Cryptocurrency has struggled to gain mainstream traction, but the promise of digital coins has attracted the interest of one of tech’s biggest companies.Facebook has explored blockchain-centric projects in the past few years, but a new payment initiative the Wall Street Journal reports is “code-named Project Libra” prominently features digital currency – and has the potential to succeed where other projects have failed. Facebook has been “recruiting dozens of financial firms and online merchants to help launch” the platform, which sources said would center around a new digital coin that Facebook users could use to “send to each other and…make purchases both on Facebook and across the internet” through theoretical partnerships with internet retailers and apps.

When Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced earnings on April 29, the company beat its EPS estimate, but it came up a little short on its revenue estimate.On May 6, after opening sharply lower the stock rallied back to close slightly higher.

The European Union will start a formal probe of Apple Inc. in the next few weeks following Spotify Technology SA’s antitrust complaint, the Financial Times reported. Read More...

Google’s parent company Alphabet’s stock fell more than 8% on Tuesday, and the company blames YouTube -- which saw a fall in ad revenue growth of just 15% versus 24% last year. In Q1 2018, Google began making changes to YouTube’s algorithms that were designed to prevent toxic content from appearing in the recommended videos feed.Additionally, YouTube has removed millions of channels and videos from its platform that are detrimental to its content policies, for example Alex Jones. But this proved to potentially be counter-productive, as all the negative content kept engagement high.

Facebook-owned Instagram is going to test hiding “like” counts this week as a way to make “a less pressurized environment” on the app, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced on Tuesday.READ MORE...

Alphabet's revenue for the first quarter fell short of expectations, causing the tech giant's shares to lose -5% during after-hours trading Monday. Google’s parent company reported revenue of $36.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the $37.3 billion expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Decelerating growth in advertising was a headwind to the company's revenue.Paid clicks on Google properties grew +39% year-over-year for the quarter, which was much slower than the fourth quarter’s + 66% and third quarter’s + 62%. However, total revenue was still +17% higher compared to the year-ago quarter, as mentioned by Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer of both Alphabet and Google.

Twitter’s first quarter earnings turned out to be more than double of what analysts’ expected. The social networking company’s adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at 37 cents per share, compared to analysts’ estimate of 15 cents (based on a Refinitiv survey).The company defines mDAU as “Twitter users who log in and access Twitter on any given day through Twitter.com or our Twitter applications that are able to show ads”. Looking ahead, Twitter forecasts that its second-quarter revenue would range between $770 million to $830 million, compared with analysts’ estimates of $783.9 million to $853.6 million in the Refinitiv survey.

Chinese internet company Momo Inc. (Nasdaq: MOMO) has been rallying sharply since the beginning of 2019, but it saw a little pullback in the last few weeks.The indicators made a bullish crossover on April 22 and that could be another good sign for the stock. The Tickeron AI Trend Prediction tool generated a bullish signal for Momo on April 18 and that signal calls for a gain of at least 4% in the next month.

Online real estate database company  Zillow Group got a rating upgrade by a Cowen analyst. Analyst Thomas Champion raised his rating to outperform from market perform on Zillow stock, citing his optimism on the new executive team’s involvement in implementing a shift in the company’s business strategy.Zillow CEO Rich Barton had stepped down in 2010, but resumed his chief executive position in February.

Facebook has said it has made strides in its efforts to prevent online abuses in the Indian national election that starts this week but acknowledged that gaps remain in its “election integrity” efforts. READ MORE...

Less than one week after Google scrapped its AI ethics council, the European Union has set out its own guidelines for achieving "trustworthy" artificial intelligence. On Monday, the European Commission released a set of steps to maintain ethics in artificial intelligence, as companies and governments weigh both the benefits and risks of the far-reaching technology.READ MORE...

Britain just announced plans for a tough new law aimed at forcing tech giants like Facebook and Twitter to clean up their platforms. The rules, unveiled in a white paper on Monday, would impose a legally binding duty of care on social networks to make sure they tackle harmful content.READ MORE...

In a move to get people spend more time on its app, Snapchat is launching a new gaming platform called Snap Games that features original games only available on Snapchat through its group chats. The move is timely as its user numbers have recently declined coupled with stiff competition from Facebook’s Instagram. The game will focus on multiple players in real time.The gaming demographic has widened now and companies are no longer looking at a teenage male. Snapchat believes it could stay relevant by rolling out a service in which its games will enable communication among players during the game.

Google has nixed its panel for discussing AI issues, one week after it was announced. Read More...

He re-iterated his “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Morris raised his price target on Twitter to $41 from $33, citing improved user engagement on the platform - something that he attributes to positive changes in management.Additionally, he views the presidential election cycle as a potential tailwind for the company to garner user engagement and advertising revenue. The analyst also raised his rating on Facebook stock to "buy" from "neutral", and increased his price target to $200 from $17 on the same.

While Google parent-company Alphabet pours capital into self-driving vehicles with its Waymo unit, the company is making real money in transportation right now. CapitalG, the late-stage investing arm of Alphabet, has doubled the value of its investment in Lyft, after the ride-hailing company made its stock market debut on Friday.READ MORE...

Google is launching a global advisory council to consider ethical issues around artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. The council, which is expected to publish a report at the end of this year, includes technology experts, digital ethicists, and people with public policy backgrounds. The group is expected to provide recommendations for Google, and other companies and researchers, working in areas such as facial recognition software. "We want to have the most informed and thoughtful conversations we can," Walker said on stage at the MIT Technology Review event in San Francisco."

European lawmakers have approved sweeping copyright reforms that could have far-reaching consequences for the business models of tech giants like Google and Facebook. The law is aimed at bringing the EU’s rules on copyright into the 21st century to help artists and publishers whose works have been widely dispersed on the internet.READ MORE...

European regulators on Wednesday ordered Google to pay 1.49 billion euros ($1.69 billion) for stifling competition in the online advertisement sector. According to the EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, Google's business strategy had prevented its rivals from being able to “compete and innovate fairly” in the online ad market.She further added that with Google reinforcing its dominance in the online search advertising segment, the company shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites – which is illegal under EU antitrust rules. This fine marks the third antitrust fine from Brussels to hit Google in recent times. Last July, EU regulators slapped Alphabet with a $5 billion fine for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system, and did so again in 2017 ($2.7 billion) for favoring its shopping service over competitors. According to the European Commission, between

Google (GOOG, GOOGL) has unveiled its new gaming effort: Stadia, a platform that promises unifying the experience of playing, watching and building games. Read More...