The numbers for October 20, 2014
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The numbers for October 20, 2014
Apple Pay launches today, and many are predicting the company – at an advantage with millions of existing iPhone users – could bring mobile payments into the mainstream. Many banks are aggressively advertising the service, the Verge reported, as part of a race to become the default card on users’ lock screens.
Apple will report earnings after markets close today. In the meantime, here’s what we’re reading – and the numbers we’re watching – Monday.
At the 21-day mark since Thomas Duncan was admitted to a Texas hospital and diagnosed with Ebola, 43 of the quarantined contacts have been released, among them Duncan’s fiance and her son. Officials pleaded for compassion as their reintegrations began, the Washington Post reported. Additionally, Senegal and Nigeria were both cleared of Ebola over the weekend.
The length of Snapchat’s very first ad, a commercial for a movie based on a board game. Snapchat, which is valued at $10 billion, hasn’t made money yet, but that could change with the introduction of ads. Universal didn’t actually use Snapchat’s camera to make a “native” video, AdAge reported, but it did edit the trailer for “Oujia” to look like the app’s “stories.”
That’s how many albums have gone platinum this year. Only the soundtrack to Disney’s “Frozen,” which has moved 3.2 million copies, has the distinction. Every other record has floated under 1 million in sales. By this time last year, Forbes reported, five albums had passed the 1 million mark.
The approximate percentage of American Indian and Alaska Natives who have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to about 30 percent of all U.S. adults. Natives have the lowest educational attainment rates of all ethnic and racial groups in America. The American Indian College Fund, founded 25 years ago, was created to assist the country’s more than 30 tribal colleges and universities. These are federally-funded schools located on or near native lands.
The tech industry likes to talk about “The Next Billion.” It’s shorthand for the next billion people that will become online consumers and that makes them the target of tech giants like Google, Facebook and Samsung. This new, targeted market lives in emerging economies like China, India, Brazil and Africa, and have very different needs than the American smartphone user.
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