General – Page 141 – Retail News CRM

Google VPN now available on iPhone
Google’s VPN feature, part of the Google One service, just received three new features on Android. The new features are:
- Safe Disconnect enables you to use the internet only when the VPN is active.
- App Bypass allows you to choose specific apps to use a standard connection rather than the VPN.
- Snooze allows you to disable your VPN temporarily.
In addition to these new features, Google has also made its VPN service available on iOS, which means that users can now use Google’s VPN on an iPhone as well. But sadly, the new features mentioned above may not be accessible on an iPhone at this time.

According to Google’s blog post, privacy and security are ‘always core to everything’ Google makes. In this regard, Google’s VPN utilizes ‘advanced’ built-in security, which prevents anybody from linking you to your browsing activity.

Google also stated that its VPN service has a ‘full certification’ from the Internet of Secure Things Alliance, and because it is an open-source service, it has been audited by an independent party. So, if you have any doubts about whether you can trust Google with your “private” internet browsing, you can even see the report from the audit.

Google’s VPN service is available only in 18 countries. Some of them are the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France.

You can use Google’s VPN on your Android phone or your iPhone by subscribing to Google One’s Premium subscription plan, which costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
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February 3, 2022
Longer Instagram Reels could soon be a thing
According to a new leak, Instagram could be working on allowing users to create longer Reels than is currently possible. Alessandro Paluzzi, a popular tipster and reverse engineer on Twitter who has released many a juicy preview of upcoming app updates, has discovered that the Meta-owned platform is preparing to introduce a 90-second limit on Instagram Reels, to replace the current 60-second cap on publications.

While it’s not a guarantee, Paluzzi has been right many times before, and using his skills as a mobile developer to reverse-engineering the Instagram app allows him to see strings of code from upcoming updates that are invisible to the rest of us.

Instagram Reels, giving users the ability to create short-form video clips, launched back in 2020. It was modeled after TikTok, which was already exponentially growing in popularity just for this reason. After Instagram Reels took off immediately, YouTube decided to copy the platform and create its own version of TikTok, which it called YouTube Shorts.

Although Shorts are still a beta feature on YouTube, they have already become massively popular with the top creators, who are using them to capture viewers’ attention on upcoming videos, advertise their merch, make announcements, or post quick updates on how their lives are going.

And now, Instagram seems to be paving the way for another possible change to short-form video style by raising the upper limit to video length, which is still at 60 seconds for YouTube Shorts.

While some people are getting excited at the prospect of adding even more material to their Reels, other have expressed concern that this won’t help users succeed on the platform, because people’s attention spans are only getting shorter—not longer.

Remember, from back in the day when YouTube became popular, the algorithms have been favoring increasingly shorter and shorter videos. TikTok’s most popular posts are under a minute long, as are the relatively new YouTube Shorts. Do you think 90-second Reels will take off, or nah? Do let us know in the comments!
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February 3, 2022
YouTube for Android gets new look in fullscreen mode
The YouTube app for Android is receiving a new look starting today when videos are viewed in fullscreen. If you turn your phone into landscape mode while viewing a YouTube video and press pause, you’ll notice something new. On the bottom of the left side of the display, there are thin outlines of new icons that allow you to like the video, dislike it, comment about the video, add it to a playlist, or share it with someone else.

On the bottom right of the fullscreen view is an icon showing multiple videos in fullscreen mode alongside the words: “More Videos, Tap to see all.” When you tap on it, a carousel surfaces to show other videos that you might find interesting. The video timeline is moved a little higher and the three-dot settings icon on the upper right corner is turned into the gear icon used to represent the settings menu on several other apps (although that change was made for both the landscape and portrait modes of YouTube).

Lastly, tapping on the small upside-down pointer, triangle, or chevron (whatever you want to call it) next to the title of a video will bring up the description of it with the number of likes, the number of views, and the date that the video was first posted on YouTube. This is where some videos will have a written description and some will be broken down by chapters making them easier to navigate.

The new fullscreen UI for YouTube has been rolling out today from Google to Android users while iOS users will have to wait for the new look UI.
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February 2, 2022
WhatsApp’s unlimited Google Drive backups may be coming to an end

So far, WhatsApp has been offering unlimited storage on Google Drive for WhatsApp backups. The company offers backup options to iCloud as well (for iPhone users), there, it has been limited to whatever storage tier the iPhone user has. Now, something similar might be happening for Android users.

The popular chat app seems to be planning a change regarding backups on Android phones. Lines in the code of the app point to the fact that WhatsApp may be losing its unlimited Google Drive storage option for backups. This news comes after the info that WhatsApp could be letting you manage the size of your backup in the near future.

The code was first discovered by WABetaInfo, and it is a hidden code that references Google Drive limits.

Keep in mind that the date on which this will happen is still unknown, so for now, you can still benefit from unlimited storage on Google Drive. The thing is that the arrangement with Google allowed WhatsApp backups to now count against the users’ Google Drive storage.

However, WhatsApp seems to be planning to include a storage limit, but the exact limits the app will impose are not yet clear. Hopefully, the backup storage for WhatsApp won’t count towards the 15GB limit for the free tier (but this is, at this point in time, unconfirmed).

This information comes after WABetaInfo discovered an upcoming WhatsApp feature that will allow you to manage your WhatsApp backup size on Android. This feature will allow you to customize what items get backed up, and exclude certain types of files from the backup. Files you might be able to exclude are photos, documents, and videos.

Judging by that, it seems WhatsApp is really in the works of imposing backup limitations for Android users of the app. With the ability to manage your Google Drive backup, WhatsApp will be giving you options to save some storage space (if your chat backups are getting too big).

All that being said, WhatsApp ditching unlimited Google Drive storage shouldn’t come as a surprise, after the fact that Google abandoned unlimited Google Photos backups last year. It seems the Mountain View tech giant is pushing for paid storage plans, and this seems to be reflected in the WhatsApp backup limitations that are currently in the works as well.

A few months ago, WABetaInfo showcased the feature (currently under development) that will enable you to have tighter control on what gets backed up to Google Drive from the app itself.

As you can see in the image below, the app will be offering ways for you to modify what gets backed up to Google Drive and what to exclude (probably in order to save space from your Google Drive storage).

The feature seen above could be included in a future update of WhatsApp, and it definitely should if WhatsApp will be limiting the backup storage. Both of these two features don’t have an official release date yet, but we’ll make sure to inform you if they go official.

For now, as we mentioned above, WhatsApp backups still don’t count against your Google Drive storage quota because of an agreement between WhatsApp and Google.WhatsApp has been getting loads of updates and planning lots of new features for its interface and users. Recently, we reported on the fact iPad users might finally be getting a WhatsApp app designed specifically for the iPad. Another useful feature that might be coming soon will be the ability to easily transfer chats from Android to iOS.

February 1, 2022
Rubber firms’ profits surge
Many rubber companies reported higher profits in the fourth quarter of last year as export prices rose sharply.

The Vietnam Rubber Group Joint Stock Company’s gross profits were up 27 percent year-on-year to VND2.1 trillion on revenues of VND7.46 billion ($324.3 million), up 20 percent.

The Thong Nhat Rubber Joint Stock Company reported a 250 percent rise in profits to VND6 billion as revenues more than doubled to VND32 billion.

Hoa Binh Rubber Joint Stock Company saw a similar rise in profits to VND19 billion, and Dong Phu Rubber Joint Stock Company said it was up 6.8 times to VND278 billion.

The rubbers industry saw profits surge since mid-2021 even as the Covid-19 pandemic peaked, thanks to the sharp increase in latex prices.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, rubber exports rose by 37.5 percent to $3.28 billion in full-year 2021, making Vietnam the third-biggest exporter. It sells rubber to over 80 markets, including China, India, South Korea, Germany, and the U.S.

The Vietnam Rubber Association expects global rubber prices to keep increasing sharply in 2022-24 because of declining supply.

But the Agency of Foreign Trade does not concur with this assessment, saying prices would continue to rise only in the short term as many countries grapple with the Omicron variant of Covid and cut auto production.
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February 1, 2022
Taxi firm Vinasun lays off 2,500 employees

Taxi company Vinasun laid off more than 2,500 employees, including some 1,800 drivers last year with the Covid-19 pandemic causing the business to shrink significantly.

According to its newly released financial report, Vinasun had 1,877 employees at the end of 2021, down more than 2,500 people against the beginning of the year. It laid off some 1,900 employees in the last quarter alone.

The recovery of the transport market after the prolonged social distancing was not as fast as expected, resulting in low workload and a large number of cars idling in in parking lots, Vinasun deputy general director Ta Long Hy told VnExpress Saturday, explaining the downsizing,

“Some people wanted to change jobs, return to their hometowns or were stranded in pandemic-hit areas, which was another contributing factor to the sharp increase in the people leaving their jobs,” he added.

2021 is the third consecutive year Vinasun has drastically cut its staff. It had laid off approximately 1,000 and 1,400 people in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Vinasun recorded revenues of VND484 billion ($21 million) last year, down more than 50 percent against 2020, and made after-tax losses of VND280 billion, nearly four times its original estimate.

The company has been making losses for two consecutive years and if the situation does not improve this year, its stock may be delisted on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange.

February 1, 2022
Vietnamese tired of advertisements popping up online
Vietnamese Internet users find online advertisements tiresome and do not want to watch them, a survey by YouGov has found. In a poll of 2,429 digital users, last December the British online market research and data analytics firm found that 47 percent of respondents always skip or want to skip online ads and 43 percent find the ads “annoying.”

Only 25 percent said they are “interesting.”

Thue Quist Thomasen, CEO of YouGov Vietnam, said: “Our survey also shows that even though most people remember seeing online ads, they are significantly less likely to recall clicking on ads or buying products after seeing ads.

“In my view, the online marketing industry in Vietnam is largely, and fairly, preoccupied with tracking ad frauds and viewability. But marketers often pay insufficient attention to the metrics that truly matter, such as impact and quality, which are the key elements that drive advertising success.”

Soames Hines, CEO of Ogilvy Vietnam, one of Vietnam’s largest creative agencies, said:”The survey’s results confirm what I have been thinking about digital advertising in Vietnam: There are so many ads nowadays that it’s hard for scattered branded banners to be effective across different websites.

“What brands want are great campaigns that win the hearts and minds of consumers. Tiny banners and seemingly haphazard five-second videos just won’t be enough for brands to get what they want.”

With 21.5 percent average annual growth in 2020-25 digital advertising in Vietnam is a booming business, according to the ‘Vietnam Digital Marketing Trends’ report released last year by digital marketing firm Novaon Ads.

Advertisers are expected to spend $934 million on digital advertising in 2022, according to Statista, a German company specializing in market and consumer data.

Vietnam has among the highest number of Internet users in the Asia Pacific. According to Statista, as of January 2021 the country of 96 million had around69 million Internet users.

“Advertisers are often too focused on delivering ads as efficiently as possible while forgetting about the creative aspect of digital advertising,” Carl Söderblom, vice president of operations & business development at Swedish company Adnami, said.

“This, in turn, results in low impact, ineffective ads. With high-impact ads, advertisers can … ensure they… are effective at driving results as well.”
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January 31, 2022
WhatsApp CEO hints at iPad app release

WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart lent some hopeful words to fans of the messaging platform during an interview this week, when he announced that the company is looking into creating a native iPad WhatsApp app.

WhatsApp users have long been nagging the Facebook-owned company to make a viable app for Apple’s iPad, but WhatsApp has been holding off—just like Instagram still lacks a native iPad app as well.

The reason for this is that until now, the way that data was encrypted on the WhatsApp platform didn’t allow for the company to safely sync it across multiple devices while maintaining the same level of encryption. However, according to Will Cathcart, the underlying technology has been evolving, and WhatsApp has been hard at work to make this possible in the future.

“We did a lot of work on the technology for supporting multiple devices,” Cathcart said in the interview.

“Our web and our desktop apps now have that. If I have a multi-device on, I can turn my phone off or lose my network connection and still get messages on my desktop. That would be really important for a tablet app, to be able to use the app even if your phone isn’t on. So the underlying technology is there.”

WhatsApp’s beta version of multi-device support, created last year, allowed users to link up to four devices at a time to their account. However, the downside was that you needed your phone to be connected to the internet the whole time for it to work—and even the beta version didn’t include any iPad support.

With the new technology allowing for data to remain encrypted while syncing, and Cathcart’s positive outlook, it seems that a native WhatsApp app may just be looming on the horizon after all.

January 31, 2022

TikTok honors Holocaust Remembrance Day

On Thursday, January 27, the world celebrated International Holocaust Remembrance Day—and viral media platform TikTok has joined in to do its part in memorializing the holiday, and combatting antisemitism on the platform.

Yesterday, TikTok officially announced that it would be offering new tools and features to combat the spread of hate speech and marginalization, as well as provide users with educational content to counter any misinformation on the platform.

Vingroup reports first-ever loss

Vingroup made after-tax losses of over VND7.5 trillion ($326 million) in 2021, its first-ever loss, citing funding for the pandemic fight and heavier investments in electric car development.

Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate’s net revenues stood at VND125.306 trillion last year, up 13 percent over 2020.

Vingroup said some of its businesses, including real estate for rent, resort, and entertainment, were greatly affected by the prolonged social distancing campaigns in many localities. Vincom Retail, the retail real estate arm of conglomerate Vingroup, spent up to VND2.115 trillion assisting tenants, which also affected total revenues.

Last year, the group sponsored Covid-19 prevention and other activities to the tune of VND6.099 trillion. It also decided to stop producing gasoline-powered cars from the end of 2022 to focus resources on electric vehicles.

By the end of 2021, the group’s total assets were valued at VND427.3 trillion ($18.87 billion), up 1 percent from the beginning of the year.

Recently the group adjusted its orientation, redefining three focus groups of activities, namely technology and industry, trade and service, and social charity.

January 31, 2022

Ferns N Petals Reaches Another Touchpoint by Flowering Out in Malaysia

Ferns N Petals is India’s gifting brand that is taking mighty strides forward. After 28 years and marking a presence in 10+ countries, this renowned gifting brand is now operational in Malaysia too.

From a single store in 1994 in Delhi (India), Ferns N Petals has now tapped into a global pool of customers because of its variety of gifting solutions. The customer can order flower bouquets to the budget-friendly gift items such as personalised cushions and indoor plants. All in all, it is a multi-category gifting brand attracting millions of customers.

Other than India and Malaysia, the company is fully operational both online and offline in the UAE, Qatar, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, etc. It is also providing its customers with multiple delivery options to provide a hassle-free experience. Moreover, their customer reviews say a lot about their impeccable services.

“Doesn’t matter whether you are in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Putrajaya or Shah Alam, you can easily get the gift of your choice delivered to any part of the country, or even internationally” says a spokesperson of the company.

Though there are many biggies in the field, Ferns N Petals has been able to maintain its position by anticipating the needs of its customers in the beginning stage. When COVID hit and almost all businesses took a backseat, the company came up with the concept of ‘Experiential Gifting’ with its virtual gifts. People were able to send their wishes while maintaining social distancing.

With each passing day, the company is adding new categories and gift options such as premium gifts, balloon decoration services and seasonal/occasional gift hampers.

January 31, 2022

Steelmaker Hoa Phat reports 2.5-fold jump in profits

Vietnam’s biggest steelmaker Hoa Phat Group said post-tax profits were up 2.5 times last year to VND34.52 trillion ($1.52 billion).
The company sold 8.8 million tons of steel during the year, a 35 percent increase.

It accounted for nearly a third (32.6 percent) of the construction steel market.

Exports doubled to 2.6 million tons even as the domestic market was hurt by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company’s other businesses maintained their leading positions in the market. It topped in terms of Australian beef production and was the leader in the northern chicken egg market.

The company is working on some major projects this year such as its second steel manufacturing plant and a new port in the central province of Quang Ngai.

It is also building a container manufacturing plant in the southern province of Ba Ria

January 28, 2022

The new addition is Watsons first entry into Qatar at Doha Festival City, the destination for beauty shoppers in the country, just opened in January 2022. This follows the new store opening in Dubai Mall, Dubai Festival City, Mall of the Emirates and Al Wahda Mall in United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Mall of Dhahra in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Skin Expert for Beauty Enthusiasts
Jonathan Watts, General Manager of Watsons GCC at Al-Futtaim, commented on the latest new door, “Watsons signed a franchise agreement with Al-Futtaim in early 2020 with the vision to bring fashionable and affordable beauty and lifestyle products to customers in the GCC region. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic interruption, these stores were opened in less than 24 months.

“Qatar is a truly vibrant and unique market. While customers are getting more and more sophisticated about beauty and personal care, Watsons as the skin expert is delighted to bring our customers exclusive international brands. The excitement is overwhelming as customers have been eagerly waiting for Watsons to expand across the GCC via our O+O (Offline plus Online) retail model, allowing beauty lovers of all generations to shop offline and online.”

With the purpose to inspire customers to “LOOK GOOD, DO GOOD, FEEL GREAT”, Watsons as a beauty authority is bringing over 200 brands from around the world, offering makeup, skincare, haircare to personal care. Close to half of its products are exclusive at Watsons, including brands from the UK, France, Japan, and Korea. Some of the top pick brands include Deweytree, Holika Holika, Leaders, Superdrug, Target Pro by Watsons, and more.

Now in Qatar, customers have the chance to explore the nearly 3,000 sq. ft. beauty-land with designated zones like Natural & Clean Beauty which features the Sustainable Choices products, and an open makeup area so that customers can try out different looks and play around with a wide range of latest and trendiest colour cosmetics. Follow @WatsonsGCC on Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date on exclusive deals and promotion offers all year round.

Google Drive is restricting users’ files by mistake, Google AI strikes again

A little over a week ago, Google announced a new Google Drive policy. It stated that the tech giant would start to actively search for files breaching its abuse program policies and/or Terms of Service and locking the ones that do.

Simply put, if such a file was found and restricted, the owner wouldn’t be able to send it to others, and all access to the file, except that of the owner, would be revoked. Google stated that this change had the aim to control the spreading of malware, hate speech, explicit content, etc.

That said, complaints about Google Drive locking files that were neither of those things started piling up recently. From the looks of it, it seems that the AI system in charge of sifting through which files should be deemed dangerous is acting up and failing to do its job properly. Algorithms—the ultimate example of a double-edged sword.

There are even examples of .txt files containing a single number inside that are falsely marked as inappropriate. One of the best examples comes from a Michigan State University assistant professor Dr. Emily Dolson.

Dr. Dolson was uploading a large set of files to Google Drive while preparing to send her students’ programming assignments. The files consisted of the “inputs and the expected outputs” of said cases. “Shortly after uploading them,” she explains ”I received a string of emails from Google indicating that those files had been flagged for copyright infringement.”

Now, in its announcement of this new policy, Google has stated that in situations such as the one with Dr. Dolson, the user should “receive an email with details and potential actions they can take to request a review.” Unfortunately, however, that did not happen in her case.

After posting her issue on Twitter, a Google engineer going by Misha Brukman replied to Dolson, assuring her that they are working on a solution.

January 27, 2022

Decathlon names new CEO

French sports retailer Decathlon named 45-year old Barbara Martin Coppola, a former executive at companies such as IKEA and Google, as its new global chief executive.

Coppola will replace Michel Aballea, who had held the role since 2015, in mid-March this year, added Decathlon, which competes in France with companies such as Go Sport.

Decathlon said it was in good financial shape, echoing bullish updates recently given by sportswear companies such as Puma and JD Sports which have performed well despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The current good health of Decathlon and our strong ambitions encourage us to accelerate the transformation of our business model to better assert our position as a world leader in sport,” said Decathlon chairman Fabien Derville.

“We are convinced that Barbara will be able to lead this transformation while respecting our values,” added Derville.

According to Decathlon’s website, the company registered sales of 11.4 billion euros ($12.9 billion). The Mulliez family, which also owns the Auchan supermarket chain, owns the majority shareholding in Decathlon.

January 27, 2022

Category: General