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With the online buying ecosystem creating consumer trust and confidence in India, the share of e-commerce channel has grown three times within total FMCG retail sales, according to the Nielsen Connected Commerce Report 2018.
The report provides an understanding of the global connected consumer, shopping traits, category evolution and barriers to identify future growth prospects. It identifies the top online category and the changes in category penetration along with online purchasing behavior and consumers’ expectation from online shopping.
The report, which looked at consumers’ online purchasing habits, said while global online grocery purchasing grew 15 percent in the last two years, leading to an estimated USD 70 billon additional sales in online FMCG, in India 98 percent of consumers who have access to internet have made a purchase online.
Travel, fashion, IT and mobile continue to have major share in online transactions with 69 percent, 66 percent and 63 percent of consumers, respectively. But, the categories posting the most significant growth in e-commerce channel include packaged grocery, where 40 percent of online consumers made a purchase. Grocery grew 21 percent on a base growth rate of 33 percent in 2017, fresh groceries growth of 17 percent moved to 41 percent as against 35 percent in 2017 and baby hand children products were up 10 percent to 32 percent as against 29 percent in 2017, the report said.
“From tracking the e-commerce evolution in pioneering countries like South Korea, where online sales now account for a staggering 20 percent of the total FMCG sector, we know that consumers follow a certain pattern of online shopping behavior,” said Sameer Shukla, executive director – retail measurement services, Nielsen, South Asia.
“Travel, fashion and IT/mobile products are typical categories for first-time online shoppers, but as their familiarization, comfort and trust levels increase, their category repertoire expands into areas like beauty, personal care and baby products, and then moves to packaged and fresh grocery categories. This is evident from the significant jump we have seen in online purchasing within grocery and food delivery in recent years. At the same time, with the large scale data democratization, millions of Indians are being connected and there remains a lag between getting connected and transacting. Therefore, while the numbers have grown in absolute, the percentage of transacting Indians has declined marginally in 2018. This also means that there is a huge untapped potential for online shopping across categories in coming years,” Shukla said.
The report points out that consumer are more open to purchase packaged and fresh groceries online when they are offered certain purchasing options and quality assurances. About 60 percent of consumers pointed towards the need to offer and improve hassle-free refund, replacement experience and free-of-cost delivery. If such offers are made, they are likely to make purchase with higher frequency.
With the rise of consumer adoption in online purchasing, the continuously evolving e-commerce space has blurred the lines between online and offline, notes Shukla. “A few years ago, e-commerce purchase was focused on non-perishable goods such as travel, fashion and books, but over time we are seeing a rise in purchases across new categories. Looking ahead, the next wave of evolution in online purchasing behavior will likely be driven by innovations in digital capabilities like personalized recommendations based on programmatic consumption and online behavior,” Shukla said.― The Financial Express


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It looks like cash will start to flow again for former photography pioneer, Eastman Kodak Co.
After filing for bankruptcy on Thursday 19th Jan, the company have since been granted permission by the Manhattan bankruptcy court to access a loan to pay suppliers, refinance debt and meet costs for essential restructuring. The full amount of the loan, financed by Citygroup is $950 million but the company will have to return to court to receive the rest at a later date.
Kodak's downfall is largely believed to be a result of their failure to embrace the digital era. For many years the company chose to focus on film, then digital printing and patent litigation while rivals such as Fuji successfully concentrated on digital cameras.
Kodak have also claimed in court papers that techno giants Apple, makers of the iPhone 4S and iPad, along with HTC and Blackberry producers Research in Motion, sped up their decline by delaying negotiations over patent litigation.
While the decision to approve the loan was met with some resistance by note holder groups, concerned that the terms of the loan may not be beneficial to creditors, Citygroup and many Kodak supporters believe the company is worth saving.
It is hoped that the loan and Kodak's attempts to restructure and redefine their position in the market will at least enable them to continue. The company currently have many businesses which are still profitable so it is expected that in the future the company will shrink, employing fewer people.
In an interview for US channel 'Bloomberg Television', former Kodak chief marketing officer, Jeffrey Hazelett said he believes Kodak will recover, he just thinks it will take more than restructuring to survive. 'There are a lot of people inside the company who believe their best days are behind them,' he says. 'They've really got to change the mood within the company and decide where they want to go.'
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The apparel exporters' association is concerned as a large number of import and export goods laden trucks are currently stuck at Indian points – especially in Bangaon
Hundreds of Bangladesh-bound trucks carrying raw material and goods are currently stuck in the Bangaon area of India – which is on the opposite side of Benapole border, and this delay has made it difficult for readymade garment (RMG) exporters to maintain lead times.
Addressing the exporters' concerns, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Wednesday sent a letter to the High Commission of India in Dhaka, seeking the nation's support in ensuring a smooth flow of goods at the border.
In the letter, BGMEA President Faruque Hassan said, "We are hearing from forwarders and clearing agents in Benapole that the Indian customs points – particularly Bangaon – are facing long delays due to scrutiny, security and lack of manpower, and the transit time is getting is very long for the trucks to cross the Bangaon-Benapole border.
"As a large number of import and export goods laden trucks are stuck at Indian points, it is hampering import and export businesses with India, and also impacting the transit time of raw materials for RMG factories in Bangladesh."
The letter continued, "We have confidence that you can use your good office to solve this problem at Indian Custom point to expedite the smooth flow of goods from India, and thereby further facilitate the bilateral trade growth."
Commenting on the matter, Sparrow Group's Managing Director Shovon Islam said, "I import raw material worth $50 million from India for my factory every year. Seventy percent of these materials come through the Benapole port.
"A large consignment of my imported raw material is currently stuck in the Bangaon area of India."
Owner of Towhid Enterprise, a clearing and forwarding agent at Benapole, Nur Hossain said, "Around 400 trucks enter the Benapole port from India's Bangaon area during usual times, but the number has dropped to just 100.
"We have learned that around 1,500 trucks are currently stuck at the other side of this border."
Bangladesh imports raw material worth around $4 billion-$5 billion from India annually, and 70% of the consignments enters Bangladesh through Benapole-Bangaon route.


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For 30 years, retail juggernaut Walmart used a small video production company to capture footage of its top executives -- sometimes in unguarded moments. Two years ago, they stopped using the company. But Walmart never signed a contract with the company...and now the material is "proving irresistible to everyone from business historians and documentary filmmakers to plaintiffs lawyers and union organizers."
Fred and Ethel resurrected as corporate shills "Through the magic of Hollywood, famously tightfisted Fred (William Frawley) and his irascible wife, Ethel (Vivian Vance), are brought back to life in a series of entertaining vignettes," California-based PacifiCare said in a release about its new television advertising campaign. Using body doubles, voice impersonators and computer-generated imagery, the national TV ads that will premiere in mid October will enable the two long-dead actors to "speak" once more. And, oddly enough, they'll be talking about PacifiCare's new drug plan.
Aslan gets a makeover? (NYTimes link, reg. required, sorry.) Apparently Harper-Collins and the C.S. Lewis estate see a Harry Potter-style merchandising bonanza in the Narnian Chronicles -- if they de-emphasize that pesky Christianity, that is, and write a few more Narnia books, and produce some plush toys of the Narnian characters. I feel queasy.


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Melco Resorts to pay special bonus to non-management staff
Melco Resorts has announced plans to pay discretionary bonuses to non-management employees as part of its Chinese New Year celebrations.
A policy to be put in action in both Macau and Hong Kong, it follows a similar move made by MGM China, which Gambling Insider reported on yesterday.
The pay bonus being offered by Melco will equate to one month of its employees’ salaries.
Melco Resorts Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho said: “[The payments] are in recognition of the loyalty [of our employees], whose continued efforts and dedication” had been vital to sustaining the business operations throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was only recently announced that China would scrap its travel restrictions for all incoming travel, despite a surge in cases over recent weeks.
The news of lifted travel restrictions came as a huge boost to Macau, which had seen its gaming revenues plummet in recent years because of lockdown and travel restrictions in the region.
Macau visitation tally at 75,000 two days in post-Covid
The boost to Macau’s concession holders is already being felt after two days, after the region recorded an aggregated 75,000 visitor arrivals on 8-9 January 2023 alone.
The region’s travel restrictions were largely dropped on 8 January, with testing requirements from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan being relinquished.
The region also cut the need for any self-quarantine period upon arrival, making Macau once again a region easily accessed.
Macau’s Public Security department revealed that over 19,000 of the region’s 35,000 arrivals were from the Guangdong province – an area of mainland China close to Macau.
With travel continuing to come in droves from this region, it can be assumed that the region’s operators will soon be on a path to recovery.
However, after Macau altered its gaming laws as part of the new concession processes started on 1 January 2023, the role of junkets – businesses key in driving VIP capital in the region – was all but diminished.
The VIP market has since moved to the likes of Singapore and the Philippines, and it remains to be seen what Macau intends to do to regrow its VIP segment in the long term.
MGTO offers free return tickets from Macau for Hong Kong visitors
Some promotional campaigns are already underway; the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has launched a “free ticket” promotional campaign, targeting Hong Kong visitors.
Per the promotion, inbound travellers who stay at least one night in Macau will be offered their return ticket for free.
As part of the MGTO’s drive to get people back into the region, the promotion will be active between 13 January 2023 and 31 March 2013, covering the Chinese New Year period.
Passengers looking to take up this offer will be able to book a free return leg via ferry service operators Cotai Water Jet or TurboJet, or via bus through HK-MO Express. The HK-MO Express links the Prince Edward district of Kowloon (in Hong Kong) with the Macau peninsula, and several other casino stop-off points along the way.
Missed a big gambling industry story in Asia? Don't worry, Gambling Insider has you covered with our Asia round-up.


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Hapag-Lloyd plans to raise $500m with IPO
CSAV and Kühne Maritime will double down on their investments in the German container line by each investing an additional $50 million.Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fourth largest container shipping company, plans to raise the equivalent of $500 million through an initial public offering later this year.
The German liner company, which plans to list its shares on the Frankfurt and Hamburg stock exchanges, said it will use the proceeds from the IPO for further investments in ships and containers as well as to “further strengthen its capital structure, long-term growth and profitability.”
In an annex to the press release, the company also noted, "One of Hapag-Lloyd’s key strategies is to actively participate in the consolidation within the container liner shipping industry. Its operational structure is set up to efficiently pursue strategic acquisitions or further business combinations in a consolidation driven market environment."
Citing figures from MDS Transmodal, Hapag-Lloyd said it had more than doubled its share of the container transport sector from 2 percent in 2000 to about 5 percent today, in part through its acquisition of the container business of CSAV last December and CP Ships in 2005.
Hapag-Lloyd noted it will actually raise the funds in euros, but that it expects they will be equivalent to U.S. $500 million.
Of the $500 million, $400 million will stem from the sale of newly issued shares to institutional and retail investors.
In addition, two of Hapag-Lloyd’s largest shareholders, Chile’s Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) and Kühne Maritime, have placed what Hapag-Lloyd termed “cornerstone orders” to each acquire an additional $50 million in stock. CSAV owns 34.01 percent of Hapag-Lloyd, while Kühne Maritime owns 20.75 percent. An investment company owned by the city of Hamburg, where Hapag-Lloyd is headquartered, HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft für Vermögens- und Beteiligungsmanagement mbH, owns a 23.23 percent share and has said it will not sell shares.
(A chart showing the current ownership of Hapag-Lloyd can be found on its website.)
Hapag-Lloyd noted that a consortium company owned by CSAV, Kühne Maritime, HGV, owners of 78 percent of its stock, have agreed by way of a shareholders’ agreement to hold a stake of at least 51 percent for 10 years, not to sell any shares in the IPO and to pool voting rights on all decisions relating to the company’s business, “as they are supporting Hapag-Lloyd long-term.”
The IPO "will also comprise additional shares from TUI and a market standard greenshoe," an overallotment option given to underwriters, said Hapag-Lloyd. The tourism company TUI was once the parent company of Hapag-Lloyd and today owns 13.88 percent of its stock.
Last month TUI said, "We continue to account for Hapag-Lloyd AG as a business held for sale. With the IPO of the 'new' Hapag-Lloyd AG, agreed in the frame work of their merger with CSAV, and our right to sell our remaining stake via a trade sale, we have kept all our options to completely exit container shipping open."
“The IPO is an important milestone in the history of Hapag-Lloyd”, said Rolf Habben Jansen, chief executive officer of Hapag-Lloyd. “This move will give us better access to the capital markets which will enable us to further invest in our business to become more competitive, which will be good for our customers, our people and our shareholders. We are especially pleased about the investment of our core shareholders which underlines once more their confidence in the future of Hapag-Lloyd.”
Hapag-Lloyd has a fleet consisting of 188 container ships with a total capacity of approximately 1 million TEU, according to figures on its website. (Alphaliner, on its Top 100 list of container carriers, lists the Hapag-Lloyd fleet as consisting of 171 ships — 69 owned and 102 chartered — with 919,759 TEU capacity and five ships on order. Hapag-Lloyd said those five 10,500 TEU ships are expected to be delivered between October 2016 and May 2017.)
By market share, Hapag-Lloyd is “among the leaders on the Atlantic and Latin American trades with a recognized presence on the Far-East and Transpacific trades," the company said. "Membership in the G6 Alliance, the second largest alliance globally by transport capacity, gives Hapag-Lloyd the necessary scale benefits in a fragmented global shipping market.”
In the press release announcing the IPO, Hapag-Lloyd said “global container volume is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 5.5% between 2014 and 2016. The fundamentals around supply and demand are expected to improve in the coming years, which would provide cyclical upside to the industry.”
Hapag-Lloyd's own volumes in the first half of this year amounted to 3.7 million TEUs, up 29.4 percent compared with the same period in 2014. About 56 percent of its transport volume in the first half of 2015 was in East-West trades and 44 percent in North-South trades.
The company also increased revenues by 1.5 billion euro to 4.7 billion euro during the same timeframe, thanks primarily to its merger with and integration of the CSAV container business.
“Complementary trades, economies of scale and cost reduction with a larger fleet and reduction of procurement costs make Hapag-Lloyd and CSAV a highly strategic fit,” said Hapag-Lloyd, adding that it “targets annual net synergies of around $400 million fully realized by 2017. This is $100 million higher than originally targeted.”
It added that last year the company launched a profit improvement project dubbed “OCTAVE,” that “targets annual cost savings of approximately $200 million from 2016 onwards and is currently well on track, already delivering tangible results in the first half of 2015.”
“We have good momentum, our results have improved, and we have made up ground versus our competition,” said Habben Jansen.


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New Orleans Pelicans Unveil New Court Design
The New Orleans Pelicans released pictures of their new court design today. Perhaps this is an indication that their uniforms will be blue dominant, and red and gold secondary. Time will tell.
For an interactive 3D tour of the new arena, click here.


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Rochester Man Sentenced for Convenience Store Robbery
A man charged with robbing a Rochester convenience store last October was sentenced Thursday to 33 months in prison.
41 year old Todd Mielke of Rochester pleaded guilty earlier to a simple robbery charge. Police say he robbed the Holiday store near St. Mary’s and drove off in a van that was spotted two days later at the south Walmart store by an employee of the business it had been stolen from. Investigators learned Mielke was of those who had been using the van.
Mielke was later found at what police say was a homeless camp located near the Hy Vee south store.


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Wireless Android Auto is available for Google phones
You need a Pixel or Nexus to ditch the USB cable in your car.
Google's Pixel 2 portrait photo code is now open source (update: not quite)
You could see other apps using similar image detection tricks.
The Galaxy S9+ vs. the competition: Beyond the dual cameras
There's a ton of small changes packed into the S9's familiar-looking body, but how does it stack up against other flagships?
Google Pixel 2 users report warming phones and shortened battery life
They say the issues popped up after installing this month's security update.
Google flips on Pixel 2's HDR+ feature for your go-to photo apps
It makes photos taken in third-party apps brighter, clearer and more detailed.
Android 8.1 starts rolling out to Nexus and Pixel devices
AI, budget phones and the Pixel 2's imaging chip play a big role.
New in our buyer's guide: Apple, Google and a little Sonos
Various new flagship phones made the cut, as did the Google Home Mini, Sonos One and GoPro Hero6 action cam.
Google Lens comes to Assistant on Pixel phones
Point your camera at the world and get answers.
Google Assistant can help troubleshoot your Pixel 2 phone
You might not need to talk to a real person.


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One thing you'll notice when you fire up Bulletstorm's single player experience is the lack of more traditional online game modes. Cliff Bleszinski explains why a less traditional approach was taken with Bulletstorm, and the game is better because of it.
Treyarch has recently addressed the claims that certain version of their latest game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, are experiencing problems. In defense of the game, the developer claims that the large majority of players haven't experienced the problems that are being complained about.
A recent report has shown that the PS3 security measures as they currently are may not be as secure as many imagine. The console which is used for many purchases, and houses sensitive information like your name, address, and even credit card information may be at risk.
The cat and mouse game has begun between Sony and the PS3 Hacking Scene. In Response to the news that Sony was issuing bans to jailbroken consoles, new claims have surfaced that hackers have devised a program that not only can unban any console banned by Sony, but could potentially ban any console ID.


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The News on 6 told you last week how it only costs about a dollar a gallon to run a car on compressed natural gas or CNG. And we told you about the Tulsa company that sells a natural gas fueling station for your home. But several of you asked us where you could buy a CNG car?
News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg says the sign at Morris Auto Sales says drive for a $1.20 a gallon, no joke.
Ask Russ Casey how. "How do you drive for $1.20 a gallon, well you buy one of these natural gas-powered vehicles." Russ Casey got into the used CNG car business about 8 years ago in the little town of Morris east of Okmulgee.
The first year, he sold four. Last year, he says he sold more than a hundred. "It was really slow for about 5 years, but this last year it's really caught on with the price difference in the fuel."
US automakers don't make these type of vehicles anymore, but Casey scours the nation, looking at auctions for old fleet vehicles, government vehicles, whatever, but it's not easy. "The problem is there's so very, very little inventory to be had, because it's a very small market."
It's not for everybody, but it makes more sense in northeast Oklahoma than most places. For one thing, Oklahoma Natural Gas has fueling stations that are open to the public. "We have the 2nd largest number of refueling stations and the cheapest fuel in the nation."
Even if you do find yourself in a place with no natural gas, no worries. Most of the cars are bi-fuel, with compressed natural gas on one side and regular gasoline on the other. "When you run out, it automatically switches over, switches the gauge and everything." He's not a car salesman for nothing.
Still not convinced? He says the state has an incentive where they'll refund 10-percent of the car's cost. It might be the road less traveled, but he says you might like the CNG route.
To find the location of a CNG station, CLICK HERE
. And CLICK HERE
for Morris Auto Sales' website.


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Pantry convenience store chain names new CEO
Posted February 15, 2012
Cary, N.C. — Veteran business executive Dennis Hatchell will be the new chief executive officer of The Pantry (Nasdaq: PTRY), the Cary-based convenience store chain said Wednesday.
Hatchell takes over as CEO as of March 5. He will replace Edwin Holman, who has served as interim CEO. Holman is also chair of the Pantry board of directors.
Hatchell most recently served as vice chairman of Hickory-based Alex Lee. Lee is a holding company for Lowe's Food Stores, Merchants Distributors and Institution Food House.
Terrence Marks quit as Pantry’s CEO last October.
“Dennis is a proven leader who possesses a unique blend of merchandising and operating experience,” said Pantry board member Wilfred A. Finnegan in a statement. “We believe his successful track record in the food distribution and retail grocery business where he served in various principal positions for thirty three years, make him ideally suited to lead the company, as it continues to grow and succeed in the highly competitive convenience store market sector.”
Hatchell, 62, has nearly four decades of experience in the grocery business.
“The Pantry is one of the largest retailers in the convenience store industry and has tremendous potential to grow and continue to be a dominant leader in its markets,” Hatchell said. “My initial focus will be to work with the Board and the management team to refine our strategic vision, prioritize our investments to increase shareholder value and get to know store-level operations to fully understand the needs of our customers and employees."
Hatchell served as president and chief operating officer of Alex Lee from 1995-2011. Before that, he was president of Lowe's Foods from 1989-1995. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado.
The Pantry operates 1,618 stores across 13 states. Most are known as Kangaroo Express.


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The Chief Executive of Kofikrom Pharmacy, Mr. Kofi Addo-Agyekum has been elected the Vice Chairman of the Africa Pharmaceutical Distribution Association (APDA).
Mr. Kofi Addo-Agyekum, a Founding Member/National Executive Council Member of the Chamber of Pharmacy, Ghana was elected at the end of APDA’s 3rd Constituent Assembly in Casablanca, Morocco.
The appointment of Mr. Addo-Agyekum was unanimous based on his rich experience in the pharmaceutical business. As former Managing Director of Kama Health Services and General Manager of the Kama Group, Kofi Addo-Agyekum led the former company to become a Ghana Club 100 Company.
He has delivered key presentations and led many pharmaceutical symposia across the globe championing the course of the industry and has 31 branded generic pharmaceutical products registered under the FDA which are accessible nationwide.
Kofi Addo-Agyekum was adjudged the Most Promising Entrepreneur 2018 at the Ghana Entrepreneur and Corporate Awards and was also honored with a Special Award and citation by the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) at the recently held SWAG Awards night . He is a Founding Member and National Executive Council Member of the Chamber of Pharmacy Ghana. He is the Chairman of the Global Fund Initiative of the Private Sector Co-payment Mechanism for Malaria management, Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Member of Pharmaceutical Importers and Wholesalers Association, Member of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Member of the Suhyen Citizens Association. He is currently the National Vice President and Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Ghana Arm-wrestling Federation.
He brings his wealth of knowledge unto the Africa Pharmaceutical Distribution Association which has been formed to address all strategic and advocacy issues on pharmaceutical supply chain in Africa engaging consultants from the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (IFPW) to ensure that the foundations of the APDA were properly laid in accordance with experience and internationally approved principles and best practices. ADPA’s objective is to participate in the promotion and development of universal standards among African populations in the pharmaceutical distribution sector in particular and the Health sector in general.


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Experts will come together at the Dubai World Trade Centre to discuss the changing roles of content creation, distribution and consumption.
At CABSAT, the entire Entertainment & Media (E&M) ecosystem will be addressed by experts from all corners of the industry. The event to be held from March 12 to 14 at Dubai World Trade Centre will host three key tracks – Content Creation, Content Production and Post-Production, and Content Distribution and Delivery.
CABSATs Content Congress will play a critical role in uniting the discussions surrounding the rapidly changing content landscape. The event will bring together over 250 leaders in their industry, including Carlos Tibi, Chief Executive Officer, icflix; Raffaele Annechino, President and Managing Director for Viacom International Media Networks’ (VIMN) Southern & Western Europe, Middle East and Africa; Kaswara Al Khatib co-creator UTURN and, Sanjay Raina, General Manager, Fox International.
Speaking about CABSAT 2019, Raffaele Annecchino, President, Viacom International Media Networks Southern & Western Europe, Middle East and Africa, who will be unpacking the new media landscape as an expert speaker at the exhibit said: Viewers are consuming more content than ever today, and this is a great news. Were living in an era where content is at the centre of everything we do. Our viewers consume content where and when they want, on the device of their choosing, so our mission today is to be everywhere, producing great content that can work on different platforms creating experiences for audiences that work across devices and in real life.
Content creators, distributors and buyers will gather at CABSATs Content Marketplace to exhibit the latest content offerings, explore production and scout for content that will speak to niche audiences and global fan bases alike. With viewers calling the shots, the industry is seeing a cadre of new, personalised content. This is particularly true in terms of content tailored to regional tastes, languages and cultural mores. Streaming content giant Netflix is now available in 190 countries and is aggressively sourcing content that speaks to regional audiences.
The MEASA market is ripe for innovators looking to unlock new revenue streams. The Content Congress at CABSAT will provide in depth insight into how to disrupt and adapt traditional broadcast models to meet the demands of viewers looking for a bespoke experience. Panelists at the Content Congress will be addressing issues that the industry cannot afford to ignore, including the fate of broadcast television, the potential of content creation in the MEASA region and the integration of social media platforms in traditional broadcasting.
Majed Al Suwaidi, Managing Director of Dubai Studio City, added: Today, the content creation landscape is a dynamic and evolving one, and the biggest challenge remains to keep up and adapt to the changes. As a developing content creation hub in the Middle East region, our future truly lies in producing exciting and ground-breaking work that meets and exceeds the expectations of our consumers. Lately, we have introduced several products and initiatives including CineMENA to provide a direct gateway into content creation.
The global E&M industry is in the midst of a significant shift as viewers demand a more personalised experience, both in terms of the content they consume and their platform of choice. The fast-paced development of mobile and streaming technologies have sparked a marked shift in consumer behaviour, thrusting the industry into an era analysts are referring to as Convergence 3.0. In this new wave of entertainment, technology is giving a voice to the consumer and that voice is clear – viewers are demanding bespoke content that they can consume anytime, anywhere. With expectations at an all-time high, the E&M industry must adapt to meet the brief.
With digital revenues set to make up 56.9% of the industrys income by 2022, competitors and niche providers alike are forced to reevaluate obsolete business models driven by advertising revenue, instead shifting their focus to providing bespoke content to consumers on an in-demand basis. Experts from the industry will come together at CABSAT, to discuss the changing roles of content creation, distribution and consumption.


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The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), the organization that represents more than 1,500 companies in the recreational boating industry, has released a number of statistics concerning consumer market trends during 2004.
The NMMA says the average price of a new boat last year was $12,360; the average price of a new outboard engine was $9,131; and the average price of a new outboard boat, motor and trailer package was $24,079.
The organization says the five states leading the nation in retail sales of new powerboats, motors, trailers and accessories last year accounted for nearly 35% of the nation's total retail expenditures on those items. Florida was the leading state, with $2.1 billion in sales; followed by California, $1.2 billion; Texas, $830 million; New York, $630 million; and Minnesota, $583 million.
California replaced Michigan as the state with most boat registrations, 963,379 units versus 953,554 units, respectively.
Copyright 2005 Powersports Business


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5 Channel Partner Updates: 18 October 2016
Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, October 18, 2016.
Actually, there are 13 entries for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look…
13. Partner Program, Part I: Qstream, which makes a SaaS-based sales management platform, continues to expand its partner program. The latest adopter is VALIDITY Group of Melbourne, Australia.
12. Partner Program, Part II: Rancher Labs, which develops container management software, has launched the Rancher Partner Network, a partner program designed to expand the company’s global reach, increase enterprise adoption, and provide partners and customers with tools for success, the company asserts.
11. Partner Program, Part III: KeyData, Novacoast and Sila Solutions Group have joined the BeyondTrust Partner Program. The program offers identity and access management (IAM) and privileged access management (PAM) solutions. BeyondTrust also recently announced a Managed Service Provider Program.
10. IBM Cloud Services: IBM’s latest quarterly results, announced yesterday, were stronger than Wall Street had expected. Still, the company’s stock actually dropped last evening during after-hours trading. Some pundits want IBM’s cloud revenues to grow even faster than the current pacing. We’ll be back with more analysis for partners today.
9. AWS Valuation: The Amazon Web Services business is worth $200 billion, according to Credit Suisse. Um… Let’s all be careful here. How many money-losing startups run their IT infrastructure in AWS? And what happens to AWS’s valuation if there’s a correction that kills some of those startups? Hmmm… For some clues rewind to the dot-com implosion from about 2000 — which ultimately killed major hosting providers like Exodus Communications. I’m not saying the same fate awaits AWS. But be wary of all the market hype…
8. Intel Quarterly Earnings: They’re set to arrive later today. The company recently hinted that the PC market is rebounding, but a new round of HP Inc. layoffs raises questions about that recovery. We’ll share some earnings analysis after Intel’s numbers surface late today.
7. Nonsense: Gartner says CIOs are still confused about the definition of cloud computing. Seriously? If it’s off-premises, OpEx, owned by someone else and elastic (i.e., scales on demand) to meet your needs then it’s truly cloud. If you own it and pretend it’s elastic, then it’s not cloud.
6. HIPAA Risk Assessment Tool: The government has made updates and you’ll find a revised HIPAA Risk Assessment Tool here.
5. Legal Cloud Services: CloudLex, which develops a cloud platform for legal firms and attorneys, has raised $3.7 million in Series A funding. PS: For a look at the top MSPs serving the legal industry and verticals, check out the Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs.
4. Data Center Subsidies: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Facebook last year reported nearly $120 billion in pre-tax profits, and yet they told states and localities they needed financial help to build new data centers. A new report, called Money Lost to the Cloud, takes a closer look at the numbers…
3. VMware Multi-Cloud Management: The VMware Multi-Cloud Management strategy moved forward today during VMworld Europe. The company announced a range of cross-cloud architecture enhancements at the show. The announcements surfaced one week after VMware named Amazon Web Services as the company’s preferred public cloud partner.
2. Dell Global Partner Summit: Dell and EMC are rallying channel partners today during the Dell EMC World conference in Austin, Texas. We’ll be back with updates soon.
1. Top 50 Cloud Management Tools: You’ve already mastered PC and server management. But what if you want to manage cloud services for your customers — especially workloads in Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and more? Glad you asked. Here are 50 cloud monitoring and management tools we’ve been tracking.


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Discarded electronics accumulate quickly, prompting researchers to research creative ways to reduce the waste generated known as electronic waste. Now one team has created a disposable water activated battery from paper and other sustainable materials.
The wires, screens, and batteries that go into our devices, not to mention the plastic, metal, and other materials that cover them, fill landfills with hazardous waste. Some e-waste is relatively large: old flip phones, air conditioners, and radios, to name just a few common items. Other e-waste is more insidious, such as electronic disposable medical diagnostic kits, environmental sensors and smart labels containing disposable batteries and other equipment.
“The big problem is these little batteries,” says Dele Ogunseitan, a professor of public health at the University of California, Irvine, an environmental technology researcher and adviser to major technology companies, who was not involved in the development of the paper battery. . “No one really cares where they end up.”
Researchers from the Cellulose and Wood Materials Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) are working to solve this neglected problem. This week they published an article in Scientific reports describing a new water-activated paper battery they developed from environmentally friendly materials. Such a device could eventually become a sustainable alternative to the more harmful batteries often found in low-power devices.
The new paper battery has the same basic components as standard batteries, but is packaged differently. Like a conventional chemical battery, it has a positively charged side called the cathode, a negatively charged side called the anode, and a conductive material called an electrolyte in between. Traditional battery components are encased in plastic and metal; in a new battery, the anode and cathode are inks printed on the front and back of a sheet of paper. This paper is saturated with salt, which dissolves when the paper is moistened with water. The resulting salt water solution acts as an electrolyte.
Sustainable materials were a prerequisite for the researchers, who considered only non-toxic and abundant ingredients to create their device. “We were pretty confident that we would get something that would work in the end, but the development of these materials and ink systems is far from trivial,” says Gustav Nyström, head of the Cellulose and Wood Materials Laboratory and senior author of the study. After trying hundreds of formulations for different components, the scientists settled on graphite ink to make the cathode, zinc ink to make the anode, and salt-soaked paper to make the electrolyte. When the paper is dry, the battery is kept stable. Add just a couple of drops of water, however, and the embedded salt dissolves, allowing the electrons to flow. After moistening the paper, it takes about 20 seconds for the battery to activate. At this point, it produces a steady 1.2 volts of electricity until the paper dries. (For comparison, an AA battery provides 1.5 volts.) When the researchers wet the paper again, the battery produced 0.5 volts for more than an hour.
Although the researchers demonstrated that their battery could power an alarm clock, disposable paper batteries are unlikely to replace the standard AAs on store shelves. Instead, Nyström envisions a future in which these batteries are embedded in diagnostic tests and environmental sensors, ideally with other sustainable components such as screens and packaging. That future may not be so far off.
It’s hard to predict a timeline for producing such products at scale, but Nyström says he’s in contact with potential industry partners and believes these batteries could make their way into production within the next two to five years. “The performance that you’re seeing in this device, I think, is already sufficient for many of these applications,” he says. It’s mostly a matter of scaling up production and integrating batteries into systems like diagnostic tests and environmental sensors.
Importantly, Nyström says his team created the battery without compromising sustainability criteria. “It’s work that really starts with developing sustainable materials,” he explains. From there, he says, “I think we were able to create something very useful.”


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San Juan Basin Public Health on Wednesday recommended residents begin covering their nose and mouth with a bandanna or homemade cotton covering when leaving the home for essential travel, such as going to the grocery store or doctor’s office, to avoid the coronavirus.
The local health department says covering the face has two benefits: For those possibly with coronavirus, a covering can help filter droplets from that spread to others. And for people not infected, it can help lessen the risk of breathing in droplets.
Many times, SJBPH said in an announcement, people can be infected with the virus and have no idea, showing no symptoms.
“Studies indicate that there is no reason to not use a face covering as a precaution and wearing something over your nose and mouth can provide an additional layer of protection for those who must go out,” SJBPH said in a news release.
The health department recommends a bandanna or homemade cotton covering – not hospital-grade masks that should be reserved for health care workers and those who are sick.
A cover is also a good way to remember not to touch one’s face, an important health tip to avoid contracting the coronavirus. And, SJBPH said it sends a message to the community that people are taking the outbreak seriously.
Tips for wearing a face mask: Tie long hair back, wash your hands, secure mask over mouth and nose, don’t touch face or face mask, leave mask on until you can safety remove it and remove mask if you come into contact with someone sick.
Tips for removing: Wash your hands, grab the mask by the area over your ears, take cover off, wash or sanitize mask then wash your hands again.
Wearing a mask should go along with other health guidelines, such as keeping a distance of 6 feet from others, avoiding unnecessary travel and staying at home as much as possible.
Poll: Are you covering your mouth and nose to avoid the coronavirus when leaving home for essential travel, such as going to the grocery store or doctor’s office?
Yes - 1345 - 63.15%
No - 785 - 36.85%


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Tyra Banks paid a visit to the New York City Stock Exchange yesterday to announce the launch of her new fashion and beauty site Type F. The true embodiement of beauty and brains Banks is currently enrolled at Harvard..yes Harvard. She says "I started last summer and I didn't really talk about it. It was very incognito, my name and everything, but I decided to talk about it [now],"
By attending the Ivy League school, she's hoping to inspire others to pursue an education.
"I think a lot of girls think it's either/or, even at my age," she says. "I feel that it's never too late to continue your education. I can't just rely only on my gut. I have to have the knowledge that my professors have in order to take it to the next level."


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The C&A Foundation will fund five initiatives to advance the circular economy within the fashion industry.
A new report from Green Alliance has found the untapped opportunities for the UK to source most of its plastic demand from recycling.
New research claims to have made a major step forward in the economics of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The card currently exists as a prototype but it is expected be made available to the public within the next 12 months.
The Dow Chemical Company is edging towards making its huge global business more sustainable.
IKEA has added to its rich array of sustainability pledges by planning to become a truly circular business by 2030.
Popular food and drink retailer Pret a Manger is unveiling a reusable bottle across all its UK stores.
Microsoft has placed a data centre on the sea floor off the Scottish coast in an innovative environmental test.
A new partnership between a Swedish energy start up and Siemens is expected to fast track the construction of a major battery factory in Europe.
Drone technology has the potential to transform our economies to be more sustainable and efficient.
Phone: +44 (0)20 7871 0173
Fax: +44 (0)20 7871 0101
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Buffalo company profiled in national magazine
Tuesday, October 09, 2018
Inc. Magazine, a national publication for entrepreneurs and small businesses, recently profiled Buffalo-based manufacturer and exporter Mountain Meadow Wool.
Founded in 2002, Mountain Meadow Wool processes about 15,000 pounds of Wyoming wool annually. The company has used state grants, federal Small Business Innovation Research grants and trade show incentive grants from the Wyoming Business Council to expand its market nationally and into countries like Canada, Germany, Denmark and Italy.
Mountain Meadow Wool is a member of the Business Council's state-branded Made in Wyoming program. The company was named the regional 2017 Small Business Exporter of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.


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The British Retail Consortium has released its Economic Briefing Report for July 2021. It shows a mixed picture for the UK Economy.
May growth disappointed, with GDP growth slowing from April and significantly market expectations. The rebound in hospitality was the driver of growth, but global shortages offset some of these gains.
Retail sales saw another month of buoyant sales in June, growth reaching 13.1% compared to June 2019, above May’s growth of 10.0%. But the month was one month of two halves, with spend slowing during the last two weeks of the month, when the unseasonably wet weather arrived.
June’s inflation reached 2.5%, its highest level since August 2018. Some of the price rises are a reversal of the pandemic trend when many goods and commodities saw prices fall significantly.
- May growth disappointed, with GDP growing by 0.8%, significantly below market expectations of 1.5% and April’s growth of 2.0%. May marks the fourth consecutive month of growth, nevertheless, output remains 3.1% smaller than in February 2020.
- Retail sales saw another month of buoyant sales in June, with growth reaching 13.1% Yo2Y, above May’s growth of 10.0%.
- June’s inflation reached 2.5%, its highest level since August 2018. Some of the price rises are a reversal of the pandemic trend when many goods and commodities saw prices fall significantly.
- 172,000 of retail employees remained furloughed in June, down from 221,000 in May. In the UK as a whole, there were 1.9mill furloughed employees in the UK, down from 2.7mill in May. But the number of payroll employees in the UK increased in June for the seventh consecutive month, with employment rising in some regions above pre-pandemic levels.
- BRC-LDC data shows retail vacancies rose to 14.5% in Q2, the highest rate recorded, and above the rate of 12.4% in Q2 2020. The pandemic accelerated the shift to online and changed consumption patterns, triggering the permanent closure of some shops.
As a member of the BRC, the MIA can share the full report with our members. If you would like to see the full report, please contact email@example.com


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The business networking site LinkedIn has become the latest to fall victim to hackers, with an estimated 6.5 million accounts unscrupulously accessed recently by hackers.
Reports suggest that Russian hackers crowd-sourced help from the worldwide hacking community in order to break the encryption methods used at LinkedIn, gaining them access to millions of accounts. The result: somewhere in the region of 6.5 million account passwords leaked online.
The passwords thankfully aren’t attached to the usernames of each account, although analysts have already predicted that the hackers may already have this information, and are withholding it to either use themselves or to sell on to just about anyone.
Currently LinkedIn claims it has around 150 million registered users, so the percentage of accounts affected is thankfully quite small – although 6.5 million is still a huge and worrying number when it comes to this sort of thing.
The hackers claims are not unfounded either, with several users already checking and confirming issues with their accounts. Various security firms have checked the data that was posted on a Russian forum earlier this week, and have confirmed that the hashed data contains passwords related to LinkedIn accounts.
This latest security issue comes shortly after LinkedIn was forced to update its mobile calendar app after users reported it was sending calendar data without any form of encryption. The app has since been updated to patch this flaw, but a new security vulnerability is only going to put the pressure back on.
Gadget Helpline advises all LinkedIn users to change their passwords at the earliest available opportunity, and if you use the same password for other accounts, change those passwords too.
LinkedIn has not issued a full statement, but has confirmed it is looking into the issue.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.


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Pascale Elie saw her hometown fall apart from her house in Port-au-Prince. The massive earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 left the capital city in ruins. Elie, an economist who was then working for an insurance company, watched as the financial system collapsed in the wake of the disaster. Over a third of physical branches — long concentrated in the capital city — fell apart overnight. Even though only 10% of residents were account holders, hours-long lines formed around the few remaining banks. The country’s fragile power grid failed and left millions of Haitians in the dark. Foreign aid struggled to plug the gap, as distributing cash through traditional means proved difficult and time-consuming — on average, locals waited 12 days to access emergency aid in the midst of Haiti’s worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century.
Elie eventually quit her job and threw herself into building a solution. She founded a fintech called HaitiPay which in turn launched Lajan Cash, a trailblazing mobile wallet and payments system that allows anyone with a cellphone to get paid, transfer money, purchase from mom-and-pop stores, or receive remittances from abroad. By dialing a short number, clients can send requests for transfers and payments from their phones, without having to rely on an internet connection. Since its early days, HaitiPay has guaranteed that all transactions were traceable and available between different financial institutions — a level of interoperability that remains an exception to the rule in the country. The service was one of the first in Haiti: an innovative company looking to disrupt a slow-moving and inefficient industry whose shortcomings were painfully obvious. “I said to myself, ‘That’s what I’m going to do for the rest of my life,’” Elie told Rest of World.
On the surface, her life-long mission was starting to look a lot like a Silicon Valley–scripted underdog fairy tale. Early on, when she envisaged the company, she jumped through all the ludicrous legal hoops required to create a startup in a heavily regulated market. Then, when she looked to attract customers, her company stood against contenders that had dominated the area for generations but stood as yet unaware of fintech’s potential. If things had panned out as the standard Silicon Valley–endorsed fairy tale claims, disruptive innovation and perseverance should have been enough for Elie to beat the traditional players of the local financial scene.
But, a decade on, it isn’t pioneers like HaitiPay that dominate the fintech scene. Digital wallets and payments are now firmly established in the country’s mostly informal economy. Contrary to the underdog myth that pervades startup culture, the fintech market has been taken over by the establishment — oligarchic banks and telecommunications companies — thanks to archaic regulation and precarious access to funding.
In the aftermath of the quake, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation rushed to Haiti with millions in emergency aid, three days after the catastrophe. Less than six months later, it had partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development to offer a $10 million grant to mobile money solutions that could streamline fund distribution. An initial $4 million would be split between two companies that proposed the best solutions; the remainder would be given to the winners, if and when they hit at least 100,000 transactions in the country. Contestants had to deliver solutions that weren’t only innovative but could distribute funds to a large user base as fast as possible.
The aid announcement highlighted the same idealized case study that Elie had identified months prior: M-Pesa — a Kenyan peer-to-peer payment and money transfer system with over 9 million customers — was deemed to be the most promising model on which to base Haiti’s nascent fintech sector. At the time, this African startup’s success stood in stark contrast to the hundreds of mobile banking initiatives that had been unable to grow their customer base beyond a handful of users. Soon M-Pesa had put East Africa in the spotlight as the region that, by 2011, concentrated 80% of all mobile money operations worldwide. What became known as the “M-Pesa model” seemed to be Haiti’s ticket out of financial ruin; cellphones appeared to be the perfect substitute to the country’s ailing physical infrastructure. Even better, nearly every Haitian knew how to use one, and most households had at least one device — which could cost as little as $20 by 2010, down from $300 in the early aughts.
The Gates Foundation and USAID set a high bar for access to the award: at least 100,000 transactions in the first six months. Unsurprisingly, the two final winners were companies with big preexisting customer bases, Jamaica-based Digicel and its main competitor, U.S.-founded Voilà. In conjunction, the two giants covered over 3 million cellphone subscribers on the island and would later merge to create Haiti’s most powerful fintech, MonCash.
MonCash’s overwhelming arrival onto the scene revealed something about its model that global fintech-watchers across the board had failed to realize. Mobile money operations in emerging economies in East Africa or Haiti didn’t succeed only because their approach was particularly innovative. Their success rather depended on very unique local contexts and their ability to scale up. “M-Pesa was based on something that Kenyans were used to: sending airtime to each other as a form of currency, instead of using transfer services like Western Union,” Erin Taylor, an economic anthropologist who researched the early days of mobile money in Haiti, told Rest of World. But the M-Pesa model would only truly experience success when it received backing from important transnational corporations. Subsequent studies have found that its business model depended on widespread adoption to become “commercially viable,” which turned out to be easier for a telecommunications company with nearly 80% of market share. The secret to Africa’s most successful fintech lay, not in its disruptive innovation, but rather in its alliance with Safaricom — a local subsidiary associated with telecommunications giant Vodafone.
With massive telecommunications behind them, both M-Pesa and MonCash were able to rely on established telecommunications networks to process transactions at virtually no cost for end users. Selling a mobile-based service to millions of customers was no problem to the tried-and-tested companies. With an established consumer base, players like MonCash could make their services as widespread as possible. Those already using Digicel’s services as an operator could easily join its digital wallet and carry out transactions with acquaintances — likely Digicel users as well. Deploying its considerable resources, Digicel positioned agents in Port-au-Prince and other Haitian cities and explained electronic money to customers, by distributing pamphlets and comics about it in local Kreyol, soon meeting the transaction target set by the Gates Foundation and USAID.
The model’s mass adoption made the giant players bigger but left little room for underdogs, like HaitiPay. To Elie’s great dismay, it turned out that it wasn’t the “M-Pesa model” that promised success in the Haitian fintech scene: being first to market wasn’t enough, you had to be big. MonCash grew on the back of the Safaricom model, supported by the country’s main telecommunications giant. “People would ask if we were like Digicel,” Elie said to Rest of World. “But we were there before, you know?” The Digicel-MonCash fintech solution would go on to grow 15 times faster than Elie’s HaitiPay over the 2010s, reaching over 1.5 million Haitians to her 100,000.
To make matters worse, Elie wasn’t merely competing against big telecommunications companies. According to Haitian law, she wasn’t even allowed to take these giants on single-handedly. Any service that relied on electronic money had to operate under an establishment banking partner, so HaitiPay was forced to delay its launch, as it negotiated with its own competitors. She waited nearly two years to receive her stamp of approval from a partner, only to launch in an industry that had been taken over by telecommunications companies months prior. Making the best of a bad situation, Elie found a way to use her legally mandated partner to her advantage: when reaching out to potential customers, she would highlight the bank’s trusted and well-established brand, instead of presenting HaitiPay as a mere newbie.
Unfazed, she set up operations in a small office in Port-au-Prince, designing a tool that worked smoothly amid Haiti’s power outages and expensive internet. Though her system avoided dependence upon internet connectivity, HaitiPay still relied on a proper phone signal — provided, of course, by her telecommunications competitors, Digicel and NatCom. Companies reliant on mobile services, like hers, had to negotiate with the local duopoly to guarantee its operations ran smoothly. “You have to either marry one or the other,” Clifford Reginald Nau, who manages the tech incubator Alpha Haiti, told Rest of World. Elie married both, in order to guarantee that clients from both telecommunications companies could still choose her services.
Once Elie had painstakingly grown her clientele, HaitiPay would go on to benefit from the eventual crashing of the fintech wave in the Caribbean. The industry had become impossible to ignore, creating new giants valued at $10 billion and disrupting services from microlending to digital banking. The trend gradually gained momentum across the region, and investors began to take notice. In 2014, Elie was offered a $500,000 grant from USAID to expand operations across Haiti. By mid-2018, HaitiPay could rely on at least two local accelerators, Banj — which supported Elie and her startup — and Alpha Haiti. Yet despite the feeling that HaitiPay had turned things around, its quest for funding remained unfulfilled. Talks with investors in Haiti proved fruitless, so Elie is now rearing her startup for its latest and most ambitious pivot yet.
Far from her Caribbean island — in the place where much of the fintech vocabulary and its far-reaching underdog mythos originated — Elie is preparing for a new round of talks with investors in the United States. She has already registered her company in Wyoming and hopes to benefit from the world’s biggest fintech market as well as its hyperactive venture capital industry. But Elie now knows better than to put all her hopes into one basket and is looking beyond traditional startup financiers. She believes that the 1.2 million-strong Haitian diaspora, living in states like Florida and New York, might be the missing ingredient in her own Haitian recipe for fintech success. It is indeed an untapped market: one yet unscoured by her giant competitors in Haiti but that has generated a $3 billion remittances industry, nearly a third of her home country’s GDP. Telecoms haven’t tailored their products to accept money from abroad, and local banks process as little as 15% of transactions. The rest comes from traditional brokers. So Elie is doubly banking on the Hatian diaspora, hoping to both crowd fund investment for her startup and draw them in as a central pillar of HaitiPay’s expansion into the remittances market.
By going beyond her island, Elie is distancing herself from some of the local dominants but getting closer to others. She will be competing with established foreign brands like Western Union, which have dominated Caribbean remittances for generations. In a way, she is bracing herself to tick off every item of the fintech recipe once again: the paperwork, the funding, the disruptive model to meet customers’ needs, the urge to muster a loyal clientele. Yet she remains optimistic that this recipe of her own making will work out, living up to the fintech fairy tale, as soon as she lands a first round of investment in American soil. “It is only funding that holds us back against giants.”


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Security and the Trust Economy
Perceptions of society and its functions, whether attained from the past or conceived in the present, may soon become distant memories – this as the age of technology quickens on. The recent Consumer Electronics Show 2017 (CES) in Las Vegas points to a world of advanced, mind-boggling interconnectivity where humans, software and robots (im)possibly co-exist.
Respected journalist, researcher and analyst Arthur Goldstuck visited WE Joburg recently, and shared key insights from his tour of the show, as well as from a keynote presentation he delivered at the CES conference.
He observed how artificial intelligence (AI) in all areas of activity, including the ‘personal agent’, software innovations and voice-controlled virtual assistance, featured prominently at CES 2017. His main discovery: the economy of trust in an increasingly ‘Internet of Things’ community.
Goldstuck identified several trends that may stretch the keenest of imaginers among us and yet, simultaneously, leave us longing, excitedly, for even more in innovation.
To fathom a device (the same device) that improves over time, meaning it is better than when you first used it, sounds rather unreal, right? Wrong.
Chinese manufacturer Huawei is on a quest to develop just that, specifically phones of intelligence. Goldstuck explained how the brand’s Mate 9 denotes the feeling of machine learning in your hand. The phone is designed to constantly optimise applications based on user behaviour and preference.
Jobs providing a living for many have already been replaced by robots, which perform human-like functions.
Goldstuck explained how some restaurants in Japan are experimenting with robotic waitrons to serve customers. A robot affectionately named Pepper meets, greets and takes orders from patrons, and even facilitates meal payments with ease.
CES 2017 points to a world where fast food jobs come to an end… And there’s no reason not to expect the same in other forms of manual labour.
Goldstuck’s visit to the show also uncovered innovation in the automotive sector. He explained that ‘the car of the future’ continued to permeate discussions in innovation with the ‘autonomous vehicle’ being hotly pursued by futuristic car brands.
Nissan (in partnership with French carmaker Renault) featured prominently at this year’s event, and the brands’ CEO, Carlos Ghosn, revealed their collaboration with Microsoft, “to build next-generation connected car technologies”.
Ghosn also highlighted his vision to pioneer self-driving cars that “co-exist with human drivers in an accelerated timeline”. He unveiled the Seamless Autonomous Mobility System, derived from NASA technology, to combine artificial intelligence with human support to help self-driving vehicles make tricky decisions.
Though such innovations may leave many with their jaws dropped and tongues tied in awe, Goldstuck also presented some caution. He highlighted society’s mistrust in autonomous vehicles, with consumers harbouring ethical concerns regarding safety and regulators concerned around liability in freak accident cases.
The dawn of passive peril
Goldstuck’s presentation reveals a world where technological innovation revolutionises society as we know it, while simultaneously revealing subtle nuances of resistance. He likewise notes that such technological innovations stimulate a fear of AI that cannot be ignored.
He coins the term, “the dawn of passive peril”, where norms of doing gradually become redundant and are replaced by machines that assume thinking on society’s behalf. Questions on data ownership and retrieval also arise as information on user behaviour escalates into the cloud, leaving users no option but to accept information privacy as a thing of the past.
This all points back to the idea of ‘an economy of trust’, in which brands need to examine this era of innovation more closely to gain support from weary, change-resistant consumers in an Internet of Things world.
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KIT KAT is taking it to the net for a slam-dunk with a new sponsorship with the National Basketball Association (NBA). In February 2016, the NBA All-Star Game will be held outside the United States for the first time in its 65-year history. Squads representing the Eastern and Western Conferences will tip off at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and KIT KAT is proud to be running a consumer promotion for the event.
The Have an All-Star Break promotion is a national consumer contest running now until December 31 and gives consumers the chance to win a pair of tickets to the NBA All-Star Game, as well as secondary NBA gear prizes.
While watching basketball this season, be sure to Have an All-Star Break with family and friends by enjoying a KIT KAT treat!


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Active safety technology has become a rather common set of core features on new cars, but not at General Motors. GM continues to offer active safety technology for a price, often locked away in expensive trim levels. Meanwhile, drivers with vehicles that do feature the technology have reported very good things.
Consumer Reports conducted a national survey of 72,000 drivers to see if active safety features actually work in the real world. The results speak for themselves: the majority of Americans, 57 percent, said at least one active safety feature prevented a crash while they were driving. Active safety technology includes automatic emergency braking, blind spot warning, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, and more.
Of the technologies, blind spot warning was the most popular. A total of 60 percent in the survey said the system helped avoid a crash. Also nearly above the majority was automatic emergency braking. In the survey, 47 percent of respondents said AEB avoided a collision with another item, car, or pedestrian. Rear automatic emergency braking (available on the Cadillac XT5), was even more popular with 52 percent saying it avoided a crash.
The least popular systems? Lane keep assist and lane departure warning. The two technologies were most often turned off while driving and drivers noted their alerts were often annoying, or correction was too harsh.
All of this said, we do hope GM begins to rival other brands with a standard suite of active safety technology. For an automaker that bets its future on zero crashes, zero congestion, and zero emissions, the lack of standard active safety equipment (especially on Cadillacs) is rather head-scratching.
It appears this will soon change, though. The Cadillac XT6 will be the first GM vehicle to offer a standard automatic emergency braking system. The 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer and its Buick Encore GX cousin will come equipped with even more. Front Pedestrian Braking, Automatic Emergency Braking, as well as Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning will all be standard on the sub-compact-plus crossovers. Further, Adaptive Cruise Control, Rear Park Assist and a High Definition Rear Vision Camera will all be optional.
Source: Consumer Reports


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Tag Archives: Jonathan Blow
Wed, Apr 10, 2013 | 00:21 BST
Two independent developers have said they’ve had a much better experience working with Sony than Microsoft in getting their games into the hands of console gamers.
Tue, Mar 12, 2013 | 16:40 GMT
Mon, Mar 11, 2013 | 14:50 GMT
Braid creator Jonathan Blow has explained why his upcoming game The Witness is releasing as a timed PS4 exclusive. He claims that the nature of Xbox 720 leaks led him to believe that Microsoft’s new rig isn’t just about games any more, while Sony’s renewed focus on gaming felt more appealing.
Fri, Feb 22, 2013 | 02:01 GMT
Thu, Feb 21, 2013 | 02:32 GMT
Jonathan Blow took the stage at tonight’s PS4 event, and he showed off his new project, which will be a timed exclusive for the platform.
Tue, Feb 05, 2013 | 21:50 GMT
Independent developer Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid and the upcoming Witness, has said developing for Linux in its current form is unfeasible thanks to a 20% “productivity drain”. Posting on YCombinator, Blow said that he is keen on Linux in theory, but that debugging is just too laborious. Linux has been a hot topic recently, with more developers – including Valve – factoring in support for the open-source operating system.
Tue, Aug 14, 2012 | 04:49 BST
Braid and The Witness creator Jonathan Blow has called on developers to consider the consequences of gaming’s impact on broader culture.
Sat, Feb 25, 2012 | 18:59 GMT
Wed, Nov 30, 2011 | 22:33 GMT
Indie Game: The Movie, a feature documentary about “video games, their creators and the craft,” will make its world premiere as an official selection in World Documentary Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Wed, Sep 28, 2011 | 20:18 BST
Jonathan Blow has said his next project, The Witness, will only be made available on PC and iOS due to consoles being a bit outdated.
Thu, Jul 07, 2011 | 02:23 BST
GDC Europe 2011 organisers have announced three more high-profile talks for the mid-August event.
Thu, May 19, 2011 | 19:01 BST
The University of California Santa Cruz is holding a guest speaker session, which will be hosted by indie developers Jonathan Blow, Chris Hecker and Alex Neuse.
Sat, Feb 19, 2011 | 18:33 GMT
Wed, Feb 16, 2011 | 03:19 GMT
Braid creator and indie darling Jonathan Blow has explained his labelling of social network games like Farmville and Ravenwood Fair as evil, citing selfishness and disarmingly innocent design as crimes against the player.
Thu, Jan 13, 2011 | 11:01 GMT
A NeoGAF user is reporting that Sony has the abillity to ban hacked PS3s without online access.
Thu, Jan 13, 2011 | 06:47 GMT
When hacker George (Geohot) Hotz was served with a temporary restraining order early in the evening of January 11, he had to have a good idea what was coming. So too must the other defendants on the stark legal papers prepared by Sony Computer Entertainment’s legal team – Hector Cantero, Sven Peter and 100 yet-to-be-named persons. One does not thumb their nose at mega-corporations lightly.
After a torrid fortnight, where PlayStation 3’s system security – namely its ability to determine whether code running is legitimate or not – has been laid bare by hacker group fail0verflow, Sony’s finally made its move.
Here, VG247 presents a report breaking down the the implications of the PS3 hack, what’s come already, what’s happening now, and who the real losers are in this complete fiasco.
Fri, Oct 22, 2010 | 13:24 BST
Braid creator Jonathan Blow has asked gamers to “have faith” in his next game The Witness, following a very early showing at PAX last month.
Mon, Mar 01, 2010 | 04:22 GMT
Sat, Dec 12, 2009 | 18:24 GMT
Game Developers Conference organizers announced today that Naughty Dog and Double Fine will both provide presentations at GDC 2010.
Five different lectures pertaining to Uncharted 2 and its production will be given by Naughty Dog at the conference, one by director Bruce Straley and co-lead designer Neil Druckmann discussing story and gameplay integration, and the second known presentation will be from art directors Robh Ruppel and Erick Pangilinan discussing the artsy end.
Double Fine’s lead programmer Peter Demoreuille and technical/VFX artist Drew Skillman will discuss visual design for Brutal Legend, and it was also announced that Jonathan Blow will discuss the programming behind Braid.
The conference takes place March 9-13 in San Fransisco, with more speakers and events to be announced.
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 | 01:35 GMT
It would appear that Jonathan Blow, the time-defying mind behind Braid, is looking to set a new project into motion. Over on the official Braid blog, Blow’s hoping to hire a programmer to “do very interesting work with full-body motion tracking.”
When asked by Joystiq if motion controls were being applied to his previously announced new project, The Witness, Blow was only able to say that he “can’t talk about this right now,” and added that “it may not even actually happen (depending on whether I can find someone qualified to do it!).”
So there we are.


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For brands to succeed today, they need to find ways to address the challenges women face. Making up half of the population, women are key influencers across the globe. And the reality is that women still shoulder most of the household responsibilities.
While podcasts may be the latest asset in the marketer’s arsenal, the old adage holds true: You can’t monitor what you don’t measure.
The only thing consistent about the media industry is change. Media fragmentation is the new norm. People are constantly modifying what media they consume, how they consume it and when they consume it. Currency data is critical to understanding the engagement of these audiences through reach and...
For this special report, in collaboration with Leaders, a global sports business organization, Nielsen Sports has focused on the social media endorsement power—and potential—of a younger generation of global athletes.
Consumer spending in the grocery sector continues to slow, with sales declining to -1.6% in the most recent four weeks, in the context of the 2018 bumper spring, this spring has been tougher for supermarkets.
TV remains the largest UK advertising channel for automotive brands, with a 6% rise in advertising spend in the 52 weeks to end of February 2019 in comparison to the previous year. However, cinema experienced the largest uplift, with a 14% increase in spend to £31m from £27m in the previous year.
Nielsen Ad Intel data shows that over the last five years, there has been a significant reduction in the number of advertisers in the top five advertising categories. In Entertainment & Leisure, advertisers have dropped from 28k to 18k; Finance from 6k to 5k; Food from 2k to 1k; Auto down from 7k...
With the flexibility to reallocate budget across select platforms, Tempo OMD used Digital Ad Ratings’ overnight reporting to identify optimisation opportunities.
In today’s crowded car market, auto advertisers are hard-pressed to connect with consumers, encourage new sales, and do it all under shrinking budgets. It’s a steep challenge, and one that can only be met with a full understanding of how consumers shop for cars and how they react to automotive...
It’s well known across the media landscape that consumers in the U.S. are connecting with more content across more devices than ever before. But as an industry, we have not tapped into the truly unique opportunities presented by this increased consumption at the same pace as consumers.


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Apple is widely expected to launch new iPhone models at an event at the company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters this evening.
To celebrate the event, the Techradar team have created a quiz for all iPhone fans.
How many of the 20 questions can you get right from the history of the iconic smartphone?
The answers will be published in a video at the end of the week.
The video is a Future Publishing production.


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Deep Chand Dialysis
NephroPlus raises $15 mn from SeaLink Capital, IFC
Dialysis chain NephroPlus Health Services Pvt. Ltd said on Wednesday it has raised Rs 100 crore (nearly $15 million) from ......
Deep Chand Dialysis in advanced stages of talks to raise up to $20M
Delhi-based Deep Care Health Pvt Ltd which runs dialysis centres under its brand Deep Chand Dialysis Centre (DCDC) is in ......
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Microsoft buys eSports platform vendor Smash.gg
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- JPMorgan has initiated a new base case for the US-China trade war: tariffs on all trade flowing between the two countries.
- "A full-blown trade war becomes our new base case scenario for 2019," a note from analysts including Pedro Martins Junior and Rajiv Batra said.
- This, alongside domestic factors, could push Chinese stocks lower.
JPMorgan thinks the Trump administration is likely to proceed with tariffs on all Chinese goods sent to the US by the end of next year, according to an analysis published this week. If the prediction comes true, it could spell trouble for Chinese stock markets.
"We now assume US-China trade war enters Phase III in 2019, resulting in tariffs on all +$500bn of imports from China," the note, by analysts including Pedro Martins Junior and Rajiv Batra, said.
So far, the Trump administration has placed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, affecting more than 5,000 products. The president has said he is willing to "go to 500" — a colloquial term for placing tariffs on all US imports from China.
Observers have started to take that threat seriously after Trump escalated the dispute with his latest levies, which the US applied to $200 billion of Chinese goods.
"The $200bn tariff on Chinese imports and retaliatory tariffs on $60bn of US imports are in place," JPMorgan wrote. "There is no clear sign of mitigating confrontation between China and the US in the near term."
JPMorgan now has tariffs on all trade between the two countries as its "base case" — meaning the bank believes it to be the most likely outcome.
As a result, JPMorgan downgraded its outlook for Chinese stocks to neutral from overweight. The bank thinks the trade war will have a negative impact on China's economy and, as a result, hit stocks.
"Total impact on China's GDP growth is 1.0%, if China does not take countermeasures," the team wrote, continuing:
"The direct impact (-0.3%) is mainly via the hit on China's exports to the US (both price and volume effects), while China's imports would also decline as foreign content accounts for about one-third of China's gross exports (importing intermediary products for the purpose of exporting). The indirect impact is via consumption (-0.2%), investment (-0.5%) and sentiment (-0.4%). Higher tariffs are squeezing Chinese manufacturing's profit margin, reducing the investment incentive and hiring, which would then drag on consumption via reduced income."
Assuming both the US and China place tariffs of 25% on all imports, the hit to earnings of companies included on the MSCI China Index would be 2.6 percentage points, with growth slowing to 12.3% from 15%.
"China sectors such as energy, IT and industrials will be most impacted based on our analysis, while sectors such as real estate, insurance, diversified financials, telecom and utilities generate virtually no revenue from the U.S," the team wrote.
JPMorgan said that while the trade war was its biggest factor in downgrading Chinese stocks from overweight to neutral, it was not the sole reason.
The lender also listed a "higher equity risk premium due to risk aversion and increasing government activism," further Chinese yuan depreciation, and "uncertainty in China's reform agenda" as possible drivers of negativity in the Chinese stock market.
JPMorgan is reducing its end-of-year target for the MSCI China in 2018 to 85 from 95 and reducing exposure to financials to mitigate any risks.


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Performance materials provider $APD said it will increase prices globally for process materials and advanced materials supplied by its Electronics business effective immediately or as contracts permit. These price increases are necessary to recover increasing raw materials, production costs and R&D activities among others.
The latest earnings report by $VZ shows how it is losing customers despite offering the unlimited data plans, a record for the company.
$BEBE is closing down all its stores by the end of May.
$WFC agreed to hike its payout in a class-action settlement over unauthorized accounts by $32 million to $142 million for its retail sales practices. The settlement will now include customers who were impacted as early as May 2002.


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Wreckless 2 in the works
Xbox racer gets a sequel.
More than three years after the original game was released, Microsoft has revealed that an Xbox sequel to Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions is currently in development.
Double S.T.E.A.L.: The Second Clash (the first game was published under the Double S.T.E.A.L. name in Japan) is set in Chicago, and features familiar characters such as coppers Madoka and Mai and Yakuza bigwig Tiger Tagaki.
It seems Takagi has been forced to leave Hong Kong following a US extradition order, and is now preparing to face charges in the windy city. But he manages to break out of jail and hook up with some old Yakuza friends, leading them on a violent crime spree right across town.
It's down to Madoka and Mei to bring Takagi down, pursuing him through the Chicago streets in any one of up to thirty vehicles - including patrol cars, tanks and bombers. Most of the cars will feature a turbo boost function, too.
As well as the single-player mode a split-screen two-player game is rumoured, but no Xbox Live functionality is currently planned other than the option to check your scores against other players. There are also around 30 mini-games and free-roaming and off-road racing options.
The game is being developed by Bunkasha Games and the same team which brought us the first Wreckless. Bunkasha has also hinted that a next-gen title is in the works, but won't reveal for which platform.
Wreckless was initially developed for Xbox before being ported over to PS2 and GameCube, and at present the sequel is an Xbox-only title. It's out in Japan on August 4 but Microsoft has yet to reveal if it'll make it to Europe - we'll keep you updated.


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Results 21 - 40 of 939
Steve Wozniak To Keynote The Freescale Technology Forum In Austin June 22-25
(Saturday, June 06, 2015 12:30:00 PM IST)
Alps Electric To Exhibit At Sensors Expo & Conference
(Friday, June 05, 2015 10:20:00 AM IST)
The Future Of ICT And Broadcasting Unveiled At CommunicAsia2015, EnterpriseIT2015 And BroadcastAsia2015
(Wednesday, June 03, 2015 3:20:00 AM IST)
NEPCON China 2015 A Resounding Success In Shanghai
(Saturday, May 30, 2015 12:56:59 PM IST)
LED Expo 2015 Witnesses Record Number Of Visitors In Mumbai
(Thursday, May 28, 2015 2:56:12 PM IST)
CES Asia Set To Welcome Audiences To Premier Technology Event In Shanghai
(Sunday, May 24, 2015 6:00:00 AM IST)
Hoffmann-Krippner To Roll Out New Sensor Technologies At Sensors Expo
(Thursday, May 21, 2015 4:00:00 AM IST)
Epicor Announces Series Of EMEA Insights Customer Events
(Tuesday, April 28, 2015 4:00:00 PM IST)
Xiaomi To Launch Mi 4i At ‘Global Mi Phone Premiere’?
(Wednesday, April 22, 2015 2:35:54 PM IST)
Xiaomi has already released a tweet with the teaser image of the invite for the much-awaited event
Vodafone Launches Customer Education Campaign ‘M-Power'
(Monday, March 23, 2015 4:05:32 PM IST)
Company to educate customers on leveraging mobile technology
TCS IT Quiz For Engineering Students Set To Begin From 14 March
(Thursday, March 05, 2015 2:30:18 PM IST)
This quiz is a campus outreach programme that aims to offer better understanding of IT to students.
MWC 2015 Round-Up: What's In Store From Sony, Asus, LG And Lenovo!
(Thursday, February 26, 2015 1:05:26 PM IST)
What's actually true and what's not we will get to know in a week's time from now. So stay tuned.
Here's What You Can Expect From Microsoft's 'The Next Chapter' Event!
(Wednesday, January 21, 2015 12:40:18 PM IST)
Apart from Windows 10 preview for mobiles, tablets and PCs, it's also expected that Microsoft will introduce a phone-laptop hybrid and single Windows app store at the event.
Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit To Focus On Drones, IoT And SDN
(Monday, January 12, 2015 1:52:34 PM IST)
All these major topics will set the tone how open source technologies will be evolved throughout 2015.
Now Indian App Developers Get A Chance To Showcase Talent Via Micromax YU Contest
(Saturday, December 06, 2014 5:00:23 PM IST)
The contest has been named YU Developers Challenge and it has been announced at DroidCon India in Bangalore.
LED Expo 2014 Lets Explore Indian Market By 200 Companies
(Saturday, December 06, 2014 11:30:54 AM IST)
The exhibition is a three-day event which has been organised by Messe Frankfurt.
Western India's Only Electronics Expo Begins Today In Mumbai
(Wednesday, November 26, 2014 10:42:16 AM IST)
The three-day expo, is targeted to electronics manufacturing companies, design engineers, traders and companies with innovative electronic products.
Microsoft Invites Media At 26 November Event, Likely To Launch Lumia 535
(Saturday, November 22, 2014 3:04:46 PM IST)
The media invite reads, "Five days to magic of triple 5." The invite is an excellent hint that it will be “5x5x5” - or Microsoft Lumia 535.
Open Source Has Major Role In Data Center Transformation
(Thursday, November 13, 2014 11:20:35 AM IST)
Data Center Summit in Singapore sheds light on how open source has benefited the development of data centers.
Open Source India 2014 Kickstarts In Bengaluru Today!
Result Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 Next
(Friday, November 07, 2014 9:49:20 AM IST)
The two-day event will feature 9 Tracks, 8 workshops and 40+ speakers talking about some of the latest technologies.


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Image Source: Getty / Michael Buckner / Contributor
Sydney Sweeney is going back to her roots. On Nov. 17, the actor attended the GQ Spain Men of the Year Awards with a new hair color in tow. In recent years, Sweeney has become well-known for her now-signature blond hair, so this fresh look marks a new era for the star.
According to a post on her Instagram Story, she wanted to go back to her natural color: a warm-toned brown that's perfectly on trend with the newly popular "winter gold" hair color that's taking over Hollywood. The color was done by celebrity hairstylist Glen Coco Oropeza. Though she had the darker hue for most of her childhood, this is the first time she's worn it since becoming a household name thanks to her role on HBO's "Euphoria."
Like the "expensive brunette" trend from the summer, "winter gold" is particularly well-suited for dark hair. It incorporates gold for the hair's undertone, rather than red or chocolate, for instance, so the end result is somewhere between a classic brunette and a glossy ombré. Take a closer look at Sweeney's hair below.
Image Source: Getty / Carlos Alvarez / Contributor


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China Returns to U.S. IPO Market in Big Way With ZTO ExpressBy
Delivery company’s $1.4 billion sale biggest in U.S. this year
More than 800 are on waiting list to go public in China
ZTO Express Inc., the Chinese delivery service that gets about three-quarters of its business from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is following its top customer to the U.S. stock market with this year’s biggest initial public offering.
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U.S. Auto Sales Fall Short as Pace Drops to Slowest in 13 MonthsBy and
GM, Ford gains miss estimates while Toyota has surprise drop
Annualized rate of 16.6 million follows record 2015 volume
For the past couple of years, automakers have helped keep the economy going as confident consumers raced to replace their aging rides with more luxurious cars and sport utility vehicles. That torrid growth is starting to level off.
All three U.S. automakers posted sales gains that missed analysts’ estimates in March, while Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. reported a surprise decline. The annualized rate adjusted for seasonal trends fell to 16.6 million, the lowest in 13 months, according to researcher Autodata Corp. The average analyst estimate was for a pace of 17.3 million, up from 17.1 million last March.
Sales fell sharply even as some automakers are starting to spend more on sales incentives than they did last year and some are extending longer-term loans, making it more clear that executives are no longer counting on rip-roaring demand. It also brings the industry more into line with an economy that has been logging steady but not stellar growth.
“It certainly is a comedown from the sales pace of last year,” said Mark Wakefield, a managing partner at consulting firm Alix Partners who predicts industrywide sales may rise about 2 percent from 2015’s record. “We’re into that normal rate of employment where we’re no longer trying to get a lot of people back to work.”
Automakers spent an average of $3,110 on incentives per vehicle sold last month, 14 percent more than a year earlier and up slightly from February, according to Autodata, which is based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. The car companies have boosted discounts each month this year, and consumers didn’t respond as much in March.
“There are some reasons for concern for sure,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with Kelley Blue Book, an automotive-price research firm in Irvine, California. “We’re seeing more incentives and longer loan terms. I’m a little concerned that some consumers could be overextending themselves.”
Consumer confidence in the U.S. dipped slightly in March -- a third straight decline -- as concerns persisted that the world’s largest economy will cool. That sentiment may shift after Friday’s jobs report showed climbing U.S. employment and a pickup in wages.
Even with relatively cheap gasoline stoking consumers’ demand for SUVs and pickups, General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV all fell short of sales estimates for the month. The shares of all three companies declined, led by a 4.1 percent drop at Fiat Chrysler.
The sales report “plays into the idea that with 2015 being a record year, maybe we’re set up to start peaking a little bit in terms of consumer demand,” said Kevin Tynan, auto analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence.
Light-vehicle sales rose 3.2 percent to 1.6 million, according to Autodata, helped by two more sales days than in March 2015.
- Ford’s light-vehicle sales -- excluding its heavy trucks -- rose 7.8 percent to 253,064, topping GM’s 252,128. Ford was helped by selling more cars to corporate and rental fleet customers.
- GM’s increase was less than 1 percent, far short of the projected 6 percent, as it pulled back on sales of low-margin cars to rental fleets.
- Fiat Chrysler’s U.S. sales rose 8.1 percent in March, on the strength of Jeep sport utility vehicles and Ram pickups. The company’s car sales fell 34 percent.
- Toyota was expected to post a 5.6 percent gain, but sales fell 2.7 percent.
- Honda Motor Co. missed the forecast of a 16.1 percent increase, rising 9.4 percent.
- Nissan Motor Co. was an exception, with a 13 percent sales gain that beat expectations. Its deliveries reached 163,559 cars and light trucks, the Japanese automaker said in a statement Friday.
- Volkswagen AG’s namesake brand dropped 10 percent, declining for a fifth straight month after regulators revealed in September that it cheated on engine tests.
Changes in the way consumers are buying vehicles suggest more people are stretching payments out to make them more affordable. There was an increase in March in the number of people buying cars with six-year loans.
Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting for LMC Automotive, was closer than other analysts to forecasting the month’s softer sales. He cautioned that the market and the economy are still pretty strong and that one month doesn’t mean there will be a decline.
“I think we will see slower growth rates and more volatility for the rest of the year,” Schuster said. While automakers now face tough comparisons to strong months in 2015, demand is still healthy and “it’s nothing to get alarmed about. All eyes will be on April sales.”
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City Center Bishop Ranch is hosting a holiday celebration featuring Kristi Yamaguchi’s Holiday Ice Rink from November 11-January 8, as well as a Tree Lighting Ceremony on December 1 at 6:00pm. Those interested in booking their own holiday event at City Center can contact email@example.com.
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Celebrate the Holidays at City Center Bishop Ranch! Kristi Yamaguchi Holiday Ice Rink will be open from Nov 11 – Jan 08. Join us for our Tree Lighting Ceremony on Dec 01 at 6:00 pm. Book your holiday event at City Center! Contact firstname.lastname@example.org for more information.
Note: This is raw text and might not be accurate. Check any websites, phone numbers, etc. before using them.


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As of April 16, 2020, the SBA announced all appropriations for the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan were exhausted. Small business owners are now in need of COVID-19 relief funding alternatives.
Below is a list of some COVID-19 funding options that are still available.
SBA Express Bridge Loans (EBL)
Eligibility: Small businesses that currently have a business relationship with an SBA Express Lender.
Loan Amount: Up to $25,000.
Purpose: Support for small businesses experiencing a temporary loss of revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic. The SBA Express Bridge Loans […]


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Late Show: Matthew McConaughey's Wild Turkey ads spoofed
Stephen Colbert will not be “out authentic-ed” by Matthew McConaughey and his millennial-targeted Wild Turkey campaign, which is why the Late Show host started his own endorsement of Savage Cock alcohol.
McConaughey recently became the creative director and “storyteller” for the bourbon brand. By writing, directing, and composing music for new TV spots, his goal is to broaden the appeal of Wild Turkey to a larger audience.
“Matthew’s promoting Wild Turkey. In response I have signed on to write, direct, key grip, intern for, and craft service my own ad campaign for Savage Cock, 190 proof grain alcohol,” Colbert joked. “Y’all down with the Cock?”
Colbert also starred in his own spoof ad for the liquor, in which he said, “If we millennials hate anything, it’s solicitation. We don’t take kindly to being told what to buy or who to buy from. It’s why we wear clothes that look like they’ve been stolen from the grave of an Irish immigrant. And that’s why we drink Savage Cock.”
Watch the spoof in the video above.