How will the new rules hurt Walmart and Amazon? The Indian government recently updated its policies for foreign direct investments (FDI) in e-commerce platforms, and the changes could throttle Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN) growth in the country. The new rules, which go into effect on Feb. 1, will ban online retailers from offering exclusive sales, prevent them from selling products in which they own equity interest, and introduce new restrictions on discounts and cashback offers. The rules are aimed at helping smaller retailers compete more effectively against Walmart's Flipkart and Amazon. The new FDI rules could hurt Flipkart and Amazon in several ways. First, both companies frequently partner with big brands to launch platform-exclusive sales, especially for smartphones. Amazon previously launched an exclusive sale withXiaomi (NASDAQOTH: XIACF), and Flipkart did the same with Oppo. The new rules wil...
By now , you have probably heard a thing or two about the promise of blockchain and Bitcoin. At a high level, blockchain technology is a way of securely managing access and information. The core of blockchain hinges on the idea of decentralization, which essentially distributes power and risk equitably across players in a network. Blockchain startups are finding a niche and clever ways to optimize industries, by replacing intermediary parties (brokers, agents, etc.) with smart contracts that automatically verify actions without compromising data security. Platforms like Gameflip and Filecoin are able to solve fundamental marketplace challenges, worth billions of dollars, which have been terrorizing ecosystems for decades. Other companies, like SparkleCoin , are driving blockchain adoption at scale by empowering everyday consumers to purchase real-world products and services from the world's largest online retailers using cryptocurrencies. How does it work in p...