Bald geht das Lufttaxi Volocopter in Dubai in die Luft. Der Hersteller E-Volo aus Deutschland vereinbarte mit der Verkehrsbehörde von Dubai den Testbetrieb autonomer Lufttaxis in dem Emirat. (Luftfahrt, Technologie)
Quelle: Golem
In Österreich steht das Atomkraftwerk Zwentendorf. Da es nie in Betrieb genommen wurde, kann es nun für einen besonderen Roboterwettbewerb genutzt werden. Während der "Enrich" sollen winzige Stücke Kobalt-60 geborgen werden.
Quelle: Heise Tech News
Ikea plant eine iOS-App für das iPhone und das iPad, mit dem Nutzer Möbelstücke virtuell in der eigenen Wohnung platzieren können. Der Schlüssel dazu ist Apples ARKit, mit dem Entwickler virtuelle Gegenstände und das Kamerabild vereinen können. (Ikea, Apple)
Quelle: Golem
Der Musikstreaming-Dienst Apple Music war bisher nur monatsweise für 9,99 Euro zu abonnieren. Nun bietet Apple etwas versteckt eine Option mit jährlicher Zahlungsweise an, die deutlich kostengünstiger ist. (Apple Music, Apple)
Quelle: Golem
Ein Bericht der New York Times beschuldigt Mexiko, Handy-Spyware rechtswidrig gegen Menschenrechtsanwälte, Journalisten und Korrputions-Aufdecker einzusetzen. Mexiko dementiert.
Quelle: Heise Tech News
Nextdoor will deutsche Nachbarschaften digitalisieren. Das soziale Netzwerk kommt nach den Niederlanden und Großbritannien auch nach Deutschland und könnte recht nützlich sein. (Soziales Netz, Silicon Valley)
Quelle: Golem
Ein Bericht der New York Times beschuldigt Mexiko, Handy-Spyware rechtswidrig gegen Menschenrechtsanwälte, Journalisten und Korrputions-Aufdecker einzusetzen. Mexiko dementiert.
Quelle: Heise Tech News
198 Millionen Betroffene zählt der von US-Republikanern ausgelöste Daten-GAU: Persönliche Daten praktisch aller als Wähler registrierten Bürger standen frei verfügbar zum Download bereit.
Quelle: Heise Tech News
Bloomberg / Getty Images
Drivers for Juno, the two-year-old, “socially responsible” ride-hail startup, filed a class action lawsuit earlier this month against the company and its new owner, Gett. The drivers allege that Juno misled its drivers by promising them equity, a program which was immediately suspended after a rival company acquired Juno for $200 million earlier this year.
“To lure the drivers, Juno offered a very appealing carrot. The promise of equity ownership,” reads the complaint, which was filed by the Law Offices of Mohammed Gangat in New York federal court on June 9. “Once Juno, [CEO] Mr. [Talmon] Marco and the investors had a $200 million offer in sight, they swiftly and resolutely turned their back on Driving Partners.”
According to the complaint, Juno’s strategy for breaking into the New York market was to poach Lyft and Uber’s licensed and experienced drivers by offering them better pay, fairer treatment, and a small equity stake in the company. For Juno's drivers, of whom the lawsuit estimates there are around 20,000,, that offer was compelling enough to sign on. Many drivers who signed on with Juno, the complaint says, accepted “$100 in shares of Juno instead of $100 cash as a sign-up bonus.”
This deal was also compelling to customers who, the complaint alleges, were drawn to the idea of using an app that was “owned by the drivers itself and not a handful of founders and investors.”
In the app store, Juno describes itself as a “new approach to ride sharing.” “Juno treats drivers better. Drivers treat riders better. Happy drivers, happy riders,” the copy says.
But when Juno told drivers via email in April that Gett had acquired it, most found out their payout would be between just a hundred to a few hundred dollars, despite having allegedly worked 50 to 60 hour weeks on Juno in hopes of earning additional shares in the company. In addition to the stock options some drivers received when they signed up, they were also eligible to earn more equity as long as they drove more than 120 hours per month. “Juno even went so far as to promise that equity would be treated the same in terms of dilution and distribution rights in the event Juno was ever sold or conducted an initial public offering,” the complaint alleges.
“The drivers were understandably outraged,” at having been “duped” by Juno’s “blatant falsehoods,” the suit says. “Plaintiffs were victims of the classic “bait and switch” scheme – promised equity and then paid off at pennies on the dollar when all other shareholders/investors made out handsomely.”
Juno presented itself as a contrast to other ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft, which have become renowned for classifying drivers as contractors, low pay, errors that cost drivers, and general manipulation of their workers.
But now, Juno is accused of misleading drivers, and enticing them with false promises of big earnings — an accusation Uber has also faced. In fact, Uber agreed at the beginning of the year to pay $20 million to settle a suit brought by the FTC in which the agency accused Uber of misleading drivers about possible earnings.
When ride-hail drivers for other on-demand economy companies have filed class action lawsuits against Lyft and Uber, the majority of those cases were forced into arbitration because the workers had agreed to arbitration when they initially signed their contracts. Juno drivers also signed to arbitration agreements, but an attorney with one of the firms representing the drivers said his team would be challenging the enforceability of that agreement.
Mohammed Razzak and Mohammad Islam, two of the named plaintiffs in the suit, are suing Juno for “intentional misrepresentation.” In addition, as a class, the drivers are bringing a shareholder derivative claim against the company, for selling itself to Gett without appropriately considering what would be best for the shareholder drivers. Also included in the complaint is a securities fraud claim, which the plaintiffs bring against Juno for offering drivers stock options via a program that didn’t have approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to its acquisition, Juno told drivers that it was under scrutiny from the SEC; it’s possible the drivers’ shares would have been void regardless of Gett’s acquisition.
“We are very disappointed in Juno and Gett for the way they have treated us and all of the other drivers,” said Mohammad Siddique, a third named plaintiff in the suit, in an email statement. “We were mislead by the company into thinking we are shareholders, and we worked very hard to help build the company. We thought we were taking part in the American Dream. We need this to be corrected and we need justice.”
Juno’s CEO, Talmon Marco, did not immediately respond to request for comment on this story.
Quelle: <a href="Drivers Who Say Ride Hail Startup Juno Intentionally Misled Them Are Suing The Company“>BuzzFeed
AP/Richard Drew
Behind the scenes on what may appear to be a simple product page on Amazon is a bustle of sellers all scrambling to win your business. They're fighting over a small yellow box that is emerging as one of the most important battlegrounds in online shopping.
To the average user, who lands on a product page, it's all pretty straightforward. On the left, photos of the item — lets say, a cell phone charger. To the right, there's the “Add to Cart” button. Pretty simple, right?
But dozens of sellers may all be offering that same charger, and only one is chosen by Amazon's systems to get the sale when you hit Add to Cart. The others are relegated further down the page, and the vast majority of Amazon users never bother to look at them.
Amazon
That yellow button, known as the “buy box”, is ultra-prime real estate. For online sellers, winning the race for the buy box is similar to landing the first result on a Google search or, in the brick and mortar world, being displayed in the most visible, highly-trafficked sections of supermarket aisles.
Amazon sellers compete tooth and nail to please the algorithms that determine who sits in the buy box. It's a privilege they earn — and it's not for sale.
“The majority of the sales that occur on Amazon goes to the seller who is in the Buy box, about 85 to 90-plus percent,” said Phillip D'Orazio, president of the Palmetto Digital Marketing Group, which manages Amazon accounts for clients.
Other sellers are listed on the product page, but since customers rarely click through to see their offers, missing out on being the “Add to Cart” vendor, even for a few hours, can mean a serious loss in sales, said D'Orazio.
Unlike other marketplaces like eBay or Alibaba, Amazon pits sellers against each other to win a turn in the Buy box. The exact details of how its systems make the choice are kept secret, but the company tells sellers they can increase their chances by keeping prices low, updating their inventory, offering multiple shipping methods, and offering fast, reliable service. Sellers who have been on the marketplace longer and offer shipping from Amazon's own warehouses also get preference.
That means the Buy box doesn't always feature the cheapest option. Instead, it's a balance of price, service, and Amazon's evaluation of the seller.
“In a lot of ways the Buy box is a slowed down stock exchange,” said Juozas Kaziukenas, founder and CEO of Marketplace Pulse, which collects and analyzes e-commerce marketplace data. “You have a flow of customers who are willing to buy a particular product and they’re willing to pay whatever the market price is, but then there are hundreds of sellers who want to have a sale.”
The idea is such an exchange drives down prices and drives up customer service so that consumers get the best purchasing experience, Kaziukenas told BuzzFeed News. “The Buy box encapsulates the notion that customers are willing to pay market price, but as opposed to setting it by hand let's make the market decide.”
Much like the behind-the-scenes tweaks used by marketers to land the top Google result, Amazon sellers do intensive data analysis, using specialized software that helps land them in the buy box.
“I would tell you that we’re really a data company,” said Alexander Lans, the owner of One Stop Equine Shop which sells its horse riding gear on Amazon as OSO1O. “That's what we are for all intents and purposes. In 2017, most companies are data companies.”
Lans, who has been selling products on Amazon since 2011, told BuzzFeed News that while the company is staffed by horse enthusiasts, its selection of products and whether to sell them on their own site or over Amazon is based completely on data.
“Part of our strategy to win the Buy box is we have a portfolio of products that we’ve structured over time where we have the right products at the right place at the right time,” he said. Lans sells a mix of stable, year-round products, along with ones whose sales move according to seasonal demand. This way, he said, the company builds up a track record of consistent sales and positive customer ratings.
Amazon.com / Via amazon.com
Amazon's buy box algorithms prioritize vendors who pay to house their products in its warehouses, giving the company more control over the shipping process. Lans sends some of his products to Amazon to fulfill and ship, offering many products over Amazon Prime.
Amazon.com / Via amazon.com
Luke Peters, the owner of Air-N-Water.com which has sold its products on Amazon for 13 years, said that he only stores some of his smaller products at an Amazon distribution center to manage his costs. The rest he ships from the company's own 100,000 square foot warehouse.
“If a product is like, the size of a toaster oven or a microwave then you can ship [through Amazon]. If it’s bigger than that, it starts getting too expensive to do,” he said.
Peters, like other sellers, also uses a software called ChannelAdvisor to help keep his prices competitive. While Amazon has a price management tool built into its seller accounts, repricing software has the added advantage of adjusting prices according to shipment costs and other variables, Peters said.
A difference of $0.50 or, sometimes, just a penny can influence your share of Buy box sales, he said.
“Obviously you have to be competitive,” said Peters. “I think a good number to hit is to be under 2% of the best price. You don't always have to win the best price to win equal share of Buy box but if you’re within 1-2% you're going to get an equal share.”
Amazon.com / Via amazon.com
“You have to learn to play the algorithim game rather than just using common sense,” Andrew Tjernlund, who sells gas and electric appliance parts on Amazon under Tjernlund Products Inc., told BuzzFeed News. “Even if they think Amazon is gaming the system, it’s based on real data,” he said.
Marketplace Pulse's Kaziukenas believes in the data. “The Buy box is much smarter than it appears,” he said. “It’s trying to do things beyond the price and trying to help customers. Customers probably should not try to outsmart that. There's a reason why Amazon did not pick another seller.”
Quelle: <a href="There's A War Going On Behind Amazon's "Add To Cart" Button“>BuzzFeed
