ONLINE MEDIA DAILY - Apr 10 - The Federal Trade Commission has approved Facebook's $19B acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp, but is warning the social networking service that it can't draw on data about WhatsApp's users for ad purposes without......
PC WORLD - Apr 10 - Facebook is facing a class-action lawsuit in Canada over its alleged interception of private messages. Facebook did not disclose to users that their private messages would be intercepted and scanned, and the contents of......
TECH CRUNCH - Apr 10 - Online ad revenue in the US grew to $42.8B in 2013, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Report. That’s up 17% from 2012, and it means that for the first time, the total is......
THE NEXT WEB - Apr 10 - Facebook is removing the messaging feature from its mobile app, forcing users to download its standalone Messenger app if they want to chat with their friends. People get replies 20% faster on Messenger......
TECH CRUNCH - Apr 9 - The ads that people see on the right-hand column of Facebook’s site are about to get bigger. They will be larger, but users will see fewer of them. by Anthony Ha See full article......
TECH CRUNCH - Apr 7 - E-Plus, the third largest mobile operator in Germany, now sells a prepaid SIM that gives users unlimited access to WhatsApp outside of their data plans. For €10 ($14), users get 600 credits that can......
BLOOMBERG - Apr 7 - United Capital Partners, which owns 48% of VKontakte's holding company VK.com, sued Pavel Durov, the founder of the Russian social network, over control of a separate mobile-messaging service he developed. The fund claimed that VK.com......
TECH CRUNCH - Apr 6 - Twitter is buying Cover, an Android lockscreen app that lets users customise what apps they see and when. For now, Cover will remain live in the Play store. To date, Cover had raised $1.7M......
NY TIMES - Apr 7 - Facebook recently announced that it would offer users 50 different possibilities and permutations of gender identification. Users can choose non-binary, intersex, neutrois, androgyne, agender, gender questioning, gender fluid, gender variant, genderqueer and more. by......
TWEAKTOWN - Apr 6 - VKontakte, the top social network in Russia, is now being sued by Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music, with VKontakte accused of "deliberately facilitating piracy on a large scale." In 2012, VKontakte made $172M......
TECH CRUNCH - Apr 3 - Bebo, the social network that got re-acquired by its founders Michael and Xochi Birch last year, is launching its first app in its bid to return to glory. Blab is a video-based “walkie-talkie” app......
TECH CRUNCH - Apr 3 - On April 1, Pavel Durov stepped down from his role as CEO of VKontakte. But today Durov has rescinded his resignation. The fight goes on and he will not voluntarily give up. The ownership......
MASHABLE - Apr 3 - The social network, which will live at WeUA.info (slogan: "We live for Ukraine), was scheduled to go live Monday night, but has not been able to launch due to DDoS attacks. by Brian Ries See......
IRISH TIMES - Apr 3 - Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s number-two executive, has sold half her stake in Facebook since IPO. Ms Sandberg’s stake, worth ~$1B, still makes her one of the largest individual investors in Facebook with a 0.5% stake......
CNN MONEY - Apr 1 - Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker WB. Weibo is looking to raise $500M by going public. Weibo pulled in $3M in operating profit during the last......
MASHABLE - Apr 2 - Facebook continues to dominate on iOS and Android, by time spent, but its lead has slipped slightly. The average U.S. user spent an average of 2 hours and 42 minutes per day on mobile devices......
TECH CRUNCH - Apr 2 - Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte.com, has stepped down as the head of the social network. He said that it became “increasingly difficult” to run the social network after ownership changes put pressure on......
EXPRESS & STAR - Apr 2 - UK company SecondSync, which measures how often certain TV shows are talked about on Twitter, has been bought by Twitter. Twitter also announced it was acquiring French company Mesagraph, another analytics company that......
MASHABLE - Mar 29 - A new study from Pew Research shows that out of the 64% of American adults who use Facebook, nearly half (30%) use the social network to keep up with news. Only 8% look for news......
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Mar 29 - Few businesses seem to realise that being on social media only makes sense if your potential customers are there, too. It might be time to pause and look at what all this effort and expense......