Online shopping grows, with some growing pains

Online shopping grows, with some growing pains

NEW YORK — Americans waited until the last minute to buy holiday gifts, but retailers were not prepared for the spike.

1 HOUR 46 MIN AGO

NEW YORK — Americans waited until the last minute to buy holiday gifts, but retailers were not prepared for the spike. Heavy spending in the final days of the mostly lackluster season sent sales up 3.5 per cent between Nov 1 and Tuesday (Dec 24), according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks payments but doesn’t give dollar figures. Read more of this post

GrubHub Puts Data on Its Menu; The online food order company is pitching analytics to restaurants

GrubHub Puts Data on Its Menu

By Joshua Brustein December 19, 2013

Things were hectic at Slice on a recent Friday as the month-old cake shop in downtown Chicago hit its afternoon rush. Orders poured in, the gingerbread Bundt cake ran out, and a four-slice delivery order went missing. Slice isn’t a typical restaurant: The manager, relaying online orders from her tablet to line workers, is Sandra Dainora, director of product for GrubHub. In fact, everyone working at Slice is a GrubHub employee, serving cake to co-workers from a conference room in the headquarters of the online takeout company. Read more of this post

Fleur Pellerin Works to Make France Safe for Tech Startups

Fleur Pellerin Works to Make France Safe for Tech Startups

By Vivienne Walt December 19, 2013

The 12 guests of honor might have felt out of place as they sat down for lunch in October at the Elysée presidential palace in Paris. With its crystal chandeliers, gilded walls, and manicured gardens, the palace is a more natural setting for foreign dignitaries and heads of state than for the technology entrepreneurs who assembled for a three-hour meeting with President François Hollande. Seated next to the president was the person who’d persuaded him to clear his afternoon: a petite, 40-year-old woman of Asian descent named Fleur Pellerin. As deputy finance minister for digital innovation, Pellerin’s mission is to turn France into one of Europe’s premier hubs for tech startups. Doing so will require galvanizing not just entrepreneurs and investors but France’s political leaders as well. Read more of this post

An Interview With Liz Eswein, Instagram User-Turned-Entrepreneur; Just a couple of years after she first opened an Instagram account, Liz Eswein has built a successful business on helping brands use the service

DECEMBER 26, 2013, 6:09 PM

An Interview With Liz Eswein, Instagram User-Turned-Entrepreneur

By NICK BILTON

We often read about how the founders of start-ups become rich and famous, but sometimes, users of new web services also find a way to benefit financially. Take Liz Eswein. Just a couple of years ago, she signed up to Instagram while a senior at New York University. Then she managed to turn that account into an Instagram-based business called The Mobile Media Lab, which has generated more than $1 million in revenue by helping brands use the service. The following is an edited interview with Ms. Eswein. Read more of this post

After Carriers Falter, Questions for Web Shopping

December 26, 2013

After Carriers Falter, Questions for Web Shopping

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS and VINDU GOEL

After years of preaching the convenience and reliability of online shopping — shop in your pajamas, with fast, free delivery — retailers may have been too successful at spreading the message this year, contributing to the volume of holiday orders that overwhelmed delivery services like U.P.S. and FedEx. Read more of this post

Amazon Reveals a New Hint About Prime Membership Rolls; Amazon Prime is the company’s $79-a-year membership service. Still, Amazon has never said how many Prime members it has

DECEMBER 26, 2013, 3:47 PM

Amazon Reveals a New Hint About Prime Membership Rolls

By NICK WINGFIELD

SEATTLE — The world’s biggest online retailer has mastered the art of talking a lot about its holiday sales, while saying very little. For years, Amazon has blasted out a press release, a day or so after Christmas, filled with a string of tantalizing-sounding factoids about the holidays at Amazon without actually providing a very meaningful picture of its business. Read more of this post

Internet cafés losing out in China’s online battle

December 26, 2013 2:29 am

Internet cafés losing out in China’s online battle

By Sarah Mishkin in Taipei

Cyber cafés were once a social hub for China’s twentysomethings – and, for authorities, a convenient way to monitorwhat Chinese citizens were doing online. But as usage of smartphones and tablet devices expands, internet cafés are becoming the collateral damage in the battle to get the country online. Read more of this post

Alibaba Unit Wins License to Compete in China Wireless Market

Alibaba Unit Wins License to Compete in China Wireless Market

China took a step toward opening the world’s largest wireless market by awarding licenses to operate to 11 companies, including a unit of Alibaba Group, the industry regulator said. Read more of this post

Sony to sell its Gracenote audio-recognition software business to Tribune Co for $170 million

Sony to Sell Gracenote Business to Tribune for $170 Million

Sony Corp. (6758) agreed to sell its Gracenote audio-recognition software business to Tribune Co. (TRBAA) for $170 million, part of the consumer-electronics maker’s effort to shed units as it focuses on fewer products. Read more of this post

Startups Ratchet Up the Risk With Share Promises; “There will be a time when this bull market ends, and when it does these ratchets will be very painful”

Startups Ratchet Up the Risk With Share Promises

Some Early Investors Get Guaranteed Return on Money

TELIS DEMOS and DOUGLAS MACMILLAN

Dec. 25, 2013 5:24 p.m. ET

As the battle for financing heats up, some startups are making big promises to their early investors: a guaranteed return on their money when the company goes public. These small companies are pledging to investors that their shares will go public at a certain price, often much higher than their current value. If the price doesn’t meet the target, the companies will agree to give the investors more shares to make up the difference. Read more of this post

Inside The Sleazy World Of Reputation Management, Where People Pay To Control What You See On The Internet

Inside The Sleazy World Of Reputation Management, Where People Pay To Control What You See On The Internet

JULIE BORT

DEC. 25, 2013, 9:00 AM 9,456 5

There is an entire industry dedicated to making bad things on the Internet quietly disappear and making promotional, good things about a person or a company look totally legitimate, even when they’re just PR spin. It’s known as “reputation management” and those who are good at it can earn $5,000 – $20,000 per month per client. Read more of this post

Here comes the sun: Better times for the music industry

Here comes the sun: Better times for the music industry

Nov 18th 2013 | From The World In 2014 print edition

If someone were to compose a song to capture the music industry’s experience over the past decade, it would be a long, mournful ballad. In 2014 the tune is going to change. In the coming year the music industry will grow—modestly, but cheeringly. A turnaround is under way at last. Read more of this post

A new way of assembling things, called metamaterials

Updated: Thursday December 26, 2013 MYT 6:52:24 AM

A new way of assembling things, called metamaterials

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) School of Physical and Mathematical Science researcher Zhang Baile shows how light passes through a set of carefully angled glass blocks to render an object invisible as he talks to the media about his research at NTU in Singapore November 7, 2013. REUTERS/Edgar Su/Files

SINGAPORE: A new way of assembling things, called metamaterials, may in the not too distant future help to protect a building from earthquakes by bending seismic waves around it. Similarly, tsunami waves could be bent around towns, and soundwaves bent around a room to make it soundproof. Read more of this post

Three families hold the keys to American cable consolidation

Three families hold the keys to American cable consolidation

By John McDuling @jmcduling December 24, 2013

The wave of consolidation about to sweep America’s cable industry in 2014 is practically inevitable. The only real question is who ends up buying whom. At the moment, the highly unpopular Time Warner Cable remains the most likely initial target. There will be much fuss about how such deals will be financed and structured. But ultimately, the outcome of negotiations will come down to the whims of big egos that have dominated the industry for the last six decades. Read more of this post

Why do mobile browsers suck so bad?

Why do mobile browsers suck so bad?

BY HAMISH MCKENZIE 
ON DECEMBER 24, 2013

In the debate over whether our mobile computing experience should be dominated by native apps or the mobile Web, one side has always had an unfair advantage. Since the iPhone was launched in 2007 until now, native apps have worked better, looked better, and been far more abundant than their Web counterparts – and neither Apple, with iOS, nor Google, with Android, have done anything to change the status quo. Read more of this post

Companies, Shifting Production, Expand to Accommodate Robots

December 24, 2013

Companies, Shifting Production, Expand to Accommodate Robots

By MARTHA C. WHITE

Even a robot needs a home.

That is what companies across the country are realizing as they shift more production to robotics. Many are expanding their commercial footprint with a new addition or in some cases, excavating for a lower floor to accommodate the recent influx of extremely heavy live-in machines. And it is not just the storage space for down time that robots require. Some robots need 32-foot ceilings, roughly double the height in older factories, or the space between columns has to be widened so the equipment can move. Read more of this post

As New Services Track Habits, the E-Books Are Reading You

December 24, 2013

As New Services Track Habits, the E-Books Are Reading You

By DAVID STREITFELD

SAN FRANCISCO — Before the Internet, books were written — and published — blindly, hopefully. Sometimes they sold, usually they did not, but no one had a clue what readers did when they opened them up. Did they skip or skim? Slow down or speed up when the end was in sight? Linger over the sex scenes? A wave of start-ups is using technology to answer these questions — and help writers give readers more of what they want. The companies get reading data from subscribers who, for a flat monthly fee, buy access to an array of titles, which they can read on a variety of devices. The idea is to do for books what Netflix did for movies and Spotify for music. Read more of this post

(Almost) No One Is Reading Your Tweets

(Almost) No One Is Reading Your Tweets

Published on December 23, 2013
by Peter Kafka

Do you like to post things on Twitter? That’s cool. As long you’re cool with the idea that almost no one will read what you type. That’s the gist of a reportpublished last week by Jon Bruner, a data journalist working for O’Reilly Radar. Bruner surveyed Twitter accounts and concluded that almost all of them are all but ignored: “The median Twitter account has a single follower. Among the much smaller subset of accounts that have posted in the last 30 days, the median account has just 61 followers.” Read more of this post

Picturing Apple’s Biggest Failures

Picturing Apple’s Biggest Failures

Tyler Durden on 12/24/2013 16:43 -0500

We all know Apple’s greatest hits, but which products and services would Apple’s leaders rather forget?

In telecom merger mania, skeptical eye from Obama administration

In telecom merger mania, skeptical eye from Obama administration

1:42pm EST

By Alina Selyukh and Sinead Carew

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – A pair of potentially transformative U.S. telecoms and cable deals could run afoul of Obama administration regulators who worry that mergers among market leaders would hurt consumers. Read more of this post

9 ways that e-commerce titan Alibaba diversified and went social in 2013

9 ways that e-commerce titan Alibaba diversified and went social in 2013

December 24, 2013

by Steven Millward

Alibaba’s much-vaunted IPO didn’t happen in 2013, but China’s e-commerce titan still provided enough action to qualify it as a global spectator sport. That was because 2013 was the year the company diversified like never before, focusing more on mobile and edging into social media and social commerce. Read more of this post

The real reason why millennials love Snapchat; All this talk about “ephemerality” is silly. Snapchat’s true brilliance is in its creative capabilities

The real reason why millennials love Snapchat

By Colleen Leahey, Reporter December 23, 2013: 6:00 AM ET

All this talk about “ephemerality” is silly. Snapchat’s true brilliance is in its creative capabilities.

FORTUNE — One day last December, while on vacation, I whipped out my cell phone in a moment of boredom, held it in front of my face, and took an unflattering selfie. It didn’t end there. My finger became a magical stylus, tapping and swiping my phone’s display to decorate my contorted face and double-chin with streaks of color. In moments, I transformed my digitized self into an aqua-haired Troll doll. Then I pressed send, transmitting my masterpiece to several friends with only this explanation: “loungin’.” (Okay, I included some sun emoji, too.) It was weird, random, and unlike any form of communication I had ever experienced. Read more of this post

The real reason behind Amazon’s booming stock price

The real reason behind Amazon’s booming stock price

December 24, 2013: 5:00 AM ET

By Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large

The online retailer reported a third quarter loss, yet its stock is selling at record highs above $400 per share. Here’s why.

FORTUNE — The media’s vogue stock market story of the moment is “The Mystery of Amazon’s Share Price.” As the company’s shares keep hitting record highs, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Bloomberg, and many others point out that Amazon (AMZN) hardly ever reports a substantial profit and in the most recent quarter reported a loss. Yet the company is among the 20 most valuable in America, recently worth more than AT&T (T) or Coca-Cola (KO). What gives? Read more of this post

Dollar-and-Cents Secrets of Music Streaming; Staying Power Is More Important Than Bursting on the Scene

Dollar-and-Cents Secrets of Music Streaming

Staying Power Is More Important Than Bursting on the Scene

ETHAN SMITH

Dec. 23, 2013 7:29 p.m. ET

In the good old days of the CD boom, the music industry was all about the first week. Prime the pump with endless airplay on pop radio and MTV, blanket major markets with billboard ads and buy acres of promotional space in big record stores, with a crescendo toward the release date. Read more of this post

All Buyers No Sellers as Nordic Phone Companies Seek Mergers

All Buyers No Sellers as Nordic Phone Companies Seek Mergers

Scandinavia’s biggest phone companies agree takeovers would benefit the region and corporate earnings. There’s just one obstacle — no one is selling.

Sweden and Denmark have too many carriers vying for video-gobbling smartphone and tablet users, with four main players each. In Norway, Ukrainian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries Holdings Inc. recently stunned a trio of existing carriers by buying spectrum for a new fourth-generation network. “It’s a crowded market but that doesn’t mean anything is going to happen,” Kjell-Morten Johnsen, head of Telenor ASA (TEL)’s European unit, said in an interview in Stockholm. There’s “no way” Telenor or TeliaSonera (TLSN) AB will exit Sweden and Tele2 AB (TEL2B) and 3 Scandinavia, owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (13), haven’t shown an interest in backing out, he said. Read more of this post

Acer to embrace cloud technology to combat losses

Acer to embrace cloud technology to combat losses

CNA

2013-12-19

Acer chairman and CEO Stan Shih. (File Photo/Liu Tsung-lung)

Taiwanese computer maker Acer said on Wednesday that it will transform into a “hardware plus software and services company” as it prepares to embrace new opportunities in the era of cloud technology. Read more of this post

Japanese Team Dominates Competition to Create Generation of Rescue Robots

December 22, 2013

Japanese Team Dominates Competition to Create Generation of Rescue Robots

By JOHN MARKOFF

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — An international competition to pave the way for a new generation of rescue robots was dominated by a team of Japanese roboticists who were students in the laboratory of a pioneer in the design of intelligent humanoid machines. Read more of this post