text:
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., May 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate the opening of three new combination Dunkin' Donuts/Hudson News stores in the Amtrak concourses of New York's Penn Station, there will be a Grand Opening event on Wednesday morning, May 30. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 10:00 a.m. at the store close to the Seventh Avenue entrance.
For morning commuters, there will be free donut samples and a variety of giveaways. Also scheduled are special appearances by Dunkin' Donuts and Hudson News mascots Joe the Cup, Mr. Sprinkles and Hudsy the News Hound.
Premier travel retailer Hudson Group will operate the new stores, which are located near the Seventh and Eighth Avenue entrances and also next to the Amtrak Rotunda area. Travelers are now able to grab their coffee, donut, magazines and snacks – all in a single space.
Tom Kornacki, SVP of Food & Beverage, Hudson Group, said: "Hudson News is delighted to join forces with Dunkin' Donuts to serve customers in this exciting 'news cafe' concept. The new stores bring to 10 the number of locations where we are now working with Dunkin'."
The stores will employ 60 crew members. The Eighth Avenue store will be open around the clock; the other two from 5:00 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. Nearly 500,000 commuters pass through Penn Station daily, making it one of the world's busiest train terminals.
About Hudson Group: Hudson Group, the largest duty-paid travel retailer in North America, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of international duty-free travel retailer Dufry AG (DUFN) of Basel, Switzerland. The company operates some 650 Hudson News, Hudson Booksellers, cafes, specialty retail and duty free shops in 70 airports and transportation terminals in North American, and additional newsstands in 12 more countries around the world. The combined Dufry/Hudson entity oversees over 1,160 stores in 46 countries and 160 airports and terminals.
About Dunkin' Donuts: Founded in 1950, Dunkin' Donuts is America's favorite all-day, everyday stop for coffee and baked goods. Dunkin' Donuts is a market leader in the regular/decaf coffee, iced coffee, hot flavored coffee, donut, bagel and muffin categories. Dunkin' Donuts has earned the No. 1 ranking for customer loyalty in the coffee category by Brand Keys for six years running. The company has more than 10,000 restaurants in 32 countries worldwide. For the full-year 2011, Dunkin' Donuts' restaurants had global franchisee-reported sales of approximately $6.4 billion. Based in Canton, Mass., Dunkin' Donuts is part of the Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DNKN) family of companies. For more information, visit www.DunkinDonuts.com.
SOURCE Hudson Group


text:
Wang Guangfu came for border trade in the city of Ruili in southwest China twenty years back, but his lineup of products was very restricted: he primarily sold made-in-China laundry items to Myanmar.
These days, nevertheless, he sells more than 10,000 kinds of products to Myanmar, in trade which has gone completely online.
“We market household, high-quality products to individuals in Maritime Silk Road, and a few of the products are even sold again to India,” stated Wang.
The 44-calendar year-aged presently operates a go across-border e-commerce company in Ruili, below Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Region. This past year, his business became one from the first groups of businesses to compromise within the Dehong portion of the aviator free trade area (FTZ) in Yunnan.
China launched two aviator FTZs this past year in Yunnan Region and in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Area, which can be both boundary areas. The aviator FTZ in Yunnan addresses elements of Kunming, the provincial capital, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture that borders Vietnam, and Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, which borders Myanmar.
Based on official plans, Dehong will focus on cross-boundary e-business, capability cooperation and funding to be an opening up-up pioneer in boundary locations, delivering big possibilities to businesspeople like Wang.
“We have now created a wholesale system, which assists retailers in Myanmar,” Wang said. “The system addresses greater than 8,000 retail store shops.”
The business has additionally created a buying software known as eMyan, brief for Convey Myanmar, for normal clients. As it went into operation in Myanmar in 2017, the software has generated 2.17 thousand purchases, with a total industry volume of 580 million yuan (about 85 million U.S. dollars).
“Suitcases, bags, digital items and small appliances for the home are particularly popular with clients in Myanmar,” Wang stated. “Clients will pay through Alipay, WeChat and our very own spending system Shwe Pay out. After the payment, they could have the items in approximately 3 days.”
Wang said that with the introduction of 5G and also the worldwide development of e-commerce, go across-border e-businesses have become a very important industry hyperlink among China and Myanmar.
Improving facilities in Dehong also has set a good foundation for go across-boundary e-business involving the two countries, stated Wei Gang, brain of Dehong.
“Mobile Internet has created quickly in Myanmar, bringing major opportunities to the country,” Wei stated. “A digital economic climate has become a new engine traveling swaps in operation and trade, and interaction in tradition and data.”
The pilot FTZ in neighboring Guangxi also threw up possibilities and lured businesses.
The quantity of recently-registered enterprises in Guangxi’s FTZ has exceeded 10,560 during the last year, the FTZ stated in late August.
Among the newly-authorized enterprises, 85 are international-funded with investment of more than 140 thousand U.S. dollars.
Guangxi’s pilot FTZ concentrates on modern monetary solutions, wise logistics, a digital economy, emerging production industries, dock logistics, worldwide trade, aspects of new power automobiles and cross-border tourism.
The Guangxi FTZ is taking a number of steps to facilitate boundary crossing and minimize logistics costs.
Within the regional funds Nanning, which forms portion of the aviator FTZ, a “hatching foundation” develops livestreaming expertise for a go across-boundary e-business company. Abroad students promote clothes and digital items to clients in Southeast Asia in livestreaming areas.
“We have now the advantage of multilingual talent in Nanning, and that we ejvbuk this advantage to promote 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in the Southeast Oriental market,” stated Ding Guoxun, who works for the company.
Established numbers display the quantity of Nanning’s cross-boundary e-commerce export purchases from January to July crossed 15 thousand, with complete commodity value going above 700 thousand yuan.

domain: news


text:
The sale of illegal guns is big business in Mexico. And they’re being sold by a mysterious source in the United States.
The gun laws in Mexico are among the toughest in the world. And there’s only one gun store in the entire country which is run by the military. But each year 250,000 firearms are being sold on the black market.
Correspondent Mike Kirsch reports from Mexico City that the guns are being smuggled into the hands of criminal organizations by an unknown third-party from the United States.
Check out Mike’s story which includes an insightful interview with MIT-educated scholar Dr. Topher McDougal who conducted a study on the illegal flow of guns to Mexico. It’s called “The Way Of The Gun.”
Mexico’s only gun store, the Directorate of Arms and Munitions also manages the legal import of firearms from other countries. In addition to selling guns made in Mexico, it offers brands from the U.S., Austria and Italy.


text:
The Illinois-based agricultural cooperative GROWMARK Inc. has struck a deal with Southern States Cooperative, based in Richmond, Va., to assume Southern States' wholesale agronomy, fuel and propane assets.
Both companies have agreed to close on the transaction Sep. 1. GROWMARK would also assume several Southern States Cooperative retail locations in Delaware and Maryland.
GROWMARK CEO Jim Spradlin said the partnership enables both organizations to further the goal of being the best agricultural cooperative system in North America.
“The cooperative model is uniquely positioned to deliver that, so this combination of efforts is great news for farmers invested in our cooperative organizations,” Spradlin said.
Interested in more coverage and insights? Receive a free month of Agri-Pulse.
Jeff Stroburg, President and CEO of Southern States, said the company is proud to partner with GROWMARK to extend combined services to members.
“GROWMARK is recognized as one of the premier cooperatives in the nation, and Southern States is excited to partner with them in strengthening our capabilities to serve our customer-owners and our member cooperatives,” Stroburg said.
GROWMARK will provide crop inputs, fuels, propane, and a variety of customer support and marketing services to Southern States member cooperatives. Southern States says it will continue to deliver custom solutions with access to GROWMARK’s product mix, distribution expertise, and drive for innovation.
For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com


text:
Surrey-based General Vending Services has been rebranded as GVS, by Manchester design group Appleby Bowers. The new look aims to give the group a cleaner, simpler and more identifiable image, following the diversification of the business, says GVS commercial director Debbie Mann.
A round-up of moves, changes and appointments in the design world.
From a fully functional American diner through to Google’s unnerving house showing how technology has taken over our lives, we round up our favourites from this year’s Italian design festival.
Research conducted into the diversity of the creative industries shows the sector on the whole to be hard to access for ethnic minorities, women and those from low-income backgrounds.
Japanese designer Kosuke Takahashi talks about why he decided to create a new typeface that incorporates braille and letters to cater for both blind and sighted people.


text:
South Korea is considered the most wired country in the world with an internet penetration rate of 96%, according to Pew Research Center. To meet high customer demand, AWS launched our Asia Pacific (Seoul) Region in 2016 and expanded the region with a third Availability Zone (AZ) in May 2019. Now AWS has thousands of active customers from startups to enterprises in Korea.
Today, I am very happy to announce that we added a fourth AZ to the Asia Pacific (Seoul) Region to support the high demand of our growing Korean customer base. This fourth AZ provides customers with additional flexibility to architect scalable, fault-tolerant, and highly available applications in the Asia Pacific (Seoul) Region.
Now Seoul becomes the forth Region with over four AZs following US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), and Asia Pacific (Tokyo). AZs located in AWS Regions consist of one or more discrete data centers, each with redundant power, networking, and connectivity, and each housed in separate facilities.
Now, you can select the 4th AZ in Seoul region via AWS Management Console, command-line interface (CLI), and SDKs.
We’re excited to bring a new AZ to serve our incredible customers in unprecedented times. Here are some examples from different industries, courtesy of my colleagues in Korea.
First, I would like to introduce how startups utilize AWS Cloud for their fast growing businesses:
Market Kurly is a fast growing startup and is one of Korea’s first grocery delivery platforms to satisfy a typically picky domestic customer base. It has seen exponential growth from $2.9 million in its first year of business in 2015 to $157 million in revenue in 2018. AWS helped to solve a variety of technical challenges managing that scale along with the continual cycle of orders and deliveries.
Sangseok Lim, CTO told us “The COVID-19 has increased the number of customers visiting MarketKurly. Since already moving the infrastructure to AWS Cloud, the flexible and easy expansion enabled us to process massive customer orders without any problems using AWS Auto Scaling and Amazon RDS. So,we were able to respond to massive customer’s demands. In the future, we plan to add features that can satisfy our customers by utilizing various AWS services.”
beNX, a subsidiary company of Big Hit Entertainment managing the Global Superstar, BTS is specializing in digital platforms and fan services. In June 2019, it launched Weverse, a global fan community platform, and Weverse Shop, a commercial platform for artist’s fans. Weverse has grown to a platform supporting a total of 7 million subscribers with an average of 1.5 million visitors per day within 9 months. Weverse Shop is also rapidly growing as a large-scale commerce platform with 250,000 transactions per month.
Wooseok Seo, CEO of beNX told us “A large number of global fans simultaneously visit patterns within a very short time according to the time when the artist’s contents and official products (MD) are released, and stably handles traffic that is 100 times more than usual. Using AWS, we have built a stable service infrastructure, and are successfully implementing automation and improving resource management. beNX is providing innovative experiences to global fans based on solid technology and deep insight into fandom.”
Large enterprise customers in Korea are leveraging AWS’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) services to transform their online businesses:
Korean Air is the South Korea’s largest airline and the country’s flag carrier even while Korean Air celebrates its 50-year anniversary— the company is building on AWS with an eye towards the next 50 years of excellence. For example, Korean Air is starting on its journey by launching innovative projects with Amazon SageMaker to help predict and preempt maintenance for its fleet of aircraft.
Kenny Chang, EVP and CMO of Korean Air told us “The reason why we thought Amazon SageMaker was good was not because it matched our own engine wear and tear result, but SageMaker was able to give us future prediction of what potential patterns of further wear and tear could be, based on machine learning. This helps with improving aircraft safety.”
SK Telecom is the leading mobile telecommunications company in Korea, one of AWS Wavelength partners delivering ultra-low latency applications for 5G devices. SK Telecom developed a Korean-based natural language processor called KoGPT-2 using AWS services to process the massive amounts of data needed to develop the sophisticated, open-source artificial language model.
Eric Davis, Vice President of Global AI Development Group at SK Telecom told us “We expect that KoGPT-2 will contribute to enhancing the technological capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises and startups looking to create innovative applications that interpret the Korean language, such as chatbots for the elderly, and search engines for screening out fake news about COVID-19.”
Finally, here are customer cases from the public sector to manage usage spikes from large scale events:
Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) is the national public broadcaster of South Korea. As one of the largest national television networks, it operates lots of radio, television, and online services. In 2017, KBS migrated its on-premises data center to AWS.
Youngjin Sun, Director of Digital Media Bureau told us “In the on-premise environment, it was hard to scale online traffics such as a short period of time for big events like 2018 Asian Games. But in AWS, we could do all of this with a few clicks. Because it only charges for the amount of time spent on resources, it has been possible to save about 50% or more on the large scale event.”
Sookmyung Women’s University, founded in 1906, has tens of thousands of female students and is dedicated to advancing women’s education. This university ses AWS to scale on-demand to meet its spikes in usages during online trainings.
Hee-Jung Yoon, a professor and the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning told us “We had operated on-premise servers of Learning Management System(LMS) earlier, but by introducing AWS, we realized that the greatest advantage of the cloud was flexibility. Its capacity can be expanded depending on the number of users, and it can flexibly respond to massive connections in the first day of online classes during the COVID-19 situation. This is one of the reasons we chose AWS.”
The launch of this new AZ brings AWS to 77 AZs within 24 geographic regions around the world with plans for nine more AZs and three more AWS Regions in Indonesia, Japan, and Spain. We are continuously looking at expanding our infrastructure footprint globally, driven largely by customer demand. For more information on our global infrastructure, please check out this interactive map.
Please contact AWS Customer Support or your account manager for questions on service availability in this new Availability Zone.
This article was translated into Korean(한국어) in AWS Korea Blog.
Source: AWS News


text:
As reported earlier, the default Miqo’te costume from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will be one of Lightning’s garbs in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. While Lightning is wearing this garb, she will perform Miqo’te’s unique victory pose.
Nintendo has released the first English trailer of Bravely Default! In this new announcement trailer, we get a first look at the translated version of the game, its gameplay and story. Bravely Default will be released exclusively for Nintendo 3DS but the release date still remains unknown!
Ah! It’s less than three months until Christmas! And it’s almost snowing here in Finland as well! Oh, can you already smell the food? Or hear the lovely music? And the most importantly, see the presents! P-P-P-PRESENTS?! If you are facing troubles buying a present for your friend […]
The release of PlayStation 4 is only a few weeks away and we got many news to tell you about it before it’s out for sale. Today, we’re getting a closer look at newly-announced DualShock 4 controllers, Magma Red and Wave Blue. These special colored controllers will be […]
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack Boxart Square Enix has revealed the boxart of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack on their official e-store page. Players who buy the original soundtrack will receive a bonus outfit, Flowering Spirit, which is similar to samurai outfits. The soundtrack is set […]
Big news coming from Mina and Masashi Hamauzu! We’re happy to reveal that IMERUAT will be releasing their second studio album THIS YEAR. Yeah, that’s right! Mina confirmed it on Twitter earlier today! Sadly, she didn’t reveal the name of the album or any songs yet. Yup! The […]
Final Fantasy V is now available on Android devices in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. The game can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, priced £10.99/€14.99. In celebration of Android release, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy IV: The After Years a will be coming to iOS and Android devices […]


text:
Beki Winchel is senior director of content & engagement at Spiro.
This year, it seems AI is all that any marketer can talk about.
The trending technology has become more accessible than ever, forcing brands to get on board—or get left behind.
As both excitement and fear over AI continue to swirl, IBM’s Program Director, Executive Programs & Event Experiences Erin McElroy, and Spiro’s Global Chief Marketing Officer Carley Faircloth uncovered opportunities for savvy brand marketers to use AI to strengthen relationships with their key audiences.
Here’s what you can glean from their conversation at Brand Innovators’ Leadership in Brand Marketing Summit at SXSW:
Using AI to evoke empathy
When you move past consuming to creating, real brand impact can happen.
“You can always tell when you’re watching a marketing campaign that’s really just trying to sell you and then you can tell when you really feel something — when you’re really moved,” McElroy said. “To truly get the value out of AI, we need to continue like we have with other technologies to be creators… We don’t want to be consumers; we want to be creators of AI.”
In a digital brand experience, IMB’s watsonx Assistant team used the company’s AI to simulate what it’s like to be a call center agent — which can be a frustrating experience for both the agent and the customer.
Using gameification, The Contact Center Challenge, placed users in the role of the customer service assistant. For the average participant, it took roughly 45 seconds for frustration to mount over the volume of requests coming at them.
That’s when the watsonx Assistant stepped in, automating some tasks with complex look-ups, natural language and self-serve answers. At the game’s end, participants were shown how they did without the AI, how much the assistant helped when they began drowning in requests, and how much easier it would have been to use AI from the beginning.
A recent McKinsey & Company report revealed that Gen AI can boost productivity in customer care functions by 30% to 40%. But it’s not just a benefit for the company: Gen AI increased issue resolution by 14% an hour and reduced handle time by 9%.
The research shows that automating tasks that don’t require the human touch enables contact center and customer service agents to focus on understanding customers and what they need.
Yet, the numbers don’t give you the feeling of mounting stress as you struggle to handle calls —or the sigh of relief when the tech streamlined tasks. IBM’s experience did. And that more powerfully cemented into B2B customers’ minds and hearts that AI can help customer service agents better focus on and delight customers.
McElroy shared that a COO from a large retail brand went through the experience, commenting that they didn’t understand the value with previous sales pitches of the technology. But after completing the game? “Now I get it,” the leader told McElroy.
“That just meant a lot to me in terms of the power of our experiences,” said McElroy. “We really have an opportunity as experiential marketers to help people understand what’s going on…people remember that, more than a great pitch.”
Experientializing tech to cultivate emotion and relationships
“Whenever we get a brief around a particular novel technology, the challenge for us on [the agency side] is really experientializing that technology in a way that will break through,” said Faircloth. “At the end of the day, it’s about the experience.”
McElroy agreed, adding that it comes down to what you as a brand marketer are trying to accomplish and how it meets your business goals.
“We become more effective marketers and more effective businesspeople when we step back and look at what is truly going to bring value — not just sell, promote or perform,” McElroy said. “The things that perform the best are the things have heart and have that authenticity built into it.”
Faircloth pointed out that it’s all about intention when it comes to the authenticity in your approach.
“It really is about knowing the audience,” Faircloth said. “It’s something we as marketers all strive for and talk about. We do a lot of work understanding the psychographics and demographics—all the things that play into it. We all have to tap into the mind of our consumer.”
McElroy said that understanding your audience is a crucial fundamental for effective AI efforts.
“What is the why behind what you’re doing?” she asked. “When you inform your strategy that way, then the tools start to work for you.”
Moving from AI experimentation to practical brand application
There’s another crucial element to using AI effectively in brand experiences and marketing campaigns: Integration across your organization.
“Surrounding AI, there’s a lot of talk a lot about benefits, risks, data and the whole “garbage in/garbage aspect,” Faircloth said. “What we don’t hear a lot about is organizational preparedness — from experimental, to competent, to adoption, to integration.”
That is often a sticking point, turning the tech from a flash in the pan to a consistent strategy and way of working adopted throughout the organization. How can you move forward on the path of AI integration, regardless of the industry you’re in?
McElroy says it all comes down to being intentional with your strategy and understanding what kind of data you want to capture.
“I think a best practice, no matter what platform you use, is one that will let you own your data because it becomes your intellectual property,” Erin said.
She continued: “This allows you to be a value creator with AI, because you’re taking your own enterprise data and putting it together with the data your [AI] platform offers to create something new.”
It’s important to point out that though data is paramount, it won’t replace marketers actively tuning into and understanding audience behavior shifts.
“That to me is the winning proposition,” McElroy said. “When you’re listening, you end up with a good result.”


text:
Word of Mouth Marketing Association 'Driving Engagement Awards' Return to the 2014 Chicago Auto Show
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING ASSOCIATION ‘DRIVING ENGAGEMENT AWARDS’ RETURN TO THE 2014 CHICAGO AUTO SHOW
CHICAGO (November 18, 2013) – The Chicago Automobile Trade Association, producer of the Chicago Auto Show, and Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) have teamed up again to present one automotive manufacturer with the “Driving Engagement Award” for the most innovative social media campaign of 2013.
WOMMA, the non-profit trade association dedicated to the word of mouth and social media marketing industry, will kick off the 2014 Chicago Auto Show Social Media Preview with a special Driving Engagement Award ceremony on Friday, Feb. 7, to announce the winner and the two runners-up.
“It’s no surprise that word of mouth drives purchase decisions, and we’re thrilled to partner with the ‘king’ of word of mouth – WOMMA – to acknowledge the automotive manufacturers who execute engaging campaigns particularly well,” said Kurt Schiele, 2014 Chicago Auto Show chairman.
According to Suzanne Fanning, president of WOMMA, word of mouth has always, and will always, affect the auto industry – whether in person or online.
“Many auto brands are doing incredible work engaging their fans,” said Fanning. “Our goal is to help increase the use of credible, ethical and effective social media and word of mouth marketing during the Chicago Auto Show Social Media Preview and throughout the public show, to help all auto brands ‘drive engagement’ with their fans.”
American Honda Motor Co., Inc. won the inaugural Driving Engagement Award in 2013 for its YouTube campaign. Honda’s award submission featured a music video from startup band Monsters Calling Home where the band members recorded a music video from inside of their Honda. As part of Honda’s larger campaign, “Honda Loves You Back,” Honda surprised the band by booking them as the musical guest for Jimmy Kimmel Live! and utilized Honda’s full range of social media channels to help share their story.
WOMMA Driving Engagement Award submissions are due before Jan. 1, 2014. WOMMA will carefully review all submissions and the Chicago Auto Show will notify the selected winner and the two runners-up before Feb. 1, 2014. The winning automotive manufacturer will be invited to host a short presentation on its campaign strategy and resulting success during the award ceremony.
For more information on the 2014 Driving Engagement Award, please visit www.chicagoautoshow.com/media/2014-womma-award.
About the Chicago Auto Show
The Chicago Auto Show is the largest on the continent, spanning more than 1 million square feet of production, concept, and exotic vehicle exhibit space. In addition to hosting multiple world and North American vehicle debuts, the Chicago Auto Show's First Look for Charity raises more than $2 million annually for 18 worthy Chicago organizations in a single night. The 2014 public show will be February 8-17. For more information please visit ChicagoAutoShow.com or Facebook.com/ChicagoAutoShow. Media can register for the Chicago Auto Show Media Preview at ChicagoAutoShow.com/media.
Founded in 2004, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association is the official trade association in the industry dedicated to word of mouth and social media marketing. It is comprised of members from elite Fortune 500 brands, agencies and service providers, such as McDonald’s Corporation, Unilever, Nestle, Nissan, Heineken International, Edelman and more. These exceptional thought-leaders across the globe and innovative companies are committed to expanding the word of mouth marketing industry through advocacy, education and ethics. WOMMA is a leader in ethical word of mouth marketing practices through its offline education, such as the renowned WOMMA Summit, professional development opportunities and knowledge sharing with top industry marketers. For more information please visit WOMMA.org.
About The Chicago Automobile Trade Association
Founded in 1904, the Chicago Automobile Trade Association is the nation’s oldest and largest metropolitan dealer organization. It is comprised of more than 400 franchised new-car dealers and an additional 150 allied members. The group’s dealer members employ nearly 20,000 people in the metropolitan area. The association has produced the Chicago Auto Show since 1935. For more information, visit CATA.info.
Back to News


text:
Eason has created new Dublin jobs as part of a €2million investment.
The book and stationary shop will open a new store in Dublin and Limerick - and create 30 positions in the process.
The outlet in the capital, scheduled to open in March, will be located at Clare Hall Shopping Centre on the Malahide Road and will consist of nearly 4,000 square feet of retail space.
Both stores will carry a wide range of categories including books, stationery, news and magazines.
They will also boast a number of Eason’s new retail concepts such as Easonology (Brain Games and Puzzles), Department 51 (Teenage and Young Adults Department introducing the best of young adult books.
Managing Director of Eason, Conor Whelan said: "Despite a fragile economic recovery and ongoing challenges in the retail market, our ambition is to continue growing and developing the Eason business and we’re very pleased to add these two highly sought after locations in Limerick and Dublin to our store estate.
“The stores will reflect the very considerable investment we’ve made in recent years to make our stores contemporary, exciting and inspiring destinations for our customers, offering an unrivalled product range and exciting new retail concepts, which have been very well received by our customers.”
The two new stores will bring Eason’s total stores across the Island of Ireland to 65 and Eason’s total investment in transforming and upgrading its retail estate in recent years to €12million.


text:
Your idea can become a change
You’ve been trying to make.
Let’s give it and you all possible
chances of success
AI | BLOCKCHAIN | BUSINESS | CLOUD | IOT | MOBILE | TECHNOLOGY | WEB |
Satoshi Nakamoto described bitcoin as “a peer-to-peer electronic cash system,” but as prices increased, the vision of bitcoin as a replacement for cash was largely put on hold. Besides bitcoin transactions could only be done from areas which had access to high-speed internet.
Blockstream, the startup is now streaming the entire bitcoin blockchain from five strategically positioned satellites to reach all major continents. Bitcoins will no more require internet access for conducting everyday transactions.
More good news for blockchain users follows with the introduction of a new application programming interface (API) that lets users send encrypted messages to each other from areas considered to be some of the remotest regions on earth. The payment for the messages is paid using bitcoins through the Lightning Network. This has been designed to open up bitcoin to the higher transaction for wider retail operations.
The bitcoin industry which is, now valued at $59 billion, is going into its tenth year with struggling prices and a probably an uncertain future. The cryptocurrency, also dubbed as the “magic internet money,” has broken free from the internet, and now more importantly, from internet service providers.
Blockstream CEO, Adam Back says that he sees increased robustness of the bitcoin network with a lower participating cost, encouraging businesses to rely on the service for backup. This he says will also serve emerging markets to use as their primary access to the bitcoin network at a lower cost.
Blockstream was initially operating with only four satellites that broadcast to North America, South America, Europe, and Africa. With the fifth satellite in use, it will now be able to serve the Asia-Pacific region, covering all major land areas in the world except Greenland and Antarctica.
Furthermore, the data being transmitted by the satellite network has expanded to include all bitcoin transactions instead of the details on the final blocks of transactions that were previously available. In January 2019 the new API will also let users send messages about price and more without having to access the internet.
According to Blockstream’s chief strategy officer Samson Mow, if “Bitcoin has always been about uncensorable money,” it is now about “uncensorable communications as well”. In making bitcoin transactions affordable by letting users send smaller bitcoin payments, the newly integrated Lightning Network enables micro-transactions, allowing users to send messages where the sender, receiver, and content all are protected from any third-party observation.
The new satellite and API are expected to lead to increased development of smartphone and feature phone applications that help link Blockstream’s GreenAddress bitcoin wallet, its Liquid Network for enabling faster transactions between exchanges, and its Cryptocurrency Data Feed for real-time and historical bitcoin exchange data. This has been developed in partnership with the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of New York Stock Exchange.
People would be interested in connecting the two things together, one is to receive bitcoin data via satellite and then relay it through mesh networks in a rural area or a village where access to internet is comparatively expensive , so this serves as a low-cost way to get connected to the bitcoin network and participate in the bitcoin economy. Besides providing a backup for mesh networks, the new Blockstream Satellite can directly connect these interconnected internet substitutes in isolated regions around the world where half the population does not have direct access to banking.
An enterprise version of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly taking place in the form of large hedge funds. A global infrastructure is being created for the ecosystems building regulatory-compliant access to bitcoin investment opportunities meant for high profile investors. While startups like Blockstream are continuing to build out a global payment infrastructure, which is more into serving the unbanked in developing economies.
Mow doesn’t think that serving the unbanked will create an immediate impact on the struggling price of bitcoin, but will augment bitcoin and make it more robust. He believes this will leverage the bitcoin ten years from now. With services and products connected to bitcoin, it will become stronger and easier to use in the due course.


text:
DeWine Announces COVID-19 Curfew
Ohio Statewide Curfew Details
Beginning Thursday, November 19, Ohioans are subject to a statewide curfew from 10PM to 5AM for 21 days. The curfew does not apply to individuals who are:
- At work;
- Commuting to/from work;
- Obtaining food, including grocery shopping or drive through/pickup/delivery services; and
- Obtaining or seeking medical/mental health supplies or treatment.
Governor DeWine, in response to questions from the press, acknowledged that considerable person-to-person contacts can still occur during daytime hours and challenged Ohioans to do more to help combat the spread of the virus. For example, he asked Ohioans to consolidate shopping trips and consider doing virtual gatherings as opposed to seeing friends and family in person. The Governor described the curfew as the least disruptive method to curb the spread of the virus, as opposed to a complete shutdown of economic activity.
A copy of the order is not yet available.
Face Covering Requirement
As we mentioned in our Friday, November 13, update, a revised face covering order was issued.
With exceptions, the following provisions are applicable to retail businesses:
- Each store must post a sign outlining face-covering requirements at all public entrances;
- Each store is responsible for ensuring that customers and employees are wearing masks; and
- The creation of a new Retail Compliance Unit, to ensure compliance.
Retail stores that violate the order receive a written warning for the first violation. A second violation can result in closure of the store for up to 24 hours. Governor DeWine said agents began visiting retail stores this week.
Also, the Ohio Department of Health formally issued the Revised Order to Limit and/or Prohibit Mass Gatherings in the State of Ohio, with Exceptions, which we previously reported.
The order places the following restrictions on wedding receptions, funeral repasts, and other events at banquet facilities:
- No socializing or activities in open congregate areas and no dancing;
- Guests must be seated at all times, but traditional wedding reception events such as first dance, toasts, tossing the bouquet and cutting the cake are permitted;
- If serving food and beverages, guests must be served at their seats. No self-serve buffets and no self-serve bar areas permitted;
- Masks must be worn at all times, unless actively consuming food or beverages; and
No more than 10 people should be seated at a table and all must be from the same household.
Register Now for the 2023 Ohio Business Matchmaker
For a more than a decade, the Ohio Business Matchmaker has connected small businesses to government contracting opportunities. As one of the largest business to government matchmaking events in the state, businesses interested in working with the federal, state, or local government have the opportunity to meet with representatives to market and sell their goods and services.read more
Clinton County Port Authority Proud to be an SBDC Ambassador
The Clinton County Port Authority (CCPA) is proud to be one of 50 Ambassadors for the 2023 SBDC Day on March 15, 2023. The day is a national, collective proclamation of the impact America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) have on the success of our nation’s dreamers, innovators, and doers – America’s small businesses.read more
Now’s the time to Tune up your BRE Program and Take advantage of Early Bird Discounts
OEDI’s Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) Course is taking place May 25 – 26, in Dublin, Ohio. The course is an intensive two-day in person course that focuses on how economic developers work with companies to help them succeed, grow and expand in their community.read more


text:
Signup for our newsletter to get notified about sales and new products. Add any text here or remove it.
No products in the cart.
Portland OG Cool Nutz returns with the dope new video for “Old” produced by TOPE. [...]
MSP Sonny, Swindle and Kae One move as distinguished gentlemen. They also know a thing [...]
After releasing his new album You-Topia , California Alternative artist T.K. Other Realm debuts new video “Inferno”. [...]
Virginia is home to a plethora of talents ranging from backpack rapper, conscious emcees, and [...]
“Out the Dirt” by Naya Ali is a gritty anthem about not only trusting the [...]
Young Night is a diverse and talented New York rapper/songwriter who took up after his [...]
Los Angeles based songstress Kaleigh recently released her new music video “Twisted // Mistake” produced [...]
With influences that include Aaliyah, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, ALUS has already caught the [...]
Detroit is home to many legendary Hip-Hop acts, including a promising new talent by the [...]
Username or email address *
Lost your password?


text:
Netflix released stranger things games based on its popular show Stranger Things: 1984 and Stranger Things 3. However, the two mobile games will only be available for Netflix users in Poland. The video-streaming app shared the development through a tweet and stated that it is at an early stage of gaming on their platform, this means that users may encounter problems while playing the games.
Let’s talk Netflix and gaming.
Today members in Poland can try Netflix mobile gaming on Android with two games, Stranger Things: 1984 and Stranger Things 3. It’s very, very early days and we’ve got a lot of work to do in the months ahead, but this is the first step. https://t.co/yOl44PGY0r
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) August 26, 2021
Netflix released stranger things games only for their subscribers
Both games can only be accessed by Netflix subscribers on their Android devices. The company confirmed that it would not charge any additional fee to access the games, they will also be free of advertisements. Netflix is looking to expand the test in the coming months, including iOS.
When users tap the Install Now button on the Netflix app, they’ll be taken to the Google Play Store and they can download the game to their device. The games can also be download directly from the Play Store, though the user will need to confirm their Netflix log-in credentials. Netflix is also preparing to launch – a tactical game adapted from the Netflix Original series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance – on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Mac.
Netflix experimenting with different categories of entertainment
Netflix announced its entry into the gaming market after the company released its second-quarter earnings which state that the video-streaming app had lost 43,000 subscribers in the US and Canada. Last month, Netflix announced the hiring of Mike Verdu, an ex-EA and Facebook Executive, as the vice president of game development, Verdu has previously worked with Facebook to develop games for Oculus virtual-reality headsets.
Read more: Netflix is planning to debut in the gaming market
Analyst Jason Bazinet wrote, “This feels like a significant event with broad ramifications across the video-games landscape. Netflix’s move creates obvious risks for more prominent game developers and publishers.”


text:
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s factory output is expected to show more volatility with a Reuters poll forecasting a slump for November from a strong bounce the previous month, and the outlook was anything but encouraging given easing global growth and a Sino-U.S. trade dispute.
Industrial output was seen falling 1.9 percent in November from the previous month, which would be the fastest decline since January this year, the poll of 16 economists found.
It grew 2.9 percent in October for the quickest month-on-month gain since 2015, which itself came after a contraction in September as natural disasters forced some factories to halt operations.
“Catching-up on production after damages caused by natural disasters are coming to an end. And exports of autos and semiconductor related products are also weakening,” said Yusuke Koshiyama, analyst at Mizuho Research Institute.
Analysts project factory output to rebound in the fourth quarter after typhoons and a huge earthquake caused supply constraints and shrank production 1.3 percent in July-September from the previous quarter.
But slowing external demand and trade frictions point to potential trouble ahead for the export-reliant economy.
The trade ministry will publish the factory output data at 8:50 am. Dec. 28, Japan time (2350 GMT Dec. 27).
Retail sales, due at the same time as the factory output report, are forecast to have risen 2.2 percent in November from a year earlier, the poll showed, slowing from a revised 3.6 percent growth in October.
Still, it would be the 13th straight month of gains.
“Sales of auto rose, inbound demand remained strong and gasoline prices year-on-year stayed high, which helped retail sales,” Mizuho’s Koshiyama said.
The poll also found Tokyo’s core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices, rose 0.9 percent in December from a year earlier, down from 1.0 percent in November.
The Tokyo index is available a month before nationwide core CPI, which for November showed prices still well behind the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent inflation target.
“Although the pace of price gains in electricity and city gas accelerated, prices of oil related items slowed down,” said Koya Miyamae, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities.
On the labour market front, the poll forecast the nation’s jobless rate at 2.4 percent in November, unchanged from October, with the jobs-to-applicants ratio seen improving to 1.63 from 1.62 in October.
The internal affairs office will announce Tokyo core CPI and job data at 8:30 a.m. on Friday (2350 GMT on Thursday).
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)


text:
GOMEL, 18 October (BelTA) – The trade between Belarus' Gomel Oblast and Kazakhstan has gone up 7% from the start of the year to exceed $70 million, Gomel Oblast Governor Gennady Solovei told the media on the sidelines of the international forum Business Days in Gomel on 18 October, BelTA has learned.
According to the governor, Gomel food products and industrial goods are most popular with Kazakhstan partners.
“Kazakhstan's industrialization map has included a project of Gomselmash to set up a plant to assemble grain harvesters in the city of Kostanay,” Gennady Solovei said. Pavlodar supplies steel goods for Belorusneft.
Joint research programs on health protection are implemented by the National Research Center for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology (Gomel) and the Central Hospital of Invalids of the Patriotic War of Kazakhstan.
Gomel Oblast enjoys good partnership and friendship with China as well. “For more than 20 years of cooperation the Belarusian region and China have developed a solid economic bridge. In Harbin there is Gomselmash's joint company to assemble farming machinery, while the Gomel Engine Repair Plant is implementing an investment project together with Chinese counterparts to produce motor equipment and small-capacity engines,” the Gomel Oblast governor said. Solid trading relations with Chinese partners are maintained by Belarusian Steel Works, SvetlogorskKhimvolokno, Svetlogorsk Pulp and Board Mill and others.
“A loan allocated by the Chinese government was used to reconstruct the highway between Gomel and Minsk. Some 12 houses for 713 apartments for orphans have been built thanks to technical and economic assistance. Five more houses are to be built in the near future,” Gennady Solovei said.
According to him, Gomel Oblast has been steadily developing relations with Italy. Since the start of the year more than $7 million of Italian FDI has been injected in the economy of the region. With the help of the Italian capital Seismotechnika Company is implementing a project to produce modern drilling equipment. Gomel Oblast have also been implementing various humanitarian programs, including those aimed at improving children's health, joint work with Belarusian doctors and exchanges of sports delegations.
According to Gennady Solovei, official and business contacts are expanding with other states as well, and such an event as Business Days in Gomel is a so-called institution of the region's integration into the global economy.
Taking part in the 5th edition of Business Days in Gomel are representatives of 18 countries. The program features three sessions and the 16th national exhibition Business in Regions. The event is organized by the Gomel office of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the support of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee.


text:
Cash grants available for businesses reopening after lockdown
- Credit: CHARLOTTE BOND
Pubs, restaurants and non-essential stores in east Suffolk could receive a cash boost of up to £18,000 each as they prepare to reopen after lockdown.
The Restart Grant, which was unveiled in March's Budget, has been launched today.
East Suffolk Council has said the scheme will support eligible businesses with one-off grants of between £2,667 to £18,000.
Two previous grant schemes, the Local Restrictions Support Grant and Additional Restrictions Grant, are now closed to new applications.
To be eligible to receive the Restart Grant, firms must be registered for business rates, trading on April 1 and fall into one of the relevant business sectors, which can be found on East Suffolk's website.
As part of the government's roadmap out of lockdown, non-essential stores can reopen on April 12 and hospitality venues can serve customers outside from this date.
Paul Wood, head of economic development and regeneration at East Suffolk, said: "The business grant schemes have seen over £103million paid out to local businesses in east Suffolk since the start of the pandemic.
You may also want to watch:
"The latest scheme offers further support to businesses to help ensure they can re-open safely and get back to welcoming customers once again.
"We want to see all businesses in east Suffolk in the best possible position to recover, so we urge all those eligible to apply for this grant so they can receive the full amount they’re entitled to."
- 1 Latitude line-up reveal delayed as bosses look to learn from Liverpool test
- 2 McDonald's branch to close for up to three months
- 3 'Absolutely crazy' - Beer gardens bustle on first weekend open
- 4 Photos of suspected stolen dogs released in bid to find owners
- 5 Police told family of father who died after restraint that he was sleeping
- 6 'Lucky number seven' - Landlord opens 'flagship' pub in hometown
- 7 Is this your Range Rover? - Police seize vehicles and cash in raid
- 8 Air ambulance called after man and woman suffer medical emergencies
- 9 Driver flees after crashing into level crossing
- 10 Driver suffers minor injuries in crash with minibus


text:
Nestlé changes child advertising tact
Weighing into the child obesity debate, Nestlé, the Swiss-based food manufacturer, is to cut the sugar content of some of its most popular childrens’ foods, as a part of its ‘Global Marketing to Children Principles’ initiative that is about to be released.
Among the products to be reformulated is the renowned Milo brand, with the company reporting it will stamp out advertising to children of products that do not meet a set nutritional profile.
All products will be analysed and, if they cannot meet the new set of nutritional guidelines, they will not be promoted to children.
The list of products that Nestlé has established will no longer advertise to children will include: Uncle Toby’s Fruit Roll Ups, Country Cup Noodlers Alphabet Chicken Soup, Nestlé Stars In-cred-i Bites and Wonka Bertie Beetle.
“What we, our food technology will drive us towards is finding ways of reducing those things over time, but still retain taste. Without taste the consumer is just simply not interested in buying anything,” Ian Alwill, Nestlé Australia’s marketing manager, explained on ABC local radio.
“It’s fairly clear that in order to have a positive outcome with our products in the community, that improved nutritional standards need to be achieved.”
There have been calls for a ban on food advertising to children, though the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released a draft report in August recommending no general restrictions on food and beverage advertising.
The ACMA is, however, proposing to strengthen certain provisions regulating advertising to children. These proposals would further restrict the use of licensed characters, popular personalities and celebrities to promote and endorse products immediately before, during and after ‘C’ and ‘P’ periods. They would also clarify rules for premium offers, such as toys offered with food and beverage purchases.
A report in The Australian also indicates that Nestlé’s global initiative is being led by its Australian division, though the company has been seeking to position itself as a world leader in health and wellness over recent years with the assistance of recent acquisitions such as Jenny Craig.


text:
Hybrid car maker Fisker lays off most of its workers
Fisker Automotive laid off most of its workers today and is struggling to find investors to keep the start-up maker of luxury plug-in hybrid cars going.
The governor's office in Delaware, where Fisker hoped to build one of its vehicles, said it was "disheartened to learn that Fisker intends to lay off most of its remaining workforce." Fisker planned to refurbish and reopen an old General Motors plant in Wilmington, Del., to build a less-expensive model, called Atlantic.
The automaker is headquartered in California and most of the layoffs took place there.
Fisker previously hired Kirkland & Ellis, a bankruptcy law firm, to assess the car company's options as Fisker continues looking for investors.
No one was answering phones at the Anaheim, Calif., office today and the public relations staff is among those who have lost their jobs.
But in a release, the company said: "Today, Fisker met with a group of employees in our Southern California office to inform them that this is their last day with the company. Yesterday, we met with a core group of employees in Southern California to express our desire that they remain with the company while we continue to address the challenges before us. We expect that at the end of the day we will have retained approximately 25% of our workforce.
"The Company regrets having to terminate any of its hardworking and talented people. But this was a necessary strategic step in our efforts to maximize the value of Fisker's core assets."
Retaining 25% of the workforce would leave the company with about 50 employees. Details emerging from California suggest while the rank and file have been let go, the automaker is retaining executives and managers to continue efforts to secure financing or sell assets with a deadline looming this month to repay a portion of Fisker's $193 million in government loans.
The layoffs come on the heels of the high profile resignation of company founder and executive chairman Henrik Fisker, 49, last month over disagreements with the direction the company was taking in terms of its business strategy.
The company halted production late last year of its $103,000 Karma plug-in hybrid because its battery supplier, A123 Systems, filed for bankruptcy protection and has since has sold most of its assets to Wanxiang Group, a large Chinese auto parts supplier.
Fisker Automotive has had a rough road since it was founded in 2007.
It recalled at least three times its Karma luxury sedan, made in Finland by contract assembler Valmet Automotive.
Even Mother Nature exacted a toll when more than 300 Karmas awaiting delivery were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy last year and the insurance company denied coverage. A lawsuit and settlement followed.
The launch of a more affordable midsize sedan, the Atlantic, also was delayed as the company has struggled to secure financing. Then two Chinese automakers who were reported to be interested in investing in Fisker decided not to make an offer.
Fisker received $529 million from the Department of Energy to develop the Atlantic, but after the Karma's rough launch and slow sales, the DOE froze the $336 million in untapped loans. The first repayment on the $193 million of the loan already distributed is due April 22.
Fisker has sold about 2,000 Karmas worldwide. Consumer Reports panned it.
Tony Posawatz is the automaker's third CEO in a year, joining last summer from his previous job as head of the electric vehicle program at General Motors.
Last fall, Posawatz said Fisker had raised more than $1.2 billion in private equity since 2007.


text:
Exports Drive Third Quarter GDP Growth, Vilsack Urges TPP Passage
Third quarter GDP numbers were released Friday. The U.S. economy grew at the fastest rate in two years at 2.9% from July through September. Some industry analysts credit export markets, specifically soybeans for the surge, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack agrees.
"Today's report on gross domestic product growth in the third quarter of 2016 brings welcome news for our overall economy, and brings further affirmation that America's agriculture sector remains a shining star in our nation's ability to seize export opportunities,” he said in a statement Friday.
During the third quarter not only did economic growth increase, but export sales did too. Vilsack said exports grew 10% in the third quarter, the highest growth rate since 2013, with agricultural exports “contributing disproportionately to the gains.” According to MarketWatch, a boom in soybean exports due to a poor crop in South America contributed significantly to the increase. In his statement, Vilsack applauded farmers for seizing export markets despite the strong U.S. dollar.
“Although a strong U.S. dollar and lower commodity prices have created headwinds for America's farmers and ranchers, this report demonstrates their ability to remain resilient and to seize opportunities to sell U.S. food, fiber and fuel to markets around the world,” he said.
Vilsack is using today’s GDP numbers as an argument in favor of trade agreements, specifically the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP has been under much scrutiny this election cycle and many policy analysts are skeptical an agreement will be reached.
“Since 2009, USDA has worked to remove hundreds of unfair barriers to trade; open or expand key markets for products such as beef, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and more; and led 17 trade and investment missions and attended 23 trade shows, generating billions-of-dollars in sales for U.S. businesses,” Vilsack said. "In order to continue this momentum, we can and should do more to expand global markets. U.S. farmers are facing unprecedented competition amid a slowing global economy and appreciating dollar. That's why it is important for Congress to approve the TPP.”
According to Secretary Vilsack, exports are responsible for 20% of U.S. farm income and support more than 1 million American jobs on and off the farm. Earlier this month, the American Farm Bureau Federation released data from its study on TPP finding that the agreement will boost annual net farm income in the United States by $4.4 billion.
“As the agriculture sector expands, U.S. real income will increase by $57.3 billion and 66% of GDP growth from TPP would go to American workers through increased wages and job opportunities,” Vilsack said. "American agriculture needs the good deal laid out in the TPP agreement to bolster its position in the world economy."
Not everyone agrees TPP is the silver bullet for agriculture. While groups like the National Milk Producers Federation have said the agreement would be a benefit to U.S. dairy, some farmers and industry analysts are skeptical of the deal. The chance of the TPP coming before Congress in the lame duck session is slim, and most political analysts think it will be January before any movement is seen.


text:
Friday, April 21, 2006
Google discovering Chinese word for 'minefield'
Google's Chinese search engine wasn't born under a lucky star, it seems. First we had the brouhaha over Google's conformity to Chinese censorship (see Suggested new motto: "Don't Be Hypocrites", Brin to blogosphere: "Forget about Don't Be Evil. We're now going for Do Be Practical", OK. Who ordered the 'Google #1 Hypocrite' mugs? and "No, we're not evil. And we don't want to talk about it"); and now Google's recently unveiled Chinese name has attracted the scorn of its Chinese user base.
'Gu Ge' are the newly chosen Chinese characters, which means as much as 'Valley Song' or 'Harvest Song', and they have undoubtedly been chosen for their combinination of sound similarity with 'Google', and a positive meaning.
Choosing a Chinese name for your brand is a tricky game, much like navigating a minefield. A cause célèbre are Coca-Cola's early Chinese years, during which it was marketed under four characters with the correct Ko-Ka-Ko-La sound, that unfortunately meant something like Bite Your Wax Tadpole. The story goes that the name had been chosen by a Cantonese-speaking secretary in Coca-Cola's Guangzhou head office, who had no idea what was at stake.
Sinds the early 90s Coca-Cola in China is known as 'Ke Kou Ke Le', which is a pun on 'Tasteful Soft Drink' and 'Happy Tasting Drink' respectively. 'Ke Le' has even become the Chinese word for 'soft drink'.
Over to Google, whose advisers must've been keen on avoiding a blooper like this. But alas, a minefield has many mines. 'Valley Song' doesn't only sound rural in English, but also in Chinese. Which is decidedly uncool in the eyes of Chinese digerati, who populate the glass and steel canyons of Beijing's and Shanghai's business district and do not like to be reminded of the undeveloped, uncivilized and utterly poor agricultural hinterland that still takes up most of China.
Unhappy Chinese Google fans have even set up an online petition under the unambiguous name NoGuGe.com, where thousands of signatures have been collected since its inception last Wednesday. Google should be cool, and 'Gu Ge' doesn't cut it.
Doing business in China ain't easy.
Posted by Jos. at 4/21/2006 04:48:00 pm


text:
Life is a constant battle between being engaged with one's surroundings and daydreaming. Research at UC's Carl H. Lindner College of Business explores the notion of that dreamy state-of-mind and whether drifting thoughts ...
Policies that push cellphone carriers to alert customers when they're about to exceed their plan limit are supposed to make things better for consumers.
This Christmas, as consumers around the world hope Santa will give them a smartphone, TV or tablet computer, few people know that the lowly carrot inspired the liquid crystals at the core of such hi-tech gadgets.
Diet Crystal Pepsi. Frito Lay Lemonade. Watermelon-flavored Oreos. Through the years, the shelves of stores have been filled with products that turned out to be flops, failures, duds, and losers.
From drones, cars and robots to jewelry, appliances and TVs, the new technology on display at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show promises to be smarter and friendlier than ever.
Now that most consumers download and stream their movies and music, more and more CDs and DVDs will end up in landfills or be recycled. But soon these discarded discs could take on a different role: curbing the release of ...
Women seek a greater variety of products and services when they are ovulating, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
The battle to be at the center of your digital life has taken on a new dimension amid a proliferation of connected devices.
A coalition of consumer and child advocacy groups asked US regulators Tuesday to investigate Google's new YouTube app for children, claiming it inappropriately delivers too much advertising to young viewers.


text:
China Labour Bulletin is quoted in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.
10 January 2013
Xiang Zhihua stood on the side of the factory-lined street one afternoon in late November with his family and all their belongings piled up in roughly a dozen mismatched boxes and bags. Xiang, 27, was moving back to his hometown in Anhui province after spending roughly five years as a factory worker in Shanghai’s Qingpu district, where factories are interspersed with farm fields.
Xiang, his wife and his four-year-old daughter had no reason to stay in Qingpu, he said, because wages in Anhui have risen rapidly and are only slightly lower than in Shanghai. Eight years ago, he would have earned only RMB400 (US$48) a month in his home province, but now he can make RMB3,000 (US$480) a month. “In a few years, there won’t be people coming here,” he said, referring to the strip of factories along the road in Qingpu. “Every place is becoming developed.”
Xiang is one of the many low-wage Chinese workers who find themselves in increasingly high demand. (As he puts it, “If I wanted a job today, I could find it.”) A decade ago, the stream of labor flowing from China’s countryside to urban factories seemed limitless. But now that flow of migrants is beginning to ebb. Factories in southern China began experiencing labor shortages at the end of 2003, forcing them to choose between leaving assembly lines unattended or continually raising wages. In one example, a chemical factory in Guangdong province drew only 50 applicants in 2006 for a hiring campaign aimed at recruiting 200-300 workers, according to the China Labour Bulletin.
The shortage will only worsen as the last migrant workers unneeded on farms move into cities, which some economists say could happen as soon as 2017. Workers are gaining the economic clout to command higher wages and better working conditions in addition to working in the location of their choosing. Higher wages undoubtedly benefit workers by raising standards of living, but they also hurt Chinese manufacturers hoping to compete with low-cost exporters in other countries. Manufacturers will need move up the value chain – making more complex goods that require a more skilled but leaner workforce – to find new advantages over their competitors.
The army of migrant workers that form the backbone of the Chinese economy have already witnessed cataclysmic changes since the country’s economic opening in the late 1970s spurred rapid development. As Beijing seeks to recast its growth model once more, the next generation of migrant workers and their already urbanized brethren must adapt to make it in the new Chinese economy.
A new model worker
Migrant workers are the foundation of China’s modern economy, driving low-cost export manufacturing. In the decades following reform and opening, rural residents flooded into cities, beginning with southern Chinese manufacturing centers like Shenzhen. This massive migration caused China’s urban population to swell by roughly 500 million in the last 30 years.
These first-generation workers were true migrants. Government restrictions prevented them from officially becoming urban residents, making them mostly ineligible for welfare and public education, and many migrants stayed in one place for only a few years before moving to another factory or returning to the countryside. These mostly destitute ex-farmers were willing to suffer through poor conditions for low wages in order to feed their families and provide a better future for their children.
But their children, born in the 1980s and 1990s, were raised with drastically different expectations. The second generation mostly grew up in cities as the children of migrants or was otherwise spared from farm labor by being sent to school. This army of 100 million workers born after 1980 accounted for roughly two-thirds of all migrant workers in 2009, according to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
These second-generation workers identify as urban youth, rather than rural migrants, said Mary Gallagher, a political science professor at University of Michigan who studies migrant labor. Most are tied to rural areas only by their official household registration, or hukou. “I call it the hairstyle test, which is if a migrant worker has a hairstyle, he’s not going back to farming,” Gallagher said.
A generation of only children, these migrants inherited the hopes their first generation parents had for them. “They are no longer willing to toil or work in unclean environments,” said Liu Kaiming, head of the Shenzhen-based Institute of Contemporary Observation, a labor rights organization. That includes jobs as construction workers and housekeepers, leading wages to rise in those categories.
The new generation is often willing to take lower paying jobs that are cushier or offer more opportunities for career advancement. “While the first generation would only ask how much they could earn, the new generation first asks whether there will be rest days every week and whether they will have to work overtime,” said Lu Ming, a labor economist at Fudan University. “Only after that will they ask about wages.”
Turn, baby, turn
China’s labor market is headed for a drastic transformation as rural workers with the means and incentive to move to cities dwindle. Economists measure this progression using a concept called the Lewis Turning Point, first promulgated in the 1950s by economist Arthur Lewis. As economies develop, workers are drawn to cities hoping to find jobs in high growth industries.
At some point, however, there are no more rural workers available with both the money and the incentive – a large-enough disparity between rural and urban wages – to move to cities. The Lewis Turning Point occurs when this supply of rural labor is exhausted and wages spike across the economy as employers try to attract remaining workers.
Other major Asian economies saw their Lewis turning points pass decades ago. The point occurred in Japan around 1960, in Taiwan in the late ’60s and in South Korea in the early ’70s. China’s turning point has lagged behind these countries because of its enormous population and a 30-year pause in economic development under Mao Zedong.
The Lewis Turning Point affects wages across the Chinese economy, but workers in different sectors and regions will experience the shift in wages and conditions unevenly. For example, a boom in higher education in recent decades has left China with too many graduates of four-year universities, so these educated workers still struggle to find desirable white-collar work.
The impact of the Lewis Turning Point will be most obvious in manufacturing, which the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated employed roughly 100 million Chinese as of 2008. But even in that sector, wages will vary widely by region, with coastal areas seeing far more rapid increases than inland provinces.
Economists disagree about when the turning point will fall in China. However, most admit that although the Lewis Turning Point is useful in economic models, the actual shift in the labor market will be more of a “Lewis Turning period” that takes place over many years.
One 2010 study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) which examined wages concluded that the turning point had already passed in 2003. The study found salaries and demand for workers in Chinese villages began increasing rapidly after 2003. Average wages for male workers in eastern Chinese villages only increased from about RMB17 (US$2.05) per day in 1998 to RMB23 (US$2.78) per day in 2003. But from 2003 to 2007, wages doubled to roughly RMB41 (US$5.39).
Models that measure the number of workers, however, predict the turning point remains a few years off. Li Xunlei, chief economist of Haitong International Securities Group, predicts that with an average migration rate of 8 million per year the pool of 40-60 million excess rural workers will be exhausted between 2017 and 2020. Separately, a forthcoming IMF study estimates that China has 150 million excess workers, leading the turning point to fall between 2020 and 2025.
The IMF, Haitong and IFPRI assessments each have their merits, but they all indicate that the “turning period” began in the early 2000s and will continue for several more years. On the ground in China, it’s also evident that the shift is well underway.
Owners of Chinese factories are already dealing with rapidly rising wages. Top Form International, an underwear manufacturer that supplies Wal-Mart, felt the pressure of rising wages acutely in Shenzhen, where the minimum wage has risen 50% in roughly three years, chief financial officer Michael Austin told China Economic Review last March. While the company will continue to use factories in China, it is choosing to expand in other countries like Cambodia where the minimum wage is US$61 per month compared to roughly US$240 in Shenzhen and US$106 in Longnan, far inland in Gansu, as of 2011.
“Obviously, the availability and cost of labor is incredibly important,” Austin said. “We go not necessarily where you want to go on your holidays.”
Movin' on up
But if China’s low-cost manufacturing economy runs out of steam before the country transitions to a new model for growth, a painful period of economic malaise could set in. To minimize this gap between growth models, China can introduce some reforms to buy time before the clock runs out on low-cost manufacturing.
The Lewis Turning Point is not set in stone; rather, China can push it back by freeing up more rural laborers. “Policies can play a significant role in making sure that the turning point is happening in the most efficient way economically and also, from a social point of view, the most balanced way,” said Raymond Torres, an economist and the director of the International Labour Organization’s research arm.
That’s a daunting task, considering “the labor question in China is related to every other hard problem that the government faces,” said Gallagher of University of Michigan. “It’s related to the one-child policy, it’s related to hukou reform, it’s related to land.” Beijing must hope to gradually reform all of these policies to keep factories full in the face of labor shortages.
Leaders could start by reforming the hukou system, which requires all Chinese to register to a single city or county, which is then responsible for providing social services. To avoid an influx of migrants, many cities make it difficult for rural residents to obtain urban hukous, though Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu and Shenzhen have launched pilot programs to give residency to migrants that could eventually be expanded nationwide.
But many migrants don’t want to surrender their rural hukous, which give them rights to collectively owned rural land that they view as a kind of insurance policy to fall back on in tough times. If the government introduces reforms to give rural hukou holders full ownership of their land so they can sell it and reap the profits (see “This land is my land,” page 26) or allows them to retain rental and farming rights with an urban hukou, then migrants would be more likely to make the switch.
In the longer term, many China watchers argue the primary solution for labor shortages would be easing the one-child policy. But even if the policy were eliminated today, the babies born would not enter the work force for 15 to 18 years, by which time the Lewis Turning Point will likely have passed.
Implementing reforms to the hukou system, land ownership or the one-child policy will require great political will and coordination. Many local governments oppose hukou reform because they would be required to foot the bill for more social services. But the central leadership nevertheless understands that something must be done to free up more workers. If wages rise too fast and unskilled jobs leave China, unemployed workers may blame the government.
By many appearances, China is entering a golden age of manufacturing. Unskilled workers can easily find factory jobs that provide for a somewhat comfortable life. But this period will not be sustainable: As wages rise over the course of years or decades, China will shed factory jobs to lower-cost countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia.
Economists say Chinese companies must look for advantages other than costs to compete – namely, moving up the value chain to make more sophisticated goods that require fewer workers and more advanced production techniques. For example, instead of merely assembling iPads with imported parts, Chinese factories would seek to make more of the iPad’s high-tech components such as cameras, screens and processors. South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese companies have already done this in a variety of industries, including semiconductors and televisions.
Chinese workers must prepare for the new, higher-tech economy that Beijing seeks to create. At the least, they must know how to use computers and read English to operate machines. They will also need the critical thinking skills to adjust sophisticated manufacturing equipment, rather than simply doing repetitive actions. For example, a worker will need to know how to alter a computer model that in turn tells a metal cutter to move by a fraction of a millimeter, rather than just being able to stitch clothing straight.
But with plenty of well-paying unskilled jobs available now, most workers have little incentive to get the vocational training necessary for higher-tech jobs. For example, a 26-year-old factory worker in Shanghai, who asked simply to be identified as Mr. Zhang, studied chemistry at a technical school for three years before finding a job at a state-owned rubber manufacturer that pays RMB3,000 (US$481.49) per month. Meanwhile, his unskilled 38-year-old coworker, who has been at the company a similar amount of time, said he earned RMB4,000 (US$641.98) a month – the pay difference being based on age and not a worker’s market value.
The first step in making this shift is convincing young Chinese to go to high school, generally a requirement to later attend vocational school. But most Chinese only think of high school as a stepping stone to four-year universities. With too many Chinese college graduates and too few coveted white-collar jobs, many youth simply choose to go directly into the workforce after completing the nine years of compulsory education.
The challenge of creating an army of highly skilled workers adds one more difficulty to China’s already painful economic shift. Some workers in the higher-tech economy will welcome better pay and jobs that require more thought and less toil. But some workers without the money or time for vocational training will undoubtedly have difficulty finding jobs.
For now, the future looks bright for workers like Xiang. He will return to Anhui province to a modestly paying job that can support his family, and he may easily find a string of other factory jobs for years to come. But Xiang could find himself unprepared to work in the highly mechanized factories of the new economy China hopes to create. China must aim for a transition that provides unskilled jobs for those like Xiang as long as possible, while gradually shifting the workforce over to more demanding and higher paid employment.
China can take cues from other economies that have turned away from low-cost manufacturing. Japan, Korea and Taiwan climbed up the value chain gradually and effectively. By contrast, the US had abrupt structural shifts that created the rust belt of dead factory towns and left swaths of workers unemployed. If China fails to manage a smooth economic transition, Xiang and workers like him could find themselves similarly left behind.


text:
This week saw the great and good of the world's social media development community gather in San Jose for Facebook's annual developer's event. The F8 conference serves as a launch pad for the platform's new features, so here's a round-up of the features we'll all be discussing for the next 12 months ... 1) AR Studio What is it? Facebook has announced it is opening up its Augmented Reality platform to developers. Augmented Reality was most recently seen on the Pokemon Go app and can be summarised as the animations and graphics that are overlaid over your smartphone camera's view of the world.
Why is it important? The building blocks of AR are costly to develop. However, by opening up things like their face recognition and mighty processing power to developers, it becomes easier for the global app development community to make creative use of Facebook’s technology without having to make the initial investment
What’s coming next? Facebook will attempt to ‘own’ AR apps and make Snapchat look like child’s play.
2) Facebook Messenger Moves Toward WeChat Model What is it? Facebook's popular Messenger app is moving toward the model of Chinese app WeChat. Rather than a device full of disparate single function apps, WeChat places all of your functional/lifestyle/accessories/social/commerce applications within one app. Take a sneak preview at what this could mean for users via this excellent video from New York Times.
Why is it important? One app to rule them all: By offering a simple user experience without switching apps, logins or payment methods, Facebook aims to 'own' your entire user journey. This means you stay with Facebook for longer, and spend less time with competitors, which overall improves the company's indirect revenue.
What’s coming next? Users can engage with different services via a Bot within the Messenger app. As Bots become able to effectively assist users, Facebook Messenger will host the best on a new Discover tab. So, for example, in the future you might plan a trip to the Tokyo Olympics on Messenger in a group chat with yourself, a friend, and bots from hotel, airline and ticketing companies all chipping in to help.
3) Instagram Launches Offline Mode What is it? Facebook-owned Instagram now works offline for Android. As with Facebook, users can like, comment and engage with previously uploaded material while offline, all of which is saved to update the next time they're online. Which is great news for people who travel underground to work, or for the millions upon millions in territories with developing mobile data networks.
Why is it important? Like the Facebook Lite app (already popular in 2G mobile data networks), this helps Facebook gain ground in countries such as India.
What’s coming next? The continuing advance of Instagram and Instagram Stories toward the title of second biggest social network
4) Next Level Virtual Reality with Facebook Spaces What is it? Facebook Spaces is a new product that aims to move VR from “ooh that’s cool” through an enhanced gaming experience, toward the valuable sector of social interaction.
Why is it important? Messaging friends and contacts from a variety of devices is now the norm for many. Skype has rapidly become a way of life in digitally developed territories, especially for remote grandparents. The launch of Facebook Spaces aims to take this social experience and enhance it within a realistic, 360 degree space
What’s coming next? Create a VR profile avatar, play games with friends, share photos, chat via video call. All well and good… as long as you (both) have Oculus Rift VR headsets (currently retailing at £750+), which will be the main barrier to entry for most.
5) Plenty Of Cool New Tech What is it? Facebook’s 'Building 8' Research & Development lab has turned up a few exciting morsels. Would you want to simply think an email and it appears on screen? How about hearing sound via a wearable sleeve? These are just two of the pieces of innovation Facebook showed off this week.
Why is it important? With Facebook recently accused of ripping off Snapchat, CEO Mark Zuckerberg may claim not to be fussed, but Facebook still seems keen to flex its innovation muscles, and lead the way.
What’s coming next? Who knows? Once the brain can type, it can give instructions. And once your brain can give instructions you may never have to lift a finger again …


text:
Earlier tonight we received a tip with the screenshots below. As you can see, Google Finance has a brand new interface when browsed to with Chrome versus in Internet Explorer and also Firefox (not pictured). It would seem that Google may be checking for the Chrome user agent and giving those users a glimpse at this new version of Google Finance.
Our tipster called it “lame” that Google was only offering the new version of the site to Chrome users. But there is, of course, nothing wrong with Google doing this — provided that it doesn’t mean to permanently offer different (meaning better) versions of sites to only those users using Chrome. But that seems very unlikely. Instead, Google is probably just testing some new features out to a small set of users, just as a lot of other sites do throughout the web.
After it was launched last year, Chrome caused a bit of controversy on the web because of Google’s previously strong ties to Mozilla (makers of the Firefox browser). Some were quick to jump to the conclusion that Google entering the browser wars meant that it would specially tailor sites for its own browser and neglect all the others. But Google’s prominent position on the web — particularly with web advertising — pretty much ensures that it has to play nice with all web browsers. Or at least those not named Internet Explorer 6.


text:
EU agrees to make parcel delivery more affordable European Commission - Press release Strasbourg, 14 December 2017 EU negotiators reached a provisional agreement last night to make prices for cross-border parcel delivery services more transparent and affordable and to increase regulatory oversight of the EU parcel market.
Cross-border parcel delivery: What is changing? European Commission - Fact Sheet Strasbourg, 14 December 2017 Questions and Answers Why is EU action on cross-border parcel delivery necessary? High prices of cross-border parcel delivery are one of the biggest obstacles for consumers and retailers, especially small and medium-sized companies, who would like to buy and sell online...
Daily News 14 / 12 / 2017 European Commission - Daily News Daily News 14 / 12 / 2017 Brussels, 14 December 2017 Conseil Européen, 14-15 Décembre 2017 Aujourd'hui et demain, les Chefs d'état et de gouvernement de l'Union européenne se réuniront à Bruxelles pour des discussions qui constitueront une étape importante dans la feuille de route...
Consumption per capita in purchasing power standards in 2016 - Consumption per capita varied between 53% and 132% of the EU average European Commission - EUROSTAT Brussels, 14 December 2017 Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) is a measure of material welfare of households. Across the Member States in 2016, AIC per capita expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) varied from 53% of the European Union (EU)average in Bulgaria to 132% in Luxembourg.
E-commerce in EU enterprises - 1 in 6 EU businesses sold on the web in 2016 - Some difficulties still hinder cross-border sales European Commission - EUROSTAT Brussels, 14 December 2017 Last year, 16% of enterprises located in the European Union (EU) and employing at least 10 persons had received orders via a website or via apps. Web sales include both sales to individual consumers and to other enterprises.
Commission welcomes agreement on key legislation to tackle climate change European - Statement Commission Brussels, 14 December 2017 The European Parliament and Council today reached a provisional agreement on a key legislative proposal for implementing the EU's 2030 climate objectives – on accounting of emissions from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF).
State aid: Commission approves PLN 40 billion (around €9.4 billion) Polish support scheme for renewable energy European Commission - Press release Brussels, 13 December 2017 The European Commission approved under EU State aid rules a Polish renewable energy scheme and a reduced levy to finance the scheme for energy-intensive users.
EU farm policy rules to be further simplified European Commission - Press release Brussels, 13 December 2017 A raft of changes due to come into force on 1 January 2018 continue the drive towards a simpler, more modern Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Major improvements to EU agriculture rules will come into force on 1 January 2018 following the...
EU will support Niger with assistance of €1 billion by 2020 European Commission - Press release Brussels, 13 December 2017 Overall EU development assistance to Niger will amount to €1 billion for the period 2017-2020. This was announced by Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica at the Donors' Round Table for Niger in Paris.
Fonds Fiduciaire pour l'Afrique: €274,2 millions de nouveaux programmes pour soutenir le Sahel et le bassin du lac Tchad Commission européenne - Communiqué de presse Bruxelles, le 13 décembre 2017 La Commission européenne a adopté aujourd'hui 13 nouvelles actions pour soutenir la stabilité et le développement économique dans la région du Sahel et du bassin du lac Tchad.


text:
“Who wants to be mayor when you could be President?”
Dunkin’ Donuts just launched a new promotion giving their Facebook fans a chance to become the “President of Dunkin’ Nation.” Customers compete by checking in on Foursquare or Facebook Places, and a new “President” will be named each week until September 23.
How this social media promotion works:
- customers ‘like’ Dunkin’ Donuts Facebook page
- these new fans register via their Foursquare or Facebook Places account
- checkins are allowed once per hour, up to 10 times per day
- the fan with the most checkins each week is eligible to become the ‘President of Dunkin’ Nation’ for the week (5 winners total)
- a leaderboard on the Facebook page allows participants to track their competition in realtime
Each ‘President’ will win a 50″ LCD TV, a $200 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card, a Dunkin’ Nation President t-shirt and mug. There is also a potential reward for those who are less fanatical followers of the brand – 33 ‘Daily Sweeps’ Winners will receive $25 gift cards just for checking in over the course of the promotion.
Dunkin’ Donuts shows a clear desire to raise their number of Facebook fans (currently just under 4 million); hence the choice to ‘like-gate’ this social media promotion. According to Kevin Vine, Dunkin’s brand division interactive marketing manager, the company hopes for 100,000 participants in the promotion. However, he told Mashable it’s more about brand loyalty – with the aim of “celebrating and rewarding” the company’s “dedicated fans” on social media – than it is about driving traffic to actual locations.
The ability to checkin up to ten times per day raises concerns about spam, according to Mashable, especially since Facebook Places users cannot opt out of broadcasting their checkins to friends on the social network (Foursquare users do have this option).
Will this be an advantage – the more notifications about Dunkin’ Donuts in user newsfeeds, the better? Or could the frequency of checkins become a detriment, as friends get frustrated by the number of Dunkin’ Donuts mentions on their newsfeed?
How much brand awareness is ‘too much’ on social networks? Let us know what you think.


text:
Facebook Unveils New Messaging Platform
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
This morning, like most mornings, millions of people around the world are waking up, rolling over, reaching for a smart phone and checking Facebook. If they're not actually reading in bed, they may do it later.
INSKEEP: Now, the massive social network wants to become a larger part of your life. It's rolling out what it calls a Modern Messaging System - it's adding an email service.
NPR's Laura Sydell reports that Facebook may be setting itself up to compete with Google.
LAURA SYDELL: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the aim of introducing the new system is to bring all the ways that people communicate together in one place: IM, wall posts, text messages.
Mr. MARK ZUCKERBERG (CEO, Facebook): All the different channels that you might want to communicate with, that should all kind of be seamlessly integrated very easily.
SYDELL: Zuckerberg thinks having an email account attached to Facebook will make it easier to sort out SPAM or unwanted emails.
Mr. ZUCKERBERG: Because we know who your friends are, right, because you put in your friends list and your friends have put in their friends list, we can do some really good filtering for you to make sure that you only see messages that you really care about.
SYDELL: Facebook's email will merge with Facebook IM and wall posts to allow you to see the history of every communication you had with a particular friend.
Zuckerberg says he also talked to a lot of young people who didn't like to use email because they found it too formal.
Mr. ZUCKERBERG: Right. I mean, the weight and friction, writes: Hey, mom, at the top to introduce it. Write: love, Mark, at the end to conclude it.
SYDELL: So Zuckerberg, an informal guy who likes his employees to call him Zuck, says Facebook's email won't be as formal. That's why some analysts think that for grownups especially, the new Facebook system isn't likely to really be a threat to more serious email services like Google's Gmail.
Ray Valdes is an analyst with Gartner.
Mr. RAY VALDES (Research Director, Gartner Research): For example, I have 30,000 messages in my inbox at Google Mail, and I can search that in a couple of seconds. I can create filters. I can do forwarding and have rules and things like that.
SYDELL: The real competition is not over email. It's over where people spend their time online. Sree Sreenivasan, a professor of digital journalism at Columbia University, says Facebook's new service is a tool to keep people on Facebook.
Professor SREE SREENIVASAN (Digital Journalism, Columbia University): And their idea is that here is yet another thing that you will do with us instead of doing elsewhere.
SYDELL: Sreenivasan says all the online players - Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft - are fighting to keep you on their sites as long as possible. That way they can feed you more ads and make more money.
Prof. SREENIVASAN: At the end of the day, it's going to be where are the eyeballs? And then, how do companies get at them?
SYDELL: All of the online companies want as much information about you as possible, so they can target the advertising. Google has been a leader in online ads but Facebook could catch up.
Earlier this year, it surpassed Google as the most visited Web site in the U.S. Google is still the king of online advertising; it has about $24 billion in annual sales to what analysts estimate is Facebook's one billion. Facebook isn't public so that figure is an estimate.
But analyst Valdes says Google cannot rest on its laurels.
Mr. VALDES: They better start losing sleep over this, because Facebook is showing that they are iterating, rapidly in a number of different areas; all of which eventually will have an impact unless Google responds.
SYDELL: But for now, Valdes doesn't think there's going to be a mass exodus from Google's Gmail or even Yahoo and AOL email.
Columbia Professor Sreenivasan says Facebook's new system is no slam dunk. He wonders if anyone remembers a year ago when Google launched a product called Wave, which had a messaging service similar to Facebook's. The media jumped on it.
Prof. SREENIVASAN: It was called an email killer back then, and journalists were all hungry to talk about it. And I said, you know, let's kind of see what this is. We don't know yet.
SYDELL: And you can be excused if you still don't know what Google Wave is. Google gave up working on it last summer.
Facebook says it will take several months to roll out its new service. And Sreenivasan thinks we should wait until after it's out, to decide if it's really going to take over the email market.
Laura Sydell, NPR News, San Francisco.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.


text:
NZ businesses hit hard by scams in 2023 – CERT NZ
CERT NZ’s 2023 annual summary, released today, shows the amount businesses and organisations reportedly lost to Scams and Fraud, nearly doubled – rising from $956k in 2022 to $1.9m in 2023.
Incidents in the Scams and Fraud category accounted for the biggest share of monetary loss for businesses in 2023.
“This tells us that scams continue to be a growing threat in Aotearoa’s cyber landscape, one that we need to grow more resilient to,” CERT NZ Director Rob Pope says.
Reports of Scams and Fraud include cases of unauthorised money transfer, incidents where organisations were asked to pay money upfront as well as extortion and blackmail scams. The $1.9M lost to these scams was a 95% increase on the previous year.
CERT NZ received a total of 492 reports of incidents affecting organisations in 2023. More than half of these were incidents of Phishing and Credential Harvesting.
Other common categories affecting businesses include Unauthorised Access, Website Compromise, Ransomware and Malware. The total financial loss faced by companies across all categories went up 30% from $1.8 M in 2022 to $2.3 M in the same period.
CERT NZ also released its latest quarterly report (October – December 2023). Of the total of the 1,881 incidents reported to CERT NZ in this quarter, 128 (7%) of affected organisations.
CERT NZ is aware of significant underreporting of cybercrime. “Reporting helps us understand malicious actors and their methods better. When you report an incident, it goes a long way in helping other New Zealand businesses stay safe from similar attacks,” Rob Pope says.
As scams grow more sophisticated, it is becoming increasingly important to guard against them. CERT NZ’s website Own Your Online has resources to help protect your business against common threats.
Read the full reports
Get help now
If you or your business has been affected by an online incident or targeted by a scammer, we’re here to help.