Voice recognition is useful. Beyond Verbal has raised $1 million to prove that emotion recognition could be too

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Voice recognition is useful. Beyond Verbal has raised $1 million to prove that emotion recognition could be too

BY NATHANIEL MOTT 
ON JULY 23, 2013

Anyone could tell you that communication isn’t necessarily what you say but how you say it. We have evolved to communicate through our gestures, posture, pitch, and cadence as well as our vocabularies, allowing us to convey different emotions without necessarily changing the words we use. Humans can pick up on those signals fairly easily. Machines can’t — and that’s exactly what Beyond Verbal, an Israel-based startup, is trying to change.

The company, which previously raised a $2.8 million seed round led by Genesis Angels, is today announcing that it has raised a $1 million follow-on round led by Winnovation to continue developing its emotion recognition software. The round will allow the company to refine its product and introduce APIs that will allow developers of other services to incorporate such emotion recognition tech into their own products. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

The secret to e-commerce in countries with few credit cards: cash on delivery

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

The secret to e-commerce in countries with few credit cards: cash on delivery

By Rowan Moore Gerety July 23, 2013

Rowan Moore Gerety is a writer and radio reporter based in Los Angeles and edits the African Makers collection on Medium.

A version of this post originally appeared on the African Makers collection on Medium.

DO NOT SHIP TO NIGERIA. This warning and others like it fill the advice threads posted by users on Ebay. It’s advice that most sellers on Ebay have opted to follow, and the pattern has driven African consumers to a variety of workarounds, leading people like Ethan Zuckerman to lend a hand as international couriers: I routinely bring goods to Ghana and Nigeria that friends in those countries have ordered and sent to my office, because they can’t get them delivered to their homes. It’s very strange when people you’ve met only over Twitter send you iPads so you can bring them to Nigeria… Drawing on the work of sociologist Jenna Burrell in a post called Who let all those Ghanaians on the Internet, Zuckerman catalogues the various forms of exclusion of African users by online companies around the world, from the “failure to include” users who have no access to credit cards, to the “purposeful exclusion” of entire ranges of IP addresses from African countries, which are blocked from accessing their sites. Burrell’s examples from her fieldwork in Ghana include Amazon, Ebay, and Paypal, and several of the major players in online dating. Read more of this post

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Buffett’s Wells Fargo deposes China’s ICBC as world’s biggest bank

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Wells Fargo deposes China’s ICBC as world’s biggest bank

POSTED: 24 Jul 2013 1:47 PM
The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has lost its standing as the world’s largest bank by market capitalisation to US-based Wells Fargo, data showed Wednesday, as China’s economy slows.

SHANGHAI: The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has lost its standing as the world’s largest bank by market capitalisation to US-based Wells Fargo, data showed Wednesday, as China’s economy slows. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co is worth $236 billion, according to the New York Stock Exchange, where it is listed, while Chinese figures show ICBC is now valued at $223 billion. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

China starts 5-year ban on new gov’t buildings

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

China Bans New Government Buildings in Waste Crackdown

China banned government and Communist Party agencies from constructing new buildings for five years and told them to suspend projects that have already won approval as the country seeks to cut wasteful spending.

The ban includes construction for purposes of training, meetings and accommodation, the government said in a statement on its website yesterday, calling for resources to be spent instead on developing the economy and improving public welfare. All localities should report the implementation of the new rules by Sept. 30, according to the statement. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Parents are turning to medical clinics run by pharmacies like CVS and Walgreen to treat their children for minor illnesses rather than their pediatricians because of the convenience

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Retail Health Clinics More Popular on Ease for Parents

Parents are turning to medical clinics run by companies like CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) and Walgreen Co. (WAG) to treat their children for minor illnesses rather than their pediatricians because of the convenience, a study found.

Parents used the clinics instead of their child’s doctor because the retail health outlets had more suitable hours, their pediatrician had no available appointments or they didn’t want to bother the doctor after hours, according to research published today in JAMA Pediatrics. Read more of this post

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Fur Coats in Stores as Sweltering Britons Seek Bikinis

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Fur Coats in Stores as Sweltering Britons Seek Bikinis

Finding t-shirts and bikinis during the U.K.’s longest heat wave in 18 years is presenting an unlikely fashion emergency for British shoppers.

Even as temperatures have topped 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) for 17 consecutive days, coats and sweaters are starting to replace shorts and flip-flops in store displays as retailers roll out fall fashions, leaving little choice for customers seeking to replenish their wardrobes after two years of summer washouts.

“I want to buy summer clothes now and they’re all gone,” James Arscott, a 52-year-old data analyst, said in London. “They sell summer clothes in the spring and now they’re selling autumn clothes. It’s almost like they expect people to buy things too soon.” Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

China’s Coal-Fired Economy Dying of Thirst as Mines Lack Water

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

China’s Coal-Fired Economy Dying of Thirst as Mines Lack Water

At first glance, Daliuta in northern China appears to have a river running through it. A closer look reveals the stretch of water in the center is a pond, dammed at both ends. Beyond the barriers, the Wulanmulun’s bed is dry.

Daliuta in Shaanxi province sits on top of the world’s biggest underground coal mine, which requires millions of liters of water a day for extracting, washing and processing the fuel. The town is the epicenter of a looming collision between China’s increasingly scarce supplies of water and its plan to power economic growth with coal. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

European Banks Face Capital Gap With Focus on Leverage

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

European Banks Face Capital Gap With Focus on Leverage

Europe’s biggest banks, which more than doubled their highest-quality capital to $1 trillion since 2007 to meet tougher rules, may have further to go as regulators scrutinize how lenders judge the riskiness of their assets.

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Barclays (BARC) Plc and Societe Generale SA (GLE) are among European banks that issued stock, sold units or hoarded earnings to bring capital, as a proportion of assets weighted by risk, into line with new global rules. Now some regulators are questioning the weightings, typically set by the banks’ own models, and embracing a broader measure of equity to total assets known as the leverage ratio that ignores risk. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

UPS Shuns ‘Slash-and-Burn’ in Bid to Blunt Next-Day Drop

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

UPS Shuns ‘Slash-and-Burn’ in Bid to Blunt Next-Day Drop

United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) is trimming flight hours and miles driven to reduce costs as customers shy away from pricier overnight packages to cheaper two-day and deferred offerings.

UPS is trimming main aircraft routes out of Asia to an average of 7.5 from 8, and will lower headcount through attrition and slower hiring, Chief Financial Officer Kurt Kuehn said. The company will also cut discretionary spending on projects that don’t have an immediate payoff, he said. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Alibaba Building China Delivery Net in Shift to Consumers

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Alibaba Building China Delivery Net in Shift to Consumers

In her apartment in Tibet, Lu Ping sits back and clicks an order for about 1,000 yuan ($161) of cosmetics. At the other end of China, online retailer Jian Weiqing receives the order in his office near a Shanghai airport and prepares Lu’s shipment, which will arrive in the distant province within four days. Standing between the two is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese Internet juggernaut heading toward what analysts expect to be the biggest initial public offering since Facebook Inc. (FB)

After starting as a business-to-business marketplace where companies trade anything from shoelaces to steel, Alibaba has morphed into a far more consumer-focused operation. The company now gets the bulk of its sales and most of its growth selling to individuals across China, from villagers in places without supermarkets and malls to sophisticated consumers in Beijing and Shanghai seeking to avoid pollution and traffic. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

Bad Real-Estate Deals Return to Haunt Detroit’s Pensions

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Bad Real-Estate Deals Return to Haunt Detroit’s Pensions

In 2006, businessman Robert Shumake asked trustees of Detroit’s two pensions to hand him $27 million to invest in real estate.

George Orzech, a fire battalion chief who still represents uniformed workers on their fund’s board, found one thing odd:

“Anybody who knows the first names of trustees in a first meeting has already had meetings with people,” said Orzech, who unsuccessfully opposed the plan. “It was a political deal.” Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Alleged by SEC in Lawsuit Against Texas Man

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Alleged by SEC in Lawsuit Against Texas Man

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued a Texas man over claims he operated a Ponzi scheme involving Bitcoin, the virtual currency that has recently attracted investors including Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

Trendon T. Shavers raised at least 700,000 Bitcoin starting no later than September 2011 through his firm Bitcoin Savings and Trust and improperly used currency from new investors to cover investor withdrawals, the SEC said in a complaint filed today in federal court in Texas. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Selling Off Detroit’s Art Could Depress Global Market

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Selling Off Detroit’s Art Could Depress Global Market

Art experts yesterday reacted with concern at the prospect of masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts, including works by Bellini, Rembrandt, van Gogh and Picasso, suddenly flooding the global market.

That possibility looms in the wake of the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy filing by the city on July 18. The Detroit collection has been valued at more than $1 billion. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Twitter Expands Ad Tool for Marketers Seeking TV Viewers; After watching coordinated ads on TV and Twitter, users were 58% more likely to purchase products and services and 27% more likely to mention brands

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Twitter Expands Ad Tool for Marketers Seeking TV Viewers

Twitter Inc., the microblogging site, expanded a service that lets advertisers direct promotions to viewers who tweet about shows they’re watching on television.

The ad-targeting service, first introduced in May for a limited number of marketers, is now available to all those running national campaigns in the U.S., the San Francisco-based company said on its blog today. Twitter is courting television advertisers in its bid to reach $1 billion in sales by 2014. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

For the mobile Internet, tomorrow belongs to Asia

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

For the mobile Internet, tomorrow belongs to Asia

3:06pm EDT

By Jeremy Wagstaff and Lee Chyen Yee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – After five years of explosive growth sales of high-end smartphones have hit a plateau and the $2 trillion industry – telecom carriers, handset makers and content providers – is buckling up for a bumpier ride as growth shifts to emerging markets, primarily in Asia.

While carrier subsidies have helped drive sales of high-end devices in mature markets, the next growth chapter will be in emerging markets where cost-conscious users demand cheaper gadgets and cheaper access to cheaper services. Read more of this post

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The Art of Forgiveness: Differentiating Transformational Leaders

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

The Art of Forgiveness: Differentiating Transformational Leaders

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries INSEAD – Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise

April 18, 2013
INSEAD Working Paper No. 2013/52/EFE 

Abstract:      
This article explores the subject of forgiveness and its importance in the context of leadership. Forgiveness is one of the factors that differentiates exceptional from mediocre or ineffective leadership. When leaders forgive, they dissipate built-up anger, bitterness and the animosity that can color individual, team, and organizational functioning. Forgiveness offers people the chance to take risks, to be creative, to learn and to grow in their own leadership. Individuals, organizations, institutions, and societies can progress when people are not preoccupied by past hurts. After taking Nelson Mandela as an example of a leader who practiced forgiveness on a transformational scale, a “forgiveness questionnaire” helps readers to assess their own ability and inclination to forgive. The Lex Talionis or law of retribution, emerges, however, as an essential part of the human condition. To understand forgiveness dynamics, its meaning is deconstructed; the forgiving personality is analyzed, and forgiving and unforgiving leaders are compared using traditional conceptual frameworks and a psychodynamic lens. The journey toward forgiveness and its various stages is explored, and pseudo-forgiveness described, with a warning that forgiving doesn’t imply merely forgetting. The mental and physical costs of a non-forgiving Weltanschauung are discussed, and suggestions are made for how to become more forgiving, a process wherein self-reflection, self-understanding, and self-expression take a central position.

Filed under Life, Research

Swept Away by the Crowd? Crowdfunding, Venture Capital, and the Selection of Entrepreneurs

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Swept Away by the Crowd? Crowdfunding, Venture Capital, and the Selection of Entrepreneurs

Ethan R. Mollick University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School

March 25, 2013

Abstract: 
Venture Capitalists (VCs) are experts in assessing the quality of entrepreneurial ventures. A long tradition of research has examined the signals of quality that VCs look for in new ventures, and the biases that result from the VC selection process. Recently, an alternative form of new venture funding has arisen in the form of crowdfunding, which relies on the judgement of millions of amateurs about which entrepreneurial projects are worth funding. Little is known about the degree to which amateurs respond to the same signals of quality as VCs, and whether they are subject to the same biases. To address this gap, I examine 2,101 crowdfunded projects that match characteristics of more traditional VC-backed seed ventures. Despite the radical differences in selection environments, I find that entrepreneurial quality is assessed in similar ways by both VCs and crowdfunders, but that crowdfunding alleviates some of geographic and gender biases associated with the way that VCs look for signals of quality.

Filed under Research

Informed Trading Before Unscheduled Corporate Events: Theory and Evidence

July 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Informed Trading Before Unscheduled Corporate Events: Theory and Evidence

Shmuel Baruch University of Utah – Department of Finance

Marios A. Panayides University of Pittsburgh – Finance Group; University of Utah

Kumar Venkataraman Southern Methodist University (SMU) – Edwin L. Cox School of Business

May 2013

Abstract: 
Despite widespread evidence that informed agents are active before corporate events, there is little work describing how informed agents accumulate positions and what explains their trading strategies. We use the prisoners’ dilemma to model the execution risk that informed traders impose on each other and explain why they forgo the price benefit of limit orders and use instead market orders. However the efficient limit-orders outcome is obtained if there is sufficient uncertainty about the presence of informed traders. We link the level of uncertainty to costly short selling and test theoretical predictions using order level data from Euronext Paris. We find empirical support for the prediction that informed traders use limit orders when the news is negative, especially when (a) the investor base is not broad, (b) security borrowing costs are high, and (c) the magnitude of the event is small so potential profits cannot justify the cost of borrowing. When the news is positive, we show that informed buyers face more competition and use market orders. These results help explain the buy-sell asymmetry in price impact of trades and provide a framework for surveillance systems that are designed to detect insider trading.

Filed under Research

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