Almost a year after it angered users with its ‘quick bar’ advertising, and several months into its new Promoted Tweet service, Twitter’s ad platform seems as shaky as ever. Is targeted advertising a myth, or can Dick Costolo and team turn it around? Read more »
Startups often rail against copycat companies, arguing that they steal their business and their ideas. But maybe the secret to beating clones isn’t to waste time trying to shut them down — it’s to accept them and focus on being bigger, better and faster. Read more »
Britain’s Daily Mail has eclipsed rivals including the New York Times to become the web’s biggest newspaper. But other media companies hoping to emulate its success will have their work cut out — unless they’re prepared to play fast and loose with the normal rules of journalism. Read more »
The team behind design sales site Fab.com was outraged to discover a U.K.-based rival that seems to mimic not only their business but also their look. But outrage may not be enough to stop Germany’s Samwer brothers from going big with their latest clone. Read more »
Cloud collaboration service Huddle is targeting huge corporate customers, bringing them a new tier of service that allows an unlimited number of users for no extra charge. Can it help win new business and take on the industry’s biggest beasts? Read more »
Netflix wants to recover from a disastrous few months by launching in the U.K. and Ireland — but the company will have to overcome many obstacles to achieve success, not least competition from broadcasters who have very different priorities from their American counterparts. Read more »
London-based startup Pusher began life in unusual fashion — but now, thanks to its tools to let developers build real-time services quickly and easily — it is hoping to become the foundation for a new generation of online apps. Read more »
Reports suggest Nokia could be preparing to elevate F-Secure founder Risto Siilasmaa from its board to the role of chairman — and a speech from 2009 gives an intriguing insight into how he could view his role at the top of the troubled mobile giant. Read more »
After much deliberation, Spain’s Sinde Law — an antipiracy initiative similar to America’s proposed SOPA legislation — has passed. But it is not entering the statute books without controversy over its reach, remit and the threats made by the U.S. government to force it through. Read more »
Controversy in Northern Ireland after an investigative reporter uncovered the criminal background of a prominent new business investor — a revelation which has led to a series of critical questions about his activities and relationship with the region’s startups. Read more »
Some newspaper websites made a little ground with their paywall strategies over the past year. But the media industry should be very careful about over-interpreting the successes of a handful over the struggles of the multitude. Read more »
Sources have confirmed that work on an iPad app specially designed for British Prime Minister David Cameron has been underway for several months — and that, once completed, officials plan to make it available to the public. Read more »
Recommendations have become the holy grail of the social web, sparking competition between small services like Pinterest to Amen and large ones like Facebook and Google+. So how can Italian website Circleme elbow in on the action? Read more »
Social startup Allthis found itself under fire this week for a viral marketing approach many people found spammy and invasive. But heinous though it is, its behavior is just part of a trend among new services to appropriate our online identities to power themselves. Read more »
The extent of corruption in Russia’s technology industry has been revealed by a survey which says as much as 60 percent of payments made are bribes. Is that a stark warning for startups wanting to tap into a lucrative market — or simply the cost of operating? Read more »
On the scale of surprises, the news that British Telecom has become the latest technology company to sue Google is not at the high end. The number of Android lawsuits is so large that real question won’t be about who’s suing Google — but who isn’t. Read more »
Contrary to reports, Angry Birds maker Rovio says it will not be looking to float the company next year — but is instead targeting 2013 for an IPO, which it says could give it time to grow as large as Disney. Read more »
Mobile payment service Square has taken a stand against NFC touch technology in favor of its own card swipe and location-based services. But transatlantic rival iZettle says that it will remain agnostic as it tries to corner the European market. Read more »
Cloud-based presentation service Prezi kicked up a fuss when it offered a dynamic alternative to dreary formats. Now, two years after launch, the Hungarian startup has scored a serious round of funding to take the battle to PowerPoint. Read more »
London startup Transferwise wants to be the Skype of currency exchange, disrupting existing services that charge customers heavily for moving their money. But can its low-cost, peer-to-peer approach really succeed? Read more »
Last.fm is returning to its roots as a music data and discovery service, launching a new product that lets users tap into a database of independent artists and musicians with a click. Read more »
Swedish banks are fighting off rumors of financial difficulties amid reports that online rumors led to a $29m bank run in Latvia over the weekend. But was it really a Twitter-induced panic? Read more »
Nobody was surprised when Gowalla announced that it would be shutting down after selling to Facebook — after all, almost none of the services it has bought in the past five years have stayed alive. But is this sell up-shut down approach fair on users? Read more »
The startup world is littered with stories of bad behavior, arguments, bullying and trickery that few people would tolerate in normal life. But German researchers suggest this might not just be a coincidence — and that perhaps it’s crucial to a company’s success. Read more »
French music streaming service Deezer has been pushing hard to take on rivals like Spotify — and now wants to expand to 200 countries by next year. But do its claims match up to reality? Read more »
Social reading app Readmill has been tipped as one of Berlin’s hottest startups — but does it have what it takes to shape the way we read? The company is about to find out as it opens its service to the public for the first time. Read more »
European antitrust regulators have announced the launch of a formal investigation into the relationship between Apple and five of the world’s largest publishers, in a move that could reshape the digital book market. Read more »
Europe’s top officials have regularly moved to strike down punitive anti-piracy laws and protect ISPs from litigation — but recent news from France and Spain show that the debate is far from over at the national level. Read more »
After finding Groupon’s U.K. operation in breach of advertising rules nearly 50 times this year, officials are now referring complaints to regulators conducting a wider investigation into the company’s business practices. Read more »
The tough times for Nokia even stretch to its home territory in Finland — where the company’s traditional dominance of the smartphone market has been massively eroded in the past year, according to new figures from IDC. Read more »
Some of Europe’s leading investors gathered in Italy last week to discuss the problems and opportunities faced by startups across the continent. But what did they actually think? And what does it mean? Read more »
Here’s something fun from London design consultancy BERG: a social printer that connects to a variety of online services and runs off a ticker of news and information from the world around you. Read more »
The British government is gambling on the idea that greater access to public data will encourage economic growth — and resurrecting a plan it had previously killed to build a world-leading open data research center. Read more »
Reports this weekend suggest that Facebook is about to face a new crackdown from European authorities over the way it collects data on users — but closer inspection suggests that it is just the latest episode in an ongoing struggle between EU officials and technology companies. Read more »
Faced with reports from analysts about lower-than-expected sales and share price trouble, Nokia has fired back by announcing that UK sales of the Lumia 800 are doing better than expected. Is it time to cut the Finnish handset maker a break? Read more »
Swedish micropayments startup Flattr is hoping it can encourage web users to hand over cash to the bloggers they love — and gain a bit of traction for its own service in the process. Read more »
The founders aren’t happy when people call HouseTrip a clone of Airbnb, but the European holiday rental site is hoping to go head-to-head with its American rival after scooping a substantial new round of investment. Read more »
Arguments over the compensation that artists get from streaming services like Spotify and Rdio just won’t go away — because everyone has wildly different experiences. So who’s got it wrong? Perhaps the real problem is that everybody is right in their own way. Read more »
Want to give Christmas a bit of a technological twist? Forget buying gadgets and doodads as gifts: why not dangle a 3D printed, data-crafted bauble from your tree instead? Read more »
A consortium of more than 200 small electronic music labels have become the latest to quit Spotify — and other streaming services — in a protest at the amount of money they earn. But can compensation ever match consumption? Read more »
