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San Francisco imposes strict rules on use of delivery robots
 Express Delivery

Delivery robots are still a rare sight in the U.S., but that might not be the case for much longer. In order to get ahead of the game, authorities in San Francisco have passed new regulations that will control their usage.

Companies will be limited to three robots each, only nine of which will be allowed to traverse the whole city. These limits were put in place by new rules enacted by San Francisco's board of supervisors. Furthermore, the activity of these robots will be limited to industrial areas where there aren't many people around.

The regulations also state that the machines are not permitted to travel at more than three miles per hour, and must be accompanied by a human supervisor at all times. Bob Doyle, a spokesman for the Association for Advancing Automation Association, compared these restrictions to the early days of automotive vehicles where cars had to be preceded by a person carrying a flag.

“To put such a strict limit on these types of autonomous delivery vehicles drastically slows down the process of testing and the potential for these being put into (use before) the general public,” Doyle told the San Francisco Chronicle.

If delivery robots are ever to enter widespread use, it's vitally important that they have been tested at length, and in similar conditions to those that they'll ultimately be working in. It's being argued that these restrictions are short-sighted, as they could prevent companies from perfecting these machines through that kind of rigorous, real-world testing.

The original proposal submitted by supervisor Norman Yee set out to ban the robots outright. The ban was proposed to prevent the robots from overcrowding sidewalks, similar to previously proposed bans pertaining to Segways and bicycles.

Machines Among Us

Automation and artificial intelligence give various industries new opportunities when it comes to their workforce. This will change the job market for humans, but it's also set to have a wider impact on society.

For instance, if a delivery robot causes an accident, who is to blame? Responsibility would likely fall to the company that owns it, but there isn't the direct culpability that would apply to an individual. Without the proper means of compelling the owners of these robots to prioritize public safety, putting limitations on their usage might be the best idea.

San Francisco is something of an outlier when it comes to its restrictions of delivery robots. Elsewhere in California, including the Bay Area, Redwood City, San Carlos, Sunnyvale, and Concord, pilot programs have been approved. While further afield, other states, including Idaho, Wisconsin, Virginia, Florida, and Ohio, have all given their blessing for robots traversing city streets, too.

Integrating robots and other automated workers into our society will offer up all kinds of moral and ethical dilemmas. This technology stands to contribute a wide range of benefits to our society, but we'll need to carefully plan the unleashing of robots in our cities if we want to walk peacefully beside them on the sidewalk.

Output: Authorities in San Francisco have approved new regulations for the use of autonomous delivery robots within the city. Under the rules, delivery robots will be restricted to travelling at 3 mph, their travel routes will be limited to sparsely-populated industrial areas and they will need to be accompanied by a human supervisor. While more permissive than the initially proposed outright ban, the Association for Advancing Automation Association's Bob Doyle argued the regulations are far too restrictive, saying they "drastically slow down the process of testing and the potential for these being put into [use before] the general public".


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Redrow Droitwich Tennis Club gains more young members with Redrow sponsorship
 A PARTNERSHIP between Droitwich Tennis Club and Redrow Homes has led to a large increase in the number of youngsters playing tennis in the town.

The two-year sponsorship deal for the club is now in its second year and has helped coaches promote the sport among young people with 27 per cent more youngsters taking up tennis in the last 18 months.

Droitwich Tennis Club now works with around 200 children aged five to 18 across eight schools, including dedicated sessions to encourage teenage girls to be active.

The club was recently shortlisted by the Hereford and Worcester Sports Partnership for the Community Club of The Year Award.

Club chairman Neil Bates said the sponsorship deal worked really well as the funding allowed the club to plan courses months in advance and enabled schools to add sessions into their timetables.

“This in turn gives school reassurance that we are around and encouraging their pupils to take part.”

He added some schools had paid for extra sessions to keep training going throughout the whole school year and almost 50 children had also taken up the course through after school clubs.

The last six-week course encouraging teenage girls to play tennis attracted 21 participants.

Pauline Turnbull, Redrow Homes (Midlands) sales director, said: “It’s organisations like Droitwich Tennis Club that help create a sense of community and make the neighbourhood somewhere people really want to live.”

She added the results were testament to the hard work and dedication of all involved and it was great the company’s sponsorship had helped make a difference.

Email neilbates1963@sky.com or visit www.droitwichtennis.co.uk for more on Droitwich Tennis Club.

Output: Droitwich Tennis Club has seen a 27% uptake in children taking up tennis in the 18 months since a sponsorship deal with Redrow begun. The club now works with around 200 children across eight local schools, with almost 50 children taking up a tennis course through after-school clubs. Redrow sales director (Midlands) Pauline Turnbull said they were delighted at the increased turnout, saying "it’s organisations like Droitwich Tennis Club that help create a sense of community and make the neighbourhood somewhere people really want to live”.


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Lemonade's third-party partners don't need insurance licences
 Digital insurer Lemonade says companies that integrate its insurance sales platform, or API, into their own apps and web sites “generally speaking do not have to be licensed as insurance agents or brokers.”

At the same time, the insurer said it recognizes that rules may vary by state and it knows it may have to vary its program in some cases as it expands around the country.

“We have a carefully developed a thorough program of compliance that is designed to ensure that we do not pay commissions to unlicensed persons and to forbid those who integrate with our APIs from selling, soliciting or negotiating insurance,” the company said in response to questioning by Insurance Journal. “A few key state regulators have raised these issues with us but after we reveal the factual details of our program, they have been satisfied,”

The question of whether firms that use the insurer’s API need to be licensed arose after Lemonade reported it had launched a public API (application programming interface), allowing other businesses and organizations to offer its renters and home insurance policies through their apps or web sites.

A few weeks later, Lemonade reported that more than 400 businesses had applied within the first 24 hours of it offering to make its sales platform widely available. More than 40 percent were firms related to real estate and another 28 percent were in financial services.

The company told Insurance Journal that it is rolling out the API program slowly, using an automated system to distinguish among applicants. It is using various criteria to determine which businesses to work with including the target markets of the businesses applying, whether they are in the seven states where Lemonade currently sells insurance and whether offering renters and home insurance is compatible with their focus.

Questions Raised

Insurance Journal editors received several inquiries and several readers posted online comments on the issue of licensing. A number of responders maintained that if the API adopters are selling or being paid, they must be licensed. Lemonade says it is taking measures to assure the adopters are not selling insurance and that they are not receiving commissions if they are unlicensed.

Insurance departments in New York, Texas and California told Insurance Journal they are aware of Lemonade’s plan and are looking into the details.

State agent association leaders are in a similar position of awaiting more details. One executive said he thought that if there is no payment for the referrals or clicks, no license is needed. Another likened it to simply advertising on the site. One said it would even be alright for Lemonade to pay a referral fee for every lead but that it can’t offer a fee only for referrals that result in a purchase.

Lemonade said the documentation on its developer web site provides rules and guidance in keeping with its approach of not paying commissions.

New York-based Lemonade is a licensed carrier that is currently offering renters, condo and homeowners insurance in New York, California, New Jersey, and Nevada; renters and condo insurance in Texas and Rhode Island; and renters insurance in Illinois and Ohio.

Under the API program, real estate brokers and landlords can deploy the Lemonade API to offer renters insurance to their customers after they select the apartment they want to rent.

Lemonade also sells coverage for what it calls “stuff”—cameras, bikes and other items. In these cases, if someone buys a bike, the Lemonade message to buy insurance for the new wheels would pop up on the buyer’s screen at the time of purchase.

Related:

Topics Carriers New York

Output: Adopters of insurtech Lemonade's API will most likely not require an insurance licence to adopt the firm's offerings as an add-on service. The US-based firm says a few state regulators have raised issues surrounding licencing, and confirmed it has processes in place to make sure commissions are not paid to unlicensed parties. The firm received enormous interest in its API when it launched, with more than 400 applicants in the first 24 hours. It now says it is using an automated system to whittle down the list.


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Cyber insurance could spur on ransomware attackers
 Researchers at security company WatchGuard have warned that cyber insurance risks fuelling an increase in ransomware. The researchers highlight mandatory breach disclosure as one of the drivers for increased cyber insurance. Companies are increasingly aware of the damage a breach notification can do to their business. As such, they are rightly taking out cyber insurance policies. Those policies not only offer recompense when an incident occurs but also offer to pay for the recovery of data.

According to Corey Nachreiner, CTO at WatchGuard Technologies: “We find it concerning that insurers sometimes pay ransoms to recover their customers’ data. While we understand the business decision, insurers currently have no long-term actuarial data for cyber incidents and ransomware. It is possible that paying ransoms will encourage this criminal business model and increase the number of incidents insurers have to handle or the cost of ransoms.”

What’s wrong with insurers paying out?

Insurers have long provided cover for the recovery of goods and people. Kidnap and ransom policies are common place and cover kidnap, extortion, wrongful detention and hijacking. Some insurers even have their own teams or use specialist, often ex-military contractors to do the recovery before they pay. There is no evidence that K&R insurance has led to any real increase in incidents.

WatchGuard is taking a different view when those services are extended to ransomware. They believe that savvy cybercriminals will seek to exploit those companies with cyber insurance. They will become priority targets as the cybercriminals will be sure of a payday.

Very few cyber insurance policies require an organisation to be audited before the policy is agreed. ET looked at 7 different cyber insurance policies. There was no need to provide any list of security software or policies in force. Nor was there a process that would have led to agents for the insurance companies vetting IT security. This means that there is a significant risk of smaller organisations relying on cyber insurance rather than tightening their security.

The question that this raises is “will insurance companies tighten up their policy requirements?”

Nachreiner continued: “We expect SMBs to continue to adopt extortion insurance in 2018 but cyber insurance should not replace security controls and best practices. We predict that insurance providers will start to implement guidelines that require companies to have strong security controls in place as a prerequisite. When combined with other layers of security, cyber insurance is a great addition to your cyber security strategy.”

What does this mean?

Business are required to hold a number of different types of insurance by law. Adding cyber insurance cover makes sense given how dependent businesses are on technology. SMEs are in a cost crunch. They cannot afford to compete for good quality cybersecurity staff. Many struggle to recruit and retain skilled IT staff. This means that their cybersecurity stance poses a limited challenge for experienced hackers.

With GDPR on the way and greater breach disclosure requirements across all businesses, many know they need a solution. Paying for a cyber insurance policy makes sense. One of the drivers for SMEs moving to the cloud is to get someone else to do their cybersecurity. Paying an insurance company to recovery both their data and their reputation also makes sense. After all, why pay £30K plus for an internal IT security person when a smaller payment to the insurer will make the whole thing go away.

The problem here is that neither moving to the cloud or buying cyber insurance relieves a company of its legal duty. It will be interesting to see if an increase in pay-outs occurs during 2018 and how the insurance industry, especially post GDPR, responds.

Output: An increased adoption of cyber insurance could be encouraging hackers employing ransomware to target victims, security company WatchGuard has argued. The security firm argues hackers may intentionally select victims with cyber protection in place, knowing insurance policies often pay out fees to redeem data stolen during a ransomware attack. WatchGuard also questions whether some insurers will start tightening policy requirements or necessitate clients are audited before coverage is put in place.


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ZhongAn establishes offshore arm with eye on global expansion
 China’s biggest online-only insurer says the establishment of its new offshore arm is a response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Output: China's largest online-only insurer ZhongAn has sown a seed to expand internationally, establishing an offshore arm.The offshore venture, which is being established in partnership with Hong Kong-based Sinolink Worldwide Holdings, has been established to allow for greater investments in global financial and insurance technology. The move is reportedly in response to China's “Belt and Road Initiative” which encourages Chinese companies to expand globally.


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Redrow Redrow releases final phase of homes in Leicestershire
 Redrow on the home straight in Hinckley

Homebuilder Redrow has released the final phase of its Park View development in Leicestershire.

A selection of three and four-bedroom properties has been launched to complete the popular Coventry Road development in Hinckley.

Park View has been a particular hit with eco-focused home buyers because of each one of its homes having been built with photovoltaic solar panels included to help owners save money and energy.

And, with up to eight homes sold in any one month, Pauline Turnbull, sales director for Redrow Homes (Midlands) says the remaining homes are expected to sell out soon.

“All of Redrow’s homes are energy efficient but, with the solar panels at Park View, these properties are even more so – which is especially noticeable at this time of year when the cold weather sets in and we all start turning the thermostat up on the central heating,” says Pauline.

“But it’s not just their energy efficiency that makes them appealing. Park View’s properties are all from our Heritage Collection with charming, traditional exteriors combined with stylish and modern interiors – so they’re not only attractive to the pocket but the eye too.”

Bearing in mind their popularity already and their many plus-points, the final phase has been eagerly awaited and Pauline admits: “It is no exaggeration to say we expect these homes to fly.

“It is the final instalment of a sought-after development on which we have seen rapid sales. The fact that this will be people’s last opportunity to join what is becoming a great community means they are likely to sell quicker than ever.”

Homes are priced from £249,995, and among them is the stylish Shrewsbury detached property. A substantial family home, the Shrewsbury boasts a layout that’s as fabulous as it’s functional with a kitchen and dining area at the rear of the home, complemented by a utility and cloakroom, and a separate lounge and integral garage.

Upstairs are four good-sized bedrooms – the master of which has an en-suite – and a family bathroom.

House hunters wishing to view a Shrewsbury can visit Redrow’s Amington Garden Village in nearby Tamworth, where there is one as a show home, fully furnished and expertly decorated to demonstrate its full potential.

Close to Clarendon Park, the new homes at Park View are within walking distance of Hinckley town centre and the local train station, offering commuter links to Leicester, Birmingham, Coventry and, even, London.

For more information, visit the show homes, open Thursday to Monday inclusive from 10am to 5.30pm. For the latest availability and pricing log onto redrow.co.uk/parkview.

Output: The final phase of homes in Redrow's Park View development in Leicestershire have been released, along with a selection of three and four-bed properties in the popular Coventry Park development in Hinckley. The final phase at View Point has been eagerly anticipated, as the cost-saving benefits of the properties' built-in solar panels have particularly helped the development become a hit with buyers. Sales director for Redrow (Midlands) Pauline Turnbull notes that, with up to 8 homes in any one month being sold, "It is no exaggeration to say we expect these homes to fly".


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Man Group introduces first onshore Chinese fund
 Man Group has launched its first onshore investment strategy for qualified investors in China. The new investment strategy will leverage the experience of Man AHL, Man Group’s diversified quantitative investment management business, to harness market trends across a range of liquid markets in China.

The new investment strategy is systematic trend following in its approach, and aims to be uncorrelated with traditional portfolios. Managed by Man AHL’s Shanghai-based investment professionals, the strategy seeks to identify and capture market trends across diverse liquid onshore markets, focusing initially on listed futures including agricultural commodities, industrial commodities, bonds, metals, energy and stock indices. Founded in 1987, Man AHL is a pioneer in systematic investment management, trading over 600 markets and managing assets for institutional and private clients globally.

Man Group’s first onshore investment strategy is launched by Man Investment Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) incorporated by Man Group in Huangpu District, Shanghai, following successful registration with the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) as a private securities investment fund manager (PFM) in September 2017. ICBC will act as custodian to the fund, with Guotai Junan Securities providing administration and brokerage services.

Yifei Li, Chair of Man Group China, says: “As China’s fund management industry continues to go from strength to strength, we are pleased to launch our first onshore investment strategy for qualified local investors. The strategy leverages Man AHL’s 30 years of quantitative investing expertise, combining this with our local investment capabilities to serve the needs of Chinese investors.”

Tim Wong, Chair of Man Group Asia, says: “We are truly excited about the rapid pace of the development of China’s financial markets and the investment opportunities they represent. I am delighted that we are bringing our first onshore quantitative strategy to the market, which taps into the strength of our research and investment capabilities. We aim to deliver other innovative solutions to serve our clients’ investment needs in the future.”

Output: Man Group has launched its first onshore fund in China, aimed at accredited Chinese investors. The hedge fund has introduced the fund via its wholly owned Chinese subsidiary, Man Investment Management, based in Shanghai. The fund will tap into the expertise of Man's quantitative team, Man AHL. The offering aims to follow a systematic trend-following strategy and seeks to be uncorrelated to traditional assets. The fund will focus on liquid onshore markets, in particular, listed futures relating to agricultural and industrial commodities, bonds, metals, energy and stock indices.


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Third autonomous shipping test bed opens in Norway
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The ODIN USV and a working scale model of the YARA Birkeland all-electric, autonomous container vessel were on the water for the opening event (photo: Kongsberg Maritime)

An official autonomous shipping test-bed has been opened in Horten, on the coast of Norway. Established to support the growth in development of new solutions for autonomous maritime operations, the new area is open to both Norwegian and international organisations, and is designed to be a convenient, safe, non-congested space to trial new technology and vessels.

The area is specially designated for autonomous trials by the Norwegian Maritime Administration and the Norwegian Coastal Administration. Maritime autonomy pioneer KONGSBERG has worked closely with the town of Horten, DNV GL, FFI (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment) and the University College of South East Norway, to establish the new test-bed, which is situated adjacent to Kongsberg Maritime’s Horten facility.

Building on Norway’s position within the burgeoning autonomous shipping segment, the test-bed is the third of its kind in the country and only the fourth such approved area in the world. Its introduction follows the opening of the world’s first autonomous shipping test-bed in September 2016, which was supported by KONGSBERG and located on the Trondheimsfjord in Norway.

The test-beds in Trondheim and Horten are an important resource for KONGSBERG’s on-going development of technology for ground-breaking projects such as the YARA Birkeland all electric, autonomous container ship, the Hrönn, autonomous offshore support vessel and marine robotics technology. These and other autonomous vessel projects are set to transform many aspects of shipping and offshore operations, by introducing safer, more environmentally friendly and cost-effective modes of transport and working at sea.

KONGSBERG’s use of the fjord at Horten for safe autonomous vessel testing during 2017 has been integral to the area receiving its official status as a test-bed. In August, KONGSBERG and FFI demonstrated high-speed autonomous obstacle avoidance using the ODIN Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) fitted with the cutting-edge K-Mate autonomy controller solution. In November, the GEBCO-NF Alumni Team’s entry to the USD 7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE underwent Technology Readiness Tests in the area. The team’s unique SEA-KIT USV/AUV concept uses the K-Mate solution for surface navigation and tracking of a KONGSBERG HUGIN AUV.

“With critical developments in maritime autonomy technology and software taking place at Kongsberg Maritime in Horten, the location of the new test-bed will support a number of ground-breaking technology projects,” says Egil Haugsdal, President, Kongsberg Maritime. “The move towards greater autonomy at sea has the potential to transform maritime operations and while the technology has now been proven, we look towards the regulations. Establishment of these test-beds are an important step, as it shows close co-operation between the people making the technology and vessels and the organisations developing the rules that will allow them to operate.”

Output: International technology group Kongsberg has established a new test bed for autonomous shipping in Norway, the third facility of its kind to open in the country. The new area, off the coast near Horten, has been specially designated for autonomous trials involving Norwegian and international organisations by the Norwegian Maritime Administration and the Norwegian Coastal Administration. Egil Haugsdal, Kongsberg Maritime president, said that now the autonomous technology had been proven, the industry was looking toward regulation.


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Robots must disrupt more jobs if they are to benefit economies
 Never has there been more discussion of the disruption of work and, by some measures, never has there been less disruption.

It could be the calm before the AI-aided storm. It could also be a sign of a stagnating American economy.

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“Take a deep breath and calm down,” write the authors of a recent study on how technology will impact jobs. Futurists and Silicon Valley-types worried about robots and artificial intelligence taking over for humans are overly alarmed, they say, adding that it is misleading when people like the World Economic Forum’s Klaus Schwab say that “the speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent.”

In fact, data show that the US labor market is the calmest it has been in more than 160 years. The problem is there is not enough disruption. If anything, we need more jobs destroyed.

That argument, made by Robert Atkinson and John Wu of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank promoting policies that spur innovation, is against the grain.

They make a compelling case

Their belief that we are in an age of stagnation, not disruption, is based on a decade-by-decade analysis of how quickly occupations have been appearing and disappearing since 1850. The methodology involves summing up the share of percentage increase or decrease in the number of jobs in every occupation category, as defined by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, to find the total percentage of jobs created and destroyed. By this method, the 1950s was an extremely disruptive period, with a job-churn rate at a 20th-century high of 37%.

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While the types of jobs people did changed drastically from 1950 to 1970, very little changed from 2000 to 2015. The rate in the 2000s was an all-time low of 14%, and thus far, the 2010s are even lower, at 6%.

Job disruption in late 19th and 20th centuries was mostly attributable to the introduction of agricultural technologies that reduced the need for farm workers. The number of household workers also declined as low-cost appliances like washing machines and vacuum cleaners replaced domestic help. Jobs in manufacturing and the service sector replaced these jobs.

Today, the composition of jobs is relatively stagnant. Atkinson and Wu say this is because true innovation is at an ebb. New digital technologies are impressive, the authors say, but not nearly as revolutionary as the changes that arose from widely available electricity and steel in the 1890s, and the electromechanical technologies that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s that greatly increased manufacturing efficiency. The lack of new technology has hurt labor productivity, the researchers argue, and it is one of the reasons wages have risen so little since 1980. We need policies to promote disruptive new technologies like those used by Uber and Amazon.

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It may still be worth preparing for the worst

Andrew Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union, says Atkinson and Wu’s argument is thought provoking, yet it is no reason to stop being worried about the future. “There are an enormous number of academics and people creating the future who think this could be a big problem,” Stern told Quartz.

We should take those people seriously, he believes, and at the very least “plan for the scenario” where the job apocalypse arises. Stern also points out that the study does not take into account the falling number of working-age people who have jobs, the falling share of US GDP that goes to workers, and the rising number of jobs that are insecure—most of the job growth since 2005 has been in temporary positions or independent contracting.

Ethan Pollack, an economist at the Aspen Institute’s Future of Work Initiative, shares Stern’s belief that it is worth preparing for the worst. Pollack says there is evidence that certain technologies, like AI, could take off and have a massive effects on jobs. The US is not good at helping workers get back on their feet, so this kind of job destruction would have devastating effects.

“It’s been decades since the waves of automation and outsourcing hit the manufacturing communities in the Rust Belt,” Pollack told Quartz. “And we’re still dealing with the fallout from that.”

Output: New technology needs to cause more disruption to jobs if the economy is to benefit, according to two US researchers. Robert Atkinson and John Wu of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation used US labour market statistics to show that the current jobs market is very stable compared with the 1950s, which saw a highly disruptive period as a result of increased automation in the manufacturing sector. A lack of similarly revolutionary technologies in recent years has damaged productivity, the researchers argue.


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ExxonMobil reduces energy required for production of ethylene
 Scientists from ExxonMobil and the Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica (ITQ) in Valencia, Spain, have discovered a new material that could significantly reduce the amount of energy and emissions associated with the production of ethylene. Depending on the application, use of the new material in conjunction with other novel separation processes could result in up to a 25% reduction in both the energy needed for ethylene separation, as well as associated carbon dioxide emissions.

Ethylene is a critical component in producing chemicals and plastics. Finding alternative, low-energy technologies to separate ethylene from ethane has been a longstanding challenge due to their similar properties. While chemical manufacturers have evaluated a number of alternatives to cryogenic distillation, including new adsorbents and separation processes, many of these technologies are hindered by low selectivity and an inability to regenerate when exposed to contaminants.

The researchers found that the new material, composed of a uniquely-structured silica zeolite, can be used in gas separation processes (such as the recovery of ethylene from ethane) with an unprecedented degree of selectivity at ambient temperature. The material could provide insights into the design of additional materials to be used as adsorbents or membranes in a variety of gas separation applications associated with chemical manufacturing. Zeolites are porous materials frequently used as adsorbents and catalysts in chemical processes.

The patented material, ITQ-55, is able to selectively adsorb ethylene over ethane as a result of its flexible pore structure. Built from heart-shaped cages interconnected by flexible elongated pore openings, the material allows the diffusion of the flatter ethylene molecules as opposed to the more cylindrical-shaped ethane molecules. The new material acts as a flexible molecular sieve.

Additional research must be conducted before the material can be considered for larger-scale demonstration and commercialisation. Fundamental research will continue focusing on incorporating the material into a membrane and developing additional novel materials for gas separation.

“Our ultimate goal of actually replacing cryogenic distillation is a long-term challenge that will require many more years of research and testing, in and out of the lab,” said Gary Casty, section head for catalysis at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co. “Our next steps will focus on better understanding the full potential of this new zeolite material.”

Chemical plants account for about 8% of global energy demand and about 15% of the projected growth in demand to 2040. As global populations and living standards continue to rise, demand for auto parts, housing materials, electronics and other products made from plastics and other petrochemicals will continue to grow. Improving industrial efficiency is part of ExxonMobil’s mission to meet the world’s growing need for energy while minimising environmental impacts.

Output: Scientists at ExxonMobil and Spain's Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica have developed a new material capable of separating ethylene from ethane - known as cryogenic distillation - at room temperature, potentially reducing the energy required for the process by a quarter. The researchers used ITQ-55, a silica zeolite with a heart-shaped structure, which acted like a chemical sieve, for the ethylene molecules. The teams said more work is needed to fully understand the potential of the zeolite material.


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Proptech Compass wins $450m Softbank investment
 Real estate technology firm Compass announced on Thursday it's getting an investment of $450 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund.

The infusion from the $93 billion venture vehicle — whose backers include the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund — brings Compass' total capital raise to $775 million.

Other Compass investors include Goldman Sachs , outgoing American Express CEO Ken Chenault, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and major property developer The LeFrak Organization, run by billionaire Richard LeFrak.

Robert Reffkin, co-founder and CEO at Compass, told CNBC shortly after the announcement that the company is much more than a real estate company because it's "powering the best of technology."

"Compass is on the path to be the largest owner of real estate data, globally, and the No. 1 real estate technology company in the world," Reffkin said on "Squawk Box."

"We have our own in-house technology team that's building an end-to-end platform for agents to run and manage every part of their business," he said. "Is Amazon a store? Is Tesla a car? I think that distinction is getting a little fuzzier."

Reffkin was chief of staff to Gary Cohn when Cohn was the No. 2 executive at Goldman. Cohn is currently a top economic advisor to President Donald Trump as director of the National Economic Council.

Output: The SoftBank Vision Fund has invested $450m into proptech Compass. The investment brings Compass's total capital raised to $775m, with other investors in the business including the LeFrak Organisation, Goldman Sachs and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Commenting on the investment, Compass CEO and co-founder Robert Reffkin said: "Compass is on the path to be the largest owner of real estate data globally and the number one real estate technology company in the world."


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VetWare uses genomics to boost milk yields for Indian farmers
 Around 200 milk farmers from Indapur village, some 140 km southeast of Pune in Maharashtra, and surrounding areas are sitting under a pink-and-white shamiana on a sunny, winter afternoon in November. It is an awareness workshop for what data tracking and genomics can do for milk farming but the buzz is more around when dairies will raise milk procurement prices.

As veteran veterinarian Abdul Samad strides to the stage to address the gathering, some in the crowd are expecting a political speech. Dr Samad doesn’t disappoint. He starts with stagnant milk prices but quickly segues into a solution within the reach of farmers: “Stop agitating about milk prices and start focusing on improving productivity and profits. Have you ever cared for where the bull semen is coming from when you do artificial insemination for your cattle?”

The switch from politics to semen quality is a hard swerve and there are amused murmurs in the audience.

But, reality stares them in the face.

Milk prices in India rose three times in the decade to 2015 but have plateaued since. This has led to Indian diaries and the farmers they procure milk from looking for solutions to rein in costs and at the same time raise milk output from their bovines. For a country that produces some 155 million tonnes of milk a year, the big question is how to increase the productivity of the Indian cow from the current average of 1,200 litres a year to averages in countries such as the US and Israel: around 3,500 litres annually. (One litre of milk is approximately 1 kg; it takes 1,000 milk litres to weigh a tonne.)

“Even a small shop owner keeps all the records, data. Where is your cattle data,” asks Dr Samad, who retired as dean of Bombay Veterinary College in 2010.

With more than four decades of work behind him, the vet knows what he’s talking about. In 2002, Samad, along with a software engineer Prashant Murdeshwar, co-founded a company called VetWare. It now offers a mobile-based and easy-to-use app, called Herdman, for farmers to capture cattle data using QR codes on the front end. That data is used to produce insights about cattle health, matching bulls to bring about genetic improvement, and even milk production forecasting. These insights are delivered in the local language to milk farmers and the vets looking after their herds.

The potential of the software and genomics is immense in the fragmented India milk farming sector, where some 120 million farming families are engaged in cow and buffalo rearing, according to the Indian Agricultural Census. If they can double milk yield, it will have large implications for nutrition in India, milk and milk product exports, and generation of new national income that is better distributed among the country’s 700 million farmers.

The repository of information that Herdman covers includes feed data, days to puberty and calving, weight, health and disease tracking, milk yields, quality of milk etc. for each of some 240,000 cows and buffaloes on the software across India. Chitale Dairy from Sangli and Hatsun Agro in Salem are the pioneers of adopting techniques wrapped into Herdman.

Hatsun wants to deploy the solution over one million cattle in two years time. Larger dairy operations such as Amul have their own tagging and data collection solutions; more on that later.

Connected cow

Many in the crowd at Indapur are clueless but curious about how tracking cattle data using mobile phones can help them double milk productivity. “How long can we remain cry babies hoping the politicians will help address the pricing issue?” asks Sudhakar Mane, who has a dozen cows in Indapur. “This doctor is saying we can even correct the problems in our current cattle by getting semen from bulls who can ensure the next generations are far more productive.”

“But how? Hope this isn’t some kind of a gimmick,” asks Ganesh from a nearby village. He goes only by his first name.

The answer, according to Dr Samad, 64, lies in genomics apart from using software tools to ensure farmers do not make blind decisions and mistakes in managing the health of their herds.

“If you look at right from 1952 until today, we have hardly made any difference as far as the national average is concerned. We must talk of the national average, not some isolated examples of animals giving 20-30 litres of milk every day,” says Dr Samad.

Herdman combines intelligent tracking of animals with genomics big data to help milk farmers make informed decisions about breeding their cattle with the right bull.

“Breeding is about selecting good animals and leaving out bad animals. Unless you have records and the data, how would you know where the good animals are,” asks Dr Samad.

ABS Global, a US cattle genomics company, is tapping into the cattle big data by relying on Herdman, apart from its own software algorithms that do intelligent matchmaking between cows and buffaloes with bulls to give birth to high, milk-producing female calves.

“Software such as Herdman help keep the data accessible. For instance, when a farmer is evaluating a cow to buy, he can scan the QR code tag and read all the historic data to make a more informed buying decision,” says Arvind Gautam, the head of ABS’ India operations. To be sure, ABS is not the only player in this space – its rival Sexing Technologies is also active in India, as are World Wide Sires and Genex, also from the US, and Semex of Canada.

Larger Indian dairies such as Hatsun are designing breeding program for its over 300,000 cows and buffaloes by figuring out dry periods for each of them. This information, too, comes from Herdman.

“If for instance, Hatsun gets to know that March is when most of its cattle will be in dry period, it can redesign the breeding program in a way that there’s a healthy mix between lactation periods to ensure milk productivity doesn’t suffer,” says Gautam.

The “black box” problem

A foreign animal husbandry expert working with an Indian dairy sums it up best when he talks about Indian dairies “black box” problem. “Every day we know exactly how many farmers poured milk and the quantities they poured…. but we have absolutely no idea how many cows it took to produce that milk,” he says, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with media.

As a result, generic and vague recommendations were made to farmers and animal health services were “totally reactive, rather than being proactive to assist farmers to avoid animal health problems,” says the expert on an email.

His dairy has seen benefits accrued for not just its animal husbandry team, but also for the milk procurement team and, above all, the farmers, he adds, summarising the benefits below.

By tagging and recording animals in a Herdman database the animal husbandry team has now the ability to:

identify the issues constraining milk production, quality and reproductive performance and act on them

predict calving and address calving-related health issues

compare best-performing animals by age, parity and breed

Much of the information can now be reviewed in a unified manner and messages can be sent to farmers by SMS or other electronic methods.

The milk procurement team has the ability to:

predict milk flows up to six months in advance based on cows’ calving pattern. With time, volume, as well as components should be accurately predicted, enabling planning to be more precise

determine whether changes in farmers milk output is explained by animal information (calving or a cow drying off)

in conjunction with the animal husbandry team, profile farms’ milk production based on the number of cows, breed and lactation status

For the farmer, the benefits are:

receive relevant advice directly in a timely manner

have animal production, reproduction and health history data easily available, which will provide a better estimate of cow value and risk of disease and mortality, which, in turn, should lead to lower cow insurance premiums and possibly lower interest rates on loans.

Experts such as Marcia I. Endres, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s animal science department, say the key is to ensure that smaller farms in India get data at a low cost, which can then be used to improve operations. Endres has studied Dr Samad’s software.

“An old adage says “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” and the software collects information that the farmers and their veterinarians did not have before,” says Endres.

Once an animal is registered on Herdman, current health and any historical data available are captured. From thereon, each event including heat period, artificial insemination date, pregnancy, calving, vaccinations, treatment of any diseases occurred and, finally, the milk yield across different lactation cycles is recorded.

For every animal registered on the system, farmers have to pay Rs 50 annually or use it free but be served local ads.

Big data meets cattle genomics

After Dr Samad’s session in Indapur, the farmers move to a hall on the first floor of a building nearby. The room is full and farmers such as Mane are now prepared to get the final tips.

“How can India double milk production by 2026,” ABS’s Gautam asks the audience.

Maintaining records of cattle health and their family history or parental matching is only the starting point. It takes years before results start showing from genomics-based breeding.

ABS’s genetic mating software matches cows with bulls using dozens of parameters and based on expectations of a farmer from the next generation calf. Depending on the cow they have and the problems they want to rectify, farmers can demand anything from more fat content in the milk to better rudder placement, or even set a target of 20 or 30 litres milk daily.

After these requirements are captured, the software algorithm runs search queries in its database to find an appropriate set of bulls and displays the result by ranking them according to their effectiveness. This matching process, which involves running hundreds of potential combinations, takes less than 30 seconds.

Gathering all the genetic data on bulls and cows is such a massive effort that Genus ABS India, a joint venture between ABS Global and Chitale Dairy which started groundwork in 2010 in Bhilwadi, Sangli, has selected only a few breeds to start with: Murrah, the buffalo breed, and Gir and Sahiwal for sire.

“The more data we feed into the system, the better it gets. As data grows, its reliability too will improve,” says Gautam. Companies such Sexing Technologies and ABS have been described as the Monsantos of the dairy world for the genetic-level potential they hold for the $350 billion global dairy industry.

What Dr Samad’s Herdman software does is solving only one tiny piece of the grand puzzle. For India’s milk productivity to double by 2026 for instance, it will need to combine all genetic big data of cattle with a scientific breeding program.

Like dairy farmers in the US did. “The high productivity per cow in the USA has a lot to do with improvements in genetics and management that could only happen because we had records on how the cows are producing every day or at least once a month from testing, allowing producers to select the best animals and improve management practices by being able to measure the results,” says Endres, the US professor.

India lags countries such as Brazil too.

“Until 1985, they (Brazil) were doing cross-breeding like we are doing mostly today,” says Dr Samad. “Then they realised cross-breeding is not the answer for tropical countries like theirs.” Recording data was followed by identifying genetically superior animals.

Slowly, the results started showing. Brazil has two kinds of herd system: one is where the cows are free-grazed and the other where they are stall-fed. For the grazed ones, the average yield today is 4,000 litres to 4,500 litres of milk annually. The ones that are fed specific nutrients along with feed in stalls, yield 8,000 litres and more, according to Dr Samad.

Not just that. Cows with breeds of Indian origin dominate the Brazilian market. The top nine breeds of bulls, including Ongole from Andhra Pradesh, account for nearly 80% of milk production in Brazil were taken from India, and improved upon genetically. According to agricultural economist Devinder Sharma, a descendant of Gir breed of cows from Gujarat has recorded 60 litres of milk a day in Brazil.

The US has raced even further ahead — the “connected cow” is enabled by everything from real-time sensors to robotic milking.

“More recently we have seen growth in the use of technologies such as individual cow sensors (for rumination, activity, feeding and resting time, temperature, etc) and automation (robotic milking and automated milk feeders) which provide even larger amounts of individual animal data to be used for health, reproduction and performance improvement,” says Endres.

A Bahubali in Bhilwadi

ABS’s efforts have led to creating a league table of India’s top performing bulls. “Bahubali, the bull, is more popular in our community than the movie,” says Vikas Dandelkar, a farmer in Bhilwadi, tells FactorDaily at the local milk collection centre.

The semen of Bahubali, a cross-breed Murrah buffalo bull in Sangli, is much sought after — each of its semen doses costs Rs 150 versus Rs 30 for a normal bull insemination dose. Placed No. 2 on India’s league table for bulls by semen quality, it has exceptionally high dam yield of 5,586 kg per lactation with well over 7% fat.

“Since there is no genomics in buffaloes or indigenous cattle breeds, selection of bull is as per mother’s milk data – higher the better,” says Gautam of ABS. There are 96 other bulls on the league table including Holstein breed Stryker and Brute, Jersey breed Preet and Tyson, and two other Murrah buffaloes Redhu and Maharaja. They are all based on a farm in Bhilwadi at Genus ABS lab.

Chitale Dairy has seen its milk productivity improve since when the genomics lab was first set up in 2010. From around 350,000 litres a day three years ago, Chitale now procures over 750,000 litres daily in Bhilwadi, Sangli. And, the improvement has come by keeping the number of cows and buffaloes, around 100,000, mostly unchanged.

“To achieve this level of improvement, having big data is a must,” says Vishwas Chitale, director, Chitale Dairy. “[Results with] genomic selection is only possible with recording.” Some of the improvement in yields at Chitale Dairy are due to other interventions such as feeds.

Herdman is not the only software being used by milk dairies and farmers in India. From National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)’s own software solution developed in-house to products from newer technology startups such as Stellapps, there are enough options.

NDDB has been actively using software in data capture, genomics and even to ensure a balanced diet for some 2.7 million bovines.

“The country’s breeding programme depends on this,” Niraj Prakash Garg, a deputy general manager at NDDB’s IT division told FactorDaily at Anand, Gujarat, in December last year. He was referring to NDDB’s Ration Balancing Programme aimed to ensure balanced, personalised fodder for nearly 2.7 million cows and buffaloes across 40,000 Indian villages.

In March this year, NDDB also launched a new Android app for tracking and managing genetic improvement of cattle using artificial insemination. The plan is also aimed at capturing big data on millions of bovines and over 15 million milk producers. “The key output is you’re able to identify which bull is good,” says Garg. Extra emphasis is given on the ration program, which helps farmers optimise feed for their cattle, personalised for each animal. By December 2016, over 2 million cattle were already part of the diet program with each of the milk farmers saving Rs 30 every day per animal because of the software, according to Garg.

NDDB’s scale of operations dwarfs all other dairies. During 2015-2016 for instance, the cooperatives registered under the NDDB collected around 15.58 million tonnes of milk from cows and buffaloes under its ration programme. “It’s not a pilot or an experiment, but a full, mainstream program with demonstrated benefits,” says Garg.

Software limited

For Dr Samad and ABS, Bhilwadi’s Chitale Dairy has been a sandbox to experiment with software to genomics. With those experiments maturing, Samad’s Herdman software is now evolving with bigger dairies such as Hatsun in Chennai, which has some 220,000 cows on the software. Hatsun Agro Products, a listed company, runs India’s largest private dairy operation.

“If you are able to manage the data, you can easily increase the milk yield without doing anything else by 20-25%, only because you are preventing management losses. Otherwise, you don’t do pregnancy tests, you come to know after six months and by then you, as a farmer, have lost half the year of precious time,” says Dr Samad.

By combining the operational data about cattle with genomics on the other end, the benefits could be far more.

“It keeps on calculating and tracking performance indices of health, fertility and milk production of each animal and keeps flagging the problems and prompting for appropriate interventions,” says Dr Samad. “We find that 90% of the time, it is not the infection but it’s the management (or lack of it) which is causing the problem.”

Still, both Gautam and Dr Samad agree that the real benefits of genomics will take at least a decade to start showing on a sizeable scale.

There are issues of broken economics to deal with – how to cover additional expenses such as the cost of fortified feed and that of sexed semen (Rs 150 for a dose but an insemination may take multiple attempts) while milk prices remain stagnant. Pradeep Balhara, the owner of 1,000-cattle Balhara Dairy in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, says, “You can’t talk vitamins and other nutrients if the basic, staple food is missing.”

Among the early users of Herdman – Balhara’s been using it for over a decade – the biggest benefit for him, he says, has been the ability to plan the breeding cycles of different animals. “It means a lot for a dairy like us, we can avoid the dry seasons,” he says.

It’s moving the needle for small farmers, too. Mahesh Dhondiram Yesugade, a milk farmer in Sangli with one cow, started using Herdman two years ago and followed its advisories. He says his income increased by Rs 200 a month in the first year and in the latest month by Rs 1,000 — an increase of some 50% from the Rs 2,000 he used to make earlier. “I now plan to buy another cow and plan breeding in a way that there’s no dry season,” he says.

Farmers like Balhara and Yesugade are critical to the success of the Second White Revolution, as the nationwide dairying programme of the 1970s and 1980s is referred to. The benefits of data- and genomics-driven dairying will need showing, not telling, says Endres, the University of Minnesota professor. “We need to have the early adopters, otherwise a technology will not be successful. Cultivating those early leaders is important.”

Output: Indian veterinary technology firm VetWare hopes to help Indian farmers increase their milk yields by integrating genetic data into dairy farming processes. VetWare has developed a mobile app called Herdman, which combines intelligent tracking with genomics big data to enable farmers to capture cattle data on weight, health and milk yields. It's hoped that such low-cost data solutions will help India close the gap with countries such as the USA, which has long used genetics data to improve breeding programmes and raise milk productivity. VetWare aims to apply the QR-based Herdman to one million cattle within two years.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK anticipates China tourism surge after increasing flights 50%
 Thousands more Chinese tourists are set to visit the UK under Government plans to increase the number of flights from the country by 50%.

The maximum of 100 passenger flights per week that can operate between Britain and China, is set to increase to 150.

A landmark new agreement will see a big increase in flights between the UK and China. Up to 150 flights a week could open up opportunities for new business and tourism across the country https://t.co/Q4xK2RVFPX pic.twitter.com/DPpATfpS45 — Department for Transport (@transportgovuk) December 10, 2017

Chinese tourists are some of the highest spenders in Britain, staying longer and travelling more than visitors from other countries, according to the Department for Transport.

Britain has boosted the number of flights from China in preparation for Brexit (Steve Parsons/PA)

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: “These agreements are an important part of preparing Britain for a post-Brexit world and making sure we have access to key markets in the Far East, and they come at a time when our exports are growing and we continue to attract international investment.

“It just underlines that Britain will do well regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.

“The whole Government is working to secure the best possible future relationship with the EU, and great progress has been made his week, but no one should believe that Britain’s future success depends on decisions taken in Brussels.”

The number of Chinese tourists who visited the UK rocketed during the first half of this year, after the flight limit was increased from 40 per week to 100 in October 2016, the Department for Transport said.

Between January and June, 115,000 visits were made from China to the UK, a rise of 47% on the same period last year.

Spending also increased to £231 million, up 54%, according to figures.

Output: The UK government is to allow 50% more flights from China as it further taps the lucrative Chinese tourism market. Chinese visits to the UK surged 47% in the first half of 2017 after inbound flights were more than doubled last October. The move boosted spending 54%. "These agreements are an important part of preparing Britain for a post-Brexit world and making sure we have access to key markets in the Far East," said Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. The number of flights from China will increase to 150 a week from 100.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Chinese private funds rise 28% in 10 months to $1.63tn
 Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images

China's private fund industry is growing rapidly as the country's wealthy increasingly turn toward money managers. Assets under management of Chinese private funds rose 28 percent over the first 10 months of the year, to 10.77 trillion yuan ($1.63 trillion), according to a Nov. 10 report, the latest, from the Asset Management Association of China. The funds target high-net-worth individuals, a group that has grown rapidly in China. The number of Chinese with at least 10 million yuan (roughly $1.5 million) in investible assets has multiplied more than eight times within a decade, to 1.6 million in 2016, according to Bain's report on China Private Wealth, released in August.

"Collectively, China's HNWIs have about RMB 49 trillion (about $7 trillion) in investable assets, and they have grown more discerning about how, and with whom, they invest that money," the report said. The first generation to benefit from China's capitalist turn have tended to manage their money independently. In contrast, "newer HNWIs — who often include the sons and daughters of first-generation company founders — are more willing to seek professional advice." As investors recover from the shock of China's 2015 market crash, the number of private Chinese funds has grown nearly 20 percent this year, to 21,628, according to the Asset Management Association of China. About 8,000 of those fall into the "hedge fund" category of investing in securities, according to local consultancy Z-Ben Advisors. "There is increased interest, increased opportunity," said Chantal Grinderslev, senior advisor and director of operations at Z-Ben Advisors. "If anything it's the secret blessing of the block on outflows. It's really spurring interest onshore from investments onshore. " When it comes to the kinds of funds China's wealthy are pursuing, private equity and venture capital funds have seen much of the growth in the last year, Grinderslev said. According to Z-Ben, assets under management for securities-focused Chinese private funds has fallen from nearly $400 billion at the end of last year to $340 billion this fall. China's hedge fund industry also remains small by global standards. Global hedge fund research firm Preqin only tracks 117 "pure hedge funds" based in China.

watch now

Output: China's private fund industry is rocketing, rising 28% over the first 10 months of this year to CNY10.77tn ($1.63tn), according to the Asset Management Association of China. The surge is due to growing numbers of wealthy individuals who are increasingly turning to money managers. Those with at least $1.5m to invest have multiplied by over eight times within the past 10 years to 1.6 million.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
EDF to provide PG&E with 40 MWh of behind-the-meter storage
 EDF Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of EDF Group, has been chosen by Pacific Gas & Electric, the primary utility company serving the northern California community and the San Francisco Bay Area, to provide 40 megawatt-hours of “behind the meter” energy storage for its commercial and industrial customers.

Electricity is like compressed air. It has to be used right away or it is wasted. A conventional electrical grid has little ability to store energy or adjust for increases in demand. Utility companies have to make more electricity than they need in order to have enough. The excess is lost, which equates to lost revenue.

Grid-scale storage is expensive, but so is generating electricity that never gets used. Bringing so-called peaker plants online to supply more electricity when demand is high is also expensive. Storage options help balance the flow of electricity across the grid and soak up excess capacity that can be used later, turning power that would otherwise be wasted into more revenue.

Behind-the-meter storage allows customers to better manage their own energy usage. They can charge their batteries during times when rates are low and use the stored energy later when rates are high, avoiding demand charges that can double or triple the usual cost of electricity. In most cases, they can also continue to operate even if the main utility grid is down. And when appropriate, they can send power back to the grid and earn some income to offset the cost of the storage system. EDF’s proprietary PEGASE Energy Management System works seamlessly in the background to manage the behind-the-meter storage system and maximize the benefits available to customers.

Martin Wyspianski, PG&E senior director for energy portfolio procurement and policy, is happy with the progress his company has made toward meeting California’s renewable energy and storage goal of 1325 megawatts by 2020. “As our clean energy portfolio grows, so does the importance of storage technology. These contracts and the storage capacity they represent will help us better integrate our growing renewable generation sources, and bring increased reliability to the grid. They are an important milestone in our progress toward a clean energy future,” he tells The Financial Times.

Sign up for Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast: I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ... Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps —— grow. So ...

Output: Pacific Gas & Electric has selected EDF Renewable Energy Partners to provide 40 MWh of "behind the meter" energy storage to commercial and industrial customers across the northern California and San Francisco Bay areas. Behind-the-meter storage enables users to efficiently manage their energy usage by avoiding demand charges, balancing between low and peak-rate times and earning income by sending any unused power back to the grid. Senior director at PG&E, Martin Wyspianski said the EDF contracts are "an important milestone" toward meeting California's renewable energy and storage goal of 1,325 MW by 2020.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Enel divests 80% stake in US wind farms for $233m
 Enel has signed a cash equity agreement through its US renewables division Enel Green Power North America (EGPNA).

The deal will divest an 80% stake in the Caney River and Rocky Ridge windfarms to investment fund Gulf Pacific Power for around $233m.

EGPNA intends to continue managing, operating, and maintaining both farms, while deconsolidating a $140m debt.

Located in Kansas, the 200MW Caney River windfarm generates around 765GWh per year, while the 150MW Rocky Ridge farm in Oklahoma is able to generate approximately 600GWh annually.

“The 200MW Caney River windfarm generates around 765GWh per year, while the 150MW Rocky Ridge farm in Oklahoma is able to generate approximately 600GWh annually.”

Under long-term power purchase agreements (PPA), Caney River sells electricity output to the Tennessee Valley Authority, while Rocky Ridge provides output to the Western Farmers Electric Cooperative.

Enel Green Power head Antonio Cammisecra said: “Today’s agreement with a new investment partner reinforces the success and confirms the appeal of our continued industrial growth strategy throughout the build, sell, and operate model to support new growth opportunities both in North America and other markets around the world.

“This strategy allows us to be more financially agile as we continue to invest in more renewable energy projects in the five continents.”

With presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, Enel Green Power develops and operates renewables such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower.

The firm expects to complete the transaction by the end of this year.

Output: Enel has announced the signing of a cash equity agreement that will see its 80% stake in the 250 MW Caney River and 150 MW Rocky Ridge wind farms sold to the Gulf Pacific Power investment fund. The deal, which is worth about $233m, will mean that Enel continues to maintain and operate the assets. Enel expects the transaction to be completed by the end of the year.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Eni hedges bets on bioplastics over decline of oil
 Eni targets plastics purchase in strategy shift

MILAN (Reuters) — Energy firm Eni aims to express an interest in bidding for an Italian bioplastics business in a move that underlines a longer-term desire to hedge its exposure to oil and gas, financial sources said.

Eni wants to revive its chemicals, retail and refining businesses to offset volatility in oil prices and regain favour with investors after its shares underperformed those of industry rivals in the past three years, the sources said.

The state-controlled major is looking at the Italian assets of bioplastics multinational Mossi Ghisolfi, which has been put under creditor protection, two banking sources said.

"Non-binding bids are due in the next few days and Eni is there," one of the sources said, adding that the deal was worth "hundreds of millions of euros".

There has been media speculation about Eni being interested in Mossi Ghisolfi, but this is the first time it has emerged the group would submit bid interest in the assets.

Eni did not comment.

The potential acquisition, although small for Eni, flags an ongoing strategy shift for CEO Claudio Descalzi, who has spent four years creating a lean exploration business, racking up big discoveries in places like Mozambique and Egypt.

While keeping a firm focus on exploration, the 62-yr-old reservoir engineer now wants to rejig the business model to bolster and create greener midstream and downstream businesses like marketing and refining as a hedge against oil price swings.

An acquisition of Mossi Ghisolfi's Italian unit, which uses agricultural waste to make plastics, would fit such a profile.

The move comes at a time when the boom in renewable energy and the prospect of a world powered by electric vehicles is creating a challenge for the oil industry.

BALANCED PORTFOLIO

Eni has been sounding out investors on why its shares have underperformed and feedback suggested more downstream protection is needed, said two fund managers contacted by the group.

Its heavy presence in high-risk areas such as Libya and Nigeria was another reason for concern, they said.

"It makes sense to build a more balanced portfolio less exposed to oil price swings ... It will help boost multiples and support the stock," said Mediobanca oil analyst Alessandro Pozzi.

Since oil prices plunged from above $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016, Eni shares have fallen more than 20% while France’s Total has risen 7% and Royal Dutch Shell 9%.

Total and Shell have fared better because they have greater exposure to downstream businesses such as refining and petrochemicals, where demand is lifted by economic growth fueled by lower crude prices.

ExxonMobil Corp said last week it was revamping its refining and chemical operations to boost profits.

Eni, whose exploration and production (E&P) arm generated more than 80% of operating income over 2015 and 2016, has been the industry's best discoverer in recent years. But its downstream business has struggled.

A year or so ago, it toyed with the idea of selling its chemicals and retail operations but pulled both deals, opting instead to streamline operations and make them more profitable. That strategy has led it to consider acquisitions, sources said.

CEO Descalzi has said the group could float its retail arm with an initial public offering (IPO) within 2 yr to 3 yr.

A banker familiar with the matter said Eni wanted to strengthen its retail business, adding this could involve acquisitions.

Eni is seeking to reduce its carbon emissions, making new investments in solar plants and converting refineries to biofuels. Last month, it signed a deal with carmaker Fiat Chrysler to work on new carbon-low fuels for cars.

It also plans to expand its LNG business.

"It used to be all about E&P. Now at its roadshows Eni dedicates almost half the time to downstream," the banker said.

Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Edmund Blair

Related News

From the Archive

Output: Italy's second-largest energy company Eni is among the bidders for the Italian arm of bioplastics outfit Mossi Ghisolfi, according to unnamed sources. The potential acquisition, said to be worth "hundreds of millions of euros", is part of Eni's drive to invest more in its downstream businesses to hedge against volatile energy prices. The Mossi Ghisolfi unit uses agricultural waste to make plastics.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Engie acquires South African energy companies
 Engie to develop South Africa’s energy services

Engie has signed agreements with two South African energy services companies, Thermaire Investments Ltd and Ampair Ltd, to acquire 100 per cent of their respective shares

Engie develops a number of solar projects in South Africa. (Image source: Kimco Realty/Flickr)

The company said that completion of the transaction is conditional on approvals of the relevant regulatory bodies.

Engie further added that with Thermaire and Ampair, it aims to develop a regional platform to offer energy services to the public, industrial and commercial building sectors.

Jointly, the acquired companies will form one of the largest South African HVAC contractors to export its skills cross-border and into the greater Southern African region.

Mohamed Hoosen, CEO of Engie Southern Africa, said that as a global energy company and expert operator in renewable and energy storage, lighting, heating and cooling systems, as well as energy management and controls, Engie is embarking on an acquisition strategy to grow its presence in the African market.

Commenting on the partnership, JP Hargovan, CEO of Thermaire Investments, added, “As one of the oldest established HVAC businesses in Southern Africa, we are thrilled at the prospect of developing and growing our business in line with the greater Engie strategy.”

Thermaire Investments and Ampair are affiliated companies which provide client supply, installation and maintenance services within the HVAC industry. Their activities range from power plants, commercial buildings, shopping malls and data centres. Together, both companies employ more than 500 people across South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.

Engie’s activities in South Africa include commissioning of the 670MW Avon Peaking Power, 335MW Dedisa Peaking Power, 94MW Aurora Wind Power and the combined 21MW Aurora-Rietvlei Solar Power and Vredendal Solar Power Park (Photovoltaics). The company also involves in an ongoing construction of the 100MW Kathu Solar Park in the Northern Cape of South Africa.

Output: French utility Engie is set to acquire affiliated South African energy services firms Ampair and Thermaire Investments, as part of a strategy to expand its presence in the country. The companies' activities range from power plants, commercial buildings, shopping malls and data centres. The purchase will see the two firms become one of South Africa's largest heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractors, as well as part of Engie's platform offering regional energy services to the domestic, commercial and industrial sectors.


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Microsoft pledges further $50m for AI for Earth climate scheme
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Microsoft has announced an expansion to its AI for Earth program, committing an additional $50 million to organizations that are working to solve the climate change crisis.

The tech giant first announced AI for Earth back in June, and the initiative promised to provide a bunch of cloud-based tools and AI services to organizations looking to tackle problems relating to climate change. At the time, Microsoft said it was putting $2 million into the program, in addition to other add-ons, such as providing training on the use of AI. Today, the company announced an “expanded strategic plan” and a further $50 million over the next five years to “put artificial intelligence technology in the hands of individuals and organizations around the world who are working to protect our planet,” according to Microsoft president and chief legal officer, Brad Smith.

Paris agreement

The news comes on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement, which was adopted by nearly 200 countries around the world in December, 2015. World leaders are reconvening in Paris tomorrow at the One Planet Summit to take stock and support the goals set out in the original agreement.

AI is already being used across many industries, from grocery picking / packing to online image searches, and tackling climate change should really be no different.

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“At Microsoft, we believe artificial intelligence is a game changer,” said Smith. “Our approach as a company is focused on democratizing AI so its features and capabilities can be put to use by individuals and organizations around the world to improve real-world outcomes. There are few societal areas where AI can be more impactful than in helping address the urgent work needed to monitor, model, and manage the Earth’s natural systems.”

Managing and processing vast swathes of data is one key area where AI could help with climate change. For example, ground sensors or weather stations can capture myriad environmental data points, while AI can be trained to automatically classify the raw data that’s captured for human interpretation.

“Fundamentally, AI can accelerate our ability to observe environmental systems and how they are changing at a global scale, convert the data into useful information, and apply that information to take concrete steps to better manage our natural resources,” added Smith.

It’s worth noting here that Microsoft’s moves aren’t entirely altruistic. The company is keen to push its cloud and AI technologies into more environments, so to speak. Microsoft claimed that in the past six months it has awarded more than 35 grants globally for access to its Azure platform and AI technology as part of the AI for Earth program.

As for its “expanded strategic plan,” well, Microsoft said that it aims to grow its seed grants for creating and testing new AI applications across four key areas: climate, water, agriculture, and biodiversity. The company said it will provide more “advanced training” to universities and NGOs leveraging AI in their projects. Further down the line, Microsoft said that it will pick out the ones that show the most promise and make more substantial investments to help them scale. As part of this effort, the company is setting up a new “multi-disciplinary team” of AI and sustainability experts who will work with the latter-stage projects.

The company also hinted at its own plans for any technology that emerges from its investments, saying that it could be integrated into its own platform for use by others.

“As these projects advance, we’ll identify and pursue opportunities to incorporate new AI advances into platform-level services so that others can use them for their own sustainability initiatives,” said Smith. “Some of this will involve platform services that will be offered by others. In other instances, these may be incorporated into Microsoft’s own platform services.”

Output: Microsoft is to offer a further $50m to organizations combating climate change via its AI for Earth programme. The initiative, which was launched in June, provides cloud-based tools and AI services to groups working on climate change-related problems. The additional funds are part of an “expanded strategic plan” which seeks to “put artificial intelligence technology in the hands of individuals and organizations around the world who are working to protect our planet”.


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SEC preempts securities fraud, shuts down ICO
 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2017-227

A California-based company selling digital tokens to investors to raise capital for its blockchain-based food review service halted its initial coin offering (ICO) after being contacted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and agreed to an order in which the Commission found that its conduct constituted unregistered securities offers and sales.

According to the SEC’s order, before any tokens were delivered to investors, Munchee Inc. refunded investor proceeds after the SEC intervened. Munchee was seeking $15 million in capital to improve an existing iPhone app centered on restaurant meal reviews and create an “ecosystem” in which Munchee and others would buy and sell goods and services using the tokens. The company communicated through its website, a white paper, and other means that it would use the proceeds to create the ecosystem, including eventually paying users in tokens for writing food reviews and selling both advertising to restaurants and “in-app” purchases to app users in exchange for tokens.

According to the order, in the course of the offering, the company and other promoters emphasized that investors could expect that efforts by the company and others would lead to an increase in value of the tokens. The company also emphasized it would take steps to create and support a secondary market for the tokens. Because of these and other company activities, investors would have had a reasonable belief that their investment in tokens could generate a return on their investment. As the SEC has said in the DAO Report of Investigation, a token can be a security based on the long-standing facts and circumstances test that includes assessing whether investors’ profits are to be derived from the managerial and entrepreneurial efforts of others.

“We will continue to scrutinize the market vigilantly for improper offerings that seek to sell securities to the general public without the required registration or exemption,” said Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “In deciding not to impose a penalty, the Commission recognized that the company stopped the ICO quickly, immediately returned the proceeds before issuing tokens, and cooperated with the investigation.”

“Our primary focus remains investor protection and making sure that investors are being offered investment opportunities with all the information and disclosures required under the federal securities laws,” said Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division.

Munchee consented to the SEC’s cease-and-desist order without admitting or denying the findings.

The SEC’s new Cyber Unit is focused on misconduct involving distributed ledger technology and initial coin offerings, the spread of false information through electronic and social media, brokerage account takeovers, hacking to obtain nonpublic information, and threats to trading platforms. The SEC also has a Distributed Ledger Technology Working Group that focuses on various emerging applications of distributed ledger technology in the financial industry.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by the Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit and Complex Financial Instruments Unit, including Jeff Leasure, Brent Mitchell and James Murtha. The case was supervised by Robert Cohen, Reid Muoio, and Valerie Szczepanik.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an Investor Bulletin in July 2017 to make investors aware of the potential risks of participating in initial coin offerings.

Output: Food reviewing service Munchee cancelled its first initial coin offering (ICO) after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) raised registration concerns. Munchee was seeking to raise $15m to better its existing restaurant review app by selling tokens. In a statement, the SEC noted since Munchee was telling investors they should expect the value of tokens acquired in the ICO to increase. Additionally, the firm said it would aim to establish a secondary market for tokens. With these factors in mind the SEC said the ICO constituted selling securities to the public without the required exemption or registration.


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Shareholder fraud lawsuit revived against Alibaba in the US
 NEW YORK: A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit accusing Alibaba Group Holding Ltd of defrauding shareholders by concealing a regulatory warning about counterfeiters that the Chinese online retailer had received shortly before going public.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled 3-0 that a lower court judge erred in dismissing claims by holders of Alibaba's American Depositary Shares and ADS call options against Alibaba, Executive Chairman Jack Ma and others.

Alibaba said it was disappointed by the decision but that the ruling did not determine that Alibaba had violated U.S. securities law.

"We believe our behavior was entirely appropriate, and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously as this litigation progresses," it said in a statement.

The appeals court in the Tuesday opinion said the plaintiffs adequately alleged that Alibaba intended to defraud them but did not rule on the merits of the case.

Alibaba has long faced accusations that its websites are a haven for counterfeiters, including of luxury goods.

Shareholders accused Alibaba of concealing a meeting on July 16, 2014, two months before its $25 billion initial public offering, in which China's powerful State Administration for Industry and Commerce threatened huge fines if Alibaba failed to suppress counterfeiting.

The price of Alibaba's ADS fell 12.8 percent on Jan. 28 and 29, 2015 after the SAIC revealed its concerns about products that were banned, fake or substandard, or infringed trademarks.

In June 2016, Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan dismissed the nationwide lawsuit, saying Alibaba had flagged the regulatory risks in its IPO materials.

The appeals court called the SAIC threat "highly material" to investors because it "required Alibaba to choose between giving up an important source of its revenue or risking enormous fines," either of which could hurt results or the IPO's success.

"Given the eventual market reaction to revelation of the information that was concealed at the time of the IPO, its revelation would likely have had a multi-billion dollar negative effect," the appeals court said.

The lawsuit was returned to McMahon for further proceedings.

Robert Kry, a partner at MoloLamken representing the plaintiffs, said: "We're pleased with the decision, and look forward to proving our claims."

The case is Christine Asia Co et al v Ma et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-2519. - Reuters

Output: A lawsuit against Alibaba has been revived in the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. The Chinese conglomerate has been accused by shareholders of hiding regulatory warnings - regarding counterfeiters - that it has received before going public. This is not the first time that Alibaba has been hit by accusations that its websites are rife with counterfeiters.


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Sri Lanka formally leases its main southern port to China
 Sri Lanka's government handed over the running of Hambantota port to a Chinese company on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Output: Sri Lanka has formally handed over the running of its primary southern port, Hambantota, to China Merchants Port Holdings on a 99-year lease. Hambantota is expected to play a significant role in the Beijing government's "One Belt One Road" initiative, being situated near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe. The US, Indian and Japanese governments have voiced concerns that China may use the port as a naval base. China is investing heavily in overseas ports to increase its maritime power and open up new shipping routes.


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Tesla confirms it's working on own AI chip for self-driving cars
 There have been rumors that Tesla is developing its own chip optimized for self-driving applications ever since we reported on the automaker quietly hiring legendary chip architect Jim Keller from AMD last year.

Now CEO Elon Musk finally confirmed the rumor – specifying that Tesla is working on its own new AI chip and that the effort is led by Keller.

At the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) yesterday, Musk held a fireside chat with Tesla’s new Director of AI and Autopilot Vision, Andrej Karpathy, Jim Keller, Tesla’s Vice-President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering, and Shivon Zilis, a partner at Bloomberg Beta and a project director for Musk’s office.

According to people at the event, the discussion revolved around Tesla’s artificial intelligence work and it was seemingly a recruiting effort for the company.

But Musk also made a few interesting comments, including a confirmation that Tesla is working on its own AI chip to enable self-driving technology.

The CEO confirmed that Keller is behind the effort, which he believes will result in “the best custom AI hardware in the world.”

Keller has an important reputation in the hardware world after having been a key player in the creation of several architectures, like Athlon K7 and K8 at AMD, before developing Apple’s A4 and A5 processors, which powered most of Apple’s mobile devices from 2010 to 2012. He later came back to AMD and led the design of the company’s latest chip architecture.

After quietly joining Tesla in late 2015, we reported that the automaker poached a team of chip architects and executives from AMD following Keller’s hire.

That’s when the speculation that Tesla is working on its own chip, presumably for self-driving, started. It was also in the middle of Tesla changing hardware from Mobileye to Nvidia for its Autopilot program.

Tesla is now up to its Autopilot ‘2.5’ hardware suite with more computing power for autonomous driving based on Nvidia’s Drive PX platform.

Musk previously said that he expects Tesla’s 2.0 and 2.5 Autopilot hardware suites to enable “fully self-driving”, but if it doesn’t, Tesla will replace the computers in those vehicles for free.

And now we know that Tesla is working on computers with its own AI chips.

When asked about potential improvements at the event yesterday, Keller said that there are opportunities to remove overheads between components for specialized hardware, which Musk says could result in 10 times the current power for a fraction of the cost.

Computing power inside vehicles is becoming increasingly important and like several other generally outsourced vehicle components, Tesla seems dead serious about bringing it in-house.

Output: Tesla is working on its own artificial intelligence (AI) chip with microprocessor designer Jim Keller, the car maker has confirmed. CEO Elon told the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems the effort will lead to the development of the "best custom AI hardware in the world". Keller has held a number of important roles in chip design, including at Apple.


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Investec invests in Africa off-grid solar installer Mobisol
 UK-registered Investec Asset Management announced last week that alongside its consortium partners it has made a new growth equity investment in Berlin-based, Africa-focused off-grid solar home systems installer Mobisol GmbH.

The investment group, which also includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Dutch development bank FMO, first backed Mobisol in October 2016. Investec said in a statement that the follow-on growth equity investment, coupled with recently concluded debt-financing deals, brings Mobisol's newly-secured capital to above USD 25 million (EUR 21m). This sum was obtained over the past six months, according to the announcement.

Mobisol offers solar systems that allow homeowners to charge mobile phones and power lighting, radios and stereos, TVs and other appliances. Since its inception, the company has installed more than 100,000 systems in Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya.

“Mobisol’s partnership with the Investec consortium allows us to further grow and to set the stage for providing reliable and affordable solar energy solutions to 20 million people by 2023,” said Thomas Gottschalk, founder and CEO of Mobisol.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.843)

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Output: A consortium led by Investec Asset Management has invested in off-grid solar installer Mobisol. Berlin-based Mobisol has installed over 100,000 photovoltaic home systems in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. The investment, alongside debt-financing deals, takes the company's newly-secured capital to over €20m ($25m), which it will use to help meet its target of providing affordable solar energy solutions to 20 million people by 2023.


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Eight TV takes aim at Google, Facebook with mobile video reviews
 Two of the biggest tech companies, Google and Facebook, have been competing as the internet's biggest destinations for video. And yet, a small startup is betting it has a shot of nabbing their views by narrowing in on one of YouTube's most popular styles.

Eight TV(opens in a new tab) is an app focused on product reviews -- by anyone and for anyone (anyone who carries a smartphone and probably likes Snapchat, that is). Shows can be created in minutes, often shot with selfie cameras. All videos are linked to a webpage to buy the item. The app pulls from the more than 100 million products in Amazon's database.

For the creators of Eight TV, the hope is that anyone can be a star, and consumers can access authentic and personable reviews. Unlike on YouTube where creators use elaborate setups and tech to record and to edit review videos, Eight TV users simply use their smartphones.

"We’re focused on regular people where they can pick up the phone and say what they think," said Leon Crutchley, cofounder of Eight TV. "We live in this world where every day there’s a new direct-to-consumer makeup or mattress brand. A lot of teenagers are asking what matters."

Some of these teenagers may get makeup advice from Kylie Jenner or YouTuber Bethany Mota. Eight TV would hope they listen to "Sophia Makeups":

Eight TV is vying to create a new class of creators and new form of shopping that also acts as entertainment, all optimized for smartphones. Of course, building a new social app isn't easy in a world where Facebook and Google dominate. Snapchat's user growth has stagnated as Instagram copycats many of its features. Musical.ly recently got acquired by a tech company in China as it tries to compete among the social giants. While Eight TV may focus on vertical and mobile, Google is also doing more with that format with celebrities in search and with YouTube Reels.

So far, Eight TV has 50,000 monthly active users, the majority of whom are teenage girls. That demographic dominated the early years of Snapchat so its no surprise that Lightspeed Ventures, one of the first investors in Snapchat, decided to invest in Eight TV during Apple's Shark Tank knock-off Planet of the Apps. Both Snapchat and Eight TV are focused on vertical video and mobile, as well.

"At Lightspeed, we like to invest in an inherent consumer behavior with a technology layer over it. The insight here…the analog version is watching QVC and HSN. And the mobile-first version for shopping similar items is Eight TV," Nicole Quinn, investor at Lightspeed, wrote(opens in a new tab) on Medium.

"Snapchat ... got people comfortable with the front-facing camera."

Eight TV is also a part of Snap Accelerate(opens in a new tab), an exclusive group of companies that have access to some free ads and other integrations. An employee at Snap reached out to Eight TV after one product reviewer started sharing her videos to Snapchat and was referring hundreds of people a day to the app.

"What Snapchat has done is got people comfortable with the front-facing camera. That’s what surprised us most with starting this platform, that people didn't want to use the back-facing camera to point at the product," Crutchley said.

The app is also taking a page from another buzzing startup, HQ. This week, Eight TV formally launched a live show called "The Daily Drop" that gifts users with free or discounted products every day at 8 p.m. ET. A host is available live for questions and responds with video replies that are viewable by anyone. It's similar to HQ drawing people into its app twice a weekday for live trivia with a cash prize.

"We’ve been watching those guys since day one. Their show is really cool, and I think a really powerful thing about it is that every single day there’s something to look forward to," Crutchley said.

But a concern for HQ and for Eight TV is: How long will the excitement last?

HQ has been promoting more hosts and is releasing an Android app later this year. Eight TV's next steps include launching an Android app along with making all of their videos available on the web and adding personalization in the app. For example, not every Eight TV user may like makeup and therefore the app should probably not show those users makeup videos first.

Asked if he had anything else to share, Crutchley described his team's headquarters. Eight TV is based in San Mateo, California, apparently right next to YouTube's first office.

"One of the first ever videos on YouTube was the founders sitting there in this pizza restaurant," Crutchley said, which he said his team has visited too. What remains to be seen is where they'll go next.

Output: Eight TV is betting it can harness the pulling power of homemade product review videos to challenge Google and Facebook. While YouTube posters use elaborate set-ups to record content, Eight TV app users can create video reviews using just their smartphones. The app then links the review to a shopping website where the reviewed item is sold, drawing from more than 100 million products in Amazon's database. Eight TV has 50,000 monthly active users, mostly teenage girls, and aims to create a new type of online smartphone-only shopping entertainment.