Facebook’s global economic impact was $227 billion in 2014, said a study released Tuesday by Deloitte. The social media company created 4.5 million jobs, it said. The study, which Deloitte prepared for Facebook, measured the company's effect on marketing services ($148 billion); platform and app development ($29 billion); and the demand for mobile devices and broadband services ($50 billion). The study’s findings focused on third parties affected by Facebook and excluded the revenue and jobs within the social media company. Facebook generated $100 billion in the U.S.; the European Union, $68 billion; the U.K., $11 billion; and Brazil, $10 billion, said Deloitte. It said the company’s activities created 1.07 million jobs in the U.S.; the EU, 1.13 million jobs; and 335,000 jobs in India.
Bitcoin payment processor Coinbase raised $75 million in a Series C funding round, the single largest financing round for a bitcoin company, Coinbase said in a blog post Tuesday. DFJ Growth led the funding round, which included Andreessen Horowitz, Ribbit Capital and Union Square Ventures, it said. BBVA, the New York Stock Exchange and the United Services Automobile Association also participated, becoming the first financial institutions to make a “major” investment in a bitcoin company, said Coinbase. Former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer also contributed to the round. PayPal-backed Braintree, Dell, Dish Network, 1-800-Flowers.com, United Way and Wikimedia Foundation partnered with Coinbase for accepting payments last year (see 1409160068).
Facebook users on Tuesday found a new feature on their News Feed, intended to help reduce the number of misleading news stories featured on the social networking site. While Facebook says it doesn’t have plans at this time to remove faux news stories entirely from the website, Facebook users will be able to mark a story as being false, just like one would mark a post as being spam. Posts that several users report to be a hoax will then contain warnings, informing users that many other Facebook users reported the link, photo, video or status update to be misleading or false.
Virgin Mobile was to begin offering no-contract data-sharing plans Saturday starting at $30 per line, available exclusively at Walmart. The data-sharing plans are “some of the most aggressive shared-line plans ever launched,” Angela Rittgers, Sprint Prepaid vice president, said. Four 4G LTE smartphones are part of the plan initially -- the HTC Desire 510 ($99), LG Tribute ($79), LG Volt ($149) and Samsung Galaxy Core Prime ($129) -- and the phones are preloaded with an app that enables customers to manage data sharing from the device, Virgin Mobile said. Every multiline plan will also come with a free Mobile Hotspot feature, the carrier said. Data buy-up options start at $10 per month for 1 GB, it said. A $20 starter kit is required to activate each new line of service and includes two months of unlimited music streaming without counting against the customer’s data allotment, Virgin Mobile said, and for $5 per month subscribers can get unlimited use of social media and music streaming apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Pandora and Twitter, without counting against the monthly data allotment. The plan will be available on more devices at the end of February, it said.
Twitch created an online library of “free-to-use” music, it said in a news release. The music is intended for Twitch users creating their own videos, it said Thursday. The Twitch Music Library has more than 500 songs “provided by established and burgeoning labels,” Twitch said. “Twitch will be continually adding to this library as more music industry partners become part of the system.” The tracks in the library “will not be flagged by the audio recognition system implemented in 2014 to protect audio copyright holders,” Twitch said. Along with the library, Twitch has created a new video category for user-created and -performed music, said the company.
While short-form video and user-generated content have gone viral among users and companies, TV and movies remain key players in the online video market, said an ABI Research news release Friday. The industry research firm estimated that by 2019, short-form video revenue will be about $13 billion and the online video market as a whole will reach about $56 billion. Short-form video’s share of the market isn't growing as quickly as other segments, said analyst Michael Inouye in an email. Its popularity leaves “less room for it to grow, unless you expect customers to forgo watching TV shows and movies and simply watch shorts, advertisements and user-generated content, which we don’t believe will happen,” he said. But he said viral videos and ad campaigns won’t be going away. The lines between pay TV and over-the-top video will continue blurring, Inouye said. “Short-form video has already become part of the premium content market,” with viral ads and TV shows producing “webisodes” or behind-the-scenes shorts, he said. Customers still watch TV shows and movies, but increasingly through digital distribution, including TV Everywhere, OTT services and electronic sell-through, he said. Original programming remains a big driver for TV and movies, and long-form videos generate significantly higher revenue per view, he said. “A longer video allows for more advertisements per engagement. Advertising on streamed episodes of a popular TV show is more predictable than signing with a multi-channel network or a particular YouTube celebrity.”
Expedia is giving a free HTC smartphone to customers who sign up for a new or two-year activation with “select service plans” on the Sprint and Verizon networks, Expedia said. Customers can earn triple reward points in Expedia's loyalty program when they use the Expedia smartphone app to book flights and hotels, it said.
Samsung said it began producing the first 8-gigabit GDDR5 DRAM based on its 20-nanometer process technology. CE applications for the GDDR5 DRAM include graphics cards for PCs and game consoles, the company said Thursday. Combining eight of the 8-gigabit (Gb) chips achieves the same density as the 8 gigabytes (GB) needed for the latest game consoles, Samsung said. Two GB of graphics memory can be created with two of the new chips, which together can process up to 64 GB of graphical images per second, equivalent to roughly 12 HD DVDs, the company said. Samsung said it will continue to expand production volume at various densities including 4 Gb and 6 Gb and higher for both high-end information technology and value-driven markets.
Bose shed more light on the SoundTouch systems that Staples is selling as part of the Connect smart home ecosystem, in an email Wednesday. Bose provided Staples with application program interface (API) commands to offer “select control of our SoundTouch Wi-Fi music systems,” said Glenn Gomes-Casseres, product manager-Bose SoundTouch systems, including selecting music through presets, playing different music in each room and creating custom zones. Bob Cooper, chief marketing officer of Zonoff, which supplies the Connect smart home platform to Staples, told us at CES that the Bose system can integrate with other Connect devices in the home to add audio alerts or features triggered by events (see 1501140038). An example was the ability to play a recorded sound of a barking dog that could play through the Bose system triggered by a motion sensor or a doorbell, or a siren that could go off to indicate an emergency. “Our SoundTouch systems essentially serve as the playback device for these sounds and alerts,” Gomes-Casseres said. “What those sounds are, and how they will be used in the home, are being defined by Staples.” On Bose’s plans for expanding SoundTouch to other platforms, Gomes-Casseres called home automation “an exciting step for our SoundTouch products.” Now that the company’s APIs are publicly available, he said, “it opens up the possibility for us to work with more home automation platforms in the future.” He didn’t elaborate on plans, citing company policy.
Marriott International “listens to its customers” and will no longer block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of the hotels the company manages, it said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday. “Marriott remains committed to protecting the security of Wi-Fi access in meeting and conference areas at our hotels,” the company said. “We will continue to look to the FCC to clarify appropriate security measures network operators can take to protect customer data, and will continue to work with the industry and others to find appropriate market solutions that do not involve the blocking of Wi-Fi devices.” In August, Marriott, joined by the American Hospitality and Lodging Association and Ryman Hospitality Properties, asked the agency for clarity on the extent to which companies can manage networks on their properties without violating FCC rules, and the FCC sought comment (see 1501010001). In October, Marriott agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve an FCC investigation into whether the company intentionally interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville (see 1410060066).