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How Can You Ensure Your New Product Will Be The Next Big Thing? In our last report, we discovered how emerging trends such as Vegan don’t necessarily make products more popular when they hit the mainstream shelves of retailers. So, how can you predict when your product or NPD concepts will tip from being cool with the minority to adopted by the masses and commercially successful?
So, How Much Is Vegan Truly Converting Consumers? In our latest study, we sought to test how much emerging concepts hitting the mainstream are likely to translate into trial, purchase intent and commercial success. Vegan is a trend that has fast been adopted by restaurateurs, food manufacturers and retailers across the UK. It’s perceived to be a highly-lucrative area for new product development. However, aside from the noise being made in the FMCG sector and trade press, how ready are mainstream UK consumers to adopt it into their everyday lives and how differentiating and value-adding is Vegan to product ranges? Our latest research suggests that simply introducing or reformulating a product as Vegan doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be onto a commercial winner and VYPR is helping brands to identify the pitfalls to avoid.
According to leading scientists, the world will run out of food by 2050, thanks to a population boom, which has producers across the planet looking at new ways to keep us all fed in the decades to come. According to recent reports (including the BBC’s Today programme this week), that means it may soon become legal in the UK to use insects as a food source for chickens that will ultimately end up on British plates. In the latest of our series on food waste innovation, we sought to find out just how accepting consumers are to the change and what this means – most importantly – for purchase intent.
Food waste is high on the political agenda. This week, VYPR commissioned a report on consumer attitudes and behaviours surrounding food innovation in waste, importantly seeking to understand how this might impact purchase intent. Over 70% of consumers claimed that they would buy products featuring ingredients that would normally go to waste. 90% of respondents feel that waste is a serious issue, while 93% of UK consumers claimed that they felt individually responsible for taking action to reduce waste. Importantly, 89% indicated that they want to make a difference to tackle the problem, which surely puts pressure on food manufacturers and retailers to proactively empower their customers to take action. However, when we delve deeper and it comes to trying new innovative waste concepts, it is clear that there is still a long way to go to convince consumers to behave differently and embrace change.
Our clients are always on the hunt for inspiration to fuel their NPD or add something new and innovative to existing product ranges. VYPR comes into its own when testing new ideas and concepts. So, in the last month, we’ve picked out 6 key trends that are edging their way into the UK mainstream – Indian Street Food, Portuguese Cuisine, West African Cuisine, Japanese "Dude" Food, Vegan Food and Flexitarian meat products – and put them to the test across the VYPR panel. Whereas you’d expect certain shoppers to warm to certain flavour profiles, what is more interesting is to see just how complex the breakdown of acceptable trial formats would be across different supermarkets and demographics. It certainly isn’t one format fits all.
New NHS guidelines advise limiting children’s snacks to two-a-day, each under 100 calories, following Public Health England warnings that primary school children could be consuming 3x their recommended daily limit of sugar. VYPR commissioned a report on what this means for purchase intent among consumers and the results are in.
Every year, we are inspired by the festive launches from the world of retail and M&S Food has long held a pioneering status in the innovation stakes, showcased annually at Christmas in store. Here at VYPR, we’re massive advocates of the power of incrementalism, defined as the gradual enhancement of product performance through a blend of innovation and marginal improvements, delivered over time, component by component. Just take our montage on the humble Christmas turkey and it’s obvious to see that M&S have been delivering a masterclass on this in spades for generations!
According to this year’s BDO Food and Drink Survey, 92% of manufacturers stated that NPD will be the most important factor determining revenue growth, with 66% of respondents looking to technology and automation to improve efficiency. There are two key challenges that need to be considered in this context: 1) finding the right tech to streamline your NPD/EPD process and 2) taking the right steps to better assure certainty of NPD performance. Here’s how we can help.
This week, VYPR users completed their 10,000th Steer on the platform, which has got us both a little nostalgic and thinking about the future. In a recent podcast on the Future of Grocery, McKinsey points to price pressure for the malaise in FMCG innovation and the adoption of technology, automation and constant, iterative testing as its salvation. Launching NPD remains one of the biggest gambles in FMCG. No matter what investment you put in, the gap in understanding between what we think will happen when a new product launches versus what happens when a shopper faces on to the fixture is enormous. VYPR gives you live feedback from consumers on how NPD is performing and – more importantly – why your product may or may not be flying off the shelf.


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India Art Fair: Apple CEO Praises Indian Digital Artists For Their Creativity
For the India Art Fair Digital Artists in Residence program, Apple collaborated with three Indian digital artists
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, recently praised three Indian artists whose works were on exhibition at the India Art Fair.
A unique section of the 14th India Art Fair, which took place at the NSIC Exhibitions Ground in Delhi, has been devoted to three digital artists. These artists, Gaurav Ogale, Varun Desai, and Mira Felicia Malhotra, were chosen to take part in the "Digital Artists in Residence" program and were given the most recent iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Magic Keyboard to create their artwork.
Cook recently acknowledged the skill of these three Indian artists on Twitter. He tweeted that the first India Art Fair Digital Artists in Residence program demonstrates how technology can unleash creativity. He added that it was wonderful to see how the iPad Pro was enabling the artists Mira, Varun, and Gaurav to express themselves so creatively.
Varun Desai, who is an electronic artist, developed a digital work titled "Dimorphism" that combines code-generated video art, 3D LiDAR scanning, hand-drawn animation, and sound synthesis in keeping with the theme of the 2023 India Art Fair, "finding the extraordinary in ordinary."
Mira Felicia Malhotra's digital work, "Log Kya Kahenge," is more reflective since it features two layers of a collection of Indian family pictures to signify the stresses of society’s standards and the necessity to adhere to them.
Gaurav Ogale, a multimedia storyteller, titled his work "Best Sellers," providing a fresh interpretation of what it means to read a book that has made the bestseller list.
The three digital artists will also provide seminars as part of the India Art Fair's Today at Apple program. The goal of these seminars is to provide customers of Apple products with useful advice on how to develop their creativity and make the most of their technology.
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Olympus released the Q3 financial report. And while the company as a whole is doing ok the Imaging Business reported a major revenue loss. Also the forecast had to be revised down:
Part of the loss lies in “The impacts of ceased operations at the Chinese manufacturing subsidiary”. So this should be a one time loss only. But another more important cause of the loss is the “intensified competition“.
We have to keep in mind that Olympus did not announce new products at last years Photokina and this certainly had a big impact on their financial results. I hope the new E-M1X and the next new product launches will invert this trend.


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Today we jointly announced with Formula 1® our new digital partnership to deliver the first-ever virtual Paddock Club, unique live-sport experiences, ahead of the FORMULA 1® ARAMCO MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2020 Budapest.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, the first eight F1® races are without the traditional in-person hospitality offerings. Hospitality is a key component of the F1® experience, so our companies partnered to create a bespoke virtual hospitality experience for guests. Across the past race weekend, guests joined the Virtual Paddock Club, through Zoom, and were treated to a range of experiences, including live updates and insight from legends of the paddock.
Additional experiences will also be created, in-line with the FIA’s regulations, at future races. Zoom will provide an exclusive experience throughout the eight-race European season, and in addition, F1® will look to work with us to expand the Virtual Paddock Club offering to its Global Partners and F1® Teams.
Ben Pincus, F1® Sponsorship Director, said:
“We understood the opportunity Zoom presented to us, which was about delivering a live sporting experience for guests despite the fact much of sport is currently behind closed doors. Zoom by its very nature is about enabling and connecting businesses remotely and this partnership, which has been developed virtually, is an example of just that. We are excited to work with Zoom to continue to connect businesses and their VIPs through this virtual hospitality experience. We hope this will be the first of many innovations we roll out in the coming months for our partners. Over the past few months, through Project Pitlane and Virtual Grand Prix races, we have seen the ability to innovate is imperative as we collectively adapt to an environment that continues to evolve.”
Janine Pelosi, Zoom’s CMO, added:
“We at Zoom are thrilled to kick off the Virtual Paddock Club with Formula 1®. During this challenging time, organizations such as Formula 1 still need to provide engaging experiences for fans and enterprises need to offer unique opportunities for their top prospects, and Zoom is here to help. The Virtual Paddock Club is the best way to recreate that VIP sports experience from home. Long run, there’s an opportunity for a hybrid virtual/in-person model so distance is no longer a barrier to sports hospitality.”
Our thanks to CAA Sports for helping to facilitate this partnership through its global representation of F1®.


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China company to run Apple iCloud accounts
The tech giant Apple inc has confirmed that its enrich iCloud services will be operated by the Chinese company from the next month in the mainland of China.
Apple has currently contacted several customers from China and meanwhile suggests them to examine brand new terms & conditions. They even disclose a clause that both the Chinese companies and Apple will have permission to access all the data that stored on iCloud.
The tech expert said that it had made the move to comply with the cloud computing regulations of the country. And the registered iCloud accounts outside of China are not strained.
The Chinese cyber security rules introduced in July 2017 contains a requirement for firms to store the entire data within china.
Apple says Chinese firm will operate iCloud accounts
The company called Guizzhou which is based on the Cloud Big data(GCBD), owned by provincial government of Guizhou in southern China. It is the firm where Apple opened a $1bn data centre previous year in order to meet the regulations.
Apple told, the data of iCloud will be transformed from 28th February. Customers from the China who didn’t want to use iCloud run by GCBD were given the option to terminate their account.
Apple revealed that the partnership with GCBD would enable it to improve the speed as well as reliability of our products of iCloud services and also performing newly passed regulations which cloud services be regulated by Chinese firms.
The company added that the Apple had very strong data privacy as well as security protections in the place and no backdoors will be made into any of our systems.
Users use iCloud to store data like documents and photographs. This move comes after the firm was criticized by some previous year for removing VPNs from its App store in the China. It was the software that allowed users to know the government restrictions on the internet access.


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From May 27-31, 2019, some of Mexico’s largest online retail companies, e-commerce and travel sites will participate in this year’s “Hot Sale” event, the country’s extended version of Cyber Monday.
Currently, e-commerce is becoming one of the most attractive shopping alternatives for Mexicans, thanks to the benefits of being able to purchase products and services from anywhere at any time of day.
To help more and more people become involved in electronic commerce, the Mexican Association of Online Sales (AMVO) has been organizing the largest online sales campaign in the country since 2014. Called the “Hot Sale,” this 4-day Internet shopping event aims to promote the use of electronic commerce in Mexico and highlight the many benefits that this medium offers consumers.
This year’s “Hot Sale” will take place from May 27-31, with some of Mexico’s largest online retail companies and e-commerce sites, including Home Depot, Walmart, AeroMexico, MercadoLibre, Elektra, GNC, Interjet, Telmex, Telcel, Costco, MacStore, Comex, Office Depot, Dell, PayPal, Groupon, Ebay, Liverpool, Cinépolis, Petco and Booking.com, among others, offers great discounts and exclusive offers to Internet users.
“With the ‘Hot Sale’ event we are looking to bring in new users and motivate those have already bought online,” said AMVO president Eric Pérez-Grovas. “We know that people who buy on the Internet for the first time do it again because they experience the great benefits of this industry; according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, over 50% of internet users have made some sort of online purchase, and 97% intend to do so again,” he added.
With a format similar to “Cyber Monday,” the “Hot Sale” is the biggest annual online shopping event in Latin America, not just in Mexico, but also in countries like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.
For more “Hot Sale Mexico” information (in Spanish) and the full list of participating online retailers, visit hotsale.com.mx
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BuzzFeed has hired Lee Brown, Yahoo's global head of brand partnerships, as its chief revenue officer, the company said Wednesday.
At Yahoo, Mr. Brown led Tumblr's native-ad business. In his new position, he will oversee BuzzFeed's sales organizations, "responsible for driving business globally with new and existing revenue streams," according to a memo from BuzzFeed President Greg Coleman.
BuzzFeed's revenue model is based on selling native ads, which seek to mimic the editorial content surrounding it. Last year, the company generated more than $100 million in revenue. Tumblr, which is owned by Yahoo, is expected to ring up about that much in revenue in 2015 thanks to its own form of native ads, according to remarks last year from Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
The chief revenue officer position at BuzzFeed has been vacant since Andy Wiedlin left the company at the end of last year. Mr. Brown's name had been at the top of the list of possible candidates for the job, according to people familiar with BuzzFeed's search.
Here's Mr. Coleman's full memo:
2015 is off to a great start and we already have some exciting news. We are scaling our business in a big way with the hire of Lee Brown who has accepted the role of Chief Revenue Officer. Lee is a seasoned digital media executive, coming to us from Tumblr where he spearheaded their native advertising offerings as Global Head of Brand Partnerships and previously held leadership roles at Yahoo and Groupon.
Bringing over two decades of sales experience and leadership to BuzzFeed, Lee will be responsible for driving business globally with new and existing revenue streams. He is no stranger to leveraging technology and great storytelling to solve partners' challenges.
Lee is not the only change to the sales organization. I'm thrilled to announce that Jonathan Perelman, VP of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, has been appointed to lead a new strategic sales group that will focus on our booming branded video offering. Joined by Zach Davis and David Spiegel and more to come, this group will be working with the global sales team to bring their expertise in our branded video product to all of BuzzFeed's partners. We've also reorganized the east coast sales into smaller, more nimble groups and elevated some incredible talent: Rebecca Silver, Kenley Bradstreet, Brendan Kelly and Keith Hernandez have been promoted to run new teams with the rest of our sales management.
I'm confident that Lee's deep knowledge of mobile and social as well as his experience building collaborative and professional sales organizations will accelerate our already rapid growth in 2015.
Much more to come about our business team - research, international, creative services and social discovery - and more in depth plans for expansion in 2015.
Please join me in welcoming Lee!


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In 1984, California yarn store owner Bonnie Greene was trying to figure out what to do about people who wanted to return a single, unneeded cone of yarn to her store.
She could not take the the yarn back, but decided if customers could be convinced to knit a simple children's cap from the extra string and donate it to the needy, everyone would be happy.In the past six years, the "Caps for Kids" Foundation Greene started has donated more than 70,000 caps to needy youngsters.
Recently, Greene was in Salt Lake City where 200 machine knitters put a spin on her idea, and - in a 24-hour "knit-a-thon" - made 363 sweaters for needy Utah youngsters.
"Making these sweaters gives us a warm feeling and we're happy we can help a lot of children keep warm this winter," said Peter Foss, president of Passap Knitting Machines-West, Inc.
Switzerland-based Passap and several other firms supplied the 200 mechanized knitting machines for the marathon.
The machines were placed side-by-side for more than 100 feet down the center of a shopping mall. The knitting apparatus clicked and clanked, their operators stretched and yawned, and the pile of red sweaters grew higher and higher.
"I'm so happy we have this wonderful opportunity to spread the word about `Caps for Kids,' " said Greene, taking a break from the knitting. Sitting on a folding cot in a vacant mall shop, Greene said nearly 400 stores nationwide participate in the program, as well as stores in Canada and New Zealand.
And while the program's primary product is caps, "Caps for Kids" encourages volunteers to make anything they choose to contribute.
The recent popularity of machine-knitting will benefit "Caps for Kids" greatly, said Alicia Bremer-Davis, spokesperson for the Knitting Machine Council of America.
The KMCA is sending free patterns called "Knits for Kids" to anyone requesting them.
The patterns include, of course, one for a cap, as well as instructions for making sweaters, blankets and scarves.
"As `Caps for Kids' becomes better known, it receives more and more requests for items like sweaters, scarves and baby blankets," Bremer-Davis said. "Providing free patterns for these items seemed like a great way for the Knitting Machine Council of America to support a really wonderful program."
The sweaters were presented to representatives of Head Start, Neighborhood House, the Salt Lake City Family Homeless Shelter and the University of Utah Hospital Children with Aids program.
While the major benefactors of the knit-a-thon are the children, companies selling knitting machines will benefit from the exposure, Bremer-Davis said.
"It's a wonderful hobby, something the whole family can enjoy," she said. "There's a real satisfaction in making an item of clothing for yourself, and there's even more satisfaction when you make something for someone who really needs it."
The stereotype of little old ladies in rocking chairs with knitting needles is being rapidly broken down as machine knitters become more popular, said Mary Beth Hayes, marketing manager for Elna Inc.
A knitting machine can cost from $200 to $2,000 or more, but it gives home knitters much more productivity than hand-knitting, said Hayes, who added that novices can create beautiful items, even if they aren't creative.
"You'll find children, fathers, doctors and lawyers using machine knitters," Hayes said.


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Cher's Auction Brings in $3.5 million
We first heard about Cher's yard sale back in August, where a $1-1.5 million dollar estimate was given for over 700 items from her home that were to be sold at the Beverly Hilton. The event took place this week and far exceeded the original estimate, taking in more than $3.5 million. Every single item offered found a buyer and the lots included a Bob Mackie costume ($60,000) and her 2005 Bentley ($204,000), which was the single priciest item in the sale.
According to the singer, part of the proceeds will go to charity, and the rest will be used to redecorate her mansion.


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Look At Me Now
We feel a little guilty. We’ve been fickle and easily distracted. Last year, the first two TechStars NYC classes were all we could talk about. But when their programs ended, we kind of forgot about them and directed our attention to the newest TechStars NYC class. Shame on us!
But back in the day, those first 23 companies were all the rage. Like shiny new toys, they were exciting and fascinating. There was even a reality television show about them. So even though their three-month, highly-competitive startup accelerator program has ended, these companies are still around. They didn’t just vanish into thin air. (Well, some of them did).
But all of this begs the question, where are these companies now? How have they fared in the big, bad world? Did they flop? Or surpass expectations?
We didn’t know, so we decided to find out. And it turns out that we weren’t the only ones who were curious about what these companies have been up to.
The most interesting part of today’s news that mobile advertising startup Place IQ had raised $4.2 million was that the Boulder, Colorado based company is packing its bags and heading to New York. Roger Ehrenberg, whose IA Ventures has been backing Place IQ since the seed stage, says it’s the natural evolution of Read More
The average user may not have noticed some changes to Apple’s UDID, but with iOS 5 the company has closed off a valuable source of information for independent mobile ad networks. “A lot of people are scrambling to find alternatives,” says Giancarlo Maniaci, the CEO of TapIt. “The UDID allowed people to track what apps a user had installed and give our clients a sense of how well their campaigns were working. Now Apple is the only one who can offer that.”
UPDATE 7/26/2011: TechCrunch broke the embargo, as usual, but Erick Schonfeld was nice enough to link back to this original story on the round.
ThinkNear has announced that Google Ventures, who the team met during their time at TechStars NY, is one of its backers. Other investors include Metamorphic Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, FF Venture Capital, Real Ventures, Zelkova Ventures, BoldStart VC, David Tisch, Bill Boebel, Ben Sun, David Cohen and Matt Turck.
“We had only planned to raise $1 million but got $2 million worth of interest before we stopped looking,” says Founder Eli Portnoy. “We chose mainly to raise from the mentors we met through TechStars, people we knew could add value.”
Venture capitalist Peter Thiel pushed the debate about whether a college education is worth the student debt past the tipping point–he’d rather pay smart kids $100,000-a-piece to build a start-up–but the argument has taken on a life of its own.
Entrepreneurs have long romanticized the notion of a boot-strapped, self-taught success and held a healthy skepticism over whether a classroom can prepare you for the business world. But Eli Portnoy, a TechStars alum/Harvard MBA and CEO of ThinkNear, a location-based services start-up that helps merchants drive traffic to stores during down periods, takes an updated look at the current landscape.
It’s no longer just a choice between going to college or venturing out on your own. With the proliferation of incubators and accelerators, especially top programs offering a credible alternative, Mr. Portnoy delves into the specifics, outlining the upsides of going to TechStars versus getting a Harvard MBA. His conclusion?
We made it through Internet Week, guys!
THINKNEAR GOING FAR. The pre-launch TechStars grad ThinkNear has closed a round of funding, a source tells Betabeat, and is heading out to… Culiver City! We’ve heard of Culver City near L.A., but ThinkNear’s job listings page, which lists openings for four engineers, plainly says Culiver. Anyone know how much they raised, by the way?
LEARNVEST’S BIG ROUND. “We had not given that to TechCrunch by any means,” a slightly harried-sounding PR rep for LearnVest told Betabeat when we called to ask what the heck a content site needs $12 million more dollars for. “Wtf will they do with $19 million,'” a source Gchatted Betabeat. “For a newsletter that says ‘don’t take cabs every day! Use a 401k!'” Speculation is that LearnVest’s long-awaited money manager tool, something with more of the functionality of Mint.com, may be on the horizon. “They were trying to build some tools this time last year, and I think just needed a lot more tech resources,” another source said. Well, LearnVest? “In the next month or so LearnVest is going to be making some pretty big announcements,” the PR rep told us, and wouldn’t say more. Their jobs page is still mostly editorial and sales positions, though, with one opening for a web developer and one for a java coder.


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Open Innovation: One Size Fits All?
November 21, 2013 Editor 0
The Innovation Excellence website noted that given the level of excitement the concept of Open Innovation has caused in the media in recent years, one would assume that this approach has become a common tool used by organizations to achieve their innovation goals. Indeed, this year’s study by Henry Chesbrough and Sabine Brunswicker shows that large companies in Europe and the U.S. are increasingly using open innovation in their business practices. However, when asked which specific open innovation tools they employ the most, the respondent chose customer co-creation, informal networking and university grants.Click here to read the full article..
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With constant updates to social media platforms in the forms of functionality and aesthetics, Twitter has been one of the slower moving social media platforms. Hopefully these two major updates this week is a sign of a faster pace.
Group Direct Message
The first update is the ability to ‘group direct message’ your followers. This has been a long time complaint of avid Twitter users for years. With this new feature, you’ll be able to start a conversation with multiple followers at the same time, even if some of those followers don’t follow each other.
The second update to Twitter is one we’re really excited about. You now have the ability to shoot, edit, and share videos up to 30 seconds in length. You can do this directly in the Twitter app on your phone with the camera button similar to how you would share a picture. This update comes after competitors like Facebook have heavily focused on growing their native video functionalities.
Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo emphasized that this feature is one that will change the way people live tweet events that are unfolding right now. He said, “We believe that during any sort of local event, national event, global event, the opportunity for people, participants, to be live tweeting those things and broadcasting them to the world is a massive opportunity, that’s one of the reasons we are so excited about consumer video.”
Check out the first video ever posted to twitter featuring none other than Neil Patrick Harris.
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) January 27, 2015
There is no doubt that Digital Marketers will be excited for this feature as it unlocks many opportunities for unique posts and social media campaigns to engage their communities.
Buzz Social is both the most affordable and effective way that Vancouver businesses can leverage their social media programs to drive awareness to their services and products. Being fully engaged with your online community takes strategy, planning, and experience – we’ve been learning from our 200,000 plus community since 2008.


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Web 3.0 development in China; More restrictions or entering the free world?
With rumblings of the Chinese government giving Hong Kong permission to liberalize cryptocurrency activity in the area and turning it into a hub for the world of Web 3.0 and digital assets, many are hoping that the country will follow through on its decision to ban cryptocurrencies across the board on the mainland. China should reconsider and adopt a more liberal approach towards digital currency investment and trading.
According to Wallex and quoted by Forkast, we see signs of China’s new approach to blockchain technology and digital assets. In this new approach, this field has the potential of economic propulsion. What you will read is a summary of a note written by Lily King. Lily King is a law student from George Washington University and has many years of experience working in investment funds and Asian exchanges. He is also a researcher of developments in the field of digital currency in China.
He mentioned in this note, there is rarely a change in China except with the express or implied permission of the government of this country. Until now, the use cases of blockchain technology, which has been supported by the central government of this country, have had little to do with its features such as decentralization and permissionlessness.
One of the main manifestations of China’s turn to crypto is the country’s plan to issue and mint its national digital currency – the digital yuan eCNY. Recently, the ability to support smart contracts has been added to this currency. Another such event was the establishment of a digital asset exchange in Beijing at the beginning of this year. This exchange, which has the support of government institutions, provides the possibility of exchanging digital collectibles and NFT tokens between users in a legal way.
China is looking to repeat its Web 2 development model; It means building an independent and separate ecosystem from the global ecosystem or public blockchains. The Chinese government has been the leader in the field of public acceptance of the national digital currency among the countries of the world, and in this way it has taken ideas from the blockchain industry; An idea like programmable money.
Smart contracts allow digital yuan to interact with commercial “super apps”, but unlike smart contracts in public blockchains that anyone can set up in the network, access to this feature is only possible with government permission.
The China Digital Asset exchange, which was established in January with the support of several government entities, claims to be the first active and compliant platform in China to support trading of NFT tokens and digital collectibles between users. Prior to the launch of this store, previous digital collectibles platforms in mainland China did not allow users to sell their collectibles.
The store is also looking to create its own private blockchain to record and validate ownership and intellectual property rights of digital assets.
Most likely, we will see more such stores and markets in China. What is evident is that China is looking to regulate the field of NFTs. Currently, only a few companies are officially licensed to create and publish digital collectibles.
In both the national digital currency (CBDC) and Web 3.0 sectors, China is seeking to become a world leader in these areas, but at the same time wants to distance itself from the “Western” Web 3.0 values of freedom, privacy, and decentralization. .
This approach does not conflict with the freedom of action given to Hong Kong in the field of Web 3.0. Hong Kong has always been considered as a bridge to connect the society under the control of mainland China to the international world. Such an approach can also be true in the Web 3.0 space.
With the bitter events that happened in the space of digital currencies last year, the western world is looking to strengthen its regulations regarding this industry. In such an environment, it will not be difficult to justify the Chinese version of the digital asset industry.
But blockchain is also called the “trust machine” because it allows people to agree on a common outcome without the need for trust. In fact, as much as it is a technological development, blockchain is also a social trend. If we remove decentralization from blockchains, will this technology have an advantage over existing centralized technologies?
If there is no decentralized infrastructure for Web 3.0, the behavior of users will be more under the supervision and control of governments (or any central operator). Will users outside of China accept such a problem?
We will have to wait a few years to see the results of the Chinese and centralized version of Web 3.0.
The article on the development of Web 3.0 in China; More restrictions or entering the free world? The first time in the blog Valx. appeared.


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The 'Charlie Bit My Finger' Video, Now an NFT, Will Be Taken off of YouTube
The family behind the 'Charlie Bit My Finger' video just auctioned the viral clip off as an NFT, and they made a ton of money on it. Here's what they're up to now.
NFTs, short for non-fungible tokens, are a type of digital currency seeing a crazy spike in popularity. Everyone from artists to creators of tweets, Instagram posts, and viral videos are turning their non-physical properties into NFTs and making big money off of them.
Now, the family behind Charlie Bit My Finger is getting in on the NFT action.
What are the 'Charlie Bit My Finger' kids up to now?
The Davies-Carr family has just announced that they've sold the viral video for $760,999 as an NFT at an auction, and that the clip will be pulled from YouTube. The online sale started heating up in the final hours of the bidding process, with a user by the name of 3fmusic winning the NFT over mememaster. The clip's been viewed over 880 million times ever since it was uploaded to YouTube.
While the video is currently unlisted and the comments have been disabled, Charlie Bit My Finger is still available to view if you head to this link. However, the BBC reports it'll be officially off of YouTube in late May of 2021.
Charlie Bit My Finger is just the latest viral piece to make the NFT rounds. The popular meme "Disaster Girl" recently sold for a whopping $473,000, but other NFTs have sold for even more. Beeple, an artist who sold a compilation of their first 5,000 pieces, made a whopping $69.3 million.
Another piece of art, CryptoPunk 3100, recently sold for $7.58 million. Plus, the first tweet ever published was made into an NFT and sold for $2.9 million. The message? "Just setting up my twttr," by platform founder Jack Dorsey.
The 'Charlie Bit My Finger' kids recently appeared on MSNBC's 'Closing Bell.'
If you want to feel old, just check out the clip below for yourself. In addition to making everyone feel like Methuselah, the kids from the iconic Charlie Bit My Finger clip discussed the massive sale of their video. Charlie explains that when the video was first uploaded to the YouTube platform, the streaming site was "the new thing."
Now, it's NFTs that are "the new thing," and the internet stars thought to capitalize on it by getting in on the trend early. It seems to have worked out in their favor as the brothers made a staggering amount of cash for its sale.
When asked if they were "famous" among their school friends, the older brother (whose finger was bitten by baby Charlie) said they're not really "famous." Rather, their viral video is an "exciting" tidbit people learn about them that then fades into "the background."
He went on to say that "it's really cool" that Charlie Bit My Finger has become one of the "big videos on YouTube."
Do you plan on getting into the NFT action?


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Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders and funders. The Ground Floor is Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.
But, to hear Better Health Box founder Michael Slage tell it, none of the other subscription boxes on the market provide what his company, which he runs out of his Pentagon City home, do: healthy, tasty snacks targeted at specific populations with an educational focus.
Slage has worked at the intersection of healthcare and technology for 20 years, starting with “telemedicine” for NASA, in which he assisted doctors diagnose and treat astronauts on the International Space Station and other missions outside of Earth’s orbit. He is also the founder of Healthengage a health data analytics company that specializes in global diabetes data.
Despite his resume, Slage said his newest company — which he started last year as a diabetes box at Healthengage before spinning it off into a separate company — is important to him because of its direct, personal impact.
“[My previous jobs] were helping people, but it was all numbers and electronics,” Slage said. “It was helping people, but it wasn’t the same. This just means more. We’re literally sending care packages every month. It really makes a difference in people’s lives.”
Better Health Box costs $30 a month and includes three-to-five products, depending on their size, in each box. There are five different subscriptions available: for diabetes, general health, children, brain health and focus and sexual health, “which was a popular request,” Slage said.
“We try to do a mix of things that are unique that maybe people have never thought to try,” Slage said. “There are all these great companies making products people have never heard of, and all these people who desperately want to eat smarter and healthier. There seemed to be a need to matchmake.”
Slage, who has also worked for the Russian space program, said a key component of his company for the future will be expanding globally, both in the products it offers and the customers it serves. Since it’s a home-based company, Slage said he can’t ship globally yet despite demand for Better Health Box overseas.
“I believe in using multiculturalism to find solutions,” he said. “We want to use food and drinks from other countries that we don’t know about here, because if it works there, it will work here. Everybody’s human.”
Slage said each product is tested before it goes into any boxes — which his 9-year-old son helps him pack and coordinate. The testing process is key, he said, because “sometimes these healthy things are so foul-tasting.” For that reason, he thinks the educational component is just as important as the products themselves.
“Health education has really declined in this country,” he said. “A lot of people just eat what’s in front of them. Having a chronic condition makes knowing what’s in what you’re eating really important. That’s why we have doctors helping us to make sure each product is safe for the customers.”
Companies provide the samples, products and coupons in each box for free, Slage said, and in return Better Health Box solicits feedback from its more than 500 current subscribers about the products in each box. Eventually, Slage said he hopes to be able to sell Better Health Box subscriptions for far cheaper. Ideally, he said, they would be free.
“That would be excellent,” he said. “All of these companies just want to make a better product.”
The boxes would be ideally subsidized by the companies, which would essentially use Better Health Box as a marketing and testing platform. Slage said these companies already spend millions of dollars just to get people to try their samples.
Before he can offer unpaid subscriptions, however, he knows the company has to grow. He just listed Better Health Box on AngelList and he said he’s seeking $250,000 in funding for marketing and expansion.
“I think we have the model down and we have the partnerships in place,” he said. “We need to scale up. The $250,000 would help it grow out of my living room.”
Caffi Services provides plumbing, heating, and cooling services with environmentally friendly solutions.
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Say goodbye to 2019’s Living Coral and hello to Pantone’s Color of the Year, Classic Blue. Each year, the color expert selects a new color that best represents the year ahead based upon what’s happening in the world of fashion, décor, technology, art, music, travel, politics, and even social media. This year, we’re blue. Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s cool hue.
This shade of blue is officially known as PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue within the Pantone Matching System Color and is “darker than aquamarine and lighter than navy.”
Pantone’s 2020 Color of the Year is calming, dependable, non-aggressive, confident, timeless, comforting, elegant and tranquil – it’s just the color needed to transition into 2020 deems Pantone.
2020 is a bit reminiscent of Y2K, a new era – “the 2020 color brings us almost full circle to the first Color of the Year, Cerulean, another blue hue chosen in 1999 to likewise capture a moment in time,” said CNN.
“Classic Blue is the color of the sky at dusk,” described Laurie Pressman, the vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. “It is a strong visual symbol about fresh starts. Since it’s the sky, it’s also a color of blue everyone sees everywhere around the world – a universal color that transcends global cultures.”
When it comes to yearly color trends, Pantone is the ultimate influencer – expect to see Classic Blue woven into everything from fashion and home décor to beauty and even flavors and scents in 2020.
Ask us how we can work this year’s color into your retail environments, marketing materials, refreshed photo shoots and more.


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Luxury car brand Infiniti announced the Toronto launch of Infiniti Lab, a month-long technology accelerator program focused on IoT and smart city initiatives. The lab originally launched in Hong Kong in 2015, making this Infiniti’s first time expanding into North America.
Smart, connected vehicles are transforming the global automotive industry. Consumers are now looking for technologically-advanced vehicles to support a ‘connected lifestyle’ where they can still be entertained, productive, and safe behind the wheel. Automotive manufacturers should take note of this shift and offer new valuable products or services to serve the connected vehicle market. There … Continue reading "Connected Vehicles: How Innovative Technology is Driving the Market"
BigRoad, a Waterloo Region startup whose technology modernized the way truckers log their hours and other data, has been acquired by Fleet Complete, a Toronto-based provider of fleet-tracking services.


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Department of Marketing and International Business News
Marketing is a crucial component of every organization. A major in marketing opens the door to career opportunities in a myriad of places: from advertising and retailing to market research and public relations. The Department of Marketing and International Business (MIB) provides a professional orientation to education with coursework emphasizing both the theory and practice of marketing or international business.
Current Marketing and International Business News
A collection of news stories highlighting remembrance, recovery, and progress at UNLV.
UNLV marketing expert Anjala Krishen examines how brands become icons, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on marketing to consumers.
Outstanding Faculty Award winner Anjala Krishen keeps students moving, acting as a mentor before and after graduation.
Lee Business School student chapter’s plan to help national newspaper market to Gen Z nets top prize at American Marketing Association competition; team also won first place in business simulation event.
Two-time UNLV alumnus Andrew Baca has done a little bit of everything in his career … except let setbacks stand in the way.
Experience Marketing class teams up with local small businesses to turn classroom learning into real plans.
Marketing and International Business In The News
Nevada is ranked 38th, with about 28 percent of the state fully vaccinated. The number with at least one shot is about 39 percent, but there have been problems getting people to get their second shot.
We’ve all been there. While waiting in line at the supermarket or drug store, the feeling strikes: I need a chocolate bar now. Within minutes, the purchase is made and the product is devoured.
Your allergies are running rampant, so you reach to grab a tissue. Though, you probably call it a Kleenex.
Nevada is quickly moving towards full vaccination. About a quarter of us have received one dose of the vaccine. Close to 14 percent are fully vaccinated.
Last year, Kim Nehls started banking with OneUnited Bank, the largest Black-owned bank in the US. For Nehls, a college professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, keeping her money at a Black-owned bank is just one way to fight systematic racism. That's true for many consumers who choose Black-owned banks — the decision is often influenced not by money, but by social impact.
The cheapest car companies in Nebraska are Farmers Mutual in Nebraska, IMT Insurance, and Auto Owners because they tend to offer premiums that are cheaper than the state average. Although Nebraska is one of the cheapest states for car insurance, drivers can still save hundreds of dollars per year just by comparing quotes.


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If you're not already aware, Google is compelling all AdWords advertisers to adopt Enhanced Campaigns by July 22. It's mandatory. And it signals big changes for Google and for search marketing in general. Google dominates paid-search, which is the biggest single chunk of online advertising.
The high-level shifts brough about by Enhanced Campaigns, if you don't already know, are the following:
Google's rationale is simple: simplification. Google told us a few months ago that it wanted to make cross-platform campaigns easier to execute and easier to manage. But that means marketers give up some amount of control over bidding and can no longer implement mobile-only campaigns.
There are many people who accept and agree with that justification. However there's a much more cynical view circulating in parallel, which is that Google is mostly trying to boost mobile CPCs and thus overall mobile revenues -- to compensate for declining desktop CPCs in some cases.
Increase in CPCs for tablet and mobile campaigns on Google
Like all such competing explanations, the truth lies somewhere in-between.
Historically mobile and tablet CPCs were lower and thus a better value for marketers. Now Adobe's digital marketing arm is saying that will definitely change under the new Enhanced Campaigns regime. Adobe based these remarks on "the latest search marketing and cost-per-click (CPC) trends across nearly 100 major US advertisers representing more than $100 million in ad spend from March through May 2013."
The data come from the clients of the former Efficient Frontier, which Adobe acquired in late 2011 for roughly $400 million.
As the graphs above reflect, mobile CPCs have already begun to rise for advertisers implementing Enhanced Campaigns, while desktop CPCs are stabilizing. According to Adobe:
With the introduction of Enhanced Campaigns, the historically lower CPCs for tablet campaigns should increase to reflect desktop CPCs. We’re only just beginning to see this trend materialize . . . The overall CPC trends across all devices including desktops also show strong growth. Google CPCs increased more than 6% over the last three months alone — a significant jump . . .
One other trend we noticed is that CPCs on Google have stabilized. For the past two years, Google CPCs fell on a year-over-year (YoY) basis due to the increase in mobile and tablet traffic where CPCs were lower. However, for the first time in seven quarters, the CPCs on Google are flat YoY and we anticipate that CPCs will rise on a YoY basis again starting next quarter . . .
Seeking to rebut the perception that the company has successfully manipulated the system to boost its own revenues, Google disputes the assertion that rising prices are inevitable. The company told Search Engine Land earlier this week:
There have been many speculative reports, but it's far too early for any of them to be reliable. Advertisers will choose their bids and adjust their spend based on the value they see in their campaigns.


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PortTechLA Executive Director Accepts New Position
PortTech Los Angeles announced Executive Director Jeffrey Milanette is leaving the organization to launch an innovation center in Africa. Milanette’s resignation is effective February 15th.
“As a business incubation professional, the opportunity to build PortTechLA, coach innovative entrepreneurs and work with a highly talented management team has been incredibly rewarding,” said Milanette. “I thank PortTechLA’s Board of Directors and the Port of Los Angeles for the opportunity to lead the development of this program. However, start-ups are my area of expertise, and I leave PortTechLA well positioned for a new Executive Director to step in and lead the organization into its next phase of growth.”
Under Milanette’s leadership PortTechLA grew from fledgling non-profit with one client to a bustling organization capable of supporting more than 20 clean technology companies with a combination of onsite and virtual services. He recently secured a $1 million contract in Community Development Block Grant funds that enables PortTechLA to continue to provide services to local clean technology entrepreneurs for the next three years. "Jeff has built a great foundation upon which PortTechLA is well positioned to become a leading technology center focused on the maritime industry. We wish him well in his new ventures," stated PortTechLA Board Chair Herb Zimmer.
PortTechLA’s reach is extensive. Shortly after taking charge Milanette established the PortTechForum, a monthly program specially designed for entrepreneurs and members of the clean technology business community to come together to exchange ideas, business tips, marketing advice and benefit from networking opportunities.
Milanette also launched the annual PortTechEXPO, a venture conference and technology exposition designed to introduce the business community to the products and services being developed by PortTechLA clients and other technology entrepreneurs. “The EXPO has been an excellent marketing tool. As a result of last September’s Entrepreneur Pitch Competition, we have engaged four new clients, and have a long list of prospects,” said Milanette.
PortTechLA has begun implementation of an international program as well. From organizing the first-ever Swiss Emissions Control Forum, to establishing a partnership program with Italian entrepreneurs, to hosting numerous delegations of researchers and entrepreneurs worldwide, PortTechLA is attracting international technology companies to Southern California.
Stan Tomsic, PortTechLA’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence, will serve as PortTechLA’s Interim Executive Director. Tomsic is well known in Los Angeles as a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, venture adviser and former administrator of Los Angeles County’s Business Technology Center. The search for a new executive director is being initiated by PortTechLA’s Board of Directors.
About PortTechLA: PortTech Los Angeles, a commercialization center and incubation program, promotes and develops companies with technologies that enable enterprises and consumers to meet their immediate and future environmental, energy, security and logistics goals. PortTechLA is an integral component in the Clean Tech Los Angeles Initiative, a founding member of the Business Incubation Network of Southern California and is a member of the National Business Incubation Association. The incubator is a cooperative effort of the City of Los Angeles, the Port of Los Angeles and the business communities of San Pedro and Wilmington. It is located adjacent to the Port of Los Angeles in the heart of the San Pedro Business Improvement and Arts, Culture and Entertainment Districts.


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The folks over at 360 have a story this morning about the decision, Judy v. Pfizer, Inc., No. 042-1946-02, slip op. (Mo. Cir. St. Louis Co. July 27, 2010), in which the court denied a consumer fraud claim loosely predicated on off-label use/off-label promotion of Neurontin. We’re, of course, pleased to see that, but as Dechert represents Pfizer in some Neurontin litigation (although not the Judy case), we can’t comment all that much about it.
But we can’t let it go unmentioned that the Missouri consumer fraud statute has a reputation as one of the most liberally construed in the country. For instance, in our 50-state survey, we couldn’t even find anything good to report on fraud on the market in Missouri. Nor (before now), did we have anything from Missouri on our state law class action denial cheat sheet.
Thus, the failure of an off-label use economic loss class action under the Missouri statute (on the perfectly reasonable grounds that the effectiveness of off-label uses – like all drugs, when you think about it – varies from person to person) tells us that these no-injury consumer fraud claims should fail in every state of the union.
That’s something we like being able to say.


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New Delhi: Gurugram witnessed 26 per cent decline in housing sales during the third quarter of this fiscal at 3,711 units due to less supply of affordable flats that are currently in demand because of various government incentives, a report by property brokerage firm PropTiger said.
However, housing sales increased in Noida by 4 per cent to 4,386 units during October-December quarter of 2018-19 fiscal from 4,225 units in the year-ago period. PropTiger.com, part of Singapore-based Elara Technologies that also owns Housing.com and Makaan.com, Wednesday released its ‘Realty Decoded Report’ for Q3 of FY’19.
The study covered nine cities — Mumbai, Pune, Noida, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Overall, sales rose by 30 per cent in nine cities to 73,691 units during October-December quarter of 2018-19 fiscal compared to 56,696 units in the year-ago period.
“As per the report, a total of 73,691 units were sold in Q3 FY19 in the top nine cities, 8 per cent lower as compared to 79,894 units sold in Q2 FY19. “However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, sales improved in all the cities other than Gurugram, which witnessed a slowdown due to non-approval of affordable housing projects,” PropTiger said.
Cities in Maharashtra, namely, Mumbai and Pune led the growth pack showing more than 50 per cent improvement in sales on YoY basis. In Pune, sales rose by 59 per cent to 15,669 units, while Mumbai saw 54 per cent increase to 26,067 units.
Housing sales in Hyderabad went up by 36 per cent to 5,813 units, and Chennai reported 25 per cent rise at 4,213 units. Bengaluru saw modest increase of 3 per cent to 7,676 units. Ahmedabad posted 6 per cent increase in sales at 2,746 units, while Kolkata had 15 per cent increase at 3,410 units.
“The growth momentum typically seen during festival seasons was not seen during the last season due to the liquidity crunch caused by the snowballing of the IL&FS issue, which slowed down home loan disbursals and new sanctions by large home finance companies.
“However, if we compare the numbers with the same quarter of FY18, sales are 30 per cent, higher which is good news for the industry,” said Ankur Dhawan Chief Investment Officer, PropTiger.com. The launches of new homes improved by a mere 3 per cent during the third quarter compared to a year-ago period, primarily due to a 48 per cent drop in supply in Mumbai. Cities where launches improved significantly include Bengaluru, Gurugram, Chennai and Pune.
Reduced launches and improved sales brought down unsold inventory by 10 per cent to 7,99,081 units. Through its three portals, News Corp and Softbank backed-Elara Technologies provides digital real estate marketing and transactions services.


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Karndean Designflooring is marking its 40th anniversary in the luxury vinyl flooring industry by pledging to give back to the community it serves.
The global flooring brand is officially launching its Karndean Designflooring 40th anniversary campaign this fall. Founded in the United Kingdom in 1973 by young entrepreneur Michael “Mike” Walker, Karndean now employs 300 people globally, with nearly half of those employees being located in United States. Karndean Designflooring was established in the United States in 1998 and now has distribution centers in three cities across the country.
In honor of its success creating beautiful realistic wood and stone effect luxury vinyl flooring, the anniversary campaign will look to help local charities and organizations throughout the world.
“Our 40th anniversary as a global company is a great achievement and we decided the best way to celebrate is to give back to our customers and help a variety of excellent causes in the communities we serve,” said Emil Mellow, VP of marketing. “As a global brand, we have a lot of exciting plans to continue to highlight our anniversary year.”
To kick-start the celebrations, Karndean launched its ‘40 Free Floors for 40 Good Causes’ campaign on its Facebook page. The petition calls on users to nominate charities that they think deserve to win a free Karndean floor, up to 1,500 square feet. There will be 15 winners chosen from the United States in total, with five handpicked by Karndean and ten selected from submissions via Facebook.
And the giving doesn’t stop there. Inspired by Smokey the dog, the Great Dane who is still present on Karndean’s logo today, Karndean is showing its support for the Pennsylvania SPCA by donating $1 for every Facebook ‘like’ pledging to raise $5,000. This campaign is scheduled to begin in early 2014.
“In the USA, we are about 15 years old, but the successful business we have built here could only have been built upon the foundation that began 40 years ago in the UK,” explained Ed Perrin, CEO of Karndean Designflooring. “We have been successful in developing and maintaining a strong reputation throughout the industry for our signature Karndean quality and specialty design flooring.”
Karndean Designflooring will also recognize this milestone year with special edition point-of-sale and tradeshow signage, customer appreciation events, employee parties, special advertising and much more!
For more information on the 40th Anniversary of Karndean, visit http://www.karndean.com/birthday.
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Watch 6 years of iPhone evolution in 6 minutes before the iPhone 6 hits
Things have changed a lot since the introduction of the iPhone, thanks to its consistent evolution and changing audience expectations. When the iPhone 3G was introduced, people marveled at its 2 megapixel camera. When the 3GS hit the stage, the audience roared when its 3 megapixel camera -- which also shot video -- was announced. 480p video at 30 frames per second? We were in heaven.
It's been seven years since the iPhone first hit stores on June 29, 2007. Each year we've been introduced to a new incarnation of the iOS device, with the latest unveiling coming on September 9. While we wait, take a look back on the six previous years of iPhone evolution with this handy video from PriceBaba.com's YouTube page.
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- iOS 8.0.1 update now available (Updated -- Don't update!)


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Travel fair in Siliguri from February 22
The fifth edition of the Bengal Travel Mart, the largest event conducted in the state to showcase tourism destinations, will commence here on February 22.
Organised by the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators Association, the three-day event will be held at Montana Vista in Uttarayon, near Siliguri.
“We have been organising the travel mart for promotion of tourism in Bengal and Northeast. Representatives of tourism departments in different states and prominent travel houses and delegates from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh will attend the three-day mart,” said Sandipan Ghosh, the general secretary of the association.
According to the organisers, emphasis will be on promotion of homestays, which have mushroomed across north Bengal and Sikkim in the past few years.
New tourist attractions in and around Siliguri, like the Bengal Safari Park, Ewam Buddhist monastery and Bhorer Alo, will also be highlighted at the event, the organisers said.
“The stakeholders of the tourism industry in the region will get an opportunity to interact with those associated with travel trade in different states. The tour operators from outside the region can be informed about new tourism products, destinations, hotels and other infrastructure,” said Ghosh.
Besides, ordinary people visiting the mart can learn about tourist destinations in other states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Tripura.
“Tourism industry stakeholders from Nepal Tourism Board, Pokhara Tourism Council and Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh will attend the fest,” Ghosh said.


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6 Things Amazon Is Doing To Give Better Customer Service In India Over Its Competitors
Indian eCommerce’s late entrant Amazon seems to be having the last laugh. A 2016 survey by research and analysis firm Forrester reveals Amazon in India has aced rivals in customer experience.
From its India launch in 2013, the Jeff Bezos-backed global giant has set the ball rolling aggressively. Among the many things the Seattle-based company is doing better than its rivals to beat competition in India, customer service tops the list.
While smaller eCommerce startups are failing to meet customers’ expectations, home-grown eCommerce veterans Flipkart which was launched in India in 2007 and Snapdeal which was launched in 2010, are facing fierce competition from the US giant.
At a time when Amazon India’s arch rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal are facing valuation markdowns and fundraising difficulties, Amazon committed $5 billion in investment in the Indian online retail market.
A report by Kotak Institutional Equities said the Indian e-tailing market could reach $28 billion by 2019-20, registering a compounded annual growth rate of 45 percent.
We list top 6 things Amazon is doing better than its competitors.
Amazon India has had its advantages of the groundwork already in place for the company. Amazon knew the Indian consumer buying behavior on the internet already before entering and that gave it a clear lead in competitive pricing.
A testimony to that is Amazons India’s claim that it has sold more products than ever during the festive season sales during October 2016. Amazon India said sale of its products tripled as compared to the festive season last year owing to the wide range of prices under which each product is available on the website.
Vast Range of Products
Amazon’s tie-ups with top brands for exclusive products have worked well for the company not only during sales but otherwise. Amazon India, which boasts of majority of its new customers coming in from tier-II and tier-III cities, is only increasing its range of products to beat rivals’ offerings.
The eCommerce major recently launched a global store, which would give Indian customers access to over four million products from international brands. At present, a host of products available on Amazon US would be available in India; later on more categories and countries from where products can be bought will be added, according to Amazon India.
The company says customers will be able to see prices in local currency inclusive of import fee deposits and get delivery in 2-12 days.
The company’s loyalty programme has improved customer experience like never before. For Rs. 499 a year, subscribers in more than 100 cities can receive their orders within one or two days at no extra charge and morning and scheduled deliveries in cities including New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
The Amazon Prime members are also eligible to view Lightning Deals on the site 30 minutes before other customers. This is one of the features that have ensured record subscriptions for Amazon India this festive season.
While Amazon India’s Prime is similar to Flipkart’s Flipkart First programme, the company’s rival’s Free Standard Delivery, Free In-a-Day Guarantee Delivery, Discounted Same Day Delivery are applicable only on select products covered under Flipkart Advantage.
Reliable Delivery Experience
While many of Amazon’s rivals sit on orders and decline delivery to select locations, Amazon India has been quick in identifying its means of delivery of articles to faraway destinations. Amazon India, instead of relying on private courier services, sends deliveries via India Post to remote places as opposed to its competitors.
Rare Mess Up in Orders
Many of Amazon India’s rivals have been blamed for a mess up in orders time and again. Reports of bricks or soap bars being sent across to the customers instead of their scheduled gadgets have being doing the rounds since the beginning of online delivery services in India.
Amazon India, however, has been persistent in ensuring its brand value and no real case of such a kind has been reported as of now.
Mobile-first experience & Customer-friendly App
Amazon India’s mobile site is easy to navigate, find information and make purchases. With its well-thought smart categorization and search functionality, Amazon aces rivals. Features such as auto-fill on the search engine and 1-click ordering have been designed for the mobile user.


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The world’s biggest drinks company spooked the market yesterday after announcing a £200 million attack on costs to mitigate slowing sales in emerging markets.
Diageo said that net sales growth in the first half of the year had slowed to 1.8 per cent, driven down by weaker trading in countries including China, Nigeria and Thailand. Growth had stood at 2.2 per cent in the first quarter.
Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, the company’s key brand during its push into emerging markets, suffered a 3 per cent slump in volumes and a 1 per cent decline in net sales.
Shares of the FTSE 100 maker of Smirnoff vodka and Guinness stout slid by almost 5 per cent, shedding 90p to close at £18.20, despite attempts by Ivan…


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Number of complaints against online food ordering and delivery services have almost doubled in FY2020 compared to FY2019, figures disclosed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in Rajya Sabha revealed. Between April 2018 and March 2019, 1,053 complaints were registered with the National Consumer Helpline while 1,955 complaints have already been registered between April 2019 and January 2020. The Minister of State Danve Raosaheb Dadarao did not reveal which services were most complained against. [caption id="attachment_211687" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Courtesy: Rajya Sabha[/caption] Dadarao also said that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had noted instances of "sale of sub-standard food being delivered through online food delivery service platforms". He told the Upper House that FSSAI takes up such matters with the Commissioner of Food Safety of the respective states/UTs as according to the Food…
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Do we have an enabling system for the National Data Governance Framework Policy (NDGFP) aiming to create a repository of non-personal data?
A viewpoint on why the regulation of cryptocurrencies and crypto exchnages under 2019's E-Commerce Rules puts it in a 'grey area'
India's IT Rules mandate a GAC to address user 'grievances' , but is re-instatement of content removed by a platform a power it should...
Why ‘group privacy’ should be recognised, and how ‘non-personal’ data becomes a regulatory blindspot
There is a need for reconceptualizing personal, non-personal data and the concept of privacy itself for regulators to effectively protect data
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April 26, 2012 |
Everyone knows Apple is popular in China -- so popular that people riot outside Apple's stores, or set up fake stores, or just crank out fake iPhones. On a recent trip to an electronics bazaar in Shanghai, we spotted a few of the most blatant of these knockoffs. Amusingly, the phones on display didn't look anything like actual iPhones -- instead, the manufacturers concentrated their piracy efforts on attempting to replicate the spelling of the names of popular devices and brands.
January 16, 2012 |
Show everyone how special you think your iPhone 4S is — have it gold-plated. For a little more than $1,500, you can have an iPhone gold plated by Laban Roomes, an entrepreneur looking to expand his England business into the U.S. Roomes plans to make his American debut in south Florida next month. "Florida is kind of like my second home," he said, adding that he has family in Fort Lauderdale. Roomes is the founder and owner of Goldgenie, a business that began by gold-plating car emblems and has grown to plate phones, computer mice, flowers, game consoles and iPads.
September 12, 2013 |
BEIJING -- If anything indicates how China's Apple fans feel about the company's latest product release this week, it's how Nicole Zhou spent her Wednesday afternoon. One day after the Cupertino-based company unveiled two new iPhone models -- the 5s, with an upgraded processor and fingerprint security system, and the slightly cheaper 5c, with a colorful plastic back -- 30-year-old Zhou, an employee at a state-owned enterprise, bought herself a...
March 6, 2014 |
QuizUp, a popular mobile game that had been available exclusively for Apple iOS users, launched Thursday for Android devices. The game allows users to face off against their friends by taking quizzes. Users choose a topic and then must answers questions correctly and as quickly as possible in order to get a higher score than their opponent. QuizUp offers a wide selection of topics, including the "House of Cards" Netflix series, music from the 2000s and flags from around the world.
November 29, 2012 |
Sprint has it. Verizon has it. AT&T has it. And next week, T-Mobile might announce it is getting it too. We're talking about the iPhone, of course. In a recent note to investors, Merrill Lynch analyst Scott Craig said "speculation is heightening" that T-Mobile USA's parent company Deutsche Telecom will announce a deal to make the iPhone available to T-Mobile users as early as next week, Fortune reports . Quiz: What set the Internet on fire in 2012? If the speculation is accurate, loyal T-Mobile subscribers will soon have a shot at getting their very own iPhone, without having to change carriers, or go through the rigamarol of buying an unlocked phone somewhere else.
August 3, 2011 |
Your freeloading iPhone can now start paying for itself. Maybe even take you someplace nice for dinner. A 2-month-old app called Gigwalk pays you to use your iPhone. Users who download the app act as on-the-ground inspectors for big companies, checking local menus and store displays or verifying street signs. The Gigwalkers, as they're known, snap photos of the task and send it to Gigwalk, which pays anywhere from $3 to $90 per gig. As users prove themselves and earn "StreetCred," they can unlock higher-paying gigs that are more complicated.
September 26, 2012 |
You won't find much innovation on the iPhone 5, but Apple has improved the iPhone just enough to make sure it's still the best smartphone. The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter and quicker than its predecessors and competitors, and it now features a 4-inch screen. Individually, none of those features is jaw-dropping, but put them together and the iPhone 5 is very impressive. Powered by the new Apple A6 processor and now with the ability to connect to 4G LTE, the iPhone runs faster than ever.
May 23, 2013 |
Repairing the iPhone 5 costs far more than fixing its predecessors because of Apple's tight control over the parts that make up its newest phone, according to a new report. In some cases, just repairing an iPhone 5 screen can cost $30 more than the entire phone that's been purchased for $200 with a two-year service contract. Normally, users can turn to third-party shops to fix their iPhones. But many phone shops are not willing to repair the latest iPhone because of the high costs of parts, Marketwatch reported . The repair firms that do work on the iPhone are charging as much as Apple, or even more, to fix the phone.
September 12, 2012 |
After months of speculation and rumors that often precede new Apple products, the iPhone 5 has arrived. And with pre-orders set to begin Friday, the question is: Should you buy one? It depends. The iPhone 5 is an improvement over its immediate predecessor, the iPhone 4S, with the new phone sporting a bigger screen and faster processor. But the iPhone brand, which revolutionized mobile technology when it debuted in 2007, is no longer the unchallenged technological leader. PHOTOS: Apple iPhone 5 Other smartphones have screens bigger than the iPhone 5's, and with the same if not better quality.
September 17, 2012 |
The iPhone 5 is four days away from hitting stores and already some are camping out and waiting in line. Apple is saying the iPhone 5's first day of pre-orders drew twice as many orders as that of the iPhone 4 with more than 2 million iPhone 5s bought. AT&T also said the iPhone 5 broke its single day and weekend sales records. LIVE DISCUSSION: Join us at 3 p.m. today Record sales are bolstering the Cupertino, Calif., company's shares, which hit $700 in after-hours trading after closing at $699.80.


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Seoul, South Korea – LG
Electronics unveiled its first LTE-capable tablet, the Optimus Pad LTE, but the
company didn’t disclose its intentions for U.S. availability.
The device features Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS, 1.5
GHz dual-core processor, 8.9-inch display with HD 1,280 by 768 resolution, in-plane
switching (IPS) display technology to deliver a wide viewing angle, 8-megapixel
rear-facing camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats, HDMI output,
DLNA technology for networking and MicroSD slot that accepts 32GB memory cards.
LG didn’t disclose the amount of embedded memory in the tablet.
The tablet weighs in at 1.06 pounds and is 9.34mm
thick (0.37 inches). The iPad 2, in contrast, is 0.34 thick and weighs
The tablet comes with 6,800mAh battery.
Because tablets generate five times the traffic of the average
smartphone, “it’s not a huge jump to assume that tablet users need and want
faster connectivity,” said Jong-seok Park, president/CEO of LG Mobile
Communications Company. “The combination of LG’s LTE technology with the tablet
form factor is a clear advantage for consumers who use a tablet as their
primary consumption device when on the move.”


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At the end of August, eight of the nine Coachella Valley cities had positive year-over-year price returns, while only one, Rancho Mirage, had lower returns. Those numbers indicate steady improvement. In July, two cities had negative year-over-year returns, compared to four cities in June. What we find particularly encouraging is that these positive shifts are occurring during the weakest seasonal price months: July and August.
The City of Coachella continues to have the best year-over-year return, 22 percent, followed by Indian Wells and Desert Hot Springs. We also see that La Quinta has finally moved positive after suffering from price weakness last year. All the cities are still considerably below their 2006 prices except Palm Springs, which is now only 15 percent shy of its peak. This state of affairs should not cause any alarm since current prices are on very solid footing.
Total valley sales, which slowly began to decline at the end of 2012, have been stable at an average of 700 units a month for over a year. In fact, sales have started to slowly increase. This increase is measurable on both the three- and 12-month average of sales. A year ago last August, the 12-month average sales number was 683 units; it is currently 702. The seasonal three-month average of sales was 701 a year ago. Now it’s 728.
This slow increase in average sales for the entire valley doesn’t apply to all nine cities. Six cities have higher sales than a year ago, while three have lower. The most significant sales increases are 14 percent in Indio and 12 percent in Palm Springs.
On Sept. 1, inventory stood at 3,619 units, 685 units higher than Sept. 1, 2014. The seasonal nature of valley inventory is very visible in the graph. When we study the last five years, we find September was the low point in inventory in four of those years. The other low point was August. We think this seasonal pattern will continue. The result will be a rise in inventory and it will probably reach a peak in January or February.
Since inventory is higher than a year ago, we expect “months of sales” (inventory divided by the sales rate) to also be higher. However, the slight increase in sales over the year has moderated the rise. As of September 1, months of sales was 5.2 months. Historically, such a ratio at 5.2 months is usually a sign of a market in balance. This is a situation in which neither buyers nor sellers have an advantage.
“Days on the market,” or the median number of days it takes to sell a home over the last three months, is now at 95 days. While DOM has been slowly rising for a year, this current number is still acceptable.
Vic Cooper and Mike McDonald are partners in Market Watch LLC, a nationally recognized real estate advisory firm that publishes The Desert Housing Report. www.marketwatchllc.com


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Redmi has always launched more than one smartphone, just now again Redmi has announced to launch another new smartphone, the name of this smartphone is Redmi 10. Redmi 10 can be launched in India on 17th March, such information has been received.
So if you have not yet bought any realei smartphone for yourself then according to me this smartphone can be a very good smartphone for you. Many such things have been added to this which you would not have seen in any other smartphone of Realei. So let’s know about this smartphone of Redmi by reading its specification.
Specifications of Redmi 10
Redmi 10 is a 4G smartphone, which is a very good smartphone of Redmi, you get a lot of good features in this smartphone. The weight of this smartphone is only 181g, which is a very good lightweight and good-looking smartphone.
This smartphone is a smartphone with a very big display of 6.5 inches. This smartphone uses the Android v11 operating system, which is also seen in the rest of the Redmi smartphones. Also, the chipset of Mediatek has been used in this.
It has 64GB of internal storage and 6GB of RAM, apart from this, the rear camera is 50MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP and the front camera is 8MP. Li-Po 5000 mAh, a non-removable battery has been used in this smartphone.


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Initially reported in The Information, which quoted people familiar with the situation, Amazon has its eye on a $70 billion TV (€60bn) advertising market.
Amazon is already running ads on NFL games seen on its Prime Video streaming service and is expected to introduce commercials on Prime Video in Europe, which this week is screening coverage of US Open Tennis.
Prime Video has also purchased a limited number of Premier League matches from the start of next season’s rights round.
The Fire TV proposal would be separate from Prime Video, which is positioned as a premium video service in competition with Netflix, and in addition to movies and some original production, also includes basic thematic channels.
Initially dubbed ‘Free Dive’, Amazon’s channel would be similar to the Roku Channel, from another streaming service that is blurring the boundaries between hardware and software.


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May 06: Since the new guidelines during Lockdown 3.0 by the government allowed opening the sale of wine and liquor in States that so desired, there has been a mixed reception by the States that allowed selling in a controlled fashion and following social distancing, the thirsty alcoholics and pleasure seekers thronged the wine and liquor shops ahead of them opening and throwing all caution to the winds, reports Subhash Arora
The most shameful sight has been in Delhi which has seen unprecedented long lines and breaking of social distance norms since Monday, the first day of opening. Taking advantage of the unprecedented pent up demand, the government levied an unheard of 70% Corona Cess on MRP from Tuesday, May 5. Without going into the legality of the action, it is a matter of concern that the lines have still not shortened though there are more concerted efforts by the administration. In Gole Market area, the line was so long even before the shop opened, that ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police) had to be requisitioned to maintain social distancing.
One also needs to question the wisdom of the government by allowing only government run stores (DTDC and DSIDC) to sell alcohol and excluding the private run shops and department stores that could have taken care of substantial requirement.
Andhra Pradesh went ahead one step further. They allowed the opening by imposing the Corona cess at 25% on Monday, thus becoming the first State to collect additional taxes for fighting Corona. But emboldened by Delhi’s decision, they went a step ahead and increased it to 75% of MRP as the Cess, and perhaps emboldening the other Chief Ministers, without realising that the indiscipline and race to the liquor shops was due to the pent up demand, as well as the tipplers with a slight imbalance of mind, stirring up patriotic emotions and sheer desperation for any alcohol, of any brand or price. And the fervour will lessen in days to come, when they have adequate stocks and are no longer anxious about increase in lockdown period without alcohol.
The government in the eastern State of Chhattisgarh deserves kudos for defying the logic of the Central government and starting home delivery in green zones to avoid crowding at wine shops. It has launched a web portal named after the state-run Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited- CSMCL which monopolises the sale of liquor in the state. The liquor shops, closed since March 23, opened from Monday like most of the States.
Punjab government also needs to be complimented for starting sale of wine and liquor at the old rates from tomorrow, with shops allowed to open from 9 a.m to 7 p.m in the evening after which no movement is allowed, according to the central government directive. Home delivery can also be made by 6 pm by charging a nominal additional amount.
Haryana also began sales yesterday with no increase in taxes but the discounts that were available earlier have been generally discontinued, making them marginally more expensive to the end customer. Says Bill Marchetti, a well known Italian-Aussie Chef residing in Gurgaon, ‘Haryana prices are also up, but not like crazy Delhi. Teachers 50 Whiskey is Rs. 2500 and not Rs. 3450 like in Delhi. And in my area there are no queues.’
Worst affected by crowd indiscipline has been Maharashtra which saw lines up to 2 kms with safe distancing thrown to the winds and several mishaps and clashes with the police. Anguished by the locals throwing caution to the winds, the government again banned opening of the shops effective today, upsetting denizens to no end.
It is however interesting that the premium wine and beer shops were selling in the upmarket Foodhall and La Cave in Nature’s Basket that saw as perfect a discipline as possible. Says Sonal Holland MW, who handles the sale in conjunction with Foodhall on Linking Road, Santa Cruz, ‘Sales were conducted in an orderly fashion. Hands were sanitised and all customers were wearing masks. No more than 3 people were allowed to enter The Cellar at a given point in time, contactless deliveries and social distancing were adhered to,’ adding ‘Sales were definitely much higher than normal’.
A similar scene was seen at Nature’s Basket wine and beer section operated by La Cave which was visited by our Mumbai Correspondent Rishi Vohra at the Juhu location. ‘It was not too crowded. There were temperature checks and hand sanitisation at the entrance, with 6 feet distance between customers as the norm. It took me about 20 minutes to buy a few bottles of wine though the Indian beer had finished by then. In all, it took about 40 minutes from arrival to departure after the purchase.’
One can empathise with the Maharashtra government since the State has had the highest numbers-15,500 cases of Covid 19 out of which Mumbai alone has recorded 9,900 cases out of a total of 49,300 in India so far. However, it is high time, they conducted a study that would most likely indicate that wine drinkers are more disciplined, especially the premium wine drinkers who do not like to stand in lines.
Bangalore has proven to be the city with the highest civic sense in the past. It was not surprising that on Monday, there were lines of a kilometre each. But as Abhay Kewadkar, Managing Director of the import firm Tetrad Global Beverages said after finishing a visit of several retail stores selling his wines, said ‘I am inundated with calls about where to pick up our wines. The queue did come down to 500 meters yesterday and today further to 100 meters, and we can meet our retailers with whom we have to co-ordinate precisely where we direct our customers (an importer/distributor cannot sell to retail buyer directly and has to buy from a Retail shop) to place orders on the monopoly KSBCL. You see, the wine inventories are not computerised and we need to enter the shop to verify stocks physically. It was humanly impossible to do that till this morning.’
Generally, satisfied with the arrangements, he rued that the premium wine drinkers did not like to stand in long lines and there should be separate lines for wine customers. In fact, Cyber Wines had 2 lines on the first day- one for over Rs. 1500 and the other for less. One cannot even send a staff member since it is difficult to know the availability of various labels and one needs to be present to take instant decisions. Another issue is that a person can pick up a maximum of 2.25 liters, which is fine for liquor but not wine (it is a food product and a bottle has to be finished at the dinner table- a fact not appreciated by the powers that be). At least 6 wine bottles should be allowed (totally endorsed by delWine). Incidentally, there has been an increase of 17% in liquor taxes including 6% hike in excise duty announced earlier in 2020-21 policy but reportedly wine has not been touched.
UP has also announced an increase in the duties-with an increase of Rs. 100-400 a bottle on imported liquor from today. Telangana residents will pay 16% extra for liquor available selectively at various outlets.
It is a pity that wherever the sale of alcohol has been opened there has been unruly behaviour; but nothing that could not have been handled with proper planning and administration. Emboldened by the media looking for some ‘hot’ ‘breaking news’ such videos showing unruly mobs and big lines to buy 2 bottles in the blistering heat of over 35°C, there have been cases galore of such indigestible behaviour of the alcohol starved throats that would return to more normal behaviour after the initial urges are satiated. But things ought to quieten down slowly and God forbid, if the Corona cases increase, all hell is going to break loose.
Voluntary disclosure-The writer is a strong critic of alcoholic drinks because of the harm it causes to the system, drunken driving and domestic abuse and believes wine drinking is a panacea for many ills and ill health. He advises drinking wine in moderation.
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Coca-Cola will be the Official Soft Drink Partner of Expo 2015, the Universal Exhibition in Milan from May 1 to October 31, 2015. Coca-Cola has been selected by Expo by virtue of its global commitment to innovation, that is understood as the engine of sustainable growth, capable of generating wealth for the community, at the same time respecting and protecting all resources used and encouraging consumer lifestyles that are fair and balanced.
“I am delighted to count Coca-Cola among the Partners of Expo” said Giuseppe Sala, CEO of Expo 2015 “and I am particularly pleased that Coca-Cola wants to enrich the experience of our visitors by addressing questions such as a balanced diet, the importance of healthy living and active lifestyles, while respecting environmental sustainability.”
At Expo 2015 Coca-Cola will deliver a corporate pavilion where its heritage, vision and innovation will be brought to life, in line with the theme of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.” The pavilion will thus become the framework in which Coca-Cola will be able to recount in an experiential way its sustainability model, based on the promotion of active lifestyles, the importance of a balanced diet, product innovation and packaging, and the protection of the environment.
The partnership of Coca-Cola with Expo Milano 2015 provides a rich calendar of happenings, conferences and evening events that will offer visitors a chance to reflect on global issues such as food and environmental sustainability. The program also includes a commitment to the promotion of Expo Milano 2015 by Coca-Cola as part of its communication and marketing initiatives.
Coca-Cola believes that deeper and more influential innovations in the coming decades will be born from the encounter between sustainability practices and the value chain. For this reason, Coca-Cola is working to incorporate sustainable innovations at global and local levels in every aspect of its operations: from the choice of its ingredients to widening the range of its drinks, and the replenishment of water equivalent to that used to the recovery and the recycling of packaging.
“The scope and scale of today’s global challenges require a model of cooperation based on what we call the golden triangle - the meeting point between institutions, private enterprises and civil society,” said Muhtar Kent, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company. “That’s why we are proud to be part of the Expo. It’s an excellent opportunity to share possible solutions to the global challenges of food and environmental sustainability.”
“In the past, Coca-Cola has participated in several Universal Expositions and we are particularly pleased to support Italy in such an event of global reach,” said Evguenia Stoitchkova, General Manager Coca-Cola Italia. “The collaboration with Expo 2015 is a further sign of our commitment to reduce the environmental impact of our activities, the promotion of healthy and active lifestyles in supporting the development and the communities in which we operate.”