Apple aims to resume services in China
BEIJING -- Apple Inc. said Friday that it hopes to resume its online iTunes and iBooks services in China, where they were recently shut down less than seven months after being launched.
The New York Times reported last week that Apple's online movie and book stores initially received government approval but were blocked on orders from the broadcasting regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
Apple said in an emailed statement that it hoped the services could resume "as soon as possible" but offered no details about the shutdown.
The broadcasting regulator has been stretching its authority to online content, which is also regulated by other government agencies and ministries. Calls to the administration's media office rang unanswered Friday.
China is Apple's second-largest market after the U.S. and a key driver of its sales growth, with stylish stores selling Apple products now a feature of almost all major cities.
-- The Associated Press
Twitter sees money in Japanese tweets
TOKYO -- Twitter has its eyes on Japan, with its 35 million users, to make money from companies eager to use Twitter data to research retail trends, manage inventory and improve customer service.
Although tweets are public, the San Francisco-based social media company offers special technologies for better analyzing them, taking into account all tweets, including those in archives, through partner companies such as NTT Data and NetBase, which pay Twitter.
Randy Almond, Twitter's head of data business marketing, told reporters the partners in turn get paid by companies hoping to improve their businesses using information from Twitter data. Twitter rarely gets paid directly by the brands.
Examples include monitoring consumer reactions to a new product, the demographics of users or complaints about what's not in stock at a store. All that can be tracked by tweets, Almond said.
Twitter says it deals properly with people's privacy concerns, and the strength of Twitter is that the information is immediate, and all public, unlike private messages or email.
The number of Twitter users in Japan has grown fivefold since 2011. Japanese was the first language Twitter was offered in after English, and Japanese is the most frequently used non-English language on Twitter.
-- The Associated Press
U.K. to Amazon: Drone guide lacking
A U.K. government official has criticized Amazon Inc. for not providing guidance about the safe operation of drones to customers who purchase such products from the retailer.
Robert Goodwill, the minister of state for transport and a member of Parliament, said Amazon had so far refused to include a government pamphlet that outlines British laws that relate to flying small unmanned aircraft safely, when shipping such products to customers -- something other major British retailers, including Maplin, Currys and Argos, routinely do.
Amazon "says it is complicated because of the international nature of their business," Goodwill said.
Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The increasing concerns over drone safety were highlighted last week when a British Airways pilot landing at London's Heathrow airport reported that a drone struck the airplane.
-- Bloomberg News
Dish-Viacom deal heads off blackout
Dish Network Corp. and Viacom Inc. reached an agreement on new payment terms that will keep channels like Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon on the satellite-TV service and make them available on Dish's online Sling TV service.
The companies came together on a deal after an extended negotiation, according to a statement last week, averting a threatened blackout for Dish's 14 million subscribers. The agreement covers all 18 Viacom channels, including VH1, Spike, BET, CMT, TV Land, Nick Jr. and Nicktoons. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
Viacom's networks will also be carried on Dish's Sling TV streaming services in the coming months, the companies said without providing details.
Disputes between pay-TV providers and media companies over subscriber fees have intensified in recent years. Program suppliers seek higher carriage fees to offset rising production costs and sluggish ad revenue. TV distributors like Dish have been battling rising content costs that drive customer bills higher and push subscribers to cheaper alternatives like streaming videos from Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
-- Bloomberg News