Rocket-backed Foodpanda raises $100 million in round led by Goldman

Foodpanda, an online takeaway delivery service backed by tech investor Rocket Internet, said on Friday it had received $100 million in a financing round led by a Goldman Sachs hedge fund. Goldman Sachs Investment Partners will take a seat on Foodpanda’s advisory board. Existing investors including Rocket also took part in the round

Read more

China blames hacking attack for recent Internet problems

A hacking attack using malware from overseas servers was to blame for Internet problems in China earlier this week that prevented users accessing a number of popular foreign websites, an official state-run newspaper said on Friday. The English-language China Daily, citing the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Centre, an agency that monitors China's Internet safety, said the redirection happened because some servers in China were “contaminated” by malware from overseas servers.

Read more

California ACLU group launches app to record possible police misconduct

By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California civil liberties group launched a mobile application on Thursday that will let bystanders record cell phone videos of possible cases of police misconduct and then quickly save the footage to the organization’s computer servers.

Read more

U.S. firms lead EU lobbying league

By Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. companies, including tech rivals Microsoft and Google , were among leading spenders on corporate lobbying in Brussels last year, a Reuters review of new data showed (table below)

Read more

Tencent, Bank of Beijing launch $1.6 billion online banking tie-up

Bank of Beijing will extend Tencent Holdings Ltd a 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) credit line, part of a partnership that helps the Chinese Internet firm better compete in online finance with rival Alibaba. The partnership will focus on the bank's Jingyitong initiative, which lets users swipe a chip-enabled card at hospitals to obtain medical care and other services, Tencent and Bank of Beijing said on Wednesday. In January, Tencent began trial operations of its WeBank service to issue loans to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses

Read more

Twitter cuts revenue forecast, shares slump

Twitter Inc reported quarterly revenue that fell short of Wall Street estimates and cut its full-year forecast because of weak demand for its new direct response advertising, sending shares down as much as 24 percent on Tuesday. Twitter forecast 2015 revenue of $2.17 billion to $2.27 billion, down from its earlier forecast of $2.3 billion to $2.35 billion.

Read more

Selerity reveals Twitter results ahead of schedule

(Reuters) – Micro-blogging website Twitter Inc had lower-than-expected quarterly revenue, according to market data firm Selerity, which revealed the earnings numbers before the company's scheduled announcement. Twitter, which allows users to broadcast 140-character messages, had revenue of $436 million in the first quarter, according to Selerity. Excluding items, the company earned 7 cents per share, Selerity said on its Twitter page.

Read more

Google, Facebook join Red Cross to find thousands missing after Nepal quake

By Nita Bhalla and Joseph D’Urso NEW DELHI/LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – German development worker Caroline Siebald and her boyfriend Charles Gertler, an American glaciologist, were on a rafting trip in Nepal when the earthquake struck and initially panicked about how to let their families know they were safe. After about 30 attempts, Gertler, 25, managed to get a phone call through to his mother in Massachusetts in the United States, and she registered them as safe on Facebook’s “Safety Check”.

Read more