• Apple revenues pass $100bn after record iPhone launch

• How Redditors propelled GameStop to $26bn in war with Wall Street

• London short-sellers feel the Reddit squeeze

• Opinion: Populism upended democracy. Now it's changing Wall Street

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Facebook has enjoyed its fastest revenue growth in more than two years, riding a surge in online advertising as its Western users found themselves locked down once again over the holidays.

The social media giant said it brought in revenues of $28bn ($20.5m) in the last three months of 2020, up 33pc from the previous year – a bigger increase than any since spring 2018.

Its user growth was steady, with all its apps including Instagram and WhatsApp now reaching an estimated 3.3bn people every month. Its profits rose by 53pc year on year to a healthy $11.2bn, suggesting that the company is returning to its pre-pandemic growth despite controversies over its role in the US election.

However, chief financial officer David Wehner warned that the company was sailing into "significant headwinds" from uncertainty over EU data transfer laws, which were struck down by a court last year, and Apple's impending iPhone privacy crackdown, which by one estimate could cut Facebook's revenue by 7pc, or 14pc in the worst case scenario, in the first three months.

Shares were down by 4pc versus the start of the day in after-hours training.

01:14 AM

A WallStreetBets crackdown begins

Late on Wednesday, the WallStreetBets Reddit community, which appears to have sparked the rush for GameStop shares, suddenly turned private. A message from its moderators informed newcomers that they were currently unable to ensure they were compliant with Reddit's rules in the face of a massive influx of new members.

Meanwhile, the community's hub on Discord, a group messaging service was shut down – supposedly for letting hate speech and disinformation run riot, rather than for manipulating markets. The US Securities and Exchange Commission said that it was "actively monitoring" the situation.

Combined with outages on trading platforms such as Robinhood and TD Ameritrade, these blows were easily interpreted by the WallStreetBets community as part of a deliberate conspiracy to crush a financial uprising of ordinary people.

By the end of the day activity had spread out into numerous duplicate spaces and new channels such as Telegram, the encrypted chat app. Whatever happens next, it's likely to be equally chaotic.

That's it from us for tonight. Join us again from 7am for more live updates.

11:05 PM

Mark Zuckerberg promises to reduce politics on Facebook

Facebook will extend some of the emergency measures put in place for the US election, permanently changing how political content spreads on its platform, Mark Zuckerberg has said.

On his company's earnings call, the chief executive said that all political groups would now be excluded from Facebook's recommendation algorithms, first in the US and later worldwide, and that Facebook would work to reduce the prominence of political content in users' news feeds in future.

Mr Zuckerberg described these as an attempt to push politics to the fringes of the service – which would be a new step for Facebook – saying:

Facebook groups and their algorithms have become a flashpoint for journalists and activists who accuse them of powering the explosive growth of extremist movements such as QAnon and boogaloo last year, culminating in the attempted storming of the US Capitol.

The catch, however, will be whether Facebook can reliably determine what counts as "political". Research has found that the company's emergency recommendation freeze had big holes, with political groups making up 15 out of every 100 suggestions shown to Biden voters and 23 out of every 100 shown to Trump voters.

10:21 PM

Tesla enjoys its first continuous year of profit

Tesla is celebrating its first ever year-long run of profitability, despite chaotic factory closures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, Margi Murphy reports.

The electric carmaker made $721m in 2020, with $270m generated in the last three months of the year thanks to “substantial growth” in deliveries.

It fell just shy of its ambitious target of shipping 500,000 cars in 2020, but said it expected to see annual 50pc growth in deliveries each year and was on track to exceed that in 2021. It also warned that the average price customers paid for its cars dropped by 11pc as money shifted to its cheaper Model 3 and Model Y.

Despite producing cars at a fraction of its competitors: Toyota, Volkswagen or General Motors, Tesla has become the world’s most valuable carmaker. Short sellers lost $38bn (£28bn) betting against Tesla in 2020, as its share price increased by 730pc. It is now one of the most valuable publicly traded American companies, trumping Facebook.

10:07 PM

'A historic holiday season for Apple'

Apple last night reported record-breaking profits after the world’s biggest publicly-traded company enjoyed the most successful iPhone launch in its history, James Titcomb reports.

The company revealed a 21pc increase in revenues to $111bn (£81bn), the first time its sales had crossed the $100bn mark in a single quarter, and said profits had jumped by 29pc to $28.8bn.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, called it a “historic holiday season”, saying the company had released an “unmatched line of cutting-edge products”.

It's a new phase of the unprecedented success Apple has enjoyed during the pandemic, despite the early disruptions to its supply chain in China and the locking down of its glamorous high street shops. Last year Apple became the first US company to be worth more than $2 trillion.

08:28 PM

Joe Biden says he's 'monitoring' GameStop shares

Officialdom has its eye on GameStop. A White House spokeswoman said that President Joe Biden is monitoring the price jump, while Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said he was unlikely to take action.

While the Fed has powers to set trading restrictions on digital brokers such as Robinhood and TD Ameritrade, Mr Powell said they were not under consideration, adding that he believed stocks are going up in general because of hopes for widespread vaccination and a return to pre-Covid life.

Robinhood did step in, raising its margin requirements for GameStop and AMC Entertainment, a massive but struggling US cinema chain that had also become a target of WallStreetBets.

06:52 PM

How Redditors went to war with Wall Street

My colleagues Matthew Field, James Titcomb and Rozina Sabur have just published an in-depth chronicle of the great Reddit GameStop stock rally caper.

The piece digs into the anti-establishment attitude of Reddit's WallStreetBets board, which is currently full of users revelling in the confusion of financial elites and the pain of short-sellers.

One thing that stands out is the close social bonds and strong shared culture that exist on the forum. Users post stories of how its stock tips have transformed their lives, letting them pay off debts or medical bills. When local heroes such as Elon Musk back a stock, they go wild.

These kind of group dynamics can be very powerful, leading individuals to accomplish genuine collective action. They can also be very dangerous, leading individuals to become disconnected from reality.

03:55 PM

Ant Group plans major shake-up to placate Chinese regulators

Jack Ma's fintech business Ant Group has moved to placate regulators in China as it prepares to undergo a major shake-up. My colleague James Cook reports:

Read more here.

03:15 PM

Cloud computing giant Salesforce to sell software for vaccine distribution

Salesforce, the cloud computing giant headed up by Marc Benioff, plans to sell its software as a "vaccine cloud" to help governments manage their rollouts.

The company says its software can be used to analyse data and ensure countries and agencies are getting enough doses and help make other decisions on the health of a population.

Salesforce said that 35 agencies around the world were already using the software to administer vaccines. It also said its tech can help with patient sign-ups and appointment processing.

02:34 PM

Apple to post nearly $60bn in iPhone sales for the first quarter

Apple is expected to wow Wall Street later today with its first quarter results where it has been tipped to post $59.8bn (£43bn) in iPhone sales.

The tech giant’s figures will give the first insight into the success of its latest line of handsets - the iPhone 12. The latest smartphone, which launched in October, boasted a new design, better screens and cameras, and came with a “mini” version for the first time.

Financial market data firm Refinitiv said that Apple could post even more than the near-$60bn figure and that if it did so could surpass the previous quarterly record set in 2018. Apple’s strong figures are expected to come despite the fact that widespread lockdowns led the shuttering of many of its physical stores across the world.

In the opening quarter of that year Apple posted $61.58bn worth of iPhone sales off the back of the launch of the new-look iPhone X.

Ben Bajarin, head of consumer technologies at Creative Strategies, said that Apple had an “extremely good understanding” of when customers look to update their devices.

“Every bit of data across China and Europe has shown that not only was the installed base getting older, but people were not refreshing. I think (Apple) knew it would be a heavy refresh cycle,” he told Reuters.

Analysts have also tipped the company to report strong Mac sales of around $8.69bn.

01:43 PM

Silicon Valley investor TCV raises $4bn in latest fund

TCV, the Silicon Valley investor that has backed the likes of Revolut, Strava, and Spotify, has raised $4bn (£2.88bn) for what will be its largest fund in its 25-year history.

The company intends to “double-down” on its investments in the likes of fintech, edtech, and digital entertainment. Neil Tolaney, general partner at TCV, said that in some cases, as with its investments in Peloton and Netflix, it will continue to hold onto its stake even after a company goes public.

“Looking ahead, we continue to help our companies reach the mountain top, knowing that the path will never be a straight line,” the company said in a blog post published on Wednesday.

“We remain dedicated to supporting management teams on their journey to become market leaders that provide their customers with a tremendous value proposition.”

01:02 PM

Facebook’s ecommerce bet set to pay dividends

Facebook’s bet on ecommerce to help drive ad sales is expected to prove its worth later today when the social media giant reveals its earnings.

Analysts have tipped the company to report fourth quarter sales of up to $26.4bn, an increase of 25pc year-on-year, according to figures from Refinitiv.

Investors will look to the performance of Zuckerberg’s Facebook Pay system, which enabled in-app purchases through the likes of Instagram and WhatsApp.

“This e-commerce investment seems to have started to pay off right as offline businesses are looking for more online activity,” Bank of America Global Research analysts wrote in a note.

Investors will also examine the company’s response to the antitrust case against it in the US.

12:28 PM

OnePlus founder Carl Pei makes his return with London start-up

The founder of the OnePlus smartphone brand, Carl Pei, is back, having raised $7m for a new hardware technology start-up based in London, Matthew Field writes.

Pei's new company, Nothing, is planning to launch its first hardware later this year. The company has not said what it will be working on, but it is expected to focus on audio devices. At 31, Nothing is Pei's second major company having founded OnePlus at just 23.

Investors in Pei's new firm include the former iPod designer Tony Fadell and Steve Huffman, the chief executive of Reddit.

Pei said: “It’s been a while since anything interesting happened in tech. It is time for a fresh breeze of change. Nothing’s mission is to remove barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future. We believe that the best technology is beautiful, yet natural and intuitive to use. When sufficiently advanced, it should fade into the background and feel like nothing.”

11:49 AM

Mobile firms to tackle rural 'not spots' by sharing more than 200 masts

Efforts to banish so-called "not spots" from the country received a welcome boost today as Vodafone, O2, and Three struck a deal to build more than 200 masts in remote areas. My colleague Hannah Boland reports:

Read more here.

11:15 AM

GameStop pushes past $10bn valuation as Musk tweet helps it to new highs

The relentless rise of beleaguered gaming retailer GameStop continued on Wednesday as it hit a $10bn (£7.2bn) valuation. The initial surge in the stock was driven by a flood of interest from amateur investors but the stock has received an additional boost after Elon Musk tweeted about it.

As my colleague James Cook reports:

10:30 AM

Nintendo facing European complaint over broken Switch controllers

Japanese gaming giant Nintendo is facing a complaint in Europe over allegedly "systemic problems" with its hugely-popular Switch console.

BEUC, a consumer protection group, has filed a complaint with the EU, insisting that in 88pc of cases the controllers "broke within two years". In the complaint, the consumer group said that 25,000 gamers had faced the "recurring technical problem" that made on-screen characters move without the controller being in use.

The Switch console has proven to be a massive hit for Nintendo since its launch in 2017. To date, more than 70m units have been sold.

Nintendo has yet to comment on the complaint.

09:57 AM

Bill Gates dubs pandemic conspiracies "crazy and evil"

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has spoken out against the "crazy" and "evil" conspiracy theories that have been spread about him during the pandemic.

In an interview with Reuters, Mr Gates said that the theories about both him and Anthony Fauci, the US infecious disease expert, had likely taken hold due to a combination of the pandemic and the rise of social media.

"Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr Fauci would be so prominent in these really evil theories," Mr Gates said. "I'm very surprised by that. I hope it goes away."

The former Microsoft chief has contributed more than $1.75bn (£1.25bn) to the global response to Covid-19 through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A raft of misinformation has proliferated online throughout the pandemic. Among them are claims that Mr Fauci and Mr Gates had created the pandemic to control people and profit from its spread. Others proliferate the lie that the pair want to use the vaccines to insert trackable microchips into people.

"But do people really believe that stuff?," Gates asked in the Reuters interview.

“We’re really going to have to get educated about this over the next year and understand .. how does it change peoples’ behaviour and how should we have minimised this?”

09:33 AM

GameStop's rally is "unnatural" and "insane", says Michael Burry

The meme-fuelled rally of gaming retailer GameStop is "unnatural, insane, and dangerous", according to one of the world's most-famous investors.

Michael Burry, who's prescient bet against the US housing market in 2008 was documented in The Big Short, has warned that the rush on GameStop has gotten out of hand.

In mid-2019, his firm Scion Asset Management, owned a 3.3pc stake in the beleaguered game retailer, according to figures from Bloomberg. But now, Burry is calling for "regulatory repercussions" after the stock soared 642pc since January 12.

The surge, which has been driven by investors on amateur Reddit forum WallStreetBets, has caused short-sellers to lose $1.6bn thus far.

"If I put $GME on your radar, and you did well, I’m genuinely happy for you,” Burry said in a tweet on Tuesday.

“However, what is going on now – there should be legal and regulatory repercussions. This is unnatural, insane, and dangerous.”

08:56 AM

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos battle it out in bid to fill the sky with mega constellations of internet satellites

The enigmatic tech founders have both set their sights on placing their own constellations of satellites throughout space, but the plans of SpaceX and Amazon could soon begin to overlap on one another. My colleague Laurence Dodds reports:

Read the full story here.

08:50 AM

Belfast, Dundee and Exeter the most likely to become leading UK tech hubs

While London, Manchester, and Cambridge often scoop the spoils of Britain's tech scene there is a batch of new cities that are set to become hubs in their own right, as my colleague Hannah Boland reports:

Read the full story here.

08:26 AM

TikTok owner cuts Indian workforce

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of social media sensation TikTok, said it is cutting the size of its team in India and is unsure as to when it will make a comeback.

The move followed a decision from Indian authorities to uphold a ban on TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps following responses from the companies on issues like compliance and privacy.

“We initially hoped that this situation would be short-lived...we find that has not been the case,” ByteDance wrote in the memo to staff in India, that was reported by Reuters.

“We simply cannot responsibly stay fully staffed while our apps remain un-operational...we don’t know when we will make a comeback in India”

08:14 AM

Tesla report could trigger a $7bn payout for Musk

Elon Musk's sizeable remuneration package could hand a $7bn (£5.01bn) pay package to the Telsa chief if it posts strong expectations for 2021 later today.

Despite producing a fraction of its traditional motoring rivals, Tesla is by far the world's most-valuable car maker. The electric vehicle company is worth $843bn, considerably more than Toyota's $236bn. Over the past year the stock has gone up in value by 700pc.

The company delivered just under 500,000 electric vehicles last year and has been tipped to almost double that this year.

"We’re expecting close to 900,000 deliveries. I think that as the economy opens up again, there is going to be pent up demand from people who want to spend some money,” King Lip, chief investment strategist at Baker Avenue Asset Management in San Francisco, which owns Tesla shares, told Reuters.

Analysts on average expect Tesla to report adjusted EBITDA of $2.3bn, up 92pc from a year ago. That would be enough to trigger the vesting of the fifth of 12 tranches of options granted to Musk in his 2018 pay package to buy discounted Tesla shares.

Musk, who receives no salary from the company, gets the option to buy 8.4 million shares at $70 each, a 90pc discount on today's prices. Based on January pricing, Musk could generate a profit of almost $7bn per tranche of his payout.

07:45 AM

Meet the man behind Telegram

Telegram is among a batch of apps that is excelling during WhatsApp's privacy woes. As my colleague James Cook reports, Telegram's founder Pavel Durov - often remarked as Russia's Mark Zuckerbeg - faces an uncertain future.

Read more here.

07:24 AM

Five things to start your day

1) Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in turf war over rival plans for mega constellations of internet satellites

The two moguls' rival satellite companies, SpaceX and Kuiper, have asked US regulators to decide their claims to the same orbital territory.

2) Microsoft reveals record profits as work from home boom continues

The software giant reported a 33pc increase in quarterly profits, as well as a 17pc increase in revenues that smashed Wall Street forecasts and saw shares climb to a record high in late trading.

3) Belfast, Dundee and Exeter the most likely to become leading UK tech hubs

Technology is understood to be at the centre of government plans to drive growth, with Rishi Sunak saying last year that "start-ups and innovative firms are one of our great economic strengths, and they will help spur our recovery from the pandemic".

4) Meet 'Russia's Mark Zuckerberg', the billionaire exile behind Telegram

Russian exile Pavel Durov’s app has reached 500m monthly active users as concerns have risen about WhatsApp’s use of data

5) Reddit trading fever strikes UK as Nokia, GameStop and BlackBerry surge

A Reddit-driven day trading frenzy that has been blamed for huge surges in some tech stocks is spreading to the UK, according to new data.