iCar Asia’s growth strategy: Make a “land grab” on Asia’s car classifieds

Nassim Khadem Reporter

iCar Asia’s growth strategy: Make a “land grab” on Asia’s car classifieds

Published 02 October 2013 11:50, Updated 03 October 2013 07:38

Since iCar Asia, the company backed by BRW Young Rich lister Patrick Grove, secured a $13.4 million investment from Australia’s largest car sale website, Carsales.com, its share price has soared. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, iCar Asia is the largest network of online automotive sites in ASEAN, reaching 2.5 million people every month across Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Read more of this post

Best Buy Updates Decade-Old Site to Double Online Sales

Best Buy Updates Decade-Old Site to Double Online Sales

When Best Buy Co. (BBY) unveiled its new rewards program last month, riffing on the word “my,” the name had a familiar ring. “My Best Buy” sounds a lot like “My Macy’s” from the Macy’s Inc. (M) department-store chain, “MyLowe’s” from home-improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. and even Zoeller Co.’s “MyPlumbingStuff.” Best Buy Chief Executive Officer Hubert Joly is borrowing that two-letter word and plenty more from rivals to improve the retailer’s e-commerce operations, which even his own colleagues say had fallen a decade behind. While the website won’t seriously vie with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) any time soon, Best Buy can harness its brand recognition and status as the largest consumer-electronics retailer to grab e-commerce share. The efforts may already be helping, with Best Buy’s online traffic rising 9.9 percent in August from a year earlier, according to data from Compete.com that the company uses. Read more of this post

The Most Destructive, Unpredictable Force in Tech

October 2, 2013, 1:26 p.m. ET

The Most Destructive, Unpredictable Force in Tech

FARHAD MANJOO

What’s the most destructive force in the tech world, the thing that has nearly killedBlackBerry, BB.T +0.98% pushed Dell DELL -0.07% to go private, and made a mess of Microsoft MSFT +1.01% ? Conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley would finger one of the following technologies: smartphones, tablets, social networks, “the cloud,” app platforms, or some other inscrutable bit of jargon. Actually, though, the most destructive, unpredictable, and fickle force in the tech industry is much closer to home: It’s you and me and everyone we know. Read more of this post

The Golden Age of TV Theme Songs: In the age of binge-viewing, it’s more important than ever that a show’s theme music be engineered to reward multiple plays

October 2, 2013, 3:03 p.m. ET

The Golden Age of TV Theme Songs

In the age of binge-viewing, it’s more important than ever that a show’s theme music be engineered to reward multiple plays

STEVE KNOPPER

Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” was never a hit, but these days people are listening to the 39-year-old rock classic so frequently that it may as well be on Top 40 radio. It’s the opening theme to NBC’s “Parenthood,” a binge-watching fixture on Netflix, Hulu and DVRs everywhere. Like “Breaking Bad,” “The Wire,” “Lost” and other TV series with rich character development and abundant cliffhangers, “Parenthood” is made for living-room marathons, and it comes with a main-title theme built to withstand repetition. Read more of this post

Satellite-TV Providers Plan for Survival as Growth Fades

Satellite-TV Providers Plan for Survival as Growth Fades

By Alex Sherman October 02, 2013

Satellite-television providers, which shook up the pay-TV industry in the 1990s by luring millions of customers away from cable companies, are now struggling to adjust to the technology of the 2010s. As more Americans shun pricey TV subscriptions and watch video over the Internet, DirecTV (DTV:US) and Dish Network Corp. (DISH:US) are at risk of eventually becoming obsolete. They don’t offer the same high-speed broadband service as their cable and telecom rivals, making it harder to adapt to the world of Web-based television, where robust Internet access is a must. Read more of this post

Ontario Teachers’ fund invests in online retailer Zalando

Ontario Teachers’ fund invests in online retailer Zalando

4:43am EDT

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) has bought a 2 percent stake in Europe’s biggest online fashion retailer Zalando, continuing a push into e-commerce investment for the fund. Berlin-based Zalando, which has brought on board several new investors over the last year as it seeks to fund expansion, said on Wednesday OTPP took the stake as part of a 4 percent capital increase at the group. Read more of this post

HTC Follows BlackBerry to Smartphone Dead-End: Chart of the Day

HTC Follows BlackBerry to Smartphone Dead-End: Chart of the Day

HTC Corp. (2498), the smartphone maker that’s lost 90 percent of its market value since 2011, is still too expensive for potential buyers following acquisition deals for BlackBerry Ltd. and Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), said Yuanta Securities Co. The CHART OF THE DAY shows Taoyuan City, Taiwan-based HTC trades at 1.4 times net assets, almost triple the 0.5 level of BlackBerry, the smartphone maker that agreed Sept. 23 to a $4.7 billion buyout. The lower panel shows the consensus ratings of analysts who follow HTC, BlackBerry and Nokia, which agreed last month to sell its handset business. The Taiwanese company is ranked 1.6 out of a possible 5, the lowest of more than 500 listed technology companies, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Read more of this post

WhatsApp Suddenly Looks Like A Huge Threat To Facebook; WhatsApp got more than 300 million users and carries 25 billion messages every day

WhatsApp Suddenly Looks Like A Huge Threat To Facebook

JIM EDWARDS OCT. 1, 2013, 10:39 AM 7,931 4

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has twice addressed the issue of whether the social network is losing traction among teens recently, and twice he’s said that it’s a non-issue. Facebook isn’t seeing a decline among younger people, he says (although he admits it’s not as cool as it used to be.) He might want to look again at WhatsApp Messenger, the group messaging service that is huge outside the U.S. and gaining ground within it. It’s got more than 300 million users and carries 25 billion messages every day. Read more of this post

Spin, a new mobile video-chatting service that lets up to 10 people share photos and videos as well, is so different from traditional video-chatting apps that it can be a bit confusing at first

October 1, 2013, 9:01 p.m. ET

New Spin on Video Chats Brings More to the Party

Service Lets Up to 10 People Share Photos and Videos

WALTER S. MOSSBERG

Holding video chats on your mobile devices can be a great thing. But many of the common video chat apps only allow two-party calls, at least for free, or require you to have an account with a large service or social network. Now, there’s a new video-chatting service for mobile devices and it’s free. It allows up to 10 parties in a single chat session and it doesn’t require an account to participate in a chat. This new service, called Spin, also allows you to share photos and videos with others during a chat. And it’s built for touch so you can swipe or flick in and out of chats, which it calls “gatherings.” Or you can pinch and zoom to enlarge the whole gathering, or just the small tile representing an individual in that group. Read more of this post

Here comes another ‘Netflix for books,’ this time from Scribd

Here comes another ‘Netflix for books,’ this time from Scribd

BY HAMISH MCKENZIE 
ON OCTOBER 1, 2013

It was only a matter of time until books got the Netflix treatment, becoming available to “purchase” on an all-you-can-eat subscription basis with an access-over-ownership model. Last month saw thelaunch of Oyster, which lets readers subscribe to a list of more than 100,000 books for $9.95 a month on their iPhones (with more devices to follow). Today, Scribd is undercutting Oyster by offering all-you-can-read book subscriptions for $8.99 a month across multiple devices. Read more of this post

Can Merchant Customer Exchange can pull payment volume away from Visa, MasterCard?

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

A Credible Threat to Visa, MasterCard

Sterne Agee says Merchant Customer Exchange can pull payment volume away.

We believe that the Merchant Customer Exchange has the potential to pull a modest amount of payment volume away from Visa and MasterCard over the next few years (about 1%) with the potential to pull a greater amount over a longer time frame. With that said, Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) still faces significant hurdles including launching its service and signing consumers up, all the while juggling the potential competing interests of its large merchant partners. Although we are assuming that MCX’s payment choices will bypass Visa (ticker: V) and MasterCard (MA), the networks could ultimately reach agreements with MCX. Read more of this post

A Google Glass Alternative in Japan

OCTOBER 1, 2013, 3:09 PM

A Google Glass Alternative in Japan

By ERIC PFANNER

TOKYO — Foreign tourists visiting this city have long encountered translation help. But the methods are not perfect, including at restaurants, where sign language, photographs and plastic models of sushi and sashimi have been used. Now NTT Docomo, the biggest mobile network operator in Japan, thinks it has a better solution. Read more of this post

Apple’s Passbook Ecosystem: How Retailers, Sports Teams, And Brands Have Made It Work For Them

Apple’s Passbook Ecosystem: How Retailers, Sports Teams, And Brands Have Made It Work For Them

MARK HOELZEL AND MARCELO BALLVE OCT. 1, 2013, 5:40 PM 2,305

Apple’s Passbook is already the fourth-most popular mobile commerce app among U.S. consumers. It ranks just behind giants like eBay, Amazon, and Groupon in terms of user adoption. One-fifth of iPhone owners already use Passbook to download “passes”— coupons, gift and loyalty cards, airline boarding passes, and movie and event tickets. It’s Apple’s attempt at a virtual wallet. Large retailers — from Sephora to Target — and restaurant chains and Major League Baseball are already using it as a channel for acquiring and retaining customers. So why don’t we hear more about Passbook?  Read more of this post

Wix.com Ltd, which helps companies build and operate websites, to raise up to $100 million in an IPO

Website development platform Wix.com files for $100 million IPO

7:50pm EDT

(Reuters) – Wix.com Ltd, which helps companies build and operate websites, filed with the U.S. regulators on Tuesday to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. Wix, which sells its cloud-based templates to design websites to small business owners, said revenue grew to $43.7 million in 2012 from $9.9 million 2009. Net losses widened 30 percent in the period. Read more of this post

E-Verify Goes Dark as Shutdown Cuts Links to Companies

E-Verify Goes Dark as Shutdown Cuts Links to Companies

The Internet-based system that employers use to check whether job applicants may legally work went dark as U.S. agencies limited or cut off electronic communications companies use in everyday tasks. Websites that shut down included the E-Verify site run by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the agency sites of the Census Bureau, Agriculture Department, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Library of Congress and the federal and international trade commissions. Closing of the E-Verify system, which checks information provided by employees against millions of government records, was one result as the government went into its first shutdown in 17 years. Read more of this post

Etsy Says Sellers Can Now Use Factories for Their Homemade Goods

Etsy Says Sellers Can Now Use Factories for Their Homemade Goods

Etsy Inc., an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, will let its sellers use outside manufacturers and hire as many employees as they need, loosening rules amid confusion over requirements. The change will allow sellers that cultivated their businesses on Etsy to keep expanding on the site, Chief Executive Officer Chad Dickerson said in an interview. It will also permit moves that were previously forbidden, like employing people in another location or producing goods in a factory. Etsy is home to about 1 million sellers, some of whom are struggling to keep up with demand for their products, the company said. Under the new policy, sellers will have to disclose their business relationships and apply to use manufacturing services. Etsy will try to ensure that goods sold on the site still meet its definition of “handmade.” “It’s no secret that our community has struggled for a long time with Etsy policies,” Dickerson said in an interview. “We realized that as the community grows, the policies that we created that frankly didn’t work well when the community was smaller were bursting at the seams.” Dickerson said the company hasn’t determined how the changes will affect the business, which is planning an eventual initial public offering. “We haven’t run a single spreadsheet on it from a revenue standpoint,” he said. “We haven’t done any financial projections.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in New York at sfrier1@bloomberg.net

Cash-Loving Russians Give Qiwi an Edge as PayPal Looms; Across Russia, Qiwi has 169,000 machines, more than double the number of any bank’s ATMs

Cash-Loving Russians Give Qiwi an Edge as PayPal Looms

Whether at stores or online, in Russia cash is still king. Just ask Qiwi Plc. (QIWI)

The company has built a lucrative business catering to Russians eager to shop and pay bills electronically yet unwilling to use online banking or reveal credit-card numbers on the Web. Its solution: machines that swallow cash to let users pay their rent or phone bill or top up PayPal-like online accounts. Across Russia, Qiwi has 169,000 machines, more than double the number of any bank’s ATMs. Read more of this post

Webjet’s Roger Sharp plans IPO for mash-up of rescued online media casualties

Webjet’s Roger Sharp plans IPO for mash-up of rescued online media casualties

Published 01 October 2013 11:44, Updated 01 October 2013 11:55

Jake Mitchell

Roger Sharp says he’s plucked a range of businesses from the ashes of the GFC, Photo: Peter Braig

A mash-up of distressed companies rescued by Webjet board member Roger Sharp in the wake of the financial crisis is seeking to list early next year as a growth stock with revenue of about $50 million a year. Asia Pacific Digital, which has 700 staff in Australia, another 130 across Asia, and reported revenue of $90 million in fiscal year 2013, has acquired ­several struggling online media businesses since 2008. Mr Sharp refinanced them and installed new management. “We bought a range of business from the wreckage of the GFC,” said Mr Sharp, who is the AP Digital executive chairman and major shareholder. “They were Australian companies that had typically been owned by public companies that got in trouble, as many did.” AP Digital comprises digital advertising agency Next Digital, customer acquisition group DGM and customer relationship management firm Jericho Digital Communications, among ­others. The parent company is a fund manager that hopes to list an entity holding only digital businesses. The IPO market is heating up with an estimated $13 billion in market capitalisation poised to hit the boards of the Australian Securities Exchange over the next 12 months.

What Does it Cost to Make an iPhone?

September 30, 2013, 11:52 AM

What Does it Cost to Make an iPhone?

BEN ROONEY

A 16GB iPhone 5S costs Apple Inc. $213 in materials, while a 16GB 5C comes in at $156, according to a report published Monday byUBS AGUBSN.VX -1.33%. The tear-down shows the big saving that the “unashamedly plastic” case of the 5C represents, coming in at $42 less than the aluminum body of the 5S. The other big saving is the $7 fingerprint sensor. Apple lists an unlocked 16GB iPhone 5S on its site at $649 and an iPhone 5C at $549. In a report of exacting detail, UBS estimates gross margins of around 50% for both devices. The report notes: Adding box contents, manufacturing, and non-BoM [Bills of Material] related costs, we estimate gross margins could ramp to 45-55% for the iPhone 5S and 48-54% for the iPhone 5C overtime as production scales and matures. In our view, non-component costs are likely to reach to approximately 33-40% of total device costs, largely driven by deprecation and software amortization expense. We estimate Apple’s depreciation expense is roughly $25 per device, accounting for the company’s sizable investments in non-leading edge production equipment. We assume Apple’s warranty accrual rate is 1.8% and manufacturing, including freight, to equal $18-20 per unit. The display, which UBS source to Samsung Display Co., LG Display034220.SE +0.39% Co and Sharp Corp.6753.TO -0.56% is the biggest cost (20% of 5S material costs, 27% for the 5C). UBS estimates it comes in at $42.11. The tear-down reveals is how intertwined suppliers and makers are. While Apple andSamsung Electronics Co.005930.SE +0.95%, Ltd. have been locked in a series of legal battles conducted around the world and fight each other for consumers, Samsung is a key part of Apple’s success in making its “retina display” screen. Apple also uses Sony Corp.’s6758.TO +0.14% sensor in its camera. Sony is fighting to be the number three handset maker by value in the world, behind Apple and Samsung.

Facebook, Google Live in Pinteresting Times

September 29, 2013, 7:33 p.m. ET

HEARD ON THE STREET: Facebook, Google Live in Pinteresting Times

ROLFE WINKLER

What do you get when you cross the advertising potential of Facebook FB -1.97%and Google GOOG -0.05% ? A social network, and likely revenue machine, called Pinterest. Facebook and Twitter for that matter have fast-expanding ad revenues not because users like to see ads, but because advertisers can’t ignore their large reach. Meantime, Google search results are an ideal spot to grab customers who already know what they are looking to buy. Pinterest, which is almost the social-networking equivalent of window shopping, sits somewhere in between. Read more of this post

Phony Web Traffic Tricks Digital Ads; As Online Marketing Budgets Soar, Fraudsters Skim Millions with ‘Botnets”

September 30, 2013, 7:30 p.m. ET

Phony Web Traffic Tricks Digital Ads

As Online Marketing Budgets Soar, Fraudsters Skim Millions with ‘Botnets”

CHRISTOPHER S. STEWART and SUZANNE VRANICA

The website Songsrpeople.com looks a lot like other amateur-video sites. It is wallpapered with clips featuring “the most insane amusement park ever” and “your girlfriend’s six friends.” The site draws tens of thousands of visitors a month, according to audience measurement firms. It also has ads for national brands, including Target Corp.,TGT +0.06% Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -1.07% and State Farm. Read more of this post

Interrupting TV’s M&A Broadcast; Proposed Rule Change on How Broadcast Stations Are Treated Could Stymie the Recent Uptick in TV Consolidation

September 30, 2013, 5:11 p.m. ET

Interrupting TV’s M&A Broadcast

Proposed Rule Change on How Broadcast Stations Are Treated Could Stymie the Recent Uptick in TV Consolidation

MIRIAM GOTTFRIED

Broadcast stations may soon be sending a different signal. The Federal Communications Commission has opened a public comment period on a proposal that could make broadcast stations equal for the purpose of determining ownership caps. If adopted, it could put the brakes on the recent round of consolidation among station owners. A single company is currently prohibited from owning stations that, in aggregate, reach more than 39% of total TV households nationwide. But owners have been allowed to count only 50% of the TV households in their market areas toward the cap for stations broadcasting via ultrahigh frequency, or UHF, signals. Read more of this post

Time For a Samsung US Market Listing?

October 1, 2013, 9:29 AM

Time For a Samsung US Market Listing?

JONATHAN CHENG

For a few hundred dollars, a U.S. consumer can visit a local telecoms dealer and pick up a device manufactured bySamsung Electronics Co.005930.SE +0.88% But buying shares of the Korea-listed technology giant? Not so easy. That’s because Samsung, virtually alone among Asian tech giants with a global brand presence, doesn’t make its shares tradeable through American depositary receipts — instruments that allow stock in a non-U.S. company to trade, in greenbacks, on a U.S. exchange. Read more of this post

Asian smartphone makers seek to cut costs; Samsung now produces nearly 80 per cent of its handsets in Vietnam and China – roughly 40 per cent in each

October 1, 2013 1:41 am

Asian smartphone makers seek to cut costs

By Song Jung-a in Seoul

Leading Asian smartphone makers such as Samsung Electronics are racking their brains to come up with effective ways to protect market share and profit margins in the increasingly saturated global smartphone market. With three-quarters of people in the developed world owning a smartphone compared to only a fifth of those in more populous emerging markets, companies are expanding lower-priced product ranges to make their smartphones more affordable, while expanding production and procurement in lower-cost countries to save costs.

Read more of this post

Intel to acquire Australian tech company Sensory Networks for $21 million

Intel to acquire Australian tech company Sensory Networks for $21 million

October 1, 2013 – 11:23AM

Ben Grubb

Matt Barrie: Co-founded Sensory Networks in 2003. Photo: Louie Douvis

A technology company founded in Australia in 2003 has agreed to be acquired by Intel. Sensory Networks, which creates pattern matching and acceleration software technology, agreed to sell to Intel for about $US20 million ($21.5 million), a source familiar with the matter said. All of Sensory Networks’ employees are expected to join Intel, another source said. An Intel spokesman, Chris Kraeuter, confirmed the deal but had no comment about its terms. Read more of this post

Japan glasses translate menu as you read

Japan glasses translate menu as you read

Monday, September 30, 2013 – 22:37

AFP

CHIBA, Japan – Augmented reality glasses that can translate a menu in real time were unveiled at a Japanese gadget fair Monday, with promises they could be ready for visitors to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. NTT Docomo was showing off its latest development where cameras, computers and know-how combine to give the wearer a whole different view of what they are looking at. One function of the gizmo overlays the wearer’s first language onto unfamiliar text, making signs and menus instantly understandable – a boon to travellers in Japan, where foreign-language menus are not commonly found off the tourist trail. “Character recognition technology enables instant language translation for users travelling abroad and reading restaurant menus and other documents,” Docomo said in a statement, as it showcased the gadget at CEATEC Japan. Another application turns any flat surface into a touchscreen, with a finger ring relaying positioning information to the device that lets wearers “touch” tags that only they can see, perhaps to perform an Internet search. Other uses include facial recognition that is intended to look up someone’s identity – and job title – from a smartphone’s directory.