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Sales of cryptocurrency mining equipment on the rise in Singapore
 A bitcoin mining company in Singapore is seeing a rising number of customers purchasing mining rigs as the cryptocurrency gains in value. SG Mining, based ...

A bitcoin mining company in Singapore is seeing a rising number of customers purchasing mining rigs as the cryptocurrency gains in value.

SG Mining, based in Singapore, has seen sales shoot up in recent months. In July, the company was selling 15 mining rigs, but now it’s seeing sales of around 100 per month. Dexter Ng, one of the team members who builds the mining hardware and sell them, said to Channel News Asia:

Customers come in and order 50 rigs on their own. Compared to last time, probably one person only buys one or two. Now we get customers who buy 10, 20 or even 50.

Each of the mining rigs sells for between S$5,000 to over S$6,500, depending on its processing power.

This rise in the number of customers comes at a time when bitcoin saw its value soar to $7,800 earlier this month. This was in light of the fact that the organisers behind the SegWit2x hard fork had announced that they were suspending the operation due to a lack of consensus.

However, shortly following that news saw bitcoin’s price dropping to $5,500 over the weekend before making a recovery on Monday to $6,500. Of course, this is likely to fuel the opinion of critics that the digital currency is in a bubble due to its volatile prices.

Stanley Yong, a cryptocurrency researcher, said:

The price going up is probably a bubble, given that it has reached more than US$7,000 per bitcoin. And the question for us is not whether it is a bubble. But how long this bubble will be there.

It remains to be seen what future the digital currency has in Singapore. At the end of October, Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank, said that the country doesn’t intend to regulate the cryptocurrency or the market in the short-term.

At the time, Menon stated that bitcoin doesn’t pose a ‘risk that warrants regulation,’ however, the central bank will keep ‘an open mind‘ about it.

The jury is still be out regarding whether bitcoin becomes accepted into the mainstream in Singapore.

For now, though, many investors are keen to get involved with mining their own coins despite the fact that the market may have suffered a drastic drop over the weekend. That, however, doesn’t appear to be preventing investors from getting involved. This can be seen by the fact that bitcoin’s price has rallied back and is back up by over $1,000 from weekend lows.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

Output: Bitcoin's surge has spurred sales of cryptocurrency mining computers in Singapore, with SG Mining saying it's now selling more than 100 rigs a month compared with 15 in June. The increase in sales preceded the suspended SegWit2x coin's hard fork but coincided with bitcoin's value rising to more than $7,000. Singapore has embraced crypto currencies and its central bank has said it has no intention of regulating the sector.


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Uber board member Huffington praises new ethics code
 After a tumultuous year that saw a major sexism scandal and founder Travis Kalanick resign as CEO, Uber released new "cultural norms" last week.

Media mogul Arianna Huffington, who joined the ride-sharing service's board of directors in 2016, thinks it's a step in the right direction.

Huffington has spearheaded efforts to revamp Uber's image, pushing for changes like management training and better relationships with drivers. Her main focus going forward is changing the tech start-up's culture at its core.

At a recent Fuel List event hosted by Huffington's wellness site Thrive Global and food company Quaker Oats, Huffington told CNBC Make It that the company's new motto can be "summed up" in one key phrase: "We do the right thing. Period."

This catch-all slogan underscores internally and externally that Uber is committed to integrity at all levels of the company. In an interview with CNBC, Huffington says it's important that Uber's 65 million riders love the brand and the company just as much as they love the product.

In a recent LinkedIn post, Uber's new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi released the full list of the car service's new cultural norms:

1. We build globally, we live locally.

2. We are customer obsessed.

3. We celebrate differences.

4. We do the right thing.

5. We act like owners.

6. We persevere.

7. We value ideas over hierarchy.

8. We make big bold bets.

The CEO admits, in the blog entry, that Uber's current culture must evolve in order to get the company to the "next level."

"Rather than ditching everything," Khosrowshahi writes, "I'm focused on preserving what works while quickly changing what doesn't."

Output: Following the announcement of a new company-wide ethics code, dubbed "cultural norms", Uber board member and publisher Arriana Huffington has portrayed the company's new approach as "doing the right thing -- period". The new code was published in a LinkedIn post by new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and comprises eight bullet-point statements, including: "We value ideas over hierarchy"; "We build globally, we live locally"; and, "We celebrate differences". Huffington praised Khosrowshahi's role in implementing swift cultural change within Uber.


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Sierra Nevada successfully tests landing for ISS cargo spaceship
 On Saturday, private spaceflight company Sierra Nevada announced that its Dream Chaser spaceplane had successfully glided and landed on a runway after being released from a helicopter. The stunt, done at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, is known as a free-flight test and is meant to test out the vehicle’s landing capabilities. It’s an important milestone in the Dream Chaser’s development, as Sierra Nevada readies the plane for spaceflight.

Resembling a mini Space Shuttle, the Dream Chaser will soon be used to send cargo to and from the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Cargo Program. Right now, two companies — SpaceX and Orbital ATK — hold contracts with NASA to periodically resupply the station through 2018. But last year, NASA awarded a second round of contracts, in order to cover cargo shipments to the ISS from 2019 through 2024. Sierra Nevada was picked for that round, along with SpaceX and Orbital ATK again. The company expects to start cargo missions sometime in 2020.

The Dream Chaser is a fairly unique vehicle compared to the other two companies’ spacecraft. Both SpaceX and Orbital ATK developed wingless cargo capsules that launch to the station on top of the companies’ rockets. Orbital ATK’s capsule — known as Cygnus — is then designed to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere once it leaves the station, while SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule can survive the descent to Earth, using parachutes to land in the ocean. The Dream Chaser, however, which is meant to launch on top of an Atlas V rocket, glides down to Earth like a plane after reentering the atmosphere, landing horizontally on a runway.

Originally, Sierra Nevada had hoped its Dream Chaser would carry astronauts, and not just cargo, to the ISS. Back in 2010, NASA awarded the company $20 million to develop the Dream Chaser as a crewed vehicle, and Sierra Nevada did a ton of tests over the next couples of years to prepare the spacecraft for carrying passengers. But in 2014, NASA didn’t pick the Dream Chaser to do crewed flights to the ISS, going with SpaceX and Boeing’s proposed vehicles instead. Since then, Sierra Nevada has been modifying the Dream Chaser to just carry cargo, though the company is leaving the option open to develop a crewed version of the vehicle in the future.

This weekend’s free-flight test was the second one that Sierra Nevada has done with Dream Chaser. The first one, back in 2013, didn’t go all that smoothly: the vehicle’s landing gears failed, causing the spaceplane to crash-land and then skid off the runway. This landing and flight, however, was deemed a success, according to Sierra Nevada. The test vehicle was dropped from an altitude of a little less than 12,500 feet and reached a maximum speed of 330 miles per hour during the 60-second flight. “Everything went very well for us,” Mike Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada Corporation, said during a follow-up press conference this afternoon. “Overall our parameters in the test were met or exceeded in our minds.”

Sierra Nevada doesn’t expect to do any additional flights with this test vehicle if the data from this event is good, though the company says this particular Dream Chaser could fly again if needed. The data gathered from this test will then be used to refine the development of the company’s first vehicle that will go to orbit, which is currently under construction. That Dream Chaser will also go through extensive testing before its first flight to space, which will be the company’s first operational flight for NASA.

Though, it’s not just NASA that plans to use the spaceplane: the United Nations also has a deal with Sierra Nevada to fly payloads to orbit from other countries on the Dream Chaser, starting sometime in 2021. And Sierra Nevada hopes to find other customers for the vehicle in the future, too. So once this spaceplane is ready for spaceflight, it could have a lot of work to do.

Output: Private spaceflight firm Sierra Nevada has sent its Dream Chaser vehicle on a successful gliding and landing mission, after being launched via helicopter from the Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. The free-flight test has confirmed the vehicle's landing capabilities, allowing Sierra Nevada to further develop it for release. The Dream Chaser will shortly be used for cargo missions to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s commercial cargo programme. At present, only SpaceX and Orbital ATK have contracts for NASA supplies but Sierra Nevada will be able to participate from 2019 to 2024.


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23,000 London properties deemed suitable for rooftop development
 London may have found a radical solution for its housing crisis—building new homes on roofs.

Britain’s capital could benefit from 41,000 new homes if it developed properties on unused rooftops, adding a potential 28 million square feet of real-estate to its two most central zones, according to research from Knight Frank, a global property consultancy firm.

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The real-estate firm says there are as many as 23,000 buildings in the heart of the city that are suitable for rooftop development, which would ease the pressure on developers to find unused plots of land in London’s dense center.

The data was produced using Skyward, new geospatial mapping software, developed to investigate the feasibility of the UK government’s suggestion that “buildings can be extended upwards by using the ‘airspace’ above them” in a recent housing white paper (pdf).

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In recent years, there has been growing concern that London’s famous skyline is being ruined by new developments, but rooftop developments could offer a solution.

The volume of roof space that could be used for new housing is equal to eight of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world at 830 meters. By spreading volume across thousands of buildings in London’s center, it avoids the need to build new, taller towers to house Londoners. (But of course, this is unlikely to stop developers building more skyscrapers to meet demand for office space.)

Housing volume isn’t just an issue that London is facing alone. Cities across the world are all grappling with the same problem: how to meet rising demand for housing and how to make homes cheaper for those living there. New Zealand is planning to ban foreigners from buying existing homes. Meanwhile, Canada has already tried imposing a steep tax on foreign buyers, with limited success.

Output: A new geospacial mapping system has been used to identify buildings in London which could be suitable for rooftop development. A recent UK government white paper suggested extra housing could be provided by extending buildings upwards to use the "airspace" above them. Property consultants Knight Frank used the Skyward software to identify 23,000 such buildings in central London, potentially providing 28 million sq ft of new housing, equivalent to 41,000 new homes. Building in this way would avoid the need to build new, taller towers in the city.


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BuzzFeed grows commerce writing team to 19 people
 BuzzFeed’s commitment to commerce revenue continues to grow, and as a result, it’s begun pursuing commerce revenue more like a regular publisher might: through search.

After more than two years of experiments focused on identity-focused listicles like “39 Fucking Awesome Gifts For Anyone Who Loves to Swear” or “27 Gifts Only Math and Science Nerds Will Appreciate,” BuzzFeed now has 19 people cranking out commerce posts full time.

Identity-focused posts are still a staple, but that team, which is part of BuzzFeed’s editorial operation, has recently begun focusing more on search-centric content, designed to respond to queries people make not only on BuzzFeed’s own properties but across platforms like Google and Amazon and using sales data gathered by Skimlinks.

That focus on search and SEO will play a role during the holiday season, as BuzzFeed tries to build a reputation not just as a publisher that gets you but one that you’d trust to sell you something, too.

“Our biggest change this year is we’re focused more on search,” said Jessica Probus, the director of BuzzFeed Market. “We’re trying to reach people who know exactly what they want and just need to find the right thing.”

BuzzFeed’s team of commerce writers, which is far larger than the commerce content teams at digital-native peers like Gizmodo or Business Insider, sits inside its editorial department. The content that these writers produce all gathers in a section of BuzzFeed’s website, BuzzFeed Shopping, but in typical BuzzFeed fashion, it is distributed to lots of different places, including BuzzFeed verticals like Tasty and Nifty, as well as a commerce-focused Facebook page, BuzzFeed Buy Me That, which has over 530,000 fans.

The editorial calendar, which Probus sets with the help of a few colleagues, runs about a month in advance, but it can be changed at the last minute for posts can be whipped up quickly to respond to changing trends, or to respond to the availability of products.

BuzzFeed’s first move into commerce-focused content came in 2015, focusing on identity-based gift guides – basically listicles filled with products and affiliate links. But as it’s gotten bigger, the commerce team has devoted more resources to posts that capitalize on fast-moving search and retail trends.

Without a bed of evergreen posts to rest on, BuzzFeed used information about how other identity-focused content performed — and information about which retailers delivered the best sales conversions — to shape its early commerce-focused content.

And as the shopping team grew, along with its archive of identity-focused content — Probus said the shopping team has created “several hundred” gift guides, though she declined to share a specific number — it turned its attention toward content that would address its audience’s search queries.

That emphasis on search also helped inform a gift-guide landing page that it launched for the 2017 holiday season, which sorts its archive into 18 different categories, based on things like price (“Under $25”) and intended gift recipient (“BFFs”).

The shift toward a search-focused strategy, which underpins many other commerce-curious publishers’ efforts, is natural for any publisher that’s serious about earning revenue through affiliate commissions.

“It makes no sense to decide you should have one or the other,” said Ava Seave, a principal at the consultancy Quantum Media and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, of the choice between search and social referral traffic. “If you have enough stuff you’re selling, it makes sense to have both of those tools.”

Adding search-centric posts also delivers another stream of signals about what its readers want to buy, which Probus’ colleagues in BuzzFeed Product Labs can use to shape their product development pipeline. The past two products that Product Labs has brought to market, including the Tasty One Top cooking appliance and Social Sabotage, a card game it released last month. “We’re trying to create a feedback loop,” Probus said.

Output: As the site continues to focus on SEO-friendly content, BuzzFeed has increased the size of its commerce writing team in a bid to better pursue commerce revenue. As the holiday season approaches, BuzzFeed is keen to be seen as a publisher that readers trust enough to buy from. “We’re trying to reach people who know exactly what they want and just need to find the right thing”, said Jessica Probus, director of BuzzFeed Market. BuzzFeed's commerce writing team is now larger than those at its digital-native peers, such as Gizmodo or Business Inside.


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Charity app Bail Bloc outsources crypto mining to post bail fees
 A new charity initiative called Bail Bloc may have just found the only good use for cryptocurrencies to date: bailing people out of jail who can’t afford it.

Software that uses your computer power to “mine” (in other words, create) digital coins for profit have become a bit of a bogeyman online. But Bail Bloc—a collaboration between online publication The New Inquiry and the non-profit Bronx Freedom Fund—harnesses similar technology for more noble ends.

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Bail—a court-determined fee to buy your freedom before trial—is intended to keep dangerous people off the streets. But according to The New York Times, “it can, in practice, have damaging effects on poor defendants, especially those who have been charged with small offenses.” Bail Bloc argues that the cash bail system keeps low-income people in jail when they don’t need to be, and can force innocent people to plead guilty in order to get out.

Starting on Wednesday, you can visit the Bail Bloc website and download an app that dedicates some of your computer power to generating Monero, a cryptocurrency that markets itself as being even more private and anonymous than Bitcoin. All of the generated Monero will be used to bail out people who can’t afford it. The project will start by focusing on New York City jails, but in 2018 “funds will spread to more than three dozen cities in the next five years,” the Bail Bloc site states.

“We're a publishing platform created by and for communities that have been historically targeted by the state, which means that our access to capital is limited, as is true for most millennials,” Maya Binyam, an editor at The New Inquiry and organizer for Bail Bloc, wrote me in an email. “What we do have access to, however, is computing power. And so on a practical level, fundraising through mining makes sense.”

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Monero was a logical choice, Binyam said, because it’s one of a few cryptocurrencies that can be mined with common consumer-grade graphics cards. Bitcoin, in contrast, is more popular but requires specialized high-speed computer chips. The Bail Bloc program points participants’ computers towards an existing Monero mining pool, but if it becomes popular enough the project may invest in starting its own pool.

Bail Bloc estimates that if 5,000 people ran its software for a year, they could generate $151,000 USD worth of Monero and bail nearly 2,000 people out of jail. The app takes 10 percent of your CPU power by default, but generous users can set it so that they donate 25 or even 50 percent of their computing power.

According to the Bail Bloc site, the project uses a “revolving” model. Bail funds are returned to the source when the defendant appears for their court date, so every Monero coin that’s generated could be used to bail more than one person out of jail. The Bronx Freedom Fund claims that more than 90 percent of the defendants they assist return to court, so this turnover could be quite high.

“Like all forms of surveillance, bail is designed to keep people deemed dangerous within reach,” Binyam wrote in an email. “But the powers that assess an individual’s likelihood to endanger the public are more often motivated by racism, classism, and xenophobia than they are by a desire to ensure safety.”

“After all,” she continued, “the people for whom bail is set haven’t been convicted of anything.”

Output: The Bronx Freedom Fund charity has partnered with online magazine The New Inquiry to develop Bail Bloc, an app that uses computer power to mine cryptocurrency that is then used to help people pay bail fees. Users who download the app can donate between 10% and 50% of their computer's processing power to create Monero coins. The project will be launched initially in New York, while a five-year roll-out to more than three dozen cities will begin in 2018.


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Biotech plans to release lab-grown mosquitoes to kill wild ones
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It sounds like a classic ‘mad scientist’ plot, the sort that usually goes badly wrong – releasing diseased ‘lab grown’ mosquitoes to kill off wild ones.

Army corporal who raped female soldier said condom made it 'fine'

In fact, we’re verging on ‘There was an old woman who swallowed a fly’ territory here.

But there’s method to the madness, CNET reports.

The lab-grown mozzies will be deliberately infected with the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis, which affects the insects (but not animals or humans).

The lab-grown (male) bugs unleashed by biotech firm MosquitoMate have been approved by America’s Environmental Protection Agency.

The mosquito

When the male mosquitoes released by MosquitoMate mate with female mosquitoes, the eggs don’t hatch due to the effects of the bacteria – cutting the population.

Mosquitomate is to release insects in several American states, starting with Kentucky where it’s based.

The company’s FAQ says, ‘Unlike traditional mosquito control, we don’t show up after you have a problem.

‘By acting proactively, your population of Asian Tiger mosquitoes will not reach a nuisance level.’

Output: Kentucky bio firm MosquitoMate has been granted approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency to release laboratory-grown mosquitoes into the wild. The firm hopes that the synthetic mosquitoes will help reduce the wild population. MosquitoMate has deliberately infected its insects with the Wolbachia pipientis bacterium, which prevents the hatching of larvae, but does not affect humans or animals. The mosquitoes are due to be released in Kentucky and several US states.


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Amazon launches Echo, Alexa and Prime Music in Canada
 Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.

Amazon has announced that it’s finally launching its voice-controlled Echo speakers in Canada.

The Echo Dot, Echo, and Echo Plus are open for preorder today for $70, $130, and $200, respectively, though early orders will qualify for up to $30 off the sticker price. Amazon said that it expects the devices to start shipping on December 5, and they will also be available in-store at Best Buy, Staples, The Source, Telus, and a number of other retailers.

Alongside the Echo launch, Amazon is opening the Alexa Skills Kit and Alexa Voice Service for local developers and hardware makers to create integrations built on Alexa for the Canadian market. Additionally, the company revealed that its Prime Music streaming service is now available to Prime members in Canada.

Can’tada

Amazon launched its annual Prime membership in Canada back in 2013, and last year it rolled out Prime Video across the country. But despite its shared language and proximity to the U.S., where the Echo debuted back in 2014, Canada has been slow to gain access to key hardware and services that have first launched elsewhere in the world. The Echo speakers have been available to consumers in the U.K. and Germany since last September, and Amazon has launched the devices — alongside Alexa — in India and Japan over the past month.

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Today’s announcement comes just a week after Amazon launched its Fire TV Stick in Canada and 100 new markets — albeit a stripped-down $50 basic edition of the Fire TV Stick without Alexa support. So today is a notable occasion for Canadian consumers as it not only ushers in a triumvirate of smart speakers and Prime Music, the availability of Alexa quells criticism that Canada was being forgotten by major tech companies. Last month, Sonos announced a new voice-controlled Alexa-driven speaker called the Sonos One, which was made available in Canada, but without any promise of Alexa support. Almost a month after the launch, Alexa support for Sonos fans in Canada may be imminent.

For Amazon, the Echo and Alexa launch comes five months after rival Google launched its Home smart speaker in Canada. Apple is also gearing up to launch its HomePod, though there is no word yet on when that device may land in Canada.

Output: Amazon has launched its Echo Dot, Echo, and Echo Plus speakers in Canada. The launch Imarks a step forward for the country, which has traditionally lagged behind the rest of the world in the adoption of new technologies. Amazon is also inviting developers to come up with integrations for Alexa Voice Service and Alexa Skills Kit aimed at the Canadian market. The move follows the launch of a stripped-down version of Amazon's Fire Stick, and comes five months after Google released its Home smart speaker in Canada.


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Airbnb nets $1 billion in Q3 2017
 Airbnb raked in $1 billion in net revenue in the third quarter of 2017, continuing a 17-month streak for the company.

The home-sharing company, founded nine years ago, first became profitable during the second half of 2016, Bloomberg reported. Over the last 17 months, Airbnb has reported a profit before interest, taxes and amortization.

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But last week, Morgan Stanley released a report that indicated Airbnb’s growth may be slowing. According to the report, fewer U.S. and European travelers than expected indicated that they’d book stays with Airbnb next year. The report was based on an online survey of 4,000 consumers, which did not include Latin America and Asia. Sources told Bloomberg that Latin America saw a 150 percent increase in bookings this year compared to last.

Earlier this month, Airbnb fired 50 full-time employees and more than 100 contractors who prepared meals in the company’s offices, the Information reported. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said an outside food service firm was brought in to increase the number of meals served at its offices. [Bloomberg] — Kathryn Brenzel

Output: Online short-term property rental firm Airbnb has reported Q3 net revenue of $1bn. The announcement follows a recent report from Morgan Stanley suggesting the company's growth may be slowing down, though the report did not factor in Latin America; the region saw a 150% increase in bookings in 2017 compared to the previous year.


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Australian Consolidated Milk benefits from small IoT tech upgrade
 The system is fully operational at one trial site. Ms Morris said farmers were enthusiastic about its release. However, the cost structure of how the sensors and system are installed is yet to be determined.

Output: An Australian milk producing company has partnered with Advanced Computing to develop a cloud-based app solution that monitors the liquid's temperature. Victoria-based Australian Consolidated Milk is testing the system at a trial site, and said cold storage sensors gather temperature data, which is relayed via Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to a smartphone app, sending out alerts if temperatures deviated outside the required 5 degrees Celsius. The app also includes lab test results, enabling farmers to find out if they have produced premium or the 40% cheaper second-grade milk.


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Insurer Health IQ takes cryptic approach to fitness assessments
 But Munjal Shah's problem turned out to be an inflammation of the lining of his lungs. Nonetheless, that hospital visit changed the course of his life.

Shah was worried about a heart attack, given his family history — his father, who moved from India to the U.S. — had his first heart attack in his 40s.

He was 37 at the time, but hadn't quite kicked an indulgence in sugary treats, like Frosted Flakes, Pop Tarts and cinnamon rolls. "Honestly, what went through my head is that it seemed so unfair," Shah recalled. "I had the best day of my entrepreneurial life after 10 years of work, and then I was going to die."

The day after Munjal Shah sold his company to Google in 2010, he was running when he experienced sharp chest pains. He ended up in the emergency room.

While at Google, he started taking classes at Stanford to learn about health and medicine. He cleaned up his diet and lost 40 pounds. And he made new friends, all fellow entrepreneurial types, who had similar health scares and subsequently changed their lifestyles.

The group eventually decided to quit their day jobs and start a health company. They had no clear business model in mind but were all curious about finding ways to reward people who were committed to being healthy.

First, they had to find them. And that's a lot more challenging than you might think.

Many of us fib to our doctors, saying that we eat better, drink less alcohol and exercise more than we actually do.

To get around these common lies, the team launched a health quiz, called Health IQ. It features questions that assess how health-conscious a person is, rather than how healthy they claim to be. For instance, instead of asking how much you run, they might ask if you can run an eight-minute mile. Rather than asking if you eat too much, the test will figure out if you understand portion control by checking if you can estimate how many cups of rice there are in a photo.

The test did a pretty good job of picking out those who were committed to their health. And it went viral. In less than four years, more than 1 million people took it.

During that time, about 2,000 of those people died.

And that's when Shah figured out how to make money: life insurance.

After factoring in things like gender, age and education status, Shah and his team learned that the health-conscious elite — the yoga practitioners, the crossfitters, the vegans or vegetarians, the strength trainers, the cyclists, the controlled diabetics, the triathletes and the marathoners — were far less likely to be among the people who died in this test group. Forty-one percent less likely, in fact.

In particular, it became clear that these people were less likely to die from cancer, which Shah calls the "blind spot" in most life insurance underwriting. Studies have shown that those who eat little meat, for instance, have a lower risk of colorectal cancer than people who eat meat most days of the week.

Shah still doesn't know from his data why the mortality rates are lower for yogi-loving vegans, at least not yet. It might be that they exercise more, eat better, are diligent about removing toxic chemicals from the home, or maybe it's a combination of factors. But for his purposes, it doesn't really matter. Now that he knows how to find them, he can sell them cheaper life insurance. And he estimates there are a lot of them — about 50 million in the United States.

Output: Life insurance start-up Health IQ is aiming to offer healthier customers better rates, and is identifying likely candidates by changing the types of questions it asks potential policyholders. Rather than asking how frequently customers exercise or whether they smoke, the company phrases its questions differently, making it harder for them to bend the truth. Policyholders might be asked whether they can run a mile in a certain time, or if they can identify a recommended portion size when shown a picture of food. Health IQ has raised $81m in financing.


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Plastics found in animals in world’s deepest places
 Animals from the deepest places on Earth have been found with plastic in their stomachs, confirming fears that manmade fibres have contaminated the most remote places on the planet.

The study, led by academics at Newcastle University, found animals from trenches across the Pacific Ocean were contaminated with fibres that probably originated from plastic bottles, packaging and synthetic clothes.

Dr Alan Jamieson, who led the study, said the findings were startling and proved that nowhere on the planet was free from plastics pollution.

“There is now no doubt that plastics pollution is so pervasive that nowhere – no matter how remote – is immune,” he said.

Evidence of the scale of plastic pollution has been growing in recent months. Earlier this year scientists found plastic in 83% of global tapwater samples, while other studies have found plastic in rock salt and fish.

Humans have produced an estimated 8.3bn tonnes of plastic since the 1950s and scientists said it risked near permanent contamination of the planet.

Jamieson said underlined the need for swift and meaningful action.

“These observations are the deepest possible record of microplastic occurrence and ingestion, indicating it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by anthropogenic debris.”

He said it was “a very worrying find.”

“Isolating plastic fibres from inside animals from nearly 11 kilometres deep (seven miles) just shows the extent of the problem. Also, the number of areas we found this in, and the thousands of kilometre distances involved shows it is not just an isolated case, this is global.”

The study tested samples of crustaceans found in the ultra-deep trenches that span the entire Pacific Ocean – the Mariana, Japan, Izu-Bonin, Peru-Chile, New Hebrides and Kermadec trenches.

These range from seven to more than 10 kilometres deep, including the deepest point in the ocean, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.

The team examined 90 individual animals and found ingestion of plastic ranged from 50% in the New Hebrides Trench to 100% at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The fragments identified include semi-synthetic cellulosic fibres, such as Rayon, Lyocell and Ramie, which are all microfibres used in products such as textiles, to plastic fibres that are likely to come from plastic bottles, fishing equipment or everyday packaging.

Jamieson said deep-sea organisms are dependent on food “raining down from the surface which in turn brings any adverse components, such as plastic and pollutants with it.”

“The deep sea is not only the ultimate sink for any material that descends from the surface, but it is also inhabited by organisms well adapted to a low food environment and these will often eat just about anything.”

Scientists have discovered plastic pollution lying on remote frozen ice floes in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. Photograph: Conor McDonnell

An estimated 300m tonnes of plastic now litters the oceans, with more than 5 trillion plastic pieces – weighing more than 250,000 tonnes – currently floating on the surface. Around 8m tonnes of plastic enters our oceans every year.

Jamieson said: “Litter discarded into the oceans will ultimately end up washed back ashore or sinking to the deep-sea, there are no other options.

“Once these plastics reach the deep-seafloor there is simply nowhere else for them to go, therefore it is assumed they will simply accumulate in greater quantities.”

Output: Animals from the world’s deepest places have been found to have plastic in their stomachs, according to a study by Newcastle University. The research, which suggests that nowhere on earth is now free from plastic pollution, showed that animals from trenches across the Pacific Ocean were contaminated with fibres that most likely originated from sources including packaging, synthetic clothing and plastic bottles. The research analysed samples of crustaceans in trenches ranging from seven to over 10 km deep across the Pacific Ocean. Ingestion of plastic ranged from 50% to 100% depending on the trench.


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IBM overhauls data storage process with more user customization
 Video: Germany's telecom regulator weighs in on zero-rating practices

IBM is overhauling the way it manages data stored in one of its European cloud computing data centres, in order to give European customers tighter control over who can access it.

The move will give customers more control and transparency over where their data lives, who has access to it, and what they can do with this access. The policy may be rolled out further, IBM said.

The company will implement new controls so that access to customer data in its Frankfurt data centre is controlled by EU-based IBM employees only. EU-based staff will also review and approve all changes from non-EU based employees that could affect clients' data.

IBM said that customers will be able to review and approve all non-EU access requests to their content "if an instance requires support or access from a non-EU based employee". If granted, access is temporary and the IBM client will be notified when the temporary access is revoked. Logs that track access are made available to the client.

IBM also said it is adding to its customer support teams in Europe.

Sebastian Krause, GM of IBM Cloud Europe, said that concerns about data residency, security, and personal data protection are at an all-time high in Europe, especially with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) around the corner.

"Every day I hear from a wide range of global clients across every industry that they need tighter controls and visibility into where their data is stored and processed in the cloud," he said.

"The fact that explicit client approval is required for dedicated cloud instances sets IBM apart and gives clients maximum control," Krause told ZDNet.

The company also said that next year it will make it possible for customers to encrypt their data, at rest and in transit, with their own master keys.

"Encrypting data enables clients to store their data in the cloud and protect it from theft and compromise. Since the keys remain in possession of the customer, the data is protected from cloud service providers as well as from other users," Krause said.

IBM currently has 16 out of its 60 cloud data centres in Europe with data centres in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Krause said the changes in Germany could roll out further.

"While data privacy is especially important in Europe, clients in many markets face regulatory pressures to protect their users' data. IBM plans to take the improvements outlined here and adopt them across other IBM locations in the future," it said.

Germany is considered to have some of the strongest data privacy legislation in the world. But more broadly, while cloud computing in theory promises that customers can cease worrying about exactly where the data is being held, in reality companies are having to pay a lot more attention to where customer data is stored.

Some of this is because of new regulations such as GDPR, which strengthen data protection in Europe. But there have also be concerns that US law enforcement could request data held in the data centres of US companies even if that data is not stored in the US.This has led some companies to change their approach significantly. For example, last year Microsoft started offering its Azure cloud services from two new German data centres where the customer data was stored under the control of a "data trustee": T-Systems International, an independent German company and subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. Microsoft cannot access data at the sites without the customer's permission.

Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto

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More on cloud computing data centers

Output: IBM is restructuring data storage in its European cloud computing data centres to provide more stringent control over access. European customers will have increased power over their data, a feature that may be rolled out further. The change means that only EU-based IBM employees will be able to access data from the Frankfurt data centre, and only EU staff will review and approve changes from employees outside the EU, depending on client's preferences. The policy alteration comes as data companies are changing their approach to security to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).


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LinkedIn to enable sponsored mail messages via dynamic ad format
 by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, November 14, 2017

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions has created a way for businesses to solicit people for their information through ads on the social network.

The task expands on the company's Lead Gen Forms capabilities to Sponsored InMail, and introduced a new Dynamic Ads format that allows members to download content, making it easier for them to generate and search for leads.

Making it easier for businesses to collect quality leads directly from the LinkedIn platform should in turn improve conversion rates and drive higher return on investments, Vasudha Mithal, senior product manager at LinkedIn, wrote in a post.

Now there are two versions. Both versions of Lead Gen Forms work in a similar way, but there is one main distinction. The Sponsored Content version is limited to LinkedIn’s mobile app, while The Sponsored InMail version can run on both mobile and desktop.

Lead Gen Forms for Sponsored InMail will roll out this week for all customers and will work in the same way as the original Sponsored Content version.

advertisement advertisement

Marketers can generate leads and enable content downloads — such as the download of an ebook or white paper — directly from the ad unit.

The leads from the Lead Gen Forms for Sponsored Content or Sponsored inMail will become available through LinkedIn’s Lead Gen Forms in Campaign Manager self-serve tool or through third-party CRM systems DriftRock, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle’s Eloqua and Zapier.

LinkedIn will report the number of leads, completion rates, and the average cost per lead to businesses for each campaign.

Businesses also can ask custom questions on both the Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail versions of Lead Gen Forms. Marketers can include up to three custom questions created by the advertiser. Brands can ask people who are filling out the form to answer multiple choice questions, or ask people to type in an answer that is up to 100 characters long.

Output: LinkedIn is to enable sponsored InMails via a new dynamic ads format. It's part of a revamp aimed at making it easier for companies to generate new leads by allowing users to download content, such as ebooks, directly from adverts. The Sponsored Content product will only be available on the LinkedIn mobile app, while Sponsored InMail will also be available on desktop platforms. The company said that making it easier for advertisers to collect leads from the site will improve conversion rates and generate higher returns.


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CitySprint changes contracts to avoid benefits and minimum wage
 CitySprint has been accused of “making a mockery” of Britain’s employment rights system after changing couriers’ contracts rather than giving them the minimum wage and holiday pay, despite losing an employment tribunal case on the issue.

The company, which has 3,500 self-employed couriers in the UK, said it had dropped an appeal against a ruling by the central London employment tribunal that it had unlawfully failed to award holiday pay to Mags Dewhurst and wrongly classed her as a self-employed freelancer. But CitySprint said it had changed contracts for all its cycle couriers.

In January, the employment judge Joanna Wade described its contractual arrangements as contorted, indecipherable and window-dressing. The tribunal found Dewhurst should be classed as a “worker” and entitled to paid holiday and the national minimum wage under employment law.

CitySprint argued it was an “individual appeal” that did not apply to the other independent contractors.

The employment lawyer Martin Warren of Eversheds Sutherland said the company’s decision to apply the tribunal’s findings to one member of staff was risky.

“With the abolition of tribunal fees earlier this year, the chances of further waves of cases have probably increased. In any subsequent cases, the issue would not be a change in the paperwork. The tribunal would focus on whether there have been any operational changes on the ground,” he said.

CitySprint indicated that it had not changed the way it operated, but altered employment contracts to better reflect its relationship with cycle couriers, who it says have always been independent contractors.

“We have updated our [cycle] courier tender documents to simplify the language in these, further clarifying the rights and flexibilities available to self-employed couriers who provide their services to us. We enjoy a great relationship with couriers, who continue to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of their current role,” a spokesperson said.

The company will pay Dewhurst about £200 in holiday pay owed from the period covered by the tribunal, but it is understood that she will not receive holiday pay in future under her new contract.

Dewhurst told the Guardian: “As a result of my tribunal claim, CitySprint has forced everyone at the penalty of losing our jobs to sign new documents they say are contracts, but we work in exactly the same way as before – nothing has changed. It’s a shame CitySprint would rather engage in legal shenanigans than pay me and my colleagues our holidays.”

The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, which backed the case against CitySprint, accused the courier company of ignoring the employment tribunal ruling and said it planned to hold CitySprint to account.

Jason Moyer-Lee, the IWGB general secretary, said: “It is outrageous that CitySprint is choosing to simply flout the ruling of the employment tribunal. They are making a mockery of our system of employment rights and protections and they will pay a price for doing so. It goes to show that in the absence of government enforcement of employment law, companies will try to act with total impunity.”

CitySprint’s move comes after the Central Arbitration Committee, a body that resolves worker disputes, found that Deliveroo’s takeaway couriers were self-employed contractors and therefore not entitled to holiday pay or the national minimum wage, because they had the right to allocate a substitute to do their work for them.

CitySprint said it was awaiting the government’s response to the Taylor review, which looked into ways to improve pay and conditions for those in the gig economy. The company said it hoped the government response would “bring much-needed clarity and guidance in this important area for both organisations and individuals”.

The government has said it expects to respond to the review, which called for legal clarification of the definition of self-employment, by the end of this year.

Employment law experts said CitySprint was likely to have decided to drop its appeal after Uber lost a similar appeal at the Employment Appeal Tribunal last week.

The drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam won an employment tribunal case last year after arguing that they should be classified as workers, citing Uber’s control over their working conditions. The taxi-hailing app has said it plans a further appeal.

Similar cases have been successfully brought against Pimlico Plumbers and the Royal Mail subsidiary eCourier. Pimlico Plumbers’ final appeal on the issue is to be heard at the supreme court in January.

Output: UK courier firm CitySprint has changed couriers’ contracts to avoid paying the minimum wage and holiday pay, despite losing an employment tribunal case on the matter. The company, which uses 3,500 self-employed couriers, said it had abandoned its appeal against a London tribunal that ruled it had wrongfully classified courier Mags Dewhurst as self-employed and unlawfully failed to award her holiday pay. However, CitySprint confirmed that it had now altered all its cycle courier contracts. The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain said the company was “making a mockery” of employment rights.


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Hulu prepares new ways of advertising to binge watchers
 Hulu subscribers watching “The Mindy Project” may have seen something that looks a lot like the show, but really isn’t. It’s a commercial from Volkswagen that uses scenes from the Mindy Kaling-produced series and mixes them with a promotional message from the automaker.

“It’s a spot that can run not just in ‘Mindy,’ but in front of other audiences who are watching similar comedies, or people we know who have watched ‘Mindy’ in the past,” says Peter Naylor, senior vice president of advertising at the streaming-video site, which is owned jointly by Comcast’s NBCUniversal, 21st Century Fox, Time Warner and Walt Disney Co. “People come to us so they can learn some new plays.”

As Hulu bids farewell to “The Mindy Project” – the series finale surfaced on Hulu earlier this morning – it hopes to drum up new business among advertisers eager to test the waters of streaming-video. Netflix doesn’t take traditional commercials and Amazon only runs them in limited fashion. But Hulu, the offspring of traditional TV companies, hopes to catch Madison Avenue’s eye with offers of new commercial formats that can be distributed to select cuts of audience based on program choices and other behaviors. Advertisers who sense a couch-potato migration from living-room TV to mobile screen might have interest.

When it launched in 2007, Hulu offered new ideas about how to advertise alongside video. It ran fewer ads than TV networks, and even let subscribers pick the type of commercial they wanted to see. There’s some hopes among traditional TV executives they can adopt similar tactics. But Hulu isn’t resting on past innovations. “There’s a desire to find new ways to reach audiences who have the control to avoid ads and conventional television,” says Naylor.

Hulu aims to offer ads aimed specifically at people in the midst of binge-viewing; ads woven into new virtual-reality programming; and ads keyed to specific occasions, such as the premiere of a new series. The company is making its pitch as advertisers are showing more interest in courting streaming-video subscribers and as it has ramped up production of its own original series.

Hulu is also in a bit of flux itself. Mike Hopkins, who had been CEO, recently left the company to join Sony Pictures Entertainment. He is being replaced by Randy Freer, formerly the chief operating officer of Fox Networks Group.

Hulu has enlisted two marketers to sponsor a new virtual-reality offering it expects to launch next year. As users watch “Door No. 1,” a story about a high-school class’ ten-year reunion, they will be able to choose the way the plot unfolds. And as part of the story, they will see Nissan and the dating-app Bumble show up in the storylines, says Nicole Sabatini, vice president of integrated marketing at Hulu.

“It’s a unique opportunity to reach a very specific type of audience – a more influential audience that is looking to try the newest content experiences,” she says. In the program, two characters will end up matching on Bumble and meeting up at the reunion, says Andee Olson, the company’s director of content strategy. “They don’t really remember each other from high school,” she explains.“I would imagine that happens in real life.” Finding ways to accompany video consumed via digital means is important to the company, she says. “Our audience in general seems more prone to the digital side of advertising.”

Discover Los Angeles, part of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, has moved all of its advertising to digital video, notes John Boudouvas, the unit’s vice president of marketing. It will run two 30-second ads that accompany Hulu’s new program, “Runaways,” which features Marvel characters. Actors from the program will appear in the commercials, says Boudouvas, and talk about the many different people who live in the area.

The marketer had run ads on local TV in the past, he says, but “it’s not only more expensive, it’s harder to reach a target audience, and that’s really what we are looking for.”

Hulu is currently exploring ways to get advertisers to tell a story in multiple segments over the course of a viewer’s specific binge experience, says Sabatini. “Viewers could get pieces of the story as they are watching multiple episodes,” she explains. As more video consumption takes place via streaming, Hulu’s new ideas could become mainstream ones embraced by multiple players in the not-too-distant future.

Output: Video streaming service Hulu is looking for ways to target ads at binge-watching viewers. The new ads will be woven as seamlessly as possible into the programming, so as to feel less intrusive. "There’s a desire to find new ways to reach audiences who have the control to avoid ads and conventional television” said Peter Naylor, senior vice president of advertising at Hulu. The streaming service has enlisted two marketers to sponsor a virtual reality offering it expects to launch next year.


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Insurance firms increasingly divesting from coal
 A growing number of insurance companies increasingly affected by the consequences of climate change are selling holdings in coal companies and refusing to underwrite their operations.

About £15bn has been divested in the past two years, according to a new report that rates the world’s leading insurers’ efforts to distance themselves from the fossil fuel industry that is most responsible for carbon emissions.

Fifteen companies – almost all based in Europe – have fully or partially cut financial ties, says the study by the Unfriend Coal campaign, which represents a coalition of a dozen environmental groups including Greenpeace, 350.org and the Sierra Club.

Zurich, the world’s seventh biggest insurer, is the latest to shift away from coal, announcing this week that it is pulling out of coal to contribute to broader efforts to achieve the Paris accord goal of keeping global warming below 2C.

Allianz, Aviva and Axa have previously made similar moves. Lloyd’s and Swiss Re are expected to follow in the coming months.

The campaign has a long way to go. The early movers represent only 13% of all global insurance assets. None of the major US insurers such as Berkshire Hathaway, AIG and Liberty Mutual have taken action, according to the study.

Despite this, the authors say the shift of assets and coverage since 2015 is gaining momentum.

“Coal needs to become uninsurable,” said Peter Bosshard, the coordinator of Unfriend Coal. “If insurers cease to cover the numerous natural, technical, commercial and political risks of coal projects, then new coalmines and power plants cannot be built and existing operations will have to be shut down.”

Such financial pressure is crucial if global warming is to be kept in check.

The International Energy Agency says 99% of coal generation needs to be phased out by 2050 if even the upper goal is be reached, but coal production continues to rise and governments have shown insufficient commitment to reining it back.

Zurich said its decision to pull out was a practical as well as altruistic. “It’s not about politics or blame. It’s about utilising the immense amount of data and analytics we have from internal engineers, as well as external scientific experts, to guide our view of the future,” said Rob Kuchinski, global head of property and energy.

The Bank of England has identified four reasons insurers should be concerned about climate change: their fossil fuel assets could be stranded, they could be held liable for damages linked to their investments, they could see their market diminish, and their payouts could rise.

Payouts are also expected to rise. Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, recently suffered a €1.4bn loss and also faces soaring claims from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

“Left unchecked,” British insurer Aviva states, climate change will “render significant portions of the economy uninsurable, shrinking our addressable market.”

The topic of insurance is prominent on the agenda of UN climate talks in Bonn this week, where the focus is on the lack of coverage for small islands and other nations most affected by rising sea levels and worsening droughts. Wealthy nations are proposing a plan to underwrite climate change coverage to 400 million people in developing countries by 2020.

Output: Insurance firms are increasingly divesting from coal companies and declining to underwrite their operations, according to research by the Unfriend Coal campaign. The study reveals that approximately £15bn ($20bn) has been divested over the past two years. Fifteen companies, including Allianz, Aviva and Axa, have fully or partially severed financial links to the sector. Zurich, the seventh-largest insurer in the world, also announced this week that it is divesting from coal and Lloyd’s and Swiss Re are expected to make similar commitments in the next few months. However, companies that have divested still represent just 13% of global insurance assets.


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One billion Android devices reckoned to have outdated software
 Android and Apple fans can argue endlessly about who stole what and which phones are better, but there is at least one area where Android has consistently failed to keep up with its biggest rival: fragmentation. For years, we’ve been writing about Google’s failure to roll out the latest versions of its operating system to vendors in a timely fashion, but despite promises to the contrary, Google has failed to make any significant progress to date.

You don’t have to dig very deep to confirm this fact either, as the Android Developers Dashboard is regularly updated with a breakdown of platform version distribution. But this week, programmer Dan Luu discovered a worrisome trend after combing through some data: Uptake of new versions of Android appears to be slowing down.

Using Android market share data, Luu was able to create a graph showcasing the growing divide between Android version usage over time. As for why uptake is slowing, Luu deduces that there could be three possible explanations: Android growth is slowing, device turnover is slowing and/or fewer devices are receiving updates.

“But even with the data we have, we can take a guess at how many outdated devices are in use,” Luu writes. “In May 2017, Google announced that there are over two billion active Android devices. If we look at the latest stats (the far right edge), we can see that nearly half of these devices are two years out of date. At this point, we should expect that there are more than one billion devices that are two years out of date! Given Android’s update model, we should expect approximately 0% of those devices to ever get updated to a modern version of Android.”

One billion outdated Android devices. And considering that Google’s latest platform version breakdown shows that just 0.3% of devices have been updated to Android 8.0 Oreo, there are approximately 1.99 billion phones and tablets that have yet to receive the most recent update (which originally launched in August, by the way).

To put that into perspective, over 50% of all iOS devices have already been updated to iOS 11 less than two months after launch. While there is some hope that Google has started on the long road to recover with Android 8.0, it will be years before Google comes close to catching Apple, providing it ever does.

Output: Uptake of new versions of Android appears to be slowing down, with at least 50% of all active Android devices likely to be running outdated software, according to one programmer. By using Android market share data, Dan Luu found that nearly 50% of the two billion active Android devices are running software that's at least two years out of date. Luu identifies three possible explanations: growth of the Android platform is slowing, device turnover is slowing or fewer devices are receiving updates from Google.


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Channel 4 joins European Broadcaster Exchange to run ads on VOD
 Channel 4 has joined an alliance of Europe’s biggest broadcasters to run commercials across their video-on-demand (VOD) services, in a move to combat Google and Facebook’s dominance of online advertising.

Channel 4, which offers shows including Great British Bake Off, Gogglebox, Humans and Hunted via All4, will be the exclusive UK partner in the alliance, the European Broadcaster Exchange (EBX).

Advertisers will be able to book pan-European campaigns across Channel 4’s All4 and equivalent online TV services operated by Germany’s ProSiebenSat1, France’s TF1 and Mediaset, which has operations in Italy and Spain. The broadcasters claim their VOD services reach more than 160 million viewers a month.

Channel 4, which has reported more than 20% annual growth in its video service to more than 60 million monthly viewers, has taken a 25% stake in the joint venture for an undisclosed sum.

Broadcasters have started to make increasing amounts of money from catch-up TV services, with Channel 4’s digital revenues climbing 24% last year to £102m.

However, there are fears that the sheer scale of Google’s YouTube and Facebook’s online video could limit the commercial growth of broadcasters’ VOD services. They also fear that marketers’ spend on TV advertising could be lost to online video.

The Silicon Valley giants already snap up as much as 90% of every new £1 of online advertising money spent in the UK.

Broadcasters are are attempting to attract more digital marketing money by focusing on the issues facing Google and Facebook, including ads running next to inappropriate content such as extremist sites and fake news.

“The demand for multi-territory digital ad campaigns in brand safe and transparent environments is increasing,” said Jonathan Lewis, head of digital and partnership innovation at Channel 4. “The video ad market continues to grow exponentially across Europe.”

EBX will launch next year with its headquarters based in London.

Output: UK-based Channel 4 has taken a 25% stake in the European Broadcast Exchange (EBX), an alliance between some of Europe’s biggest broadcasters that aims to challenge the advertising duopoly of Google and Facebook. Channel 4, whose digital revenues rose by almost a quarter last year to £102m ($135m), will be the sole UK partner in EBX, which is set to launch next year. The London-based exchange will allow advertisers to serve pan-European campaigns reaching more than 160 million viewers a month via Channel 4's All4, as well as Germany’s ProSiebenSat1, France’s TF1 and Italian/Spanish outlet Mediaset.


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Regus Another 200,000 sq ft of shared office space planned in Manchester
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Specialist providers are planning another 200,000 sq ft of shared and short-term office space as Manchester’s office market goes flexible.

City sources suggest that WeWork are looking for a third Manchester outlet – probably in the Northern Quarter – whilst rival providers Regus and Spaces head a list of half a dozen new requirements.

If all the flexible office providers now plotting expansion in the city complete deals it could mean another 200,000 sq ft of flexible workspace. This would double the 100,000 sq ft signed up during the summer quarter.

Speculation about a fast-expanding sector comes as Colliers International say flexible working is going to dominate the Manchester office market in the coming year.

The report showed serviced office providers addressed the need for flexible working from small and growing operators by taking up to one fifth of space in Manchester in the first three quarters of 2017.

Major developments included global co-working specialist WeWork following the opening of its first office outside London at No 1 Spinningfields by adding another 44,000 sq ft at One St Peter’s Square and property developer Allied London launching its own co-working brand All Work & Social to operate alongside WeWork at Spinningfields.

Much of the demand for flexible office space comes from the media and tech sectors, and follows a similar expansion of flexible workspace in London.

Peter Gallagher, director, national offices at the Manchester office of Colliers International, said: “Greater Manchester’s booming media and tech sector, making the region increasingly the Silicon Valley of the North, has a strengthening requirement for office space tailor-made to meet its needs so it’s no surprise to see it play a major role in the take-up of modern and flexible office space throughout 2017.”

Colliers’ Manchester office market snapshot for the third quarter of 2017 also reported ongoing buoyant demand for office space in general with 447,809 sq ft transacted in 79 deals, including nine deals of more than 10,000 sq ft.

However, some experts have raised concerns about the rapid growth of flexible office providers, warning that a recession or economic slowdown could hit them first, and hardest.

Listed provider IWG recently issued a profit warning, saying its profits would be significantly below market expectations, down by about a third to £160m. Doubts have been raised about the $20 billion valuation of WeWork, one of the market leaders.

The lesson from history is that serviced office space can suffer – but can also benefit – from recessions. Whilst the end of the dot-com bubble in 2000 hurt industry giant Regus whose U.S. division went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the 2008-2012 recession was generally good for serviced offices as businesses reduced long-term property commitments to focus on short-term deals instead.

Output: Shared and short-term office providers are planning up to 200,000 sq ft of new office space in Manchester. WeWork is planning a third outlet expected to be in the Northern Quarter of the city, while Regus and Spaces are also looking for additional premises. A report by property company Colliers International showed that serviced office providers accounted for a fifth of Manchester's office space in the first three quarters of the year, with 100,000 sq ft of new space taken in the summer. Demand from the media and technology sectors is causing the increase, according to the report.


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Social media giant Tencent posts Q3 revenues of nearly $10bn
 Streaming video boosted China’s games and social media giant Tencent in the three months to the end of September. Revealing figures for Tencent Video for the first time, the company claimed about 43 million video subscribers.

Tencent reported a 61% surge in group revenues to $9.81 billion (RMB65.2 billion) in the period, the third quarter of its financial year. Net profits increased by 67% to $2.71 billion (RMB18 billion), or 46% to $2.57 billion (RMB17.1 billion) on the more conservative non-GAAP basis.

“Our video platform gained audience and revenue market share. We believe it has become China’s top online video platform in terms of mobile daily active users and subscriptions,” said Tencent’s chairman and CEO Pony Ma Huateng. “We believe this success reflects our increasing investment in self-commissioned video content, our improved selection of licensed video content, and our scheduling and audience management initiatives.”

The company said that Tencent Video “has exceeded 43 million fee-based subscriptions” and repeated the claim that it is now China’s largest video platform. Netflix claims 109 million subscriptions worldwide.

However, even within China, comparisons are difficult. Tencent has not previously revealed video subscription numbers, so a growth rate cannot be calculated. Tencent Video’s biggest competitor, iQIYI, has previously claimed over 60 million paying users, though the bases for measurement may be different. Tencent did not disclose Tencent Video’s revenue contribution or its impact on earnings.

Nevertheless, it made made several bold statements for the unit. “We will continue to increase our investment in video content, especially self-commissioned video content, and to reinforce our content recommendation algorithms,” it said. It was also encouraged by this month’s successful flotation of its online bookstore, China Literature. “We believe our multi-faceted digital content businesses are synergistic with each other, and allow us to deliver unique content to our users,” the company said.

Its ecosystem, driven by massive social media presence, delivered “strong business and revenue growth across multiple business lines including games, digital content, online advertising and payment-related services.”

Its older QQ messaging service saw monthly users numbers drop by 4% to 843 million. But its newer, hyper-connected Weixin/WeChat platform gained 16% to 980 million users.

Output: Chinese social media giant Tencent has reported Q3 group revenues of $9.81bn, an increase of 61%, and revealed it has more than 43 million subscribers to its Tencent Video unit. It is the first time subscriber numbers have been released, but the company did not offer up the unit's contribution to revenues or earnings. However, Tencent did announce net profits were up by 67% to $2.71bn and in a statement said it would "increase investment in video content, especially self-commissioned video content".


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Landsec CEO touts blockchain for future contract processes
 Blockchain technology will "absolutely" have a function in Landsec's business, the CEO of the U.K.'s largest property firm told CNBC on Tuesday.

Landsec is the developer behind some Britain's biggest shopping malls and most iconic sites. For example, it owns the electronic advertising billboards in London's Piccadilly Circus.

The FTSE 100-listed firm deals with a lot of contracts from leasing properties to hiring contractors.

When asked if blockchain technology would be used in this part of the business, Chief Executive Robert Noel replied in the affirmative.

"Absolutely... If you look at the way what we provide, which is services to business, and those services are around contract, anything that speeds up archaic land law, and contract law, and leasing law, etcetera, will be welcomed," Noel told CNBC in a TV interview.

"And so I'm absolutely sure that there will be progress in that sphere."

Blockchain is the underlying technology behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin. But the theory behind it can be applied to numerous industries. Blockchain is also called distributed ledger technology and refers to a method of decentralizing processes.

Output: Robert Noel, CEO of the UK's biggest property firm Landsec, has said that blockchain definitely has a role to play in the company's future. In an interview on CNBC, Noel said: "anything that speeds up archaic land law, and contract law, and leasing law, etcetera, will be welcomed". Many in the industry believe blockchain would bring increased accuracy and speed to the contracts-signing process. However, when asked if he thought the technology could lead to job losses, Noel said: "I wouldn't go quite that far".


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Snapchat launches Ad Manager 2.0 tools upgrade for marketers
 Snapchat-owner Snap has announced the launch of Ad Manager 2.0, the firm's biggest upgrade to its ad tools since it first rolled out a solution for marketers using the photo and video-sharing app. New features include simplified ad buying and management tools, as well as new Audience Filters, providing marketers with targeting beyond national or hyper local location filters.

Ad Manager 2.0 will unify several of Snapchat's existing advertising tools, including Advanced Mode, Snap Publisher, Business Manager and the new Audience Filters, into a single streamlined tool, and also incorporated Ad Set Duplication and Frequency Capping into the everyday ad buying experience.

Audience Filters will offer advertisers targeting filters at scale for the first time on the platform, enabling advanced targeting based on a number of factors, as well as improved measurement and more efficient pricing.

"We've streamlined Snapchat Ads Manager so advertisers can buy, optimise, target, and measuer in one simple place," said Peter Sellis, director of revenue product at Snap. "And we added Audience Filters to the tool, a big win for advertisers who want to run creative, targeted camera ads at an efficient price."

Marketers will now be able to run Filter-based campaigns with targeting based on age, gender, language, device type, location or any of Snap's Lifestyle Categories. Brands can also fine-tune their delivery schedule, re-engage based on users who shared their filter, and see real-time metrics like paid impressions, saves, shares and spend.

The new tool rollout comes less than a week after Snap announced its Q3 results, which saw the firm report losses of $443.2m (£376.9m) and caused its share price to drop by over 20 per cent. A redesign of the entire app is planned for Q4, with a focus on making the app more user-friendly in an effort to pull in more users and increase revenues.

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

Output: Snap, owner of social media outlet Snapchat, is streamlining its advertising suite into one, unified tool with the launch of Ad Manager 2.0. The offering includes audience filters, as well as ad set duplication and frequency capping, and aims to allow advertisers to "buy, optimise, target, and measure in one simple place", according to Peter Sellis, the director of revenue product at Snap. The launch followed Q3 losses of $443.2m, which prompted a 20% fall in the company's share price, and precedes an app revamp in Q4.


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Redrow Gold Duke of York Award in technical education for Redrow apprentices
 Two Redrow apprentices have been presented with a Gold Duke of York Award for Technical Education by Prince Andrew in an event at Buckingham Palace.

The award winners are Billy Tivey and Rebecca Driver, both former students of Medway University Technical College (UTC), where they studied BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment, which is the equivalent of three A-Levels.

Part of the course involved two weeks of work experience with Redrow’s South East division at its headquarters in Chatham, where they were able to gain some practical on-site experience as well as an understanding of what a career in the construction sector will offer.

The Duke of York Award rewards young people who have excelled and achieved the highest grades in their technical education as well as being exceptionally talented during their work experience, excelling in their work experience as well as reasoning in the work they do and communication skills with colleagues.

As well as these prestigious awards, both winners now have full-time jobs with Redrow: Billy as a trainee site assistant at the St Andrews Park in Halling, Rebecca as a commercial apprentice, aiming to become a chartered quantity surveyor.

“The work experience provided me with the opportunity to experience first-hand the day-to-day of what being a site manager involves and the role really appeals to me,” says Billy. “Before my work experience I wasn’t sure whether to pursue a career in design. It’s been really exciting going up to Buckingham Palace and receiving my award from Prince Andrew, definitely a day to remember.”

Rebecca says: “I was 14 when I figured out that a career in the construction industry would suit my abilities. I’m quite good with figures and like how these can be translated into a practical job on site. I am currently working towards a Level 6 Degree in Quantity Surveying and can’t wait to be fully qualified. It was great to be recognised by the UTC for my knowledge of the construction sector.”

Delighted by the double-win for the pair of the company’s apprentices, Mike Tynan, area construction manager at Redrow (South East), adds: “They are both exceptionally bright and it’s been so wonderful to see passionate and committed individuals coming into the sector. The construction industry is facing a real crisis in recruitment and we have found that the partnership with Medway UTC has been an excellent way of introducing young people to the opportunities within the sector and enabled them to further develop their skills.”

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Output: Abstract: Two young people who served at Redrow Homes’s southeast division as part of their work experience have been given the Gold Duke of York Award for technical education. Billy Tivey and Rebecca Driver were presented with their awards by Prince Andrew at Buckingham Palace. Both have gone on to full-time jobs within Redrow. Tivey is a trainee site assistant with Redrow at St Andrews Park in Halling, while Driver is a commercial apprentice. The award recognises those who have achieved the highest grades in their technical education and have excelled in their work experience.


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TalkTalk TalkTalk shares crash 17% despite 46,000 new customers
 T alkTalk shares crashed 17% on Wednesday after a warning on profits that comes despite a surge in demand for its cheap TV, internet and phone deals.

The challenger telecoms company embarked on an overhaul of its business last May, pledging to invest at the expense of profits, saying farewell to long-time chief executive Dido Harding and taking an axe to the dividend.

With 30% shareholder Sir Charles Dunstone leading the shake-up alongside new boss Tristia Harrison, TalkTalk had promised to boost its sometimes shaky service and cut the market share of BT.

Today’s half-year results showed some signs that this is working.

The City was alarmed by the admission that the profits will be at the bottom end of expectations of £270 million to £300 million, and the shares got hammered. Later, they were down 20p, 10%, at 170p.

In words that could be taken as direct criticism of Harding, Harrison (pictured) said the business had been “simplified and reset”.

There has been a “turnaround from where we were 12 months ago”, she said.

TalkTalk added 46,000 customers in the six months to September 30, compared with a loss of 29,000 last time.

The half-year dividend of 2.5p is more than halved but is paid despite a loss of £75 million. Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets said there was a “triple-whammy of bad news” in lower profits, an “unsightly loss” and a cut to the divi. “This is the last thing loyal shareholders will have wanted to hear,” he added.

Customer churn is down from 1.5% to 1.3%, thanks to better service. Harrison thinks the “customer experience is much more stable” and people are flocking to its cheaper offer.

“These are tough economic times. Customers do not want to be ripped off,” she said.

“We have now delivered a third consecutive quarter of growth in our broadband base, with both retail and wholesale bases growing; returned to on-net revenue growth; and delivered lower churn than a year ago,” she added.

Half-year sales slipped 5% to £856 million and the company has taken a £31 million restructuring hit for overhauling its mobile phones business.

Barclays’ equity arm cut its price target for the shares from 215p to 200p.

TalkTalk is working on building an internet network with an “ultrafibre” rollout in York in partnership with Sky and CityFibre.

Sir Charles told the Standard: “If I were dictator of the country, I would cancel HS2 and put the money into broadband.”

Nigel Langstaff, the former finance chief of Carphone Warehouse, founded by Dunstone, is joining the board.

TalkTalk suffered a huge cyber hack in 2015, hitting 157,000 customers.

Output: Shares in UK telecoms firm TalkTalk fell by 17% after a "triple-whammy of bad news": reduced profits, a half-year loss of £75m ($99m) and a reduced dividend. The company, which has been restructuring under executive chairman Sir Charles Dunstone and CEO Tristia Harrison, revealed half-year profits would be lower than expected at between £270m and £300m. However, TalkTalk added 46,000 customers during the six months to September, compared with losing 29,000 during the same period in 2016, while better customer service is credited with reducing churn from 1.5% to 1.3%.


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China's ICBC launches robo-advice platform
 ICBC’s newly launched “robo-adviser” service will see computer programmes dish out investment advice to retail investors over its mobile banking platform, becoming the first among the nation’s “big-four” state-owned lenders to unlock the potential of the hot new service being adopted rapidly by the industry, worldwide. Photo: AFP

Output: The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has introduced a robo-adivsory platform for its retail banking customers. Consumers will be able to access the service for a minimum investment of CNY10,000 ($1,506), significantly below what wealth management clients of the bank normally pay. Other Chinese banks have also sort to enter the robo-advice space with China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Industrial Bank and Ping An Bank among those launching platforms.


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Billion pound investment in insurance tech fails to impress
 Customers and brokers remain disconnected from insurtech despite $1.8bn-worth (£1.35bn) of investment into the sector in 2017, according to a report.

Legacy systems and the slow pace at which start-ups are able to grow mean many people have yet to see the benefits of technological innovations, according to a survey of 1,500 consumers and 100 insurance industry professionals by Consumer Intelligence.

The survey suggested one in five insurance brokers blames technology for difficulties they experience when dealing with insurers.

In addition, 70 per cent of customers claim their insurer is no easier to deal with than two years ago - despite the high levels of investment in technology.

What’s more, despite consumers’ demands for transparency and simplicity, 61 per cent of customers believe insurers make ‘claiming’ deliberately confusing.

Just one in ten consumers fully understood their policy cover, claiming jargon and long and complicated terms and conditions acted as barriers to comprehension.

And while the vast majority (96 per cent) of insurers ranked technology as the top investment priority, a third believe insurance is five years behind the digital curve.

According to the research, large corporates are still beginning their digital transformation, while start-ups lack the customers and data to launch at scale.

Matt Connolly, chief executive at Tallt Ventures, a data driven insight and intelligence business, said: “Our most recent research indicates that not all insurers are positioned to answer the demands of their customers, as they are hindered by age old legacy systems.

“It is clear that there is a disconnect between the initial promise of the insurtech revolution and the current reality experienced by millions of customers, who feel sold short.”

Daren O’Brien, director at London-based Aurora Financial, commented: “They do have issues with legacy systems, and with all the mergers and acquisitions that have happened it does not make it easier for them.

“When customers take out a new product, it is all singing, all dancing, but on any older plans we are talking about legacy systems that have been around for 20 or 30 years. It is too expensive to move them across to new systems, or they are not compatible with the new systems.

“It is only in the last decade that we have seen technology driven forward. It does cause massive problems - the information is never readily available and it takes ages to get the information, or they have outsourced their legacy plans to other companies.”

simon.allin@ft.com

Output: Despite more than $1.8bn invested in insurtech this year, consumers are still largely waiting to see the benefits with legacy systems obstructing progress, according to a study from Consumer Intelligence, reported Simon Allin in the Financial Times.


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Canadian insurers urged to prepare for cyber attacks
 THE FEDERAL government has become more focused on cyber security since the breach at credit rating firm Equifax, delegates heard at the recent Insurance Bureau of Canada’s Regulatory Affairs Symposium in Toronto.

The Equifax breach leaked highly personal information including names, addresses, social security numbers and birthdates of millions of its customers in the U.S. and Canada. The company was breached in July but Equifax didn’t notify customers until September. The incident led ceo Richard Smith to retire and subsequently issue a public apology in the Wall Street Journal.

IBC president and ceo Don Forgeron said that, due to the Equifax incident, when the IBC met with Malcolm Brown, the deputy minister of public safety, to talk about flood issues and natural catastrophes, he was “absolutely seized” with cyber breach issues.

“Everyone from the federal government and small business owners are asking how to protect themselves,” Mr. Forgeron said.

He added that the federal government has plans to act on and respond to these issues soon.

“No amount of security can completely adequately protect against cyber attacks and although insurance transfers some risk it isn’t the whole solution,” Mr. Forgeron said.

And while insurers have an appetite to cover cyber risk, they are also vulnerable. “Insurers are also becoming much more aware of their very own real exposure to cyber attacks,” he said. “Insurers hold personal information, and a lot of it. How do we protect our own systems?’

Mr. Forgeron and two speakers at the symposium said Canadian insurers can learn a lot from the Equifax breach. Speaking at a privacy law development panel during the symposium, Farah Zafar, senior counsel, corporate compliance and privacy officer at Economical Insurance, said one of the biggest impacts of a cyber breach is on a company’s brand. She said one of the biggest concerns with the Equifax breach was how long it took the company to tell its customers about it.

“Certainly consumers looking at that felt that Equifax took too long to share that information.

“There seems to be a visceral reaction because they felt Equifax took too long in getting the information out to impacted consumers.” But Ms. Zafar said it is difficult for companies to assess when to report breaches.

“The reality is that it can be challenging to get your arms around these breaches and fully understand what has actually happened,” she said.

“Even figuring out what happened and fully understanding and providing meaningful information — that in and of itself can take time although there seems to be a public perception that it needs to be immediate and shared as soon as it happens.” That, she said, makes it crucial for companies to have incident plans in place prior to anything bad happening.

Creating an incident plan once a breach happens is too late.

“Insurers have to be proactive about these things since insurers are aware of the volumes of data they hold from their customers,” Ms. Zafar said.

“It’s really important to be proactive and internally develop a team to respond to these situations that can triage and assess and understand what is going on.” Co-panellist Timothy Banks, a partner at law firm Dentons Canada, said his observations of breach incidents in general is that delaying reporting to consumers is sometimes a wise decision.

He said usually the numbers of customers affected goes down from what is often initially estimated. “So there is always a risk in coming out and reporting the size of a breach too early,” Mr. Banks said. “Because chances are that through additional forensics you are going to narrow the scope of the breach and know the timeline and scope of the intrusion — narrowing the total number of people affected.”

(More coverage of the symposium was presented in our Nov. 13th weekly edition. To subscribe, please choose the ‘Subscribe’ tab on our main page or email mpub@rogers.com).

Output: Canada's government is urging insurers to pay more attention to their own cyber protection policies. Though insurers are showing an increasing appetite to take on cyber risk on behalf of their clients, they themselves are also vulnerable, Don Forgeron, head of the Insurance Bureau of Canada recently noted at a conference. Insurers hold a vast amount of client information, Forgeron noted, and could learn from the recent Equifax security breach about how best to safeguard this data.


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Chinese helicopter sales surge as airspace rules relaxed
 China's growing love affair with helicopters looks set to continue.

Previously tight airspace rules in the country were relaxed in 2016, allowing civilian use below 3,000 meters. In the months that followed, Bell Helicopter, Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo Helicopters have all secured big orders in China.

In June, Bell secured a bumper contract to sell 100 407GXP helicopters to Shaanxi Helicopter (SHC).

Speaking at the Dubai Airshow on Tuesday, Patrick Moulay, the executive vice president of global sales for Bell Helicopter, said the gap between the fleet size in China and that of the U.S. was huge and the former is racing to catch up.

"This year we have already received more than 200 orders from China alone. This is more than we have received for the rest of the world," Moulay said.

Output: A relaxing of tight airspace rules in China last year has led to a surge in helicopter orders in the country. "This year we have already received more than 200 orders from China alone. This is more than we have received for the rest of the world", said Patrick Moulay, executive vice president at Bell Helicopter. The gap between the size of China's helicopter fleet and that of the US is fast closing, said Moulay.


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Toshiba sells TV business to China's Hisense Group for $114m
 The logo of Toshiba is seen as a shareholder arrives at Toshiba's extraordinary shareholders meeting in Chiba, Japan March 30, 2017. Toru Hanai, Reuters/FILE PHOTO

TOKYO - Struggling Japanese conglomerate Toshiba said Tuesday it has decided to sell its television business to China's Hisense Group as part of its efforts to restore its balance sheet.

Toshiba agreed with the Chinese group to sell 95 percent in shares of its unit Toshiba Visual Solutions (TVS) for about 12.9 billion yen ($114 million), it said in a statement.

"Toshiba has been considering structural reforms that will ... strengthen Toshiba's financial base," the firm said.

"It has become difficult for Toshiba itself to further invest its management resources and execute measures to strengthen the competitiveness" of the TV business, it said.

Accordingly, it determined that the best way to strengthen the business is "to transfer it to Hisense".

The announcement came days after the Tokyo-based firm said it logged a net loss of $436 million for the fiscal first half, as it moves to complete the multi-billion-dollar sale of its chip business.

After months of wrangling with competing bidders, Toshiba said in September it had formally signed an agreement to sell the chip unit for 2 trillion yen to a consortium led by US investor Bain Capital, which included US tech giants Apple and Dell as well as South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix.

The chip unit brought in around a quarter of Toshiba's total annual revenue and is the crown jewel in a vast range of businesses ranging from home appliances to nuclear reactors.

The deal is seen as crucial to the survival of the cash-strapped company, one of Japan's best-known firms.

Toshiba is on the ropes after the disastrous acquisition of US nuclear energy firm Westinghouse, which racked up billions of dollars in losses before being placed in bankruptcy protection.

kh/ric/dan

© Agence France-Presse

Output: Toshiba is selling its television business to China's Hisense Group. The struggling Japanese conglomerate is selling 95% in shares of its Toshiba Visual Solutions division for $114m as part of its financial structural reforms. It is also selling its chip business to a consortium led by Bain Capital for JPY2tn. Toshiba made a net loss of $436m in its fiscal first half.