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Richard Buettner, Signs Publishing Deal With CelebrityPress® To Co-Author The Success Formula
Los Angeles, CA (PRUnderground) June 11th, 2019
Richard Buettner will team up with other leading entrepreneurs and professionals, including Best-Selling Author® Jack Canfield, to release the new book, The Success Formula, which brings together successful entrepreneurs to offer advice as a catalyst to success.
Consultant and Brand Strategist, Richard Buettner, recently signed a publishing deal to co-write the forthcoming book titled The Success Formula, published by CelebrityPress® LLC. In addition to Buettner’s expertise, the publication features content from world-renowned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and Best-Selling Author® Jack Canfield. The book will be released under the CelebrityPress® LLC imprint, a leading business book publisher that publishes books from ThoughtLeaders® around the world.
The Success Formula is tentatively scheduled for release in Summer 2019.
A portion of the royalties earned from The Success Formula will be donated to Entrepreneur’s International Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating awareness for charitable causes.
Richard Buettner was selected to be in the book because of his commitment to professional success and willingness to share his vast knowledge. His professional expertise makes him an asset to the publication and will surely benefit a wide range of readers.
For more information about the upcoming release visit www.CelebrityPressPublishing.com.
About Richard Buettner
Richard Buettner (born June 14, 1994) is a German Entrepreneur, Consultant and Brand Strategist.
He is pioneer in the influencer marketing and affiliate marketing scene in Germany and his organization brings in millions of dollars in revenue a year.
Richard grew up in Egeln, Germany and always had a competitive nature. An athlete, Richard played soccer in his youth but later switched to playing basketball as a teenager. He would later play basketball in California at Merced High School and Mitteldeutscher Basketball Club (MBC) in the 1st German Basketball League when he was 16-years-old.
Although his parents were separated, they were both entrepreneurs in their own life. He credits his mom for teaching him how to have a business mindset but also instilling him with compassion. When he was 16, he was introduced to the Law of Attraction / Vibration and utilized it for his future success.
He dropped out of school in 11th grade and started a sales job in his native Germany. When he was 20-years-old he switched into online marketing and joined a high-end nutrition company, becoming one of the first to utilize social media marketing for his success. He built a team of 400 people, becoming the top leader in all East Germany.
In January 2016, Richard partnered with a financial education company based in the U.S. and served as the President of the organization in Europe. He recruited a team of over 2,000 active distributors and thousands of customers generating millions of dollars in sales.
2018 was his absolute breakthrough year, producing 8 figure revenues. He became a self-made millionaire at age 24 and helped the biggest forex and crypto trading education platform to explode in Europe and all over the world.
In addition to that he built a huge social media brand and fan base reaching millions of people.
Richard is producing some of the most watched travel lifestyle videos working with some of the biggest names in the world. From celebrity artists like David Guetta to the most powerful entertainment brands like Marvel.
Now in 2019 he is launching a global movement with impactful influencers from different industries empowering people to become the best version of themselves. The mission is to create a better world around us starting with ourselves. Give opportunity to those who deserve it by helping millions around the globe in their health, wealth, love and happiness.
Connect with Richard at http://richbuettner.com
Richard’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/richardbuettner
About CelebrityPress® LLC:
CelebrityPress® LLC is a leading business book publisher that publishes books from ThoughtLeaders® around the world. CelebrityPress® LLC specializes in business anthologies, among various other types of titles, and has published books alongside Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, Dan Kennedy, Dr. Ivan Misner, Robert Allen, Michael Gerber, Tom Hopkins, and many of the biggest experts across diverse fields. CelebrityPress® LLC focuses on helping its authors grow their businesses and their personal brands through book publishing; the organization has successfully helped launch thousands of best-selling authors® to date.
Pressrelease.to is a leader in transforming local TV broadcasters and media companies by enabling them to publish and monetize their digital content across multiple media platforms.


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Facebook on Wednesday released an updated iOS Messenger app and announced that its Android version would become more broadly available after two weeks in limited testing.
The updated standalone app, which wasin late October, sports a new look and functionality. Among those updates is the ability to see which friends are currently using the mobile app, with the help of an icon that appears in a users' contact list.
The update also adds the capability of communicating with Messenger app users who aren't Facebook friends, using only their registered telephone number. It also introduces a fresh navigation look for accessing recent conversations, settings, and other people using the app.
"As more and more people use Facebook to connect with their friends on mobile, we are focused on building the best mobile products," Facebook said of the update. "Facebook messaging started as a desktop chat experience, but when it comes to messaging on mobile, people want something faster and lighterweight."
The renovation is part of Facebook's effort to make Messenger the go-to smartphone app for instantly getting a hold of friends and address book contacts. Along with enhancements in speed, function, and design, the updated app is based on a "mobile-to-mobile" philosophy that intends to make sure people using the app are immediately available to each other on their smartphones.
Updated at 5:15 p.m. PT to clarify the app's testing period as ended.

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Mainio digitizes its wholesale to strengthen global retail presence
The Finnish kids-wear brand Mainio has flipped the switch to completely digitize their wholesale operations on the brand-focused e-commerce platform Centra’s digital showroom.
Facing the challenges of the pandemic, the Finnish kids‑wear brand Mainio has flipped the switch to completely digitize wholesale operations on the brand‑focused ecommerce platform Centra’s digital showroom. The goal is to expand the brand’s wholesale business, which currently accounts for 60% of Mainio’s revenue.
Helsinki‑based Mainio produces fashionable kids‑wear focused on sustainability and ethical production. The brand was founded in 2014 by Johanna Vaissi and Outi Mäkinen and has since then grown to become a global kidswear brand that is active in 20+ markets. To grow and serve global wholesale accounts efficiently, Mainio has now entered into a partnership with the brand‑focused e‑commerce platform Centra. Today, the brand’s wholesale branch accounts for 60% of the business – but the goal is to increase it through Centra’s digital showroom.
“We are very eager to launch our new digital Showroom on Centra and see great opportunities to scale our wholesale business globally by switching to a wholesale e‑commerce model. After evaluating several other platforms, we decided to go with Centra as many of our resellers had praised their system for being best‑in‑class. Their flexible system is very easy to use, both for us and for our buyers”, says Johanna Vaissi, CEO at Mainio.
Mainio’s goal going forward is to grow its international wholesale business. The brand sees strong interest in the US market and great potential to expand and increase sales in both Europe and Asia.
“We are incredibly happy to get our collaboration with Mainio going. We’ve recently made a push into Finland, and Mainio is our first Finnish client, which makes it extra exciting. They have great potential to reach more global resellers through our digital showroom solution for wholesale”, says Martin Jensen, CEO at Centra.
For more information, please contact:


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India might be going through a funding winter, its losses might be growing, and there might be no clarity on how it will eventually make money, but Cred’s valuation shows no sign of slowing down.
Credit card payment app Cred has raised $140 million in its Series F funding round. The round was led by Singapore’s GIC, and saw participation from existing investors including Sofina, Tiger Global, FalconEdge, and Dragoneer. The round values Cred at $6.4 billion (Rs. 50,000 crore).
This caps a truly incredible run for Cred, which has seen its valuation soar in recent years. In November 2021, Cred had raised funds at a valuation of $4 billion, which means the company has managed to grow its valuation by 60% in the last 8 months. In April 2021, Cred was valued at $2.2 billion, so it’s tripled its valuation in the last 14 months. And Cred was valued at just $800 million in January 2021, which means that its valuation has grown an astounding 8x in the last 17 months.
It’s not immediately apparent what’s driving the surge — Cred’s FY21 revenue was a modest Rs. 95 crore. It ended up with a loss of Rs. 524 crore that year, which meant it spent nearly Rs. 7 to earn every single rupee. Cred’s latest valuation, in comparison, is a stunning Rs. 50,000 crore.
To its credit, Cred has run an innovative advertising campaign, which has brought together a truly eclectic set of celebrities — cricketers including Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev, Venkatesh Prasad and Ravi Shastri, and Bollywood personalities including Govinda, Jackie Shroff, Alka Yagnink and Karishma Kapoor have all peddled its app through ads. Cred’s UI has also earned it plaudits, and many new-age Indian apps seem to be heavily drawing upon its design language for inspiration.
But slick designs and buzzy marketing campaigns alone might not alone help turn Cred into a viable business. Cred has tried to become many things — it’s tried to become a high-end store for D2C brands, it’s started a P2P lending business, and it’s dabbled in niche services, such as allowing users to pay rent through credit cards. While these services might have seen varying degrees of success, Cred’s financials suggest that they haven’t quite gone mainstream — the company’s overall revenue was just Rs. 95 crore, which could be hard to reconcile with a Rs. 50,000 crore valuation. And it’s not as though Cred is a young startup that’s in search of a business model — it’s now been around for four years, but seems no closer to making money.
Cred, however, has an ace up its sleeve — founder and CEO Kunal Shah. Shah has managed one of India’s largest-ever startup exits while selling FreeCharge to Snapdeal, and is the most prominent angel investor in India’s startup space. Shah has plenty of clout, and could be well positioned to find and capitalize on opportunities in India’s fintech space. But given Cred’s ballooning valuation, and the general funding climate, Shah might need to pull another rabbit out of his hat to give a return to Cred’s most recent investors.


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Welcome to the Messe Frankfurt India website. Here is where you will find topical information for all your work on any of our trade fairs or conferences in India.
Press releases ALL PRESS RELEASES
Messe Frankfurt acquires license to organise Busworld in India, further strengthening its mobility segment
Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of the Group, has acquired the license to organise Busworld - the world’s leading B2B exhibition for the bus and coach sector from Busworld International CVBA. The agreement strengthens Messe Frankfurt’s position as the leading exhibition organiser for the mobility segment. Busworld India 2020, the 9th edition in the series, will be organised in Bengaluru.
Messe Frankfurt India hosts the Fitness extravaganza of the year in New Delhi
Fitness Excellence Awards (FEA) 2019 brought together the biggest personalities from the fitness community for a night to celebrate outstanding contribution to the industry. While fitness gurus enjoyed the evening, awards and felicitations were flowing their way. The event also saw the launch of the world’s first non-alcoholic Protein Beer by German brand – JoyBräu and a book-launch by Rajat Behl.
Messe Frankfurt India announces E-waste Collection Drive on World Environment Day
With Global Exhibition Day and World Environment Day being celebrated internationally on 5th June 2019, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India has announced an E-Waste Collection Drive at their headquarters in Mumbai with an aim to spread major awareness about the lesser known hazards of electronic waste generated in the city.
Messe Frankfurt India announces strategic re-organization of its consumer goods portfolio in India
In a strategic re-organization of its trade fair assets in India, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India has announced the consolidation and relocation of its consumer goods portfolio – with leading brands coming together under one roof. The first combined edition of Interior Lifestyle India, Paperworld India and Corporate Gifts Show will take place from 19 – 22 March 2020 in Mumbai.
Messe Frankfurt India and MEX Exhibitions enter into a strategic alliance to create an integrated business platform for textile sector
With portfolio expansion and future development of the industry in sight, the organisers of Texprocess India and Gartex India have entered into a strategic alliance to form a unified industry platform ‘Gartex Texprocess India’. The event will be part of Messe Frankfurt’s Texpertise Network leveraging on the group’s strong global network and expertise in the sector.
Any member of the press wishing to attend any of our fairs should contact the press team. Alternatively, you can register onsite by presenting your business card at the registration counter during the fairs.


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Muralla cor Recoletos Sts. Intramuros, Manila 1002 PO BOX769
Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The global health crisis has accelerated digital transformation, and suddenly the demand for new ways of life and work in the digital environment has increased. Globe must be determined to forge ahead, adapt and adjust to create a path that helps Filipinos move forward by providing content that is beneficial to life.
At the 2021 Asian Video Summit of the Video Industry Association of Asia (AVIA), Rina Azcuna-Siongco, Global Head of Get Entertained Tribe, discussed how the company develops a culture of innovation and values user experience. The last technical group of the event discussed "From Fragmentation to Convergence-What's the Next Step for Entertainment?"
Siongco pointed out that the wave of change brought about by the pandemic has led to the integration of all different aspects of life into a single channel-digitalization. In this way, Globe is transforming into a digital solution platform involving health and healthcare, e-commerce and finance, productivity and education, etc. All these efforts are carried out with the user experience in mind.
For Globe, enhancing the digital experience means creating value on top of its core mobile and data businesses. For example, it cultivates communities where every story can be heard, and gives fans the right to express themselves.
Similarly, Globe provides a unique service that bundles content and data related to customers' digital lifestyles, and utilizes and maximizes all its business channels to unlock the full potential of its different partnerships. It creates special propositions for customers-from online channels such as websites, apps, online stores, and social media to offline execution, making the Globe experience seamless and complete.
When asked about these innovations for the future development of its products, Siongco was optimistic about the various prospects of Globe. The company's telemedicine application KonsultaMD will continue to soar in 2021. Fintech and e-commerce also continue to be popular, as evidenced by the 51 million users of GCash, which is another Globe affiliate.
As for its plan, Globe's path is clear. As a pioneer of 5G technology in the Philippines, Globe continues to roll out fiber optic high-speed nationwide to ensure that streaming media, games, audio/video calls and mobile connections are better than ever.
For its entertainment business, Globe is diversifying beyond data. It is focusing on media convergence through Globe Entertainment, expanding its services to the field of talent management, and providing production services that meet both the B2C and B2B markets.
Following the global success of OTJ, Sunod, Midnight of Perfect World, and other award-winning films, Globe will continue to create content through Globe Studios. In turn, Globe Studios continues to produce continuous content, launching three new podcasts so far this month, and several movies and episodes are in progress.
Other prospects include content licensing and distribution through UpStream, and even publishing and production. All of these will be accomplished through our own talent agency and management and production activation agent.
The company strongly supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, especially the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 9 which emphasizes the role of infrastructure and innovation as key drivers of economic growth and development. Globe is committed to upholding the principles of the United Nations Global Compact and contributes to the 10 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
© 2021 The Manila Bulletin, the leading national newspaper. all rights reserved.


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CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Retail stocks headed higher in early trading Friday, boosted by a tame core inflation report. The S&P Retail Index RLX, +0.00% climbed 3.1 points -- its largest advance all week -- to 428.5. Consumer-electronics retailers Best Buy and Circuit City were the biggest percentage gainers. Best Buy added $1.07 to $42.84 while Circuit City was higher by 43 cents to $16.71.
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Lincoln Prepares To Pivot
Yeah, you can volunteer to meet our EV standards, or you can volunteer to sell some other brand.”
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Lincoln is preparing to pivot its dealers to EVs but has no plan of offering buyouts like its peers. The company's president expects to end 2022 with around 85 fewer dealers than its current network of nearly 700.
The company says network consolidation will continue, but only voluntarily.


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There are many different ways for a consumer to get their media be it physical or digital. However, in recent times, streaming movie services like Netflix have been gaining a lot of popularity due to the fact that they let consumers quickly and easy consume media without requiring them to leave their couch. While Netflix is currently the leader, many different companies are coming forth to topple the company with recent reports saying Microsoft is getting into the mix with a platform of their own
While the company currently offers movies through their Zune service, reports suggest that Microsoft will be announcing another service dubbed Ventura that will focus on cloud-based both in terms of music and movies. However, instead of being a service the general consensus is that this will be an actual cloud-based platform that will compete with the likes of Google TV and Apple TV. Of course, until someone officially involved with the matter comes forth to speak more we won’
What do you think?


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The burdens of being the king weighed heavy on Sony during the second half of 2008, as we watched the industry leader for the previous two hardware generations become seemingly complacent with a third place spot. But not all is lost--not by a long shot. PlayStation brand recognition remains strong.
Finding 10 PS3 games to watch in 2009 was an easy task; it was narrowing the list down that proved somewhat painful. Sony has an internal development powerhouse in its World Wide Studios division, with about three times as many owned studios as Microsoft. In 2009, high-profile PS3 exclusives abound without the need to broker third-party deals.


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Wetherspoon finally admits smoke damage
Pubs group JD Wetherspoon today at last admitted what has seemed obvious to drinkers for months - the smoking ban will hurt profits.
The company still insists the legislation, which comes into force on 1 July, won't hurt sales too much but says the cost of preparing for the new rules is rising.
It said profits for the year will be 'marginally' below expectations, which sent the shares sliding.
Wetherspoon has already made 153 of its 673 pubs non-smoking, a move that has had 'some adverse impact' on bar volumes.
Analysts said the statement did not quite amount to a profit warning, and most remain upbeat about the company.
Like-for-like sales rose 3.4% in the third quarter. So far this year, sales are up a strong 6.1%.
Wetherspoon plans to open 20 new pubs this year and another 30 next. It aims to sell food and drinks at lower prices than rivals.
Blue Oar Securities analyst Mark Brumby said: 'If you really wanted to, you could call it a profit warning. The company remains a genuinely class act. It has previously bought its own shares back on any weakness.'
John Hutson, chief executive, said: 'The preparations we've been making for non-smoking we've accelerated a bit more than originally planned and that's had a bit of a drag on profits. We'll be slightly below where people have got us at the moment. I think they have got us in the £66m to £67m range and we reckon we'll be about 5% below that.'
Shares in the firm, which have risen around 70% in the last year, dropped 4% to stand at 680p by mid-morning.
The company added that the recently introduced smoking ban in Wales had so far had a similar impact on its 34 Welsh pubs as the Scottish ban had on pubs there after it was implemented last year.
'Wales is very early days but in Scotland for the year like-for-likes are up 5% which is not what we expected... we thought like-for-like sales might be in the 0 to minus 5% range,' said Hutson.
The firm has been redecorating its pubs, serving more real ales and wine and improving its beer gardens and outside spaces to limit to impact of hardened smokers staying at home as each of the UK bans are introduced.
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SHISHI, China — September 14, 2018 — KBS Fashion Group Ltd. (KBS), a fully-integrated casual menswear company in China, announced today its wholly-owned subsidiary Anhui Kaixin won a supply agreement with Anhui Province’s Taihu County Public Security Bureau for police uniforms thanks to the company’s well-recognized manufacturing capabilities and production quality. According to the term, Kaixin will supply 1,200 sets police uniforms along with accessories and valued at 467,600 renminbi ($68,351.00). An additional supply agreement with Traffic Police Division, a sub-unit of Taihu County Public Security Bureau is expected to be signed at the end of September.
Keyan Yan, CEO of the company commented: “The collaboration with the government has introduced us to a new sale channel of uniforms including government uniforms and student uniforms. The company will look into growing its business in this area to obtain more uniform contracts while further expanding KBS’s diversified product portfolio.”
Posted September 14, 2018
Source: KBS Fashion Group


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Sports Games are super hard to get right and you could tell that just by looking at the number of sports games based on realism. I mean, you can find a ton of games based on real-life sports but the majority of them are either super unrealistic or just plain bad.
There’s no denying the fact that when it comes to sports games FIFA takes the crown by far. Developed by EA, this sports game series is as close to real-life soccer as it gets whether it’s visuals or gameplay mechanics.
And now with 2023 getting closer, fans are super excited about the release of FIFA 23. So while we are waiting, here’s everything that you need to know about FIFA 23!
FIFA 23 Release Date
One thing that I love about FIFA is that it doesn’t leave you wondering about the release date. EA has been very consistent with the release date of their darling sports game franchise and it’s always Friday in late September or early October. So, if we were to make an educated guess, which we are not, it would be September 30, 2022, go figure.
So, we are less than a month away from the game’s release as of writing this article and I am already super pumped to get my hands on this game. Luckily, we don’t have to wait too long. And since FIFA 23 could be our last FIFA game before its transition to EA Sports FC, my expectations are quite high.
FIFA 23 Cover
One of the things that make every FIFA fan super excited is looking at the new FIFA game cover for the very first time. And well, it’s the third time in a row that FIFA has featured Kylian Mbbape on their cover. Only this time he’s joined by a female football star as well since FIFA 23 has made some massive additions for the female teams.
The Female Star appearing beside Mbbape is Sam Kerr, a Chelsea and Australian forward player. She is also the very first female international football player to be featured on the FIFA cover. As for Mbbape, he’s used to getting the spotlight all to himself on the honor cover of FIFA, for how long? Can’t really say.
FIFA 23 Gameplay
FIFA 23 seems to be making a lot of changes to the gameplay mechanics and most of these changes are pretty subtle. However, one thing that seems to get a lot of spotlight from the developers is the new HyperMotion 2 technology that would make the in-game animations much more realistic and add a ton of new ones to the mix.
Using this new HyperMotion 2 technology, they have captured two full matches, one all-female, and other all-men teams, to make the new animation more fitted for the simulation. And from what we have gathered so far from the preview is that the developers have also toned down the goalkeepers to behave more realistically while also getting some of the non-frequent glitches fixed.
The other changes in the gameplay include the completely reworked set pieces, so the players can take a better shot, also how the players catch up acceleration has also been changed to balance things out between different players and reduce the unfair advantage.
What’s New in FIFA 23
FIFA 23 is jam-packed with tons of awesome game content including two full-fledged domestic female leagues from England and France, both having authentic kits, badges, and even broadcast overlays, which is great. With these two female leagues, FIFA 23 would be featuring a total of 30 leagues, 700 teams with a total of 19,000 players, who would be playing across 100 different stadiums.
Want to hear something more exciting? Well FIFA 23 would also be the first game to feature both Male and Female world cups! And since FIFA follows real-world events, the Men’s world cup would take place in Qatar and for the Women, it would take place in New Zealand and Australia. So there’s definitely a lot coming to the latest entry in the long-running FIFA series.
Apart from these major additions, FIFA 23 would also be focusing on improving the game’s football rules as a whole including what makes a foul play, especially in sticky situations near the goal. There’s been a lot of arguments on FIFA 22’s view of reckless or foul play. And then there are the visual improvements, which I am sure you’d all be familiar with by now.
With less than a month left, I am sure you guys are as pumped as I am to see this game in action but for now this is all you need to know about the new entry in the long-running FIFA series. And by the looks of it, we are definitely in for a huge treat!


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A fintech associated with Cross River Bank in Fort Lee is the nation’s fastest-growing card, according to Nilson Report.
Upgrade Inc., a San Francisco fintech company that has its loans and credit lines issued and banking services provided by Cross River, is the first fintech company ever to be listed in the top 50 U.S. Visa/Mastercard Credit Card Issuers in the Nilson Report at No. 48.
Upgrade Card is the fastest-growing credit card by outstandings nationwide according to the report, with a growth rate of 755% year over year.
“We are thrilled to be recognized as the fastest-growing credit card,” said Renaud Laplanche, co-founder and chief executive officer of Upgrade, in a statement released Sept. 28. “We designed Upgrade Card to provide the convenience of a credit card, combined with lower costs and a declining balance every month. It is very satisfying to see consumers embracing the product so enthusiastically.”
Upgrade Card is designed as a low-cost credit card with no fees and low fixed rates. Its equal monthly payments “promote greater discipline and help consumers avoid the never-ending revolving credit trap of traditional credit cards,” according to the announcement. Customers’ monthly charges are combined into installment plans payable over 24 to 60 months.
Since launching in 2017, Upgrade has delivered over $7 billion in affordable credit to consumers through cards and loans and is on track to deliver $7 billion in 2021 alone. Earlier in 2021, Upgrade debuted a rewards checking account that offers 2% cashback debit card rewards to consumers on common everyday expenses.
The company launched a new version of Upgrade Card in July that pays rewards in Bitcoin rather than cash, allowing consumers to explore cryptocurrency without putting their own money at risk upfront.


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Amazon offering restaurant deliveries in Manhattan and Dallas
Amazon has announced today (17 May) that is offering free one-hour delivery from local restaurants to Amazon Prime members in Manhattan and Dallas. Prime members access the service through either the Prime Now mobile app or the news Prime Now website.
Customers can view participating restaurants, browse menus, place orders, track the status of their delivery, and watch as their delivery driver travels from the restaurant to the delivery address in real time.
Once an order is placed, Amazon delivery partners deliver the food in one hour or less. Amazon Restaurants offers customers transparent pricing – there are no menu markups or hidden service fees – and delivery on all orders is free for Prime members.
In Manhattan, Amazon is working with 350 local restaurants, including Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken, Burger Joint, ilili, John’s of Bleecker Street, Junior’s Restaurant & Cheesecake, Momofuku Milk Bar, Num Pang and Sarabeth’s Tribeca.


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The scheduled deletion of MegaUpload’s entire file archive has been put on hold today, so that its millions of users would have the opportunity to retrieve their personal content from the popular file-sharing service.
The entire contents of MegaUpload was set to be removed on Thursday by Carpathia and Cogent, two of MegaUpload’s file server hosts, due to the company’s locked assets, and inability to pay their costs for hosting. No one has been able to access their data since the US government closed down the site earlier last month and arrested several people involved with the popular file sharing site, including owner Kim Dotcom.
MegaUpload attorney Ira Rothke says he is negotiating with the government to unfreeze MegaUpload assets to keep servers active so the company can deliver consumer data back to consumers. The two companies have agreed not to purge data for at least two weeks.


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According to an article by The Guardian, there were more than 1.8 billion mobile phones purchased worldwide in 2013. However, it is projected that only three percent of these devices will be recycled. Whether consumers are opting to just throw away old phones or hold onto them for years before figuring out how to dispose of them, the low recycling rates have a negative impact on the economy and environment. Since each phone contains varying amounts of gold, silver and other materials that could be harvested and reused, each phone that ends up in a landfill or is stowed in a drawer is a waste of precious resources. Researchers are working on new materials for devices and printed circuit boards that will dissolve into sugars when coming into contact with engineered bacteria. The resulting phones would be more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
How Are Printed Circuit Boards and Materials Recovered?
When an electronic device is recycled, it is broken down into its simplest parts so that printed circuit boards and valuable metals can be recovered. In the European Union, the Associated European Research and Technology Organizations (AERTOs) project has developed a process that avoids smelting by dismantling phones and crushing and sieving PCBs. Flotation is then used to separate plastics and metals in water so that plastic particles can be easily removed from the more valuable materials like gold and silver. While the process does not attain the same recovery rates as smelting plants, it allows teams to avoid gaseous emissions and reduces the impact on the environment. To learn more about electronic recycling and order your next batch of circuit boards, contact an expert at Advanced Circuits today.


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Edrington continues Famous Grouse push
Edrington has launched a new global marketing push for The Famous Grouse blended Scotch whisky, which is undergoing an “ambitious redevelopment plan”.
The Famous For a Reason campaign will run across all key markets after “significant investment” was pledged to enhance the brand’s global position.
Integrated across ATL and BTL channels and supported by digital films, social media content, press, outdoor and in-trade activations, the campaign has been created in partnership with AMV BBDO.
It tells the story of The Famous Grouse founder Matthew Gloag and the reaction of his competitors and contemporaries to the new “Grouse” brand, created in the 1800s.
To accompany the main advert, the campaign also features a series of “product story films”, as well digital and print assets that can be tailored by local markets.
“The Famous For A Reason campaign gives real meaning and authenticity to The Famous Grouse brand, and provides us with a strong platform for future growth,” said Glen Gribbon, director of The Famous Grouse.
“We’ve also placed more of an emphasis on digital content in this new campaign, ensuring we retain relevance with today’s whisky consumers.
“Each piece of content that we have developed to communicate the campaign message reminds us that real fame is earned.”
Communicating its brand message, the campaign will also feature on the stories of other people who are “famous for a reason”, such as Charlie Miller, who brought football to Brazil, and Emile Berliner, who was the first person to record sound on to a flat disc.
The Famous For a Reason campaign will launch in Sweden this month, followed by other key markets from October to December.
In July this year, Edrington extended The Famous Grouse range with the addition of a Mellow Gold expression and also unveiled a new packaging design for the brand.


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An estimated 2 million tourists visited the Country in the last financial year according to the latest data from the tourism sector.
According to the Ministry of Tourism the number could rise further this year with the data indicating that over 900,000 tourists have already visited the country ahead of the high season.
The rise in the numbers has been attributed to improved marketing, emergence of new markets and new tourism destinations.
This emerged when stakeholders met in Lake Naivasha to formulate a Tourism Satellite Account which will be used to measure the impact of the tourism sector to the country’s economy.
According to Tourism Research Institute acting CEO David Gitonga, the Country earned Ksh 157B from the over 2m international visitors last year.
“Already over 900,000 international tourists have visited the Country and our projections are that this will rise to over 2.1m as the high peak season is ahead of us,” he said.
On the Tourism Satellite Account, Gitonga said that it will ensure that the investors and stakeholders get the latest data on time to help them prepare and market their businesses.
He said that the project was designed to capture all the aspects of tourism activities with a view to bring out the true value of the sector’s contribution to the GDP.
“The development of TSA is being done based on the TSA methodological framework developed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization,” he said.
Dr Geoffrey Manyara from the UN economic commission for Africa said that the project would be carried out in six months adding that this would make Kenya the fourth country to have a TSA.
Already South Africa, Botswana and Rwanda have embraced the satellite account which will help in policy formulation and measure direct impact to the GDP.
“Currently Africa contributes to 4.5 percent of tourists in the world and the TSA will market the East Africa region so that number of tourists can rise from the current 5.8m to 35m by 2024,”
Manyara said that Kenya is currently targeting more visitors from Nigeria and Egypt which were now new tourism markets.
On his part, the MD Tourism Finance Corporation Orumoi Jonah said that the players in the sector had continued to investor heavily mainly in the counties.
“The Tourism Satellite Account data will enable TFC to make informed decisions in determining the specific Investments to be done in different parts of the country,” he said.


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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Thursday released an interim report on how it intends to regulate the advertising technology (ad tech) sector, focusing its efforts, again, on search giant Google.
In scope for its inquiry is ad tech services that deliver personalised digital display advertising on websites and apps, and associated advertising agency services.
The ad tech inquiry will focus on what the ACCC has labelled as "Google's industry-leading position".
"While there are a large number of ad tech providers across the supply chain as a whole, Google is by far the largest provider of each of the four key ad tech services considered. The report considers the reasons for, and implications of, Google's position," the report said.
But Google would argue ad tech is a competitive market with low barriers to entry, and that it's merely one of the many companies offering such a service.
With a stoush continuing between the ACCC and Google here, there, and everywhere, the search giant has said it has engaged constructively with the ACCC as part of this process and will "continue to participate constructively".
"Every day, Google's ad technology helps businesses connect with customers and publishers reach new audiences, creating new growth and revenue opportunities for them," a Google spokesperson said.
"Ad tech is a competitive market with low barriers to entry. There are many companies, large and small, working together and in competition with each other to power digital advertising across the web, each with different specialties and technologies.
"Google is just one of these many players, and we've made it easier for others to choose who they want to work with."
The spokesperson told ZDNet that Google has made significant efforts and investments in innovation and the promotion of a healthy ad tech ecosystem.
"This includes creating privacy-enhanced measurement solutions, developing major innovations in auction technology, and participating in industry initiatives designed to foster the long-term viability of an ad-supported digital advertising ecosystem," they added.
Google paid out more than $14 billion in 2018 to the publishing partners in its ad network. It says publishers keep 69% of the total amount advertisers paid when using Google Ads to buy their display inventory.
In a recent report commissioned by Google, the search giant said it helps Australian businesses increase revenues.
"Applications such as Google Search, Google Ads, and AdSense help Australian businesses access new customers and create new revenue streams through online advertising," the report states. "These business benefits are estimated at AU$31.7 billion per year for Google Search and Ads, and AU$63.9 million per year for AdSense."
Meanwhile, it said web publishers in Australia earn more than AU$196 million annually through AdSense and Google Ads is estimated to generate AU$31.7 billion annually in the form of net returns to Australian businesses from investing in placing advertisements on Google Search results of relevant keywords
HERE'S MORE ACCC VS GOOGLE


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Facebook Openly Seeks To Disrupt A Key Part Of Both Apple And Google (FB)
Published 7:51 am, Friday, January 18, 2013
And it's new search engine, Graph Search, isn't really a threat to Google search.
But, with Graph Search, Facebook is openly seeking to disrupt one key part of both Apple and Google's businesses: app discovery.
In a note posted to its developer blog, Facebook says Graph Search will make apps more discoverable on Facebook.
Apps are now more discoverable on Facebook with graph search. In addition to showing up in search results based on your app’s name, they can show up in search results based on criteria like “strategy games my friends play,” or, “apps my friends who live in San Francisco use.” To optimize your app for graph search, please make sure your app details are up to date and your app is properly categorized.
- Just Tony Parker, taking jumpersmysa
- Watch 'Sweet San Antonio Angel's' act of kindness at Walmartmysa
- SAPD: Man dressed as Freddy Krueger showed up to a Texas Halloween party; five people woundedmysa
- McManus addresses East Side shootoutmysa
- Aldridge discusses his contract extension with Spursmysa
- WNBA Stars Relocating From San Antonio to Las VegasSITime
- Report: LaMarcus Aldridge, Spurs Engaged In Contract Extension TalksSITime
- S.A.'s Billy Madison Show spoofs Eminem's Trump cyphermysa
- Spurs Will Be Without Kawhi Leonard For OpenerSITime
- S.A.'s fashion royalty shine at 'most glamorous event of the year'mysa
If Facebook were able to own app discover – a huge, whopping if – that would be very disruptive to Apple and Google – esspecially Google, as developers and companies put resources toward building more apps, and fewer Webpages.


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British supermarket group Sainsbury's said on Thursday it was cutting the price of own-brand milk for the second time in three months, adding to a body of evidence that a surge in grocery inflation will moderate this year.
Sainsbury's, Britain's No. 2 grocer after market leader Tesco, said that from Saturday four pints of milk would cost 1.45 pounds ($1.83), down from 1.55 pounds, while two pints would cost 1.20 pounds, down from 1.25 pounds.
The move follows cuts on milk on Thursday by online supermarket Ocado.
Stubbornly high inflation has become a major political issue in Britain as it outstrips pay growth for almost all workers, while higher taxes and rising interest rates are also straining household budgets.
UK food and drink inflation was running at 18.3% in May according to the most recent official data, and 14.6% in June according to the most recent industry data.


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Access to low-cost, low-power sensor technology, the availability of high-speed connectivity, the increase in cloud adoption, and the growing use of data processing and analytics are among the key drivers boosting the deployment of IoT technologies. It also helps that smart city efforts continue to progress.
As Asia comes out of the three-year economic slump because of the pandemic, what lies ahead for businesses? What is the role of IoT in the return to some form of normalcy?
Drawing from the Forester Report, state of IoT in Asia Pacific in 2022. Where is the concentration of IoT?
We have seen that companies in Asia-Pacific are shifting the share of IoT engagements toward production deployments.
Five years ago, in 2017, production deployments comprised just 25% of engagements, and these were predominantly POCs or pilots.
But in 2021, 61% of engagements were production deployments. That is a clear indication that Asia-Pacific firms are getting more confident in the potential of IoT initiatives to generate business value.
Among all the IoT use cases, smart industry, smart consumer services, and smart infrastructure are popular in Asia-Pacific.
Why do you say the smart city industry in Asia Pacific's leading the world in terms of IoT?
As we know, Asia Pacific contributed 35% of the world's GDP, but when focusing on industry value added, including manufacturing, construction, and utilities, Asia Pacific contributed 44%. That is why the smart industry is a leading IoT use case.
What’s driving this deployment of IoT?
Three drivers. The first appearance and rising maturity of specialised IoT solutions and cloud-based IoT. Second, connectivity technologies such as 5G. Third capabilities and offerings of IoT consultants and service providers.
In Asia, which industries are leaving the deployment?
In Asia Pacific, two-thirds of telecom decision makers say their firm is currently adopting IoT solutions.
Adoption and investment are highest in high-tech manufacturing, 81% followed by telecom, 71%. General manufacturing and pharma are broadly in line with Asia-Pacific outreach.
Adoption rates below the average are found in financial services and insurance, 60%, and retail in wholesale 56.
Compared to other regions outside Asia, how sophisticated do you see the level of use of IoT in our part of the world?
According to the survey data, the IoT solution and application adoption rate in Asia Pacific is higher than in Europe and North America. Particularly in the high-tech manufacturing sector, the adoption rate in Asia Pacific is more than 10% higher than in Europe and North America.
Within the leadership at organizations deploying IoT, what do you see are the primary motivations most surveyed?
Asia-Pacific Telecom decision-makers are confident that IoT solutions will generate significant operational efficiency. Half of them expect IoT initiatives to significantly improve customer experience and increase revenue.
How do you see these IoT deployments impacting other initiatives like digital transformation and modernization, for instance?
Impacted by IOT solutions, enhancing customer experience in public places is the most often mentioned. Other use cases related to smart consumer services are also popular.
The two years of the pandemic have likely driven this trend as customer experience in public. It's driven by private companies, public infrastructure operators, and governments.
IoT Solutions also help to enable new business models, particularly in financial services and insurance – a clear indication that those firms will spend the extra IoT budget on usage-based insurance financing and lending.
Given that security is a rising concern among business leaders, how should enterprises deploying IoT manage the security strategy of the company?
Security is on top of the concerns with deploying IoT 10% higher than the second option. To help protect data in IoT scenarios, confidential computing can help to isolate sensitive operations in a trusted execution environment during processing.
To support the transfer of data between edge and cloud while appearing seamless to the developers, two networking markets, zero trust/edge, and multi-cloud networking will combine to create a business-wide networking fabric.
Finally, as we step into 2023, how should enterprises review IOT deployment strategies to ensure that these initiatives meet expectations?
We have found that Asia-Pacific companies are less confident in their in-house skills to deliver IoT solutions successfully. These points will need for consulting partnerships.
We also predict that the adoption of in-region digital industrial platforms will gain significant growth. Embracing these in region platforms and industry-specific cloud solutions will help Asia-Pacific firms meet their expectations.


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The Couve will get Cruised again this summer.
July 21 has been announced as this year’s date for the massive cool-car festival that has been seizing the streets of downtown Vancouver annually for the past decade.
Organizer and downtown merchant Bryan Shull of Trap Door Brewing now is on the hunt for sponsors for the free event. Visit the new website — cruisethecouve.net — for details. Depending on how deeply you want to dig into your pocket, your business can get featured in advertisements, posters, T-shirts, event maps and more. You can see your logo in lights on the Kiggins Theatre’s big screen; you can even sponsor a whole street where a car-show-within-the-cruise will be staged.
Even though the event always is free to attend or participate in, it cost about $20,000 to put on last year, Shull said. This year he expects that tab — for such necessaries as portable bathrooms, extra police coverage for the day and liability insurance — to rise.
“Police presence was the most expensive, and the city paid for about half of it last year. That’s a big expense, and we hope for the same deal this year,” Shull said.
This is the second generation of Vancouver’s big car cruise, which began under a different name in 2009. It was the brainchild of Phil Medina, a Clark County cruiser who spent his high school weekends continuing his parents’ grand tradition of piloting vintage vehicles up and down prominent local streets, including Highway 99 in Hazel Dell as well as hot spots in Longview and Portland. Medina eventually decided to cruise back to downtown Vancouver and its Main Street “gut.” All car enthusiasts and clubs were welcomed to a Saturday extravaganza in mid-July called Cruisin’ the Gut, and many thousands turned out. Medina, local merchants and the city of Vancouver all were amazed.
Cruise forward a decade, though, and the picture gets complicated. Last year, Medina, disputing the city’s insurance requirements and objecting to rising police costs, decided not to sponsor what was by then a beloved local tradition. Shull stepped into the breach, forming a committee with other downtown merchants and lining up sponsors. They even took it a step further than Medina had done and quickly secured legal nonprofit corporation status, according to Shull.
The event was renamed, but Medina had his lawyers warn organizers that Cruise the Couve was still too similar and violated his intellectual property rights. Widespread reaction was a collective shrug. Most were thrilled that a downtown Vancouver car cruise was continuing to roll forward; a few were frankly relieved that chubby former name, Cruisin’ the Gut, was slimmed down to something less diabetic. Shull said he never heard from Medina again.
But, ironically, Shull added that he is starting to accrue the same worries about money and organizational challenges. “The dollars have to start flowing in,” he said. “I can see what drove Phil mad.”
Last year’s event went as well as could be expected, Shull said. “The hiccups were small, and we learned from them,” he said. “The city was very supportive and great to work with.”
If there was one main complaint about this wide-open event, Shull said, it’s that some folks showed up with pretty mundane vehicles. “Not everyone wants to see Mom’s Honda Civic” on parade, Shull said.
So this year, the cruise will add one closed-off street for a “car show within the cruise” that’ll be reserved for the real eye-catchers, Shull said. He’s hoping local car clubs will be the ones to step in and sponsor that set-aside street and show off their most glorious specimens there.
“We’ll have some side shows in the mix with the cruise,” he said. “We’ll have a way for people to really take in the classics.”
Mom’s Honda Civic remains perfectly welcome to Cruise the Couve, Shull added. Today’s “classic” cars weren’t yet classic when cruising their first guts in the 1950s or 1960s, he figures. “We can accommodate them all,” he said.


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Washington, D.C. – The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement in response to the introduction of the Open App Markets Act, a new bill sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal and co-sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Amy Klobuchar that would rein in the power Apple and Google wield over digital app stores.
“We applaud Sen. Blumenthal and his co-sponsors for introducing this important measure to break the power of app store gatekeepers,” said Economic Liberties’ Director of State and Local Policy Pat Garofalo. “It’s an important step in the effort to rein in the power of Big Tech corporations and ensure access to markets for American entrepreneurs and innovators.”
As the House Antitrust Subcommittee explained in its seminal report last year, Apple and Google use their dominant positions in cell phone operating systems to force app developers to use their stores to reach customers. They collect fees as high as 30 percent from all digital transactions in those stores, and prevent app developers from communicating to their own customers that cheaper options are available at the developers’ own website. Apple also prevents consumers from downloading alternative app stores, controlling what they do with their own devices.
“Dominant gatekeepers like Apple and Google are able to use their outsized power to extract enormous fees from small- and mid-sized businesses, with the ever-present threat of severing those businesses from their own customers,” added Garofalo. “The set of rights laid out in this bill – including payment systems freedom, protections from retaliation, and giving consumers the ability to access alternative app stores – are vital to creating fairer commerce online.”
Read Pat Garofalo and Matt Stoller’s New York Times op-ed on challenging the power of dominant app stores here.
Learn more about Economic Liberties .
The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.


text: BT, Microsoft and Nokia part of UN supported coalition to combat human trafficking in supply chains by The Good Shopping Guide | Jul 12, 2018 | Ethical Shopping Blog | 0 comments Technology giants BT, Microsoft and Nokia along with a host of other companies and NGOs have teamed up to combat human trafficking in supply chains. With support of the UN, the aim of the coalition is to improve on and develop new technologies that can more accurately monitor supply chains and help tackle modern slavery and human trafficking”. Organised under the heading, Tech Against Trafficking, the collaborative effort followed inaugural talks entitled, “The role of digital technology in tackling modern slavery“. techUK CEO Julian David, said: Innovation, technology and digital solutions can play a huge role in tackling global challenges. The Tech Against Trafficking initiative will showcase how digital can be deployed to combat modern slavery. Blockchain solutions for example can help companies know what is happening in their supply chains or verify safe migration routes. Big data analytics can also identify bottlenecks in trafficking routes, and even basic IT can help in supporting NGOs on the ground who are helping those affected directly. techUK is sitting in the Advisory Group and I urge as many members as possible to get involved and look at how we can harness the collective innovation of the UK tech sector to help end modern slavery and human trafficking. More here.


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It's been a nightmare on Wall Street now for three days and the inflation numbers today really drove the markets down. Also today we've got an interesting conversation about the world of air guitar competition. No, really! And if you think this is too weird know that ESPN will, this summer, air the competition. You'll meet The Flying Finn in just a bit. In the news:
- Consumer prices shot up in April;
- The impact on Wall Street;
- Gasoline hording and rising prices;
- Hertz accepted a buy-out and it's a story;
- These brick and mortar stores are surging;
- The Wall Street Report;
- Rethinking "low skilled workers".
Over the years we've interviewed hundreds of people from entrepreneurs and their startups to political folks and seasoned business people. This conversation is a...first. Here you will meet an international star from the world of air guitar competition. You read that correctly. Andrew Finn is "The Flying Finn". Andrew has been performing for 16 years and recently on the international stage in (of course) Finland! And, in case you think this is a "one off", ESPN is slated to showcase the world of air guitar competition this summer. Here is a link to a video from his competition in Finland. I sat down with Andrew to learn more and it's quite the story.
Thanks for listening.
The award winning Insight on Business the News Hour with Michael Libbie is the only weekday business news podcast in the Midwest. The national, regional and some local business news along with long-form business interviews can be heard Monday - Friday. You can subscribe on PlayerFM, Podbean, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn Radio. And you can catch The Business News Hour Week in Review each Sunday Noon on News/Talk 1540 KXEL. The Business News Hour is a production of Insight Advertising, Marketing & Communications. You can follow us on Twitter @IoB_NewsHour.


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Don't miss the latest stories
Is This The Worst Commercial Ever?
By John Yong, 19 Aug 2014
Redditors have called it “the worst local commercial I’ve ever seen”, and it’s easy to see why.
Made as a back-to-school ad for Missouri shopping center Shop East Hills, Mashable has described it as having “many cringe-inducing elements, including '80s, Fat Boys-style rapping, off-key singing and perhaps most of all, ultimately unsuccessful attempts to muster enthusiasm.”
What do you think? Is this the worst commercial ever?
Click to watch the ad below:
More related news
Also check out these recent news


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On January 9, Reddit announced that it named Shariq Rizvi as vice president of ad products and engineering of the company. Rizvi will be leading Reddit's monetization and ads product team, as well as report to Steve Huffman, the CEO of Reddit. Rizvi, who was most recently the co-founder and COO of Netsil, which is [...]
It's been a year since Reddit launched native video, and since thing, Reddit is reporting it is seeing more than a billion video views per month on average. The platform says it has experienced a 38 percent growth in native videos since the start of the year, with advertisers seeing higher conversion rates and more engagement with video [...]
Reddit announced last year that it was undertaking its first major redesign in over a decade. According to Reddit's CEO and co-founder, Steven Huffman, there was a variety of goals that had been attached to the project. The chief goal was to decrease the bounce rate of first-time visitors and lift the amount of time [...]
In an announcement on Wednesday, Reddit rolled out its native ad placements to the Reddit Android app. This roll out follows the native ads that came out for the iOS app last month. The Android Promoted Post user experience will mirror the one existing for iOS. Not only are comments enabled, native ad placements even features both upvotes [...]
Reddit is now making it easier for brands to manage their presence on the platform. The company made a deal with Sprinklr, the social marketing platform, to make it easier for brands to use Sprinklr to publish comments to Reddit's topic-based forums, or "subreddits," as well as to manage the private messages received from Reddit [...]
Reddit is without question one of the hardest social media sites to succeed on – but that doesn’t mean it is impossible. SEJ’s Chief Social Media Strategist, Brent Csutoras, shares the most important steps you need to take to be successful on Reddit.
If you're a Reddit user, than this news is just for you! It was announced earlier this week by Reddit CEO Steve Huffman that could cause some dropping jaws, as well as the rejoicing of advertisers. Reddit will support not just subreddit ad targeting, but they will be broadening out to interest targeting, which is, according to Huffman, [...]
Have you been missing out by avoiding the social media platform Reddit? Long time Redditor and social media expert Brent Csutoras walks you through the how and why of advertising on Reddit.
You've been doing a lot of marketing lately. You've hit up Facebook and Twitter. You've been pushing those emails to your subscriber base. What else could you possibly do? Another direction you could take your marketing efforts is Reddit Posting something on Reddit is easy, as it'll get some good exposure. After all, it is the [...]


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Consumer Spending Holding Up Post-Brexit: BarclaysMani
Despite the economic uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of the U.K. referendum, consumer spending is holding up comparatively with an increase of 2.14% versus the prior week, reports Barclays. However, Dennis Jose and colleagues highlight in their July 12 research piece titled “Post Brexit: No slowdown yet” that consumers might have adopted a cautious mindset around discretionary spending in the days after the referendum result, despite consumer confidence collapsing to its lowest rate . . .
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X (Twitter) Adopts New Business Model
By Laura Cowan
Laura K. Cowan is a tech editor and journalist whose work has focused on promoting sustainability initiatives for automotive, green tech, and conscious living media outlets.
X, Formerly Twitter, Adopts New Subscription Model
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has announced plans (Bloomberg) to test three subscription tiers of its X Premium service to recover revenue. X CEO Linda Yaccarino briefed X debt holders on Thursday and told the crowd that X would be splitting the current $7.99/mo Premium tier into three different plans, Basic, Standard and Plus, all at various price points to make removing ads from the website experience affordable. Ad dollars fell off a cliff after the Elon Musk takeover caused repeat scandals and upset advertisers with the unpredictability of the social media giant's future direction and removed guardrails on misinformation and politically divisive posts.
In just one year, the company has completely changed its business model and user rules, though it's still unclear if the company will remain viable after the takeover led to multiple and various lawsuits and an SEC investigation related to the terms of the acquisition, abrupt and possibly illegal layoffs, and more controversial decisions at the company.
Major brands can be sensitive about the brands and channels they associate with in a politically sensitive environment, with companies objecting for obvious reasons to having their ads appear next to pro-Nazi or other hate speech content or propaganda. Reuters reported that X's U.S. ad revenue has declined every month since the acquisition by Musk, now totally a 60 percent year over year decline as of August.
Yaccarino previously pointed out that X would be cash positive if not for debt owed -- now up to $13 billion -- but that is a significant hurdle for the social media company that struggled to make money even before the controversial takeover. Also unclear is whether X will provide its verified blue check mark for accounts in the lower paid tiers, which might further drive businesses and public figures away from the platform.


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Chinese company Oppo is preparing to unveil the latest flexible smartphones Find N2 and Find N2 Flip at the Oppo Inno Day event scheduled for December 15, 2022. Even before the premiere, the company took pre-orders for new items in its online store – to book a smartphone it is enough to make a deposit of 1 yuan.
Reserved copies are primarily delivered to customers – after the official premiere. Additionally, Oppo will give those who pre-order Find N2 80W SuperVOOC 80W car chargers, while those who order Find N2 Flip will get Oppo Enco Air2 wireless headphones.
Besides images, Oppo also shared a promotional video showing the design of smartphones and a hinge mechanism, as well as a video with a teaser for the external clamshell display.
It is known that the Oppo Find N2 will get an updated hinge, as well as a new eco-leather cover on the back. It is rumored to be one of the lightest vertically foldable smartphones at just 240g.
Find N2 Flip is expected to get a large 3.26-inch display on the back. In addition, Oppo optimizes apps for high-quality viewing on an external small display.
Two photos of the Find N2 Flip have already appeared on the Chinese social network Weibo, showing the model’s screen. One of the pictures also shows the side surface of the smartphone, where it is almost impossible to see the place of the fold.


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are delighted to announce a specially curated diamond exhibition in celebration
of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will be created at this year’s fair. Entitled
“Brilliant”, the exhibition is the first of its kind to be undertaken by the
fair, and will offer all visitors a visually arresting and intimate experience
curated by Carol Woolton, jewellery editor of UK Vogue, author and leading
international authority on jewellery.
the boundaries of how diamonds are used and viewed in our society, Carol
Woolton has structured the diamonds according to four artistic disciplines –
art, architecture, fashion and sculpture – to provoke surprise and discussion
about the role of the world’s most coveted gems. Whether incorporated into
decorative artistic works such as chandeliers, seen as objects of beauty, or
used as fashionable fastenings in the form of diamond zips, cuffs and collars,
the exhibition will comment on the enduring hold diamonds have over us.
the fair’s commitment to showcase the best of the best, “Brilliant” promises to
wow visitors with the finest diamond jewellery, as well as diamond performance
art and never-before-seen, innovative one-off pieces. Drawn towards a
darkened space by the glow of fluorescent piping spelling out the word
“Brilliant”, visitors will have an exceptional opportunity to witness
unparalleled gems in a spectacular environment. Presented with a guide to the
exhibition, visitors will wander throughout the space, and be given a chance to
study the light and fire of the stones, and appreciate the extraordinary
craftsmanship of each piece.


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Awagomè, 4 December 2017 – The Government of Togo’s “CIZO” initiative has made a significant stride forward as BBOXX, a new generation utility which provides reliable energy access to communities with its solar home systems, officially launched its operations in Togo today.
President Faure Gnassingbé, President of the Republic of Togo, visited one of BBOXX’s first customers in the rural town of Awagomè, on Saturday to mark the start of the company’s roll out of its smart solar home systems.
Following a tender process, BBOXX was awarded a contract to work with the Government of Togo to roll out 300,000 of its solar home systems in the country by 2022. The company has already imported its products and will begin selling its systems in people’s homes immediately, with an initial target of installing 10,000 in the next 12 months.
The innovative partnership is part of the Government’s aim to dramatically improve access to electricity for people in Togo, particularly in rural areas. The mission of “CIZO” (which means lighting up in “Guin” language) is to bring electricity to more than 2 million citizens by 2022. It will also provide the adoption of mobile payment solutions across rural areas, helping to improve the financial inclusion of rural communities.
BBOXX will work with La Poste, the largest distribution network in the country, to sell and distribute its solar home systems and other small electrical goods, such as televisions and radios. BBOXX will also be opening shops within La Poste’s locations.
BBOXX’s operations in Togo, a financial hub in West Africa, have been in part financed by capital raised via Union Togolaise de Banque, a local bank.
BBOXX customers will be able to pay for their solar system usage in a “pay-as-you-go” fashion, using mobile payments solutions such as TMoney or Flooz. They will also have access to BBOXX’s proactive customer service, which through remote monitoring solves issues such as battery depletion before they become a problem for customers.
The Hon. Marc Dèdèriwè Abli-Bidamon, Minister of Energy and Mines, said: “The CIZO Initiative aims to significantly increase the electrification rate in rural areas of Togo by 2022 through the use of solar home systems.
“The commercialization of solar systems through the participation of private actors will accelerate the impact on the Togolese economy. Against this backdrop, the government is creating the right environment to foster and enable private actors to operate efficiently.”
Mansoor Hamayun, Chief Executive Officer of BBOXX, said: “We have made an excellent start towards our target of deploying 300,000 systems in Togo by 2022. We have proven we can set the right foundations under a very tight time schedule and we are now ready to scale up our operations. We’ve benefitted enormously from the Government’s support to create the right framework to operate effectively and help improve the quality of life of rural communities in Togo.
“Raising capital locally through Union Togolaise de Banque has made financial matters more straightforward for us and will boost our expansion across the country. We aim to create more than 1,000 direct jobs in Togo in the next five years from our activities.”
“We are already providing our services and the on-grid experience they bring to customers in Togo and are looking forward to working in partnership with La Poste to reach many more in the next months.”
BBOXX is making significant progress in Africa – Togo is the latest country in which it has a footprint and builds on its operations in Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria and Cameroon.
The company has so far deployed 150,000 of its systems, improving the lives of more than half a million people in 35 countries, providing reliable electricity for lights, smart phones and home appliances to off-grid rural communities.
BBOXX is a venture backed next generation utility, developing solutions to provide affordable, clean energy to off-grid communities in the developing world.
BBOXX is fully vertically integrated, controlling every part of its customer experience. Its market leading products and appliances coupled with our SMART Solar platform bring machine-learning and customer experience optimisation to rural Africa. Ground-breaking financing structure has brought off-grid solar into the world’s financial markets.
With over 100,000 systems deployed so far; 450 staff across 5 offices in China, UK and East Africa are waking up every morning to work with BBOXX to electrify 20 million people by 2020.
You can find further information about BBOXX on its website at: http://www.bboxx.co.uk/


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“People are now staying in the United States, spending their money in the U.S., and I like that. I’ve been after that for a long time. I’ve been saying, ‘let’s stay in the U.S., spend your money here,’ and they’re doing that. They’re sort of enforced doing that” — Donald Trump
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This quote suggests Donald Trump sees some benefits from travel restrictions enforced during the pandemic. Specifically:
- He says people are now spending money within the US rather than traveling abroad.
- Trump implies this keeps consumer spending circulating within the domestic economy rather than leaking overseas.
- He indicates he has long advocated for encouraging domestic spending over foreign travel.
However, an balanced interpretation would note that while increased domestic spending has upside, travel restrictions also have economic costs through reduced tourism and international business. A full assessment would weigh both the perspectives expressed as well as the complex tradeoffs involved in the public health measures referenced.


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Indian companies are seeking better opportunities in Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s economic dependency on apparel exports is the major reason that attracts many companies to Bangladesh. For instance, there is scope for exporters in Bangladesh to explore possibilities in embroidery.
Garment manufacturers in Bangladesh have faith in Indian products and in some cases have given priority to Indian companies compared to Chinese. Though there are already technology suppliers in Bangladesh, Indian companies are confident of success due to various reasons like quality product, service, and customized solutions. This is especially true of companies which are into trims or allied products like self-adhesive tapes, self-adhesive labels, holograms, barcodes etc.
GTN Industries, based in Hyderabad, has been in Bangladesh for more than 10 years and is working with top clients. The company supplies high-quality yarns like premium 100 per cent supima cotton and more. Out of its total production, the company sends around 20 per cent to Bangladesh. For the last two years, the company has been focusing on mercerised yarn in Bangladesh and thinks this market will grow in future.
Cheran Machines, based in Coimbatore, a manufacturer, supplier and exporter of garment and textile printing machineries, is also focusing on Bangladesh market.


text: Gavas 5pts From Bloomberg:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-31/fusion-leads-u-s-cars-driving-sales-gains-eluding-camry.html"Honda’s Accord outsold Ford’s Fusion by just 124 cars in February, the narrowest margin in 11 months. Ford is adding a second shift of 1,200 workers to its Mustang assembly plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, to start building Fusions there this year. “One of our problems is that we don’t have enough production,” said Amy Marentic, a marketing manager for Ford’s global cars. “This summer, our inventories are going to be tight. Our dealers are asking for more.” Ford’s additional Fusion production could spell trouble for Toyota’s Camry. The Fusion took 35 days on average to sell in February compared to 38 for Honda’s Accord and 62 for Toyota’s Camry, Bloomberg Industries said in a report last month, citing Edmunds data. Fusion’s average transaction price was $26,586 in February, $2,772 more than Camry."Camry/Accord have 40K in inventory. Fusion has 20K and still manages to keep up in sales neck to neck AND command a higher transaction price. Just wait until production can maintian a 40K inventory.


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Offering a “giveaway” in exchange for purchasing a product or service is a classic marketing tactic for many companies, financial institutions included. In Turkey, Yapi Kredi customers who choose from the “oak” group of products can have an oak tree planted in their honor. But the bank’s green strategy is more than a clever marketing campaign – the approach was developed by analyzing what customers they wanted to reach, how to reach them and then measuring the results.
And the results have been impressive. At the Premier Business Leadership Conference in Amsterdam, Nazan Somer, Executive Vice President of Retail Banking for Yapi Kredi shared that the bank has doubled its customer base in two years, increased the number of products sold to retail customers by 48 percent, increased its cross-sell successes by 32 percent, and grew retail bank revenues by 43 percent. All of this while not offering the oak tree to everyone.
The key has been a robust customer research management strategy to segment what is marketed to which customers and prospective customers in a way that doesn’t require anyone in sales to do any statistical heavy lifting. “We cook it up for them,’’ explains Somer. A “Winning Customer Index” is created for each segment that Somer’s team has identified. The index is calculated weekly for around 6 million active customers and – this is critical – is available to every Yapi Kredi employee who comes in contact with customers. “You can’t execute this strategy without strong and sound analytics,’’ Somer explains.
The customer relationship management analytics has been critical not only to acquiring new customers and cross-selling to existing ones but also retaining customers in the most cost effective way possible. Yapi Kredi has done extensive data mining and CRM work to identify customers that are most open to phone banking, for instance.
But back to the oak trees. Turkey is in strong growth mode with a young population and a growing business sector, yet the market is “very competitive,’’ Somer says. Yapi Kredi wants to grow in a sustainable and profitable manner. To do this, the bank needed a more customer-centric approach that favored customers with the best long-term potential for the bank . The packages that included a free tree planting are specifically tailored to bring in the right customers that fit the bank’s profile. It is not a one size fits all approach and it encourages the sales teams in branches, and within units, to sell specific types of products – not whatever they can sell. Those products, and who they are marketed to, do change as the Winning Customer Index is recalculated each week, allowing the bank to reshape strategy as necessary. “This has changed from a product-oriented mindset,’’ Somer says.
It is also a process that is heavily dependent on analytics. “We build models all the time, next best product models, churn models,’’ Somer says. “We can’t sit back and enjoy (our success),” Somer says. “We need to improve churn, need to be fast and integrate social media. All will be powered, inevitably, by business analytics.”
To read more about Yapi Kredi’s success check out this case study.


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Last week, the Vietnamese clients of JUNON Switch , our old customers and old friends who have worked together for more than 10 years, came to visit us.
During the visit, the guests visited JUNON's new LED factory and were deeply impressed by the current size and changes of JUNON. As a customer who has cooperated for more than 10 years, Vietnamese customers are also witnessing changes in JUNON Switch. Our Vietnamese customers also have factories in Vietnam. This time, they feel a lot about it. They also hope that JUNON Switch can take time to guide and guide their new factories and work hard for everyone's future development.
On this visit, the customer also talked with JUNON about the development plan for the next year and gave JUNON Switch a strong heart for the year of 2020.
We hope that the cooperation between the two companies can become more and more close, our sales of the switches and sockets again to create brilliant!


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The Daily Dish
August 19, 2019
Assessing the Economic War with China
Eakinomics: Assessing the Economic War with China
Protestations from White House advisor Peter Navarro notwithstanding, the imposition of tariffs on imports from China are taking their toll on the U.S. economy. The impact comes in three forms. The first is the simple act of raising taxes (tariffs are taxes on imports), something no clear-headed administration would ever argue is pro-growth. AAF’s Jacqueline Varas estimates that the latest round of tariffs (a 10 percent rate on the remaining un-tariffed Chinese goods) raises the total cost on the U.S. consumer to $100 billion annually. (Weirdly, observers applauded the decision to impose only part of the tariffs in September and defer the remainder to December; deferred bad news is still bad news.) The second is the retaliation by China against the sale of U.S. products. The poster child for this suffering is the American farmer. The final is harder to see and quantify, but takes the form of increased protectionism around the globe (“If the United States is doing it, why don’t we?”), reduced global trade, more anemic global growth, and the costly re-structuring of supply chains. The upshot is simply bad news for economic growth.
The trade war has also broadened out to a dangerous currency war with China. This an extremely short-sighted misstep, that follows directly from the administration’s misguided focus on the bilateral trade balance with China. If the bilateral balance matters, then — supposedly — the bilateral exchange rate is a tool of economic policy. Unfortunately, exchange rates are not set by fiat, but by market conditions. The value of the dollar reflects productivity, growth, interest rates, and inflation in the United States relative to its trading partners. A government can lean against these forces temporarily, but you can’t fool mother nature and exchange rates will adjust. Even worse, however, is setting the precedent of naming China as a currency manipulator. This raises the specter of having the United States named as a manipulator for something as simple as conventional monetary policy.
Finally, the administration appears prepared to broaden the fight to tech companies, supply chains of U.S. firms and the aspects of economic policy. But to what end?
Ultimately, it is best to view the policy through the lens of politics. China is (properly) extremely unpopular and no challenger will dispute the president’s desire to challenge their conduct. So it is unlikely that any of the policy moves will actually be a political football in 2020. But even if there is not a recession, the economy will be a central issue, and the president is placing the risky bet that the cumulative impact of these policy missteps will not damage his electoral chances.
Fact of the Day
As of February, 87 percent of health insurance enrollees through Affordable Care Act exchanges received a premium subsidy.


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Visakhapatnam: Cordelia Cruise Empress reached the shores of Vizag on Wednesday morning. The cruise ship will provide excellent cruise services in the tourism sector with all the amenities to enjoy with the family for three days in the ocean waters. The first service starts today. The ship will sail back to Chennai via Puducherry from Vizag today evening. Cordelia is offering a three-night service from Visakhapatnam to Puducherry and Chennai. The sailing dates are June 8, 15 and 22. The ship has a capacity to accommodate 1,500 to 1,800 passengers. The Visakhapatnam Port Authority has given permission to JM Bhakshi to operate the cruise ship.
Visakhapatnam port Authority Traffic manager Ratna Sekhar told, "The biggest cruise arrived at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday morning. Permission was given to enter the port and the officials of other departments were also informed. 800 tourists get down from the ship which was coming from Chennai. 1,345 tourists will be on board in the evening today and it will leave by 8 pm," said Traffic manager Ratna Sekhar. He said that the Cordelia cruise line which was operating in Mumbai and Chennai has also included Visakhapatnam in its destinations. What started off as an experiment to see if the people of Visakhapatnam would be interested in this side of tourism, as per information operator 1345 tickets have now been sold out from Visakhapatnam," said Ratna Sekhar. One traveller from Chennai said, "It's a beautiful journey from Chennai to Visakhapatnam. It's very pocket friendly for the middle-class class to the higher class. Travelled two nights, kids thoroughly enjoyed." The facilities on board include a food court, starlight restaurant, swimming pool, fitness centre, lounges, DJ entertainment, casino, live shows, Cordelia Academy for Kids, Jain food and rock climbing.—ANI


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QYOU Media, the world’s leading curator of premium ‘best-of-web’ video for multiscreen distribution, today announced that its programs and linear channels reach an addressable audience of more than 100 million consumers across six continents. The company’s rapidly expanding reach demonstrates a growing appetite for millennial-programming globally.
This year, QYOU has launched the new TBD multicast network in the US with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which brings curated digital-first shows and series to TV audiences for the first time. The company has also signed the largest deployment of its QYOU channel to date with an expansion of its partnership with TATA Sky in India, bringing QYOU’s programming to its mobile, TV, and on-demand services. The company continues its push into these larger markets with localized content partnerships adding value to the offering for consumers, distributors, and advertisers.
Younger, digital-first generations have grown up on a diet of online video and flock to popular video platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, Daily Motion, Twitch, Snapchat, and Facebook to satisfy their appetite for bite-sized content. According to eMarketer 54% of 18-34 year olds use YouTube every day and this number is only expected to increase in the coming years. There is also a growing appetite for short-form online video in developing markets, where viewers are often mobile-first.
As more broadcasters, mobile operators and content owners look to target hard-to-reach youth audiences, The QYOU’s 24/7 linear channel of ‘best-of-web’ curated online video and also the creation of its bespoke shows have been in high demand. In the first half of 2017, QYOU signed a total of 8 new distribution agreements extending the reach of its content in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, Latin America and the US, as well as launching its content into new regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.
The company’s linear channel, The QYOU, is distributed to cable and OTT services run by TATA Sky, Vodafone, T Mobile, Telenor, Tele2, United Group, M7, TotalPlay and Play Poland. It produces the TBD multicast channel in the US for the Sinclair Broadcast Group; and it’s custom programming clients include Fox Sports, Liberty Global, Showmax Africa, Lufthansa, Buffalo Wild Wings, and FlowSports.
Curt Marvis, CEO and Co-Founder, QYOU Media says: “We’re heading into Q4 of 2017 with amazing new opportunities coming down the pike, that will see us extend our reach even further across Asia and Europe. This is on top of what has already been a high growth year for us: we listed on the Canadian TSX Venture Exchange, while concurrently signing some of our biggest distribution deals to date. Our programming is now available to more than 100 million customers across six continents, from the most densely populated urban cities on earth to remote mining sites in outback Australia. Our momentum is continuing to gather pace as more and more forward-thinking media companies realize that they too can harness the popularity of curated short-form content for their subscribers.”
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Lexus Hybrid Living
“Overall, it [the website] helps reinforce Lexus’ commitment to the environment,” adds Bolain. And “it’s a place for Lexus owners and others to discover new products that appeal to them aesthetically and environmentally,” says Nordstrom.
Looking for luxury that doesn’t ruin the planet? Lexus has choices right at your fingertips: fashions, restaurants, hotels, spas, furniture, architecture, health and beauty, food and wine, housewares and art. Each company or service is involved in practices that generate less toxins or waste to the environment.
Partner Kelly LaPlante of Organic Interior Design has provided her clients with recycled, toxin-free, and sustainable materials such as bamboo flooring and eco-friendly fabrics long before it was politically correct to be green. Lexus asked her to design the LHL suites at the Fairmont Hotel’s Washington, D.C. and San Francisco locations, where she has created a coffee table for the décor partially using remnants from a Lexus car and also incorporated ecologically sensitive furniture from hybrid partners Kenneth Corbonpue and the Q Collection.
“Lexus is a company that truly cares about being green,” says
LaPlante. “Yes, they are a corporation and they make cars. But a lot of corporate money is then put into their LHL program and into investing in their partners.” Another recent pet LaPlante project is a book, Ecologique: The Style of Sustainable Design, a compilation of the designer’s eco-friendly spaces sponsored by Lexus and printed on acid-free paper and with soy based inks. Found at www.organicdesign.com, it enables LaPlante to donate 100 percent of her proceeds to green initiatives.
Partner Coyuchi is dedicated to the production of luxury bedding made in India only from 100-percent certified organic cotton without the use of pesticides. Up to 200 chemicals might be used on a single cotton plant in one growing season in the United States, where billions of pounds of cotton are grown every year. 25 percent of all insecticide used in farming is used in the production of cotton.
Coyuchi (www.coyuchi.com) has worked for the last 17 years since its start with suppliers that keep their crop healthy and more resistant to infestation. Instead of pesticides, their growers use good bugs to eat bad bugs. “We’re changing the world one bed at a time,” says Christine Nielson, president and CEO of Coyuchi. Her product can be found in the bedrooms of the LHL suites at various Fairmont Hotel locations. “Altogether, it’s been a wonderful collaboration. We’ve had access to a string of opportunities that are mutually beneficial,” she says.
For those interested in putting their money where their mouth
is, there’s LHL partner Cowgirl Creamery (www.cowgirlcreamery.com). Artisanal cheese is about as removed from cars as it gets, but the process is similar to making fine wine. Owners Sue Conley and Peggy Smith consider themselves stewards of the land, having close contact with the animals that supply the raw materials and knowing the pastures where they graze. It all comes down to taking care of the land in order to provide a superior, healthful product, giving people an opportunity to go along for the ride. And that’s where Lexus fits into the picture, isn’t it?