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“The right-to-repair movement isn’t based on a preexisting right; it’s instead asking lawmakers to create a new right at the expense of the existing rights of IP owners.” – Devlin Hartline
The House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet met today to hear from a number of witnesses about the intersection of intellectual property rights and consumers’ right to repair products they own.
The concerns voiced by witnesses and congress members today centered around harm and cost to consumers as a result of technological protection measures (TPMs) and increased use of IP tools such as design patents to thwart competition for after-market parts. Subcommittee Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) floated the idea of a “standard essential copyright” regime that would require companies to make the proprietary information necessary for repairs available for use, presumably via compulsory licensing schemes and/or under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
Issa introduced The SMART Act in March, which proposes amending U.S. design patent law to reduce from 14 years to 2.5 years the time car manufacturers can enforce design patents on collision repair parts, such as fenders, quarter panels and doors, against alternative parts suppliers. A bipartisan group of five other congress members joined him as cosponsors.
Harm to Consumers
Kyle Wiens, Co-founder and CEO of iFixit, shared the perspective of consumers in today’s hearing, who he said are being stymied from repairing their own property by large companies that are using legal mechanisms to drive up costs. In some cases, said Wiens, these tactics are creating problems that could have a broader impact, such as in the agricultural sector. Wiens said he has a friend whose John Deere tractor he can’t fix, for instance, because it requires a part Wiens is not legally allowed to make or repair. As a result, the farmer had to rent an expensive tractor for a week while he waited for the repair. If this happened in the growing season, it could have much broader implications, another witness commented later in the hearing.
Wiens said he got started in his career by attempting to fix his own computer, only to find the user manual didn’t exist online because Apple had sent DMCA takedown requests to every website that posted it. Issa and others later in the panel questioned whether user manuals should even be copyrightable.
There is No Right-to-Repair
The sole pro-IP perspective on the witness panel was Devlin Hartline, Legal Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Forum for Intellectual Property. Hartline said there simply isn’t a right to repair in existing law, and that it is IP rights that ultimately protect the public good.
“The right-to-repair movement isn’t based on a preexisting right; it’s instead asking lawmakers to create a new right at the expense of the existing rights of IP owners,” Hartline explained.
He said Issa’s bill, as well as the Freedom to Repair Act, would simply rewrite the Copyright or Patent Act, while other bills (the REPAIR Act and Fair Repair Act) take the approach of defining “the normal exercise of IP rights as an unfair or deceptive practice to be enforced by the [Federal Trade Commission] FTC.” However, the FTC already has this authority, Hartline said, and has failed to bring any such enforcement actions. The reason for that is because IP owners are merely exercising their IP rights and it is not an anti-competitive practice, he claimed, adding: “As tempting as it may be to take away or limit IP rights so others can copy and then call that competition, I would urge the members to think about whether that truly represents sound economic policy.”
Security Concerns and Unintended Consequences
While those in favor of right-to-repair changes, including Issa, conceded that safety concerns about after-market parts, particularly in sectors such as automobiles and medical devices, have to be factored in, some downplayed those concerns, noting that authorized manufacturers often fail when it comes to safety as well. Aaron Perzanowski, Thomas W. Lacchia Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School, cited a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report that he said showed independent repair of medical devices was safe and effective. Perzanowski said that IP law isn’t the right tool to ensure safety in any case, and at the end of the day, the bad actors already have the tools in question.
Pressed by Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) about risks such as China gaining access to this information if opened up, Perzanowski said they already have it. “We’re trying to get very targeted tools in the hands of consumers to fix the gifts they buy their kids for Christmas,” Perzanowski said.
Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who took part in the negotiations to pass the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), said “the process didn’t really work as we intended,” as Congress didn’t create the DMCA provisions barring circumvention of TPMs “so monopolies could control products.”
Lofgren explained that TPMs were enacted to protect against hacks of copyrighted content but that there was no consensus about what exceptions there should be, so the compromise was to have the Copyright Office regularly revisit and assess appropriate exemptions via rulemaking. Section 1201(a)(1) of the DMCA thus requires the Librarian of Congress, via rulemaking, “to exempt any class from the [TPM] prohibition for a three-year period if she has determined that noninfringing uses by persons who are users of copyrighted works in that class are, or are likely to be, adversely affected by the prohibition against circumvention during that period.”
While the Office has said in these rules that engaging in circumvention for purposes of repair is perfectly lawful for consumers, there are often additional tools needed to make a repair that are not covered by the exemptions.
Paul Roberts, Founder, SecuRepairs.org; Founder and Editor-in-Chief, the Security Ledger, also testified that “fair right-to-repair laws don’t threaten cybersecurity.” Roberts said there is no evidence that the types of information covered by right-to-repair pose any cybersecurity threat beyond the security weaknesses that are already inherent to internet of things (IoT) devices. Roberts called IoT security weakness “an epidemic,” citing statistics that show 68% of IoT devices contained high risk or high vulnerability. In one example, web hackers exposed wide ranging and exploitable flaws in vehicle telematics systems from 16 different auto makers that allowed researchers full access to a company-wide administration panel that allowed them to send arbitrary commands to 15.5 million vehicles, including first responder vehicles. “Hacks like this take place without any access to repair materials,” Roberts said.
This year, two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) were signed regarding the right-to-repair debate. John Deere and the American Farm Bureau signed an agreement in January and this month several trade organizations struck a deal with the auto industry. But many right-to-repair activists say such deals don’t go far enough. However, Scott Benavidez, Chairman, Automotive Service Association and Owner, Mr. B’s Paint & Body Shop, testified that the auto MOU has solved their problems for now, though concerns for the future remain as technology continues to evolve and become more complex.
What is Copyright, Even?
At the close of the hearing, Issa challenged Hartline on the very premise of copyright law. Issa said: “Copyright is not a right to exclude, as you know; for the most part with copyright you get a reasonable fee or license; if I have a piece of music, I don’t inherently have the ability to stop people from performing and the like.” Hartline disagreed, responding that “copyright is a right to exclude.”
In response to another question from Issa asking how Hartline would reconcile an example in which IBM buys its own used parts back, but opposes allowing the same company to sell to other companies, Hartline said, while not familiar with the IBM story, “it sounds like you have someone who has IP protection.” He added:
“And what do they get, a right to exclude. They can use that right to create business relationships and increase profits, which they in turn use on R&D, and we in turn get more innovation.”


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Underbelly Burger opens at The Houston Farmers Market; NewQuest Properties tapped for leasing gig
Underbelly Burger is now open at The Houston Farmers Market as of Jan. 6, offering a selection of handcrafted burgers along with milkshakes, beer and wine, among other menu options.
Run by Underbelly Hospitality, a creation from Chris Shepherd, a James Beard award-winning chef, Underbelly Burger occupies one of several restaurant spaces at the market. Crawfish & Noodles, a concept of James Beard semifinalist Trong Nguyen, will open at the site in the spring.
Leasing for the remaining spaces and vendor slots at the market was recently turned over to NewQuest Properties, according to a Jan. 17 press release from NewQuest. Leasing was previously handled by a team from MLB Capital Partners, which acquired the property in 2017 and has been conducting a redevelopment effort ever since.

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EL PASO, Texas - April 2, 2014 Update: The UTEP vs. South Dakota St. WNIT final four game for tonight has sold out after just over a day of being on sale.
UTEP officials said it sold out at 10:10 a.m. Wednesday. Capacity for games at the Don Haskins Center is 12,000 even, not 12,222 many have quoted for years.
If you didn't get tickets, you can still watch by video stream of the contest will be available through subscription-based Miner TV ($9.99) on UTEPAthletics.com. Fans in the El Paso area can listen live on 1150 AM. Audio is also available for free nationwide through www.fox1150.com.
It is the first UTEP women's basketball game to ever sell out the Don Haskins Center.
April 1, 2014 Story: More than 10,000 tickets have been sold as of 6 p.m. Tuesday for UTEP's WNIT Final Four game Wednesday at the Don Haskins Center.
That's less than 2,000 away from a sellout.
UTEP (28-7) will host South Dakota State (26-9) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Tickets are now on sale at the University Ticket Center with the following prices: $15 floor, $10 general admission and $5 for students. Tickets are more expensive for this round compared to previous rounds.
The ticket center will open at 8 a.m. Wednesday but tickets also are available at other Ticketmaster locations, as well.
Tickets also can be bought online through Ticketmaster.com but additional fees apply. You won't have to wait in line, though.
Dozens of people lined up outside the UTEP Ticket Center after Monday's win over Washington to buy tickets to Wednesday's game but the ticket center was closed.
UTEP Athletic Director Bob Stull told ABC-7 that the reason reason why the ticket price went up is because it's mandated by the WNIT and that's also why UTEP didn't open the ticket office immediately after the game Monday night.
Stull said they needed time to process the new $10 tickets so they would print correctly. However, if the Miners win on Wednesday the ticket center will be open immediately afterward to sell championship tickets.
Call the UTEP ticket center for complete information at (915) 747-5234.


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IndiQube eyes 33% growth and 1 million sq ft by March 2018
Workspace solution provider, IndiQube is eying on 33% business growth and 1 million sq ft space by first quarter of 2018. The company is expecting to double its client base owing to the myriad of value added services it is providing to 135 plus clients, across 15 offices.
As part of the expansion plans, IndiQube is planning to enter Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi by end of 2018. With household brands like Bluestone, Micromax and Fresh Menu currently headquartered out of IndiQube’s office, the company is looking to collaborate with brands with similar growth stories.
Commenting on the growth, Meghna Agarwal, co-founder, IndiQube said, “The past year has been transformational for us, as we were able to go beyond just office spaces and establish ourselves as business enhancer for our current as well as onboarding clientele. With our value-added services taking the pole position in our expansion plans for 2018, we are very excited to affirm a formidable place in the 2.5 – 3 million sq ft industry.”
Since its inception in 2015, IndiQube has been home to emerging startups and offshore development centers (ODC) including Innominds, TEG Analytics, Payoda, and Cleo, while focusing on elevating its 7000+ members’ experiences to establish workspaces as an important driver to business scalability and agility. This year, IndiQube also welcomed a handful of ODCs into its growth ecosystem, thus becoming one of the top choices for companies who are looking to expand in India.


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A new battery made from the exoskeletons of crustaceans and zinc could store power from large-scale wind and solar sources
Spotted: As the world increasingly turns to renewable energy sources and electric vehicles, the demand for batteries is skyrocketing. However, the batteries used today aren’t always sustainable, with many containing metals that are rare or difficult to obtain. Meanwhile, manufacturing processes can produce hazardous waste. As a result, there is a growing need for sustainable battery technologies that can meet the demands of a changing world. One promising solution comes from a group of scientists at the University of Maryland who have developed zinc batteries that use a biodegradable electrolyte made from crab shells.
Electrolytes are what batteries use to shuttle ions between the positive and negative electrodes during charging and use. The new battery uses a gel electrolyte made using a material derived from chitin, which is a biological material found in fungi, squid pens, and most abundantly in the exoskeletons of crustaceans. The electrolyte—which is made from chitosan, a derivative product of chitin—is biodegradable and breaks down completely within five months. Once the electrolyte degrades, the metal zinc component remains, which can be recycled.
“Zinc is more abundant in earth’s crust than lithium,” said the study’s lead author Liangbing Hu. “Generally speaking, well-developed zinc batteries are cheaper and safer.” When tested in a prototype battery, the chitosan electrolyte showed both excellent cycling rates and performance. The energy efficiency was 99.7 per cent after 1000 battery cycles, enough to store energy generated by wind and solar. The results were published in the journal Matter.
The researchers hope that this biodegradable electrolyte will eventually be used in commercial batteries, making them more environmentally friendly. Next up, the team is working on making the manufacturing process more environmentally friendly.
Springwise has spotted a number of innovations supporting the large-scale deployment of renewable energy sources by giving batteries an upgrade. These include technology that uses old electric vehicle batteries to store excess wind power, a fully working battery powered by sand, and a thermal energy storage system that reduces energy costs and emissions.
Written By: Katrina Lane


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When Apple’s iOS 15 goes stay Monday, it should include the standard bevy of software program upgrades meant to boost barely older iPhones whereas additionally laying the groundwork for the Cupertino, Calif. firm’s subsequent era of units. Whereas many of the tech world might be targeted on the headline modifications, like a long-overdue overhaul of the default Climate app that facilities extra helpful data, iOS 15 additionally introduces some main new well being options, together with new pattern evaluation and notification skills, information sharing options, first-of-their-kind well being metrics and extra.
“Since 2014, the Well being app’s mission has been that will help you make sense of your personal well being information, and ensuring it’s non-public and safe, multi functional place,” says Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s VP of Well being. “And what you’re going to see on Monday with iOS 15 is that the Well being app actually comes full circle.”
By way of the Well being app, iPhones have lengthy been capable of retailer customers’ well being information, whether or not it’s collected by the handset itself, an Apple Watch, or a appropriate third-party machine. However iOS 15 brings two new options to the Well being app meant to make that information simpler to share with others. The primary permits iPhone customers to share their well being metrics with their family members, in order that, for example, an grownup son or daughter can preserve tabs on their dad and mom’ wellbeing, and get an early heads up if something appears amiss. The second permits simpler sharing of customers’ well being information immediately with their physicians.
Learn Extra: 5 Large Takeaways From Apple’s iPhone 13 Occasion, Together with 1 Factor iPhone Customers Ought to Do Proper Now
Relating to sharing well being information, there are apparent privateness considerations at play that can possible be high of thoughts for a lot of proper now, on condition that Apple not too long ago needed to patch a majority safety vulnerability in iPhones and different units. However Desai says Apple has taken steps to make sure customers’ private data is stored safe—the corporate doesn’t have entry to shared information, for example, and all shared data is end-to-end encrypted. Moreover, activating the sharing-between-loved-ones characteristic requires approval from each events concerned, and other people can select which particular sorts of knowledge they wish to share whereas maintaining different metrics to themselves. Apple was additionally cautious to design the information in a approach that’s useful, relatively than overwhelming, for physicians and different medical employees.
“We needed to guarantee that we might current the knowledge [to health practitioners] in a extremely easy-to-understand, stunning approach that’s simply glanceable and mustn’t take quite a lot of seconds for a person to course of,” Desai says. “There have been occasions once we had been designing the dashboard, if one thing was too sophisticated, plenty of us would typically say, ‘okay, that’s not going to work, as a result of that’s going to make me give it some thought two occasions.’ And that’s taking away valuable physician-patient time, [which] we didn’t wish to do.”
Additionally included within the revamped Well being app: a wholly new well being metric known as Strolling Steadiness, which makes use of the iPhone’s built-in sensors to trace homeowners’ stability, energy and gait, and may alert customers in the event that they’re susceptible to falling. The app additionally contains train tutorials designed to assist those that want to spice up their steadiness to assist stop falls, which might generally result in critical harm. The characteristic, Desai says, took place through information from Apple’s coronary heart examine, which included greater than 100,000 individuals.
Learn Extra: Tim Prepare dinner on the ‘Primary Human Proper’ of Privateness and the Know-how That Excites Him the Most
“This characteristic is an instance of analysis and science actually coming collectively,” Desai says. “Once we began our journey in well being, we needed to guarantee that we had been partnering with the medical group and science and offering actionable suggestions that may actually empower a person with well timed data. And so Strolling Steadiness, in our view, actually has the potential to extend consciousness amongst many who might not know that they might have an issue, and probably proactively point out that there are some issues that you may begin engaged on.”
The Well being app is, in fact, strongest together with the Apple Watch or different wearable units, which observe metrics—like coronary heart price, blood oxygenation and extra—that the iPhone can’t monitor by itself. However a number of the new options in iOS 15, together with the brand new Strolling Steadiness metric, don’t require a secondary machine, making them accessible to a wider viewers at a comparatively decrease value of entry. When requested whether or not Apple would ever think about opening up these Well being options to be used on non-Apple units, given their potential to assist enhance individuals’s lives and well-being, Desai stated that Apple doesn’t touch upon future options, however added that it’s “all the time open to studying about extra alternatives for us to think about.”
General, Desai says, Apple hopes that the brand new options can supply a “take a look at your well being in a longitudinal approach.” “For well being, too typically, it’s episodic moments of interplay,” she says. “We actually wish to begin having the dialog and alter the dialog round being proactive and preventative about your well being, and we’re hopeful these sharing options will begin a dialog about proactively noticing modifications in traits over time.”


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"Something about it just absolutely grabbed the popular culture imagination," says Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition and food studies — and no fan of junk food. "It's the prototypical indestructible junk food. It was the sort of height to which American technological ingenuity could go to create a product that was almost entirely artificial, but gave the appearance of eclairs."
When Twinkies signed on as a sponsor of the "Howdy Doody" show during the 1950s, their cultural legacy was sealed. Taglines such as "The snacks with a snack in the middle" began etching themselves into generations of young minds and it was considered perfectly fine that Twinkie the Kid would lasso and drag children before stuffing his sugar bombs in their faces.
It was the snack cake heyday. Twinkies were being deep-fried at state fairs, doing cameos in movies like "Ghost Busters" and "Die Hard" and being pushed by Spider-Man in comic books. A pre-vegan President Bill Clinton even signed off on including Twinkies in the nation's millennium time capsule (the two-pack was later removed and consumed by his council overseeing such matters for fear mice would add themselves to the time capsule).
Sure, not all the attention was positive. Somewhere along the line, Twinkies became the butt of jokes, mostly about their perceived longevity (though Hostess staunchly maintains 25 days is the max). And not all associations were great. The so-called "Twinkie defense" came out of the 1979 murder trial of Dan White, whose lawyers included his junk food obsession among the evidence of his supposed altered state of mind.
Then something happened. Suddenly, Americans who for decades had been tone deaf to how food was produced suddenly started paying attention, seeking out organic goat cheeses made from the milk of an unoppressed herd raised on a fence-free collective within a 20-mile radius of home. Even Doritos went artisanal, and an awareness of seasons and availability crept back into the culinary consciousness.
Suddenly products that had so prospered by their artificiality lost their allure. Even Hostess, which blamed this week's shutdown mostly on a labor dispute that hobbled its facilities, has acknowledged that consumer concern about health and food quality changed the game. People just weren't buying snack cakes like they used to.
So what would we lose if Twinkies really did go away? From a culinary standpoint and from a nutritional standpoint, it's hard to love the Twinkie (or pretty much any Hostess product). It's hard not to wonder how the American diet, the American palate, would be different if the parents of the '50s hadn't begun a cycle of turning to processed packages as the de facto snack of childhood.
And does nostalgia alone justify the continuation of something so patently bad for us?
Of course nostalgia, even irony, taste awfully good.
And I notice that a growing number of — dare I say it — artisanal bakeries are going retro, creating their own inspired takes on classic processed snack cakes. Treats like the red velvet "twinkies" at New York's Lulu Cake Boutique. Real ingredients. So perhaps it isn't time for Twinkies to go away. Or to stay the same. Maybe it's time for them to go back to their roots. And then, we lose nothing.
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The once illegal herb now found in retail outlets in Colorado generated $2 million in taxes for the state during the first month of recreational cannabis sales. The figure, released by the Colorado Department of Revenue, includes several tax layers at the state and local level. The number reaches $3.5 million when combined with revenues generated by sales of medical marijuana in January.
The tax dollars associated with recreational cannabis sales in Colorado include a 10 percent sales tax on retail cannabis and cannabis products in addition to a 2.9 percent existing state sales tax. Consumers must also pay local taxes on top of the state taxes and an additional 15 percent tax is generated for the state when cultivation facilities transfer cannabis to retail outlets.
Licenses and fees for medical marijuana, established in Colorado in 2000, outpaced those on retail marijuana by a large margin; medical shops brought in $496, 361 in January and retail shops brought in $96,300. The ratio of medical shops to recreational is still higher in the state.
Now the question in Colorado is how to spend the funds. The first $40 million in excise tax was approved by voters last year to be used for school construction. With a projected $35 million in cannabis revenue by the end of the current fiscal year, Gov. John Hickenlooper has proposed spending the funds on issues such as youth marijuana-use prevention efforts and substance abuse treatment.


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The liquor landscape may soon be changing in New Jersey. Fox 29's Sean Tobin spoke with some mom and pop shops that say it would be detrimental to business.
"We think it's a disaster that will cost this state--hundreds of thousands of jobs--" says Johnny Canal.
Johnny Canal's family has run this Canal's liquor store in Pennsauken, NJ for nearly five decades.
He says the system the state has in place currently is working for them, well. Canal says the current state law allows for healthy competition among him and other liquor store owners.
He says, "You can only have two licenses in your name, or in your company name." But, there is a movement in Trenton to increase that two license limit.
Canal explains, "The reason they want to change that is for the grocery stores."
Grocery store chains---like Wegman's and others are interested in getting in on the alcohol business. Canal says they'd be un-doing what the government did years ago.
"In the 30's or 40's the state put these license limitations into effect for a reason--because someone was trying to monopolize, and it was a grocery store chain," he says.
Canal's assessment of why this proposed change is gaining traction in Trenton is simple, "Mayors around the state are broke and they're looking to get some short term revenue for this years budget."
Canal thinks that removing the two license limit would completely change the liquor landscape in it's current form, and, not in a positive way.
"If they go through with this bill, we're going to see Target and Wal-Mart being the only ones selling liquor in this state," he predicts.
News from our manufacturer's & re-posts from publications around the hotel and restaurant industry.


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Consumer Fraud Thieves Posing as Tech Support
With consumer fraud cases on the rise, it’s no surprise that scammers are trying every strategy in the playbook to secure personal information from others. One such trend nowadays is a string of so-called tech support calls requesting action to protect your computer.
The consumer fraud artists are posing as Microsoft and other tech industry employees, but a new effort may help stop similar attacks.
According to The New York Times, the Federal Trade Commission announced a multinational crackdown on these scams, in which a caller fools a consumer into believing Microsoft or a computer security company has discovered that a PC is infected with harmful software. The caller then offers to fix the computer on the spot for a price.
Once the scammer has remote access to your computer, he or she can install malicious software to syphon personal data. Six cases were recently named in Manhattan federal district court, and many victims likely don’t know of the invasive attacks until it’s too late.
Have you been a victim of consumer fraud? Call Sokolove Law today for a free legal consultation regarding a consumer fraud lawsuit.


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Piktina is a digital merchandise playground that specializes in previously owned fashion items. Their goal is to provide a platform where everyone can refresh their personal style with unique thrift pieces while also gaining an easy passive income.
Through the Piktina platform, buyers and sellers can easily connect with each other as they free up closets. Their mission is to raise awareness of overconsumption and instill sustainability values in the community to reduce fashion waste and carbon emissions and conserve the environment.
The fashion recommerce platform plans to allocate the new funding to accelerate its growth and refine its business model. At the moment, Piktina charges a 20% commission fee for every successful transaction, including additional authentication costs if required.
Phuong, Piktina’s CEO, is the former co-founder and CEO of the ride-sharing app Be Group JSC and the online banking app Cake. Bringing with her over 10 years of experience working in the fashion industry in Europe and the US, she has earned a profound knowledge of the inner workings of the fashion and luxury merchandise industries.
Huyen, on the other hand, is Piktina’s Chief Growth Officer who has years of experience leading multinational corporations in Southeast Asian markets. Like Phuong, Huyen also worked for Be and Cake in charge of business development and was responsible for the millions of users both apps have today.
While troubled by the fashion industry’s excess, the two women also realized the unlimited potential that the secondhand fashion market holds. Together, they built a team with the brightest minds who shared the core value of sustainability.
From there, Piktina was created to raise awareness and promote sustainable consumer behavior among Vietnamese youths, as well as develop a circular fashion economy in Vietnam and other markets within Asia.
Having Gen Z in mind as the primary target market, Piktina believes the younger generation of Vietnamese turn to secondhand fashion “not only for financial reasons but also the edginess it provides in contrast to fleeting fast-fashion trends.”
Tu Ngo, Touchstone Partners' general partner, said thriving innovation from a small enterprise is easier than from a big corporation. She added: “Doing business in an emerging market is an opportunity, not a weakness. Dream bigger; if you can create a product that is good enough, the sky is the limit".
Touchstone Partners, with Khanh Tran as the managing partner, aims to assist talented and driven founders to realize the potential of their businesses by applying their deep understanding of the Vietnamese market and utilizing a global network of connections.
The recommerce concept is the selling of previously owned items through online marketplaces to buyers who reuse, recycle or resell them. This business model was popularized by platforms like Craigslist and eBay.
Piktina takes inspiration from peer-to-peer social e-commerce company Depop, which was acquired by US-based Etsy for US$1.6 billion in 2021.


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Connecting to the Internet has become a daily routine for more smartphone users, and the top two applications used are social networking and instant messaging, IDC’s global ConsumerScape 360° research shows.
The rise in Internet connectivity is across the board. In the space of a year, the share of smartphone users who access the Internet daily with their handsets doubled in mature markets such as Australia, Japan and the U.S. as well as in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia and India.
“South Korea had the most dramatic change, with a four-fold increase in the percentage of smartphone users who access the Internet daily. While China did not have such a big jump, two-thirds of the smartphone users there connect to the Internet daily, the highest among the 21 countries we surveyed,” says Kitty Fok, Vice President, End-User Research & Statistics Group, IDC Greater China.
In nearly all the countries surveyed, social networking and instant messaging emerged the top two applications used when connected to the Internet. In countries where the usage share of instant messaging is high, such as China (64% of respondents) and New Zealand (40% of respondents), the share of social networking tends to be low (23% China respondents and 25% New Zealand respondents), and vice versa, reflecting the substitution effect of these two online activities.
Worldwide, 4 out of 10 smartphone users today connect to the Internet daily with their handsets. This is compared to just a quarter of smartphone users a year ago, an increase of more than 60%, as mobile connectivity becomes a fast-growing trend, according to IDC’s survey.
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Fuel prices continued to rise for the twelfth consecutive day on Friday, with the retail price of petrol and diesel retail going up by 32 and 18 paise, respectively.
The demand for government intervention has been mounting with Congress President Rahul Gandhi asking the prime minister to accept the fuel challenge, after Modi accepted an online fitness challenge by Indian Cricket captain Virat Kohli on Thursday and Digvijay Singh mounting pressure on Friday.
On Friday, petrol was priced at Rs 77.83 per litre in Mumbai; 85.65 in Kolkata 80.47 and 80.80 in Chennai. The diesel prices were at 68.75 in Delhi; 73.2 in Mumbai ; 72.58 in Chennai and Kolkata in 71.30.
The prices came into effect at 6 am today.Domestic fuel prices have been increasing on the back of rising global crude oil price. In addition to it, the rupee is weakening against the US dollar, which has affected the rupee-dollar exchange rate, thus putting further burden on the prices here.
However, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday said the Centre would soon take quick measures to give some relief to the common people from the rising fuel prices


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It sounds strange but Litecoin in 2016 feels quite strong. You would probably ask: how so, if the price fell to $2.90 and continues to decrease? But take a look at the chart of LTC:BTC – Litecoin exchange rate is fixed higher than 0.008, and even reaching 0.0084. This means that the price of $2.90 speaks not about weakness of Litecoin, but about the weakness of Bitcoin during a whole bunch of bad news (the report of RAND on need of fight against digital currencies, bankruptcy of Cryptsy, the next split in Bitcoin Foundation and a statement of Mike Hearn). Moreover, new discussions on the size of the Bitcoin block have begun again
In the beginning of 2016 Litecoin price was noticeably higher than $3.40. It has created a small triangle with an exit up to $3.64 by January 7. But then Litecoin started falling continuously having reached today's $2.90.
Now it is impossible to give the forecast for the next week. The negative factors didn't affect the Bitcoin price fully yet. Panic sales are still possible, which will give us an opportunity to buy really inexpensive Litecoins. But price correction are possible and it can turn the trend up at any time.
DASH price grows by 10-20% a day. DASH price even grew from $3 to $4, despite the falling of Bitcoin.
DASH don't care about the problems with block size, emergence of new forks or the problems of regulators and exchange collapses. The exchange rates have already reached 0.01, or 100 DASH for one Bitcoin. Traders willing to buy DASH may now only dream about the exchange rates of 0.0055, which were available only a month ago.
Throughout the whole week, a steady uptrend was developing and next week we may expect corrections to begin. For example, it may drop the price to the level of 0.0075. However, one note: it is impossible to be sure that this correction surely has to happen.
Dogecoin grew more than by 30%, having surely fixed on 40 Satoshi in the beginning of 2016. The top was reached on January 9 with the price of 49 Satoshi. It especially pleased those who bought Dogecoin on January 8 for 30 Satoshi. It seems now that we won't see the price of 30 Satoshi again for a long time. But buy orders on 33-36 are still possible and even desirable.
Next week it is worth expecting price fluctuations around 40 Satoshi or falling to 35 Satoshi and below.
ETH breaks records with the continuous growth that proceeds this week. It jumped from 0.0022 to 0.0034, thus trading volumes are record-breaking high as well.
This success is connected with the active advertising and PR campaign of Ethereum and an anti-advertising of Bitcoin that began synchronously. At the moment no possible changes of the trend are visible, but also I would not recommend traders to make purchases next week, as its already too late. If the price growth proceeds, it may stop being so rough at any moment. Moreover, ETH can stop moving up and even fall sharply.
Peercoin feels very strong in 2016. Though, exchange rates of PPC:USD fell, the PPC:BTC pair grew by more than 10%, having fixed at the level of 0.001 and above. This is a psychologically important level, 1000 Peercoin for one Bitcoin. Now it is desirable to hold this level for as long as possible.
While Bitcoin price is falling Peercoin made a jump to $0.496 and then rolled down to $0.354. Peercoin hasn't seen such volatility for a long time, as this jump and falling of the price were made within just three days.
Now purchases lower than $0.40 are of interest, especially, if Bitcoin price fluctuation gets a definite direction.
Neucoin moves on the road of disappointments. The chart of this cryptocurrency in the beginning of 2016 looks bad. By the end of 2015 the price of Neucoin was about $8 for 1000 Neucoin and purchases were favorable as the price jumped to $9-10. But in 2016 we see an absolutely different picture on the chart.
Symbolically, what exactly on December 31, 2015 the price of Neucoin was higher than $8. Each following day of 2016 the Neu price moved lower and reach today's $2.7 for 1000 Neucoins. And it is difficult to tell where this falling may stop. Next week the emergence of a new local bottom is possible at any moment. But the rebound or a turn of a trend is also probable. Placing buy orders at the level of $1.5 for 1000 Neucoin looks attractive as well. But for those who have bought this altcoin for $8 and above for 1000 Neucoin it will take a lot of patience now to exit with profit.


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According to a number one commerce physique, India’s palm oil imports elevated 18.7 p.c in March in comparison with the earlier month, as merchants sought options to sunflower oil, which may now not be bought from Ukraine.
India, the world’s largest importer of edible oils, might improve its purchases of palm oil, which may assist Malaysian palm oil futures.
The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) reported that 539,793 tonnes of palm oil arrived in India in March, up from 454,794 tonnes in February.
According to the report, India imported 212,484 tonnes of sunflower oil in March, up from 152,220 tonnes in February, aided by the arrival of some ships that had left Ukraine previous to the conflict.
“However, because no shipment from Ukraine arrived in April, sunflower oil imports may fall to nearly 80,000 tonnes, primarily from Russia and Argentina,” it mentioned.
India has signed a contract for 45,000 tonnes of Russian sunflower oil at a report excessive value for shipments in April, as edible oil costs within the home market have skyrocketed because of the cessation of Ukrainian provide.
The nation’s soyoil imports fell to 299,421 tonnes in March, down from 376,594 tonnes the earlier month, in accordance with the SEA.
“Brazil and Argentina have a limited surplus of soyoil.” In current months, India has tried to buy soyoil from different nations, together with the United States and Germany. However, these nations are unable to ship massive volumes,” mentioned a Mumbai-based seller with a world buying and selling agency.
According to SEA knowledge, India imported a report 112,576 tonnes of soyoil from the United States within the first 5 months of the present 2021/22 advertising 12 months, which ends on Oct. 31.
Because provides of sunoil and soyoil are restricted, India is pressured to import greater than 600,000 tonnes of palm oil in April, in accordance with the seller. India imports palm oil primarily from Indonesia and Malaysia, and soy oil primarily from Argentina and Brazil.


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Several editions of the Air Jordan 2012 have been released in the market and made a lot of noise as expected. This time, Jordan Brand’s signature shoe for this year will be making waves once again in a new edition that is set to be released.
The Air Jordan 2012 will be released in a Chicago-style colorway of Black/Varsity Red-Anthracite. The silhouette is primarily made with black leather with the red accents on the mesh insert and Jumpman logo plus anthracite linings.
No official release date announced yet, but expected this one to come out soon.
Jordans Out will keep you updated!
Air Jordan 2012


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There are quite a few companies investing in virtual reality and augmented reality lately, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, HTC, and Samsung. One name missing from that list is Apple, but a new report claims that Apple is looking into VR in secret.
A new report from the Financial Times claims that Apple has a large team of employees working on a virtual reality, including building prototype headsets. Apple has recently made some VR-related deals, like its acquisition of Flyby Media, a group that worked with Google on Project Tango. Apple also recently hired Doug Bowman, a well-know VR researcher. The Cupertino firm is said to be seeking even more acquisitions to help it complete its project.
Details about Apple’s hardware plans are still pretty vague. It’s not even clear if Apple plans on creating a virtual reality headset like Samsung Gear VR, or if it’ll create an augmented reality device like Microsoft’s HoloLens. It’s also unknown if Apple will ever end up releasing a VR/AR headset of any kind of if it’ll end up simply scrapping the project.
Apple hasn’t made any announcements about having an interest in VR, but CEO Tim Cook did say earlier this week that he thinks VR is “really cool” and that it has “some interesting applications.” That said, it’s no surprise to hear that Apple may be experimenting with VR in secret. Apple is a major player in computing, and so with all of the interest that we’re seeing with VR lately, it’d be weird if Apple didn’t at least look into making a VR device of its own.


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What does a single app that generates 20m downloads and $100,000 per day in revenue in five weeks? In the case of OMGPOP, the maker of the hit app Draw Something, it apparently gets you acquired in week six.
Today, social gaming giant Zynga announced that it has acquired OMGPOP.
While terms of the acquisition are not being revealed publicly, Peter Kafka of AllThingsDigital says his sources have indicated that the deal is worth in excess of $200m when employee retention is factored in. An astonishing exit for a company that just weeks ago few had heard of.
It’s not hard to see why Zynga, which has built a billion-dollar social gaming empire, would be interested in OMGPOP. According to Kafka, Draw Something’s popularity has continued to surge and the game is now reportedly netting $250,000 each day for OMGPOP.
That in and of itself is impressive to the say the least, but it’s even more impressive when you consider that OMGPOP is lucky to be alive. Although Draw Something is an overnight hit, the company that produced it is hardly an overnight success. OMGPOP was started years ago and has raised $16m in financing. Before Draw Something, it was struggling to find its place. As one investor in the company put it, “Things did not look awesome.”
For that reason, OMGPOP’s back story may raise questions about the price Zynga is paying for the company. Yes, Draw Something makes for an attractive addition to Zynga’s app/game portfolio, but is Draw Something alone worth $200m-plus? The OMGPOP team toiled for years without producing a major hit, and there’s no guarantee that it will produce another Draw Something under the Zynga corporate umbrella. Clearly, Zynga is hoping that’s not the case, but if it is, Draw Something may earn the distinction of ‘most expensive app ever.’
On the other hand, if the OMGPOP team is just getting its groove on with Draw Something, Zynga’s acquisition couild eventually prove to be a grand bargain. According to Simon Khalaf, the CEO of mobile analytics provider Flurry, OMGPOP sold “way too early” and may have left as much as $800m on the table.


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In a joint conference in Ho Chi Minh City – more commonly known as Saigon – representatives of livestock in both countries said the initial goal of the deal was to build the trust in Vietnam, so consumers know it’s safe to eat French beef.
Beef products from France have been banned in the country since 2000, after bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) swept from the UK to mainland Europe with devastating effect.
The deal for French beef in Vietnam follows a meeting with Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the European Union’s (EU) president Jean-Claude Juncker, who finalised a free trade deal on 2 December 2015.
The free trade agreement is “good news for both the EU and Vietnam”, according to EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.
She added: “Vietnam is a vibrant economy of more than 90m consumers with a growing middle class and a young and dynamic workforce. Its market has great potential and offers numerous opportunities for the EU’s agricultural exports.”
Following the deal, Vietnam has given to go-ahead to 23 beef producers in France to start exporting beef. This followed a successful inspection of cattle farms in France by Vietnamese health officials.
Initially, only frozen beef products will be shipped from France to Vietnam. This is so the latter can gauge beef’s reception in the market and, based on its performance, France may start to export fresh beef too.
Emmanuel Bernard, speaking on behalf of the French Meat and Livestock Association (INTERBEV), said one of the key benefits of French beef was its “traceability”. In France, for example, the origin of some beef varieties can be traced right down to the individual cow. However, in Australia – a major exporter of beef in Vietnam – the ability to track beef products stopped “at farm level”, added Bernard.
EU-Vietnam trade was worth over €28.3bn in 2014, according to data published by the European Commission for Trade. Imports from Vietnam into the EU were worth €22.1bn, while exports from the EU to Vietnam were worth €6.2bn.


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The electrifying move
The front page of the newspaper got my attention when I saw visual of children going to school wearing air filter masks on their face. The headline said – “All schools shutdown. AQI rises to severe levels”. Caught in the hustle and bustle of daily life, it makes me wonder am I doing the right thing? Am I making the world a better place? Will my children and their children have better air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink then what I am getting now? There is a popular saying that goes like this – ” If you are only taking and receiving and not contributing back then are you creating a unsustainable ecosystem”
Going by the rising Pollution levels in the metro cities in India, I am sure the day is not far when people will be forced to wear air purifying masks and carry portable oxygen cylinders in their bag just like they carry a bottle of water. This has already started to happen in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai etc. So what is the way out here? Caught in the business of life what is the little thing that you can do which will make you feel that you have atleast played your part in building a better ecosystem. Just as my excitement of buying a 2W was beginning to dampen, my attention fell on a quarter page news article which talked about steps taken by the government to build EV charging infrastructure. 100s of stores planned initially with a very economical charging cost.
This news coverage comes as the result of increasing awareness and availability of the electric bikes. The government’s initiative in facilitating purchase of electric vehicles by opening charging corridors and incentivising the sale. The electric scooter got me thinking, a zero pollution bike, Great in looks and excellent in performance and mileage. Some questions that came into my mind and the answers I sought –
A – Going by the amount of traffic, there is no space to speed up.
A – I don’t think that will be a worry, I will keep it charged overnight or charge it in office while I continue to work.
A – Yes, it will, saw the payload capacity and it approves.
A – Don’t think so! The manufacturers have taken care of insulating the motor-battery and electronics.


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Li-Cycle delivers first commercial shipment of recycled battery material
EP&T MagazineElectronics Power Supply / Management Environmental battery battery recycle recycle
Establishes its first US-based facility in NY State to recover 80-100% of materials
Li-Cycle Corp., a leading Toronto-area based lithium-ion battery resource recovery firm, completed its first shipment of commercially recycled battery material, containing energy metals concentrate in December 2019. The shipped product was processed at Li-Cycle’s facility in Mississauga ON and contained key energy metals – such as cobalt, nickel and lithium – used in lithium-ion batteries. Li-Cycle is one of the few companies globally capable of recovering critical battery materials from lithium-ion batteries in a sustainable and safe manner.
The company also announced that it will establish its first US-based facility in New York State. Li-Cycle will set up operations at Eastman Business Park (EBP) in Monroe County in an effort to tap into the robust lithium-ion battery supply chain in the United States and the lithium-ion battery ecosystem in Rochester. Li-Cycle selected EBP for this facility after determining it as the best location for the company to provide services to its growing client base to the South and Midwest. The company has also committed to creating a minimum of 23 jobs in its first year of operation. Li-Cycle expects to be fully operational at the facility later this year.
80-100% recovery of all materials found in lithium-ion batteries
Since Li-Cycle’s founding in 2016, the company has developed a unique technology that enables 80-100% recovery of all materials found in lithium-ion batteries using a two-step mechanical and hydrometallurgical/ ‘wet chemistry’ process. Li-Cycle’s process technology is uniquely capable of recycling all variants of cathode and anode chemistries within the lithium-ion spectrum, without the need for sorting into specific chemistries. Additionally, Li-Cycle’s technology ensures that lithium-ion batteries are processed safely without risk of thermal runaway (i.e. there is no risk of fire during processing). The process technology is inherently sustainable – it produces no solid waste streams, minimal/no water discharge, nor any harmful air emissions.
By 2040, an estimated 559 million electric vehicles will be on the road worldwide. Furthermore, the capacity of global lithium-ion battery energy storage installations is projected to grow over 50 times during that same period. While lithium-ion batteries continue to play an increasingly critical role in the global transition towards electrification, the world lacks a viable option for dealing with the rapidly growing volumes of spent lithium-ion batteries. Li-Cycle provides a solution for this gap through an innovative and sustainable resource recovery process.
“The first shipment of commercial product marks a significant milestone for Li-Cycle, on the company’s path to becoming a premier resource recovery processor, handling all types of lithium-ion batteries from a broad set of customers and applications,” says Ajay Kochhar, president and CEO of Li-Cycle. “As we grow our business, we look forward to continuing to provide sustainable and technologically innovative solutions to solve our global customers’ end-of-life lithium-ion battery challenges.”


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We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Realtors say R.I. housing market ‘is still going strong’ The Westerly Sun
New figures released by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors show that Realtor-assisted single-family home sales in South County were down slightly last …
from “business marketing” – Google News https://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/business/realtors-say-r-i-housing-market-is-still-going-strong/article_89a396f2-03ce-11e9-9cdd-cf6ea4c85acd.html
#marketing #B2B #business
Todd Doyle has been an internet marketer since 1994. Owner of several website domains and several online social profiles, Todd Doyle continues to be at the forefront of all emerging technologies.


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Tag Archives: soboba band of luiseno indians
- America’s oldest tribal casino found in Utah cave; Soboba slot space-bound
June 2, 2015
Archaeologists find 800-year-old gambling dice in Utah cave; California's Soboba tribe to send first slot machine into space.
Judge nixes California tribe’s shot at opening online casino
August 10, 2018
California shelves plan to regulate digital currency industry
August 17, 2016


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Raising awareness and money for mental healthJanuary 24, 2019 6:00am
The Listowel Cyclones are having a mental health awareness night Friday at their game versus Cambridge.
The team is auctioning off jerseys with proceeds going to the “Get in Touch for Hutch” campaign, in memory of former player, Steve Hutchison.
All proceeds from the jersey auction and Rotary food booth will be donated towards this campaign.
The Cyclones host Cambridge tomorrow night at 7:30pm.


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Facebook is a common household name, but there's still room to run for the social networking company, according to this analyst.
"Facebook, for example, has over 1.5 billion monthly users; in North America and Europe alone 300 million," Dan Chung, Fred Alger Management CEO, told CNBC. "That's three times the size of the Super Bowl."
For context, Nielsen Holdings N.V., the global information and measurement company, reported that Super Bowl 50 drew about 112 million television viewers; about 72 percent of Americans with television viewed the event.
The expert argues that Facebook holds over 20 percent of the time people spend on the Internet and its advertising revenue only represents between 8 to 10 percent of the total online advertisement.
"We think they're going to catch up," he said. "The biggest shift we see, which I think is very dangerous, is TV advertising."


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Realme has confirmed that its latest budget-centric smartphone, the Realme C17, will make its global debut on September 21. The smartphone has been leaked several times giving us a fair idea about its specifications and features. The phone is touted to feature a 90Hz refresh rate, which will be a first in Realme C-series. The handset might also come with a 5,000mAh battery with 18W fast charging support. Realme C17 will be introduced in Bangladesh on the said date.
Realme C17 launch details
The company has confirmed that the Realme C17 will make its global debut on September 20. The company will be holding a virtual event in Bangladesh at 12:00PM. The event will be live-streamed on the company’s official Facebook page and YouTube channel. The company has also teased some features of the Realme C17 including 90Hz refresh rate along with a ‘powerful performance and a stylish design’.
Realme C17 rumoured specifications and features
As per previously leaked information, the Realme C17 will come with quad-camera setup at the back panel along with a physical fingerprint sensor. There is a punch-hole design at the front panel and the phone will come with two colour options including Lake Green and Navy Blue.
The Realme C17 may feature a 6.5-inch HD+ (1600 x 720 pixel) display. The screen will come with a 90 per cent screen-to-body ratio and 600nits brightness. The major highlight of the phone will be 90Hz refresh rate. The phone might feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor along with up to 6GB RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage.
In terms of optics, the phone may come with a quad-camera setup with a combination of 13MP primary lens with f/1.8 aperture, 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens with 119-degree FoV, 2MP macro lens with 4cm focus distance and 2MP Black & White portrait lens. On the front, it could feature 8MP selfie shooter. The handset should run on Android 10 operating system with RealmeUI on top of it. It will get its power from 5,000mAh battery with 18W fast charging support.


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Brown Commercial Group negotiates 24,950 square feet of industrial transactions in suburbs
Brown Commercial Group negotiated 24,950 square feet of industrial transactions in Chicago’s O’Hare and far northwest suburban markets, including transactions involving multiple bidders and final sales that exceeded the asking price.
Ino Saves New
via rk2’s favorite articles on Inoreader https://ift.tt/b7Ca2Yr
July 24, 2022 at 07:52AM


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Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre 2021 to be replaced with smaller events
- Credit: Gregg Brown
A series of smaller festive events - to be announced - will replace the popular Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre this winter.
Business and tourism bosses have expressed their disappointment over the news, but say they will work with partners to ensure companies and communities have the best Christmas possible.
For many town centre businesses, the fair weekend is the busiest trading weekend of the year, said Mark Cordell, chief executive of the town's Business Improvement District (BID).
West Suffolk Council, which organises the four-day Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre, said last year's event had to be postponed due to Covid-19 and this year it could not go ahead "due to the need to keep Covid-safe and be able to change as guidance does".
Planning for the Christmas in Bury St Edmunds campaign for 2021 is in its early stages, but it will include the festive lights switch on.
It will start in November and organisations and businesses are also invited to come forward with their events and ideas to be included in the programme.
You may also want to watch:
Mr Cordell, chief executive of Our Bury St Edmunds, said: “While it is disappointing that the fayre will not be happening this year, we want to continue to make sure our businesses and communities have the best Christmas they can have this year and in the future.
"Christmas in Bury St Edmunds fits with the work the BID and our businesses have been doing for the Bury Bouncing Back campaign.
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"We look forward to a range of events being delivered in the run-up to Christmas."
Melanie Lesser, chair of Bury St Edmunds and Beyond tourism group, said: “Our visitors and tourism businesses will be disappointed that the Christmas Fayre will not go ahead in Bury St Edmunds this year, but we look forward to working with partners this year to encourage visitors to the town over an extended festive period.”
So far organisations including West Suffolk Council, Bury St Edmunds Town Council, Our Bury St Edmunds BID, Bury and Beyond, St Edmundsbury Cathedral and the Arc shopping centre are working together on the plans for this Christmas.
The Very Reverend Joe Hawes, Dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, added: "Christmas is a time when families come together, and we hope that this year we can offer visitors a chance to enjoy a unique experience at the cathedral with a specially planned event and traditional carol services.”
Susan Glossop, portfolio holder for growth for West Suffolk Council, which will be running an event as part of the programme, said the Christmas events would help, over several weeks, to attract residents and families into the town to enjoy the festive period and support local businesses, employers and suppliers.
"Importantly it will be done in a Covid-safe way," she said.
She said they welcomed other community organisations to join in with the Christmas campaign.


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The Significance of Mobile Games In The Application Market
The mobile gaming industry has exploded since the launch of the iPhone and then the iPad. Games like Angry Birds have achieved a whopping three billion downloads as of 2015 and are available virtually in all mobile operating systems. However, there are still some who are not betting on these platforms.
The market for mobile applications, in general, is growing at a breakneck pace. According to the latest statistics from statista.com, 65 billion apps have been downloaded from Google Play and 140 billion apps from Apple App Store. The number of mobile application downloads will continue to grow exponentially. If this trend continues, games will be one of the most downloaded application types.
According to data Chomp, a search engine application, the most popular type of application on Android are games with a 27.1% market share. Second are the ‘apps" utility and entertainment, with 16% each. In iPhone, as of December 2016, the first position is occupied by games with 24.85% market share followed by business applications with 9.96% market share. These statistics are according to the latest data of statista.com. In addition, users are willing to pay for these applications. A Nielsen study showed that 93% of users who had downloaded an app in the last month were willing to pay for a game, while only 76% were willing to pay for other application.
This market could increase to $101 billion dollars by 2020 according to App Annie mobile app forecast. In 2015, games dominated the market by generating 85% of the mobile app revenue or $34.8 billion worldwide. This figure is expected to grow to $74.6 billion by 2020. Although another type of apps will grow faster, gaming apps will still hold a significant market share.
Even Nintendo who previously expressed their opposition in releasing games for the mobile platform has also jumped on the bandwagon. Traditionally, the company"s strategy has been to develop software only for their platforms. This strategy “has not changed and will not change," said Yasuhiro Minagawa, a spokesman for the company, told Bloomberg. Even the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, previously criticized that the market value of the mobile game industry is ahead of its quality.
Last year, Nintendo finally embraced the mobile game app market when it released “Miimoto" which became a success. Some of their mobile game titles such as Pokemon Go and Super Mario Run were so popular that Nintendo’s shares temporarily jumped up. Mobile phone gamers can expect more games from Nintendo following the company’s huge success in the mobile game market.
Other popular gaming companies have also released some titles on Google Play and App Store. Square Enix, the creator of the famous Final Fantasy series, has released several of its titles for iPhone and iPad. Electronic Arts, meanwhile, often get many of their titles placed among the most downloaded on the App Store.


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Google is placing a big bet on India’s digital economy, becoming the latest tech giant to double down on a country perceived as the last major market for untapped growth
Google’s $10 billion fund
The search behemoth has announced plans to invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years, focusing on areas crucial to the country’s digitisation efforts.
What will the fund focus on?
Google for India Digitization Fund will focus on four key areas:
- Enabling affordable access and information in local languages like Hindi, Tamil and Punjabi among others
- Building new products and services relevant to India’s unique needs
- Empowering businesses on their digital transformation journey
- Using tech & artificial intelligence for areas like health, education, and agriculture.
The search giant will also use this fund to buy stakes in large Indian companies as well as niche digital service providers, Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai told ET in an exclusive interview.
“Using this fund, we want to build new products and services, invest in companies that build new products and services that are deeply relevant in India. We want to scale beyond English and other vernacular languages as well,” Pichai said.
Originally Published By Tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com


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Hälsa, the maker of the first and only 100% clean organic oatmilk yogurt, is expanding its retail footprint across the country adding more than 160 National Grocers by Vitamin Cottage stores across 20 states heavily concentrated in the Colorado market.
Fungi-focused protein company is leasing two-thirds of new-build 114,700-square-foot building.
May 27, 2021
Plant-based, fungi-focused protein manufacturer Meati Foods is leasing 76,463 square feet of Class A industrial space at 25 North in Thornton, Colorado. Meati will occupy two-thirds of a brand new 114,700-square-foot building that was constructed in 2020.


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July 26, 2011
Last week, as blogs and social media buzzed with Google+ news and tips, another Google-related product quietly entered the e-reader market space. Google and Korean manufacturer iriver partnered to release the first Google eBooks-integrated e-reader, the Story HD.
The Story HD went on sale July 17th and is available exclusively at Target for $139.99. It is the first e-reader to be integrated with the open Google eBooks platform, allowing users to buy and read Google eBooks over Wi-Fi.
Features of the Story HD include a slim and lightweight design, a high-resolution E Ink screen, and a QWERTY keyboard. Users have access to more than 3 million free Google eBooks and can purchase hundreds of thousands more through the platform. They can browse, buy and read Google eBooks directly through the reader. Additionally, users can store their personal ebooks library in the cloud, allowing them to pick up where they left off in any ebook they’re reading as they move from one device to another.
The Story HD is not without its critics, as MacWorld‘s Melissa J. Perenson found the display’s weak contrast as well as the lack of page-turning devices alongside the display to be problematic. In Publisher’s Weekly, Calvin Reid reported that the Story HD’s basic technology may seem a bit dated compared to the Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch or the Kobo Touch Edition.
The Story HD is getting plenty of its own social media buzz, too. A quick search on Twitter and Facebook reveals Story HD fans professing their love for the device because it allows them to shop at independent bookstores, as well as detractors, claiming the Story HD has nothing over the Kindle.
Which e-reader do you use? Have you tried the Story HD, or are you completely loyal to your Kindle–or to your good, old-fashioned bookshelf?
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Madrid-headquartered distributor Adveo has sold off its French electrical office supplies division, named Adveo Digital Systems (ADS) France, to the UK's largest homegrown distributor Westcoast. According...
But parent company Datatec hints that deal is progressing
Vendor gathers resellers at New Orleans event
Three years of back-office overhaul finished as sale talks continue
But shipments still contract by 1.7 per cent annually, according to IDC


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The Coca-Cola Company today announced plans to transition sales and distribution rights for its hometown of Atlanta and other Georgia markets to Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED as part of an accelerated plan to refranchise half of its company-owned U.S. bottler-delivered volume by the end of 2017.
Through a letter of intent signed today, Coca-Cola UNITED, based in Birmingham, Ala., will acquire territories in north and central Georgia, including the Metro Atlanta area, Athens, Macon and Rome. Coca-Cola UNITED, currently the country’s third-largest Coca-Cola bottler and largest privately held bottler, also will acquire production facilities in College Park and Marietta, Ga.; Montgomery, Ala.; and Cleveland, Tenn.
“Coca-Cola has called Atlanta home for almost 130 years. We are proud to have Coca-Cola UNITED as one of our partners in building the North America system of the future, including here in Georgia,” said Sandy Douglas, president, Coca-Cola North America.
Douglas said The Coca-Cola Company will remain closely involved in the local community.
Additional letters of intent signed today grant Tampa-based Coca-Cola Beverages Florida territory in Southeastern Florida including Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami and West Palm Beach. St. Cloud, Minn.-based Viking Coca-Cola Bottling Company will assume territory in Northern Minnesota, including Duluth and Northern Wisconsin including Ashland, and a portion of Michigan. Read the full press release.
The announcement marks the next phase in the transformation of Coke’s U.S. bottling landscape, which began five years ago with the company’s acquisition of Coca-Cola Enterprises’ North American operations and subsequent formation of Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR). The company has since refranchised select CCR distribution territories to U.S. bottling partners to create a system of contiguous operating territories that balances national scale and local capability.
Coca-Cola UNITED has acquired new distribution territories throughout the Southeast as a part of the refranchising process, starting with Oxford, Ala. in early 2014.
“We’ve been very intentional and aggressive in implementing our local operating model and building capability through investments in our people and our assets to provide a high level of customer service,” said Claude Nielsen, chairman and CEO, Coca-Cola UNITED. “While it’s still early in the refranchising process, the positive results we’re seeing in terms of associate excitement and customer satisfaction are very encouraging. This is a people business and a relationship business. As we’ve made these transitions, we’ve met a lot of great Coca-Cola people in every market who have embraced our relationship-based approach.”
The acquisition of the Atlanta territory brings with it a tremendous amount of opportunity and significant responsibility, Nielsen said.
“The specialness of Coke’s hometown makes it the perfect market to expand our local operating model,” he added. “We feel privileged to be given the opportunity to serve this market. We also understand and accept the responsibility to perform consistently and provide reliable service to all customers.”
Nielsen said his team will follow the same locally focused operating model and strong community engagement in Atlanta that it follows in every community in the UNITED franchise territory – some of which it has served for more than 100 years. These include markets in east and northwest Georgia.
Coca-Cola bottling in Atlanta dates back to 1900, when The Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Company was founded as an independent company during the early days of the franchise Coca-Cola system. The Coca-Cola Company’s initial ownership of the Atlanta market began in 1979 when it purchased the Atlanta bottler. Later in 1986 when Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) was established as a standalone public company to consolidate bottling groups across the U.S, the Atlanta market became part of CCE. In 2010, The Coca-Cola Company acquired CCE’s North American operations and formed Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR), and the Atlanta market returned to company control.
“Our refranchising of Atlanta to UNITED returns this important market to its independent roots,” Douglas said. “As was true a century ago, strong locally based relationships between Coca-Cola bottlers, customers and communities are the foundation on which the entire business grows.”


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Kamaz has designed an all-new truck pointed directly at the 2017 Dakar event. The big, bad, blacked-out Master “Kapotnik” features a new layout and a 980-hp powertrain. Kamaz believes it will be the truck to bring back its 14th Dakar victory.
The all-new Kamaz Master leaves the tradition of forward control cabs in the past, and looks all the more rugged and powerful because of it. Built on the Kamaz-4326 chassis, this muscular machine has a generously sized cab set back off the front axle, behind a strong hood. The new layout is designed to increase crew comfort and improve performance.
Kamaz also believes the new cab configuration, which shifts weight off the front axle and toward the center, will improve maneuverability, provide better movement over sand and offer better jump landings.
Kamaz says the new Master will reach speeds close to 100 mph (160 km/h) “on more or less any surface.” Those speeds come courtesy of the big, bulging 980-hp (731-kW) 12.5-liter diesel engine and 16-speed ZF transmission powering all four wheels. A 1,000-liter fuel tank allows the truck to drive all day and into the night.


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Workers who aspire to climb the management ladder strive for the opportunity to move from hourly-wage, crew-level positions to salaried management positions with performance-based incentives. What they lose in overtime pay they gain in the stature and sense of accomplishment that comes from being a salaried manager.As is well known, grocery stores and car dealerships accept stature and a sense of accomplishment as payment.
Please read below the fold for more on this story.
The motivation for Puzder's op-ed in (of course) the Wall Street Journal is President Barack Obama's plan to expand overtime eligibility. Currently, a worker making less than $24,000 can be called a "manager" and stripped of overtime protections, and the fast food industry makes heavy use of that fact. Obama's proposal to raise the threshold significantly higher would change the calculation that many fast food and retail companies make in using low-salaried "managers" to do the work of hourly employees the businesses aren't willing to pay for. For instance, Dave Jamieson reported last year on a Dollar General manager in this position:
Pressured to keep payroll down, Hughey spent most of her time unloading trucks, stocking shelves and manning the cash register, often logging 12-hour days, six days a week, to keep the store operating. She said she felt less like a manager than a manual laborer.Maybe Puzder's fast food chains pay their salaried managers better and require less ridiculous hours of them. But his freakout over the possibility that he'd have to pay some of those managers overtime suggests that Carl's Jr. and Hardee's are in fact relying heavily enough on salaries below the threshold Obama might set as the new overtime exemption level and forcing those managers to work what would be substantial overtime.
Dollar General saved a bundle by having Hughey do much of the grunt work. As a salaried manager, she was exempt from overtime protections and didn't get paid for extra work. Given that she often worked 70 hours a week, at an annual salary of $34,700, her pay sometimes broke down to less than $10 per hour—hardly a managerial haul.
But hey, at least they have all that salaried-manager stature while they're doing non-managerial work for far more than 40 hours a week.


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- Personal data on 50,000 Uber drivers exposed in breach
- White House privacy proposal aims to give consumers control over data
- Lenovo to flush 'crapware' from its consumer PCs after Superfish sin
- The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Friday, February 27
- Insurance firm Staysure fined £175,000 for 'unbelievable' credit card hack
prepaid - News, Features, and Slideshows
Customers no longer have to prove their identity at the store when buying prepaid mobile services, under new identity verification rules that took effect today.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia will upgrade prepaid mobile customers to its 4G network starting today, the telco has announced.
Telstra has terminated its supply of prepaid mobile service to ispONE due to an alleged failure by the reseller to pay its invoices, according to ispONE.
New Australian telco Yatango Mobile requires customers to have a Facebook account and allows its users to custom build their monthly plan rates.
The Boost Mobile website server was temporarily overwhelmed today by a traffic spike following the operator’s launch of new 3G prepaid plans on the Telstra network. Visitors to the site were able to register as of yesterday afternoon.
- Companies don’t have policies to disrupt traditional business models: Forrester’s McQuivey
- Oppy appointed marketing chief at CUB
- Drink manufacturer Diageo pilots 'smart bottle' for Johnnie Walker Blue Label
- How Suncorp and Helloworld are driving into digital with data
- Start-up Leia to demo Star Wars-inspired hologram display technology next week


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On any given day, approximately 49% of all Americans aged 20 years and older eat at least 1 sandwich, which accounts for one-fifth of their total daily sodium intake.
Sandwiches are major contributors to daily sodium and calorie intake, a new study suggests.
On any given day, approximately 49% of all Americans aged 20 years and older eat at least 1 sandwich, which accounts for one-fifth of their total daily sodium intake, according to research from the US Department of Agriculture.
The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend a maximum daily sodium intake of 2300 mg, although certain medical conditions necessitate a daily intake of 1500 mg. The study results determined that the sodium levels in sandwiches comprise 30% of the less restrictive guideline and 46% of the more restrictive allowance.
Sandwich-eating participants also had higher sodium intakes than non-sandwich eaters, consuming an extra 600 mg of sodium per day, on average.
Participants who ate sandwiches had significantly higher calorie intakes on the days they consumed a sandwich, taking in an average of approximately 300 additional calories.
“The unanticipated finding that sandwich consumption is associated with higher overall intake of energy underscores the importance of making healthful choices of sandwich ingredients,” said study co-author Cecilia Wilkinson Enns, MS, RD, in a press release. “Many sandwiches, such as burgers and franks, and common sandwich components, such as yeast breads, cheese, and cured meats, are among the top contributors not only to sodium, but also to energy in the diets of adult Americans.”
According to the study authors, higher levels of sodium intake among sandwich eaters were linked to higher levels of daily energy consumption, as well.
“Regardless of sandwich reporting status, sodium density was approximately 1700 to 1800 mg per 1000 kcal, suggesting that the higher sodium levels of sandwich reports are explained by their higher energy intake,” study co-author Rhonda Sebastian, MA, said in a press release.
The research, which appears in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, faced a unique challenge with the ingredient combinations that can comprise each sandwich. Prior analyses defined sandwiches using a single reference code for the item, rather than breaking each sandwich into its component ingredients and then assigning reference codes for them. In doing so, those studies found sandwiches comprised only 4% of daily sodium intake.
The new study, which relied on data from the federal nationwide “What We Eat In America NHANES 2009-2010” survey, allowed participants to report the ingredients in their sandwich and show how the items were linked together as a sandwich. The survey also allowed participants to report certain sandwiches—particularly fast-food ones—as a single item.
The study authors recommended substituting lower sodium ingredients for higher ones in order to reduce daily sodium intake.


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LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- At first glance, they look like regular snacks - cookies, chips, candy.
On closer look they carry names like "Stoneos" "Reefer's" and "Starbuds."
Officials are warning parents to be on the lookout for products containing marijuana that are packaged to look like ordinary snack foods.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says they might be packaged to make it less obvious to parents that they contain the drug.
"Special attention to parents, Marijuana Dispensaries are packaging their edibles in creative ways to avoid detection. Be cognizant with what your children buy and ingest," the department tweeted.


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Who would have thought that Windows Surface Pro 3 had a small brother? Everyone actually, but it was never really the face of discussion until now, when Microsoft?s Panos Panay laid out all the amazing details of the Surface Mini table that never really came out.
In an interview with Wired, the company?s corporate vice president in charge of devices shared how he used to keep the unreleased Surface Mini tablet beside his bed and how he would draft his emails and take down notes when he feels a surge of inspiration, according to the Verge. ?It was like a Moleskine,? Panay said, reliving the memory of a 7-inch tablet he never showed to the world. ?It was awesome.? This statement suggests that he may no longer be using the Surface Mini and that it will not be likely that we would ever see it.
Microsoft, for the betterment of their company, apparently never confirmed the Surface Mini?s existence. But according to reports, the device should have been announced together with the Surface Pro 3 in May 2014 but was never launched due to the cancellation made by CEO Satya Nadella and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, according to the Verge.
Panay?s statement now officially reaffirms everyone knowledge about the once rumored Surface Mini tablet but at this point in time, it?s highly doubtful that the 7-inch tablet will ever launch again.
In other news, there are rumors that the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 already has a release date, along with other info of some nifty upgrades compared from its predecessor. We might expect to see the Surface Pro 4 around October this year, though there is still no confirmation if the?information is accurate?as there is no official announcement from Microsoft yet. For more information about the new device, check out the link here.


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The government is worried over the tide of cheap bulk drug imports from China that have led to a sharp fall in the share of their domestic production.
India had, until recently, produced 70 per cent of its bulk drug needs, but the figure has now fallen to 30 to 40 per cent.
A commerce ministry paper says most bulk drugs, or active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) as they are also called, used to formulate medicines in the country, are imported from China. It has concluded that a large part of Indian exports comprise formulations of Chinese bulk drugs.
"This is an extremely disappointing and critical aspect of the Indian pharma industry," the paper said.
The issue has been flagged in the commerce ministry's strategy for doubling India's exports in the next three years and is also expected to be taken up with the finance ministry and the ministry of external affairs for further discussions.
The commerce ministry is in favour of policy interventions to bring back bulk drug manufacturing to India.
Senior officials say various measures, such as tax incentives and provision of soft loans, have to be put in place to encourage investment so that production rises and jobs are generated.
China remains a dominant player in the global bulk drugs industry because of its large-scale manufacturing capabilities.
Chinese firms are backed by an abundant supply of cheap power and easy loans.
However, concerns regarding quality, reflected in product recalls due to contamination, hamper the efforts of Chinese manufacturers to sell bulk drugs in the lucrative US and European Union (EU) markets. Indian firms have an opportunity to take advantage of this situation.
Also, the domestic bulk drugs industry can benefit from the impending patent expiries, including those of blockbuster drugs, in the regulated markets. This will open up opportunities for supplying bulk drugs to manufacturers of such generic drugs as well as increase outsourcing of bulk drugs by multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Commerce ministry officials are also of the view that greater efforts will have to be made at the diplomatic level to get the Chinese government to open up the market for Indian drug formulations.
Courtesy: Mail Today


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Starbucks announced a couple of bits of news on Tuesday that’s sure to pique customers’ interest.
Not only did the chain start offering cold-brew coffee as an all-year item today, it’ll also make smoothies available in 4,300 stores—which customers can then customize with kale. Starbucks’ new smoothie pledge comes from its partnership with yogurt giant Danone. Here’s how the smoothies and partnership will work:
Priced at $5.95 for a 16-ounce size, the smoothies will come in three flavors and can be customized by adding ingredients such as protein powder and fresh kale, said Jeff Hansberry, president of Starbucks’ Evolution Fresh brand.
While Starbucks is a wholly different beast than another recent kale-adopter, McDonald’s, the size of the coffee chain puts it in the same weight class as the Golden Arches. This fact only means one thing: kale, as a food trend, has officially jumped the shark and gone mainstream.
It now joins Australia’s flat white as an item that’s met its demise at the hands of chain. R.I.P. once more, kale.


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The maker of the world-famous Lanark Blue cheese has finally won its David and Goliath battle for survival with the government.
And Errington Cheese, based at Ogscastle near Carnwath, has thanked the people of Clydesdale for their crowdfunding support which made the triumph possible.
Despite the international success of Lanark Blue and its other varieties, the future for the independent cheesemaker looked black when government agencies Food Standards Scotland and Scottish Food Enforcement Liason Committee tried to introduce rules that would have practically banned Erringtons from using its trademark raw milk method of cheesemaking.
However, joining forces with another four Scottish independent producers, Erringtons launched a crowdfunding appeal which allowed a court challenge to the new rules.
Now, in the face of this, the agencies have withdrawn their proposals and replaced them with ones which will allow Erringtons to continue in business,
Selina Cairns, director at Errington Cheese, said: “I want to say a huge thanks to those who have supported us over the past few months.
“This has been a stressful period everyone and we really couldn’t have done it without the public support.
“It’s a massive relief. We’re extremely hopeful that this is the last chapter of what has been an incredibly hard couple of years, with actions from Food Standards Scotland having detrimental impacts on our business and sales growth.”
In addition to the successfully amended guidelines, Food Standards Scotland abandoned its motion to seek expenses against from the cheesemakers.


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The meat industry needs to give more attention to educating consumers on the safe handling of their products. Certainly the information presented in the accompanying sidebar illustrates the knowledge gap among consumers in terms of safe food handling.
The Fight BAC! campaign, initiated in 1997 by 10 founding members and three government agencies, was a sound first step. However, recent survey results show there is less awareness of the program today than there was four years ago.
Although all parties within the food chain are responsible for assuring a safe food supply, the consumer is the final defense against bacterial contamination. However, most consumers remain unaware of their role.
Some studies illustrate the seriousness of the problem and help explain why foodborne pathogens are estimated to cause 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year.
Researchers for the Safe Food Institute at Utah State University videotaped 100 consumers preparing meals and found lots of bad habits. Subjects were asked to prepare a multiple-ingredient salad and an entree (meatloaf, breaded chicken breast or marinated halibut) not knowing that the researchers were studying food safety.
Researchers compared the consumers' food preparation behaviors with Fight BAC! recommendations, which include the following categories.
- Cleaning: The study showed the average hand-wash attempt was 4.4 seconds, without soap – 20 seconds with soap is recommended. What's more, only 30 percent of the subjects attempted to clean food preparation surfaces.
- Separating: In all, 98 percent of the subjects cross-contaminated their food. Subjects didn't use separate preparation areas for raw meat and salad ingredients. Utensils were not properly cleaned and dish cloth and hand towels all added to the cross-contamination problem.
- Cooking: Inadequately cooking meat was a common error. Chicken was the most frequently undercooked entree – 82 percent failed to meet temperature standards. Also, 82 percent of the ovens were inaccurate, not even within 5¦F of the setting.
While everyone attempted to check the entree's doneness, few used a thermometer. Most – 95 percent – checked doneness visually or by tasting.
- Chilling: Standard refrigeration temperature is 40°F or colder. In this study, 36 percent of refrigerator temperatures exceeded 40°F. Also, 30 percent of the refrigerators were overcrowded, which prevents air circulation needed for proper cooling.
Of the subjects who marinated the entree 77 percent did so on the counter vs. in the refrigerator.
Another study involving universities in Nevada, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania shows that on average it takes consumers 70 minutes to move meat products from purchase to freezer. Getting it to the refrigerator took an average of 42 minutes. The longest delay was five hours and 10 minutes.
Supermarkets are trying to help consumers learn about food handling. Ukrop's Super Markets in Richmond, Va., stocks thermal bags in the frozen foods aisle. Safeway stores organized in-store exhibits and displays. Albertson's and Wal-Mart are working with the Partnership for Food Safety Education on a campaign to educate employees.
Nevertheless, awareness of the Fight BAC! program has slipped to 33 percent, down 13 percent from last year – the lowest awareness since the program started.
Melanie Miller, Partnership's executive director, says the decline stems from the lack of full-time attention. In September 2000, Miller stepped into that role. She has initiated several projects to increase program awareness, and is targeting high-risk audiences: children, the elderly, pregnant women and the immune compromised. The organization also is working with physicians to educate patients.
Lastly, the Partnership is building alliances with major corporations that have a vested interest in food safety, such as Clorox, Glad, Reynolds, Rubbermaid, McDonald's and Pfizer. Uncovering Food Safety Facts- More than 30 percent of consumers eat leftovers that have been in the refrigerator for seven to 10 days.
- Only 5 percent of consumers use food thermometers to determine meat doneness.
- Some 60 percent of consumers store raw meat on the middle or top shelf of the refrigerator vs. the recommended bottom shelf so it doesn't drip onto other foods.
- After contacting raw meat, 76 percent of utensils (cutting boards, knives, forks) are not properly cleaned.
- When preparing food, 66 percent of all hand washing is done without soap.
- More than 70 percent of food preparation surfaces are not sufficiently cleaned.
- Only 7 percent of adults know the correct temperatures for food storage and preparation.
Kristal Guier writes for Meat & Seafood Merchandising magazine


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Gloucester headquartered national cookware retailer ProCook hit records sales of £64.5 million for the year 20/21, a 35 per cent increase on the previous year. The impressive figure broke all records at the company, more than doubling expected growth and delivering a healthy £10 million plus profit.
The company’s huge success over the past 12 months has been attributed to agile systems which enabled fast response to the challenges of the pandemic, an increased consumer demand for kitchenware, as we all hunkered down to bake our own sour dough and banana bread, which we could then eat off ProCook’s newly expanded tableware category.
Following these figures but with a strengthened commitment to multichannel, the company is also opening six large format stores in strong retail destination centres in the coming months, including key stores at Bluewater in Kent and Cribbs Causeway in Bristol.
Retail Director Andy Kerr said: “ProCook remains committed to offering bricks and mortar retail stores, and these new stores will enable so many more customers to experience our exceptional service and feel the quality of our products for themselves. We’re confident our expansion plans will continue to deliver growth for the foreseeable future.”
ProCook has also launched a hub in the Netherlands to service European markets. The 5,000 sq ft warehouse with offices in Venlo, in the southeast of the Netherlands, near the German border, marks the first phase of ProCook’s international expansion, and will be followed by the opening of several European ProCook stores later in the year.
The kitchen and diningware company recently received a Sunday Times International Track 200 award following a 300 per cent growth in its international channel over the past 3 years. This exceptional figure led to ProCook charting in the top 10 fastest growing mid-market ecommerce exporters in the UK.
Founder Daniel O’Neill said: “By stepping up to meet the opportunities presented to us in the past year we’ve achieved some incredible numbers and accelerated our plans to expand internationally. Opening an EU distribution centre allows us to offer EU customer the same great 1-2 day service our UK customers enjoy, and enable us to tailor our approach to different markets more effectively.”