American Reynolds buys Lorillard

Reynolds American is the second largest tobacco company in the United States. It markets a variety of tobacco products including cigarettes and moist snuff. Its products include Camel, Pall Mall, Kool, Winston, Salem, and Capri. Lorillard is also an American Tobacco company marketing cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Kent, True, and Max.

In July 2014, Reynolds American announced it would buy Lorillard Tobacco Company for roughly $25 Billion. Merger between two of the world biggest cigarette maker also include the sale of the top-selling US e-cigarette to Britain’s Imperial Tobacco group. The deal, which gives Reynolds control of Newport Menthol cigarettes, strengthen the combined company’s hand in competing for a shrinking pool of smokers and sets up a three way battle with Marlboro maker Altria Inc. for the e-cigarette market. After this merger, their market share would be 42%, second only to Altria group’s 51%.

Lorillard’s expertise in the electronics cigarette market will be of special interests to Reynolds, which is looking to capitalize on the growing demand for e-cigs in the US and elsewhere. The traditional tobacco industry has been shrinking as more and more people become health conscious and switch to healthier and smokeless electronic cigarettes. Analysts expect the world market for electronic cigarettes to grow 24.2% every year until 2018.

Lorillard had acquired Blu Ecigs, a privately held Charlotte N.C-based company in 2012, and SKYCIG, a UK based e-cig maker, to gain a significant edge in the e-cigs market. Altria group had acquired Green Smoke’s e-vapor business this year, and is preparing a nationwide launch of its MarkTen e-cigs. Philip Morris International Inc, formerly a unit of Altria Group, has also launched its Marlboro e-cig product, which vaporized real tobacco instead of burning it.

Currently, Reynolds’s only presence in the market for e-cigs is through its Vuse brand, which is effectively sold in only two US states. Following the merger, the company will be looking for a more defined foothold in the e-cigs market. Altria is also getting into e-cigarette market with its own subsidiary, NuMark.

Apple and IBM partnership

There are new waves sent in tech world. Partnership of Apple and IBM can be the start of new era in technology. Last time, Apple and IBM teamed up was in early 1990s to advance a rival to Intel chips. That partnership ultimately fell flat. However, this partnership is looking better on paper. Apple partnership with IBM may deliver more value to Apple than just expanding the iPad and iPhone generation in the business world.

Although the partnership will certainly focus on creating business apps, the focus on creating industry-specific apps may boost Apple’s fortunes in one of the fields that it is actively seeking to disrupt-health care. Apple and IBM shared vision for this partnership is to put in the hands of business professionals everywhere the unique capabilities of iPad’s and iPhone’s with a company knowledge, data, analytics and workflows. The companies are planning to release more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions including apps developed for the iOS platform, along with IBM cloud services, security, and analytics. IBM will also sell Apple products tailored to specific industries.

Apple will create a new service and support offering tailored help, while IBM will manage some of the functions like device activation and security. This deal also includes a private app catalog, and helps business customers transform IBM services for mobile devices. The new offerings will be pushed through Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 8, which was launched in June.

IBM has a long history of providing enterprise IT solutions across the spectrum of healthcare organizations. That experience and IBM’s relationship with health-related organizations is a huge entry point for Apple into the health IT market for its devices, and could also give Apple’s Health kit APIs and Health application. IBM will also provide cloud functionality and services for business use on iOS based mobile platforms, helping to bring AppleCare customer service to the business segment. Microsoft gave new emphasis on a cloud first, mobile first structure, the teaming of two tech giants should be very worrying for Microsoft.

New airlines to fly in Indian Sky

It is raining airlines now in India. After Tata son’s JVs with Singapore Airlines and AirAsia, smaller players are now aiming for the Indian Sky too. The aviation ministry headed by Ashok Gajapathi Raju has given thumbs up to new six new airlines. Out of six, government has given license to four companies, which had sought permits for launching scheduled, private or charter air operations.

AirAsia India, Ligare Aviation Limited, Quickjet Cargo Airlines, and LEPL projects limited have been granted the Air Operator Permit (AOP) or flying license. Tata-SIA Airlines Limited and Air Pegasus Limited are still in pending cases. While AirAsia has started its operations, Tata-SIA Airlines Limited is a 51: 49 joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, has announced plans to launch flights by September end or October.

Directorate general of civil Aviation (DGCA) is in the process of examining Tata-SIA application. Two other airlines, Air carnival and Zav Airways, have been granted the initial No objection certificate (NOC) by civil aviation industry to start scheduled regional services. Air Carnival proposes to operate in Southern Region, Zav Airways would fly in northeastern and eastern regions. Government has also granted NOC to AirOne Aviation, Zexus Air Limited, Premier Air, and Turbo Megha.

Getting an NOC is the first step towards launching flight operations. Then airline companies have to then apply to DGCA for the AOP, complete all necessary requirements and formalities, and satisfy the aviation regulator of their capability to launch flight operations. With so many Industries entering in India for their Operations, government is planning to connect India to almost all destinations of the world. This will increase number of airports in the country and infrastructure will improve. Hotels and FMCG business will pick up scale and more employment will be created in Aviation sector and other sectors. Country economy will grow and foreign countries will expand their business in India because of direct route connections.

Samsung, LG's Smart watches features

South Korea Samsung and LG are two rival companies in electronic gadgets industry. Samsung covers more market in Mobile industry whereas LG is into ACs and Washing Machines. Recently, both companies launched rival smart watches powered by Google new software. Both companies are focusing on wearable devices as an increasing competitive market. Let us see some of the smart features of these watches.

Android Wear powers Samsung ‘Gear Live’ and LG ‘G Watch’, both. These are the first devices to adopt new Google software specifically designed for wearable. LG ‘G Watch’ is the first smartwatch to be equipped with Google voice recognition service. It also include simple tasks including checking email, sending text messages and carrying out an online search at user voice command. A typical watch cannot make phone calls by themselves.

However, they can be connected to many of the latest Android-based smartphones. These watches allow users to make calls, receive text messages and emails, take photos, and access applications. These gadgets are designed to work across all devices as long as gadgets are running the operating system.

The ‘G Watch’ has swappable straps, which are not easy to remove whereas Samsung swappable straps are easy to remove. There is a touch screen controller inside both watches. Samsung watch has 300mAh battery whereas LG has 400mAh battery inside it. These watches are very difficult to repair by any person. After training to an employee, these can be repaired. Other companies such as Microsoft, Motorola are also planning to launch smart watches probably in the end of this year.

3D Thimble replaces Computer Mouse

With change in technology, everything around us has changed. Size of computers, memory, display everything has changed. Now computers are made in touch screen modes. With so many changes in technology, Computer mouse will be dead after some time. We are limited to two-dimensional movements but now researchers in US have developed the 3D touch.

It is a ‘thimble’ like device that sits on the end of your finger and enables you to interact with virtual world in three-dimensional fashion. This intelligent device interacts with computer and sensing its position accurately in three-dimensions. The device uses three types of sensors, a 3D accelerometer, a 3D magnetometer, and a 3D gyroscope to perform its task. This combination of sensors allows the data from each sensor to compared and combined to produce a far more precise estimate of orientation than a single measurement alone. The 3D touch has an optical flow sensor that measures the movement of device against a two-dimensional surface.

The device works by responding a set of programmed mouse like gestures, like selecting and dragging, finger tap, and click. These gestures allow the user to interact with objects in three-dimensions within the interface of the computer. A wire to an Arduino controller, which combines the data from all sensors and is then streamed to a laptop, connects the device. The team is now looking into taking the device from wired to wireless.

It will be small, unobtrusive, and easily portable. It will also work with existing devices like desktop PC, laptops. Along with this if, you have two devices then it can be worn on each hand to enable ‘multitouch’ interaction. Nguyen and Banic from the University of Wyoming in US have created this 3D touch device.

Japan's Uniqlo enters India

Uniqlo is a Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer, and retailer. The company is a fast retailing chain of Japan. Uniqlo operates in Australia, China, Bangladesh, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, USA, and some other countries of the world. It was founded in 1949 and in 1985 company opened their first casual wear store.

After BJP government in country, Tadashi Yanai, CEO of Uniqlo met new PM Narendra Modi and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi. Just after a night, the Japanese retail giant has revealed plans to open up to 1000 stores in India in coming ten years. This would be the largest number of stores by them in any country after China, where the number of stores is 793.

It is not clear if Uniqlo will tie in a partner for its single brand retail foray or operate through a wholly owned subsidiary in the country. India enjoys advantages in garment sector including availability of cotton, skilled workforce, robust infrastructure, and good ports for exports. Uniqlo will source garments from India for exporting to other countries. Company is already in talks with Apparel Export Promotion Council to identify 10 suitable garment company exporters with the right scale. It will add value to company and country growth. India allows clothing retailers to open stores in India if they source at least 30% of their products in the country.

Company would target annual group sales of 5 trillion yen and profit from operations of 1 trillion yen by 2020. Company aims to become the largest manufacturer of Apparel by 2020 with a growth of 20% per year. The company’s International business target breaks down as one trillion yen in China, one trillion in other Asian countries, one trillion in Europe and one trillion in United States. 

Google, FB, Twitter blocked in China

More than 2600 foreign websites are blocked in China. Some websites are opened in regions like Hong Kong and Macau but in mainland China, many of the websites like Google, Facebook, Twitter, BlogSpot, YouTube, Bloomberg, Wikipedia, and Picasa are still blocked. There are several reasons why these websites are blocked in China.

Recently, the Google search Engine was temporarily unblocked in China, during U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Beijing for a series of high-level talks. This disruption of Google began in the run-up to the 25^th anniversary of the government’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Google and all services like Google Play, Maps, Docs, Drive, and Google+ were blocked since 2010 in China. The reason for blocking these sites was they did not fall in the law of China and serve the interests of people. China manages it media according to their law. China does not want other websites to create rumors and bias against China. China has its own popular search engine as if Google called Baidu and popular version of Twitter called Weibo.

China had kept YouTube out because it has its own domestic video sites called Tudou and Youku and it wants them to grow and prosper. Introduction of Alibaba after Baidu has pushed US giant Google to third place in Chinese market. As if Facebook, China has domestic Social Networking, sites called Renren and Kaixin001. Skype is also illegal to use in China and government support homegrown services by China Telecom and China Unicom. These are more expensive than Skype because they require monthly registration.

Other online services are also facing disruption in China, which includes South Korean Naver Corporation Line and KakaoTalk. Flickr and Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage are also disrupted in the country. China is quickly becoming the most aggressive and protectionist country in the world. Perhaps after a few years government will be pressured to let these foreign internet companies back in and negotiate a return but then these firms will have been left in dust by Chinese rivals. 

Google shopping Express

Google Shopping Express is a same day shopping service from Google that was launched publicly last year in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. In May 2014, this service was expanded to New York and Los Angeles. Amazon is the main competitor of Google in Market, who is also giving same day delivery in US states. Amazon use Octopocters to deliver products whereas Google Sedan cars and Ford vans to deliver products within four to five hours.

Customers pay only $5 per shopping cart for a product to be delivered in four to five hours on their window. Google also accepts credit cards and customers can add their products to Google wallet. This year Google is spending $500 million to expand the Google Shopping Express. This year Google is advancing grocery delivery service. Amazon has always been the top e-commerce site and Google has been the top search engine. Google tried to join with Google Check out and Google wallet, which helps shoppers to buy goods through Google. However, people still prefer Amazon and so the company is expanding their services.

This amazing service gives Google a crack at the $600 billion grocery market. Although this service will close loop for advertisers. Google is planning to expand this service in India too and current shipment is for only grocery items. Other competitors for delivering grocery items in market are AmazonFresh, Instacart, and Postmates.

AmazonFresh is a service started by Amazon. Instacart is an application running in US to deliver grocery products. The benefit of this application is if a product is not available in the store and bill for the same is generated then Instacart took the unavailable items from the bill. Their deliveries charges are high and price of products are 67% higher than Supermarket stores. Postmates, is an application and the benefit of it is that it will send you picture and number of delivery boy. It also offer refund and replacement facility. Deliveries charges and product are cheap. With these many competitors in market, Google is trying to reduce the delivery charges and reduce the shipment time.

Book Auto ride in Delhi with PoochO app

If you live in Delhi and are sick and tired of waiting for an auto especially during peak hours or late in night then PoochO app will be very useful. Launched by Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung, the PoochO app allows people to access the Delhi Integrated Multi Model Transit System (DIMTS) of registered driver’s mobile numbers and then call them up to book a ride. It is a relief for everyone and especially women who work until late nights in corporate and then commute via rickshaw.

DIMTS sanctioned the development of the smartphone application, which lets users find GPS-fitted autos passing nearby. This app offers users the option of sharing their travel details on Facebook and Twitter. It would be safety measure for everyone. User need to make sure that phone has GPS and leave it turned on in order to use the app. About 24000 autos in Delhi are equipped with GPS and this means that the tool has potential to be very handy to a large number of users.

PoochO app can be downloaded on only Android Phones from Google Play. User can also give their feedback on their travel in Auto Rickshaw. User can also calculate estimate fare for their trip and even track the auto to check if it is coming towards them or not after calling its drivers. This app will soon be available on iPhone too.

The best thing about this app is if a driver refuses to pick up a PoochO user for no reason will face with strict action. Application will help drivers to get passengers more easily. Traffic police will be asked to connect this app with their website, their traffic app because if a driver refuses to pick up then he will be penalized heavily. Authorities are planning to implement this app in Mumbai also as Traffic condition in Mumbai is pathetic.  

Wal-Mart launches B2B platform

Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouses stores. It has over 27000 stores in 27 countries, under a total 55 different names. In November 2006, Wal-Mart entered India in a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises to open retail stores. Bharti manages front-end work and Wal-Mart manages back end work. However, the venture broke down last year in September. In June 2014, Wal-Mart announced its plan to adopt a more aggressive strategy to grow its India business, which will focus on the 50 billion dollar cash and carry market.

In recent news, Wal-Mart has launched its business-to-business e-commerce platform in Indian cities of Lucknow and Hyderabad. Wal-Mart has 20 wholesale outlets in India. Wal-Mart will open 50 more wholesale outlets in India over four to five years and start online operations to sell to small shopkeepers. The company does not have plans to sell directly to consumers through its e-commerce service. Wal-Mart currently caters to consumers within a 20-km radius and the e-commerce business will help the company serve consumers within a 40-km radius of its stores. They also see a jump of 30k consumers through online retailing.

According to a report, online retail in India is worth $3.1 billion and is expected to grow to $22 billion in five years. India does not allow FDI in both online and offline retail that sells directly to individuals. Recently, BJP had also opposed FDI in multi-brand retail. Wal-Mart is currently facing competition from e-commerce giant Amazon in online retailing.

Wal-Mart India cash and carry business is a B2B format and hence only registered members of its wholesale stores in these respective cities will be eligible to transact online. Company will also face competition from Reliance, which is set to open 100 retail stores in India and is planning to buy assets of Carrefour, which is exiting from India. Presently, Wal-Mart has 20 stores in India followed by German wholesaler Metro cash and carry has 16 stores.

Carrefour exits India

Carrefour is a French multinational retailer headquartered in France. It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world. It operates mainly in Europe, Argentina, Brazil, China, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Carrefour operates cash and carry stores in India under the name “Carrefour Wholesale Cash & Carry.” The first store opened on December 2010 in Delhi. Then it was followed by a store in Jaipur, Meerut, Agra, and Bangalore.

Before September 2012, the FDI policy in India did not allow foreign companies to open multi-brand store. However, 100% FDI in cash and carry was permitted. As a result, Carrefour opted for cash and carry route to establish their presence in India. In September 2012, the new FDI policy allowing up to 51% FDI in multi-brand retail was introduced which would benefit Indian Farmers and consumers positively in long run.

Recently, France largest retail store Carrefour will shut its Indian operations and close its wholesale stores in the country. Carrefour will exit from underperforming markets including Singapore, Malaysia, and Greece. Company will now focus on their key markets in China, Brazil, and Europe. There are no reasons known of shutting stores in India but it was said in May that company is working on ways to withdraw from India after an eventual BJP victory. Company’s five stores lose business of $17 million in 2012.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, had last year shelved its plans to open a retail store in the country. Wal-Mart is now focusing on opening wholesale stores in the country and recently launched an e-commerce venture in India. Following the Indian government’s decision to allow foreign companies to own a 51 percent stake in multi-brand retail segment, only British supermarket operator Tesco has announced its plans to open stores in the country. Reliance Retail and Bharti Enterprises are in talks to buy India assets and readymade cash and carry stores of world second largest retailer Carrefour.

Twitter Allows Shopping Facility

Social Media giant “Twitter” and E-commerce company “Amazon” struck a partnership, which allows Amazon customers to add products to their shopping cart by replying with the hash tag “#AmazonCart” to any tweet containing a product’s Amazon hyperlink.

Twitter Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have announced a partnership in which users can add products to their Amazon shopping cart their Twitter account. By replying or tweeting with hash tag “#AmazonCart,” containing product hyperlink the product will be directly added to the customer Amazon account. For this customer need to link their Amazon Account with Twitter otherwise they will be asked to set it up if they reply or tweet with the hashtag. Currently the service is available in UK and USA, with hash tag “#AmazonBasket” for the customers.

However, Twitter will not get any cut from the products added to the shopping cart but some other financial agreements, if any, has not been revealed till now. This partnership will give benefit to both the companies. Footfall on Twitter will increase and people can shop while surfing Twitter. The only issue with this service is that customer’s tweets will be visible publicly which most of the users will not like. Twitter may resolve this issue later.

The partnership between social media player and ecommerce giants are nothing new. Chinese company Weibo Corp. and Alibaba group has a similar partnership where users can browse as well as buy products. Weibo has a buy button on their webpage where customer can purchase products which will direct them to Alipay, which is a service used by Alibaba to process payments. Similarly, in India, customers can buy products from Justdial.com, which is an advertisement giant in India. Companies who have tie-ups with Justdial can place their products on company website, which later will direct customer to the desired company website.

This partnership between Twitter and Amazon will increase competition in India. Currently, Twitter users can add products to their cart by using hash tag but for transaction, they need to visit Amazon. One may expect Twitter to integrate payment services with tweets. According to a report, Twitter is in talk with payment service company Stripe Inc. Twitter recently introduced mobile app install ads, which allows users to download apps directly within tweets. In contribution with such ads, Twitter can be expected to introduce a “BUY” button within these card tweets, so users can directly purchase apps when they see an ad they like.

Naspers

Naspers is a South African based multinational mass media company with operations in electronic media and print media. Electronic media includes television, internet, and message subscriber platforms whereas print media includes publishing, distribution, and printing of magazines, newspapers, and books.

Naspers was founded in year 1915 in Cape Town, South Africa. They published their first magazine in 1916 and in 1918 published their first book in the market. In 1997, Naspers created an Internet Service Provider in 1997 and started a blogging platform. In 21^st century, Naspers starting holding stakes in several different companies and finally in 2012 it entered into 2-commerce market in Asian Countries. After their report in March 2014, it was found that Naspers had already taken base over 8 million homes in the continent.

Naspers entered in Indian market after FDI was allowed in the country. In 2 September 2013, Naspers group acquired an 80% interest in RedBus, an Indian online ticketing platform and later in June 2014, the group acquired a 100% interest in RedBus.

In May 2014, Naspers invested a further $51 million i.e. Rs 307 crore into Flipkart. The funding was part of the $210 million raised by Flipkart this year. This funding allowed Naspers to acquire Fashion Retail Online store Myntra. Now Naspers owns 17.7% stake in India’s Flipkart.

Naspers most significant operations are located in South Africa from where it generates approximately 72.7% of its revenues and other significant operations are located in Sub-Saharan Africa, Greece, Cyprus, Netherlands, United States, Thailand, Brazil, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, India, Turkey, China and Romania. The strategy of Naspers is to create media content, build brand names around it, and manage the platforms distributing the content. Naspers then delivers its content in a variety of forms and through a variety of channels, including television, internet services, newspapers, magazines, and books.

Webaroo

Webaroo is a leading messaging company with businesses that include Unified Messaging (GupShup) and Mobile Messenger (TeamChat). Webaroo unified messaging business, GupShup supports over 2.1 billion mobile interactions per month and is being used over 66 Million Users, 500 brands, and 25,000 businesses to interact, engage, and communicate using any mobile device.

Webaroo started group messaging service in 2007. It was same as Whatsapp Chat messenger. Within a year more than 7 million people subscribe for the service and in 2008 Webaroo increases their funding by 10 million. Product was named as SMSGupShup. SMSGupShup is community site just as Twitter. However, is mostly used for casual communications and notifications, SMSGupShup is used for services that are critical to lot of people. It could local information to locals who do not have computers and television.

In this year, Webaroo aims to revenue Rs 200 cr. this year, which is about 33 percent higher than last year. The company declared this few days back. Webaroo send more than 1.8 billion messages every month and there revenue was 150 cr. last month. This year company will start cloud communications and will try to increase their revenue to 200 cr.

The company started with SMS messaging platform GupShup for mobile advertisement and now going to launch its mobile internet based messaging platform for business houses. Webaroo claims that this platform GupShup had 37 percent share in mobile messaging segment in 2013. The company is also planning to launch messenger like Whatsapp. Mobile is an easy and ultimate source of entertainment these days. Company is targeting Rural India, where power cut is more and people can only explore their mobiles rather than television or computer. The company is planning to expand business in overseas market and has identified countries in West Asia, Africa and South Asia for the same.

Xiaomi to enter India

Xiaomi is a privately owned Chinese company headquartered in Beijing, China. It was founded in year 2010. It is China’s one of the largest electronics companies that designs, develops, and sells smartphones, mobile apps, and consumer electronics. China has gained a large market share. The company is mainly set in Malaysia, China, and Singapore. Company is expanding their business to India and Indonesia this year.

In recent news, Xiaomi is planning to enter India through Flipkart, which sells electronics gadget on its portal. The Chinese manufacturer who is behind some impressive smartphones such as Redmi, Mi3, and Mi4 plans to reach these shores soon enough. Xiaomi will bring Redmi and Mi3 into India. They might be seen on Flipkart portal in Mid-July or Mid-August. The Mi3 is company flagship phone featuring a 5-inch full HD touchscreen, 2GB of RAM, a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, a 13MP Sony Camera and 16GB internal Memory. The OEM is reported to have sold 100000 units of Mi3 in China within 90 seconds. Xiaomi Redmi that Flipkart will be vending soon, is a relatively cheap handset with a 4.7 inch 720p panel, 1 GB of RAM, a quad core MediaTek chipset, dual SIM slots, an 8MP snapper, and 4GB ROM. Redmi and Mi3 will be priced at around Rs 8000 and 15000 respectively.

The other products that we might see are MiPad. It is a 7.9-inch MiPad that may be enters India too. However, it would not be possible that Flipkart will sell this on their portal because they have recently launched a Tablet in market. If Flipkart launches MiPad on its portal than there are chances, that sale of tablet will effect. MiPad is available in 16GB and 64GB models with 2GB of RAM, 8MP rear and 5MP front-facing camera.

Xiaomi had sold 40 million handsets in 2014 year, more than double the number sold it in 2013. It should be noted that the company is known for its competitive pricing which has helped it achieve huge sales numbers.