Amazon buys video site Twitch for close to $1bn August 25, 2014 Internet giant Amazon last night snapped up gamers’ video website Twitch for $970m (£585m). The service is just three years old, and is used by millions of gamers and viewers every month. In July 55m unique visitors watched 15bn minutes of videos – four-and-a-half hours on average. Amazon has a rapacious appetite for new tech [...]
eSports is Amazon’s big bet on the future – Bottom Line August 25, 2014 While eSports may look and sound like child’s play, it is in fact big business. Last year the industry attracted 71.5m online viewers worldwide, with Twitch being the destination of choice for over 75 per cent of viewers, and total prize money across eSport competitions reached $25m. While those viewer numbers are a drop in [...]
Amazon’s £6 card reader and mobile app signal retailer’s move to high street payments August 13, 2014 Amazon yesterday unveiled a $10 (£6) card reader and mobile app to allow high street businesses to accept card payments, marking the latest step by the online retail giant to expand its presence in the physical world. The move challenges a slew of rivals in the space, including startup Square, which popularised a payments dongle [...]
Watch: Jack Reacher author Lee Child on the Amazon row August 13, 2014 Jack Reacher author Lee Child appeared on Newsnight yesterday to explain why he and hundreds of other authors have spoken out against Amazon. The etail giant is in a stand-off over pricing with publishing group Hachette, which has the rights to authors as varied as JK Rowling (post-Harry Potter), Stephenie Meyer of Twilight fame, crime [...]
Amazon halts Disney orders of Maleficent and Captain America after price row August 10, 2014 Amazon halted pre-orders of a number of Disney movies on its US website yesterday in what appears to be another contract dispute, following a pricing spat with publisher Hachette Book Group. Last night physical copies of Disney titles such as Maleficent and Captain America: The Winter Soldier were unavailable for pre-order on Amazon.com. Amazon blocked [...]
Amazon tells readers to email Hachette boss Michael Pietsch and ask for cheaper ebooks August 10, 2014 In the latest chapter of the fight between Amazon and book publisher Hachette, the internet bookseller has urged readers to email Hachette boss Michael Pietsch asking him to lower the price of ebooks. Currently locked in an ongoing battle over how much ebooks should sell for, a note on www.readersunited.com and signed from “The Amazon [...]
Amazon shares slide as markets take a dim view of second-quarter loss July 25, 2014 Amazon shares have folded faster than high-street bookstores today after the Nasdaq showed what it thought of the world's largest online retailer posting a loss for the second quarter and falling some way short of market expectations. Shares had slumped by 11.36 per cent at pixel time with earlier losses as high as twelve per cent. That [...]
Amazon share price dives as losses increase July 24, 2014 More of the same from Amazon, as it continues its tradition of favouring growth over profits. The e-commerce giant has just announced a loss of $126m, or $0.27 per share for the three months to the end of June, coming in significantly below Wall Street estimates of a $0.15 per share loss. The second quarter [...]
Amazon Kindle Unlimited: £6 a month “Netflix for books” ebook subscription service launches July 18, 2014 Amazon has officially launched its new book subscription service Kindle Unlimited after details of the new offering leaked earlier in the week. Dubbed the “Netflix for books”, Amazon Unlimited will offer customers unlimited access to selected books and audiobooks, including best sellers such as Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, for a monthly fee of [...]
Author Allan Ahlberg turns down award because it is sponsored by Amazon July 11, 2014 Revered children's author Allan Ahlberg has turned down an award for lifetime achievement because it is sponsored by Amazon, saying “the idea that my 'lifetime achievement' should have the Amazon tag attached to it is unacceptable". The award was offered to him by the Booktrust at its Best Book Awards earlier this month, and [...]