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Looks like Uber drove out of food tech only to drive into fintech in India.
On Feb.11, the company said it has set up a team of over 100 technology professionals at its Hyderabad tech centre, for Uber Money. The team will work on financial products and technologies including real-time earnings and debit and credit cards for Uber drivers, as well as Uber Wallet and credit cards for riders.
This is the company’s first such commitment in the Asia-Pacific region and comes less than a month after Uber sold its food-delivery business in India to local rival Zomato to focus on its core ride-hailing offering.
“With millions of daily trips and food orders, and digital transactions taking place on the Uber platform globally, the role of the Uber Money team at Hyderabad is to ensure that the platform is safe, secure, compliant, scalable and seamless for the users and also innovate on new financial experiences for all our business lines,” Naga Kasu, engineering director and Hyderabad site lead at Uber, told Quartz.
The Hyderabad team will work for Uber’s global markets, and there is no set timeline on when Uber Money will officially launch in India.
“I believe Uber is looking to make its services wholesome and hence it tried Uber Eats. When things did not pan out, it exited,” independent tech consultant Harish HV told Quartz. “In the payments space, there is no natural monopoly yet and banks have been operating in financial services with a large number of players, unlike in the food-delivery space which is now a duopoly and difficult to make a mark in. (Uber is) looking at payments with this mindset and probably want to get into lending and other services if it works well.”
Payments could become a key part of Uber’s business as it is a source of data and earning that’s too lucrative to ignore, experts say.
“Today, any business that has a strong consumer business online—steady traction and growth of user base, compelling everyday use, and route to strong unit economics—is a potential fintech company,” Vidhyashankar, president at IT firm Ninestars Global, told Quartz. “Uber perhaps can become a super app.”
Payments have been an obvious add-on for taxi aggregators around the world. For instance, in Singapore, Grab launched GrabPay and now it’s even seeking a digital bank licence. In the US, Lyft has the Express Pay feature for drivers to receive funds within 30 minutes.
Uber’s Indian rival Ola also offers short-term credit, mobile wallet, and insurance, among other things, as part of Ola Money. Although Ola faced some backlash with drivers complaining of delayed payments and unwarranted fines and customers being untrusting, the brand went all-in. Last January, it applied for a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence to dive deeper into the insurance and credit business lines. In May 2019, the company launched an Ola Money-SBI Credit Card with the aim of issuing 10 million credit cards by 2022. Now reports suggest Ola is apparently planning to spin off Ola Financial Services (Ola Money) into a separate entity.
When these firms are moving beyond mobility, “there are two goals,” explains Jaspal Singh, co-founder of transport consultancy Valoriser Consultants. “First, to become seamless mobility providers by launching new products and integrating with public transit. Uber will likely be selling tickets for Delhi metro and so on, soon. Second, to become a daily-life app for the customer even if you don’t use mobility every day.”
Uber is already moving beyond just cab-hailing to include self-driving car rentals and shuttle bus services in India. The American behemoth has already forged strategic partnerships with mobility firms including Drivezy, Zoomcar, Bounce, and Revv to bring new vehicles on its platform. A fintech product will help streamline these operations, and seamlessly add instruments like credit and insurance to the process, experts say.
Payments work in conjunction with Uber’s main business. “It doesn’t necessarily require Uber to spend additional ad dollars to capture more ‘payment customers’ on top of its ride customers,” said DJ Kang, CEO of ValueChampion. “And payment is able to capture additional revenue on top of every ride that Uber provides.”
But with myriad established players like market leader Paytm and its formidable rival Phonepe perching at the top of India’s payments leaderboard, and several other wallet players in the mix, the journey won’t be easy.
Some experts even argue that banking should be left to banking companies. “For Uber Money, expect an interesting yet profitless flirtation, undermined as a sustainable business by a lack of fundamental trust,” according to Jim Prior, global chief executive of Superunion.
India especially may not be prime ground for the feature. After all, the country houses the second-largest unbanked population in the world, and many citizens don’t trust online transactions. In addition, a lack of profitability is a black spot for most e-wallets in India.
Uber, with its deep pockets, can likely afford the cash burn. Customer acquisition—the biggest expense for fintech firms—is almost a non-issue for Uber anyway. By mid-2019, it had amassed 100 million monthly active users in India. It is expanding aggressively, upping its presence from 52 Indian cities to 200 by the end of this year.
“With an increased number of cities in India, they can build product suites tailored to each of these constituents across lending, payments, insurances, travel, loyalty and enabling retail consumption,” Vidhyashankar said. This builds brand loyalty and customer stickiness, TechSci’s Sukriti Seth added.
Uber could even tap into its 10% stake in Zomato. “Uber has lost critical time in the India market and is significantly delayed but if Zomato also agrees, for strategic reasons, to use Uber Money it will be a major boom for them,” Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder and CEO of Greyhound Research, told Quartz. Especially if Zomato and Uber work out an in-app integration like the food-tech giant has with Paytm.


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A multibillion-dollar international business acquisition is creating more questions than answers at Starwood Hotels' St. Thomas call centre, after Marriott International announced it was purchasing the hotel chain.
Marriott released its plans to acquire Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide for $12.2 billion in cash and stock Monday, cementing its position as the largest hotel company in the world.
After the merger, Marriott will lay claim to the more than 1,200 properties throughout some 100 countries that were once owned and operated by Starwood.
Though the global implications of the hotel chain amalgamation are known, the local impact on jobs at Starwood's St. Thomas call centre isn't as clear.
St. Thomas is one of Starwood's nine reservation centres in the world and the only one in Canada. Since it opened in August 2003, the St. Thomas centre has grown to employ over 600 employees, making it the largest employer in the city's downtown.
In August, Starwood's St. Thomas call centre announced it was planning to add 300 jobs by the end of 2015. Marriott on the other hand, closed its Sarnia call centre in April 2013 and transitioned some of its workforce to a home-based reservation taking program.
Requests for comment from the St. Thomas call centre's human resources manager were referred to Starwood's corporate public relations team, who did not respond to messages.
Though questions linger about Marriott's plans for Starwood's infrastructure, including its St. Thomas operation, St. Thomas and District Chamber of Commerce president Bob Hammersley is optimistic that the reservation centre's stellar reputation will precede it.
“They have an incredibly proud track record of the nine Starwood call centres that exist around the world, St. Thomas, Ont. is regularly seen as a top performer,” he said.
“There isn't a good or smart company out there that would turn down or turn away working with the top performers in their new acquisition.”
Hammersley said Marriott it on a roll and is hopeful it's increased footprint in the hotel industry could spell success and growth, not panic and upset, for its newly-acquired St. Thomas call centre.
“If anything, given St. Thomas ability to do what it does so well, that there could be growth, that there hopefully isn't cause for concern,” he said.
tap here to see other videos from our team.

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2021 has been a crazy year for investors. The year started off with a number of short squeezes performed by a coordinated group of retail investors followed by turbulent ups and downs in the cryptocurrency market.
Shortages of shipping containers and commodities like wood have also led to big swings for many asset classes, while inflation fears are one of the reasons many stocks are trading at record P/E ratios.
The rising prevalence and popularity of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have attracted a lot of attention as investors flock to buy into these empty shell companies without knowing exactly what company it will be acquiring.
Away from all this speculative trading, investors that have been on the lookout for value haven’t had many places to turn. The tech sector has been one that’s done particularly well over the last few years. For example, Warren Buffett, one of the world’s most famous value investors, acquired a stake in Apple in the spring of 2016 that has grown sixfold in the years since.
Another industry that’s seen good returns for investors is the iGaming market.
What is iGaming?
iGaming is the term given to companies that offer different forms of wagering online. This includes casino games, sports betting, poker, bingo, lotteries, scratch cards, and even bets on political and financial events.
The industry is relatively young, with the first companies opening their virtual doors in the late 1990s.
Over the decades since, iGaming companies have continually innovated their offerings by introducing new products and new ways to play. The biggest change was the introduction of mobile apps which meant that people could begin placing bets and playing games on the go without the need to be tied to a computer desk.
All forms of digital entertainment have grown in popularity over the last few years. Movie streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Digital have enjoyed huge gains in userbase and watch time. The same has been seen in music streaming, social media, and gaming.
In the last few years, gaming companies have reported larger and larger reviews and profit margins as more and more people start playing games and spending more on them.
iGaming companies have also been riding this wave, as more people make the switch from offline forms of wagering such as in casinos and betting shops. New people have also begun taking up the hobby as it has become more accessible through smartphones.
The biggest growth in iGaming has come from the United States where homegrown brands like DraftKings Sportsbook have begun operating.
The US Offers Huge Opportunities for iGaming Companies
Until 2018, sports betting was pretty much only available in Las Vegas. Then, the US Supreme Court struck down a law that prohibited other states from allowing sportsbooks to operate on their territories.
In the three years that have passed since around two dozen states have legalized sports betting and other forms of iGaming. In these states, billions of dollars are being wagered every year, generating tax revenues for the states and huge profits for the companies involved.
This is still only scratching the surface. More than half of the country still can’t place bets online, though more states are expected to legalize iGaming in the coming months and years. When they do, the size of the market will grow drastically.
Additionally, states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania where iGaming has been possible for longer have seen revenues break records every year since the companies began operating. Therefore, even if no new states come online anytime soon, the American iGaming market will continue to expand at an impressive pace.
With so much room to grow, it’s no surprise that all of the world’s biggest igaming companies are clambering over themselves to begin operating in as many US states as they can. Right now, market share is all that matters, but many investors recognize that there is a lot of potential for bumper profits as things begin to settle in.


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Ghanaian musician, Dennis Nana Dwamena, popularly known as KiDi, has been announced as a brand ambassador for KFC Ghana.
KiDi and KFC Ghana signed an agreement today, May 10, 2022.
Officials of KFC Ghana were happy about the partnership with the Lynx Entertainment artiste.
While imploring Ghanaians to patronize their meals, they also hinted at forthcoming ‘fingerlicious activities’ with KiDi.
KiDi expressed his gratitude to KFC and those who have been supporting his brand.
He asked his fans to look out for more activities.
KiDi added that they are hoping for the best—and further urged his fans to enjoy more chicken from KFC.
This deal comes after he won the Artiste of the Year at the 2022 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.
Watch a video Zionfelix.net took at the unveiling ceremony below.


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Our Latest Online Backup Reviews:Vembu SyncBlaze
Industry LinksTools and Graphs
A well-established IT services company in Mexico partners with NAKIVO to deliver fast, reliable, and affordable cloud backup and disaster recovery services for VMware Environments
Mexico Ciry, Mexico – September 14, 2015 — /BackupReview.info/ — Nephos IT, a well-established IT services company in Mexico, today announced that it has joined the NAKIVO Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery Ecosystem. Nephos IT can now offer cloud-based VMware Backup-as-a-Service and Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service powered by NAKIVO Backup & Replication Cloud Provider Edition. As an ecosystem member, Nephos IT can deliver fast, reliable, and affordable cloud backup and disaster recovery services for VMware environments, including onsite VM backup for fast operational recovery as well as VM backup and replication to the cloud for disaster recovery.
Tweet this: Nephos IT joins NAKIVO Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery Ecosystem for VMware environments
“We strive to deliver the best solutions to our customers,” said Francisco J Garibay, IT Director at Nephos IT. “NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides us with a rich feature set and a robust platform for delivering high quality data protection and recovery services to our customers.”
“We are pleased that Nephos IT, a leading IT services company in Mexico, has joined NAKIVO Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery Ecosystem,” said Bruce Talley, NAKIVO CEO and co-founder. “With NAKIVO, Nephos IT is now able to further expand their cloud services business by meeting the data protection needs of VMware based organizations of all sizes.”
Named one of the top 20 coolest cloud computing vendors of 2015 by CRN, NAKIVO is delivering a new way to protect VMware environments more reliably, efficiently, and cost effectively. NAKIVO Backup & Replication is VMware-certified, purely agentless, and can be deployed on both Linux and Windows. Featuring a simple and intuitive Web UI, the product can back up and replicate VMware VMs onsite, offsite, and to private/public clouds. NAKIVO Backup & Replication supports live applications and databases, enables instant recovery of VMs, files, and application objects directly from compressed and deduplicated VM backups, speeds up data transfer with network acceleration, and reduces data size with global deduplication and compression.
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Huawei Announces Launch of its First Blockchain-Based BaaS Cloud ServiceApr 19, 2018, 9:23AM
Huawei has announced a new Blockchain Service. The Chinese tech giant follows competitors that have already deployed similar DLT solutions.
The Chinese communications giant Huawei announced the launch of its Blockchain-based BaaS platform. Similar to its competitors (e.g. Microsoft Azure), Huawei revealed the “Blockchain Service” during an analyst conference in Shenzhen on Tuesday. The new production-ready distributed ledger technology platform will be offered through the Huawei Cloud interface.
“With the simplicity, usability, maturity, reliability, and integration of the cloud and blockchain, Huawei BCS provides enterprises and developers with enterprise-level blockchain services using its unique architecture.”
Built on Hyperledger Fabric 1.0, Huawei’s Blockchain Service will offer its customers the ability to create Smart Contracts for numerous potential use-cases. The white paper, written by the engineer Hu Ruifeng, names only a few: supply chain, tokenized security assets, financial auditing, and ID verification. Huawei is a member and key contributor to the Hyperledger that was initiated by the Linux Foundation in 2015. Since its creation, Hyperledger has established more than a hundred partnerships. The Fabric 1.0 version was released in July 2017.
According to Ruifeng:
“Centering on the blockchain cloud platform, the BCS can support enterprises quickly and flexibly develop blockchain solutions and applications on Huawei Cloud. Huawei works with enterprise customers to promote the deployment of blockchain solutions and applications and to build reliable, public infrastructure and an ecosystem based on blockchain and shared success.”
Fierce competition in China has forced Huawei to follow on the heels of Tencent and Baidu, which have already deployed similar Blockchain services. Huawei has numerous DLT-related projects on the go, including the development of their Project Caliper benchmark tool. Additionally, in cooperation with Sirin Labs, Huawei is exploring the possibility of developing the first Blockchain-enabled smartphone, which would run on Google’s Android system.
Disclaimer: information contained herein is provided without considering your personal circumstances, therefore should not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer of, or solicitation for, any transactions in cryptocurrencies.


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News for linkyfi tag
AVSystem is ready for MWC 2018 - 26.01-1.02 - Barcelonaevent 17 January 2018
Event: Mobile World Congress
Dates: 26 February 2018 - 01 March 2018
Location: Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain
Krakow, Poland – 17 January 2018 – AVSystem announced today its presence at Mobile World Congress 2018, where it will disclose some of their new achievements in the area of IoT & M2M integrations and WiFi value-added services. The Mobile World Congress ...
AVSystem provides Posnania Shopping Mall with breakthrough indoor locationclient 27 July 2017
AVSystem, in cooperation with long-term partners – Ruckus Wireless and Netia, has provided its breakthrough indoor location solution, the Linkyfi Location Engine, to Posnania Shopping Mall. Poznan, Poland – 27 July 2017 – Today, AVSystem officially un...
AVSystem announces a strategic partnership with Wifidomcompany 04 July 2017
Paris, France –04 June 2017 – AVSystem, an expert manufacturer of large-scale solutions for Telecom and Enterprise Markets announced a strategic distribution agreement for Iberia. With the growing demand for location-based and WiFi value-added services,...
AVSystem showcases its solutions at West Africa Com 2017event 27 June 2017
Event: West Africa Com
Dates: 11 July 2017 - 12 July 2017
Location: Radisson Blu Hotel, Dakar, Senegal
Krakow, Poland – 27 June 2017 – AVSystem will demonstrate its solutions at West Arica Com 2017, in order to play an active part in the delivery of low-cost broadband connectivity to West African enterprises. After attending East Africa Com in Nigeria this...
AVSystem & its German partner ALLNET at ANGA COM 2017event 22 May 2017
Event: ANGA COM
Dates: 30 May 2017 - 01 June 2017
Location: Koelnmesse, Cologne, Germany
Kraków, Poland – 23 May 2017 – AVSystem, an expert in large-scale solutions for telco operators, will showcase its solutions at ANGA COM 2017 – exhibition and congress for broadband, cable & satellite. Being Europe’s leading business platform for the broa...
AVSystem at CommunicAsia 2017, 23-25 May, Singaporeevent 17 May 2017
Event: Communic Asia
Dates: 23 May 2017 - 25 May 2017
Location: Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Krakow, Poland – 15 May 2017 – AVSystem announced today its presence at CommunicAsia 2017, a major ICT event of the APAC region. CommunicAsia 2017 will bring together a display of cutting-edge technologies, industry leaders and decision-makers. Being a ma...
AVSystem to share the latest industry updates at East Africa Com 2017event 10 May 2017
Event: East Africa Com
Dates: 17 May 2017 - 18 May 2017
Location: Radisson Blu, Nairobi Upper Hill, Kenya
Krakow, Poland – 10 May 2017 – AVSystem will take part in the premiere strategic event for Telcos in East Africa – East Africa Com 2017, taking place 17-18 May in Nairobi, Kenya. With the rapid growth of the ICT market and constantly expanding needs of th...
AVSystem and 4ipnet announced strategic and powerful partnershipcompany 08 May 2017
Taipei, Taiwan – 8 May 2017 - AVSystem and 4ipnet announced strategic partnership. Based in Taipei, Taiwan, 4ipnet designs and delivers innovative solutions for optimized guest WiFi connectivity; whereas, AVSystem, located in Krakow, Poland, is an expert i...
AVSystem to showcase solutions enabling management of connected devices at TM Forum Live!event 11 April 2017
Event: TM Forum Live!
Dates: 15 May 2017 - 18 May 2017
Location: Acropolis Convention Center, Nice, France
Nice, France – 11 April 2017 – AVSystem announced today that the company will showcase its product portfolio at TM Forum Live! 2017. As an active member of TM Forum, AVSystem is excited to take active part in the discussion about next generation OSS/BSS a...
T-Mobile CZ selects Linkyfi as a WiFi VAS providerclient 04 April 2017
With a growing number of deployments around the world, Linkyfi was selected as the best platform for WiFi value-added services by yet another well-known operator – T-Mobile Czech Republic. After a successful deployment of Linkyfi in all subsidiaries of Te...


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Kim Kardashian recently shared how she helped Kylie and Kendall Jenner's parent Caitlyn get styled for the ESPY awards “She gave me three days and said, ‘Can you get me something?’ I looked online. I shopped all over.”
Kim admitted that it was very difficult to find Jenner, Olympic gold medalist, a dress that was long enough and fit her properly, so she called one of her designer friends to get a custom made dress.
“I called Michael Costello. He was on Project Runway, so he has a studio in L.A. So he whipped up five things in two seconds. I sent her measurements. And she wore this white number.” the 35-year-old explained.
DID YOU KNOW?
As a child, Caitlyn hated academics due to dyslexia and even flunked second grade.
The mother of two also revealed that Caitlyn Jenner wanted some heavy embellishments and as such, she had to disagree with Jenner's fashion choice for the night. However, she said she couldn't be happier with how everything panned out in the end.
“She wanted to accessorize it super crazy. I had to step in. I didn’t approve the shoes,” she said. “We’ve got to get Caitlyn some new shoes. It’s hard out there,” she added.
But aside from the ESPYs, Kim said she found this whole process enjoyable as she has been able to bond with Jenner over their shared love of fashion, saying it’s “so fun” to talk clothes with her.
“Really, everything looks good on her. She’s super slim. She definitely likes to be age appropriate. But then she’ll like really short things. She seems to love clothes,” she said.


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The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has handed out a £26m fine following poor treatment of more than 1.5 million struggling borrowers. It marks the highest fine ever issued to a lender for what it deemed a breach of consumer credit rules.
But more tellingly, the penalty related to the mistreatment of business and personal customers who fell behind on credit card and loan payments between 2014 and 2018 - well before many of us had even heard of COVID-19. The move prompted the FCA to also warn other institutions against mistreating customers facing financial hardship during the pandemic.
In this instance the bank in question had ended up offering struggling borrowers unaffordable or unsustainable payment plans that were likely to put them under pressure to prioritise the debts ahead of other critical financial responsibilities. It is worth noting the bank's management team apologised, quickly revised operating procedures and worked fast to resolve errors.
Eye-Watering Debt Numbers Worsening by the Day
As we pass the first anniversary of the pandemic's outbreak, where does this leave lenders?
It's fair to say there are growing concerns as to how households, sole-traders and businesses alike will be able to maintain growing debts as the crisis continues. But on the flipside, banks are also obliged to carefully handle collections, recoveries and manage their most financially vulnerable customers - all while under increasing regulatory scrutiny.
Research by UK charity StepChange reveals pandemic-related borrowing and arrears has surged by two-thirds (66%) since May last year and now tops £10.3bn. The number of customers deemed to be in 'severe debt' also jumped to 1.2 million - doubling since March 2020. Added to that are a further 3 million at-risk customers teetering on the brink of falling into arrears after taking on extra short-term loans. Anecdotally, we're hearing from lenders that they expect a measurable uplift in credit arrears cases by June, when there will be a measured reduction in furlough, business and payment protection schemes.
Financial institutions are now working closely with the UK Treasury to craft a standard set of rules setting out how the collection and recovery of government-backed bounce back loans for small businesses should be handled. But the standards are unlikely to be extended to other forms of debt taken on by other customer segments during the pandemic.
According to new research by the Resolution Foundation, so-called 'pandemic pressures' have in many cases made it more expensive to live on a low income with children - and particularly so during lockdowns.
Factoring in Festive Financial Hangovers
Analysts are now factoring the added debt burden of festive finance after many Christmas shoppers went on a record-breaking credit spree by opting for online lenders' buy-now-pay-later offers. Significantly, it's estimated the average age of customers using these funding streams was 33 - notably older than younger consumers who typically utilise these types of credit lines.
The trend has seen some online retail POS lenders come under fire amid claims they are encouraging shoppers to spend more money than they can afford. Given the recent acquisition of the online arms of well-known struggling high street chains, it's fair to expect further increases in the buy-now pay-later trend.
Forbearance Best Practice and Upholding Customer Engagement Standards
With an eye on near-term challenges, The Credit Services Association (CSA) has been quick to call on the British Business Bank and HM Treasury to set out best practice on forbearance and standards of engagement to ensure a consistent policy towards collections.
The trade body is also calling for the recovery of Business Bounce Back Loans (BBLs) to be picked up in part by professional debt collection agencies to ensure best practice and help make a £6bn difference to the public purse.
The creation of the BBL Engagement Scheme is expected to cost around £10 million annually for the next three years. But the returns are expected to far outweigh cost, with the return on investment between £3bn to £6bn in additional funds recovered.
What Happens Next?
With fewer people in full-time work, covering living costs is only going to get harder for many. Many are already obliged to borrow more simply to service existing debts. But those needing to collect from customers will also be facing significant regulatory scrutiny. Many consumers are likely to regard their level of indebtedness as being down to circumstances that are out of their control.
It's clear that an active, agile, pre-emptive and insight-driven collections strategy is likely to yield far more effective, sensitive and successful recovery of outstanding debts. It's a route we've seen work well in the past for many of our strategic customers.
Given the dynamic nature of rapidly rising and evolving pandemic debt, there's no one single accepted measure analysing over-indebtedness or affordability risk. Right now, we're advising lenders to adopt a flexible combination of criteria and pre-emptive approaches to evaluate debt risk.
Credit scores on their own don't tell the full story. More in-depth data, analysis and insight are needed to comprehensively assess signs of stress and emerging affordability challenges. They can include gaining a view on the underlying reasons for hardship, a look at the type of relief applied for and an allowance for the longer-term impact on working customers' employment sector. Communication and ongoing dialogue are also critical to success, underpinned by analytics and mathematical optimisation, to inform decision strategies and actions.
Fast, smart and scalable optimisation of collections can be applied across the different stages of the lifecycle to help safeguard at-risk and financially vulnerable customers. If embraced correctly and shown to be delivered appropriately, it's also likely to help lenders ensure they don't fall foul of the regulators. FICO has already highlighted the higher proportion of consumers in collections are good customers in bad circumstances. Now is the time to adopt appropriate personalisation, within regulatory guidelines, at speed and scale through automation. To read more click here.
Fair Isaac Corporation published this content on 16 February 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 16 February 2021 13:50:08 UTC.


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1st Gear: That’s A Spicy Meat-A-Ball
Japanese supplier Takata’s potentially explosive airbags have been linked to 11 deaths in the U.S. alone and now millions upon millions of vehicle recalls—which aren’t even close to being done yet, mainly because these damn airbags were in seemingly everything. On top of that, and all the lawsuits, Takata is also facing a criminal investigation from the U.S. Justice Department.
Like Toyota and General Motors before it, Takata seems poised to pay a fine to end that probe, reports The Wall Street Journal. To the tune of as much as $1 billion.
Takata’s lawyers and U.S. Justice Department officials are discussing the prospect of the company pleading guilty to criminal misconduct as part of the settlement, the people said. Resolution of a criminal case could come as soon as January, though the timing could slip, the people said.
Takata is expected to pay a financial penalty in the range of the high hundreds of millions of dollars to at most about $1 billion to settle the case developed by federal prosecutors, the people said. The company, which faces significant financial pressures from an onslaught of recalled air bags, would pay some of the penalty up front and the rest over a number of years, the people said.
Prosecutors are weighing charging Takata with wire fraud after determining the company likely made misleading statements and concealed information about air bags that can explode and spray shrapnel in vehicle cabins, a safety problem linked to 11 deaths and 184 injuries in the U.S., the people said.
Takata is, somehow, still in business as of this writing.
2nd Gear: Toyota’s Hybrid Jump In Europe
Thanks to Volkswagen, we may be seeing the end of diesel in passenger cars, starting in the U.S. and increasingly so in Europe as cities like Paris eye banning oil-burners of a certain age. And this year, Toyota saw a big jump in hybrid sales in Europe, a market where those vehicles have long lagged. Here’s Bloomberg on what that means for the automaker, as well as for diesel’s future in Europe:
In the first full year since Volkswagen’s emissions scandal threw the German giant into disarray, Toyota is on track for roughly a 40 percent jump in annual sales of gasoline-electric vehicles in Europe. Hybrids are set to account for more than half of Toyota’s deliveries for the region by the end of the decade, according to Karl Schlicht, executive vice president of the carmaker’s European division.
Toyota’s Europe dilemma was a product mismatch rather than a regulatory crisis. At the beginning of the decade, when demand for its Prius was surging in other markets like the U.S., the model barely attracted buyers in Europe, where more than half of industrywide sales are diesels. After Volkswagen’s scandal undermined those powertrains, Toyota’s strategic decision to avoid pitting its models directly against diesel vehicles and force its dealers toward hybrids is now yielding results.
[...] UBS analysts in a report this month forecast that diesel will almost disappear by 2025 and be replaced by hybrids and battery-electric vehicles. Athens, Madrid, Mexico City and Paris have pledged to phase out diesel vehicles by 2025 in a bid to curb pollution.
“Diesel is on its way out for cars; we’ve seen the beginning of the end,” Alexander Nix, a Toyota dealer in Germany since 1980, said by phone. “Once we see further restrictions on emissions, it’s just going to be too expensive. We’ve already seen that now.”
The beginning of the end.
3rd Gear: SUVs Dominate Police Fleets Now Too
The crossover and SUV boom isn’t just for civilian vehicles. They’re increasingly dominating non-city police fleets too, reports Automotive News. More safety and more capability to carry gear and perps, plus, some of them are pretty quick these days.
Sedans likely will remain the vehicle of choice for patrolling built-up urban areas, but for suburbs and rural areas, SUVs are becoming the norm.
“We’re all dealing with the same issue, and that is the vehicles are getting smaller, yet there’s still demand for more gadgets and equipment put into those cars,” Julie Furlotte, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s national mobile assets manager, said in an interview. “It’s always a bit of a tradeoff and a challenge to make it all fit.”
The RCMP operates a formidable law enforcement fleet. It buys between 1,800 and 2,000 vehicles a year; its current fleet has 1,200-1,300 police-package sedans and 1,600 utility vehicles. Officers, like civilian drivers, like the bigger vehicles’ higher-up seating position and ease of entry and exit.
4th Gear: VW Lets You Pay By Phone
Volkswagen just bought an app that lets you pay for parking using your smartphone. Why is that useful for VW? Because it sets them up to do phone-based mobility services, like ride-hailing, down the line. Via Bloomberg:
The purchase of Vancouver-based PayByPhone, which processed more than $250 million in transactions this year, will turn the German company’s Volkswagen Financial Services unit into the leader in mobile payments for parking, the automaker said Wednesday in a statement. The companies aren’t disclosing the cost of the acquisition.
Volkswagen set up a ride-hailing and car-sharing division named Moia this month, giving it the same status as the company’s vehicle brands such as Audi or Porsche, with the aim of eventually generating billions of euros in revenue from the unit. The move is part of CEO Matthias Mueller’s response to industrywide technology developments such as mobility services, automated driving and electric powering systems, as Volkswagen emerges from its diesel-emissions cheating scandal.
5th Gear: You Have My Permission To Slack Off Too
A quick announcement: you may have noticed this already, but much of your hardworking Jalopnik staff is off this week as we wind down 2016. We’re running on half our cylinders at the moment but will resume regular service next week.
Besides, most Jalopnik readers are wasting time at work anyway. Why are you reading this? Take some time off, it’s almost New Year’s. Everyone should be checked out at this point.
Neutral: Will Hybrids And Electrics Kill Diesel Eventually?
I think so, but the American perspective is a different one than much of the rest of the world’s car market. If it does, when?


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Home » People » Dave Withers Board’s Director, Digistor
Dave Withers Board’s Director, Digistor
Most recently VP of technology for global platform engineering, Dell EMC
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on April 27, 2018 at 2:18 pm
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Many important lessons have been learned from COVID-19. The stand out for FMCG brands is that better leveraging digital and embracing ecommerce is the way to go.
As consumers cannot shop in physical stores as frequently as before, they are now inevitably looking for other ways to purchase their goods. This change in consumer habits means the promise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce channels is more tempting than ever for FMCG brands.
With DTC ecommerce offering increased access to and control of consumer data, along with the potential to better meet the needs of consumers, it’s unsurprising that more and more brands are looking to fast-track their e-commerce capabilities. And to fully own these crucial channels, many FMCG brands are looking to in-house models for their e-commerce and wider digital marketing capabilities.
Weighing up the benefits of in-housing
In our previous virtual panel event: Are you in, or out? In-housing in 2020 and beyond, Non-executive Chairman, Jerry Buhlmann, explains that in-housing can allow clients to leverage the digital economy more effectively.
He goes on to say that by in-housing, brands can better control their data as there is a shorter value chain. Marketers within these companies can protect their data and create a first-party data strategy that will enable increased transparency and control.
With digital growing at an exponential rate and overtaking offline, this control is paramount.
For FMCG brands, the point of sale was previously out of their control and they couldn’t reliably connect offline data purchases to online sales. They wanted more control of that data, in order to integrate the product team, the UX team, and the internal systems, so that they could be clearer on customer needs and more sophisticated in the way they advertise to those customers.
Ben Knight, Co-founder of Serpico by Croud, believes that owning more of your data to amplify your marketing activities is a no-brainer, as it lets you reach the right customers at the right time and make the most impact.
Bouncing back after the recession
Jerry Buhlmann describes in the panel how COVID-19, and the resulting recession, has prompted change. Businesses slowed everything down, furloughing staff, and reducing costs where they could as a precaution. We are still nowhere near returning to ‘normal’, but as the recession ends, and businesses can function as usual, marketing will be one of the leading driving forces that pulls those businesses out of that rut.
What brands need as they transition out of this period is different. When allocating budget they need to prioritise initiatives that will give them a competitive advantage and provide tangible value. It is believed that in-housing will be very high up on the list of areas that clients will be looking at.
In fact, research from our report suggests that nearly half (49%) of UK marketers now plan to move more of their digital marketing in-house.
We have seen many businesses suffer as a result of the pandemic and the resulting recession. As brands look towards the return of growth, investment in their digital channels and careful re-evaluation of their approaches is critical. Consumers have moved online to shop on digital platforms and those once-temporary fixes have now become permanent consumer habits.
For that reason, old-style brand advertising needs to shift to fit the demand-led model to provide the same level of care to customers.
In the panel, Jude Bridge, Managing Director at Oystercatchers, emphasised the growing importance of tonality and messaging for brands. There is a desire from customers for more information and for them to stay connected with the brands they purchase from.
In-housing can help these brands remain socially aligned, by using first-party data to create excellent high-volume communications. With support from in-house workers, communications content can be produced and aligned to create consistent messaging across all their platforms to keep those customers informed and interested in the products they’re selling.
What should the future look like for FMCGs?
It’s more important than ever that these brands remain agile so that they can meet the needs of new and existing customers; now, as we enter new stages of the pandemic and as we return to normality.
From our research,
we know that 44% of CMOs in the UK and US believe that the Covid-19 crisis will increase their likelihood of in-housing. The successful experience of a dispersed, remote workforce, gives confidence that fundamentally different ways of working can be embraced.
Moving towards a model with a flexible team, bolstered by expertise on-demand, and focused on consumer needs, will allow FMCG brands to blend agility and scale, future-proofing their marketing operation.
Find out more
Want to know whether in-housing is right for your brand? Take our in-house readiness assessment to get a steer on what’s next. For more information on our in-housing solutions, get in touch.


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More than 20 years after the Super Mario Bros. live-action film was a commercial and critical flop, Nintendo is re-entering the movie business. President and CEO Tatsumi Kimishima told Japanese newspaper Asahi earlier this month that the company is seeking Hollywood partners to produce animated feature films.
To finance its film foray, Nintendo will use proceeds from the recent sale of its stake in the Seattle Mariners, Kimishima said. The goal is to be directly involved in the production process, rather than licensing its characters to studios, as it did with Super Mario Bros. and Pokemon in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The live-action Super Mario Bros. movie was released in 1993 in the US and starred Bob Hoskins as Mario. It was panned by critics and grossed $20.9 million on a $48 million budget. The English language Pokemon movies, adapted from Japanese versions, did better, though critics still hated them. The first, released in the US in 1998, grossed over $168 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
A Nintendo spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal(Opens in a new window) that the new movie effort will be entirely focused on animated features. An official announcement will be coming soon, Kimishima said, though there's no word on which characters the Japanese video game legend is interested in transferring from console to screen this time.
One possibility is a Legend Of Zelda movie. Fans of the video game have been clamoring for a film for years, and one studio made some pitch reels(Opens in a new window) in 2007. Nintendo approved a TV series in the late 1980s, but has been reluctant to commit to a feature film.
Despite celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Pokemon franchise this year, Nintendo's video game empire is facing troubling sales numbers. It has denied rumors that it will end production of the struggling Wii U console, but is also moving ahead on developing a next-gen machine, the NX, for a 2017 launch, and has seen success with its first mobile game, Miitomo.
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Report Claims Asus, Acer, Unlikely To Make Ultrabook Sales Targets
None of that is stopping Intel, which currently predicts ultrabooks will account for up to 40 percent of the consumer PC business by this time next year. That's an astonishingly optimistic prediction considering that desktop PCs accounted for an estimated 32 percent of all sales in 2010. The only way for Intel to hit a figure that high is if two out of every three laptops shipping by the end of 2012 are ultrabooks. Given the materiel constraints currently hampering production and the specialized requirements of the ultrabook form factor, it's not even clear if factories are capable of ramping production of the new form factor that fast.
"That's a challenging target ... in order for that to happen the price has to come down," Navin Shenoy, Intel's vice president of sales and marketing and general manager for the Asia-Pacific region, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. "More work needs to happen in the ecosystem. Even if we're giving the chips away for free, we couldn't hit the price point we want to hit if we don't work with the rest of the industry."
The brand message is clear—Intel really, really, really wants you to want an ultrabook. Early reviews on both the Asus X21/X31 and the Acer S3 paint the former as generally superior to the latter, with both qualifying as decent efforts on delivering MacBook Air design at a lower price point. So far, so good. The bigger problem for Intel is that the company has bet its mobile strategy on the idea that ultrabooks, properly designed, will remind consumers that Intel builds these incredibly svelte, tablet-like systems until actual tablets are available.
This isn't about market share—tablets aren't biting into notebook sales—it's about keeping Intel's brand presence visible on the cutting edge of mobile products until Windows 8 and 22nm Atom are ready for showtime.
Whether ultrabooks will really catch fire with consumers or not remains to be seen. Intel's decision to focus around a 15W mainstream TDP target for Ivy Bridge is definitely predicated on the idea that consumers are looking for ultra-thin-and-light systems, but the $699 price point analysts think ultrabooks need to aim for may take years to reach.


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GMC is known for building the Cadillac of trucks — unless, of course, it’s being compared to Cadillac. And Buick isn’t exactly the sexiest brand in the GM portfolio, but its handsome, comfortable near-luxury lineup (and massive success in China) has been enjoying something of a renaissance. So what happens when The General’s two upper-mid market brands come into direct conflict? Well, profit. Sweet, sweet profit. In 2015, the Acadia found over 96,000 buyers in America. The Enclave found an additional 62,000-plus. Not bad for two of the oldest midsize SUVs on the market.
Since 2008, the GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave have been platform mates sharing the GM Lambda platform, which itself dates back to 2006. The Acadia first appeared in ’07, and despite a 2013 refresh little has been changed since George W. Bush was in office. The Enclave bowed as an ’08, and its upscale interior and flowing curves were instrumental in establishing Buick as the respected middle-class Acura-fighter it is today.
But things are changing, and for the first time in their history, the Acadia and Enclave no longer share the same bones. The Acadia is all-new for 2017, joining the Cadillac XT5 on the new C1XX platform, leaving the Enclave on the Lambda until a redesigned model bows for the 2018 model year. GMC may have just made its best-selling model even stronger (and better looking to boot), but the Enclave has been punching above its weight for years. So can the two compete even though the GMC has already gotten a big head start? That’s what we’re looking to find out for this week’s Buy This, Not That.
Tale of the tape
If you want to know where the roots of the current “That’s a Buick?” ad campaign came from, look no further than the Enclave. Tackling pricier rivals like the Mercedes M-Class (now GLE) and Lexus RX, the ’09 model was a revelation after years of the brand fielding some legitimately dreadful cars. At a time when midsize SUVs were almost scientifically nondescript, the Enclave’s flowing lines and almost aggressively upmarket interior for under $40K paid off handsomely for Buick. To date, the Tri-Shield brand has sold nearly 500,000 of them to SUV-hungry Americans. What’s more, it has the honor of being the most American-made car built by a domestic brand.
So far as midsize SUVs go, the Enclave is one of the bigger ones. At nearly 17 feet long and 5,000 pounds, it’s nearly 800 pounds heaver than its rival the Acura MDX, but its 3.6-liter, 288-horsepower V6 does an admirable job moving it along, hustling the big three-row people mover from zero to 60 in under eight seconds, and its 270 pound-feet of torque is enough to tow most small boats or trailers. The Enclave has aged surprisingly well in the looks department too, and its cavernous interior is as comfortable as ever. Now starting at around $40K and topping out in the mid-$50K range, the Enclave easily creeps into territory occupied by the Germans and Lexus, but its combination of size, space, and value makes it a unique and attractive proposition. It’s riding out 2016 and ’17 largely unchanged before the big redesign comes for 2018.
On the other hand, the outgoing Acadia’s hard-edged style and plasticky interior seemed to age like milk, and its looks still reminded us too much of the long-departed (and awful) Saturn Outlook. But despite this, the Acadia has long been GMC’s best-seller, and for 2017, the all-new model has the potential to be a sales supernova. Our Justin Lloyd-Miller drove a preproduction version of the new Acadia, and concluded:
… regardless of what trim you choose, you can count on the new Acadia to be better behaved, more fuel efficient, offer better driving dynamics, and be easier to live with.
For ’17, the Acadia is 740 pounds lighter than the old truck and 7.2 inches shorter without sacrificing much interior room. The 3.6-liter V6 is carried over, but in the new truck, it pumps out a respectable 310 horsepower. For the first time, a 2.5-liter four cylinder is also available for fuel economy-minded buyers.
Inside, the cabin has been tastefully updated, with any traces of “Old GM” — exposed screws, shiny, rock-hard plastic, exposed seams — thankfully minimized. Like the rest of the GMC lineup, the Acadia is available in SLT, All-Terrain, and Denali trims, giving buyers plenty of variety, with the SLT starting at around $30K, or about $10,000 below the base for an Enclave.
This should be an easy one, but still feels strange nonetheless. Since 2008, the Buick Enclave has been far more attractive than the Acadia in virtually every way, and both are leagues above the bland Chevy Traverse (the third Lambda-based SUV). But the 2017 Acadia is one of those new models where it feels like engineers coldly attempted to design the SUV to succeed in every metric, and it actually worked. The new Acadia is handsome, comfortable, and mechanically and technologically current in every way. And with a $10K price difference, you’d be crazy to choose an aging Enclave over the new GMC. Your local grocery store parking lot is likely to be filling up with these things in a matter of months, and with good cause. But if you’re willing to wait, there is a wild card here: The all-new C1XX-based Buick is likely to be here in about a year, and we have high hopes for that one. The GMC Acadia wins this battle handily; we’ll see if it can win the war after Buick rolls out its 2018 Enclave.


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Atlancis Technologies of Kenya is the first company to deploy Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP), a non-proprietary open-source computing and cloud infrastructure in the country.
In September 2019, the Atlancis Technologies announced it was providing cloud services in Kenya, beginning with a pay-as-you-go HR system, Kinetic, that runs payroll, leave, appraisals, and clock-in.
OCP was launched in 2011 by Facebook, Intel and others to provide free, state-of-the-art blueprints for servers and data centre infrastructure. More than 1,000 globally leading hardware engineers have since improved the free designs.
“With data centre space growing exponentially, the need for more efficient data centre hardware and infrastructure has become a world-defining issue,” said Daniel Njuguna, CEO and co-founder of Atlancis Technologies.
Data centres, including for global data giants Facebook and Google, now account for more than one per cent of the world’s total electricity demand, according to the International Energy Agency. This energy sink saw Facebook spend two years from 2009 designing data centre equipment that was 38 per cent more energy efficient to build and 24 per cent less expensive to run. It used the technology for its own ground-breaking data centre in Prineville, Oregon. But the company then broke the proprietary hardware rule book and published the designs of all of its innovative hardware as the OCP.
“Launched with partners that included Intel and Goldman Sachs, OCP has since grown as a community committed to upgrading data centre hardware and sharing it publicly, and for free, where previously, such systems were branded, proprietary, and illegal to reproduce,” said Toney Webala, Chief Technology Officer and Atlancis co-founder. Adding; “The result has been a pathway to data centre technology that is combining more engineering minds than any other hardware in the world, in a commitment to achieving lower-cost infrastructure and energy efficiency.”
Atlancis has now emerged as the first company in Africa to deploy OCP equipment, which it has installed at the East Africa Data Centre in Nairobi, to provide cloud space for the Kinetic on-demand HR software.
“Kinetic is built to calculate salaries and statutory deductions specific to Kenyan laws, and makes for an instant plug-in HR capacity for Kenyan organisations, small or large,” said Dan. “Using OCP has meant we could create a local cloud at far lower cost, translating directly into an affordable Kenyan HR software in the cloud.”
Atlancis partnered with OCP community member Vesper Technologies to bring the platform to Kenya. “For us, bringing this hardware to Africa was imperative in creating a local, Kenyan cloud capability,” said Daniel.


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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Rivertowne Brewing has abruptly closed its bars and restaurants throughout the region, with the exception of one location.
Handwritten signs were posted this week on the doors to notify customers.
The company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
The Westmoreland County brewer and its four restaurants filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code back in May. The brewery is cited intense competition in the craft beer industry.
Only the location in Verona remains open for business. It’s the only location not affected.
Stay with KDKA for the latest on this developing story.


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IBM has completed its acquisition of Cloudant, a privately held database-as-a-service (DBaaS) provider that enables developers to create mobile and Web apps.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
An active participant and contributor to the open-source database community Apache CouchDB, Cloudant offers high availability, elastic scalability and mobile device synchronisation.
Cloudant’s JSON cloud-based data service allows mobile and Web developers to store and access the explosion of mobile data using an application programming interface (API).
IBM said it also is integral to the company’s MobileFirst solution, enabling developers who use Worklight, IBM’s mobile app development software, to create flexible and scalable apps that include a variety of structured and unstructured data.
In addition, developers have been embracing NoSQL databases because of their flexibility, with JSON becoming a popular NoSQL database technology for mobile and Web app developers.
“With the acquisition of Cloudant, IBM is helping to fuel a new era of next generation mobile and Web apps built on the cloud,” Sean Poulley, vice president of databases and data warehousing at IBM, said in a statement. “Boosting IBM’s big data and analytics, cloud computing and mobile offerings, Cloudant’s open, cloud database service will bring entirely new levels of simplicity and scalabilty to developers.”
Clients across a variety of industries, including gaming, financial services, mobile device manufacturers, online learning, retail and health care are already using Cloudant technology.
For example, video game developer Hothead Games relies on Cloudant to scale application data for its series of Big Win Sports mobile games on iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones and tablets.
“Our decision to join IBM marks a clear shift in the way modern software is built,” Cloudant CEO Derek Schoettle said in a statement. “A new generation of developers has grown up coding against Web frameworks and cloud infrastructure. When Cloudant launched in 2010, we knew this next wave of innovation would be a core market for our service. Now in 2014, we’re seeing Web development transition to the enterprise, and, as part of IBM, we couldn’t be in a better spot.”
Cloudant will now run on the IBM SoftLayer platform and its database services will be available on BlueMix, IBM’s platform as service (PaaS) that combines IBM software, third-party and open technologies to enable developers to create apps in the cloud.
IBM also noted Cloudant technology would help strengthen the company’s cloud computing offerings by providing developers with the tools and resources to build, test, deploy and scale cloud apps on a variety of hosting layers.
Are you a Big Blue Masterbrain? Try our IBM quiz!
Interested in hearing more about the cloud? Sign up for our IBM webinar on 26 March!
Originally published on eWeek.
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Nearly 90% of all Chinese blockchain companies have tried to release their own digital assets, according to an executive at a blockchain association.
Blockchain companies more interested in crypto than blockchain
As reported by a state-operated CCTV on November 21, the head of Beijing Blockchain Technology Application Association (BBAA) claimed that the blockchain industry in China is more interested in digital assets than in distributed ledgers. The report also included a study that was conducted by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC).
Other than PBoC, five financial companies contributed to the “Bluebook on Blockchain.” These include the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Payment and Clearing Association of China, the Beijing Blockchain Technology Application Association and Social Sciences Academic Press.
The report revealed that there were nearly 28,000 blockchain firms in the country. The report claimed that only 4,000 such companies were focusing solely on the blockchain. Meanwhile, 25,000 firms were trying to issue their own digital currency.
The report showed that blockchain companies were concentrated in the Guangdong and Shenzhen province. The Guangdong province housed nearly 50 percent of all blockchain companies.
Chinese blockchain efforts
China has been promoting blockchain adoption in the region, mainly to promote their central bank digital currency. President Xi Jinping called on people to embrace the technology earlier this year.
However, China has a “Blockchain not Bitcoin” policy that seems to be making things easier for blockchain to thrive yet, at the same time restricting crypto assets. The country does not encourage crypto trading and has taken action against firms facilitating it. Reportedly 39exchanges were found guilty of violating China’s crypto trading ban in Shenzhen province alone.


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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
On the power of ads to influence behavior, and of repetition of those ads.
// published on ScienceDaily: Consumer Behavior News // visit site
Every 10 tobacco ad sightings boost teens' risk of starting to smoke by almost 40 percent
Tobacco ads really do persuade teens to take up smoking, with every 10 sightings boosting the risk by almost 40 percent, reveals new research.


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Transport for NSW has confirmed that its online recharge service for Opal tap-and-go public transport smart cards is currently unavailable.
Earlier this afternoon the transport authority used its official Twitter account to warn travellers to use alternative methods to top up their travel cards.
It’s not currently possible to top up at https://t.co/oSggS6yv4N. This hasn’t affected travel with your Opal card. We’ll keep you updated.— Transport for NSW (@TransportforNSW) January 13, 2016
Some social media users reported attempting to use the recharge service but found that funds had been debited from their accounts but not transferred to the balance on their Opal cards.
A spokeswoman for Transport NSW told iTnews that the authority took the web site offline to "address a processing issue".
"As a result, top ups made at Opal.com.au are currently experiencing delays," she said.
"Transport for NSW is working to address this issue as quickly as possible."
The online outage means that Opal users with a low balance (and no automatic top-up enabled) will need to physically visit a participating retail outlet or one of 94 Opal top-up machines in order to recharge until the website is fixed.
Transport NSW gave assurances that no customer information had been compromised during the outage.
The status of phone services remains unknown.


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Peugeot Vehicles Assembled in Malaysia will be Sold in Thailand
Bangkok, Thailand, 25 July 2019 – Peugeot has a new partner in Thailand, following the appointment of Belfort Automobiles (Thailand), which is a subsidiary of the Master Group Corporation (Asia) Co. Ltd.. With this appointment, Belfort Automobiles is the new exclusive importer and distributor of Peugeot brand cars in Thailand.
The signing ceremony took place at the French Embassy in Bangkok and was witnessed by H.E. Mr. Jacques Lapouge, the Ambassador of France to Thailand.
Peugeot plans to introduce at least five new models in Thailand over the next couple of years. Two of which will be SUVs – the Peugeot 3008 and Peugeot 5008. These two models are currently produced in the Naza Automotive Manufacturing (NAM) plant in Gurun, Kedah. Groupe PSA which owns the Peugeot brand has a joint venture agreement with Naza Corporation Holdings to establish the first manufacturing hub in ASEAN for Groupe PSA.
This is a milestone for Groupe PSA in ASEAN where Peugeot now operates in 11 countries, as well as for NAM which has begun exporting its first production to the Philippines followed by Thailand within the next few weeks.
MGC-ASIA is one of the leading automotive retailers and mobility companies in Thailand, and Groupe PSA hopes that this new partnership will accelerate its development in the region.


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2020 is to most Indian furniture companies what 2017 was to payment companies. “It was our demonetisation moment,” says a senior executive managing furniture for one of the leading e-commerce platforms.
This year, the pandemic forced Indians to buy furniture online like how having 85% of their currency invalidated overnight in November 2016 forced them to adopt digital money. The resulting tidal wave in 2017 lifted virtually every payments app to levels beyond their own rosiest predictions.
As millions of professionals were suddenly liberated from working out of offices due to a sudden lockdown, with no clear date to return, many gave up their rental apartments and went back to their respective hometowns and cities. Overnight, homes turned from places you spent half a week to where you spent every waking hour of every day.
This was the moment online furniture sellers had been waiting for.
In the US, Wayfair, the largest online seller of furniture saw its largely languishing stock shoot up nearly 700% since hitting a low in March as the pandemic rolled in. Founded in 2002 and listed in 2014, Wayfair earned $9.1 billion in revenue last year but has yet to turn profitable. Between April and June, it added 5 million new customers, more than the number it had added in the entire previous year.
In India, with cities and stores shut, Indians were forced to overcome their reticence towards ordering furniture off a website. They gingerly started by ordering study tables and chairs, in many cases subsidised or paid for by their employers who had quickly created WFH (work from home) allowances.
Then, as the lockdowns refused to ease up, they started ordering sofas, wardrobes and bookshelves. And once they made peace with being stuck at home for possibly the next 12-18 months, the orders for beds, mattresses and dining tables started pouring in.
“The months of March and April were washouts, but we’ve done more business in the next six months than we did in all of 2019,” said the executive quoted earlier. Like most of our sources increasingly, he too declined to be quoted by name because his employer strictly forbids media interactions.
The one player you would expect to surf this pan-India wave is Urban Ladder.
Founded in 2012, it was backed by $105 million in venture funding from respected funds like Sequoia, SAIF Partners and Steadview. It was also the largest in the space based on 2019 revenue and even declared a profit for the year, a rarity in e-commerce.
2020 should have been Urban Ladder’s year like how 2017 was payments platform PhonePe’s or 2020 edtech Byju’s. A year to reap the rewards of eight years of hard work.
Instead, Urban Ladder was forced to sell itself to Reliance Retail, the retail arm of India’s largest private conglomerate.


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Florida exports up 3.6% in November
The latest international trade numbers show that $5.5 billion worth of goods left Florida for international markets in November, up 3.6 percent from October’s $5.31 billion, a new report from Durham, N.H.-based e-forecasting.com shows.
The November data is the most recent available.
Exports of manufactured goods contributed significantly to the state’s international trade, accounting for 79 percent of all state exports in November. Exports from state manufacturers increased in November by 2.6 percent from the previous month to $4.35 billion.
Exports of non-manufactured goods also went up 7.9 percent in November to $1.14 billion. This group of shipments abroad consists of agricultural goods, mining products and re-exports — foreign goods that entered the state as imports and are exported in substantially the same condition as when imported.
Meanwhile, Florida ranked 28th among the 50 states during the first 11 months of this year in export growth.
As for the outlook for Florida exports in 2013? According to the World Bank’s forecast, global growth is expected to remain anemic at 2.4 percent in 2013, before gradually strengthening to 3.1 percent in 2014 and 3.3 percent in 2015.
Evangelos Otto Simos, chief economist for e-forecasting.com, said the global forecast implies that Florida’s exporting companies selling their products to emerging countries will do better in 2013 than last year, with good prospects for growing exports over the next two years.
However, exports to the industrial countries, particularly in Europe, are expected to stagnate during 2013-15.
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Israel are going to show us the way.
In early February 2010, Better Place held the grand opening of the company’s first electric vehicle (EV) demonstration center in Israel.
The company marked the occasion by announcing the signing of 92 corporate fleet owners to date as well as a partnership with Dor Alon, one of Israel’s leading gas station operators, for the deployment of battery switch stations at Dor Alon’s facilities. Leading companies including Computer Associates and Motorola joined the ranks of 92 Better Place Vision Partners that have agreed to convert a portion of over 45,000 internal combustion engine cars to electric vehicles from Renault when commercially available in 2011.
The opening of the Better Place Center represents an important step for the company as it prepares for commercial launch in Israel and Denmark next year. The Center is open to the public to come and familiarize themselves with all aspects of the Better Place solution: a fully electric, battery-powered car; a comprehensive infrastructure that includes charge spots and a battery switch station; and a comprehensive suite of in-car services designed to provide drivers with the best possible EV driving experience.
“Today’s announcement marks another step toward our commercial launch next year in Israel,” said Moshe Kaplinsky, CEO, Better Place Israel. “Israel welcomes the world to come and experience the thrill of clean, electric vehicles.”


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Primo promotes exec team members, hires logistics veteran
Winston-Salem bottled water and beverage marketing firm Primo Water Corp. has promoted two members of its executive team and brought a transportation and logistics veteran on board.
Matt Sheehan, current chief operating officer at Primo, assumed the role of president and chief operating officer effective June 10. Prior to joining Primo (NASDAQ: PRMW), Sheehan was with Coinstar Inc., where he advised the company on long-term strategy, retail and distribution execution, and technology utilization and helped build the Redbox business. Redbox was acquired by Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR) in 2009.
Primo has also promoted Richard “Rick” Belmont to senior vice president and general manager of consumer innovation and global sourcing. Belmont, formerly general manager of water dispensers for Primo, has also served as vice president of products and vice president of marketing. Prior to Primo, Belmont served in several roles at Blue Rhino Corp.
Primo has also named Mary Leonard as senior vice president and general manager of U.S. water. Leonard most recently served as chief performance officer for Coinstar. Prior to that, Leonard spent four years as senior vice president of operations at Redbox. She spent 25 years with FedEx Corp. and has also worked with RR Donnelly Logistics.
Primo last year reported a $111 million net loss, despite a 10.1 percent increase in sales, with CEO Billy Prim seeing compensation drop by 50 percent to $438,000. The company’s first-quarter sales were up 13 percent.
Catherine Carlock covers commercial and residential real estate, construction, economic development and retailing and restaurants. Contact her at 336-370-2918.
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Kim Shaw, from Keilor Downs, Victoria, who founded Fairy Gardening Australia has been named a winner at the St George Banking Group AusMumpreneur Awards.
The awards were held at Crown Melbourne where talented mums from all over the country gathered to support and encourage other Australian mumpreneurs.
Mother of three, Kim was presented with the award by naming sponsor St George Bank’s Head of SME Stuart Zalunardo for outstanding customer service. Fairy Gardening Australia is Australia’s largest online retailer of miniature fairy garden products and miniature gardening community.
Kim said she was thrilled to win gold in her category in the 2016 St George Banking Group AusMumpreneur Awards against such a talented group of women.
“It is an honour to receive gold in these prestigious awards. Combining motherhood with business ownership has given me amazing opportunities. Dreaming big, achieving successes and being rewarded for dedication are things that my children see every day in their own home. My children have watched me make a difference to their own lives, our customers, our community and an industry. I don’t ask them what they want to be when they grow up, instead I ask them what they want to change.
“Fairy gardens are a space created within your environment especially for the fairies. Fairy Gardening Australia is an online retailer of miniature garden products and over the last four years I have grown our community to over 74,000 members which is the largest fairy gardening community in the world. Fairy gardens are a great way to encourage storytelling and imagination in your child’s outdoor environment.”
“The Ausmumpreneur Awards honour mums who take on the challenge of business ownership and recognise their dedication and contribution to the Australian community and economy. I am very proud to be among Australia’s best business women and am inspired by their amazing stories.”
This is the seventh year the AusMumpreneur Awards have run, with the business mum community growing at lightning speed as mothers look for opportunities to join the ranks of small business owners in search of more flexibility, financial freedom and family time.
AusMumpreneur Network co-founder Katy Garner said “the awards show the passion of women who want to fulfil their entrepreneurial dreams as well as be great mums.
“The number of women starting businesses has tripled in the last 12 months! Of the 668,670 women operating a small business in Australia currently, a total of 47 per cent are mums with children at home. We are thrilled to be the number one community for mumpreneurs and showcasing the best and the brightest each year through these awards and inspiring other women to follow their dreams too. We are creating new initiatives every year to help Australian Mums achieve their business dreams.”
“We are delighted that Kim has won this award, she has an outstanding business and is an inspirational role model and ambassador for mums in business everywhere. We wish her and all our amazing Ausmumpreneur Award winners every success in the coming year,” co-founder Peace Mitchell said.
St. George Bank is keen to support Australian entrepreneurs like Kim and her fellow AusMumpreneur Award winners, Stuart Zalunardo said.
“The awards are all about recognising the growing number of mums who are achieving outstanding business success while balancing motherhood.”
“I was blown away by the entrepreneurial spirit of the award winners and am very confident that they will provide great inspiration for other mums considering starting their own business,” Stuart said.


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The yellow fibre caps on storm water drains are still the biggest threat for pedestrians in busy markets of Navi Mumbai. Mafatlal Chauhan an entrepreneur of Big Splash Co Operative Society, sector 17 Vashi informed “Big Splash has hundreds of small and big shops and offices. This is also used by thousands of business enterprises and executives as an entrance to sector 17, the district business centre. Thousands of commuters come here on daily basis”.
A shopkeeper Govind bhai says, “Thousands of visitors coming here are seen crossing the busy road by running and the very moment they reach the corner of the footpath they have to control themselves from turning victim to this yellow fiber cap on the drain. Many a time our customers turn victims and prefer not to visit again. It leads to loss of business for us”.Chauhan says “Even I had a fall due to this weak yellow fiber cap and many more have fallen victims. Unfortunately even after informing the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation no effort has been made to replace the cap”.


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This article was first published in the Times of India.
CHENNAI: Hospital chains like the Apollo Group, Manipal, Columbia Asia and Fortiswere among the first in India to invest heavily in IT. Joining their ilk are speciality clinics like Vasan Eyecare, Davita, Narayana Health, HCG and Agwaral Eye Clinic, which now taking to the IT highway and upgrading to ICD10 code compliance, payment-facilitating web portals, creating mobile apps, maintaining electronic health records and booking doctors’ appointments.
Startups like Remedinet, S10 Healthcare, Medi Assist are coming to the rescue of such speciality clinics for cancer, cardiac, dental and eye care. Medi Assist, which recently invested $1 million in Goa-based mobile fitness venture MobieFit, has come up with MediBuddy, a mobile app for hospitals and specialty clinics. The mobile app allows policyholders to raise and track claims, plan an e-cashless hospitalization, search networked/empanelled hospitals, book wellness services, buy drugs and maintain electronic health records. “We also have e-cashless, which helps users book cashless admission at a network hospital using their smartphones. You can choose the room type, get an idea as to projected bill, cost of treatment, and cut out waiting time for hospital admission,” said Prashant Jhaveri, head, products and strategy, Medi Assist Healthcare Services, which also has a MediBuddy web portal for access to health benefits.
This articles was first published on Forbes Asia Online.
If you suffer the misfortune of being an inpatient in the Indian medical system, you may find your time spent trying to file health insurance claims ends up being longer than your time as a patient, because it’s all being filed by hand. One company set out to be the first to solve this, finding an unusual new problem ahead.
After hearing about an inpatient insurance claims experience, Remedinet CEO Munish Daga says he realized that the process was unnecessarily painful, taking between four and six hours to complete in many cases.


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Who’s More Likely To Declare Bankruptcy?
Filing bankruptcy in Canada is more common than you think and it affects Canadians from all walks of life. In 2012, more than 118,000 Canadians filed for insolvency in Canada. But who is at risk of filing bankruptcy or a consumer proposal?
Too Much Unsecured Debt
In a study about the average Joe Debtor released by bankruptcy experts Hoyes, Michalos & Associates, the average insolvent debtor owed $59,814 in unsecured debts, almost four times that of the average adult Canadian. That included credit card debt of $23,741, unsecured personal loans of $19,374 and other unsecured debt of $17,981. Those are huge numbers but what caused them? And how are they dealing with these debts?
What Triggers Insolvency?
The average insolvent debtor is very much like the average Canadian. They are hardworking people trying to provide for their families. To make ends meet they turn to credit as a temporary solution. Unfortunately their debts continue to accumulate. Then something happens and they find those debts are no longer manageable. Almost 40% of insolvent debtors listed income reduction or job loss as a cause of their insolvency. Almost one in five cited marital breakdown as a cause. Insolvent debtors are three times more likely to be divorced or separated than the average adult Canadian. Illness or injury can also have a devastating impact on a person’s financial situation. Sixteen percent of all insolvent debtors indicated that medical issues were a contributor to their insolvency.
Bankruptcy or Consumer Proposal
More insolvent debtors are choosing to file a consumer proposal as an alternative to bankruptcy. Fifty-six percent of all insolvency filings were consumer proposals. Legislative changes to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act increased the threshold for the eligibility of filing a consumer proposal from $75,000 to $250,000 of unsecured debts and this has resulted in more Canadians than ever choosing a proposal over a bankruptcy. There are, however, differences between risk groups.
Young debtors (18-29) and senior debtors (60+) are more likely than the average Joe Debtor to file bankruptcy. With a below average take home pay, their income level may not be sufficient to support a long term proposal to creditors. Female debtors are more likely than males debtors to declare bankruptcy and debtors with high student loan debt are also more likely to need to file bankruptcy.
In contrast, debtors between the ages of 30 and 59 and self-employed debtors are much more likely to file a consumer proposal. Whether because they own a home (you keep your assets, including a home, in a proposal) or because their average income is higher (increasing the cost of a bankruptcy) a consumer proposal was a better solution to dealing with their unsecured debt.
Whatever the solution, if you are one of the average Canadians at risk by carrying too much debt, talking to a reputable professional, such as a trustee in bankruptcy, is the first step to eliminating your debt problems. Contact a local trustee today to see how they can help.


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Stocks down and lower for the week for the time since September as hopes for tax reform has the street concerned. Plus – the world’s biggest shopping day is here – we have the latest on China’s Singles Day. And – earnings…scandals… and possible government interference? Just another week in the world of media. Plus a look ahead to everything you need to know for next week which is going to be all about retail. Catch The Final Round at 3:55 p.m. with Jen Rogers and Yahoo Finance’s Andy Serwer, Justine Underhill, and Myles Udland.
Winners and losers
Stocks in the red include Redfin as the real estate brokerage site missed on both profit and revenue, Finish Line as Cowen downgrades shares to underperform citing concerns over margins, and Nordstrom – despite an earnings beat, comp sales missed estimates as the department store operator claimed the hurricanes hurt sales.
Stocks in the green today include Esko Bionics on its partnership with Ford to use the company’s exoskeletons for factory workers, JC Penney as the retailer beat on revenue and comp sales, and Nvidia – yes shares surging again to a new all-time high as the chipmaker easily beat on earnings citing strong demand for gaming and data center chips.


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According to the latest data from consumer research firm, CIRP, iPhone XR continues to dominate the US smartphone market and it is also the best-selling model in Q2 2019 so far. Previously, Kantar’s data showed that the iPhone XR is also the best-selling smartphone in the UK. In terms of sales of iPhone models, iPhone XS Max sells more than iPhone XS, and those who want the ultimate iPhone seem to be attracted to larger screens, while those who want smaller screens are more likely to choose the iPhone XR.
Gizchina News of the week
CIRP’s US smartphone sales report for the last quarter shows that the proportion of iPhone users paying for more storage increased from 33% in the same period last year to 38%, and Apple increased the Average Selling Price (ASP) to more than $800. On the basis of the high price of iPhone XS/XS Max, higher storage configuration helps to improve ASP, but now the low price of XR offsets this high price difference.
In turn, Apple’s revenue in services has performed well. CIRP found that nearly half of US iPhone purchasers paid for iCloud expansion, and Apple Music’s subscriptions were also high. Of the US iPhone users this quarter, 48% use paid iCloud storage, 21% use Apple music streaming services, and 13% use traditional iTunes music services. But due to fierce competition from mobile phone operators, retailers, and other warranty vendors, AppleCare’s warranty service sales are bleak.


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Scentre completes developments
Scentre Group has reported occupancy of 99.5% in its centres in the September quarter and a 2% increase in specialty sales compared to a year earlier. It also detailed the opening of four redevelopments at a cost of over $1bn.
Over 40 per cent of Westfield Coomera, the company's first greenfield project, is dedicated to dining, entertainment and other 'service' style offerings. There's also a dedicated outdoor space designed for kids and families, which is a clear example of the company's focus on driving traffic by creating experiences for the customer. Along similar lines, the Westfield Carousel redevelopment now boasts an open-air rooftop dining and entertainment precinct.
The company also reconfirmed its forecast for a 4% increase in profits for the year to December and a 2% increase in the distribution, to 22.16 cents per share. That amounts to a yield of around 5.5% at current prices. HOLD.


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Concrete Shoes – the latest single from explosive dynamic rock band, The Fins – is now available on free download at thefins.co.uk You can see The Fins perform the track live when they support rock legends Supergrass on Saturday 25th July at Ascot racecourse. 2605 ... Read More...
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Business Times, Malaysia
Miti to make decision on Malaysia-US FTA talks soon
By Rupa Damodaran
19 November 2009
Trade Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed hopes to find out in a few weeks if the country should still pursue a free trade area deal with the US, its biggest trading partner, or join a regional pact instead.
The US has indicated its preference to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an existing deal that consists of Singapore, New Zealand, Brunei and Chile.
US chief negotiator Barbara Weisel met Ministry of International Trade and Industry secretary-general Tan Sri Rahman Mamat in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and conveyed the news.
"We need to know if we should embrace the TPP or abandon the bilateral FTA with the US," Mustapa said at a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Miti, he added, will conduct its own study on the TPP, which may be joined by Australia, Peru, Vietnam and the US.
Mustapa plans to brief the cabinet in next few weeks and get a mandate on whether Malaysia should continue to pursue the bilateral partnership or the TPP.
The Malaysia-US FTA talks which commenced in 2006, saw eight rounds of discussions but got stuck on issues like government preference for Bumiputera businesses.
Malaysia has signed three bilateral trade agreements so far, namely with Japan, Pakistan and New Zealand. The government is now in talks with India, Chile and Australia.
Earlier, Mustapa said the Asean-6, a group that consists of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Brunei, will be a complete free trade area when duties on most products are eliminated.
Come January 1 2010, Malaysia has committed to scrapping import duties on 1,943 products, reduce import duties to 5 per cent for tropical fruits, tobacco and tobacco products, and reduce import duties for rice to 20 per cent.
Under the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme for Afta (Asean Free Trade Area), he said 2,524 companies have applied for 103,745 COOs (Certificates of Origin) in the first nine months of 2009 totalling RM12.53 billion.
Companies with a COO will qualify for the lower or zero duties under Afta.
Also, come January 1 2010, 90 per cent of the products traded under the Asean-China and Asean-Korea FTAs will be duty free, he added.


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Earlier this year, it was looking as though Boost Infinite would be launching this fall, but now it’s going to miss the all-important fourth quarter and is looking to make a wider commercial debut in the first quarter of 2023.
Dish has launched Boost Infinite internally and for those users, “it’s still a pretty good experience, but we’ve got some work to do,” said Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. Boost Infinite is being positioned as a full postpaid offering with an assortment of devices. Initially, distribution will be largely focused on digital but then move to national retail, according to John Swieringa, president and COO for Dish Wireless.
While customers initially will be not be using Dish’s own network, the launch will be using Dish’s own OSS/BSS; currently, it’s on T-Mobile’s system, and it’s important to get that on its own system, Ergen said. Boost Infinite will be launched as an MVNO using AT&T’s network, but “you will start to see Band 70 devices in that portfolio,” as well as with Boost Mobile, Swieringa said. As they flip on voice over 5G New Radio (VoNR) in more markets, Boost Infinite will start using Dish’s own network as well, he said. The same applies to Boost Mobile.
Dish has over 10,000 towers now constructed that reach over 35% of the population; the next milestone is to cover 70% of the population. It continues at a pace of about 1,000 towers going live each month. The build includes Dish’s 600 MHz spectrum and other frequencies.
Mixing prepaid & postpaid
Ergen emphasized the mix of prepaid and postpaid. “I think you should assume that retail wireless at Boost includes both prepaid and postpaid,” he said.
In fact, he said, there’s not really that much difference between prepaid and postpaid. In both cases, the customer pays at the time of activation, although postpaid usually requires a credit check and prepaid doesn’t.
However, postpaid is seen as the more lucrative business.
As an outsider coming into the wireless business, Ergen reiterated that a postpaid customer is “way more profitable” than a prepaid customer, and he said that the U.S. is the only country where prepaid is cheaper for consumers than postpaid.
The postpaid business is not nearly as competitive as the prepaid business. “It’s not even close,” he said. “There’s just a bigger opportunity there” in postpaid, the idea being that if they can offer a better product at a lower price, they can be successful.
Is Boost getting sold?
The question on a lot of analysts’ minds is the ownership status of Boost and if or how that might change.
Some preliminary discussions are happening between Dish and an Ergen-affiliated SPAC that could potentially mean a sale of a portion of the retail wireless business.
The board has had discussions with the SPAC but they’re also looking at other things they could do with the retail wireless business, Ergen said. “I think everybody’s ahead of their skis on maybe the SPAC discussions,” he said.
“We think at Dish that retail wireless belongs in what we’re doing,” he said.
It’s not a very big number, but the 1,000 wireless retail subscribers that Dish posted in the third quarter represents a big change from the prior eight quarters.
One of Dish’s goals was to stabilize the retail wireless business, and while it didn’t do as well as expected from an EBITDA perspective, it was successful in shifting from a loss of 100,000 subscribers each quarter to a “very, very small gain,” Ergen said.
The net gain of 1,000 doesn’t count the 139,000 that Dish got from T-Mobile when it moved those over; they represented all Boost-branded customers of former Sprint affiliates Shentel and Swiftel, as well as Boost-branded customers who were previously part of the California Public Utilities Commission CARE program.
Dish ended Q3 with 8.01 million retail wireless subscribers. Wireless churn in Q3 was 4.28% compared with 4.39% in the prior quarter. ARPU was $37.64 in Q3 compared with $37.90 in Q2.