Business

New Delhi, Dec 25 (IANS) The revenue collected by Bitcoin miners as transaction fees averaged about $2 million per day in 2023, registering a whopping 400 per cent increase year-on-year.

The Bitcoin miners earned more than $10 billion in 2023, according to Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Bitcoin self-custody platform Casa.

“Bitcoin miners earned over $10 billion in 2023, a significant addition to the $57 billion total over the past 15 years. This number assumes they instantly sell for fiat, which is most certainly not the case,” he posted on X.

As reported by crypto.news, Bitcoin miners earned more than $44 million in block rewards even as mining difficulty increased by 3.55 per cent to an all-time high.

Messari, a leading provider of crypto market intelligence products, posted that BTC miners attracted significant venture capital investment in November.

“This past month in crypto fundraising was led by BTC miners, with Northern Data and Phoenix Group raising $600 million and $370 million, respectively.

“Those deals aside, the rest of the crypto venture market did $750 million in volume on 98 deals,” Messari wrote on X.

The developments have led market watchers to make predictions regarding Bitcoin’s price in 2024, with some claiming it could go as high as $160,000.

Bitcoin saw 160 per cent growth this year, adding nearly $530 billion to its market capitalisation.

According to an analysis by BanklessTimes.com, the Solana digital coin market has spiralled by 627 per cent since January 2023, a new yearly high for any cryptocurrency.

--IANS

na/dpb

Hong Kong, Dec 24 (IANS) China’s PC (desktops, notebooks and workstations) market is likely to see a decline of 18 per cent in 2023 and a modest 4 per cent growth next year, according to a new report.

The growth is expected to materialise in Q2 2024 and beyond, benefiting from the further recovery of the commercial sector, driven by significant IT investments from large enterprises in strategic industries, according to a Canalys report.

In Q3 2023, the PC market in Mainland China gradually recovered, with shipments experiencing a 16 per cent year-on-year decline but undergoing a promising 15 per cent sequential increase to reach 11 million units.

In contrast, the tablet market sustained positive momentum, recording a 16 per cent year-on-year growth to 7.4 million units.

“IT investment from enterprises is only improving marginally alongside the overall Chinese economy recovery, while SMBs still face many operational challenges,” said Emma Xu, analyst at Canalys.

In Q3 2023, Lenovo maintained its top position despite a 15 per cent year-on-year decline in the PC shipments.

HP took the second position with an 11 per cent market share as the vendor strengthened its commercial product portfolio offerings with its acquisition of Poly.

Huawei increased its market share despite a 5 per cent unit drop year-on-year. Dell and Asus secured the fourth and fifth positions, respectively, though both encountered a substantial 36 per cent year-on-year decline.

In the tablet market, Canalys anticipates a 5 per cent growth for the full year 2023, reaching 28 million units before it stabilises in 2024.

Apple and Huawei maintained their dominance in CHina’s tablet market, with Apple's market share contracting to 31 per cent from 38 per cent.

--IANS

na/

Seoul, Dec 24 (IANS) South Korea's exports of eco-friendly vehicles surged 32.5 percent on-year to a record high during the first 11 months of this year on solid global demand for electric vehicles (EVs), data showed on Sunday.

The export volume of eco-friendly automobiles came to 662,307 units during the January-November period, compared with 499,854 units a year earlier, according to the data by the Korea Automobile and Mobility Association.

The number for the entire 2023 is expected to surpass 700,000 for the first time ever, officials said, reports Yonhap news agency.

Last year, the export volume of eco-friendly cars reached a record high of 554,000, and the value also hit an all-time high of $1.61 million.

This year's sales growth was driven by the popularity of EVs and hybrid models.

Of the total eco-friendly vehicles sold this year, 316,654 were EVs, followed by 283,685 units of hybrid models and plug-in hybrid cars with 61,694.

Sales of EVs surged 65.7 percent on-year, and hybrid cars saw a 6.5 percent export increase in 2023.

But the country exported 274 units of hydrogen electric vehicles, down 30.8 percent on-year, the data showed.

"The EV industry is a promising sector, but a growing number of countries have been reducing or eliminating subsidies to buyers of South Korean and other foreign brands," an industry official said, stressing the need for countermeasures.

--IANS

na/

The order that came late on Tuesday has stopped Cruise’s robotaxi operations in San Francisco just months after receiving the last necessary permit to commercialise its operations.

The order of suspension said that Cruise allegedly withheld video footage from an ongoing investigation.

“The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction. This decision does not impact the company’s permit for testing with a safety driver,” the DMV said in a statement.

"When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits. There is no set time for a suspension,” it added.

The DMV officials met Cruise representatives earlier this month, reports TechCrunch.

On October 2, an incident left a pedestrian, who had initially been hit by a human-driven car, stuck under a Cruise robotaxi.

“During the meeting, the department was shown video footage of the accident captured by the autonomous vehicle’s (AV’s) onboard cameras. The video footage present to the department ended with the AV’s initial stop following the hard-braking maneuver,” the order stated.

“Footage of the subsequent movement of the AV to perform a pullover maneuver was not shown to the department and Cruise did not disclose that any additional movement of the vehicle had occurred after the initial stop of the vehicle,” it added.

The DMV order stated that Cruise’s omission hinders the ability of the department to effectively and timely evaluate the safe operation of the company’s vehicles and puts the safety of the public at risk.

Cruise, however, said it shared the entire video with the DMV.

A Cruise spokesperson said the company will be pausing operations of its driverless AVs in San Francisco.

“Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives. In the incident being reviewed by the DMV, a human hit and run driver tragically struck and propelled the pedestrian into the path of the AV. The AV braked aggressively before impact and because it detected a collision, it attempted to pull over to avoid further safety issues,” said the company.

“When the AV tried to pull over, it continued before coming to a final stop, pulling the pedestrian forward. Our thoughts continue to be with the victim as we hope for a rapid and complete recovery,” Cruise added.

Shortly after the incident, “our team proactively shared information with the California DMV, CPUC, and NHTSA, including the full video”.

The suspension came less than three months after Cruise, and competitor Waymo, received the final permit required to offer commercial robotaxi services across San Francisco 24/7.

--IANS

na/dpb

Jerry Hunter, who was named the chief operating officer just over a year ago, is retiring and not being replaced, the company said late on Tuesday.

Snap reported a total revenue of nearly $1.2 billion, an increase of 5 per cent from the same period last year.

The daily active users of Snapchat increased 12 per cent year-over-year to reach 406 million.

“We are focused on improving our advertising platform to drive higher return on investment for our advertising partners, and we have evolved our go-to-market efforts to better serve our partners and drive customer success,” said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel.

COO Hunter joined Snap seven years ago and served an important role in building the company’s engineering and business structures.

He will continue to support Snap through July 1, 2024 to help ensure the transition.

“I am deeply grateful to Jerry for the meaningful contributions he has made over his many years at Snap,” said Spiegel. “His work to improve our advertising platform, serve our community, and build a strong team has helped lay the foundation for our future growth.”

According to Snap, since launching ‘My AI’, our AI-powered chatbot, over 200 million people have sent over 20 billion messages.

“We are seeing more creators posting content to Snapchat, with nearly three times more public Stories posted in the US compared to Q3 2022. We are focused on accelerating and diversifying our revenue growth,” said the company.

The company anticipates that Snapchat's daily active users will reach 410-412 million in the December quarter.

--IANS

na/dpb

The revenue in the PC vertical was $13.7 billion and increased 3 per cent, according to the company.

Windows revenue increased 5 per cent with Windows OEM revenue growth of 4 per cent, which is a surprise increase as PC sales went down this year globally.

"With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere," said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft.

"We are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers,” he said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $24.3 billion, anincrease of 19 per cent.

Server products and cloud services revenue increased 21 per cent driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 29 per cent.

“Consistent execution by our sales teams and partners drove a strong start to the fiscal year with Microsoft Cloud revenue of $31.8 billion, up 24 per cent (up 23 per cent in constant currency) year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

LinkedIn revenue increased 8 per cent while devices revenue decreased 22 per cent.

However, Xbox content and services revenue increased 13 per cent.

Microsoft returned $9.1 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024.

--IANS

na/dpb

The court said the use of ‘Puma’ trademark and logo by the defendant on inferior quality products will lead to erosion of brand equity.

The plaintiff, Puma, a German company had filed a suit seeking injunction against counterfeit products manufactured and sold under the mark ‘Puma’ by defendant, ‘Kumkum Shoes’, a trading business in Agra.

The court noted as per the local commissioner’s report, ‘Kumkum Shoes’ made a profit of nearly Rs 18 lakh to Rs 19 lakh from selling counterfeit ‘Puma’ shoes and the suit was liable to be decreed in favour of ‘Puma’ with damages of Rs 10 lakh and costs of Rs 2 lakh.

The local commissioner’s report revealed that the defendant was running a full-scale manufacturing operation with respect to counterfeit ‘Puma’ shoes. As the defendant chose to stay away from the proceedings, the court passed the decree of permanent injunction.

--IANS

amita/dpb

With over 23 lakh styles from over 6,000 brands, the fourth edition of the Myntra BFF offers one of the biggest assortment of selections across fashion, beauty and lifestyle ever and expects over 8 million customers to shop during the festive carnival.

Over 5 lakh new styles have been added from brands that are popular among non-metro customers.

To meet the expected surge in traffic and provide a smooth and seamless shopping journey to every shopper coming to the platform, Myntra has scaled its systems to handle 1 million concurrent users at peak.

This year, the platform will also provide access to constructs that are designed to showcase festive-oriented categories like Showstoppers, BFF Specials, and Rewards.

The platform has unique hero collections for ‘BFF Specials’ along with over 150 new launches, cross-brand collaborations and interesting CelebXBrand crossovers.

In addition to fashion and beauty, some of the emerging categories geared to witness rising demand this festive season include home products, luggage, travel and accessories, footwear, and handbags.

This BFF will see over 1.6 lakh styles and 50 new made-in-India D2C brands which are celebrated under the Myntra Rising STARS banner and will offer a differentiated selection, with unique styles for both men and women across fashion, footwear, accessories and home.

With the growing popularity and love for the catalog, some leading brands like Outcast, Nap Chief, BeYours and Veshti Company will showcase irresistible value-offers.

Indian wear is an integral part of one’s festive wardrobe and the men's and women’s segments have been scaled to 4.5 lakh styles, to cater to the festive demand ahead of the Big Fashion Festival.

The collection houses a range of mass premium and premium styles across light and heavy Indian wear, and fusion wear which are seeing an increase in demand from customers.

Fusion collection which comprises 45k styles from 1000+ brands is expected to trend among GenZ customers looking for an Indo-western look. International brands continue to gain traction among both men and women.

Myntra has added over 20 sought-after international brands launched this year that are also participating in BFF for the first time, along with the robust portfolio of 400+ global brands across diverse categories such as accessories, home, menswear, and sports footwear.

Some of the recently on-boarded international brands on Myntra include Anko, Saucony, Gymshark, Champion, BoohooMAN, DKNY, and Anne Klien, among others. Offering 90,000+ products across 1,500+ brands, including 200+ international brands in its beauty and personal care (BPC) portfolio, Myntra will enable shoppers with robust beauty offerings during the Big Fashion Festival.

The Home category is expected to see increased traction from fashion-forward customers this festive season. This has seen Myntra add over 50,000 new home products to its catalogue of 750+ brands and more than 2 lakh aesthetically pleasing and trend-first styles.

Myntra will cater to the festive needs of GenZ customers. As part of FWD, Myntra’s immersive fashion proposition for Gen-Z, is an array of uber-trendy brands offering over 67,000 styles.

Prominent brands that are expected to trend during the Big Fashion Festival are Lulu & Sky, H&M, Trendyol, bebe, Tokyo Talkies, Hersheinbox, Street 9, Athena, Bonkers Corner, Freakins and Boohoo, among others. Some of the brands offering their new collections include: Apparel - The adidas official Team India jersey, Rare Rabbit’s Walk 2.0 collection, UNRL, Jack&Jones Ranveer X Urban Racer, The Kurta Company, Beyours, Oasis, Nike Jordan apparels, Gymshark, Jaipur KurtiXMadhuri Dixit, Janasya, Boohooman, MANGO MAN and H&M among others Beauty - Colorbar - Take me as I am, makeup range, L’oreal Paris Infallible Matte Resistance Lipsticks among others Footwear - Nike, Saucony, Champion, adidas Luggage, Travel and Accessories - Urban Forest, Stylestry, Enoki by Baggit, Wildcraft Trolley, Ann Klien Home - Anko, Starbucks Watches and Wearables - FossilXDisney, CK, Lacoste, Hugo.

The festive event provides access to unprecedented value propositions by brands, along with ingenious customer engagement propositions like the Curtain Raiser deals, Grand Opening Hours, Brand Mania and limited-time deal constructs.

Customers can look forward to Myntra Revolutionary Price which includes 10 per cent bank offers in addition to attractive value offers.

During the event, customers will also have access to an additional 15 per cent off on using Myntra's co-branded credit card in association with Kotak Mahindra Bank, to unlock more value on their festive purchases. Additionally, the shoppers can avail payment offers through partners like ICICI, Kotak, Paytm and Cred.

This BFF, customers shopping above a certain amount, will be able to avail exciting rewards which may include gold coins, trolleys and backpacks, etc.

"As the nation earnestly awaits the festive season, at Myntra, we are geared to roll out our biggest edition of the ‘Big Fashion Festival’. This is an opportunity for the industry to gain momentum where brands are able to infuse newness with their offerings while also strengthening their base of shoppers. This is also an opportunity for our ecosystem partners, including big and small brands, Kirana partners and artisans to grow further," said Nandita Sinha, CEO, Myntra.

As part of the festive hiring ramp-up, Myntra has increased its women hiring, taking it to 21 per cent while creating employment opportunities for women from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and has extended additional income opportunities. The hiring spans rural locations and villages in states like Haryana, Telangana, West Bengal, and Karnataka.

In addition to the supply chain, of the total hires in the contact centre this festive season, 45 per cent will be women hires.

Myntra’s robust supply chain network, consisting of 17,000 MENSA (Myntra Extended Network for Service Augmentation), the platform’s neighbourhood Kirana store partners, will play a pivotal role in fulfilling festive orders across the country.

--IANS

na/vd

More than four months after commencing the work on its first project at Kakatiya Mega Textile Park (KMTP) in Warangal, it laid the foundation stone for the second cluster at Seetharampur in Rangareddy district near Hyderabad.

Kitex, which is the second-largest manufacturer of infant wear in the world, is setting up this cluster with a capacity of seven lakh garments per day.

The company thus intends to create a Guinness record. The plant will come up on 250 acres with an investment of Rs 1,200 crore. It will employ more than 11,000 people directly, more than 80 per cent of which will be women employees.

The entire investment will be operational by December 2024.

Minister for industries KT Rama Rao along with his ministerial colleagues P Sabitha Indra Reddy and P Mahender Reddy participated in the ground-breaking ceremony.

Kitex’s first investment project in Telangana is coming up at Kakatiya Mega Textile Park, Warangal where construction of a similar sized integrated fibre-to-apparel manufacturing cluster is ongoing in full swing and expected to commence operations by December 2023.

The company is investing Rs.1,600 crore in the Warangal plant. The cluster, spread over 200 acres, will employ more than 15,000 people directly, more than 80 per cent of which will be women employees. Kerala-based Kitex signed MoU with Telangana government in 2021 to invest Rs.2,406 crore in the state. --IANS

ms/rad

The company’s Board also approved the simplification and consolidation of its capital structure.

Tata Motors closed Q1FY24 with a total income of Rs 103,596.62 crore (against Q1FY23's Rs72,822.02 crore) and a net profit of Rs 3,300.65 crore (against a net loss of Rs.4,950.97 crore).

The Tata Motors Board at their meeting on Tuesday gave their nod for the reduction of capital by cancelling the entire 'A’ Ordinary shares and issue and alloting Ordinary shares that would rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary shares.

The holders of 'A' Ordinary shares will get seven ordinary shares for every 10 shares ('A' Ordinary shares) held by them as capital reduction consideration.

According to Tata Motors, after the delisting of the American Depository Shares from the New York Stock Exchange as of January 23, 2023, the company has two types of listed equity securities, namely Ordinary Shares and 'A' Ordinary Shares.

The 'A' Ordinary Shares carry 1/10th of voting rights of Ordinary Shares and are entitled to five percentage points higher dividend. These shares were first issued by Tata Motors in 2008 and subsequently in a further QIP in 2010 and rights issue in 2015.

Regulatory changes have, since then, restricted the issuance of such instruments with differential voting rights and Tata Motors remains the only large listed company with such an instrument, the company said.

The capital restructuring will lead to a reduction in the outstanding equity shares by 4.2 per cent, making it value accretive for all shareholders, the company claimed. Post capital rejig, the voting rights of the promoter and promoter group will go down to 42.64 per cent from 45.81 per cent while that of the public will go up to 57.36 per cent from 54.19 per cent.

--IANS

vj/vd