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June 11, 2017 at 12:13PM
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Showing posts with label 2017 at 12:17PM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2017 at 12:17PM. Show all posts
Sunday, June 11, 2017
RCom, Infy, Videocon and SBI most buzzing stocks of the week
Monday, May 1, 2017
Sydney startup SnackableTV is creating a streaming platform for short form content
As you may have noticed on your Facebook feed, video is everywhere, and brands are taking notice. According to data from eMarketer, digital video ad spending in the US is predicted to reach US$28 billion by 2020, up from $9.9 billion in 2016.
Looking to take this video spend and create better content is Sydney startup SnackableTV, a free streaming platform, or network, for high quality short form content aimed at millennial viewers.
Launched in December, the idea for the platform was born was born out of Kontented, a content production agency run by Kate Edwards.
Edwards believes the internet is “littered” with either poor-quality short form content – including user-generated content, which Edwards calls “digital litter” – targeting young people, or expensive longform content targeting the traditional television or film consumption markets, with nothing in between.
Through SnackableTV, Edwards wants to fill that gap, giving audiences aged between 13 and 30 access to high quality short form content.
The idea first came from Edwards’ boredom and her frustration around the lack of ROI Kontented could provide to its commercial partners in the content space.
“They literally had to rely on a wing and a prayer that their social audiences would pick up the content, but it was often just buried in YouTube. This meant they were spending thousands of dollars on really good quality content, but no one was seeing it,” she said.
While on maternity leave, Edwards decided something had to change.
“[I thought], if I don’t change the way we do things, we will just end up in the same horrible agency cycle that kills all client/agency relationships, and we aren’t even an agency. We’re the creators; we want to make a great product and have a highly engaged audience to receive the content,” she said.
Edwards told her husband her plans one night when he came home from work, telling him that if they didn’t do it she would be quitting the business – and so SnackableTV was born.
“We focus on episodic content to ensure that the target consumer can still ‘binge watch’, which we know is the key consumption behaviour for young people,” Edwards said.
SnackableTV is looking to commission and license content for its audience across the broad banners of culture, music, gaming, film, podcasts, and style.
So far, Edwards said there are over 350 episodes of content on the platform created by Kontented and other producers, with these amassing over six million views since it launched in December.
To fund the production of this content, the platform will not use “ads, spam, and retargeting”, which Edwards calls “the shoes following you around the internet effect”, but rather look to help brands produce native content. Getting brands on board shouldn’t be too hard, with Kontented having produced content for the likes of Coca Cola, ANZ, and McCafe.
Edwards pointed Netflix out as SnackableTV’s closest competitor, but admitted the platform likely shares an audience too with other platforms such as YouTube Red and video networks such as Buzzfeed’s.
“For us though, our most relevant point of difference is that we don’t have an opinion. SnackableTV is a platform agnostic of political opinion, gossip, and doesn’t stand for anything. We are simply technology enabling storytellers a platform to find and audience, and for an audience we are a platform where you can find great content,” Edwards explained.
“Unlike Buzzfeed or Vice or even social media, we’re not going to rant and rave. Our shows might, but we as a brand stand completely agnostically of all that fodder and clickbait. We just want to deliver a seamless experience and awesome stories.”
The fact some content will be powered by brands also raises the question of whether SnackableTV can be truly “agnostic”, while bringing viewers to the network and ensuring content doesn’t get lost in the ether won’t be easy; the likes of Buzzfeed, Vice, and Youtube are extremely well-known names that millions of viewers flock to because of specific channels, names, or points of view they house and represent.
Here, Edwards said SnackableTV is looking at different ways to drive audiences to the platform; one method it’s already crossed off the list is engaging influencers, which she said “felt really insincere and was so clunky in its execution, and didn’t deliver results”.
However, SnackableTV has secured a partnership with APN News and Media to broadcast a youth channel on Catch, the company’s in-transit content player.
The startup also last month took a $300,000 loan from the NSW Government through its Jobs for NSW arm to help further its growth, with an eye on launching in the US over the next 12 months.
Image: Kate Edwards. Source: Supplied.
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May 01, 2017 at 10:26AM
from Gina Baldassarre
Melbourne forex startup Airwallex raises US$13 million Series A to expand overseas
Melbourne-based fintech startup Airwallex has announced that it has closed a US$13 million (AU$17.3 million) Series A round from Chinese internet company Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital China and Mastercard to help fuel the release of new application programming interfaces (API) and expand internationally.
For Sequoia Capital China, one of China’s earliest investment companies, the investment marks the first contributions for the firm in an Australian startup, with Sequoia Partner, Steven Ji, saying the payment solution “seriously” impressed the company.
“Foreign exchange transactions pose a real challenge for businesses that operate across borders, and Airwallex’s solution has seriously impressed us in its ability to close the gap and allow companies to financially access markets that may have previously been out of reach,” he said.
Using a peer to peer algorithmic engine, big data analytics and quantitative models that predict currency volatility plus auto-hedge conversions, the Airwallex platform allows its users to send transparent cross-border transactions while avoiding inflated fees and margins.
The startup was formed in 2015, participating in the Mastercard Start Path accelerator program before officially launching last year and closing a AU$4.5 million pre-Series A round led by Gobi Partners.
Now, with the Series A backing, the startup is looking to accelerate the release of a new series of APIs that will allow businesses to process international payments at a larger scale.
Airwallex cofounder and CEO, Jack Zhang, said the startup will look to move alongside the rise of cross-border transactions, as international trade continous to grow.
“Our mission is to eradicate the burden of international payments so that businesses can transact across borders with ease. Armed with a growing number of financial services licences and partnerships across numerous jurisdictions, we aim to make international payments as cheap and simple as domestic payments,” said Zhang.
Fintech Australia CEO, Danielle Szetho, said the Airwallex funding announcement was “further evidence” that Australian fintechs are globally competitive and holding an increasingly strong footing within Asia and China.
A report from Deloitte last month ranked Sydney eighth out of 44 global fintech hubs and highlighted the work of the fintech community across Australia, in particular its efforts to engage with Asia.
The government early last year launched an expert advisory group tasked with developing Australia into the leading market for fintech in the Asia Pacific region, while Sydney fintech hub Stone and Chalk in September welcomed three Chinese startups to the coworking space for three months as part of an ‘incubation exchange’ program.
Image: Airwallex Team. Source: Supplied.
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May 01, 2017 at 10:26AM
from James Ward
Bugdojo is a Quality Assurance testing marketplace for smaller development teams
For a developer, nothing saps away more time or patience than quality assurance (QA) testing. For the unacquainted, imagine if you couldn’t send an email without ensuring you had used the perfect spelling, line spacing, font size, grammar, and sentence structure. Emails would bounce if they were deemed ‘incorrect’, meaning you’d have to backtrack and send test emails after each sentence to narrow down the issue.
Bugdojo is a startup looking to ease the pain of QA testing for developers, through an online platform that connects the coding work of small to medium teams to QA professionals for quick, high-quality testing.
Focusing on ‘interface-based’ testing for web platforms and applications, Bugdojo allows developers to integrate their online control repositories such as Github and Gitbucket to the platform, before submitting their code for testing using ‘bot commands’.
These online repositories act as a sort of Google Drive and project management tool for code, allowing code of any language to be ‘hosted’ online for collaboration or backup.
Once connected to their Bugdojo account, developers are able to write up a ‘ticket’ containing details about what needs to be tested, before issuing a short ‘bot’ or coding command that sends the ticket over to a Bugdojo QA tester.
The idea, according to the startup’s founder Ash Conway, is to allow developers a simplistic and quick way to submit their work for QA testing without sacrificing time or resources. After all, these developers are already using repositories, meaning submitting a ticket for a QA test takes nothing short of a line of code.
Following the establishment of another startup called Bugwolf, which focused on user acceptance testing, the final audience-based testing stage for software before release, Conway saw that there was another noticeable gap in the testing market.
“Over time I had the chance to think about other problems and issues in the space. Quite a lot of the time I’d have smaller software engineering teams talk about the issues they ere having in QA and how existing solutions didn’t really fit in with their workflow,” said Conway.
Existing solutions, Conway explained, come in the form of medium-large scale QA firms or an in-house QA engineer. However, for a smaller scale development team, such as those working within startups, hiring a dedicated QA person typically isn’t worth the cost, while using a larger firm comes with hefty overhead costs.
“You don’t always need QA developers full-time when you’re a dev team of a smaller scale. They also can be hard to find, and outsourcing is expensive if you use traditional methods of submitting content to a larger QA agency,” said Conway.
Bugdojo, Conway added, cuts out the “middleman” in these processes and thus saves smaller development teams cash.
To help support these tinier budgets, the startup has adopted a no contract, pay-as-you-go model. Submitting work for QA testing currently costs a flat rate of $10, with the first five tests free. Bugdojo also sports a “100% quality guarantee”, meaning if a developer isn’t happy with the result, the business will waive the fee.
As to why a developer would use the platform over testing code themselves, Conway discussed the pros and cons of the process, and where Bugdojo fits in.
“There are a bunch of other things that an engineer will do around QA from an automated perspective. We’re not here to replace that, but there are tasks that require a fresh set of eyes and require a real person to test them in a real environment, on another device on a browser,” he said.
“Because we integrate into the workflow of a small-medium dev team, they don’t need to jump out of what they’re doing. They can actually do it while they code. I [also] think developers aren’t the best people to test their own work. They’re also the type who generally find it a pain, so we want to take the annoyance out of that.”
Staying true to the platform’s focus on allowing developers to “content switch” or submit tests while they code, each completed QA report is returned to the exact ticket the developer issued the test from.
Responses are issued with a small description, a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’, mark and a video report so a developer can see where any issues occurred, visualised through a screen-capture of the QA tester navigating the material.
The testers themselves are industry professionals sourced through Bugdojo, who are vetted through a testing process which pits applicants against a QA testing scenario. To help keep the test fresh, Conway said there’s also a machine learning element to the testing process.
Once onboard, QA testers are obliged to sign a non-disclosure agreement to protect clients. They’ll then be allocated jobs as they come in, and are tasked with completing them and returning a report within an hour. Most testers currently work as freelancers, many full or part time developers looking to earn cash on the side, with Conway saying there will be opportunities for bigger income earnings as the marketplace grows.
“If they fall below a certain level of quality, they’ll be sent back to taking the vetting step again,” he added.
Having bootstrapped both Bugdojo and Bugwolf himself, Conway said he’s keeping an open mind to funding opportunities in the future; bootstrapping helps him push himself to get customers on board.
“There’s a lot of good stuff that comes out of bootstrapping, since you put pressure on yourself to get customers and start making money. It definitely makes things more interesting sometimes,” he said.
Getting customers on board will be exactly what Budojo will look to do next, as the startup works on its marketing plan and target research.
Image: Ash Conway. Source: Supplied.
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May 01, 2017 at 10:26AM
from James Ward
Karnataka Government Will Take Up Demands For Unions In Information Technology Sector: Minister – NDTV
NDTV |
Karnataka Government Will Take Up Demands For Unions In Information Technology Sector: Minister
NDTV Bengaluru: Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge today said he would take up any demand for formation of trade unions in information technology sector for discussion if the workers bring it to the notice of the state government. “Though this is a … |
May 01, 2017 at 11:57AM
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Британский регулятор поймал мошенника
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Управление по финансовому регулированию и надзору Великобритании (FCA) обличила еще одного нерегулируемого форекс-брокера. На сей раз попался StrattonFX, который утверждает, что якобы имеет британский адрес. Брокер использует фейковый адрес в Лондоне и утверждает, что его оператором является компания, базирующаяся в Сент-Винсенте и Гренадинах. Также Stramax Ltd подчеркивает, что его веб-сайт и домен были зарегистрированы в […]
May 01, 2017 at 11:57AM
from Tanya Chepkova
Data Management Startup Rubrik Bags $180 Million Investment; Swiftly Heading to its Valuation of …
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Rubrik, a data management start-up makes its way to the large enterprises’ group by confirming a $180 million round of funds that led the valuation of …
May 01, 2017 at 10:23AM
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Equities Market Records Largest Weekly Gain on Impressive Q1 Results
Relief came the way of the Nigerian stock market last week as better-than-expected first quarter (Q1) results by companies attracted bullish sentiments and led to positive close. The market had shed 0.9 per cent the previous on profit taking by investors.
The post Equities Market Records Largest Weekly Gain on Impressive Q1 Results appeared first on ForexTV.
May 01, 2017 at 11:57AM
from Equities News Editor
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Hotel Equities to manage Carbondale business
Hotel Equities will manage the 107-room Home2 Suites by Hilton Hotel in Carbondale, according to a news release. The hotel is expected to open in August. The Atlanta-based company will help manage the final construction and development phase of the property.
The post Hotel Equities to manage Carbondale business appeared first on ForexTV.
April 30, 2017 at 12:03PM
from Equities News Editor
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Buy BPCL, Larsen Toubro, ABB, Adani Enterprises: Ashwani Gujral
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April 25, 2017 at 12:06PM
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Why Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy is offering his job for a day
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April 25, 2017 at 12:06PM
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Buy Biocon, Shriram Transport Finance; sell State Bank of India: Rajat Bose
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April 25, 2017 at 12:06PM
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Sunday, April 23, 2017
Weekly Forex Review – 24th to the 28th of April
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Weekly Forex Outlook and Review for the 24th to the 28th of April Forex Market 2017.
Aspects highlighted in the Review: Potential opportunity zones, management points and targets.
Pairs and Markets Analysed this Week: EURUSD, GBPUSD ( 4 Hour ), AUDUSD, USDCHF ( 4 Hour ), USDCAD, CADCHF, GBPAUD, USDJPY, Gold, Silver and EURJPY.
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April 23, 2017 at 12:01PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcgPbWoERK8
from Forex Reviews
What election? French yields fall, euro steadies as vote looms
April 23, 2017 at 11:54AM
from Reuters
New York trials birth control for rats to tackle massive rodent population
Officials are now preparing to launch a trial of a liquid bait which will make the rats infertile.
April 23, 2017 at 11:52AM
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France goes to the polls as future of EU hangs in the balance
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron are the favourites to progress to a run-off on 7 May.
April 23, 2017 at 11:52AM
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Subsidy for Setting Up / Expansion of Industry is tax-free Capital Receipt
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It is an admitted position that the assessee treated the amount of subsidy as a capital receipt, but, did not reduce it from the value of fixed assets and eventually claimed depreciation on the higher value of assets without reduction of such subsidy. To deal with such a situation, the Finance Act, 2015, w.e.f. 1-4-2016, […]
April 23, 2017 at 12:01PM
from CA Sandeep Kanoi
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