Dogecoin saw a similar surge leading Robin Hood to restrict that too. It was the establishment. However there were plenty of analysts pointing out that while Reddit raids on certain stocks may be new, the risk inherent in trading is not. And it's likely that just as many or more people ended up worse off than they started. But the GameStonk saga had a lasting impact on the amateur investors scene, which probably directly fed into another of our main stories, NFTs. But before we get to that, the first half of the year was also dominated by another story. Epic lawsuit against Apple over the NUMBER_PERCENTAGE_TOKEN revenue cut it takes from iOS apps. Epic continued trying to convince legislators that Apple should open up its app store, filing a second lawsuit in the UK and sponsoring a number of state bills through its coalition for app fairness, none of which actually went anywhere. But either because of Epic's loudness or a general change in the vibes, Apple and other tech giants made a number of changes to their app stores. Microsoft's match to the Epic Games Store's NUMBER_PERCENTAGE_TOKEN revenue cut, Apple and Google reduce their standard NUMBER_PERCENTAGE_TOKEN cut on iOS and Android to NUMBER_PERCENTAGE_TOKEN for small developers. And Apple also settled a separate lawsuit, allowing developers to email their users about third-party payment options. In August, South Korea passed a law requiring mobile app stores to allow third-party payment options. And Apple made one more concession, allowing reader apps like Netflix and Spotify to include links to pay for subscriptions on their website. Very big of them. In September, a ruling was finally issued in the Apple V. Epic trial, which was described as both a resounding victory for Apple and a big win for Epic, which was confusing until the actual legal analysts finished their opinion pieces. And it became apparent that this is not the outcome epic wanted. They would have to pay Apple millions of dollars. And sure, Apple was required to allow developers to include buttons linking to third-party payment options within NUMBER_TOKEN days but they successfully won a stay on that order. And with both Apple and Epic appealing the result, it's unclear what if anything was actually accomplished this year other than getting Fortnite gamers all riled up. There's a lot more to this story. And in fact, I'm almost done my tech longer on it. So stay tuned for tech longer number two. This video is probably already too long. But the Apple versus Epic was a canary in the antitrust mine because almost every major company was investigated for anti-competitive this and exploiting dominance that. Aye yai yai. It's not in the Christmas spirit at all. NVIDIA continued trying to buy Arm for over a year, a deal that was actively opposed by Qualcomm, Google and others. Who would have to deal with NVIDIA gloating about being basically the most important chip maker in the world if it went through. I don't want that. As of this month, the FTC has sued NVIDIA to block the acquisition. So I wouldn't hold your breath if you are a fan, big fan of NVIDIA buying other companies. This year, Google threatened to suspend Australia's search privileges. And Facebook blocked Australian users from sharing news links because the boys down there wanted Google and Facebook to pay news outlets for the privilege of linking to Australian news articles. Both companies eventually made big cash deals with Australia news conglomerates
START_SELFPROMO_TOKEN up. There's a lot more to this story. And in fact, I'm almost done my tech longer on it. So stay tuned for tech longer number two. This video is probably already too long. END_SELFPROMO_TOKEN