Category: South Africa

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Relo Metrics, the leading sports measurement platform, and Meltwater, a leading global provider of media, social, and consumer intelligence, today announced a new partnership that will transform how sports and entertainment customers measure and maximize sponsorship performance in the digital landscape. This collaboration will enable customers to unlock unparalleled insights with Relo’s AI-powered sponsorship analytics platform alongside Meltwater’s media intelligence solutions.

2024 has been the year of sports, and the overall live entertainment industry continues to have a renaissance worldwide. The need for all parties to ensure that their messages are breaking through, and that all the value is being properly measured has risen in strategic importance.

The vast digital media landscape, the thousands of websites that cover sports, entertainment, and news are the source of trillions of impressions worldwide. Previously all of that engagement and brand exposure in stories, photos, and videos was not being measured and valued in relation to a brand and a sports team, or a brand and an entertainment event. With this partnership, customers will now gain access to even more actionable insights on sponsorship performance including media values and impressions, alongside all the other channels of measurement in the Relo and Meltwater platforms.

The primary customer profiles benefiting from this partnership include:

• Rights Holders (Sports Properties, Teams, and Leagues): Closing the gap between marketing, social, PR/comms and partnership sales teams with insights that measure partner performance across the season, assisting with renewing partnerships and growing revenue potential.
• Brands: Within marketing there are planning and execution teams that cut across all marketing and communication channels uniting it with media strategy and experiential marketing.
• Agencies: This partnership will enable various agencies within PR, Media, and Sports to collaborate on data strategy and measurement.

“This partnership with Meltwater is a game-changer for the sports and entertainment industry. By providing even more insights into media and sponsorship measurement we are unlocking a massive, previously untapped source of brand value,” said Jay Prasad, CEO of Relo Metrics. “By adding additional media insights alongside broadcast and social exposure, we’re empowering rights holders, brands, and agencies to see the full picture of their sponsorship performance, and ultimately drive more strategic and data-backed decisions. This is a huge leap forward in delivering actionable insights that transform how sponsorships are valued.”

Meltwater’s suite of solutions unlocks the power of media, social, and consumer data, transforming them into actionable insights to give customers a competitive edge. With the most comprehensive dataset in the industry and more than 1 billion pieces of media and social content analyzed each day, Meltwater empowers companies with easy-to-action insights that drive data-backed decision-making. Its suite of solutions spans media intelligence, media relations, social listening, social media management, influencer marketing, consumer intelligence, and more.

For brands, agencies, rights holders, and media companies who seek to maximize the impact and ROI of their sports sponsorship investments, Relo Metrics provides unparalleled performance analytics that delivers granular insights and full-funnel measurement. Relo differentiates itself by offering deterministic conversion and attribution metrics, empowering stakeholders to understand the true value and outcomes of their sponsorships.

A key part of this strategy is Relo Metrics’ partner ecosystem by which is enabling Relo to go beyond valuation, named strategic partnerships with complementary technologies in the sports marketing space, giving clients a complete picture of their sponsorship performance.

“In today’s rapidly-evolving media landscape, it’s critical that brands have a comprehensive view of their performance and brand value across all channels. Meltwater is excited to partner with Relo Metrics to enable brands, agencies, rights holders, and media companies to gain a more holistic view of the impact of their sponsorships and optimize their strategies to reach even greater heights,” said Doug Balut, SVP of Global Alliances and Partnerships at Meltwater.

Relo Metrics
Relo Metrics is an AI-powered sponsorship analytics platform that enables brands to track and optimize their sponsorship investments and powers teams and leagues with the insights they need to retain and grow revenue. The company tracks sponsor exposure across live broadcasts, social media, and streaming platforms and delivers actionable insights via a fast, single-solution platform. For more information, visit www.relometrics.com

Meltwater
Meltwater empowers companies with a suite of solutions that spans media, social, consumer and sales intelligence. By analyzing ~1 billion pieces of content each day and transforming them into vital insights, Meltwater unlocks the competitive edge to drive results. With 27,000 global customers, 50 offices across six continents and 2,300 employees, Meltwater is the industry partner of choice for global brands making an impact. Learn more at meltwater.com.

Contacts:
Hannah Shain, VP Marketing, Relo Metrics, [email protected]
Jonalyn Morris (US) / Shawn Belluigi (EMEA), Bubble Agency, [email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9351610

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Meltwater, a global leader in media, social and consumer intelligence, today announces a new integration with Snap Inc., becoming the first social listening platform to provide Snapchat-specific insights for brands and agencies to inform their advertising and content strategies on the platform.

As brands increasingly recognize the importance of Snapchat, which is home to a community of 443 million daily active users¹, in their marketing efforts, the new partnership allows Meltwater to provide customers with tools to optimize their presence on the platform.

Through the integration, Meltwater customers can surface and analyze content coming from public Snapchat profiles, including Stories, saved Stories, and Spotlight videos, via Snapchat’s Public Profile API. Meltwater users can view post and profile-level Snapchat metrics like views and engagement, and gain insights on topics, sentiment and more.

Meltwater’s listening analytics are geared towards marketing teams who want to boost their Snapchat presence and drive better campaign results. By analyzing trends and best-performing stories, brands and agencies can gain deeper audience insights and improve content performance on Snapchat.

Key benefits of the new integration include:

• Comprehensive campaign analysis: Measure and analyze the resulting engagement, reach, and sentiment of branded content and campaigns on Snapchat, and easily report on the impact of campaigns.
• Image recognition: Measure brand exposure and ROI of sponsorship activities with AI generated tags on video and image content that can highlight brand names, logos and more.
• Optimized content strategy & performance: Analyze the types of public Snapchat content that perform best and incorporate insights and learnings to boost performance.
• Deeper audience insights: Analyze and learn audiences’ attitudes, interests, and preferences and craft more engaging content aligned to audiences’ wants, needs, and interests.
• Trendspotting: Detect emerging themes and trends across public Snapchat profiles.
• Competitive benchmarking: Benchmark and analyze competitors’ content performance on Snapchat and identify opportunities to outperform competitors.

“Meltwater’s integration with Snapchat represents a new milestone in social listening, enabling brands to gather meaningful public insights from Snapchat’s platform to help them stay informed, competitive, and engaged with their audiences,” said Ali Rana, Global Head of Revenue Partnerships, Snap Inc. “We are pleased to welcome Meltwater as an official API partner and look forward to seeing how this integration helps brands and agencies achieve impactful campaign results across the board.”

“We’re excited to partner with Snapchat and become an official Snapchat partner,” said Chris Hackney, Chief Product Officer at Meltwater. “With the increased importance of video content across social media, our customers are eager for greater insights into how they can craft standout campaigns and build stronger, more meaningful connections with their audiences. It’s fantastic to see Snapchat leaning into the power of social listening, and enabling brands to better understand how they are performing on this important platform.”

With this integration, Meltwater is well-positioned to support brands in navigating the competitive landscape of social media marketing and ensure they have the insights needed to reach audiences on Snapchat for years to come.

For more information please contact:
Kelly Costello
[email protected]

About Meltwater
Meltwater empowers companies with solutions that span media, social and consumer intelligence. By analyzing ~1 billion pieces of content daily and transforming them into vital insights, Meltwater unlocks the competitive edge to drive results. With 27,000 global customers, 50 offices across six continents, and 2,300 employees, Meltwater is the industry partner for global brands making an impact. Learn more at meltwater.com.

About Snapchat
Snap Inc. is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. We contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. The Company’s three core products are Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world; Lens Studio, an augmented reality platform that powers AR across Snapchat and other services; and its AR glasses, Spectacles. For more information, visit snap.com.

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¹ Snap Inc. internal data Q3 2024 vs. Q3 2023

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9351644

Bitget Wallet introduces the PayFi Flywheel, integrating earning, sending, and spending into an onchain ecosystem that keeps every dollar productive

VICTORIA, Seychelles, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bitget Wallet, a leading Web3 non-custodial wallet, has unveiled its 2025 strategy with PayFi being a key focus. With over 60 million users, Bitget Wallet is bringing PayFi to the forefront of personal finance, transforming crypto from a passive asset into a powerful financial tool for everyday use. By combining the efficiency of crypto payments and the ability to earn through decentralized finance (DeFi), PayFi integrates earning, sending, and spending into an ecosystem that maximizes the utility of every dollar, ensuring that every transaction contributes to financial growth. Bitget Wallet is positioning itself as a financial superapp, bridging blockchain innovation and real-world usability to revolutionize how individuals manage their money.

Bitget Wallet Unveils PayFi Vision

Bitget Wallet’s PayFi Flywheel transforms crypto wallets from passive storage tools into engines of financial empowerment. With its earning, sending, and spending ecosystem, users can deposit crypto assets, such as stablecoins, into savings accounts offering flexible, real-time yields. These yields aren’t locked away but directly fuel daily expenditures, from shopping to subscriptions, supporting the “Buy Now, Pay Never” concept, where DeFi yields cover part of the expenses. By converging earning, sending, and spending, powered by blockchain’s efficiency, PayFi creates an interconnected ecosystem that keeps money productive and empowers users to grow their assets seamlessly.

Bitget Wallet introduces the PayFi Flywheel

Bitget Wallet introduces the PayFi Flywheel, integrating earning, sending, and spending into an onchain ecosystem that keeps every dollar productive

“PayFi is not just a product; it’s a movement to make crypto a viable financial tool for billions globally,” said Alvin Kan, COO of Bitget Wallet. “By leveraging the PayFi Flywheel, we’re redefining personal finance, integrating blockchain-powered systems into everyday life. This marks a paradigm shift in how people manage money — empowering individuals with tools to maximize productivity and financial freedom while making crypto more practical and impactful worldwide.”

A cornerstone of Bitget Wallet’s PayFi initiative is the upcoming Bitget Wallet Card, a crypto card supported by Mastercard and linked to a crypto-friendly, multi-currency international bank account. The card will enable seamless global spending, offering competitive exchange rates. In addition to the card, Bitget Wallet is building an in-app shopping experience through partnerships with companies such as Triple A, Bitrefill, IvendPay, PundiX, and Coinpal. These partnerships enable users to spend crypto on everyday services, from purchasing gift cards for top brands like Amazon and Apple to topping up mobile credits and making in-store payments via QR codes or blockchain-powered POS systems. This interconnected ecosystem broadens crypto’s real-world application, ensuring that earning, sending, and spending reinforce one another in a cycle of value creation.

Bitget Wallet also plans to introduce enhanced earning features, offering flexible yield options ranging from low-risk returns to higher-yield opportunities. Users can keep their funds productive even while using them for daily spending, ensuring money generates yield while remaining accessible. Peer-to-peer transfers will be streamlined, allowing faster, cheaper, and more accessible crypto transactions for daily use and remittances. “We’ve seen exceptional growth in some regions driven by high inflation and limited banking access,” said Alvin Kan, COO of Bitget Wallet. “In Africa alone, user numbers grew over 1000% last year, with similar trends in the Middle East and Latin America. These figures underscore the rising demand for decentralized solutions, and with PayFi, we aim to empower underserved regions with accessible financial tools.”

For further details, visit the Bitget Wallet blog.

About Bitget Wallet
Bitget Wallet is the home of Web3, uniting endless possibilities in one non-custodial wallet. With over 60 million users, it offers comprehensive onchain services, including asset management, instant swaps, rewards, staking, trading tools, live market data, a DApp browser, an NFT marketplace and crypto payment. Supporting over 100 blockchains, 20,000+ DApps, and 500,000+ tokens, Bitget Wallet enables seamless multi-chain trading across hundreds of DEXs and cross-chain bridges, along with a $300 million protection fund to ensure safety of users’ assets. Experience Bitget Wallet Lite to start a Web3 journey.
For more information, visit: X | Telegram | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | TikTok | Discord
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

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GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 1001046243

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zoom Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) today announced it will release its financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2025 on Monday, February 24, 2025, after the market closes.

A live Zoom Webinar of the event can be accessed at 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET through Zoom’s investor relations website at https://investors.zoom.us. A replay will be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of the live event.

About Zoom
Zoom’s mission is to provide an AI-first work platform for human connection. Reimagine teamwork with Zoom Workplace — Zoom’s open collaboration platform with AI Companion empowers teams to be more productive. Together with Zoom Workplace, Zoom’s Business Services for sales, marketing, and customer experience teams, including Zoom Contact Center, strengthen customer relationships throughout the customer lifecycle. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Get more information at zoom.com.

Public Relations
Colleen Rodriguez
Head of Global PR for Zoom
[email protected]

Investor Relations
Charles Eveslage
Head of Investor Relations for Zoom
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9350562

Research indicates continued global innovation, with semiconductors leading the way

BOSTON, Jan. 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Anaqua, the leading provider of innovation and intellectual property (IP) management technology solutions and services, today released its annual analysis of USPTO data using its AcclaimIP patent analytics software, which found that patent grants increased by nearly 6% to 368,597 over the past 12 months.

“The increase in global patent activity points to an encouraging sign of companies’ continued investment in emerging technologies,” said Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua. “Our market leading AcclaimIP solution helps clients search over 165 million patents helping them to analyze IP in order to determine patentability and assess the competitive patent landscape. We’re proud to support the world’s most innovative companies in making better decisions about their business.”

Most Innovative Companies

With 10,427 granted patents, Samsung Electronics continues to lead the most innovative companies list, with growth areas including multi-device organic light emitting solid state devices, electric data processing interface arrangements, and plural common substrate semiconductor arrangements.

The other top five most innovative companies include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) with 4,127 granted patents, LG Corp with 3,987, Qualcomm with 3,474, and Apple with 3,437 granted patents.

Apple’s focus on multi-use digital information transmission path technology, wireless communication local resource management, and other wireless-related innovations led to its entry into the top five list.

Most Innovative Countries

U.S.-based companies continue to lead all countries globally in the total number of granted U.S. patents at 157,955, despite an almost 3% decrease from the previous 12-month period. The USPTO analysis found that APAC-based countries continue to be well represented in the top five including Japan, followed by China, and South Korea. Germany, in fifth place, led European countries.

Top Innovation Areas

Based on the most granted patents, the top technology fields include semiconductor technology, artificial intelligence (AI), medical-related patents, 5G, and virtual reality (VR). The rest of the top ten list includes program control units, unauthorized user detection technologies, chemical-related technologies, wireless, and electric vehicles.

Global semiconductor innovation led to the sector’s third year of growth in overall patent grant volume, up from 49,831 in 2021 to 67,118 in 2024. The top companies contributing to this increase with the most U.S. granted patents include Samsung Electronics, TSMC, Intel, BOE, and LG Corp.

AI patent grants grew in overall volume for the fourth year – increasing from 34,544 in 2020 to 54,022 in 2024 – with innovations in biological-related AI, machine learning AI, image or voice recognition AI, scene-specific elements of image/video AI, and general image analysis.

“Our annual patent report serves as a benchmark to monitor and track evolving trends in patent activity from the largest global organizations and emerging technology areas,” said Shayne Phillips, Director of Analytics Solutions at Anaqua. “Increases in semiconductor and AI granted patents in particular signal a healthy invention ecosystem that spans industries.”

Download Anaqua’s infographic to review the full data here. To learn more about Anaqua’s AcclaimIP solution, visit acclaimip.com.

Methodology

The data for this report was analyzed by Anaqua’s AcclaimIP system, a patent search and analytics software tool leveraging public patent information from the USPTO. The metric used to determine innovative organizations is patent applications published and granted applications over a 12-month period between December 1, 2023 and November 30, 2024.

About Anaqua

Anaqua, Inc. is a premier provider of integrated intellectual property (IP) management technology solutions and services for corporations and law firms. Its IP management software solutions, AQX® and PATTSY WAVE®, both offer best practice workflows with big data analytics and tech-enabled services to create an intelligent environment designed to inform IP strategy, enable IP decision-making, and streamline IP operations, tailored to each segment’s need. Today, nearly half of the top 100 U.S. patent filers and global brands, as well as a growing number of law firms worldwide use Anaqua’s solutions. Over one million IP executives, attorneys, paralegals, administrators, and innovators use the platform for their IP management needs. The company’s global operations are headquartered in Boston, with offices across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia. For additional information, please visit anaqua.com, or on Anaqua’s LinkedIn.

Company Contact:
Nancy Hegarty
VP, Marketing
Anaqua
617-375-2655
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9350131