Tencent, Asia’s most valuable tech firm, delivered a surprise drop in profit on account of lower investment gains. The firm recorded strong growth with revenue up 30 percent year-on-year to reach 73.7 billion RMB ($10.7 billion) in Q2 2018. But net profit slipped by two percent annually to reach 17.9 billion RMB, or around $2.6 billion. […]
View More Chinese internet giant Tencent suffers a rare profit dropCategory: RSS
Mobile guru Amol Sarva talks about the future of work
Amol Sarva has done some amazing stuff. The founder of Virgin Mobile, Sarva went on to create the Peek email device created back when cheap, ubiquitous mobile devices were nowhere to be found. Now he runs Knotel, a unique workspace aimed at up and coming startups. In this episode of Technotopia I asked Sarva about […]
View More Mobile guru Amol Sarva talks about the future of workRSS is undead
RSS died. Whether you blame Feedburner, or Google Reader, or Digg Reader last month, or any number of other product failures over the years, the humble protocol has managed to keep on trudging along despite all evidence that it is dead, dead, dead. Now, with Facebook’s scandal over Cambridge Analytica, there is a whole new […]
View More RSS is undeadAlas, Digg Reader is shutting down at the end of March
After the death — no, let’s not mince words — murder of Google Reader, I tried out a dozen or so other RSS readers to see if I could get a similar experience. Of all the ones I tested, I was very surprised to find that Digg Reader was the best of them all, for my purposes anyway.
View More Alas, Digg Reader is shutting down at the end of MarchAuthor Nick Montfort tells us how to define the future
Nick Montfort is a professor in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies/Writing and the author of a new book, “The Future.” His book explores “future makers” – people who create the future with their work. It’s a fascinating read and he’s a fascinating thinker in the space. Our conversation on Technotopia started with the Norman Bel Geddes, designer of… Read More
Writer Tobias Stone talks about the history of the future
Tobias Stone blew up Medium in 2016 with is post about Trump and Brexit. The trained historian, philosopher, and (full disclosure) husband of TechCrunch’s amazing Leslie Hitchcock, took the lessons of the past and extrapolated what we can expect to see in the next few years as our political chickens come home to roost. In this Technotopia podcast Stone shares his thoughts on the… Read More
Spotify and Tencent agree to swap stakes in their music businesses
Tencent’s overseas investment splurge continues after the company confirmed a deal with Spotify that will see the duo make investments in each other’s music businesses. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), the Chinese firm’s subsidiary that manages its music streaming and karaoke services, will make an undisclosed minority investment in Spotify through new shares, while… Read More
Digital ethicist James Williams talks about the rise of bad social media
James Williams is a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute. He studies the ethics of attention and persuasion in technology design and spoke with us about the rise of attention-grabbing advertising and media and how we can fight back…
View More Digital ethicist James Williams talks about the rise of bad social mediaAI pioneer Chris Boos talks about the future of machine learning
This week on Technotopia I talk to Chris Boos, the creator of a bot that can play FreeCiv, a Civilization clone. His solution demonstrates the power of machine learning and, wildly, has beat multiple humans and the game. Boos’ company, Arago, specializes in building tools that build themselves. Humans can show his bots how to do something – manage a piece of software, for… Read More
Tencent’s online publishing arm set to raise $1B in Hong Kong IPO
Tencent’s China Literature, an Amazon-like e-book business, is continuing the trend of Asian tech IPOs after it announced its public listing in Hong Kong will raise $1.06 billion on Wednesday. The company set the price for its 151,371,800 share offering at HK$55, the top end of its range, and it could sell an additional 22.7 million through a greenshoe option with underwriters. The… Read More