From Apple Pay to Heartbleed, 2014 was a busy year in tech, rife with headlines on everything from security to mobile payments and cryptocurrencies.
We’ve rounded up the top 10 stories of 2014 at ITBusiness.ca, as chosen by our readers based on their pageviews (though we didn’t count blogs or slideshows in this particular piece). Read on to find out what made our list.
10. “nCrowd completes acquisition of TeamBuy, offers discounts to users” – This was part two of a story that attracted a lot of attention among merchants who had agreed to post deals with TeamBuy and Dealfind, two merged Canadian sites that offered daily deals to consumers looking for bargains. They had been working with Canadian merchants and consumers until nCrowd, a U.S.-based site, decided to acquire it, and according to some disgruntled business owners, they stopped paying merchants for their end of the deals.
When nCrowd completed its acquisition, the company promised consumers 20 per cent off any purchases made on Sept. 30 – though it didn’t address the issue of whether it would compensate merchants who had made sales through TeamBuy and Dealfind during the acquisition process.
9. “Top 10 smartphones for business: Samsung Galaxy S5” – We’ve been running a series on this year’s best smartphones for productivity and business, and one of them was the Samsung Galaxy S5.
While stories about smartphones always get a lot of reads on ITBusiness.ca, contributor Alex Davies went in-depth with his piece, exploring how Samsung simplified things on the S5 – and compared to its feature-stuffed S4, that was an improvement.
8. “3 in 10 Canadians not protecting themselves online, survey finds” – Here in Canada, we may like to think of ourselves as good stewards of our personal data. However, in a survey of 1,000 people from Norton by Symantec, researchers found as many as 30 per cent of Canadians haven’t installed any security software on their devices, and about two-thirds have also logged onto public WiFi in the last month. We’d guess the survey drew a lot of reads because it highlights the fact so many consumers lack knowledge about protecting themselves online.
7. “Top 10 smartphones for business: Google Nexus 5” – Released in Canada in the fall of 2013, once again contributor Alex Davies weighed the pros and cons of this smartphone, finally dubbing it as one of the “best values in mobile today.”
6. “CRA shuts down netfile service over Heartbleed concerns” – Heartbleed was one of the biggest vulnerabilities of 2014, affecting millions of websites using the OpenSSL cryptographic library. So it’s no surprise that when the Canada Revenue Agency announced it had been affected, this was a big story, especially as it may have affected Canadian readers hoping to file their taxes online.
5. “Royal Canadian Mint readies its version of Bitcoin” – In January, the Royal Canadian Mint announced its plans to launch its own digital currency, the MintChip. While the Mint ultimately put up its project for sale just a few months later, just the MintChip’s existence shows the Canadian government has been devoting some thought to how digital currencies may change the way we buy and sell things.
4. “TeamBuy and Dealfind near bailout acquisition while merchants seek answers” – This was the first part of two stories, and the predecessor to the 10th story in this list. It was also a frustrating time for Canadian merchants who had posted deals with TeamBuy and Dealfind, which had merged together in early 2013.
In September, a number of business owners began complaining about how the groupbuying site was not paying them for deals where they had taken steep discounts, allowing customers to try out their products and services for lower prices as part of a special groupbuying offer. It turns out TeamBuy and Dealfind company was focused on getting acquired by nCrowd, another company in the groupbuying space.
3. “Canadian Tire money enters era of mobile payments” – Canadian Tire is a hugely recognizable brand here in the Great White North, so it’s no surprise people wanted to read about what the retailer has been doing in the digital space. We explored how Canadian Tire has launched a digital, customer loyalty-focused version of its Canadian Tire money, a standby for Canadian consumers collecting 10 cents here and five cents there in brightly coloured paper form.
2. “How to use Apple Pay in Canada” – When Apple announced its mobile payments system this fall, many consumers were excited to try it out. However, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners in Canada were destined to be disappointed, given Apple was not bringing the feature here. Yet TouchBistro, a point-of-sales solutions provider, has shown how Canadians can use Apple Pay, as long as they have a U.S. credit card.
1. “Apple Pay coming to Canada dependent on banks deal” – It’s interesting to see the top two stories of 2014 were both centred on Apple Pay – meaning readers most likely want to know more about this mobile payments system. While it’s not surprising Apple stories attract a lot of reads, it’s interesting to see there may be an appetite for something like Apple Pay – even if isn’t expected to come to Canada in the near future.
