One of the many digital content services going global is music video outfit Vevo. Certain new countries mean a mobile-first approach – but that puts services at the mercy of a mobile ad ecosystem they say is still playing catch-up to desktop. Read more at paidContent »
Would you record your life in a series of geotagged photos? Swedish startup Memoto is betting enough people will want digital memory assistance, and their first-day performance on Kickstarter backs them up. Read more »
4G mobile networks promise fast content access out of the home. The UK’s first such network is bundling movies and free WiFi access – but will consumers pay the 4G premium? Read more at paidContent »
Mobile networks like Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica are urgently investing in over-the-top internet services to guard against becoming dumb pipes. But what is the real value in telcos trying to mimic WhatsApp? Read more »
Music service Rara has spent the last 10 months quietly tweaking its offering following a quiet launch. Now it will start going live properly. The catch? Every user is going to have to pay to play. Read more at paidContent »
Iceland’s citizens were given a chance to help forge a new constitution for their country through Facebook and Twitter, so it’s not surprising that they backed the resulting draft. Now it’s over to the politicians. Read more »
European vacation rentals site HouseTrip has everything going for it right now: not least fast growth and a fresh new round of funding. Co-founder Arnaud Bertrand lays out why he thinks his site can carry on winning — and reveals the scale of his ambition. Read more »
The digital vendor that powers music services for Samsung, HTC, RIM and others is taking on investment to expand its offering from downloads to streaming, radio and more. Read more at paidContent »
The investment bank Torch Partners, which has played a part in the growth of companies such as Huddle, OnApp and Just Eat, says it is attracted to Berlin partly by the B2B scene that’s quietly bubbling away there. Read more »
‘Dead trees’ aren’t dead – they’re just dying. As news publishing’s funding dilemma grows more acute, everyone seems to know what The Guardian should do. Plenty of opinions were floated this week, as the paper denied it will stop printing. Read more at paidContent »
TeliaSonera’s revenues and subscriber base aren’t budging, but the Nordic carrier claims its costs are skyrocketing. In an effort to realign its business with new mobile data realities, the carrier said it will lay off 7 percent of its workforce over two years. Read more »
Managing cloud app-hosting services when many different locations and installations are involved can be a tricky exercise. Julian Coulon of Cedexis has some tips and tricks. Read more »
Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens sees it as a ‘personal disappointment’ that there aren’t more companies lining up to follow his firm’s highly lucrative open source subscription path. Read more »
Trying to come up with an Amazon of Europe is going to be hard work, said Marten Mickos, the CEO of Eucalyptus Systems. The continent has a number of issues to deal with including inertia and resistance to change. Read more »
The software-defined datacenter is just starting to become a reality, and the move to this new environment raises interesting questions around flash storage expectations and network ownership. Read more »
Facebook users love sharing photos, and the demands of that appetite are gargantuan. Infrastructure engineering VP Jay Parikh lifted the lid on Facebook’s seven-petabytes-per-month photo upload task, during GigaOM’s Structure:Europe conference. Read more »
Where’s the best place for cloud investment in Europe? Day One of Structure Europe concluded with an interesting discussion on cloud opportunities for startup companies. Read more »
TechCrunch’s CrunchBase has become a repository of information about tech startups. Now a Russian outfit wants to replicate the model, connecting investors with Russia’s fast-growing scene for a monthly subscription. Read more at paidContent »
T-Mobile Austria, Huawei and Qualcomm have announced a relatively smooth handover of a voice calls between LTE and 3G network technologies. This should clear the way for manufacturers to start building Voice over LTE into more phones. Read more »
He quit HMV’s digital turnaround. Now new Trinity Mirror CEO Simon Fox says the UK news publisher must become leaner and abort its new Groupon clone to fund better apps and websites for its newspapers. Read more at paidContent »
It can finally be confirmed that Levin is in charge of Poolworks, formerly VZ Networks, the company behind German Facebook clone StudiVZ. But why was the new owner’s identity such a secret? Read more »
When the man at the center of the ‘Twitter Joke Trial’ had his conviction quashed, it seemed some sanity had returned to the British legal system’s approach to online offensiveness. But that’s not how things worked out. Read more »
Taxi-hailing apps are already starting to crowd the U.S. market, but the German myTaxi may just have an edge. It already has 2.3 million users, for one thing, but it also has a clever plan in mind. Read more »
Google has apparently offered to indicate when its search results point to its own properties, in its ongoing negotiations with EC antitrust investigators. But that offer likely doesn’t neutralise the original complaints. Read more at paidContent »
UK mobile ad spending is more than doubling year-on-year, according to new figures, as two more vendors in the space take on new financing to exploit the sector’s growth opportunity. Read more at paidContent »
The YouTube of sound is a clear success, but its big monetization play – beyond pro-account subscriptions – still remains a mystery. Read more »
Keen to drive up its digital ecommerce, the BBC’s commercial division will let buyers of some TV DVDs stream their contents through Flixster as part of UltraViolet’s DECE consortium. Read more at paidContent »
The British company’s Series C includes Accel Partners as well as existing investors Balderton Capital and Index Ventures. HouseTrip has also released numbers that suggest it’s in second place behind Airbnb. Read more »
Pearson may be a giant of corporate publishing. But now it is throwing DK’s rich encyclopedic image bank and dozens of classic novels in with the content it wants developers to re-use in their own apps. Read more at paidContent »
4G isn’t the future anymore. A consortium of companies is to set up a ’5G Innovation Centre’ at the University of Surrey, with the aim of making mobile broadband communications faster and more efficient. Read more »
It’s the most viewed YouTube viral ever. Now the stars of Charlie Bit My Finger will get their own professional web series, as agents aim to monetise viral amateur stars on TV’s big screen. Read more at paidContent »
Looking to broaden itself from skateboarding dogs by increasing its volume of original professional video, YouTube is extending its original-channel deal with established producers, with 60 new channels in Europe and the States. Read more at paidContent »
Deezer now stands a much greater chance of challenging powerful Spotify in the race to sign unlimited-music subscription customers, after reportedly taking a €100 million funding. But can any of their ilk be a success? Read more at paidContent »
It’s not home to Google, Amazon or Facebook, but from plucky entrepreneurs to the world’s most-advanced computing systems, Europe has a lot more to offer the world of cloud computing and web infrastructure than might meet the eye. Here are seven reasons why it matters. Read more »
Faced with a huge hike in taxes on the benefits of equity sales, French entrepreneurs banded together as ‘Les Pigeons’ and forced the government to reverse its plans. Read more »
The service, which lets users search for Instagram photos by location, had a great start – for a day or so. With sudden popularity hitting the ceiling of API limits, it’s just as well Worldcam is a side-project. Read more »
The march of time and the advance of content formats is leaving thousands of old movies unwatchable. Now the British Film Institute will digitise many to preserve them and make them available online. Read more at paidContent »
Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino once said the FT would be sold “over my dead body”. Now her exit after 15 years is calling some to wonder whether things might change. Read more at paidContent »
A popular service delivering extra live TV streams to UK viewers is being shrunk by the BBC as it looks to move the idea online to cut costs and spurn innovation. Read more »
Google’s video site is already the number-five web service in Turkey. Now it will have to work under the fast-growing country’s laws. But that could mean a big growth opportunity for the service. Read more at paidContent »
