International Guide to E-Commerce

Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, is set to blast off on board his company Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle for a suborbital flight as part of a history-making crew – another milestone in ushering in a new era of private space travel. The US billionaire and Amazon founder is due to fly from a desert site in West Texas on a voyage nine days after British rival Richard Branson went on his competing space tourism company Virgin Galactic’s successful inaugural suborbital flight from New Mexico. What time is lift-off? Barring technical or weather-related delays, Bezos’s New Shepard is due to blast off at about 8am CDT (13:00 GMT) from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One facility about 32km outside the rural Texas town of Van Horn. Will Bezos’s launch vehicle actually reach space? Technically, New Shepard will only go as high as the edge of space, or the so-called Kármán line set by an international aeronautics body as defining the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space...

The United States is weighing new sanctions on Iran’s oil sales to China as a way to pressure Tehran to commit to a nuclear deal, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Monday. US negotiators continue to work with European and international partners in Vienna, Austria in an attempt to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the 2015 agreement that curbs Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of some of the sanctions Tehran faces. But as those negotiations stall, the US is mulling alternative options to encourage Iran to stay at the negotiating table or up the cost of leaving it, US officials and people familiar with the matter told the WSJ. One option under consideration would reduce Iran’s growing crude sales to China, the newspaper reported. “There is not much left to sanction in Iran’s economy,” a US official told the WSJ. “Iran’s oil sales to China is the prize.” Beijing is Tehran’s main oil client. In the plan und...

Shenzhen, China – China’s billionaires are becoming terribly generous of late. In recent months, Wang Xing, the chairman and founder of food delivery giant Meituan, donated around $2.7bn in stocks to his personal charity promoting scientific research and education, along with several other large gifts. After Colin Huang, founder of e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, resigned as chairman of the company in March, he gifted around $1.85bn to an educational fund. And earlier this year He Xiangjian of the Midea home appliances empire and Xu Jiayin of the Evergrande real estate empire forked over roughly $975m and $370m respectively to poverty alleviation, medical care and cultural programmes. The list of largesse goes on and on, with some, billionaires like Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok parent ByteDance, giving around $77m for education to his hometown of Longyan in Fujian province, and former Olympic diving great Guo Jingjing donating $10m to the city of Wuhan. But behind this surge of pri...

San Francisco locals spoke with Fox News and reacted to the rampant shoplifting and car break-ins. Shoplifting and car break-ins are becoming more brazen in San Francisco and residents, business owners and employees told Fox News they’re becoming increasingly frustrated. “This is really bad. I’ve been in the Bay area 20 years, I’ve never seen this,” a local security guard, J.C. Hernandez, told Fox News. “It’s just lawlessness,” he continued. “People are just openly coming in and stealing stuff.” One local employee, Gianni, who didn’t want to give his last name, told Fox News: “It’s getting worse and worse.” California Retail Association President Rachel Michelin told Fox News the extent of the problem “blows your mind away.” She said multi-millions of dollars worth of merchandise is being stolen from retailers in San Francisco and the money is ultimately used by crime syndicates. Shoplifters aren’t stealing “one or two items that someone might need to get by,” San Francisco P...

As a business, you’re probably no stranger to SaaS; from popular VOIP trends to account management software, there seems to be a SaaS product for every problem out there. Short for software as a service, SaaS has proliferated the business scene and looks set to continue its growth – in fact, the mobile SaaS market is expected to reach up to 7.4% billion by the end of 2021. So what exactly is it, and how can it help your business productivity? What is SaaS? SaaS is a way of delivering business applications and tools over the internet. Whether you need help demolishing your company’s first computer bug , want to automate tasks, or require a cloud communications platform, there’s bound to be a SaaS product out there that meets your organization’s needs. What kinds of SaaS products are available? SaaS has exploded within the last decade, so your range of choice is huge. When deciding what kind of SaaS is best for your business, you’ll want to go over your goals and current strategy....

“Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes” THAT is Goodhart’s law…and before I’d ever heard of it, it had already torpedoed my startup, threatening to sink it beneath the waves. Charles Goodman is a world renowned theorist of monetary policy with a mindboggling penchant for linking the abstract with everyday pragmatism. Most of his career can be divided between the time he spent at the Bank of England and that which he spent at the London School of Economics. However, what he would most likely be remembered for is the phrase above, mentioned in 1975, which although intended as a joke, so aptly describes how the modern world functions as to merit its being mentioned in every possible field ranging from education to medicine to banking to AI and beyond. It’s a bit of tongue twister in its original form, but Goodhart’s law is an excellent mental model for goal setting that simply says: When a measure becomes a targ...

Karl Tablante June 29, 2021 For most small business owners, Google My Business (GMB) is an incredible marketing lifeline. Having an optimized Google My Business listing is one of the most effective ways for small businesses to improve their local search visibility. Without a GMB profile, small business owners will find it more challenging to establish a local online presence, improve brand authority, and contact prospective customers. If prospective customers have a difficult time reaching your business, sales and in-person foot traffic will slump. So what do you do if one day, you log into your GMB listing and find that your profile has been suspended? If you’re looking for tips and advice on how to get your GMB profile reinstated, then you’ve come to the right place. Below, we cover everything you need to know about GMB suspensions, from why your listing may get suspended and the different kinds of suspensions to the steps you need to follow to resolve a suspension issue. Let’...

John Rampton July 6, 2021 Businesses large and small all want to make more and save more. However, saving money is much easier said than done, especially for new companies. There are great habits and tips to help any business save money. In this article, we’ll go over 10 interactive money-saving tips for small business owners. Set goals and make plans The first step to saving money is to set specific goals and make plans on how to achieve those goals. When considering goals to set, make sure they’re specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time based. Once you’ve decided where you want the company to be financially, make a specific plan on how to get there. What can you do on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis to make sure that you can hit the goal? What actions need to be taken? Answering these questions will give you the roadmap you need to get to where you want to be. Be resourceful The great thing about trying to save money is that everyone talks about it. There ...

When Joe Biden was running for office, he said that he would work to benefit all Americans whether they voted for him or not. He has already passed a stimulus package that helped millions of This content was originally published here . from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3x2Kk2q via IFTTT

The central government has finally taken a decision on the pending dearness allowance hike for central government employees. The Union Cabinet has approved a hike in DA for central government employees after almost a year. This content was originally published here . from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3l0iXUD via IFTTT

The Bombay High Court said on Friday that the Union government must come up with a uniform policy to name airports across the country and the new civil aviation minister should give top priority to this task. A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni, while hearing a PIL, said the new civil aviation minister (Jyotiraditya Scindia) must consider formulation of such a policy as his “first task.” The bench said it could not allow instances such as the one from last month in Navi Mumbai, when around 25,000 people organised a rally in defiance of COVID-19 protocols to demand that the upcoming airport in the satellite city be named after a local leader who fought for the rights of Project Affected People. On June 24, thousands of people from local agri and fishing communities along with some politicians staged a protest to press for their demand to name the international airport in Navi Mumbai after late activist and parliamentarian D B Patil. Earlier last month,...

Bishkek and Issyk-Kul Region, Kyrgyzstan – In the early 1990s, it was hoped that a large gold mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan, near the Chinese border, would lift the newly independent country’s economy out of the shatters of Soviet central planning. But 30 years into its operation, Kumtor has for many come to symbolise some of the developing world’s greatest ills: corruption, environmental degradation and neocolonial greed. In May, it became clear that dark clouds had gathered over Centerra Gold Inc, a Canadian-registered company operating the high-altitude mine, 26 percent of which belongs to the Kyrgyz state. First, a court ruled that the mine had committed environmental violations by dumping mining waste on glaciers, a move that caused their gradual erosion and cost the state $3bn. Soon after, the parliament backed a proposal of the special commission on Kumtor to introduce state management at the mine for three months. Most Kumtor workers come from the Issyk-Kul region, a pictu...

Susan Gilbert June 25, 2021 Today I have some resources to help your business leverage fintech for both creation and deployment. When it comes to increasing your sales and reaching more clients you need to be involved in the latest digital trends in order to be successful. Not only can you produce more insightful content, but you can also improve your communication and money management online. There are many ways you tap into the financial technology sector, which is a growing industry. Are you ready to grow or start a new business? Take advantage of these tools, and let me know how these work for you! 1) Improve customer experience – Assentis Technologies Better communicate with your business customers. Assentis Technologies is tailored for financial organizations who would like to improve their direct correspondence with existing clients. Their digital platform allows for a more streamlined process so that customers can receive the documents they need. Features include automate...

Sahail Ashraf June 25, 2021 Google My Business is not used by every business, at least not to its fullest potential. Should your business get involved? The vast majority of businesses recognise the value in having visibility on Google. So they create a Google Business Listing to gain that visibility. However, the only problem is that you have no control over that listing unless you also have Google My Business. This allows you more control over the editing and the management of your business profile and impact on Google . So how do you gain management over your Google Business Profile? The answer is that, in addition to creating a free Business Profile, you must also separately create a free Google My Business account for that profile. What is Google My Business? Your Business Profile is Google’s term for your Google business listing. Business Profiles appear in Google Maps and in the local results of Google Search. Anyone (literally anyone) can add a Business Profile if there ...

John Rampton June 26, 2021 Business is all about money. As a business owner, you want to make as much as you can and be frugal where you have to be. Budgeting is a vital aspect for any business, but especially important for small business owners. In this article, we’ll go over 50 budgeting tips to help your small business. Research money and budgeting in your industry The first thing to do is to understand the cash flow and general trends of your industry. There are tons of online articles for each industry, so spending time perusing through them as you drink your coffee. Having a better understanding of what’s new and what’s consistent will help you play your cards better and save more. Know yourself, Know your habits When trying to save, you have to be honest with yourself. Some of us are impulse buyers and always buy more than we think we will. Budgeting for the company starts with your personal habits. Then, you set an example for your employees and save money for the busine...