E-commerce

Judge gives taxi-hailing apps in NYC the go-ahead

The on-again, off-again scenario of whether to allow taxi-hailing apps to set up shop for a pilot program in New York City is back on again.

State Supreme Court Judge Carol Huff dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday that sought to halt the pilot program, which was filed by a group of mostly livery-car companies, according to the Associated Press. This means that startups like Uber, GetTaxi, and Hailo can now commence with e-hails.

The way the taxi-hailing apps work is by letting potential passengers put their location information into the app, which is then sent to yellow cabs. The first taxi … Read more

eBay CEO enlists users' aid to defeat online sales tax bill

eBay is trying to marshal its users to change federal sales tax legislation pending in the Senate that could usher in the first national Internet sales tax.

eBay CEO John Donahoe began sending e-mails to the online auctioneer's users on Sunday, asking they contact their federal representatives to express their opposition for the Marketplace Fairness Act. The proposed legislation, which the Senate is expected to vote on this week, would allow states to require online vendors to collect sales and use tax on certain out-of-state purchases. Only businesses with less than $1 million in annual U.S. sales would … Read more

Internet sales tax, here we come?

The days of shopping online and being able to duck sales taxes may soon come to an end. The U.S. Senate is slated to vote on the Internet sales tax sometime next week, according to Reuters.

Internet tax supporters, with backing from Walmart, Macy's, and Best Buy, are hoping a Senate vote will give them enough political leverage to require Americans to pay sales tax whenever buying goods online. This could usher in the first national Internet sales tax ever.

According to Reuters, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a motion on Thursday supporting the proposal. Since Reid … Read more

Bitcoin exchange BitFloor halts operations, shuts down

The recent Bitcoin rollercoaster ride has come to an end for one exchange.

Bitcoin exchange BitFloor announced Wednesday it is closing its trading operations and plans to return its remaining funds to its users.

The New York-based exchange, which specialized in trades of the digital peer-to-peer currency, announced the closure with a note on its home page penned by its founder, Roman Shtylman:

I am sorry to announce that due to circumstances outside of our control BitFloor must cease all trading operations indefinitely. Unfortunately, our US bank account is scheduled to be closed and we can no longer provide the … Read more

Amazon eyes anonymous mobile payments system

Amazon may be cooking up its own anonymous mobile payments system.

Published yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Amazon patent application appropriately dubbed "Anonymous mobile payments" describes a system that would let mobile users pay for items without having to reveal their name, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal details to the seller.

The invention follows in the footsteps of other mobile payment systems. However, Amazon takes it a few steps further.

Beyond shielding the personal information of the buyer, Amazon's system would use a special code, or temporary identifier, to conduct … Read more

Amazon creates specialty store for 50+ customers

Amazon leaves practically no demographic or product category untouched for it shoppers. The company just launched a "50+ Active and Healthy Living Store" with hundreds of thousands of items that end up on the shopping lists of seniors.

Amazon is tapping more directly into the large addressable market for seniors. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 40 million Americans were 65 or older in 2010, and more than 80 million were 50 and older. By 2015, those aged 50 and older will represent 45 percent of the U.S. population, according to the AARP. Those … Read more

Amazon's Bezos defends heavy investments in Prime, Kindle

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos today defended the company's stance on heavy investments in certain areas, saying it's focused on its customers, not its rivals, and that it believes its strategy is the best for the long term.

For years, Bezos has demonstrated a preference for plowing resources into initiatives to build market share but take years to generate profits. That seeming indifference to near-term profits worries Wall Street, with many expressing reservations over the years about the impact on margins. Amazon is believed to make little, if any, money on its gadgets, instead relying on customers to … Read more

DDoS cripples Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox after trading resumes

Update at 6:15 a.m. PT Friday: Bitcoin's tumble continued after trading resumed. As of now, the digital currency is trading at $69.

Less than two hours after the resumption of Bitcoin trades following a lengthy suspension, currency exchange Mt. Gox is offline, the apparent victim of a distributed-denial-of-service attack.

"We are experiencing a stronger than usual DDoS," the Tokyo-based exchange said tonight in a Google+ post. "We are working in it."

Mt. Gox, which handles three-quarters of the trades in the digital currency, announced a suspension of trading this morning after a rollercoaster … Read more

Bitcoin drops another 35 percent as exchange reopens

Bitcoin's wild ride continued this evening, immediately carving 35 percent off the value of the digital currency as Mt. Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, resumed trading after an extended suspension of operations.

The value of the peer-to-peer currency began trading at $78 a Bitcoin against the U.S. dollar, falling as low as $65 before recovering to trade as high as $135. The plunge followed yesterday's rollercoaster trading day, which saw Bitcoin's valuation drop 61 percent before recovering a bit with a 37 percent loss.

The decentralized digital currency, which had quadrupled in value in … Read more

Bitcoin bubble burst? Currency suffers dramatic correction

After a meteoric run-up in the valuation of Bitcoin in the past month, the virtual currency suffered a dramatic correction today, losing more than 60 percent before mounting a bit of a recovery.

The peer-to-peer currency, which has quadrupled in value in the past four weeks, traded as high as $266 per Bitcoin today before plummeting to $105. It recovered to trade at $145 as of this writing, a one-day loss of 37 percent. Despite today's losses, Bitcoin is still up more than 1,000 percent in the past three months.

Today's drop came amid another distributed denial-of-service … Read more