Music streaming revenues overtake ownership for the first time amid shift to ‘rental’ market March 4, 2019 The popularity of subscription services reached record levels in the UK last year as music streaming revenues overtook ownership formats for the first time. Revenues from paid-for music subscription services such as Spotify jumped 39 per cent last year to £829m, meaning subscriptions now account for 62 per cent of all music revenues, according to figures [...]
Amazon to open supermarkets across US in food business expansion March 2, 2019 Amazon is looking to open dozens of supermarkets across America as it tries to expand its food business. The online retailer is also exploring the option of buying regional chains that have at least 12 stores as it bids to strength its new supermarket brand, according to the Wall Street Journal. Read more: New York leaders beg Amazon to [...]
Strong and stable: London extends lead as Europe’s top hub for unicorn startups March 1, 2019 London has cemented its status as the home of more young billion-dollar tech companies than any other European city, taking home the crown for ten consecutive years. Read more: Female fintech leaders highlighted as sector battles gender imbalance The number of so-called unicorn startups – private businesses valued at $1bn (£752.6m) and founded after 2000 [...]
Fedex creates Segway-inspired delivery robot with Pizza Hut and Walmart February 28, 2019 Fedex has unveiled a pizza delivery robot that will hit the streets this summer. Read more: What’s on your tech radar for 2019? Pizza Hut and Walmart are both on board, with trials set to begin soon in cities across the US, including in Fedex’s hometown of Memphis. The autonomous bot, which is powered by an [...]
ITV and BBC announce online streaming service to rival Netflix February 27, 2019 ITV has reported boosted revenue this morning as the broadcaster announced it is in final talks with the BBC to launch Netflix rival Britbox. The figures Total external revenue was up three per cent to £3.2bn and total non-advertising revenues grew five per cent to £1.9bn, ITV said in its full-year year results for [...]
US Court of Appeals backs AT&T takeover of Time Warner February 26, 2019 US telecoms giant AT&T’s takeover with Time Warner was given the green light today by a federal appeals judge that ruled in favour of the acquisition. An appeals court rejected the Justice Department's bid to overturn a ruling that approved the $80bn (£60bn) merger, which has led to one of the largest US anti-trust lawsuits in [...]
Amazon pledges to create 1,000 UK apprenticeships by 2021 February 26, 2019 Amazon today pledged to create more than 1,000 full-time apprenticeships in the UK over the next two years. Read more: Amazon's UK boss made a trustee of the National Gallery The apprenticeship programme will fill positions across Amazon’s UK operations – from software developers for Prime Video and Alexa's machine learning technology to warehouse workers [...]
Facebook, social media and ads – when will marketers abandon the network? February 25, 2019 The Facebook-Google duopoly has a stranglehold over internet advertising. While the search engine dominates the pairing, Mark Zuckerberg’s creation is no slouch – last year, more than a fifth (21.8 per cent) of all US digital ad spending went to the social media network, equivalent to $28.2bn (£21.7bn). But the company is in hot water, [...]
Flexible office rents tumble as London boom fuels more spaces February 24, 2019 Fresh evidence of a boom in the capital’s flexible workspace market has come to light with a report out today that shows a sharp rise in new spaces coming to the market. Growing demand for shorter leases led to more than 150 new flexible office space business centres opening in Central London during 2018, marking [...]
Chickens come home to roost for Mike Coupe as Sainsbury-Asda deal dies February 22, 2019 | City Talk Mike Coupe was a happy chappy back in April. Notably he was caught on camera humming the lyrics to the gold digger's song – 'we're in the money' etc, after announcing a supermarket mega merger like no other. This week however the companies' complete lack of understanding of the Competition and Markets Authority has come [...]