UK competition watchdog to push for tighter controls on US tech giants February 3, 2020 The UK’s competition watchdog will push for tougher powers to regulate companies such as Google and Facebook following the UK’s official departure from the EU, and will pursue antitrust investigations against tech giants independently of the bloc. “The upside [Brexit] is that you take back control — genuinely — of the decisions,” Competition and Markets [...]
Mirror publisher suspends dividend as revenue slumps during Covid-19 pandemic September 28, 2020 Mirror and Express publisher Reach has suspended its interim dividend for the six months to June, after a national lockdown during the pandemic bit into sales and hammered revenue at the newspaper owner. The results Revenue slipped 17.5 per cent to £290.8m in the six months to 28 June at the newspaper publisher, down from [...]
Death of the middleman? The myth of selling straight to the customer October 29, 2020 This pandemic has driven consumers online at a pace no one could predict, with Covid-19 forecast to generate an additional £4.5bn of UK online sales in 2020. Social distancing has set in motion a dramatic shift in how we shop — our business alone saw a more than 230 per cent growth rate in online [...]
US election: Where do Trump and Biden stand on tech issues? October 28, 2020 The bosses of Facebook, Twitter and Google are this afternoon appearing in front of a US Senate committee to face questions over key issues of tech regulation. With tech titans facing increased scrutiny in their home country, the topic is likely to be a key policy issue in the run-up to the presidential election. So [...]
Screenshot: Will Facebook regret going nuclear over Australian news? February 19, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: A jumbo jab mix-up **Will Facebook regret going nuclear in Australia? **Arm’s getting chippy Media Moment of the Week: A jumbo jab mix-up When Liam Thorp received a text inviting him for his first Covid jab he was confused, given the healthy 32-year-old is pretty low down the [...]
Facebook and Instagram cut streaming quality amid broadband surge March 22, 2020 Facebook today said it will cut streaming quality for videos posted to its platform to help reduce the strain on broadband networks during the coronavirus outbreak. The measures will be rolled out across Europe, and also apply to Facebook-owned social media app Instagram. “We are committed to working with our partners to manage any bandwidth [...]
General Election 2019: Businesses hit back as Labour ‘names and shames’ UK’s five worst bosses December 2, 2019 Businesses have hit back against Labour’s renewed attack, after the party “named and shamed” some of the biggest firms in the country. Retailers Amazon, Asda and Sports Direct, taxi app Uber and outsourcer ISS have all come under attack from Jeremy Corbyn, as part of Labour’s campaign promise to deliver “the biggest extension of workers’ [...]
DEBATE: With reports that Jeff Bezos was hacked, is WhatsApp a viable place to do business? January 23, 2020 With reports that Jeff Bezos was hacked, is WhatsApp a viable place to do business? Yoav Keren, chief executive of BrandShield, says YES. Amazon boss Jeff Bezos appears to be the victim of a classic “spear phishing” attack. But while people might be alarmed that one of the richest and most high-profile people in the [...]
FTSE 100 gives up gains despite S&P 500 hitting all-time high August 18, 2020 The US’s S&P 500 stock index hit an all-time high before slipping back along with the FTSE 100 and other global markets amid rising US-China tensions. The S&P 500 rose to 3,395 points, topping a high it hit in February, having been boosted by record levels of stimulus. But the index reversed course and slipped [...]
France to push ahead with tax on internet giants despite US anger May 14, 2020 France will push ahead with its tax on internet giants this year, its finance minister said today. In January France offered to suspend its tax on big digital companies’ income in until the end of the year while an international agreement on cross-border taxation was negotiated this year. “Never has a digital tax been more [...]