Juno Threatens Uber By Offering Equity To Drivers

Juno offers its shares to Uber drivers to attract human capital towards itself.

By offering better equity and rates, cab service providers can attract driving partners. This is the strategy of the most high profile and newest challengers of Uber, start-up Juno aims to introduce a competing cab service in New York soon.

CEO and Founder of Juno and co-founder of Viber, Talmon Marco, said the company is specifically aiming at Uber driving partners and providing them a better deal with low commission rates in the organization.

Several drivers in some of the biggest US Uber markets, including San Francisco and New York, have launched protests over cuts in fare in January 2016, claiming that decreases in fare adversely affect their take-home wages. The main rival of the company, Lyft, in the United States has attracted drivers with the help of its lower commissions and tip system for full-time drivers.

Recently, Travis Kalanick’s company altered its commission model to mirror that of Lyft in providing rewards to full-time drivers. Increasing efforts for unionization are focused on drivers. A law was revealed in the legislature of California, which if ratified, would allow drivers of Lyft and Uber to establish unions. The City Council of Seattle took a similar step in 2015, although it is challenged by litigation.

Mr. Marco told that Juno would classify drivers as workers. It will not classify them as independent contractors if they exclusively drove for Juno. He proposed to distribute stakes in Juno to drivers every quarter to ensure that they establish equity like their founders with time. Nevertheless, the New York transportation market is quite competitive and at least one ride-sharing company, Hailo, has entered recently.

Mr. Talmon said, “Every time that either Uber or Lyft reduce their prices, it is a war that is fought on the back of drivers.” Juno is particularly hiring Uber drivers. Its requirement for joining includes drivers with high ratings from Uber users. The organization is currently paying some driving partners to get permission to acquire data while they complete their Uber journeys.

Mr. Marco did not reveal how much his company has raised up till now, saying only that it was in millions. Uber refused to share its views. The company previously stated that there has been an increase in the gross fares by $13 from 2012 to 2015.

Nevertheless, it has also raised its commissions during the period by making additions to fees by charging booking fees. The organization did not reveal how the net pay of drivers has changed. 

Alibaba Offering Houses To Its Employees On Discounted Price

Alibaba is building houses to accommodate its employees at a discounted rate and it's logistics affiliate Cainao has completed a financing round

The Chinese e-commerce company is establishing apartments to sell to its workers at a 40% discount, according to reports.

There are total 380 apartments with-in the range from 87 to 118 sq. meters constructed in Hangzhou, China. As per reports by People’s Daily, the completion of the construction will be done by 2018.

Eligible workers will draw a lot from the opportunity to purchase the houses. In order to become eligible, they should have worked at the company for around three years and be serving in M3 (senior manager) jobs or lower.

These apartments will be offered at a price of $1548 per sq. meter (10,000 yuan) whereas the rest of the properties in the region are available at a price ranging from $2632.17 to $3096.67. Alibaba isn’t the only China based company to provide housing to its employees. Apartments are offered by Evergande Group to its newly hired staff free of charge.

Free apartments are also offered by Hengda Group to its workers and after a particular number of years if they plan to buy the house the company also provide them a discount. Affordable housing is also guaranteed by Chinese telecom and equipment service provider Huawei to its employees located near Shenzhen headquarters and factory.

In other news, as per reports of Reuters a financing round has been completed by Alibaba’s logistics division today.

In this, a number of investors have participated which includes the China based investment company Primavera, Malaysian strategic investment company Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Singaporean state owned investment company Temasek Holdings and strategic investment corporation GIC Pte Ltd.

The Hanzgzhou based organization didn’t reveal many details regarding the amount of money raised by Cainiao, whether the company had to issue equity stock or the valuation of its logistics unit.

That’s the first financing round of Cainiao since it was established by Alibaba 3 years ago, the online retail company stated. Then, Alibaba as well as a group of China based logistics service providers stated they would pay $15.4 billion (100 billion yuan) over 5 to 8 years to establish a nationwide logistics network.

The company seeks a leading role in the developing fragmented package delivery sector of China, as online trading industry extends beyond urban centers and needs a more strong  logistics infrastructure. In collaboration with delivery service providers, reams of data are crunched by Cainao on anything from delivery routes, weather patterns and order trends to improve efficiency.

The organization stated it and investors would work together to further establish out its "big data logistics network". The country’s leading e-commerce organization has been battling stiff rivalry from its smaller competitor J.D com, which prioritizes the control over a huge logistics network, such as Amazon with its loss-making business model.

Samsung Pay Faces Loss Of $16.8 Million

Samsung Pay has faced a loss of almost $16.8 million; shockingly, the tech giant has not shown any concern.

Samsung Electronics stepped into the business of mobile payments not so long ago and has been making the service attractive each day by putting in new features and promotion deal for customers. However, a loss of almost $16.8 million has been reported from this department of the South Korean company’s business, which shockingly is not as concerning as it should have been for the organization.

Samsung made the mobile payments application accessible to customers who owned Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Note 5, and now, Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. These smartphones are the high-end products of the organization so far. The app was not available for all smartphones.

Samsung had to stand head-to-head with its biggest rival in the market, Apple, which also has the same mobile payments application known as Apply Pay. Thus, the tech company came up with its own service of the same category, Samsung Pay. The difference between these two competitors was that Samsung’s service consisted of the magnetic strip technology, which made it compatible with older modes of payments and did not limit it to the latest NFC tech, which most of the other mobile payment systems are.

The Galaxy maker made the mobile payments application as good as it could be, but still lost $16.8 million last year. It might have caused some damage but not enough to let the company worry about it. This is mainly because the application was launched in September in very few markets and later led itself towards expansion starting this year. The tech business spent ample of time in gathering as many merchants as it could and even other financial institutions so that it grows to a massive scale in the future.

The organization is not concerned with the loss and considers it an investment of a kind for the future. It believes that this would raise the demand in the market for its high-end mobile phones. The report shows that the mobile payments service managed to generate profit of almost $4.12 million and a loss of $16.8 million making its net worth $23.6 million and $10.5 million. The application has 70 different banking companies backing it up, which 70% of the card companies in the United States.

Samsung Pay was recently launched in China and is already going strong there, it has further plans of launching in Brazil, Spain, Italy, Singapore, and Australia by the end of 2016. For now, it has 500 million customers in the US and South Korea, the company’s hometown. 

Ford Witnessed Sales Decline In China

The sales of Ford and General Motors have decreased by 9% in China after both gained in the end of last year.

Ford and General Motors have both recorded steep decreases in sales in China in February on a yearly basis as a part of an extensive slowdown attributed to a certain extent to a drop-off around the Lunar New Year Holiday. Sales of both automakers have decreased by 9% in February, the companies stated after a series of gains on a monthly basis led by newly offered government subsidies launched in 2015 for stipulating the demand for fuel-efficient vehicles.

The automotive market of China has recovered from a slowdown in summer last year because of the incentives that are applicable to 70% of the vehicles delivered in the country. A possible red flag is raised by recent decreases in sales, which signals that the biggest car market of the world could cool permanently amidst the sluggish economic growth of the country.

During the first two months of this year, Ford and Michigan sales increased by 18% and 11%, respectively. Analysts typically looked at January and February sales together which contributed to a disruption triggered by the New Year Holiday.

The China Automobile manufacturers association will report the official new-automobile sales of February in March 2016 for each vehicle manufacturer in the country. Other manufacturers also recorded decreases in past months, including Mazda Motor Corporation and Hyundai Motor Corporation. The Chinese biggest domestic manufacturer ‘SAIC’ suffered from 7% decline in sales, adversely affected by decreases reported by joint-project partners Volkswagen AG and GM, both lead the market in the state.

The vehicle sales in China boosted to the highest level in the last year, growing by 7.3% from 2014 to a figure of 24.6 million, but the sales grew at a rate, which was slower as compared to the two digit increases posted in 2014 and 2013.

The association of China automakers estimates that the sales of passenger-vehicles in the next year will grow by 7.8% to a figure of 22.76 million. Companies have hurried to establish plants and increase production in the country, while expecting to tap increasing demand for new cars by rapid urbanization and growing middle class in what’s considered amongst the most lucrative markets of the automotive industry outside the United States.

Particularly, January proved to be a strong month for companies in China, with sales growing by 9.3% from the previous year, as purchasers snapped new cars prior to the holiday. Travelling is heavy around the New Year holiday. 

Amazon To Establish Its Second Largest Delivery Center In India

Amazon will build its second biggest delivery center in the country to penetrate into the Indian  competitive online trading industry

As per reports, the American e-commerce company has announced that its second-biggest delivery center will be established by it outside the United States in the Indian city of Hyderabad which is South Indian state Telegana’s capital city. The measure came one year after the organization stated it would establish its largest India based warehouse near Hyderabad..

Telegana’s government’s senior official spoke to the Economic Times that the online trading giant was allocated 10 acres of land for the planned delivery center which is supposed to occupy 2.9 million square feet, developed to accommodate 13,500 people.

The Amazon development center’s present headcount in the city of Hyderabad is around 1000 across a number of offices. The announcement done on Friday by the company highlighted the increasing interest amongst giants based in Silicon valleys, a part of Andhra Pradesh in South of India.

In February, Apple announced to establish its biggest technology development outside the USA in Hyderabad. In recent times, Google and Microsoft also discussed plans to establish their campuses in the region.

Sources referred by the local media stated the building of the warehouse of Amazon, also called “fulfillment centers” will begin on 30^th March 2016.

Fulfillment centers often established close to airports are employed to dispatch, sort and collect customer orders form third party suppliers and the company, who avail the huge warehousing system of the electronic trading platform operator free of charge.

Amazon is currently running such warehouses totaling at 21 in 10 Indian states.  In 2014, an investment of $2 billion was announced by the enterprise to expand its Indian operation.

As per reports of Dnaindia, the Seattle based company presently has leased  an office space of 1.2 million square feet in Bengaluru and rented an office space of 30,000 square feet in Mumbai. Sources have revealed during the inauguration ceremony of the planned delivery center of the company, its vice president John Morgan and senior vice president David Zapolksy will  probably be present.

In other news, Nyoooz has reported that in the Indian city Chennai’s neighborhood Guindy, girls are delivering orders to Amazon’s customers and managing and running its warehouses. The Indian city has now become one of the 2 first only-women delivery centers in India. The other only-woman delivery center is located in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala.

The 2 delivery centers were launched in the last week, with the one in the neighborhood of Chennai operational since 3^rd March 2016. The representatives of the company have stated the measure has been taken to provide a vast number of job opportunities to women in the logistics industry.

IBM Cuts Down Jobs Again and Sues Groupon

IBM is trimming job opportunities at its operations and those workers who have chosen early retirement are troubled.

IBM is cutting down more jobs following the statement of its leading executive that it had recruited 70,000 people in 2015 without also disclosing how many workers it had laid off during that timeframe.

Local media reported job cuts at the Research Triangle Park, N.C., operations of IBM, while IEEE Spectrum had reported cuts elsewhere. In its first financial quarter, the company typically tightened its belt, so this was not entirely unanticipated, but things got much worse for those workers who chose early retirement.

Changes made to the severance program of IBM have cut packages to 1 month from 6 months for participants, ZDnet report revealed. On its Facebook page “Watching IBM”, former employee of the cloud computing business, Lee Conrad, who keeps a track of job actions at the organization, characterized what is happening recently as a “massive job cut” although he has also acknowledged that it is not clear how many people have lost their jobs.

When asked to share views, spokesman of IBM responded by reiterating the hiring of 70,000 people and added it is now offering over 25,000 open job positions. This is not the first rodeo of the tech organization. It had cut jobs also for rebalancing – just over a year ago.

The corporation has been spinning off non-core businesses for long, and has recently doubled down on “cognitive and cloud computing”. It has also been purchasing huge companies and startups alike to initiate demand for its cognitive computing system, Watson.

Recently, it signed an agreement with VWware, which might help businesses to shift their conventional business apps to the IBM SoftLayer cloud (or for enabling those applications to work across on-premises datacenters.)

Besides the contract aside, the jury is yet out, nevertheless, on the effectiveness of these efforts to offset decreases in the conventional businesses of the organization, especially as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services woo huge businesses, including important IBM customers with its networking abilities, storage and rentable computation from their respective clouds.

IBM is not the only organization doing so. NetApp and VMware have also downsized many workers in the previous few weeks. In other news, Ars Technica reported that Big Blue filed a lawsuit against Groupon for violating the patents 7072,849 and 5,796,967. Both of those are related to the Prodigy service, which was pioneered by the corporation.

The legal action has been taken as a part of the organization’s efforts to push internet giants to pay it licensing fees of patents.

Rumor Apple Inc. Decides to Enter the Automobile Industry

The technology giant is not going to leave any technology behind; it wants to have it all and give it all to its customers.

In November 2015, news emerged that the technology giant leased a 96,000 square foot property in Sunnyale, California as per the information this piece of land was previously owned by PepsiCo as a bottling plant. The tech giant at this point has said absolutely nothing regarding this land and what it plans to do with it. However, rumors of Apple Inc. working on an electric car have gain momentum in the last six months. If that rumor is true then this land is likely to be used as an Electric Vehicle (EV) Production Plant.

The technology company has always been a master at keeping secrets; as per the news the giant was working in the area and conducting its automobile research which made many believe that this is what the piece of land signified. It’s evident that Apple wants to ramp up its automobile research sector and hence it has leased this property. The Sunnyale property was leased by the company yesterday and along with that it had initially rented a 140,000 square foot building along with an 80,257 square foot property very close to the Sunnyale land.

Apple Inc. has given a codename to this project “Project Titan”. As cheesy as it might sound, many believe that the iPhone maker might be working on developing an Electric Vehicle (EV). It has been quite discrete about it but all the recent leasing, renting, hiring of experts from the automobile industry, points in that very direction which states that the company might just be working on development such an automobile and is likely to achieve another milestone.

When the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook was questioned regarding this at the annual general meeting that was recently held, he simply stated that this is going to Christmas Eve for a while for everyone as children would never know what would be waiting for them downstairs but they would be excited for it. That was a quite vague answer by the CEO but nonetheless simply made shareholders and customers much more excited.

Furthermore, the CEO of Tesla Motors has stated that its sort of a ‘open-secret’ by the technology giant in the industry. As per a report by The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone maker has had automobile ambitions and added that the technology corporation is hope to start shipping its ‘secret product’ by 2019 and plans to increase its workforce by as many as 1,800 employees.

Even though the rumors have become quite clear, Tim still wants to keep this a secret which has practically become an open-secret now. He stated that at apple, they aim at working with innovative technology and they are always thinking about making great products that their customers would love.