Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi to receive payment in cryptocurrency tokens as part of his move from Barcelona to French club PSG.
The old-fashioned methods of raising capital from expansion are outdated and a growing number of companies harness the enormous potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.
Paying Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi in Ethereum-based cryptocurrency highlights that cryptocurrencies are now almost universally recognised as the future of money, chief executive and founder of deVere Group said.
World’s biggest footballer will receive payment in cryptocurrency tokens as part of his move from Barcelona to the French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
Nigel Green said that PSG only disclosed that the actual amount in fan token is ‘significant’, but media reports are estimating that the amount could be between 25 to 30 million euros.
The club says fan tokens will help in closing the star player with millions of PSG fans.
Manchester City launched its fan token in March using the same technology.
The fan token, created by crypto platform Socios, is a type of non-fungible token (NFT) that is mostly built on Ethereum-based blockchain technology.
Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, fan tokens are also considered a digital asset, and they trade on exchanges.
One can buy fan tokens against real-world money for various reasons including becoming a part of the key decision-making process through voting.
PSG fan token prices surge
The trading volume of PSG fan tokens exceeded 722 million euros before Messi’s arrival and new sales generated about 30 million euros. The token price surged close to 130 per cent in five days amid reports of Messi’s arrival.
“They are doing this as a way to drive interest and investment into the clubs. If anyone still doesn’t believe that cryptocurrencies are the future of money, investments and raising capital, they are “already considerably behind the curve,” the CEO said.
“Digital, borderless money in our increasingly digitalised world makes sense, especially at a time when traditional currencies have been devalued by governments printing unprecedented amounts of them.”
Demographics are also on the side of cryptocurrencies; he said and added that millennials – who are beneficiaries of the largest-ever generational transfer of wealth, predicted to be more than $60 trillion from baby boomers to millennials over the next three decades – have grown up on technology.
“Cryptocurrencies are, by their very nature, tech-driven and their long-term trajectory is secure but digital assets are more than a form of payment and a store of value in the usual sense,” Green said.
The deVere CEO also believes that increasingly they will be used by businesses to raise capital.
“We can expect a growing number of companies to harness the enormous potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Times are evolving, and the old-fashioned methods of raising capital from expansion are outdated.
“Moving forward, it will become standard for business leaders to be seeking to raise significant capital and awareness for their organisations – thereby providing considerable growth opportunities – in a cost-effective way through establishing their own digital tokens.”
Those who do not see digital assets as the future for money, investments and raising capital are, Green believes, already considerably behind the curve.
Average ransomware payment climbed 82% since 2020 to a record $570,000 in the first half of 2021.
Average ransom demand increased by 518% in the first half of this year to $5.3m.
The highest ransom demand of a single victim seen by Unit 42 rose to $50m in the first half of 2021 from $30m last year.
Cybercrime groups are expected to hone tactics for coercing victims into paying and also develop new approaches for making attacks more disruptive.
Ransomware operators are getting greedy and are increasingly leveraging four approaches to persuade victims to pay – encryption, data theft, DDoS and harassment.
That’s a big shift from last year where ransomware operators were conducting double extortion – encryption and data theft/leak.
Ramarcus Baylor, senior director at Unit 42, said that the rise of “quadruple extortion” is one disturbing trend identified as they handled dozens of ransomware cases in the first half of 2021.
“We already knew it was getting worse from following the news, and many of us also knew from personal experience. Ransomware attacks have prevented us from accessing work computers, pushed up meat prices, led to gasoline shortages, shut down schools, delayed legal cases, prevented some of us from getting our cars inspected and caused some hospitals to turn away patients,” he said.
Unit 42, the threat intelligence team of Palo Alto Networks, said that the average ransomware payment climbed 82 per cent since 2020 to a record $570,000 in the first half of 2021, as cybercriminals employed increasingly aggressive tactics to coerce organisations into paying larger ransoms.
Cybercriminals have implemented devious new cyber extortion techniques as average ransom demand increased by 518 per cent in the first half of this year to $5.3 million.
Compared to the first half of 2020, the average ransom demand stood at $847,000.
The world changed with pandemic and ransomware operators took advantage to prey on organisations.
The increase comes after the average payment last year surged 171 per cent to more than $312,000.
Moreover, the highest ransom paid by an organisation doubled from 2019 to 2020, from $5 million to $10 million.
From 2015 to 2019, the highest ransomware demand was $15 million. In 2020, the highest ransomware demand grew to $30 million.
JBS’ payment is highest this year
“Ransomware operators now commonly use as many as four techniques for pressuring victims into paying,” Baylor said.
Jeremy Brown, Principal Consultant at Unit 42, said that while it’s rare for one organisation to be the victim of all four techniques, this year they have increasingly seen ransomware gangs engage in additional approaches when victims don’t pay up after encryption and data theft.
The highest ransom demand of a single victim seen by Unit 42 rose to $50 million in the first half of 2021 from $30 million last year.
The largest confirmed payment, so far this year, was the $11 million that JBS SA disclosed after a massive attack in June. Last year, the largest payment observed was $10 million.
Small businesses still on radar
John Martineau, Principal Consultant at Unit 42, said that they expect the ransomware crisis to continue to gain momentum over the coming months, as cybercrime groups further hone tactics for coercing victims into paying and also develop new approaches for making attacks more disruptive.
“We’ve started to see ransomware gangs encrypt a type of software known as a hypervisor, which can corrupt multiple virtual instances running on a single server. We expect to see increased targeting of hypervisors and other managed infrastructure software in the coming months.
“We also expect to see more targeting of managed service providers and their customers in the wake of the attack that leveraged Kaseya remote management software, which was used to distribute ransomware to clients of managed service providers (MSPs),” he said.
Baylor expects to see some gangs continue to target small businesses that lack resources to invest heavily in cybersecurity.
So far this year, groups such as NetWalker, SunCrypt and Lockbit are demanding and taking in payments ranging from $10,000 to $50,000.
“While they may seem small compared to the largest ransoms we observed, payments that size can have a debilitating impact on a small organization,” Baylor said.
Some of the world’s most prolific ransomware gangs:
Companies have to find ways to manage spending on technology that runs the business, while investing more in technology that grows and improves the business.
Modernising or investing in next-generation architecture, moving more workloads to as-a-service and pay-per-usage platforms, and pushing automation to its full potential are all ways to contract the cost base to make room for growth.
As companies deploy new technologies, including automation, AI, cloud hosting, service platforms and others to make their businesses more digital and efficient, all businesses are becoming technology businesses.
In a post-Covid environment, natural forces are accelerating this dynamic and the need to digitise and virtualise. This expansion, from physical into digital, means that many functions and activities that were traditionally labour-based are now technology-based.
Although the tech budget may grow, total costs should decrease. With the demand for technology continuing to grow as new capabilities become available, companies have to find ways to manage spending on technology that runs the business, while investing more in technology that grows and improves the business.
As tech spending increases, it has proliferated across the functions of the business. Across sectors, more than half of spending on information technology comes from other back-end functions or the lines of business themselves.
Tom De Waele, Managing Partner, Bain & Company Middle East.
Companies need to take a more sophisticated approach to build an accurate view of spending. Traditional benchmarks, such as IT spending as a percentage of expense or revenue, maybe irrelevant and misleading because they are based on the outdated idea that proportionally lower spending on technology leads to better business outcomes.
The critical challenge then becomes: Once companies understand their technology spending, how can they best control and manage it to invest more in growth?
Three horizons to reduce base costs
Cost transformation is no longer an event or a limited program of several months. Because the need for technology investment continues to grow, the corresponding need to reduce run costs must also be continuous.
Fortunately, the law of experience curves, the growing capabilities of technology to automate processes, and the adoption of agile and development, security, and operations methodologies all combine to make processes and development more cost-effective. Technology requires new investment, but it also reduces the spending for ongoing operations.
Because cost transformation must be ongoing, executives can think of actions as happening in three waves.
Reduce
Short-term actions can help recapture 10 per cent to 20 per cent of costs, some of that in the first few months. Many of these are business decisions (hiring freezes, pausing nonstrategic projects, tightening spending), while others are technology decisions (squeezing higher utilization rates from servers and storage).
Cost is often measured as quantity x price. In the case of technology spending, the business usually has more control over quantity, by managing consumption and demand for IT services, while the technology team has more control over the price—whether through higher utilization rates or renegotiating with vendors and suppliers.
The key to any reduction program is managing demand, without which companies are likely to reduce their capabilities in ways that can impair results.
Replace
Companies can wring another 20 per cent to 30 per cent out of costs by replacing costly technology infrastructure with less expensive alternatives. Many of these opportunities increase the variability of costs, which aligns spending more closely with actual demand.
Examples include replacing on-premise software with SaaS applications, outsourcing more work, seeking out hosting services with more manageable, variable, on-demand hosting solutions, and refining the operating model to include more Agile development and automation.
Changing these models can incur short-term costs, but companies need to balance these against the opportunity to reduce longer-term costs.
Rethink
The most significant and sustainable cost savings, 30 per cent to 40 per cent, come from fundamentally rethinking and reengineering technology (architecture, services, processes, and even the operating model itself), or by simplifying the business and the associated IT.
Modernising or investing in next-generation architecture, moving more workloads to as-a-service and pay-per-usage platforms, and pushing automation to its full potential are all ways to contract the cost base to make room for growth.
Some companies are getting to the next level of productivity by accelerating a DevSecOps operating model across the entire technology function and by enabling more remote work with better communication and collaboration tools.
Diligence, design, and delivery
Successful transformations begin by investing the time to scan the organisation, analyse cost drivers, and identify opportunities for cost optimisation.
Companies will have different criteria for prioritizing these opportunities, but in most cases, they will want to tackle a few easy wins first to build momentum. In either case, the leaders of the cost transformation need to pressure-test the business’ commitment to change, to ensure consensus as they begin to move forward.
With priorities in hand, design and delivery begin. Agile sprints are the best way to manage cross-functional collaboration that gathers user feedback and incorporates it to improve the next version.
Project leads set the ambition for baseline costs, and then Agile teams work with the technology organisation to develop initiatives that reduce costs. New solutions get tested and refined as the tech organisation carries them out.
Across initiatives, leaders will want to define a new normal in cost, reflecting a changed mindset about baseline costs and ensuring that the work remains an ongoing effort.
Executing the first initiatives, often in the Reduce category, can help gain traction and gather important feedback for the rollout of more significant Replace and Rethink initiatives. And, of course, teams will need to ensure accountability for hitting targets.
The recovery from the Covid-19 is likely to put new pressures on many organizations as they continue to ramp up operations to meet reviving demand.
Many companies took advantage of a decline in activity to invest in new technologies that could help increase their resilience, speed their recovery, and place them in leading positions in the next wave of growth.
Now, by gaining better control of their spending on the costs to keep their businesses running, companies can extend their abilities to invest in technology that moves their businesses ahead.
Tom De Waele is the Managing Partner of Bain & Company Middle East.
Emirate to allocate resources for 5G technology to drive digital transformation, internet of things and smart cities.
The sale of devices supporting 2G will be stopped in June 2022.
UAE to shut down 2G (GSM) telecom network by the end of 2022, after 28 years, in a bid to allocate resources for 5G technology to drive digital transformation, internet of things and smart cities.
The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) announced that the sale of devices supporting 2G only will be stopped in June 2022 in the UAE markets.
The authority is currently working, in cooperation with service providers (Etisalat and du), to provide the best services by building modern and advanced networks that meet the users’ current and future requirements.
Despite 4G being the dominant technology, 5G adoption is growing in momentum for both the network and device domains.
In the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, 4G accounted for about 80 per cent of the subscriptions at the end of 2020, according to Ericsson’s Mobility Report.
By 2026, 5G is expected to account for over 62 million, representing about 73 per cent of total mobile subscriptions and will make the GCC the region with the second-highest 5G penetration rate.
UAE is keen to make the city completely paperless, ensuring all government transactions are 100 per cent digitised, as part of Smart Dubai Vision.
Ambitious plans for digital transformation are apparent in the number of high visibility sporting and cultural events to be hosted by GCC countries over the next three years. These include Expo 2020 (to take place in the UAE from October 2021 through March 2022) and a 2022 international football tournament in Qatar.
To launch four e-bikes in UAE and bookings to start from August 1.
Startup aims to touch revenues of $25m this year, including B2B supply.
With the Dubai Expo coming, it is the right place to catch eyeballs, co-founder says.
Plans to enter into Africa, Southeast Asia, North America and the US this financial year.
B2C, whcih contributes 10% to its revenues now, is expected to increase to 70% in next three years.
Global electronic bicycles or e-bike manufacturers beware, an Indian startup – EMotorad – flexes its muscles and gears up to spread its wings into the global arena.
“The startup was started in 2020 with a vision of moving India to greener mobility. When we launched our products we were unaware of how the market is going to respond. Fortunately, we had a huge welcome from the crowd and sold 1,200 units in the first month,” Kunal Gupta, co-founder and CEO of EMotorad, said in an exclusive interview to TechChannel News.
The company has four enthusiastic and energetic cofounders – Aditya Oza, Sumedh Battewar, Rajib Gangopadhyay, apart from Kunal Gupta.
“We four came together to build out a team, with an investment of $3 million, and make a mark in the EV space. We have launched three products in the Indian market – EMX, Trex and Doodle. We have sold more than 10,000 units in India and touching revenue of $15 million and expect to touch $25 million this year, including B2B,” Gupta said.
EMX is India’s first dual-suspension e-bike with a price of Rs54,990, T-Rex (mountain e-bike, designed for rough terrain with a price of Rs38,990), and Doodle (fat tyre and foldable SUV of e-bikes with a price of Rs75,990).
The startup has been working in the B2B space for the last four years, supplying white-labelled e-bikes to various companies globally and present in more than 58 countries.
According to research firm Mordor Intelligence, India’s e-bike market was valued at $1.02 million in 2020, and it is expected to reach $2.08 million by 2026, with an annual growth rate of 12.69 per cent.
The Indian e-bike market is moderately fragmented with the presence of many startups and companies, such as Hero Cycles, GoZero, Trek bikes, GoZero Mobility, Zadd Bikes, Eadicct Mobility Solutions, Being Human, Giant Bicycles Co, and others.
UAE is gateway to the world
EMotorad is making UAE the stepping stone to the outside world in the B2C space.
Aditya Oza, co-founder and CMO of EMotorad, said that they are a young startup.
“We had a lot of options in exploring the world but we selected UAE because the Emirate does not accept everything but only the best. It is an Emirate with people from all parts of the world and with different requirements. The Emirate is also the gate to the world and is the right place to catch the eyesight,” he said.
With the Dubai Expo coming, he said that they found this to be the perfect time for them to step in as it attracts eyeballs from around the world.
Dubai Expo is taking place from October 1 to March 31, this year.
Sumedh Battewar, co-founder and CBO at EMotorad, said that they are introducing four e-bikes – T-Rex, Doodle, Trible and ENER-G to the UAE market.
ENER-G is a mini scooter, exclusively designed for the delivery segment while Trible is a tri-fold e-bike for the last-mile commute.
“The bookings will begin from August 1. The brand will also go live on online marketplaces such as Amazon and Noon.com besides our official website. We will also be tying up with dealers across the UAE,” he said.
The price ranges from AED3,000 to AED4,500 in the UAE.
In India, Battewar said that they have brick and mortar stores across more than 49 cities and in more than 20 states, with more than 150 active dealers.
The company is targeting segments such as leisure, recreational rides, health and commute for all age groups.
Rajib Gangopadhyay, a founder of EMotorad, said that the UAE government is proactive in terms of promoting EV and the infrastructure is happening as we speak today.
Global expansion plans
“EV is the future as the petrol prices are rising day by day. The global shift towards electric mobility is now inevitable. We are taking up small countries and trying our products in Africa and we have already moved into Southeast Asia and we are concentrating towards North America and the US. Our products will be available in these countries in this financial year,” he said.
The majority of the mechanical components are sourced in India, while the electronic components are imported from China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, the US, etc.
B2B right now contributes about 90 per cent to the revenues of EMotorad and expects B2C to contribute about 70 per cent in the next three years.
“We want people to come and experience our products and we are not looking at sales figures or revenues in the UAE for the time being,” he said.
This financial year, he said that they are expecting to sell between 8,000 and 10,000 units in India.
“In the last three months, we have sold about 3,000 units,” he said.
Gupta said that they want to expand globally, supply more products and educate more people about EVs.
“We call ourselves as an EV company rather than an e-bike company. In the next five to 10 years, we may launch an e-bike or an e-car, who knows. The US and Europe are the biggest EV-adopted markets but there are other small countries which are catching up very fast,” he said.
Who knows, the next Tesla of e-cycles could be EMotorad.
5G performance was strongest in Middle East and weakest in Europe: Ookla
Abu Dhabi, UAE, was ranked third for the fastest 5G performance among world capitals in the first half of the year as mobile operators are rapidly expanding 5G deployments.
According to Ookla Speedtest Intelligence, Oslo, Norway, had the fastest 5G with a median download speed of 526.74Mbps, followed by Seoul, South Korea, with a median download speed of 467.84Mbps, Abu Dhabi with 421.26Mbps and Doha, Qatar, with 413.40Mbps.
South Africa had the slowest median download speed over 5G at 53.33Mbps.
5G is rapidly improving across the world and mobile network operators around the world are working hard to ensure their networks are ready with the fastest 5G speeds and the best 5G availability.
In Abu Dhabi, Etisalat was the fastest 5G provider with a median download speed of 461.07Mbps download and median upload speed of 43.33Mbps and du was second with a median download speed of 270.95Mbps and median upload speed of 26.21Mbps. Etisalat showed 32.8 per cent 5G availability and du showed 26.7 per cent 5G availability.
When it comes to cities, Seoul had the fastest 5G with a median download speed of 467.87Mbps, followed by Abu Dhabi with speeds of 421.26 Mbps, Dubai with 417.07Mbps, Doha with 413.40Mbps and Riyadh with 384.66 Mbps.
Warsaw had the slowest 5G with a median download speed of 80.18Mbps.
According to Ookla, 5G performance was strongest in the Middle East, weakest in Europe.
Abu Dhabi, Dammam, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait City and Riyadh all showed above-average 5G download speeds and 5G availability in the first half of 2021. In contrast, many European cities — Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Vienna and Warsaw —with below-average 5G download speeds and 5G availability.
With the power to support millions of devices at ultrafast speeds, 5G has the potential to change lives. Capturing the full benefits of this new 5G era depends on having a network capable of supporting next-generation capabilities and features.
