Rice has become porridge, business case of investment

Regulation does matter

Taken from The Economic Times's article

This business case remind us that Business Model need to be ensured with the Legal aspect and Regulation Compliance, though sometimes the regulatory issue is possible to be revised for the sake of consumer benefit.

Internet TV startup Aereo Inc files for bankruptcy

Reuters Nov 23, 2014

NEW YORK: Aereo Inc, the online video streaming company backed by media mogul Barry Diller, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Chapter 11 filing on Thursday night came five months after the US Supreme Court said Aereo violated broadcasters' copyrights by capturing live and recorded programmes on miniature antennas and transmitting them to subscribers who paid $8 to $12 a month. That decision effectively forbade New York-based Aereo's business model, an attempt to offer a less-expensive alternative to cable television.

Chief executive officer Chet Kanojia said the court decision created "regulatory and legal uncertainty" that proved insurmountable. "A little over three years ago, the team at Aereo set out to build a better television experience for the consumer," Kanojia said in a blog post. "We knew we had touched a nerve, had created something special, and had a built something meaningful for consumers." Ultimately, he said, "the challenges have proven too difficult to overcome." In a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, chief financial officer Ramon Rivera said getting protection from creditors should provide "necessary breathing room" for Aereo to sell its assets, recapitalize or restructure.

The privately held company had been trying to persuade regulators to declare it eligible for a licence available to cable systems, but Rivera said the timing was "uncertain."

Southeast Asian and China is the fastest growth of Mobile Game Market

Taken from newzoo.com article
Global Mobile Games Revenues to Reach $25 Billion in 2014

Quarterly Global Games Market Update 29102014 expect global mobile game revenues to reach $25 billion in 2014, up 42% on 2013, following strong year-to-date growth in both mature and emerging markets, across smartphones and tablets. As a result, mobile games are on track to replace the traditional console market as the largest game segment by revenues in 2015.

Forecasts Revised Upward Due to Strong & Broad Year-to-Date Growth. 

The growth of the mobile market is broad-based, with both “mature” Western and emerging markets growing fast in 2014. The North American market is now expected to grow 51% year-on-year and Western Europe by 47%. However, the fastest growth can be found in emerging Southeast Asian markets and China (+ 86%). The Japanese market also enjoys strong growth in iOS and Android game revenues, though overall remains stable due to the collapse of traditional feature phone game revenues. Despite a widely reported slump in new tablet unit sales, game revenues on tablets are growing faster than smartphones, cementing the position of tablets as a key gaming device.

According to Vincent van Deelen, Market Analyst at Newzoo: “With the public release of these new forecasts, Newzoo is deliberately countering the sentiment aired in recent months that the mobile gaming market is becoming saturated in mature Western markets, especially the US. This is simply not the case. We are also emphasizing that the recent results of individual high profile companies such as Rovio, King, DeNA and GREE are not necessarily indicative of the state of the mobile market as a whole. It is not in our interest to inflate market figures, but the hard facts have forced us to adjust our estimates upward. We have maintained our year-on-year growth rates toward 2017, ultimately leading to a $40Bn+ market in 2017.“

Mobile to Become World’s Largest Games Market Segment in 2015

The high mobile growth rate is driven by both “organic growth”, lifting the overall market, and “cannibalistic growth”, at the expense of other segments. In addition to the initial casualties of mobile growth (handheld console and online casual and social gaming), Newzoo notes signs of slower growth in (online) PC games and MMOs as spending is diverted to mobile devices. Mobile is now expected to become the largest game segment by revenues in 2015, an astonishing feat given that Apple App Store only launched in 2008.

According to Peter Warman, CEO of Newzoo: “In mature Western markets, we see the battle between iOS and Android shifting toward tablets. In most of these countries, including the US, Android smartphones gross more revenues than the iPhone, but the iPad keeps iOS ahead in overall mobile game spending. Android tablets seem to be in the same position its smartphones were in 4 years ago: fragmented in terms of device specs and a lower share of game and average spending. Amazon’s Kindle Fire is an exception, scoring high on both KPIs, but for now the iPad maintains its lead taking the lion’s share of tablet game revenues.

Because mobile gaming is possible on two of the four screens (Smartphone & Tablet) it could theoretically claim half of consumer spending, leaving the other half for the remaining screens (PC and TV)”.  

Apple’s Game Revenues Could Double Those of Nintendo This Year

The Apple App Store remains by far the biggest single platform in the mobile industry, accounting for about half the mobile games market revenues in 2014, with Google Play a close second. We estimate that Apple and Google will earn close to $4 billion and $3 billion respectively in games revenues in calendar year 2014, explaining the fast growth in Google’s “other revenues” in its recent quarterly results. To put this into perspective, Nintendo’s game revenues amounted to $2.4 billion last year and will likely be slightly lower this year. Other app stores likely to grab a significant market share in Android games include Amazon and several Chinese stores such as 360 Mobile Assistant, Tencent’s MyApp, Baidu Mobile Assistant and Xiaomi’s MIUI. 

Asia-Pacific Online Payment (H2-2014)

Taken from Asia-Pacific Online Payment Methods: Second Half 2014 from ystats.com

Online Payments in the Asia-Pacific Region Grow with E-Commerce

In the region’s largest market, China, online and mobile payments are dominated by local third party payment providers, such as Alipay and Tencent. In November 2014, Alibaba announced that it is planning to spin off its financial services arm controlling Alipay into a separate public company, with the expectation of a market value of no less than USD 25 billion. Meanwhile, other third-party payment providers, such as 99Bill, Lakala Payment and China PnR started expanding their mobile and online payment offerings to in-store payments. The number of online payment users in China neared 300 million in June 2014, while mobile payment users topped 200 million.

One of the region’s mobile payment pioneers, Japan has seen new mobile payment pathways launched this year. Korea-based mobile messaging service Line introduced Line Pay in Japan, while Rakuten Bank, a division E-Commerce leader Rakuten, launched payment transfers through Facebook. To support the growth of online payment methods, the Japanese adopted a plan to enhance the payment system, including improvement of real-time bank transfers. The payment methods most used by online shoppers in Japan are credit card and convenience store payments. 

In South Korea, last month the government agency regulating finances relaxed its requirement to use the specific software for online payment security, allowing companies to choose any security software. Other innovations in payments include the recent launch of mobile payment service KakaoTalk, by Daum Kakao, operator of the leading mobile messaging platform. Also, phone maker Samsung cooperated with payment processor Yelopay to introduce a Samsung Wallet. The value of mobile payments in the first half of this year grew by more than two times to several EUR billion. 

In Australia, online shopping remains the leading purpose for using credit cards. Mobile payments are on the rise, as the share of payments made via smartphone accounted for a high one-digit share of all remote purchases. Moreover, payments with PayPal are gaining popularity and already account for a small one-digit share of all consumer payments in the country.

Cash on delivery is still the payment method most preferred by online shoppers in India in 2014. The same is true for Pakistan, where credit card payment is offered by only three out of seven major shopping sites. Also in Vietnam cash on delivery and bank transfer are the most popular payment options in B2C E-Commerce. Though electronic payment penetrations lags in these nations, the potential for growth is promising.

Indonesia Consumer Confidence 2014

From Asia Pacific and Indonesia ANZ-RoyMorgan research.

This posting is the additional information to previous posting.



From 2014 Asia Pacific Consumer Confidence Index, released bay Roy Morgan Research, Indonesia is the highest confidence level compare to 6 other country (China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam) that represent Asia pacific. Indonesia index (156.1) followed closely to China (151.1) but far enough from the average (124.4).

2014 would be the highest yearly index for Indonesia. From data 2005-2014, the lowest index happen on 2008, the year of economic crisis. If we calculate the annual growth from that year, we got 6.2% CAGR.

Indonesian Consumer Confidence, October 2014

Taken from The ANZ-Roy Morgan 

ANZ-Roy Morgan Indonesian Consumer Confidence Dips on Politics in October

HIGHLIGHTS

• ANZ-Roy Morgan Indonesian Consumer Confidence fell to 158.1 (down 3.1pts) in October, but still 9.1pts higher than it was a year ago in October 2013 (149.0). The main driver of this month’s decrease was less confidence in the economic outlook over the short and long term.
• Indonesians are less optimistic about economic prospects for the country as a whole. 82.8% (down 4.5ppts) of Indonesians expect Indonesia will have ‘good times’ financially during the next 12 months and 16.1% (up 3.6ppts) said Indonesia will have have ‘bad times’ financially.
• 92.1% of Indonesians (down 2.4ppts) expect the country as a whole to have ‘good times’ economically over the next five years compared to 6.8% (up 1.6ppt) who expect ‘bad times’ economically.
• In terms of personal finances, 47% (unchanged) of Indonesians said their families are ‘better off’ financially now compared to a year ago with 8% (unchanged) who said their families are ‘worse off’ financially.
• Also, 74% (unchanged) of Indonesians expect their families will be ‘better off’ financially this time next year compared to 2% (down 1ppt) who expect their families to be ‘worse off’ financially.
• Finally, 62% (down 2ppts) of Indonesians said ‘now is a good time to buy’ major household items compared to 35% (up 3ppt) who said ‘now is a bad time to buy’ major household items.

ANZ Chief Economist South Asia, ASEAN & Pacific, Glenn Maguire said:

• "Political shenanigans and the growing prospect of a near term fuel-price hike are now weighing on the minds of hitherto exuberant Indonesian consumers.
• "Our survey was largely conducted over the period when Prabowo made a clean sweep of lower and upper house parliamentary appointments and hopes of Jokowi securing a workable majority in the Parliament were perhaps at their lowest. To be sure, some of the decline in confidence aligned with political developments was probably tempered by a well-received response to his official Cabinet announcement.
• "The large decline in question Economic conditions next year, falling 8.1ppts in the month, suggests the prospects of a fuel price hike is also weighing on confidence. A fuel price hike will surely make a significant dent in sentiment. Indeed, the history of our consumer confidence index data set provides a useful indication of what the likely impact of a fuel price hike will be on the Indonesian economy. We note that consumer confidence took a sizeable hit in June-July 2013 after a 44% rise in retail fuel prices – the first increase in five years.
• "Given a fuel price hike is imminent, Consumer Confidence looks set to fall in tandem with rising petrol prices. Our consumer confidence index should be providing the timeliest read of any economic data in Indonesia on how the impact will play out and their likely effect on economic activity and financial markets.”