<a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/BABA" target="_self" data-gdsid="" data-inline-quote-symbol="BABA">Alibaba</a> Chairman Jack Ma warned on Monday that society could see decades of pain thanks to disruption caused by the internet and new technologies to different areas of the economy.
In a speech at a China Entrepreneur Club event, the billionaire urged governments to bring in education reform and outlined how humans need to work with machines.
&#8220;In the coming 30 years, the world&#8217;s pain will be much more than happiness, because there are many more problems that we have come across,&#8221; Ma said in Chinese, speaking about potential job disruptions caused by technology.
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The Alibaba founder warned that social conflicts could have a &#8220;huge impact&#8221; on all walks of life. Ma&#8217;s company has invested in areas such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence as it expands into new sectors beyond its e-commerce business.
Ma said around 15 years ago he gave two or three hundred speeches warning about the impact of e-commerce and the internet on traditional businesses, but not many people listened as he wasn&#8217;t well-known.
The billionaire warned that any business not linked to the internet could suffer in the future.
Ma also spoke about the rise of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) and said that this technology will be needed to process the large amount of data being generated today, something that a human brain can&#8217;t do. But machines shouldn&#8217;t replace what humans can do, Ma said, but instead the technology community needs to look at making machines do what humans cannot. This would make the machine a &#8220;human partner&#8221; rather than an opponent.
But he did admit that AI was likely to lead to people living longer and fewer jobs around. And robots could also replace chief executives of companies.
&#8220;30 years later, the Time Magazine cover for the best CEO of the year very likely will be a robot. It remembers better than you, it counts faster than you, and it won&#8217;t be angry with competitors,&#8221; Ma said.

CEOs could be robots in 30 years

<ul>
<li>Possibility of reaching projcted price breakout targets</li>
<li>Pattern is a long-term look</li>
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By Daryl Guppy
We know the weekly NYMEX Oil chart shows a long-term inverted <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.guppytraders.com/gup344.shtml" target="_self">head and shoulder reversal</a> pattern. This trend reversal pattern is reliable and has a high probability of reaching the projected price breakout targets. It is a powerful trend reversal pattern, but it&#8217;s a long term pattern and a lot of things can happen between now and the achievement of the pattern targets.
During this period other chart patterns develop and they help to confirm the longer term pattern. For the past year oil has been trading in an upsloping <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.guppytraders.com/gup348.shtml" target="_self">trading channel</a>. It is not a perfect fit, but the channel captures most of the price behavior.
The upper trend line starts in June 2016 and captures the highs in October 2016 and January 2017. The lower trend line is parallel to the upper trend line. It is not an exact fit, but is starts near the lows of August 2016 and then uses the low of November 2016.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120559" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/cr.jpg" alt="" width="678" height="426" />
We would not recommend using this trading channel as a basis for entry and exits points. However it is a useful guide to the behavior of price and helps to put the price pullbacks into to context.
We also apply the <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.guppytraders.com/gup329.shtml" target="_self">Guppy Multiple Moving Averages</a> (GMMA) indicator. This confirms a steady uptrend but it also shows that the uptrend is no well supported by investors. The long term GMMA has compressed and turned upwards. This is the characteristic of the beginning of a new uptrend.
However, the long term GMMA has no shown good expansion. It has remained compressed for eight months. In a string uptrend the long term GMMA usually develops good separation. The wide separation acts as a shock absorber for any price retreats as it shows investors will enter the market as buyers.
The compressed long term GMMA has narrow separation and this shows investors are still cautious about future prospects for oil. This is a vulnerable market. It can move easily upwards, and just as easily downwards.
On the balance of analysis this is a bullish chart. The current chart patterns confirm the long term inverted head and shoulder pattern. However the combinations of patterns suggest investors will need patience and will need to wait for some time before the first price target of $58 is achieved.
The historical pattern of support and resistance levels help define the upside targets. The rebound from support near $48 is part of this pattern behavior. Resistance is near $58. A breakout above this level gives a medium term target near $68.
Temporary resistance has developed recently near $54. A breakout above $54 can move quickly to long term resistance near $58.
This chart offers short term trading opportunities which can be exploited using the <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.antssys.com/" target="_self">ANTSSYS</a> method to trade the consolidation behavior. Any breakout above $58 has a resistance target near $68 and this helps validate the head and shoulder price projection target.

Op-Ed: Is there a price breakout ahead for crude oil?

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South Africa&#8217;s recently installed finance minister vehemently pushed back against assertions that he is a puppet of scandal-wracked President Jacob Zuma.
Malusi Gigaba told CNBC on Friday that his loyalty lies with South African constitution, &#8220;regardless of who is president.&#8221;
&#8220;I think that these attempts to castigate me, to frame me, paint me in a particular way are quite malicious,&#8221; Gigaba said. &#8220;They&#8217;ve got absolutely nothing to do with the work that I do.&#8221;
<div id="inline_movable_ad"> <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/ZAR%3D" target="_self" data-gdsid="610789" data-inline-quote-symbol="ZAR=">South Africa&#8217;s currency</a> sold off and its cost of borrowing spiked about three weeks ago after the country&#8217;s president shocked markets by <a href="http://cnbc.africa/reshuffle/">firing previous Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan</a>, a well-respected, stable official within an administration engulfed by allegations of corruption. Zuma has been embroiled in repeated scandals almost from the time he took office in 2009.</div>
Zuma put loyalist Gigaba in Gordhan&#8217;s place. When asked if he thinks something underhanded is going on in the government that led to his appointment, Gigaba said he doesn&#8217;t know.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know. I&#8217;m not a fortune teller. I cannot go into conspiracy theories, that&#8217;s not my responsibility. I&#8217;ve got a job to do and my job is not to look for bogeymen, for conspiracies,&#8221; Gigaba said, adding that engaging in hearsay would be a &#8220;waste of time.&#8221;
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<h4 class="subtitle">Credit downgrades, street protests</h4>
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<a href="http://cnbc.africa/trending/cabinet-reshuffle-17/2017/04/03/moodys-places-s-rating-review-downgrade/">Moody&#8217;s placed South Africa&#8217;s credit rating on review</a> for a downgrade this month, after two other major agencies already cut the country&#8217;s rating. The top order of business for new Finance Minister Gigaba has been to reassure the ratings firms, which are concerned about South Africa&#8217;s political stability and fiscal discipline.
Gigaba said, however, that he would not set a timeline on when he expects the country to see its investment grade rating restored.
&#8220;I&#8217;m just going to do what I need to do as the minister of finance to strengthen the South African economy, provide prudent fiscal management and show that investments grow in the country, that our economy grows and we&#8217;re able to address issues of inclusive growth and bring our economy bac
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Zuma and his surprise termination of Gordhan have sharply divided the governing ANC party, of which Zuma is a long-standing member. Widespread, multi-racial protests have called for Zuma&#8217;s resignation in recent months.
South Africa was once heralded as a leader among developing countries — in 2010, the year after Zuma took office, it became the &#8220;S&#8221; in &#8220;BRICS,&#8221; joining Brazil, Russia, India and China in the elite acronym of emerging-market superstars. But in 2017, South Africa is saddled with 25 percent unemployment and is forecast to grow by less than 1 percent for the second consecutive year, according to the World Bank.
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SA’s Finance Minister Gigaba: I’m no puppet of Zuma

By Chantel McGee
Add to the list of problems at Uber: Driver retention. Only 4 percent of people who sign up to drive for the ride-hailing service are still driving a year later, according to a report in <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-will-combat-rising-driver-churn" href="https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-will-combat-rising-driver-churn" target="_self">The Information.</a>
The company&#8217;s accelerating driver drop off rate is partially due to increased competition from companies like Lyft. But the number one complaint among Uber drivers is the pay, according to undisclosed data seen by The Information. Many Uber drivers have complained about unfair compensation for long trips, and not being able to accept tips.
An Uber spokesman told The Information: &#8220;We recognize we need to improve our relationship with drivers and their experience using Uber. We&#8217;re working on a range of improvements across our products, our policies, our customer support and how we communicate.&#8221;
The company is considering things like better targeting financial bonuses to certain drivers and allowing tipping, which could allow drivers to earn more, according to <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-will-combat-rising-driver-churn" href="https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-will-combat-rising-driver-churn" target="_self">The Information.</a> Lyft, its main competitor, already gives riders the option to leave a tip.
Read the entire <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-will-combat-rising-driver-churn" href="https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-will-combat-rising-driver-churn" target="_self">The Information</a> report.
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Only 4% of Uber drivers remain on the platform a year later, says report

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By Vaibhavee Sinha
<a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/593%27A-KR" target="_self" data-gdsid="12103572" data-inline-quote-symbol="593'A-KR">Samsung&#8217;s</a> newest smartphone, the Galaxy S8, hit shelves Friday, and analysts told CNBC they&#8217;re impressed by the tech, which initial market reaction appeared to confirm.
The S8&#8217;s edge-to-edge OLED &#8220;infinity&#8221; screen has piqued the interest of many, and that includes Bob O&#8217;Donnell, founder and chief analyst at Technalysis research.
<blockquote>&#8220;What&#8217;s great about it is, it&#8217;s got a great hand feel … it really does make a difference,&#8221; O&#8217;Donnell told CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Rundown&#8221; on Friday.</blockquote>
Samsung Electronics jumped by 2.38 percent on Friday as the Galaxy S8 smartphone was unveiled in Seoul and ahead of its slated debut in the U.S. The company said last week that pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 had surpassed those for the S7.
In addition to the tactile element noted by O&#8217;Donnell, other key features include a new Bixby voice assistant, an iris scanner and facial recognition.
<blockquote>&#8220;I think that the phone is perceived as the next generation phone, the quality seems to be excellent &#8230; a lot of things have been resolved,&#8221; said Daniel Yoo, head of global strategy at Kiwoom Securities, echoing O&#8217;Donnell&#8217;s sentiment.</blockquote>
The only prominent complaint so far about the phones has centered on its screen, which some have deemed pinkish — or the <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/samsungs-galaxy-s8-draws-criticism-in-first-launch-since-note-recall-2017-04-20" href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/samsungs-galaxy-s8-draws-criticism-in-first-launch-since-note-recall-2017-04-20" target="_self">&#8220;cherry blossom edition.&#8221;</a> Samsung reportedly addressed the issue, saying it could be fixed by adjusting the display options.
Addressing that, O&#8217;Donnell said, &#8220;They&#8217;ve had a few glitches on the software early on, but it&#8217;s early days and I think we will see some improvements … coming as well.&#8221;
However, acknowledging the distrust that may have been engendered by the Note 7 problems, O&#8217;Donnell added, &#8220;We&#8217;re not going to really know for a couple of months, to be honest with you, how safe and how reliable it is.&#8221;
Pre-orders reportedly exceeded 1 million units in <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/south-korea/" target="_self">South Korea</a>, Samsung&#8217;s domestic market, surpassing the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7&#8217;s comparatively meager 400,000. Reportedly, the phone pre-sold 550,000 units in the first two days it was available.
Samsung hopes sales of the phone will make up for the company&#8217;s disastrous recall Note 7 last year. The company has said it is targeting 60 million unit shipments this year, compared to about 48 million S7 units sold in 2016, according to multiple reports.
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Samsung’s Galaxy S8 rolls out, and analysts are positive

While the world goes digital, some brands are staying in an analogue world. Businesses are expected to spend nearly $300 billion, or half their marketing budgets, on digital advertising by 2021, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/05/global-ad-spend-to-slow-in-2017-while-2016-sales-were-nearly-500bn.html" target="_self">according to figures from MAGNA</a>, but some companies are sticking with traditional print ads.
Those companies are the makers of high-end luxury goods, such as watches, jewelry and couture fashion, whose adverts sometimes seem to make up the bulk of glossy magazines, with many pages of ads before the actual editorial content.
Figures out today show that these &#8220;high luxury&#8221; companies around the world still spent nearly three-quarters of their budgets (73 percent) on print advertising in newspapers and magazines in 2016, with this figure set to stay high in 2017, at 72 percent.
High-end luxury goods companies spent only 16 percent of their budgets on digital advertising in 2016, followed by outdoor billboards with 8 percent and TV at 3 percent, according to the report by media agency Zenith.
Meanwhile, companies that make more accessible, &#8220;broad luxury&#8221; products, including cars, cosmetics and perfumes, are spending increasing amounts on digital advertising, with 30 percent of their budgets going online in 2016.
TV advertising made up the bulk of broad luxury ad spend in 2016, at 41 percent, but the gap between TV and digital advertising will gradually reduce, the report states. By 2018, TV ad spend will go down to 39 percent, while digital will increase to 34 percent, up four percentage points on 2016.
Luxury brands (both high-end and broad) are forecast to spend $11.8 billion globally on advertising this year, with the fastest-growing region being Eastern Europe, with 10 percent annual average growth. The Middle East and North Africa will see ad spend shrink by around 6 percent a year, due to political instability and lower oil prices, Zenith forecasts.
&#8220;Luxury advertisers are having to respond to consumers&#8217; changing expectations,&#8221; said Vittorio Bonori, Zenith&#8217;s global brand president. &#8220;Consumers are now looking for luxury experiences that are personal and relevant to them, and targeted brand communication is central to creating this extra brand value.&#8221;
But it seems that spending on print advertising could be working. LVMH, the world&#8217;s largest luxury goods group, including the Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Celine labels, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/11/lvmh-shares-hit-record-high-after-q1-sales-beat-other-luxury-stocks-rise.html" target="_self">saw its shares reach a record high last week</a>, after reporting a 15 percent year-on-year increase in first quarter sales.

The advertising world goes digital but luxury brands spend on print

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/arjun-kharpal/" rel="author">Arjun Kharpal</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/ArjunKharpal">@ArjunKharpal</a>
<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/27/inside-adyen-the-2-billion-start-up-backed-by-mark-zuckerberg-silicon-valley-elite.html" target="_self">Adyen, the start-up that processes payments</a> for the likes of <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/NFLX" target="_self" data-gdsid="26444" data-inline-quote-symbol="NFLX">Netflix</a>, Uber and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a>, saw a 99 percent surge in revenues in 2016, the company announced on Wednesday.
The Dutch firm, which is valued at $2.3 billion, posted revenues of $727 million last year, up from $365 million in 2015. Adyen also recently announced that it <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/08/adyen-company-behind-facebook-and-uber-payments-reveals-huge-transaction-growth.html" target="_self">processed $90 billion worth</a> of transactions in 2016, an 80 percent year-on-year rise.
Pieter van der Does, chief executive of Adyen, said the growth has been driven by higher volumes in the U.S., a territory it has not typically had a big footprint in.
<blockquote>&#8220;Historically we were stronger in Europe now the U.S. is very strong in terms of growth. We have been expanding our footprint in Asia and Latin America. Part of the growth is down to more volume, part of it is the increase of geographical footprint,&#8221; van der Does told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday.</blockquote>
A lot of American clients who had been trusting Adyen to process their international payments gave their domestic volume to the company, the CEO added.
Selling point of sale (POS) systems – hardware such as card readers – has also boosted the company&#8217;s top line but still only accounts for &#8220;single-digit revenue&#8221; percentage, van der Does said.
Adyen is going to focus on investing in Asia and so-called &#8220;omnichannel&#8221; – serving customers both online and in-store.
The Dutch start-up has been profitable since 2011 but said that it&#8217;s not the focus this year. Van der Does also said that an initial public offering is not on the cards.
<blockquote>&#8220;Currently I think it would be extremely bad timing because we are investing so much and focusing so much on the business,&#8221; the CEO told CNBC.</blockquote>
Van der Does admitted that due to the rapid pace of growth the company has seen in past years, revenues rises in percentage times will slow down, but &#8220;absolute growth&#8221; will remain strong.

The $2.3 bn firm that processes payments for Uber and Netflix, saw 2016 revenues surge 99%

Facebook is responding to the challenge from <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/SNAP" target="_self" data-gdsid="163704" data-inline-quote-symbol="SNAP">Snap</a> in the classic way that tech companies try to face new competitors — by <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/28/facebook-camera-stories-disappearing-messages-ape-snapchat.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/28/facebook-camera-stories-disappearing-messages-ape-snapchat.html" target="_self">duplicating every core feature</a> that made Snap popular, and then trying to crush it with distribution and marketing.
According to a story published Tuesday in <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theinformation.com/inside-the-war-between-facebook-and-snap" href="https://www.theinformation.com/inside-the-war-between-facebook-and-snap" target="_self">The Information</a> (subscription required), Facebook created a &#8220;Teens Team&#8221; to figure out how to grab teenagers back from Snapchat, and has been up front about its tactics within the company: The internal mantra among some groups is &#8220;don&#8217;t be too proud to copy.&#8221;
Unfortunately for <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a>, the track record for this strategy is poor.
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Flash back to the early 2000s, when <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/MSFT" target="_self" data-gdsid="25619" data-inline-quote-symbol="MSFT">Microsoft</a> was the undisputed king of the tech industry, with two unassailable monopolies — operating systems and productivity apps for personal computers.
It faced a lot of competitors, but the one that scared it the most was <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Google</a>, which was in a completely different business.
Google didn&#8217;t start by creating alternatives to Windows and Office, although it did so later. Instead, it created a suite of online services — first search, followed by email and maps — that threatened the entire purpose of a personal computer. Why rely on Microsoft software running locally when you could get so much done with web apps?
Microsoft&#8217;s response? Trying to build the exact same service that made Google famous — a search engine, first known as MSN Search, later rebranded to Bing.
Eleven years later, Bing is a small minority player in search, with less than 10 percent market share on the desktop and less than 1 percent in mobile, according to <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.netmarketshare.com/" href="https://www.netmarketshare.com/" target="_self">NetMarketShare</a>. Google dominates with almost 80 percent share on the desktop and well over 90 percent in mobile. &#8220;Google&#8221; has become a verb. Nobody &#8220;Bings&#8221; anything.
Bolstered by the massive margins in search advertising, Google has moved farther and farther into Microsoft&#8217;s core territory, adding a massively successful mobile operating system (Android), web browser (Chrome), online productivity apps (Google for Work) and an increasingly robust cloud computing business. It also surpassed Microsoft in market cap for the first time <a class="inline_asset" title="http://mashable.com/2012/10/01/google-market-cap-passes-microsoft/" href="http://mashable.com/2012/10/01/google-market-cap-passes-microsoft/" target="_self">in 2012</a>, and remains ahead today.
Google faced its own Bing moment in 2011, when it faced a challenge from then-upstart Facebook. The social network didn&#8217;t threaten Google by building a better search engine. It did so by creating an entirely different online service, based around social networking and real identities, that drew people&#8217;s attention away from search and other Google properties. As people spent more and more time on Facebook, advertisers followed.
Google&#8217;s response? To launch a competing social network based on real identities called Google+. It was just as successful as Bing — which is to say, not successful at all.
Facebook may still win. After all, Microsoft used this playbook very effectively in the 1990s to eliminate the threat posed by Netscape Navigator — it built a better browser, then shipped it with Windows. It dominated web browsing for almost a decade (until Google came along with Chrome and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a>&#8216;s iPhone introduced the concept of effective mobile web browsing).
But Microsoft in the 1990s had an effective monopoly on personal computing platforms with Windows. If you wanted to go online, you had to go out of your way not to use Windows. The same is not true for Facebook — there are many ways to communicate and share information in real time with friends, including text messaging platforms like SMS and Apple&#8217;s iMessage, and competing social networks like Twitter and — yes — Snapchat.
Facebook will have to do more to regain teens&#8217; attention than simply duplicating every feature that made Snapchat popular.
Disclsoure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap.

Facebook has reached its Microsoft Bing moment, and history shows the results won’t be pretty

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For the fourth year in a row, Singapore is the most expensive city in the world.
That&#8217;s according to the Economist Intelligence Unit&#8217;s annual <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=WCOL2017" href="http://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=WCOL2017" target="_self">Worldwide Cost of Living survey</a>, newly released for 2017.
To determine the rankings, the EIU compares the prices of more than 400 products and services worldwide, including food, drink, clothing, household supplies, and transportation. Each city is then ranked in comparison to New York on the World Cost of Living (WCOL) Index, with New York assigned a score of 100. Other cities earn a relative score, where a one-point increase or decrease equates to a 1% change in the cost of living.
<div id="inline_movable_ad"> Asian cities dominate the list, with Singapore and Hong Kong earning the top two spots. At No. 9, New York was the only place in the United States to crack the top 10.</div>
Below, check out the 10 most expensive cities in the world. The average price of a loaf of bread, bottle of table wine and liter of gas is included for context, and all prices are listed in USD.
<div id="dart_wrapper_responsiverectangle" class="dart_wrapper dart_ads_noniframe_responsiverectangle badge-ad"> 10. Copenhagen, Denmark</div>
Average price of a loaf of bread: $3.55
Average price of a bottle of wine: $12.87
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.63
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9. New York, United States
Average price of a loaf of bread: $7.95
Average price of a bottle of wine: $14.74
Average price of a liter of gas: $0.61
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8. Paris, France
Average price of a loaf of bread: $6.81
Average price of a bottle of wine: $10.35
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.45
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7. Geneva, Switzerland
Average price of a loaf of bread: $6.62
Average price of a bottle of wine: $8.20
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.52
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6. Seoul, South Korea
Average price of a loaf of bread: $14.82
Average price of a bottle of wine: $26.54
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.28
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5. Osaka, Japan
Average price of a loaf of bread: $5.91
Average price of a bottle of wine: $13.33
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.18
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4. Tokyo, Japan
Average price of a loaf of bread: $7.41
Average price of a bottle of wine: $11.89
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.24
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3. Zurich, Switzerland
Average price of a loaf of bread: $5.66
Average price of a bottle of wine: $14.17
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.49
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2. Hong Kong
Average price of a loaf of bread: $4.61
Average price of a bottle of wine: $15.72
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.73
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1. Singapore
Average price of a loaf of bread: $3.55
Average price of a bottle of wine: $23.68
Average price of a liter of gas: $1.44
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These are the 10 most expensive cities in the world

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/gemma-acton/" rel="author">Gemma Acton</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/GemmaActon">@GemmaActon</a>
Oil prices traded lower in the early European session following the longest positive streak of the year for the commodity as analysts remained divided on where the price will head from here.
<a class="inline_asset" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/lcocv1" target="_self" data-nodeid="100583837">Brent</a> had slipped back to trade at $55.87 at 10am London time after Monday&#8217;s close cemented a six-day streak which saw prices up a cumulative 6 percent. Meanwhile, <a class="inline_asset" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/@CL.1" target="_self" data-nodeid="100279044">WTI</a> was hovering a quarter of a percent lower for the session at $52.93, after notching up a fifth positive close for cumulative gains of 5.7 percent. So far in 2017, Brent is trading around 1.5 percent lower to Monday&#8217;s close while WTI has lost 1.3 percent this year over the same period.
Among the bears, Stephen Jones, chief investment officer (CIO) at Kames Capital says that oil prices are unlikely to rebound significantly from here given a supply glut and increasingly sophisticated oil extraction methods.
Noting that spiking inventories and a big pullback in hedge funds&#8217; bullish bets are seen by many as short-term factors set to unwind, Jones says instead that the drastic reshaping of both supply and dynamics that has taken place will limit potential oil price rises.
<blockquote>&#8220;Having been through their own recession, U.S. exploration and production companies – and those focused on shale – are now able to operate in a lower oil price environment,&#8221; said Jones, in a note to clients on Monday.
&#8220;That means the structural price of being able to get new oil supplies out of the ground has fallen, mainly thanks to significant improvements in the technical ability to produce oil, and therefore the price will remain lower than most people think,&#8221; added the CIO of the British investment management business.</blockquote>
Turning to demand, currently registering 97.89 million barrels a day, Jones notes that it is failing to keep up with supply levels of 98.29 million barrels a day.
Taking a different view, Martin King, commodity analyst at GMP First Energy says his team has become notably more bullish in recent weeks on oil&#8217;s path ahead, driven primarily by OPEC compliance results and its expectations for material growth coming through refinery runs.
Talking specifics, King highlighted in a client note on Monday that OPEC compliance has reduced daily production by around 1 million barrels a day since December while he sees refinery runs heading higher by around 2 million barrels a day over the next couple of months.
Furthermore, global oil inventories are also falling and U.S. inventories are not far behind, claim the GMP First Energy team, pointing to the example of Iran where the country&#8217;s floating storage built during the years of embargo has been entirely drained in 6 to 9 months.
Yet, a rebound in prices may not be imminent, the team admits.
<blockquote>&#8220;It could still take a few more weekly reports of convincing inventory draws before prices work their way back to the recent highs seen in early March. Breaking out above those highs will require clear indications of significant rapid drawdowns in U.S. crude oil inventories. Still waiting for that,&#8221; concludes the research.</blockquote>
Market participants are now focused on whether OPEC and its non-OPEC partners sign on to renew their agreement capping production in late May, a deal which has registered compliance figures north of 90 percent in recent months.
Yet despite the concerted efforts by certain key signatories, such as Saudi Arabia, to adhere to the production limits, the rate of U.S. shale production has offset the supportive effect on prices, said Michelle McGrade, CIO at TD Direct Investing on CNBC&#8217;s Squawk Box on Tuesday.
<blockquote>&#8220;There are some conflicting forces out there. There&#8217;s OPEC and there&#8217;s U.S. shale gas and oil. U.S. is making shale oil like crazy and therefore the supply is greater than demand,&#8221; McGrade opined.</blockquote>
Furthermore, beyond looking at supply and demand fundamentals, the ability for producing countries and large oil companies to balance their books is a critical factor to consider.
<blockquote>&#8220;This is the worrying thing…Not only these countries but also our oil majors as well. They need oil around…somewhere between $65 and $75 a barrel and once they get there that whole industry will relax &#8211; but it&#8217;s just not getting there,&#8221; McGrade noted.</blockquote>
http://cnbc.africa/news/international/2017/03/09/50-oil-price/

As winning streak falters analysts debate where next for oil

Jessica Wa&#8217;u | CNBC
A new report from UBS estimates that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies could create an economic value of about $1.8 trillion to $3 trillion in Asia by 2030. But that value comes at a cost, with an estimated 30 million to 50 million jobs in Asia at risk of displacement in the medium to long term.
Financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and transportation, are the sectors likely to bear the brunt of job losses, according to UBS Global IT Analyst Sundeep Gantori. Speaking with CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Street Signs,&#8221; he said jobs in traditional sectors that are predictive and routine in nature will be affected.
So in preparation for the future, he advised that job seekers target roles requiring personalization or creativity.
<blockquote>&#8220;Focus on creativity jobs&#8230; entrepreneurship jobs, arts&#8230; and maybe sports,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We have to go back to those old days where arts are valued. So maybe that&#8217;s the future.&#8221;</blockquote>
While some jobs may become irrelevant, AI will also create new categories of jobs elsewhere, Gantori said. Data scientists are expected to get a leg up in the future, with UBS describing data as the &#8220;fuel&#8221; that powers the AI engine.
The firm also recommended investing in research and development-intensive companies related to AI, such as healthcare and advanced engineering.
The report pointed to Asia being a late entrant in the AI world, lagging behind a solid ecosystem in the U.S. But expect that gap to narrow as governments put more money into data sciences and machine learning, he said. Capital flows into AI-based start-ups are also expected to increase as the relevant talent pool in Asia grows.
Gantori said, &#8220;By 2025, we think that the talent in India and China together will exceed what we&#8217;ll have in the U.S. At the same time, the region generates a lot of data, which is very handy in AI.&#8221;

How to keep a job in a world of AI? Get creative

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/silvia-amaro/" rel="author">Silvia Amaro</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/@Silvia_Amaro">@Silvia_Amaro</a>
Global growth is expected to slow down significantly in the coming months as borrowing levels dominate in both China and Europe and &#8220;Trump-mania&#8221; is set to fade, a chief economist at Danish investment firm Saxo Bank told CNBC on Monday.
&#8220;Our main global macro outlook still maintains that recession is more likely than not in the near future (12 to 18 months) based on the global credit impulse having peaked simultaneously with global inflation,&#8221; Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank, said.
In a recent note, Jakobsen explained that the biggest &#8220;perception-versus-reality gap&#8221; in the market currently remains this risk of recession. He added that his company is not predicting a recession, but that its economic model does indicate a significant slowdown as &#8220;the large credit impulse from China and Europe in the early part of 2016 has not reversed to negative&#8221;, which it says should make the market conservative, risk averse push investors into U.S. fixed income.
&#8220;While the market at large sees less than a 10 percent chance of recession, we at Saxo – together with our friends at South Africa&#8217;s Nedbank – see more than a 60 percent chance,&#8221; he added in the note.
<a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/09/these-stocks-havent-been-this-cheap-in-40-years.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/09/these-stocks-havent-been-this-cheap-in-40-years.html" target="_self">Europe is seen as the main region</a> driving global growth, according to Jakobsen, beating the U.S. in the second and third quarters of this year. Jakobsen is not alone in this thesis, with a number of investment houses recently upgrading their outlooks on European stocks as fears recede on the rise of populism and polls indicate that centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron is likely to do well at the upcoming French elections.
Mike Bell, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, told CNBC Monday that European stocks &#8220;look pretty cheap&#8221; compared to U.S. stocks. &#8220;What you&#8217;re starting to see now is that underperformance of earnings that you&#8217;ve seen since the financial crisis is disappearing,&#8221; he said. There&#8217;s been a fundamental acceleration in the euro zone economy, he also noted.
But, according to Jakobsen, Europe&#8217;s momentum is not followed in other parts of the globe.
&#8220;One thing is absolutely clear: Asia is not going to contribute anything in 2017 to growth. China is on total standstill,&#8221; Jakobsen said Monday.
&#8220;They don&#8217;t know what to do with (<a class="inline_asset" title="www.cnbc.com/donald-trump" href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump" target="_self">President Donald) Trump</a> and I think Trump again showed his hand over the weekend that he is not to be relied on in terms of a set-out path for how they conducted themselves,&#8221; he added.
<a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/09/at-us-china-summit-trump-presses-xi-on-trade-n-korea-progress-cited.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/09/at-us-china-summit-trump-presses-xi-on-trade-n-korea-progress-cited.html" target="_self">Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed</a> during a summit last week to develop trade talks during the next 100 days to reduce the Chinese trade surplus with the U.S. They also agreed to increase cooperation to curb North Korea&#8217;s nuclear program.
Shortly after the meeting, Trump sent 100,000-ton USS Carl Vinson and U.S. Navy support ships to the Pacific as a show of force <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/09/trump-team-isnt-afraid-to-use-force-on-syria-north-korea.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/09/trump-team-isnt-afraid-to-use-force-on-syria-north-korea.html" target="_self">amid rising fears that North Korea will launch an intercontinental ballistic missile test in the coming days</a>. Last week, Trump approved a missile strike on Syria, after an alleged chemical attack. Such a decision overshadowed the summit with his Chinese counterpart.
Furthermore, the main driver of U.S. equities seems to be hope, Jacobson added. <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/.SPX" target="_self" data-gdsid="593933" data-inline-quote-symbol=".SPX">The S&amp;P 500</a> has reached historic highs since the new president took office on expectations that he will deliver massive tax cuts and infrastructure investments.
&#8220;A dominant part of the equity analysts sees a significantly higher S&amp;P but it&#8217;s based on hope. Hope to me belongs in church on a Sunday,&#8221; Jakobsen said.

More than 60% chance of a global recession in the next 18 mnths – economist

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/" rel="author">Todd Haselton</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/@robotodd">@robotodd</a>
If you&#8217;re looking for a good alternative to the <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/29/dont-buy-a-new-ipad-pro.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/29/dont-buy-a-new-ipad-pro.html" target="_self">iPad Pro</a>, and don&#8217;t want the <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/new-apple-products.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/new-apple-products.html" target="_self">new iPad</a>, the <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/26/samsung-launches-galaxy-book-tab-s3-with-keyboard-and-stylus.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/26/samsung-launches-galaxy-book-tab-s3-with-keyboard-and-stylus.html" target="_self">Samsung Galaxy Tab S3</a> is your next best bet.
Samsung makes a bunch of tablets, but its &#8220;S&#8221; models are always the best. The Galaxy Tab S3 follows last year&#8217;s Galaxy Tab S2, which seemed to pass under most people&#8217;s radars even though it was a solid slate.
This year&#8217;s model kicks butt, and it&#8217;s easily one of the best tablets you can buy right now. It even outclasses the iPad Pro 9.7 in a few important areas, though there are some other aspects that aren&#8217;t as good.
We&#8217;ll walk you through everything.
It&#8217;s similar to the iPad Pro 9.7&#8230;
<div id="attachment_118823" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118823" class="wp-image-118823 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/1-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
First, the Galaxy Tab S3 has the same size 9.7-inch display as the smaller iPad Pro, and it&#8217;s the same resolution, which means text and images are going to look just as sharp. It uses Samsung&#8217;s high-end AMOLED panel, though, so you&#8217;ll get much brighter colors. Your eyes sink right into the screen when viewing back really colorful images and movies. Like the iPad, the Galaxy Tab S3 is ideal not only for viewing content, but for creating it.
<div id="attachment_118826" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118826" class="size-full wp-image-118826" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
Samsung includes an S-Pen stylus that works really well and compares similarly to the Apple Pencil (which isn&#8217;t included with the iPad Pro.) The S Pen can be used for drawing, painting and jotting down quick notes. There&#8217;s even a feature that lets you jot down a quick note without having to unlock the tablet, which is super convenient.
<div id="attachment_118827" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118827" class="size-full wp-image-118827" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/3-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
The Tab S3 also supports a keyboard — a $129.99 accessory — and, like the iPad Pro, there&#8217;s a smart connector on one side of the tablet that allows you to connect it without any sort of Bluetooth pairing. It just snaps right into place and starts working.
Four stereo speakers sit on each corner of the device, as they also do on the iPad Pro. The Tab S3&#8217;s speakers got nice and loud when I put the tablet on my coffee table and played a 60s playlist on Spotify while tidying up the living room one Saturday, and I really liked the clear audio while watching &#8220;Caddy Shack&#8221; from the couch.
The similarities end there
The Galaxy Tab S3 runs Android Nougat, the latest version of Google&#8217;s software. It allows you to run apps side-by-side, similar to what Apple allows on its iPad Pro products, and even pop-out video for picture-in-picture viewing while performing other tasks.
I&#8217;m worried about Android on tablets, though. Google frequently talks about Android for smartphones, but hasn&#8217;t really discussed the OS for tablets recently. That makes me wonder how serious the future of Android tablets really is, and whether or not Google is putting its eggs into Chrome OS instead. Also, Samsung&#8217;s updates are typically slow, so you might not get the latest version of Android for many months after it releases, if ever. Conversely, Apple updates its iPads frequently, and often supports individual models for many years. That&#8217;s something to keep in mind.
<div id="attachment_118830" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118830" class="size-full wp-image-118830" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/4-Devin.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
Also, while developers have spent plenty of time optimizing applications for Apple&#8217;s iPad — since they sell millions of units a quarter — developers aren&#8217;t doing the same for Android tablets. Don&#8217;t expect to find a ton of applications that support Android tablets or larger screens, for example. Instead, you&#8217;ll mostly be using regular smartphone apps that are just blown up to take up the whole screen.
That stinks.
Those qualms about Android aside, the Tab S3 experience is really solid.
Samsung includes one of Qualcomm&#8217;s new processors under the hood, and it&#8217;s nice and fast, allowing you to run multiple apps at once without running into hiccups. You can even upgrade the storage for more movies and apps, something Apple doesn&#8217;t let you do with the iPad.
<div id="attachment_118832" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118832" class="size-full wp-image-118832" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/5-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
Speaking of movies, the Galaxy Tab S3&#8217;s display supports full HDR viewing. HDR, if you&#8217;re unfamiliar, is otherwise known as high dynamic range. The gist is that the image you&#8217;re viewing is supposed to look more accurate, as Hollywood originally intended, thanks to a balance between the darkest colors on the screen and the brightest. There are a limited number of sources to actually view that content now – Amazon lets you stream HDR content for some of its shows &#8211; so that&#8217;s not exactly a huge win over the iPad. You don&#8217;t need to worry about movies hogging battery life, either.
<div id="attachment_118834" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118834" class="size-full wp-image-118834" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/6-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
Samsung promises up to 12 hours of video playback. That&#8217;s enough for two cross-country flights. In my tests, I was easily able to make it through a weekend using the tablet for surfing the net, watching movies and playing some games. You&#8217;ll want to keep the display brightness down, though, since it can really chug your battery&#8217;s juice when it&#8217;s up high.
Worth considering
Most people should just buy an iPad Pro 9.7. I understand iPads aren&#8217;t for everyone, however, and that some consumers still really like Android on tablets. If you&#8217;re in that group of consumers, the Galaxy Tab S3 is the best tablet you can buy.
http://cnbc.africa/zdnl-mc/2017/03/22/apple-new-products/

This is the best iPad Pro alternative that you can buy

A big chunk of those &#8220;likes,&#8221; &#8220;retweets,&#8221; and &#8220;followers&#8221; lighting up your <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TWTR">Twitter </a>account may not be coming from human hands. According to <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.03107.pdf">new research from the University of Southern California and Indiana University</a>, up to 15 percent of Twitter accounts are in fact bots rather than people.
The research could be troubling news for Twitter, which has struggled to grow its user base in the face of growing competition from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and others.
Researchers at USC used more than one thousand features to identify bot accounts on Twitter, in categories including friends, tweet content and sentiment, and time between tweets. Using that framework, researchers wrote that &#8220;our estimates suggest that between 9% and 15% of active Twitter accounts are bots.&#8221;
Since Twitter currently has 319 million monthly active users, that translates to nearly 48 million bot accounts, using USC&#8217;s high-end estimate.
The report goes on to say that complex bots could have shown up as humans in their model, &#8220;making even the 15% figure a conservative estimate.&#8221;
At 15 percent, the evaluation is far greater than Twitter&#8217;s own estimates. In a filing with the SEC last month, Twitter said that up to 8.5 percent of all active accounts contacted Twitter&#8217;s servers &#8220;…without any discernible additional user-initiated action.&#8221;
Since that equates to roughly 20 million more bot accounts than Twitter&#8217;s own assessment, that could be an issue in light of analyst concerns about user growth. In a recent research report, Nomura Instinet analysts wrote that &#8220;Twitter&#8217;s revenue growth has slowed to the mid-single digits, as the platform has struggled to attract new users over the past year…&#8221;
A Twitter spokesperson said that while bots often have negative connotations, &#8220;many bot accounts are extremely beneficial, like those that automatically alert people of natural disasters…or from customer service points of view.&#8221;
USC&#8217;s researchers also highlight the benefits of some bots, writing, &#8220;many social bots perform useful functions, such as dissemination of news and publications…&#8221;
But the USC report also points to the downside of bots, saying, &#8220;there is a growing record of malicious applications of social bots. Some emulate human behaviour to manufacture fake grassroots political support… [and] promote terrorist propaganda and recruitment.&#8221;
Twitter currently has a number of ways to report violations, including impersonation accounts and spam. A number of services also exist which claim to be able to audit followers and identify fake accounts.

As many as 48 million Twitter accounts aren’t people, says study

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/anita-balakrishnan/" rel="author">Anita Balakrishnan</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/@MsABalakrishnan">@MsABalakrishnan</a>
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Bill Gurley&#8217;s investment firm, Benchmark, has made some big bets that paid off. The firm was an early investor in Instagram, Quora, Snap, Uber, Grubhub and Glassdoor, just <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/benchmark/investments" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/benchmark/investments" target="_self">to name a few</a>.
He also reads two books a month and writes prolifically, and might someday even pen a book of his own. The key to success is often information gathering, Gurley said on Thursday from the LAUNCH Festival in San Francisco.
Gurley&#8217;s not alone: Another successful investor, Warren Buffett, has said he spends <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/16/warren-buffetts-reading-routine-could-make-you-smarter-suggests-science.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/16/warren-buffetts-reading-routine-could-make-you-smarter-suggests-science.html" target="_self">as much as 80 percent of his day reading.</a> Gurley said that for any entrepreneur, storytelling is a big component of their job — so he has a set of books he recommended:
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<h4 class="subtitle">1. &#8220;Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors,&#8221;  by</h4>
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<a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Industries-Competitors/dp/0684841487" href="https://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Industries-Competitors/dp/0684841487" target="_self">Michael Porter</a>
&#8220;All entrepreneurs have been taught to vilify the MBA,&#8221; Gurley said, speaking of the graduate business degree. &#8220;This is a strategic error — to think that understanding business is a bad idea. And so &#8216;Competitive Strategy&#8217; is the most efficient short-form MBA that you can get.&#8221;
2. &#8220;Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers,&#8221; by <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0060517123" href="https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0060517123" target="_self">Geoffrey Moore</a>
It&#8217;s especially good for enterprise companies, Gurley said.
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<h4 class="subtitle">3. &#8220;The Innovator&#8217;s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail,&#8221; by</h4>
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<a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=7CQKB4J55NDBP216PF6H" href="https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=7CQKB4J55NDBP216PF6H" target="_self">Clay Christensen</a>
&#8220;It&#8217;s fantastic,&#8221; Gurley said. &#8220;It&#8217;s really the core essence of why start-ups have an advantage. Products that are able to be disruptive get over-designed. They get feature-rich, they get complex, they get heavy.
He added that &#8220;if you can design a product that exploits a desire of a subset of the customer base that doesn&#8217;t want that complexity, but wants this feature, you can bust in. I&#8217;ve seen that over, and over, and over.&#8221;
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<h4 class="subtitle">4. &#8220;Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure,&#8221; by</h4>
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<a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L0M749M/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L0M749M/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" target="_self">Jerry Kaplan</a>
The book is about &#8220;a massive failure in Silicon Valley,&#8221; that had &#8220;all the best investors&#8221; and &#8220;all the best executives,&#8221; Gurley said.
&#8220;And it&#8217;s just spectacular, because on the way home from work every day he had a tape recorder and he left himself notes, so it&#8217;s remarkably detailed,&#8221; Gurley said. &#8220;We spend so much time analyzing success, and sometimes it&#8217;s just good to read how hard it can be. And why it can be so hard. So that one&#8217;s a real world account that I love.&#8221;
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<h4 class="subtitle">5. &#8220;Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike,&#8221;  by</h4>
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<a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176M1A44/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176M1A44/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" target="_self">Phil Knight</a>
&#8220;[The book] is just fantastic,&#8221; Gurley said. &#8220;It just shows how much grit matters, how much you just got to leave it out there on the field. How tough it is, even for the successful companies. You shouldn&#8217;t head out into entrepreneurialism thinking it is a hay ride. It&#8217;s hard.&#8221;
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Want to found a start-up? These are the books you should read first, a top VC says

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/jon-fortt/" rel="author">Jon Fortt</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/@jonfortt">@jonfortt</a>
Among the many business lessons Jeff Lawson has learned, there&#8217;s this: Don&#8217;t expect to get things done if you wait until you&#8217;re perfectly prepared.
Lawson is co-founder and CEO of <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TWLO" target="_self" data-gdsid="160228" data-inline-quote-symbol="TWLO">Twilio</a>, a company that makes it easy for apps to contact you. (Ever wonder how you can send a text to your Uber driver in the app, or get one in OpenTable when your seat is ready? Twilio does that.)
Twilio went public last summer at the New York Stock Exchange, and is now worth about $2.5 billion. As it pushes to make apps communicate better, the scrappy San Francisco company has developed a culture that favors boldness and taking initiative, and frowns on perfectionism.
Fortt Knox caught up with Twilio&#8217;s CEO at a tech conference in Barcelona, Spain to talk about his journey from curious kid in the Detroit suburbs to CEO of a public tech company. Among the things our podcast loves about Lawson&#8217;s story?
It&#8217;s about the setbacks as much as the successes, and learning along the way.
Here&#8217;s some of what he shared on the latest episode:
https://soundcloud.com/forttknox/lawson
Ask for the Keys
Lawson likes to tell a story about his grandfather, who worked in a factory and needed to earn more money.
&#8220;He went to the owner and he said, &#8216;I need to make more money, how do I do that,'&#8221; Lawson said. &#8220;The guy said &#8216;I don&#8217;t have any other jobs. The only job I have is driving the truck. Do you know how to drive the truck?&#8217; My grandfather&#8217;s answer was, &#8216;Give me the keys.'&#8221;
What his grandfather didn&#8217;t mention was that he&#8217;d never driven a truck before in his life. But he got the job, figured it out, made more money.
Chalk it up to genetics or coincidence, but in middle school Lawson started a company shooting video footage of weddings. Then, he used the proceeds to buy more sophisticated equipment.
&#8220;The best way to learn something new,&#8221; he said, &#8220;is to commit yourself to doing it.&#8221;
You&#8217;ve Got to Love It
There were some false starts. In college during the dotcom boom, Lawson learned software development and started a company that sold for millions of dollars … in stock. He thought he&#8217;d made it big, but when the bubble popped, his windfall vanished.
Later, he got the opportunity to be founding chief technology officer of StubHub, a ticket sales company that would later sell to eBay for $310 million. But Lawson didn&#8217;t stick around for the payoff.
&#8220;It was a fine business, but I wasn&#8217;t the customer and I didn&#8217;t feel passionately that the world needed the product we were building.&#8221; He wasn&#8217;t a concert goer, so he didn&#8217;t feel inspired to keep working on it. &#8220;As an entrepreneur, I think you need that.&#8221;
Hindsight being what it is, it&#8217;s easy to fault Lawson for missing his share of a nine-figure payday. But remember, he&#8217;s got a share of a 10-figure payday in Twilio.
Knowledge and Reputation
So how did Lawson do it? How did he rebound from a missed nine-figure payday cleanly enough to do himself one better? First he made another valuable mistake or two, which you&#8217;ll learn about listening to this Fortt Knox episode.
More important though, he was able to focus on the two most important assets he was building in each of these experiences.
&#8220;The best thing that we have as we go through our careers is our knowledge and our word – our reputation,&#8221; Lawson says. &#8220;If you&#8217;re constantly building those two things, I think generally speaking, good things end up happening to people.&#8221;
http://cnbc.africa/news/international/2017/03/17/warren-buffetts-20-slot-rule-will-make-insanely-successful-wealthy/

First get started, then get smarter – Founder-CEO’s secret to success

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/saheli-roy-choudhury/" rel="author">Saheli Roy Choudhury</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/sahelirc">@sahelirc</a>
As governments create smarter cities, they need cybersecurity measures built from the ground up — or they risk costly data breaches which could compromise the privacy of their citizens.
In 2016 alone, cyber-crime cost the global economy more than $450 billion and over two billion personal records were stolen, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/07/cybercrime-costs-the-global-economy-450-billion-ceo.html" target="_self">according to</a> the chief executive of specialist insurer Hiscox.
Cities around the world are using various technologies — smart devices, apps, sensors, big data analytics and Internet of Things applications — to <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/09/how-smart-cities-are-building-the-future.html" target="_self">improve the lives of their citizens</a>. This results in massive amounts of valuable data that interest cyber-criminals.
Etay Maor, an executive security advisor at IBM Security told CNBC if there is a way for hackers to monetize any type of stolen data, they will attack it. Traditionally, the kinds of information that drew attention were bank credentials, personal identity information and credit card details, but Maor said anything from airline miles <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/dark-web-is-fertile-ground-for-stolen-medical-records.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/dark-web-is-fertile-ground-for-stolen-medical-records.html" target="_self">to medical records</a> are now targeted.
<blockquote>&#8220;Now we have nations that are connecting (various services to the internet),&#8221; Maor said. &#8220;It&#8217;s critical that when these things are designed, when you&#8217;re talking about smart nations, security should be a top priority.&#8221;</blockquote>
The digitization of critical infrastructure, such as power plants, water supply and electricity distribution also creates vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks.
Many governments appear to realize that slapping on a layer of security at a later stage of smart city projects is no longer an option. Singapore already has a cybersecurity agency and last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.csa.gov.sg/news/press-releases/pm-launches-singapore-cybersecurity-strategy" href="https://www.csa.gov.sg/news/press-releases/pm-launches-singapore-cybersecurity-strategy" target="_self">outlined</a> the city-state&#8217;s comprehensive strategy to tackle online threats.
Jordi Puigneró, secretary for telecommunications, cybersecurity and digital society for the government of Catalonia said cybersecurity needs the same kind of emphasis as security in the physical world. If governments fail to adequately secure their smart cities, people will not trust the services, he said.
&#8220;If they don&#8217;t trust it, they won&#8217;t use it. If they don&#8217;t use it, we will not be competitive in this digital world,&#8221; Puigneró, who leads the Catalan government&#8217;s SmartCATalonia efforts, told CNBC last month at the sidelines of the IoT Asia 2017 conference in Singapore.
http://cnbc.africa/news/special-report/2017/02/14/op-ed-artificial-intelligence-is-the-key-to-outsmarting-cybercrime/
Catalonia is awaiting parliamentary approval for a cybersecurity agency, whose mandate will include the creation of a computer emergency response team, building up cyber-resilience, tackling cyber-crimes and developing competencies for cyber-defense, Puigneró said.
Cyber-criminals could theoretically hijack systems to launch powerful distributed denial of service attacks or hold an entire city for ransom in extortion attacks, according to an <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.controlrisks.com/en/our-thinking/analysis/smart-cities-and-cyber-threats" href="https://www.controlrisks.com/en/our-thinking/analysis/smart-cities-and-cyber-threats" target="_self">analysis</a> by Nicolas Reys, a consultant for cybersecurity services at Control Risks. He noted that attacks &#8220;could be designed to encrypt and cripple an entire city&#8217;s grid, with ransom demands likely to be considerable in such a scenario.&#8221;
Such tactics, Reys added, could be &#8220;highly profitable for cyber-criminals and represent a natural evolution of trends that we have observed in the current cyber-criminal community.&#8221;
Criminals have already gone after critical infrastructure around the world: a <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/27/cyber-attackers-hack-german-nuclear-plant/" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/27/cyber-attackers-hack-german-nuclear-plant/" target="_self">nuclear power plant</a> in Germany, a <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iranian-hackers-infiltrated-new-york-dam-in-2013-1450662559" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iranian-hackers-infiltrated-new-york-dam-in-2013-1450662559" target="_self">small dam in New York</a> and a <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/" href="https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/" target="_self">power grid</a> in Ukraine.
The growing complexity of cyber-attacks and the increasing number of people and devices connecting to the internet means there&#8217;s almost a near-certain possibility that hackers may be able to breach a system, experts say.
The consensus is that securing smart city projects from digital threats requires multi-layered strategies and should tap into fields such as machine learning, cryptography and artificial intelligence.
Machine learning, where a system is taught to identify anomalies within a network, is promoted by companies like U.K.-based security firm Darktrace. With every interaction, these machines learn and become better at proactively stopping threats.
Maor added that machines can also analyze and interpret huge volumes of internet data to help governments respond to breaches faster. Timing, he said, is critical in limiting the damage.
&nbsp;
Others point to the potential benefits of building smart city applications using blockchain technology, particularly the Ethereum open source platform. That system can be used to deploy <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/13/forget-currency-bitcoin-tech-could-disrupt-massively.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/13/forget-currency-bitcoin-tech-could-disrupt-massively.html" target="_self">decentralized applications</a>, according to John Lilic, a director at blockchain software company ConsenSys.
He pointed to personal identity on social networks as an example: &#8220;Your identity lives in a bunch of different boxes all over the internet, that&#8217;s why you have usernames and passwords. Because you&#8217;re logging into a database that somebody else owns.&#8221;
&#8220;With Ethereum, we can flip that upside down on its head,&#8221; Lilic told CNBC.
Building an application on Ethereum could mean the data will not be owned by any single corporate entity and could be accessed from anywhere in the world, Lilic explained. And since blockchain uses corresponding public and private keys to access encrypted data, a breach would not reveal the information without each user&#8217;s private key.
A key issue that many experts talk about is the need for more cybersecurity professionals. 
&#8220;There&#8217;s a huge lack of people in this space. You&#8217;re talking about smart nations — one of the smart things to do is to get your colleges and universities to train people about security,&#8221; said IBM&#8217;s Maor.
In Barcelona, <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/estudis/oferta_formativa/masters_propis/fitxa/M/201511757/index.html" href="http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/estudis/oferta_formativa/masters_propis/fitxa/M/201511757/index.html" target="_self">some universities</a> were starting to offer a Masters&#8217; degree in cybersecurity in the hope of bringing more professionals into the industry, Pugineró said.
&#8220;Without professionals, it is very difficult to create a (cybersecurity) industry … for that to happen, it means that our academies need to start having degrees and masters in cybersecurity so we can produce talent,&#8221; he added.

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