Jason Del Rey says, “As of Tuesday afternoon, investors are valuing China’s Alibaba at $215 billion. That’s more than Amazon. That’s more than eBay. And it’s about as much as both of them combined.That might surprise people who look at the size of the companies. Alibaba recorded revenue of $8.46 billion in its last fiscal year, compared with Amazon’s $74.45 billion and eBay’s $16.04 billion.But there’s more to the Alibaba story beyond sales. The following three charts, when taken together, help explain why investors are so excited about Alibaba”.Why Alibaba Is Worth More... [...]

Kara Swisher says, “What would you say about an Internet company that is now sitting on upward of $35 billion in cash and relatively liquid assets that still has one of the largest audiences in the Web?And what would you say if that core business were now worth only about $6 billion? To put it in context, that is a fraction of LinkedIn’s $26 billion market cap, Netflix’s $27.5 billion valuation and just a little bigger than much tinier players like Groupon ($4.7 billion) and Yelp ($5.5 billion).And what would you say if that company’s value was slashed in half in a single day, as noted... [...]

Selena Larson says, “Just because Twitter wants to be more like Facebook doesn’t mean Facebook doesn’t want to be more like Twitter.About a month after Twitter started aping Facebook, shoving “curated” tweets in your timeline and suggesting strangers you should follow, Facebook is now getting into the “trending topics” game we know from that other social network.Posts on trending topics (and weighed for timeliness) will now appear higher in your news feed, Facebook announced on Thursday“.Facebook Takes Another Tip From Twitter And Pushes Trendy TopicsReadWrite [...]

Selena Larson says, “Your Twitter profile is going to look a bit different to users on iPhones.On Thursday, Twitter rolled out a new look for user profiles on iPhones that puts user information—including profile photo, about section, and tabs for tweets, photos and favorites—all in one place.People will now be able to find out more about Twitter users with just a glance and the streamlined profile”.Twitter Debuts New Mobile Profiles For iPhoneReadWrite [...]

David Hamilton says, “The word is official: Microsoft will host an event in San Francisco on September 30 with news on “what’s next for Windows”—a presentation all but certain to involve a good look at the long-awaited replacement for Windows 8, currently codenamed “Threshold.”Microsoft likewise appears likely to release a beta version of the operating system either at the event or shortly thereafter. That “technical preview” of Threshold will let developers and big organizations start planning for the major changes in the operating system. It’s... [...]

Selena Larson says, “Facebook has a new plan for helping application developers monitor the success—or failure—of their applications. And that’s true whether they’re developing apps specifically to work with Facebook or not.On Tuesday, the company introduced two new functions in App Insights, a tool that lets developers monitor traffic and Facebook interactions for apps. The new capabilities give app developers more detailed information about user behavior and app performance.App Insights requires the Facebook software development kit (SDK), but works for general mobile apps... [...]

Kurt Wagner says, “In early 2013, a group of Facebook engineers visited Africa to test its mobile app in poor network environments. The results were predictable, and frustrating for Facebook. The app crashed regularly, photos wouldn’t load, and one engineer used his entire data plan simply downloading and updating the app from the app store.Simply stated: “Our apps basically sucked,” said Jay Parikh, Facebook’s global head of engineering, onstage at the company’s first @Scale engineering conference Monday”.Facebook Will Never Perfect Mobile — And That’s OkayRe/code [...]

Selena Larson says, “Maybe you told Facebook why you hid an ad in the past, but the social network didn’t really use that information to change the ads it showed you. That’s changed.On Thursday, Facebook announced two new updates that are meant to help show people “better,” ads—as in, advertisements you might actually click on, thus providing better service to Facebook advertisers.Facebook has provided the option to hide ads by clicking, “I don’t want to see this,” just like any other post, for years. But the company is now using information gathered... [...]

Re/code team says, “Alibaba Group Holding Ltd plans to close its IPO order book early after it received enough orders to sell all the shares in the record-breaking offering, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.The company, which launched its IPO on Monday, is expected to price the deal on Sept. 18 and will start trading a day later.U.S.-based bookrunners are expected to stop taking orders from investors on Tuesday afternoon, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters”.Alibaba Plans to Close IPO Order Book EarlyRe/code [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “Despite its misleading name, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 made it legal for the U.S. government to obtain citizens’ email without a warrant or probable cause.Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation and 70 other civil liberties organizations, public interest groups, and companies are trying to get it revised. This week they sent two letters to the House and Senate urging lawmakers to reconsider the “archaic” act. The first promotes HR 1852, the bipartisan Email Privacy Act, and the other its Senate companion bill S. 607, the Electronic Communications... [...]