Drones will transform our cities – and we’re totally unprepared for the consequences February 21, 2017 Drones are everywhere – whether that’s delivering Domino’s pizzas in New Zealand or dancing behind Lady Gaga at the US Super Bowl. With the news that Amazon’s new drone delivery plan includes “package parachutes”, considering how drones will impact our cities in the future is an issue that London must address now. No longer limited [...]
Wellcome Trust set for $100m windfall from Snap IPO as tech firm woos City investors February 20, 2017 The Wellcome Trust is set for a huge windfall from the hottest tech IPO of the year. Snap's public offering, expected next week, will return around $100m (£80.3m) to the science institution following on from successful early bets on Facebook and Alibaba, among others. It comes as the Los Angeles-based startup sought to woo European investors, bringing its IPO [...]
Why everything you think you know about the gig economy might be wrong February 20, 2017 The rise of the so-called gig economy characterised by new technology platforms such as Uber and Deliveroo has sent the number of self-employed workers soaring in recent years… or so says conventional thinking. But, a new report suggests it is, in fact, higher earners in high-skilled jobs who are driving the growth of the self-employed to top [...]
YouTube’s double standards in banning PewDiePie February 20, 2017 If you've ever wondered what on earth a PewDiePie is, you’re not alone. He’s a man, Felix Kjellberg, who reviews video games online. In the YouTube world, he’s as famous as James Corden, as influential as Nick Robinson, and as we found out last week, as funny as Jim Davidson. “Very rich Swedish man pays [...]
Uber’s facing some serious allegations of sexism, harassment and a toxic work culture February 20, 2017 Uber is facing serious allegations of sexism in the workplace after explosive revelations from a former engineer at the billion-dollar startup. Chief executive Travis Kalanick labelled the behaviour "abhorrent" and "against everything we believe in", promising an investigation, after former engineer Susan Fowler published details of her experience at the company. In the blog post, she describes being [...]
Alibaba pursues a tie-up with bricks-and-mortar group Bailian February 20, 2017 Alibaba has joined with retail conglomerate Bailian Group in a bid to extend its presence in bricks-and-mortar retail as online growth slows. The Chinese tech giant, which has an active user base of around 500m, formed the strategic partnership just after purchasing of a stake in retailer Suning Commerce Group and planning to take a controlling [...]
Search engines team up with film, TV and music industries to combat piracy February 20, 2017 Google and Bing are teaming up with the UK’s £87bn creative industries to combat piracy. The search engines will adhere to a voluntary code of practice, so that websites infringing on copyrighted content appear lower in search results. Improvements will also be made to autocomplete suggestions so that they are less likely to lead users [...]
How Blockchain technology will change the financial services industry February 20, 2017 | City Talk Blockchain technology has been hailed as a potential “second generation of the Internet.” A whole vocabulary has sprung up around it, with an emphasis on key words like distributed ledger, cryptography, and trust. But what is blockchain, exactly? It’s basically a database where recorded transactions are copied to a participating network of computers. Since the [...]
Amazon creates thousands of new jobs in another win for post-Brexit UK and Expedia expands London office February 20, 2017 Amazon is the latest US tech giant to commit to the UK after the vote for Brexit, promising to create thousands of new jobs by the end of the year. Some 5,000 full-time jobs will be created across Amazon's business in the UK, bringing total headcount to 24,000 by the end of 2017. The plans include jobs [...]
TfL awards Barclaycard 10-year contract that’ll include the roll out of contactless on the Elizabeth Line February 20, 2017 Barclaycard has retained its contract providing payment solutions to Transport for London (TfL), securing a new 10-year contract that includes the roll-out of contactless for the Elizabeth Line. The awarding of the £380m contract is for seven years with an option of extending for a further three years. Barclaycard will help TfL roll out contactless for [...]