1 of 7 a U T O M O T I V E GM/Onstar General Motors Unveiled Plans to Embed Onstar Business Driver, a New In
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AUTOMOTIVE GM/OnStar General Motors unveiled plans to embed OnStar Business Driver, a new in- vehicle advertising platform, into 2+ million vehicles – nearly two-thirds of their car fleet – by the close of the year. The new marketing channel will be integrated into the car’s dashboard and double as a car management device, measuring the health of the car, traffic information, driving directions and geo-targeted advertising to its drivers. BROADBAND FCC/Privacy The FCC’s latest proposal for broadband privacy rules calls for Internet Service Providers to obtain users’ affirmative consent before using data about their activity for ad targeting purposes. CORPORATE Google Last week, Google introduced a pair of Pixel phones featuring a powerful camera, long lasting battery (7 hours and 15 minutes), a dedicated headphone jack, and 24-hour live customer care. Other features include: running off the newly introduced operating system Nugget; Google Home, its Amazon Echo rival that responds to voice commands; the Daydream View, a fabric virtual reality headset; Google Wifi, a multipoint network system; and an upgraded Chromecast media streaming dongle. Snap/IPO Snap, formerly Snapchat, is readying the paperwork for an IPO early next year that could value the company at $25 billion, making it one of the largest companies to debut in the U.S. since 2008, according to Dealogic, as reported by The Wall Street Journal: Pricing Date Company Market Valuation (Billions) 9.14 Alibaba $167.6 5.12 Facebook $81.2 10.09 Banco Santander Brasil $50.4 11.10 GM $49.5 3.08 Visa $42.5 5.14 JD.com $26.0 3.17 Snap $25.0 2.11 Kinder Morgan $21.2 12.13 Hilton Worldwide $19.7 7.14 Synchrony Financial $19.1 DIGITAL Apple/App Store/ Apple has ventured into the search advertising business by starting to show ads Search related to users’ searches in its App Store. 1 of 7 DIGITAL(cont’d) Salesforce/Krux Cloud software entity Salesforce.com agreed to acquire Krux, a six-year old firm that provides companies with information enabling them to hone their marketing and advertising, for $700 million. FINANCE ATM Fees A new survey conducted by Bankrate.com indicated that fees for out of network locations has hit a record average of $4.57: a combination of the average ATM owner surcharge of $2.90 and an extra $1.67 charged by consumer banks for going outside the network. GLOBAL Jet Emissions The New York Times reported that governments from more than 190 countries adopted a measure that for the first time will reduce the climate impact of international jet travel. It will take effect in 2021 and could force air carriers to take major steps to improve fuel economy in their routes and fleets. Note: Currently, international aviation is responsible for about 2% of worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases. Pakistan/Honor Pakistan’s parliament passed a new law that closed a legal loophole that has Killings allowed perpetrators of so called honor killings to go free. Honor killings claimed the lives of over 1,000 women in the country in 2015, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Victims of honor killings are usually women who disobey their families in matters of love or marriage, with the perpetrators claiming to uphold local customs or Islam. The new law mandates a minimum life sentence – 25 years, under Pakistani law – for committing an honor killing, even if the victim’s family members forgive the perpetrator. MOBILE Facebook/ Facebook introduced Marketplace, a new mobile feature for users to discover, buy Marketplace and sell products with people in their virtual and physical communities. How it works: tapping on a shop icon at the bottom of the Facebook app brings users to Marketplace. Once there, they will find photos of products that have recently been listed by people who live nearby. When people find products they are looking for, they can then tap on its image for more details, including the seller’s name and general location. If they wish to make a deal, they can send the seller a direct message and make an offer. Verizon/Drone Verizon unveiled plans to work with drone makers to connect the flying vehicles to Data Plan Verizon’s wireless network. Drone data plans will start at $25 a month for 1 gigabyte of data and $80 for 10 gigabytes. Initially, the data plans will allow drones to essentially connect to the internet during flight and stream videos, pictures or other sensory data back to earth. PERSONALITIES Hanoi Hannah Trinh Thi Mgo, a soft-spoken radio announcer known as Hanoi Hannah who entertained American forces during the Vietnam War while trying to persuade them that the conflict was immoral, has passed away. She was 85 years old. Week of October 10, 2016 2 of 7 PERSONALITIES(cont’d) Hurricanes The 10 costliest hurricanes in U.S. history, according to the Insurance Information Institute, as reported by The Wall Street Journal: Hurricane Reign Loss (Billions) Katrina 8.25-30.05 $49.0 Andrew 8.24-26.92 $24.1 Sandy 10.28-31.12 $19.6 Ike 9.12-14.08 $13.8 Wilma 10.24.05 $12.3 Charley 8.13-14.04 $9.2 Ivan 9.15-21-04 $8.8 Hugo 9.17-22.89 $7.2 Rita 9.20-26-05 $6.7 Frances 9.3-9.04 $5.7 Neville Marriner Neville Marriner, a prolific British conductor responsible for some of the best selling recordings (Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons) of all time, has passed away. He was 92 years old. RETAIL Amazon/Incentivi Amazon has banned most incentivized reviews from customers who are given free zed Reviews or discounted products from sellers or brands – previously allowed with a disclosure. Amazon/Prime Amazon expanded its Prime Membership – a service that charges an annual fee Reading ($99) to receive free two-day shipping, as well as access to its video and audio services – to include publishing through its Prime Reading service, which provides free access to a myriad of books and magazines available through smartphones, tablets and Kindle. Note: Prime Members are thought to number at least 46 million in the U.S. SOCIETY Traffic Fatalities The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that U.S. traffic fatalities surged in the first 6 months of 2016 to roughly 17,700. Last year, more than 35,000 traffic deaths were reported on American roads, the largest increase since 1966 and the first uptick in a few years. TECHNOLOGY Samsung/Viv Samsung acquired machine learning virtual assistant artificial intelligence company Viv, the San Jose based startup created by Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus. The known playing field: Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s Google Assistant. TRANSPORTATION New York State/ New York State’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that toll Toll Booths booths will be eliminated form all 7 bridges and 2 tunnels in New York City and replaced with high speed auto pay systems collecting fees electronically through sensors as vehicles roll through, similar to E-Z Pass. Week of October 10, 2016 3 of 7 TRANSPORTATION(cont’d) Subway Rides The Metropolitan Transportation (MTA) reported that in 2015 subway ridership increased 0.6% from the year before to 1.763 billion. VIDEO Hulu Hulu quietly reduced the monthly subscription price for new members by 25% to $5.99 from $7.99 for a limited time. Hulu claims 12 million subscribers. Note: The price reduction does not affect the $11.99 ad free tier plan. Netflix/iPic Netflix has signed a deal with luxury theater chain iPic Entertainment to Entertainment simultaneously screen its original movies in theaters (13 locations) the same day that they appear on the streaming service. OTT/Marketshare According to comScore’s Total Home Panel Custom Analysis (March 2016), the device market share among over-the-top streaming devices was: Device Market Share Roku 49% Chromecast 22% Amazon FireTV 16% Apple TV 12% Other 1% Roku Roku announced that it is rolling out new tools that will make it simpler for anyone to bring their video content to its media player lineup, without having to write any code. With the update to the Roku Direct Publisher Platform, video creators can instead walk through a few steps, including a video feed, then have their new channel go live on Roku. Snap/Programmatic Social media platform Snap, formerly Snapchat, unveiled plans to roll out its API Platform (application programming interface), which both facilitates automated ad buying and allows brands to more precisely target their ads, according to Ad Age. It will also allow weather factors to be included as part of ad targeting decisions and to sync ads to run when certain TV programs run. TCM/FilmStruck Turner announced that it will debut FilmStruck – its subscription video on demand service streaming contemporary and classic art house, independent, foreign and cult films – on October 19 for a $6.99 monthly fee. The service was developed and will be managed by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in collaboration with Criterion Collection. VRV/AT&T/Otter The owners of Otter Media, which is backed by AT&T and media executive Peter Media Chernin, are supporting VRV, a new streaming service with videos from popular web channels Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Cartoon Hangover, CollegeHumor, Funimation and Machinima. Week of October 10, 2016 4 of 7 FORTUNE’S 25 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN (INTERNATIONAL) RANK NAME AGE TITLE COMPANY COUNTRY 1 Ana Botin 55 Group Executive Chairman Banco Santander Spain 2 Arundhati Bhattacharya 60 Chairperson State Bank of India India 3 Isabelle Kocher 49 CEO Engie France 4 Chua Sock Koong 58 Group CEO Singapore Telecom Singapore 5 Chanda Kochhar 54 Managing Director/CEO ICICI Bank India 6 Alison Cooper 50 CEO Imperial Brands U.K.