Japan may act against bitcoin: Deputy PM

TOKYO: Taro Aso, Japan's deputy prime minister and finance minister, on Friday said he always thought bitcoin was suspect and said the country might take action following the apparent collapse of a Tokyo-based exchange for the virtual currency.

Taro Aso's comments came after chief US central banker Janet Yellen said the Federal Reserve had no powers to control the unit, which she said would be very difficult to regulate.

Aso said he had foreseen difficulties for the crypto-currency, which is generated by complex chains of interaction among a huge network of computers around the planet.

"I was thinking that this sort of thing won't last long," said Aso, 73. "I was thinking it would collapse sometime."

"Japan is overwhelmingly advanced in this field. In this sense, I was thinking since before that we might face a situation where Japan has to act, but I'd say it came earlier than I thought."

The global bitcoin community has been shaken this week by claims that hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of the unit have been syphoned from the digital vaults of the Mt. Gox exchange.

Withdrawals were frozen earlier this month because of what the firm said was a bug in the software underpinning bitcoin that allowed hackers to pilfer them.

Supporters rallied round, insisting that the bitcoin itself is sound and the problems lay with Mt. Gox, which they said was badly-managed and unable to cope with the burgeoning popularity of the young currency.

Aso said Friday that police and government ministries would work together to address the issues raised by the Mt. Gox episode.

"We will hurriedly work it out," he said, adding: "It is not a currency that all the people recognize."

His comments come after Yellen told a Senate hearing that banks under the Fed's regulatory purview were not involved with bitcoin, and so it had no powers in the matter.

"This is a payment innovation that is taking place entirely outside of the banking industry," she said.

"The Fed doesn't have authority with respect to bitcoin." Yellen pointed to other US regulators, including the Treasury, watching the bitcoin sector for potential money laundering and other criminal uses of the digital currency.

However, she stressed, "it's not so easy to regulate bitcoin" because it is used outside the banking system, and has no centralised authority behind, as do regular fiat currencies.

In Tokyo on Thursday night, investors were calling for a legal probe and possible criminal action against the chief executive of the embattled Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles.

American IT engineer Aaron Gotman said he had 463 bitcoins at Mt. Gox, worth well over $200,000.

"What happened at Mt. Gox was first incompetence, but then it could have gone to fraud at the end if they were knowing they didn't have the bitcoins they were selling," he said.

"If that's true, Karpeles should face justice and go to jail." Bitcoin's rollercoaster week showed signs of settling down on Friday, trading around $567 at 0545 GMT, down approximately 1.3% for 24 hours, according to the Coindesk index.

While that kind of swing is large by the standards of many established currencies and generally indicates a sizeable news event, it is small bear for a unit that began life worth a few cents and frothed its way well above the $1,000 mark last year.

The Mt. Gox website which dramatically went blank on Tuesday, was still carrying a short message from Karpeles on Friday, his only public statement in recent days as the crisis has swirled around him.

"As there is a lot of speculation regarding Mt. Gox and its future, I would like to use this opportunity to reassure everyone that I am still in Japan, and working very hard with the support of different parties to find a solution to our recent issues," it said.

"Furthermore I would like to kindly ask that people refrain from asking questions to our staff: they have been instructed not to give any response or information. Please visit this page for further announcements and updates."

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Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy: Report

TOKYO: The troubled Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan after claims of a multi-million dollar theft from its digital vaults, media reports said.

The Tokyo District Court accepted the application from Mt. Gox, Jiji Press and public broadcaster NHK said.

The action was taken after US prosecutors reportedly served a subpoena on the company.

The website of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox went dark earlier this week, possibly heralding huge losses for investors, and sending ripples of alarm throughout the global community of digital currency adopters.

Mt. Gox froze withdrawals earlier this month, claiming there was a bug in the software that underpins bitcoin, making it vulnerable to thieves.

The value of the volatile unit plunged on the Tokyo exchange and was hovering around $130 on Tuesday, just quarter of what it was fetching on other platforms, until the site suddenly disappeared at lunchtime.

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'Airtel’s not looking for more acquisitions in India'

BARCELONA: Bharti Airtel, having won spectrum in the recent auction and in the process of taking over Loop Mobile, is not looking at any more purchases in the country, said Gopal Vittal, CEO of India's largest phone company. "We are not looking at any other acquisition in India," he told ET at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain.

About a year into his stint as CEO, Vittal is happy with the way the company has been performing. Profits are growing, with the company focused on five areas: raising voice realisations ; premium data services; increasing the higher revenue generating subscriber base; cost controls at all levels; and employees. In the recent auction, the company retained bandwidth in Delhi and Kolkata where its licences were expiring, won key airwaves in Mumbai and announced the acquisition of Loop Mobile to emerge as a strong No 2 in the financial capital, and is also in a position to offer pan-India 4G services.

"We have national footprint. In Mumbai, we felt there was an opportunity , we went for it," he said. "We have a job to do, that's in our core business, and that's where our focus is." Bharti's push is now on execution and simplification, besides improving "weak" operations in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

It's not looking at any more acquisitions in India. "For me, personally, it's been a terrific 13 months. Lots of work to be done, but some good work has happened," Vittal said. "It is profoundly meaningful to transform the lives of people through this mobile device."

He relates a personal anecdote to illustrate how critical the device has become. "I mean I had a problem yesterday. Somebody bumped into me, and my device fell out of my hand and broke. I felt naked." Apart from a broken phone, he's had a hectic three days at MWC, rushing in and out of meetings, which is why he's looking a little tired and dishevelled.

But that hasn't dimmed his enthusiasm for the sector or his readiness to face challenges. With cash-rich Reliance Jio Infocomm likely to hit the market with its voice and data services later this year, Vittal will have a hard battle on his hands. But competition doesn't faze Bharti, he said.

"Reliance is a deeply-respected company, they have deep pockets. We have, however, grown and thrived in an industry and are children of competition. We have operated in a brutally competitive market. And we have gotten better," he said.

He added that even now, smaller operators offer 50% lower prices than Airtel, but that didn't stop the company from raising effective call rates in some circles by about 33% on Wednesday. And there is more room to reduce discounted offers, which will raise voice realisations even higher.

The unassuming 48-year-old alumnus of IIM-Kolkata has slipped into his role with ease, having moved back to Bharti after a stint at Hindustan Unilever."In many ways, I see some similarities of the old HLL (Hindustan Lever, as it used to be called) in Airtel.

It is as professional as Unilever, with one difference — it is quicker and faster in decision-making. I enjoy the space and speed in which decisions can be made, the empowerment," Vittal said.

He has sought to maintain this nimbleness, empowering circle CEOs, with headquarters in Delhi providing a support function. "We have got 13 circle CEOs. They are the heartbeat of the company, they make things happen. They get support from a central team which does designs around innovation."

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Vodafone eyes 2G, 3G for revenue growth

CHENNAI: Telecom service provider Vodafone would focus on growth in data revenue stream by attracting more customers to 2G and 3G platforms, besides foraying into mobile commerce facility enabling cashless transactions for users, a company official said.

"Our priority is that. We will continue to focus on growing our data as a revenue stream and getting more and more users both on 2G and 3G platform. We will also make a foray into mobile commerce through M-Pesa.," Vodafone South business head - Tamil Nadu, Apoorva Mehrotra told reporters.

The company, as part of tapping the 65% of users who access the internet through mobile phone has also launched the - internet bus initiative in Tier II and III cities, he said.

"Out of the 1.3 crore subscribers, 65% only right now have mobile internet enabled phone. Out of the 65%, only 40% are using data... so there is a large gap between people who can use data but are not using right now. That is where the internet bus and the exclusive retail foot print which we have help us," he said.

Noting that the company has been working on the theme - "educate, engage and experience" concept, he said the company has been witnessing 60,000 new people as first time data users.

"The touch points we have are becoming very effective as customers who are first time users of data, come and get any information on issues of data, whether email can be configured on a phone and things like that," he said.

To a query, Mehrotra declined to elaborate about the 'm-pesa' service that the company was expected to launch.

He said the company had been growing at 100% year- on-year (in terms of subscriber base) while the revenues were growing at 10%.

Vodafone Tamil Nadu has a subscriber base of 1.29 crore as of December 2013 in Tamil Nadu with a market share of 21.6%. It has 36 Vodafone stores, 163 mini stores.

Revenue from 3G grow over 51% year-on-year of the growth in data browsing revenue and as on January 31, the company offers 3G services in 31 cities and towns, a company statement said.

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Google accused of making sexist, racist doodles

NEW DELHI: Google doodles have become a staple of the web, celebrating notable achievements, people and inventions, along with important days in history. But a women activist group, Spark Movement, has accused Google of making sexist doodles.

Spark Movement, which includes a 17-year-old student of Indian origin, has released a report that highlights the under-representation of women by Google in its doodles.

The group has compiled a report based on the data of over last four years (2010 to 2013), which shows that the internet giant created 445 doodles during the period. Out of these, only 73 were of women, whereas 357 were of men.

It has also drawn inference that the Google doodles are racist. Fifty-four of the doodles on or about females were for white women, while the remaining 19 were for 'women of colour', the report reveals. The disparity is even more stark among doodles for men, where white males got an "overwhelming" 275 doodles, only 82 were dedicated to men of colour.

The report says, "This makes 2013 the first year that celebrated a woman of colour with a Global Doodle (doodle seen across the world on all Google home pages), which is basically the highest honour that Google gives to historical figures". This is a reference to the doodle dedicated to Ella Fitzgerald.

Interestingly, Google has been accused of this when it may be on a course correction path. As about half of the 19 doodles for 'women of colour' came in 2013 itself. However, there still hasn't been a single Asian, Latina or indigenous woman featured in a Global Doodle until February 2014, according to the report.

Google is the information centre of the world and it's presenting a skewed and imbalanced vision of who creates knowledge, accused executive director of Spark Movement, Dana Edell.

The group has put up an online petition to Google on Change.org to "to be more diverse in its representation of the world's historical figures and commit to partnering with us as they go forward with that effort." As part of this initiative, Spark Movement has compiled a list of women who deserve doodles, so that "Google has to do less research."

Despite its plea, the group has acknowledged that Google has improved gender representation over the years.

"About half the doodles in January were dedicated to women — a few people that we had on our list of awesome historical heroes even got doodled. And by celebrating five women of colour in the first two months of this year, there have already been more women of colour in 2014 than there were in 2010, 2011 and 2012," admitted the report.

The group, however, attributes this change - at least in part - to people like Ann M Martin, a science educator who has been tracking gender in Google doodles dating back to 2001.

According to Fox News, Google's team lead for doodles, Ryan Germick, said that women have historically been under-represented in almost all fields: science, school curricula, business, politics and, sadly, doodles. However, he added that the company was already working to improve the doodle gender imbalance.

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Twitter account @N restored after high-profile hijack

WASHINGTON: The unusual single-letter Twitter handle '@N' has been reportedly given back to the original user after it was hijacked as part of an eye-opening social engineering scheme last month.

Naoki Hiroshima managed to own the handle once again after the high-profile theft and tweeted "Order has been restored," from his account on the microblogging site.

According to The Verge, in a post by Hiroshima last month, he recounted how both his PayPal and GoDaddy accounts were compromised through social engineering techniques, something that gave the attacker enough leverage to push for the Twitter login credentials.

Although, the details of how the account was returned were unclear, the debacle ultimately became a cautionary tale in the importance of personal security, and how online companies verify sensitive account information and deal with threats to user accounts, the report added.

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US senator calls on government to ban bitcoin

WASHINGTON: A US senator has called on the federal government to completely ban bitcoin.

Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator representing West Virginia, sent a letter to federal regulators, calling for a ban on the virtual currency.

In the letter, Manchin said bitcoin attracts and enables criminals even as its value to the US economy is 'suspect, if not outright detrimental,' the Verge reports.

According to the report, Manchin noted this week's collapse of the largest Bitcoin currency exchange, Mt. Gox.

Manchin said that he was most concerned that other countries such as Thailand, Russia, and China were cracking down on the bitcoin, but America was still holding the bag on a valueless currency.

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Twitter users, know which tweet type are you

NEW YORK: People take to Twitter to talk about everything from politics to breakfast to Justin Bieber in what feels like a chaotic stream of messages.

So it may come as a surprise that the conversations on the short messaging service fit into just six distinct patterns.

The Pew Research Center, working with the Social Media Research Foundation and using a special software tool, analyzed and mapped millions of public tweets, retweets, hashtags and replies that form the backbone of Twitter chatter.

The resulting diagrams show how people, brands, news outlets and celebrities interact on Twitter, depending on the topic of conversation.

When it comes to politics, for example, Twitter's citizens tend to form two distinct groups that rarely interact with one another, divided along liberal and conservative lines, according to the report, which was published yesterday.

Liberals tend to post links to mainstream news sources, while conservatives link to sites with a conservative blend, according to the study, whose authors likened their methods to taking aerial photos of crowds gathered in public places.

The researchers are quick to note that not everyone uses Twitter, only 14% of the US population, and not all who do use it to talk about politics, for example.

Still, looking at how conversations flow on social media can provide new insights into how people communicate in a way that was not possible until very recently.

"You could never do that in the old days when you were running around with a pen and clipboard," said Marc A Smith, one of the study's authors and director of the Social Media Research Foundation.

What emerged in maps of political conversations that the liberal and conservative groups are not even arguing with one another. Rather, they are "ignoring one another while pointing to different web resources and using different hashtags," according to the study.

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Google to showcase Ara modular phone project

WASHINGTON: Google has reportedly announced that it would host its first Ara Developers' Conference this April, in which it would show developers what they could do with the company's modular phone project.

The first conference, in a series of three, would focus on the alpha release of the Ara Module Developers' Kit that would give developers all the information needed to make an 'Ara module'.

According to The Verge, the conference would be held online with a live webstream and interactive Q and A for those who wouldn't be able to attend the event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, and Google would walk through the existing and planned features for the Ara platform and reveal prize challenges for module developers.

This is the first word about Project Ara's future since Google announced plans to sell off Motorola for $2.91 billion to Lenovo in January.

The report said that Ara Project means that making phones that people could customize with individual parts is a priority for Google, akin to Glass in its early stages.

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Facebook-WhatsApp deal: Google sees no threat

HYDERABAD: Google is not unduly worried about Facebook's acquisition of Whatsapp as it does not compete with them in the small and medium business segment, a top company official said. Google's vice-president and global head of SMBs, Allan Thygesen said the search engine giant was working on innovating solutions in messaging, among others, to help the businesses effectively engage with customers.

"I think that WhatsApp is a terrific example of new messaging services. And they have done a fantastic job creating utility that was great for the businesses and consumers," he said.

However, "in terms of acquiring new customers, it is not really as obvious how Whatsapp is useful. So, I am not worried about WhatsApp as a competitor to destabilising our presence or competitor for Adwords."

Social media company Facebook agreed to buy WhatsApp, a mobile sharing platform provider, for $19 billion (nearly Rs 1.2 lakh crore) in cash and stock, earlier this month.

Google's Thygesen, who was in Hyderabad on Wednesday, said the internet search giant is spending a lot of resources to bring about innovation in messaging, including Google Hangout where businesses could do video conferencing with multiple entities from their phone, desktop or laptop.

"We are making it available to companies at low cost as a competitive solution," Thygesen said. Google India, which currently has a customer base of 3 lakh SMBs, is targeting at least half a million over the next year or so.

Against 47 million SMBs in the country, the search engine giant sees the potential of getting online advertising from at least eight million. Only 7% of the Indian ad market is currently digital and the balance is distributed among print and electronic segments, against 30% online in developed economies such as the US and Britain.
Google India head of SMBs, K Suryanarayana said the Indian e-tailing market is projected to touch $16 billion (Rs 99,000 crore) by 2017 from $2.5 billion (Rs 15,500 crore) now, signifying a sizeable opportunity for his company.

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