All posts by Adrian
3 ways startups can avoid costly data breaches
In 2019, companies like French beauty chain Sephora and Malaysian airline Malindo Air were hit by data breaches, which compromised their customers’ personal information. In a world where businesses use personal data to provide consumers with better and more targeted services, the prospect of this information falling into the wrong hands is an alarming one. […]
Top-Earning Video Gamers
The Ten Highest-Paid Players Pocketed More Than $120 Million In 2019. In the world of professional video games, winning isn’t everything. Fortnite phenom Tyler “Ninja” Blevins made $17 million last year, enough for first place on Forbes’ inaugural ranking of top-earning gamers, but the 28-year-old pro won less than $100,000 competing. In fact, Ninja didn’t […]
Amazon Music passes 55M customers, still lags behind Spotify and Apple
Amazon Music, the streaming music service from the e-commerce and cloud giant that competes against the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, announced a milestone in its growth today: it has passed 55 million customers across the six different pricing tiers that it offers for the service, ranging from $15 per month through to a […]
The Top 10 Facebook Stats for 2020
These venture bets on startups that “returned the fund,” making firms and careers, were the result of research, strong convictions, and patient follow-through. Here are the stories behind the biggest VC home runs of all time. While other social platforms rise and fall, Facebook, seemingly despite various controversies, has continued to add more daily and […]
ByteDance Readying Assault on Tencent’s Mobile Gaming Kingdom
ByteDance Inc. is preparing a major push into the mobile arena’s most lucrative market – a realm Tencent Holdings Ltd has dominated for over a decade. The world’s most valuable startup has rapidly built a full-fledged gaming division to spearhead its maiden foray into hardcore or non-casual games, according to people familiar with the matter. […]
Tencent to grow gaming empire with $148M acquisition of Conan publisher Funcom in Norway
Tencent, one of the world’s biggest video and online gaming companies by revenue, today made another move to help cement that position. The Chinese firm has made an offer to fully acquire Funcom, the games developer behind Conan Exiles (and others in the Conan franchise), Dune and some 28 other titles. The deal, when approved, […]
Amazon’s booming ad business grew by 40% in 2019
With plenty of runway ahead, Amazon quarterly ad revenues surpassed $4 billion for the first time in the fourth quarter. Amazon had anticipated a good holiday season, and it got it. The company reported $87.4 billion in net sales for the fourth quarter of 2019, up 21% from the same period the prior year. On […]
Everything You Need To Know About What Amazon Is Doing In Financial Services
From payments to lending to insurance to checking accounts, Amazon is attacking financial services from every angle without applying to be a conventional bank. In this report, we break down everything we know about Amazon’s foray into financial services, and where it’s rumored to be looking next. In 2017, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Alex Rampell […]
Chrome’s coming changes to video ad blocking could impact YouTube
Mid-roll ads of any length are deemed “intrusive” in updated Better Ads Standards. Google Chrome’s ad blocking efforts will soon extend to “intrusive” video ads in short-form videos. The browser will adopt the latest standards for video ads from the Coalition for Better Ads, announced Wednesday. The changes will apply to certain pre-roll, mid-roll and […]
Microsoft’s Xbox boss says Amazon and Google are ‘the main competitors going forward’
Sony and Nintendo aren’t the main competition in the cloud world. Microsoft’s head of gaming and Xbox, Phil Spencer, has revealed that the company sees Amazon and Google as its main competition for the future. Speaking in an interview with newly launched technology publication Protocol, Spencer dismisses Sony and Nintendo’s ability to create a cloud […]