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Russian state institutions funded Twitter and Facebook
 Two Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin funded substantial stakes in Twitter and Facebook through an investor who later acquired an interest in a Jared Kushner venture, leaked documents reveal.

The investments were made through a Russian technology magnate, Yuri Milner, who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser.

The discovery is likely to stir concerns over Russian influence in US politics and the role played by social media in last year’s presidential election. It may also raise new questions for the social media companies and for Kushner.

Alexander Vershbow, who was a US ambassador to Russia under George W Bush and to Nato under Bill Clinton, said the Russian state institutions were frequently used as “tools for Putin’s pet political projects”.

Vershbow said the findings were concerning in light of efforts by Moscow to disrupt US democracy and public debate. “There clearly was a wider plan, despite Putin’s protestations to the contrary,” he said.

The investments are detailed in the Paradise Papers, a trove of millions of leaked documents reviewed by the Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and other partners, along with other previously unreported filings.

Facebook and Twitter were not made aware that funding for the investments came from the state-controlled VTB Bank and a financial arm of the state oil and gas firm Gazprom, according to Milner.

The files show that in 2011, VTB funded a $191m investment in Twitter. About the same time, Gazprom Investholding financed an opaque offshore company, which in turn funded a vehicle that held $1bn-worth of Facebook shares.

The money flowed through investment vehicles controlled by Milner, who in 2015 invested in a startup in New York that Kushner co-owns with his brother. Kushner initially failed to disclose his own holding in the startup, Cadre, when he joined Trump’s White House. A spokesman for Kushner declined to comment.

Milner once advised the Russian government on technology through a presidential commission chaired by Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and current prime minister. Now based in California’s Silicon Valley, Milner has invested $7bn in more than 30 online companies including Airbnb, Spotify and the Chinese retailers Alibaba and JD.com.

In a series of interviews, Milner said VTB’s funding did not buy it influence at Twitter. He said he was not aware that Gazprom Investholding had backed the stake in Facebook. Milner said the deals were a small part of his overall investment portfolio and were done when US-Russia relations were better.

Milner disputes that he is an associate of Kushner. He said he had invested in Kushner’s business purely for commercial reasons. He said they had met only once, over cocktails in the US last year. “I’m not involved in any political activity. I’m not funding any political activity,” said Milner.

I’m not involved in any political activity. I’m not funding any political activity Yuri Milner

The disclosure that stakes in two of the US’s biggest technology companies were financed by Russian entities with links to the Kremlin comes as the covert use of their platforms by Russians aiming to boost Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign is under intense scrutiny. Both VTB and Gazprom are now under US sanctions.

Though Milner said the investments had no connection to the controversy, the findings are likely to add to pressure on Facebook and Twitter to give a full and transparent account of their interactions with Moscow entities before and during the US election.

Vanessa Chan, a spokeswoman for Facebook, said the investment backed by Gazprom Investholding had been sold five years ago, after Facebook went public. Chan said Facebook “rejected the notion of a lack of due diligence” being done on its investors. A Twitter spokesperson said: “As a matter of policy Twitter conducted reviews of all pre-IPO investors.”

The Twitter and Facebook investments were made by Milner’s investment company DST Global, which was set up in 2009. At the time, Milner joined forces with the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, a co-owner of Arsenal FC, who invested heavily in DST Global funds.

Alisher Usmanov. Photograph: Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images

Purchases of Facebook and Twitter were public knowledge and turned out to be lucrative. Usmanov is estimated to have made more than $1bn on his original $200m stake. Usmanov sold the last of his Facebook holdings in September 2013 and Milner said DST Global had sold all stakes in Facebook and Twitter by 2014.

But the role of major state-run Russian banks in funding some stakes – including in Twitter, Trump’s favourite medium – was previously unknown.

Born in Soviet Moscow in 1961, Milner was named after Yuri Gagarin, who had become the first man in outer space earlier that year. Milner studied theoretical physics at Moscow State University and in 1990 moved from the Soviet Union to the US, where he attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Yuri Milner with his wife, Julia. Photograph: Trisha Leeper/WireImage

After a stint at the World Bank in Washington, he returned to Russia and set up Mail.ru, an email and social networking service, which became popular and profitable. In 2009, he was asked to join Medvedev’s innovation commission. Milner said the role involved advising Russian ministers and officials on moving public services online.

Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, was so impressed with Milner’s rise that he invited the Russian to invest in Facebook. Milner’s company “stood out because of the global perspective they bring”, Zuckerberg said when announcing their first $200m deal in 2009. “I believe I had some expertise at the time that Mark found valuable,” Milner said.

The pair became friends and Zuckerberg attended Milner’s wedding in California late in 2011. The ceremony was held at a vast mansion atop a hillside near Silicon Valley that Milner had recently bought for $100m. Milner and Zuckerberg are advisers to each other’s philanthropic ventures and remain close.

Associates of Milner told the Guardian that he tried to secure funding for new investments from western banks. But they turned him down, forcing him after the 2008 financial crisis to go instead to Russian institutions. His exit from Moscow followed Putin’s return as president in 2012, as Russia moved in a more authoritarian direction. Milner has lived in the US with his family since 2014.

Yuri Milner’s Los Altos Hills house, bought for $100m. Photograph: Google Earth

Milner said that as a management company, DST Global had sole discretion over its investment decisions. He said that he, like other investment managers, did not disclose the identities of his funders to the companies where DST Global invested. He said funders such as VTB received only basic updates on investments.

He briefly mentioned VTB’s role in the Twitter investment during an interview with Forbes magazine last month. The partial disclosure appeared to have been prompted by questions put to him by the Guardian and other media partners.

It is unclear if Moscow saw a political interest in funding stakes in Facebook and Twitter, or if the acquisitions were only intended to make money. Sources familiar with the situation told the Guardian that Facebook had carried out a discreet internal review of Russian investments before its IPO in 2012, and that the review was unable to draw firm conclusions.

Karen Vartapetov, the director of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor’s, said the Russian government had “a strong influence on VTB’s strategic and business plans” even when these were not expected to be lucrative. “VTB plays a very important role for government policies, including implementation of some less profitable and socially important tasks,” said Vartapetov.

Russia’s role in exploiting Facebook and Twitter to influence the 2016 US election is an important strand of an FBI inquiry and congressional investigations. Facebook has identified 3,000 advertisements and 470 fake accounts on its network that were set up by a “troll factory” in St Petersburg. Details have been passed to Congress and to the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, who is examining alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

VTB has a close relationship with the Kremlin and, according to analysts, has received more state subsidies than any other Russian bank. In 2009, the bank boasted that its investment banking arm was “pivotal in managing the state’s interests”.

VTB also has close ties to Putin’s FSB intelligence agency. The bank’s chairman, Andrey Kostin, is a former KGB foreign intelligence operative, it has been reported, who has received several state decorations from Putin. Milner denied knowing about VTB’s ties to Russian intelligence. VTB funded 45% of the Twitter stake. The bank denies Kostin worked for the KGB.

In an email, Milner’s spokeswoman said: “Yuri Milner has never been an employee of the Russian government.” Milner said he not spoken to Medvedev nor any other Russian minister about social media, and that he and Zuckerberg had not discussed the controversy over Russian exploitation of social media. “Politics is something I’m very uninterested in,” Milner told the Guardian.

‘They operate in the shadows’

The Paradise Papers help to unravel complex arrangements that led Russian state money to fund investments in the US social media companies.

They involve a bewildering array of companies using similar names and acronyms, some registered offshore in places that offer secrecy about ownership. The arrangements are legal, but have led campaigners to demand more transparency.

The trail begins in December 2005, when Gazprom Investholding began putting money into Kanton Services, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. Usmanov was at the time general director of Gazprom Investholding, which the Kremlin has used to renationalise assets sold off in the 1990s.

Gazprom in effect took control of Kanton in 2009 in return for $920m. In 2011, Kanton in turn took a majority stake in DST USA II, a vehicle publicly associated with Milner. By 2012, DST USA II had bought more than 50m shares in Facebook, according to filings at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, amounting to more than 3% of the social media company.

Over the following months, ownership of DST USA II was transferred to an Usmanov company, which sold off $1bn worth of the shares in Facebook at a significant profit after the social network floated on the stock market.

The ultimate owner of Kanton was not made clear, but the company has several ties to Usmanov. An executive who dealt with Kanton on another deal, who requested anonymity to discuss private details, said: “I was led to believe this was one of Usmanov’s investment companies.”

Milner said he knew who owned Kanton but declined to name them, citing a confidentiality agreement. He said he did not know where Usmanov and his other partners obtained funding. “I had no knowledge of him using state funds to invest with us – he had enough funds already from the holdings that he owned,” said Milner.

Russia's influence operations are intentionally opaque Alina Polyakova

Rollo Head, a spokesman for Usmanov, said in an email: “To be absolutely clear, Mr Usmanov did not borrow from or use state or quasi-state funds to make investments in Facebook.”

Alina Polyakova, a specialist in Russian foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Moscow frequently used intermediaries to ensure “plausible deniability” for the actions of senior officials.

“Russia’s influence over operations – whether that be allocating funds for disinformation campaigns or providing financing to extremist movements, or others – are intentionally opaque,” said Polyakova. “They operate in the shadows.”

The leaked documents, together with public filings, show that VTB funded another offshore investment vehicle, DST Investments 3, which was registered on the Isle of Man, a tax haven and UK crown dependency.

VTB put about $191m into this vehicle, which bought 11m shares in Twitter in 2011. When Twitter was preparing to float on the stock market in 2013, the VTB-funded vehicle held a 2% stake in the company. The VTB-funded stake was sold in May 2014, according to Milner. Stock prices from that time indicate the sale would have returned more than $240m in profit.

In July 2014, shortly before the US imposed sanctions on Russian entities such as VTB and Gazprom over the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine, control of DST Investments 3 was transferred to Kanton, the same company tied to Usmanov that was used as a go-between in the Facebook deal.

Milner insisted VTB had been treated like his other investors, but acknowledged it was different in one respect. “VTB Bank is clearly an institution controlled by the Russian government,” he said.

The Russian companies denied that their funding of the investments was politically motivated.

“The loans were provided for general corporate purposes,” said Oleg Maksimov, a spokesman for Gazprom Investholding. A VTB spokesperson said that in 2011 the bank “executed several deals in the high-tech industry, as we considered this field to have high potential” but had since sold its stakes.

02:07 What are the Paradise Papers? – video

Russian investor backed Kushner

The disclosure of Milner’s partial backing by Russian state interests may also cause difficulties for Kushner.

Milner in 2015 contributed $850,000 from his family trust to a $50m investment in Cadre, a New-York-based company that Kushner co-founded in 2014 with his brother, Joshua, and a friend of theirs from Harvard. The startup, which the Kushners claim is worth $800m, is based around an online marketplace where wealthy financiers can club together to invest in properties.

Cadre has attracted an estimated $133m of venture capital from backers including Peter Thiel, the controversial libertarian billionaire who co-founded PayPal and backed Trump’s campaign for president in 2016.

Jared Kushner. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

The company has already caused controversy for Kushner, after he initially failed to detail his stake in Cadre in financial disclosures to the US Office of Government Ethics. Kushner later added Cadre to revised paperwork, saying his stake in the firm was worth up to $25m.

Cadre initially said in a June press release that Milner’s stake in the company was held through his firm DST. A different version of the release on Cadre’s website said, however, that Milner himself was the investor in Cadre. The breakdown of the $50m funding was not made public by Cadre.

Milner said in an interview that he had invested in Cadre based only on the merits of the business. “I just thought it was an attractive opportunity,” he said.

He said he knew Joshua Kushner and had met Jared Kushner once, at a conference in Aspen, Colorado, in autumn 2016. “He was very pleasant and nice, and it was sort of a cocktail-type conversation,” said Milner, adding that politics was not discussed.

Cadre operates from the Puck Building in the Nolita section of Manhattan. The Kushners’ father, Charles, bought the building in the 1980s before being jailed for a string of crimes including 18 counts of tax evasion. The building, a red-brick Romanesque revival, was named after the 19th-century satirical magazine based there. A gilded Puck statue, wearing a top hat and tails, gazes down on staff as they arrive for work.

Mueller’s inquiry is believed to be reviewing Jared Kushner’s finances. Kushner was questioned by US senators in July about his connections to Russia. The closed-door session followed a series of explosive reports, including that Kushner had undisclosed contacts with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador to the US.

In remarks at the White House in July, Kushner said he had “not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector”.

Kushner attended a meeting at Trump Tower in June last year at which Donald Trump Jr was expecting to receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton, their Democratic opponent, which he was told had come from the Russian government. Kushner claimed he knew nothing about the meeting’s purpose before attending and left shortly after it began.

He has also denied reports that following his father-in-law’s election victory, he proposed setting up a secure communication channel between Trump’s team and Moscow to avoid snooping by the US before Trump took office. Kislyak reportedly told his superiors in Moscow, during conversations intercepted by American intelligence, that Kushner had asked for the backchannel during a meeting at Trump Tower last December.

Output: Facebook and Twitter received substantial investments from Russian state institutions connected to Vladimir Putin through an associate of Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, according to documents exposed in the Paradise Papers leak. The investments were made by Yuri Milner, a Russian tech entrepreneur who holds a stake in a firm co-owned by Kushner. Neither company was made aware of the fact that the investments came from the state-controlled VTB bank, which in 2011 invested $191m in Twitter, and a division of state oil and gas company Gazprom, which funded a vehicle holding $1bn of Facebook shares.


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SmartStudy to expand online learning platform with $30m funding
 Online education company SmartStudy announced on Wednesday that it has received 200 million yuan ($30 million) in its B-plus round of financing.

Together with another 200 million yuan acquired in November last year, the whole B round of financing of the education startup totaled 400 million yuan, according to CEO Wei Xiaoliang.

Established in 2013, SmartStudy targets Chinese students who want to improve test results needed for applications to study overseas.

The company has expanded its services to include helping students with their whole overseas study application process, and their life and studies while abroad.

According to Wei, the company has almost 6 million registered learners, of whom 150,000 paid for the company's services.

He said the incomes of Chinese families, particularly those in large cities, have increased greatly over the past decade, and well-off parents are looking for more informative, customized and international education for their children.

He added that the size of the market for foreign language education in China is expected to reach 600 billion yuan by 2020, and the market size of overseas study services might exceed 56 billion yuan.

"There are great potential and development opportunities in the field," he said, adding that much of the money raised will be put into upgrading SmartStudy's classes and nurturing talent for the company.

Output: Online education firm SmartStudy has raised CNY200m ($30m) in a B-plus round, taking its total series B financing to CNY400m. The company offers Chinese students the opportunity to study overseas to improve their application test results, as well as assistance with overseas study applications and management of academic studies while abroad. The company has nearly 6 million registered students, with 150,000 of those paying for the service. SmartStudy plans to use the funds to upgrade the current offering of classes and develop talent within the company.


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Bango mobile payments expands presence in South Korea
 Bango CEO and founder Ray Anderson

Mobile payments company Bango has expanded its presence in South Korea to increase payment opportunities for digital, physical and internet of things (IoT) services in the nation.

Along with the increased presence, Bango has appointed a country manager for the region in the form of Alex Oh. His 25-year career has included technical leadership at the likes of Samsung, Dilithium Networks and Comverse.

“The Bango Platform is truly differentiated by being capable of powering physical goods sales and capabilities that enable internet connected devices to be monetised,” said Oh. “I look forward to expanding the established Bango relationships with Danal and Samsung, along with introducing the Korean mobile operators to the benefits of the Bango Platform, in particular the unique technology that increases content sales. I am thrilled to join the Bango team to help make its strategic partners – and anybody selling to internet uses – more successful.”

In 2016, Bango expanded its presence in Japan. This eventually led to it deploying a new payment method for Amazon in Japan. Bango says it sees similar opportunities for Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) in Korea, and expects the expansion to be a growth opportunity for its partners to collect payment for physical good, IoT services, and digital content.

“Following this year’s successful launch of carrier billing for Amazon in Japan, I am excited to establish a Bango presence in South Korea led by a hugely experienced country manager,” said Ray Anderson, Bango CEO. “The Bango strategy, to power the leaders in physical and digital retail, and in exciting new areas such as smart home, has seen a continued increase in End User Spend and Bango is EBITDA positive on a run-rate basis entering November 2017.”

Join us at the 2017 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards Ceremony, taking place in London on Thursday 16 November, to mix with the industry's best and brightest, and raise a glass to the year's best campaigns and solutions. To find out more, and to book your place, click here.

Output: Mobile payments firm Bango has extended its South Korean operations, seeking to expand its offerings to new partners and hiring a country manager to boost its operations and relationships with major clients. It aims to offer further payment opportunities across real-world, digital and internet of things services. Alex Oh will manage the company's relationships with Danal and Samsung. The move follows Bango's expansion in Japan last year, where it offered a new payment solution for Amazon, and hopes to do the same for Direct Carrier Billing in Korea.


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Wells Fargo to offer AI-supported, mobile-only account
 Wells Fargo is to launch a new mobile-only customer account tied to a standalone AI-based budgeting and savings app.

The Greenhouse app operates across two distinct accounts: one for weekly spending tied to a dedicated debit card, and one account reserved for savings and bills. In this latter account, customers can set aside money to build a savings cushion as well as for specific expenses, such as rent or a phone bill.

The app ties the two bank accounts together and provides spending trend visualisations, personalised insights based on an artificial intelligence engine, and alerts to help customers stay on track.

Avid Modjtabai, head of payments, virtual solutions and innovation at Wells Fargo, says the new account has been designed to appeal to a broad base of consumers, many of whom have several income sources or are paid infrequently, which can make budgeting a challenge,

“Whether you are new to banking, don’t have regular paychecks, or typically manage money with cash, we believe the Greenhouse experience can help you manage day-to-day spending while planning for the future,” he says.

The move bring the banking behemoth into a market which has been identified by a host of social savings startups as an overlooked aspect of banking that is ripe for the picking.

The Greenhouse app will be available in a limited, national pilot in the first quarter of 2018 and is slated to launch for Apple iPhone users during the first half of 2018.

Output: Wells Fargo is to launch a mobile-only account in the US that offers artificial intelligence-based budgeting and savings support as well as a current account. The Greenhouse app offers one account for day-to-day spending on a linked debit card and another that looks after savings and bills. The app provides AI-based insights into customers' spending trends and alerts for keeping budgets on track. The app will be available via a national pilot in Q1 2018, with a predicted launch for iPhone users to follow. Greenhouse is particularly aimed at customers who have unpredictable or multiple income sources.


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IBM claims new tech can make computers run 200-times faster
 An All-in-One Approach to Computing

Regular desktop computers, as well as laptops and smartphones, have processing units dedicated to computing and memory. They're called von Neumann systems and are named after physicist and computer scientist John von Neumann who, among other things, was a pioneer in modern digital computing. They work by moving data back and forth between the memory and computing unit; a process that can, and often does, end up being slow and not very efficient.

At least, not as fast or efficient as what we could achieve using "computational memory." Also known as "in-memory computing," computational memory allows for storing and processing information using just the physical properties of a computer system's memory.

A team from IBM Research claims to have made a breakthrough in computational memory by successfully using one million phase change memory (PCM) devices to run an unsupervised machine learning algorithm. Details of the research have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

The IBM team's PCM device was made from a germanium antimony telluride alloy stacked and sandwiched between two electrodes. "[T]his prototype technology is expected to yield 200x improvements in both speed and energy efficiency, making it highly suitable for enabling ultra-dense, low-power, and massively-parallel computing systems for applications in AI," according to a post on IBM Research's blog.

Fit for AI

The new PCM devices can perform computation in place through crystallization dynamics. Essentially, this involves an electrical current being applied to the PCM's material, which changes its state from one of a disordered atomic arrangement to an ordered configuration — i.e. crystalline. The IBM team demonstrated their PCM technology using two time-based examples, which they then compared to traditional machine-learning methods.

The ability to perform computations faster will, obviously, benefit over all computer performance. For IBM, that means better computing power for AI applications. “This is an important step forward in our research of the physics of AI, which explores new hardware materials, devices and architectures,” IBM Fellow and co-author of the study Evangelos Eleftheriou said in a statement quoted in the blog.

“As the [Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor or CMOS] scaling laws break down because of technological limits, a radical departure from the processor-memory dichotomy is needed to circumvent the limitations of today’s computers. Given the simplicity, high speed and low energy of our in-memory computing approach, it’s remarkable that our results are so similar to our benchmark classical approach run on a von Neumann computer.”

Computational memory presents an opportunity for a more "real-time" processing of information; a much-needed improvement in today's world, where more companies are putting a premium on data analytics. At the same time, as industry giants like Amazon and Google place AI at the center of their business, faster computing for AI applications is indeed a welcomed development.

For IBM, in-memory computing is key. “Memory has so far been viewed as a place where we merely store information. But in this work, we conclusively show how we can exploit the physics of these memory devices to also perform a rather high-level computational primitive," lead author Abu Sebastian said. "The result of the computation is also stored in the memory devices, and in this sense the concept is loosely inspired by how the brain computes.”

Output: IBM researchers have claimed that their computational memory technology can make computers run 200 times more efficiently in terms of speed and energy. Experiments using phase change memory (PCM) devices made of germanium antimony telluride alloy placed between two electrodes, showed the technology was suitable for the high-level needs of computing systems that test applications in artificial intelligence. The research's lead author, Abu Sebastian, said the concept was "loosely inspired by how the brain computes" and memorises simultaneously.


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Android Pay seen testing card purchase history feature
 Keeping track of your purchases isn’t always easy. That’s why services such as PayPal which can notify you of every purchase or deposit can really come in handy. Android Pay does something similar, but only when you pay with your phone. Now, it’s looking like the service might be able to pull transaction history from your card(s) regardless of if it was on your phone or not.

As noted on Twitter, the Android Pay app appears to be testing out a new feature for “Full Purchase History.” In short, this new feature pulls your entire transaction history from your card and displays it right alongside Android Pay purchases.

This new setting on Android Pay appears to only work for specific cards, though. In this first case, it works with an American Express Cash card, and other users with American Express cards are reporting the same on Reddit, even in the UK.

Presumably, adding this functionality will also give users the ability to receive notifications for purchases with that card through Android Pay, just like purchases made with the phone, but that has not been fully confirmed yet.

Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:

Output: Android is said to be testing a Full Purchase History feature on its payments app, offering users the ability to see a full transaction history for cards even if those payments were not made with Android Pay. Only certain cards appear to be compatible at present, including American Express. The added functionality is also expected to give users notifications of purchases made on their card.


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Indian edtech Meritnation to scale its online learning tools
 With The Latest Funding, Info Edge Now Holds 66% Stake In The Edtech Startup

Delhi-based elearning platform Meritnation has raised $5.8 Mn (INR 38 Cr) from online classifieds platform Info Edge, which runs job portal Naukri.com, real estate site 99acres and Jeevansaathi. As per its BSE filings, Info Edge has pumped over $20.7 Mn (INR 134 Cr) in the online education startup across three rounds so far.

With the latest funding round, the parent of Naukri.com now holds a 66% stake in Meritnation.

Of the newly-raised capital, around $5 Mn will be spent on paying off some of Meritnation’s debt on its books, states the filing. The remaining amount will be infused towards scaling the startup’s daily operations.

Meritnation: Integrating Technology To Make Education More Accessible

Founded in 2007 by Pavan Chauhan and Ritesh Hemrajani, the elearning platform targets K-12 students across various educational boards like CBSE, ICSE and State Boards such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Owned by Applect Learning Systems, the platform which can be accessed on iOS and Android platforms, has study related apps like Tables App, IIT JEEnius Mobile Apps to make studies easy and interactive for students.

At present, the company claims to have over 9.5 Mn active users across nine countries, up from 9 Mn students in 2015. It also has a repository of more than 14,000 animated videos, tests, homework help forums and interactive exercises.

Meritnation Live, which was made available in 2014 for students of grades 6 to 12, offers online classes for JEE and AIPMT entrance exams. Through this platform, Meritnation avails IIT professionals to teach the students along with tracking every student’s progress closely and displaying personalised recommendations. Complying with its delivery of personalised and engaging content model, the company had rolled out Meritnation Junior in April 2014.

Around the same time, the elearning platform launched a franchise model at 6 offline centres in Chandigarh and Lucknow. The model was originally tested in 2012 when Meritnation opened a centre in Gurgaon and subsequently launching four more centres in Jaipur two years later.

Earlier in June 2015, the elearning startup secured funding of $4 Mn from Info Edge. At the time, founder and CEO of Meritnation told Inc42 that the funds would be utilised to ramp up the technology for Meritnation Live and increase the number of employees in the organisation.

Info Edge: An Overview

Incorporated in May 1995, Info Edge is the parent company of a number of online portals, including 99acres, Naukri.com, matrimony classifieds Jeevansathi.com, and online education platform Shiksha.com. It currently boasts a workforce of more than 4,000 employees in 62 offices across 43 cities in India.

As per the company’s latest filings, it has seen around 7% increase in operational revenues in the second quarter of FYY 2017-18 to $34.7 Mn (INR 225.2 Cr) from $32.4 Mn (INR 209.9 Cr) in Q2 2016.

Over the years, the investment arm of Info Edge has backed several early-stage Internet-based startup ventures. Among them are Zomato, Mydala, PolicyBazaar, HappilyUnmarried, VCare, Unnati, and Goa-headquartered Vacation Labs. In December 2015, Canvera Digital secured $2.2 Mn (INR 15 Cr) funding from Info Edge.

Later in January of the same year, the company invested $1 Mn software services provider, Rare Media, in exchange for a 35% stake. The move, as per reports, was aimed at bolstering the growth and expansion of Info Edge’s subsidiary 99acres.

Online gifting platform HappilyUnmarried received a $740K funding boost from Info Edge in July last year. A couple of months later, the company poured $2.3 Mn into Bengaluru-based online photography startup Canvera. In December, phone directory app Diro Labs raised $147K (INR 1 Cr) through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares from Info Edge.

This year in April, the company acquired AmbitionBox to enhance the overall experience of Naukri users. Two months later, in July, online beauty services provider BigStylist raised $1.2 Mn (INR 8 Cr) in a funding round led by Info Edge. Most recently, in the month of September, Info Edge invested another $1.3 Mn (INR 8.6 Cr) in Canvera Digital Technologies.

Online education in India will see approximately 8x growth in the next five years, says a recent report by Google, KPMG. This will have a significant impact on the edtech market that has a potential to touch $1.96 Bn by 2021 from where it stands now i.e. $247 Mn.

As per Inc42 Datalabs Report for H1 2017, edtech took the fourth spot with 23 deals in the sector. Armed with the $5.8 Mn funding from Info Edge, elearning startup Meritnation is gearing up to compete with a number of emerging players in this segment including BYJU’S, Unacademy, Coursera, UCLID, Avagmah, iProf, Simplilearn and Englishleap.

Output: Indian elearning platform Meritnation has raised $5.8m in investment from Info Edge, a digital classifieds platform. Info Edge has invested more than $20.7m into Meritnation through three investment rounds, and now owns a 66% stake in the company. The funds will be spent on resolving some of Meritnation's debt, with the remainder dedicated to extending the start-up's operations. The Meritnation platform reportedly has more than 9.5 million active users in nine countries, providing 14,000 tests, homework help forums, digital exercises and animated videos to help students.


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Jaguar Land Rover cautious about YouTube after misplaced ads
 Jaguar Land Rover is coming around to the idea that appearing next to fewer but more relevant videos on YouTube won’t come cheap.

The irrelevancy of ad placements on the video site is a pressing issue for the car manufacturer, perhaps even more of one than its brand-safety fears. JLR isn’t spending as much as it did on YouTube since it was revealed as one of the brands that had its ads misplaced on the site, but it wants to — it’s just cautious about the returns from its spend there. When JLR’s spending on YouTube returns to the previous levels, it will focus more on knowing where its ads run.

Dominic Chambers, JLR’s global head of digital marketing, said if that means the brand’s videos appear on a smaller pool of channels, then so be it. There’s no point in a JLR ad appearing next to gaming content when those videos are mainly watched by kids, for example. It’s not like TV, where a carmaker could justify a similar placement with the likelihood that an adult and their child would watch the program.

Chambers doesn’t control JLR’s media budget directly, but he does influence how it’s spent, which will increasingly lead to his peers accepting that greater relevance on YouTube will cost more. In other words, through services like Google Preferred or via private programmatic exchanges, the brand is removing channels that may be brand-safe yet aren’t relevant — the so-called long tail of content that would have bloated previous campaigns to maximize reach. Chambers said costs have increased when the brand bought ads on a smaller number of channels, but he believes sharper targeting and “a better-quality experience” offset the additional expense.

“There’s lots of data to prove that if you’re in a relevant context, then you have much higher engagement and action,” he said.

There aren’t many brands with the resources to sift through thousands of YouTube URLs, monitoring what is uploaded to the channels they want to appear on. It is difficult but possible, using technology, to pick the specific YouTube videos you want your advertising to appear against. JLR is working with Google and analytics company OpenSlate to do this and ensure its cost-per-video rate doesn’t increase too much, Chambers said.

Digital agency Jellyfish set up a similar service for its own clients, and its KPIs are off the chart because it’s targeting the consumer based on their viewing habits and not targeting a cookie, said Daniel Wilkinson, head of paid media at Jellyfish.

YouTube is too big to avoid for a long stretch of time, and it has become a key destination for people preparing to buy a car. Like many of his peers, Chambers has pressured the business the video site to ease the tension between reach and relevance. “It was unfortunate about the [brand-safety] issues we had earlier in the year,” he said, “but Google [is] putting in account-level controls [so] that as long as we can set them up globally, [that] will mean we’ll be back on it.”

JLR’s future on YouTube is likely a key talking point in its current media review. While its incumbent media agency Mindshare buys YouTube inventory in the U.K., a significant chunk of its European spend on the site goes through DBM directly. Whether JLR sticks with Mindshare or looks elsewhere hasn’t been announced, though Chambers said its contract will change to create a more transparent model. JLR started the review just days after The Times of London revealed that ads for a number of major brands, including JLR, had appeared on extremist videos or sites.

Image courtesy of Jaguar Land Rover

Output: Jaguar Land Rover is cautious about the placement of its video ads on YouTube following the revelation that one was misplaced on unfavourable sites. The car maker plans to continue its level of spend on YouTube, but will focus on placement over density. However, greater relevance in ad placement will be more costly, as services such as Google Preferred or programmatic exchanges will need to be tailored to include only channels that are considered safe. JLR will use Google and analytics firm OpenSlate to select which channels it uses.


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Russian entrepreneurs heat home with bitcoin mining rig
 Two entrepreneurs have figured out how to heat their homes for free: bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin transactions require a lot of processing power, which creates a lot of heat. So Ilya Frolov and Dmitry Tolmachyov built a wooden cottage in the Russian Siberian town of Irkutsk, and they’re heating it with two bitcoin mines. The men pocket about $430 a month from bitcoin transactions, while keeping the 20 square meter space warm.

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Watch our video to see how the heating system works.

Output: Two Siberian bitcoin miners have devised a way to use the energy generated by their bitcoin mining operation to heat a small cottage in the town of Irkutsk. The prototype 215 sq ft house, built by Ilya Frolov and Dmitry Tolmachyov, includes two rigs, which warm liquid for radiators inside the structure. Tolmachyov, who earns around $430 per month from mining, hopes that more homes in the region can be heated in this manner.


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Japan's Tech Bureau backed by Shinsei Bank
 Tech Bureau, a leading Japanese blockchain and cryptocurrency company has announced that Shinsei Bank, a Japanese bank that provides a full range of financial products and services, and OKWAVE, the first and largest Q&A social community in Japan with bitcoin support and over 40 million users, have invested in Tech Bureau.

The brief history of Tech Bureau has seen the company launch the Zaif cryptocurrency exchange in the spring of 2015, its private blockchain product mijin swiftly followed in the fall of 2015. In 2016, Zaica, a token issuance service for corporations, and Zaif started to handle tokens as an exchange.

In August 2017, Tech Bureau announced its next development phase with the launch of COMSA, an integrated ICO solution and platform for enterprises that want to adopt blockchain technology and launch an ICO at the same time. The first token for sale on the platform is the COMSA (CMS) token issued by Tech Bureau itself, ending November 6, 2017 and which has sold USD $90 million so far.

The COMSA concept was conceived more than 2 years ago, and now it represents the ultimate integration of all products and services that Tech Bureau has to offer. Tech Bureau received $15M from Japan’s largest VC JAFCO in September, this was on top of a $9 million commitment in August from VCs Nippon Technology Venture Partners, FISCO Capitals, and ABBALab Inc. to support COMSA.

The investment from Shinsei and OKWAVE will go to support not just COMSA, but will help boost the ecosystem of Tech Bureau’s other businesses.

INVESTMENT BREAKDOWN:

Shinsei Bank – USD $460,500 OKWAVE – USD $307,000 (second investment)

FUNDRAISING PURPOSE:

Expand business and increase headcount.

Expand and improve Zaif cryptocurrency exchange infrastructure and services

Build “mijin CloudChain,” BaaS (blockchain as a service) cloud service

Expand mijin licensing and mijin CloudChain sales worldwide

Grow its US, European, and Asian business bases

Invest in new businesses, M&A

Merge existing financial services with Tech Bureau’s technology and services

Proceeds from the sales of CMS tokens on COMSA will be invested separately in system development of COMSA itself to expand its services and operations as outlined in the COMSA white paper.

Output: Tech Bureau, the Japanese company behind the Zaif cryptocurrency exchange, has secured more than $760,000 in investment from Shinsei Bank and Q&A social community OKWAVE, following investments totalling $24m in August and September. The funds will be used to grow Tech Bureau's European and Asian presences and invest in new businesses, among other projects. Tech Bureau recently closed its inaugural token sale on its COMSA integrated platform, raising over $90m.


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Study shows negligible benefits of blood as anti-aging treatment
 Young Blood

The results of a study investigating whether blood plasma taken from young people can reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease are in. Unfortunately, it seems that the technique doesn't hold as much potential as many had hoped, yet the scientists behind the work are quick to note that the research is still in its nascent stages.

Within this study, a group of elderly people with Alzheimer's disease were given weekly injections of blood plasma from people aged between 18 and 25. But, while some improvements were recorded, the effects of the treatment were not significantly pronounced.

The participants of the study did not perform better on objective cognitive tests taken after the had received injections for an extended period of time. However, a survey of caregivers indicated that there were improvements in terms of their ability to carry out everyday tasks like preparing food or traveling.

The idea of injecting plasma to combat the effects of aging comes from a 19th-century concept that's now referred to as parabiosis. In its earliest iteration, the skin of old and young mice was stitched together to allow blood to circulate freely between the two animals.

In recent years, the technique has been revisited, and it was demonstrated to revitalize the liver, brain, and muscles of older mice. This prompted a search for the molecules that were causing these improvements.

Peer Review

Doubt has been cast on this study because of the way that the treatment's effectiveness was tested. Initially, one group of patients was set to be given a saline placebo, and another would be injected with plasma. After several weeks, they would switch – but this plan was thrown out after several participants dropped out.

Instead, the remaining participants were all given plasma for four weeks, and this was compared to the placebo effect from the first study. Between the study results and the fact that caregivers might be predisposed to observe improvements where there are none, it's being argued that the study is far from conclusive.

Alkahest, the technology company that bankrolled the study, finds the results encouraging. Further trials are set to be carried out to determine whether or not the treatment is at all viable.

Another study will take this a step further and only use the part of blood plasma that contains growth factors, which has proven to be more effective in animal testing. There are also early plans to test a larger number of Alzheimer's sufferers, including people with a more severe form of the condition, with a variety of different dosages.

There are still questions that need to be answered before we know how effective plasma injections really are. Despite this and the inconclusive and seemingly ineffectual results, the procedure is already being offered commercially, with prices as high as $8,000 for a two-day course of treatment.

Output: High hopes for reversing the symptoms of Alzheimer's have been dashed after the first study investigating the effects of blood plasma from young people on patients ended inconclusively. Participants in the study performed no better on cognitive tests taken after receiving plasma injections for an extended period of time. However, a survey of caregivers indicated that there were improvements in patients' ability to carry out everyday tasks, like preparing food or travelling. Despite the inconclusive results, the treatment is being offered commercially, at prices as high as $8,000 for two days.


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UK seabed litter increases 158% in a year
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Output: The amount of litter on the seabed around the UK has risen dramatically, according to data from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Last year saw an average of 358 items of litter per square kilometre of seabed, a rise of 158% from 2015 and of 222% from 1992-94. Of the litter, nearly 78% was plastic, while 6.3% was rubber and 2.7% was metal. The 2016 rise was the first after three years of decreasing figures. The production of plastic is expected to double over the next two decades.


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Roman launches platform that targets men's health
 Roman, an online men's health platform initially focused on erectile dysfunction, launched this week with $3.1 million in funding. General Catalyst led the round, with participation from Initialized Capital, Box Group, and Slow Ventures. The company also announced a number of angel investors including Casper CEO Philip Krim, Bark CEO Matt Meeker, WayUp CEO Liz Wessel, Code Academy CEO Zach Sims, former Behance CEO Scott Belsky, and PillPack CEO TJ Parker.

The idea behind the company is that the stigma behind erectile dysfunction keeps many men from seeking any treatment, or drives them to seek treatment outside of the healthcare system. This is dangerous because ED can be an early warning sign of diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, or depression. An online platform allows men to seek discreet treatment they might be more comfortable with.

"Basically, having ED is your body’s check engine light turning on,” Zachariah Reitano, Roman CEO and cofounder, said in a statement. “A check engine light that’s so highly stigmatized — men rarely admit it, even to their own doctor, which means they wait until things become worse.”

Reitano shared in a medium post that he experienced ED himself as a teenager and it turned out to be an early symptom of a dangerous heart condition.

Roman's offering includes an asynchronous telehealth assessment that patients fill out online with the help of a chatbot. Then a physician reviews those questions and follows up if necessary. Many times users will be prescribed ED meds, which can then be shipped discreetly to the patient and refilled automatically. Patients can chat with a pharmacist or medical team at any time. Roman charges $15 for the initial consultation, as well as charging for any medication. The company does not accept insurance and the service will initially be available only in New York, California, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

The company is also committed to encouraging patients to see a doctor to discover the underlying causes of their ED, and will make it easy to forward information to providers.

Reitano doesn't plan for ED to be Roman's entire business in the long run. He hopes to discover what other conditions are disproportionately affecting men because men's reluctance to seek care and gradually add those to the platform.

"First, Roman will strive to be the easiest, safest, and most affordable way to receive treatment for erectile dysfunction. If we don’t accomplish this, we will never be able to do anything else," he wrote. "If we are fortunate to take the first step, we will look to our patients. Roman exists to serve our patients. The data shows that many conditions are highly correlated with ED but we don’t yet know which conditions our patients most need us to help them treat. We will progress adaptively and continue to be an important part of their healthcare journey."

Output: Roman has gone live with its men's health platform, after securing $3.1m in funding from General Catalyst, among others. Roman CEO Zachariah Reitano said the platform, initially available in California, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, aims to erase the stigma about erectile dysfunction, which is sometimes a symptom of more serious health issues. The platform's chatbot helps users fill out a telehealth assessment form, which is them checked by a doctor, with any medication required discreetly mailed to patients. Reitano said the company hopes to cover other conditions that disproportionately affect men.


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Google's AI can be tricked into misidentifying 3D objects
 From self-driving cars to smart surveillance cams, society is slowly learning to trust AI over human eyes. But although our new machine vision systems are tireless and ever-vigilant, they’re far from infallible. Just look at the toy turtle above. It looks like a turtle, right? Well, not to a neural network trained by Google to identify everyday objects. To Google’s AI it looks exactly like a rifle.

This 3D-printed turtle is an example of what’s known as an “adversarial image.” In the AI world, these are pictures engineered to trick machine vision software, incorporating special patterns that make AI systems flip out. Think of them as optical illusions for computers. You can make adversarial glasses that trick facial recognition systems into thinking you’re someone else, or can apply an adversarial pattern to a picture as a layer of near-invisible static. Humans won’t spot the difference, but to an AI it means that panda has suddenly turned into a pickup truck.

Imagine tricking a self-driving car into seeing stop signs everywhere

Researching ways of generating and guarding against these sorts of adversarial attacks is an active field of research. And although the attacks are usually strikingly effective, they’re often not too robust. This means that if you rotate an adversarial image or zoom in on it a a little, the computer will see past the pattern and identify it correctly. Why this 3D-printed turtle is significant, though, is because it shows how these adversarial attacks work in the 3D world, fooling a computer when viewed from multiple angles.

“In concrete terms, this means it's likely possible that one could construct a yard sale sign which to human drivers appears entirely ordinary, but might appear to a self-driving car as a pedestrian which suddenly appears next to the street,” write labsix, the team of students from MIT who published the research. “Adversarial examples are a practical concern that people must consider as neural networks become increasingly prevalent (and dangerous).”

Labsix calls their new method “Expectation Over Transformation” and you can read their full paper on it here. As well as creating a turtle that looks like a rifle, they also made a baseball that gets confused for an espresso and numerous non-3D-printed tests. The classes they chose were at random.

The group tested their attack against an image classifier developed by Google called Inception-v3. The company makes this freely available for researchers to tinker with, and although it’s not a commercial system, it’s not far from one. Although this attack was not tested against other machine vision software, to date there’s no single fix for adversarial images. When contacted by The Verge, Google did not offer a comment on the paper, but a spokesperson directed us to a number of recent papers outlining ways to foil adversarial attacks that have been published by the company’s researchers.

An example from labsix of how fragile adversarial attacks often are. The image on the left has been altered so that it’s identified as guacamole. Tilting it slightly means it’s identified once more as a cat.

The research comes with some caveats too. Firstly, the team’s claim that their attack works from “every angle” isn’t quite right. Their own video demos show that it works from most, but not all angles. Secondly, labsix needed access to Google’s vision algorithm in order to identify its weaknesses and fool it. This is a significant barrier for anyone who would try and use these methods against commercial vision systems deployed by, say, self-driving car companies. However, other adversarial attacks have been shown to work against AI sight-unseen, and, according to Quartz, the labsix team is working on this problem next.

Adversarial attacks like these aren’t, at present, a big danger to the public. They’re effective, yes, but in limited circumstances. And although machine vision is being deployed more commonly in the real world, we’re not yet so dependent on it that a bad actor with a 3D-printer could cause havoc. The problem is that issues like this exemplify how fragile some AI systems can be. And if we don’t fix these problems now, they could lead to much bigger issues in the future.

Output: Machine vision systems of all kinds are susceptible to confusing everyday objects with what a team at MIT are terming "adversarial images". These are objects that computers perceive as optical illusions and that can easily confuse an artificial intelligence (AI) system's recognition ability. For example, a driverless car could be tricked into seeing Stop signs everywhere. However, the team behind the adversarial image technology argue that it doesn't pose a present threat, as a working knowledge of Google's AI was required for them to be effective in confusing the system.


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Dutch thieves target bitcoin ATM, later realise it only has notes
 In het Brabantse plaatsje Oudenbosch hebben inbrekers een bitcoin ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) gestolen. Ze hadden hun oog bij de inbraak in brasserie Tivoli speciaal gericht op de bitcoinautomaat, want verder is er niks meegenomen.

Maar ze hebben er helemaal niks aan, want fysieke bitcoins bestaan natuurlijk niet.

Directeur Herman Vissia van ByeleX dat de automaat heeft geplaatst zegt tegen Omroep Brabant: “Een hele domme actie van de dieven. De bitcoin kan tegenwoordig dan wel veel waard zijn, de digitale valuta zit niet in het apparaat, maar staat in de cloud.”

Als de dieven het apparaat aansluiten op internet wordt het direct herkend, dus ook in die zin kunnen ze er niks mee. Wel zat er nog wat briefgeld in de automaat.

Loodzwaar apparaat

De inbrekers hebben zich een breuk moeten tillen, want ze namen het apparaat mee inclusief de zuil waar die op staat, de voet van een oude sterrenkijker. Gezamenlijk weegt dat zo’n 120 kilo.

De automaat in Oudenbosch was het allereerste bitcoinapparaat van Nederland: "Een primeur, maar wat de inbrekers nu voor elkaar hebben gekregen is een wereldprimeur te noemen", zegt Vissia.

Hij hoopt dan ook dat de bitcoin ATM nog wordt teruggevonden, zegt hij tegen BN DeStem: "Dan leg ik nog wel uit dat ze met bitcoins wel degelijk geld kunnen verdienen, maar niet op die manier."

De waarde van de bitcoin is inmiddels gestegen tot boven de 7.000 dollar gestegen.

Output: Thieves in the Dutch town of Oudenbosch recently stole the Netherlands' first-ever bitcoin automatic teller machine (ATM), believing it to be full of the virtual currency. Herman Vissia, director of ByeleX, the company which owns the ATM, said: "when the thieves connect the device to the internet, it is recognised immediately, so they can not do anything about it". Vissia said he hoped the machine could be recovered.


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Facebook earns $709m showing ads to ad-block users
 Facebook is said to have generated $709m of its advertising revenue from showing ads to adblock users on desktop, after implementing tamper-proof technology last year.

The $709m figure relates to Facebook’s ad revenue in Q2 2017, and not the company’s just-released, impressive Q3 figures. Either way, according to PageFair – despite many attempts to hack Facebook’s advertising technology from the likes of Adblock Plus creator Eyeo – Facebook has managed to secure almost three quarters of a billion dollars from serving ads to people that are using adblockers.

The substantial amount generated from serving ads to adblock users is entirely from desktop, despite the large majority of Facebook’s revenue shifting from desktop to mobile. I.e. mobile ad revenue represented around 88 per cent of Facebook’s more than $10bn revenue in Q3 2017.

“All websites can emulate this strategy. Facebook shows that websites can convert the adblock audience from a revenue threat to a revenue generator,” said Johnny Ryan, head of ecosystem at PageFair.

Join us at the 2017 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards Ceremony, taking place in London on Thursday 16 November, to mix with the industry's best and brightest, and raise a glass to the year's best campaigns and solutions. To find out more, and to book your place, click here.

Output: Despite attempts to circumvent Facebook's advertising technology by the leading ad-blocking providers, the social media giant was able to generate $709m in revenue in Q2 2017 by presenting ads to ad-block users on desktop platforms. Facebook continues to see significant revenue from desktop users, despite the vast majority of its base having switched to mobile. Johnny Ryan at ad-block analysts PageFair argues that the experience shows that other sites can follow suit and "convert the ad-block audience from a revenue threat to a revenue generator”.


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Fingerprint follows kids into mobile video viewing
 Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.

Fingerprint has added more than 1,500 children’s videos to its digital learning platform on mobile devices.

The San Francisco company has created a kind of virtual app library for safe kids apps and games, which are accessible on smartphones and tablets. Now it has added a bunch of videos including Animal Planet, Stuff Happens with Bill Nye, Care Bears, Inspector Gadget, Sesame Street, and Franny’s Feet, among others.

This strategic move into video is in sync with the viewing habits of children under 12. A 2016 study by DHX Media/Ipsos found that 61 percent of children under 12 prefer to view video content on tablets.

Fingerprint has other content from partnerships with Toongoggles, Entertainment One, Tinybop, Oceanhouse Media, Treehouse (a division of Corus Entertainment/Nelvana) and iHeartRadio Family. So now its content library has more than 4,000 games, books, and videos that support learning on such topics as literacy, STEM, creativity, and more.

“We are creating a powerhouse library that reflects the preferences of families today who are cutting the cord in favor of streaming and mobile options that are more cost effective and as it relates to our business, accessible to young audiences who primarily use digital devices for experiencing their favorite content,” said Nancy MacIntyre, CEO of Fingerprint, in a statement. “Our mission has always been to find and share the very best learning content — whether games, books or video — and these additions allow us to deliver even more robust offerings to millions of families through the distribution channels of our business partners.”

Image Credit: Fingerprint

The company noted that children today split their time between TV and digital screens. According to Common Sense Media’s 2017 Annual Report, while the amount of time children spend on mobile devices has tripled since 2011, screen time overall for children 8 years-old and under is approximately 2.5 hours per day, almost exactly what it was that same year.

Fingerprint isn’t wed to any single format for entertainment or learning, and so it is packaging a variety of games, videos, music and e-books from popular kids brands on its platform, which reaches consumers through subscription services or as premium content. The idea is to give safe content to parents so they can entertain and educate their kids more easily. Facebook has 300 partnerships with developers around the world.

Investors including Corus Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation, Reed Elsevier Ventures, Trinity Capital Investment, and GSV.

Output: Child-friendly education and entertainment app firm Fingerprint has added over 1,500 children's videos to its library. Accessible from tablets and smartphones, Fingerprint content aims to provide children with a safe digital environment. The switch to video reflects consumption habits of under 12s, of whom 61% prefer to view video content on a tablet, according to a recent DHX Media/Ipsos poll. Fingerprint's media library now holds over 4,000 games, books and videos, supporting learning on topics like literacy, STEM and creativity. The amount of time that children spend on mobile devices has tripled since 2011.


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Engagement with Facebook food videos is declining
 Facebook’s pivot to video was a boon for food-content providers, leading to a flood of “hands-in-pans” videos stuffing the News Feed. Now, engagement on food videos has been declining on Facebook, advertisers have raised their expectations, and the prices for branded food videos are largely coming down.

Monthly Facebook video views at several leading food-focused publishers are either flat or have declined over the past year, according to CrowdTangle data.

That said, Facebook’s algorithm still loves a hit: Through the first eight months of 2017, Facebook views of food videos with at least 100,000 views are up 43 percent year over year, according to Tubular data. Recipe videos still deliver a lot of impressions, but the sheer supply of publishers offering to shoot branded-content videos has given advertisers leverage.

One of the big struggles food-video creators face: Everything pretty much looks the same, particularly when people are whizzing past in a feed. The overhead recipe format, where a dish is assembled, step by step, in a sped-up presentation, is easily replicated. The Facebook audience’s hunger for recipe videos helped a number of new media companies, including Jungle Creations, So Yummy and Render Media, pile up nine-figure monthly video view counts. Legacy publishers like Hearst and Time Inc. also got on board.

“There’s not a significant difference between Partner A and Partner B,” said Whitney Smith, digital partner at Mindshare North America. “It gives us more negotiating power.”

That, in turn, has put downward pressure on prices. A separate media agency source said that publishers, citing increased competition, have lowered prices for branded overhead recipe video on a cost per view and CPM basis. Minimums on spend remain because of overhead production costs, however, the source said.

One exception is BuzzFeed’s Tasty, simply because of the sheer scale of distribution it brings to the table: Seven of Tubular’s top 25 food publishers are Tasty verticals. According to buyers, Tasty still commands premium rates. “They’re still the most expensive option,” a third agency source said. “But you get what you pay for.”

For example, that agency source noted that four Tasty videos costs twice as much – $300,000 – as a program that included three videos, three pieces of written sponsored content and a batch of supporting media offered by a competitor, Tasting Table.

That third source said that other publishers are fighting for the crumbs left at Tasty’s table. With the space getting crowded, food publishers are diversifying in search of new ways to make money.

Render Media, which owns Cooking Panda, has moved into shows and sales of branded products. It’s also looking to launch a subscription video product later in the year. Tastemade has expanded into home and travel and started getting into events.

Recipe videos will remain a staple of food publishers’ content diets, though. “[They] will always be a large piece of what we do,” said Stacey Rivera, digital content director for food at Time Inc. “People will watch a skilled person do a skilled thing.”

Output: Engagement with food videos on Facebook has fallen, with monthly views of several leading food publishers' content remaining flat or falling, according to web analysts CrowdTangle. The increase in the number of such videos from a range of publishers has driven down advertising prices, according to industry representatives. However, views of videos with more than 100,000 viewers are up 43% YoY, and Buzzfeed's popular Tasty videos still command premium rates for advertisers.


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Coastal cities will fall below sea level if warming hits 3C
 Hundreds of millions of urban dwellers around the world face their cities being inundated by rising seawaters if latest UN warnings that the world is on course for 3C of global warming come true, according to a Guardian data analysis.

Famous beaches, commercial districts and swaths of farmland will be threatened at this elevated level of climate change, which the UN warned this week is a very real prospect unless nations reduce their carbon emissions.

Data from the Climate Central group of scientists analysed by Guardian journalists shows that 3C of global warming would ultimately lock in irreversible sea-level rises of perhaps two metres. Cities from Shanghai to Alexandria, and Rio to Osaka are among the worst affected. Miami would be inundated - as would the entire bottom third of the US state of Florida.

Quick Guide Why are we talking about a three-degree world? Show Why are we talking about a 3C world? The world is currently on course to heat up by 3C, according to the United Nations. That is because nations are not doing enough to reduce emissions. Climate negotiators are now discussing how to ratchet up ambitions to avoid this outcome. What happens at 3C? Harsher droughts, more extreme weather, worse disruption of food production, increased migration by climate refugees, heightened storm surges and steadily rising sea levels. That is what we know for sure, then there is the risk of feedback loops - for example the release of methane from melting permafrost - that could quickly push 3C to 6C. How quickly will oceans rise? It could take decades or centuries, but change will be locked in by a 3C temperature rise, which would extensively melt ice caps, shrink glaciers and thermally expand the oceans so many current coastlines and low-lying plains would be under sea level. Unless massive barriers or water diversions are constructed, many cities, small islands, population centres, economic hubs and iconic sights will be submerged. Imagine a map with giant chunks missing from Florida, Manhattan, Lincolnshire, Rio de Janeiro and the deltas of the Nile, Amazon, Pearl, Mekong, Ganges and Brahmaputra. How can this be avoided? National governments need to promise greater emissions cuts and enact policies to keep global warming to the more ambitious target of 1.5C or at most 2C, which they set as the goal of the Paris climate agreement. That will mean phasing out fossil fuels more quickly and ramping up effort to protect and restore forests. Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.

The Guardian has found, however, that local preparations for a 3C world are as patchy as international efforts to prevent it from happening. At six of the coastal regions most likely to be affected, government planners are only slowly coming to grips with the enormity of the task ahead - and in some cases have done nothing.

This comes ahead of the latest round of climate talks in Bonn next week, when negotiators will work on ways to monitor, fund and ratchet up national commitments to cut CO2 so that temperatures can rise on a safer path of between 1.5 and 2C, which is the goal of the Paris agreement reached in 2015.

The momentum for change is currently too slow, according to the UN Environment Programme. In its annual emissions gap report, released on Tuesday, the international body said government commitments were only a third of what was needed. Non-state actors such as cities, companies and citizens can only partly fill this void, which leaves warming on course to rise to 3C or beyond by the end of this century, the report said.

The UN’s environment chief, Erik Solheim, said progress in the year since the Paris agreement entered into force has been inadequate. “We still find ourselves in a situation where we are not doing nearly enough to save hundreds of millions of people from a miserable future,” he said.

South Beach, Miami, would be mostly underwater. Photograph: Nickolay Lamm/Courtesy Climate Central

Nature’s ability to help may also be diminishing. On Monday, the World Meteorological Organisation said concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose last year at a record speed to reach 403.3 parts per million - a level not seen since the Pliocene era three to five million years ago.

A 3C rise would lead to longer droughts, fiercer hurricanes and lock in sea-level rises that would redraw many coastlines. Depending on the speed at which icecaps and glaciers melt, this could take decades or more than a century. Colin Summerhayes of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge said three-degrees of warming would melt polar and glacier ice much further and faster than currently expected, potentially raising sea levels by two metres by 2100.

At least 275 million city dwellers live in vulnerable areas, the majority of them in Asian coastal megacities and industrial hubs such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Bangkok and Tokyo.

Japan’s second biggest city, Osaka, is projected to lose its business and entertainments districts of Umeda and Namba unless global emissions are forced down or flood defences are built up. Officials are reluctantly accepting they must now put more effort into the latter.

“In the past our response was focused on reducing the causes of global warming, but given that climate change is inevitable, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we are now discussing how to respond to the natural disasters that will follow,” said Toshikazu Nakaaki of the Osaka municipal government’s environment bureau.

In Miami - which would be almost entirely below sea level even at 2C warming - the sense of urgency is evident at city hall, where commissioners are asking voters to approve a “Miami Forever” bond in the November ballot that includes $192m for upgrading pump stations, expanding drainage systems, elevating roads and building dykes.

Elsewhere, there is less money for adaptation and a weaker sense of urgency. In Rio de Janeiro, a 3C rise would flood famous beaches such as Copacabana, the waterfront domestic airport, and many of the sites for last year’s Olympics. But the cash-strapped city has been slow to prepare. A report compiled for Brazil’s presidency found “situations in which climate changes are not considered within the scope of planning”.

A before and after image of Candelária Church in Rio, Brazil, under two different temperature rise scenarios. A before and after image of Candelária Church in Rio, Brazil, under two different temperature rise scenarios.

In Egypt, even a 0.5m sea-level rise is predicted to submerge beaches in Alexandria and displace 8 million people on the Nile Delta unless protective measures are taken, according to the IPCC. But local activists say the authorities see it as a distant problem. “As far as I’m concerned, this issue isn’t on the list of government priorities,” said Ahmed Hassan, of the Save Alexandria Initiative, a group that works to raise awareness of the effects of climate change on the city.

The impacts will also be felt on the economy and food production. Among the most vulnerable areas in the UK is Lincolnshire, where swaths of agricultural land are likely to be lost to the sea.

“We’re conscious that climate change is happening and perhaps faster than expected so we are trying to mitigate and adapt to protect people and property. We can’t stop it, but we can reduce the risk.” said Alison Baptiste, director of strategy and investment at the UK Environment Agency. She said the measures in place should protect most communities in the near and medium term, but 50 years from now the situation will become more challenging. “If climate change projections are accurate, we’re going to have to make some difficult decisions.”

Additional reporting by Justin McCurry, Dom Phillips and Ruth Michaelson

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Output: Cities with hundreds of millions of inhabitants are at risk of being submerged by rising seawater if the United Nations’ (UN) latest warning on global warming is correct, according to analysis by The Guardian. Earlier this week, the UN disclosed that the world was headed for 3C of global warming. The Guardian has analysed data from the Climate Central group of scientists to show that such a temperature increase would result in irreversible sea-level rises of up to two metres. Cities including Alexandria, Miami, Osaka, Rio and Shanghai would be among the worst affected.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Coastal cities will fall below sea level if warming hits 3C
 The UNEP Emissions Gap Report (EGR) series tracks our progress in limiting global warming well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement. Since 2010, it has provided an annual science-based assessment of the gap between estimated future global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if countries implement their climate mitigation pledges, and where they should be to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Each year, the report also highlights key opportunities to bridge the emissions gap, tackling a specific issue of interest. With the aim to inform the climate negotiations among UN Member States, the EGR is launched every year ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP). The EGR is co-produced by UNEP, the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC) and partners.

Output: Cities with hundreds of millions of inhabitants are at risk of being submerged by rising seawater if the United Nations’ (UN) latest warning on global warming is correct, according to analysis by The Guardian. Earlier this week, the UN disclosed that the world was headed for 3C of global warming. The Guardian has analysed data from the Climate Central group of scientists to show that such a temperature increase would result in irreversible sea-level rises of up to two metres. Cities including Alexandria, Miami, Osaka, Rio and Shanghai would be among the worst affected.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Criteo fears Safari's new privacy settings will hit revenues
 by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, November 2, 2017

Apple's new privacy settings for Safari users could negatively affect Criteo's revenue, the ad-tech company said this week in a stock filing.

Last month, Apple rolled out new default settings that aim to prevent ad networks and other tech companies from tracking users. The Safari browser has long blocked cookies set by ad networks and other third parties by default. But the new settings go further by also deleting some of the cookies set directly by publishers after 30 days. The move will help prevent tracking by companies that use first-party cookies to get around Safari's long-standing block on cookies set by third parties.

Criteo, known for its retargeting technology -- which serves ads to people for products they previously viewed on retail sites -- said in its most recent stock filing that it has has developed a "solution" that will allow the company to "mitigate about half of the potential impact" from Safari's new settings. But the company adds that it expects the settings "to have a net negative impact" on revenue (minus acquisition costs) of 8% to 10%. Criteo's revenue minus acquisition costs totaled $234 million for the third quarter.

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A coalition of online ad industry groups recently asked Apple to reconsider the new settings. "Apple's unilateral and heavy-handed approach is bad for consumer choice and bad for the ad-supported online content and services consumers love," the American Association of Advertising Agencies, American Advertising Federation, Association of National Advertisers, Data & Marketing Association, Interactive Advertising Bureau and Network Advertising Initiative said in a letter sent to Apple in September.

Output: New privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser will have a net negative impact on Criteo's revenue of up to 8% to 10%, according to projections by the global advertising technology company. The changes made by Apple aim to prevent ad networks from tracking users, so advertising companies such as Criteo, which specialise in personalised retargeting services, look set to be particularly affected. However, in a recent stock filing, Criteo claimed to have developed a solution to "mitigate about half of the potential impact". Online advertisers have recently asked Apple to reconsider the new browser settings.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Pandora blames flat ad revenues on lack of tools for advertisers
 Gaps in Pandora’s ad tech stack slowed growth in the last quarter, CEO Roger Lynch said Thursday in his first earnings call since taking the helm.

“One consistent theme I’ve heard from advertisers is that we don’t have all of the features they need to easily transact with us,” he said. “This is starting to have material impact on our revenue.”

Revenue at Pandora grew 9% year over year (YOY) to $360 million, missing estimates. While subscription revenues jumped 50% YOY to $84 million, ad revenues were flat at 1%, or $276 million.

Shares fell almost 11% to $6 in after-hours trading.

Pandora is struggling with declines in its listener base and a lack of the programmatic and measurement capabilities that advertisers want, Lynch said. Pandora’s manual sales process has caused some advertisers to stop buying on the platform, although Lynch didn’t say how many.

“We know we need to invest in ad tech,” Lynch said. “We need a significant upgrade to our ad technology and what we can provide advertisers. We need to become an easier company to transact with.”

Pandora will invest in engineering resources and focus on products that automate sales, optimize ad campaigns more quickly, better measure ROI and transact programmatically, Lynch said. It will also build out a self-serve business to attract smaller local buyers.

“Today, if you’re a $30 million advertiser or a $300 million advertiser, our [sales] process is the same,” Lynch said. “We don’t really address the smaller advertiser end of the market because we don’t have self-service tools.”

Despite providing two-thirds of digital audio impressions in the market, Pandora has been notoriously slow to develop ad tech. The platform launched programmatic video for the first time this year and still doesn’t sell audio inventory programmatically, although Lynch said it will do so soon. Spotify launched programmatic audio in mid-2016.

“Because of the urgency, we’re going to look carefully at both build vs. buy options,” Lynch said. “If we’re successful, we can intelligently raise ad load, increase sell-through, command premium pricing and drive revenue growth, all while protecting the listener experience.”

Lynch said the company will do its best to fund those investments internally. Investors, however, shouldn’t expect a quick return.

“There’s nothing near-term that’s going to happen on that front,” Lynch said. “We’ve really got some work to do there.”

In addition to flat ad dollars, Pandora’s losing attention from its audience in a competitive streaming environment. Total listener hours for the quarter shrank to 5.1 billion from 5.4 billion last year.

To bring listeners back, Pandora will add new forms of content like podcasts and integrate with devices such as connected cars and voice-activated systems. Pandora is already available on more than 2,000 connected devices, and listening on voice-activated devices grew 300% YOY, Lynch said.

“It is essential that we grow our base of listeners,” Lynch said. “We will harness our scale, distribution, data and discovery capabilities to deliver non-music content in a very unique way.”

Pandora also hopes to draw listeners back to its platform with a better ad experience that focuses on reward-based units, such as videos that offer skips, replays and sponsored listening sessions, which reduce ad load for listeners.

“All of the elements are here to do that,” Lynch said. “We just need to bring them together. There’s no silver bullet here that’s going to come in and all of the sudden solve all these problems.”

Output: In his first earnings call since taking over, CEO Roger Lynch confirmed that Pandora's outdated tech for advertisers has resulted in slowed growth for the last quarter. While subscription revenues have jumped 50% year on year to $84m, ad revenues remained flat at 1% ($276m). "We know we need to invest in ad tech," said Lynch. "If you’re a $30m advertiser or a $300m advertiser, our [sales] process is the same." Lynch said Pandora will invest in products that automate sales and optimise ads more quickly, transact programmatically and better measure ROI for advertisers.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Google Shopping said to show immediate returns for SA retailers
 Google Shopping delivering in South Africa

Get it right from the start

The holy grail of Google Shopping

Google Shopping made a low-key entrance into the South African market late in 2016, with many people still not even aware of its existence. The product ads appear either directly above the regular adwords adverts or to the right of search results, and most people would not have noticed a significant difference in their browsing experience.The attraction of Google Shopping for any company that sells goods online, however, is obvious. The feature-rich ads, including pictures, descriptions, prices, and ratings works for consumers looking for everything in one place. It allows them to click through to your website and buy the goods directly from you, without any third parties involved.As local companies look hard for more measurable ways to spend their marketing money, focus on targeted digital campaigns is picking up sharply. Digital leaders at some of the more forward-thinking retailers now see Google Shopping as a strategic addition to the digital marketing bouquet.NMPi clients who are running Google Shopping campaigns have seen immediate benefits. Although an early entrant into the Google Shopping game, one local e-commerce retailer saw a 4 000% return on ad spend (ROAS) since they signed up in March.Another large retailer is seeing Google Shopping delivering 70% of its impressions week-on-week. At the moment, the conversion rate is a little lower than Search, but NMPi believes this will improve as local consumers become more familiar with the offering.These results are in line with what NMPi is seeing with its Australian clients. The Australian office benchmarked results of six clients and found that year-on-year return on investment was up 9% and revenue had jumped a significant 68% since they had initiated Google Shopping campaigns.Setup and implementation of Google Shopping campaigns are relatively painless when working with an experienced team. We ensure that we supplement Google Shopping with re-marketing on display and it’s easily integrated with analytics. The latter is important as it allows us to identify top performing products.We have found that, especially for the larger retailers, it makes sense to focus on the top 1 000 performing products, for example, rather than the full 15 000 products they may have on offer.This stops the top performing products losing out on search impact because of generic bidding. Based on data, we develop a specific strategy for top performing goods and then apply a base strategy for the rest of the products, ensuring efficiency of spend and optimising return.Product feed optimisation requires you to input as many data fields about the product as possible. Descriptions, prices, and most especially product titles mean your product will be seen and clicked on ahead of your competitors. What’s more, the better the quality of the feed, the smarter you can be when refining your strategies.NMPi works with technical partners, Liquidbox, to deliver Google Shopping campaigns. Working through a checklist, we can assist companies that may not have everything in place – and this happens more often than not. We have seen retailers struggle for months to get their feeds right. We can now do a same-day turnaround using FeedsUp from Liquidbox and deliver a full, working feed in 24 hours.One of the biggest challenges we are facing in South Africa is that companies are still reticent about handing over any part of what they see as their core business. They would rather try to handle all digital marketing in-house, which often results in poor delivery and, ultimately, in companies dropping Google Shopping as part of their digital offering.Evidence from international clients, meanwhile, shows that global retailers are much happier to outsource their feed management, allowing the technical professionals to work according to an agreed strategy, taking care of the finer nuances of this complex delivery and seeing results far faster.Looking forward, we believe Google Google Shopping will grow quickly in South Africa. In fact, NMPi believes that the efficacy of Google Shopping will be so significant that online retailers will soon change the way they build their websites – optimising data and designing sites with a Google Shopping-first strategy.However, with that growth will come more and more competition. There is no doubt that the early adopters will reap the rewards. There is also no doubt that companies that want to get up and running quickly, and that want to outmanoeuvre their competition, will need to know how to use data to their advantage. This will require technical insight into how to manipulate their offering on the fly.For more information, visit www.nmpidigital.com . Alternatively, connect with them on Twitter

Output: Google Shopping in South Africa is reportedly producing four-figure return-on-investment percentages for some retail advertisers less than a year after the service's introduction. Digital advertising agency NMPi predicts the positive trend will continue in the nation, with more and more online businesses designing their sites and optimising data in line with a Google Shopping-first strategy.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Rental market growth set to outpace sales in London: Savills
 Rental growth is forecast to exceed house price growth in London, despite a glut of properties on the lettings market in London after investors scrambled to buy before the three per cent stamp duty surcharge on additional homes came in April last year.

However, Savills says asking rents in the capital fell 3.2 per cent in the year to June 2017, compared to a 1.9 per cent rise on average across England and Wales.

The agency says rents in the capital have now stabilised. Compound growth of 17 per cent is projected from 2018 to 2022, in line with wage growth but ahead of inflation.

But it warns that the withdrawal of mortgage interest tax relief will push investors from London to higher yielding regional locations over time.

Increased rental supply there will dampen potential rental growth beyond the capital.

“The rental outlook is strongest in regional cities that attract employees from high value sectors such as professional services, technology, and finance,” says Savills.

Output: London's rental market will outperform its sales sector, UK estate agency Savills forecasts. The agency predicts compound growth in the rental market from 2018 to 2022 will be 17 percent, matching forecasts for wage growth but ahead of anticipated inflation. However, it emphasised that the outlook is strongest for cities outside of London, which are increasingly attracting "employees from high-value sectors such as professional services, technology, and finance”.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Artist cryptograffiti spreads word on cryptocurrency disruption
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23 products in "Men's Shirts"

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Output: The pseudonymous artist and bitcoin enthusiast known as cryptograffiti is hoping to bring digital currencies to a new audience via art. The artist was the first to receive donations using a public wallet and has produced works including the controversial "Banker with a Conscience" at the New York Stock Exchange, as well as signs at ATMs urging people to learn more about bitcoin. In an interview with Coincafe, the artist said the banking sector's accountability was most in need of disruption and called for "more positivity and less censorship within the community".


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Axel Springer develops traffic-light system for ad measurement
 Publishers face no shortage of dilemmas in a platform-dominated world. Bild, Axel Springer’s most-read news brand, has developed a framework based on a traffic-light system for approaching its partnerships with Google, Facebook and Snapchat.

The value of each platform is assessed by comparing its performance on five parameters with that of Bild’s own properties. These include brand expression, user engagement, the ability to attract new users, relative monetization (comparing the revenue per article on platforms and Bild’s own properties) and the ability to sign up subscribers. Each platform is assigned red, yellow or green — with red indicating improvement is needed and green indicating good performance — for each of the criteria. During meetings with the tech platforms, this framework keeps the focus on strategic issues and clearly and easily shows when little movement has occurred regarding the parameters.

“With Facebook, we said, ‘We have five strategic areas with you, and if only three of those five lights are green, we will stop everything,'” said Carsten Schwecke, chief digital officer of Axel Springer’s sales house, Media Impact. “We do this power game to get things moving. Right now, we feel things are moving.”

In general, publisher relationships with platforms might be improving, but Bild’s framework shows there’s room for growth. For Google and Facebook, organic user growth has stagnated (it will only improve if Bild pays for reach), so these lights are grayed out in Bild’s framework. While Snapchat performs well on new users, engagement and brand expression, it struggles with monetization and the ability to sign up subscribers.

“We thought [the monetization on Snapchat] would start stronger: It’s a great product, it’s hard to attract that audience, and it’s an innovative ad format,” said Stefan Betzold, managing director of digital at Bild.

The publisher, which was one of four Snapchat Discover launch partners in Germany in April, claims to have 3 million monthly uniques and an average watch time of 1.7 minutes on its Discover channel. Bild’s Discover channel is young, so media agencies and advertising clients might need more time to get more comfortable with Snapchat and its scant analytics.

“[Monetization] is not where we need it to be,” said Betzold. “Why should a big brand sell advertising if they don’t know Discover is working? More communication, sharing best practices and case studies on how the advertising works will help. We are open as long as it’s a partnership.”

Meanwhile, neither Facebook nor Google has reached green status for relative monetization, which includes how the platforms handle data. Bild evaluates its access to data in two categories: access to targeting data so it can better understand user behavior and access to tracking data so Bild and third-party measurement companies can understand reach.

Schwecke said “there is no technical reason” why Facebook can’t transfer relevant consumer data to Bild’s data management platform, but there is still no easy way to connect the two.

Although Facebook has provided more analytics and ad formats for publishers using Instant Articles. For YouTube and Snapchat, publishers rely on the platform’s data for reach, making it difficult to see how the platform’s audience overlaps with the publisher’s direct audience.

No platform is in the green for subscriptions, although Google and Facebook have shown improvement, which publishers see as being a big change in mindset for these two companies.

Betzold stressed that publishers need to spend money and time testing on the platforms to improve the ecosystem, rather than simply complain about the dominance of the platforms. For Facebook Instant Articles, Bild has been testing a number of different call-to-action units that lead users to install apps or sign up for a two week-free trial to its subscription product, Bild Plus.

Collectively acting while adhering to antitrust laws also gives publishers more might. Axel Springer is in talks with the Guardian and Schibsted, among others, about how to flush out ad fraud, clean up the programmatic supply chain and gain more control over their ad tech stacks.

“[Platforms] are coming under more pressure,” said Schwecke. “There’s a momentum in the market that we can use.”

Output: German newspaper Bild, which is owned by Axel Springer, has instituted a traffic light system to help it evaluate its relationships with Facebook, Snapchat and Google. It compares each platform's performance against that of its own titles, using five parameters, including monetisation and user engagement, with areas for improvement assigned red and good performance coloured green. Stefan Betzold, managing director of digital at Bild, said the system has demonstrated how much work needs to be done, with all three platforms lacking green lights for monetisation and subscriptions.