Juha Saarinen

1 day ago | interest.co.nz | Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves |Juha Saarinen

Nasdaq-listed crypto currency exchange Coinbase has suffered a serious security incident in which customer data was stolen, ending up in the hands of criminals demanding a US$20 million dollar ransom. Coinbase, which sees trading volumes of between US$3.25 billion to US$4.4 billion daily as the largest exchange in the United States, said criminals "bribed and recruited a group of rogue overseas support agents" to steal data from it.

2 days ago | interest.co.nz | Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves |Juha Saarinen

When the Member’s Bill about banning social media for adolescents under 16 went into the biscuit tin, the media release accompanying it and the immediate backing from the highest echelons of the Government made it clear the proposed law would be elevated to official policy work. Kicking the issue upstairs was quick and well-orchestrated. B416, a “great group of Kiwis”, as the Prime Minister called them, supporting the ban, popped up just before the Bill and ensuing government announcement.

1 week ago | interest.co.nz | Juha Saarinen |Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves

Chinese household appliance maker Dreame Technology decided to kick off its New Zealand operations properly, having tested the local waters since last year. Dreame did so on Waiheke, a lovely location that can be difficult to reach when storms wreak havoc with event schedules. That is what happened, as strong winds and heavy rain caused ferry delays for the arrival of product and sales people from the big retailers wanting to check out Dreame’s new offerings for the New Zealand market.

1 week ago | interest.co.nz | Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves |Juha Saarinen

Electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla has reported a catastrophic slump in New Zealand automotive sales revenue, which plummeted 69 per cent to $107.2 million in 2024 from $342 million in 2023. Total NZ revenue collapsed to $149.5 million from $373.6 million, with net profit nosediving 84 per cent to just $457,120 from $2.78 million the previous year.

1 week ago | interest.co.nz | Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves |Juha Saarinen

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to permeate just about everything. Now, payments giants Visa and Mastercard have come up with offerings that enable AI agents - think of them as one step up from bots, to do some online tasks independently - to shop for you, in fact. Mastercard's offering is called Shopping Muse. It uses generative AI (GenAI) and is based on what Mastercard-acquired Dynamic Yield has built with its AffinityML (machine learning) tech.