Western Union Faces Backlash Over Removal of Spoof Bitcoin Ad
Western Union has reportedly taken action against a bitcoin spoof of one of its ads, triggering a backlash from proponents of the digital currency. The parody in question was an image posted on the 'Bitcoin' Facebook page by bitcoin enthusiast Dave Aiello, who also placed it on Reddit. The spoof, which makes a humorous comparison between the price of sending money via Western Union and bitcoin, proved popular among Redditors, who were quick to share the image. It remains unclear where the parody originated, with Aiello indicating to Ars Technica that he is not the author of the image.....
Related News
Remittance leader Western Union is currently experiencing a strong backlash from the Bitcoin community, following a subvertising made by a reddit user that highlights the huge benefits of the virtual currency over the company services. It's a quite funny home page that is displayed on the /bitcoin subreddit at this time: dozens of heavily upvoted posts are featuring the same image, namely a subvertising of an advertisement that was originally supposed to promote the services of Western Union. The remittance specialist offers a flat $5 fee for each payment of less than $ 50, equating to a....
In the world of cash-transfers, few other companies come to mind as instantaneously as Western Union. If you’ve walked in a convenience store anywhere between the west and east coast of the United States, you’ve probably seen a banner for Western Union. The remittance provider is currently facing a preliminary antitrust inquiry as the EU examines allegations of Western Union intentionally driving rivals out of business. Allegedly, Western Union is giving their retail outlet partners contracts with exclusivity contracts in them which don’t allow other cash-transfer services to operate....
In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Hikmet Ersek expressed a willingness to incorporate bitcoin into Western Union’s portfolio of world currencies “once bitcoin is regulated like a proper currency.” Perhaps even the world’s premier money transmitting service is coming around to bitcoin. But Ersek seems to find this a significant “if.” Western Union is the world’s largest money transmitting service. It deploys over 500,000 agents and 100,000 ATMs internationally. In an interview with Bloomberg, Ersek discussed the future of Western Union as it faces the spread and adoption of new....
Western Union Chief Information Officer John "David" Thompson was interviewed by Coindesk this week and made some very revealing comments about Bitcoin, and its future in global monetary transfer. Many know Western Union as the world's largest personal monetary transfer corporation, founded way back in 1851. Operating in 220 countries worldwide, it generated almost $800M last year in net income, which is down over 20% from 2012. I wonder why it is down over $200M all of the sudden? Also read: Digital Currency Advocate: What Western Union CEO Is Missing. Western Union CIO: Bitcoin doesn't....
As new U.S. government measures that impose restrictions on remittances to Cuba becomes effective after November 22, Western Union, which has been operating in the island nation since 1999, will close shop. The new rule, which was published on October 27, gave Western Union 30 days to implement new restrictions. The new rule is likely to increase the appeal of crypto assets as Cubans are now expected to find a suitable alternative in a very short space of time. Targeted Sanctions At the time of the initial U.S. government announcement, the global remittances giant had promised to find a....