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Solve Media: BOT usage on the up with fraudsters
New data out from Solve Media shows the use of BOTS continues to increase, with usage spiking around the globe during Q4 2012. According to the report the increase in shopping and advertising activities during the 2012 holiday shopping season led to the increase in usage.
"Through our proven security solutions, we are working to eradicate the bot scourge that is impacting all digital publishers and advertisers," said Ari Jacoby, CEO, Solve Media. "In Q4 we found that bots cost marketers at least $1 billion in display advertising and more than $2 billion in digital advertising investments - a considerable loss that impairs return on investment calculations. With Solve Media, brands are guaranteed memorable engagements with consumers and brand lift, on a performance-basis."
Some takeaways from the Solve Media report include:
• Suspicious activity spiked from 26% (Q3) to 40% (Q4)
• 25% of 'suspicious activity' resulted from BOTS
• Spammers-acting-like-BOTS activity is growing
• In the UAE, suspicious activity increased to 64% (Q4) and to 32% in the US (Q4)
"Solve Media is bridging the gap between the security and advertising communities, " said Chris Wysopal, CTO of Veracode and a member of Solve Media's Security Advisory Council. "Advertising to non-humans is simply ineffective and publishers who have taken a proactive stance against bot traffic are to be commended."
To help better understand what BOTS are doing, Solve Media has categorized them by color - Green BOTS are used for research, Yellow are used by spammers, Orange are sophisticated fraud bots and Red are harmful bots used to steal identities and spread viruses.
- Poor mobile connectivity costing UK retailers 1.2 billion pounds
- Multi-tasking costing UK marketing industry 44 million days of productivity every year
- Expert: How to use events as lead-gen
- Study: Brands keen on cross-channel but falling short
- Fraudlogix IDs 'least fraudulent' sites
- Are you EMV-ready? If not, it could prove costly.
- Who are the ad blockers and why are they blocking?
- Expert: EMV switch may not stop fraud
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Two of shipping’s highest-profile cyber attacks offer lessons in preparation says editor Martyn Wingrove
Cyber attacks can take shipping companies back to the digital Stone Age in one fell swoop. The recovery, however may not be so swift.
Last week’s cyber attack on COSCO Shipping Lines' North American operations offers a good example of a quick recovery.
On 27 July, COSCO reported a cyber attack that brought down its email system and disrupted telephone communications at its customer service centre near Los Angeles in the US.
The Chinese state-owned shipping and logistics company quickly discovered the origin of the attack, at the Port of Long Beach container terminal, and kept the malware that caused the attack physically isolated.
By doing so, COSCO managed to prevent the malware from spreading to the company’s shipping and berthing operations. Soon after, the company restored all communication channels including telephone, email and its electronic data exchange.
On 31 July, just four days after its onset, COSCO reported a full recovery from the cyber attack.
Still, while COSCO’s attack response timeline is impressive, losing four days of normal business operations to a cyber attack is not insignificant.
COSCO was reportedly working at full stretch to process service requests. At the Long Beach container terminal – the attack’s ground zero – the business emergency required employees to rely on an external Yahoo email service to conduct operations.
Comparatively, though, those employees were lucky. Just over a year earlier, a virus that hit container shipping giant AP Møller-Maersk forced the line’s tanker division to resort to pen and paper to keep the business afloat.
It looks likely that COSCO could escape its attack with a minimal cost impact, too, when compared to the Maersk attack.

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“There are great opportunities here”
The UK’s new HFSS rules will place media and promotional restrictions on “unhealthy” products. Volume promotions, such as the purchase of a free item and two-for-one offers, will no longer be allowed for these items. A ban will come into effect on HFSS products placed in secondary promotional locations in stores, such as end-of-aisle displays, store entrances and checkouts. The marketing of HFSS SKUs will no longer be authorized in digital television and pre-watershed.
âThese new rules will mean a huge change in the way UK retailers operate. I’ve heard that this is the government’s biggest influence on what we eat since the post-war rationing,“Observed IRI strategic consultant Joe Harriman.
IRI estimates that the changes put Â£ 1.1bn in sales at risk per year.
When assessing the impact this might have on brands, it should first be noted that the rules only apply to certain categories. Soft drinks, chocolate, sweets, breakfast cereals, yogurts, sweetened milk drinks, juices with added sugars, ice cream, morning products, puddings and dairy desserts, and sweet cookies will be all governed by the new rules.
If a product falls into one of these categories, the nutrient profile template will be used to rank whether the SKUs are HFSS or not. This is a scoring system that assigns points for energy, fat, sugar and sodium and subtracts points for the content of fruits and vegetables, nuts, fiber and protein. A food product with four or more points is considered HFSS, for a drink it is just one point.
âAs the policy targets certain categories and products, it will naturally present different challenges and opportunities for brands. Some will be hit hard. Look at products like crispy snacks, sugar confectionery and chocolate where 97% of the products are classified as HFSS â,Harriman noted.
Winners and losers in the battle for the shelf
Estimating the additional sales generated for HFSS products by promotions and display campaigns can give some idea of ââwhat is at stake. Chocolate, according to IRI calculations, is at risk of losing the most.
âChocolate is the most impacted category. Sweets and chocolate have a similar number of SKUs impactedâ¦ however, 14% of chocolate sales are expected to be lost compared to 5% of confectionery. This is because the chocolate gains more additional sales by being on display or by doing volume promotions â,Harriman revealed.
Across all HFSS categories, IRI predicts that approximately 5% of sales are âat riskâ.
On the other side of the coin, Harriman claimed that certain categories and brands “would gain a bargain.” Currently, HFSS products occupy 38% of in-store display space. IRI predicts that figure will drop to 12% when the regulations go into effect. With 26% space up for grabs, this opens up opportunities for categories and non-HFSS products that fall below the HFSS threshold to increase in-store visibility.
“Non-HFSS categories may have more premium space in the store because HFSS products are forced to become available”,Harriman predicted. âHealthier products in the HFSS categories may not have any competition in the category for display space, so it’s good for them. Retailers will be looking to add healthy products to their line-up, so manufacturers with a unique offering in a healthy category could benefit. “
But that’s not all good news for âhealthyâ products. With retailers indicating that they will make changes to the way they allocate space, it will become even more difficult to secure shelf sharing. “It will be even more important for brands and categories to justify storage space â,he suggested.
In particular, as HFSS products are moved out of promotional areas, they will likely take up more aisle space, suggested IRI and Tech chief analyst Thomas Hall. “The alley will become a real battlefield. Retailers plan to increase space for HFSS categories â,he revealed. More space will be needed, he continued, because exhibition spaces are not only used to increase visibility, they are used for storage.
Hall pointed to the growing popularity of âpower aisles,â suggesting: “This will be the domain of a tremendous amount of activity.”
Who will this space be taken from? “It will either come from small brands, which will be kicked out, or other categories that are not HFSS.”
Hall also highlighted the opportunity for âhealth category leadersâ within HFSS categories and those who are able to reformulate to benefit. For example: âA number of ice cream products are very close to the limit and a few grams of sugar, a few calories, add fruit or nuts and you could get a lot of ice cream products below the threshold that you would promote. “
Reformulation is a strategy that manufacturers are considering in response to HFSS regulations. Hall then highlighted two additional areas: increasing imports of foreign brands and mergers and acquisitions. “People are looking to buy products from overseas and acquire smaller businesses with healthier products.”
The “lasting” impact on the NPD and marketing
“The lasting legacy on this subject will be its impact on the NDP”,Hall predicts. âWe know that 91% of products fail within one year to 18 months. You have to make sure that your NPDs don’t break down.
Currently, 16% of all new products receive display and marketing support within the first four weeks of launch. Without it, it will be difficult to gain the attention of consumers. âIt won’t be allowed for HFSS products, so we need to have a new launch strategy. If I was a retailer, why would I take a product and put it on a shelf without advertising and not being able to be put on a secondary display? How will customers know he’s there? “
The new marketing restrictions will affect the ability of HFSS products to market themselves to consumers. However, there is an important exemption, according to David Wright, IRI’s senior effectiveness consultant.
“Branded advertisements will be permitted online and on television provided there are no identifiable HFSS products in such advertisements.”he explained. This means that by promoting a main brand, portfolios can benefit from a halo lift.
This opportunity will have a different impact on different brands, with those that already have a high profile being the best placed. “We expect the strongest brands to make more use of their distinctive strengths and manufacturer associations to maximize this halo impact.”
While the new restrictions present a serious challenge for manufacturers of HFSS products, Hall stressed that effective range, portfolio and innovation strategies can also open up new opportunities.
âThere’s a lot of negativity around what we’re going to lose and how less effective advertising could be. But for many there are great opportunities here. “


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In the current controversy over the loot boxes has yet to subside, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds recently add loot boxes more. With a growing number of these boxes, do will be crushed like PUBG Star Wars Battlefront 2?
With increasingly hectic controversies against the loot box, developers will certainly be more careful in this mysterious box distributes. Certainly, they don't want to fall into the same hole with Star Wars Battlefront 2. Add loot boxes on PUBG, BlueHole jaminkan it will not ruin the flow of the game.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds currently provides access to its players to buy a number of loot box using their money. Content that is obtained is a variety of cosmetic items, such as clothes. To this day, none of the content that can improve statistics for the player character.
Of course, fear the players will act to BlueHole pinned items can improve a player's statistics are haunting. This sounded reasonable given currently many games that use the formula. Wanted guns with above average performance? The answer always leads to loot boxes.
With the decision to add BlueHole loot box into PUBG, this fear is getting into. BlueHole itself, guarantee, and they will never enter an item that can be influential into the Groove of the game, including such exclusive weapon or armor.
Through the interview session at the G-Star event, Changhan Kim and Choi Junhyuk calls they receive the request to add cosmetic items in PUBG. Through this request, loot boxes made options according to their most logical. Additionally the BlueHole will keep adding cosmetics into a loot box after 1.0 is released.
Now, Kim and Choi is still trying to resist the cheater who run rampant in the game. They stated that the number of cheaters in the battlefield far exceeded their estimates. To handle this problem, Kim and Choi should add a special team to handle the players who cheat.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will come out of the early access in December, and the XBOX version One will be released through the XBOX Game Preview on December 12.


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Last year, online sales of mobile phones worldwide increased by about 6% compared to 2019. The growth, which has been affected by the coronavirus epidemic, is likely to continue in emerging markets with a middle-aged population.
According to the research company «CounterpointOnline sales in the global mobile market in 2020 had a share of 26%. This means that one in four mobile phones sold last year was sold online. The Covid-19 epidemic had a significant impact on this. India, the United Kingdom and China accounted for the largest share of online sales, with 45%, 39% and 34% of their handsets sold online, respectively.
The share of online sales of phones in total has increased by about 6% compared to 2019. The volume of this market also increased by more than 10% compared to the same period last year. This trend was strong not only in developed markets such as the United States and Europe, but also in developing markets such as India and Latin America.
This trend intensified in China, the country that first saw the outbreak of the coronavirus, initially in the first six months of the year but calmed down in the second six months of the year. However, online market share in the US and India hit a record high in the second half of 2020.
Counterpoint predicts that the trend of increasing online market share will probably slow down for a while, and this year we will have to wait for conditions like last year or even a little weaker. “After the rapid growth of the market in 2020, we expect to see more calm in 2021 after the corona vaccination,” said Sujung Lim, the company’s chief analyst. “However, the situation is expected to increase from 2022 onwards, thanks to the growth of the market in developing countries and the greater tendency of the middle-aged population to use IT and the Internet.”
“But in the case of India, which currently has the largest share of the online market, we may see a decline after 2022 due to the development of offline infrastructure, including department stores and multi-brands,” Lim added. “However, the future growth of online markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa will be significant.”


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Embedded World sees platforms to speed IoT development
March 1, 2016
As the IoT and M2M start to approach the mass roll-out stage, many companies are looking for help to add connectivity to their products. As such, last week’s Embedded World in Nuremberg saw introductions of IoT development kits, including announcements from Telit, Renesas, Avnet and IAR Systems.
A good example was Telit, which previewed at the show the EVK4 IoT evaluation kit that is due to be launched in April.
“This is aimed at people who are just starting out,” said John Keever, CTO for Telit’s IoT platform. “This can be used with standard products such as the Raspberry Pi and so on. It is a plug-in board that takes a development board and cellularises it. It has an array of sensors.”
He said the aim was to “make it as easy as possible” to become one of the predicted 50 million connections.
“If someone does want to make a device, we want to make it very easy for them to do it fast,” said Keever. “This is aimed from colleges and universities right up to professionals, so they don’t have to start with a blank piece of silicon. They can use the Raspberry Pi to do the early design and then use this to get them connected. Or they can take our board and integrate into a module.”
German company Avnet Memec-Silica launched the Visible Things platform for developing IoT systems and applications. Targeting a wide range of industrial markets, this flexible evaluation and development platform is for edge-to-enterprise IoT projects. It delivers tested, proven, secure and integrated hardware and embedded software to connect smart sensors and embedded devices via gateways or low-power wide-area networking technologies (LPWAN), right through to the cloud and enterprise software applications.
“It has all the hardware with embedded software and enterprise software to connect from smart sensors right through to the cloud and enterprise software,” said John Jones, Avnet’s director of innovation. “It is designed as an out-of-box experience. It can be set up in a minute.”
Though there are many IoT development platforms, Jones said this was different in that it used best-of-class technology right the way through.
“Some have a headline part but the rest from the ecosystem is not always best in class,” he said. “This also works as a demo tool that our customers can take to their customers. It is designed as close to the end application as we can, so it is a small step to move to an end product.”
The platform supports short-range connectivity to a gateway, and Wifi, 3G and 4G cellular communications to the cloud and enterprise software applications. It also supports the Sigfox and LoRaWAN IoT networks.
Japanese giant Renesas was plugging its Synergy platform for IoT design. Though originally announced in June last year, with a public beta in October, the first version of the package was not made generally available until January this year. At Embedded World, it added more devices for the platform and a preview version of the second generation of the software.
Renesas also announced a collaboration with Swedish company IAR Systems, a provider of embedded development tools. The announcement concerned the IAR Embedded Workbench development toolchain, which has been integrated with Synergy to create what is called EWarm-RS.
“The complexity is getting out of line,” said Stefan Skarin, CEO of IAR Systems. “This means companies are losing time for innovation to manage the complexity.”
The Synergy platform provides developers with immediate access to a complete embedded platform comprised of a real-time operating system and software, scalable ARM Cortex-M based microcontrollers (MCUs) and now all the features of Embedded Workbench. Developers gain access to all these elements with click-through licensing on the Synergy Gallery web site.
Renesas announced that in April this year a beta programme will start based on Synergy and that provides heightened security capabilities to OEMs who build devices connecting to the IoT. The Synergy DLM device lifecycle management consists of security MCUs plus the associated software and tools enabling OEMs to protect their software IP from theft and cloning during manufacture, to inhibit counterfeit products, and to ensure authenticity when deploying secure remote firmware updates to end products already in the field that use Synergy MCUs.
“We all know the importance of security,” said Ali Sebt (pictured), senior vice president for Renesas. “We have developed an end-to-end, birth-to-death system that ensures the system is not compromised.”


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Kount Named as Finalist at The Payment and Retail Fraud Awards 201609-Aug-2016
Boise, ID 09/08/2016 – Kount, a leading innovator of solutions for fraud and risk management, has today announced that it has been recognised as a finalist for Anti-Fraud/Security Solution/Initiative of the Year at the Payments and Retail Systems Awards.
Kount have been shortlisted at the Payments Awards for a fourth consecutive year, having won the competition in each of the past three years. In recognition of its industry-acclaimed partnership with Ethoca, Kount have also been shortlisted for Most Innovative Online Product and Best Collaborative Solution at the UK Retail Fraud Awards.
Organised by FS Tech and Retail Systems, The Payment Awards celebrates the most outstanding payments solutions, initiatives and projects implemented in the past year. Kount’s nomination is in recognition of their work with a leading online travel retailer. Partnering with Kount allowed the retailer to:
- Increase sales from 72% to 84% with no increase in fraud
- Reduce manual reviews from 5% to 1%
- Go from declining around 25% of all transactions to a near 100% acceptance rate
- Maintain a 0.3% chargeback rate
The Retail Fraud Awards showcases outstanding individual and team performances, innovative new products and winning industry strategies in retail fraud and loss prevention. The judges have deemed that Kount’s ground-breaking partnership with Ethoca, announced in May this year, excels in each of these criteria.
For the first time, merchants now have an automated, all-in-one fraud prevention solution that combines Kount’s powerful, multi-dimensional fraud tools with Ethoca’s notification of confirmed fraud that occurs immediately after authorization or settlement.
The Retail Systems Awards recognises technology excellence and innovation within the retail sector. Winning entries come from retailers and technology suppliers who are leading the way in areas such as mobile, online, payments, loyalty and personalisation.
Don Bush, VP Marketing at Kount said: “We are honoured to have been shortlisted for such prestigious awards, especially for a fourth time at the Payments Awards. To have industry recognition for our work and achievements urges us on to continually improve our products and services. And we will have significant product announcements coming soon that we are all very excited about.”
Kount’s latest nominations mark the culmination of considerable momentum built up over the last 9 months. Since receiving an $80m investment in December, the largest in the industry’s history short of being a complete acquisition, Kount have announced a 50% year-over-year growth and the addition of more merchants in the past 12 months than in the previous three years combined.
Kount helps businesses boost sales by reducing fraud. Our all-in-one, SaaS platform simplifies fraud detection and helps online businesses accept more orders. Kount’s turnkey fraud platform is easy-to-implement and easy-to-use. Kount’s proprietary technology reviews billions of data points and provides maximum protection for some of the world’s best-known brands. Merchants using Kount can accept more orders from more people in more places than ever before. For more information about Kount, please visit www.kount.com.
For more information or to arrange an interview with Kount, please contact:
(00 44)0798 698 698


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"Edward Joseph Snowden is an American computer specialist who worked for the CIA and the NSA and leaked details of several top-secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs to the press," says Wikipedia.
No Caption Required
Snowden has been in the press almost daily and now his name makes its way into the electric vehicle world.
Hong Yuan Lan Xiang (HYLX), an unknown-to-us electric vehicle technology firm in China, submitted an application to trademark "Snowden," to which the company says it will apply to some of its top secret breakthrough technology.
We're doubtful that HYLX has real breakthrough technology in the works, but we think it's a clever move to try to trademark "Snowden" with the association to top secret stuff.
However, the Snowden name might be deemed too politically charged by the Chinese government to be trademarked.
Regardless, HYLX is trying to register the "Snowden" trademark in Chinese and English for "secret technology," according to company manager, Zhu Hefeng.
Here's what else Zhu told the South China Morning Post in an exclusive interview:
"We are talking with China’s domestic carmakers, and we aim to launch cars equipped with our technology by the end of this year."
The "top secret" technologies are linked to "removable batteries, remodelling of traditional cars into electric cars, and fast charging methods," according to the South China Morning Post.
Source: South China Morning Post


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Marketplace - American Public Media
The retailer Target reports earnings Wednesday. The company has had a series of management changes, as it struggles to correct missteps that include a botched expansion into Canada, a data breach that temporarily turned customers away, and a less-than-stellar push into grocery, a low-margin business.
“Going into food is a good strategy because that promotes more frequent visits,” says Antony Karabus, chief executive of HRC Advisory, a retail consulting firm. “But you can't just be like any other grocery store. It almost seems like they lost their mojo in terms of what made Target special.”
Karabus thinks Target is now getting back on track. It left Canada earlier this year. In grocery, it's now focusing less on the packaged stuff that is found everywhere and more on fresh foods and organics.
Piper Jaffray analyst Sean Naughton says Target's organic selection expanded nearly 50 percent over the past year. "And it's actually up about 15 percent even over the last six weeks,” he says.
Naughton says that could boost revenue over time, since customers are willing to pay a premium for organic products.
Paula Rosenblum, managing partner at RSR Research, a retail consultancy, says Target's also trying to jazz up its apparel. But, she says, it might be hard to return to the chic 'Tarjzay" image of its past.
“Back then, H&M and Zara were a footnote in the U.S.," she says. "Now they're not a footnote.”
Food manufacturers have been grappling with Americans' changing preferences. Fresh foods are in, processed foods ... not so much. So it's no surprise food companies might be very interested in outlets where processed food still thrives and sales are rising: dollar stores.
According to the consulting firm Kantar Retail, dollar stores are an $80 billion business with tens of thousands of locations.
“It’s got a 6.5 percent compound annual growth rate from the end of the decade, which is well above the 4 percent growth rate the conventional grocery store channel is running,” says John Rand, senior vice president of retail insights at Kantar.
Dollar stores typically offer less expensive and smaller versions of core household items. (Despite the name, not all products are priced at $1, but they’re still cheap). Rand says the food products at dollar stores tend to be what experts call “center of store” items — the non-perishables that are the hallmark of processed food companies.
“This is a channel that's been growing in itself and growing for General Mills,” says Rick Krichmar, senior manager in Shopper Insights at the food giant General Mills, which enjoyed 8 percent growth in the dollar and drug store channel in 2014.
Even as General Mills responds to consumers’ growing health obsessions by cutting artificial flavors and colors from Lucky Charms and offering organic products under its Annie’s banner, Krichmar says there’s still a market for items like Hamburger Helper and Chex Mix at dollar stores. Consumers who buy the smaller, discount store versions of those brands tend to be older people and those with limited incomes.
“While we see a lot of metrics of the economy improving from depths of recession from 2008, we know lots of people have employment but those jobs pay much less,” Krichmar says. “And the future growth of the population — a large part of that is going to be the lower income household.”
Dollar store shopper Shirley Senske sees her own household stuck in neutral. She’s a school bus driver and mother of five, and she regularly shops at a Dollar General store in a Minneapolis suburb. She says she and her husband earn so little as to count among the working poor.
"Your paycheck is gone when you get it because you know you've got to pay rent,” she says.
Senske knows she might pay more per ounce for the smaller-sized stuff at dollar stores. But she can't always afford the giant stock-up sizes.
“Sometimes it's cheaper to buy the little things, and then save up and get the big items," she says. "It's a matter of what you can afford that month.”
But some analysts question whether food companies can afford to make the smaller dollar store products Senske wants.
“Can the production lines handle it, and can you get a decent margin on it?” asks Edward Jones stock analyst Brian Yarbrough.
Yarbrough says those are questions that big food companies will have to figure out. Nevertheless, as Walmart loses grocery shoppers to dollar stores, Yarbrough says it makes sense for food companies to go where the growth is.
That's how much NBCUniversal has invested in BuzzFeed, announced Monday in a release on the BuzzFeed website. Says Steve Burke, CEO, NBCUniversal, "BuzzFeed has built an exceptional global company that harmonizes technology, data and superior editorial abilities to create and share content in innovative ways." The release also states that as part of the deal, the two companies will work on strategic partnerships.49 stores
That's how many Sheetz convenience stores are located in West Virginia, according to the company's website. Sheetz found itself in trouble with West Virginians a few weeks ago when it said it would only sell pepperoni rolls made out of state, as opposed to those made in local bakeries. What's a pepperoni roll? We're glad you asked.24 cents
That's how much less, on average, the tooth fairy is paying for teeth, according to an annual survey conducted by Visa. Whereas $3.43 was the average going rate for lost teeth in 2014, kids this year made just $3.19. The study found that the amount made on teeth is directly correlated with household income.50 percent
That's how much Target has expanded its organic groceries selection over the last year, with some analysts saying it's grown 15 percent over just the past few weeks. It's part of the company's attempt to recover from recent missteps, including a push into groceries that proved a little misguided. Target seems to have realized that rather than carrying more pre-packaged goods, consumers care about organic foods and fresh produce.
In just a few years, the city of New Orleans will celebrate its 300th birthday. As the celebration approaches, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu wants New Orleanians to strive not just for a rebuild, but for progress.
“I want them to think about building the city for the future and not just getting back to where we were before Katrina hit,” Landrieu says.
But as the population of New Orleans grows to about 94 percent of what it was the day before the storm, the city is whiter and wealthier than what it used to be. Landrieu says it’s not fair to peg New Orleans’ growth as racially imbalanced though.
“The city of New Orleans before the storm was [a] major majority African American city,” Landrieu says. “It’s a more eclectic city than it was before, but there’s no hint or no chance that the city of New Orleans has ever lost its historic character or its essence as a gumbo."
Another hurdle for New Orleans as it turns 300 is making sure businesses will want to stay in the Big Easy. As Marketplace continues reporting on New Orleans 10 years after Katrina, we've found that many business owners have had a difficult time rebuilding.But Landrieu doesn’t think his city’s struggle to revitalize means New Orleans has an inherent flaw.
“If any city got their hump busted like New Orleans did, it would be a tough rebuild,” Landrieu says. “What the country needs to be thinking is, ‘What’s going to happen when it hits us? And how can we protect ourselves and how can we learn from New Orleans?'”
Landrieu points to New Orleans’ levee breaches as the real crux of the Katrina disaster, an infrastructure failure he thinks could happen in other cities around the country.
“The country ought to be thinking about the fact that Congress can’t even pass an infrastructure investment bill and the need for that so that we can be a stronger nation,” Landrieu says. “New Orleans is just a canary in the coal mine when it comes to that.”
Jim Brinson is a CPA in San Diego, and he's a fan of the "I've Always Wondered" series. He submitted this question:
“With all of the current sitting congressmen and senators announcing their run for president, I've always wondered how they get away with campaigning. I would have to think that the campaigning gets in the way of their real job. How do they get so much time off? Do they still get paid full salary?”
Jay Hunter is the data editor for member information at CQ Roll Call and offers this answer: “They do not actually get time off, and they do get paid their full salary.”
Most members of Congress make $174,000 per year. Hunter tracks how — and how often — they vote.
“Especially this cycle," Hunter says, "a lot of the current senators who are running for president have missed a lot of votes in 2015.” He compared how often those senators showed up for votes this year compared to other members of their caucuses.
Most often absent is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has missed almost a third of his votes this year, compared to the Senate Republican average of about 3 percent.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has made almost all his votes (98.9 percent), but he’s been criticized along with others for using the Senate floor as a campaign venue. Longtime Sen. Orrin Hatch complained about it earlier this month, saying, "We must ensure that the pernicious trend of turning the Senate floor into a forum for advancing personal ambitions, for promoting political campaigns, or for enhancing fundraising activities comes to a stop.”
But American University government professor Jennifer Lawless says missing votes doesn't necessarily mean the candidates aren't doing their jobs as senators.
“So as long as they have excellent staff, both in their district and in Washington," she says, "the overwhelming majority of their work can still get done, even if they’re on the presidential campaign trail.” Lawless says the votes candidates miss tend to be ones where their vote won’t change the outcome. Plus, as long as an opponent doesn’t bring up a poor voting record in a campaign, constituents usually don’t care.
Brinson says he now understands how the system works, but he's still not happy about it.
“My curiosity is satisfied, but I’m not satisfied," he says. "I mean, they’re neglecting their duties. I think it’s pretty bad.”
He says the relatively unproductive Congress might get more done if its members spent less time campaigning and more time legislating.
Amazon is on the defensive after a story in the New York Times questioned its workplace culture and described appalling stories of employees being treated harshly while recovering from health and family issues. CEO Jeff Bezos says there will be zero tolerance for actions like those described in the story, which include a woman who had miscarried twins being sent on a business trip the day after surgery and a cancer patient given a poor performance evaluation after returning from treatment.
But other parts of the story, about the long hours and constant pressure on employees to perform, ring true not just at Amazon, but at other tech companies.
“They put people in jobs that deplete them incredibly,” explains Bob Sutton, a Stanford University management professor. “That’s just how it is across the industry.”
And as many who toil in law, medicine, management consulting or investment banking are quick to point out, punishing hours are not something technology companies invented. But hearing of long hours at a tech company cuts against the image these firms have carefully crafted as progressive temples of innovation that shower their workers with free food and swanky gyms. But even those perks reinforce long hours.
“The perks vary from company to company, but where they exist are generally designed to, you know, keep you from leaving so that you work harder,” says David Auerbach, a veteran of Google and Microsoft.
A caffeine-fueled all-nighter culture that propels a young tech company may not serve a giant public firm. As tech companies grow from startups to sprawling public companies with global offices and numerous departments, they realize they can’t run giant businesses with just young, single techies.
“Many of these companies find it more difficult when people start to get older and have families and children,” says Katherine Phillips, senior vice dean of Columbia Business School. “The culture might not exactly fit.”
Christoph Mertz spends his days looking at cracks in the street.
“Once you’re involved in something like this, you see every crack in the road, every pothole, you say, ‘Ohhh, this is interesting,’” he says as he weaves around sizeable potholes on the narrow streets behind Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. A small camera mounted on his windshield, much like a GPS device, shoots video of the pavement unspooling in front of him as he drives. He says he relishes finding really deteriorated streets because “it’s a really good example for my data.”
Mertz is a researcher at Carnegie Mellon. He works with the university’s Traffic 21, a research arm focusing on practical solutions to transportation problems, and he’s built a computer program that uses photos to detect cracks in street pavement. He’s been testing it using photos extracted from the video he shoots in his own car, but he’s also working with the city to test the technology. He’s placed cameras inside three city vehicles.
For Pittsburgh, which currently uses manual, visual inspections to assess city streets, the technology could one day be a more reliable and cheaper alternative for maintaining roads.
Human vs. computer inspections
Pittsburgh maintains 1,100 miles of streets, divided into 17,000 segments. Three inspectors are responsible for visiting each of those segments to evaluate them. The inspectors use their eyes to assess the streets, to note any cracks, potholes, or rutting, the severity of the deterioration, and its proliferation in the segment. Inspections can be “fairly subjective,” says Lee Haller, deputy director of public works.
Also, the inspectors have other responsibilities; it takes them four to five years to review all of the segments.
The city uses a pavement management system and models to predict a street’s lifespan, but Haller says because of the subjectivity and long inspection periods, there’s a good chance much of the base data is inaccurate. “After winter, the condition of a given street can change rapidly because what was just cracking after a number of freeze-thaw cycles turns into major potholes,” he says.
Pittsburgh’s street inspection system is standard for cities.
Mertz’s program, he says, automates the process, speeds it up and eliminates human bias. It uses photos from the cameras installed in city vehicles that would be making the rounds anyway, and thus not requiring a dedicated employee. The program breaks the pavement in each picture into a grid, and then the photos are combed digitally using an algorithm, looking for texture. A newly paved road looks flat to the machine, but a road with cracks in it will have texture. Then it calculates how much of the given surface is covered by cracks and scores the road’s condition.
A sample city map where streets have been analyzed using Christoph Mertz's pavement inspection program. The green dots mean the pavement is in good shape, yellow indicates some damage and red means the pavement quality is bad.Christoph Mertz/Keystone Crossroads
The program can "inspect" streets as quickly as the photos from the city cars come in. Mertz says running the algorithms on large data sets can take a while, but for him that meant several days, a relative wink-of-an-eye compared to the city’s yearslong inspection cycle.
For Haller, having access to more accurate, up-to-date street data would make planning easier and more effective. He’d know exactly which street segments need work to meet a quality threshold, for example. He’d be able to ask for money and promise specific results, something he can’t always do now.
“I think when you have the conversation with Council and say these are the extra streets specifically by name that we would be able to do in this upcoming season if we had extra money, it’s more tangible,” he says.
A better, more predictably maintained road network means a more viable city.
“That is not only the public getting to and from work, which is very important, but it’s also bringing goods and services … freight and the like,” says Brian Leshko, an American Society of Civil Engineers fellow. “It really does have a big impact on the economy of a city.”
Working out the kinks
Back at the lab, Mertz is still working out kinks in the program. He pulls up a map of Pittsburgh filled with green, yellow and red dots, each representing an analyzed image of a street segment. Green means the road is good, yellow means it has some damage and red means it’s bad. As he clicks on the dots, images of the pavement pop up.
He clicks on a red dot, but the photo shows smooth pavement, broken only by the shadows of overhanging tree branches. It turns out the algorithm still can’t tell cracks and shadows apart.
There are some other issues, too. For now, files have to be transferred and handled manually, which Haller says doesn’t work for the city. Mertz also hasn’t trained his program to see potholes, patches, rutting, or to analyze non-pavement road surfaces (Pittsburgh has many brick and stone streets). He says he hopes to get to all that.
When he does, the technology could be a game changer for cities like Pittsburgh with aging infrastructure and limited resources.
In her piece in the New York Times, Jodi Kantor (with help from David Streitfeld) looked at the innovative and harsh working conditions that employees face at Amazon.
“So many of us know Amazon as consumers but not that many of us knew about the fascinating workplace that Jeff Bezos has created inside the corporate Seattle offices,” she says.
Amazon has a reputation for having hard-working employees.
“They do pride themselves on being a tough culture," she explains. "You know Bezos tells people ‘This is a culture of working incredibly hard.’ They use the phrase 'unreasonably high' to describe their standards and expectations.”
The hope for Bezos is that these high expectations yield success for the company. Kantor says that in some ways it’s working.
"By many measures, it is very successful. Amazon just became the country’s largest retailer…[Bezos] is now the fifth-richest man in the world. And what people say is that part of Amazon’s success can be attributed to the fact that he’s basically invented a way of getting the most out of every employee.”
Kantor says employees value a lot of aspects about Amazon, for instance, “it’s a culture of innovation, there isn’t a lot of red tape, relatively junior people can have a lot of responsibility.” But that doesn’t mean that employees aren’t being hurt by the harsh company culture. “I found that in most of our interviews, we were talking to people who really loved aspects of working with the company, but they were struggling with this kind of punishing culture,” she explains.
Kantor says some of the practices that employees found upsetting were how team members had to compete with each other.
“Team members are ranked against each other," she says. "It’s a very competitive atmosphere,” and this can create an uncomfortable working environment because “at Amazon, it’s particularly direct. Because, for example, you can send secret negative feedback about your peers to your peers’ bosses. The bosses see who it’s from but other workers don’t necessarily see it.”
One of Kantor’s more surprising findings was about Amazon’s evaluation system. “The evaluations system is fairly relentless … we found a real pattern of people who had life crises when they were at Amazon; they had cancer, their parents died, they had really bad pregnancy loss. And that they said is that the company did not give them time to recover, and they felt the company was so relentless that they couldn’t pause and get back on their feet,” she explains.
It comes down to finding a balance between pushing employees while making sure not to hit their breaking point. She says that companies that have this kind of culture have to ask themselves, “Is there any place you finally draw a line and say ‘An employee cannot work this hard,’ or ‘When x and y happens to an employee, they simply need to take time off.’”
Kantor explains that, "for so many of the people we talked to in the article, they themselves were debating the ’Amazon way’ … only within the context of their own lives: ‘Is this right for me?’ ‘Do I really want to work this way?’”
The article has helped bring that debate into the open.
“So it’s not only an Amazon worker sitting with her husband talking about those issues, but it’s now more of a public conversation,” Kantor notes.
On today's show, an update on the markets; a look at skyrocketing live music revenue; and more on the brutal work culture accounts at Amazon.
College-bound students are often told that higher education bolsters their earning potential in the professional world, a fact that remains well-proven. What is not so true, according to a new study published Monday, is how much an advanced degree protects against larger financial shock, such as a recession.
According to the results published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, black and Hispanic college graduates saw their median net worth fall from 1992 to 2013, whereas white college graduates saw their earnings rise. What is notable about this time period is that it includes three recessions, speaking to how widespread financial circumstance affects ethnic groups differently.
Among the findings:
Between 2007 and 2013, white college graduates saw their median net worth fall 16 percent, whereas black and Hispanic graduates saw their worth fall 59.7 percent and 71.9 percent, respectively. Asian college graduates saw their median net worth go up 5.1 percent, by comparison.
One of the core reasons for the imbalance may be the differences in debt. As the New York Times writes, many black and Hispanic families take on more debt in an effort to reach midde-class status. In times of recession, money owed becomes an even larger burden.
With the concert industry earning $1.43 billion through the first half of this year, according to Pollstar, performers old and new are cashing in. The live music business is rocketing toward a record year, lifted by Boomer bait such as The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac, as well as data-driven pricing tactics and a growing festival business.
The top of the list leans heavily on the back catalog. Of the year’s top five grossing acts in North America, the youngest is Kenny Chesney, who got started more than two decades ago.
“We’ve tended to rely on acts like the Stones and Fleetwood Mac, the kind of evergreen attractions that could fill arenas without having a new album,” says Pollstar’s Gary Bongiovanni.
His numbers show the Rolling Stones on top, earning $80.7 million. Garth Brooks, Fleetwood Mac, Kenny Chesney and U2 round out the top five. But with a much-anticipated tour underway, Taylor Swift is poised to break into that elite group soon.
Overall, average ticket prices are at an all-time high of $76. That’s a sign bands and promoters are using big data to price smarter, scooping up money that used to go to scalpers.
Another important development is the growth of festivals. They’re particularly popular among younger fans. Accustomed to having every artist streaming at their fingertips, younger fans expect the same kind of variety in concert.
“The festival is a reflection of how the millennial consumes music,” says Rich Tullo, research director at Albert Fried & Company.
Mark Garrison: Of the year’s top five grossing acts in North America, the youngest is Kenny Chesney. And he got started more than two decades ago. Gary Bongiovanni runs Pollstar, which tracks concert revenue.
Gary Bongiovanni: We’ve tended to rely on acts like the Stones and Fleetwood Mac, the kind of evergreen attractions that could fill arenas without having a new album.
His numbers show the Rolling Stones on top, earning $80 million. Overall, average ticket prices are at an all-time high of $76. That’s a sign bands and promoters are using big data to price smarter, scooping up money that used to go to scalpers.
Rich Tullo: A lot of the guesswork is being taken out of the industry and it’s creating great new revenue opportunities.
Rich Tullo tracks the entertainment business at Albert Fried & Company. He’s watching the growth of festivals among younger fans.
Rich Tullo: The festival is a reflection of how the millennial consumes music.
They’re used to having every band streaming at their fingertips. So they want the same kind of variety in concert. In New York, I'm Mark Garrison, for Marketplace.
A lot of Americans are in debt. You might be among them. And the borrowing is for just about everything – school, a home, even a car. New loans for cars and light trucks have surpassed $1 trillion dollars for the first time, according to a recent report from the New York Fed. And access to cheap credit is changing the way Americans think about their automobiles.
We're not only taking out loans to buy new and used cars, we’re also taking those loans out for longer — more than five and a half years. Jessica Caldwell, director of industry analysis at Edmunds.com, says folks are treating cars more like a commodity — almost like a smart phone. “You’re gonna have your monthly payment and after a few years, you’re going to trade it in for something a little bit nicer."
"A lot of buyers right now are coming in with less credit history and less cash," says Alan Baum, principal at Baum and Associates, an automotive marketing research business. “The buyers that we’re seeing coming into the market that might not have been in it previously are going to need either a larger loan, or a loan with a longer term, or both."
Baum says that longer loans mean you’re probably not going to be in the market for a car as often, something automakers don’t like to hear, because that means this car buying boom might not be around for much longer.
A lot of Americans are in debt. You might be among them. And the borrowing is for just about everything – school, a home, even a car. New loans for cars and light trucks have surpassed $1 trillion dollars for the first time according to a recent report from the New York Fed. And access to cheap credit is changing the way Americans think about their automobiles.
We're not only taking out loans to buy new and used cars, we’re also taking those loans out for longer than they ever have — more than five and a half years. Jessica Caldwell, Director of Industry Analysis at edmunds.com says folks are treating cars more like a commodity — almost like a smart phone. “You’re gonna have your monthly payment and after a few years, you’re going to trade it in for something a little bit nicer."
"A lot of buyers right now are coming in with less credit history and less cash," says Alan Baum, Principal Baum and Associates, an automotive marketing research business. “The buyers that we’re seeing coming into the market that might not have been in it previously, are going to need either a larger loan, or a loan with a longer term, or both."
Baum says that longer loan means you’re probably not going to be in the market for a car as often, something automakers don’t like to hear. Because that means this car buying boom might not be around for much longer.
As part of a series about music technology called "Noise Makers," we're talking to musicians about their favorite noise-making device. For this week's installment Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson had a conversation with Money Mark about simple hacks and making music from unexpected sources.
If you ask Mark Ramos Nishita, or Money Mark, about his work with the Beastie Boys, you might end up hearing more about minutiae of writing a song than say, what it's like to be part of a multi-platinum group. He remembers the marginalia of the Check Your Head album, released in 1992, specifically: "There was a time when we were building the studio in Atwater village at the same time as we were recording. They were playing basketball in the other room. I was screwing a screw into the wall and it made this incredibly amazing sound. And [Adam] Yauch came in and was like, 'We should just record that.'"
The spontaneity of incorporating an accidental sound into a studio album fits within Mark's musical ethos: "There’s this Japanese saying that if you sharpen the knife too much, you actually make it dull. So, there’s a point when you have to have an emotive force there to inject into all this stuff that’s around you."
This philosophy derives from Mark's childhood — As a kid, whenever he would get a new piece of gear, his father, who was an electrical engineer, would take it apart in order to understand how it works.
As a result, Mark's music making involves less polishing and more tinkering. For a live performance, Mark says: "I actually just bring everything out on the table. Nothing is really hooked up. But I think even that is the theater of it — Getting the cables and patching it all together and making a chain. And this is how it sounds in the end. All of that to me is very entertaining. I always wanted to know what was behind in the wings of the theater and what was really making all that magic happen."
Click the media player above for an extended interview with Money Mark which includes a live demonstration of a musical hack involving a cell phone, an amplifier, and a quarter.
About 20 late-sixties Ford Mustangs are hauling around a tight turn at the Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway, near Monterey, CA.
Most of these cars are being driven by their owners, but some owners hire professional racers.
“It would be unfair to say that everybody here is really rich, because there are a lot of people who have owned their cars a really long time,” says Automobile Magazine writer Jamie Kitman. "But there's also plenty of super-duper millionaires.”
These are super-duper millionaires to whom luxury brands want to sell their cars. So the companies have hauled out an arsenal of their own antiques and latest models for the Concours d’Elegance, aka the Pebble Beach Car Show, a four-day celebration on California’s Monterey Peninsula.
“There isn't any other place in the country that has a concentration of people that are affluent automotive enthusiasts,” says Kim McCullough,Vice President of Marketing for Jaguar Land Rover North America.
McCullough wouldn’t say how many dollars this event could bring in for her company, but it’s pretty clear how much cash is being tossed around at the classic car auction happening at Pebble Beach.
The highest valued car here is a 1962 Ferrari, estimated to fetch $14 to $16 million.
“It’s a very wild and important Ferrari,” says David Gooding, founder and President of Gooding and Company, the host of the auction. The prices battled out here will drive the overall classic car market. Values have doubled in the past decade. But Gooding says don’t get into it for the investment.
“You should buy it because you love it because you want to use it you want to show it or vintage race it,” says Gooding. “Or just have it at home and stare at it.”
The 1962 Ferarri, by the way, went for $16.5 million dollars.
That's how much the net worth of blacks with college degrees dropped from 1992 to 2013, according to a new study published Monday. By comparison, whites with college degree saw their net worth rise 86 percent during that same time. Published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the report finds that a college degree, long believed to be a safeguard against the negative effects of recession, does not protect black and Hispanic graduates to the same degree that it does whites. As the New York Times writes, a key factor could be that blacks and Hispanics have to accumulate more debt in the pursuit of middle-class status.$1.43 billion
That's how much the concert industry took in during the first half of this year, meaning live music is headed towards a record in 2015. Part of that has been so-called boomer bait; bands like the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac drawing longtime fans to stadiums across the country. But it also shows that bands and promoters are using big data to price tickets smarter, scooping up money that used to go to scalpers.$16.5 million
That's how much a 1962 Ferrari sold for at the Concours d’Elegance — aka the Pebble Beach Car Show — a four-day celebration on California’s Monterey Peninsula. Many attendees are among the uber rich, and as a result, the show is an opportunity for luxury brands to show off both their antiques and latest wares.99 percent
That's the amount of bacteria that can be removed from water using one page of "The Drinkable Book," a product created in partnership between pAge Drinking Paper and WATERisLIFE. Each page of the book (which is embedded with silver and copper), can purify up to 26 gallons of water. As Quartz reports, the product was proven successful in 25 contaminated water sites in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Haiti and Bangladesh.
Emirates, the airlines, announced its adding a flight between its hub in Dubai and Panama City. Perhaps most notable is the sheer length of the flight: At 8,590 miles, and with an estimated travel time of 17 and a half hours, it will be the longest non-stop flight in the world.
Click the media player above to play along.
Last month Amazon launched a new experiment that's part album and part playlist. It's called Amazon Acoustics, and it's group of songs performed by 32 different artists.
Some are covers of songs you've heard before, and some are original. The songs are available to stream for Amazon Prime customers along with other people who want to purchase them online. What the playlist represents though is something that companies are spending more time and money on lately: exclusive content.
Steve Boom is the vice president of digital music for Amazon and the executive behind the project. He talks to Lizzie O'Leary about Amazon's plans in the music business.
Click the media player above to hear the interview with Boom.
Madelaine D'Angelo had the idea to found Arthena, sort of a mutual fund for fine art. It's an online crowdsourcing platform that allows investors to essentially buy an equity share of an art collection for the relatively low price of $10,000. That money gets pooled with other investors, which allows the group to own art collections, like "New York Art 1960s to 1980s" and "European Emerging Artists."
Investing in art tends to be outside the financial grasp of most individuals. Art auction house Sotheby's sold Vincent van Gogh’s "L’Allee des Alyscamps," and Monet’s "Nympheas" for price tags well over $50 million each.
D'Angelo grew up and worked in the art scene, but noticed that museums and collectors were trying to reach out to a wider audience that she was a part of. "We know that there's people out there that want to participate, but we just can't seem to bring them in," D'Angelo says.
"I'm part of this generation that they're trying to reach out to, and I realized that this generation looks at art not only from a cultural perspective, but also a financial perspective. And it makes sense, because if you look at how many kids my age have student loans, if you put $10,000 into something, you want to make sure it'll be worth $10,000 the next day."
D'Angelo notes that while post-war contemporary art has made roughly 10 percent gains the over last five years, "past performance does not indicate future success."
Click play above to hear more about Arthena and the art market.
Next week, Marketplace Weekend is looking at New Orleans and its people, exploring life, business and culture in the city 10 years after Hurricane Katrina.
If you live there and/or were affected by the storm, we want to hear from you. What's changed the most in your post-Katrina economy?
Check out past Marketplace stories from the city:


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The Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective today announced plans to open a brewpub — in Asheville, about 30 miles north of Oskar Blues’ production facility in Brevard. Dubbed “The Canarchy Collaboratory,” the new outpost will occupy the soon-to-close Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB) space.
- PARENT BREWERY
- Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective
- BREWERY TYPE
147 W Broadway (300 South)
Salt Lake City, UT 84101 United States
- It all began with a business trip to the Northwest. Jeff Polychronis and Peter Cole, business partners long before Squatters Pub Brewery came to be, had frequented brew pubs and noticed that they seemed to be "the" place to be for a lot of the locals. So after a year-long pub crawl, visiting more than 40 brew pubs throughout the west, and with a swill, a swallow and many nights of appreciating great beer, they decided it was time that Salt Lake had a brew pub of its own. Squatters Pub Brewery opened in downtown Salt Lake City on September 5, 1989.
- ANNUAL PRODUCTION
- ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS
Squatters Roadhouse Grill - Park City
1900 Park Ave
Park City, UT, 84060, USA
Squatters Airport Pub
Salt Lake International Airport, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Terminal 2, Concourse C
Salt Lake City, UT, 84116, USA
- DO YOU WORK FOR THIS BREWERY?
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Squatters’ number one selling brand – Hop Rising Double IPA – will wear a pink can for the entire month of October. Squatters Craft Beers has pledged to donate $0.05 for each special can sold during the campaign. New in 2018, Squatters will double down and donate a portion of proceeds from special pink-canned Full Suspension Pale Ale 12-packs.
Drink beer and support Can’d Aid Foundation – this is the task set before you from CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective, who just released their VOL. 1 Mixed Pack of brews.
Midway through 2018, the Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective is outpacing the overall U.S. craft beer segment. The Brewers Association (BA) reported last week that growth for small and independent U.S. brewers had “stabilized,” with production growing 5 percent through the first six months of 2018. The Fireman Capital-backed brewery consortium — whose brands include Oskar Blues, Cigar City, Deep Ellum, Perrin Brewing, Three Weavers, and Utah Brewers Cooperative (Wasatch and Squatters) — is growing faster than the category, with off-premise sales up 15.4 percent in the total U.S. multi-outlet and convenience store channel year-to-date.
Squatters Craft Beers has teamed up with Best Friends Animal Society in announcing their latest brew, Chasing Tail Orange Golden Ale. Squatters’ much-loved Chasing Tail Golden Ale gets a citrus fruit finish and higher alcohol content at 5.2% ABV in this fresh line extension.
Squatters Craft Beers announces two exciting new line extensions along with the return of an old favorite, just in time for the summer season. Chasing Tail Orange and Hop Rising Tropical, together with veteran Provo Girl Pilsner, are available in stores now.
The portfolio of craft breweries including Oskar Blues Brewery, Perrin, Cigar City, Squatters and Wasatch, is changing its name to CANarchy to better reflect the goal of the collective -challenging corporate convention to preserve the craft beer category.
Squatters Craft Beers, in partnership with the American Cancer Society’s Real Men Wear Pink campaign, is raising funds and awareness for breast cancer research during the month of October. Squatters #1 selling brand – Hop Rising Double IPA, will be temporarily packaged in a pink can during October, breast cancer awareness month. Squatters Craft Beers has pledged to donate $0.05 for each pink can of Squatters Hop Rising sold during the campaign.
Three top-level employees of the Utah Brewers Cooperative, comprised of Squatters and Wasatch Beers, were laid off from the company last week, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. According to the website, the company let go of brewmaster Dan Burick, CFO Sean Boyle and national sales director George Allen as part of a restructuring initiative.
Squatters Craft Beers releases Sociable, a refreshing four percent ABV Krystalweizen. Krystalweizens are named for their crystal clear appearance, a clean easy-drinking beer for the summer months.
Squatters Craft Beers adds to their seasonal lineup with two new beers: Takeout Rye IPA, and Wellied Irish Stout, available during the icy months of winter.
Home may be where the heart is, but the Utah Brewers Cooperative is beginning to feel the love elsewhere. In the 14 states where it distributes outside of its home market, the company, comprised of Wasatch Brewery and Squatters Craft Beers, saw 2014 sales surge by 73 percent. That figure towers over the 11 percent growth that the company achieved in Utah. Squatters founder Peter Cole says the difference is due to the company’s already strong foothold in the state.
Salt Lake City, UT — In honor of Squatters 25th anniversary today, Brewmaster Jason Stock has released Squatters 25th Anniversary Barley Wine Ale.
Salt Lake City, UT — Utah’s original craft brewers, Wasatch Brewery and Squatters Craft Beers, unveil new packaging paired with a growing portfolio of artisan ales and lagers in a variety of year-round and seasonal styles.
|No records to display.|
National Sales Director - Utah Brewers Cooperative
National Sales Director - Utah Brewers Cooperative -- Salt Lake City, UT (01/07/2016)
PROUD BREWERS OF SQUATTERS AND WASATCH CRAFT BEERS IN SALT LAKE CITY, UT
|Salt Lake City, UT||01/07/2016|
Electrician / Maintenance Technician - Utah Brewer's Cooperative
Electrician / Maintenance Technician - Utah Brewer's Cooperative -- (10/14/2014)
Brewery Maintenance Technician - Utah Brewer's Cooperative (Squatters & Wasatch Beers)
Brewery Maintenance Technician - Utah Brewer's Cooperative (Squatters & Wasatch Beers) -- (08/15/2014)
Director of Sales - Salt Lake Brewing Co. / Utah Brewer's Cooperative
Director of Sales - Salt Lake Brewing Co. / Utah Brewer's Cooperative -- (08/15/2014)
Year Round Beers
|Full Suspension||Pale Ale|
|Hop Rising||Double IPA|
|Off Duty IPA||IPA|
|Wee peat||Scottish Ale|
|Full Suspension Pale Ale||Pale Ale|
|Captain Bastard's Oatmeal Stout||Imperial Stout|
|Emigration Amber Ale||Amber Ale|
|Organic Amber Ale||Amber Ale|
|India Pale Ale||IPA|
|Nitro Cream Ale||Crème Ale|
|Chasing Tail Golden Ale||Golden/Blonde|
|American Wheat Hefeweizen||Bavarian Hefeweisse|
|Provo Girl Pilsner||Pilsner|
|No records to display.|
|No records to display.|
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New Year, New Walmart Wellness Day: Free Screenings & Affordable Immunizations
A new year presents the opportunity for a new you, and Walmart invites communities to own their health journey by joining us for the first Wellness Day of 2024 onSaturday, Jan. 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Customers can receive free health screenings for things like glucose, cholesterol, BMI and blood pressure as well as affordable immunizations like flu, COVID-19, HPV, mumps, measles and more at nearly 4,600 pharmacies nationwide.
Nearly 4,600 Walmart pharmacies across the country will host Walmart Wellness Day events from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. local time on Saturday, Jan. 20. To find a free event in your neighborhood, visit Walmart.com/wellnesshub. Select stores will also feature vision screenings, in-store giveaways and demos of wellness products. Walmart Wellness Day events includes the following health resources, administered by qualified pharmacy and Vision Center teams:
- Free health screenings, including glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, body mass index and vision screenings (select locations)
- Affordable immunizations, including flu, measles, mumps, pneumonia, tetanus, HPV, rubella (MMR), varicella (chicken pox/shingles), whooping cough (TDAP), Hepatitis A & B and more
- No cost to patient COVID-19 vaccines
- Wellness resources and the opportunity to talk with pharmacists
“What an ideal opportunity we have to begin the year connecting with the communities we serve,” said Kevin Host, Walmart’s Senior Vice President of Pharmacy. “Wellness Day is a fun experience that allows customers and patients to check in on their health while also building relationships with our incredible pharmacy teams. I’m immensely proud of the ways we continue to build on our touchpoints of care across Health & Wellness at Walmart.”
“The Wellness Day experience offers elevated browsing and sampling for our customers, highlighting the broad assortment of innovative items we offer,” said Ralph Clare, Senior Vice President, Health and Wellness, Consumables. “It’s the first of the year, and we know a lot of people are eager and motivated to begin a new wellness journey. We want to help them do that, with even extra savings, with rollbacks across healthy foods, vitamins and supplements and fitness gear.”
Since 2014, Walmart pharmacies have hosted Walmart Wellness Days, contributing more than 5 million free health screenings for customers. More than 4,000 Walmart stores are in medically underserved areas, which means Walmart is often the first stop for health care in these rural and underserved communities.


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Desert Child has been quietly rumbling away for the past few years, appearing at E3’s IndieCade Showcase and GDC, and getting successfully funded on Kickstarter at the end of last year. The racing-adventure-shoot ‘em up game has changed quite a bit since we last saw it, adding more life to both its blistering racing sequences and the environments you’ll explore between matches. E3 attendees will get another chance to see the fast, funky racer up close at this year’s IndieCade Showcase.
Akupara Games will be showcasing Desert Child at this years E3 Expo at Indiecade, located in the West Hall, Booth #4100. Attendees will be able to demo Desert Child on a custom, dual screen arcade cabinet, which will show much more significant content since being successfully funded on Kickstarter last November.
Desert Child is slated for release later this year on Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can see how far the game has come since its Kickstarter campaign in the trailer above.


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Forbes Media is nearly 100 years old, but that doesn't mean the company plans to rest on its laurels. Rather, the brand has been consistently getting out in front of new challenges, and it seems to be working.
An internal memo from CEO and executive chairman Mike Perlis, regarding the company’s H1 2016 business highlights, emphasized the success of this strategy. Mobile traffic to Forbes.com increased 30 percent and mobile ad revenues jumped 60 percent. Forbes’ native advertising platform BrandVoice — which notoriously put an ad on the cover of Forbes last year — has seen digital ad revenues increase more than 50 percent.
Interestingly, while other media companies see their print audience dropping, Forbes has enjoyed an unprecedented surge. Print readership is at 6.8 million in the U.S., an all-time high for the magazine.
In the wake of this success, the brand recently appointed COO Mike Federle to the additional role of president, succeeding Perlis. Folio: sat down with Federle to discuss his new appointment, and get an inside look at how he plans to tackle the job.
Folio: When did you first learn you were being considered for the role of president?
Mike Federle: I’ve been here about four-and-a-half years, working with Mike Perlis, implementing our news strategy, the new newsroom and the contributor model of the media company. That led to positioning the company, putting it up for sale, and taking it through a successful sale.
That’s now almost two years behind us. So there was a natural time for us to redirect our focus. Mike Perlis is going to redirect his focus towards the board issues and Asia, working with our Hong Kong investors and plans we have there. In order for him to really dedicate his time to that, we agreed I should take on the president’s role and run the media company.
So that’s kind of a long-winded way to say that it’s something we talked about for a while and were waiting for the right time to do. It wasn’t a complete surprise to me, but it was certainly a welcome reward for the work we’ve been doing the last four-and-a-half years.
Folio: What are some of your key priorities early on?
Federle: The media business, by definition, is just getting more and more complex. All of the changes going on in digital media and content distribution — it’s a constant reinvention that has to go on in the industry. So one of my initial points of focus is going to be how we can simplify as much as possible — how we bring new products to market and how we all work most efficiently together.
The complexity in the industry is around some huge trends and shifts going on. Obviously [the industry is moving] towards mobile, so a lot of our attention is there; it’s also on content distribution across platforms and how that’s changing our business.
Folio: What challenges keep you up at night?
Federle: The challenge is that nothing is ever done, right? The moment we feel like "oh boy, we’re in a great spot," something changes, whether it's ad blocking that becomes an issue or viewability…Distribution models of content are creating new issues and concerns for us that we have to address.
What I consider one of the really strong points of Forbes is that we are very focused on finding solutions and being innovative on the issues that are confronting us and the industry. To me, in order to address them, you’ve got to be out front leading and not following the pack. So it’s going to be very important to me, as I lead the media company here, to stay our front with solutions, and do experiments, knowing that we’re not always going to get it right.
Folio: You just launched a website in French. Why has international expansion become such an attractive focus for the company?
Federle: That’s been a lot of my focus since I’ve been here the last four years…It’s a great demonstration of the value of the brand and the demand for the brand around the world. With the case of France, it’s the first time we launched a website only, with a magazine planned to come after the development of the digital audience. That too is a bit reflective of what I just said about our willingness to be innovative and try different models. But in the end, what that does for us is create a great partner. Every time we launch a new licensed product — and we now have 36 around the world, in 36 different countries — we kind of plant our flag in a new market and we create opportunities for other businesses to grow around that.
Folio: In terms of digital advertising, Forbes.com has been at the forefront in the fight against obstacles like ad blocking. What are some lessons you’ve learned?
Federle: We’ve always addressed issues as they come up early on. Oftentimes before they become industry issues, we’ll recognize this is what clients are talking about or what is occurring in the digital space. With ad blocking, for instance, we’ve been very much out front. About 12 percent of our audience currently has ad blockers, and yet through our efforts, 44 percent of that [group] has turned off their ad block.
There is constant change going on in the marketplace, and digital media is still evolving at such a rapid pace; we just need to be very vigilant about those things that are potentially beneficial or hurtful to our current business model.
Folio: With more publishers embracing native advertising, how do you ensure something like Forbes BrandVoice stands out inthe crowd?
Federle: Forbes BrandVoice was really the innovative product when it launched five years ago. We’ve had a head start and the product has evolved tremendously over those five years…We’ve been working with a lot of our BrandVoice clients directly in shaping the product. There again, we want to remain the leader, an out-front innovator in that area…We saw this trend coming years ago and it’s only really just beginning. So we feel that we’re well positioned as a leader with BrandVoice and native advertising to continue to innovatively lead in this area.
Folio: What about the print product?
Federle: The print product remains the front door to our brand. Especially when you start looking at all the licensed products around the world — with the exception of France — it always starts with the print product. It’s what people identify Forbes with. To be on the cover of Forbes still is an iconic measure of success.
More people are reading the magazine than at any time in nearly our 100-year history. The incredible thing is that over the last seven years, the magazine has seen a 50 percent increase with readers age 18 to 34…The challenge remains that marketers are focused a lot more on digital options. So creating innovative print opportunities — which for us is really through our brand voice — and native approaches on print will continue to be a big focus for us.
Folio: Other than the shift to digital, what’s the biggest change you’ve noticed in the magazine business over the last 20 years?
Federle: I’ve been in the business for 30 years, so for the first 20 years of my career, it was really the old advertising model, and magazines went out and beat each other up for ad dollars. What has really changed is the power of the brand and what you can do with these brands if you truly do have a good, solid brand…I think for years people always talked about the brand, but one of the biggest changes is that brands have really been able to transcend the media world and produce other interesting revenue opportunities.


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Google paid $25 million for the rights to use the .app top-level Web domain name, one of many the company aspired to gain, but it was not the only bidder. Amazon also applied for the name, but settled for ".buy," paying nearly $5 million, and about $2.2 million for ".spot" last fall. Amazon and Google also are fighting over the domain name "mail."
Jeff Sass, CMO at .club, a top-level domain name registry for the name, knows how it goes. The names are sold through registrars, such as GoDaddy, for between $10.00 and $15.00 annually. But .club pays to own the rights to license domain names to others. "We set the wholesale price and sell through the registrar," he said. "They mark it up and sell it to consumers or brands. ICANN gets about $0.25 per domain name sold."
.Club Domain, a private start-up founded by Colin Campbell, raised more than $8 million to apply for the domain name and start the company. Now the company owns the rights to .club domains. Similarly, Google began applying new top-level domains (TLDs) in 2012, four years after ICANN decided to expand the overall number of generic TLDs. Google applies for more than 100 names, many of which now are under its headquarters' wing.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has been auctioning off the different domains since June 2014. Google has been gobbling up names under Charleston Road Registry, a company it set up to apply for the domain extensions.
Sass said a company recently bought coffee.club for $100,000 and launched a subscription-based coffee business. Wine.club sold for $140,000. Justin Kan, who recently sold Twitch to Amazon, will use the name thedrop.club for a new streaming music site and community.
Two years ago, some brands attending the MediaPost Search Insider Summit debated whether the idea of specific TLDs would stick. Most thought it a passing phase. Sass said early indications suggest many of the new domain names that mean something perform well in search results. "It happened with credit.club," he said.


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Uruguayan exports fall for the 2nd month in a row
Uruguayan exports in the month of October 2022 totaled US$ 842 million, which represented a 6% year-on-year drop, it was reported Tuesday in Montevideo. According to the Uruguay XXI Institute, the fall is mainly explained by lower sales of beef -mainly to China- which could not be compensated by the increases in exports of vehicles, rice, and dairy products. Between January and October 2022, sales abroad including duty-free zones grew 27%, totaling US$ 11,262 million, the export, investment, and country brand promotion agency Uruguay XXI Institute also pointed out.
Click here to read full note: https://en.mercopress.com/2022/11/02/uruguayan-exports-fall-for-the-2nd-month-in-a-row


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St Helens Borough businesses have now been handed more than £18m in grants.
In total St Helens Council has paid £18.65m to eligible businesses. That means more than 1,600 businesses have been given funding of between £10,000 and £25,000 to help support them through this period of uncertainty.
This includes bars, restaurants, small businesses and shops who have benefitted from either a Small Business Fund Grant of £10,000 or a Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant of either £10,000 or £25,000.
To qualify businesses must be liable for business rates as at 11 March 2020 and receive either small business rate relief or eligible to receive the extended retail, hospitality and leisure relief announced by the government.
You can find out more about the eligibility along with more information for businesses at St Helens Council’s website: www.sthelens.gov.uk/coronavirus.
Councillor Martin Bond, Cabinet member for Finance, said: “Our team have acted swiftly to try and get as many grants processed as quickly as possible. Their hard work has seen more than 50 per cent of businesses estimated to be eligible for funding already paid out and the team have now processed most of the claims we have received.
“We want to make sure that businesses get funding as quickly as possible because we know for many this will make some difference in helping to ease the huge burden they have faced with many forced to close temporarily.
“We’ve seen a drop in the volume of applications so it’s important that businesses check on whether they are eligible and if so get in touch to get your support. Once we have dealt with all enquiries our team will be contacting eligible businesses again to claim the grant.”
To find out more about the grants or business rate relief including who it applies to visit www.sthelens.gov.uk/coronavirus and click on the business and employers page for more information or email firstname.lastname@example.org


text: HomeCryptocurrencyUK drafting stablecoin regulations and researching a CBDC UK drafting stablecoin regulations and researching a CBDC By Crypto News Pipe November 10, 2020 Cryptocurrency 0 Comments The United Kingdom has announced forthcoming regulatory proposals for stablecoins and ongoing research into CBDC. Source: UK drafting stablecoin regulations and researching a CBDC Tags:Cryptocurrency Related Posts Five Wanted For Indian Crypto Scam Operating Since 2017 Macau casino investor bets on Bitcoin (BTC) amidst a bleak economic outlook Layer 2 Scaling Solution Matic Network (MATIC) Reports 7,200 TPS on Testnet About Author Crypto News Pipe Crypto News Pipe is a cryptocurrency news aggregator service. It presents a continuous flow of articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Add a Comment Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment:*Name:* Email Address:* Website: Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.


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Sleep Start-Up Sunday to Raise $1 Mn for Wider Reach
BANGALORE: Sleep start-up firm is set to raise $1 mn to fund its expansion plans across the country.
The company, which began commercial operations in September under name www.sundayrest.com, said it's aiming at over Rs 2,000 crore turnover in three years.
"We are following a slow and steady approach to fund raising. We closed a $2,50,000 round a couple of months back and are in the middle of raising a $1 million round as we speak," Sunday Founder Alphonse Reddy told PTI.
"Our main investment is from Anand Morzaria and team, who recently sold their venture to WPP (Ogilvy & Mather). We will seek a bigger round once we are confident of meaningfully deploying those funds."
Reddy is also the founder of Fabmart.com.
On revenue expectations, he said: "Given that the market is highly fragmented and that the product has an unbeatable value proposition, we want to aim at 10 per cent of the $3.5 billion (Over Rs 2,000 crore) market in the next 3 years."
Reddy said the company will follow omni channel (both online and offline) strategy to operate its business.
It plans to open 50 experience centres in 3 years, along with e-commerce play.
"We will combine the touch and feel of offline with efficiency and ease of online. We have an experience centre at our office in Kasturi Nagar in Bangalore that supports our online sales and we expect experience centres to be central to our expansion strategy," Reddy added.
On future expansion, the focus is on India and "do a phenomenal job here before looking for geographical expansion". "Sunday wants to stand for everything related to 'sleep' and we want to continue building the company in that direction," he said.
Sunday sources its raw materials from four different countries, including Belgium.


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Sundar Pichai-led Alphabet, Google's parent company, has joined the elitist club of US companies with $1 trillion valuation which includes Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.
The stock of the company closed at $1,451.70 on Thursday (16 January), taking the value to $1 trillion.
The iPhone maker was the first US company to hit the $1 trillion threshold in 2018.
According to CNBC, analysts are bullish on the company's newly appointed CEO Pichai.
Alphabet founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced plans to step down in December last year, elevating Pichai as both Alphabet and Google CEO.
Page and Brin will continue their involvement as co-founders, shareholders and members of Alphabet's Board of Directors.
Pichai joined Google in 2004 and helped lead the development of Google Toolbar and then Google Chrome, which grew to become the world's most popular Internet browser.
Under his leadership as CEO, Google has been focused on developing products and services, powered by the latest advances in AI, that offer help in moments big and small.
The company announced that Pichai will receive $240 million in stock awards over the next three years if he hits all of his performance targets, as well as a $2 million annual salary beginning in 2020.
Alphabet said in a Securities Exchange Commission filing that Pichai will also start receiving a substantial raise from January 1 to $2 million a year.
The compensation package is being given in recognition of Pichai's "expanded role as CEO of Alphabet and Google".
(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
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Chrysler Group said it is halting production of the diesel version of its small because its engine doesn't meet tougher federal emissions standards taking effect next year, the Associated Press reported.
Chrysler said it wasn't cost-effective to replace it with a newer version. Last week Chrysler announced plans to offer the first diesel-powered full-size sport-utility vehicle in the U.S.
"Our initial plan was always to offer a diesel as long as the Jeep Liberty diesel tested well" among consumers, Chrysler spokeswoman Dianna Gutierrez said. "It's still a strong seller, it's got great benefits to it — better fuel economy, more towing power...but emissions standards for 2007 became more stringent."
Although sales of the Liberty diesel have exceeded Chrysler's expectations — since its introduction in the 2005 model year more than 11,000 have been sold — the company said it has opted not to develop a cleaner diesel engine for the Liberty because "we couldn't make a credible business case for such an investment, especially for a limited production number of vehicles," Gutierrez said.


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Satya Nadella reaffirms Microsoft's commitment to the Xbox One
Microsoft has been hit by rumours over the future of the Xbox division since Stephen Elop suggested that they sell off that part of the business in his failed bid to become CEO.
The new CEO Satya Nadella has spoken out to quell any rumours that they may sell off the Xbox division even though the Xbox One lags behind the PS4.
“I also want to share some additional thoughts on Xbox and its importance to Microsoft,” Nadella stated. “As a large company, I think it’s critical to define the core, but it’s important to make smart choices on other businesses in which we can have fundamental impact and success. The single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world is gaming. We are fortunate to have Xbox in our family to go after this opportunity with unique and bold innovation. Microsoft will continue to vigorously innovate and delight gamers with Xbox. Xbox is one of the most-revered consumer brands, with a growing online community and service, and a raving fan base.”
He added, “We also benefit from many technologies flowing from our gaming efforts into our productivity efforts – core graphics and NUI in Windows, speech recognition in Skype, camera technology in Kinect for Windows, Azure cloud enhancements for GPU simulation and many more. Bottom line, we will continue to innovate and grow our fan base with Xbox while also creating additive business value for Microsoft.”
- Ninja Theory: We'll cross the 1080p/60fps bridge for Hellblade when we come to it
- Standalone DayZ not expected to leave Steam Early Access until 2016
- Telltale gives their Game Of Thrones series final release dates
- Large patch arrives to tackle the matchmaking issues with Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- BioWare looking into a bug stopping banter between party members in Dragon Age: Inquisition
- New Assassin's Creed: Unity patch introduces a new visual bug
- Metal Gear Online will return, reveal coming at The Game Awards 2014
- Ever wanted to know which next-gen console would survive a 15-foot drop?
- New Assassin's Creed: Unity patch is a bit on the large side


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Jun 5, 2013, 12:27 am487 ptsOn day two of the U.S. Department of Justice's antirust suit against Apple, Penguin Books CEO David Shanks took the stand to offer testimony regarding the Cupertino company's role in an alleged e-book price fixing scheme.
Rumor: Apple planning ‘AirPods’ wireless headphones Apple World Today 497
Apple Confirms Wednesday Sept. 7 for their iPhone Event Patently Apple 488
It’s Official: Sept. 7 Apple Event Has Been Announced WatchAware 469
Siri Offers Witty Responses About September 7 Event MacRumors 458


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Bill Tancer, Experian Marketing Services’ head of global research, spoke to clients in NYC Tuesday at the first stop of this year’s Marketing Forward Tour. He started his presentation by noting that he’s “got the greatest job in the world” because he gets to sit and play with consumer data all day long. He also noted that in this, his 10th year of analyzing Experian’s data, fascinating shifts are happening and seasonal behavioral patterns are disappearing. For example, in the past and not surprisingly, “diet” searches started on January 1st and always lasted for five days. This year, diet searches haven’t tapered off at all, perhaps signaling an increase in concerns about personal fitness. Searches around “taxes” used to peak the first week of February but this year searches actually increased 12% YoY in January – likely driven by people researching fiscal cliff news.
As for the holidays, Cyber Monday, Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day have for years been found in the top five online shopping days. This year, the day before Thanksgiving rose, coming in at number five. Additionally, a few years ago the best online deals were only found on Black Friday and day after Christmas. Now holiday shopping deals are popping up literally every day during the holiday season. Other interesting facts: “Free Shipping Day” was up 18% this year and Christmas Day had the biggest increase in searches of all days over the period – 27%! Bill thought this could be due to folks prepping for sales in stores the day after Christmas.
Again this holiday season, search engines were the #1 way they get to retails sites, with Google at 38% followed by Yahoo! at 4.7% and Bing at 3.2%. More folks started coming to retail sites directly from Amazon.com this year as well. And interestingly, the top-searched product – for seven years in a row –has been Uggs. Social networks were also a big source of traffic to retail sites – this activity peaked the week of Thanksgiving. Finally, our research showed that the #1 reason people follow brands on social networks is to get discounts (the next reason was for product information). Bill suggests that retailers shift their emphasis from branding to coupon offers when engaging consumers on Facebook and Pinterest next holiday season.


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New Delhi: Twitter Inc said on Tuesday that its quarterly revenues rose 37% and avoided the weight of Apple Inc’s privacy changes on advertising that hampered rivals, pushing its shares up 3%. The social networking site has been working to add new features like audio chat rooms to attract users, and has also rolled out improvements to its advertising capabilities to meet its goal of doubling its annual revenue by 2023. .
Advertising revenue was $ 1.14 billion in the quarter ended September 30, according to consensus estimates. The company said it has seen a “modest” impact on ad revenue due to privacy changes implemented by Apple, which prevent advertisers from tracking users on their devices without their consent.
Investors expected Twitter to be relatively insulated from the changes, as most of its advertisers do not rely on highly targeted ads. As the San Francisco-based company works to expand its targeted advertising business, it is introducing more features like topics that users can follow on Twitter.
These features provide data about people’s interests that can potentially be used to help serve relevant ads, Ned Segal, chief financial officer of Twitter, said in a conference call with analysts.
“It’s largely an opportunity before us,” he said. Tech peers at Twitter, Snap, and Facebook, said Apple’s changes were hurting their ability to target and measure digital ads, citing the updates as the reason companies fell short of expectations. in terms of income.
Twitter said monetizable daily active users, its term for users who receive ads, were 211 million in the third quarter, with analysts’ estimates missing from 212.6 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. While Twitter increased its number of users outside the US by 5 million from the previous quarter, its US base remained stable.
Total revenue, which also includes the money Twitter makes from data licenses, was $ 1.28 billion, also in line with Wall Street targets.
Twitter said its costs this year of hiring and investing in a new data center will trickle down to next year, resulting in a 20% increase in total costs for 2022.
The company expects fourth-quarter revenue to be between $ 1.5 billion and $ 1.6 billion. Twitter previously announced that it would sell its MoPub ad technology unit, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
The company said it did not expect to be able to recoup lost revenue next year from the sale of MoPub, estimated to be between $ 200 million and $ 250 million, although it added that the sale did not affect not Twitter’s goal of doubling annual revenues by 2023.
(This story was not edited by The Bharat Express News on Social Platforms.)