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Malaysian Paper

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European minnows bid to challenge social media giants

PARIS: A flurry of new schemes to launch Europe-based social networks faces a steep, rocky road to seduce users away from American and Asian giants in the sector. Founders nevertheless see opportunity in the disillusionment and distrust of major platforms that have spiked alongside transatlantic tensions under Donald Trump’s second presidency. “We think the timing is perfect, in a context where relations between Europe and the US are still deteriorating,” said Gregoire Vigroux, co-founder of Croatia-based network eYou. “It’s time for Europe to equip itself with its own social networks.” Opening to users tomorrow, eYou is one of a number of efforts on the old continent, including W – a would-be competitor to X announced in January – or Eurosky, a platform for accessing independent social networks launched last month. Bulle (French for “bubble”) also launched in January promising a “healthy social network” while Monnett – a hybrid of TikTok and Instagram – is set for full release in July. “The rejection targeting the (American) platforms is still stronger today” than in the past, said Romain Badouard, a researcher at Launched in 1992, the company is responsible for the “Spirit Effect” in which bare-bones service opens up travel to a broader slate of customers otherwise priced out of the market. Spirit’s business model of stripped-down travel that includes no free meal service, baggage transport or other extras played a “unique and disruptive role in the industry“, the US Department of Justice argued in 2023, as it sought to block a merger with JetBlue. “When Spirit enters a new route, prices for consumers across all airlines tend to fall and demand for air travel goes up,“ according to the DOJ. It said Spirit’s arrival in a market led to an immediate 17% drop in fares, while its exit led to an average 30% increase. But Spirit’s halting of operations on May 2 has added to worries about higher airfares, as ticket prices already rise over soaring jet fuel costs due to the Middle East war. Jet fuel costs for US airlines surged 56% in March from February and 30% from the year-ago period, the US Department of Transportation said last week. Jan Brueckner, an emeritus economics professor at the University of California, Irvine, predicted that airlines would continue to offer “basic economy” fares originally unveiled to compete with Spirit and other budget carriers. “But they may raise” the ticket price, Brueckner said. “I don’t think these tickets are going away necessarily, just that they might be less attractive.” Aviation expert Richard Aboulafia of consultancy

W promises to keep all but verified human users from posting, while eYou says it will “promote users sharing content considered trustworthy”. “It’s really important for us that it’s not an algorithm that determine what’s on your screen, but yourself,” said Christos Floros of Monnett, which is aiming to hit a million users this year. Such commitments could steepen the path to profitability for the new arrivals, in a market where financial success is still largely determined by raking in advertising sales. Zeiter said W would have “no crazy hyper-targeted advertising”. “Right now we are all trying out different business models and different approaches,” she said. “Maybe in one or two years we see what’s most successful and then we can team up.” – AFP

Badouard pointed to the so-called “network effect” that powered the snowballing of major platforms’ user numbers as a factor now shielding them from competition. For users on Instagram and TikTok, “all the people they know and the accounts they follow” are on the existing networks. But the “technological maturity” of the latest wave of challengers could still count in their favour, he said. “They’re answering to a lot of the expectations users have,” Badouard said. There is a familiar litany of criticisms levelled at the big players, including sorting users into “filter bubbles”, unevenly-enforced moderation and addictive design. European would-be competitors see those as openings to vaunt their own virtues.

o Founders see opportunity in disillusionment and distrust of major platforms

million) in late 2025, while Monnett claims more than 65,000 users on the beta version of its app. But such figures would be rounding errors to the giants of the sector, who count in hundreds of millions of users and billions in revenue. The dominance of incumbent players has left little space for challenge beyond niche offerings like Mastodon or BeReal. “The world of social networks is an enormous graveyard,” eYou’s Vigroux acknowledged, adding that “99% of European social networks launched in the last 10 years have fallen flat.”

France’s Inria computing institute specialising in social networks. He suggested that a “conservative turn in Silicon Valley” had proved unpopular with European users seeing the likes of X owner Elon Musk or Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) chief Mark Zuckerberg cosying up to Trump. At W, “the idea is to bring back what was once Twitter in the good old days”, said founder Anna Zeiter ahead of the Saturday launch. Some interest is apparent among investors and users in the new crop of networks. In a second fundraising round, eYou garnered €300,000 (RM1.4

Spirit exit likely to lead to higher US airfares, experts say NEW YORK: The demise of ultra low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines is expected to add further upward pressure to US fares, according to experts.

Spirit Airlines planes sit parked at the Phoenix Goodyear Airport in the US state of Arizona after the budget airline ceased all operations. – AFPPIC

“price differently“, said Bradley Akubuiro, a partner at advisory firm Bully Pulpit International. “The likely consequence for passengers is not that air travel suddenly becomes unavailable,“ he said. “It’s that the cheapest version of air travel becomes immediately harder to find in some markets.” Fares could also increase over time because “a meaningful check on the system is now gone“, Akubuiro said. – AFP

airlines,“ Frontier CEO James Dempsey said on a conference call with analysts. Frontier plans this summer to add nine routes, plus 15 more daily departures across 18 former Spirit routes. The increased service should boost a key revenue benchmark by three to five per cent at Frontier, while capacity will grow six to eight per cent, said Frontier chief financial officer Robert Schroter. Spirit forced other carriers to

This effort to cover market included other low-cost carriers such as Breeze, Avelo and Frontier, which have typically priced a bit higher than Spirit. Airlines added service in markets now abandoned by Spirit, or increased their offerings in places where they were in direct competition. “Spirit played a meaningful role in providing affordable travel to a wide range of consumers in an industry dominated by four major

AeroDynamic said there’s “no question in some markets fares will probably increase.” “For more than a decade, Spirit played a disruptive role, forcing incumbents to respond with lower fares and more granular prices,“ said Richard Masler, head of analysis for the Centre for Aviation. The industry began mobilising on Saturday as Spirit shut down, rebooking passengers but also trying to capitalise on Spirit’s most profitable routes.