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Giga Watt mining operation raises $11m in a week of crowdfunding
 The Giga Watt token crowdsale, providing access to the crypto mining operation founded by former Microsoft engineer Dave Carlson, has already raised $11.8 million - more than 30 percent of its $30 million goal - with just over a month left to go.

The London Summit 2017 is coming, get involved!

The Washington state-based facility allows investors to participate in cryptocurrency mining through the WTT token. The tokens represent the right to use the Giga Watt processing center’s capacity rent-free for 50 years, to accommodate 1 Watt’s worth of mining equipment power consumption. Token owners can use this capacity to accommodate their own miners, or can rent out the WTT token to other users.

David Carlson

“By tokenizing our mining infrastructure, Giga Watt is finally able to extend our huge economic advantage to anyone in the world, large or small, to run their own mining business and be successful by having our expert team build and manage it,” said Dave Carlson, founder and CEO of Giga Watt. “This is a move to decentralize the global balance of mining power and put it back in the hands of the little guy. The home miner built Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term, and I want anyone to succeed as a true participant in the explosive growth of cryptocurrency mining.”

Giga Watt’s facility in Wenatchee is designed to allow Bitcoins to be mined for under $600, significantly cheaper than their online purchase price of nearly $2600 right now. Access to inexpensive energy makes the location economical compared to many other U.S. cities.

Giga Watt’s facilities also power any proof-of-work miner, so WTT token holders will also be able to mine Ethereum, Litecoin, and additional Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw Read this Term in the future.

Output: Washington state-based Giga Watt's token crowdsale has generated more than a third of its $30m goal with more than a month remaining for investors to get onboard. Giga Watt, founded by ex-Microsoft engineer Dave Carlson, enables cryptocurrency mining via its WTT token. It facilitates bitcoin mining at less than $600, far below the online price of around $2,600. "This is a move to decentralise the global balance of mining power and put it back in the hands of the little guy", said Carlson.


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Two-year-old UK forex app Revolut close to raising £50m
 Revolut cofounder and CEO Nikolay Storonsky. Revolut Revolut has revenues of £2.3 million.

But its sales costs are £7.8 million.

Despite that, investors are planning to put £50 million more into the company.

"Growth is the new profitability," some fintech insiders say.

LONDON — Fast-growing fintech app Revolut is close to sealing a £50 million funding round that will value the nascent company at £300 million, Sky News reports.

London VC Index Ventures, already an investor in Revolut, is leading the round, Sky says. Silicon Valley investor Ribbit Capital is also said to be taking part in the round. CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky told TechCrunch earlier this month that the company was close to "large equity round."

London-based Revolut offers a pre-paid international currency card, initially offering zero-fee, zero-commission foreign exchange. Cash is pre-loaded to the card through an app.

The big round and chunky valuation are eye-catching for a number of reasons. Revolut has only just celebrated its second birthday and it's unusual for a company to get such a huge cash injection at this early stage.

The firm's accounts also raise eyebrows. I reported earlier this week that Revolut's first year of full accounts show it lost £7.1 million on £2.3 million of revenue. It's not unusual for an early stage company to lose money. But what is unsual here is that the losses were down to "cost of sales," which were £7.8 million.

"Cost of sales" measures how much it costs for a company to provide the service or products it is selling, before any other incidental and operating expenses are taken into account. It is the most basic, fundamental measure of whether a business makes money or not. A fintech entrepreneur chatting to me at the Money2020 conference in Copenhagen this week said it looked like Revolut is "spending $1.00 to earn 50¢."

Investors don't look at it that way. What attracts venture capitalists is Revolut's rapid growth. Storonsky told BI this week that it is on track to have 1 million customers by the end of 2017. Not bad for two years' work.

VCs argue that it is more important to pull in customers in the early days and worry about making money later — even in a fintech business.

Index Ventures made a similar bet on international money transfer business TransferWise when it was unprofitable but growing fast. Index partner Jan Hammer told BI in 2015: "In terms of profitability, it’s a very well-known phenomenon in online and mobile industries that if you want to get true scale, you invest for growth." (TransferWise is still unprofitable but growing fast, but says it will make an operating profit this year.)

The Revolut card pictured alongside the app in action. Revolut

"Growth is the new profitability," another fintech insider told me at Money2020. But a consultant at the conference questioned how many active users Revolut has. Close to 1 million people may have opened accounts but how many are actually regularly using them?

The financial accounts also suggest that Revolut's growth is being fuelled by an inbuilt subsidy in the product — spending $1.00 to earn 50¢.

This is not necessarily unusual. Startup bank Monzo loses around £40 per customer per year on its pre-paid cards and blamed a bigger than expected loss on the fact that more people signed up for its cards than it had projected.

But the big unknown is will customers stick around once the freebies disappear?

Revolut is now testing this theory. It added "fair usage" caps on its foreign exchange transfer, with people having to pay a fee if they transfer more than £5,000 a month.

It is also pivoting to become a quasi-financial supermarket, rather than just FX provider. The company has "made additional effort to monetize the business model by introducing delivery fees and affiliate programmes," partnering with a bunch of other fintechs and encouraging users to do everything from invest in property to borrow money through its app.

CEO Storonsky told BI this week: "We are on track to break-even by November as we continue to optimise our costs and infrastructure, and add further lines of revenue to the product."

An extra £50 million probably won't hurt, either.

Output: Two-year-old UK fintech firm Revolut is said to be close to securing funding of around £50m ($65m). The firm's app allows users to pay and transfer money in foreign currencies at competitive exchange rates with no additional fees, although it is testing certain usage based fees and looking to increase its product offering. It is suggested that investors are attracted by the company's rapid growth, as one entrepreneur said "it looked like Revolut is "spending $1.00 to earn 50¢"". The round is expected to be led by original investor Index Ventures, with participation from Ribbit Capital.


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Two-year-old UK forex app Revolut said to be close to raising £50m
 One of the UK's fastest growing financial technology companies is finalising a new round of funding that will value it at £300m.

Sky News has learnt that Revolut, a payments app which undercuts traditional rivals, is in the final stages of talks about a deal that will see it raising more than £50m.

The round will be led by Index Ventures, the technology company investor which originally acquired an interest in Revolut almost a year ago.

Sources said other existing investors including Ribbit Capital were also expected to participate in the latest fundraising, which could be announced as soon as next week.

It will be the latest in a string of multimillion pound investments in British fintech start-ups, which some commentators have hailed as a sign that the industry is able to withstand the looming impact of Brexit.

The Government has outlined its determination to mitigate the potential exodus of money provided by the European Investment Fund to UK venture investors by expanding the remit of the British Business Bank.

Revolut allows users to pay and transfer money into foreign currencies with no additional fees and at competitive exchange rates.

It has already attracted hundreds of thousands of customers attracted by the relative cost of using Revolut's service compared to many high street banks.

The company was founded by Nikolay Storonsky, who launched it about two years ago, making the latest fundraising a huge sign of its ambition at such an early stage of its existence.

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Spokesmen for Revolut and Index declined to comment.

Output: Two-year-old UK fintech firm Revolut is said to be close to securing funding of around £50m ($65m). The firm's app allows users to pay and transfer money in foreign currencies at competitive exchange rates with no additional fees, although it is testing certain usage-based fees and looking to increase its product offering. The round is expected to be led by original investor Index Ventures, with participation from Ribbit Capital.


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Lawyer to challenge Uber in High Court over 56p VAT
 Devereux silk is claiming 56p

A leading tax barrister has crowdfunded over £100,000 to help him bring a 56p High Court challenge against Uber, over claims the app is undercharging value-added tax (VAT).

Jolyon Maugham QC, a tenant at London’s Devereux Chambers, first revealed plans to take on the US-based app giant in February. At the time, Maugham suggested Uber should be paying VAT on its fares at a rate of 16.67%, and in 2015 alone should have paid the UK government almost £20 million.

Now, several months on, Maugham’s CrowdJustice campaign has raised £107,650. According to legal documents filed with the High Court earlier this month, the tax silk received around 3,400 separate donations, with an average contribution of just under £32. Moreover, the papers reveal that Maugham’s campaign enjoyed a separate payment of £20,000 from an “organisation connected with the black cab trade.”

The new documents also shed light on the claim itself. Maugham — who is bringing proceedings against Uber London Limited via his non-profit organisation, Good Law Project — is arguing that it should have provided him with a VAT receipt for a short, £6.34 taxi ride he took between his chambers and a client’s office. His witness statement (embedded in full below) continues:

Immaterial complexities aside, if Uber has ‘supplied’ me with a service — as that word is used in a VAT context — then it has a statutory obligation to provide me with a VAT receipt… I believe — and as a QC specialising in tax I have some reasonable professional basis for this belief — that Uber has made a taxable supply of VAT purposes and that I have an entitlement to a VAT invoice.

Contrary to Maugham’s view, Uber — which has instructed Herbert Smith Freehills to defend the claim — maintains that it is not liable for VAT because it merely connects drivers with customers, and does not provide a transport service.

Furthermore, an update on the Good Law Project’s website states that it has received several legal letters from Uber stating it will “look to recover its costs” from Maugham if the claim fails. Stressing that this could land Maugham with a hefty bill, the statement continues:

This is no small matter: it is perfectly possible that Uber’s costs of litigating the matter will reach £1m in the High Court alone. And, absent costs protection, that burden will fall on him personally. Following that correspondence we took advice from a QC who specialises in costs. Having taken that advice we were able to issue proceedings. But we will need to resolve the costs issue early on in proceedings.

Speaking to Legal Cheek this morning, Maugham — who last year was forced to defend his working class background in the wake of pro-Brexit Twitter abuse — said:

It looks like we’re going to need to make some new and interesting law about the extent to which wealthy private litigants can drown out public interest litigation.

Read Jolyon Maugham QC’s witness statement in full below:

For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub.

Output: London lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC plans to bring a High Court case against Uber claiming it is not paying enough VAT and that it should provide VAT receipts to passengers. The case is based on the tiny sum of 56 pence ($0.73) - the unpaid VAT Maugham claimed was payable on a short Uber journey he took to a client's office. If judgement goes against Uber it could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in backdated VAT to HMRC. So far, the tax barrister has crowdfunded over £100,000 for the case. Uber rejects the claim, saying it does not provide a transport service but merely connects drivers with customers.


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Facebook lets publishers reward video ad viewers with games
 The social network said in a blog post that McKinsey projects ad spending by the gaming sector to reach $6.9 billion by 2019, adding that research from game engine Unity found that 78 percent of game players are open to engaging with rewarded video ads.

On that note, Facebook Audience Network introduced Rewarded Video, which allows game developers to give players the option of watching a full-screen, immersive video ad in exchange for a reward within the game they are playing.

Rewarded Video is available immediately to all publishers on Facebook Audience Network, and the social network said it is now supporting Unity and fellow game engine Cocos2DX in order to help create Rewarded Video ad units.

Facebook

Output: Facebook has launched Rewarded Video, an ad format available to publishers on its Facebook Audience Network aimed specifically at game publishers, according to a company blog post. It said the tool was "100% initiated" by viewers and lets game developers give players the option of watching a full-screen ad in exchange for playing a game. Facebook said Rewarded Video "allows publishers to offer a positive user experience while also increasing revenue".


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Ad blocker usage by Australians is in decline
 Just five per cent of Australians use an ad blocker on their smartphone, according to an IAB Australia report based on research conducted April 2017 by Pureprofile.

That's a drop from the last wave of research in October 2016, when six per cent reported use of a mobile ad blocker.

Desktop ad blocking levels are much higher, at 21 per cent, but it's heading in the same direction, down from 24 per cent six months earlier. Interestingly, that's in contrast to awareness of ad blockers, which is up four percentage points to 63 per cent.

Awareness of ad blockers has increased from 59 percent to 63 percent, but current usage has declined by two percentage points to 25 percent of online Australians (or one in four), compared to 27 percent since October 2016.

“Whilst it is positive news that the use of ad blocking appears to be stablising in Australia, it is imperative that the advertising industry continues to double down on our efforts to evolve and improve the ad experience for consumers,” said Vijay Solanki, CEO of IAB Australia. “As mobile emerges as the channel of choice for many consumers, it will be key to ensure that mobile advertising respects the close relationship that a consumer has with their mobile phones and adheres to the LEAN principles of providing lighter, relevant and higher quality advertising experiences.”

28 per cent of users indicated that fears about getting a virus were their primary motivation for blocking ads, while 'too many ads' figured into the decision for 23 per cent.

71 per cent of ad block users said they'd seen a prompt from a website asking them to turn off their ad blocker. For 50 per cent of users, this has at least once led them to turn off their blocker for that site, while 25 per cent have whitelist the site, and five per cent deleted the blocker entirely. There's at least some crossover between these groups, though, as 37 per cent said they have never taken any action in response to these requests.

Output: The use of ad blockers is decreasing in Australia, with 5% of mobile users and 21% of desktop users relying on the software, compared with 6% and 24% eight months ago, according to a report from IAB Australia. The study also revealed 63% of consumers are aware of ad blocking technology, up from 59% in October 2016. "While it is positive news that ad blocking appears to be stabilising in Australia, it is imperative the advertising industry continues... to evolve and improve the ad experience for consumers," said Vijay Solanki, the CEO of IAB Australia.


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Media Rating Council investigates YouTube's measurement reporting
 by Philip Rosenstein , June 28, 2017

The Media Rating Council (MRC) on Wednesday reported on the status of its audit of measurements released by Google’s YouTube platform, which began in February 2017.

The audit is expected to be completed, and a review delivered, by late third-quarter or early fourth-quarter 2017.

Simply put, MRC is examining YouTube’s third-party integrated measurement reporting -- with the potential end goal of accreditation for YouTube metrics. The audit begins at the source by examining the collection and processing of data shared with third-party measurement vendors.

MRC will first need to understand how closely the data actually reflects real impressions or engagement. MRC’s Viewable Impression Measurement Guidelines will inform this process.

YouTube has faced a number of questions regarding brand safety and ad fraud. MRC’s audit will address these questions head-on, potentially assuaging critics or pushing YouTube to offer more transparency surrounding its ad inventory.

advertisement advertisement

While all of YouTube’s in-stream video inventory and its “TrueView” in-stream ad inventory are covered by the audit, MRC will not measure the accuracy of YouTube’s internally calculated TrueView metrics. These may be included in further audits.

The audit includes individual assessments of the collection and reporting processes by third-party vendors that have standing integrations with YouTube. These include DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, and Moat. While these three measurement firms are accredited by MRC, their integrations with YouTube are not.

Google is already accredited by MRC for a number of its advertising platforms, including viewability metrics in DoubleClick for Publishers, video ad viewability in DoubleClick Campaign Manager and clicks in AdWords.

Output: The Media Rating Council (MRC) is auditing video-sharing site YouTube's third-party integrated measurement reporting, including assessments of the collection and reporting processes from integrated third-party vendors, including DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science and Moat. The MRC audit will also examine issues of brand safety, but will not assess the accuracy of the internally calculated TrueView metrics. The results of the audit are expected to be delivered this year.


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Unilazer boosts stake in Indian insurance aggregator EasyPolicy
 EasyPolicy which is an online platform used for insurance policy aggregating has seen yet another investment from Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures. In a round of funding that happened in November last year, EasyPolicy raised somewhere between $8-10 million and was used to enhance its distribution system in tier II and III cities as well as the range of products it offers.

EasyPolicy was founded in 2011 by Alok Bhatnagar, a former executive from Thomson Reuters, Neeraj Aggarwala, and Divyanshu Tripathi, founding member of PolicyBazaar.

Even before the funding round in November, the insurance aggregator secured Rs. 15 crore from Unilazer Ventures itself in January, 2016 when the latter invested in it for the first time. In that round, Unilazer secured about 20% stake in the company.

Now almost a year later, Screwvala’s firm has increased its stake in the company to a whopping 55%, making it the company’s largest investor. It invested about 21 crore rupees this time. In spite of this large stake, major operations in the company will still be carried out by the founders of EasyPolicy and not taken over by Unilazer.

On this development, Screwvala commented saying,

The entire insurance sector is pushing to massively increase penetration and make insurance affordable and we want to be part of that ecosystem and initiative In the startup ecosystem, you often have to create markets. Here, the market already existed, but you need to channelise it because the growth potential is maximum

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) also released a number of regulations and guidelines recently which provide online insurance aggregators in the country with structure and details for their different activities.

The functions that companies such as EasyPolicy and PolicyBazaar are allowed to carry out include renewal of health and automobile general insurance by reaching out to the general population that is interested in these products. These companies generally earn on the basis of commissions from these transactions.

Unilazer has stopped expanding and investing in newer initiatives and has decided to focus on its existing ventures including EasyPolicy and UpGrad, an online education company it seeded a few years ago, in 2015.

Output: Online insurance policy aggregator EasyPolicy has secured INR210m ($3.25m) in funds from existing investor Unilazer Ventures, owned by entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala. The latest cash injection takes Unilazer's stake in EasyPolicy to 55%, but the firm's operations will continue to be carried out by its founders. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India recently released a series of guidelines aimed at online insurance aggregators.


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Sinclair Pharma Facial injectables market expected to reach $17.2bn by 2025
 There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.

Output: The global facial injectables market is expected to grow to $17.2bn by 2025, according to a study by Grand View Research, with the US expected to dominate the sector.


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Google Area 120 tests native ads in VR headsets
 Link copied to clipboard

Posted by Aayush Upadhyay and Neel Rao, Area 120

At Area 120, Google's internal workshop for experimental ideas, we're working on early-stage projects and quickly iterate to test concepts. We heard from developers that they're looking at how to make money to fund their VR applications, so we started experimenting with what a native, mobile VR ad format might look like.

Developers and users have told us they want to avoid disruptive, hard-to-implement ad experiences in VR. So our first idea for a potential format presents a cube to users, with the option to engage with it and then see a video ad. By tapping on the cube or gazing at it for a few seconds, the cube opens a video player where the user can watch, and then easily close, the video. Here's how it works:

Our work focuses on a few key principles - VR ad formats should be easy for developers to implement, native to VR, flexible enough to customize, and useful and non-intrusive for users. Our Area 120 team has seen some encouraging results with a few test partners, and would love to work with the developer community as this work evolves - across Cardboard (on Android and iOS), Daydream and Samsung Gear VR.

If you're a VR developer (or want to be one) and are interested in testing this format with us, please fill out this form to apply for our early access program. We have an early-stage SDK available and you can get up and running easily. We're excited to continue experimenting with this format and hope you'll join us for the ride!

Output: Google's Area 120 internal workshop has developed a flexible, non-intrusive virtual reality (VR) format for native ads, according to a company blog post by Aayush Upadhyay and Neel Rao. Developers have been searching for a way to avoid creating disruptive or difficult-to-execute experiences in VR, which led Area 120 to create a format that initially presents an unobtrusive cube to VR viewers. Users are then given the option of engaging with the cube and viewing a video ad, the blog post said. Area 120 has now opened up applications for its early access VR developer programme.


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Acquired.io launches for teams to focus on smaller ad platforms

User acquisition platform Acquired.io has launched with $2m (£1.6m) in funding, aiming to help developers find and acquire high-quality users across dozens of smaller platforms. The company is the latest venture by the founders of mobile marketing company AppScotch, which was acquired by AppAnnie in March 2016.

The platform is designed to help user acquisition (UA) teams manage smaller channels outside Google and Facebook, including Snapchat, AdColony and Chartboost. Acquired.io estimates that the average UA team spends around 80 per cent of their time managing these smaller channels, which often require individual attention despite smaller scale. With the number of channels available to app marketers up from 700 in 2015 to 1,500 this year, the problem is only getting larger.

“The sheer number of apps out there today makes it difficult for companies to get noticed,” said Andrey Kazakov, co-founder and CEO of Acquired.io. “To be able to compete, advertisers need to maintain a wide and diverse portfolio of channels to acquire users, which puts enormous pressure on UA teams.

“Most advertisers have a portfolio of channels they deal with which spans from 10 to 50 channels depending on the company. Constantly discovering ways to acquire users is a part of the day-to-day job for UA teams, adding even more manual operations to their daily work. Our goal is to minimize the unnecessary manual work they face every day.”

The platform currently supports 20 channels, and is set to increase to 50 by the end of the year. In addition to more efficient management, it also enables UA teams to easily discover and test new channels without having to go through a costly and time-consuming set up process. The firm plans to add further automation features in the future to further simplify campaign management.

“Mobile user acquisition, as the market grows, has become some sort of a jungle for most publishers, with hundreds of networks or channels to deal with,” said Mark Zhang, senior vice president of global operations at IGG, one of Acquired.io’s first customers. “While the largest mobile gaming companies have the financial, technical and/or human resources to tackle this problem, most small to medium size publishers end up running mobile campaigns very inefficiently. I’m very excited to see Acquired.io coming up with a first-of-its-kind, one-stop DIY platform to solve this problem at scale.”

Don’t forget to enter the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. The Early Bird deadline for submissions is 22 July. More details here.

Output: California-based company Acquired.io has launched a centralised platform aimed at helping user acquisition teams manage campaigns across smaller channels such as Snapchat, AdColony and Chartboost. The company, created by Max Gannutin and Andrey Kazakov, founders of mobile marketing company AppScotch, currently supports 20 channels with a view to increasing that number to 50 by the end of the year.


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Acquired.io launches for teams to focus on smaller ad platforms
 Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.

Acquired.io has raised $2 million to make it easier for mobile advertisers to manage user acquisition campaigns across dozens of channels without a lot of manual hand-holding.

The Foster City, California-based company has created a centralized platform to manage user acquisition across channels such as Snapchat, AdColony, and Chartboost, among others. It has created a single dashboard for an advertiser to manage all their channels, discover new ones, allocate budgets, create rules for automated decisions, and more, said Andrey Kazakov, cofounder and CEO of Acquired.io, in an interview with GamesBeat.

“The sheer number of apps out there today makes it difficult for companies to get noticed. To be able to compete, advertisers need to maintain a wide and diverse portfolio of channels to acquire users, which puts enormous pressure on UA teams,” said Kazakov. “Most advertisers have a portfolio of channels they deal with which spans from 10 to 50 channels depending on the company. Constantly discovering ways to acquire users is a part of the day-to-day job for UA teams, adding even more manual operations to their daily work. Our goal is to minimize the unnecessary manual work they face every day.”

Acquired.io was started by Kazakov and Max Gannutin, founders of mobile marketing company AppScotch, which was acquired by AppAnnie. Investors in the $2 million round include Jonathan Zweig, cofounder of AdColony, and John Zdanowski, former CFO of Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life.

Most user acquisition teams spend half their ad budget on Google and Facebook and the other half on dozens of smaller channels, which must be managed individually, making the process time consuming and laborious. Acquired.io has found that the average UA team spends 80 percent of their time on this manual grunt work.

Image Credit: Acquired.io

The problem is only getting larger — the number of channels grew from 700 in 2015 to 1,500 this year. In the past, user acquisition managers would have to sort through these channels to figure out which ones to work with. Acquired.io takes that task off the backs of the UA managers. That has made at least one big game company happy.

“I constantly look out for user acquisition tools, and I don’t see a similar competitor who consolidates everything in a single dashboard,” said Mark Zhang, senior vice president for user acquisition at IGG, the Hong Kong-based online game company that has apps such as Lords Mobile, in an interview with GamesBeat.

Acquired.io allows UA teams to manage all of these channels from a single place. The platform currently supports 20 channels, which will increase to 50 by the end of this year.

“Our team doesn’t have time to deal with a small ad network, even though it may be useful,” Zhang said. “What Acquired.io can do for mobile advertisers is like what Apple and Google do for mobile publishers. They make it possible to deal with the smaller companies.”

In addition to more efficient management, the platform also enables UA teams to easily discover and test new channels without having to go through a costly new setup process. Identifying high-performing smaller channels is especially important for UA teams as Google and Facebook become increasingly competitive.

Acquired.io is already working with mobile app customers span gaming, messaging, social networking, and more.

“Acquired.io centralizes our UA data and gives us the tools we need to increase our marketing efficiency,” said Mark Braatz, general manager and vice president of growth at TextNow, another Acquired.io customer, in a statement. “We’re able to leverage rules-based optimizations across channels to maximize return on investment — managing these capital allocations within a single dashboard is a huge win.”

In the future, Acquired.io will add automation features that further simplify campaign management. In addition, it will expand into new markets so that customers can use the platform to discover international channels.

Output: California-based company Acquired.io has launched a centralised platform aimed at helping user acquisition teams manage campaigns across smaller channels such as Snapchat, AdColony and Chartboost. The company, created by Max Gannutin and Andrey Kazakov, founders of mobile marketing company AppScotch, currently supports 20 channels with a view to increasing that number to 50 by the end of the year.


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Google significantly out spends other brands on lobbying the EU
 Google is spending heavily on lobbying governments and communications staff as part of its strategy to protect its image from allegations of tax avoidance and failure to curb extremist content online.

According to the EU Transparency Register Google spent €4.25m on lobbying Brussels last year and currently has 14 people directly involved in lobbying the EU, nine of whom have clearance to enter the European parliament.

While having lobbyist is not uncommon for big companies, Google’s level of spend far outstrips other brands. By comparison Tesco, one of the UK’s biggest retailers, has one staff member in Brussels and spent €200,000 on lobbying in 2016.

The Times claims Google’s political operations go far beyond the norm given its record of hiring lobbyist connected to the highest levels of government. It had previously employed Rachel Whetstone, the wife of Steve Hilton who was David Cameron’s former director of strategy to serve as its head of communications.

Furthermore, according to research by Transparency International, more than 50% of the company’s most senior EU lobbyists previously worked for the EU, more than double the average for other companies.

The heightened level of spend come at a time when the internet giant has had to contend with three EU investigations, including the recent Google Shopping case which saw it dealt a €2.4bn fine after it was found to have "abused its market dominance as a search engine" by giving a search ranking advantage to its own products.

The other two investigations centre around allegations that it has abused its dominance in online advertising to try to stop retailers advertising elsewhere and examining whether it has manipulated its dominance in mobile operating systems to kill off competition, a crucially important case for Google given it generates around a fifth of its total advertising revenues from Android.

Other legal hurdles thrown at the US company include a formal complaint from New Corporation accusing it of copying content from news websites and using its dominance to promote its own news search results over news media outlets.

Output: Google has spent €4.25m ($4.85m) on lobbying the European Union (EU), far more than other brands, according to the EU Transparency Register. The organisation also found the company has 14 people directly involved in lobbying the EU, nine of whom are cleared to enter the European Parliament. More than half of Google's most senior lobbyists are former employees of the EU. Google was recently handed a €2.4bn fine by EU regulators for abusing its market dominance as a search engine.


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Redrow NHBC urges the industry to engage next generation
 Research from the National House Building Council (NHBC) Foundation shows that house builders need to do more to attract women and young people if the industry is to avoid a workforce crisis.

NHBC Foundation report ‘The gender and age profile of the house-building sector’ warns of a significant shortfall in workers caused by over-reliance on an ageing, male-dominated workforce and potential restrictions to migrant labour following Brexit.

With estimates showing that the sector needs to recruit 700,000 more people to replace those retiring or moving on, plus an extra 120,000 if the government’s aim to build one million new homes by 2020 is to be achieved, the NHBC Foundation report calls on Government and house builders to recognise the seriousness of the problem and to act now to address the shortfall.

The report, based on data from the Office of National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey and detailed interviews with house-building companies and senior industry commentators, provides valuable insights into age and gender diversity within the house-building sector. Just 12% of the UK’s house building workforce is female – the majority working in secretarial or administration jobs and less than 4% having a skilled trade role. The report also finds that young people, especially girls, are put off working in the industry because of the negative, stereotypical image of a male-dominated house-building industry.

Some of the major challenges for the industry in attracting women and young people include:

Working conditions – the belief that all work in the industry takes place outdoors in all weathers.

– the belief that all work in the industry takes place outdoors in all weathers. Fears of a sexist environment – concerns about the language and behaviour of male workers on site.

– concerns about the language and behaviour of male workers on site. Poor hiring and recruitment practices – over reliance on gender-biased recruitment literature and advertising and over-use of personal contacts and networks to recruit workers.

– over reliance on gender-biased recruitment literature and advertising and over-use of personal contacts and networks to recruit workers. Skills shortages – cycles of recession and growth mean that many skilled workers leave the industry during downturns, which has a knock-on effect of reducing the talent pool.

– cycles of recession and growth mean that many skilled workers leave the industry during downturns, which has a knock-on effect of reducing the talent pool. Outsourcing of site staff – a large proportion of on-site trade roles are managed by sub-contractors, and therefore house-building companies themselves have little say on who is actually working on site.

One of the main findings of the report is that women are still seriously under-represented in skilled, technical and managerial roles in house building. It identifies a number of challenges that need to be tackled by the sector, and the broader construction industry that are deep-rooted and endemic, such as ongoing stereotyping and antiquated recruitment practices.

Uninformed and outdated careers advice in schools is also failing to make all young people aware of the variety of jobs and roles on offer, with advisers unable to promote effectively the many attractive career opportunities in the sector.

Chi Onwurah, MP, said: “Having worked as an electrical engineer for two decades I know the importance of achieving greater diversity in male-dominated professions. Like NHBC, I believe more can be done to promote opportunities for women in the house-building sector and inspire the sector’s next generation of female leaders. It’s hugely encouraging to see NHBC recognise that diversity isn’t an optional add-on but a key measure of success in the modern world.”

Commenting on the report, NHBC head of research and innovation, Neil Smith, said: “Young people and young women in particular need to be made aware of the wide range of roles in the house-building industry. From design to engineering and site management, many careers in house building are rewarding and well paid, offering work in a variety of roles and environments.”

Commenting on her experiences as a woman working in the house-building industry, Redrow Homes’ site manager and 2016 NHBC Pride in the Job Seal of Excellence winner, Zara Fairman, said: “It’s a real privilege to be able to show that it’s not just a man’s world and that women can do well in the house-building industry. It’s also important to know that you don’t necessarily have to be from a trade, or engineering background – there are lots of transferable skills needed for this job.”

The report has a number of recommendations to help government and companies tackle the problem including:

Top level/Government

Recognition and awareness – Government must acknowledge that the current lack of diversity is a serious issue that results in the industry missing out on talent.

– Government must acknowledge that the current lack of diversity is a serious issue that results in the industry missing out on talent. Sustained investment – Government and housing developers should commit to continued investment to sustain the talent pool even in times of economic downturn.

– Government and housing developers should commit to continued investment to sustain the talent pool even in times of economic downturn. Investment in career guidance – careers education in schools must be prioritised to ensure that young people (and adults throughout their careers) are given impartial, accurate advice to guide them in decision-making for their futures.

Companies and Human Resources teams

Output: The National House Building Council Foundation has urged house builders to do more to attract women and the next generation if the industry is to avoid a workforce crisis. The report found that the house-building sector could suffer a significant shortfall in workers with over-reliance on an aging, male workforce and the potential for reduced migrant labour following Brexit.


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PwC report reveals 14% gender pay gap
 Although we are now in the sixth year of gender pay gap reporting, we see scrutiny of this measure continue to grow. The gender pay gap is increasingly a key metric within sustainability reporting frameworks (as part of the ‘S’ of ESG). At the same time, new requirements are being introduced internationally which include, for example, the EU Pay Transparency Directive which will likely take effect in 2026.

Our gender pay data analysis shows that the pay gap has remained the same, or worsened, for just under half of organisations who reported in 2022/23 and 2021/22. Of those companies that have disclosed their pay gaps for both reporting years, just over half (53.7%) reported a decrease in their mean pay gaps, with an average decrease of only 0.4%.

Watch our Gender Pay Gap Reporting webcast

Output: PwC pays female staff almost 14% less than their male peers, according to the company’s gender pay gap report. The overall pay gap was 13.7%, whilst the gap for bonuses was 37.5%.  The firm, which is the first to report under new UK government guidelines, said that the presence of more men in senior roles and more women in administrative roles accounted for some of the disparity. Within grade levels, the pay gap drops to 2.9%. PwC has predicted that the pay gap within the UK will not close for 24 years.


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Redrow Chester residents demand increased consultation period
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Residents neighbouring a proposed Chester housing estate are shocked at being given just three weeks to consider the complex planning application.

Plans have just been lodged for the first phase of a massive housing scheme for up to 1,400 homes on fields alongside Wrexham Road on the southern edge of the city.

Redrow Homes has submitted details to Cheshire West and Chester Council for 509 homes and associated infrastructure including a shopping centre with supermarket, restaurant and pub plus a health centre, nursery and primary school with playing fields.

But Westminster Park Residents’ Association (WPRA) is concerned members of the public will only be able to consider and comment on the plans during the standard three week consultation period despite the huge scale and scope of the application.

WPRA spokesman Brian Westcott said: “These plans contain a vast amount of information which must be carefully examined.

"We are astonished that the council have put a standard consultation expiry date of three weeks on these plans, finishing on 11 July 2017. It is clearly going to take more like three months to give these plans the attention that they deserve.”

Redrow and Taylor Wimpey will deliver the majority of the homes through a company called Paycause Ltd with three linked planning applications to include the rest of the housing, more detailed plans for the infrastructure and an ecological area where great crested newts, a protected species, can be relocated.

Mr Westcott added: “The plans have been promised by the developers Paycause for over a year and a half and responding in such a tight timescale is totally unacceptable. We hope that the council will reconsider.”

Redrow and Taylor Wimpey previously held pre-application consultations alongside a council exercise with the stated aim of involving the community in shaping the plans from an early stage.

There are major concerns around whether the infrastructure, Wrexham Road in particular, will cope with the extra activity in the area.

Output: Abstract: Residents near Redrow Homes have requested an extension to the standard three-week consultation period for a proposed 1,400 home housing scheme on Wrexham Road in Chester. Westminster Park Residents' Association is concerned that members of the public will not have long enough to consider the large-scale plans.


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EasyProperty roadshow attracts strong interest from estate agents
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More than 500 territory requests have been logged by Guild of Property Professionals and Fine & Country agents expressing their intention to secure an easyProperty licence.

Each easyProperty territory will cost a Guild or Fine & Country agent £500 and consist of some 20,000 properties.

News of the early take-up follows an eight-day, ten-city regional roadshow hosted by new CEO Jon Cooke.

At the time of the announcement earlier this month, the deal was described by Guild and Fine & Country parent company GPEA as a merger.

For example, Guild managing director Malcolm Lindley announced the deal under the headline: “GPEA and easyProperty announce merger.”

He explained at the time: “We have secured financial backing from Toscafund Asset Management LLP [backers of easyProperty] in order to acquire the licence to easyProperty and fund the marketing required to launch and successfully penetrate the market.”

The deal does not complete until at least next month, so it does seem unusual that a new CEO is already in place.

The easyProperty brand will be relaunched in September, with a flotation to be explored in January, according to the timeline.

This morning’s statement from Cooke simply says that it is GPEA that has acquired easyProperty but goes into no further detail as to the financing of the deal, rumoured to be worth £60m.

A spokesperson explained that GPEA has most control of the parent company, e-Prop Services.

Cooke said in the statement that “since GPEA announced its acquisition of easyProperty on June 7, enquiries by members have been strong as well as many requests from non-members to join to secure an easyProperty licence”.

He went on: “Letters of Intent have been sent by easyProperty to those GPEA members who attended the three-hour presentation and we have already received back about 31% duly signed.

“There has been a lot of industry speculation from naysayers who seem to have a louder voice than those in support of our licence proposition.

“However, a large number of members are receptive to the online proposition.

“One message we continuously repeat at easyProperty is that consumer behaviour is changing and we are offering members the opportunity to cater to the do-it-yourself, technology-enhanced preferences for home-sellers and landlords without undermining their own brand.

“GPEA has always been an advocate and champion of independent agents.

“The easyProperty licences offer more ammunition, another string to the bow for independent agents to use to defend and increase their market share. This is about enabling members. There is no compulsory requirement from members – it’s an option available.”

Since June 14, easyProperty has met with hundreds of members across the UK in areas including Coventry, London, Tunbridge Wells, Southampton, Exeter, Bristol, Manchester, Yorkshire, Newcastle and East Anglia.

Due to what Cooke says is strong demand, a final roadshow will be held in London this Friday (June 30).

For more information call 0207 629 4141 or email parklane@guildproperty.co.uk

At the weekend, Cooke told EYE that the roadshows so far have been “incredibly popular”, and attended by agents with “open minds”. He said that they liked the public recognition of the ‘easy’ brand, and the fact that they were at least being offered an option to meet what Cooke called a change in customer behaviour.

Non-members had also asked about joining the Guild, so they could also take up the easyProperty option. He said the 31% sign-up rate was in line with, or slightly in excess of, expectations.

Of the future, Cooke said he believed there were be two players in the online agency space: “There will be us and one other,” he said, declining to be drawn on who the other player might be.

Output: More than 500 territory requests from estate agents seeking a licence with online estate agency easyProperty have been received by the Guild of Property Professionals. The interest followed a six-day regional roadshow by the executive director of the guild and Jon Cooke, who has just taken over as easyProperty CEO. Fine & Country parent company GPEA recently acquired easyProperty in a deal estimated to be worth £60m and is planning to relaunch the platform in September and float in January. EasyProperty uses a fixed fee model rather than relying on traditional commissions.


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Indian co-working space to increase 10-fold by 2020: CBRE
 Moneycontrol News With the concept of shared office space fast catching up in India, leasing is expected to touch 10 mn sq ft by 2020. While demand more than tripled in 2016 to touch 0.7 mn sq ft as compared to 2014, this year leasing is expected to cross 1.5 mn sq ft, says a report titled The Art of Co-working by CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd. Shared office spaces fall into three categories – traditional business centres, co-working spaces and incubators/accelerators. According to CBRE Research, currently, there are close to 350 shared office operators present in India, spread across 800 locations in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. As many as 85 percent shared office space in India is in Tier 1 cities, while the remaining 15 percent is in Tier 2 cities. With Bengaluru, NCR (Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida) and Mumbai being gateway cities, 75 percent of the shared office spaces are based in these three locations. Each has more than 100 shared office spaces followed by Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune. CBRE research also revealed that while more than 90 percent of business centres and co-working spaces are present in tier 1 cities, almost half of incubators/accelerators are present in tier 2 locations. The most significant benefit of a co-working space is the cost saving as compared to a conventional space leasing. In the larger cities of Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune, for instance, cost saving is anywhere between 10 percent to 25 percent when choosing a co-working space over a traditional office space. “India’s office market has seen sustained growth in the past few years. It is also one of the most dynamic segments of real estate, witnessing numerous advancements, whether it is technology driven, design related or with regards to workplace strategies. With the global economy continuing to expand and India emerging as a hotspot for corporates expansion strategies, it is only natural that concepts such as shared offices/co-working spaces would pick up the pace. Occupier focus on business operations over RE decisions, increasing occupier awareness of co-working as an alternate option, the rising acceptance of ‘remote’ working and an increased preference towards flexible leasing terms will be factors that will drive demand for co-working spaces in the times to come, said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman, India & South East Asia, CBRE. Initially, co-working spaces were focused on providing solutions for entrepreneurs and startups who had constrained budgets for their office setups. However, with the benefits that such spaces offer – affordability, negligible CapEx requirements, efficient space usage and flexibility to expand and contract at short notice, the concept is now catching up with established corporates. Commenting on the findings of the report, Ram Chandnani, Managing Director, Advisory & Transaction Services, CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd. said, “With domestic and international corporates focusing their expansion strategies on cost efficiencies, optimum business operations and space utilization, co-working is not only changing the dynamics of office spaces in India, it is also defining the corporate culture of the future.” Co-working spaces have been dominant in the top cities of Gurgaon, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, with smaller cities of Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata have seen a higher presence of business centres - a result of business centre formats entering the Indian market at an earlier stage. Tier 2 cities such as Kochi, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, Patna etc. are witnessing demand for incubators/accelerators formats. 90 percent of shared office operations in India are by domestic players who offer all three formats, whereas international operators focus on business centre spaces followed by co-working operators. There are more than 20 international operators in the shared office segment in India, mainly from APAC, USA, UK and EMEA. In the next few years, with office rents continuing to move up across India, the total space leased by co-working operators in tier 1 and tier 2 cities is could touch 6 - 10 mn sq ft by 2020. With the choices of India’s millennial population continuing to have an impact on India’s real estate industry, co-working could be the differentiator in attracting talent.

Output: Leased shared office space in India will reach 10 million sq ft by 2020, up from 0.7 million sq ft in 2016, according to a report from property adviser CBRE South Asia. Currently, there are nearly 350 shared office operators in India, 75% of which are located in Bengalaru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida or Mumbai. In larger Indian cities, choosing a co-working space can save between 10% and 25% over traditional leasing, the report found.


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How Health Costs Would Soar for Older Americans Under the Senate Plan
 In its analysis of the Republican health care bill, the Congressional Budget Office said something confusing: The bill would lower the price of the average health plan, but health insurance would still cost much more for many people, especially for older Americans.

How the annual cost of insurance would change in 2026, after tax credits

64-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME +$2,000 $26,500 +$11,600 $56,800 +$3,100 $68,200 Most popular plan +$4,800 $26,500 +$13,700 $56,800 +$5,200 $68,200 $5,000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 40-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME +$900 $26,500 –$500 $56,800 –$500 $68,200 Most popular plan +$1,300 $26,500 –$100 $56,800 –$100 $68,200 $5,000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 21-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME +$400 $26,500 –$1,100 $56,800 –$1,100 $68,200 Most popular plan $26,500 +$500 –$1,000 $56,800 –$1,100 $68,200 $5,000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 64-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME +$2,000 $26,500 +$11,600 $56,800 +$3,100 $68,200 Most popular plan +$4,800 $26,500 +$13,700 $56,800 +$5,200 $68,200 $5,000 $15,000 $25,000 40-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME +$900 $26,500 –$500 $56,800 –$500 $68,200 Most popular plan +$1,300 $26,500 –$100 $56,800 –$100 $68,200 $5,000 $15,000 $25,000 21-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME +$400 $26,500 –$1,100 $56,800 –$1,100 $68,200 Most popular plan $26,500 +$500 –$1,000 $56,800 –$1,100 $68,200 $5,000 $15,000 $25,000 64-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME +$2,000 $26,500 +$11,600 $56,800 +$3,100 $68,200 Most popular plan +$4,800 $26,500 +$13,700 $56,800 +$5,200 $68,200 $5,000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 40-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME $26,500 +$900 –$500 $56,800 –$500 $68,200 Most popular plan +$1,300 $26,500 –$100 $56,800 –$100 $68,200 $5,000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 21-year-old buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan INCOME +$400 $26,500 –$1,100 $56,800 –$1,100 $68,200 Most popular plan $26,500 +$500 –$1,000 $56,800 –$1,100 $68,200 $5,000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 Source: Congressional Budget Office

The report estimated that the average premium would decrease by 20 percent, when compared with current law, but that single data point, highlighted in many Republican news releases, obscures the office’s larger message. Only a fraction of customers in the individual market pay the sticker price for insurance. The federal government helps subsidize the rest.

The Republican plan, while lowering the sticker price, would also lower the value of government subsidies for most groups. If you take those subsidies into account, the insurance cost for a given person doesn’t always go down.

The budget office also predicts that, because of less-generous subsidies, a larger share of people would buy a so-called bronze plan, which covers only about 60 percent of the average customer’s medical bills. Under Obamacare, the most popular plan, silver, covers at least 70 percent of typical expenses.

That means middle-income people would be asked to pay more for insurance, and their plan would also come with a significantly higher deductible.

The legislation is devised to make insurance more affordable for younger Americans, who have tended to opt out of coverage under Obamacare. It succeeds in lowering their premiums at most income levels.

But the plan balances those reductions by increasing the gap between the sticker price and the subsidy amount for older Americans. A 64-year-old at nearly every income level would have to pay a much larger share of income to buy insurance that covers a smaller share of her medical bills.

Given that trade-off, the budget office thinks fewer older Americans would have health insurance. That decrease helps drive down the average sticker price, too.

Finally, the report predicted that about half of states would eliminate rules requiring insurance plans to cover a minimum, standard set of benefits, such as mental health treatment and prescription drugs. That means that the 20 percent average price decrease would include plans that require customers to pay for substantial parts of their care out of their own pockets.

Since 2014, states have had an option to expand their Medicaid programs to cover all adults earning below or just above the federal poverty line, and 31 states have chosen to expand. Many adults who earn less in states that didn’t expand have few good insurance options, since Obamacare did not make them eligible for subsidies to buy their own insurance.

How the annual cost would change for a poor person in states without Medicaid expansion

A person earning $11,400 buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan AGE –$12,600 64 yrs. old –$5,200 40 yrs. old –$4,000 21 yrs. old Most popular plan 64 yrs. old –$10,500 –$4,800 40 yrs. old –$3,900 21 yrs. old $5,000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 A person earning $11,400 buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan AGE –$12,600 64 yrs. old –$5,200 40 yrs. old –$4,000 21 yrs. old Most popular plan 64 yrs. old –$10,500 –$4,800 40 yrs. old –$3,900 21 yrs. old $5,000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 A person earning $11,400 buying ... Lower-cost, higher-deductible plan AGE –$12,600 64 yrs. old –$5,200 40 yrs. old –$4,000 21 yrs. old Most popular plan 64 yrs. old –$10,500 –$4,800 40 yrs. old –$3,900 21 yrs. old $5,000 $15,000 $25,000 Source: Congressional Budget Office

The Republican bill eliminates that gap, by expanding subsidies to poorer Americans who can’t get Medicaid coverage. In theory, that makes them a beneficiary of this plan.

Output: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said health plans for many older Americans would cost much more under the Senate's proposed health plan. Though the mooted Republican health plan would decrease the average premium by 20%, it would also mean lower government subsidies, especially those that help seniors. For example, almost all 64-year-olds would have to pay a greater percentage of their incomes to buy insurance, that will cover them less overall. The report predicts this would cause fewer older Americans to get insurance. The CBO also predicts that 50% of states would get rid of rules mandating a baseline of benefits, meaning more patients would have to pay for aspects of their care.


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Australian estate agents add 'no Airbnb clause' to leases
 Real estate agents across Australia have introduced an 'Airbnb clause' banning tenants from secretly subletting their rentals on the popular home-sharing site.

The clause is a move to alleviate landlords' fears about security.

Melbourne property manager Candice Deane said the clause she used in rental agreements stipulated tenants must not use Airbnb without the consent of the landlord.

Real estate agents across Australia are updating their rental leases to include clauses banning tenants from subletting properties on Airbnb

Ms Deane said the 'Airbnb clause' was standard at her agency and was enforced.

'We rented a property to a single lady recently and she had set it up as serviced apartment through Airbnb without the owner's consent,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

After a simple search on Airbnb's website, the real estate agency found out and 'gave her notice to vacate'.

'It causes security issues, and more people means more wear and tear on the apartment,' Ms Deane said.

Real estate agents are introducing 'Airbnb clauses' to ban tenants from secretly subletting their rentals on the popular house-sharing site (stock image)

In another incident a tenant was leaving keys in a letterbox while on holidays, causing concern to other residents who saw different people coming and going from the property.

'That tenant was asked to leave,' Ms Deane said.

Brent Thomas from Airbnb Australia told the ABC all people, including renters and owners, should have the right to share a home.

'Home sharing helps everyday Australians earn a little extra money to pay for their biggest expense- the cost of their housing,' he said.

'We ask all hosts to certify they have permission to list their space and remind them to check and follow local rules before they list and throughout the year'.

Output: Australian estate agents have started including an "Airbnb clause" in tenancy agreements to stop tenants from subletting their properties on the home-sharing site without informing agencies or landlords. The clause stipulates that landlords' permission must be gained before subletting can occur and is intended to allay their concerns about potential security problems caused by subletting.


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Gold nanoparticle catalyst makes hydrogen suitable for fuel cells
 A transition metal carbide dotted with gold nanoparticles could provide fuel cells with high purity hydrogen. At 150°C, the catalyst converts carbon monoxide into hydrogen an order of magnitude more efficiently than previously reported materials.

The water–gas shift (WGS) reaction combines carbon monoxide and water to make hydrogen and carbon dioxide. It is used industrially to produce hydrogen, which can then be made into base chemicals like ammonia. While industrial catalysts for the WGS are well established, those for another emerging application, fuel cells, are not.

Hydrogen fuel cells need to run on a fairly pure stream of the gas as they are susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning. The WGS is ideally placed to perform this task, but at the same time it is an exothermic equilibrium reaction: at lower temperatures it favours carbon monoxide conversion, but it also becomes slower. Industrial WGS catalysts operate most efficiently at temperatures above 200°C – any lower and the process becomes sluggish and needs a lot of expensive catalyst to keep it going.

‘Researchers have been searching for a low temperature WGS catalyst for years,’ observes Ding Ma from Peking University, China. A team around Ma and his colleagues José Rodriguez from Brookhaven National Laboratory, US, and Chuan Shi from Dalian University of Technology, China, has developed a catalyst that can run the WGS at temperatures as low as 40°C – though it is most active at 150°C. The material comprises 2% nanosized gold clusters on α-molybdenum carbide particles. The key to its activity, explains Rodriguez, is that ‘gold can activate carbon monoxide, and α-molybdenum carbide is very active for water dissociation at low temperature’.

Fabio Ribeiro, who studies heterogeneous catalysis mechanisms at Purdue University, US, points out that the team’s noteworthy achievement is synthesising gold nanoparticles only about 1nm in diameter. Gold has a tendency to sinter, small particles coalescing into larger ones over time. Shi, Rodriguez and Ma think the molybdenum carbide’s structure and its interaction with gold might stabilise the noble metal. ‘The small size implies that the nanoparticles will have all gold atoms active and as a consequence the catalyst will be very efficient,’ Ribeiro says.

Shi, Rodriguez and Ma are now working on replacing gold with a cheaper metal for industrial applications.

Output: Researchers have discovered that a transition metal carbide containing gold nanoparticles could furnish high purity hydrogen for fuel cells. The research team, including Ding Ma from Peking University, found that when converting carbon monoxide into hydrogen at a temperature of 150°C, the catalyst appears more efficient than previously investigated materials. Currently, water-gas shift (WGS) reactions are used in industry to generate hydrogen. However, these require temperatures higher than 200C to work optimally, and therefore require a considerable amount of expensive catalyst.


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Mayors from 7,400 cities promise action on climate change
 Mayors of more than 7,400 cities across the world have vowed that Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord will spur greater local efforts to combat climate change.

At the first meeting of a “global covenant of mayors”, city leaders from across the US, Europe and elsewhere pledged to work together to keep to the commitments made by Barack Obama two years ago.

Cities will devise a standard measurement of emission reductions to help them monitor their progress. They will also share ideas for delivering carbon-free transport and housing.

Kasim Reed, the mayor of Atlanta, told reporters he had travelled to Europe to “send a signal” that US states and cities would execute the policies Obama committed to, whether the current White House occupants agreed or not.

“Right now you have a level of collaboration and focus and sharing of best practices that I haven’t seen. I came from Brussels from a meeting of the US conference of mayors ... and more than 300 mayors signed a letter reflecting our will to deliver the Paris accord commitments.”

He added: “My firm belief is that President Trump’s disappointing decision to withdraw from the agreement will actually have the opposite effect in terms of execution.

The European commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, who along with the UN’s special envoy for cities and climate change, Michael Bloomberg, co-chairs the board of the new organisation, conceded that it as yet it lacked any members from China, although he said he was confident that this would change.

“Now is the time to join hands,” he said.

Reed, whose administration has promised that the city of Atlanta will use 100% renewable energy by 2035, said 75% of the US population and GDP lay in urban areas, where local leaders were committed to fighting climate change. “We have the ability to still achieve between 35% and 45% CO2 emission reductions without the involvement of the national government and it is why I chose to be here at this time to send a signal to 7,400 cities around the world that now should be a time of optimism, passion and action,” he said.

The mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, said mayors needed to be proactive and work together on ideas or face huge extra costs in rebuilding their infrastructure to deal with the changing climate. “The Trump administration better watch out for US cities,” he said. “They are on the rise, and I think will prevail in the end, turning the tide, and making sure the US is a climate leader rather than what is happening currently.”

Šefčovič warned Washington that Europe was not willing to renegotiate the terms of the Paris agreement, and would bypass the White House if necessary. “I have to say that now we have to be very pragmatic,” he said. “We work very closely with the states like California, like Washington, like New York and many others, and have a strong alliance … We are not going to renegotiate the Paris agreement. Now is not the time to negotiate, it is time to implement.”

The first meeting of the group of mayors came after Bloomberg announced on Monday an investment of $200m over the next three years in US cities able to illustrate a commitment to reducing emissions. Every American city with at least 30,000 residents is being asked to compete for cash that can be used to test ideas and fund training sessions for municipal staff.

Addressing the European parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, Bloomberg said: “It’s important for you, and the world, to understand that the fate of America’s Paris pledge does not lie with Congress or the White House.

“Few people realise it, but the US is already halfway to our goal of a 26% reduction in emissions by 2025 – and Washington has had almost nothing to do with that progress. Cities, states, businesses, and citizens, together with the market, were responsible for it. None of those groups are slowing down now – and my foundation is working to help each group accelerate its progress.”

Output: Mayors from over 7,400 cities have pledged to take local action to tackle climate change, despite Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord. The “global covenant of mayors,” which has members from across the world, although none from China, vowed to support Barack Obama’s climate commitments. The leaders will also establish a standard measurement of emissions reductions and will share ideas relating to carbon-free housing and transport. On Monday, Michael Bloomberg promised to invest $200m over the next three years in US cities committed to emissions reduction.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Boaty McBoatface submarine provides ‘unprecedented’ climate data
 A yellow submarine dubbed Boaty McBoatface has obtained “unprecedented data” from its first voyage exploring one of the deepest and coldest ocean regions on Earth, scientists have said.

The robotic submersible was given the name originally chosen for a new polar research ship by irreverent contestants in a public competition. Embarrassed officials decided to ignore the popular vote and instead named the vessel the RRS Sir David Attenborough in honour of the veteran broadcaster. A storm of protest led to a compromise that allowed the name to live on.

The submarine plunged to depths as far as 4,000 metres to obtain information about temperature, water flow speed and turbulence from Orkney Passage, a region of the Southern Ocean about 500 miles from the Antarctic Peninsula.

The data will help scientists to understand the complex ways that mixing ocean waters affect climate change.

Prof Alberto Naveira Garabato from the University of Southampton said: “The Orkney Passage is a key chokepoint to the flow of abyssal waters in which we expect the mechanism linking changing winds to abyssal water warming to operate.

“Our goal is to learn enough about these convoluted processes to represent them in the models that scientists use to predict how our climate will evolve over the 21st century and beyond.

“We have been able to collect massive amounts of data that we have never been able to capture before due to the way Boaty is able to move underwater. Up until now we have only been able to take measurements from a fixed point, but now we are able to obtain a much more detailed picture of what is happening in this very important underwater landscape.”

The submersible was launched from the RRS James Clark Ross as part of the seven-week expedition. It is a new type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and can travel under ice and reach depths of 6,000 metres, transmitting the data it collects to researchers via a radio link.

The universities and science minister, Jo Johnson, said: “Fresh from its maiden voyage, Boaty is already delivering new insight into some of the coldest ocean waters on Earth, giving scientists a greater understanding of changes in the Antarctic region and shaping a global effort to tackle climate change.”

The name Boaty McBoatface was first put forward by the former BBC radio presenter James Hand in response to a public poll organised by the National Environment Research Council to name their new £200m Arctic research vessel.

The research council was mobbed with more than 7,000 ideas for names in the month-long competition period, among them RRS Onion Knight, RRS I Like Big Boats and I Cannot Lie, and RRS Capt’n Birdseye Get Off My Cod.

Output: A submarine, nicknamed Boaty McBoatface after a UK public competition to name the vessel, has provided “unprecedented data” from one of the deepest and coldest of the earth’s ocean regions. The robotic submersible, which is officially named the RRS Sir David Attenborough, has visited depths of up to 4,000 metres in the Orkney Passage area of the Southern Ocean, around 500 miles off the Antarctic Peninsula. The information gathered about temperature, water flow and turbulence will be used to analyse the ways mixing ocean waters influence climate change.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Cybersecurity firms offer payouts if they fail to stop hacks
 Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security strategy at SentinelOne, which sells antimalware systems, says that should change. To align its financial interests with its customers’, SentinelOne offers a warranty that puts the company on the hook for up to $1,000,000 if the customer falls victim to a ransomware attack, in which hackers break in and encrypt data before demanding a ransom to unlock it. Other cybersecurity startups, as well as big players like Symantec and McAfee, now similarly promise to pay up if their product or service fails.

Grossman says his 10-month-old warranty program has already given his company a leg up on its competitors.

It is too early to say whether cybersecurity warranties will amount to anything more than marketing ploys, says Steve Durbin, managing director of the Information Security Forum, a nonprofit organization that develops recommendations for the best way to manage information security risks. But some vendors have gathered valuable information by monitoring the performance of their products over the years, and that potentially puts them in a strong position to “plug a little bit of a gap” in the insurance market, he says.

In evaluating these risks, cybersecurity firms have an advantage over traditional insurance companies, because they have crucial data that can only come from analyzing real events like the data breaches they themselves have experienced. Traditional insurers, by contrast, are just beginning to assess the full risks of doing business in cyberspace.

That helps explain why insurers, including AIG, are getting behind these new warranty programs. (AIG declined to comment for this story.)

Grossman’s company has its own data on the risk that its system will miss a ransomware attack. Those numbers helped convince an established liability insurer (as part of the arrangement, SentinelOne does not reveal this company’s name publicly) to back its warranty.

Many of the data breaches we have seen could have been avoided if businesses had patched their systems adequately. For example, the WannaCry ransomware attack that began in May takes advantage of old, unpatched Microsoft operating systems. Companies that sign up for these programs will get a payout only if they follow proper security practices.

AsTech Consulting, whose service entails analyzing a business’s source code to identify vulnerabilities, working with the company to fix them, and training employees not to reintroduce them, recently began offering a guarantee that customers who follow the process and still suffer a breach will be compensated up to $1,000,000.

If a company’s risk is “measurably going down,” a result AsTech says its process has been shown to achieve over the past 20 years, that will attract insurance companies because they will better know and manage their risk, says CEO Greg Reber. “That’s a pretty good market.”

Output: Insurers and cybersecurity firms, including AIG, McAfee and Symantec, are offering warranties on their products worth up to $1m if a customer falls prey to a ransomware attack. Payouts will only be made if customers are found to have maintained proper security practices. Steve Durbin, MD of the Information Security Forum, suggests however that it is too early to say whether cybersecurity warranties will amount to anything more than marketing ploys.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
FCA calls for widespread reform of UK’s asset management sector
 Britain’s £7tn asset management industry must introduce sweeping reforms to cut costs and improve returns for savers after years of raking in sustained, high profits, the City regulator has said. Publishing the final findings of its asset management market study, the Financial Conduct Authority said greater transparency and better competition were vital in a sector relied on by millions of people for their financial wellbeing.

The FCA said in its 112-page report that investors must be provided with clearer information on costs, helping them make the best available investment choices.

“The asset management sector is important to the economy, managing the savings of millions of people and, in the current low-interest environment, it’s vital we help people earn a return on their savings,” said Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the FCA. “We have put together a comprehensive package of reforms that will make competition work better and help both retail and institutional investors to make their money work well for them.”

To improve competition, the regulator said companies should charge a single “all-in fee”, replacing the current system, under which investors are charged a range of fees. To improve conditions for investors, funds should appoint at least two independent directors to their boards.

A study will also be launched into the investment platforms that offer a range of funds online, which knocked shares in Hargreaves Lansdown by almost 3%, the biggest faller in the FTSE 100.

But Daniel Godfrey, founder of the People’s Trust and a former head of the Investment Association, said: “Investment managers will be relieved today. The FCA has delivered a report which spares them the harshest potential remedies flagged in their interim report last November.”

Reforms would be implemented in a number of stages, the FCA said, with some of the measures dependent on the outcome of consultation. It also said it was not trying to favour passive funds – which track indices – over active funds.

The regulator had concerns about the way the investment consultant market operated, but did not immediately refer the industry to the Competition and Markets Authority, after receiving representations from the three big companies. But it is recommending that the Treasury gives it powers to regulate the sector.

It also appeared to prepare the ground to look at private equity and hedge funds. “Our original scope as set out in our terms of reference did not include alternative asset classes. We therefore did not focus our analysis on these. However, we did receive some feedback on certain alternative asset classes such as private equity and hedge funds as part of our institutional analysis,” the FCA said.

Sean Hagerty, the managing director for Europe at Vanguard Asset Management, said: “Costs matter. Every pound that investors pay in charges is a pound out of their potential returns, reducing their chances of being able to afford a comfortable retirement or save for a mortgage deposit.”

The fund management industry has been the subject of a number of reviews since the start of the millennium, including a 2001 review by Paul Myners – later to become Lord Myners – and one in 2012 by John Kay.

Output: The UK’s £7tn ($9tn) asset management industry must reduce costs and improve returns, according to a report by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The regulator’s asset management market study called for increased transparency and competition and said that investors must be given clearer information about costs. The FCA also said that companies should introduce a single “all-in fee” and greater consistency in charges. At least two independent directors should be appointed to the fund management boards. The proposed reforms will be implemented gradually, following consultation.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
FCA calls for widespread reform of UK’s asset management sector
 Our market study

We published the terms of reference for the asset management market study in November 2015. We set out our intention to understand how asset managers compete to deliver value to both retail and institutional investors. Following our terms of reference, we conducted analysis of over 20,000 shareclasses and 30,000 investment strategies.

In November 2016 we published the interim report. This set out our provisional view on the way competition works for asset management services, the resulting outcomes for investors and our proposed remedies to address concerns which we identified.

Having considered the consultation feedback to the interim report and carried out further work, we confirmed the key findings set out in the interim report as final and in June 2017 we published our final report.

Our findings

We found that price competition is weak in a number of areas of the industry. Despite a large number of firms operating in the market, based on our sample, we found evidence of sustained, high profits over a number of years. We also found that investors are not always clear what the objectives of funds are, and fund performance is not always reported against an appropriate benchmark. Finally, we found concerns about the way the investment consultant market operates.

Remedies

In the asset management market study final report we proposed a package of remedies consisting of:

measures to give protection to investors who are less able to find better value

measures to drive competitive pressure on asset managers

proposals to improve the effectiveness of intermediaries

See an overview of the remedies (PDF)

We have proposed this overall package of remedies to make competition work better in this market, and protect those least able to actively engage with their asset manager. We consider that this will increase efficiency, lead to the UK asset management industry being a more attractive place for investors and so improve the relative competitiveness of the UK market.

Our overall package of remedies is designed to bring together a consistent and coherent framework of interventions. We recognise that some investors are not well placed to find better value. Because of this, we are strengthening the duty on asset managers to act in the best interests of investors and are seeking to provide greater protection for investors. The remedies package also seeks to enable those investors who are able, to exert greater competitive pressure on asset managers. It will increase the transparency of costs so that those seeking information can get it. We are also working towards providing greater clarity of fund objectives and performance reporting. Finally, the package seeks to improve how effective intermediaries are for both retail and institutional investors.

Policy changes

For the remedies involving potential policy changes we have consulted on these in two phases. In April 2018 we published the first policy statement on part of the package of remedies (PS18/8). Alongside this we published a second consultation paper relating to the rest of the package of remedies (CP18/9).

The first policy statement (PS18/8) includes remedies to better protect investors from the results of weak competition. In this we:

make final rules requiring fund managers to assess annually whether the charges taken from a fund are justified in the context of the overall value provided by the fund (an ‘assessment of value’)

make final rules requiring that independent directors make up at least 25% of an Authorised Fund Manager’s board (with a minimum of 2 independent directors)

introduce a new prescribed responsibility for fund managers which will take effect alongside the wider extension of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR)

make rules to prevent fund managers retaining risk-free box profits

publish revised guidance to make it easier for fund managers to convert investors to cheaper share classes where this is in their interests

Remedies to drive competitive pressure on asset managers

All-in fee

As set out in the final report, we want investors to receive clear and simple information about the costs they will pay for asset management services through an 'all-in-fee' in pounds and pence. Under MiFID II and PRIIPs consumers should now see the full costs and charges, expressed as a single fee, for most transactions in investment products, and on an ongoing basis.

This is a significant step forward, and we want this transparency to have an impact in terms of awareness and scrutiny of charges. But how the new information is presented will be important if it is to help consumers make more informed choices. To better understand this we conducted behavioural testing on:

ways to increase engagement with charges through the use of review screens

ways to raise investors’ awareness of the impact of charges on their investments over time through warning statements and charts

ways to help investors make effective price comparisons through the use of comparator charts

We published the results of the testing in April 2018 in Occasional Paper No. 32.

We found that these measures led to investors paying more attention to charges in their decision-making, without appearing to change the importance they placed on other fund characteristics, such as risk and brand. In some cases, they also improved their understanding and awareness of charges. Our findings suggest that clearly presenting understandable and engaging information about charges in a prominent way is important to ensure it is effective.

The findings are consistent with a significant body of previous work and reinforce the importance of disclosing costs and charges in a clear and meaningful way.

Firms should consider the results when thinking about how their disclosures are working. We will consider changing our rules and guidance to mandate certain forms of disclosure in light of the outcome of our Investment Platforms Market Study.

Fund Objectives

The market study made clear the importance of funds having clear objectives, and identified room for improvement in this area. Clear objectives allow investors to understand what a fund is trying to do, compare different funds, and monitor how well the fund is performing.

We are now consulting on guidance clarifying what we expect when a firm discloses its objectives (CP18/9).

This is a complex area and we wanted to involve the right people to make progress on this issue. We chaired a working group, which met from September and concluded its work early in 2018. The output from this group informed our thinking in this area.

Find out more about the work of the fund objectives working group .

We also welcome the intention of the Investment Association to develop industry guidance, in conjunction with consumer input, as to how objectives may be explained more clearly to investors.

Use of benchmarks and performance fees

We want to make our expectations clearer regarding how firms communicate to investors about the benchmarks they may use for a fund. We are also making a minor change relating to the fairness of performance fees. We are consulting on a number of measures in this space (CP18/9) including:

A ‘requirement to explain’ so that AFMs explain their decisions about the use of benchmarks, or if no benchmarks are used, explain how fund investors should assess a fund’s performance.

Requiring AFMs to be consistent in their references to benchmarks in their interactions with fund investors.

Making it clear that where AFMs show a fund's past performance in disclosures they must show it against any benchmarks used as a target for the fund’s performance or that act as a constraint on the fund’s portfolio construction that they have.

Clarifying that performance fees must be taken net of all other fees.

This work is aligned this work with our other remedies given the links between objectives, benchmarks and performance.

Disclosures to institutional investors

We want to see more consistent and standardised disclosure of costs and charges to institutional investors. We appointed an independent working group to make recommendations to us on a standardised disclosure template to provide institutional investors with a clearer understanding of the costs and charges for a given fund or mandate. The working group made their recommendations to us in Summer 2018, at which time we welcomed the recommendations. We will continue to work with investors and industry to play our part in the next steps as recommended in the group’s report.

Find out more about the working group

Remove barriers to pension pooling

DWP continues to review and, where possible, remove barriers to pension scheme consolidation. For more information please refer to their recent White Paper.

Proposals to improve the effectiveness of intermediaries

Final decision to make a Market Investigation Reference (MIR) to the CMA on investment consultancy and fiduciary management services

In September 2017 we made a final decision to make a MIR on investment consultancy and fiduciary management services.

The Competition and Markets Authority published their provisional decision report in July 2018 and we welcomed the CMA's work in our response. We will continue to work closely with the CMA ahead of their Final Report due for publication before the end of 2018.

Investment Platforms Market Study

On 17 July we launched our market study into investment platforms.

Final report

In June 2017 we published the final findings of our asset management market study. As part of this, we set out a package of remedies to address the concerns identified.

Show final report (PDF)

The asset management market study final report includes the following annexes:

Interim report

In November 2016 we published our interim report which set out our views based on our work to date on how competition works and on outcomes for investors.

Show interim report (PDF)

Annexes to the interim report:

Research and reports:

Terms of reference

This outlined the scope of our market study.

Show terms of reference (PDF)

Output: The UK’s £7tn ($9tn) asset management industry must reduce costs and improve returns, according to a report by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The regulator’s asset management market study called for increased transparency and competition and said that investors must be given clearer information about costs. The FCA also said that companies should introduce a single “all-in fee” and greater consistency in charges. At least two independent directors should be appointed to the fund management boards. The proposed reforms will be implemented gradually, following consultation.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Edtech start-ups are not prioritising protecting student privacy
 PRIVACY CONCERNS: Critics of how edtech startups secure and protect their user’s data can now refer to a new study from Carnegie Mellon University, where researchers found that these companies often fail to “prioritize student data protections” over customer acquisition and product development. The study also points out that many startups lack formal methods for communicating what plans they have in place regarding student data.

The report “emphasizes that investors and incubators need to prioritize privacy when funding companies,” Amelia Vance, policy counsel at nonprofit Future of Privacy Forum, said in a prepared statement. “Privacy needs to be built into EdTech products from the beginning, and investors are ideally situated to insist that start-ups have a culture of privacy.”

The report also offers suggestions for the industry, including that edtech startups should improve privacy practices periodically, as well as “resist collecting or storing unnecessary student data and establish strong internal controls to preclude doing so.”

Output: Edtech start-ups often prioritise customer acquisition and product development over student data protections, a study from Carnegie Mellon University has found. Many edtech start-ups also lacked formal methods for communicating how they intend to use student data, according to the report. To adequately protect student data, start-ups should plan for periodic improvements of their privacy practices and resist storing student data unnecessarily, the report advised.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
MIT petrol-powered drone has flight-time of five days
 This Gas-Powered Drone Can Fly For Five Days On a Single Tank

A group of engineers at MIT have developed a truly exceptional autonomous drone that is designed to stay in the air for up to five days at a time on a single talk of gasoline.

This particular autonomous drone started off as a solar-powered flight contraption, but solar functionality was soon replaced by gasoline once it became apparent that the 24-foot-wide drone would struggle to stay in the air for days at a time on solar power alone.

Constructed using lightweight kevlar and carbon fiber, this autonomous drone is large enough to carry communication tools onboard. This feature, coupled with the drone's incredible flight time, makes it an ideal device for disaster relief initiatives. What's more, it could also be used to help deliver Internet access to far-flung parts of the world.

Output: MIT researchers have built an autonomous petrol-powered drone that can stay aloft for five days on a single tank of fuel. The drone, which has a 24-foot wingspan, was originally intended to be solar-powered, but the team switched to gasoline when it became apparent that solar alone was not sufficient to keep the aircraft airborne. Use cases for the drone include provision of internet-access to remote areas, and monitoring disaster zones.