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From Market Stall To 4 Million Headquarters - How To Scale Up An Artisan Business

3/31/2019

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From Market Stall To £4 Million Headquarters - How To Scale Up An Artisan Business

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Susia Ma used a tried and trusted method to scale up her business

Source - Tropic Skincare

 

There are worse places to start an entrepreneurial career. Several miles to the South and East of central London, historic Greenwich still manages to hold its own as a tourist hub, thanks in no small part to the presence of  a Royal Park, the National Maritime Museum and, last but not least, a very trendy market with a weekend emphasis on arts and crafts and artisan-produced products. During my time living in the borough, a Sunday walk through the park and down to the covered market area was something of a personal ritual.

And I had looked very carefully, I might have noticed Susie Ma. She started selling her own brand of body lotion at the market when she was still at school. It was a decidedly small-scale business - her products were manufactured at home to her own recipe and then sold in recycled jars - but in its own terms, it was successful.

“I could make as much as £1,000 a week,” she says. That wasn’t going to propel her onto anyone’s rich list, but it was money that could be squirreled away to pay for continuing education and to help her mother buy a house. At that point, her aim was to go to a good university and, from there, get a high paying job.

Fast forward to the present day. When I speak to Ma she is moving her company - Tropic Skincare -  into a new £4 million headquarters where all the aspects of the business - marketing, administration, manufacturing, and dispatch will be taking place under one roof. The company itself has just announced record sales of £29.5 million.

And perhaps the surprising thing is that despite a short spell in the banking industry, and a stint on the U.K. version of The Apprentice, Ma has emerged doing much the same thing as she was doing on cold Sunday mornings in Greenwich Market - namely selling organic and sustainably sourced beauty products.

The difference is, of course, that she is doing it on a vastly bigger scale.

Now the U.K. is choc a bloc with artisan producers who can do very nicely selling to relatively small customer groups through local independent shops and market stalls. But the beauty/skincare world is dominated by big brands, supported by massive marketing budgets. It’s a highly competitive market and building a national business is never going to be easy.

So how did Ma build her business? Well the first thing that has to be said, is that she had help. Although she became third on her series of the Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar - the entrepreneur lynchpin of the U.K. version of the show - invested £250,000 for half the business. He also provided additional mentoring and support, but as she stresses, the day-to-day running of Tropic Skincare and its ultimate success was up to her.

A Tried and Trusted Sales Model

The model she chose was social selling. Backed up by an e-commerce website, the strategy was to recruit a small army of direct sellers who hold events and demonstrate the products.  

This effectively de-risks the selling process. The “ambassadors,” when recruited, pay £180 for a starter kit containing £400 worth of products and are sent out into the world to make a return for themselves. Ongoing, ambassadors receive 25% commission.

It’s a familiar model, but the secret to making it work is to find the right representatives and that was the part that required real commitment and Ma says it was tough at the beginning.

“I used to drive constantly all over the country to try to recruit people, “ she says. “They were long, long car journeys in an old car. But I kept going and it began to snowball - very soon, we began to gain traction.”

Countless Meetings

Traveling the country by road to conduct countless meetings with potential recruits is a long way from the rather glamorous image that we tend to associate with today’s generation of headline-grabbing, tech-focused entrepreneurs, but curiously, it’s an experience that reflects the many tasks that Apprentice contestants are given week by week. Often they are required to design products and go and sell them directly.

I’ve always been a bit skeptical about the relationship between the Apprentice and the real world of Entrepreneurship, but Ma says the show was a useful primer. “Essentially you had a to start a new business every week. Doing that made me realize that I did want to go and start my own business.”

Driven by the Migrant Experience

But her hands on approach owed as much to her family background. Susie was born in China and moved with her family to Australia before coming to London. One aspect of the migrant experience is that it can be hard to take advantage of pre-existing qualifications and skills when you move to another country. Entrepreneurialism was a key to survival. “My mother used to make and sell ties. I used to hustle on the street with my parents,” says Ma.

Today, the work of building the company continues and Ma is determined to pursue a sustainable model through the ingredients, their sourcing and a commitment to packaging that can be recycled. This is part of the brand positioning, but also a matter of principle. “I think the customers appreciate it, but it is also good to do the right thing.

    

 





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March 31, 2019 at 03:37AM
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From a $100 Swatch to a $20000 Rolex these are the watches worn by the most powerful people in business and finance

3/31/2019

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From a $100 Swatch to a $20,000 Rolex, these are the watches worn by the most powerful people in business and finance

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CEO watches 2x1 (1)Steve Marcus/Joshua Roberts/Lucy Nicholson/Reuters; Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

  • For many in the worlds of business and finance, the watch is the ultimate status symbol.
  • But what do the world's most powerful financiers, central bankers, and CEOs wear on their wrists?
  • Business Insider teamed up with the experts Crown & Caliber to identify the timepieces of some of the key decision makers in these industries.
  • From a $100 Swatch worn by one of Europe's central bank chiefs, to the Wall Street titan sporting a $20,000 Rolex, these are the watches worn by the most powerful people in business and finance.

For many in the worlds of business and finance, the watch is the ultimate status symbol. Junior bankers use their first bonus to buy a brand new Omega, executives compare notes on their newest Rolexes, and Silicon Valley tech bros trade workout data with one another using their Apple Watches.

"A watch can say something without using words. It conveys style, achievement and can be the ultimate icebreaker," Hamilton Powell, the CEO of Crown & Caliber, an online secondary market for luxury watches.

But what do the world's most powerful financiers, central bankers, and CEOs wear on their wrists?

Business Insider teamed up with the experts at Crown & Caliberto identify the timepieces of some of the key decision makers in these industries.

From a $100 Swatch worn by one of Europe's central bank chiefs, to the Wall Street titan sporting a $20,000 Rolex, these are the watches worn by the most powerful people in business and finance.

Jes Staley, CEO of Barclays

Reuters

Staley, in position since 2015, is a rare breed in banking, an American boss at a British bank. He has been credited with pushing the bank to be more focused on its investment banking division.



Panerai Luminor Marina PAM 111 — $4,600

Crown and Caliber

Crown & Caliber's watch experts identified Staley's watch as being made by Panerai, an Italian watchmaker known for manufacturing watches used by Italian military divers during the Second World War.

A similar model to the Barclays CEO's watch is available for around $4,600.



Jeff Bezos, Chairman and CEO of Amazon

Reuters

Bezos, the world's richest man, founded Amazon in 1994, and has overseen its growth into a behemoth in retail, cloud computing, content, and more.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

  • THE FUTURE OF FINTECH 2019: The five megatrends reshaping the financial services value chain
  • New Jersey lawmakers postponed a critical vote to legalize marijuana — here are all the states where pot is legal
  • Former Goldman Sachs exec Harvey Schwartz reportedly turned down the top spot at Wells Fargo




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March 31, 2019 at 03:36AM
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Busy is not the point

3/31/2019

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Busy is not the point

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There’s a common safe place: Being busy.

We’re supposed to give you a pass because you were full on, all day. Frantically moving from one thing to the other, never pausing to catch your breath, and now you’re exhausted.

No points for busy.

Points for successful prioritization. Points for efficiency and productivity. Points for doing work that matters.

No points for busy.

       




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via Seth Godin https://seths.blog

March 31, 2019 at 03:09AM
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Mobile Optimization: How To Make The Most Of Your E-Commerce Platform

3/31/2019

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Mobile Optimization: How To Make The Most Of Your E-Commerce Platform

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Photo Courtesy of mnm.all on Unsplash

Smartphones have taken over our lives. Take a quick walk around the block and you will likely see every second person (if not more) walking with their head down scanning their cell phones.

There were, as of 2018, some 230 million smartphones in the U.S., among 327.2 million people. And in the first quarter of that year, a study showed that Americans spent 11 hours a day interacting with media, up from nine hours and 32 minutes four years before.

Of those 11 hours, nearly four were spent on computers, tablets or smartphones, with 62% of that time devoted to scanning apps or the web using mobile devices.

Breaking it down even further, Instagram research showed that 84% of smartphone users examine products via a browser or mobile platform, and according to Criteo 36% of the online sales made in the fourth quarter of 2017 came courtesy of mobile devices, up 16% from two years earlier.

That represents a continuing opportunity for those dealing in e-commerce, who made $504.6 billion in sales in 2018, a number that is expected to increase to $560.7 billion in 2019 and $612.9 billion in 2020.

Photo Courtesy of Statista

Amazon.com is, of course, the leader in the field, making $141.92 billion in retail sales in 2018, and drawing in some $232.89 billion in total revenue. Everyone else is scrambling to keep up – trying to get more eyeballs on their site.

There are many buyers who peruse apps, appear to be interested in a product but then complete the transaction via laptop or desktop. Increasing the conversion rate for mobile devices is a matter of enhancing the user experience. The key is to clarify and simplify, and increase site speed. Users won’t hang around forever; in fact, studies have shown they will only wait three seconds for a site to load before they click away.

This is why everything must be lean, compelling and efficient.

The very first step in mobile optimization is to check whether Google deems your site to be mobile friendly, and correcting any errors that pop up. This can be done very easily by using Google’s Mobile Test tool.

Once that is complete, you can delve into these five steps that will further optimize the mobile shopping experience.

Prominent Placement Is Important

"Above the fold“ is a phrase that originated with newspapers, referring to the upper half of the front page, which was prominently above the fold in newspapers. The most important elements were displayed in that section of the paper, or today, on the upper section of the home page.

That is the case with e-commerce apps as well. Besides the company logo, the search window should stand out. Of particular importance is the call-to-action (CTA); digital marketer Neil Patel writes that it should be easily distinguishable from its surroundings – big and bold, and in an eye-catching color.

As an example, this technique is illustrated well on CanvasPop’s website. As soon as a potential customer visits the site, a pink call-to-action button draws the eye to the call-to-action that clearly says “Get Started.”

Tailor The Experience For Each Individual Customer

Amazon gives customers access to businesses in their areas. Walmart allows one to search those products that might be available at a local store. Trivago lists hotels closest to your present location, wherever you might be. And Starbucks allows you to accrue points on your loyalty card with every purchase, which can be redeemed for a free drink at a certain point level.

Tailor the online experience to the client – to give each of them reason to keep coming back. Retention is everything.

Site Speed Is A Key Factor

Site loading speed has become a major factor in customer retention. One study showed that 79% of the respondents would be less likely to give return business to a site they found lacking in performance.

Faster load times can be assured through things like image optimization – i.e., reducing file space through Photoshop or third-party applications – or content delivery networks (CDNs) which cache content, enhance speed, performance, and delivery of internet content for users.

Also, it’s important to alleviate as much friction as possible from the buying process – remove steps and form fields that will bog down a customer. Today’s consumers don’t have the patience for inefficient processes.

Simplify The Checkout

Patel also writes that 23% of the time, customers will abandon their purchases if they proceed through additional steps, only to discover that they have to register for an account before checking out. Make it simple for customers – offer guest checkout, so they don’t have to enter in personal information if they choose not to.

Remove distractions from the process to ensure that those near the finish line actually cross it. It’s also important to give customers access to digital wallets (Apple Pay, PayPal One-Touch, Visa Checkout, Amazon Pay). And it’s obviously critical to ensure security as well.

Analyze Your Site Metrics

Google Analytics metrics can provide a lot of valuable insight, including everything from the amount of time customers are spending on your site to which page they exit the site from, just for starters. Pageviews indicate the effectiveness of your content – whether it has drawn visitors in, and how engaging it might be. Another important metric is bounce rate, which measures whether a visitor stayed on a single page and then departed. This can hint at any number of problems, such as poor copy, performance or design.

You can also get to the heart of the matter by surveying your customers through such means as the System Usability Scale, a 10 question survey that provides insight at the ease of use (or lack thereof) of websites, mobile devices, software, and hardware.

The bottom line is that the customer experience needs to be as engaging and efficient as possible if you want to make the sale and gain customer loyalty.





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March 31, 2019 at 01:51AM
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Hold The Garlic: A Manhattan Startup Delivers Gut-Friendly Meals To The Digestively Challenged

3/30/2019

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Hold The Garlic: A Manhattan Startup Delivers Gut-Friendly Meals To The Digestively Challenged

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Epicured cofounders Richard Bennett and Renee Cherkezian both have a health care background.

Epicured

On a recent evening in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood, stylish guests mingled in a spacious loft office/test kitchen, sipping "mocktails" and sangria and nibbling on Manchego cheese, baby squid and paella. In many respects, this soirée could have been an event for any one of the dozens of trendy meal delivery companies that have sprung up in recent years to cater to busy professionals.

But that's where the similarities ended: All the fare served that evening by Manhattan startup Epicured was gluten-free, and, surprisingly for a Spanish-themed meal, it was notably devoid of garlic and onions.  (The trick: using garlic- and onion-infused oils instead.) That's because Epicured specializes in delivering chef-prepared dishes that adhere to the low-FODMAP diet.

FODMAP is an acronym for the five classes of fermentable, short-chain carbohydrates that can particularly cause digestive upset for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, and other digestive disorders. Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) may also benefit from low-FODMAP diets with some modifications. A recently installed "extra-sensitive" filter lets patients request dishes with softer textures, less fiber and fewer spices.) Epicured also attracts many customers with celiac disease, who must eschew all gluten. Besides garlic and onions,  high-FODMAP foods include apples, honey, watermelon, cauliflower, wheat and many legumes.

Epicured's Pad Thai pairs rice noodles with stir-fried with eggs, soybean sprouts, cubed tofu, julienned carrots and  chopped scallions, in a Chiang Mai sauce.

Epicured

The low-FODMAP diet was developed by researchers at Monash University in Australia. It is widely prescribed to patients with IBS, which afflicts about 15% of the population worldwide, according to Monash, and to those with a related disorder, Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth, or SIBO.  Up to 86% of IBS patients experience symptom relief on the diet.

Typically, a patient's physician or nutritionist, will give them dietary guidelines and recipes for an elimination phase that usually lasts from two to four weeks. That period of avoiding  all high-FODMAP foods is followed by a gradual reintroduction of FODMAPs, one category at a time, to identify which ones are problematic and which ones can be eaten without discomfort.  But it can be daunting to follow the regimen, particularly if you don't feel particularly handy in the kitchen. And, even if you do love to cook, measuring out your Brussels sprouts portion to no more than 34 grams might just seem like more trouble than it's worth.

Epicured hosted a March event in its Soho loft featuring its low-FODMAP and gluten-free dishes that are suitable for many people with digestive disorders.

Robin D. Schatz

That's where Epicured comes in. Many of its customers are Millennials, who are used to ordering in from Seamless or eating out in restaurants, but they may find it challenging to find low-FODMAP options. Cofounders Richard Richard Bennett, CEO–whose previous career included starting a pharmacy chain, Vivo Health, for what is now Northwell Health and working as an investment banker–and Renee Cherkezian, a registered nurse- turned-chef who guides the menu development, consider Epicured  a health care company that's deploying "food as medicine."

"I never woke up and said, 'I really want to start a food company,'" Bennett said.  "If  we are truly going to improve health outcome and population health we need to think of a way to engage in nutrition that’s sincere, honest practical, and can really help people."

About a third of Epicured's clients don't even need to eat low-FODMAP or gluten-free. "They love the taste and convenience of Epicured," said Bennett. On average, nonclinical patients order eight meals a week while clinical patients order an average of 14 to 15 meals a week, spending about $130-150. The average entree costs $11.80. The company's executive chef, Chris Cortez, formerly worked at Bouley and La Vara. All meals are delivered fresh, not frozen, and keep in the fridge up to five days.  The company delivers over 3,000 meals a week to customers.

"We want to get around that whole idea of restriction," Cherkezian told me during a visit to the test kitchen, as she used a fork to tease out long pasta-like strands from a roasted spaghetti squash. "We want to make it like they have no restrictions, so they feel liberated in terms of eating and flavor."  

One of Epicured's largest investors is Mount Sinai Ventures, the investment arm of the big Manhattan-based health system. Brent Stackhouse, managing director and vice president, said he got interested in Epicured after hearing about the company from Laura Manning, clinical nutrition coordinator at the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center,  "I generally invest in things that the experts at Mount Sinai are using or are going to use."

Epicured's Warm Autumn Salad features Japanese kabocha, broccoli, carrots, and seasoned lentils on a bed of quinoa and kale. 

Epicures

"Because of our distinguished gastroenterology program and our massive IBD center, Epicured fit at a good moment," Stackhouse added. "We're looking at Epicured in the long run to understand how we might expand into other menus where diet and clinical nutrition are proven to improve outcomes." In 2016, Mount Sinai ran a pilot with doctors and nutritionists, who used Epicured with their patients and met with the company. They are now also offering Epicured to employees through its wellness program.

"When it came to evaluating Epicured and the revenue model, we definitely saw a lot of enthusiasm from the patient population," Stackhouse said. But he said he has gotten mixed feedback from the Mount Sinai medical community as to whether people should eat a low FODMAP diet indefinitely.

Alexandra Rosenstock, a clinical dietician for the Center for Advanced Digestive Care at New York Presbyterian Hospital, told me that many of her patients do benefit from following the  low FODMAP elimination diet, but her goal is to eventually expand their eating options.

"A lot of high-FODMAP foods are healthy sources of fiber. We don’t want people avoiding them for too long," she said.  Still, she said she could see Epicured being useful for about 10 to 12 weeks for patients who don't want to cook for themselves while they are completing the elimination and challenge phases of the diet.

But the truth is some people do stay on the low-FODMAP diet for a long time. "We certainly hope with all of our patients is that they’re able to find relief and some sort of balance," Stackhouse said. "We also didn’t want our patients to be buying boxes of food in perpetuity order to meet their nutritional needs."

Epicured's turkey chili is popular with customers.

Epicured

To that end, Epicured, with Mount Sinai's help,  is educating patients about the low-FODMAP diet so they can be more self-reliant. It plans to install a television studio at its headquarters where they'll offer cooking demos and other programming. And because buying prepared meals can be a financial barrier to some patients, the company is also looking at various solutions to improve access, including philanthropic support, lowering the average cost of meals, offering discounts and working with insurers to get coverage for patients, Bennett said.

Epicured, which has brought in about $6 million to date from investors, is currently raising a $10 million Series A round. The funds will go toward expanding its delivery service, which now ranges from Washington, D.C. to Boston, with the addition of another factory in the South that will enable them to reach from Florida to Maine to Chicago.  Bennett said they plan to build a West Coast facility as well. In 2020, Epicured hopes to offer at least one other therapeutic menu for another medical condition.

One newish Epicured customer is Becky Davies, a, certified yoga teacher, health coach and student who is finishing the prerequisites for in a Masters program to become a registered dietician. The Manhattan resident has been diagnosed with celiac disease, pelvic floor dysfunction and SIBO. She said that with her busy schedule it's hard to prepare her own meals all the time. She sees Epicured as a useful tool, rather than a permanent solution.When we spoke she had ordered three times, requesting three meals a week.

"My food is pretty expensive anyway," she said. "It's actually a great option when I have a super-busy week."





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March 30, 2019 at 11:50PM
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Alex Jones said in a deposition that 'a form of psychosis' made him believe the conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged

3/30/2019

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Alex Jones said in a deposition that 'a form of psychosis' made him believe the conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged

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alex jonesGetty Images/Alex Wong

  • InfoWars host Alex Jones said in a deposition that "a form of psychosis" made him believe conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting.
  • Jones faces multiple lawsuits from the families of Sandy Hook victims, and acknowledged in his deposition that the shooting did occur, and that he spread misinformation about it.
  • He added, however, that he still believes some aspects of the shooting were suspicious.

InfoWars host Alex Jones said in a deposition made public Friday said he now believes that a massacre at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 really happened — and that "a form of psychosis" made him believe the conspiracy theory that it was staged.

The parents of 10 Sandy Hook victims have sued Jones over his repeated false claims throughout the years that the deadly shooting was a hoax, the survivors were "crisis actors," and the children who were killed did not exist.

On Friday, the parents' attorneys posted Jones' entire deposition on YouTube, for "transparency" reasons, they said.

In the deposition, Jones said he now believes the deadly shooting did happen, though he still believes some aspects of the shooting were suspicious.

"I still have questions about Sandy Hook," he says. "I've had a chance to believe that children died, and it's a tragedy. But there are still real anomalies in the attempt to basically keep it blacked out that generally, when you see that in government, something's being covered up."

 

Read more: Leaked emails reveal Facebook's intense internal discussion over Alex Jones' 'anti-Semitic' post on Instagram

Throughout the deposition, Jones can be seen brushing aside accusations that his actions contributed to the pain felt by Sandy Hook victims' families.

He also said his false claims about the massacre were due to "psychosis."

"I, myself, have almost had like a form of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged, even though I'm now learning a lot of times things aren't staged," Jones said in the deposition. "So I think as a pundit, someone giving an opinion, that, you know, my opinions have been wrong, but they were never wrong consciously to hurt people."

Beyond just the multiple lawsuits filed by parents of Sandy Hook victims, Jones has also been kicked off a number of major social-media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Spotify.

  • Read more:
  • Instagram is investigating an Alex Jones post that has stoked anti-Semitic hate in the comments
  • Facebook has banned far-right activist Tommy Robinson for spreading Islamophobia
  • Roku removes Alex Jones' Infowars channel after backlash from users and families of those killed in Sandy Hook shooting
  • Infowars' Alex Jones slams Google CEO Pichai outside a congressional hearing for its 'evil' China project

NOW WATCH: Paul Manafort faces over 7 years in prison for conspiracy and obstruction. Here's what you need to know about Trump's former campaign chairman.

See Also:

  • Share your opinion — become a BI Insider!
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  • The pro-Trump conspiracy theory known as 'QAnon' has moved from the fringes of the internet to feature prominently at Trump rallies




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March 30, 2019 at 11:00PM
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Global video streaming market is largely controlled by the usual suspects

3/30/2019

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Global video streaming market is largely controlled by the usual suspects

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Weeks after Steven Spielberg took a swing at Netflix and Hulu, the Hollywood legend had a change of heart about the medium this Monday. He appeared at Apple’s star-studded event to help the iPhone-maker launch a streaming service.

The embrace comes as people are increasingly cutting their cable connections and moving to a streaming service for their entertainment needs. Just last week, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a trade body that represents major Hollywood studios and Netflix, reported (PDF) that video streaming services now have more subscribers (613.3 million users worldwide( than those with a cable connection (some 556 million users).

Another disruption is nigh. Revenue generated by streaming services is set to surpass worldwide theatrical revenue this year, according to research firm Ampere Analysis. Media and technology companies are naturally fighting for a piece of that slice. The overcrowded video streaming market — valued at $22.6 billion last year and estimated to grow to $30.6 billion by 2022, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers — has more than 100 players competing for users’ attention.

Here’s a look at some of these major players, the markets where they operate, and how they are trying to win customers.

American giants eyeing the world

At the top of the list is Netflix, which began offering a streaming service in 2007, long before most companies could see such a business booming. This gave Netflix enough breathing room to bulk up its content catalog through licensing deals with cable networks and content studios. 12 years later, Netflix has amassed 139 million subscribers in over 190 nations and territories.

Following Netflix’s footprint is Amazon, which too has made its Prime Video streaming service available in over 190 nations and territories. Amazon has never disclosed how many users subscribe to Prime Video, but the company last April said that more than 100 million people use Prime, its umbrella subscription that bundles a range of services, including fast delivery of goods and Prime Video.

In the U.S., Netflix and Amazon also compete with Hulu, HBO, Starz, Showtime, CBS All Access, and Viacom’s Noggin — to name a few. Hulu, which is only available in the U.S. and Japan, offers movies, shows, as well as access to some TV channels. The company said in January that it has reached 25 million subscribers. (Apple says it will make Apple TV+, the streaming service it announced this week, available in over 100 countries, though it didn’t offer content nor pricing details.)

Cable giant HBO offers customers in the U.S. access to its original movies and shows such as Game of Thrones and Westworld through its HBO Now streaming service. HBO Now also includes content from sister companies Warner Bros. Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Universal Pictures. As of early last year, the service had 5 million subscribers. Other players such as CBS All Access are relatively nascent to the market and are yet to gain significant traction.

Then there is YouTube, which people spend an awful lot of time watching. The Google-owned service is increasingly targeting on-demand video streaming users by adding movies to its catalog and slowly expanding the reach of YouTube Premium — a subscription service that gives users access to exclusive content and an ad-free experience — to more markets.

While YouTube is the most-consumed video streaming app in most markets, Netflix is leading in revenue worldwide. As of 2018, Netflix generated more revenue than any other video streaming service — and in some cases, more than any app in any category — in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the U.K., the U.S., and Vietnam, among other markets, according to App Annie.

Content

Much of the content on YouTube is generated by users, while most other streaming services are populated with movies and shows licensed from Hollywood studios and cable networks. This also means that your favorite movies and TV shows are typically playing a game of musical chairs, moving from one platform to another every few months — unless someone decides to pay a huge chunk to retain a title longer.

To differentiate their services, companies have recently been investing billions of dollars to produce original content. Netflix, which continues to produce critically-acclaimed movies and shows such as Emmy-winners The Crown and House of Cards, spent $8.9 billion in original programming in 2017 and $12.04 billion in 2018. The company says it remains bullish on producing original shows and movies for most of the markets where it operates.

Amazon, too, is increasingly coughing up big money to ramp up its original catalog. According to an analysis, Amazon is estimated to spend more than $6 billion in original programming this year. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, one of its original shows which has won several Emmys and Golden Globes, illustrates the company’s efforts on original work getting recognition. Amazon Studios is currently working on a multi-season, big-budget TV adaption of The Lord of the Rings fantasy series.

Pricing strategy

Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, and HBO charge U.S. consumers between $8 and $11 a month for their streaming services. But these services are increasingly exploring new pricing structures to attract more customers. Hulu, for instance, offered consumers a 12-month subscription at a dollar per month rate during Black Friday last year. The company recently inked a deal with Spotify to offer customers access to both services for $9.99. (It isn’t the first time the two have explored such an arrangement.)

For at least the past four months, Netflix has been experimenting with lower-priced subscriptions in select markets, such as Malaysia and India. The test subscription, which limits usage to mobile devices and content to standard definition (480p), costs as little as $3 a month. A Netflix spokesperson earlier this month declined to share an update on the kind of reception this test has received.

Amazon offered its Prime Video subscription at a discounted price to Prime subscribers in most markets for an extended period of time when it launched the service in December 2016. Since then, the company has been fairly aggressive with pricing in developing markets. In India, for instance, a Prime subscription is $14.50 a year, including access to Prime Video and Prime Music.

In several markets, over-the-top (OTT) companies have also inked deals with telecom companies and other service providers to subsidize the cost of their service.

Above: Image: App Annie

Europe

In the U.K., the BBC and iTV are working to launch BritBox. Executives say that when the service launches, it will offer the largest catalog of British content on any platform. A version of BritBox already exists in the U.S., with over 500,000 subscribers.

iTV Player, a video streaming service from the network giant, was among the video apps with most consumer spending in the U.K. in 2018, according to App Annie. More streaming services are in the works. Last year, Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 partnered with Discovery’ Eurosport network to work on a new streaming service; and in France, French broadcasters France Télévisions, and M6 et TF1 are working on Salto streaming service.

Mubi offers art movies in several European markets and had over 100,000 subscribers at the end of 2017. DAFilms, which charges 6 euros ($6.80) a month, offers over 1,700 movies and documentaries.

Africa

In Africa, four-year-old Naspers-backed Showmax has more than 25,000 movies and TV episodes, including some from HBO, ABC, and Showtime. IrokoTV offers Nollywood content, and late last year South African soccer legend Jomo Sono, who runs Infinivy SA, launched TV2GO, a new ad-supported on-demand video streaming service with over 100 channels and a range of movies.

Asia

In Middle Eastern markets, OSN Wavo, a legacy pay-TV provider, offers a large catalog of movies and shows, including some from Disney and HBO. Starz Play includes more than 10,000 hours of content with Arabic subtitles. Icflix, which was launched in 2013, features Hollywood and Bollywood movies.

Speaking of Bollywood, Rupert Murdoch’s Star India dominates the $700 million Indian video streaming market. The Walt Disney subsidiary offers more than 80 percent of its catalog free (monetizing via ads) and has leveraged the nation’s strong interest in cricket. Hotstar has also nabbed exclusive rights to show several Showtime and HBO shows in India. India’s video streaming market is becoming increasingly crowded, with over three dozen players vying for attention.

That leaves us with China. Chinese internet conglomerates Tencent and Baidu lead the market with Tencent Video and iQiyi, respectively. Both services are ad-supported and each has amassed over 500 million monthly active users. Tencent Video is estimated to have 89 million paid subscribers, putting it slightly ahead of iQiyi’s 87 million paid subscribers. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are not available in China. Earlier this month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said he does not expect the Chinese market to become more hospitable anytime soon.

Upcoming challenges

Companies are hoping that original programming will help them get an edge over the competition, but research suggests that people are spending much of their time watching a small number of old shows. In the coming quarters, as more players begin to compete in the market, we will find what is more lucrative: original new programming or old classics? And, how does that change a streaming service’s prospects to win and retain customers? Furthermore, as the list of streaming services grows, so does people’s fatigue. Other research suggests that users are increasingly growing frustrated with just how many streaming services they need to pay for to get the content they wish to watch. So the quick adoption that many services are seeing today could soon become challenging to sustain and retain. And finally, we have yet to learn exactly how Apple, with hundreds of billions of dollars sitting in bank, wants to play.





Business

via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com

March 30, 2019 at 09:24PM
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We compared Spotify Tidal and Qobuz a streaming service that says it has 29 times better sound quality than Spotify here's how they fared

3/30/2019

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We compared Spotify, Tidal, and Qobuz, a streaming service that says it has 29 times better sound quality than Spotify — here's how they fared

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music streaming spotify qobuz tidalYutong Yuan/Business Insider

  • For music lovers, sound quality is one of the most important things a streaming service can offer.
  • Qobuz, a music app that's new to the US, claims to stream music with sound quality nearly thirty times better than Spotify's.
  • We compared Qobuz's sound with Spotify's and Tidal's, and found that while the difference was noticeable from track to track, it might not be worth the extra cost.

Are you happy with the sound quality of your music streaming app? You might not think much about it. But audiophiles are always on the hunt for better sound quality, and a new streaming service has debuted, offering to deliver it. Qobuz, new to the US, supports much higher audio quality – according to the company, as much as 29 times better than Spotify.

High resolution audio is nothing new. In the last decade, formats like DVD-Audio and SACD have promised sound quality far surpassing anything on CD, but they largely failed because they were inconvenient compared to CD playing. A few years ago, musician Neil Young tried again with Pono, a combination music player and music service, but not enough people wanted to lock themselves into a special music player, regardless of the superior sound quality it offered.

Qobuz is different, though – it delivers (depending upon the track), high quality MP3s, CD-quality music, and 24-bit lossless tracks just as conveniently as Spotify and Tidal deliver their respective sounds.

So we put all three streaming services to the test to see if there was any noticeable advantage to using Qobuz.

Spotify

You already know Spotify, which has been around since 2008. You can use the free, ad-supported version to listen to the roughly 30 million tracks, even if you don't pony up $10 per month for Spotify Premium. Spotify Free lets you listen at 160 kbps, but Premium adds the option to play music at 320 kbps, which is the highest quality level that MP3s can be encoded at.

Spotify Black Rebel Motorcycle ClubDave Johnson

Tidal

Tidal is a newer streaming service, launched in 2014 by the Norwegian company Aspiro and "re-launched" by Jay-Z in 2015. There's no free-play version of Tidal, but in addition to the standard $10/month subscription, there's also a $20 per month premium service that includes access to some FLAC-format lossless tracks. 

Tidal Throwing MusesDave Johnson

Qobuz

The new kid on the block, Qobuz has some catching up to do. The service costs a premium, literally: access to everything including the high-res content (FLAC 24-Bit up to 192 KHz) starts at $24.99 per month (CD-quality only is $20 per month, and MP3-only is $10 per month). And while the company claims to have about 40 million CD-quality tracks and a couple of million hi-res songs, the library sometimes feels barren when searching for popular artists.

While preparing to compare the audio quality of the three services, we had to veto a few songs because they weren't yet available on Qobuz. If you're a fan of indie music, be especially wary. Searches for alt rock bands like Throwing Muses and Downpilot turn up few-to-no tracks.

Qobuz the BeatlesDave Johnson

Qobuz definitely sounds better than Spotify on most songs

It's one thing for Qobuz to say it's 29 times better than Spotify – but can you really hear the difference?

To find out, we tested 10 songs that spanned a range of musical styles. Two test subjects (myself, and fellow tech journalist John Lyon) got to hear each song once – the highest-quality versions of Spotify, Tidal, and Qobuz – through a pair of high-quality headphones without knowing which version was which.

The result? Qobuz noticeably outperformed the others as we picked Qobuz as our favorite in "blind" testing a surprising 75% of the time.

I'll be honest: I didn't expect Qobuz to fare that well. Not because I didn't trust that its audio was high quality, but because I didn't think it would matter very much. I suspected that Spotify and Tidal sound "good enough," and it would be hard to really hear the difference. And while there's some truth to that, Qobuz really did pop.

Listening to Leonard Bernstein's performance of "The Death of Ase," John heard the Qobuz version immediately after Tidal and exclaimed, "Wow, that was a much more interesting song than it seemed the first time!" About Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks," I observed that the song opened up with a much wider soundstage than either Tidal or Spotify, making the reverberating drums all the more impressive. BRMC's "Beat the Devil's Tattoo" features percussive finger-snaps in the background; John marveled that unlike the others, Qobuz's version was "super-clean. The snaps actually sounded fleshy."

But we're not sure Qobuz is worth the money

Qobuz didn't win first place for every song, however, and Spotify and Tidal jockeyed for first and second place from song to song. (A few times, like in the Beach Boy's remastered mono version of "God Only Knows," Spotify actually took the top spot over Qobuz, which John described as "blasting me unpleasantly in the forehead.")

What's the lesson? Yes, Qobuz does generally deliver better sound, and if that's your priority, this is the service for you.

But it's a closer race than Qobuz's "29 times better than Spotify" claim might suggest. Really hearing – and appreciating – the difference between Qobuz and the competition requires active listening, and that's not how we usually consume music. When I let Qobuz fade into the background, it  became easy to miss the nuances that make it special. I suspect that might be why Qobuz fell out of first place a few times; the differences in quality were sometimes subtle, and it was easy to lose track of why one track excelled over another.

If you aren't the sort of listener who pays complete attention to your music, then the decision to subscribe might come down to other factors, like cost, the variety of the music catalog, or whether it contains your favorite artists.

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via Business Insider https://ift.tt/1IpULic

March 30, 2019 at 09:24PM
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Dreams wont support PSVR in early access

3/30/2019

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Dreams won’t support PSVR in early access

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Good news: the Dreams Early Access launch is just a few weeks away. Bad news: it definitely won’t support PSVR. For now, at least.

Developer Media Molecule confirmed an April 16th launch for the game over on the PlayStation Blog. The Early Access edition of the game is specifically designed for those interested in creating games. You’ll still be able to download and play other people’s levels, but Media Molecule still has plenty to fix and add to the game in the coming months.

One of these is PSVR support. VR integration has long been promised for Dreams but was absent in this year’s Creator Beta. On the blog, Media Molecule explained that Dreams VR isn’t included in the initial Early Access launch. “It’s still planned for Dreams and we’re super excited for it,” Studio Director Siobhan Reddy wrote. “We’ll be sure to share more details about it as soon as we’re ready.”

That’s sad but not unexpected news. The Early Access version will only have a limited number of spaces and will cost $29.99. There won’t be any early pre-orders for the game so it’ll be first-come, first-served on launch day. Media Molecule says it’s a “big limit”, though. Oh, and if you do buy it now you won’t have to get it again when the full version launches.

We’ve long thought Dreams is one of the most important VR releases on the horizon right now. We took part in the beta earlier this year and the possibilities were, quite frankly, stunning. Hopefully it doesn’t take too much longer for the VR support to follow along after Early Access launch.

This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2019





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via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com

March 30, 2019 at 06:48PM
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Facebook wants to restrict certain users from broadcasting live

3/30/2019

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Facebook wants to restrict certain users from broadcasting live

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(Reuters) — Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said on Friday the company was looking to place restrictions on who can go live on its platform based on certain criteria in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre.

The company will monitor who can go “Live” on Facebook depending on factors such as prior community standard violations, Sandberg said in a blog post here.

A lone gunman killed 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand on March 15, while livestreaming the massacre.

Facebook has identified more than 900 different videos showing portions of the 17-minutes of carnage and has used its existing artificial intelligence tools to identify and remove hate groups in Australia and New Zealand, the blog said.

Last week, the social networking giant said it removed 1.5 million videos globally that had footage of the New Zealand mosque attack in the first 24 hours after the attack.

Earlier this week, one of the main groups representing Muslims in France said it was suing Facebook and YouTube, accusing them of inciting violence by allowing the streaming of the video.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network with 2.7 billion users, has faced growing discontent over its approach to privacy and user data amid increasing concerns over its advertising practices.

(Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)





Business

via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com

March 30, 2019 at 06:20PM
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