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The Romance Of Three Internet Giants: WeChat, LINE and Kakao
摘要： How did WeChat, LINE and Kakao, three largest mobile social networking app in Asia, rose from rags in recent years? What kind of "complicated" relationship do they have?
On January 13th, 2016, Kakao, the South Korean mobile information service provider, announced that it had acquired 76.4% share of Loen Entertainment, one of the biggest record companies, with 1870 billion KRW (around 10.3 billion CNY).
Kakao owns Kakao Talk, the most popular social networking app in Korea. With 150 million registered users, over 100 million pieces of message are sent on Kakao every day. Although Kakao Talk grabbed 95% share of the market in South Korea, it is little known overseas. While the number of monthly active user in South Korea is 39.9 million on average (the total population of South Korea is 50 million), it only has 48.46 million users abroad. LIINE, the biggest rival of Kakao, however, is not quite popular in Japan, but miraculously well received overseas, with 220 million monthly active users on average.
LOEN Entertainment, a record company in South Korea, owns Melon, the biggest stream music site in South Korea (similar to iTunes). There are in 28 million members, 3.6 million paid members and over 6.5 million music items in total on Melon. In addition, Melon owns several record brands and music starts, including IU, who rose to fame by covering a Cantonese song called Old Narrow Street. By acquiring LOEN Entertainment, Kakao is able to grab LOEN’s large crowd of stream music service users and own its bulky library of popular music.
According to Kakao, the acquisition was going to help Kaokao integrate LOEN’s music culture to itself and build a new platform of cultural contents. At the same time, Kakao vowed to shift its focus a little bit, build a music community, provide a smart music player, and user data management service, etc. It’s obvious that the ultimate goal of Kakao by acquiring LOEN is actually to go abroad.
“By integrating LOEN’s music library with Kakao’s all kinds of services and platforms, we expect to lay a solid foundation for global expansion,” Jimmy Rim, CEO of Kakao, stated.
However, global expansion is no easy thing, especially when both Melon and Kakao Talk lack a wide user base abroad. Although Kakao Talk is the dominant player in the South Korean SNS market, it only has 140 million users in the global market, less than half of LINE’s (420 million).
“In the long run, Kaokao’s decision to acquire is certainly a wise one, since Kakao falls behind Naver Corp exactly in terms of content service,” Kim Sung-eun, an analyst at LIG Investment, suggested. Naver Corp, similar to Chinese Baidu, owns the biggest portal in South Korea, and a mobile social networking app called LINE.
Three dominant Internet giants
In terms of basic functions business models, Kakao Talk is no different than LINE and WeChat: all of them are fundamentally instant message tools, but they all add social networking function, stickers, mobile games to their platforms (mobile games are actually the main source of Kakao’s revenue). In addition, Kakao Talk includes a mobile payment tool called Kaokao Pay, which is similar to WeChat Wallet. It is Kaokao’s goal that this tool will make it easier for its users to shop and order takeaways online and improve the user experience a great deal.
The main difference of these three apps is that they are widely-used in different markets. The majority of Kakao’s users are in South Korea, while the rest are in Japan, South East Asia countries and the US. In comparison, LINE is rather popular in Japan and South East Asian countries. WeChat, however, dominates the enormous Chinese market. As a matter of fact, these three companies, or rivals, have countless connections in the past. Following, let’s first have a look at the timeline of these three apps from the very beginning.
- March, 2010 Kakao was established.
- January, 2011 Tencent released WeChat.
- April, 2011 The number of registered users on Kakao reached over 10 million.
- June, 2011 Naver released LINE.
- March, 2012 The number of registered users on WeChat reached over 100 million.
- April, 2012 Tencent invested in Kakao and became its second largest shareholder.
- January, 2013 The number of registered users on LINE reached over 100 million.
- July, 2013 The number of registered users on Kakao reached over 100 million.
- October, 2014 Kakao listed together with Daum, the second biggest portal in South Korea.
- January, 2016 Kakao acquired LOEN Entertainment with 1.54 billion USD.
As you can see from this timeline, although Kakao was established first, WeChat and LINE caught up and grabbed 100 million registered users faster than Kakao. According to some estimate, WeChat already has 700 million registered users, LINE is soon to have 600 million users, globally while Kakao, the first app in the market, only has 150 million users around the world.
How did Kakao miss the opportunity again and again? How did WeChat and LINE seize the opportunity and get to where they are today?
Kakao’s and LINE’s founders are schoolmate back in college
Both Kakao Talk’s founder Kim Bum-soo and Naver’s founder Lee Hae-jin graduated from Seoul University in 1986. After they both worked for Samsung’s SDS for five years, Kim Bum-soo left and established a game company called Hangame, while Lee Hae-jin founded Naver, a company focused mainly on search service. After these two companies merged together and became NHN in 2000, they together developed paid games, emails, knowledge index service, etc and made NHN the most visited website in South Korea.
In 2007, however, Kim Bum-soo left Naver because he wanted to start a new challenge. In the meantime, Lee Hae-jin endeavored to make Naver the top one portal in South Korea, similar to Baidu in China.
When Apple released iPhone, Kim Bum-soo got thrilled. He immediately set up a team to develop apps compatible with iPhone, though iPhone wasn’t released in South Korea until November, 2009. Kakao Talk, a free social networking app, was one of the first batch of apps his team developed.
At that time, South Korean mobile phone users still need to pay for texting messages. After Kaokao Talk was released in March, 2010, it soon became the top one app in South Korean app store. When it attracted 10 million registered users in April, 2011, Kim Bum-soo eyed on the Japanese market to win over more users.
Kakao missed the golden opportunity twice
However, when Kakao just entered the Japanese market, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake stroke Japan, killed around 16,000 people and forced millions of victims to live without electricity and water. When mobile phone and texting network got overloaded, many victims started to use Kakao Talk to contact with others, since Wi-Fi and 3G network still worked.
When the catastrophe stroke Japan, Kim Bum-soo happened to be in Tokyo. Mentally and physically motivated, he made up his mind to develop a social networking app as soon as possible. Within less than three months, LINE was officially released. Although LINE had many similar services compared to Kakao Talk, it had one thing that Kakao didn’t have: the huge support from an Internet giant in South Korea.
To win over Japanese users, Naver cashed in heavily in carrying out TV commercials and posting ads on outdoors advertising boards, which soon let Japanese users’ good impression towards Kakao pale into insignificance. Byy September, 2012, the download times of LINE had reached 60 million, while Naver’s stock price also roared.
“The mother company of LINE spend 10 years studying Japanese culture and people, yet Kakao never spent a penny. Kakao is well-received back in South Korea, but not attractive at all in Japan, since Japanese are accustomed to send emails and don’t need Kakao’s service very much. When LINE started to provide free call service, Kakao didn’t have any similar service at all,” Sirgoo Lee, co-CEO of Kakao, explained.
What really made LINE popular overnight in Japan is actually paid stickers released in November, 2011, which helped LINE gained 1 million users within two days. Today, over 2 billion stickers are sent on LINE every single day. Why are stickers so popular in Japan? As is well known, Japanese culture is deeply influenced by comic culture. In addition, sticker is a great substitute for Japanese, whether old or young, who are commonly reticent and quiet.
However, this wasn’t the only mistake Kakao made. In April, 2012, Kakao accepted investment from Tencent in hopes of learning its experiences in running Tencent QQ. However, Tencent, who released a similar mobile conversation app (WeChat) a year before, later invested 65 million USD in Kakao and became the second largest shareholder of Kakao.
When Kakao started to make a fortune by launching Anipang on its platform in July, 2012, Tencent followed suit and soon grabbed 10 times more active users. Later, the number of registered users on WeChat increased exponentially. By June, 2015, WeChat has already attracted 650 million users. Some analysts suggest that that figure could reach 700 million within 2016.
After missing the golden opportunity twice, Kakao fell behind, though it started early.
The journey towards global expansion
1. Allying with other giants
In October, 2014, Kakao merged with Daum, the second largest search company in South Korea, and became Daum Kakao, with a market value of over 7.4 billion USD. After these two companies merged and re-listed on the stock market, Kim Bum-soo still accounted for 39% share of the company, which was worthy of 2.9 billion USD in total.
Kakao and Daum chose to merge together due to various considerations. While Kakao wanted to complment itself through Daum’s online searching, Internet comics, post bars and BBS and banner advertisements business when revenue from mobile games gradually declined, Daum also hoped to compete with Naver on mobile platforms by allying with Kakao.
It is worth mentioning, however, that Tencent owned 13.84% share of the merged company, and enjoyed a return rate of as high as 15.4 times.
2. Providing multiple services
To retain its users, Kakao Talk offered several other kinds of Internet services, including Kakao Pay, Kakao Taxi. Up till now, Kakao Talk has already include 8 services on its platform, namely, Sticker Store, PlusFriend, Kakao Pay, Gift Store, KakaoStyle and HotDeal, Kakao TV, Kakao Page and Game Store. Its users can also download separate apps to enjoy other services. For example, Kakao Talk’s users can download an app called Kakao Story to share their recent updates to their friends, similar to WeChat friends circle.
3. Entering the Internet bank industry
In November, 2015, Kakao entered the bank industry. South Korea Finance Committee agreed to give permission to Kakao and allow it to open an Internet bank earlier in 2016. This bank was actually the first one in 23 years that won the support from the South Korean government. The Internet bank was going to not only a great step for the Internet finance industry in South Korea, but also mark the global expansion of Kakao.
From now on, South Koreans no longer need to go to a real bank to do businesses. Instead, they can just log onto Kakao’s Internet bank and do some basic activities, such as opening a new account, paying, lending money, buying things, etc. Since Kakao’s Internet bank don’t have any labor cost or expenditure on offline operation, it can charge users with a lower loan interest and procedure fees.
At the same time, Kakao is going to be able to provide services that traditional banks can’t provide, such as adding a new set of credit evaluation system, simplifying the loan procedures, and lowering procedure fees significantly.
4. Marching into the entertainment industry
Inviting pop stars to shoot for a new set of stickers, hiring pop singers to advertise for games, competing with fans on set time… Acquiring LOEN Entertainment is one of Kakao’s steps in going abroad.
Music is one the fews things that can go across language boundaries, so acquiring a record company that owns millions of popular music items must have been a brilliant idea for Kakao to expand overseas.
To wrap up, I briefly summarized in this article the development and expansion of WeChat, LINE and Kakao, three largest social networking platform in Asia. They all have their strengths, but also weakness and challenges on the way ahead. Whether Kakao can break the bottleneck and overcome the difficulties at hand, only time can tell.
[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @TechReview, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]
Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.


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Starling Bank is a fully-regulated bank and mobile-only current account which launched last year.
Last year Starling Bank was identified as one of 50 of the freshest and most inspiring digital companies using technology and innovation to shake up their sectors in our Digital Innovators Power List. Following a public vote and after careful consideration by supporting partners and judges, it was named as one of the top 10 Digital Innovators. Later this year two of these companies will be identified as a "life changer" or a "market transformer".
Chief executive Anne Boden tells us her long-term vision for the company and gives us insight into why it's one of the UK's leading digital innovators.
Talk me through the business. What sparked the idea? How do you compete with other players/what sets you apart?
After three decades spent working in senior leaderships roles across some of the world’s biggest financial institutions, I started to realise that unlike many other industries, banks were failing to keep up with the emerging possibilities of technology – and were suffering because of it.
It was during my tenure as COO of Allied Irish Banks that I started to realise that in order for the banking industry to start delivering a truly great customer experience, it needed a shot of real innovation. It became clear that traditional banks were still struggling on many levels, restrained by legacy systems and infrastructure and trying to fix the problems of the past rather than looking to the future. I decided that instead of trying to fix an antiquated, broken system, I’d have to start from the ground up, uniting finance with groundbreaking technology that had never before been applied to banking. In short, I’d need to do what had previously been thought to be impossible: build a whole new kind of bank.
I began to recognise how uniting finance with the world’s best technology could have a transformative effect on the relationship between people and their money – and how it could potentially revolutionise the banking industry. The result was Starling – a fully regulated bank and mobile-only current account with zero branches and a clean, intuitive app featuring smart money management tools.
How has your company grown in the past few years? What are the most crucial things you have done to grow it?
We’ve come a very long way in a short amount of time! We launched in early 2014, raised funding in 2015, gained our banking licence in 2016 and launched into the app stores as the UK first current account from a new digital bank in 2017. As you’d imagine, as a bank we’re highly regulated and the hurdles to jump through are always extremely high. We have to reach the standard whereby our customers' balances are protected up to £85,000 by the FSCS, and our regulatory process only really completed in July 2017.
Growing a successful product and brand is a process – and it takes time. From the early days spent crafting those layers of infrastructure that any new product needs to grow, to time spent building and refining a company culture that that people (both customers and employees) can really believe and invest in – it really does take a village. Part of that village is definitely the early adopters, too – that initial band of loyal customers who help the product develop in the early days and spread the word about the brand and its values. We certainly owe a lot to our own community.
Where do you hope to be in a year/two years? What is your long-term vision for the business?
We’re currently in the high-growth phase of our business, and we anticipate being in profit by the end of 2019. This year, one of our main priorities is the introduction of our business banking offering; we’ll soon be delivering a great business account that will help other businesses to grow and prosper.
We’ll also be expanding across Europe, first into Ireland and then into other European countries where the UK has good connectivity. France and Germany will be the first targets beyond Ireland, owing to their large populations and stronger demand for accounts in both Sterling and Euros.
Longer term we intend to be the natural choice for customers across Europe who are in search of a banking provider that’s not anchored in the traditions of the past.
How do you see the state of the market in which your business operates? What are the biggest challenges you will face in the coming years and how do you hope to overcome them?
At the moment, the retail banking industry is going through substantial regulatory change with the advent of PSD2 and Open Banking. Implementing these changes successfully could lead to customers owning their data and feeling empowered by the ability to create a financial marketplace, all from their phone – but get it wrong, and customers will feel threatened and adrift in a potentially threatening environment.
I am hugely positive about the advent of Open Banking – for both Starling and the banking industry as a collective. Just as PSD1 brought new and interesting eMoney businesses into the industry, PSD2 will encourage connection between innovative companies whilst fostering a vibrant ecosystem that’s focused on the customer (and will eventually be copied in time by the incumbent banks!).
We at Starling have fostered a culture of constant innovation and velocity of innovation. We are not a one off good idea.
How important is innovation to your business? How do you engender a culture of forward thinking and creativity with your staff?
At Starling, our aim has always been to build the UK’s – in fact, Europe’s – first 100 per cent digital current account. Innovation is at the heart of what we do, and we’re trying to break the banking mould by addressing its issues through pioneering new technologies, whilst constantly rethinking and subverting the traditional legacy bank structure in order to build something better.
Starling also employs people from all backgrounds, with skills as varied as art, engineering and accountancy, and we structure our company in a smart and agile way, creating sets of problem-solving teams rather than traditional ‘departments’ (for example, our Chief Information Officer is currently leading our marketing and creative efforts!). We like to keep things fresh, and that means creating a unique cross-section of skills and experience so that we never stagnate or rest on our laurels.
What is it about your company that makes it one of the UK’s leading digital innovators?
Solving ‘big’ problems is at the heart of true innovation, and at Starling we believe that we’re building a product that can truly transform people’s relationship with their money, and change banking forever. At the heart of Starling’s mission is a desire to tackle one of the most difficult and emotionally impactful problems people face in their everyday lives – their own financial health. For a product to be genuinely innovative, I believe that it has to be solving something that will benefit society on a macro scale – it has to genuinely break new ground and dare to go where no-one has before. At Starling, we’re proud to say we’re doing just that.
Look out for the next Q&A with FiveAI, another top 10 Digital Innovator, on 22 February 2018.

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The single biggest threat to Apple is existential, in that it is not any where near for the next two to four years out — the single biggest threat to Apple is the Amazon Alexa operating system.
The fact is we are probably at “Peak Swipe” right now. And we might be at peak iOS operating system in the smartphone world right now.
Amazon’s Alexa is something that in Apple’s worst case scenario has the potential to suddenly, overnight, in the next couple years, make developers stop focusing on developing iPhone apps. Or at least quit focusing on apps in the way they have been. Because you walk into your kitchen and call it up on your Echo Show. You walk into your living room and call it up on your TV in the corner or you call it up in the projector on your wrist or the eyeglasses your wearing with the reflector device on it.
In 2017 the world will spend more than 17 trillion hours on apps. The world will spend at most a few million hours on Alexa devices. But therein lies the idea that Alexa is a great new disruptor. In a couple more years, you might be using the Alexa App on your smartphone to access “skills”, and you will also just be using the Alexa operating system on your television that Samsung sells you.
What we need to watch for is developers. There is an influx of developers right now, including the IAm App, that are building for Alexa.
At my company, The IAm App, we are now actively developing for Alexa. Of course, we are still developing for Apple too. Don’t get me wrong. We have more apps than ever coming out in the next three months for all kinds of celebrities joining the ones we already have in the store, including Jay Leno, Neil Patrick Harris, 50 Cent, Lauren Ash, Carl Reiner, Logan Paul, Sammy Hagar. All told, we have hundreds of new iPhone and Android smartphone apps coming out in the next few months. But we are also going to make sure you can pull the apps up on your Alexa Show or any other device with a screen that Alexa will be running in two years.
The question and potential of an Alexa-centric way of interfacing the web is there even if you are an iPhone user. Though to be sure, it is important to note that is the Alexa Show is built on Android. Which means Google/Android could be a huge beneficiary in what people are going to be accessing on a daily basis. They will be accessing Alexa “Skills” and/or Android-based apps and/or simple Alexa-based apps with voice interactivity, whether it is on their television or refrigerator or Echo Dot because they are talking to Alexa. And some of those skills will require Alexa to pull up an Android-based app.
So we are developing the IAm App for Alexa right now and I am learning a lot about this stuff. So I will know a lot more in coming weeks as we develop this skill for the IAm Apps on the Alexa Show. That is one of the reasons why by doing the IAm App that I benefit as an investor. I benefit from learning these trends and gaining insight and what we are using and who is supplying what. It is all part of it.
“Peak Swipe.” Copyright, Cody Willard 2017! You guys are my witnesses.
Since we’re on the topic of Amazon, let me answer the question I keep being asked about Amazon and anti-trust concerns. What I see happening is with anti-trust concerns and Amazon is this.
The Democrats will pretend they are going to go after Amazon for anti-trust, but it won’t really go anywhere because the Republicans and Democrats haven’t actually been actively anti-trust in decades.
Just last week, Chuck Schumer came out with a “Better Deal Platform” for the Democrats. To be sure, it drives me crazy when any Republican or Democrat like Chuck Schumer who has been in the system for decades says something like “The Republicans/Democrats have lost their way for years.” Well, the Democrats and Republicans have lost their ways for decades and people like that guy are part of the problem.) But the point being, one of the major bullet points that he focused on there (ie, that the propaganda that his PR people put together for him) is all about anti-trust.
Now remember that under Obama the beer companies and any other industry that wanted to and spent enough money lobbying Republicans and Democrats were allowed to roll up their competitors. There is almost a monopoly in beer in this country right now. That happened under Obama administration, under a Democrat administration. Then you read the Democrat’s new “Better Deal” and they are like “we have got to stop these mergers and acquisitions,” and they cite beer companies having been rolled up as an example! You can see why all this just drives me crazy because people are going to vote for these guys that have allowed the beer companies to become a monopoly because they are now propagandizing that they are now against that.
The point being you are going to see the Democrats really focusing on anti-trust and Amazon will be at least somewhat in the cross hairs of that. Since everybody recently has started talking about Amazon and anti-trust, the idea of Amazon and anti-trust is getting out there. And the Democrats and Republicans never have an original thought in their life. They just go with whatever looks like is going to poll better. If it looks like that is going to poll well (and I would think that Amazon anti-trust arguments will poll well — the reason the Democrats put that talking point in their new “better deal” thing is because it polls well) the Democrats are going to at least going to propagandize they are going after Amazon and other monopolistic/oligopolistic/dominant companies. Right now the people in power are the Republicans of course and it doesn’t poll well for them to go after anti-trust arguments. So they are glad to allow Amazon to do what it is going to do.
Finally, don’t forget that Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.
So, yeah, I expect there will be a lot of noise around Democrats going after Amazon and companies like it. I don’t think it will get anywhere with Amazon though. And I am going to tell you right now, I hope the stock gets hit for like 20 or 40 percent off worries the government is going to crack down on some sort of anti-trust thing.
If there is one thing we know the Republicans and Democrats do not crack down on anti-trust. So they are going to let them do what they want to do. If the worry and fear gets built into the stock price, man I will take that opportunity to make Amazon my by far biggest position. If I could buy even more Amazon, which I’ve owned for years and at a much lower cost basis than today’s quotes — if I get the chance to buy more Amazon at $750 or 800 bucks in the next six months or year, I will do it. And Trading With Cody subscribers will be the first to know when I strike again. I don’t think I will get that opportunity though.
Why? Because of Alexa. Sure, there’s Amazon Web Services and there’s Amazon retail juggernaut and Amazon music and Prime and TV and movies and…but those are reasons I’ve owned Amazon for years already. The reason to own Amazon for the next five years is because Alexa is set to takeover the world.
Want to own the suppliers to Amazon Alexa? Want to learn more about how to invest in The Voice Revolution?
Stay tuned! Coming August 3, 2017 (next week!). Click here to pre-order your copy of Cody Willard’s 50 Stocks for The Voice Revolution and save 25%. Or get it for free by signing up for TradingWithCody.com.


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MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also said Amazon has also removed "offending items" like flip-flops and dog tags with Mahatma Gandhi's image.
In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple has been operating in India for nearly 20 years.
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At its annual conference for developers WWDC 2018 earlier this year, the Apple slide the curtain officially on the main version latest MacOS under the name of the MacOS Mojave. Now a few months after that moment, I decided to Apple to allow this new version of the system, MacOS for download finally. The system was MacOS Mojave available for a relatively long but the trial period ended today. Can now for all users who own computers, Mac-compatible upgrade to MacOS Mojave.
There are many new features in the system of MacOS Mojave, including, but not limited to night mode ” Dark Mode“, a new version of store, Mac App Store, and the new system files, as well as many other new features. It should be noted that the system of MacOS Mojave been available for several months ago, so it was anyone of his experience, but the vast majority of users prefer to wait until an official version stable.
This is exactly what is happening today. Apple is working now on system version MacOS Mojave formal and stable for all computers compatible. Users around the world will receive a notice in the shop Mac App Store tells them that there is a new update key is now available for download.
Apple News and Voice Memos and Home and Stocks are all apps were available on iOS devices only, but decided Apple brought to the Mac as well with a MacOS Mojave new for the first time ever. For computers that support system MacOS Mojave, they are including computers, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro that were released in mid-2012 or later, computers iMac that was released in 2012 or later, as well as computers MacBook that was released in the year 2015 or later. As you would expect, open MacOS Mojave available for the update is free for all users.
The post Apple officially launches update MacOS Mojave for all users around the world appeared first on email.


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Electronic Arts and Codemasters have announced the official game of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The latest edition of the official F1 game franchise, now named F1 22 will be released worldwide on July 1 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. Players who pre-ordered the Deluxe Champions Edition will have access three days earlier, on June 28.
While staying faithful to most of the F1 franchise game elements, including the My Team mode, the 10-year career mode, the two-player career option, and the online multiplayer mode, F1 22 will also introduce some brand new features.
Besides the implementation of the new F1 cars and the 2022 technical regulations, one of the most notable new features is without a doubt HTC Vive and Oculus PC VR support. Furthermore, Codemasters also introduces the new Miami venue, layout changes to the Australia and Abu Dhabi circuits, F1 Sprint events, and the F1 Life mode.
In their own words, within F1 Life Mode, players have a chance to step further into the glamourous world of F1, with a customizable hub to show off supercars, clothing, and accessories earned via gameplay, Podium Pass, and the in-game store.
We look forward to welcoming our players to the new era of Formula 1, said Lee Mather, F1 Senior Creative Director at Codemasters. Alongside the real-world changes, we have updated the physics to accommodate the new aero rules and reworked the tyre model, making the handling more true to life. With new and updated circuits, adaptive AI, ‘F1 Life’, and expanded gameplay options, there has never been a better time for players to take their seats and live the life of an F1 driver.
Race day changes allow players to customize their gameplay even more, with new ‘immersive’ and ‘broadcast’ options. Immersive mode allows players to take on risk-reward challenges while broadcast mode includes “controlled and authentic cinematics” to enhance the action.
Adaptive AI lets less-experienced players take on the challenge, with AI racers tailored to match their skill level, while accessible menus and handling also return for players who want to get into the action quickly. Refreshed practice programs offer more variety this time around too, while ‘My Team’ returns, players are now given a choice of starting budget and three entry scenarios.
Official Website – www.formula1-game.com


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Amazon will not have to pay a new tax on digital services, but smaller businesses that use the tech company’s platform will have to cough up.
So much was “revealed” this week, sparking anger in one Conservative peer who described it as “absolutely outrageous”, according to the The Times.
It appears the lord in question may not have been paying attention earlier in the year when the government confirmed it would go ahead with the tax and how it would work; or in 2018 when Philip Hammond first announced it.
By design, the tax is levied on digital services, not online sales. For Amazon, this means the fees it charges thousands of businesses to use its online marketplace. Amazon said in August that it would simply pass the charge on to its customers. Apple has said it will pass the tax on to app developers and Google announced it will raise fees for advertisers.
So why is a tax sometimes referred to as the “Google tax” unlikely to have much impact at all on those it was aimed at?
The government does not want to charge a levy on the sales of all online retailers. Instead, it is trying to collect a slither of the vast profits made by multinational technology platforms, some of whom, it’s fair to say, have been running rings around outdated tax systems for years.
To do this, it has targeted digital services, with some unintended consequences.
What is really needed to level the playing field, save UK town centres and ensure global tech monopolists pay their fair share is a proper international agreement on tackling tax avoidance.
The UK’s digital services tax (DST) is a poor consolation prize, as are similar measures in France, Italy, Turkey and elsewhere. Multinational tech firms will pay 2 per cent to HMRC on revenues related to “provision of a social media service, internet search engine or online marketplace”.
The issue is not Amazon’s digital services but that the “broader structure that allows it to shift most of its taxable profits out of the UK”, he says.
Amazon accounts for its logistics business in the UK but its European sales in Luxembourg, a country with an extremely welcoming attitude to big businesses that like paying low tax rates.
Not only does Amazon’s Luxembourg subsidiary enjoy a low tax rate, it often reports a loss, explains Paul Monaghan, of Fair Tax Mark (Amazon argues these losses are due to its high level of investment).
“This generates enormous tax reliefs that can be used in the future to ensure that little or no tax continues to be paid,” says Monaghan.
Even a broader DST would make little difference to this reality, and would not address tax avoidance by non-digital multinationals.
Alex Cobham, chief executive of the Tax Justice Network, adds: “More than a trillion dollars of profit worldwide is currently declared in jurisdictions other than where the real activity takes place, so this is a first-order problem for the global economy that goes well beyond Amazon or a handful of digital companies.”
That means progress on reducing the $500bn thought to be lost to corporate tax avoidance each year is reliant on an international agreement which, after years of negotiations, is not yet close to a satisfactory conclusion.
The OECD, which has taken the lead on negotations, this week unveiled deeply disappointing plans to clamp down on corporate tax havens, but Cobham remains hopeful that the process can succeed.
“The central logic is correct: we need to tax multinationals according to where their real activity is.
“That would mean the UK taxing a share of Amazon’s global profits in proportion to the share of Amazon’s activity that takes place in the UK – the share of employment and sales, that is. And that approach needs to be applied to all sectors.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: “Like many others, we have encouraged the government to pursue a global agreement on the taxation of the digital economy at OECD level rather than unilateral taxes, so that rules would be consistent across countries and clearer and fairer for businesses.
“As we’ve previously indicated, the way that the government has designed the Digital Services Tax will directly impact the businesses that use our services.”


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The Commission’s comments follow its completion of a study into the mobile services market.
“Having assessed the state of competition in the mobile market we haven’t identified any particular problems or structural issues that could be hampering competition,” Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Stephen Gale said.
Dr Gale said the study also concluded that there is an emerging market for ‘virtual’ operators to sell mobile services to consumers without having to build their own mobile network.
“Trustpower also intends to enter this market and, like Vocus, bundle mobile offers with its existing broadband and energy services. Because of these developments, the Commission does not consider there is any need for regulation of wholesale access at this time.”
Dr Gale said: “With Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees each having a network of similar technology with similar geographic and population coverage metrics, looking forward we consider the allocation of spectrum to be particularly important for future competition”.
“In our view, there is a need for wholesale and retail competition matters to be at the forefront of decisions relating to MBIE’s upcoming allocation of 5G spectrum.
“While we consider that, overall, mobile services are in good shape, we do think there is room for consumers to keep pressure on providers to compete harder on price and service quality.
“At the moment a lot of mobile customers tend to stick with their providers and are somewhat reluctant to switch even though they know it is easy to do so.”
The study found 60% of consumers say it is easy to compare plans though 68% rarely if ever do, and 54% haven’t switched providers in the past 5 years.
“By shopping around more frequently consumers are likely to trigger more competition between mobile providers. We are keen to see more consumer activity and will be looking into ways we can help New Zealanders understand whether they are getting the best deal possible and, if not, consider switching,” Dr Gale said.
Other findings from the study include:
- New Zealand ranks 8th out of 88 countries for 4G speed and more than 96% of consumers have 4G coverage
- Average mobile data usage per month has more than doubled in the past two years
- Prices for mobile services have been falling and compare well with other OECD countries
- Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees are all profitable and have collectively invested $2.5 billion in their mobile networks over the past decade
- Average revenue per user has declined slightly to around $25 per month when handset revenues are excluded.


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The demand is driven by customers relying on eCommerce to navigate in a business environment which has seen record numbers of employees working from home for safety reasons while performing day-to-day operations. Record demand for online business transactions has increased the Maersk shipments app usage by nearly 90% in 2020.
“As the pandemic hit and more people began working from home, customers are seeing the convenience of going online to manage their logistics business using the Maersk mobile app,” said Carsten Frank Olsen, Head of eCommerce at Maersk. ”In the first five weeks of 2020, the app averaged 70,000 business transactions weekly. By mid-April, it had grown to 130,000 business transactions weekly, reflecting an 86% increase in this online remote usage tool.”
The surge of interest in the app usage reflects the container tracking, vessel schedule, live chat, instant rate quotes, booking of containers, cargo notifications, and Spot Rates activities that customers are relying on to run their business while away from the office. Customers can use credit cards or a smart pay solution and have cargo released instantly.
Three new eCommerce digital solutions were added in March that improve the customer experience for import functionality and replace manual processes:
Maersk Delivery Order (MDO) enabling cargo release; the Demurrage and Detention Calculator that answers storage fees and offers online payment for immediate release of full containers at the port or storage yard; and last free day for a container in storage – which is a feature designed for US-based customers. These three key enablers redefine the import self-service customer experience through better decision-making, visibility and speed. Of interest, the new features were all designed and driven by customer feedback as Maersk seeks to cultivate a constant feedback loop from customers to shape the company’s product development pipeline.
The Maersk.com website is one of the largest B2B websites in the world handling $20 billion in transactions in 2019.
The Maersk shipment app is available in The App Store and in Google Play.


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Ad Suggests BlackBerry Will Start Accepting Priv Pre-orders This FridayBy cheatmaster 11:40 Wed, 28 Jul 2021 Comments
Last week, BlackBerry started allowing consumers to pre-register for the Priv, and now it looks like the Canadian company will officially start accepting pre-orders for its debut Android device this Friday.
The information came courtesy of a recent advertisement that appeared online. As you can see in the image above, the ad in question clearly mentions Friday as the day when interested users will be able to start ordering the device.
If you aren't already aware, retailers like Carphone Warehoutilize in the UK and Rogers in Canada have already started taking pre-orders for the Priv - while the former is offering it for £49($75)/month on a regular two year contract and £580 ($895) off contract, the latter will sell the device for CAD 399.99 ($305) on contract and CAD 799.99 ($610) outright.
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Apple Music Has Over 15 Million Users Now
Apple Music has been growing since its inception back in June. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently gave an update on how people are taking to the new music streaming service, and he feels delighted, to say the least. “It’s going really well,” he told Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker on stage at WSJD Live. “Fortunately, lots of people are liking it.”
There are over 15 million users right now with 6.5 million users already paying for the service and the rest still enjoying the 3-months free trial period. After the trial period users have to pay $9.99 for individual subscriptions or $14.99 for families. In India, it costs Rs. 120 per month for individual subscription and Rs. 180 for families after trial period ends.
Given the number of users – both paying and non-paying – on Apple Music right now, the service is getting closer and closer to Spotify, which has over 20 million paying users.
The free-trial for June users ends this month. So October is the first month Apple has started collecting payments. There are people still joining the service for the first time this month. Apple Music has seen mixed opinions from people. There are those who especially love the curated playlists offered in Apple Music, while others are happy staying with Spotify.


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Mallesons Stephen Jaques has acted for Wyeth Consumer Healthcare in a claim against Reckitt Benckiser, in a comparative advertising case that got engines racing.
The Australian Self Medication Industry Panel (ASMI) found in favour of Wyeth on Monday, stating that the overall potential of a Reckitt campaign advertising Nurofen Zavance to be misleading and deceptive was "immense."
Mallesons partner Katrina Rathie said speed was the essence of the case, with the $11 million campaign featuring a racing car, along with the claim that the product was "Twice as Fast." The claim was followed by an asterisk and the qualification *"Absorbed up to twice as fast as standard Nurofen".
The losing car was decked out in the distinctive teal blue colour of the competing product, Advil, manufactured by Wyeth.
"In the pharmaceutical market speed of release for analgesics, or painkillers as they are colloquially known, has been critical," Rathie said.
"In the printed material and in the television commercial, the blue and yellow car is the losing car, and it looks twice as slow, when [the advertisement] shows the speedometer, one is 182 km, and the other around 91km."
Rathie observed that comparative advertising, like the memorable Duracell Bunny campaigns, has seen resurgence since the recession.
"Comparative advertising has always had its time and place, and I think in tough times and in tough markets where people are trying to win market share from category leaders, it does become attractive."
Rathie warned businesses to be extremely careful in their use of comparative advertising, and not to rely on disclaimer clauses.
"There are various ways that you can do comparative advertising in a very legal way, but it just needs to be very carefully considered as an overall concept at the beginning."
She also praised the speed of the ASMI panel's unanimous finding on the matter.
"Reckitt launched a complaint in May, and a decision was given on Monday, so pretty much under two months from start to finish which I thought was twice as fast as the courts."
- Laura MacIntyre


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It was a difficult moment for community. The lack of safe drinking water caused supermarkets to restrict the amount of bottled water bought per customer after there was a surge of panic buyers. Cryptosporidium can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps and vomiting if ingested. “There was significant disruption to domestic consumers but also to businesses as well,” the judge said.The company, which has an annual turnover of £1.7bn, has invested £100m into improving its treatment process so further contamination does not occur, the court heard.
United Utilities’ chief executive Steve Mogford said the firm was “very sorry for the impact this has had on our customers”. He also specified: “We have learned valuable lessons from what happened and have put technology and processes in place to guard against a repeat of this type of incident.” United Utilities says on its website it was rated by customers 4.6 out of 5 of delivering great service.


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RVs aren’t just for retirees anymore.
The recreational vehicle industry, from vehicle sales to RV parks, has expanded and is now attracting groups from working baby boomers to millennials and more. The effects of the demographic shifts and increased demand are being particularly felt in Florida, where officials predict more growth in the years ahead.
One outsized example of the potential? Bobby Cornwell, president and CEO of the Florida Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, based in Tallahassee, says his organization anticipates as many as 3,000 new RV sites opening in Florida in the next two years. Those sites could come online at both new resorts and expanded existing parks.
Florida’s west coast, from Tampa to Naples, is a hotbed of RV activity, Cornwell adds. It’s well populated, has a variety of RV parks to choose from and offers natural benefits that appeal to people, from beaches to a warmer climate than parts north.
Area developers and owners of RV parks are capitalizing on the demand, and RV sales businesses, which have an interconnected relationship with parks, have experienced sales growth.
In 2008, during the recession, Cornwell says Florida saw a big downturn in park construction. Over the last three or four years, he’s seen growth pick up and now, he says, it’s at a peak. Between a good economy, millennials getting into RVing and technology that allows people to work from the road, Cornwell sees more good days ahead for the RV industry. He says, “All of the pieces are just coming together.”
Check out the full article from thebBusiness Observer Florida here!


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Augmented reality isn't just for Pokémon Go. (Though as we all know, I love using it for that.)
My colleague Sara Fischer reports that some of the biggest U.S. social media giants are beginning to roll out ads that feature AR, giving marketers the ability to let users virtually test their goods before buying them.
Why it matters: The technology brings virtual and real world shopping experiences closer together, and would likely shift retail spending further online.
How it works: A user who encounters a digital ad using AR could see what a pair of glasses looks like on their face, or what a rug would look like in their living room, before making a purchase.
- The ads are also digitally targeted to users based on their preferences, increasing the likelihood that they'd be interested in the product to begin with.
Tech giants are pioneering the ad technology because they are already camera-friendly platforms, meaning the major use of their apps is taking pictures of yourself or your space anyway.
- Snapchat was the first company to give advertisers the ability to use AR in their ads. The feature, called "Shoppable AR," allows users to buy things directly from a movable augmented reality image. Brands like Adidas and Clairol have already begun using the feature.
- Facebook soon followed, announcing this week that it is rolling out AR within ads this year on Facebook's News Feed. Michael Kors was the first brand to test the feature. Sephora and others will begin using AR ads on Facebook later this summer.
- By the end of August, Facebook will roll out a "Video Creation Kit" for all advertisers to create AR ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook's Audience Network.
Amazon and Google are using similar technologies to implement AR into their shopping platforms. Given Google's ad dominance and Amazon's push into online advertising, it wouldn't be surprising if they too begin to roll out AR advertising offerings for marketers.
The big picture: Until now, AR has mostly been used in marketing at the "top of the funnel," meaning it helps drive general awareness around brands. By making it possible to buy things through AR, the technology can now be used closer to the "bottom of the funnel," meaning it can push people to actually buy products.
Go deeper: Read Sara's full story here.


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Posted by: Lucas Nolan | Breitbart
May 21, 2022
Researchers have developed a method to run malware on iPhones even when the devices appear to be powered off. The Bluetooth chip in all iPhones has no way to digitally sign or encrypt the firmware it runs, researchers have now developed a method to exploit the lack of security on the chip and run malicious firmware allowing the researchers to track the iPhone’s location or run new features.
Click here for full report


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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. retail group Kingfisher KGF, -2.66% said Tuesday that Peter Jackson, former chief executive of Associated British Foods ABF, -0.95% will replace Francis Mackay as chairman. Jackson will join Kingfisher's board as a non-executive director on Jan. 3 and will take over the chairman's role when Mackay retires at the end of the May 24 annual general meeting.
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Ikea has announced a €1bn investment into forestry, recycling and renewable energy companies.
In its 2016 sustainability report the company said it is currently recycling or incinerating for energy 88.7% of the 560,650 tonnes of waste it produces annually. It aims to push this figure to 90% by mid 2022.
It said the investment comes on top of the €2bn it has already invested in sustainability – €1.5bn of which was spent on wind and solar energy projects since 2009.
Some 61% of wood and 100% of cotton is sourced from sustainable sources and the company has promised to operate 327 wind turbines and install 730,000 solar panels on its buildings.
Currently waste from Ikea stores makes up more than 77% of the total produced by the firm. The group aims to cut this by 10% by 2020.
The company is also aiming to halve the amount of food waste produced in its restaurants and send 90% of this waste to be recycled, composted or used make biogas by 2020.
“In the past choosing sustainable products was often a compromise. They could be quite ugly, seldom worked well and often cost more, said Ikea CEO Peter Agnefjall.
“There are many opportunities ahead for forward-thinking businesses to contribute to, and benefit from, the development of the low-carbon economy.”
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The Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID) has issued a statement welcoming Apple's move to introduce volume-capping software for iPods.
The RNID's Don't Lose the Music Campaign has been warning iPod users that they face hearing problems in later life if they fail to use their music players responsibly. The charity represents nine million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK.
Brian Lamb, director of communications at RNID said: "RNID is delighted that Apple have responded to our Don't Lose the Music Campaign by allowing iPod users to reduce the upper volume limits and we would urge other manufacturers of personal music players to follow suit."
Lamb also asked manufacturers to ensure warnings about the risks of listening to MP3 players too loudly are made more prominent both on and in the packaging of their products.
Angela King, senior audiologist at RNID warns:"There is a danger that long-term use of personal music players at high volume will permanently damage people's hearing."
If you think you may already suffer from some hearing loss the RNID offers a telephone hearing check on 0845 600 5555.
The RNID advises personal-music-player users to take regular breaks from their headphones; to turn the volume down slightly, and to avoid using volume to drown out background noise, such as when on a train.


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The car manufacturer announced on Friday it will be sponsoring the Bay Area Bike Share program's expansion, which will bring a total up 7,000 bikes -- up from 700 -- to the region.
The name of the system -- which is run by bikeshare network startup Motivate -- will change to Ford GoBike. Access to the bikeshare network, such as renting a bike for the day, will be accessible via a Ford app.
"It's going to have a profound impact on how people move around the Bay Area," said Motivate spokeswoman Dani Simons. "This will reach every few blocks in San Francisco, from the bay to the beach."
Simons said it will work closely with Ford on research and development for the bikeshare program, and use the car company's technology to improve the overall experience.
Unlimited rides will be offered for $14.95 a month, while a discounted rate of $5 a month will be offered to low-income residents.
Ford (F) also announced this week it is acquiring Chariot, a shuttle service based in San Francisco. The move is a reminder of Ford's interest in defining itself not as a car company but as a mobility company.
In addition, Ford is investing in multi-modal transportation and autonomous vehicles, as tech and transportation experts forecast huge changes in how we get around cities.


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Beauty magazines regularly offer advice and tips to help consumers avoid smudging their makeup. However, for consumer packaged goods manufacturers (CPG), a smudge is more serious than an unflattering photo that won’t get posted on social media.
Rogers Machinery Co. Inc. introduced its Kobelco KNW Series, which provides ISO 8573.1 Class 0 compressed air quality, resulting in better products at a lower production cost, the company says. Delivered ready to run and designed for 24/7 operations, the oil-free, rotary screw compressors are available in air- or water-cooled configurations.
At Pack Expo in Chicago, A-B-C Packaging Machine Corp. introduced its new 700 series robot palletizers utilizing a Yaskawa robot arm. The 700 series palletizes cases, trays or bags in multiple configurations at speeds as fast as 30 cycles a minute, the company says.
New releases include palletizers, coding technology
December 16, 2016
The shows offered several guidepost destinations, including The Beverage Cooler Lounge, The Materials and Containers Pavilion, The Processing Zone, The Reusable Packaging Pavilion, The Food Safety Summit Resource Center and the largest ever Innovation Stage program, the show producer says.
New innovations in packaging systems, laser marking
December 16, 2016
PDC International Corp. offers a new iteration of its R Series Shrinkbanders that provide labeling and neck banding at line speeds from 400 to 1,000 containers a minute, the company says. Engineered for 24/7 service, with continuous material web flow that doesn’t pause for cutting, R Series machines apply 1- to 3.75-inch diameter bands at heights as high as 2.375 inches with precision and repeatability, it adds.
Trends come and go, a fact that many beverage manufacturers know all too well. Determining which trends will stick can be difficult — especially when it comes to trends within operations. Historically, ink jet coding technology has been the top solution in coding, however, the beverage industry increasingly is embracing laser technology, recognizing that the technology is more than a passing trend, experts say.
Suppliers highlights case packing and sealing, labeling capabilities and much more
November 16, 2015
Reston, Va.-based PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, reported that the 20th anniversary of its Pack Expo Las Vegas tradeshow not only was a milestone event, but it also was a record-breaker.
From high line speeds to condensation, beverage producers operate in a virtually non-stop production cycle that requires up-to-date coding equipment that simultaneously labels, identifies and tracks products – all while keeping pace with ever-changing industry needs.
In the 1983 holiday classic “A Christmas Story,” Ralphie eagerly checks the mail for his decoder pin from the “Little Orphan Annie” radio show only to be disappointed when he finally solves the code and discovers it is nothing more than an advertisement. Although Ralphie’s first coding experience might not have met his expectations, within the consumer packaged goods (CPG) market, coding technology is living up to its reputation.


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Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation uses $100K grant to build grocery store
Residents of Walnut Hills have a two-hour window each week to purchase fresh produce in their neighborhood by way of a mobile food pantry that is open Friday afternoons.
Any other day of week, a drive out of the neighborhood is the only way to stock up on groceries.
When the Walnut Hills Kroger shut its doors in March 2017, the area became a food desert that was particularly hard on senior citizens and low-income families that did not have a way to access the new Corryville Kroger about a mile and a half away.
Gary Dangel, Healthy Outreach Coordinator for the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation and a Walnut Hills resident, said the impact of Kroger’s closing on the community were “inconceivable.”
"It just rips your heart out," he said. "Nobody ever thinks about the consequences. Kroger is doing what Kroger has to do, but there are unseen consequences.”
But things are about to change.
A Community Thrives
The Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation has been a nonprofit corporation working to improve the lives of Walnut Hills residents since 1977. The foundation has been trying to combat the community’s food desert issue for years, sponsoring mobile food pantries and community gardens to support the neighborhood’s need for fresh produce.
In June, the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation received a $100,000 grant from Gannett's A Community Thrives program that will help to open a Peebles Corner Grocery at the site of the closed Kroger.
Gannett is the parent company of The Enquirer.
Elizabeth J. Winters Waite, interim executive director of the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation, is passionate about the project and what it will mean to the people who live in Walnut Hills.
“I moved here in 2015 and fell in love with the people who live here,” Waite said. “This is the friendliest community I’ve ever lived in. I am proud and honored to be holding the paintbrush and I want to make sure that the people in my community are taken care of."
Waite said the project is already underway. Peebles Corner Grocery should be open for business by the end of summer 2019.
What will it look like and who will be served?
The former Kroger site constitutes a building of 33,000 square feet in the center of Walnut Hills, within a five-minute walk to three senior, low-income apartment buildings.
Walnut Hills resident Kathryne Gardette said the neighborhood has been working together to get the most out of the grant.
“The community has come together and has been talking about ‘what do we as a community want to see?’ ” she said.
The grocery-to-be will have things that community members have voiced as important to them: fresh produce from community gardens, meat and dairy from local farms, eggs from local backyard chickens and baked goods from local bakers. These products will be priced affordably, as the project is geared toward helping lower-income consumers in the area.
In its proposal, the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation pushed for more than just a grocery store. The application lists services such as a kitchen with soup and juice-making capability, nutrition education programs and a mobile produce truck that will take groceries to residents who can’t get to the store.
The opening of Peebles Corner Grocery will also bring back a social hub that the community has been missing with the absence of Kroger.
"We had Kroger here forever,” said Tonya Dumas, a Walnut Hills resident of more than 50 years. “I would just be going for one item and it would take me like 30-40 minutes to get out because I’d be running into my childhood friends and people I’ve known since I was a little girl. It was like going to an event opposed to going to the grocery store because you would always see people that you loved."
Tonya said she hopes Peebles Corner Grocery has the same energy.
If you build it, they will come
Dangel and Waite are not in the grocery business and agreed that opening a 33,000-square-foot grocery is a “high bar to achieve.” They also know that a once-a-week, two-hour market is not enough to sustain the people of Walnut Hills.
So, they have developed something in the middle.
“We’re gonna start small with a mini version of everything and do some learning around that of what the neighborhood will support financially,” Dangel said.
The Walnut Hills Development Foundation is used to starting small and growing big. Many of its ideas started with a simple seed but have a great impact on the community.
“Our organization is the only organization in Walnut Hills that wakes up every day thinking about how to make this a better place for everybody,” Waite said.
And she’s proven that to be true.
Waite has grown 14 community gardens since she started volunteering for the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation. When residents started asking about bananas and strawberries and other fruits, she got an idea. Bananas can’t grow in Ohio, but other fruit can.
New seeds were planted.
These fruits and vegetables will be part of the produce sold at Peebles Corner Grocery starting next summer, grown by and for residents of Walnut Hills.
“When you drive into Walnut Hills, it says ‘a diverse neighborhood since 1800,’” Gardette said. “That is true. The diversity of our neighborhood has made it so that we come together to make sure that all of the residents of this community are cared for. This grocery store is one more way that reflects that.”


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With the cost of accommodation doubling in recent times, the static value of vacation vouchers at 5,000 dinars has started to pose a significant challenge for citizens. These vouchers, once a boon for holiday-goers, now offer considerably less purchasing power compared to the past, when accommodation prices were lower. This situation brings to the forefront questions about the effectiveness of these vouchers in facilitating vacations for citizens amidst skyrocketing costs.
Examining the Relevance of Vacation Vouchers
As the prices of accommodations continue to surge, the relevance of vacation vouchers remaining unchanged has come under scrutiny. The unchanged voucher value presents significant hurdles for individuals trying to afford holidays. This situation has prompted an examination of potential alternatives that could assist individuals in managing the rising costs of holidays.
Challenges Posed by Economic Changes
This issue highlights the larger challenge of maintaining the relevance of government assistance programs in the face of economic changes, such as inflation. The rising costs of accommodations and the unchanged value of vacation vouchers is a stark example of this challenge. It underscores the potential need for adjustments in these programs to ensure they continue to serve their intended purpose effectively.
Seeking Sustainable Solutions
As the cost of vacations continues to increase, it becomes imperative to find sustainable solutions that can help citizens afford holidays. Re-evaluating the value of vacation vouchers could be one such solution. By aligning the voucher value with current accommodation prices, the effectiveness of these vouchers can be restored, thereby ensuring that holidays remain accessible for all.


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January 12, 2013 |
The week ahead will keep India Inc and Dalal Street on their toes. Bellwethers like RIL, TCS and ITC will declare their results, which will set the next direction for markets. Investors and analysts will closely watch the management commentary that would accompany with the result which could cause revision in future earnings forecast of the company for the current fiscal and the year ahead. TCS will announce Q3 results on Monday, January 14th. Analysts expect 21 percent rise in net profit and 20 percent jump in sales.
January 7, 2013 |
MUMBAI: Stock markets , which ended at a two-year high last week, after US lawmakers successfully cobbled a deal to avoid a 'fiscal cliff', will take further cues from the earnings season that gets under way with bluechip Infosys declaring its third quarter numbers on Friday. Factory output data for November will also be watched closely but few believe that it will influence RBI in taking a stance on interest rates at its policy meeting on January 29. The Sensex posted a weekly gain of 1.74% last week, closing at 19784.
December 29, 2012 |
MUMBAI: Benchmark indices rose by three-fifth of a percent each amid low volumes and muted activity by institutional investors ahead of the New Year holiday. Markets, according to a few brokers, have also discounted the probability of an eleventh hour solution among US lawmakers to avert the 'fiscal cliff'. The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 0.63%, or 121.04 points, to end at 19,444.84 points, gaining 1.05% for the week, its first gain in three weeks. The broader Nifty also added 0.65%, or 38.25 points, to end at 5,908.35 on Friday.
December 14, 2012 |
NEW DELHI: Karol Bagh's PC Jeweller is riding high on an aggressive expansion plan with the company having recently come out with its initial public offering (IPO) through which it plans to channelize an expected '517 crore and set up more stores across India, establishing itself as a player in the organised jewellery market. "Currently we have 30 stores in 23 cities across north and central India. We intend to open 20 more stores by the financial year 2014 in areas where the market for organised jewellery is untapped.
November 30, 2012 |
MUMBAI: India's long-suffering investors got a boost with the Sensex rising to a 19-month high, but the enthusiasm could remain muted as the rally was partially sparked by technical factors such as rollovers while worries surrounding the country's intractable fiscal and investment problems remain high, experts said. The BSE Sensex rose to 19,170.91 on Thursday, spurting 329 points, or 1.75%, to its highest close since April 2011. It is also the biggest percentage jump in two months.
November 12, 2012 |
MUMBAI: Domestic macroeconomic data, including industrial production and retail inflation, and global developments such as the implementation of a Greek recovery programmed will be key events in the truncated trading week ahead. With key benchmark shares weakening ahead of Diwali, analysts expect few surprises for the market this week. "This will be a week with low volumes and no specific direction in the market," said AK Prabhakar, SVP - research at Anand Rathi Financial. "Indian traders don't tend to sell before Diwali; they either buy or hold on to their positions.
November 7, 2012 |
Mumbai: In contrast to Wall Street , Dalal Street investors are hoping for a successful re-election bid for US president Barack Obama . For one, equity markets always prefer status quo over confusion â€" a win for Mitt Romney could trigger confusion. Secondly, Romney has already announced that if he wins Ben Barnanke, the current chairman of US Federal Reserve , will have to go. This could put the entire Quantitative Easing 3 (QE3) plan into question. QE3 allows bond buying of up to $40 billion per month, which, in turn, ensures liquidity in the global financial system and gives foreign institutional investors (FIIs)
October 19, 2012 |
MUMBAI: Shares of textile companies are finding more takers, as investors believe attractive valuations, weaker rupee and waning exports from China will make them the next big winners on Dalal Street . Though shares of apparel makers and marketers such as Page Industries , Raymond , Arvind , Vardhaman Textiles, and Lovable Lingerie , among others, have already gained 15% to 100% so far this year, investors see scope for...
October 15, 2012 |
MUMBAI: Market participants will closely track the wholesale price inflation indicator for September due on Monday, apart from corporate earnings of heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services and ITC. Traders said negative surprises in corporate earnings could induce a short-term correction in markets. Global events such as a European Union summit later in the week, they added, could also keep investors on edge. Market participants said a lower headline inflation reading after reports of lower retail inflation on Friday (for September)
October 9, 2012 |
MUMBAI: Shares of India's largest real estate company DLF fell nearly 7.24% to Rs 224.25, its highest single-day fall in the past eight months, on allegations that the company paid a member of the Gandhi family a large sum of money in return for business concessions. The shares hit a low of Rs 223.20 before ending slightly firmer, 15% lower than its 52-week high of Rs 261.35 in February this year. Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan , members of India Against Corruuption (IAC)


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Social media was meant to the be holy grail of credit rating and reporting. Being able to leverage data about a user’s online behavior and habits could take credit assessment to a new (and creepy?) level, increasing profitability for both rating agencies and their customers.
However, at the end of February, Facebook announced that it was closing its credit rating and reporting pilot due to regulatory and consumer concerns. This move follows a statement last May from
Yet, as the business model unravels in the U.S., it is picking up in China.
China’s credit scoring and reporting industry is much less developed than in the U.S. or Europe. Although China’s many cities and provinces have credit databases, many user records have little information and banks tend to make rather arbitrary lending decisions. Many consumers and small and medium enterprises find it difficult to get a loan, as the major Chinese banks are incentivized to lend to large companies.
The government recognized this gap and in January 2015, China’s central bank sent out a notice to eight non-banking institutions that they should “prepare for credit information operations”. Dutifully (and potentially recognizing the massive business potential),
Similarly, Tencent is privy to a wealth of customer information. The South China-based company owns WeChat, China’s largest messaging platform. Chinese consumers (and many businesses) live on WeChat. In a study that Kapronasia did with the Disruption House in late 2015, of 1,000 Chinese millennials, all of them used WeChat at least once per day and the vast majority admitted to using it several times per hour. With that much consumer information and data on financial transactions that Tencent can draw from, the company can paint a fairly good picture of what kind of borrower that individual or company is.
Either of these business models would likely fail miserably in the US due to information privacy and protection concerns. And that may be the critical reason why the real innovation around digital credit rating may come out of China and not the West. With an incredible amount of user data at their fingertips and the technology to quickly analyze it, China’s BAT are strongly positioned to be able to completely disrupt China’s credit rating industry. It also helps that the government is pushing them to develop the platforms rather than putting regulation in place.
The jury is still out on how effective this data is. Sesame credit has come under criticism for its attempt to ‘gamify’ credit, which is viewed by many as a private and sensitive subject. Others argue that just because a person has 5,000 contacts on WeChat or is really good at Angry Birds, that’s no indication that they are fiscally responsible.
Fundamentally though, China’s credit rating market is ripe for disruption and we are likely only at the beginning of what could potentially be a massive shift in how companies, both financial and non-financial, assess risk and credit.
And like so many other things in China’s financial industry today, the real innovation won’t come from the banks or regulators, but from China’s big tech companies.


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High gas prices prompted Dutch greenhouse growers to cut production last year, with the total volume of glass-grown vegetables dropping by almost 8% to 1.8 million tonnes, according to new figures from the national statistics office CBS. .
For example, tomato yields fell by 110 million kilograms to 77 million kilograms, while cucumber production fell by 10%. While pepper yields were less affected, eggplant yields increased by nearly 12% of his.
Over the past decade, eggplant production has increased by 40% and paprika grown in Dutch greenhouses by 26%. Nevertheless, eggplant accounts for less than 3% of his production under glass.
Tomato production fell by more than 4% over the same period, but still accounted for more than 36% of the total.
Dutch consumers are facing increasingly high prices for out-of-season fruits and vegetables such as peppers, broccoli and lettuce, with some supermarkets claiming the standard price for cauliflower is €3.50. , broadcaster NOS reported earlier this year.
Rising gas prices have forced greenhouse growers in the country to cut back on crop plantings, and bad weather affecting supplies from Morocco and Spain is impacting availability, said Gerald Van of Bilthoven, Agricultural Auction. Den Acker said.
In total, Dutch greenhouses cover about 5,000 hectares.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2023/04/dutch-growers-produced-fewer-tomatoes-and-cucumbers-last-year/ Dutch growers cut production of tomatoes and cucumbers last year


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Softbank Considering IPO For Wireless Business
SoftBank Group Corp. said on Monday it was considering listing its Japanese wireless business, seeking to raise a reported $18 billion in a move that would accelerate the conglomerate’s transformation into one of the world’s biggest tech investors.
The Japanese company is in discussions over a spin-off Tokyo listing of its domestic telecoms business as billionaire founder Masayoshi Son seeks to boost the technology group’s investment clout.
A spin-off - potentially the biggest IPO by a Japanese company in nearly two decades - would also give the unit more autonomy as well as help investors with valuing the business and its parent.
The parent will sell some 30 percent of SoftBank. It plans to apply to the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the IPO as early as spring, which falls between March and May, and aims to debut the shares in Tokyo and elsewhere, possibly London, around autumn.
SoftBank said in a statement that a listing of the business was one option for its capital strategy, but that no such decision had been made.
The listing would aim to give the mobile-phone unit more autonomy in a group that has become more of an international investment company in recent years, the newspaper said. SoftBank would use the proceeds to invest in growth, such as buying into foreign information-technology companies, the Nikkei said.
SoftBank has been aggressively investing in tech companies worldwide, notably through its $98 billion London-based Vision Fund, saying last month that a group it leads will buy a large number of shares of Uber Technologies in a deal that values the ride-services firm at $48 billion.
SoftBank’s market value currently stands at around $92 billion. By contrast, its near 30 percent stake in Alibaba is worth around $140 billion.
Large companies seeking to list in Tokyo are required to float at least 35 percent of their shares, although these rules can be eased when the company has also listed overseas.
BWorld Finance provides you the latest and most up-to-date news about companies and the market. We provide useful insights about finance and business. Check us out at bworldfinance.com. Also, register an account now with BWorld and start your investment journey.


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INTERNET surfers are being warned not to waste time and money by responding to chain emails.
Durham County Council’s trading standards service says a current chain email unnecessarily warns of an old postal scam.
The email warns that people will receive a card by post telling them a large parcel is waiting for them and if they telephone a costly premium rate number they can arrange delivery.
It also claims that the phone number is based in Belize, that trading standards are investigating and that the email should be passed on to warn others.
But Phillip Holman, the county council’s head of trading standards, said the chain email related to a problem dating back to 2005 and was being re-circulated.
“People should be on their guard for chain emails which serve only to waste their time, can lose them money and take up space on home and business computers,” he said.
Councillor Bob Young, cabinet member for trading standards added: “Our advice to anyone receiving such an email is to focus on what the sender is asking for - for example, money, bank details or for them to call an expensive telephone line.
“Don’t get involved in correspondence - and, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
“Our advice to residents is Think Once, Think Twice, Think Scam and don't be tempted to respond.”
Anyone wanting advice on bogus emails should contact Consumer Direct North East on 08454 040506.


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Oxie Affordable Optical
Oxie Affordable Optical is an independently run optical retail shop in downtown Aurora. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, owner Mia Corriea has been trying to do the best she can in serving her customers under the circumstances. Although eye exams cannot currently take place, Corriea continues to take contact lens orders, offer eyeglass repairs and replacements, and continue to schedule future appointments. One of her greatest challenge is not being able to provide the full service they once gave, particularly with eyeglass fitting. She has implemented curbside pickup, and service is by appointment on weekday mornings. Corriea said she retains her optimism by keeping in mind that eventually things will go back to normal.
Aurora Fastprint, located in downtown Aurora, has been catering to small businesses and customers in the Fox Valley area since 1976. Owner Kim Granholm said she is making every effort to continue to serve and be there for her customers in the safest and most reliable way possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Granholm has made these efforts by shifting the way she conducts business and amping up marketing tactics. She is now focusing on online promotions and marketing efforts, and revving up their Instagram and Facebook interactions.
The office has changed the way they operate by shifting how many employees are in the office at a time. They also offer delivery and curbside pickup. Granholm said they had to be creative, and are now creating COVID-19 signage templates for businesses as well as celebratory yard signage and custom greeting cards. Granholm said that sales have declined, and she had to trim staff and reduce their hours. She and her staff remain upbeat, and customers seem to appreciate and share the hope and positivity.
Altiro Latin Fusion
Altiro Latin Fusion had just opened their location in downtown Aurora a few weeks prior to the stay-at-home order. Since then, owners Roberto and Erika Avila made many changes to how they operate in order to provide their customers safe service while also optimizing the most of their ingredients. One of their efforts includes reducing the number of staff they have in each restaurant in order to provide safe working conditions for their employees. They typically now only have two cooks and two servers at a time working in each of their locations. They have also cut down the items on their menu in order to be efficient with their ingredients.
To provide safe service for their customers they now offer curbside pickup and delivery options. They also offer discounts for hospital staff and first responders. They are thankful for all of the community support right now. Roberto said the biggest challenge is not knowing what is going to happen in the future. And not knowing how things will pick-up after the stay-at home orders are pulled back. Being both optimistic and realistic, Roberto said he has hope that things will go back to normal in the future.
All Spoked Up
All Spoked Up is an independent bicycle shop serving the people of Aurora and the Fox Valley. Knowing the importance of staying active, All Spoked Up offers their customers curbside pickup and outdoor assistance. In order to avoid possibly dangerous interactions, store employees have been catering to their customers by bringing bikes outside the doors of the store at 14 W. Downer Pl., and handing off a new or fixed bicycle. Store manager Jon Schratz said sales have gone up since more people are spending time outdoors and staying active. Schratz said it gives him hope to see so many people outside riding bikes.
Photos by Amy Nelson Photography. Words by Bianca Diaz. Diaz is a student intern from Aurora University. Video by Metea Valley High School student Shreya B.


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Another wagon — or two — bites the dust.
Volvo, the Swedish brand synonymous with the station wagon, is trimming its U.S lineup of those vehicles — a casualty of America's indifference to the body style.
Starting next year, Volvo will quit selling the standard gasoline-powered V60 compact and V90 large wagons.
Volvo sold a mere 366 V60s in the first half of the year, down 11 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, just 153 V90s were delivered in the first six months of 2021, although that was nearly twice as many as a year earlier.
Both models are available via special order only, which made keeping them in the portfolio even harder to justify.


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The LG G7 which was scheduled to get launched at the MWC 2018 in February, is reportedly not going to see the light of the day so soon as the CEO of LG has ordered his employees to start work on the phone again from scratch.
According to a report, the smartphone team working on the development of the new smartphone has been ordered to stop development and to review the product from scratch by the Vice-Chairman and CEO of LG Electronics, Mr. Jo Seong Jin. “Right after the vice chairman made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, a direct order was sent down to the working level officials to start over,” a company official told The Korea Herald.
This re-review of the new smartphone could push the launch date to April. The CEO of LG also recently said that they are going to launch future smartphones “when it is needed” and will not launch it, just because others do it.
As per rumors surrounding the new LG G7 in foreign media, the latest edition is likely to have slimmer bezels than before, while retaining the 18:9 aspect ratio.
Also, the dual-camera setup is speculated to be in front of the handset, with more rumors doing the rounds that one of the cameras may be used for LG’s new iris scanning function. However, reports claim that the iris scanner will not help to lock the phone, but will keep information in the phone safe by locking apps if it finds that the present user of the phone is not the actual owner.
LG is also reportedly planning to rename its latest flagship device. It means the company may discontinue the G series of smartphones. As per the latest reports, the new device could become the first device to come with the new rebranded name.


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Latest News on Samsung
Showing of 6160 - 6170 from 6349 results
Samsung - Total results - 6349
Oct 26, 2007
Samsung Unveils 'Soda-Lime' LCD PanelA new material is on the cards for use in Samsung LCD panels: ordinary window glass!
Oct 23, 2007
Samsung Develops New Flash Memory ChipSamsung has developed an advanced flash memory chip that will allow increased data storage in digital products such as music players.
Oct 22, 2007
Samsung to Release Thinnest LCD PanelSamsung will introduce a 40-inch diagonal Full-HD LCD TV panel that's only 10 mm thick.
Oct 18, 2007
Samsung Launches Another Music PhoneSamsung has launched a new music phone with slide-out speakers, which runs on the Symbian OS.
Oct 04, 2007
Samsung to Cancel Blu-ray PlayerSamsung's Blu-ray offering, the BDP-2400, stands canceled.
Sep 28, 2007
Samsung Launches 'Easy View' Flat TVsSamsung India announced the launch of its new 'Easy View' range of Flat TVs that has especially been developed for the Indian market.
Sep 25, 2007
Samsung-Armani Luxury Mobile UnveiledThe Samsung P520 Armani luxury mobile phone was unveiled in Milan recently.
Sep 15, 2007
Samsung Announces 70-inch LCD in IndiaSamsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd. announced the launch of the largest commercially available full high-definition LCD TV in the Indian market.
Sep 04, 2007
Samsung Launches New 1080p ProjectorSamsung Electronics introduces two home theater projector models at IFA 2007, announcing it's active participation in the projector market.
Sep 04, 2007
Samsung Launches Blu Ray HT systemSamsung Electronics expands its lineup of HD disc players, with the launch of the BD-P1400, BD-P2400 and BD-UP5000, as well as the first Blu-ray Home Theater system.


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WHITEHALL, WIS. – Formerly known as Whitehall Specialties Inc., the Wisconsin-based cheese company now has officially changed its name to Ornua Ingredients North America (OINA), a final step after Irish dairy cooperative Ornua acquired Whitehall in 2021.
Founded in 1994 as Whitehall Specialties, the newly renamed company provides functional analog, plant-based and blended cheese products and cheese solutions to food manufacturing, retail and foodservice customers.
The company’s four advanced production and warehousing facilities – two in Whitehall, Wis., one in Hillsboro, Wis., and one in Slippery Rock, Pa. – now will operate under the Ornua name.
The Wisconsin-based cheese company brings its expertise in developing and manufacturing cheeses, as well as the company’s long-established connections in food manufacturing, retail and foodservice to OINA, which custom formulates and manufactures cheese-based ingredients for food manufacturers and foodservice companies in the United States, Canada and Central and South America.
Before the acquisition, Ornua already had flagship brand Kerrygold, the number-two selling butter brand in the US, and two production facilities, located in Hilbert, Wis., and Byron, Minn.
Ornua acquired Whitehall Specialties Inc. (WSI) from Milwaukee-based private equity firm Mason Wells.
"Whitehall's expertise, product lines and strong industry relationships make it an excellent fit for OINA,” said OINA president Rick Pedersen.
"This acquisition creates a larger global player in the cheese industry,” Pedersen said. “We expect to see a strong growth trajectory as we capitalize on our shared technical expertise and innovation. With our market share and scale of operations increased, OINA has the added capacity and flexibility to support our existing and new customers' growth plans in new and ambitious ways."
With the addition of the 500 Whitehall employees, OINA now had a team of 800 people.
"Our cooperative ethos is at the heart of how Ornua does business," Pedersen siad. "We are focused on developing and supporting our people and recognize that investing in talent underpins our success. Our mission is to create value for our people, customers and farmer shareholders. We call it growth for good."
Irish dairy cooperative Ornua sells products on behalf of its members, Ireland’s dairy processors and dairy farmers. Headquartered in Dublin, it is Ireland’s largest purchaser of Irish dairy products, exporting to 110 countries worldwide, with annualized sales of more than €2.5 billion and a global team of 2,900 employees.


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The Tizen Developer Conference (#TDCSF2014), the world’s largest event focused exclusively on the growing developer ecosystem around the Tizen open source operating system for converged devices, today unveiled key highlights and themes for this year’s conference taking place from June 2-4 at the Hilton San Francisco. TDC 2014 is being hosted and produced by the Tizen Technical Steering Group with the support of a number of ecosystem partners.
Highlights of this year’s event include:
- New Product Profiles and Platform Milestones—Developers attending this year’s event will see product demonstrations and presentations on emerging and established product profiles including a new Tizen SDK release for wearables, Tizen for Smart Televisions, and the new Tizen IVI 3.0.
- The TDC 2014 “Tech Showcase”—A demonstration showcase featuring the latest in commercial Tizen devices, prototypes, reference devices and software demos related to automotive, consumer electronics, wearables, mobile and other “Internet-of-Things” (IoT) related devices.
- Samsung Gear 2 smart watch and Intel® NUC ultra-compact PC giveaways—Every registered attendee that comes to TDC will receive a free Samsung Gear 2 and an Intel NUC ultra-compact PC to celebrate the growth of the Tizen developer and partner ecosystem, and the free and open nature of Tizen.
- Presentations by Mobile and IoT Thought Leaders—This year’s speakers include executives, technology evangelists and experts from Appbackr, Expedia, iControl, Intel, The Linux Foundation, Marmalade, OpenMobile, Samsung and Stanford University discussing application development and technology trends related to automotive, IoT, mobile, wearables and a number of other fast-growing market opportunities.
Application developers, members of the media and analyst community, and other connected device ecosystem stakeholders can register for TDC 2014 here.
About Tizen Developer Conference 2014
The Tizen Developer Conference is an annual event hosted and produced by the Tizen Technical Steering Group. The conference brings together thousands of developers from around the world to learn about the latest commercial devices, device profiles, platform updates and ecosystem milestones. The 2014 event will take place at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square from June 2–4.
Tizen is an open source project managed by the Linux Foundation. The goal of the project is to build and support a cross-architecture, open source software platform that spans across multiple mobile and “Internet of Things” device segments, including smartphone, tablet, Smart TV, wearables, appliances, netbook and in-vehicle infotainment systems. For more information on the Tizen Project, please visit www.tizen.org.


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Is Identity Theft Decreasing?
I was somewhat relieved when I saw a headline the other day proclaiming that a comprehensive study had shown identity theft was in steady decline. After all, no matter how careful you are about shredding, installing firewalls on your home computer or using different passwords, in the end there's little you can do to stop rings of overseas hackers or the loss of a government or company laptop that happens to have the personal information of millions of people on it.
Alas, the study in question, a telephone survey of 5,000 people by Javelin Strategy & Research, and sponsored by Visa, Wells Fargo and CheckFree, has some potential flaws that undermine some of its major conclusions.
To sum up those conclusions:
* 500,000 fewer people said they were victims of identity theft, with 3.7 percent of people saying they were victims in the previous 12 months, compared with 4.7 in 2003.
* Losses due to identity theft fraud are down in the U.S. by an estimated 12 percent compared with last year to $49.3 billion, from $55.7 billion.
* Young adults are at greatest risk of identity fraud because they're less likely to take precautions such as shredding mail or other documents with personal info.
* Lower-income Americans are least likely to be victims of identity fraud, with only 2.8 percent reporting cases, while Americans with incomes of $150,000 per year are the "most likely" to be victimized with 7.3 percent reporting abuses.
Now this last item had me scratching my head. How can a group of people be the "most likely" to be anything if only 7.3 percent of them say so?
There are other issues like this with the report, which in full disclosure, I must say I didn't review in its entirety because it costs $2500 a pop. However, others have taken it to task, just as they did a previous Javelin study that found roughly half of identity theft victims personally knew the perpetrators. The most thorough and convincing dissection of the study and Javelin's other work was done by Chris Hoofnagle of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Here are some bones Chris has to pick with Javelin:
* The new study doesn't take into account "synthetic identity fraud" where identities are created using pieces of many people's personal info. According to ID Analytics, in 2003, 88 percent of fraudulent new accounts were opened using synthetic identities. Only 26 percent of identity fraud losses were attributed to straight up, traditional identity theft.
* Identity theft is not necessarily a crime committed by people you know. Hoofnagle cites a study of 1,037 verified instances of identity theft, which found that 47 percent of imposters stole information from individuals by stealing mail and trash, purse snatching, and stealing information from friends and relatives, while 51 percent of impostors obtained information by stealing it from businesses. Even the Federal Trade Commission took issue with a Wall Street Journal story titled "Culprit is likely friend or relative" that relied on Javelin research, saying it was misleading because 74 percent of people surveyed said they didn't know who had stolen their identity.
* Finally, Chris takes issue with Javelin extrapolating the responses of a minority to the entire population.
Why does any of this matter? The concern among privacy watchdogs seems to be that the report will be taken as proof that businesses are doing an adequate job of protecting consumers' personal info and that the onus is on consumers to do a better job of protecting themselves. Their biggest point is that businesses remain the major source of personal consumer info for identity thieves and no amount of shredding and paid monitoring services can make up for the need to hold companies accountable for data breaches. It's an argument they're likely to make with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is talking about exempting companies from disclosing data breaches so long as they secure data with encryption or other technology.
What do you say? Should businesses be required do more to protect their customers' personal information?
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