10 Things In Tech You Need To Know Today (TWTR, AAPL, AMZN, GPRO, GOOG, TMUS, LG) | ||
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1. Twitter shares dropped 10% last night after it announced its Q3 earnings. Results were as expected, but investors still want more. 2. Apple has issued a statement addressing the retailers who are leaving its Apple Pay scheme. The company says Apple Pay is in 220,000 locations already. 3. Apple CEO Tim Cook warns that a "major event" may happen that will alert people to how much tech companies know about their lives. He thinks that it will cause people to think seriously about privacy. 4. Amazon has acquired online comedy business Rooftop Media. The company records comedians in US comedy clubs and streams the footage online. 5. GoPro shares were down 5% Monday. The company's Q3 earnings are coming on Thursday. SPONSORED BY: Four Points 6. Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized his home state of Alabama over its slow move to advance LGBT rights. He pointed out that the state still allows people to be fired for their sexual orientation. 7. Apple quietly hid an embarrassing error from its recent live stream. A typo has magically disappeared. 8. YouTube's CEO hinted last night at a premium subscription service. It would remove ads from YouTube. 9. T-Mobile had its biggest growth quarter in the company's history. It now has 52.9 million customers. 10. LG will stop manufacturing plasma televisions. Instead it's going to focus on LCD televisions. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Good morning! It looks set to be a relatively sunny day in New York and London. Here's the tech news you need to know today. Prepare For Even More Ads On YouTube — It’s Exploring Subscriptions (GOOG) | ||
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YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki confirmed at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference last night that the Google-owned video platform is exploring the launch of an ad-free subscription service. Re/code reports Wojcicki said: ”YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there’s going to be a point where people don’t want to see the ads” Just like Pandora and Spotify before it, there are just two options left on the table for users: you choose ads, or you choose to pay a fee to remove them. Wojcicki declined to offer details on when it might open up subscriptions, but did say she is “optimistic about seeing it soon.” The likely consequence of building in an ad-free subscription service is a higher ad load on the free service. In other words, just enough extra intrusive ads to tempt you into paying to remove them. YouTube does already offer a paid-for subscription service, but it’s not ad free. Last year YouTube let individual content creators sell subscriptions on to users at fees starting from $0.99 per month, for access to content like full episodes of Sesame Street or classic UFC fights. Wojcicki also used her appearance at the conference to reveal that half of all YouTube views now come from mobile devices and that watch time is growing at a rate of 50% year on year. Google has always been cagey about revealing how much of an impact YouTube has on its financials, and does not split out income from the video service in its quarterly results. Research firm eMarketer has estimated YouTube generated $5.6 billion in gross ad revenue last year — which would equal 9.7% of the $57.86 billion in revenue the company reported for the fiscal year 2013. SEE ALSO: Google Just Confirmed It's Coming After TV's Money Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 Things In Advertising You Need To Know Today | ||
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Here's everything you need to know before you step into your first meeting. 1. YouTube has confirmed it is exploring the launch of an ad-free subscription service. The rollout could be a boon for advertisers, as YouTube would likely ramp up the ad load on the free service to tempt users into upgrading. 2. Twitter beat its Q3 revenue expectations, but its stock has tanked as user growth has slowed. CEO Dick Costolo did not provide much by way of advertising news in the earnings call, but said the company is continuing its strategy of improving the on-boarding user registration process and is looking to do better to monetize its logged out userbase. 3. McDonald’s is preparing a big ad push that will include the new tagline “Lovin’ Beats Hatin,’” according to the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today. The marketing campaign will also reportedly include a 60-second spot during Super Bowl XLIX. 4. Oreo has launched a cute Tim Burton-style online push for Halloween, Adweek reports. The campaign will see the Mondelez cookie brand create a new monster — or “nomster” — every day in the lead up to Halloween, which it will showcase via bite-size online videos. 5. Coca-Cola is launching its follow up to Share A Coke in Australia (where the Share A Coke campaign originated), according to AdNews. The drinks maker is introducing pink, purple, blue, green and orange cans (alongside some new-look trademark Coke red cans) and investing millions in a marketing push. 6. Chelsea FC has named former Liverpool FC managing director Christian Purslow as its first commercial director, Marketing Week reports. Purslow will be responsible for finalizing the deal for the club’s shirt sponsor next season, with Turkish Airlines reportedly poised to replace Samsung. 7. Break out the champagne: the banner ad has turned 20-years-old! AdAge takes a look back at the “polarizing” ad unit’s biggest moments. 8. Nissan-owned Infiniti has handed creative agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky its largest ever account as the agency expands into China, The Drum reports. The account, previously handled by TBWA, will see Crispin Porter & Bogusky expand into Shanghai as a result. 9. AdExchanger has interviewed Lindsay Pattison, the recently-appointed global CEO of WPP media agency Maxus. She says the US is one of the biggest opportunities for the media agency’s growth. 10. Fresh from the announcement earlier this month that Publicis was taking a 20% stake in Matomy Media Group, Matomy has acquired European programmatic ad platform MobFox for $17.6 million. MobFox has a revenue run-rate of around $16 million for 2014, which is expected to contribute around 20% of Israel-based Matomy’s global revenue for FY2014. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 Things In Tech You Need To Know Today (TWTR, AAPL, AMZN, GPRO, GOOG, TMUS, LG) | ||
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1. Twitter shares dropped 10% last night after it announced its Q3 earnings. Results were as expected, but investors still want more. 2. Apple has issued a statement addressing the retailers who are leaving its Apple Pay scheme. The company says Apple Pay is in 220,000 locations already. 3. Apple CEO Tim Cook warns that a "major event" may happen that will alert people to how much tech companies know about their lives. He thinks that it will cause people to think seriously about privacy. 4. Amazon has acquired online comedy business Rooftop Media. The company records comedians in US comedy clubs and streams the footage online. 5. GoPro shares were down 5% Monday. The company's Q3 earnings are coming on Thursday. SPONSORED BY: Four Points 6. Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized his home state of Alabama over its slow move to advance LGBT rights. He pointed out that the state still allows people to be fired for their sexual orientation. 7. Apple quietly hid an embarrassing error from its recent live stream. A typo has magically disappeared. 8. YouTube's CEO hinted last night at a premium subscription service. It would remove ads from YouTube. 9. T-Mobile had its biggest growth quarter in the company's history. It now has 52.9 million customers. 10. LG will stop manufacturing plasma televisions. Instead it's going to focus on LCD televisions. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Prepare For Even More Ads On YouTube — It’s Exploring Subscriptions (GOOG) | ||
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YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki confirmed at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference last night that the Google-owned video platform is exploring the launch of an ad-free subscription service. Re/code reports Wojcicki said: ”YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there’s going to be a point where people don’t want to see the ads” Just like Pandora and Spotify before it, there are just two options left on the table for users: you choose ads, or you choose to pay a fee to remove them. Wojcicki declined to offer details on when it might open up subscriptions, but did say she is “optimistic about seeing it soon.” The likely consequence of building in an ad-free subscription service is a higher ad load on the free service. In other words, just enough extra intrusive ads to tempt you into paying to remove them. YouTube does already offer a paid-for subscription service, but it’s not ad free. Last year YouTube let individual content creators sell subscriptions on to users at fees starting from $0.99 per month, for access to content like full episodes of Sesame Street or classic UFC fights. Wojcicki also used her appearance at the conference to reveal that half of all YouTube views now come from mobile devices and that watch time is growing at a rate of 50% year on year. Google has always been cagey about revealing how much of an impact YouTube has on its financials, and does not split out income from the video service in its quarterly results. Research firm eMarketer has estimated YouTube generated $5.6 billion in gross ad revenue last year — which would equal 9.7% of the $57.86 billion in revenue the company reported for the fiscal year 2013. SEE ALSO: Google Just Confirmed It's Coming After TV's Money Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Toronto 'Crack Mayor' Wins Seat On The City Council | ||
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The scandal-plagued former mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, easily won his old seat on the city council, the Toronto Star reports. Ford's term as mayor was plagued with scandal ever since a video of him smoking crack surfaced last year. Still, he had every intention of running for mayor until cancer forced him to quit the mayoral race in September, according to the Star. Despite the scandals, Ford handily won election to Toronto's Ward 2, which he previously represented for a decade. The LA Times reported that he won 60% of the vote. Still, it was not a great day for all of the Fords. Rob's brother, Doug, lost the race for mayor. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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