Twitter and Trading: The Race to Find A Way Continues

Oct 7, 2013

Twitter and Trading: The Race to Find A Way Continues

By Geoffrey Rogow

While investors will be clamoring to get a share Twitter Inc., a host of financial firms that see untapped trading potential in the social media site are looking to cash in. The latest financial firm is Eagle Alpha, a London based technology group that on Monday launched Social Sonar — a subscription service that synthesizes Twitter down into only market essential information. That information is then delivered directly to traders, who can use the information as part of a broader computer-generated trading program or use the feed for unique insight. Read more of this post

Rakuten-owned video site Viki announces branded channels, a big step towards making more money

Rakuten-owned video site Viki announces branded channels, a big step towards making more money

By Jon Russell, 1 hour ago

Viki, the global video service that was bought by Japan’s Rakuten for $200 million in September, has taken a big step towards accelerating its income after it introduces brand channels for select partners – albeit initially for free. The company says the channels are available for “top broadcasters and content providers,” and its launch partners using the feature include large TV broadcasters in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and Venezuela. Read more of this post

For Shoppers, Next Level of Instant Gratification; New shopping services will allow consumers to instantly buy items they see on television, in magazines and even in their refrigerators.

October 8, 2013

For Shoppers, Next Level of Instant Gratification

By HILARY STOUT

Peapod, an online grocer, lets shoppers restock items from home by scanning bar codes on packages via a smartphone.

All the world’s a shopping cart. A wave of experiments at various companies could take consumer convenience (and impulsiveness) to new heights. The ultimate vision is a form of shopping nirvana, where consumers can buy what they covet on the spot — straight from an attention-grabbing magazine ad, for instance, or off a television screen, or even from a refrigerator. Read more of this post

ASX seeks more tech listings; Corporate governance is why the ASX has so many zombie tech companies

ASX seeks more tech listings

PUBLISHED: 5 HOURS 7 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 4 HOURS 53 MINUTES AGO

When Freelancer.com founder Matt Barrie spurned deep-pocketed suitors in favour of an Australian Securities Exchange listing for his online job outsourcing business, ASX chief Elmer Funke Kupper was one of the first to congratulate him. Mr Funke Kupper understands the need for ASX to attract more technology listings, says Mr Barrie. But Mr Barrie’s decision surprised many in the market, particularly because Australian investors have traditionally shunned capital raisings for young technology or biotechnology companies. For a long time, the view has been that the risks associated with investing in these types of businesses are too great. In turn, the companies themselves have felt that investors here simply do not understand their businesses. Read more of this post

Softbank Billionaire Masayoshi Son Takes on Mikitani’s Rakuten in E-Commerce War

Billionaire Son Takes on Mikitani’s Rakuten in E-Commerce War

Billionaire Masayoshi Son, who’s vowed to build the world’s biggest mobile phone carrier, has added another target: Japan’s e-commerce market. Son, chairman of Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689), said yesterday the Internet search and e-commerce business will eliminate fees and make it easier for shops to open on its online shopping service in a direct challenge to Rakuten Inc. (4755), operator of the country’s largest Internet shopping mall. The new strategy threatens another billionaire, Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and president of Rakuten. Investors bet the earnings of both companies will suffer, sending Rakuten down a record 20 percent in Tokyo trading. Yahoo Japan plunged a record 11 percent. “Yahoo’s new policy poses a potential threat to Rakuten’s position,” said Tomoaki Kawasaki, an analyst at Iwai Cosmo Holdings Inc. (8707) in Tokyo. “The fact that Son appeared and talked means they are serious about this.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuki Yamaguchi in Tokyo at yyamaguchi10@bloomberg.net

A Weak Spot for Samsung? South Korean Giant Weighs Software Deals to Better Compete With Apple, Google

October 7, 2013, 8:05 p.m. ET

A Weak Spot for Samsung?

South Korean Giant Weighs Software Deals to Better Compete With Apple, Google

JONATHAN CHENG, EVELYN M. RUSLI And MIN-JEONG LEE

Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE -1.11% is stepping up its hunt for acquisitions and building out its presence in Silicon Valley to try and overcome its key weakness: software. The South Korea-based company became the world’s largest maker of smartphones by manufacturing attractive devices that hit the market quickly and cheaply. But to thrive in a mobile-device market increasingly dominated by software specialists like Apple Inc., AAPL +0.98% Google Inc. GOOG -0.76% and Microsoft Corp.,MSFT -1.71% which acquired Nokia Corp.’s NOK1V.HE -0.81% phone business last month, Samsung is aiming to become a software power in its own right. Read more of this post

Tweeting About Twerking Seen as Lifeline for TV Industry

Tweeting About Twerking Seen as Lifeline for TV Industry

Meredith Parker, a 23-year-old sales rep in New York, spends most nights out meeting friends or attending work events. Any night but Monday. That’s when she rushes home to watch ABC’s “The Bachelor,” a reality show that begins its 18th season in January. In an era when DVRs, TiVo and Web-TV services like Netflix make it easy for audiences to view programs any time they want, Parker would rather see her favorite program right when it airs. Parker’s motivation: the social-media frenzy that surrounds the show. Read more of this post

Startup Aims to Reinvent Wireless Communication; Kumu Networks Says It Can Double the Use of Radio Spectrum, Easing Congestion

October 7, 2013, 7:36 p.m. ET

Startup Aims to Reinvent Wireless Communication

Kumu Networks Says It Can Double the Use of Radio Spectrum, Easing Congestion

DON CLARK

A small startup is challenging one of the long-held precepts in communications, that mobile devices can’t transmit and receive data on one frequency at the same time. An unusual technology proposed by Kumu Networks Inc. emerges as telecom carriers ponder what’s next after today’s fourth-generation cellular networks to cope with a flood of new smartphone users and data demands on wireless networks. Kumu says its technology can play an important role by effectively doubling the capacity of both cellular and Wi-Fi communications. Read more of this post

How Upstart Xiaomi Rattled China’s Smartphone Race

Updated October 7, 2013, 9:14 p.m. ET

How Upstart Xiaomi Rattled China’s Smartphone Race

Low-Price Device Maker Undercuts Apple in Competitive Market

PAUL MOZUR

BEIJING—At the raucous September release event for Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc.’s latest device, fans with glow sticks and company shirts shouted loudest when founder Lei Jun announced its price. At 1,999 yuan ($326), its Mi3 handset sells for roughly half the price as AppleInc.’s AAPL +0.98% new budget iPhone 5C. It is priced similarly lower to devices with comparable specs made by heavyweights such as Samsung Electronics Co.

Read more of this post

Lego Slithers Into Digital Age With Biting Robot Serpent

Lego Slithers Into Digital Age With Biting Robot Serpent

Lego fans no longer need to fret about the cat or dog knocking over their constructions. When bothersome housepets or other pests come too close, they can ward off the intruder with one of their plastic-brick creations. The R3PTAR, a robotic snake from Lego A/S, can be programmed from a smartphone app to attack felines, canines, and siblings — or simply scuttle along the floor and give them something to chase. Equipped with a snapping mechanical jaw and fangs, the serpent might just send even courageous hounds, pusses and pesky kid brothers packing.

Read more of this post

Pearson Drops as Investors Call for Faster Drive to Digital

Pearson Drops as Investors Call for Faster Drive to Digital

Pearson Plc (PSON) shares have lagged behind peers since hitting a 12-year high in July as a restructuring at the publisher of everything from textbooks to Tom Clancy’s thrillers failed to convince investors of its digital strategy. The owner of the Financial Times newspaper has dropped 9 percent since the end of July, when it reported sales that topped analysts’ estimates. While the stock is up 4.3 percent this year in London trading, it’s the worst performer in the 48-company Bloomberg World Media Index. Reed Elsevier NV jumped 30 percent and Wolters Kluwer NV (WKL) climbed almost 25 percent. Read more of this post

DoCoMo Loses Most Users Ever as IPhone Fails to Halt Slide

DoCoMo Loses Most Users Ever as IPhone Fails to Halt Slide

NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437), Japan’s largest mobile phone carrier, lost the most subscribers on record even after adding Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhones to its lineup as it attempts to regain market share from SoftBank Corp. (9984) and KDDI Corp. (9433) DoCoMo lost 66,800 net users in September, the company said in an e-mail today. SoftBank added 270,700 and KDDI 232,700 users, according to the carriers. DoCoMo’s share of mobile users slumped to 46 percent in September, compared with 52 percent in 2008, as first SoftBank Corp. and then KDDI Corp. won Japanese consumers with Apple handsets. Read more of this post

Facebook to sell advertising on its Instagram photo service, the first effort to make money from the acquisition

Facebook’s Instagram to Add Advertising: SF Mover

Facebook Inc. (FB), operator of the world’s most popular social network, rose in trading today after it said it would sell advertising on its Instagram photo service, the first effort to make money from the acquisition. Shares rose 3.8 percent to close at $51.04 in New York, near their all-time high. Instagram promotions will start to appear on the mobile application, which lets users share images from smartphones, in the next couple of months in the U.S., Facebook said in a blog post yesterday. Read more of this post

Workers Using Their Own Mobile Devices Propel Globo Shares

Workers Using Their Own Mobile Devices Propel Globo Shares

Globo Plc (GBO) is the top performer on London’s FTSE AIM 100 Index this year as a surge in people bringing their own mobile phones to work increases demand for its software in markets from Asia to Latin America. The stock has almost quadrupled this year, giving the Athens-based company a market value of 276 million pounds ($443 million). The number of bring-your-own-devices in the U.S., U.K., Germany, India, China and Brazil will climb to 405 million by 2016 from 198 million this year, according to Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), the biggest maker of computer-networking equipment. Read more of this post

More Chinese design trips by smartphone apps

More Chinese design trips by smartphone apps

Updated: 2013-10-04 13:51

( cctv.com) Read more of this post

Online fashion shops booming in China

Online fashion shops booming

Updated: 2013-10-06 07:07

By Yan Yiqi in Hangzhou ( China Daily) Read more of this post

Cashiers Trump Self-Checkout Machines at the Grocery Store

October 6, 2013, 6:40 p.m. ET

Humans 1, Robots 0

Cashiers Trump Self-Checkout Machines at the Grocery Store

FARHAD MANJOO

Self-checkout machines at groceries need a lot of human intervention. Computers seem to be replacing humans across many industries, and we’re all getting very nervous. But if you want some reason for optimism, visit your local supermarket. See that self-checkout machine? It doesn’t hold a candle to the humans—and its deficiencies neatly illustrate the limits of computers’ abilities to mimic human skills. Read more of this post

How the F.A.A., Finally, Caught Up to an Always-On Society; panel recommended that the F.A.A. change its rule, allowing passengers to use their electronic devices from gate to gate, including takeoff, taxiing and landing

OCTOBER 6, 2013, 11:00 AM

Disruptions: How the F.A.A., Finally, Caught Up to an Always-On Society

By NICK BILTON

You know the scene in a movie when a character trails off into the past and is reminded of the moment it all began? I had one of those last week. It was 2011, and I was engrossed in an e-book on my Kindle and kept reading as I boarded a plane heading back to San Francisco. My head down, I bumped into the plane door, then into a passenger. I finally buckled in, continuing to read. Then, just a few pages from the end of the book, I heard it. “Please power down your electronic devices for takeoff.” Read more of this post

Nielsen to Measure Twitter Chatter About TV Shows; As DVRs Shift TV Habits, Ratings Calculations Follow; Facebook Adds TV Partners Overseas

October 6, 2013

As DVRs Shift TV Habits, Ratings Calculations Follow

By BRIAN STELTER

One day after Fox introduced the Headless Horseman drama “Sleepy Hollow” last month, the television world was impressed by its overnight rating, a 3.4 among adults age 18 to 49. Fox knew it would grow: based on last season’s viewing trends, Fox figured the premiere episode would finish between a 5.1 and a 5.4 rating once seven days of digital video recorder playback were added. Evidently, even the network’s rosiest outlook wasn’t rosy enough. When the seven-day data came in on Sunday, it showed that the premiere episode scored a 5.8 rating, a gain of fully two-thirds from its starting point. Read more of this post

Swarm of Rivals Seeking Share of Social Media Pie

October 6, 2013

Swarm of Rivals Seeking Share of Social Media Pie

By JENNA WORTHAM and VINDU GOEL

Twitter, poised to make its splashy entrance on Wall Street, has helped define modern social networking. But while seeking to establish itself as an Internet powerhouse, it must also prove it can fend off a rising threat from a younger generation of nimble social outlets that offer clever new ways for people to connect and share content. Among these up-and-comers are Snapchat, WhatsApp, Line, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Kakao and Reddit. Each has a different take on what social networking should look like — inventive ways of private messaging and creating content with a rich infusion of images and videos. Read more of this post

Twitter’s Data Business Proves Lucrative; Twitter Disclosed It Earned $47.5 Million From Selling Off Information It Gathers

October 6, 2013, 8:12 p.m. ET

Twitter’s Data Business Proves Lucrative

Twitter Disclosed It Earned $47.5 Million From Selling Off Information It Gathers

ELIZABETH DWOSKIN

In its IPO filing Thursday, Twitter Inc. disclosed how much the microblogging platform earned from a lesser-known side business: $47.5 million came from selling off its data to a fast-growing group of companies that analyze the data for insights into news events and trends. That is a small amount compared with the revenue generated from advertising, but Twitter’s data business has rippled across the economy. The site’s constant stream of experiences, opinions and sentiments has spawned a vast commercial ecosystem, serving up putative insights to product developers, Hollywood studios, major retailers and—potentially most profitably—hedge funds and other investors. Backed by millions of dollars in venture capital, hundreds of “social listening” firms have emerged. Read more of this post

Twitter is hiding two years of financial data; Twitter’s Corporate Governance a Mixed Bag; Twitter Skips Some Pay Disclosures Using JOBS Act

Twitter is hiding two years of financial data

By Zachary M. Seward @zseward 7 hours ago

In filing paperwork for an initial public offering, Twitter offered a glimpse at its financials going back to 2010, when the startup was just starting to earn real money. But for two prior years, Twitter exercised its right to remain silent. The lack of disclosure is perfectly legal, thanks to a new law that eases regulations on certain companies going public. Nevertheless, it raises an obvious question: What happened to Twitter in 2008 and 2009? Read more of this post

Using Twitter to Move the Markets

October 6, 2013

Using Twitter to Move the Markets

By DAVID CARR

Last week, while everyone was wondering what Twitter is worth after the unveiling of its I.P.O., I spent some time on a little different math. How much could a single post on Twitter be worth? How about $1 billion? Or maybe $6 billion? If the post comes from the fingertips of Carl C. Icahn, the hyperactive hedge fund manager, an argument could be made that there’s gold in those 140 characters. Read more of this post

‘Gravity’ Rockets to No. 1 at Box Office; A staggering 80% of the studio’s estimate of $55.6 million in opening-weekend domestic ticket sales came from locations playing “Gravity” in 3-D

Updated October 6, 2013, 7:18 p.m. ET

‘Gravity’ Rockets to No. 1 at Box Office

3-D Sci-Fi Thriller Draws $55.5 Million in Opening Weekend

BEN FRITZ

Science-fiction thriller “Gravity” set an October box-office record this weekend and showed that audiences still will choose 3-D screenings for movies they believe are worth the higher price. A staggering 80% of the studio’s estimate of $55.6 million in opening-weekend domestic ticket sales came from locations playing “Gravity” in 3-D. Critics generally raved about the film, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, and recommended the 3-D version. The 3-D sales rate was higher than it was for the opening weekends of such hits as “Avatar,” “Life of Pi” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

Read more of this post

LG, Panasonic, Philips will introduce televisions next year equipped with Swedish software Magine Cloud so users can watch television channels flexibly online

LG, Panasonic Put Magine Cloud Service in Smart TVs for Europe

LG Electronics Inc. (066570), Panasonic Corp. (6752) and Royal Philips NV will introduce televisions next year equipped with Swedish software so users can watch television channels flexibly online. Magine AB’s cloud service lets users with an Internet link scan its TV schedules, surf channels, rewind shows and access archived content dating back 30 days via a tablet, phone, computer or TV. The application will be available on the smart TVs in the first quarter of 2014 in European countries where Magine operates. Read more of this post

How Twitter’s IPO affects Sina Weibo; Twitter’s 218 million monthly active users is valued at $15 each; Sina Weibo has 54 million daily active users valued at $7 each

How Twitter’s IPO affects Sina Weibo

October 4, 2013

by Paul Bischoff

Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) investors are keeping a watchful eye on the news about Twitter‘s IPO. Despite the Chinese web giant’s more diverse portfolio of products and services, many market analysts believe the majority of Sina’s market cap lies in its Twitter-like Sina Weibo social network. Thinking that the clone will mirror the original, Twitter’s value is inherently tied to Sina’s. Read more of this post

Don’t be misled by this chart Twitter used in its IPO filing

Don’t be misled by this chart Twitter used in its IPO filing

By David Yanofsky @YAN0 October 3, 2013

Twitter included in its IPO filing a chart of monthly active users—MAUs as it calls them. These numbers are significant for investors trying to assess how fast Twitter will grow in the future—and it’s clearly in the company’s interest to make the growth rate look as impressive as possible. Twitter’s chart looks like this:

If you were just looking at the bars you might make the assumption that from March 2012 to June 2013 monthly active users tripled—the June 2013 bar is three times the size of the March 2012 bar. But if you look carefully you’ll see that the chart’s y-axis starts at 100 million, and if you look at the numbers on top of the bars you’ll see that over this time period user growth was only 58%. Here’s a more accurate chart of the same data, with the y-axis set at zero:

The flawed Twitter chart appears at the beginning of the filing. But in fairness, Twitter does provide bar charts of its user growth with y-axes that start at zero later in the document. See page 61.