Alibaba gets lockdown revenue boost as US threat looms August 20, 2020 Alibaba today posted better-than-expected revenue and profit in its latest quarter as the coronavirus lockdown boosted trading in its core ecommerce business. The Chinese conglomerate booked revenue of 135.8bn yuan (£14.9bn) in the three months to the end of June, up 34 per cent on the same period last year. Net income also jumped from [...]
Apple becomes first US company to reach $2 trillion valuation August 19, 2020 Apple has become Wall Street’s first $2 trillion company, doubling its valuation in just over two years. As shares hit $457.77 in morning trading, the tech giant became the first Wall Street company to achieve the $2 trillion market cap in public markets. It is the second in the world to do so. The day [...]
Spotify crashes for users around the world August 19, 2020 Thousands of Spotify users were left unable to play music for more than an hour this afternoon after the service experienced technical difficulties. It appeared to affect customers around the globe, with the majority reported in Europe. According to outage tracker site DownDetector the issues started at around 1pm, with 92 per cent of the [...]
Facebook is a ‘major threat’ to public health, report warns August 19, 2020 Facebook’s failure to halt the spread of coronavirus misinformation makes it a “major threat” to public health, a damning new report has warned. Research by activist group Avaaz found health misinformation relating to the pandemic was viewed 3.8bn times on the social media site in the last year. Just 16 per cent of all misinformation [...]
Trump backs Oracle bid for Tiktok’s US business August 19, 2020 US President Trump has thrown his weight behind Oracle’s mooted bid for Tiktok, saying the software giant would be a “great company” to take over the hit video app. It follows reports that Oracle has held discussions with Chinese parent company Bytedance over an offer for Tiktok’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New [...]
Marriott International hit with London lawsuit over huge data breach August 19, 2020 Hotel group Marriott International is facing legal action in London over a huge data breach that compromised the personal details of roughly 393m guests. Martin Bryant, who runs a tech and media consultancy firm, has filed a collective action in the High Court on behalf of millions of guests from England and Wales who were [...]
Be eco-rational: The world’s environmental problems are too serious for petty political dogma August 19, 2020 On 14 February 1990, a photograph was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from the fringes of the solar system. As it sped further away, engineers spun it around to capture an image of the planet Earth, suspended in space roughly four billion miles away. Taking up only 0.12 of a pixel in the image, [...]
Amazon to create 3,500 new jobs as it plots return to office August 18, 2020 Amazon today unveiled plans to create 3,500 new jobs as it gears up to return to office life with an expanded physical presence across the US. The new corporate jobs will be based in the ecommerce giant’s tech hubs in Dallas, Detroit, Denver, New York, Phoenix and San Diego. Amazon said it plans to invest [...]
Oracle ‘in talks’ over Tiktok takeover as US ban looms August 18, 2020 Oracle is said to be mulling a bid for Tiktok as it looks to rival Microsoft in the race to take over the wildly popular social media platform. The US tech giant, which is led by billionaire Larry Ellison, has held preliminary talks with Tiktok’s Chinese parent company Bytedance over an offer for Tiktok’s operations [...]
Huawei: US ramps up sanctions as China tensions grow August 18, 2020 The US last night announced a fresh wave of sanctions on Huawei as it ramped up its efforts to prevent the Chinese tech giant from accessing American technology. The White House has already banned Huawei from buying American products and blocked vendors from using US technology to manufacture components for the controversial telecoms firm. The [...]
