An investment bank made this epic presentation on the future of digital media | ||
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Investment banker Terrence Kawaja, founder and CEO of LUMA Partners, the company famed for its LUMAscapes, has a new, epic presentation on the state of digital media. It takes a specific focus on digital media and marketing. The central themes are around "open" platforms versus "closed" ones. The top 5 trends LUMA picks out for 2015 and beyond are: Programmatic, mobile, omnichannel/personalization, identity, and convergent TV. Here we go! LUMA's commentary is on the bottom of each slide.   See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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The most innovative company in the world - as ranked by patents - isn't actually Apple | ||
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It is frequently said that Apple is the most innovative company on earth because its staff file more patents than any other company. Some years, that is actually true. But not any more. This year, there are 10 companies that have filed more patents than Apple. Sqoop indexes new patent applications and grants as they are published by the United States Patent Office. It has pulled together a list of the companies that have applied for the most patents, and received the most grants, from the USPTO so far this year. What is surprising is that while Apple is often lauded for its innovation, it isn't applying for, or being granted, the most patents. IBM has been granted the most patents this year, having won 3,059 at the end of May. (Yes, that IBM, the big, old, enterprise tech company that everyone thought was being left in the dust by the newcomers of Silcon valley.) Samsung comes second, with 3,052 patents granted. That will help the company fight the myth that it merely copies Apple. Canon is third with 1,782. Apple is at No.11, having been granted 780 patents this year, and Google is at No.5, followed by Sony and Microsoft. Here are the top 40 companies by number of patents granted in 2015: 1. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) – 3059 2. Samsung – 3052 3. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha – 1782 4. LG – 1263 5. Google – 1083 6. Sony Corporation – 1074 7. Microsoft – 1037 8. Qualcomm Incorporated – 1034 9. Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba – 1022 10. Panasonic – 896 11. Apple – 780 12. General Electric Company – 730 13. Intel Corporation – 711 14. Ricoh Company – 695 15. Seiko Epson Corporation – 625 16. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – 620 17. Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha – 613 18 Fujitsu Limited — 570 19. GM Global Technology Operations – 542 20 Hewlett-Packard Development Company – 531 21. Telefonaktiebolaget L.M. Ericsson – 509 22. Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha – 486 23. BlackBerry – 461 24. Broadcom Corporation – 454 25. Semiconductor Energy Laboratory – 451 26 Robert Bosch GmbH – 436 27. Honda Motor Co. – 417 28. Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha – 410 29 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. – 408 30. Amazon Technologies – 391 31. The Boeing Company – 391 32 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft – 388 33 –Micron Technology, Inc. 371 34. Covidien LP – 370 35. Ford Global Technologies – 359 36 Cisco Technology – 353 37 AT&T Intellectual Property – 351 38. Nec Corporation – 336 39. Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute – 327 4o. SK Hynix Inc. – 323 But Samsung has actually applied for the most patents in 2015, coming in at No.1 on Sqoop's list with 2,487. IBM is at No.2, having applied for 1,764, and Toshiba is at No.3 with 989. On this list, Apple is all the way down at No.23, having only applied for 279 patents up until the end of May 2015. Here are the top 40 companies by number of patents applied for in 2015: 1. Samsung – 2487 2. International Business Machines Corporation – 1764 3. Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba – 989 4. LG – 856 5. General Electric Company – 664 6. Qualcomm Incorporated – 617 7. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – 561 8. Sony Corporation – 528 9. Hyundai Motor Company – 514 10. Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha – 462 11. Google – 439 12. Ford Global Technologies – 437 13. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation – 436 14. Microsoft – 383 15. Fujitsu Limited – 373 16. SK Hynix – 333 17. Ricoh Company – 330 18. Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson – 330 19. Hon Hai Precision Industry – 323 20. GM Global Technology Operations – 296 21. Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute – 293 22. FUJIFILM – 282 23. Apple – 279 24. Broadcom Corporation – 252 5. Cisco – 254 26. Xerox Corporation – 254 27. The Boeing Company – 253 28. Siemens Aktiengesellschaft – 243 29. AT&T Intellectual Property – 242 30. Robert Bosch GmbH – 236 31. Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha – 234 32. Honda Motor Co. – 214 33. Fuji Xerox Co. – 213 34. NEC Corporation – 195 35. Oracle International Corporation – 194 36. Wistron Corporation – 193 37. Baker Hughes Incorporated – 193 38. Verizon Patent and Licensing – 161 39. Nvidia Corporation – 161 40. Bank Of America Corporation – 160 Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 5 cool tricks your iPhone can do with the latest iOS update  | ||
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30 million people across the world are watching video gamers in London compete for prizes up to £32,000 | ||
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If you ever doubted that video games could be a spectator sport, here's the stat to prove you wrong — gaming tournament organiser Gfinity says over 30 million people around the world have watched its 2015 eSports championships. Gfinity is a company that puts on video game tournaments in a converted cinema screen in West London each week. The world's top video game teams — yes, that's a thing — battle each other on titles like "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," "FIFA 15," "Counter Strike: Global Offensives," and "Starcraft." The "eSports" games are streamed live online for free, but you can buy tickets to watch in person. Millions of online viewers are watching competitors play in the same way one would watch football or rugby on television. The main screen shows the video game, while the actual player is displayed in a small box in the corner of the screen. The 30 million viewers mark comes just half way through the season, which runs from March to September. Gfinity flies in teams from around the world to compete at its "eSports arena" and so far this year "crews" or "squads" who have competed include OpTic, Denial, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic, and Team EnVyUs — all well known in the eSports world. Each specialises in a particular video game and prizes for events reach up to $50,000 (£32,300). There are 25 weekly tournaments.
Gfinity, which listed on London's stock market for small companies AIM last year, is hoping to turn its eSports season into a fixture of the sporting calendar like the Premier League or tennis opens. The company announced today that Jon Varney, the former commercial director of Premiership Rugby, has joined Gfinity's board. Gfinity's CEO and co-founder Neville Upton say in today's statement: "We have delivered excellent levels of viewership in the first half of our first season as an AIM company. It means we are now on track to beat the viewership target we set ourselves for the 2015 season." The company was originally hoping for 50 million viewers. Upton says: "The progress made thus far reflects both the rapid growth in popularity of eSports and our ability to deliver compelling eSports events and content sought-after by a young, global audience, which is otherwise difficult to reach by advertisers and consumer brands."
eSports is worth $621 million globally, according to a recent industry report, with a worldwide audience of 134 million. Korea and China are the biggest markets for video game viewing, followed by North America. Last year, Amazon paid $970 million for video game streaming site Twitch and even ESPN has started coverage of video games. Gfinity said today the majority of its views are on Twitch. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone  | ||
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This chart from a leaked letter to investors reveals how staggering Uber's growth is | ||
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A leaked letter to investors from Uber reveals the company's expansion in China is going very, very well. In the letter, first obtained by The Financial Times, Travis Kalanick asks investors for more cash to fund further expansion in the country. To back up his appeal, he provides some stunning metrics on just how fast the ride-sharing service is growing. Four of Uber's 10 most popular cities are now in China, with Guanghzhou, Hangzhou, and Chengdu taking the top three spots. And cities are seeing far, far faster growth than launches did in equivalent cities around the world in the same timeframe. Nine months after launch, Uber is enjoying 479 times more trips in Chengdu than it saw in New York after the same length of time. A graph included in the letter best illustrates just how meteoric Uber's rise in China has been:
The above graph plots the number of monthly trips against months since launch for various cities across the globe. Red lines are Chinese cities, and blue lines are everywhere else. It shows a growth within the country unlike anything Uber has seen anywhere else in the world. Even new cities not in China aren't enjoying similar levels of growth. The short lighter blue lines indicate newer non-Chinese cities, and while they are growing faster than earlier launches did, it's still nowhere on the same level. Of course, it hasn't all been plain sailing for Uber in China. In May, its Guangzhou offices were raided by the police. And drivers have previously been fined, and even had their vehicles confiscated, as the company disrupts the largely state-owned established taxi industry. But the scale of the growth Uber is seeing makes it clear why the company isn't being put off. Kalanick says that "to put it frankly, China represents one of the largest untapped opportunities for Uber, potentially larger than the US." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Uber has a new ad that promises to change everything about the food delivery game  | ||
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We interviewed Jack Dorsey and Dick Costolo. Here's what they had to say ... (TWTR) | ||
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In something of a surprise, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced on Thursday afternoon that he would be stepping down as CEO effective July 1. In his place, Twitter founder and board member Jack Dorsey will become interim CEO. I got on the phone to talk with them about why Costolo is stepping down now and what Dorsey plans to do. Based on my conversation with them, it sounds as if Dorsey is interested in being CEO of Twitter full time. I asked him directly, twice, whether he wanted to be full-time CEO. And he didn't say no. He just said he was focused on his job as interim CEO. "I'm not focused on that question at all," Dorsey said. "I'm focused on making sure we continue our momentum and to amplify what we're doing." For what it's worth, The New York Times reported: "Ever since his ouster in 2008, Mr. Dorsey has wanted to return to the helm of Twitter, according to two people with knowledge of his thinking." It would make perfect sense for Dorsey to become CEO. He founded the company, and he has always aspired to be the leader of a big consumer-focused technology company, a la Steve Jobs. He's the CEO of Square, but that has pivoted to be more of a small-business-focused company. As for Costolo, he says he is ready to move on. He said he put together a great team that was clicking and felt as if the company was never in a better position. "There's never going to be a perfect time," he said. "And I decided at the end of last year that the important thing to do was get the team into a robust and stable place, with a strategy in place that we loved and were executing against." While that may be true, Costolo was under a lot of pressure as CEO. Twitter's user-growth rate had slowed, and the company missed revenue estimates last quarter. Twitter has 300 million monthly active users, which is sizable but is dwarfed by Facebook, which has 1.4 billion active users. Instagram has over 300 million monthly users. With Snapchat gaining fast on Twitter, it's not hard to see a world in which Twitter is suddenly the fourth or fifth option for advertisers looking to spend money on social media. Investors were growing impatient with Costolo, which probably quickened his departure. While Costolo is ending on a rocky note, the truth is he did a good job in his time as CEO. As he said to me, he took a company with no revenue, valued at $1 billion, and helped steer it to billions in revenue, a $24 billion valuation, and a successful IPO.
Here's the full transcript: Business Insider: Dick, on the call before, you said you started having these conversations with the board at the end of last year. And then it picked up some more steam around February, and then you decided to make it public. Can you give me any insight into what the thinking was, what precipitated this at the end of last year that caused you start thinking about moving on? Dick Costolo: Yeah, I told a few, a couple of members of the board at the end of last year. At the time, I only talked to a couple of them, and said, next year, if we feel like the team is really in the right place and we're executing the strategy and doing the things we said we're going to do, I want to start thinking about what's next in life for me. So let's keep an eye on that and check back in in the February board meeting and see where we are. Then that was on the heels of our analyst day investor conference in November, where we were all, as a leadership team, getting excited about the way that strategy was coming together, the way the team was starting to gel. And I remember Kevin Weil at that conference got up, and said, and boldly declared, you're going to see a pace of execution from us early next year that you haven’t seen from the company before. And people were taken aback by that, but that was the kind of confidence that we were starting to have in the team. At the February board meeting, after the board meeting, I got together with more of the directors in the immediate aftermath of that. And said, “I think we all now really like the way the team is working together. I sure do. They’re forward right with each other, they engage directly with each other in debate, they solve problems together, there are no sharp elbows.” Not only that, Alex and Kevin on engineering and product are starting to build up a next level of leadership underneath them. This was a conversation that you and I had even had a month before at CES. So I was excited about the progress we were making, and said, listen, at the summer board meeting in June, when we’re, trying to come to some to figure out where we are, and if we still feel great about this, then let’s move forward. That meeting was last week. And in the aftermath of the board meeting, we all, the board sat around the table for a few hours and had this discussion and, stuff like, the team has never been stronger, ever. The org is stable and robust and the pace of execution and quality of execution against a clear strategy that we all believe in has never been better. And on the heels of Fabric’s immense growth in its last year and our Periscope acquisition that’s working so well, there’s not going to be a better time than this to move forward with this transition. BI: The story of Twitter has been one of upheaval, turmoil, and change. If you believe the team is strong, things are gelling, doesn’t that throw it all asunder? You’re bringing in someone new. Doesn’t that put a lot of pressure and stress and more shakeups into a team that’s had a lot of that through the years? DC: Well that would be true if it was someone from the outside, but we have the benefit of Jack being the chairman of the board, the inventor of the product, and a cofounder. He’s already a visible leader within the company, he speaks to the company and in company events both in the US and abroad with some frequency. There’s no one better than him to lead the company through a transition like that. He’s close to my entire leadership team. I felt the scrutiny of the company would intensify if I remained CEO while we kicked off a process like this. As such, we all felt it would be a distraction to the company, and we didn’t think it was in anyone’s interest to have that distraction. So bringing Jack in while we embark on this process to give the board the search committee of the board the time and space to do this with the right person leading the company. BI: That would make sense if Jack was sticking around. Jack, do you want to be the CEO? The New York Times is reporting, according to people familiar with you, that you have angled to be more prominent, you’ve longed to be returning to Twitter and run it. So is "interim" just a thing to hold us, or are you really just interim? Jack Dorsey: My focus is on interim, and my focus is on making sure we continue our momentum around all of our products and initiatives. And that we continue our pace of delivery, and facilitating a smooth transition as the board conducts a search for a permanent CEO. We do have a search committee comprised of Peter Currie, Peter Fenton, and our cofounder Evan Williams, and we’re going to take the time to pick and choose the right CEO for the company. I’m not focused on that question at all. I’m focused on making sure we continue our momentum and to amplify what we’re doing. BI: Do you want to be the permanent CEO? JD: Again, I’m not going to answer that because it’s not my focus, it's not what I’m thinking about, I have enough to focus on. BI: I’m curious: If the momentum is great and everything’s good and the strategy is not going to change, then why do this now? What about this job did you not want to do anymore that you decided to make this change? DC: It’s not that. I came to Twitter in August of 2009. I was asked to come in as the COO. There was only about 60 people here, tens of millions of users, one office, zero dollars in revenue, valued at $1 billion. We were just doing a round as I got to the company that Insight Venture Partners led that valued the company at a billion dollars. It’s grown to $24 billion, or whatever it is today, 4,000-some people, hundreds of millions of users, and dozens of offices around the world. I’ve accomplished, you know, an extraordinary amount, and despite all that there are still way more items on my list of hopes and dreams and potential for the company. It’s never gonna be — and for no great leader it should ever be — completely the case that you have more accomplishments than you have hopes and dreams for the company. There’s never gonna be a perfect time. And I decided at the end of last year that the important thing to do was get the team into a robust and stable place, with a strategy in place that we loved and were executing against. And adding into all that the ability to have been able to have brought Periscope into the company, one of the most compelling, new, powerful native mobile video apps that’s really off to the races. I just thought I wasn’t going to find a more perfect time than this. BI: In the Valley there’s a fixation on founder-led companies. One of the criticisms you got a lot, Dick, was that you didn’t have the vision for the product, and the vision for where to take this product and where to take this company. Jack you’re going to step in and execute that. Do you feel like you have a better idea as the founder of this company, the person who had originally had to sort of take it to the next level and see where this product can go? JD: I’m coming into the company as interim CEO with a strategy and a direction that Dick’s set forth with his team, and I believe in that. So I don’t consider it founder and nonfounder — it’s really about the direction, and I am extremely confident in it. BI: Dick, want to tell us what you think about Chris Sacca and what he’s been saying lately? DC: You know what, I think that it’s great that we work at a company that people are so passionate about. If we didn’t, that would be a terrible thing. It’s because of Twitter’s role in the world, its potential, remarkable social, socioeconomic, and cultural, global impact that people feel so strongly about it and they have very specific ideas about what should be done. Everybody should be working at a company like that. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 3 people Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer leans on for advice  | ||
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These 3 charts show Britain's young people are giving up alcohol | ||
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Young people in the UK are drinking less and less booze, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics. Twenty-percent of 16-24 year olds said they were teetotallers in 2013, the latest year the ONS gives data for. That's the highest proportion in eight years and the same percentage of non-alcohol drinkers as in the 65 and over age group.
The proportion of young people binge drinking, i.e. drinking a lot of alcohol in one session, is also falling steadily as shown by the graph below.
Binge drinking among young people was a major issue in the mid-2000s but efforts to crackdown on it and educate people on its dangers appear to have worked. Finally, the percentage of 16-24 year olds drinking frequently, which means drinking on five or more days a week, is also falling.
You can see the full binge drinking release here. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Two models in Russia just posed with a 1,400-pound bear  | ||
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An investment bank made this epic presentation on the future of digital media | ||
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Investment banker Terrence Kawaja, founder and CEO of LUMA Partners, the company famed for its LUMAscapes, has a new, epic presentation on the state of digital media. It takes a specific focus on digital media and marketing. The central themes are around "open" platforms versus "closed" ones. The top 5 trends LUMA picks out for 2015 and beyond are: Programmatic, mobile, omnichannel/personalization, identity, and convergent TV. Here we go! LUMA's commentary is on the bottom of each slide. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Interpol suspends 20mn-euro deal with FIFA after scandal | ||
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Lyon (AFP) - International police body Interpol on Friday announced it was suspending a 10-year partnership deal with FIFA worth 20 million euros ($22 mn) following a corruption probe into football's world governing body. Interpol boss Juergen Stock said he was suspending the deal set up in May 2011 to create a 10-year "Integrity in Sport" programme.
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WHO to hold MERS emergency meeting next week | ||
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Geneva (AFP) - The World Health Organization said Friday it would call an emergency meeting next week on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the death toll from the virus rises in South Korea. South Korea has suffered the largest outbreak of the virus outside Saudi Arabia. A 72-year-old woman became the latest fatality on Friday after being infected by a MERS patient at a hospital, the health ministry said, taking the death toll in the country to 11. So far, 126 cases have been recorded in South Korea since May 20 when the first case surfaced. Currently, 3,680 people are under quarantine. A total of 1,249 people have been released from quarantine. WHO's "emergency committee will meet" to discuss the crisis, spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva, without specifying a date. He stressed that "the number of new cases is decreasing," but warned: "we have to monitor the situation." The committee will determine whether the current outbreak "constitutes a global health emergency crisis," he said. MERS symptoms range from flu-like aches and pains to pneumonia and kidney failure. The virus is considered a deadlier cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which appeared in 2003 and killed more than 800 around the world. Globally, some 1,200 people have been infected with MERS and some 450 have died since the virus first emerged in 2012. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The most innovative company in the world - as ranked by patents - isn't actually Apple | ||
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It is frequently said that Apple is the most innovative company on earth because its staff file more patents than any other company. Some years, that is actually true. But not any more. This year, there are 10 companies that have filed more patents than Apple. Sqoop indexes new patent applications and grants as they are published by the United States Patent Office. It has pulled together a list of the companies that have applied for the most patents, and received the most grants, from the USPTO so far this year. What is surprising is that while Apple is often lauded for its innovation, it isn't applying for, or being granted, the most patents. IBM has been granted the most patents this year, having won 3,059 at the end of May. (Yes, that IBM, the big, old, enterprise tech company that everyone thought was being left in the dust by the newcomers of Silcon valley.) Samsung comes second, with 3,052 patents granted. That will help the company fight the myth that it merely copies Apple. Canon is third with 1,782. Apple is at No.11, having been granted 780 patents this year, and Google is at No.5, followed by Sony and Microsoft. Here are the top 40 companies by number of patents granted in 2015: 1. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) – 3059 2. Samsung – 3052 3. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha – 1782 4. LG – 1263 5. Google – 1083 6. Sony Corporation – 1074 7. Microsoft – 1037 8. Qualcomm Incorporated – 1034 9. Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba – 1022 10. Panasonic – 896 11. Apple – 780 12. General Electric Company – 730 13. Intel Corporation – 711 14. Ricoh Company – 695 15. Seiko Epson Corporation – 625 16. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – 620 17. Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha – 613 18 Fujitsu Limited — 570 19. GM Global Technology Operations – 542 20 Hewlett-Packard Development Company – 531 21. Telefonaktiebolaget L.M. Ericsson – 509 22. Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha – 486 23. BlackBerry – 461 24. Broadcom Corporation – 454 25. Semiconductor Energy Laboratory – 451 26 Robert Bosch GmbH – 436 27. Honda Motor Co. – 417 28. Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha – 410 29 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. – 408 30. Amazon Technologies – 391 31. The Boeing Company – 391 32 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft – 388 33 –Micron Technology, Inc. 371 34. Covidien LP – 370 35. Ford Global Technologies – 359 36 Cisco Technology – 353 37 AT&T Intellectual Property – 351 38. Nec Corporation – 336 39. Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute – 327 4o. SK Hynix Inc. – 323 But Samsung has actually applied for the most patents in 2015, coming in at No.1 on Sqoop's list with 2,487. IBM is at No.2, having applied for 1,764, and Toshiba is at No.3 with 989. On this list, Apple is all the way down at No.23, having only applied for 279 patents up until the end of May 2015. Here are the top 40 companies by number of patents applied for in 2015: 1. Samsung – 2487 2. International Business Machines Corporation – 1764 3. Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba – 989 4. LG – 856 5. General Electric Company – 664 6. Qualcomm Incorporated – 617 7. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – 561 8. Sony Corporation – 528 9. Hyundai Motor Company – 514 10. Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha – 462 11. Google – 439 12. Ford Global Technologies – 437 13. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation – 436 14. Microsoft – 383 15. Fujitsu Limited – 373 16. SK Hynix – 333 17. Ricoh Company – 330 18. Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson – 330 19. Hon Hai Precision Industry – 323 20. GM Global Technology Operations – 296 21. Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute – 293 22. FUJIFILM – 282 23. Apple – 279 24. Broadcom Corporation – 252 5. Cisco – 254 26. Xerox Corporation – 254 27. The Boeing Company – 253 28. Siemens Aktiengesellschaft – 243 29. AT&T Intellectual Property – 242 30. Robert Bosch GmbH – 236 31. Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha – 234 32. Honda Motor Co. – 214 33. Fuji Xerox Co. – 213 34. NEC Corporation – 195 35. Oracle International Corporation – 194 36. Wistron Corporation – 193 37. Baker Hughes Incorporated – 193 38. Verizon Patent and Licensing – 161 39. Nvidia Corporation – 161 40. Bank Of America Corporation – 160 Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 5 cool tricks your iPhone can do with the latest iOS update  | ||
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Four Westerners plead guilty over nude photos on Malaysia peak | ||
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Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia) (AFP) - Four Western tourists pleaded guilty in a Malaysian court Friday to obscenity charges over nude photos taken at the summit of Mount Kinabalu, an act some in the country blame for causing a deadly earthquake. The defendants -- Eleanor Hawkins of Britain, 24, Dutchman Dylan Snel, 23, and Canadian brother and sister Lindsey Petersen, 23, and Danielle Petersen, 22 -- entered their pleas in a court in Kota Kinabalu, capital of the state of Sabah. Sentences were not immediately handed down but court officials have said they were expected on Friday. The four were charged with committing an "obscene act in a public place," which carries a possible jail term of three months or a fine. The 4,095-meter (13,435-foot) peak, a World Heritage Site and popular climbing destination, is considered sacred to tribal groups on Borneo where it is located, and Malaysians were incensed after the photos taken May 30 appeared on the Internet. Those charged were among a larger group of tourists believed by authorities to have taken part in the nude photo spree. The defendants were hustled into court through a media gauntlet including reporters from Britain who arrived in the sleepy state capital to cover the Hawkins case. The two women were handcuffed together, as were the men. All four looked nervous as they arrived. The charges read out to the court said the nudists challenged each other to take off their clothes to see who could withstand the summit's chilly air, ignoring the admonishments of their local mountain guide. The court was told the two men stripped completely nude while the two woman went topless. All four quickly stated "guilty' when asked to enter a plea. Police told AFP on Friday that they were still seeking five other suspects but that some were thought to have already left Sabah. Some have suggested the act angered tribal spirits believed to dwell on the mountain, causing a strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake on June 5 that left 18 people dead. Indecent exposure and other acts considered obscene are strongly frowned upon in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Tim Hawkins, the father of Eleanor, had released a statement saying he had spoken to his daughter, who was "obviously quite scared and upset." "She knows what she did was stupid and disrespectful and is very sorry for the offence that she has caused the Malaysian people," he said. "She has never been in any sort of trouble before. We hope that the Malaysian authorities deal with the misdemeanour and not link it to the unfortunate tragic events that occurred the following week." The foreigners were arrested earlier this week in the wake of the earthquake. Following the quake, Malaysian social media users began to direct increasing anger at the nudists. Last Saturday, Sabah's deputy chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan and other officials also suggested the quake may have been due to the naked romp at the peak. "This is very offensive behaviour and showed disrespect to the sacred mountain…This will certainly bring misfortune," he had told reporters. "We can't play with the spirit of the sacred mountain." The rare quake sent rocks and boulders raining down just as more than 150 hikers were at the peak enjoying sunrise views. The 18 dead included seven schoolchildren from Singapore, along with two of their teachers and another adult who were on a school excursion to the mountain.
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30 million people across the world are watching video gamers in London compete for prizes up to £32,000 | ||
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If you ever doubted that video games could be a spectator sport, here's the stat to prove you wrong — gaming tournament organiser Gfinity says over 30 million people around the world have watched its 2015 eSports championships. Gfinity is a company that puts on video game tournaments in a converted cinema screen in West London each week. The world's top video game teams — yes, that's a thing — battle each other on titles like "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," "FIFA 15," "Counter Strike: Global Offensives," and "Starcraft." The "eSports" games are streamed live online for free, but you can buy tickets to watch in person. Millions of online viewers are watching competitors play in the same way one would watch football or rugby on television. The main screen shows the video game, while the actual player is displayed in a small box in the corner of the screen. The 30 million viewers mark comes just half way through the season, which runs from March to September. Gfinity flies in teams from around the world to compete at its "eSports arena" and so far this year "crews" or "squads" who have competed include OpTic, Denial, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic, and Team EnVyUs — all well known in the eSports world. Each specialises in a particular video game and prizes for events reach up to $50,000 (£32,300). There are 25 weekly tournaments.
Gfinity, which listed on London's stock market for small companies AIM last year, is hoping to turn its eSports season into a fixture of the sporting calendar like the Premier League or tennis opens. The company announced today that Jon Varney, the former commercial director of Premiership Rugby, has joined Gfinity's board. Gfinity's CEO and co-founder Neville Upton say in today's statement: "We have delivered excellent levels of viewership in the first half of our first season as an AIM company. It means we are now on track to beat the viewership target we set ourselves for the 2015 season." The company was originally hoping for 50 million viewers. Upton says: "The progress made thus far reflects both the rapid growth in popularity of eSports and our ability to deliver compelling eSports events and content sought-after by a young, global audience, which is otherwise difficult to reach by advertisers and consumer brands."
eSports is worth $621 million globally, according to a recent industry report, with a worldwide audience of 134 million. Korea and China are the biggest markets for video game viewing, followed by North America. Last year, Amazon paid $970 million for video game streaming site Twitch and even ESPN has started coverage of video games. Gfinity said today the majority of its views are on Twitch. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone  | ||
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This chart from a leaked letter to investors reveals how staggering Uber's growth is | ||
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A leaked letter to investors from Uber reveals the company's expansion in China is going very, very well. In the letter, first obtained by The Financial Times, Travis Kalanick asks investors for more cash to fund further expansion in the country. To back up his appeal, he provides some stunning metrics on just how fast the ride-sharing service is growing. Four of Uber's 10 most popular cities are now in China, with Guanghzhou, Hangzhou, and Chengdu taking the top three spots. And cities are seeing far, far faster growth than launches did in equivalent cities around the world in the same timeframe. Nine months after launch, Uber is enjoying 479 times more trips in Chengdu than it saw in New York after the same length of time. A graph included in the letter best illustrates just how meteoric Uber's rise in China has been:
The above graph plots the number of monthly trips against months since launch for various cities across the globe. Red lines are Chinese cities, and blue lines are everywhere else. It shows a growth within the country unlike anything Uber has seen anywhere else in the world. Even new cities not in China aren't enjoying similar levels of growth. The short lighter blue lines indicate newer non-Chinese cities, and while they are growing faster than earlier launches did, it's still nowhere on the same level. Of course, it hasn't all been plain sailing for Uber in China. In May, its Guangzhou offices were raided by the police. And drivers have previously been fined, and even had their vehicles confiscated, as the company disrupts the largely state-owned established taxi industry. But the scale of the growth Uber is seeing makes it clear why the company isn't being put off. Kalanick says that "to put it frankly, China represents one of the largest untapped opportunities for Uber, potentially larger than the US." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Uber has a new ad that promises to change everything about the food delivery game  | ||
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