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Amazon to invest in the UK's least popular delivery service
With Prime subscriptions on the rise, Amazon is constantly exploring ways to cut the cost of regular home deliveries. One option the retail giant is considering is to invest in the companies that deliver its parcels, with UK courier firm Yodel currently the object of its desire. The Guardian reports that the two companies have agreed a deal that could see Amazon acquire 4.2 percent of the UK's least popular parcel delivery service for £8.7 million. While Yodel is now the second biggest service of its kind behind recently-privatized Royal Mail, customers haven't been so supportive, putting the company at the bottom of the delivery polls for the second year running. Amazon continues to use a variety of delivery firms across the world, but the company has recently begun using its own trucks to deliver parcels in the US. It's not clear whether Amazon could amass a bigger fleet on the other side of the Atlantic, but strategic investments such as this suggest it could be a possibility.
French billionaire to bring 3,000 all-electric hire cars to London
Electric cars have yet to wow British drivers, but that doesn't mean the government is ready to give up on putting more greener vehicles on UK streets. With help from a French billionaire, the city is set to become home to more than 3,000 electric hire cars and 6,000 charging points in the next two years, quadrupling the number of available outlets that are available today. It's all part of a £100 million investment by businessman Vincent Bollore, whose company won the rights to assist London Mayor Boris Johnson in getting 100,000 electric vehicles on the road and putting every resident within one mile of a charge point. While the charging network will be run for Transport for London, the car-sharing scheme is commercial. Bollore reckons around 100 "Bluecars" will be available by the end of the year, which can be rented using a smartphone app for £10 per hour (nearly twice as much as some petrol car services like ZipCar). While it's certainly no Tesla Supercharger network, we can expect EVs to suddenly become a lot more visible on the streets of Britain's capital city.
Netflix is now being used to measure inflation in the UK
Video streaming has grown so much in the UK that authorities are now using it to help calculate inflation rates. The Office of National Statistics announced today that it has added Netflix and Amazon Instant Video to the UK's "basket of goods," measuring consumers' love for House of Cards to get a better idea of what people are spending their money on. Recognizing the shift away from discs, the UK body has also dropped DVD recorders and replaced them with digital TV recorders (DVRs), including Sky+, Virgin Media TiVo and YouView boxes. Interestingly, interchangeable lens cameras have been added for the first time, driving home just how much of an effect the smartphone has had on sales of point-and-shoots. Smartphones and tablet sales are already being tracked, of course, as are ebooks, but now demand for Frank Underwood and co. (as well as hundreds of other products and services) will be used to help shape UK interest rates, pensions and even train ticket prices.
