Uber’s accelerating expansion stalled in Seoul as city seeks ban July 21, 2014 THE FAST expansion of Uber, the mobile app for hailing private hire cars, hit a roadblock yesterday as Seoul’s city council said it would ban the service. Uber, valued at $18.2bn (£10.6bn) in June, launched in the South Korean capital in August last year, but the Seoul city council said yesterday it considers Uber to [...]
Heatwave hits London: Here’s how the City’s soaking up the sun July 18, 2014 London is set for a scorcher today with temperatures expected to hit a sweltering 30C so grab a pair of sunnies and head outside if you can handle the heat. City workers look like they're mainly cooling down with a classic Mr Whippy topped with a 99 flake from a well placed ice cream van (cheaper [...]
Uber’s latest promotional stunt? Delivering ice cream on London’s hottest day of the year July 18, 2014 In its latest publicity-driven stunt, innovative taxi app Uber will be delivering ice cream to scorched Londoners today, on what promises to be the capital's hottest day of the year. In an email to customers with the inside scoop, Uber says that ice cream vans will be available in central London between 11am and 7pm, [...]
Uber launches in Hong Kong as global expansion gathers pace July 17, 2014 Uber launched its service in Hong Kong yesterday, as the mobile app for hailing private hire cars continued its fast global expansion to cover 150 cities in 41 countries. The official launch in Hong Kong comes after a successful four-week trial period, and follows the recent launch of its Beijing service. Uber is now available [...]
Eight ways technology has reinvented fiction July 16, 2014 At a recent lecture in Oxford, Will Self announced the death of the novel. The internet, he said, has mercilessly invaded the silent, solitary leisure time we once filled with “serious” reading. As a result, serious books will no longer feature as a central part of culture. Like classical music, they will continue to exist, [...]
Sheer satisfaction: Zendesk founder Mikkel Svane on providing better customer service July 13, 2014 Harriet Green talks IPOs, big data and radical taxis with Zendesk’s founder Mikkel Svane. An O2 survey last year found that 70 per cent of people wouldn’t forgive a company for bad customer service. Two thirds also said they’d share their experience with an average of eight friends and family members. Mikkel [...]
Google to open $100m startup fund in London July 10, 2014 GOOGLE’S startup investment fund has picked London to base its new $100m (£58.4m) European investment arm. Google Ventures has more than $1.5bn invested in 250 startups, which until now have mainly been based in the US. “Google, alongside many other global investors, recognises the incredible skills and opportunities to be found here,” London mayor Boris [...]
London welcomes £100m Google Ventures fund as boost for tech investment July 10, 2014 Google’s venture funding arm is setting up a £100m investment fund in London to invest in tech companies in the capital and elsewhere in Europe. London is the first location outside the US for Google Ventures which has already funded more than 250 startups, including well known success stories such as taxi business Uber, genetics [...]
Uber surge pricing curbed by New York attorney general July 8, 2014 Uber will no longer apply surge pricing to its service during emergencies and other extreme events to avoid falling foul of price gouging laws in the US. The controversial taxi service hikes fares in line with higher demand, but doing so during incidents such as a hurricane Sandy caused lawmakers to consider the regulations in more [...]
Uber cuts fares by 20 per cent in New York in price war with taxis July 7, 2014 Uber is cutting its prices by 20 per cent in New York in a bid to make the mobile app service for private hire cars more competitive than the city’s famous yellow taxis. The move follows similar price cuts for its UberX service in San Francisco, where the firm is based. Uber has seen strong growth [...]