BBC gets Ofcom approval to stream shows on iPlayer for a year August 1, 2019 BBC TV programmes will now be available on iPlayer for a year, after Ofcom approved proposals to expand the on-demand platform. The broadcaster submitted a request to extend the availability of catch-up series from 30 days after broadcast to 12 months, with some programmes available for even longer. Read more: Britbox: BBC and ITV strike [...]
Facebook admits uploading email contacts of 1.5m new users in latest privacy blunder April 18, 2019 Facebook has admitted it “unintentionally” uploaded the email address contacts of 1.5m new users since 2016 in the latest privacy misstep for the social media giant. The data scraping happened during the verification process for new accounts, when users were asked to supply their email address password and Facebook kept a copy of their address [...]
Tradeweb’s CEO on tech, China, and modernising bond markets July 24, 2019 While researching Lee Olesky, the co-founder and chief executive of the fixed-income market platform Tradeweb, I came across an article comparing him to Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos. Both started their companies in the nineties. Both set out to use the internet and ecommerce to disrupt their respective industries at a time when the idea of [...]
Want to ensure Britain’s future prosperity? Stop taking wealth creators for granted October 15, 2019 Last month, the UK reported record numbers of people in employment. With all the Brexit noise, it was easy to miss this incredible news. But a healthy jobs market is of critical importance to society. As a barometer of success, employment is for some (including me) more important than any other figure, including GDP. And [...]
Amazon’s (AMZN) cloud and online retail services to push results sky-high, while Spotify (SPOT) wanes on revenue | City A.M. July 22, 2018 After showcasing impressive sales and subscription numbers on Prime Day and briefly breaking $900bn (£691bn) in market value last week, Amazon has investors convinced of a strong second quarter ahead of its results on Thursday 26 July. Consumer estimates collated by S&P Global Market Intelligence put the company’s revenue at $53.4bn for the quarter, at [...]
Online stalwart Asos is in for a fashion face-off with Amazon’s wardrobe service January 26, 2018 What do Debenhams, House of Fraser, Mothercare and Asos not have in common? Cracking Christmas clothing sales. While the high street’s stalwarts struggled to attract bargain-hunting shoppers over the festive season, their smaller online-only rival yesterday revealed a 30 per cent rise in sales for the final four months of 2017. Asos, or as As [...]
Virgin Galactic shares blast off as Sir Richard Branson’s firm makes New York Stock Exchange debut October 28, 2019 Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, has taken off on the New York Stock Exchange this afternoon, with shares soaring more than eight per cent in early trading. The company completed a merger with a US investment vehicle late on Friday, making it the first commercial space venture to go public. Branson, who [...]
Spotify finance boss behind streaming giant’s direct listing steps down October 28, 2019 The Spotify finance director who masterminded the streaming giant’s unorthodox stock market float is stepping down from the company. Chief financial officer Barry McCarthy will retire in January and will be replaced by Paul Vogel, who is currently the firm’s head of investor relations. Read more: Spotify fails to hit the right note as subscriber [...]
Would libra have more success if it wasn’t launched by Facebook? November 11, 2019 At the World Blockchain Forum in September, one of the speakers asked who in the audience thought that libra was likely to succeed in taking cryptocurrencies mainstream. About half the room raised their hands. He then continued: “Who wants it to be Facebook that achieves this?” All hands were hastily lowered. It comes as no [...]
Alexa offers energetic assistance in link-up with Octopus Energy March 18, 2019 Octopus Energy has teamed up with Amazon to become the first energy company providing real-time energy pricing using voice automation with Alexa. The energy provider, which has 600,000 customers throughout the UK, is pioneering the drive toward greener and cheaper energy through its Agile Octopus tariff, allowing customers to use electricity when it is cheapest [...]