Ben Crawford was asleep 12,000 km (7,500 miles) from Google Inc's Mountain View, California headquarters this week when the Internet giant unveiled its new face. Crawford, chief executive of London-based CentralNIC Group Plc, woke up in Sydney to learn that the domain powered by his company – .xyz – would host the website of Google's new company, Alphabet Inc.
Read more(Reuters) – Online dating application Tinder said on Wednesday night that it had re-appointed the app’s founder, Sean Rad, as its chief executive. Rad returns after being replaced in March by former eBay Inc executive Chris Payne CEO. “We mutually determined that this wasn’t going to be optimal and thought that a quick transition served everybody best,” the company statement quoted Payne as saying.
Read moreMcDonald's has apologized for an incident in which workers in one of the U.S. burger chain's French franchises appeared to be threatened with the sack for feeding homeless people. A photograph circulating on social media showed a notice pinned up at the McDonald's in Hyeres near Marseille in southern France, reading: “After an incident on July 25th, it is absolutely forbidden to provide food to vagrants, as a reminder, the team's meals should be eaten on the premises
Read moreBy Noeleen Walder, Jonathan Stempel and Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of mainly U.S.-based stock traders and computer hackers in Ukraine made as much as $100 million in illegal profits over five years by conspiring to use information stolen from thousands of corporate press statements before their public release, U.S. authorities said on Tuesday
Read morePen manufacturer Bic has apologized for a post on its South African Facebook page on Women’s Day that has been heavily criticized for being sexist. Bic’s post featured a picture of a smiling woman in a suit next to the caption: “Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a boss” and included the tag #HappyWomensDay.
Read moreBy Yasmeen Abutaleb and Nivedita Bhattacharjee SAN FRANCISCO/MUMBAI, August 12 (Reuters) – Facebook is trying to lure skeptical advertisers in India with features such as free email support for questions about advertising and advice on increasing sales in a bid to boost revenue from its second biggest market. Facebook has 132 million users in India, trailing only the 193 million in the United States, according to the company, and the country is critical for the Menlo Park, California, social network's global expansion. Facebook does not break out its revenues in India, but Neil Shah, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, a Hong Kong-based technology consulting firm, estimates it brings in $15 million a quarter, far behind the $350 million he estimates Google earns there per quarter.
Read moreTuhu, a Chinese online platform for automobile services and products, said on Tuesday it raised about $100 million from a group of investors including venture capital firm Joy Capital, looking to expand its distribution network and warehouses. Joy Capital, whose founders include the former head of telecommunications investments at Legend Capital, led the funding round, Tuhu Founder and Chief Executive Min Chen said. Other investors included private equity firm Welkin, leasing company Far East Horizon Ltd and existing Tuhu investors such as Legend Capital and Qiming Venture Partners.
Read moreBy David Brunnstrom HANOI (Reuters) – Secretary of State John Kerry lauded on Friday the warming of ties with Vietnam but said the scope of relations, and military deals, would depend on its communist rulers' willingness to protect rights and freedoms.
Read moreBy Clare Jim HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese developer Fantasia Holdings Group has launched a vacation rental business similar to Airbnb Inc and HomeAway Inc to utilise the scores of homes left unsold as a property boom faded. Fantasia’s Home ENE online platform, launched last month, will rival Tujia, the Chinese home rental firm that this week raised $300 million from investors including Singapore-based developer CapitaLand Ltd and Hong-Kong’s All-Stars Investment Ltd to expand at home and abroad. “There are more than 50 million vacant units in urban China, which have become a major source of properties for vacation use,” Fantasia chairman and CEO Pan Jun said in a statement on Wednesday.
Read moreSmartphones have overtaken laptops as the preferred way for Britons to go online, driven by increased take-up of the devices and a jump in superfast mobile broadband subscriptions, the British telecoms regulator said on Thursday. A third of people said they turned to a smartphone first to browse the Internet, access social media or shop online, while 30 percent opened up a laptop, Ofcom said.
Read more