Amazon India, an online market, announced a six-fold leap in sales to Rs1, 022 crores for the year ending March 31, 2015, but net loss climbed to Rs1, 723.6 crores during the year.
Consumer Web/Social Media
Roger's walkie-talkie style voice messaging app that launched in 2015 gets a financial backing of $1 million from Social Capital. The new feature was created by ex-Spotify employees, Ricardo Vice Santos and Andreas Blixt, who have done complete justice to the phrase 'selling old wine in new bottle'. In the current scenario where voice messaging is no longer a novelty, Roger hopes to tap the market outside Asia where people are still stuck with texting, and win them with its simple, three-button structure.
The Onion Router (Tor) began as military intelligence research in 1995, before became a volunteer-based project in 2002. Now, the project tried to lessen dependency on U.S. government by launching a crowdfunding campaign.
Feeling the heat of competition in the global payments industry, American Express (AmEx) is in the process of reducing costs by $1billion by end of 2017. AmEx posted losses for the fourth quarter consecutively. The net income dropped from $1.44 billion to $873 million or 80 cents per share for the quarter. The forecast for this year disappointed investors and analysts.
Netflix has blocked its Australian subscribers from accessing the US content, who also happen to circumvent its geographical blocks with the help of private virtual network providers like uFlix and ExpressVPN. A continuous error message keeps the users from watching their favorite American dailies and movies. This has irked the so-called "geo-blockers" who are currently working on a solution to penetrate this block.
Luxe valet parking app is partnering with Tesla. The two-year old tech startup will provide Tesla owners in New York and San Fransisco its on-demand valet parking service.
As its international subscription soared, Netflix plan to collect more revenues. CEO Reed Hastings on Tuesday announce to increase its U.S. subscription fee.
Netflix global expansion faces a new threat. Video streaming providers around the world are starting a global alliance to hinder its further international expansion.
Developers of revolutionary products with $1 billion in valuation are called unicorns, and there are so many of them sprouting. Most of them are in California. There are some who fear of another bubble, but most dismiss this forecast.
HBO planned its Internet channel in Spain at the end of this year, enabling people in Spain to access HBO streaming service. The company will challenge Netflix at new vanguard of European market.
The emoji features a koala wearing a pair of sunglasses, and will appear automatically when a user tweets using the hashtag #AustraliaDay. An event on Tuesday marks the opening of the digital celebration one week prior to the national holiday on January 26. Australian netizens are also encouraged to tweet their stories and views on the holiday.
Amazon is currently working on its Prime Air drones, which will revolutionize the concept of online shopping completely. These drones have an in-built sense-and-avoid technology that allows them to reach their destinations unharmed, and deliver online orders within an unbelievable 30 minutes.
The company is accused of commercialization in the form of selling its forum's management and altering search results to show paying-websites. Last year, Baidu also faced punishment over pornography and violations of publishing regulations.
The video streaming company, Netflix prepares a huge amount of dollar for its content: $6 billion. The amount will be spent on 600 hours of original program. Netflix currently launches an aggressive global expansion which bothers many local content providers.
Technology startups in Africa may get $10 million funding in early 2016 as Silvertree Capital sees the rosy picture. Silvertree Internet Holdings is keen on scaling technology and commerce companies and has already invested $5 million in business building operations and acquisitions. South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya are favored the most among African countries.