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10 things in tech you need to know today
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.
- Thousands of explosive internal Facebook documents were published online in full. Facebook has fought vigorously against the release of the documents, arguing that they presented an unbalanced picture of the company.
- California's attorney general revealed he's investigating Facebook, and says it's not complying with subpoenas. California has been quietly investigating Facebook over privacy issues and its business model for more than a year.
- Facebook admitted to another data leak, saying that up to 100 developers accessed people's data from Groups. In April 2018 Facebook implemented new rules restricting the amount of personal data third parties could access following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but some apps seem to have been unaffected by the new rules.
- Federal prosecutors charged two former Twitter employees with spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia. The criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday alleges that the former employees snooped on the accounts of people who were critical of Saudi Arabia.
- Alphabet's board has launched a probe into the company's handling of sexual misconduct charges, including those made against its top attorney. David Drummond, Alphabet's chief legal officer, had an affair and a child with a subordinate and is accused of having other affairs with women in his department.
- Bill Gates addressed his multiple meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, saying he "I made a mistake in judgment." Gates said he thought affiliating with Epstein would encourage the financier to commit money to global health initiatives, but that the money never materialized.
- Airbnb is rolling out major safety changes following five deaths at a Halloween party last week. Airbnb will now verify all listings and have a 24/7 help line available, among other changes.
- China's biggest ridehailing company Didi will bar female passengers from using its carpooling service after 8 p.m. after two women were murdered. The curfew is part of its relaunch of Hitch, a carpooling app which Didi suspended after the murder of a female passenger in August 2018.
- China will ban gamers under 18 from playing video games after 10 p.m. in order to curb a growing online addiction. Underage gamers will also be restricted to 90 minutes of gameplay on weekdays according to China's General Administration of Press and Publication.
- Airbnb lost a high-stakes vote in Jersey City that will put increased restrictions on short-term rentals. This was a major defeat for Airbnb, which spent more than $4 million campaigning against the increased regulation ahead of the vote and its upcoming IPO.
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FM Logistic has expanded its pharmaceutical logistics platform at Błonie in Poland to increase its capacity to handle products from Polpharma, the largest Polish manufacturer of pharmaceuticals.
The expansion added 7,800 sqm of warehousing space to support Polpharma’s exports as well as domestic distribution. Polpharma has been a customer of FM Logistic’s since 2016. Its pharmaceutical wholesaler is based at the Błonie facility. About 35,000 pallet locations are occupied with its products.
The Błonie warehouse and distribution centre now offers 85,000 sqm of warehousing space, including 57,000 sqm of temperature-controlled space for pharmaceutical products. This makes it one of the largest distribution centres for the pharmaceutical sector in Central Europe.
“We serve close to 30 pharma manufacturers in Błonie and make daily deliveries of pharma products to about 900 recipients, such as hospitals, pharmacies and pharmaceutical wholesalers,” said Paweł Janicki, Senior Business Development Director, pharmaceutical sector, FM Logistic.
FM Logistic obtained Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certification for operations at the Blonie facility in 2020. This is an international quality standard for the distribution of pharmaceuticals.
The warehouse in Błonie is now completed and fully occupied. FM Logistic is planning to serve new pharmaceutical clients from its logistics facility in Wiskitki, between Łódź and Warsaw.

domain: news


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Last month, ARPR surveyed 99 IT and innovation executives from across the U.S. in order to understand how COVID-19 changed tech buyers’ needs and expectations.
What we found was that 63% of respondents said their IT budgets have increased slightly or significantly due to COVID-19. And this same percentage - 63% - of CIOs and CTOs said their companies now make procurement decisions quicker than they did pre-pandemic. Coincidence?
For software marketers - a buyer that has more cash and wants to participate in a shorter sales cycle is nirvana.
What's Causing This Acceleration?
COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation initiatives, bolstering the perception and priority of corporate technology departments. In fact, a recent McKinsey report found that “companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years. And the share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios has accelerated by a shocking seven years.”
Our survey further validated this notion with 75% of respondents reporting that IT and innovation are now viewed as more important to their companies’ futures.
How Should Tech Marketers and PR Pros Adapt to New Buyer Journeys?
With tradeshows cancelled and travel budgets frozen, COVID-19 moved IT buying cycles into purely digital ones, which fueled them to be faster. And this trend isn’t going anywhere. In order to capture this marketplace momentum, tech PR and marketing teams should:
Generate more top-of-funnel content in order to improve SEO and engage buyers in the first phase of their journeys. However, this content shouldn’t just be blogs and whitepapers. PR must be included in the mix, because our survey found that the #2 most preferred method for discovering new tech products is online media articles.
Create a strong lead nurturing program that personalizes content based on buyer interests to move them down the funnel as quickly as their procurement process will let them. Our survey also found that the #1 most preferred method for learning about software products was vendor emails.
Our new data report, ARPR’s 2021 Tech Marketing Report: The Post-Pandemic B2B Sales Environment, also includes results from a survey we conducted among 75 tech sales leaders. Combined, the dual sets of data give a holistic view of how COVID-19 impacted the way corporations buy and sell software - and glimpses of how these behavioral and organizational shifts might persist long after the pandemic is behind us.


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Veils of the Nile dance troupe performs at Potsdam Farmers' Market Sept. 11
Thursday, September 9, 2010 - 5:06 pm
POTSDAM – The Potsdam Farmers’ Market will take on the feel of an exotic Middle Eastern bazaar Saturday, Sept. 11, when the Veils of the Nile dance troupe performs at 10:30 a.m.
The market shopping hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at its new location south of the Main Street parking lot, near the Clarkson Inn and next to Ives Park.It offers seasonal fruits and vegetables, baked goods, maple syrup, local meat, pumpkins, local corn & tomatoes, peaches, apples, flowers, and wine.
For more information, contact 384-4289.


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EMERALD ISLE – TransImpact is launching new software developed to help shippers improve visibility and improve decision-making.
The software is called Parcel Spend Intelligence and it was built in order to analyze the data that feeds into existing logistics systems, present the data analysis into easy-to-understand dashboards, and convert the data into actions.
According to a statement issued by the company, the software features customizable alerts, which can notify a shipper of common issues like incorrect addresses, overmax packaging, or other surcharges assessed by package carriers.
“We’ve been working towards being able to offer shippers a tool this flexible and powerful for a long time,” said Norm Pollock, CTO for the company, which was formerly known as Transportation Impact. “The carrier invoices are complicated, and our team of experts has spent years understanding all of the fields, how they relate, and which are relevant for analysis. By loading the data into our tool, a client gains flexibility to look at data in multiple ways and then take action based on that factual insight.”
The company released its Parcel Spend Intelligence product ahead of the Parcel Forum trade show, which will take place September 14–16, where the company plans to demonstrate the software.
TransImpact now serves more than 1,000 customers and manages more than $1 billion in logistics spend, it noted in a statement. The company was named for the ninth time to the Inc. 5000 list earlier this year, ranking 4,130th, with a three-year growth rate of 72.2%. The company noted in a statement that it first earned a place on the Inc. 5000 list in 2013, when it ranked 547th, and that the designation in 2021 was the ninth consecutive year the company placed on the list of the fastest-growing U.S. firms.
Part of the company’s growth has come through acquisitions. The company acquired MCG Logistics, a global freight and parcel management and consulting company, in August. According to a company statement, its acquisition “deepens TransImpact’s expertise in important industries like consumer products, home products, and healthcare, and expands capabilities in ocean, air, and international logistics.”
The company also acquired supply chain business intelligence platform Vizion360 in January with the goal to “develop an end-to-end supply chain platform for clients navigating an ever-changing shipping environment,” according to a statement.
TransImpact maintains offices in North Carolina, Ohio, and California, and employs more than 170 people.


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In 2018, Donald Trump signed the Farm Bill into law. Among other things, this piece of legislation made legal much of the sale of CBD and hemp, as well as research into this area. – This opens up an array of new potential research, but CBD may have a positive impact on depression and anxiety.
What’s CBD, you ask? First, what it’s not: Marijuana. It is not marijuana. CBD is short for cannabinoid oil, and it became legal to be sold after the 2018 Farm Bill was signed into law.
Specifically, CBD is extracted from hemp plants. It works be manipulating your Endocannibinoid System, a part of your body which regulates a variety of bodily functions, including, potentially, your mood.
Here’s an important point though: While some research has been done, more research is DESPERATELY needed in order to determine CBDs usefulness, effectiveness, proper dosages, long-term impact, etc. At the moment, it is not widely regulated by the FDA, though the FDA has sent out cease and desist letters to some companies which have falsely marketed benefits yet to be proven by research.
Indeed, as of yet, there is no formal regulation when it comes to CBDs marketing or ensuring the quality of ingredients. For example, a 2017 Penn State study surveyed 81 CBD products and found that 70% were mislabeled. As such, if you’re going to purchase CBD, your best bet is to ensure that the label notes it has been independently tested. This means that a product has been evaluated by a 3rd party, and that 3rd party has determined that’s it’s labeling is accurate.
Okay. Enough about the legal disclaimers and warnings. What does the research show?
According to one 2014 study, CBD and Marijuana may show anti-depressant like effects. That finding was replicated in 2018, when a study showed that CBD has “anxiolytic, antipsychotic and neuroprotective properties” and may be useful in fighting a slew of problems, including PTSD and depression.
There’s additional research available, but it does seem clear: There’s opportunity here.
While CBD is not marijuana, and will not get you high like marijuana, some forms of CBD (namely Full Spectrum CBD) do contain trace amounts of marijuana. As such, if you ingest this type of CBD, you may feel some effects. Furthermore, it is possible for Full Spectrum CBD to show up on a drug test – so DON’T TAKE IT if that’s an issue for you.
Furthermore, you should not take any CBD product without consulting with your Doctor or medical professional first. While common side effects of CBD are relatively minor, there can be more problematic impacts for people with Parkinson’s, liver issues, or pregnant/nursing women.
Now that we’ve gotten the warnings out of the way: Is their potential for people with mental illness and CBD? I’d say yes. Anecdotal evidence and some research seems to indicate the potential for relief. Again, more research is needed. Again, don’t do anything without talking to a Doctor or medical professional first. But, yes. More research is now being conducted, this area does prove promising.


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XRP’s price has been oscillating close to the $1-mark for quite some time now. During the August rally, the sixth-ranked alt’s price recorded gains of close to 80%, managing to hit a multi-month high of around $1.3.
However, it was still way lower than its 2018 ATH of $3.3. In fact, the crypto didn’t even make it to its yearly high of $1.96 way back in April. Now, with people from the community starting to attribute the “stablecoin” notion to this alt, can XRP make any significant moves in the last quarter?
U.K’s retail darling
Of late, XRP has seen a jump in retail and institutional adoption. According to a recent report published by eToro, XRP remains the most popular crypto-asset among retail investors in the U.K. It further revealed that U.K-based retail investors preferred XRP over other digital currencies in Q3, with a 4% increase on Q2 and a 105% growth in ownership YoY.
Additionally, XRP’s Supply Distribution by the balance of addresses suggested that the retail crowd has been a major driving force behind the alt’s recent pump as 1-10 coin percent presented the most notable uptick.
Whale accounts also saw steady growth, even though the number wasn’t as significant.
Recently, Ripple joined the Digital Pound Foundation as one of its founding members alongside Accenture, Avalanche, Billon Group, CGI, Electroneum, and Quant. This isn’t Ripple’s first step in the CBDC solution arena either, with the company in a partnership with Bhutan’s central bank to pilot retail, cross-border, and wholesale payment use cases for a digital Ngultrum using its CBDC solution.
While the XRP community expected the news to generate social attention, the same wasn’t seen in the market. In fact, it seemed like such external factors had no major price implications.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place?
XRP’s price has been struggling to break above the $1.2-mark. And, while there have been external developments, the alt has struggled price-wise.
For the last one and a half months, the crypto’s trade volumes and RSI have registered no major upticks. If anything, its trade volumes in the spot market have dwindled.
There has been one piece of positive news, however, with the crypto continuing to maintain a position above its major exponential moving averages ( 20, 50, 100, 200). Especially since the recent Golden Cross (EMA cross), which was expected to shoot up the alt’s price, did nothing much.
This could be due to the market anxiety associated with the SEC v. Ripple Labs case. The SEC’s latest filing to deny Ripple’s motion to seal audio and video transcripts could make Ripple’s case difficult.
Seems like XRP will not break out towards its 2018 ATH just yet. Perhaps, more than anything, it awaits clarity in the shape of a settlement with the SEC or a Ripple-led victory court. However, a push from bulls and a significant boost in trade volumes could pump XRP’s price above the crucial $1.33-resistance in the near term.


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Bitcoin soared nearly 7% last week and was trading above $19,600 —nearly its highest level in nearly three years. The value of Bitcoin has more than doubled in 2020. The gains have been particularly dramatic in the past few weeks, with Bitcoin rising 43% since Nov.1st.And many believe that it may not be long before Bitcoin finally tops the all-time high of just under $20,000, reached in December 2017.
As popular as Bitcoin, ONU keeps rising since it entered the crypto market this year. Have been released on Sep.12th, according the official, ONU’s performance surpassed the expectations. And the price of it in markets now rose to $0.55-implying a 550% increase when comparing its initial offering price at just $0.1. “Higher prices are on the way, since the highest point reached to $0.7 that is increase by a factor of seven,” said Edward Wilson -the Marketing Director of ONU，“and the good news is that the best time to buy is now because the prices on HyperEx LaunchPad are still temptingly low at only $0.3, anyone who joins in can surly enjoy a lot of expected return. And the investment at the moment will unsurprisingly be an unqualified success.”
When asked the reason of ONU’s initial success, Mr. Wilson shared his opinion. Like many other cryptocurrencies, the main reason of the rising is the growing interest and confident in the cryptocurrency builds and the US dollar weakens. At the same time, we have also benefited from companies like PayPal (PYPL) and Square (SQ) who embracing cryptocurrencies as a viable payments options and investments. But what really made ONU exceptional I think is the HyperEx- a powerful exchange platform which ONU based on.
During the last few months, many new products，tools as well as many other resources have been consolidated into this platform. And the social games their team developed for this platform made a blockbuster debut on Southeast Asian market, attracting 2000+ registered users to play at the launch date. More than 20 kinds of game have been offered in HyperEx, and the team are doing their best to satisfy player expectations. As Mr. Wilson explained, this is perhaps the best way to scale their offer and find new players who are willing to join them.
Onboarding (including registration, gameplay, and banking) in HyperEx are easy and understandable. And just like with some casino with good reputation, the products it offers are fair，that can make sure to give players an honest chance to win. This new kind of Crypto Casinos are definitely worth a shot. Currencies such as BCH, ETH and ONU，and even some altcoins are already available to gamble with in HyperEx. What’s more, players can find a generous welcome bonus that is usually worth at least 100 ONU or perhaps even more. The ONU casinos, for example, will make it easy for you find your bearings, enjoy the best selection of games, and generally have a blast. There are all sorts of crypto bonuses too.
Generally speaking, the new products, plentiful games, unique design style make HyperEx different and become the outstanding one. No wonder it has over 60 thousand registered members in Just 3months. Meaning while, there are over 40 thousand holders are trading in the exchange with ONU holders makes up almost half of the total. Also, its gambling membership grew to more than 15 thousand active players. With Christmas is around the corner, HyperEx is doing a special event. ONU Pilots can get up to 8% referral reward from all the leads purchased by their follows. And this fact is applicable to all ONU Pilots – not at any level.
Coronavirus is having a ripple effect on the gambling industry. Though it may be bad news for casino resorts, however-good news for online casinos and betting sites. The betting landscape is changing, and there are many reputable online casinos exist though, many more are still in needed since they can provide a much safer environment than a crowded casino or football stadium. On the whole, the price of ONU looks to further increase. And HyperEx crypto casinos program is now valued more highly by the market.
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BROWNSBURG, Ind. — What used to be a Marsh grocery store in Brownsburg will soon turn into a facility to house a racing team.
HMD Motorsports, the Indy NXT Series team supported by Dale Coyne Racing, has bought the old grocery store with the purpose of making it the team’s new HQ. The store along State Road 136 near Hornaday Road was one of 11 stores that Kroger bought back in 2017, but decided not to keep the store open.
Kroger has owned the building since then letting it sit empty. It’s unclear how much HMD Motorsports paid Kroger for the building.
The sale comes at just the right time for HMD who say they have outgrown their current HQ.
“Now we are at a point where we don’t have room for the cars themselves let alone to work on them and work on our equipment, store everything so we really needed a bigger better space,” said Jody Strutz, assistant team manager with HMD Motorsports.
The team won the Indy Lights Championship with Linus Lundqvist in 2022.
As part of the team’s growth, HMD Motorsports dipped its toe into the waters of IndyCar partnering with Dale Coyne Racing in 2022 to field David Malukas in the NTT IndyCar Series. They once again plan to partner with DCR for 2023 for Malukas’ ride.
In the Indy NXT Series (formerly Indy Lights) HMD will have two young up-and-coming drivers, one of which is Josh Pierson. The other is Ernie Francis, Jr who will drive for the team in a partnership with Force Indy.
Force Indy is an African-American-owned racing team with the goal of giving opportunities to black racing drivers to move up in open-wheel racing.
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Ghanaian gospel singer who doubles up as police officer has revealed to Ghanaians that wearing shinning shoes and clothes is not a brand.
In a recent interview with Arnold of Zylofon FM, he stated that wearing shinning clothes and shoes is not a brand and he has never thought of it before but for the shoes it’s because he dislikes dust and dirt.
“Shinning clothes and shoes is not my brand and I have never put it into consideration before. The shinning shoes I will say it’s because I don’t like dust and dirt on my shoes so I always have cotton in my socks to clean anytime I see dust or dirt on my shoe”, he stated.
SP Kofi Sarpong has released a new single titled Messisah which is available on all online music platforms.


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GATES STATEMENT ON COVID-19
The COVID-19 outbreak is creating global economic impacts: the public markets are spinning, countries are announcing lockdowns and companies cancelling all unnecessary travels and taking cautionary measures. GATES is carefully monitoring the challenges created by COVID-19. Our goal remains to provide the highest quality support to our channel community and partners while keeping everyone safe and adhering to global and local health authorities’ standards and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus in our community. We have therefore initiated the following procedures:
- All GATES Summits being held from 2020 have been postponed and new dates will be announced shortly. If at all any cancellations are necessary, vendors and participation delegates will be informed duly, including virtual options.
- Most of our employees have already adopted to work from home schedules and have limited physical interactions for work. All important client meetings have been moved to other virtual options.
- Non-essential business travel has been suspended and employees advised to also In cases where travel has been restricted, we are using virtual technology to stay connected to our clients.
- Lastly, all our staff and contractors have been advised to maintain cleanliness and social distancing protocols.
GATES stands side by side with our community and clients, ready to help, as we move through this difficult moment together.


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On a standalone basis, Procter & Gamble (P&G) Health company's net profit fell 6.6% to Rs 55.37 crore on a 3.3% rise in net sales to Rs 272.80 crore in Q1 September 2021 over Q1 September 2020.
Milind Thatte, the managing director (MD) of Procter & Gamble Health, has said, "We delivered a strong performance in our first quarter of fiscal 2022 focused on executing our strategies of offering superior brands, driving productivity, increasing reach, and improving awareness. With the country gradually easing restrictions further due to improved vaccination coverage, we will continue our strategy to leverage technology and deliver constructive disruption to better serve our consumers and customers who count on our brands and the benefits they provide."
"While the pandemic remains, so does our commitment to step up as a #forceforgood and a #forceforgrowth guided by our three core principles; protecting the health and safety of our employees and partners, ensuring uninterrupted supplies of our quality and affordable products, and supporting communities and relief efforts through our flagship CSR program 'SEHAT' (meaning Health)," he further added.
Shares of Procter & Gamble (P&G) Health lost 0.39% at Rs 5,380 on BSE. P&G Health is one of India's largest VMS Companies manufacturing and marketing over-the-counter vitamins, minerals, and supplements products, including Neurobion, Livogen, SevenSeas, Evion, Polybion and Nasivion.
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One of India’s cargo industry’s most pressing problems are infrastructural deficits. Many warehouses and handling facilities look shabby and are equipped with obsolete technique, unable
to meet international productivity standards.
Are things starting to change? So it seems because airports are opening their gates, letting a fresh breeze in.
If one goes by the projected demand of 6.5 million tons of air cargo by 2025, then the existing handling capacity of nearly 6 million tons will soon be far too little.
Is there additional capacity being planned or built? - Yes, airports such as Delhi are the forefront of cargo capacity development. They recently inaugurated the cargo agent’s terminal - a modern 50,000 square foot warehouse which is leased to various players and situated close to the cargo terminal. But others have to follow suit, and fast.
Indian carriers, especially Air India, are not benefitting much from the air cargo supply chain as most of the airlines flying export out and import into the country are foreign carriers. This simply because India has no own freighter airline and not enough long-haul belly capacity to be part of the game. Whether this will change remains to be seen.
Lack of strategic policy
The government is too involved in transactions related to decision making processes, rather than looking at strategic policy areas such as determining the ratio of airport space devoted to cargo infrastructure as well as creation of a mandatory competitive policy for cargo and ground handling that will bring efficiency and cost effectiveness. This should be uniformly followed up upon by airports in India as done in the European Union in order to determine the maximum return on investment by cargo facility developers, handlers and other parties.
New air cargo policy
A week or so ago India’s Civil Aviation Minister, Suresh Prabhu, was stated in the local press as saying that “we are trying to make a policy for air cargo so that the aviation market can grow, which in turn, will boost the economy of the country.”
The above statement was made at this year’s Global Aviation Summit Conference which was held in Mumbai. At the conference the Indian government unveiled their new air cargo policy which they say is aimed at placing India among the top five air freight markets by 2025.
Eyeing air cargo hubs
The 38-page document which makes interesting reading lists around twelve main topics to be acted upon in the future. These range from infrastructure, security, technology, and market strategy to human capital and performance factors.
The paper goes even further by assuming that over the coming six years they will create efficient air transport shipment hubs at all of India’s most important airports. There is also an interesting paragraph in the new policy statement which say that the government will encourage interline and code share agreements between Indian and foreign carriers. The question remains as to which Indian carrier should be up front in such a move?
International air cargo shipments continue to grow in India. Last year showed an almost 16% rise compared to 2017 and domestic freight moved increased by 8%.
The new air cargo policy document is well put together, but can the government policy strengthen air cargo growth and if so, where will the growth come from? A past study indicates that India’s air cargo volume is less than 0,5% of the total export and import freight while in terms of value it was less than 25% against the global average of 1,5% and 35%.
This points out two factors:
India has a potential to grow more - but can it?
The question arises as to whether India manufactures enough cargo which should be moved by air. Although a manufacturing country, its export record is quite patchy. Furthermore, it is producing many low-cost products. Pharma is currently the main commodity, but for various reasons the transport is moving more and more to ocean freight.
India doesn’t have an import cargo policy
How can they then attract more import cargo into the country? There is a large consumer market hungry for various international products and brands. The potential for import by air has not attracted the attention of the policy planners and so India does not encourage import cargo enough. Is this because studies have shown that import cargo into India ends up in huge costs compared to other global airports? Whilst many other airports have virtually zero tariffs for terminal handling if cargo is moved out within 7 hours of arrival, in India it costs around INR 10 (US$0,15) per kilo after the initial three-day free period. This might seem normal, but fact is that much cargo is not released or picked up for many days.
Another negative factor are the cargo delivery charges levied by the airlines. This, many say, is one of the main reasons why importing by air is not an attractive proposition for many companies. This has to change if air cargo volumes are to increase in India.
Cyclic patters need to be levelled out
Secondly, India’s air cargo has always followed a cyclic pattern - 3 to 4 years of growth followed by 3 to 4 years of recession. It makes it very difficult to plan and estimate return on investment in new infrastructures on a long-term basis when such a cyclic pattern were to continue.
There is some positive news in that various initiatives aimed at making processes simpler and ensuring that cargo moves faster are slowly bearing fruit. For example. customs coordination and processes between the various agencies involved in the clearance of cargo have improved somewhat.
However, there’s still much to be achieved if India’s airports are to become really competitive and meet users and consumers demands.
John Mc Donagh


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Look down at your feet. Your shoes might seem innocuous, but they contain lots of forms of plastic, and often leather, giving them their own sizeable carbon footprint. As all companies try to limit their plastic use, shoe manufacturers are trying to design new shoes with lower embedded emissions.
Canadian shoe company Native Shoes is doing it by making a shoe that’s entirely biodegradable because every component is made from plant material. They’re new, appropriately named Plant Shoe is made entirely from durable and natural fibers, including pineapple husk for the toe and tread made from the fibrous vegetable jute, soaked in olive oil. With this new development, Native wants to push the conversation around what’s possible in creating sustainable footwear.
Numerous other brands, like Allbirds and Everlane, have pioneered sneaker-manufacturing tactics that are more sustainable than the traditional leather and rubber combination that’s known to be environmentally intensive. Everlane, for instance, sources recycled plastic bottles to make its sneakers, and Allbirds uses innovative eucalyptus fibers and sugarcane to form its classic runners. A new Adidas concept shoe can be shredded and fully recycled into a whole new shoe.
All these sneakers are impressive, but what makes the Plant Shoe so cool is that when it eventually wears down, it can be tossed in the compost bin, where, once they’re exposed to bacteria and natural composting agents, they will start to break down in around 45 days. And because the whole thing is made with no chemicals or synthetic additives, it won’t harm the planet as it does so.


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IPL 2018: Star India aims to reach 700 mn viewers
Broadcasting major Star India is expecting a viewership of 700 million across TV and digital platforms during the upcoming season of IPL T20 as it has plans to telecast matches live in six languages besides its OTT platform Hotstar, said a top official.
The company also has plans to monetise advertisement revenue by involving more and more regional brands.
It is expecting the new channels to open a new revenue stream, which in turn would also help small regional companies to be associated with the live IPL broadcasting.
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"The strategy is democratisation by making availability of IPL to every brand in this country. You can be only brand in Tamil Nadu and come on IPL or be a national brand on IPL.
You can put your money only on Hotstar and digital or you can put only on TV in Hindi on IPL," Star India Managing Director Sanjay Gupta told reporters here.
The regional languages, in which Star would beam the IPL matches include Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali besides the regular Hindi and English.
"We already have star sports Tamil, which is a new channel. In Telegu, Kannada and Bengali, we are evaluating the options that whether it would be a new channel or the current one, that's a call to be taken but there would be six new unique channels which would carry IPL this year," he said.
According to him, till now up to 50 brands could participate in this, but now it would provide a much larger platform because Star wants to make it as a big platform for the viewers and advertisers.
"It would be now available to a larger number of brands because IPL also needs more brands to participate. Today, it is very limited and only 30 to 50 brands participate," Gupta said, adding that more brands need to come "which would pave the way for future monetisation".
On being asked as how many brands would come with Star on IPL, Gupta said: "We don't know. We would know only at the end of year but our attempt would be to multiply the number." STAR India has bagged the broadcast and digital rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next five years for a whopping bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore.
On revenue expectations, Gupta said: "Our real focus is to get 700 million fans. Revenues would come but the focus on revenue would be after the first year."
According to him, the advertisement rates would be different for the channels from the main one, depending on their reach.
"Each channel depending on its reach and other things, the rates get decided. There are different rates for different thing as Star Vijay rates would be different from STAR plus," Gupta said.
Furthermore, Star India will stream Vivo IPL on Hotstar in Virtual Reality, which would be probably first time in the sports broadcasting in India.
"This immersive VR experience will make it possible for fans to come closer to the high-octane matches within the comfort of their homes. Moreover, viewers will also be able to select camera angles and commentary language of their choice, offering further customisation," the company said.
(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)


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A Chinese-made smartwatch designed to keep children safe is leaking the location of over 5,000 kids – and is still on sale today.
The SMA M2 smartwatch is a GPS tracker for kids that enables parents to keep tabs on their location and even have two-way conversations. However, it seems a security flaw means that it’s not just parents able to check in on the location of their children, reports ZDNet.
AV-Test, which has spent two years testing the security of smartwatches aimed at children, was able to find the location of a huge number of wearers, and identify 10,000 parent accounts.
The team was able to use a publicly accessible API to access and cycle through web IDs, which is the same access used by the smartwatch’s web app that parents use to check the location of their children.
The API revealed location, the device type and SIM card and EMEI numbers of the parents’ smartphone.
And if you didn’t think that was quite dark enough, once a would-be attacked used the API to pair their device with the children’s watch, they could track the child on a map and even start a voice chat with the watch itself.
"The Chinese SMA-WATCH-M2 tops the security failures of other manufacturers by far," said Maik Morgenstern, CEO and the Technical Director of AV-TEST.
Most of the devices were being worn in central and western European countries such as Poland, Turkey, Germany, Spain, and Belgium.
At the time of writing the SMA Smartwatch M2 was still widely available on online retailers.
How we test


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In response to the charge by Greenpeace that the company does not make enough effort to use clean energy to power its data centers, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said the environmental advocacy organization based its conclusions on inaccurate data and false assumptions.
“However Greenpeace’s report, Clicking Green,' misses the mark by using false assumptions on AWS operations and inaccurate data on AWS energy consumption,” Amazon representatives wrote in an emailed statement. “We provided this feedback to Greenpeace prior to publishing their report.”
But Greenpeace spokesman David Pomerantz said this was not true. When the organization's researchers showed their energy use figures to Amazon representatives, they said the figures were wrong but refused to provide the correct ones.
The only facility Amazon did offer some specific numbers for was a data center in Ireland. The company said half of the energy powering the facility was renewable and 22% of it came from coal-fueled power plants.
Amazon refused, however, to explain exactly how it had achieved this energy mix for its Ireland data center, Pomerantz said. Without being able to check the figures, Greenpeace went with publicly available data from the Irish national grid, which is what it usually does when it cannot get specific energy use from a company.
In the report on renewable energy use and advocacy by a number of major US-based data center operators, released Wednesday, Greenpeace said Amazon was “among the dirtiest and least transparent companies in the sector, far behind its major competitors, with zero reporting of its energy or environmental footprint to any source or stakeholder.”
The report named Twitter as an offender along similar lines as Amazon.
While shaming Twitter and Amazon, Greenpeace praised Apple and Facebook for being more forthcoming about the energy their data centers use. Both companies have become more transparent and active in procuring renewable energy compared to five years ago, when Greenpeace started its campaign to pursue major data center operators to use their energy buying power to pressure utilities to clean up the fuel mix of the US electrical grid.
The latest report also commended Google for continuing to invest a lot of money into renewable energy development projects in areas close to its data centers and highlighted Facebook's decision to locate a data center in Iowa, which drove “the largest purchase of wind turbines in the world.”
Greenpeace flew its thermal airship over a portion of the rush hour commute on Highway 101 from San Francisco to the Silicon Valley Thursday morning, carrying Apple, Facebook and Google logos on one side and a sign asking “Who's next to go green?” on the other.
Duke Energy, the country's largest utility, recently added the option to buy renewable energy directly for customers in North Carolina. Gary Cook, senior policy analyst at Greenpeace and a chief author of the report, attributed this development directly to the efforts of Apple, Facebook and Google, all three of which have build massive data centers in the state.
“You have three big operators with renewable energy commitments,” Cook said. “Duke has made a point of trying to recruit them.”
In its comments on the report, Amazon said it was working with utilities on renewable options. Pomerantz said that was “exciting to hear” but unfortunately, details on the world's largest public cloud service provider's efforts in that regard were unavailable.
“We'd love to hear how Amazon's doing that, where, and with which power providers – those are the kinds of details that Apple, Facebook and Google have provided publicly which have allowed them to earn high praise, from Greenpeace and many others,” Pomerantz said. “Unfortunately, Amazon has yet to do the same.”
Amazon also pointed out that its data centers in Oregon, one that served typical AWS traffic and one built specifically to serve government agencies, both used “100% carbon-free power.”
Pomerantz acknowledged that Amazon was getting power from hydroelectric plants in Oregon, which is carbon-free. It has been growing so fast there, however, that its power provider, Umatilla Electric Cooperative has been lobbying the state to ease utility renewable energy portfolio requirements there, he added.
“If Amazon were acting responsibly, it would partner with its utility to bring more wind and solar to its energy grid, not less.”
We have asked Amazon to provide more details about the points it made in its official statement about Greenpeace's report but have not received a response.


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THE FUTURE IS NOW
First there was inclusion of video in the iTunes music store, an now, with Friday’s announcement by Google, is the new Google Video Store, currently online in a beta version. For those slow to the party, here’s a good Los Angeles Times piece by Chris Gaither explaining Google’s approach, which allows producers to upload their own videos and set their own price for downloads and decide whether or not to allow copy-protection. (The copy-protected works on the site use Google’s proprietary technology and are annoyingly not transferable to video iPods.) Google is launching the service with 5,000 titles, including films distributed by our friends at GreenCine.
One savvy early adopter of the Google service is Ben Rekhi, producer of the film Bomb the System and director of the L.A.-set disaster pic Waterborne (pictured), which we’ve covered previously in Mary Glucksman’s In Focus column. Rekhi is streaming the film for free on Google for this first week of the service and then will be selling a downloadable version for $4.99 that is DVD-burnable.


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The Lucky Motor Corporation (LMC) has reduced the prices of all models of KIA vehicles after Pakistani currency appreciated against the US dollar.
The automaker announced the cut in price in a press release, saying it ranges between Rs100,000 to Rs500,000. The new prices will take effect from today.
Its Sorento variants – 3.5L FWD, 2.4L AWD, and 2.4FWD – saw the biggest cut of Rs500,000 each in the latest price review. The new prices of these are Rs11.29 million, Rs11.2 million, and Rs10.3 million, respectively.
However, it may be noted that the company has reduced prices of its KIA cars only on the full payment option.
Other KIA models that have witnessed reduction include Sportage (Black Limited Edition) of Rs350,000, Sportage AWD/FWD Rs150,000, and Picanto AT Rs100,000.
The new prices will be effective from October 6, 2023.
“New/additional duties and taxes, if any, imposed by the government and applicable at the time of delivery will be borne by the customer,” the company said.
The auto industry in Pakistan heavily relies on imports, and car prices have seen a significant increase over several months due to rupee’s record depreciation against the dollar.


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While it was not quite as early a start on Tuesday, I was still up by 7 a.m. to have some breakfast and do a fairly large amount of work before the day really got going.
Since all of the booths were not quite finished being assembled yesterday when I stopped by, I decided that today would be the day to spend the time visiting the trade show floor and see what was new and interesting. As I mentioned yesterday, the trade show features more than 180 vendors this year, with everything from humidor makers to rum and alcohol companies and clothing vendors, all of whom are crowded into a fairly small area over two separate floors. The first time I saw it, I was a bit taken aback at just how small the show is considering how popular the Habanos Festival is, but Habanos S.A. does a good job of getting as many booths into as small a space as possible and it actually took me a significant portion of the day to see every booth.
As has been my custom, my first stop was to the official Habanos S.A. booth, which is filled with the new cigars that are debuting at the show. One of the most anticipated is the Cohiba Robusto Reserva Cosecha 2014, which was officially released at an event that I attended last night. Using tobacco that is aged at least five years, the Cohiba Robusto Reserva is a 4 7/8 x 50 robusto and will be packaged in boxes of 20 with only 5,000 boxes produced when it ships to retailers.
However, positioned right up front and impossible to miss is the brand new Romeo y Julieta Grand Churchills. Partially wrapped in gold foil, the measures 7 1/2 x 56 and is packaged in 100-count humidors made by Elie Bleu.
Moving on around the booth, I noticed some open boxes of the new Hoyo de Monterrey Le Hoyo de Rio Seco, a 5 1/2 x 56 vitola packed in boxes of 25 that will be a regular production release when it ships.
In addition, Habanas was showing off one of the three Edición Limitadas for this year, the Bolívar Soberanos Edición Limitada 2018. Coming in at 5 1/2 x 54, the Soberanos is packaged 25-count boxes.
There are also two new vitolas in the Partagás Maduro line that will join the previously released Partagás Maduro No. 1: the Partagás Maduro No. 2 (4 3/4 x 55 pirámides) and the Partagás Maduro No. 3 (5 3/4 x 50), both of which will be sold in boxes of 25.
After finishing there, I moved on to a humidor maker, who produces custom humidors that are truly works of art. The one that caught my eye immediately was a square made to look like a version of the Monopoly game with the center cut out and with a statue of a rat installed in its place.
I then moved on to the Havana Club booth, where the rum company was showing off its newest release, the Tributo 2018. This is the third time that Havana Club has debuted a Tributo blend at the festival and the newest release was crafted by master blender Asbel Morales from rums drawn from 60-year-old casks. In addition, this is the first time that one of Havana Club’s rums has been partially aged in barrels that previously held “smoky whisky casks.” Coming in at 40 percent ABV, the release is limited to just 2,500 bottles and will be shipped to 21 markets around the world priced at €400 ($487.50) each.
From there, I stopped by the adorini booth, where the company was showing off its new Cigar Cabinet Trolley Humidor, which gets its name due to the fact that it is the same size as some examples of actual airplane carts. In fact, the cart features three separate storage areas, all of which are humidified by the company’s Cigar Heaven electronic humidification, while the interior also features integrated lighting. Finally, the exterior of each Cigar Cabinet Trolley is covered in actual Cuban cigar boxes, all of which will be different for each humidor.
Finally, I made it back to the front of the room, where workers had just finished putting together a massive humidor that was produced to commemorate not only the 20th anniversary of the Festival del Habano, but also the 20th anniversary of HumidifGroup, a humidification company.
The humidor includes a number of different Cuban marcas, all of which include a special 20th anniversary secondary band.
Having finished walking around the trade show, for the time being, I decided to try and find the International Habanosommelier competition, which was supposedly having its preliminary rounds taking place all day. Unfortunately, when I visited the location that it was supposed to be at all day, there was no one there and the six people I asked at various locations around the room could give me no definitive answer on where they went, other than a local man who laughed, shrugged and said, “That’s Cuba!”
Knowing that the Habanosommelier competition would be going on all week and realizing it was getting late, I took a cab back to the villa where I uploaded some photographs and did some work before going out to dinner and turning in early to get some sleep before the next day’s activities.


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LAKE MARY, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jeunesse Global is pleased to announce that its ready-to-drink Alōmūn™ product has been shortlisted for Best New Wellness Product in the 20th annual Pure Beauty London Awards.
Nearly 600 products were submitted for consideration by the judging panel, which was tasked with discovering the most innovative beauty and wellness products launched in the UK in the past 12 months. A wide spectrum of entries was garnered from brands big and small and from niche to mass market distribution.
The complete list of finalists was announced in the September issue of Pure Beauty magazine. Winners will be selected by Pure Beauty readers and will be revealed live during an awards ceremony in London on October 28. Voting is open through September 25. Vote for Alōmūn for Best New Wellness Product here.
“We are honored that Alōmūn has been shortlisted for Best New Wellness Product,” said Jeunesse Chief Visionary Officer Scott Lewis. “We take pride in always striving to create award-winning products that help our Customers and Distributors around the world look and feel their best, and we are pleased that one of our latest youth enhancement products has garnered recognition in this coveted awards program.”
Alōmūn is formulated with 95% aloe gel which is sourced from the Dominican Republic, sensibly farmed, efficiently harvested for freshness, and considered to be some of the world’s best aloe. The proprietary formula also contains Spanish honey, royal jelly and a splash of lemon juice, and was created without the use of artificial flavors or colors. Alōmūn is available in award-winning 1-litre (33.8 fl. oz.) earth-friendly packaging that provides convenience and functionality while leaving a smaller carbon footprint.
Jeunesse is a global direct selling company with a mission to positively impact the world by helping people look and feel young while empowering them to unleash their potential. The company’s exclusive skin care and nutritional products form a comprehensive Y.E.S. Youth Enhancement System™. With multilingual customer service, a back office network and a global enrollment system, Jeunesse utilizes a cutting-edge, global platform to share innovative products, training, and support through more than 34 fully operational offices to markets in more than 145 countries. Learn more at JeunesseGlobal.com.


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Good Energy has seen its gross profit increase by 19.4% during the first six months of 2021, growing to £17.7 million.
This is up from £14.8 million in June 2020, with a gross profit margin of 25.9% in comparison with last year’s 22%. The company’s underlying operating margin also increased to 8.7%, up from 2.3% in June 2020.
Underlying profit before tax grew to £3.9 million, back from a loss of £0.5 million in the first half of 3030. Reported profit before tax was also up, growing to £4.8 million, including non-underlying income of £0.8 million from generation debt restructuring.
This lead to underlying basic earnings per share increasing to 16.4p, with reported earnings per share at 20.5p, up from a loss in June 2020 of 6.6p per share.
Net debt decreased to £36.4 million during the first half of the year, down slightly from last year’s £36.5 million. The company has a gross cash balance of £9 million, less than half of that in June 2020, which includes the repayment of 70% of the Good Energy Bond II in June for £11.9 million.
Good Energy’s strong results have been driven by underlying business growth, which has helped to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. This includes overall customer numbers growing by 1.2% to 274,600, broken down into a 2.6% increase in business customers to 142,900 while domestic customers decreased by 0.3% to 131,700.
“Growth in revenue, profit and customer numbers has underpinned the delivery of key strategic milestones,” said Nigel Pocklington, CEO of Good Energy.
“Good Energy Group is a modern, digital energy company. Our core supply and feed-in tariff business continues to grow whilst we now provide tech-driven, digital products and services in the electric vehicle and ‘energy-as-a-service’ space.”
Today’s half year results point to a number of strategic milestones reached by the supplier, including moving its B2B supply business onto energy software supplier ENSEK’s Ignition platform in 2020 and launching a new EV tariff, offering two overnight off-peak periods to charge at a cheaper rate in July 2020.
Good Energy’s subsidiary Zap-Map also continued to grow, with over 250,000 resgistered users and over 95% of public charging points in the UK now on its network. It has announced partnerships with further charge point users in recent months including GeniePoint, char.gy, Motor Fuel Group, Revive and Mer.
“I believe that this is an exciting time for the group to capitalise on the growing awareness of genuine green products and increasing adoption of EVs,” added Pocklington. “We are ideally positioned to benefit from this trend, through our investment in Zap–Map, the UK’s leading EV mapping service, and our own EV products and services.”
In July, competitor Ecotricity made a bid for Good Energy, issuing an offer of 340p per share for the entire issue of its share capital. The company’s board has repeatedly criticised the “highly opportunistic and hostile offer”, arguing that it undervalues Good Energy.


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Like several other companies in Colombia, Khiron (TSX.V: KHRNF) cultivates and processes cannabis at its agricultural facilities in Ibagué, Tolima. But Khiron takes the unique approach of launching and operating a chain of integrative medical clinics under its Zerenia brand,...
In July, 5 companies will begin 5G network trials in the Colombian cities of Medellín, Bogotá, Tolú, Barrancabermeja, and Cali. Meanwhile the country announced a strategy to move consumers at least to 4G and dismantle the aged 2G mobile telecommunications network.
A post-Brexit trade deal between Colombia and the United Kingdom was approved by Colombia’s congress in its first debate. The bill seeks to maintain trade integration, market access and commercial relationship between the two Atlantic countries.
The Colombian government continues to arrange humanitarian flights to repatriate its citizens stranded abroad. To participate, Colombians must have previously registered with their respective Colombian Consulates to qualify for these flights, and must pay the ticket cost.


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Consumer finance growth slows
Figures from the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) showed new business in December 2017 increased by 1% compared with the same month in 2016.
Retail store and online credit new business increased by 9% over the year. Second charge mortgages, new business increased 14% by value and 10% by volume over the same period. However, this too was slowing towards the end of the year, growing by just 1% in December.
The weakening of growth will be welcome by the Bank of England, which had been worried about the level of consumer borrowing. It was a key factor in its decision to raise interest rates in November last year.
Geraldine Kilkelly, head of research and chief economist at the FLA, said: “Growth in retail store and online credit new business in the final quarter of 2017 was consistent with the seasonal pick-up in retail sales.
“The overall performance of the consumer finance market in 2017 was in line with expectations. We expect the market to continue to report modest single-digit growth in 2018 as a whole.”


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A study by research organisation Vanson Bourne reveals that 89 per cent of retailers believe mobile commerce will soon be as popular as e-commerce.
However, 16 per cent of the 100 retailers surveyed report not currently having a mobile strategy, with almost a third having no plans to implement one at all.
The majority (59 per cent) of the 1,000 consumers surveyed in the study cite convenience as the reason for using mobile payments. Of those who prefer other means, security concerns (39 per cent) remain a key reason why they don’t want to pay by mobile.
Mark Blowers, practice leader at independent technology analyst Ovum, says, ‘As customer experience differentiation grows more important in the competitive retail environment, retailers should look at mobile, not only as a sales channel but also as a vital tool for customer interaction in a complete multichannel retail operation.
‘When developing mobile application strategies, retailers must not think of mobile as a silo but, from the outset, integrate the channel into the existing operation.’


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CPG Industry: Prepping For What's Ahead In 2022
By Wei Lin Wong, President – Global Retail & Strategy, IRI
Nearly two years into the pandemic, retailers still are adjusting to a greatly changed retail environment. Since March 2020, savvy retailers have accelerated development and deployment of e-commerce, such as click-and-collect, adjusted their share of marketing spend to reflect where consumers are learning about products and shopping strategies and identified the sweet spot between “back to basics” fundamental best practices and innovation. With the new year, old problems remain, including supply chain uncertainty, labor shortages and consumer mobility, along with new ones, such as the specter of re-emerging inflation.
Management best practices that have served retailers well in strong economies and the pandemic will continue to serve them well as they address the challenges of 2022 and convert these into opportunities to gain revenue, market share and shopper loyalty.
Convenience is not going away anytime soon
At-home consumer packaged goods (CPG) consumption is not expected to decrease in 2022. However, on-the-go and away-from-home will see an uptick compared to 2021. Retailers and manufacturers can latch onto this trend by evolving their footprint and portfolio to offer products that meet consumers' wellness and convenience priorities with more both convenient and eco-friendly packaging, as well as taste exploration.
Consumers will seek value in an inflationary environment
Despite seeing accelerated buying of premium products during the pandemic, the end of 2021 saw signs of a slowdown in purchases as inflation reached higher levels. Retailers can expect to achieve revenue growth in 2022 through price versus volume increases and will see more strategic premium purchases as consumers trade down to cost-friendly products, such as private label and opt to shop at value channels and retailers. Consider leveraging assortment to drive growth across mainstream, value and private channels and brands to appeal to a broader group of consumers.
Continued investment in digital will remain a top priority
The pandemic helped significantly speed up retail's digital offerings, but if you are thinking about hitting the brake pedal, don't! Continued investment in digital, including speed of delivery and consumer experience, will help drive incremental share gains for both edible and nonedible options. IRI expects to see already heavy digital users increase their usage, particularly in grocery delivery and pickup. Nonedible categories suited for shipment, such as shelf-stable foods and non-bulky items, will continue to capture consumers' attention. Savvy retailers should take the opportunity to drive more impulse purchases via third-party delivery apps as well as in-store as traffic increases.
Combining data, intelligence, experimentation and measurement will help retailers create a winning 2022.
By Wei Lin Wong, President – Global Retail & Strategy, IRI
Supply chain challenges may actually make retailers stronger going forward
Optimizing the supply chain is challenging for retailers, even in the best of times. Every retailer knows the negative impact of out of stocks – lost sales, lost market share, lost shoppers. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many retailers’ supply chains to shape shift. But innovative retailers have fought back. They are leveraging sales, causal and econometric data to feed automated demand forecasting, pricing and assortment and related analytics to identify even subtle trends, changes in consumer needs, product preferences and innovation opportunities. Other breakthroughs include strategies such as demand engineered clustering, which consists of grouping stores based on actual purchase behavior. Each cluster collaborates and improves efficiencies to better guide localized category strategy development for planogram creation and promotions. As a result of applying new technologies and innovations, retailers’ supply chain execution may actually be stronger at the end of the pandemic than before.
Strategies to get ahead, and stay there
In periods of disruption, several strategies can serve retailers effectively to address challenges and create new levels of success for their businesses. These strategies begin with obtaining the best intelligence available, leveraging data to drive decision-making, and reminding ourselves we have two ears and just one mouth. Continuous experimentation adds to that intelligence with the goal of rapid-cycle learning and remembering to “fail fast” when an experiment comes up short in achieving desired goals. An important area for experimentation is in e-commerce. Many shoppers are still determining whether and how to incorporate e-commerce into their shopping behaviors; retailers have an opportunity to educate and guide them.
Lastly and importantly, innovative retailers will ensure robust measurement practices are in place for all aspects of their businesses, from planograms and store layouts to advertising campaigns. The “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” adage has never been truer. Combining data, intelligence, experimentation and measurement will help retailers create a winning 2022.
Wei Lin Wong, President – Global Retail & Strategy, IRI
As president of Retail and Strategy, Wei Lin Wong is responsible for leading IRI's global retail commercial teams, including overseeing IRI's innovative retail collaboration solutions, engagements with key retail clients, and developing next-generation retail solutions to bring to market to better serve retailers. In his role as president of Strategy, he is responsible for executing key strategic priorities for IRI across the globe, including major partnerships, global geographic expansion, and mergers and acquisitions. Wong was previously executive vice president of Strategy for IRI.
Before joining IRI in 2014, Wong worked in management consulting as part of Booz & Company, now Strategy&, a PwC company, primarily focused on operating model transformation and organizational efficiency. In prior roles, he was part of the Global Strategy team at Aon Consulting, now Alight Solutions, a leading HR consulting firm based in Chicago.
Wong received his Master of Business Administration from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his Bachelor of Science in communications from Northwestern University.
Wong lives in Chicago's North Center neighborhood with his wife and children.


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Discover more from After School by Casey Lewis
AI-ified Vogue and Chanel Omelets
lipstick is dead
Saint Laurent just debuted a star-studded fall campaign featuring Hailey Bieber, Zoë Kravitz, and Dominic Fike; China’s Gen Zs ditch work to become ‘full-time children’; and Instagram’s hottest summer trend is flexing your favorite paperback.
SHEIN WANTS IN WITH FASHION STUDENTS. NOT SO FAST, voguebusiness
FIDM is facing student backlash over a scholarship collaboration with fast fashion retailer Shein. 20-year-old Lexy Silverstein is planning a student protest. “Of all the brands they could have chosen, Shein was the absolute worst one,” Silverstein says. “It makes it seem like students condone what Shein is doing.”
E.L.F. ACQUIRES NATURIUM IN $355 MILLION BET ON SKIN CARE, bof
TikTok’s favorite beauty brand — which just reported its 18th consecutive quarter of sales growth — purchased the high-growth indie label Naturium. Founded in 2019 by beauty brand incubator The Center and influencer Susan Yara, the “high-performance” skincare brand has a number of viral products, including the $20 Vitamin C Complex Serum that has 7.8 million views on TikTok.
LIPSTICK IS DEAD. LONG LIVE LIP GLOSS., glossy
According to Circana, lip makeup was the fastest-growing segment across all the beauty categories in the first half of 2023. Nearly 70% of Gen Z makeup wearers said they use gloss, compared to 55% of other makeup wearers. Furthermore, Gen Z is the least likely consumer to wear lipstick, at 48% versus 62% for the total consumer base of makeup wearers.
EXACTLY WHAT IS COPY, THE FIRST AI-POWERED FASHION MAGAZINE, TRYING TO PROVE?, vogue
Carl-Axel Wahlstrӧm, a team of one, worked with Midjourney and Chat GBT to create images and text that make up the debut issue of Copy, billed as “the world’s first AI-powered fashion magazine.” From an innovation perspective, I think this is exciting, but I can’t imagine actually reading an AI-powered fashion magazine; then again, I can’t imagine actually reading a fashion magazine, period, in 2023.
SNAPCHAT ROLLS OUT GENAI SELFIE FEATURE, DREAMS, adweek
As Snap leans further into AI — who isn’t, really? — they’re launching an AI-powered feature that lets people use their own faces to create generated AI selfies, like, say, becoming a royal in the Renaissance era. In May, Snapchat launched its AI-powered chatbot, My AI, and they’ve received over 10 billion messages from 150 million people.
CHANEL CELEBRATES CHANCE FRAGRANCE WITH LUCKY CHANCE DINER, wwd
From September 8 through September 10, Chanel will be operating the “Lucky Chance Diner” around the corner from their new Williamsburg beauty store. No omelets will be served up; just "complimentary beverages" and "refreshments.” Located at 225 Wythe Ave., the space was once home to the iconic Wythe Diner, and has since been occupied by Cafe de la Esquina and, most recently, Blank Street. Now…Chanel. Says a lot about the state of Williamsburg.
HERE'S WHERE ALL THE WEALTHY, YOUNG PEOPLE ARE MOVING THIS YEAR, insider
It sure seems like they’re all moving to Williamsburg, but according to new data, wealthy young Americans — defined as those making over $200,000 a year between the ages of 26 to 35 — are moving to Miami, Austin, Colorado, and…New Jersey. New York and California are seeing major outflows of young high earners.
One last thought:
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Earlier this month, an image of alleged Nokia 6 (2018) with model number TA-1054 has been leaked online. Late on Nokia 6 (2018) also received the green light from the Chinese TENAA, a compulsory step that must be taken for all devices destined for the Chinese Market, the Chinese regulatory also uploaded images of the phone.
Now we have got some real-life images showing the full glory of the upcoming device. Unlike the original Nokia 6, the Nokia 6 (2018) will feature an 18:9 FullView display and the front-facing fingerprint scanner now moved to the back. There are no capacitive buttons on the chin of the phone which means that it will be coming with on-screen controls.
The Nokia 6 (2018) has a vertically elongated camera module on the back along with LED flash. The fingerprint scanner placed underneath the camera setup. There are also discreet antenna bands on the top and bottom and a gold accent around the camera and fingerprint scanner.
It is speculated that the Nokia 6 (2018) could be powered by Snapdragon 630 or 660 chipset and offers 3GB RAM and 32GB storage/ 4GB RAM and 32GB storage and last 4GB RAM and 64GB storage options.
There is no confirmation when the device will go official, but there are speculations that the device alongside the Nokia 6 (2018) may get unveiled at MWC 2018 in February next year.
For the latest tech news and updates follow TechnoCodex on Facebook, Twitter, Google+. Also, if you like our efforts, consider sharing this news with your friends, this will encourage us to bring more interesting updates for you.


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TOKYO, ARMONK, New York and CUPERTINO, California—April 30, 2015—Japan Post Group, IBM and Apple® today announced a first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at improving the quality of life for millions of Japanese senior citizens. Built on the global partnership Apple and IBM announced last year, the new initiative will deliver iPads with IBM-developed apps and analytics to connect millions of seniors with services, healthcare, community and their families.
After piloting iPads and apps custom developed for the elderly, Japan Post Group will expand the service in stages with the objective of including 4 million to 5 million customers in Japan by 2020.
Today more than 33 million seniors make up about 25 percent of Japan’s population, projected to grow to 40 percent over the next 40 years.*
“We are joining with two of the world’s most respected leaders in technology to bring our elderly generation into the connected world, expand our businesses by deepening relationships, and discover new ways to strengthen the fabric of our society and economy,” said Taizo Nishimuro, CEO of Japan Post Group.
The initiative includes:
- iPad® and its intuitive built-in apps, capabilities and features including FaceTime®, Messages, Mail, Photos and iCloud® Photo Sharing, along with access to rich content in the App Store℠, iTunes Store® and iBooks Store℠. iOS 8, offering award-winning accessibility features, including settings for low vision and hearing impaired users.
- Custom-built apps specifically for the elderly by IBM Global Business Services for reminders and alerts about medications, exercise and diet, along with direct access to community activities and supporting services such as grocery shopping and job matching.
- Exclusive cloud services of the IBM MobileFirst for iOS platform, for data integration and security, analytics, and management of millions of devices; along with systems integration services and training for Japan Post Group employees.
- Pioneering text analytics and accessibility technologies, many invented in IBM Research – Tokyo, including Japanese natural language analysis and tracking to guide seniors and make the experience more natural.
- The nationwide infrastructure of Japan Post Group and its ability to cover the “last mile” to virtually every citizen of Japan. In addition to 24,000 post offices and a workforce of 400,000, Japan Post Group has existing financial relationships with nearly all of the 115 million adults in Japan.
“What we’re starting today draws on IBM’s long heritage of innovation at the intersection of technology, business and society,” said Ginni Rometty, President, Chairman and CEO of IBM. “The potential we see here—as broad as national economics and as specific as the quality of life of individuals and their families—is one example of the potential of mobile-led transformation anywhere in the world where issues of an aging population exist.”
“This initiative has potential for global impact, as many countries face the challenge of supporting an aging population, and we are honored to be involved in supporting Japan’s senior citizens and helping enrich their lives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is incredibly intuitive, easy to use and has accessibility features built in, making it a perfect device for any generation to be connected and engaged.”
Addressing a Global Priority
As a percentage of global population, the elderly will increase from 11.7 percent in 2013 to more than 21 percent by 2050. Every day, 10,000 people turn 65, and 40 percent of seniors live alone or with their spouse only.**
In Japan, these historic generational shifts contribute to an imbalance in the labor force, a concentration of wealth among people who tend to spend less than other age groups, and significant strain on extended families. Today, nearly 180,000 people in Japan between the ages of 15 and 29 provide care for a family member.***
Japan Post Group’s postal operations include the national Watch Over service. For a nominal monthly fee, mail carriers check in on elderly customers and assure families about the well-being of their relatives. That service can now be extended and enhanced with iPad, complementing the in-person monitoring.
Japan Post Group will begin the pilot service in the second half of this year, which will be offered in conjunction with the Watch Over service. The service will expand in stages, ultimately aiming to reach 4 million to 5 million customers in Japan by 2020.
* Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s “Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions 2013”
** UN World Population Aging Report, and US Census Bureau
*** Basic Survey on Employment Structure, 2012, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Statistics Bureau
About Japan Post Group
Japan Post Group was established in 2007 under the Postal Service Privatization Act in Japan. Japan Post Holdings provides postal, banking and insurance services through three wholly owned subsidiaries, Japan Post, Japan Post Bank, Japan Post Insurance. Japan Post Holdings had consolidated reported revenue of JPY 15,240 billion (USD 127 billion) and Net Ordinary Income of JPY 1,104 billion (USD 9.2 billion) in the financial year ended 31 March 2014. Japan Post Group employs approximately 400,000 people across 13 branches and 24,000 post offices throughout Japan. Japan Post Group offers various products and services required at any life stage, prioritizing customer’s daily life via a nationwide network.
About IBM MobileFirst
IBM’s 6,000 mobile experts have been at the forefront of mobile enterprise innovation. IBM has secured more than 4,300 patents in mobile, social and security, which have been incorporated into IBM MobileFirst solutions that enable enterprise clients to radically streamline and accelerate mobile adoption, help organizations engage more people and capture new markets. Through IBM’s partnership with Apple, the two organizations are transforming enterprise mobility with a new class of industry specific business apps. For more information on IBM MobileFirst, visit the press kit or www.ibm.com/mobilefirst. Follow @IBMMobile on Twitter, and see IBM MobileFirst on YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.


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Chongqing - "Three elements of data, computing power, and algorithms push artificial intelligence rolling forward," said Qiu Heng, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of China Government & Enterprise Business Group, Huawei, during the 2023 Smart China Expo (SCE 2023) on September 5.
He introduced that since 2018, Huawei, a global frontrunner in information and communications technology (ICT) solutions, has forged four strategic alliances with southwest China's Chongqing, covering a diverse spectrum of industries.
From ventures in cloud computing and big data to AI and smart city innovations, Huawei's goal is clear. "We aim to bring the digital world to every household," Qiu said. "It's an ambitious objective, and we're excited about the progress we're making."
Qiu believes the integration of data, computing power, and algorithms is central to advancing the AI sector and promises rapid and accurate advancements within the field.
He emphasized the critical importance of large-scale models and their vast applicability, ranging from foundational frameworks to specific industry applications.
Huawei has successfully nurtured and tailored over 30 foundational large-scale models, leveraging its artificial computing centers, accounting for over half of China's total. Combined with industry-specific applications, these models find utility across diverse sectors, from finance to logistics.
At the beginning of the year, Huawei signed a strategic cooperation framework with Chongqing Municipal People's Government to enhance cooperation in industrial digitalization, intelligent connected vehicles, and artificial intelligence.
Huawei has extended its computational prowess to the Chongqing AI Innovation Center. "By integrating and refining these large-scale models, we're enhancing our algorithmic efficiency and spurring the creation of innovated algorithms and applications," remarked Qiu. "Such efforts undeniably hasten innovative breakthroughs."
Highlighting the growing allure of large-scale models in the AI landscape, more than 190 AI-centric organizations have undergone scrutiny in the center. A substantial local computing capacity exceeding 1500+P has been analyzed.
Under Qiu's leadership, the business group has zeroed in on three primary markets: industry, commerce, and distribution. Taking the industrial market as an example, Huawei's objective is to stand as a beacon, setting the standard and offering firsthand experiences to the industry.
Qiu underscored Chongqing's prowess in the manufacturing sector, hailing it as a pivotal hub for modern manufacturing in the country. This aligns seamlessly with Huawei's manufacturing characteristics. "There's an urgent need for digital transformation in this space," Qiu commented.
Targeting Chongqing's premier manufacturing entities, Huawei has rolled out a comprehensive package. This includes consultation on digital transformation and spans research, development, production, and marketing services.
Furthermore, Huawei is at the forefront of developing top-tier intelligent parks in the country. A case in point is the Chongqing Lianglu Guoyuan Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone. "Our involvement isn't merely at a planning level. We delve deep, driving value from the ideation phase right through to operational execution," Qiu explained.
For example, Huawei introduced the "brain" for intelligent transportation, optimizing the interaction between vehicles and infrastructure. It also enhanced the perceptibility of municipal facilities, paving the way for more interactive and responsive urban environments.
Internet illegal and undesirable information can be reported by calling this telephone number：+86-23-67230470


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There has been significant announcements over the last 72 hours; with the Government to inject a total amount of $189 billion into the economy; and follows the $17.6 billion first economic stimulus package, $90 billion from the RBA and $15 billion from the Government to make access to finance easier.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said, “We want to help businesses keep going as best they can and for as long as they can, or to pause instead of winding up their business. We want to ensure that when this crisis has passed Australian businesses can bounce back”.
Below we have outlined the key announcements to date that have been put forward by the Federal Government, ATO and the State Government; and how this applies to Small Medium business.
Boosting cash flow for employers
- Eligible Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can now apply for up to $100,000 to employ people, with a minimum payment of $20,000.
- Under the enhanced scheme from the first package, employers will receive a payment equal to 100 per cent of their salary and wages withheld (as opposed to 50 per cent), with the maximum payment being increased from $25,000 to $50,000. In addition, the minimum payment is being increased from $2,000 to $10,000. The payment will be available from 28 April 2020.
The payments are tax free and will flow automatically through the ATO.
Please click here for Boosting cash flow for employers
Supporting the flow of credit
- A Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme will also be established under which the Government will guarantee 50 per cent of new loans issued by eligible lenders to SMEs. This comes in conjunction with last week’s announcement form the Reserve Bank of Australia of a $90 billion term funding facility intended to reduce the cost of lending.
- The Government will guarantee up to $20 billion to support $40 billion in SME loans.
- In addition to the Australian Government’s SME Guarantee Scheme Commonwealth Bank will make available up to $10 billion of additional unsecured credit to support SMEs.
- The measure will mean SMEs can access an unsecured business loan through the Commonwealth Bank for three years of up to $250,000 at historically low rates.
Please click here for Supporting the flow of credit
Australian Tax Office
The ATO is currently offering the following options to assist businesses impacted by COVID-19:
- Deferring by up to six months the payment date of amounts due through the business activity statement (including PAYG instalments), income tax assessments, fringe benefits tax assessments and excise.
Allow businesses on a quarterly reporting cycle to opt into monthly GST reporting in order to get quicker access to GST refunds they may be entitled to.
Allowing businesses to vary Pay As You Go (PAYG) instalment amounts to zero for the March 2020 quarter. Businesses that vary their PAYG instalment to zero can also claim a refund for any instalments made for the September 2019 and December 2019 quarters.
Remitting any interest and penalties, incurred on or after 23 January 2020, that have been applied to tax liabilities.
Working with affected businesses to help them pay their existing and ongoing tax liabilities by allowing them to enter into low interest payment plans.
The ATO does note that employers will still need to meet their ongoing super guarantee obligations for their employees. For more information on the ATO support measures
Queensland State Government
The Palaszczuk government has announced:
$500 million loan facility
- A new Jobs Support $500 million loan facility, interest free for the first 12 months, has been created to support businesses to keep Queenslanders in work and will comprise loans of up to $250,000. More information here $500 million loan facility.
Payroll tax deferment
- All Queensland businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak can defer lodging and paying payroll tax until 31 July 2020. More information here The payroll tax relief package for Queensland businesses.
$27.25 million coronavirus industry recovery package
- This package will assist local government, business and industry with resilience and recovery strategies. It includes targeted financial support and advice, promotion for Queensland, and counselling and support. More information here $27.25m package to provide immediate assistance.
New South Wales State Government
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced the NSW Government’s package:
- $450 million for the waiver of payroll tax for businesses with payrolls of up to $10 million for three months (the rest of 2019-20). This means these businesses will save a quarter of their annual payroll tax bill in 2019-20
- $80 million to waive a range of fees and charges for small businesses including bars, cafes, restaurants and tradies.
- $250 million to employ additional cleaners of public infrastructure such as transport assets, schools and other public buildings
- More than $250 million to bring forward maintenance on public assets including social housing and crown land fencing
- $500 million to bring forward capital works and maintenance.
Please click here for NSW economic stimulus information
Whilst these announcements are positive in the current state of play; the details of how and when such payments will be released is largely yet to come. We are monitoring this very closely and will communicate this as soon as available.
In the meantime please click here for Coronavirus information and support for business


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Sometimes we forget how fast the communications, Internet and device industries have solved problems that seemed intractable just several decades ago.
Between 1995 and 2000, the world’s population rose by about eight percent. Meanwhile, the number of fixed network phone lines rose by 50 percent, and the number of cellular mobile subscribers by over 1000 percent.
But nothing like that was happening in the 1970s and 1980s. Writing in 1999, Geoffrey Kirkman noted that half of the world’s population had never made a telephone call.
To be sure, even in the domestic U.S. market, there have been huge changes in the affordability of communications Consider the huge changes in long distance rates, for example.
By 2011, mobile cellular networks covering over 90 percent of the world’s population, and there is the expectation that more than half of the world’s population will be using mobile phones by 2015.
Despite the persistence of widespread poverty, the use of mobile telephony in African countries in the last few years has grown more rapidly than in any other region in the world. There are now an estimated 500 million mobile phone subscribers across the continent compared to 246 million in 2008.
Keep that in perspective. Less than 20 percent of Africans have electricity. Less than two percent have fixed telephone lines. And sub-Saharan Africa has just 350,000 kilometers of roads,
far less than the U.K., an area 1/100th its size. But nearly 75 percent of all telephones in Africa are mobile phones,IBM notes.
In Tanzania, 97 percent of the people say they have access to a mobile phone, while only 28 percent say they have access to a landline phone. Among the important observations is that, until the advent of the mobile communications era, supplying voice was a matter of building fixed networks, a daunting prospect in many parts of the world.
By late 2010, Africa exceeded Western Europe in terms of the number of mobile connections. The point is that stunning progress has been made in the area of enabling voice usage by most people on the planet, a goal that might have seemed almost insurmountable a few decades ago.
Broadband, computing and Internet access now have taken the place of the older concern about access to voice communications.
Keep in mind that, just a few years ago, five of the the six billion people on Earth did not have access to computing or the Internet. But that is changing very rapidly, as well.
Although Africa, for example, lags in terms of other forms of computing and communications usage with an estimated 100 million Internet users, between 2000 and 2011 the growth of Internet usage in Africa exceeded 2,000 percent, which is more than five times that for the rest of the world.
Some 2.4 billion people across the world now use the Internet on a regular basis, at least once a month, from home, school, work, or any other location using a PC or a non-PC (mobile) Internet access device, Forrester Research says.
This is expected to grow to 3.5 billion by 2017, representing nearly half of the 2017 overall world population of 7.4 billion.
In some countries – mostly developed economies, such as the US, the UK, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands – Internet penetration as a percent of the overall population is very high; more than 80% of the population are regular Internet users.
In other, mostly emerging markets – such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Nigeria – Internet penetration ranges between 10 percent and 50 percent.
A key point to note is that while higher PC penetration has driven the adoption of Internet in developed economies during the past two decades, faster mobile penetration in the emerging economies is helping increase the Internet population, thanks to “mobile-only” Internet users.
The point is that the communications, Internet and device industries have made impressive, almost unprecedented strides over the last decade.


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Google Inc found itself at the center of multiple government investigations on Thursday into whether it is using its dominance in search advertising to scotch competition.
At least three state attorneys general have started antitrust investigations into Google, a source familiar with the matter said.
The source declined to elaborate on the details of the investigations by the attorneys general of California, Ohio and New York as they were still in the early stages.
The attorneys general investigation into Google was first reported by the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the investigations.
The news of the attorneys general investigation emerged on the same day the Wall Street Journal reported that the internet search giant is about to receive the civil equivalent of a subpoena from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as part of a probe into the company’s Internet search business.
The company, which dominates U.S. and global markets for search advertising, has been accused by competitors of favoring its own services over rivals in its search results.


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Yuga Labs has recently revealed its TwelveFold NFT collection on the Bitcoin blockchain network, featuring 300 generative NFT artworks.
Recent Developments in the NFT Space
NFTs are back and making a splash in the crypto world, thanks to the recent emergence of the Blur marketplace. In such a short period, Blur has outdone some established giants such as OpenSea to become a prominent online NFT marketplace. Not to be left behind, Yuga Labs had also created the popular NFT Collection known as Bored Ape Yacht Club, further increasing interest and attention on NFTs.
Yuga Labs has just unveiled its new TwelveFold Collection, an expansive set of 300 cryptocurrency-based digital artwork pieces based on the Bitcoin blockchain. This unique NFT line-up is an exploration of generative art that promises to revolutionize the digital art landscape.
Yuga Labs have yet to announce when the event will take place and have notified that they will give 24 hours notice prior to the mint. They will also hold an auction for this collection, later this week.
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) February 27, 2023
Yuga Labs goes for the Bitcoin Blockchain
Yuga Labs have taken a bold step and impressed everybody by launching their TwelveFold NFT collection on the Bitcoin blockchain, instead of selecting the Ethereum blockchain or any other Layer-1 alternative which are the typical choice for important players in the crypto space.
The unveiling of this fresh TwelveFold NFT collection become quite a surprise for various nft-enthusiasts, as previously Yuga Labs haven’t shown much interest in the nft space. This TwelveFold collection of NFTs will be unchangeable and also will be securely stored on the blockchain. To successfully acquire a TwelveFold NFT, bidders must place the top bid in the upcoming auction later this week.
Furthermore, Yuga Labs also released Dookey Dash – a skill-based NFT game, last month. Additionally, the company saw a major change at the management level in Jan 2023, with co-founder Wylie Aronow stepping down from his duties.


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OpenX Technologies, a global omnichannel advertising exchange, and Permutive, a privacy-safe audience platform for publishers and advertisers, today announced a partnership that will enable buyers and sellers of online advertising to build and activate global audiences without using third-party cookies or device IDs while preserving the safety and security of user data.
OpenX Permutive partnership
The OpenX/Permutive partnership strengthens the connection between publishers and marketers by efficiently delivering addressable and scalable advertising inventory to buyers while allowing publishers to maintain control of and monetise their first-party data.
The collaboration offers marketers in the US and internationally a single, privacy-safe point of access to identify and reach audiences with precision and transparency at scale.
Activation is easily enabled through OpenX Deal IDs, and audience targeting relies on privacy-protected, first-party publisher data.
The OpenX Exchange processes more than 300 billion ad requests a day across a network of more than 130,000 domains. Permutive’s Audience Platform delivered over 20 billion targeted impressions in 2021 via publisher-owned, consented data and with no third-party cookies entering the bidstream.
The announcement comes at an inflection point for the industry as consumers are increasingly opting out of sharing their information with advertisers.
With nearly 70% of today’s open web unaddressable, this partnership satisfies the growing market demand for actionable first-party data that follows consistent and transparent build criteria, thereby simplifying activation and providing streamlined access to readily available and fully addressable audience segments.
“Across the expanse of the open web, where media is highly fragmented, finding and engaging audiences in a privacy-friendly manner is both the challenge and imperative of digital marketing,” said John Gentry, chief executive officer of OpenX.
“Joining forces with Permutive allows us to unlock unique value for buyers and publishers through precision targeting that is safe and secure.”
Joe Root, co-founder and chief executive officer of Permutive, said: “As consumers have more choices and tools to opt-out of sharing their data for advertising, privacy-safe audience targeting without the need for third-party cookies provides much-needed addressability solutions for publishers and advertisers”.
“Our partnership with OpenX is a powerful example of adtech working together to empower advertisers and publishers to harness the full potential of first-party data while creating a more transparent and responsible web.”
The partnership offers more than 200 standardised behavioural cohorts, evaluated in real time – for example, real estate, travel, automotive, pets, and fashion and beauty – and is mapped to the industry-standard IAB Audience Taxonomy that identifies and describes segmented audiences based on similar interests, characteristics and behaviors.
Another advantage of the partnership is the accessibility of more sustainable advertising, the firms said.
OpenX is the only supply-side platform to be independently certified as a CarbonNeutral company, and the use of its ad exchange offers marketers the opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint of their campaigns.