“Chinese Apple” Xiaomi Aims to Exceed $14 Billion Sales

Xiaomi Corp., one of China’s most valuable technology startups, is shooting for more than 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) of revenue in 2017, even as it pledged to slow its pace of business expansion and overhaul an online-focused retail strategy.

Chief Executive Lei Jun laid out his goals for the year, which include quadrupling its store network to 200 outlets, expanding globally and deepening research into artificial intelligence and online finance. In a memo posted on his WeChat account, the billionaire entrepreneur admitted his company had tried to grow too rapidly in past eyars.

Xiaomi was last valued at $45 billion in 2014, making it one of the world’s largest startups. It drew comparisons to Apple Inc. after doubling revenue that year and climbing to the top of the Chinese smartphone market. But it’s since struggled, missing its 2015 shipments target and falling behind local rivals OPPO and Huawei Technologies Co. Lei had set a target of 100 billion yuan in sales as far back as 2015, but the closely held company hasn’t disclosed revenue since.

Xiaomi had won praise for an online-only sales model that fostered internet communities and reduced cost, but local rivals quickly copied that model. Now it’s re-thinking that approach and plans to build on a network of about 54 outlets around the country, Lei said.

“The worst is over,” Lei said in the memo. “While creating a growth miracle in the modern history of business, we missed out on potential growth areas as well. That’s why we must slow our pace, and seriously learn from our mistakes.” Lei didn’t offer specifics as to what may be decelerated.

Xiaomi secured $1.1 billion in 2014 from investors including GIC Pte., All-Stars Investment Ltd. and DST. The company is now counting on India to provide the next leg of growth: sales there surpassed $1 billion in 2016.

Apart from phones, the company also sells other types of electronic gadgets and appliances, from air purifiers to robot vacuums, made by what it calls its ecosystem-partners. Sales through such manufacturing and branding partners exceeded 15 billion yuan in 2016, Lei said.

“Xiaomi is a company with great ambition. We won’t settle for being just an e-commerce smartphone maker,” he said. “The e-commerce only strategy has become insufficient because online sales only takes up 10 percent of total retail sales, after all.”

This article originally appeared at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-12/chinese-phonemaker-xiaomi-targets-14-billion-in-2017-revenue.

Las Vegas is testing autonomous shuttles

Public self-driving vehicle tests are becoming more and more commonplace, and the latest to launch in the US just hit the roads in Las Vegas. French driverless electric vehicle manufacture Navya just announced that its autonomous electric shuttle is now taking passengers through Las Vegas’ Fremont East entertainment district from today through January 20th. Navya and the city of Las Vegas say this is the first autonomous electric shuttle to hit a US street, though Uber is already providing public transportation with autonomous cars in Pittsburgh.

The pilot got off the ground thanks to a partnership between Navya, which built the autonomous Arma shuttle, and Keolis, a self-described “global leader in operating public transportation systems” — along with the city of Las Vegas’ cooperation, of course. According to the Las Vegas Sun, each vehicle can hold up to a dozen passengers, will take riders for free and will operate at a max speed of 12MPH, even though they’re certified safe up to 27MPH.

While the shuttles will only be on the road for a short time in this pilot, Jorge Cervantes, Las Vegas executive director of community development, told the Sun he expects they’ll be launching fully in late summer or early fall. Whether they’ll operate on the same route they are during the pilot or in an expanded area doesn’t appear to have been decided yet.

This pilot is starting up at a time when Las Vegas is trying to brand itself as an innovation center. Nearly a year ago, the city launched an “innovation district” that was aimed specifically at bringing futuristic technology to the city. As one of the biggest and most crowded tourist destinations in the US, it certainly could use help making it easier for people to get around town.

Scientists Are Developing Graphene Solar Panels That Generate Energy When It Rains

Solar power is making huge strides as a reliable, renewable energy source, but there’s still a lot of untapped potential in terms of the efficiency of photovoltaic cells and what happens at night and during inclement weather. Now a solution has been put forward in the form of producing energy from raindrops.

The key to the new process is graphene: a ‘wonder’ material we’ve heard plenty about before. Because raindrops are not made up of pure water and contain various salts that split up into positive and negative ions, a team from the Ocean University of China in Qingdao thinks we can harness power via a simple chemical reaction. Specifically, they want to use graphene sheets to separate the positively charged ions in rain (including sodium, calcium, and ammonium) and in turn generate electricity.

Early tests, using slightly salty water to simulate rain, have been promising: the researchers were able to generate hundreds of microvolts and achieve a respectable 6.53 percent solar-to-electric conversion efficiency from their customized solar panel. 

For the experiment, the team used an inexpensive, thin-film solar cell called a dye-sensitised solar cell. After adding a layer of graphene to the cell, it was put on a transparent backing of indium tin oxide and plastic. The resulting ‘all-weather’ solar cell concept was then equipped to produce power from both the sunshine and the rain substitute.

What’s happening here is that the positively charged ions are binding to the ultra-thin layer of graphene and forming a double layer (technically referred to as a pseudocapacitor) with the electrons already present. The potential energy difference between the two layers is strong enough to generate an electric current.

The experiment is still just in the ‘proof of concept’ phase, so there’s work to be done, but the researchers hope their findings can “guide the design” of future all-weather solar cells and contribute to the growing influence of renewable energy.

They’re now working on adjusting the technology to handle the variety of ions found in real raindrops and figuring how to generate enough electricity from the typically low concentrations they come in.

It’s not the first time graphene has been used to boost solar energy technologies: earlier this year, a team from the UK was able to create a graphene-based material that’s very effective at absorbing ambient heat and light, and which could eventually lead to solar panels that can work with the diffuse sunlight that finds its way indoors. 

If these scientists get their way, in the future, photovoltaic cells may not be hampered by a lack of direct sunshine at all.

The study has been published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Why Does Stepping on Legos Hurt So Much?

Right up there with how the gun on the original Duck Hunt game worked, why it hurts so much to step on a Lego brick is one of the questions we’re asked the most, so it’s high time we answered it. As anyone who’s done it knows, stepping on a Lego block is something akin to being shot in the foot by a knife soaked in wasp venom. In truth, this is an inherent danger of allowing a child to exist in your home.

Want the text version?: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.p…

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic…
http://education.lego.com/en-us/about…
http://www.asbweb.org/conferences/200…
http://www.theguardian.com/science/20…

Influencer Marketing and Organic Search Optimization: A Powerhouse of Results

Influencer marketing is no longer new, but applying tried-and-true search engine optimization techniques to influencer marketing campaigns might be.  
Influencer marketing produces the highest ROI of any digital marketing. Yet in the influencer world, I have witnessed a lot of campaigns with a limited focus such as a certain number of likes, shares or saves. While a platform- or action-specific can yield a significant lift, many brands aren’t optimizing all that a strategic campaign can achieve. I’ve also been involved in search for a long time, and have seen far too many brands have a myopic view of using social in their SEO mix. 
Consumer behavior is changing, and so too, is your brand’s ability to be seen in the organic SERPs.
In addition, consumers have evolved in the way they search for information. Formerly, they searched for a brand, then visited the brand site and looked at the product descriptions to make a purchase decision. Today, consumers use search engines in a more advanced manner: they search for “Product Name reviews,” and instead of trusting the brand, they scan the results for third-party reviews to guide their purchase decisions. – Benjamin Siegel, MarketingLand
These three key trends make the marriage of influencer marketing and SEO more attractive than ever: 
  1. Most brands are just not creators; they are brand builders, and thus, their marketing is full of less-relatable copy than an influencer would create for them. 
  2. Growing mistrust that consumers have in brand messages. 
  3. The decrease in organic reach across social media platforms. True influencers can still reach consumers organically, with content their followers want and believe; brands can’t.
Before you even run a search -optimized campaign, do what your customers will be doing: search using your product or service’s main keywords. The influencers and blogs that you find high in the SERPs should be your target partner(s). If they’re ranking well for your terms, there’s a good chance your co-branded campaign will too.
Next, when planning your campaign, request that the influencer include keywords that will benefit your brand – and their own digital properties – in the long run.
A related tactic is to recommend relevant trending search terms that the influencer can incorporate, leading to more inbound traffic for both parties. 
Finally, and while it may go without saying, but reciprocating social shares during the campaign will amplify the influencer’s content and give you more value for your marketing dollars. 
Influencer marketing is now the de facto way to influence consumer opinion and foster impulse buys. Organic search is still the best way to reach your customers during the decision-making process and at the point of purchase. It’s time to combine these two powerhouses of digital media and let the long-tail do the heavy lifting for you, for the long-term. 

This article originally appeared at: http://jennifergosse.com/influencer-marketing-and-organic-search-optimization-a-powerhouse-of-results.

Monopoly Will Let the Internet Vote to Replace All of the Board Game’s Classic Tokens

Since 1933 when the board game first appeared, Monopoly’s tokens have changed and evolved over the years to reflect the times. In 2013 Hasbro even let fans vote to replace the iconic iron token with a cat, and starting today, the internet now has the chance to choose what replaces every last token for an upcoming version of the game.

If the addition of Hazel the Cat to Monopoly never quite sat well with you, now’s the chance to help right that egregious wrong. Between January 10 and January 31 you can visit www.VoteMonopoly.com and choose eight different tokens you’d like to see in the new Token Madness version of the game. Voters will be able to select from over 50 token options, including the eight currently available if that thimble’s always brought you good luck.

How can we be expected to choose only eight?

The full list of old and potential new Monopoly tokens includes Scottie the dog, thimble, car, Hazel the cat, battleship, hat, wheelbarrow, boot, horse, rooster, goldfish, tortoise, penguin, rabbit, T-rex, telephone, typewriter, bathtub, television, key, gramophone, trumpet, sports car, race car, motorcycle, helicopter, private jet, monster truck, scooter, smiley face, kissy face, wink, laughter, Mr. Monopoly emoji, hashtag, thumbs up, surfboard, sailboat, life preserver, jetski, beach ball, speed boat, rubber duck, sunglasses, cowboy hat, bowtie, pocket watch, cufflinks, money clip, watch, campfire, wheel, computer, bicycle, camera, sliced bread, wireless phone, cowboy boot, bunny slipper, sneaker, roller-skate, flip flop, dress shoe, and a rain boot.

If the internet has taught us anything, it’s that someone will find a way to manipulate the vote, leaving us with a new version of Monopoly featuring just monster trucks and Nascar racers. But deep down we’re hopeful that one day we’ll be able to stomp our way across”Go’ as a roaring T-rex, or troll our fellow players whenever they land on our hotel-filled property with the kissy face emoji.

[www.VoteMonopoly.com]

This article originally appeared at: http://gizmodo.com/monopoly-will-let-the-internet-vote-to-replace-all-of-t-1790369637?utm_source=Daily%20Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=170111.

Smart transport modelling essential to Dubai’s future liveability

As a key part of its awe-inspiring vision to be a world leading smart and sustainable city, Dubai is developing a seamless and efficient transport network. But with population growth set to increase 400% and only a small proportion of the country’s land currently developed, creating a forecasting tool that accounts for such dramatic change is an enormous challenge.

Nadeem Shakir of global engineering and infrastructure advisory company Aurecon explains:

Engineers like to joke that the glass is neither half-empty nor half-full, but the wrong size to begin with. Jokes aside, it’s a useful reminder of the importance of modelling in engineering to ensure developments are the right size for their purpose.

How then do you model two decades ahead with limited data? And how can your model be accurate if your infrastructure will see a four-fold increase in population over 20-30 years?

Aurecon’s answer is: “You engineer a solution.” 

The status quo

Dubai is synonymous with the spectacular. What’s equally impressive is the Emirate’s drive to be one of the most technologically-advanced places in the world. Transport will play a major role in the development of Dubai, incorporating leading-edge technology such as driverless cars and super high-speed trains.

To underpin the importance of transport in Dubai’s future, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister, and the Ruler of Dubai, has approved Dubai’s Strategic Plan 2021. The plan will transform the future of Dubai, to make it”a pivotal hub in the global economy’.

An improved transport network will also need to take into account the fast-rising levels of vehicle ownership. According to recent reports, Dubai’s vehicle density of 540 per 1 000 people in 2015 is the highest in the region and among the highest in the world. The number of vehicles in Dubai doubled between 2006 and 2014; and is forecast to reach 2.22 million by 2020.

However those projections could be affected by the growing relevance of driverless cars, which has the potential to optimise the transport network capacity with a better usage of road space and through a better selection process for route destinations. The technology should also reduce the total number of vehicles on the road by encouraging well-planned carpooling services and by enhancing Park & Ride schemes, thus promoting improved share for public transport.

The model for success

Aurecon is closely involved in creating the masterplan for Dubai’s transportation. One of our company’s most valuable contributions to this masterplan is transportation demand modelling, showing how Dubai’s transport network will cope with changes in demography and day-to-day usage over several years -or even decades.

Modelling in Dubai brings its own unique challenges. For instance, projects here tend to focus on pure development rather than operational upgrades; and are often very large in scale. The region has the luxury of having the major proportion of available land still undeveloped, compared with many Western countries where the opposite is true.

From a data perspective, this makes for some stark differences. The West’s large, developed areas make deriving data and extrapolating a plan reasonably straightforward. In contrast, there are currently around 2.3 million people in Dubai but the data from travel demand surveys is only available for about 1% of the population. However, in terms of applying the model it’s a completely different order of magnitude. Within the scope of the exercise, Dubai’s population is predicted to rise to 10 million and developments are being modelled for multiple scenarios.

Consequently, the first and biggest challenge in terms of modelling for Dubai is data scenario management. Large masterplans evolve rapidly and the amount of data to handle is massive. Also, new sets of land-use information become available every day and there are fresh ideas for transport options to consider. This inevitably leads to hundreds of modelling scenarios. Therefore, the methodology has to be robust.

Tailor-made software

For any new development to flourish, a transportation system that integrates different modes of travel into one efficient, easily accessible and sustainable system is fundamental. While a seemingly sensible approach; defining, modelling and future-proofing such a system is a different matter altogether.

Many projects in Dubai have accelerated timelines with additional challenges:

One is the widespread use of strategic models for all levels of planning, right down to micro-simulation when its strength is really in providing a”big picture’ view. In an ideal world, a project would use a combination of micro-, meso- and macro modelling types. But with the relentless pace of development in Dubai, projects rarely have that luxury.

Similarly there is an issue around”point in time’. For example, a 2013 strategic model might be used for planning signal timings and phasing for a road that will be used in 2030. While this may work well in a strategic model, it might not perform well when analysed at a microsimulation level. Similarly, there could be inconsistencies related to trip generation information. The Trip Generation Manual developed by the Roads and Transport Authority- Dubai, gives information on vehicular traffic generated by different land uses. But this might contrast with information on the strategic model.

To better analyse the data and create more accurate models for the transportation masterplan for Dubai, Aurecon developed its own technologies. Its unique Geographic Information System (GIS) manages the many issues encountered during masterplanning. The GIS system integrates data from areas such as those being planned for future projects; existing surrounding and adjoining projects; and land use (via a land-use data conversion tool). This provides a better picture during scenario planning, which allows accuracy in terms of predicting how a particular development will function once built.

Aurecon also uses another proprietary software incorporating Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) tools to calibrate a strategic model’s travel demands to suit local requirements. This software is consistently applied to ensure the matrix is correctly adjusted. The origin, destination and internal trips for a specified zone are adjusted to produce sensible forecasts. And the VBA tools then solve the problem of under- or over-estimation in a particular strategic model.

Intelligent data ignites possibilities

While the challenges of masterplanning for the Middle East are varied, it is still one of the most exciting places to be for infrastructure and engineering. The explosion of data and real-time information is bringing greater accuracy to modelling and allows designers to map increasingly sustainable and innovative transportation networks. Alongside this, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Smart Mobility Systems show us better ways to use technology and data to connect people and places across all transport modes.

The Danish physicist Niels Bohr famously quipped that “prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future”. But by using some of the most advanced modelling systems ever applied in infrastructure development, Aurecon is ensuring that Dubai can visualise how the shape of its future -an unprecedented advance in terms of masterplanning.

Such an advancement will benefit developers, architects, government departments and other stakeholders who collaborate to help Dubai and its growing population reach its goal of becoming a pivotal hub in the global economy. Or, to put it more simply, Aurecon has engineered a solution for Dubai’s complex planning problem. We have created the”right-sized’ glass. Now all Dubai needs to do is to decide what to fill it with.

origanily at: http://www.aurecongroup.com/en/thinking/thinking-papers/smart-transport-modelling-essential-dubai-future-liveability.aspx.