Apps
How Klook made it out of the woods during Taylor Swift’s Singapore ticket sales
This travel platform survived the great war!
July has been an eventful month for Swifties — fans of Taylor Swifts, in case you still don’t know about them.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was dropped, while tickets for The Eras Tour opened up in Singapore and Japan, prompting fans all over Asia to fight and enter The Great War.
While ticketing platforms face an enormous battle of high volume and demand for ticket sales, Klook — Asia’s leading travel and experiences platform — stood still.
Surviving the great war
On July 7, Klook’s Experiences Packages for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Singapore sold out in just hours. My confidante and GadgetMatch‘s lifestyle writer, Betty, was also able to purchase a package through the app along with Filipino Swifties.
More than 600,000 fans across the region waited online to secure their tickets without hiccups. With Klook’s robust infrastructure, the app was able to handle a seamless ticket sale for the Singapore tour.
Bernie Xiong, CTO and Co-Founder of Klook, shared that the company capitalized on the opportunity to ramp up the systems during the pandemic-induced event hiatus, allowing the app to deliver an unparalleled booking experience.
Klook can now handle over 10 million users queuing concurrently and has the capacity to scale even further, thanks to its near real-time capacity management and resource provisioning.
How did they get out of the woods?
By leveraging a Content Delivery Network (CDN) system combined with Edge Computing technologies, Klook’s in-house queuing system adjusts its pass-through rate to accommodate millions of users worldwide.
It ended up having no crashes even with a massive surge in demand during peak times. Undergoing rigorous load and stress testing helped the app in providing a harmonious experience without compromising system performance.
While Klook was handling ticket sales, the app is still functioning normally for other users who were browsing the app for other activities, experiences, hotels, and mobility options.
Onto some vigilante sh*t
To fight off ticket scalpers and bots, Klook implemented an app-only approach to ensure that genuine fans with a unique ID had a fair chance of securing tickets.
Klook used AI in its in-house fraud prevention and security system, employing techniques such as device fingerprinting and behavior analysis to detect and mitigate suspicious activities.
Closely examining user accounts and identifying anomalous behaviors allowed Klook to reject fraudulent orders and subject them to manual verifications.
These security measures helped level the playing field to ensure that fans have a fair and square chance of securing their tickets during the great war.
Long live the walls they crashed through~
Of course, Klook’s successes didn’t happen overnight. Three years in the making, the app already had skin in the game, supporting high-traffic events such as JJ Lin and Jay Chou’s concerts.
Aside from ticket sales, Klook curated value-added bundles from multi-day experiences and services such as play (attractions, experiences), stay (hotel nights, staycations), and move (rail, car rental, or transfers).
After all, Klook’s data revealed that when tourists attend a concert or event, their incremental in-destination spending can range from 4-5 times the face value of the ticket.
Now, Swifties who were able to book an Experience package can look forward to more moments of joy when they visit Singapore in March 2024.
Apps
Firefox ad reunites all your favorite memes from decades ago
The Numa Numa Guy, Annoying Orange, and Chocolate Rain are back!
Before Tung Tung Tung Sahur and Skibidi Toilet, the early internet was populated by charismatic personalities looking to make their presences felt in a land that didn’t have a lot of rules yet. As early users, we danced to “Dragostea din tei,” belted out “Chocolate Rain,” and copied “Shoes” word-for-word. Today, Firefox is bringing all those good memories back for a grand reunion.
In a new ad, the web browser featured ten of the biggest stars of the early internet including the aforementioned Numa Numa Guy, Tay Zonday, and Shoes’ Kelly. You can also see Annoying Orange, Chuck Testa, Overly Attached Girlfriend, Bad Luck Brian, Where the Hell is Matt?, the Apparently Kid, and the Success Kid.
Now, this isn’t just a reunion. The ad has a clear message about today’s most concerning issue: AI. Everything has “built-in AI, always asking, asking, asking,” as the Annoying Orange said.
“They make money by following us, and somehow, I’m the creepy one?” the Overly Attached Girlfriend asked.
All these famous personalities are asking what happened to the internet today. Obviously, the big takeaway is that we should all go back to Firefox.
Compared to other browsers, Firefox has a lot of built-in features that offer a lot of control for users. For one, it has its own VPN for privacy. Secondly, reflecting the ad’s message against AI, the browser has a toggle to minimize AI features.
SEE ALSO: Google illegally destroys 250,000 trees for a single AI data center
Apps
Salesforce introduces Slack Frontline for deskless workers
Simple, secure, mobile-first way for deskless teams across retail, healthcare, manufacturing, field service
Salesforce is bridging the massive divide between corporate headquarters and deskless workers with the launch of Slack Frontline.
This new solution is designed specifically for retail associates, healthcare providers, factory workers, and field crews.
The mobile-first workspace brings communication, data, role-specific tools, and AI together in a single clutter-free app.
While frontline employees make up about 80 percent of the global workforce, they have historically been left out of workplace transformation, often relying on paper checklists, group texts, and broken communication loops.
Slack Frontline addresses these challenges by giving mobile workers up to 10 role-relevant channels, instant Huddles with headquarters, on-demand AI agents, and automated workflows.
Backed by Salesforce data and enterprise-grade security, the platform lets IT teams govern the entire workforce under one secure layer with employee ID sign-ins, multifactor authentication, and compliance configurations like HIPAA.
This ensures that critical updates, training materials, and shift handoffs reach workers directly in their pockets without needing corporate email addresses or shared terminals.
Moreover, the platform is tailored to transform operations across multiple industries, including retail, home healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, and field services.
For instance, retail teams can instantly sync promotions and monitor inventory, while healthcare professionals can securely review patient histories and coordinate care on the go.
Manufacturing and hospitality teams benefit from drastically reduced downtime and faster issue resolution, cutting response times significantly.
Slack Frontline is available now as an add-on for businesses on the Slack Enterprise+ plan.
Apple Music is getting a revamp. In one of the tamer things going on with the brand today, Apple has introduced a new design language for its native music streaming platform.
In the midst of all the hubbub surrounding the iPhone Duo, Apple released a change in the visual identity of Apple Music. Rather than a static logo, the platform’s newest evolution offers a dynamic look that melds Liquid Glass and the power of sound together.
Confirmed through a behind-the-scenes video, Apple says that the new aesthetic was made with practical effects. Music producer Fred Again and NEST Acoustics submerged the platform’s logo in a tank of mineral oil and creating ripples with sound. The new language matches well with the chrome aesthetic typical of today’s trends and… well, Liquid Glass, of course.
Apple says that the more ripple-filled version will play before longer content like concert recordings (similar to Netflix’s startup stinger). Meanwhile, a black-and-white version will replace the app’s icon currently colored red and white. Current previews show off a simple logo, but it’s unknown whether Apple is adding a but more elements when the final version drops.
The updated version will debut for users after next week’s iOS 27.2 and macOS 27.2 updates.
SEE ALSO: Apple iPhone Duo Unboxing and Hands-on
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