[Graphic News] Walmart tops Fortune 500's list

　Walmart topped the Fortune 500 list for the sixth straight year and Amazon made the Top 10 for the first time. 　The 64th annual Fortune 500 list ranks America’s largest companies, representing two-thirds of the US gross domestic product with $12.8 trillion in revenue. The companies on the list employ more than 28 million people.　Exxon Mobil and Berkshire Hathaway ranked No. 2 and No. 3 on the list with $244 billion and $242 billion each in annual revenue, respectively. 　The e-commerce giant run

May 27, 2018

[Graphic News] Europe car sales speed up in April

　Car sales in the top European markets rose sharply in April, statistics showed Thursday, confounding fears that a slowdown in the eurozone's recovery might put the brakes on the continent's vehicle industry.　“In April 2018, the EU passenger car market showed a strong return to growth (+9.6%) after demand declined in March,” the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement.　The Spanish car market grew the fastest - by 12.3 percent - followed by the UK at 10.4 percent, France

May 24, 2018

Facebook‘s Zuckerberg agrees to live-stream EU parliament hearing

BRUSSELS, May  21, 2018 (AFP) - Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to live-stream his meeting with European Parliament members as he answers questions in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a top official said Monday.The meeting on Tuesday with the parliament’s most senior members was initially set to be held behind closed doors.But influential MEPs had pushed for a public hearing following the worst crisis in Facebook‘s history.“I have personally discussed with Facebook CEO Mr Z

May 21, 2018

[Graphic News] Indians most eager for self-driving cars

　There is widespread interest about autonomous vehicles in India, Malaysia, China and South Korea, according to a survey by IPSOS in selected countries.　The poll results show that 58 percent of global respondents were curious about the technology, but 13 percent swore they would never use it. Thirty percent reported their excitement.　India, which records the highest number of road deaths across the globe, has the most people excited about self-driving cars. While 1 in every 10 road deaths is rep

May 13, 2018

Existential debate in US food industry: What is meat?

Can a hamburger or steak be labeled "meat" if it is plant-based? That question has sparked a debate about US food labels as key US cattle industry players have sought to crack down on marketing of proteins made from soy and other plant-based substances. Jessica Almy, policy director of the non-profit Good Food Institute, which promotes meat-alternatives, said labels must state clearly if a product is made from soy or another plant, but they usually make sense in context. "Regardless of

May 13, 2018

Facebook thinks 'Likes' can lead to love: Scott Duke Kominers

With Facebook confronting calls to do more to protect user privacy as well as existential questions about its purpose in life, the company naturally used its F8 summit last week as an opportunity to cultivate an image as a less creepy presence in our daily lives.No, wait, never mind: Facebook announced it is launching an online dating service. The creatively named Dating application will let Facebook users create special profiles to employ in their quests for love and romance. Users who opt into

May 13, 2018

Fed leaves rates unchanged, says inflation close to target

Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged, acknowledging inflation is close to target without indicating any intention to veer from their gradual path of interest-rate increases.“Inflation on a 12-month basis is expected to run near the committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective over the medium term,” the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement Wednesday in Washington. “The committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant

May 3, 2018

Goldman is said to add crypto contracts without trading Bitcoins

Don’t call Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s long-awaited Bitcoin-trading business a full-fledged desk, and don’t expect it to buy and sell Bitcoins, at least at first.The bank, preparing to pioneer a new cryptocurrency market on Wall Street, plans to start small and offer a limited number of derivatives, according to a person briefed on the decisions. It will trade Bitcoin futures in a principal, market-making capacity and will also create non-deliverable forward products. (Yonhap)Wall Street firms be

May 3, 2018

[Graphic News] Samsung 5th-most admired firm in Canada

　Samsung Electronics was named the fifth-most admired firm in Canada, an industry tracker said, recovering its reputation tainted by the suspended production of the Galaxy Note 7 in 2015.　According to the report announced by Canadian researcher Leger, Samsung Electronics earned a reputation score of 75 to rank at 5th place in the 2018 Ranking of Canada‘s Most Admired Companies.　US IT giant Google topped the list, followed by Canada’s Shoppers Drug Mart and Canadian Tire. Japan‘s Sony ranked at 4

April 18, 2018

Is Facebook regulation 'inevitable'? Not so fast

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told lawmakers that regulation of his company is "inevitable," but still came to Capitol Hill prepared to defend against proposals he thought went too far. He rarely had to. After about 10 hours of hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, markets rallied and privacy advocates were disappointed at the prospect that Facebook appeared to emerge unscathed, left to its own devices to manage how it collects vast amounts of personal data and handles user privacy."This is still ve

April 12, 2018

[Graphic News] Facebook scandal affected up to 87m users

　Several million Facebook users in the EU who installed the Cambridge Analytica app and their friends may have been affected by the data leak involving the political consultancy. 　Facebook said last week that as many as 87 million people might have had their data accessed -- an increase from the 50 million disclosed in previous reports. Facebook is basing the estimate in part on the number of friends each user might have had. Cambridge Analytica said in a statement that it had data for only 30 m

April 10, 2018

Facebook to send Cambridge Analytica data-use notices Monday

NEW YORK (AP) -- Get ready to find out if your Facebook data has been swept up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.　 　Starting Monday, the 87 million users who might have had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica will get a detailed message on their news feeds. Facebook says most of the affected users (more than 70 million) are in the U.S., though there are over a million each in the Philippines, Indonesia and the U.K.　 　In addition, all 2.2 billion Facebook users will receive a notice title

April 9, 2018

[Graphic News] US-China trade fight escalates over tariffs

　Tit-for-tat trade penalties have escalated between the world’s two-largest economies as they inch closer to the brink of a damaging international economic conflict.　The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed 1,300 Chinese items, mainly in the advanced technology and heavy industry sectors, to be hit by US tariffs that will target $50 billion of goods.

April 8, 2018

[Graphic News] Samsung overtakes IBM for top spot in US patent portfolio

　Samsung Electronics has overtaken IBM as the holder of the most US patents as of the start of this year, data showed.　The South Korean tech firm held 75,596 US patents, outdoing No. 2 IBM by nearly 1.6 times, as of Jan. 1, according to the top 100 list drawn up jointly by the journal IAM and intellectual property big data analysis company ktMINE.  　IBM, which had ranked top for the past 25 years, held 46,443 patents.　Another South Korean tech firm, LG Electronics, was at seventh place with 28,2

April 5, 2018

[Graphic News] Number of Facebook users worldwide rises

　The number of active Facebook users worldwide rose from the fourth quarter of 2015 to the fourth quarter of 2017. 　Around 1.4 billion users visited the social network daily in the fourth quarter of last year. Facebook was also the most popular social app in terms of users, with around 2 billion monthly users in June last year. YouTube saw 1.5 billion monthly users in the same month, while Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, both owned by Facebook, each had 1.2 billion users in April and February l

April 3, 2018

[Graphic News] Singapore named world’s most expensive city

　The eye-watering cost of owning a car in space-starved Singapore means the city-state is the world’s most expensive place to live - for a fifth year in a row - according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living 2018 survey.　The Asian financial hub - where owning a no-frills sedan can set you back $76,000 - beat global capitals to the dubious title, despite stiff competition from resurgent European cities.　Pricey perennials Tokyo and New York did not even make the top 10 in

March 28, 2018

[Graphic News] Mongolia suffers highest unemployment in Asia

　Mongolia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Philippines have the highest unemployment rates in Asia. By contrast, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos have posted the lowest unemployment rates.　Mongolia has the highest employment rate in Asia at 7.3 percent. The country has seen a poor labor market with dipping employment. Even during the economic boom from 2010-2014, employment rates only remained steady in the country. 　Pakistan has the second highest unemployment rate in Asia at 5.9 percent. Political unrest i

March 27, 2018

[Graphic News] E-commerce toy sales

　Toys R Us, the iconic retail chain that has captivated American kids for generations, announced plans to shut all of its US stores, becoming one of the biggest casualties of the retail shakeout amid the rise of e-commerce.

March 21, 2018

[Graphic News] Nearly 1 out of 5 guests in S. Korea were from US in 2017: Airbnb

　Airbnb said that 18 percent of all tourists who used the global room-sharing platform in South Korea last year were from the United States.　A total of 113,700 US tourists stayed at Airbnb-listed residences in South Korea last year, up 37 percent from 83,000 tallied the previous year, the company said.　The latest figure accounts for 12.5 percent of all American tourists who visited the country last year, it added.　Following the US, Singapore came second at 81,700 guests, or 12.9 percent of Airbn

March 18, 2018

Toys R Us said to be planning to liquidate its US operations

Toys R Us appears headed toward shuttering its US operations, spelling an end to a chain known to generations of children and parents for its sprawling stores and Geoffrey the giraffe mascot but that fell victim to brutal retail-industry trends.The closing of the company's 700 US stores over the coming months would jeopardize the jobs of some 30,000 employees. The company's management has told its employees that it will sell or close all of its US stores, according to a toy industry analyst who

March 15, 2018