Feature • Cisco System’s John Chambers tells IMF that 40% of businesses will disappear over the next decade: Technology will fuel an increase of up to 3% in the gross domestic product of every country over the next decade, John Chambers, Cisco Systems Executive Chairman told an International Monetary Fund panel: “If you look at what is in front of us, I think it will transform every person’s life. A digital world that we are now about to encompass will transform every country. Economically, my view is that the next decade, incrementally we’ll have $19 trillion in economic growth.” But Chambers raised some eyebrows when he said “more than 40% of businesses will disappear over the next decade,” explaining that the impact Uber, Lyft and Amazon have had on legacy industries will spread to every industry in the near future, including the automobile business. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde moderated a discussion on how technology could be used to bridge the global economic gap, and what role it will play in the future of developing markets across the globe. Lagarde said “there is still a huge technology divide,” adding “six billion people do not have access to broadband or fast internet.”--read more at MarketWatch.com
• Disrupted: Legacy (Traditional) Media, particularly newspapers:
Above courtesy of Visual Capitalist
Much of traditional media has finally reached the inflection point, particularly newspapers. Legacy media have to maintain their old business models based on subscription and print ad revenue, while successfully venturing into the digital world. Among other things, the cost structure of legacy media just doesn’t make sense in today’s digital world. Overhead is high, and revenue is harder to find due to the limited success of paywalls, rampant ad blocking, and the steady fall in display ad prices due to the emergence of programmatic bidding. In 2015, there was only one age demographic with more than half of its constituents reading a daily newspaper, and that was “65 years old and up.” Even the advertising industry itself ("Madison Avenue") has been notoriously slow at evolving to meet the needs of the "digital revolution." Digital will become the largest channel for ad revenue globally by 2019 (see chart above)--Editor's note: the chart above is misleading in respect to the category "Television" since that category is comprised of 1) broadcast TV, 2) cable TV, and 3) streaming video via an internet connection (another form of "digital media") just consumed via a TV screen or monitor. Both cable and broadcast TV (the legacy TV media) are declining, while "digital TV" (on-demand and live streaming) is increasing. See, e.g., NFL ratings plunge could spell doom for traditional TV | WashingtonPost.com.
More on Digital Disruption:
• Most "news" is misinformation and establishment media (MSM) are no longer trusted "gatekeepers." We’re also drowning in content, from long-form writing on LinkedIn and Medium, to snackable content on Twitter and Instagram, to an explosion of self-published books. Eliot Peper said: 'Blogs made everyone a journalist. Self-publishing made everyone an author. YouTube made everyone a filmmaker. iTunes made everyone a musician. Publishing houses, record labels, and newsrooms have lost their long-held position as gatekeepers of taste' (emphasis added). See also: The Power and Limits of Curation | DigitalBookWorld.com.
• Daily Mail owner warns of further cost cutting | FT.com: half of the layoffs come from the company’s media division, the "latest sign of cutbacks among traditional British newspapers groups battling against disruptive digital rivals." See also Daily Mail owner to slash 400 jobs amid pressure on print advertising | pressgazette.co.uk: "DMGT said the move comes in the face of “challenging market conditions” as underlying advertising revenues across its newspaper division have come under further pressure. It saw DMG Media underlying ad revenues fall by 4 per cent over the 11 months of its financial year so far, but worsen in the five weeks since 21 August, tumbling by 10 per cent as print advertising plunged by nearly a fifth."
Much of traditional media has finally reached the inflection point, particularly newspapers. Legacy media have to maintain their old business models based on subscription and print ad revenue, while successfully venturing into the digital world. Among other things, the cost structure of legacy media just doesn’t make sense in today’s digital world. Overhead is high, and revenue is harder to find due to the limited success of paywalls, rampant ad blocking, and the steady fall in display ad prices due to the emergence of programmatic bidding. In 2015, there was only one age demographic with more than half of its constituents reading a daily newspaper, and that was “65 years old and up.” Even the advertising industry itself ("Madison Avenue") has been notoriously slow at evolving to meet the needs of the "digital revolution." Digital will become the largest channel for ad revenue globally by 2019 (see chart above)--Editor's note: the chart above is misleading in respect to the category "Television" since that category is comprised of 1) broadcast TV, 2) cable TV, and 3) streaming video via an internet connection (another form of "digital media") just consumed via a TV screen or monitor. Both cable and broadcast TV (the legacy TV media) are declining, while "digital TV" (on-demand and live streaming) is increasing. See, e.g., NFL ratings plunge could spell doom for traditional TV | WashingtonPost.com.
More on Digital Disruption:
• Most "news" is misinformation and establishment media (MSM) are no longer trusted "gatekeepers." We’re also drowning in content, from long-form writing on LinkedIn and Medium, to snackable content on Twitter and Instagram, to an explosion of self-published books. Eliot Peper said: 'Blogs made everyone a journalist. Self-publishing made everyone an author. YouTube made everyone a filmmaker. iTunes made everyone a musician. Publishing houses, record labels, and newsrooms have lost their long-held position as gatekeepers of taste' (emphasis added). See also: The Power and Limits of Curation | DigitalBookWorld.com.
• Daily Mail owner warns of further cost cutting | FT.com: half of the layoffs come from the company’s media division, the "latest sign of cutbacks among traditional British newspapers groups battling against disruptive digital rivals." See also Daily Mail owner to slash 400 jobs amid pressure on print advertising | pressgazette.co.uk: "DMGT said the move comes in the face of “challenging market conditions” as underlying advertising revenues across its newspaper division have come under further pressure. It saw DMG Media underlying ad revenues fall by 4 per cent over the 11 months of its financial year so far, but worsen in the five weeks since 21 August, tumbling by 10 per cent as print advertising plunged by nearly a fifth."
Other Tech News:
• Twitter’s Troubles and Snap’s Appeal: "... we have a case in which Silicon Valley’s over reliance on momentum creates an unrealistic proxy for valuation. Snap will reap billions as a result, while Twitter will struggle to salvage what it can from what was once a valuation of more than $40 billion. It is a story that will have real consequences."--NYTimes.com; see also Twitter suitors vanish as Salesforce rules out bid | FT.com.
• Major RAM Management Improvements Coming To Chrome: "developers have just announced that Chrome 54 will utilize a brand new JavaScript engine which will cut JavaScript-related memory usage in half."--Androidheadlines.com
• Facebook, Google, TE SubCom, and Pacific Light Data Communication Co., are co-builders of Los Angeles-Hong Kong submarine cable network, launch date summer of 2018. Named the Pacific Light Cable Network, it will span nearly 8,000 miles and be the highest-capacity transpacific route to date.--SeekingAlpha.com. As Facebook and Google drive ever-increasing amounts of global internet traffic, a greater stake in the infrastructure facilitating delivery could yield competitive advantages.
• Google outlines Asia cloud plans, four upcoming regions: Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, and Tokyo will be added as new Google Cloud regions over the next year, as it looks to ramp up its rollout in Asia where it is seeing "triple-digit" growth rates.--ZDNet.com
• Amazon plans to hire 120,000 temporary workers in the U.S. this holiday season--Fortune.com
• Foreign investors sue Toshiba over accounting scandal--Reuters.com
• Google Noto, an open source font family for more than 800 languages: Monotype and Google have developed and released a font family called Noto, for people living all around the world. Monotype is the same typeface company that developed Times New Roman and Arial. The fonts are available here, and are released under the SIL Open Font License, an open source license used for type faces.--Tech2 | tech.firstpost.com
• Indian call center employees posing as the IRS may have bilked Americans out of millions | WashingtonPost.com: "The call centers were making more than $150,000 a day through scams that took place for a little over a year, police said.--
• Twitter’s Troubles and Snap’s Appeal: "... we have a case in which Silicon Valley’s over reliance on momentum creates an unrealistic proxy for valuation. Snap will reap billions as a result, while Twitter will struggle to salvage what it can from what was once a valuation of more than $40 billion. It is a story that will have real consequences."--NYTimes.com; see also Twitter suitors vanish as Salesforce rules out bid | FT.com.
• Thanks Marissa! Ex-Yahoo Employee Says Government Spy Program Could Have Given a Hacker Access to All Email--TheIntercept.com. Verizon Communications Inc., might renegotiate its $4.8 billion offer to acquire certain Yahoo assets, as a result of Yahoo's disclosure of the data breach that impacted 500 million Yahoo customers.
• Uber's #1 Problem: Nobody's Talking About The Biggest, Most Obvious Problem With Uber--SeekingAlpha.com: "I see the upfront pricing shift as part of a broader problem with Uber. Namely, the company's app is a mess." On the other hand, France's transportation department launches Le.Taxi, a "confusing platform" that hosts cab-hailing apps from taxi companies; most taxi apps compare poorly to Uber--France’s Government-Backed Uber Replacement Should Thrill Uber | Motherboard.vice.com.
• AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon halt sales and replacements of Galaxy Note7 amid reports of newer models catching fire--Recode.net and Samsung ends production of Galaxy Note7 after global recall due to battery fires; shares drop 8% wiping out $17B of market value--Bloomberg.com See also: Samsung expects to lose around $3 billion due to Note 7 recall | TheVerge.com.
• Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Problem Not Going Away: "Apple’s potential design flaw (touch disease error) in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus continues to attract attention."--Forbes.com
• How 5G Technology Will Impact Your Portfolio--SeekingAlpha.com (audio)--featuring John Miley, Associate Editor with The Kiplinger Letter with a special focus on technology--Topics: A history of the progression from 2G to 5G; What 5G is expected to "look like" (ex: speeds, latency, reliability, connectivity); What the biggest fears are for AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint regarding 5G; Which underlying wireless tech companies are likely to benefit most from 5G; What 5G will mean for smartphones and smartphone makers.
• Nokia sets new record for submarine cable capacity as demand jumps--Reuters.com
• Google's response deadline to EU charges extended again: a new deadline has now been set for November 7 on shopping charges, while responses to two separate cases involving Android and online search advertising are due October 31 and October 26, respectively. European Commission has warned penalties in the shopping and Android cases may be significant.
• Google reportedly aims to start on London mega office by end of 2017--BusinessInsider.com
• Alibaba's Jack Ma and Daniel Zhang issue annual letters to shareholders | Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)--SeekingAlpha.com: Jack Ma letter; Daniel Zhang letter. Jack Ma Yun has ambitious plans to create a group trading platform for small businesses and farmers, an open e-commerce system that would include cross-nation agricultural trading. Ma says the long-term goal for Alibaba is to quintuple its user base to 2 billion by 2036."--SeekingAlpha.com
• AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon halt sales and replacements of Galaxy Note7 amid reports of newer models catching fire--Recode.net and Samsung ends production of Galaxy Note7 after global recall due to battery fires; shares drop 8% wiping out $17B of market value--Bloomberg.com See also: Samsung expects to lose around $3 billion due to Note 7 recall | TheVerge.com.
• Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Problem Not Going Away: "Apple’s potential design flaw (touch disease error) in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus continues to attract attention."--Forbes.com
• How 5G Technology Will Impact Your Portfolio--SeekingAlpha.com (audio)--featuring John Miley, Associate Editor with The Kiplinger Letter with a special focus on technology--Topics: A history of the progression from 2G to 5G; What 5G is expected to "look like" (ex: speeds, latency, reliability, connectivity); What the biggest fears are for AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint regarding 5G; Which underlying wireless tech companies are likely to benefit most from 5G; What 5G will mean for smartphones and smartphone makers.
• Nokia sets new record for submarine cable capacity as demand jumps--Reuters.com
• Google's response deadline to EU charges extended again: a new deadline has now been set for November 7 on shopping charges, while responses to two separate cases involving Android and online search advertising are due October 31 and October 26, respectively. European Commission has warned penalties in the shopping and Android cases may be significant.
• Google reportedly aims to start on London mega office by end of 2017--BusinessInsider.com
• Alibaba's Jack Ma and Daniel Zhang issue annual letters to shareholders | Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)--SeekingAlpha.com: Jack Ma letter; Daniel Zhang letter. Jack Ma Yun has ambitious plans to create a group trading platform for small businesses and farmers, an open e-commerce system that would include cross-nation agricultural trading. Ma says the long-term goal for Alibaba is to quintuple its user base to 2 billion by 2036."--SeekingAlpha.com
• Google in China: Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Echo home speaker is a non-entity in China, it does not understand spoken Chinese. Google, on the other hand, is quite adept at Chinese. While Google Maps, Gmail, Drive are all blocked in China, Google Translate is not. The Chinese government quietly stopped blocking it about a year ago. It is the only major Google online service that can be readily accessed in China. The reason: Google Translate is an essential tool for Chinese companies active internationally, as well as for many of the 150 million middle class Chinese now vacationing abroad each year. Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, says the world, including China, is moving from a "mobile-first to an AI-first world." Google is already miles ahead of any Chinese company in translation and therefore it may not need to reestablish its search engine business in China to be a major force there says Peter Fuhrman, Chairman & CEO of China First Capital [ChinaFirstCapital.com], a boutique investment bank, in SeekingAlpha.com.
• Facebook, Google, TE SubCom, and Pacific Light Data Communication Co., are co-builders of Los Angeles-Hong Kong submarine cable network, launch date summer of 2018. Named the Pacific Light Cable Network, it will span nearly 8,000 miles and be the highest-capacity transpacific route to date.--SeekingAlpha.com. As Facebook and Google drive ever-increasing amounts of global internet traffic, a greater stake in the infrastructure facilitating delivery could yield competitive advantages.
• Google outlines Asia cloud plans, four upcoming regions: Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, and Tokyo will be added as new Google Cloud regions over the next year, as it looks to ramp up its rollout in Asia where it is seeing "triple-digit" growth rates.--ZDNet.com
• Amazon plans to hire 120,000 temporary workers in the U.S. this holiday season--Fortune.com
• Foreign investors sue Toshiba over accounting scandal--Reuters.com
• Google Noto, an open source font family for more than 800 languages: Monotype and Google have developed and released a font family called Noto, for people living all around the world. Monotype is the same typeface company that developed Times New Roman and Arial. The fonts are available here, and are released under the SIL Open Font License, an open source license used for type faces.--Tech2 | tech.firstpost.com
• Indian call center employees posing as the IRS may have bilked Americans out of millions | WashingtonPost.com: "The call centers were making more than $150,000 a day through scams that took place for a little over a year, police said.--
"It was not the first time that fraudulent call centers targeting U.S. citizens have been raided in India. As more and more American businesses outsourced their back-end operations to India in the past two decades, a thriving IT industry arose here, employing millions of English-speaking software professionals. But some have also taken advantage of the trend and found ways to access data of U.S. customers and defraud them. Call center crimes targeting Indian customers have also become a big “nuisance” for Indians, said Raj Kumar Mishra, deputy superintendent of police in Noida’s special task force. In the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, for example, such crimes have increased 4,300 percent in the last five years. Most of the complaints are about online bank frauds and callers who try to access customers’ ATM identification numbers, he said. Nearly 300 people involved in such crimes were arrested in the state last year. “There are leakages from unscrupulous bank staff who are selling the customer data illegally. That is a hole we have to plug,” Mishra said."
• Finally, "A Brief History of Who Ruined Burning Man"--Journal.BurningMan.org
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo