Historically, women have had a fairly challenging experience breaking through the predominantly male-dominated tech industry. While they were, for a large part of history, excluded from the tech sector, when they did contribute, there was the added burden of going unrecognized for their efforts.

For example, did you know it was six women who programmed the world's first computer - the ENIAC? Many didn't, for years, as credits were rarely, if ever, given. But regardless of discrimination and impediments over the years, some women have truly made a long-lasting impact in the tech sector.

According to a compilation from Statista, women average about 26% of executive or senior management positions in S&P 500 companies, with Amazon featuring as many as 42% of its workforce as women. But tech isn't just Silicon Valley or business alone - women have contributed in a broader, and deeply fundamental variety of ways to the technology we use today.

From Lady Ada Lovelace, the world's first programmer, or Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, these women have taken what can only be termed as superhuman efforts to be the face of the tech world. Here is a small tribute to these wonderful women, in no particular order.

Ada Lovelace Augusta Ada King‌

‌Countess of Lovelace, more often known as Lady Ada Lovelace, popularly regarded as the world's first programmer. She worked with Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, the proposed computer. She recognized that this engine was capable of more than just calculating and had published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by this machine. She was the first person to have recognized the potential of computers and the first one to have engaged in programming.

In her words - A new, a vast, and a powerful language is developed for the future use of analysis, in which to wield its truths so that these may become of more speedy and accurate practical application for the purposes of mankind than the means hitherto in our possession have rendered possible. Thus not only the mental and the material, but the theoretical and the practical in the mathematical world, are brought into more intimate and effective connection with each other.

It is crucial to keep in mind that Charles Babbage just proposed computers. Lovelace understood the implications that such a machine could bring into the world - something that even Babbage didn't articulate.

Grace Hopper‌

Popular with her modern-day moniker "Mother of computing", Grace Hopper was a United States Navy Rear Admiral. The moniker is entirely accurate, as she popularized the idea of machine-independent programming language, because of which COBOL was developed. COBOL is a high-level programming language still in use today. Hopper worked at Harvard Computation Lab in the late 1940s to program the mark 1 computers, which significantly improved the QoL (Quality of Life) of the military's computer applications. Speed and accuracy were among the many features that received focus during the mark 1 computer's development. She also helped in the development of UNIVAC-1, the world's first computer for commercial use. As we said, the moniker is quite accurate.

Gwynne Shotwell‌

‌Moving on from computing and programming to the strides we are taking in space, Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO of Shotwell, is undoubtedly one of the most influential women in technology. She originally planned to be a part of the automobile industry, but later changed her mind because the role that she initially landed lacked the hands-on approach which she desired. Shotwell has authored papers on "conceptual small spacecraft design, infrared signature target modeling, space shuttle integration and reentry vehicle operational risks". She was the eleventh employee at SpaceX, now synonymous with commercial space exploration, and plays a critical role in the company's success, while taking a back seat on publicity and leaving that to Elon Musk.

‌Susan Wojcicki

YouTube needs no introduction. But its CEO should ideally be equally famous too - Susan Wojcicki. Even before YouTube, she was  involved in the launch of Google, another important part of our daily lives.

She was in charge of leading the development of Google's AdSense. This tool has helped the success of millions of businesses across the world and has been a bulk driver of Google's revenue. Wojcicki revolutionized the way companies view advertising and is a critical factor behind Google's success. In a predominantly male-dominant industry, her decisions to acquire YouTube and DoubleClick, arguably the two of the best decisions made by Google to date, have helped cement her place as one of the most important women in the history of technology.

Margaret Hamilton‌

‌"One small step for man One giant leap for mankind" is one quote that would have never been heard by the world, if not for Margaret Hamilton. Apollo 11, moments before the final landing to the moon, had severe software glitches, triggering alarms and "never supposed to happen displays" which severely interrupted the mission. Had Margaret Hamilton not foreseen this years before the launch of Apollo 11, the first man on the moon would have been delayed by several years.

Hamilton's work is widely credited to be the foundation for ultra-reliable software, by her contemporaries and present generation. Another aspect that probably would not have existed if not for Margaret was the term "software engineering." Little did she know when she (along with Anthony Oettinger and Barry Boehm) coined this term as a running joke, she'd go on to create a name associated with the careers of millions of software engineers in today's world!

This post wouldn't be complete without many of our other favorites - such as Adele Goldberg - the pioneer behind the Smalltalk programming language, Fran Allen, the first woman to win the Turing award, known for her work in parallel computing, and many more!

Of course, this list in no way undermines the work that plenty of other women have done over the years. It's merely our genuine tribute to all the women in the tech industry who have shaped our lives. Here is hoping to see many more women take the lead in tech and everywhere else.

Are you thinking of new ways to make quick money? With the never-ending lockdown arising from the global pandemic situation, shortage of time to venture for money-making opportunities is definitely not a concern. It might just be beneficial to source new ways of making easy money while sitting at home - making the best use of time in this scenario. So, here are some of the best money making apps that can help you earn moolah while sitting at home, simply by logging online via a smartphone device.

Ibotta – The hottest money making app that is trending online, this app pays users a USD 10 Sign Up Bonus and rewards them for being active on the site. Ibotta has an in-house store that stocks daily-need options like groceries and related affiliate brands. Users can shop online, but when they shop in-store, they can upload receipts to avail cashback offers. Referrals that sign up to the app can earn users cash incentives starting from USD 5.

Fetch Rewards – A money making app that pays users in points for scanning purchase receipts. Earning money was never easier. Fetch Rewards is associated with numerous popular brands and pays users in points for uploading their purchase receipts. When users have accumulated sufficient points, they can be redeemed online with top retail brands like Amazon.

Rakuten - Rakuten is another fast money making app that pays users for shopping online or at their store. Users receive numerous coupons and promotional offers for shopping with their favorite brands online. Just install the app on your phone for automated savings and get ready to receive a fat paycheck at the end of each quarter.

Shopkick – This is the best money making app that pays users for their daily shopping needs. Shopkick is an free app that pays users for the essential items they are already buying. Just install the application on your smartphone and earn rewards or kicks (as they call it), in exchange for free gift cards from your favorite brands and retailers. Earn more kicks by inviting friends to join or watching in-app videos.

Paribus – This 100% free application helps you claim prompt refunds from past purchases at any retail major. If you have ever felt cheated as a consumer while making a purchase, this app comes to your rescue. If a store owes you money, just install this free app, and you are already halfway through your claim process.

Dosh – Dosh is a rebate app that pays users for simply uploading their credit card information. Dosh is extremely popular with users as it does not require them to put in extra effort or time to earn money from the app. Sign up immediately to earn a USD 5 bonus. The minimum amount to qualify for a cash-out is USD 25.

Inbox Dollars – An app that pays you every time you participate in a listed activity. So get paid for participating in every survey, opening paid emails and playing games online. The minimum cash out is USD 30 and you can choose to have it sent by Paypal or through a check by postal mail.

Survey Junkie – This app pays money for participating in surveys conducted by top brands allowing users to earn points that can be exchanged for hard cash. Survey Junkie connects various companies that require consumer information to individuals in their target markets and pays users 100 - 200 points for completing these surveys successfully. Users can then exchange their points for cash payouts or online gift cards.

Swagbucks – An app that pays real money by participating in interesting surveys with a signup bonus of USD 5 for new users. They are very popular among survey sites due to a high reward per survey ratio. Users need to be above 18 years of age to sign up.

MyPoints – This app pays users to shop online. Earn 25 points for every dollar spent. Just sign up and proceed with your online shopping as you would typically do. You can gain access to the retail store directly from the app's online platform, MyPoints. Redeem points for gift cards with popular brands, retailers or favourite restaurants.

Google Opinion Rewards – This app pays you for literally lying on your back. Get paid in real cash to take surveys, watch videos or other such easy tasks. The quickest way to avail hefty cash backs every week without breaking a sweat.

Mobile expressions – This mobile app pays you to download it on your phone and continue using your phone as you normally would. Just download the application on your Android device and start bearing fruit right away. You could earn your first gift card in less than a week.

S'More – This is a lock screen rewards app that pays users for allowing ad content to run on their smartphone lock screen, earning them points in return. Just download the app and get your phone lock screen to work for you.

MistPlay – This app is the pick of the lot as it pays users for trying out new mobile video games. This is an Android app available on Google Playstore. Users cannot receive cash payouts via PayPal, but they can earn Google Play credits for future games.

Lucktastic – Another free Android & iOS app that pays you for playing online games. Earnings can be in real cash or gift cards. If you love online game duels, here's a fun way to earn while playing.

Tap Cash Rewards –This app is a fun way to make money on your phone. Users make money for watching videos, playing games, and other fun activities. If you have spare time to kill, put your mobile phone to use by downloading this free app, and start earning right away.

Lyft or Uber –This application pays you for riding people from one destination to another in a vehicle. If you think driving people safely to their destination is your prime skill, just download the Uber or Lyft app on your phone, and you are ready to start earning real cash.

UberEats – If driving people around is not your cup of tea, simply download UberEats to deliver food & get paid in hard cash. Like Uber, UberEats delivers doorstep food orders from their favorite restaurants or eateries.

Doordash – Currently operational only in the USA, Doordash pays users to choose how they work and how much money they want to earn by making doorstep food deliveries. Available in more than 4000 US cities, Dashers (delivery messengers) need to prove they have their own vehicle, which they are permitted by law to drive in the United States, along with access to a smartphone with a reliable Internet connection, and they're good to go. The payout depends on a combination of distance traveled, size of the delivery, and customer tips.

InstaCart – If doorstep food delivery is still not your thing, don't be disappointed. Instacart pays users to shop for other peoples' grocery list and deliver it to their homes and earn flat tips from customers. Users need to be above 18 years and permitted by law to work anywhere in the USA to qualify as personal grocery shoppers.

Postmates – ooThis app pays you for delivering take-out orders around town. Pretty much on the same lines as Doordash and UberEats, users can make instant cash with this app by delivering take-out orders around town. This is a completely free app, and there is more money to be made from weekly guarantees and customer tips.

Fiverr – If you have a skill that people can make use of, this app allows you to hook up with such people and get paid for it. From freelance writing to photography to website designing and creating logos, Fiverr offers all kinds of creative projects for you to work on.

Upwork – Same as Fiverr, Upwork connects service providers to potential buyers. Just create a user profile on the website and start connecting with people looking to hire for your skillset. Projects can vary depending on the nature of work.

Rover – Earn up to USD 1000 a month for walking other's pets. An app that is a sheer treat for pet lovers. Earn money while taking a walk in the park.

Task Rabbit – Make money helping people with basic tasks or running errands. An app that pays from USD 15 to USD 500 per hour. If you are looking to earn some money on the side, this is the app for you. Make money running errands and cash it out whenever you like.

AirBnB – This app pays you to put out a spare room in your house or an unused property as a vacation rental and make money. Why waste free space and why put down an opportunity to make money out of it, when all you need to do is set up a profile on this app and list your property on it. The app sends guests to your property and you get paid for hosting them at your listed space.

OfferUp – This app pays you to put any item for sale within 30 seconds of signing up. But users need to sign in first, and to do so; they need to create a profile that typically takes not more than a few minutes. Connect with potential buyers and make a sale for your item. Users can opt to be paid in person by their buyers or have funds transferred through the app.

ThredUP – This app actually pays users for selling their old clothes on the platform and donates the rest to charities. Users need to create a profile before they can receive a bag from the company by postal mail called The Cleanout Kit. Users fill this bag with items ranging from clothes, designer items to accessories and send it back.

Poshmark – If you have designer stuff that you don't need, Poshmark helps you sell it online. Users need to create a profile and upload pictures of the item they wish to sell with relevant product descriptions. Poshmark reserves 20% of the sales proceeds as its service charge.

Facebook Marketing – Facebook Marketplace is a great platform to connect with potential sellers. Just upload pictures of the item you wish to sell, and more often than not, you will find buyers coming up to your place to buy the product. No need to leave home to make money.

Decluttr - As the name suggests, this application helps users sell stuff that is no longer of any use to them. Simply download the app, scan the item you want to sell, and the app will quote a price for it. From DVDs to books to electronics, make most of the unused items lying around your house - declutter.

Acorns – An innovative app that tracks the user's spending and invests the spare change. If you buy a coffee for USD 4.5, it rounds off the billing amount to USD 5 and invests the remaining USD 0.5. This app is like a free virtual financial advisor that saves as well as makes money for its user.

Stash – Like Acorns, Stash is a business management app that invests the user's money by rounding off purchases and investing the change. Their investments are in stocks and low-risk funds, which inevitably turn out profitable in the long run.

Trim – What started as an application that allows users to cut and trim subscription costs on different services, Trim has presently blown into a full-fledged program that helps users in daily business management. From helping you to choose the best credit card to track your retirement goals to finalizing insurance providers, Trim offers it all.

Sweatcoin – This is one of the best money-making applications available online. Sweatcoin pays users to literally, take a walk. Just download the application and activate it on your smartphone and earn money whenever you walk. As simple as that. Stay healthy, stay wealthy.

If you were looking for the best apps that pay you the most money for doing things that you love doing online, the above list of destination sources should be ideal for your requirements. These are the latest business apps for entertainment, available that will actually pay you real money for playing games, participating in surveys, daily shopping, and other fun activities online.

It's common to see celebrities dabble in side-careers like singing or film production. But if you've been noticing - celebrities diversifying into legitimate businesses unrelated to their careers has become a recurring theme amongst the fraternity. Many celebrities are now choosing to turn int entrepreneurs. With their wide appeal, social media presence and capital, celebrities are often at an advantage when they decide to build a brand. As a study by Ad Age suggests, a brand that inks an endorsement contract with a celebrity or an athlete observes results as soon as the news goes public - sometimes by sales rising as much as 20% immediately.

Celebrities are not oblivious to this fact - and while some may have decided to cash in on this phenomenon for themselves, many just happen to have other passions that they began to pursue as soon as their careers enabled them. In this post, we bring to you the story of 7 celebrities-turned-entrepreneurs who aimed big and established successful business empires.

Kylie Jenner

Business: Kylie Cosmetics

Net worth: $900 million (2020)

The paparazzi favorite, Kylie Jenner was only 21 years old when Forbes gave her the title of the youngest-ever self-made billionaire. Here's what she's been engaged with on the business end:

• The reality show star and makeup mogul founded Kylie Cosmetics in 2015. She has now diversified and entered into the skincare segment well.
• Her star appeal, social media marketing, extensive distribution network and pricing helped her sell over $630 million worth of makeup in just two years after 2015, including an estimated $330 million in 2017.

Shah Rukh Khan

Business: Kolkata Knight Riders IPL franchise, Red Chillies VFX

Net worth: $600 million (2020)

The king of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, is every bit a successful businessman as he is a popular actor, with a diversified portfolio that he's built over the years. With a production company, cricket team franchise and theme parks, Khan has dabbled into more ventures than most celebrities.

• His first company, Dreamz Unlimited, was founded in 2002. He now owns Red Chillies Entertainment which has few more subsidiaries such as the Red Chillies VFX. It is amongst the largest visual studios in India.
• He also owns a 55% stake in the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise in the Indian Premier League.
• SRK holds a 26% stake in KidZania - a novel theme park that is a combination of education and entertainment.

Kanye West

Business: Yeezy

Net worth: $1.3 billion (2020)

Musician and Grammy-award winning celebrity, Kanye West has surpassed Jay-Z to become the highest-paid star in hip-hop. However:

• It is his footwear and apparel brand, Yeezy, that helped the rapper rake in $150 million in 2019. It is a perfect mix of the good product, positioning and targeting that have made it Nike Air Jordan's biggest rivals.
• As per a Forbes report, Kanye gets a royalty of 15% on the wholesale price and full ownership of his brand.

Virat Kohli

Business: Wrogn, Chisel

Net worth: $93 million (2020)

With a stellar record in cricket, the Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli has already got himself smart business investments.

• His diversified portfolio includes sports ventures, apparel line and a chain of gyms.
• The Indian captain is the co-owner of the International Tennis Premier League franchise UAE Royals and majority stakeholder in club FC Goa.
• Kohli's fashion brand, Wrogn, sells across all major retail outlets across the country and also has 70 offline stores.
• His first fitness venture is a chain of gyms called Chisel. The product differentiator is technology-enabled workouts.
• His second venture is a start-up, Stepathlon Kids which looks to increase awareness regarding health issues among the youth through pedometer-inspired virtual race

Kate Hudson

Business: Happy x Nature

Net worth: $90 million (2020)

The Hollywood actress has parlayed her workout game into a successful business model. With an extensive distribution network reaching several brick-and-mortar retail locations, Kate Hudson has built a bustling business empire.

• She owns a popular fitness apparel brand, sustainable, ready-to-wear brand Happy x Nature and the digital shop Fabletics which she launched in 2014
• The label, which produces budget workout wear through a membership model, saw triple-digit growth within a few years of launch.

Dwayne' The Rock' Johnson

Business: Athleticon, Project Rock

Net worth: $320 million (2020)

Dwayne has one of the most inspirational stories in Hollywood. From famously having just seven bucks in his pocket to being a pro wrestling sensation and forming his Seven Bucks production Company, Dwayne Jhonson has indeed come a long way. His other business ventures include:

• A business partnership with Under Armour called 'Project Rock', which gave a fillip to the company's sales with merchandise such as bags, sneakers, and more.
• Johnson also released an alarm clock app as part of Project Rock that received over one million downloads in its first week of release.
• In 2016, he also launched his YouTube channel.
• That's not all. In 2019, he announced his competitive bodybuilding show named Athleticon, set to air October 2020 onwards.

Will Smith

Business: Just Water, Fancy.

Net worth: $300 million (2020)

Famous Hollywood actor and rapper Will Smith is also a big name in entrepreneurial circles. A sizable portion of his estimated net worth of $300 million (as of 2020) is attributed to his successful business ventures:

• He is a stakeholder in Fancy; an e-commerce site also referred to as "the Pinterest of fashion."
• He has also co-founded the eco-friendly company Just Water in 2015 with his son Jaden Smith. The water brand packaging is specially designed to help cut down on plastic pollution in the ocean.
• In 2019, Just Water's valuations hit $100 million.

Celebs Are Now More Than Just Entertainers

As entertainment consumers, we've admired these celebrities for their unique art, but after a look at their 'alternate careers', they certainly seem inspirational in more ways than one. Running a successful business venture requires a wide variety of skills and efforts, and these celebrities have leveraged their business acumen and star power to very effectively scale their brands and succeed. Celebrities of the 21st century are now more than just the face of a specific brand. Their primary careers may have a short shelf life, but the successful business models that these celebs have created will endure.

Increased digitization and demand for remote availability and accessibility of data have long pushed Enterprises to move their workloads and businesses to the cloud. But nothing has been a more significant driver of digital transformation than COVID, where remote office capabilities are translating into survival for many companies. Much of this digital transformation is powered by cloud computing. According to Forbes, 74% of Tech CFOs say cloud computing had the most measurable impact on their business.

Moving your office to the cloud, however, remains a daunting task. And while mistakes here can prove costly, cloud adoption has a plethora of benefits, including - an elevation in overall productivity, improved implementation, better data mobility, better scalability, and higher security. While organizations continue to transition to the cloud, it is essential to ensure that this cloud migration process is executed optimally. Here are five essential tips that you should know before moving your office to the cloud:

Defining Your KPIs

Before you decide to migrate, establish some clear cloud migration KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These will enable you to identify migration issues quickly and determine success accurately. Common technical KPIs can include response time, CPU usage, memory usage, and more. Business-oriented KPIs would depend on your core focus, sector, and products, of course. Shockingly, less than 33% of organizations establish such clear strategies.

Your strategy will also define your costs and help you identify critical security and compliance requirements. It can also include hiring specialists or forming cloud teams to overlook the functioning of the cloud. 66% of enterprises already have a central cloud team or a cloud center of excellence. A good strategy will include everything from the beginning - such as choosing your cloud infrastructure, to the end - such as implementing end-user training after the move.

Understand what is covered by your SaaS provider
In a Software as a service (SaaS) model, a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them accessible to the customers over the internet. Most major cloud providers work to ensure that all errors from their end are minimized. However, when it comes to accidental or malicious data loss on a business’s end, a lot of them believe that their SaaS providers can assist them in these circumstances too. Unfortunately, this is a common misconception - as up to 95% believe that their SaaS provider will restore all the lost data, which is rarely the case. You need to watch out for mishaps that can take place that include loss of data due to human error or loss of data at the time of migration. Hence, it is imperative to keep your data safe from the start and also understand what is covered and what isn’t covered by your SaaS provider beforehand.

Security Considerations

Before migration, a polished information security program supported by policies, procedures, guidelines, and standards is essential. It is also essential to factor in data classification and protection protocols before you migrate. Security breaches won’t just lead to bad PR and losses - you may also be in violation of local regulations and laws.

Setting up Data Access Policies

A cloud office helps you and your employees to access data more conveniently and remotely. This is perhaps the most visible impact of cloud migration, and of course, hugely beneficial, in addition to being a general productivity booster overall. But it comes with its own risks too.

Minute errors can lead to security breaches and data loss, which can take a toll on the business financially, and otherwise. Therefore, it is important to define the accessibility and extent of access that each user has to the data on your cloud office. This ensures that only people with the right security clearance are able to access and edit those files. Most SaaS platforms provide features which allow the implementation of roles and permissions. In fact, 94% of SMBs appreciate the upgrade in security that comes from adopting the cloud.

Determine Your Backup Strategy

Data can be backed up in two ways: manually or automatically/scheduled. Manual exports tend to be more error-prone due to two primary reasons:

• First, they are time-consuming and can take up a lot of resources.
• Second, since they are done by humans, they can be forgotten.

To ensure error-free, hassle-free, and timely backups of essential and sensitive data, make sure that your backups are automated.

Consider setting up your cloud office today.

According to the Right Scale’s annual State of the Cloud Report for 2019, 91% of businesses used public cloud while 72% relied on a private setup. Moving your business to the cloud ensures that your data and business remains accessible to you and your employees and that it is backed up with real-time updates, to be preserved in case of loss or damage of traditional storage devices. That cloud migration for an enterprise has a range of benefits, isn’t a matter of debate in 2020. It helps you boost productivity, cut costs, and secure your data simultaneously. These essential tips can be handy if you’re moving your office to the cloud for the first time, and will ensure you steer clear of all the possible rookie mistakes!

As the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic continues to alter the way we live our lives, it'd be right to assume that the implications of this might last well into the decade. The way we knew life has changed and how. In the corporate world, things have been pretty grim for the last few months. It has become challenging for businesses to keep their financial wheels turning during this period, looking for survival strategies daily.

One of the responses that we have all seen is that many businesses have shifted to online models. According to Bluecore's Covid-19 Retail Trends report, the number of first-time purchases in North America placed through e-commerce sites belonging to traditional chain stores grew by 119% compared to April last year. A study by the Chinese government shows that e-commerce accounts for nearly 30% of all content live-streamed in China, outperforming sports broadcasting, and live concerts at 23.5% and 16.6%, respectively.

Seeing how online shopping is rising in popularity, especially household goods and groceries, a lot of traditional industries are now considering the e-Commerce route. According to a study by Adobe's Digital Economy Index, eCommerce in the USA has jumped 49% in April, compared to March, with online groceries driving this increase in sales.

So if you are a  business owner, it would be an excellent idea for you to consider setting up an e-commerce platform now, but how does one choose the best platform to build an e-commerce website? We have put together this list of top recommendations of platforms that can help develop eCommerce websites.

Wix

Your stunning website is a click away- a promise they make and stand by. A website building platform that is perfect for beginners, Wix is a great place to create an aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly e-commerce website. Wix allows you to build SEO friendly websites that are easy to customize, and even has special packages for e-commerce websites. Some of the features include SEO tools, 500+ templates, mobile optimization, chatbots, multiple payments, and global shipping options. Plus, all of the e-commerce solutions have unlimited bandwidth, $300 in advertising vouchers, a free domain for one year, and visitor analytics.

The fact that all online payments on the Wix store are 100% commission free earns this site brownie points. We're trying to say that by choosing to build an e-commerce website with Wix, you can save a lot of tax money!

A Business Basic package starts at $23 per month and goes up to $500 per month for an enterprise. They offer a full refund within 14 days of signing up.

Squarespace

One of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the global market, Squarespace is a great bet for all those in the creative field. Building a website is more comfortable than on other platforms since it has eCommerce functionality built directly into its plans. If you're aiming for a website that is modern, sleek, visually appealing, Squarespace comes highly recommended.

It's convenient to design, and each page in the website can be easily customized thanks to the intuitive and highly-responsive drag and drop builder. The award-winning templates at Squarespace are customizable for mobile use. Squarespace has built-in SEO tools, analytics, and blogging tools. If you wish to install a third-party app, basic knowledge of coding would be needed.

The Business plan starts at $18 per month and goes up to $40 per month for larger enterprises.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce comes highly recommended for building an e-commerce website for brands that wish to leverage sales through different channels. If you've been in the market for a long time and are available on other platforms like Amazon, building an online sales funnel is more comfortable with BigCommerce thanks to their dashboard, which allows you to update the product information in one place. In fact, BigCommerce is specifically designed to help more massive e-commerce sites sell quickly.  BigCommerce is versatile and has B2B specific features that include customer groups, quote management, multi-channel selling, bulk pricing rates, and custom price lists.

The best part is that every plan on this platform comes with the option to sell on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Google Shopping, eBay, Amazon, and POS. The standard package starts at $30 per month and goes up to $250 per month.

Shopify

One of the most popular website building platforms for e-commerce, Shopify is a robust platform that is not only super convenient to use but easily customizable too! The popularity of Shopify has been growing impressively, and why not? This web-based CMS comes with everything that you'd need to build an online store, and you can sign up, choose a theme and upload a product all under 15min! Over 70 themes that are easy to customize, an app store, and a built-in payment gateway make Shopify one of the most preferred platforms for e-commerce websites.  In case you wish to go in for another payment gateway, you can choose any since they're all easily integrated with Shopify. Through Shopify, you can also conduct marketing campaigns through Facebook, Google, Instagram, and more.

Shopify also offers web hosting, unlimited email forwarding, unlimited bandwidth, a content delivery network for optimal performance, SEO tools, mobile optimization, and analytics. A basic plan will cost you $29 per month, while the advanced package costs  $299 per month.

3D Cart

If you're an experienced developer and store owner, 3D Cart is a website building platform that we suggest you try. It's not an easy platform to use, which is why beginners will not enjoy their experience with this platform.  3D Cart is one of the best site builders for SEO readiness, offers over 50 themes, and supports over 100 payment processors. With 3D Cart expect features like web hosting, mobile-optimization, API access, unlimited bandwidth, no transaction fee, and a built-in blog. You can also set up newsletters to keep your customers engaged.

The basic package starts at $9.50 per month and goes up to $114.50 per month. You can cancel at any time and even offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Weebly

Best suited for entrepreneurs and small business owners, Weebly is a popular website builder that is also one of the most affordable platforms in the market. Weebly is the best platform for small and local businesses to consider and offers tools for SEO, emails, site analytics, shipping, inventory, and much more. The drag and drop site builder allows you to create your online store with minimal effort and no coding. You can accept payments with popular gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Square. Since Square powers Weebly, it's easy to integrate the Square POS with your online sales system.

The initial business plan starts at $12 per month and goes up to $38 per month.

Ecwid

If you're looking to build an e-commerce platform to sell on social media, Ecwid is what you should consider. Ecwid is easy to use and allows you to manage multiple channels and cross-sell on all of them, but it is the social media selling feature that truly stands out. If Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shop are on your mind, Ecwid could give your brand a massive boost in traffic. With Ecwid, you can sync products to social media and can customize it to fit your needs. Ecwid is mobile friendly and easily embeds into an existing website on Wix, Weebly, Joomla, Squarespace, Tumblr, or Blogger.

The basic plan starts at $15 per month and goes up to $99 per month.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is not an all-in-one e-commerce platform; instead, it is a plugin that has been made for WordPress. Even after this slight difference from the other mainstream platforms, WooCommerce has seen nearly 80 million downloads to date, quickly making it one of the top e-commerce building platforms. It is a platform that comes highly recommended for content-based websites.

WooCommerce enables a basic WordPress website to turn into an e-commerce store. It is as simple as installing any other WordPress plugin- as long as your domain and hosting are set up, WooCommerce is absolutely free of charge! Easy to customize and with over 300 extensions, WooCommerce allows you to integrate payment processors, subscription tools, and store management features on the WordPress site.

CoreCommerce

CoreCommerce is the only platform available that focuses specifically on small and medium-sized businesses. Easy to customize and use, this platform comes with no transaction fees, free shared SSL, automatic updates, simple setup, and access to hundreds of themes. It also helps you manage your inventory and track data. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, this eCommerce software has a point-of-sale service that enables you to manage your online and physical sales all in one system. You can also directly add CoreCommerce to an existing WordPress site. The websites are mobile-friendly too.

The basic plan starts at $40 per month and can go up to $200 for larger companies.

GumRoad

Gumroad is a website building platform that is preferred by bloggers, writers, and artists. It is a platform to showcase skills as well as a marketplace for creators. Gumroad combines simple eCommerce features with audience-building software, analytics, and even offline payment processing. Expect features like personalized product landing pages, email importing, automatic order updates, analytics access, sales tax support, pre-order support, checkout support, social media support, and more. It's an easy to use platform that helps customize every page, including the checkout pages too! Gumroad accepts all major credit cards, and the good part is that the company processes all of your payments via a proprietary payment gateway rather than a pre-built solution like Stripe.

With Gumroad, you can sell products to different countries and sell different versions of a single product on the same page! Gumroad also makes it easy to ensure that people aren't accessing your content without your permission. The best is yet to come- Not only can you deliver high-quality downloads to your customers through online sites and simple payment systems, but you can also use Gumroad to manage physical products.

There are two types of memberships. One is free, and the other is the Professional or Premium account priced at $10 per month.

Ecommerce is expected to double by 2023 to more than $6.5 billion nearly. In APAC, e-commerce grew 25% last year, topping $2.27 trillion. These are just some of the numbers which prove that e-commerce is here to stay, especially now that people might think twice before venturing out to malls and offline stores. Whatever the need of the hour is, a good marketer adapts to meet the customer. If 2020 and beyond calls for eCommerce, you know what you have to do! If you're looking for an all-in-one solution for building an eCommerce site, we hope this list of the best platform choices helped you make your decision.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken governments and citizens alike, severely impacting economies all around the world. Though, it is far from over the global community has already acknowledged the situation as the worst recession in a hundred years. That doesn’t mean all entrepreneurial hope should be lost, though. There have been enough and more examples of successful companies that were established during the past recessions. Did you know Uber, Airbnb and WhatsApp were born amidst the 2008 recession?

With the right thought, strategy, and execution, it’s possible to turn this ongoing crisis into an opportunity for new business. The current situation creates a demand for plenty of new ideas that are impactful and relevant to the new normal, if implemented well, they will not only generate revenue but also support the community at these testing times.
Starting your business might feel like an overwhelming undertaking, especially if you do not have any background, but here are some encouraging numbers:

• 69% of American entrepreneurs started their businesses at home. Using the digital age to your advantage, you can launch your startup without illiquid investments like in real estate.
• Money can be a significant enabling factor, but your limited financial assets should not be a reason to fret. An analysis of small businesses found that one-third began with less than $5000.
  So here are some great startup ideas through which you can turn the tides of COVID-19 in your favor:

# Education

The education sector practically came to a standstill this year, with schools, colleges, and other educational institutions shut down to avoid community transmission. Even to the casual eye, this is a bonanza of startup opportunities for rescuing the education sector and bringing it back on track. Some low hanging fruits include:

• Collaborative Platforms

A specialized app or a digital platform where students and teachers can collaborate and engage in routine activities, just like pre-COVID times, is likely to have a large market. Many educational institutions have taken to apps like Microsoft Teams or Zoom to conduct classes - which are universal apps not optimized for educational purposes.

• Online tutoring

Teaming up with fellow tutors and creating a platform with pre-recorded videos could be valuable to schools and parents for homeschooling purposes. Online tutoring could include regular lectures along with practical presentations. Indian startup BYJU’s has already seen 6 million sign-ups during the national lockdown.

# Consultancy

With many skilled professionals stuck at home and facing the risk of being laid off, sharing your valuable insights and knowledge, or facilitating this for other experts, can be lucrative. This could include:

• Business consultancy:

There’s potential in coaching entrepreneurs or creating a customized consultation-program based on market observations, to assist others in learning industry trends and coping with this black swan event.

• Medical consultancy:

Since the pandemic has instilled a sense of fear among masses in visiting hospitals and other medical institutions, doctors and specialists can set up teleconsultation and tele-medication networks for health checkups.

• Hosting webinars:

Webinars are a great medium to share knowledge and capture a consumer base for your products and services. As a lot of people stay home due to COVID-19, they are more open to attending webinars that could add to skill, knowledge or networking

# Online tools and apps

Thanks to digitization, we are significantly better equipped to handle and sustain ourselves in times of a pandemic compared to our predecessors.

The online realm offers a virtual world with substitutes to seamlessly execute a majority of our real-world activities. This presents an array of opportunities in constructing an online framework to establish modern activities for the digital age - right from business to socializing.

• App and Website creation:

Since every business front will require an app to penetrate deep in the online consumer landscape, designing apps and websites for such businesses will be a good idea. Even existing B2B companies are looking at creating mobile apps that can be the first point of contact for new clients. Deskera a cloud-based SaaS startup focusing on the SMEs saw 300,000 downloads for their newly launched business app during the COVID times.

• Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA):

While businesses may have put marketing on hold during quarantines and lockdowns, there is a greater emphasis on online marketing right and will continue as normalcy resumes. Offline marketing is likely to take longer to recover. You’d want to position yourself to the market appropriately.

• Analytics tools:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are disruptive concepts that remain significantly untapped. Coupling this technology for analyzing data or creating specialized operational tools as nations battle healthcare crises could give you a significant lead over other startups.

• Blockchain:

Blockchain tech remains in its early stages. But it’s already being deployed to assist with Covid-19 detection, supply chain solutions, and more, as detailed in this blog by IBM.

# Medical supplies

The pandemic has unsurprisingly created a huge demand for medical supplies. This presents a blessing in disguise and multiple startup opportunities:

• Medicine and medical equipment production:

By procuring required licenses and reconfiguring factories, you can produce medicines and other necessary medical equipment like masks, gloves, and PPE kits to quell the regional demand for medical supplies. Not only will you be uniquely positioned with good revenue potential, you’ll also be engaging in an altruistic cause. Many large brands - such as Tesla - have already done this.

• Storage space:

Hospitals and other medical institutions require a buffer stock of medical equipment at all times. This has created a rise in demand for storage spaces for supplies. Organizing storage spaces and offering them is an idea worthy of consideration.

• Medical supply deliveries:

You may also want to set up regional and inter-state delivery networks for medical supplies.

Selecting The Best Startup Idea For You

The crux of a startup (and its success) lies in solving an existing problem and offering an effective solution. Identify a problem that you believe you can effectively solve, and formulate plans based on it. As we mentioned earlier, the two key ingredients to a startup idea worth pursuing are:

• That it is feasible and holds potential in the current economic climate, and
• It solves a critical problem and assists your community, region, nation, or even the global community in dealing with his pandemic.
  

Analyzing market trends and paying attention to your customers is critical here. After all, 14% of startups fail because they don’t meet customer needs. Offering practical solutions to your customers in a quick and easy method should be the principle to strive for. Like we said earlier, all is not lost, and these are just a few ideas from the techseen team to get you thinking. These are tough times, and the community needs much more, there is a lot that can be done and achieved all we need to do is get started.

Since the world got introduced to Bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrencies as a concept has evolved significantly. In a little more than a decade, we have seen an explosion of new players in the crypto space, coupled with an interest bordering on public frenzy, and of course, significant developments in its underlying blockchain technology.
More importantly, an increasing number of people have begun to trust and utilize cryptocurrencies on a day-to-day basis. Deutsche Bank predicts a 4x growth in public cryptocurrency usage - with 200 million cryptocurrency users by 2030. It’s closer to the mass adoption scenario that crypto enthusiasts - or maximalists dream of. Many cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have even been performing relatively well compared to the financial markets amidst the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

However, this is not to say that crypto in its current state is in any way perfect, or even close to being perfect. There are several limitations faced by the industry currently, which should ideally iron out over the next few years. What to expect, you ask? Well, Besides the $50,000 Bitcoin, $1 million Bitcoin, and other predictions we see nearly every week, here are the trends that will shape and drive the crypto industry over the next decade.

#1 Government and Institutional Adoption

By 2030, almost all governments may plan for, create, and adopt their own cryptocurrency. The road for any fiat currency should inevitably lead to a crypto counterpart sooner or later. A few countries like Venezuela (with Petro) and Dubai (with emCash) have formally announced their plans to launch cryptocurrencies

Government regulations regarding crypto will be one of the first steps that we may witness in the short run, with some governments possibly issuing a blanket ban on crypto (ahem, India), till all the kinks get ironed out. We must concede though - cryptocurrencies in their current form are not in a state to be adopted by governments as an alternative to fiat currency. But without a doubt, once governments start regulating the sector, and with considerable tech developments, nations across the world should begin massive adoption in the upcoming years, as cryptocurrencies are too distinct an incoming paradigm to avoid forever.

Cryptocurrencies offer:

• Reduced settlement times,
• Lower transaction costs, and
• High levels of traceability, making it incredibly alluring, compared to fiat money.

However, it may be naive to expect all government cryptocurrencies to decentralize like Bitcoin. Governments would need to exert some control over their currencies for price manipulation - which in itself isn’t necessarily a negative idea. How the governments achieve it is not still evident, but introducing monetary policies to alter the number of tokens and stablecoins (cryptocurrencies tethered to a real-world asset), can be one of the ways to do it.
There will be multiple attempts in the next 4 to 5 years, most of them likely to be unsuccessful. But we remain incredibly optimistic that over the next decade, the concept of ‘national crypto’ is undoubtedly something that shall shape the crypto industry.

#2 AI And Blockchain Will Converge

Both AI and the blockchain enjoy the title of being arguably the most hyped technologies of our time. New technologies and whitepapers attempt to shoehorn either AI, blockchain, or both into their descriptions in an attempt to generate attention and be taken seriously. As the oft-repeated joke in tech startup circles goes - keep saying blockchain fast enough until people in suits get confused and throw you money.

But in all seriousness - the two technologies will likely see considerably more synergy and useful applications in the next decade. Artificial intelligence and machine learning rely heavily on large data sets to optimize their performance - something that cryptocurrency blockchains boast in plenty. On the other hand, with blockchains being encrypted blocks of data, they almost certainly demand the resources of an intelligent system for analysis, insights, and even forensics. Governments themselves may channel AI and ML resources into blockchains as they look to increase their hold on cryptocurrencies and track transactions, wealth, and more.

Other issues, such as the enormous amounts of energy crypto mining consume - may be a problem best left to our AI tools to solve and optimize.
On the consumer side, too, there would be exciting applications. Brands and stores may be able to share customer data in encrypted ways using blockchains, on which AI can deploy AI tools for targeted advertisement, product recommendations, and more. Silicon valley may hail this as the balanced answer to privacy concerns and data monetization.

#3 Market Stability

One of the characteristics that many people, initiated and uninitiated, associate with cryptocurrencies is market volatility. This is set to change in the upcoming years. Its tech continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and broad stability in the market should logically follow these massive tech advances over the next decade.
Bitcoin Volatility.

Blockchain technology, in general, is not perfect. There are issues with scalability; there’s certainly the issue of privacy (as wallets on blockchains like Bitcoin are publicly viewable). As we move towards mass adoption, along with clear government regulations and an increase in institutional support, market stability may be the new defining characteristic of cryptocurrencies. and an increase in institutional support, market stability may be the new defining characteristic of cryptocurrencies.

Signs of an increase in market stability have already started to reveal themselves with major tech giants like Facebook and Wells Fargo formally entering the crypto space. Stablecoins are already plenty in numbers and widely popular. Many would agree that this is the natural course in the life-cycle of cryptocurrencies, and market stability is inevitable.

#4 Cryptocurrencies & The Internet of Things Will Converge

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been another relatively young technology with its fair share of hype and interest. However, it’s maintained an edge over cryptocurrencies, with more adoption and more prominent real-world use cases. The technology can be found in all spaces - from sensors and analyzers in industrial environments, to refrigerators and smart bulbs in our homes. According to McKinsey, the economic impact of the IoT sector could touch $11.1 trillion by 2025.

Moving forward, cryptocurrencies and IoT may exhibit a close relationship for the  following reasons:

• Cryptocurrencies may become the default currency for IoT devices to execute their processes: Your refrigerator, for example, may automatically order milk when you run out. And it may choose to do this via cryptocurrencies stored in a smart contract, designed to execute when certain conditions are met. This would be more efficient and safer than integrating payment gateways and adding our cards to the system.
• Blockchains are a logical integration for IoT devices: IoT devices will generate humongous volumes of data - from financial transactions to every piece of communication, logs, and more. Blockchains are well-positioned to be the storehouse of all such information, readily accessible and immutable. Cryptocurrencies should logically come in as these integrations evolve.
• Micro transactions make IoT a testbed for crypto: IoT devices will primarily work by engaging in microtransactions. Your electric car may pay charging points for energy by itself. Your refrigerator would need to pay for milk, as we just discussed. As machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions continue to rise (modest estimates suggest a $26 billion market by 2025), IoT could become the testbed for crypto’s eventual mainstream adoption in regular point of sales gateways and devices.
  

#5 Potential For Alternatives to Crypto?

Blockchain tech is growing at a rapid phase, and there might be an off-chance that something new and exciting could potentially be in the works ten years from now. But fantasies and dreams aside, it is possible that blockchain undergoes significant evolution as communities of developers work to improve the technology

Already, Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) is being hailed by some as the successor to the blockchain. It is perceived to have solutions to blockchain’s significant shortcomings - featuring faster transactions, no requirement for mining, and more. We already see more than a few call them the future of the blockchain.
Moving forward, there may even be attempts to combine different ideas to offer consumers a superior alternative than what we can theorize. Only time can tell.

There are several other fascinating blockchain applications like truly immutable ID systems that promise to eliminate identity theft and even blockchain voting that should, in theory, reduce voter fraud. The possibilities are endless, and 2030 looks beyond exciting when seen from this perspective.

It’s 2020. There’s more than a wide variety of choices available for businesses looking to automate and simplify their account processes. Simultaneously, businesses are almost as lost as they used to be on this front. Why is that? With such a plethora of options available, it’s easy to either end up with substandard accounting software for your business or pick one that you don’t fully understand. Both of these scenarios are, of course, less than ideal, and cost your business real money. In the long term, you’re likely to regret not evaluating other options to pick the best account software for yourself.

Quality accounting software not only simplifies processes, but it also liberates you to focus on other important aspects of your business. Not all business owners (especially small businesses) have an in-depth understanding of accounts and may need the intuitive features present in some accounting software suites which may not be available in the others. In fact, according to the Small Business Report on Accounting, a surprising 60% of small business owners feel like they may not have adequate knowledge of finance and accounting. To avoid overwhelming you with accounting and financial decisions, we had previously shared a list of things that you need to set up, check it out! Without any further ado, let’s check the top 5 best accounting software which may be the perfect fit for your business. Please note, this list is not in any particular order.

#1 Intuit’s Quickbooks

Quickbooks is one of the most popular accounting software available for your business. It offers a wide variety of tools that your business can benefit from.

• The user interface is intuitive, and easy to use and supports hundreds of extensions and integrations.
• This is quite alluring to use for many small and mid-sized enterprises, however, it is essential to keep in mind that there have been complaints about frequent crashes/instabilities.
• Some users have found the support a bit lax, and file size limitations may be a deal-breaker for some organisations.
  
• Pricing: Quickbooks starts at USD 15 a month for its starter plan, which lacks essential features such as insights & reports. Those features are made available in its Plus plan at 31 USD 31 a month. Pricing is often discounted and may be lower at the time of reading.
  

#2 Zoho Books

Zoho is known for the depth it offers in tracking and maintaining financial records. Though Zoho is not an organisation that specialises in finance, as some of the other entries on this list, it remains a good choice as accounting software for your enterprise.

• It can provide almost anything that an SME may ask for, with a pleasing interface, automated workflows, reporting tags, and good room for customizability.
• The lack of Payroll integration had been the primary drawback that stood out when using Zoho Books, though this seems to have been remedied by the launch of Zoho Payroll.

Pricing: Zoho Books starts at USD 9 a month per organisation for its basic plan that accommodates two users and 50 contacts. Higher tier plans are available for USD 9 and UDS 19 per month, featuring more contacts, user accounts, and additional features. Prices are significantly cheaper for users in Zoho’s home country - India.

#3 Xero

Xero is arguably a household name in the field of accounting software. With easy to use dashboards and tools, Xero seems to have been designed with convenience in mind.

• It features some quality reconciliation tools, making it one of the best accounting software available in the market for your small business.
• Like Deskera (more on it, below), Xero is also intended for usage specifically by small businesses, understanding exactly what these businesses require.
• However, the chat and phone support for customers have been found lacking by the users, and the mobile app leaves much to be desired.

Pricing: Xero starts at USD 20 a month, but only allows up to 5 invoices in its basic plan. For unlimited invoices, bills, quotes and a generally unrestricted subscription, plans are available for USD 30 a month and USD 40 a month.

#4 Deskera

The Deskera accounting product Deskera Books is built specifically for small and micro enterprises, making this the best bet available in the market if you’re looking for accounting software. Deskera Books offer everything from tools for compliance to reporting/analysis tools which is essential for your business.

• It’s extremely easy to use and takes pride in its efficient 24/7 live support offered to all of its customers.
• On top of the easy-to-use interface, Deskera offers in-depth training on a variety of tools, ensuring that you truly get everything you possibly can from this software.

Pricing is the best part - the basic plan is absolutely free of cost. And you can try any of the upgraded plans free to truly verify that Deskera is the right choice for your business.

#5 Sage

Sage offers some fairly sophisticated tools to stand out in this market. It also offers one the best inventory management systems, making it a choice worthy of consideration if your business’ prime pain point is inventory management.

• However, the trade-off comes in the form of a clunky interface and a difficult user experience.
• There is no centralised dashboard, which may be a deal-breaker for most SMEs.
• Simple tasks like duplication of invoices are difficult to perform, making this one of the less-than-ideal software if you’re looking for anything other than inventory management

Pricing: Sage starts at USD 10 a month, with higher tier plans available for USD 25 a month, featuring real-time reports, estimates, cash flow statements and more.

So What Do You Think?

These are our top picks for the best accounting software that your business can make use of to ensure that your enterprise runs into no trouble when it comes to accounting and compliance. Did you find the tool which you were looking for? Which was your preference, and which didn’t suit your needs? What’s your experience? We’d love to know your thoughts, your valuable feedback and suggestions through our socials! Do make sure to subscribe to our email list for more such illustrative articles on everything there is to know on SME articles.

Inventory, of course, refers to the materials, work-in-progress goods, and final goods that enterprises sell to generate revenue. Unsurprisingly then, many would agree, inventory is a business’ most important asset. No inventory equates to no business, and it is not adequate to just procure it, it is essential to keep a track of it in order to run an efficient and profitable business. In fact, according to the US Small Business Administration, poor inventory management is one of the top reasons why businesses fail. According to a report by GT Nexus, 81% of consumers experienced an “out-of-stock” situation in the past 12 months, resulting in lost sales for retailers and lots of disappointment for in-store shoppers. Globally, retailers recorded losses of a whopping $1.75 trillion due to mismanaged inventory. It’s why inventory management software has become an essential tool for business owners to run and manage their businesses successfully.

An Inventory Management Software helps you manage and monitor your business’s inventory through business applications that track, manage, and organise sales of products, purchase of materials, and other processes involved in production. The right tool ensures that everything is digitized with the use of systems based on barcodes or radio-frequency identification (RFID). All this so businesses can track shipments and movement of goods, raw materials locations, and shipping.

Navigating and finding the best inventory management software that suits the nature and needs of your business can be exhausting and cumbersome, and with the wide range of inventory software available, it can be extremely confusing. Here are our top picks for the 5 Best Inventory Software for 2020:

Zoho Inventory

Zoho Inventory is a cloud-based inventory and warehouse management system for small and medium sized businesses. It helps you create and manage both the sales and the purchase orders for your business, and effectively track and manage the inventory. Unique services aid in managing workflow, selecting and managing shipping providers for orders, etc.The wide array of features on Zoho Inventory include:

• Creation of inventory reports,
• Invoicing and billing,
• Calculation of real-time shipping rates and printing labels,
• CRM software, and
• Support for multiple store integrations.

It also provides multi-channel support for Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Shopify, with setup assistance. There’s Android and iOS support - although the apps do seem to have room for improvement. There’s a dropshipping option as well, while the tool remains tightly integrated with other apps in the suite and for more than 40 shipping carriers.

Cin7

Founded in 2012 as a tech startup with 12 employees, Cin7 has grown to become a brand that offers a fully integrated, cloud-based inventory management software and Point of Sale (POS) systems. These streamline stock management across multiple channels, helping centralise business inventory, order workflows, stock locations and sales channels in a single solution that connects it to its customers all across the globe.
Cin7 provides solutions that enable easy and hassle-free syncing of online sales channels, Point of Sale systems, and third party integrations which provide a comprehensive inventory interface. Other features include:

• Flexible inventory methods,
• Integrations for WooCommerce, Magento, Amazon, eBay, etc.,
• Higher stock visibility,
• Mobile stocktaking,
• Single click accounting synchronisation,

and many more features that ensure smooth and fast inventory management for businesses of all sizes and scale.

NetSuite

NetSuite, acquired by Oracle in 2016, provides all-in-one business solutions that aid businesses with inventory management, accounting and marketing. The objective seems to be to offer inventory management solutions for businesses of all scales. NetSuite strives to do this by providing a cloud-based system that brings together back-office and financial processes on a single dashboard.

The software has a wide range of features to ensure smooth functionality and effective tracking, including

• Multilingual support,
• Revenue recognition,
• Retail inventory management,
• Multi-warehouse support,
• Supply chain management, and
• Integrated POS.

Additionally, it provides global support, is fully responsive, and has support for multiple currencies.

Deskera

Deskera, founded in 2008, is the leading cloud software provider across the globe. Deskera Books helps individuals and organisations achieve end-to-end view across their business, manage and optimise business operations and resources, improve operational efficiency and much more. Deskera’s inventory management suite aims at providing and delivering the most relevant and efficient solutions to meet industry-specific requirements and challenges faced by businesses of every scale, every day.

When it comes to inventory management Deskera inventory software can track all your products, services and warehouses all in one place. Deskera offers a number of unique features such as:

• Deskera Inventory helps you manage both Tracked and Non-Tracked products.Tracked products are the Tangible- physical items that have a quantifiable amount like clothes, accessories etc and Non Tracked products are intangible items such as alteration, cleaning or set-up services.
• Unlimited Products. There’s no limit to your online inventory.Choose which you want to keep active and which you want to keep inactive.
• Customizable fields including Barcodes
  Every product and field description can be unique or the same.You can do a lot with product descriptions inclusive of adding Barcodes to each product.
• Deskera’s cloud-based warehouse inventory system allows you to access time critical information, from anywhere in the world.The real time data helps you in better warehouse planning and accurate demand forecasting with real-time data.
• Deskera offers the additional Pick pack ship functionality
• Deskera has the back Order functionality which allows your customers to purchase items even if you don’t have enough inventory and never lose an opportunity to sell.

To put it simply - Deskera ensures that your inventory is in the best of health and reduces extra and unnecessary expenditure.

Fishbowl

Fishbowl is another popular inventory management software that may be a good fit for growing brands and businesses. Its integration with Quickbooks is a useful plus for effective inventory management. Its processes are focussed on the automation of inventory, while it enables users to create and share work orders for a wide range of tasks.

Some key features from Fishbowl include:

• Multi-channel syncing,
• Forecasting,
• A centralised inventory database,
• Help with data exporting and importing,
• Stock history reporting, and
• Inventory costing.

It also helps with shipment integration, multi-warehouse routing, barcode support, making it ideal for emerging businesses and brands who want to grow their businesses and eliminate extra costs.

To sum up

Inventory management helps you keep a watchful eye on your inventory, and crucial for a successful business. These were our top 5 picks for the Best Inventory Management Software for 2020. As is fairly obvious by now, inventory management software assists in significantly reducing the time and effort that goes into basic but essential tracking. It also assists in rectifying inefficiencies by way of sharp analysis. In 2020, if you’re not relying on quality inventory software, your business is certainly losing a significant competitive edge.

Customer Relationship Management for small businesses is as important as the business itself. This is especially true in a world where ‘customer is king’, and engaging in regular interactions with them is crucial for any small business to grow and expand. This is where CRM software works as a handy tool.

A Customer Relationship Management Software allows small businesses to manage customer interactions and customer data in an easy and simplified manner. With 86% customers likely to pay more for a better customer experience, businesses that rely on quality CRMs are far more likely to succeed in the long-term.

There are three major advantages of using a CRM for small businesses:

• First, it helps with contact organisation, which aids your growing business in giving a clear overview of your contacts, enabling you to run sales processes fluently.
• Second, through sales reporting, a CRM software helps you keep an overview of performance through different metrics such as calls made, which is ideal for managing a sales pipeline.
• Finally, it helps you to categorize your customers into various segments for personalising their experiences and building a better relationship with them.
  

Finding the best CRM software for your small business can be exhausting, especially due to the wide range of options available. Naturally, it follows that choosing the one that suits your business needs and requirements can be daunting. The nature of your small business might be a major factor in determining the CRM you’ll choose, however, these are the three categories in which we have classified our top 15 CRM picks:

Best CRM for Funnel Management

A sales funnel depicts the ideal path that businesses hope buyers take to become customers. The traditional sales funnel has stages such as awareness, interest, desire, and action. However, as customer relationships get more dynamic and complex, specialized CRM software can aid businesses in managing their sales funnels effectively with consistent tracking, and come up with solutions that nurture every part of it. If this is a priority for you, here are our recommendations:

Freshsales

Freshsales CRM enables small businesses to automatically capture website visitors as sales leads and group them according to their engagement on websites.

• You can further assign them to the most appropriate salesperson on your team and thus, reach out to each individual with complete context and track each deal by personalized pipelines.
  
  It’s an intuitive interface executed with the right intent - culminating in a pleasing user experience.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a user-friendly CRM specifically designed to be fast and simple. This doesn’t mean it isn’t feature-packed though.

• Its features include mobile alerts and email reminders, easy integration with Google applications, Trello, Zapier, etc.and email templates.
• Additionally, it also provides sales forecasting and trend analysis, backups and encryption to keep data secure, drag and drop tasks as customers follow the sales funnel.
  

SalesForce

SalesForce is another popular CRM widely used by businesses.

• For small businesses, SalesForce offers a basic edition called Lightning Essential. This provides users with an advanced contact manager that includes features like email integration and follow-up reminders.
• Additionally, it also includes options for integrations with other applications and customisation.

Drip

Drip is excellent for small businesses, particularly ecommerce setups.

• It packs in a powerful and feature-rich interface that is very easy and simple to use for any business, though if you’re not an ecommerce store you’d probably want to steer clear of its customisations.
  
• Popular features include easy email list segmentation, content customisation, automatic revenue attribution, and eCommerce user tracking.

Deskera Sales -  CRM software for Small Businesses

Deskera Sales is a Customer Relationship Management Software provides businesses with a single view of their customers, assists in the automation of critical sales processes ranging from leads qualification to promotional campaigns, and enables the key decision makers to implement customer-centric strategies easily and ensure effective sales management.

• Deskera’s CRM campaigns help in running and managing campaigns, administer email marketing campaigns, and exporting campaign lists in multiple formats.
  
• The tool also aids in searching, tracking and converting leads and defining lead activities by using Deskera’s Lead Capture Forms.

In short - Deskera CRM helps small businesses delight their customers with exceptional and personalised experiences, and enables them to sell more.

Best CRMs for Marketing Management

Marketing Management is an important function provided by several CRMs. Small businesses often struggle with targeted marketing, and some CRMs enable them to manage their marketing plans, campaigns, and sales effectively, in a hassle-free and convenient manner. Here’s our pick of the best CRMs from this perspective:

Zoho

Zoho offers various editions that can be used to meet the CRM needs of small businesses.

• It offers a range of sales and marketing features, and also enables users to track website visitors.
• Additionally, there’s lead scoring, sales signals with pop up notifications about leads, and much more.
• It also provides the option to integrate with other marketing tools and has built-in security measures to keep your data safe.

Hubspot

Hubspot is fairly popular among small businesses due to the free version it offers, which includes all the basic features provided by most CRMs.

• It allows small businesses to keep a track of important activities, including contact and company profiles, assigning and tracking of deals, and management of data in a detailed dashboard.
• The dashboard is visible to all team members, with a detailed view of overall team activities and filters to gleam through the data.
  

As a bonus, it can even be integrated with popular apps such as SalesForce and Shopify, allowing seamless data exchange between your marketing and sales teams.

NetSuite CRM

NetSuite is a powerful CRM designed to cater to the needs of small businesses across various industries such as manufacturing, retail, and wholesale distribution.

• While it arguably features a dated interface when compared to the competition, it does offer a real time, overall view of all customer interactions.
  
• This includes customer service management, marketing automation, and partner relationship management.

EnagageBay

EngageBay offers an all-in-one marketing and sales CRM solution.

• It packs in features for sales management, lead generation, email marketing, and marketing automation, all within a single package.
  
• These ensure effective marketing campaigns that are easy to design, implement and track.
  
• A social media management feature is available as well, fairly useful for small businesses to reach out to their potential customers.
  

Nimble

Nimble CRM is an excellent tool for small businesses that want to combine contacts, emails, and social media interactions in one, consolidated place.

• Its user-friendly interface is easy to navigate and provides to-do lists, shows top or key deals, and a ‘rules engine’.
  
• This rules engine assists in predicting relevant contacts and activities based on user behaviour.

Best CRMs for Workflow Management

Workflow Management using CRMs allows users to automate simple and complicated business processes. Workflow processes run in the background or in real-time and can sometimes require user input. If business process automation is a priority, consider these options:

Salesmate

Salesmate enables small businesses to speed up sales processes and offers customers a personalised experience.

• Contacts can be managed effectively and all sales related activity can be easily tracked.
• While this is an offer most CRMs would make, Salesmate is also great for executing email campaigns and tracking them to measure their effectiveness.
• Its built-in phone functionality is an added convenience.
  

In other words, it provides small businesses with flexibility and scalability.

Capsule CRM

Launched in 2008, and has become quite popular in recent years.

• Its ease of use is among the key features that enable small businesses to track both relationships and sales pipelines.
  
• Available on desktops and mobile, with a user interface that is broken down into five major sections (dashboard, people and organisations, sales pipeline, calendars, and cases).
  
• Capsule allows up to 2 users on its free offering.

Streak

Streak is an excellent CRM for Gmail enthusiasts as it is technically a browser plug-in, and works great for smaller teams. These teams can work directly out of their Gmail inbox.

• The integrations allow for easy tracking of views, sending out bulk emails, separate email threads, and scheduling emails.
  
• If you’re looking for more intensive functionality, you may want to consider other options. But if power email usage is a priority, this may be by far your best bet.

ConvergeHub

ConvergeHub is a cloud-based CRM that works very well for small businesses. This is primarily because they don’t have to deal with multiple repositories and have one central platform.

• It also enables users to organise campaigns, store contact lists, and manage all sales activities.
  
• With a dated interface and no particular USP however, many users may want to give it a pass in favour of more compelling alternatives.

SugarCRM

SugarCRM provides a special solution for small businesses - called Sugar Professional.

• This platform offers customer experience solutions to help create a simple but consistent experience.
  
• It is customisable and can be modified according to the needs of the business and different customers for optimal engagement.
  

It claims a user base of over 2 million, including clients such as IBM and Audi.

Have you made your pick yet?

These are our top picks for the Best CRM Software for Small Businesses for 2020. CRM software allows small businesses to effectively manage customer interaction and customer data and helps them in accessing essential business information that is crucial for maintaining customer relationships in the long run.

Of course, depending on your preference, you may stick to one category of tools when making your decision. When seeking to pick the best CRM for your small business, go for one that focuses on the most critical aspects of business you want it to improve.

India has seen an upsurge in internet usage in the last few years, driven by mobile internet users. With the lowest data rates in the world (1 GB for ~$0.25), Indians are using the internet like never before, and of course they are using Google for their searches.

India has over 1.3 Billion people. With an estimated 50% internet penetration, the number of internet users in India is more than the population of US, UK and Canada, put together!

So, what do 650 million people from India search for on Google? Is it markedly different from the rest of the world? Or is it similar to global trends?

We decided to dive in and answer these questions. And here are the results.

Note: The ones in asterisks (******) are #nsfw, so we wont be showing those keywords here.

The top results match global trends (in this excellent post at the Ahrefs blog), with brand searches dominating the list. However, in addition to the global super-brands like Google, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook and Whats App, we see Indian brands and government sites dominating the list.

Key observations from the analysis of the 150 Google search terms for India

So, what else can these top Google search terms tell us about India? Let's take a look.

1. Swiggy has more searches (~2.3 mn) than any other food delivery services
2. Government jobs are in great demand. 'sarkariresult' and related keywords have over 20 mn searches
3. The top Indian travel website (makemytrip.com) is at #59 with ~3.7 mn searches, whereas the top Indian entertainment website Hotstar is at #10
4. Most Indians travel by train (no surprises there) due to the country's vast and accessible train network
5. Unlike US or the World searches, where "weather" ranks in top searches, Indians don't rely as much on Google for checking if they should be carrying an umbrella. Compared to the US where 'weather' is #6 with ~43 mn searches, Indians only googled 'weather' ~2.9 mn times and comes in at #92
6. No matter where you are, internet speed has a similar ranking in our mind. In US, India and the World, the search term 'speedtest' is in the top 50 searches, with India being the highest at #34
7. When it comes to cricket, more than 23 mn searches put 'cricbuzz' as the leader, followed by 'cricinfo' at ~3.9 mn searches
8. Most people are in a hurry to visit google.com. Around ~4.5 mn searches for the letter 'g' is a testament to that. Thankfully Google knows what you are looking for :). (psst.. the address bar can be used for Google search on most browsers)

How we got these numbers

We used  Google Analytics and Ahrefs to get this information. The rest is just excel. The inspiration for this was the blog post from Ahrefs for top searches in the US and the World. We thought it would be interesting to view the searches from an Indian perspective and see what we can find.

Please don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter if you are interested in more such posts.

The brutal killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis is one of the most unfortunate incidents that happened this year. Thousands of people all over the nation are showing their support for the Black community in fight against racism.

George Floyd’s death has brought forth the issue of racism once again, and like everybody else, the tech community is deeply saddened by this event. Tech leaders from all over the world are talking about George Floyd’s death and how they are against racism.

All tech leaders have been releasing their statements after the unfortunate event of George Floyd’s death. The big question is if the big tech companies will walk the talk? Only statements will not work here, but we need strong anti-racism policies to be implemented and followed by all tech companies.

Otherwise, these statements which are publicized on Social Media will earn tech leaders good PR, but nothing will ever change. We will all forget about George Floyd and racism in our day-to-day activities, and all these words of anti-racism will be forgotten.

Leaders from the Tech Industry have released similar statements before as well about racism and police killings of unarmed Black people, and this is not a one-off incident. If we are not careful enough or sincere enough in our approach, these incidents might become a norm.

When Michael Brown’s died due to racism way back in 2014, only a few tech leaders shared their thoughts, and most of the big tech giants then did not release any statement. Here are some tweets posted by tech leaders tweeted previously for Michael Brown’s death.

CEO Tim Cook shared a tweet posted on the day of Michael Brown’s death in 2014.

In 2014, Jack Dorsey, the then Twitter’s executive chairman and not yet its CEO, also participated in the protest and tweeted at that time.

Now hundreds of eminent personalities in the tech industry around the world are talking about George Floyd’s death and anti-racism. This shows that the tech industry has changed a lot in the past few years. All tech leaders are talking about changing policies in their companies to eliminate racism. They will be implementing stricter policies to eradicate racism.

Over the years, tech companies are making progress, but this is not enough. Today if you see the board of directors of any major tech company, they are all lacking racial diversity. We need more racial diversity in senior management.

Since the death of George Floyd, many leaders from the biggest tech companies have made public statements expressing solidarity with Black communities. Many tech companies have also donated millions of dollars to fight racial injustice.

This is not the first time the tech industry has responded to racism and the brutal killing of a black person. But, this time, more and more tech leaders are coming to the forefront and supporting the fight against racism.

Here we have listed some tweets by big tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, etc. which are being publicized on social media.

TWITTER

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted a tweet “police policy reform now” on twitter.

“Amid the already growing fear and uncertainty around the pandemic, this week has again brought attention to something perhaps more pervasive: the long-standing racism and injustices faced by Black and Brown people on a daily basis.” posted by Twitter’s @TwitterTogether account.

On June 13th, @TwitterForGood posted, “We’re committed to continuing our support for #BlackLivesMatter and organizations fighting for racial equality and justice. We’re donating directly to organizations and maximizing the many contributions of our employees in order to more concretely support the movement.”

APPLE

Tim Cook, the Apple CEO, has announced $100 million for Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. "The unfinished work of racial justice and equality call us all to account. Things must change, and Apple's committed to being a force for that change. Today, I'm proud to announce Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, with a $100 million commitment.” Tim Cook said on Twitter.

Cook also published an open letter on the Apple website. In this open letter “Speaking upon racism,” published on June 4th, Tim Cook made several promises:

“We commit to continuing our work to bring critical resources and technology to underserved school systems. We commit to continuing to fight the forces of environmental injustice — like climate change — which disproportionately harm Black communities and other communities of color. We commit to looking inward and pushing progress forward on inclusion and diversity so that every great idea can be heard. And we’re donating to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative, which challenge racial injustice and mass incarceration.”

AMAZON

Amazon published a blog post on June 3rd. In this post, Amazon has also committed to donating “a total of $10 million to organizations that are working to bring about social justice and improve the lives of Black and African Americans.”

“Black lives matter. We stand in solidarity with our Black employees, customers, and partners, and are committed to helping build a country and a world where everyone can live with dignity and free from fear.” reads a blog post published by Amazon on June 3rd.

Here is Amazon’s tweet supporting the Black community.

FACEBOOK

Mark Zuckerberg pledged his support to the Black Lives Matter movement in his note published on his Facebook page. “To members of our Black community: I stand with you. Your lives matter. Black lives matter,” he said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also committed to giving “additional $10 million to groups working on racial justice,” said Mark Zuckerberg in his Facebook post on May 31st.

He also mentioned in his post that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has invested “$40 million annually for several years in organizations working to overcome racial injustice.”

GOOGLE

Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO, also tweeted on May 31st, “Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who don’t have a voice. For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to all Google employees titled “Standing with the Black community,”

Quoting from email

“We’ll be giving $12 million in funding to organizations working to address racial inequities. Our first grants of $1 million each will go to our long-term partners at the Center for Policing Equity and the Equal Justice Initiative. And we’ll be providing technical support through our Google.org Fellows program. This builds on the $32 million we have donated to racial justice over the past five years. We’ll also offer $25 million in Ad Grants to help organizations fighting racial injustice provide critical information.”

“As a result of last week’s internal giving campaign, I‘m pleased to share that you all have contributed an additional $2.5 million in donations that we’re matching. This represents the largest Googler giving campaign in our company’s history, with both the largest amount raised by employees and the broadest participation.”

YouTube will also launch a $100 million fund “dedicated to amplifying and developing the voices of Black creators and artists and their stories,” was announced in an official youtube blog on June 11th.

MICROSOFT

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted for the support of the Black and African American community. He has also retweeted many tweets from Black Microsoft employees shared on Microsoft’s official Twitter account.

Microsoft has also donated $250,000 each to six organizations- Black Lives Matter Foundation, Minnesota Freedom Fund, Equal Justice Initiative, Innocence Project, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and The Leadership Conference.

Related Article-Salesforce appoints Tony Prophet as first Chief Equality Officer

The gaming world is abuzz with the announcement of PS5 by Sony. The internet is exploding with reactions to the new design. The frenzy won't die out soon, (there are over 4000 retweets on #ps5 every hour - courtesy ritetag.com). At the end of the day, though, the success or failure of the new console will be determined by the availability of games and titles, and whether they can provide a great gaming experience.

Twitter Can't Get Enough of Sony PS5

The PS4 had some great games, including exclusive titles like Spiderman, Horizon Zero Dawn, and God Of War, along with AAA games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto. Unsurprisingly, the PS4 sold over 110 million units worldwide, more than double the number of X Box One's 46.9 million units. As with PS4, Sony is betting on a combination of exclusive titles and AAA games to drive sales for PS5. So let us take a look at some of the top games you can expect on Sony PS5 shortly.

Horizon: Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West is an upcoming action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and is the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn. The original game, set in a post-apocalyptic world, was praised for its gameplay, graphics, storyline, and diversity of characters.

Horizon Zero Dawn was an exclusive for PS4 and had great reviews. We may see the sequel as one of the flagship launch games, designed to utilize the hardware upgrades and show the true capability of the new PS5.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an exclusive action-adventure title from Insomniac Games. It is a standalone spinoff to 2018's massively popular Marvel's Spider-Man, another exclusive. Expect the fireworks from this as one of the flagship launch titles.

GhostWire: Tokyo

From Shinji Mikami and the team at Tango Gameworks comes Ghostwire: Tokyo, a next-gen action-adventure game coming to consoles exclusively for PlayStation 5 in 2021.

Hitman III

Hitman III is an upcoming stealth game developed and published by IO Interactive. Though not an exclusive, it is a popular AAA title with a huge fan following.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Another exclusive from Insomniac Games is from the classic PlayStation series Ratchet & Clank.

Demon's Souls

Originally developed exclusively for PS3 in 2009 under the same name, Demon Souls is an action role playing game with dragons and heroes and demons in the kingdom of Boletaria.

Resident Evil 8

Another classic series with a huge fan following. Known traditionally for building games that push the existing hardware, it will be interesting to see what we get.

Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online

Of course there will be GTA. We wouldn't have it otherwise! The Rockstar Games series is one of those titles that are a must have for any platform.

Returnal

A game based on infinite time loops, Returnal as a concept sounds great. We will have to wait though for a release date for the exclusive offering from Housemarque.

NBA 2K21

Another AAA series with a huge fan following. Though not exclusives, the titles from the NBA series are always well received.

Project Athia

From the makers of Final Fantasy XV comes Project Athia, a gorgeous looking game. Another exclusive game for Sony PS5.

DEATHLOOP

A first person shooter game, with a protagonist stuck in a time loop, will debut on PS5 and Windows. The stylish looking game was initially announced by Bethesda, but is now being developed by Arkane (the folks behind 'Dishonored').

Gran Turismo 7

Rounding off this list is another exclusive - Gran Turismo 7. A popular series since 1997, Gran Turismo has sold 85 million units worldwide, making it the biggest-selling franchise under the PlayStation brand.

Wrapping it Up

In addition to the above list, picked by our editorial team, there are other promising titles being announced. While early glitches will be expected (we know how it goes), the roster for Sony PS5 looks promising. Now if we only knew how much it is gonna cost!

Sony has finally revealed the PlayStation 5 console during the online PS5 announcement event. This gave gaming fans a chance to see Sony’s next-gen console and games.

Game enthusiasts can expect the launch of the PS5 during the holiday season in 2020. Playstation fans everywhere were waiting for this event for a long time. According to the gaming experts, PS5 is huge, and we might be looking at the next-generation consoles that are more vertically inclined than their previous counterparts. Gaming fans are also claiming that the wait was worth it.

SONY PS5 Looks Revealed

In the PS5 event, Sony has unveiled a very stylish new Playstation 5 console that seems inspired by a sci-fi movie. Sony has changed the traditional carbon black color scheme to clean arctic white casing with blue accent lights. Gamers are going ga-ga over the looks of PS5. The pictures are everywhere on the Internet. However, there are few who are not so impressed as well and went to twitter with their views on the design and the colour scheme.

Sony shared in the event that the Playstation 5 console will be available in two versions. They came up with a new digital version along with the standard version with a Blu-ray drive. Gaming fans are still unclear about the pricing for the Playstation 5 as Sony hasn’t revealed the price yet.

Fans are guessing that the digital edition may be slightly cheaper due to the missing Blu-ray drive. For gamers who love using their PS4, the standard version will be with the blue-ray drive.

Everything you need to know about PS5:

• Sony said that they would release PS5 during “Holiday 2020” in the US.
• The PS5 is the next-gen PlayStation console, which will replace the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro version.
• Gamers will be able to play PS4 games on the PS5.
• Yes, PS5 will have VR, and it will be compatible with PSVR hardware.
• Sony has not revealed the cost yet, but we can expect the PS5 will cost more than PS4, but gaming experts have suggested it around $499.
• PS5 has lots of games, which include a new Spider-Man entry, a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel, a Demon’s Souls remake, and Evil 8.

Sony Revealed PS5 Games During The PS5 Event

This is the most exciting part and game enthusiasts have been discussing it for a long time now. Sony shared the titles of third-party games that fans can expect to play on the PlayStation 5. Gameplay footage was not shown during the event. All games were shown off on the PS5 through in-engine trailers to show off the impressive visuals.

Sony unveiled the full list of games below:

• Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced (Release Date: 2021)
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Release Date: 2020)
• Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Release Date: 2020)
• Returnal (Release Date: TBD)
• Gran Turismo 7 (Release Date: TBD)
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Release Date: TBD)
• Project Athia (Release Date: TBD)
• Stray (Release Date: 2021)
• Oddworld: Soulstorm (Release Date: 2020)
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure (Release Date: 2020)
• Solar Ash (Release Date: 2021)
• GhostWire Tokyo (Release Date: 2021)
• Godfall (Release Date: 2020)
• Hitman III (Release Date: 2021)
• Pragmata (Release Date: 2022)
• Astro Bot (Release Date: TBD)
• Little Devil Inside (Release Date: 2020)
• NBA 2K21 (Release Date: 2020)
• Bugsnax (Release Date: 2020)
• Horizon: Forbidden West (Release Date: TBD)
• Deathloop (Release Date: 2020)
• Resident Evil: Village (Release Date: 2021)

The Internet’s Reactions to Playstation5

The Internet has mixed reactions for PS5 some of which are really funny.

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Zoom Video Communications Inc. admitted that on the request of China, it deactivated accounts of pro-democracy Chinese human rights activists based in the US. This proves that China is censoring content globally.

Zoom admitted this incident in their official blog. In the blog post, Zoom mentioned that Chinese officials reached out to Zoom in May and June about four significant video conference calls, which were trending on Social Media. These video conferences were to pay tribute to the Tiananmen Square incident.

Zoom quoted - “In May and early June, we were notified by the Chinese government about four large, public June 4th commemoration meetings on Zoom that were being publicized on social media, including meeting details. The Chinese government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and demanded that Zoom terminate the meetings and host accounts.”

Zoom mentioned that China asked Zoom to terminate the video conference calls and deactivate host accounts because of the activity, which is deemed illegal.

“For the fourth situation, the Chinese Government showed us a social media invitation for an upcoming meeting referencing a June 4 commemoration event and demanded we take action. The Chinese authorities also notified us of a prior meeting under this account that they considered to be illegal. A US-based Zoom team confirmed the attendance of mainland China participants in that prior meeting.”

As per Zoom, the Chinese officials demanded Zoom to take action, but Zoom kept one of the four meetings undisturbed as there were no participants from Mainland China.

"For one of the meetings, even though the Chinese authorities demanded we take action, we chose to keep the meeting undisturbed because it did not have any participants from mainland China."

Zoom said in the blog that three of the four meetings had participants from mainland China and Zoom terminated three meetings and deactivated host accounts. Two activists belonged to the US and one from Hong Kong.

“Going forward, Zoom will not allow requests from the Chinese government to impact anyone outside of mainland China,” the company said in the blog post.

Zoom announced on Wednesday that it had activated the deactivated activist Zoom accounts. Zoom also mentioned that they are building technology to prevent participants from connecting from specific countries to join video conferencing calls, which were deemed illegal in those countries. The company will release a new policy on June 30.

It is clear now than Zoom shut down the accounts of human rights activists based in the US and in Hong Kong due to the Chinese government pressure.

One of the activist Zhou Fengsuo, a Chinese based in the US, found his zoom account deactivated after he had hosted a memorial for the Tiananmen crackdown.

Another a pro-democracy campaigner, Lee Cheuk-Yan’s account, was also deactivated just before hosting an event. Lee Cheuk-Yan organizes a yearly Tiananmen vigil. He found out that his account was shut down just before hosting an event on an extradition law, which caused mass anti-government protests last year.

Quoting an article from The Guardian,

Lee said Zoom’s response was “shameful” and accused it of “political censorship”. “They have restored my account but Zoom continues to kneel before the Communist party,” he said.

“My purpose on opening Zoom is to reach out to mainland Chinese, breaking the censorship of the Chinese Communist party. With this policy it defeats my original purpose.” He said he had closed his zoom account and requested a refund.

Wang Dan, another activist whose hosted Zoom event on June 3 to pay tribute to Tiananmen crackdown, was shut down twice, said: “The Chinese communist party is actively attacking democracy around the world. They have already started to intervene in the social system and way of life in the US. The whole world should be on alert.”

Wang said Zoom’s statement did not absolve the company from responsibility for infringing on the “rights and interests” of citizens in the US where the company is based. “We will continue to seek the support of the law and public opinion, and ask Zoom to take responsibility for its own wrong behaviour,” he said.

Zoom said that the new measure “will enable us to comply with requests from local authorities when they determine activity on our platform is illegal within their borders”.

“However, we will also be able to protect these conversations for participants outside of those borders where the activity is allowed.”

“We hope that one day, governments who build barriers to disconnect their people from the world and each other will recognize that they are acting against their own interests, as well as the rights of their citizens and all humanity.”

By deactivating and interrupting these calls, Zoom has provoked the world community and forced everyone to think of freedom of speech and censorship by the Chinese Government.

Other U.S.based big tech companies doing business in China have also highlighted this.

Zoom’s actions have forced everyone to think about freedom of thought. Some key officials have also mentioned significant concerns.

US lawmakers and human rights activists have condemned Zoom. US Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, wrote to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan on Thursday.

To Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, Senator Hawley continued, “Trading American values for Beijing profits never ends well. The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of inviting American companies into its borders, only to steal proprietary information and technology and then repurpose that data for its own use. When you censor for the Communist Chinese Party, you may think it benefits you, but the only one who will benefit in the long run is the Chinese Communist Party.” View Full letter here.

Senator Hawkley mentioned in the letter that Zoom is not the first US tech company to censor the content to please China.

“It is time for you to pick a side: American principles and free speech, or short-term global profits and censorship,” he wrote in his letter.

Zoom Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan was born in China, but he is a US citizen. Zoom has a significant investment in China related to the research-and-development workforce.

Beijing has always employed stringent internet controls. They are censoring content and blocking social media sites to control internet activities even beyond its borders to control its citizens and corporations.

Zoom’s full statement:

We hope that one day, governments who build barriers to disconnect their people from the world and each other will recognize that they are acting against their own interests, as well as the rights of their citizens and all humanity. The reality is Zoom operates in more than 80 countries and continues to expand, which requires compliance with local laws even as Zoom seeks to promote the open exchange of ideas.”

Recent articles in the media about adverse actions we took toward Lee Cheuk-yan, Wang Dan, and Zhou Fengsuo have some calling into question our commitment to being a platform for an open exchange of ideas and conversations. To be clear, their accounts have been reinstated, and going forward, we will have a new process for handling similar situations.

We will do better as we strive to make Zoom the most secure and trusted way to bring people together.

Key Facts

• In May and early June, we were notified by the Chinese Government about four large, public June 4th commemoration meetings on Zoom that were being publicized on social media, including meeting details. The Chinese Government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and demanded that Zoom terminate the meetings and host accounts.
• We did not provide any user information or meeting content to the Chinese Government. We do not have a backdoor that allows someone to enter a meeting without being visible.
• For one of the meetings, even though the Chinese authorities demanded we take action, we chose to keep the meeting undisturbed because it did not have any participants from mainland China.
• For two of the four meetings, a U.S.-based Zoom team reviewed the meeting metadata (such as IP addresses) while the meeting was in progress, and confirmed a significant number of mainland China participants.
• For the fourth situation, the Chinese Government showed us a social media invitation for an upcoming meeting referencing a June 4 commemoration event and demanded we take action. The Chinese authorities also notified us of a prior meeting under this account that they considered to be illegal. A U.S.-based Zoom team confirmed the attendance of mainland China participants in that prior meeting.
• Zoom does not currently have the ability to remove specific participants from a meeting or block participants from a certain country from joining a meeting. As such, we made the decision to end three of the four meetings and suspended or terminated the host accounts associated with the three meetings.

How We Fell Short

We strive to limit actions taken to only those necessary to comply with local laws. Our response should not have impacted users outside of mainland China. We made two mistakes:

• We suspended or terminated the host accounts, one in Hong Kong SAR and two in the US We have reinstated these three host accounts.
• We shut down the meetings instead of blocking the participants by country. We currently do not have the capability to block participants by country. We could have anticipated this need. While there would have been significant repercussions, we also could have kept the meetings running.

Actions We’re Taking

• Going forward Zoom will not allow requests from the Chinese Government to impact anyone outside of mainland China.
• Zoom is developing technology over the next several days that will enable us to remove or block at the participant level based on geography. This will enable us to comply with requests from local authorities when they determine activity on our platform is illegal within their borders; however, we will also be able to protect these conversations for participants outside of those borders where the activity is allowed.
• We are improving our global policy to respond to these types of requests. We will outline this policy as part of our transparency report, to be published by June 30, 2020.

In addition to connecting people for business, education, healthcare, and other professional endeavors, during this global pandemic Zoom has become the platform people all over the world are choosing for human connection. Zoom is proud of the role we are playing globally and fully supports the open exchange of ideas and conversations that bring communities together to meet, organize, collaborate, and celebrate.

Related Article-  Zoom sees sales boom amid pandemic