Facebook stock hits all-time high, again.

Facebook Inc posted surprisingly strong profit and revenue growth as the world's largest social network grew even larger, with a rise in mobile users and advertising that lifted its stock to an all-time high.

The company reported audience numbers that suggest it is set to take on mainstream media as an advertising force, helping investors to overlook Facebook's huge spending on hiring and building data centers.

Facebook now has 8 billion video views per day from 500 million people, compared with 4 billion views in April.

And Facebook's website and Instagram photo-sharing app, which opened up its platform to all advertisers in the third quarter, account for more than 1 in 5 minutes spent on mobile devices in the United States, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said.

"In the medium to long run, we believe that we're not competing between Facebook and Instagram. We're competing with other forms of media," Sandberg told analysts on a conference call after the earnings report.

Facebook had 1.55 billion monthly active users as of Sept. 30, up 14 percent from a year earlier. Of these, 1.39 billion used the service on mobile devices.

"Growth is happening across the board and we're of course looking for a lot of growth in the future in emerging markets," Sandberg said in an interview. "We're also pretty focused on helping bring the next set of people who are not online, online."

Ad revenue grew 45.4 percent to $4.30 billion, with 78 percent of that coming from mobile versus 66 percent in the year-ago quarter. "Part of the upside came from Instagram. The Instagram monetization engine has been turned on really rapidly for the coming quarters and years," said Arvind Bhatia, an analyst with SterneAgee.

Facebook did not disclose Instagram's ad sales figures. But the app is expected to bring in $595 million in mobile ad revenues this year, while its ad revenue is projected to grow to $2.8 billion by 2017.

Facebook's huge $3.0 billion spending, up 68 percent from the third quarter last year, did not seem to worry investors or analysts. "I think the investors would like the company to continue to invest given that the opportunity is pretty large," said Shyam Patil of Susquehanna Financial Group.

The stock rose about 5 percent to an all-time high of $109.34 in extended trading, before paring gains to about 4 percent. It closed earlier at $103.94.

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Twitter Inc. is doing all it can to start changing its bad run in recent months.

The Company has replaced the star-shaped “Favorite” button with the heart-shaped “Like” button. The news was reported on Tuesday, and the change has been credited to the company's aim to make the platform more user-friendly for newcomers.

Twitter’s Product Manager, Akarshan Kumar wrote: “The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people. And in our tests, we found that people loved it.”

The change had been requested by majority investor Chris Sacca, in June. In a blog post titled “What Twitter Can Be,” Mr. Sacca outlined various issues that the company has faced recently. He also came up with his own solutions to those problems.

The investor recommended removing the Favorites button, and using a Like button instead. He stated the same thing that the company noted in its post today: “It is now clear from across the Internet and throughout the world of apps that the heart is universally understood and embraced.” Mr. Sacca also pointed out that the use of the heart button on Twitter’s video-streaming app Periscope had received positive feedback from users.

The micro-blogging social network has not given credit to the investor for initiating this change. By adopting this policy, the company is somewhat following arch-rival Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), which uses its own thumbs-up button for likes.

The company has rolled out the changes only a few weeks after announcing that co-founder Jack Dorsey would head the company as its permanent CEO. The new chief has committed to accelerate user growth by making more positive changes to the core product. As part of these changes, Twitter users should also expect to see an extension of the 140-character limits on tweets.

In contrast, Facebook still remains one step ahead of the change with its proactive approach. Earlier in August, the company said that it would be adding six new buttons to accompany the like button that include “Angry,” “Sad,” “Wow,” “Yay,” “Haha,” and “Love.” For now, these buttons are available only in Spain and Ireland, but users all over the world can expect to see them soon.

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Auto makers in the U.S. said car sales rose by a double-digit percentage in October, driven by the month having five weekends and continued strong demand for larger vehicles amid low oil prices.

Overall, car sales are on track to reach their highest October sales volume since 2001. General Motors Co. said the seasonally adjusted annual selling rate for light vehicles reached an estimated 18.2 million units in October.

GM led the Big Three, posting a 15.9% jump to 262,993 light vehicles sold in the month, which surpasses the estimate for 12% growth from car research firm Edmunds.com.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV recorded a 14.7% leap, propelled in part by searing demand for the auto maker’s Jeep brand, and was above the 14% estimate. Ford Motor Co.’s 13.4% growth in sales, came in a bit lower from expectations for 14.2% growth.

Car shoppers continued to drive away in larger, pricier vehicles amid low interest rates, cheap fuel and a stronger economy. The October numbers also were helped by another weekend in the month versus last year.

Nissan Motor Co. finished the month 12.5% higher than last year at 116,047 light vehicles. Overall sales of Nissan crossovers, trucks and SUVs rose 26% for an October record as Rogue sales shot up 70% and the Murano crossover jumped 25%.

Fiat Chrysler—which recorded its best sales for the month since 2001—sold 195,545 vehicles, compared with 170,480 for the month last year, extending the Italian-U.S. company’s sales-gains streak to 67 months.

Jeep brand sales spiked 33%. Eight Fiat-Chrysler vehicles posted their best October ever: Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Journey, Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Compass, Jeep Patriot, Jeep Wrangler and Ram ProMaster.

Overall, U.S. auto sales are expected to increase 12% year-over-year to 1.43 million vehicles. Compact utilities are expected to hit their third month as the top segment with 40% growth. “Exploding popularity” of small utility vehicles means small and midsize cars are losing market share. The firm estimates market share for both smaller-car segments will drop more than a full percentage point.

Volkswagen AG is seen as a black mark on the month following fallout from its emissions scandal.

October could be the last month Volkswagen’s Audi sales remain untainted. On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency slapped additional Clean Air Act violations on the German auto maker, widening the scandal to thousands of more diesel-powered vehicles, including multiple Audi models.

“In this year of booming auto sales, no auto maker should be relieved to see flat year-over-year performance, but this may be the best that Volkswagen can hope for this month,” said Edmunds.com analyst Jessica Caldwell. “Until VW starts down a road to recovery by informing owners of a specific fix to their diesel vehicles, the company is likely to make far fewer sales than this surging market would otherwise deliver to them.”

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Instagram star exposes why life on social media is far from the real thing

Model Essena O'neill said that going to scenic places and taking pictures just to get likes and compliments is not life.

Australian model Essena O'neill has more than half a million followers on Instagram and around 260,000 subscribers on YouTube. She had the life most people living in the digital age envied, yet she has decided to quit social media, and while doing so, she exposed the real stories behind the seemingly-perfect life she flaunted online.

"Social media is not real life," she decried.

The 19-year-old model, who earned her living through brand-sponsored posts and online advertisements, shared a raw and emotional video blog on her YouTube page, explaining the real reason why she is quitting social media.

"I am quitting social media to tell everyone, anyone that I was miserable. I had it 'all' and I was miserable," she said, adding that she decided to do it for her younger self who didn't get to live life because she was too focused on concocting a perfect life online that would be the envy of many.

O'neill added that she didn't get to live her real life, by just being with people and talking to them, because she was too busy "living in the screen and wishing that people would value" her.

She added that going to scenic places and taking pictures just to get likes and compliments is not life.

"You want to be valued and loved, but you also want to be free. You don't have to go on social media to connect. You don't have to prove your life on Instagram for it to be a good life."

To those dreaming of building a career by blogging, she gave this advice: "I have everything to lose by doing this. But to the majority of the people without a career on social media, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain."

She said that she was prompted to expose the social media industry when she turned off her smartphone for a week and that she didn't recognize herself when she wasn't connected to the digital world.

"There were so many things I could have done with my time. I could have just enjoyed, [but instead] I threw away real connections. I was, somehow, showing people that likes and views equal worth," thus she decided to create the movement "Let's Be Game Changers."

She added that the movement is bigger than her and what she is doing is a statement that real life isn't through screens. "You don't have to do anything but explore what excites you."

In an Instagram post, her edited caption revealed that she was then paid $400 to post a photo of her wearing a dress from a clothing brand when she only had 150,000 followers, but those with more than half a million followers, online brands pay up to $2,000 per post.

She asked for support, because her exposé and decision to leave the industry left her broke, adding that she can't even afford to pay her rent anymore.

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Activision Blizzard is purchasing King Digital, the makers of popular game Candy Crush, for a total equity value of $5.9 billion. The deal is all in cash.

The sale was unanimously approved by the boards of both Activision and King. It is expected that the sale will completed by Spring 2016.

With the acquisition, Activision Blizzard will add two of the top five US mobile games to its already impressive war chest of intellectual properties, including Call of Duty, World of WarCraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Destiny and others.

Here's the statement from Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard:

“The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment. With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before.”

The purchase is a major signal by Activision that it plans to move more aggressively into mobile gaming. As of its 2nd quarter earnings, just 5 percent of its net revenue came from mobile and other sources. 54 percent came from console games, 21 percent from online and 14 percent from PC gaming.

That should change. King Digital reported $490 million in second quarter revenue in August, according to the Wall Street Journal. All of that is from web and mobile games.

Though Candy Crush has been a rousing commercial and popular success since it was first launched in 2012, King has struggled to release another title even coming close to the puzzle game's popularity.

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This car is faster than Ferrari and Bugatti, but its price tag is nowhere near any of them.

The new Tesla Model S P90D, a 7-seat electric car, accelerates faster than sports cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bugatti, according to tests by the car enthusiast magazine Motor Trend.

The all-wheel drive P90D went from a dead stop to 60 miles an hour in a mind-blowing 2.6 seconds, according to the magazine. The average family sedan today takes about 8 seconds to do the same.

Among the cars that would take longer to reach highway speeds, according to Motor Trend, are the $400,000 Lamborghini Aventador and the $2 million Bugatti Veyron, both two-seat high-performance sports cars.

There are a few cars that are quicker, but very few. Among them are the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder, both plug-in hybrid supercars with price tags much higher than the Tesla. Prices for the Model S P90D electric car, with Tesla's new Ludicrous Mode performance software, start at about $120,000.

The P90D has two electric motors, one driving the front wheels, the other back wheels that can produce up to 762 horsepower. Unlike gasoline engines which have certain speed ranges in which they pull best, electric motors produce full pulling power at all speeds.

P9OD’s fast acceleration seems almost unreal. "For the first few seconds, you're accelerating faster than free-fall," said Motor Trend road test editor Chris Walton, "so it's literally like being on an amusement park ride."

Also, unlike other cars, the Model S accelerates almost noiselessly, making the experience even stranger, he said.

Ludicrous Mode is also available on the Model X SUV. A next-generation Tesla Roadster sports car, due out in four years, will have a mode called "Maximum Plaid," Tesla has said, which should be even faster.

Tesla recently released new software updates for the Model S that allow the car to steer itself, to some extent, and also to brake automatically to avoid hitting other cars.

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Instagram has launched a new video channel that will feature curated photos and videos from users focused around specific events. Available through the photo sharing app’s Explore tab, the feature looks a bit similar to Twitter’s Moment offering, or even Snapchat. Naturally, the first album was dedicated to Halloween.

This feature opened up today for users in the U.S. and will showcase the “best videos” that users have posted on the service. It’s said that an editorial team at Instagram will play a part in choosing what’s featured. You can cycle through different video clips and if you’re interested in the creator of that piece of content, you can tap on their username and go directly to their profile or to that post.

Instagram said that there are 80 million photos shared on its social network every day, but hasn’t revealed how many videos are posted.

Although only one video album is currently displayed, it’s likely that others will soon be added, including those around politics, protests, Thanksgiving and other holidays, or any other major events taking place around the world.

But in the meantime, if you’re still out trick-or-treating or are planning to, you can plan ahead and see if one of your Instagram videos gets chosen. You can submit your post by using the hashtag #IGHalloween and the company will evaluate it.

It’s also quite possible we will see Instagram eventually incorporate ads into these channels, much as Twitter is doing through its recently introduced Promoted Moments. Currently, the company told that it has no plans to open its channel to advertisers, it will likely take the time to review the situation in order to not compromise the user experience, but as it continues to expand its advertising offering, the introduction of ads is probably only a matter of time.

Two years ago, Instagram debuted its video capability to the world, allowing users to assemble 15-second clips that rivaled Vine and other competitors. With Instagram videos, users can now take a video, apply a filter, and share it with the world. This new channel will give some of the best of those videos an even better chance of being discovered while encouraging users to discover new feeds to follow.

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China wants to double its economy by 2020.

China has set its goal of doubling the size of China's economy to $12 trillion by 2020.

The highly ambitious doubling from 2010 levels is one of the government's top priorities announced at the end of a week-long meeting in Beijing, where officials discussed the country's social and economic agenda for the next five years.

"Development is still the top priority," the government said in its official summary of the "five-year plan." Beijing also called for "medium-high economic growth," but didn't provide further details or specific targets.

Economists say China's economy will have to average a minimum of 6.5% growth over the next five years to reach the goal, a slower pace than the roughly 7% expansion posted so far this year.

Leaders have been under pressure in recent months to boost the economy, as China is now posting its worst GDP growth figures since the financial crisis. But officials didn't unveil major stimulus measures, instead putting forth a loose framework that emphasized manufacturing and increased R&D spending.

The most significant development from the meeting was a decision to roll back the decades-long one-child policy, and allow all couples to have two children.

The move is aimed at countering China's shrinking workforce and fast-aging population, two demographic factors that are holding back the economy.

But experts say it will be decades before babies born under the new policy are able to enter the workforce. Plus, some couples may not be interested in having more kids, given the higher cost-of-living and heavy pollution.

For the first time, the government has made going green a key objective. China has in recent years grown more environmentally conscious, even setting goals to cut polluting emissions. Analysts expect the government to introduce financial incentives for green technologies and products.

Beijing also reiterated economic reforms announced in previous years, in particular are long-term plans to allow market forces to play a greater role in the economy, and to put greater emphasis on higher consumption.

Specific growth targets and the government's full five-year plan are expected to be released in March, according to state media.

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The extreme camera maker's shares nosedived by 16% on Thursday to the lowest level since going public. GoPro (GPRO, Tech30) stock is not only on track for its worst day ever, it’s now close to its IPO price of $24.

The amazing GoPro story has come crashing into a harsh reality: The market for extreme sports enthusiasts who have the money for the amazing devices may just not be all that big.

GoPro's gravity-defying sales growth is coming back to earth. Sales exploded by 72% in the second quarter, but slowed to 43% last quarter and now GoPro is warning sales will actually drop during the holiday season.

It's not that GoPro's cameras are not good enough, they're fantastic devices. The problem is GoPro is struggling to expand beyond a niche market to mass appeal.

GoPro investors agree. “You need a broad market,” said Roger Kay, a tech analyst who is president of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

GoPro dropped a bomb on investors late Wednesday when it reported earnings and sales that badly missed targets. Fears about GoPro's future were amplified by the company saying holiday sales will tumble.

GoPro burst onto Wall Street in June 2014 when it sold shares to a public growing increasingly fascinated by the gadget maker's brand. The stock skyrocketed, more than quadrupling in just four months.

But investors are quickly realizing the young, hip, athletic audience that GoPro appeals to isn't representative of the typical American consumer. "Another problem: Most of the young, hip people are struggling with money, and these products aren't cheap," Kay said.

GoPros aren't cheap. But they are getting cheaper, and that's alarming Wall Street. Piper Jaffray slapped a rare "underperform" rating on GoPro due in part due to disturbing pricing trends. GoPro's HERO4 Session is now fetching "only" $300 on Amazon (AMZN, Tech30), down from $400 in mid-September, according to a PiperJaffray report titled "GoPro likely to GoLow(er)."

Questions about GoPro's future are causing Wall Street to mark down the way the stock is valued. Instead of the fast-growing media and Tech Company GoPro aspires to become, investors are applying lower, more hardware-like multiples to the stock.

None of this means GoPro can't return to flight eventually. The company has a series of ambitious efforts underway, including expanding into the rapidly-growing drone market, launching a new editing software platform and monetizing its awesome content of extreme sports activities. GoPro recently surpassed 1 billion views on its YouTube channel.

"You need all of that stuff to hit and spark up the growth rate again for the shares to get back," said Stone.

GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman insists he and his employees are far more focused on the long-term vision than the recent stock turbulence. “Everybody within GoPro is very excited and determined...It makes it easy for us as a team to look past what the stock is doing today and focus more on where we are going to be in the next three to five years.”

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China will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of the strict one-child policy, the ruling Communist Party said on Thursday, a move aimed at alleviating demographic strains on the economy.

The policy is a major liberalization of the country's family planning restrictions, already eased in late 2013 when Beijing said it would allow more families to have two children when at certain conditions.

A growing number of scholars had urged the government to reform the rules, introduced in the late 1970s to prevent population growth spiraling out of control, but now regarded as outdated and responsible for shrinking China's labor pool.

For the first time in decades the working age population fell in 2012, and China, the world's most populous nation, could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich.

China will "fully implement a policy of allowing each couple to have two children as an active response to an aging population", the party said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

Wang Feng, a leading expert on demographic and social change in China, called the change an "historic event" that would change the world but said the challenges of China's aging society would remain.

"It's an event that we have been waiting for a generation, but it is one we have had to wait much too long for," Wang said. "It won't have any impact on the issue of the aging society, but it will change the character of many young families," Wang said.

Critics said the relaxation of rules was too little, too late to redress substantial negative effects of the one-child policy on the economy and society.

Many couples who were allowed another child under the 2013 rules decided not to, especially in the cities, citing the cost of bringing up children in an increasingly expensive country.

State media said in January that about 30,000 families in Beijing, just 6.7 percent of those eligible, applied to have a second child. The Beijing government had said last year that it expected an extra 54,200 births annually as a result of the change in rules.

Chinese people took to microblogging site Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, to welcome the move, but many said they probably wouldn't opt for a second child. "I can't even afford to raise one, let alone two," wrote one user.

William Nee, a China researcher at human rights campaign group Amnesty International, welcomed the move, but urged China to go further.

"China should immediately and completely end its control over people's decisions to have children. This would not only be good for improving human rights, but would also make sense given the stark demographic challenges that lie ahead," he said.

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