Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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EHarmony recruits marketers to get more traction on social
 After years of resistance, eHarmony is ready to commit to social media. The brand is recruiting marketers to turn the medium, which it has previously used for brand building, into a direct-response channel.

The popular matchmaking site’s CEO, Grant Langston, plans to expand its marketing team in a bid to reassert eHarmony’s credentials in an online dating market enamored with apps like Tinder and Bumble. In February, Langston revealed eHarmony had around 750,000 paid subscribers and 10 million active users, about the same as it has had since 2012. Tinder, on the other hand, had 1.8 million premium users and 50 million people using the app in February.

To quicken eHarmony’s growth, Langston, who was previously CMO, is looking for marketers who can “help us get more from paid social, more from content and more from digital video.”

EHarmony has taken ROI for the “workhorses” of search, display and affiliates as far as they can go, said Langston. While profitable for the business, none of those three formats “is going to be massive” for driving subscriptions, he conceded.

“We have all these [search, display, affiliate and social] functions, but we want to bring in fresh perspectives and try new tricks,” added Langston.

He was coy about what those “new tricks” could be but revealed the lifestyle articles it publishes on social networks such as Facebook are its “best-performing tool.” Despite the observation, those articles amount to a fraction of the content in the site’s social media feeds, which are filled with user-generated posts from couples it has brought together. Targeted ads are also used, though the marketing team doesn’t have access to individual profiles and instead targets against demographic and census data.

EHarmony’s most recent social media efforts have focused on brand building by using humor. Last year, it revealed engagement with its brand jumped after it injected humor into content such as emoji quizzes and dating tips.

While that approach works, helping the business capture a 66 percent share of the 175,000 interactions on Facebook to eHarmony, Tinder and Bumble pages that Socialbakers tracked between Jan. 1 and Sept. 7, it is becoming harder for the brand to scale its presence. Over the same period, eHarmony gained 15,291 Facebook followers, per Socialbakers, which was noticeably less than Bumble (24,499) and Tinder (50,350).

Facebook strangles the organic reach of business accounts on its platform, meaning brands like eHarmony have to pay to reach their target audience. However, with the reach Facebook says it delivers in question, focusing on tangible outcomes from articles like driving visits to eHarmony’s site and increasing registrations with calls to action means it can get closer to seeing a value on its spend beyond reach.

“If a channel is bringing incremental increases in acquisition, I’m very comfortable giving it incremental increases in budget. We’re still leaning to the TV side in terms of budget, but that’s changing every day,” Langston said. “While TV will continue to be part of the way we talk to the public, it’s going to be far less of a focus. The problem we have to overcome with digital is that they look good when you spend moderately, but when you decide to really commit, then they’re inefficient.”

The move comes as eHarmony rolls out a new logo across its ads to reflect a series of changes to its service, including a faster sign-up process, a smarter matchmaking algorithm and sleeker page designs on its site. But rather than attempt to go toe-to-toe with Tinder and Bumble for 20-something singles, the changes are aimed at winning over those in their 30s, an audience better suited to the long-term relationships eHarmony tries to encourage.

“When I became CEO a year ago, there were a number of things that needed changing,” said Langston. “The apps, communications and design all felt antiquated — it was like we stopped working on the product in 2010.”

Image courtesy of eHarmony

Output: Matchmaking site eHarmony is expanding its marketing team to help it take on rivals Tinder and Bumble. CEO Grant Langston said he wanted to bring in "fresh perspectives and try new tricks" to boost the site's social media presence and engage with singles aged 30 and over. Part of the plan is to expand the use of social media beyond brand building and use it to generate direct responses from users. Between 1 January and 7 September, eHarmony gained 15,291 Facebook followers, compared with Bumble's 24,499 and Tinder, which racked up 50,350, according to Socialbakers.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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DOE lab to use AI to analyse and reinforce US electricity grid
 Menlo Park, Calif. — A project led by the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will combine artificial intelligence with massive amounts of data and industry experience from a dozen U.S. partners to identify places where the electric grid is vulnerable to disruption, reinforce those spots in advance and recover faster when failures do occur.

The eventual goal is an autonomous grid that seamlessly absorbs routine power fluctuations from clean energy sources like solar and wind and quickly responds to disruptive events – from major storms to eclipse-induced dips in solar power – with minimal intervention from humans.

“This project will be the first of its kind to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the resilience of the grid,” said Sila Kiliccote, director of SLAC’s Grid Integration, Systems and Mobility lab, GISMo, and principal investigator for the project. “While the approach will be tested on a large scale in California, Vermont and the Midwest, we expect it to have national impact, and all the tools we develop will be made available either commercially or as open source code.”

Called GRIP, for Grid Resilience and Intelligence Project, the project builds on other efforts to collect massive amounts of data and use it to fine-tune grid operations, including SLAC’s VADER project. It’s one of seven Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium projects aimed at boosting grid resilience that will receive up to $32 million in funding as part of the DOE’s Grid Modernization Initiative. GRIP was awarded up to $6 million over three years.

The project will use both machine learning, where computers ingest large amounts of data and teach themselves how a system behaves, and artificial intelligence, which uses the knowledge the machines have acquired to solve problems.

SLAC’s GISMo lab, which works with Stanford University, utilities and other industry partners on smart grid technology, will develop machine learning algorithms that digest data from satellite imagery, utility operations and other sources and build knowledge about how electrical distribution systems work.

“One of the first places we will test our data analytics platform is at a major California utility,” Kiliccote said. “The idea is to populate the platform with information about what your particular part of the grid looks like, in terms of things like solar and wind power sources, batteries where energy is stored, and how it’s laid out to distribute power to homes and businesses. Then you begin to look for anomalies – things that could be configured better.”

For instance, she said, a grid can be divided into “islands,” or microgrids, that can be isolated to prevent a power disruption from spreading and taking the whole system down.

“You can also learn a lot just from satellite imagery,” Kiliccote said. “For example, you could see where vegetation is growing with respect to the power lines, and anticipate when trees are likely to grow over the power lines and pull them over during a storm.”

The knowledge and tools developed by the project will be passed along to another partner in the project, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), which represents 834 distribution cooperatives that provide electricity to an estimated 42 million people in 47 states. The association will help deploy the tools the team develops on standard utility industry platforms, make them available to its members and help the team integrate them into existing industry planning and operational workflows.

One of those members, Vermont Electric Cooperative, has already been working with Packetized Energy, which develops software and hardware that adjust the power consumption of water heaters and other thermostat-controlled devices when the grid becomes overloaded or the power supply from renewables fluctuates. “We’re working with both of them to build additional controls into that system and demonstrate how we can absorb grid events by reducing loads and moving them around,” Kiliccote said.

Another partner, the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will be deploying and validating control systems it has developed for solar inverters that automatically convert the variable direct current from photovoltaic systems to AC current that’s fed into the grid.

“Berkeley Lab has pioneered the development of algorithms that can optimally manage distributed energy resources, like wind, solar and batteries, and are completely plug and play,” said Dan Arnold, a research scientist who is leading the Berkeley Lab part of the project. “In this project we're partnering with SLAC to deploy and test our approach in a real utility network. With these algorithms, we hope to be able to create an electric grid that can use distributed energy resources to automatically reconfigure itself to maximize reliability during normal operations or emergencies.”

-Written by Glennda Chui

Press Office Contact: Manuel Gnida, mgnida@slac.stanford.edu, (650) 926-2632

SLAC is a multi-program laboratory exploring frontier questions in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator research. Located in Menlo Park, California, SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. To learn more, please visit www.slac.stanford.edu.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

The DOE’s Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI) works with public and private partners to develop the concepts, tools, and technologies needed to measure, analyze, predict, protect, and control the grid of the future. The Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) was established as a strategic partnership between DOE and the national laboratories to bring together leading experts, technologies, and resources to collaborate on the goal of modernizing the nation’s grid.

Output: The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will lead a three-year project using artificial intelligence and machine learning to reinforce the grid, enabling it to automatically deal with power fluctuations or external weather events. The $6m Grid Resilience and Intelligence Project (GRIP), is part of the DOE’s Grid Modernisation Initiative, and will use satellite imagery, utility operations and other sources to develop machine learning algorithms, based on how electrical distribution systems function. The tools developed by the project will be passed on to partners including the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), which represents 834 distribution cooperatives that provide electricity to an estimated 42 million people in 47 states.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Facebook forced to turn over Russia-linked ads to special counsel
 Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are now in possession of Russian-linked ads run on Facebook during the presidential election, after they obtained a search warrant for the information.

Facebook gave Mueller and his team copies of ads and related information it discovered on its site linked to a Russian troll farm, as well as detailed information about the accounts that bought the ads and the way the ads were targeted at American Facebook users, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

(On Sunday, Facebook told CNN in a statement that it was providing information to Mueller, "including ads and related account information.")

The disclosure, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, may give Mueller's office a fuller picture of who was behind the ad buys and how the ads may have influenced voter sentiment during the 2016 election.

Facebook did not give copies of the ads to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees when it met with them last week on the grounds that doing so would violate their privacy policy, sources with knowledge of the briefings said. Facebook's policy states that, in accordance with the federal Stored Communications Act, it can only turn over the stored contents of an account in response to a search warrant.

"We continue to work with the appropriate investigative authorities," Facebook said in a statement to CNN.

Facebook informed Congress last week that it had identified 3,000 ads that ran between June 2015 and May 2017 that were linked to fake accounts. Those accounts, in turn, were linked to the pro-Kremlin troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency.

In those briefings, Facebook spoke only in generalities about the ad buys, leaving some committee members feeling frustrated with Facebook's level of cooperation.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN last week that Facebook had not turned over the ads to Congress. Warner has also called Facebook's review "the tip of the iceberg," and suggested that more work needs to be done in order to ascertain the full scope of Russia's use of social media.

Warner also indicated that his committee may call Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks in for "some level of public hearing."

As CNN reported Thursday, Facebook is still not sure whether pro-Kremlin groups may have made other ad buys intended to influence American politics that it simply hasn't discovered yet. It is even possible that unidentified ad buys may still exist on the social media network today.

The special counsel's spokesman declined to comment.

Output: Facebook has given up copies of suspect ads to special counsel Robert Mueller after he obtained a search warrant. The social media giant also handed over information about the accounts that bought the ads, believed to come from a Russian troll farm, and how they were used to target US users. Senator Mark Warner, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed frustration that neither the Senate nor the House Intelligence Committees were given the information, after Facebook cited its strict privacy rules. Mueller is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Bot reviews hamper retailers and brands on Amazon
 Bot reviews continue to be a growing concern for retailers and brands selling on Amazon.

Multiple small companies report they’re seeing one-star reviews of unverified purchases on their pages that are written with bad grammar, coupled with remarks like, “Great product satisfaction guaranteed.” The problem seems to run across both the first-party and third-party sellers on the platform.

In most cases, the only recourse brands have is to click “report abuse” and then potentially start a conversation with their Amazon contacts. “We live and die by our reviews,” said one brand that sells as a hybrid seller. “[Fake bot reviews] are for sure a pain point.” The brand, which didn’t want to speak on the record for fear of damaging its relationship with Amazon, said it has a customer-solutions team dedicated to monitoring, responding and engaging with customer feedback.

A brand that sells as a vendor both on the U.S. and European sites for Amazon, which also wished to remain anonymous because of fear of retribution from Amazon, said bot reviews are definitely an issue. This brand is seeing more fake reviews in Europe than in the U.S. Because merchandise managers don’t have control over this, the issue is passed onto a separate team. Some fake reviews have been removed, but in some cases, this vendor said Amazon has refused to remove reviews. The big question, said this person, is why bots exist. In some cases, it may be competitors doing this. But when consumers search for products according to reviews, this brand gets “burned” and has lost sales. Companies like Fakespot, which search reviews to see how many are fake, help, said this person.

An Amazon spokesperson said it invests heavily to ensure customers can trust reviews on Amazon, saying, “We use a machine-learned algorithm that gives more weight to newer, more helpful reviews, apply strict criteria to qualify for the Amazon Verified Purchase badge and enforce a significant dollar amount requirement to participate, in addition to other mechanisms which prevent and detect inauthentic reviews.” The company says even one inauthentic review is unacceptable. All reviewers in the U.S. must have an account, used for at least $50 in purchases on Amazon.

In 2016, Amazon filed a suit against companies like Amazonverifiedreviews.com and Buyamazonreviews.info that sold fake reviews. Those companies are slightly different in that they offer “verified” reviews and often give people product in exchange for reviews.

Amazon’s approach to policing this is unclear. Elaine Kwon, who now runs an Amazon consultancy called Kwontified and previously handled the luxury division at Amazon, said the brand can call Amazon to get fraudulent reviews removed.

It’s important to note that Amazon has its own review program. Dubbed Amazon Vine, it’s essentially a way to get trusted reviewers to post their opinions on new products. It’s one way sellers and vendors generate reviews for their pages, but it isn’t free. The program costs about $2,000 for every 30 reviews, and they have to pay for shipping and the product they provide. Amazon stopped accepting incentivized reviews and has cracked down on so-called “professional reviewers” that review items for a living.

“Reviews are critical to your success on Amazon,” said Fred Killingsworth, CEO of Amazon consultancy Hinge. “This goes back to brand management. If you’re not policing or managing your reviews, it can really hurt.” He added that negative reviews, whether fake or real, affect brands on and off Amazon, even in brick-and-mortar situations. “Amazon is this great equalizer in that competitors can come out of anywhere,” he said. “But bot reviews skew the entire experience.”

Output: Retailers and brands have complained of bots placing fake reviews on their Amazon product listings. One-star reviews from unverified customers on the site are potentially hugely damaging to sellers, whose sales figures can suffer as a result of low scores. Amazon said it is investing heavily in an algorithm to give more weight to helpful reviews, but retailers say the process for flagging the issue is not effective, and Amazon has refused to remove some of the offending entries.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Mobile marketing is key to brand growth, says Facebook executive
 As the world’s biggest advertisers like Unilever and Proctor & Gamble continue to operate on lower advertising budgets and spend less on media buys in 2017, Facebook believes that putting its faith in mobile advertising will help it ride the storm going into the next year.

Ever since P&G's top marketer Marc Pritchard announced that the Ariel and Pampers advertiser will review all of its agency contracts and called for more transparency in the media supply chain at the start of year, the advertising industry has seen some major shakeups.

Unilever dropped half of its creative agencies under its employment and reduced spend to $200m, while P&G reduced up to $140m of its ad spend and stopped investing in areas where it was unsafe for its brands, on top of its move to stop targeted ads on Facebook in 2016.

The cutbacks by the FMCG giants were necessary to clean up the supply chain and remove fraudulent inventory, acknowledges William Platt-Higgins, vice president, global client partnerships at Facebook in an interview with The Drum in Singapore, and notes that it is in everybody's interest that fraud be eliminated from the ecosystem.

“We have seen various marketers and agencies taking a hard stance on this publicly and some clients very surgically try and cut out as much of that as possible. They have done so without any negative impact on their business because the inventory that they are weeding out is actually not good inventory to begin with,” explains Platt-Higgins.

“It won't be eliminated completely, but I think all the clients that we work with in all regions of the world are focused on reducing fraud as much as they can and getting transparency into the supply chain by using third party verification.”

While Facebook has previously come under fire for reporting miscalculated metrics and for a lack of transparency because of its closed marketplace around its user data, brands and agencies still trust the social media giant, according to Platt-Higgins, which is why all Facebook verticals are growing, including FMCG.

He also accuses critics of being green-eyed about Facebook’s strong, growing partnership with P&G and other big FMCGs, claiming that it is being brought earlier into the creative and strategy planning stages.

"People don’t appreciate that we have a strong, growing partnership with P&G and other big CPGs that are pushing these industry trends. If anything, we’re being brought earlier into the mobile creative and strategy planning," says Platt-Higgins.

“They (Unilever and P&G) are very focused on maximising value for their investments and cleaning up as much of their supply as they can. They are looking to hold all media choices, not just digital media choices accountable.

“One of the things we are starting to hear is the advantage of any digital investment is it is more measurable than traditional offline investments. Digital channels, because they are measurable, the amount of data available on their efficacy and attribution to sales is large.

“What we are seeing from these conversations is 'It is great that I am holding all my digital investments super accountable, because that is the right thing to do and I want to hold all my other investments as accountable as well'. What you will see increasingly is that investments will flow to media channels that are providing the higher returns of investment and the higher value, and they will recede from those that aren't."

He then repeats a well-trotted out company line about its closed marketplace, as he says that the Facebook ecosystem does not qualify it as a 'walled garden'.

“We certainly hear it (walled gardens) and I don't think that we would agree with that,” he says, adding that the requests tend to boil down to various people or entities wanting more data on individuals, which breaches Facebook’s terms of service and the trust that people give when they join.

“That is something that we will and must protect. So that's our stance on it,” asserts Platt-Higgins.

Quoting a book called 'How Brands Grow' by professor Byron Sharp at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Platt-Higgins says Sharp’s words inspired Facebook to shift its focus to mobile advertising to cope with the FMCG giants’ lower ad spend and media buys. Sharp wrote that in order for brands to grow they need to bring new users into the franchise, and that consumers are not uniquely loyal to brands and instead tend to shop on a 'consumer regiment' of products because of mental and physical availability.

He claims that this approach by Facebook has seen it reach 500,000 households in the Philippines for Nestle's all-purpose cream product campaign using Facebook and Instagram. While in the UK, 37 FMCG campaigns that made use of its tools drove a 3.7% increase in sales, and of those people buying those products 60% were non-brand buyers. In the US, 200 campaigns on Facebook and Instagram drove an increase in household penetration, bringing new users in 72% of the time.

“Over the last number of years, as people shifted to mobile devices, the concept of both mental and physical availability has changed. If you are in the business of growing your brand, what you need to master is mobile marketing,” says Platt-Higgins.

“This is where we have been spending most of our time. Not only is Facebook and Instagram driving sales, but they are disproportionately driving household penetration and bringing new users in because of mobile.

“In Indonesia or India, where there might be power outages from television, the opportunity to reach people with mobile and bring top-of-mind awareness and mental availability is huge.”

However, Platt-Higgins admits that simply porting assets from television onto mobile does not necessarily work and Facebook is constantly reminding itself that the way people consume content is different. He adds that if a brand is not building for the mobile environment intentionally and with craft, care, seniority, thoughtfulness and senior stakeholder-management stewardship, as well as optimising for mobile, then it is a missed opportunity.

“Brands need to optimise in three areas. One is the reach, where often what we find is that clients have gone too narrow with their reach and that can be a drag on their results. We see that the frequency is not optimised and not reaching people enough or too often. The most important thing is how the creative is being optimised for mobile,” explains Platt-Higgins.

“We spend a lot of time trying to audit and show whether or not the work has been optimised for mobile and if it has, how we can make it even better.

“If we can get those three things right, we find that we can disproportionately drive sales and Facebook has a direct attribution to sales. That is the only equation that people are interested in.”

Platt-Higgins' advice on mobile certainly carry weight, as a report by eMarketer found that FMCG brands are expected to invest 28% more in mobile advertising in 2017 in the UK.

Output: Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands looking to get more out of their mobile advertising must optimise their reach and frequency and ensure their creative works well on mobile, according to William Platt-Higgins, vice-president of global client partnerships at Facebook. Platt-Higgins said mobile ad campaigns did not need to focus on brand loyalty, but rather on consumers whose behaviour was influenced by mental and physical availability. He also said that Facebook had strong relationships with FMCG brands and was being brought in earlier to campaigns' strategy and planning stages.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Unilever and NHS to pilot team-building chatbot
 Team discussions could be different if a chatbot joins in, but will they get better? sturti/Getty

Are your colleagues lousy at communicating with each other? A chatbot could help, specifically one called CoachBot. Developed by the London-based HR company Saberr, it asks about workplace dynamics and provides the team with reports. A unit within the UK’s National Health Service is trialling it, as are 10 companies, including Unilever and Logitech.

When Coachbot arrives in the workplace, staff have to introduce themselves to it.

“Team members start by saying hello to CoachBot, and are then asked about who they are and what they do,” says Tom Marsden, Saberr’s CEO. After 10-minute sessions to identify problems and delve into grievances, “CoachBot then creates a plan to try to improve the team’s overall performance,” he says.

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Engaging its services costs £8 per month per employee. One early adopter is Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, which specialises in mental health. The trust is now using it for 30 staff members over a 12-month period to see if it helps improve outcomes for patients and employees’ perception of the effectiveness of their teams.

Bite-size coaching

“It has great potential for us because it offers bite-size coaching that the teams can work on at a time that suits them,” says staff member Jess Lievesley. “It means we don’t have to take days out of service for long courses, and if we need to move things around due to patient needs we can do so without incurring extra cost.”

Questions Coachbot asks include “Is your team productive?” and “Do you trust each other?” This questioning eventually leads to CoachBot identifying some team-wide and individual goals that it will keep tabs on. If they aren’t being met or team morale is low, CoachBot suggests activities to try to improve things. These come straight out of “management science”, and include options like changing the way meetings are run or recommending the team plays a board game together.

There’s some evidence that people may prefer to divulge their woes to a chatbot. In one study, members of the US army were more likely to admit to mental health issues, using illicit drugs or drinking alcohol when talking to a chatbot than in an old-fashioned written questionnaire. If this extends to office politics, people may be more willing to speak their mind to CoachBot than via other means.

But don’t expect too much beyond that. “One of the key skills of any [human] coach is to pick up on the emotional aspects of a group – something which a bot is probably not so good at doing,” says André Spicer at Cass Business School in London.

Read more: The road to hell is paved with corporate wellness

Even if the technology develops, not everyone is convinced that it will ultimately be beneficial. “I think it could be successful in a rather cruel and sinister way because it will force people to record every little move they make,” says Carl Cederström at Stockholm University, Sweden. “If it turns out that when this data is processed that a person is not performing as efficiently as they should, they could be left out of a team,” he says.

“There is also a real danger that a coachbot could actually get in the way of doing the job,” says Spicer. “This would happen when employees spend more time interacting with the robocoach than each other.”

This could also mean that managers are lulled into complacency and fail to do their jobs properly. Marsden says that’s not their intention. “We’re not trying to replace human conversation,” says Marsden. “We’re trying to augment it with better information.”

Output: A team-building chatbot is being tested by companies including Unilever, Logitech and a local NHS Trust. CoachBot, developed by London-based HR firm Saberr, asks users about workplace dynamics and provides reports based on its conversations with employees. Staff have to introduce themselves to the bot, and answer a range of questions about their jobs. It uses their responses to identify goals and suggests activities to help improve a team's dynamics. There is evidence that people may be more likely to speak frankly to a chatbot than to reply honestly to a written questionnaire.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Amazon's search engine provides competition for Google
 As Amazon wields a growing power as a search engine, it is also becoming a more compelling advertising platform and, as a result, is posing the first real challenge to Google and Facebook, which have long commanded digital advertising budgets virtually unopposed. Of the two, Google initially stands to lose more, but as Amazon’s ad offerings expand, Facebook could also bleed ad dollars.

At the same time, it is unlikely Amazon will overthrow this so-called 'duopoly' until it starts to do more with online media and command a larger chunk of consumers’ time. So, instead, we’re likely to end up with three digital advertising powerhouses instead of two.

Here’s how that’s likely to play out:

Research shows many consumers turn to Amazon when looking for information about products. Figures vary from 31% to 55% when it comes to first-time research – and a study from marketing technology company Kenshoo found 72% of people visit Amazon at some point before making a purchase when they want to research products online.

According to Collin Colburn, analyst on the B2C marketing team at market research firm Forrester, use of Amazon as a search engine will continue to grow for two reasons:

Amazon is built like a product-specific search engine – consumers can search for anything product-related and get relevant results better and quicker than they can with Google.

Second, Colburn noted Amazon is unique in that its product listing pages have virtually everything a shopper could want to know – including price, description, pictures and reviews – which gives customers a one-stop shop for research even if they aren’t actually going to buy from Amazon.

Nathan Grimm, director of marketing at Seattle-based agency Indigitous, agreed Amazon's share of search will grow.

“They have built a sizeable lead in selection and service over their competitors and continue to grow their market power,” he said. “As retail stores continue to struggle and close down, even more business will shift to Amazon. Their share of search is very much a function of them being a preferred channel for purchasing products. Until someone else upsets their model, it will grow.”

In addition, Kevin Mannion, chief strategy officer at business intelligence firm Advertiser Perceptions, said he believes Amazon has growing influence on how advertisers view search.

“Our data shows that advertisers are increasingly ready to shift down their spend in traditional digital search and [are] more likely to see alternate search opportunities. Amazon is one. And perhaps the most important,” he said. “Searching within the Amazon environment is essential to the data story that Amazon can share with marketers and agencies. And as the shopper leaves [its] walled garden, Amazon is able to track and retarget shoppers who have explored a product category and…considered contender brands.”

Amazon the ad platform

It’s this knowledge about consumer behavior that makes Amazon such a powerful foe against Google and Facebook, which have long ruled the digital marketing landscape.

In fact, Advertiser Perceptions’ Q4 2016 Programmatic Intelligence Report found Amazon’s nascent ad business was the most-used DSP and the most preferred DSP – and Mannion said Amazon also performed well in a forthcoming study, confirming Amazon is a “significant player” among DSPs. That’s in part because it has its own exclusive placements on Amazon.com and other Amazon properties that other DSPs can’t reach, as well as because Amazon can offer targeting based on what consumers are shopping for on Amazon and it can report on sales, as well as on how purchase and search behavior changed while ads were running.

In fact, at Dmexco, Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer at P&G, said advertising on platforms like Amazon enable the brand to better understand consumer behavior and deliver ads when they are most likely to result in sales. (A Samsung rep at Dmexco, however, told The Drum the brand respects Amazon, but sees it primarily as an ecommerce platform rather than a marketing platform.)

Amazon v. Google

Of the two players in the duopoly, Amazon is more like Google – which means they’re now squaring off for consumers looking for information.

And, according Joe Migliozzi, managing director of e-commerce and retail media unit Shop+ and lead of media company Mindshare North America, Amazon’s business model is not dependent on advertising revenue, which gives it the freedom to change the competitive landscape.

“For example, Amazon Echo's main ambition is to sign up more Prime subscribers and sell more goods, not to sell ads,” he said. “However, Echo has disrupted the search business both by voice, as well as the singularity of its answers: There is no room, or at least very limited space, for paid search advertising in a world of single voice answers to queries.”

Jason Hartley, senior vice president and national head of search and paid search at digital marketing agency 360i, agreed the challenge from Amazon is significant because it has disrupted Google’s virtual monopoly on search – and as Google loses market share in product searches, it is also losing revenue from the ads it used to serve consumers making those searches. And, as Amazon does a better job of monetizing its own searches, Google could see further losses in the consumer product and retail budgets it used to command.

In addition, Hartley noted that advertising is a means to an end for Amazon, which wants to sell more products. For Google, however, advertising is the end “because, with few exceptions, they don’t sell anything or make any money off the goods they direct people to via searches,” he continued.

At the same time, Hartley also noted Amazon has some limitations – for example, if it doesn’t sell a given product, the brand behind it can’t advertise on the platform. There are also verticals like travel that Amazon probably won’t touch.

“There will be a lot of competition for traditional retail and CPG searches in the future, and Amazon will be on par in terms of search volume, but not necessarily advertising because, again, it’s not a revenue priority for them, selling the product is,” he added.

Amazon v. Facebook

Facebook also stands to lose market share to Amazon, but it isn’t as much of a direct competitor as consumers use the platform for different reasons. Facebook could, however, still be hurt if budgets moved to Amazon as its ad offerings expand, a 360i rep noted.

“Until Amazon starts competing more for online media they aren't directly challenging Facebook,” Grimm said. “Amazon does have inroads with Amazon Video and Amazon Music, but they don't have a social network or a news portal with wide adoption.”

The Oligopoly

Hartley noted Amazon is likely to follow a similar path as Facebook and Google in digital advertising.

“In the next year, I think you’ll see the maturation of the digital advertising products on Amazon, which will mean early gains for those who understand how the system works, followed by a rapid rise in competition as more players get to know how to leverage the advertising opportunity effectively, and then in the crowded space it will become a lot harder for brands to win and create ROI,” he said. “This is the same trajectory Facebook and Google faced in their early days. But with Amazon’s growth, there is probably another three-to-five years of being able to find strong performance without particularly sophisticated strategies.”

However, he also noted Amazon is known to move quickly, so this time period could be compressed if Amazon prioritizes advertising and works closely with brands and agencies and “shares data more effectively.”

Grimm believes that Amazon can carve out “a nice chunk” of the digital ad market by serving ads to shopping customers.

“However, consumer awareness and preferences are primarily built elsewhere, so Amazon will have to control a lot larger chunk of consumers' time before they steal a large chunk of ad dollars from Facebook and Google,” he added. “I see them becoming a third pillar of Internet advertising, but not replacing Facebook or Google.”

Colburn agreed that consumers more likely to end up with three powerhouses than two. That’s in part because many companies are investing in Amazon advertising from their shopper marketing or retail teams and not their marketing budgets. This means they’re not necessarily taking dollars away from Google, but rather putting more money in Amazon.

“It doesn’t really change the duopoly – it just sort of props Amazon up more,” Colburn said. “But it doesn’t take share away from Google.”

Additional reporting by Rebecca Stewart.

Output: Amazon is becoming a rival to Google and Facebook in terms of advertising revenue, as customers increasingly use the site as a search engine for products. Research has shown that up to 72% of people visit Amazon to research products before making a purchase. This trend is reported to have disrupted Google's advertising dominance, with Amazon doing a better job of monetising its own searches. Facebook is also losing market share to the online retailer, although Amazon's lack of a social network is expected to limit this effect.


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Major web browsers will soon support payment request APIs
 In early September I learned with excitement that the status of Payment Request API implementation in Webkit went from “Under Consideration” to “In Development.” That means that the API is being implemented in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Webkit, as well as Samsung Internet Browser and Facebook. If you know about more implementations, please let me know.

The timing couldn’t be better. Today the Web Payments Working Group advanced both Payment Request API and Payment Method identifiers to Candidate Recommendation Status. This step in the W3C Recommendation Track means that the specification is stable and we will now focus on browser interoperability, primarily by developing a comprehensive test suite. If you would like to help us work on the test suite, please contact me.

For more information about the Candidate Recommendation announcement, see our media advisory and FAQ.

In parallel, the Working Group continues to work on:

Payment Handler API, which enables Web sites to be payment apps in the Payment Request API ecosystem. Google and Samsung have been working on experimental implementations on the browser side of the API, and Klarna and others working on payment apps. I expect that the Working Group will devote more attention to payment apps now that Payment Request API is a Candidate Recommendation.

Payment Method Manifest, which supports the secure deployment of third-party payment apps for proprietary payment methods.

Ongoing discussion of payment methods “beyond Basic Card,” including discussions of encrypted and tokenized cards, as well as credit transfers and interledger payments.

The Working Group’s charter expires 31 December, so we have begun to discuss what’s next. If you are interested in shaping the group’s agenda, now is a great time to get involved, especially as our next face-to-face meeting is around the corner: 6-7 November at TPAC 2017.

Congratulations to the Web Payments Working Group for reaching this milestone!

Update: Many thanks to everyone who responded to this post urging the Working Group to include support for cryptocurrencies. I have turned off comments for now, most of which speak to the same request.

Output: Major web browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Webkit, could soon support Web Payments Working Group's Payment Request API implementation, according to a post on the Web Payments Working Group's site. The company said it would be focusing on browser interoperability for the API, as well as the Payment Method, after both were advanced to candidate recommendation status. Discussions surrounding "beyond basic card" payments, including encrypted and tokenised cards and interledger payments, are still ongoing.


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India lenders reveal a 45% annual jump in wilful defaulters
 Moneycontrol News The number of wilful defaulters who have the resources to pay has been on the rise, reports the Indian Express, quoting data from a report by the TransUnion CIBIL, a credit information firm. Local lenders have seen a 45 percent jump of Rs 34,900 crore in loan defaulters from last year. According to the report, the wilful defaults jumped to Rs 1,09,594 crore in March 2017 from Rs 74,694 crore in the same period last year. Over the last five years, defaults have risen by over Rs 84,000 crore. In FY16, wilful defaulters rose 31 percent while in 2015, it grew 47.5 percent, according to the report. The State Bank of India tops the default list with Rs 15,069 crore stuck in 997 accounts. In FY17, this amount grew by Rs 2,759 crore. Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda are next in the list with Rs 10,989 and Rs 4,785 crore worth defaults, respectively. In SBI, the default account includes accounts of GET Engineering with default of Rs 424 crore and Zenith Birla with Rs 139 crore default. PNB has put accounts of Zoom Developers with Rs 410 crore defaults, Forever Precious (Rs 747 crore) and Winsom Diamond with Rs 899 crore under the default list. On the other hand, wilful defaults with the LIC reduced to Rs 1,034 crore in March 2017 from Rs 1,304 crore in the same period last year. All India Bank Employees Association General Secretary CH Venkatachalam told Indian Express that such wilful default accounts should be declared as a criminal offence and action must be taken against them.

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Output: The number of wilful defaults in India rose by 45% to INR109,594 crore ($17bn) in March 2017, compared to INR74,694 crore in the same month the previous year, according to a report by credit information firm TransUnion CIBIL. The general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association, CH Venkatachalam has argued that wilful default of bank loans should be made a criminal offence.


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French asset managers sign on to blockchain platform
 By Paige Long (September 15, 2017, 7:34 PM BST) -- London-based financial blockchain company SETL said Friday it has partnered with four of the largest asset managers in France to launch a pan-European fund record-keeping platform based on blockchain technology, in the latest collaborative tie-up for the financial sector....

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Output: Four french asset managers have signed on to be involved in a blockchain record-keeping platform, created by London-based SETL. OFI Asset Management Group, GroupAMA AM, La Financiere de L’echiquier, and Arkéa Investment Services form the pan-European collective participating in the platform's initial stage. The platform, dubbed Iznes, allows asset and wealth managers to record client relationships and transactions via a distributed ledger.


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Chinese 'Sponge Cities' could absorb and reuse 70% of rainwater
 Editor’s Note: Asit K. Biswas is a distinguished visiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Kris Hartley is a lecturer in city and regional planning at Cornell University.

Story highlights Chinese cities are struggling with flooding in urban, concrete areas Sponge cities aim to capture and utilize this rainwater

CNN —

Asian cities are struggling to accommodate rapid urban migration, and development is encroaching on flood-prone areas.

Recent flooding in Mumbai was blamed in part on unregulated development of wetlands, while hastily built urban areas are being affected by flooding across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

This is not a trend only in developing countries; floods in Houston, United States, highlighted the risks of development in environmentally sensitive and low-lying areas. In 2012, a severe flood in Beijing wreaked havoc on the city’s transportation systems, and in 2016 floods overwhelmed drainage systems in Wuhan, Nanjing, and Tianjin.

The challenges are clear.

Read: A third of Bangladesh under water as flood devastation widens

Groundwater over-extraction, waterway degradation, and urban flooding are forcing China’s cities to address a vicious cycle. Sprawling urban development and use of impervious material prevent soil from absorbing rainwater, prompting further investment in infrastructures that typically impede natural processes and worsen flood impacts.

China’s “sponge city initiative” aims to arrest this cycle through the use of permeable surfaces and green infrastructures.

However, the initiative faces two challenges: lack of expertise of local governments to effectively coordinate and integrate such a complex set of activities, and financial constraints.

The concept

Engineering solutions are popular interventions, but cities cannot simply pipe away flood risks.

To address the issue, China’s sponge city initiative has an ambitious goal: by 2020, 80% of urban areas should absorb and re-use at least 70% of rainwater.

Parts of China are especially prone to floods. In summer 2016, torrential rains caused damage across northern China. STR/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Launched in 2015 in 16 cities, the initiative seeks to reduce the intensity of rainwater runoff by enhancing and distributing absorption capacities more evenly across targeted areas. The resulting groundwater replenishment increases availability of water for various uses. This approach not only reduces flooding but also enhances water supply security.

The initiative is similar to the North American concept of low-impact development (LID), which according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mimics natural processes in order to protect water quality.

The case of Lingang, a planned city in Shanghai’s Pudong district, illustrates typical sponge city measures. These include rooftops covered by plants, scenic wetlands for rainwater storage, and permeable pavements that store excess runoff water and allow evaporation for temperature moderation.

The skyline in Pudong, Shanghai -- Lingang city will stand in this district. JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

With ambitions to be China’s largest sponge city project, the Lingang city government has invested $119 million in retrofits and innovations that could be a model for the majority of Chinese cities lacking modern water infrastructure.

Chinese cities are making noteworthy efforts. In a pledge to expand coverage of urban greenery, Shanghai announced in early 2016 the construction of 400,000 square meters of rooftop gardens.

The project is a collaborative effort among city regulators, property owners, and engineers. Sponge city projects in Xiamen and Wuhan have performed effectively during heavy rainfall.

Improved policies and budgets

The sponge city initiative requires a holistic and sustained effort, including effective environmental governance. However, concerns persist about weak regulations and selective enforcement. Local officials cannot simply turn the other way when violations are discovered.

The unsung tedium of tightening controls is less exciting than bold innovations, but equally crucial for managing water. Gains from sponge city programs should not be offset by poor environmental governance.

Funding is also a persistent constraint. To date, more than $12 billion has been spent on all sponge city projects. The central government funds roughly 15-20% of costs, with the remainder split between local governments and the private sector.

Wetland restoration being carried out in Denver, Colorado in 2016. Seth McConnell/Denver Post/Getty Images

Unfortunately, the initiative coincides with a burgeoning municipal debt crisis spurred in part by restrictive financial reforms, bond ratings cuts, and nervous bond markets. China’s cities may soon find borrowing costs even higher and avenues for reducing debts narrower.

Investment in sponge city initiatives is also proving to be an increasingly difficult sell, with only tepid interest from domestic private investors. The government should improve conditions that encourage investment, including tax incentives, better project transparency, and looser credit markets.

Gains from sponge city programs should not be offset by poor environmental governance.

Until this happens, sponge city initiatives will have to compete against visible and familiar infrastructure such as roads, transit, and utilities. They will also have to be attractive in a market with numerous other investment options.

Innovative water initiatives have been adopted worldwide, including wetland restoration in the American Midwest, flushing systems using collected rooftop water in Oregon USA, bioswales in Singapore, and public spaces as flexible water retention facilities in the Netherlands.

A rooftop garden in Amsterdam. Michael C Corder/AP

China has an opportunity to strengthen its emerging global leadership role in urban sustainability.

However, it must first implement an effective vision for how sponge city initiatives complement broader environmental governance efforts.

Improving regulatory enforcement and reviving interest in related private investment opportunities are two steps it can take.

Output: Lingang is aiming to become China's flagship "Sponge City", with its government investing $119m in innovations such as permeable pavements and scenic wetlands for rainwater storage. The Sponge City initiative, launched in 2015 across 16 cities, aims to enable urban areas to absorb and reuse 70% of all rainwater by enhancing and distributing absorption capacities. However, the plan is under threat from a lack of investment and regulatory enforcement.


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Bank of England raises concerns over £60bn of car loan exposure
 David Bailey, Professor of Industry at Aston University and Colin Chapman, Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching, Aston University

Sales of new cars in the UK fell for the fifth month in row during August, with demand for diesel cars falling more than a fifth, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

But looking at longer term trends, sales are still near record levels and on a par with pre-credit crunch levels. Last year, some 1.2m of the 2.7m new cars sold in the UK went to private individuals, a 47% increase on 2011 figures.

These private sales are overwhelmingly fuelled by credit: 86% of them were financed by members of the Finance & Leasing Association who lent over £18 billion to private individuals buying new cars. This is a 164% increase on 2011. Finance provision on secondhand cars is roughly the same amount again.

No wonder the Bank of England is looking at this closely – and others are warning it could lead to another credit crunch.

How it works

Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) financing deals now account for over 80% of new car credit sales. To many, PCPs are essentially a form of rental agreement; after paying a deposit, the consumer pays a fixed monthly payment to use the car for an agreed time period and number of miles.

But the mechanics and options of a PCP deal are a little different to a traditional lease (or Personal Contract Hire). In many PCPs, the deposit is fairly small, and often comes with a contribution from the manufacture or dealer, albeit in lieu of a discount.

So once registered, the value of the finance will be close to the asset’s value.

A guaranteed minimum future value (GMFV) is set for the end of the term – usually 24 or 36 months – with this GMFV based on a forecast of the vehicle’s value at that stage, allowing for depreciation.

The consumer’s monthly payment is based on paying back the difference between the amount financed and the GMFV, with interest often calculated and payable during this term based on the total amount financed.

At the end of the agreed term, the consumer hands back the car, or can purchase it for the pre-agreed GMFV, also known as a “balloon payment”, or use any positive equity (that’s excess value over the GMFV) as a deposit towards a new car – assuming there is any.

It all sounds simple, and has kept the champagne corks popping in dealerships. What could possibly go wrong?

The catch

First, think of consumer expectations. Fees are payable if the car is handed back with more than the agreed miles on the clock, or if the car is deemed to have more than reasonable wear and tear. This often catches consumers out.

Early termination is also usually penalised, although dealers target mid-term upgrades, and consumers often have an expectation of some equity being available at end of the term. Being sold a new car upgrade at the end or during the contract will likely require a further injection of cash – or the rollover of any deficit.

Second, let’s think how the finance industry works. To hit high volumes, many lenders have made credit acceptance easier, thus making PCPs more readily available to those with less than prefect credit records – think of the subprime housing market in the US and how it led to the last credit crunch.

But this credit “boom” relies on a number of elements.

First, low default rates. But the Bank of England reported an increase in “voluntary terminations” of late which usually means losses for finance houses, perhaps linked to the fact that prices are rising faster than wages. And any rise in interest rates will put further pressure on household budgets, whether that’s owners or renters.

A stable boom also relies on stable underlying assets. But PCPs use as security a car, a fast depreciating asset.

If a large percentage of consumers upgrade at the end of their term, whether to avoid the balloon payment or just to keep up with the Joneses, this could also mean a tidal wave of end-of-contract cars hitting the secondhand market.

The risk here is of values falling and a spiralling effect setting in, as those seeing the actual value of their car falling below the GMFV also decide to return it to the dealership.

Secondhand values of diesels have already fallen sharply according to auction specialist Autorola thanks to environmental pressures and consumers becoming spooked by bad news about diesels and concerns over future residuals.

This could also cause material losses to lenders through their GMFV risk. Here, the entwined relationship between auto makers and lenders means it is not actually that clear who is ultimately underwriting these risks; indeed, around half of the finance comes from lenders which are actually owned by the manufacturers. For example, Volkswagen’s financing division had over €150 billion of loans to customers on its books in March this year.

What next?

The Bank of England is now concerned about the financial stability of these products as banks have a £20 billion exposure, and manufactures as much again. It is concerned that the industry’s growing reliance on PCPs has made it more vulnerable to macroeconomic downturns.

The Bank reckons that a 20% fall in used car values could lead to losses as high as £1.2 billion, in turn denting what’s termed “Common Equity Tier 1 Ratios”, a key measure of banks’ financial stability.

This is possible as average prices for used fleet cars fetched at auction fell 19% during the global financial crisis, according to BCA figures.

A likely outcome of the Bank of England review could well be tougher affordability criteria, to improve the quality of the loan book, and this reduction could in theory lead to a credit crunch.

Some of the car loans in the UK and US have been sliced up and packaged into asset-backed securities (ABSs) and sold on to investors (like pension funds). These ABSs played a big part in the last global financial crisis of course. Last year, €4.8 billion of auto loan ABSs were sold in the UK alone, with around €18 billion of auto bonds placed in Europe.

Auto loan ABSs involve numerous banks; HSBC, Lloyds, Wells Fargo and BNP Paribas were all involved in a £1.3 billion ABS issued by PSA Finance, for example.

At the same time, the Financial Conduct Authority, which is responsible for regulating consumer credit, has concerns about the sales practices involved in PCPs, and is studying whether there is a lack of transparency, potential conflicts of interest, and irresponsible lending in the motor finance industry. Others have joined the clamour.

Most dealerships are only authorised in a non-advisory capacity for finance, and cannot recommend specific finance deals. But it is suggested that the full implications to the consumer are not always clearly disclosed. Other options (like leasing which could work out cheaper) may be ignored in favour of “drive away” PCP packages which are a great tool to help dealers meet car and finance targets, and make commission in the process.

Are we likely to see a crash? That’s unlikely in the UK, as the market is smaller than in the US, and the Bank of England is relatively vigilant, and likely to impose controls that will gradually adjust the situation without causing a snowball effect. It may well be a far bigger problem in the US, however.

Nevertheless, greater public exposure may be welcome news for one sector: the potential PCP mis-selling scandal may soon become the ambulance chasers’ next meal ticket. Think PPI all over again.

David Bailey, Professor of Industry, Aston University and Colin Chapman, Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching, Aston University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Output: The Bank of England has expressed concern about the high number of UK personal contract purchase (PCP) financing deals, which have left banks exposed to £20bn ($27bn) of debt and manufacturers to twice that amount. PCPs make up 80% of all new credit car sales, but rising default rates, swift depreciation and a wave of vehicles swamping the second-hand market have sparked fears of instability. Analysts suggested the Bank of England may impose tougher affordability criteria, while the Financial Conduct Authority is studying whether there is irresponsible lending in the market.


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Regus Regus moves in with Google and Nike in Melbourne's Collins Street
 Tech giant Google will set up its first Melbourne office in the heart of corporate Australia, leasing space in US property group Pembroke Real Estate's signature Collins Street building.

Pembroke has been busy undertaking a major refurbishment of the T&G building at 161 Collins and is close to sealing a deal with Google as well as another key multinational tenant, sportswear brand Nike.

Renders of the planned refurbishment of the T&G Building at 161 Collins Street, now owned by Pembroke Real Estate.

A third deal is also in the offing with co-working firm Regus Spaces.

Between them the three businesses have stitched up 10,500 square metres in the "Paris" end of Collins Street, a premium stretch likely to see them paying net face rents around $520 per square metre.

Output: Office space provider Regus is to open a co-working space in Pembroke Real Estate's T&G building at 161 Collins Street in Melbourne. The office will be Regus's 25th co-working hub in Melbourne. Regus will share the building with tech giant Google and sportswear brand Nike. Currently, Regus's co-working space at 90 Collins Street hosts Google's Melbourne-based employees. Regus is likely to pay rent of about AUD520 ($416) a sq metre for the space.


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Chinese insurers face more supervision of overseas investments
 The regulator said it will prevent risks stemming from “an excessively rapid growth in overseas investments”. Photo: Handout

Output: China's Insurance Regulatory Commission will focus on "irrational stock market fundraising and overseas acquisitions" as it steps up its supervision of foreign investments, according to Guo Jing, vice head of the commission’s finance and accounting department. Guo added the regulator would also call on insurance companies to carry out self-checks on their property investments. The moves followed last month's announcement by the State Council that it would limit overseas investments in several sectors to stem capital outflows.


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Esure Esure shares rise on reports Sir Peter Wood wants to sell his stake
 Teen used ‘survival games’ to keep her and her siblings alive for 40 days lost in Colombian jungle

Output: Esure shares rose 5% after the Sunday Times reported that Sir Peter Wood, the firm's biggest shareholder, has been in talks with would-be buyers of the motor insurer. Wood, who owns a 30.7% controlling position, is seeking to close a deal next month, the Sunday Times said. Despite private equity firms' interest in Esure, an American insurance company is most likely to buy the stake in the firm, the report said. Esure's pre-tax profits rose 44.6% to £45.1m in the six months to 30 June. A sale of Wood's stake could trigger a sale of the whole business.


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Shanghai Fosun to buy 74% of India's Gland Pharma for $1.1bn
 For continuing, Please agree our Terms & Conditions and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. This same account can be used across all Elets News portals.

Output: The board of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group has agreed to purchase a 74% stake in Indian drug company Gland Pharma in a deal worth $1.1bn, according to a company statement. The move revives Fosun Pharma's attempt to buy an 86% stake in Gland Pharma last year, which was blocked by the Indian government; foreign firms investing more than 74% in Indian companies must obtain government approval.


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Google and Facebook forecast to dominate over half of UK market
 The latest snapshot of the UK digital ad market has reaffirmed the dominance of Google and Facebook with both tech titans combined expected to account for over half of all UK digital ad revenues by the end of the year.

Google and Facebook digital ad dominance grows

Compiled by eMarketer the forecast foresees that both tech companies will account for 54% of all digital ad revenues this year, taking home £6.3bn between them.

Output: Earnings from Google and Facebook will comprise 54% of all UK digital ad revenue this year, according to a forecast from eMarketer. The two companies will take £6.3bn ($8.5bn) in ad revenue between them for 2017, eMarketer predicted. Google's total digital ad revenues are expected to reach £4.43bn this year, with Facebook set to earn £1.87bn from digital advertising on its social network and media-sharing site Instagram. By 2019, Google is on track to earn £5.1bn from digital advertising, while Facebook will earn £2.57bn, eMarketer reported.


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Point Bridge introduces right-wing political ETF
 Want to invest in line with your political ideals and the Grand Old Party? A new exchange-traded fund and index will let you to do just that.

Point Bridge Capital LLC launched its MAGA ETF, which tracks the Point Bridge GOP Stock Tracker index. The rules-based methodology follows the performance of companies whose employees and political action committees are highly supportive of Republican Party candidates.

"I have been in the investment business as a portfolio manager for over 20 years, and (have) also been very involved in politics," said Hal Lambert, founder and managing director of the firm in Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Lambert, in a telephone interview, said he had noticed "companies were getting more and more politically active, making public statements and really affecting, I think, stock prices in their companies."

Stock selection begins with the S&P 500, screening for PACs and employee contributions. Point Bridge then uses proprietary rules to select the top 150 Republican-supporting companies. "That is what makes up the ETF. (It is) important because companies are giving millions and millions of dollars, affecting the outcomes of elections, and companies may be contributing to candidates that investors may not want to support," he said. Mr. Lambert declined to comment on whether the MAGA ticker stands for "Make America Great Again," the slogan adopted by President Donald Trump for his 2016 campaign. Mr. Lambert has dubbed the development of the ETF and index "politically responsible investing. I view it as a new category for investors," he said.

He said he'll be looking to launch more politically linked funds in the near future.

Further information is available on the ETF website.

— Sophie Baker and Lydia Parker

Output: Texas-based asset manager Point Bridge Capital has launched the MAGA exchange-traded fund (ETF), which tracks 150 companies highly supportive of the US Republican Party. Managing director Hal Lambert, who says the product represents "politically responsible investing" said offering clients the chance to make investments based on their political bias was important, as "companies are giving millions and millions of dollars, affecting the outcomes of elections, and may be contributing to candidates they may not want to support".


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San Leon San Leon faces financial difficulties while waiting for payments
 'The company is looking to shore up its financial footing as it seeks to meet payments due on foot of a dispute with former partner Avobone.' (stock photo)

Output: Independent gas and oil exploration firm San Leon Energy will struggle to meet payments of €8m ($9.6m) and almost €7m, due in October and November to Polish company Avobone, as it continues to wait for payments from its stake in a Nigerian oil field. While auditors KPMG expressed doubt about San Leon's ability to continue to trade, in a statement, the Irish company said: "The directors have assumed that additional loan facilities of €12m will be obtained in October 2017 and a further €7m will be obtained in November 2017 to meet the group's payment commitments."


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Drax plans to build largest grid storage battery in the world
 Drax Group plc (LON:DRX) has outlined intentions to build a large-scale battery storage of 200 MW and repower up to two coal units to gas at Drax power station in North Yorkshire, England.

The company said on Wednesday it has given notice to the Planning Inspectorate of its plans to consult on the options that could result in up to 3.6 GW of new gas generation. The plans are subject to a positive investment decision and would have to be backed by a 15-year capacity market contract, the power generator added. It noted that at the moment, at the start of the planning process, the figures provided are the maximum parameters of the project.

Drax expects to start consultations on the plans with local communities and national stakeholders in the coming weeks. It first said it was considering gas options for the site in June.

The upgrade would increase the ability of the company to provide flexible generation and grid support services that are increasingly needed as the UK shifts to low-carbon generation and removes coal from the grid. Drax has already converted three of the plant's six units to biomass and is exploring converting a fourth unit.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!

Output: Drax Group said it plans to build a 200 MW energy storage facility in North Yorkshire in what would be the largest battery storage project in the world, double what Tesla is providing to Australia's Hornsdale wind farm in the coming months. The proposal also includes converting up to two coal units to natural gas, which could result in 3.6 GW of new gas generation. The plans are subject to a positive investment decision and will need to be backed by a 15-year capacity market contract.


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DNA-sized robots transport cargo through blood
 Nano-cargo carrier Ella Maru Studio

You won’t read about a smaller robot than this one any time soon. It consists of just a single strand of DNA, and moves by taking tiny 6-nanometre steps – around a hundred-millionth the size of a human step. The robot can pick up and deliver microscopic cargo, so its creators hope it will one day be used to transport medicines to individual diseased cells or help assemble hard-to-make chemical compounds.

Just as robots have been sent to places too distant for humans to visit, such as other planets, mastering molecular robotics would allow us to “send them to places that are perhaps too small for humans to go to, for example inside the bloodstream”, says Lulu Qian at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

But while plenty of tiny robots exist, and some have even been used in the bloodstream, they had to be much bigger than a DNA strand to be useful. “It is one of the first steps towards developing general-purpose DNA robots,” says Qian.

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The robot consists of a leg with two feet attached to two arms for carrying cargo. To test it, Qian created a flat 58-by-58-nanometre surface with little DNA stepping stones for it to hop between. As one foot lands, the other lifts up, causing it to randomly move from stone to stone until it eventually comes into contact with the desired cargo. It then picks up the load and continues to hop around until it finds the drop-off point.

The objects collected and the drop-off point are pre-programmed by the robot’s chemical composition, which causes it to bind to particular substances. So although the path taken is random, the final destination is predictable.

In experiments, the robot successfully picked up six fluorescent dyes – three yellow and three pink – and moved them to one of two destinations.

Speed boost

All this hopping might sound quick, but a single step between stones takes a rather lengthy 5 minutes, meaning that covering the entire surface takes a whole day. Qian and her colleagues say they could boost the speed by adding an enzyme to give extra thrust, or giving the robot a chemical motor.

Or you could just add more robots: the saying “many hands make light work” applies at the nanoscale too.

“This is the ultimate example of minuscule robotics, and yet it is still programmable and predictable,” says Robert Cross at the University of Warwick, UK. That will be important for ultra-precision medicine. Once inside the bloodstream, specific signals or markers could be used to get the molecular bots to deliver a drug only to cells that show signs of disease, leading to more effective treatments.

Cross believes the work could also be useful for building things at the nanometre scale, such as chemical compounds. “This would allow focused assembly,” he says.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.aan6558

Output: Scientists in Pasadena have developed a microscopic robot, consisting of a single strand of DNA, that is capable of transporting microscopic loads from one location to another. In tests, the robot successfully moved across a flat surface, collected coloured dyes, and carried them to its destination. Although each movement took five minutes, the team said that enzymes could be added to speed up the device. The ultimate aim of the project is to develop nanomachines which can deliver medicine ultra-precisely to infected cells within the human body.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Weatherford unveils autonomous pipe makeup system AutoTong
 Weatherford International plc has announced the commercial release of the AutoTong™ system featuring AutoEvaluate connection-makeup software. The AutoTong system is the world’s first technology to automate pipe makeup and to provide autonomous connection evaluation.

Using the AutoTong system, the final pipe-makeup process is initiated with the push of a button. The system autonomously determines the appropriate connection parameters based on the pipe and thread criteria specified by the original equipment manufacturer. Providing complete control throughout the final makeup sequence, the system continuously monitors the torque and adjusts the rotational speed of the casing to achieve the optimal torque value. The integrated AutoEvaluate software automatically evaluates the connection quality based on high-resolution data and does not require a joint-makeup analyst to interpret the data.

“By eliminating the element of human error from the physical makeup and connection validation processes, the AutoTong system sharply increases the safety and efficiency of well construction operations,” said Aaron Sinnott, Vice President of Well Integrity at Weatherford. “The addition of automation to the makeup process represents a real turning point for tubular management.”

Output: US-based oil and natural gas servicing firm Weatherford International has released AutoTong, which it claims is the world's first autonomous pipe makeup system. It determines the correct connection parameters based on criteria specified by the original equipment manufacturer. It also eliminates the need for a human joint-makeup analyst by using high-resolution data to automatically evaluate the connection quality. “By eliminating the element of human error from the physical makeup and connection validation processes, the AutoTong system sharply increases the safety and efficiency of well construction operations", said Aaron Sinnott, vice president of well integrity at Weatherford.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Diversity Project releases benchmark study on investment sector
 London, Monday 18th September 2017, Almost a year since launching, the Diversity Project has today provided an update on its progress to develop a more inclusive and diverse culture within the investment and savings profession over the next 4 years.

Over the last 12 months, the Diversity Project, led by a CEO/Chair Advisory Council with a Steering Committee from a selection of UK investment and savings institutions, has embarked on a wide range of initiatives and educational programmes.

This includes this week’s launch of a Returners Database, a portal for individuals who have taken an extended career break and are keen to return to the investment sector.

Other important initiatives underway include, focused work streams aimed at attracting more diverse talent, including a wider range of socio-economic backgrounds and improved ethnic representation.

The Project is also working on cultural aspects to encourage diverse talent to stay and develop their careers within the industry, with the aim of achieving more diversity among fund managers of flagship funds.

Measuring progress is crucial to gauging the Diversity Project’s success.

The Project commissioned Mercer to undertake a Benchmarking study (Q2 2017) to survey over 3,755 participants from 24 firms including 650 investment managers, to understand the experience, backgrounds, qualifications and motivations of those working in the sector and importantly, what actions are needed to improve diversity.

The key insights and actions from the research highlight areas such as supporting individuals returning to the industry after a leave of absence, introducing broader recruitment practices and exploring greater flexibility across the workplace.

The research looks for new ways to help personal development and enhance the reputation of the sector to encourage more people from a wider variety of backgrounds to apply for roles.

The Diversity Project Advisory Council has also developed a ten-point commitment to diversity and inclusion’ to further strengthen the industry’s intention to deliver change.

The Commitment sets out ways to support the industry to launch schemes aimed at ensuring diverse recruitment, helping a wider range of talent to rise to top roles within firms, as well as the sharing of best practice and the development of new collaborative initiatives.

Founder of the Diversity Project, Helena Morrissey comments:

Output: A benchmarking study for the Diversity Project, which was established last year to promote diversity within the UK’s investment industry, has shown that the average employee in the sector is a straight, white male, likely to have been privately educated. The study, carried out by Mercer, revealed that 38% of investment managers went to a private school, compared to 7% of the population as a whole. Women accounted for 23% of the industry, while people with disabilities accounted for just 4%. Improving flexible working was identified as the key method for increasing diversity in the sector.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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UK government launches Green Finance Taskforce
 Green Finance Strategy

The UK launched the Green Finance Strategy on 2 July 2019. The Strategy supports the UK’s economic policy for strong, sustainable and balanced growth, the delivery of our modern Industrial Strategy and our domestic and international commitments on climate change, the environment and sustainable development.

It is informed by the private sector and wider stakeholders, and is, in part, a response to the recommendations of the Green Finance Taskforce, chaired by Sir Roger Gifford. The Taskforce is a leading example of the cross-sector collaboration that the strategy seeks to advance. To this end the government has already taken action to implement its recommendations ahead of the publication of this strategy, such as announcing the establishment of the Green Finance Institute ( GFI ).

The Strategy is an ambitious package, bringing together work from across the government, regulators and the private sector. It has 3 core elements:

greening finance: ensuring current and future financial risks and opportunities from climate and environmental factors are integrated into mainstream financial decision making, and that markets for green financial products are robust in nature

financing green: accelerating finance to support the delivery of the UK’s carbon targets and clean growth, resilience and environmental ambitions, as well as international objectives

capturing the opportunity: ensuring UK financial services capture the domestic and international commercial opportunities arising from the ‘greening of finance’, such as climate related data and analytics, and from ‘financing green’, such as new green financial products and services.

It also outlines how we will be coordinating closely with our international partners to achieve our objectives, and areas where government will seek to lead by example.

An important announcement within the strategy is the launch of the Green Finance Institute.

Green Finance Institute

As the UK’s principal forum for collaboration between the public and private sector with respect to green finance, the Green Finance Institute ( GFI ) will play an integral role in supporting delivery of our Green Finance Strategy.

On the 2 July, the government and the City of London Corporation launched the GFI to foster greater cooperation between the public and private sectors, create new opportunities for investors, and strengthen the UK’s reputation as a global hub for green finance.

Green Finance Taskforce

In September 2017, the government asked leading finance expert and former Lord Mayor of the City of London, Sir Roger Gifford, to chair an independent taskforce to accelerate growth of green finance and the UK’s low carbon economy.

The Green Finance Taskforce report sets out a series of recommendations on how the government and the private sector can work together to make green finance an integral part of our financial services sector. The government has subsequently published the Green Finance Strategy which takes forward the key themes of the taskforce.

Output: A new group of investors and figures from the City of London has been established by the UK government to encourage “green finance” in the country. The Green Finance Taskforce will spend six months working on proposals, in conjunction with banks and other financial organisations, to increase investment in the low-carbon economy. The group, which will be chaired by former lord mayor of London Sir Roger Gifford, will consider ways of making the UK’s infrastructure investments more sustainable, and may produce guidelines for those wishing to invest in greener stocks.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK government launches Green Finance Taskforce
 A new group led by investors and leading figures from the City of London has been brought together by the government to draw up measures to encourage “green finance” in the UK.

The Green Finance Taskforce will have six months to come up with proposals on how to increase investment in the low-carbon economy and will work with banks and other financial institutions. Chaired by Sir Roger Gifford, former lord mayor of London, the taskforce will look at measures to make the UK’s planned investments in infrastructure, for instance on energy and transport, more environmentally sustainable.

The government also wants to give investors assurances about how their money is being looked after, and promote ways for consumers to benefit, for instance through green mortgages, which make borrowing cheaper for those who have insulated their homes.

Claire Perry, minister for climate change, said the UK already showed strong investment in low-carbon activities, and should build on its strengths.

“The transition to a low-carbon economy is a multi-billion pound investment opportunity and a key part of this government’s industrial strategy,” she said. “Developing standards to promote responsible investment in sustainable projects and establishing the Green Finance Taskforce will help ensure businesses across the UK take full advantage of it.”

Stephen Barclay, economic secretary to the Treasury, added: “Financial services are a British success story. It is a priority of mine that people are able to access financial products that support their values, whether that be sharia-compliant loans or green mortgages that have a positive environmental impact. This taskforce will keep the UK at the forefront of green finance and help deliver choice for consumers.”

However, the government made it clear that its approach is likely to be based on voluntary standards, to be adopted by companies, banks and investment institutions if they wish. These could include standards for companies to disclose their exposure to risks from climate change, which some companies already attempt.

As a result, although the taskforce may provide guidelines for investors wishing to ensure they put their money in greener stocks, it is unlikely to have much effect on the behaviour of core fossil fuel companies, or those companies that prefer to stay invested in the fossil fuel economy.

Friends of the Earth, the green campaign group, urged the government to go further. “Coming only a few days after it was revealed that the cost of offshore wind has plummeted, this is another welcome boost to the green economy,” said Simon Bullock, senior climate campaigner. “But ministers must also do far more to reduce investment in climate-wrecking fossil fuels, such as fracking and deep sea oil exploration. If we want to stop climate change, 80% of the world’s coal, oil and gas reserves must be left in the ground.”

Members of the Green Finance Taskforce include the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, a senior adviser to the Bank of England, representatives from Barclays, HSBC and Aviva, and representatives from the public sector and academia.

The UK government made the announcement on the taskforce to coincide with the opening of Climate Week in New York. There, some UK companies including Aviva, WPP and Marks & Spencer joined with others from around the world to endorse the disclosure of climate risks to investors.

Nigel Topping, chief executive of the We Mean Business coalition, said: “There is a great need among the investor community to have consistent climate-related financial risk disclosures from businesses in order to make more informed decisions on capital investment.”

Output: A new group of investors and figures from the City of London has been established by the UK government to encourage “green finance” in the country. The Green Finance Taskforce will spend six months working on proposals, in conjunction with banks and other financial organisations, to increase investment in the low-carbon economy. The group, which will be chaired by former lord mayor of London Sir Roger Gifford, will consider ways of making the UK’s infrastructure investments more sustainable, and may produce guidelines for those wishing to invest in greener stocks.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Female hedge fund managers outperform male peers
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An index measuring the performance of hedge funds run by women dramatically outperformed a gauge for a broader range of funds during the first half of the year, data has revealed.

The HFRX Women index, which pulls together data for female hedge fund managers, returned 9.95 per cent during the first seven months of this year, according to data compiled by the Financial Times.

The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index, which measures the performance of hedge funds across all strategies and genders, returned just 4.81 per cent, according to the paper.

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Women are still dramatically under-represented across the wider investment management world, but the latest data echoes similar statistics that have in the past shown that female-run hedge funds do better than male-run ones – even over longer time frames.

Helena Morrissey, who heads up personal investing at Legal & General Investment Management, told the Financial Times that, although the latest HFRX data only looks at a short timeframe, other research has in the past found that women are “at least as good as men” when investing.

Nicole Boyson, associate professor of finance at Northeastern University in Boston, told the paper that while it is hard to say unequivocally that women make better hedge fund managers than men, “we can say pretty definitively that women are not worse performers”.

She also said that women still face several disadvantages in the industry, including a lack of visibility.

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Citing a report-co-authored by Professor Boyson, The Wall Street Journal last year reported that women are struggling to get their hands on capital, partly because of the low level of news media attention that the funds they run get compared to those run by their male counterparts.

The research found that funds run by women tend to be smaller than those run by men and also showed that fewer than one in 20 hedge funds employed a female portfolio manager.

According to the Financial Times, only about 10 per cent of UK fund managers are female.

Output: Hedge funds run by women have outperformed those managed by men during H1 2017, according to the HFRX Women index, which collates data on female hedge fund managers. The index returned 9.95% for the first seven months of this year, while the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index, which analyses the performance of hedge funds across genders and strategies, returned 4.81%. The data supports previous research that offers similar findings. Just 10% of UK fund managers are women, according to the Financial Times.