Retail News CRM

Tag: asia

  • Singtel and Ericsson achieve Southeast Asia fastest download speeds on 5G SA NR-DC

    Singtel and Ericsson achieve Southeast Asia fastest download speeds on 5G SA NR-DC

    Singtel and Ericsson have made a technology breakthrough in 5G standalone (SA) New Radio-Dual Connectivity (NR-DC), becoming the first in Southeast Asia to reach download speeds of 5.4Gbps by aggregating Singtel’s spectrum holdings across mid-band spectrum 3.5GHz and 28GHz mmWave. This milestone was achieved in a demo with Ericsson’s 5G radio access network products and solutions and dual-mode 5G Core network solutions, as well as a test device from Qualcomm Technologies powered by its Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System.

    5G SA NR-DC technology, which combines mid-band and mmWave frequencies, further enhances Singtel’s 5G SA speed and capacity to enable high-performance and latency-sensitive applications, and stimulate innovative new use cases across business, industry and consumer ecosystems. Applications can range from cloud gaming, immersive media, AR, VR, XR to autonomous vehicles or robotic control. This new development will push the boundaries of 5G technology, combining different frequency bands across the networks, to fully utilise Singtel’s 5G assets for an enhanced user experience.

    Mark Chong, Singtel’s group chief technology officer, said, “This 5G breakthrough demonstrates our commitment to continually innovate and maximise the potential of what this developing technology can deliver. The increased speeds will help pave the way for many new applications as we look to drive transformative benefits for consumers and businesses.”

    As one of the first 5G SA networks deployed globally, the future implementation of 5G SA dual connectivity in Singapore will help accelerate the adoption of 5G for both consumers and enterprises, create new business opportunities, strengthen the local 5G ecosystem, as well as drive the future-readiness of Singtel’s network. This achievement closely follows the latest win at the Asia Communications Award, where Singtel and Ericsson were jointly recognised for 5G deployment in Singapore.

    Martin Wiktorin, head of Ericsson Singapore, Brunei and Philippines, said, “At Ericsson, we have already deployed over 100 live 5G networks worldwide, building a strategy around multi-layer networks from low, mid-band to high-band 5G. In Singapore, we are constantly driving technology innovations together with Singtel. As 5G frontrunners, we strive to expand the potential of limitless connectivity, and further enhance digital transformation to benefit industries, consumers and societies.”

    his new 5G technology breakthrough builds on the strong collaboration between Ericsson and Singtel over the past 30 years as technology front runners in Singapore. Past milestones include achieving Singapore’s fastest 5G speeds of 3.2Gbps at Singtel’s unmanned pop-up retail store UNBOXED as well as Singtel’s GENIE, the world’s first portable 5G-in-a-box platform powered by Ericsson to enable enterprises to experience 5G’s capabilities and trial use cases in their own premises.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Goodyear Introduces ElectricDrive GT EV First Tyres For Tesla Model Y

    Goodyear Introduces ElectricDrive GT EV First Tyres For Tesla Model Y

    Goodyear has introduced a new set of tires called the ElectricDrive GT which is the first replacement tires for the North American market, designed specifically for EVs particularly for the Model Y. The ElectricDrive GT is a high-performance, all-season tire which has been designed to last long and provide ride quality that one expects with EVs.

    Goodyear is one of the oldest tire companies in the world founded in 1898 just 12 years after the first automobile was invented.  So it does know a lot about tires and it is appropriate that it is one of the first to come up with replacement tires for EVs which are heavier, faster, and have instant torque. This is a huge difference from cars based on the internal combustion engine.

    According to Goodyear, this is the first replacement tire of its kind of EVs in the North American market by a US-based manufacturer.

    “Products that anticipate the mobility needs of consumers are central to Goodyear’s focus on innovation excellence. Electric vehicles present a very specific set of requirements for load, torque, noise, range, rolling resistance, and overall performance. We’re proud to deliver leading technologies to serve the evolving EV landscape,” said David Reese, Vice President, product development, Goodyear Americas.

    The tires leverage Goodyear’s sound-comfort technology which actively rides as a bull in sound batterie to reduce road noise for passengers. The tyre also gets an asymmetric tread pattern and has a specialized tread compound that provides enhanced traction despite the terrain and the driving conditions.

    It also gets a 64,374 km tread life and has a limited warranty with a W speed rating of 270 kmph which is basically not achieved by any car outside of the Bugatti Chiron or the McLaren F1. Goodyear states that the ElectricDrive GT will come only in the 255/45R19 104W XL, but it will expand the product line in 2022.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Reliance Jio gains wireless subscribers contrary to rival operators

    Reliance Jio gains wireless subscribers contrary to rival operators

    According to data issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), total wireless subscribers reached 1,166.30 million at the end of October 2021, with the urban areas accounting for 637.44 million and rural areas totaling 528.86 million.

    As on 31 October, 2021, private access service providers held 89.99% market share of wireless subscribers, with the two PSU access service providers, namely BSNL and MTNL possessing a 10.01% market share.

    Reliance Jio had the largest market share at 36.58%, followed by Airtel at 30.35% and Vodafone at 23.07%.

    Reliance Jio reportedly added 1.7 million subscribers in October, bringing its subscriber base to 426.59 million. Airtel, however, has a subscriber base of 353.97 million after shedding some 0.48 million in the same month. Vodafone’s subscriber base also dropped, totalling 269.02 million after losing 0.96 million subscribers.

    Data published by TRAI previously revealed that Reliance Jio has the highest average data download speed of 24.1 MB/s among 4G service providers in India.

    Lees ook:

  • Indian online grocer Zepto secures $100 million investment

    Indian online grocer Zepto secures $100 million investment

    Indian on-demand grocery-delivery service, Zepto, has bagged US$100 million during its Series-C funding, taking its value to US$570 million within five months of its launch.

    Led by Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, the round included investors Nexus, Breyer Capital, Global Founders Capital and Glade Brook, among others. The Series-C funding follows Zepto’s earlier funding round in which it received $60 million valuing the business at $225 million.

    Zepto was founded by two 19-year-old entrepreneurs, Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha, who left Stanford last year to develop a solution for instant grocery delivery through a network of dark stores. The 10-minute grocery delivery service is currently available across metropolitan cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, and Chennai, with Pune and Kolkata to come.

    “Their attention to detail on the logistics experience is unparalleled and this has enabled them to scale to most major metros in just five months,” said Anu Hariharan, Partner at Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. “Simply put, we’re confident Zepto will win in this space over the long-term.”

    Zepto will compete directly with local delivery giants, Swiggy and BlinkIt, who have also forayed into the instant grocery delivery sector.

    According to Y Combinator, Zepto’s month–on–month buyer retention rate is 65 per cent. The company has built a network of micro-warehouses, each of which can do more than 2500 orders a day, and are now adding 100,000 new customers every week.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Australia’s love affair with boxed wine endures

    Australia’s love affair with boxed wine endures

    Boxed wine is one of Australia’s most extraordinary contributions to the wine industry, also known as cardboardeaux, bag-in-box (BiB), or more commonly.

    Australian winemaker Thomas Angove patented the design for a one-gallon polyethylene bladder in a cardboard box in 1965, inspired by the ancient method of storing wine in goat skins. The first model required drinkers to cut a corner of the plastic bag and reseal it with a special category peg (used to transport battery acid).

    Once a tap was designed in the 1970s goon climbed quickly to make up about 50% of wine sales in Australia. In the days when restaurants sold “house wine”, goon was known for being economical above anything else, and convenient, associated more with families on a budget and people on low incomes.

    Wine in the ‘70s was still perceived as for special occasions and casks may have helped change that. Thirty years later, between 2004-2014, there was a 30% drop in cask sales but a 40% increase in bottled wine during the same decade. As domestic sales had been dropping, the cask concept (and its contents) was also being exported.

    Goon has come a long way from its origins and reputation. The visual appeal of the box and the bag has evolved, along with the narrative the wine label communicates about history, geography, identity.

    As the environmental benefits of wine in a box have become more important to new consumers, the quality of its contents has also improved. Jilly Wine Company’s Chateau Cardboard Red at $71 for 3 liters, is a long way from the one-gallon packs of table white, table red, port, sweet sherry, and muscat launched in 1965.

    There are good reasons why Australians love goon, and there are strong reasons for the love to grow.

  • Crypto Pi app disappears from Google Play Store

    Crypto Pi app disappears from Google Play Store

    Cryptocurrency mining app Pi Network has disappeared from Google Play Store for Android devices, making investors concerned about the future of the project.

    “I cannot download the app. I am worried all my mining efforts up until now would be thrown away,” said Le Tu in the southern province of Dong Nai.

    The Pi Network app, the main tool for users to “mine” the cryptocurrency by checking in every day, “is currently going through a regular review cycle and is unavailable to download through Google Play Store,” the developers of the coin said on their website.

    “We expect to be back up on the Play Store soon,” they noted, adding users could manually download the app via a link.

    There seems to be no issue with the app on App Store for Apple devices.

    Bang, admin of a group of Pi users, also known as Pioneers, speculated that the project is set to transition to the main phase and was therefore temporarily removed from Google Play.

    The app ranked seventh among downloads in Vietnam on Google Play Store last month.

    Pi has become a controversial cryptocurrency as the developers allow anyone to own it by tapping on their smartphone once every day without any investment or much details about the development phase.

    Some experts have said the project lack transparency and called on people to be careful to avoid being scammed.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • T-Mobile’s Scam Shield service has blocked 21 billion scam calls in 2021

    T-Mobile’s Scam Shield service has blocked 21 billion scam calls in 2021

    T-Mobile released its 2021 Scams and Robocalls report, and it says that its Scam Shield service managed to block 21 billion scam calls, which translates to 700 calls identified or blocked every second. The gathered data by T-Mobile shows an over 116% increase in scam call attempts from 2020.

    According to the T-Mobile scam call report, the most frequent scam was related to fake vehicle warranties, which accounted for 51% of all the call scams. In other popular scams, the scammers were posing as Social Security office workers (up to 10%) and wireless providers (up to 9%). Scammers also pretended to be employees of car insurance companies (6%) or package delivery companies (4%). There were also cases in which scammers posed as health insurance or health providers, the IRS, or workers from credit card companies.

    In its scam call observation, T-Mobile observed that the scammers were working mostly from Monday to Friday, and on the weekends, they didn’t work as hard. It seems that the scammers enjoy some time for themselves on the holidays. This year, Easter (April 4) had the lowest scam attempts of the year. T-Mobile also reported that starting on December 23, the number of call scams began to decline.

    Another piece of information that T-Mobile reports in its scam call report is that scammers are more likely to target some areas of the United States more than others. Scammers favored Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Georgia. And the most targeted area codes were in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

    In the summer of 2020, T-Mobile released its Scam Shield service. The goal of the Scam Shield was to protect all of T-Mobile’s customers from scam call attacks for free. By using AI to analyze call behavior, T-Mobile constantly improves the protection of its network against scam call attacks.

    One of the features that Scam Shield has is scam detection. If Scam Shield detects a scam threat, the customer will be notified immediately. The Scam Shield service gives you the ability to turn off scam calls via Scam Block. Your phone will not even ring if Scam Block is enabled and Scam Shield detects a potential scam call. For more information about T-Mobile’s Scam Shield, visit T-Mobile’s website.

    Lees ook:

  • Skechers takes control of Philippines operation

    Skechers takes control of Philippines operation

    Skechers parent, The Comfort Technology Company, has transitioned the operations of the footwear brand in the Philippines from its third-party distributor, Trendworks International, to Skechers USA Philippines.

    The company said the move is to maximize the brand’s growth in the region. Trendworks International will continue to sell Skechers products through the end of this year.

    In addition, Skechers USA Philippines will expand the brand’s presence in the country, opening 10 to 12 additional concept stores during the first half of next year, including those in key department and specialty stores such as Planet Sports and The SM Store.

    “The Philippines has immense potential for Skechers, and with our dedicated team focused on growth and delivering the integrated capabilities of Skechers,” said David Weinberg, COO at Skechers USA. “We believe this step accelerates that potential.

    “With Skechers’ appealing lifestyle collections, groundbreaking comfort innovations and our corporate support, we believe the Philippines can become a key market for us in Southeast Asia.”

    According to Suzette Pasustento, country manager for Skechers USA Philippines, the company is currently under the first phase of re-establishing the brand in the market, including setting up new offices in Manila and opening a distribution centre. The company has also opened its first new store this month.

    “With this new dedicated approach, we will be able to reach more of the 100 million men, women and children in this country and offer them a wider selection of great Skechers products through expanded channels,” said  Pasustento.

    “In 2022, we will introduce new product categories, open more retail locations and expand our door count with new retailers, as well as launch a comprehensive marketing campaign.”

    Lees ook:

  • AirAsia sets best performance

    AirAsia sets best performance

    Airasia Philippines has recorded its best performance yet since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, its officials said yesterday.

    Topping the list of AirAsia’s most preferred domestic flights within the peak Christmas travel period between December 20 to January 05 are Manila to Caticlan with 24 percent of total passenger booking, Manila to Tacloban with 15 percent, and Cebu to Manila with 14 percent.

    The recently resumed Hong Kong to Manila route, meanwhile tops the list of the airline’s current international flights.

    “We believe that it is important we enable our kababayans to travel to see their loved ones this holiday period to help boost their morale and make their Christmas celebrations even more special after almost two years of battling and living in a global health crisis. We look forward to increasing our flight frequencies and broadening our destinations as the situation improves. But for now, we are thankful to be among the preferred airlines of Filipino travelers,” AirAsia Philippines Spokesperson Steve Dailisan said.

    Dailisan said the significant rise in flight bookings is attributed not only to the relaxing of protocols but also to the longing of Filipinos to be with their families this Christmas season — some of whom have not seen each other for almost two years

    He said they continue to by strict safety protocols mandated by the government and as advised by medical experts

    “Guests are asked to follow implemented stringent safety measures on ground and in flight, such as physical distancing and the wearing of face masks,” Dailisan said.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Food poisoning and protests shut Foxconn plant building iPhone 12 5G in India

    Food poisoning and protests shut Foxconn plant building iPhone 12 5G in India

    News that the Foxconn factory near the city of Chennai in Southern India has closed means that iPhone production in the country will be negatively impacted. The plant churns out iPhone 12 models and factory workers have suffered through a bout with food poisoning which will leave the assembly lines shut down for the remainder of the week. With 150 employees in the hospital, the healthy workers started to protest the incident which also disrupted production.

    A senior official at the directorate of industrial safety and health in Tamil Nadu (which calls Chennai it’s capital) said, “The factory has been shut since Saturday and will be shut till coming Sunday.” Confirming the shutdown, two more senior state officials reiterated that the plant is not running.

    Protesters were arrested after blocking an important highway following the food poisoning incident. Yesterday, those arrested were released. While the factory, as we noted, currently produces the iPhone 12, Apple has been testing iPhone 13 assembly at the facility, and with the factory closed, that testing has been stopped.

    The decision to close the plant was made by Foxconn according to a police officer from the office of the Superintendent of Police in Kancheepuram. This police officer also said that employees at the factory who have been complaining for months about food poisoning and other issues should lodge their complaints with the state labor ministry.

    According to Navkendar Singh, India research director at market research firm IDC, “The impact on Apple is expected to below as it is a lean period … until at least February. In (the first half of 2022) we expect sales to pick up from new product launches and much-needed easing of supply chain issues.” Besides the iPhone, the factory also manufactures the Amazon Fire Stick and some devices for Xiaomi.

    This is the second incident in India over the last year that saw worker unrest at a factory that builds Apple products. Last December, a Wistron factory hosted a riot when 2,000 workers complained that they did receive their wages, and the incident caused $60 million in damages.

    India is the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China and the three contract manufacturers building the device for Apple, Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron, have budgeted $900 million over five years to make iPhone units in the country. But because India is a developing market, Apple has focused its Indian production of the iPhone on less expensive older models.

    Apple also plans on building some iPad tablets in India as the country, along with Mexico and Vietnam, have become alternative supply chain centers for Apple as the company seeks to lessen its reliance on factories in China. Apple is afraid that with tensions between the U.S. and China so high, getting access to factories based on the mainland won’t always be a sure thing.Those employees working on the assembly lines usually pay some of their wages for room and board in facilities found near the factory. The riot last year started when Wistron promised an engineering graduate Rs 21,000 ($285) per month, but instead, he was paid Rs 16,000 ($217) the first month which was reduced to Rs 12,000 ($163) over the last three months.

    Considering that Foxconn workers, like the ones toiling for Wistron, are paying their employer for food, the fact that many of them contracted food poisoning was enough of an issue to spark the protests that shut down the highway near the factory, and the factory itself.

    Apple had to get involved in last year’s riot because of the damage to the equipment at Wistron’s factory. This year, it appears that Foxconn was able to keep its production facilities intact.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Ducati MotoE Electric Race Bike Unveiled

    Ducati MotoE Electric Race Bike Unveiled

    Ducati has taken the wraps off its new MotoE project earlier than expected revealing the new V21L electric race bike at the Misano World Circuit. The electric race machine will power the grid in the MotoE World Cup starting in 2023. Ducati announced its intent to be the supplier for the series earlier this year and this marks the Italian motorcycle maker’s foray into the electric vehicle space. The Ducati V21L gets the basic shape of the Italian bike maker quite similar to the concept sketch. It features a double-sided swingarm with an under-braced design and progressive shock linkage.

    The tail is a self-supporting cabin fibre unit with a solo seat. You can also see a small oil-cooler at the bottom of the bike’s front with a tapped radiator above it. Power and performance figures have not been revealed, so we will have to wait a bit to know more about how to battery management system works on the race machine. Other cycle parts though do look familiar with the Ducati V21L getting Ohlins suspension and Brembo brakes. The wheels come from Marchesini.

    Speaking at the unveil, Roberto Canè, Ducati eMobility Director said, “We are experiencing a truly extraordinary moment. I find it hard to believe it is a reality and still not a dream! The first electric Ducati on the track is exceptional not only for its uniqueness but also for the type of undertaking: challenging both for its performance objectives and for its extremely short timescales. Precisely for this reason, the work of the whole team dedicated to the project has been incredible and today’s result repays us for the efforts made in recent months. We are certainly not finished yet; indeed, we know that the road ahead is still very long, but in the meantime, we have laid a first important ‘brick’.”

    Michele Pirro, Ducati test rider: “Testing the MotoE prototype on the circuit was a great thrill because it marks the beginning of an important chapter in Ducati history. The bike is light and already has a good balance. Furthermore, the throttle connection in the first opening phase and the ergonomics are very similar to those of a MotoGP bike. If it weren’t for the silence and for the fact that in this test, we decided to limit the power output to just 70 per cent of performance, I could easily have imagined that I was riding my bike.”

    The new Ducati V21L electric race bike will take over from the Energica Ego Corsa race bike that powers the grid currently. It will be interesting to see how much of a step up is the new bike in terms of performance.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • BNP Paribas Left With Cash After U.S. Exit

    BNP Paribas Left With Cash After U.S. Exit

    BNP Paribas is exiting its U.S. retail business providing its expansion plans with a financial boost. The French bank is selling its U.S. Bank of the West – for $16.3billion to Bank of Montreal, it said in a statement Monday

    With the sale proceeds BNP Paribas could be on the lookout to buy a smaller tech company, the British newspaper writes, citing analysts who added that no deal was imminent.

    It will concentrate on expanding its business in Europe, the report says. In this context, an acquisition in Switzerland could also be an option.

    Last month BNP Paribas spotted a deal with Credit Suisse: the Swiss lender, which suffered more than $5 billion in losses on Archegos’ unwind earlier this year, offloaded its prime brokerage clients to its French counterpart.

    Lees ook:

  • Mobile wallet MoMo says valuation tops $2 bln after funding

    Mobile wallet MoMo says valuation tops $2 bln after funding

    Vietnam’s biggest e-wallet company, MoMo, said it had raised $200 million from four investors led by Mizuho Bank, pushing its valuation above $2 billion.

    The consortium of investors also comprised Ward Ferry Management and existing shareholders Goodwater Capital LLC and Kora Management, MoMo said in a statement Tuesday.

    The exact valuation of the company was not revealed but according to Nguyen Manh Tuong, co-founder of the Ho Chi Minh City-based startup: “We focus on performance not valuation, but we crossed $2 billion valuations after this round.”

    The company has previously said it intended to go public by 2025.

    Momo is Vietnam’s largest e-wallet by users and aims to double the number of users to 50 million in the next two years, the company said in January.

    Financial technology has gained more traction in the country of nearly 98 million people during the Covid-19 pandemic, with retailers going online and consumers seeking contactless payment options.

    The latest funding round would support the growth of MoMo as an all-in-one smartphone application or “super app” which offers multiple services, which have proved successful in countries like China and Indonesia.

    Lees ook:

  • Garment export won’t decline next year

    Garment export won’t decline next year

    Vietnam’s garment and textile exports next year is set to remain the same as this year even in the worst-case scenario where the Covid-19 pandemic prolongs, an association forecasts.

    Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) anticipates export would reach $39 billion next year, the same as this year, if pandemic impacts are major and linger until the end of the year.

    In the more optimistic scenarios that the pandemic is controlled by the second quarter, export could reach $41 billion, and by the first quarter, $43.5 billion, it stated.

    The association made its forecast as export this year expanded 12 percent from last year and 0.3 percent from 2019, indicating a recovery to pre-pandemic level.

    “This could be considered a great effort of Vietnam’s garment industry amid signs of slower global economic growth,” VITAS chairman Vu Duc Giang told a recent meeting.

    Truong Van Cam, deputy chairman of the association, said one positive sign is that major markets like the U.S., E.U. and Japan have reopened.

    Another supporting factor is that Vietnam has changed its Covid-19 fight policy from “zero Covid-19” to living with it, he added.

    In order to achieve the mentioned figures, vaccination is key, Cam said.

    Two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine should be the minimum requirement for staff to return to work, while third dose vaccinations for workers should begin, he urged.

    Fiscal and monetary policies should be more accessible and be effective for two or three years, he added.

    “Garment and textile needs an overall strategy so Vietnamese companies can export products under their own brands,” he said, adding that a plan should be made for development until 2030.

    Vu Thanh Tu Anh, dean of Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management in Ho Chi Minh City, said digital transformation has now become a must for sector survival as the Covid-19 pandemic has forced global corporations to increase the flexibility of their supply chains.

    Lees ook:

  • Miniso to rebrand US stores as $10 N’ Under banner to attract Gen Z

    Miniso to rebrand US stores as $10 N’ Under banner to attract Gen Z

    As Chinese discount retailer Miniso opened its 5000th store this week, the company said it would rebrand all of its US stores $10 N’ Under.  The 5000th store is located in Boston, and was one of four US stores to open on the same day. In a statement, the company said its expansion in North America was among its fastest rollout internationally.

    While the company has built a presence in 100 markets since its 2013 debut, the bulk of its network is in Greater China. Expansion in other countries has seen mixed results, but the company says its US strategy of using the $10 N’Under banner is winning over Gen Z consumers.

    “The strong market response towards our $10 N’ Under stores validates our strategy to cater to Gen Z who place a premium on value: they want trendy, quality products at an affordable price,” said Andrew Xie, GM at Miniso North America.

    Existing US Miniso stores will be rebranded by the end of this month, by which time the retailer expects to have 100 stores operating across the country.

    Xie says store deco will be unique to certain US locations. “For instance, its SoHo pop-up in New York City features a wide variety of plush toys and pillows exuding warmth and comfort.”

    Elsewhere in the world, the company plans to continue to expand, but in the statement said it would “proactively respond to changes in different markets” suggesting it is aware its offer may not suit all regions. Outside China, it has stores in the UK, Italy, Spain, India, Mexico, Singapore, Vietnam and Australia, offering products ranging from homewares cosmetics, toys and food.

    Next year it plans to expand its offer to attract Gen Z shoppers, adding scented products, plush toys, and “fun accessories”. “Miniso will localise its product portfolio based on market trends to meet local consumer needs,” said overseas VP Vincent Huang.

    Lees ook: