SHOPTHAT is looking to have influencers promote beauty products and help their fans get access to them with ease.Have you ever seen something in an Instagram snapshot and wanted to add it to your wish list, only to have trouble finding it again? SHOPTHAT is a social shopping service built on Facebook Messenger looking to make it easier for fans to locate and buy products. When a user likes a ph...

Investors are taking note of Blokable, a Seattle startup founded by a former Amazon manager that aims to cut costs for builders and residents alike through the construction of tech-powered manufactured housing.According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Blokable has raised about $4.8 million out of a $5.5 million round. The document lists Jason Calacanis — prominent...

Bitcoin’s price has risen by more than 600% this year, routinely setting new all-time highs along the way. But timing is everything: bitcoin has also dropped by double-digit percentages at times this year, in what some economists would consider a financial crisis if it happened to the value of a sovereign currency.Indeed, if you bought bitcoin at the start of the year, you may have swiftly reg...

Barely a decade old, Tesla Inc, the American automaker specializing in electric car and lithium ion battery energy storage, has truly shaken the car industry. CEO Elon Musk envisions Tesla as a technology company and independent automaker aimed at eventually offering electric cars at affordable prices to the average consumer. After the Roadster was discontinued in 2012, Tesla has focused on its...

Technology, Regulatory Mandates, and Consumer Cost of Ownership for Both Owned and Shared Cars Will Shape Changeover; Hybrids and Battery-Powered Vehicles Will Increase Their Share Slowly Until 2025, but Then Accelerate as Consumer Demand Rises, BCG Study FindsThe tipping point for electrified vehicles is in sight, and a combination of hybrid and fully electric powertrains is expected to cut th...

A new system developed at the University of Washington can store passcodes magnetically in clothes, allowing for doors or computers to be unlocked just by tapping your sleeve to a sensor.If you don't like the idea of your boss implanting a chip in your hand to let you open doors and log into office computers, a team from the University of Washington has developed a system that doesn't require q...

In this report, we continue our coverage of the two-speed growth trend that has characterized China’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector for the past two years. We also share our analysis of how, after four years of rapid growth, digital sales are changing—and not changing—shopper behavior in China.It’s still a slow road to growth for China’s FMCG market. The sluggishness that began...

The status of bitcoin as a legitimate financial asset may be rising even faster than its price.Just last month, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of the nation's big bank, JPMorgan Chase, said that bitcoin was A) a fraud and B) something his bank would never touch. Dimon said he would personally fire anyone who deigned to trade it. CME Group President Bryan Durkin, also in September, told Bloomberg Televisi...

The mass production of the environmentally friendly synthetic crude oil substitute Blue Crude becomes reality: from 2020 the first plant shall start its operation in the industrial park Heroya in Norway. It will be operating with an electric capacity of 20 megawatts, producing 8,000 tons of Blue Crude per year. Nordic Blue Crude AS, Sunfire, Climeworks, EDL Anlagenbau and additional partners ha...