Alibaba’s record-breaking Singles Day sales hit $10bn in first hour November 11, 2018 Online retail giant Alibaba today smashed records for the largest shopping day on the planet, making sales of over $1bn (£770.5m) in just 85 seconds. The sales came during Singles Day, the world’s largest online retail festival. Alibaba’s total sales hit $10bn after one hour and had reached over $24bn after 16 hours. The festival's sales eclipse the estimated [...]
Amazon to stock iPhones for Christmas after promise to clamp down on fake Apple products November 10, 2018 Parents or partners of Apple fans will be able to turn to Amazon this Christmas to buy the latest iPhone for their loved ones. In the next few weeks, the online retail giant will start selling iPhones and iPads in the US, Europe, Japan and India, expanding its previously limited range of Apple products. However, customers [...]
Editor’s Notes: We shouldn’t look to the police to protect us from offence November 9, 2018 One of our most popular columnists, Kate Andrews, enjoyed her latest outing on Question Time last week. During a discussion about online abuse and freedom of speech, David Dimbleby made an unusual intervention to highlight the appalling levels of abuse that Kate suffers on social media following an appearance on the show. “This afternoon I was [...]
ITV warns that economic uncertainty will hit advertising revenues November 7, 2018 ITV's share price fell almost 3 per cent today to 150p as it predicted a dip in advertising revenue at the end of the year as continued economic uncertainty takes its toll on the broadcaster. The channel's performance in the first nine months of the year was in line with expectations, recording a six per cent increase in [...]
Hammond’s digital tax is an illogical game of whack-a-mole November 7, 2018 The introduction of a new digital services tax was the most depressingly inevitable part of Philip Hammond’s Budget speech last week. Years of pressure from a pincer movement of corporate tax moralists and traditional retailers have paid off. Starting in April 2020, profitable digital businesses with £500m in global revenues would face a two per cent [...]
German budget supermarket chain Lidl boosts wages for UK employees November 6, 2018 German budget supermarket Lidl will boost wages for thousands of its workers in the UK, it said yesterday. Lidl said entry-level wages will increase from £8.75 an hour to £9 an hour outside of London and from £10.20 to £10.55 an hour within the capital. The increase will come into effect from 1 March next year, [...]
FAANGs come out to play in Halloween shares surge October 31, 2018 Technology's biggest players, lumped together as the so-called FAANG stocks, have ended their October losing streak which had left investors spooked with just one day to go. Netflix's share price saw the biggest gains out of the FAANGs grouping, rising almost seven per cent this afternoon off the back of better-than-expected results for Facebook last night. The social [...]
Philip Hammond chooses to splash the cash in his Budget rather than pay down the deficit October 29, 2018 Chancellor Philip Hammond declared “austerity is coming to an end” as he unveiled a raft of spending increases and tax cuts on Monday. Hammond used better-than-expected tax revenues of £12bn to pour extra cash into the NHS and bring forward by a year an increase in the 40p tax threshold to £50,000. The new level will [...]
Going it alone: Tech giants to be hit by UK digital services tax October 29, 2018 Technology giants operating in the UK will be served with a narrowly-targeted digital services tax, chancellor Philip Hammond announced today. With consultations to occur before the tax goes live in April 2020, the chancellor said the move is to ensure "the UK continues to be the best place in the world to start and scale [...]
Amazon breaks past $100m in charitable donations from sales October 29, 2018 Amazon's charitable donation programme, Amazonsmile, this month surpassed a milestone of $100m (£78m) in donations since it began in 2013. Shoppers can opt in to Amazonsmile for free when using Amazon in the UK, US and Germany, whereby the tech giant adds to their purchase with a 0.5 per cent donation to a charity of [...]