Apple cuts App Store commission following developer backlash November 18, 2020 Apple is slashing the commission it takes from some purchases made through the App Store following widespread criticism of the charges. The tech giant takes a 30 per cent cut of most app and virtual goods sales, though this drops to 15 per cent for subscriptions that remain active for more than a year. But [...]
UK music industry value set to halve as pandemic derails growth November 18, 2020 The value of the UK music industry is set to almost halve in size this year due to the “catastrophic blow” of the coronavirus pandemic. Figures published today by industry body UK Music showed the sector contributed a bumper £5.8bn to the economy in 2019 — up 11 per cent on the previous year. Employment [...]
Sarah Frankland on how to get into lockdown baking through macarons November 17, 2020 Just as lockdown 1 started there was a huge spike in people making baking-related google searches, with “banana bread” and “cheesecake” becoming almost as popular as “coronavirus” and “the end of civilisation as we know it”. Now we’re well into the sequel of lockdown, which is somehow both more dangerous and more boring, people are [...]
ESG and fixed-income indices surge in 2020 November 17, 2020 “Market indices have seen constant evolution in more than a century of history, but never more so than in the last year.” On 3 July 1884, the world’s first stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Index, was published by Charles Dow. And every year since then, market indices have evolved and grown in scale and [...]
Government’s digital strategy cannot be a missed opportunity November 12, 2020 Why is there no British tech titan on the scale of Google, Apple or Amazon? This is a question that has exercised the minds of those in and outside of government for some time. Many have concluded that more needs to do done if the UK is ever going to create a $1 trillion home [...]
The City View: Addison Lee boss Liam Griffin on London’s prospects November 11, 2020 Today Andy Silvester talks to Liam Griffin, CEO of Addison Lee. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS After a tumultuous few years, the firm remains optimistic about the capital’s prospects – but Griffin believes the capital needs more help from regulators. He also touches on taking on the firm – again – on the very [...]
The Toyota GR Yaris is a thrilling rally car for the road November 10, 2020 Toyota took its next WRC race car, then made it road-legal. The result is the bespoke and ballistic GR Yaris – our hot hatchback of the year.
Virtual events company Hopin raises £125m leading to £2bn valuation November 10, 2020 Hopin, the UK virtual events provider, has raised $125m from venture capitalists, including Tiger Global and Accel, helping to drive a surge in its valuation to $2bn from $43m less than a year ago.
Acast and Patreon team up to launch subscriber-only podcast service November 10, 2020 Acast and Patreon have joined forces to launch a new service that will allow podcast creators to make exclusive content available to subscribers across all major platforms. The tie-up will allow creators on the Patreon membership service to distribute private, patron-only podcast episodes to listeners on apps including Apple and Amazon Music. “At Patreon, we’re [...]
Exclusive: Digital wealth manager Nutmeg customers surge past 100,000 November 10, 2020 Digital wealth manager Nutmeg has enjoyed a coronavirus boost and now boasts more than 100,000 customers after investors shifted online amid the pandemic. The robo-adviser saw a 33 per cent increase year-on-year in its customer numbers to pass the 100,000 milestone, with assets under management (AUM) peaking at £2.3bn. In the six months to June [...]