THE BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY
Verizon has teamed up with Coinstar Inc., the parent company of Redbox, to offer a streaming DVD rental service to give Netflix a run for its money. The service will be national and open to non-Verizon customers. It marks Verizon's latest efforts to become a contender in home entertainment and a break away from traditional cable companies, which … [Read more...]
Mobile shopping continues to accelerate, and free shipping offers have added to its agility. Consumers spent $161.5 billion on ecommerce in 2011, including $49.7 billion in the last three months alone. Ecommerce spending improved 13 percent in 2011 compared to 2010, with online shopping surging 14 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, … [Read more...]
Populis, the Dublin-headquartered Internet publishing company, has acquired Cidade Internet, one of Brazil's oldest web portals, to further drive its presence in South America. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Despite not having physical offices in South America until now, Populis' blogo network has already generated 2.6 million unique … [Read more...]
In the vein of Groupon, LivingSocial offers daily deals that users can easily share with friends and family. Rather than scooped from the random deal bargain bin, each offer is researched and handpicked by the LivingSocial team. The company puts a personal approach on its deals, with members of its team of 3,900 employees located in every city … [Read more...]
Sculpteo, the 3D printing service, recently unveiled an app that allows you to design 3D objects, upload the design to the cloud, and then receive a ceramic creation of the design in the mail three days later. The designs are created based on photographs taken by the user. The app essentially allows you to turn your face or someone else's face … [Read more...]
Piazza, a question and answer sharing platform for students and professors, recently landed $6 million in Series A funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Kapor Capital and Felice Ventures. The company also has backing from SV Angel and Sequoia Capital. Piazza enables a Q&A platform in which students share and answer … [Read more...]
While venture funds raised $5.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 162 percent increase over the third quarter, there was a 41 percent drop in the number of funds, with 38 venture funds raising capital compared to the 64 that raised $2.1 billion in the previous quarter, as firms continued to consolidate, according to a recently released … [Read more...]
Rather than cloud computing, it is Apple products that will drive the computer equipment market in 2012, according to a recent report from Forrester. While analysts have been predicting that cloud computing will reshape the server and storage market, actual adoption remains limited, the report stated. Plus, in leveraging financial woes, many … [Read more...]
In its biggest sweeping move in a decade, Google segued its social network Google+ into its search results, transforming search into a deeply integrated social experience. Logged in Google+ members will now find Google+ content sprinkled in its search results, with results driven by not only what the user has indicated interests in on the social … [Read more...]
The Internet continues to become increasingly mobile as usage jumps from the desktop to people's pockets, and social networks like Facebook are likely adding to that agility, according to research recently released by Flurry, the analytics firm. The use of moble apps continue to rise in popularity, with the average user spending 94 minutes a day … [Read more...]