Britain’s trade bodies must confront challenges of their own January 31, 2019 What does the future hold for Britain's trade bodies? We hear a great deal about the disruption that poses huge challenges to their members but what of the disruption facing membership groups themselves? Many are struggling with declining membership rates, or the competing interests of the members who do remain. Take the British Retail Consortium [...]
Broadcast TV advertising ‘at the tipping point’ as viewers switch to streaming, report finds January 31, 2019 Traditional TV advertising is approaching a tipping point as sliding viewing figures cast doubt on the cost-efficiency of TV campaigns, a new report has found. A report by media consultancy Ebiquity has forecast a decline in TV ad viewing among adults of 15 to 20 per cent by 2022. These figures increase to 30 per [...]
Google’s GDPR fine may cost it more than just €50m – it will impact the tech industry too January 31, 2019 Back in December, I wrote an article asking why, six months after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) had come into force, we had not yet seen any major fines or punishments for firms that had misused or mishandled personal data. The lack of sanctions, I argued, made the new regulatory powers toothless. [...]
Amazon’s UK boss Doug Gurr appointed a trustee at the National Gallery January 30, 2019 Prime Minister Theresa May has made the UK country manager of Amazon a trustee of the National Gallery. Doug Gurr, who was also formerly president of Amazon in China, first joined the e-commerce site in 2011. A statement from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said Gurr had previously worked for the UK government, and [...]
Apple sales come to the fore as big tech firms brace for crunch results January 29, 2019 Silicon Valley will be preparing for market instability this week as several members of the so-called Faang grouping gear up to report quarterly results for the recent festive period. Three members of the big tech club – which includes Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google – will publish figures amid rising speculation that their time [...]
Netflix leads the way as UK on-demand video subscriptions soar January 24, 2019 The number of UK homes that subscribe to an on-demand TV service has soared in the last year, with Netflix the most popular choice, new figures have revealed. A total of 11.6m UK households had a subscription to at least one of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Now TV in the third quarter of 2018, [...]
Big tech firms like Google, Amazon and Facebook spent a record amount on political lobbying last year January 24, 2019 Google, Amazon and Facebook's bill for lobbying the US government hit record highs last year, as life under the Trump administration put big tech firms in the spotlight. Google parent firm Alphabet said it spent $21.2m (£16.3m) on political lobbying costs in the US last year, topping its previous all-time high of $18.2m achieved in 2012. It [...]
Retail property value set to plunge as owners battle online shopping rise January 21, 2019 The value of retail property is set to fall by 15.9 per cent this year as owners and investors battle to tempt online shoppers back to the high street. A total of 62 per cent of major UK property owners and investors said e-commerce businesses such as Amazon are disrupting the commercial real estate industry [...]
Former SSE boss Ian Marchant invests in London smart home startup January 21, 2019 A London-based smart home technology startup, backed by the former chief of SSE Ian Marchant, today announced that it has raised £2m in a new funding round. Den, which has now raised a total of £5m, is also backed by Mark Davies, a founder of Betfair. Read more: Stay on top of your resolutions with the [...]
Tech giants accused of data protection breaches by Austrian activist January 19, 2019 Tech giants Apple and Amazon have been named in a complaint filed by Noyb, claiming they are still failing to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The company, chaired by data privacy activist and lawyer Max Schrems, filed a complaint in Austria also naming Netflix, Spotify and Youtube after it tested the [...]