Alibaba Healthcare Division Invests $35 Million In Wanliyun

Alibaba steps forward to invest in medical imaging company in health sector

If a person lives outside China, he/she can easily forget that the business aspirations of Alibaba go far beyond online trading into a number of fields. Recently, the organization took other measures towards developing its health business by investing around $35 million (RMB 225 million) in Wanliyun Medical Information Technology, which is a medical imaging service provider.

After the closure of the investment, the Hangzhou based company’s medical division, Alibaba Health Information Technology (AHIT) will own one-fourth of Wanliyun, according to information filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange (HKSE).

China Resources Wandong Medical Equipment (CRWME) is a major shareholder of Wanliyun. In 1955, CRWME was founded as the first medical imaging service provider, according to a report by Sina Tech. The investment by Alibaba in Wanliyun is an extension of its constantly made efforts to enhance the Chinese current medical technology with the help of cloud computation.

In April last year, the cloud computation service of Alibaba announced of developing a new medical administration platform for hospitals to disseminate details more rapidly and conduct an analysis of aggregated data of patients.

Meanwhile, AHIT will acquire Alibaba’s e-pharmacy business, but regulatory issues have delayed the transfer. The online retailer has a chance to have an impact on the fragmented medical industry of the country because the Chinese government is making reforms that include enhancing information technology systems.

Nevertheless, many pharmaceutical companies are opposing the ambitious plans of the company, which state that Alibaba’s medicine tracking systems will create unfair rivalry and compromise state data.

In other news, Economic Times revealed that the new regulations on Foreign Direct Investment in online markets could speed up the entrance of foreign companies like Alibaba, both as  retailers and investors, and possibly alter the online trading landscape of India provided their huge pockets.

The regulations allowing organizations to make 100% FDI in the online “marketplace” model and prohibiting them to invest in the “inventory” model provides clarity to Asian e-commerce companies, such as Tencent, Baidu and Rakuten, on investments in the online trading industry of India, by removing most of the law-related ambiguity that was experienced up till now, state experts.

Alibaba, an important investor in Paytm, declared recently that it was interested in directly beginning its operations in the country in 2016, after the company’s officials, K Guru Gowrappan and Michael Evans had a meeting with Telecommunications Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The organization did not respond to an e-mail from Economic Times on the effect of the new regulations on its strategies. The formulated rules could adversely affect Amazon and Flipkart in the country, bringing these organizations under pressure as they might to reorganize their business to abide by the new laws.

The regulations, announced on March 29, 2016, could make matters difficult for Amazon and Flipkart, as none of the single merchants can contribute one-fourth of the sales on an e-commerce marketplace. 

Chow Tai Fook Challenges Alibaba In Online Shopping Industry

The jewelry seller threatens Alibaba by investing millions of dollars in marketplace platform CTFHOKO.com and offering goods at cheaper prices.

Alibaba is challenged by the Chow Tai Fook brand, which took nearly nine decades to turn into a family business – including shopping centers in Hong Kong, the biggest jewelry chain of the world and casinos – to provide a net worth of $10 billion to the tycoon, Cheng Yu-Tung.

The Chairman and founder of the Chinese e-commerce company, Jack Ma, took less than five years to earn e-commerce wealth nearly three times greater than that. Now, the holding company of Cheng family is taking a measure to chase the Hangzhou-based company and other online retailers by extending its online presence.

In December, it invested a sum of $54 million (350 million Yuan) in marketplace platform CTFHOKO.com, and in a mall to exhibit products delivered online. Its website provides genuine imports like diapers, cosmetics and infant formula, at prices at least 10% less than those charged in shops across China.

The jewelry chain is building on its decades-old image. The Cheng Family owned Chow Tai Fook Jewelry Group joins a number of other retailers to improve its e-commerce business, which has been led by Jack Ma’s company and other online trading companies for long.

It has also seen its conventional business suffering from its worst year since 2011, as the anti-graft campaigns and slowdown of the Chinese economy cut down demands for luxurious goods. The share price of the retailer has decreased by 4% in 2016, compared to the decrease of the HK-based Hang Sang Index by 7%.

The prize is a $100bn-a-year online China market for imports like diapers and cookies, revealed a report by British market research organization, Mintel Group, as buyers continue to be worried about domestic products following a number of scandals over counterfeits.

JD.com and Alibaba lead the e-commerce industry of China with market shares of 20% and 52% respectively. Amazon.com is also planning to compete with Alibaba as it intends to capture the growing cross-border online trading market of China, which by 2020, will probably expand to $1 trillion industry while offering services to 900 million buyers, as revealed in June report from the research division of Alibaba, Accenture and AliResearch.

While other conventional retailers have tied up with developed platforms to enter in the online market of the country, like the collaboration between JD.com and LVMH-owned French cosmetics chain Sephora as well as the Chinese department store operator Intime Retail Group’s project with Alibaba, the Cheng Family’s company is ready to go at its own.

To complement its e-commerce offerings, Chow Tai Fook developed a companion shopping center in free trade zone ‘Qinhai’ located in Southern city ‘Shenzhen’ to display products delivered online, while some have also been offered for sale at the shops.

Since the initial phase of the 3-storey mall established in December, the jewellery seller has given invitations to 21 HK brands, such as cosmetics retail chain Sa International Holdings and Maxim’s Cakes to display their wares and deliver on its website. 

Ford Earns Money Even If Automotive Sales Decline By 30%

Ford CFO Bob Shanks claimed that the company took the necessary measures to earn money even if automotive sale decline by 30%.

Ford responding to investor fears that the American automobile market is reaching its peak. It told analysts it could still be profitable even if sales by the automotive industry declined by 30% in 1 year.

Investors traded down the shares of the American automaker by 3.6% in 2016 on March 22, 2016, due to their concern that the United States automotive expansion has reached its peak and incomes are pressurized.

The carmaker, which recorded a pre-tax profit of $10.8 billion for 2015, is seen as one who could suffer from the same situation, which it faced 7 years ago when it had to close down factories, cut a large number of jobs and mortgage it’s every asset to borrow life-saving loans.

“We were in such bad shape back then. We are a much different company now,” CFO Bob Shanks spoke to analysts while meeting them in New York.

Ford stock plunged 0.5% to $13.59 at the close of trading in New York. Now, the company could reach the breakeven level financially even if the annual US vehicle sales decline to 11 million units, 37% decrease from 2015’s record 17.5 million light trucks and cars, Shanks stated.

Due to lower costs, better balance sheet and stronger products, the Michigan-based organization is now in a position to keep earning profits with a decline by 30% in the industry-wide sales, 2% decrease in net sales revenue in the first year of the decline, he stated. If sales did not rebound in 2017, the profit of the carmaker would actually enhance, Shanks stated.

In an auto market collapse, Ford could lower down its costs by $3 billion in the first year, with a sum of $1 billion being generated from its production operations. Bob stated, “We would adjust production to fit demand and do that very, very quickly.”

To prove how the US organization is more nimble-witted now, Bob pointed out the measures taken by Ford to adjust its factory output to a cut down in demand for fuel-efficient small vehicles.

Ford laid off 700 employees at its small-car manufacturing plant in Michigan and aims to move manufacturing of vehicles outside US. It also stopped manufacturing its mid-sized Fusion sedan and now manufactures it just in Mexico, where costs of labor are lower.

The carmaker aims to keep investing in new vehicles in the upcoming downturn, maintain its investment-grade credit rating and dividend. It was facilitated by latest credit upgrades, which “gives us a little bit of extra cushion,” Bob stated.

Former Executive Of Alibaba Joins Paytm To Boost Business

Former executive of Alibaba, Bhushan Sharma, will work to expand Paytm's business to other states and increase the number of merchants selling at its platform.

Paytm has recruited the former head of Alibaba  wholesale business. It is interested in boosting growth and working more closely with the Chinese ecommerce company. Bhushan Patil has joined the company as a VP after working for 5 years and 6 months at the Hangzhou-based organization, where he played a role in running Alibaba.com.

At his new job, Mr. Bhushan will concentrate on efforts to extend Paytm’s business to other states, a job closely mirroring his work at Alibaba, stated One97 Communications CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The parent organization of Paytm is One97 Communications.

He has taken the measure after over half billion dollars were invested by the company and its financial partner Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group in 2015 to acquire a 40% share in One97 Communications.

Like Alipay, the Noida-based company uses its electronic payment facility to play a role in directing traffic to the rest of its businesses. Paytm mobile application can be used to pay for Apple iPhones and Uber rides, as well as electricity bills.

The Chinese research firm, Analysys International, claimed that Alipay is the largest mobile-payment service of China. The payment startup states its online trading business is rapidly growing and moving forward to deliver goods worth of $2 billion in 2016. The organization expects to grow its ecommerce over two times by end of 2016.

The Indian e-commerce company, FlipKart, delivered goods worth $7.2 billion in 2015, estimated Morgan Stanley. Paytm and the rest of Indian online trading companies look to expand to the markets of Southeast Asian countries. They expect to increase revenues adversely affected by the discount battle in the highly competitive Indian e-commerce market, which is quite small when it is compared with that of China.

Alibaba sold goods worth of $377 billion (2.44 trillion Yuan) during the year ending at March 31, compared with about $16 billion for every e-commerce organization based in India, revealed Morgan Stanley.Bhushan expects that Indian internet economy to explode. The South Asian payment service provider has planned to grow the number of merchants on its marketplace from 100,000 to 500,000 today. For doing that, it needs to look at China.

The organization has planned to encourage merchants selling on Alibaba to register on its platform. In the Chinese region, Taobao has more than 10 million sellers on its different electronic commerce websites.

“We’re part of the Alibaba family. We’ll continue to help them and they will continue to help us,” Paytm CEO Mr. Sharma stated.

In other news, Economic Times reported Alibaba has planned to extend its foothold in India in 2016, which highlights the importance of the country to the biggest online retailer of China. The executives of Alibaba suggested that Jack Ma’s company would concentrate on the Indian offline market, along with the online.

Uber orders a huge fleet of Mercedes S-class sedans

Uber has ordered at least 100,000 Mercedes S-class sedans to provide its users a very high quality service

Uber technologies’ entire claim to fame is its purported capability to cut down its local cab service’s prices. Of course, one has upmarket options if he wants to look fancy such as UberBlack, which offers ride at a greater fare for a more luxurious and roomier ride. But a report has revealed that the cmpany may be aiming to become fancier, by buying 100,000 Mercedes-Benz S-Class luxury sedans.

As per reports of Reuters, a long-term order has been placed by the company with Diamler AG to the tune of "at least 100,000" S-Class sedans. Each of those German vehicles cost something around $100,000 each which makes it possibly a $10 billion contract.

Of course, the transporter will probably benefit from any kind of a fleet pricing incentive, but yet even if the company is purchasing each vehicle for at least $50,000, that yet adds up to a $5 billion contract.

This raises a question: Just exactly what the cab company has  seen in all of those Mercedes sedans? Reuters has indicated that  the transporter has been purchasing around aiming to order a large number of fully autonomous vehicles, as reported by German publication Der Spiegel has mentioned that founder and CEO of Uber Travis Kalanick was only interested in self-driving vehicles.

With that stated, now the flagship vehicle of Mercedes is just capable of being semi-autonomously driven for short stints; it’s expected that a entirely autonomous automobile would not be ready up till at least 2020, whether its manufactured by Mercedes Benz or another automobile manufacturer.

The deal was disclosed to Germany based news source Manager Magazin by sources at Diamler and Uber, but none of them was interested in commenting to Reuters on the issue, although the original report by Reuters is now containing an update from another inside source which denies that the deal has been signed.

The interest of the organization  in driverless automobiles can be easily understood. Despite of its high market valuation, the company has never earned a profit as it burned cash astonishingly, elimination of human driving partners would remove the only actual cost of the organization, paying its contracted drivers.

Hence Travis stated he would purchase each and every car manufactured by Tesla Motors provided that they were entirely autonomous. Up till then, one should not be surprised if he or she has hailed an Uber and a branded new-S-Class comes to pick him or her.

In other news, as per reports of Engadget the transporter has added 1 way trips from the Californian city San Diego to US neighboring country Mexico. If one wants to be transported to Tijuana while he or she in San Diego, then he or she can avail the Passport service offered by the company.

Qualcomm Inc.'s Road To Success

The American chip maker is incorporating strategic changes to emerge as a strong in the market in which it operates

The performance of the San Diego, Calif. firm has been spectacular since past few months and the future prospect of the popular chipmaker looks optimistic. Qualcomm Inc.’s latest processor, Snapdragon 820 received instant popularity and the recognition which helped the company in wiping away the bad time it faced after the launch of the Snapdragon 810.

The $76 billion organization has been trying to alter its work model and by the looks of it the changes made are bearing fruit for the company. In the past, the company has only forwarded its services to the higher end of the market. However, in an attempt to eradicate its previous mistakes, the company has disclosed its plan of developing processors for mid-tier smartphone manufacturers too. This initiative will help the company in loosening its high dependency on big clients.

Last year, the semiconductor manufacturing company witnessed disastrous financial position chiefly due to the withdrawal of its high profile client –Samsung. The problems began when the South Korean smartphone maker suspended Snapdragon 810 processor for its Galaxy 6 series smartphones after the controversial overheating issues of the smartphones ran on the 810 processors. Moreover, Samsung then went for internally manufactured chips. But, the chipmaker has successfully brought the South Korean technology leviathan back on its side and now the chipmaker’s Snapdragon 820 is powering Samsung’s luxurious Galaxy S7 and S7 plus.

Furthermore, Qualcomm’s strategy of shifting some focus on the mid-tier smartphone manufacturer is pretty smart as additional gateways will be opened for the company’s revenue stream. Moreover, the American semiconductor manufacturer has announced that it will be entering into the wearable market and for the accomplishment of such move the company has announced a chipset which has been built for the wearable devices and which is dubbed as Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor. Furthermore, the company has closed a partnership deal with Nixon in order to release a water-resistant Android based smart watch in an attempt to become the industry’s key player.

Earlier this week, the chipmaker giant unveiled that its first ever Virtual Reality software development kit has been developed whose architecture specially cater to the company’s latest sensation dubbed as “the Snapdragon 820 mobile SoC.” This development will be pivotal for the software makers who can write content which could efficiently make the most of the 820 chipset’s superior graphic processing capabilities. Since Virtual Reality market is in the phase of infancy therefore if Qualcomm uses its processors’ expertise efficiently then it may become one of the behemoths in the segment.

Moreover, the American chipmaker has taken distinct steps to form alliance with Chinese counterparts in order to penetrate into the server chip market. The Asian most populous country, China is the hub for chip manufacturers therefore a lot of companies have been trying to expand their operations in the region. Furthermore, Qualcomm’s recent move has startled Intel which is now considering the major threat posed by the San Diego based firm.

The Californian semiconductor business has made one thing clear that it does want to infiltrate the various categories of the processors business. During the Mobile World Congress, the company was successful in impressing the attendees with its Snapdragon 820 and now both the analysts and the investors are confident about the futuristic profits of the company. As of now, at the market which closed on Thursday, Qualcomm Inc. stock stood at a price of $51.38. The 52 week range of the stock is $42 to $72.

Facebook Pays Thousands Of Dollars In Bounties To Indian Researchers

Indian researchers report numerous bugs to Facebook and received thousands of dollars in return.

On March 18, 2016, Facebook stated it has paid a sum of $730,000 to researchers based in India. The money has been paid under the social network company’s bug bounty program, the most heavily paid up till now by the company.

India has more than 142 million and ranks the first among 127 states in terms of the contribution of researchers to the company’s bug bounty program, it posted in a blog. A bug is a defect or error in hardware or software that leads to the program malfunctioning. It is often experienced because of conflicts in software when apps are trying to run together.

While bugs can lead to the production of unanticipated results or crash software, particular defects can be exploited to get unapproved access to technologies. Since its introduction five years ago, more than 2400 valid submissions have been received by the bug bounty program and has rewarded over a sum of $4.3 million to over 800 researchers across the globe.

According to the program, researchers are rewarded for finding vulnerabilities in infrastructure or services and reporting safety bugs that can create privacy or security risks. The team of Facebook bounty hunt program classified 102 submissions of bug bounties past year as those with a high impact, a rise of over 38% over the past year.

Approximately 13,233 total submissions were received by the company in 127 states from 5543 researchers. 210 researchers were paid $936,000 for submitting 526 reports. Elaborating upon how the organization paid bounties to researchers and calculated the risk, an official of the company, Adam Rudderman, said Facebook considers the possible effect of the bug and its potential.

The sum paid in the form of bounties is usually consistent but it could be changed with the evolution of the risks, he told. In other news, Wall Street Journal reported that on March 18, 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ran through the Tinanmen Square in Beijing without wearing a pollution mask, when the air quality index of the city crossed 300 – a standard, which the US Environmental Protection Agency considers “hazardous”.

Most air quality applications and doctors recommend people to refrain from exercising outdoor when the levels of pollution have reached higher levels. EPA claimed that in the United States, reading above 300 are “extremely rare” and are usually witnessed during significant events like forest fires. 

Facebook’s spokesperson said Zuckerberg is visiting the town to attend China Development Forum this weekend, where presidents and CEOs of many organizations will be present to deliberate upon the economic plans of China.

Google To Provide Cloud Storage Services To Apple

Apple will avail the cloud storage services offered by Google to cut down costs and reduce its reliance on Amazon and Microsoft Corporation.

In an effort to improve its reputation in the cloud-computation industry, Google has seized a well-known tech company, Apple. In recent times, iPhone manufacturer began to store parts of its services and iCloud data with the cloud platform of the American search company, sources aware of the deal revealed.

It is a victory for the Mountain View based company, which is hunting for bigger companies as its cloud customers. It may be short-lived, as it seems like Apple is also developing its owned system to bring data stored on a large number of its products in-house.

Presently, Amazon Web Services (AWS) store most of the iCloud luggage of Apple. CRN first reported this news and claimed that the Cupertino-based company is cutting down its dependence on AWS by shifting to Google.

Google and Apple have refused to share their views. Amazon, which mostly does not reveal its customer’s identity, gave a statement implying that the company has not defected.

Apple revealed its dependence on Azure and AWS in a paper released in 2014. CRN pegged the spending by the consumer electronics maker with Google between a range of $400 million and $600 million. A source simply said it was a “significant” amount. If the revenue figure refers to an annual rate and the report by CRN is accurate, it would be significant. The search company does not reveal its cloud figures, but some analysts estimated its cumulative revenue in 2015 around half a billion.

For the organization, the agreement might be a measure taken to cut down costs ahead of developing its own cloud storage technology. Its cloud team is in agreement-signing mode, aggressively interested in bringing new customers to use its cloud facilities and might have sweetened the agreement- or been more interested than Azure or AWS to concede to the demands of Apple.

There is a next step taken by the company, as Morgan Stanley noted in February, Apple has announced to open three data centers soon and spend approximately $1 billion in 2015 on AWS for the sake of prosperity. 

It is a sensible move for the organization if it seeks more independence from its technology competitors. A source aware of the matter revealed that Google’s team is currently working on it; it is internally called “McQueen,” as in Steve. It is not clear if that venture will materialize or when, but this can benefit the business considerably. 

Samsung S7 Users To Benefit From Verizon's Yearly Upgrade Program

Verizon comes with an extensive annual upgrade program for Verizon users

Verizon Communication Inc.’s wireless department has made an announcement regarding the launch of the company’s Annual Upgrade Program which caters to the owners of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 EDGE smartphone. As per the recent offering, consumers can get hands on a new Samsung smartphone each year if they buy two flagship phones from the company with the device payment facility by Verizon Communications Inc.

All those consumers that have preordered their Samsung S7 or S7 EDGE have been automatically registered for the new program offering. So by buying the recent flagship phone by Samsung, consumers get the option to get their Galaxy smartphone exchanged for a new one next year under the umbrella of the Verizon Annual Upgrade Program. Consumers have to then need to wait for almost a month after their smartphone gets activated to upgrade to the other phone. However, the time limit only implies after more than half of the retail price of the gadget has been paid already.

All those Verizon customers who are not interested in being associated to a Samsung upgrade over the next annum get another option which enables them to make payments for the smartphone on rather low monthly package which then spans over two years. Verizon has highlighted that the payment in the form of installments is not associated to any “huge balloon payments,” and the consumers of VZ also get some incentive when their smartphone gets returned.

All those consumers who move to VZ from its rival carriers like Sprint, T-Mobile can get their Samsung S7 and S7 EDGE activated with a $100 credit. This offer is only applicable with the company’s device payment methodology and the $100 cheque can be consumed in two or three billing cycles.

All those customers who are hooked to Verizon already will not be avoided where they can trade their old phone with a new Samsung S7 or S7 EDGE to take advantage of various credit degrees. All those users who trade relatively new smartphones like Samsung Note 5, iPhone 6, LG V10, and Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge get a credit of $300. All those users who have a Samsung Note 4, Turbo 2, Motorola Droid Turbo, iPhone 5s and Galaxy S5 get a credit worth $200. All other smartphones get a credit of $100. If consumers do not want account credit then they can avail a gift card having the same value.

VZ has highlighted its local network perform that has been successful in winning accolades giving consumers an incentive to move to its network. It is also willing to give $650 to the present customers with the qualifying smartphones belonging to other network carriers to make this dream a reality.

The company has also made announcements regarding the users who move and opt forVerizon’s XL or XXL plans that are priced between $80 and $100 on an average per month. Moreover, 2GB of data is also being offered to them free of cost. Considering that these plans offer 12GB and 18 GB of data, it clearly indicates that the program is for all those who do not stop when it comes to data consumption. It needs to be noted that the additional 2GB of data is not being offered to those who have lesser packages.