Year: 2019

Indian hotel start-up Oyo to raise $1.5bn in latest round of funding

Posted on by Jack Pearson

On October 7, Oyo Rooms, India’s largest budget lodging start-up, confirmed plans to raise an additional $1.5bn as part of its Series F funding round. Its founder and CEO, Ritesh Agarwal, will spend $700m to buy new shares in the company. Existing investors, including SoftBank, Lightspeed and Sequoia India, will contribute to the rest of the funding round, bringing the start-up’s valuation to $10bn.

Since Oyo was founded in 2013, it has grown into India’s second-most valuable start-up and one of the world’s largest hotel chains

Since Oyo was founded in 2013, it has grown into India’s second-most valuable start-up and one of the world’s largest hotel chains. It currently manages 1.2 million rooms in more than 80 countries. This latest funding round will help the company strengthen its presence in the US, Oyo’s fastest-growing market, and boost its holiday rentals business in Europe.

“The continued support of our investors like SoftBank Vision Fund, Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital is a testament to the love, trust and relentless support of our asset owners and customers,” Agarwal said in a statement.

Oyo’s continued growth will bring some comfort to SoftBank, after WeWork – in which it was a majority shareholder – filed to withdraw its IPO earlier this month.

However, the Indian start-up is in some ways reminiscent of the now-disgraced property company. Like WeWork, Oyo has yet to turn a profit. On top of this, Agarwal’s push to raise his stake in the company – almost unheard of in the Indian start-up sector – mirrors the behaviour of Adam Neumann, WeWork’s founder and former CEO, who shareholders accused of exerting too much influence within the company.

Oyo’s success has also sparked a backlash among hotel operators in India. The start-up has faced criticism for driving down room rates in the country at a time when economic growth is slowing. Moreover, Indian hotel operators partnered with the brand have accused it of exorbitant fee increases.

In September, two hoteliers in the state of Karnataka filed police complaints that the company was deceitfully increasing commissions, accusing Agarwal of fraud. Oyo has denied the allegations, but such damning indictments may continue to haunt the company as it looks to expand globally.

Insiders raise concerns as Tesla’s China factory gears up to start production

Posted on by The New Economy

Tesla insiders have raised concerns as to whether the electric carmaker’s China factory – which aims to start production this month – will be able to meet its year-on-year production targets, Reuters reported on October 2. Sources familiar with the matter cited uncertainties around orders, labour and suppliers.

The new factory in Shanghai will allow Tesla to cut shipping costs, avoid US tariffs and attract more Chinese customers. It is set to play a critical role in Tesla’s plan to achieve an annualised production rate of 500,000 vehicles by the end of the year.

But to achieve this, the factory will need to have produced at least 1,000 Model 3s per week by the close of 2019. Tesla is notorious for falling short of its output targets, and sources familiar with the matter warn that the new factory’s aims may not be achievable.

The new factory in Shanghai will allow Tesla to cut shipping costs, avoid US tariffs and attract more Chinese customers

“We aim to start some production in October, but the actual production volume depends on many factors, including [the] car orders we received, performance of newly hired workers, [the] supply chain and so on,” a Tesla source told Reuters. “It’s unclear when we can reach the 1,000-2,000 units per week target.”

The $2bn factory is Tesla’s first overseas car manufacturing site. Its launch comes shortly after monthly sales of new vehicles in China started declining for the first time in more than two years. Sales of new energy vehicles contracted in August for the second month in a row, leading the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers to slash its sales forecast for 2019 to 1.5 million vehicles, down from 1.6 million.

Nevertheless, Tesla still has reason to believe in the long-term success of its China strategy. In the first seven months of 2019, Tesla sales in China rose 98 percent, according to research firm LMC Automotive. Further, Tesla stands to profit from China’s increasing openness to foreign companies in the electric vehicle space, with the US carmaker already having benefitted from the state’s decision to exempt it from a 10 percent car purchase tax.

WeWork’s bond price falls sharply after withdrawing its IPO 

Posted on by Jack Pearson

On September 30, a week after its controversial founder Adam Neumann was ousted as CEO, WeWork’s high-yield bond price dropped to a record low.

In just over six weeks, the company has experienced a painful fall from grace. Once the US’ most highly valued tech start-up, with a valuation of $47bn, the company quickly became steeped in scandal after investors raised concerns about its corporate governance and long-term financial viability. Although WeWork’s revenue doubled to almost $1.8bn in 2018, its losses also doubled to over $1.9bn.

Despite what critics were saying, the company had remained hopeful that it would still be able to spur investor interest. But it was forced to admit defeat after its possible valuation dropped to $10bn and its main investor, SoftBank, began putting pressure on the company.

Nonetheless, WeWork’s newly appointed co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham claim the company will pursue another IPO later down the line. “We are as committed as ever to serving our members, enterprise customers, landlord partners, employees and shareholders. We have every intention to operate WeWork as a public company and look forward to revisiting the public equity markets in the future,” they said in a statement.

WeWork quickly became steeped in scandal after investors raised concerns about its corporate governance and long-term financial viability

Withdrawing the IPO means WeWork will now need to look for alternative funding, since its $6bn loan deal with banks depended on a share sale of at least $3bn. It is currently in talks to renegotiate a $1.5bn injection from SoftBank. WeWork is also expected to cut back its workforce and rein in its expansion plans as it looks for new funding.

WeWork’s failed IPO comes during a difficult period for start-ups attempting to go public. Last week, entertainment and talent company Endeavour shelved its IPO, while shares in the fitness start-up Peloton fell by seven percent in their Wall Street debut.

Digital banking app Revolut to hire 3,500 staff in global push

Posted on by Jack Pearson

The UK digital banking app Revolut is expanding into 24 new markets and hiring 3,500 new staff as part of a deal with payments firm Visa, the two companies announced on September 30. The neobank plans to create a presence in eight new countries, including Japan, Brazil, Russia and the US, by the end of this year. It also hopes to enter other Latin American and Asian markets next year.

Since its launch in 2015, Revolut has grown astronomically and now serves more than eight million customers

Speaking with Reuters, Revolut’s chief executive and founder Nikolay Storonsky said the fintech firm could double or triple its customer base over the next year thanks to this global push. However, the expansion is still subject to Revolut acquiring the necessary regulatory approvals.

Since its launch in 2015, the challenger bank has grown astronomically and now serves more than eight million customers. However, despite Revolut’s success, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the fintech company: there have been numerous reports in the media describing Revolut’s toxic work culture and high employee churn rate. In addition, the UK’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, made enquiries into the company after a whistleblower said anti-money-laundering checks were not being properly applied in some cases. The company, speaking to the BBC, denied these claims.

According to research released by Accenture, digital banks are expected to amass 35 million customers around the world next year. However, many of the businesses in this space are still struggling to turn a profit, with the average digital bank losing £9 ($11) per customer on average. This is in part because most customers tend not to use these platforms as their main banks; Storonsky told Reuters that the average Revolut customer only has around €1,000 ($1,090) in their account.

Incumbent banks are also investing more in their digital platforms, which poses another threat to neobanks. Although Revolut is sure to boost its customer acquisition through this latest expansion, whether it can become profitable in the long term remains unclear.

Future-proofing convenience: how retailers can thrive in the on-demand economy

Posted on by Jack Pearson

The retail landscape is undergoing a seismic shift, driven by rapidly changing customer expectations. The consumers of today are only a few taps away from an assortment of on-demand products and services, and they expect their purchases to be adaptable to their needs – with fast delivery.

These expectations are forcing retailers to change how they operate and become more agile. To stay competitive, retailers must deliver an improved experience. However, innovating has its risks: without the right strategy, a retailer’s investment in new technology will not result in a profitable return. To help drive real value from their investments, retailers must consider a number of actions, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI), developing and utilising insights-based decision-making and addressing last-mile delivery challenges.

Deploying AI
Capgemini’s report, Building the Retail Superstar: How unleashing AI across functions offers a multibillion-dollar opportunity, found that 89 percent of retailers are hoping to deploy highly complex AI to provide great benefits. This overly ambitious approach can cause problems without the right level of data maturity within the organisation. Projects of this nature can be difficult to scale up to wider use, are likely to fail and can result in wasted time and investment.

On the other hand, less complex use cases have a better chance of reaching full-scale deployment, while also allowing an organisation to develop its data capabilities to pave the way for more complex use cases in the future. Examples of less complex use cases that provide quick returns include deploying online carts and chatbots – powered by machine learning – to provide personalised recommendations for customers shopping online.

Insights-based decisioning
While many retailers are capable of tracking fluctuations in customer purchasing, they are often unable to pinpoint which variables influence these changes and, more critically, when such shifts may occur in the future. By considering a more robust set of data inputs and leveraging AI technology to analyse these disparate sources, it is possible for organisations to generate truly actionable insights about the market, customer behaviour or their own business operations.

In the on-demand economy, insights-based decision-making – accomplished by leveraging data analytics to improve business planning – holds great promise for anticipating market shifts more accurately, better understanding business dynamics, predicting customer behaviour and managing risk. This process helps organisations reap the rewards of a fast-paced and uncertain environment, while carrying relatively little risk. By mining data, leveraging cutting-edge analytics and partnering with a proven leader in this field, it is possible for retailers to identify the opportunities that will deliver the most value to their business.

While many retailers are capable of tracking fluctuations in customer purchasing, they are often unable to pinpoint which variables influence these changes

Last-mile delivery challenges
Additional research by Capgemini found that the 97 percent of retailers feel they would not be able to sustain free shipping unless they see a reduction in delivery costs through automation. The same report found that 43 percent of supply chain executives believe there is a lack of efficiency in online order fulfilment; parcelling and delivery are the major hurdles to implementing last-mile delivery solutions.

For retailers with significant store footprints and high delivery volumes, automation is a critical requirement to bringing down costs. With warehouses and sorting representing one-third of supply-chain costs, there is a significant opportunity to reduce costs through automation – for example, it can reduce fulfilment errors. When items are left out of an order by mistake, multiple packages have to be sent out to remedy the error, increasing costs and decreasing customer satisfaction. Returns can also be processed using the same automated systems. An example of truly effective automation is the automated warehouse at Ocado, a UK-based online supermarket: this service can fulfil a 50-item delivery in five minutes, when it would take two hours on average without automation.

Parcel lockers and pick-up and drop-off points are another efficient way to reduce last-mile delivery costs, as multiple deliveries can be completed at a single location. Amazon is a pioneer in this space, having launched its locker facilities at Whole Foods Markets and other convenience stores in the US. Features like these are very convenient for consumers, as they do not need to be present to receive the delivery, and also benefit retailers as they have a wider timeframe to complete the delivery.

Ultimately, in today’s volatile retail climate, strategic use of technology is critical for retailers to keep up with the demands of the modern consumer. By moving to an insights-based decision-making model, utilising AI to boost efficiency and avoiding losses on last-mile deliveries, retailers can deliver added value that improves the customer experience and produces strong returns.

China dispatches government officials to Alibaba and other private companies

Posted on by Jack Pearson

The city of Hangzhou, one of China’s top technology hubs, is sending government officials to 100 local corporations in the latest instance of increasing state influence within the country’s private sector.

According to the city government’s website, officials will work with tech companies across the eastern province of Zhejiang – including e-commerce giant Alibaba – to streamline communications and workflow. The move could, however, be seen as an attempt to more closely monitor the private sector, which plays an increasingly vital role in China’s economy.

In recent years, there has been growing evidence to suggest the Chinese Government is trying to boost its presence within the private sector

The Chinese Government has a complicated relationship with privately owned companies. Despite being a communist-ruled nation, China has embraced many characteristics of capitalism: for example, it has encouraged the growth of its private companies by reducing foreign competition and cutting red tape. Since 2001, private entrepreneurs have also been able to become members of the Communist Party of China.

This does not mean the government is content to let businesses run their operations unchecked, though: private enterprises are obligated to establish and maintain a formal party organisation internally. The country’s biggest internet companies, meanwhile, must work closely with representatives of the public security system in order to prevent crime and control the flow of information.

In recent years, there has been growing evidence to suggest the Chinese Government is trying to boost its presence within the private sector, with foreign executives claiming to have come under increasing pressure to give party representatives more control over business affairs.

Faced with a slowing economy, the Chinese Government is moving quickly to exert more control over local policy and the operations of big businesses. By tightening ties between the public and private sectors through the Hangzhou initiative, the government is likely hoping to minimise the economic impacts of its ongoing trade war with the US.

Why experience matters

Posted on by The New Economy

“Experience is now the organising principle of the global economy.” That’s how SAP CEO Bill McDermott introduced the experience economy at SAPPHIRE NOW 2019 in Orlando. The New Economy spoke to a dozen influencers and thought leaders about what the experience economy and experience management means to them.

Lee Odden: You know, when I hear experience economy, I think about experience being the number one differentiator in business today.

Tamara McCleary: It’s kind of this thing that’s grown out of what we know to be true, and that is: business is done through relationships.

Rodrigo Herrera: People might forget who you are and what you do – but they will never forget how you make them feel.

Ronald Van Loon: Basically, everything that we do is experience! So the experience economy already exists for many years, but we use now more and more technology to support our experience.

Kirk Borne: For me, the experience economy is really about how we can get value out of data and technologies to improve customer experience, employee experience.

Tamara McCleary: Everyone! All those external stakeholders as well as internal stakeholders.

Lee Odden: Experiences with really any individual that the brand is going to interact with, or have a touchpoint with.

Tamara McCleary: That’s what it means to me when we talk about an experience economy.

Lee Odden: Delivering an incredible experience really comes down to data. Having the data about customers, and what those pain points are, what those preferences are.

Keith Townsend: You have to think about reducing friction. I don’t want to or desire to interact with a human for commodity services.

Eric Kavanagh: But you need to have the right information in place at the right time – and these days the latency is so small! You want that customer service representative to have all the latest information right at their fingertips.

Yves Mulkers: Technology allows you to create individual experiences. Companies can look into that data and really customise your experience to what you would really like to have.

Eric Kavanagh: Right now companies can know John likes blue shirts, Jim likes red shirts; we know certain things about you. We have to be careful about how we use that information!

Kirk Borne: There’s a difference between personalisation and getting personal. And so crossing that line of too personal, you have too much information about me, can really change a positive experience to a negative experience.

Fernanda Nascimento: To understand what the customer wants, we need to first of all listen to the customer. It can be through VOC – voice over customer. It can be through NPS. And also analysing the churn rates.

Keith Townsend: Social media’s a great resource to get realtime information on how customers are interacting with your brand, or having experiences with the product.

Kirk Borne: Technology now enables us to capture data about every touchpoint in the customer journey. Of what they looked at, what did they think about – because maybe they put it in their shopping cart, then they took it out.

Rodrigo Herrera: Netflix for example, just took out the rating criteria. But they still measure how much length of the content you watched.

Michael Li: I think that what we see is that a lot of digital-first companies that are based on the web or mobile – they’re doing a really great job of enabling a great customer experience. And I think that what we see is that a lot of those companies that are digital-first are also data-native. And so they understand how to analyse that data and process that data.

Ronald Van Loon: And some technologies are very innovative, and they really set this bar very high. Which means there’s a lot of pressure on companies to increase their experience: get your data management right, the data acquisition, the data processing, the data insights, the real time actions. Because if you don’t you lose your clients, because they don’t think you’re reaching the level of experience anymore.

Dion Hinchliffe: Businesses have to respond to the experience trend by moving out of their siloed structures they have today. So we built our organisations around marketing, sales, operations, delivery, customer care – and they don’t really talk to each other, and they’re kind of disjointed when they’re facing our customers.

Michael Li: Every department has their own data silo; they don’t want to talk to each other, they don’t want to play nice.

Dion Hinchliffe: Let’s integrate this! Let’s make it more seamless, let’s take the friction out of it. Let’s make it as easy as possible for our customers to do business on the channels and devices in the manner they prefer.

Michael Li: If I’m in procurement, if I connect with marketing data: there’s a whole wealth of things I can do. And not just marketing: but sales, and engineering, and all the other departments. If you combine all that data from across the organisation, we can do a lot more.

Eric Kavanagh: Was this customer just on a website? Did this customer just visit one of our establishments? Were they just on the phone? Get all that information to the customer service rep in real time, and then of course you need a polite, caring, professional person to deliver that.

Tamara McCleary: It’s going to be absolutely critical in this experience economy that we’re focused in on the employee experience as well.

Rodrigo Herrera: Your employee needs to be committed; to have the same mindset, the same values as your brand and your customer has. People want to be part of something bigger; and that’s culture, that’s what you need to have in your company.

Tamara McCleary: That’s how you’ll be able to have the best talent within your organisation, is by delivering those experiences. And you’ll be relevant to your customer by delivering those exceptional experiences.

Lee Odden: When companies create a great employee experience, just like with customers you have loyalty, you have less attrition. You might have increased productivity.

Kirk Borne: So the outcome is obviously: good ROI at every front.

Tamara McCleary: The outcome from a better experience is a trusted relationship, which equals business growth.

Lee Odden: The biggest point of differentiation for a brand – the ability to deliver great experiences makes them dominant in their industry.

Tamara McCleary: Who is giving us the experience that makes us feel seen, heard, acknowledged, and that we build trust with? You will have a business and be relevant five, 10 years from now, if you’re creating those exquisite experiences that are memorable for your stakeholders, internal and external.

Facebook launches new video-chat TV box

Posted on by Jack Pearson

On September 18, Facebook unveiled the latest update to its range of Portal video chatting devices, including a new product, Portal TV.

In recent years, a number of data-sharing scandals have tarnished Facebook’s reputation and eroded user trust. This has prompted the company to try and diversify its product portfolio and move towards more private modes of communication.

The question is whether Facebook’s new product can hold its own within the highly competitive space of TV-streaming services

Facebook first launched Portal in 2018 as a video-chat device. Its new line of devices includes a TV box that will enable users to watch programmes together, remotely. The launch marks the social media giant’s first venture into TV streaming hardware.

Facebook hopes that the social aspect of its product will give it a competitive edge over other TV services. Portal is also the only Facebook product built on hardware owned by the company, rather than by Google or Amazon. By selling hardware and personal devices, the firm will be able to tap into the smart home market, which is predicted to be worth $144bn by 2025.

The question is whether Facebook’s new product can hold its own within the highly competitive space of TV-streaming services. While the social nature of its product may be a selling point, Portal TV has only a few music apps and limited options for TV programming. As a result, it may struggle to divert customers away from content-focused rivals like Apple TV and Netflix.

Launching a device for the home could be considered a bold move for the company at a time when public sentiment seems largely negative. A recent poll found that two thirds of Americans are in favour of breaking up big tech companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google. However, this does not necessarily translate into fewer people using these platforms – in fact, there is evidence that the number of Facebook users continues to grow. Despite their disapproval of its parent company, people may be quite content to welcome Portal TV into their living rooms.

Start-up WeWork postpones IPO amid valuation concerns

Posted on by Jack Pearson

WeWork, the US office-sharing company, is postponing its stock market flotation after struggling to raise interest from investors. Its parent company, the We Company, was preparing to launch an investor roadshow this week to promote interest in the IPO, hoping to price and list its shares next week. However, the company announced on September 16 that it had decided to put the IPO on hold.

The decision comes amid ongoing concerns from investors. As well as losing $1.9bn last year, the company has been criticised for a number of corporate governance issues, including a lack of investor protection and the fact that there are no women on its board.

Some have called WeWork the most overvalued start-up in history, claiming it is an unprofitable real estate company marketing itself as an innovative tech firm

But perhaps investors’ biggest grievance has been with co-founder Adam Neumann, on account of his excessive influence within the company. Neumann has come under fire for putting his personal financial interests before those of the company. In July, he was criticised for cashing out over $700m in shares. The postponing of the IPO suggests that the corporate governance changes the company revealed on September 13 – which slightly lessened Neumann’s control over the company – were deemed insufficient to win over investors.

In July, WeWork was one of the US’ most valuable start-ups, valued at $47bn. Last week, however, Reuters reported that the company was considering a valuation of between $10bn and $12bn – even less than the $12.8bn it raised in equity when it was founded in 2010.

For WeWork’s critics, even $12bn would be an excessive share price. Some have called WeWork the most overvalued start-up in history, claiming it is an unprofitable real estate company marketing itself as an innovative tech firm. Neumann has been at the centre of this hype machine; he has claimed the company could solve the refugee crisis and that its main mission is “to elevate the world’s consciousness”.

WeWork now joins a number of high-profile private companies to receive a lukewarm response from investors in public markets, among them Uber and Lyft. The company expects to complete its offering by the end of the year, although next time it may need to set the bar lower than $47bn.

How blockchain technology could electrify the energy industry

Posted on by Jack Pearson

Blockchain technology has the potential to produce new innovations in the energy industry, such as peer-to-peer electricity trading. However, at this stage it is unclear if the technology will be implemented widely enough to disrupt the energy industry. Despite investors backing blockchain tech, the question remains: when will we see scalable, commercial blockchain solutions that can deliver real value in the energy industry?

In the energy sector we are seeing the development of blockchain picking up pace once again, with proof-of-concepts being deployed successfully in sandboxes around the world. Two years ago, there were only a handful of start-ups in the energy business utilising blockchain technology for peer-to-peer electricity trading.

Today, there are more than 100 active companies worldwide. In fact, in the last two years, companies using blockchain have mobilised investment capital of more than $1.5bn, particularly in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US.

So far, the main industries to find applications include energy, mobility and the Internet of Things. Some of the most promising use-cases are initiatives such as creating trustworthy certificates of origin, green mining and renewable project financing. Unfortunately, the success of these use-cases has meant investments have been diverted away from areas of industry that energy desperately needs to develop, such as further research into smart homes, improving energy efficiency and the idea of trading electricity wholesale.

Market maturity?
While we are seeing promising advances in blockchain usage, there is still discord between levels of funding and signs of commercial maturity. Most use-cases are struggling to advance from their proof-of-concept stage, to testing in the field outside a sandbox environment. Use-cases around wholesale trading and digitisation of energy data are currently the most commercial, but peer-to-peer use-cases are receiving the most funding and attention in the energy market.

Start-ups, corporations and investors are all facing different scaling challenges when developing their blockchain products. To accelerate development, there is scope for energy companies to actively encourage organisations to consider the commercial potential for blockchain and ask them to invest accordingly. Start-ups also need to be more focused on further technical challenges, like scaling public blockchain, as well as on issues surrounding governance, regulation and the energy market. Investors are less sceptical than they were two years ago, but they still see the midterm commercial scale as being one to two years away. Despite the flurry of activity, most blockchain applications are maturing at a slower pace than investors would like. The hype around blockchain has subsided, so there is now more pressure on start-ups and innovators to demonstrate the value of their project.

While we are seeing promising advances in blockchain usage, there is still discord between levels of funding and signs of commercial maturity

Development and growth
The blockchain space lacks significant industry research or regulation, more of which would help new start-ups to establish market strategies, assess the advantages of their chosen business model and facilitate more accurate forecasts for potential revenue. The Energy Web Foundation (EWF), the largest blockchain non-profit in the energy industry, provides technical support for energy companies looking to integrate blockchain into their business model. The EWF has been attracting affiliates (more than 100 start-ups, incumbents and multi-national players) from all over the globe, establishing a hotbed for cutting-edge business use-cases of blockchain in the energy sector.

In addition, the EU founded the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) in April 2019. Open source platforms and international associations like the INATBA could aid the advancement of blockchain and allay investors’ fears.

The EWF chain’s test network, Tobalaba, will update to version two this year and transition from its test phase. The updated EWF web chain is expected to provide a scalable, low-cost, enterprise-grade platform that energy companies and start-ups alike can use to develop decentralised applications for commercial blockchain-based apps.

Blockchain technology is still far from being commercially viable in the energy industry. Although companies are now looking to develop use-cases for blockchain, the applications are yet to reach maturity and produce a significant return on companies’ resources and time. Increased regulation and research will aid new start-ups to develop scalable solutions and build upon the experience of other companies. As it stands, it will be a few years before we see the technology’s real impact on the energy industry.

Top 5 ways to ensure your app maintains peak performance

Posted on by Jack Pearson

With the digital revolution well underway, customers have come to expect 24/7 access to services and businesses have learnt to deliver it. Apps are an excellent way to do so, however it is not enough to simply launch an app. They must actually work, too.

By following these five tips, app developers can deliver a product that upholds peak performance long beyond launch.

Put functionality first
When creating an app, too often companies will focus on optimising their visual interface first. However, app functionality is of even greater importance.

Users expect apps to have a fast, smooth and responsive interface, so investing time and money into the operating system is more important than your design if you want your app to appear professional and competent.

Meet user expectations
Have you thought about the number of applications you’ve downloaded and only used once?

Users expect apps to have a fast, smooth and responsive interface, so investing time and money into the operating system is important

The likelihood is that the app didn’t work as expected, suffering from crashing, slow loading times, a poor user interface or a lack of developer activity to provide updates.

When you monitor your app with SIGOS, every time your app isn’t working as expected you receive an alert explaining the problem and how to find and fix it.

Test on both iOS and Android
Testing your app on different operating systems is essential. Your application may work perfectly on Android but your iPhone version could be mired with bugs.

SIGOS tests your app on all of the operating systems it can be found on, ensuring it maintains peak performance across all of its platforms and iterations. The company will guarantee that your app is tested on real devices and features easy scripting and rich reporting.

Carry out continuous testing
Your app could run smoothly when it is initially launched, but subsequent updates can produce unexpected bugs and errors that you will need to look out for. Therefore, it’s important to quality check your app’s performance with regression testing before updates are officially released and then to do so continuously afterwards.

A buggy app can damage the reputation of the wider business, potentially leading to lost revenue.

Watch out for updates
Operating system updates are fairly frequent and usually have an impact on app functionality, making them another thing to keep an eye on. Without a proper app monitoring procedure, maintaining a high-quality product becomes difficult.

Delays in identifying and fixing bugs can be expensive for your business. Bugs also lead to user complaints, which can have a negative impact on sales opportunities. SIGOS offers businesses peace of mind by monitoring their applications around the clock to detect bugs and issues before users identify them.

Chinese deepfake app goes viral, raising privacy concerns

Posted on by ashton

Zao, a Chinese app that allows users to swap their faces with celebrities in video clips, has gone viral within days of launching on August 30. However, the app quickly gained notoriety amid concerns over user privacy.

The app, which is only available in China, allows users to superimpose images of their face onto video clips of celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Marilyn Monroe. At the time of writing, it is the most-downloaded free app on China’s iOS App Store, according to App Annie.

The backlash against Zao demonstrates that people are increasingly aware of the privacy issues surrounding their facial imagery data

However, as the app’s popularity surged, users quickly became aware of a clause in Zao’s privacy policy that stated that the company had “completely free, irrevocable, perpetual, transferrable and re-licensable rights” to the content they created on the platform. This prompted an online backlash.

Zao has since changed its terms and conditions to say that user-generated content will only be used to improve the app and that all deleted content will be removed from its servers. But this hasn’t been enough to end the controversy. Messaging app WeChat proceeded to restrict access to Zao on its platform, citing “security risks”.

China has been investing heavily in facial recognition technology as part of its mass surveillance system. In Hong Kong, protestors wear masks and helmets to conceal their identity, concerned that China’s facial recognition technology could be used to arrest them. The backlash against Zao demonstrates that people are increasingly aware of the privacy issues surrounding their facial imagery data.

The new app also illustrates just how rapidly deepfakes have developed. Unlike earlier deepfake technology, which required hundreds of photos to simulate someone’s appearance, Zao can recreate a person’s likeness in just eight seconds, using only one photo. This is a worrying development, as deepfakes have a wide range of unethical applications, from blackmail to undermining governments by wreaking political havoc.