Archive for the ‘New Zealand’ Category
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013
New Zealand’s largest online auction site will likely see its earnings growth slow to about 8% in the coming year from a 12% pace last year.
Photo credit; David Antis on Flickr
The slow down is projected as the site reinvests in its business but it is also projected to pick up again in 2015 as those investments pay off.
Trade Me chief executive Jon Macdonald said he is comfortable with analyst estimates in a Reuters poll for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to rise 8.2% in the 2014 financial year, and accelerate to an 11 % pace in 2015.
Trade Me was the biggest disappointment in New Zealand’s 2013 reporting season, based on its stock price reaction, after it warned earnings growth would slow in the coming year as it bolstered its business to drive future profits.
The company’s shares have slid almost 4% since it reported earnings on August 21, and the stock is the third worst performer on New Zealand’s benchmark index the past month, having slid 8%. The stock was recently up 2% to $4.52.
“Fundamentally we are still very much a growth company,” Macdonald  said. “There’s an enormous amount of headroom that we have.”
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: auction, New Zealand, profits, Trade Me
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, Online Sales, online shopping, trademe | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 17th, 2013
Photo credit; epSos.de on Flickr
Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter will be live in New Zealand as of Nov. 13.
The US-based platform, which has helped raise more than $US800 million for creative projects broke the news recently via its online blog.
“In August we announced that Kickstarter would soon open up to projects based in Australia and New Zealand for the first time. Today we’re happy to announce that the day has finally come!,” the blog read.
The company said New Zealanders could start building their projects now and would be able to launch those projects on Wednesday, November 13.
“We thought the month-long gap would give everyone plenty of time to build and tweak their projects before launching. Beginning November 13, they can launch and share their projects with the world.”
Crowdfunding is a modern alternative to traditional funding avenues such as bank loans. It enables people to raise money through pledges from a large number of people, usually through a web-based campaign.
Until now, Kickstarter has only been open to US, UK and Canadian citizens.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: crowdfunding, Kickstarter, November
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, social networking | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
Photo credit; Ronaldo Ferreira on Flickr
Former teacher David Cameron started his online tutorial service, LearnCoach, off small, offering math and physics tutoring to New Zealand students. But when he shifted his focus to teaching English in China via online videos, that’s when his business really took off.
“In the six weeks it was active we had more than 3,000 students and teachers signed up for our learning resources and were delivering over 40,000 learning tutorials per day,” said Cameron, who was teaching secondary school in Dunedin when he launched the business in 2012.
Cameron secured funding through AMP’s Regional Scholarship programme and was then accepted into a three-month business accelerator programme called The Lightning Lab where he received $18,000 in seed funding, an office space, and mentoring that prompted him to refocus the business on China.
“They really encouraged us to move faster. We thought ‘how can we create a more scalable business that can help more people in a way that’s more profitable,” he said.
“It just got to a stage where we thought China was the bigger market.”
Lightening Lab culminated in a “demo day” at Te Papa in May where Cameron pitched the new idea to 150 investors and ended up attracting $750,000 in capital.
Cameron, 25, has since relaunched the business as LearnKo, offering English language lessons to people living in China.
The business’ new home is in Wellington where he has six full-time staff and another 30 part-time staff situated around New Zealand.
The next step for the business is to launch its own video service where students can meet one-on-one with their tutors.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, LearnKo, New Zealand, online, Wellington
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, Success story | No Comments »
Monday, October 14th, 2013
Photo credit; Steve on Flickr
If you have been thinking about starting an online business, but you also think you might be a little on the mature side for that, these two Kiwi sisters will be an inspiration to you.
Back in 2001, before online businesses really took off, sisters Rhondda Sweetman and Justine Kingi developed pioneering New Zealand online retailer, KiwiArtz.co.nz when they were in their 50s. They sold the business ten years later, in 2011.
The sisters shared what they describe as an undeveloped interest in NZ art and craft at the time and believed online retailing, although in its infancy back in 2001, would be an interesting way of sharing this work with the world.
They began it at a time when they had eased up on their full time jobs. Rhondda had been head of science at McCauley High School and was then doing part time teacher training at AUT University. Justine lectured in social policy and social work on the Bachelor of Social Practice degree at Unitec Institute of Technology when the two started their business.
The sisters say they got to the stage where they were representing over 100 New Zealand artists and other suppliers. Some of whom did very well out of the business. As the business grew the sisters were consistently busy all year round and rushed off their feet ahead of Christmas and other public holidays.The business grew so much, they had to automate their accounting practices and hired other employees.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: art, business, KiwiArtz.co.nz, New Zealand, online
Posted in Exporting, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store, shopping, Success story | No Comments »
Friday, October 11th, 2013
Photo credit; Blaise Alleyne on Flickr
New Zealanders spent $5.4 billion online last financial year according to Roy Morgan Research’s Digital Universe report, but despite that seemingly large number, Kiwi money largely remains outside the digital realm.
“The bulk of New Zealand’s net wealth is not yet in the digital universe,” Roy Morgan client services director Howard Seccombe says.
The reason for that is the baby boomers who have the wealth only deal in the fringes of digital technology. That will change over time as the boomers age out and the next generation who is more familiar with digital technologies take over.
Other findings from the report included:
- This year’s survey shows 61% of New Zealanders are worried about their privacy, Â up 11% from the survey carried out four years ago.
- Smartphones have seen spectacular growth, with 1.4 million users. That’s a growth of 227% in four years.
- Right now 39% of New Zealanders have smartphones.
- The Roy Morgan numbers show smartphones amplify people’s digital behaviour. Smartphone owners are ten times as likely to shop online as non-smartphone owners, eight times as likely to bank online and nine times as likely to view video clips.
- Roy Morgan notes a dramatic 20% decline in desktop ownership. This echoes the fall in traditional PC sales. Meanwhile tablets have grown 557% in the past four years.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: baby boomer, business, digital, New Zealand, online, Roy Morgan Research, wealth
Posted in computer, consumers, E-mail & the internet, Going Digital, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, online messaging, Online Sales, online security, online shopping, onlines store, smartphone, smartphones, tablet, tablets, wi-fi | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013
Photo credit; David Antis on Flickr
New Zealand’s answer to eBay, Trade Me, posted slower profit growth for 2013 and said earnings growth would continue to be lacklustre in the coming year as it reinvests in its business.
Trade Me profit rose 4% to $78.6 million in the year ended June 30, slower than the 8.4% pace a year earlier, the Wellington-based company said in a statement. Revenue rose 15% to $164.1 million as classified advertising sales surged 29% while fees from sales of general items rose 5%. Profit was just above First NZ Capital’s estimate of $77.6 million.
“We expect to grow top line revenue and bottom line earnings but these will reflect slower growth than we’ve recorded this year while we focus on reinvestment in the business,” said chief executive Jon Macdonald.
Trade Me, which has attracted about two thirds of New Zealand’s population to its online marketplace, is adding to its core auctions business to drive future growth.
The company said it had agreed to buy online insurance comparison business LifeDirect, adding to its purchase of inventory management company Tradevine and holiday rental accommodation website Holiday Homes in the past year.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, New Zealand, online, Trade Me
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, online shopping, onlines store | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013
Photo credit; elhombredenegro on Flickr
NetSafe is warning businesses to be alert after a major retail chain was targeted by overseas cyber criminals in a well-planned phishing attack that attempted to convince store staff to install rogue software on their computers.
IT staff at the chain, which NetSafe would not name, said employees at one branch had downloaded malicious software into computers in the branch after being called by an individual claiming to work for the chain.
The caller identified himself as a senior member of the company and directed employees to a fake website that was designed to look like the chain’s official tech support site.
Staff at the store then downloaded a malicious program that tried to take over computers.
The company’s IT staff noticed what was happening and blocked further access to the fake website on all their systems before cleaning up and alerting all stores to the bogus caller, NetSafe’s cyber security programme manager Chris Hails said.
No data was accessed or lost.
“The effort that has gone into creating a convincing fake website and the use of a real executive’s name is what concerns us,” Hails said.
“The website which delivered the malicious software was designed using the company’s branding, logo and corporate style and the criminals had gone to some effort to register a .co.nz URL which contained the chain’s name.”
Hails said the retail chain had asked Netsafe to keep its identity confidential but wanted others to be aware of the scam.
“Although there were no losses, the company felt there was the potential for people to feel they couldn’t trust them anymore,” he said.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: China, cybercrime, hackers, hacking, NetSafe
Posted in computer, E-mail & the internet, fraud, hacking, malicious software, New Zealand, new zealand business, online scams, online security | No Comments »
Monday, October 7th, 2013
A report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) has indicated that New Zealand ranks first out of 146 countries for the fastest time it takes to establish a company.
Photo credit; Nick Kean on Flickr
According to WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 published on September 3, the period of time required to start a business is shortest in New Zealand, where only a single day is needed.
New Zealand is followed by Australia, Georgia, Macedonia and Hong Kong with the fastest processes and procedures to found a company.
According to WEF’s research, the worst-ranked country in terms of the time required to start a business is Suriname, where the process requires 694 days, or almost two years.
Other countries which rank low in startup times include: Brunei Darussalam, Haiti, Brazil and Venezuela.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: New Zealand, WEF, World Economic Forum
Posted in New Zealand, new zealand business, New Zealand government | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013
Photo credit; Sean MacEntee on Flickr
New Zealand brother and sister Carl and Amber McNulty launched Snaffle, a new job matching tool, last month.
The business, which is based in Cromwell, Central Otago, works similar to a dating website by matching candidates in Snaffle’s database to jobs that employers have vacancies for. The employers simply need to sign in and they will already have a list of potential candidates to look at, rather than having to spend an inordinate amount of time advertising the vacancy and wading through applications from often completely unqualified candidates.
“Up until this point, Snaffle is entirely free for employers. Once they’ve identified suitable candidates, they then pay a fee to get more details about the ones they’re keen to interview and that’s it – no need to advertise, no need to read through dozens of irrelevant CVs, they only get candidates who can do the job. It’s a quick and an easy way to find the right match.”
Job-seekers pay nothing to upload their details on to Snaffle while employers are charged via a tiered system, based on the job’s salary. “For example, if it’s a $60,000 job, they pay $60 for each candidate profile they want.”
Snaffle has a staff of 14.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Amber McNulty, careers, Carl McNulty, employees, employers, jobs, Snaffle
Posted in E-mail & the internet, job, New Zealand, new zealand business, Success story | No Comments »
Monday, September 30th, 2013
Photo credit; Jeff Gunn on Flickr
New Zealand company Mako Networks, which helps businesses protect themselves from cybercrime, has opened an office in San Francisco and is ready to take a run at the American market.
The international expansion for the Auckland-headquartered company is largely due to research and development grants from the government, as well as the government-sponsored Kiwi Landing Pad in San Francisco, which helps Kiwi tech companies get a foothold in the USA.
“The Kiwi Landing Pad has served as a great base to help us get established here in North America,” said Simon Gamble, Mako’s co-founder and president for North America, adding that in its 18 months at the site, the firm had managed to secure US clients during that time and was now ‘graduating’ into its own office.
“We have significant plans for the US market and this new office is a pleasing milestone for us.”
Mako, which was started out in 2000 as YellowTuna Networks, offers cloud-based network management and security systems for companies that process credit cards.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Aukland, Kiwi Landing Pad, Mako, New Zealand, San Francisco
Posted in computer, credit cards, E-mail & the internet, hacking, New Zealand, new zealand business, New Zealand government, online scams, online security, Success story | No Comments »
