TikTok, the made-in-China, video-sharing platform beloved by youth and influencers alike, is suddenly everywhere in our new world of COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing. The platform’s growth has been tremendous, but this has come at a cost: it has come under increasing scrutiny from politicians in the US and allies like Australia over concerns about… Read more »
Gone are the days when economic policy was adjusted once each year by the government in the budget and fine-tuned once each month at meetings of the Reserve Bank board. The coroanvirus means we haven’t had a budget in more than a year. What the Reserve Bank has done to interest rates means its monthly… Read more »
The government is set to continue a revamped and re-targeted wage subsidy when it delivers its Thursday economic statement amid massive uncertainty about the trajectory of COVID-19 in the two largest states. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Sunday said JobKeeper would be extended but with changes. “There will be some adjustments to the scheme to… Read more »
The Australian Cyber Security Growth Network (AustCyber) on Monday released a report modelling the potential impact of cyberattacks and sustained digital outages on Australia. The Digital Trust Report’s modelling suggests four weeks of partial “digital disruption” could displace up to 163,000 jobs and damage the economy to the tune of A$30 billion. According to AustCyber’s… Read more »
Running a startup is not for the faint-hearted. Even in more favourable times, there’s the constant struggle with firefighting, funding, and just generally surviving. But the current disruptive environment has made start-ups particularly vulnerable. Efficiency, productivity, and growth have come under even greater pressure, while liquidity challenges and securing funding have become harder to manage… Read more »
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously observed that the only constant in life is change. But while anticipating disruptive events and developing plans to manage them is part and parcel of responsible business management, it’s a fair bet that few Australian enterprises were comprehensively prepared for a pandemic on the scale of COVID-19. Unknown to… Read more »
Occasionally, something seismic occurs that either entirely alters an established construct or rapidly accelerates a previously gentle trend. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has done exactly that to the world of work, forcing millions of us to set up temporary workspaces in spare bedrooms and lounges across Australia. Whatever our location, industry and business size, we’re… Read more »
With all of the immense challenges we face on Earth this year, space can feel like an afterthought. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the hope of a growing space industry was palpable. Ribbons were cut, buildings were dedicated and Australia’s space industry was going to triple in size in just ten years. But a few weeks… Read more »
The Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre is officially opened in Adelaide to further vital work to protect against attacks. Established as an independent not-for-profit entity through a $10 million investment by the South Australian government, the centre is located in Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen innovation neighbourhood and will concentrate on training cyber experts and developing security products.… Read more »
This is the third part in a three-part series on startup growth by venture capital investor Benjamin Chong. Part 1 is here & part 2 here. Growth guru Paul Graham’s startup incubator Y Combinator cites a good growth rate at 5 to 7% per week and an exceptional growth rate at 10% per week. The… Read more »
The COVID-19 crisis has been a challenging time for the world at large, however, there have also been surprising positives. With workplaces changing and more employees working from home, companies have been able to tap into diversity in new ways. Through the pandemic, we’ve seen new attitudes being created towards flexible and remote working. This… Read more »
For many small businesses, this financial year has been a really challenging time. Earlier in 2020, Australia’s bushland was hit by devastating fires followed closely by the COVID-19 crisis, which saw the world and economy come to an abrupt standstill. As the world went into lockdown, local businesses were forced to hibernate. Even for those… Read more »
In an age of isolation, video sharing platform TikTok has emerged as a bonding force for many. But recent headlines allege the service, owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, is feeding users’ data to the Chinese Communist Party. Earlier this week, the Herald Sun reported that an unnamed federal MP was pushing for the app to… Read more »
Many people will be asking themselves this question over the next year or two: “Am I completely crazy to be thinking about founding a startup right now?” The answer is a resounding NO! The world is going to need re-imagining on an unprecedented scale over the next few years. We have so many important problems… Read more »
A motion-detecting fitness app developed in South Australia that pays its users to exercise is set to launch this month. Adelaide-based app development company PixelForce has been working on the project – known as Fitbotic – for the past three years. Managing Director Hinney Lo said Fitbotic used motion detection technology to track the number… Read more »
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