The report presented two different types of hypothetical cyber-attack scenarios; a cloud service provider attack and a mass vulnerability attack. Both were constructed to quantify the wide variety of damages that can occur and increase the understanding of cyber-risk liability and aggregation for insurers and risk managers. As mentioned above, every calamity whether, physical or digital has a loss attached to it. When it comes to the digital realm, is monetary loss more important or the loss of data?

This brings us to the question; has the world and businesses become more wary of cybersecurity and vulnerability after the recent WanaCrypto and Petya cyber attacks, which left large companies and individuals losing a lot of money and data?

Matthew Johnston, Area Vice President, ASEAN & Korea, Commvault says that security has been a topic of growing importance for businesses, but implementing security measures isn’t necessarily the biggest issue around the WannaCry and Petya attacks. Increasingly, the discussions are turning toward what businesses should do once they are breached, not if, and at the heart of that conversation is data.

It seems data has become the lifeblood of businesses, inevitability now that we live in a digital world, and as their most important asset, they cannot afford to lose it. Businesses that know their data understand that these recent attacks underscore the importance of protecting it. They have not only put in place essential security measures, but also looked in detail at what data assets are at risk, who needs to be notified, and what, if any, remediation plan needs to be followed.

“Recent regulatory measures reflect the maturity of the data conversation now occurring worldwide. Singapore’s proposed Cybersecurity Bill, China’s Cybersecurity Law and European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), have an immense focus on the regulation of data and the need to manage and protect it,” adds Johnston.

“As a result of these conversations and regulations, board-level executives have taken heed. They in turn have created a trickle-down effect in terms of decision-making and enforcement of policies within the organisation. Functions within an organisation that may have previously seen data management as an ‘IT matter’ are now taking a closer look at it as a key business issue.”

Is Cyber Insurance a need?

The study shows that organisations are responding to this risk awareness through their purchase of cyber liability insurance protection. In turn, the insurance industry is looking to develop solutions to protect those insurance risks at a time when there is limited publicly available information on the potential range and scale of cyber events.

Both the scenarios mentioned above also show that there is an insurance gap of between $4 billion and $45 billion in terms of the cloud services scenario, meaning that between 13% and 17% of the losses are covered, respectively. The underinsurance gap is between $9 billion and $26 billion for the mass vulnerability scenario, meaning that just 7% of economic losses are covered.

Taking this point into consideration, do businesses really need cyber insurance if they already have a robust cyber security practice in place, which again brings up the dilemma of money vs data? Kane Lightowler, Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan, Carbon Black states that Cyber insurance should, in no way, be the primary mechanism used to protect a business financially.

“A vehicle owner will not drive haphazardly simply because he has vehicle insurance. Similarly, businesses should ‘drive safely’ by making sure they can detect, prevent and respond to advanced cyberattacks. Once a robust cybersecurity plan is established, businesses can opt to augment their risk by purchasing cyber insurance. However, cyber insurance cannot replace cybersecurity.”

According to the report, a single cyber event has the potential to increase industry loss ratios by 19% and 250% for large and extreme loss events, respectively. This illustrates the catastrophe potential of the cyber-risk class.

However, money and time are not the only things that are of importance. Johnston of Commvault says that the availability of cyber insurance may offer some financial relief, the fact is that data loss has far deeper-reaching consequences than monetary compensation will ever be able to solve.

“A company’s reputation, for example, is exponentially damage the longer an incident remains unresolved, regardless of how much money a business has or is compensated. This underscores the importance of having a comprehensive data management and recovery strategy as this is the only means to minimize inevitable damage that cannot be covered through insurance.”

Frameworks, regulations and compliance; boon or bane?

In India, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology has a National Cyber Security Policy, which aims at protecting the public and private space from cyber attacks. Other countries too have their own cyber security policies as Johnston mentioned. But the question is, with such a framework in place, why is there still a need of private cybersecurity and cyber insurance practitioners?

Lightowler of CarbonBlack thinks that cybersecurity frameworks are only as strong as their adoption rates, businesses need to put in the work and the time to map their security programs to the established requirements. This doesn’t always happen universally. As a result, and because compromise can still occur, cyber insurance is an option that some businesses consider, though businesses should look carefully at what various plans cost and what elements they cover. Generally speaking, he says, most insurance plans only cover forensics costs, breach notification costs, and credit monitoring.

Data breaches involving sensitive information of individuals and companies are increasingly driving the introduction of legal obligations to notify the affected individuals. The report states that Governmental regulatory bodies across many jurisdictions can bring actions against organisations for failure to comply with laws and regulations regarding information security and privacy. This coverage will continue to be increasingly important as more countries adopt data-breach regulations.

Increases in zero day vulnerability disclosures and the resulting mass data thefts may leave the public weary of engagement with increasingly digital platforms. These circumstances increase the likelihood of movement towards a more nationalistic view, resulting in increased borders and regulations of cyber space. Some people believe that a series of large hacks could remove trust in the economy, causing governments to impose new regulations and institutions to slow down the pace of technology innovation.

Talking about the regulations and compliance policies imposed by governments, do these complex laws act as a barrier for companies to accede to cyber insurance and threat aversion tactics? Looking at it from a positive angle, Johnston suggests that companies shouldn’t see regulation and privacy laws as barriers to their business, but as validation of the need to properly understand and know their data.

“Companies face a large set of complex regulations, but many businesses are still in the process discovering the value of data. Regardless of the intent or effectiveness of existing regulatory policies, we find it is within our domain to help companies first understand and know their data.”

He states that only when companies have enough of an understanding of the issues around their data they will be able to have an informed debate on whether the current regulatory environment is appropriate, and what changes, if any, are required.

Asian companies lagging behind

The report also states that compared to US, Asian countries are under-insured and economically vulnerable against cyber-attacks. Reiterating this, an article in BT quoted Kent Chaplin, CEO, Lloyd’s APAC, saying that Asia is still slow to take up cyber insurance compared to US, even though there is a greater awareness and demand. But why is it lagging behind? Based on Lightowler’s experience, businesses in Asia are only now coming around to accepting that cybersecurity is a critical business element.

“In that regard, I’d say Asia is bit behind their peers in Europe and in the U.S. The good news is that awareness of cybersecurity risk has never been more prevalent. Before considering cyber insurance, businesses should make sure they are equipped to detect, prevent and respond to threats, he adds.”

Johnston has a different view, as he leans more towards the importance of data, he says when businesses, regardless of the country understand and manage their most valuable asset – data – only then they are in a position to best handle and limit their risk. That still applies if their data is stored on-premises, or in a completely different country in the cloud. For that reason, overall data risk is difficult to quantify based purely on where a business is located.

The way forward

Some may point towards the presence of relevant legislation to give some indication of which regions in the world are taking a more mature approach to data management. The European Union has its General Data Protection Regulation, China recently introduced its own cybersecurity laws, Australia is known for its cybersecurity and privacy stances in particular, and Singapore has its own cybersecurity bill.

However, these only paint part of the picture. In many cases, data sovereignty issues limit the effectiveness of these legislative instruments, or worse, businesses have to deal with increased complexity when data falls under the purview of multiple regulations and jurisdictions. The effectiveness of passed legislation also still remains to be seen, with the vagueness of China’s laws an increasing concern for businesses.

Businesses should not consider their data more or less at-risk due to their physical location. Business has moved into the digital world, which knows no geographical boundaries. The best means a business has in protecting its data, is to first understand it, regardless of where it is stored.

In conclusion, Lightowler suggests that education in cyber security is all about understanding risk. Risk cannot be reduced to zero, only managed within appropriate boundaries. Security technology is used to reduce risk. Asian companies should look very carefully at what cyber insurance plans cover and how much the plans cost before moving forward.

Having said that, there is no clear difference between money and data. Many companies and individuals believe that the product of the time and money invested in the digital realm is data. However, in the wake of constant cyber-attacks happening globally, crippling industries and systems, ransomware is also a big concern, which has costed people thousands of dollars. And as per the report it can go up to millions if both data value and monetary value is combined. Hence, it is imperative for governments and private agencies to work in tandem for averting and responding to a large scale cyber-threat. Just like they do for hurricanes.

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Bill McMurray, Managing Director, JAPAC, Qualtrics in an exclusive interview with Techseen, talks about the “experience gap” and why companies should adopt CX to survive in a rapidly evolving business landscape.

Techseen: In an increasingly competitive market, why is customer experience one of the top considerations for consumers when making the decision to purchase from a brand?

McMurray: In today’s world of instant access to information, if consumers do not get what they want, when they want it, and how they want it, they will simply look for better alternatives.

Consumers today buy more than just a product; they buy the experience associated with it. The experience is everything from the product experience, brand experience, and the interactions with the company’s employees.

A recent study by Qualtrics showed that 80 percent of customers in the APAC region would switch brands based on poor customer experience alone. This clearly shows that once a customer is engaged with a company, the organisation has to provide a positive experience. If the experience is a positive one, the customer is more likely to remain loyal, buy more, and recommend the brand to others.

Techseen: Singaporeans are notoriously among the world’s most demanding when it comes to good service, says the Amex 2017 Global Customer Service Barometer. Do you see any specific challenges in customer service facing this region?

McMurray: Customer Experience (CX) is a hot topic right across the APAC region and there is a significant increase in customers’ expectations on how companies should deliver experiences. Customers now expect companies to detect dissatisfaction promptly and respond swiftly to remediate the issue and so recover loyalty.

APAC millennials are among the fastest in the world to adopt mobile technologies and organisations serving customers in APAC need to recognise this, and keep it front of mind when designing and managing their customer experience programs – everything needs to be mobile responsive. Crucial to their customer experience program is the ability to collect feedback from consumers through multiple mobile customer touch points, such as in-app feedback, website feedback, SMS, social media, etc.

Once this feedback is collected, organisations need to be able to respond to consumers in real-time. With this generation being accustomed to the norm of instantaneous feedback, if the organisation is not responding to a customer’s feedback instantly, they may lose them to their competitors.

Techseen: According to a recent Qualtrics survey on 1,700 Asia Pacific consumers, almost 30% will drop the brand or company without notice if they experience a service failure. Can you suggest 3 tips that ensure a satisfactory UX across the globe?

McMurray: The concept of “experience management” is fast-rising among marketers and strategists to unlock competitive advantages. This comes as no surprise as often the difference between success and failure lies in their customer’s experiences. In fact, customer experience is among the top differentiators for brands.

Most organisations tend to focus on the more “operational” aspects of service delivery, but few combine this with the “experience” aspects of their service. This results in “experience gaps” (the difference between what you intend to deliver and what you actually deliver), which creates a disconnect between your customers from your brand, in turn reducing brand loyalty.

To ensure an enhanced UX, first, organisations should respond in real-time. As mentioned earlier, APACs millennials are accustomed to the norm of instantaneous interactions, as they are so tech savvy. If there is service failure and the customer complains about this and provides feedback, this is the organisation’s chance to win this customer back, but they only have a small window to do this, so they must respond in real-time to customer feedback.

Second, they should measure across the entire customer journey and focus on analysing consumer decision journey metrics. Consumers are changing the way they research and buy products, and hence organisations should be clear about possible obstacles, sources of motivation, or what drives satisfaction. Consistently tying journey performance, instead of one-off interactions, to actions, will help organisations deliver a more personalised customer experience that in turn will encourage loyalty and repeated purchases.

Third, companies should engage employees. An engaged workforce that provides great customer service is linked to revenue growth and is necessary to create a customer-centric brand. Organisations with invested employees almost always outperform companies that do not. Employees form the frontline of any organisation and interact directly with consumers to create the experience, whether outstanding or not.

Techseen: Qualtrics has recently launched the XM Platform to manage the four core experiences of business—customer, employee, product, and brand experience. How has its success been so far? Can you name some major clients using the platform?

McMurray: We reached a key milestone this year, with the launch of our Experience Management (XM) platform. This has created a new market category – Experience Management (XM), with Qualtrics receiving accolades such as Temkin Group’s Customer Experience Vendor Excellent (CxVE) Award, and being named a leader in customer feedback management by independent research firm Forrester.

Our clients within the APAC span a multitude of sectors. One of our recent clients in the region is Volkswagen Group Australia (VGA), which uses Qualtrics to manage their customer and employee experience programs.

Another Qualtrics client in Asia Pacific is Australian Unity (leading health, wealth and living company in Australia), which uses Qualtrics customer experience management platform to help drive their health insurance customer experience strategy and competitiveness.

Techseen: Why is there a disparity between what companies believe they’re delivering around customer experiences and service, and what customers believe they’re getting?

McMurray: Many organisations operate on a traditional model in how they think consumers arrive at a purchasing decision – or the discovery journey. With the pervasiveness of the Internet, consumers are much more well-informed, and their purchase journey is also more dynamic and interactive.

Traditional one-way communication-based marketing strategies are not as effective as they were, resulting in an “experience gap” between the experience companies think they are delivering, and how customers perceive it. In a Bain & Co study, 80 percent of companies say they deliver superior experience, yet only 8 percent of customers agree.

Consumers also now expect brands to respond immediately if they share their feedback online. While many companies acknowledge this as a new reality and strive to improve CX, the challenge lies in not being able to capture this “in-the-moment” feedback quickly and then act on it fast enough to address that customers concern(s). Rapid remediation of issues is critical and companies no longer have the luxury of surveying customers annually for their opinions.

Techseen: How can companies get their CX right?

McMurray: Opinions should be sought continuously and the resources invested into training customer experience teams to close the loop with customers should be a key priority.

As more companies shift their focus to customer-centric business models, there are three ways they can best capture in-the-moment feedback to offer better brand experiences:

1. Timing is Everything

Knowing the best moment to capture feedback helps you deliver great experiences across the customer journey. Mapping these ‘moments that matter’ allows your brand to better understand the unique paths your customers take. Learning about their post-purchase experience also helps build a fuller picture of the customer’s perceptions.

2. Get the Right Feedback To Make The Best Decisions

It is important for businesses to ask for more than just whether the customer is satisfied or not. Going deeper with the questions, pulling out a customer’s expectations, drivers and perceptions, will help you learn how to do things better.

3. Prioritise Closing the Loop at Scale

It is critical for brands to respond to individual customers as fast as possible. However, prioritising learning and closing the loop at scale can impact many customers at once. Building a stable, repeatable process for capturing customer feedback at every touchpoint and acting on it is foundational to good customer experience management and builds customer trust and loyalty.

Companies need ensure that their strategies align with the consumer purchase journey, and invest in the relevant touchpoints. To do so, companies should invest in a well-designed CX program that can deliver real-time, actionable feedback from customers across these touchpoints, and focus on the areas of the greatest impact. Such platforms can develop a powerful and differentiating mechanism for businesses to generate an enhanced CX that sets their brand apart from the rest.

Techseen: Can you comment on Qualtrics’ engagement with start-ups, SMBs and non-traditional innovators in the space?

McMurray: Qualtrics is a modular, scalable platform, which can be used from one-person organisations, through to large-scale enterprise organisations. Typically we see our startup and SMB customers start small with our sophisticated research platform and then grow their Qualtrics usage to include other functionality, such as role-based dashboards and advanced text analysis.

What makes Qualtrics different is that you don’t need to invest in a full CX platform, organisations can start small and grow as their programs mature.

Techseen: What are your goals for Singapore in this quarter? How do you plan to transform how SEA brands and consumers interact with one another?

McMurray: We’ve selected Singapore as the location for our ASEAN headquarters, offering support to surrounding countries in the Southeast Asia region.

It just makes perfect sense for us, given its ease of doing business, it’s role as an APAC headquarters for a number of brands, its regional connectivity, and access to local, regional, and global talent.

We are building a local initial team of 10 staff as quickly as possible, with the intent of growing beyond sales and support to include client success, implementation, marketing and additional supporting functions. The plan is to provide the full range of local resources to ensure the success of our rapidly expanding customer base.

Techseen: Do you have any plans for expansion in the APAC?

McMurray: Our focus in 2017 is to further accelerate growth in Australia and New Zealand, and expand across the region by opening local operations in each of Singapore and Japan. These local teams will look to assist their clients to drive revenue growth through the provision of superior experiences across their business with our experience management platform.

Since launching in late 2014, we have grown to over 600 customers in Asia Pacific and Japan and our revenues have more than doubled each year. We expect to see this expansion continue, especially with the launching of both our Singapore (ASEAN) and Japanese operations.

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Talking about smart devices, when it comes to travel, smart cars, navigation, smart-wearables are not the only things that up for grabs. Smart luggage is a totally different category that has spring up in the past couple of years. Though materials and designs have been at a constant change, the ‘smart’ or ‘connected’ aspect seems to be catching up.

Today, smart bags and luggage of all sizes are available in the market and many of these smart bags have first seen the light of crowd-sourced campaigns before hitting the market. Among companies like Aster, Bobby, Phorce, Bluesmart, Progo which are mostly unisex products, FYB London has claimed to have created the world’s first ‘smart handbag’ for women. The company also states to have reached its Kickstarter target of $30,000 goal in 56 hours.

But if bags with similar capabilities are available in the market, what differentiates makes FYB stand out? Jason Lowe, Co-Founder and Technical Director, FYB London states that the company has increased and updated the functionality far beyond similar products in the market by introducing dual SMART locks which comprise of both Bio-metrics and Bluetooth locks. “We’ve also introduced Wireless charging capability making it easier, faster and more convenient to charge your SMART devices on the go and compliment your mobile lifestyle,” he adds.

What also differentiates the handbag from other products in the market is the use of quality leather and the addition of the ‘fashion element’. Dani Richeson, Co-Founder and Product Designer, FYB London, feels that there is a lack of fashion in the smart category.

“I also think it goes further than this and I feel consumers are bombarded by SMART products which have been developed with as much technology whether you need it or not. We wanted to create a product with features you would use every time you used the handbags, features that enhances your experience and increases productivity.”

All the tech in the bag

• It has Qi-Certified wireless charging pockets which comes with complementary wireless charging enabler. These enablers can be strapped on to smartphones and clicked out when not in use. The bad also sports a traditional charging system with a 5000MaH power bank.
• It hosts a biometric security system, which releases the lock when the fingerprint sensor scans the user’s fingerprint. The company states that over a hundred fingerprints can be stored as part of the system. Users also have the option to unlock the bag via Bluetooth via FYB’s application on the phone.
• The bags are Bluetooth connected and so operate as a proximity sensor, this means that via the FYB application the user can set a perimeter of up to 12 meters and when the distance becomes longer between the bag and the user, it will send alerts to the smartphone or smartwatch.
• The bag also has a RFID shield to protect credit cards and personal data. The company claims that the product only operates through Bluetooth which is connected to the users phone or user account , making it secure against cyberthreats.

Talking about the evolution and the future of the smart luggage and smart bag industry, Lowe feels that the space is evolving at a very fast pace and possibilities almost endless. “People have very specific requirements when they are traveling be it international or domestic for business or pleasure, so we feel the segment will become more diversified and specific to certain groups of travelers,” he said.

The company has raised $106,168 on Kickstarter with 352 backers for its two products; the City Bag and the Travel Tote. The company claims that most of its backers are females but has also seen men in the demography. FYB states that it has seen the largest reaction from UK and US markets, however, the campaign has also seen support from Taiwan and Vietnam.

Richeson states that the crowd-fund model provides much more than just funding it provides priceless feedback from consumers and gives the company the chance at the very beginning to consult with people about what they like, what they don’t like and how the product can improve. “We’re looking to launch into Retail as well as sell direct on our website and diversify the range with products that help promote our message and Ethos,” she adds.

FYB London seems to be bridging the gap between fashion and function, especially when it comes to the word of smart travel gear. Having said that, the company has listed its products on Kickstarter starting from $399 for the City Handbag and $450 for the Travel Tote. Interestingly the company has also featured a limited edition Midnight City Bag for a whopping $115,000. The company claims that it has already started working on a mens’ collection to complement the female handbags to keep both the sides of the spheres happy.

The post FYB London: Ferrying fashion into the ‘smart’ category appeared first on TECHSEEN.

WittyFeed, an Indian ‘charticle’ and ‘listicle’ online publishing firm is steadily growing ecosystem of content creators, publishers and consumers. What started from a small hostel room, now WittyFeed.com is reportedly valued at $30 million, and is looking to expand more in the US market as it contributes to company’s 30% traffic.

Parveen Singhal, Co-founder & CCO, WittyFeed in an exclusive interaction with Techseen shares a few tips on how to create content for the digital medium and promote it online to gain maximum traction.

Techseen: What tools can an amateur blogger use to boost reachability of his content?

Singhal: Every blogger, be it famous or amateurs, all have once in their life faced issues of reaching to their targeted audience. Ask any blogger, and they’ll tell you, how devastating it is to see a wonderful piece of content just lying somewhere on your blog and waiting for its audience to consume it. And. that’s a hole.

The massive availability of all type of the content on the Internet has created a competitive situation in the market. Even for bloggers. However, there are some genuine tools and tricks which can be used to boost the reachability of any blog content.

• Make sure your content is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) friendly.
• Sharing the same content on Social Media platforms (Facebook, Twitter) in the regular interval at the initial level is a must.
• Get in touch with some influencers, ask them to write for you or to share your piece of content on their platform. It’ll not only boost the reach but will help you in increasing your good will.
• Another best way to boost the reachability could be ‘collaborating with other bloggers’. It’s more like a barter system, you share them and they’ll share your content. Win-Win situation for both.

If you’re looking for certain tools which may give you fast results (not guaranteed) then Quora and BizSugar.com are one of those tools which you can try.

In the end, blogging is not only about creating a world-class content but investing time genuinely in planning its post-publishing strategies.

Techseen: Can you specify any case studies of clients and the kind of assistance they required to manage their content?

Singhal: Brand (clients) need digital media platforms only to achieve two major objectives:

a) To maximize the sales as much as possible.

b) And, to create an awareness about the brand or their product among their targeted audience.

Clients seek assistance from us to make them socially visible, and to help them in reaching out to a larger number of audience.

Take Witty’s example for instance, the content marketing is its all-time high, and as we are youth-driven content company, it is visible clearly that brands come to us to promote their product, new launch, while some come to us with a strategy that would help them in building brand’s personality in the most engaging, relatable and native way possible.

Techseen: Are there any stats or reports you can provide to elaborate on the format of content which sells more?

Singhal: As per the studies done by Linkedin, digital content buyers in India is projected to jump from 43.8% in 2016 to 70.7% by 2020.

Now, coming to the format of the content which sells more, or we can say that the format which brand consider for their promotional campaigns in native ads are as follows:

Some other path-breaking facts are:

• 40% of content marketers in India use infographics and visual media.
• 1 in 3 Indian marketers relies on influencer marketing techniques.

• 77% Buyers are more likely to buy when brands are endorsed by people they trust.
  The effectiveness of video content will be examined in coming years.

Techseen: Can you recommend some open-source tools that can be used to check the quality of content?

Singhal: First of all, there’s nothing like quality content. It is the skill of a writer that turns words into something meaningful. Though, you may not always come across best-selling authors to write for you.

What to do? Well, that’s where technology comes into action.

The open-source tools mentioned below would assist all writers, proofreaders and editors to ensure the readability, writing approach, narrative, and quality packaging of a content into the story.

Look for open-source online tools which are available for free to calculate the readability of the piece you’ve written. Proofreaders may use tools like Grammarly, and Ginger to ensure that the content is grammatically correct and sound.

The Ernest Hemingway Tool may be of a good use for editors to find the loopholes and improper narrative issues in the content before it goes live.

All these tools, when mixed with common sense would add a lot of much-needed ‘quality’ in your content.

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What does Truecaller have to offer?

Apart from the plethora of services that Truecaller provides as a part of its latest portfolio, why does one use Truecaller in India? Indian mobile handset users have always complained about random calls from irrelevant companies for offers/ subscriptions and information that they do not need, a.k.a. spam calls. People started acceding to Truecaller because it could identify spam calls on the first ring and the user could just ignore or block the number.

‘No-spam’ campaign a gimmick?

Among many of its tie-ups and partnerships, Truecaller, last month partnered with local service and need fulfillment digital platform, Sulekha, for reinforcing the ‘Zero Spam Assurance’ campaign with its Truecaller priority access feature. The campaign encourages customer privacy and uncouples the user request after a service call/ need has been fulfilled.

But is Truecaller really putting its foot down against spam? If it is, then how will vendors and companies push their product to the customers? There must be some way to go around the blockade and be able to use the customer data that is purchased by brands at high costs? We think the answer is partnership with Truecaller.

Partners may have an ulterior motive

The number identification company has announced a strategic partnership with online fashion marketplace, Voonik today. The ecommerce brand has integrated with the caller ID app’s TrueSDK and Truecaller Priority services that will allow customers to use Truecaller credentials for a one time sign-up.

The integration with True caller Priority will let customers with the Truecaller app installed on their mobile phones easily identify IVR or delivery verification calls when shopping on Voonik. Any calls received by users who have placed an order on Voonik, will be clearly marked as ‘Voonik’s Order Team’ or ‘Voonik’s Delivery Team’, and will be color-coded in purple that symbolizes the color of the brand.

Online classified advertising platform, Quikr, also integrated with Truecaller Priority, which it claims will enable the company to ‘enhance’ its customer service experience and increase call pickup rates across all verticals. Quikr believes that with Truecaller Priority, consumers will be able to identify a ‘priority call’ because of the integrated branding of Quikr and assure consumers that the call is from a reliable source and not spam. The online classifieds has also integrated with Truecaller’s phone number based on-boarding solution, TrueSDK, that enables user on-boarding and verification.

On demand home-service company, Housejoy; online marketplace, Snapdeal, and mobile wallet company, MobiKwik have also inked similar partnerships with Truecaller for customer on-boarding and reduction in the rate of no-response on delivery and service calls. With Truecaller Priority service, companies enter the ‘whitelist’ realm and make sure that their calls are not marked as spam. Whereas, TrueSDK enables third party apps to easily onboard users with their Truecaller profile and their Truecaller verified phone number.

Telecommunications company Airtel has also drawn an interesting partnership with Truecaller to bring the Truecaller Called ID function to the operator’s feature phones, even those without a data connection. To top that, now android and iOS phones in India come with the Truecaller native application pre-loaded in the box.

With more partnerships comes more money

Last October a media report highlighted that the app had started monetizing via mobile advertising and had started working with brands, using features like Call Intent, Call Profile and Roadblock features. Funny thing is that when a call would come from a certain telecommunications company, the app would show that it’s a spam call, and the telecommunications’ advertisement would be right below the message. While users were still figuring out what was new and different, brands were able to collect 100 million impressions a day.

What is spam and what is not

So let’s break this down: At present, the whole no-spam campaign seems righteous. From the companies’ point of view it’s a win-win situation as they can call customers without any blockades and will not be marked as spam. This also means that calls from Voonik, Snapdeal, Quikr, MobiKwik and other brands that partner with Truecaller, may in the future start calling random customers for products and offers will not be marked as spam calls.

In a country where customer data purchase is prevalent, finding someone’s name and number through Truecaller is not going to be difficult. The same TrueSDK that seems so secure at the moment for customers to fill in their data and companies to on-board customers might become the source from where cold calling might be initiated.

Who, at the end of the day will decide the identity of spam calls, if not Truecaller?

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In an official statement, iQiyi said that the partnership would help curb “pirating” and would provide licensed and high-definition online streaming content for Chinese users. Well, that’s good news. But given China’s stringent regulations, getting rid of pirated content is just a drop in the ocean.

Here are 5 reasons why we think Netflix will soon have to make a U-turn and admit its defeat in its bid to crack China:

1) Let the past be a teacher

Licensing deals might shower some revenue to content providers, but the world’s most populous nation is too big a market to pass up. iQiyi, which has about 474 million mobile devices active on its app, already has agreements with the BBC, Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate, among others. Looks like Netflix is pretty late in the game!

Also, this strategy hasn’t fallen in place for Netflix in the past, when it inked a licensing deal with video-streaming company Sohu for House of Cards, but regulators killed the plan owing to censorship compliance.

2) Government pulling strings tight

In the past, we have seen the Chinese deny entry to big foreign names like Facebook, Google and even Twitter into the mainland. By law, Chinese broadcasters and streaming services have to limit the number of foreign television shows broadcast on local websites to 30% of total content. This directive came up in 2014 imposed by State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) to favor local entertainment producers and curb overseas cultural influences.

This restriction could have a huge impact on Netflix’s business model and overcoming it would mean producing high-quality original programs in Chinese, like it’s doing with original programs in South Korea and India. But is Netflix up for the challenge yet?

3) Small fish in a big pool?

As mentioned earlier, iQiyi already has a vast user base and a report by eMarketer ranks it as the second biggest mobile video app in China. Tencent Video tops the list with 388.1 million but iQiyi’s chief rival in China is Youku Tudou, an Alibaba-owned video-on-demand (VOD) platform with a very similar business model.

Given the scenario, Netflix is bound to face some stiff competition, especially when the existing giants are vying for dominance. This might leave the America’s leading internet television network with uneven footing in the region.

4) Content unlikely to be approved

In China, all foreign shows and movies need to be registered and vetted by China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television requires before they can be streamed online. Now all you Netflix buffs are well aware that its content features sex (consider Sense8) or violence (remember Stranger Things?)—both highly discouraged by Beijing’s censors. So Netflix will have a tough luch battling this censor board; with chances of a lot of original content not being cleared for Chinese consumers.

And of course, a partnership would severely cut into Netflix’s potential revenue from its Chinese business. Looks like Netflix is all game to make a heavy investment, and then persistent losses.

5) Netflix too expensive to be compelling

Netflix’s pricey services starting fee of $8.99 can be easy to bear for some as balanced against a few cups of coffee, but is harder to bear for others with less spending power. This problem becomes more prominent when local Netflix-like including Hooq and iFlix in Southeast Asia are cheaper and also provide domestic content.

And given that viewers predominantly consume local programming (like in India), even if Hollywood movies and other international content bag some popularity, will the price disparity be a good enough incentive? Although Netflix revealed plans to develop a homogeneous catalog of content (non-US content), the creation would take time. Expensive international content will have to struggle harder to be a popular choice in China.

The post 5 reasons why Netflix can be evicted from China “again” appeared first on TECHSEEN.

1. Heaven View: Data accessible to all

Previously known as God View, the tool was first reported by Buzzfeed as early as November 2014, to have been used to track journalists, who could write critically about the company. Buzzfeed quoted two former Uber employees stating, God View, which shows the location of Uber vehicles and customers who have requested a car, was widely available to corporate employees.

The tool has been used to track politicians, celebrities, ex-boyfriends, and ex-girlfriends, according to an October 2016 court declaration given by Uber’s former forensic investigator Samuel Ward Spangenberg.

Spangenberg stated that Uber changed God View to “Heaven View” and employees caught tracking customer data without permission were fired. Uber acknowledged it had fired “fewer than 10” employees for improper access.

2. Rides of Glory: Name and shame RoGer journalists

Consider this:

Today were going to get a little emotional. You know that Uber loves you and well, gosh, sometimes its nice to think that you love us, too. But we know were not the only ones in your life and we know that you sometimes look for love elsewhere. Well, while youre out loving other human beings, we #UberData nerds are cuddled up with our computers, loving math.

The above text and image are from an Uber blog, dated: March 26, 2012. The blog post has been deleted now from Uber servers but then, nothing actually gets deleted from the world wide web. It still can be accessed on WayBackMachine.

The innocuous blog got attention much much later, when Buzzfeed quoted Uber executive, Emil Michael, outlining the notion of spending ‘a million dollars’ to hire four top opposition researchers and four journalists to “help Uber fight back against the press — they’d look into ‘your personal lives, your families,’ and give the media a taste of its own medicine.”

Let’s fetch more text from the now deleted blog:

Recently, I have come to understand that some of you may have—and Im not pointing any fingers here or anything—on occasion found love that you might immediately regret upon waking up the morning after. Lets talk about that. In times of yore you would have woken up in a panic, scrambling in the dark trying to find your fur coat or velvet smoking jacket or whatever it is you cool kids wear. Then that long walk home in the pre-morning dawn. But that was then.

The world has changed, and gone are the days of the Walk of Shame. We live in Ubers world now.

One of the neat things we can do with our data is discover rider patterns: are there weekend riders that only use Uber post-party? What about the workday commuters who use us every morning? It was while playing around with this idea of (blind!) rider segmentation that we came up with the Ride of Glory (RoG). A RoGer is anyone who took a ride between 10pm and 4am on a Friday or Saturday night, and then took a second ride from within 1/10th of a mile of the previous nights drop-off point 4-6 hours later (enough for a quick nights sleep).

Essentially, that means, Uber wanted to tread the path of naming and shaming RoGer journalists.

3. Greyball: The secret software to dodge law officials

In March, this year, New York Times reported that Uber has for years used a tool called Greyball to systematically deceive law enforcement officials in cities where its service were declared illegal or had been banned.

Uber “greyballed” officials attempting to hail an Uber during a sting operation. They might see icons of cars within the app navigating nearby, but no one would come pick them up. The program helped Uber drivers avoid being ticketed.

Greyball was part of a program called VTOS, short for “violation of terms of service,” which Uber created to root out people it thought were using or targeting its service improperly. The program, including Greyball, according to The New York Times, began as early as 2014 and was predominantly used outside the United States. It was used in Portland, Oregon, Philadelphia, Boston, and Las Vegas, as well as France, Australia, China, South Korea and Italy.

Greyball used geolocation data, credit card information, social media accounts and other data points to identify individuals they suspected of working for city agencies to carry out the sting operations, according to the Times.

Later, the company said that it will stop using the tool. It said on a blog post:

We have started a review of the different ways this technology has been used to date. In addition, we are expressly prohibiting its use to target action by local regulators going forward. Given the way our systems are configured, it will take some time to ensure this prohibition is fully enforced. We’ve had a number of organizations reach out for information and we will be working to respond to their inquiries once we have finished our review.

4. Hell: A spyware to track Lyft drivers

More hell broke loose on the firm, this month, when the news of the ride-hailing company using software dubbed ‘Hell’ to track drivers on its rival Lyft, in the US, broke in. Used between 2014 and 2016, Hell, according to The Information allowed Uber to monitor details on Lyft drivers including how many of them were available, their location and which of them were registered to both Uber and Lyft.

In the latest development, Michael Gonzales, a former Lyft driver has sued Uber in San Francisco, California, alleging the ride-summoning company spied on his movements and violated privacy, competition, and communications laws.

Gonzales alleges that Uber used Lyft driver data to identify which drivers utilized both Uber and Lyft, in order to encourage those drivers to focus on Uber, thereby making Lyft customers wait longer for rides and reducing Lyft’s earnings.

“Uber accomplished this by incentivizing drivers working on both platforms to work primarily for Uber, thereby reducing the supply of Lyft drivers which resulted in increased wait times for Lyft customers and diminished earnings for Lyft drivers,” the lawsuit reads.

5. Fingerprinting: Your iPhone is on the radar

In another privacy breach issue, Uber has been retaining “fingerprinting” of iPhone users, even after the user has uninstalled the app and even wiped the phone. According to The New York Times, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, stopped short of kicking Uber out of the app store and got a personal reprimand from Apple CEO Tim Cook.

A device fingerprint or machine fingerprint or browser fingerprint is information collected about a remote computing device for the purpose of identification. Fingerprints can be used to fully or partially identify individual users or devices even when cookies are turned off.

In order to prevent Apple engineers from discovering the fingerprinting, Uber allegedly geofenced Apple’s Cupertino headquarters to hide the code used in the process. But Apple engineers based in other offices discovered the trick, according to the New York Times, leading Cook to call Kalanick.

The company still continues to use fingerprinting worldwide. In its defense, it states that it does not track user data and location, and uses fingerprinting on iPhones as a fraud-prevention method in locations like China. Drivers there would register multiple Uber accounts on stolen iPhones and use them to request rides, thereby boosting the number of overall rides — a metric that Uber rewards with bonuses.

Time to Unroll.me Uber

Have you ever used the Unroll.me tool in Gmail or other email services that promises to protect privacy and unsubscribe newsletters and promotional messages for you and send the ones you like as a digest? May be, you should reconsider the “authorization” to the tool. Unroll.me, has been allegedly snooping on your mails and selling the data to Uber.

The same New York Times article that details Tim Cook lambasting Uber CEO Kalanick, makes mention of Unroll.me’s data breach.

Slice Intelligence, the firm that owns Unroll.me, allegedly, snooped over emailed Lyft receipts in users’ Inboxes and sold the anonymized data to Uber. The latter used the data as a proxy for the health of Lyft’s business.

Unroll.me CEO Jojo Hedaya is “heartbroken” but unapologetic. On Sunday, he wrote on a company blog that “it was heartbreaking to see that some of our users were upset to learn about how we monetize our free service.”

He pointed out to the company’s Terms of Service Agreement and “a plain-English Privacy Policy”, which he said “users agree they have read and understand before they even sign up.”

Hedaya, from this point forward, promises a “clearer messaging” on Unroll.me website, and app, and in its FAQs. “We will also be more clear about our data usage in our on-boarding process,” he states.

Time that we unroll Uber?

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Abhinav Asthana, Co-founder, Postman in an interview with Techseen discusses how it helps in streamlining the API development process and what the company has in stock for the future.

Techseen: You have recently moved your corporate headquarters from Bangalore to San Francisco. However, the ‘2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Report’ published by Startup Genome noted that Bangalore provides cheaper human resources than many other geographies of the world. So why did you make the switch?

Asthana: We have our engineering team and two co-founders based in Bangalore, where we were founded. We recently started an office in the US where we have some engineers who were actually our customers and wanted to join us and our sales & marketing team as it will allow us to be more responsive to our customers, many of whom are based in Europe and the US.

Postman team has been steadily growing in India as well, and therefore we have moved to a new, larger office space in Bangalore last month. We believe the move to the US will best serve our customers and allow us to more quickly react to opportunities and trends.

Techseen: Last October, you had raised $7 million in funding from Nexus Venture Partners. How have you put this new investment to use?

Asthana: The investment is being used to expand the team to strengthen the product. Postman helps run, test, document and share APIs quickly, easily and accurately, providing users with a more effective toolchain for their API development. We are continuously working on adding more features to the product to provide an easy interface for our clients – individual developers as well as enterprise clients.

Techseen: Now that both Google and Apple have announced development centers in India, what doors do you think will they open for the development community in the country?

Asthana: This is indeed very exciting news. I hope more product development happens in India and teams are empowered with more decision making. The Indian development community is very strong technically but needs more design and product talent to strengthen the ecosystem.

Techseen: Not many companies aim for a global impression in the very initial phase of launch. But Postman started as a project in the US. How did you decide upon your target audience?

Asthana: From the very beginning, it was clear that the Postman community was global. Though the Postman app started in India, most of the user feedback came from outside India – particularly the US and Europe. It only made sense that the market for our future products will also be global. The Postman community is quite diverse geographically, and so we set up our US presence to better serve the needs of API developers.

Techseen: How is Postman better placed against other competitors like RESTClient, SmartBear, Paw, among other? What’s your USP?

Asthana: Postman was designed to support the entire development workflow – allowing the developer to stay within Postman for all their work. Most other tool providers focus on one aspect of API development, rather than the entire flow – for example, an emphasis on monitoring only, or just documentation.

But we support the entire API development cycle: designing, debugging, testing, documentation, and monitoring. We actively support the integration of other tools, to allow developers to customize their environment. We are totally focused on a great user experience and serving the developer.

Techseen: How can a company differentiate a good API from a “bad” API?

Asthana: There are different ways to measure that depending on whether it’s an internal API or a public API. Some characteristics of bad APIs are universal though:

1. Inconsistent and confusing terminology

2. Surprises in behavior

3. Lack of documentation

4. Slow performance

5. Leaky abstractions

Techseen: What frontend support do you provide to developers for customizing their apps and modifying the UI as per their requirements? Do you also assist them in creating the backend links by coding the middleware components?

Asthana: Postman is a general purpose tool that frontend developers can use too. We don’t code middleware components but frontend developers can generate code samples for their applications. Developers can also use Postman to inspect the request/response data that is being sent through their applications.

Techseen: According to a report by Google, India’s developer community is set to reach 4 million by 2018, making it the largest in the world. Given that consumers spend most of their time in just a select handful of favorites, how can one overcome the problem of engaging them?

Asthana: I think the key is to build a good product for your early adopters. This needs some upfront patience and iterating on the product. Developer products grow primarily through word-of- mouth adoption and it can only happen when there are strong initial impressions of the product.

Instead of focusing on the 4 million people upfront, I believe that one should take a more measured approach. Developers also use a ton of different products and are always willing to try new things.

Techseen: Do you plan to lead any expansion plans in the future? Any hiring plans coming up?

Asthana: We plan to grow our San Francisco and Bangalore offices as needed to support the growth of the company. This year, we plan to launch Postman Enterprise, which will extend Postman Pro with key features that Enterprise customers have requested.

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Here is a list of 7 Indian startups who have woven their vision to ensure that everyday life is not so ‘different’ for the differently abled:

1. KickStart

https://youtu.be/Ok6mYpR1BSg

Mobility and accessibility is an important aspect in our everyday lives, but for the disabled population of the country, provisions for hassle-free access is yet to be addressed by even the biggest of companies. Bengaluru-based cab services company KickStart, co-founded by Vidhya Ramasubban and Srikrish Siva has taken a step to help those who are wheel-chair bound to commute from one part of the city to another without being dependent on their friends and family.

These customized cabs are equipped to accommodate wheelchair users as well as those with disabilities and senior citizens. The drivers are also trained to help the customers board the cab as well as get off it without much hassle.

2. Oswald Foundation

Anand Chowdhary and Nishant Gadihoke started Oswald Foundation by building a free reading solution for people with dyslexia and officially founded the company in 2016. Now dubbed as Valmiki, the reading solution is a browser extension that comes built-in with an option that adjusts the color-contrast ratio and typography, to best suit the needs of someone with a learning disorder.

Another solution developed by the duo is Agastya for web developers to help incorporate accessibility features in their websites. The startup is now gearing up to introduce Shravan, an end-to-end accessible smartphone. It will be integrated with its patent-pending speech and vibration technology to provide ease of usage to visually impaired, the unlettered, senior citizens, and everyone in between.

3. BarrierBreak

“Technology can empower people with disabilities and elderly to live independently.” With this vision, BarrierBreak has set out to provide accessibility solutions to assist people with disabilities in using technology. Founded by Shilpi Kapoor, the startup manufactures products ranging from a vibrating watch for the visually impaired to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices for those with limited or no speech.

Apart from bringing assistive technology to India, BarrierBreak services 9 other countries. It also works with nonprofit organizations, governments and corporates to create an ecosystem that is conducive to empower persons with disabilities using technology, and work towards bridging the road map for an inclusive society.

4. Rise Legs

Prosthetic legs have been there in the market for long now. But their heavy weight and lack of flexibility is something many amputees have to unwillingly deal with. But what if something as light as cane can help in everyday movement?

Bengaluru-based startup Rise Legs is an Indian startup that makes cane prosthetic legs, which can be customized based on the purpose and appearance. So whether you want a sturdy one for running, or an artistic one with catchy designs on it, this can be you one stop solution. Founded by 32-year-old Arun Cherian, a former robotics professional, the company also partners with various coaches and organizations to build a strong ecosystem for athletes with disabilities who can compete on a global stage.

5. Inclov

In the digital world of matchmaking, Inclov assures that those who are differently abled are not left behind in the ‘maze of love’. The company has made a mobile app focusing on the disabled, which matches people on the basis cure availability, medical condition, level of independence and lifestyle choices.

So whether people want go out on a date, find a life partner, or make friends, the app handles it all. Inclov can also be accessed by the visually impaired with the help of a screen reader and talkback option.

6. Move Ability Clothing (MAC)

This bootstrapped startup founded by Joe Ikareth and his wife Murielle Ikareth realizes the need for comfortable clothing and accessories solutions for differently abled people to ease of dressing and undressing. Inspired by traditional Kerala fabrics, Joe uses natural fabrics such as cotton, silk, linen and their blends.

With an aim to create clothes that can be equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed, Joe’s boutique in Fort Kochi regularly features guest accessories designers who compliment the Joe Ikareth sense of style. The collection is also available at ‘Grasshopper’ in Bangalore, ‘Ensemble’ in Delhi, ‘Amethyst’ in Chennai, ‘Teatro Dhora’ in Jaipur and ‘Sosas’ in Goa.

7. Innovision

https://youtu.be/dnenDf7hcT8

In this world of continuous digital disruption and evolution, can you imagine how challenging it would be for a visually impaired person to even access the intermet? Inorder to enable them to stay at pace with the rest of the world, IIT Bombay alumni Surabhi Srivastava has built BrailleMe, a machine that plugs into mobile phones and computers to help the visually impaired access the internet and other digital content.

While traditional, script-based Braille print are not just bulky but also expensive, this product stands out as it is 10 times cheaper (~$300) than all existing commercially available competitors. This is due to the patent filed magnetic Braille actuators in BrailleMe as opposed to the piezoelectric actuators of the competitors.

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For years now, machine learning and artificial intelligence has been creeping into creative fields; the latest example being; how Google’s AI neural networks are either helping people discover alternative creative fields, or creating trippy art-pieces as a part of its AI Experiments program Deep Dream. Be it painting, literature or music, we seem to have come across, or even used AI tools directly or indirectly for exploring creative opportunities. Take music for example, whether it is discovering/ searching or creating and marketing, AI is slowly becoming a hot topic amongst the music artists’ community and is unknown by many. Let’s take a look at some companies that are combining AI and music:

Flow Machines by Sony CSL

Funded by the European Research Council and coordinated by François Pachet (Sony CSL Paris – UMPC), The goal of Flow Machines is to research and develop artificial intelligence systems that are able to generate music autonomously or in collaboration with human artists. The research firm states that they turn music style, which can come from individual composers – from Mozart to Abbas – or multiple sources, into a computational object, which can be read, replicated and worked on by AI. This is the company that unveiled the first AI pop song ‘Daddy’s Car’.

A Reuters report stated that the starting point of the song creation is a database of sheet music of more than 13,000 existing songs, from which the user can choose any number of titles with a sound or feel they would like the new song to incorporate. The algorithm analyses the songs’ characteristics, and statistical properties related to rhythm, pitch and harmony. It will learn, for instance, which notes will ‘go well with a given chord, what chord is supposed to succeed after a given chord, or which notes usually come after a given note. From the emerging pattern, the algorithm creates a partition or lead sheet with similar characteristics. Based on these characteristics, the AI composes the music.

AI Duet – on Google AI Experiments

Last year search engine giant, Google launched A.I. Experiments that showcases Google’s artificial intelligence research through web apps that anyone can test out (open source). The portal was meant to make machine learning technology more accessible to people who are interested in AI but do not have the technical background. Basically, the site lets people interact with AI projects that Google researchers have created and also lets users create their own projects/ experiments with AI involved.

One of the projects on the AI Experiments page is the AI Duet, which showcases the application of machine learning on music. It lets the user play a duet with the computer, one has to play some notes, and the computer will respond to the melody. The application allows the use of keyboard, computer keys, or even plugging in a MIDI keyboard.

AI Duet takes notes while the user is playing a key and runs it through a neural network that has been trained using machine learning with hundreds of different melodic examples. The neural network looks for melodic and rhythmic patterns it can identify, and matches it with the user’s key. It then times it and generates its own organic melody which sounds like a response to the input key/ melody.

AI Experiments states that, Yotam Mann, known for ‘making music with code’ has built the project, with friends from the Magenta and Creative Lab teams at Google. It’s built with Tensorflow, Tone.js, and open-source tools from the Magenta project, which is Google’s foray into art using AI.

Jukedeck

Jukedeck is a startup that claims to bring artificial intelligence to music composition. Its system involves feeding hundreds of scores into its AI neural networks, which analyze probabilities of successive music notes or the progression of chords. The deep neural network turn all the probabilities and progressions into compositions that can be turned into audio using an automated audio production program.

With origins at Cambridge University, the team comprises of composers, producers, engineers, academics and machine learning experts with a shared passion for music and technology, who created Jukedeck. The team is training Jukedeck in deep neural networks to understand how to compose and adapt music, to give people the tools to personalize the music they need.

By using this machine learning technology that can compose and adapt professional-quality music, that gives individuals and companies personalised music that’s dynamically shaped to their needs. Startup is stated to have been looking to sell tracks to consumers who need background music for projects. According to a New York Times report, the company charges large businesses $21.99 to use a track which is royalty free, for a fraction of what hiring a musician would cost.

Brain.FM

Scientists have always argued that music has an effect on the human mind and some have said that one can improve the functionality of the brain by listening to certain kinds of music. Enter Brain.FM, which has come up with AI that creates a blend of tones that helps people decrease anxiety, sleep disorders and improve mental performance; hence, no more ADD.

Neuroscientists along with the audio startup from Chicago have created a machine that can take all the rules of making neuroscience music and create rhythms that sound like humans have created it. According to the company, the AI creates music designed for the brain to enhance focus, relaxation, meditation, naps and sleep, effective within 10 – 15 minutes of use. Its all about unlocking music’s potential to influence cognitive states.

People can use this AI generated music for their desired state, be it deep sleep or focused work or meditation. The tool allows a user to listen to the different sounds for the first seven times and then it is all paid. Premium accounts cost $7 a month and $4 a month if one pays for a year up front which amounts to $48, users can also opt for a lifetime subscription of $150.

Spotify

Almost all the music lovers would have come across this name while surfing for music streaming applications and tools. Ideally Spotify is a digital music service that gives the users access to millions of songs. But what people don’t know is that it uses machine learning indirectly.

Spotify uses a method called collaborative filtering, which it uses to collate as much data as possible from a user’s listening behavior. It then does a comparative analysis with thousands of other data that it has collected from other users across the globe. This data is then used to improve recommendations and suggest new music basedon the user’s listening habit.

The company acquired another machine learning firm called Echo Nest which uses AI to gather data about new music posted to blogs, news websites, and social media machine learning for better music discovery.

People using Spotify would be familiar with its Discover Weekly feature, that suggests new music and the recently launched Daily mix. Voila, both these features use machine learning to mine user’s listening data to create a personalized playlist designed to present hours of music that a user will love.

LANDR

One of the most interesting emerging technologies in music is LANDR which claims to provide instant audio mastering service as it combines AI with music production. LANDR works by computing each new song by analyzing the production style. The AI software is constantly learning as people keep uploading their tracks for mastering, sort of like a observant baby with a clean slate.

Every time a user uploads a track, LANDR creates a custom ‘digital fingerprint’ of the track, which it then cross references with its database to identify the track’s genre and production style. Then, based on the needs of the user’s track, it applies a custom set of adaptive tools like multi-band compression, EQ, stereo enhancement, limiting and aural excitation. It then makes subtle, intelligent frame-by-frame adjustments based on the unique properties of the track.

What is interesting here is that mastering by real people with human flesh occurs in the final stages of the production of a song when it is conditioned, so that it sounds clearer, consistent, richer, and true to its making. With LANDR’s algorithm analyzing large repositories of songs that have been previously mastered, as well as songs in other genres for similar patterns, artists can simply upload raw songs into LANDR’s cloud engine to get a finished product.

Shazam

No, its not the DC Comics character; this is the mobile app that recognizes music and TV around a user. It allows people to discover, explore and share the music and TV. Shazam’s been in action since a decade and claims to connect more than 1 billion people on iOS and Android.

Suppose you are at a bar and you like the music that is playing, and you are too embarrassed to either ask your friend or the barkeep to tell you the song, to you can start the app and tap the Shazam button. A digital fingerprint of the audio will be created and, within seconds, matched against a database of millions of tracks and TV shows. Using its AI algorithm, the app gives you the name of the track, the artist, and information such as lyrics, video, artist biography, concert tickets and recommended tracks. It also lets users purchase or listen to the song using its partner services.

The company has a repository of millions of tracks which have been broken down to numeric signatures unique to each track, like a fingerprint. Its machine learning tool listens to the audio and its engine converts it into a signature, like the fingerprint, and then tries to match it with its repository like an ID proof.

Cognitive music with IBM Watson

Grammy award-winning music producer Alex Da Kid paired up with Watson Music to see if they could create a song together. According to IBM, Watson’s ability to turn millions of unstructured data points into emotional insights would help create a new kind of music that for the first time ever, listened to the audience.

Watson AlchemyLanguage API helped by analyzing five years of natural language texts. Once Watson had learned the most significant cultural themes, Watson Tone Analyzer read news articles, blogs and tweets to find out what people felt about them. It also inspired the artist by analyzing years’ worth of popular music.

The Tone Analyzer API then read the lyrics of over 26,000 ‘Billboard Hot 100′ songs while its Cognitive Color Design Tool tool ingested its album art. Watson Beat then looked at composition of those songs to find useful patterns between various keys, chord progressions and genres completing an emotional fingerprint of music by year.

Alex Da Kid used Watson’s ’emotional insights’ to develop ‘heartbreak’ as the concept for his first song, ‘Not Easy,’ and explored musical expressions of heartbreak by working with Watson Beat. Alex then collaborated with X Ambassadors to write the song’s foundation, and lastly added genre-crossing artists Elle King and Wiz Khalifa to bring their own personal touches to the track.

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