GM Pulls Its Facebook Ads Three Days Before IPO
Via WSJ: General Motors’ marketing executives have decided to pull the company’s $10 million in paid Facebook after deeming the efforts had “little impact” in reaching consumers. The announcement comes three days before Facebook’s initial public offering. The company will continue to use the Facebook platform to promote its brands, operating on a $30 million budget that covers content creation and management. GM, the third largest advertiser in the U.S. behind Procter & Gamble and AT&T, spent $1.83 billion on U.S. advertisements in 2011. Though GM’s decision may be immaterial to Facebook’s $3.7 billion revenue figure, the announcement comes as Facebook executives attempt to assure investors that its advertising business is solid enough to merit the company’s near-certain $100 billion valuation.
ISIS Announces Mobile Payment Merchant Partners
H/T The Verge. NFC's slow start in the U.S. just got a bit of a boost--ISIS, the mobile payment consortium formed by Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, is announcing a slew of national and local merchant partners. Coca-Cola, Aeropostale, Dillard's and Macy's are among the first U.S.-wide adopters of the ISIS Mobile Wallet. Salt Lake City and Austin in Texas (a state that got a jump start on enabling ISIS payments)each have more than a dozen local participants that include cafes, grocery stores and car washes. According to the release, NFC devices with the ISIS Mobile Wallet will go on sale in Salt Lake City and Austin this summer.
Rebekah Brooks To Be Charged In Phone Hacking Case
Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, will been charged in connection with the U.K. phone hacking inquiry, on three counts of conspiracy to prevent the course of justice. Her husband Charlie Brooks, driver, and security staff are also being formally charged. According to the Telegraph, they are being accused of attempting to conceal information, documents and eletronics from Scotland Yard detectives. It's the latest development in a potentially international privacy scandal that has resulted in the closure of one long-running UK newspaper.
Baidu, China's Google, To Release Own-Brand Smartphone, Cloud Service
Baidu dominates search and many web services inside China, and now it's poised to release an inexpensive smartphone powered by its own operating system, backed up by extensive cloud services (does that sound familiar?). According to the Wall Street Journal the system comes with 100GB of cloud storage and includes Baidu maps and licensed music services, and the handset is just $158 in equivalent price. The device, merely the first of many that Baidu expects other operators to launch carrying its OS, is being made in collaboration with Foxconn--Apple's most significant manufacturing partner. Apple has been seeing incredible sales of its iPhone inside China, despite its high price.
Update: The Changhong H5018 has now been revealed. Carrying a forked and gutted version of Android, the device is actually rather attractive with its colored plastic chassis seeming to take a number of design cues from Nokia's N9 and Lumia range. It has a 3.5-inch screen and is an all-touchscreen affair that also includes Baidu's own voice-recognition technology
Via WSJ: General Motors’ marketing executives have decided to pull the company’s $10 million in paid Facebook after deeming the efforts had “little impact” in reaching consumers. The announcement comes three days before Facebook’s initial public offering. The company will continue to use the Facebook platform to promote its brands, operating on a $30 million budget that covers content creation and management. GM, the third largest advertiser in the U.S. behind Procter & Gamble and AT&T, spent $1.83 billion on U.S. advertisements in 2011. Though GM’s decision may be immaterial to Facebook’s $3.7 billion revenue figure, the announcement comes as Facebook executives attempt to assure investors that its advertising business is solid enough to merit the company’s near-certain $100 billion valuation.
ISIS Announces Mobile Payment Merchant Partners
H/T The Verge. NFC's slow start in the U.S. just got a bit of a boost--ISIS, the mobile payment consortium formed by Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, is announcing a slew of national and local merchant partners. Coca-Cola, Aeropostale, Dillard's and Macy's are among the first U.S.-wide adopters of the ISIS Mobile Wallet. Salt Lake City and Austin in Texas (a state that got a jump start on enabling ISIS payments)each have more than a dozen local participants that include cafes, grocery stores and car washes. According to the release, NFC devices with the ISIS Mobile Wallet will go on sale in Salt Lake City and Austin this summer.
Rebekah Brooks To Be Charged In Phone Hacking Case
Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, will been charged in connection with the U.K. phone hacking inquiry, on three counts of conspiracy to prevent the course of justice. Her husband Charlie Brooks, driver, and security staff are also being formally charged. According to the Telegraph, they are being accused of attempting to conceal information, documents and eletronics from Scotland Yard detectives. It's the latest development in a potentially international privacy scandal that has resulted in the closure of one long-running UK newspaper.
Baidu, China's Google, To Release Own-Brand Smartphone, Cloud Service
Baidu dominates search and many web services inside China, and now it's poised to release an inexpensive smartphone powered by its own operating system, backed up by extensive cloud services (does that sound familiar?). According to the Wall Street Journal the system comes with 100GB of cloud storage and includes Baidu maps and licensed music services, and the handset is just $158 in equivalent price. The device, merely the first of many that Baidu expects other operators to launch carrying its OS, is being made in collaboration with Foxconn--Apple's most significant manufacturing partner. Apple has been seeing incredible sales of its iPhone inside China, despite its high price.
Update: The Changhong H5018 has now been revealed. Carrying a forked and gutted version of Android, the device is actually rather attractive with its colored plastic chassis seeming to take a number of design cues from Nokia's N9 and Lumia range. It has a 3.5-inch screen and is an all-touchscreen affair that also includes Baidu's own voice-recognition technology
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