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PR Newswire

LianLian Global partners with FlavorCloud on international shipping

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LianLian Global gives merchants cross-border payments and shipping in one service

HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 21, 2020 — LianLian Global, a leading technology company for cross-border businesses in partnership with FlavorCloud, a leading cross-border logistics platform, announced the integration of intelligent shipping logic for merchants into the LianLian Global platform. The service is available immediately to merchants based in China at http://logistics.lianlianpay.com

This partnership expands LianLian Global’s payments services for merchants, giving any cross-border company access to the world’s top logistics service providers. This service enables affordable, frictionless, and efficient worldwide shipping, providing end-to-end shipment tracking through FlavorCloud’s worldwide, optimized cross-border network of carriers.

FlavorCloud’s global logistics network will help LianLian Global customers intelligently pair the optimal logistics service customized to each specific order, expanding outbound shipping options, reducing merchant’s decision-making costs, while automating customs clearance and greatly improving delivery times.

With this partnership, LianLian Global’s cross-border technology platform includes services for international payments and shipping services, bringing everything together for merchants in one place while connecting them to global opportunities effortlessly.

Chinese e-commerce players accounted for 76.5% of the total eCommerce cross-border trading in 2019 with a total value of 10.5 trillion Yuan. As the global demand increases for Chinese products, the adoption of technology platforms that make things simple, fast, and easy for Chinese merchants is accelerating. With payments and shipping in one platform, LianLian Global is removing costly and inefficient workflows for merchants, making cross-border eCommerce much simpler to navigate.

David Messenger, CEO of LianLian Global, said, "We are thrilled to partner with FlavorCloud. This collaboration helps us to further our mission to make cross-border eCommerce effortless for merchants across payments and shipping."

He continues: "We’ve heard from our customers that cross-border logistics remains a cumbersome and costly affair. Our integrated solution leverages FlavorCloud’s logistics expertise and network to make international shipping easy, affordable and friction-free for our merchants – no matter where they need to deliver. Together, we’ll create greater efficiencies, transparency, and cost savings for Chinese merchants."

Rathna Sharad, CEO and founder of FlavorCloud, said, "We are pleased to partner with LianLian Global, which is a leading company focused on providing integrated cross-border eCommerce services as-a-platform to merchants. I believe this partnership will disrupt conventional international logistics to empower Chinese merchants to sell to consumers worldwide. FlavorCloud is a fast-growing startup, and the value we deliver to eCommerce merchants and brands is straightforward and meaningful. We hope to continuously enable eCommerce brands to go global and adapt to the changing eCommerce and trade landscape.":

About LianLian Global

LianLian Global is a technology company that connects local sellers to global opportunities.

We make it easy for eCommerce merchants to do more business across borders. When sellers need to receive international payouts, get financing, solve shipping logistics, manage foreign exchange, or pay tax obligations abroad, we simplify the complexity of operating in other countries, giving merchants and sellers the freedom to do business anywhere – seamlessly. 

Part of the LianLian Group, and with licenses and offices in the Americas, Europe, and throughout Asia, LianLian Global is integrated into mainstream e-commerce platforms around the world, with services covering more than 100 countries and regions. www.lianlianglobal.com

About FlavorCloud

FlavorCloud is an end-to-end cross border logistics service platform for Direct to consumer (DTC) brands, retailers, and marketplaces. Their global e-commerce enablement service uses deep learning to evaluate carriers’ historical performance and automatically suggest the best international shipping services and rates at checkout. Additionally, the company offers "friction-free" international returns handling.

Related Links :

http://www.lianlianglobal.com

PR Newswire

Australian AI startup, HIVERY, partners with JR East Water Business to optimize vending machines in Japan

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SURRY HILLS, Australia, Dec. 16, 2020 — Retail AI pioneer, HIVERY [https://www.hivery.com], (headquartered in Sydney, Australia) and JR East Water Business (headquartered in Tokyo, Japan), a subsidiary of East Japan Railway Company, have agreed to rollout HIVERY Enhance [https://www.hivery.com/products/enhance] – an AI-driven vending machine optimization solution, to 6,000 vending machines across East Japan Railway’s train stations.

Validated results from numerous PoCs (proof of concepts) increased sales by 5.27％[1] overall, up to a maximum of over 50%, as well as simultaneously reducing replenishment trips and improving operational productivity. 

[1] ※ Compared to vending machines not leveraging HIVERY Enhance during the same period.

HIVERY and JR East Water Business have been collaborating since 2017, leveraging HIVERY’s latest AI technology to optimize product assortment and column space for individual vending machines in Japan. During the winter of 2019, the results of HIVERY Enhance showed an overall increase in sales volume by 5.27%, up to a maximum of over 50%. Furthermore, given labor storages due to a declining population, there has been growing pressure to improve operational productivity within the Japanese vending industry. HIVERY Enhance enabled JR East Water Business to streamline operations and reduce replenishment trips by automatically recommending the optimal product assortment and quantity for their vending machines. Based on this success, JR East Water Business has agreed to rollout HIVERY Enhance across 6,000 vending machines on their train stations for East Japan Railway – a first in Japan.

Until now, product assortment selection had been decided by individual operators (drivers) who are responsible for replenishing the vending machines at their designated locations. Given those decisions have been based on the operator’s accumulated experience and intuition over many years, it has been an ongoing challenge to transfer that knowledge to new operators and maintain a level of quality. HIVERY Enhance leverages the power of AI and JR East Water Business’ point of sales (POS) data, to automatically determine which products need to be stocked in which vending machine, as well as the optimal timing to swap products for individual machines. This enables any operator to efficiently make the right product assortment choices that will lead to a profitable outcome.

HIVERY Enhance helps to:

  1. Select products that are likely to sell well – By analyzing the vast amount of sales data from the full fleet of vending machines, it identifies patterns in the sales data and identifies products that are likely to sell well in any particular location.
     
  2. Optimize product assortment – By understanding the demand for individual products and the effects of cannibalization of demand between products in each location, it can determine which products should be inserted and which should be taken out, to lead to the optimal outcome.
     
  3. Reduce replenishment trips – From the demand forecasts of products in any location, it can calculate the number of days before each product is likely to go out of stock and recommend the optimal quantity and column allocation to maximize the time between replenishment trips, thereby reducing labor costs.
     
  4. Optimizing a group of vending machines – Rather than only focusing on individual vending machines, it can also assess a group of banked vending machines in the same area at the same time, and optimize the products for the entire area as if it were one large vending machine.

HIVERY Enhance in action. Video explanation.
HIVERY Enhance in action. Video explanation.

[https://vimeo.com/450640785]

By ingesting vast arrays of data and incorporating intricate operational rules as well as physical and business constraints into its algorithm, HIVERY Enhance can instantaneously provide executable recommendations for the optimal product assortment and column configurations for both an individual as well as a group of vending machines. Furthermore, by leveraging weather data, it can respond to changes in seasonal patterns and suggest the optimal time to insert hot and cold products, while taking into account the effects of cannibalization for the product mix at each location, thereby providing the optimal product assortment at any given time.

Voice of the customer

In March 2018, HIVERY invited JR East Water Business’s Vending Division team to its Sydney headquarters to meet with one of HIVERY’s first customers, Coca-Cola Amatil, to exchange ideas and share their experience and best practice for implementing cutting edge technology for their respective vending businesses.

"We believe the combination of the rich human experience of our operators cultivated over many years and the utilization of big data is our greatest strength. With HIVERY Enhance, we can realize that vision and aim to establish a new platform for our vending machine operations that will help us recover from the impact of this year’s pandemic, as well as improve worker productivity which has been an issue for us for many years." ~ Yuta Higashino, Manager at JR East Water Business

Moving into category management: the $US900[2] billion opportunity.

HIVERY Enhance is just the beginning. HIVERY has released its new offering – HIVERY Curate [https://www.hivery.com/products/curate] – The world’s first truly hyper-local category management solution, helping companies like Coca-Cola and Walmart transform category management. HIVERY Curate delivers store-level recommendations with sophisticated self-learning AI algorithms that discover buying patterns at each store and make product assortment and space recommendations from this, resulting in a 10X return on investment to date.

About HIVERY

HIVERY is a multi-award-winning pioneer of hyper-local retailing, combining Artificial Intelligence (AI), operations research, and human-centered design to help Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers generate a return on physical space investments. HIVERY is transforming category management and retail trade promotion, with innovative algorithms sourced from Australia’s national science agency – CSIRO’s Data61. HIVERY is venture-backed and headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with offices in the USA and Japan. HIVERY was founded on the vision that Data Has A Better IdeaTM – and we’re working together with our clients to uncover its full potential.

Innovation Leaders’ Summit Tokyo (ILS) 3rd~12th March 2021

HIVERY has been selected by Austrade (The Australian Trade and Investment Commission) and the NSW Government of Australia, as one of 2 promising startups to participate in next year’s Innovation Leaders’ Summit.  Details of the event can be found here: https://ils.tokyo/

Website post [https://www.hivery.com/news/retail-ai-pioneer-hivery-headquartered-in-sydney]

[2] "Out of Stocks, Out of Luck How Retailers Alienate Customers and Lose Billions Due to Poor Inventory Practices" IHL Group 2018, G. Buzek

 

Related Links :

https://www.hivery.com/

PR Newswire

Tive Secures $12 Million Series A Capital Funding

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Backed by RRE Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures, Tive offers real-time, in-transit location and condition insights to every part of the supply chain

BOSTON, Dec. 16, 2020 — Tive, Inc., a leading provider of global supply chain visibility insights, announced today that it secured a $12 million Series A funding round from RRE Ventures, followed by Two Sigma Ventures, with participation from existing investors NextView Ventures, Hyperplane Ventures, One Way Ventures, Fathom Ventures, and others. The new investment will fuel Tive’s rapid growth and drive product innovation for seamless shipment tracking, alerts and analytics.

Shipment tracking is incredibly complicated, unreliable and expensive. Tive is changing that by providing real-time visibility into the entire shipment process, including hyper-accurate location data and condition insights such as temperature, shock, light exposure and humidity. Tive’s release of the industry’s first 5G-ready single-use tracker was met with intense market interest and approval.  Customer adoption is on the rise with aggressive growth in new customers and 570% growth in annual revenue, driven in part by the delivery of the first Non-Lithium powered tracker to address the market’s concerns over Lithium-Ion safety and environmental impact.

"The $20 trillion shipping industry is starting to expect more," said Raju Rishi, General Partner at RRE Ventures. "They are rapidly adopting Tive to gain real-time insights on their shipments, giving them a level of visibility not yet seen before in the industry as well as a new window of opportunity to actually intervene if shipments are being improperly handled. Over the four years we’ve known Krenar, we’ve seen Tive’s full-stack tracking solution be aggressively pulled into the market by a diverse customer base and we’re proud to be backing him and his team as they build a category-defining company in supply chain tracking."

"Given the growing demand for Tive’s full line of tracking solutions, it was obvious that now was the time to dramatically expand our ability to meet industry demand," said Krenar Komoni, CEO at Tive, Inc. "Gaining the support of RRE Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures, as well as our current valued investors, means we can leverage their expertise and focus on growing our customer-centric platform. The infusion of growth capital means bringing products to market faster, enhancing our sales and marketing efforts, adding key leadership, and growing our international presence."

About Tive
Tive delivers real-time in-transit visibility of shipments around the globe with data-driven insights from an enterprise-class Visibility as a Service (VaaS) platform. With Tive, shippers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) can track and monitor the location and condition of their products while in transit. Tive’s VaaS solution provides data generated by its industry-leading trackers allowing clients to proactively optimize their shipments, improve their customers’ experience, and unlock supply chain insights in an actionable real-time manner. Tive is based in Boston, MA. For more information, visit: www.tive.co

Contact: James Waters, jim@tive.co

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http://www.tive.io

PR Newswire

BEST Inc. to Launch New Flagship Sortation Center in Southeast Asia Ahead of Peak Holiday Deliveries

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HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 11, 2020 — BEST Inc. (NYSE: BEST) ("BEST" or the "Company"), a leading integrated smart supply chain solutions and logistics services provider in China, announced today that ahead of the approaching holiday sales season, it will be opening a brand new flagship sortation center in Vietnam and has already expanded its sortation center in Bangkok, Thailand, all in an effort to meet growing customer demand in Southeast Asia.

Located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the 35,000 square meter advanced sortation center is anticipated to commence operations on December 17. With an approximate US$8 million investment, the facility incorporates a wide range of cutting-edge sorting and scanning technologies that enable increased sorting capacity and less manual processing of shipments. The sortation center is capable of handling up to one million parcels per day, the highest parcel processing capacity in the country. The site is expected to create over 1,000 full-time and part-time jobs over the next two to three years.

Commenting on the new facility in Vietnam, Nelson Wu, General Manager of BEST Inc. Vietnam stated, "Our flagship sortation center in Ho Chi Minh City is the most modern and efficient facility in Vietnam with industry-leading technology and capacity. This state-of-the-art facility will help BEST ensure a highly efficient delivery experience for consumers during peak holiday season and further support merchants and brands as they grow their e-commerce businesses."

Last month, BEST completed an expansion at its sortation center in Bangkok, Thailand, to better handle an increasing volume of parcels moving through the nation. The project added 4,400 square meters of space to the existing facility and equipped it with high-speed automated sorting lines and leading dimension and weight scanning solutions, allowing the facility to double its daily processing capacity to 400,000 parcels.

Across Thailand and Vietnam, the Company currently has 16 self-operated express hubs along with approximately 1,000 franchised last-mile service stations.

The new operations facilities come along with BEST’s preparation for the upcoming holiday season, when historical business and consumer demand for parcel processing reaches its peak of the year. During the recent Double 11 sales last month, BEST’s express services in Southeast Asia saw daily volume triple the average amount.

Since 2019, BEST has established express delivery networks in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and Singapore, where it is seeing volumes surge along with the rapid growth in e-commerce. In the third quarter, the Company reported an eight-fold jump in packages in these markets.

"Southeast Asia is our largest international market and we plan to continue to invest in the region with both rigor and determination," said Johnny Chou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BEST Inc. "With all of our recent roll-outs in Southeast Asia, BEST aims to provide retailers and merchants cost-effective solutions with high-quality customer service by leveraging our technological advantages and expertise from local partners and talent."

About BEST Inc.

BEST Inc. (NYSE: BEST) is a leading integrated smart supply chain solutions and logistics services provider in China. Through its proprietary technology platform and extensive networks, BEST offers a comprehensive set of logistics and value-add services, including express and freight delivery, supply chain management and last-mile services, truckload service brokerage, international logistics and financial services. BEST’s mission is to empower business and enrich life by leveraging technology and business model innovation to create a smarter, more efficient supply chain. For more information, please visit: http://www.best-inc.com/en/.  

Investor and Media Contacts

BEST Inc.
Investor relations team                        
ir@best-inc.com

The Piacente Group, Inc.
Yang Song
Tel: +86-10-6508-0677
E-mail: best@tpg-ir.com

Brandi Piacente
Tel: +1-212-481-2050
E-mail:  best@tpg-ir.com 

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the business outlook and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as BEST’s strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. BEST may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about BEST’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: BEST’s goals and strategies; BEST’s future business development, results of operations and financial condition; BEST ‘s ability to maintain and enhance its ecosystem; BEST ‘s ability to continue to innovate, meet evolving market trends, adapt to changing customer demands and maintain its culture of innovation; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China and other countries in which BEST operates, and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in BEST’s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and BEST does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

Related Links :

https://www.best-inc.com/

PR Newswire

SpaceChain Receives Grant from EUREKA GlobalStars-Singapore Call to Jointly Develop Decentralised Satellite Infrastructure with Consortium Partners

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Milestone brings together SpaceChain, Addvalue Innovation and Alba Orbital on a mission to democratise access to space innovations

HARWELL, England, Dec. 10, 2020 — EUREKA, in partnership with Enterprise Singapore and Innovate UK, has awarded GBP440,000 in funding together with access to research and development facilities and resources to SpaceChain UK Limited (SpaceChain) and consortium partners Addvalue Innovation Pte Ltd ("Addvalue ") and Alba Orbital. Awarded under the EUREKA Globalstars-Singapore Call, the companies will jointly develop a decentralised satellite infrastructure (DSI) that powers a blockchain payload at its core to enable direct tasking of a satellite in real-time.

The DSI innovation will be formed by a mesh-network of heterogeneous spacecrafts that is owned by multiple parties across jurisdictions operated in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The DSI is set to democratise access to the nascent space sector with lower barriers to entry by individual companies. The innovation also bridges the communication gap between technology and data.

Once the DSI architecture and the blockchain payload is developed, stringent testing will be carried out on the blockchain-based satellite tasking to ensure secure, reliable connectivity and performance between the DSI infrastructure and ground-based users in real-time. The DSI infrastructure will advance the development of commercial use cases linking space resource providers, satellite application and fintech companies with an ultra-secure and low-latency network.

"We are honoured to receive support from EUREKA, Enterprise Singapore and Innovate UK as we forge ahead on our mission to develop a New Space Economy and minimise the entry barriers to space with the DSI," said Nick Trudgen, chief commercial officer and UK director at SpaceChain. "Space exploration projects are tremendous in scale and require close collaboration and partnership, and this milestone unlocks new opportunities for building commercial solutions that leverage space and blockchain applications."

The innovation will be made possible collectively with the blockchain payload and software package developed by SpaceChain, the Unicorn-2 PocketQube platform built by Alba Orbital, and on-demand real-time communication provided by Addvalue through their Inter-Satellite Data Relay System (IDRS) that leverages LEO-Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) links.

"With the global blockchain market size projected to grow at a CAGR of 67.3% per annum from USD3.0 billion in 2020 to USD39.7 billion by 2025*, it is undeniable that blockchain technologies will play a very significant role in space applications, especially in the name of cyber-security in protecting the different assets in the space information network. The Addvalue IDRS solution is a key enabler in ensuring the availability of low latency and reliable connectivity for the effective blockchain applications in a decentralized and distributed satellite infrastructure. The funding from EUREKA epitomizes our collective innovation in redefining the future of space applications. Addvalue, through the offering of its proven inter-satellite communication expertise and developmental capabilities for such embedded systems, is excited to be part of the consortium which put us in a pole position to target the fast growing blockchain market in a satellite environment," said Francis Low, Head of Advanced Development at Addvalue Innovation.

"We are very excited to collaborate with SpaceChain and Addvalue as we integrate our expertise for ground-to-satellite communications to create this pioneering DSI Innovation," said Tom Walkinshaw, founder and CEO of Alba Orbital. "Built upon our shared vision in advancing the frontiers of space technologies for businesses, the partnership will catalyse the use of space systems and services in the commercial market with unparalleled performance and security."

The EUREKA project is expected to commence in early 2021.

*source from MarketsandMarket

About SpaceChain

SpaceChain fosters decentralized infrastructure for the New Space Economy. By combining space and blockchain technologies, SpaceChain is making the development of space applications easier and making space more accessible. SpaceChain UK Limited is a subsidiary of SpaceChain Limited. For more information, visit spacechain.com

About Addvalue Innovation

Addvalue Innovation Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGX Mainboard-listed Addvalue Technologies Ltd (A31), is a leading satellite-based communication solutions company. Addvalue provides state-of-the-art communication terminals for use in space, in the air, at sea and on the ground. The company also offers extensive engineering and integration services to its customers, including the design and development of reconfigurable embedded system suitable for software defined radio and edge computing applications. Whatever the market or application, the company’s wide range of satellite-based products and services is sure to offer the right technology to drive enhanced connectivity. Learn more at www.addvaluetech.com

About Alba Orbital

Alba Orbital is the world’s leading PocketQube satellite manufacturer and launch broker. The company was founded in 2012 in Glasgow, Scotland and recently opened its second office in Berlin, Germany. To date, Alba launch has successfully deployed 6 PocketQube satellites into orbit including the Unicorn-2 platform. Unicorn-2 is the world’s most capable Picosat by specification. Albaconnect, a ground station service developed by Alba, completes the full end-to-end service to newspace users and operators. Alba has 20+ customers on 3 continents. For more information visit albaorbital.com

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PR Newswire

Luokung cooperates with Yiting to provide location-based commercial marketing services for more than 90,000 gas stations across China.

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BEIJING, Dec. 9, 2020 — Luokung Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: LKCO) ("Luokung" or the "Company"), one of the global leading spatial-temporal big-data processing technology companies, a leading interactive location-based services company in China, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Guangdong Yiting Information Technology Co., Ltd. ("Yiting"). The two parties will cooperate to provide location-based commercial marketing services for more than 90,000 gas stations across China. Relying on the ecological cooperation system between Yiting and Gas Stations and the Luokung map open platform, this cooperation enables each gas station to manage its own features on the map, including but not limited to personalized landmarks, personalized navigation routes, real-time map updates and display of marketing information for gas related and non-gas related products on the site, and other personalized marketing services. With the capability of completing all relevant transactions on the map, it enables gas stations as an example of "my position that I operate in my way".

Guangdong Yiting Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a leading service provider of senseless and contactless payment in China’s energy retail industry. Cooperating with China UnionPay, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, PetroChina, Sinopec, Sinochem, etc, it deploys a senseless payment system in gas stations,  and launches services including refueling through Electric Toll Collection ("ETC"), one-key refueling and non-gas related products, which covers more than 100 million drivers, 93,000 gas stations, by collaborating with China’s leading mobile gas platform and smart gas station service platform, such as Guanghui Cloud Oil, Tuan Oil, Easy Fuel, Xiaoju Refuel, Didi Refuel, Feeding Car and Smart Fueler etc.

About Luokung Technology Corp.

Luokung Technology Corp. is one of the global leading spatial-temporal big-data processing technology companies and a leading interactive location-based services company in China. It provides integrated DaaS, SaaS, and PaaS services for Internet and Internet of Things of Spatial-Temporal big data based on its patented technology. Based on geographic information systems and intelligent Spatial-Temporal big data, it establishes city-level and industry-level digital twin holographic data models to actively serve smart cities, intelligent transportation, smart industry, LBS. http://www.luokung.com

Business Risks and Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will", "expects", "anticipates", "future", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "target", "going forward", "outlook" and similar statements. Such statements are based upon management’s current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company’s control, which may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law.

CONTACT:
The Company:
Mr. Jay Yu 
Chief Financial Officer
Tel:  +86-10-5327-4727
Email: ir@luokung.com

INVESTOR RELATIONS
PureRock Communications Limited
Email: luokung@pure-rock.com

Related Links :

http://www.luokung.com

PR Newswire

Singapore Startup Helps Owners Sell Their Car in Record Time, Builds First AI Valuation Tool in Region

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Partnering global technology company Huawei, UCARS aims to build consumer trust and satisfaction in the automotive industry with its latest integration of cutting-edge technologies into its platform

SINGAPORE, Dec. 7, 2020 — Singapore’s fastest-growing online car marketplace to buy and sell new and used cars, UCARS is integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud computing into its platform together with Huawei to provide consumers with enhanced transparency, security and satisfaction.

Singapore car owners can now expect to sell their vehicles within three days at the highest prices when they use the AI-enhanced tools provided by the UCARS platform. This is part of the company’s commitment to shifting the automotive industry towards a more modernised and customer-centric landscape.

Using AI, the company has successfully created a proprietary valuation tool on the platform that provides consumers with an estimate of their cars’ resale value within seconds, making it the first instant AI Car Valuation Tool in Southeast Asia. Compared to other valuation methods that take at least a day to give an estimate, the UCARS AI Valuation Tool is the fastest valuation tool available to consumers in the region.

With the current economic lull due to COVID-19, transfer of private vehicle ownership for cars has seen an average of 15% year-on-year increase compared to September last year and reached an all-time high in September this year (source: LTA). Consumer demand for new and used cars has been seeing a steady increase in the Southeast Asia region. 

"We speculate that some Singaporeans are anticipating an economic rebound in the near future, and coupled with pent-up demand for cars and reduced quotas, we are expecting to see car sales skyrocket in the coming months," said Cho Kok Yick, Chief Technology Officer at UCARS.

One seller, Gideon Lam, who has successfully sold two cars on UCARS, stated that his experience was a seamless process as UCARS "helped to coordinate all the necessary" without him needing to do extensive preparatory work. Another seller, Michael Chong, showed appreciation towards UCARS for ensuring that the entire process was "smooth and transparent" on both ends.

"We want to make the second-hand car selling process as safe and as easy as possible, this is why we continuously invest in AI technologies. This will, of course, be made possible by Huawei technologies," Cho added.

"This is a really exciting time, where we see more companies harness the power of AI to change the way they do business. Huawei is excited to embark on this journey with UCARS to help digitalise and deepen consumer trust in the automotive industry as well as to improve the customer journey and experience," said Daniel Zhou, President of Huawei Cloud & AI Group, Asia Pacific.

Making Better Decisions with AI

Due to the pandemic, consumers worldwide have shifted their shopping patterns, and this applies to the automotive industry that traditionally thrives on face-to-face interactions.

To help consumers make better informed decisions in a fraction of the usual time, UCARS is progressively introducing new and improved tools and services powered by AI onto the platform by partnering Huawei.

With the help of HUAWEI CLOUD, UCARS seeks to deepen consumer trust by integrating better infrastructure and cloud security into the platform, and embarking on several AI-related projects to improve customer experience. This includes a Car Image Search Engine powered by machine vision and machine learning, as well as an improved AI Valuation Tool. All of them are developed on ModelArts, the AI platform of Huawei.

Using an improved algorithm, the accuracy of each valuation on the UCARS AI Valuation Tool improves with every use. By getting a better estimate on the value of their car, consumers can sell their car on the UCARS platform with ease of mind knowing the amount they can expect to get back, and at a fraction of the usual time it would take on other automotive platforms.

UCARS is also working on creating an AI-powered car search tool to help consumers identify the make and model of a car using only images. With machine vision, image recognition can be utilised to find a specific vehicle that consumers desire.

"We are confident that by building a strong core in the area of deep tech, we will be able to power future growth in the automotive industry in a post-COVID world," said Cho.

With the government’s push for digitalisation, disruptive technology solutions like artificial intelligence platforms, big data platforms, startups like UCARS are stepping up to create and adapt their current technologies.

Transparent Experience on the Cloud

Notably, the automotive industry faces difficulties communicating and forging meaningful relations with its consumers in a digitising society due to obsolete and inefficient operating processes. Consumers therefore lack the trust and confidence in the products and services sold by local car dealers.

According to Cho, UCARS eliminates the need for consumers to disclose their personal contact by using the platform’s built-in chat system. This allows consumers to connect seamlessly with dealers without divulging more information than they wish to.

Moreover, when dealers list on UCARS, there is no need for consumers to worry about hidden fees, undisclosed package deals, as they are provided with the latest and most accurate information on every listing.

Cho added that, after migrating its backend systems to HUAWEI CLOUD, the UCARS platform has become more stable and is now able to handle large amounts of data much better and securely than before.

Launched in Singapore early last year, HUAWEI CLOUD has been investing copious resources in partnering local startups such as UCARS. They strive to optimise their backend infrastructure and AI algorithms to better meet business objectives, all while keeping HUAWEI’s services secure and affordable. UCARS is also one of the five finalists in Huawei Spark 2020, a hybrid accelerator programme launched by Huawei for deep tech startups.

"A more robust architecture translates to enhanced user experience for both dealers and consumers. We truly appreciate the help that Huawei has been providing us throughout the integration process, and we look forward to more collaborative projects in the future," he added.

With innovation at the heart and technological know-how in mind, UCARS continues to bring consumers and dealers closer by digitising human interactions in the automotive industry, taking its place as the future of automotive retail.

 

PR Newswire

Born2Global Centre to Accelerate Cultivation of Innovative Mobility Startups for Self-driving Era

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SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 4, 2020 — Born2Global Centre (Born2Global) revealed the four innovative mobility startups it is intensively incubating in anticipation of the coming prevalence of autonomous driving.

Born2Global jointly hosted an online global mobility business meet-and-greet with Sejong Technopark. The event was held in support of Born2Global’s National Innovation Cluster project (conducted in cooperation with Sejong Technopark) and served as an arena for companies to network online with global eco mobility system representatives, while forging commercial relations and securing business partners. Born2Global has operated the National Innovation Cluster project with Sejong Technopark since 2018.

Born2Global jointly hosted an online global mobility business meet-and-greet with Sejong Technopark.
Born2Global jointly hosted an online global mobility business meet-and-greet with Sejong Technopark.

MORAI, Autonomous a2z, Quantum Gate, and BlueSignal were among the four companies at the event named by Born2Global. The business meet-and-greet was held as an interactive online broadcast, allowing viewers to view and comment on videos featuring Korean and foreign investors, accelerators, and incubators as well multinational corporations and startups in the auto tech sector. Based on the demand produced by the November 27 event, Born2Global will conduct one-on-one follow-up meetings with each of the four companies by early 2021.

The mixer included an informational session on mobility/smart city trends by country, including the United States, Finland and Singapore.

GIM Robotics, a Finnish self-driving robotics company, presented on the "GACHA," a self-driving shuttle bus. KILSA Global, a Singapore-based incubator that helps startups to expand internationally, surveyed strategies for targeting Singapore’s smart nation/mobility markets. Osceola County’s (Florida, USA) Korea office introduced NeoCity, a technology district currently under construction adjacent to Osceola Heritage Park.

Jongkap Kim, Chief Executive Director of Born2Global, said, "The rise of the contactless era because of COVID-19 has brought about changes and created new demands in the mobility market. It seems that self-driving cars will be commercialized sooner than anticipated due to the acceleration of preparations. Moving forward, we will focus on cultivating innovative firms and technologies for self-driving mobility and working to establish a platform for mobility innovation and growth so that Korean companies can achieve tangible success in the global market."

For more detailed information on Born2Global Centre, visit www.born2global.com.

About Born2Global Centre

Born2Global Centre (www.born2global.com) is a full-cycle service platform for global expansion. Since inception in 2013, Born2Global has been setting the standard for successful startup ecosystem as the main Korean government agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT. Born2Global has expanded and transformed startups to be engaged, equipped and be connected with the global market.

Media contact
Born2Global Centre: jlee@born2global.com

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http://www.born2global.com

PR Newswire

TD Holdings, Inc. Addresses Recent Stock Volatility

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SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 4, 2020 — TD Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLG) (the "Company"), a commodities trading and supply chain management service provider in China today released a statement to address its recent stock volatility. The management team of the Company believes it is prudent to advise the market of this given recent fluctuations of its stock price.

The statement provided by the Company is as follows:

  • The Company is unaware of any reasons for its recent stock volatility or any material developments concerning its business operations that is not publicly available.
  • The Company has not selectively disclosed any material nonpublic information to analysts, investors or others.
  • The Company will continue to monitor key factors that may affect its stock volatility including the latest developments, assess its business, financial condition and results of operations, and will disclose such information publicly either through press releases or SEC fillings.

About TD Holdings, Inc.

TD Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLG) is a commodities trading and supply chain management service provider in China. Our commodities trading and supply chain management businesses are conducted under the brand names "Huamucheng" by Shenzhen Huamucheng Trading Co., Ltd. and "Qianhai Baiyu" by Shenzhen Qianhai Baiyu Supply Chain Co., Ltd., the Company’s wholly owned subsidiaries in Shenzhen. For more information please visit http://ir.tdglg.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of TD Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiary companies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects" or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company’s periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website at http://www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

PR Newswire

Gubagoo Releases Revolutionary Automotive Digital Retailing Platform

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Powering Asbury Automotive’s new eCommerce offering ‘Clicklane’, Virtual Retailing 2.0 is now available to dealers nationwide.

BOCA RATON, Fla., Dec. 3, 2020 — Gubagoo – the leading provider of digital retailing, conversational commerce, chat, and messaging solutions for Automotive Dealerships – announced a powerful new release of its industry-leading Virtual Retailing platform.

With online car sales soaring across the nation, there has never been a more compelling time for automotive dealers to embrace digital retailing. The industry is quickly moving from early adopters to the tipping point of wide adoption, with the pandemic having accelerated dealerships’ demand for online eCommerce tools.

Built on a conversational commerce platform, Gubagoo’s Virtual Retailing has been a market leader since its introduction in 2019. The platform allows customers to purchase a vehicle online, and arrange delivery to their door.

The new release provides real-time, data-driven trade-in values, VIN-specific F&I products personalized to the driver, and is the only retail platform offering an automotive loan marketplace with more than 30 lenders including online contracting and signature.

"The entire process of purchasing a vehicle can be completed in the same amount of time as it takes to purchase groceries, online," said Brad Title, CEO of Gubagoo. "With an integrated, seamless transition between online and in-store, any dealer, anywhere in the country, can now offer the ultimate frictionless car-buying experience for their customers."

Asbury Automotive Group, one of the nation’s largest dealership groups, has launched Clicklane, their full eCommerce solution, powered by Gubagoo’s Virtual Retailing 2.0 platform. Close collaboration between Asbury and Gubagoo was key to the innovation leaps made in this new release.

"Gubagoo’s new release of Virtual Retailing was the only solution that could meet our demanding standards for the end-to-end eCommerce experience we envisioned for Clicklane," said David Hult, CEO of Asbury. "Their execution and support have been flawless, and their product is positively a game-changer."

Asbury Automotive’s press event can be viewed online: https://www.asburyauto.com/clicklane/watch

From the beginning, Gubagoo’s approach to automotive eCommerce has been to ensure that consumers enjoy a fast, fun, and easy purchasing experience.

Gubagoo’s Virtual Retailing and messaging tools empower dealers to monitor, engage, and connect with consumers in real-time, through chat, text, Messenger, or video conferencing. Providing guided assistance online and offline is key to staying connected to consumers through the buying journey.

"Websites by-and-large are cold and lonely," said Title. "Consumers need guided assistance without the sales pressure."

Virtual Retailing 2.0 was previewed to dealerships at the Automotive Analytics and Attribution Summit, hosted by author, speaker, and automotive influencer Brian Pasch. In a recent podcast, Pasch emphasized the importance of being able to serve customers in real-time, rather than "chasing leads" after customers leave the website, as critical to seeing success from digital retailing.

"Our data shows that when you engage and serve customers while they’re in your online showroom, you will sell more cars at a lower cost," said Pasch.

Many dealerships who have adopted Gubagoo’s Virtual Retailing, or switched from another digital retailing provider, have seen exciting results.

"Our results from Virtual Retailing have been very strong," shared Nate Sato, Director of Digital Marketing at Ken Garff Automotive Group. "There’s no question – our customers love the experience, and our team is thrilled."

"Creating a comfortable, enjoyable experience is the key to winning the hearts of consumers," added Title. "We are very excited to partner with dealerships across the country to help future-proof their online strategy. With Gubagoo’s Virtual Retailing 2.0, dealers’ can expect a significant increase in their online sales."

For a demo of the new release of Virtual Retailing, have a chat with the team at Gubagoo.com, or email hello@gubagoo.com.

About Gubagoo

Gubagoo is the leading provider of conversational commerce and retail solutions for both automotive dealerships and OEMs. Used by more than 7,000 dealerships worldwide, and over 90% of the top 150 dealer groups in America, Gubagoo’s messaging platform instantly connects consumers to dealerships through live chat, text, video, Facebook Messenger, and other digital messaging channels, converting high quality leads, appointments, and sales for dealerships.

Gubagoo’s Virtual Retailing platform provides an end-to-end buying experience on dealership websites. Customers are able to buy a car online with real-time support from dealership personnel, and have the vehicle delivered at the dealership or their door. For more information, visit gubagoo.com.

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