THE BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY
Google broke another record, earning its first $50 billion in annual revenue in 2012, thanks in a large part to strong fourth quarter earnings that generated $14.62 billion, an increase of 26 percent over the same period the year before. Outpacing analyst estimates of $12.36 billion for the December quarter, Google's fourth quarter was about three … [Read more...]
Facebook rolled out its Graph Search, a functional search tool that provides results based on social connections. It's a big step for Facebook that evolves its social function to provide relevant knowledge based on relationships. Search for “friends of friends who are single women,” and you completely revamp the nature of dating. Search for … [Read more...]
Acquisitions for gaming companies broke a new record last year, raking in $4 billion, an 18 percent increase from the $3.4 billion earned in 2011, according to recent research from Digi-Capital, the global investment bank. Gaming investments, however, had a difficult year, tumbling 57 percent to $853 million. Transactional volume dropped 27 … [Read more...]
Testing “extreme price points” in a potential paid messaging service, Facebook offered to send messages directly to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's inbox for $100, Mashable was the first to notice. The company is considering allowing users to pay to send messages to people who are not their friends that would go directly to the inbox, with the high fee … [Read more...]
Sina Weibo, a social microblogger that has sometimes been referred to as China's “Twitter,” has rolled out an English language interface, widening marketing possibilities that could extend the service to more international markets. A Sina representative told Tech in Asia, "Countries in Southeast Asia [can] pick English or Chinese – this isn’t … [Read more...]
LinkedIn has reached another milestone. The professional social network now has a user base of over 200 million users from over 200 countries. The site is used in 19 different languages. More than half of its users live outside the US. It's a ranking that Deep Nishar, LinkedIn's Senior Vice-president, described as “an important and exciting … [Read more...]
Twitter has been valued at $11 billion in a Greencrest Capital report, according to Forbes, which reported the company is eying a possible IPO as early as 2014. The publication credits recent management hirings, including Ali Rowghani’s promotion from chief financial officer to chief operating officer, the hiring of ex-Zynga employee Mike Gupta … [Read more...]
The US Trade Representative removed the Chinese ecommerce site Taobao from its “Notorious Markets” for piracy, citing efforts on the part of the company to work with copyright holders after it was placed on the list for its reputation for counterfeited merchandise on the site. The Office of the United States Trade Representative report states … [Read more...]
Google has shut down its online shopping search service in China, a further tightening move in the country after the company shut down its Music Search in the country last fall. The site no appears as a link on the Google.cn website, and Google confirmed the move in its China blog. “Shopping search the original intention of the development of … [Read more...]
For Dafiti, the investment bell has been ringing like a cash register lately. The Zappos-like clone for Brazil and Latin America landed $45 million as recently as August. This week, the company upped the ante with a new $65 million round, bringing its total capital to a staggering $180 million. That's the fourth round the company has raised in the … [Read more...]