from users simply being on its ecosystem and seeing all the advertisements on the site.
However, Marketplace’s user numbers have soared during the pandemic. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed that Marketplace now has more than one billion global users. This is up from a reported 800 million in 2018, for a service that was only launched in 2016.
There are others out there that folk use, like depop and Vinted…
In fact, depop was recently sold for $1.62bn.
2. Next up, new motorway service stations are coming!
So recently, I’ve blogged about electric cars – and even shared a story about the East London service station that can hold over 30 cars all able to charge at the same time.
Well, it’s spreading. Rugby has something similar. And there’s more and more popping up!
Gridserve has also outlined plans to install at least 50 ‘electric hubs’ at motorway service stations with each of them including anywhere between six to twelve ultra-rapid chargers.
The 350kW devices mean the most advanced electric cars should be able to add 100 miles of range in a matter of minutes, depending upon the car.
Other providers including, Tesla and Ionity, already have ultra-rapid chargers on, or close to, the motorway network.
Elsewhere, Gridserve has trademarked the name ‘Electric Forecourts’ and plans to open more than 100 of those charging hubs in towns and cities within the next five years.
Each forecourt will include shops, cafes, toilets and even showrooms where people can learn about electric cars.
Gridserve says all of its chargers are supported by solar farms, meaning that every unit of electricity taken from the grid is matched by an equivalent amount of solar energy going back into it.
So there you go – my Top Two Tech Stories for the week, all about selling on line via facebook and depop is big, about a billion big! And what’s even bigger is the number of charging stations for electric cars you are going to see soon!