Pinterest files for $12.7bn IPO: What it needs to do next April 18, 2019 Image curation site Pinterest will list in the US when the New York Stock Exchange opens later today at $19 per share. The unicorn’s share price, which had more than 250m active users and 2bn searches last year, is above the target range and a valuation that the website received in 2017. Read more: Get [...]
China is proving a tough market for western brands – here’s the common mistakes that companies keep making April 12, 2019 Last week, the International Monetary Fund upgraded its 2019 growth forecast for the Chinese economy to 6.3 per cent, up from 6.2 per cent. For comparison, the UK economy is only expected to grow 1.2 per cent this year. It’s worth noting these figures, because they highlight why many brands in the UK and elsewhere [...]
China’s mobile brands have global ambitions – this will have a big impact on the digital marketing ecosystem April 12, 2019 With the world’s online mobile population growing day by day, and a home market dominated by giants such as Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba, Chinese app developers are increasingly looking to market their apps abroad. I have seen first-hand this shift from a focus on the domestic market to a much more global viewpoint. And I [...]
Social Media: Who watches the watchers? April 8, 2019 Social media, and especially its archetype, Facebook, has had a difficult run of publicity over the past few years. The 2016 US presidential election and the rise of “fake news” certainly did it no favours, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal which came in its wake made things worse still. Facebook’s origins as a benign thread [...]
Gizmodo and The Onion snapped up by private equity firm Great Hill Partners April 8, 2019 US private equity firm Great Hill Partners has snapped up Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion from Spanish-language media giant Univision for an undisclosed sum. The newly-formed group, which will be renamed G/O Media, will be led by media veteran Jim Spanfeller, who previously served as chief executive of Forbes. Read more: Google hands out [...]
EU pips Google to the post as it unveils AI ethics strategy April 8, 2019 The EU has outlined its guidelines for ethical AI development just days after Google was forced to scrap its controversial ethics board. The European Commission today unveiled its recommended steps for achieving “trustworthy” AI as it looks to set up a framework to ensure the new technology is used responsibly. Read more: Google scraps AI [...]
Europe must lead the way with digital tax, says EU competition commissioner April 8, 2019 Europe must agree on plans for a new digital tax and should be the trailblazer if there is no global consensus, the EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said. The EU last month scrapped initial plans to roll out a digital tax on tech giants after opposition from several member states. Read more: EU drops [...]
Google scraps AI ethics board after just a week amid controversy over board member April 5, 2019 Google has scrapped its AI ethics board only a week after forming it following a controversy over its choice of board members. The tech giant last week unveiled its newly-formed Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) to oversee the ethical development and use of its AI research and products. Read more: Here's how much Google [...]
Google UK employees earned £226,000 on average last year April 3, 2019 Staff at Google’s UK offices earned an average of £226,000 last year after the firm paid out more than £340m through its share scheme. The tech firm paid £829m to its employees in the year to the end of June, up from £657m the previous year. The company, which currently has three main offices in [...]
Audioboom posts record quarterly revenues as it cashes in on podcast boom April 3, 2019 Podcast platform Audioboom has posted a surge in quarterly profits as appetite for on-demand listening continues to grow. The London-listed firm saw its revenue rise 180 per cent year-on-year to $4.6m (£3.5m) in the three months to the end of March. Read more: BBC removes podcasts from rival Google service Audioboom said it has boosted [...]