China’s $12 trln corporate debt pushes up refunding costs, drives mergers

 China's corporate debt has hit record levels and is likely to accelerate a wave of domestic restructuring and trigger more defaults, as credit repayment problems rise.

Chinese non-financial companies held total outstanding bank borrowing and bond debt of about $12 trillion at the end of last year - equal to over 120 percent of GDP - according to Standard

& Poor’s estimates.

Growth in Chinese company debt has been unprecedented. A Thomson Reuters analysis of 945 listed medium and large non-financial firms showed total debt soared by more than 260 percent, from 1.82 trillion yuan ($298.4 billion) to 4.74 trillion yuan ($777.3 billion), between December 2008 and September 2013.

While a credit crisis isn’t expected anytime soon, analysts say companies in China's most leveraged sectors, such as machinery, shipping, construction and steel, are selling assets and undertaking mergers to avoid defaulting on their borrowings.

More defaults are expected, said Christopher Lee, managing director for Greater China corporates at Standard and Poor’s Rating Services in Hong Kong. "Borrowing costs already are going up due to tightened liquidity," he said. "There will be a greater differentiation and discrimination of risk and lending going forward."

China rarely allows corporate failures, particularly of state-backed companies, partly out of fear that widespread layoffs could lead to social unrest. In cases where firms have effectively gone bankrupt, domestic bondholders tend to be paid off ahead of other debtors.
China Erzhong Group (Deyang) Heavy Industries Co , a loss-making manufacturer of equipment for the steel and power industries, faces higher borrowing costs after a wholesale restructuring, said Huang Guozhan, an executive at the company's board secretary’s office.

The Sichuan-based firm, which expects to report a 2013 loss of 3.15 billion yuan ($516.5 million) and may see its shares suspended, held debt of 11.4 billion yuan in September, according to stock market filings.

In July, China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission ordered China Erzhong, together with its parent company, to merge with China National Machinery Industry Corp, another Beijing-controlled enterprise group.

A management reshuffle followed, while a proposed 1.9 billion yuan asset sale was cancelled. Accumulated losses may drive up the cost of the company's loans, Huang said, should banks cut the company's ratings.

"Tight credit growth and higher borrowing costs will make it a tough year," said Stephen Green, head of China research at Standard Chartered Bank.
China’s massive holding companies, power producers and construction materials firms are among the most highly levered in the world's second-largest economy, with each sector reporting twice as much debt as equity at end-September, Thomson Reuters data show.

Leverage in freight and logistics services reached 85 percent in September, forcing a wave of asset sales. Changjiang Shipping Group Phoenix Co , one of five listed companies under Sinotrans & CSC Holdings Ltd , another central government company, has been selling ships and borrowing money from its parent after its 4.9 billion yuan investment in new vessels turned sour.

The dry bulk goods shipper, which is in bankruptcy restructuring, has been sued for loan repayment by five banks, including China Merchants Bank Co  and China Minsheng Banking Corp . It also faces lawsuits by the leasing arm of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China  and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp  for unpaid bills. 

Other state-backed firms, including China Cosco Holdings  and Angang Steel , have returned to nominal profitability by turning to their corporate parents to sell assets. 

Exacerbating China’s corporate troubles has been the questionable use of 4 trillion yuan in stimulus that Beijing pumped into the economy following the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, explained Lee of Standard & Poor’s.

"Many companies invested heavily into competitive and low-return projects because funding was readily available," he said. "These investments aren’t doing well and are making little contribution to profitability."

Although leverage at China’s mid-sized and large companies started to decline in the second half of last year, building down debt positions will be difficult, said Merrill Lynch analyst David Cui. "The beast grew so fast you can’t control it easily now. A sense of urgency will develop only if there is significant disturbance to the financial system."

Source: REUTERS

GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia turns cautious, puzzled on China policy moves

Asian shares were trading sluggishly on Wednesday following a flat finish on Wall Street, while concerns over opaque policy moves in China kept investors on edge amid a drought of major economic data.

Chinese share markets eased further after sharp falls on Tuesday, but the losses were relatively limited with Shanghai off 0.3 percent <.SSEC>.

Moves were likewise modest across the region, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> up 0.04 percent.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 <.225> pared early losses to be off just 0.1 percent, following a 1.4 percent gain on Tuesday.

"For the rest of the week, the Nikkei may see directionless trade and a lack of volume because investors need more catalysts to take positions," said Masashi Oda, chief investment officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

"The benchmark may stay between 14,500 and 15,000."

Economic data from the United States were too mixed to offer any lead. A closely watched housing survey showed home prices rose slightly more than expected in December, though February consumer confidence fell short of expectations. [TOP/CEN]

The Dow <.DJI> ended Tuesday 0.17 percent lower, while the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 0.13 percent, a day after touching a record high.

Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes were steady at 2.71 percent after dipping about 4 basis points overnight, leaving them roughly in the middle of the recent 2.57 to 2.79 percent trading range.

Gold edged back to $1,338.46 an ounce and away from a four-month top at $1,343.40.

In currencies, dealers were reporting scant activity ahead of the month end and a slate of major global data next week. The dollar inched up on the yen to 102.30 , but could make no headway on the euro at $1.3742 .

The single currency has been corralled in a $1.3685-$1.3773 range for the past six sessions.

After falling sharply on Tuesday, China's yuan was looking more stable on Wednesday. It was quoted at 6.1270 , little changed from Tuesday's close, though that was still early in the Chinese session.

Dealers suspect the People's Bank of China has engineered the recent decline in its currency to inject more two-way volatility into the market and wrong foot speculators that had amassed huge positions wagering on its continued rise.

The Chinese currency has been a favourite among emerging market currencies in 2013, gaining nearly 3 percent even as most of its peers depreciated against the dollar. Most analysts expect it to appreciate another 2-3 percent this year, but the change in direction has rattled confidence. [ID:nL3N0LT2HI]

Some analysts believe the PBOC may be preparing the markets for more reforms.

"Putting such a warning shot over the bows of the FX community could also be seen as a sensible move ahead of any possible widening of the CNY’s trading band," said Patrick Perret-Green, an analysts at Australia New Zealand Bank.

ANZ believes the band will be widened to 2 percent from the current 1 percent within the next couple of months, a move toward liberalisation that should be seen as a positive step.

Yet he also cautioned that the weakness was not confined to the yuan and equities. Prices for copper and steel had fallen sharply while money markets rates were broadly lower, a risk-off shift that suggested growing worries about the economy.

"So far, the reaction of other global markets has been remarkably relaxed, if not perverse. It is questionable how long this can persist."

In oil markets, Brent crude edged up 4 cents to $109.55 a barrel, while U.S. oil added 2 cents to $101.85.

Source; Reuters

Music; My Generation The Who '65

Music: "Papa's Got A Brand new Bag'' James Brown

                                   James Brown Singing and Dancing with rhythm an influence
                                        for Michael Jackson and Prince without doubt

Music: In the Midnight Hour Wilson Picket '65

Music: Like A Rolling Stone Bob Dylan '65

Music: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction The Rolling Stones '65

Music I'm into something Good The Hernan Hermits '64

Music Out of Sight James Brown '64

                                           James Brown Shows his entertainment while singing
                                            and dancing

Music Shake Sam Cooke '64

A World Without Love Peter & Gordon '64

Music Go Now The Moody Blues '64

Music Oh Baby Don't you Weep James Brown '64

Music: Mean Woman Blues Roy Orbison '63

Music: Prisoner of Love James Brown '63

European Commission presented its package for a reorientation of climate and energy policy to 2030.

On 22 January 2014 the European Commission presented its package for a reorientation of climate and energy policy to 2030. It comprises a non-legislative communication on the new climate and energy policy to 2030, which provides for a binding Europe-wide greenhouse gas reduction target of 40 percent with 1990 as the base year. In addition, a target of 27 percent is proposed for the development of renewable energies which would be binding for the EU but not at national level. To realise the EU renewable targets, the Commission proposes a new governance structure which entails the preparation of national plans. The proposal no longer contains an energy efficiency target, where the Commission wants to review the current energy efficiency directive before the end of this year and propose a new version if deemed appropriate. For BDI, setting a binding climate target and a realistic renewables target is fundamentally the right path. But, as a next step, it is essential to enshrine coherence of targets and instruments also in law.

The package also comprises a legislative proposal for the introduction of a market stability reserve in the framework of the emission trading scheme which provides that 12 percent of the surplus of emission allowances is placed in a reserve every year starting on 1 January 2021 or is released from the reserve back into the market above a certain threshold. The overall target of a 40 percent reduction should translate into a 43 percent reduction obligation (2005-2030) for the ETS sector. In the Commission’s vision, the annual reduction of the cap for emissions from business sectors falling under EU-ETS would also have to be increased from the current 1.74 percent to 2.2 percent for the period from 2021. The task of rapporteur has been awarded to the European Parliament’s EPP group but it is unlikely that there will be a legislative deliberation by the European Parliament and Council still in 2014 in light of the European election on 25 May and the reconstitution of the Commission in October.

Lastly, the package contains a communication and a study on energy prices and costs as well as a recommendation and a communication on promotion of shale gas.

How things will develop: at EU level, the European Council (EU summit) will address the climate and energy package on 20 and 21 March 2014 with a view to adopting conclusions in June. At international level, the UN Climate Conference (COP 20) of Heads of State and Government International will be held in Lima in December, more or less as a staging post en route to an international climate agreement which is due to be signed in Paris in December 2015. The EU plans to go into the negotiations in Paris with a binding climate target. The new climate and energy framework is intended to be the basis for this.

Source: BDI The German Business Representation

Hands On With The Xperia Z2, Sony’s Multimedia-Loving 4K-Shooting Flagship Phone

Source: TechCrunch

Sony’s new flagship Android, the Xperia Z2, risks being overshadowed here at MWC by Samsung’s latest electronic tub-thumper, the Galaxy S5. But not on the show floor at least — where a phalanx of Z2 are massed in Sony’s booth, ready for the masses to fondle.

Over the way at Samsung’s hall-sized stand there is no shortage of electronic trinkets for the hoards to eyeball — indeed, as per usual, the Samsung stand positively heaves with gizmos (and hoards). But its latest bauble is not there. The SGS5 is being displayed in a separate viewing area for media only. Sorry, suits.

It would certainly be a shame for the Xperia Z2 to be overshadowed by its big brash Android rival, for although elements of Sony’s hardware and software design continue to be a little fussy — and its Android skin still drags its feet at times (despite a beefy 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon engine and 3GB of RAM) — Sony’s screen, camera and multimedia expertise is definitely starting to shine through. And that puts some clear blue water between Sony and other Androids OEMs — even the really big South Korean one.

The Z2 packs a 5.2-inch display, which is only a marginal increase on the 5-inch panes on last year’s Z1 and Z, gently edging the handset into phablet territory. Yet this generous size is offset by its weight — or rather its lightness. It feels crazy light to handle. Add to that it’s just 8.2mm thin so really this is more screen than phone. Just as well, then, that the screen is a thing of beauty.

Unlike many of its Android-powered rivals, Sony does not go in for the cartoon unreality of over-saturated displays. And that quest for tonal truth pays off on the Z2′s big screen — resulting in something that, paradoxically, can make real life appear more glamorous when you’re looking at it through the lens of this device.

Seeing your mundane surroundings sensitively lit up via Sony’s portal can lend them a little of the cinema vs the shrill high-contrast crudity you get with less pro phone screen and camera tech. Clearly, the Z2′s raison d’être is multimedia. This is a phone for viewing and capturing photos and video. (The 20.7MP rear camera is the same as the earlier Z1 but the quality of the shots it delivers means there’s nothing to complain about there).

The Z2′s waterproof and dustproof special powers just feed into that function — allowing the user to be unafraid to take the Z2 out in a variety of environments to film and snap cool stuff.

The handset’s flagship feature is an ability to capture 4K footage — although its full HD res itself is not 4K, so you still need that Sony (or so Sony hopes) ultra HD 4K TV to view the full footage. Otherwise you can watch a standard HD version of your 4K footage on the device. 4K TVs are hardly common at this point in time, so there’s certainly an element of gimmick in the addition of this feature right now. But it does allow the Z2 to raise a flag to recruit multimedia nerds to its ultra high res cause.

Also on board: a suite of (new) made-by-Sony camera and video apps that offer the user a variety of special effects for augmenting videos and photos. Effects include the ability to add slow motion and Instagram style filters to video footage. There’s also a Lytro-style background defocusing mode for altering background blur in photos to generate an impression of movement, or better draw the eye to your subject.

Here too, there is some gimmicky stuff — a 3D special effects mode that augments your video footage with virtual scenery and characters, including dinosaurs and, er, volcanos, is certainly not subtle. But full marks for effort Sony.

The Z2′s screen also has IPS tech for improved multi-angle viewing, so you and more buddies can huddle around the phone to watch more stuff. The front of the device also has stereo speakers. And there’s stereo audio recording to complement the 4K video ability. Plus digital noise canceling tech to smooth any rough environmental edges off of your multimedia viewing experience. Smooth, Sony, smooth.

The most unattractive aspect of the device is Sony’s Android skin. Which has never been beautiful but has not dated well at all. It remains cluttered, fiddly and visually unappealing — with ugly widgets and gimmicky 3D animations to contend with. Landing back in these unappealing digital environs after you’ve been looking at the world through the Z2′s portal/lens definitely feels like an anticlimax. Hopefully Sony’s next job will be giving that Android skin a much-needed makeover — to do justice to its high-end multimedia focus.

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Rolls-Royce’s Drone Cargo Ships Will Rule Tomorrow’s Oceans, Shipping Containers.

Add caption

If you’re rooting for the drone team, then chalk up another win: Rolls-Royce is working on unmanned cargo ships that would roam the Earth’s oceans packed with crates of goods, controlled by captains safe on shore using virtual reality facilities to pilot their fleets. In other words, tomorrow’s salty tales of ghost ships with no one left on board could be all too verifiable and hardly cause for alarm.

Bloomberg reports on the project, which aims to make the seafaring shipping industry safer, less expensive and easier on the environment. The market is worth $375 billion annually, and despite our mastering of flight, we shill ship 90 percent of traded goods over the waves, according to the article. These automated versions would aim to make that huge volume safer and more efficient, but of course it’ll have to contend with a variety of concerns first, including worries about safety and labour concerns from unions and workers.

Stripping all those accommodations needed by fleshy human labor from the huge cargo liners would clear up even more room for cargo, according to Rolls-Royce’s early designs – while also making them 5 percent lighter, with 12 to 15 percent less fuel burn per trip. Plus you’re saving up to $3,300 per day in crew costs, which currently make up 44 percent of the total overall operating expenses for manned ocean-bound shipping.

Before you get too excited there, Mr. Shipping Magnate, know that these things are currently probably at least a decade out from being anywhere near sea legal, and the largest union on the sea vocally opposes the idea outright, saying that drone ships are no replacement for human intellect and perception. Plus, if these ever replace our current waterborne shipping mechanisms, future generations will never experience coming-of-age stories like the one depicted in David Mamet’s Lakeboat (warning: this contains all the cusses so watch the volume if you’re at work).

Despite all the cautioning, however, there’s no question that logistics companies are hungry for this kind of automation, since it means cheaper prices overall decades down the road, plus faster and more efficient delivery from warehouse to customer (especially important as more shopping moves online). People will not accept the coming shipping bots readily, but that doesn’t mean they won’t still arrive eventually. And the waves will be waiting.

Source: TechCrunch

Airbnb Tops 10 Million Guest Stays Since Launch, Now Has 550,000 Properties Listed Worldwide

This is what hockey-stick growth looks like: Peer-to-peer lodging marketplace Airbnbannounced this morning that it’ll top 10 million guest stays since being launched in 2007. That’s a big number, for sure, but the bigger overall point is that the company had more than 6 million guest stays on the platform in 2013, more than doubling its total over the past year.

Of course, we kind of knew this was coming, based on data Airbnb had shared in October. Back then it touted 9 million stays, so it’s added another million in the past two months alone.

The company’s user base continues to skew international. Of the 6 million guest stays over the past year, about a third were American. The company has said in the past that about 75 percent of its stays have an international component — that is, either a foreign guest staying in a U.S.-based property or a U.S. guest staying in a foreign property, or a non-U.S. guest staying in a non-U.S. property — so that’s not surprising.

But the distribution of guests to lodgings has a funny sort of symmetry: Airbnb says that travelers from more than 175 different countries used the platform over the past year, staying in listings from more than 175 different countries.

While Airbnb has seen really impressive demand, its supply of listings has also grown dramatically in 2013. More than 250,000 properties have been added to the platform over the past year, bringing the total number of listings to 550,000 worldwide.

The company has added more than 50,000 in the past month alone, when Airbnb launched new mobile apps to facilitate the process of adding your home to the platform.

Airbnb’s big year came after the company raised $200 million in funding from Founder’s Fund last fall. The company has been using that funding to aggressively expand worldwide, something that appears to be working out.

Y Combinator-Backed Superhost Is A Property Management Service For Airbnb Listings

Source: TechCrunch

Airbnb is officially no longer just a cute way to make some extra cash by renting out a spare room in your apartment. It’s a big business now. And like most other big businesses, it’s entered a period where managed services have emerged to support super users on the platform.

Enter Superhost, which has quietly emerged as a property management service for Airbnb hosts.

Superhost reduces the pain associated with managing your Airbnb listing — like updating your listing’s calendar and responding to guest emails, as well as setting up cleaning services for your listing in between guest stays. That’s important because the faster a host responds to a guest request, the more likely they are to stay at a certain place. And cleanliness is increasingly becoming an important part of boosting ratings of your listing.

It does all that by hooking into hosts’ Airbnb accounts and taking control of all the details that most hosts don’t want to deal with. It’s not all about having a dedicated service team, however.

“We see this as a software problem to automate the process,” co-founder Koby Soto tells me. That software can be used to optimize pricing based on hotel and other Airbnb inventory.

But Superhost can help hosts in other ways. For newcomers to Airbnb, the service can help hosts determine a price for their listings, as well as optimize their profile to be more attractive to guests.

It also helps to choose which guests to accept and which not to, and helps navigate their stay. That means providing 24/7 support during stays, including scheduling key drops and troubleshooting issues that might pop up.

For all that, Superhost takes just 1 percent of each booking — that is, for now. It expects to raise that to 3 percent after it becomes a bit more established. In the meantime, it’s growing about 40 percent week-over-week.

The company was founded by twin brothers Amiad and Koby Soto, with service is available for listings in the U.S. and in Israel. Over time, the team wants to expand into other geographies, as well as making its service available on other services, like Homeaway and VRBO.

Water.org.; Delivering Water and Sanitation Solutions that are Sustainable

While drilling a well can be easy, delivering water and sanitation solutions that are sustainable in the long haul is not and involves a number of important components. Read below to learn about our program philosophy, which has been refined based on field experience gained over the past twenty years.

• Local Partners
• Community Ownership
• Appropriate Technology
• Addressing Sanitation and Hygiene
• Measuring and Monitoring Success
• The WaterCredit Initiative

Local Partners

We believe people in developing countries know best how to solve their own problems. That's why we forge partnerships with carefully-screened, indigenous partner organizations that understand, and are part of, the local culture. The result: a solution tailored to the needs of each community, instead of a technological fix the community has no way of maintaining. More benefits:

• Locally-based partners are better positioned to understand and navigate social, political, and economic issues impacting projects.
• Locally-based partners have more savvy at leveraging local financial resources for cost-sharing in projects.
• Local expertise exists to implement projects.
• Working through local partners is more cost effective than maintaining expatriate staff.
• Because Water.org is not tied to any single partner organization, we constantly search for and fund the organizations producing the highest quality projects.

Selecting partner organizations

Water.org's rigorous process for screening and certifying top quality partner organizations has been developed and refined over the past two decades. Primary elements include: (1) a preliminary screening; (2) field visits and evaluations of completed and in-progress projects; (3) interviews with the field staff of potential partner organizations, community leaders, and beneficiary households of water and sanitation projects; and (4) surveys including questionnaires completed by staff at the potential partner organization as well as by community members served through past and present projects. Water.org requires that the beneficiary communities are at the center of the project planning process and invested as stakeholders. Women in the community must play a significant role in the projects. Lastly, all projects undertaken with the community must be structured to complement existing programs and integrated into and coordinated with all political and social structures.

Community Ownership

Community ownership is at the heart of Water.org’s philosophy. Regardless of whether the project is funded entirely by a grant or involves WaterCredit (small loans for water and sanitation), community ownership is at the center. For a project to be truly successful, communities must be viewed and must view themselves as the owners of the project.

Communities with a water or sanitation need contact our in-country partner organization. Our partner organization evaluates the communities and makes recommendations on water and sanitation projects.

One of the first project activities is for the community to elect a local water committee. Because women disproportionately bear the burden of collecting water, it’s essential that the committee include female members. The water committees play a critical role in the project’s success. 

BILLIONS DAILY AFFECTED BY WATER CRISIS II

Without water, life would not exist. It is a prerequisite for all human and economic development.

Yet today, 780 million people – about one in nine – lack access to clean water. More than twice that many, 2.5 billion people, don’t have access to a toilet.

There has been significant public attention paid to the issue of water scarcity, and for good reason. Although water is a renewable resource, it is also a finite one. Only 2.53 percent of earth’s water is fresh, and some two-thirds of that is locked up in glaciers and permanent snow cover. But despite the very real danger of future global water shortages, for the vast majority of the nearly one billion people without safe drinking water, today’s water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access.

In most developed nations, we take access to safe water for granted. But this wasn’t always the case. A little more than 100 years ago, New York, London and Paris were centers of infectious disease. Child death rates were as high then as they are now in much of Sub-Saharan Africa. It was sweeping reforms in water and sanitation that enabled human progress to leap forward. It should come as no surprise that in 2007, a poll by the British Medical Journal found that clean water and sanitation comprised the most important medical advancement since 1840.

The health and economic impacts of today’s global water crisis are staggering.

• More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world.1
• 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation; 1.1 billion still practice open defecation.2
• Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.3
• 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related illness.4
• Women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households. This is time not spent working at an income-generating job, caring for family members, or attending school.5

References

1. World Health Organization (WHO). (2008). Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health; Updated Table 1: WSH deaths by region, 2004.
2. Estimated with data from WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation. (2012). Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water, 2012 Update.
3. WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation. (2010). Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water, 2010 Update.
4. Estimated with data from Diarhhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done. UNICEF, WHO 2009
5. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (2006). Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis

 

BILLIONS DAILY AFFECTED BY WATER CRISIS UNDP

Every 21 seconds, a child dies from a water-related illness



Women spend 200 million hours a day collecting water



More than 2.5x more people lack water than live in the United States


The majority of illness is caused by fecal matter



More people have a mobile than a toilet


Lack of community involvement causes 50% of other projects to fail

TechCrunch: How Could Snapchat Make Money? College Kids

Over 77 percent of college students are using Snapchat at least once every single day, according to research by Sumpto.

And even more stunning, 45 percent of college kids aged 18-24 would open a snap from a brand they didn’t know, while 73 percent of students would open a snap from a brand they already know. Though Snapchat hasn’t yet determined a revenue model, data like this suggests that native advertising is a pretty viable route.

Snapchat could let brands send their own animated (or taped) videos to the entire Snapchat user base, or even targeted demographics based on location, age, and other factors. Snapchat’s own Terms of Service explain that it has access to more than enough of personal data (like name, phone number, email, location, device info, and age) to start pin-pointing users for brands, and the ToS even provides for Snapchat to use this data for “advertisements.”

The Sumpto data also mentioned that 69 percent of college students are willing to add a brand on Snapchat if they already follow that brand on another social channel like Twitter or Facebook. Sixty-seven percent of respondents were interested in receiving discounts or promotions through the service, while 58 percent said they would be likely to purchase products or services using a Snapchat coupon.

And all that without any connection whatsoever to Facebook or Facebook Connect.

We’ve already seen brands succeed on Snapchat without any infrastructure from the app itself. DoSomething’s recent Valentines Day campaign saw an 11 percent response to the call to action put within a Snapchat Story.

Unfortunately, Snapchat’s new Story feature doesn’t seem to be picking up steam with the coveted 18-24 demographic. The majority of students (60 percent) report using Snapchat Stories less than 10 percent of the time they’re in the app.

Sumpto, the data provider, has a network of over 50,000 college students that respond to surveys in exchange for rewards. This report comes from more than 1,650 students from over 200 different colleges, who responded to survey.

Snapchat is one of the hottest apps on the market right now, with $123 million in funding and over 400 million snaps sent daily. The company was even said to reject a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook.

But for all that hype, we know shockingly little about the actual data behind the company. Many believed that the app was all about sexting, presuming that the only reason for self-destructing photos is to hide something naughty from parents. Turns out, Snapchat hasn’t really affected the sexting lives of college students, according to the report.

Before Snapchat, around 83 percent of college students said that less than 10 percent of all messages they sent (across any platform) was a sext. After downloading Snapchat, 81 percent of students said that less than 10 percent of all their messages are sexts.

Sexting aside, the real story here is how Snapchat will monetize what seems to be an excited and active user base. Cofounder Evan Spiegel said in June that in-app purchases would be the company’s first step into monetization. But the company is obviously teasing other options.

When Stories launched, Snapchat experimented with a “Click To Buy” button below Stories from musical artists, which sent the user straight to that artist’s iTunes page.

Source: TechCrunch

Women Outnumber Men For The First Time In Berkeley’s Intro To Computer Science Course

For the first time in its history, Berkeley saw an introductory computer science course with predominantly female students – 106 women vs. 104 men. This slight turnaround signals a promising trend in the male-dominated STEM world.

To be sure, Berkeley is an exception: according to the National Science Foundation, just 18.4% of computer science degrees were given to women (as of 2010), a trend that has been steadily decreasing since 1991, when it was a more impressive 29.6%.

In an email, Professor Dan Garcia, who taught the Berkeley course last spring, tells us that he attributes the gender flip to a drastic transformation in the curriculum, including team-based project learning, opened-sourced materials, and opportunities to become teaching assistants. “The course & curriculum really does capture the “Beauty and Joy” of computing; learning can be a lot of fun,” he writes.

There is still a long way to go. Worldwide trends in the gender balance aren’t any better than the U.S. Recent data from UK universities, shows that while women do earn a majority of the degrees (60% vs. 40%), they vastly underperform their male counterparts in computer science (82% vs. 17%).

The gap has its origins going back at least as early as high school. Statistics, biology, and calculus courses all have roughly equal gender balance, but in computer science, the pie chart skews heavily male. (chart by Exploring Computer Science, with data from the College Board).

Garcia says there are still barriers to keeping women interested throughout their entire tenure, such as “the lack of female role models in our industry, in our faculty, and in the graduate student population.” Even if they go on to advanced courses, there’s no guarantee they’ll get a job in the cut-throat tech industry.

Indeed, last fall, men slightly outnumbered women (53% men), but the spring enrollment is up again (50.6% women).

As one of the important feeder schools to Silicon Valley’s top companies, Berkeley is not a passive player. If it can succeed in dramatically increasing female enrollment, it could set a chain reaction that breaks down norms for future generations to come.

Source: TechCrunch

Facebook Investor,Silicon Valley libertarian Peter Thiel thinks that too many Americans have mistakenly blamed technology for rising inequality.

Early Facebook investor and noted Silicon Valley libertarian Peter Thiel thinks that too many Americans have mistakenly blamed technology for rising inequality. “Technology is an easy scapegoat,” he argued, in a big-think discussion put on by political lobby, FWD.us.

In a wide-ranging discussion with MIT professor Andrew McAfee, the two duked it out about technology’s role in social ills. “I think technology has helped,” Thiel said. “You have things like Facebook, like Google–technology has helped to offset some of the brutal effects of globalization”.

While globalization has flooded the low-skilled job market with ultra-cheap outsourced labor, technology has relieved the beleaguered middle-class with services in health, education and leisure that were once the exclusive domain of the wealthy, Thiel asserts.

Indeed, he partly blamed the failure to recognize the contributions of technology on an American mindset that is “anti-technology.” For instance, he notes, there was no financial industry-like bailout of Silicon Valley during the first dot-com bubble. He also notes that the nation’s general animosity toward tech can also be seen in the movie industry, which inundates the masses with tech super villains from “The Matrix,” “Avatar,” and” The Terminator” in a period of high tech hostility (compared to more tech-friendly movies, such as “Star Trek” in the ’60s and “Back To the Future” in the 80s, which is when he thinks the U.S. was less anti-tech).

As a self-avowed libertarian, Thiel wasn’t thrilled about the government bail-out of the financial industry. But he shocked the crowed when he openly supported more taxes in exchange for less regulation.

“I wouldn’t mind paying more in taxes if I could do anything I wanted to do with the rest of the money, which I’m largely restricted in what I can do, from the FDA on down to the San Francisco zoning department.”

San Francisco has an infamously restrictive policy on new housing developments, which has contributed to sky-high rents and evictions. Thiel’s comments were a transparent nod to the protests in front of Google’s private commuter buses, which have become a convenient symbol of the wealthy high-tech workers who have the free cash to cause upward demand pressure on San Francisco rents.

In other words, while protestors blame technology, Thiel hints at other causes — namely government.

For McAfee’s role in the discussion, he towed the traditional economist line on technology and financial disparity. “The observed rise in inequality across both developed and developing countries over the past two decades is largely attributable to the impact of technological change,” wrote a team of economists for International Monetary Fund–a sentiment widely shared in the academic community.

According to the economists, as technology automates jobs, it concentrates labor in a small slice of high-skilled workers.

Thiel rebutted this line of evidence by arguing that computers are complementary to people: they augment workers; they don’t replace them. “LinkedIn does not replace job recruiters,” he said.

Though he does admit that once computers begin to replicate humans (i.e. robots), he begins to get “scared” for the future job market.

Overall, it was a very thoughtful discussion; it was nice to see politically powerful techies lay out their contentious views on inequality for the public.

Source: TechCrunch