Platform Executive

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: Facebook reveals new features for creators to earn money from e-commerce sales Facebook's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the company will build new features starting with Instagram for content creators to earn money from recommending products on the app and a marketplace to help connect brands with 'influencers'. While speaking with Adam Mosseri, head of Facebook-owned Instagram , during a livestreamed video, Zuckerberg also said the social network will launch "creator shops" as part of the e-commerce push. The announcements are part of Facebook's effort to serve the "creator economy," in which social media influencers, journalists and others are earning money directly from their fans on platforms, including Clubhouse , Patreon , Substack and YouTube . Facebook will build an affiliate program that will let creators earn a cut of sales fr...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: FinTech start-up Current valuation triples after Andreessen funding Current has raised $220 million in a funding round led by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz that lifted its valuation by three-fold to a cool $2.2 billion. The New York-based company said in a statement on Tuesday it planned to use the new funds to expand its product portfolio, including cryptocurrencies. Current has no immediate plans of considering a stock market listing but will look to be ready to go public in the next few years, its founder and CEO Stuart Sopp said in an interview with journalists at our news agency partners, Reuters. Venture capital firms are betting big on FinTech after the COVID-19 pandemic drove a surge in online transactions last year. Earlier in 2021, Digital payments giant Stripe became the most valuable start-up in the US with a valuation of $95 billion. Founded in 2015, Curre...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: How will Apple’s new privacy changes impact businesses and consumers? Apple has now begun rolling out an update of its iOS operating system with new privacy controls designed to limit digital advertisers from tracking iPhone users. For Apple's more than 1 billion iPhone users, the change will mean a new pop-up notification in some apps seeking their permission to collect data that Apple believes could be used to track their browsing habits across third-party apps and websites. For businesses, the rules could bring seismic changes to the nearly $100 billion mobile advertising market if most iPhone users decline to allow data collection, though the exact impact remains a question, according to industry experts. EXACTLY WHAT IS APPLE DOING? Apple is requiring app developers who want to collect a digital advertising identifier from iPhone users to show a pop-up saying that the app ...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: Bitcoin hit with record weekly outflow as rally ebbs Bitcoin posted a record weekly outflow, with overall sentiment on cryptocurrencies turning cautious as the digital asset's searing rally hit a wall, data from digital currency manager CoinShares showed on Monday. Outflows for bitcoin hit $21 million for the week of April 23, the largest weekly outflow on record. Total weekly inflows for the sector were just $1.3 million, the lowest weekly figure since October 2020. That said, CoinShares said outflows last week were 0.05% of the crypto sector's assets under management, while weekly inflows this year averaged 0.6%. Total assets under management were $54.3 billion as of last week, down from $64.2 billion in mid-April. "We saw investors shifting funds away from bitcoin amid some idiosyncratic developments last week, prominently including the temporary power outage in mi...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: Apple iPhone privacy update seen hurting Facebook revenue in second-quarter When Facebook Inc reports first quarter earnings on Wednesday, investors will be preoccupied with how a new pop-up privacy notification on Apple's iPhones will affect the second quarter. A full-screen notification will begin to appear on iPhone apps on Monday that will ask users if they consent to being tracked "across apps and websites owned by other companies” for advertising purposes. Facebook faces up to a 7% decline in second quarter revenue if 80% of its users block the company from tracking them on iPhones, said mobile ad analyst Eric Seufert. That amounts to nearly $2 billion based on Facebook's fourth quarter earnings. Facebook last year hit back against Apple's plans, taking out full-page ads in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal , accusing Apple of hurting SME's that ...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: German business groups file complaint over Apple privacy settings Germany’s media, internet and advertising industries have filed an antitrust complaint against Apple Inc, alleging that new iPhone privacy settings represent a market abuse and a violation of competition law. The filing, to the German Federal Cartel Office, came as Apple was due to roll out a new transparency framework that would require users to opt in to being tracked for the purpose of advertising. “As a result of these one-sided measures, Apple is effectively shutting out all competitors from processing commercially relevant data in its ecosystem,” several business associations said in a joint statement. The plaintiffs filing the complaint included Germany’s main newspaper publishing lobby group and its advertising federation. Apple rejected their arguments, saying the new privacy framework to be contained in its iOS 1...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found on the following page: Viable plan or security theatre? The EU embraces vaccine passports As the EU races to set up a digital health pass scheme to save the holiday season from the pandemic, technical and political obstacles are showing just how big a challenge the world faces in building such systems, people involved in the effort say. Developers are grappling with issues ranging from the practical - such as what to accept as proof of being COVID-19 free - to the philosophical, including debates over discrimination and personal privacy. Southern countries that depend on tourism like Spain, Greece and Portugal are clamouring for a quick rollout of the promised European Union "digital green pass", saying their economies will not withstand the loss of another summer season. The EU Commission plans to award a contract this month for a central system for verifying the digital passes, which will use ...