While CES has traditionally been dominated by hardware and consumer devices, software and services have recently become more common in the world's largest tech tradeshow. With the rapid growth of social media and streaming services, companies have started using CES as a jump-off point in showing off new features or announcing new products with hardware partners.
Facebook shows off its muscle
Social Media giant Facebook would, of course, be present in CES. With Mark Zuckerberg acquiring Oculus in March 2014, Facebook finally had a hardware division under their wings. They've also recently launched a new line of hardware called Portal. These devices are focused on video calling, leveraging Facebook's video conferencing technology used in Messenger and WhatsApp.
It's expected that both divisions will be present during CES. Portal, with the second generation recently being launched last October and November, will probably have smaller announcements but do expect Facebook to use the convention to showcase the strengths of Portal.
And while VR has recently quietly down the past few years, Oculus continues producing new VR headsets to spread the VR ecosystem further. The past year, they released the Oculus Rift S, a successor to the first Oculus Rift. Building upon the improvements and innovations that were introduced in other Oculus headsets such as the Quest and the Go, the Rift S is seen as a great entry point to VR applications on the PC. With the Valve Cosmos and Valve Index also releasing this year, Facebook will probably use CES to announce new partners and exclusive titles to their VR Platform.
Alongside their probable hardware announcements, Facebook executives will also be speaking in several panels. Facebook VP of Global Marketing Carolyn Everson, Chief Marketing Officer Antonio Lucio, VP of Business and Marketing Partnerships David Fishcher, and Privacy and Public Policy Manager Khaliah Barnes are poised to speak at the event.
However, a more interesting team-up will be between Facebook and Apple. The two companies do not have a warm relationship with each other as Apple's CEO Tim Cook, has previously criticized the social media website for targeting users with ads. But the bad blood might be on hold for a moment as Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Eagan and Apple Senior Director of Global Privacy Jane Horvath will share a panel together. FTC Rebecca Slaughter and Procter & Gamble Global Privacy Officer Susan Shook will also join them on stage.
Libra, Facebook's cryptocurrency platform, will also make an appearance on the event. Dante Disparte, the Vice Chairman and Head of Policy and Communications for the Libra Association, will also speak during the conference at a talk named "The Libra Effect". We will also probably see some new announcements from the Libra Association, whose members include Lyft, Spotify, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal.
Twittering it out
While Twitter might not have such a strong hardware presence compared to Facebook, the micro-blogging social media site has become more aggressive with its partnerships. Last CES, it announced that it was partnering with the NBA to livestream some of its games. The platform has also received praise from social media users for its banning political ads and continuous development of tools to combat hate speech and harassment, as well as giving users more control over their feeds.
Twitter executives will also be part of some talks. Head of Product Kayvon Beykpour and Head of US content partnerships Laura Forelich are scheduled to appear in some panels.
