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UnionBank first to join Visa FinTech Fast Track Program as BIN sponsor in PH

Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) has announced that the company is the first partner in the country to join Visa’s FinTech Fast Track program as a BIN sponsor. This means that UnionBank can work with fintech providers to help them gain access to the same global payment technology, expertise and revenue opportunities as they would if they were a direct card issuer with Visa. Partnering with UnionBank also provides fintechs the solutions and expertise they need to launch their programs with speed and efficiency. “At Visa, we are focused on engaging and building strategic partnerships with FinTechs through our existing programs. We’re extremely pleased to have UnionBank join us as the first Visa Fintech Fast Track program partner and BIN sponsor in the Philippines," said Dan Wolbert, Visa Country Manager for the Philippines. "We will collaborate with UnionBank to identify Fintechs that can create relevant payment programs to reach out to the underserved segments and leverage

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Yield Guild Games raises $4.6M from a16z to accelerate play-to-earn gaming

Yield Guild Games (YGG), a decentralized gaming guild of players and investors who generate yield from NFT-based games, announced Friday it has raised a $4.6M investment led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The round, which was finalized prior to the YGG token sale on July 27, was joined by Kingsway Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Atelier Ventures, and gaming entrepreneur Gabriel Leydon.  The funding will be used to continue YGG’s investment in digital assets in games and virtual worlds across the play-to-earn ecosystem, while expanding its global community of over 48,000 gamers, with more than half of the members residing in the Philippines. As a provider of scholarships to the game Axie Infinity, YGG’s player base can borrow its yield-generating in-game assets under a revenue-sharing model, so they can begin earning an income from playing NFT games without having to invest any money upfront. To date, YGG has 4,700 scholars, over 2500 of whom are Filipinos, in

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Huawei Developer Day 2021 happening on August 20

Global tech leader Huawei is set to present its most recent feats in the Philippine market across its many verticals on August 20 at the HUAWEI Developer Day. The tech giant is also expected to provide updates on how it is building and growing its ecosystem in the Philippines vis-a-vis the local rollout of the recently launched HarmonyOS and how it is projected to further the smart lifestyle of Filipino Huawei fans. Another highlight of the upcoming e-conference is the showcase of the Petal Search Nearby -- the latest update to the Petal Search which optimizes its suggestions and searches related to location. On the enterprise front, Huawei will be sharing how the Huawei Cloud is accelerating the digital transformation of Philippine enterprises. This is Huawei Philippines’ third installment of its annual developer’s day to reaffirm its commitment to making the lives of Filipinos through technology. “We at Huawei have always had the best interest of our customers as the bedrock of eve

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realme still no. 1 spot in PH for Q2 2021, now the fastest to sell 100M units globally

realme Philippines continues to dominate the local smartphone industry as it claims the no. 1 spot in the market once again, according to international research firms IDC, Canalys, and Counterpoint Research in their respective Q2 2021 reports. With this milestone, the fast-growing tech and lifestyle brand has now managed to hold the top spot for two consecutive quarters—an impressive feat the brand attained in less than three years. The brand first held this position in Q3 of 2020, just less than two years since its entry into the Philippine market in November 2018. According to Canalys, realme accounted for 26 percent of the local market share, besting four other smartphone brands in the category. It also reported a 51 percent year-over-year growth for the brand during this quarter. The brand also ranked first in a separate report by Counterpoint Research, with a 21 percent market share. Similarly, realme also showed leadership in e-commerce channels. “realme continued to lead the

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Huawei to invest $100M in Asia-Pacific startup ecosystem over three years

Huawei has announced its plan to invest $100 million in startup support at the inaugural HUAWEI CLOUD Spark Founders Summit, which took place simultaneously in Singapore and Hong Kong. Huawei said the investment would go towards its Spark Program in the Asia-Pacific region including the Philippines, which aims to build a sustainable startup ecosystem over the next three years. Huawei has been helping Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand build their startup hubs. At the summit, Huawei also announced the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam as four additional startup hubs, with the overarching aim of recruiting a total of 1,000 startups into the Spark accelerator program and shaping 100 of them into scaleups. Huawei also launched its Cloud-Plus-Cloud Collaboration and Joint Innovation Program, to further ramp up its support for startups around the world. Huawei will devote ongoing efforts and leverage its complete business portfolio in the cloud-plus-cloud collaborati

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Gear up with MSI's back to school promo

It is once again that time of the year when school starts right around the corner. MSI, a world leader in producing high-performance and innovative laptops, is ready with its back-to-school promo that starts on August 1 and lasts until September 30. Students of different backgrounds, whether they are gamers by night, studious types or artistic individuals, and coming from all sorts of diverse strands from arts, business, engineering to the sciences, can all gear up for this upcoming school year when they purchase their MSI gaming or business and productivity laptops that come with various freebies that can be worth as much as P11,000. Freebies such as gaming headsets, backpacks, neck pillows, wireless mice, external HDD, and many more are up for grabs! Make the most out of your school experience with MSI The hustle and bustle of school have its own challenges, especially while people are still stuck in their homes. MSI’s GF Series, Modern 14, Summit E15 and Stealth 15M are perfect f

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Safeguarding valuable productivity, reducing downtime with Fortinet Email Security

In IT, availability and the cost of downtime are top of mind. In fact, it’s a surefire bet that any downtime caused by an unplanned disruption or outage will get the attention of employees and leaders faster than anything else IT is doing at a given time. But aside from the annoyance, when applications fail, it costs organizations money. Especially, with a business-critical application like email, downtime of even a few hours can add up. To reduce downtime and ensure employee productivity is uninterrupted, Fortinet offers email continuity services as part of its FortiMail Cloud SaaS service. Cloud-based email services can introduce unexpected costs Gartner estimates that 71 percent of organizations today are using cloud-based email services. Though the reasons for using these services are clear—no underlying hardware or software to maintain, bundled costs and pay for what you use licensing—they can introduce unexpected costs.  For instance, in a three-week period in 2020, Microsoft

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Huawei, JMC ink ICT deal for 5th industrial revolution

Jose Maria College (JMC) signed July 6 an agreement with telecommunications giant, Huawei, to keep up with the latest innovations that technology can offer to today’s education and pursue the fifth industrial revolution of educational technology. Through the partnership, students will soon be able to access the most modern educational tools such as state-of-the-art Learning Management Systems (LMS), Virtual Laboratories, Virtual Reality, Smart Campus, etc. According to Ken Sentorias, the JMC Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) Director, the opportunities are limitless because both JMC and Huawei are on the same page of commitment and that is to deliver the latest educational technology. It can be noted that the Philippines is among the countries that are still in the third industrial revolution of educational technology. Students from developed countries such as Japan, China, and the United States are currently the only ones experiencing the fifth industrial revo

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Learning beyond classroom with Huawei ICT Academy

True to its word of creating "New Value Together, Win Together," Huawei Philippines has recently recognized the significant contributions and exemplary performance of its industry and academic partners, conferring the ICT Talent Partner of the Year 2020 award to STI College, which has the highest number of students passing the Huawei certifications offered by Huawei ICT Academy. Cultivating Filipino ICT talents at the early stage As a tech-driven educational institution with a large network of schools in the Philippines, STI College understands the difficulties faced by students who are pursuing ICT-related courses. Despite the increased adoption and use of digital technologies in the country, digitalization efforts in the education sector remain impacted by broadband penetration and access to advanced technologies. Students often fall short of meeting the industry's talent requirements, struggling to acquire up-to-date knowledge and credentials, such as virtual training and certifi

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ABS-CBN News enhances apps to help Filipinos get news easier

Staying updated on news stories that matter is now a lot easier for Filipinos as they can now listen to the articles being read and search for stories using their voice while using the ABS-CBN News App. The app is now able to read news stories to users who may not have the time or capability to read the articles, like those who are on the go or are multitasking. To activate the feature, they simply need to click on the “Listen to article” icon in the menu located at the top of the screen and a voice will immediately read out the text. Meanwhile, it is also simpler for users to find content on the ABS-CBN News App with the new voice search function. Currently available on Android devices with text-to-speech function only, this feature can be activated by tapping on the microphone button on the upper left side of the app’s screen. Once the prompt “Speak Now” appears, the user can mention the topic or keywords of the story he or she is looking for and the results will appear thereafte

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