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A Missing Revenue Stream From Mobile Apps

DECEMBER 14, 2013, 4:35 PM

A Missing Revenue Stream From Mobile Apps

By JENNA WORTHAM

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is Susan Miller, a popular New York astrologer who has a cult following online. I read her horoscopes religiously and enjoy following her on Twitter for the fun mix of quirky updates and planetary advice she dispenses. Read more of this post

“Little Data” Matters, Too; Big data is an invaluable source of insight, but companies with limited access to analytics can still find information to improve their business

Posted: December 16, 2013

David Meer is a partner with Booz & Company’s consumer and retail practice, and is based in New York.

“Little Data” Matters, Too

Back when I was working at the advertising agency JWT, one of our clients—a U.S. Marine Corps colonel—said something that has stuck with me ever since. “Look,” he said, “if I’m on a battlefield trying to defend a hill and I get a piece of intelligence, even if I’m not 100 percent sure that it’s accurate, I will make decisions based on that intelligence.” His point was that it’s better to have some information than none—and that you’d be a fool to disregard it just because it fell short of being definitive. Read more of this post

Tech Firms Push to Control Web’s Pipes; Google, Facebook Raise Tensions With Telecoms in Power Struggle for Internet’s Backbone

Tech Firms Push to Control Web’s Pipes

Google, Facebook Raise Tensions With Telecoms in Power Struggle for Internet’s Backbone

DREW FITZGERALD and SPENCER E. ANTE

Dec. 16, 2013 8:36 p.m. ET

Technology giants like Google Inc. GOOG +1.15% and Facebook Inc. FB +0.92% are expanding efforts to control more of the world’s Internet backbone, raising tensions with telecom companies over who runs the Web. Read more of this post

The flood of new information available to institutions has the potential to make both donors and charities more effective

How Big Data Will Change the Face of Philanthropy

Flood of new information has the potential to make both donors and charities more effective

LUCY BERNHOLZ

Dec. 15, 2013 4:00 p.m. ET

“It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place,” observed one of the great philanthropists of the 20th century, Andrew Carnegie. Today, with almost two million nonprofits in the U.S., the challenge of knowing which to support and which to avoid is more challenging than ever. How can individuals and foundations put their money where it’s most needed, and in ways that will be most effective? And how can charities themselves spend the dollars they receive in ways that best fulfill their missions? Read more of this post

The man behind the $37.99 tablet wants to sell one for $19.99 within two years

The man behind the $37.99 tablet wants to sell one for $19.99 within two years

By Matt McFarland, Updated: December 16 at 8:24 am

Datawind began selling three of its 7-inch devices in the United States on Monday. The least expensive model, the UbiSlate 7Ci, a 7-inch, Android-powered tablet, will sell for $37.99. Read more of this post

The most exciting mobile gaming company you’ve never heard of: In four years, Kabam went from San Francisco startup to major global player

The most exciting mobile gaming company you’ve never heard of

By Adam Lashinsky, Sr. Editor at Large December 12, 2013: 6:20 AM ET

In four years, Kabam went from San Francisco startup to major global player. (Must have been something in the dumplings.) FORTUNE — Kabam, the San Francisco mobile gaming company, has all the wrong things going for it. Read more of this post

The Unthinkable Is Happening: Apple’s Dominance In Apps Is Slipping Away To Android

The Unthinkable Is Happening: Apple’s Dominance In Apps Is Slipping Away To Android

JIM EDWARDS

DEC. 18, 2013, 2:05 PM 7,541 31

In the U.S., it sometimes feels as if everyone has an iPhone. And historically, Apple has dominated in terms of offering users the most apps, and offering developers the most lucrative place to sell apps. Read more of this post

Tools Help Investors Wade Through All the Chatter on Twitter; They filter tweets and help investors draw conclusions about where the market is headed

Tools Help Investors Wade Through All the Chatter on Twitter

They filter tweets and help investors draw conclusions about where the market is headed

GEORGIA WELLS

Dec. 15, 2013 4:00 p.m. ET

Most investors would love it if they could see into the future. Now, some of them are convinced they can—by monitoring Twitter. TWTR -1.67% A growing number of individual investors believe the microblogging service—which has already proved to be a good source for breaking news, insights from Wall Street’s top minds and major corporate announcements—holds a treasure trove of information that can lead them to the next hot stock. Read more of this post

Top Products in Two Decades of Tech Reviews; Walt Mossberg on the products that changed the digital industry

Top Products in Two Decades of Tech Reviews

Walt Mossberg on the products that changed the digital industry

WALTER S. MOSSBERG

Dec. 17, 2013 9:00 p.m. ET

Newton MessagePad foreshadowed some of today’s most cutting-edge technology. SSPL via Getty Images

Remember the Apple Newton? How about Netscape? Even if these products did not last until the present, they left their mark in the evolution of personal technology. For his final WSJ video column, Walt Mossberg takes us through the last 20 years. Read more of this post

Video analytics startup Vidyard could list within two years

Video analytics startup Vidyard could list within two years

3:16pm EST

By Ashutosh Pandey and Sayantani Ghosh

(Reuters) – When InContact Inc, a provider of internet-based call center services, wanted to gauge the success of its video marketing campaign, it turned to Canadian video analytics startup Vidyard. Read more of this post

Tech Companies Press for a Better Retail Experience

December 15, 2013

Tech Companies Press for a Better Retail Experience

By NICK WINGFIELD

SEATTLE — Looking for a holiday gift? Come on in. Relax. Take a seat in the leather chair. Welcome to today’s electronics store, a place that is now a little like entering a playground crossed with a cocktail lounge, where playing with the goodies is paramount and staff members are trained to act like laid-back tour guides. Read more of this post

How an impressionable media industry fell in love with fraud

How an impressionable media industry fell in love with fraud

December 17, 2013: 5:00 AM ET

In order to keep the market for the main currency of advertising liquid, the digital industry has created a system that relies on advertising fraud.

By Joe Marchese

FORTUNE — Ask someone who doesn’t work in advertising what it means to “make an impression,” you will likely get a reasonable response like “to do something that someone remembers.” However, inside the advertising industry, the definition of “impression” is not nearly as simple. Why? Because if you run an advertisement on TV, radio, or print, you have never been able to tell exactly how many people those advertisements really made an “impression” on. How many people looked up at a particular billboard? How many people paid attention to the TV during the commercial? So what media companies have historically measured — and sold — is really the potential to make an impression. This system worked because marketers could make estimations on how many people might actually see their advertisements and over decades figured out the real value of these “potential impressions.” From this history came the cost per thousand (potential) impressions, better known as CPM in media industry. The CPM market was astonishingly effective, and large, to the tune of trillions of dollars. It drove the creation of major brands and subsidized the creation of the news and entertainment content people love. Read more of this post

Byron Allen, Former Stand-Up Comic, Runs the ‘Walmart of Television’

Byron Allen, Former Stand-Up Comic, Runs the ‘Walmart of Television’

By Caroline Winter December 12, 2013

Jon Lovitz is in a duck costume. “I am the duck!” the former Saturday Night Live star announces. “Stand back, or I will quack you upside the head.” Bill Bellamy, a comedian best known for his days as an MTV VJ, looks on in bemused dismay. The puns progress: “You know how I’m holding my suit together? With duct tape!” Lovitz shouts. “What’s wrong, you don’t like a wise quacker?” Read more of this post