India, the world's largest democracy and home to highest number of movies, is struggling to perform at box office collections. There's no correlation between the number of movies released every year and revenues they generate for the film industry. The India's film industry is just grossing mere $2billion every year at the box office while it registers about 2,000 movies annually. Considering the number of movies it makes every year, India should have been leading the world in terms of revenues as well. But it couldn't as the piracy alone eating into INR19,000 crore ($3.34billion) revenues every year.
Regions
UK firms put to shame for escaping minimum wage laws
The British government has publicly announced a list of 115 business firms that are not adhering the minimum wages act. As per the National Minimum Wages (NMW) norms, these companies together owe about £389,000 ($598,500), according to the UK government. One fashion company, the Monsoon Accessorize topped the list among offenders. The UK government has decided to take action against them and may order them to reimburse their employees. It could also attract imposition of a fine for the offenders. The UK government will introduce a new National Living Wage in April 2016.
Pandora's stock tumble wipes out $1.4-bn market cap
The internet radio services provider Pandora's stock plummeted owing to increased competition in the global market. Pandora shares dropped 35 percent on Wall Street in just one session eroding $1.4billion market capitalization of the company. The emerging competition in internet radio services from global majors such as Apple is impacting the Pandora's performance. Adding to this YouTube has also introduced a subscription plan for music and video.
Blackberry’s first Android phone Is now available for pre-order
Blackberry is officially taking pre-order for the Blackberry Priv, the company's first Android-based smartphone. Blackberry Priv was first announced last month. The phone features a touchscreen, slide-out keyboard, and Blackberry's security software.
The Obamacare Website Healthcare.gov is Getting Important Updates
Healthcare.gov opens for windows shopping starting on Sunday. The updates allow the health care consumers to see the cost and benefits of insurance plans for 2016.
Latest News
As part of its massive restructuring plan, Dow Chemical Co has taken up several measures to increase the bottom line of the company. Dow has decided to review all the available options for its farm chemicals and seeds unit, which has been suffering from sales drop. Dow Chemicals is also considering an option to buy a stake of Coming Inc in a Silicon joint venture (JV). It has increased the dividend payout and is also in the process of offloading its stake in a Kuwait JV engaged in petrochemical products.
The world's largest online retailer has posted encouraging performance for the third quarter ending September 2015. The higher sales in the US and cloud computing business pushed its bottom line to swell. Amazon announced profits for the consecutive second month. Adding to this, the cost control measures and expanding beyond online marketing helped Amazon perform better. Amazon Web Services (AWS) propelled Amazon's overall revenues to grow further.
The great Abbey Road Studios is entering into the tech industry as it wanted not only to act as a recording studio but also as a music technology incubator. The plan was revealed by the Universal Music Group in a ceremony at the Studio 2 on Wednesday night. It will assure their continued reliability amidst technology era.
Amazon is one of the giant retail online stores that are hoping to meet the increase in customer traffic this coming holiday seasons. From a workforce of 80,000 last year, it is now hiring more employees to reach the 100,000 figure. It is surpassing the holiday hiring practices of its competitors Macy and Walmart.
Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc recorded a better than expected revenue after its third-quarter report shows that its revenue has increased by 13 percent. The great return report, together with an announcement of buyback for its class C shares had sent the company's share price to break previous resistance to a new high.
Hyundai Motor Co's net profit for the third quarter ending September fell 23 percent. The steep fall in China sales coupled with aggressive global incentives impacted the South Korean automobile major's performance in a more negative way.
Motorola, the second largest wireless carrier in the US, is expected to release new phones that have advanced features including a "shatterproof" display and a 2-day battery life.
Google-owned YouTube will enter the subscription streaming market next week, launching the new YouTube Red, an ad-free video and music streaming service with a monthly fee of $99.9, and $12.99 monthly for iOS users.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he wants to "reset" the company's fraught relationship with its developers during their annual developers conference in San Francisco Thursday.
