Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 3:09 PM on Friday, February 22nd, 2019
SPONSOR: Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc.
(TSX-V: EGLX) Uniting gaming communities with 80 owned and affiliated
websites, currently reaching over 75 million monthly visitors. The
company partial 2018 reported revenue of $7.4 million representing a
625% increase over the same period in 2017.
EGLX: TSX-V ———————————-
Top games and streamers for the week, TwitchCon 2019, Tencent streaming rules
Full Disclosure: Top games and streamers for the week, TwitchCon 2019, Tencent streaming rules
To the surprise of no one, Apex Legends enjoys another week at the top of the chart.
Respawn’s fresh battle royale offering has captured the hearts and hands of gamers across the land, and it’s 45.1 million hours across streaming platforms can attest to that.
Note: Excerpts are directly from InfluencerUpdate.biz with permission.
Top 10 streamed games of the week: Rainbow Six: Siege stacks up 9.3 million hours as it rolls into year four. To the surprise of no one, Apex Legends
enjoys another week at the top of the chart. Respawn’s fresh battle
royale offering has captured the hearts and hands of gamers across the
land, and it’s 45.1 million hours across streaming platforms can attest
to that. League of Legends takes its usual place at number two, racking
up 28.8 million hours watched in the last week. While the battle royale
chaos ensues around it, it’s fair to say that Riot Games long-running
MOBA is safe in silver for the time being. Remember Fortnite? It’s still
down in third place, after another 1.3 per cent decrease in hours
watched. Read the full story.
Top 10 most watched and trending channels of the week. Twitch
channel ESL_CSGO is leading the charge this week. It’s a new entry, but
it racked up over 5.8 million hours watched last week covering games
and news from the Counter-Strike esports circuit. The official Overwatch
League Twitch is in second; the start of season two saw the channel
amass over 5.2 million hours watched last week. Battle royale star
Shroud is in third place, keeping numbers high after flipping over to Apex Legends. Read the full story.
Twitch announces dates for flagship US TwitchCon event.
Twitch will return to San Diego later this year for TwitchCon North
America 2019. The event will take place on September 27 – 29 at the San
Diego convention centre. Tickets are not yet available but are expected
to go on sale before summer. 2018 saw Twitch’s main US event move from
its former home at the San Jose convention centre in California over to
San Diego. This will be the second TwitchCon to be held in San Diego,
with the first taking place in 2016. Read the full story.
Kid from the Xbox Super Bowl commercial is now living out his YouTube dreams.
The Xbox advert that aired during the Super Bowl LIII resonated with
audiences for its heartwarming charm. The ad was used to showcase the
Xbox One adaptive controller, a customised gamepad that allows people
with physical limitations to enjoy gaming. Since the commercial’s
airing, his channel has grown past 5,000 subscribers and is now over
18,000 at the time of writing. Read the full story.
Tencent brings in new broadcasting rules to police hurtful content across its products. Tencent
Games is now starting to implement stricter rules for online content
that involves any of its products. According to a report from Esports
Observer, the new regulations it has created will be applied across all
streaming platforms, not just with the platforms Tencent Games is
directly involved with. Read the full story.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:38 PM on Friday, February 22nd, 2019
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quality cannabinoid production and procurement focusing on both
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NBUD: CSE
—————
Cannabis edibles, plant proteins and other food trends to watch for in 2019
Canada is high on cannabis edibles
Cannabis will soon be a major driver in the food and beverage category.
This year should see edible products incorporated into Bill
C-45 (the Cannabis Act), opening up opportunities for health foods and
supplements, snack foods, packaged meals, restaurants and tourism.
A recent Deloitte report found that 58 per cent of current Canadian cannabis users intend to consume edibles once they’re legalized.
Food continues to find its way into the consciousness of Canadians.
It’s in our news feed, on our television screens and, more and more,
part of our day-to-day conversations. The challenge is to separate the
fact from the fiction, the ephemeral from the soon-to-be everyday. The
University of Guelph’s newest Food Focus Trends Report highlights six key trends likely to be front and centre this year.
Flexitarians on the rise
While vegans and vegetarians get all the attention, the flexitarians
are rapidly growing in number — and in clout. A flexitarian is someone
who is eating less meat rather than giving it up entirely.
Almost 85 per cent of Canadians claim to eat at least one vegetarian
meal per month, with nearly 50 per cent saying they do so at least once a
week. Despite only seven to eight per cent of Canadians identifying as
vegetarian or vegan, the conscious consumption of flexitarians will
likely have a profound impact on the quantity and types of meat we eat
as well as spurring the growth of protein alternatives.
By choosing to eat less meat, consumers are likely to indulge in more premium cuts while sacrificing staples like ground beef.
Plant-based proteins are also sure to grow in popularity, as are
those from previously taboo sources, such as insects. Canada’s new Food Guide also recommends an increased focus on plant-based foods.
Should Canada’s meat industry be concerned? Possibly, but increased
international demand should keep overall prices in our country steady
for the foreseeable future and population growth here will also continue
to increase the total demand for meat.
Easing fears about gene-editing
If comic books and horror movies have taught the average Canadian
anything, it’s that nothing good ever comes from playing with genes.
Unfortunately, fiction can sometimes be more believable than facts.
When it comes to agriculture, gene editing increases yields, develops
tolerances to things like drought or pests, removes allergens (to make
gluten-free wheat, for example) and enhances nutritional quality.
And the biggest benefit
may be for the world’s poor. Basically, gene editing is doing what
animal and plant breeders have been doing for hundreds and hundreds of
years, only in a way that’s much faster, much cheaper and much more
specific.
The only challenge? Reducing unfounded fears and communicating the
incredible potential of genetically modified crops and foods in a way
that Canadians can fully embrace.
So shouldn’t we all be behind the bee? It’s not that simple.
While they are essential for some crops, other crops rely on methods
of pest control that are associated with the decline of pollinators.
As we’ve seen with the neonicotinoids debate, striking a delicate
balance between the needs of farmers and the protection of pollinators
is an ongoing challenge and a goal that will not be easily achieved.
Canada is high on cannabis edibles
Cannabis will soon be a major driver in the food and beverage
category. This year should see edible products incorporated into Bill
C-45 (the Cannabis Act), opening up opportunities for health foods and
supplements, snack foods, packaged meals, restaurants and tourism.
A recent Deloitte report found that 58 per cent of current Canadian cannabis users intend to consume edibles once they’re legalized.
But these highs do have some potential lows — work will need to be
done to ensure proper dosing and to prevent unintended secondary
consumption by children and pets.
As well, the path to market for cannabis products in Canada goes
through three different pieces of legislation: the Cannabis Act, the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Food and Drugs Act.
In addition, products for medical consumers must also meet the Access
to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations that are included in the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. But with the total market estimated
at more than $7 billion (on par with Canada’s wine industry), the
future is nonetheless bright for cannabis companies.
Prospering in a time of protectionism
The whirlwind of trade deals and disputes in the past few years has
left many Canadians reeling. While there has been much hand-wringing
over inter-provincial barriers, NAFTA/USMCA and new agreements with
Europe and the Pacific Rim, freer trade in food has actually provided
Canadian farmers with markets that are hungry for our products.
Plus, Canadian consumers have benefited and now enjoy a wider range of affordable food products.
The one downside? Our regulated dairy industry, along with other
supply managed commodities, has ceded nearly 10 per cent of its market
through recent trade deals.
This will not only be painful for the dairy sector, but it isn’t
likely to result in lower prices for Canadians — although we will
probably see a broader array of cheeses and other dairy products.
Overall, though, trade has been good for Canada and will continue to be
for the foreseeable future.
Growing divide between food & farms
Farms may feed people, but they have very little to do with the price you pay for food.
Fluctuating prices of agricultural commodities like corn, wheat or
soybeans often fuel news stories but the reality is the increases in
food prices Canadians have seen over the years have been relatively
consistent.
Put simply, food and farm prices are not the same and the relationship between the two continues to weaken. Today, the farmers’ share
of the food dollar is around 20 per cent — higher for less processed
foods (nearly 50 per cent for eggs) and lower for more processed foods
(two per cent for corn, which is used as a sweetener in manufactured
food products).
While the effect of low commodity prices may be felt in farming
regions and associated industries, it has little impact on Canadians
when they’re checking off their grocery lists — and that isn’t expected
to change in 2019.
MUMBAI — India, widely considered the birthplace of the number zero,
has a proud mathematics tradition. So it came as a shock to Byju
Raveendran when he learned that many middle school students were unable
to do basic arithmetic.
This was before 2011, and the struggle continues. In 2018, one study
by a nongovernmental organization found that 56% of eighth-graders could
not solve a three-digit by one-digit division equation.
Raveendran, who calls himself an “accidental entrepreneur,” is
determined to crack the problem with his $4 billion startup Byju’s, the
most valuable education venture anywhere.
The 38-year-old wants to do more than that, though — he is out to change the way the rest of the world learns, too.
Byju’s exemplifies a new wave of Indian startups that are tackling
social issues, like inadequate medical care or poor logistics, rather
than trying to compete in fields such as ride-hailing or e-commerce. And
the company has made believers out of Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg’s philanthropic foundation, Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings and the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corp.
All have invested, helping to make Byju’s the fifth-largest unicorn
in India, out of 14 startups with valuations of at least $1 billion as
of January, according to U.S. research firm CB Insights.
Byju’s educational approach centers on a freemium app, combining free
access with subscriptions. It features slick and colorful videos with
animations designed to keep children captivated. “I help [students]
visualize concepts instead of just discuss theories,” Raveendran told
the Nikkei Asian Review.
The app has been downloaded 30 million times and attracted 2 million
paying subscribers. Three or four months into a subscription, Byju’s
conducts an online assessment and, depending on the student’s progress,
assigns a personal mentor.
The company appears to be getting results both educationally and, to an extent, financially.
Akshath Mugad, an 11th-grade student preparing for exams in Mumbai,
and his sister Akriti Mugad, a seventh-grader, have been using the app
for the past three months.
Akshath has never taken private tutoring. He said most such programs
move at their own pace, out of sync with the school curriculum. But
since the Byju’s app is personalized and covers everything from physics
and chemistry to biology and math, he is able to keep up with his class.
Meenakshi Mugad, their mother, said it is hard to tell how much the
app helps until they take a test. “But I can see them taking interest in
the lessons without me having to push them to study. That’s a
positive.”
An International Finance Corp. study on Byju’s last year found that 92% of 20,000 parents reported improvement in grades.
When it comes to earnings, Byju’s is not yet profitable, but it has
doubled its revenue over the past three years. For the fiscal year
through March, it expects to log 15 billion rupees ($209 million) in
revenue, triple the previous year’s figure.
For the fiscal year ended March 2018, Byju’s nearly halved its net loss, to 372 million rupees from 618 million rupees.
The company employs around 3,200, including a large video, animation
and information technology team that produces clips that simplify
subjects for students in grades four through 12. It also offers
materials to help with entrance exams for engineering, medical, civil
service and business schools.
The videos range from 30 seconds to 25 minutes depending on the
subject, and users spend an average of 64 minutes a day on the app.
Behind the scenes, the venture uses artificial intelligence to
recommend the learning materials that are best suited to a particular
user. “We’re focused on deepening understanding, not having children
memorize things to pass tests,” said Raveendran, who serves as CEO of
operating company Think & Learn, though the business goes by its
brand name.
An overreliance on rote memorization is often considered one
shortcoming of Indian education. The country of 1.3 billion also faces a
shortage of over 500,000 elementary school teachers, while 14% of
government-run secondary schools do not have the prescribed minimum of
six instructors, according to a report by the Centre for Budget and
Governance Accountability and Child Rights and You.
A high school class in the state of Uttar Pradesh: The country of 1.3
billion faces a shortage of teachers and schools. (Photo by Kosaku
Mimura)
The India Brand Equity Foundation estimates the country needs 200,000
more schools, 35,000 more colleges, another 700 universities and 40
million more seats in vocational training centers.
Overcrowded classrooms, a lack of teachers in suburbs and rural areas
and generally low government spending on education have all given rise
to a major side industry: tutoring.
Most of these services give students more face time with teachers but do little to inspire.
Byju Raveendran speaks to the Nikkei Asian Review at his company’s headquarters in Bangalore. (Photo by Rosemary Marandi)
“Traditionally, parents tend to believe that the right education can
be imparted only in a face-to-face manner, preferably in a classroom,”
Raveendran said. “Also, in India and several parts of the world,
learning is driven by the fear of exams rather than the love of
learning. The mindset has been our biggest challenge.”
It was in this environment that Raveendran carved a niche.
Raveendran, who hails from the southern coastal village of Azhikode
in the state of Kerala, was a standout student himself. While traveling
the world as an engineer for a British shipping company, he came home
for a holiday and took the entrance exam for the country’s top business
schools, the Indian Institutes of Management. He scored in the 100th
percentile.
Yet he did not enroll. He had found his true vocation helping friends
prepare for the same test. He went from holding impromptu sessions for
his buddies to speaking to 1,200 people in packed auditoriums.
The success of these sessions prompted Raveendran and some of his
students to try creating videos. In 2011, when he started the company,
he had some of the best and brightest producing content. His first eight
employees were all former students who had attended top business
schools and gained experience at well-known companies like Boston
Consulting Group.
Early backers included Mohandas Pai, a former CFO of information
technology consultancy Infosys, who had attended one of Raveendran’s
auditorium lectures. The first round of venture capital funding came in
2013.
Along the way, Raveendran leveraged his own star power as a renowned
tutor, and later brought in Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan as a
pitchman. The spread of affordable smartphones in India also helped
Byju’s take off.
Investors appreciate the founder’s determination to monetize the app in an age where many expect online content for free.
GV Ravishankar, Sequoia Capital’s managing director for India, wrote
in a note about Byju’s that most education technology companies cite
large numbers of visits or downloads of free content. The plan always
seems to be to monetize someday in the future.
“With so many resources available online, there is limited perceived
value if something is offered free,” Ravishankar wrote. “Parents are not
looking for free ways to make their child successful. They are looking
for The Best Way! Have the courage to charge for the value you provide.”
Byju’s packages start from $160 a year, a significant sum in a country where annual per capita income averages around $1,670.
Its closest competitor, Toppr, has attracted 5 million users with
stories and games and charges $70 to $352. The Khan Academy, a U.S.
nonprofit organization, posts video breakdowns of complex math and
science on YouTube for free.
N Chandramouli, chief executive of TRA Research, thinks Byju’s has
taken coaching to a different level. “It has created a sense of
curiosity among the students. … Their style of communicating has been
very subtle, it is targeted at the child, not the parent. They are
changing the way kids learn and preparing them to face life.”
Raveendran said the challenge is not just to persuade parents to pay
for content, but to raise awareness of online tutorials in the first
place. He also expects a wave of technology-driven change in Indian
education.
“There is no place for complacency for us,” Raveendran said. “We need to grow and grow fast.”
To help spur that growth, Byju’s in 2017 started recruiting teachers
from across the English-speaking world to come and record videos in its
Bangalore studios. The company looks for educators with large followings
on YouTube and pays them to participate, hoping their fans will follow
them to the Byju’s app. The company would not say how much it pays the
teachers.
Byju’s is growing through acquisitions, as well. It has made four so
far, aimed at either securing content or extending its global reach.
The latest came in January. Fresh off a $540 million round of funding
from South African media company Naspers and the Canada Pension Plan
Investment Board, the unicorn announced a $120 million deal for Osmo, a
U.S. developer of online learning tools that mix in offline activities.
Byju’s wanted to make an acquisition “that will eventually help us
launch in a new market,” Raveendran had told Nikkei before the deal.
By the July-September quarter, Byju’s plans to make its app available
in the U.S. and some Commonwealth countries such as the U.K., Australia
and New Zealand on a trial basis. The startup will introduce materials
for kids ages 5 to 8 in these countries, with a heavier emphasis on
game-based learning than pure visuals.
“We are in the process of building a product for international
markets,” the founder said, adding some of the most popular YouTube
teachers are helping with this.
Raveendran is confident parents outside India will buy what Byju’s is selling.
Harish HV, a former partner at Grant Thornton India, agrees. “In the
Western world,” he said, “those who get the benefit of education would
definitely be willing to pay and will pay. It would depend on the
product they introduce there, how they market it. I don’t see a
problem.”
Whatever happens abroad, Raveendran sees the huge Indian market as a
strong backbone. He is aiming for an initial public offering in two or
three years and reckons the company will be successful enough at home to
go ahead. “By that time we will generate enough money from the Indian
business itself,” he said.
But Raveendran harbors bigger ambitions.
“We have the required talent and capabilities [to] create a product
for students across the globe,” he said. “Currently, there are no
products like Byju’s Learning App which can reach out to such a large
number of students and create great engagement at the same time.
“We strongly believe that such a product can come out of India.”
Chennai: Bengaluru’s Mariam Fatima, a middle school social s ..
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:45 AM on Friday, February 22nd, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————-
Why 2019 May Become The Year Of Enterprise Blockchain
Last year, 95% of companies across different industries were investing in blockchain tech projects.
In 2019, those pilot projects are finally moving from the test stage to the end users.
Goldman Sachs, a former vocal skeptic of the blockchain, has launched a crypto-investing product for their clients in the end of last year.
Last year, 95% of companies across different industries were investing in blockchain tech projects. In 2019, those pilot projects are finally moving from the test stage to the end users. Goldman Sachs, a former vocal skeptic of the blockchain, has launched a crypto-investing product for their clients in the end of last year. Beyond investing and finance, major blockchain projects have been released in several other industries including cybersecurity, healthcare and agriculture.
Enterprises no longer question whether blockchain is even worth the attention, according to Sky Guo, CEO of Cypherium,
a startup offering enterprise-ready blockchain solutions. On the
contrary, Guo says they are now proactively seeking new ways of
incorporating this technology in their legacy systems. Henri Arslanian,
head of fintech and crypto department at PwC, said that
2018 ‘cleared the noise’ in the blockchain space, and 2019 will be the
year when big players enter the crypto world. Indeed, in the first
months of 2019, several major companies have signed off new partnerships
with blockchain startups (ING Bank and R3); invested in blockchain projects (Nasdaq and Symbiont); and new consortium partnerships emerged (Wall Street Blockchain Alliance and R3).
Further in 2019, we should see more
enterprise-level decentralized ledger technologies (DLTs) emerging on
the market as the underpinnings for those a strong.
1. Ready-to-use software is now available from top vendors
Amazon, IBM and most recently Oracle offer enterprise-grade blockchain solutions. R3 – an international blockchain consortium, also plans to unveil its platform, Enterprise Corda, later this year.
“Unlike the open-source blockchain
software, enterprise solutions come with better scaling mechanisms,
security, privacy and additional protocol changes that make them more
attractive to the private sector,†Guo
said. “In our case, we have improved upon the existing Ethereum
consensus mechanism to maximize decentralization and scalability,
without sacrificing one for the other. This, in turn, allows to achieve higher transaction speed and smart contract execution time.â€
The particular appeal of
enterprise-grade DLT is that it also enables unprecedented collaboration
opportunities not just within large organizations, but cross-company as
well. Several of the largest world food suppliers including Nestle,
Unilever, Walmart, Kroger and others, are working with IBM to create a global food tracing system on blockchain.
The collaboration is a crucial factor here to reach complete visibility
into the origins of potentially hazardous goods and rapidly trace the
source of contamination. Guo said enterprise-grade solutions set unified
standards for such collaboration, enabling faster adoption and better
interoperability between companies, ultimately benefiting everyone in
the industry.
2. Interoperability has significantly improved
Lack of connectivity mechanisms
between different types of blockchain solutions was a major roadblock to
wider adoption. But these days, tech companies are presenting new
viables ways for establishing connections between different ledgers.
Ripple has released an Interledger –
mid-ware arbitrary protocol that can “connect†different types of
ledgers, both distributed and traditional centralized ones. Its main
goal is to improve interoperability between financial institutions. The
additional benefit is that Interledger allows users to store aggregate
transaction data off a public blockchain by using a connector to
transfer funds between private versions of the Ripple network.
“Customer data privacy remains a sore
point for enterprises as they must constantly upgrade their systems to
remain compliant with emerging regulations,†Guo said. “By leveraging
blockchain businesses can actually reduce their data ownership. Customer
information recorded on the distributed ledger doesn’t have to change
hands when transactions are executed. Instead, users can simply grant
permission for access to those records whenever needed. This, in turn,
allows enterprises to remain compliant with less effort, and users can
benefit from greater privacy and security.â€
3. The overall improved understanding and sentiment around blockchain
Blockchain is no longer viewed as an abstract technology supporting crypto-currencies. Over a half (58%) of investors and 55% of consumers feel
that blockchain are optimistic about the blockchain’s potential for
money transfers. What’s more important though, is that customers’
perception of the blockchain is changing too. Per Deloitte survey,
only 18% of respondents in the US consider blockchain to be just “a
database for money†with little other applications outside the financial
industry. For the majority, it’s a promising new technology capable to
transform a multitude of business processes.
In fact, that’s how most businesses now view blockchain. According to
the same survey, 74% of companies state that they already have a
“compelling business case†for blockchain technology; 34% already
initiated a blockchain deployment.
As the sector clears of opportunistic
ICO projects and speculative use cases, Guo argues that enterprises are
becoming the key market players. And as more successful projects
emerge, legacy companies are feeling an increasing pressure to innovate
as well. With ready-to-use software and a burgeoning ecosystem of
blockchain consortiums joining the bandwagon has become easier than
ever.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:46 PM on Thursday, February 21st, 2019
SPONSOR: Esports Entertainment
$GMBL Esports audience is 350M, growing to 590M, Esports wagering is
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———————–
Activision’s $5 million bet on esports kicks off today with the 2019 season of Overwatch League
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:25 AM on Thursday, February 21st, 2019
Investment Highlights
Kenbridge property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14 million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper
17.5 (21.8 fully diluted) percent equity stake in Eloro Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property
Kenbridge Ni Project (ON, Canada)
Advanced stage deposit remains open in three directions, is
equipped with a 623m deep shaft and has never been mined.
Preliminary Economic Assessment completed and updated returned robust project economics and operating costs including a NPV of C$253M and cash costs of US$3.47/lb of nickel net of copper credits.
Plans for Kenbridge include updating PEA,
advancing the project through to feasibility and exploring the open
mineralization at depth
FULL DISCLOSURE: Tartisan Nickel Corp. is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:16 AM on Thursday, February 21st, 2019
Move is Part of Growing Sales, Marketing and Strategic Partnership Activities in the United States
confirms it has retained Whiteford, Taylor & Preston L.L.P. to assist in software licensing and intellectual property business matters on a go forward basis.
Toronto, Ontario–(February 21, 2019) – CardioComm Solutions, Inc. (TSXV: EKG) (“CardioComm” or the “Company“), a leading global provider of consumer heart monitoring and electrocardiogram (“ECG”) acquisition and management software solutions, confirms it has retained Whiteford, Taylor & Preston L.L.P. to assist in software licensing and intellectual property business matters on a go forward basis.
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston includes over 170 attorneys in
sixteen offices located in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kentucky,
Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and is one of
the mid-Atlantic’s leading law firms.
As new opportunities develop in the US, the Company will be well
served with representation from a firm located in the United States with
experience in identifying, protecting, expanding and leveraging the
Company’s technologies and IP assets. Further, Whiteford, Taylor &
Preston meets the Company’s need for guidance from a firm with expertise
in working with a medical software company that does business in both
hospital and large institutional environments, as well as the consumer
health and wellness sectors.
To learn more about CardioComm’s products and for further updates
regarding software releases and new device integrations, please visit
the Company’s websites at www.cardiocommsolutions.com and www.theheartcheck.com.
CardioComm Solutions’ patented and proprietary technology is used in
products for recording, viewing, analyzing and storing
electrocardiograms for diagnosis and management of cardiac patients.
Products are sold worldwide through a combination of an external
distribution network and a North American-based sales team. CardioComm
Solutions has earned the ISO 13485:2016 certification, is HIPAA
compliant and holds clearances from the European Union (CE Mark), the
USA (FDA) and Canada (Health Canada).
This release may contain certain forward-looking statements and
forward-looking information with respect to the financial condition,
results of operations and business of CardioComm Solutions and certain
of the plans and objectives of CardioComm Solutions with respect to
these items. Such statements and information reflect management’s
current beliefs and are based on information currently available to
management. By their nature, forward-looking statements and
forward-looking information involve risk and uncertainty because they
relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the
future and there are many factors that could cause actual results and
developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by
these forward-looking statements and forward-looking information.
In evaluating these statements, readers should not place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information.
The Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking
statements and forward-looking information contained in this release
other than as required by applicable laws, including without limitation,
Section 5.8(2) of National Instrument 51-102 (Continuous Disclosure Obligations).
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as
that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 8:33 AM on Thursday, February 21st, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————-
Report: Bank of China Joins New Blockchain Platform for Property Buyers
Property development firm New World Development and the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) will jointly launch a blockchain platform for home buyers with the Bank of China reportedly being the first bank user.
Property development firm New World Development and the Hong Kong
Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) will jointly
launch a blockchain platform for home buyers with the Bank of China reportedly being the first bank user. The news was announced by local news outlet the Standard on Feb. 20.
The platform reportedly aims to replace paperwork operations — such
as signing the Provisional Sale and Purchase Agreement or a mortgage
application — with digital authorization. This will supposedly allow
users to send the purchaser’s authorized, encrypted and digitally signed
provisional agreement to selected banks.
Integration of distributed ledger technology (DLT) into
organizations’ internal processes is estimated to help reduce banks’
operating costs by 15 to 60 percent, while the platform itself expects
to see an increase in the number of users.
ASTRI CEO Hugh Chow reportedly said that DLT could reshape property
market operations, resulting in efficient and flexible property buying
procedures, while the HKMA argued that DLT “allows all […] users in
the ecosystem to share customer information and transaction histories
securely over a distributed data infrastructure, without compromising
customer privacy or sensitive business information.”
Last August, Bank of China — one of the four largest state-owned banks in China — partnered
with financial services corporation China UnionPay (CUP) to jointly
explore blockchain technology applications for payment systems. Within
the initiative, CUP was set to build a unified port for mobile
integrated financial services, where cardholders will be able to use a
QR code to spend, transfer and trade on a cloud flash payment app.
In January, China’s self-regulatory bank organization, the China Banking Association (CBA), announced
it will launch a blockchain-based platform to improve efficiency across
the sector. The project, formally dubbed the “China Trade Finance
Inter-bank Trading Blockchain Platform,†aims to use blockchain to
target trade finance, transactions and other financial services.
China has been actively adopting blockchain technology in various sectors. Recently, the country’s government issued
the “Guiding Opinions on Rural Service Revitalization of Financial
Services.†The new framework aims to use emerging technologies like
blockchain to “improve the identification, monitoring, early warning,
and disposal levels of agricultural credit risks.â€
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:46 PM on Wednesday, February 20th, 2019
SPONSOR: Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc.
(TSX-V: EGLX) Uniting gaming communities with 80 owned and affiliated
websites, currently reaching over 75 million monthly visitors. The
company partial 2018 reported revenue of $7.4 million representing a
625% increase over the same period in 2017.
EGLX: TSX-V ———————————-
Any Brand Not Marketing in the Esports World Is Already Behind the Curve
It’s valued at $1.5 billion and has a reach of 385 million people globally
EGLX is one of the leading platforms for brands to reach the gaming and Esports Audience.
“Any Brand Not Marketing in the Esports World Is Already
Behind the Curve. It’s valued at $1.5 billion and has a reach of 385
million people globally.
Enthusiast’s network of 80+ gaming and Esports related
websites with over 75 million visitors on a monthly basis and 900 gaming
youtube channels reaching an additional 50 million visitors is well
positioned as a lead
Esports suffers from a gaming stigma, which has marketers hesitant to delve into the industry.
Getty Images
The conference circuit is rife with people preaching about disruption
and missed opportunities. Did you hear how Apple redefined the music
industry? How about how Uber rearranged the business of personal
transportation? I bet you have.
Well, what about that time when the marketing world sat on the sidelines and missed the video game revolution?
Yes, that happened, even though we don’t like to talk about it. As
early 8-bit console gaming grew into a $140 billion global juggernaut
that captured millions of eyeballs for billions of hours, we never quite
figured out the role of advertising within a gaming environment. Aside
from a few cool award-winning integrations (e.g., Verizon’s Minecraft
phone) and a niche market for in-game programmatic logo placements
(think, billboards in car racing games), the gaming landscape is
littered with dead pixels from ham-fisted, force-fit attempts at in-game
branding that annoyed gamers and disappointed advertisers.
Brands can participate via advertising, sponsorships and creative
activations much in the same way already they do with any analog sport.
We have a second chance to embrace gaming. One extra life, in the form of esports.
Marketers’ reaction to esports is typically rather black and white:
overt enthusiasm or adamant incredulity. Rest assured, fans really do
fill professional sports arenas to watch organized competitions among
skilled teams of video gamers. With a projected $1.5 billion market next
year, a global audience of 385 million people and an inordinate amount
of money being invested by the NFL, NBA and NHL along with big-name
former players (Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Shaq), many would
argue that esports is already the next big thing.
When one peels back the veneer, there’s actually a lot of familiar
territory for brands to explore in esports. The model of
event/broadcast/influence prevails in every major traditional sport;
esports is no different, other than using screens in place of a playing
surface. The esports world revolves around a growing network of
tangentially aligned teams, leagues and tournaments. Like their
counterparts on the ice, parquet and grass, esports stars wield a great
amount of social influence. Feeding off social currency and monetary
value from posting videos on Twitch and YouTube, gaming stars are rising
fast. The best earn millions of dollars a year from their craft and
have followings that eclipse even the most popular analog athletes.
Brands can participate via advertising, sponsorships and creative
activations much in the same way already they do with any analog sport.
There’s no pressure to solve the conundrum of in-game advertising; the
value lies in the surrounding media and opportunities. Esports should be
a slam dunk for advertisers: Fans pack into arenas, devotedly follow
their favorite gamers and watch competitions at home via TV and online
streams. That’s right in our wheelhouse.
So why aren’t brands and agencies flocking to esports?
To be fair, some have found their way. Endemic industries and some
brave consumer-focused brands have jumped in feet-first. But the gold
rush is not on yet. Esports suffers from a stigma passed down from video
gaming, the misperception that fans are reclusive tweens and unemployed
teens who spend their days worshipping at the altar of Xbox or the
sanctum of PlayStation. It’s a popular belief that happens to be wrong.
Esports fans skew older (traditionally males between the ages of 21 to
35), and with higher income than marketers generally give them credit
for.
There is a generation gap in perception, perhaps a bit of cynical
generation gap. The tone used by people who don’t understand esports is
similar to that which is directed at snowboarders in that sport’s early
days, as if it were somehow an abomination just because it was new.
We blew it with gaming all those years ago, but let’s not do it again
with esports. Now is the time for us to take this growing industry
seriously. There are only so many multi-billion-dollar trends that come
around.
We’ve got that extra life. What will we do with it?
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 5:01 PM on Tuesday, February 19th, 2019
SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc.
(TSX-V: NAM) The company’s new Lithium Division has already made
significant acquisitions in Canada and the USA. The company also owns
one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in
Sudbury, Canada. Learn More.
NAM: TSX-V
———————
Palladium eyes $1,500 in record surge; gold hits 10-month high
Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Gold will continue to shine amid a weak dollar, says author and gold pro Jim Rickards.
Palladium scaled a record peak to within striking distance of the $1,500 level on Tuesday fuelled by a sharp supply deficit, while bullion rose 1 percent to hit a 10-month high on a weaker dollar and global growth jitters.
Spot palladium was up 1.68 percent at $1,481.50 per ounce by 2:02 p.m. EST, having earlier soared to an all-time high of $1,491.
A sustained deficit in supply was likely to widen this year as
stricter emissions standards increase demand for catalytic converters,
Britain-based autocatalyst manufacturer Johnson Matthey said last week.
Adding to an already strained supply scenario for palladium, was the
likelihood of an improvement in demand from the auto sector, given the
expectations of a U.S.-China trade deal materializing, said Bart Melek,
head of commodity strategies at TD Securities in Toronto.
“If we were already high and tight when the demand environment didn’t
look all that promising, we are certainly going to get tighter when
demand improves,” he said.
A new round of trade talks between Washington and Beijing was scheduled for Tuesday.
While both platinum and palladium are primarily used by automakers in
catalytic converters, platinum is more heavily used in diesel vehicles,
which have fallen out of favour since Volkswagen’s emissions-rigging
scandal broke in 2015.
Unlike platinum, palladium has benefited from the switch away from
diesel engines and expectations for growth in hybrid electric vehicles,
which tend to be partly gasoline-powered.
This has helped cushion the metal from falling car sales globally.
However, analysts said palladium has risen too fast too soon and was bound for a correction.
“Palladium is a bubble and is moving much above what fundamentals
suggest,” said Gianclaudio Torlizzi, managing director at consultancy
T-Commodity in Milan.
Meanwhile, the dollar backed away from a two-month high hit last week
on increasing optimism for a breakthrough in the trade talks,
bolstering appeal for gold.
Spot gold gained 0.86 percent to $1,337.51 per ounce, having earlier touched its highest since April 20 at $1,341.18. U.S. gold futures settled $22.70 higher at $1,344.80.
“We are getting more evidence of slowing (global) growth,” said SP Angel analyst Sergey Raevskiy.
“There were some dovish comments from Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank.”
Dovish signals from Japan’s central bank and the ECB compounded
worries over a global slowdown, and followed weak data from the United
States and China.
Also, investors will scan the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s
last policy meeting on Wednesday for more guidance on interest rate
increases this year. Higher rates tend to weigh on non-yielding gold.
Among other precious metals, platinum gained 1.9 percent at $817.23 per ounce, while silver rose 0.92 percent to $15.94.
Tags: PGM, PGM Demand, tsx-v Posted in All Recent Posts, New Age Metals | Comments Off on New Age Metals Inc. $NAM.ca – #Palladium eyes $1,500 in record surge; gold hits 10-month high $WG.ca $XTM.ca $WM.ca $PDL.ca
