Facebook Messenger is making it easier for companies to do their business on its platform. The company unveiled Messenger Platform 2.1 on Thursday, which will make it simpler for business to use its bots and conduct sales and customer service tasks. Facebook is working on ways to encourage businesses to use the platform, which can […]
Read moreAs measured by one key number, Facebook CFO David Wehner made Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat look like a profligate spender in the second quarter. Facebook’s second quarter operating margin, or the percentage of revenue left after deducting expenses, was 47.2 percent. That was far better than Alphabet’s margin of 26.4 percent. (The Alphabet figure excludes […]
Read moreFoxconn Technology Group Chairman Terry Gou announced from the White House Wednesday that the company will spend $10 billion to create a Wisconsin plant that will create many display panels and jobs. That sounds great but represents both good news and bad news. Let’s start with the good news. First, the deal will create thousands […]
Read moreNetflix and Amazon shows may not have commercials, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have advertising. Almost all Amazon shows have at least one product placement, and about 74 percent of Netflix do, said Greg Isaacs, chief product and marketing officer at integration company Branded Entertainment Network (BEN). BEN, which is owned by Bill Gates, […]
Read moreFor all the folks who didn’t believe Amazon would further encroach on the fashion industry: you’re wrong. Amazon on Tuesday debuted a new private-label shoe and handbag line, called The Fix. For now, the line is only available to Amazon Prime members, but anyone can browse the product offerings on Amazon’s website. From the looks […]
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Trending up: Gucci captures millennial to help Kering unveil more eye-catching results
The revamp of classic high-end fashion brands including Gucci and Balenciaga has helped French parent Kering deliver a stellar set of results for the first half of the year, with scion Francois-Henri Pinault telling CNBC that the company’s success is not as fickle as fashion itself. “What we did is that we transformed this business […]
Read moreFor the past six months, Twitter has been selling investors on a user growth metric it didn’t used to care much about: Daily active users. That’s the same metric Snapchat and Facebook use, and one that has become more popular among social companies than the more traditional “monthly active user” number. On the DAU, front, […]
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LONDON’S skyline has altered a lot in the last 30 years. While it can’t match Manhattan or Chicago, there are quite a few trophy buildings that can be seen from this columnist’s office window (for the moment*). The British sense of humour means these offices often acquire their own nicknames, regardless of the developer’s intentions—the […]
Read moreWhirlpool‘s stock was falling nearly 7 percent Thursday morning a day after the appliance manufacturer delivered earnings and sales for the second quarter that missed Street estimates. On a call with analysts and investors Thursday morning, the clear elephant in the room was quickly mentioned — Sears recently signing a deal to sell Kenmore appliances […]
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LAST year over 102,000 people died in nearly 50 armed conflicts across the world, according to the Peace Research Institute Oslo, a think-tank. Much of this violence is caused by tensions between ethnic groups—two-thirds of civil wars have been fought along ethnic lines since 1946. Yet historians differ over whether cultural differences or economic pressures […]
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