Earlier this week, the BTC to US dollar exchange rate dipped below $200, a level unprecedented since the value of the cryptocurrency rose past $1,000 as an effect of its popularity as a fast and cheap means of online fund exchange. By January 15, the BTC:USD exchange was at about $170, thereafter hovering to around $200.

This is about an 82% drop in value since the currency’s peak of $1,130 in 2014, and about 76% drop in value since the same time in January 2014, during which BTC was at $850. Just mid-Devember, Bitcoin was trading at about $350, however, which means the drop was not as drastic month-on-month.

Bitcoin is sensitive to both positive and negative news about cryptocurrencies, and this drop has coincided with the opening statements of the criminal case against Ross Ulbricht, the alleged founder behind dark website Silk Road. In the same case, Mt. Gox founder Mark Karpeles has been implicated as having possible links to being Silk Road’s “Dread Pirate Roberts”.

Such severe fluctuations in Bitcoin’s value have mired the image of the cryptocurrency as unstable, and therefore inadequate as a form of monetary exchange. While fluctuations have been used by speculators as a means to gain from any rise in value, a decline in the price of BTC often results in negative repercussions, not only for those who hold on to Bitcoin in the hopes of the value appreciating, but also for the community surrounding the cryptocurrency, too.

Feeling the crunch

Startups and individuals that have invested in the cryptocurrency are feeling the crunch, however. Bitcon mining startup CEX.IO, for example, has temporarily suspended mining operations, citing that this is “the result of cloud mining costs exceeding mining profit.”

Bitcoin is not the only currency that is currently being hit hard with wide fluctuations. The Russian Ruble, for example, lost value in the wake of the Ukraine-related crisis, as well as embargoes imposed in relation to the issue. Even the Swiss Franc has sharply gained 20% in only a few days time due to the Swiss central bank’s lifting of the currency’s cap against the Euro.

This fluctuation has badly affected exporters and several hedge funds heavily invested into the Franc. Everest Capital’s Global Fund, which had about $830 million in assets as of end-2014, lost almost all its money with the Franc’s rise. FXCM reported having $225 million in “negative equity balances” from clients, necessitating a $300 million emergency loan to cover its losses. And this is all because of a supposedly stable currency suddenly gaining.

The future of Bitcoin

While the Bitcoin crash has spelled doom for some, others are unfazed. Jerry Brito has written on Wired, for example, that the price of Bitcoin does not matter at this time, as it is still in its early stages as a technology. He goes to cites parallels between Bitcoin and the Web, which suffered setbacks in its infancy, with the only difference being that Bitcoin comes with a dollar value attached to it. With a longer time-frame to consider, he says, short-term rallies and crashes should not mar Bitcoin’s potential as a technology, not just as a cryptocurrency.

For some, the inherent value of Bitcoin is not its tradable dollar value, but as a fast and inexpensive means of exchange. NewsBTC‘s Trevor Alpeter, for instance, has concerns with the price drops in the short term. However, he cites the possibility of better regulatory environment and support for Bitcoin, as well as an better acceptance among the venture capital community as potential drivers for growth in the long term. It’s the underlying technology that will ultimately spell long-term success for the cryptocurrency.

This has been demonstrated with how some startups have experimented with sidechains, considered to be a protocol for powering next-generation Internet services, and potentially unifying alternative cryptocurrencies, the so-called alt-coins.

Is this a sign of things to come for both financial markets and the cryptocurrency community? Perhaps these are unexpected shocks, but, at least for Bitcoin, there is hope that things will normalize in the end.

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Bitcoin is gaining momentum in the mainstream market with the listing of an exchange-traded fund on the Nasdaq. The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF will list 1 million shares under the COIN symbol at an initial public offering price of $20.09 per share.

Entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have had prior experience with Bitcoin startups, having invested in the now-defunct BitInstant, which provided a means of paying for purchases through the cryptocurrency. The Winklevoss twins — more popularly known for their involvement in the founding of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), and the resulting lawsuits over ownership — have likewise once claimed to own 1% of all Bitcoins as of 2013. The listing of the ETF has been in the works since 2013, with the first filing having been made in July that year.

According to the prospectus (PDF), the final version of which was submitted to the SEC on December 30, 2014, the ETF’s aim is to reflect the performance of Bitcoin. “The investment objective of the Trust is for the Shares to reflect the performance of the price of Bitcoins, as measured by the Winklevoss Index (“Winkdex”), less the Trust’s expenses,” it says. The Index is based on an algorithm developed by the brothers, which monitors the price of Bitcoin in real time.

The ETF will essentially enable individuals and entities with a brokerage account to invest in Bitcoin without having to hold on to the cryptocurrency itself, which may include challenges in buying, storing and safekeeping the coins. Another advantage is that the value of the ETF shares will be based on a consolidated Bitcoin price based on different exchanges around the world, which often differs in exchange rate and accessibility. And while individuals can already use and exchange Bitcoins through wallets and online exchanges, investors might not necessarily have the time nor technical know-how in doing these.

To date, investing in Bitcoin can come in the form of mining for coins (which requires significant investment in hardware infrastructure), or earning from the spread that ensues with price fluctuations. For investors, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust will provide various strategies, such as short selling or trading the shares on margin. The ETF will also enables brokerages to buy or sell options. One longer-term benefit for the cryptocurrency and the community surrounding it is that Bitcoin gets exposure to mainstream investors and could bolster stability in its value and usage.

The SEC was earlier reported to have had positive reception of the Bitcoin ETF, noting that the fund could potentially bring stability to Bitcoin as an investment instrument and virtual currency.

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Blockstream aims to support “massive scaling” of Bitcoin’s secure and distributed infrastructure to include a “broad range of asset types” and to eliminate the fragmentation that varying cryptocurrencies in general suffer from. The startup has raised $21 million in seed funding to work on advancements to the Blockchain through so-called “sidechains” in order to realize this goal.

To date, most Bitcoin-oriented startups have focused on the financial transaction side of the cryptocurrency and cryptocurrencies in general. Startups like Blockchain.info and Coinbase offer users a way to transact with one another using online wallets and payment gateways. Yet some have established their own alternative systems and currencies, called altchains and altcoins, respectively. There is the Dogecoin, Peercoin and dozens of other cryptocurrencies that run their own modified version of the blockchain.

Blockstream wants to focus on the next evolution of Bitcoin, which will ensure that improvements are both re-incorporated into, and extended from, the base system rather than forked off as independent systems altogether. In gist, Blockstream wants to scale up the use of the Blockchain, the so-called “public ledger” of the Bitcoin ecosystem, the transaction database shared across all of the ecosystem’s participants where each transaction is recorded securely and semi-anonymously.

One potential application is the use of the Blockchain to transact and exchange more than just Bitcoin (or fractions, thereof). In the future, Blockstream aims to build on its concept of sidechains, which will enable exchange of digital assets between the main Blockchain and alternates. These can include documents and data and even other content that will require de-centralized encryption and security.

“Blockstream is the first startup focused on advancements to the core technology underpinning Bitcoin,” writes co-founder Austin Hill on the Blockstream blog. He stressed how Blockstream and its sidechain concept “will help make Bitcoin the kind of open, highly adaptive platform upon which a vast array of complementary products and services can be built.”

For his part, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, one of the investors in the Series A, says Blockstream will be at the forefront of the innovations to Bitcoin’s core technology. “The blockchain protocol doesn’t just enable the trustless exchange of bitcoins,” he writes on LinkedIn Pulse. “It enables the trustless exchange of any kind of digital asset – domain name signatures, digital contracts, digital titles to physical assets like cars and houses. It’s also possible to attach various conditions and potential actions to digital assets stored in the blockchain.”

Apart from Hoffman, Khosla Ventures and Real Ventures also led this Series A funding round. Other participants include Nicolas Berggruen, Crypto Currency Partners, FuturePerfect Ventures, Danny Hillis, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, PayPal luminary Max Levchin, Mosaic Ventures, Microsoft former Microsoft CEO Ray Ozzie and Ribbit Capital, among others.

Hill says the sidechain concept is proof that Bitcoin’s importance is bigger than its ability to facilitate cashless transactions. “Blockstream is the first company extending the capabilities at the protocol level to support massive scaling of bitcoin and blockchain technology to a broad range of asset types. Put another way, the extension mechanism of sidechains, the company’s initial area of focus, allows any number of so far unthought of developments to happen in an open and interoperable way.”

With Blockstream gaining resources to realize its goals, the focus is likely to move away from simple top-layer products and services that facilitate already-present transaction mechanisms. Rather, Blockstream and other companies like it will be the ones to truly prove Bitcoin’s worth as an innovative and disruptive technology.

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j2 Global Inc. (NASDAQ:JCOM), which owns and operates cloud services and media outfits like Ziff Davis (which runs PC Magazine, AskMen and IGN Entertainment, among others), has recently published its third quarter 2014 earnings report, which it considers a solid quarter, beating analyst expectations.

In Q3 2014, quarterly revenue was $153 million, up 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Net GAAP income was at $28.8 million, resulting in $0.60 earnings per share, compared with $27.8 million or $0.59 cents EPS in the same period last year.

Notable is j2 Global’s streak in dividend increases for the past 13 quarters, raising the figure from 26.25 cents per share in the first quarter of the fiscal year to 28.5 cents. In the company’s investor guidance call, CEO Nehemia Zucker and President and CFO Robert Scott Turichi reported that the quarter is considered a strong one, with better-than-expected growth in performance in both the company’s cloud services and publications division.

In particular, publications are a strong suit for j2 Global, considering its major acquisitions like IGN Entertainment (acquired through Ziff Davis in early 2013). According to Zucker, revenue per thousand visits has improved 32% to $72 across its properties, and the CEO stressed the company’s new focus on high-value ad placements focused on the B2B market launched along with the division’s new CPA — cost-per-action — initiative. “[Ads are] basically a high-value B2B categories [in which] you recommend services,” he says. “In this case it’s web hosting, and we are paid by all the the web hosting companies, too small to see them, for our ability to generate customers for them.”

In the case of IGN, which is a popular destination for gaming news and reviews, Zucker says the company has launched localized versions of the site in Latin America, Portugal and Greece. In terms of performance, he stresses the importance of rich media in the success of publications in this niche. “Video is key — the future success of online advertising,” he says. Video consumption grew to 441 million views in this quarter, up 35% compared to the same period the previous year. Subscribers to the IGN YouTube channel grew 44% to 5 million. He attributes this to the bandwidth improvements across its target markets. “As bandwidth is getting better, video is becoming more important.”

In terms of monetizing content, the company has found that its publications perform better with actionable content. “The world is tired of just simple views,” Zucker says. “Viewability is the next big thing. So we are trying to focus more and encourage that we can generate more traffic based on performance when they pay for results.”

j2 Global expects full year 2014 revenue to be at $580 to $600 million, with non-GAAP EPS of approximately $3.23 to $3.47 range. According to management, the company expects performance growth in the fourth quarter, consistent with the trend during the holidays, including Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season.

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Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has published its third quarter 2014 results, beating analyst expectations for revenue, earnings per share and growth. However, with executives advising during guidance that 2015 will be a year for investment, stock price dropped 10% in after-hours trading in anticipation of said period of big expenditure.

In Q3 2014, Facebook’s revenue of $3.2 billion, well past analysts’ expectation of $3.12 billion. This comes mostly from advertising revenue of $2.96 billion and payments and other fees of $246 million. Ad revenue grew by 64% compared with the same quarter last year, while payments grew 13% compared to the same period. EPS is $0.43, beating the expected $0.40.

During this quarter, 66% of ad earnings are from mobile, compared with 49% in Q3 2013, signifying growth in Facebook’s ability to monetize its mobile assets.

Facebook counts 1.35 billion users to date, up from 1.32 billion in the second quarter and up 14% year-on-year. According to the company, daily active users (DAU) grew 19% year-on-year to 864 million this quarter. Mobile DAU, meanwhile, grew 39% to 703 million.

Moving out of the box

Notable in this quarter is a stark change in advertising figures. Fewer Facebook ad impressions are reported, with impressions falling 56%. However, the company has earned more per ad, mostly due to the improvement in ad quality.

Earlier this year, Facebook expanded its advertising initiatives to applications outside of Facebook’s own assets, which enabled third-party app and software developers to monetize their apps and content through Facebook. This is actually in line with the company’s medium-term strategy of expanding its reach as a platform, rather than simply a walled-off social network.

This quarter, Facebook also shared figures from WhatsApp, the chat application it acquired for $22 billion. The chat network lost $138.5 million during the quarter and earned $10.2 million. However, with 600 million monthly active users, WhatsApp will be part of Facebook’s mid- and long-term strategy of building a persistent platform for user engagement.

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Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) has published its report for third quarter 2014, and with a growth slowdown, the microblogging company seems to be at odds with how it will reap profits from its advertising network. During the quarter, revenue actually grew 114% year-on-year to $361 million, although loss has widened, resulting in a diluted loss of $0.29 per share. Non-GAAP diluted EPS is at $0.01.

Twitter’s revenue exceeded analyst expectations of $351 million for the quarter, and EPS is at par with expectations. This quarter is marked with a plateauing of user growth, and the company faces concerns about future growth, in terms of users and audience. During the quarter, monthly active users rose to 284 million, a 23% growth over the previous quarter, compared with Q3 2013, during which sequential growth was at 24%. Also, engagement per user — measured with Timeline views per MAU — declined 7% year-on-year from 685 to 636, and remained flat sequentially.

With this outlook, Twitter’s stock price was down 10% in after-hours trading.

The issue here stems from the microblogging service’s need to reach out to as wide an audience possible, in order to effectively monetize its advertising network. In the company’s earnings call, however, CEO Dick Costolo explained the three-tiered focus of the company, in terms of reaching out to its audience. The first “circle” includes the active users, which consume and share content on Twitter itself. Second includes casual or logged-out users who access content on Twitter or owned properties. The third circle includes users who access content through third-party publishers or services.

According to Costolo, the company is focusing on improving the first circle, but is also actively finding ways to better engage casual users who may be accessing the Twitter feed from elsewhere. The company is focusing on “improving the new user experience and getting new users a high quality timeline the moment they sign up for the service,” Costolo says. For casual users, another aim is “providing much better rich media creation and consumption tools and experiences to drive more breadth and depth of content.” Twitter is also geared toward “adding functionality to our direct messaging service to enable users to move fluidly between the public conversation and private conversation all on Twitter.”

In gist, there is a big push for Twitter to be considered not just as a microblogging service for real-time feeds and updates. Rather, the company is gearing to establish itself as a platform for developers to build upon. In fact, Costolo has stressed Twitter’s launch of Fabric, which is a software development kit “all about providing services to developers, mobile app developers across platforms from the day they start developing their applications to the day they launch those applications and want to measure growth to the day they need to monetize and want to monetize usage at scale.”

Fabric is all about embedding Twitter — and Twitter’s own ad network — into third-party applications in exchange for a smoother user experience across different devices and operating systems. This means that users do not necessarily have to be active on Twitter or its applications, but can still interact with the feed actively through other access points.

Analysts have pointed out this marked difference in strategy, in which Twitter’s coverage is more expansive than its own walled garden. This means a greater potential for Twitter, compared with contemporaries like Facebook, which showcase a simpler metric of active users.

To date, Twitter’s average revenue per 1,000 timeline views is at $1.77, which is up 84% year-on-year and 10% up sequentially. However, Costolo himself admits that Twitter needs about $10 average revenue per user, in order to “reach the monetization levels of industry peers,” implying social networks like Facebook. Still, this rising metric is indicative that Twitter’s ad network is making a positive impact on the company, and will likely continue to do so once the company sees positive uptake of the Fabric SDK.

Feature image credit: laughingsquid.com

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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has published its financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015 (July to September 2014), with $23.2 billion in revenue, up 25.2% year-on-year. Operating income from this quarter was at $5.84 billion, down by 7.9%. The company’s diluted EPS was at $0.54, down 12.7% Y/Y.

According to the report, Microsoft’s profit decline during this period is largely due to $1.14 billion integration and restructuring expense related to the acquisition of Nokia’s (HEL:NOK1V) mobile phone and services division.

This quarter showcases strong performance by several divisions, however. First is Surface, which is Microsoft’s Windows-powered tablet aimed at both enterprise and consumer markets. Surface revenue was at $908 million this quarter, up 127% from the same period in FY 2014. According to the the report, margins from the sale of surface tablets are positive this quarter, meaning the company is starting to earn profits from its tablets, a contrast to previous periods in which it focused on growing sales figures first.

“The product line up is the right one and customers are responding favorably,” said CEO Satya Nadella in an earnings conference call. “We’re seeing strong interest from students, professionals and increasingly enterprises who are replacing their laptops and tablets with Surface Pro 3 for their productivity needs,” said CFO Amy Hood during the same discussion.

Microsoft’s big cloud push continues to pay off, with commercial cloud revenue growing 128% during this period. Commercial revenue grew 10% to $12.28 billion, including Office 365, Server products, Productivity solutions and Windows volume licensing. In terms of Microsoft’s own use of its cloud platform, Nadella says it drives economies of scale for the company. “[T]hink of Azure as the common fabric of all our applications,” said Nadella in the conference call. He further cites that 80% of Fortune 500 companies now use Microsoft’s cloud platform.

Gaming is also seen as a strong performer. Microsoft says 2.4 million Xbox consoles were sold during the quarter — an increase of 118% over the previous quarter. This can be attributed to cheaper devices sales due to the unbundling of the Kinect accessory, as well as the lower price of the Xbox One. The Xbox’s entry into China — a market that previously banned gaming consoles — also helped in this regard.

“[G]aming is an important category that will drive additive business value for Microsoft,” said Nadella. “It is the single biggest digital live category measured in both time and money spent across devices of all type.” He said the company expects the acquisition of Mojang and its popular Minecraft title to extend Microsoft’s community and ecosystem across multiple platforms. In addition, Microsoft derives development value from games, which extends to its enterprise and productivity offerings. “The reason we’re why we’re so competitive now in Cortana and speech recognition, which I think is core to productivity, first started with Kinect and Xbox,” added Nadella.

Back on track with PCs?

Device and Consumer Licensing was down 8.7%, however, reflecting a continuing industry-wide decline in PC sales, relative to mobile devices. OEM revenues have declined only by 2%, however, signifying that the decline in sales of desktop PCs and laptops may finally be slowing down. Also, Microsoft says the number of licenses actually grew, although this is driven by cheaper price-point licenses, such as the zero-cost Windows 8 with Bing. It is the same case with Windows Phone revenue, with a 46% decline. Microsoft cites the decline in IP licensing from lower-royalty devices.

Microsoft is optimistic that with enterprise PC refresh cycles, and the discontinuation of Windows XP, that businesses will start upgrading within the fiscal year. “We expect the ongoing business PC refresh cycle to continue, said Hood. “We expect that the consumer PC market will remain stable with many of the same dynamics we saw on Q1.”

Revenue for the succeeding quarter of the fiscal year is expected to be at $25.1 billion to $26.2 billion, which will be largely driven by sales increases in devices and games during the holiday season.

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The cat is out of the bag. After previously declining to disclose income figures related to its startup acquisitions, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) has shared that it expects to earn $100 million in revenue from Tumblr starting 2015.

Yahoo recently released its Q3 2014 earnings report, in which the company exceeded analyst expectations for the quarter with an EPS of $0.52 compared to $0.33 forecast. However, this particular period has been marked by several one-off items, such as cash gains from the proceeds of sale of shares after the Alibaba IPO (NYSE:BABA), as well as share buy-backs, which resulted in a rise in Yahoo’s stock price.

Front-and-center at this time is Yahoo’s strategy moving forward, particularly with the availability of $12 billion cash and cash equivalent. While small-scale acquisitions have characterized CEO Marissa Mayer’s tenure so far, these were meant to bolster the company’s engineering talent. Activist investors have sought for either a breakup of the company into product-focused components, merger with another major Internet firm or a big product-oriented acquisition.

Tumblr had been one of these high-profile acquisitions by Yahoo, which snapped up the microblogging startup for $1 billion in mid 2013. That particular strategic move is paying off. In an earnings conference, Mayer says Tumblr’s audience has grown by 40% to 420 million users, which include active publishers and users who read microblogs. During this period, the number of registered blogs doubled to 206 million.

“We’ve come really far, really fast,” Mayer said during the call. She added that Tumblr will achieve “positive EBITDA” as of calendar year 2015, which may be considered a surprise by naysayers who believe that the Tumblr acquisition was a failure on Yahoo’s part. Specifically, Tumblr is expected to bring $100 million in revenues, largely helped by its growing audience and the introduction of new sponsored advertising formats. The company is, in fact, actively pitching its new ad formats to marketers, citing the effectiveness of media-rich content across the site’s younger user base, mostly made up of millennials.

Still, it may be concerning that Yahoo reported a decline in display ad revenue as of Q3 2014, which, at $447 million, was 5% lower compared to the same period the previous year. However, Mayer remains optimistic: she targets Yahoo’s native mobile ad business to earn $250 million, which may be an indicator that the company intends to use its resources to improve its ad platform with focus on mobile devices.

For Tumblr users, this is good news, as it means Yahoo intends to keep the platform going, in contrast with other apps and services it has scuttled after acquisition. But a piece of bad news: it will mean ads, ads and more ads.

Feature photo: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer with Tumblr Founder David Karp

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International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) has released its earnings report for third quarter 2014, and the figures are less impressive than anticipated. For 3Q 2014, Big Blue reported an EPS of $3.68, which is 14% lower than the $4.32 expected by analysts. With a reported shortfall of $1 billion in the company’s revenue target year-over-year, IBM’s revenue fell 4% to $22.4 billion.

CEO Ginni Rometti says the company is “disappointed” with its performance this quarter, which the company attributes to a “marked slowdown in September in client buying behavior.” Moreover, this quarter’s results also “point to the unprecedented pace of change in our industry,” says Rometti.

With this turnout, Rometti says the company is abandoning its medium-term earnings target made by former CEO Sam Palmisano, who promised that IBM will earn a combined $20 EPS by 2015. As that is not likely to materialize, the company is set to focus on its cloud computing strategy, which it has put a premium in with the recent acquisition of a major cloud services provider and the off-loading of hardware-making divisions.

IBM has been making strategic acquisitions of cloud-focused companies in the past six years. In 2013, Big Blue acquired Softlayer Technologies — the biggest privately-held cloud company — for $2 billion. IBM has also off-loaded hardware-related divisions and assets. These include selling its consumer PC operations to Chinese firm Lenovo in 2004 and then doing the same for its server business this year.  Other strategic moves, such as a renewed focus on security, mobile and business analytics have also seen growth in the first three quarters of the year, so far.

Along with the Q3 2014 earnings announcement, IBM also confirmed the earlier report that it is off-loading its Microelectronics business to GlobalFoundries, booking this as a one-time charge of $4.7 billion pre-tax. IBM is set to pay GlobalFoundries $1.5 billion over the course of three years to produce chips with access to IBM’s intellectual property and engineering resources.

With its weak quarterly report, IBM fell 7.3% Monday with shares trading at $13.30. Being a component of the Dow Jones Industrial average, IBM’s decline has pulled fown the Dow by 85 points.

The cloud may have a silver lining after all, however. IBM reports that revenue from its cloud-related businesses have grown 50% year-to-date. Meanwhile, cloud delivered as a service has grown 80% year-to-date, with third quarter annual run rate of $3.1 billion.

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Growth and stability in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are only as good as the companies that support these technologies. While Bitcoin, for example, has been lauded as a largely decentralized virtual currency that does not involve a central exchange, the truth is that users will inevitably have to rely on a few companies that offer ancillary services, such as online wallets, payment gateways for merchants, and the like.

Recently, BlockChain.info, a startup that specializes in Bitcoin wallet services, has announced raising a $30.5 million Series A funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Wicklow Capital. With 2.3 million consumer wallets, BlockChain is the most popular Bitcoin wallet around, and it promises to make using the cryptocurrency as easy as possible.

This is a good sign for developers, users, miners, and basically the cryptocurrency community in general. Institutional investors tend to prefer investing in ventures that benefit in leveraging a technology, rather than speculating on the value of the instruments being exchanged. While it’s true that several individuals and institutions have seen their net worth grow due to the rapid rise in value of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency is still very much volatile. Businesses that have potential in earning from Bitcoin transactions, however, show a more stable path to growth.

In the case of BlockChain, having a secure and stable company for handling online Bitcoin wallets will ensure continuity, standardization and ease of access for users, and a foot in the door for merchants who want to partake in the benefits of cryptocurrencies.

Investment in Bitcoin companies — a growing trend?

BlockChain’s series A is the biggest investment in a Bitcoin-related startup, so far, surpassing an earlier funding round raised by BitPay, which raised a $30 million Series A round from a group of investors that include Asian magnate Li Ka Shing, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and Virgin’s Richard Branson. It’s these peripheral investments that tend to generate more value for stakeholders, said John Greenwood of London-based think-tank Invesco, in a statement to the South China Morning Post. He went as far as compare that particular financing round to how “investors in days gone by made more money out of selling shovels and picks to gold-diggers than anyone ever made out of the gold mine.”

To date, about $250 million have been invested in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency related startups. Many of these involve online wallets and exchange systems, while some focus on acting as payment gateways for merchants. Angel List includes 527 Bitcoin startups with an average valuation of $3.8 million, as well as 1,948 investors putting their money into these fledgling companies.

Challenges ahead

It’s not all rosy for Bitcoin startups, however, as many of these companies have to face several technical, regulatory and market challenges to succeed and even survive. Earlier this year, for instance, the New York Department of Financial Services has proposed a set of regulations for companies that deal in Bitcoin. The rules for the so-called “BitLicense” are quite stringent, such as requiring companies to keep funds in trust, share founders’ biometrics and financial information, as well as keep records of clients’ physical addresses.

In some jurisdictions, the use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency itself has been deemed a criminal act. In China, you can legally use Bitcoin to pay for transactions, although it is illegal to exchange Bitcoin for fiat money, which leads to difficulty in individuals and businesses cashing out the cyber currency. In yet others, laws are being proposed to legalize some form of e-currency, although banning decentralized ones in the process, such as in Ecuador.

These regulations, of course, stem from the negative image that illicit use has brought upon cryptocurrencies. After the dark web Silk Road closure in 2013 and the fall of Mt. Gox (and the attendant story about how its the company allegedly fraudulently acted to jack up the price of Bitcoin), government financial bodies have been cautious in their acceptance of cybercurrencies as valid means of exchange. While some monetary authorities, such as those in the US, the Philippines, admit that cryptocurrencies merit further study, some would outright warn citizens against the dangers of virtual currencues, mostly because of connections with money laundering.

What can help Bitcoin grow?

Bitcoin presents potential among merchants, payment processors and wallet companies, as well as those directly benefiting from mining coins, including miners and device makers. However, those who are into mining and speculation are likely to benefit only in the short run. Bitcoins in circulation are estimated to hit a ceiling sometime 2025, and specialized rigs for mining Bitcoins are becoming ever expensive to procure and build. Firms that produce Bitcoin-mining computers are also on a constant race for faster processors and cheaper production. And with the algorithm becoming exponentially difficult to solve through time, device makers are not able to catch up.

Two things will help Bitcoin gain more mainstream use and acceptance: stability and ease of use.

In its present state, Bitcoin is severly volatile and is easily affected not only by forces of supply and demand, but also externalities like bad publicity (such as country-wide bans and involvement in crime). It would be problematic for ordinary users to hold currency that might suddenly lose value in a short span of time. However, the democratized nature of Bitcoin mining and transaction logging is the very essence of Bitcoin and may be difficult to separate from the currency. The same laws of supply and demand do govern fiat currencies through interest rates, discount rates, inflation and purchasing power, although the effects take much more longer than the sudden rise-and-drop dynamics of Bitcoin’s value.

Meanwhile, startups like BitPay and BlockChain provide services that allow easier access to Bitcoin for both consumers and merchants. Bitcoin wallets are no longer simply proofs-of-concept. Rather, with millions now able to exchange money through purely digital means (and sometimes even through scannable QR codes on paper), it’s a good sign that the community around cryptocurrencies is a healthy one.

Perhaps with these two factors, governments and regulators will be able to take a more accepting stance of Bitcoin and its kin.

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eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has announced that it will be separating PayPal into a distinct public company, a move that will be complete by mid-2015. This spin-off is a strategy that had earlier been demanded by activist investor Carl Icahn, who acquired a stake in eBay earlier this year.

Icahn sought for eBay to spin off PayPal (or a huge part, thereof) as a means to generate value for shareholders. He argued this would highlight PayPal’s own strengths, while enabling eBay’s management to focus on its core business. eBay fought against this proposal, arguing that more than 30% of PayPal’s revenue and 50% of its profits come from eBay transactions. eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe says Icahn’s proposal had been a consideration, although management arrived at this decision after a thorough strategic review with the board of directors, and not due to pressure.

“Our board and management team believe that putting eBay and PayPal on independent paths in 2015 is best for each business and will create additional value for our shareholders,” says Donahoe in a statement.

With this move, eBay’s business will be split almost in half, with its e-commerce business and the PayPal payment service splitting off into two distinct public entities. Dan Schulman, an executive at American Express, will serve as the new president at PayPal effective immediately, and will be chief executive once the split is complete. Meanwhile, David Wenig, currently the president at eBay Marketplaces, will be the CEO at the newly-formed eBay Inc. Donahoe will step down as chief executive by that time.

A changing competitive landscape

According to Donahoe, the decision to split was led by a changing competitive landscape. Although no specifics were given, it is likely that the rise of alternative payment platforms like Square, Stripe and even Apple’s own Apple Pay mobile payment service, are proving to be a challenge to PayPal’s position in the online payments market. Thus, separation will enable “sharper strategic focus” from each company in addressing the demands of an increasingly mobile payments landscape.

In addition, the synergy once derived by eBay and PayPal from operating as  single entity will decline over time, management admits. Icahn himself argued that eBay’s ownership of PayPal had created conflicts of interest, such as issues in partnering with competing platforms. Still, eBay and PayPal expect to capitalize on the strengths of its existing relationship through licensing and other agreements. “Arm’s length operating agreements can formalize the existing relationships between the two companies and capture ongoing synergies,” said Donahoe.

Maximum flexibility

In direct contrast to mergers and acquisitions, corporate spin-offs and breakups have become a favored strategy for companies that wish to simplify their businesses and address shareholder demands for tighter, more agile operations. This had been one contention of Icahn, who actually won a mutually-agreed board seat even as eBay had rebuffed his earlier calls for a split up. Donahoe agreed that “the pace of change accelerated over the past six months” in the payments sector, especially with the emergence of mobile-focused payment services, as well as Alibaba’s recent IPO (Alibaba runs Alipay).

Donahoe admits that being part of eBay had contributed greatly to the growth of PayPal in the 12 years since eBay’s acquisition. However, “beyond 2015, eBay and PayPal will each benefit more and create greater value from the strategic focus, speed, flexibility and agility that come with being independent publicly traded companies.”

According to eBay, the spin off will “maximize strategic focus and flexibility for eBay and PayPal to capitalize on respective growth opportunities in highly competitive, rapidly changing global commerce and payments markets.” It will also “provide shareholders with more targeted investment opportunities, and the best path to sustainable shareholder value.”

Potential benefits

Mobile. PayPal reported $7.2 billion in revenue in the past 12 months, during which it processed $203 billion in payments. The company facilitates approximately 17% of all online payment transactions today. However, only about 13% of these are made through mobile devices.

In 2013, PayPal processed $27 billion in mobile payments volume worldwide. According to eMarketer, mobile payments in the US alone are expected to total $118 billion by 2018, up from $3.5 billion this year. PayPal faces competition from the likes of Stripe, however, which recently made deals with Facebook and Twitter to facilitate mobile payments for their respective platforms.

Flexibility. As long as PayPal is tied to eBay, it is limited in terms of the partnerships it can pursue. For instance, e-commerce companies like Amazon and Alibaba run their own payment services, and e-commerce firms will not be keen on partnering because of PayPal’s ties with what they consider to be a big competitor. Apple and Google also run their own mobile wallets, which run on their respective platforms.

One clear example of PayPal facing the crunch in terms of partnerships: it was reportedly excluded as a preferred partner on Apple Pay because of its partnership with Samsung for the Galaxy S5 fingerprint-based payment system. With PayPal’s spin-off, it will be able to be more agile and flexible in pursuing deals with other e-commerce and mobile platforms.

Talent. Despite growing 20% annually, PayPal is not among the top workplaces for top talent, according to sources cited by Re/code. The company has tried to attract good engineering and product-driven talent by acquiring startups like Zong and Braintree. However, given corporate limitations this did not prove enough. An independent PayPal would be better able to attract talent and retain its employees by issuing its own stock options. Donahoe himself has cited the need to attract good talent as among the considerations. “How do I get the best C.E.O. going forward?”

A bigger exit. Another potential benefit for either PayPal and eBay would be the potential for a takeover by the likes of Google. The search giant has been cited by analysts as a potential buyer or investor, and PayPal splitting from eBay makes it an easier target to acquire. This will likely result in PayPal improving its position in the mobile space, with Android leading the smartphone industry by volume.

eBay shares were up 7.54% the day the split was announced. According to Donahoe, eBay Inc. plans to complete the transaction as a tax-free spin-off mid 2015. Donahoe and CFO Bob Swan will lead the separation of each business with board oversight, and will serve on either or both boards, to provide continuity.

Featured image credit: Twin Design / Shutterstock.com

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As per BlackBerry’s (NASDAQ:BBRY) latest quarterly earnings call, the company exceeded expectations by posting a narrower loss than analysts have forecast. For the second fiscal quarter ended August 30, 2014, the company’s net loss has narrowed to 2 cents per share (after one-off items), which is better than the 16 cents loss per share forecast by Thomson Reuters.

BlackBerry has posted a loss of $207 million or 39 cents per share, compared with a loss of $965 million or $1.84 per share in the same period last year. Non-GAAP loss is reported at $11 million. This comes amid lower quarterly revenue figures for second quarter of FY 2015: $916 million, compared with $1.57 billion the same period the previous year.

“We delivered a solid quarter against our key operational metrics, and we are confident that we will achieve breakeven cash flow by the end of FY15,” says Chen in a statement. “Our workforce restructuring is now complete, and we are focusing on revenue growth with judicious investments to further our leadership position in enterprise mobility and security, driving us towards non-GAAP profitability during FY16.”

According to Chen, BlackBerry expects its handset unit to return to profitability with as few as 10 million devices per year. Meanwhile, Chen also expects revenue from software to double from $250 million to $500 million by FY 2015. Software and other revenue account for 8% of BlackBerry’s revenues, while hardware and services account for 46% each.

BlackBerry has just launched its latest Passport smartphone, squarely aimed at the enterprise market with the hopes of revitalizing its weakened smartphone business. The device has a decidedly different form factor compared with popular smartphones today (a square screen and a wide form factor reminiscent of an actual passport). Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen says the Waterloo, ON-based company has sold 200,000 units so far since its launch on Wednesday.

Along with Passport, BlackBerry also launched its Blend feature, which enables sync and bridging of messages and content across different devices based on different operating systems. The company has also made a string of acquisitions in the past few weeks: UK-based Movirtu, which makes virtual SIM solutions for mobile operators, as well as voice and data encryption firm Secusmart.

BlackBerry stock rose 4.6% as of closing Friday, and the stock has risen about 22% over the past 12 months.

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PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) has started accepting payments made with online cryptocurrency Bitcoin in North America. However, functionality will be limited as the company tests the waters for consumer and merchant interest. Scott Ellison, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at PayPal, says that the company has partnered with BitPay, CoinBase and GoCoin in accepting payments for digital goods with Bitcoin. “Starting today, these agreements let PayPal digital goods merchants accept Bitcoin with a simple integration through the PayPal Payments Hub,” he writes.

Some limitations

The new functionality will be available to merchants and users in the United States and Canada, initially, with PayPal exploring coverage in other countries on a gradual basis. Ellison clarified that users will not exactly be able to keep Bitcoins as a separate currency in their digital wallets, as the system only interfaces with the three Bitcoin payment processors in handling transactions.

In addition, payments will only be valid for digital content, and not for pre-paid physical goods. “Customers with a bitcoin wallet will be able to pay participating merchants in bitcoin for games, music, videos, news, ebooks, and other digital content,” writes BitPay founder Tony Gallippi. This is largely due to the irreversible nature of Bitcoin transactions. Unlike traditional PayPal payments (either through digital wallet balance or credit card), which can be disputed, reversed or charged-back, Bitcoin transactions are final. Thus, PayPal is avoiding the risk of having transactions go awry and require refunds.

Good for Bitcoin?

PayPal counts 143 million active user accounts and is present in 193 countries and 26 currencies. The eBay-owned company processes at least US$55 billion per quarter in transactions, although this mostly involves funds drawn from bank accounts and paid through credit cards. While the more traditional payment sources would still make up the lion’s share of PayPal transactions, Bitcoin processing is a good sign of innovation and potential for both PayPal and the cryptocurrency. Ellison writes that the “innovations taking place in payments these days” will result in “[m]ore choices in how people create value, share it, buy, sell and trade it.”

As for BitPay, CoinBase and GoCoin, the three Bitcoin payment processors will remit PayPal a referral fee for new business it gains from PayPal Payments Hub, which means no added cost will be passed on to merchants or customers who pay via Bitcoin on these platforms.

Bitcoin is among the chief cryptocurrencies and is considered to be the only one that has achieved significant scale — enough to warrant the interest of PayPal. However, some concerns include the lack of a centralized structure for regulation and oversight, as well as issues that arise with payment processing outfits. One such concern is the status of Bitcoin as legal tender, vis-a-vis as tradable commodity. For this reason, PayPal’s Ellison says the company will ensure compliance with laws and regulations in each market it operates in. “[V]irtual currency exchangers and administrators interested in working with PayPal in the future must secure the appropriate licenses and put anti-money laundering procedures in place.”

As the interest in Bitcoin and the volume of transactions rise, companies like PayPal are likewise keen on exploring how these can further take advantage. “We hope to do more with Bitcoin as its ecosystem continues to evolve,” Ellison writes.

The post PayPal Starts Accepting Bitcoin, But With Limits appeared first on VR World.

With Bitcoin gaining popularity and then some semblance of stability in its real-world value, will the cryptocurrency remain in the lead amongst other digital tender?

Virtual currencies are not exactly new. While purely digital currencies like Bitcoin are often the subject of news today, technology startups have explored virtual currencies as early as the 1990s. Take for example Beenz.com, which launched a currency called “Beenz” meant for earning loyalty points and paying online. After raising $100 million in VC funding, the startup failed to gain traction and eventually folded in 2001. Even virtual currencies used in multi-player online games do hold real-world value in terms of their purchasing power for both virtual and even physical goods.

For the longest time, however, digital payment services that rely on real-world or fiat currencies have dominated. PayPal was already on the rise in 2001 when eBay acquired the payment service and integrated it as the payment method for auctions. PayPal now processes at least US$ 55.05 billion in transactions per quarter, mostly involving credit card transactions and money drawn from bank accounts.

There is another trend on the rise, which involves cryptocurrencies. Currencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin differ from more traditional payment services in the method of recording and validating transactions. Unlike payment gateways that process transactions through a central exchange, cryptocurrencies rely on a distributed blockchain where everyone can essentially track transactions, but with parties having a certain level of anonymity. The peer-to-peer nature reduces the cost of transactions, which are supposedly faster. This also ensures verifiability of the transaction, although not necessarily traceable to the identity of the parties involved.

Currency vs. commodity

One big question today is whether cryptocurrencies are to be considered as currencies or whether it is more proper to value these as tradeable assets or commodities. Bitcoin, for example, may be considered good as cash because of its anonymity and the direct peer-to-peer nature of transactions. This makes it akin to paying with money, but without the involvement of central banks. However, some would argue that cryptocurrencies are more of commodity rather than money, in that it can be traded for its value, but not as cash equivalents. This has been a contention among regulators, tax authorities, entrepreneurs and users. Such arguments will shape the sentiment on currencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin in the foreseeable future.

In fact, value — or speculation thereof — has been one big factor that as led to increased cryptocurrency use. Since its launch in 2009, the value of Bitcoin has risen from a low of almost nil to a high of US$1,135:BTC, although the value has seen several crashes, which would usually correspond to major events such as the seizure of deep web service Silk Road’s assets and bitcoins, as well as China’s ban on exchanging bitcoins for fiat money.

Will Bitcoin remain in the lead?

To date, Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, and it has spawned a big industry around it, both among hardware companies and software-based startups. Because bitcoins can essentially be created through algorithm, chipmakers like Nvidia, Intel and AMD have launched product lines specifically meant for mining coins, which will usually involve high-powered calculations that rely on both CPU and GPU power. And given the need to facilitate transactions and exchange of funds, digital wallet startups have opened shop to keep users’ coins safe through online and mobile-based wallets. We now also see the trend among brick-and-mortar stores accepting bitcoins. Some startups have partnered with banks to launch Bitcoin ATMs.

The real test in determining whether cryptocurrencies will remain relevant is, of course time. Analysts have actually plotted the value of several popular cryptocurrencies against each other and against a fiat currency standard (the US dollar) using regression analysis to determine whether Bitcoin, as the leader in the field, will remain to be the dominant digital currency, with respect to value against the US dollar and value against other similar digital currencies.

The result is quite interesting in that being a first mover, Bitcoin is seen as enjoying a winner-take-all effect early in the market. However, as the market for cryptocurrencies matures, other currencies — called “altcoins” — gain an advantage in value over Bitcoin. The dynamics that play a big part here involve a so-called substitution effect, in which the introduction of alternative cryptocurrencies is made mainly as a balancing force to counter the rise of the first-mover, the value of which is seen as quite volatile. In short, the market deems Bitcoin not necessarily as a cash equivalent, but rather a financial instrument whose value is tied deeply with supply and demand, or the perception thereof.

Given this fundamental concern over Bitcoin’s long-term value, does it mean that it is not a good investment, per se? Perhaps for early adopters, the gamble may have paid off. Seeing the value of one Bitcoin rise up from a dollar to $476 in five years (even breaching $1,000 in mid 2013) is not bad at all. While the value has plateaued and somewhat stabilized in the $400-$500 range for a considerable time now, it may not make for sound long-term investment. Even Citibank says that the high volume of transactions and increasing merchant support is pushing the value of Bitcoin down. Perhaps the longer-term effect is that Bitcoin will turn out to become closer to a fiat currency rather than commodity, after all.

The post Will Bitcoin Remain The Gold Standard For Cryptocurrencies? appeared first on VR World.

With 148.3 million square kilometers of land area, you would think the Earth has almost unlimited potential when it comes to space and storage. However, this is not exactly the case when you live in a crowded metropolis. In many modern cities today, development tends to be vertical, with sprawling residential and office grounds making way for skyscrapers and condominiums. This means cramped living quarters, unless you can afford big-budget real estate. And if you find yourself moving from one place to another, you might find your personal belongings displaced.

Temporary storage can be a good solution to address over-crowding in the cities, although it comes with the hassles of having to rent a locker and haul your items to store. Self-storage becomes more expensive the nearer it is located to prime real estate. And then there is the concern with security. Who exactly watches over your things while you’re gone?

SpaceWays, a technology startup based from the United Kingdom, is trying to rethink the business of storage and is bringing the resources and expertise of famed accelerator Rocket Internet in addressing these challenges. The team behind SpaceWays offers valet storage, in which trained drivers will deliver and pick up standard-sized and secure storage boxes, which can then be retrieved on demand. According to the SpaceWays team, the company can afford to provide cheaper services than self-storage because it keeps items in remote warehouses, which the company is able to rent for a lower cost than storage facilities near the city.

With the subscription-based model, users can store up to 80 liters or 31.5 Kg per box for GBP 6 per month. Bigger items are charged per piece. Pick-up and on-demand delivery are free, which means users have access to their boxes without the need to commute.

The 60 day launch

What’s interesting with SpaceWays is how it launched from concept to actual product in a span of two months. Such may be attributed to the resources of Rocket Internet, a Germany-based startup accelerator that is reportedly seeking to IPO at a valuation of 3 to 5 billion Euros in the coming months. Rocket’s business model has been mainly to dive into markets that already have a strong incumbent and then directly competing with its own brand or offering. This has been met with mixed success, with Rocket-backed startups sometimes dominating and with some folding up amid tough competition.

In launching SpaceWays, co-founder and managing director Rob Rebholz says the team started the business with a clear vision of disrupting the existing storage market. “We directly challenge the established storage industry,” he says. “Those guys have big margins and lots of money to spend, but I’m convinced we offer a superior service and will therefore truly rattle their cage.”

SpaceWays’ business model certainly fits into what can be called a “disruptive” business model, which is essentially doing things at a different level of quality (usually lower) for a significantly cheaper price, in the aim of pushing the market to drastically change along with it. The difference in the case of the storage industry, SpaceWays has sought to rethink the way individuals stored and retrieved items off-site.

“When we first looked at existing storage solutions we quickly realized how inconvenient and overpriced they were,” says Rebholz. “Why should you have to drive out to a remote storage facility and rent an entire storage unit, when all you really want to store fits in a few boxes? We want to start a new movement and trigger the shift of this offline market to a new, online reality. It’s David vs. Goliath right now.”

The value of mentorship and support

Launching a company from idea to execution in 60 days can be a big challenge, says Rebholz. This is especially true when it comes to a startup that handles logistics. The company needed access to storage space, vehicles, drivers, CCTV cameras, and such. But having the right team and access to resources has been a big help. “Launching in 60 days was a huge challenge and it required us to work very structured and systematic,” he says. In this regard, Rocket Internet provided support “like initial funding, expertise and even manpower.”

As with most Rocket Internet startups, the team was given full operational control over the business, while still providing financial support and mentorship. “[We were] given the full liberty and responsibility to build SpaceWays, so there’s no bureaucracy, but rather a constant knowledge exchange with Rocket,” says Rebholz.

The team says that seasonal items are among the most commonly-stored items by customers, so far. Memorabilia and valuables are a close second. Going beyond the customer market, however, Rebholz says SpaceWays is trying to attract business clients who need a safe and secure facility for storing their documents and archives.

On fast-tracking a startup launch, Rebholz advises to go beyond simply nurturing an idea. “A great idea is just the first tiny step — what matters most is passion-driven business execution and uncompromising commitment to your vision.”

The post Valet Storage Startup Goes From Zero to Launch in 60 days appeared first on VR World.

When we look at the world of covering technology today, we see that (unfortunately) most of the media and worse, paid up blogs and forum shilling tactics, are smothering the information which the public should receive.

It is hard to get information when technology sites have to live off selling ads in exchange for a set number of awards per year (in all of its five and a half years, Bright Side of News* received plenty of those offers from Far East), or even worse, unmarked advertorials.

We all live in a period of time when the amount of respect for a profession of journalism is at an all-time low. To make the matters worse, everyone can state even the craziest conspiracy theory and hope for a “repeated truth” syndrome to take place. Quite often, false news will get even the most brilliant engineers go on a self-destructive tangent.

When looking to invest in an organization, you’re often met with shady business practices. In media, this typically means journalists and bloggers (based in foreign offices) are doing visa runs because the parent company often doesn’t even legally exist in a territory from where the content is created. Then, an investor will face off difficulties with due diligence when the contracts signed with off-shore authors are illegal in the countries where the parent companies are.

As you can read, with this type of structure it is almost impossible to pass due diligence check from any serious investor. And from my stand point, there are only two options: cry over spilled milk, or put the money where the mouth is and create a working framework where people are respected from both sides of the fence. Products, technologies and maintaining the integrity of the said individuals is of paramount importance.

Our New Framework

Starting today, we are executing a roadmap which will see us split into three directions. Bright Side of News*, which 1.67 million of you came to trust, is going to evolve to cover the financial aspect of the industry.

What does a technology or a product mean for you? Should you invest in companies that we report on – that advice is not something we can legally do – we can give you our honest opinion, and we will not hold stock in companies we report about. Especially not when it comes to shorting the stock to make a quick buck (something which AMD is especially fragile from, and Intel barely made an escape from that zone). For any potential investor looking to come to technology, we would advise you to read The Wolf of Wall Street first amongst others.

We are expanding our focus from United States to cover what is really going on in countries which you read on the sidelines, but no one actually goes there and reports how it will affect you. We live in a global economy and you deserve coverage from everywhere.

West (Coast) Meets (Far) East

As of this moment, we are setting up offices throughout the Asia-Pacific (including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Taiwan and Shenzhen). Coming on board to report from Taipei will be Sam Reynolds as well as Chris Low and Han-Wei Tsai for BSN*’s new Chinese section.  A roster of reputable technology journalists with bylines you will recognize will be complimenting their coverage from around the world.

Now is a time of transition, so Bright Side of News* will be a temporary home for two teams of journalists as we put the finishing touches on a new publication. As you might notice, content will be temporarily in both English and Chinese for the next couple of weeks.

Next, we are launching several new business units, including Special Industry Groups (SIGs), which will work hard with the key industry players to bring new technology to the market in the most compatible way. In order to stay true to our path of independence and unbiased views, any technology we deliver on the market will not be directly reviewed by us (as an actual product we will write about what makes the technology tick).

Instead, we will launch a program that puts the technology in the hands of people. We want to hear what you think about the products and technologies that are coming to market.

Over the past two years, BSN* hosted several dozen giveaways where we tried to remove the regional locks which were the bane of most readers, and I cannot express my gratitude to over 2000 people that wrote to us about having a fair approach and often paying hundreds of dollars in shipping cost to the winner. Come to that, I believe the craziest package we ever sent was to a Swedish doctor working in Botswana. How in the world he ran a 3D Mark Vantage benchmark of a diesel generator, we’ll leave that one for you.

Thus, let’s move on together. I wish to thank you for five and a half years of supporting our efforts to remain independent and unbiased, and let’s jointly work on many more years to come.

Thank You,

Theo Valich
Co-Founder and Publisher, Bright Side of News*

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