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  • Cloud infra services up 52% year on year to $9.5b

    Cloud infra services up 52% year on year to $9.5b

    Worldwide cloud infrastructure services expenditure grew 52.3% year on year in Q2 2016, reflecting the ongoing adoption by businesses and expanding use of consumer-centric services, such as social media, gaming and video streaming.

    Amazon’s AWS remained the leading cloud infrastructure services provider, accounting for 30.4% of total spend, according to a new report from Canalys Research.

    Its early mover advantage, aggressive pricing, broad geographic coverage and wide range of service offerings are key factors behind its success. But it is under growing pressure from Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and IBM SoftLayer.

    Overall, these four providers represented 60.5% of total worldwide cloud infrastructure services spend.

    Daniel Lu, analyst at Canalys Research said, “The need for scalable and on-demand infrastructure is being driven by application testing, development and hosting; content delivery, big data and analytics; machine learning, IoT, disaster recovery and back-up; plus storage.”

    “But not every organization and every workload will migrate to the cloud. Cost is a major issue, but also compliance and regulations, security concerns, and application readiness are determining factors in cloud migration strategies. The adoption of hybrid cloud and on-premises solutions is prevalent as organizations seek to get the best of both worlds,” Lu noted.

    The total value of the cloud infrastructure services market was $9.5 billion in the second quarter of 2016.

    North America remained the largest market, representing 55.3% of the worldwide total, followed by EMEA at 24.7%, Asia Pacific at 15.9% and Latin America at 4.0%. For full-year 2016, Canalys predicts that the worldwide market will grow 50.3% to reach $37.8 billion.

  • Security on cloud still a major challenge for global firms, says study

    Security on cloud still a major challenge for global firms, says study

    Despite the continued importance of cloud computing resources to organizations, companies are not adopting appropriate governance and security measures to protect sensitive data in the cloud.

    This is just one of the findings of a Ponemon Institute study titled “The 2016 Global Cloud Data Security Study,” commissioned by digital security firm Gemalto.

    The study surveyed more than 3,400 IT and IT security practitioners worldwide to gain a better understanding of key trends in data governance and security practices for cloud-based services.

    According to 73% of respondents, cloud-based services and platforms are considered important to their organization’s operations and 81% said they will be more so over the next two years. In fact, 36% of respondents said their companies’ total IT and data processing needs were met using cloud resources today and that they expected this to increase to 45% over the next two years.

    Although cloud-based resources are becoming more important to companies’ IT operations and business strategies, 54% of respondents did not agree their companies have a proactive approach to managing security and complying with privacy and data protection regulations in cloud environments. This is despite the fact that 65% of respondents said their organizations are committed to protecting confidential or sensitive information in the cloud. Furthermore, 56% did not agree their organization is careful about sharing sensitive information in the cloud with third parties such as business partners, contractors and vendors.
    Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute, said, “Cloud security continues to be a challenge for companies, especially in dealing with the complexity of privacy and data protection regulations.”

    “To ensure compliance, it is important for companies to consider deploying such technologies as encryption, tokenization or other cryptographic solutions to secure sensitive data transferred and stored in the cloud,” Ponemon said.

    Jason Hart, VP and CTO for Data Protection at Gemalto, said, “Organizations have embraced the cloud with its benefits of cost and flexibility but they are still struggling with maintaining control of their data and compliance in virtual environments.”

    “It’s quite obvious security measures are not keeping pace because the cloud challenges traditional approaches of protecting data when it was just stored on the network. It is an issue that can only be solved with a data-centric approach in which IT organizations can uniformly protect customer and corporate information across the dozens of cloud-based services their employees and internal departments rely every day,” Hart said.
    More customer information is being stored in the cloud and is considered the data most at risk.
    According to the survey, customer information, emails, consumer data, employee records and payment information are the types of data most often stored in the cloud. Since 2014, the storage of customer information in the cloud has increased the most, from 53% in 2014 to 62% of respondents saying their company was doing this today.

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  • More than half the world is still offline

    More than half the world is still offline

    Despite falling prices for ICT services, more than half of the world’s population is still not connected to the internet, the latest ITU figures show.

    The UN agency estimates that 3.9 billion people remain cut-off from the vast resources available on the internet.

    The newly released report ICT Facts & Figures 2016 shows that developing countries now account for the vast majority of internet users with 2.5 billion users compared with one billion in developed countries. Internet penetration rates, however, tell a different story.

    In developed countries, internet penetration is pegged at 81% of the population, compared with 40% in developing countries and 15% in the least developed countries. It is also higher for men than for women in all regions of the world.

    The report noted that the global internet user gender gap actually grew from 11% in 2013 to 12% in 2016. The regional gender gap is largest in Africa, at 23%, and smallest in the Americas, at 2%.

    By early 2016, international internet bandwidth had reached 185,000 gigabits per second, up from a low of 30,000 gigabits in 2008. However, bandwidth is also unequally distributed globally, and lack of bandwidth remains a major bottleneck to improved Internet connectivity in many developing and least developed countries.

    ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao said more needs to be done to bridge the digital divide and bring the more than half of the global population not using the internet into the digital economy.

    “ITU, given the tremendous development of ICTs, has a key role to play in facilitating their attainment,” affirmed Brahima Sanou, the Director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau.

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  • The seven reasons for Alibaba’s success ; Alibaba’s development and framework

    The seven reasons for Alibaba’s success ; Alibaba’s development and framework

    Alibaba was initially founded in Jack Ma’s apartment in Hangzhou in 1999, before Alibaba.com was launched later that same year. In 2003, as the number of Internet users in China reached 80 million,[1] Taobao.com was launched as an online market. Shortly afterwards, both Alipay and Aliwangwang (instant messenger on Taobao) were launched to complete the purchasing process in Taobao. In 2007, the number of Internet users in China rose to 210 million[2] and Alimama was launched as an advertisement transaction platform. Taobao started to monetize that same year. Tmall was launched in 2008, as Alibaba ran both B2C and C2C platforms. In 2009, Alibaba Cloud computing was founded, illustrating Alibaba’s commitment to prioritize big data as part of its strategy. In 2010, the following three platforms were launched as part of Alibaba’s increasing focus on mobile payment: Juhuasuan (a platform for C2B); AliExpress (a global consumer marketplace) and Mobile Taobao App.

    Alibaba’s framework is based on the three following targets:

    1. Chinese customers: Taobao (online shopping destination), Tmall (brands and retail platform), Juhuasuan (group buying marketplace), 1688.com (Chinese wholesale marketplace).
    2. Customers abroad: AliExpress (global consumer marketplace), Alibaba.com (global wholesale marketplace).
    3. Support platforms: Alipay (online payment service); China smart logistic (logistic information system); Alimama (online marketing services); Alibaba cloud computing (platform for internal and third-party use).

     

    Screenshot 2016-07-19 09.20.09

    The three core factors that influence Alibaba are its Business model, Profit model and Credit model. In addition, there are four subsidiary factors namely considerate service, sensitive for business chance, new transaction patterns and completed system supporting Alibaba to gain its success.

    1. Alibaba’s unique business core to provide services mainly to small enterprises and individual defines a unique business opportunity which not only emancipates the productive forces of small enterprises but also offer much more diversified consumption choices for consumers.

    Alibaba’s service offer focuses on small enterprises. Whether we talk about 1688 – a B2B eCommerce platform specifically aimed at wholesale and procurement business – Taobao (including Tmall business shopping mall) – a B2C & C2C eCommerce platform gathering numbers of individual sellers – or YiDaTong (the largest Chinese professional import and export agent) which not only subsidizes small enterprises but also helps them accumulate credit through history data, all three of Alibaba’s core businesses mainly focus on providing services to small enterprises helping them create value which could not be accomplished by any of them individually (such as cost control). Additionally, the three core businesses represent a complete eCommerce ecosystem.

    The focus on small enterprises also leads to a phenomenon whereby a large variety of goods are available to a large variety of target consumer groups (age, profession, wealth, etc.) on the platform. In 2014, the Alibaba platform as a whole experienced a total transaction volume of 2.3bn CNY (close to 330 bn EURO).

    1. Alibaba’s profit model that Alibaba gets profits by charging services in marketing and technical supports rather than by charging admission fee contributes to a large and robust market share made up of loyal customers.

    Alibaba’s profits mainly come from advertisements and keyword bidding within platforms, which in total represents 57% of profits. The second most important source of profits is the variety of technical services based on big data of consumer behaviors, representing 25% of profits. One of the important reasons why Alibaba could beat eBay China can be found in their strive to cultivate the online transaction habit among Chinese customers by allowing sellers to register for free and by removing intermediate fees. EBay China, on the other hand, was in a rush to harvest the Chinese market by charging fees for all transactions completed on the platform. Taobao thus gathered a large number of sellers, thereby encouraging an even larger number of customers to purchase via the Taobao platform. Hence, Alibaba successfully developed a strong and loyal online customer base.

    Nowadays, the Alibaba platform represents more than 0.5bn registered users, among which there are more than 0.23bn active buyers and more than 8m active sellers. The Annual orders already exceed 11bn. [3]Thanks to the large number of customers on the platform, Alibaba can make use of advertisement, keyword bidding and customer’s data for profit. Advertisements on Taobao can generate thousands of clicks for a single brand; the bidding for keywords contributes to the higher ranking of brands in search results; technical services assist sellers in the management of their online store and relationship with customers through analysis of customers’ preferences and feedbacks.

    1. Alibaba’s accurate credit model, which builds a third-party payment platform as a bridge between consumers and e-stores to standardize payment process and to protect consumer’s rights, helps to develop a good and trustworthy reputation among customers.

     

    • All sellers on the eCommerce platform are requested to pass an online certification test to verify their identity information.

    Such certification ensures the supervision of sellers on the platform at all times and reduces the possibility of illegal transactions.

    • All transactions are recorded and can be traced back by both sellers and customers. Based on the records, Taobao set up a system to measure the degree of integrity of both actors.

    Such a system ensures that any fraudulent behavior is published for everybody to see and can lead to a significant loss in the number of future transactions because of the lack of the other party’s trust. The system protects the legitimacy of each transaction and helps customers chose more reliable sellers.

    • Alipay is an online payment platform, combining ease of use, safety and efficiency. Payments are first transferred to Alipay. Once the buyers have received their product and ensured they are not faulty, the payment is transferred to sellers from Alipay. If the product is faulty or does not meet the expectations of the buyer and returned, so is the payment.

    When eCommerce first appeared in China, the safety of online purchases was the most important problem that concerned customers. Alipay provides a reliable solution which has won the trust of Chinese customers. Because of its convenience, Taobao attracts more and more online shoppers. Nowadays, people can use Alipay to pay for any fees arising in their lives in general. Besides, Alipay allows customers to purchase goods on credit used in the current month and paid back the following month. Up to 2013, the number of users in Alipay approached 0.3bn while the number of transactions reached 900bn CNY (about 128bn EURO) and the active users of the Mobile terminal reached 0.1bn which exceeded the number of users on PayPal.

    • Online feedback is largely encouraged. The more comments a customer writes for products, the more discount coupons he receives.

    Word of mouth can strongly influence customer’s behavior, especially when all information concerning a particular product is more difficult to find. The large amount of comments can guide and encourage customers in their purchasing experience and help them pick out their preferred product, while reducing post-purchasing regrets.

    1. Alibaba’s considerate service offer provides a comfortable purchasing environment and a positive online customer experience leading to high user engagements.

    Based on the analysis of its large customer base, Alibaba always knows how to provide the most suited services for optimal customer satisfaction. It helps sellers to maintain positive interaction with buyers; it offers online business training for various stores; it introduced a special coding system to manage the large number of stores on the platform; it developed its own instant communication tool to improve seller-buyer communication exchange; it enables the reimbursement of any product ensuring payment return within the following seven days, and so on. Those support services help sellers grow their business while helping buyers to find their preferred products, thus generating more and more transactions.

    1. Alibaba excels at identifying and seizing unique business opportunities, thereby positioning itself as a leader and developing customer loyalty.

    In China, two festivals have a major impact on people all over the country: Spring Festival (the Chinese New Year) and ‘Double 11’ (a festival created by Taobao).

    The ‘Double 11’ festival falls on November 11th, just between Chinese National Day and Christmas when people would prefer physical in-store shopping (offline). Although most customers would typically be avoiding shopping during that period, Taobao developed a campaign encouraging consumption, so much so that the day became an actual shopping festival. On that day, various brands offer different discounts and even launch new products. Customers pick out their various preferred products and purchase them online on November 11th. In 2014, ‘Double 11’ generated over 1bn CNY in total trading volume for Tmall within the first three opening minutes. Within the first 14 minutes 2 seconds, volumes exceeded 5bn CNY. Total volume for the day reached 53bn CNY (approximately 7.6bn EURO)! In a single day, Taobao generated revenue of 1.5bn CNY and net profit of more than 0.5bn CNY (approximately 71m EURO).[4]

    The ‘Double 11’ day has successfully developed a new popular shopping event for the majority of customers in China. At such an event, the various Tmall sellers’ needs for advertisement and software services increase largely. Alibaba thus gains enormous profits from the event, while both sellers and buyers rely more on the open platform. Alibaba’s advantage in cloud computing also represents a valuable asset for the shopping festival.

    1. Always keeping an eye on customers’ evolving needs, Alibaba dares to challenge the traditional transaction patterns and explores new ways to create more value for customers.

    C2B transaction model: When customers are in particular predominance for a certain transaction, Alibaba deploys the C2B transaction model to reduce costs in the traditional supply chain and shortens the time required for product turnover, thereby increasing customer satisfaction. On the one hand, Alibaba gathers a large number of scattered customers who express the similar needs to form a powerful purchase group that can buy single products at a wholesale price. On the other hand, Alibaba takes advantage of its massive online customer behavior data to develop products suited to particular customer habits. For example, the analysis may show that customers based in south regions use their dryers more frequently on account of the wet weather and therefore need more resistant machines while other customers may not like vacuum cleaners which require the user to bend down when using it. In that case, Alibaba takes charge of 12 product lines in 12 brands and exerts total control over the production schedule to ensure the production of the selected products which are predicted to be in high demand within shortened production cycles. Lastly, Alibaba integrates the product the production with front-end sales to bring instant personalized products to customers. Within the single day of May 8th 2014, Tianmao sold 180,000 sets of the 12 products which equated the sales volume for a period of 3 months on the internet.

    O2O strategy: In Alibaba’s plan, customers can purchase a product by scanning two-dimensional codes and then receive products with another code which involves the interaction of the instruction and after-sales functions. Customers can also take part in various brand-run initiatives and receive targeted advertisements by scanning corresponding codes. In order to accelerate the plan execution, Alibaba is actively developing its expansion to mobile terminal areas – “Alipay Wallet” represents one such significant trial. “Alipay Wallet” not only provides different ways for payment such as code scan and direct cash-transfer, but also partners with different banks in order to provide an assistance service to customers for managing their many bills and coupons. Along with many other purchased Apps covering other domains including taxi services, maps, weather, music and travel, “Alipay Wallet” aims to transfer the content and activities of customers’ daily lives onto the O2O service.      

    1. Rather than positioning itself as a simple eCommerce company, Alibaba focuses on providing excellent service quality to both sellers and buyers, by introducing easier ways to do business for the former and developing a positive purchasing experience for the latter.

    In order to achieve its goal in terms of positioning, Alibaba keeps expanding its core business to many different domains such as advertising services, logistic network, financial services and mobile terminal services.

    1. Alimama: Alimama is an advertising platform which operates as Alibaba’s B2B system: owners of advertisement positions such as blog owners post the positions in Alimama and advertisers purchase their favorite positions according to their own criteria. Nowadays, Alimama focuses on three dimensions: Big Data, “Taobao Ke” (cost per sale mode) and the combination of video and mobile terminals. Through these dimensions, Alimama aims to help merchants find their specific target customers and help customers achieve their preferred products easily.
    2. Big Data: Besides the massive internet flow, transactions and database that Alimama represents, Ali also integrates comprehensive data resources that cover almost every aspect of customers’ daily lives through the acquisition of software companies in many other domains such as map, weather, taxi, music and travel. The accurate and diversified data can thus help advertisers select the most appropriate website advertising channels and reach customers effectively.
    3. “Taobao Ke” is a group of people dedicated to assisting merchants in the promotion of their products who receive a commission when a transaction is completed (cost per sale billing model). CPS is useful for eCommerce since people who successfully identify customers and convince them to complete a purchase are rewarded by commission.
    4. The combination of video and mobile terminal: In April 2014, Taobao bought 16.5% shares of China’s largest video site, intending to leverage the strengths of video in both PC and mobile to enable the interaction of an advertisement between the two terminals. When the audience watch advertisements during videos, Taobao will send the related information to the mobiles of people in the audience in various forms, including games and coupons to entice clicks from the audience.
    5. Ali micro finance: Ali micro finance mainly provides micro deposits and loans. It uses the data collected directly from the Ali platform: credit data and behavioral data. It translates the online customer behavior data into businesses and categorizes individual credit ratings by small enterprises according to their eligibility to apply for small loans from Ali micro finance (eg. small amount, short-term, momentarily borrow and return), as these small structures usually experience difficulty in obtaining loans in the traditional banking channels. Meanwhile, Ali’s small loan service also attaches great importance to the use of new technologies. It relies a lot on the cloud computing technology to determine whether there is a particular match between a certain buyer and a seller, whether they speculate credits, what rate the risk possibility stands at and so on. This not only ensures the safety and efficiency of the service but also reduces operating costs. In addition, the Internet makes it possible to provide a set of financial services, 24/7, 365 days a year, to large-scale small enterprises at the same time. This meets the major demand for capital resulting from the increasing number of small enterprises being founded in China.
    6. CSN (China Smart Network) project: CSN project was launched by Ali in collaboration with the four most influential logistics companies in China. Ali hopes to achieve the goal of enabling the delivery of products to buyers within 24 hours of ordering via the platform. Different logistic networks belonging to different logistic companies are integrated into forming the single most effective network in terms of parcel turnover for customer delivery. Different logistic companies focus and provide their expertise on specific portions within the network to maximize efficiency. Meanwhile, based on data analysis, Ali selects the most suitable logistic company for different portions of the network and allocates delivery businesses according to performance. As a consequence, logistic companies need to improve service quality and reduce costs, while ensuring continuous delivery. Moreover, customers can choose their favorite types of deliveries such as ‘fastest’, ‘cheapest’, ‘safest’ and ‘best service’ since the CSN can deploy the work capacities of the logistic companies.

     

    ALI’S FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

    Globalization

    In November 2014, Ali expanded its commercial transaction worldwide for the first time. Since that date, Ali’s global ecosystem consisting of its eCommerce platform, logistic network, cloud computing and big data has been developed further and communicated on publicly. On Tianmao International’s platform, Chinese customers can purchase goods of popular retail brands abroad directly and customers from other countries including Russia, Brazil, the US and Canada can also purchase products from China directly. Due to the reduced amount of procedures required in foreign trades without importers, Ali is able to transfer the profits from the importers to the merchants and thus cut down transaction costs. The CSN network represents a global coverage of countries to increase the convenience for parcel delivery to customers. For example, CSN developed a special supply chain in Russia allowing customers to receive products within 35 days. It also increases the cooperation with banks in other countries to improve the payment system.

    Besides the globalization of its eCommerce activities, Ali is also developing its finance business abroad. Recently, Ali has cooperated with Lending Club – the biggest online loan platform. The cooperation signifies that small American enterprises which get loans from Lending Club can now look for Chinese producers and supply sources on Alibaba’s platform.

    Taobao Village

    Focusing on eCommerce development in rural areas of China is one of Ali’s most important future strategies. In the same way that it always looks for business opportunities among small enterprises and individual customers, Ali fosters the online purchase forces in thousands of villages across China. Taobao village represents the village where active online shops reach more than 10% of local households and trading volume amounts to more than 10m CNY. The high concentration of online shops in these villages makes it possible to form an eCommerce chain made up of producers, suppliers, shops and logistics, thereby facilitating development and economies of scale. Moreover, Taobao village helps to address the problem of local unemployment (Taobao village brings about more than 280,000 jobs and the average income at Taobao village is 2.19 times higher than that found in normal villages); it contributes to the transfer of the environmental advantage into an economic advantage (since the natural and original product is welcomed by customers); and it helps to diminish the purchase gap between urban and rural areas. Up to December 2014, 211 Taobao villages were developed. Ali provides support through credit and loans, talent training and promotion.

    Develop more offers suited to more fields in customers’ daily lives

    Yulebao: An investment platform for television work with approximately 7% annual return on investment. Investors have the opportunities to meet with directors of various TV projects, take part in premieres, travel to the filming locations of certain TV programs, etc. The customer’s preference is better evaluated and will truly influence the Chinese entertainment trends. Besides, it helps high quality projects which do not necessarily have the matching high budget to get investment for production. Yulebao was launched in March 2014.

    Ali future hospital: In August 2014, Ali collaborated with a renowned hospital in Shanghai, installing Alipay to allow patients to complete their own registration process, payment and report-fetching online. Most importantly, Alipay is combined with medical insurance in order to deliver a fully automated service to customers.

    [1] The data comes from  Alibaba’s prospectus: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1577552/000119312514184994/d709111df1.htm

    [2] The data comes from  Alibaba’s prospectus: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1577552/000119312514184994/d709111df1.htm

    [3] The data comes from  Alibaba’s prospectus: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1577552/000119312514184994/d709111df1.htm

    [4] Data comes from “Le single day Chinois bat tous les records de ecommerce”:

    https://www.le-webmarketeur.com/2013/12/10/le-single-day-chinois-bat-tous-les-records-de-e-commerce/

     

    Author :

    Prof. Xavier Pavie

    Associate Academic Director, MSc in Management, ESSEC Business School

    Director of iMagination Center

     

    Yixuan Luo

    Master student at ESSEC Business School

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  • History of barcodes in the World

    History of barcodes in the World

    Barcodes originated from the increasing need to create a system to manage retail operations in a more efficient manner.  Retailers were getting bigger and bigger and stock control was becoming more and more difficult.  They needed a system to make it simpler.   In 1952, Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver stepped up to the plate and developed the modern barcode.   They based their barcode on morse code, using dots and lines. Woodland created his first barcode from sand on the beach.

    Later, in 1959, David Collins became aware of the need to automatically identify railroad cars. He created a system for monitoring and controlling railroad carriages also using blue and red reflective stripes attached to the side of the cars which encoded a six digit company identifier and a four digit car number.  He called this system Kar Trak. This is an example of what the Kar Trak system looked like.

    Both of these barcodes developed by Woodland and the Kar Trak Barcodes had problems due to the fact that the scanner could not read the barcodes easily if they had any dirt on them.   They didn’t have the technology they needed to create the modern day barcode scanner.  The whole system was abandoned in 1970s but later in the 1980s a new system emerged which utilised radio tags.

    In the beginning, barcodes were scanned by special optical scanners called Barcode Readers.  Later technology improved and scanners and interpretative software were used on devices including desktop printers and even smartphones.

    As the years progressed, barcodes were improved and transformed into the barcodes we find today.  With the development of technology, barcodes scanners were also improved which made the retail process simple and easy for both the supplier and the retailer as well as for the customer.

    Barcodes became very widely used to manage retailer checkout systems. Their use has spread to a variety of other tasks such as automatic identification and data capture.  The very first Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned in June 1974 at the Marsh Supermarket in Ohio.  It was on a packet of Wrigley Company chewing gum.  The packet of gum was bought by Clyde Dawson and the cashier was Sharon Buchanan.  It cost 67 cents. This packet of gum and the receipt are now on display in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington.

    In 1966, the National Association of Food Chains (NAFC) got involved in the barcode business.  They wanted to develop a system where checkouts at retailers could be automated and controlled.  They created a committee which created guidelines for the development of barcodes and assisted in creating a standard approach to implementing barcodes in retailers.

    As more and more retailers invested in purchasing the equipment needed to scan the barcodes, these stores benefited greatly.  It allowed for more responsiveness to customer needs by revealing which products were in higher demand.  Sales increased by 10 – 12 % and the operating costs decreased by 1 -2%.  This enabled the retailers to lower their costs and thereby increase their market share.  By 1988, 8000 retailers were converting to using barcodes per year.

    However, there were people who were against the launch of barcodes.  This scepticism mainly came from conspiracy theorists who believed that barcodes were an intrusive surveillance technology.   Also, some Christians believed that barcodes hid the number 666 which represents the number of the beast.

    Despite these protests, barcodes took the world by storm, and were adopted by more and more stores throughout the world, as well as in South Africa.  In these modern days, you can’t walk into a store without seeing a barcode.  Barcodes have come a long way since 1960.  They have revolutionised retailers by increasing their efficiency and control over stock, thereby increasing their profit level and generally making the retail business as smooth as possible. Barcodes are now used throughout the world for a huge variety of products ranging from beauty products to gardening tools all the way to groceries.

    This is one of the reasons why it is necessary to buy barcodes South Africa for any product you want to sell in South Africa or Asia, including china. These will be registered with your chosen retailers who can then begin selling your product.  When you buy barcodes in South Africa, you are becoming part of history.

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  • Telcos should follow teenagers’ digital lifestyle

    Telcos should follow teenagers’ digital lifestyle

    Only 12% of teenagers feel service providers understand their lifestyle and offer services to match it, according to a study from Amdocs.

    Conducted by Vanson Bourne , the study surveyed 4,250 respondents aged 15-18 from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Brazil, India, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Philippines, and Singapore.

    Among those polled, 30% report experiencing bad customer service from their CSP over the past year, and 46% say they will not use that CSP again. A third of respondents then shared this information with families and friends.
    Findings also show that 43% of teenagers believe their smartphone makes them smarter and “cooler”; 52% check their social media accounts first thing in the morning; and over 30% say they would probably not meet someone again if they lacked a Facebook or WhatsApp account.

    Almost half of respondents say they prefer using emojis (47%) and posting photos (45%) to sending emails as emojis express how they feel more clearly than words.

    Teens require constant internet connectivity, with respondents saying they are more likely to feel anxious and alone if separated from the internet (56%) than when separated from their family (52%. The value of internet access is so significant that the majority (55%) strongly believe fast internet access to be a human right.

    A majority stream movies (53% streaming; 17% downloading), TV (51% versus 11%) and music (47% versus 29%); and they are typically doing so for free with less than a third saying they ever pay for any content.

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  • Mobile video revenue on pace to $25b by 2021

    Mobile video revenue on pace to $25b by 2021

    Worldwide revenue from mobile video will reach $25 billion by 2021, according to the latest research by Strategy Analytics.

    Growth in mobile video revenue is expected to be driven by advertisers seeking to reach an increasing audience of users that are consuming video on their smartphones and tablets.

    The report also predicts users of mobile video to more than double to 2 billion users by the end of 2022, equal to 36% penetration among the global mobile users.

    Social platforms with audience scale, like Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and others are increasingly looking to video to increase user engagement rates while reducing churn, but will offer potential for monetization in future.

    Source: Strategy Analytics

    “Despite growing video consumption on mobile devices, advertiser expenditure on mobile video has yet to catch-up with this growth,” said Nitesh Patel, director at Strategy Analytics.

    “Furthermore, new modes of mobile video services such as live streaming platforms like Periscope and Facebook Live are focused on building audience before revenue,” said Patel.

    “Currently, social networks have launched live video streaming as a tool to increase user engagement and to extend the time spent by users while inside of social networks, but we expect direct monetization to follow.”

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  • Global pay TV subs rise 2% in Q1

    Global pay TV subs rise 2% in Q1

    The worldwide number of pay television subscribers reported by informitv’s Multiscreen Index rose by 6.9 million or 1.7% in the first quarter of 2016.

    Three in five (60%) of the 100 leading pay-TV services in the latest index report showed net subscriber gains in the quarter.

    The greatest quarterly subscriber gains were in the Asia-Pacific region, where there were 5.35 million subscriber additions. Six operators in India added a total of 4.71 million between them, with SITI Cable Network reporting 1.1 million new digital subscribers.

    The 10 services with the largest quarterly subscriber losses had just under a million fewer television customers between them. They were headed by AT&T U-verse, which shed 382,000 subscribers, although these losses were almost matched by gains of 328,000 for satellite subsidiary DIRECTV.

    The top 10 services from the United States in the index closed the first quarter with just 18,000 subscribers more than at the start of the year, but they were down by over 880,000 year-on-year.

    In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sky and BT added 136,000 television subscribers, while Virgin Media and TalkTalk lost 21,000.

    Canal+ in France lost the most subscribers in Europe, with its numbers declining by 200,000. Orange and Free added 234,000 subscribers in France.

    Also, 81% of around 400 million homes subscribing to the services covered by the index now have access to some form of multiscreen viewing. The actual adoption and usage of multiscreen services is much lower.

    “North, Central and South America still contribute over a third of the subscribers in the index,” said informitv analyst Sue Farrell. “They gained just 0.54 million subscribers, compared to 1.41 million in the first quarter a year ago.”

    “The Multiscreen Index shows an overall gain in subscribers, with more services gaining rather than losing television subscribers,” said the editor of the report William Cooper. “Although mature markets like North America are relatively saturated, it shows that there is still room for growth in other regions.”

  • Average internet speeds grow 12% during Q1

    Average internet speeds grow 12% during Q1

    Global average internet connection speeds grew 12% sequentially during the first quarter to 6.3Mbps, according to Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report.

    The report aslso shows that the global average peak connection speed increased 6.8% to 34.7 Mbps over the same period.

    Global broadband adoption of 10Mbps, 15Mbps, and 25Mbps connections also grew significantly during the quarter, posting year-over-year gains of 10%, 14%, and 19% at each threshold, respectively.

    Meanwhile, average mobile connection speeds ranged from a high of 27.9Mbps in the United Kingdom to a low of 2.2Mbps in Algeria during the period, while average peak mobile connection speeds ranged from 171.6Mbps in Germany to 11.7Mbps in Ghana.

    “What this means,” said Rob Morton, Director of Public Relations, Akamai Technologies, in a video message, “is that more people around the world can take advantage of video streaming with higher bit rates, resulting in a better quality viewing experience.”

    David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report, said the expectation is that this summer’s biggest sporting events will be watched by more online viewers than ever.

    “Global connection speeds have more than doubled since the summer of 2012, which can help support higher quality video streaming for bigger audiences across even more connected devices and platforms,” he affirmed.

    The report noted that at the country level, South Korea continued to have the highest average connection speed in the world at 29.0Mbps, an 8.6% gain over the fourth quarter of 2015, while Singapore maintained its position as the country with the highest average peak connection speed at 146.9Mbps, an 8.3% quarterly increase.

    It said South Korea also led the world across the 10Mbps, 15Mbps, and 25Mbps broadband tiers once again, with adoption rates of 84%, 69%, and 42% respectively, after seeing robust quarterly gains across all three metrics.

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  • SGX announces independent research paper on retail sector

    SGX announces independent research paper on retail sector

    The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has launched an independent research report. The research paper covers the retail sector in four Asean countries, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

    Titled “Asean Retail: Overview, Trends and Outlook, with a focus on SGX-listed Companies”, the report evaluates the growth potential for ASEAN’s retail industry in response to rising middle-class consumers, increasing spending power and rising e-commerce sales.

    The report is segmented into six retail subsectors and for each, covers an in-depth analysis of the key sector drivers and an overview of the SGX-listed companies that are in these sectors.

    There are currently 43 retail companies listed on the SGX, with a market capitalisation of $30 billion.

    According to the report, retail sales in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia are projected to collectively reach US$1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) by 2018. Asean consumers also have higher purchasing power propelled by fast-growing incomes while the e-commerce space has expanded, offering new opportunities for retailers.

    “Despite headwinds facing the retail sector recently, we recognise the need to keep investors informed of the sector’s longer-term growth outlook in ASEAN, which continues to be backed by strong demographic and macroeconomic fundamentals. The emergence of e-commerce also presents an exciting growth opportunity for the sector,” says Simon Lim, SGX Head of Equity Capital Market (Sectors).

    To download a copy of the research report, go to sgx.com/retailcluster.

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  • SMEs switch to online for branding, expansion

    SMEs switch to online for branding, expansion

    Indonesian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are taking advantage of the unique methods of engagement that online services offer them and potential customers.

    The owner of Jakarta-based desserts maker PUYO Desserts, Adrian Agus, owes much of his brand’s success to intensive online campaigns through various social media and messaging apps.

    By connecting directly with his customers through these platforms, Adrian has been able to find a quick way for his colorful home-made puddings to capture the public eye.

    Shortly after he started the business in 2013, Adrian found that social media greatly helped his marketing operations at little cost. In the beginning, PUYO’s marketing campaigns mostly centered on Instagram where it slowly gained traction and attracted loyal followers.

    “Social media campaigns have been very effective for the business. Right now, we’re holding a lot of competitions on Instagram,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, elaborating on the creative engagement that Instagram offers between customer and vendor.

    Gradually, PUYO has branched out to Twitter and LINE to help sell its products, with the use of these services’ operational tools such as LINE’s LINE@ service, which enables the user to send mass messages to all customers that follow its LINE account.

    Japanese-based LINE Corporation itself describes the Line@ feature in its messaging app as “the same as broadcast messaging”. The company, however, says that the idea is more specifically aimed at nurturing businesses.

    Currently, PUYO has over 59,600 followers on its Instagram account and has evolved from being a home-based business in 2013 to having 22 outlets across Greater Jakarta.

    Meanwhile, the social apps behind these successes are increasingly aware of their role in the small business sector.

    Apps such as LINE, KakaoTalk, WeChat or WhatsApp have had their purposes extended beyond the simple text message, with some apps gradually rolling out new features that help small businesses thrive or become more efficient.

    LINE Indonesia’s head of marketing Galuh Chandrakirana explained that the rollouts of the company’s newer features such as Line for PC, Line Group Call and Line Today would help small businesses in making their operations more mobile, as mobility is becoming more emphasized in today’s business world, with SMEs able to benefit from these services through trimming their costs.

    “Features such as Line for PC, which can be opened from desktops, are not geared necessarily for SMEs but it serves to help them cut communications costs. However, we do plan to roll out a feature which is specifically designed to help that sector in the next month or two,” she elaborated.

    Currently, LINE has recorded over 1 million downloads in Indonesia comprising small businesses including online shops, offline retailers, specific communities and bloggers. Up to 40 percent of that figure is active businesses who utilize LINE in their practices.

    Indonesia has the highest number of SMEs in Southeast Asia, with over 50 million operating nationwide, however, only 1 percent of these are officially “connected” online.

    Last month, the government announced its cooperation with online SME promotion service Nurbaya Initiatives to explore new ways of encouraging SMEs to tap into the digital era’s potential.

    Collaborating with state-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia, Nurbaya is targeting to bring 2 million SMEs online within the next two years. The company will assign a facilitator to provide each participating SME with advice on online promotion, including the setting up of online stores and payment platforms.

    Nurbaya will also assign a relationship manager to every online shop, allowing clients to focus on production. “By our collaboration with the postal service, SMEs will have help in terms of logistics and quality control,” Nurbaya’s CEO Andy Sjarif said.

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  • Hong Kong travelers remain glued to their smartphones

    Hong Kong travelers remain glued to their smartphones

    An overwhelming 95% of Hong Kong travelers use social media during their trip, with many spending hours per day glued to their devices, a survey from Hotels.com indicates.

    The survey suggests that while on vacation Hong Kong smartphone owners are likely to spend 59% more time on their devices than on a sunbed.

    More than one in ten (11%) even spend more than five hours a day with their smartphones in their hands.

    Social media tops the list of app categories used by traveling, followed by mapping, travel, public transport and messaging.

    Around 42% of Hong Kong respondents to the survey admit to uploading photos over social media just to make friends jealous.

    Another motivation for the heavy social media use involves a fear of missing out, with nearly half (46%) saying they comment on friends’ posts just so they don’t miss out on anything while they are away.

    Desire to stay connected also informs travelers’ choice of accommodation, with 40% of respondents indicating they will only select a hotel if it offers free Wi-Fi.

    “Our study shows that some travellers, especially millennials, spend more time looking at their screens than enjoying the sun or the sights,” Hotels.com regional MD for greater China, emerging SEA and India commented.

    “However, most Hong Kong travellers are actually using their device to search for local sights or attractions, food only comes second and information on public transit is third.

  • First-ever Myanmar Study Highlights Factors for Brand Success & Future Game Changers

    In a nascent marketplace where local brands hold their own against foreign competitors, Apple has emerged as the most differentiated brand whereas local telecom player MPT ranks as the most loved. Brands like mobile provider Telenor have also earned recognition for innovation, despite being a recent market entrant.

    Myanmar’s rapid transformation also means businesses need to ready themselves for game-changing scenarios propelled by technology and infrastructure advancements. Myanmar is set to become the first country in the world to go straight to smartphone as part of its “leapfrog” development. Key changes affecting marketing and brands include the rise from almost zero mobile penetration to nearly 50% in just a couple of years. Technology will likely direct a new generation of digital growth, from retail to banking to social communications.

    The Spotlight on Myanmar findings are based on everyday buying decisions such as coffee, soft drinks as well as long-term purchase decisions around mobile service and handset sectors. Research shows that the most effective messages come from brands that put their products and benefits front and centre. Key differentiators behind the strongest brands are those that project idealism, desirability and a sense of adventure.

    BrandZ research in Myanmar includes 1,660 consumer interviews and covers 42 key international and regional brands that are already building a sense of meaningful difference in Myanmar, based on either their global profile or their local activity. Findings show that:

    • Apple is the most differentiated brand in Myanmar followed by Coca-Cola and Samsung. Apple indexed 232, where the average brand indexes at 100.
    • Mobile network Telenor is the most innovative brand in the survey, indexing 125, with rivals MPT and Ooredoo coming second and third respectively.
    • MPT is the most loved brand in the survey, indexing 129, nine points ahead of Samsung and 11 points ahead of Telenor and Huawei.
    • Samsung’s brand proposition scored the highest at129, ahead of Apple on 125 and MPT on 118.
    • Huawei scored highest on brand power -a brand’s ability to boost sales or gain market share due to consumers’ predisposition to choose this brand over another – indexing 436, significantly higher than its global average score of 81. Huawei performs better in Myanmar than it does in its home market, China, on this measure.

    “There are huge opportunities for international brands to be successful in Myanmar, if they get their cultural message right and understand the diversity of the country, particularly in the border areas. Our teams have identified comparisons with the India of 30 years ago and indeed some aspects of rural India today. Also valid are comparisons with Indonesia, which also has a large population that lives off the land as well as a huge range of different climatic regions,” said David Roth, CEO at The Store, EMEA and Asia.

    The report also highlighted a number of key trends that will change how brands and agencies should approach this market, now and in the next few years, including:

    • Rapid improvement in infrastructure. It has taken just three years to build a national mobile network; other changes including the arrival of greater electrification and improved transportation links will happen much faster than would be expected in many markets.
    • e-tailing is coming. Despite the current poor retail infrastructure, the rapid growth in e-commerce in other developing markets acts as an indicator that the speed will be similar in Myanmar.
    • The world’s first mobile-only market. Consumers are increasingly looking to mobile for both information and entertainment. While TV is important, brands need to consider Myanmar as not just a mobile-first environment but also a mobile only market.
    • Sell the effect, not the spec. Consumers are new to choice in Myanmar so they will navigate the new landscape differently. Brands need to focus on how the product will meet their needs and make it easier to compare functions and prices.
    • Appreciate the diversity of Myanmar. This is not a homogenous nation. Although 88% of the urban population is Buddhist, there is a huge range of ethnic, climatic and cultural variety, which will be particularly critical in the personal care sector.

    “BrandZ’s first research in Myanmar will help international and regional marketers understand the challenge of building strong brands in this new market. Experience in other fast emerging markets shows that first mover advantage and the loyalty it engenders in consumers can last for decades. Myanmar is a long-term commitment but one that will pay off for the brands that get it right,” said Doreen Wang, Head of BrandZ, from Millward Brown.

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  • Culture shift needed to maximize benefits of analytics

    Culture shift needed to maximize benefits of analytics

    While big data analytics is on every communications service provider’s (CSP) radar, investment levels are relatively minor for most organizations, with many barely scratching the surface, according to Pyramid Research.

    The company’s latest report states that the return on investment from telco analytics is far behind that of online companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook.

    Among those CSPs with more mature implementations, however, the focus has evolved from how to use technology to extract and manage the data, to how to effectively apply big data and real-time analytics to enhance the user experience, optimize investments and add value to third-party partners.

    Pyramid Research said operators who are able to make BDA work for them will be at a significant advantage over their competitors in a market environment characterized by diminished variations between operators and the services they offer.

    The extent to which BDA implementations are successful will be a significant factor in determining the market’s winners and losers, the company said.

    “Our industry survey demonstrates that one of the most challenging aspects of the telco BDA implementations is the need for a significant shift in the structure and culture of the organization,” said Ozgur Aytar, director of research at Pyramid Research.

    “To maximize the BDA opportunity, telcos should put into place the correct leadership structure, break down barriers to data access and create a collaborative environment where people from different parts of the organization can work together for mutual benefit,” said Aytar.  “It is important to recognize that BDA is not primarily a technological investment but a major organizational restructuring.”

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  • More than 1 in 4 cloud apps are high risk

    More than 1 in 4 cloud apps are high risk

    More than a quarter (27%) of third-party apps can be classified as high risk, according to research from CloudLock Cyberlab.

    Analysis conducted across 10 million users, 1 billion files, and nearly 160,000 unique applications found that cybercriminals can exploit weaknesses in high-risk apps to gain programmatic access to corporate platforms impersonating end users. 

    The shadow IT dilemma is meanwhile only becoming more challenging as usage is increasing exponentially year over year, the company said.

    The past three years saw nearly a 30 times increase in the number of apps detected, from 5,500 to nearly 160,000. Each application instance represents a backdoor through which hackers can infiltrate and externalize sensitive corporate assets.

    CloudLock Cyberlab said an organization may embrace its employees’ “shadow” exploration of innovative technology solutions and sanction a subset of these apps as Productivity IT, but it’s essential to closely monitor the connected third-party apps and identify cloud native malware in real time.

    Security conscious enterprises recognize the high risk associated with connected third-party apps and take immediate action. While apps can be banned for any number of reasons, including concerns around productivity, a clear majority are banned because of the security vulnerabilities they introduce. 

    The key recommendation is to reduce cloud app risk by establishing an acceptable use policy, with which organizations can significantly reduce the application risk level organization-wide. Automating whitelisting or banning of potentially risky applications is an effective strategy. 

    “The shift to the cloud creates a new, virtual security perimeter that includes third-party apps granted access to corporate systems,” said Ayse Kaya Firat, CloudLock director of customer insights and analytics.

    “Today, most employees leverage a wide variety of apps to get their jobs done efficiently, unwittingly exposing corporate data and systems to malware and the possibility of data theft.”