Tech

An advert for bitcoin on a bus in London’s West End.Barry Lewis | In Pictures | Getty ImagesLONDON — An advertising campaign telling people in the U.K. “it’s time to buy” bitcoin has been banned by the nation’s advertising regulator for being irresponsible and misleading.Posters for cryptocurrency exchange service Luno — shown across the London Underground network and on London buses this year — contained a cartoon image of a bitcoin with the words “If you’re seeing Bitcoin on the Underground, it’s time to buy.”The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said Wednesday that the ads must not appear again in their current form and that they failed to highlight the risks.It comes a week after the price of bitcoin collapsed by 30% in a single day, leaving many retailer investors who had bought bitcoin significantly out of pocket. It also comes two weeks after the Bank of England governor said cryptocurrency investors should be prepared to lose all their money.The watchdog said that it received four complaints concerning the ad. Three of them were from people who believed the ad failed to illustrate the risk of the investment and accused it of being misleading. One said the ad took advantage of

In this articleGOOGLSan Jose city officials on Tuesday night officially approved a plan for Google to build a massive campus in the heart of California’s third-largest city.For its “Downtown West” project, Google will develop 80 acres of land in downtown San Jose, including 7.3 million square feet of office space for 20,000 workers and thousands of housing units. It’s Google’s first mixed-use campus and will be one of its largest when completed. The San Jose city council unanimously approved the company’s plans Tuesday evening and several council members held back tears while doing so.The approval comes as Google aims to model a shift away from closed-off tech campuses to stem the growing alienation toward tech companies, whose success has contributed to a shortage of affordable housing and big cultural shifts in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs. Google, which is doubling down on bringing workers back to offices amid the weakening pandemic, is also planning another massive, town-like hub just 10 miles up the road in Mountain View.”There’s tremendous mistrust of the government and suspicion of Big Tech and it could have been easy for many of our community members simply to succumb to slogans and  simplistic thinking but thousands

In this articleUBERUber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi outside the New York Stock Exchange ahead of the company’s IPO, May 10, 2019.Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Tuesday afternoon that while driver supply is getting better as more people get vaccinated against the coronavirus, there’s still plenty of room to go as demand for rides outpaces supply.”ETAs are higher than we want them to be, surge level prices have increased as we have not seen drivers supply keep up with the demand growth in the U.S.,” Khosrowshahi said at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Communications Conference.”The supply position is something we’re still working on. It’s definitely getting better but we’re not happy with the ETAs and price levels we see and that is something we’re going to invest to improve on,” he added.With Americans getting vaccinated and governments easing pandemic restrictions, people are ready to travel and leave their homes again, turning to rideshare companies. However, Uber and Lyft are still dealing with a slow return of drivers. If the companies can’t bring in enough drivers to meet demand, they could face annoyed customers who are having to shell out more cash and wait longer.Uber said last month it would spend $250

In this article4397.T-JPSatya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., speaks during a keynote session at the Microsoft Developers Build Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.David Paul Morris | Getty Images | BloombergMicrosoft kicked off its annual Build conference for software developers on Tuesday by making a slew of cloud product announcements, and the company indicated that its Windows operating system will be getting better for developers, too.Keeping developers interested in its platforms is important for Microsoft. The company needs to ensure that programmers want to choose its Azure public cloud over rivals. If developers become less interested in building and updating apps for Windows, organizations might consider moving to alternatives, which could threaten a meaningful piece of Microsoft’s business.”Soon we will share one of the most significant updates of Windows of the past decade to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during his keynote at the virtual conference. “I’ve been self-hosting it over the past several months, and I’m incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows.”He continued, “Our promise to you is this: We will create more opportunities for every Windows developer today and welcome every

In this articlePINSROKUTWTRSNAPAMZNMateusz Slodkowski | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty ImagesThe major growth in Amazon’s advertising unit means its revenue contribution is now 2.4 times as large as Snap, Twitter, Roku and Pinterest combined, and it’s growing 1.7 times as quickly, according to Loop Capital. Amazon’s “Other” unit, which is primarily made up of advertising but also includes sales related to other service offerings, grew revenue a whopping 77% year over year to more than $6.9 billion in the first quarter, the company reported last month. And industry moves such as Apple’s recent software changes that make it easier for users to block advertisers from tracking them look poised to add more fuel to Amazon’s growth. “Performance ads on the ecommerce sites fueled by Amazon’s high-intent traffic and unparalleled user insights are providing significant value for sellers and brands,” Loop Capital analysts wrote in the Monday note. They also cited Amazon’s presentation at the recent IAB NewFronts that discussed the company’s efforts in the streaming space. Amazon said early this month its ad-supported streaming video content now reaches more than 120 million users every month, driven by platforms such as Twitch. “With Amazon’s technology, scale, device reach and connectivity to the consumer, we

Twitter’s Chief Financial Officer, Ned SegalJohn Chiala | CNBCTwitter CFO Ned Segal said Tuesday that e-commerce will be more important for the social media company as it continues to build out direct response advertising products.”You should be able to click and buy something on Twitter,” Segal said at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Virtual Conference. “We’ve come to appreciate that people do a lot of research on Twitter before they buy something.”Segal explained that users go to Twitter to hear what experts have to say about products like phones and shoes. Users also could feel compelled to make spur-of-the-moment decisions to buy products as they chat about major events, like the Super Bowl, in real-time on Twitter.”These are all great opportunities for us to connect existing advertisers and new advertisers with their customers on Twitter,” Segal said. “So commerce will be an important lever for us.”Twitter briefly touched on its e-commerce plans in February during its analyst day, and the company confirmed in early March that it is testing new types of tweets that include shop buttons.The company has yet to provide details as to how these e-commerce features might work or how big of a cut

In this articleAMZNWashington, DC Attorney General Karl Racine speaks after a news conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court September 9, 2019 in Washington, DC.Alex WongWashington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced Tuesday he’s suing Amazon on antitrust grounds, claiming the company’s practices have unfairly raised prices for consumers and suppressed innovation.Racine is seeking to end Amazon’s allegedly illegal use of price agreements to edge out competition, recover damages and impose penalties to deter similar conduct.Shares of Amazon barely moved on the announcement, down 1% as of Tuesday morning.The lawsuit, filed in D.C. Superior Court, alleges Amazon illegally maintained monopoly power by using contract provisions to prevent third-party sellers on its platform from offering their products for lower prices on other platforms. The attorney general’s office claimed the contracts create a “an artificially high price floor across the online retail marketplace,” according to a press release. The AG claimed these agreements ultimately harm both consumers and third-party sellers by reducing competition, innovation and choice.Amazon requires third-party sellers who want to do business on the online marketplace to abide by its business solutions agreement. Until 2019, Amazon included a clause in that document, referred to as a “price parity provision,” which