Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 3:24 PM on Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019
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———————–
Newzoo opens up on $1 billion esports valuation after criticism
Steven R. July 3, 2019
In a lengthy article, the analytics firm opened up on its process and subtly pushed back against implications that they have been overly bullish regarding the future of the industry
It also pulled back the curtain on its valuation methods and offered a breakdown of how it sees the esports industry today.
Newzoo is giving a bit of insight into their frequently cited statistics on the growth of the esports industry.
In a lengthy article,
the analytics firm opened up on its process and subtly pushed back
against implications that they have been overly bullish regarding the
future of the industry. It also pulled back the curtain on its valuation
methods and offered a breakdown of how it sees the esports industry
today.
“For esports data, publicly available financial information is scarce
due to the relative youth of the industry,†Newzoo CEO Peter Warman
said. “We, therefore, partner directly with numerous esports
organizations across the globe… We receive their actual revenue data
each quarter, providing us with a strong data-backed foundation for
forecasting sponsorships, advertising revenues, and media rights deals,
as well as merchandise earnings and fees spent on organizers.â€
Though Newzoo does not specifically name names, the article seems to
be a response to recent wide-ranging discussions that firms have been
overstating esports’ reach and value to prospective investors. These
concerns were detailed at length in a report by Cecilia D’Anastasio of Kotaku,
who tackled this issue on a number of fronts. Kotaku’s anonymous
sources discussed the industry in terms ranging from “inflated†to
“completely unsustainable.â€
The report discusses Newzoo specifically, with esports insiders from
multiple areas of the industry questioning the legitimacy of their
methods. The eye-popping numbers from Newzoo and other similar outlets
offer a great deal of sizzle to uninitiated financiers, possibly without
enough steak to go along with it.
To counter this, Newzoo honed in on its oft-cited $1 billion “global esports market revenue estimate.â€
The number has been thrown around by many different outlets without
proper context, which has led to accusations that the company was
actively trying to inflate the industry. Newzoo gave a detailed
breakdown on how it reached that valuation, accounting for different
regions and areas of the industry.
The chart shows the different sources of revenue and what percentage
that accounts for in each region. This highlights some of the key
differences in business models between major markets, with advertising
being huge in Asia while media rights make up a much larger chunk of
North America.
Despite the post likely being a reaction to claims that its numbers were overstated, Warman stood by his firm’s math.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:47 AM on Wednesday, July 3rd, 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
Signed Binding Letter of Intent to Purchase Sill Lake Lead-Silver Property, Ontario Read More
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
Sill Lake Silver-Lead property, Sault Ste. Marie Mining Division, Ontario.
Closed the acquisition of the past-producing Sill Lake Silver-Lead
property, Vankoughnet Twp, Sault Ste. Marie Mining Division, Ontario.
Acquisition includes 13 single-cell mining claims and four boundary-cell claims that total some 372.8 hectares.
Lead-zinc-silver mineralization was discovered at Sill Lake in 1892;
since that time sufficient works have been completed so as to define a
(historical) measured and indicated resource of 112,751 tonnes of 134
g/t silver, 0.62% lead, and 0.21% zinc.
A 60 g/t cutoff for silver was used, with no cutoff used for base metals content.
Some 7,000 tonnes was exploited from the Sill Lake Project to
produce a lead-silver concentrate which was sold to nearby smelters.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Tartisan Nickel Corp. is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.
Tags: CSE, nickel, nickel demand, stocks, tsx, tsx-v Posted in All Recent Posts, Tartisan Nickel | Comments Off on CLIENT FEATURE: Tartisan Nickel $TN.ca Kenbridge Property Hosts M&I Resource of 7.14 Million Tonnes at 0.62% #Nickel, 0.33% #Copper $ROX.ca $FF.ca $EDG.ca $AGL.ca $ANZ.ca
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:53 AM on Wednesday, July 3rd, 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.
—————-
After Experimenting With Bitcoin and Ethereum, DocuSign Is Accelerating its Blockchain Ambitions
Business team two executive shaking hands after a meeting and conference to sign agreement and become partner in the office, results of their successful teamwork, contract between their firms.
Since its founding in 2003, firms of all sizes and industries have relied on the company to streamline the contract process through its best-in class security, identity authentication, user interface, and integration with leading business suites.
Famed cryptographer Nick Szabo may have coined the term “smart
contract†back in 1994, but DocuSign can make a compelling case for
being its true inventor. Since its founding in 2003, firms of all sizes
and industries have relied on the company to streamline the contract
process through its best-in class security, identity authentication,
user interface, and integration with leading business suites. Today
DocuSign has 500 thousand paying customers, and it earned over $700 million in revenue last year.
However, the company is not resting on its laurels and instead is
seeking ways to improve its service offerings, with much of this
experimentation incorporating blockchain technology. Over the last few
years this testing has included trials, demos, and partnerships on both Bitcoin and Ethereum. The company also joined the Accord Project,
an open-source software initiative that was established to develop a
technology stack for smart agreements. Furthermore, last week the
company invested in a $5.5 million Series A round
for smart contract provider Clause alongside Galaxy Digital with the
goal of making contracts on their DocuSign Agreement Cloud
“self-executing†and “self-aware†in an ongoing fashion, rather than
just one moment in time.
Given the core facets of DocuSign’s business and its research into
blockchain technology and smart contracts, the San Francisco-based
company is in an unrivaled position to assess their utility and
applicability to the needs of today’s businesses. Still, the road to
blockchain adoption has not been a straight line, and the company’s
plans face many of the same hurdles that other potential adopters are
trying to clear. To better understand DocuSign’s future direction, I had
an opportunity to speak with Ron Hirson, DocuSign Chief Product
Officer, who shed additional light on these endeavors, provided context
for the company’s investment in Clause, and offered expectations for how
blockchain will impact the company moving forward.
DocuSign’s Blockchain Strategy Began in 2015
When individuals think of major enterprise users of blockchain, the
first companies that come to mind often include blue-bloods such as
Facebook, IBM, and JP Morgan. However, DocuSign has been experimenting
with the technology since 2015, when it built a “smart-contract meets smart-asset meets smart-payment†demo with Visa on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.
According to Ron, the collaboration aimed to determine whether they
could utilize Bitcoin so that a user could “buy a car while sitting in
the carâ€, and have it start provided that the buyer’s insurance was up
to date.
Initial Forays Offered a Glimpse of Blockchain’s Potential, but Also Challenges
However, as exciting as these experiments were, neither went
mainstream for reasons that will ring familiar to active followers of
the enterprise blockchain space. According to Ron, the POC with Visa was
primarily an opportunity to learn, and the Bitcoin blockchain was
chosen because it was by far the most prominent platform in 2015
(remember Ethereum did not officially launch until July 30, 2015), even
if it was not tailor-made for this use case. Even then Bitcoin’s
limitations in functionality, data storage, and throughput were well
known to industry observers.
It is perhaps for these reasons that the company joined the EEA in
2018 and built its second project on top of Ethereum. However, despite
more functionality, the pilot did not gain widespread adoption because
customers already felt comfortable with DocuSign serving as a store of
record. Ron made it very clear in his conversations to me that most
customers did not see a need for an independent audit trail. He also
noted that education was not a problem, as he and the company “pitched
this broadly, stood on stage, screamed from the mountaintops, about that
we have this capability, and the uptake from customers who are
interested in it is fairly low because they don’t see the need.â€
Speaking more broadly about DocuSign’s global customer base and
blockchain’s shortcomings to this point, Ron underscored the massive
challenge facing technologists and blockchain enthusiasts. He provided a
hypothetical about a client trying to meet its sales goal before the
end of a quarter. Putting himself in the customer’s shoes he said “I
can’t rely on an open source system that may or may be available, may or
may not have the latency that I need, and oh my gosh it is way too
expensive to store all these files. Plus, there is no compelling UI for
me to engage in these kinds of systems.â€
Undaunted and Moving Ahead With a Clearer Vision
In spite of this feedback, Ron and the rest of the company believe in
the potential that blockchain technology has for its product lines, and
it is continuing to drive forward. However, from these initial
experiments, it became clear to the team at DocuSign that for blockchain
technology to transform their business and deliver client value, the
benefits from the technology must move far beyond “nice to haveâ€. In a
sense, the company would need to find a value proposition that was
unavailable before the invention of blockchain technology.
Rationale for the Clause Investment
It is for this reason that as reported last week it invested in smart-contract technology provider Clause.
The startup has built a promising business by leveraging its platform
to enable users to add smart clauses to documents that automate business
processes, workflows, and digital transactions. What this means in
layman’s terms is that contacts that utilize Clause’s technology can run
in the background until a specified date, time, or event and execute
when a certain condition is met. In my conversations with Ron, he
highlighted a demo that the company unveiled at its annual Momentum 2019
conference last month, whereby this new platform could be utilized to authenticate new drivers for a ride-sharing platform on an ongoing and persistent basis.
This speaks to the true potential of this collaboration. DocuSign is
in many ways the epicenter of complex business processes that take place
behind the scenes when a contract is signed. By incorporating these
“smart clauses†into future contracts a lot of this work can become
automated, removing middlemen such as title or escrow agents, offering a
more streamlined and efficient process for all involve parties to an
agreement all the way through to payment.
An Auspicious Start, but Many Challenges Ahead
It is clear that DocuSign is setting its sights much higher this
time. However, much still needs to be developed regarding this
partnership, including which platforms it will run on, the first use
cases, and an initial set of customers. Within this context it is
important to note that Clause’s code can run on top of any blockchain or
non-blockchain platform. Additionally, the collaborators will still
need to find solutions for the scalability, accessibility, and security
problems noted above, not to mention solving these challenges with the
elegant user interfaces that its customers have come to expect. Being
able to work on top of multiple blockchains should help.
Additionally, the partners will need to find and utilize oracles that
never go down and cannot be hacked or manipulated. For readers
unfamiliar with the term, oracles are data feeds that smart contracts
rely on to determine when a condition is met that would cause the
contract to self-execute. Today, there is no foolproof way to prove the
fidelity of an oracle, and it is a long-standing problem that
blockchains cannot differentiate between good and bad data being fed
into the system. For a partnership like this to truly succeed they will
need to find a solution, which is something that the partners dutifully
acknowledge.
Solving these challenges will require heavy lifting, and in
recognition of the size of this undertaking DocuSign has a product
manager and entire engineering team focused on the technology.
Therefore, it seems unlikely that lack of resources will be an issue,
boding well for the future. After all, the prize is big enough to
justify the cost, because if the collaborators succeed, this partnership
has the potential to impact every industry under the sun.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:00 PM on Tuesday, July 2nd, 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 exceeded 2018 target with $11.0 million in revenue. Learn More
EGLX: TSX-V ———————————-
Esports is gaining ground among sports enthusiasts in Canada. Now, for the first time, players have a new place to call home.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:49 PM on Tuesday, July 2nd, 2019
WHY NORTHBUD FARMS?
Canadian regulatory door for CIP (Cannabinoid Infused Products) is opening this year As shown in other legal jurisdictions (Colorado, Washington, Nevada, California)
Infused products sector has become the highest margin segment of the industry
Positioned to be a raw input producer for this space
Currently working with multiple food, beverage and science companies to provide safe standardized cannabinoid infused raw inputs for large scale GMP manufacturing of products
In 2018, Eureka recognized revenue of approximately CAD$11.5 million*
net profit margin of 16%* from its California and Colorado operations
Anticipates further growth in revenue due to anticipated changes to retail regulation of adult cannabis use in California.
Justin Braune, CEO of Eureka Vapor, joins Scott to share the
company’s background and why Eureka was an ideal match for North Bud.
Watch until the end to hear Justin’s predictions on Federal
de-regulation in the US.
FULL DISCLOSURE: NORTHBUD is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.
Govt must help unleash the massive potential of EdTech in India
A fraught public education system in India presents a variety of
opportunities for EdTech market players to enter with the promise of
customisation and efficiency.
Indian Education Technology (EdTech) solutions are being recognised globally
India’s very own EdTech unicorn Byju’s has spent $120m on Osmo — a US play-based learning start-up.
As the global education and training market is expected to be at $10 trillion by 2030, technology will change the way education systems are perceived, accessed, and utilized.
Aditi Bhutoria
Indian Education Technology (EdTech) solutions are being recognised
globally, with four of the nation’s start-ups being selected as a part
of 30 global finalists for the ‘Next Billion EdTech Prize 2019’ awarded
by UK-based Varkey Foundation. India’s very own EdTech unicorn Byju’s
has spent $120m on Osmo — a US play-based learning start-up. As the
global education and training market is expected to be at $10 trillion
by 2030, technology will change the way education systems are perceived,
accessed, and utilised.
With the largest young demography in the world that is getting
increasingly mobile-friendly and technologically connected, the Indian
EdTech market has a huge opportunity at hand. Indian start-ups can be at
the centre of this technological change, driving innovation to help a
young nation reach its demographic potential.
A fraught public education system in India presents a variety of
opportunities for market players to enter with the promise of
customisation and efficiency. Distortions in the schooling systems, such
as weak teacher incentives or outdated pedagogies, undermine student
learning and much of the impact of increasing existing educational
spending.
Here, technology-assisted innovations designed to address these
distortions are making quality teaching accessible for all, raising
learning levels, and increasing test scores, at a low cost. Moreover,
the present EdTech start-ups are striving to make ‘learning fun’ despite
different distractions surrounding students.
The disruptive innovation in this space is to encourage voluntary
self-learning rather than crammed or forced learning that focuses on
rote memorisation. Personalised e-learning solutions including
step-by-step learning methods, animated graphics, or blended teaching
approaches are making hard concepts easier to understand.
Favourable investment regulations support capital flows, with 100 per
cent foreign direct investment permissible in the Indian education
sector, protecting it from the plausible sickness of over-governance.
The EdTech market, thus, functions as an economic system where supply
and demand regulate its dealings. Such a market is characterised by
freedom of choice and free enterprise. Private entrepreneurs are free to
sell teaching-learning goods and services to a target groups of their
choice. Learners (or consumers) are free to buy those goods and services
that best satisfy their wants and needs. However, what drives this
space is competition. Competition ensures greater quality and lower
prices for education courses or products for the learners.
In such a market, China has emerged as a leader with an establishment
of 97 new unicorn companies in 2018 alone. The reasons could be that
Chinese parents are apprised about the importance of education, the
country has a massive population, and there is strong government
support. While India is similar to China in terms of having benefits of
demography and scale, the market conditions and government support
levels in our country are different.
On the supply side, the most nagging barrier to growth in the Indian
EdTech market is that undertaking new ventures or sustaining existing
ones remains costly. There are fixed costs to entry and the returns to
education can be small in the short-run, with benefits only reaped in
the medium- and long-run. For instance, the Indian EdTech industry has
about 3,500 companies operating at present with only around 274 backed
by investors. Of these, only 52 ventures have received cumulated funding
of greater than $1 million. This presents a starkly different business
landscape compared to our Chinese neighbours.
Education has positive externalities, which means that gains from the
education of a child or adult accrues not only to them but also to
other members of their family, society, and nation. Thus, a conducive
policy can focus not just on providing financial impetus to EdTech
ventures but also improving the productivity of educational investment,
through non-pecuniary support such as entrepreneurial training, strong
mentoring, or recognition.
Further, the multi-faceted nature of the Indian EdTech market has to
be studied in detail to differentiate between different types of
products, value created, and impacts of the same. For instance, EdTech
is not just e-learning; e-learning is only a small part of a very
diverse sector.
Overall, the B2B (business-to-business) EdTech market in India is
fragmented with buyers like government, high-budget and
affordable-private schools all functioning under varied regulations.
If the government can leverage on its public-school ecosystem to be
more open towards smart solutions and better integrate
technologically-driven learning opportunities for students, there can be
a shift in how EdTech is perceived by the society and would drastically
improve the existing market opportunities.
Finally, research and evaluation should be planned and used to make
evidence-based decisions on: which EdTech solutions work and which
don’t? As a way ahead, initiatives such as StartUp India can provide
increased emphasis on EdTech start-ups that are solving the most
challenging education problems in a cost-effective manner. Further,
integration of AI with education has already been recognised in the
current government’s vision; but AI solutions in education need to be
constructively expanded and rigorously tested.
Overall, with the stage being set through diverse offerings of
innovative products by the Indian EdTech industry, the government must
take the initiative to sustain these innovations so as to unleash its
massive social and economic potential.
Aditi Bhutoria is assistant professor, Public Policy and
Management Group, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Views are
personal.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:46 AM on Tuesday, July 2nd, 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.
Is Google Chasing The 90% Potential Of Blockchain That Facebook Left Out?
Regardless of your viewpoint on Facebook’s Libra program, it’s a significant stepping stone for the adoption of cryptocurrency
Facebook has it is repertoire a bank of over two billion users who will soon be exposed to the world of tokens and cryptocurrency
Regardless of your viewpoint on Facebook’s Libra program,
it’s a significant stepping stone for the adoption of cryptocurrency.
Facebook has it is repertoire a bank of over two billion users who will
soon be exposed to the world of tokens and cryptocurrency.
However, outside of tokenomics, there is a lot more power in the blockchain, especially in regards to smart contracts. Thus, a recent partnership
between Google and Chainlink, a company that provides on ramps and off
ramps for information necessary to run smart contracts, may hint at
Google wanting a bigger slice of the pie.
So far in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, it has been tokens
that have dominated in terms of usefulness. Bitcoin, as a prime
example, is a blockchain token that has shown the most application, and
garnered the most excitement from individuals.
This tokenized economy opens massive doors in terms of the transfer
of value without the need for intermediaries, or the handbrake that
banking regulations bring in, but it is only one piece of the pie.
In this nascent space, there are tokens, and then there is the
blockchain proper with its smart contract applications offering huge
potential. For enterprises and business, smart contracts offer far more
than tokens can – but tokens are far more attractive for individuals.
Facebook, as a company serving individuals, is looking at
taking tokens forward, but Google may well be looking to the
enterprises. By honing in on smarter smart contracts, Google could well
be tapping into the other 90 percent of blockchain’s potential.
Looking to make smart contracts smarter
Google’s decision to partner with Chainlink allows for Ethereum app
builders using Google software to be able to integrate data from sources
outside the blockchain.
Chainlink offers a service called an oracle
to integrate additional data into on-chain smart contracts. This adds
another layer to the capabilities of these contracts, allowing processes
to be implemented directly on the blockchain.
Essentially, the smart contracts are being made a lot smarter as the
data used to execute can be integrated from more than just within the
blockchain. It is a small step for Google, but it could be hinting at
their general heading in the blockchain space.
Chainlink CEO, Sergey Nazarov, spoke to Forbes about the value of smart contracts in the blockchain space.
“Our space is stuck in two dimensions. One is that we are really
focused on tokens because tokens are the only real functionality
blockchains have, to date,” Nazarov said.
“It is very useful functionality, and from the amount of attention
that one simple piece of functionality has gotten, it says a lot of
really positive things about what other contracts can be viewed as.”
“Tokens are the email of our space, and I think all the other
applications require a certain amount of infrastructure. The idea is
that to build useful applications we need to be able to connect them to
what they need to consume, and what they need to generate.”
“So, for the people at Google, they are looking at the two
directions. One direction is heavy tokens, which is fine, and then the
other direction asks: ‘what else can blockchains do?’ and my sincere
opinion is that tokens are maybe 10 percent of what this stuff can do.”
“I think the difference between Facebook and Google is that Facebook
may have a real interest in payment and crypto stuff, but Google may
have an interest in building these highly useful contracts by building
useful infrastructure to make that possible.”
Google catching up
Google, as one of the world’s leading technology companies, has been
viewed as somewhat behind the eightball in the blockchain space. In
comparison to IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and the likes, Google is
playing catch up.
However, Nazarov confirms that there is a growing interest from the internet giant.
“There are people in Google that are very interested in blockchain,”
he added. “The thing with Google is that it is very focused, and they
have their systems and processes that lead them to success in a focused
way. There are people in Google, and official positions, that I know of
that are related to blockchains – and I have seen an increase in that
since a year ago.”
With Google taking a more active role in the blockchain space, their
focus looks to be enterprise-based, and on what blockchain can do
besides offering tokens.
Nazarov goes on to explain that in the world of contracts, only 10 to
20 percent make up an exchange of value. It means that there is a
gaping hole of blockchain potential that needs to be realized.
“Think about how this looks from an enterprise point of view,”
Nazarov said. “Realistically, all the contracts – financial contracts –
in the world, 10 -20 percent is about ownership and transfer. That
covers tokens, which is all very useful in itself, but it also shows
that a reliable method of doing that is extremely valuable.
“Then the question becomes – ‘if all we can do today is ownership’ –
what is the other 80 percent in contracts? And the other 80 percent is
what we are talking about. What we work on is trying to get that other
80 percent to function, and for that, we need to work on more than
application, we need to build an environment for the application to
exist in.”
An efficient blockchain environment
Nazarov uses an example of Uber to express how building this
application environment can make things better for enterprises, and
again hints at why Google is interested in partnering with Chainlink.
In Uber, there is a mapping application which needed to be integrated
for the driver; there is the need for messaging between drivers and
customers; there is a payment application for both customers and to pay
drivers. All of these applications operate within the Uber app, but they
were all not created by Uber.
In other words, the Uber environment houses many applications. And,
in the blockchain space, with smart contracts that have the power to
reach data from sources outside the blockchain, an enterprise
environment is far more natural to build, and a lot more efficient.
A complex heading
Of course, there is no set roadmap from Google indicating that they
are looking to be the leaders in functional, enterprise smart contract
blockchain. However, their heading does seem to be more focused on the
other 90 percent of blockchain potential.
Chainlink is trying to make smart contracts smarter, and more useable
in common sense. If Google is looking to partner with them for their
work, they must have a desire to be a part of that potential.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 8:32 AM on Tuesday, July 2nd, 2019
Announced that the Company’s manufacturing and distribution facility for its Viva Buds cannabis delivery service is expected to be completed and fully functional by August 2019.
Announced in April that it had acquired a 20% ownership interest in Natural Plant Extract of California to establish a joint venture to create Viva Buds Inc., a unique cannabis delivery service based in Los Angeles, California.
ESCONDIDO, Calif., July 02, 2019 –MARIJUANA COMPANY OF AMERICA INC. (“MCOA†or the “Companyâ€) (OTCQB: MCOA), an innovative hemp and cannabis corporation, today announced that the Company’s manufacturing and distribution facility for its Viva Buds cannabis delivery service is expected to be completed and fully functional by August 2019.
MCOA announced in April that it had acquired a 20% ownership interest
in Natural Plant Extract of California (“NPEâ€) to establish a joint
venture to create Viva Buds Inc., a unique cannabis delivery service
based in Los Angeles, California.
“We are making tremendous progress through our partnership with NPE
and the rollout of our licensed cannabis manufacturing facility,†said
Mr. Edward Manolos, Board Member of MCOA. “Our commitment to compliance
will put Viva Buds ahead of the competition in California at a time when
many license holders are still awaiting permits. Such permits are
difficult to attain for manufacturers currently using volatile
extraction methodologies, due to stringent regulations on California’s Manufactured Cannabis Safety.â€
“Our joint venture partnership with NPE will allow us to become more
competitive within the bourgeoning cannabis industry in Southern
California,†said Mr. Don Steinberg, CEO of MCOA. “Once completed and
launched, Viva Buds will offer consumers a line of high-quality products
at low prices along with the ability to build their own personal
cannabis business.â€
The Lynwood, California manufacturing facility is licensed for the
volatile manufacturing, distribution and retail delivery of cannabis
products. NPE’s volatile manufacturing process is an efficient and
cost-effective extraction process that will help distinguish NPE from
others that use extraction.
About Marijuana Company of America, Inc. MCOA is a
corporation that participates in: (1) product research and development
of legal hemp-based consumer products under the brand name “hempSMART™â€,
that targets general health and well-being; (2) an affiliate marketing
program to promote and sell its legal hemp-based consumer products
containing CBD; (3) leasing of real property to separate business
entities engaged in the growth and sale of cannabis in those states and
jurisdictions where cannabis has been legalized and properly regulated
for medicinal and recreational use; and, (4) the expansion of its
business into ancillary areas of the legalized cannabis and hemp
industry, as the legalized markets and opportunities in this segment
mature and develop.
About Natural Plant Extracts of California NPE
is a fully licensed cannabis manufacturing, distribution and non-store
front retail delivery. The Company has secured its licenses with the
state of California and city of Lynwood, CA. For more information about
the Company, please visit its website at https://nldistribution.com
The owners and founders of NPE are marijuana industry veterans with
decades of experience in establishing retail, manufacturing and
distribution of cannabis in California, including obtaining the first
retail dispensary licenses in Los Angeles, CA.
Legal Status of Cannabis While legalized in
California for recreational and medicinal use, cannabis remains a
Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. § 811)
and illegal under the federal law. Forward Looking Statements This
news release contains “forward-looking statements” which are not purely
historical and may include any statements regarding beliefs, plans,
expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking
statements include, among other things, the development, costs and
results of new business opportunities and words such as “anticipate”,
“seek”, “intend”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “plan”, or
similar phrases may be deemed “forward-looking statements” within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual
results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking
statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others,
the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects, the future U.S.
and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company’s
reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of
cannabis-based products. These forward-looking statements are made as of
the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update
the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual
results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking
statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations
and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can
be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or
intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of
the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk
factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-12G, our
quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from
time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more
information, please visit www.sec.gov.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:41 PM on Thursday, June 27th, 2019
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———————–
Hershey is gravitating toward opportunities in esports
Twitch, the No.1 streaming site for gamers, touts 15 million unique daily visitors, and over 2.2 million creators who live stream their gameplay.
The global esports audience is projected to hit 600 million by 2023 — up from 281 million just three years ago, per Business Insider Intelligence estimates.
And revenue will rise with it: Global esports revenue is forecasted to reach $2.96billion by 2022, up from $869 million in 2018.
The Hershey Company is looking to reach non-traditional audiences through
esports, per Digiday. Hershey has traditionally allocated the bulk of
its media spend to traditional TV advertising, but it’s increasingly
diversifying its media spend beyond traditional TV and into more digital
spaces. The esports phenomenon has opened up a channel to reach
hundreds of millions of eyeballs worldwide.
Business Insider Intelligence
Hershey is increasingly investing in esports as it looks to tap into
audiences its traditional buys likely miss — in particular millennial
and Gen Z males under age 25. Hershey decided to ramp up its commitment
to the fast-growing space after seeing younger audiences flock to
streaming sites like Twitch and YouTube to engage with gamers
live-streaming their sessions.
Twitch, the No.1 streaming site for gamers, touts 15
million unique daily visitors, and over 2.2 million creators who live
stream their gameplay. The global esports audience is projected to hit 600
million by 2023 — up from 281 million just three years ago, per
Business Insider Intelligence estimates. And revenue will rise with it:
Global esports revenue is forecasted to reach $2.96billion by 2022, up from $869 million in 2018.
There are three primary methods for brands to advertise in esports:
Event sponsorships. While brands can reach esports viewers by
advertising on streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube, they can
also reach millions of esports event attendees and viewers by sponsoring
major live competitions. For instance, 200million
viewers tuned into the League of Legends World Championship in 2018 —
nearly double the number that watched the Super Bowl that year, which
clocked in at about
98 million viewers. That same event sold 23,000 tickets in under four
hours, with game owner Riot releasing an additional 3,000 to meet the
overwhelming demand.
Direct advertising on sites like Twitch. Many brands have taken to
running ads on alongside gaming content on the top video streaming
platforms for live gameplay. For instance, Wendy’s designed an interactive ad-campaign which ran on Twitch, and Nike has even debuted new shoes on the site.
Influencer brand partnerships. Gaming influencers inspire
intense trust and loyalty among their followings: If a gaming
influencer recommends hardware, their fans are likely to purchase that
gear, and if they recommend food or eat something while playing, their
fans might also follow suit. In fact, Hershey’s first foray into esports
was a partnership with top gamers “Ninja” ( 5 million Twitch followers), and “DrLupo” ( 3.4 million Twitch followers) to launch its Reese’s Pieces candy bar at gamer event TwitchCon (like Comic-Con, but for video games). Likewise, Axe partnered
with “Cizzorz” — part of the popular FazeClan esports team — to run a
promotional contest where fans could upload a live-action clip of
themselves gaming to Instagram or Twitter and be entered to win a
feature on the gamer’s channel and the opportunity to attend VidCon with
him.
As the global esports market explodes, I expect opportunities for
brand partnerships and advertisements to trace a similar path. And it’s
likely that brands get increasingly creative with their attempts to win a
piece of the space. Already, brands like Kellogg — which launched a new
cereal dubbed “Lucio-Oh’s,” based on a popular Overwatchcharacter — are experimenting with their approaches to the gaming world.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:00 PM on Thursday, June 27th, 2019
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NBUD: CSE
—————
Cannabis industry expects bump in sales for Canada Day long weekend
Canada Day long weekend is no longer mostly the preserve of the liquor industry, say some of the country’s cannabis retailers.
More of the pie for that flag-waving party is being carved out by legal pot sellers as the first post-legalization national birthday approaches, says an online cannabis information resource.
By: Bill Kaufmann
The Canada Day long weekend is no longer mostly the preserve of the
liquor industry, say some of the country’s cannabis retailers.
More of the pie for that flag-waving party is being carved out by
legal pot sellers as the first post-legalization national birthday
approaches, says an online cannabis information resource.
A survey commissioned by Leafly Canada suggests 25 per cent of
Alberta adults plan to embark on a cannabis buzz this long weekend,
among the highest in the country.
“That’s one in four compared to one in five (nationally),†said Jo
Vos, managing director of Leafly Canada, which commissioned the poll of
1,513 people conducted last week by Maru/Blue.
“Alberta and Atlantic Canada are leading the country in plans to consume this weekend,†said Vos.
Among millennials surveyed — those aged 22 to 37 — a whopping 33 per
cent said they plan to toke up or consume edibles on Canada’s 152nd
anniversary weekend.
The latest Statistics Canada figures on cannabis consumption suggest
15 per cent of Canadians reported using pot in the past three months,
with 19 per cent planning to consume it over the next three months.
“That was a similar percentage to what was reported before legalization,†states StatsCan.
Those numbers rise to 33 per cent among those aged 18 to 24.
Cannabis information clearing house Leafly is confident legalization
is pushing cannabis use into the mainstream when weekends approach, said
Vos.
“We believe consumption patterns will continue to shift and there’s a
broader awareness of cannabis as an option,†she said, adding those
follow the lines of booze consumption.
“We know there are behaviour patterns very similar to alcohol in the lead-up to weekends.â€
There are even “very compelling†indications that cannabis could displace some alcohol use, added Vos.
It was illegal but now there’s a freedom,Mark Goliger
Some statistics on alcohol sales in Canada show they haven’t
decreased since pot legalization, but some predict that might happen
when cannabis-infused beverages come on the market at year’s end.
Vos acknowledged marketing the newly legalized product is a much
tougher task than that facing the alcohol industry, whose wares can be
promoted openly on a host of platforms, including newspaper ads and
street signage.
Legalization has grown Canadian cannabis demand “but not
exponentially,†said Mark Goliger, CEO of National Access Cannabis
(NAC), which operates 15 stores in Alberta.
But he said the first summer long weekend following prohibition’s end
will likely see a spike in people consuming pot, and those who do
should feel no stigma.
“It was illegal but now there’s a freedom,†said Goliger.
“Long weekends are a time for people to relax and enjoy more of
everything, whether it’s food, friends, drinks, cannabis and, hopefully,
sunshine.â€
NAC recently announced revenues of $40 million since legalization,
through its NewLeaf Cannabis stores in Alberta and other outlets in
Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
“We’d love to have been further ahead but with the (now-ended)
moratorium on new stores in Alberta, supply problems, with Ontario going
to a lottery system for new stores and B.C. not going as fast as we’d
like, it’s impacted things,†he said.
Cannabis retailers expect to sell plenty of the green stuff on the
first Canada Day long weekend since legalization.Ryan Remiorz / THE
CANADIAN PRESS
