Brands without borders: OMD’s Nikki Mendonca on the digital single market November 22, 2015 Sharing data across jurisdictions remains a headache for brands that operate within a number of different markets. The situation may be about to become a lot easier in Europe, however, due to the European Commission’s digital single market strategy. “I’m optimistic about what these changes would mean for brands,” says Nikki Mendonça, president of OMD [...]
Let markets work: Uber, Lyft and the benefits of taxi deregulation October 29, 2014 The development of ride-sharing taxi-apps like Uber and Lyft has elicited much controversy. Customers can now have a cab pick them up in minutes with a simple touch of their smartphone. However, these kinds of services have faced fierce opposition from taxi unions and regulators across Europe and the US. A new report from the [...]
Helping refugees is a tech challenge December 17, 2015 While there have been many causes worthy of our attention in 2015, the plight of Europe’s refugees and migrants has been the most visible. There are currently 20m people feeing violence and oppression around the world and many of them arrived on our continent’s shores this summer in the hope of a better life. Shocking [...]
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick insists company is principled after executive threatens journalists November 18, 2014 Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is adamant the company is “principled” and a “positive member of the community” after a senior executive threatened to “dig dirt” on critcal journalists. Emil Michael, senior vice-president of business at Uber, said that the taxi app should “spend a million dollars” to hire a team of researches to dig [...]
London is now a true rival to Silicon Valley – but risks loom November 19, 2015 This year has been dubbed the Year of the Unicorn. It’s not an allusion to the success of the Scottish National Party – the unicorn being the national symbol of Scotland – but rather a reference to the booming global startup scene. In the world of venture capital, “unicorn” is applied to young tech [...]
Rothschild hails his Uber rival September 29, 2014 Finance family heir Nat Rothschild branched out into the tech scene yesterday, putting the finishing touches to his new black cab sharing app Maaxi at Millwall’s New Den ground. Aiming to rival car hire service Uber and taxi locator Hailo, Rothschild’s start-up lets customers share rides when they are heading in the same direction. He [...]
Making the most of mobile: Fetch’s James Connelly talks the death of Crazy Frog and the land of opportunity November 1, 2015 It is only after lengthy tenures that most marketing entrepreneurs feel ready to start their own agency. Fetch founder James Connelly took the plunge when he was just 23 in 2009. His mobile first agency was sold to Dentsu Aegis Network last year. Connelly’s success is a testament to the indefatigable rise of mobile [...]
PwC, Uber and Zoopla win big at the 2014 City A.M. Awards November 13, 2014 From Legal & General boss Nigel Wilson to WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell, you could barely move at the fifth annual City A.M. Awards – held last night at the Grange St Paul's Hotel – without bashing elbows with a few City grandees. The ceremony celebrated the brightest and best of the nation's money-makers – [...]
Uber investor Ashton Kutcher: ‘What is so wrong about digging up dirt on journalists?” November 19, 2014 Actor and sometime tech VC Ashton Kutcher – who also happens to have a stake in Uber – has come out strongly in support of the taxi app in a rant on Twitter. Kutcher, who also has stakes in Spotify, Airbnb and Foursquare, according to Crunchbase, came out in apparent support of executive Emil Michael, [...]
Uber taxi app wins the hearts of US Congress members in 2014 midterm elections November 12, 2014 As taxi app service Uber continues to soar in popularity it's finding support among a group not usually known for their embrace of disruptive businesses with a hostility to onerous regulation. In the recent US midterm elections, Uber accounted for 61 per cent of rides taken by members of Congress and their staff. An impressive [...]