Spotify hits record half a billion monthly users and forecasts future revenue to soar April 25, 2023 The number of monthly active users on Spotify passed the half a billion milestone for the first time, the music streaming platform reported today. The number of monthly active users rose 27 per cent to 515 million in the first quarter of this year, 15 million more than the company’s estimates. Premium subscribers also grew [...]
Revolut and the race – or not – to superapp status November 17, 2022 What on earth is a superapp and do we really want one, asks Charlie Conchie
Tencent vows to ‘distribute’ $20.3bn Meituan shares to investors November 16, 2022 Tencent has vowed to give its shareholders $20.3bn (£17.4bn) worth of shares in Chinese food delivery firm Meituan as it seeks to reduce its holdings in China’s tech sector. The Shenzhen conglomerate’s “special dividend” comes as its sales dropped two per cent year-on-year, to £16.6bn, on the back of a five per cent drop in [...]
A little birdwatching: Are tech firms like Musk’s Twitter ready for regulation? November 16, 2022 ELON MUSK’s dramatic takeover of Twitter – complete with firing the entire management team and half the staff – has been the talk of, ahem, Twitter for the past week, as well as much of the rest of the world. It has also divided opinion amongst the most strongly politically engaged. Many on the right [...]
Deep dive with DreamWorks’ former CTO: ‘Forget social media, the Metaverse tracks people much more intimately’ November 12, 2022 The novel Snow Crash has had the privilege of coining a term that would later become one of the most important words of the 21st century: metaverse. Google search trend data for the term shows an explosion from relative obscurity with a search volume score of 4/100 in early October 2021, to an all-time global high by search [...]
EU opens probe into Microsoft’s £59bn deal to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard November 8, 2022 The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation into Microsoft’s proposed $68.7bn (£59.5bn) acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard. The commission said it was concerned that the proposed deal may reduce competition in the market. A preliminary investigation found that the transaction may significantly reduce competition, including multi-game subscription services and cloud game [...]
Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal faces deeper competition probe September 15, 2022 The competition regulator has referred Microsoft’s $68.7bn snap up of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard for an in-depth investigation, spelling danger for the gaming sector's monster deal.
Watchdog flags competition concerns for Microsoft and Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard’s £50bn deal September 1, 2022 Regulators have flagged competition concerns over Microsoft’s $68.7bn acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, giving the US giants until next week to provide evidence.
SoftBank executive steps back from key roles after record losses August 31, 2022 SoftBank’s executive Rajeev Misra has stepped down from his roles as corporate officer and executive vice president as the investment giant reels from record losses this year.
Chinese tech giants including TikTok owner reveal algorithms amid scrutiny August 16, 2022 A string of Chinese tech giants have been pushed to share details of their algorithms with Beijing’s cyberspace watchdog amid increasingly scrutiny in China. Some 30 companies, including Alibaba, Tencent and TikTok-owner ByteDance, today had descriptions of their algorithms published by the Cyberspace Administration of China. The Chinese regulator is expected to regularly update the [...]