Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday September 16

• Want to Donate to a Political Candidate? Now There's a Tweet for That Twitter said it had partnered with Square Inc., a mobile payment company, to give U.S. political candidates a way to collect donations through tweets. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and Square, is running both companies after taking an interim CEO job at Twitter, making their cooperation on the donations tool convenient. "This is the fastest, easiest way to make an online donation, and the most effective way for campaigns to execute tailored digital fundraising, in real time, on the platform where Americans are already talking about the 2016 election and the issues they are passionate about," Jenna Golden, head of Twitter's political advertising sales, said in a post on the company's website. The new service comes after a U.S. Federal Election Commission ruling in 2012 that cleared the way for donations by text message and as candidates seek ways to increase the number of small donations from supporters.  Twitter's service allows a user to select a donation amount, pay with a debit card and submit information required by the FEC. Square charges a 1.9 percent transaction fee, according to its website. Twitter doesn't take a cut of the donation, according to the social media company. Campaigns can pay to promote tweets soliciting donations to specific users.

• Facebook weighs a "Dislike" button: Facebook’s famous “like” button, with its silhouette of an upturned thumb, will soon be accompanied by an alternative: a way to “dislike” a post. On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, said that Facebook was “very close to shipping a test” of a dislike button. He suggested that the new button would probably be more nuanced than a simple thumbs-down option. His comments nevertheless raised the possibility that Facebook, the world’s largest forum for self-expression, could soon become a less friendly place. The prospect of a new dislike button has been polarizing among Facebook users. As for Facebook’s business — selling ads — a dislike button could cut both ways. It could increase the level of engagement that people have with posts, and therefore the number of ads they eventually see. But a dislike button could also be disconcerting to marketers, who prefer their messages to be surrounded by happy emotions. Over all, it’s probably a good thing to enable people to express feelings and emotions that they can’t express through a like button,” Ms. Williamson said. “But Facebook needs to be careful as to how they enable that capability with regard to advertising and all the potentially inflammatory discussions that could occur online.” Mr. Zuckerberg clearly has such concerns in mind. He stressed that Facebook would test the new button before introducing it broadly, and refine it based on user feedback. “Hopefully we’ll deliver something that meets the needs of our community,” he said. Facebook’s decision to experiment with a new button came after much deliberation. In December, Mr. Zuckerberg told a similar meeting of users that the company had been working on the idea but had not figured out how to add a dislike button “so that it ends up being a force for good and not a force for bad.”

• Hewlett-Packard to Cut About 30,000 Jobs, About 10 Percent of Work Force: About 10 percent of the jobs at the current HP, or perhaps 30,000 of its 300,000 employees, will be eliminated, company officials said. “We’re looking forward to operating as two industry-leading companies,” said Ms. Whitman, HP’s chief executive, speaking at a meeting of financial analysts. “You’ll see us doing more pruning of businesses that don’t fit.” Ms. Whitman became the head of HP in 2011. As part of a restructuring announced in 2012, 54,000 jobs have been cut at the company. The new cuts are on top of that. In November, Ms. Whitman will become the chief executive of HP Enterprise, or HPE, which will sell things like computer servers, data storage, software and services to business. The other company, called HP Inc., will focus on printers and personal computers. Ms. Whitman has said the division will enable both businesses to react faster to changing markets. The big job cuts will come from HP Enterprise, in particular jobs at call centers and other service centers in developed countries. HP plans to automate many of the jobs, and build out positions in countries like India and Costa Rica. The services business had been largely dependent on just a few customers, and in 2014 it lost important accounts.

• Salesforce Plans to Give Customers Amazon-Type Analytics: Salesforce.com was one of the early giants of the cloud-computing revolution. Now it wants to be at the center of two of the next big things — big data and so-called computational intelligence everywhere. Marc Benioff, the co-founder and chief executive of Salesforce, is expected to make its “Internet of Things Cloud” a centerpiece of the company’s customer conference in San Francisco this week. Mr. Benioff, who has been skilled at predicting and positioning his company on major tech trends, sometimes with mixed success, hopes he can give nontechnical companies automated customer service and recommendations, the kind of activities done by computing-intensive companies like Amazon. If successful, Salesforce’s Internet of Things could vastly increase the amount of personalization we now see in many products and services. It could also justify the company’s highflying stock price, by making it much more attractive to its own customers. The Internet of Things is a term for online data from machines about their behavior. This service would combine data from devices like sensors and smartphones with customer information already inside Salesforce, like personal profiles and previous transactions. In one example from Salesforce, an insurance company would get data from a car’s bumpers and airbag indicating a collision, and could then send to its customer’s phone messages about current coverage, nearby tow trucks and service centers. Salesforce hopes to bring that capability to thousands of companies, which work with millions of customers. Nothing like that has been done before, let alone in a way that people skilled only in basic spreadsheets could manage. That means Salesforce has to build a powerful sorting and computing technology, and a series of customizable templates that can be easily used in a lot of different businesses. No major company has successfully done that.

• Snapchat is going to charge for extra replays. Snapchat announced a new plan for making money Tuesday — it's going to let you pay for extra replays. According to the company's blog, the ephemeral messaging service wants to let you get a tiny bit more permanent. Users already get one free replay per day, but now Snapchat will let users pay 99 cents for up to three additional chances to see a snap again. "We’ve provided one Replay per Snapchatter per day, sometimes frustrating the millions of Snapchatters who receive many daily Snaps deserving of a Replay," the company said in an official blog post. "But then we realized — a Replay is like a compliment! So why stop at just one?" According to Snapchat, the replays work like this: you can use a replay on any snap you receive but, crucially, can only replay any single snap once. To this point, Snapchat has made its money off advertising, and has not previously charged users for any part of its service. The company, which reportedly turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook, has been valued at roughly $19 billion on private markets. But a recent report from Gawker, citing leaked financial documents, indicated that Snapchat had generated just $3.1 million in revenue last year.

• Target Teams With Instacart to Challenge Amazon on Groceries: Target is teaming up with Instacart Inc. to offer same-day delivery of groceries and household items for $3.99 in its hometown of Minneapolis as the big-box retailer rolls out an alternative to Amazon.com’s $299-a-year Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service. Target will be Instacart’s second-largest retail partner by revenue, behind Costco, significantly expanding inventory for the San Francisco-based startup as it positions itself as the antidote to Amazon for brick-and-mortar retailers. Instacart delivery charges start at $3.99 per order, depending on its size. Even as sales of books, electronics and clothing shift online, shoppers still prefer supermarkets for food. Companies expect that grocery sales may move to the Web as well and are experimenting to find the best approach. Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce retailer, has promoted its grocery delivery service with free 30-day trials in some markets. Google last week announced plans to begin testing a delivery service for groceries and fresh food later this year in San Francisco and one other city.

Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, September 15

• Facebook Works With Google To Let Mobile Web Users Get Push Notifications Via Chrome: A big reason developers hate mobile websites is that they lack the push notifications which help re-engage people with native apps. That was a serious problem for Facebook. It sees a ton of users on its m.facebook.com site, especially in the developing world where data budgets are tight, but had trouble pulling them back in. So today Facebook announced that after working with Google on its new mobile web alerts standard, m.facebook.com mobile web users can now opt to receive push notifications via Chrome. Google first announced the development of its third-party push API through Chrome back in April and noted some partners like eBay and Vice News who had committed to implementing the standard. Now Facebook has rolled out the feature,  so mobile Chrome users on m.facebook.com will be asked to turn on Chrome pushes. Facebook’s product manager on browser partnerships Jonathan McKay tells me that already, “We’ve seen an increase in visitation from launching push notifications.”

• Indian cab-hailing firm Ola is raising $500 million+, at a valuation that we’ve heard is around the $5 billion mark, with $225 million committed so far. The news comes as the company — which competes in its home market against the likes of Uber and Indian startup Meru — continues to expand into more cities, and more products. Today, Ola launched a new car leasing service for drivers on its network; last week it expanded to shuttle services for commuters. The raise is due to be finalised in the next week or two and announced officially then, sources tell TechCrunch. As it is still in progress, the final amount and final valuation may also change. This funding, a Series F, has been rumored for some time now, with the first reports surfacing just after Ola announced its last raise of $400 million in April of this year. That round, a Series E, valued the company at $2.5 billion.

• Russian Authorities Rule Google Broke Antitrust Regulations:  Russian antitrust authorities ruled on Monday that Google broke the country’s competition rules, adding to the regulatory headaches the search giant is facing worldwide. Russian officials said that Google had abused its dominant market position with Android, its mobile operating system, by favoring the company’s own services over those of rivals, including Yandex, a Russian competitor. Earlier this year, Yandex had complained to the country’s competition authority that cellphone manufacturers were not able to include the company’s rival digital offerings in the Android operating system. After the complaint, the regulator began investigating whether Google unfairly bundled its own services, like digital maps, in its Android software. Unlike in other parts of the world, where Google has outmuscled domestic search rivals, Yandex still holds more than a 50 percent market share in Russian online search, according to industry statistics. The company’s share price rose more than 8 percent in early afternoon trading in New York after the regulatory decision was announced. “Russia is the first jurisdiction to have officially recognized these practices as anticompetitive,” Yandex said in a statement, in reference to Google’s favoring of its own services in Android over those of rivals. The company added that it believed the antitrust ruling would “serve to restore competition in the market.” European and other international antitrust watchdogs are taking an increasingly tough line against the company.

• The auto and tech worlds are fighting for the best minds in race for self-driving car: Google had all of Silicon Valley to choose from when deciding on a leader for its ambitious self-driving car division. Instead, the tech behemoth hired an auto-industry lifer: John Krafcik, a former head of Hyundai's American brand who got his start as an engineer working on the Ford Explorer. The announcement on Monday comes just a week after Toyota said it, too, had looked outside its industry for its next big name. Earlier this month, the carmaker said it had tapped the military’s chief robotics engineer, Gill Pratt, to lead a $50 million push into not just driverless cars but artificial intelligence, through investments into tech research labs. The high-profile hires spotlight the growing overlap between the global giants of autos and tech, and analysts say it could point to a growing tension between some of the industries' biggest, wealthiest names. Tech giants increasingly see ways to make money and save lives in the old-fashioned, hyper-profitable business of cars. But traditional automakers, who could lose heavily if self-driving cars go mainstream, aren't hesitating to grab onto some of tech's top minds, either, as a way to adapt in a world beyond cars.

• Twitter, InMobi Embrace New Stripe Mobile E-Commerce Tool: Stripe Inc., the online-payments processor, unveiled a tool to simplify mobile e-commerce for stores and software applications developers. Twitter Inc. said it’s adopting Stripe’s offering, called Relay, to make it easier to buy products from a link in a tweet. InMobi, a mobile-advertising company, and SAP SE’s e-commerce software unit Hybris also said they are integrating their services with the San Francisco-based startup’s product. Payments processing company Stripe Inc launched a new tool on Monday that will connect retailers and brands to sell on platforms like Twitter Inc and tap an increasing number of consumers shopping on mobile apps. Twitter's adoption of Stripe's new product, Relay, is expected to help the microblogging site further dabble in e-commerce and generate revenue through its "buy buttons," which lets shoppers buy a product and enter payment and shipping information without leaving Twitter's platform. Twitter has been struggling to increase its audience and in July said its number of monthly average users grew at its slowest pace since it went public in 2013. Stripe, which makes software that helps businesses accept various types of payments on websites and in apps, counts grocery-delivery startup Instacart, ride-sharing app Lyft and e-commerce platform Shopify among its clients. The payments company's new Relay product functions as a universal sell button for retailers, allowing companies like eyewear brand Warby Parker to list products in a single place and sell them directly on Twitter as well as other e-commerce platforms like ShopStyle.

• Alibaba Falls After Barron's Suggests Drop, Company Rebuts Alibaba shares fell Monday, the first day of trading since a Barron’s magazine article on Saturday suggested the Chinese Internet company may lose another 50 percent of its value. The company, in a statement posted Monday on its website, said the article was inaccurate and misleading. Barron’s based its conclusion that the Chinese company is overvalued, in part, by comparing Alibaba’s share price as a multiple of earnings estimates with EBay. Alibaba said the comparison is unfair because EBay’s online marketplace doesn’t do significant business in China. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. shares fell Monday, the first day of trading since a Barron’s magazine article on Saturday suggested the Chinese Internet company may lose another 50 percent of its value. The company, in a statement posted Monday on its website, said the article was inaccurate and misleading. Barron’s based its conclusion that the Chinese company is overvalued, in part, by comparing Alibaba’s share price as a multiple of earnings estimates with EBay. Alibaba said the comparison is unfair because EBay’s online marketplace doesn’t do significant business in China.

Daily Tech Snippet: Monday, September 14

• High-profile busts signal caution in start-up investing, especially in on-demand B2C businesses: At the end of July, Homejoy, a start-up company that used the Web to offer house cleaning, hung up its mops, leaving customers in the lurch and Google Ventures and other top-tier private equity backers out the more than $35 million they had sunk into the company. Now, with public markets on a see-saw and venture capitalists thinking the turmoil may hit private markets, many investors are wondering if more Homejoys lie ahead. That is leading them to look extra hard at companies that hold similar characteristics to Homejoy: on-demand, logistics-heavy businesses that cater to consumers rather than businesses. "They are caught on a treadmill" because to keep running requires more cash infusions, though often without an accompanying move to profitability, said Venky Ganesan, a venture capitalist at Menlo Ventures. He said he looked at about a half dozen such companies in the spring and early summer, passing on all of them, only to see all raise money elsewhere. While the failure of one start-up might not seem like much, Homejoy's folding attracted outsized interest because it had already raised more than $35 million from high-caliber firms. Most start-ups fail, of course, but they generally do it at earlier stages and lower cost to their backers. Homejoy is one of at least four high-profile collapses or retrenchments so far in 2015, counting those that raised at least as much cash, also from top firms. In recent years, among consumer-oriented tech companies, just one or two such start-ups have failed each year. At the end of July, Homejoy, a start-up company that used the Web to offer house cleaning, hung up its mops, leaving customers in the lurch and Google Ventures and other top-tier private equity backers out the more than $35 million they had sunk into the company. Now, with public markets on a see-saw and venture capitalists thinking the turmoil may hit private markets, many investors are wondering if more Homejoys lie ahead. That is leading them to look extra hard at companies that hold similar characteristics to Homejoy: on-demand, logistics-heavy businesses that cater to consumers rather than businesses. "They are caught on a treadmill" because to keep running requires more cash infusions, though often without an accompanying move to profitability, said Venky Ganesan, a venture capitalist at Menlo Ventures. He said he looked at about a half dozen such companies in the spring and early summer, passing on all of them, only to see all raise money elsewhere. While the failure of one start-up might not seem like much, Homejoy's folding attracted outsized interest because it had already raised more than $35 million from high-caliber firms. Most start-ups fail, of course, but they generally do it at earlier stages and lower cost to their backers. Homejoy is one of at least four high-profile collapses or retrenchments so far in 2015, counting those that raised at least as much cash, also from top firms. In recent years, among consumer-oriented tech companies, just one or two such start-ups have failed each year.
  

• Partnership Boosts Users Over China’s Great Firewall: A partnership between an American start-up and a Chinese Internet behemoth has created a sort of fast lane to speed traffic across the border. In the process, the two companies are establishing a novel business model with implications for other American technology firms looking to do business in China’s politically sensitive tech industry. The partnership, signed in July 2014, is between CloudFlare, a security company based in San Francisco, and Baidu, China’s equivalent of Google. Using a mixture of CloudFlare’s web traffic technology and Baidu’s network of data centers in China, the two created a service that enables websites to load more quickly across China’s border. The service, called Yunjiasu, began operating in December. It has a unified network that makes foreign sites more easily accessible in China, and allows Chinese sites to run in destinations outside the country. At the heart of the arrangement is an unusual structure known as a virtual joint venture. Under that arrangement, CloudFlare does not actually operate in China. Instead, CloudFlare cooperates primarily from afar as Baidu runs the business in China. Baidu and CloudFlare’s virtual joint venture relies on a principle generally considered anathema to foreign companies looking to do business with China: trust. CloudFlare transferred its intellectual property that is used to manage and speed up Internet traffic to Baidu and works closely with its engineers to run that technology on Baidu’s network in China. The two share revenue from the service. For CloudFlare, a five-year-old company that manages Internet traffic for millions of websites and makes browsing quicker and more secure, the central question was whether to transfer its intellectual property and give up local control or to forgo the vast business opportunities in China. Outside of the high-profile sites that Beijing sees as a threat and blocks — like Facebook and Twitter — are a huge number of businesses that suffer under China’s network inefficiencies. Those are the customers the service is targeting. And since the fast-lane service began operating, CloudFlare and Baidu said they have registered 450,000 businesses that account for 57 billion page views per month. Customers can try the service free, though CloudFlare and Baidu added supplemental security features and greater control over web traffic last month, both of which must be paid for. Matthew Prince, CloudFlare’s chief executive, said transferring the company’s intellectual property to Baidu enabled a deeper trust and a partnership. He added that the intellectual property is not the most critical part of the company. “We had much less apprehension about sharing our code, because we don’t think there’s any line of code we write that’s so clever that gives us a sustained advantage,” Mr. Prince said. “That comes from the network itself.”  Still, to be safe, Baidu and CloudFlare worked out a contract that gives each company control over crucial elements and would inflict penalties if either partner withdrew. For example, Baidu controls customer information within China, but CloudFlare owns the web address through which the entire operation works.

• EBay Revamps Seller-Rating System in Appeal to Merchants: EBay is overhauling its ratings system so that sellers aren’t penalized for late shipments beyond their control or for routine returns and exchanges, seeking to boost sales as an independent company. While the online marketplace has long relied on a five-star rating system and commentaries that lets merchants and buyers grade each other on transactions, sellers have long complained that these also make them vulnerable to customer angst over minor issues that are unavoidable or easily resolved. EBay’s seller rankings can make or break the merchants selling everything from sweaters to smartphones, because they influence how prominently products appear in search results and the likelihood that shoppers will conduct business with them. EBay is stepping up efforts to keep its sellers happy, following its split in July from the PayPal Holdings Inc. transactions business. "Our relationship with our sellers needs to be improved," Jordan Sweetnam, EBay’s vice president of seller experience, said in an interview. "These are the biggest changes we’ve made in years." The new rating system is more simple and objective, according to Sweetnam. Sellers won’t be penalized for late deliveries as long as they get orders to couriers on time, while returns or exchanges won’t affect ratings if they’re resolved and the customer is satisfied with the process.

• Lyft automatically opts you into receiving robocalls. That doesn’t sit well with the FCC. Lyft and First National Bank are on notice for violating federal telemarketing rules, regulators said Friday. The two companies allegedly required that their customers accept robocalls and automatic text messages as a condition of using their services — a no-no under the Federal Communications Commission's regulations. The rules are meant to prevent companies from coercing customers into consenting to robocalls. Although Lyft allows users to opt out of robocalls, doing so bars consumers from using the ridesharing service, the FCC said. If the two companies don't change their behavior, that could lead to more than a warning — fines or other legal action.

• Trillenium takes virtual reality into online shopping: Trillenium, a start-up that creates virtual stores for brands aimed at marrying the experience of real-life shopping with the convenience of e-commerce on smartphones and computers. Shoppers can tour the virtual store by focusing their gaze on products, browse items from different angles and socialize with friends online, bringing to life an e-commerce industry currently dominated by search boxes and static pictures. "The current dot.com experience is pretty sterile. So if they can improve the experience, you might dwell a bit longer, spend a bit longer online exploring products because you can get closer to them, and buy more," said Dave Evans, commercial director at Kantar Retail Virtual Reality, which uses virtual reality technology to help retailers develop real-world stores. Trillenium hopes to capitalize on the release of virtual reality headsets next year aimed at the consumer market, such as Facebook's Occulus Rift and Google's Cardboard. Trillenium has raised 335,000 pounds so far from Seedrs as well as two business angel investors. It hopes to raise an additional 1.8 million pounds in separate funds from venture capitalists. In three years, Prpic hopes to launch a multiple platform service where clients can use his technology to build and customize their own stores from a template.

• Jet.com: Taking Off, Full Throttle. Respected seller blog ChannelAdvisor reports - "Jet has gained altitude so rapidly that it’s currently our number 4 marketplace by GMV, out of the marketplaces we support worldwide. That means that just a month after its public debut, it’s already bigger for ChannelAdvisor than incumbents like Sears, Best Buy, Newegg, Tesco and Rakuten — marketplaces that have been operating for years (check out the growth of these marketplaces here). It’s not out of the realm of possibility that in 2016 it will be our number 3 marketplace, after Amazon and eBay. That would be remarkable. Just a few weeks after officially launching, the average Jet seller GMV is twice that of seller GMV on Sears or Newegg. Our sellers have seen tens of thousands unique consumers buying on Jet since its public launch, and a 23% repeat buyer rate. Over the same time period, eBay had a 17% repeat buyer rate and Amazon had a 11% repeat buyer rate. This indicates early shoppers on Jet find the values compelling enough to come back more frequently than on eBay and Amazon, although our sample size is still small."

Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, September 11

• Google Starts Rolling Out Android Pay to Challenge Apple: Google is starting to roll out Android Pay this week, seeking to catch up with Apple Pay and grab a chunk of the growing market for mobile payments. The Web company, which announced plans for the service in May, has signed up partners including Macy’s, Staples and Whole Foods Market, Pali Bhat, Google’s director of product management for the new feature, said in a blog post Thursday. Android Pay turns smartphones into digital wallets that store credit and debit cards, which can then be used in physical and virtual stores. The mobile-payments market is projected to top $142 billion by 2019, up from $67 billion this year, according to Forrester Research Inc. Android Pay users will be able to shop for goods in more than 1 million U.S. locations and in over 1,000 apps, according to Google, which competes with Apple Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc. and other rivals that have introduced digital wallets. Google is betting Android Pay will help its smartphones lure more consumers. Like Apple Pay is built into iPhones, Android Pay will be integrated into smartphones running Google’s mobile operating system. Google’s earlier effort, Google Wallet, has been reoriented to focus on sending and receiving money, the company said today. Android Pay is also is working on new features, including the ability to use loyalty cards and special offers.

• Uber’s China Foe Said to Join Alibaba, Tencent in Lyft Deal: Uber’s Chinese rival invested in U.S. ride-sharing service Lyft around the second quarter, according to people familiar with an investment that takes the battle with Uber abroad. Didi Kuaidi joined Alibaba and Tencent in the funding round between March and June, the people said, asking not to be named because the deal was private. Their joint investment was intended to fuel Didi Kuaidi’s expansion abroad and bankroll Uber’s U.S. competitor, the people said. Alibaba invested $25 million, one of the people said. Asia’s two largest Internet companies already back Didi Kuaidi, the leading Chinese car-hailing service formed in February from two competing apps. Uber and Didi Kuaidi are locked in a costly struggle in China, competing for market share with incentives and subsidies to lure drivers and passengers. Both are close to raising more than $4 billion combined from investors in their latest fundraising rounds, people familiar with the plans said previously. Alibaba had been part of a consortium that backed San Francisco-based Lyft, whose cars in the U.S. sport distinctive pink mustaches on their front. The service counts Carl Icahn among its investors and was valued in a March fundraising round at $2.5 billion. Uber, in contrast, was said to be valued at more than $40 billion in its last round.

• Apple Sells Bonds in Euros Extending Debt Binge to $55 Billion: Apple sold bonds in euros for the second time, increasing the amount the iPhone maker has raised in global debt offerings since 2013 to more than $55 billion. The 2 billion-euro ($2.3 billion) sale was split evenly between bonds maturing in eight years and 12 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Apple sold the longer-dated notes at 85 basis points more than benchmark rates. That compares with the 45 basis-point premium for securities maturing in 2026 that the company sold in its debut euro offering in November, the data show. Apple has sold bonds around the world to diversify funding as it works to return $200 billion to investors by March 2017 and expands its global retail network. While the cost of funding has increased since Apple’s debut euro sale, U.S. companies can still raise capital in the single currency at a 2.07 percentage-point average discount to borrowing in dollars, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes.  “It’s slightly more expensive than last year’s euro-bond sale, but you’re still paying less than 2 percent for 12 years,” said Geraud Charpin, a portfolio manager at BlueBay Asset Management in London. “It’s pretty cheap money. What else do you want to ask for?” Apple will use the proceeds from the bond sale for general corporate purposes, as well as to buy back shares, pay dividends, boost working capital and to fund capital expenditure, acquisitions and repayment of debt, according to the person.

• China says Apple unit underpaid $71 million in tax in 2013: A China unit of U.S. tech giant Apple underpaid taxes in 2013 by 452 million yuan ($71 million), according to a report from the country's finance ministry, which comes as China toughens its stance on tax payments by foreign firms. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) report, dated Sept. 9 but cited by official news agency Xinhua on Thursday, said Apple had already repaid the taxes as well as paying 65 million yuan in late fees. The investigation, however, underlines an increasingly hard stance being taken by Beijing against foreign firms underpaying taxes after authorities said in December they would crack down on the practice. The finance ministry report said the Apple subsidiary had understated its revenues by 8.8 billion yuan and its costs by 3.4 billion yuan. It had also overstated its profits by 5.4 billion yuan. China levied around $140 million in back taxes from Microsoft Corp at the end of last year.

• Ubers Are About To Start Carrying Their Own In-Car Magazine: Starting this week in NYC, you can grab a copy of Uber’s new in-car magazine, called “Arriving Now,” from the seat-back pockets. A new print publication isn’t exactly a revolutionary move (airlines have been rocking inflight magazines for a while), but Uber has an interesting opportunity here to test the content waters. At face value, it seems like kind of a funny move for them to get into the truly burgeoning print journalism market, but there are a ton of different directions that this could be taken. Uber is probably more interested here in testing out a content arm where they can push out cool stories that gives people a better “brand experience” with the company. Though most people probably spend their time on a phone in the back of an Uber regardless, seat-back, always-on touch screens could probably be coming soon enough to a car near you, allowing users more ways to interact with Uber’s continually growing on-demand services that don’t necessarily involve getting people from place-to-place.

• The Bloomberg Terminal, a Wall Street Fixture, Faces Upstarts:  For nearly three decades, the flickering orange-on-black screens of the Bloomberg terminal have been omnipresent on Wall Street trading floors and executive suite desks, maintaining a vital lifeline of data and communication. In knitting together the world of finance, those $21,000-a-year terminals have generated billions of dollars for Bloomberg, almost single-handedly paying for the company’s journalistic ambitions, as well as the fortune, political career and philanthropic largess of its founder, Michael R. Bloomberg. Now that golden egg — and all that it pays for — is a target for new competitors looking to knock it from its dominant position. Bloomberg has fended off competition before, but the latest upstarts are gunning for the company at a time when Wall Street is already aggressively looking to cut its spending on Bloomberg terminals. Later this month, a start-up called Symphony, created by Goldman Sachs and backed by the large banks, is introducing software that provides an alternative to what many traders say is the most valuable part of the Bloomberg terminal — the chat program used by traders and investors. At Goldman, more than half of the people who have Bloomberg terminals use them primarily for chat and other simple functions, according to people briefed on the subject who were not authorized to speak publicly. At the same time, Money.Net, a start-up that has been built by a former top Bloomberg executive, is looking to challenge Bloomberg head-on and is gaining momentum and stealing away customers. After more than a decade as New York’s mayor, Mr. Bloomberg has been retaking the reins of the company and pushing to refine its focus. Last week, dozens of Bloomberg journalists were laid off as part of a broader effort to reconfigure how journalism fits into the company. Bloomberg’s news offerings — including BusinessWeek and the company’s website — generate less than 4 percent of the company’s revenue and cost more than they earn, according to Burton-Taylor Consulting. The terminals generate 75 percent of Bloomberg’s revenue. All service providers for Wall Street, not just Bloomberg, are unusually vulnerable at the moment. The financial industry is in the middle of an aggressive run of cost-cutting as it grapples with new regulations and changes in the markets. A Bloomberg contract, which can be upward of $100 million at larger institutions, is a tempting target to whittle down. The number of Bloomberg terminals grew only 1.9 percent, to 325,000, last year. In the 10 years before the financial crisis, the number of terminals grew at an average rate of 12 percent each year, with most companies signing on for multiyear contracts. Bloomberg has sustained several challenges to its dominant market position, fending off smaller competitors hoping to bite off a corner of its business. And it has the cash reservoirs to wage a vigorous defense this time around. But Bloomberg’s own history shows that it is not easy to maintain a profitable market position like the one it has held for more than two decades. Bloomberg rose to prominence in the 1990s by nimbly replacing earlier Wall Street data companies — like Quotron and Telerate — that failed to change quickly enough to protect their longtime market dominance. Morgan Downey, the former Bloomberg executive who is building Money.Net, said he decided to leave Bloomberg in late 2013 and create a low-cost challenger after seeing how slowly Bloomberg was changing and how many of the company’s clients wanted a cheaper alternative. “When they go visit the banks, they are being told, ‘We are trying actively, not passively, to get away from being your customers,’ ” Mr. Downey said. “They’ve gotten very lazy and fat.”

Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, September 10

• Apple releases major updates to leading products and pushes into new arenas. Apple unveiled an array of major improvements to its iPhones, iPads and other leading products Wednesday, including a voice-activated television box that the company said would form “a new foundation for TV.” The updated Apple TV includes some hardware improvements, such as a remote control that allows users to easily navigate through entertainment options simply by speaking to Siri, Apple’s voice assistant. But perhaps the device’s more significant feature is its ability to function as a game console, which could set up the company to enter a new arena in living room entertainment. Apple said several major gaming software companies are making versions of popular titles for Apple TV. The new device will also come with its own app store, allowing third-party developers to shape how consumers get entertainment and videos on their televisions. Apple also showed how to use the best screen in the house to look at rooms for rent on Airbnb’s Web site or homes for sale on Zillow. That was one of several story lines during Apple’s presentation in San Francisco. The electronics giant also introduced a new tablet — a $799 iPad Pro — aimed at business clients, as well as new software on its watch and other mobile devices that Apple said would revolutionize how doctors and patients interact. At one point, the audience of several thousand reporters and Apple employees at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was shown how a pregnant woman could record her fetus's heartbeat and send the sound in a live stream to her doctor. Apple also updated its most important product, the iPhone, which accounts for 56 percent of the company’s sales. The new iPhone 6S and its larger cousin, the 6S Plus, have 12-megapixel cameras, sharper screens and a feature called 3D Touch, which brings up different menus depending on how hard a user presses the screen.  Apple also introduced a new iPad Pro, which has a display area roughly twice that of the iPad Air and is largely aimed at businesses. The tablet can be bought with a keyboard and has a beefier processor that can run heavy programs such as Microsoft Office. And, indeed, to tout the device, Apple invited executives from Microsoft, its former rival, to show how the popular office suite would work on the iPad. Also on stage were executives from Adobe, another software company Apple in the past has criticized for lax security. And in another move that broke with the past, Apple displayed a new stylus for the iPad Pro that it called the Apple Pencil, a product that likely would have been blocked by the company’s late co-founder Steve Jobs, who in 2010 mocked companies that offered styluses to consumers

• Apple phone, tablet and TV fail to impress investors. Apple unveiled a new TV set top box that responds to voice commands and fresh iPhones that sense the pressure of a finger tap, changes which underwhelmed many social media commenters and investors. The new 6S and 6S Plus versions of the iPhone, Apple's biggest money maker, are the same size as the previous versions but come with a better camera, faster chips, new colors and the force-sensitive "3D Touch". Speaking before thousands of analysts, journalists and frequently cheering Apple employees, Chief Executive Tim Cook also brought on stage an executive from onetime archrival Microsoft  to illustrate the business-friendly credentials of a big new iPad, the Pro. Apple shares fell 1.9 percent to $110.15 by the close, replicating the recent history of such rollouts but also reflecting the lack of any transformative products that could jumpstart the company's sales ahead of the crucial holiday season. Apple shares have lost an average of 0.4 percent on the day of iPhone announcements over the past three years, according to BTIG Research data

• Google is chasing Amazon Web Services in a new area –- providing access to “on-demand” supercomputing resources. On Wednesday, Google announced the general availability of something called pre-emptible virtual machines, which amount to computing resources you can rent for very little. The service, first announced in May, enables people to buy computer processing that Google isn’t using at a steep discount, provided the customer is willing to yield the resources on short notice. A.W.S. has a similar short-term usage program, called Spot Instances. It lends itself to supercomputing exercises, particularly for universities and companies that don’t want to buy multimillion-dollar machines of their own, and has been used in areas like drug discovery and learning about new materials. The addition of Google as a competitor is likely to increase the number of ways these resources are used while lowering prices. Google also appears to be stressing its skills in machine learning, a powerful tool for finding new patterns in large data sets. Using Google, cancer researchers at the Broad Institute used 51,200 computing cores to look at the interrelationships between human genes, the billions of ways they are expressed, the cell lines from some 500 types of cancer, and molecules that perturb those cells. The idea was to sort through billions of data points quickly, looking for promising areas for researchers to seek drugs and treatments. The analysis, which on a single computer server would have run about 30 years, took a couple of hours, said Chris Dwan, the acting director of Information Technology at Broad. It cost about $4,000. “This isn’t like computing a few taxi trips,” said Mr. Dwan. “This is really heavy computing in complex biological systems, steering research.” He added, “the rules of how we work are being completely rewritten.”

• It's Like PayPal But Pays Interest, and India's Banks Are Afraid. That’s a concern for the nation’s largest banks, because 40 percent of the money they lend comes from millions of small depositors like Mungekar. If more like her start shifting to digital money, they risk draining those deposits. Last month, the Reserve Bank of India gave licenses to 11 entities to operate so-called payment banks that will function a lot like PayPal in the U.S, but with a distinction -- customers can get interest on the money they leave there. Payment banks can’t lend and can only invest the client’s money in the safest government securities. Their revenue comes from a small commission on each transaction. Their new licences are part of central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan’s mission to cut the nation’s addiction to cash and to increase efficiency at the banks. PayTM started off as a service for adding credit to burner phones, and has evolved into the country’s largest e-wallet repository, allowing customers to pay utility bills, buy bus tickets and pay for Uber rides. Now it plans to build on its base of urban middle-class clientele to become a pseudo bank -- accepting deposits, offering peer-to-peer money transfers, even providing a debit card for cash withdrawals. The payment banking license was the first step. E-Wallets may be attractive for people wary of sharing their bank or card details on the Internet. They also make it easier to reward customers with discounts and offers redeemable at online or brick-and-mortar outlets. Apart from One97, other payment bank licensees include three large telecom operators, industrial conglomerates, the state-owned postal service, and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, which plans to run its venture with State Bank of India.

• Mobile payments company Square may hold IPO in fourth quarter: Bloomberg. Mobile payments company Square may file for an initial public offering by the fourth quarter of this year, although the timing depends on market conditions, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and its current chief executive, has assured investors and key employees that he will also remain Square's chief executive, Bloomberg said. At this point, the timing of Square's IPO is more contingent on market conditions than on whether Dorsey remains its CEO, Bloomberg said.

Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday, September 9

• Facebook Equips Business Pages With Mobile Storefronts For Shopping And Services: Likes ≠ Dollars. Facebook wants Pages to actually earn money for the 45 million small businesses that use them. So today Facebook is upgrading Pages with a tabbed mobile layout that lets them display storefront “Sections” where users can “Shop” for products or view a list of “Services” the business offers. The company is also making calls to action on business Pages, such as “Call Now,” “Send Message” and “Contact Us,” bigger, more colorful and more prominent beneath the cover image. The “Shop” section will include Buy buttons powered by Facebook’s partnership with Shopify so users can check out without leaving the social network. Facebook is also testing Buy buttons that link out to a business’ traditional website. These changes are the biggest made to Pages since 2012. They build on Facebook’s recent announcement of new messaging capabilities for businesses and badges for companies that respond quickly. Today’s updates could make Facebook Pages a utility, not just a presence for businesses. Andrew Chau, the co-founder of the Boba Guys cafe, tells me he started the business’ online presence with a Facebook Page not a website because that’s where it could get “the most eyeballs”. He says he tells people to ‘Check us out on Facebook’ rather than ‘Download our app’ because “they aren’t going to do that”. People don’t necessarily want a whole app just for their local tea shop. The strategy is similar to WeChat’s platform for businesses in China. Rather than having to build an app, get people to download it, and then get them to use it, WeChat lets businesses create “official accounts” that users can easily follow and buy from. The average boutique owner or plumber shouldn’t have to learn how to build an app. Now they don’t.
• Yahoo may have to pay taxes on Alibaba spinoff: Yahoo is reconsidering its plan to spin off its $23 billion stake in Alibaba after federal tax authorities declined to rule in advance on whether the transaction would mean huge capital gains taxes for Yahoo or its shareholders. Yahoo disclosed in a securities filing on Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service told the company on Sept. 2 that it would not provide any guidance about the tax liability related to the spinoff ahead of the deal. The Internet company said that its own tax advisers still believed the spinoff of its 15 percent stake in Alibaba, a leading Chinese e-commerce company, would be tax-free, in part because it would be bundling a small-business division with the Alibaba stock into a new company called Aabaco Holdings. However, Yahoo said its board was now considering its options in light of the I.R.S. decision. Analysts say Yahoo’s options could include restructuring the spinoff or selling all or part of its 15 percent stake in Alibaba. Yahoo shareholders have been eagerly awaiting the spinoff, which analysts say accounts for far more of Yahoo’s stock price than its core advertising business. The Alibaba spinoff was intended to be a reward to Yahoo’s long-suffering shareholders. “It’s a big setback for Mayer,” said Eric Jackson, founder of the investment fund Ironfire Capital, who has been agitating for Yahoo to do more to unlock the value of its assets. “This was going to be the one feather in her cap, and now it’s seemingly not going to happen.” If Yahoo proceeds without the I.R.S. opinion, it may ultimately have to defend its move in court. An I.R.S. auditor, reviewing the company’s books several years down the road, could declare that the spinoff was taxable. Yahoo would probably go to court to challenge the decision, and Mr. Willens said the company would most likely prevail. Analysts have estimated that the company would owe about $9 billion in taxes if the transaction were fully taxable. In structuring the spinoff, Yahoo proposed to transfer that liability to Aabaco. So in theory, Ms. Mayer could proceed with the spinoff and focus on running Yahoo, leaving Aabaco shareholders to bear the risk of an audit.

• Alibaba’s $141 Billion Slide Boosts Tencent to Biggest in Asia: Alibaba surrendered the title of Asia’s largest Internet company to Tencent Holdings Ltd., capping a 10-month slide for the e-commerce giant that wiped $140.7 billion from its market value. The shares of Alibaba fell 4.7 percent to $60.91 at the close in New York on Tuesday, making the online marketplace worth $153 billion. That’s below Tencent’s value for the first time since billionaire Jack Ma oversaw Alibaba’s record-breaking initial public offering in September 2014. Alibaba’s reliance on consumer spending in China, where it gets 83 percent of its revenue, leaves it vulnerable to the domestic slowdown. Tencent is adding pressure by buying Hollywood content for its video platform, investing in cloud computing and on-demand mobile services, while forging an e-commerce alliance with JD.com. China may have lent its shares a hand. Last month, the government cut rates for the fifth time since November and resumed intervening in equities, seeking to arrest a stock market rout that wiped out trillions of dollars in value. That’s helped prop up stocks in neighboring Hong Kong. Tencent posted record quarterly profit in August. By comparison, Alibaba trailed analysts’ revenue forecasts in two of the past four quarters, and its sales grew at the slowest pace in at least three years. Tencent is capitalizing on the more than 1 billion users of WeChat and QQ. Billionaire Chairman Ma Huateng is finding new ways to make money through advertising, payment services and health care through the apps. Tencent earns more than half its revenue from games, and in April invested $126 million in San Francisco-based Glu Mobile Inc. to add a portfolio of action and role-playing games for smartphones.

• Alibaba lowers second-quarter gross merchandise volume estimates. Alibaba said on Tuesday it expected second-quarter gross merchandise volume (GMV) to be lower than its initial estimates due to weaker consumer spending in China. The company's shares reversed course and slipped as much as 3.1 percent to $61.91 in late afternoon trading. They had earlier gained as much as 4.5 percent. Alibaba said it now expects GMV to be lower in mid-single digits on a percentage basis from its earlier estimates. Up to Friday's close, the company's shares had fallen about 39 percent this year.

• Restaurant of the Future? Service With an Impersonal Touch There’s a new quinoa restaurant in San Francisco — yes, quinoa restaurants are a thing in San Francisco, so that’s not what’s noteworthy. At this restaurant, customers order, pay and receive their food and never interact with a person. The restaurant, Eatsa, the first outlet in a company with national ambitions, is almost fully automated. There are no waiters or even an order taker behind a counter. There is no counter. There are unseen people helping to prepare the food, but there are plans to fully automate that process, too, if it can be done less expensively than employing people. For optimists, it’s a way to make restaurant-going more efficient and less expensive. For pessimists, it’s the latest example of how machines are stealing people’s jobs. Either way, it’s like heaven for misanthropes, or those who are in too much of a hurry to chat with a server. The quinoa — stir-fried, with arugula, parsnips and red curry — tasted quite good. Whether a restaurant that employs few people is good for the economy is another question. Restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants, have traditionally been a place where low-skilled workers can find employment. Most of the workers are not paid much, though in San Francisco employers of a certain size must pay health benefits and in 2018 a minimum wage of $15. Mr. Friedberg said that was not the reason his team automated so many roles. “Technology allows us to completely rethink how people get their food,” he said. Automation is transforming every industry. Business owners look to substitute machines for human labor. It happened to blue-collar workers in factories and white-collar workers in banks and even law firms. With self-driving vehicles, it may happen in the taxi and trucking industries. Robots and artificial intelligence machines are expected to transform health care. Automation, in rudimentary forms, is already part of many restaurants. Reservations are made online, orders arrive at the kitchen electronically, and bills are paid with a swipe on an iPad. Chains like Chili’s and airport restaurants use tablet computers for ordering and paying, to speed the process and cut personnel costs. It might be a harbinger of a future in which eating out no longer involves waiters. Restaurants with servers could become the novelty, reserved for occasions when you want more ambience and hands-on attention than Eatsa’s “food delivery system.”

• Netflix May Be Setting Its Sights on Four More Asian Markets: Netflix will enter Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea early next year, according to a press release that was posted in Chinese on its website and taken down. The online offering will include movies, TV shows and content suitable for children, according to the statement. Additional details on pricing and programs will be announced later, the statement said. The company didn’t respond to requests for comment. Netflix, based in Los Gatos, California, is racing to complete a global expansion by the end of next year. The company’s growth prospects have made the stock the top performer in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index this year (The stock has risen 95 percent this year), with subscribers exceeding 65 million in 50 countries. Still, the shares have pulled back in recent weeks, in part due to concern over increased competition for viewer’s dollars. Time Warner’s HBO, Hulu and Amazon.com have all boosted their online offerings this year, while Apple is considering its own video streaming service. Netflix introduced service in Japan Sept. 2, starting at $5.40 a month.

• TiVo revenue beats estimates on subscriptions rise: Digital video recorder maker TiVo Inc reported a better-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue, helped by higher subscriptions. The company's total subscriptions rose about 26 percent to more than 6 million in the second quarter ended July 31. Net revenue rose to $119.5 million from $111.9 million. Revenue from Tivo's services and software and technology businesses rose about 14 percent to $99.1 million, while analysts had expected $96 million.  The stock was flat in extended trading on Tuesday. TiVo's set-top boxes are in high demand from cable users as they also allow access to online video services such as Netflix Inc, Hulu and Google Inc's YouTube. Tivo sells subscriptions directly to customers with its video recorders and also licenses its technology to cable TV operators that rent recorders to subscribers. The company, whose clients include DirecTV, is trying to partner with more cable TV operators to grow its business. Tivo sells its products through cable TV partners such as Virgin Media in the UK, ONO in Spain and Com Hem AB in Sweden. 

• How will autonomous cars deal with insurance liabilities? By shifting them toward manufacturers, says a study: Hacker attacks or faulty software could shift the burden of legal and regulatory liability toward makers of self-driving cars and away from customers, experts say, forcing regulators and insurers to develop new models. Autonomous cars have the potential to reduce the rate of traffic accidents as sensors and software give a car faster and better reflexes to prevent a collision. However, a greater level of automation increases the need for cyber security and sophisticated software, experts said. "Although accident rates will theoretically fall, new risks will come with autonomous vehicles," said Domenico Savarese, Group head of Proposition Development and Telematics at Zurich Insurance. "What should be done in the case of a faulty software algorithm? Should manufacturers be required to monitor vehicles post-sale in the case of a malfunction or a hacker attack?" Savarese asked. While established models for assigning liability - such as holding the owner responsible for what the car does - will still be relevant, the onus may shift toward manufacturers. Greater automation may also change consumer behavior and affect insurance costs if drivers become less vigilant and less practiced in their ability to avert an accident. "Could a manufacturer become liable if a distracted driver causes an accident while relying on autopilot? It's too early to tell," Savarese said, adding that increased liability would unlikely deter carmakers since customers were demanding more self-driving functions. Software and connected cars are creating new opportunities for insurance companies to customize policies to clients. "You could pay for how much you drive, or get a lower premium based on how well you drive," Savarese said, adding that these policies will only be made possible if the client allows the insurer to monitor them. Without driver consent, the insurer will have no right to spy on the driver, not even for exceeding the speed limit. If customers buy in to the idea of lower premiums in exchange for higher monitoring, they can opt to have some sort of black box device installed in their car or via their smartphone.

• Okta Is Now a Unicorn After $75 Million Funding Round. Okta, the startup that helps companies manage their sign-in information for hundreds of cloud services and business software applications, has landed a $75 million round of funding at an implied valuation of $1.2 billion. The investment is coming from existing investors, including the venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. Total capital raised is now $230 million. It has been about 15 months since Okta last raised money. Last year it took a $75 million round led by Sequoia that valued the company at about $600 million. Sequoia is a significant investor, having also led Okta’s D round in 2013 and its C round in 2012. Okta is also notable for being Andreessen Horowitz’s first investment in the cloud software area back in 2010 when the firm led its A round. Since then the company has expanded into new lines of business, including helping companies manage their mobile devices.

Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, September 8

• Amazon plans to sell $50 tablet: WSJ. Online retailer Amazon.com Inc plans to release a $50 tablet in time for the holiday season, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The 6-inch screen tablet comes with a mono speaker and is priced much lower than Amazon's Fire tablet, the cheapest variant of which is sold at $99. The company was not immediately available for comment. Amazon also plans to release 8-inch and 10-inch screen tablets, the report said. While other Amazon Fire tablets show advertisements as screen savers, it was not clear if the new 6-inch tablet's cost included ads, according to the report.

• Apple's New Ad Blockers Threaten to Remove Publishers' Mobile Ads: When Apple unveils its new iPhone and iOS 9 operating system this week, it could also drop a bomb on publishers, introducing ad-blocking technology that threatens to impact the revenue they make from smartphones. Ad blockers have been available on desktop browsers for years, but analysts say Apple's backing has the potential to make ad blocking more mainstream, making it available to a wider group of consumers. With Apple's new tools, developers can build ad-blocking apps that consumers can download to wipe out ads on mobile sites. Run-of-the-mill ads like banners and display placements are easy targets for ad blockers. But a small test by Adweek of a handful of apps shows that they remove native and branded content, too—putting the business model of publishers that have been at the forefront of native advertising—including BuzzFeed, Business Insider, Forbes and The Atlantic—at risk.

• Didi Kuaidi raises $3 billion as rival Uber China brings in $1.2 billion. Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Kuaidi is set to raise about $3 billion through its latest fundraising round, said two people familiar with the matter, just as funding at the Chinese unit of rival Uber reaches $1.2 billion. The inflow of cash raises the stakes between two of the world's most valuable start-ups. It also illustrates how investors are undeterred by the two companies spending heavily as they subsidize rides to gain market share, betting on China's Internet-linked transport market becoming the world's biggest. Didi Kuaidi, which has the largest market share of car-hailing apps in China, in July said it raised $2 billion, and that the amount may rise another "few hundred million" due to what it said was tremendous interest from global investors.

• One of Bollywood's biggest studios is betting it can win the online streaming race. Encouraged by an activist investor, the executive chairman of Eros International Plc is making its Eros Now streaming service a priority -- shelving a plan to create an old-fashioned television network to focus on video-on-demand optimized for mobile devices and priced for widespread adoption. The idea is to use the Mumbai studio’s bulging catalog of more than 2,000 films and new, exclusive series to build a critical mass of devoted users before Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. plant their flags in the world’s second-most populous country. “We thought, ‘We have the market share, we have the movies,”’ Lulla, 53, said in his London office on the city’s Georgian-era Manchester Square, looking every bit the mogul in a crisp, open-necked white shirt and slip-on shoes. “Why don’t we create our own platform?” Thanks to a production machine built by his father Arjan, who founded Eros in 1977, it releases upwards of 70 movies a year -- more than any U.S. rival. Eros is “exactly where Netflix wants to be in the next three to five years,” Lulla said. “I’m already there.”  Since a largely marketing-free soft launch about a year ago, Eros Now has attracted more than 26 million users. The official hard-sell unveiling was in July, with promises that movies will be available to stream immediately after they hit theaters. Promotions tease new digital series including “Khel,” a drama about “the twisted characters that populate the world of cricket,” and “Ponniyin Selvan,” based on a 2,000-plus-page novel about an ancient Tamil kingdom. A basic, ad-supported tier is free, while premium services cost from 50 rupees (about 80 U.S. cents) to 100 rupees monthly. Prices are higher outside India, where there’s opportunity in diaspora communities. In the U.S. it’s $7.99 -- which happens to be Netflix’s base cost.

• Samsung to Cut 10% of Headquarters Staff, Economic Daily Says. Samsung Electronics is preparing to cut 10 percent of workers at its headquarters, according to a Korean newspaper, as the world’s biggest smartphone maker loses sales to Apple and Chinese vendors. Samsung is targeting workers in the human resources, public relations and finance departments, Korea Economic Daily reported Tuesday, citing people it didn’t identify. The Suwon, South Korea-based company also plans to cut some expenses next year, the report added. Samsung declined to comment in an e-mail. The moves come after new high-end Galaxy smartphones failed to impress consumers, triggering five straight monthly declines and wiping out more than $40 billion in Samsung’s market value since April. The company’s share of global smartphone shipments fell more than 3 percentage points in the second quarter, and it’s no longer the top seller in China, the world’s biggest mobile-phone market. Samsung, which had 206.2 trillion won ($171 billion) in sales last year, is estimated to post about 200.2 trillion won in sales this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

• Baidu to Boost Spending on India, Indonesia as Mobile Sales Boom: Baidu plans to boost investments in India and Indonesia as China’s largest Web search provider tries for a greater presence on smartphones. “They have a lot of characteristics that mimic China’s development,” Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Li said during an interview in Beijing on Monday. “There is no legacy of PC user behavior and probably mobile is going to have a very speedy development.” Baidu is spending on new businesses while locked in competition with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. In July, Baidu forecast sales below estimates, and Chairman Robin Li pledged to tap its $12 billion of cash to build out its shopping, taxi and delivery services amid China’s economic slowdown. China saw its first decline in smartphone shipments in six years during the first quarter, while India’s shipment volume surged 44 percent in the second quarter. India is now the world’s third-largest smartphone market. During the past two years, Baidu spent almost $1 billion on more than 20 investments, including Uber, travel website Qunar and video-streaming service iQiyi, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company is now exploring investments in the local education and medical sectors, Li said. The spending likely will be small, with Baidu interested in minority stakes as well as full acquisitions, she said. Baidu also is keen to make use of its relationships with educational institutions by providing student loans, President Zhang Ya-Qin said in a separate interview. It has issued 100 million yuan ($15.7 million) in loans, averaging 20,000 yuan each, since starting its lending program last month, he said.

• Facebook’s Messenger And The Challenge To Google’s Search Dominance. When Facebook announced M—an A.I.-powered personal assistant that lives inside Messenger—it fired a massive shell across Google’s bow. Indeed, if Facebook can successfully scale M to its entire audience (and WhatsApp’s, as well), this new product represents a direct assault on search and AdWords—the lifeblood of Google’s business. To understand how a digital personal assistant that lives inside a mobile messaging app represents a disruptive threat to Google, let’s look at why Google is in this situation in the first place. Google faces the classic innovator’s dilemma: somewhere in the recesses of its collective corporate mind, Google knows that keyword search—the current foundation of its empire—is not the future. Because Larry Page and Sergey Brin are visionaries, they know that the next-generation solution to the problem of search looks less like a clickable list of links and more like a primitive Star Trek computer or an early version of the A.I. from the movie Her. The future of search is an intelligent digital assistant that can complete tasks. Like Google today, the search engine of the future will be able to mine the vast expanses of the internet for relevant information and deliver it to you in milliseconds. But much unlike today’s Google, the future’s search engine will behave like a digital personal assistant that can understand and predict your needs, then deliver on them without requiring you to navigate to any web pages or tap around a bunch of apps. When you do ask for something, this search engine will not respond with a list of blueish links. Instead, it will respond with a definitive result or a completed task. When it doesn’t have the definitive result or can’t complete the task on the first pass, it will ask you further questions to get closer and closer, until the machine gets it right. it’s not yet clear if Larry Page and Sergey Brin would be willing to invest in an Alphabet spin-off that threatened to kill their golden goose: the risks are just so big, and the scale of the rewards so uncertain. Meanwhile, Siri remains a wildcard, Facebook is testing M, Microsoft is bringing Cortana to Android, and Slack is making a long-term run at the A.I. assistant game, too. This is why they call it a dilemma.

• AOL Scoops Up Mobile Ad Network Millennial Media for $238 Million: AOL has acquired mobile ad network Millennial Media for $238 million, or about $1.75 per share. The Millennial deal is the newest step in building out AOL's tools to compete in mobile advertising against behemoths like Facebook, Yahoo and Google. With the deal, Verizon-owned AOL is getting access to mobile inventory in Millennial's 65,000 apps—equivalent to 1 billion active global users in markets like Germany, France and Japan. It will also help build out its cross-screen programmatic platform called One. AOL's move is the latest sign of the times for mobile ad networks like Millennial (which spent more than $300 million on its own acquisitions in recent years) that have struggled in recent years to keep up in a fast-paced industry. With Millennial now off the table, it could set off a wave of other deals for tech companies to gobble up smaller mobile ad networks that specialize in video and location-based targeting. To stay ahead, Millennial zeroed in on building up its automated capabilities the past couple of years by acquiring two other big mobile players. In 2013, it bought real-time bidding platform Jumptap in for $209 million. Then in September 2014, Millennial acquired ad network Nexage for $107 million. 

• Zomato raises $60M from Temasek, Vy Capital, is a Unicorn now: Restaurant listings and review firm Zomato, which is expanding its business into food ordering and table reservation, has entered the coveted ‘Unicorn Club’ as it has just raised $60 million (Rs 390 crore when it sealed the deal) in a fresh round of funding from Singapore government’s investment company Temasek and existing investor Vy Capital. Although it has not disclosed the valuation, back-of-the-envelope calculations show Zomato is now valued around $1 billion. This would make it one of the eight odd Indian unicorns, a tag meant for startups sporting over $1 billion valuation. Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola, One97 Communications, InMobi, Quikr and Mu Sigma are the other known Unicorns from India. Though some of these firms were launched years ago, their current core business took shape just around five years back. For Zomato, this is its third round of funding since last November when it bagged $60 million and followed it up with another $50 million this April. It was valued at $660 million (post money) in November 2014.