Fandango

Amazon Job Descriptions Hint at More Perks Coming to Prime

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on April 12 at 5:00 am PT

First, Amazon Prime offered free two-day shipping for $79. Then it started offering add-on services for no additional cost, like streaming videos and Kindle books. What’s next?

News Byte

Online Audiences Are Famished for “The Hunger Games” (Though Vampires Still Rule!)

Kara Swisher in Media on March 21 at 9:25 am PT

As of yesterday morning, the movie version of the popular teen novel “The Hunger Games,” which comes out Friday, accounted for 92 percent of total ticket sales on Fandango. That includes 1,200 showtimes sold-out on the online ticketing service, which recently signed various deals with AMC Theatres, Facebook and, earlier this week, Yahoo Movies. Still, the kids-fight-to-the-death film has not yet topped the online advance sales for the three “Twilight” movies or the last two in the “Harry Potter” franchise.

Visa Places Bet on New Approach to Payments With Rare Investment in TrialPay

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 31 at 7:00 am PT

Visa, Greylock’s Reid Hoffman and others are pouring $40 million into TrialPay, which helps companies like Facebook, Gap and Fandango increase sales through the use of incentives.

Online Sales Play Role in Helping Harry Potter Break Box-Office Records

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on July 15, 2011 at 5:19 pm PT

Harry Potter’s final installment of the massively popular film franchise is on its way to breaking all kinds of records, assisted by nearly magical online and mobile presales that took place in the 45 days leading up to its debut.

Nuance’s Dragon Go Is a Voice-Powered Search App That Knows Where to Look

Ina Fried in Mobile on July 13, 2011 at 9:00 pm PT

Voice-powered search is a crowded field dominated by the search giants — Google and Bing — but Nuance hopes to earn its place with Dragon Go, an app that not only recognizes what someone is saying, but also knows which services should be queried for results.

Voices

The M-Commerce Tipping Point Is Now

Jane Randel, SVP, Corporate Communications & Brand Services, Liz Claiborne in News on April 27, 2011 at 2:17 pm PT

With the age of the PC declared officially over–smartphones outsold PCs for the first time in 4Q 2010–American retailers are all asking the same question: When will the m-commerce tipping point arrive? The answer is, it’s happening now.

Exclusive: Mickie Rosen to Join Yahoo as Audience Head

Kara Swisher in News on January 10, 2011 at 9:30 am PT

Yahoo is hiring former News Corp. and Disney online exec Mickie Rosen to run its Audience unit, which includes the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s powerful content sites, sources said. Rosen will report to Americas head Ross Levinsohn, who has worked with her before, both at News Corp. and Fuse Capital. The move is Levinsohn’s first management rejiggering since he took over last year, and there is likely to be more to come.

Exclusive: Comcast's Top Digital Exec Amy Banse to Open New Silicon Valley Equity Fund for Cable Giant and NBC

Kara Swisher in News on November 15, 2010 at 12:09 am PT

Amy Banse, currently the president of Comcast Interactive Media, is shifting into a job as head of a new Silicon Valley-based equity fund aimed at making digital investments for the television cable giant, as well as its new NBC Universal unit, according to sources with knowledge of the plans. As part of the shift, sources said, Banse will be charged with combining two existing corporate investment funds: NBC U’s Peacock Equity and Comcast Interactive Capital.

Three Cool iPad Ads

Peter Kafka in Media on October 15, 2010 at 3:30 am PT

Earlier this week we got Condé Nast’s instructions on how to make a killer iPad ad. Now, three examples of some good ones.

Windows Phone 7: There’s an App for Some of That

John Paczkowski in News on October 11, 2010 at 9:15 am PT

How many Windows Phone 7 apps will be available when the first devices running the OS ship? Microsoft refuses to say, but I’m told it will be plenty. Or, as one exec told me, “enough.”