Tencent takes a stake in Snap November 8, 2017 Chinese tech giant Tencent has bought up a more than 10 per cent stake in Snap, the maker of messaging app Snapchat. The stake was disclosed in regulatory filings overnight following earnings late on Tuesday evening. Snap’s ownership structure, which gives voting rights only to its founders, means the stake has not previously been disclosed [...]
The trials and tribulations of tapping new tech November 7, 2017 "Neither Redbox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition.” Those are the words of Jim Keyes, the former chief executive of video rental giant Blockbuster back in 2008. Just five years after Keyes made that statement, Blockbuster went bust, swallowed whole by the mighty online streaming service that is Netflix. [...]
Sink, swim, or build a lifeboat: Tips for surviving Open Banking November 7, 2017 Open Banking, which comes into place January 2018, is a landmark development for the banking industry. It will force banks to open up their Advanced Programming Interface (API). This may sound like a dry compliance point, but the reality is far from it. With customer permission, competitors will be able to access banks’ enormous – [...]
The rise of young Asia: how millennials are transforming a region November 6, 2017 There seems to be a growing view that Asia has a problem with ageing. It is certainly true that maturing populations will soon be putting pressure on workforces in countries like China, Korea and Taiwan. But, this misses the point: there is a huge shift of economic power to a growing and increasingly wealthy Asian [...]
DEBATE: Are Open Banking and PSD2 a real threat to banks? October 30, 2017 Are Open Banking and PSD2 a real threat to banks? Mike Gordon is chief executive of Callcredit, says YES. Banks make most of their money from a few products, which they package along with current accounts. Open Banking and PSD2 will change this model, as shown by our recent research with Ctrl-Shift. Open Banking requires [...]
From Red Flag Laws to the Uber ban, transport has always been a battle of innovation vs. precaution | City A.M. September 26, 2017 Last Friday, Transport for London (TfL) informed Uber that it would not be issued a private hire operator licence after its current licence expires on 30 September 2017. Only a few days before, Taxify, the Didi-backed car-booking app that is seeking to rival Uber, had been forced to halt operations in London for breaking rules [...]
On yer Mobike: Another cycle sharing scheme’s arrived in London after oBike, starting with Ealing July 31, 2017 It looks like Londoners will have more bike choices than ever before, as another cycle sharing scheme pulls up in the capital. Mobike, a Chinese startup unicorn (valued at more than a billion dollars, that is), will be available in Ealing from today, its first foray into the capital after a somewhat bumpy arrival in [...]
Tech firm secures £1.4m funding to develop indoor positioning software July 17, 2017 A technology firm that has developed world-class indoor positioning software is creating new jobs in Edinburgh after securing £1.4m funding. Sensewhere has developed technology that uses signals from indoor electromagnetic sources like Wi-Fi routers and Bluetooth to pinpoint a user’s location in areas like shopping centres and airports – where GPS signals from satellites are [...]
Manchester bike-sharing firm Mobike develops tech to track cycles and lock them remotely June 28, 2017 Mobike, the bike-sharing firm bringing Boris-style bikes to Manchester, has developed location tracking technology that allows bikes to be locked remotely. The Chinese firm has teamed up with digital security company Gemalto to embed a “smart bike lock”. Today’s announcement comes a week after bike-sharing rival Wukong went bust after losing 90 per cent of [...]
Emerging market equities: unloved and under-owned June 21, 2017 “Emerging market (EM) equities has a history of headlines — mostly negative — and volatility,” said Devan Kaloo, Head of Global Emerging Markets Equities at Aberdeen Asset Management. Yet there is reason for optimism, Kaloo assured attendees of the 70th CFA Institute Annual Conference, especially for those value investors who dive deeply into the fundamentals, [...]