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Showing of 0 - 10 from 98 results
Entrepreneur - Total results - 98
May 25, 2017
Farmers should become entrepreneurs as biz mindset will help to solve issues, says expertThe government does not think like an entrepreneur. Their mindset is that they have a budget to spend.
May 14, 2017
Narendra Modi says social entrepreneurs can benefit from Swachh Bharat programmePrime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said social entrepreneurs can benefit from Swachh Bharat programme as it has huge business element, while stressing on the need to convert waste into wealth.
Apr 18, 2017
'Good height, great complexion': Rajasthan textbook lists 'desirable traits' for entrepreneursA chapter on 'Skills Development' for Class 12 students in government schools in Rajasthan, lists out, as qualities desirable for entrepreneurs: "good height" and "beautiful complexion"
Apr 02, 2017
A digital literacy initiative is helping improve the lives of women in Uttar Pradesh's villagesAn NGO called Jagriti is pushing for digital literacy among women in rural Uttar Pradesh
Mar 31, 2017
Behind the success of a startup is passion, not money: 3 business women decode their storiesIf money is the only motivation, don't start up. That is a recipe for disaster.
Mar 08, 2017
International Women's Day 2017: Meet Kalavathy Sridharan, a successful Dalit entrepreneur in Tamil NaduIn the run up to International Women’s Day on 8 March, read about Kalavathy Sridharan, a young dalit entrepreneur from Chennai
Mar 07, 2017
'India ranks low among countries with women entrepreneurs'According to Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, India scored an overall 41.7 points, ranking 49 among 54 economies globally with comparatively low in Women Business Ownership percentages.
Mar 01, 2017
Facebook study: Boost to women entrepreneurship in India can create 64 mn new jobs by 2021Ahead of the International Women's Day that falls on March 8, Facebook also launched "SheLeadsTech", a programme that will give women-founded/co-founded start-ups access to a year-long programme that provides tools, mentorship and resources to help overcome some of the barriers they face
Dec 15, 2016
Meet the brains behind Hult Prize India, a Clinton global initiativeThe Hult Prize is about ‘empowering business minds to pursue purpose’ says Ahmad Ashkar, the Founder CEO.
Oct 12, 2016
Indian SMEs favour long-term partnership with Chinese enterpreneurs, investors, MSME minister Kalraj MishraThe minister listed out several initiatives to bolster growth of the manufacturing sector in India such as Make in India, Digital India, Start-up India, which have made the world's economic superpowers to look at India with "a lot of admiration".


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Sydney adtech startup BlendAI has raised $1.5 million two years after launch to help small businesses with their online advertising.
The round was led by Sydney-based venture fund, EVP, is for: dedicated to driving customer growth, continuous product improvements and hiring BlendAI’s first go-to-market focused resources.
BlendAI simplifies and centralizes online advertising for e-commerce stores. Machine learning algorithms distribute content and optimize budgets across multiple channels and assist with ongoing management, optimization and content creation.
Michael Bezman and Dean Krowitz co-founded their startup in 2000 after collaborating in the industry and seeing the potential of technology to increase efficiency and profitability for busy small business owners.
Krowitz said that The SMB owner is faced with increasingly complex advertising channels and may be inundated with platforms such as Google or Facebook’s ad manager to produce results.
“Channels are saturated and expensive. The audience is constantly shifting and flocking to the next, biggest platform, for example TikTok,” he said.
“As the complexity of the channel mix increases, the need for a centralized tool to manage the underlying platforms becomes a necessity. Changes to cookies, data privacy, such as iOS 14 release and tracking lead to the development of new toolkits.:
For most SMB owners, Krowitz says, that level of complexity is beyond their capabilities and budget.
“The continued boom in e-commerce store ownership and the rise of platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce have seen many newcomers enter the market. But the development of the underlying tooling for these store owners to manage complex tasks like advertising has not kept pace,” he said.
“We have seen a generational change in the e-commerce business over the past two years. With so many new traders, there is an incredible demand for ‘do-it-for-me’ type product offerings that can ease the stress of day-to-day management, without compromising results. While we remain early in our journey, we have very strong inbound demand and have quickly adopted the product from our first users.”
Co-founder Michael Bezman said there is a “huge” global market, which gives them a great opportunity to scale.
“Setting up in Australia is the short-term goal, but we have a ‘global’ from day one” product offering and we see great overseas opportunities in the not-too-distant future,” he said.
“We remain driven and committed to empowering the small business merchants of our economy and helping them navigate the complex adtech environment. We envision a future where BlendAI is part of the replica toolkit every e-commerce merchant uses to build their business.”
Krowitz said BlendAI’s mission is to help improve profitability for BlendAI users.
“We regularly outperform traditional agencies that are tense and find it difficult to manage micro-company accounts with human oversight,” he said.
“With BlendAI, we can deliver the full-service agency experience in a product-driven way.”
EVP partner Justin Lipman said BlendAI was showing early signs of a very strong product offering.
“The effectiveness of Blend’s product, and its current revenue model, means the company is positioned to capitalize on the value it delivers to its customer base. During customer conversations, we often heard stories of major incremental changes in Return on Ad Spend (ie 2x to 16x increases),” he said.
“In Michael and Dean, we believe the company has the right founding partners to capitalize on the huge market opportunities.”

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Samsung second-quarter revenue doubtless halved
The Samsung Electronics brand is displayed in a window on the firm’s Seocho workplace constructing in Seoul, South Korea.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
Samsung Electronics is prone to say second-quarter revenue greater than halved when it stories preliminary earnings on Friday, information confirmed, as a drop in reminiscence chip shipments to China’s embattled Huawei exacerbated a price-squeezing provide glut.
The quarterly end result could be the South Korean agency’s lowest in almost three years, with the prospect of an earnings restoration nonetheless some quarters away as a interval of oversupply continues unabated amid a broader slowdown in tech markets, analysts stated.
The world’s largest provider of DRAM and NAND reminiscence chips can be the world’s largest maker of smartphones, a market the place chip shopper Huawei is second place. Corporations worldwide have been compelled to limit enterprise with Huawei to adjust to U.S. commerce sanctions on an organization Washington deems a safety threat.
“How a lot Huawei will use chips forward is unquestionably a swing consider costs,” stated analyst Jay Kim at Sangsangin Funding & Securities. “When there’s not many gamers that may purchase chips as an alternative of Huawei, then Samsung has to chop costs to promote them.”
Although chip earnings took a success from diminished Huawei customized, Samsung Electronics smartphone enterprise is prone to profit from a drop of as a lot as 40% in worldwide gross sales of Huawei handsets. Up to now, nevertheless, Huawei Applied sciences has robust sufficient assist at residence on the planet’s largest smartphone market to retain its international rating.
Even so, promoting chips brings in most of Samsung’s revenue – over two-thirds – and a saturated smartphone market and falling demand from information facilities have pulled costs down.
Costs for DRAM chips, which offer units with non permanent workspaces and permit them to multi-task, are unlikely to rebound within the second half of the 12 months, stated analyst Avril Wu at tech researcher TrendForce. Furthermore, she stated, it will likely be troublesome for Samsung to clear its stock till the primary half of 2020.
TrendForce estimates DRAM costs within the three months by means of June fell 25%. Final month, it lowered its forecast for the July-September quarter to a decline of 15% to 20%, from 10%.
On Friday, Samsung is prone to flag a 60% decline in April-June working revenue at 6 trillion received ($5.14 billion), in response to Refinitiv SmartEstimate, which is predicated on the estimates of 29 analysts, with the estimates of analysts traditionally extra correct given higher weighting.
The tech agency booked 14.9 trillion received in the identical interval a 12 months earlier. It is because of publish closing second-quarter figures later this month. Its shares rose 5.3% over the three months.
Huawei is the world’s largest maker of telecommunications tools, and simply because the impression of its U.S. predicament ripples by means of each the chip and smartphone sectors, tech corporations corresponding to Samsung have additionally turn into collateral harm in a broader Sino-U.S. commerce battle punctuated by tit-for-tat import tariffs.
Samsung may be on the receiving finish of Japanese curbs on exports to South Korea of high-tech supplies utilized in chips and smartphones – a retaliatory measure to South Korean wartime compensation claims that Japan says have been resolved a long time in the past.
Nonetheless, in the long term, the excellent news for Samsung might lie in Huawei’s troubles. If U.S. sanctions stay, Samsung might promote 37 million extra smartphones yearly, stated senior analyst Track Myung-sup at HI Funding & Securities. Furthermore, it might doubtless set up its personal chips in these handsets, Track stated.
Final 12 months, Samsung shipped 292 million handsets to Huawei’s 205 million, confirmed information from market tracker Counterpoint.
In April, Samsung stated it anticipated each smartphone and chip gross sales to choose up within the second half of the 12 months, whereas U.S. chip rival Micron Know-how likewise stated demand would get better later this 12 months.
“Earnings restoration for reminiscence chipmakers will come, nevertheless it will not be quick and it will not be an enormous leap,” Track stated.


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Apps are going to get a lot smarter with help from Microsoft Office
The critical idea here is the "application programming interface," or API. Programs use APIs to talk to each other - popular fitness app Runtastic, for example, uses the Google Maps API to display a real-time map on the app.
The Microsoft Graph, first announced in beta back in April, is a set of APIs that blow open the Microsoft Office 365 productivity cloud to developers, letting them build apps that take a user's data and put it to use in cool, new ways.
Basically, it means that any developer can build an app that taps straight into the data that lives inside Office 365, making their wares smarter and faster.
"It's not just all about Microsoft," says Rob Lefferts, Microsoft general manager of Office exentensibility. "It's a huge starting set of information."
And just like Facebook's famous social graph, the Microsoft Graph lets developers ask questions of the data like, "Who does my customer work closely with?" The intelligence is handled by Microsoft on the back end. (And no, it's not as creepy as it might sound - like any other app, you'd have to give it permission to access data.)
For instance, Lefferts says, over 850 million meetings per month get booked via Microsoft Outlook for Office 365. That means that there's tons of data there for an enterprising app developer to build a predictive calendar based on how users spend their time.
At launch, the Microsoft Graph supports data from sources like e-mail, the address book, and calendars. Later, it'll be able to support data taken from OneDrive storage, OneNote cloud notes, and other Microsoft data.
The Office Graph also goes both ways. For example, security startup Skyhigh Networks is already using the Microsoft Graph to enforce enterprise policies on customers' Office 365 installations, scanning and quarantining files that live in the cloud.
For developers, the first taste of Microsoft Graph is free, Lefferts says. But if they're using Microsoft Office data at volume in their own apps via Microsoft Graph, the company will collect a fee.
It will be a while before most developers figure out how to best access all that data, since the Microsoft Graph is new.
But it has the potential to make apps much smarter, in a behind-the-scenes kind of way. And it's good for Microsoft, because it means that customers can get more out of the money they're sinking into Office 365.
"The demand of customers is to say, 'make it seamless, make it great," says Lefferts.
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LOS ANGELES - TikTok has enlisted some of the top animation creators on its platform to share ways they spread kindness online as part of a new campaign aimed at tackling the issue of bullying.
The campaign called #CreateKindness includes a video series raising awareness about the many ways online bullying can occur and how users can better navigate some of these issues. TikTok said it aims to cultivate "an inclusive atmosphere," and that bullying behavior "damages the trust-based nature of the app by harming people's confidence in themselves."
Some of the app’s most-followed creators, including King Science with 11.6 million followers, made animated videos that offer perspectives on the root causes of bullying online and how to overcome negative comments by focusing on the positive ones. The campaign also features videos by milkymichii, Recokh, Kelly Emmrich, AmyRightMeow and Rosie.gif.
In a video titled "What We Don't See", King Science encourages people to treat others with compassion and to "remember that you never know what someone is going through."
Another video, called "Power of Words" by Rosie.gif, highlights the impact words can have on a person and implores users to consider their comments before they post.
AmyRightMeow, who has more than 911,000 followers on the platform, gives advice in a video called "Walk Away" on dealing with negative comments — suggesting that users block or simply ignore them as a way to continue creating and using the platform happily.
"By using their distinctive animation styles and voices, and revealing themselves at the end of the videos, these creators drive home an important message: behind every account is a real human being who deserves to be treated with kindness and respect," TikTok said in a news release.
TikTok launched an anti-bullying campaign called #CreateKindness and is sharing videos made by some of its top animation creators. (Photo credit: TikTok)
The videos will live on TikTok’s Discover page throughout the month and on the account @TikTokTips. The company is also encouraging users to participate in the #CreateKindness campaign by creating videos that inspire people to spread kindness.
The company has introduced a range of features aimed at preventing harassment and bullying on the platform, including the ability to filter and review comments before they appear and a pop-up that asks people to reconsider posting unkind or inappropriate comments.
TikTok added that "it’s critically important to continue cultivating an atmosphere where everyone feels safe and welcome to create and share authentically. Bullying is not tolerated on TikTok."
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and runs its U.S. operations out of Culver City, California, was the target of former President Donald Trump last year.
Trump sought to ban the Chinese-owned TikTok from smartphone app stores in the U.S., citing a security threat because the Chinese government could spy on app users’ personal data. But on Wednesday, the Biden administration dropped the Trump-era executive orders that attempted to ban both TikTok and WeChat and said it would conduct its own review aimed at identifying national security risks.
Last year, the Trump administration also brokered a deal that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in the app owned by ByteDance on national security grounds. But the proposed U.S. takeover of TikTok remains in limbo.
The unusual arrangement stemmed from an executive order under Trump that aimed to ban TikTok in the U.S. unless it accepted a greater degree of American control.
This story was reported from Cincinnati. The Associated Press contributed.


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India's electric scooter market has been growing from strength to strength despite some major fire incidents in the past few months. In May 2022, the Ola S1 Pro continued to lead the electric scooters segment with Okinawa's Praise Pro and the Ather 450 making up the rest of the podium.
Let's take a look at the top best-selling electric scooters from May 2022:
|Rank||Model||May-22||May-21||Growth (%) YoY|
|1||Ola S1 Pro||9,225||0||-|
|2||Okinawa Praise Pro||7,339||684||972.95|
1) Ola S1 Pro - 9,225 Units
The S1 Pro from Bangalore's Ola Electric continues to be the nation's best-selling electric scooter. In May 2022, Ola Electric sold 9,225 units of the S1 Pro electric scooter in India. However, Ola S1 Pro sales numbers were down compared to the previous month by 27.35 per cent (3,473 units). Ola had sold 12,698 units of the S1 Pro in April 2022.
2) Okinawa Praise Pro - 7,339 Units
Gurugram-based electric two-wheeler manufacturer Okinawa Autotech sold a total of 7,339 units of the Praise Pro electric scooter in May 2022. Sales of the Praise Pro rose by 972.95 per cent (6,555 units) compared to May 2021 when Okinawa sold only 684 units of the e-scooter. M-o-M sales of the Praise Pro were also up by just 1.99 per cent (143 units) compared to April 2022's 7,196 units.
3) Ather 450 - 3,667 Units
Bangalore-based e-scooter manufacturer Ather Energy sold 3,667 units of its 450 electric scooter in India last month. Sales of the Ather 450 lineup were up by an extraordinary 4,789.33 per cent (3,592 units) compared to last May when Ather sold only 75 electric scooters due to the second wave of the Covid 19 pandemic. However, M-o-M sales numbers were down by 2.96 per cent (112 units) compared to April 2022 when Ather sold 3,779 450 e-scooters.
4) TVS iQube - 2,637 Units
Chennai-based two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Company recently launched the 2022 update for the iQube in India, adding 2 new variants. Last month TVS sold 2,637 units of the iQube which was a 85.7 per cent (1,217 unit) increase over April 2022's sales figures of 1,420 units.
5) Bajaj Chetak - 2,544 Units
Rounding off this top 5 list is the Bajaj Chetak. Bajaj recently rolled off the first Chetak from the new dedicated state-of-the-art electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Akurdi, Maharashtra.
In May 2022, Bajaj sold 2,544 units of the Chetak which marked a stupendous increase of 8,106.45 per cent (2,513 units) compared to the same month last year when Bajaj only sold 31 units of the electric scooter. M-o-M sales of the Chetak were also up by 104.17 per cent (1,298 units) compared April 2022 when Bajaj sold 1,246 units of the electric scooter in India.
Thoughts On The Top 5 Best-Selling Electric Scooters
The Top 5 list of electric scooters sold in May 2022 sees a proper pecking order being established as Indians continue to move slowly towards e-scooters. Hopefully, this growth will continue to accelerate our nation's move towards a greener future.


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Blog: Absence speaks louder than words
Katy Askew | 16 March 2010
Having already secured the takeover of UK confectioner Cadbury, perhaps Kraft boss Irene Rosenfeld did not feel the need to attend the Select Committee hearing into the deal today (16 March).
It is certainly true that there is nothing the Business, Innovations and Skills (BIS) committee can do to reverse either the US conglomerate's takeover of Cadbury or its much derided decision to close a UK manufacturing facility having previously made pledges to keep the Somerdale site open.
Besides, she probably had more pressing matters to attend to. As Kraft EVP Marc Firestone told the cross-party group of MPs, a board meeting had been scheduled.
Nevertheless, given the unpopular nature of the takeover and the mountains of bad press Kraft has received in the UK following its completion, perhaps it would not have done any harm to put in an appearance.
Indeed, Rosenfeld could have viewed this as an ideal opportunity to reassure UK policy makers, Cadbury's employees and the British public of Kraft's intentions.
A strong statement on the company's plans for Cadbury's future may have gone some way to counteract fears that the Dairy Milk maker will lose its identity now that it has been swallowed up by the US giant, becoming just another of Kraft's seemingly neglected brands.
The decision not to attend smacks of a certain arrogance and has, in fact, sent out the opposite message – that now the merger is complete, Cadbury, its workers and opinion in the UK simply isn't worth the trans-Atlantic flight.
As Select Committee MP Brian Binley observed, her absence has been viewed as a “sizeable discourtesy”.
The BBC turned to just-food today for insight on the price dispute between Tesco and Unilever....
Just weeks after buying UK turkey processor Bernard Matthews from administration, food tycoon Ranjit Boparan has struck a similar deal....
Shares in Tyson Foods slumped on Friday, closing down almost 9% after an analyst claimed a lawsuit facing the company could hit the US meat titan....
- It won't just be Unilever to push for Brexit hikes
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- Interview: UK trade body on Brexit's policy impact
- Danone's Q3 sales - what the analysts say
- Interview: UK trade body on the impact of Brexit
- Nestle lowers outlook on "softer environment"
- PepsiCo sets 2025 nutrition, sustainability goals
- China "transition" drags on Danone Q3
- UK announces "action plan" to drive food exports
- CP Foods invests in UK foodservice firm Foodfellas
- The Big 15: Strategies and Priorities of Top Packaged Food Players in Comparison
- Omega-3 in Food and Beverage:Time for a Reboot?
- Global Food Packaging: Innovating for Greater Convenience and Quality Image
- Packaged Food: Quarterly Statement Q3 2016
- Constellation Brands, Inc. (STZ) - Financial and Strategic SWOT Analysis Review


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Showing results 1 to 10 of 14
Sort by: most relevant first | most recent first
Gino D’Acampo has many strings to his bow – TV chef, award winning food writer, Jungle King and now a world record holder.
A classic Reading-made sauce could make a re-appearance in town centre stores in time for Christmas, say its makers.
Lovers of locally produced organic food are being urged to support the True Food Community Co-operative.
Shoppers buying their fruit and veg at Reading Market were just a few steps away from the Caribbean on Saturday.
A taste of Barbados is coming to Reading town centre this Saturday with an array of food, drink and music from the sunny Caribbean island.
A restaurant in the heart of Caversham has made it into the new edition of the influential Good Food Guide – and has also been named one of the top 100 eateries in the UK.
Winners of this year’s Model Search have been posing for their first professional photoshoot.
Curious shoppers filed into Bill’s Café and Produce Store when it opened this week.
A new kind of Oxfam shop selling a unique selection of clothing and accessories is due to open in Harris Arcade this month.
Today is the last chance to enter Model Search 2010.


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Charges filed vs alleged smugglers
The Bureau of Customs on Monday filed string of charges against individuals tagged in alleged smuggling of different products before the Department of Justice.
Stanley Tan was accused by BOC of supposedly importing P9.4-million of counterfeit cigarettes and assorted beauty products.
The BOC also filed a case against Samuel Alvarado, a major stockholder and president of Pherica International Corporation, and customs broker Nazario Maglanque for smuggling of imported toys.
The BOC likewise filed a case against IT Malingco owner Tayuan Malingco and customs broker Erlinda Dumalaog for importing foodstuff, air fresheners, shampoo, and other commodities without the appropriate permits.
Another case was filed against Power Buster Marketing owner Marnie Seguiran for importing P1.6 million worth of fireworks and firecrackers that were misdeclared as footwear.


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An unlikely duo has emerged, Stan Lee's POW Entertainment will be joining forces with MTV to bring The Seekers to the masses in the form of a digital comic.
According to Lee,
"It involves superheroes, it involves a very high-concept plot, it's a story such as you never have seen before, and it spans the centuries."
A digital comic is just the beginning. Lee went on to say,
"The Seekers" is "more than just a comic. It's actually the start of a tremendous franchise."
His goal is to turn the comic into a TV show and possibly a movie in the future. Before that happens the comic first must be written. It has only just been announced at the New York Comic Con today.
An interesting caveat to this story is that MTV will be holding a contest to find the comics illustrators. In addition, this is first time that the legendary 87 year old comic has worked in the digital medium.
The coolest bit is that The Seekers will be available for free on MTV's new Geek website that went live earlier this week and will offer content that includes comics, horror, sci-fi and gaming news. It is great to see Lee pushing the limits of comic books at such an old age. Partnering with MTV can only bring the comic book world to a great audience of people that may not have been involved in the past which in my opinion is a good thing.
What are your thoughts of this news?


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Spending by international and domestic visitors grew by $5.6 billion last year, with spending by Australian and international tourists exceeding $100 billion for the first time.
Today I release the National Visitor Survey for the year ending December 2016, which shows Australian visitors spent $61 billion. The recently released International Visitor Survey showed international visitors spent $39.1 billion in the same 12 month period.
This record spending is creating Australian jobs. Tourism is a $120 billion industry that employs around 1 in 12 Australians, so this growth in holiday spending means more jobs, more investment and more prosperity for all Australians, especially those in regional Australia, where 45 per cent of tourist dollars are spent.
In 2013 the Coalition returned responsibility for domestic tourism marketing to the states and territories to refocus Tourism Australia on our offshore marketing capacity. Over the past three years, every state and territory has seen double digit growth in visitor numbers and visitor nights, with the Northern Territory the standout performer.
|National Visitor Survey Results (2013 – 2016)
|Australian Capital Territory
|New South Wales
The National Visitor Survey is available on the Tourism Research Australia website.
- Trade Minister's Office: (02) 6277 7420
- DFAT Media Liaison: (02) 6261 1555


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April 24, 2013
Recall that in the wake of those class action suits against A-B alleging that the brewer "waters down" its beers, A-B filed suit against former employee James Clark claiming that he "misrepresented our confidential information" and violated a company confidentiality agreement which he had signed (see BBD 04-03-2013 ). Clark worked as director of operations support at A-B, and had worked at several breweries from 1998 until June when he resigned and became a lawyer. After A-B sued, Clark filed a motion to strike the lawsuit under California whistleblower laws and by saying that the confidential papers came from an anonymous source.
A-B begs to differ in a brief filed with the court yesterday, in which the brewer conducted computer forensics on Clark's computer as well as sworn declarations indicating that Clark illegally took the documents himself, allegedly, and therefore the whistleblower's protection law doesn't apply.
A-B says that Clark attended Lincoln Law School while employed at A-B and "developed a new 'business' plan - resign from the company, misuse and misappropriate confidential, proprietary or trade secret information, and communicate that information to others in an attempt to manufacture a class action payday."
Here's what happened according to A-B: A month before resigning from A-B, Clark allegedly accessed confidential trade secret documents, including beer specifications, from his work computer and printed out two copies and saved a copy to a thumb drive. Minutes later, he accessed the website www.topclassactions.com and downloaded a sample Califorina class action suit and printed a copy. The lawsuit he printed was filed by Robert Bramson of the firm Bramson, Plutzik, Mahler & Birkheauser, who happens to also now be a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the California class action suit. Clark also visited the website of the Mills Law Firm and the "Contact Us" page ten days before resigning from A-B.
Additionally, Clark called a former subordinate and asked him to send him the product specification documents, which he did. A few weeks later, The Mills Law Firm sent a letter to A-B demanding a replacement or refund to all California purchasers of A-B products in the last four years because the beers have "less alcohol by volume than is stated on" the labels. Then other similar letters came from other states.
After an investigation fingering Clark as the alleged pilfer of documents, A-B asked Clark to certify under oath that he hadn't taken any confidential documents. He wouldn't sign, but said he threw those papers out. A-B asked the Mills Law Firm for the confidential documents back. The law firm indeed returned the document that Clark's work colleague had sent him, which The Mills Law Firm said was from an anonymous whistleblower. Not true, says A-B. It was a "self-help theft of documents belonging to their former employer" and as such "courts have little difficulty rejecting the argument that the employees' crimes are insulated from liability due to their desire to expose alleged wrongdoing by their former employer." Also, the alleged crimes of A-B have "minimal merit."
"Although his name is nowhere on the lawsuits, he has now admitted that he is behind these unjustifiable class-actions that are being used to smear our name and enrich himself and the other lawyers," says A-B in a statement to BBD. "We hold ourselves to high standards of conduct and quality at our company, which Clark knew well and experienced fully as an employee. In our mandatory code of conduct training, he repeatedly verified that he knew of no inappropriate activity by the company, and made this verification during and after he graduated from law school. If he felt a problem existed, it was Clark's duty to report it at the time for investigating, but Clark did not report anything, because there is nothing to report. We would never compromise the quality or the taste of any of our beers for any reason."
A-B's LUIZ EDMOND FIGHTS BACK IN OHIO
Lot of fighting back by A-B today. Recall that the Ohio legislature unanimously passed a branch ban bill last week in both houses. The bill grandfathers A-B's Canton, OH branch in, and limits expansion to a brewer owning other branches. (see BBD 04-19-2013).
To say the least, A-B is not happy about it. In a scorcher of a letter to the House speaker and Senate president obtained by BBD through nefarious yet (I stress) legal means, AB InBev North American chief Luiz Edmond asks them to repeal the measure or for Gov. Kasich to veto it, and he asks for an answer "by the close of business today" (letter dated April 22).
"Last week, in the space of four hours, the Ohio General Assembly introduced and voted upon, totally without public notice or input, or the opportunity for my company and others to comment, legislation which reverses 30 years of established law in Ohio," writes Luiz. "It did this all without any showing whatsoever of any problem requiring legislative action, for the sole benefit of wholesalers who sought the change." Luiz maintains that the legislation would "wipe out contract language of great value to Anheuser-Busch and other brewers obtained in good faith over decades of successful business partnerships between our companies and the companies that wholesale our products. Essentially, Anheuser-Busch has obtained a contractual right to purchase a wholesale distributor, in the event the distributor voluntarily decides to sell, a right that is important in preserving our path to market for our products. The bill would directly and substantially impair that contract right.
"We believe this is a move by large wholesalers to eliminate a potential competitor as they seek to expand their businesses through acquisition. In others words, it is a direct intervention by the General Assembly in favor of one group of parties in competitive business situations...To make matters worse, the legislation was passed in complete violation of normal legislative procedure, and outside the boundaries of basic fairness and respect for a corporate employer in your state."
Luiz also contends that several Ohio legislators were inaccurately told that A-B has signed off on the legislation. He asks them to "press the reset button" and "restore the status quo." Luiz also fears that this legislation makes it appear nationally that a "well-funded lobby...has succeeded in perverting the legislative process in Ohio in a way that is anti-competitive and violates" the Ohio Constitution. Luiz warns that this will harm "Ohio's reputation as a business-friendly state" and the General Assembly's reputation at a time when the public "unfortunately is cynical anyway."
Luiz also issued a warning of sorts, noting that A-B owns a large brewery in Columbus employing 700 people and pays $32 million in Ohio income and excise taxes, and it gives to charity in the state. If legislators or the governor don't do anything, "this legislation will have a direct and immediate impact on our future investments in the state." Wow.
Recall that Ohio has been a thorn in A-B's side since its distributors there took on Yuengling and it grew to record share in a short amount of time. A-B likely would like to own more branches there to mitigate its effect or at least prevent it from happening again.
For its part, MillerCoors doesn't support the legislation either because they believe the grandfathering of A-B's branch in Canton gives it a competitive advantage, and MillerCoors wasn't included in the process as it normally is with wholesalers on key state legislation.
Recall that the DOJ, as part of the Modelo deal, has required that A-B must notify them if they acquire a distribution license of a company over $3 million in annual gross revenues. Will the DOJ limit A-B's ability to acquire branches, regardless of how the Ohio bill progresses?
MORE ABI - PEPSI SPECULATION
A PepsiCo merger with big snack food company Mondelez could could motivate it to sell off its beverage business for as much as $60 billion, possible to ABI, Bernstein analyst Steve Powers told just-drinks. "The potential buyers are not a very long list, but people who are expected to have a possible interest are ABI, probably as the leading candidate," he said.
We should note that ABI execs have downplayed such a possibility in the past, and that ABI will be busy bringing Modelo into the fold and paying down that debt.
FRANCHISE WARS IN MISSOURI HEAT UP
Things in Missouri are nearing a boiling point as suppliers, distributors and their attachees fight it out in the court, the legislature and the media. While most of the action in Missouri involves wine and spirits, it could equally be applied to beer.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN: At the epicenter of this issue is the 2011 lawsuit Missouri Beverage Company v. Shelton Brothers. Missouri Beverage (MoBev) sued Shelton, claiming that the importer unlawfully terminated their franchise agreement after Shelton sent a letter removing MoBev as its Missouri distributor. A lower district court sided with Shelton, and ultimately the Eighth Circuit court of appeals ruled in 2012 that "the general definition of 'franchise' applies to liquor supplier-wholesaler business relationships" in the state. In other words, Missouri doesn't have an alcohol-specific franchise law, so it gets lumped in the general franchise law language, which the appeals court ruled did not protect MoBev. Writes Judge Wollman (who ironically is the same judge overseeing the Southern Wine & Spirits residency requirement appeal): "Shelton and MoBev's relationship was not that of franchisor-franchisee under Missouri law."
While all this was going on, Southern Wine & Spirits sued the state to overthrow Missouri's residency requirement. With no franchise law, Southern stands to gain suppliers currently with Major and Glazer's. However, you'll recall that a district court ruled against Southern, and currently they are going through the appeals process.
CORRECTIVE LEGISLATION: So what does the MoBev v. Shelton Bros decision mean? Missouri doesn't really have a franchise law protecting wholesalers as it was once understood. Major Brands' and Glazer's reaction in 2012 was to push legislation that would reestablish the original definition of franchise, thus making it much harder for its suppliers to pull their business.
Last year SB 837 sought to accomplish this goal, but was ultimately vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon in July. In his veto letter, the governor said one of his primary concerns was that the franchise law would threaten the future growth of Missouri wineries and cripple the market for Missouri-made soy-based beer. The other concern he expressed is the disturbance in the balance of powers between suppliers and distributors when it comes to negotiating distribution contracts.
"Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 837 goes much further than a mere declaration or clarification of legislative intent," wrote the governor. "The bill changes the substantive definition of a franchise -- a change that appears inconsistent with the legislative intent of the existing law as indicated by the clear meaning of its text."
But if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. So Major Brands is again pushing corrective legislation that has some variations from the 2012 bill. Interestingly, Glazer's is no longer backing the legislation, and is instead fighting it.
The corrective legislation is in the form of twin bills , which are nearly identical to SB 837, that are currently sitting in their respective chambers. HB 759 passed a vote from the General Laws Committee last week, but has not yet left the committee. SB 365 was also passed in the Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment Committee and remains there.
The bills' aim is this: "to [modify] the definition of franchise under Missouri franchise law, specifically for agreements between alcohol wholesalers and suppliers so that a franchise may exist even without a license to use a trade name, trademark, or service mark and regardless if there is a community of interest in the marketing of the products." But in this year's bills, the governor's concerns about Missouri wineries has been addressed with a franchise exception for wineries selling 10,000 cases or less. Winery groups statewide are reportedly on board with the bills.
Meanwhile, DISCUS has come out against the legislation. "Almost the same bill was vetoed last year by the governor, and now it's being brought forward by basically one wholesaler," says Dale Szyndrowski, vp of the council's Central region office of government relations. "Major Brands is trying to lock-in our suppliers on perpetuity."
THE FALLOUT: As you well know, this sequence of events has led to several lawsuits pitting suppliers against distributors. Here's a quick recap of WSD's past coverage. In January, Pernod Ricard USA filed a lawsuit attempting to terminate agreements with both its distributors (Major Brands and Glazer's) for refusing to compete for its entire business. In April, Pernod made an announcement that it has chosen Major Brands to be its exclusive distributors in the state. However, the lawsuit has not been terminated and currently Pernod does not have plans to do so.
In March -- within one day of each other -- Bacardi USA and Diageo Americas filed lawsuits to terminate their respective distribution contracts with Major Brands. Both of these companies claim the contracts should fall under the laws of different states, more specifically Florida for Bacardi and Connecticut for Diageo. Unsurprisingly, neither one have strict franchise laws.
The most recent lawsuit is from Missouri distributor Garco Wine Company, which has filed a lawsuit against Constellation Brands alleging that Constellation gave a notice of termination on March 25 without good cause. Recall Constellation asked its distributors (Major, Glazer's and Garco) in the state to compete for its brands' exclusive business. "Garco believes collusion may be occurring within and amongst suppliers of wine and spirits to restrict competition in Missouri," said the company.
LUXCO GETS INVOLVED: St. Louis-based spirits company Luxco also got involved last month when Major Brands filed a lawsuit against it for terminating its distribution contract in attempt to move its brands to Glazer's. Note, Luxco represents 1% of Major Brand's spirits business and overall business.
MAJOR BRANDS SPEAKS: This is where it gets really interesting. Sue McCullom, ceo of Major Brands, said she thinks Glazer's is behind the flurry of suppliers trying to pull out of their contract. "We felt that Luxco, like others, was prompted by Glazer's to terminate Major Brands wrongfully as Luxco stated no cause whatsoever for [termination]," she said.
If the aforementioned lawsuits against Major Brands succeed, it will be a huge blow to the company. Sue says 56% of Major Brands' spirits and 42% of the overall business is at risk. "How it works is this: if 40% of the bottles we put on the truck [would be gone], do we need as many trucks? Do we need as many people?" she told The Missouri Times.
Sue added that Missouri's franchise laws have been just fine for the last 40 years. "It's unprecedented in the industry," she said. "It's the liquor wars. They saw they could come in and control the Missouri market, and they took the opportunity."
Sue also testified during a hearing for SB 837 and HB 759s, where she dismissed any rumors that she was looking to sell Major Brands. "Of course I'm not," she said. "My company is not for sale. I will come down here every day to dispel that rumor . There's only one person who can decide if this company is for sale, and that's me. The reason the opposition keeps saying that is because they want to throw up a smoke screen."
Until tomorrow, Harry
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I am happy and proud to say that the ICAR-NRCB has done exceptionally well in responding to the constraints and limitations posed by Covid-19 ...
28th Foundation Day was celebrated at ICAR-NRCB on 21st August 2021
NRCB - aligns improved Banana Value Chain (BVC) and Marketing for the futuristic development of banana sector -
NRCB’s new vision on Foundation Day
ICAR - National Research centre for Banana (Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Awardee 2020) focused its new vision on improved Banana Value Chain (BVC) and marketing strategies during the 28th Foundation Day celebration on 21st August 2021 which was held in a virtual platform. Dr. S. Uma, in her presidential address mentioned that ICAR-NRCB has made commendable contributions in basic, strategic and applied research with the technology development and dissemination for the holistic and sustainable development of banana agriculture in the country. The institute brought a sea change in banana cultivation by introducing banana improvement, production, protection and post-harvest technologies. Banana undergoes BVC 1 and BVC 2. BVC 1 is known as the traditional value chain in which small farmers sell their products in nearby market destinations. BVC 2 - the state of art value chain in which farmers sell their produce to both major and independent dealers. Still the approach of BVC has to be improved in order to double the farmers'income. Hence, the institute is bringing its focus towards improved Banana Value Chain (BVC) and its marketing.
Chief Guest Dr. A. K. Singh, Deputy Director General (Hort. Science), ICAR, New Delhi conveyed his best wishes to ICAR-NRCB for its commendable research and development. He mentioned that taking the banana cultivation to next level by including cutting edge technologies viz., AI, IOT and complete transparent marketing system. Further, he suggested post-harvest value addition with modern market technologies to enhance the export potential and tripling the farmer's income.
By releasing the Institute's various publications and five podcasts, Chief guest Dr. S. K. Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Govt. of India conveyed his best wishes to ICAR-NRCB. He mentioned the nutritional importance of banana for human health and need to increase the banana export potential by promoting the "Cluster Approach". Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat; the importance of branding has been getting momentum for all the products and One District One Product (ODOP) programme, the small and medium scale industries development has been well taken. Under this programme Trichy and Theni districts were covered under ODOP for banana development. Further, he suggested that TC plants for uniform growth and development to attract lucrative prices in export market, bio-stimulants to ensure quality planting material, expansion of label claim for newer chemical molecules to prevent the misappropriate use of unapproved chemicals in banana cultivation. For holistic development "Banana Net" has also been in thought.
In the function; to recognise the achievements of different stake holders, twelve different awards viz., best farmers, best FPOs, best technology disseminators, best KVKs, best entrepreneur, best business initiative, best Institute's employees' awards were bestowed. Different Hackathon Innovative ideas were awarded in banana production, processing and marketing.
Padma Shri Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai, Former Director, ISRO; Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh, Director, IIM, Tiruchirappalli; Dr. M. Selvam, Vice Chancellor, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli and Dr. B. K. Pandey, Assistant Director General (Hort. Science-II), ICAR, New Delhi were the Guests of Honour. They have conveyed their best wishes and appreciated the theme selected for the Foundation Day.


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Advertiser: Samsung Brand: Samsung Creative Agency: - Credits: -
Samsung was about launch the Galaxy S7 Edge with cutting-edge feature. Having already captured most of the high-end Android market, they set their sights on a new group: iPhone users. The latter, however, are not easily persuaded and are famously anti-anything-to-do-with-Android.
Insight, Strategy and the Idea
So if they won’t listen to us, who will they listen to? We discovered some not-so-surprising facts about Apple fans: 1. They want to know the latest trends (Fear of Missing Out) 2. They love Korean dramas From here, we developed a simple strategy: Can a ‘lost’ phone help users find a new phone? We contacted popular Korea Running Man host Lee Kwang Soo. Through his manager, we persuaded KS to come to Malaysia and while here, to ‘lose’ his precious phone.
PRE-LAUNCH When fans heard about his planned visit, they were over the moon. When KS ‘lost’ his phone on an earlier secret visit, they searched everywhere under the sun. His manager contacted online news portal ‘Cari’ and told them about his lost phone. It was filled with thousands of photos (This gave us an opportunity to talk about storage). Meanwhile, KS posted the last pic he shot- a night scene at KLCC (NightShot capture highlighted). On YouTube, he asked Malaysians for assistance. We also recruited 100 influencers to help ‘find’ but more importantly, talk about the phone. They amplified the hunt with #FindingLKSPhone. This hashtag trended on Instagram and Twitter with 4,950 views 2 days before launch, a fan found KS’s phone in the KLCC fountain (Waterproof feature highlighted). Our KOLs spread the word online. An ecstatic KS announced on social media he would definitely be coming to Malaysia. LAUNCH And he did- all the way to Suria KLCC for the Galaxy S7 launch! The mall was packed with an estimated 10,000 fans. The event was supported by 360 media: DIGITAL – Key features of the phone were highlighted in large video spaces in high traffic areas. Concurrently, we also had Facebook carousel ads and a 1-day YouTube Masthead takeover. RADIO – live-reads were used to amplify the hunt for the lost phone. The announcers lend their voice to be influencers and promoted the #FindingLKSPhone. NEWSPAPERS- Jacket wraps announced the launch of the new Galaxy S7 Edge. TV- The launch covered by 8TV, TV3 and Astro AE news. As well, we made sure the event was sandwiched between the highest rating sections of the News program. SPONSORSHIP- Samsung sponsored TV3’s Drama Festival Kuala Lumpur, which took place a day after the official launch. This created high awareness and association with award-winning films that highlighted the phone’s exceptional picture quality. Brand presence extended from on-air to on-ground. Our hosts talked about key features of the Galaxy S7 Edge to a packed audience.
Results and Effectiveness
In 2 weeks, Samsung Galaxy S7 phone’s brand recall rate jumped 30%. Sales sharply increased, over-achieved targets by 20%. The limited edition promotion bundle with Gear VR sold out in 3 hours.


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At MaGIC’s online E-Nation, we sat in on Agility and Adaptability: Speeding Up The Innovation and Pivoting Strategies.
The panel was moderated by Dr. Sivapalan Vivekarajah, co-founder & Senior Partner, ScaleUp Malaysia Accelerator.
3 panellists from homegrown tech startups were invited to share their experiences with how they adapted their companies to this pandemic. They were:
- Wai Hong Fong, Chieftain and co-founder of StoreHub
- Ang Xing Xian, co-founder and CEO of CapBay
- Lennise Ng, CEO of Dropee
They shared their experiences as leaders of tech startups and how they managed to weather the storm during fast-changing times like these for both their businesses and customers.
“No matter what’s happening out there, there are always opportunities and you have to look for those opportunities. When you have those opportunities, you can build successful companies,” Dr. Siva deduced from their sharing.
1. Taking An Existing Solution And Making It Better
Digitising one’s business was a choice before the pandemic hit, and now everyone is pushed to learn how to be more tech-savvy to adapt to moving online.
“There are 2 types of individuals here. For those who are more tech-savvy, they actually survive or at least they are thriving during this period.”
“But for those who are less tech-savvy, they are actually struggling a little bit to actually adopt this,” said Lennise.
Hence, these startups took it upon themselves to move from a backend system to a frontend one to help their customers with cash flow.
For StoreHub, Wai Hong recognised the difficulties that their F&B customers would face with going online, as they’d have to rely on major delivery platforms.
“The challenge here is, with all the other major delivery platforms, they actually charge like 25-30% on the total order value to these restaurants. So their margins are big, one-third of it is gone.”
“If you’ve actually run a restaurant business before, you will realise that that’s not sustainable at all,” Wai Hong shared.
Beep allowed their restaurants to liaise directly with customers and not be limited by the distance that’s usually set by other major food delivery companies.
“We barely spent any marketing dollars but there are over half a million transactions going into restaurants that’s cash flow going into biz,” he said.
2. Solving Your Customers’ New Problems = Company Growth
CapBay recognised a problem in the decrease of financing early payments as businesses were no longer supplying to each other as much anymore.
While they didn’t have the expertise in loaning, they identified 2 places in which they could be of most help.
Firstly, CapBay paid off government tenders for companies.
Secondly, they rolled out different types of financing with slightly longer terms to allow businesses to buffer the cash flow during the pandemic.
“We probably have the highest growth during this whole quarter,” shared Xing Xian, thanks to the new business opportunities for CapBay to take on.
Slightly before COVID-19 hit, Dropee was seeing a surge in business demanding for their P2P e-commerce solutions.
3. Smartly Grabbing Opportunities That Come By
Wholesalers needed to connect directly with their customers online to understand what inventories move the fastest and what financial problems they currently had.
This was important for the wholesalers to decide what products to recommend and how much credit terms to provide them with to extend their cash flow.
Dropee’s investors saw this as an opportunity to grow, and that’s how Dropee raised quickly and closed the funding round.
“In fact, this was actually our fastest round of raising, we raised within 1 ½ months,” Lennise shared.
4. Talent Matters When It Comes To Growing The Biz
Dropee’s growth in business led to growth in team size as well.
Before the pandemic, they were a team of 20, then they doubled and are now close to 40, and are still hiring out there, most specifically engineers.
StoreHub also realised this opportunity in growing their team as well.
“We have a team of 10 people in our HR right now in our company, and they saw a massive opportunity for COVID-19, with the amount of talent being released into the market,” he shared.
They currently have 20 positions open and were able to get 3,000-4,000 candidates applying for jobs at StoreHub within a week.
“There are a lot of talents to be released right now. A lot in the hospitality sector, a lot of people there that not a lot of us tech entrepreneurs necessarily get access to in the past,” said Wai Hong.
5. Doing What’s Necessary To Keep Your Team On The Right Path
While growth has been plentiful for these tech entrepreneurs, they still made sure to regularly align their employees with the company’s goal and growth, especially with working remotely.
One thing that Xing Xian found helpful was to set and communicate the company’s direction upfront to keep everyone on course with the company’s goal.
Setting that is very important for his employees to be aware that even if the executions are changing, the direction is not.
Wai Hong, on the other hand, believes in the importance of “radical candor” when it comes to leading StoreHub towards growth.
“We all want to move fast but we’re not willing to pay the price of what it takes to move fast effectively, and that is oftentimes stepping on people’s toes and being able to say things people don’t like.”
Instead of beating around the bush and being unwilling to call things out, Wai Hong believes in the opposite to truly drive a company in moving fast efficiently.
- If you’ve missed out on attending E-Nation this year, you can still access this session and others after registering here.
- You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.


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Chinese consumers come up with more ways to personalise their world
It should be no surprise for those who have been to China, or ever met a Chinese person, to know that they like taking self-portraits with the cameras on their phones. It is also part of the broader, global trend that we’ve dubbed Selfie, where consumers strive to personalise their world through projecting their own image, words or ideas onto products and services.
Cameron selfie with Jack Ma (the owner of Alibaba)
In China, the broader Selfie trend seems to have few gender, age, geographical or industry differences. In China, the message that “I am different and special” seems to be an especially important one to convey through lifestyle, clothing, cars and drinks.
For instance, Taobao, the largest e-commerce business in the world and the Chinese equivalent of Amazon, bought 12 production lines to produce customised homeware electronic devices, which on the first day of sale in China sold 180,000 units.
Taobao front page showing the process of customised services and products
In the wine world, observant businesses have also seen this trend and responded accordingly. It is now quite common to see “customised label” wines appearing with more personal messages, particularly as wine remains closely connected with celebrations such as weddings, birthdays and Chinese New Year. These are generally made from bulk wines that have been bottled and labelled locally.
Wine picture with wedding couple’s picture
Wine with Chinese new year message and pictures of the gift receiver
Clearly, putting customers’ photos on wine bottles won’t work for everyone, and it is probably no more than a niche market. However the broader point is still valid; successful brands in China look at consumers’ needs and trends and respond to those needs carefully, thoughtfully – and sometimes individually. Taobao’s personalised electricals business started by using customer data to analyse what they wanted to buy, what colour preferences they had, what functions do they want to produce the best combination. This is now the Chinese consumers’ expectation; they want to see a brand that cares about their needs, address them individually and personally and can reflect their image in a positive way


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Special purpose acquisition companies have been hot this year, but the traditional initial public offering is closing out the year even stronger. Performance of traditional IPOs has outpaced SPACs throughout the fourth quarter, and this month is anticipated to be the biggest December on record for IPOs, according to Bloomberg.
All of this shows that while SPACs are becoming a more common route to going public, the IPO is not going away anytime soon. That was especially evident this week as Airbnb and DoorDash had public debuts that smashed expectations.
Airbnb debuted Thursday at $146 per share, a nearly 115% surge above its $68 offering price. The vacation rental company now has a $101 billion valuation, the largest-ever first-day pop of any U.S. IPO that has raised over $1 billion.
On Wednesday, DoorDash opened at $182 per share, far exceeding the IPO price of $102. This pop means that DoorDash – which raised $3.37 billion – joins Airbnb as one of the top IPOs of 2020, along with Snowflake and ZoomInfo, which had 104% and 90% pops upon their IPOs, respectively.


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If you keep up with the Apple news these days, then you've probably heard that services are the future growth area for the company. You've probably heard it everywhere and often, including here. It is here the company projects to generate the extra revenue that iPhone used to have covered before the smartphone market as a whole resigned. Not even the mighty iPhone is immune to it, as we finally saw last quarter.
So what has an AI voice start to do with services? Everything. AI and machine learning are the heart of modern service organizer architecture. How does Amazon know what to recommend? How does Netflix know which ones to promote? How does Spotify create its playlists and recommend new artists? You guessed it.
Apple does this already in many areas, of course. For example, they also use AI and machine learning for recommendations and radio station setups in Apple Music. They use it in Apple News to show stories to you based on your preferences. We also see it in the App Store in recommendations and searches. All that said, AI and machine learning have never been seen as strengths on Apple.
Nowhere is Apple's deficiencies in AI and machine learning more obvious than when it comes to Siri. While it can be argued that Siri has improved in some ways over the years, there is still much to be desired. The addition of Siri Shortcuts in iOS1
When you consider that Amazon and Google are two of Apple's biggest competitors in this new service landscape, the shortcomings of Siri voice technology are a problem. They are both more effective in delivering value and running more use of their services using speech based AI. Apple has to figure out a way to bridge this big gap. THIS is why the Pullstring acquisition is so important to Apple.
Yes, pulley is best known for use in toys, but they are not toys. They specialized in providing effective and engaging AI-based speech technology for talking toys, such as Hello Barbie. But if you look at the Pullstring website, you can see that their expertise goes well beyond toys. Lately, they have also provided voice mail for Amazon Alexa, Google Home and other platforms covering all types of applications. This is exactly the kind of expertise Apple needs to bring home right now.
For me, Apple marketing John Giannandrea is his executive team as S senior vice president of machine learning and AI Strategy, showing that the company finally takes AI and machine learning as seriously as they should. Again, if their long-term future profits and growth come from services, they need to quickly improve in those areas so it's time. I see Apple's acquisition of Pullstring as another extension of this. They need to stop talking about making Siri better and actually doing it, and now they have what seems to be the right one for that job.


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“Halloween” Digital Art Contest
Pixarra is pleasant to announce the new edition of its digital art contest this time themed “Halloween”, calling for artists amateur and professional alike to participate.
Pixarra’s “Halloween” Digital Art Contest is a new edition of international digital art contest recently announced by the famouse company Pixarra inviting all 2D and 3D artists from around the world to show their art.
Donor name: Pixarra
Funding details: There are awards;
The winners will be selected by representatives of Pixarra, and will receive the following prizes:
First Place: TwistedBrush Pro Studio 24
Second Place: Pixarra Studio Bundle 3
Third Place: Pixarra Studio Product (Paint Studio, Tree Studio, Blob Studio, Liquid Studio, Luminance Studio, Pixel Studio or Selfie Studio) by choice
2. The determinative criteria will be: quality, technique and thematic relevance.
3. The Winners will be announced on the Organizer’s website and social media, on October 24, 2020. The Winners will be informed personally via email.
4. If the top Artworks are deemed to be invalid by any reason or the Winners don’t respond within 72 hours after being contacted by the Organizer, alternate winners will be selected.
There are no entry fees.
Apply link: https://www.pixarra.com/competition.html
Official link: https://www.pixarra.com/rules.html
Deadline: 21 October 2020


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Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi and Emily McCormick discuss which stocks are making big moves in the market today.
EMILY MCCORMICK: Well, another company that we're watching trying to shake off losses this morning is Disney. Now we're seeing those shares moving up about 1% in the pre-market session after a more than 4% drop yesterday. Now a couple of negative headlines coming out from the entertainment giant yesterday, Brian. We had CEO Bob Chapek speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference.
And during that, he said that he expects production delays for new content will impact fourth quarter results, and that Wall Street should expect a low single digit millions increase in streaming subscribers for the period, which was also below estimates. Now, of course, Brian, we know that Disney tends to be trading on its Disney Plus subscriber numbers on those net subscriber additions, especially as we still have those parks and resorts businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, definitely not a lot of good news here coming out from the company on the streaming front.
BRIAN SOZZI: Now, you're right on the mark, Emily. This stock, Disney shares, have traded on Disney Plus subscribers really for going on two years, and the company has its own self to blame for that. They have hyped Disney Plus for over a year, it's amazingness, all the content on it, the low price, the subscribers. It's really one of the only things they talk about on their earnings call now, and the parks are secondary.
So, if that is in fact slowing down, and it has, according to Chapek, which ultimately brings the question, where else is the business slowing down and what else is happening inside of Disney right now because of the ongoing pandemic? Are you worried about what the company reports when it reports earnings in a couple of weeks? But if you're a believer in the market knows everything, price is truth in the stock market, I can't say that you would be surprised by what Bob Chapek had to say here.
Disney shares is down about 11% over the past six months, according to our five friends at Yahoo Finance. Plus, I mean, you have the broader market up double digits over that same time span, so the market, at least, is saying it is concerned about a slowdown in subscribers on Disney Plus, concern that the Park recovery that was also hyped when Disney reported a couple of months ago, that may not be recovering to the extent it should be because of the ongoing pandemic, of course, current concerns about the Delta variant.
And then secondarily, Emily, off this commentary from Disney, I will be concerned if you own some shares of Netflix here. You've written that stock price up a month and a half year. And if Disney is worrying about content production delays because of COVID, why shouldn't or wouldn't that be the case over at Netflix?
EMILY MCCORMICK: I think you're absolutely right, Brian. And you know, we should point out that we did see Netflix's stock come down just about 0.4% yesterday, so not even near the magnitude that we saw with that more than 4% incline in Disney. But it's clear here that Wall Street is now even more heavily focused on, what are the subscriber numbers going to look like for Netflix? We've seen those really disappoint so far in 2021, and Netflix really has boxed itself into this sort of metric dilemma where the thing that Wall Street is focusing on is those net subscriber additions.
And of course, the fact that Netflix has been around for quite some time now, it is really that legacy streamer when we think about some of these other newer competition that came in from Disney Plus to the Peacock with NBC Universal. It really goes to show here that when you hit a certain point of saturation, it does, of course, become more difficult to actually bring on additional subscribers, whereas Disney Plus perhaps has a little bit more run room on those subscriber gains.
BRIAN SOZZI: Emily, I'm getting a little push back from our producer Val on my thesis there in Disney. Correctly, she is putting that at Netflix has more new content, and that will be ultimately showed off in about two days at Netflix's first ever fan event. Point well taken, you know. I don't know everything.
EMILY MCCORMICK: Definitely fair. And of course, as we've been talking about for the streaming wars, it really does come down to content. Who has the best content, who has the best talent, and who is ultimately able to bring on and retain those users. But real quick, Brian, I want to highlight one other stock we're watching, Dave and Busters. We did just get news of an executive shakeup. It looks like CEO Brian Jenkins is retiring.
BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah. This one coming out of the blue, I would argue, Emily. David and Busters, we just talked about it a couple of weeks ago, much better than expected comeback quarter as people got back out there and went and play video games, skee ball, and got drunk at the Dave and Buster's bar and enjoyed the new menu. But overall, you're seeing a stock that under the leadership of the now outgoing CEO has under performed the broader market, so it could be time for change. It's interesting to see Kevin Sheehan appointed the interim CEO.
He was the chairman of the company. I remember talking to him when he was the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line several years ago. He's also a board member over a Gannett. Clearly, a very experienced executive to drive this company through this transition period.
EMILY MCCORMICK: Absolutely, Brian. And we do have the opening bell now, this morning, this Wednesday morning, September 22. It's looking like we are going to be getting a higher open today on Wall Street. And this morning, we can see here, we have the restaurant tech company Toast ringing the opening bell. The company makes a point of sale systems for restaurants. It also just priced this initial public offering yesterday at $40 a share to raise about $870 million, and those shares are going to start trading today.
We should also note that we have Toast Chief Financial Officer Elena Gomez on with us in the next hour of our program here on Yahoo Finance Live. Now, Brian, one other stock that I do want to highlight this morning as we have the dust settling around these opening trades for the major stock indexes is General Mills. And earlier on the show, we were talking about companies reporting earnings results. General Mills is in that bucket of stocks that did top expectations here.
And one point that I really want to highlight is in General Mills convenience stores and food service net sales. And of course, that is a little bit of a smaller part of the business right now, bringing in $482.4 million, that was above expectations. And of course, again, small drop in the bucket here compared to overall net sales of $4.5 billion. But the really interesting thing about this metric, Brian, is that we actually style this top levels from the same quarter in 2019.
And with a lot of these food companies, we have been seeing them under pressure in these food service, in these restaurant, and convenience store sides of their business because of a lack of consumer mobility during the pandemic. But at least for General Mills, it looks like they're trending in the right direction here and getting back above those pre-pandemic levels.
BRIAN SOZZI: Such an important point there, Emily, and you're right. And because of that comeback in the convenience store, their snacks business, those portable treats that they sell, snack bars, et cetera, that turned around a little bit has me would have me keen on kicking the powers on Hostess Brands, you know. Realistically, if that convenience store channel is working for General Mills, it is likely working for many other companies.
And also, a company like a Hostess Brands that thrives on that convenience store shopper, other a couple of other things to point out to from this General Mills report. I always enjoy reading this company's earnings profit margins. Gross profit margin is down 120 basis points in large part, because of inflation. So, another company warning today that they are continuing to see high levels inflation, whether it's in food, workers, you name it. And of course, the other one would be FedEx this morning warning about inflation.
Also, this one for our producer Pam Grande, the pet business, very strong for General Mills in the most recent quarter. They operate through their Blue Buffalo line of pet food primarily. Volume in the pet food business for General Mills, up 13 percentage points in the most recent quarter, very good. Again, immediately, if you're trying to link some trades together and think about other companies who could be seeing continued strong pet demand because of strong pet adoption during the pandemic, obviously, you're looking for our Chewy.
EMILY MCCORMICK: Absolutely, Brian. And again, we are seeing General Mills shares now extending those overnight declines up nearly 2% as we speak. But again, a lot coming out here from the earnings front for a lot of these major companies.


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For iPad Pro owners who have been searching for a case option compatible with the Magic Keyboard, Pad & Quill has debuted its Copertina Magic Cases, available for both the 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models.
The Copertina Magic Cases fit over the Magic Keyboard and iPad Pro combo, providing protection for both. The Copertina Magic Case adds minimal bulk to the iPad and Magic Keyboard combination, and it comes with an optional interior pocket.
The cover is made from a linen material in gray, and there is room to charge the Apple Pencil inside the case. The Copertina is available in 11 and 12.9-inch sizes, with the 11-inch Copertina case priced at $90 and the 12.9-inch Copertina case priced at $100. An additional 15 percent off is available with the promo code PQ15.
The cases are available for pre-order as of today, and Pad & Quill plans to begin shipping them out on May 17.
Note that Pad & Quill’s case does fits over both the iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard rather than attaching to the iPad Pro directly. Customers who want a case that fits on the iPad Pro and that can be used with the Magic Keyboard attachment should check out this MacRumors forum thread, where members discuss options that fit.
For those who are just looking for a simple iPad Pro case, Pad & Quill also offers the Contega, a case that’s similar to the Copertina but without the support for the Magic Keyboard. The Contega is available in an 11-inch model for $100 and a 12.9-inch model for $110.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Pad & Quill. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
iPhone 12 Pro Rumored to Feature 120Hz ProMotion Display, 3x Camera Zoom, and Improved Face ID
iPhone 12 Pro may contain a 120Hz ProMotion Display, a 3x rear camera zoom, and improved Face ID, according to unreliable leaker Max Weinbach, who shared his information with YouTube channel EverythingApplePro.
Weinbach suggests that iPhone 12 Pro, rumored to come in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes, will feature a high refresh-rate 120Hz ProMotion display, as currently seen on iPad Pro. The new…
Apple Reportedly Seeking to Move Significantly More Production From China to India
In a bid to reduce its reliance on China as a base for operations, Apple could be planning to produce up to $40 billion worth of smartphones in India through contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn, reports The Indian Economic Times.
Several meetings between Apple’s senior executives and top ranking government officials over the last few months have paved the way for the iPhone maker…
Top Stories: New 13″ MacBook Pro, WWDC Starts June 22, AirPods Pro Firmware Update, and More
This week saw a couple of big announcements, led by the launch of an update for the 13-inch MacBook Pro line. Most notably, the update brought the improved Magic Keyboard previously introduced on its 16-inch sibling and the MacBook Air, with high-end models also receiving updated processors.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The second significant announcement this…
14-Inch MacBook Pro Now Rumored to Launch in 2021
Ever since Apple discontinued the 15-inch MacBook Pro in favor of a new 16-inch model with slimmer bezels last year, the natural assumption has been that a 14-inch MacBook Pro will eventually replace the 13-inch model.
Apple ended up sticking with the same size display when it refreshed the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Magic Keyboard and faster processor options earlier this month, but a…
Apple Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over ‘Flexgate’ Issue With MacBook Pro Displays
A nationwide class action lawsuit filed against Apple in Northern California court this week accuses the company of knowingly concealing a defect with a display-related flex cable on recent 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models.
As discovered by repair website iFixit last year, some MacBook Pro models released in 2016 and 2017 have experienced issues with uneven backlighting caused by a…
Apple Updates AirPods Pro Firmware to Version 2D15
Apple today released a new firmware update for the AirPods Pro, upgrading the previous firmware, version 2C54 or 2B588, to the new firmware, 2D15.
There is no word on what’s new in the refreshed firmware at this time, though there have been some complaints from AirPods Pro users about Active Noise Cancellation issues with the prior firmware.
There’s no clear cut way to upgrade the…
Apple’s Over-Ear Headphones May Be Called ‘AirPods Studio’ and Cost $349
Apple’s rumored high-end over-ear headphones may be called “AirPods Studio” and retail for $349, according to Jon Prosser of YouTube channel Front Page Tech.
Artist rendition In keeping with the successful AirPods brand, the rumored “Studio” over-ear headphones would significantly diversify Apple’s AirPods lineup, which last added the in-ear AirPods Pro in October 2019. The supposed price…
Apple’s Greg Joswiak on AirPods Growth: ‘It Was Almost Like Wildfire’
Apple’s AirPods have been doing better than the company could have ever imagined, Apple’s Vice President of Product Marketing Greg Joswiak said in a new report by Wired. Joswiak notes how the growth of AirPods “was almost like wildfire.”
Joswiak touched upon Apple’s vision for a wireless future. Apple crossed a pivotal point in its push towards a wireless future with the controversial…
Rumor Claims watchOS 7 Will Have ‘Mental Health Capabilities’ to Detect Panic Attacks
Apple’s next-generation Apple Watch and watchOS 7 will focus on new mental health capabilities, according to leaker Jon Prosser who recently spoke on the Geared Up podcast. The mention of new Apple Watch features comes towards the end of the podcast.
The next-generation version of the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Series 6, has been rumored to include a blood oxygen sensor, which Prosser says …
DxOMark: iPhone 11 Front-Facing Camera ‘Decent’ but Misses Top 10
DxOMark this week published the results of its in-depth review of the iPhone 11’s 12MP front-facing camera. The device delivered “decent performance” and achieved an overall score of 91 points, but failed to make the overall top 10.
iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro share the same front-facing camera specifications, so the results are similar but with a number of key differences, such as focus…


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Mastering tee times online
BY SANDRA GUY email@example.com March 31, 2012 6:59AM
Updated: April 24, 2012 4:03PM
Three brothers who run their family’s construction equipment business are aiming to reinvent what critics consider a flawed business model for golfers to book tee-times online.
The Robertsons — Glenn, Struan and Brent, whose father, Alastair, founded Universal Equipment in Glen Ellyn — are launching back9booking.com on Saturday with two unique properties: The online booking service will be free to golfers, and will charge a flat commission per booking to golf-course owners.
Back9booking, based in the West Loop, has agreements with 45 golf course operators now, and expects to have 70 by year’s end.
The Robertsons — Brent, 26, the chief executive officer; Struan, 28, chief financial officer, and Glenn, 32, chief operating officer — say they aim to work with golf course operators as partners, and they started their company out of frustration with their own inability to quickly find a variety of courses.
The brothers faced a conundrum: Most golf courses permanently reserve tee-times on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The brothers couldn’t easily find a variety of courses within an hour’s drive where they could play four to five hours and come home.
“We ended up playing the same course over and over, missing other opportunities because we didn’t want to call all of these courses,” said Brent, who played in the Illinois Junior Golf Association as a teenager and worked at the Village Links of Glen Ellyn throughout high school and his early college years.
They started their business after they had spent a year and a half calling 40 to 50 golf course operators to see what the operators wanted in an online tee-booking system. Their startup focuses on making the interactive experience as simple as possible.
“The golf courses allow our company to incorporate our tee-reservation system with their back-end software so the reservations are made in real time and immediately posted online,” said Glenn.
The booking startup will go up against the biggest player in the industry, GolfNow, which is owned by the Golf Channel. GolfNow entered the industry four years ago by acquiring several independent companies, including GolfSwitch and Active Network.
GolfNow.com offers on-line tee times 24/7 at more than 120 Chicago-area golf courses and at 3,700 courses throughout North America, Ireland and the U.K.
GolfNow.com charges each golfer who books a tee-time online a $1.99 transaction fee for each booking. GolfNow receives one tee-time per day in revenue from each golf course in exchange for providing the booking service.
GolfNow.com also offers a weekly promotion via email during the golf season through its Deal Caddy (Dealcaddy.com) marketing arm. The weekly deals range from tee-times at certain courses to a weekend golf package to a deal on a subscription to Golf Digest magazine.
GolfNow spokesman Jeremy Friedman says the system, which drives nationwide publicity through the Golf Channel and GolfChannel.com, makes it easier for golfers to reserve tee times, helps the golf courses gain publicity in the growing social-media space and increases revenues at a rate the market will bear during down times.
Yet Jim Koppenhaver, president of golf-industry information provider Pullucid Corp., based in Buffalo Grove, says GolfNow’s method of selling select tee times at 50-percent discounts from the prevailing rate cards has driven down golf-course operators’ revenues, even though the operators agreed to those terms from the start.
A “dynamic tension” has emerged between GolfNow and other websites that list discounted tee times and the golf course operators because the discounters list low tee-time rates of, say $20, next to full $40 rates, which can confuse golfers, forcing golf-course operators into a race to the bottom, Koppenhaver said.
The result is that golf course operators, already clobbered by the recession, have cut back their spending on maintenance and labor, he said.
“This is a place where the golf industry shot itself in the foot,” Koppenhaver said.
“If a tee-time reservations site would operate on a commission or fixed-fee service, the courses would have recourse against the barter game,” Koppenhaver said.
Despite the latest innovations, the golf industry still must overcome a shrinking customer base, which Koppenhaver also blames on the industry.
Nationwide, golf courses lost 10 percent of their golfers between 2001 and 2010, now numbering 26.3 million, and 10 percent of their booked rounds from 2001 to 2011, according to Pellucid Corp.’s surveys.
Koppenhaver believes the USGA, which sets golfing rules nationwide, should loosen its playing rules, dress code and golf-club requirements to let more people play recreationally.
“People don’t like to play recreational activities they’re not very good at,” he said. “The golf industry should allow equipment that would make it easier for someone to hit the ball and get it in the air, hit a couple good shots and have a good time without having to take 100 lessons.”
Tom Denklau, PGA director of golf for Hilton-Chicago Indian Lakes Resort in west suburban Bloomingdale, said he welcomes Back9Booking as a way to reach new golfers.
Denklau said 30 percent of the resort’s golf-course bookings are done online, and he expects the numbers to keep growing along with the course’s revenues.
Though Indian Lakes was hit by the recession and a pullback in business outings, Denklau said the resort is rebounding as it leverages its website and social media to tout its 27-hole golf course, unlimited-golf memberships, range-membership rates for late-afternoon and tween and teen golfers, 18-hole miniature golf course and non-golf options such as swimming pools, tennis courts, horseshoe pits, volleyball courts and restaurants and conference center.
“Golf courses no longer survive as corporate destinations where John Smith brings three of his clients,” Denklau said. “We’re trying to be as many things to as many people as possible.”


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If you drive a Nissan, there's a massive recall you'll want to know about.
The auto maker is recalling approximately 3.18 million vehicles in the U.S. because of an issue with the passenger-side airbag. Apparently, vehicle sensors may malfunction.
Nissan says they're aware of at least three crashes in which the airbag system didn't perform as design.
Nissan released the following statement regarding the recall.
Is your vehicle part of the recall? Click or tap to find out.


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To make good on their digital novella promise in the Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Fig campaign for anyone who was willing to pledge $65 or more, Obsidian Entertainment has teamed up with fantasy author Richard Knaak and mobile storytelling provider Bound to deliver both the novella and some ongoing digital fiction based in the Pillars of Eternity universe. According to the press release, we'll be getting the former later this year, and the latter will continue into next year:
Bound Teams With Obsidian Entertainment and NY Times Bestselling Fantasy Author Richard Knaak
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif., Oct. 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Today, mobile fiction platform Bound has announced a collaboration with video game company Obsidian Entertainment to publish a novella and a series of ongoing digital fiction stories set in the Pillars of Eternity universe as promised in the Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Fig campaign. New York Times and USA Today bestselling fantasy author Richard Knaak has been signed to pen the original stories. "How lucky are we?" said Matthew Hannus, cofounder of Bound. "We feel very fortunate to be able to bring legendary game maker Obsidian Entertainment together with master storyteller Richard Knaak."
"A big thank you again to our incredible backers, who have made it possible for us to tell even more stories within the Pillars of Eternity universe," says Obsidian Entertainment CEO, Feargus Urquhart. "As a huge reader of both Sci-Fi and Fantasy, it's personally exciting to me to have an author of such talent working in one of our worlds."
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment, and published by Versus Evil, that takes place in the fantasy world of Eora. Players will track a god across the Deadfire archipelago as their decisions change the story and lead to multiple outcomes. The original Pillars of Eternity received critical acclaim for its expansive world and immersive writing. The sequel raised $4.4m on crowdfunding website Fig and will be released on Windows PC, Mac and Linux in early 2018.
The first novella will launch later this year with more ongoing stories to follow. Those who backed at the appropriate tier during the Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire campaign will also receive the novella as a PDF and on Bound. Bound is available for free in the iOS App Store and will release on Android soon.


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Gamers were disappointed with the initial release of Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky but the developer intends to turn it around with new content and features. Recently, Hello Games released the foundation update that brought a slew of new content and now the studio is looking to staff up.
Hello Games has announced that they are looking for an experienced QA Tester, an experienced programmer, graduate programmer, and writer. The writer position is the most interesting one which indicates that a story mode for No Man’s Sky might be coming in the future.
However, Hello Games did not fully specify what role the writer will be playing in the development.
Recently, Hello Games released update 1.12 for No Man’s Sky which fixes some critical bugs.
- Fixed an issue which, in some rare cases, prevented NPCs from giving you mission critical dialogue.
- Fixed a bug which could cause core items to be transferred from exo-suit inventory to starship inventory.
- Fixed a number of rare crashes (if you continue to experience crashes, please send a crash report and include your crash dumps).
- Fixed an issue where underwater buildings could spawn without doors which in rare cases would mean the NPC missions could not be completed. (Note: If you are still being pointed to missing facilities during the NPC questlines, you can either claim a new base and re-build the NPC terminal, or if you have a Freighter, remove the NPC terminal from your base and rebuild it in the Freighter. The NPC should then give you new coordinates. We are still working on a more permanent fix for this issue).
Also, Advertising Standards Authority has cleared Hello Games from the allegation of false advertisement and has ruled that No Man’s Sky’s controversial Steam page did not mislead consumers. The ASA’s ruling is based on the assertion that No Man’s Sky is a procedurally generated game and no single gameplay experience is similar to another.
No Man’s Sky is a first-person space exploration game developed by Hello Games for PC and PlayStation 4.


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PV Guangzhou 2016 Successfully Round off With Oversea & Domestic Buyer Under One Roof Held by Guangdong Enterprises Association for Foreign Economic Cooperation, GD-HK Economic & Cooperation Exchange Association and Guangdong Grandeur International Exhibition Group, the 8th Guangzhou International Solar Photovoltaic Exhibition 2016 (PV Guangzhou 2016) came to a successful end on September 28th, at China Import and Export Fair Complex. This 3-day event received numbers of professional visitors from over 109 countries and regions.
PV Guangzhou 2016 Successfully Round off With Oversea & Domestic Buyer Under One Roof
PV Guangzhou has been held consecutively for 8 years. It is an important platform for the worlds PV enterprise to promote trade and brand images. Its exhibition scope covers every aspect of the industry, including raw materials, main and auxiliary materials, machinery and equipment, PV cells, PV modules, PV engineering and PV application products.
Gathering Renowned Enterprises and Breaking Record for Trade Volumes
In conformity to the development trend of Chinas PV industry, PV Guangzhou 2016 emphasized on distributed PV system and related modules. It attracted the attendance of more than 200 manufacturers of equipment, accessories, PV modules and one-stop contractors, such as SAJ, Yingli, Growatt, INVT, EAST, Lsource Technology, Afore, CSG, I-Panda, NPP, Techfine, Yujing, Allgrand Battery, Singfo Solar, BLTY, TTN, etc, with their top-of-the-line products. With bountiful business opportunities, the show successful drew in more visitors than last edition. Bustling with business talk and footsteps, PV Guangzhou 2016 witnessed numerous contracts signed on site and the birth of a new record for trade volumes.
Multiple Oversea Business Opportunities Came with International Buyers
As the country with the largest PV installed capacity, China is one of the biggest PV manufacturers and consumers in the world. Playing an important role in the global PV market, China drew the attention of countless oversea buyers. Thanks to the rapid development of Chinas domestic PV market in 2016, improvement of international trade environment and the encouragement given by new energy policy, Chinas industry is booming with ever-increasing capacity and productivity.
PV Guangzhou 2016, one of the most influential PV exhibition in South China, has attracted thousands of oversea purchasing groups to register as visitors, which has increased by 40% over last year, the origins of whom included countries and regions in America, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, such as USA, Canada, Peru, UK, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Australia, Congo, Egypt, South Africa, Korea, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, etc. The oversea distributors, contractors, PV application product producers, raw materials suppliers and accessory manufacturers, etc gathered here for products like PV cells, PV converters, PV support system, solar panels, etc, which gave exhibitors various business opportunities.
Colorful Concurrent Events Exploring Trends of PV Development
Two concurrent events were successfully rounded off at the conference hall and they were PV Guangzhou 2016 Business Festival and 2016 China Distributed PV Generation Development Forum & China PV Application Innovative Alliance Launch Ceremony, which was themed with "Introducing PV Into Thousands of Households, Generating Boundless Wealth". An audience of 200 guests attended these events. All seats were occupied. Some guests had to stand alongside to listen to the forum.
Mrs. Qin Qiongzhi, Chief Supervisor of China PV Application Innovation Alliance and Vice General Manager of Shenzhen Youmin PV Technology Co., Ltd., was invited to be the hostess. Mr. Hui Honglin, President of China PV Application Innovation Alliance and General Manager of Shenzhen Yingli New Energy Resources Co., Ltd, explained to everyone the reason for the establishment of the alliance, its development and significance. He pointed out that this alliance was a practice of the principle of PV application industry, which was "Connection, Trust, Platform and Ecology". In the age of entrepreneurship and innovation, it was important to explore innovative development path for the alliance. China PV Application Innovation Alliance would join hands with more enterprises to discover new ways of thinking, new methods, new approaches and new future. Later, Mr. Xue Liang, Rotating Chairman of China PV Application Innovation Alliance and General Manager of BLTY, analyzed the meaning of the alliances logo and presided over its release. Following Mrs. Qin Qiongzhis explanation on structure of the alliance, Mrs. Shi Qi, Acting Secretary-General of the alliance and General Manager of Nanjing Jukun PV Engineering Co., Ltd., elaborated on the rules and the goals of the alliance and other issues.
At the conference, the alliance issued initial member certificates to the president unit, vice president, chief supervisor and member units. In the end, China PV Application Innovation Alliance and Aolar culture together signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to jointly develop a healthy ecosphere for Chinas small and middle PV companies. They promised to contribute to the cause of introducing PV to thousands of Chinese households and helping residents to benefit from PV.
Under the new development situation, China will accelerate the industrialization of PV generation industry through subsidies, technological supports, market drive and effective commercial exchanges and cooperation to expand new market for PV industry, and provide an efficient platform for enterprises to promote and establish their brands. PV Guangzhou 2017 is scheduled on August 16th-18th, 2017 at China Import and Export Fair Complex and it will continue to serve as a bridge between Chinese and oversea insiders for commercial exchanges. See you next year!
You can catch all the latest PV Guangzhou news on the website http://www.pvguangzhou.com/index.php?lang=en, "follower us" on our Twitter page (@PVGuangzhou), or contact Ms. Eve Cheng via email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.org