The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. It’s the phrase that’s launched a thousand editorials, most of them decrying the manifest evils of the insatiable 1%. But a large part of this increased inequality is driven not by greed or manipulation, but by technology
Browsing: Mark Zuckerberg
Eight leading American technology companies have joined forces to demand changes be made to US surveillance laws, calling for current laws and practices to be reformed in light of revelations of mass surveillance of Internet users’ activities by the National Security Agency. In a letter
It emerged this week, in an article in the Wall Street Journal, that Snapchat, a Californian start-up that develops a smartphone app of the same name popular among teens, recently spurned a US$3bn-plus all-cash offer from Facebook to buy it out. The offer value was at least three times the already
Getting to grips with mobile interfaces, and serving targeted advertising using them, is key if Facebook is to make nervous shareholders happy. Its latest effort, Facebook Home, is built on top of Google’s Android operating system, a move both fitting and cheeky given Google makes its money in the same way as Facebook
A year ago, the tech press was all aflutter about the possibility of a new bubble in the internet industry. The blogosphere hummed with dire predictions of “dot-bomb 2.0” and equally passionate rebuttals. It’s amazing how much can change in a year. The most
Amid rumours that Facebook is considering building its own smartphone and is looking to acquire facial recognition service face.com comes another and arguably more sensible bit of speculation. Facebook is said to be looking to acquire Opera Software in
On Friday, social network Facebook will list on Wall Street in the third largest initial public offering (IPO) in US history and the largest in the technology sector. The initial share price is set at US$38 and, with 421m shares being listed, the move will make
Facebook knows one of the biggest challenges it faces is monetising its mobile platforms and so it’s gradually overhauling them to do just that. When it originally filed its S-1 documents ahead of its listing on the stock market, Facebook conceded that its inability
It’s like 1999 all over again. On Monday, Facebook announced it was buying photo-sharing company Instagram for US$1bn, netting the start-up’s cofounder, Kevin Systrom, a cool $400m. It’s paying over the odds, but the deal makes sense for Facebook ahead of its flotation on the stock market. At first glance and based on the
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