Facebook to launch digital coin for 2.4billion online users Facebook said it would launch its own digital coin next year, allowing it 2.4 billion users to make payments over the network. Facebook will allow users to change dollars, pounds and other international currencies into crytocurrency called Libra. Facebook says the coins can then be used…
Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce group, is overhauling its business model of a fast-growing subsidiary in an attempt to offer a complete international service which can challenge Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer. Trudy Dai, President of Alibaba’s wholesale marketplaces division AliExpress, which sells goods from Chinese retailers to customers in more than 150 countries –…
Tencent suddenly pulled the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds mobile game in China, migrating gamers to the less catchy and more politically correct Heping Iingying, or Elite Force for Peace. Tencent is ditching its blockbuster PUBG, one of the money spinners, on the mainland, where it has failed to win commercial licences for many of its latest top…
In rural India internet usage is turbocharged by lower data prices, ecommerce growth is now the fastest outside India’s eight tier one cities, and industry rivals like Amazon which has committed over £5bnand local rivals are competing fiercely for a new wave of customers. Young entrepreneur Ananda Mishra founded his small ecommerce business Grozip in…
The Shenzhen-based Huawei’s first quarter revenue rose 39 per cent from the previous year to Rmb179.7bn (£21bn), suggesting US efforts to persuade countries to ban the Chinese group’s telecoms equipment from their 5G networks have not tempered growth. Although Australia and Canada have joined US in blocking Huawei kit several European countries have effectively rowed…
Bugs of a different kind, bed bugs temporarily shut down a 24-hours on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. Staff were ordered to pack their belongings in plastic bags last Friday after a bed bug was spotted in a manager’s office. Eventually a beagle dog sniffed out the bugs in the locker area. According to an…
Snapchat is following the mobile gaming lead of WeChat and Facebook Messenger by adding games to Snapchat as it tries to puts failures of 2018 behind it. Snap is hoping to tap the £54bn ($70bn) mobile gaming market, when Apple, Google, Tencent and Microsoft are all making new bids for developers’ and players attentions. The…
China’s Great Firewall once a glorified porn filter has evolved into the most sophisticated system of online censorship in the world In China you can erase and delete all your Twitter posts after publishing a data analysis of government officials, plagiarised academic work. Over the past year, Beijing’s censors have for the first time tried…
Digital Advertising spend will enjoy double figure growth as the industry moves away from traditional media formats according to latest forecasts by Barclays Corporate Banking. The digital with out-of-home advertising earmarked as key area of transformation after Digital OOH surpassed traditional outdoor for the first time last year. According to Sean Duffy Head of TMT…
Despite a court deferred judgement on Warner Music Group’s attempt to block the streaming service in the market of 1.3bn people, Spotify launched in India yesterday. One of the three big record labels, Warner Music went to High Court of Mumbai to seek an injunction to prevent Spotify from using its music in the country…