Category: MENA

Perforator

• Yandex introduces Perforator, a tool that can identify and evaluate code inefficiencies across a company’s entire code base.
• Perforator helps developers identify the most resource-intensive sections of code and provides detailed statistics for subsequent optimization.
• The solution can help businesses reduce CPU resource usage by 20% annually.
• By leveraging Perforator, companies can potentially save millions or even billions, depending on company size, and allocate resources for further innovation and growth.
• Perforator can be accessed for free on GitHub.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Yandex, a global tech company, develops and open-sources Perforator, an innovative tool for continuous real-time monitoring and analysis of servers and applications.

Perforator helps developers identify the most resource-intensive sections of code and provides detailed statistics for subsequent optimization. By identifying code inefficiencies and supporting profile-guided optimization, Perforator delivers accurate data that enables businesses to manually optimize their applications and reduce infrastructure costs by up to 20%. Depending on company size, this could translate to millions or even billions saved annually.

“Perforator helps businesses get the most out of their servers without sacrificing performance,” said Sergey Skvortsov, a senior developer at Yandex who leads the team behind the tool. “Using Perforator, businesses can optimize their code, reduce server load, and ultimately lower energy and equipment costs.”

Why use Perforator?

Resource optimization is crucial for large data centers, big tech corporations, as well as small businesses and startups with limited resources. Instead of investing in additional equipment, companies can leverage Perforator to optimize their existing infrastructure without sacrificing performance. The tool has already been used for profiling in many Yandex services for over a year, and now it is accessible to companies, developers, and researchers worldwide.

Companies can deploy Perforator on their own servers, minimizing reliance on external cloud providers while maintaining full control over their data. This makes Perforator a strong fit for organizations with stringent data security requirements operating within closed infrastructures.

“Perforator can benefit companies of all sizes, from small businesses with 10-100 servers, which can save millions of dollars per year, to larger enterprises with thousands of servers and more, where savings can reach hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars annually” Sergey Skvortsov noted. “Regardless of your company size, Perforator can help you reduce infrastructure costs, freeing up resources for further innovation and growth.”

How Perforator works

Perforator provides detailed insights into server resource usage and analyzes the impact of code on performance, highlighting which applications consume the most system resources. Perforator uses eBPF technology to run small programs within the Linux kernel in a way that is safe and does not slow down the system. eBPF allows for improved monitoring, security, and performance optimization without changing the source code.

Perforator supports native programming languages such as C, C++, Go, Rust, Python, and Java. The solution enables in-depth analytics and data visualization with flame graphs, making problem diagnostics much more manageable.

An example of a flame graph generated by Perforator

“Perforator has been battle-tested in Yandex’s demanding environment for over a year and provides a wide range of features that make it a reliable and versatile solution for monitoring and optimizing server performance,” Sergey Skvortsov added.

One of Perforator’s key advantages is its support for profile-guided optimization (PGO), which automatically accelerates C++ programs by up to 10%. Additionally, Perforator is designed to run seamlessly on individual computers, making it accessible not only to large businesses but also to startups and tech enthusiasts. Furthermore, Perforator offers essential features tailored for large organizations, including A/B testing capabilities that help make better-informed decisions.

Open-source solution for developers and businesses

The decision to make Perforator open source reflects Yandex’s commitment to fostering community collaboration in developing system technologies.

“We believe that open-sourcing such fundamental system technologies helps drive tech innovation worldwide.”
— Sergey Skvortsov.

“We aim for our technologies to benefit the world and provide value to both developers and businesses. Additionally, the openness of the technology enables us to make decisions regarding the development of the profiling infrastructure together with the community.”

What’s next?

In the near future, Perforator will be enhanced with additional capabilities, including improved integration with Python and Java and more precise analysis of events.

Perforator’s source code is now available on GitHub, alongside other Yandex open-source solutions, such as YaFSDP, a tool designed to accelerate the training of large language models.

Perforator is the latest addition to Yandex’s collection of open-source tools. You can view all of the company’s open-source projects, including YaFSDP, AQLM, YTsaurus, and more, on this page.

About Yandex
Yandex is a global technology company that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning. Its goal is to help consumers and businesses better navigate the online and offline world. Since 1997, Yandex has delivered world-class, locally relevant search and information services and developed market-leading on-demand transportation services, navigation products, and other mobile applications for millions of consumers worldwide.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7d65842c-92ec-4c79-af73-20fd3c53d024

Tom Goodwin, Account Manager
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9353266

Report finds that internet users have passed the 5.5 billion mark, with 136 million new users added in the last 12 months

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Meltwater, a global leader in media, social and consumer intelligence, and We Are Social, the socially-led creative agency, have released Digital 2025, their latest annual report on social media and digital trends worldwide.

Digital 2025 shows that AI’s momentum is accelerating, social media is increasingly important for brand discovery, and ad spend has increased significantly across digital, social and influencer.

Brand discovery grows on social

According to Digital 2025, global social media user identities now stand at 5.24 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent over the past 12 months. The typical internet user spends 2 hours and 21 minutes using social media each day.

Importantly for marketers, half of all adult social media users now visit social platforms with the intention of learning more about brands; a figure that has steadily increased over the last year. Instagram tops the research charts, with 62.3 percent of its adult users researching brands on the platform. Facebook ranks second, (52.5 percent) with TikTok third (51.5 percent). Digital 2025 shows that 22 percent of active social media users follow influencers or other experts on social channels. However, this figure jumps to 30.8 percent for women aged 16 to 24.

Social platforms vie for top spot

YouTube was the ‘most used’ social media platform at the start of 2025, with an active user base 16 percent larger than second placed WhatsApp; Facebook, Instagram and TikTok make up the top five. When it comes to the world’s ‘favourite’ social platform*, Instagram tops the charts, with 16.6 percent of social media users pledging their allegiance. WhatsApp ranks second with 16 percent, while Facebook comes in third, with 13.1 percent.

However, there is good news for TikTok, whose Android user base spent almost 35 hours using the platform’s app in November 2024; the average monthly time that the typical TikTok user spends using the platform’s Android app increased by almost two hours between August and November. The 6.6 billion TikToks tagged with “#FYP” attracted an incremental 24 trillion views in 2024 alone.

When it comes to breakthrough platforms, Threads now has 320 million monthly active users, of which more than 100 million are active each day, and topped the ‘active user growth’ rankings at the end of 2024. Bluesky has attracted more than 30 million registered users, but data.ai reported that the app still had fewer than 25 million monthly active users at the end of November 2024.

Digital and social ad spend grows – again

The increasing importance of digital in the advertising landscape is reflected in ad spend figures. Marketers spent US$1.1 trillion on ads in 2024, with global spend increasing by $75 billion – 7.3 percent – compared to 2023. Digital channels now account for 72.7 percent of worldwide ad investment, with online spend exceeding US$790 billion last year; a year-on-year increase of 10.3 percent (+$74 billion). In fact, digital ad spend has more than doubled since 2019.

Within the digital landscape, social media ad spend has increased to $243 billion, a 15% rise year-on-year. And brands’ continued interest in influencer marketing is clear, with a 14% increase in global influencer marketing spend year-on-year and annual influencer investment now at $35 billion.

ChatGPT makes gains

Digital 2025’s app data showcases the rising interest in, and use of, AI. ChatGPT tops the AI leaderboard, with its mobile app averaging more than a quarter of a billion monthly active users between September and November 2024. It was also one of the world’s most downloaded apps during that period, placing eighth in data.ai’s global ranking across all app categories. Data also shows that ChatGPT.com had an average of 310 million unique monthly visitors between September and November, who generated a combined 3.5 billion visits to the platform’s dotcom domain.

Digital 2025 is a 630+ page report that covers data points from across the entire online ecosystem, from social media to smart devices, gaming to social commerce. Other key social media highlights from the report include:

• The world’s social audiences use 6.83 platforms per month on average.
• More than 1 in 3 active social media users say that they use social platforms for work-related activities.
• 23.6 percent of adult social media users now say that finding content related to sports is one of the main reasons why they visit social platforms.
• LinkedIn’s global ad reach has increased by a hefty 17 percent over the past year.
• Pinterest reported ad reach grew by more than 10 percent in 2024.

And from the wider digital ecosystem:

• Global internet users have passed the 5.5 billion mark, with 136 million new users added in the last 12 months.
• 56 percent of online adults in the world’s top economies make online purchases every week, which points to an online shopping universe of roughly 1.7 billion in any given seven-day period.
• People over the age of 50 are underserved by the world’s marketers; across many of the world’s biggest economies, people over the age of 50 account for more than half of all consumer spend.
• More than 1 in 5 online adults (22.1 percent) now listens to at least one podcast each week.
• The number of connected adults expressing concern about their online privacy is declining. Fewer than 3 in 10 adult internet users say that they’re worried about how companies use their personal data online today, with that figure down by 7.1 percent compared on 2023.

“With digital ad spend exceeding $790 billion in 2024 and social media ad spend growing more than 15% within that, it’s clear that businesses are investing more than ever in capturing consumer attention. Along with this growing investment comes the growing need to prove ROI and show results based on marketing campaigns. With user behavior on social platforms continuing to shift, teams need data to inform decisions about what platforms to prioritize and create strategies for,” said Alexandra Bjertnæs, Chief Strategy Officer at Meltwater.

Toby Southgate, global group CEO at We Are Social said: “Social is where brands can win or lose – it’s central to brand discovery, consumer engagement, and commerce. At the same time, AI is revolutionising how we search, create, and interact, while influencers continue to shape content trends and consumer behaviours. The opportunities for marketers to drive meaningful engagement have never been broader, but the complexity of digital and social media – evident in our 630+ page report – means there’s no single route to success. To create effective work, brands need to understand the cultural nuances of the online world, and create ideas worth talking about. Those who do will make an impact.”

Read the full report now: https://www.meltwater.com/en/global-digital-trends

For more information, please contact:
Kelly Costello
[email protected]

About Meltwater

Meltwater empowers companies with solutions that span media, social and consumer intelligence. By analyzing ~1 billion pieces of content daily and transforming them into vital insights, Meltwater unlocks the competitive edge to drive results. With 27,000 global customers, 50 offices across six continents, and 2,300 employees, Meltwater is the industry partner for global brands making an impact. Learn more at meltwater.com.

About We Are Social

We are a global socially-led creative agency, with unrivalled social media and influencer marketing expertise. With 1,200 people in four continents, we deliver a global perspective to our clients in a time when social media is shaping culture.

We make ideas worth talking about. We understand social behaviours within online communities, cultures and subcultures, spanning the social and gaming landscape. We build influencer partnerships with impact.

We work with the world’s biggest brands, including adidas, Samsung, Google and Amazon, to reach the right people in a strategic, relevant and effective way.

We Are Social is part of Plus Company. To learn more, visit www.wearesocial.com

*’Favourite platforms’ dataset from GWI does not include YouTube

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