The world’s largest social network has snatched up the Internet’s most buzzed about mobile app for photo-sharing for US$1bn, and the question on everyone’s mind is: why? The answer is obvious — it’s all about the photos — and it has been hidden in plain sight for weeks. On Monday, Facebook announced that it would acquire
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced Facebook is acquiring Instagram in a deal worth US$1bn. The photo-sharing start-up recently passed 30m members. Particularly since picking up a slew of new users with its Android app launch, Instagram has become one of the most important for taking and sharing photos on mobile devices, so it makes perfect sense that Facebook would want the
Remember five or six years ago when everyone thought they could start their own social network? Then Facebook arrived and effectively crushed everyone else in the market. There was no point anymore — it owned the market. But while the bean
On Monday, Alan Knott-Craig will move into his new office at 150 Rivonia Road. Expectations among industry players and consumers alike about his looming tenure at the helm of Cell C are running high. Can the man who built Vodacom turn the smaller operator
Facebook‘s counsel asked courts to dismiss a case against founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, involving plaintiff Paul Ceglia, who claims…
When you can’t beat them, sue them. That seems to be the modus operandi of Yahoo, a former Web star whose fondness for lawyers has grown as its commercial fortunes have faded. On 12 March, the ailing company sued Facebook, alleging that the social networking giant had violated 10 patents that belong to it. Yahoo’s aggressive move has sparked
The average Google+ user only spends an average of three minutes a month on the social network, while MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter are all seeing more time spent per user each month, according to research firm comScore. In a scathing Wall Street Journal report titled “The Mounting Minuses at Google+”, the case
Facebook is set for a record-shattering initial public offering and, according to a new report, it will bring in more than US$5bn in advertising revenue this year. But Facebook’s financial future may not be as bright as the eye-popping figure would at first suggest. 2011 was a banner year for Facebook in terms of advertising revenue
For years, Google and Facebook have been waging trench warfare for big-brand advertising budgets. Billions of dollars are up for grabs, and since this money constitutes the bulk of revenue for both companies, the stakes are high. Twitter, which last week launched a self-service ad platform, is a relative
Last week, Facebook took the first step to becoming a public company by filing its S-1 documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Enormous figures are being bandied about but, as with Google, which listed the year Facebook was founded, the question investors
