3D printing could lead to printed ‘smart materials’ with geometries that are nearly impossible to produce using other methods, with more research.
The medical 3D printing market is forecast to grow from just over $2 billion in sales in 2022 to $4 billion in 2026 at an annual growth rate of 21 per cent as it is offering new opportunities for personalisation and small-batch production of complicated parts.
Ashley Clarke, Medical Analyst at GlobalData, said that: 3D printing can be used to create custom prosthetics and implants to meet the individual needs of a patient, improving functionality and patient comfort.
“3D printed surgical guides can also aid surgeons performing joint replacement, spinal, and other complex surgeries, leading to improved accuracy and precision during procedures, increased success rate, and reduced recovery times.”
Greater design freedom
The 3D printing revenue in medical sector has been steadily increasing since 2018, due to its increasing applications in orthopedic, dental, interbody, surgical, and personalised devices, allowing new designs to be created at a fraction of the time and cost. This can help accelerate the development process for new devices.
“Unlike traditional manufacturing techniques, 3D printing offers greater design freedom and has little to no additional cost for increasing complexity of a design. Devices with intricate structures and internal cavities are now possible to manufacture,” Clarke said.
Moreover, he said that design iterations can also help to reduce components, weight, and cost, which is perfect for creating lightweight, compact medical devices with internal functionality.
More new use cases
With more research, Clarke added that 3D printing could also lead to printed ‘smart materials’ with geometries that are nearly impossible to produce using other methods. ‘Smart materials’ respond to stimuli in their environment, such as heat, moisture, or sound, and are promising for medical applications as they can enhance current devices with new properties and improved performance.
Prosthetic limbs with built-in sensitivity, self-expanding stents, self-healing joint replacements, and drug delivery devices that respond to infection are just some of the potential ‘smart’ devices.
Though still far from commercial production, research and design of these devices can benefit from the customisable, small-batch, low-cost, and design freedoms that 3D printing allows.
As investment in 3D printing continues to grow across all industries, Clarke said that the number of companies with 3D printing software, hardware, materials, and services increases.
“This will accelerate the decentralisation of medical device production and improve device accessibility and distribution. As the technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see more even more innovative and exciting medical applications.”
Third costliest domain name has no registered monthly website traffic
A new study by web hosting provider Hostinger has investigated the top seven most expensive domain names ever, to see how the sites are doing now, what traffic they receive and whether the outlay was worth it.
The world’s most expensive domain name currently receives only 88,000 visitors per month while the third costliest domain name has no registered monthly traffic.
People and companies have paid hundreds of millions of dollars for specific domain names – but is it always worth the return on investment and how much is a good website name worth?
Here is the list
1. Voice.com
Cost: $30 million in 2019
Current monthly traffic: 88.8k
The voice.com website describes Voice as “a team of technologists, artists and curators using the transformative power of NFTs to make digital art collectable.”
The company bought the domain name in June 2019 from enterprise analytics and software company MicroStrategy, but the $30 million investment doesn’t appeared to have delivered much return so far – Voice.com’s monthly traffic according to SimilarWeb currently stands at around 88,800.
360.com belongs to the Chinese internet security company 360 Security Technology Inc, and currently receives 23.9million monthly visitors, which ranks it as the 154th biggest website in China. The domain name was bought from Vodafone in February 2015 for $17 million .
3. NFTs.com
Cost: $15 million in 2022
Current monthly traffic: data not available
NFTs.com is one of the most recent sales in the top ten, after it was purchased in August 2022 for $15 million.
The site currently contains very little information, but says it is “powered by DigitalArtists.com Marketplace”. Despite the large price tag, there isn’t enough info for SimilarWeb to estimate its traffic, indicating that very few people are visiting the site.
4. Sex.com
Cost: $13million in 2010
Current monthly traffic: 64 million
This domain name was sold in November 2010 from Escom to Clover Holdings after it won an auction.
The provocative name receives more traffic than the rest of the top five sites combined, with 64 million visitors each month, and it was recently announced that the name is on sale once more, with minimum bids of $20 million.
5. Fund.com
Cost: $12 million in 2008
Current monthly traffic: 293k
Describing itself as “Your #1 source for financial information”, Fund.com was reportedly sold for $12 million in 2008, although some are skeptical of the figure.
It has since been sold again in 2019, and currently sees around 293,000 monthly visitors.
6. Hotels.com
Cost: $11 million in 2001
Current monthly traffic: 44.5 million
This is the oldest sale to make the list, and when adjusted for inflation, the $11 million paid for Hotels.com in 2001 is around $18.4 million in 2023.
The site receives the second most monthly traffic in the list, with around 44.5 million visitors
7. Tesla.com
Cost: $11million in 2014
Current monthly traffic: 16.9 million
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that it took 10 years to buy the Tesla.com domain name, eventually securing it from Silicon Valley engineer Stuart Grossman for around $11 million dollars. Today the site receives nearly 17 million monthly visitors, and the company’s market cap is around $630 billion.
“It’s fascinating to see how much money has exchanged hands for specific domain names – the cost of the seven names in the list adds up to more than $100 million. For multi-billion-dollar companies, the outlay is relatively small, especially if it secures your presence on the web, strengthens your brand and provides a good stream of traffic to your site,” a spokesperson for Hostinger said.
However, the spokesperson said that spending millions of dollars on the domain name doesn’t guarantee millions of website visitors.
The group aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2030 and all of its products will be produced from sustainable sources and energy concept factories.
Despite some challenges in some developing African markets and Pakistan, the brand expects close to 20% growth in its key markets – UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Japanese electronics brand Panasonic is expecting a 10 per cent revenue growth from the Middle East and African markets in the next fiscal year, which starts from March 2023.
Speaking to TechChannel News in an interview, Hiroyuki Shibutani, Managing Director for Panasonic Marketing Middle East and Africa (PMMAF), said that the company is making a good recovery in sales after Covid and “our profits are quite stable”.
“We are expecting close to 20 per cent growth in our key markets such as UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman despite some challenges in some developing African markets and Pakistan,” he said.
For the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2023, the Japanese giant is expecting a 10 per cent growth, led by the consumer sector and products such as air conditioners and small kitchen appliances.
Even though Panasonic launched new TV models, Shibutani said that they just started selling TVs in Saudi Arabia, the biggest market in the region, despite the lack of presence for many years.
“So, we expect some growth in TV sales this fiscal year. Despite making a profit in the last three years amid tough market and economic conditions, we were not able to grow substantially,” he said.
However, he said that they are seeing new growth opportunities in the regional e-commerce space and in new premium products that focus on people’s health, hygiene and well-being.
Last year, the brand launched more than 60 models and will be adding more to the portfolio this year.
New action slogan
In the e-commerce space, Panasonic currently focuses on three main markets – UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt – and contributes about 20 per cent to the group’s regional sales.
Shibutani said that the brand’s new action slogan – “Create Today. Enrich Tomorrow” – will provide innovative products and solutions to help people live their best lives and make life simpler, safer, healthier and more enjoyable.
“We will continue to work hard to contribute to a more sustainable future not only through green operations strategy but also through the development of more energy-saving products and supplying energy-saving solutions and green energy technologies by 2030,” he said.
By 2030, Panasonic Group aims to achieve net zero emissions and all of its products will be produced from sustainable sources and energy concept factories.
Reducing CO2 emissions
“We don’t have any factories in the Middle East and Africa but our value chain will be net zero by 2030,” he said.
The four major items which we recycle are TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners in many regions. Depending on how fast the recycling regulation takes place in the region, we may set up a recycling plant in the Middle East soon.
“We do some recycling but our value chain does it on behalf of Panasonic. Recycling is one of our key factors to achieve net zero emission and make progress towards a greener planet for tomorrow,” he said.
Panasonic Group, by 2050, aims to contribute a total of more than 300 million tonnes in CO2 emissions, including 110 million tonnes from its value chain and avoided emissions of approx. 200 million tonnes.
Within this, Panasonic Corporation aims to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 150 million tonnes by 2050, which is about half of the Group’s total target.
Despite being one of the oldest consumer technology brands globally, South Korean and Chinese brands are eating into Panasonic’s market share and profitability.
Losing in price competitiveness
Shibutani agreed that South Korean and Chinese companies, with a young mindset, have learnt a lot from Japanese companies in the existing business and “we are losing in price competitiveness”.
“We are shifting to a new premium range, which will be competitive to the Korean and Chinese brands and focusing on new business areas such as supply chain solutions and EV batteries, in which the competitors are not very competitive,” he said.
To strengthen its supply chain solution offerings, Panasonic acquired digital fulfilment platform provider Blue Yonder in 2021 and expects to invest up to about 600 billion yen in the three years through March 2025 in a new battery plant it started building in Kansas last year.
According to SNE Research, Panasonic is ranked the fourth largest battery maker with a 7.3 per cent market share.
Contemporary Amperex Technology is the leader with a 37 per cent share, followed by BYD with 13.6 per cent and LG with 13.6 per cent.
Most insurers struggle to upgrade legacy technology to satisfy industry and consumer expectations, even when they are ready for digital transformation.
Those who innovate to satisfy the identified needs of their consumers will have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The expectations of insurance clients have been altered by aggregator websites, telematics, and mobile apps.
In the past few decades, technology has drastically transformed the manner in which we purchase products and services, including insurance.
Previously, purchasing insurance required an in-person meeting with a brokerage. However, as the world evolved, insurers began selling directly to consumers, and with the emergence of the internet, it became possible to purchase insurance online.
Shortly afterward, aggregators appeared, and it became possible to obtain several quotes simultaneously. Smart mobile devices enabled consumers to directly engage with insurers via a pocket-sized app, and the digital revolution continues to this day.
Nick Curran.
The UAE continues to be the largest insurance market in the GCC, accounting for 43.7 per cent of the region’s gross written premiums (GWP) in 2020, with Saudi Arabia following closely with Saudi Arabia in close second with a ranking of 39.1 per cent share of the GWP.
Moreover, the UAE’s insurance premiums are expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 4.1 per cent between 2021-26. Expansion of compulsory business lines, growing standards of regulation, the growth of digitisation initiatives by insurers as well as favourable immigration policies are likely to support its growth.
Although it can be challenging to keep up with the rapid evolution of technology and customer expectations in today’s highly interconnected world, there are several ways insurers can leverage technology to better meet customer expectations and differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Focus on customer experience
Providing a more unified and streamlined client experience is one of the most important differentiators today. In order to accomplish this effectively, insurance firms will need to implement the appropriate technological systems.
We have discovered, however, that many insurers are still utilizing legacy technologies, resulting in a significant amount of inefficient processes occurring behind the scenes. This results in a frustratingly slow experience for customers.
According to Endava’s report, “Top Trends That Will Underpin Digital Acceleration in Insurance,” most insurers struggle to upgrade legacy technology to satisfy industry and consumer expectations, even when they are ready for digital transformation.
Modernisation enables firms to examine the end-to-end user journey and design or update legacy systems with the customer experience at the core. While many insurers are still focused on their products, a customer-centric approach can help differentiate their offers.
Collecting the appropriate data
Data is essential to delivering a superior client experience. This implies that insurers must not only acquire the appropriate data, but also utilise it throughout the crucial stages of the customer’s journey.
As per the report, insurers must first comprehend the data they are already gathering, the new data they need to collect, how to collect it, and how it can be used to their benefit.
Data needs to be accessible from a central location in order to be utilised when required, which may demand the implementation of new technologies.
While other insurers might struggle to comprehend the data they possess, having a centralised data source may give you the advantage of being light-years ahead of them in terms of utilizing it to improve the customer journey.
Individualisation throughout the journey
Once firms have their data collection and utilisation in order, they can then use it to personalise their customer journey.
With this granular data, insurers can begin using AI or predictive analytics to deliver products catered to their customer’s needs, quotes that are competitive not just in price, but in overall coverage, and a claims journey that is straightforward and efficient.
Personalisation across the client experience increases customer satisfaction and reduces customer loss, helping insurers stand out from their competitors during the customer journey.
The vast amount of data required for efficient AI and predictive analytics may need a reevaluation of how data is stored and utilised.
In legacy systems, data is often fragmented and siloed in the different departments due to the system’s inability to consolidate information. Insurers can reap the benefits of AI and Analytics by making changes to their data strategy.
Using innovation as a differentiator
Another advantage of advancements such as AI and machine learning is that they enable more sophisticated and valuable data utilisation as well as the development of predictive algorithms.
These algorithms have the potential to be commodified and used to provide insight into consumer behaviour and potential risk, insurers can then leverage this insight to identify the actual, genuine needs of present and prospective clients, allowing them to develop innovative products to meet these needs.
Insurers who innovate to satisfy the identified needs of their consumers will have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The constant evolution of technology has created substantial opportunities for insurers seeking to stand apart. By streamlining and personalizing the customer journey and using data to their advantage, insurers can enhance the customer experience and maintain their competitiveness in a market that is constantly evolving.
The writer Nick Curran is the Head of Endava MENA.
Disputes over politics, religion, and ideology are frequently accompanied by attack campaigns to disrupt the online operations and communications capabilities of governments, organisations, communities of interest, and individuals.
Militarily capable nation-states are increasingly openly embracing online aggression, with the realisation that their actions may result in kinetic responses that introduce deadly new dimensions of unpredictability into already volatile situations.
Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks are an increasingly popular attack vector used by cybercriminals. They aim to disrupt the regular traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic.
DDoS attacks also target mission-critical business applications that organisations rely on to manage daily operations.
NETSCOUT’s latest threat intelligence report found that countries across the Middle East and Africa, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, have experienced DDoS attacks on critical industries such as telecom, aviation, and data processing services.
One of the ways DDoS has been used globally is as a weapon in geopolitical conflicts. Since the early 2000s, DDoS attacks with socio-political motivations have been a regular feature of the internet.
Disputes over politics, religion, and ideology are frequently accompanied by attack campaigns to disrupt the online operations and communications capabilities of governments, organisations, communities of interest, and individuals.
Emad Fahmy
This phenomenon has never been more visible than during the first half of 2022.
DDoS attacks driven by conflict, which were previously deemed local or regional in nature, have global implications and collateral damage. This is especially true when the socioeconomic model continues to globalize and integrate.
Similarly, militarily capable nation-states are increasingly openly embracing online aggression, with the realisation that their actions may result in kinetic responses that introduce deadly new dimensions of unpredictability into already volatile situations.
2022: A record-setting year
NETSCOUT reported more than six million cyberattacks in the first half of 2022. Of these attacks, a majority corresponded with national or regional conflicts.
DDoS attacks, in comparison to other sorts of cyber threats, can be launched rather swiftly. Furthermore, while DDoS attacks can create significant damage on their own, they can also obscure or divert attention away from more serious concerns.
The majority of the high-profile DDoS attack campaigns seen in the first half of 2022 have coincided with national or regional conflicts that elicited global responses.
Indeed, the majority of DDoS attacks are essentially transnational in scope and scale, with skilled bad actors increasingly conducting significant pre-attack reconnaissance to identify critical elements in their targets’ service delivery chains to ensure the success of adaptive DDoS attacks.
As a result, businesses and individuals who have no visible interest in a particular geopolitical event are adversely affected by related DDoS attacks.
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in early 2022, cyberattacks have become an increasingly important component of the offensive playbook, with more than 80 per cent of security professionals now believing that geopolitics and cybersecurity are inextricably linked.
Similarly,66 per cent of firms have adjusted their cybersecurity tactics in response to the conflict, and 64% believe they have been the target of a nation-state cyberattack.
Attackers think locally, attack globally
DDoS trends from the first half of 2022 show that many nation-states are abandoning strategic ambiguity in favor of open hybrid warfare, and as unpleasant as that is, it is important to use caution and restraint when attributing those attacks, because many challenges remain when it comes to positively identifying online perpetrators.
DDoS is an effective method for disrupting networks and lowering morale in countries experiencing social instability. But opponents don’t need a specific motive to launch an attack; they can do it under the pretext of activism, religion, nihilism, military conquest, and other guises.
In this situation, the best way to avoid collateral damage is to constantly review DDoS risk factors, particularly those connected to direct service delivery elements, supply chain partners, and other dependencies.
Organisations must ensure that important public-facing servers, services, applications, content, and supporting infrastructure are suitably protected.
They should also ensure that DDoS defense plans reflect ideal current setups and operational situations, and that the plans are tested on a regular basis to ensure that they can be applied successfully as needed.
Overall, events over the last year have demonstrated that DDoS attacks, whether undertaken by nation-states, ideological groups, or rogue individuals, are not going away anytime soon.
DDoS is a powerful technique for disrupting networks and undermining morale in countries experiencing geopolitical turmoil, with fresh attacks occurring on a daily basis. In this time of war and global turmoil, organisations must be vigilant in their defense.
Emad Fahmy is a Systems Engineering Manager for Middle East at NETSCOUT.
More and more companies will turn to metaverse dating as a way to reach new customers and to get better matchmaking, Co-founder says.
Metaverse will continue to develop as more individuals start to date virtually to find a partner who shares common interests and values.
People have been exploring dating virtually with the development and growing acceptance of the metaverse.
Metaverse had made it possible to have a first date with someone sitting on another continent and have dinner on the moon or visit exotic places hand in hand as the saying goes “Love has no boundaries”.
There are more than 150 virtual reality dating apps such as Flirtual, Lonely Hearts, Nevermet, Planet Theta, Tinder, Bumble, VRChat, Second Life, etc.
A report from McKinsey & Company estimates that the Metaverse could potentially generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030 due to its potential to be used in a variety of consumer and business applications.
According to a recent survey by Dating.com, many people are interested in using the Metaverse for dating. In the survey, one-third of singles indicated that they would be interested in dating in a virtual world.
An Indian company – Graphity – is making it more interesting and taking it one step ahead with its “OntheMoons” platform.
Set to launch on February 10, 2023, the platform has added a social media element into it to create more possibilities and opportunities.
Piyush Aggrawal, Co-founder of Graphity.
Piyush Aggrawal, Co-founder of Graphity, speaking to TechChannel News in an exclusive interview, said that people don’t need a VR headset to experience their platform, it is also browser-based.
Even though the VR headset market is projected to grow rapidly, with gaming stealing the spotlight, statistics show that only one in 5000 people have a headset.
Aggrawal said that VR headset is a stumbling block right now and to make them more accessible to common people, Graphity made them browser-based and mobile-based so people can access them on desktop, laptop or smartphones and to give a more depth and chat experience.
Before launching the dating platform, Aggrawal used to offer NFTs for film artists and standup comedians.
Offering a personalised experience
“We realised that we should move to the metaverse as there is huge growth potential. Later we did a lot of fashion shows, weddings, exhibitions, award shows and product launches. Most of our clients are from UAE, India and Europe,” he said.
“People come to us with requirements and we make projects in metaverse on our platforms. We help our clients navigate through the virtual world – by embracing new technologies – giving them a competitive advantage.”
Moreover, he said that their platform is quite different as people need to express themselves more in other apps.
“In a chat, you cannot express more in a better way. We offer a personalised experience in a metaverse.,” he said.
On the platform, people can set different locations to meet, after creating a virtual avatar.
“In a dating app, nobody wants to show their real personality. On our platform, you can show your real picture or a virtual avatar. People can go to a bar, cinema or a club in a virtual environment to make life in the metaverse more fun than in real life,” Aggrawal said.
Target of catfishing
People are turning to dating in the metaverse because the male–female ratio is 70%-30%, he said and added that 70% of the data on dating apps are bots and fake.
“Most of the males on the dating apps create a female profile picture and with that, lots of frauds are taking place. We want to show the real data. Whenever there is matchmaking on our platform, we ask for a live picture to make sure it is not a bot or a Google image,” he said.
Florida State University research revealed that as many as 77% of women and 66% of men have been a target of catfishing.
“Moreover, half of online daters believe that many people set up fake profiles to scam others. On top of that, as many as 48% say that receiving sexually explicit messages and images they didn’t ask for, is very common,” the study showed.
To make it more stringent, Aggrawal said that all the data sit in a virtual private cloud and no criminals can break into it.
“Every metaverse session between a girl and a boy is valid only when they enter the platform and after that, it gets expired. Even for this purpose, we are not using AI right now but we may plan it at a later stage,” he said.
More companies to follow
More and more companies will turn to metaverse dating as a way to reach new customers and to get better matchmaking; he said that they are ready to go live on dating platforms and even in India, matchmaking apps are mushrooming.
“Parents are more supporting dating apps to know the boy or a girl better. To find a good companion you cannot sit at home, you have to put in the effort. To know a person on another continent, dating apps are the only way to get a good companion and are more interesting. Metaverse offers an immersive experience that is not possible in the physical world,” he said.
More singles open to dating
The McKinsey report said that the metaverse is simply too big to be ignored, highlighting the impact it could have on commercial and personal lives and estimates that over 50% of live events could be held in the metaverse by 2030.
“With advancements in dating app technology and the metaverse, more daters are open to making connections that span different cities, countries and even continents. With metaverse in the picture, singles are open to dating people from different geographical locations,” the report said.
Aggrawal said that the metaverse will continue to develop as more individuals start to date virtually to find a partner who shares common interests and values.
To make it profitable, he said that the first 10,000 users, it is going to be free.
After that, whenever there is matchmaking, he said that there is an option to meet in the metaverse and for that, they have to take a subscription and which is $29 per year.
