Tag Archives: yhoo

WhatsApp Just Added End-To-End Encryption For Over 1 Billion Users

The Apple ( AAPL )-FBI over iPhone privacy is so last month. While the FBI may have cracked the smartphone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists, Facebook ( FB ) unit WhatsApp on Wednesday launched end-to-end encryption. More than one billion people use Facebook’s WhatApp. WhatsApp founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum  explained how the system will work in a blog post. “From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call you make, and every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you send, is end-to-end encrypted by default, including group chats. The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us.” That means that WhatsApp couldn’t help governments crack your messages even if it wanted to. The app will work for the Apple iPhone, as well as smartphones using Alphabet-owned Google Android software or any other mobile device. Koum, who is WhatsApp’s CEO and a former Yahoo ( YHOO ) employee along with Acton, cited his childhood in the communist Soviet Union as key to his “desire to protect people’s private communication.” Facebook stock fell 0.3% to 112.22 in the stock market today . The stock is near a buy point of 117.69, which would be a new high. Facebook could be forming a handle that would create a slightly lower buy area. Apple fell 1.2% to 109.80 Tuesday after crossing above its 200-day line Monday and failing to close above that level. Alphabet fell 0.8% to 758.67, below a buy point at 810.45. Yahoo retreated 1.65%.  

Twitter Wins Right To Stream NFL’s Worst Football Games

Twitter ( TWTR ) will live-stream Thursday Night Football, confirmed NFL Comissioner Roger Goodell in a Tuesday morning post on — where else — Twitter. This fall Thursday Night Football will be streamed live @twitter so fans will see more of this. https://t.co/s6tbr9FjvY — Roger Goodell (@nflcommish) April 5, 2016 The news unofficially sprung up early Tuesday, with Bloomberg reporting that Verizon Communications ( VZ ), Yahoo ( YHOO ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) were also in the bidding for the NFL streaming rights. Facebook ( FB ) pulled its bid last week, said the media outlet, citing a person familiar with the matter. Terms of the transaction are unknown. But according to an official release , Twitter will offer a free live-stream of 10 Thursday Night Football games “broadcast by NBC and CBS, which will also be simulcast on NFL Network, securing the league’s “Tri-Cast” distribution model of broadcast (NBC/CBS), cable (NFL Network), and digital (Twitter).” “Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football,” said Goodell in the prepared statement. Re/Code reported that Twitter will pay less than $10 million for all 10 games. Thursday night football games often are criticized for being low quality. Players have less time to recover, while coaches have less time to develop strategies. Twitter rose to 17.83 shortly after the open, but closed down 4 cents to 7.05 on the stock market today . The stock has been trading below its 50-day level for the better part of five months, though shares retook support at the key level on Monday. Facebook fell 0.3%, Amazon 1.2%, Verizon 0.6% and Yahoo 1.65% as the general market retreated.

Mobile Drives Continued Rise Of Programmatic Digital Display Ads

Mobile is driving programmatic advertising growth, with mobile accounting for more than two-thirds of all programmatic digital display-ad spending this year, says eMarketer in a report on Tuesday. Facebook ( FB ), Alphabet ( GOOGL )‘s Google-owned YouTube, LinkedIn ( LNKD ) and others are helping to drive the trend. Ad sales conducted by machines rather than ad salespeople — so-called programmatic ads — take less time to execute and cost advertisers less, which accounts for their popularity with advertisers though it tends to lower revenue for online-ad platforms. U.S. programmatic digital display-ad spending is projected to rise to $27.4 billion in 2017, up 24%, said eMarketer. But that growth rate is declining from a projected 39% this year and 53% in 2015, the research group said. This year, however, mobile programmatic spending will reach $15.45 billion in the U.S., representing 69% of all programmatic digital display-ad spending. That’s up from 60% in 2015 and 46% in 2014. For programmatic mobile video ads, 2017 is expected to mark a tipping point as mobile surpasses desktop for the first time. By 2017, programmatic mobile video ad spending will reach $3.89 billion, representing just over half of total programmatic ad spending in the U.S. But on desktop, programmatic video-ad spending will reach $3.73 billion next year, falling to 49% of total programmatic digital display-ad spending in the U.S., said eMarketer. Last year, professional social networking site LinkedIn ( LNKD ) reported that its move toward programmatic ad sales had dragged down its revenue growth. Rapid adoption of programmatic ads last year also hit crowdsourced online-review site Yelp ( YELP ) and Web portal Yahoo ( YHOO ). Yahoo, however, points to the long-term potential of such ads and has invested in them heavily, including through its $640 million purchase of BrightRoll, a leading provider of programmatic video ads, in 2014. Yahoo has implemented broad cuts throughout company as it strives to spark growth and mulls selling part of the company, and in January it let go at least five managers who were working on Brightroll , according to the Wall Street Journal. Last month, in a letter charging the current board of Yahoo with failing to deliver results for its shareholders, activist investor Starboard Value announced that it wants to sweep out all of the ailing Web company’s nine directors and replace them with its own slate during Yahoo’s 2016 shareholder meeting. Yahoo stock was down nearly 2% in afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 36. Facebook stock was flat, while shares of Alphabet, Yelp and LinkedIn were down a fraction. Image provided by Shutterstock .