Facebook earnings boom with huge growth in mobile ad revenue after Twitter disappoints October 28, 2014 Facebook has posted impressive third quarter results with growth in both revenue and users. The multi-billion dollar company grew its daily active users by 19 per cent from a year ago, with the number of monthly active users growing by 14 per cent. Wall Street had expected the social media firm to post revenue for [...]
10 things we learned this week: From Tesco’s share price and Facebook’s tax bill to cures for Ebola and the EU budget October 24, 2014 What a week. From troubles at Tesco (not least its share price) to Facebook's UK tax bill, we've had a busy front on company news. And when it came to international goings-on, the EU really kept us on our toes, while Ebola continued to dominate the news. Here we digest the top 10 stories [...]
Facebook’s £3,169 UK corporate tax bill in 2013 was less than a zone 1-9 yearly London travelcard October 22, 2014 Facebook’s corporate tax bill for 2013 came in at just £3,169 last year, according to its latest accounts. It paid less than London commuters pay for a yearly zone one to nine travelcard (£3,256) by basing its European headquarters in tax-favourable Ireland, and using a tax loophole known as the “Double-Irish”. The social network paid the [...]
New Facebook feature “Safety Check” lets you tell loved ones you’re safe during an emergency October 16, 2014 Facebook knows the first thing you do in a crisis is turn to social media. A psychological quirk of the modern age, it means Faceboook is not necessarily just a narcissistic echo chamber full of selfies, but also the first port of call to check on loved ones during an emergency. That’s why Facebook is [...]
Facebook and Apple offer free egg freezing to female employees in the US October 15, 2014 Famous Silicon Valley firms Facebook and Apple are offering an unusual perk to its female employees – and it's slightly controversial. Both companies are offering women working at the company based in the US free egg freezing for non-medical reasons as part of their healthcare benefits package. Facebook already offers the perk, having introduced it [...]
“Double-Irish” tax loophole to close by 2020 for Apple, Google and Facebook, making way for “Knowledge Development Box” October 14, 2014 The Irish government has revealed plans to close a much criticised tax loophole nicknamed the “Double-Irish”, which lets major international corporations such as Apple, Google and Facebook pay surprisingly low rates of corporation tax. The plans, announced by Ireland’s finance minister Michael Noonan in the government's budget today, come amid mounting pressure from Europe and [...]
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg shells out $100m for Hawaii holiday sanctuary October 14, 2014 Mark Zuckerberg has splashed out over $100m on two pieces of land on Hawaii's stunning Kauai North Shore, according to Forbes. The properties are reported to total 700 acres. The first purchase was the Pila'a beach, which consists of 383 acres of dazzling white sand. The private beach was owned by Pfleunger properties, a company belonging [...]
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook has no plan to monetise WhatsApp October 9, 2014 Mark Zuckerberg has admitted Facebook does not have a plan to monetise WhatsApp, following its $22bn takeover which completed this week. The deal was initially agreed way back in February, yet Facebook has not yet worked out how to make money out of the instant messaging service which currently has 600m users. Currently [...]
DHL apologises for using Jules Bianchi crash to get “likes” on Facebook October 6, 2014 DHL has apologised for a Facebook post which used the life threatening crash of F1 driver Jules Bianchi to ask for “likes”. Many fans of DHL on Facebook were outraged by the post which said “by clicking ‘Like’ on this occasion, you’ll be sending Jules your best wishes for a speedy recovery.” French [...]
Facebook fake “likes”: Social media giant vows to “aggressively get rid” of scam artists October 6, 2014 Facebook says it will "aggressively get rid of" companies and brands paying for fake "likes" on the social media site. Brands buy "likes" from fake pages from websites such as buy-facebooklikes.co.uk and socialmadness.co.uk in order to make their products seem more popular. Facebook has already won nearly $2bn (£1.25bn) in legal judgements against the spammers and [...]