AUSTRALIAN-LISTED cloud technology solution provider JCurve Solutions Ltd. has acquired the business assets of Philippine-based digital marketing company Creative Quest, as part of its expansion efforts in the country and the Southeast Asian region.
“This acquisition aligns with our mission to power business growth across the Southeast Asian region,” JCurve Solutions Chief Executive Officer Stephen Canning said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr. Canning said JCurve’s acquisition of Creative Quest will allow the Australian tech company to provide end-to-end digital solutions for its customers in the country and region “as we secure a proven talented marketing team and portfolio of new customers.”
“We will continue to help local businesses build resilient systems that can withstand market shocks and disruption,” he added.
Creative Quest operates as a full-service marketing agency. Its services include digital advertising, e-mail campaigns, webinars, website builds, social media communications, and video production, among others.
“As we continue to broaden our local teams and customer base in Singapore, Philippines, and the broader Southeast Asia region, I look forward to unlocking more growth opportunities in this new, on-demand digital world,” said Arthur Fernandez, general manager for Asia at JCurve Solutions.
JCurve Solutions entered the Philippine market in 2019. It also has an office in Singapore.
“As part of its expansion, JCurve Solutions is pleased to announce a new partnership with Flash Coffee, the fast-growing tech-enabled coffee chain, to manage the rollout of its latest Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform across Southeast Asia,” the company said.
“Other recent customer wins across the region include two established non-for-profit organizations in Singapore and a leading manufacturing and distribution company in the Philippines,” it added. — Arjay L. Balinbin
GRAB is introducing new measures through the Grab Merchant app to make it more enticing for business owners to join their platform.
In a press conference on May 27, Shashank Kohli, Head of Product, Merchants for Grab, unveiled a series of programs designed to make it easier for small business owners to expand their reach. While the app is available in most of Southeast Asia — it is available across 339 cities in eight countries — these programs will be rolled out to the rest of the region starting this month until the third quarter of this year.
This includes a faster onboarding system, aimed to be shortened to three days from a previous timeframe of two weeks, as well as the ability to sign up to be a merchant right on the app.
Grab is also employing artificial intelligence (AI) to fix poor quality photos. “When it comes to online food delivery, a good food photo can go a long way,” said Mr. Kohli. Part of the AI’s skills include fixing stretched photos, but the engine is currently being trained “to further improve its accuracy.”
Speaking of training, Grab Merchant is also rolling out GrabAcademy, which aims to help business owners raise service level quality and aid in growth through tools such as progress trackers, and content recommendation.
On the operations side, they’ve included such programs as employee profiles, Menu Insights, and Store Status. Employee profiles give differing levels of access to operations: owners can access other outlets, among other features, while managers have partial access, including updating store information, buying ads, supplies, and tracking sales history. Cashier access grants limited access to order and payment features. Menu Insights allows merchants to track busy times, bestsellers, non-sellers, and do things like suggest menu combos (and possible prices). Store Status, meanwhile, allows stores to control traffic: a store that changes modes from Normal to Busy extends the time of arrival for a meal, as well as sending notes to customers about delays. Another option, Pause, means that the store cannot take in more orders, hence a notification on the app for customers that says a store is temporarily unavailable.
“The last thing we want is for consumers to place an order, only to have their orders canceled later on,” said Mr. Kohli of the Pause option. “It also allows us to protect consumer experience at the same time.”
He noted that “Features like this allow us to empower our merchants and give control to them for them to manage their online presence.”
The app also contains tools for merchants to market their businesses: think promotions tools that allow an establishment to create discount or promo campaigns, or jump in on pre-existing Grab offers; banner ads, search ads, and recommended keywords (for more visibility).
Finally, it even anticipates expansion through tools such as the GrabMerchant portal, which allows one to track progress at multiple branches, ease accounting, financial reconciliation, and financial reporting; as well as provide insight when it comes to feedback and ratings, among other features.
“We want to set our merchants up for success: the better our merchants perform, the better it is for our business,” said Mr. Kohli. — Joseph L.Garcia
RAZON-LED Prime Infrastructure Holdings Corp. (Prime Infra) said it has strengthened its presence in the local water market after its Trident Water Co. Holdings Inc. recently acquired a controlling stake in east zone water concessionaire Manila Water Co., Inc.
“The acquisition of a controlling stake in Manila Water, a leading player in the water and wastewater industry in the region, is a major milestone in our efforts to grow our company and capture future demand both in the domestic and international markets,” Prime Infra President Guillaume Lucci said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company said the acquisition of control in Manila Water and its Wawa Bulk Water Supply Project in Rodriguez, Rizal, boosts its presence as the leading bulk water supplier and distribution utility operator in the country.
Further, Prime Infra said its management team will partner with existing Manila Water shareholders to find expansion opportunities in the Philippines and other countries.
“Manila Water, in addition to being the largest publicly-listed water company in the Philippines, also has a presence in four countries overseas, namely: Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the company said.
According to Prime Infra Chairman Enrique K. Razon, Jr., the company is part of a dynamic and fast-growing group of companies that have successfully brought the Filipino brand internationally.
“It is then only a logical move for us to take the leap into becoming a global Filipino water company by focusing on strategic and scalable water businesses, leveraging on our group’s vast network, experience and resources,” Mr. Razon said.
On June 3, Mr. Razon was appointed chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Manila Water. His entry was finalized after the completion of Trident Water’s tender offer.
With the entry of Mr. Razon, Trident Water now has 51% voting interest in Manila Water while its economic stake is at 25%.
Meanwhile, Ayala Corp.’s direct and indirect economic interest in the water concessionaire is at 38.6% while its voting interest is at 31.6%.
Manila Water provides water and wastewater services in the eastern part of Metro Manila, which includes Marikina, Pasig, Taguig, Makati, San Juan, Mandaluyong, and portions of Quezon City and Manila, and Rizal province. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
WE often wonder if the small things we do create any impact for something as large as our planet, if our individual choices really matter so much. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Philippines thinks those choices can change the world, and it starts with one of the most basic human activities: eating.
In a talk on May 28, Sustainable Consumer Specialist for the organization’s Sustainable Diner project Lorayne Roque, along with former Miss Universe and WWF ambassador Pia Wurtzbach, summarized the project’s offerings and offered access to its findings and research. The project has been ongoing since 2017. “We’re working on integrating sustainability principles into food-related national and local policies,” said Ms. Roque. The project’s aims can be distilled into five precepts: conserving energy and water, using local and seasonal produce, reducing the use of single-use plastics, eating more plant-based dishes, and reducing food waste.
In order to do this, Ms. Roque points at four tools: research, policy, business interventions, and education. The findings from the Sustainable Diner project can be accessed through the WWF website’s Publications section (wwf.org.ph). While some of their materials are already out, some will be released by next month.
For example, materials that have already been released include Climate Plate, learning modules that have been developed for primary and secondary teachers so that they may include environmental concepts into their lessons (even those in language). A similar program was developed in partnership with the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) for college teachers in courses that relate to food (tourism, hotel and restaurant management, culinary arts, and nutrition). “Sustainable dining is the future. It’s so important for universities to be at the forefront of these kinds of movements in order to equip future generations accordingly,” she said.
Meanwhile, on the field of research, the organization’s Life Cycle Assessment is also available, which studied a few participating restaurants and their processes including procurement, storage, preparation, and disposal. These processes were aligned to their carbon footprint, with operations raking in 58% of an establishment’s carbon footprint. This means that the largest factor is the one that can be controlled by business owners. Incidentally, the study also yielded which common Filipino dishes leave the biggest carbon footprint (story here: https://www.bworldonline.com/saving-the-planet-one-dish-at-a-time/).
Meanwhile, a Cost Benefit Analysis balanced the costs, expenses, and long-term benefits of sustainability measures and their environmental impacts. This boiled down to three points: water treatment (buy filters instead of buying bottled water), reducing excess food (either use them as ingredients for other meals or as side dishes or make new dishes out of them), and through soft and residual measures (some of these are as simple as turning off lights in the daytime, repairing leaks, and reducing plastic use). “The small actions really have the bigger impacts,” Ms. Roque said.
The organization has helped craft a food waste reduction policy in Cebu City, where excess food from establishments such as restaurants, supermarkets, and the like, can be segregated. Perfectly acceptable food can be sent to Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) food banks, while food that is no longer acceptable or edible can be composted.
“We are able to divert the food waste from the landfills and then it can still be useful for people and our land,” said Ms. Roque in a mix of English and Filipino. “It’s only a matter of time before we have a national law actually addressing wasted food in the Philippines.” She says that a similar ordinance to the one in Cebu is coming to Quezon City.
They have also released tools for businesses to monitor their own sustainability measures (such as their own materials to conduct their own Cost Benefit Analyses) and training and teaching modules on such topics such as urban gardening, plastic use, food waste and safety, among others.
“We can all be sustainable diners, and remember that collective actions lead to huge impacts.”
To access WWF’s materials, visit wwf.org.ph/resource-center/publications/. — JLG
AYALA-LED AC Energy Corp. will subscribe to 33.49 million common shares in its wholly owned One Subic Power Generation Corp. as the listed company’s executive committee cleared the conversion of its advances into equity.
In a disclosure on Wednesday, AC Energy said its executive committee approved the conversion into shares of the P680 million it advanced to the unit. It said the move retains its 100% effective ownership in One Subic Power.
One Subic Power is wholly owned by Bulacan Power Generation Corp., which is 100% owned by AC Energy. The Subic-based firm operates a 116-megawatt (MW) diesel power plant, based on its LinkedIn profile.
Last month, the AC Energy said that it had started the construction of a 160-MW wind farm in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, which it described as the country’s largest wind farm to date. It aspires to become the largest listed platform in Southeast Asia as it aims to reach a net attributable capacity of 5,000 MW by 2025.
Shares in AC Energy at the local bourse improved by 4.22% or 32 centavos to finish at P7.91 apiece on Wednesday. — A.Y. Yang
BETHESDA, Md. —Some might cringe, but at one Maryland chocolate shop, 17-year-old insects are flying off the shelves. Sarah Dwyer, of Chouquette Chocolates in Bethseda, started coating cicadas in chocolate and selling them when the periodical Brood X emerged this spring for the first time since 2004. Now her chocolate shop has a 10-day backlog for cicada orders. They are delicious, she says. “When you combine the chocolate, the cinnamon, and the nuttiness of the bugs, it really gives you that holiday feeling of when you’re walking around a big city and they’re roasting nuts on the sidewalk, that cinnamon smell, it’s really what it tastes like,” Ms. Dwyer said. Ms. Dwyer and her employees gather the cicadas from a copse of trees behind their chocolaterie. The bugs are so numerous, they land right on the employees. The cicadas are then put in a paper bag and placed in the freezer, where the cold temperature puts them to sleep before they die. She then boils the cicadas to clean them, and crisps them in an air fryer. Once the cicadas have been fried, Dwyer sprinkles them with either cinnamon or savory Old Bay seasoning and they are ready to be covered in chocolate. For Ms. Dwyer, this is a chance for consumers to become more familiar with a type of protein she thinks will be a lot more popular by the next time these insects start to sing again. “There’s not enough protein to go around, and I think, I really do think that in 2038, people will not think twice about eating a bug at all,” Ms. Dwyer said. — Reuters
ALIBABA Group’s digital technology and intelligence backbone Alibaba Cloud is set to build its first data center in the Philippines by the end of 2021.
“With our first data center in the country, we will be able to better support Philippine enterprises in adopting cloud technologies and preparing for a digital-first future,” said Leo Liu, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence general manager for Hong Kong, Macau, and the Philippines, at a virtual briefing on Tuesday.
The company intends to support 50,000 local information technology professionals and help 5,000 Philippine businesses in their digital transformation journey by 2023.
“To achieve this target, we have been working on multiple initiatives such as increasing our local infrastructure cloud investments… and we will introduce more advance cloud products and solutions,” Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Country Manager for the Philippines Allen Guo said.
Alibaba Cloud plans to invest $1 billion in Asia-Pacific over the next three years as it targets to foster one million digital talents, empower 100,000 developers, and accelerate the growth of 100,000 technology startups in the region.
Its new data center in the Philippines will be built in Manila, bringing the company’s total availability zones to 76 spread across 25 regions globally.
“Local businesses across sectors such as financial technology, e-commerce, education and media will be able to adopt and implement cloud technologies more efficiently and better position themselves to capture the emerging opportunities in the country,” the company said.
“To adequately support Philippine businesses’ digitalization, be them conglomerates or one of the country’s vast number of micro, small and medium enterprises, Alibaba cloud has formed partnerships with more than 20 organizations across the retail, healthcare, financial technology, information and communications technology, business process outsourcing, media and education sectors,” it added.
For Mr. Guo, the company’s upcoming data center launch underscores its commitment to equipping Philippine customers with “secure, reliable and scalable cloud solutions.” — Arjay L. Balinbin
A SUBSIDIARY of Lopez-led Energy Development Corp. (EDC) has started the construction of its 29-megawatt (MW) binary power plant which is expected to go online by end-2022 in Bicol, its parent firm said on Wednesday.
In a statement, EDC said it held the groundbreaking ceremony of the Palayan Binary Power Plant (PBPP) in Brgy. Nagotgot in Manito, Albay. The facility will generate 215.8 gigawatt hours of clean energy, and expand the firm’s existing 130-MW Bacon-Manito (BacMan) geothermal facility.
PBPP, which will produce energy from the waste heat of a unit of the BacMan plant, is expected to generate 600 jobs for the community, boosting the local economy. The low-carbon project is estimated to reduce 72,200 tons of carbon emissions per year.
“This project is our additional contribution to that much needed baseload clean, reliable RE (renewable energy) that fully supports the (Department of Energy’s) intent of providing adequate, continuous, and economic supply of energy,” EDC President and Chief Operating Officer Richard B. Tantoco said in a speech delivered during the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday.
He also thanked members of the Energy department for recognizing PBPP as an energy project of national significance or a major project entitled to expedited permits in line with the government’s Philippine Energy Plan.
Mr. Tantoco said that the binary project is the firm’s contribution in helping the Philippines reach its target of cutting back on carbon emissions by 75% by 2030, based on the country’s nationally determined contribution.
He added that EDC would invest P7 billion in PBPP.
The company said that the safety of its employees and contractors remained its top priority.
“Safety is part of EDC’s culture more so now that we are working to provide clean, stable, renewable energy to our customers, especially in critical industries, amid the pandemic. As such, all employees and contractors on-site are reminded that they are all safety leaders,” Mr. Tantoco said in the statement.
EDC’s parent firm First Gen Corp. earlier said that it was targeting to invest more in its capital expenditure (capex) projects this year as it plans to allocate $530 million in funding.
Of the capex, some $280 million will cover the drilling activities, investments and binary geothermal projects of its geothermal subsidiary EDC. The figure also covers EDC’s binary growth projects, including PBPP.
Shares in First Gen at the local bourse were unchanged at P30.80 apiece on Wednesday. — Angelica Y. Yang
LONDON —Loki actor Tom Hiddleston said he welcomed Marvel Studios’ decision to address the popular villain’s gender fluidity in a new Disney+ streaming series that debuted on Wednesday. At a screening in London on Tuesday, Hiddleston noted that Loki had been portrayed as gender-fluid in Marvel comic books as well as in Norse mythology, where the character originated. On Sunday, Walt Disney Co. released a clip from the new series and briefly showed a prisoner file that listed Loki’s sex as “fluid.” “It’s always been there,” Mr. Hiddleston said in an interview at the screening. “Loki as a character has had such a broad-ranging and wide-ranging identity. He’s always been a character you could never put in a box, you could never pin down.” The British actor added, “I was really pleased we were able to touch on that in the series.” Mr. Hiddleston has played Loki, the god of mischief, since his appearance in the 2010 movie Thor. The new six-episode series takes place after events depicted in the 2019 film Avengers: Endgame. It catches up with Loki just after the Battle of New York when he escapes from Avengers custody and steals a time stone known as the Tesseract. — Reuters
RECEIVING notifications when not using social media and being required to submit specific information for a personalized feed determined by algorithms may be difficult for users nowadays.
“I can go and search something because I’m interested in that particular thing. And the next minute I go onto social media, and I’m being pushed all these ads about it. So that’s sort of something that really annoyed me,” businessman Max Thomas said.
To avoid this problem, Mr. Thomas founded and developed the social media app AppZaloot in 2016 which uses location-based technology. The app currently available to users in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Asia-Pacific.
“If you went from Manila to Cebu City, as soon as you get off at [Mactan-Cebu International Airport] and turn the app back on, your radius immediately comes up with everything that surrounds you on Mactan Island,” the AppZaloot founder and CEO said as an example, during the online press launch on May 26 held via Google Meet.
APP FEATURES AppZaloot is equipped with a user-driven “data social responsibility.” According to Mr. Thomas, the app does not collect data without the user’s consent, which will allow them to use the platform without worrying about their privacy being compromised.
“We understand that most people don’t want to have their data used by social media companies, regardless if the data will be used for good intentions such as creating targeted ads and personalizing their feeds to enhance their social media experience,” Mr. Thomas said in a press release.
AppZaloot has three social feeds: the Private Friends’ Feed, Local, and Global. The Private Friends’ Feed allows the user to connect with friends on the app; the Local Feed allows interaction among users within a set radius (up to 25 kilometers) in the community; and the Global Feed allows the user to publish posts and to view posts from around the world. The difference with other social media platforms is that it has no advertisements.
Services such as shops, restaurants, entertainment that appear on the app are those within the radius the user has set. This feature aims “for local businesses to have a platform to promote themselves to people in their local community,” according to a video presentation during the launch.
The app also has an Emergency Alert System for notifications from relevant authorities such as weather updates, public transportation disruptions, and traffic accidents within the area where the user is located.
The app also has a private messaging and join/create group chat feature.
The AppZaloot team said it is preparing to launch its own crypto tokens called Zaloots, the pre-sale of which will be available by the end of June. The Zaloots token will be tradeable on several international decentralized crypto exchanges. It will also be eventually integrated into AppZaloot’s upcoming loyalty program, as well as used on the app for payments and rewards.
“We know we still have a lot to do. And whenever you launch an app like this, you never ever finished developing. You are always going to improve things. You’re going to take feedback from your users, you’re going to adjust things, we’ll be uploading changes all the time,” Mr. Thomas said.
For more information, visit appzaloot.com. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman
LEPANTO Consolidated Mining Co. reduced its attributable net loss to P63.11 million in the first quarter after metal prices improved during the period, the listed mining company told the stock exchange on Wednesday.
Its losses during the January-to-March period were 70.6% lower than the P214.35-million attributable net loss it had last year.
Consolidated revenues fell 9.8% to P407.56 million against P451.74 million the year earlier.
“Metal production in the form of bullion consisted of 4,503 ounces of gold and 23,084 ounces of silver. Until March 2020 when copper operations were suspended, metal production in the form of dore and gold-copper concentrate totaled 4,633 ounces of gold; 11,358 ounces of silver; and 618,442 pounds of copper,” the company said in the disclosure.
It added that metal revenue this year went down to P405.94 million from P422.20 million.
According to the company, average gold and silver prices for the period reached $1,778.96 per ounce and $26.18 per ounce, higher than $1,559.43 per ounce and $17.44 per ounce last year, respectively.
Moving forward, Lepanto said it is focusing on gold dore production in its Victoria and Teresa deposits as exploration drilling continues.
“The carbon-in-pulp plant is undergoing rehabilitation to improve gold and silver recoveries and increase production,” the company said.
Lepanto, based in Mankayan, Benguet, has business interests in the exploration and mining of gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and all kinds of ores, metals, minerals, oil, gas, and coal and their related by-products.
On Wednesday, Lepanto “A” shares at the stock exchange rose 1.27% or two centavos to end at P0.159 apiece while Lepanto “B” shares improved 6.33% or 10 centavos to finish at P0.168 per share. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
LONDON —Meghan, Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, released her debut children’s book on Tuesday, dedicating it to her husband Prince Harry and their two-year-old son Archie. The Bench, which looks at the relationship between father and son through a mother’s eyes, hit bookstands days after the couple welcomed their daughter Lilibet Diana, named after Queen Elizabeth and Harry’s late mother Princess Diana, last week. Duchess Meghan has previously said the book, written with rhyming text, began as a Father’s Day poem she wrote for Harry shortly after Archie was born in 2019. In a handwritten-like note inside the book, Duchess Meghan wrote: “For the man and the boy who make my heart go pump-pump.” Duchess Meghan also narrates an audio version of the book, which features watercolor illustrations by artist Christian Robinson. — Reuters
