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Gene editing technique bolsters xenotransplantation hopes
 Growing human transplant organs in pigs has become a more realistic prospect after scientists used advanced gene editing to remove threatening viruses from the animals’ DNA.

Porcine endogenous retroviruses (Pervs) are permanently embedded in the pig genome but research has shown they can infect human cells, posing a potential hazard.

The existence of Pervs has been a major stumbling block preventing the development of genetically engineered pigs to provide kidneys and other organs for transplant into human patients.

That hurdle may now have been cleared, according to new research reported in the journal Science.

Researchers in the US used the precision gene editing tool Crispr-Cas9 combined with gene repair technology to deactivate 100% of Pervs in a line of pig cells.

What is Crispr? Crispr, or to give it its full name, Crispr-Cas9, allows scientists to precisely target and edit pieces of the genome. Crispr is a guide molecule made of RNA, that allows a specific site of interest on the DNA double helix to be targeted. The RNA molecule is attached to Cas9, a bacterial enzyme that works as a pair of "molecular scissors" to cut the DNA at the exact point required. This allows scientists to cut, paste and delete single letters of genetic code.

Piglets cloned from the fibroblast (connective tissue) cells turned out to be Perv-free.

Dr Luhan Yang, co-founder and chief scientific officer at the biotech company eGenesis, said: “This is the first publication to report on Perv-free pig production.

“We generated a protocol to enable multiplex genome editing, eradicated all Perv activity using Crispr technology in cloneable primary porcine fibroblasts and successfully produced Perv-free piglets.

“This research represents an important advance in addressing safety concerns about cross-species viral transmission. Our team will further engineer the Perv-free pig strain to deliver safe and effective xenotransplantation.”

The scientists first mapped the Pervs present in the pig genome, identifying 25 in total. Tests demonstrated that pig cells could infect human cells with Pervs in the laboratory. The viruses could then be transmitted to other cells not exposed to pig tissue.

Whether or not Pervs would actually cause diseases in humans is unknown, but they are considered an unacceptable risk.

Other endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) in humans have been suggested to play a role in cancers and autoimmune disorders, although evidence for this is lacking. Their involvement in multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease has also been proposed.

British expert Professor Ian McConnell, from the University of Cambridge, said the research was a “promising first step”.

He added: “Successful transplantation of tissues and organs from animals to man, known as xenotransplantation, has been one of the goals of modern medicine for the last 20 years.

“The safe use of pig organs such as kidneys in xenotransplantation has been seen as an approach which could be used to overcome the shortage of donor organs in human transplantation.

“The problem is that all pig cells carry cancer viruses embedded in their DNA. These are known as endogenous retroviruses which, although normally silent, can be activated to become fully infectious for human cells when pig cells carrying these retroviruses are co-incubated with human cells.

“Since xenotransplantation involves long-term intimate cell-to-cell contact the potential for the species jump of retroviruses for the entire life-time of the transplants is a very real one.”

Output: Researchers at biotech company eGenesis have used precision gene editing tool Crispr-Cas9 to eliminate 100% of porcine endogenous retroviruses (Pervs) in a line of pig cells, according to a report in the journal Science. The development could pave the way to xenotransplantation, the transplanting of pig organs into humans, a move which has been previously avoided as it is widely believed Pervs may cause diseases in humans. The research has been called a "promising first step" by Dr Luhan Yang, co-founder and chief scientific officer at eGenesis.


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Benchmark Capital files lawsuit against Uber founder Kalanick
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One of Uber’s biggest investors is suing the company’s former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, accusing him of perpetuating fraud in order to “increase his power over Uber for his own selfish ends”.

Benchmark Capital filed a lawsuit on Thursday in which it accuses Mr Kalanick of concealing problems from the Uber board of directors and scheming to keep power after he was forced to step down as chief executive in June following a series of scandals.

The suit lays bare a tussle for power at the top of the $68bn (£52bn) startup, with Benchmark seeking to remove Mr Kalanick from Uber’s board and prevent him from involving himself with the business. Uber still has yet to find a replacement for Mr Kalanick as chief executive.

Benchmark owns 13 per cent of Uber, a stake that is estimated to be worth $9bn.

Mr Kalanick swiftly hit back on Thursday, issuing a statement in which he said the legal action was “completely without merit and riddled with lies and false allegations”.

A spokesperson for Mr Kalanick said Benchmark was “acting in its own best interests contrary to the interests of Uber” and denounced the legal action as a “transparent attempt to deprive Travis Kalanick of his rights as a founder and shareholder”.

The lawsuit adds to a litany of problems for Uber. The company faces separate legal action over allegations it obtained trade secrets from Google parent Alphabet’s self-driving car unit. That scandal saw Uber sack the head of its own self-driving unit, former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski, in May.

A string of sexual harassment accusations against Uber employees also led to the departure of several top executives earlier this year.

Mr Kalanick and other senior figures are also accused of improperly obtaining the medical records of a woman who was raped by an Uber driver in India.

In the latest lawsuit, Benchmark alleges that Mr Kalanick concealed what he knew about these problems and others. He then gained more power at the company by convincing the board to create three extra seats that only he had the right to fill.

The venture capital firm says these board seats were obtained fraudulently because Mr Kalanick was not honest about what he knew. He appointed himself to one of the seats after he was ousted as chief executive. The other two remain vacant.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 / 13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: “Europe’s largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

In the lawsuit, Benchmark said it would not have allowed Mr Kalanick the right to extra seats if it was aware of the “gross mismanagement and other misconduct at Uber”.

“Kalanick’s improper role on the board threatens the sound management of Uber during this critical period,” the suit states. “Moreover, the value of Benchmark’s investment in Uber is significantly threatened by Kalanick’s continued presence on the board.”

Benchmark is seeking an injunction to prevent Mr Kalanick from appointing new directors, asserting he had agreed to give up those rights when he stepped aside.

The lawsuit, which is filed in Delaware Chancery court, was first reported by news website Axios.

Output: Benchmark Capital, one of the biggest investors in ride-hailing service Uber, has filed a lawsuit against founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, claiming he created seats on the company board that only he could fill after concealing what he knew about various issues affecting Uber. In papers filed at Delaware Chancery Court, Benchmark Capital, which owns a 13% stake in Uber, worth around $9bn, said had it been aware of the "gross mismanagement and other misconduct at Uber" it would not have allowed him to have the seats. Kalanick said the suit was "riddled with lies and false allegations".


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Snap not where analysts predicted in terms of revenue or users
 Snapchat has had a bad few months. But its dancing hotdog is doing great, with 1.5 billion views.

"Our dancing hotdog is most likely the world’s first augmented reality superstar," said Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel in the first five minutes of the company's earnings call on Thursday.

That's about the last of the good news.

Snap stock plummeted on Thursday after revealing that its past few months did not live up to expectations.

Snap Inc. missed analysts' two big estimates: revenue and daily active users. Snap reported $181.7 million this quarter while analysts predicted revenue of $186 million, according to FactSet(opens in a new tab).

Snapchat, Snap's core product, now boasts 173 million daily active users, less than what analysts had pegged it at 175 million.

Not so good. The stock dropped by more than 13 percent in after-hours trading, adding to its already brutal run since it begin publicly trading on the New York Stock Exchange in March.

Meanwhile, Facebook has continued its quest to crush Snap Inc. Instagram Stories now has more daily users than Snapchat overall. Facebook just released Watch, original shows not unlike what you see on Snapchat Discover.

It's more of the same since Snap became a public company. It blew its first-ever earnings in May with shares dropping 25 percent after its numbers were released.

In somewhat good news, Snap is continuing to increase revenue per user, an important metric for all tech companies. Snap reported $1.05 per user, up from $0.50 the year prior and $0.90 in the last quarter.

"Our existing customers are spending more money with us. We still have a lot more room to grow," said Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan, referring to the company's advertising clients.

More than 60 percent of ad impressions are now from Snap's self-service and API platforms, meaning lower costs for the advertiser and for Snap. That's very good news for growth going forward.

Spiegel also tried to assure investors of his faith in his company, saying he and his cofounder Bobby Murphy have agreed not to sell any of their shares until the end of the year.

It's been a tough run for Snap. The company is running against Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his army of engineers. Facebook began its slaughter with the release of Instagram Stories, a similar experience to one of Snapchat's core feature, in August last year. That's pushed once loyal Snapchat users to use Snapchat less and Instagram more, like Mashable's own Damon Beres and professional creators, as Mashable first reported with data from social analytics company Delmondo.

Facebook hasn't stopped there. It's since pushed more similar experiences like selfie masks and other augmented reality lens. At Facebook's annual conference in April, Zuckerberg essentially invited developers to help him compete against Snapchat.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has pressed on, with reports saying he has told his team to "focus"—and not worry about Facebook.

"Regarding product pipeline, very excited about that. It’s what we love to do over here. We’re having a great time," Spiegel said on Thursday's call with analysts.

Still, Facebook remains a big issue for Snapchat since they are both advertising businesses pulling from the same pool of digital advertising dollars.

Snapchat has tried to convince advertisers and analysts of its worth by pitching its unique audience. Snapchat users are more loyal, Spiegel has argued, because the app doesn't do much growth hacking—unlike other internet platforms and apps.

One analyst on the call noted it seemed that Snapchat has done growth hacking since he had received mobile notifications.

"We've been sending notifications like that since 2014 so not sure since you're just seeing that now," Spiegel said.

The analyst then asked what Spiegel meant by growth hacking, if he wasn't referring to push notifications.

"There are plenty examples online if you want to go for a Google," Spiegel said.

That didn't impress.

"I didn’t even understand his response," someone said on the call, most likely referencing Spiegel and probably thinking he was on mute.

But there's some hope for Snap in the future: hardware. Snap released Spectacles, its video-camera sunglasses, in November and reported selling $8 million worth in the first three months of 2017. Snap reported making $5.4 million from Spectacles in the second quarter.

That's small in comparison to its overall revenue of $181.7 million this quarter. But Snap is also focused on mergers and acquisitions, Chief Financial Officer Drew Vollero said on the call, and that includes hardware companies.

Mashable reported Snap recently acquired a company that sells a selfie-taking drone, which would provide another revenue stream.

For now, there's dancing hot dogs.

Output: Shares in Snap fell by more than 13% after it was revealed the company missed analysts' predictions for both revenue and user growth this quarter. During an earnings call, the social media site reported Q2 revenue of $181.7m, compared with a predicted $186m, and growth to 173 million daily active users, instead of the estimated 175 million. However, CEO Evan Spiegel said revenue per user was $1.05 over the quarter, up from 50 cents in the same period in 2016, while sales of video-camera sunglasses Spectacles hit $5.4m for Q2 2017.


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Snapchat's next tech product could be selfie drone
 Snap Inc. has a hardware division, but the only tech product you can buy is a pair of sunglasses. That could soon change.

Snapchat's parent company has bought Zero Zero Robotics, which currently sells a selfie-taking drone called Hover Camera at Apple retail stores and online, according to two sources familiar with the situation and multiple communications about the acquisition observed by Mashable.

A separate source with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed the companies are in talks but denied that the deal has been finalized.

The Information(opens in a new tab) reported(opens in a new tab) in August the two companies were in talks regarding an acquisition. Mashable has learned the deal officially closed this summer, according to two sources with knowledge of the deal, and that Snap Inc. has not publicized it and has not allowed the team behind Zero Zero Robotics to speak out about it.

Snap declined to comment. Zero Zero Robotics did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This secrecy is typical of Snap, a company that has kept the majority of its other acquisitions quiet until they were outed by the press or until Snap released a feature that was developed, in part, through that acquisition (for example Snap Maps).

The terms of the deal were not confirmed, but Techcrunch(opens in a new tab) reported(opens in a new tab) that the deal was for between $150 million and $200 million.

Snap Inc. owning Zero Zero Robotics could mean a new feature for Snapchat. The experience could be quite like Spectacles where users can take 10-second videos and upload them to their account. Hover Cameras can take selfies or other aerial videos, which users could later share on Snapchat.

The deal also points to Snapchat's evolution as a "camera company" beyond smartphones, a step that could help the company differentiate itself from competitors like Facebook and Instagram.

"Snap is unpredictable. Nobody really knows what they do."

Differentiations from Facebook are something that analysts and investors are begging for from Snap Inc. They've watched the stock fall from $27 per share to below $14 as Facebook releases similar products, the most similar being "Instagram Stories" and the latest being Facebook Watch, a competitor to Snapchat Discover. All of those features compete for digital advertising dollars.

"Snap is unpredictable. Nobody really knows what they do. They have this app, but they call themselves a camera company," said James Brumley, analyst at InvestorPlace.com(opens in a new tab). "For now, they are not a camera company. They are in ad sales."

For now, hardware is only a small fraction of Snap's business. Spectacles comprised the majority of Snap's $8.3 million in "other" revenue reported in May for the first quarter of 2017. Snap generated $149.9 million overall for the quarter.

"[Spectacles'] $8 million doesn’t really compare to [Snap's] ad revenue. It doesn’t hurt, but if they are going to become a hardware company and start selling cameras, they need to do a lot more it," Brumley said.

With Hover, Snap is bringing in another revenue source beyond what it makes from digital ads within Snapchat and from selling Spectacles. Hover sells for $499.95 online on Apple.com and in Apple retail stores. If it keeps the Apple partnership, it also gives Snap another point of sale option.

Some of Snap Inc.'s most notable features have been constructed via acquisitions and then integrated into its core product. We compiled some of Snap's acquisitions, matched with their similar products:

Vergence Labs → Spectacles

Bitstrips → Bitmoji in Snapchat

Vurb → Search bar

Placed → Location tracking in ads

Zenly → Snap Maps

Cimagine → Augmented reality tech

Flite → Ad tech

Seene / Obvious Engineering → 3D selfies

Looksery → Lenses

Scan.me → QR scanning

AddLive → video chatting

Snap also recently acquired the team behind Strong.codes to support cybersecurity efforts.

Zero Zero Robotics would not be Snap's first acquisition of a drone company. Snap acquired Ctrl Me Robotics, a Los Angeles-based drone manufacturer, for under $1 million, according to (opens in a new tab)BuzzFeed(opens in a new tab). Ctrl Me also worked with movie studios to produce drone footage.

Output: Snap has acquired drone company Zero Zero Robotics, in a deal reputedly worth between $150m and $200m, according to insider sources. The drones, which currently retail for $499.95 online in the Apple store, not only offer Snap a new revenue stream but a point of sale option with Apple. Sales of Spectacles, Snap's previous hardware acquisition, made up the majority of its $8.3m Q2 2017 revenue. The acquisition could also point to Snap moving into the camera industry, a market not explored by rivals Instagram and Facebook.


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News Corp suffers $817m loss in 2017
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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp recorded an $817m (£629m) loss in the full 2017 financial year due to a fall in the value of its UK and Australian newspapers.

Revenue declined from $8.29bn to $8.12bn, a 2 per cent drop reflecting lower print advertising revenues and foreign currency fluctuations.

The company said a charge of $785m reflected the write-down of UK and Australian newspapers.

Mr Murdoch’s Australian media arm looks set to carry out major cost-cutting operations. A repeat of the $40m cuts from 2017 is set to continue into 2018.

Up to 70 photographers in News Corp’s Australia arm were made redundant in May, including forced lay-offs for subeditors and designers.

Revenue from its digital news and information arm rose steadily at 3 per cent, primarily driven by digital subscription services from titles such as The Times and The Sunday Times.

The Wall Street Journal recorded over a million paid subscribers in the full financial year.

News Corp wrote down the value in Foxtel, an Australian pay TV company, in which it has a 50 per cent stake. The company also slashed the value of The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Herald Sun titles it owns in Australia by 40 per cent.

Speaking on fake news disrupting main stream media, chief executive Robert Thomson said he believed News Corp prompted digital platforms to address a “dysfunctional content eco-system, in which the fake and the fraudulent have flourished”.

He added: “We are now in advanced discussions with those platforms over the creation of payment mechanisms for news of verified veracity.”

Output: Revenue at News Corp fell 2% to $8.12bn in the 2017 financial year, a loss of $817m, which the company said was due to a drop in the value of its newspapers in the UK and Australia. The media company, owned by Rupert Murdoch, said it had reduced the values of The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Herald Sun titles by 40%, while its Australian media arm plans to continue a $40m cost-cutting programme into 2018. In contrast, revenues from News Corp's digital news and information arm rose 3%.


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IoT security can be 'outsourced' to cloud VPNs
 A number of technology companies are highlighting the potential for cloud services to protect vulnerable devices from automated cybersecurity threats, in comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on President Trump’s new initiative to mitigate botnets.

The cloud can be used to help protect Internet of Things by providing scaled security services, according to Microsoft.

“Because IoT devices will be plentiful and cannot be realistically managed individually by people, they should be connected to cloud services or utilities providing...

Output: Companies including Microsoft, Cloudflare and Akamai have said firms offering cloud services could help to protect against automated cyber attacks, in comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Microsoft suggested that connecting internet of things devices to the cloud would enable security at scale, Cloudflare argued even unpatched devices could be made safe from botnet attacks using the cloud, while Akamai said moving cybersecurity to the cloud would take pressure off businesses' IT staff.


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Absence of legacy issues could help insurtech flourish in Asia
 To continue reading the full article and get full access to the InsuranceAsia News platform, please enquire about a subscription.

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Output: Although insurers in developed markets have been faster to invest in insurtech, a lack of legacy issues in Asia may ultimately enable the region's insurers to better exploit new technologies. "One of the biggest challenges for incumbent insurers is whether it is possible to fully modernise a legacy insurance business,” wrote Murray Raisbeck, global co-leader of fintech at KPMG in a report. "It may be more efficient to build a greenfield, purely digital insurer." Observers point to China's Zhong An as a model for Asian development, which has benefited from the Chinese regulator supporting insurtech that focuses on risk transfer rather than investment.


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Millennials can't afford homes as they 'spend too much partying'
 Be careful about how often you decide to travel to celebrate the special brides and grooms in your life — it may cost you your first home.

The average bachelor party costs each attendee $1,532 and the average bachelorette party $1,106, including accommodation, nights out, gifts and travel, a new study from real-estate site Zillow found, and millennials attend an average of three such parties a year over the course of their peak wedding-attending ages. Going to three such parties over a three-year period amounts to $13,788 spent on visiting marrying friends, or 24% ($56,000) of the down payment on an average home.

Also see:This is why millennials can’t have nice things (or save any money)

As all these costs continue to go up, brides and grooms should be extra cognizant of costs when planning their bachelorette parties, said Erin Lowry, millennial personal finance expert. “You should consider your friends’ budgets, especially if you’re getting married in your early to mid-20 before people may have settled into careers and gotten any debts under control,” she said. “A bachelorette party may be a once-in-a-lifetime event for the bride — but it’s not for the attendees.”

The study, which doesn’t even account for the costs of attending the weddings themselves, comes as homeownership has hit new lows in recent years, down to 64% in 2017 from its peak of 69% in 2006 among U.S. adults. This decrease is driven largely by millennials, 35% of whom own a home today compared with 42% just a decade ago.

What every cannabis investor should be paranoid about

And yet 65% of millennials consider owning a home part of the American dream and there are obviously more roadblocks than just extravagant bachelor and bachelorette parties are preventing them from achieving it. Millennials make up a large part of the $1.44 trillion in total student loan debt in the U.S., according to Student Loan Hero, a site that helps people pay off their student loans. Job instability and low wages also weigh heavily on that generation.

Don’t miss: As weddings become more elaborate, guests send more regrets

However, that doesn’t mean millennials won’t ever buy homes, said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “There is much gnashing of teeth in the real-estate community about millennials not buying homes to the extent they did, but the reality of it is that many millennials who haven’t bought yet will skip the starter home when they do,” he said. “They are investing in education and career mobility and will have greater buying power at the point they settle down to buy a home.”

Meanwhile, they should budget their extraneous costs — whether they’re vacations, weddings, or bachelorette parties — or begin to turn down invites. “Weddings are expensive, whether it’s yours or attending somebody else’s — you’ve got to set limits around your spending so as not to jeopardize future financial goals,” McBride said.

Output: US millennials who attend three hen parties a year for three years will spend $13,788, the equivalent of a quarter of the down-payment on an average home, according to real-estate site Zillow. The study came as US home ownership hit a new low, with 35% of millennials owning their homes, compared with 42% 10 years ago. While some argue job instability, large amounts of student loan debt and low wages are obstacles to younger people entering the housing market, others said millennials are choosing to invest in education and career mobility first and will have greater purchasing power when they do decide to settle down.


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Chatbot created by Shake Shack can answer 300 questions
 Shake Shack has launched a chatbot that will answer customers’ most burning questions, such as whether their local Shake Shack is open at 10 p.m. or if its burger patties are organic.

The chain rolled out the chatbot to Facebook Messenger and Twitter Direct Message. It can answer the 300 most-asked questions by customers. The goal, said Phil Crawford, vp of information technology at Shake Shack, is to extend the brand to wider audiences on Facebook and Twitter.

Output: US fast food chain Shake Shack has launched a chatbot capable of answering up to 300 questions on Facebook Messenger and Twitter Direct Message, as it seeks to expand its audience on the social media sites. The bot, which was developed over four months through conversational intelligence platform Conversable, cannot take orders yet, though the company said it's looking for ways to add that functionality in an imitation of similar bots launched by Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and Denny’s.


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US publishers cash in on back-to-school rush
 As publishers experiment more with commerce, some are taking advantage of the back-to-school shopping season. American consumers are expected to spend $83.6 billion during this back-to-school season, up 10 percent from last year, according to the National Retail Federation commissioned. That’s below the $655 billion spent on Black Friday, per the National Retail Federation but more than the $1 billion spent on Prime Day or the $3.5 billion spent on Cyber Monday last year, two digital shopping events publishers have started taking more seriously.

The number of publishers doing back-to-school posts declined this year to 253 from 268, but the clicks they drove grew slightly, from 39,399 to 40,325, according to Skimlinks. Here’s how a number of commerce-curious publishers are approaching back-to-school.

Output: US publishers are making the most of back-to-school fever as consumers are expected to spend $83.6bn this year on school supplies, 10% more than in 2016, according to data from the National Retail Federation. Although the number of publishers posting back-to-school content has declined, the number of clicks they received rose from 39,399 to 40,325. To attract customers, Buzzfeed is set to use identity-based posts, while brands such as Vogue have turned to Instagram Stories.


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Fossil fuel projects grab 46% of UK's £6bn overseas energy spend
 The UK has spent more than twice as much overseas support on fossil fuels projects as on renewable ones so far this decade, according to research commissioned by the Catholic aid agency Cafod.

The Overseas Development Institute, which analysed the figures, found that 46% of Britain’s £6.1bn energy spending in developing countries between 2010 and 2014 went on oil, coal and gas-fired schemes, compared with 22% for renewable energy projects.

Overall, fossil fuel support increased by nearly £1bn this decade compared with the previous five years, with a staggering 99.4% of UK export finance support directed towards “dirty” energy investments.

Cafod called on the government to clarify how it would bring public support for overseas projects into line with climate commitments under the Paris agreement.

Dr Sarah Wykes, Cafod’s lead energy analyst, said: “To tackle climate change we have to leave fossil fuels in the ground and switch rapidly to renewable sources of energy.

“Yet the UK carrying on a business as usual spending pattern overseas in recent years suggests a huge inconsistency in policy and a missed opportunity to promote greater investment in renewable technologies, as the Department for International Development (DfID) has tried to do through its spending.”

While UK export finance uses public funds to bolster British exports, DfID’s energy spending – 32% of which went to renewables compared with 22% for fossil fuels – is intended as overseas aid.

The top five beneficiaries of UK energy support this decade were Brazil, Vietnam, Turkey, India and the Russian Federation, according to the ODI figures.

Of the money earmarked for fossil fuels, oil and gas received a total of 87% of UK funds, with 9% going to coal.

“It doesn’t make sense for there to still be any public money going into fossil fuels overseas, whether that’s through aid money, loans or export finance to support British companies operating overseas,” Wykes said.

Aid agencies see support for small-scale solar and wind projects as vital for connecting poor communities in remote areas to electricity grids.

But only 8% of British aid spending aimed to improve energy access for the poor, Cafod said, despite the UK having signed up to a UN sustainable goal of ensuring universal energy access for all by 2030.

Twenty-nine per cent of UK energy aid in 2010-14 went to investments using fossil fuels and renewables, or where the energy source could not be identified. One per cent was spent on nuclear power and 2% on energy efficiency.

Output: Almost half the money (46%) the UK government has given to developing countries to support energy schemes between 2010 and 2014 was spent on oil, coal and gas-fired projects. Just 22% of the £6.1bn ($7.9bn) went on renewable energy, according to research by Catholic aid agency Cafod. It found fossil fuel support had risen by £1bn this decade, with the Russian Federation and Turkey among the nations benefiting. Sarah Wykes, Cafod’s lead energy analyst, called on the government to "clarify how it would bring public support for overseas projects into line with climate commitments under the Paris agreement".


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Third norovirus outbreak on a Sun Princess cruise ship
 A norovirus outbreak has struck at least 91 passengers on a Sun Princess cruise ship.

The affected people were treated for gastro after the ship docked in Brisbane on Thursday morning.

A Queensland Health spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: 'Metro North Public Health Unit is aware of at least 91 cases of gastro on board a cruise ship that berthed in Brisbane this morning.

A norovirus outbreak has struck 91 passengers on a Sun Princess cruise ship (above, file photo)

'We have been advised that on-board testing has found norovirus to be the cause of the illness.'

It comes after 140 passengers came down with gastro in February after a Sun Princess cruise returned from a 14-day trip around New Zealand.

A fortnight before that, there was another outbreak on the vessel during a previous cruise.

Output: Passengers on a Sun Princess cruise ship have been hit by an attack of norovirus while docked in Brisbane, with 91 falling ill. The outbreak happened after 140 passengers came down with gastro in February on a Sun Princess cruise around New Zealand and a fortnight before that, there was another outbreak on the vessel during a previous cruise.


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Benchmark’s Uber board seat threatened after firm sues Kalanick
 SAN FRANCISCO — A group of investors in the ride-hailing company Uber has formed an alliance to push Benchmark, a major shareholder, off the company’s board of directors, the latest escalation of a public feud in Uber’s top ranks.

In a letter sent to Benchmark on Friday, Shervin Pishevar, a venture capitalist at Sherpa Capital, demanded that the firm surrender its seat on the Uber board and sell its shares in the company to outside investors, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.

The request came a day after Benchmark filed a lawsuit against Travis Kalanick, Uber’s former chief executive, accusing him of fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. Mr. Kalanick resigned as chief executive in June in the face of a shareholder coup led by Benchmark.

“We do not feel it was either prudent or necessary from the standpoint of shareholder value, to hold the company hostage to a public relations disaster by demanding Mr. Kalanick’s resignation, along with other concessions, on a few hours’ notice and within weeks of a personal tragedy, under threat of public scandal,” said the letter, which was signed by Mr. Pishevar and claimed to represent other shareholders.

Output: Benchmark, a major Uber shareholder, is facing an alliance of other investors who hope to remove the company from Uber’s board of directors. The move is a response to Benchmark’s decision last week to file a lawsuit against Travis Kalanick, Uber’s former CEO, accusing him of breach of contract and fiduciary duty as well as fraud. Shervin Pishevar, a venture capitalist at Sherpa Capital, sent a letter to Benchmark on Friday, demanding that the company sells its shares in Uber and surrender its seat on the firm’s board.


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New York considers carbon pricing for state's energy market
 Imagine what would happen if the utilities buying the electricity to power our homes and businesses had to pay more for it depending on how much carbon pollution the power plants supplying the power pumped into the atmosphere? A report issued today for the state of New York takes a look at how such a "carbon adder" might work, providing insights for the rest of the country as well.

Given the magnitude of the challenge represented by climate change, policymakers need to assemble as many effective tools in their climate toolbox as possible if we’re going to efficiently cut carbon at the pace scientists say is necessary. With that in mind, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) today released a report authored by the Brattle Group that provides guidance on how New York could potentially integrate a state-established carbon price into NYISO’s electricity markets.

An accompanying cover letter, co-signed by New York State Department of Public Service (DPS) CEO John Rhodes (who also chairs the state’s Public Service Commission) and NYISO CEO Brad Jones, outlines an inclusive and transparent stakeholder process (kicking off on September 6th) to further explore this promising new mechanism. Just as important, it proposes significant framing principles on how any such mechanism—if ultimately adopted and implemented—could better harmonize NYISO’s wholesale markets with New York State’s many successful clean energy and climate initiatives. New York also would be the first state to implement this method for putting a cost on carbon pollution.

While we are still sifting through the 70-plus page report, and will certainly offer more extensive perspectives later, this blog provides a first take on some of the most important overarching themes from NRDC’s viewpoint.

The concept of a carbon adder is laudable and worth exploring. And it has clear potential to cut carbon pollution—but only if the state and NYISO get the design right, and in the process avoid some important legal and policy pitfalls.

What the heck is a carbon adder, anyway?

Identifying and incorporating the cost of carbon pollution into electricity generation can be an important tool in efficiently cutting carbon emissions; policies like the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states’ Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) (which is on the cusp of a major decision on what that program will look like post-2020; more on that here) and California’s Cap and Trade program are emblematic examples. As with the nine-state RGGI, which includes New York, a carbon adder would lead to power plant carbon reductions. But they work differently: RGGI sets an enforceable/binding cap on total carbon emissions, while a carbon adder puts a price on each ton of carbon. Importantly, done right, they can work in concert.

Here’s how a carbon adder would work. Let’s say a natural gas generator offers to sell electricity in the NYISO power market for $20/megawatt-hour (MWh). The average amount of carbon emitted per megawatt-hour is one-half of a ton for many gas plants, so if New York set a $40 per ton carbon price, that half-ton of pollution would cost $20. The generator would add that $20 to its offer price, resulting in a total offer of $40 to produce one megawatt of electricity for one hour. NYISO, the entity that dispatches electricity to utilities, selects the cheapest generation options first, which under an adder would increasingly be those with no or low carbon pollution. NYISO accepts offers, ranked by cost from lowest to highest, as needed to satisfy total demand.

If the generation from the gas plant in the example above were selected, the plant owner would receive the market clearing energy price (highest price during a specific period) minus the cost of the carbon adder. The carbon adder revenues would go elsewhere, such as to support state clean energy programs.

Why implement a carbon adder?

A carbon adder is a technology-neutral and transparent mechanism to differentiate between power plants based on their specific carbon pollution profiles. In that way it helps to incorporate the cost and environmental impacts of carbon pollution into electricity markets. It also can capture the locational difference in value of cleaner technologies. As NYISO’s most recent Power Trends report demonstrates, downstate New York has a much dirtier energy supply mix than upstate.

Output: New York state is considering the introduction of a state-established carbon price into the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)'s electricity markets. The New York State Department of Public Service and NYISO have outlined a stakeholder process to explore charging utility companies in line with the amount of carbon emitted by power plants supplying the power. The revenues NYISO would gain from the introduction of a "carbon adder" would be used elsewhere, such as to support state clean energy programmes.


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Israeli entrepreneur funds Colorado-based start-ups
 In a unique international partnership, the Israeli government and a Colorado-based venture capital fund will start a new program to bring to Colorado Israeli startups that focus on water, energy and transportation.

The Israel-Colorado Innovation Fund is a venture capital firm established in April by Gili Elkin, an Israeli citizen but a native of Berkeley, Calif., who worked in Silicon Valley representing venture capital firms. After moving back to Israel for a short period of time, she decided to try her hand in Colorado, a place she believes is fertile ground for new companies.

“I moved here because of the fast-growing startup ecosystem here in Colorado,” Elkin said. “Because it’s not as crowded as Silicon Valley, I believe startups have a better chance to stand out here.”

The fund, which was spearheaded by some of Colorado’s leading energy and water executives and backed by Innosphere, a Colorado startup accelerator, has a annual budget of $4 million. This year, six companies are being given grants totaling $1.5 million.

The Israeli Innovation Authority will match funds put up by Elkin’s firm, an agreement that is the first of its kind, she said. Previously, the innovation authority has not partnered with an agency or firm outside Israel. Elkin attributed the partnership due to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s support for the idea.

During a launch event Monday, Kathleen Staks, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, discussed the partnership, according to a transcript of her comments sent by Elkins. Staks said the partnership builds on the water industry efforts Hickenlooper started in 2015 with the Colorado Water Plan and his executive order committing the state to climate action.

“As Colorado’s population continues to grow, effective means of managing and treating water will become increasingly vital,” Staks said Monday. “Our state is always eager to advance its position in the sectors (of energy, water, and transportation) through innovation and partnership.”

Each selected startup receives between $500,000 and $1 million. Elkin said the venture is still raising funds, but it has several commitments and expect to reach its target soon.

Beyond funding, the program also supports the startups after moving to the Colorado by helping to connect them with the U.S. market.

Israel is a world leader in startups; the country has the most per capita and the second highest concentration of startups in the world, behind Silicon Valley.

The Israel-Colorado Innovation Fund will invest in 10 to 15 companies during four-year investment periods, but the commitment extends to a decade. After funding, companies receive networking support to help initiate growth in the U.S.

“Our vision is to turn Colorado into the ‘Silicon Mountain’ of water, energy and transportation (WET) sectors,” Elkin said. “By growing here, we will attract global leaders and players in the U.S. to come to Colorado to look at the innovation from Israel.”

Output: The Israeli Innovation Authority and a US venture capital fund run by a US-based Israeli entrepreneur are working together to support Colorado-based start-ups working in the energy, water and transport sectors. The Israeli-Colorado Innovation Fund was founded by Israeli citizen and Colorado resident Gili Elkin. The fund has already given six grants totalling $1.5m, with each individual start-up gaining between $500,000 and $1m, with any funds given being matched by the Israeli Innovation Authority.


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China's gold jewellery market at 5-year low as tastes shift
 Other luxuries grow, lower karats now "dominant trend" for China's gold jewelry...

CHINA's huge gold jewelry demand faces a continued fall thanks to younger consumers changing tastes, according to the latest analysis from leading specialists, writes Sam Williams at BullionVault.

Preferences among younger gold buyers are disrupting gold's largest consumer market, recent data show, as competition from luxury alternatives purchases grows.

Figures from both Thomson Reuters GFMS and competitors Metals Focus show a persistent fall in Chinese gold demand since 2013's surge, which coincided with the sharpest drop in global prices in three decades.

Between April and June 2017 China's gold jewelry demand set its lowest quarterly total in 5 years, according to the most recent report from the mining-backed World Gold Council.

Based on data from independent consultancy Metals Focus, it shows demand down 5% compared with Q2 2016.

Looking at so-called millennials – the generation reaching adulthood after the year 2000 and now entering its 30s – "younger consumers continue to pull away from the tradition of 24k gold," explains the Council's latest Gold Demand Trends report, in what its analysts say "remains the dominant trend" of the Chinese gold jewelry market.

Measured in the ancient purity of karats, 24k gold is virtually pure, with 22k meaning 92% pure and 18k only 75% fine.

A previous survey by the market-development organization showed that China's millennial consumers are much more likely to buy lower karatage gold than their predecessors, with 39% of demand for 18k gold in 2015-16 was driven by millennials, compared with only 7% from 51-65 year olds.

As the fine-gold content of pieces bought by households decreases in the world's largest consumer market, China will see "erosion in the volume of jewelry demand," says the World Gold Council.

But the market faces a potentially larger threat from changing tastes in luxury goods as a whole according to analysts Thomson Reuters GFMS.

"The lower affinity to gold adopted by the younger Chinese generation compared to their precedents played a major role in the decline in gold demand," the consultancy said last month in its latest Gold Survey 2017 update.

"Diamond and platinum are becoming strong competitors in Tier 1 cities," warned the World Gold Council in a 2016 report on China's jewelry market , with gold's prior success becoming a reason to buy other items.

Some 70% of those surveyed for that report owned gold jewelry, but "millennials crave exclusive indulgences," says Roland Wang, managing director of World Gold Council China.

Only 35% of those consumers surveyed said they intended to purchase gold jewelry in the ensuing 12 months, not far above the 25% and 27% reported for platinum and diamond purchases respectively.

"Demand in China for extremely rare fancy-colour diamonds is still robust ," says Efraim Zion, advisory-board chairman of the Fancy Colour Diamond Index, a non-profit organisation which promotes the diamond trade.

Increased demand for coloured gemstones, even as demand for gold falls, represents "quite a noticeable change happening in China," agrees Chaoqiu He, founder of Hong Kong jeweller, Qiu Fine.

Also "hindering" China's gold jewelry market "is a growing preference for designer, luxury fashion, and smartphones in urban areas," finds consultancy Research and Markets in their Global Gems and Jewelry Market 2017-2021 report.

Simultaneously, "the definition of what constitutes luxury is expanding beyond physical possessions to include experiences," reports the Financial Times.

"Luxury brands are now competing with the plastic surgeon and the luxury travel agent," it quotes Erwan Rambourg, global co-head of consumer and retail at HSBC in New York.

"For a similar price you can have a Louis Vuitton handbag, a facelift or a trip to the Maldives."

This view is backed by research from Agility Research & Strategy, listing the top three priorities of wealthy Asian millennials as "health, travel and spending time with the family."

In response to changing consumer preferences, Hong Kong-listed Chow Tai Fook (HKG:1929) – the world's biggest jeweler by market capitalisation (US$7bn) – has recently introduced a 22k collection aimed at "younger" consumers and priced 'per piece' instead of be weight, the traditional pricing method across East Asia and the Indian sub-continent.

Looking at the "3D hard gold" segment – made by a "sophisticated technique" which solves pure gold's "softness" and enables manufacturers to produce large, hollow pieces up to 24k – "total fabrication volume has grown more than ten-fold in recent years," reports GFMS, as fabrication techniques evolve to "enable more sophisticated designs."

However, best estimates are that gold produced using this method still accounts for less than 10% of total gold sold by China's jewelry industry.

Output: China's gold demand has hit a five-year low. This comes as gold prices have faced the largest drop in thirty years. Changing tastes of China's millennials are to blame, says BullionVault's Sam Williams, as the industry faces increasing competition from alternatives to the precious metal.


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TalkTalk Flurry of TV sports packages as streaming services impact
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The way you watch football is about to get a whole lot cheaper.

BT and Talk Talk have launched flash sales in a bid to combat the revamp of Sky Sports.

Sky launched a raft of new channels earlier this month in a bid to entice customers.

Viewers are now able to pick and choose which ones they want from £18 per month.

BT has responded by offering existing customers its BT Sport channels free for 12 months to stop fans switching to Sky.

The package includes BT's 4K UHD channels as well as Champions League and Europa League football.

The deal also includes Premier League and FA Cup games as well as the Ashes series in Australia.

Talk Talk has responded with an offer for existing customers to add Sky Sports for just £8.50 a month for 18 months.

The deal comes with no contract and can be cancelled at any time but does not include Sky Sports News or Sky Sports Mix, or the HD channels.

Why is there a price war?

Premier League football begins this weekend and broadcasters are increasingly under pressure to secure subscriptions.

Sky Sports and BT Sport have the rights to Premier League games but streaming services such as Kodi means many have moved away from traditional methods of watching.

New streaming services from the likes of Amazon and iFollow, which has a deal with the Football League to show matches abroad, are also putting the traditional broadcasters under pressure.

Pay-per-game services such as NowTV that allow access to Sky Sports for £6.99 per game have also increased the options available to fans.

Last month Sky launched ten new channels to offer fans a better choice. Football will get two channels, there will be individual channels for both cricket and golf while a further new channel called Sky Sports Arena will show other sports such as rugby and tennis.

At present, new subscribers have to pay £49.50 for the cheapest sports package whereas the cheapest new package will be £18 - although the entire Sky Sports bundle will be considerably more costly.

Output: TalkTalk and BT have launched deals ahead of the Premier League kick off to keep pace with a revamped Sky Sports, which recently added 10 new channels, and as streaming and pay-per-game services like Kodi, Amazon, iFollow and NowTV lure viewers away from traditional ways of watching. TalkTalk customers can add Sky Sports for £8.50 a month for 18 months, which can be cancelled at any time but does not include HD channels, Sky Sports News or Sky Sports Mix. BT is offering customers its Sport channels free for 12 months, including 4K UHD channels and Champions League and Europa League football.


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Payment in gold bullion made illegal to combat tax evasion schemes
 Companies will no longer be able to pay employees their salaries in gold bullion in the first use of a new law designed to combat “morally repugnant” tax avoidance schemes.

An expert tax avoidance panel has ruled that paying employees in gold is a “contrived” tax avoidance scheme designed to “frustrate the intent of parliament” in cracking down on such practices.

It is the first application of the general anti-abuse rule (GAAR) panel since it was introduced by former chancellor George Osborne in 2013 as part of a package of measures to tackle tax evasion.

The ruling means HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will be able to take action against both companies and employees seeking to take advantage of the “artificial and abusive” gold bullion schemes.

HMRC said accountants had created schemes designed to “disguise remuneration to individuals through paying them via a series of transactions buying and selling an asset, commonly gold bullion”.

“They have a theoretical obligation to pay the value of the asset to a trust at some point in the future – it is claimed that this obligation makes the payment non-taxable. However, in instances seen by HMRC so far, the individual has actually taken cash, thus supporting the HMRC view this is a payment of earnings.”

People used to be paid in all sorts of assets - hay, wine, Persian carpets, Turkish lira, gold bullion, platinum

The Revenue said it was delighted with the ruling. “HMRC has already made clear that gold bullion avoidance schemes don’t work and that we will challenge these schemes wherever possible,” it said. “Today’s publication has wide-reaching impacts and reinforces the power of the GAAR in tackling abusive tax avoidance.”

HMRC was unable to say how many people had sought to have their salaries paid in gold.

Bill Longe, a tax expert at accountants RSM, said the gold bullion scheme dates back decades. “People used to be paid in all sorts of assets – hay, wine, Persian carpets, Turkish lira, gold bullion, platinum – all these arrangements were freely available and a means of avoiding tax and National Insurance contributions on bonuses.”

One gold bullion scheme seen by accountancy news website CCH Daily suggested that: “One option is for your company to pay your net of tax wages in ‘money’s worth’, which means other than cash. For instance, we discussed the example that you could ask your company to pay you in gold sovereigns.

“Your company could buy a coin and use it as part payment of your wages, the value would be its cost and the balance of wages would be paid from the bank account. You could then sell your coin if you wanted to add to the money received from the company.”

The GAAR panel said that schemes were a “clear case of associated taxpayers seeking to frustrate the intent of parliament by identifying potential loopholes in complex interlinking anti-avoidance legislation and arranging a series of intricate and precise steps to exploit those loopholes so as to gain an unexpected and unintended tax ‘win’”.

The panel said that on reviewing the schemes they found “no reason for the steps to involve gold, other than for tax purposes”.

“Had cash been used and gold not been involved, other than the saving of fees in relation to the purchase and sale of the gold, neither the company nor the employees would have been in a substantially different economic or commercial position … In our view the steps in this case involving gold are abnormal and contrived,” it said.

“It should not come as a surprise that we conclude the steps taken are not a reasonable course of action.”|

When he introduced the GAAR rule, Osborne said: “Most wealthy people pay their taxes – and without them we could not begin to afford the public services on which the country depends. But under the last government, it was the boast of some high earners that, with the help of their accountants, they were paying less in tax than their cleaners. I regard tax evasion and, indeed, aggressive tax avoidance, as morally repugnant.”

Output: Payments made to employees using gold bullion will no longer be permitted under British law to tackle issues of tax avoidance. The ruling is the first from the general anti-abuse rule (GAAR) panel, created in 2013 to better handle tax evasion. HM Revenue and Customs will be able to take legal action against businesses and their employees that seek to abuse gold bullion schemes for tax purposes.


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Google gives advertisers more control over ad placing
 Google is refining the options it gives advertisers for excluding categories of sites from their display network campaigns on the Google Display Network.

With this change, several current site category exclusions are being eliminated or recategorized, and a couple of new ones are being added. As of last week, several exclusions are no longer available for new Display campaigns. In early 2018, all existing campaigns will be switched over to the new settings automatically.

Google began showing an alert in the site category exclusions menu last week. Users with older campaigns may see the following options, shared on Twitter by digital marketer Steve Seeley:

Newer campaigns show an updated version of the site category exclusion options.

What is changing?

There are five primary changes, outlined in a support page:

Roll-up: The “Crime, police, and emergency,” “ Military and international conflict” and “Death and tragedy” categories are being rolled up into the “Tragedy and conflict” exclusion category.

New: There is a new category for “Sensitive social issues,” which includes content “related to discrimination and identity relations, scandals and investigations, reproductive rights, firearms and weapons and more.”

New: Another new category is “Content suitable for families.” Note that if you exclude “General audiences (DL-G),” that will also exclude content suitable for families.

Removed: The gambling and error pages categories are being eliminated, since Google already restricts ads on those types of content.

Removed: The Forums, Social networks, Photo-sharing pages, and Video-sharing pages options are going away, too. Instead, Google recommends using “Digital content labels” such as Mature audiences and Content not yet labeled, and other “Sensitive content” exclusions to restrict ads from showing on various types of user-generated and social content.

(In the new AdWords interface, Site category options are called Content options.)

Why is Google making these changes?

The changes relate to the announcements earlier this spring and summer of changes Google is implementing in response to advertisers pulling their ads from YouTube after ads were found appearing next to extremist content.

This latest update is part of a larger update to simplify the management of exclusions and align Display and Video controls. An earlier update added the ability to set exclusions at the account level rather than just at the individual campaign level.

A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that the company is recommending advertisers use the Digital Content and Sensitive Content Labels to achieve their “brand suitability” goals rather than many of the individual category exclusions.

We have a running timeline related to Google and YouTube’s brand safety announcements and updates on Marketing Land.

Next steps

Google recommends advertisers make adjustments to existing campaigns manually by the end of the year, ahead of the switch in 2018.

Output: Google is changing its advertiser options on the Google Display Network, redefining site categories that can be excluded from display network campaigns. By early 2018, all existing campaigns will operate under the new settings. The changes include introducing the “Tragedy and conflict” category, which will include “Crime, police and emergency”, “Military and international conflict” and “Death and tragedy”; the creation of “Sensitive social issues” and “Content suitable for families”; and the removal of gambling and error pages, as well as social network, photo-sharing and video-sharing options. The changes will help to tackle the accidental display of ads next to extremist content.


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Duolingo raises further $25m alongside chatbot launches
 The funding will be used to grow its product development and accelerate its hiring, the company has said.

This latest injection comes as a Series E round of funding, led by Ohio-based venture capital firm Drive Capital, increasing total funds the company has raised since launching in 2012 to $108.3m.

Currently, Duolingo is working on developing its use of artificial intelligence, according to Sam Dalsimer, a spokesperson at Duolingo, after launching chatbots for conversational practice on the app.

“Eventually we hope to replicate the quality of a human language tutor through the use of artificial intelligence”

“Eventually we hope to replicate the quality of a human language tutor through the use of artificial intelligence,” he told The PIE News. “This will allow anyone to receive the highest quality education, regardless of their financial means.”

And due to popular demand, Duolingo launched a Japanese language course in May this year.

This development has set a precedent for more Asian languages to be available on the app, said Dalsimer. The company plans to roll out Mandarin later this year, followed by Korean at some point in the future.

“It took a considerable amount of time and work to develop new ways to teach character-based languages,” he said.

“But that work laid the foundation to teach other Asian languages. There is huge demand among our users and around the world for a way to learn these languages for free,” Dalsimer added.

Chris Olsen, founding general partner at Drive Capital, the source of the $25m investment tranche, said Duolingo has “set itself apart as the hands-down market leader in language education”.

“Duolingo is fast becoming a mainstream consumer brand,” he said.

With 200 million users, it has become the most downloaded education app worldwide.

It is also continuing to roll out its Duolingo English Test, which finalised its pilot phase before the 2016/17 admissions cycle. It has now been taken up by over 90 educational institutions globally.

English for Spanish speakers is overwhelmingly the app’s most popular language, with 125 million users, followed by Spanish for English speakers, and French for English speakers with 97 million users and 57 million users, respectively.

Following this latest injection of funds, the company has been valued at $700m.

Output: Language learning app Duolingo has raised $25m in a series E funding round led by Drive Capital to develop its free courses and hire more staff, the company has said. Duolingo is preparing to launch courses for learning Mandarin and Korean. The company is also developing artificial intelligence for its recently launched chatbots in a bid to replicate the experience of a human language tutor. Since it was founded in 2012, Duolingo has raised $108.3m from investors. Duolingo has 200 million users worldwide.


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Fears Trump administration will overrule climate change report
 WASHINGTON — The average temperature in the United States has risen rapidly and drastically since 1980, and recent decades have been the warmest of the past 1,500 years, according to a sweeping federal climate change report awaiting approval by the Trump administration.

The draft report by scientists from 13 federal agencies concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now. It directly contradicts claims by President Trump and members of his cabinet who say that the human contribution to climate change is uncertain, and that the ability to predict the effects is limited.

“Evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” a draft of the report states. It was uploaded to a nonprofit internet digital library in January but received little attention until it was published by The New York Times.

The authors note that thousands of studies, conducted by tens of thousands of scientists, have documented climate changes on land and in the air. “Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse (heat-trapping) gases, are primarily responsible for recent observed climate change,” they wrote.

Output: Scientific researchers from 13 federal agencies who authored a report on climate change fear it may not be approved for release by the Trump administration because it contradicts assertions by the president and his colleagues that humanity’s contribution to climate change is uncertain. The report states that evidence of climate change “abounds”, and that thousands of studies have concurred that human activities "are primarily responsible for recent observed climate change". The National Academy of Sciences has already approved the draft.


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Assetz and LOGOS partner for logistics hubs across India
 BENGALURU: Property developer Assetz and LOGOS Group , a logistics real estate company, has entered into a partnership to build and manage specialised logistics and industrial parks in India.As part of the deal, Logos will invest $400 million in equity capital to set up the logistics platform, named LOGOS India to focus on the key logistics hubs of Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.“LOGOS has significant experience delivering institutional quality logistics assets in the Asia-Pacific region. We are excited to bring that experience to India through LOGOS India,” John Marsh, joint managing director, Logos said in a statement.Based in Sydney, LOGOS was started at the turn of the decade and has operations across Australia, China, Singapore and Indonesia. Its major investors include Australian bank Macquarie and Ivanhoe Cambridge, a real estate unit of CDPQ, Canada’s second largest pension fund.LOGOS India is in process of raising capital from third-party investors for buying land and developing warehousing facilities over the next four to five years.“Assetz has a long history of partnering to enhance the growth of our business. I am confident that this association with LOGOS will deliver a market leading warehousing and logistics business in India,” Ben Salmon, co-founder and chief executive of Assetz, said.LOGOS’ investment follows that of private equity firm Warbug Pincus , which entered into a $250 million joint venture with Bengaluru-based Embassy Group two years back.Ascendas-Singbridge has also entered into a partnership with realty firm Firstspace Realty while Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Everstone Group’s industrial and logistics real estate development platform was announced in May, showing the growing interest of private equity and pension funds in India’s largely unorganised warehousing sector, which is expected to change after GST.

Output: Property developer Assetz and logistics real estate firm LOGOS Group are working together to create dedicated logistics and industrial parks across India. There will be an equity capital investment of up to $400m to create the platform, called LOGOS India. The parks will be based major investment centres across the country, including Mumbai and Chennai.


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Accenture uses AI to customise product placement in videos
 Accenture’s R&D division has spent the last year developing breakthrough product placement technology that can seamlessly insert a brand into online video, including the ability to replace existing labelling.

The management consultancy, which has ambitions of further embedding itself into the media industry following several high-profile acquisitions in recent months, claims its latest offering could be a billion-dollar revenue generator within just five years; provided it can land deals with original content creators, like Netflix and Amazon.

Talks with regulators are already underway and patents also currently pending, Accenture is now pitching its latest programmatic video tool as a solution to the "inevitable" negative impact of adblocking and positioning it to advertisers as a much-needed evolution of the well established practice of product placement, promising developments in audience evaluation.

After the product was debuted at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, The Drum caught up with Alex Naressi, managing director at Accenture Interactive, to gauge how the latest offering will mean commercial tie-ups between content creators and brands are no longer interruptive.

More AI disruption

This is not the first time that inserting brands into programing during the post-production process has been attempted. For instance, Channel 4 tried it back in 2012 by manually inserting the PG Tips logo onto mugs of tea being drunk by contestants on Deal Or No Deal.

However, Accenture has sought to disrupt the space by using advances in adtech and artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to rapidly scale and personalise the products and logos that might appear in content.

“[We wanted] to [be able to] monetise huge back catalogues of existing video content as well as offer content creators a way to place advertising in a non-disruptive way, open it to the marketplace and give them the benefit of a programmatic platform,” said Naressi.

“We believe this could be a billion-dollar opportunity. We’re moving fast in this space, casting a very wide net and talking to clients across industries and [content owners] that have a huge back catalogue of content they are struggling to monetise or only monitise through interruptive ways [like pre-roll]. We’ve filed several patents to protect the invention and create the prototype which we can now take to brands.”

Cracking the nut

Accenture sees this offering working in two ways. Chiefly that brands will buy product placement programmatically for the same reasons as they previously would – to get in front of a certain demographic all watching the same thing.

However, it also sees it being used in a more granular way; specifically, as a more sophisticated retargeting tool. Say a person has been browsing online for a new Apple phone; they might then watch an episode of Orange is the New Black on Netflix and that same phone they’d been looking at could appear on a character's table or in the form of an advert on a billboard in the background of a scene.

This is entirely theoretical as Accenture has yet to sign any deals with content creators, media agencies, or advertisers. It’s still trying to navigate the thorny issue of how something like this is regulated. But it nonetheless claims the capabilities are there for it to be done and, more importantly, be done well.

“The first breakthrough was changing the logo on a video of an aeroplane. It was hard to work with because it was very shaky and [due to] the position of the logo, so we had to consider a lot of unpredictable movements, trees passing by, and the blur that happens with the depth of field,” continued Naressi.

“But we managed to crack the nut and change the logo to just about anything,” adding that it can also detect surfaces to put objects on “as if it was there when it was filmed”.

To get to the stage where this can happen in a matter of seconds, Accenture is using an artificial intelligence to scan scenes in a piece of content for where a brand could be placed.

“It doesn’t replace the human understanding but it helps if, for instance, the brand doesn’t want to be associated with a particular setting or object.”

And despite the rumblings that Accenture is out to create its own programmatic platform for clients, it said this solution will be able to connect within existing programmatic networks within both agency and client walls.

Counting eyeballs

Unlike traditional product placement, whereby a brand will permanently appear in a piece of content at a fixed cost, Accenture is offering the ability to make both the duration of the placement and the cost flexible. And AI is helping to determine that cost; the human eye has a limited field of view and it has developed a way to determine the value of the placement based on how close it is to a viewer’s centre of attention.

“Instead of eye tracking in the traditional way (40-50 people using eye tracking device and watching a video to create a heat map) what we’ve done is train AI to behave like a human and simulate human attention. Long story short, this can be helpful in terms of trying to understand an impression. If there’s a lot of attention in the centre, then a placement far from it will have little to no value and vice versa,” explained Naressi.

“This is a complete breakthrough and we have a patent pending just on this capability,”

Catching the white (and red) whale

The success of this will be predicated on Accenture’s ability to convince content owners to give them access to their video catalogues – be it vloggers on YouTube or the likes of Amazon and Netflix, Accenture is casting a wide net to find those willing to hand over the keys.

“We need to have the content owners on board. There are several ways to allow them to keep control of the placement; at a granular level they have to be able to filter and select which placement they’re open to putting on their content. It’s about altering their content and most content owners will want to have control of that. So, we’re offing some flexibility,” said Naressi.

He went on to reveal that Netflix “was the one that popped up in our heads months ago” as an ideal client as it’s in the position of being both owner and distributer of content. It also has a catalogue of films and TV series from its early experiments with original programming when product placement might not have been an option that Naressi suggests is ripe for monitisation.

“It could be a completely new business model for Netflix. It could have a free version and premium, and the free would have this placement. The spectrum is wide in terms of where we can take it," he said.

As new users to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix plateau, how to more effectively monitise existing subscribers may lead it to consider such pitches from Accenture. Signing up other content owners won’t be so easy. As one agency exec pointed out; if it wants to work with YouTubers, it will need to ink a deal with Google and convince the tech giant of the revenue gains that would make it worthwhile.

Naressi declined to go into detail about the advertisers it was approaching, but reiterated it’s approaching brands across industries, including FMGC, sports, telco sectors. “There are a lot of conversations happening but we’re still at an early stage,” he said.

Aside from finding the right partners, the next biggest barrier to success is regulation. Admitting that it could take nearly a decade until it really scales, Accenture claimed to be working with regulators right now to ensure the processes are in place to protect privacy and signpost content accordingly.

“This is really sitting at the intersection of traditional product placement – which is very mature industry and has a lot of regulation already – and programmatic. It’s probably too early to say as it’s a completely new channel so we must work with the regulators to essentially make it happen in the best way possible," Naressi said.

"From my perspective, this will come gradually to ensure we, for example, make it clear that the content will include targeting or retargeting and that we offer a way to opt out of it. Ultimately I think that’s it’s probably too early to say.”

But do marketers really need it?

While talk of pending patents and revolutionising a predominantly analogue sector of marketing make for an intriguing pitch, the reality for many agency execs The Drum spoke with is that this kind of tool simply isn’t solving an immediate problem of evaluation that many advertisers already using product placement are faced with.

Meanwhile, the issue of effective measurement and brand safety still exist in other mediums where programmatic technology is used and will need to be addressed fully by Accenture if it's to convince the industry this is worth testing.

“Product placement on TV shows isn’t done hugely in the UK because it’s so regulated but, more pertinently, because no one has really worked out how to put a value on it from an advertiser point of view. It’s difficult to know what it gives to an advertiser’s communication plan because it’s so hard to measure,” said Dan Keat, director of investment at m/SIX.

“My concerns with Accenture are that if it’s difficult to measure [product placement] on something with the scale of terrestrial TV, what would be the incentive for advertisers to do it on a more micro, targeted level? In theory, it’s a good idea but just because the tech is good doesn’t mean it’s going to deliver a strong part of a communications plan and in turn deliver business results.”

It was a sentiment echoed by Essence managing director Mark Syal, who said quite simply that “there is no killer need for this” as demonstrated by the limited use of technology already available that can place products into content post-edit.

“For expensive, on-off deals, brands spend a lot of time considering the quality of content and the environment they’ll end up in. If it’s a series of micro-deals, you need the scale to aggregate and then how to you predict the environment you’ll end up in?," Syal asked.

"There are brand safety issues now with programmatic advertising and we have a tonne of companies monitoring this for [advertisers]. This is a whole new untested system based on an AI-algorithm, which sounds a bit vague, but maybe [Accenture] have cracked it.”

Likewise, Nnamdi David, media strategy director, at MullenLowe Mediahub said the jury was out. “The fact is that product placement while often effective (many brands have done it successfully for years) the value is largely subjective and the process is irregular, often needing clearance from a number of stakeholders. Simplifying and automating to an extent will bring benefits, however the nuanced context of the placement is a job every advertiser would want human judgement on,” David suggested.

“A watch out for us, would be to ensure that the advertiser or the agency can create controls over the context and behaviour of the buy. Whilst this may affect scalability, we believe it’s imperative that a brand is maximised within the format in order to truly gain that unfair share of attention.”

After revealing the technology in Cannes, Accenture is planning to further roadshow its technology at the Dmexco trade show scheduled to take place in Germany in September.

Output: Accenture has developed an AI-based tool that can place branded products into online video without disruption, giving advertisers the capacity to replace extant branding. The company believes the technology will bring in billions within just five years, if agreements with companies like Amazon and Netflix can be secured. The programmatic video tool is being hailed as the next step in the evolution of product placement, providing a way around dwindling revenues affected by adblocking.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
ASOS launches visual search technology for iPhone users

Online fashion retailer ASOS has launched new visual search technology within its iOS app, rolling the feature out to all its UK customers. iPhone users will now be able to use the smartphone app to instantly search through 85,000 products using just a photo.

Customers will be able to use any image from their phone camera roll to search through ASOS’ range, including pictures of friends, photos from magazines or screenshots from social media. The visual search tool will appear as a camera icon within the app’s search bar, and also enables users to quickly snap an item of clothing they see when they’re out and about to look for it on ASOS.

ASOS was founded in 2000, and initially focused on enabling customers to buy items of clothing they had seen on television and in films, but quickly evolved into one of the world’s leading fashion retailers. The company now employs a tech team of 900 people, with plans to add 200 more next year.

The firm has embraced mobile as it has grown, and today sees 80 per cent of UK traffic and 70 per cent of orders arrive via a mobile device. The iOS app is one of the highest-rated shopping apps in the Apple app store, and customers average 80 minutes per month spent browsing within it.

“We know this is where our customers are and it’s how they interact with us every day, so we are always looking for ways that are mobile native to make their experience even better,” said Andy Berks, digital product director at ASOS.

“Ever since ASOS was founded, we have been driven by using innovation to delight our customers and improve their lives in little ways. But our technology has always been in their service, and never just for its own sake. Our latest tech, visual search, is a case in point: inspiration can strike you anywhere and at any time – whether it’s a photo in a magazine, scrolling through an Instagram feed or even on a local street corner.

“Now, with just a couple of taps of their mobile device, ASOS customers can capture that fleeting moment and instantly search our 85,000 product lines to find the item that’s inspired them – or similar – at just the right time.”

ASOS’ focus on technology will continue, with its developers strengthening its AI-powered recommendation engine and holding regular internal hackathons to develop new customer-centred innovations. An Android version of the visual search tool is planned for rollout in the UK soon.

Don’t forget to enter the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. We've extended the final deadline to 18 August, but time's running out. More details here.

Output: ASOS, the online fashion retailer is providing iPhone users in the UK with a visual search option that will use a single photograph to parse 85,000 items. The app will scan the image, search its database for clothes matching those worn in the picture, and direct customers to where they can buy the items. Any image from a phone’s gallery can be used to search the catalogue. 80% of the company’s UK traffic is generated through mobile, with 70% of orders made on a mobile device.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Microsoft releases framework for corporate blockchain use
 Source: Micorosft

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced the Coco Framework, a first-of-its-kind innovation that will advance enterprise adoption of blockchain technology.

Current blockchain protocol technology requires complicated development techniques to meet the operational and security needs of enterprises. The Coco Framework reduces this complexity, and when integrated with blockchain networks addresses critical needs for commercial adoption like high-transaction speed, distributed governance and confidentiality. Providing these foundational capabilities opens up more complex, real-world blockchain scenarios across industries — like financial services, supply chain and logistics, healthcare and retail — further proving blockchain’s potential to digitally transform business.

“Blockchain is a transformational technology with the ability to significantly reduce the friction of doing business,” said Mark Russinovich, chief technology officer of Azure at Microsoft. “Microsoft is committed to bringing blockchain to the enterprise. We have listened to the needs of our customers and the blockchain community and are bringing foundational functionality with the Coco Framework. Through an innovative combination of advanced algorithms and trusted execution environments (TEEs), like Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (SGX) or Windows Virtual Secure Mode (VSM), we believe this takes the next step toward making blockchain ready for business.”

When integrated with a blockchain network, key benefits of the Coco Framework include these:

Transaction speeds of more than 1,600 transactions per second

Easily managed data confidentiality without sacrificing performance

A comprehensive, industry-first distributed governance model for blockchain networks that establishes a network constitution and allows members to vote on all terms and conditions governing the consortium and the blockchain software system

“We are thrilled to work with Microsoft to bring blockchain to the enterprise,” said Rick Echevarria, vice president, Software and Services Group and General Manager, Platforms Security Division at Intel. “Our mutual customers are excited by the potential of blockchain. Intel is committed to accelerating the value of blockchains powered by Azure on Intel hardware, by improving the scalability, privacy and security of the solutions based on our technologies.”

The Coco Framework by design will be compatible with any ledger protocol and can operate in the cloud and on premises, on any operating system and hypervisor that supports a compatible TEE. Initial Coco Framework implementations will include R3 Corda, Intel Hyperledger Sawtooth, J.P. Morgan Quorum, and Ethereum.

“The R3 Corda platform was built for enterprises. We designed it with the financial industry from the ground up to solve real business problems, but we also knew it had to be deployable and manageable in today’s complex IT landscape,” said David E. Rutter, CEO of R3. “No other distributed ledger technology platform is as interoperable or easily integrated, and partnering with Microsoft is another milestone in our mission to facilitate a world of frictionless commerce.”

A technical white paper and demonstration are available today for business leaders and developers looking to learn more about the Coco Framework. Microsoft will launch the framework on GitHub in 2018 as an open source project and will work with customers and partners, as well as the blockchain technical and business communities, to continue advancing foundational blockchain technology.

Output: Microsoft has developed the Coco Framework, an innovation aimed at making blockchain ready for businesses. Set to be released as an open-source project on Github in 2018, the Coco Framework offers speeds of more than 1,600 transactions per second, an industry-first distributed governance model and easily managed data confidentiality. In addition, Microsoft said it can be integrated with any ledger supporting compatible trusted execution environments.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Connecticut multi-listing services merge to cover 98% of homes
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The phones were abuzz on a recent morning at the Norwalk offices of the newly rebranded SmartMLS headquarters. Staff members fielded calls from real estate agents across the state who are adjusting to the new platform that, for the first time, features the majority of Connecticut’s home listings all in one place.

It’s been a little more than a week since the new platform debuted and, aside from a few growing pains, it’s been a clean transition combining the two companies that together back the majority of the state’s real estate community, said SmartMLS co-CEO Kathy Elson.

The merger that resulted in SmartMLS, which has offices in Norwalk and Wallingford where its predecessor companies were based, was announced this spring after just a few months of negotiations. “We did this in record time,” SmartMLS President Michael Barbaro said in an interview.

The merger represents the industry’s attempt to stay relevant as home buyers and sellers increasingly look to online resources such as Trulia and Zillow for consolidated sets of information during their home searches, SmartMLS leadership said.

“Consumers demand one-stop shopping, and in almost every other industry that’s available,” Barbaro said. “I believe we’ve answered consumer demand. Consumers want to be able to shop in a broad manner, and we’ve given them what they want with one complete data set.”

SmartMLS includes almost all home listings in the state, except for some in Darien, Greenwich and New Canaan, which operate independent listing services for their agents. The information is only accessible by member Realtors.

A long time coming

Realtors who want to help clients buy or sell homes outside of those three communities have all transitioned to SmartMLS, which is the merged operations of the Greater Fairfield County CMLS and The Connecticut Multiple Listing Service. SmartMLS covers all eight Connecticut counties, roughly 96 percent of the state’s Realtors and between 95 and 98 percent of home listings in the state, Barbaro said.

Prior to the merger, real estate agents had to choose to become a member and pay fees to either or both of the organizations to see the home listing associated with each.

“This makes Realtors’ lives easier,” Elson said, adding that discussions first rose 10 to 12 years ago. “It’s the best thing for Connecticut real estate.”

Within the real estate community, the consolidation has been a long time coming, according to Cynthia Hughes, the secretary of the Northern Fairfield County Association of Realtors and an agent with Coldwell Banker in Danbury.

“It’s almost like a piece of history because people have been wanting this for a long time. This is amazing - it’s the real deal,” Hughes said. “The MLS is the main industry tool used by Realtors. It’s the only true, definitive database of properties on the market.”

The consolidated database will be more cost-effective and efficient, she added, as agents who were previously a member of both don’t have to pay fees to two entities.

“I’m licensed to sell and show homes anywhere in Connecticut, from Danbury to Willimantic, but my MLS searches had been limited. I’d have to join the other MLS services in order to see the homes,” she said.

Others echoed Hughes’ positive outlook. “I like being able to have access to the rest of the state now,” said Tammy Felenstein, who’s the Stamford-based executive director of sales for Halstead Real Estate. “It gives us more information and more accurate information.”

Setting an example

SmartMLS markets itself as ranking among the nation’s 20 largest multiple listing services by membership. Across the country, there’s a trend of consolidation in the real estate industry which is likely to continue.

“The trend in the industry is to eliminate borders,” Elson said, adding the “door is open” for Darien, New Canaan and Greenwich if they opt to join.

Peg Koellmer, owner of Realty Seven in Wilton and president of the Mid Fairfield County Association of Realtors based in Westport, expressed hope that eventually all three will consider the option.

In Greenwich, at least, that’s not looking likely. In December, the Greenwich Association of Realtors, which operates the town’s MLS, discussed the option but “there was no inclination to do anything at that time, said Theresa Hatton, GAR executive vice president.

Since the SmartMLS merger was announced, Greenwich Realtors have contacted Hatton to ensure they would not be participating, she said.

“Our brokerages are not the same brokerages that are found across the state, she said. “Ours are mostly New York City-based, so when we talk to them, they didn’t care what the rest of state was doing because it doesn’t affect them so much.”

Home buyers seldom look for properties in both Greenwich and places like New Haven or Groton, Hatton said, so the larger data set provided by SmartMLS is irrelevant to GAR members.

Real estate transacts differently here than in most other parts of the state,” she said, adding that Greenwich would consider a merger between metro New York City markets, she said.

In the future, MLS mergers may go beyond state borders and encompass regions, Barbaro said.

“There’s definitely an appetite for that. Though locales may prevent that. But, in my opinion, that’s the direction we’re heading,” he said. “We’re setting an example for the rest of the country in Connecticut and we hope they’ll follow. Consumers desire and expect it.”

— Includes reporting by Chris Bosak, Paul Schott and Alexander Soule.

Contact the writer at mbennett@greenwichtime.com; Twitter @Macaela_

Output: Real estate platform SmartMLS, created from the merger of the Greater Fairfield County CMLS and the Connecticut Multiple Listing Service, has begun operations, covering all eight counties in Connecticut, and between 95% and 98% of home listings in the state, according to SmartMLS's president, Michael Barbaro. The platform, which estate agents pay a fee to access, offers a one-stop shop for consumers and is intended to make life easier for estate agents by unifying the two services.