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Showing posts from July, 2019

UK-based fintech startup Revolut launches commission-free US stock trading service, including the ability to buy fractions of shares (Ryan Browne/CNBC)

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Ryan Browne / CNBC : UK-based fintech startup Revolut launches commission-free US stock trading service, including the ability to buy fractions of shares   —  KEY POINTS  —  Revolut users will be able to buy a fraction of shares in U.S. companies through its trading platform.  —  British fintech firm Revolut … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2LUAixu

Didi Chuxing and oil giant BP team up to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure in China

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Ride-sharing and transportation platform Didi Chuxing announced today that it has formed a joint venture with BP, the British gas, oil and energy supermajor. to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure in China. The charging stations will be available to Didi and non-Didi drivers. The news of Didi and BP’s joint venture comes one week after Didi announced that it had received funding totaling $600 million from Toyota Motor Corporation . As part of that deal, Didi and Toyota Motor set up a joint venture with GAC Toyota Motor to provide vehicle-related services to Didi drivers. BP’s first charging site in Guangzhou has already been connected to XAS (Xiaoju Automobile Solutions), which Didi spun out in April 2018 to put all its vehicle-related services into one platform. XAS is part of Didi Chuxing’s evolution from a ride-sharing company to a mobility services platform, with its services available to other car, transportation and logistics companies. In June, Didi also opened ...

Education software maker Pearson says data breach affected thousands of accounts in the U.S.

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Pearson , the London-based educational software maker, said today that thousands of school and university accounts, mostly in the United States, were affected by a data breach. The company added that it has notified affected users already and that the vulnerability has been fixed. The Wall Street Journal reports that the data breach happened in November 2018 and Pearson was notified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March. The perpetrator is still unknown. According to Pearson, unauthorized access was gained to 13,000 school and university accounts on AIMSweb, the company’s student monitoring and assessment platform. The data exposed included first and last names and, in some cases, date of birth and email addresses. Each account could potentially include information about thousands of students. Pearson added that it has no evidence that any of the exposed information was misused. It will offer free credit monitoring services to affected users as a “precautionary measure....

The “world’s largest internet restaurant company” quietly raised $125 million this month

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In May, venture capitalist Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital warned in a Financial Times column that Amazon’s recent $575 million investment in the London-based delivery service Deliveroo could prove ominous for local restaurants. Wrote Moritz: “Amazon is now one step away from becoming a multi-brand restaurant company — and that could mean doomsday for many dining haunts.” Moritz was right to attract more attention to the deal. Deliveroo has begun operating shared kitchens from which it will not simply transport food to customers but eventually prepare it, too . His warning may even have played a role in the recent decision of Britain’s competition regulator to halt work on Amazon’s investment so it can first investigate whether the deal poses competitive concerns. Moritz knows the playbook because of Sequoia’s early investment in Rebel Foods , formerly known as Faasos, a once-small Pune, India-based company that now prepares a variety of foods in its cloud kitchens. As he says...

Revolut launches stock trading in limited release

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Fintech startup Revolut is launching its stock trading feature today. It’s a Robinhood-like feature that lets you buy and sell shares without any commission. For now, the feature is limited to some Revolut customers with a Metal card. While Robinhood has completely changed the stock trading retail market in the U.S., buying shares hasn’t changed much in Europe. Revolut wants to make it easier to invest on the stock market. After topping up your Revolut account, you can buy and hold shares directly from the Revolut app. For now, the feature is limited to 300 U.S.-listed stocks on NASDAQ and NYSE. The company says that it plans to expand to U.K. and European stocks as well as Exchange Traded Funds. There’s no minimum limit on transactions, which means that you can buy fractional shares for $1 for instance. You can see real-time prices in the Revolut app. When it comes to fees, Revolut doesn’t charge any fee indeed, but with some caveats. The feature is currently limited to Revolut M...

Calling all hardware startups! Apply to Hardware Battlefield @ TC Shenzhen

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Got hardware? Well then, listen up, because our search continues for boundary-pushing, early-stage hardware startups to join us in Shenzhen, China for an epic opportunity; launch your startup on a global stage and compete in Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhen  on November 11-12. Apply here to compete in TC Hardware Battlefield 2019 . Why? It’s your chance to demo your product to the top investors and technologists in the world. Hardware Battlefield, cousin to Startup Battlefield , focuses exclusively on innovative hardware because, let’s face it, it’s the backbone of technology. From enterprise solutions to agtech advancements, medical devices to consumer product goods — hardware startups are in the international spotlight. If you make the cut, you’ll compete against 15 of the world’s most innovative hardware makers for bragging rights, plenty of investor love, media exposure and $25,000 in equity-free cash. Just participating in a Battlefield can change the whole trajectory of ...

Taking Nasa's space buggies for a spin

BBC Click's Spencer Kelly takes a ride in some in some of Nasa's latest vehicles. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/2STBh1q

Analysis: in Q2 2019, global smartphone shipments declined 1% YoY, making it the 7th consecutive quarter of declining shipments; Samsung shipments grew 7.1% YoY (Varun Mishra/Counterpoint Research)

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Varun Mishra / Counterpoint Research : Analysis: in Q2 2019, global smartphone shipments declined 1% YoY, making it the 7th consecutive quarter of declining shipments; Samsung shipments grew 7.1% YoY   —  Overall smartphone shipment declined 1% in Q2 2019, making it the seventh consecutive quarter of declining shipments. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2YCqgTf

After 6 months of fact-checking for Facebook, Full Fact published 96 fact-checks, was paid ~$171k, wants Facebook to share more data with fact-checkers (Laura Hazard Owen/Nieman Lab)

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Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab : After 6 months of fact-checking for Facebook, Full Fact published 96 fact-checks, was paid ~$171k, wants Facebook to share more data with fact-checkers   —  In December 2016, Facebook enlisted a handful of U.S.-based news organizations (ABC News, Snopes, PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and the AP) … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2GETDOS

Lyft has made its 1,000 e-bikes in San Francisco "unavailable to riders" following two reports of bikes catching fire (Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez/The San ...)

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Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez / The San Francisco Examiner : Lyft has made its 1,000 e-bikes in San Francisco “unavailable to riders” following two reports of bikes catching fire   —  The flames appear to have originated from the battery  —  The battery of an electric Lyft bicycle appeared to catch fire Wednesday in the Lower Haight. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2YtHqGX

Cisco pays $8.3m after whistleblower discloses security flaws in video surveillance system

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/2MvB0AL

Google to let G Suite admins select users for the Advanced Protection Program, designed to prevent cyberattacks against high-profile users, in the coming days (Liam Tung/ZDNet)

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Liam Tung / ZDNet : Google to let G Suite admins select users for the Advanced Protection Program, designed to prevent cyberattacks against high-profile users, in the coming days   —  You might never need to change your password again if you're part of the G Suite Advanced Protection Program. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2YAmXfk

Spotify hits 108M paying users and 232M overall, but its average revenue per user declines

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Spotify added 8 million subscribers in the quarter that ended in June, slightly below the estimated 8.5 million figure, the streaming giant reported today. The top music streamer said it had amassed 232 million monthly active users and 108 million paying subscribers at the end of June, up from 217 million users and 100 million subscribers in the quarter that ended in March . Monthly active users include paying subscribers and non-paying users. “We missed on subs… That’s on us,” the company said. Paying subscribers count includes users who are enjoying the 30-day trial Spotify offers. Additionally, Spotify recently kickstarted a biannual campaign, which offered customers access to the premium service for $1. This, among other factors, pushed its average revenue per user to €4.86 ($5.42) — down 1% since last quarter — the company said, adding that it expects the decline to continue in the low single digits for the rest of the year. In comparison, Apple Music had 60 million payin...