In the month when Comcast bought global media giant Time Warner for $45bn, another massive $19bn deal also took place – for a single chat app. Facebook’s WhatsApp purchase caused many to question the social network’s confidence in its own growth. But is the deal as crazy as it sounds? We look at five reasons […]
In the month when Comcast bought global media giant Time Warner for $45bn, another massive $19bn deal also took place – for a single chat app. Facebook’s WhatsApp purchase caused many to question the social network’s confidence in its own growth. But is the deal as crazy as it sounds? We look at five reasons why Zuckerberg has paid so much for an app with no revenue model – concluding that it could have cost Facebook more NOT to buy WhatsApp.
Facebook’s paid ads also came under scrutiny this month, with more research indicating that ‘fake likes’ are still rife on the social network, potentially driving up the cost of legitimate social media marketing campaigns. Rival Twitter also had a rough February, with its first financial report as a public company showing a worrying $645m loss for last year.
Google revealed its own take on real-time bidding this month, with a new ad exchange that puts brands, not publishers, first. This month also saw Yahoo turn to native ads via smartphones and its blog network Tumblr, as the trend for branded content continues to replace traditional display ads.
Finally, the battle of the robots looks set to heat up, as inventor James Dyson takes on Google in the race for household droids.
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