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August 08, 2009 News
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Fears surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have led to numerous government-mandated travel restrictions and non-essential business shutdowns. As a result, consumer spending underwent major channel shifts, with the digital channel turning into the default for many customers, giving way to what will likely be a permanent boost to e-commerce.
By Aurel Constantin
Comparing the results of two consumer surveys conducted by Euromonitor International in 2020 regarding path to purchase habits provides insights into these drastic shifts and the subsequent surge in e-commerce. Nearly every category showed a double-digit increase in the share of consumers making digital purchases between the two fielding timeframes.
Besides shopping more often in already-familiar categories, connected consumers have turned to e-commerce across a broader range of products and services. The share of minimal online shoppers – consumers who did not use digital or only used digital to shop for one category – dropped significantly between the surveying timeframes. In early 2020, minimal online shoppers and heavy online shoppers were evenly split at the purchase step at 36 and 37 percent, respectively. But by March, there was a nearly 30-percentage point gap between minimal online shoppers (20 percent) and heavy online shoppers (49 percent).
Want to know more about the future of eCommerce, Retail and Logistics? Join us this January at re:FOCUS on eCommerce, Retail & Logistics!
In 2020, the Eastern European retail industry has had to deal with several types of crises, from the pandemic lockdown to economic problems or falling oil prices, which have led to declining sales for some retailers, but also to the growth of other sales channels such as e-commerce, according to Euromonitor International consultant Cosmin Dan. Euromonitor International had estimated a 5.2 percent increase for the Romanian retail industry in 2020, but the growth dynamics were revised in the midst of the crisis, pointing to a decrease of -1.3 percent in June 2020. Since that time, companies have managed to adapt quickly, demand has partially recovered, and as a result, the currently expected decline for the Romanian retail market in 2020 has come down to only -0.4 percent.
While e-commerce managed to get through the crisis unharmed, while both hypermarkets and discounters remained stable, there was a sharp decline for non-food retailers. For them, 2020 has been a year of survival, and one of the solutions they found was a focus on omnichannel. The pandemic is accelerating digitalization both online and offline, and three of the most important and visible retail trends in terms of digitalization are augmented reality, contactless retail, and artificial intelligence. Euromonitor International estimates that the Romanian e-commerce market will grow by 32 percent in 2020, and as a result, the share of e-commerce in total retail increased to 10 percent this year, from 7 percent in the previous year. Also in 2020, the value of cross-border online retail in Romania continued to grow, maintaining its share of 8 percent of total e-commerce, even though there were issues with supply chains in the first months of the pandemic. In Eastern Europe, cross-border shopping accounts for about 25 percent of total e-commerce sales. The category with the fastest growth in online sales in Romania in 2020 was by far that of food and beverages, with a 115 percent increase. In this context of growth, we should mention the base from which this product category grew, as in 2020 it had a share of 4 percent of the total e-commerce market in Romania.
What’s next for e-commerce
The pandemic has generated changes in the behaviour of consumers, who have revised the value of purchases and shopping, and many of these changes will become permanent in the coming years. 55 percent of shoppers said that this increase in online shopping would be a long-term trend, which confirms the predictions that, within the next 5 years, online shopping will have a higher share in total retail sales. According to Euromonitor International, in Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic and Poland will register the highest adoption rates for online retail, while Romania will have the fastest dynamics in this regard and Russia will generate the largest increase in absolute value of online trade, considering the size of this market. For Eastern European retail in general, estimates show sales returning to growth in 2021, with the increase continuing until 2025.

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By Stephen Ubanna
Barely two weeks after Tony Nwabunike, President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, took the National Executive Committee members, NECOM, to Abuja, to see Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Federal Government and Gbemisola Saraki, a Senator and minister of state, Transportation, overseeing the nation’s maritime sector, the Association appear to have bounced back to life to protect the interest of Agents.
At a recent meeting with Mustapha, the SGF, who incidentally , was a one –time Managing Director, of Nigerian Inland Water Authority, NIWA, the Association had complained about the numerous security agencies at the seaports, the terminal operators and the shipping Companies, which activities hampers the ease of doing business, at the ports.
Between last year and now, the two agencies which importers and their agents had been very critical about for finding their way back to the seaports were the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SO and National Agency For Food and Drug Administration, NAFDAC, insisting they must be withdrawn from the seaport to facilitate the Clearing process as they could do their job from their office and still achieve results.
The ANLCA president was said to have pleaded the SGF, to use his position streamline the number of agencies at the seaports to reduce the cost of clearing goods at the nation’s seaports, which is considered higher than what obtains in Benin Republic, Togo , Ghana and the ports the Central African country of Cameron. Appealing to the SGF, to use his vantage position to reach out to the ministers supervising NAFDAAC, son and other agencies at the port whose personnel are involved the physical examination of cargoes to come up with standard procedures for members to key into to avoid killing their businesses.
Ossy boloma, the Director General, SON,may have known that there is trouble ahad for the agency if ALCA, the country’s foremost Association for agents which was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1954, should molise its members to Campaign against the withdrawal of its personnel from the ports.
It was therefore not very surprisisng that when the Association leadership requested to the t agency Director General , he did not hesitate in giving approval for the ANLCA officials to come over in order to isten to their Complaints and reach a meeting point to facilitate the ese of doing business at the ports.
Nwabunike, according to sources, did not hesitate I opening up to the SON helmsman who gave him a listening ear. An appreciative ANLCA President had told Maritime Journalists who had laid ambush over the meeting them to know the decisions reached by the parties may have gladdened the heart of agents when he disclosed what they had discussed .
‘’We discussed Operational matters and the way forward based on existing mutual relationship between the parties’’, he had said. The most instructive was the agreement that was said to have been reached between the Association and the was that the later has agreed to sensitise Importers with their agents that could be imported and the standard required to avoidfalling into the waiting hands of officials at the port if suspected to be substandard. Of quality. To avoid running into trouble with its officials.
Maritime watchers believe that if the leadership of ANLCA, had been alive to their duties in the past by reaching out to these agencies, particular, SON, many importers, whose cargoes had been Confiscated for low quality could not have had such problems.
An elated Nwabunike noted that the visit to the SON Director General have kept abreast of the requirements for the importation of goods , particularticular, regulated products into the country, noting that the problem which importer have had with SON officials at the port has become a thing of the past .
Aboloma, the SON, boss who is not someone to pushed around by Importers or their agents to for force him to do the unexpected was said to have made it clear to Nwabunike and his Association members that the agency Commitment in checking the influx of substandard goods into the country will continue the importers are ready to turn a new leaf.
Investigation by The Value News shows that most of the substandard goods that had been imported into the country over the years, particular, Cables and bulbs, had been shipped from the Asian country of China. A SON official who spoke to the Magazine exonerated the Chinese manufacturers from blame , noting that it is the order placed by the importers, who are mostly Ibos, that they produce and supply to them to sell in the Nigeria market.
Perhaps, to ensure that Importers know the dos and don’ts, in the Importation of cargoes into the country to avoid falling into the waiting hands of the agency officials and subsequently lose their goods to to government, to facilitate the issuance the agency, according to Aboloma, the Director General, has upgraded its Platform to facilitate the issuance of its Conformity Assessment Programme, SONCAP, to mporters.
Maritime watchers, would want Aboloma,the SON helmsman to sanitise the agency in order to remove the bad eggs. As they also produce sub-standard goods. Even within the country , some manufacturing firms are worse than the chines firms who connive with Nigerian Importers, who could produce the SONCap to manufacture form them. Many of these Cmpanies are located in hideouts in different parts Lagos state. This why SON officials may have to go all out for them instead of concentrating all their efforts in waiting for imported foreign substandard goods at the seaport, airport or land border areas. To knock out substandard goods from the Nigerian market. On the agency
The leadership of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, NAFF, over the years , had thrown their weight . The Association had seen the agency proposed introduction of the Product Authentication Mark, PAM, to ensure that both locally and foreign manufactured goods imported into the country conforms to Standards that will go a long way to safeguard lives and properties of people in the country. The Association was said to have taken it upon itself to sensitise members in order to carry the message to their importers to avoid importation of substandard goods as they stand the risk of losing it to government.


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The Iranian government’s latest attempts in recent months to stifle protests through internet blackouts, digital curfews, and content blocking have presented a particularly extreme example of how far regimes can go in restricting digital access. But a new report from the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare, released today, highlights the stunning global prevalence of connectivity disruptions and their increasing relevance to people and organizations all around the world.
In 2022, Cloudflare began publishing reports that compile its internal observations about government internet blackouts and notable outages worldwide. As a content delivery network that also provides digital resiliency services, the company sees an array of signals when a chunk of the internet goes dark. For example, Cloudflare can assess internet protocol requests, like those for the routing system Border Gateway Protocol or the internet address book DNS, to get insight into how a government executed a shutdown and where in the internet backbone it implemented the connectivity blocking.
To continue reading this Wired report, go to:


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THQ closing two studios including Homefront dev Kaos
Kaos Studios' rumoured worries about closures following the founding of a THQ super-studio seem to have been proved true.
THQ announced today that they would be closing two of their own development studios, New York City-based Homefront developer Kaos Studios and UK studio Digital Warrington.
A statement from THQ read: "THQ confirmed today that it has made a strategic realignment within its internal studio structure and is in the process of closing two locations: the company's UK studio and KAOS studio in New York. Both studios' employees have been informed. THQ continues its strategy of aligning the best industry talent with the company's marquee franchises. The Montreal studio will take over product development and overall creative management for the Homefront franchise. The Montreal studio actively collaborated with Kaos on Homefront."
It added: "The company continues to strengthen its internal creative development expertise and is actively hiring in many of its internal studios, including Montreal and Vancouver, Canada, as well as Austin, Texas. THQs UK studio and KAOS employees will have the opportunity to interview for open positions with the company globally."
- Final Fantasy Type-0 HD gets a new trailer
- Bungie deconstructs their latest Destiny patch, hints at what is coming next
- DayZ creator Dean Hall could join UK studio Improbable
- Shadow Of Mordor arrives on last-gen consoles
- David Braben apologises for ditching Elite: Dangerous's offline mode, outlines refund criteria
- Microsoft celebrates the 1st birthday of the Xbox One with free access to Sunset Overdrive
- Hacker group leaks account details for thousands of PSN, Origin, Windows Live and 2K Game Studios accounts
- RedLynx promises online multiplayer is coming to Trials Fusion early next year
- Valve reworks their Steam Early Access developer guidelines and rules


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The Walt Disney Company Thursday unveiled twenty new titles in Asia as it expands the footprint of its Disney Plus and Disney Plus Hotstar streaming services in the world’s most populous region.
The streaming service is currently available in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, with upcoming launches in South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan in November 2021.
“We aim to create fifty original series and shows by 2023,” said Luke Kang, Walt Disney’s Asia-Pacific president. “OTT is quickly going mainstream and Disney Plus is well positioned to take part in that.
Kang was speaking in a studio component of a pan-Asia content presentation that operated as a live event in Tokyo, a hybrid presentation in Indonesia and Korea and was wholly online in other areas.
“This is by far Disney’s most ambitious production effort in Asia,” said Jessica Kam-Engle, Disney’s content chief in Asia.
More to follow.


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Sing it with me: I love guns! For those hardcore players who enjoy shooter games most of all, EA is ready to reward you with the Gun Club, as presented in their E3 2010 press conference. The online club offers rewards for members that range from weapon unlock codes, beta packs and exclusive news. It's time to get trigger happy with this membership. Take that, NRA.
Interested in signing up and getting freebies? Head to the EA Gun Club website where you can do exactly that in the hopes of getting into the Medal of Honor beta early.


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It’s become an unofficial mascot, the seven-foot mannequin in full Reds or Bengals uniform propping open the front door of Koch Sporting Goods on West Fourth Street. “He’s an icon,” says owner Greg Koch. Much like the store he stands guard for.
Koch is the paragon of our local sporting goods culture, the preeminent spot for everything from shoulder pads to a Bearcats stocking cap—which is a pretty stark transition from its early years sewing theater curtains destined for New York City. The company started as Hoffmeister Braid in 1888, an embroidery business housed in the old Cincinnati Traction Building. Edward Maximillian Koch, great-grandfather of Greg and a tailor at Hoffmeister, bought the company in 1891. “Sporting goods didn’t exist then,” says Greg.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that Koch became a traditional sporting goods business, providing uniforms and equipment to youth and high school teams around town—and by the early ’70s, to the Reds and Bengals. This was before licensing, before brands were paying millions of dollars to slap a logo on every jersey, and in turn, before retail was a viable option. Greg, however, saw potential. Taking on a larger role in the late ’70s after graduating from UC, he wanted more than a warehouse of uniforms and equipment. “People always saw team and retail as two separate things,” says Greg. “I thought putting them together was the way to go.”
As the uniform business trailed off over the next few decades—with pro, college, and even high school teams stolen away by branding deals—the retail business soared. Today, the breakdown is roughly 50/50. “People are crazy about this now,” says Greg, motioning toward his wall of team hats, racks of Reds T-shirts, and enough Bengals jerseys to outfit his own 53-man roster.
It’s still a one-stop shop, though. Retail is contained on the ground level, but Koch inhabits all five floors of its building, with on-site silk screening, embroidery, and inventory. If you walk in and ask for 500 printed shirts by tomorrow, they’ll simply ask what color you want. It’s allowed them to continue doing business with the Reds and Bengals—small, immediate jobs, like stitching the nameplate on a Reds jersey for an impromptu minor league call-up—and a big reason why the shop has stayed downtown. “You need to have everything in one spot, and we’re right here in the middle,” says Greg. “This is the best place to be.”


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“We want to have most of the things we have in all our stores, but can you have a Market Cafe that seats 300 people and serves chef-driven meals and 700 different types of produce?’’ said Jo Natale, director of media relations at Wegmans. “We haven’t quite figured that out yet.’’
The smaller stores that Wegmans and Walmart are building help extend their brands. “If you can have a Wegmans experience in a smaller footprint, people are going to dig that,’’ said Griffin.
The new East Avenue Wegmans can’t really be considered one of the smaller urban stores, at 95,000 square feet. It will be similar to the Calkins Rd. Wegmans, which is 110,000 square feet.
The East Ave. store is the last remaining Wegmans location in the City of Rochester. Wegmans has countered criticism that it abandoned the city by pointing to stores right on the border, including Lyell Ave., Ridge-Culver, and Hudson Ave.
Wouldn’t it be great to see Wegmans figure out an urban model and move back into the city? Perhaps one day downtown can get the critical mass and wealth needed to make this happen.


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Finnish workwear sustainability trailblazer TouchPoint and Spinnova, who develops the world’s most sustainable textile fibre, have announced a product development collaboration, to create the world’s most sustainable workwear. Work clothes are textiles made for heavy duty, the circularity, and reuse of which TouchPoint has developed for quite a few years.
Now, the workwear sustainability pioneer wants to be among the first ones to also explore and utilise the possibilities that the new, ecological Spinnova fibre has to offer. TouchPoint has made innovative efforts towards sustainability in the workwear industry, for example, by developing take-back programmes and using the most ecological textile innovations available, such as recycled polyester and man-made cellulosic, Spinnova said in a press release
“We’re excited and proud to collaborate with Spinnova. Spinnova has boldly turned the global challenge with textile fibres into an opportunity, and managed to create a unique innovation. We both want to develop Finnish, sustainable textile expertise for the international markets,” TouchPoint’s CEO Outi Luukko said.
Spinnova has recently entered a pilot phase in the development of the world’s most sustainable textile fibre, produced without harmful chemicals. At year-end last year, Spinnova completed its industrial scale pilot line in Jyväskylä, Finland, and, will therefore, focus on joint product development with brand partners this year. In practise, this means developing prototypes of commercial products, where part or all of current materials will be replaced with Spinnova’s cellulose-based fibre.
“TouchPoint is a great example of what the textile industry should do to help commercialise sustainable materials; to get hands-on involved in developing the innovations already before there is an exact roadmap to commercial production. A common value foundation has helped this collaboration take off quickly and open-mindedly,” Spinnova’s CEO Janne Poranen said. (GK)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India


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Bottle-boat completes voyage
Boat of bottles docks safely
A boat made out of 12,500 plastic water bottles successfully ended its four-month journey from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia, at the end of July, according to The Associated Press.
The Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran constructed largely out of water bottles held together by an organic glue made of sugar cane and cashews (and a few other materials such as a recycled aluminum mast), was sailed by a crew of six to gain awareness of the threat plastic wastes pose to the environment. The boat, which was powered by sails, solar power and windmills, stopped at island nations in the South Pacific along its way, including Kiribati and Samoa.
The boat was the brainchild of David de Rothschild, a British adventurer and environmentalist who organized the expedition after reading about the perils of plastic waste. It left San Francisco on March 20.


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As a leader in hospitality security, Ingersoll Rand is playing an important role in influencing local standards and promoting customer-focused services and solutions in China. In recognition of our expertise and market-leading hotel security solutions, the China Tourist Hotels Association and Beijing Tourism Bureau invited Security Technologies to present a case study at the recent 2010 China Hospitality Development Summit in Beijing. The summit attracted government officials, architectural designers, developers, investors, hotel owners and representatives from the leading hotel groups Intercontinental, Marriott, Shangri-La and Starwood.
To help attendees better understand the important role of security in hotel management, David Zhu, China technical director, Security Technologies, gave the speech "Good to Great – Hotel Architectural Design and Applications for Safety and Security." David highlighted our expertise and solutions available to create safe, comfortable and efficient hotel environments. In addition, on display were our CISA Mifare hotel lock, Wave Mode system and Smart Lock, and our Von Duprin exit devices.
At an award ceremony held during the summit, Ingersoll Rand was named an Outstanding Hotel Supplier in the category of Intelligent Hotel Locks. Our company was selected for the award by experts from the National Tourism Bureau and China Tourism and Restaurant Association, as well as hotel architects.


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Supermarket chain Wegmans is proving itself an incredibly fickle advertiser.
The Rochester, N.Y.-based company has benefited from the endorsement of Alec Baldwin as its spokesperson, but quickly cut ties with him and yanked ads in which he starred after Mr. Baldwin was accused of being unruly on an American Airlines flight recently. According to an Associated Press report, the TV spots were filmed for the holiday season and were supposed to run for three weeks last month but were pulled early after Baldwin's airline dustup.
The story with that incident goes that Mr. Baldwin was asked to leave the plane after refusing to stop playing the Scrabble-like mobile game "Words with Friends" prior to takeoff. "Words with Friends" defended the star in a released photo that spelled out the phrase "Let Alec Play" and showed a fictional score on the game of Baldwin 1, American Air, 0.
To be sure, doing ads for this regional grocery chain couldn't have much of a moneymaking enterprise for Mr. Baldwin. During an appearance on the "Late Show with David Letterman" last April, the actor explained that he did the ads for his mother, a cancer survivor who lives in upstate New York and has refused to move from the area largely because she loves Wegmans stores so much. Her enthusiasm for the brand is what sparked his decision to do the ads, he told Mr. Letterman.
Unlike "30 Rock" or other comedic roles, these ads are pretty straightlaced, with him talking about "low prices" and "friendly, caring people who make you feel like family." The spots have been made private on YouTube and can't be viewed there, but can be seen as part of this ABC broadcast.
Apparently Wegmans thinks it made a mistake in yanking the spots in the first place. In a statement provided to a local ABC news affiliate, the company said: "We regret ending the Alec Baldwin holiday commercials one week earlier than planned in response to a couple of dozen complaints. We have decided to run the commercials again, effective immediately. Clearly, many more people support Alec, as evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of tweets, emails, and phone calls we have received. We enjoyed working with Alec Baldwin and his mom, Carol, and would do it again. We appreciate all the kind things they have said about Wegmans and respect the good work they do for communities."
The situation is just yet another example of how -- in the social-media era -- marketers are so quick to cave in to customer complaints. Per the company's own admission, less than 50 complaints caused the company to actually pull advertising and rethink its ad strategy. But because hundreds called to complain about the demise of the Baldwin ads, Wegmans caved to customer pressure once again.
It makes you wonder what would happen if now thousands called and tweeted to complain that the ads were being reinstalled. Could this go on forever?


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As companies like Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk come to Austin, Texas, the booming city and new tech hub has grown so much it has struggled to make good on its “keep it weird” motto.
But since early June, when residents of the South Congress, Downtown, or Travis Heights neighborhoods order pizza from Southside Flying Pizza, their pies might arrive inside a three-wheeled robot — the REV-1. But it is no full self-driving Tesla.
About two dozen REV-1 vehicles now trundle down the roads of Austin and Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the company behind the robots — Refraction AI — first launched in 2019 in a bid to harness driverless technology in a new way.
Autonomous vehicles, and their potential to disrupt the way people get around, have hovered on the horizon for years. But the technology hasn’t matured as dramatically as early investors had hoped. Tesla says it is full speed ahead with autonomous and is launching its latest beta test on July 10, but the company has missed many self-imposed deadlines and Musk recently conceded that full self-driving is harder than he had forecast. Meanwhile, both Uber and Lyft sold off their self-driving research divisions in recent months.
For start-ups like Refraction AI, though, the aim is to speed the arrival of a driverless future by starting small, with more modest systems focused on moving packages, rather than people.
“We think this is the future of autonomy,” Refraction AI CEO Luke Schneider said.


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July 6, 2014 |
By Rahul Schitanand When an extended family of 15 spread across Bangalore, the US and Canada wanted to organize a reunion in Switzerland, they opted to use the services of Broken Compass, a provider of curated travel experiences in Mumbai. Rather than a one-size-fits-all jamboree, the family got a tailor-made package for each individual, some of whom went on cycling tours, the elder ones opting to focus on food and others on adventure sports. For a country stereotypically tied to raucous group holidays, cramming a dozen countries into a fortnight's European sojourn, Broken Compass is looking to break the mould.
October 21, 2005
It was her marketing skills that got image-conscious celebrities like Madonna and Jennifer Lopez to get into Juicy Couture tracksuits. Her style-savvy made Time magazine recently name her as one of the most influential women in American fashion. Meet Angela Ahrendts, the low-profile erstwhile executive vice-president of new York-based Liz Claiborne; erstwhile, because she is set to cross the Atlantic to join the UK-based luxury goods and fashion group Burberry. She'll head the group's retail, wholesale and licensing arms, which last year made the company and its shareholders £164m profit on sales of £716m.
April 13, 2008 |
It became a rage when Bruiser, the chichi Chihuahua of Legally Blonde fame, matched clothing wits with Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) in pint-size pink outfits and pearls. Or sparked by the idea that celebrities such as Paris Hilton and her pet Chihuahua Tinkerbell befit each other's outfit that dressing up pets in ultimate fashion and accessories has become a phenomenon. It is this pleasure of dressing up one's pampered pup that is giving a high to pet owners and a reason to luxury brands to paw in pet apparel and accessories.
May 22, 2013 |
PARIS: Louis Vuitton is losing ground as the world's most valuable luxury brand as competitors including Gucci and Prada gain, a new research report shows. Vuitton's brand value declined 12% from a year ago to $22.7 billion, Millward Brown Optimor estimated in its 2013 BrandZ study. While the bagmaker owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA remains the most valuable luxury brand for an eighth straight year, rivals are better managing the trade-off between exclusivity and affordability, according to the report.
August 5, 2014 |
MUMBAI: Hidesign, an upscale leather goods brand based in Pondicherry, has sent a legal notice to Woodland, accusing the shoes and accessories maker of infringing copyright laws by copying one of its popular designs. Hidesign has alleged that Woodland blatantly copied the design of Vespucci, a rugged leather cross shoulder sling bag for men that is one of its bestseller models. The bag was created in early 2011 by Fabian Lintott, Hidesign's London-based designer. "We have filed a legal complaint against Woodland few days ago," said Dilip Kapur, founder of Hidesign.
October 14, 2013 |
NEW DELHI: The spat between LVMH-owned private equity firm L Capital Asia and Genesis Colors may lead to Sephora, a beauty products retailer owned by the French luxury goods company, finding itself a new franchise partner in India. Sephora is currently in talks with DLF Brands, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Singapore-based L Capital Asia asked Genesis Colors to buy back the 40 per cent stake that the PE firm holds in Genesis Luxury, ET reported on September 25. Sephora is currently sold in India by Genesis.
December 8, 2012 |
NEW DELHI: Genesis Luxury opened the first store of 'bridge-to-luxury' brand Furla in Mumbai this September and it is already one of the busiest outlets of India's largest luxury fashion retailer that sells luxury labels such as Armani and Burberry in the country. "Furla is already doing monthly sales of 6,000 per square foot, which is as good as many of the luxury brands already present here," Sanjay Kapoor , managing director of Genesis Luxury, says. "It is a relatively not-so-known brand in the Indian contest, but we have had a lot of customers coming to the store making repeat purchases only because they like the products which are available at exciting prices," he says.
July 29, 2012 |
Caroline to shoe salesman: I'll take this one. (Hands over her credit card, which is maxed out and hence, declined) Salesman (icily): Ma'am, the credit card is over the limit. C: It can't be. I don't have enough shoes! (From a sitcom Caroline in the City) If you want to answer the proverbial chicken and the egg question vis-a-vis women and shoes, "How many shoes does a woman need", this is as good as it gets. If Imelda Marcos needed 1,060 pairs (some reports say 2,700)
December 25, 2013
By Lulu Raghavan The Indian luxury story is being scripted amid a resurgence in the global luxury goods industry. Euromonitor data shows a value gain of 3% on 2012, and India is one among five countries with rapidly growing populations (the others are Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and Mexico) that provide the greatest opportunities for businesses and brands offering luxury goods and services. Luxury brands that will experience the greatest success in India this coming year will be those that employ three strategies: consumer segmentation, experience-enhancing technology and exploiting social media to connect with consumers.
May 20, 2012 |
Walk into the DLF Emporio in New Delhi , inarguably India's only luxury mall, and chances are you will find more traffic on the Tarun Tahiliani floor than say Salvatore Ferragamo. It's not like the Indian consumer follows the 'be Indian, buy Indian' maxim, it's probably just the way a north Indian consumer is wired. Or as Atul Malhotra, managing director of multi-brand fashion retail house Evoluzione and Evolv, says: "The north Indian [Delhi] customer is more traditional in her fashion and luxury shopping choices.


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Apple has practically banned any application that is powered by Google Voice technology from the Apple App Store which host mobile apps for iPhone and iPod Touch.
Apple rejected an application developed by Sean Kovacs which was based on Google Voice. He was given the reason that the application replicated functionalities already offered by the iPhone.
Google has already confirmed that Apple rejected their official Google Voice mobile application.
They have released versions for the Blackberry and Android platforms however.
Google Voice has been undergoing beta testing in the United States. The service allows the user to receive calls on a single number on multiple devices.


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NieR Re[in]carnation launches February 18, 2021 in Japan; NieR: Automata collaboration event announced2B, 9S, and A2 join the fray.
Command action RPG NieR Re[in]carnation will launch for iOS via the App Store and Android via Google Play on February 18, 2021 in Japan, publisher Square Enix and developer Applibot announced. Pre-registration is available now at the official website.
Square Enix also announced a NieR: Automata in-game collaboration event featuring characters 2B, 9S, and A2 that will begin day and date with the game’s launch.
Read more about the game here.
Watch a trailer for the NieR: Automata collaboration below.


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Cemex, Caribbean Cement Company Limited’s ultimate parent company, unveiled on March 15, an updated brand in line with its ongoing evolution to help the world reach the next frontier of sustainable living, by becoming a more agile, innovative, and approachable company.
Cemex’s logo is changing for the first time in over 30 years and presents a fresher, closer, and more dynamic visual identity while maintaining key elements of the company’s legacy and storied 117-year trajectory. It reflects several transformative changes that the company has undergone in recent years to be at the forefront of the building materials industry, aiming to spearhead the industry’s transition towards innovation, digitalization, and, above all, sustainability.
“I am excited to present the renewed image of our company,” said Fernando A. González, CEO of Cemex. “But what excites me most is what is behind the change: a renewed commitment to helping our customers push the boundaries of sustainable construction through innovative solutions.”
Cemex’s ongoing evolution has been evident in several major strategic initiatives the company has launched in the past few years. With Cemex Go, the company kickstarted the digital era of construction, bringing to market the first-ever end-to-end digital solution for the building materials industry. By incorporating Urbanization Solutions as a core business, Cemex strengthened its focus on supporting the construction of resilient and sustainable cities where people can live better lives. Within this approach is Regenera, a Cemex company launched this year that focuses on being a leading partner in circularity solutions, particularly waste management.
Most recently, through the launch of Future in Action, its sustainable excellence programme, Cemex committed to leading the way in decarbonizing the building materials industry with the most ambitious 2030 targets available to the industry and to becoming a net-zero CO2 company by 2050. The Science-Based Targets initiative has validated both of these goals. As part of Future in Action, Cemex created Vertua, a sustainable product portfolio that leverages cutting-edge technology and innovation. Cemex’s updated visual identity signifies its clear and decisive company transformation.


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Fintech startup Square rolled out full support for Bitcoin to the majority of US customers this week, making it easier than ever to buy bitcoin — and, as seems to be the prevailing trend this year — sell it.
Square CEO Jack Dorsey revealed the rollout on Twitter, adding that the digital payments firm believes cryptocurrency can provide “greater financial access for all.”
Square had initially limited this feature — which began as a pilot program in November — to a small group of users, but it had gradually expanded it to more customers over the ensuing months. This comprehensive release comes, coincidentally, less than a week after stock brokerage app Robinhood announced that was launching a cryptocurrency trading platform in February.
US customers in 46 states can now use the Cash App — which has more than 5 million downloads from the Google Play store and ranks third among finance apps in Apple’s App Store — to buy, hodl, and sell BTC. At present, residents of Georgia, New York, Hawaii, and Wyoming are excluded, likely because they have more restrictive regulations for cryptocurrency-related transactions.
Upon testing the app for the first time, one comes to the conclusion that it is quite possibly the easiest way to buy bitcoin.
After creating an account, you can instantly fund your wallet by connecting it to your debit card.
Once your wallet has been funded, you can enable Bitcoin functionality on your account page and will then be allowed to buy and sell Bitcoin on the platform.
The entire process takes seconds, and — unlike Coinbase and other cryptocurrency brokerage firms — Square does not charge any additional transaction fees or commissions for the service.
As easy as Square Cash makes it to buy bitcoin, however, there are a couple factors of which you should be aware before you use it. The weekly purchase limit is $10,000 (there is no limit on sales), but investors who are placing orders larger than this are likely doing so through services that offer more features anyway. As the service will likely attract many first-time Bitcoin buyers, funds remain in Square’s custody, although you can withdraw them to a personal wallet after performing minimal know-your-customer (KYC) verification.
It is not immediately clear what measures Square has taken to secure customer funds, which you should keep in mind if you are considering holding a large balance through the app.
Finally, Bitcoin has not yet been integrated into the Cash App’s core functionality, which is to seamlessly send payments to other users of the app, and Square has not stated whether it intends to add this feature at a later date.
Featured image from Square Cash.
Last modified: May 20, 2020 9:08 PM UTC


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Restaurants Libertine, Wheelhouse to open in Clayton
Two new restaurants are coming to downtown Clayton, including an upscale sports bar on Central Avenue that has taken over the space formerly occupied by Portabella and later Tucci & Fresta’s.
The restaurant will specialize in sports viewing, and Savage said he hopes it also will become a late-night destination. It will seat 120 in three separate areas, including a sports room, a main dining room and a late-night room that will be available for private parties and large groups.
The menu will include “a lot of your classic bar menu items revisited,” Savage said.
He declined to share the cost of starting up, but said funds were raised from friends and family. The nearly 4,500-square-foot restaurant's makeover is currently under construction, and Savage said he hopes to open in early April. Marketing materials for the property listed the lease rate at $18.67 a square foot.
Libertine takes over Chez Leon space
Around the corner, Libertine is set to open this May in the former Chez Leon space at 7927 Forsyth Blvd.
Owner Nick Luedde said the restaurant will be a neighborhood eatery that blends a “speakeasy cocktail menu with approachable food.”
The nearly 3,000-square-foot restaurant will have around 70 seats, with additional seating at the bar. Josh Galliano is executive chef, and Josh Poletti is executive sous chef. Victoria Mitchell and Nate Weber will be general managers. Luedde said he expects to hire about 30 employees.
The $250,000 build-out includes stripping the old carpet and refurbishing the restaurant’s terrazzo floors. Libertine will have custom furniture from Mwanzi Co., a St. Louis-based company that makes furniture from reclaimed wood. Old subway tiles will garnish part of the bar.
Food and beverage, retail, hospitality, agriculture
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More than 1,000 people are to exit variety store group Wilko following a redundancy consultation involving 3,712 staff, Retail Week can reveal.
The value retailer has accepted 1,030 applications for redundancy from store staff and has made 19 redundancies where staff could not be redeployed.
The retailer has promoted and redeployed 2,663 members of store staff and is now recruiting for 224 new supervisor roles.
Wilko kicked off its redundancy consultation in August, as revealed by Retail Week, shortly after it posted an 80% slump in full-year profits.
The subsequent restructure has resulted in assistant manager positions and store supervision roles being stripped out, with a number of the latter being consolidated into team supervisor roles.
Retail director Anthony Houghton said: “We thought long and hard about undertaking this review and knew it would be difficult.
“We also knew that it was necessary if we were to maintain our presence and continue to thrive within an ever-changing retail landscape.
“In consultation with the GMB, our recognised trade union, we listened to what team members wanted and made changes based on that.”
The value retailer’s restructure comes shortly after Sainsbury’s unveiled plans to axe 2,000 roles in a cost-cutting drive, the bulk of which were made across its store estate.
Chief operating officer Sean Toal added: “Despite the challenging retail landscape Wilko has seen both positive customer numbers and sales growth during 2017.
“The undeniable truth, however, was that this was not translating into positive results despite hard work to reduce costs, grow Wilko-brand product and digital sales and continue investment in IT and infrastructure.
“This is not sustainable into the future and we had to make some tough decisions to reorganise.
“As a family-owned retailer we had to balance this against our need for care, compassion and thoughtfulness to our team members.
“Wilko has ambitious plans to deliver growth through a better product and ever-improving customer experience. There is a strong new store opening pipeline and digital growth strategy that will see the retailer invest in its infrastructure to drive future growth.”
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text: The Justice Department has hired Sanford Litvack, described as one of the nation’s top litigators, to determine whether the government should begin antitrust proceedings against Google’s planned deal with Yahoo to share advertising revenues from online searches done on their respective sites, according to the Wall Street Journal. While not an out-and-out acquisition, the partnership would give Google the right to sell search and text ads that appear on Yahoo. On Google, Yahoo and elsewhere, such ads typically appear atop the page in a highlighted field and in a right-hand column alongside the search results. Google, as we know, has done the most with search engine advertising (and overall search technology) in the past five years. It has been rewarded with a 76.6 percent share of spending in the search engine ad market, according to research cited by the Journal. Yahoo commands 17.9 percent according to the same study. The Yahoo deal means Google would have a stake in more than 93 percent of search engine ad spending. This has trade groups such as the Association of National Advertisers, which represents the country’s top ad buyers, worried that the deal is anticompetitive and will result in higher advertising rates on the Web. ANA sent a letter to DoJ last week asking it to block the deal. DoJ needs to tread carefully. The fact that a Google-Yahoo agreement may raise the prices of Web ads is not in itself a cause for litigation. Up to now, the web has largely been an ad buyer’s market. As someone who part of the time, is involved in publishing, I can attest that selling Web ads as a premium is hard because unlike print, results are harder to track and quantify. Although less so than in the past, a lot of Web ads are still “loss leaders.” While a situation like this sometimes can be the result of market forces, we should be careful about using antitrust law to prevent the same market forces from catalyzing change. Google may have hit upon the right way to monetize Web advertising, making it work as a business model while creating value for its own shareowners, and doing a better job bringing advertisers and their desired targets together. If a Google and Yahoo tie-up increases the overall benefits consumers see from Web advertising, it trumps any higher prices that Google can ask. Not that higher rates are by any means a given. In fact, not all advertisers agree with ANA’s position. Some large advertising agencies and midsize advertisers have endorsed the deal, the Journal reports, saying they think it will make advertising on Yahoo more effective. And search engines aren’t the only places to advertise online. Heck, online isn’t even the only place to advertise. And groups that purportedly represent consumers, the Free Press, Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of America, which have never been shy on speaking out against other media consolidation efforts, so far have been quiet on the Google-Yahoo deal. Still I fear we’re headed for another pointless battle brought on by the pace of change in Internet and Web commerce. Regulators must understand that the search engine segment, although just a few years out of start-up, is already maturing. We are moving from an environment of experimentation aided by oversupply (which allowed so many aspects of search to be offered “free”) into an era where business models have begun to prove out. Although not so long ago, the market seemed to be able to support dozens of search engines, Google, taking its share of the risk, turned out to have the winning approach. Its success was not arbitrary. In terms of finding what you want fast, Google has brought Web searches a long way in just 24 months. Recall when Google went public, snarky analysts questioned how the company actually planned to make money. That reflected the big question on everyone’s lips both before and after the dot-com bust, “Can anyone monetize the Internet?” Google succeeded wildly where many others failed. Too bad that, just as IBM and Microsoft in the past, the government’s first reaction is to want to sue the pants off them.


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Android Pay users across the US will soon be able to make in-store, in-app and online payments using their PayPal account. “People in the US can simply link their PayPal account to use with Android Pay,” Google’s Pali Bhat writes in a blog post. PayPal has also announced a partnership with Wells Fargo that will enable the bank’s customers to add their debit and credit cards to PayPal for in-store NFC mobile payments.
- Thinfilm raises US$110m to support growth in NFC market
- Facebook Messenger adds PayPal P2P payments
- Mastercard to eliminate signature verification at the point of sale
- The Clearing House to secure real-time payments system with tokenization
- Visa makes it easier to integrate emerging authentication technologies


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Author: Paul F. Roberts
Apple is the world’s most valuable company – and one of its wealthiest. The Cupertino, Calif. firm reported a quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion on record revenue of $57.6 billion in its most recent fiscal quarter and is engaged in an aggressive $60 billion stock repurchase plan.
That money and Apple’s priceless brand give the company huge influence in Silicon Valley and throughout the technology community. But that influence often doesn’t translate into action.
Despite its growing size, wealth and prominence in the last 15 years, Apple has steered clear of involvement with or direct financial support of many open source software foundations and influential industry consortiums. That, even as competitors such as Google, Microsoft and Samsung have stepped up their support of those groups during the same period.
Almost three years into the tenure of CEO Tim Cook, Apple’s record of giving back to the technology community remains spotty, at best. Today, a gulf persists between Apple’s reliance on the fruits of the labors of open source community, standards and industry groups and its support of those same organizations.
For an example of this, look no further than the open source community. Apple’s ties to open source are substantial. The company’s OS X operating system is the most commonly used Unix distribution. Furthermore, Apple makes extensive use of open source components across its product portfolio. The company lists dozens of open source projects and components that it contributes code to: from the Apache web server, to the zlib data compression tool.
In official statements, Apple makes much of its reliance on open source and its work to promote the use of open source software more broadly. However, that support typically does not extend to the open source organizations that manage those projects.
Apple, as an example, bundles software from the Apache Software Foundation with its OS X operating system, but does not financially support the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) in any way. That is in contrast to Google and even Microsoft, Apple’s two chief competitors, which are both Platinum sponsors of ASF — signifying a contribution of $100,000 annually to the Foundation. Sponsorships range as low as $5,000 a year (Bronze), said Sally Khudairi, ASF’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations.
The ASF launched the Sponsorship program in 2006 to offset the day-to-day operational expenses and overhead administrative costs of the organization, Khundari said. Asked about Apple’s financial contributions, she said she couldn’t find any record of Apple – the company – offering financial support to Apache.
The ASF is vendor-neutral and all code contributions to the Foundation are done on an individual basis. Apple employees are frequent, individual contributors to Apache. However, their employer is not, Khudairi noted.
The company has been a sponsor of ApacheCon, a for-profit conference that runs separately from the Foundation – but not in the last 10 years. “We were told they didn’t have the budget,” she said of efforts to get Apple’s support for ApacheCon in 2004, a year in which the company reported net income of $276 million on revenue of $8.28 billion.
There has not been any subsequent conversation on Apple sponsoring ApacheCon in the last 10 years, though Khundari notes that the company has contributed in-kind to ApacheCon events with “speakers from Apple”, attendees, and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions and MeetUps.
The story is the same at OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, which is based in Burlington, Mass. The non-profit consortium is dedicated to the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for security, cloud computing, SOA, web services, the Smart Grid, electronic publishing, emergency management, and other areas.
In its 20th year, OASIS counts more than 600 member organizations, including IBM and Microsoft as Foundational Sponsors, who contribute upwards of $50,000 a year to the group. Most corporate members pay around $6,000 a year to belong, which allows them to participate in OASIS committees and get input into the development of industry standards, according to Carol Geyer, OASIS Senior Director of Communications.
Geyer said her organization has done “lots of outreach” to Apple and other firms over the years, and regularly contacts Apple about becoming a member.
“Whenever we’re spinning up a new working group where we think they could contribute we will reach out and encourage them to join,” she said. But those communications always go in one direction, Geyer said, with Apple declining the entreaties.
Today, the company has no presence on any of the Organization’s 100-odd active committees, which are developing cross-industry technology standards such as The Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) and the Public-Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS).
“Sometimes it takes a company a while to come around,” Geyer offered as an explanation, noting that Microsoft was, at first, reluctant to participate in OASIS committees. “But they came on board 15 years ago, and now they’re a Foundational member,” she said. Asked to name another company of Apple’s stature who does not belong, Geyer cited Amazon.com – but added that OASIS is in very active discussions with Amazon about membership, which is not the case with Apple.
“Certainly we would love it if they joined. We welcome them to come and participate in open standards,” Geyer said.
Apple’s reticence has raised eyebrows in other areas, as well. The company is pointedly not a member of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), an international industry standards group that has developed technical specifications and standards in areas such as authentication, cloud security, data protection, and mobile security. (Disclaimer: the Trusted Computing Group has sponsored a security news web site that this author founded.) It’s an interesting absence given that Apple’s key suppliers like AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm as well as competitors such as Samsung, Microsoft and Google are all TCG members.
Gal Shpantzer, an independent security researcher, notes that Apple leverages – at least indirectly – the fruits of the TCG’s labor. Apple’s secure enclave technology anchors features such as its biometric TouchID in the iPhone 5s. The secure enclave is believed to leverage the TrustZone portion of the ARM processor. ARM is part of the TCG, Shpantzer notes, but Apple is not.
“Apple’s dominance in the handheld market is partly due to the security investments made in the iPhone security architecture. Part of this is the hardware-enabled secure enclave for the iPhone,” Shpantzer said.
Major endpoint players such as Microsoft and Google already make substantial use of the TCG and its Trusted Platform Module (TPM) in Windows and on the new Chrome books.
Shpantzer believes that Apple’s dominant position as a manufacturer of mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad compel the company to get behind the TCG and its technology. Having Apple pushing TCG standards and concepts in OS X and its iPad and iPhone would be a positive development for the entire technology ecosystem, Shpantzer argues.
“[TCG] is a diverse group of hardware and software vendors who are working on hard security problems in the mobile, network and desktop markets,” Shpantzer wrote in e-mail. “Apple would be a big addition to the TCG membership due to [its] position as the dominant handset and tablet maker with iOS, as well as the growing popularity of OS X on the desktop and laptop markets. TCG’s coverage for all the major platforms in use today and in the near future would meaningfully expand.”
Asked to comment, the TCG confirmed that Apple is not a member, but said that it is always interested in speaking to companies about the benefits of TCG membership.
Apple did not respond to multiple e-mail and phone requests from ITworld seeking comment on this story.
The debate over Apple’s corporate citizenship is, by no means, limited to its contributions to the technology community.
The Cupertino firm has long had a reputation for secrecy and sports a notoriously opaque corporate culture, which many attributed to the late CEO Steve Jobs. An almost Dickensian tight-fistedness was part of that. During his life, Jobs made little note of his own philanthropic giving. And Jobs notoriously shuttered Apple’s philanthropic programs after his return to the CEO position in the late 1990s, and never reinstated them, despite the company’s dazzling success in the decade that followed.
There are some exceptions. Since 2006 the company has contributed tens of millions of dollars to The Global Fund, which fights HIV/AIDS in Africa, through sales of PRODUCT RED products. Jobs also got Apple to team with other high tech firms, including eBay and HP, to fund the construction of a $2 billion hospital complex at Stanford University.
There were widely held expectations of change with the ascension of current Apple CEO Tim Cook to the top post in August 2011. Thus far, the CEO has instituted a charitable matching program for employees and made substantial charitable gifts of his own.
But those who hoped that Apple, under Cook’s leadership, would loosen the strings of its bulging corporate purse and start giving back to the technology community are still waiting for change that has yet to come.
To read the original article, click here.
Membership in the Trusted Computing Group is your key to participating with fellow industry stakeholders in the quest to develop and promote trusted computing technologies.
Standards-based Trusted Computing technologies developed by TCG members now are deployed in enterprise systems, storage systems, networks, embedded systems, and mobile devices and can help secure cloud computing and virtualized systems.
Trusted Computing Group announced that its TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) Library Specification was approved as a formal international standard under ISO/IEC (the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission). TCG has 90+ specifications and guidance documents to help build a trusted computing environment.


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Identity management platform for premium entertainment brands to authenticate StarHub in Singapore deployment
BUFFALO, N.Y., Nov. 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Synacor recently expanded its relationship with a leading international Filipino content provider, significantly increasing the footprint of Synacor’s Cloud ID identity and access management platform in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
ABS-CBN Australia Pty. Ltd. (“ABS-CBN”) is now using Synacor’s Cloud ID to authenticate cross-platform delivery of ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel (TFC) via StarHub in Singapore, to give verified TFC subscribers access to TV Everywhere (TVE) viewing. Synacor’s expanded agreement builds on ABS-CBN and its affiliates’ existing use of Cloud ID to authenticate TFC in the United States and elsewhere in the APAC region.
Cloud ID streamlines the login process StarHub subscribers use to access TFC on smart TVs and devices via ABS-CBN’s iWantTFC. StarHub is a leading homegrown Singapore company that delivers world-class communications, entertainment and digital services. Synacor’s SaaS-based managed services solution removes the complexity of integration, allowing TFC and StarHub to focus on delivering content experiences that drive consumer engagement and monetization.
“Our goal is always to provide the best subscriber experience for our customers while maintaining a competitive and profitable content business,” said ABS-CBN Managing Director for Asia-Pacific Maribel Hernaez. “TV Everywhere and direct-to-consumer options are critical components of that experience. Synacor’s Cloud ID guarantees a secure solution and seamless deployments for our customers to enjoy streamlined viewing of TFC at home or on the go.”
“As multi-platform viewing increases, identity and access management is becoming increasingly important for the global video industry,” said Dana Golden, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Synacor. “ABS-CBN Australia Pty. Ltd. is on the front lines of implementing cloud-based solutions for reaching more users and we are making it easy for any content provider to replicate this success with their distribution partners around the world.”
Cloud ID is a managed service running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), providing a modern, custom and turnkey identity management platform for premium, globally renowned streaming entertainment, content and service provider companies, for use cases spanning traditional MVPDs, telcos, hotels, airlines, rewards programs and more. The platform’s simple, secure, and frictionless customer experience reaches more than 150M subscribers, managing more than 30M unique sign-ins per month, with the ability to scale to millions of users and support outsized access demand.
For more information, visit www.CloudID.io.
Synacor is a cloud-based software and services company serving global video, internet and communications providers, device manufacturers, governments and enterprises. Synacor’s mission is to enable its customers to better engage with their consumers with award-winning, innovative technology platforms and services to scale their businesses and extend their subscriber relationships. Synacor delivers email and collaboration platforms with Zimbra, and cloud-based identity management with Cloud ID. https://www.synacor.com.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/db44479d-7930-410a-9ccb-045887d9d85c


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Two of the injured scouts were from Troop 225 out of Central Florida.
Fire officials Nike Cortez Moire
Butler said one of the Orlando scouts is expected to be released from the hospital Monday.
The Highway Patrol identified the driver as 19 year old Zachary Gentry. Troopers said no charges have been filed. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Butler said, "Somehow while he was entrapped he was doused with gasoline and suffered chemical burns. We're hopeful the burns aren't as severe as originally thought."
According to Glassy Mountain Fire Chief Bryan Riebe, when firefighters arrived, one camper was trapped in the van, and others were helping keep that injured teen out of the water.
On Monday, Blue Ridge Council Boy Scout Executive Mike Butler told News 4 that one Buy Nike Cortez Grey of the scouts from a troop in Columbia was rushed to the Augusta Burn Center.
Butler said a Boy Scout from an Easley Cortez Shoes Original
said the van carrying the group had just left the camp when it rounded a curve, the driver lost control of the vehicle, and it flipped down an 8 to 15 foot embankment and landed in a creek.
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The campers and counselor were taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital, Riebe said.
He said the other scout suffered a broken leg and is expected to remain in the hospital for several more days.
said the real heroesare the scoutswho were able to rely on their training and save one another in a time of crisis. Friday.
Wreck injures 9 campers
troop sufferedserious head trauma in the wreck and underwent surgery. He is still recovering at Greenville MemorialHospital.
The van was carrying Boy Scouts from Camp Old Indian to Camp White Pine for the night, the fire chief said.
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Last week, we looked at some statistics that highlighted the importance of having a website for your business.
In their June 5 report, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project for the first time found that the majority of Americans now own a smartphone.
The report found that 56% of all U.S. adults (age 18 and older) are smartphone owners. The percentage of smartphone ownership for younger Americans is significantly higher:
- 79% between 18-24
- 81% between 25-34
- 69% between 35-44
Not surprisingly, smartphone ownership also skews towards higher household incomes:
- 61% for household incomes between $50,000-$74,999
- 78% for household incomes $75,000 and above
So, what does that have to do with having a mobile website?
Well, one of the defining characteristics of a smartphone (one of the things that makes them smart) is the ability to use the phone to access the Internet and browse the web. While a smartphone browser can show a regular website in its browser, a mobile website is much easier to access and use for most smartphone users.
And shopping online is one of the things that quite a lot of smartphone owners use their Internet access for (remember, they have the highest household incomes, so they have more to spend).
According to a September 2012 study of mobile commerce by comScore, 4 out of 5 smartphone owners use their phone to access retail content.
Smartphone searches also drive action which can be beneficial to businesses. According to research by Google, after a search from their smartphone:
- 68% have visited a business (either online or in person)
- 53% have made a purchase
- 24% have recommended a brand or product to others
The numbers are not just good news for the largest, national retailers like Amazon, eBay or Wal-Mart. Local search is driving commerce to local businesses.
After accessing local business content:
- 61% of smartphone users called a business
- 59% have visited a business
- 74% have made a purchase as a result of using a smartphone.
Of those who made a purchase, 76% purchased in-store rather than online, so you don’t even need to be set up for ecommerce to see some of the sales benefit of having a mobile-ready business website.
That’s a pretty compelling case for the need to have a mobile website. And the numbers are only going to grow.
So, if you’re a business that’s still offline, get online today. If you’re a business with a website, but don’t yet have a mobile website, it would be smart to get started with that as soon as you can, so you don’t miss out on this accelerating trend.
With EarthLink Web Hosting, you have plenty of choices. Choose a do-it-yourself website plan or professional web design, a standard or premium web hosting plan or ecommerce hosting. All but one of our plans includes a mobile-optimized website, in addition to other valuable web hosting and website marketing features.
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Already using a mobile website for your business? Let us know how it’s working for you by leaving a comment below.


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The Week Ahead
The Russell 2000 was higher for the week while the S&P 100, NASDAQ 100 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were lower for the week.
1.Geopolitical and Fiscal Events. Thursday sees EU leaders meet in Brussels.
2.Economic Releases. Releases of note this week and next include the weekly chain store sales, oil/gas numbers, mortgage applications and jobless claims as well new home sales, consumer confidence, durable goods, GDP Q1 final, personal spending, University of Michigan Sentiment and Chicago PMI.
3.Earnings Releases. Notable releases next week include CCL INFO LEN FDS GIS PAYX NKE AON WBA STZ.
Monday, June 25
May New Home Sales are due out at 10:00 a.m. EDT and are expected to rise to 666,000 from 662,000.
Tuesday, June 26
June Consumer Confidence is due out at 10:00 a.m. EDT and is expected to rise to 128.2 from 128.
The latest short interest for the NYSE and NASDAQ through June 15th settlement date is due out after the close
Wednesday, June 27
May Durable Goods are out at 8:30 a.m. EDT and are expected to weaken to -1.0% from -1.7%.
Thursday, June 28 Q1 GDP Final is due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT and is expected to remain at 2.2%
European Union (EU) leaders meet in Brussels for a two day meeting.
The Federal Reserve Stress Test (Part II) is released after the close.
Friday, June 29
May Personal Income is due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT and is expected to rise to 0.4% from 0.3%.
June Chicago PMI is due out at 9:45 a.m. EDT and is expected to drop to 61 from 62.7
June University of Michigan Sentiment is due out at 10:00 a.m. EDT and is expected to fall to 99 from 99.3.
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Scania experiences successful 2015 in Australia.
Sales might have been down for Scania trucks on the global front in 2015, but here in Australia the Swedish truck brand experienced a very healthy year.
Sales data released this morning by Scania Trucks Australia, shows the brand achieved 707 sales locally in the year, that number representing the second successive year of 700 plus deliveries for Scania in Australia.
Scania will be buoyed for 2016 by 134 truck deliveries achieved in December.
In addition to its truck deliveries, Scania delivered 297 new locally built buses and factory fully built Scania-Higer A30 school and charter buses.
Roger McCarthy, Managing Director of Scania Australia, told Behind the Wheel Truck News, he was especially pleased to see the brand maintain its mantle as the third largest-selling heavy-duty truck brand in Australia.
“We delivered more than 700 trucks for the second year in a row and we finished 5th overall in the market over 16-tonnes, and 3rd overall if you look only at the cab-over segment in which we compete.
“As the market numbers show there was a significant downturn in single trailer ‘supermarket’ specification type deliveries (trucks with outputs ranging from 421-499 hp), which affected us, and some other competitors, during the year.
“We have been successful in developing the Scania business to stand for more than just the delivery of new vehicles, and our expanding services divisions have played a key role in supporting our growth and our continuing financial stability.
“Our parts division has been hard at work delivering more genuine Scania replacement parts to customers; our wholly-owned Truck Rental business continues to run at very close to 100% utilisation; and our newly established Driver Services business signed up more than 830 vehicles to our connected services programme in 2015,”
“We were also able to deliver our Scania Peak Efficiency Training programme to 846 drivers in 2015, helping operators to reduce their fuel consumption, vehicle wear and tear, and driver fatigue.
“From a pure vehicle sales perspective we have increased our in-house sales force and have welcomed more of our service and parts dealers into the sales fold, bolstering the number of outlets from which a new Scania can be purchased to 14.
“Also importantly, our Used Truck business continues to show solid performance, underpinning Scania’s residual values and proving to be an increasingly popular destination for high-quality used Scanias and other the makes we have stocked during the year.
“In 2016 we aim to continue to sign up more vehicles and operators to the Scania OnBoard and Optimise Driver Services. Scania Optimise includes our industry-unique follow-up driver-coaching programme, which aims to extend the benefits of driver training efficiency tips over a prolonged period.”


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factor-a’s managing director Nils Zündorf took the stage at the Amazon Fashion Vendor Day in London and showed why Amazon Advertising is the next big thing in fashion. Find out how Amazon is quietly transforming the world of retail fashion and why now is the time to start paying attention. Demonstrating the differences from the traditional model, Nils takes you through the customer journey on Amazon and reveals the solutions to the biggest challenges fashion brands face on Amazon.
Amazon is reinventing the (shopping) experience.
From food to film, from health to fashion, Amazon offers an ever larger variety of services.
Customer decision process in the new era
Consumers follow different routes towards their desired product than they used to.
Visibility on Amazon?
The pillars of Amazon’s success – Amazon customer data, brand safety, premium inventory, and more!


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Bitstamp, one of the world’s oldest and largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is replacing its CEO for the first time.
Nejc Kodrič, the firm’s CEO who co-founded Bitstamp back in 2011, is stepping down from his position. He will be moving into a new advisory role on the company’s board of directors, Bitstamp executives told Cointelegraph on Oct. 22.
Julian Sawyer, who currently serves as the managing director of the United Kingdom and Europe at major global crypto exchange Gemini, will replace Kodrič, becoming the second CEO in Bitstamp’s history.
The replacement is purportedly a response to the dynamic growth of the exchange over the last nine years.
Kodrič says that Bitstamp has grown far beyond his initial vision since he founded it years ago. At the time, Bitcoin was trading at just a few cents, and Kodrič managed to set up the exchange in a garage with 1,000 euros, two laptops and a server. Now, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $12,783, while Bitstamp is one of the world’s top crypto exchanges. Kodrič said:
“After much thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that Bitstamp has already grown beyond what I envisioned it would become and it is time for someone else to expand this vision further. […] Although we’ve grown exponentially, it still feels like Bitstamp is just getting started.”
Sawyer has over 20 years of banking and fintech experience. In May 2015, Sawyer co-founded Starling Bank, where he served as chief operating officer until 2019. The exec also served as a consultant and advisor to other banks and founded financial management consulting firm Bluerock Consulting.
At publishing time, Bitstamp is ranked the eighth-largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, which is around $373 million, according to data from CoinGecko. The exchange provides trading services for seven major cryptocurrencies, among them Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and XRP.
Ebang International Holdings Inc. Establishes Subsidiary in Australia in Preparation of Establishing Digital Asset Financial Service Platform
HANGZHOU, China, Oct. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ebang International Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: EBON, the “Company,” “we” or “our”), a leading Bitcoin mining machine producer in the global market in terms of computing power sold in 2019*, today announced that it has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Australia as part of its growth strategy to build a digital asset financial service platform which is in the stages of preparation.
Mr. Dong Hu, Chairman and CEO of the Company, commented, “We are pleased to announce that the Company has established its presence in Australia in furtherance of our strategies to launch comprehensive blockchain-enabled financial business and capture the growth opportunity along the value chain of the blockchain industry. We are currently applying for the Australian financial service license in preparation for our global expansion.”
There is no guarantee that the Company will receive the requisite regulatory approvals and licenses to operate its proposed business in Australia in a timely manner or on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or that the Company will commence the proposed business as planned, or at all. Shareholders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this press release.
About Ebang International Holdings Inc.
Ebang International Holdings Inc. is a leading Bitcoin mining machine producer in the global market in terms of computing power sold in 2019*, with strong application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip design capability underpinned by nearly a decade of industry experience and expertise in the telecommunications business. With its licensed or registered entities in various jurisdictions, the Company seeks to launch a fully-licensed digital asset financial service platform to provide professional, convenient and innovative trading services. For more information, please visit https://ir.ebang.com.cn/.
*According to an industry report prepared by Frost & Sullivan in 2019
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the Company’s development plans and business outlook, which can be identified by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “aims,” “potential,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “continue,” “likely to” and other similar expressions. Such statements are not historical facts, and are based upon the Company’s current beliefs, plans and expectations, and the current market and operating conditions. Forward-looking statements involve inherent known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company’s control, which may cause the Company’s actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date indicated, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.
Investor Relations Contact
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
Ebang International Holdings Inc.
Email: [email protected]
Ascent Investor Relations LLC
Ms. Tina Xiao
Tel: (917) 609-0333
Email: [email protected]
EBANG INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS INC.
Author: EBANG INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS INC.
Hong Kong Crypto Exchange Launches Hardware Wallet With Fingerprint Recognition | Wallets Bitcoin News
The Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Gate.io has launched a new type of hardware wallet that features fingerprint recognition. The device supports over 10,000 cryptocurrencies with wallet.io and multi-signature functionality with over 40 public chains.
The well known cryptocurrency exchange, Gate.io, has announced the launch of the S1 hardware wallet that supports multi-signature functionality and a unique way to keep funds secure. The S1 device is different because it comes with fingerprint recognition located on the in-built display. Gate.io’s CMO, Marie Tatibouet, detailed that the fingerprint creates an exclusive and unique password for every S1 owner.
“The private key is locked in the hardware itself, safely away from the internet, and it makes it more convenient in signature signing when the user makes a daily use transfer,” Tatibouet explained during the announcement.
The company claims all the owner needs is a computer or smartphone and then they can authorize a transfer transaction with a fingerprint. Gate.io believes the S1 framework will also bolster the firm’s Gatechain project and decentralized finance (defi) use cases.
“Wallet S1 can be used in combination with a Vault address at Gatechain,” Gate.io notes. The exchange considers the new S1 device to be “the first hardware wallet with the world-leading fingerprint recognition algorithm which can auto initialize when detecting brute-force attack.” S1 is also powered by the flagship SOC chip and a unique dual- CPU architecture.
Gate.io believes crypto asset security is extremely important in the defi space and noncustodial services allow crypto users to limit themselves from restrictions imposed by a centralized platform. According to the firm, the S1 hardware wallet will start at $50 and each unit is 60mm x 20mm x 6mm in size. The hardware device works in unison with the wallet.io platform.
The Hong Kong trading platform’s new device joins a myriad of hardware wallets available on the open market today. This includes products from Trezor, Ledger, Ellipal, Keepkey, Ngrave, Bitbox, Coolwallet, Bitlox, and Coldcard.
What do you think about Gate.io’s S1 hardware wallet with fingerprint recognition technology? Let us know in the comments section below.
10000 cryptos, Bitbox, BitLox, Cold Storage, Coldcard, CoolWallet, Cryptocurrency, Device, dual- CPU, ellipal, Fingerprint, fingerprint recognition, gate.io, Gatechain, Hardware Wallets, KeepKey, Ledger, Marie Tatibouet, Ngrave, noncustodial services, S1 Hardware Wallet, SOC chip, Trezor, Wallets
Purchase Bitcoin without visiting a cryptocurrency exchange. Buy BTC and BCH here.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Exchange Inflows from Bitcoin Whales Spike as Analysts Expect Selloff
Bitcoin has been expressing tremendous strength throughout the past few days, with its price seeing an unrelenting uptrend that has allowed it to surmount multiple strong resistance levels and flip them into support.
Its momentum stalled slightly yesterday afternoon following its rejection at $13,200, but this appeared to be only a slight speedbump, as BTC may soon retest this level as bulls move to reclaim $13,000.
This rally’s strength has been impressive, but the benchmark cryptocurrency may soon face a slight selloff that comes about due to spot selling pressure from so-called whales.
The CEO of a major blockchain analytics firm observed that exchange inflows from large holders of the crypto are spiking, which indicates that they are getting ready to sell their positions.
This may place some slight pressure on Bitcoin in the coming few days.
That being said, unless it pushes the cryptocurrency below the support it has established throughout the lower-$12,000 region, it is unlikely that it will do much damage to its overtly bullish market structure.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading up over 1% at its current price of $12,940. This is around where it has been trading throughout the past 12 hours or so.
Yesterday afternoon, the crypto rallied all the way up to highs of $13,200 before facing a rejection that sent it back into the $12,000 region.
It has been consolidating ever since, struggling to gain any decisive momentum as bears defend $13,000.
The lack of follow-through on the post-rejection selloff does favor bulls and seems to indicate that it is only a matter of time before buyers shatter the resistance at $13,000.
The CEO of analytics platform CryptoQuant explained in a recent tweet that so-called Bitcoin whales are beginning to transfer portions of their holdings off of cold storage and into exchanges.
This suggests that a slight selloff could be right around the corner, although he doesn’t believe it will be too far-reaching.
“BTC Whales are depositing into exchanges. I expect a small drop. All Exchanges Inflow Mean (24h) hits over 2, but the bull market will keep going as the exchange whale ratio is still low.”
Image Courtesy of Ki Young Ju. Data via CryptoQuant.
How buyers respond to an influx of selling pressure from whales will provide some serious insights into where the entire market may trend next.


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The first reaction from their best friends, users say, is almost always: ''Ewwww.''
Then, slowly, some come around. A few even become imbued with a missionary zeal to spread the word.
''I love it,'' said Rachel Jenkins-Stevens, 25. ''I bought one in 1998, and I've only used about five tampons since.''
Menstrual cups -- soft, flexible cups inserted to catch menses flows -- were first patented in this country in the 1930's, but never became popular. They are still hardly the rage, but use of them is growing, especially at women's colleges and through alternative health Web sites.
Safety questions have been raised, but so far the cups have not been linked to toxic shock syndrome or any other medical problem.
Two brands are sold in the United States: the Keeper, released in 1987, which is made of latex rubber and is reusable, and Instead, released in 1997, which is made of soft polyethylene and is disposable.Continue reading the main story
Some women choose them because they fear that tampons raise the risk of toxic shock or that the fibers or bleaches in them may cause harm. Some like the savings: a $35 Keeper is supposed to last a decade, while a 10-year supply of tampons may cost about $650. (Instead is pricier: a 10-year supply would be about $400.)
Some like the convenience, an end to purses full of bent applicators and crumpled pads. Some appreciate that many women can wear them without leakage for up to 12 hours, even swimming, exercising or sleeping. Some like the fact that Instead can be worn during sex.
Some feel better about not adding tampons to landfills. (Scientists in Biosphere 2 wore the Keeper.) Some celebrate ''moon flows'' and want a closer connection to their own menses as a symbol of womanhood. And some mistrust the conglomerates that make tampons and want something ''sort of antiestablishment,'' said Ms. Jenkins-Stevens.
As Harry Finley, the founder of the online Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health, which covers the history and culture of menses, put it: ''It'll never become mainstream in America. It involves too much contact with the body, and I think most women are squeamish about that.''
Even the president of Instead Inc. agreed: ''This product isn't for everybody.''
The cups for the two brands, one ounce each, are folded and inserted into the vagina with the fingers.
The Keeper is longer, sits lower and has a stem on the bottom that makes it relatively easy to pull out, empty, rinse and replace. Instead sits just under the cervix and is somewhat harder to hook a finger under. It is removed every 12 hours and thrown away.
Mary F. Frost, the president of Instead, says her company sells 12 million to 15 million cups a year, enough for about 150,000 women. Most are sold in pharmacy chains.
The president of Keeper Inc., Lou Crawford, refused to give exact sales figures, but she said the business sold ''tens of thousands per year.''
Francine Chambers, who runs one of the largest Keeper distributorships at the Internet site www.keeper.com, said the cup ''was finally catching on in the last three to four years'' and estimated that perhaps 100,000 women used them. Brenda Mallory, president of GladRags, a washable pads company that also sells Keepers, said her sales, mostly wholesale to health-food stores, had tripled in the last three years to 2,424.
Mr. Finley, whose museum is in his Washington area house but can be seen only online, has no data, he said, but many letters from happy cup users and a few dissatisfied ones are posted on his semi-humorous, semi-scientific Web site, www.mum.org.
The first cup in this country was patented in 1937 by Leona W. Chalmers, an actress, who in her promotional pamphlets referred to earlier European designs. Wartime rubber shortages put her company out of business, but she later teamed with a venture capitalist to market two successors, the Tassette and the disposable Tassaway. A quaintly discreet 1961 Times Square billboard for one displayed only a tulip and this description: ''Not a tampon, not a napkin. Now, a better way.''
The company collapsed, but 20years later, the Keeper was developed by Ms. Crawford, who had owned a Tassette.
Dr. Armand P. Lione, an independent toxicologist in Washington, recently raised safety questions about menstrual cups, saying he thought they might increase the risk of toxic shock syndrome because they hold blood in the vagina. The syndrome is caused by toxins from staph or strep bacteria; an outbreak in the early 1980's that killed about 35 women was linked to superabsorbent tampons, prompting tampon makers to change the materials they used.
Dr. Lione argued that cups might also raise the risk of endometriosis, a condition in which cells of the uterine lining sloughed off at menses flow backward up the fallopian tubes, escape into the abdomen and adhere there.
He contacted the National Women's Health Network and the Endometriosis Association, but they declined to ask the Food and Drug Administration for safety reviews.
Amy Allina, the network's policy director, said she thought Dr. Lione's concerns were ''plausible, but fairly hypothetical,'' but she said she did not find alarming patterns. The F.D.A. database of complaints contains one about the Keeper and 13 about Instead.
Mary Lou Ballweg, president of the Endometriosis Association, wrote that it was normal for women to have backward flow into their abdomens, but that was not the apparent cause of endometriosis.
The Keeper was never rigorously tested before the F.D.A. accepted it in 1987; rather, the agency ruled it ''substantially equivalent'' to the Tassette, which was on the market decades before the agency began to regulate medical devices.
Dr. Philip M. Tierno Jr., director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Center, whose research led to many changes in tampons, said he gave the Keeper a simple test. He dipped it in a broth of staphylococcus bacteria, incubated it in a warm, moist atmosphere and checked its surfaces. ''Minuscule quantities'' of bacteria adhered, he said. ''I don't think it would be a significant problem.''
Dr. Tierno never tested Instead, but said he would be ''be uncomfortable'' with a cup worn so high up because it could create an environment like that of a cervical cap. Caps -- small birth control diaphragms that fit closely over the cervical opening -- are not supposed to be worn during menstruation, but when they are, he said, ''they have given rise to episodes of toxic shock syndrome -- although it's rare.''
But Dr. Barbara B. North, the medical director for Instead, said its cup passed an ''extensive'' set of laboratory and human tests before the F.D.A. approved it. They included tests like Dr. Tierno's, tests on human skin cells and live rabbits for allergies and toxicity, and finally tests on 300 women in seven cities who wore it for three to nine months.
''We looked for any changes in the microbial flora -- staph, the normal lactobacillus and other pathogens,'' she said. ''There was nothing.'' Ms. Crawford said half of her Keeper sales came from women telling one another about the product.
Isadora Forman, a 21-year-old classics and religion major at Mount Holyoke College, said she was one of 11 students she knew who used it. She just helped buy one for a friend's 16-year-old sister. ''Oh, she was totally excited,'' she said. ''She's worried about dioxin and bleach in tampons.''
(The F.D.A. says ''unfounded rumors'' are posted on the Internet, claiming that that tampons contain dioxins from chlorine bleaches or asbestos added by manufacturers to encourage bleeding. The agency says that it has never found any asbestos, that tampon makers now use chlorine-free bleach and that dioxins are ''at or below detectable limits'' and present no health risk.)
Ms. Forman first heard of the cup, she said, from a boyfriend who learned of it in an environmental science class.
Then another woman gave her a lecture ''about getting in touch with my moon flows, giving me this hippie stuff, and I thought 'oh . . .' ''
''But, when I got back to school,'' she added, ''it seemed like everybody else was using it.''Continue reading the main story