Uber to appeal Singaporean competition watchdog decision on Grab merger October 22, 2018 Uber has said it will appeal a decision made by the competition watchdog in Singapore on its merger with local ride-hailing rival Grab. The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) last month imposed fines of 6.42m Singaporean dollars (£3.6m) on Grab and 6.58m Singaporean dollars on Uber, in addition to business restrictions, after concluding that their [...]
Truth to power: Adtech has to stand up for journalism October 22, 2018 The future of the press is in doubt. If you need an example of just how powerful fake news has become, remember August, when even seasoned journalists accepted at face value a spoof campaign ironically titled “Don’t believe every tweet”, featuring bogus quotes from Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey. The changes in journalism have not [...]
Elon Musk says first Hyperloop tunnel to open in the US in December October 22, 2018 Entrepreneur Elon Musk has said the first testing tunnel of his Hyperloop transport system is almost fully completed, and will be open to the public later this year. Manufactured under his firm Boring Co., Hyperloop is a network of high-speed transit tunnels designed to maximise the efficiency of public transport at a lowered cost. Musk said on Twitter [...]
Do you want to save the turtles? Don’t ban plastics – ban littering October 22, 2018 Like any good Londoner, I used the fantastic summer weather to kayak from Limehouse to Hackney, discovering that part of the city by water. As a fairly experienced river and sea kayaker, I was taken aback by how full of litter London’s waters are. At around the same time, the national and global debate on [...]
Tech giant Alibaba opens two cloud data centres in the UK October 22, 2018 E-commerce giant Alibaba's cloud arm has opened two data centres in London, signalling the firm's first official expansion to British shores. The centres will power Alibaba's cloud services in the UK, allowing it to effectively disseminate its services to British businesses as it seeks to compete with rivals Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft. The [...]
Fintech startup Worldremit poaches former Paddy Power chief as its next boss October 22, 2018 London money transfer fintech startup Worldremit has today revealed former Paddy Power Betfair chief Breon Corcoran will be its newest chief executive. Corcoran joins the fintech as it hurtles towards so-called unicorn status – a company worth over $1bn (£764.6m) – after successfully managing the merger of betting firms Paddy Power and Betfair in 2016. Worldremit's current founder and chief [...]
Addison Lee signs strategic deal with driverless startup Oxbotica for London revolution October 22, 2018 Private hire firm Addison Lee has signed a strategic partnership with UK software startup Oxbotica to bring self-driving car services to Londoners by 2021. Addison Lee said the two firms will collaborate on technological development, deployment and operation of self-driving cars to first provide affordable ride-sharing taxi services in the capital. In the long term, it [...]
Technology is set to be this week’s hottest ticket on Wall Street as its biggest leaders go head-to-head October 21, 2018 This Thursday is set to be a battle of the technology heavyweights, as behemoths Amazon, Alphabet, Snap and Twitter all report their quarterly results. Both Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, trounced consensus estimates last quarter, with Amazon truly shaking up the game on Wall Street with earnings per share rising over 1,157 per cent [...]
Electric bike startup Lime to scoot into the UK market with a soft launch in Milton Keynes October 21, 2018 Dockless electric bicycle and scooter startup Lime is set to fire up its first expansion into the UK market with a soft launch in Milton Keynes. The San Francisco firm, which is valued at $3bn (£2.3bn), is exploring an office in the UK with plans to hire a country manager and up to 20 staff [...]
Who the heck is Nick Clegg? Seven facts about Facebook’s new spin chief October 20, 2018 Facebook’s decision to hire the UK’s former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg as its communications chief was one that seemed to come out of left field. Clegg had previously held a prominent role in British public life as head of the UK’s third party the Liberal Democrats between 2007 and 2015 and the UK’s deputy prime minister between [...]