Online business travel start-up Travelperk is to launch a new UK office after raising $44m (£33m) from backers including Russian tech mogul Yuri Milner. Travelperk makes software for booking business travel to compete with the likes of SAP. The software lets users book from consumer friendly websites like Booking.com or Airbnb, rather than more complicated expenses based bookings. The Barcelona-based start-up raised the funds from investment firm Kinnevik and Tom Stafford, managing partner of DST Global. Travelperk will also open a London office. “The UK is our biggest market, so we are opening a physical office in London,” said Travelperk chief executive Avi Meir. The start-up said it largely targets smaller companies with less than £20m in turnover, those that can’t or don’t want to pay for enterprise software for business travel. Travelperk says it can cut business travel expenses by 20pc. The London office will help deal with larger clients on … [Read more...] about Travelperk raises $44m from Russian Facebook investor
Instagram founder admits to differences with Facebook
Instagram’s co-founder has admitted to differences with Facebook for the first time since quitting the photo-sharing app last month. “No one leaves a job because everything is awesome,” Kevin Systrom, Instagram's recently-departed chief executive, told a conference in San Francisco. Mr Systrom, who abruptly quit his post along with co-founder Mike Krieger last month, said: “When you leave something sometimes it is because it is incompatible with what you want to do, and things have changed. “In this case there are no hard feelings at all, I am excited to do something new. I think Instagram is in a good place.” Mr Systrom and Mr Krieger sold Instagram to Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook for $1bn (£760m) in 2012. It has since transformed from a cult photo editing app to a social networking giant used by 1bn people around the world and become a lucrative digital billboard for advertisers. They left amid disagreements with Mr Zuckerberg … [Read more...] about Instagram founder admits to differences with Facebook
Facebook could be used to spot those at risk of depression
Facebook could be used to spot those at risk of depression - months before symptoms emerge, research suggests. Artificial intelligence found that heavy use of first-person pronouns like “I” and “me” as well as emotional language like “tears” and “feelings” was found among those later diagnosed with the condition. US scientists said the algorhythm was able to spot such signs as early as three months before depression was evident. Researchers said that in the long-term, they hoped social media could be used as a “form of unobtrusive mental screening”. In the six year study, the algorhythm scanned more than 524,292 Facebook updates of 683 people - a sixth with depression - and compared their use of language. The algorithm was developed at the World Well-Being Project (WWBP) based at the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Centre and Stony Brook University's Human Language Analysis Lab. Senior author Assistant … [Read more...] about Facebook could be used to spot those at risk of depression
Ex-Lawmaker Loses Libel Fight After Allegedly Being Sexually Harassed on Facebook
Sigrid Maurer, a former Green Party politician who served on the Austrian parliament from 2013 to 2017, just lost a court battle after she claimed she was sexually harassed over Facebook. Vienna judge Stefan Apostol decided that she libeled the owner of a beer store by failing to prove that he actually sent her explicit direct messages, according to USA Today. “Hello you went to my shop today and looked at my c— as if you wanted to eat it,” said a message from the owner’s account. Maurer put this on blast by posting the messages on her Facebook and Twitter accounts, mentioning the man’s name, and also his store. Her lawyers reportedly said she couldn’t sue under local law because these were private messages. “There was no other way to defend myself,” she said. Apostol called Maurer’s motives for doing this “respectable,” but in the end, he sided with the plaintiff, and ruled there’s no evidence the man … [Read more...] about Ex-Lawmaker Loses Libel Fight After Allegedly Being Sexually Harassed on Facebook
The Podcast LIMETOWN is Being Adapted by Facebook with Jessica Biel
Limetown is a mystery thriller podcast and Facebook wants to adapt it into a series. That’s right, Facebook has given a 10-episode order to the podcast adaptation and Jessica Biel will star as Lia Haddock. Lia is “a journalist for American Public Radio who seeks to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of more than 300 people at a neuroscience research facility in Tennessee.” It’s a really interesting podcast and I hope it translates well to the screen. Limetown creators Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie are writing the adaptation and will executive produce. Biel will also executive produce alongside Michelle Purple from Biel’s Iron Ocean Productions. Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg will also executive produce under Midnight Radio, and they will serve as showrunners. Adrienne Erickson will serve as producer. If you’re a longtime fan of the 2015 podcast, you’ll also be excited to learn that the long-awaited second … [Read more...] about The Podcast LIMETOWN is Being Adapted by Facebook with Jessica Biel