The StartUp Board Should Never Be Ignored

Startup board is a familiar term in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The role of board members goes well beyond accelerating growth and business success. Boards play a hugely important role in helping high growth ventures to navigate the journey from startup to scale up. According to 'The Startup Board Report' compiled by KPMG High Growth Ventures and Think & Grow, many founders lack the experience required to form a board, and currently there isn’t a game plan. The role of a startup board is very different to that of a public organisation. There are various considerations and specialized skills needed among directors.

The report based on in-depth qualitative and quantitative research undertook interviews of over 26 experienced startup board members and founders in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Lack of Female Representation:

Today, there is a limited pool of individuals who are sitting on startup boards in Australia, and this is not helped by a lack of diversity.

The report states, “Although women-led businesses are one of the fastest growing segments of entrepreneurship, only 38 per cent of startup boards in Australia have female members. This barely hits the diversity quota set by the Australian Institute of Directors in 2016.”

The research shows that women are not being referred to for board roles due to the lack of Women in VC (venture capital) and investment roles. This is something the VC’s are working hard to change and it highlights how vital this is to facilitate a thriving and diverse ecosystem.

“It is also important to remember that diversity extends beyond skills and experience. As globalisation and the shifting demographics of markets and the workforce make startups more dependent on diversity, a board built on homogeneous relationships has the inherent risk of narrowness. What we need to do to support Australian startups is to re-write the playbook – by providing a guide and insight into what best practice should look like. As well as identifying ways to increase diversity, and set benchmarks for governance that enable founders to perform at their best,” the report adds.

Zero Independence:

Boards that bring in the right balance of expertise, experience and access to senior global networks, can help founders build faster growing and higher performing startups. But one issue that could prevent this happening is a lack of independent advice for founders on Australian boards.

Report says

“Just one in four Australian startup survey participants (26%) have independent, non-executive directors (INEDs) on board. According to the AICD (Australian Institute for Company Directors), INEDs have a significant advantage in their independence and objectivity: "their ability to act in the best interests of the company is not compromised". They can also bring an independent perspective, as well as external networks, which are particularly valuable for a startup.” 

Global Esports Economy will Exceed $1 Billion This Year

The growing popularity and viewership of esports across the world has given rise to plenty of leagues and tournaments over the past few years. So much so that the global esports revenue is expected to hit $1.1 billion this year.

According to predictions from leading analysts at market research company Newzoo, the esports market will for the first time exceed the billion-dollar revenue mark, a year-on-year growth of 26.7 per cent. Newzoo’s “2019 Global Esports Market Report” estimates the global esports audience will grow to 453.8 million worldwide in 2019, a year-on-year growth of 15 per cent, and will consist of over 200 million esports enthusiasts and more than 250 million occasional viewers. As the esports market matures and the number of local events, leagues, and media rights deals increases, we anticipate the average revenue per fan to grow to $6.02 by 2022, the report says.

“Esports’ impressive audience and viewership growth is a direct result of an engaging viewership experience untethered to traditional media,” says Newzoo chief executive Peter Warman. “Plenty of leagues and tournaments now have huge audiences, so companies are positioning themselves to directly monetize these Esports Enthusiasts. While this began happening last year, the market is constantly expanding on its early learnings. The result: 2019 will be the first billion-dollar year for esports, a market that will continue to attract brands across all industries,” he adds.

Investment is the Driver

Endemic and non-endemic brand investments (media rights, advertising, and sponsorship), the report says, will make for 82 per cent of the total market. The highest-grossing individual esports revenue stream worldwide is sponsorship, generating $456.7 million in 2019. The fastest-growing esports revenue stream by far is media rights, it adds.

Besides non-endemic brands, digital broadcasters and TV media companies have already started to compete for esports content and the extent to which these deals will generate a direct return on investment will impact the pace of media rights growth. Other ongoing developments that have high revenue potential include increased esports franchising, new content formats and premium passes, the success of mobile gaming, team profitability, and the success of new focus on professionals and streamers as brands.

Considering the current growth, Newzoo estimates the esports market will reach $1.8 billion by 2022. If any of these factors accelerate, a more optimistic scenario places revenue at $3.2 billion, it says.

The China Effect

As per the report, China will generate $210.3 million in revenue this year, overtaking Western Europe as the second-largest region in terms of revenue. The country is notable for the growing popularity of mobile esports, including casual titles.

North America, meanwhile, will once again be the largest esports market, with revenue of $409.1 million. The report predicts that it will show strong growth toward 2022, reaching $691.1 million. The largest share of North America’s 2019 esports revenue will come from sponsorship, at $196.2 million. Meanwhile, media rights will contribute most to this growth and will remain the fastest-growing and second-largest esports revenue stream in the region. 

Fun to Make: What else does it take to create high-paying jobs, in commercializing them?

With the availability of low cost sensors, micro motors, microcontrollers, and easy to program, with integrated high level programming environment, single board computers like Arduino or Raspberry Pi, it has become Fun projects for senior EEE (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) or ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) students to turn ideas of smart devices into functional prototypes. There has been even competition to build such prototypes.

Some of them are interesting enough to create real value for customers, such as precisely watering Tomato or Strawberry plants based on moisture level, growth stage, soil condition and other determining factors. One of the most popular ideas among students is mobile robot, primarily following line or wall. As far as I recall, mobile robot making among students started getting popular with the introduction of design course at MIT in early 90s, with HC 11 based micro controller board. As a matter of fact, in late 90s, I also enjoyed in supervising a group of undergraduate students in making a swarm of such mobile robots to participate in a competition to find exit path in a maze. Multiple web sites hosting such projects including Electronics Hub or Arduino indicate that numerous such prototypes are being developed by growing number of EEE and ECE students across the globe.

On the other hand, despite the growth of overall job market in the area of Electrical and Computer Engineering, individual level job opportunity has been falling, primarily due to increased supply. As supply has been outpacing the demand, there has been negative externality in the job market. In some countries, like in Bangladesh, job prospect for fresh ECE and EEE graduates has become very depressing. The obvious question could be: with the availability of technology competence in making interesting product prototypes, why cannot such graduates build profitable business around them to create high paying jobs for themselves?

In order to create adequate willingness to pay among target customers, such prototypes to be developed further. In every semester, students start developing from scratch and end up more or less at the same finishing line, like their predecessors. As a result, such prototypes have been remaining at the same stage during even over a decade, as if they have been walking along a circular track.

Interest among students to be developed and pathway should be made clear to encourage them to pursue further development, after graduation. Universities can set up product innovation laboratories or incubators for graduates to upgrade their such undergraduate design projects into usable products, for which target customers will be willing to pay. Seed financing should also be made available to pay nominal pocket allowance to these graduates and cover additional expenses. To protect copying, some form of idea protection or intellectual property development support should also be developed. Assistance to these aspiring technology graduates should also include understanding market, developing business model along with strategy, creating manufacturing support systems, motivating them for long-term commitment to turn those latent potentials into profitable business, and preparing them in pursuing the journey over decades.

Upon having further maturity in turning prototypes to ready to use products, initial sales records, and having the team bonding strong enough to undertake long adventure in real business world, each of these teams will graduate as start-up. These start-ups will remain in the close loop with their parenting institutions in keep improving their products and the process to manufacture them, to expand the customer base, for never ending period. Such approach will not only turn those undergraduate project prototypes to commercial products, but also will create new ecosystem of innovation-- turning universities as incubators of new products, firms and jobs--starting the long journey of upgrading degree producing factories to entrepreneurial universities.

Bangabandhu Satellite

                                                    Bangabandhu Satellite

A satellite is an artificial object which has been intentionally placed into orbit. The Bangabandhu Satellite-1 is the first Bangladeshi geostationary communications and Broadcasting Satellite. It was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space and launched on 11 May 2018. Bangladesh Government formed a Government-owned Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited, BCSCL with the aim to operate the Bangabandhu Satellite-1. The launch made Bangladesh the 57th nation in the world and fourth in South Asia after India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to own a satellite. Bangabandhu-1 satellite carries a total of 40 transponders (26 KU-band and 14 C-band transponders) with a capacity of 1600 MHz. In the outer section of the satellite the red-green flag of Bangladesh is painted and on the flag, there is written “Bangabandhu-1” in English and Bangla. There is also a monogram of the government of Bangladesh. The Bangabandhu-1 satellite weighs 3,500. In BS-1 The priority satellite applications are (1) Direct to Home (DTH) (2) VSAT (3) Backhaul and Trucking (4) Network Restoration (5) Disaster Preparedness and relief. For these sectors, Bangladesh was depended on foreign satellites. Which costs us around 14M per year. This Huge cost will be avoided and moreover, by renting some frequency broadband, we will earn a sufficient amount. The Primary Service Area (PSA): Once launched, Bangabandhu-1 will save this annual cost, and bring in foreign currency by leasing out half its capacity to SAARC nations, as well as countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan if the frequencies are properly coordinated. The telecom regulator hopes to break even in seven years. The satellite will narrow the digital divide, as it will help take broadcast and telecom services to rural areas and allow the launch of some lucrative ventures like direct-to-home services throughout the country. Bangabandhu Satellite1’s mission is expected to last at least 15 years.

Cyberpreneurship, a New Age Tool in Cyber Security

Cyberpreneurship is a phenomenon unique to the digital age, having originated from the fusion of cyber—a prefix that symbolizes digitization of established systems; and entrepreneurship, the commercial backbone shaping modern economies. Following this logic, cyberpreneurs are essentially professionals who digitize access to their products and services by leveraging information technology, especially the Internet. Digital enterprises are thus able to conduct entire transactions, from delivery of products or services to generation of revenue, everything takes place on the digital domain.

Virtual businesses have several virtues, such as stronger likelihood of more efficient customer engagement and hassle-free service delivery, flexible operations, and so on. Due to this, cyberpreneruship has boomed since the past half decade, the ripples of which are only getting louder as we speak, reaching out to cover virtually every avenue existing on the Internet today. These include infonomics (capitalizing on information dispersal through articles, videos, etc.), e-commerce (selling and buying of products and services online), over-the-top (OTT) entertainment platforms, cybersecurity solutions, and so on.

However, despite these developments (and also because of them), the cyber space, like the offline space, is not perfect. While the rapidly-evolving digital ecosystem has enabled more entrepreneurs and service providers to grow on the Internet, on the flipside, cybercriminals too have leveraged the digital medium to exploit the vulnerabilities in a growing online business ecosystem.

Balancing the Good and the Bad 

This comes as no surprise considering that all digital systems are encoded through the binary system. So, for one, while the digital space is full of productive innovations like e-commerce, email, and ebooks, there is also a malicious side to it which cannot be overlooked. This includes a whole range of rising cybercriminal activities, risks of fraud, financial and data theft, and plagiarism, among other issues. This is precisely why the adoption of robust cybersecurity measures is necessary for virtual enterprises to not only survive but also succeed in the digital space.

While corporates and large enterprises can avail advanced digital security measures with the capital at their disposal, most SMEs and individual entrepreneurs are often unable to protect their enterprises from digital threats due to various reasons. A lack of resources and digital literacy are among the most significant reasons behind, especially among new digital enterprises or existing organizations digitizing their businesses. According to a recent report, more than 67 per cent of SMEs surveyed (over 1,000 companies in the UK and the US) reported to have had suffered at least one form of cyberattack. 

Small and medium-sized businesses and individual entrepreneurs are especially prone to be targeted by cyber-criminals as they are usually not adequately prepared to protect themselves. Employing poor, or no defensive strategy at all leaves them open in the face of constantly-evolving digital threats like ransomware attacks, intellectual property theft, and cryptojacking. The Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report informs that malware is becoming more difficult to combat with each passing day. Gaps in security allow hackers to access and exploit critical enterprise data, resulting in irreparable losses. A 2017 report illuminated that 60 per cent of small businesses shut down within 6 months of an attack.

It is here, like everywhere else on the virtual space, that cyberpreneurship can step into the picture to save the day. Cyberpreneurs, including freelancing and professional cybersecurity experts alike can leverage their skills and experience to supply personalized digital security measures to virtual enterprises. Since these professionals interact directly with the enterprise community, along with the worldwide network of like-minded individuals or groups, they are more attuned to the developments across the evolving digital landscape. They are, therefore, usually the first ones to spot any new or evolved threat that may crop up on the cyberspace. For example, it was Marcus Hutchins, a British computer security researcher, who discovered the kill switch of WannaCry ransomware to put a temporary stop to it.

On account of their proximity to the digital domain, independent cybersecurity experts (professionals or freelancers) have the advantage of focusing on the relevance and accuracy of the solutions while designing them for the threat on hand. This allows them to come up with specific, and more effective, solutions to deal with a problem in very less time. Cyberpreneurs can thus help other enterprises by offering them strategic digital defense at more affordable rates than established IT security solutions providers.

Cybersecurity is one specialized field within the massive IT and digital technology space where criminals and security providers are constantly engaged in a digital warfare, the brunt of which is mostly borne by SMEs and individual entrepreneurs who are generally left undefended. Freelancing and professional IT security experts can thus traverse this avenue of cyberpreneurship by helping small enterprises to emerge unscathed, or at least much better protected, from malicious threats and attacks.

Bangladesh's tech: from importer to manufacturer

Tech industries in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is emerging as a digital device manufacturing country in the global technological sector. One of the technology conglomerates of the country has already started assembling gadgets and some other companies are soon to follow. Apart from the local brands, some global brands are also considering establishing mobile handset plants here, and have already applied to the telecom regularity for their approval to build this hi-tech plant.

Famous local brand Walton is the pioneer in this case, and they have kicked off an assembling plant in September last year in Gazipur. While another local company, Aamra Holdings with their brand 'WE' is also setting up another plan in the capital's Mirpur area, and the factory will start working within a short time.

Market leader mobile handset company Symphony also signed a deal with one of their foreign partners to set up a factory adjacent to Dhaka.

Global top brand Samsung also established infrastructures for their plant in Narshandi and they will move on to assembling within a few months. While another global brand LG, has also started its office and is planning to build its own plant. Chinese brand Transsion Holdings, has also selected a place for mobile handset plant in Gazipur.

OK mobile, a local brand also took initiative to assemble mobile sets with a government company Telephone Shilpa Shanghai few years back and now they are finally making it happen.

In order to help these initiative, the government have reduced customs duty on mobile parts [intended for assembling locally] whopping 36 percentage points to 1 percent, and doubled the duty on handset imports to 10 percent in current budget.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission issued a directive on handset assembly locally in September and already they have received six applications for assembling plants from different companies.

In 2017, about 3.4 crore handsets were imported, up 9.6 percent year-on-year, according to Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA). The total value of the imports was about Tk 10,000 crore. The market size was about Tk 8,000 crore and total import was 3.1 crore in 2016.

Last year the industry also imported 90 lakh pieces of smartphones and this number will grow further when 4G service is launched.

The government has declared that Bangladesh wills to not remain an importing country, rather the country will manufacture mobile devices and export to other countries. Matching with this promise some companies even plan to export to other countries, after meeting the growing local demand.

Source : The Daily Star

Freelancing, A new sun at economics

What exactly is “Freelancing”?
Freelancing is basically a different way to work. Rather than being employed by a company in one specific job, freelancers are self-employed and find work via a variety of sources. Clients hire a freelancer to complete a task, project, or service for
them. Freelancers often work on a range of projects at any one time for various clients. Freelancers are responsible for paying their own tax, pension, etc,
and managing their own time, priorities, and workload. Freelancers can work from anywhere, but many work from home, from “freelancing hubs”, or coffee shops.

How does freelancing work?
Like any other career or trade, freelancing does move on to give and take system. To combine buyers and sellers at one place, there are freelance portals. Both (buyers and sellers) need to make their account to get started. Buyers post their need; freelancer bid for the project, then buyer chooses the freelancer from a long list of bidders. When the work is submitted, buyer reviews the work, and pays the payment to freelance portal, which next pays the money to freelancer after some deductions (that deduction is the source of revenue of these freelancer portals).

What work does a freelancer do?
Fields where freelancers work are predominantly in music, writing, acting, computer programming, web design, translating, illustrating, film, video production, and other forms of work which some cultural theorists consider as central to the cognitive-cultural economy. A freelancer can also be a self-employed person offering services,
usually to businesses and often to multiple clients at a time. The type of work freelancers does vary. Nearly every type of service a business would need could be provided by a freelancer, including but not limited to marketing, such as social media marketing, copywriting, publicity, writing, technological support, such as programming, interior design, graphic design, and bookkeeping.

Market place of a freelancer

1. Fiverr — Fiverr is a little bit different from another freelancing website. There a lot of companies post their projects so freelancer can apply, but in Fiverr, you will create gigs if you have good gigs you will find freelancing job easily.

2. Vemploy — Vemploy is a new but very popular freelancing website. This site is very simple to use you will just write a proposal for the job and you will submit it. You can also create your portfolio on this website.

3. Freelancer — Hire & Find Jobs — this is a world largest marketplace. This provides a lot of freelance jobs for the users. You can find hourly, home-based and full-time jobs on this website. This site is very easy to use you will just browse the job and you will find a list of jobs.

4. Up Work — this is a very popular website in the whole world. Up work connects the companies with more than 10 million of freelancers who are searching freelancing jobs.

5. Krop — A job-search board and portfolio builder in one, Krop allows creative and tech professionals to put together personalized websites showcasing their skills to employers. The site features a mix of full-time, part-time and freelance work, searchable by location and keywords.

Who Hires for Freelance Jobs
As you can nowadays, a huge variety of companies, organization, and
government agencies are hire freelancer. The freelance jobs vary from
small, temporary projects to long-term, full-time projects. Nowadays
freelance marketplace provide freelance job as they have client and
required freelancer to complete those project here you find bulk
requirements with different clients.

How Freelancing Is Different than Being an Employee?
Freelancers are responsible for all sorts of things that traditional “employees” are not, such as setting their work hours, keeping track of time spent on different projects, billing clients, and paying their own employment and business taxes. Freelancers are not considered “employees” by the companies they work for, but rather “contractors.”

Other Ways to Say “Freelance Jobs”
When you are searching for freelance jobs, there are a number of different terms to be
aware of. These can be used to help you to find freelance job openings.

Freelance job: A widely-used term to find freelance jobs.
Contract work: Jobs where you’re a work as a temporary contract worker, rather than a permanent employee.
Independent contractor: Another common way to say
freelancer. Your work terms are specified by a contract with another
company or individual. This is how the IRS classifies this type of work.
Contract-to-hire: A job that begins as a freelance, independent
contractor position but has the potential to become a regular employee
position if things go well.

What does it take to be a freelancer?

Step 1: What skills have you to offer The first step is to ask yourself what specific skills do you possess and what services you can offer. Being skilled at ardening or servicing kitchen chimneys won’t be of much help, as in this context we
are talking about services that can be delivered online. So we need to look for skills that are Internet friendly. Does that mean you need to be a techie? Certainly
not. For example, You may be a wizard in creative writing. The Internet is flooded with opportunities for writers. There are so many websites that are constantly on the lookout for good writers, and you can be a good fit.

If your English speaking skills are superb then you can work as a voice over artist
for animation videos and promotional ads. The animated videos and ads that you see
on the Internet are made by graphics and animation specialists, but to make the
characters speak they need human voice. This is where you fit in. The speaking
skills in this type of work, of course, take into account voice modulation,
pronunciation, clarity of voice, neutral accent, etc.

If you are thorough with American, British or Australian accent, you can take up transcription jobs, which, again, are available in plenty.

Step 2: Basic computer knowledge or IT trained If you are computer savvy then you have a myriad of options open. Now here again there is a question you need to pose — have you learned web designing, software programming, graphics animation? Are you trained in any of these fields? If your answer is in the affirmative then you should go for the appropriate kind of jobs in accordance with your specialization. If
you belong to this category then you are the best of the lot and have the highest prospects. Once a client signs you up, win him over. Perform so well that whenever in the future he needs something done he comes to you as the first choice. Tasks in this zone may comprise of simple things like data entry, web scraping, MS Word or Excel-based work, live chat support, and a variety of other tasks that can be performed online.

Step 3: Set up your profile If you are clear on these two steps then you are ready to go. Now sign up at a popular freelancing platform and set up your profile. This includes putting up your resume and going through the rules and regulations. Highlight your plus points in your profile, but be sure to be honest. Keep in mind that a genuine freelancing site will allow you to set up your profile without charging any fee. A site which makes you pay even before you have earned anything is certainly not the right type!

Step 4: Start bidding on jobs Now that your profile is set, it is time to
start posting applications. In other words, you’ll now be bidding on jobs. Watch the
board for jobs being posted and apply for the ones you think you can do. To get an
idea about the pricing point see the standards of other bidders on the same job. That will give you an idea of what price to set for a job. Keep your applications brief and to-the-point. The key here is to think from the employer’s perspective.

So if freelance work interests you, register today at any one of the top job sites , and start bidding. As a beginner your focus should be on building a reputable profile. In other words, getting good feedback should be given priority over anything else in the formative stage of your freelance career. This is how you go about freelancing online.

What is freelance economy?

The freelance economy, also known as the gig economy, revolves around hiring self-employed workers to undertake specific jobs in return for an agreed upon payment. Freelancers are the individuals who make themselves available to be hired for such emporary work. They may find jobs through classified ads or through temporary staffing agencies. But the internet has created the current boom in freelance work, in fields s varied as commercial design, hotel management (through Airbnb) and taxi driving through ridesharing apps like Lyft and Uber).

Contribution to the economy of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the 2nd largest source of online workers . According to Oxford Internet Institute (OII) of Oxford University in the UK, Bangladesh now contributes 16.8% of all outsourced online workers in the world, a rate which is second only to India on 24.6%.

Of the Bangladeshi outsourcing workers, 22% work in software development and technology, representing 3.7% of all online freelancers in the world.

The majority (about 40%, or 6.8% of the world total) work in sales and marketing support. About a quarter work in creative multimedia (4.2% in the global context).
Similarly, about 3% work in writing and translation, 7% in clerical and data entry
and 2% in professional services (representing 0.5%, 1.3% and 0.4% of all freelancers on the web).

World Economy

Today, Freelancers represents 35% of the United States workforce. In the European Union, the rate is 16.1%.
Both figures demonstrate the same global trend. Freelancing is often portrayed as liberating, empowering, and even glamorous, but the reality is
far more complex.

In OECD countries, studies show that these individuals work chiefly in the service sector (50% of men and 70% of women).

Industry Leaders Speak about the Artificial Intelligence Boost in Budget 2019

“In order to take the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies to the people, a national program on AI has been envisaged by our government. This will be catalyzed by the establishment of the national centre on AI as a hub along with centres of excellence,” were the words of the Indian Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, announcing the Indian government’s inclination towards AI. The announcement has got the AI practitioners and startups real hopeful about its road ahead.
Apart from AI, India has had been rooting for, Blockchain, Machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data for its Budget 2019. The year 2018 witnessed the Indian government taking several initiatives towards the promotion of Blockchain. Although AI has been implemented by several startups, the government took the back seat in the promotion of the technology when compared to economies like the US and China, until today.

The promotion of AI in particular, has excited startups and businesses who are already handling the technology and also the ones who are looking forward to work in the particular technology.

Talking with a few industry experts, who are already handling the technology, Entrepreneur India has been able to know what the industry leaders are looking forward to after the Budget 2019.

AI to Create Opportunities for Building New Businesses

Yulu Bikes is a bike sharing company that uses AI in its businesses and Naveen Dalchuri, the co-founder and CTO of Yulu says how the company is employing the technology in its process, “We are primarily using AI and Machine Learning for our vehicle rebalancing. Our model learns from past data/usage and contextual data to improve the rebalancing accuracy and increase vehicle utilization. We are also using AI to reduce the noise from the IoT alarms and accurately identify the vehicles that have to address on highest priority.”

The company’s other co-founder and CEO, Amit Gupta states, “Data is the new oil in today's technology world. AI can not only make the existing processes better but also creates opportunities to build new businesses. After the digital revolution led by affordable mobile phones and data plans, India is producing very high-quality data about our digital and physical habits at scale.” He also believes that as a country we need to make sure that this data is available to key stakeholders in the country; else there is a risk of India becoming a digital colony. This data becomes the input to several algorithms built using AI. The policy on AI has been under consideration, glad that it is finally here. Next decade is for India to grow, shine and become one of the top 3 economies of the world with the help of digital & physical infrastructure and our young demography.

A Walk towards a Bright Future

Sachin Dev Duggal, founder & CEO of Engineer.ai is excited about the inclusion of AI in Budget 2019. He says, "It’s excellent to hear the announcement from Finance Minister Piyush Goyal that India will create a National Centre for AI. Considering the global market for AI is expected at around $190 billion by 2025, this puts Indian companies and organizations at the forefront of capturing the AI market. Well done.”

Before wrapping up his view, he opines that the overall technology sector made gains today, which offers India a bright future of the efficient solutions that technology could bring to the country, continent and world.

E-commerce Technology Trends That Will Take Center Stage In 2019

We are in 2019 and it’s easier to set up a business now than ever before. This is thanks to the growth of e-commerce accentuated by an increasing internet penetration around the globe. According to statistics, total worldwide e-commerce sales will reach a whopping amount of $3.3 trillion this year. With umpteen number of opportunities, e-commerce is all set to make the most of this year although the industry is counting on technology for its growth. Here’s a list of trending technologies that will take centre stage in 2019.

Omnichannel – The Seamless User Experience

An Omnichannel experience is created by implementing a multi-channel approach to serving customers, selling and marketing in a way to have a unified and connected user experience across platforms no matter where or how a customer reaches out to the company. Most major brands are working on creating an Omnichannel experience for their customers. Unifying the brand image and ensuring your consumer receives a uniform experience will result in better sales for any e-commerce organization.

Social Commerce – The Meeting Point

Social commerce is the imminent meeting point of social media and e-commerce. The latest social media trends suggest they have an impact on the customer’s decision-making process. This is something which can be used in order to improve customer experience on the whole. With the introduction of shoppable posts and stories, buy buttons and native marketplaces on the leading social media platforms, social commerce will be the best option for brands to convert their social media engagement into direct business.

IoT – The Internet of Things

The maximum growth in the retail sector is seen in the digital space. In 2019, we can predict that physical devices will be taking centre stage – be it through the implementation of smart buttons, or voice enables devices. IoT will lead technological advancements, by smoothening out services like inventory and supply chain management.

Blockchain – Designed for Ecommerce

Blockchains are the natural fit for the industry, considering they were designed to store transactional data. Blockchains can be an alternative payment method for faster and more secure transactions or it can also improvise order fulfilment and shipment tracking. Industry leaders around the world are already working and experimenting with blockchain as a platform for future trade.

Artificial Intelligence – The Learning Machine

In present-day technologies, Artificial Intelligence has proven to be the trendiest of all. Artificial Intelligence is helping e-commerce companies with recommendation engines, chatbots, virtual assistants and warehouse automation. AI-driven tech is also able to understand consumer behaviour and buying patterns. Being able to predict trends accurately will ensure that consumers needs are better met. Artificial Intelligence will provide a more personalized customer experience in the coming year.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle – Delivered by Drone

The future of drones being commercially used for deliveries has already begun. As a matter of fact, Amazon made its first air delivery in December 2016 and other players in the game are expected to follow. Drones can be an alternative to local delivery as they are cost-efficient and faster in comparison to the traditional delivery model. In the near future, seeing delivery drones will be as regular as seeing delivery trucks.

Looking forward to 2019, we can see that technology and the way in which it is implemented in the daily functions in the e-commerce industry will be further explored. Of course there will be more development in this field, however, e-commerce organizations which have not yet implemented these trends need to be up to date with regard to them and explore how these can help in bettering customer engagement and experience.

AI Helps You Understand the Psychology of Consumer Buying Behaviour

“I wish I know what is running through my customer’s mind” Every business owner hoards this secret wish. No matter how detailed your market research is, what the experts say or what your gut feeling says, the customer’s mind is still a black box that cannot be easily cracked.

Or, is it so? All black boxes can be decrypted and their contents can be brought to daylights for broad inspection. Just that you need the right toolkit to do it. Just like Artificial Intelligence (AI) for decrypting the psychology of consumer buying behaviour.

The ground zero for any consumer behaviour study is one thing - why do people buy the stuff they do? Sometimes, studies go deeper into the reasons why people keeping buying more of what they have already bought.

It is safe to assume that there are underlying reasons, specific reasons related to psychology that are influencing customers to buy and buy more. What are those reasons? If only a business can know that they will also know what is running through their customer’s mind. AI help discovers such reasons that make customers buy more.

AI as a Customer Mind Reader

The human mind if highly complex. It changes from individual to individual. But, if you take a look at the way human purchase from 30,000 feet high, you will notice patterns. There is a specific way to how people of a certain age group purchase, how certain genders purchase and how they keep repeating their purchases.

The heading AI as a customer mind reader is a bit far fetching. AI systems cannot do mind reading (as of now). But, they can pick up patterns from customer shopping behaviour. Such patterns would enable businesses to better position their products and also market them effectively for higher returns.

How Can AI Unearth Such Patterns?

Under the hood, AI is an advanced analytical system. It can connect the dots between random data points to come up with recommendations, predictions or suggestions. Such conclusions can point your business on the right path.

For example, all the first interaction inputs that your customers give to chatbots can be a good starting point. It can help inform agents and support executives how to better respond to customer queries instead of sticking to routine scripts.

How Exactly is AI Influencing Consumer Buying Behaviour

Believe it or not, AI is amidst us right now. In fact, we are interacting with it on a regular basis. If you have done a Google search today, you have interacted with AI. If you have shopped online and found similar product recommendations popping up easily, it is AI at work. Your on-demand video streaming app that gives a delectable list of recommendations is using AI to predict your preferences. There is so much that is happening in the AI world. And, it is influencing our consumer buying behaviour.

Here are some real-world examples:

Aiding Discovery Based on Likes

By habit, customers prefer to have more of what they like and what they are accustomed to. For instance, if there is a specific brand or operating system of smartphones that they are comfortable using, a switch to an alternate option can be irritating. That comfort zone that a familiar product gives them makes customers buy more of a specific product and its variants. And they are also open to getting recommendations that help them broaden their platter of options.

Artificial Intelligence and its subset machine learning can create patterns of such consumer behaviour. They can dive deeper into massive amounts of communal data that influence customer behaviour. In this case, the preference to a specific operating system.

Spotify knows this right. The music streaming app has been able to increase its subscription rates and sustain user loyalty. It uses Artificial Intelligence to push song suggestions that are aligned with the user’s current preferences. Additionally, it is also able to push playlists that a large number of other users who have the same interests are subscribed to.

How does it help? The suggestions drive users to use the app for long without unsubscribing to it. Most often, it also leads to subscriptions to more music libraries that the user may not have otherwise thought of paying for.

To put it in other words, AI is able to understand Spotify’s user psychology to a certain extent and then use it to its advantage.

Visual Recommendations (Vue.ai)

Have you noticed that most online stores manage to suggest visually similar products while you are browsing around? Visual recommender systems allow retailers to show customers related products that share the same visual traits. This could be colour, size, patterns, stripes and so on. This is typically useful for selling fashion labels where even the small difference in design can make or break the customer’s buying decision.

And it does not happen on its own. It is an Artificial Intelligence at work. AI’s visual recommendation capability makes it possible to scan millions of product images and pick up ones that look similar to each other.

Well, it is not just online stores that are reaping the benefits. Even on-demand streaming services like Netflix are tapping into AI. AI empowers businesses to perform advanced video analytics, something that has remained largely impossible until cloud computing took off.

Today, with the combined power of cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence, video streaming services are able to cater visual recommendations of movies, series and documentaries that customers cannot resist but watch with an indulgent pleasure.

Final Thoughts

Artificial Intelligence in the 21st century is like the electricity of the 20th century. It is not a game-changer, it is much more than that. It is so powerful that it is manipulating humans into taking actions that they otherwise would not have in their normal selves. In other words, AI has the power to better understand consumer buying behaviour. Businesses that use this power to their advantage will be able the ones to beat the competition to the ground.

Dhaka Motor Show 2019

“International Automobiles, Spare Parts, and Accessories Industry trade fair.”

Dhaka Motor Show stands firmly as one of the flagship events of CEMS-Global in Bangladesh and has become an icon of the country as the One & ONLY International Automotive Exhibition of Bangladesh.

This event presents showdown for New Vehicles and aftermarket components of the rapidly expanding automotive market of Bangladesh in the Auto industry. Fifth Dhaka Bike Show 2019 was held in 14th March 2019 at International Convention City, Bashundhara (300 feet Kuril). The biggest bike fair arranged by CEMS Global and this 3 days program was ended 16 March 2019.

Exhibits include Vehicles: Cars, Sports Utility Vehicles, Multi Utility Vehicles, Commercial Vehicles, Buses, Trucks, Three Wheelers, Alternative energy-driven vehicles including battery operated vehicles, Motor Cycles, Scooters, Mopeds Automotive Components & Spares, Garage & Garage Equipment, Accessories, Insurance products & services.

There were displays of vehicles of different brands such as Honda, Tata Motors, Peugeot, Volvo, Yamaha, etc. Those who wanted to visit the three-day event had 2 options for the registration

(1) the pre-online registration and

(2) on spot registration.

Those who registered early in the pre-online registration didn’t have to pay any money but those who did on spot registration had to pay an amount of only 50/- and there were around 35K people who had visited the show. Also, there were sponsors who had contributed their money in order to make this event more successful.

At the last day, there was a segment where professional bike riders showed their skills and did some really awesome stunts. The main purpose of the entire event was to showcase the vehicles to the people who are interested to buy and also giving the motor enthusiasts full priority by taking feedback from them about how the event was. The motor enthusiasts play a vital role in the automobiles industry because a new innovation or design or an upgrade depends over their response and feedback. So to conclude the blog we can say that the following event wouldn’t have been successful without the effort of the investors, sponsors, organizers and most importantly the people who actually went to visit the show.