Daily Tech Snippet: Friday January 16

• A wild day in financial markets: Surprise rate cut in India sends Indian stocks soaring, a monetary announcement in Switzerland drives Swiss markets down 10% but sends Euro-area stocks sharply higher: India’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark short-term interest rates Thursday morning by a quarter percentage point as steeply falling prices for oil and other commodities have helped bring inflation under control and allowed the bank to focus more on allowing faster economic growth. The steep fall in world oil prices since the bank’s last interest rate review on Dec. 2 has been a big benefit for India, which relies almost entirely on imports for its oil and had been spending roughly $100 billion a year before oil prices plummeted. Switzerland stunned world markets on Thursday by abandoning a crucial part of its effort to hold down the value of its currency, concluding that the strategy was too risky and too costly given the enormous forces pushing in the other direction. The Swiss central bank had been trying to cap the value of its currency, the franc, against the euro, with nervous investors fleeing the market tumult and seeking the relative safety of Switzerland. But the euro’s decline has been particularly steep — and the rout may accelerate. The Swiss leaders’ abandonment of its target was taken as a bet that easier money from the European Central Bank is on the way, and potentially on a vast scale. The abrupt decision on Thursday sent the value of the Swiss franc soaring, as the country’s stocks broadly plummeted. The shares of exporters, in particular, got slammed over fears that the rising currency would weigh on profit. “Words fail me!” Nick Hayek, the chief executive of the Swiss watchmaker the Swatch Group, said in a statement distributed to news media, adding that today’s action “is a tsunami: for the export industry and for tourism, and finally for the entire country.” As it scrapped the cap, the Swiss central bank simultaneously cut interest rates, already in negative terrain, hoping to offset some of the damage in foreign exchange markets. It changed the rate on deposits to minus 0.75 percent from minus 0.25 percent, tripling what it costs lenders to park money at the central bank. But that was too little to stop the tide, and the franc jolted 15 percent higher against the euro. Swiss stocks plummeted in value as investors hastened to sell equities priced in francs. Euro-area stocks sharply higher at less competition from Swiss exports.

• Intel Q4 Rev $14.7B, + 6% Y/Y, Net Income $3.7B, +39% Y/Y; Losses of $4B on mobile; Stock down mildly on weak outlook: Intel’s revenue for all of 2014 was $55.8 billion. However $49 billion of that was in PC and server chips. Mobile devices, considered an important growth area, had revenue of $200 million and losses of $4.2 billion. The transition to new devices matters, because for decades Intel’s model for success has been to make enough money to invest before rivals in advanced chip-making facilities, with transistors of almost unimaginably small size. If growth and profitably slip, Intel has big problems. It ended the year with $14.1 billion in cash, despite paying $4 billion in dividends and buying back more than $10 billion in stock. Profit margins increased over the year and the quarter, ending up at 65.4 percent. Intel reported that net income in the fourth quarter rose 39 percent to $3.7 billion, or 74 cents a share, from a year ago. Revenue was $14.7 billion, up 6 percent. Intel projected revenue in 2015 would grow “in the mid-single digits,” an improvement over some recent years. The earnings exceeded expectations, particularly given the lackluster sales of personal computers recently. On Monday, two popular analyst firms issued reports indicating the PC market was essentially flat in the fourth quarter, compared with a year ago. Intel’s PC business grew 3 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with a year ago. The server business grew 25 percent, reflecting in part the growing influence of large cloud-computing systems in business and personal computing. Intel’s profit was significantly above the expectations of Wall Street analysts, who had predicted it would earn 66 cents a share, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters. Analysts thought Intel would have revenue of $14.7 billion. That suggests Intel has become relatively more profitable, through sales of products with higher margins or more efficient management. Still, Intel shares were off about 1.1 percent in after-hours trading, mostly on concerns that the company’s sales outlook was a bit below some expectations.

• Study Finds: Using Facebook and Twitter a lot can actually decrease stress — especially among women: It's become almost common knowledge now that being constantly connected makes us unhappy, particularly when it comes to being inundated with incessant social media posts. There's a reason that "unplugging" was a popular New Year's resolution for 2015. But before you decide that limiting your Facebook posts or Twitter messages is the answer to all your problems, we have some news for you: Active social media use can actually lower stress levels -- at least for women. That's the takeaway finding from a study published Thursday by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Three things make this study stand out, said Keith N. Hampton, a Rutgers University communications professor and the paper's lead author: Social media provide what Hampton calls "supportive exchange." In other words, people feel less stressed because they can stay in contact with friends and family, and feel that community support. (The world "social" is a clue.Women tend to be, in Hampton's words, the people tasked with "maintaining household family relationships." So when it comes to social media, the technology may actually be helping them fulfill those tasks more efficiently and save them time. Women are more likely to be active sharers than men. And posting a quick photo on Instagram or update on Facebook is a low-cost, easy way to do that. "Whether you share positive or negative events, sharing results in lowered levels of stress," Hampton said. "While not everyone wants to see them all the time, [posting] may be important for women in reducing stress."

• India startup action: 25 mobile startups shortlisted by IndiaQuotient for funding: Shippr: A logistics solution aimed at local deliveries. RentSetGo: A platform that enables users to borrow or lend stuff like camera, lenses as well as mountain bikes from people around them. WooMe: An app for live TV interaction and engagement. Instano: A virtual shopping platform that provides a common place to shoppers and retailers to close the best deal depending on the customers’ preferences like price and proximity. Taskbob: An m-commerce platform to book household services. Dishkhoj: An online food ordering platform. PocketAd: A mobile gaming platform that helps users earn while playing. FitHo: FitHo is an online weight loss platform with a personalised diet and exercise plan. The Zero Games: Offers a virtual billboard, which is an in-game advertisement medium through which ads can be integrated seamlessly and dynamically into the game environment and game object/assets. Pinchat: A location-based comments and conversation platform. Guiddoo: A personal tour guide and planner. Bite Club: Lets you order fresh, delicious and wholesome meals prepared by chefs around you. Loopy Messenger: A chat platform that allows you to send animated over-expressive disappearing drawings. StupidSid: An Android app that helps students learn more effectively and make informed decisions about education. Sharingo: An online car pooling platform. Tap & Eat: A smartphone app to instantly order food and drinks. Tap-Doctors: An app that allows you to reach out to your doctor or search from hundreds of doctors around you. CrownIt: Provides users with exclusive cashback offers at their favourite restaurants and outlets. ShipEasy: An online logistics marketplace that lets consumers post their shipment, and allows verified transporters to provide their best prices and services for the same. Eddiary: A digital school diary (a utility mobile app for schools) which digitises the basic communication between teachers and parents. BikeSeeker: It helps users search for bikers around their location and book for a ride. Flynx: A floating browser for Android that makes multitasking effortless while browsing web on mobile.

• Alibaba-owned mobile browser UC Browser teams up with Facebook in India: Late yesterday, Chinese tech company UC Web announced that Indian users of its mobile UC Browser will be getting a special surprise: real-time Facebook notifications as they browse the web. Prior to this, Facebook has not offered real-time notifications outside of its own mobile apps, so this partnership is – according to UC Web – breaking new ground. Users interested in taking advantage of the new feature won’t have to do much: simply download the latest update for the browser, log into your Facebook account, and you should begin enjoying instant Facebook notifications right in the browser, no matter what page you’re on. This isn’t the first time UC has pushed to make its app more appealing to Facebook users, though. In June of last year, the company released a Facebook plugin for the app that speeds up Facebook’s loading time for users who choose to browse it within UC Browser. UC Browser is one of the most internationally successful tech products to emerge from China in recent years. UC Web recently announced that its browser is the most popular third-party mobile browser in the world. It even ranks above first-party browsers like Chrome and Safari in key Asian markets including China and India.

• How Amazon Listing Requirements for Sellers Evolved in 2014: Below are three tweaks Amazon made to its product listings in 2014 in efforts to improve product visibility and customer experience. If your Amazon listings don’t follow suit, you might as well turn your ship around and head home, because your listings will likely be lost in the vast Amazon ocean. Listing Optimization Framework: What does this mean for retailers? Listing quality improves product visibility and conversion. Listings with complete product information improve the shopping experience by making it easier for customers to not only find, but evaluate and purchase your product. Amazon has too many data requirements to list here, but retailers should break down and think about each of their listings using a List Optimization Framework, consisting of core data (product title, image, brand, etc.), categorization data (Item Type keyword) and product-specific data (size, color, style, etc.). Suppressed Listings: What does this mean for retailers? Amazon may already be suppressing some of your products. Regularly review Amazon’s Suppressed Products and address missing data. Ask yourself this question: Are all the items you’ve listed live on the site? Amazon will suppress product listings that don’t meet certain standards, so it’s important that you keep a close watch on which products are being suppressed. The Amazon Selling Coach can provide you with an updated list. Listing Visibility: What does this mean for retailers? Amazon will continue to increase listing requirements, so you should clean and expand your data now. Act like a buyer, review the product browsing process on Amazon.com and provide the attributes that are missing. Think of a traditional, brick-and-mortar store. Merchandise is organized logically and strategically so buyers can easily locate products. Amazon accomplishes this same merchandising concept online by using an Item Type keyword value to put your product in the right place. So make sure you’re using the right Item Type, so that your products are being cataloged correctly and finding the right shoppers. Data quality often becomes a problem for many retailers as they increase their number of SKUs and have more to keep up with. It helps to use a robust e-commerce platform provider that has the tools to keep your data accurate and up to date. Bottom Line: The massive product selection on Amazon brings with it a massive consumer base. And to retain customers and draw in new ones, Amazon will continue to evolve to better cater to consumers’ needs. And this goes well beyond updated listing requirements. As a retailer, if you’re not on top of Amazon’s evolutions — Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), mobile and social, advertising and promotions, and expansion (just to name a few) — you may risk becoming obsolete on the marketplace.

• Google will stop selling Glass to the general public - but Google says the device is not dead yet. (More coverage here) A report from the Wall Street Journal on Thursday said Google will stop selling Glass to the general public Jan. 19. The company confirmed the report and said Google will still give Glass units to developers and companies who want to look at its applications for the office as part of Google's "Glass at Work" program, which has examined how the headset can help professionals such as doctors, emergency workers and filmmakers. On the consumer front, the company has been pretty quiet about Glass in recent months, a striking contrast to its splashy 2012 launch, when Google chief executive Sergey Brin unveiled the device by skydiving into the company's developers conference. At first it was only available to developers, dubbed "Explorers" by the company, who wanted to play around with the new technology. Over the next year, Google tried to make the device more marketable to the general public by introducing. high-fashion frames, sunglasses lenses and prescription lenses for Glass. But the idea of a face-worn computer still met with skepticism, ridicule and even hostility from the general public. It also drew several comparisons to notable tech flops such as the Segway as a product that started with a good idea but was ultimately too niche -- and, honestly, too nerdy -- to catch on outside a group of dedicated enthusiasts. Despite originally hinting that it would launch a consumer version of Glass by the end of 2014, Google never did -- though the company did eventually let anyone with $1,500 buy their own developer version.