Brexit, ad fraud and #MeToo – what does the future year hold for the marketing industry? January 7, 2019 We are out of the cold December of 2018, and have now entered the, well, even colder January of 2019. Last year was a momentous one for the marketing industry – there was the fall and rise again of adland stalwart Martin Sorrell; the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) finally came into force; [...]
Alexa: Tell me why I can’t have a flying car like in Blade Runner January 4, 2019 Bad news: it’s 2019, and that means we are now living through the year in which the original Blade Runner film was set. Released in 1982, Blade Runner has some interesting ideas about 2019. Yes, it’s a post-apocalyptic dystopian hellscape where sentient bioengineered robots (“replicants”) must be hunted down against a backdrop of a dying [...]
Record digital sales of The Greatest Showman boost UK home entertainment market January 3, 2019 Hit movie The Greatest Showman helped the UK home entertainment market grow by 10 per cent in 2018, new figures have revealed. The popular musical, which stars Hugh Jackman as the head of a circus troupe, was the best-selling film of the year, with more than 2.7m copies sold. A majority of the film's sales [...]
Amazon HQ2 – “Mr. Bezos, why didn’t you call?” January 2, 2019 | City Talk Amazon’s HQ2 search went live on 7th September 2017 and it selected the winning cities, New York and Washington, in November 2018. The Global Cities databases that we use to quantify our investments comprise exactly the data that Amazon needed to make its decision. It wasn’t just Mr Bezos’ time that was wasted. When Amazon [...]
Why cryptocurrencies are here to stay December 21, 2018 If common perception is to be believed, we’re currently watching the death of cryptocurrencies. Without doubt, there is cause for some concern. This year has been terrible for speculators, with a deeply entrenched bear market taking hold, and the price of bitcoin falling by around 80 per cent. The year also hasn’t resulted in the envisaged uptake [...]
For Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, 2018 was the year when trust in the tech giants evaporated December 20, 2018 The Faangs (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google-owner Alphabet) have been the darlings of the stock market for years. These tech giants have helped to change how we shop, communicate, work – even how we watch movies. But as they have grown in size, fears have also grown, especially about what they may do with so [...]
Facebook shares down after investigation reveals true extent of data-sharing with other tech giants December 19, 2018 Facebook’s shares fell 6 per cent today after an investigation revealed the company gave big tech companies far greater access to users’ personal data than it had previously admitted. The social media giant let Microsoft’s Bing search engine see the names of virtually all users’ friends without their permission, according to reports. The New York [...]
France will tax Amazon and Facebook as tech tax talks with the EU falter December 18, 2018 France expects to pull in around €500m (£450m) each year as it introduces a new tax on major technology companies such as Amazon and Apple. Speaking in Paris, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said he would push ahead with the tax plans after talks to establish an EU-wide version collapsed earlier this month, AFP reported. [...]
Why voice assistants are set to make their ‘presents’ known this Christmas December 18, 2018 Christmas is now only a week away, and unsurprisingly gadgets will be taking up a lot of space under the tree, as people want to get their hands on the latest tech. Voice assistants are set to be an affordable, useful gift for many this year, and have become one of the hottest presents on [...]
From tech to Trump – here’s what prompted the big market moves of 2018 December 18, 2018 From Brexit to trade wars, nothing has been plain-sailing about 2018. It’s been a year of peaks and troughs across all major markets, so let’s have a look at the big moves of the past 12 months. Tech in turmoil This was the year when the tech giants raced to become the first ever $1 [...]