ITV

Tag: Google

  • Twitter: Strong IPO, followed by even stronger opening

    Twitter: Strong IPO, followed by even stronger opening

    MUMBAI: It began with a tweet on its twitter handle which stated: “We just priced our IPO.” Attached with the tweet was a screen shot of the offering announcement.

     

    And by the time Wednesday 6 November ended, the social networking site that has become a phenomenon across the globe had managed to raise $2.09 billion from its IPO, making it the seventh-largest US tech IPO ever, just ahead of Google, which raised $1.92 billion in its 2004 stock market debut, according to some estimates.

     

    But there was more in store for stockmarket observers and investors as trading began on Thursday morning. The Twitter share – under the TWTR ticker – spurted 90 plus per cent in value as it soared to $45 per share during early trades and then to a high of $50. This took up the valuation of the firm to $25 billion or 32 billion or so, at the time of writing.

     

    Yesterday’s $26 price valued the microblogging service at $18.34 billion, on a fully diluted basis. That is 16 to 17 times forecast 2014 sales, a premium to rivals including Facebook, LinkedIn and Yelp, according to some analysts.

     

    Twitter set an early price range of $17 to $20 for its IPO, which was considered cautious. But there was strong interest from investors, and the company was selling just 70 million of its 545 million shares, leaving an imbalance between supply and demand. That allowed the company and its bankers, led by Goldman Sachs’ Anthony Noto, to raise the range to $23 to $25 and then pick a final price above that.

     

    Analysts felt that the price should have been in the $21 range but the final pricing zipped past that. Other analyst and stock watchers had predicted that the share would go past the $40 market during day one’s trading. The IPO was as much as 30 times over-subscribed.

     

    While Twitter has a broad and powerful influence, its service is sometimes tricky to understand and use, which has reportedly limited the company’s growth. Twitter has about 230 million users, including heads of state and celebrities, while Facebook has more than one billion.

     

    However, Twitter lost $65 million in the latest quarter.

     

    Twitter is expected to generate $1.24 billion in sales in 2015, according to some projections. Its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margins will be roughly 6.5 per cent this year and 8.4 per cent in 2014, according to IPO underwriter forecasts that were shared with investors. In 2015, margins may jump to about 16 per cent, the estimates suggest.

     

    During an interview given to CNBC, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is believed to have said that investors should not be concerned about the company’s current lack of profits, since its part of a plan to invest for the long term.

     

    It looks like the investment community and public is buying his story for now – at least.

  • Google Chrome to prevent downloading of malware on computers

    Google Chrome to prevent downloading of malware on computers

    NEW DELHI: Google chrome has introduced a feature which automatically halts the malware to download on a computer.

    It happens all the time, undesired mal functions penetrate into computers when one clicks some link. The process of getting rid of such malwares can be irritating, but Google Chrome is about to introduce the application which will automatically not only identify the malware but also halt it from the installation.

    According to Google, “This is in addition to the 10,000 new websites we flag per day with Safe Browsing, which is used by Chrome and other browsers to keep more than one billion web users safe. Keeping you secure is a top priority, which is why we’re working on additional means to stop malicious software installs as well.”

    The update will soon be introduced to the masses making surfing more fun and yet secure for the users, according to More Magazine.

  • LinkedIn unveils trio of mobile apps

    LinkedIn unveils trio of mobile apps

    MUMBAI: LinkedIn on Wednesday showed three mobile apps that aim to boost productivity of mobile professionals and capture on-the-go audiences.

    The professional network unveiled a new app called LinkedIn Intro along with a redesigned Pulse and LinkedIn iPad app. LinkedIn Intro is a mobile email product that allows users to have people’s LinkedIn account connected with popular email accounts so that they can immediately identify people.

    LinkedIn Intro works on iPhones and is available for download at Intro.LinkedIn.com and will hit Apple’s App store in coming months.

    “This adoption of smartphones over the last decade or so has really changed the way we think about products,” said LinkedIn senior VP of products and user experience Deep Nishar.

    LinkedIn senior VP of products and user experience Deep Nishar

    LinkedIn is experiencing explosive growth in users coming to its services from mobile devices, much like Facebook, Google and Twitter. About 38 per cent of its members visit from mobile

    For recruiting professionals, often out at job fairs and networking events, mobile apps that replace desktop functions are important tools.

    LinkedIn acquired Pulse in April for $ 90 million in stock and cash. Pulse’s popular news reader, started by two students while at Stanford University, had quickly become a sensation for its slick interface on touch screens ideal for flicking through news feeds. Under its relaunch, LinkedIn meshed many of its desktop features into Pulse, such as integration of its Influencer blogs.

    LinkedIn’s redesigned Pulse app will be available for download on iOS and Android for both smartphones and tablets in the coming week.

    Last week, LinkedIn unveiled ‘Recruiter Mobile’ and ‘Mobile Work With Us’, two popular desktop services adapted into apps for on-the-go use.

     

    ‘Recruiter Mobile’ will enable recruiting professionals to search for candidates, allowing them to send InMails, call or text. Also, recruiters can take notes on candidates and forward prospects to hiring managers.

    Recruiter is LinkedIn’s primary subscription service and is responsible for the largest portion of the company’s revenue. The product is used by more than 20,000 companies.

    LinkedIn’s new ‘Mobile Work With Us’ gives employers the ability to show job openings on the profiles of employees at their company. These job advertisements will appear at the top of member profiles.

    LinkedIn acquired CardMunch in January 2011 for an undisclosed sum. CardMunch’s mobile app allows people to take photos of business cards and convert them into their mobile contacts.

  • Google readying ‘Mobile Meter’ app that offers rewards for tracking mobile usage

    Google readying ‘Mobile Meter’ app that offers rewards for tracking mobile usage

    MUMBAI: Google wants to dig a little deeper and monitor a user’s app usage as well. Reports reveal that the company is readying new mobile apps that compensate users if they allow their mobile behavior to be monitored. The project, known internally as “Mobile Meter,” utilises iOS and Android apps that intelligently monitor app usage and web browsing habits and send the data back to Google.

    According to rumors doing rounds the Mobile Meter program will be totally voluntary. Participants will be required to give their consent (or opt in) before joining. Google isn’t the first to reward users to gather mobile trends either: Nielsen has been conducting research into mobile trends with an Android app.

    Google already passively collects data to improve its apps and resources. The Google Maps app, for instance, regularly feeds back location metrics to enhance the service. The app will presumably enable the company to evaluate the different habits of Android and iOS users, gaining an important insight into Apple’s ecosystem. Talks are that Google will organise all of the information it collects to ensure the privacy of its panelists.

    Google has confirmed development of the new apps, which it says are part of its Screenwise market research project that began rolling out last year. The Mobile Meter apps will replace an older method that allowed panelists to participate, helping Google measure media consumption across all screens but with more accurate results on mobile. Both the Android and iOS apps will be submitted to their relevant app stores in the near future, although only panelists will be able to actually use them. The company notes that while there isn’t an open call for volunteers right now, it recruits for panels on an ongoing basis and compensation varies based on the panels people participate in.

  • Google faces Pakistani hackers in Malaysia

    Google faces Pakistani hackers in Malaysia

    NEW DELHI: The Google’s homepage for Malaysia was allegedly hacked by Pakistani hackers earlier this week.

     

    The page became inaccessible after falling victim to the hacker’s attack by “Team MadLEETS”.  At the bottom of the page the slogan of “Pakistan Zindabad” appeared, which is the nationalist slogan of Pakistan meaning long live Pakistan.

     

    “There’s not much reason behind it, only to prove that security is just an illusion. It does not exist,” said team leader Leet in a statement to a website. “We have no political intentions whatsoever.”

     

    This is not the first time that Google’s Malaysian home page had been hacked; the page was also breached in July. The Leet has been involved in numerous such incidents of DNS poisoning.

     

    But in a statement, Google said: “For a short period, some users visiting google.com.my were redirected to a different website; Google services for the google.com.my domain were not hacked. We have been in contact with the organisation responsible for managing this domain name and the issue should be resolved.”

  • Google Pakistan domain challenged as illegal

    Google Pakistan domain challenged as illegal

    NEW DELHI: Even as a complaint has been filed against Google for running the domain name .pk without registering the trademark and without having an office in Pakistan, it is learnt that several multi-national companies refuse to open offices in the country as the government refuses to give any guarantee for safety of employees.

    The Intellectual Property Rights Organisation in Pakistan has sent notices to central ministries and security agencies following the complaint against Google, according to an American-based Pakistani website.

    ce has been sent to the Information and Technology Ministry, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, the Security and Exchange Commission and Google.
    The complaint was filed by Information Technology industry’s Dr Kamal Muzaffar who said Google was generating illegal revenue from Pakistan without getting registered in the country.

    He alleged that Google had not been paying taxes in Pakistan, thus generating illegal money.

    Interestingly, multi-national technology companies such as Microsoft, Samsung, and Google do not have any regional office in the country and all of them only have representative offices which do not have the power for taking decisions.

    All these companies want the Pakistan government to provide for security for their employees as a pre-requisite before setting up offices in the country.

  • Genesis Burson-Marsteller announces New Client Wins

    Genesis Burson-Marsteller announces New Client Wins

     

    MUMBAI : Genesis Burson-Marsteller, leader in integrated communications, specializing in public relations, public affairs, corporate responsibility, crisis communications and digital marketing, has announced the addition of new clients across businesses and industry practices. The new clients include JK Group, BITS Pilani, Sunburn, Get It and UFO Moviez.

    “These wins are a result of our leadership’s focused new business effort and demonstrate our ability to deliver across a diverse range of communication needs of our clients, through our evidence-based integrated communication approach. We are delighted with our continued success in partnering with such prestigious companies and organisations,” stated Prema Sagar, Principal & Founder.

    Genesis Burson-Marsteller has been tasked with delivering a host of services to its newest clients, including media outreach, stakeholder communications, thought leadership and strategic counsel.

    Recent client wins include:

    J.K. Organisation, founded over 100 years ago, has multi-business, multi-product and multi-location operations with interests in tyre, auto components, cement, dairy and paper.
    The Birla Institute of Technology & Science, BITS Pilani is an all-India Institute for higher education. Over the years, BITS has provided the highest quality technical education to students from all over India admitted on the basis of merit. Its graduates may be found throughout the world in all areas of engineering, science and commerce.

     

    Sunburn, Asia’s largest music festival brand, is the ultimate lifestyle experience event. Ranked at number 4, as the world’s best EDM fest, it is an annual property of Percept Live, which was inaugurated in 2007 in Goa. The Sunburn Goa Festival is a synergy of music, entertainment, food, shopping and lifestyle that attracts music tourism in Goa. Over the past seven years of existence, Sunburn has brought together renowned Indian and International DJs to entertain crowds of more than 150,000 people from all over the globe over a three day period in December. After ruling the electronic dance music scene in the heart of Goa, Sunburn moved to the city of its fans and played to massive crowds in Mumbai and Delhi in 2012. For the first time in its history since inception, Sunburn also crossed international shores to be hosted on the beautiful beaches of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2012 and later Dubai in 2013, thereby becoming the first successful ‘Glocal’ entertainment product from India. Sunburn is scheduled to head to Bali, Singapore, Jakarta and Mexico in 2013-14.

     
    Getit Infomedia is a leading platform making local businesses discoverable. It aims to seamlessly deliver value across all media platforms – voice, mobile applications, online, WAP, web chat, print etc. The services provide presence, enquiries and leads to its advertisers while consumers have access to the best information, benefits and offers. Getit Infomedia is amongst the largest Digital information and services provider in India with the widest, in-depth listing of businesses with a strong geographical reach pan India. It has alliances and partnerships with leading corporate houses like Google, Yahoo, Nokia and leading telcos such as Airtel, Tata, Reliance, Idea etc. Getit’s recent integration with Infomedia (erstwhile publishing division of Network18 group) has further strengthened its reach and now operates out of more than 100 cities in India, catering to the need of the local SMEs and consumers.

    Founded by the Valuable Group in 2005, UFO Moviez India Ltd is the world’s largest satellite networked digital cinema chain. UFO’s path breaking initiative has revolutionized the way films are distributed & exhibited in India through its pioneering technology and infrastructure. Within a few years of its launch, UFO has become the global market leader in its area of operations, offering end to end digital cinema solutions and delivering films via satellite directly to theatres, ensuring ‘FIRST DAY FIRST SHOW’ for film distributors and exhibitors across the country.

  • Google teams up with US, UK govt. agencies to bring internet to the common man

    Google teams up with US, UK govt. agencies to bring internet to the common man

    NEW DELHI: Government agencies in the UK and US along with Google have announced a joint venture by the name of “Alliance for Affordable Internet” to bring internet to the population of billions on planet earth.

    The initiative is a joint venture by Google, US agency for International Development and its British Counterpart and philanthropic company run by eBay Founder Omidyar, Omidyar Network.

    Other helping firms include Yahoo, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Ericsson and African ISP MainOne. Alliance is going to work to pursue the governments to regulate and policy formation for better internet access.

    “A4AI has a specific goal in mind: to reach the UN Broadband Commission target of entry-level broadband access priced at less than five per cent of monthly income worldwide,” said Jennifer Haroon, Principal Executive of Google’s access programme, in a blog post.

    Group is working to contact 10 countries till 2015 to negotiate on easing of import of technology and resources to kick start the internet revolution in those countries. This envisaged goal can have far reaching impact not only in those countries but on whole global scenario. It can help reshape the social, corporate and political outlook which is visible by the part played by Social Media in Arab spring.

  • Online video advertising is gaining popularity in US: comScore

    Online video advertising is gaining popularity in US: comScore

    MUMBAI: The comScore online video rankings have shown that while the number of content pieces watched online has dipped but online video advertising is getting popular.

    The monthly ranking of the online video market showed that 188.5 million Americans watched 46.7 billion online content videos which attracted 22.8 billion video ad views. This compared with 187 million viewers consuming more than 48 billion online content videos with 19.6 billion video ad views.

    As ever YouTube-driven Google sites dominated, boasting the highest average engagement among the top ten properties, taking 167 million unique viewers. The month’s big news in terms of properties though was AOL which captured the number two spot with 71.2 million views, up 57.9 million in July, displacing Facebook to third place with 62.2 million even though the social network added just under a million more viewers. Next was NDN with 50.7 million and VEVO with 49.4 million. August 2013 also saw 46.7 billion video content views with Google sites generating the highest number at 17.4 billion, followed by AOL with 992 million and Facebook with 803 million.

    All of this content activity was the driver for an increasingly robust online video where 87 per cent of the US internet audience viewed online video for which the duration of the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes with the average online content video rolling in at 5.2 minutes. Video ads accounted for a third of all videos viewed and 3.4 per cent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

    Google sites contributed 3.2 billion video ad impressions out of the total of 22.8 billion for the month. Adap.tv came in second with more than 2.4 billion ads, followed by BrightRoll Platform with 2.4 billion and LiveRail.com with 2.2 billion. Time spent watching video ads was 8.5 billion minutes, with BrightRoll Platform and Adap.tv delivering the highest duration of video ads at 1.1 billion minutes each. Video ads reached 56 per cent of the total US population an average of 132 times during the month. The recently enriched Hulu over-the-top (OTT) service delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 71.

  • Google announces ‘Helpouts’, a help-for-cash video chat service

    Google announces ‘Helpouts’, a help-for-cash video chat service

    MUMBAI: Google has quietly launched a website for “Google Helpouts,” a new p2p video chat helpline service. Anyone can sign up to receive or provide help, and providers can make money off chat sessions.

     

    While Helpouts is yet to launch, a good deal of information can be gained from the support site. Anyone can sign up to provide help; just enter in your skills, availability, qualifications, and pricing, and Google will match you with people in need of your assistance. You can even include an introductory video of the services you’ll be providing. Once you’re all set up, customers can schedule a video chat session during your available hours.

     

    Of course, the service requires a Google+ account. If you choose to charge someone for your time, payments will be handled by Google Wallet, and Google will take a 20 per cent cut. The support pages confirm support for desktop browsers, Android, and iOS, and Google is promising a 100 per cent money back guarantee for unhappy customers.

     

    The setup for some helpout listings can be pretty elaborate. This page shows that you can style your helpouts like a structured course, including any preparation or materials the person might need before starting. Google even has a process in place to verify medical certificates and licences.