Watershed Moment: Covid-19 Has Hugely Impacted Online Shopping

The Covid-19-triggered online shopping shift is considered one of the few plus points the pandemic arrived with. Ecommerce platforms worldwide have found a new lifeline as users are hooked to their home computers, ordering everything. Needless to say, ‘a meal is just a click away’. The most clichéd punch line many ecommerce or food delivery companies have used so far. This ‘click away’ never had an impact on an average user until the pandemic came looking for us last year.

With that said, ecommerce giants worldwide continue to expand their wings as the pandemic has turned the sector’s tables around. Let me tell you something about a Singapore-based company called Shopee that also operates in Brazil. The ecommerce company had just started its operations in the South American country when the pandemic hit the entire world. Even though the initial stages of the pandemic stagnated growth for every class of business, including Shopee in Brazil, the company has come a long way, leading the ecommerce pack in the country. When the governments worldwide, including Brazil, allowed users to order online, Shopee immediately offered coupons and many other related offers, to win more users. As a result, Brazilians responded and made Shopee the most downloaded shopping app in the country, in just two years. Yes, the ‘offer strategy’ has helped, but the pandemic-induced shopping rush made a difference. The ecommerce company rose to country-wide popularity, outrunning Lazada (Ali Baba-backed) and Tokopedia (SoftBank Group-backed).

In a nutshell, Covid-19 has rejuvenated the ecommerce space worldwide and the growth continues to skyrocket as the virus spread seems not to be declining.

 

 

Cargill to Expand its APAC Presence with Aalst Acquisition

Cargill has announced its intent to buy Asian chocolate manufacturer Aalst to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. This acquisition will add to Cargill's growing portfolio of cocoa products that it sells in the APAC.

Aalst has a huge portfolio that features six brands. The company's customer base is spread out in over 50 countries, where it exports industrial, retail, and foodservice clients in key markets such as India, China, Southeast Asia, Oceania, Korea, and Japan.

“The rapidly growing Asian marketplace is increasingly wielding its influence around the globe, sparking inspiration and driving international trends,” said Francesca Kleemans, managing director for Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate Asia-Pacific. “Joining with Aalst strengthens our position in this critical region, enabling us to become the supplier-of-choice for industrial and foodservice customers. With an expanded selection of value-added and specialty chocolate products and deep technical expertise, together we can accelerate innovation, better helping customers create products that continue to surprise and delight.”

After the completion of the acquisition transaction, all the Aalst assets including its manufacturing plant in Singapore, R&D capabilities in Singapore and Shanghai, and over 200 employees across the region will join Cargill’s cocoa and chocolate Asia-Pacific operations.

 

Indian company SuperGaming Secures $5.5 million in Series A

SuperGaming has announced that it has raised $5.5 million in its Series A round of funding. The round secured funding from BAce Capital, Dream Incubator, 1Up Ventures, Skycatcher, AET Fund, and Monish Darda.

The fresh round of funding will be used by the Singapore headquartered company to expand its team within a year. The company will help the company scale up the development of technologically advanced projects. SuperGaming is also looking to build its publishing division through this funding.

“SuperGaming’s rapid growth is a testament to the maturing Indian gaming industry backed by strong demand for newer channels of virtual entertainment”, says Roby John, CEO and co-founder. “Our aim is to utilise this fundraise to establish SuperGaming as India’s foremost gaming company. Having shown our capability of building globally successful multiplayer games, we are now expanding our world-class talent pool and accelerating development of new titles.”

Previously, SuperGaming had raised $1.3 million in seed funding. The company is currently working on a large battle royale game, which is expected to be launched early next year.

Autonomous Driving Company Waymo Begins Its Autonomous Taxi Service Test in San Francisco

 

Waymo, a leading autonomous driving company owned by Alphabet, has stated that it has begun testing out its Waymo One autonomous taxi service in San Francisco. The company also is inviting members of the public to give it a try. The company started to test its vehicles in San Francisco in 2009 and offered its employees autonomous rides in the city.

Now, Waymo wants the public to try their autonomous service a go themselves and provide the company with valuable feedback on their experiences. The participants who participate in the research-driven test drive program will not be alone in the autonomous taxis; all rides in the program will have an autonomous specialist from the company on board for now.

Waymo had already launched its autonomous taxi service in the Phoenix Metro area in 2017. The service began in the same way with a specialist in the car before going fully autonomous with the public service. Also, Waymo is launching Waymo One, a self-driving trucking arm dubbed, and it is scaling up to begin its operations with a major hub in South Dallas, Texas.

 

Taco Bell Launches the all-new Chicken Sandwich Taco will be available From September 2

Sandwich has become the most popular fast food in the US and other European countries. Many fast-food chains offer varieties of sandwiches with different stuffing and ingredients. Now, one of the leading and renowned fast-food chains, Taco Bell, has decided to throw its hat in the ring by adding a new chicken sandwich-themed item to its menu. Today, the Mexican food-themed fast-food chain has stated that it will be adding a new Chicken Sandwich, and it will be available to the customers from September 2.

Taco Bell further added that it has already tested the item at Nashville, Tenn., and Charlotte, NC. The brand new dish will have an all-white chicken cut with a delicious jalapeno buttermilk coating, topped with Mexican spices. The taco will be served in a warm flatbread, with chipotle sauce. It will also be available in a spicy version.

This innovation will be different, and the company's chefs from the test kitchen could not decide whether it is more taco or sandwich, which is why Taco Bell is bringing in the debate team experts to discuss this topic. The company will organize a debate, and two college debate teams will be arguing whether the new item is a taco or sandwich.

 

 

AWS Snowcone Comes To Singapore and Tokyo Regions

 

AWS Snowcone service has now been made available for customers in the Singapore and Tokyo regions. Customers in these regions can use the Snowcone service to deploy applications at the edge.

With this availability in AWS Asia Pacific (Singapore) and, AWS Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Regions customers can also collect data, process it locally, and move it to AWS either offline or online. Snowcone is now available in AWS Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Canada (Central), Asia Pacific (Sydney), EU (Frankfurt), EU (Ireland), US East (N. Virginia), and US West (Oregon) Regions.

For data center IT equipment, edge locations do not have enough space, power, and cooling that is needed to run applications but with Snowcone (approximately 9 inches x 6 inches x 3 inches, weighs 4.5 lbs.) this problem is solved. The service supports operation via battery for mobility and runs on 2 CPUs, 4GB of memory, and 8 TB of usable storage.

Snowcone can be setup and managed through AWS OpsHub. DataSync comes pre-installed on the device that helps move data online to and from Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, as well as between AWS Storage services.

 

Alienware’s sustainability in the Indian gaming market will receive a massive boost following the latest launch

For gaming enthusiasts worldwide, Alienware has been the pinnacle in the premium PC gaming market. While we know that the gaming segment is filled with competitors trying their best to deliver a premium experience, Dell is confident that it will continue to focus on a small group of enthusiasts. This has helped the company find a niche, even though the competition for the same is on the rise. When a gamer decides to join a Pro League and compete, that’s when the likes of Alienware will play an essential role because it is very consistent in delivering a more controlled product with better customization options.

Alienware is gearing up to take the Indian gaming segment by storm with its new 17-inch and 15-inch X-Series gaming laptops. The new Alienware x17 and x15 models have Nvidia’s newer graphic chips and Intel’s latest mobile processors. The x17 is reported to be 0.822 inches thick, and the x15 is reported to be 0.625 inches thick. The latest offering from Alienware is based on its Legend 2.0 designs, and it is the successor of the 1.0. The x17 and 15 laptops are now available for purchase, and it is priced at Rs 290,990 and Rs240,990 respectively.