Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, April 12

• Apple Watch verdict a year later: Half of those surveyed think it’s a dud: More than half of those surveyed by the advertising technology company Fluent said they considered the Apple Watch a flop. That sentiment — expressed by the majority of the 2,578 adults in the U.S. who responded last week to an online survey — reflects how the device is perceived by the tech press and industry insiders, many of whom have been pessimistic about the Apple Watch from the start. Asked whether they considered the Watch a successful product for Apple, 53 percent responded “no.” But Fluent’s survey also offers a more nuanced picture of Apple’s first wearable device,which launched on April 24, 2015. A significant majority of Apple Watch owners — 77 percent — consider the smartwatch a success and about two-thirds said they plan to upgrade when the next version comes out. Those owners surveyed said they take advantage of a range of the smartwatch’s features, including monitoring their activity and receiving notifications (79 percent), listening to music (75 percent) and checking email or chat (66 percent). This survey supports the more comprehensive findings of Wristly’s “Pulse on Wristware,” released earlier this year. The research group, which surveys some 2,500 smartwatch and fitness band owners every week, says that despite some views of the Apple Watch as a “mediocre novelty,” it enjoys “astoundingly high customer satisfaction ratings.”

• Israel to Levy New Taxes on Google, Facebook in Policy Shift: Israel has expanded its definition of who must pay taxes on commerce, targeting digital multinationals such as Facebook Inc. and Google that critics say get a free ride. Because much of today’s trade is carried out on the Internet, a foreign firm may now be considered a “permanent establishment” and subject to tax even if most of its presence is virtual, the Israel Tax Authority said in an e-mailed statement. The authority said Internet multinationals will be required to pay value-added tax, which is 17 percent for Israelis. The new taxes, which take effect immediately, will eventually add hundreds of millions of shekels a year to state revenue, the authority said. A Google representative in Israel couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Facebook “pays taxes according to the law in every country it operates, including Israel,” a spokeswoman said via e-mail. Although Israel’s relatively small population of 8.5 million means the new taxes won’t clobber the international giants, they build on broader efforts worldwide to level the playing field between foreign Internet companies and local commerce. Russia is pushing to raise taxes on U.S. Internet companies to help its local industry and governments across Europe and beyond are trying to extract more revenue from Google, Apple Inc. and other multinationals with increasingly complex billing and ownership structures.

• Cloud-based video production platform 90 Seconds lands $7.5M Series A led by Sequoia India: Despite the increasing ubiquity of online videos, making a professional-looking one is still a complicated process that usually involves chains of emails and uploads. 90 Seconds wants to fix that problem with its cloud-based platform, which lets users handle almost every part of the video production process in one place. Today, the startup announced it has raised a $7.5 million Series A led by Sequoia India. Other investors in this round include pay television provider SKY TV New Zealand, Airtree Ventures, Beenext and Oleg Tscheltzoff, founder of stock image agency Fotolia.com. Now based in Singapore, 90 Seconds was launched in Auckland in 2010 by CEO Tim Norton after he struggled to find an online video production service for shoots in different places. 90 Seconds started with online production tools before launching its marketplace, which now lists 5,000 video professionals from 70 countries. The company plans to continue adding to the mobile version of its software until clients can manage every part of the production process — from commissioning a video to reviewing footage and uploading to YouTube and social media platforms — on their tablets or smartphones. Timeliness is important for 90 Seconds’ users, who have included Visa, Samsung and Microsoft, because they need to take advantage of trending topics and search terms. More companies are also using the platform to handle longer shoots, like TV spots. Hooking up companies with creators and giving them all the software tools they need to produce a video is how 90 Seconds differentiates from other video production sites (which include Visually, Userfarm and SmartShoot) and also what it hopes will future-proof its business model from new competitors as demand for online videos grows.

• Dell's SecureWorks valued at $1.42 billion in year's first tech IPO: Dell's cyber security unit, SecureWorks Corp, could be valued at up to $1.42 billion in its initial public offering, the first major U.S. listing of a technology company this year. Atlanta, Georgia-based SecureWorks said on Monday its offering was expected to be priced at $15.50-$17.50 per Class A share, raising as much as $157.5 million.  The share issue market worldwide plunged to a seven-year low in the first quarter, more than halving from a year earlier to $106.6 billion, as worries over slowing economic growth kept investors wary, according to Thomson Reuters data. In the past few years, several cyber security firms such as FireEye, Rapid7 and Mimecast have gone public to take advantage of growing investor interest in them after a spate of hacking attacks on companies including major banks and retailers. However, shares of Rapid7 and FireEye, which popped 70-80 percent in their debut, are now trading way below their IPO prices. Mimecast, which jumped 20 percent on its listing day, has also slipped below its offering price. Ritter warned against premium pricing for stocks of cyber security firms, saying that these companies were fighting for market share, which would keep their profit growth muted.