VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc released a barrage of data, special "heat" maps and slick animations on Monday to claim the title of most-popular social network for spectators watching the Super Bowl, but a winner was difficult to pick.

Facebook Inc's (FB.O) revenue grew 49 percent in the fourth quarter, as mobile advertising growth helped the world's largest Internet social network beat Wall Street's targets for earnings and sales.

China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), the world's biggest e-commerce company, is piloting a mobile messaging app aimed at marrying social networking with business, an Alibaba spokeswoman said on Friday, as the company expands its enterprise services.

China's Xiaomi Inc [XTC.UL] staked its claim to Apple Inc's crown on Thursday as the world's third-biggest smartphone maker and most valuable tech start-up unveiled the flagship Mi Note, its challenger to Apple's iPhone 6 Plus.

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg launched a free Internet application in Colombia on Wednesday as part of a drive to bring developing markets online, but remained mute on when and if the company would look to move into China.

Mark Zuckerberg and Xiaomi Inc CEO Lei Jun discussed a potential investment by Facebook in China's top smartphone maker ahead of its $1.1 billion fundraising last month, but a deal never materialized, several people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Social network operator Facebook Inc said it bought QuickFire Networks, a startup that helps view high-quality video with low bandwidth. QuickFire announced the acquisition on its blog on Thursday.

Crowdsourced fundraising site Kickstarter has dropped Amazon.com Inc as its global payments processor in favor of Stripe, the fast-growing startup used by Twitter Inc, Facebook Inc and Apple Inc.

Facebook Inc (FB.O) acquired a company that makes voice recognition technology for wearable devices and Internet- connected appliances, the latest sign of its ambition to extend its reach beyond computers and smartphones.

Iran is to expand what it calls "smart filtering" of the Internet, a policy of censoring undesirable content on websites without banning them completely, as it used to, the government said on Friday.

Facebook Inc's photo-sharing service, Instagram, said it had more than 300 million users, sharing over 70 million photos and videos each day.

Lu Wei, China's top Internet regulator, may not welcome Facebook to his house, but he's certainly welcome at Facebook. Lu, the minister of China's Cyberspace Administration, recently toured the campuses of U.S. tech giants Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon Inc, according to a report and pictures posted on a Chinese government website on Monday.

China showed governments and the planet's biggest tech firms last week its vision for global Internet governance - clean, controlled and choreographed.

Macy's Inc, which traditionally kicks off the U.S. holiday shopping season with a nationally televised parade in Manhattan, also will join a handful of other companies this year parading their ads on Facebook's fledgling video feeds.

Rocket Internet (RKET.DE), the global e-commerce investor, expects to launch at least another 10 start-ups in 2015 and said it would work more closely with Facebook (FB.O) on advertising.