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The UK based Tesco Bank recently observed suspicious transactions in around 40000 Current Accounts and had to temporarily shut down transactions in the accounts. Subsequently it was indicated that about 9000 accounts saw fraudulent withdrawals to the total extent of about UK Sterling 2.5 million (About Rs 21 crores). The average loss per account was around Rs 21000/-.
Some reports allege that over 21000 accounts have seen the fraudulent withdrawals putting the potential loss at over Rs 50 crores.
Most of the fraudulent transactions occurred overseas such as Spain and Brazil.
The exact nature of the breach is yet to be ascertained/published. However it appears to be a hacking of the Bank’s systems at some level caused by failure of internal processes including negligence of intermediary service providers. An investigation by the national crime agency s underway. We may not be surprised if this breach finally leads to some BPO located outside UK hopefully not India.
For More information: Guardian.com report
It is expected that regulators may impose a multi million pound fine. (See report) The share prices have also been adversely affected. Tesco has been offering 3% interest to the current account customers and hence provided competition to other bigger Banks. But this incident could put a brake on its business growth for some time. The general allegation is that the Bank has systematically neglected cyber security and the breach is a result of such compromise…much like the Indian Banks.
The Bank has after the incident taken steps to inform their customers through SMS and has also put up a note prominently on its website indicating the latest position.
Indian Banks often deliberately avoid notification of breaches on their website and even to RBI. For such Banks it is important to notice the response of Tesco Bank to the breach.
The complete update as available on the website is available here:
The update contains an apology, contact information, and an FAQ for further information. In contrast Indian banks fail to admit breach, refuse to refund the amount to the customer, deny their failure to notify customers individually and enter into a prolonged legal battle with the customers.
What RBI and Indian Banks should note
RBI should make a note of this incident and issue suitable instructions on “Data Breach Notification” for Indian Banks. Ofcourse we need to remind that it should not be a toothless advisory but an action oriented directive. RBI should also stop cheating the public with an issue of draft circular for public comment and going silent there after.
It is also recently found that RBI has not provided Banks with any guideline on Social Media Banking and Banks have started using Twitter and Facebook Banking on their own. Even after RBI was questioned in a RTI application, they have not taken any action to distinguish Internet Banking and Mobile Banking from the less secure Twitter and Facebook banking. This gross negligence on the part of RBI will come to haunt Mr Urjit Patel sooner than he may anticipate.
Presently the Banks are grappling with the “Note Exchange” program and in the process using “Mobile Centers” armed with “Micro ATMs”. Customers will be exposing their Banking credentials to these POS machines which could result in a new security risk.
We are not sure if Indian Banks and RBI are alert to the security issues. If the attitude of Vijaya Bank cashiers at M S Ramaiah Hospital in Bengaluru recently (Sitting in a Maruti Van with Open doors and dispensing cash instead of closing the doors and operating through the window) without any physical security, is any indication, Banks could be not even aware of the risks to which they are exposing themselves and their customers in a bid to satisfy the critical politicians of the opposition who are anyway habitual critics to be ignored.
Hope the current crisis in Indian banks pass off peacefully without a Tesco or SBI Card type of incident recurring.


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In a major relief to the MSME sector facing liquidity shortage, the government on Friday announced that all their pending GST refunds will be paid within 30 days.
Also, in future, all GST refunds of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will be paid within 60 days from the date of application, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while announcing a slew of measures to boost growth. Nirmala Sitharaman also said the decision on recommendations of the U K Sinha Committee regarding ease of credit, marketing, technology and delayed payments to MSMEs will be taken within 30 days.
The government would also consider an amendment to the MSME Act to move towards a single definition. The MSMEs sector, which accounts for about 29 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), is one of the largest job creators in the country. In addition, a major move to tackle Tax terrorism, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamanalso announced a centralized system for Income Tax issues, notices, etc, while addressing a press conference in New Delhi. She elaborated that from October 1, 2019, onwards, a centralized system would issue the notices to the tax assessees. Boosting wealth creators, she said that the system will generate unique identification numbers (DIN) to track issues and notices. Sitharaman made this statement in a climate of economic slowdown seen in the Indian economy.
The Finance Minister explained the entire process of tax collections which will occur on the ground. She said that no notices will be issued without central approval. Assuring that anomalies in paper and practice will be eliminated, she said that these moves will favour the assessee. She also announced that the assessee will be able to track the issue and complain if he has any grievance.
Current Economic Slowdown
Sources have reported that India's economic slowdown led to Moody's reducing India's growth forecast by 0.4 % in GDP for the next fiscal year (FY 21). Sources have said that slow growth in the economy was allegedly triggered after some announcements in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden Budget speech. The surcharge levied on foreign investors has allegedly led to an exodus of investors from Indian markets, as per sources. Recent trends have also seen a collapse in stock exchange points due to the slowing economy particularly in automobile, FMCG, construction, MSME sectors.
(With PTI Inputs)

domain: news


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JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ:JAKK)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at BMO Capital Markets in a research note issued to investors on Friday. They presently have a $2.50 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $3.50. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 16.28% from the stock’s previous close.
Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of JAKKS Pacific from $4.50 to $3.30 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 30th. DA Davidson raised shares of JAKKS Pacific from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 30th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of JAKKS Pacific from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company. The stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.31.
JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ JAKK) traded down $0.10 during trading on Friday, reaching $2.15. 76,326 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 226,479. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.72, a P/E ratio of -0.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.69. JAKKS Pacific has a 52-week low of $2.10 and a 52-week high of $5.80.
JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ:JAKK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported ($0.61) EPS for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of ($0.11) by ($0.50). The business had revenue of $136.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $155.74 million. JAKKS Pacific had a negative return on equity of 22.00% and a negative net margin of 13.55%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 18.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.47) earnings per share. equities research analysts forecast that JAKKS Pacific will post 0.1 EPS for the current year.
Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Stifel Financial Corp grew its position in shares of JAKKS Pacific by 12.7% in the second quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 32,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 3,604 shares during the last quarter. Spark Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of JAKKS Pacific in the fourth quarter valued at about $114,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its position in shares of JAKKS Pacific by 20,020.5% in the third quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 51,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,000 after purchasing an additional 51,653 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of JAKKS Pacific in the fourth quarter valued at about $149,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of JAKKS Pacific by 273.2% in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 91,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $366,000 after purchasing an additional 67,020 shares during the last quarter. 56.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
JAKKS Pacific Company Profile
JAKKS Pacific, Inc is a multi-line, multi-brand toy company. The Company designs, produces, markets and distributes toys and related products, pet toys, consumables and related products, electronics and related products, kids indoor and outdoor furniture, and other consumer products. The Company operates through two business segments: traditional toys and electronics, and role play, novelty and seasonal toys.
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Tesla's first car factory in the Netherlands will churn out 90 Model S vehicles every day for sale across Europe
The first Tesla factory dedicated to supplying European customers with the brand's high-end electric vehicle, the Model S, opened yesterday in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Using parts manufactured in California,...
Carbon tax could generate £27bn by 2030 that could be invested into Covid-19 recovery efforts, emerging green technologies, and cushioning against any rise in household bills, campaign group argues
Prime Minister to announce plans for joint UK-UN 'launchpad' event in December aimed at encouraging nations to enhance Paris Agreement commitments ahead of next year's COP26 Summit in Glasgow
'Block Fossils Out' aims to block users from accessing websites and social media accounts belonging to firms which produce or fund coal, gas and oil
Partnership will see Biffa supply Nestlé Waters UK with recycled PET to produce bottles for its water brands such as Buxton


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Coinbase, a major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider was filed over the charges of alleged insider trading of Bitcoin Cash, during the launch last year. The recent report confirms that the exchange company’s case is granted dismissal by the court, according to the court documents released on October 23.
The class action was filed against the cryptocurrency exchange giant in March this year by Jeffrey Berk. The accuser represented all the Coinbase customers who reportedly suffered through cryptocurrency and monetary losses because of the BCH insider trading. Berk remarked against the company and claimed that the exchange conducted their “wrongdoings” during the BCH support group held between 19 and 21 December 2017.
According to Vince Chhabria, U.S. District Judge from Northern District Court of California claimed that Berk had not sufficiently articulated his claims on the terms of a legal basis in his complaint against the exchange company.
Berk claimed that during the launch of BCH, the Coinbase employees along with other insiders already knew about the event and benefited from the trading event. He said in his complaint, “On December 19, 2017, a month after tipping off its employees as to when it would commence fully supporting BCH, Coinbase suddenly announced that it was opening up its books to the buying and selling of BCH within minutes after its announcements. Unsurprisingly, those who had been tipped off, immediately swamped Coinbase and the GDAX with buying and sell orders, thinning the liquidity but obtaining BCH at fair prices.”
As Berk says, the action suspected drove up the BCH prices through unfair means, for their non-insider traders as soon as the BCH came on the Coinbase exchange listings. The claims are from the court complaint documents.
District Judge Chhabria quoted Berk’s complaint, saying, “Berk fails to describe the scope or content of Coinbase’s duty in anything more than broad generalities. A reader of the Complaint is thus left wondering what Coinbase should have done differently, or why the rollout of Bitcoin Cash would have gone more smoothly had Coinbase done whatever Berk thinks is appropriate.”
As a result, the court dismissed the lawsuit without judgment and gave Berk and his representatives 21 days to file an amended complaint. However, the class action dismissal was with one exception by the court judge. The exception was that Berk listed the claim under Commodities Exchange Act, where there would have been an enforcement jurisdiction if Berk had purchased a futures contract rather than BCH (a commodity). As a result, the claim dismissed with prejudice.
Earlier this week, the court of New York also dismissed a class action lawsuit over the developers of Nano (XRB). The developmental team of the altcoin accused of violating the securities laws and claiming reliability of BitGrail Exchange Company, which was a victim of a 19 million XRB theft in January.


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HTC Flyer tablet coming to US by March
- Photo: HTC
With all the various mobile companies getting in on the tablet action, from BlackBerry to Motorola to LG, there’s still one notable name missing from the action, namely, HTC. No longer, as new info hints at the Taiwanese company releasing a tablet as early as March.
HTC doing well
HTC, on the back of its Android powered smartphones, had a spectacular year in 2010 with record profits. In fact, next to Apple and Samsung, it was one of the biggest mobile phone winners of the year. Of course, we’ve been waiting awhile for HTC to jump on the next mobile tech bandwagon, namely the touch screen tablet, which, just like the touch screen smartphone, was also pioneered by Apple.
HTC tablets incoming
Although there’s been no official announcement from HTC, and we didn’t see any HTC tablets among the many at CES 2011, the Taiwanese newspaper Digitimes has the scoop on a tablet codenamed Flyer and arriving in the US as early as March.
One of three
Apparently, the HTC Flyer is one of 3 total tablets that the company wants to release by the 2Q of 2011. Basically, the Flyer will be like a large HTC Desire (imagine the smartphone model pictured above but in a more rectangular shape), although we don’t know how large exactly. It will only run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but at the same time it’ll be readily upgradeable to the tablet-optimised Honeycomb OS once it gets released.
Unfortunately, not much more information was given regarding actual specs, but we assume it’ll have at least a 1GHz processor (hopefully dual core), on top of a USB port, slim form factor, camera, 1080p playback, and maybe even an HDMI port. All the aforementioned specs are basically standard with the newest range of tablets.
Early March release
Digitimes further goes on to predict a March 2011 release date for the tablet, which will be available on a major US network. Considering we’ve seen and heard nothing of the Flyer – not even an appearance at CES 2011 – this release date might seem a little premature. But HTC apparently wanted to get their model out there before either RIM’s PlayBook or Motorola’s well-received Xoom. Regrettably though, the March launch only seems to refer to a US release, and we’ve received no info about either a UK or European launch.


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Social bookmarking site Pinterest has introduced a Hindi language version of its site, in a possible bid to reach out to the Hindi-speaking audience in the country or elsewhere (Hat tip - Sampad Swain). With this, Pinterest now supports 26 languages, although Hindi is the only Indian language supported right now. One can change their language through their Pinterest profile settings page. Following this, each menu option on the site is translated to Hindi, with an exception of the "Pin It" button which remains in English language. This language rollout is quite similar to what Facebook, Twitter and Google+ offers in the country. Besides web, this Hindi rollout has also been extended to Pinterest's Android app, provided the phone's system language is set to Hindi, which is available since Android 4.3 and its mobile site. Recent Indic Initiatives - Last week, Google had added handwriting support for five Indian languages on Google Translate's website and Android app, mobile Google search and desktop versions of Google Drive and Gmail. - Online marketplace Snapdeal had added Hindi & Tamil language interface and plans to add Kannada, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi interfaces over the next few months. - Airtel was offering Facebook for free in 9 regional languages across India for free, via both the mobile browser and app for a limited period. Facebook is currently available in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. - Nuance Communications’s text input app Swype had updated its Android app to add support for four Indian languages – Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, and Telugu.
- Practo Partners With Government To Help Develop India’s Health Stack January 31, 2023
- Attend Our Briefing: Impact of Google’s changes to Android and Play Store January 31, 2023
- Why is Andhra government pushing facial recognition attendance on all its workers? January 31, 2023
- Karthik Rai On Developing an Interoperability Framework for India | Meta India Tech Scholars 2021-22 January 31, 2023
- Indian Telecom Watchdog issues consultation paper on regulating converged digital technologies and services January 31, 2023
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A whole new ballgame for Super Bowl ads
Super Bowl ads aren't just for TV anymore.
Commercials aired during the big game next Sunday will work overtime to entice viewers to dish on Twitter and Facebook, zap ads with Shazam, surf corporate websites, and view and share clips on YouTube.
"The Super Bowl is an incredibly social event, and as social media becomes more integral to people's lives, it's a natural combination with the Super Bowl," said Tom Bedecarre, CEO of San Francisco ad agency AKQA. "People now tend to watch TV with a tablet on their lap or a mobile phone in their pocket or a laptop on their couch. They share comments about the teams, the TV commercials, what they're serving at their Super Bowl parties."
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While there will be plenty of ads for the usual cheap thrills like beer, soda, snacks and movies, a surge of automobile ads and the first Super Bowl real estate ad in two decades indicate that advertisers are betting that the economy is strong enough for big-ticket purchases in 2012.
"When cars and real estate (companies) are advertising, it feels like a very good sign of recovery," said P.J. Pereira, chief creative officer of San Francisco ad agency Pereira & O'Dell. "It means they're feeling confidence their industry is growing and consumers are giving signals they'll start to buy again. (Advertisers) wouldn't spend that money otherwise."
Luxury brand Lexus, a newbie to the Super Bowl, said as much.
"We, like many of the automotive companies, are feeling much more bullish about this year and next year," said Brian Smith, vice president of marketing for the company based in Torrance (Los Angeles County). "A lot of people tightened their belts and delayed replacing their vehicles in the past couple of years. We're sensing huge pent-up demand. Credit is a little bit easier to obtain and overall the economy is improving."
Century 21, a real estate brokerage with 7,600 offices, is also sponsoring its first-ever Super Bowl ad, featuring Donald Trump, former pro football and baseball player Deion Sanders and Olympic champion speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno.
'A perfect time'
"It has been 21 years since any other real estate company advertised in the Super Bowl," said Bev Thorne, chief marketing officer of the Parsippany, N.J., company. "We think this is a perfect time to signal our confidence in the dream of homeownership."
Advertisers across the board are signaling confidence in Super Bowl XLVI and the 110 million-plus viewers it's expected to reach. NBC Sports sold all 35 game ad slots just after Thanksgiving, averaging $3.5 million for a 30-second spot - up 17 percent from last year - and more than $6 million for 60-second ones.
Instead of unveiling commercials during the big game, advertisers are offering sneak peaks online and even in movie theaters.
"It used to be you'd guard ads carefully" in advance, said Jeff Goodby, co-chair and creative director of San Francisco's Goodby Silverstein & Partners. "Some advertisers like Budweiser would have special private viewings of their Super Bowl ad; it was a titillating inside thing to get invited to. Now people see them on YouTube before the game."
Advertisers are already vying to have their Super Bowl ads - or the teasers for their ads - go viral. One breakout: Volkswagen's minute-long teaser of a canine chorus performing the Darth Vader theme has racked up millions of views. "Even my high school friends from Brazil are talking about it," Pereira said.
Kia Motors is taking early release a step further, showing its Super Bowl ad called "Drive the Dream" on 18,000 movie screens beginning Wednesday. It's already running a 15-second teaser at the movies.
"Nobody has ever released their Super Bowl spot in theaters prior to game day," said Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing for Kia Motors. "It gives us one more channel to tap into, one that hasn't been done before. We're trying to break through the clutter."
Another strategy: Kia's commercial will be 60 seconds, double most ads' length. "It gives us more of an opportunity to tell a story around our product," Sprague said.
David Stewart, a professor of marketing at UC Riverside, said longer ads are another trend this year. "You'll see more one-minute commercials," he said. "They give an opportunity to be more creative, tell more of a story. They also provide more time to show a Web address that people can type in."
About one-third of Super Bowl advertisers will offer a shortcut for viewers to visit them online without typing in a URL. Their ads will work with smart-phone app Shazam, best known for its "name that tune" use of identifying songs' titles and artists.
"People can watch a commercial and literally raise their hand (holding their smart phone) to engage for a customized online experience that leverages all the rich media you can think of," said Evan Krauss, executive vice president of the London company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Palo Alto. "We're working with Super Bowl advertisers in every category - automotive, retail, Internet, consumer packaged goods, beverages. There are giveaways, contests, extra content consumers can't get anywhere else." Ads will show a logo to indicate that they work with Shazam, he said.
Goodby Silverstein worked on spots for Chevy and Doritos for this year's game. In both cases, the commercials were homemade by consumers who won online contests.
Doritos' Crash the Super Bowl contest continues to gain steam in its sixth year.
"We had hundreds of thousands of people sign up (as contestants)," Goodby said. "The quality has gotten very high. It's a kind of an industry; there are directors and film students who work all year to make a great Super Bowl ad entry."
Doritos is dangling a $1 million prize if a consumer-created Doritos ad ranks No. 1 on the USA Today Ad Meter or the new USA Today Facebook Ad Meter - a real-time app that also exemplifies the tighter digital integration this year.
No matter how the Doritos ads do, one Bay Area school district will score big. The Lonely Island comedy trio of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone - all originally from Berkeley - are involved in the contest and got to designate a charity for a $250,000 donation from Doritos.
Their pick: Berkeley Unified School District.
In fact, contests of all sorts are big this year as a lure to drive consumers online.
"You don't see pure TV or pure digital anymore; you see them playing seamlessly together," Pereira said. "Companies are extending the time they are paying for, using the Super Bowl as a door to their brand experience. It's a recycling effort - it allows the interest and buzz to be recycled without having to pay for the media again."
E-mail Carolyn Said at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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SCIGRIP recently announced it has agreed a distribution partnership with Euroresins UK Ltd., a distributor to the composites resins industry that reportedly maintains a sales presence across Europe.
The arrangement reportedly will offer UK customers access to advanced methyl methacrylate (MMA) adhesive technologies.
“The composites market demands prompt, reliable and efficient solutions,” said Tim Johnson European sales and marketing manager. “We view our partnership with Euroresins as a positive and progressive move toward the increased use of MMA technologies throughout UK manufacturing.”
For more information, visit www.scigrip.com or www.euroresins.com.
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Starting from October 15, Georgian consumers have to pay about 5-10 tetri more for one loaf of bread. Many large producers increased their prices; smaller bakeries (“tone”) followed suit by either raising the price or reducing the weight of the traditional Georgian bread. While unpleasant, this change in the price of bread is nothing but a forced reaction to a sharp increase (25%) in the price of wheat in the global commodity markets dating back to July 2012. The question, therefore, is not why bread and flour prices increased. Rather, it is why these politically sensitive prices increased only now, with a three-four month delay.
This is the right question to ask because, like other small economies, Georgia relies on imports to provide many basic commodities, including wheat, rice, sugar, soya beans, etc. Typically, any changes in the prices of these commodities are very quickly passed onto food prices in Georgia. For instance, global wheat prices were on a downward trend from May 2011 till May 2012, triggering a parallel reduction in the domestic prices of wheat and flour (see chart). For much of 2010 and early 2011, we have seen the global and domestic wheat prices dancing tango in the opposite direction, reaching a peak in May 2011.
This parallelism came to an abrupt end in June 2012. Global prices shot up by more than 30%. Domestic prices stayed put. Until October 15.
What happened? How could producers resist the global price increase until October 2012? Has there been any fundamental change in the Georgian wheat market?
No, there wasn’t any.
Georgia currently imports about 70-80 thousand tons of wheat and flour every month, providing about 80% of total consumption. If anything, in the three months since June, Georgia has become ever more dependent on imports of wheat and other commodities as a result of unprecedented growth in tourism. For instance, wheat imports reached more than US$32mln in August compared to US$16mln in January 2012 (increasing from 3.3% to 4.7% of total imports).
One possible explanation of this puzzle is related to the theory of so-called “Political Business Cycles” (PBC) in economics. Economists have long observed the tendency by incumbent governments to “stimulate” the economy just prior to an election. Such politically motivated “stimuli” produce popular results in the short-run (new roads and bridges, public sector jobs, price reductions, tax cuts, etc.). Yet, if pursued to excess, these very policies may have very unpleasant consequences such as inflation, accumulation of public debt, or depletion of foreign currency reserves. Needless to say, the task of cleaning up the Augean stables – rebalancing the economy and fixing bridges built to an election deadline – typically falls to the new government. Hence the rationale for the PBC, and the boom-and-bust pattern they induce.


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Morse Watchmans promotes Tim Purpura to VP of Sales & Marketing
June 11, 2019 By SP&T Staff
OXFORD, Conn. – Key control and asset management systems firm Morse Watchmans has announced the promotion of Tim Purpura to vice-president of Sales & Marketing. Purpura joined Morse Watchmans in October 2018 as international sales manager.
“Over the past year, Tim has shown us that he is a true leader in driving sales for our team,” said Joe Granitto, COO, Morse Watchmans, in a prepared statement. “He brings with him a wealth of industry knowledge, experience and the drive to help take Morse Watchmans to the next level. We are thrilled to have Tim on board and proud to announce this promotion.”
The firm says Purpura is a proven security industry leader, with more than a decade of industry experience, including a VP and publisher role at Security Systems News (SSN). He also held the positions of secretary and chairman of the board at security industry non-profit Mission 500.
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Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement has potential to create more prosperous, food-secure world
MINNEAPOLIS - Oct. 5, 2015 – The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in Atlanta take the world a step closer to becoming more prosperous and more food-secure.
Negotiators from 12 Pacific Rim nations including the U.S., Canada and Japan that together make up 40 percent of the world economy reached an accord over what would be the largest trade pact in history. TPP has the potential to set the standard for 21st century international trade, promoting the movement of goods, capital and ideas that spur economic growth, help combat world hunger, and raise labor and environmental standards.
“In many parts of the world, food and agricultural products still face the legacy of high import barriers,” said David MacLennan, Cargill’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We believe the Trans-Pacific Partnership will allow food to move more freely across borders from places of plenty to places of need, which benefits farmers and consumers around the world.”
Cargill encourages the governments of the TPP countries to follow through on the progress made by the negotiators, as TPP would benefit many sectors of the world economy, including food and agricultural production. Farmers in producing countries could potentially reach nearly 500 million new customers in Asia, who would in turn gain access to more affordable, higher quality products. Trade agreements have historically boosted export and import flows between participating nations, leading to higher-paying jobs and improved living standards.
“Over time, the most successful countries have been those that embraced international trade,” MacLennan said. “Modern trade agreements like the TPP will continue that trend, while also setting high standards for labor, human rights and sustainability.”
Edward Welsch, Cargill, 952-742-6218, [email protected]
Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, we help people thrive by applying our insights and 150 years of experience. We have 153,000 employees in 67 countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities where we live and work. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.


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Make the KBUY Call as China Consumer Story Rebounds
February 09, 2023 at 08:14 AM EST
With China emerging from the effects of lengthy coronavirus lockdowns, stocks in the world’s second-largest economy are rebounding this year. Not surprisingly, some consumer-oriented names are getting on the act. That bodes well for exchange traded funds such as the KraneShares CICC China Consumer Leaders Index ETF (KBUY). KBUY follows the CICC China Consumer Leaders [...] The post Make the KBUY Call as China Consumer Story Rebounds appeared first on ETF Trends .


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We’ve been hoping that the iPhone 15 Pro may also be equipped with the folded optics camera, but Mr. Kuo shot those rumors down saying that only the most expensive of Apple’s 2023 phones will have the ability to shoot for the skies with a periscope zoom lens.
A few years after Android flagships mastered what Samsung refers to as the Space Zoom technology, Apple is getting ready to release the first iPhone with periscope camera zoom. Famous analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple’s camera suppliers are gearing up for a windfall as a result of the costly periscope zoom set being introduced for the first time on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
That’s precisely the strategy Apple will follow for its first iPhone with periscope zoom, it seems. Back in 2019, flagship phones from Chinese makers entered a zoom race with the introduction of the Huawei P30 Pro and Oppo Reno 10x zoom. Today’s thin phones don’t allow space for more than 2x-3x telephoto zoom lenses inside them, what Apple is using now on iPhones, so a module with folded optics was used to let the light travel along the height of the phone rather than its more limited thickness.
That’s perfectly in line with Apple’s so-called “salami” strategy, where it goes for new technology in careful increments in order to keep its profit margins as high as possible. It first waits for Android makers to introduce something groundbreaking and initially very expensive like an OLED display or punch-hole front cameras, checks the market reaction, waits for the components to be perfected and fall in price, and then starts introducing it as a novelty on its most expensive iPhones first a few years down the road.
Don’t expect 10x zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max as on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, though, as Apple’s baby steps periscoping will feature a 5x-6x magnification with folded optics over a 12MP 1/3″ sensor with Apple’s Sensor Shift stabilization technology and f/2.8 aperture. Samsung is running its extended trade-in program, meaning you can get up to $1,000 off when you bring in your old device, even one with a cracked screen. Then, there’s a $350 discount going on at the Samsung Store as well in the form of a free Galaxy Watch 4 or Watch 4 Classic.
Periscope zoom really kicked off when Samsung started equipping its S-line handsets with true 10x zoom lenses, and now its high-end phones come with both telephoto cameras for nearer objects and portraits, as well as Space Zoom lenses capable of quality 10x magnification. When Apple introduces the technology on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, though, it will enter the collective mainstream, as so often happens, and there might barely be a flagship phone without a 5x-10x zoom camera then.
The reason behind the relatively slow adoption of periscope zoom lens on flagship phones is that the kit itself is very expensive. Back when Huawei introduced the 5x periscope zoom tech, we sat for an interview with its CEO, and he confirmed at the time that it’s very hard to turn a profit from such a phone as the high-precision optical zoom set suppliers are charging an arm and a leg for them.
The situation hasn’t changed much, it seems, as the current multi-layer 7P lenses that Apple uses for its iPhone cameras are $2 apiece at the most, whereas the optical zoom kit that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will use can reach $15. If the expected initial suppliers can’t turn enough yield, the cost of the 5x zoom camera on the 15 Pro Max can hit up to $70, warns Kuo.
This will inevitably eat into Apple’s margins and we may expect a higher iPhone 15 Pro Max price on the basis of its zoom camera exclusivity. For the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max which will both have periscope cameras, according to the analysis, that might not be the case as more companies are expected to enter Apple’s folded optics supply chain by then.


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Bharti Airtel restructures African operations
06 February 2014
Bharti Airtel Ltd has restructured its Africa operations, dividing the 17 countries in the continent into four strategic business units (SBUs) and made key executive appointments to be made effective from 1 April.
The company, which is the fourth-largest telecom operator in the world, has appointed
V G Somasekhar as executive operations director of the SBU clustering Zambia, Congo-Brazzaville, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Madagascar and Seychelles.
Previously, Somasekhar was managing director for Airtel Uganda since December 2010.
Christophe Soulet has been appointed executive operations director of the second SBU consisting of Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Gabon, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Rwanda.
Soulet has worked with Millicom International Cellular as chief operating and executive officer, Millicom's GSM business unit Tigo Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as CEO of its opeartions in Ghana & DRC, chief regional officer, Ghana, DRC & Chad and as chief regional officer – Africa.
Airtel Africa chief executive officer Christian de Faria said, ''These two business leaders have distinguished themselves with their exceptional understanding of the African telecoms landscape. We will leverage their experience, leadership and understanding of the African market to accelerate our market leadership opportunities and develop team capabilities as we seek to take our brand to the next level.''
Segun Ogunsanya and Louis Lubala will continue to lead Nigeria and DRC, the other two business units.
Following Somasekhar's appointment, Arindam Chakrabarty who is currently chief commercial officer for Airtel Uganda will be acting as the managing director until a new managing director is appointed.
Airtel had more than 63.7 million customers at the end of quarter ended 31 March 2013.


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Play Life, Live Games column: PlayStation could be headed back to ‘Uncharted’ territories
Columns share an author’s personal perspective.
While it doesn’t have the Marios or Zeldas that Nintendo does, or the Halos and Gears of War titles that Xbox has, PlayStation has long been the home to the exclusive video game titles that appeal most to me.
“Marvel’s Spider-Man,” “The Last of Us”, “God of War,” “Ratchet and Clank” and “Astro Bot” are some of the top titles in their respective genres. As great as those franchises are, my favorite PlayStation franchise, my favorite video game franchise, is the Uncharted series.
“Uncharted” is like a modern-day Indiana Jones series, following treasure hunter Nathan Drake as he and his friends get in over their heads trying to secure their fortune and glory. Each game in the series plays out like a massive Hollywood blockbuster, with huge action set pieces and great characters and beautifully written, acted and animated characters.
Since the series started in 2007 on the PlayStation 3 with “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” there have been three direct sequels and one spinoff game all created by the developers at Naughty Dog, along with a prequel created for the PlayStation Vita handheld system that was designed by Sony’s Bend Studio rather than Naughty Dog.
Naughty Dog wrapped up Nathan Drake’s story in “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” in 2016, and the series has been dormant since the 2017 spinoff “Uncharted: The Last Legacy” was released. That game instead focused on Chole Frazer, Nathan’s old friend, former love interest and associate who is a treasure hunter of her own.
But finally, it looks like a new game in the Uncharted series is in development, just not at the Naughty Dog studio. Instead, it looks like Sony has created a new unannounced studio based in San Diego that is hard at work on the next chapter of the Uncharted series.
Michael Mumbauer was apparently the studio head at this new studio through last November. On his LinkedIn profile, he wrote: “His latest achievement is having built a brand new, all-star, AAA Action/Adventure development team for PlayStation. Based in San Diego and utilizing proprietary engine technology, this team was assembled to expand upon existing franchises and craft all new stories for the next generation of gamers.”
While his page doesn’t specifically mention the Uncharted series, he also shared a YouTube video on his page about Sony setting up a secret studio to create “Uncharted 5.”
Naughty Dog has created masterpiece after masterpiece since 2007, so I am disappointed it has moved on from the Uncharted series. That said, I am extremely excited to see this series continue. “Uncharted 4” did an amazing job wrapping up Nathan Drake’s story, so it will be interesting to see if the next game in the series will bring him out of retirement somehow or focus on a new character.
(Editor’s note: Spoilers are ahead for the end of “Uncharted 4”) The fourth game ended with an epilogue that jumped the series forward many years and put you in control of Nathan’s teenage daughter Cassie. I wouldn’t mind if “Uncharted 5” moved the story ahead a few more years and focused on Cassie going on her first real adventure and could even have Nathan around as a support.
Dusty Ricketts is the editor of The Destin Log and The Walton Sun newspapers and can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Crytek: Enough signatures on a petition will make us consider making more TimeSplitters
Crytek has confessed that there is a possibility that TimeSplitters fans will be able to convince them to make a new game.
Crytek inherited the TimeSplitters IP when they bought over the series original developer Free Radical in 2009 and boss Cervat Yerli has revealed that a large enough petition could convince him to make more TimeSplitters.
He said, "There is actually a petition running online trying to bring the [TimeSplitters] fan base together. But unfortunately the petition doesn't look that convincing. If the petition picks up it will be an even better argument for us."
"At a personal level," Yerli continued, "I'm a big fan of TimeSplitters 2. For me, I would love to see the game out there, as a newborn HD version or what not. I definitely would love to see it. But the case of turning this into a business decision is still difficult, despite the fact that there was a Twitter request feed to test the waters."
He added, giving hope to TimeSplitters fans, "There's a very hardcore market that is very verbal about it. I would love to see this, and if the fan base approves a further petition. They're trying to call 300,000 voices, I think it's at two or three thousand right now. If they could get the petition together I would be very happy to put in front of decision makers in the company, the key stakeholders, and say 'Look here. This is how it is, let's make it now'."
Are you a TimeSplitters fan? If you are, then sign the petition. Go on. You know you want to.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III is coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 after all
- Tomonobu Itagaki's Devil's Third gets a release date
- Adr1ft is coming to PC and consoles at the end of the summer
- EA gives the new Mirror's Edge a name – Mirror's Edge Catalyst
- ZombiU PS4 and Xbox One port reportedly in the works
- Mike Bithell's Volume to be released this August
- Gearbox's new shooter Battleborn gets a pre-E3 trailer
- Steam Controller launches in October, Steam Machines arrive in November
- Gears Of War devs Black Tusk change their name to The Coalition ahead of E3


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The RV chain Camping World has announced that it will be expanding its business significantly over the next few years, with the goal to add 20 more franchises over the next two years and bring the national total up over 100.
Camping World sells a wide variety of RV parts and accessories, along with RVs themselves and a selection of camping equipment. Business has reportedly been booming for the company, which means that more stores are on the way.
"Camping World is poised for growth in every segment of our business with a goal of 100 stores by 2014," said Marcus Lemonis, CEO of Camping World. "A larger store base will allow us to better serve our 4 million customers nationwide and our 1.3 million Good Sam members… we will continue to invest in our brick and mortar business units with the addition of over 200 service bays nationwide in the next 12 months including more paint and collision centers, accessory stores and RV dealerships."
The company says that new stores are coming to Orlando, Ocala, Cocoa Beach, Raleigh, South Florida, Harrisburg, Oklahoma, New England states, Virginia, Texas and Washington State, with more locations to follow.


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The UK market is steady with the focus now on finalising Christmas chilled leg sales. Business will be concluded in the next few weeks. Christmas chilled negotiations are also continuing in Europe. Frozen middles remain tight with prices improving. Middles continue to remain short in North America, maximising ongoing chilled opportunities for the full product range. Demand is improving in China as the market begins building inventory for Chinese New Year. Reduced supply in the Middle East is assisting in market stability and firm demand.
There is firm demand for sheep in the EU and North America, with increasing enquiries coming from the Asian region which will assist overall market fundamentals.
The focus on maximising chilled for the game season continues in Europe. The last sea freight shipments will be in early November. Demand is strong for the food service and manufacturing sectors in North America, supporting sales of the full product range. Opportunities also continue for the UK food service and manufacturing sectors.
US price indications are static so we are watching closely to see if the easing of the past few weeks continues. The large autumn cow kills are still expected to come on stream but price adjustments may already be factored into the market. Texas flooding has also had some impact on stock supply. China remains positive with good demand and prices steady. Domestic chilled demand is expected to remain low for at least another month. High Japanese tariff rates are restricting New Zealand imports.
We are now halfway through the bobby calf processing season, with most of the product for the year already contracted. Orders are split evenly between the US and Middle East. We are also capturing some additional value, mainly at our Lorneville plant, from the capture of blood serum for use by the pharmaceutical sector.
Slipe wool stocks are now quite scarce and there is some reported uplift in demand. The Shanghai Leather Fair was held recently and reasonable demand exists for wool rug selections with skin prices slightly firmer than same period a year ago. Demand for footwear sheepskins has decreased but felly grade skins appear to be trading at steady levels. US cattle hide offering volumes have increased and cow skin prices have eased five per cent in the last week. Calf skin demand remains firm.


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At a recent webinar, Lars Andresen met one of the world’s top business experts and author of Gamechanger, Peter Fisk. The author and business expert preaches about the disruption that consumers encounter daily. Peter Fisk defines disruption as changes within Nano technology, digital technology, DNA technology, robotic technology and more, as well as opportunities that arises with a global market and the changing mind of the consumer.
He argues that small companies, like WallMo A/S, have an advantage as they can adjust quicker to changes that might occur. It is often smaller companies that causes disruption.
In addition, Peter Fisk identifies Odense as a robotic hub that has great potential for innovative inventions that combines the new and the old.
Robots improve people’s lives significantly by relieving workers of strenuous work and to a certain degree allows us superhuman powers. The WallMo 100 is a perfect example of a robot that improves the working environment on construction sites.
The co-bot transport, lifts and mounts glass walls within 3 minutes, hence relieving the worker of heavy lifting. The WallMo 100 can be defined as a disruption among machines in the construction industry, as the co-bot is the first of its kind.


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ComScore cuts full-year revenue outlook, shares fall
Aug 2 (Reuters) - Online data tracking service company ComScore Inc posted a quarterly profit on an adjusted basis, but cut its full-year revenue forecast due to weakness in its TV copy testing business and a weak euro.
ComScore shares, which closed at $15.45 on the Nasdaq on Thursday, fell 12 percent in trading after the bell.
The company cut its 2012 revenue forecast to between $248.1 million and $255.1 million from its previous forecast of $277 million to $281.7 million.
Analysts on average were expecting a full-year revenue of $277.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company said it cut its full-year revenue outlook to reflect "greater anticipated foreign exchange impact due to the fragile economy in Europe and the effects of declines in traditional TV copy testing revenues."
ComScore gets 15 percent of its revenue from Europe.
The company entered the copy testing business in 2010 following the acquisition of ARSgroup, which offered survey-based studies that help advertisers to pre-screen a TV commercial before putting it on air.
Increased competition has resulted in copy testing ceasing to be a strategic fit for comScore, the company said in a statement.
Second-quarter net loss narrowed to $6.6 million, or 20 cents per share, from $8.2 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 37 cents per share.
Revenue for the quarter rose 4 percent to $60.3 million.
Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 1 cent per share on revenue of $64.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
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In partnership with
Good morning ☀
Lagos is one of the most popular tech ecosystems in Africa. However, there are tech ecosystems budding in other states in its home country Nigeria. Here are some of the interesting innovators in Abuja, the country’s capital.
Also, If you are a founder, please take this survey to tell us what you are looking forward to next year.
M-PESA to roll out plastic cards
Image source: Safaricom
Hey Kenyans! No more fumbling with a bulky wallet at your favourite Kenyan shop.
M-PESA, Kenya’s biggest mobile money platform is set to disrupt the country’s cash-loving retail sector with roll-out plastic cards. Until now, M-PESA only provided virtual cards called GlobalPay, but they could not be used at many local kiosks, market stalls, fancy boutiques, and physical shops as many sellers preferred hard cash. The GlobalPay virtual cards were limited to purchases from online platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and others.
Sidebar: Virtual cards haven’t exactly had a stellar track record with reliability and fraud risks. Companies like card issuing startup Union54 learned that the hard way. Physical cards are much safer, however, but it also turns out that Kenyans aren’t exactly plastic pals either. Only 6.35% of Kenyan adults use a credit card, and debit cards sit at a lukewarm 22%.
Can M-PESA make it work? If the numbers are anything to go by, it is M-PESA if anyone can make it work. The mobile money company holds 97% market share in Kenya in its really big hands. But can M-PESA overcome the trust issues left by virtual cards and convince Kenyans to join the plastic party? Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: the game is changing, and the future of Kenyan payments is about to get a whole lot swipier.
This is great for everyone involved. If these plastic cards melt Kenyans’ distrust of cashless payment away, M-PESA’s chokehold of the East African country will get exponentially tighter. It is not only M-PESA that will grow. Visa, the card processing company that created M-PESA’s virtual card and its new physical card will also expand its footprint across the country and, consequently, Africa.
Access payments with Moniepoint
Moniepoint has made it simple for your business to access payments while providing access to credit and other business tools. Open an account today here.
Zambia’s Starlink giveaway
Felix Chipota Mutati, Zambia’s minister of technology and science
Tech billionaire Elon’s dream is coming true in Zambia, but at what cost?
Two months after Starlink launched its satellite internet service in Zambia, the country’s government is handing out the internet device like party favours—one Starlink kit for each of its 150 constituencies.
Why? Well, Zambia’s internet situation is really bad. Over 20 million people, most of whom are in rural areas, stare down a measly 21% internet penetration rate. The cost of maintaining Internet infrastructure in the country discourages Internet service providers. In several interviews, including this one with tech journalist Kara Swisher, Elon Musk, the owner of Starlink has said that the satellite internet service was designed for these kinds of underserved populations. The country’s decision to distribute free Starlinks will see his dream come true.
But at what cost? The hardware costs ZMK 10,744 ($505) and the monthly subscription fee for Starlink is ZMK 771 ($36). In a Twitter post, the Zambian minister of technology and science said that it would bear the cost of both for a year. But considering that Zambia is the 16th poorest country in the world, a giant question mark hangs over the sustainability of the decision. About 64% of Zambians live on less than $2 per day. Will they be able to afford to pay for the service when the time comes?
Here is another question: Is it even worth it at all? While the ministry says that Starlink can connect 300 devices per router, each router only handles 128, per the Starlink website. This means that, across all 150 constituencies, only 19,200 devices can get online at once. This is not exactly the internet revolution Zambia’s minister of Technology and science is painting it to be.
Checkout the Paystack Terminal experience
Paystack Terminal helps you accept in-person payments. We released updates that help you easily access receipts, customise reports, and shorten the length of receipts.
Learn more about Paystack Terminal →
OPay’s KYC is enabling impersonation
Image source: TechCabal
OPay, a Chinese-owned mobile money platform, is using elaborate marketing schemes and easy-peasy sign-ups to charm millions of people into creating accounts on its platforms—including those who have never had a bank account. But here’s the rub: in its eagerness to woo the unbanked, OPay might have opened its door wide for impersonation by removing strict requirements for identity verification.
How bad is it? Fraudsters can create fake OPay accounts and start using them to move cash around in about 60 seconds. OPay uses a tiered verification process—ranging from tier 1 to 4—allowing users to access a larger suite of services once they submit a National Identification Number (NIN), a bank account number or a bank verification number (BVN). Users must also submit a real-time facial verification to confirm their identity. But its tier-1 account seems to have more holes than a basket.
First, the system’s blind as a bat. It allowed a man to create female accounts even after going through OPay’s facial recognition system. In another test, OPay allowed a user to create a tier-1 account using basic personal information, name and birthday, about a celebrity to register. While OPay requires users to submit either a bank account or phone number for verification, the app did not proceed to verify the details. This tier-1 account allows users to deposit up to ₦300,000 ($378) in their mobile money wallets, and make transactions of up to ₦50,000 ($63). While these transaction limits are restricted, the ease of creating dozens of fraudulent OPay accounts raises concerns about security practices at the company.
Nigeria’s regulator is having none of it. Weeks ago, the Nigerian Central Bank (CBN) raised a bright red card on dodgy verification, demanding stricter KYC checks across all financial services. The banking regulator also tasked all financial services to disable bank accounts or mobile money wallets that have yet to be verified with a BVN or a NIN. Financial services like OPay are expected to comply before the deadline in April 2024.
How do Nigerians save and spend?
Did you know that 64% of Nigerians save a portion of their monthly income? Read PiggyVest’s first-ever savings report to see more about how Nigerians save and spend here.
What should Africa prioritise?
Africa’s digital skeleton is gradually adding flesh to bone. Countries like Rwanda and Ghana are doing more to achieve digital transformation across basic yet tedious processes, with the former launching a one-stop platform for accessing public services in 2015, and the latter digitising national identification.
But there’s still more to be done to drive development, job creation and economic growth, and there are different areas that African countries who are trying to achieve these could focus on.
An expert survey by the OECD in 2020 showed that policymakers and other stakeholders believe that when it comes to creating more jobs, providing digital infrastructure should receive greater priority over digital skills, digital solutions for agriculture and anything else.
Digital infrastructure is a core need and the foundation for a lot of these other areas to function. However, focusing solely on building infrastructure over other components of digitalisation could have more delayed, long-term effects on economic growth, compared to others like improving access to finance.
Take South Africa, for instance. Ninety-eight percent of businesses are SMEs, and they contribute 39% to the country’s GDP. Yet, South Africa has a $30 billion SME financing gap, and analysts predict that about 60% of businesses could shut down due to the spending contractions imposed by the pandemic.
Unlocking growth in South Africa will clearly require paying more attention to SME financing. A priority area should therefore be to enable easier access to credit since traditional financial institutions are historically averse to financing SMEs. This would then mean driving compliance with the country’s Protection of Personal Information Act, which came into effect in 2020, as companies need data to give loans.
In some economies, it is clear what they should focus on. Ethiopia’s economy, for instance, is largely dependent on agriculture (40% of GDP and 75% of the workforce). So perhaps Ethiopia should focus on providing adequate digital solutions for smallholder farmers.
On the other hand, countries like Sudan or Cameroon with no specific data protection laws in place should consider drafting and implementing legislation for that first, because with further digitalisation comes the risk of data leakage.
Every country should recognise where they fall short and first direct their efforts at those areas, instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
The World Wide Web3
* Data as of 00:31 AM WAT, December 18, 2023.
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|By PR Newswire||
|August 3, 2015 09:00 AM EDT|
TAMPA BAY, Fla., Aug. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- With new legislation proposed allowing stores to refuse to accept cash payments in exchange for goods or services, Denmark is swiftly leading the way in becoming a cashless society. (1) Currently, nearly 40% of the of the population of Denmark uses Danske Bank's MobilePay which not only allows money to be used for purchases in stores or online but also allows money transfers between people. (2) Global Risk Technologies CIO Monica Eaton-Cardone predicts that the United States will follow Denmark's lead and eventually become a virtually cashless society, as well.
In the United States, nearly 70% of consumer spending is conducted through electronic payment methods. Electronic consumer spending is expected to reach $7.3 trillion by 2017. Because of the popularity of electronic payments, the U.S. Senate formed the bipartisan Senate Payments Innovation Caucus in April. The caucus will explore new and innovative technologies in the payments industry and address issues concerning data security, consumer protection and electronic payments. (3)
"We're seeing a massive shift, both globally and nationally, in the preferred method of payment among consumers," says Eaton-Cardone. "It only makes sense that governments are starting to take notice and encourage electronic payment methods as consumer trends change."
A 2003 study found that if the United States were to become a cashless society, the economy could save an estimate of 1% of its annual GDP, which would amount to a sum of $150 billion. 2011 marked the first time in history that both the penny and the nickel cost double their value to produce, resulting in more than $116 million in negative seigniorage, which amounts to approximately 11.6 billion pennies. (4) Eaton-Cardone points out that turning into a cashless society would eliminate this expenditure.
"Becoming a cashless society could save the government, and taxpayers, literally millions of dollars," says Eaton-Cardone. "We are already starting to see situations in which going cashless is paying off. For example, after switching state unemployment payments to an electronic method, the state of Maryland has already been able to save an estimated $400K each year." (5)
Eaton-Cardone is supportive of more innovations in payment technology stating that more innovations and mobile banking will increase access to financial services for unbanked and underbanked consumers. Through modernization, the U.S. can help lower-income Americans save for their future and manage their income and expenditures, per Eaton-Cardone.
Eaton-Cardone warns, however, that transitioning to a cashless society could up the ante for fraud. While Denmark is paving the way for European nations – and the rest of the world – to go cashless, fraudulent use of bank cards is rising along with it. The European Central Bank stated that card fraud reached €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) in 2012, an increase of 15% from the prior year. (2)
As the CIO of Global Risk Technologies, Eaton-Cardone holds it as her mission to advocate for long-term solutions for diversity in the tech industry. Eaton-Cardone is in the minority of women who holds an executive position in a technical field, and has seen first-hand that gender should not stop anyone from going after their dreams. Eaton-Cardone founded Global Risk Technologies to address an unmet need in the credit card industry, and taught herself how to build the IT component required to support the business. Eaton-Cardone is responsible for putting processes in place for eMerchants and the banking system regarding ethical practices and working out resolutions where there aren't any currently.
Eaton-Cardone is available for speaking engagements. To schedule an event, contact Karla Jo Helms at 888-202-4614 ext.802.
About Monica Eaton-Cardone:
Monica Eaton-Cardone is an entrepreneur and business leader with expertise in technology, e-commerce, risk relativity and payment-processing solutions. She has co-founded a number of successful companies – including Chargebacks911.com, eConsumerServices.com and Global Risk Technologies – and currently fulfills executive management roles within each organization. Eaton-Cardone has earned a reputation for creative business solutions, helping merchants and banks to achieve sustainable payment-processing practices and supporting consumers in resolving transaction issues. She is a champion of women in IT, and hopes to contribute to an expanded presence of females in technical professions and leadership roles. For more information, visit www.monicaec.com/.
About Global Risk Technologies, Chargebacks911 and eConsumerServices:
Global Risk Technologies is best known for its role in payment processing solutions that cater to each side of the value chain: Chargebacks911 and eConsumerServices. The firm is headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida, with offices in Ireland and Atlanta. They have approximately 350 employees worldwide, and currently manage over 150MM in transactions each month, with clients located in the U.S. and Europe.
Chargebacks911 focuses on chargeback mitigation and risk management for Internet merchants and acquiring banks, offering dispute response solutions and deep analytics. eConsumerServices caters to cardholders and consumers, providing an online mediation service that works to effectively and efficiently resolve transaction issues between merchants, consumers and banks. For more information, visit www.chargebacks911.com and www.eConsumerServices.com.
- Matthews, Chris. "This Country Wants to Ban the Use of Cash in Stores"; Fortune; May 22, 2015. fortune.com/2015/05/22/denmark-paper-money/
- Harrison, Virginia. "This Could Be the First Country to Go Cashless"; CNN; June 2, 2015. money.cnn.com/2015/06/02/technology/cashless-society-denmark/
- "Peters, Rounds, Carper and Isakson Announce New Senate Payments Caucus"; Senator Gary Peters Website; April 8, 2015. peters.senate.gov/content/peters-rounds-carper-and-isakson-announce-new-senate-payments-innovation-caucus
- Stahl, Jeremy. "Nickeled and Dimed: Would the United States Save Money by Switching to a Cashless Society?"; Slate; March 19, 2012. slate.com/articles/business/cashless_society/2012/03/cashless_society_how_much_would_the_united_states_save_by_ditching_paper_money_.html
- "Why are Electronic Payments Important"; Electran.org; 2013. electran.org/wp-content/uploads/ETAPaymentsInfographic.pdf
Karla Jo Helms
888-202-4614 ext. 802
Media Contact: Karla J. Helms, JoTo PR, 888-202-4614, [email protected]
News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com
SOURCE Monica Eaton-Cardone
SYS-CON Events announced today that Grape Up will exhibit at SYS-CON's 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on Oct. 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Grape Up is a software company specializing in cloud native application development and professional services related to Cloud Foundry PaaS. With five expert teams that operate in various sectors of the market across the U.S. and Europe, Grape Up works with a variety of customers from emergi...
Apr. 27, 2017 06:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,196
The age of Digital Disruption is evolving into the next era – Digital Cohesion, an age in which applications securely self-assemble and deliver predictive services that continuously adapt to user behavior. Information from devices, sensors and applications around us will drive services seamlessly across mobile and fixed devices/infrastructure. This evolution is happening now in software defined services and secure networking. Four key drivers – Performance, Economics, Interoperability and Trust ...
Apr. 27, 2017 06:45 PM EDT Reads: 722
@ThingsExpo has been named the Most Influential ‘Smart Cities - IIoT' Account and @BigDataExpo has been named fourteenth by Right Relevance (RR), which provides curated information and intelligence on approximately 50,000 topics. In addition, Right Relevance provides an Insights offering that combines the above Topics and Influencers information with real time conversations to provide actionable intelligence with visualizations to enable decision making. The Insights service is applicable to eve...
Apr. 27, 2017 06:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,815
Building a cross-cloud operational model can be a daunting task. Per-cloud silos are not the answer, but neither is a fully generic abstraction plane that strips out capabilities unique to a particular provider. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Chris Wolf, VP & Chief Technology Officer, Global Field & Industry at VMware, will discuss how successful organizations approach cloud operations and management, with insights into where operations should be centralized and when it’s best to decentraliz...
Apr. 27, 2017 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 778
DevOps is often described as a combination of technology and culture. Without both, DevOps isn't complete. However, applying the culture to outdated technology is a recipe for disaster; as response times grow and connections between teams are delayed by technology, the culture will die. A Nutanix Enterprise Cloud has many benefits that provide the needed base for a true DevOps paradigm.
Apr. 27, 2017 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,027
Cybersecurity is a critical component of software development in many industries including medical devices. However, code is not always written to be robust or secure from the unknown or the unexpected. This gap can make medical devices susceptible to cybersecurity attacks ranging from compromised personal health information to life-sustaining treatment. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Clark Fortney, Software Engineer at Battelle, will discuss how programming oversight using key methods can incre...
Apr. 27, 2017 05:30 PM EDT Reads: 3,952
The goal of Continuous Testing is to shift testing left to find defects earlier and release software faster. This can be achieved by integrating a set of open source functional and performance testing tools in the early stages of your software delivery lifecycle. There is one process that binds all application delivery stages together into one well-orchestrated machine: Continuous Testing. Continuous Testing is the conveyor belt between the Software Factory and production stages. Artifacts are ...
Apr. 27, 2017 05:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,267
In recent years, containers have taken the world by storm. Companies of all sizes and industries have realized the massive benefits of containers, such as unprecedented mobility, higher hardware utilization, and increased flexibility and agility; however, many containers today are non-persistent. Containers without persistence miss out on many benefits, and in many cases simply pass the responsibility of persistence onto other infrastructure, adding additional complexity.
Apr. 27, 2017 04:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,290
Quickly find the root cause of complex database problems slowing down your applications. Up to 88% of all application performance issues are related to the database. DPA’s unique response time analysis shows you exactly what needs fixing - in four clicks or less. Optimize performance anywhere. Database Performance Analyzer monitors on-premises, on VMware®, and in the Cloud, including Amazon® AWS and Azure™ virtual machines.
Apr. 27, 2017 04:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,966
Most technology leaders, contemporary and from the hardware era, are reshaping their businesses to do software in the hope of capturing value in IoT. Although IoT is relatively new in the market, it has already gone through many promotional terms such as IoE, IoX, SDX, Edge/Fog, Mist Compute, etc. Ultimately, irrespective of the name, it is about deriving value from independent software assets participating in an ecosystem as one comprehensive solution.
Apr. 27, 2017 03:45 PM EDT Reads: 555
SYS-CON Events announced today that Progress, a global leader in application development, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Enterprises today are rapidly adopting the cloud, while continuing to retain business-critical/sensitive data inside the firewall. This is creating two separate data silos – one inside the firewall and the other outside the firewall. Cloud ISVs oft...
Apr. 27, 2017 03:28 PM EDT Reads: 261
Developers want to create better apps faster. Static clouds are giving way to scalable systems, with dynamic resource allocation and application monitoring. You won't hear that chant from users on any picket line, but helping developers to create better apps faster is the mission of Lee Atchison, principal cloud architect and advocate at New Relic Inc., based in San Francisco. His singular job is to understand and drive the industry in the areas of cloud architecture, microservices, scalability ...
Apr. 27, 2017 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 3,573
SYS-CON Events announced today that CA Technologies has been named "Platinum Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and 21st International Cloud Expo, which will take place in November in Silicon Valley, California.
Apr. 27, 2017 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,428
The 20th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Containers, Microservices and WebRTC to one location. With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportunity. Submit your speaking proposal ...
Apr. 27, 2017 01:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,299
DevOps is often described as a combination of technology and culture. Without both, DevOps isn't complete. However, applying the culture to outdated technology is a recipe for disaster; as response times grow and connections between teams are delayed by technology, the culture will die. A Nutanix Enterprise Cloud has many benefits that provide the needed base for a true DevOps paradigm. In his Day 3 Keynote at 20th Cloud Expo, Chris Brown, a Solutions Marketing Manager at Nutanix, will explore t...
Apr. 27, 2017 01:30 PM EDT Reads: 791


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Nagpur: The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) at Wardha has admitted a case of objectionable advertising against four brands of Patanjali vegetable oils, as the company is claiming that the oils are cholesterol-free and zero cholesterol on the packaging labels. The hearing in the case will be held in front of the adjudication official (joint commissioner FDA), and if the charges are proved, the company can be find Rs10 lakh in each case. In a similar case, the FDA has also issued a notice to Emami.
“All brands in Nagpur division are under scanner. FDA will take strict action against all manufacturers of brands making such false claims. Consumers are being taken for a ride,” said Joint FDA commissioner SK Kekare. “The market is flooded with many such oils. Their labels carry similar claims. Hence, the FDA has started this drive against all such oil companies. All of them claim that their oils are either cholesterol-free, have zero cholesterol or reduce the cholesterol etc. But the truth is that no vegetable based oil can actually have any cholesterol.
Cholesterol is present only in animal based products like dairy products, meat etc. Thus all these misleading advertising advertisements actually seem to be cheating and fooling customers,” said Raviraj Dhabarde, Food Safety Officer, who is handling the case. The four Patanjali products for which he FDA has raised the objection are Refined Soyabean Oil, Refined Sunflower Oil, Patanjali Virgin Sesame Oil, Patanjali Extra Virgin Groundnut Oil.
GB Gore, assistant commissioner (Food) of FDA at Wardha, told sources that action is being taken under section 2.4.2 (1) Packaging and Labelling rules as labelling likes cholesterol free, zero cholesterol, double refined, triple refined, cholesterol friendly labelling has been banned. “This is necessary to give equal opportunity to all sellers. FDA had given notice to Patanjali to justify their claims but we didn’t get any satisfactory reply from them. Such claims not just mislead customers but also create fear of cholesterol among them. The manufacturers take advantage of this fear and make such false claims, ” said Gore.


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Fed's Evans: Inflation expectations have not been getting out of hand
Comments from Evans:
He makes a good point about higher prices leading to lower prices. Used auto prices are going to come down so that spike will be a deflationary in the future. Will that be the same with everything? Will those spikes lead to higher wages? That's the much tougher question answer.


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As per reports in media, counterfeit antibiotic drugs with an estimated value of Rs 17.5 lakh, designed to treat severe diseases, were confiscated in a series of raids across several cities in Gujarat. Additionally, authorities apprehended four individuals in connection with this illicit operation, as confirmed by an official statement on Sunday, the report stated.
Reportedly some of these individuals were employed as medical representatives for "benami" companies, which secretly distributed the counterfeit medicines to medical professionals, according to the Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA).
According to reports, the FDCA initiated these operations in various cities, including Nadiad, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Rajkot, successfully seizing the counterfeit drugs. Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration Commissioner, HG Koshia, disclosed that the counterfeit antibiotic drugs, valued at Rs 17.5 lakh, were confiscated primarily in Ahmedabad, among other cities, the report added.
The investigative efforts were initially prompted by a tip-off, and the Ahmedabad office of the food and drug regulatory authority apprehended Khimaram Kumhar in Ahmedabad, who was found in possession of 99 boxes of POSMOX CV 625 antibiotic tablets, amounting to Rs 2,61,250 in value, on a Friday, as stated in an FDCA release.
Upon questioning, Kumhar revealed that he had received the counterfeit medicines from an individual named Arun Amera, also a resident of Ahmedabad. Amera subsequently led the authorities to another suspect, identified as Vipul Degda, the report further stated.
The release further stated that Degda had in his possession five different counterfeit antibiotic medicines with a combined value of Rs 4,83,300. Degda's cooperation with the authorities revealed that he had been supplying these counterfeit antibiotic medicines to doctors across various cities in the state without generating proper bills, as confirmed by the FDCA, the media report informed.
Consequently, subsequent raids were conducted in Ahmedabad and other cities, leading to the seizure of counterfeit antibiotic drugs valued at Rs 10.50 lakh. The official release underlined that some of the individuals involved in this illicit operation worked as medical representatives for "benami" companies, clandestinely delivering these counterfeit antibiotic medicines to doctors.
Upon further investigation, the FDCA discovered that these drugs were falsely labelled as products of a pharmaceutical company located in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. However, when the FDCA reached out to authorities in Himachal Pradesh, it was revealed that no such manufacturing firm existed, as per the release.
The four individuals implicated in this counterfeit drug operation were detained and subsequently handed over to the Isanpur police in Ahmedabad for further investigation. A case was registered against them under the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.


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The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) School of Business is embarking on a venture to provide training services and technical assistance to USVI small businesses that wish to sell products and services to federal, state, and the local USVI government. UVI will be the only Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to house a Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), thanks to a $400K grant from the Defense Logistics Agency, Office of Small Business Programs. Work on establishing the PTAC and hiring a director will begin immediately.
“I congratulate our School of Business and all involved in securing the grant and making this initiative a reality,” said UVI President, Dr. David Hall. “UVI is proud to be a pioneer among HBCUs in creating greater opportunities for small businesses in our communities. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, leading in innovation and creating jobs for our citizens. We look forward to contributing to their prosperity.”
“Establishment of a PTAC in the U.S. Virgin Islands is the type of initiative that truly creates far-reaching benefits for multiple constituents. The center will be seen as a resource that is an asset to not only the School of Business and the University of the Virgin Islands, but for small businesses and citizens of the Virgin Islands territory at large,” said Dr. Kendra L. Harris, dean of the School of Business.
PTACs help small businesses in a variety of ways with their efforts to win government contracts. A PTAC can help businesses register in the System for Award Management (SAM) and other government vendor sites. These sites help agencies and contractors find small businesses based on type, ability, size, location and more. In addition, the center can help small businesses such as women-owned, minority-owned and HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) businesses, with certifications and research on past contracts, including proposals and solicitations. Furthermore, the PTAC can provide recommendations to businesses and even assist with post-award contract administration requirements for small businesses.
“The VISBDC has been an advocate for the PTAC from the beginning and we are very excited for its fruition,” said Ted Gutierrez, state director of the V.I. Small Business Development Center, also housed in the UVI School of Business. “Through the combined efforts of the VISBDC and the PTAC, small businesses in the VI can benefit from a full range of services and resources to help them grow and become more competitive in our global environment. Our team looks forward to the collaboration.”
For more information, contact firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Kleenex is scrapping "Mansize" branding from its tissue boxes after 60 years on the shelves as consumers called it out for being sexist.
The company said the tissues would now be called "Extra Large".
One customer questioned the firm after her four-year-old son asked if "girls, boys and mummies" can use them.
Kleenex told shoppers to "keep an eye out" for the new branding, saying some of its new larger boxes are already on sale.
Kleenex For Men first launched in 1956, offering an alternative to large cotton handkerchiefs that were still popular at the time, and claiming to "stay strong when wet".
Online critics tweeted Kleenex to ask them why its products still used the term "Mansize", saying "the world is changing" and that "it is 2018".
Hi @Kleenex_UK. My 4yo son asked me what was written here. Then he asked, why are they called mansize? Can girls, boys & mummies use them? I said: I don’t know & yes of course. He suggests you should call them “very large tissues”. It is 2018 pic.twitter.com/SeOg32RsDV— Lisa Hancox (@LisaMHancox) October 10, 2018
Kleenex thanked customers for their concern and confirmed the new "Extra Large" labelling.
The BBC has approached Kleenex for comment, but the company has yet to respond.
However, in a statement given to the Daily Telegraph, a spokesman for its parent company, Kimberly-Clark, said the firm was registering "a consistent increase of complaints on gender concern".
He added: "Kimberly-Clark in no way suggests that being both soft and strong is an exclusively masculine trait, nor do we believe that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality.
"Nevertheless, as we remain committed to developing the best possible products for our consumers and take any feedback extremely seriously, we decided to renovate our current product and update the product subbrand as Kleenex Extra Large."
Branding in the spotlight
A number of products have drawn criticism for "sexist branding" in recent years - but what do you think?
- In February, the CEO of PepsiCo was hit with a wave of condemnation after announcing the company was developing a range of crisps especially for women. Indra Nooyi highlighted the importance of fitting the snack into a handbag and reducing how loudly the crisps crunch when eaten.
- Bike manufacturer Pinarello, who supply bicycles to Team Sky, got in trouble in last November over its electronic road bikes. The company said the bike was aimed at weekend riders and female riders who want to "follow easily the men's pace".
- Nikon became the centre of attention in September last year when they recruited 32 new brand ambassadors to represent their cameras. The problem? They were all men.
- Shoe shop Clarks faced a backlash in August 2017 as they launched their new children's school shoe brands. The boys' shoe, with insoles decorated with footballs, was branded "Leader". The girls' shoe, however, carried a heart pattern on the inside and was named "Dolly Babe".
The Advertising Standards Authority - which regulates adverts in the UK - told the BBC it had not received any complaints about the product, but it was carrying out "a significant amount of work around gender stereotypes in ads".
Plans include setting new standards on adverts that feature stereotypical gender roles or characteristics, and cracking down on those which mock people for not conforming to stereotypes.


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Cracking the online market
Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are continuing to grow and advertisers are scrambling to find ways to crack this lucrative market.
KERRY O'BRIEN: There was a time when the local community hall served as a place for friends to catch up and share stories, or the local pub, or even across the back fence.
But, of course, with the advent of the Internet a lot has changed - computers allow people to socialise with anyone around the world at any time without leaving home.
Websites like Facebook and MySpace offer a place to create online profiles, chat on message boards and share photos and videos. The take up over the past year has been huge and big business is paying close attention.
These sites not only boast hundreds of millions of members worldwide, they also attract an elusive market made up of teens, young adults and disposable incomes.
It's a market ripe for advertising, by just about any means that might get the consumer message across.
Reporter Kirstin Murray explores one method that, for now, seems to be working.
KIRSTIN MURRAY, REPORTER: Welcome to the world of online drama, where reality and fiction blur, where characters feel real, and where viewers can decide how the story unfolds. Online serials are a growing form of youth entertainment, and that's got the advertising industry very excited.
MAN: The younger demographic are not watching nearly as much TV. So all the advertisers are panicking and they're working out new ways to connect with audiences.
JIM SHOMOS, ONLINE CONTENT CREATOR: These shows will be funded by brands primarily, virtually cutting out networks.
TARA RUSHTON, ACTOR, 'KATE MODERN': The Internet is kind of, quite uncensored for things like that. You can have product placement, you can be blatantly talking about products in a way that gets people to get up and take notice of it.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: For Melbourne based comedy drama "Forget the Rules" the narrative unfolds in three minute episodes which are posted online or sent to mobile phones.
JIM SHAMOS: The viewer has control now. You're free to watch what you want when you want when it suits you. For content makers, the freedom is that we get to make content that we believe in and we don't have to bow to other people's tastes or filters in this country, or anywhere else. So that freedom is just powerful, and brands are starting to get that.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: Producer Jim Shomos can thank the rise of social networking sites for his show's success. MySpace, Facebook and YouTube have helped foster a new genre of storytelling, as users flood the Internet with videos. Most posts soon disappear into cyber space, but last year, a blogger in America caught the attention of tens of millions of viewers worldwide, who thought her confessional style diaries were real.
(Excerpt from "Lonely Girl 15")
BREE: Since Dad banned Daniel from the house, this is our only way of communicating.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: It was all a con. Lonely Girl 15 as she's known online was acting out lines in a highly scripted drama. But it didn't matter, fans were hooked and kept logging in for their daily fix of teenage drama.
(Excerpt from "Lonely Girl 15")
BREE: A lot of you think that Daniel and I should reconcile. I completely agree with you.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: Since the show began 18 months ago it's had nearly 80 million views worldwide and so emerged the business plan which offered tantalising commercial opportunities for the show's producer.
MILES BECKETT, ONLINE CONTENT CREATOR: And then the next step was to build a business out of that. Part of our business model was to create international spin-offs and it was a chance to extend the "Lonely Girl 15" universe, create another show and then really prove the business model of advertising and online serials. It's very well framed.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: Creator Miles Beckett launched his second series this year. London based "Kate Modern" is another fictional drama which styles itself on reality.
MILES BECKETT: We treat these characters as if they're real people, even though people know it's fictional. They live in the real world and it makes sense for them to interact with real brands.
(Excerpt from "Kate Modern")
KATE: I had a bit of a fright this weekend. I didn't want to speak about it until now. You know we were careful, but I was late. Anyway, I can't tell you how excited I was to see these babies this morning.
TARA RUSHTON: Having products such as tampons, it can be a difficult product to integrate. For me I actually didn't mind. I thought that was quite a funny video. It's not like blatant advertising which is a difficult thing to do sometimes.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: While advertisers here have been slower to see the potential, Jim Shomos found the success of overseas serials helped secure backing for his latest series.
JIM SHOMOS: On the one hand we'd rather have 80 per cent of our freedom and be able to get this show on air with brand involvement than not get it on air at all.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: To secure a third series, the "Forget the Rules" team have begun pitching to advertisers, highlighting the potential of product placement and showing just how easy it is to integrate brands into storylines.
(Excerpt from "Forget the Rules")
MALE ACTOR: Oh look, I haven't got time for this, my favourite show is on.
FEMALE ACTOR: Oh what, the 7.30 Report?
KIRSTIN MURRAY: But cyberspace watchdogs have called for industry regulation as more producers go down the path of incorporating brands into online entertainment.
DAVID VAILE, CYBERSPACE LAW, UNSW: When you have products and advertisements embedded like this there's a danger that all those critical facilities that normally stop you from being seduced or tricked by advertisements may be not operating properly.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: Content makers say it's their audience that keeps them in check.
MILES BECKETT: We self regulate a massive amount so, you know, we haven't done any integrations with anything that we feel there could be concerns with or sensitivity about.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: Capturing a market that rejects traditional methods of advertising is one selling point of these shows, but their ability to keep that audience is what makes them stand out.
DAVID VAILE: In order to keep people sort of sucked in and stuck to the system, the more interactive and sort of exciting and involving they can make it, the better.
MILES BECKETT: That character will go online and talk to the fans or will meet with the fans in person at a live event and we'll actually plan how that will occur as part of the narrative.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: With new episodes uploaded each day dramas like these deliver a committed audience and that's just what social networking sites want.
DAVID VAILE: There's all this user data about the people in it that starts to look like dollar signs in the cash registers of the system operators.
KIRSTIN MURRAY: Rupert Murdoch was quick to see the commercial potential of social networking sites when he bought MySpace two and a half years ago for $580 million US.
You see, user profiles can be mined for information, and these companies don't only have access to basic data like a person's age or home town, but also personal interests, like music tastes or favourite films.
And if you've made a purchase online, these sites can find out and they may even take the liberty of recommending those products on your behalf to your online friends.
But corporations walk a fine line, and like the owners of Facebook recently discovered, risk losing their audience if they push advertising too far. User backlash forced a backdown from the company's advertising strategy and an apology. A lesson for all online entrepreneurs out there.
JIM SHOMOS: It's really easy just to click off and not go back again and not only that, but really easy to tell thousands, hundreds of their friends who tell hundreds of their friends really quickly, this show's become a joke, turn off.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Kirstin Murray with a bit of food for thought on the net.