Yandex + more news

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Yandex

Yandex Reports Revenue Up 37% In Q4, Ad Network Revenue Nearly DoublesRussian search giant Yandex reported a strong Q4 2013 today, with overall revenue up 37 percent from Q4 2012 and continued growth in text-based advertising – Yandex is the sleeping giant of the search world. My friend and fellow former Yahoo Vish Makhijani had worked with them for a number of years. Like Tencent Yandex has innovated in a number of areas from probably the best image search to Uber like services.

Business

How Big Oil Gave Up On the Climate

The architect of Qualcomm’s tech licensing empire invests in networking upstart MagnaCom

Sony says PlayStation4 sales exceed 5.3 million | Japan Today

HP might have known about Autonomy irregularities – Financial Times finds smoking emails

Consumer behaviour

This Map Shows The Countries Where WhatsApp Is Used The Most

Japan and South Korea spend the most money per capita on apps | TechinasiaJapan and South Korea led growth in money spent on mobile apps last year, according to the latest joint report from mobile analytics firm App Annie and market research firm IHS. Game apps led the surge, growing 4.4 times and 5.8 times year-on-year in Japan and South Korea, respectively

US auto buyers shun social media – Car buyers in China are four times more likely than those in the US to be influenced in their purchasing decisions by social media a new study has found

How A Post-90 Chinese Girl Built A Successful Brand

Economics

HSBC flash China PMI falls to lowest in 7 months | South China Morning Post – more on what this could mean later

China Moves to End Its Codependency with US | Yale Global Online

This good news might actually be bad news: Americans are borrowing big againThe great American de-leveraging is over. American household borrowing jumped by $241 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to the prior three months. That’s the largest jump since the third quarter of 2007

Five charts to explain China’s shadow banking system, and how it could make a slowdown even uglier | Quartz

China’s manufacturing hits 7-month low | RTHK

Finance

Dodgy dealings in China’s steel trade puts some big banks at risk – China’s iron ore imports are through the roof: the record-high 86.8 million tonnes (96 million tons) of foreign iron ore China bought in January was a 32% increase on the previous year. What’s weird is that the ore didn’t actually go anywhere

Ingenico, Gemalto Morgan Stanley Leaders in Mobile Payments; Apple in the Wings | TechTraderDaily

China’s Mobile Payment Turnover Soared 317% YOY to $1.59 Trillion in 2013 | Technode – data from People’s Bank of China

FMCG

Glaxo Memo Shows Drug Industry Lobbying on E-Cigarettes – Bloomberg – Nicorette threatened by e-cigarettes, wants to protect lucrative business

Herbalife is doing great in China—but maybe not for long – Nu-Skin mark II?

Coca Cola’s business is being diluted by water | Quartz

Ideas

WhatsApp and the Erosion of the Network Effect – not too sure that the network effect no longer applies, the utility increases as your social circle congregate on one platform

Microsoft cries out to UK government against open source – self-serving bullshit

Innovation

Mitsubishi Develops Compact EV Motor With Built-in SiC Inverter | Nikkei TechOn – smaller cooler motors for electric cars etc

Luxury

Haute Cuisine – designer brands extending from apparel into restaurants, one missed by the article is Agnes B who has a chain of cafes in Hong Kong

Burberry partners with WeChat to strengthen online presence in ChinaBurberry has announced a digital innovation partnership with Chinese social network WeChat, in order to engage its Chinese customer base and further establish itself on the growing international platform

Marketing

Yahoo Debuts Gemini Native Ad Product for Mobile SearchYahoo introduced Yahoo Gemini today, which it is calling the “first unified marketplace for mobile search and native advertising.”

2014 PR Trend Forecast: Consumer Marketing

Media

The price is right | Asymco – interesting assessment on the value of computing devices

Mark Zuckerberg – I’m excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire WhatsApp – in Zuck’s own words

Facebook to buy WhatsApp for $19 billion in deal shocker | Reuters

Facebook to Buy WhatsApp for $16 Billion

Can someone explain WhatsApp’s valuation to me?

UK music customers still buy physical media | The Register

Philippines

Digital Intelligence :: Top 10 YouTube brand channels in the Philippines – Smart Corporate, Nestle, and Unilever’s Ponds were the top three most views YouTube brand channels in the Philippines during 2014, according to new data via SocialBakers

Security

Here’s the strategy the mobile industry will announce in Barcelona next week – mobile and identity sounds like a winner, because people never lose their smartphones do they?

Going Private in Public with Whisper and anonymous sharing | JWTIntelligence

Germany Considers Counterespionage Measures against United States – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Software

Chitika: Chrome OS web usage share doubles, but is still minuscule overall

WeChat is nothing like WhatsApp—and that makes it even more valuable | Quartz

Telecoms

Why it’s a no-brainer for China to play hardball with Qualcomm – not terribly surprising, expect something similar against European telecoms infrastructure companies

Web or no web

Unlocking the Future Connected Home

Voice of Customer Technology: Without the Science, It’s Just Sizzle Without the Steak

New LIDAR chip will sharpen aerial mapping and autonomous car vision | ExtremeTech

Wireless

IDC: Samsung continues to dominate smartphone shipments in China