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Through the formative years of the FinTech industry, it’s been difficult for start-up players to enjoy the same market reach and penetration as traditional financial institutions.
This has mainly been due to legislation and regulations that are designed primarily with big established firms in mind, rather than smaller ones looking at new ways of doing business. It also hasn’t helped that FinTech and its associated technologies have grown so fast that regulators haven’t reacted quickly enough to keep track of progress and adjust the industry landscape.
At first glance, this makes the future of the FinTech industry sound quite pessimistic… when in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
The good news is that around the world, more and more governments and legislators are looking favourably on new financial technologies. Several countries are now starting to make moves towards either relaxing FinTech regulations, or creating structures and procedures that make it easier for FinTech firms to prosper.
For example, the Australian government has recently published proposals that would allow FinTech companies to operate without needing a full licence like normal banks, pointing to positive recognition of FinTech’s ability to bring new innovations and flexibility to consumers. Treasurer Scott Morrison was quoted as saying that the legislation would help firms “overcome the initial regulatory burden and costs of licensing that may otherwise hinder innovative offerings.”
Meanwhile, other markets are already actively embracing the abilities for FinTech firms to enhance their business ecosystems. Hong Kong and Singapore have opened up ‘sandbox’ environments, where firms can test out new innovations under the watchful eye of local regulators, thereby removing any risk of untested, unsuitable solutions causing harm to people’s finances or the wider economy.
All this means it’s fair to say that the world at large is preparing for a global financial future where FinTech has a big part to play. But what are the consequences from the perspective of FinTech companies themselves?
There are three major trends and developments that could emerge in the coming months and years, all of which would be advantageous towards FinTechs:
Big firms want in – but it isn’t as simple as that: with relatively relaxed regulatory environments on offer, it’s only natural that big banks have started to turn their attention towards new technologies, using that freedom to open new revenue streams. But they might not get things all their own way.
When new technology is unleashed on in a particular industry, it’s often the case that the established leaders tend to try and assimilate the new kids on the block in order to protect their dominance. But in the case of FinTech, there are two barriers standing in the way of them exercising their dominant market positions.
The first is that FinTech firms are sprouting up all over the place and there are too many for the established players to ‘control’. Perhaps more importantly, however, the second is that the big banks’ ingrained attitudes and practices may, in many cases, make them incompatible with the FinTech world anyway.
As James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said in a recent interview: “Are these really the institutions that are going to be able to innovate quickly or are they just big bureaucracies that are going to be too slow to run this kind of stuff?”
FinTechs can inspire greater confidence and credibility: being able to say that a particular business or solution is fully compliant with relevant regulations can be a huge step forward for FinTechs.
It’s previously been difficult for some innovators to convince potential customers, clients and investors that they’re the real deal, and that they can be trusted with those stakeholders’ hard-earned cash. That applies for everything from customers’ personal banking funds to capital from investors looking for an eventual return.
This is especially important as firms grow and the amounts of money and investment involved get larger. The greater the sum, the more security measures and safeguards those stakeholders will expect – an area where regulatory certification can help add some gravitas.
Regulations can be a FinTech business opportunity: these changes can provide a creative spark to help FinTech firms look at the whole area of regulation in a new way – and see a potentially huge value proposition. Instead of creating or adjusting solutions to meet regulations, or to deal with the consequences of them, why not develop new regulation-focused solutions specifically to help other companies or end-users adjust and comply faster and more efficiently?
For example, the upcoming standardisation of electronic invoicing within the European Union means businesses will be on the lookout for solutions that can help them produce compliant invoices. This is where FinTech companies can step in, delivering new clients the innovation they need before the EU directive comes into force.
So what does this mean from a providing organisation’s perspective?
Regulation normally sounds ominous for any company, but far from being an inhibitor to growth, the future is looking bright for FinTech firms. There has never been a better opportunity for FinTech innovators to develop advanced, compliant solutions that can disrupt the marketplace and challenge the established banking infrastructure.
So as an independent software vendor, service provider or system integrator, this means now is the time to take advantage by giving your clients all the services and innovation they need to exploit a marketplace that’s increasingly set to work in their favour.
If you can do so, then the success of your FinTech clients will make your business successful, too.
You can enhance the value of your existing clients’ FinTech solutions, and reach new clients and markets, when you partner with IBM.


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Bonds issued by Ford (F) – Get Report was reduced to junk by S&P Global Ratings as the coronavirus pandemic causes a shock never before seen in the global automotive sector, hitting the already suffering 117-year-old automaker.
S&P has downgraded Ford’s credit rating by one level to BB + and could further reduce it, according to a statement. The move follows Moody’s investor service, which dropped its Ford debt rating for the second time in six months this week.
Ford is one of many automakers facing what Moody’s called an unprecedented “credit shock” as the coronavirus epidemic hits the global economy, forcing consumers and businesses to move away from their cars and trucks and forcing car manufacturers such as Ford, General Motors (GM) – Get the report, Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) – Get reports and others to get away from their production facilities.
However, Ford is particularly vulnerable due to the problems it experienced while performing a $ 11 billion restructuring that has not yet improved performance, according to analysts.
With around $ 27 billion of debt maturities by the end of 2021 and, at the moment, access to unsecured markets is poor, according to reports, bondholders may have to consider structural subordination.
“The stress of closing all a company’s factories differs from that of a conventional recession in recession,” said S&P, pointing out that the arrests mean that Ford is not generating the revenue it needs to cover its costs.
“The takings rate, even for a few months, could be faster than during a typical recession,” said S&P.
Meanwhile, Ford earlier this week announced that it was partnering with General Electric (GE) – Get report, 3M (MMM) – Get the United Auto Workers report and union for the production of Purified Air Respirators for Healthcare Professionals.
Ford shares fell 4.82% to $ 5.13 in primary market trading Thursday. The stock has fallen by over 40% this year.

domain: news


text: The End of the Flip Cam Brandon Caldwell April 14, 2011 News I can remember the day I bought my FlipCam from a RadioShack down the street from the house for a mere $100 bucks. Strictly for documentation use, the camera has traveled with me to numerous places, interviewed some of the best up & comers and has told the story that maybe my words would fail in accurately capturing. Hearing the news that Cisco (the head honcos over the Flip Cam) would soon be eliminating it, it kind of hurt. I’ve never been one to purchase a nice professional camera as the Flip was perfect for schmoes like me to easily tinker with. Now? It’s the way of the dodo and women who never had the career idea of landing a VH1 reality show. I guess aspiring rappers will either start shilling out the bucks for 7D cameras or worse, shoot everything via their “quality” camera phones. In a strategic plan to “align its operations,” the company will exit parts of its consumer businesses and realign the remaining consumer business to support four of its five key company priorities: core routing, switching and services; collaboration; architectures; and video. One of the casualties of this realignment: Cisco’s video camera Flip business, which was part of its $590 million acquisition of Pure Digital.As part of the plan, Cisco will close down its Flip business and “support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.” Cisco will also refocus its Home Networking business and will integrate Cisco umi into the company’s Business TelePresence product line. As part of the transition, Cisco plans to eliminate 550 jobs. Cisco CEO John Chambers issued this statement: “We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy…As we move forward, our consumer efforts will focus on how we help our enterprise and service provider customers optimize and expand their offerings for consumers, and help ensure the network’s ability to deliver on those offerings.” [via Tech Crunch] Share this:TweetShare on Tumblr Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.


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updated 10:05 am EST, Wed March 9, 2011
Zite intros learning iPad magazine app
Young startup Zite on Wednesday put out its namesake iPad magazine app (free, App Store) with a promise of a unique learning feature. While it curates Google Reader RSS feeds and Twitter, much like its rivals Flipboard or Pulse, it gradually shapes the feed based on a past reading history. It not only checks which articles are being read but checks how long they've been read, the size of the articles, and how interest is mounting on the web.
The app has its own category selections and lets the reader get automatic suggestions based on a given category. The company's founders, including CEO Ali Devar, come from the University of British Columbia's Laboratory for Computational Intelligence and are using their research to refine the results.
Sharing works outwards as well with e-mail, Facebook and Twitter as options.
The app works with iPads as far back as iOS 3.2. Zite hasn't said whether it plans to move to Android or other platforms in the future.
Intelligent magazines have quickly become one of the most popular sub-categories on the iPad and so far have had little play outside of Apple's platform. The lack of a tablet-optimized OS has partly been at fault, and apps like Pulse have only just begun reaching Android through the release of Android 3.0 devices like the Motorola Xoom.


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Lender completes nursing-home sale
CapitalSource said it completed the sale of 37 skilled nursing homes, the final step of a wider sale of its net lease portfolio.
The Chevy Chase, Md., commercial lender said the sale marks its exit from nursing home ownership.
It will continue to provide financing for the industry.
The proceeds will be used in part to repay $55 million in debt associated with the nursing homes.
The company expects to generate about $495 million from asset sales when all its deals are closed, including $331 million from a recently announced sale of 143 facilities to Omega Healthcare Investors.
CapitalSource shares rose 12 cents, to $3.79.
— Associated Press


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MANILA - Senator and Committee on Agriculture and Food chair Cynthia Villar said the National Garlic Action Team (NGAT) should be held responsible for bringing garlic prices up to P320 per kilo.
"Actually, ang dapat sisihin ay yung National Garlic Action. It's either they were making wrong projections, or they were trying to control supply.... I don't know the reason but definitely, there is something wrong with what they have done," she said.
The National Garlic Action Team is composed of traders, garlic farmer cooperatives, and the Bureau of Plant Industries (BPI).
In an interview on ANC's "Headstart" on Thursday, Villar said the findings of the agriculture committee show there has been price manipulation of garlic in the market.
"The findings of the committee, together with the others, is that there is price manipulation. Definitely.
"If you can control the importation, then you have the supply. Then, you can have it in such a way that you can demand a certain price for it."
Locally-produced garlic is P40 per kilo, while imported garlic stands at a total of P17 per kilo.
"We're kind of lucky because it's cheap abroad. The Bureau of Customs said that the landed cost is P11 and the duty is P6 for a total of P17. Ang production cost sa Philippines is P40 per kilo," said Villar.
The senator said that of the 127 million-kilo demand in the country, only 8 percent comes from local producers.
The Ilocos region is currently the biggest producer of garlic in the Philippines.
"The biggest producer of garlic is the Ilocos region, and they're trying out to find a better seedling so that they produce better garlic, cheaper garlic."


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Mexico-based 20m Series Anthemis Azevedotechcrunch:
Mexico-based 20m Series Anthemis Azevedotechcrunch is a startup that has already made a name for itself in the Mexican startup scene. The company, founded in 2017 by Rodrigo Azevedo, specializes in creating custom solutions for businesses using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The company has recently completed its $20 million Series A funding round, co-led by Anthemis and 500 Startups, with participation from ALLVP and Expa .
Custom AI Solutions for Businesses of All Sizes
Azevedotechcrunch has developed products to simplify customer service management, inventory optimization, and more. The company’s AI solutions are designed to help businesses of all sizes streamline their operations, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. With the help of AI, businesses can automate repetitive tasks, make data-driven decisions, and provide personalized experiences to their customers .
Building a Real-World “Super Application” for Latin America
Flat.MX, a subsidiary of Azevedotechcrunch, aims to build a real-world “super application” for Latin America. The app will offer a range of services, including ride-hailing, food delivery, e-commerce, and financial services. The company’s goal is to create a one-stop-shop for all the daily needs of Latin Americans .
Investing in Early-Stage Startups that are Transforming Financial Services through Technology
Anthemis Group, a leading venture capital firm focused on fintech and insurtech, has launched a new investment fund named 20m Series Anthemis Azevedotechcrunch. The fund aims to invest in early-stage startups that are transforming financial services through technology. The fund is named after its target size of $20 million and its partnership with TechCrunch, a popular technology news website .
Raising $3.5 Million in Seed Funding
One such company that has recently raised $3.5 million in seed funding is 20m, a Mexico-based startup. The funding round was led by Mountain Nazca, with participation from other investors such as Kevin Efrusy and Michael Sidgmore. The company aims to use the funding to expand its operations and develop new AI solutions for businesses .
Mexico-based 20m Series Anthemis Azevedotechcrunch is a startup that is making waves in the Mexican startup scene. The company’s custom AI solutions are designed to help businesses of all sizes streamline their operations, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. With the recent completion of its $20 million Series A funding round, the company is well-positioned to continue its growth and expand its operations in Latin America and beyond.


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Emerging digital asset and NFT protocol ‘Ethscriptions’ is now in the limelight. Snatching inspiration from Bitcoin Ordinals but with an Ethereum-based twist, this marvel of code craft witnessed an overwhelming response, with its first batch of 10,000 assets ‘Ethereum Punks’ being claimed almost instantly.
High demand momentarily crippled the API interface of Ethscriptions’ official website. However, these technical issues didn’t prevent it from hitting the notable milestone of 30,000 mints within just 18 hours of going live — as expressed with joy by the tool’s mastermind Tom Lehman, who operates on Twitter as ‘Middlemarch‘:
With almost 30k Ethscriptions in <18 hours, the launch was a huge success!
Thank you for seeing the massive potential here!
I am on Ethscriptions 24/7, but I need your help!
— Middlemarch (@dumbnamenumbers) June 17, 2023
Ethscriptions vs. Bitcoin Ordinals
Although Ethscriptions is already receiving a notable amount of attention, questions are being raised regarding whether or not it will rapidly rise like Bitcoin Ordinals. In just half a year, Bitcoin Ordinals witnessed a total of inscriptions skyrocket from nothing to a mind-boggling 10 million. The protocol’s fame was spurred by Web3 fanatics’ fascination with being able to mint on the Bitcoin network using the BRC-20 token standard.
That being said, giving Ethscriptions a desirable edge is its revolutionary use of Ethereum ‘call data’ — information integrated within a smart contract, empowering users to mint digital collectibles in a more decentralized and cost-effective manner than other methods. Moreover, Ethscriptions enables users to ‘ethscribe’ image files, given they don’t exceed 96 kilobytes, with plans to accommodate more significant file kinds in the pipeline.
The streamlined and state-of-the-art approach of the NFT protocol Ethscriptions carving an even greater niche is likely. The tool opens up inspiring avenues for the frontiers and collectors of blockchain-based collectibles, with alluring prospects ahead.
Want more? Connect with NFT Plazas
*All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFT Plazas are from the personal research and experience of our site moderators and are intended as educational material only. Individuals are required to fully research any product prior to making any kind of investment.
Digital art fanatic who brings a unique perspective to NFT news.
If this article, video or photo intrigues any copyright, please indicate it to the author’s email or in the comment box.


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Facebook: The Favorite Marketing Platform for Retailers
January 17, 2014
The race for the best Social Media platform for Marketing is on. With Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+ being the main contenders, each has been benefiting in its own way. Based on a survey conducted by a reputed social technology company, 8th Bridge, on about a 1000 top Retail brands, Facebook was perceived to be the best Social Marketing platform.
[See: How can Techmagnate’s Facebook marketing service help your business to grow?]
The survey put forward that the popularity of integrating the various social media platforms, was as such:
- Pinterest integration was the most popular sporting 62%,
- Twitter being 61%
- Facebook sported 59%
- Google + holding 42%
All three were quite close but Pinterest’s integration was observed to be on the higher side. The users however, had a starkly different opinion with:
- 13% saying that the best means to share products were through Facebook
- 11% voting Pinterest and
- 9% favoring Twitter
Also observed was the importance of the platforms in making consumers aware of marketer’s products where Facebook scored a 2.73 on a scale of 1-5. While more than half, i.e., 58% of the marketers observed Facebook to be the driver of conversions, the reality was that consumers were actually redirected to the product’s website through Facebook Ads. [See: 3 Favorite Facebook Marketing Campaign]
Facebook was deemed to be the highest provider of referral traffic as per the survey, followed by You Tube, Pinterest and Twitter. Instagram was a rare consideration on this regard. But what was noteworthy was that the traffic generated on Facebook was actually paid for, by the marketers, in the form of Paid Ads and were not organic. Conclusively, Facebook was leading the favorites list from the point of view of both the marketers and the consumers.
So how have your Facebook Ads been performing? Have they been beneficial in getting traffic on you website? Write us your views.
Did you Know: As a leading social media optimization company, Techmagnate also offers complete expertise in social media advertising services.


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LEANER PROFITS. Smithfield Foods announced Wednesday that net income for its fiscal third quarter fell nearly 50 percent to $17.3 million, or 46 cents a share. The result paled partly because of its comparison with the period a year ago, when abnormally low hog costs helped produce exceptionally strong earnings, said Chairman Joseph Luter III. The pork packer also recorded a $2.1 million loss on the sale of its Ed Kelly Inc. retail electronics subsidiary. Sales for the quarter ended Jan. 28 were $687 million, up 56 percent. For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Smithfield Foods earned $8.9 million, or 47 cents a share, less than a third of its profit for the same period the year before. Sales were up 36 percent to $1.5 billion.
NIGHT WORK. ITT Night Vision won a $239 million contract this week to supply all of the Army's night-vision devices. The Roanoke-based unit ITT Defense & Electronics will sell infantry night-vision goggles, three types of aviator's goggles, a new monocular night-vision device and spare image intensification tubes. The company will start deliveries in September. Previously, the Pentagon limited to 60 percent the amount of any ''image intensification'' contract that one contractor could win, ITT Night Vision said.
THE BIZ PLANNER ... "Key Experiences" by High Scope Educational Research Foundation; 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Holiday Inn Downtown, 814 Capital Landing Road, Williamsburg. Cost: $140. Info: 313-485-2000 ext. 228. ... "Annual Investor Luncheon" by Forward Hampton Roads; 11:45 a.m., Norfolk Waterside Marriott. Speaker: Gov. George Allen. Cost: $20 members; $25 non-members. Info: 627-2315.
BIZ BITES ... USAir Express has added a daily roundtrip flight from Newport News/Williamsburg Airport to Washington National Airport at 11:55 a.m. All six of the airline's daily flights are on the 37-seat, Dash-8 airplane. ... Ford Motor's Norfolk assembly plant and its employees contributed a record $123.8 million to the state and local economies last year, according to plant manager Bill Boggs. The amount, which includes $120 million in wages and $3.8 million in state and local taxes, is up 17 percent from a year ago.


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Walmart-owned Flipkart Group said that it had raised $3.6 billion in funding from a clutch of global investors, sovereign funds, private equity, in addition to Walmart.
The current round will take its valuation to $37.6 billion, giving it the firepower to compete with Amazon, Tata Digital Reliance in India, even as it prepares for a public listing in the US in the coming year.
This round of funding was led by financial investors GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Walmart, along with investments from sovereign funds DisruptAD, Qatar Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, and marquee investors Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton, and Tiger Global.
The investment values the Group, which includes Flipkart, Myntra, PhonePe, and Ekart, at $37.6 billion post-money.
“This investment by leading global investors reflects the promise of digital commerce in India and their belief in Flipkart’s capabilities to maximize this potential for all stakeholders. As we serve our consumers, we will focus on accelerating growth for millions of small and medium Indian businesses, including Kirana. We will continue to invest in new categories and leverage made-in-India technology to transform consumer experiences and develop a world-class supply chain,” Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Chief Executive Officer, Flipkart Group, said.
Flipkart said it would continue to make deeper investments across people, technology, supply chain, and infrastructure to address the requirements of a rapidly growing consumer base in India.
Through its expanding grocery and last-mile delivery programs, the Group will also work with kiranas to help them digitize and grow.
“One of the key investment themes for CPP Investments has been Asia’s domestic consumption. We believe India will be a leading source of global growth in the decades ahead, supported by positive demographics, a growing middle class, and deepening Internet penetration,” said Agus Tandiono, Managing Director, Head of Fundamental Equities Asia, CPP Investments.
At the same time, Lydia Jett, who led Softbank’s reentry into Flipkart years after it exited, said, “SoftBank’s re-investment in Flipkart is driven by our experience with and conviction in the company’s management team to continue addressing the needs of the Indian consumer in the decades to come,”
Flipkart’s parent Walmart, which invested in 2018 to acquire a majority stake, also participated in the round.
“Kalyan and the team have put the Indian customer at the center of everything, and they have continued to innovate in the categories and services Indian customers want most, creating new jobs and growth opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs and small businesses alongside them,” said Judith McKenna, President, and CEO – Walmart International.
Flipkart said it had more than 350 million registered users from across the country and has been investing in key categories, including fashion, travel, and grocery,
More than 300,000 registered sellers are on Flipkart’s marketplace, and 60 percent are from tier 2 cities and beyond. Flipkart also works with more than 1.6 million kiranas in India through its wholesale business and its last-mile delivery program.


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The reconstruction of Mozambique’s Beira fishing port is 97 percent complete after an investment of $120 million to its rehabilitation provided by China.Work on the port began in mid-2017. , and is expected to be complete in June this year.
The original fishing port was destroyed in a cyclone in early 2000.
On Friday, Mozambique’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Ragendra de Sousa led a government delegation to inspect work on the new Beira fishing port.
With the new facilities, Beira will be able to harbour simultaneously 16 industrial fishing vessels, rather than the current eight, according to port operator, Cornelder de Moçambique (CDM), which is a private joint venture between Moçambique Ports and Railways (CFM) and Cornelder Holdings based in Rotterdam, Holland.
CdM has operated the Container and General Cargo Terminals in the Port of Beira since October 1998.
“This will bring foreign currency to the country. As for ourselves, we will be able to eat tuna and other high quality fish”, a Cornelder statement emailed to APA on Friday said.
The current Beira installations can only handle 300 tonnes of fisheries produce a year, but the rehabilitation includes a
state-of-the-art cold store complex, and these preservation facilities will enable the fishing port to handle 70,000 tonnes of produce a year.
The Port of Beira is an important centre for shipping and logistics in the central Mozambican and Central African regions, while serving as a gateway to the neighbouring countries by road, rail and pipeline to Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, DR Congo, and Malawi.
Beira is Mozambique’s third largest city.


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Trusox that sells at about 1000 stores globally will be initially launched through its own portal as well as Amazon.
We will continue to be associated with cricket, no intent to scale back: Dave Thomas, MD, Adidas-India
The new stores are bigger and better. Our online business is growing at a healthy pace. It is a fast-growing channel.
Das will now be equipped with the very best offerings from Adidas for her racing and training needs, the company said.
The luggage-maker has rolled out the television campaign with star cricketer Rohit Sharma for its mass luggage brand Aristocrat and is in the process to roll out another campaign for its premium brand Carlton soon.
The change in strategy has been in the works since January , coinciding with multiple leadership changes in the vertical.
Rohit will be seen promoting the company's signature 'Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph' edition in the coming days. It has been created to celebrate the sport of cricket.
This comes soon after Snapdeal-owned Free-Charge indigenously developed an authentication alternative to the SMS-based one-time-password.


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Local law enforcement in Pooler will be using a new breath testing device purchased with an $8,000 grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
The device, called the Intoxilyzer 9000, will replace the Intoxilyzer 5000 model the agency has been using since the mid-1990s. It is expected that the 5000 model will be completely phased out by 2015, and law enforcement in Pooler will be among the first to get the device.
Officers from the Pooler Police Department have already begun taking training courses to become certified in using the new device.
According to a Crash Analysis, Statistics & Information Notebook from 2008, there were more than 10,500 car collisions caused by alcohol or drug use. Two percent of these collisions were fatal, while thousands more led to serious personal injuries. The number of alcohol-related car accidents in Georgia increased by more than 6 percent between 1998 and 2008.


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Current legislation allows for the Montana Department of Agriculture to oversee a commercial hemp licensing program, requiring commercial growers to use certified seeds. For now, you can contact the Department of Agriculture directly in order to apply for a ‘tentative hemp license’. The Dept of Agriculture is working with the feds to develop a more organized pilot program for 2017, which would allow for limited commercial sales of industrial hemp.
READ MONTANA’S HEMP LEGISLATION: SB261 (2001)
MT DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE CONTACT INFO
All Montana News


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CHOICE is calling on the government to introduce tighter product safety laws, following an alarming number of infant deaths linked to inclined sleepers in the US.
CHOICE experts say that based on research conducted in the US, inclined sleepers are so dangerous for young babies that they should be completely avoided.
Two inclined sleeping products have been recalled in Australia in recent years - the Rock ‘N Play and Kids2 sleepers - but the Federal Government needs to step up and prevent unsafe products from getting into Australian homes in the first place.
"At the moment, the public is being treated as a testing lab for dangerous products. Safety tests should be conducted in factories, not in people’s homes," says product safety campaigner, Amy Pereira.
"Inclined sleepers are particularly hazardous because of their soft, sloped surface. This kind of surface may increase the risk of sudden and unexpected death, as babies can roll over or have their head fall forward while in them and suffocate."
How can infants suffocate in inclined sleepers?
Illustration: Chris Philpot for Consumer Reports
"We’ve seen countless examples of unsafe products flooding our homes," says Pereira. "It shouldn’t be up to the person buying the product to check whether it’s going to harm them or not. They should be able to assume it’s safe."
"Australians need a new product safety law to put responsibility where it should be - with the manufacturer, to ensure that their product is safe before it’s sold."
CHOICE is calling for a General Safety Duty. This involves introducing a new section on product safety into the Australian Consumer Law so that all products will be subject to basic and sensible safety checks before going on sale.
Media contact: Katelyn Cameron, 0430 172 669, email@example.com
Images and video available via Dropbox: https://shwca.se/unsafebabysleepers
If you would like further details on this issue, you can read the full article here: www.choice.com.au/unsafebabysleepers
More information about the need for product safety law reform is here: https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advice/your-rights/articles/weak-product-safety-laws-in-australia


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07 March 2017
Ambiguity in the law’s application needs a coordinated response, says Anthony Hilton
One of the intriguing things about visiting a hotel bar in parts of Africa, or the more remote parts of Asia and South America, is how they often seem to stock varieties of Scotch whisky you have never come across before. These are not to be found in the UK, even in singular outlets that specialise in such drinks.
They are of course counterfeit, manufactured who knows where, and passed off as Scotch, much to the chagrin of the likes of Diageo. The UK-based company is the world’s largest supplier of genuine Scotch and is forced to spend a fortune around the world annually to protect its brands and markets against such fakes and imitations.
This is not easy, partly because it can be difficult tracking down the people or companies actually committing the offence, and partly because the legal process can be painfully slow even when it seems an open and shut case.
“Legal issues lie at the heart of many of the biggest risks facing companies today”
Speaking at a recent event in London, Diageo’s Siobhan Moriarty cited a case in India where the brand name
Vat 99 was registered in spite of the fact that Diageo already had a blend called Vat 69. The company launched a legal challenge but it took 19 years to work its way through the Indian courts to final resolution in the company’s favour.
There was a law and it was finally enforced, but this case underlines how one of the greatest challenges facing business today is the absence of legal certainty and this extends well beyond the relatively well-understood challenges of counterfeiting, theft of intellectual property and passing off. According to Guy Beringer, who retired a few years ago as a senior partner at Allen & Overy, legal issues lie at the heart of many of the biggest risks facing companies today.
He says that of the top six risks faced by a multinational company, four will be rule of law risks in some form or another – namely corruption and integrity; regulatory certainty and predictability; enforceability of obligations; and supply chain integrity.
We have seen in recent weeks that these are very real problems – for example, the decision by RBS to set aside a further £3 billion in provisions against the possible cost of a US settlement relating to the sale of mortgage-backed securities before the financial crash, or closer to home, the huge settlement Rolls-Royce agreed to pay to resolve corruption allegations.
Indeed, these problems can potentially be large enough to cripple a business and yet even the largest companies seem lost when it comes to finding strategies to cope with and mitigate the risks.
Legal certainty is essential for business. It is impossible to run an efficient modern economy unless contracts can be enforced and markets are allowed to function. This requires a legal framework which is not only widely accepted around the world, but is also sufficiently nimble to keep abreast of changes in the world.
“CEOs frequently complain in private that the backlash against globalisation has resulted in business being seen as the enemy by large segments of civil society”
This is potentially a huge problem for two reasons. First, business is changing so fast that it is a challenge for the law to keep up. Its efforts to embrace the impact of digital have been muddled and inconsistent between jurisdictions, but there is much worse to come as artificial intelligence gains traction. What, for example, is the legal status of output produced by computers running on artificial intelligence software?
The second problem is that laws which do exist are only patchily enforced. CEOs frequently complain in private that the backlash against globalisation has resulted in business being seen as the enemy by large segments of civil society. This encourages unscrupulous politicians in some jurisdictions to respond with a threat of expropriation against any company which seeks to assert its legal rights in defiance of government wishes.
That however is an extreme case. More common, and therefore more pernicious, are all the issues around regulatory certainty. Companies know what the rules say, but are never sure how they will be enforced and whether that enforcement will be even-handed between them and local competitors.
They worry too about taxation – whether they will be hit by unexpected and arbitrary levies on their current activities, or whether a retrospective change will create a massive past liability. And they worry about local legal infrastructure – whether the local bureaucrats and enforcement officials are of sufficiently high quality to deliver a fair and even-handed service.
There is no easy solution to any of this, but Beringer believes that the problems are too big for any one company, so it is important that they work together. Accordingly, he has helped shape an initiative known as the Bingham Business Network, which was launched earlier this year by the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.
What it does is bring together several of our leading multinationals with top legal brains to develop solutions for areas of concern, shape legal thinking and help create the certainty business needs. English law is a huge asset for global business. The intention is to keep it that way.


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In a call with investors, AGCO officials said the supply chain problems are continuing. The farm machinery company is keeping higher-than-normal levels of raw materials and equipment inventory on hand. Like other farm equipment companies, AGCO has machinery waiting for one or two parts before delivery can happen.
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At first, the idea of creating a ''downtown'' for the fast-growing suburb 29 miles northwest of downtown Chicago seemed plausible.
But that was 18 years ago. Now, people in Buffalo Grove are wondering if they were mistaken.
And concern over a poor showing by the 2-year-old retail section of Town Center-the new downtown-has become a major issue in the race for village president.
It may become a bigger issue after the April 2 election, if tax revenues generated by the project do not meet the payment schedule of a $7.5 million tax increment financing district bond issue that is funding the development.
''So far, we`ve made all our payments,'' said Village Manager William Balling. ''We may have a problem in late `91 or early `92.''
Fortunately the village isn`t liable, he said. The developers-a joint venture of Stanley Lieberman, Seymour Taxman and Melvin Simon & Associates-hold the note. ''My prediction is, we`ll pay off in time,'' Balling said.
''If we can`t, they`ll have to refinance.''
Like other communities that sprouted around the nation`s major cities during the 1960s and `70s, Buffalo Grove was little more than a nice place to raise kids, with good schools, safe streets, clean air and lots of open space. To give the place a sense of being more than another bedroom community, Buffalo Grove officials, helped by Lieberman, assembled 55 acres northwest of Illinois Highway 83 (Old McHenry Road) and Lake-Cook Road as its Town Center. When fully developed, the downtown would include retail and office space, park land and townhouses, as well as its own post office.
The land took nearly 15 years to assemble, but by 1987, the eve of Buffalo Grove`s fourth decade, ground was turned for the center`s first phase, a 113,000-square-foot shopping mall.
Now, two years after the first tenants moved in, some are unable to meet expenses.
Some, like Thornberry`s-a preppy-style clothier, the mall`s very first tenant-moved out in January. Others are considering leaving, while others are trying to renegotiate leases. Some tenants never moved in.
''People go to one store and leave,'' said Sandy Singer, manager of Singer Shoes. ''They go to Evans (furrier) and leave. They go to the music store, then leave. This has been going on since we moved here,'' she said, motioning to a virtually empty parking lot.
Mark Stacy of Stacy`s Bags and Baggage blamed the developer for Town Center`s problems. ''When I signed, we were promised a theater and
restaurants,'' places that would draw traffic, Stacy said. So far, the promises haven`t materialized.
''We`re losing money. I didn`t come here to be a loser,'' he said.
In the most recent development, the Village Board annexed 2 acres next to Town Center for Deerfield Bakery. The company plans to build a 17,000-square- foot office and warehouse, which will also have a 2,000-square-foot coffee shop.
Like other mall merchants, Stacy believes Town Center needs an anchor.
''If they put a theater in here, it would be an instant success,'' he said.
The three candidates for village president agree that an anchor is needed.
''I fault the developer,'' said write-in candidate Barbara Sheldon, who chairs the Buffalo Grove Plan Commission. ''The village has to pressure Melvin Simon to get the center occupied,'' she said.
Michael O`Malley, a Buffalo Grove trustee running for president, would like to learn more from the developer about Town Center`s future.
O`Malley said the village is changing its attitude about the kinds of places that should grace the mall. In the past, officials thought retailers should appeal to an upscale crowd.
''I`m interested in normal stores,'' O`Malley said. ''Since I`ve been on the board, I`ve tried to get the Kohls, the Ventures (into the village). And I`m not hung up on white-tablecloth restaurants,'' an early condition set by the village.
Sidney Mathias, another trustee running for village president, said Town Center needs ''a nice family-oriented restaurant'' to be viable, in addition to a theater and an anchor store.
Meanwhile, Alan Rovin of Yosel`s Kitchen & Bagelry, head of the mall`s merchant group, thinks people should stop promoting Town Center as a downtown. ''You just don`t build a downtown. Putting up the strip center first was a mistake,'' he said. But he expressed confidence in the developer and suggested government should get their hands off.
''People in politics have definite goals in their own time frames,''
Barbara Reed, marketing director for the development, said Simon agrees an anchor would help. Even without an anchor, the mall is 70 percent leased,
''and there`s a nice tenant mix,'' she said.
''An anchorless center is unusual. You need a drawing card,'' Reed said.
''We`ve talked to the village about an anchor like Pharmor (drugstore) or Service Merchandise (discount store).''
Simon has informed village officials that it has an anchor tenant interested in a separate-standing, 62,000-square-foot building proposed for the north end of the center`s retail mall. Simon will have a hearing before the village Plan Commission Wednesday.
''Everybody wants Town Center to be successful,'' Lieberman said, adding that Simon, ''the second largest retail developer in the U.S.,'' should be free to develop the center without political influence.
''Let them do their thing. The candidates, they`re not retail experts,''


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Back in June, Porsche unveiled the 911 (991) 50 Anniversary Edition, a limited edition model that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the iconic 911. Well, that is not all as the German manufacturer also revealed the fact that is now offering its 911 customers a customized equipment package.
Called “50 years of 911”, the option package package goes to the heart of what has made the 911 unique over its 50 years, a combination of exceptional performance and everyday utility.
According to Porsche, this package can be ordered for all 911 Carrera models, including the “50 years of 911” anniversary model whose production is limited to 1963 units.
The anniversary package consists of: the Sport Chrono package, Porsche Communication Management (PCM) including navigation module, the telephone module, front and rear park assist and seat heating for the driver and front passenger.
The package is offered for 4,911 euros including VAT. Depending on the specific 911model version, this can result in a price advantage of as much as 34 per cent compared to the sum of individual prices for the optional features.
Still, this is not for everybody, as the “50 years of 911” option package is available across Europe except in Russia and Switzerland.


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Our inaugural show last year was well-received and it further opened the dialogue for marketers. For 2008, we have assembled an impressive lineup of speakers and exhibitors who will address the diverse channels and methods to engage these key audiences.
Miami, FL (PRWEB) May 9, 2008
ad:tech expositions, LLC (http://www.ad-tech.com), the leading conferences and exhibitions organizer for the global marketing community, today announced its second annual show in Miami, the only digital marketing show with a Hispanic focus. The event will take place from June 3 - 4 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
ad:tech Miami is a 2-day conference providing an in-depth look into the rapidly expanding Hispanic and Latin American online audiences and how best to reach them in a world that is becoming more and more digitalized and globalized. The Miami conference brings together some of the biggest names in the marketing industry, offering attendees the opportunity to learn first-hand the latest trends and innovations shaping today's market.
"ad:tech Miami aims to demystify the untapped potential of Hispanic and Latin American online users through the insights of pioneers in the digital marketing space," said Drew Ianni, Chairman, Programming & Senior Global Analyst for ad:tech. "Our inaugural show last year was well-received and it further opened the dialogue for marketers. For 2008, we have assembled an impressive lineup of speakers and exhibitors who will address the diverse channels and methods to engage these key audiences."
Anchored by an opening day keynote address from Monica Gadsby, CEO of SMG Multicultural, ad:tech Miami will feature more than 125 speakers from the United States, Mexico and Latin America. This includes CEOs and marketing executives from major brands and leading media companies such as, American Airlines, Batanga, Procter & Gamble, Carnival Cruise Lines, General Motors, Mercado Libre, Yahoo!, Terra Networks, Grupo Televisa, Telemundo and many others who will provide their opinion on the growing importance of the Hispanic market and the advantage of addressing this market segment.
According to the 2008 Terra comScore Hispanic Digital Study, 66 percent of online Hispanics report that they are early adopters and influencers among their family and peer groups. The study goes on to highlight that online Hispanics have replaced television time with Internet usage, with 56 percent spending more than 1 hour a day online.
"Hispanics are leading the adoption of new technologies driven by culture and demographics. Culturally, Hispanics who tend to have family outside of the US, embrace digital technologies to communicate more efficiently with loved ones," said Lee Vann, Founder and CEO, Captura Group, and ad:tech Miami guest speaker. "In addition, Hispanics are younger when compared to the general market and, as a result, tend to adopt digital technology related to entertainment and social networking at a more dynamic pace."
The exhibit hall will showcase more than 25 key exhibitors from Latin America, Mexico and the United States. The Convention Center will also house multiple meeting rooms and business presentation rooms for domestic and international organizations along with ample room for networking. For a list of current exhibitors, please visit http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_exhibitors.aspx
Platinum Sponsors include: Batanga; Terra Gold Sponsors include: cyloop.com; Latin3 Silver Sponsors include: Casale Media; Prodigy MSN; Yahoo! Bronze Sponsors include: Google; iContact; mixplay Media Partners include: CNN en Espanol; Produ; Portada; Merca 2.0; Su Inversion; Advertising Age; Forbes.com; revenue; UOL; Fast Company; iMedia Connection; Digital Moses Confidential; DM News; Folha Online Association Partners include: ahaa; OPA; mma; IAB in Argentina and Mexico; SFIMA; SFAMA
For public information, please visit http://www.ad-tech.com.
Editors: For interviews, images or more information, please contact Gracia Larrain at Edelman, ph: 305.358.7643 or firstname.lastname@example.org or Latiffe Ghanem at Edelman, ph: 305.358.8042 or email@example.com
About ad:tech: ad:tech expositions, LLC is the leading organizer of conferences and exhibitions for the interactive marketing community worldwide. ad:tech produces the world's largest interactive marketing events held in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, London, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore and Sydney. ad:tech is produced by dmg world media; based out of the company's headquarters in Larkspur, California. For listings of exhibitors, speakers, events and upcoming conference offerings, visit http://www.ad-tech.com.
About dmg world media: An international exhibition and publishing company, dmg world media produces over 300 market-leading trade exhibitions, consumer shows and fairs each year and publishes 45 related magazines, newspapers, directories and market reports. dmg world media employs 700 people and maintains a worldwide presence through more than 30 offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. dmg world media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc (DMGT), one of the largest and most successful media companies in the United Kingdom. Additional information on dmg world media can be found at http://www.dmgworldmedia.com.


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TRENDING ON ONEINDIA
- Chandrababu Naidu Meets Mamata Banerjee: Efforts For Anti-BJP Front
- Oppo India: Teases New Smartphone Range
- Jawa Vs Royal Enfield — A Brief Comparison
- Anushka Sharma: Unveils Her Madame Tussauds Wax Statue!
- Healthy Ways To Improve Your Daily Tea
- Latest Lowest Personal Loan Interest Rates
- Five Reasons To Visit Bum La Pass This Winter
- How Dovizioso won a red-flagged Race!
YouTube has announced that it will soon roll out 'YouTube Originals' for the Indian users. The company has made this announcement via a press release. 'YouTube Originals' will be free to use and will support ads as of now. YouTube is also planning to offer a subscription plan for the same in the future. However, there is no specific timeline for mentioned as to when this will be available for the users.
The 'YouTube Originals' was first announced back in 2016. This is a premium service which comes bundled with the YouTube Premium and is currently available in 17 countries around the world. The service has been rumored to be launched in India for quite some time now, and with YouTube's official announcement we now know that this service will finally make its way for the users in India.
YouTube has also mentioned that it will invest in made-for-India programming. The company has already authorized its first original show which is specifically made for the Indian audience. YouTube has partnered up with the Oscar-winning musician, AR Rehman for the same. Both of them are working on a new program which is called 'ARRived' and is expected to be aired in India over the period of coming weeks.
YouTube had also previously tried its hand with a Hindi sport-show which was called as 'Un-cricket'. Susan Daniels, YouTube's country global head of original programming had earlier said that the show has performed "beyond expectations".
Satya Raghavan, Head of Entertainment at YouTube India said that due to the data revolution over the past couple of years has resulted in the boom in online entertainment in the country. As per Raghavan, YouTube has benefited majorly with this trend, which has received a staggering 245 million unique users per month with the daily active viewer base growing at 100 percent on a yearly basis.
Considering the popularity of Netflix and Prime Videos which already has its own original content for the Indian consumers, it will be interesting to see how well YouTube Originals performs and how good content will it offer for the Indian audience.


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Fans of LJWorld.com now have two new mobile phone apps to choose from to stay up-to-date on local news, sports and weather.
“We really want to be audience first,” said Mark Potts, The World Company’s vice president of content. “That means reaching our audiences every way we can, not just in print, but also on the Web and now mobile so when you are out on your phone you can find out what is going on.”
The applications, which allow mobile phone users to access virtually all the new information posted on LJWorld.com, are being offered free-of-charge to consumers. The iPhone app is available at Apple’s App Store, and the Android application is available at Google Play.
In addition to local news and sports, the applications also will provide up-to-date weather information through a partnership with Weather Underground, said Barry Smith, brand marketing manager for The World Company.
“We definitely understand people want information quickly and on-the-go,” Smith said.
The new apps are the first mobile applications offered for the LJWorld.com site. They are in addition to an iPhone app released earlier this year for The World Company’s KUsports.com website.
Bill Fowle, director of digital operations for The World Company, said the KUsports.com app had been downloaded more than 12,000 times, and users of LJWorld.com had begun asking for more mobile functions.
The new apps will allow users to access the latest headlines, sports, weather and entertainment news. Fowle also said the applications will provide a sampling of the more recent photos and videos from the LJWorld.com site.
“As with most apps and technology, both our apps are evolving, and we welcome feedback on what users would like to see us build into future versions,” Fowle said.


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DHL Express is confident about the upward trajectory of cargo demand in South Korea and has commenced full-fledged operations at the newly expanded Incheon gateway.
The enhanced Incheon gateway is now three times the size of its predecessor with 59,248 square metres of floor area. It can also handle 3.5 times as much capacity, complete with a 5.5-kilometer-long conveyor belt and 19 automated X-ray inspection machines to ensure safety and compliance. It pledged €131 million (KRW 175 billion) to expand the cargo gateway in 2019, marking its largest investment in South Korea to date.
“Between 2011 and now, the transit cargo handling volume we handled in the country grew more than threefold,” Sean Wall, Executive Vice President of Network Operations and Aviation, Asia Pacific, DHL Express. The opening of the expanded Incheon Gateway arrives at a right time as it plays an important role to facilitate regional and intra-Asia trade, particularly for the Northeast Asian region, including Dalian, Qingdao, Wuxi, Ulaanbaatar, and Guam.”
DHL cited growing international express imports and exports with Asia-Pacific neighbours like Singapore, Japan, China, Australia, and Taiwan as contributor to the increasing cargo demand seen at Incheon. To move import and export shipments efficiently at the Incheon Gateway, DHL Express will utilise a fully automated sorting and handling system that can process over 10,000 parcels an hour. The company connects other hubs via Incheon with seven dedicated DHL aircraft and 40 aircraft from partner airlines.
DHL Express added that the facility is partly powered by solar energy with a 1-mW solar power generator installed on the entire rooftop area (5,700 square meters). The solar generator can produce energy that covers roughly 30 percent of the facility’s consumed energy, reducing around 650 tonnes of carbon emissions annually. This marks the first instance among cargo terminals within Incheon International Airport to use solar energy.
ByungKoo Han, Country Manager of DHL Express Korea, said, “The Incheon Gateway serves as a strategic facility that connects South Korea and the Asia Pacific region to the world. Since its initial opening in 2009, the volume of imports and exports at Incheon Gateway has increased by more than 90% in 2022. With this expansion, we are confident that we can adeptly manage the surge in shipment volume and cater to the increasing demand for international express delivery over the coming decade.”


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Here’s our newest round-up of the featured startups on our site this week. If you have startup tips or story suggestions, feel free to email us or tell us about your startup on this form. Any juicy tech news tips go here. Enjoy this week’s list!
Gunosy is a popular Japanese news reader app that aims to help user digest all of the day’s news in three minutes, with a main revenue stream coming from display advertisements. The startup announced that it has closed a fresh funding round from KDDI this week – following a US$12 million funding round from the same telco in March. JAFCO and B Dash Ventures also joined KDDI for the latest investment.
Indonesia’s Berry Kitchen makes lunch boxes and bento meals, typically for office workers. It does the whole thing – it deals with suppliers, makes the food, does the packaging, and then delivers the food to clients. The startup recently received an undisclosed amount of seed funding from East Ventures
SoundFordge is a Japanese site for musicians to not only virtually test guitar pedals, but is also an ecommerce platform that will recommend the best price for buying said pedal new or used.
Pakistan’s Flashcall provides brands with a toll-free number that allows them to communicate with customers via missed calls, sending back SMS to people containing more information. At this early stage, the startup is using its own cash but has talked with a number of investors.
Created by the founders of Beeconomic, known as Groupon Singapore, GoFresh is a Singapore-based online groceries platform provides high quality, nutritious, and premium products with all their fresh produce sourced directly from farmers and fishermen from all around the world. It also offers next-day delivery free of charge.
Akippa is an Osaka-based parking space reservation app that has recently secured a funding round from DeNA. Though the terms of this funding round were not announced, Akippa’s previous round, led by noted private equity firm JAFCO, was for over US$650,000.
Predictry is a product recommendation engine from Malaysia that gives small retailers Amazon-like predictive powers. The startup raised seed funding from the Malaysian Development Corporation’s (MDeC) Big Data Product and Commercialization Fund previously.
Founded in 2010, Twitcasting is a mobile app for streaming and watching live videos in real-time. The startup announced a series A funding round that will be used to increase the live-streaming platform’s presence outside of Japan. The investment was led by Indonesia’s Sinar Mas, marking the first time that a non-Japanese VC has invested in the company. Seed investor East Ventures also contributed.
Started in 2011, Unfollowers is a follower tracking service for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram that is currently boasting over ten million accounts along with monthly engagement from six million unique users.
Launched in 2006, Zameen is an online property website that is now up against many classifieds sites like OLX Pakistan and the brand-new Dekho.com.pk. But Zameen’s biggest challenger is a dedicated property site of the same genus – Rocket Internet’s Lamudi. . Last month Zameen secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Singapore’s Catcha Group and Malaysia-based Frontier Digital Ventures that gives the new investors a collective 30 percent stake.
Just fresh out of beta testing, Thailand-based Fliplingo is a human-powered Twitter translation service which outsources its linguistic sorcery to Gengo, a Japan-based startup of crowdsourced translation work. The startup revealed that it has accrued seed funding, contributed by its own team members, to help it grow.
12. Sansan | Japan
Founded in 2007, Sansan is a Japanese startup that specializes in scanning and storing business card details. For each, users simply download an app and take photos of the cards they receive. Sansan clients also have the option of renting scanners, for about US$100 a month, that can scan 30 two-sided cards per minute. The startup recently received series B funding, led by Silicon Valley-based investment firm DCM.
EasyUni is a Malaysia-based online higher education portal with listings from 27 countries, making up about 2,000 universities and 70,000 courses. Last year, the startup closed series A funding round led by Teak Capital.
Helpshift, an Indian startup that pioneered customer support in mobile apps, has raised series A funding led by Intel Capital. Visionnaire Ventures, True Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners also joined the latest investment round. The startup came up with a software development kit (SDK) to embed customer relationship management (CRM) within mobile apps. Flipboard, WordPress, and Flipkart are among hundreds of Helpshift clients, including gaming apps like Supercell.
15. Whill | Japan
Japanese startup Whill makes an electric-powered personal mobility device for easy travel across multiple surfaces (including grass and gravel) and omni-directional front wheels that allow for a tight turning radius. It can safely climb 10-degree inclines and has a range of up to 20 kilometers on a single charge. Despite raising funds worth millions from a variety of investors since last July, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of generating buzz in the US market.
First started as an online directory, Wedding.com.my plays a middleman role between vendors and the 300,000 or so soon-to-be-married couples who tie the knot in Malaysia each year. Users get to browse the site for free, and the startup monetize through subscription fees paid by the merchants.
RumahDijual is a website for property agents and home owners to sell their properties – houses, land, apartments – in many big cities throughout Indonesia. According to SimilarWeb’s estimates, RumahDijual generates more traffic than its two competitors: PropertyGuru’s Rumah and iProperty’s Rumah123, which the founder credits it to the website’s own SEO-friendly domain name.
Related startup stories
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Cordura is bringing the collection, designed by Struktur Studio, to the German fair as part of what it’s calling a 50th anniversary road show.
The collection is a cooperative collaboration between Cordura and Artistic Milliners and features Tencel from Lenzing Fibers, and coatings for Swiss manufacturer Schoeller Textil. Cordura is collaborating with industry partners in several offerings this year as part of its expansion in its 50th anniversary plans.
The X.Venture Collexion is an interpretation of how some of the most innovative performance textile technologies can combine with the art of design to impact the future of technical denims. The garment concepts take influence from retro astronaut gear — a nod to the Sixties heritage of Cordura, combined with modern, Space-Age popular culture.
Struktur Studio’s retro-futuristic garments in the X.Venture Collexion highlight the cutting-edge denims created by this collaboration.
“To us, the future of innovation is collaboration — whether that’s with a designer or with our community of textile innovators like Artistic Milliners, Tencel and Schoeller Textil,” said Cindy McNaull, global Cordura brand and marketing director. “Orchestrating these industry powerhouses together is a gateway to forward-thinking design and the fusion of performance technologies in the apparel of today.”
The X.Venture Collexion is composed of a men’s “Neo Jeans Jacket” that features temperature control, a men’s work pant designed for extreme conditions and a women’s “Neo Jumpsuit” made with Cordura denim with Tencel, Cordura Combat Wool denim and Cordura Denim combined with Schoeller ceraspace technology to fuse fashion and function.
“We designed and crafted a range of futuristic Cordura denim fabrics with the aim of creating denim that reflects innovation and heritage, while encapsulating next-generation durability, strength and added performance,” said Neil Bell, global manager and director at Artistic Milliners, headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. “In addition, we also collaborated with Schoeller finishing technologies to add their latest generation coating technologies.”
Tricia Carey, director of global business development at Lenzing, said, “While we are reflecting back to the past in the design of his collaboration, on the performance textiles spectrum, we remained focused on the future evolution of denim and how performance materials play a role in creating denims that are long-lasting and durable, as well as comfortable and soft.”


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Customers the new focus at conference
INSIGHTS is planning a new event targetted at customer-focused strategies for the 5th annual Call Centre Show.
In the hectic world of e-anything it’s easy to forget about the lifeblood of any business – customers.
One company that hasn’t overlooked this vital component of the trade chain is INSIGHTS, which is setting up the first Customer Relationship Management event in the area.
The event is set to form part of the annual Call Centre Show, now in its fifth year, to be held in Dubai from Nov 21-23. The Call Centre 2000 (MECC 2000) show is being organized by INSIGHTS and president, Dominick Keenaghan believes the event will help businesses concentrate on customer-focused strategies.
“Today’s customer demands better service, faster connections, better information and better relationships,” said Keenaghan. “To respond to this new commercial reality, regional organizations need to reinvent most of their processes to become more customer-focused and customer-driven.”
This year’s show is set to feature some renowned experts in the field of CRM, such as Kathleen Peterson, chief vision officer, Powerhouse Consulting, Brownell O’Connor, peoplesupport.com, John Wood, independent UK CRM and the international CRM-forum’s president, Richard Forsyth.
Keenaghan added: “MECC 2000 will take a fresh and practical look at key concepts and business issues that are driving the success of today’s customer-centric organization, identifying and refining the best approaches for the Middle East. A comprehensive customer relationship strategy can be crafted to help contend with the fast moving, globalised, ultra-competitive markets that loom up ahead.”


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Anyone familiar with Kylie Jenner and the Kardashian/Jenner empire will already know that Kylie Jenner has made a huge amount of cash over the years, making many envious in the process, but many will not be aware at just how lavish and wild Kylie Jenner’s spending has been recently.
After being named one of the planet’s youngest billionaires in 2019, it seems like Kylie Jenner has been living it up to the max, going on lavish spending sprees that are beyond most people’s wildest fantasies. Kylie is no stranger to controversy, but her latest salary scandal looks set to shake the foundations of Kylie Jenner’s empire.
The Recent Scandal Surrounding Forbes And Kylie Jenner
In March 2019 Forbes magazine dubbed Kylie Jenner the world’s youngest self-made billionaire when she was just 21 years old. This created a media frenzy on social media with many both congratulating the youngest Jenner sister and criticizing her for the claim that she is self-made.
At the time Forbes estimated that her company Kylie Cosmetics was worth a whopping $900 million and when combined with her personal earnings on top of that it amounted to over $1 billion, making her one of the youngest billionaires on the planet.
However, recent details have come to light that has got Kylie Jenner into a lot of hot water with Forbes. The young Keeping Up with the Kardashians star was recently accused of not actually being a billionaire and that she “likely faked tax returns”.
According to Forbes:
“A more realistic accounting of her personal fortune puts it at just under $900 million, despite the headlines surrounding the Coty deal that seemed to confirm her billionaire status.”
Kylie took to social media to blast the accusations, saying they were “inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions”.
However, it is still a vast fortune that many people would dream to call their own, but it has caused a blow to Kylie Jenner’s image and the claim that she is the youngest self-made billionaire in the world.
According to recent reports, one of the big reasons why Kylie Jenner’s net worth is not as high as once reported is because she spends a lot of her money at a fast rate, choosing to splash out on lavish items rather than saving and investing it.
And it seems like this accusation holds a lot of weight going off Kylie Jenner’s past and most recent spending sprees.
A Glimpse At Kylie Jenner’s Wild And Lavish Spending Sprees
Kylie Jenner’s lavish spending sprees over the past year are said to have reached hundreds of millions of dollars, which is a colossal amount of money to spend in one year, even if you are a megastar celebrity.
According to one source, “she spent an estimated $50 million to $70 million on a Global Express Jet that she had fitted out in the theme of daughter Stormi’s birthday this past February.”
That is a spectacular amount of money to spend on a private jet, and it seems that Kylie’s frivolous spending habits have not gone unnoticed by other members of the Kardashian/Jenner clan. According to the same source:
“Kylie’s sisters are concerned about her spending. Yes, she’s got a lot of money – but she doesn’t seem to realize how easy it is to blow through all of it. She’s likely spent over $130 million in the past year.”
Yes, that’s right. $130 million in just one year. A hefty figure by anyone’s standards and it’s not just a private jet Kylie Jenner has splashed out on, her dream shopping list also included a $36.5 million estate in Beverley Hills and a $15 million empty plot of land near her current abode.
However, that isn’t the only property Kylie Jenner purchased recently, she also purchased a $3.25 million home in Palm Springs close to her mother Kris Jenner’s home.
Kylie Jenner’s spending habits also appear to have caused a rift between her and Kris lately as Kris stands to lose out from Kylie’s reckless spending, as she receives 10 percent of Kylie’s deals.
According to Kris Jenner, she is now in panic mode as Kylie is no longer listening to her advice and is trying to go her own way, which could potentially put not only their relationship but Keeping Up With The Kardashians in jeopardy.
A source stated: “Kylie won’t answer the phone to Kris and is at a loss over who to trust.”
Showing that Kylie’s lavish spending sprees seemed to have caused a massive rift between her and her mother Kris Jenner, and it shows no signs of being repaired anytime soon.


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The Independent Bakers Association has announced that it will be appearing at The International Baking Industry Expo in Las Vegas, October 8-11. It will exhibit at booth #1975 during of the show and hold its fall membership meeting on-site at the Las Vegas Convention Center the morning of Monday, October 10th.The meeting will feature a panel discussion about hot issues in the baking industry. Panelists will include IBA Board members and other leaders in the wholesale baking industry. Active and prospective IBA members are being encouraged to attend, and they can register for that at www.ibabaker.com.
At the expo, IBIE attendees can hear about IBA’s role in securing recent national GMO-disclosure legislation for the food industry, view an infographic presentation on the negative effects of costly government subsidies for sugar producers, and learn about membership options for allied-business members—including bakery suppliers, packagers and distributors.


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What's better than a doughnut? A free one!
To celebrate National Doughnut Day, Krispy Kreme is giving customers one free doughnut.
On Friday, dessert lovers will have the chance to pick a sweet treat from the company's entire menu.
The best part? A purchase is not required to snag a freebie.
A list of participating locations can be found on the company's website.
Related: Donught shops that participated last year


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OGGS vegan mince pies top iCrossing’s annual taste test
OGGS' handmade mince pies have emerged victorious in a taste test conducted by digital marketing agency iCrossing, launched with the intention of determining the best mince pies this holiday season.
The vegan delicacies were crowned the outright winner, beating competition from Tesco, Waitrose, M&S and Sainsbury’s.
They were praised for their homemade look and fullness of filling.
The iCrossing taste test is now in its third year and has traditionally seen in-house team members taste Christmas sandwiches.
This year, mince pies were put through their paces instead.
The following iCrossers took part in the challenge: head of design Andrew Cridland, client director Phoebe Hood and SEO director Adam North, among others.
The taste test took place in both the London and Brighton offices.
“I recently went on a tour of the Good Housekeeping Institute testing labs as part of our partnership with our parent company, Hearst," said mince pie taster and iCrossing client director Jack Petchey. "I was overwhelmed by the level of detail they went into to help their customers find the right product for them."
“Ever since, we’ve been on a quest to further understand the Christmas food market. Over the last two years, we’ve (un)officially closed the case on the best Christmas sandwich, and I’m pleased we’ve now been able to do the same with mince pies.”
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iCrossing is a digital marketing agency that works with businesses to create a real step-change. Setting it apart, iCrossing is owned by Hearst, the world’s largest independent media, entertainment and content company. Being part of the Hearst family gives iCrossing access to Hearst audiences, data, consumer research and category experts which allows iCrossing to better spot new insights, trends and inform direction for its clients.Find out more


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Front and back cover caption, volume 28 issue 4
Front cover: OLYMPIC LEGACY: FOOD
Over the last decades, the Olympic Games have increasingly claimed to deliver a social and economic ‘legacy’ to the host city. The 2012 Olympic Games in London have set out to deliver a legacy of better food for east London, an area perceived as ‘deprived’, with higher than average rates of obesity and significant ‘food deserts’ in its midst. Various Olympic organizations have considered the issue, resulting in the publication of a Food vision for the first time ever in Olympic history.
However, with companies such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's having been appointed official suppliers to the Games, and with an extremely limited time frame, will the Games be able to deliver on this promise?
Allotments have been demolished and plans are afoot for Queen's Market, Upton Park, to be replaced by a supermarket. In response, Queen's Market traders and customers protest that demolition of their market goes against the Olympic spirit. Indeed, the Games could be used instead to help improve access to London's ethnically diverse markets far beyond the borough limits, as suggested in this postcard distributed by campaigners.
As Freek Janssens argues in his guest editorial in this issue, the 2012 Games provide the opportunity to more critically assess how food serves the marginalized in our ethnically diverse inner cities. Also in this issue, Johan Fischer deals with halal, another topic that impacts athletes and spectators at the Games, with sporting events taking place during ramadan.
Back cover: POVERTY AND GRASSROOTS COMMERCE
Aisha, a door-to-door entrepreneur in CARE Bangladesh’ s Rural Sales Programme (RSP), is one of 3,000 previously ‘destitute’ women who now earns an income by selling branded consumer goods across rural villages under a partnership between CARE and global multinationals such as Danone, Bic, and Unilever. Similar female distribution systems are now popping up across the world. From Procter and Gamble's distribution of sanitary pads to ‘poor’ adolescent girls in Kenya and Malawi, to Unilever's Shakti ammas distributing soap village-to-village in rural India, companies aim to expand their bottom line by fostering entrepreneurial opportunities among the poor through so-called ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BoP) initiatives.
Such initiatives reflect the changing nature of international development where new development actors – celebrities, philanthrocapitalists, multinational corporations, social entrepreneurs etc. – spearhead efforts to reduce poverty, replacing the role long occupied by states and aid agencies. Today some of the world's largest corporations have become key players in global development by selling ‘socially beneficial’ products to the ‘poor’, and by drawing them into global commodity chains as entrepreneurs. These efforts are now widely endorsed as part of a pro-market development agenda that looks to the perceived ‘efficiency’ of the private sector to do what billions of aid dollars have been unable to do.
BoP distribution systems can offer ‘poor’ women like Aisha an opportunity to earn an income and contribute to the food security of their family. But these engagements pose risks as well as rewards, and raise pressing questions for anthropologists about how, under what terms, and with what effects, global capital is linking up with informal economies in the name of development.


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XRP, which was previously known as Ripple has been on an astronomical high in the past few weeks. While the value has been besieged by the all-pervading crypto winter, XRP has made significant headway in other areas such as adoption.
Recently, XRP was listed on cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase and OKex. As reported by Crypto-News India, on Tuesday, Coinbase said in its announcement that its Pro users in Canada, United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia will be allowed to trade XRP. Users in other countries will be allowed to trade it later. XRP community had been waiting eagerly to see their beloved coin listed on Coinbase, so this news obviously came as a big cheer to them.
The listing on OKEx can be counted as a major milestone for the mainstream adoption of XRP because OKEx is 3rd largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by daily trading volume.
Following which, the Holdings President and Representative Director Yoshitaka Kitao of Strategic Business Innovator Group (SBI), Japan, stated that all banks in Japan will be using XRP by the 2025 Osaka Expo. He had earlier stated that SBI VCTrade will go live in March, which means that verified members will be able to purchase the XRP token, among other tokens, with the Japanese Yen (JPY), as reported by news portal Invest in Blockchain.
While speaking to another news portal in Japan, Coinpost, Kitao had said, “The use of “xRapid” using XRP is getting widespread, and the number of companies participating in ripple nets is increasing substantially. Therefore, in such a meaning, it seems that the use of Ripple ‘s technology will gradually become used in the form of using “XRP” in the international money transfer field. Virtual currency is tough unless there is “real demand”, but we believe firm “real demand” will come out from now on.”
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Alice in Wonderland is a hit in the Holy Land
Israeli distributor tells Haaretz 'Alice' is most successful Walt Disney production to ever open in the country.
Tim Burton's fantasy adventure film "Alice in Wonderland" dominated the box office in Israel in its first weekend in theaters.
The movie drew 63,000 theatergoers, which fell short of the 70,000 Israelis who bought tickets for "Avatar"'s debut weekend.
The Israeli distributor of both movies, Forum Films, told Haaretz that "Alice in Wonderland" is the most successful Walt Disney production to ever open in the country, even topping the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series.
According to the Box Office Mojo Web site, "Alice in Wonderland" has generated $462 million in revenues worldwide since it hit theaters two weeks ago.
"Avatar", which opened in mid-December, has netted $2.6 million in ticket sales.
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Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday took a cautionary stance and suggested that the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine might have long-term effects on inflation.
During an interview with CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh on whether the effect of the war on inflation is a temporary blip, Rajan said, "It (the war) is coming on top of an already high level of inflation. Add to it the effects of war, this (further) increases inflation and reduces growth; increases the effect on inflation in the US and Europe. There is a risk that inflationary expectations will become more entranched ... not good news," Rajan said.
On the sanctions being imposed, and their potential effects on global economy, Rajan gave a two-pronged answer: "The unprecedented nature of the attack on Ukraine has galvanised the west, and Japan, and they are much more determined to implement sanctions and prevent leakages. They see the war as a violation of world order and the sanctions as way to restore it."
Rajan added, "That said, these sanctions could also do a lot of damage -- Russia is a crucial exporter of energy (especially to Europe), commodities, fertiliser and even grain."
Crude oil prices have been soaring over the past few days because of the war, touching four-decadal highs. On this, Rajan said, "Crude oil will have to be offset from other suppliers," and added, "Shale has been circumspect on production due to a lack of investment; that could change. The supply side will start responding to high prices even as demand starts falling due to high prices in next few months. Short-term supply disruptions can be looked through; long-term disruptions will have to be replied to," the former RBI chief said.
Rajan said Russia is not a huge player in the global economic landscape in terms of size, but plays a key role in global critical supply chains like semiconductors.
"Russia’s size is not the big factor in global economy, its role in essential commodity supply chain is. The world is overly dependent on carbon energy; must back off from it. We can work through short-term pain while the renewed push on renewable energy sources comes into play," Rajan said.
Overall financial exposure of the world to Russia is moderate, not huge, Rajan said. "We have learnt that the problem of the size of a default is not as important as where it occurs. It is too early to panic on the notion that there could be widespread problems across the global financial system,' he added.


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G7, India to discuss affects of diamond export ban on Russia
- September 22, 2023
- Posted by: Quatro Strategies
- Categories: Europe, India, Mining & Metals, Sanctions & Regulation
Representatives from Western nations, including the G7 countries and Belgium, are set to visit India, a significant hub for diamond cutting and polishing, to discuss potential ramifications of G7 restrictions on the import of rough Russian diamonds. India is home to 90% of the world’s cutting and polishing of rare gems and plays a critical role in the global diamond supply chain.
The G7 nations are collaborating on a tracing system that would allow them to block imports of stones mined in Russia, the world’s largest producer of rough gems. This initiative could significantly impact the diamond supply chain. However, successful implementation hinges heavily on India’s cooperation, given the large number of people employed in its diamond industry.
Belgium, a crucial player in the diamond trade and a hub for diamond trading, is not part of the G7 but is expected to be involved in the discussions. It anticipates the G7 to announce a ban on Russian diamonds in the coming weeks to further tighten pressure on Russia’s financing of the war in Ukraine.
The EU has imposed several rounds of trade restrictions on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. However, sanctions on Russian diamonds have been a contentious issue. Poland recently urged the EU to impose sanctions on Russian diamonds, a significant source of revenue for Moscow. The EU has been cautious, as unanimity among all 27 member states is required to impose sanctions.
In response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States has already imposed sanctions on Alrosa, a state-controlled Russian miner, and prohibited the import of non-industrial diamonds of Russian origin into the United States. The visit to India aims to discuss the potential implications of similar actions by the G7.
By QUATRO Strategies International Inc.
QUATRO Strategies International Inc. is the leading business insights and corporate strategy company based in Toronto, Ontario. Through our unique services, we counsel our clients on their key strategic issues, leveraging our deep industry expertise and using analytical rigor to help them make informed decisions to establish a competitive edge in the marketplace.
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The Federal Reserve is expected to announce that it is expanding its $ 120 billion monthly bond purchase program.
The Federal Open Market Committee will release its latest statement Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, followed by a press conference by Chairman Jay Powell.
Economists expect the Federal Reserve to say it has made “significant further progress” towards its goals of averaging 2 percent inflation and maximum employment, and will begin to reverse the contingency measures it took last year in order to the economy to offset the damage caused by the corona pandemic.
The Fed has signaled that it is likely to increase its government bond purchases by 10 billion. Should the process begin on November 15, as expected, the stimulus package would expire entirely by June 2022.
The announcement comes amid inflationary pressures that have taken policymakers and economists by surprise.
Stormy consumer demand has headed head-on with acute supply chain disruptions, causing prices in some sectors to skyrocket for longer than expected. Rising rent and wage pressures amid severe labor shortages have also given cause for concern that inflation will prove tougher than the Fed’s “preliminary” assessment currently suggests.
The terms now warrant changes to the Fed’s statement, economists said, including recognizing that supply-related issues could hurt economic recovery and that the central bank is carefully monitoring incoming inflation data.
The Fed’s policy rate, which is close to zero, is not expected to be adjusted, and Powell is likely to reiterate that the start of tapering is not a signal of the timing of future rate hikes.
However, that message has been called into question in recent weeks as investors have increasingly bet that the Fed will start hike rates soon after the end of its stimulus program in June.
The move corresponded with abrupt measures by a number of central banks around the world, including the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of Canada, to tighten monetary policy.
As a result, short-dated US Treasuries have risen sharply, with the policy-sensitive two-year yield now trading just below its most recent high of over 0.50 percent. At the beginning of September it was closer to 0.20 percent.


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Tourism association reacts to Wayne Theatre debacle
WAYNESBORO - The Tourism Association of Greater Waynesboro said in a release they were "shocked and dismayed" at the recent budget recommendations made by the city manager last month.
In March, City Manager Mike Hamp proposed the 2017 budget to City Council omitting a previously agreed-upon tax credit incentive for the Wayne Theatre.
Tracy Straight, the theater's executive director, said in 2008 the Wayne Theatre Alliance started working with the city's economic development authority and City Council to outline different benchmark requirements the theater would need to accomplish in order to receive the funding. Once those benchmarks were met — which they did — the theater would receive $140,000 each year for five years.
Waynesboro proposes no theater funds
In Hamp's proposal, he said, the needs in areas such as social services and other service programs are increasing and how the city delivers these services is increasingly under scrutiny. Hamp also said the theater funding didn't seem to be a priority from feedback he had received from council and staff.
According to the Tourism Association of Greater Waynesboro, the tourism industry is the fifth-largest private employer in the state. For Waynesboro, tourism generates more than $700,000 in lodging tax revenue alone as well as a significant portion of more than $4,000,000 in meals’ tax revenue, a release said.
"Local tourism relies on anchor sites and attractions to draw visitors who spend money in hotels, restaurants and retail stores. Waynesboro's economy depends heavily on three pillars: industry, retail, and tourism," the TAGW said in a release. "Heavy industry used to be the strongest pillar in terms of taxes and employment, but that's not the case anymore. Waynesboro may continue to attract light industry, but needs to improve its infrastructure — school buildings, sewers — and quality of life to attract employers who are looking for more than minimum wage workers."
According to TAGW, retail options have improved in the past decade with Wal-Mart and Target boosting growth in the west end. With that, many people travel to Waynesboro to shop. The central location of Waynesboro to Interstate 64 and Skyline Drive also brings visitors to the area, TAGW said.
"These visitors spend money in our community without requiring much in terms of the city's resources," TAGW said in a release. "Reinvestment into the tourism industry and these attractions generates more tax revenue.
"The Wayne Theatre and, eventually, the Virginia Museum of Natural History will be anchor tourism sites in the heart of the city, providing a sought-after destination for visitors from neighboring counties and beyond," TAGW said in a release. "Not only do they provide educational and entertainment opportunities for local residents, they also provide an incentive for tourists visiting other attractions to spend a greater proportion of their money within the city limits. In addition, they provide a picture of growth and revitalization to all those passing though on Main Street."
Tourism anchor sites not only act as revenue feeders to local shops, restaurants and hotels, they also attract new businesses which create new jobs and new revenue sources for cities, TAGW said in a release.
This isn't the first time the city has backed down on a tourism project. Last year, council decided to forgo its side of the Blue Ridge Tunnel, stating there were more important things to spend taxpayers' money on.
With efforts to locate a state natural history museum downtown, school needs and ongoing infrastructure projects, a trail linking the Crozet Tunnel to downtown is "way down on the agenda list," Councilman Frank Lucente said in September 2015.
Nelson County moved forward with the project through multiple grants to finish the first phase of its trailhead near the old Afton Depot this past summer while Waynesboro has mostly watched from the sidelines. Nelson County saw the tourism opportunity of a hiking and biking trail through the historic train tunnel in 2003.
"We ask that the city and council members weigh the recommendations of their own appointed Waynesboro Economic Development Authority by approving this investment back into the local tourism industry, and honor their resolution with the Wayne Theatre," TAGW said in a release. "A history of breaking agreements and resolutions, whether they are binding or non-binding, does not inspire confidence in future private (and) public partnerships and does not create a vision of positive economic development."
Follow Laura Peters @peterslaura and @peterpants. You can reach her at email@example.com or 213-9125.


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How will Newswire stay ahead of its core challenges — and the CEO's up-at-night worries?
Joe Esposito has a been-there, done-that approach to overseeing super-fast growth — having once before led a company from $10 million to $125 million in sales in five years.
"[SMBs] have to tell their stories, be ready for the rebound and be ready to compete with companies that have a lot more resources."
Newswire has named Charlie Terenzio to the newly created role of VP of earned media advantage business.
Headlines are the same as first impressions, and if you don't make one that sticks with the reader, chances are they'll never get to the brilliant story you've crafted. So how does a content creator develop an arresting headline? We asked 13 associates of Forbes Communications Council this question, and here's what they had to say about their own techniques.
Twelve experts from Forbes Communications Council offer some advice for new professionals in the field to avoid sinking when they're in this situation.
Thirteen experts from Forbes Communications Council offer their predictions for social media trends this year and suggest how marketers can leverage these to gain traction and visibility.
Key strategies for grabbing media attention and turning interest into coverage.
Newswire — a press release and multimedia distribution software company — rolled out the Earned Media Advantage Guided Tour.
Newswire is on a mission to help brands increase awareness, drive traffic, and generate higher returns on media investments via its Earned Media Advantage Guided Tour.


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The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat has urged the local private sector to be vigilant and ensure quality of products to compete favourably on the continental market.
AfCFTA Secretary General Wankele Mene was in the country and, on Tuesday, paid a courtesy call on President Lazarus Chakwera before engaging industry players in Lilongwe.
Key on agenda items included best approaches for Malawi to leverage the multiple opportunities under the AfCFTA.
“I wanted them to understand Malawi’s AfCFTA implementation strategy and how the private sector, particularly SMEs, can take advantage of continental value chains.
“Mainly, they (private sector players) have to prepare themselves to produce competitive products that would stand competition from other players from within the continent,” Mene said.
Minister of Trade Minister Sosten Gwengwe said Malawi was committed to the causes.
“We are also preparing for administration of the rules of origin and the creation of the AfCFTA Column in our national tariff book. The private sector has also been prepared through development of guidelines for exporting to AfCFTA,” Gwengwe said.


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According to PublicWWW, almost 1,500 websites load the LiveHelpNow widget, a majority of which are online shops and homepages of private businesses. With Black Friday and the holiday shopping season approaching millions of users are expected to visit some of these websites.
Online retail stores Crucial and Everlast are the two most recognizable names on the list of websites loading the LiveHelpNow widget. Users accessing the affected websites will see their CPU usage shoot as Coinhive script mines the Monero cryptocurrency for another party.
The researcher also observed odd behavior in the way the script operates. A copy of the Coinhive-infected LiveHelpNow won't be sent to all of the website's visitors—a likely attempt to be stealthy or to rate limit, which is a way to control the rate of traffic sent or received by a network interface controller.
Cryptojacking has been gaining popularity over the past several weeks and has been spotted on major websites such as American politics fact-checking website Politifact, along with CBS-owned Showtime and Showtime Anytime websites.
Two months ago, The Pirate Bay was discovered using the computers of its visitors to generate coins for the Monero digital currency as a way to earn additional income. Most users gave the website flak over its lack of transparency in the implementation of the miner as they think they should have been given an option to donate CPU resources or not.
Trend Micro Solutions
Since cryptojacking can make affected computers and mobile devices unresponsive or cause them to slow down significantly, users can avoid it by downloading browser extensions that block cyrptojacking activities.