The biggest issue facing the world of social media influencers is transparency. Should the person with 100,000 followers on Instagram (or 5.4 million followers as the keynote speaker, Joelle Mardinian, can boast) announce that she is being paid to promote a product? The inevitable tangents to the four hours of conversations tried to answer the question: what constitutes an influencer (or a content generator as one panellist […]
One of these sites is not like the other: ESPN.com, CBSSports.com, FoxSports.com, SBNation.com. To the titans of sports coverage, networks with broadcast rights to major sporting events, SB Nation is a scrappy flotilla of sports blogs led by its eponymous flagship site. Because it can’t air games, SB Nation has carved out a niche for itself as a multifaceted clearinghouse for sports fans, with individual sites for […]
Ismail, a 20-year-old Emirati, has rarely ever stepped into a bank branch. “You won’t believe I haven’t visited my branch for over a year. All my transactions are done online,” he says, as he clicks an app on his phone to make a payment. “I just paid my bill and that’s how it works for me. All the services are at my fingertips and I save immense […]
Evan Spiegel gazed out over the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where onlookers were recording him with his company’s retro-cool, video-enabled sunglasses, then rang the opening bell on Snap’s first day as a public company. Breaking the tech titan’s dress code in his suit and tie, he grinned and, unlike his biggest rival, made no grand proclamations about his company’s world-changing potential. Nearly five years […]
ExtraHop, an analytics startup based in Seattle, has long had a unique approach to analytics: its technology works by collecting data directly from network packets. When I first became acquainted with ExtraHop, I assumed that packet-level data collection was aimed squarely at machine/operational analytics. But while ExtraHop does indeed excel in that arena, getting data in real time hot off the network, the technology goes well beyond […]
NBCUniversal has ramped up its partnership with Snap, investing $500m in the owner of disappearing messaging app Snapchat’s initial public offering. The Comcast-owned television group bought shares at $17 apiece this week. With shares jumping 44 per cent in their first day of trading on Thursday, and rising a further 14 per cent on Friday, NBCU’s stake is now worth more than $820m. The stake is the […]
Google is collaborating with the online education company Coursera to train more workers for the growing cloud computing industry. The companies on Friday announced the launch of a series of on-demand Google Cloud Platform training courses, developed and taught by “Google experts,” according to Louise Byrne, head of Cloud Training Delivery for Google Cloud. The courses, available for a range of skill levels from beginner to advanced, […]
The heads of the London Stock Exchange Group and Deutsche Börse went to Brussels at the start of February on the verge of clearing a major obstacle for their historic €29bn merger. Xavier Rolet and Carsten Kengeter thought EU regulators were set to bless the deal they had been working on for more than a year. But midway through the meeting, Mr Kengeter stepped out to take an emergency […]
Souq.com, the Middle East’s largest online retailer, has announced the launch of a book store featuring more than six million books. In a move similar to Kindle books on global e-commerce giant Amazon, Souq.com’s Global Bookstore will make books more accessible to the region and supports the UAE government’s Year of Reading initiative, a statement said. The Global Bookstore features all book classifications including culture, children, family, […]
Poynter announced today that longtime national and foreign correspondent Indira Lakshmanan is joining the institute as its Craig Newmark Chair for Journalism Ethics. Lakshmanan, currently The Boston Globe’s Washington columnist, has worked for newspapers, a wire service, digital and print magazines, TV and radio. The new position, which is funded by a $1 million gift from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, will focus on best practices of verification, […]
Beijing is banning Chinese tour groups from visiting South Korea, the latest retaliation against the planned Korean deployment of the US-built Thaad missile shield, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. Wang Ki-young, a director at South Korea’s culture ministry, said on Friday that Chinese authorities had ordered tourism agencies in Beijing to halt tours to South Korea from mid-March. Mr Wang said the move […]
Branden Spikes says he has led a charmed life. Boasting an IT career that started in Silicon Valley when the web was born, Spikes was in the midst of the “awesome craziness” that occurred as a result of the dotcom boom — not to mention “the craziness” that he said followed. “The invention of the web was happening right in my backyard at a time when I […]
Doha, Qatar; March 2, 2017 The third edition of Qumra, the industry initiative by the Doha Film Institute that aims to mentor and nurture next generation filmmakers, has received tremendous support from Qatar’s government entities, industry leaders, educational & cultural organisations and a wide spectrum of global film bodies. To be held from March 3 to 8 at Souq Al Waqif and the Museum of Islamic Art, […]
Software-defined storage (SDS) startup Hedvig has closed $21.5 million in a Series C round of funding, bringing the total amount raised by the Santa Clara, California-based startup to $52 million. Investors in the round include Singapore-based EDBI and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) VC arm Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, Atlantic Bridge Ventures, Oman Technology Fund, True Ventures, and Vertex Ventures. Launched in 2015, Hedvig provides SDS for enterprises building […]
Leading smart mobile devices brand, InnJoo teams up with World Car Rally Driver Champion, Dani Sordo to race ahead with world class smart devices 1st March 2017 Dubai, UAE: InnJoo, smart mobile devices marker, today unveiled its new range of next-generation smartphones at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona. The company teamed up with Dani Sordo, one of the most experienced drivers in the FIA World Rally […]
GENEVA Syria’s warring sides both claimed U.N. peace talks in Geneva were going their way on Thursday, but the chief government negotiator and Syria’s ally Russia accused the main opposition delegation of trying to wreck the talks. Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Ja’afari told reporters that he had discussed “substantive issues, particularly counter-terrorism” with U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura, and would continue on Friday. The government delegation has […]
When it came to once slice of the media Thursday, Jeff Sessions was generally trumped by Evan Spiegel. Contacts with Russians? Lying to a Senate committee deliberating his nomination? Need for a special prosecutor? Step aside as Attorney General? Well, that was grist for the mills of Washington-focused media and the cable news channels Thursday — and with good reason. But on CNBC and Fox Business, as […]
Technology accelerates by leaps and bounds, which can only spell doom for most workers’ economic prospects. How long before a robot or algorithm can do your job, leading to mass “technological unemployment?” Machines are learning to master once-unthinkable tasks. Yet, even though our software can best us at Jeopardy! and our hardware has learned to run and jump, there’s still no consensus among economists that […]
The US broke its long drought of hot technology initial public offerings on Thursday as shares in Snap soared more than 40 per cent in their market debut despite questions about corporate governance and profitability at the owner of vanishing messaging service Snapchat. A pack of traders huddled around the desk of Snap’s designated market maker for more than an hour after the opening bell at the […]
GENEVA Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Ja’afari accused the Saudi-backed opposition on Thursday of holding peace talks hostage because of their reported refusal to unify under one opposition delegation and include terrorism on agenda. “We heard that… the Riyadh platform refused the inclusion… of counter-terrorism,” Ja’afari told reporters after meeting U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura. “This did not come as a surprise because some members of the Riyadh […]
BERLIN Continental (CONG.DE) expects a possible tie-up between PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) and General Motors’ (GM.N) Opel division would boost its business, its chief executive said. “Opportunities emerge because platforms will be standardized and higher and more interesting volumes will arise” for suppliers, CEO Elmar Degenhart said during a conference call after the automotive supplier published results on Thursday. Separately, Continental said it planned to raise prices […]
This Sept. 6, 2012, file photo, shows the Amazon logo in Santa Monica, Calif. Amazon’s cloud-computing service Amazon Web Services experienced problems in its eastern U.S. region, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, causing widespread problems for thousands of websites and apps. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File) Usually people don’t notice the “cloud”—unless, that is, it turns into a massive storm. Which was the case Tuesday when Amazon’s huge cloud-computing […]
Social media conversation about ride-hailing app Uber is on the decline in the Middle East, while its local competitor Careem is gaining pace, according to a new report. US-based Crimson Hexagon, a social media analytics company, on Wednesday said in its “The Middle East Consumer Trends” report that Careem is gaining traction over Uber because it is perceived as a “local” brand as regional consumers now prefer […]
Dubai, UAE, 01 March 2017 Konica Minolta Business Solutions Middle East will be taking part at the Gulf Print and Pack 2017 running from 26th to 29th March at Dubai World Trade Centre. Konica Minolta will be showcasing and unveiling new developments at the Gulf Print and Pack 2017. As a leading global service provider in the field of IT- and document processes as well as digital […]
