obamacare at crossroads as insurance co-ops set to be abandoned

AMOUNT OF LOAN PROVIDED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO SET UP THE HEALTHCARE INSURANCE CO OPS

A new breed of health insurers created under the Obama Affordable Care Act — was intended to create non-profit insurers is  on its last legs now ,with several of the ventures forced to close down around the  country. President Obama's much vaunted Obamacare — is on shaky financial ground in many of the 23 states where the plans began.

The nonprofit health plans were envisioned as a consumer-friendly counterweight to for-profit insurers, a way to provide more competition, greater consumer choice and better coverage in markets typically dominated by big commercial carriers. The government allocated billions of dollars in loans for them, Insurance co ops under health law received $1.17billion  in federal loans , which the government said its  working on recouping the funds

67% users move between devices when they are shopping online

Cross Device consumer insights

"67% users move between devices when they are shopping online 

how mobile beacon is disrupting consumer retail shopping

MOBILE BEACONS 

Mobile Beacons  a new proximity based technology which is designed to drive customer loyalty and in-store sales, is  set to  distrupt online retail in a big way.
Beacons are small, Bluetooth-enabled devices ( cabe placed to a wall or in the sales counter )  which send signals to the customers smartphone  once they are s within 50-100 feet of the device. Mobile beacon's  automatically start triggering personalized coupons, special offers,  personal recommendations and loyalty rewards. Typically, one beacon is needed for every 5,000 square feet of store space.

HOW DOES THE MOBILE BEACON WORK

Mobile beacons are the latest disruption based marketing's latest technology, that is promising to change the way "  marketers  and consumers interact.

Mobile beacons could be uniqely leveraged by brands and marketers across  physical stores  just at the  right moment..  A mobile beacon can be used by retailer to run personal recommendation's based on the " item, product or brand the customer has just seen or purchased . Additionally it can be used to send discounted coupons, membership reward points including loyalty benefits

This layer of " social and personal customization" including  personal recommendations, while shopping  is bound to " provide much relevant in-store shopping experience for  the consumer

Facebook has  recently announcement that it will begin testing mobile beacons as part of its new
Place Tips” Facebook also now offers beacon technology at no cost to retailers who have Facebook pages.

These 10 Start up Unicorns are paying the best salary to retain the best

For unicorns.. getting the right people  are at times  bigger than clients. Unlike bigger and established  companies that have the continuity of legacy  infrastructure : to back them.. years of business continuity where systems and process are replicated to the T

In Start ups however its  the ability to scale up, adding value  and faster turnaround times needs more than talented people  who are willing to get out of their comfort zone at a cost.. Most of that times.. its " compensation" along with other perks that play a key role in getting the right people

This chart shows which Unicorns pay the  best salary based on the market. The data  is based on " crunchbase lederboard and been matched with glassdoor reviews

p 20 highest paying startup unicorns. These 10 Start up Unicorns are paying the best salary to retain the best

1.CLOUDERA - provides  Apache Hadoop-based software and support to businesses,
Compnsation :One of the best paymasters across start ups with mployee median salary coming in at more than $142,000. .

2.JAWBONE  –A wearable health and fitness company  which tracks  you while you work out
Average base median annual salary $130,000

3.MEDALLIA – provides cust services as SaaS platform  to hospitality, retail, and financial sectors  Average median annual base salary $121,920 –

4.PINTEREST– median annual base salary $118,420

5.DROPBOX – cloud storage start up.
Average median annual base salary $116,840

6.AIRBNB– biggest vacation and rental marketplace
Average  median annual base salary $116,840 –

7. KABAM – develops online Gaming
Average median annual base salary $116,840 –

8. APPDYNAMICS – Performance analysis app
Average median annual base salary $114,218

9. CREDITKARMA – provides free Credit Report to consumers
Average median annual base salary $111,760

10.OKTA – helps business manage  their security and online identity
Average  median annual base salary $110,000

money transfers and point of sales start up eccostem

Featured above are the key start up players across  POS ( Point of sale and money transfer services )

Online payment services: Startups including Stripe and WePay that help businesses move their payments-processing online and make it more available, secure, and inexpensive.

Billing automation and streamlining: Zuora and Paymentus, among others which help automate financial processes and billing.

Point-of-sale payments: iZettle, Revel Systems and others offer point-of-sale products and services, including card readers, stands, and digital storefronts.

 Among the pubic companies Square has put more of an emphasis on small business lending and financial services

 Personal payment services: Start ups  like  like MobiKwik and Affirm focus on providing consumers with more convenient payment platforms. niches.

Bitcoin payments: Companies like Coinbase and BitPay that use digital currency to make payments faster and more secure

this chart shows the reasons why 92% tech start ups fail

cbinsights CHART OF THE DAY :THESE ARE THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES WHY START UPS FAIL

healthcare, technology and real estate sectors saw the bigger merger deals in 2015

The three sectors which saw the biggest deal making including mergers in the year 2015

registered vehicles with iOT( internet of things) application

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The above chart shows registered vehicles with Internet of things Application (IOT) forcasted till 2030
Meanwhile a recent Gartner estimates that IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenues exceeding $300 billion in 2020. It predicts that around  4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30 percent from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020

IDC forecasts that the worldwide market for IoT solutions will grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to $7.1 trillion in 2020

top 5 manufacturing sectors shipments in US

     
           THE TOP 5 MANUFACTURING SECTORS IN US ECONOMY

30 years of start ups that led job creation: 1985 to 2015

The above chart show the percentage of new jobs created by start up companies in US. since 1980 onwards. Apparently 1986 saw the highest percentage of jobs created by start up companies in the last 35 years ith start ups creating 3% of total US jobs . In 2013 the lowest percentage of jobs ( 2%) were created by start ups. This data is provided by US census

40% business do not use " security encryption" for storing data in cloud

40% business do not use " security encryption" for storing data in cloud.The below infographic shows why although big data and cloud are being increasingly adopted by enterprises despite security concerns and risk awareness  and storing big data on cloud 

Despite the fact that cloud data storage is becoming more popular, a full 88% of businesses surveyed to get the infographic statistics aren’t using the cloud to its fullest because of security concerns. More than 40% of those businesses say that cloud security issues are more critical than they have ever been.

WPP reveals the 10 fastest growing brands this year; Alibaba &Facebook tops

This years Millward brown brand report has some surprises and a few expected brand rankings 2015 number one global brand has been Apple.The Brand Value of the Top 10 brands almost tripled, to $1.1 trillion, one-third of the total value of the Global Top 100.Whereas the top 100 brand value now stands at $3.3 trillion, a 14% increase on 2014 and a 126% growth over 2006 .Apple, with its relentless focus on the consumer experience, and the ability to wow its consumers demonstrated this yet again with the iPhone 6, returns to the top spot with a 67 percent increase in brand value.

WPP  and Millward brown's  BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, in 2015, .

The biggest riser is Facebook with an increase in value of 99% The  fastest growing brand this yeat ( new entry) is the online retailer Alibaba which debuted in the retail ranking at $66.4 billion, helping to grow the retail category ranking by 24% and overtaking both Amazon and Walmart This years Fastest rising brand report shows that "Five of the 10 Top Riser brands come from technology or telecom providers categories. Other fastest growing brands were Domino's Pizza which won on brand strength and communication.Amazon grew faster with its consistent and  awesome customer care. Other fastest growing brands were  Skoll ,Verizon, Google and Zara were

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The human dependence on smart phones, interesting statistics in a infographic

Dependance On Smartphones: Interesting Stats

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