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Xignite, Inc., a provider of market data distribution and management solutions for financial services and technology companies, today revealed the results of its collaboration with Neeva, the world’s first ad-free, private subscription search engine. Neeva has built features to deliver information in a more user-friendly manner to a general audience. One new feature is a stock tracker, enabling users to look at stock prices based on different time intervals and other key data points. The stock tracker is powered by Xignite financial data. Click HERE to download the case study containing the full results.
Neeva’s stock tracker requires significant quantities of high-quality market data to function. The company initially enlisted a legacy data provider but quickly ran into issues with data and API quality. Neeva needed to integrate quickly and required fast and reliable financial data. After a trial and receiving a recommendation from another client, Neeva identified Xignite as a provider capable of delivering large quantities of market data in a comprehensive and developer-friendly manner.
“We were impressed by Xignite and committed to them following a successful trial,” said Stephanie Chang, Head of Marketing at Neeva. “The main factors that drew us to Xignite were the consistency of their stock ticker coverage and the granularity of their time-series ticker data, as well as the speed and reliability as well as the speed and reliability of their API,” added Chang.
Integration of the Xignite financial data APIs into Neeva’s stock widget took less than two weeks, and Neeva noticed immediate results in terms of breadth, detail, and API quality. Powered by Xignite’s global quotes and global historical APIs. Neeva presents its users with rich and desirable views of key data points for a huge variety of stocks. Users can use a time-based filtration mechanism to drill into metrics like open price, daily highs, and lows, 52-week highs and lows, volume, and market cap.
“Xignite’s vision is to Make Market Data Easy. With our industry leading technology combined with Neeva’s user friendly search engine we have done just that,” said Stephane Dubois, CEO and Founder of Xignite. “We look forward to continuing our work with Neeva as they disrupt the search engine marketplace.”
Xignite has been disrupting the financial and market data industry from its Silicon Valley headquarters since 2006, when it introduced the first commercial REST API. Since then, Xignite has been continually refining its technology to help fintech and financial institutions get the most value from their data. Today, more than 700 clients access over 500 cloud-native APIs and leverage a suite of specialized microservices to build efficient and cost-effective enterprise data management solutions. Visit http://www.xignite.com or follow on Twitter @xignite
Neeva is the world’s first ad-free, private subscription search engine. Neeva focuses entirely on the consumer, delivering only real, high-quality, trustworthy results. Neeva blocks third-party website trackers and will never sell or share customer data with any third party, especially advertisers. Neeva also makes it easy to search within personal email accounts, calendars, and cloud storage platforms surfacing the most important information from the same familiar search box. Neeva was founded by former executives from Google and YouTube. Learn more and sign up at Neeva.com.
Each year, Bobsguide asks the market to vote for fintech companies they believe stand out from the competition – those who have gone the extra mile in terms of development and servicing their clients. Xignite is proud to be listed as the "Best API Management" vendor on the Bobsguide 2020 Rankings.
Web services data provider Xignite captured the AFTAs judges’ attention on the infrastructure front with its release of Xignite Enterprise Microservices in July 2020, a suite of cloud-based microservices for data management, storage and distribution in the cloud, designed to help financial firms migrate from monolithic legacy data architectures to more agile and less expensive cloud services and data sources.
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Xignite, Inc., a provider of market data distribution and management solutions for financial services and technology companies, today revealed the results of its collaboration with StockCharts, a leading technical analysis and financial charting platform for online retail investors. The collaboration involved a move from an on-premise market data provider to Xignite’s cloud-native technology hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS). Download the case study containing the full results.
StockCharts requires vast quantities of financial data to power its visualization, charting and tracking tools, which investors use to analyze the markets to help with investment decisions. The company was frustrated by the limits of its on-premise market data center, which was forcing the team to make architectural decisions based on what its data center could handle in terms of speed and storage, not on their technology. Its previous market data provider was just starting to build out some cloud offerings, but they were far away from what the business required. StockCharts decided to migrate its infrastructure to the AWS cloud and partner with Xignite to gain access to endlessly scalable market and financial data delivered through innovative cloud APIs.
The collaboration made an immediate impact as StockCharts was able to expand its offerings and customer base by pursuing growth strategies enabled by Xignite’s cloud-based approach, which provides easy access to data and eliminates architectural limits on storage and speed.
The pandemic provided further validation. Seattle-based StockCharts was in one of the first areas hit by COVID-19 and was forced to quickly shut down its office. Pandemic-driven market volatility followed and StockCharts customers wanted to visualize what was happening. The company’s ability to scale quickly and accommodate a high volume of new requests would not have been possible without Xignite.
“The move to the AWS cloud and Xignite has unlocked tremendous new potential for us in a lot of architectural ways, and has given us a lot of data options that we could not even consider before,” said Grayson Roze, Vice President of Operations at StockCharts. “It relieved us of the burden of figuring out how to source things. Instead, we know exactly where we need to go to get the data and can access it instantly. That is a huge, huge benefit for our business.”
“We are proud to have played a role in transforming how StockCharts approaches data,” said Stephane Dubois, CEO and Founder of Xignite. “The events of this year unleashed a massive spike in retail trading and a host of other unexpected forces that reinforced the need for financial services firms to leverage the cloud. Despite the disruption of this year, StockCharts was positioned for success, and we look forward to continuing to deliver our financial and market data solutions to the industry at large.”
Xignite has been disrupting the financial and market data industry from its Silicon Valley headquarters since 2006 when it introduced the first commercial REST API. Since then, Xignite has been continually refining its technology to help fintech and financial institutions get the most value from their data. Today, more than 700 clients access over 500 cloud-native APIs and leverage a suite of specialized microservices-delivered modules to build efficient and cost-effective enterprise data management solutions. Visit http://www.xignite.com or follow on Twitter @xignite
Xignite, Inc., a provider of cloud-based market data distribution and management solutions for financial services and technology companies, today announced that its Market Data Management-as-a-Service solution has been named “Best New Technology Introduced over the last 12 months – Infrastructure” at the 2020 WatersTechnology American Financial Technology Awards (AFTAs). Selected by the editors of WatersTechnology, the AFTAs recognize excellence in the deployment and management of financial technology within the asset management and investment banking communities.
Xignite’s Market Data Management-as-a-Service (MDMaaS) solution enables buy- and sell-side firms to centralize the management of vendor data feeds into their own cloud environment. The solution is built around the cloud microservice-based architecture and technology stack Xignite has been refining and scaling for more than 10 years. Xignite’s technology platform has been the backbone of the company’s Data-as-a-Service business, daily supporting 12 billion API requests of financial data for their 700 fintech and financial services clients. Now Xignite is leveraging this battle-tested cloud-native data management architecture to offer buy- and sell-side firms a market data vendor agnostic offering, with connectors available for firms to load data they license from numerous market data providers.
The MDMaaS solution includes a suite of loosely-coupled modules that enable market data user firms to control their data usage, automate entitlements, optimize their data spend and minimize liabilities by simplifying data governance and ensuring regulatory compliance.
The functionality is delivered via microservices, an architectural approach in which core functionality is handled by loosely coupled, independently deployable modules that can work together or separately. Microservices architecture stands in stark contrast with monolithic platforms that require expensive on-premise technology – that is especially hard to maintain in the context of a pandemic.
The MDMaaS microservice-delivered modules introduced in 2020 include:
Xignite Entitlements and Usage - Manage the entitlement of vendor data to users and applications to ensure compliance and eliminate excess spend.
Xignite Optimization - Streamline data consumption to avoid duplicated vendor requests, leverage cached bulk data and get recommendations to reduce data costs.
Xignite Data Lake - Centralize, catalog and connect data shapes to enable frictionless integration by consumers via unified cloud APIs.
Xignite Reference - Aggregate, normalize, store and index vendor reference data to centralize enterprise-wide access.
Xignite Historical - Provide centralized access to normalized, stitched and adjusted historical data via cloud APIs.
Xignite Real-Time - Distribute real-time vendor data via cloud APIs, eliminating on-premise infrastructure.
Xignite Fundamentals - Make simple and complex time-series data structures available via cloud APIs.
“Xignite has pioneered market data in the cloud for more than 10 years now, so we are very excited to announce – and be recognized for – our Market Data Management-as-a-Service solution,” said Stephane Dubois, CEO, and founder of Xignite. “The pandemic has reinforced the need for financial services firms to migrate to the cloud as a means of navigating disruption and enabling scalability, among other benefits. We are proud to spearhead that effort and help the industry modernize its approach to financial and market data.”
Xignite has been disrupting the financial and market data industry from its Silicon Valley headquarters since 2006 when it introduced the first commercial REST API. Since then, Xignite has been continually refining its technology to help fintech and financial institutions get the most value from their data via its Data-as-a-Service and Market Data Management-as-a-Service solutions. Today, more than 700 clients access over 500 cloud-native APIs and leverage a suite of specialized microservices to build efficient and cost-effective enterprise data management solutions. Visit http://www.xignite.com or follow on Twitter @xignite
Data, data management, the cloud, it's all here in this edition of Forecast 2021. Learn what emerging trends in data are in store for the capital markets. Here you'll read analysis from industry pros at Crux Informatics, Knoema, MayStreet, S&P Global Market Intelligence and Xignite in this article by Sam Belden of Forefront Communications. Read the article at Data, data management, the cloud, it's all here in this edition of Forecast 2021. Learn what emerging trends in data are in store for the capital markets. Here you'll read analysis from industry pros at Crux Informatics, Knoema, MayStreet, S&P Global Market Intelligence and Xignite in this article by Sam Belden of Forefront Communications.
Read the article on TABB Forum
Interview with Xignite:
Have the events of 2020 offered any lessons as to what market participants want in terms of data?
2020 brought several lessons. Financial retail markets have gone crazy and consumer demand has put significant pressure on the whole market data infrastructure. Many data providers and brokers experienced issues during periods of heavy market activity, showing that non-elastic, non-cloud native infrastructures have a hard time dealing with those periods of peak activities. In addition, market data quality is more important than ever before as many brokers were impacted by issues with the AAPL and TSLA splits.
The cloud has obviously fundamentally changed the way data is created and consumed. What’s the next big thing for data providers who leverage the cloud?
The cloud was at first a way to deliver data easily and efficiently, while the consumers and consuming apps remained mostly off cloud. Now most of the applications consuming market data are becoming cloud-native themselves, so delivery directly into those cloud-native applications will be the next big thing.
Aside from the cloud, what are the most important data trends to keep an eye on in the years ahead?
Markets are fueled by millennials and millennials care about the environment and social causes. This is driving demand for ESG data. In addition, COVID has beat the hell out of quant models which were never designed or tuned for major events like this. Expect a reinvention of machine trading in the years to come.
The Department of Justice has officially sued Visa to block its $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid — and the fintech world is scrutinizing what this might mean for the industry.
Business Insider spoke with Xignite's CEO and Founder Stephane Dubois, and other legal and industry experts on how they see the DoJ's lawsuit shaking out — and what this means for the fintech world.
If the Justice Department wins in court, the merger could be scuttled
Stephane Dubois, the CEO of financial data provider Xignite, thinks that the fact that the DOJ sued suggests that it does probably have a solid legal basis for its allegations.
Unless Visa — which has been represented by powerhouse law firm Skadden in connection with the deal — can fight the DOJ's lawsuit on a legal basis and argue successfully that the government's argument is too speculative, that they're not anticompetitive, he doesn't think the acquisition will go through.
Otherwise, Visa would need to comply with conditions set by the DOJ — for example, lower fees on credit cards, or breaking up its business — to make itself non-competitive. But he's not sure if Visa would be willing to do that.
Dubois said such a lawsuit could be a "cold shower" for fintechs that are considering mergers and acquisitions given the massive $200 million Plaid paid for its API competitor, Quovo, in January 2019, not to mention the $5.3 billion price tag of Visa's acquisition of Plaid.
The DOJ's lawsuit could fail and Visa's acquisition could go through, but with diverging possible outcomes for Plaid and other fintechs
Dubois sees several possible outcomes playing out should the DOJ's lawsuit fail. The acquisition would go through and Visa could continue to make Plaid available to fintechs, but in a way that it doesn't "cannibalize" its own business — for example, by charging 3% fees to competitor services that Plaid enables.
It's also possible that Visa shuts down Plaid after a successful acquisition, essentially squashing competition for the market, something Dubois called a "worst case scenario."
Yugabyte, the leader in open-source distributed SQL databases, today announced that market data distribution and management solutions provider Xignite has selected YugabyteDB as its database of choice to power its cloud-native financial data distribution and management solutions. Xignite selected Yugabyte’s distributed SQL database based on YugabyteDB’s high performance, on-demand scalability, and operational ease.
“Due to the nature of our business, performance and scalability are the two most important factors we look for in a database solution,” said Dr. Qin Yu, VP of Engineering, Xignite. “Financial data is ever-changing and we need to capitalize on that data to give our customers the most accurate, real-time view of the markets. The performance and scalability of YugabyteDB allows us to provide granular data in real-time to our high-profile clientele, combined with the Yugabyte Platform, which greatly simplifies operations and management. In addition, we have come to rely on the Yugabyte as key partners, providing us with a best-in-class distributed SQL platform and support.”
Xignite provides customers with a scalable way to manage, control, and optimize real-time and reference data across traditional systems and cloud applications. It does this through its cloud-native market data platform that unifies financial data consumption and market data management—delivering clients a real-time view of market activity as a service via the cloud. However, serving financial services and fintech customers like Robinhood, SoFi, Investopedia, and BlackRock requires scaling as their data requirements change and grow, while still providing the high availability and high performance they need and expect.
“When you’re building a leading market data management platform like Xignte, data accuracy and availability are absolutely imperative,'' said Karthik Raganathan, CTO and Co-Founder, Yugabyte. “Making sure customers have always-on access to real-time and reference data in a market with high–and continuously growing–volumes, sources, and types of data puts extensive demands on the scalability and performance of a database and the teams that support it. We are thrilled to be a partner to Xignite, eliminating their database pain points and enabling the Xignite team to invest more time and money in building new features for their customers.”
As Xignite’s business grows, so does the amount and granularity of data, creating the need to quickly scale the database tier. Scaling Microsoft SQL Server on AWS with Amazon RDS was very challenging, requiring manual partitioning of data at the application layer, which was time-consuming and increased complexity. After trying MySQL and considering NoSQL solutions, Xiginite turned to Yugabyte to address its need for a database provider that could easily scale on-demand, future-proofing the company for continued growth. Yugabyte has seamlessly handled Xignite’s performance requirements for both reads and writes, and enabled the company to add capacity and scale quickly, with operational ease and no downtime.
Moving to YugabyteDB has enabled Xignite to scale to more than 11 terabytes of data, unlock new use cases that would not have been possible with the older technology stack, and achieve an overall cost savings of approximately 50% compared to SQL Server.
For further information on Xignite’s work with Yugabyte visit www.yugabyte.com/success-stories/xignite/
Yugabyte is the company behind YugabyteDB, the open source, high-performance distributed SQL database for building global, internet-scale applications. YugabyteDB serves business-critical applications with SQL query flexibility, high performance and cloud native agility, thus allowing enterprises to focus on business growth instead of complex data infrastructure management. It is trusted by companies in cybersecurity, financial markets, IoT, retail and e-commerce verticals. Founded in 2016 by former Facebook and Oracle engineers, Yugabyte is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Dell Technologies Capital. www.yugabyte.com.
By Mike O’Hara, Special Correspondent
Cloud-delivered market data was once ‘over my dead body’ territory for institutional market data managers, who understandably fretted aloud about performance, security and licence compliance issues. But Covid-19 has forced those same data managers to confront the fact that many of their professional market data users are able to work from home (WFH), in turn driving financial firms to question whether the pandemic could be the catalyst for a rethink of their expensive-to-maintain market data infrastructures, with cloud part of the data delivery solution.
For many financial firms, today’s cloud delivery and hosting capabilities offer a viable solution for supporting trading and investment teams and their support staff, accelerating demand for cloud-based market data delivery infrastructures. The thinking is that cloud may help firms with their broader aim of reducing their on-premises technology and equipment footprint, a trend that was emerging even before the Coronavirus struck.
But embracing cloud delivery introduces new challenges for market data and trading technology professionals. While WFH will doubtless continue in some form, it’s far from clear that all market data delivery can be migrated to the cloud. Essential market data functions will remain on-premise. High-performance trading applications and low-latency market data connectivity, for example, will continue to rely on state-of-the-art colocation and proximity hosting data centres.
For many financial institutions, the challenge will be how to manage these several tiers of market data delivery and consumption. Going forward, practitioners will face a three-way hybrid of on-premises, cloud-based (private/public) and collocated market data services in order to support a range of users: from work-from-home traders and support staff to trading-room-based traders, analysts and quants, to collocated electronic applications like algorithms, smart order routers and FIX engines.
Indeed, A-Team will be discussing the infrastructure, connectivity and market data delivery challenges associated with cloud adoption in a webinar panel session on November 3. The webinar will offer a ‘reality check’ that discusses best practices for embracing cloud, colo and on-prem to support this new mix of user types, with emphasis on capacity, orchestration, licensing, entitlements and system / usage monitoring.
With firms’ appetite for exploring the potential of the cloud piqued, data managers are now looking at whether they can hope to take advantage of some of the more widely recognised benefits of the cloud – flexibility, agility, speed-to-market, scalability, elasticity, interoperability and so on – as they grapple with the future market data delivery landscape.
“Market data infrastructure, in terms of data vendor contracts, servers, and data centre space, typically represents a large, lumpy, cap ex expenditure”, says independent consultant Nick Morrison. “And so having the ability to transition that to something with costs that are more elastic, is highly attractive”.
Of course, every firm has its own unique requirements and nuances in this regard. Proprietary trading firms, asset managers, hedge funds, brokers and investment banks are all heavy consumers of market data. But the volume, breadth, depth and speed of the data they need in order to operate is highly diverse. Which means that there is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to sourcing and distribution mechanisms (including the cloud).
Market data and the cloud – what’s applicable?
As they consider their options for including cloud in their overall data delivery plans, data managers need to assess whether and how specific data types could be migrated to a hybrid environment: Level 1 (best bid/offer), level 2 (order book with aggregated depth at each price level) or level 3 (full order book)? Historic, end of day, delayed or real-time? Streaming or on-demand? This all has a bearing on the feasibility of cloud as a delivery mechanism.
Firms also need to consider their mix of public and private cloud, or what mix or hybrid cloud solution best fits their needs. What about virtualisation? Or internal use of cloud architecture, such as building a market data infrastructure around microservices and containers?
The marketplace already has identified at least one workable use-case: the use of historical, tick or time-series market data, usually to drive some form of analytics. A growing number of trading venues (such as ICE and CME) and service providers (Refinitiv, BMLL and others) now offer full level 3 tick data on a T+1 basis, delivered via the cloud. Plenty more providers can offer historic level 1 & 2 data.
This kind of capability can be used for critical use-cases, such as back-testing trading models for signal generation and alpha capture, performing transaction cost analysis (TCA), developing and testing smart order routers (SORs), or fine-tuning trading algos to better source liquidity. In all of these cases, cloud-hosted historical tick databases can reduce on-premises footprint and cost, while offering flexible access to vast computing resource on demand, and many are finding this compelling. “When churning through such vast quantities of data, having access to a cloud environment enables you to scale up horizontally to process that data”, says Elliot Banks, Chief Product Officer at BMLL.
Where things start to get more complicated, though, is with real-time market data, where two of the biggest hurdles from a cloud delivery perspective are speed and complexity.
From a trading standpoint, speed is always going to be a significant factor. Nobody, regardless of whether they’re an ultra-low latency high-frequency trading firm or a human trader dealing from a vendor or broker screen, wants to trade on stale prices. The tolerances may be different but the principle applies across the board.
It’s a safe bet that any firm currently receiving market data directly from a trading venue into a trading server (collocated at the venue’s data centre or hosted at a specialized proximity hosting centre operated by the likes of Interxion) relies on deterministic low latency, and is therefore unlikely to consider cloud as an alternative delivery mechanism.
Clearly, HFT firms with trading platforms that require microsecond-level data delivery won’t be replacing their direct exchange feeds and often hardware-accelerated infrastructure with the cloud, as the performance just isn’t there, for now at least. This, of course, could change if and when the trading venues themselves migrate to cloud platforms, creating a new kind of colocation environment, but that’s likely some way off. “But these guys only have a few applications that really need ultra-low latency data”, says Bill Fenick, VP Enterprise at Interxion. “Most of their applications, be they middle office, settlements or risk, they’re perfectly happy to take low-millisecond latency”.
And what about other market participants? Particularly those that currently make use of consolidated feeds from market data vendors, where speed is perhaps a secondary consideration? This is where cloud delivery may have some real potential. But it’s also where the issue of complexity rears its head.
Navigating the complexity
To deal with the myriad of sources, delivery frequencies, formats and vendor connections used to feed real-time market data into their trading, risk, pricing and analytics systems, many financial firms have built up a complex mesh of infrastructure that ensures the right data gets delivered to the right place at the right time. The integration layer required to handle these data inputs may be delivered as part of the data service or may stand alone as a discrete entity. In either case, it’s unrealistic to expect that all of this infrastructure can just be stripped out and replicated in a cloud environment.
To address this challenge, some service providers are starting to offer solutions where the source of the data is decoupled from the distribution mechanism, aiming for the holy grail where either, or both, can be cloud-based.
By building individual cloud-hosted microservices for sourcing market data, processing that data in a variety of ways, and delivering it into end-user applications, such solutions can help firms migrate their market data infrastructure incrementally from legacy to cloud-based platforms. Refinitiv is starting to shift much of its infrastructure onto AWS, and other specialist cloud-centric vendors such as Xignite and BCC Group also enable internal systems to be decoupled from data sources, thus facilitating a shift towards cloud-based infrastructure. “We believe the customer should be able to easily move from source to source and get as many sources as they want. The cloud enables this kind of flexibility”, says Bill Bierds, President & Chief Business Development Officer at BCC Group.
Firms have long wanted to become more vendor-agnostic by decoupling their data integration capability from the primary data source. One investment bank in London, for example, was able to decouple Refinitiv’s TREP platform from its Elektron data feed and switch to Bloomberg’s B-Pipe for its data, delivered via the TREP framework. From a market data perspective, this has given the bank more negotiating power and less vendor lock-in, opening up greater opportunities to utilise cloud-based market data sources in the future.
Permissioning and entitlements
Perhaps one of the toughest challenges that firms face around real-time market data on the cloud is that of entitlements and usage authorisation. Firms sourcing data from the two main data vendors, Refinitiv and Bloomberg, will generally be tied into their respective DACS and EMRS entitlements systems, often augmented by data inventory and contract management platforms like MDSL’s MDM or TRG Screen’s FITS and InfoMatch.
Entitlements can be a thorny subject when it comes to cloud-based distribution of market data. Firms are wary of falling foul of their licence agreements with their various data vendors, all of whom have different commercial considerations and penalties for non-compliance. This is why accurate tracking and reporting of market data access and usage is crucial.
The cloud can be a double-edged sword in this regard. One the one hand, transitioning from a dedicated infrastructure to the cloud might trigger extra licensing costs for what is effectively an additional data centre, so they may need to go through a period of paying twice for the same data. Indeed, firms may already be facing this situation as they entitle staff to operate from home while holding enterprise licences covering only their headquarters and regional offices.
On the other hand, cloud-based services such as those offered by Xignite and others can make it easier for firms to manage entitlements across multiple data vendors from a central source via a UI. “Our entitlements microservice is integrated with our real time microservice, to make sure that any distribution and any consumption of data is authenticated and entitled properly, so that only the right users have access to the data,” says Stephane Dubois, CEO of Xignite, whose microservices suite is supporting NICE Actimize’s cloud-based market data delivery infrastructure.
With new products, services and technologies emerging all the time, firms can be optimistic about the growing opportunities that the cloud can offer for managing market data. One particularly interesting development worth watching is the rise of Low Code Application Platforms (LCAPs), such as that offered by Genesis, which provides a cloud-based microservices framework that can be used for rapidly developing and delivering applications around real-time market data. One example is on-demand margining. “A prime broker can link to all of its customers and know exactly what their risk positions are based on real-time market data, so within minutes, they can be sending out margin calls”, says Felipe Oliviera, Head of Sales and Marketing at Genesis.
Industry behemoths such as Refinitiv, SIX and FactSet are also embracing the cloud. Refinitiv has now launched delivery of market data via AWS, is making its tick history data available on Google Cloud and has also recently announced a partnership with Microsoft Azure. FactSet has launched a cloud-based ticker plant on Amazon EC2. And SIX is partnering with Xignite for real-time market data delivery via the cloud. Bloomberg is also partnering with AWS to make its B-Pipe data feed available through the cloud. And the main cloud vendors themselves – Amazon, Google and Microsoft – have established dedicated teams to develop these markets
In conclusion, it’s clear that there are a number of challenges that firms still face when transitioning any part of their market data infrastructure to the cloud. (To register for A-Team’s free webinar on the topic, click here.) And in many cases, particularly where ultra-low latency is required, cloud is not the answer. But equally, by migrating certain elements of their market data infrastructure to the cloud, cost savings can be achieved, efficiencies can be gained and firms can potentially do more with less.
Xignite, Inc., a provider of market data distribution and management solutions for financial services and technology companies, today announced it won the Best Real-Time Market Data Initiative at the Inside Market Data & Inside Reference Data Awards.
A longtime leader in the market data cloud space, Xignite provides financial data through its innovative cloud APIs, which are developer-friendly, reliable and endlessly scalable. Xignite data is normalized and ready-to-use, eliminating common pain points with legacy providers, while maintaining global coverage and institutional quality.
This award recognized Xignite’s work with SoFi, a leading digital personal finance company. In 2019, SoFi launched SoFi Invest, a free consumer investing service, and enlisted Xignite to power the entire platform, from its robo-advisor capabilities, to financial newsfeed, to real-time market alerts and curated stock list. SoFi has identified a number of ways in which these key features are driving member engagement – for example, 10% of users who receive a market alert make a trade within an hour. For more details on this collaboration, download the case study HERE.
“We are honored to be recognized for Best Real-Time Market Data Initiative. Xignite was the first to bring market data to the cloud, and we have continued to innovate and point the way to the future of this unique subset of the industry,” said Stephane Dubois, CEO and Founder of Xignite. “The SoFi collaboration is a great example of how a firm can leverage our diverse range of APIs to build an all-encompassing platform and scale it rapidly. As we look to the future, we will continue to serve our clients through transformative offerings, including our suite of Xiginite Enterprise Microservices, which we announced in July.”
The Inside Market Data & Inside Reference Data Awards are held by WatersTechnology and recognize industry excellence within market data, reference data and enterprise data management. The award ceremony took place during the publication’s Innovation Exchange held virtually from September 9 to September 22.
Xignite has been disrupting the financial and market data industry from its Silicon Valley headquarters since 2006 when it introduced the first commercial REST API. Since then, Xignite has been continually refining its technology to help fintech and financial institutions get the most value from their data. Today, more than 700 clients access over 500 cloud-native APIs and leverage a suite of specialized microservices to build efficient and cost-effective enterprise data management solutions. Visit http://www.xignite.com or follow on Twitter @xignite
About the Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data Awards
The annual Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data Awards, now in their 17th year, play a key role in WatersTechnology’s awards program, and are the only awards that feature a mix of call-for-entry categories determined by a panel of judges and categories compiled by WatersTechnology’s journalists and voted on by the brand’s readership. This year’s awards featured 32 categories in total: 21 call-for-entry categories, 10 journalist-compiled categories, and a hall of fame (lifetime achievement) award.
Over time, the market has come to embrace cloud in more and more aspects of trading technology. Processing large sets of data and calculation of computationally intense formulas (or both) are common uses of cloud. While the market may not be quite ready to move every part of the trading cycle to the cloud, market data is becoming more and more mainstream.
In fact, somewhat ironically, market data is very fertile “ground” for cloud offerings. Not only are third-party cloud providers continuing to enhance their market data offerings (i.e., Bloomberg, Refinitiv, Xignite), but exchanges are also offering access to data directly via their own cloud services or innovation partners (e.g., CBOE, IEX, Nasdaq). In a post-COVID-19 world, cloud has only become more entrenched in the trading lifecycle across both buy-side and sell-side firms. Even looking back to views from 2019, the growing importance of cloud servicing market data needs is clear.
In fact, almost three-quarters of respondents in our 2019 Market Data Study identified innovation in market data as highly important, with cloud seen as the second most impactful innovation (trailing only slightly behind artificial intelligence).
Read entire blog post by Shane Swanson, Senior Analyst, Market Structure and Technology at Greenwich Associates.


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Ghana’s inflation is rising to an all-time high at 37.2 per cent in September, driven largely by food prices, according to data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), and Ghanaians are feeling the heat with the cost of living running out of control.
It notes that year-on-year inflation rate for September 2022 based on the 16 administrative regions was 37.2 per cent, and this means that in the month of September 2022 the general price level was 37.2 per cent higher than September 2021. Month-on-month inflation between August 2022 and September 2022 was 2.0 per cent, it added.
The GSS indicates that focusing on food inflation on a year-on-year basis which is 37.8 per cent for the month of September 2022, 10 subclasses recorded higher rates.
“This was distantly led by water at 58.9 per cent followed by milk, other dairy products and eggs at 49.0 per cent and sugar confectionery and desserts at 48.0 per cent. Also in the case of month-on-month food inflation at 2.2 per cent 10 subclasses record rates higher than the national average.
On a month-on-month basis deflation of 2.7 per cent was recorded for vegetables, tubers, plantains and pulses,” the GSS said in a press release copied to Ghana Business News.
The GSS said on year-on-year basis, the difference between food inflation which is 37.8 per cent and non-food at 36.8 per cent was 1.0 percentage points.
On month-on-month basis, food inflation at 2.2 per cent records a lower rate than non-food at 1.7 per cent, leading to 0.5 percentage point difference.
The percentage point difference between inflation for imported items which is 40.7 per cent and domestic items at 35.8 per cent was 4.9 per cent.
It said further that more than 90 per cent of the items recorded an increase in price.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi
Copyright ©2022 by NewsBridge Africa
All rights reserved. This article or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in reviews.

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Peru Gaming Show 2010 is celebrating eight years at a steady step, and being committed to its country one more time: an established market in Latin America, a leader in regulation, technological upgrading and developing a gaming industry in the best environment for growth investments. The Show shall open its doors at Lima’s brand new Jockey Club Convention Center on 11 and 12 August. The organizers make the following points:
“PGS in its eight years as usual, will bring new proposals, new attractions and increase the level of participation with strong alliances achieved through these months of hard work. After the global crisis of 2009 that hit us really hard at all levels, and despite the unexpected last minute, we went ahead and now, we bet supporting the industry again with more strength than in previous editions, and hope to surprise everyone positively once more.
“More than before, overseas investors are coming to a gaming market that is consolidated with clear rules, safe social environment, minimum security risk, and sustained highest regional growth for years. Our response to them is highly enthusiastic as the market will also prove to be so. As far as exhibiting is concerned, foreign companies, more than local ones, can understand the cost of marketing their products in a new territory, a new region, and spent great effort to make high level presentations. Everyone, from visitors to operators, regulators, associations, have year after year benefited from being an active part of this international event and are invited to be part of PGS 2010, once more.
“It should be noted also that the authorities have also benefited from having an official international gaming event that has helped during the major legalization process of gaming businesses in the country. Peru Gaming Show was an important part of this process involving gaming authorities and associations communicating the importance of adapting to the new law, raise awareness, and open dialogue. All this has made it possible for the authorities to increase gaming tax contributions, fostering also a strong campaign of responsible gaming.
“As far as the numbers is concerned, the country has made great progress in the gaming industry on the back of a strong economy. Gaming revenues in 2009 exceeded 193 million Soles (USD 62M), and it is expected to reach 300 million soles (USD 100M) in 2011. The latest information from the Ministry regulating the industry indicates that 95% of the gaming halls are legal, totaling about 680, and there have been some 6.000 ilegal slots destroyed by the authorities.
“At macro level, the IMF evaluated the economic performance of countries in the region and gave its report at a global level; Peru is set to lead regional growth with 6.3% this year and 6% next. Brazil comes second with 5.5% and then Chile with 4.7%, despite the recent earthquake. The rest of the region has fallen behind with unattractive numbers for increased investment, or unstable conditions that make entry into such markets more difficult.
“Peru Gaming Show has a place in the industry gained through the work of many years, and as a serious event will not create false expectations or expand beyond its regional grasp. In our humble opinion it is best to keep in place and consolidate the market we know, respect boundaries, play fair, and let the market evaluate where to develop its sales potential. Of late, there has been a tendency to unfair competition with the personal support of misguided functionaries and industry folk, and this will impact negatively in the industry.
“This year, and for the eighth consecutive years, professional from the international gaming industry will visit Peru to celebrate real sustained growth backed by sound gaming legislation to meet thousands of operators and industry decision makers, not only from this great country, but from Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and in Brazil.
"There are those who must remember 15 or 10 years ago, when the Peruvian gaming industry was incipient. Remember the PGS first edition of PGS at the Marriott Hotel? Remember your excitement when we had the second and third? And when we all saw with pride how more and more foreign gaming professionals came to our fair, our country, to enjoy and celebrate our cuisine, architecture, and archeology? Well the PGS 2010, eight years later, invites you all to celebrate these achievements!
“Join and show the world how important our industry is. How proud we are of our country, our people, and our trade fair. Come to Peru Gaming Show. PGS is a fair show. Peru is a fair country. The world will notice the change! The crisis is passing; let's step into the future at the new Jockey Club Convention Center with 10,000 m2 expo area that will be inaugurated next May.
“On, August 11 and 12, Peru Gaming Show will be the best host, in the company of the leading gaming firms. We will welcome you with our traditional generous hospitality and in good taste, where our achievements are only through hard work because we do it with passion!” (E-04.30.10)
© Copyright 2010 CasinoCompendium
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Concerns mount over commodity prices
Drought in the US, rain in the UK and adverse weather in Russia has led to anxiety that commodity prices could rise again.
The Russian government has lowered its forecast grain harvest as poor weather conditions look set to damage the region's crop output. The news will concern the food industry, adding to spiking grain prices amid concerns over a supply shortfall. Katy Askew reports.
Prices of food and soft drinks in the UK increased at their slowest rate for two years in June, official figures said today (17 July). But beware: weather events on both sides of the Atlantic could accelerate inflation once more.
The US Department of Agriculture has lowered its forecast for domestic corn production, confirming market fears the country's worst drought in almost 25 years has hit yields.
Marks and Spencer has said it expects the extreme weather conditions in the UK are likely to have an affect on crops, potentially leading to a spike in prices.
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Apple typically adds new health-oriented features to the Apple Watch. Temperature sensing arrived with last year's Apple Watch Series 8, for instance, and blood oxygen measurements debuted on the 2020-era Series 6.
But in 2023, Apple is taking a different approach. Instead of adding more sensors, it's aiming to make finding and logging health data easier on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. A new update launching on Monday will bring the ability to ask Siri for health data points from the watch for the first time, a seemingly minor change but one that could make Apple's smartwatch a more capable health tracker.
The update was announced in September and was previously available in beta, but it's now rolling out to the Series 9 and Ultra 2. It's exclusive to these two watches because they're both powered by Apple's new S9 chip, which enables them to process certain Siri requests locally rather than the requests being sent to the cloud.
The update shows that Siri is evolving at a time when there's been unprecedented attention on AI and virtual assistants thanks to the rise of generative AI, or AI that can create conversational (though not always accurate) answers in response to prompts. Siri has been criticized for falling behind competitors like Amazon's Alexa and the Google Assistant over the past decade, but the update indicates Apple is thinking about new uses for its digital helper. Above all else, Siri's new health smarts could solve a big problem. Even in 2023, the myriad health statistics our wearables gather can still be difficult to parse.
Read more: Best Smartwatches of 2023
"A big part of our focus is making health data accessible," said Deidre Caldbeck, Apple's senior director of product marketing for its Apple Watch and health divisions. "And so we think this feature certainly brings us more and more closer to that goal."
Siri will initially be able to answer requests for 20 different health data types on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, based on data from the past week. That includes questions about progress on your Activity Rings, your step count, nightly respiratory rate, how many flights of stairs you've climbed, last night's sleep and more. It can also answer questions about third-party health devices connected to the health app, such as glucose and blood pressure monitors. When it comes to logging data, you'll be able to ask Siri to register statistics like your weight, whether your period has started and your medications.
According to Caldbeck, Siri support for health-related queries on the watch has been a highly requested feature. But the company waited for the Series 9 and Ultra 2 because it wanted to make sure such requests could be processed locally with low latency. That means data doesn't have to leave your watch for the request to be fulfilled.
Katie Skinner, senior manager for user privacy engineering at Apple, said the company's health products are designed with four privacy principles in mind: data minimization; on-device processing; transparency; and control and security. These principles are broad enough to apply to new and updated products as the industry changes, as evidenced by Apple's decision to wait until the Apple Watch could process Siri requests locally before supporting health requests.
"What's really changed is how we apply them, the technologies that we're able to apply mitigations with, and the threat landscape," she said of the privacy principles. Skinner shared that when applying a principle like data minimization to its products, Apple looks at places where data may be exposed as different threats arise over time, whether it's on-device or over the network.
The Siri update has the potential to make the almost dizzying number of health metrics your Apple Watch gathers more palatable. And that's important, because for some Apple users, finding health data points hasn't been as easy as it should be. Reddit threads detail user complaints about the Health app being hard to navigate and clunky.
It took four taps on my iPhone to find my average daily exercise minutes, for example. But with the update, that type of data should be available on Series 9 almost instantly. Being able to find bits of information without having to tap, type or swipe is particularly useful on screens as small as the Apple Watch's.
"But really never before have users been able to access this data without even tapping their screen," Caldbeck said.
Siri's upgrade comes at a time when both AI assistants and health apps are getting smarter and more sophisticated. Fitbit, one of Apple's oldest competitors in the fitness tracking space, will start using generative AI to answer certain questions and produce specific custom charts, as part of its Fitbit Labs program next year.
Google, which owns Fitbit, is also infusing the tech behind its Bard chatbot into the Google Assistant, enabling it to perform tasks like writing social media posts for photos and summarizing important emails. Samsung also recently announced Galaxy AI, likely an umbrella term for new AI-powered features coming to its devices.
Apple hasn't said anything about bringing generative AI to Siri; it typically avoids linking its products directly to larger industry-wide trends and competing products. But Siri's ability to address health-related queries could go a long way in making the Apple Watch a smarter health tracker, provided it works the way Apple intends. It feels like a step toward a more sophisticated health assistant, like the one that Bloomberg reports Apple could be working on.
Apple never discusses future products before announcing them. But Caldbeck says Apple will keep investing in Siri's health capabilities.
"We're always looking for ways to improve and enhance our features," Caldbeck said when asked whether Apple plans to add support for more types of health metrics. "So we will certainly continue to explore adding additional data types and offering more accessibility to our health features through Siri."
Editors' note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.


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Having contributed to multiple motoring titles as well helping run the public relations machine of the Johannesburg International Motor Show, Dave has experience in both sides of the motoring industry. He's based in the Western Cape and has driven & photographed too many cars... he's still trying to remember them all.
A special edition Volkswagen Golf GTI is on its way, if this leak is anything to go by.
Update: Volkswagen has revealed the special edition model, which comes fully customised. Volkswagen says its new... Read More
Spy photographers have spotted the all-new BMW M2 in action. Here's what we know so far about the performance car.
Picture credit: S. Baldauf/SB-Medien. We have paid for these photos and at the... Read More
Another month of price increases awaits for SA motorists as the international oil price has caused some upsets.
The AA says that despite the Rand's performance against the US Dollar during the month of February... Read More
Land Rover has unwrapped its eagerly-anticipated V8-powered Defender as well as a cool-looking XS Edition. Both models are expected to touch down in South Africa before the end of 2021.
Despite Jaguar Land... Read More
Pricing for the BMW 128ti has appeared on BMW's local website and we can share specifications. Here's what you can expect to pay for the Bavarian front-wheel-drive hot hatch.
The front-wheel-drive hatchback... Read More
After what seems like an eternity of teasers, leaks and spy shots, the all-new Mercedes-Benz C-Class has been revealed. Here's all you need to know about Mercedes-Benz's answer to the BMW 3 Series and Audi... Read More
Opel has announced specs and pricing for its facelifted Crossland SUV. See what's on offer here.
Opel South Africa has teamed up with Peugeot Citroen South Africa, falling in line with the Stellantis Group... Read More
Lexus has revealed its potent IS 500, complete with a 352 kW petrol V8.
It's interesting to note that Lexus has called this new Lexus an F Sport. Does this hint at a future model capable of even more performance?... Read More
Jaguar Land Rover SA has announced pricing and details for the Range Rover Sport SVR Carbon Edition.
Land Rover is calling this monster its 'highest-performance Range Rover Sport' and it certainly looks... Read More


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Guided Gallery Tours
Please note: ArtsQuest is closing the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks and the Banana Factory to the public effective noon, March 16 through at least March 31, 2020. Please visit their website for further details.
Guided Gallery Tours at The Banana Factory begin on Tuesday, March 3 at 10 a.m.!
Explore exhibitions and the Resident Artists’ studios through free docent-led tours.
Guided gallery tours will be offered every Tuesday at 10 a.m.


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CurrentC, the mobile payments app backed by a consortium of retailers, is not launching this month after all, Re/Code reports.
The company has started a public test of the system at some retailers in Columbus Ohio, but it won't be widely available this month as was promised.
CurrenttC eschews credit cards (thereby allowing retailers to avoid hated payment fees), using gift cards, private label store cards, and checking accounts instead. Near Field Communications-run apps like Apple Pay and Google Wallet, by contrast, allow credit card links among other payment options.
Several retailers that were originally part of MCX, the consortium created to develop CurrentC as an exclusive payment option, have already ditched their initial pledge and now say they will indeed accept Apple Pay and other NFC-enabled mobile payment options.
That appears to be wise, considering that CurrentC is apparently suffering yet another delay in its launch. MCX CEO Brian Mooney seems to be couching that in terms of being cautious and correct.
“This is a long game,” Mooney told Re/Code. “Certainly going faster is always better — that’s not necessarily a debatable point. But we’re going to do it right.”
But “doing it right” so far hasn’t been CurrentC’s strong suit. The delays have been an obstacle for retailers who would have liked to accept mobile payments before now. While Rite Aid, Best Buy, Target and others have remedied that by turning on their NFC POS systems to accept Apple Pay, CurrentC will be left to play on a more even playing field once it does become available.
In fact, it may be at a disadvantage, considering that Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Samsung’s upcoming payment app will be pre-loaded on many phones, and CurrentC will require a download.
In any case, it can’t be downloaded until it’s available.


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A new Home Bargains store is set to open in Glasgow this weekend following a £1 million investment.
The new shop will open in Summerston Retail Park, bringing 57 jobs to the area.
Doors to the latest Home Bargains, which includes a fresh and frozen food section, are scheduled to open at 8am on July 3.
The store will also be donating £2,000 to local charity Sunshine Wishes Children's Charity, which was set up in 2016 to grant wishes for sick and terminally ill children, children with additional needs as well as families from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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Since March 2020, however, the charity’s main focus has been to supply essential food and care parcels to families most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new Glasgow store will join over 500 outlets across the UK.
Sarah-Louise Smith, the new Glasgow store manager, said: “It’s a huge honour to be opening our new Glasgow store this weekend and something that I’m exceptionally proud of.
“Having started my Home Bargains journey just over a year ago, it’s exciting to be in this position and to be launching the new Summerston Retail Park store alongside such a fantastic team.”


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Adobe Targets Marketing Cloud Services
Adobe, seeking to build on an unparalleled five-year run of success for its stock, is targeting a potential area of growth that will pit the software company against its biggest competitors, according to Bloomberg. The company has dominated in the field of digital media, the graphics and web-design software that generates about two-thirds of $4.8 billion in annual sales. Now it’s expanding its focus on marketing services, where the company will compete directly with Salesforce, Oracle, Alphabet and IBM.
While the rivals may be bigger, Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen is bolstering spending and looking for partnerships to drive the effort after showing Wall Street that Adobe could transform itself into a cloud company over the past several years. He’ll give investors the latest update when the company announces quarterly results. To gird for the sales fight, Adobe signed a deal in September with Microsoft making Adobe’s business marketing products the favored choice on Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing service.
Adobe was among the first software vendors to switch its sales approach from one-time licenses to subscriptions, which let customers use its products online through the cloud without having to install the software on their computers. The strategic change, credited to Narayen, gave Adobe the flexibility to update and improve its software quickly and is cited as a key reason the stock has increased 366 percent since a low of $22.69 in August 2011. The share rise is the third-biggest increase during the period in the 67-member S&P 500 Information Technology Sector Index, trailing only chipmakers Broadcom and Nvidia.


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Dolby and DTS went to International CES to demonstrate separate post-processing matrix-decoding technologies that derive height information from two-, 5.1- and 7.1-channel soundtracks for playback through two front-height speakers.
Dolby is also targeting game developers to encode matrix height information into their surround-sound mixes, said Craig Eggers, Dolby’s senior manager for CE partner marketing. “We could do it in music and movie mixes, too,” he added.
Adding a vertical component to horizontal soundfields adds more realism and airiness to movie soundtracks and games, the companies contended. The technologies would elevate the sounds of hovering helicopters in games and movies, and in music videos, add more “depth, dimension and presence,” said Eggers. Rain would seem to be falling on a listener’s roof. Planes flying overhead will actually sound as if they’re flying overhead rather than through a listener sitting on the couch, said DTS marketing VP Tom Dixon.
Incorporating height information in a surround mix would enable game developers to incorporate height effects that would more precisely track visual game play than post-processing would, Dolby’s Eggers noted. DTS, however, has no plans for now to market its technology for encoding in games and other source material, said spokesman Anthony Watkins.
Dolby’s technology is Dolby Pro Logic IIz, which adds two front height channels to typical 5.1- and 7.1-channel home theater configurations to create surround systems with up to 9.1 channels. Eggers said IIz-equipped A/V receivers will be available “very soon,” with the first arriving before CEDIA. At the show, Dolby displayed a prototype Dolby Pro Logic IIz 7.1-channel AV receiver from Onkyo.
Onkyo is targeting May or June availability of the A/V receiver, which will “support the seven-channel configuration with height but will not the nine-channel one,” said marketing and product planning manager Paul Wasek.
For its part, DTS demonstrated a new technology that adds two front height and two additional horizontal-plane surround channels to create a soundfield with up to 11.1 channels. The technology, in the Neo family but as yet unnamed, can also be used to create only the two height channels. “The algorithm is ready,” and the first A/V receivers with the technology could appear late this year or early next, said DTS’s Dixon.
Both technologies could be incorporated into chips already used in low- to high-priced AVRs, both companies said. “MIPs are not an issue these days,” DTS’s Dixon said. “If a receiver has [losslessly compressed] DTS HD Master, it can do Neo X.” During CES, an AVR with DTS HD Master and Dolby TrueHD was announced by Pioneer at a suggested $299.


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A soldier thought to have been captured in Gaza could be a British Israeli, according to reports.
Scotland Yard has launched a major shake-up of protection for the Royal Family, the Evening Standard can reveal.
Let’s have more launch fever and risk-taking in London
Published: 02 April 2014
Updated: 10:23, 03 April 2014
This week’s debut of the Evening Standard’s sister TV channel London Live is a reminder of the invigorating power of a launch - at a time when innovation is more important than ever in a media industry facing unprecedented digital disruption.
The benefits of launching in new markets can be dramatic: look at how BT’s foray into pay-TV sport has injected energy into the telecom giant or how the Guardian’s online launches in America and Australia have given it fresh purpose.
The need for innovation is urgent because the pace of technological change is accelerating — a key theme to emerge at Advertising Week Europe (AWE), a four-day summit taking place in London for the second year this week.
Bewildering, seismic shifts are under way: the move to mobile from fixed-line broadband consumption is suddenly happening faster than almost anyone forecast; ad-buying is rapidly shifting to programmatic automated trading based on computer algorithms; and advertisers are increasingly creating their own branded content and “native” ads that blend with editorial.
“Confusion is good,” Michael Roth, boss of US ad group Interpublic, told AWE as he talked about the opportunities for those who are “ahead of the curve”. But there is a sense that many “legacy” media businesses are struggling. Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corporation, lamented how media companies have been “very poor” at distributing news in a digital and social world compared with, say, Facebook’s News Feed — even though Facebook generates no news of its own.
“As media companies, we almost need to have a private equity mentality,” said Thomson as he explained how a private equity investor might have looked at News Corp’s assets such as the Sun and The Times dispassionately and been quicker to see opportunities. For example, to use the Sun’s ability to connect with its audience way beyond print and online — from theme parks to supermarkets, he said.
Thomson warned that too many newspaper newsrooms have adopted the attitude of “high priests” who fail to understand that a new era requires radical thinking and a greater collaboration with advertisers. No wonder so many independent journalistic upstarts such as BuzzFeed and Vice Media have sprung up.
Most “legacy” businesses have a chequered record of disrupting themselves — often for fear of cannabilising their own revenues. “One way of disrupting is to acquire,” said Thomson, who extolled News Corp’s recent purchase of Storify, a start-up that verifies the source of online news video. Storify is already helping book publishing arm HarperCollins to create better online coverage about its authors.
Some say the British fail to take enough risks. Pete Cashmore, the Scot who founded technology news website Mashable in 2005, recalled how he moved to Silicon Valley in 2008. Staying in Britain wasn’t an option at the time, he felt but the growing tech scene in Shoreditch has made a difference. “It’s a lot less risky to go to London now,” he said, noting there is more venture capital for entrepreneurs.
Fear of failure still holds too many people back, warned serial entrepreneur James Caan, a former star of TV’s Dragons’ Den, speaking on a London Live panel. Careful planning and attention to detail are essential for a successful launch, said Caan, who runs more than 40 businesses and is involved in the launch of a new one every six weeks. A healthy if painful aspect involves the possibility of failure, he added.
Fru Hazlitt, ITV’s commercial boss, issued a similar rallying cry, urging the media industry to be “more innovative”, “to be brave” and “to take a few risks”.
AWE, a spin-off of the New York version that its US founder Matt Scheckner set up in 2003, has been an example of a well-executed launch, with delegate numbers rising more than 50% to 22,000 in its second year from 14,000 and the use of stylish venues such as Bafta and Ronnie Scott’s.
Scheckner’s decision to choose London as a permanent base for AWE is a compliment to the city as the creative capital of Europe and proof that an outsider can have fresh ideas, when no UK company had the vision.
London Live, with its appeal to an underserved youthful audience, is tapping into that same spirit. London’s media industry needs more launch fever.
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People are freaking out about Starbucks' new color-changing 'Unicorn' Frappuccino - here's what you need to know
But what is this mysterious, color-changing beverage?According to the coffee giant, it's a "flavor and color-changing creation," made with a dusting of pink powder blended into a mango creme Frappucinno and layered with a sour powder topping. When you stir the drink, the color transforms from purple to pink, and the flavor goes from sweet and fruity to tangy and tart. Advertisement
The drink is only going to be available for five days, starting on Wednesday, April 19.
Of course, more questions remain.
What does the drink actually look like?Starbucks has released an official image, but when it comes to mass-produced Starbucks drinks, the reality often diverges from the ideal, Instagram-ready image.
Fortunately, a few Starbucks sleuths have prematurely posted pictures on Instagram.Judging from early photos, the change might not be as stark as Starbucks promises - but the drink is certainly boasting some bold colors. Advertisement
What's the deal with unicorns?
This isn't the first unicorn latte on the market.
The End, a Brooklyn cafe that opened in late 2016, is known for its multi-colored, creative lattes - including the Unicorn Latte, made with ginger, lemon, coconut milk, honey and e3 live blue green algae.DRINK, a coffee bar located inside an American Eagle in Time Square, sells a Unicorn Latte of its own. Advertisement
Basically, all you need to know is unicorn lattes are trendy and super colorful, and Starbucks didn't want to be left out.
How unhealthy is this drink going to be?
Adding a beverage that looks like a blenderized donut to the menu means many people are going to question the drink's nutritional value.A Starbucks spokesperson told Business Insider that at tall Unicorn Frappuccino made with whole milk and whipped cream is 280 calories and 39 grams of sugar. Take away the whipped cream and make the Frappuccino with almond milk, and a tall is 170 calories, with 34 grams of sugar. Advertisement
The FDA recommends limiting your daily sugar consumption to 50 grams - so it's probably a good idea to stick with the tall.
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Grand Theft Auto fans eagerly anticipating a big GTA 6 announcement have been left somewhat disappointed in 2019 for yet another year.
But with Red Dead Redemption 2 now done with (beyond Red Dead Online updates) and nothing else on the cards (officially), there are even more reasons to be positive that 2020 could be the year a new Grand Theft Auto game is announced.
Remarkably Rockstar Games could go a whole console generation without releasing a new GTA game, should that next Grand Theft Auto outing skip the PS4 and Xbox One entirely.
Because in case you'd forgotten, we're not only a matter of months away from the release of Sony and Microsoft's next-gen consoles.
2020 will be a giant year for the games industry and somewhere between it all, we could finally see Rockstar Games announce a brand new GTA game.
In fact at the time of writing, it's been well over eight years since Rockstar announced GTA 5 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
However, amidst the chaos of everything else going on in 2020 – which is already pretty bonkers with Cyberpunk 2077, Last of Us 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and so much more coming too – fans of the GTA series believe they might have narrowed down a rough timeframe for when Rockstar Games could announce GTA 6.
When will GTA 6 release?
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Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 good news as Nintendo Switch sequel seeks new talent
Writing on the GTA Forums, Eyman pointed out that some of Rockstar Games biggest announcements, such as GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, have normally preceded, very closely, by a Take-Two Interactive conference call.
For those unaware, Take-Two Interactive is Rockstar Games' parent company, who also own 2K Games (Borderlands, NBA 2K, Bioshock etc) and another developer known as Private Division.
"I'm assuming everyone here knows why they do this, so I don't need to explain. But the conference calls are a good indication on when to expect news," Eyman explained.
Those dates we're referring to can be seen just below, and they are fairly eye-opening:
• GTA V announcement – November 1st 2011
• T2 Conference Call – November 8th 2011
• Red Dead Redemption 2 announcement – October 18th 2016
• T2 Fiscal Call 2018 – November 2nd 2016
Another member of the GTA forums also added the following explanation:
"Rockstar seem to have a pattern of ruffling the feathers of their activities around, during, immediately after these earning calls. I believe it’s Rockstars way of letting their investors know 'We got this…oh and here’s a preview of where your money is going'"
So that's the current rationale most GTA fans are debating at the moment as we head into what is sure to be a busy and monumental 2020 for both Rockstar fans and console owners in general.
Now, with a GTA announcement likely to coincide with a Take-Two Interactive conference call, there's four key dates to keep in mind in 2020.
The first will be the day after Groundhog Day on 3 February 2020, so it's certainly worth keeping an ear to the ground around then for possible news.
Although, we would urge some caution. GTA 6 supposedly started production as far back as 2016 if you believe what one report by Tech Radar suggests and you can be sure there's been plenty of Take-Two Interactive conference call's between then and now without so much of a whisper.
However, 2020 certainly feels like the year for Rockstar to finally announce something new in the Grand Theft Auto series outside of more GTA Online updates.
Likewise, it's been heavily rumoured for some months that PlayStation could use February to hold a special conference to officially announce the new PS5 console to the world.
This is what they did with the PS4 and PS4 Pro in years gone by, and it might be more sensible for Rockstar (and Take-Two) to hold off any GTA announcements until after Sony's potential console reveal.
GTA 6 Release Rumours, Leaks and News
Even if we do see Rockstar announce GTA 6 next year during one of the companies four quarterly earnings calls, it's still unlikely, we think, that GTA would launch anytime soon.
Historically the developer takes it's time with these releases and sometimes (almost invariably) delay the release to add more polish.
GTA 5 was announced on October 25, 2011, but it wasn't until 17 September 2013 that it was released on PS3 and Xbox 360.
Likewise, Red Dead Redemption 2 was first announced on October 18, 2016 and was originally intended to release in the second half of 2017, but didn't actually make it to consoles until October 26, 2018.
So unless Rockstar has dramatically changed their approach to how it both markets and releases its games you're likely looking at a very long wait for whatever the developer has planned.
That said, 2020 could be a huge year for the series and after so many years without so much of a word, that's all GTA fans can ask for.
Latest Games News
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Kaleidoscope Floral to bloom into Fifth Avenue South studio
Kaleidoscope Floral will grow to a studio on Naples’ Fifth Avenue South in October.
Founders Sean and Melissa Stevenson will maintain their current space off 14th Street North between Goodlette Frank Road and U.S. 41 for large-scale weddings and event production while using the new space in downtown Naples, dubbed Kaleidoscope Home, for flower deliveries and a walk-in flower bar, according to a news release.
From the beginning:Husband and wife floral design team brings fresh, creative style to Naples
And:Hoffmann family to acquire another Naples business
The new 1,000-square-foot-studio is set to open Oct. 1 and will provide arrangements, bouquets and centerpieces alongside backdrops and props such as vases, porcelains and linens, the news release said. Further plans include providing containers crafted by local artisans.
Beyond flowers, Kaleidoscope Floral is rolling out a line of candles made with soy and essential oils. The team also plans to offer classes in arrangements and is considering adding coffee, beer and wine refreshments to its line of offerings, according to the news release.
The Stevensons began their floral company in 2015, expanding from their dining room table to their recent purchase from the Hoffmann family through its private office Osprey Capital.
If you go
What: Kaleidoscope Home
Where: 321 5th Avenue South
When: Opens October 1, Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
More info: Call 239-777-6139 or visit kaleidoscopefloral.com.
Andrew Atkins is a features reporter with the Naples Daily News. Contact him via email at email@example.com or on Twitter at @andrewjatkins.


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The soaring Aussie dollar is helping ease the pain of stubbornly high world oil prices, a leading analyst says.
The Australian dollar surged to a 23-year high against the US dollar, punching through 90 US cents during overnight trade and holding its ground into the afternoon session.
As the Aussie has risen, so has the price of Singapore unleaded petrol which is the key petrol pricing benchmark for Australia.
In the last seven weeks the price has jumped more than $US7 ($A7.80).
But because oil is traded in US dollars, whenever the Australian dollar rises against the greenback we can buy more oil for less money.
CommSec chief equities economist Craig James says that's why Australian motorists have seen a drop in the price of petrol at the bowser.
"The higher Australian dollar points to cheaper overseas trips and lower prices for imported goods in coming months," Mr James wrote in an analysis.
"But it is at the petrol pump where the impact of the higher Aussie is already being felt.
"Courtesy of the soaring Australian dollar, Australian motorists have around $10 a month extra in their pockets."
Mr James said the good news would keep coming for motorists with the full effect of the higher dollar yet to flow through to the retail end of the petrol market.
The Australian Institute of Petroleum's weekly price report showed Brisbanites to be reaping the biggest reward with the average price of petrol in the Queensland capital down 1.6 cents to 117.2 cents per litre.
Northern Territorians continued to pay the most for petrol with the territory average sitting at 138.4 cents per litre.


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February 17th 2023 | Multiple countries | Passenger vehicles | Multiple companies
The lay-offs are part of the company’s global plans to become leaner.
June 2nd 2022 | Multiple countries | Commercial and other vehicles | Kia Motors
While electric car sales are booming, the market for electric commercial vehicles faces far more challenges.
May 12th 2022 | Multiple countries | Production
Even countries that were not heavily reliant on Russia and Ukraine will face higher prices and tighter stocks.
March 1st 2022 | Multiple countries | Production
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will dent the supply of key metals in Europe, leading to lower vehicle production & sales.
November 26th 2021 | Multiple countries | Fuel sources | Multiple companies
The semiconductor chip shortage will continue to affect global automotive production well into 2022.
September 27th 2021 | United Kingdom | Fuel sources
The pandemic and Brexit have exacerbated global and structural factors pushing the logistics industry into crisis.
September 26th 2021 | Multiple countries | Production
Automotive production shutdowns will hit the profitability of the already distressed sector and hold back recovery.
July 4th 2021 | Multiple countries | Passenger vehicles
More than 75% of major car markets are now seeing double-digit growth, but a full recovery will take until 2022.


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Jerry Garcia’s dishwasher, toilets and other home appliances will be auctioned by a nonprofit group hoping to raise more than $100,000. The items, which also include stereo cabinets, cupboards and a freezer, will be available for bidding on the online auction site eBay from Dec. 18-24.
Revenue will benefit the Sophia Foundation, a San Francisco Bay area nonprofit that aids children and families during marital separations and divorces, said the group’s chairman, Henry Koltys.
“There’s a lot of Deadheads out there with money, and they want a piece of Jerry somehow,” he said.
This sounds like an excellent way to help a deserving charity. Perhaps the North Shore Animal League can ask Jerry Only to auction off his weed wacker?


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Stable.Report Jan. 13th — Jan. 20th
Stablecoin News of the Week:
Digital Garage to Test Yen-Pegged Stablecoin on Blockstream Network 🇯🇵
An arm of Tokyo-listed internet group Digital Garage is working with bitcoin infrastructure startup Blockstream to test the issuance of a Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin. Crypto Garage, a Digital Garage subsidiary focusing on blockchain and crypto tech, announced on 21st Jan 2019 that it has launched a new platform dubbed SettleNet that would allow app development on Blockstream’s inter-exchange settlement network Liquid, including the issuance of stablecoins.
-via Coin Desk
Swiss Blockchain Association: Stablecoins And Security Token Will Be The Next Wave 🇨🇭
Luzius Meisser, Swiss blockchain association representative, is sure that stablecoins and security token will be the next wave in the cryptocurrency world. Luzius Meisser notes that he does not mean some of stablecoins which can be considered as payment or tool tokens due to their decentralized algorithms.
-via ICO Brothers Media
Winklevoss Twins Believe Stablecoins, Tokenized Securities Are Future of Crypto Innovation 🚀
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Bitcoin (BTC) bulls and founders of the cryptocurrency trading platform Gemini, have said stablecoins and tokenized securities will usher in a bright future for the digital currency space. The twins made their remarks during an interview on Fortune’s crypto-focused news segment The Ledger on Jan 14.
Swiss Crypto Industry Leader Says Next Crypto Wave Will Be Stablecoins, Security Tokens 🚀
Bitcoin Association Switzerland board member Luzius Meisser says he believes the next wave of crypto innovation will focus on stablecoins and security tokens. Meisser made his remarks during an interview with Cointelegraph’s correspondent during the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland on Jan. 16.
Game of Coins: Inside the Paxos-Gemini Stablecoin Discount War ✍Dollar-backed stablecoins are generally supposed to be worth $1, but stablecoin-issuers like Gemini’s GUSD and Paxos’ PAX privately offer over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks up to a 1 percent discount if traders used these tokens in some fashion before redeeming them for USD.
US Academics Start Developing Cryptocurrency More Stable than Bitcoin (BTC) 🤓
Academics from MIT, Stanford University, and five other top US universities have launched a cryptocurrency project which claims to resolve some of main problems of the Bitcoin (BTC) network, including scalability. The new digital coin, called Unit-e, is the first project by Distributed Technologies Research Foundation (DTR), the non-profit organization launched last week and supported by blockchain venture investment company Pantera Capital.
1SG Launches on BitMart, P2PB2B and OEX Exchange 🏁
1SG overcame the problems of today’s cryptocurrencies and provided open, transparent, efficient KYC/AML process, which it allows to be listed on three main exchanges.
-via PR News
Danish Crypto Startup Aryze Completes US$1.6M ICO 🎉
Aryze has completed its initial coin offering (ICO), raising US$1.6 million from 278 individuals representing 14 different nationalities, the company said on Thursday 17th January 2019).
DEXEOS Decentralized EOS Exchange Lists Carbon Stablecoin (CUSD) 🍾
CUSD — Carbon’s fiat-backed stablecoin, went live on EOS’ decentralized exchange, DEXEOS. This is the first DEX to list the stablecoin.
-via Bitcoin Exchange Guide
USDC Reserve Attestation Report 📑
Circle has released the third audit attestation of the reserves of its fiat-backed stable coin, USDC. USDC issued and outstanding = 251,211,148; US Dollars held in custody accounts = $251,211,209
Meet Shani Patael, COTI’s UI/UX expert 👏
This week, Coti is continuing to introduce the COTI community to its UI/UX team. This time, Shani Patael, their front-end developer and UI/UX specialist talks about creating products geared towards small businesses.
COTI Launches TestNet Aimed at Streamlining Remittance Payments and Stablecoins ⚗
COTI launched its testnet on Jan. 14th. The move aims to bring enterprises, merchants, governments, decentralized payment networks and stablecoin issuers that much closer to making digital currencies viable for everyday mainstream use.
-via AP News
D1 Coin: A Brilliant Idea With Millions of Dollars’ Worth Diamonds Behind 💎
In this post, D1 team views diamonds as the new “secret weapon” for investments and savings. However, the diamond industry was never institutionalized and, for decades, the market has remained tightly controlled by a small group of professional producers. D1 team believes D1 Coin could potentially change this landscape and allow ordinary individuals without expert knowledge and skills to make ownership of diamonds easier.
DiamondBack Group Announces Future Token Launch 💎
DiamondBack (DBK) has created an asset-backed stablecoin, using certified investment grade, premium diamonds. It will be available for purchase by private sale starting February 1, 2019.
-via PR Web
Unlocking the Power of Blockchain for the Sharing Economy 🛠
EveriToken explained the benefits of the sharing economy through its latest post. The team was pleased to announce that during everiToken’s 2018 hackathon, it successfully tested a proof-of-concept for using everiPay (by everiToken) to execute cryptocurrency payments for sharing economy applications.
Asimov, a company that developed blockchain applications for the Mexican government, showed how everiPay and everiPass can be used to develop a blockchain-based bike-sharing application that allows users to find, book, and pay for nearby bikes and scooters with cryptocurrencies.
Golden Currency 2019 📊
The team has moved forward with developing the Golden Currency project and in this post shares some plans for the year ahead.
-via Golden Currency
Sunrise Expansion: The Importance of Energy. 📑
Goldma has been hyping up the construction of its Carbon in Pulp (CIP) plant for months now. There is one important resource Goldma required to process from ore until the final product of pure gold: energy — which is unreliable in Zimbabwe.
HelloGold Foundation Update #19– 16th January 2019 📃
Highlights of the week: Clear branding and marketing for 2019; All development work has been completed and ready for production deployment; Global App expected release date set for March 15th of this year.
How Smart Regulation Will Change the World 🏹
In this article, Jibrel posted a Wikipedia-style explanation of smart regulations, covering three aspects: Nature of smart regulations; How smart regulations work; and Obstacles to allow smart regulations function.
The Bearch Boys 🏄♂
The London Block Exchange team cheerfully summarizes the weekly development of the crypto space. They jocosely use the metaphor of ‘the beach boys’ to describe traders. We are all waiting for our daily waves!
-via LBX, The London Block Exchange
How the Grinch Stole Christmas 😲
The London Block Exchange team explained the price movement of bitcoin and introduces two projects that are coming to life this week: (1) Veil (a peer-to-peer prediction market built on Augur, 0x and Ethereum’ and (2) Grin (the first implementation of the Mimblewimble protocol).
-via LBX, The London Block Exchange
A New Oasis 🚧
In its latest post, MakerDAO announced that On January 31, 2019 they are going to take down the OasisDEX and Oasis to completely rebuild the solutions based on a new strategic direction. Detailed reasons are given in this post.
The Most Advanced Blockchain Crowdfunding Platform is Now Live! 🎉
Noku announced the launch of the TokenRaise Platform 1.0. Noku officially completed the development phase and is now releasing the first complete version of the service, to kick start projects and create any kind of Crowdfunding campaign on the Ethereum Blockchain.
Strong Uptake of Flexepin by Bitcoin Merchants in Australia and Canada 🇦🇺🇨🇦
Novatti reported that it is receiving strong interest for its Flexepin Open Loop Voucher Service (“Flexepin”) from Bitcoin merchants in Australia and Canada.
Novatti Integrates TransferBridge with Zapper to Enable International Payments 🤝
Novatti announced that Zapper Marketing Limited (“Zapper”) has selected the Company to enable airtime top-up features on the Zapper app through Novatti’s TransferBridge solution.
Novatti Expands Further Into Booming China-Australia E-payments Market 🇦🇺🇨🇳
Novatti announced that it has signed an agreement with LatiPay that will enable Novatti to expand its payments service to cover Australian e-commerce and trade payments from China through WeChat Pay, AliPay, JD Pay and 19 Chinese banks in Australia.
PAX Weekly Updates — January 16, 2019 📈
Pax announced that it will be jump-starting a new initiative to share weekly updates on Paxos activity to bring more transparency into this space. The team believes the power of stablecoin lies in its ability to facilitate transactions. Accordingly, Pax will aim to share with the community the weekly redemption volume and processing times from this week on.
Semada’s Analysis of the Reserve Stable Currency Protocol 🙇♂
In its latest post, the Semada team shows gratuities to the Reserve Protocol team for being open to criticism, and for clarifying some of the design plans that were not included in the first draft of their white paper.
via Semada Research Institute (SRI)
Why Gold in 2019 🏆
According to The World Gold Council, it is expected that the interplay between market risk and economic growth in 2019 will drive gold demand. In this article, SendGold explores three key trends that we expect will influence its price performance: financial market instability, monetary policy and the US dollar, and structural economic reforms.
StableUSD Stablecoin Makes It Easy To Purchase and Redeem USDS 🎫
Stably announced the initial release of the web platform. it aims to make it simple to move between fiat and crypto and let users purchase and redeem USDS.
-via Stably, Inc.
Wincanton W2Labs 2019 Programme. Exciting News — We Won! 🥳Following the pitching rounds to Wincanton plc at Digital Catapult last year, Sweetbridge won a position out of 152 companies to join the W2Labs innovation programme 2018–19.
Synthetix Explained: How a Synth Gets Transferred 📋
Whenever a Synth (e.g. sUSD) gets transferred, a complex system of transactions is initiated. Synth transfers require a higher gas limit than some other ERC20 tokens. Synthetix team decided to unpack exactly what happens when Synths gets transferred for its community to understand what their gas is doing.
Introducing TrueUSD AutoSweep — Easy Wallet Management Feature for Exchanges and OTC Desks 🔑
TrueUSD announced a new feature for TrueUSD users: AutoSweep. AutoSweep is a token registry for client deposit addresses, that makes it easy to accept and manage TrueUSD deposits.


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One week after launching its “SMILE” promotion, Digicel Grenada has launched its Christmas promotion known as “Share a Smile this Christmas”.
Building on the SMILE top up promotion, the “Share a Smile this Christmas” campaign allows winners to share their winnings with loved ones of their choice.
The lucky grand prizewinner will receive $80,000 cash, out of which they will be able to share $40,000 with family and friends.
The 2012 Christmas promotion was launched last week Friday evening at the Grenada Trade Centre Annex.
Digicel’s Country Manager, Patricia Maher, said the promotion “is another innovative way that Digicel engages with its customers to thank and reward them for being a part of the Bigger, Better Network.”
She said, “Christmas is all about sharing, and being able to share with loved ones in such a tangible way is exciting and rewarding”.
Maher recalled the various promotions over the past year that has given Digicel’s customers the opportunities to get value on every dollar they spend.
Digicel wants customers to imagine being able to buy the gift they really want for a loved one.
Imagine seeing the joy on their faces as they receive that gift; imagine the smiles that they will bring to that face all through Digicel’s smile Christmas campaign.
The local telecommunications provider also promises to bring smiles to a series of communities and charitable organisations in Grenada throughout the Christmas season through different initiatives.
Digicel has once again teamed up with local companies such as Columbian Emeralds, Flamboyant Hotel, Country Cold, Clarke’s Courts and Creative Do It Best to furnish its winning customers with goodies at Christmas time.
The company’s Marketing Manager, Kirk Seethal rolled out some of the winnings that customers will receive during the promotion.
He said the campaign will continue to bring smiles daily through on-air promotions and with a wide range of weekly prizes for sharing with friends and family such as Scooter bikes, household appliances, jewellery, flat screen TV’s, Samsung Galaxy SIII’s and more – all with a FREE grocery voucher.
Weekly winners will be announced every Friday on BOSS FM at 5.00 p.m.
Seethal noted that it is during the Christmas season that most smiles are shared compared to the rest of the year.
He guarantees that Digicel’s SMILE will be everywhere and is encouraging customers to participate in the promotion.
To qualify for the weekly prizes and the grand prize of $80,000 cash, customers must simply top up $15 or more, pay their postpaid bills in full and on time or join the Digicel family.
Customers can qualify for additional chances at the weekly prizes by texting the word SMILE to the number 2434.
Digicel’s Christmas promotion will cost the company in excess of $100,000.00.
The promotion ends on January 31, 2013 with the final grand prize taking place in February 2013.


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OTTAWA, ON – The Canadian Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) has announced that registration is now open for entries into the 2023 edition of the Canada Beer Cup, a competition for independent breweries from coast to coast.
Returning for its 2nd year, the Canada Beer Cup will present gold, silver, and bronze awards in 67 beer style groups under 11 overall categories, plus a special “Canadian Grain-Forward Beer” category that is “designed to highlight the fact [that] Canadian farmers produce some of the finest grain in the world.”
Overseen by beer writer and expert Stephen Beaumont, the competition features an international judging panel – a first for any formal beer awards in Canada – and sees the Canada Beer Cup trophy awarded to the top scoring “best in show” beer. In 2022, this award went to Callister Brewing‘s Wee Laird Wee Heavy.
Breweries can register their beers for entry from April 3rd to May 19th, with an entry fee of $102 + HST per beer until April 16th, and $125 + HST after that date. $2 from each fee will support CCBA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.
Beers will need to be submitted by mid-September (date and locations TBA), and the Canada Beer Cup 2023 awards ceremony will take place in conjunction with the Ontario Craft Brewers Conference, October 25th and 26th in Niagara Falls.
Source & Photo: Canadian Craft Brewers Association