Tech giant Amazon is setting up a new Adelaide office at the city’s innovation hub, Lot Fourteen, with a promise to create more than 50 jobs by 2024. The new office will include Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Amazon Sciences, a team carrying out world-leading artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) research. State Premier… Read more »
The Australian government’s push to make Google pay news organisations for linking to their content has seen the search giant threaten to pull out of Australia. Google Australia’s managing director Mel Silva said if the government’s proposal goes ahead, “we would have no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia”. Prime… Read more »
Google Australia’s managing director, Mel Silva, has told a Senate hearing into plans to force the global tech giant, as well as Facebook, to pay media companies for news, that it will turn off Google searches in Australia if the government passes the laws. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg tabled what’s known as the news media bargaining… Read more »
The recent storming of the US Capitol has led a number of social media platforms to remove President Donald Trump’s accounts. In the case of Twitter, the ban is permanent. Others, like Facebook, have taken him offline until after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week. This has led to a flurry of commentary in the… Read more »
Amid the chaos in the US Capitol, stoked largely by rhetoric from President Donald Trump, Twitter has locked his account, with 88.7 million followers, for 12 hours. Facebook and Instagram quickly followed suit, locking Trump’s accounts — with 35.2 million followers and 24.5 million, respectively — for at least two weeks, the remainder of his… Read more »
Uber Australia has settled a Federal Court case with an UberEats driver they sacked for being late with a delivery before the court could rule on whether then driver was an employee of the business. The move heads off the threat the US tech giant being forced to recognise drivers as employees, rather than contractors,… Read more »
The ACCC says it won’t accept a legally binding pledge offered by Google to address competition concerns about its proposed acquisition of Fitbit. The competition regulator says its investigation into Google’s proposed acquisition of the wearables manufacturer will continue, setting a new decision date on whether to approve the deal in Australia by March 25,… Read more »
US rideshare company Uber has shed its flying taxi project less than six months after the company reaffirmed plans to launch Uber Air in Melbourne. Joby Aviation, a Californian startup developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) passenger aircraft it hopes to launch by 2023, has bought the Uber Elevate project off the rideshare… Read more »
Amazon Web Services will set up a second Australian-based Asia Pacific cloud infrastructure region in Victoria. The AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region is expected to open in the second half of 2022 and create up to 90 jobs within four years, including data centre operatives and technical engineers. Victorian Minister for Economic Development Tim Pallas… Read more »
COVID-related travel restrictions and the sudden drop in tourism provided an ideal natural experiment to examine the impact of shifts in the supply of short-term rental accommodation. Our research, released today, found even modest reductions in Airbnb listings, as owners switched to longer-term rentals, increased supply of these properties. The result was lower local rents.… Read more »
Accomodation comparison site Trivago has lost an appeal against a Federal Court finding that it misled consumer in its TV and online advertising. In January this year, the court found the German tech company, which is listed on the Nasdaq and operates in Australia, had breachedAustralian Consumer Law, in a case brought by competition watchdog the… Read more »
Australian comedy and satire group The Chaser have had their verified account suspended by Twitter overnight after @chaser changed its name to Donald J Trump, including a photo of the US President and wrote “Don’t vote for me, I’m a massive idiot”. Twitter’s response was surprisingly quick given it occurred while most of the US… Read more »
Quarterly revenue of US$459.5 million, up 26% YoY Q1 IFRS operating margin of 3% and non-IFRS operating margin of 23% Q1 net loss of US$21.6m, compared to q1 FY20’s net income of $69.3m Australian software giant Atlassian has seen revenues jump 26% on 12 months ago in quarterly results for Q1 FY2021 that beat Wall… Read more »
This week the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) filed a lawsuit accusing Google of using “anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets” for search and advertising. It is the most significant antitrust case since the US government took on Microsoft in 1998 for using its dominant position as the provider… Read more »
Apple has released its new smartphone, the iPhone 12, without an accompanying charger or earbuds. Users have harshly criticised the company for this move and will have to purchase these accessories separately, if needed. While some see it as cost-cutting, or a way for Apple to profit further by forcing customers to buy the products… Read more »
The lessons from Uber, Ola and rideshare’s disruption is that in the end, the consumer still pays 
Here are the finalists in Fintech Australia’s 2024 Finnies awards 
Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar steps down as co-CEO 
Unicorn dehorned: Nasdaq-listed Brisbane EV charging venture Tritium collapses into receivership 
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