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Coordinations unicorn ?Delhivery? on Friday declared that it got a speculation of $125 million from Lee Fixel's funding firm, Addition. The VC firm is the furthest down the line worldwide asset to put resources into the coordinations organization, following prior adjusts from other marquee worldwide financial backers. Lee remaining parts a drawn out supporter of Delhivery and has been putting and once again putting resources into the organization since 2015. In a press explanation, Sahil Barua, CEO, Delhivery, said, "We have a long-standing relationship with Lee and are pleased to invite him to our cap table once more. This speculation supports the trust that institutional financial backers have put in Delhivery and is an approval of the strength of our business."
In the following a half year, the organization intends to present a more extensive scope of Junior MBA subjects and industry-cooperated programs for youngsters, scale its compass through various dispersion channels and grow to worldwide business sectors Smart Harvey, a vocation speed increase stage for youthful grown-ups, has brought $1.5 million up in a pre-series A round, drove by TechNova Ventures alongside Tom Varkey and Multiply Ventures. Existing financial backer Education Catalyst Fund likewise took part in the round.
[Funding alert] Manch Technologies secures $1.1M pre-Series A round led by Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund
Bengaluru-based Manch Technologies, a SaaS-based zero-coding advanced change stage on Tuesday shut a $ 1.1 million pre-Series A round drove by Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund with investment from Pentathlon Ventures. The 2017-established startup had raised before rounds of financing from lead private supporter Asvini Kumar and his partners. Asvini was the prime supporter and CEO of NSE recorded Thinksoft Global Services Ltd (presently Expleo Solutions Ltd). As indicated by the authority explanation, the new subsidizing will be put towards moving forward its development globally and item advancement drives.
US-based edtech startup ?byteXL?, which has its India office in Hyderabad, has brought $200,000 up in holy messenger round from Joseph Joy, President of Joy Family Investments from the USA, alongside others. The upskilling startup will utilize the financing to upgrade content, further develop item portfolio, and develop its deals and promoting group, in addition to other things, as indicated by a delivery shared by the startup. The startup said it is likewise hoping to grow its India tasks to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, and other northern pieces of India.
UK-based trading company Entrepreneur First put resources into six Indian new companies, as indicated by an assertion shared by the organization. The firm, which backs people, right now has an arrangement of 34 interests in India since it dispatched its homegrown arm in 2019. The six new businesses ?Entrepreneur First? has put resources into incorporate Omniflo, an information driven computerized stage to empower quick and proficient disconnected retail dissemination for online-first brands; Zolnoi, which decreases vacation for assembling organizations through AI-drove support the board; crypto venture help supplier Flippy; and Beatoven, a music creation instrument for content makers.
[Funding alert] Alteria Capital announces final close of its second venture debt fund at Rs 1,800 Cr
"The asset had interest for 2X of the base objective and has shut at Rs 1,800 crore. The financial backer blend incorporates homegrown establishments, enormous family workplaces just as senior corporate experts and VCs/originators from the startup biological system," the asset expressed. Alteria will keep on focusing on new companies across ahead of schedule and development stages, with really look at sizes up to Rs 200 crore. There will likewise be a designation for organized obligation items focused on late-stage organizations which have a separated danger profile.
OfBusiness plans to make a few vital interests into esteem added administrations in the inventory network, which enhance the item and administrations being conveyed by its B2B organization. Ofbusiness , an innovation empowered B2B business and monetary administrations stage, on Friday reported that it has brought $200 million up in Series F drove by Tiger Global Management, with interest from existing financial backers Matrix Partners India, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Falcon Edge Capital, at a valuation besting $3 billion. The current raise support is pointed toward setting up its essence in more up to date spaces with a few acquisitions, coalitions, and joint endeavors ready to go. OfBusiness additionally expects to make a few key interests into esteem added administrations in the store network, which increase the value of the item and administrations being conveyed by its B2B organization.
Bengaluru-based fintech startup Hyperface has brought $1.3 million up in financing from financial backers including ?Cred?'s Kunal Shah, ?Better Capital?, and GFC, it said on Monday. The startup will utilize the financing to reinforce its tech stage, dispatch card programs, develop its group, and speed up development. Established in 2021 by R.V. Ramanathan, ex-CTO of Juspay, and investor turned-business visionary Aishwarya Jaishankar, Hyperface assists organizations with dispatching their own Visa program in merely 4 two months, instead of 18 two years.
In an assertion, Ananth Narayanan, Founder and CEO of ?Mensa Brands?, said, "We are eager to declare our organization with ten amazing establishing groups that have made cherished computerized brands. We are focused on driving their excursion forward and cooperating to assemble worldwide breakout brands from India. At Mensa, we are energetic with regards to utilizing innovation to assemble computerized brands that are attached in carrying euphoria to our clients." Mensa intends to accomplice and put resources into D2C brands and scale them dramatically. Over the course of the following three years, Mensa expects to procure more than 50 brands across — home, garden, clothing, individual consideration, and excellence. The accomplice brands incorporate
SaaS startup ?ProfitWheel? on Thursday reported that it has as of late got an all out capital raise of $3 million in its seed round. ProfitWheel procured 50% of the absolute speculation sum from Netcore Cloud, a main obtaining, commitment and maintenance organization, and from ProfitWheel fellow benefactor, Vivek Bhargava. The leftover venture came from more than 15 private supporters including Vallabh Bhansali of Enam Group, KRS Jamwal of Tata Group, Dinesh Agarwal from Indiamart, Prashant Gulati - Investor and Trustee, Tie Global Board, Rizwan Koita, Jagdish Mathur of CitiusTech, Jimmy Mahtani from Baring Private Equity Asia, and Harish Bhal and Manish Vij of the Smile Group. Established in 2020, ProfitWheel centers around making a client information drove showcasing insight stage for the new immediate to-buyer world.


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A new PS5 report has hinted at a possible expensive price point for the next-generation PlayStation console. At the moment of publishing, not only do we not know the price of the PS5, but we don't even know when -- presumably in November -- it's releasing. It's wild, but all of this may change tomorrow at Sony's new PS5 showcase, which will run at 40 minutes and provide updates on games already announced for PS5, plus reveals of brand new PS5 games.
That said, ahead of a possible price reveal tomorrow, a new report from leaker Dusk Golem is making the rounds, particularly for the implications if it's true. According to the leaker, the PS5 costs roughly $600 to produce. This estimation not only includes manufacturing costs, but presumably the costs of wholesale packaging, shipping, and the cut for retailers. It's also about $100 more than estimates we've heard in the past, so that's worth keeping in mind.
"Non-ironically that's around how much the PS5 on launch costs to produce before parts get cheaper over time, but I'm pretty sure it'll cost a little under that," said Dusk Golem over on Twitter while talking about a possible $600 price tag for the Sony console. "My personal prediction is $549 for the disk version, unless they decide to really bite the bullet for $499."
Of course, all of this -- the report and the prediction piggybacking on it -- should be taken with a major grain of salt. Nothing here is official, and even if it's accurate, it's also subject to change. Further, this conflicts with reports from earlier this year.
The chances of the PS5 costing $600 are very slim. And $550 is even slimmer. Anyone with a background in marketing will tell you there's little benefit in charging $550 compared to $600 in terms of consumer reception and perception. Not only is the first number all that matters, but people don't feel like they are saving $50, but rather they feel like they are being upcharged $50.
For more coverage on the PS5 -- including the most recent news, updates, rumors, and leaks -- click here or check out the relevant links below:
- Here Is Every PS5 Game Confirmed So Far
- New PS5 Report Is Great News for Early Adopters
- EA Comments on Latest Battlefield 6 and Battlefield 3 Remaster Rumor
- New PlayStation 5 Commercial Released
- Huge PS5 Exclusive May Be Announced Very Soon
As always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. How much do you think the PS5 will cost and what are you willing to pay at launch?

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text: Based on a recent industry survey, Entertainment News is one of the most searched topics on the internet today. These survey results confirm that the world has a love and fascination for the entertainment world and celebrities. On a search engine site like Google, the topic of entertainment news is searched at least two million times per day. In addition to this, the topic of entertainment is also featured today in over sixty five percent of all online blogs. Some of these blogs focus on celebrities in the music industry, while other focus on celebrities in television and film. On average, the majority of these blogs generate anywhere from three million to over five million viewers per month. This type of online traffic is great for attracting advertisers and paid sponsors. In regards to entertainment searches, some of the most popular topics include Disney movies, Michael Jackson, George Clooney, and Harry Potter films.


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International arrivals to Cambodia are expected to rebound back to their 2019 peaks by 2025, as the tourism industry emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic disruptions and pains that drove down the number of foreign visitors down by 97 per cent, according to a senior Ministry of Tourism official.
Cambodia logged an all-time record 6,610,592 foreign tourists in 2019 – rising by 6.6 per cent over 5,602,157 a year earlier – which plummeted by 80.2 per cent to 1,306,143 in 2020 as Covid-19 hit, and a further 85.0 per cent to 196,496 in 2021.
Ministry of Tourism secretary of state and spokesman Top Sopheak told The Post on January 24 that amid the sharp decline in international tourism over 2020-2021, the ministry is working hard to promote the tourism potential of Cambodia to the world and draw in foreign travellers and investors to Cambodia, through local and international events and other initiatives.
“Cambodia predicts that by 2025 at the latest, we will be able to restore the tourism industry to its original state, as before the arrival of Covid-19,” he said.
“We have a clear strategic plan and are implementing it every day.”
The tourism sector plays a crucial role in job creation and increasing income for the national economy, Sopheak added.
Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) Cambodia chapter chairman Thourn Sinan acknowledged the merits of the plans and strategies rolled out by the ministry and broader government to safeguard the tourism sector during Covid and prepare for the post-pandemic era.
But with the global health crisis still unfolding, it may be premature to generate confident estimates for the number of tourism arrivals, he opined.
“Without a complete end to Covid-19, there will still be people out there without the confidence to travel abroad.
“To gauge whether Cambodia’s tourism sector will be able to achieve this forecast [for 2025] or not, we’ll have to wait and see how it’s doing in 2022 and 2023 first, and whether or not the shock of the fallout from Covid-19 has died down.
“If Covid-19 remains a threat, I think 2025 would seem too early. For me, it wouldn’t be until 2027 that the tourism sector could feasibly return to 2018-2019 levels,” Sinan said.
Cambodia on January 16-22 hosted the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2022 (ATF 2022), which saw the participation of more than 500 people, including regional and global tourism leaders, international guests, and national and international journalists.
Sinan said the “success” of the forum will greatly contribute to the promotion of Cambodia’s tourism potential to regional and global travel industry leaders and holidaymakers, and provide them with confidence and peace of mind.
Sopheak insisted that ATF 2022 confirmed to the world: “Cambodia is one of the safest tourist destinations in the ASEAN region.”
In 2019, a total of $4.919 billion was gained from tourism receipts, up by 12.4 per cent from $4.37 billion in 2018, according to the ministry.


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Blood glucose monitors are growing up, and it's about time. With some 26 million diabetics in the U.S. alone, (that's almost 1 in 10 Americans), and hundreds of millions globally, according to the American Diabetes Association, glucose monitoring has become one of the largest patient-generated data sets in the world -- and yet much of that data is being uploaded manually onto desktops or written by hand into little log books.
The CNET Appliances team gets to test all sorts of household items with advanced functionality, but it sure is fun to imagine what smart home appliances might look like in the more distant future. That's why I like the Electrolux Design Lab competition. This annual event allows design students from all over the world to showcase household concepts that stray pretty far from the norm.
The themes change from year to year, but home appliances are always a major focal point. The 2013 theme was "Inspired Urban Living" and students were asked to offer up designs in any of the following three categories: social cooking, natural air, and effortless cleaning.… Read more
DxO Labs announced its new Optics Pro 9 software Wednesday, an update the company believes does a better job stripping out noise than rivals such as Adobe Photoshop and Apple Aperture.
The software's Probabilistic Raw Image Enhancement, or Prime, takes more time than other noise-reduction algorithms, but it can detect finer details and accurate color amidst the noise speckles that afflict digital photos taken at high ISO sensitivity settings. DxO said the technology goes a full stop beyond the competition, meaning that it could cut noise from a photo taken at ISO 12,800 as well as a rival … Read more
As with Lego, it seems Minecraft's possibilities are limited only by the imagination, and also like Lego, the game has the potential to act as a powerful educational tool. The team at Google's Quantum AI Lab, which explores the possibilities of quantum computing, put their heads together and figured out that the next generation of computer scientists could discover their talents in none other than Mojang's vast, open, voxel-based world.
Together with MinecraftEdu, a group that partners with Mojang to bring Minecraft to schools, and scientists at California Institute of Technology's Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, Quantum AI Lab has built a Minecraft mod called qCraft that simulates quantum behaviors in the game. … Read more
BERKELEY, Calif. -- In 2007, officials from this famously liberal city shut off the electricity to an artists space known as the Shipyard. That action, which forced the artists there to seek a new way to power their flamethrowers, is the origin story of a company that now produces what it says is the world's only carbon-negative power source.
Located in one of the grittiest areas of town, where train tracks, garbage, and broken down cars are far more prevalent than the hippies Berkeley is famous for, All Power Labs has set up shop inside the Shipyard. Run by CEO Jim Mason -- who owns the space -- the 5-year-old startup now produces technology used to transform dense biomass like corn husks or wood chips into clean, sustainable, and cheap energy. … Read more
The first thing you might ask about the Hiku is why you need a $79 piece of hardware to help you make a grocery list.
The Hiku is a simple-seeming device with a few clever tricks built in. In its most basic mode, you press its only button, and either speak the name of a product or zap it with Hiku's bar code scanner, and that item will show up on Hiku's mobile app-based shopping list. To log unfamiliar UPCs, those from Trader Joe's, for example, Hiku will use crowdsourcing. Scan an unknown code, correct it by … Read more
Ingress, an augmented-reality Android game from Google's Niantic Labs unit in which players try to conquer territory in the real world, will come to iOS in 2014.
Arriving on the scene a year ago, the closed-beta software Ingress has been gradually updated with bug fixes and new features. One thing that hasn't changed is the absence of an iPhone version, even though Google generally tends to support Apple's mobile operating system.
When design firm Ideo creates a gadget or comes up with a concept, it's usually pretty interesting -- remember Apple's first mouse? Rather than going for the million-dollar cash-in or making a banal consumer product, Ideo seems to be more of the creative type.
A new project the firm has been working on is an iPhone video app called Spark Camera. While there are already tons of video apps out there -- like Viddy, 8mm, and not to mention social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram that feature video -- Ideo's app is a bit different.
Yes, … Read more
The nature of how electrons, atoms, and photons interact and affect humans takes center stage in a new Google short film about research at the company's recently-unveiled quantum computing lab called the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab.
The 6.5 minute documentary, unnamed in a report from The Verge, will debut at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Google New York offices' Imagine Science Films Festival. The film, embedded above, will be on YouTube on Friday. A ticket to the festival costs $50.
The film highlights the collaborative nature of the lab and the people behind its unusual quantum … Read more
Smartphones are the Swiss Army Knives of the tech world.
They're cell phones, music and video players, mobile Web browsers, and personal organizers, among other things. Not surprisingly, all this can take a toll on battery life, and when you depend on your smartphone for so much, the last thing you want is for it to run out of juice when you need it most.
Generally speaking, with moderate use, smartphones can give you a full day's performance before needing to be recharged, but not all gadgets are created equal -- some simply run out of steam early, whereas others will hang in there for the long haul. Here are eight smartphones with battery usage that really impressed us, whether it was because they scored well in our CNET Labs battery tests, or simply because their usage time stood out from the crowd of humdrum cell phone batteries we encountered (and believe us, we encounter a lot). Give one of these devices a try if you're looking for a phone that packs some decent juice.… Read more


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Voice holds the power to open up incredible economic opportunities for the underserved mass of people who come under the umbrella term of ‘Bharat’
Worry not. You’re just a step away.
Exclusive Economic Times Stories, Editorials & Expert opinion across 20+ sectors
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2021 has been a big year for mergers and acquisitions in the restaurant industry. Six deals were announced over the nine days between June and July, with many reported in the final months of the year. Companies from all corners of the industry bought and sold, encouraged by low interest rates, resuming sales and renewed interest from investment firms.
Uncertainty over capital gains tax changes also fueled the investment frenzy through the end of 2021, Restaurant diving Remarks. Businesses feared that corporate tax rates would rise in the new year, which would reduce their revenues. Hoping to avoid higher rates and make the most of the sale of their business, restaurants rushed to strike deals before the end of the year.
Here’s a look at five of the biggest mergers and acquisitions that took place in 2021, the ones that will change the landscape of the chain restaurant industry. For more, check out 9 fast food chains that are phasing out dining rooms.
One of the biggest acquisitions of the year was RBI’s purchase of Firehouse Subs, a Florida-based sandwich chain. Founded by former firefighter brothers Chris and Robin Sorensen in 1994, Firehouse Subs has grown steadily over the past few decades from a small family business to a chain of more than 1,200 restaurants, with locations in 46 states, in Puerto Rico and Canada. The company has proven resilient during the pandemic, persevering with the development of the Firehouse Subs app and offsite services. RBI, the parent company of Popeyes, Burger King and Tim Hortons, took notice and bought the chain in November for $1 billion. Could Firehouse Subs become the main sandwich player in the hands of one of the biggest restaurant development companies in the business?
Jack in the Box showed its buying power in early November by acquiring Mexican food chain Del Taco for a whopping $575 million. This decision surprised some. Just three years ago, Jack in the Box wanted to get out of the brand ownership game, getting rid of Qdoba (another Mexican food concept) for $305 million. The West Coast chain, however, hopes things will work out differently this time around and plans to grow its footprint by 4%, capitalizing on Del Taco’s presence in Midwestern and Southern markets like Michigan, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
California-based franchise company Fat Brands had another stellar year, adding Global Franchising Group (GFG) to its growing collection of fast food brands. At the time of the sale, which closed in July, GFG’s assets included Round Table Pizza, Great American Cookies, Hotdog on a Stick and Marble Slab Creamery. With the purchase of GFG, Fat Brands has added all of these brands to its roster and hopes to help them grow, giving them access to its extensive network of franchisees and large-scale buying power.
Quick service chains weren’t the only ones to benefit from mergers and acquisitions. J. Alexander’s Holdings, the parent company of casual dining chain J. Alexander’s Restaurant, sold to SPB Hospitality for $220 million in July. Prior to its acquisition by SPB, J. Alexander’s had been looking for a buyer since mid-2019, after rejecting a preliminary offer from Ancora Advisors in April of that year. Its sales plans have been postponed by COVID and the pandemic, but with casual dining resuming over the past year, the chain wasted no time in striking a deal with SPB.
Mergers and acquisitions in 2021 weren’t just about big companies gobbling up small ones. In October, upscale burger chain BurgerFi came to the rescue of Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings, a debt-ridden pizza chain with 61 restaurants on the South, Southeast and East Coast. The $161.3 million sale was expected to close by the end of the year, with BurgerFi assuming all of Anthony’s debt and giving the pizza chain $33.6 million in company stock . As BurgerFi continues to grow, expanding north from its established markets in Florida, it hopes to benefit from Anthony’s presence on the East Coast.
For more, check out the 108 most popular sodas ranked by how toxic they are.


text: Telecommunications company i-Cable yesterday defended its customer service record, saying it had invested $1 million in a call centre to help eliminate disputes between customers and sales staff. The company was named earlier this week as the telecom provider with the largest number of complaints registered against it between May 2003 and September last year. The telecoms watchdog Ofta recorded 65 complaints from i-Cable WebServe customers, out of a total of 152 complaints concerning all telecom companies. Unionists said i-Cable sales staff were paid a low base wage of $3,000 to $4,000 a month and were pressured by their bosses to attract customers using deceptive sales tactics. Benjamin Tong Wai-sun, executive director of i-Cable's multimedia services, yesterday said the quality control system was installed in November. Instead of having sales staff simply record their conversations with customers, the company added an extra step by requiring call-centre staff to confirm the contract and personal data with the customers before the service was installed. This conversation is recorded and stored as a computer file along with a copy of the application form. The annual cost of this system is $4 million. Mr Tong said most disputes arose when customers did not realise there would be a surcharge to install the system in a particular building, or when they were required to pay an additional fee for transferring the service to another flat within the same building. He said i-Cable would continue to pay its staff on commission. 'Some salespeople get more than 100 orders a month while others get eight to 10. There are many extreme cases and it would not be fair to the hard workers to award all of them the same amount of money,' he said. Ofta has suggested that companies withhold commissions if there is something wrong with a person's sales tactics. Mr Tong said his company withheld commissions on individual cases. The base salary for i-Cable sales people is $4,000.


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The Rise and Fall of Netflix
Shares of video streaming company Netflix (NFLX) plunged 15% this week after the company announced surprisingly weak first quarter results on Monday. It was trading above $130 four months ago, but since then NFLX has seen its share price fall back to where it was last July when it broke above $95 for the first time.
At the heart of the matter isn’t so much Netflix’s financial results, but its anemic growth in subscribers. The company now projects only 2.5 million net (of cancellations) new customers in the second quarter of this year, about 40% less than the 4 million increase analysts had built into their growth estimates at the beginning of 2016.
Just as surprising is the Netflix analysts were caught off-guard by this development. Based on the amount of insider information that gets passed around on Wall Street, especially about companies as popular as Netflix, you would think that a miss of that magnitude would begin seeping out weeks before the announcement.
In this case the company’s officers and directors had good reason to keep this secret under wraps. As Netflix’s share price zoomed up the charts the past couple of years, proponents of the stock have argued that earnings were secondary to capturing market share. But if the market share argument no longer holds water, then what is Netflix really worth?
We shall soon find out. Momentum stocks like Netflix exist in a parallel universe, where the conventional rules of investing do not apply. That’s why certain companies, such as Tesla, can garner a cult like-following that pays little regard to how much money the company actually makes. All that seems to matter is that they have a cool product that everybody seems to want, regardless of price.
At least, that’s what Netflix thought when it announced at the beginning of this year that it was raising its monthly subscription price by $2 to $9.99 starting in May for its legacy members, most of whom believed they had been promised by Netflix that their rate would never go up when they first enrolled. The challenge for Netflix is its costs are going up, so leaving this large pool of users at a fixed price indefinitely was becomingly increasingly less profitable.
That problem is further compounded by the fact that those same users now have many more choices for streaming video than they did five years ago, much of which is free or provided by cable companies as part of a bundle. Many of its legacy users had become loyal to Netflix before those cheaper options emerged, to the point that they were not inclined to seek out lower cost alternatives. However, all it took was one broken promise to bring Netflix’s real-life house of cards tumbling down.
The lesson of Netflix, and many other failed momentum stocks before it, is that ultimately financial results do matter, no matter how captivating the product may be. Burning through large amounts of other people’s money to gain market share only works if those customers can be converted to a profitable revenue stream before shareholders become impatient. That’s the same tightrope Tesla is now walking, hoping to safely reach the platform of profitability at the other end of the line before it gets knocked for a loop and takes the same plunge as Netflix.
What amazes me is how often this happens, and yet some people never learn. They allow themselves to buy into the “this time it really is different” argument, even though that same reasoning has failed countless investors before them. Even worse, it is painfully easy to spot an overpriced momentum stock since that data can be easily extracted from a wide variety of sources on the Internet.
That’s why I shake my head whenever an overvalued company such as Netflix eventually blows up and its shareholders claim to be blindsided by what must have seemed an unimaginable event. If you want to know why Netflix stock got hammered this week, the explanation is simple: it is only marginally profitable and pays no dividend, yet was trading at more than 100 times forward earnings.
At the risk of saying I told you so… I told you so. Or at least, my IDEAL stock rating system told all of us that NFLX was overvalued and at risk of a steep fall. It was recently featured in a PF Special Report as one of “10 Overvalued Stocks to Avoid RIGHT NOW!” By the way, Netflix is one of 26 stocks in the S&P 500 that earns the lowest possible score that my formula can assign. If you’d like to know who the other 25 are before its too late, click here.


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Investment Policy Dialogue on ASEAN Readiness for Industry 4.0
Country Managing Partner, Yee Wing Peng, participated as a panellist during this half-day dialogue. Discussing the impact of Industry 4.0 to the global manufacturing investment landscape, the forum also provided the opportunity to network among senior management from corporations.
Malaysia-China Belt & Road Economic Cooperation Forum 2019
Deloitte Malaysia co-organised the Malaysia-China Belt & Road Economic Cooperation Forum 2019 event alongside the Malaysia China Business Council (MCBC), in conjunction with the celebration of the 45th Anniversary of the Establishment of Malaysia China Relation on 8 August 2019.
National Tax Conference 2019
Economic Prosperity & Taxation
This conference gave participants the latest in tax technical updates, as well as highlighting the issues affecting tax in Malaysia today. Held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Sim Kwang Gek, Country Tax Leader, participated as a panellist, discussing the digital economy.
TARCian Run 2019
What a great and fun run Deloittians had at the TARCian Run 2019! Organised by the TARCian Alumni Association, we were proud to be included as a sponsor, where alumni, graduates, students and staff participated in a mini marathon. The event aimed to promote healthier lifestyles.
A Unique Dining Experience with Chef Stephan Zoisl
Our Country Managing Partner, Yee Wing Peng, was invited by Standard Chartered to an exclusive, unique dining experience with Chef Stephan Zoisl, an Austrian whose culinary tastes are inspired by his travels, visiting the best Michelin-starred restaurants around the world.
Deloitte TaxMax Seminar 2018 calls for corporates and individuals to take advantage of newly announced tax amnesty programme
Tax experts from Deloitte Malaysia and Dato’ Sri Sabin Samitah, CEO of Inland Revenue Board Malaysia (IRBM), gave insights on tax changes and development arising from the newly announced Budget 2019 to over 700 participants at its annual tax seminar, the Deloitte TaxMax 2018 – The 44th Series.
Fighting Corruption: A new era of corporate governance
Deloitte Malaysia, working with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), has organised this exclusive event specially for company directors and senior management to help you understand what this means for you and your organisation.


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EMSD has been carrying out a trial on using a model of “Passive LED Power Supply” for LED floodlights at Ah Kung Kok Basketball Court in Shatin since March 2018. The power supply is jointly developed by The University of Hong Kong and a local technology company. According to the information provided by the company, this power supply can operate under adverse weather conditions with a longer lifespan, and more than 80% of its parts can be recycled. The technology was awarded a prize at the 46th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva in April 2018.
If you have any enquiry about this platform, please click HERE to contact us.


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Apple CEO gave another interview – this time edition of ABC News. On the agenda was the issue of ensuring privacy and security of user data, digital well-being. The head of the company strongly believes that the users still spend a lot of time for their devices.
Tim cook said that Apple has always sought to ensure that the users first time to their own Affairs and communication in the real world.
Of course, we earn selling the iPhone, but I don’t want users to be overly passionate about their devices. First and foremost, we strive to create products that will help you reach your goals, — said the head of the company.
Apple CEO is sure that the new function of “Screen time”, which was designed to reduce dependence on devices that really helped a lot of users began to spend less time with your gadgets. Interestingly, this option is and Sam Cooke.
From the statistics I learned that I turned to my phone over 200 times a day. For me it was a revelation.
During the interview we also touched upon the topic of confidentiality. Tim cook said that companies that collect personal data, to know about us more than you can imagine. The CEO stressed that Apple keeps all user data and does not transmit any information to third parties.
Such bold statements have a clear basis — Apple has never been involved in scandals related to leakage of personal data. If any information were leaked, it has happened solely through the fault of the users — due to a weak password, the lack of two-factor authentication and phishing attacks.


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BEIJING, Aug 4 — Promoting an array of Malaysian food in China is among the efforts taken to attract more tourists from the world’s most populous nation to visit Malaysia.
Director of Tourism Malaysia in China, Zalizam Zakaria said the uniqueness and wide variety of Malaysian food was one of the key attractions for tourists from China.
“It’s proven that the Chinese, especially from Beijing, love Malaysian food. This is based on a survey done by us. Besides the interesting tourist spots in Malaysia, the uniqueness of Malaysian food with a myriad of flavours is a major draw for them,” he told Bernama, here, today.
Going on here now is the Malaysia Food Campaign with satay, laksa peranakan, nasi minyak and durian goreng among the more than 30 delights served throughout the one-week campaign.
This campaign which ends next Thursday is part of the efforts by Hyatt Regency Beijing in collaboration with Tourism Malaysia and the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China (Maycham), to enliven the Visit Malaysian Year 2020 (VMY2020) promotional campaign.
“Clearly, Malaysian food has its own attraction. Hence, to get the real taste of Malaysian food, we have brought in two chefs from Kuala Lumpur for people here to enjoy the authentic taste of the dishes served,” said Zalizam.
Hopefully, this effort could help achieve the target of drawing at least three million tourists from China to Malaysia each year, he added.
VMY2020 targets 30 million international tourist arrivals by focusing on eco-tourism, arts and culture. — Bernama


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CNET News has uncovered a 2008 interview with outgoing Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy that appeared in the Unofficial Stanford blog, in which McCarthy tells of a meeting in 2000 between Blockbuster CEO John Antioco and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings in which Hastings proposed a partnership. In the interview McCarthy said, "Reed had the chutzpah to propose to them that we run their brand online and that they run [our] brand in the stores and they just about laughed us out of their office. At least initially, they thought we were a very small niche business. Gradually over time, as we grew our market, his thinking evolved but initially they ignored us and that was much to our advantage." At the time, McCarthy recalled, Netflix had recently introduced its subscription model. "In 1998, I think the business did $1 million in revenue. In 1999, we did $5 million, then $35 million and then $75 million and $150 million and then almost $300 million...We were, I think, five years to $500 million and another three years to a $1 billion, all because of the subscription model."
The pair teamed together for another round of S&M romance in 'Fifty Shades Darker'.
The musician worked with screenwriter Johnny Harris on the new movie.
Affleck was recently confirmed to be NOT directing 'The Batman', despite many rumours that he would be doing so.
But what about Jack White and Alicia Keys?


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Techcrunch is showing off some photos of the CrunchPad, a slate device that it plans on formally launching sometime in July.
The team has moved away from a plastic case to an aluminum one to make it more sturdy and reduce thickness. It measures about 18mm thick.
Would you buy one of these things rather than a slate or other media consumption device made by an established manufacturer?
Techcrunch posted more info about the CrunchPad’s release in a blog post today.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.


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Chlorine tablets may be tough to find this year at your local pool supply store.
"We've never seen anything like this and pricing going way up because of it," said Jesse Teele, who owns Pools By You in Granada Hills.
He's been in the swimming pool industry for more than 20 years and recently took over the family business from his father.
He said the supply of chlorine tablets has taken a huge hit, and many distributors don't have it in stock.
"That's the same thing for every size, for the most part anyway," Teele said.
Experts say the shortage can be blamed on several factors, including production and shipping problems from COVID-19 coupled with a fire last year at a chemical plant in Louisiana - and on top of that, more people forced to stay at home were swimming during the pandemic.
"One of their only forms of entertainment really was the usage of their swimming pool, so we had a flood of customers. At the time, we were doing curbside assistance only, and people were lining up outside," Teele said.
As a result, prices have spiked on larger buckets of chlorine tablets—up around 60% from this time last year. Teele calls it the pool industry's version of a run on toilet paper.
"Larger buckets are going quicker," he said. "Literally, on the last delivery we just got of some 25-pound tabs. Customers were buying them as they were pulling them off the truck."
But he wants to dispel rumors circulating of a complete chlorine catastrophe, at least locally.
"We're getting calls on a daily basis of people asking like, 'I hear there's a shortage of chlorine. I have to switch over to salt,' and 'What do I do?' and all that stuff, and it's actually not the case," Teele said.
He said there is no shortage of liquid chlorine so far, the most common way people sanitize swimming pool water. He said HASA, a Saugus-based liquid chlorine manufacturer, tells him its ramped up production to meet demand. His bigger concern is future costs.
"When things go up in price, they don't necessarily come back down when things level out or smooth out," Teele said.
It's unclear how long the shortage could last, but Teele said he'll do whatever he can to help customers save their summer swims.


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Global tech company Olight chooses Belfast as main UK base
GLOBAL technology lighting company Olight has launched its aircraft aluminium torch range into the UK - and has chosen Belfast as its operational base.
It is investing more than £1.5 million into the new merchandising hub and initially creating five jobs.
And Olight - whose current global operations include China, the USA and Australia - says it is aiming to generate more than £2 million in the next year, in addition to its online business with Amazon.
The company's UK managing director Antony Loveless said: “I'm delighted to see Olight come to Belfast. After speaking with the global team and reviewing various location options across the UK & Ireland it became clear early on that Belfast was the prime spot.
"Northern Ireland has low overheads in terms of rent and staffing costs, but also has a large talent pool across many disciplines. The location is well-connected to Dublin which is fast-becoming a thriving economy especially in the tech world. And Belfast is also only a 50-minute flight from London."
He added: "We have huge plans to scale Olight UK from our Belfast base and the product itself is exceptional.
"The portable illumination tools are more than just a reliable torch. The indestructible design caters for a range of users including outdoor to combat and adventure. Anyone from avid runners to self-defence professionals are sure to find what they are looking for. We even launched it into space to prove its durability.”
The latest edition to the Olight collection, the X9R Marauder torch, was exposed to temperatures of minus-61 degrees celsius and returned from space in perfect working condition.
Olight technology has taken pride in being at the forefront of illumination technology throughout the past decade. Its vision is to get the most advanced technology and performance into the hands of everyone across the world while maintaining a simplified and streamlined user experience.
Antony added: “Expanding the business in the UK is a really exciting time for Olight and we're excited about the company's continual growth.”


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Macy’s-Penney fight over Martha Stewart examined
- Steven Thompston, Courier Contributor
The legal battle between Cincinnati-based Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Martha Stewart doesn’t appear to be going away.
At the beginning of the year, Macy’s filed a lawsuit against Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. for allegedly breaking a 2006 contract, after it signed on to be a part of Dallas-based J.C. Penney Co. Inc.’s business.
Since then, a judge has granted a temporary injunction against Martha Stewart and its J.C. Penney deal, and Macy’s has filed a separate suit against Penney for allegedly interfering with its contract.
In the most recent developments, Penney filed a response to the Macy’s complaint Aug. 29. The next day, a judge decided against placing a temporary injunction on Penney.
While it’s been seven months since Macy’s took the first legal action, the steps to get there began more than a year ago. The decision of who wins Martha could take just as long to play out.
Striking the deal
In May 2011, New York City-based Martha Stewart Living retained Blackstone Advisory Partners to “explore strategic partnerships.” In December, Penney bought a 16.6 percent stake in the company for $38.5 million. The deal also called for the installation of Martha Stewart-branded stores inside J.C. Penney department stores by spring 2013.
While all three companies declined to comment for this story, the Dallas Business Journal, a sister paper of the Business Courier, asked three Dallas lawyers who specialize in contract law and business disputes to review the case.
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KARACHI: The cotton market on Thursday remained firm as buying orders kept pouring in for quality lint. However, short supply of quality cotton continued to restrict trading activity.
Floor brokers said spinners were striving to get hold of any lot offered but short supply of quality lint disappointed them.
The delay in early sowing in Punjab due to recent rains coupled with depleted stocks held by ginners was a cause of concern for spinners who fear long period of around four to five months before new crop arrival starts by late July or early August.
There were reports that yarn market has also stated performing better on improved demand from domestic and export markets, brokers said.
Meanwhile, China’s state-owned corporation is selling cotton from 2011-12 stocks in domestic market at lesser subsidy and this would have deep impact on world market.
The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) left its spot rates unchanged.
Major deals on ready counter were: 400 bales from Sanghar (Rs4,300), 400 bales from Burewala (Rs4,500), 600 bales from Chichawatni (Rs4,500), 400 bales from Layyah (Rs4,650), 1000 bales from Rahimyar Khan (Rs5,500) and 600 bales from Rajanpur (Rs5,500).
Meanwhile, the New York cotton market gave mixed trend on Thursday.


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Since its launch in 2009, the Bitcoin digital currency has grown massively in popularity all over the world. Created by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that can be ‘mined’ online and spent in an ever-growing number of ways. Bitcoin wallet providers have worked to ensure that the digital currency is as secure as any other form of currency, if not even more. For that reason and the fact that there is no need to worry about traditional fiat currency exchange rates, Bitcoin is slowly but surely taking over the world.
2016 has been a pretty solid year for bitcoin, with its value rocketing to the highest it’s been since 2014, rising by over $300 across the year. But despite its growing success, it’s still early days for bitcoin, which is pretty exciting. If it’s doing so well in its infancy, what could the future hold for the digital currency? With the steady development of mining technology, we could be mining bitcoins on mobile devices in the near future, which could perhaps make it more accessible for potential users. 63% of shoppers stated that they’re interested in using Bitcoin and only 11% of shoppers currently do; perhaps the introduction of mobile mining could help bring that 63% into the Bitcoin world.
Along with the rest of the world, New Zealanders are jumping on board with Bitcoin. There are several different New Zealand Bitcoin exchanges such as bitNZ, New Zealand Bitcoin Exchange (NZBCX), and BittyBot.
Thriving Bitcoin Businesses
Large businesses such as WordPress, Subway, Microsoft, Reddit, Wikipedia, and Steam are all now accepting payments from customers in bitcoin. The New Zealand-based privacy company Mega.nz also allows payment via bitcoin. If a business founded on principles of privacy and security is choosing to accept the digital currency, it must be pretty secure.
But many more sectors have embraced the cryptocurrency. Bitcoinpokies.com is an online guide dedicated to bitcoin gaming and guiding players through the world of bitcoin. Their partner casino lets players deposit and withdraw funds using the digital currency in order to try their hand at all sorts of online games.
2Talk, a small telco company in Auckland, claims to be the first business in its industry from New Zealand to start accepting payments in bitcoin. They explain that their customers are “early adopters by nature.”
The majority of businesses that work with bitcoin are internet-based. However, there are also companies that accept bitcoins in store. Bitmart is a store based in Christchurch that sells an eclectic range of products, from groceries to electronics. In the store, a jar of Vegemite (normally $4.50) will set you back ฿0.0088.
Are New Zealanders Ready to Adopt Bitcoin?
Looking at the current bitcoin market, it seems that the answer is yes. Just like the rest of the world, New Zealand is well on its way to accepting Bitcoin as a true form of currency.
The real question is: if you haven’t got a Bitcoin wallet yet, what’s keeping you?


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Positive Feedback on the RFID & Wireless IoT tomorrow 2021 as a Face-to-Face and Online Event!
The RFID & Wireless IoT tomorrow 2021 LIVE started on October 20th in Wiesbaden with 60 exhibitors - for the first time in two years. At the same time, the online event RFID & Wireless IoT tomorrow 2021 VIRTUAL started with virtual booths and livestreams from the RheinMain CongressCenter Wiesbaden. For two days, the latest innovations from the world of wireless IoT were presented, expert lectures were held and personal contacts were established.
Feedback from exhibitors and visitors on the hybrid event on October 20th and 21st was positive: the revitalizing effect of the RFID & Wireless IoT tomorrow 2021 for personal networking, the opportunity to present new products and the hybrid concept including livestreams on the virtual event platform generated a positive response.


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ORIHUELA City Council launches social media Covid campaign to reach a broader audience
With so many people forced to work from home and most spending far more time indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic and curfew restrictions, it only makes sense that officials target social media to push their ‘stay safe during Covid’ campaigns. To this end, the Orihuela City Council have redoubled their efforts, which originally began at the start of the pandemic, to post a series of informative and inspirational videos online urging everyone to follow regulations.
The main aim of the videos, according to officials, is to give people from the different sectors the opportunity to explain how “the pandemic is affecting us all and we have to make an effort, complying with the measures, to be able to recover as soon as possible everything we are losing.”
The ‘Responsibility COVID-19’, launched in conjunction with the Emergency and Communication departments, will air videos on their websites, Facebook and Twitter accounts. The first will be from the city’s mayor, Emilio Bascunana, but the daily addresses will include doctors, a priest, athletes, as well as people from local hospitality and retail establishments.
A spokesperson for the City Council said: “We consider that we are in a very complicated moment, and we have been working for several days on the compilation of this material because it is important to bring testimonials, in the first person, from all the sectors that are being affected by this health crisis, whether they are health, festive, retail, hoteliers, athletes, associations… We believe that it is the best way to reach the entire population, because they are recognised people who clearly identify themselves within their field and by Orihuela society.”
Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Orihuela City Council Launches Social Media Covid Campaign”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.


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GDK launches in West Bromwich and CoventryHALAL STATUS Fully Halal
German Doner Kebab continued its march this week with the opening of two venues across the West Midlands.Advertisement
This means that the “healthy” doner brand has now launched a total of 28 branches across the country.
The first was during the weekend in Coventry’s The Burges high street which had a ‘Meat and Greet’ with celebrity Love Island’s Frankie Foster and Charlie Brake.
But a lower key grand opening took place in the heart of West Bromwich and Astle Retail Park shopping and entertainment centre this week.
Being fully Halal, GDK promotes a healthy doner kebab option with lower calories than your fast food traditional ones.
With the Chicken Doner Box Meal said to contain just 46g of protein, while containing just 433 calories, the brand also recently introduced Flaming Fries – nacho cheese sauce topped with fiery jalapenos.
According to their website, they’re scheduled to open eight more, with three of these in Scotland – one in Edinburgh and two in Glasgow.
Stay tuned with FtL for all the latest Halal restaurant openings.
5-9 The Burges, Coventry CV1 1HN.
T: +44 (0)2476 551999 | W: www.germandonerkebab.com
Opening Hours: Sun-Thur 11:00-00:00 | Fri-Sat 11:00-3:00
GDK West Bromwich
Unit 3C Astle Retail Park, West Bromwich B70 8NS.
Opening Hours: TBC


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Ettalong bakery wins prizes in national competition
An Ettalong bakery has won two prizes in the recent 2020 National Artisan Baking Competition held on August 26.
The competition was held in Sydney at the Randwick Racecourse and organised by the Baking Association of Australia with a total of 26 bakeries taking part.
Sasa Bakery was awarded second place in the Traditional White Sourdough Class and third place in the Open Sourdough Class for their olive bread.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, contestants had to pre-bake their bread and bring the finished product to the competition, where it was tasted and judged by a panel of experts.
Co-owner Mr Daniele Del Castillo said the bakery specialised in artisan sourdough, European pastries and handmade Sicilian cannoli, and focused on traditional baking practices.
"Sasa Bakery is inspired by the bakeries that are in Italy, the way I think bakeries should be," Mr Del Castillo said.
"The majority of things are done in house, by hand, and avoiding pre-prepared bags and ingredients."
Mr Del Castillo and his wife Orly Primov opened the bakery two years ago after their cannoli and sourdough became quite popular at weekend markets.
Originally from Sicily, Mr Del Castillo has tried to recreate the Sicilian flavours that he remembers from his childhood with the local ingredients on the Central Coast.
Media release, 31 Aug 2020
Interview (Hayley McMahon), 2 Sep 2020
Daniele Del Castillo, Sasa Bakery


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Saturday, 25 Mar 2023 16:31 PM
Strikes on Iranian-linked bases in Syria would draw a quick response, an Iranian security spokesperson said on Saturday, . . .
Saturday, 25 Mar 2023 16:15 PM
A federal judge has sided with four publishers who sued an online archive over its unauthorized scanning of millions of . . .


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Advertisement: Protect your iPad with the invisibleSHIELD.
“I learned the answer by talking to Liquidmetal’s co-inventor, Dr. Atakan Peker, who granted CultofMac.com an exclusive interview,” Kahney reports. “It’s not confirmed by Apple. Peker bought the product and immediately recognized his alloy: ‘That’s my metal,’ he said. It’s not used in European versions of the product — only U.S. and maybe Asia.”
Kahney writes, “Leave your best guess in the comments. The winner gets a brand new Magic Trackpad.”
Full article, including the place to make your guess to win a Magic Trackpad, here.
MacDailyNews Take: iPod Socks.


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The Meatpacking District is getting another techie tenant.
Web design firm Wix has leased retail space in the posh Manhattan neighborhood as a showcase for its own offices — joining Samsung, Palantir, Live Nation, Google, Alibaba and soon, Yext.
Situated directly across from the Whitney Museum of American Art at 100 Gansevoort St., Wix’s 15,784 square feet on the ground floor wrap around the corner of the landmarked building onto Tenth Avenue, and overlooks the West Side Highway and Hudson River.
“A lot of our users enjoy going to the museum,” says Joe Pollaro, general manager of US operations for Wix. “Our [JLL] broker team came up with this idea … as we can really use it as a showcase for our brand.”
Wix was represented by Michael Berg of JLL. “He really knew what we are going for, and the team really understood the brand vision,” said Pollaro. “Part of our strategic vision is in really penetrating the professional and designer market. This building signifies us planting our flag in New York and makes it known that New York is a key location for us.”
The new office is at the base of a TF Cornerstone apartment building and has its lobby at 95 Horatio St.
Steve Gonzalez of TF Cornerstone represented the building, which has stores that include Intermix and Christian Louboutin.
Asking rents were not available but, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s fall retail report, nearby West 14th Street has retail asking rents of $345 per square foot, but some streets are higher.
Similarly, many office rents in the area are now more than $100 a square foot and nearing $200.
In New York, Wix first opened a small office at 235 W. 23rd St. that included a free co-working facility for its users. Most recently, it has been operating out of a WeWork.
A key element is that it was large enough to host the Wix Design Playground. This is a free, three-month summer design academy where participants also partner with local nonprofits to create a free website design, said Sara Parker, vice president of communications for Wix. “It’s one of the best parts of the curriculum,” she said.
Along with housing its sales, product and marketing teams plus HR and operations, the office has plenty of space for classes, events and Wix Partner programs.
Architect ShaGa Studio is designing the space. “It was designed so it looks great from the outside and will be an eye-catching place for our brand,” adds Pollaro.


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Community developers have always believed in the power of small-business development, but never more so than now. Across the Twin Cities, creative collaborations are helping small businesses thrive and, in the process, sparking new economic vitality and community pride.
On St. Paul’s East Side, in Little Africa along the Central Corridor in St. Paul and along West Broadway in North Minneapolis, small businesses and neighborhood organizations are playing a transformative role in reinvigorating these neighborhoods.
From 1962 to 1997, a Whirlpool factory, the Hamm’s/Stroh’s Brewery, and a 3M plant all shut their doors on the East Side of St. Paul. The loss of these three big employers deeply shook the economic and social roots of the community. It’s taken nearly two decades for the East Side to rise again. But today’s renaissance is being fueled not by big business but by small ones.
One catalyst helping rev the East Side’s economic engine is the new East Side Enterprise Center (ESEC), a job-creation hub supporting new business startups and expansions. Opened this fall, it aims to help establish the East Side as a magnet for culturally distinctive, locally owned businesses. All of its programs operate through an equity lens, focusing on communities that have traditionally been overlooked by economic development strategies.
The center includes beautiful, much-needed community meeting and event space; consultation space for aspiring entrepreneurs and existing business owners; and a storage warehouse/food distribution system for small-scale farmers that allows them to reach larger urban markets. Chief among those markets is the East Side itself, whose residents want better access to healthy, locally grown food.
“The whole economic rebirth of the East Side is being driven by small, minority owned businesses,” says Deanna Abbott-Foster, executive director of the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council, one of ESEC’s two anchor partners. “But often, those entrepreneurs aren’t well connected to mainstream resources and information. We wanted to create a welcoming, friendly place that could help them deal with the business development issues they’re facing and access whatever they need to start or expand a business. These businesses are helping create our community’s future.”
Housed in the historic, remodeled Pabst Grocery building on Margaret Street, the center also includes the offices of the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council and theLatino Economic Development Center (LEDC) — the other anchor ESEC partner. But the full breath of the partnership undergirding the ESEC testifies both to its equity mission and to the remarkable diversity of the East Side. Culturally specific organizations such as the Asian Economic Development Association,Hmong American Farmers Association, African Economic Development Solutions, Native American Community Development Institute and Casa De Esperanza are ESEC partners, along with four other organizations.
“The center is one of those sparkling reminders that there’s an economic and entrepreneurial revival on the East Side,” says Mario Hernandez, vice president and COO of the LEDC. “It’s an opportunity for small business owners to come together to provide important services for the East Side, but it’s also going to be a community-focused space where residents are welcomed for educational and other special events. We’ve already generated a lot of interest among entrepreneurs.”
Abbott-Foster believes that over the next few years, with the help of ESEC, St. Paul’s East Side will attract many new small minority-owned businesses, and see existing businesses expand. “We hope the center helps the voices of minority business owners be better heard, so they can begin to have more impact on regulatory systems and public policy.” In the meantime, ESEC partners look forward to collaborating with many other East Side nonprofits to bring the neighborhood new economic life.
Turning West Broadway into a haven for entrepreneurs
Small businesses are also playing a transformative role along West Broadway in North Minneapolis. The new West Broadway Business Improvement District, a recent large-scale undertaking of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition (WBBAC), aims over the next few years to create a clean, green, safe environment that supports the growth of small businesses.
Designated Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are a tool being used locally and nationally to revitalize commercial districts by providing special services, including banners, holiday decorations, streetscape greenery, sidewalk and street cleaning, snow removal, marketing and other amenities. Combined with the technical assistance to small businesses provided by the Northside Economic Opportunity Network and EMERGE’s workforce development on the North Side, the new Business Improvement District strategy could be a tipping point for West Broadway.
“BIDs have been really successful at decreasing vacancy and crime rates, increasing the number of customers and improving neighborhood vitality,” says Erin Jerabek Heelan, WBBAC executive director. “We’re meeting with entrepreneurs all the time and there’s a lot of interest in West Broadway. In addition to existing retail space, the Minneapolis WorkForce Education and Career Center planned for 800 West Broadway will also include new small business spaces. We expect those to go fast.”
Special BID services along West Broadway start in January 2015, but there’s already evidence of increasing confidence in the corridor’s resurgence. Small businesses such as The Cookie Cart, Avenue Eatery, MOJA Artists’ Cooperative, Villa, the renovated Capri Theater, Anytime Fitness and Boom Island Brewing have located there, along with several active nonprofits like Juxtaposition Arts, Emerge and Urban Homeworks.
“We hear from residents all the time that they want small businesses on their main street,” says Heelan. “They don’t want a faceless avenue made up of franchises. They want to support local entrepreneurs that hire from the community. They like building relationships with businesses. They understand that our local economy is tied to the success of everyone.”
Small is beautiful in Little Africa
Little Africa is one more illustration of the bustling energy small business can bring to a commercial zone, in this case the area around University and Snelling avenues in St. Paul’s Central Corridor. A newly created cultural and business district, Little Africa was launched earlier this year by African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS) and the Little African Development Group.
Its mission is to leverage the rich and diverse business, arts and cultural assets of the Twin Cities’ growing African immigrant populations to build sustainable wealth within those communities. There are already about 40 small businesses owned by African immigrants located in the district. And thanks in part to its interesting cultural, shopping and dining experiences, Little Africa is becoming a popular destination. One recent weekend arts event there attracted people from15 cities and 32 ZIP codes.
AEDS’s approach to business development is two pronged: Help existing small business owners through programs like facade improvement grants, and reach out to other African business owners to let them know the advantages of relocating in Little Africa. But plans also promote a sense of place, like the new Little Africa Book Club that will regularly bring together college students, professors, business owners and community members in an area coffeehouse to discuss books by African authors.
“Little Africa is going to be a ‘one-stop shop’ for everything,” says Gene Gelgelu, executive director of AEDS. “We’re increasing the visibility of African arts, culture and businesses to attract new customers and create jobs. That will boost the earnings of owners and the economy of the neighborhood, which means higher property values, an increased tax base, and more community engagement and pride.”
This article is reprinted in partnership with The Line, an online chronicle of Twin Cities creativity in entrepreneurship, culture, retail, placemaking, the arts, and other elements of the new creative economy.
Gayle Thorsen is a communications consultant and writer for Twin Cities’ nonprofits and philanthropies. She was former vice president for communications at The Minneapolis Foundation and communications director at The McKnight Foundation. Her website is:ImpactMax.


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things you have the hardest time parting with are the things you need the
least." — Bob Dylan
Gopal Krishnan is Coca-Colas Global Director of
Marketing Innovations. His Hindi tainted Queen's English rolls off of
his tongue like a smooth mango lassi. Krishnan is quickly explaining the changes
underway at the largest non-alcoholic beverage manufacturer in the world. Coca-Cola is in Los Angeles at the Opportunity Green conference focused on
sustainability to discuss their efforts in recycling, converting trucks to bio diesel,
water conservation and integrating non-petroleum plastic via their new
"PlantBottle," a cane sugar PET hybrid.
By 2020, Coca-Cola's
goal is to be off of petroleum bottles 100% and into their PlantBottle. More
than 2.5 billion PlantBottles are already in circulation, which may seem like
quite a lot, but that's out of more than 3,300 beverage brands owned or
invested in by Coca-Cola in more than 200 countries, and according to
CocaCola.com, more than 1.3 billion servings sold every day.
Coca-Cola is also actively
investing in recycling plants, says Krishnan, citing that "leaving it up
to city governments is just not working." They are currently the world's largest recycler and claim to
collect 35% of the bottles they put out. This is an arresting number when
multiple sources, including Everpure, Coca-Cola's own water filtration supplier,
cites that over 60 million bottles a daymore than 80% of all plastic bottlesend
up in incinerators or landfills instead of at recycling plants. Recycling is
big business for Coca-Cola, and with an 85% growth potential, it's no surprise
they're pushing the single serve bottles in every market.
What's incredibly evident, if not downright chilling, is
just how smart Coca-Cola is. Among countless ways they're dominating markets,
they've realized there's really only one product ever worth selling, one that never
goes out of fashion: You. Their biggest moneymaker is consumer confidence and
nowhere is this buoyancy more prominent than in the booming sustainability
US sales of organic products continued to rise in 2009
despite the economic distress, because the people who can afford to buy organic
in the first place were not the ones affected by the recession. Whole Foods and
Trader Joe's, the nation's two leading natural food retailers throw out
millions of pounds of edible, high-end organic food every year even while US
poverty rates are at an eleven year high. Repeated attempts to get them to employ company-wide policies
on near-expired food distribution programs to decrease waste and feed hungry people have been deflected and ignored, yet Whole
Foods still maintains a reputation as the leader in supermarket sustainability
The Opportunity Green conference where Coca-Cola
appeared on panels to discuss their heroics cost over $900 per person to
attend. And this green consumer is worth more to a brand like Coca-Cola than
any of their other consumers.
The educated, passionate environmentalist is not only
buying a product because it tastes good. It's the aftertaste that's much sweeter
in rattling off the number of bio diesel trucks the product may have been
delivered on or how many acres of rainforest are being saved with each sip and
now, how much of the bottle is made from petroleum alternatives like sugar
cane. These things may not matter to a typical
7-11 shopper who might opt for more economical or convenient purchases, but the
green environmentalist will go out of their way to support a brand they believe
is supporting their ethos.
Every demographic has their Achilles heel, and Madison
Avenue marketing masterminds have meticulously categorized and pandered successfully
to their target audiences for decades, whether it's appliances and nail polish
to stay at home moms, fast cars and golf clubs to the hardworking dads or
clothing, video games and junk foods to kids. The Green movement though, is
proving to be the marketing pièce de
résistance as there's an
unprecedented genius at work selling them more than just an identity; they're
Whether it's organic food, bottled water or hybrid cars,
persuasive marketing campaigns encourage repeat and rapacious purchases because
it's a moral obligation. That's a hard plea to turn a back to. The quest for
greening ones life can lead to consumerism extremes like redecorating a home to
get up to LEED specs, and creating more waste by throwing away clothes, personal care items and paper
products to make way for greener, more environmentally-friendly options.
With countless corporations like Coca-Cola now
dominating the so-called "Green" market, one has to wonder if a
sustainable corporate agenda is an oxymoron. It would certainly seem that any decrease in carbon
emissions, reduction in use of fossil fuels and increased recycling or water
conservation efforts are notable achievements in the short term, but are they capable
of sustaining generations? How soon until people begin to wonder whether or not
they need allor at least mostof this Stuff, Green or otherwise?
Natural Kitchen author and sustainability expert, Deborah Eden
Tull's philosophy rests heavily on her on her own personal Buddhist practices.
She lives about as zero waste a life as possible, turning junk mail into
envelopes, and bringing her own to-go containers to restaurants for take away.
While Tull will do virtually anything she can, and make it look quite
effortless, to avoid buying excessively packaged, single serve, trucked-around
products, Coca-Cola's banking on consumers to cherish and maintain their
disposable lifestyles, albeit with a Twist of Green. Feel better about drinking
from PlantBottles and you'll overlook the fact that you're supporting a
single-serve product and over-zealous marketing engines designed to distract
you from your unhealthy daily soda habit.
This is the conundrum of "sustainable businesses."
If the goal of sustainability is to move towards zero waste, it is a nearly
impossible moving target. For one, it's difficult to produce anything at scale without
waste; and scale is essential for growth and profits. In other words, zero
waste mean zero profits. Even for the truly kind-hearted eco-friendly Patagonias
and Clif Bars of the world, profits must exist and growth must exist in order
to sustain the business model. A company simply can't keep its employees happy
or employed long-term without successful revenue growth.
Second, it's also nearly impossible to be in the
business of selling things without them requiring other things. This laptop
travels in a briefcase; the briefcase travels in a car, the car parks at the office where the desk and chair are. There's a co-dependency amongst products
that makes it difficult for any industry to not affect another. And while some
things are clearly indispensible, the line between what is a necessity and what
is non-essential has practically disappeared completely.
Sustainable finance expert, Greg Wendt, says the
predicament is that these financial models dominating our fiscal landscape are
outdated. They're focused on a virulent growth model that leads to a disastrous
wake of disruptive corporate behavior that disregards employees, consumers, the
environment and future generations. Though his clearly optimistic bend leans
towards elucidation, he has a tough time articulating specific, tangible
solutions. Nurturing the corporate citizens so that they may transform into
agents of change, or butterflies as he likened, is at the very least, ambitious,
and does not address the bigger issue of excessive consumer spending habits,
brand dependency and corporation's planned obsolescence, as evident in Coca-Cola's PlantBottle. Rather than attempting to decrease the number of bottles
entering the market, they're just re-dressing it and banking on selling more of
them because of their green designation.
Coca-Cola is clearly most keenly aware that of all the
products out there, the world doesn't really need soda. This awareness is
driving their massive marketing efforts and now their foray into being
recognized as a global leader in sustainability. Certainly the end of Coca-Cola
as it is today would mean hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost. It's
happened before to companies as the times change, and if
there's one silver lining, it is possible for the world's largest beverage
distributor to get into another line of work entirely like rebuilding our aging
water main pipes (bursting at 700 a day in the US) or installing rainwater
tanks, or creating furniture, toys, appliances or art out of the billions of
empty Coke bottles sitting in landfills or floating out to the Texas-sized Garbage Patch in the middle of the Pacific ocean.
"Sugar is not addictive. It is one of the best
sources of energy," claims Krishnan on the health effects of Coca-Cola's
soda products. Is it hypocritical
to boast sustainability efforts when the product inside their sugar cane PET
plastic bottles contains high fructose corn syrup, a leading cause of diabetes
and obesity and linked to increased risk of attention deficit disorder, heart
disease and cancer? How much of a sustainability statement should reflect a
product's personal sustainability? Since our own state of health impacts our
interactions and priorities, if it's unhealthy for you, is that ultimately healthy
for the planet? "We have wellness and lifestyle information on our Web
sites and encourage moderation," says Krishnan. "Coca-Cola is also the
largest manufacturer of juice products in the world," he says, referring
to Minute Maid and products like "Pulpy Super Milky," a dairy-based juice
blend beverage sold to billions of Chinese, despite well-documented studies
that suggest more than 80% of Asians are lactose intolerant. Coca-Cola's juice products are made
mostly from concentrate, contain added flavorings and are excessively processed.
Recent research also suggests that fruit juice may be as unhealthy as sodas
because it's little more than concentrated fructose.
Responding to the
detrimental effects of consuming excessive amounts of sugar throughout the seventies, Coca-Cola
produced Diet Coke in 1982. While the Aspartame-sweetened product does eliminate the effects
of sugar, it comes with its own set of risks. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener found in
most diet sodas and has been linked to infertility, cancer, headaches, tinnitus,
depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, lupus, and dozens of other diseases.
Countless studies have indicated that diet sodas can also actually cause weight
gain because of their sodium content and the psychological effect of thinking that
calories are being sacrificed, can therefore be spent on eating unhealthy
foods. The PlantBottle is today's version of Diet Coke. It may alleviate the stress associated with plastic, but brings it's own set of unrelated issues. For one, sugar cane production is directly responsible for the destruction of critical
ecosystems like Florida's Everglades. And, a bottle is still a bottle, using fresh water, energy and other critical natural resources in production.
Coca-Cola also distributes bottled water under the
brand name Dasani, a product that they have no immediate exit strategy for.
While the other 3299 products Coca-Cola sells may be made up of proprietary
formulations, which are arguably an integral unique identity to a brand, it
would seem that an abrupt cessation or even a slight decrease in selling
bottled water is the most logical sustainability effort, rather than just repackaging
water in sugar-plastic.
Even with investments in brands such as Honest Tea, who
also boast healthy ingredients and environmental commitments in single-serve
bottle after single-serve bottle, the questions about sustaining sustainability
on massive scales are staggering and confounding. Corporate bottom lines are
The current financial growth model of companies like Coca-Cola and their ilk will never allow for them to say they've made enough money
or sold enough products even if they recycle every single bottle they produce,
capture every drop of rain, and convert every truck to bio diesel. It will
never be enough.
"Greening" business practices is not the end point, as it
would seem, but rather it's an opening to the bigger dialogue about humankind's relationship
with stuff–our identity via branded food, apparel, cars and media and how much of it
we're willing to part with to create a world that works for all.
Follow Jill on Twitter
Photo by Dominic Alves


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Forged in friendship
BUCYRUS – When former classmates Lisa Riedel and Jesse Raifsnider reunited a few months ago, they merged their talents into a growing business venture — R and R Log Art and Stained Glass.
Riedel said she has been creating stained glass pieces since the 1990s.
“When I was growing up, we had a family friend, Libby Duncan, who worked with stained glass professionally,” Riedel said. “She created large pieces and did commissioned work.
“My dad wanted to put stain glass into our kitchen cupboards so she showed him how to do it. So, it seems like I have been around stain glass work forever.”
Riedel has made various pieces over the years and recently combined her talent with Raifsnider’s Tiki totem poles.
“I have taught him how to do the stained glass also,” Riedel said.
Raifsnider said the first piece he created was a crown for one of the tikis.
“It turned out pretty good,” Raifsnider said. “I enjoy working with the glass.”
Raifsnider, who has worked in the construction business for 30 years, started creating the totem poles about three years ago.
“Incorporating stained glass into the Tikis has really made a difference,” Raifsnider said. “We can do so much more for customers and are expanding to include custom work in residential and commercial.
“We have also created several pieces that can be incorporated into people’s landscaping.”
Riedel purchases the glass in Lexington.
“We go to Vidonish Stained Glass,” Riedel said. “I have purchased glass at other locations, including Columbus, but Vidonish is so much closer, and their prices are decent.”
Riedel recently purchased a kiln and can now create pieces of glass that are melted together to forge items, including earrings and pendants.
“We are also incorporating some of those pieces into our stain glass work,” Riedel said.
Raifsnider will be one of the featured artists this evening at Gus’s Grill and Grog, 214 N. Sandusky Ave., beginning at 6 p.m. along with local musician and artist Greg Bell.
“We will have some of our stained glass pieces as well as my Tiki’s on display,” Raifsnider said.
The event is sponsored by the Crawford County Arts Council.
For information about R and R Log Art and Stained Glass, call 419-689-9791 or visit www.facebook.com/LogArtandStainedGlass.
Business of Business is a regular feature on Tuesdays in the Telegraph-Forum. It focuses on the people who make local businesses run.


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Kaagaz Scanner, an Indian document scanning and storage app, on Friday said it has raised $575,000 in a funding round led by Pravega Ventures alongside, Better Capital. A few prominent angel investors, including Phanindra Sama, Founder of ; Farooq Adam, Founder of ; and others also participated in the round.
The Made in India document scanner app rose to prominence after the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps in June of this year, including the popular CamScanner. Launched in the same month, the app was created by three serial entrepreneurs, pursuing their second startup together — Snehanshu Gandhi, Gaurav Shrishrimal, and Tamanjit Singh Bindra. The app is available in eight Indian languages, catering to 'Bharat' users.
Speaking on the investment, Co-founder Snehanshu Gandhi, said,
“We plan to use this fresh round of funding to accelerate growth for Kaagaz Scanner and to increase our team size to speed up product development. Along with the app, we are also looking to build a suite of AI-powered utility tools for our users that will help them manage their day-to-day tasks seamlessly.”
Lead investor Pravega Ventures said, “Today, a smartphone is at the epicentre of most of our personal and business exchanges, and we at Pravega, are very excited to partner with the Kaagaz team as they build out powerful AI-based utility products for the ‘Bharat’ users. The Kaagaz team aims to leverage its proprietary mobile-based document scanner and create a repository of documents in its quest to become a key node in the exchange and storage of information for their users.”
So far, the app has been installed in over 1.9 million phones, with more than 90,000 users using the app daily. It claims that over 50 million pages have been scanned using Kaagaz since its launch.
Earlier, First Cheque and Axilor Ventures also backed the startup in its pre-seed round of funding.
Kaagaz Scanner has also been acknowledged by the Government of India as part of the AatmaNirbhar App Challenge, where it was given a special mention in the office apps category. It has also been recognised by the HRD Ministry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Edited by Suman Singh


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The omnichannel experience is a must for today’s pampered consumer. With multiple device touchpoints and physical locations for many retailers, consumers shift between channels for convenience. No matter the channel, customers expect a smooth, personalized experience that includes product offerings, discounts, and subscriptions.
According to Sean Rusinko, Global Director, Industry Business Leader – Retail & Hospitality at Sitecore, for brands to meet these expectations and deliver the experience consumers want, they must meet these five customer demands. Rusinko explored this idea in a recent article.
1. Make it Easy
“Frictionless journey navigation, easy access to products and information, and lighting fast speed make for happy consumers who are more likely to purchase,” said Rusinko. According to a report from PwC, price is the most important factor when consumers are shopping offline. However, when shopping online convenience is the most important.
2. Assist Customers
“As well as having the flexibility to collect their purchases from a store of their convenience (or have it delivered), consumers also expect to be assisted throughout the entire purchase journey,” he said. “Many brands are meeting this expectation with personalized experiences, which includes individual product offerings, using data collected about each customer to tailor the messaging, offers, and experiences each receives.”
More than 70 percent of people are brand-loyal shoppers and less than a third are willing to try new offerings, according to PwC. “However, it is no longer enough to offer a one-size-fits-all offering, such as the generic discounts or specific free products offered by brands in the past,” said Rusinko. “Today, a personalized loyalty program, where different promotions are offered based on individual customer data and preferences, is needed to meet customer expectations.”
Companies are beginning to experiment with virtual and augmented reality which is welcomed by customers. “VR can also enhance the experience of using retail mobile applications. Fashion brand H&M is using its Image Search tool within the H&M app to allow consumers to upload an image of a similar product into the app,” he explained. “The app then presents several similarly looking, instantly purchasable items from the H&M catalog – moving the consumer closer from the moment of inspiration to a purchase.”
5. Convince the Customer
Many customers now dive into research before they commit to a purchase, no longer taking a brands advertising as fact. According to research from Stackla, 79 percent of consumers say user-generated content such as product reviews are highly influential.
“Today, customers are more demanding than ever, expecting an experience that goes above and beyond just the available products. In order to offer quality experiences, build brand loyalty, and remain competitive, brands must consider these five main demands and put tools in place to meet them, from the use of effective personalization to quick, reliable delivery services, through to providing loyalty programs and investing in VR and AR technologies,” said Rusinko.


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Based in Brierley Park Industrial Estate in Sutton-in-Ashfield, the palletlised freight distribution company has seen tremendous growth Mitchells has and upgraded 10 trucks.
The investment in new vehicles helps meet the growing demand of Mitchells’ new and existing customers across Nottinghamshire and a variety of sectors, while ensuring that the maintenance cost from wear and tear of the fleet remains low. This will keep its drivers on the road for longer, providing an efficient and high level of service for customers with same day or overnight delivery.
Andrew Mitchell, Managing Director at Mitchells of Mansfield said: “We are dedicated to ensuring each of our customers receive a first-class service and as a result of a strong year, we needed to upgrade our existing trucks to ensure we carried out this service efficiently and continue to grow across all markets.
“We chose to purchase Renault for the first time, as the package and deal from RHCV really stood out to us and we were blown away by the brilliant service. We are growing all the time and will eventually upgrade the rest of the fleet – returning to purchase from RHCV when we do.”


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Web 2.0 advertising tactics and technologies are gaining traction among auto dealers, becoming an integral element of the marketing mix. Fifty-nine percent of auto dealers say they plan to use Internet video on their own Web sites during the next 12 months, up from the current 33 percent, according to a new study by The Kelsey Group, the leading provider of research, data and strategic analysis on local media, small-business advertising, mobile and vertical market advertising. During this same 12-month period, the percentage of auto dealers using customer ratings and reviews will rise from 29 to 43, and the percentage using social networking sites will rise from 15 to 33.
"These findings point to a significant disruption in the auto dealer advertising space," said Neal Polachek, chief executive officer, The Kelsey Group. "There are valuable opportunities for traditional and new media companies that tune into dealers' adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and align with dealers' online media-buying intentions."
In general, auto dealers are shifting more of their media mix online, with 62 percent planning to increase online media spending in the next 12 months, compared with only 17 percent for traditional media. Moreover, 46
percent of dealers will decrease spending on traditional media, compared with only 8 percent for online media.
For more information at http://www.kelseygroup.com


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Foster's rejects initial offer from Peroni brewer
Peroni and Grolsch brewer SABMiller has made a £6.2 billion offer for the Foster’s beer business.
The approach from the London-listed brewer has been rejected, but analysts believe that the Australian company may accept a slightly higher bid in due course.
The deal would not affect the Foster’s brand in the UK, where it is owned by Heineken. But if SABMiller succeeds in its bid, its portfolio would be joined by brands such as Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught and Crown lager.
SABMiller chief executive Graham Mackay said: “SABMiller has a proven track record of acquiring and integrating brewing companies in a way which benefits shareholders, employees, business partners and the broader community.
“We aim to strengthen the Foster’s brand portfolio and work with the local team to bring our innovation, global scale and expertise to the business.
“We continue to believe that the proposal price is attractive and offers good value to Foster’s shareholders. SABMiller can conclude a transaction quickly and will continue to seek engagement with the board of Foster’s to put an agreed proposal to Foster’s shareholders.”
This year the Foster’s group demerged its wine division, which is now a separate entity called Treasury Wine Estates.


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The Internet has just found the new successor to be the world’s new Grumpy Cat!
Grumpy Cat’s sour frown expression went viral when she was just 5-months-old. Her owners said that her sour frown was a result of feline dwarfism. Now, just a month after her death, a Persian cat is being dubbed the new ‘Grumpy Cat’ by netizens for constantly looking angry. Louis is a six-year-old Persian cat from […]


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Apps are winning mobile, but not for publishers
In the shift to mobile, the tech cognoscenti agree that apps have trounced the mobile Web. Tell that to the publishers.
Despite over 14,000 apps in the Apple Newsstand alone, publishers have churned out apps in the hopes of getting a coveted piece of real estate on home screens.
And yet, news apps are becoming marginalized, according to Flurry. Across all mobile devices, app usage exploded in 2014, with user sessions up 76 percent, according to the analytics company. But the fastest growth occurred in shopping, productivity and messaging apps, while growth of news, media and games apps tapered off. The New York Times specifically has struggled to attract new readers with new ancillary apps.
Exact figures for publisher apps are hard to come by, but in the case of consumer magazines, digital subscriptions remain a tiny portion of their total circulation. Across 367 consumer magazines tracked by the Alliance for Audited Media, digital subscribers stood at 3.8 percent of their total circulation in the first half of 2014, up only from 3.3 percent a year earlier. As small as that percent is, it’s completely inflated by one publication: Game Informer, which accounts for about one-third of all digital editions.
“People keep trying, but at this point, the outlook is not good for apps,” said Steve Goldberg, managing director at Empirical Media, which consults to publishers. “It’s important that your content is accessible no matter where people want to access it. As a general rule, you get a very good user experience in an app, and you’re serving your best customers. The big challenge is, no one has really come up with a substantive way to monetize them.”
Publishers defend their apps on the basis of the consumer connection they foster, if not the ad revenue. Men’s Fitness has published two single-topic products and plans to do four this year after seeing people spend better than average time with them, publisher Patrick Connors said. Men’s Health charges about $23 for an annual subscription to its digital edition, making it a profitable, if small, business line, publisher Ronan Gardiner said.
“Certainly, from a circulation percentage it’s proving more of a revenue driver than an advertising perspective,” Gardiner said. “We do think there’s still an opportunity for it. It’s just not as great as we hoped it would be.”
It’s not just legacy publishers, either. Despite mounting evidence that news apps are not the way to go, digital natives like NowThis, BuzzFeed and Circa are all betting on apps as their core business or a complement to it.
Likewise, despite general industry trends, Tribune Broadcasting is rebuilding the apps for its 40-plus TV stations to make them more customizable.
“We see it still as an onramp to our content,” said Devin Johnson, svp and head of digital media at Tribune Broadcasting. “The app users are the crown jewel of the mobile world, because they’re seeking it out. They’re the most engaged users.”
Homepage image courtesy of Shutterstock
Welcome to the ‘Zoom Town’: Remote working has employees on the move
Americans in their 30s are relocating in droves as they embrace the freedom of working from anywhere — a trend that experts say will redefine the national landscape.
Google’s privacy plan brings changes, but not as many as marketers think
Weary marketers increasingly see the film “Groundhog Day”, in which the hero is doomed to repeat the same day over and over again, as an apt commentary on online advertising.
‘It was immediate’: The New York Post has started personalizing its commerce content recommendations
A personalized shopping content widget is the first in a long line of product changes meant to leverage The New York Post's customer data platform.
SponsoredDeep Dive: How AI steered The Ad Council’s campaigns during crisis
The past year transformed the way audiences respond to advertising. The pandemic, quarantine and social unrest radically altered consumers’ sensitivities, and real-time news cycles made every campaign message fraught with potential pitfalls. As NPR reported in 2020, organizations raced to keep up with the public’s changing perceptions of marketing and what resonated — or fell […]
Sales al fresco: Publishers adopt new tactics to gain essential face time with clients
Publisher commercial execs don't expect in-person sales meetings to return any time soon, but have adopted various in-person options in the interim.
Vendors jostle for position ahead of coming contextual pivot
Vendors hawking contextual wares have swamped publishers and agencies, hoping to grab media dollars once spent using third-party cookie targeting.


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Google recently started rolling the stable version of its Chrome 96 web browser for PCs and smartphones. With the update, the company brings in a number of changes and improvements to the browser. However, it is being recommended that you wait before installing the update. According to a report by 9to5Google, more than 60 issues have been marked on Google’s bug tracker about the update. Also Read - Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Google's Sundar Pichai to be honoured with Padma Bhushan on India's 73rd Republic Day
According to the report, several users have taken to the Google support forum to report bugs like users not being able to load apps on their Android smartphones after installing the latest Chrome update. Also Read - Blaupunkt Cybersound 43CSA7070 43-inch 4K Smart TV review: Great sound, picture not so much
“I’ve restarted a bunch of times and have cleared the cache but only a few apps load,” wrote a user on a Google forum. Also Read - Google to open a new office in Pune later in 2022
Google has acknowledged the issues and has stated that it is working on fixes.
“Thank you for raising this issue to our attention of being unable to launch apps after updating to M96 stable. Our team is aware of this and we are working quickly to resolve this issue,” wrote a Chrome support manager.
To recall, Chrome 96 was released last week and brought support for backwards-forward cache for the desktop version. Apart from this, the browser also gets a new site-wise dark theme mode.
The new backwards-forward cache feature will save some data from the frequently or recently visited website to make navigation through them faster. Whereas, the site-wise dark theme mode will allow users to enable the dark theme for certain websites.
With the update, the company has also stopped the sync feature for Chrome M48 or earlier users. The Chrome sync feature stores your passwords, bookmarks, search history, open tabs and preferred settings on the company’s server, thus allowing you to access all the stored information across various devices by using the same Google account. It also helps users automatically sign in to Gmail, YouTube and other Google services.