Swedish music streaming giant Spotify has acquired podcast advertising and publishing firm Megaphone, in a deal worth a reported $235 million. The deal will help Spotify provide targeted ads, and expand advertising…
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IN-DEPTH: Tech Holds its Breath as America Choses a Leader
In around 24 hours it will be a lot clearer—if uncertain—who America’s next President will be. And while tech has been far down the list of electoral priorities for both candidates, wins…
Belarus’ “Telegram Revolution” Hangs in Balance, as Lukashenko Tracks Users
This Monday, as protests against his rule ebbed into an eighth day, embattled Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko’s helicopter touched down at a military truck factory in the capital city, Minsk. Waiting to…
ASKfm CEO Janis Grivins: “The Essence of the Product Has to be Simple”
Janis Grivins rose from product designer to become chief executive of ASKfm, a social network where users can ask and answer questions. Since its 2010 foundation ASKfm has amassed over 200 million…
Is The Facebook Giphy Buy a Disaster for Privacy?
Facebook is buying gif-searcher Giphy for around $400 million. That’s no drop in the ocean. But it is a 50% drop on Giphy’s most recent valuation: even gif-sharing has been picked off…
Dorsey to Stay as Twitter and Activist Investor Agree Truce
Twitter has negotiated a truce with the activist investor hedge fund manager Elliott Management, which will see current CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey remain in charge of the social media company. Elliott…
Mega-Investor Singer “Aims to Oust” Twitter’s Dorsey
An activist investment vehicle led by a billionaire political donor has purchased a stake in Twitter – and plans to “push for changes” including the ouster of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, according…
TikTok Founder Trials Resso, a Spotify Challenger
The parent company of social media platform TikTok has launched a brand it hopes will challenge Spotify in the online music streaming market. ByteDance, the Beijing-based startup whose success with TikTok, a…
Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency is Already Under Attack on Multiple Fronts
It has barely been two months since Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s long awaited foray into the cryptocurrency market with Libra—but the platform already faces a raft of attacks from regulators and competitors.…
Twitter’s Refusal to Axe Alex Jones is Evidence of its Western Bias
Infowars, the bonkers, conspiracy-littered website owned by Texas-based diet pill salesman Alex Jones, has for years peddled falsehoods, paranoia and outright lies. A recent gutter-scraping controversy, for example, was in calling the…