Anti-vaxxers may lose travel insurance over Covid vaccine refusal November 17, 2020 Anti-vaxxers may risk invalidating their travel insurance if they are medically able but decline to have the coronavirus vaccine, an insurance expert has warned. Medical underwriting specialist and travel insurance expert Tricia Tietema told City A.M she would expect that those who are medically able to have the coronavirus vaccine, should one become available, but [...]
Huawei sells Honor smartphone brand as US sanctions bite November 17, 2020 Huawei is selling its budget smartphone brand Honor to a newly-formed consortium of Chinese buyers after US sanctions pushed the division to the brink of collapse. The Chinese tech giant said it will offload Honor’s business assets to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co, a group of over 30 agents and dealers, including several state-owned [...]
Airbnb reveals deeper loss ahead of stock market float November 17, 2020 Airbnb today revealed it has suffered deeper losses this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, as it unveiled the prospectus for its eagerly-awaited stock market listing. The holiday rental company posted a loss of $697m (£527m) on revenue of $2.5bn in the nine months to the end of September, a widening of the [...]
Google boss apologises to EU chief over plans to dodge antitrust laws November 13, 2020 Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has apologised to EU industry chief Thierry Breton after leaked documents revealed plans to attack the commissioner over new antitrust laws. In a video conference last night, Pichai insisted he had not seen or signed off on the document and apologised for the way it had come out. The internal [...]
Screenshot: Is this the end for impartial TV news? November 13, 2020 A weekly column from City A.M. bringing you all the biggest stories and trends in technology, media and telecoms This week **Media Moment of the Week: How not the book the Four Seasons **Is this the end for impartial TV news? **UK protectionism: A tech takeover balancing act Media Moment of the Week This one’s [...]
Trump administration to delay enforcement of Tiktok ban November 13, 2020 The US government has said it will delay enforcement of a ban on Tiktok as the Chinese-owned viral video app fights back against the measures. The Trump administration in August filed a divestiture order that would have forced Tiktok to sell its US operations by Thursday this week. But the US Commerce Department said it [...]
Tencent profit surges on smartphone gaming boom November 12, 2020 Tencent almost doubled its profit in the third quarter as the Chinese tech conglomerate continued to cash in on booming demand for its online games. The tech giant, which is the world’s largest gaming firm by revenue, reported a 38.5bn yuan (£4.4bn) profit in the three months to the end of September, up 89 per [...]
Google critics call for EU to fast-track competition crackdown November 12, 2020 A group of 165 companies and industry bodies has urged the EU to accelerate its crackdown on Google’s alleged anti-competitive practices, warning planned new laws will take too long to come into force. In a joint letter to EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, seen by Reuters, the critics accused Google of unfairly favouring its own [...]
Tiktok owner Bytedance to book $27bn in ad revenue this year November 11, 2020 The Chinese owner of viral video app Tiktok is reportedly on track to pull in at least $27bn (£20.4bn) in advertising revenue by the end of the year. Bytedance, which generates the vast majority of its revenue from ads, has previously stated that its target for overall revenue in 2020 is $30bn, meaning the figure [...]
Esports brand Fnatic launches crowdfunding campaign after raising $10m November 11, 2020 Shoreditch-based Fnatic is launching a crowdfunding campaign on the back of an increased interest in esports and a recent internal funding round. Venture capital firm Beringea led the $10m round with participation from existing investors Unbound, LVL1 Global and JHD, bringing total investment in Fnatic to nearly $35m. Fnatic, which is the second most watched [...]