U.S. plan to cede Internet domain control on track: ICANN head

A controversial Obama administration plan to cede oversight of the non-profit that manages the Internet's infrastructure is on track to gain government approval by next year's presidential elections, the organization's chief said in an interview.

Some Republican lawmakers have raised concerns about the plan to hand over the stewardship of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to a global multi-stakeholder body, worried that it may allow other countries to capture control.

But ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé said such opposition was fading and that some opponents would come around once they see the accountability mechanisms and other assurances put in place.

"I think they see now that this is actually a good thing for the Internet. The fragmentation of the Internet is bad for everyone," he said.

"I'm never comfortable, but I am optimistic and I believe that all interests are now aligned... Everybody sees that this makes sense."

Since 1998, the United States, which gave birth to the Internet, has contracted out, through the Commerce Department, the management of the master database for top-level domain names like .com and .net and their corresponding numeric addresses to ICANN.

The Commerce Department has long expected to phase out its oversight and planned to do it at the end of the current ICANN contract in September, though the timing may slip slightly and may require an extension.

ICANN members are working to draft a proposal for how the group would operate as an independent body run by stakeholders from across the world, including academics and business and government representatives.

Chehadé, who plans to leave ICANN in March, said the community should produce the proposal by the end of the year for the U.S. government, including the administration and Congress, to review. He said the review process, according to government estimates, would take 60 to 90 days.

Chehadé said he remained optimistic that those steps could be concluded before the U.S presidential election in November 2016, which may result in a Republican hostile to an ICANN power shift controlling the White House.

Once the review process was completed, ICANN members would work to implement the plan. It remains unclear how long that process would take.

The White House on Tuesday issued a veto threat to a bill proposed in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives that would restrict the Commerce Department's ability to use its funding to relinquish ICANN oversight.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by Christian Plumb)

Deutsche Bank to launch three tech startup labs in 2015: source

Deutsche Bank aims to launch three technology innovation labs in Berlin, London and Silicon Valley this year designed to accelerate development of so-called "fintech" companies which could aid the banking sector and its clients.

Germany’s largest lender, grappling with an overhaul of its own technology infrastructure, aims to get the three operations up and running by the end of the year, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The bank, which unveiled broad plans in April to overhaul its strategy and modernize its tech infrastructure, hopes to screen some 500 fintech start-ups per year, with some seeking to develop security, payments, efficiency, organization or process applications.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined comment.

The move follows similar initiatives by rivals including Swiss bank UBS and Commerzbank to turbocharge tech developments that will help banks work more efficiently and stay close to clients.

American Express also recently opened a tech lab in Palo Alto, California, to focus on cloud computing and mobile infrastructure.

Deutsche Bank has not set aside a specific sum of money to invest in the firms, the source said, rather it aims to partner with chosen start-ups by either using the technology itself, fostering development, or perhaps channeling it into clients or other portions of the financial sector, the source said.

Deutsche wants to partner and work with start-ups, give them feedback on their ideas and find ways to employ their technology, not try to benefit solely from a financial perspective, said the source. “This is primarily about innovation, not investments.”

The launch, which comes weeks after board member Henry Ritchotte was named chief digital officer, marks a bigger commitment to developing a field where the banking sector fell behind similar tech advances in manufacturing following the financial crisis.

(Additional reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Andreas Framke and Kirsti Knolle)

Instagram takes steps to open platform to advertisers

Instagram said on Tuesday that it is taking steps to make its ads available to all types of businesses, not just hand-selected brands.

Starting in June, Instagram this year is rolling out to advertisers the ability to more closely direct campaigns by zip code and other data sets like interests in the same ways that brands can target consumers on its parent company Facebook Inc.

In addition it will let advertisers link to external websites or app stores with buttons such as "shop now," "sign up," "learn more," and "install now."

Currently, it works closely with only a handful of brands like Levi's, Banana Republic and Ben & Jerry's. Ads can only be targeted by gender, age and country.

"The quality of the ad experience remains a very important point of differentiation for us," Instagram's global head of business and brand development James Quarles said in an interview.

The move to widen and sharpen the ad platform is a significant one for the popular mobile photo app that has more than 200 million daily active users across the world. It has carefully allowed advertising on its platform starting a year and a half ago. Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.

Quarles added that making ads more relevant and delivering them to the right target is the next stage of development.

Still, by opening up to all advertisers, including hundreds of thousands of small businesses, Instagram risks losing quality control of campaigns and potentially irking users.

"People are used to seeing beautiful brand imagery in their feeds," said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer. "Now they will see some direct response ads and we all know the baggage that comes with that."

Still, Williamson expects a "strong ramp-up" from advertisers long eager to do more with the platform.

Facebook does not break out Instagram revenue but Pivotal Research estimates it is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Kfir Gavrieli, co-founder and CEO of Tieks, an online-only retailer known for its ballet flats, said it's currently "clumsy and awkward" for an Instagram user to get from a post to a landing page.

"The shop now button," he said, "will be much more seamless."

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Christian Plumb)

Boost.vc Diversifies With A Push Into VR

Startup accelerator Boost.vc is diversifying its next cohort of startups, shifting its line-up of accepted startups from focusing solely on Bitcoin to include those working on virtual and augmented reality.

In a chat with TechCrunch last week, Boost.vc co-founder Adam Draper explained the accelerator’s reasoning. “We’re good at building communities around early tech sectors. We bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and builders, and by focusing investments on a category over time, we ourselves become experts in the subject, and thus more valuable to startups that might want to join.”

After two and half years investing in Bitcoin-related startups, Draper says the team decided they didn’t need to only apply those strengths to a single ecosystem. So with their next cohort, or “tribe,” of startups, the accelerator plans to accept a roughly equal number of virtual reality startup as those working to solve problems with Bitcoin.

In addition to mentorship from investors and entrepreneurs with experience in the virtual reality scene, startups that join up in the next group get free housing (for teams of 1-4 people) and $15-25,000 in capital in exchange for ~6% of their company. It’s like the living arrangement on HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” except without an investor hanging around with a bong all day.

As for the kinds of virtual reality startups the accelerator will be investing in, Draper says Boost will not be backing teams working on hardware. Instead, they’re looking for companies building a software infrastructure around the creation and consumption of experiences in virtual reality.

Draper thinks that outside of gaming, the earliest successful VR products will show up on Google’s Cardboard and Samsung’s Gear VR. And with applications like Google’s Expeditions popping up, Draper says he’s “very excited about VR and education technology.”

Source: TC