• On Thursday, the Silicon Valley-based synthetic-biology company Zymergen announced a mammoth funding round of $400 million.
• It's the third largest biotech deal of 2018.
• With financing from SoftBank Vision Fund and Goldman Sachs, the fresh infusion of cash brings the startup to the forefront of a hot and growing industry based on manufacturing goods with biology.
• Zymergen doesn't yet have any consumer-facing products, but CEO Joshua Hoffman told Business Insider they're working on their first: a safe insect repellant that he expects to see on the market by 2021.

Part of the reason Andreas Stavropoulos joined venture-capital firm DFJ was to put his money toward products that the world had never seen before.

That's also why he chose to lead the firm's investment in Zymergen, a Bay Area science and tech company that turns living organisms into new materials.

On Thursday, Zymergen announced a mammoth funding round of $400 million, bringing the five-year-old startup to the forefront of a hot and growing industry based on manufacturing goods with biology instead of chemistry. It's the third largest biotech deal of 2018, according to data from research firm PitchBook.

In recent years, investors have been pouring money into companies in that field, known as synthetic biology. Put simply, synthetic biology involves harnessing the power of cells to make everything from less-toxic sweeteners for food to drugs and biodegradable building materials and bags.

From 2012 to 2017, funding for synthetic biology startups has more than tripled, surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2016, according to a report from CB Insights. Deals have also mushroomed, rising more than 150% since 2012, the authors of the report concluded.

The idea is to move away from old, highly polluting manufacturing processes based on petrochemicals in favor of cheaper, faster, and more sustainable methods founded on cells.

"For us it's all about big ideas," Stavropoulos told Business Insider. But with Zymergen, "It's not just theory. They're doing it."

Joshua Hoffman, Zymergen's cofounder and CEO, told Business Insider that part of its aim isn't simply to avoid dirty materials. It's also to plan for a future where those materials run out or become insufficient and to think of new and better products that don't yet exist.

"We’re seeing diminishing results from companies using traditional chemical processes to manufacture their goods," Hoffman said. "There’s only so much more innovation to get."

'An engine you can crank ... where amazing things come out'

Zymergen stands out to Stavropoulos because it doesn't simply want to make better alternatives to existing products (think foldable, rollable materials for smartphone displays that will be better than the rigid materials we have now). It also aims to make brand-new products.

"There's immense value in this company as a platform," Stavropoulos said. "When what you essentially have is an engine you can crank where every time you crank it amazing things come out, that's huge."

This week's monster funding round in Zymergen was led by SoftBank Vision Fund. Goldman Sachs also invested, alongside returning investor DFJ. The money brings the company to nearly $600 million in total funding.

Zymergen doesn't yet have any consumer-facing products, but Hoffman said they are working on their first: a safe, nontoxic insect repellant that he expects to see on the market by 2021. Hoffman said the company is working with a number of Fortune 500 companies on projects whose details he's not free to disclose and that more than $500 million worth of products have been made with its techniques.

Those include unique, flexible films that would enable the world's first foldable electronics and special kinds of ultra-durable coatings and glues. Although Zymergen's existing product lineup isn't public, the company has issued and published 26 patents for everything from pieces of their engineering platform to techniques for electrically coaxing new DNA into the cells of bacteria.

The year of synthetic biology?

Zymergen isn't the only synthetic-biology company that appears to be thriving.

Aside from Zymergen, a handful of other synthetic-biology startups have attracted fresh funding in recent months, from Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks — which in September signed a $122 million deal with marijuana producer Cronos to create lab-grown cannabis compounds — to San Diego-based Genomatica, which in October raised $90 million to churn out alternatives to the traditional chemicals used in plastic bags.

Read more: A startup with ties to Bayer has inked a $122 million deal to make lab-grown marijuana — and it's eyeing the pharma industry

Geltor, a startup in the Bay Area using bacteria to make animal-free collagen for cosmetics, recently raised $18 million with help from global collagen supplier Gelita, and this fall agricultural startup Pivot Bio closed a $70 million financing round to beef up its microbe-based fertilizer business.

Investors like Stavropoulos say the companies are working on a similar premise: that their superior production techniques can save companies money while protecting the environment and pushing the boundaries of what's possible.

"It's about making things better, cheaper, and at an industrial scale," Stavropoulos said.

SEE ALSO: A startup with ties to Bayer has inked a $122 million deal to make lab-grown marijuana — and it's eyeing the pharma industry

DON'T MISS: 40 AND UNDER: The Silicon Valley biotech stars who are backing startups aiming to cure disease, prolong life, and fix the food system

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• British food delivery startup Deliveroo has opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Hong Kong.
• The "Deliveroo Food Market" will cater both to online orders and in-store customers.
• Reports emerged in September that Uber was in acquisition talks with Deliveroo.

Deliveroo, the British food delivery startup last valued at $2 billion, has opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Hong Kong.

Named the "Deliveroo Food Market," the location will fulfil both online orders and serve customers in-store where they can choose from 15 different "dining concepts,"CNBC reports.

The restaurant is an extension of Deliveroo's Editions, a programme which it launched in 2017 setting up pop-up kitchens to help restaurants deal with delivery demand.

Read more:Uber's plan to buy UK delivery giant Deliveroo has stalled, with the 2 sides said to be 'miles apart' on valuation

"We find there is an opportunity to bring our online to offline model to our customers," General Manager of Deliveroo in Hong Kong, Brian Lo, told CNBC.

"Hong Kong is one of the most expensive rental prices, so the pressure on restaurant operators is very high and this model works very well for them," he added.

Deliveroo is reportedly being courted for an acquisition by ride-hailing giant Uber, whose Uber Eats service is a direct competitor of Deliveroo. However, recent reports suggest that Uber and Deliveroo had reached an impasse over Deliveroo's valuation.

SEE ALSO: Uber is reportedly holding talks to buy electric scooter firms Bird and Lime

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• Blippar CEO Ambarish Mitra held a crisis meeting with staff on Monday about the firm's imminent risk of collapse.
• According to one person who attended the meeting, Mitra was too emotional to finish his speech, and new Chief Operating Officer Libby Penn had to finish on his behalf.
• Blippar confirmed on Monday that it was close to administration — similar to bankruptcy in the US — thanks to one investor blocking an emergency fundraiser from another backer.
• In a terse email to staff on Wednesday, Mitra said the situation remains deadlocked.
• Multiple sources told Business Insider that employees are furious with Blippar's leadership and are worried they won't be paid before Christmas if the firm collapses.
• It's a dramatic fall from grace for the much-hyped augmented-reality startup, which two years ago said it was worth $1.5 billion.

Blippar CEO Ambarish Mitra held an emotional internal meeting with employees on Monday, warning them that the company is perilously close to collapse as it desperately tries to raise new cash.

It's a dramatic fall from grace for the much-hyped augmented-reality startup, which two years ago said it was worth $1.5 billion. Mitra seemed resigned to failure, according to one insider.

The source said Mitra was too emotional to finish his speech and had to hand over to the firm's new chief operating officer, Libby Penn, to finish. Penn said Blippar's status remains uncertain as an investor dispute stands in the way of it raising the finances it needs to survive.

The source, who is not authorized to speak to the media, told Business Insider that the mood inside Blippar was "very low" and that employees were convinced the company would shutter in the next 48 hours. Employees are nervous they aren't going to be paid before Christmas and angry at how little they have been told, the person said.

Blippar's latest company accounts, dated March 2017, show that the firm employed 261 staff members across its UK, US, Singapore, and New Delhi offices. LinkedIn data indicates the current figure is closer to 125 employees.

Read more: Buzzy startup Blippar was said to be valued at $1 billion and held talks to sell to Snap. It is now on the brink of death.

Mitra sent a terse, company-wide update on Wednesday morning stating that Blippar had not yet found a resolution. In the email seen by BI, he said: "No further info to share at the moment. We are still trying everything we can to find a resolution."

Blippar said on Monday that it is trying to complete emergency fundraising after one of its backers, Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, last week blocked a cash injection from another shareholder, property tycoon Nick Candy.

According to The Sunday Times, Blippar Chairman David Currie warned shareholders that the firm was on the brink of administration — similar to corporate bankruptcy in the US — if it didn't receive the funding. Accounting firm David Rubin and Partners has reportedly been lined up as the administrator.

Former Blippar loyalists say the firm is a 'complete mess'

Blippar was founded in the UK in 2011 by Mitra, Omar Tayeb, Jessica Butcher and Steve Spencer, and is best known for its augmented-reality app that identifies real-world objects.

Mitra told The Financial Times in 2015 after turning down an acquisition offer that Blippar was worth $1.5 billion, which appeared to put the company firmly among the ranks of British unicorns. The firm has raised $150 million to date from backers including Khazanah, Candy, Lansdowne, and Qualcomm Ventures.

But Blippar sources cast doubt on the company's numbers and financial status in April 2017, telling Business Insider that the firm was close to running out of money.

Former Blippar employees, some of whom held longtime senior positions, described the company to Business Insider as a "complete mess" this week.

One former senior employee with knowledge of Blippar's finances said: "I am not surprised by the latest news. Complete mess." Another former senior employee said, "I'm surprised they've lasted this long."

A third said the company had an "overblown self-belief" thanks to its onetime status as a first mover in augmented reality. "Some people will try anything to keep a dead dog alive," the person said of the company's attempts to raise new funding.

Outside the company, the industry prognosis is gloomy. One well-placed source working in computer vision said the firm wasn't known for its technical prowess, despite specializing in the complex field of augmented reality.

"Strong computer-vision candidates who went for interview there were a bit shocked at how lacking in knowledge their interviewers were," the person said.

Sources told Business Insider that Blippar tried to sell itself towards the end of last year as the extent of its financial woes became clear. It tried to sell to Snapchat owner Snap and German software firm SAP for considerably less than its unicorn valuation, with an internally rumored price tag of about $200 million (£160 million). When those talks fell through, Blippar shuttered its Silicon Valley office and lost its US commercial chief in the process.

Now the company is relying on further funding from its existing backers.

Blippar did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Here's what it told TechCrunch on Monday:

The rate of change in the AR industry resulted in a lack of standardisation across platforms and tools which has become a barrier to greater adoption and application of the technology. In response to these we refined our strategy to primarily focus on our SaaS self-service AR creation and publishing platform and we are on the path to accelerate the developments of this platform. Our goal is to unify and standardise all AR formats and make it easy for everybody to create AR.

Our strategy and product roadmap to enable this goal has unanimous approval from our board, for which we require an additional amount of funding to accelerate our growth and fulfill our profitability plans. The additional funding has been secured and approved by the whole board, but ultimately requires shareholders’ approval, which was given by all except one.

Despite not participating in any further funding of the business, that shareholder took the decision to vote against the additional funding. We tried to reach an agreement with them that would allow the business to continue with these plans and have offered various solutions, and so far they have refused all proposals.

Our board is still trying to negotiate with them and we hope to have a reasonable position at some point this week.

If you work at Blippar and would like to talk or have information about its current situation, email sghosh@businessinsider.com.

SEE ALSO: Blippar, once valued at £1 billion, burned through huge amounts of cash and struggled to find recurring revenue, ex-staff say

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• After a boatload of drama at Google over how the company has handled sexual harassment and misconduct, CEO Sundar Pichai announced new policies.
• Google is joining a wave of companies that will no longer force its employees making sexual-harassment claims into private arbitration.
• This is a hopeful sign that Silicon Valley's much publicized bro culture could be truly changing.

There's been another round of employee drama at Google these past few weeks. After The New York times published an explosive story on how the company previously protected one of its star engineers, Andy Rubin, amid a sexual-misconduct investigation, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the company has fired 48 employees for sexual harassment in the last two years.

On Thursday, Google published new policies for how the company will handle sexual harassment after employees staged a walkout and sent the company a list of five demands.

Employees didn't get everything they wanted, but they did get their top demand: an end to forced arbitration for sexual-harassment cases.

In a memo, Pichai announced the new policy while also defending Google's general policy of forced arbitration by claiming it never required confidentiality.

Read more: Here's the memo Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent to employees on the changes to its sexual harassment policy after the walkout

"We will make arbitration optional for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. Google has never required confidentiality in the arbitration process and arbitration still may be the best path for a number of reasons (e.g. personal privacy) but, we recognize that choice should be up to you," he wrote.

Forcing employees to sign agreements forbidding them to sue the company, and to instead go to arbitration, is one of the key ways a company can keep its dirty laundry secret.

Arbitration is a private process that doesn't produce public court documents or public court decisions. It can also make it more difficult for employees to band together to file class-action lawsuits.

And settlement agreements may also include a gag order, forbidding the employee to talk about their experience, even if they won the case.

Mix it all together, and you get a perfect combo where a company's incentives to cover things up can seem more alluring than banishing illegal behavior or misconduct and seeing that it doesn't happen again.

With private arbitration, even if the company fires the employee (and that doesn't always happen), a new employer has no easy way to know about the underlying incident, freeing the employee to continue engaging in the same behavior at the new company.

Forcing employees to agree to arbitration as a condition of employment has become common practice in corporate America today. And it is standard practice in Silicon Valley. It is so common that Susan Fowler, the famed engineer who wrote about her experience with sexual harassment at Uber, argued the practice should be banned in a petition to the Supreme Court about a year ago.

While Google clearly hasn't given up forced arbitration in general, making it optional for sexual-harassment cases is a huge step for Silicon Valley.

Alone, this one company's choice won't end Silicon Valley's well-documented bro-culture problems.

But the thing is, Google isn't alone. About a year ago, Microsoft also removed its forced-arbitration clause for sexual-harassment claims and endorsed a Senate bill attempting to make such a change the law of the land.

Uber followed suit in May.

Ideally, companies would simply stop making their employees waive their rights to sue in regular courts for every issue, not just sexual-harassment claims.

But for now, a slow-and-steady wave of change is happening on this front. Perhaps Silicon Valley can even become a beacon for other industries with well-publicized sexual-harassment issues, like media and finance, to do the same.

Ultimately, the freedom of employees to go public with sexual-harassment claims will shed some much-needed light on a situation that has been allowed to fester in the dark far too long.

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• The US Farm Bill passed on Wednesday legalizes hemp, a plant that's roughly identical to marijuana and is a key source of highly touted wellness ingredient CBD.
• The bill defines hemp as an agricultural product for the first time and amends a major drug law that hadn't been altered in 50 years.
• Experts said the shift could spike interest in CBD, which is also the active ingredient in the first cannabis-based medicine to gain federal approval in the US.
• Despite its hazy legal status, CBD already makes up a roughly $1 billion industry.

This week, a plant that's nearly identical to marijuana is set to become legal to grow in the US. 

Thanks to the US Farm Bill, which the House passed on Wednesday in a 369 to 47 vote, American farmers will be able to plant and harvest hemp, a strain of the same plant species from which marijuana originates. The bill passed the Senate Tuesday in an 87 to 13 vote, and President Donald Trump has indicated his support.

Hemp legalization has been a longtime goal of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, who believes it can help replace tobacco as a key crop for his state's farmers. 

The move alters the language of a major drug law that had previously remained unchanged for half a century and loosely defined hemp alongside marijuana as a controlled substance. The new bill exempts hemp from that law and defines it as an agricultural product. That means farmers and researchers of hemp now get some of the same benefits as farmers and researchers of other crops, like the ability to apply for insurance and federal grants.

"The era of hemp prohibition is over,"Jonathan Miller, legal counsel for a lobbying coalition of over 60 hemp companies called the US Hemp Roundtable, told Business Insider.

That's a key change for scientists, many of whom say previous drug laws deterred them from studying hemp because it was regulated like marijuana.

The bill may also boost interest in a nascent but booming $1 billion industry based on a component of the cannabis plant called CBD, which has been touted for a variety of health and wellness claims. CBD is popping up in more and more products, from coffee and tea to supplements and beer. 

But because CBD can be sourced from both marijuana and hemp plants, its legal status, set by the Drug Enforcement Administration, remains somewhat hazy. CBD from marijuana, just like marijuana as a whole, remains illegal. But now that hemp is legal, CBD from hemp may be legal, too.

"The devil is in the details, and we don’t know yet how the DEA will act to implement the law,"Daniele Piomelli, the director of the University of California at Irvine Center for the Study of Cannabis and a professor of neuroscience and pharmacology, told Business Insider.

The DEA, which controls the scheduling of substances, has not said how it will respond to the new bill. As it stands, so long as a CBD product is "intended for human consumption," it remains a Schedule 1 drug, DEA spokesperson Katherine Pfaff told Business Insider on Tuesday. She said she couldn't comment on how the bill might affect the DEA's approach.

The difference between hemp and marijuana comes down to one word: strain

Marijuana and hemp come from the same plant species, called cannabis sativa. Both contain THC and CBD. But each plant is its own unique strain of cannabis.

Until recently, hemp was bred almost entirely for industrial uses like manufacturing. As a result, hemp plants today have very low amounts of THC, the psychoactive chemical responsible for marijuana's high. Instead, hemp plants are often higher in CBD, or cannabidiol, which is also found in marijuana. CBD is now thought to be responsible for several of cannabis' therapeutic effects.

For example, marijuana-derived CBD is the active ingredient in Epidiolex, a syrup that is the first cannabis-based drug to gain US government approval for medical use. The government approved the drug over the summer. The drug treats two rare forms of childhood epilepsy.

One thing that is clear from the new bill is that commerce involving hemp is now in the clear. Federally insured banks, for example, have the green light for the first time to work with industrial hemp producers.

Read more:A drug derived from marijuana has become the first to win federal approval, and experts predict an avalanche effect

From A to CBD: cannabis is showing up in everything

Because CBD can come from either marijuana or hemp plants, it is unclear whether or not hemp-derived CBD products are now legal. Previously, thousands of manufacturers and entrepreneurs glommed onto the CBD wellness trend with the awareness that CBD products existed in a legal gray zone.

Read more:Heineken is betting on a brew made with marijuana instead of alcohol, and it could help give a boost to the struggling beer industry

Part of the reason for this was that there was no specific language in the DEA's main drug law, called the Controlled Substances Act, that used the word "hemp."

Thanks to that fuzziness, you could find everything from CBD lattes in New York to CBD teas at grocery stores across the country.

But now that hemp is legal, some experts expect the trend to really take off.

"The passing of the farm bill will most certainly open up the marketplace for hemp products, specifically hemp extracts that are high in CBD,"Josh Hendrix, the director of domestic product business development for cannabis company CV Sciences, told Business Insider.

"It will provide a higher comfort level for retailers and consumers and will lead to more investment and opportunity in the industry as it will continue to see rapid expansion."

Still, other experts — particularly scientists — have expressed concern that while the bill itself is a step in the right direction, what remains to be seen is how the DEA will respond to it. Until the DEA decides to change the status of CBD, researchers can't expect too many changes to their current work.

What CBD does — and may not do — for your health

It's difficult to say what the real health benefits of CBD are right now. The drug does appear to have at least one well-vetted therapeutic benefit: staunching the symptoms of two rare forms of childhood epilepsy by way of the newly approved drug Epidiolex.

There's another pressing issue facing the CBD industry, too: The products are poorly regulated, meaning there's wide variation in their content, safety, and price.

For a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers tested 84 CBD products purchased from 31 different online retailers. Roughly seven out of 10 items had different levels of CBD than what was written on the label. Of all of the items tested, roughly half had more CBD than was indicated; a quarter had less. And 18 of the samples tested positive for THC, despite it not being listed on the label.

"I've seen a lot of dirty CBD manufacturing facilities," Kelvin Harrylall, the CEO of a company called the CBD Palace that audits CBD companies and creates a list of vendors it deems safe for customers, told Business Insider in June.

"It's tough to know what you're getting."

The farm bill itself won't directly affect product safety. But experts believe that as these laws move toward legalization and an increased role for regulators, the companies that abide by strict manufacturing conditions will come out on top, while those who run fast and loose with rules will suffer.

"I believe if you are a CBD manufacturer and you can say that you're making a quality product ... then you have nothing to worry about," Harrylall said. "But if you aren't sure [or] if you've cut corners, those CBD manufacturers are the ones that should be worried."

SEE ALSO: A pair of high-profile Stanford scientists wants to use marijuana to treat an entire class of diseases where big pharma has fallen short

DON'T MISS: The CEO behind the first prescription marijuana drug explains what cannabis-based drug he wants to get approved next

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NOW WATCH: What is CBD oil and how did it become a $1 billion industry?

• Comparably, a website that rates companies across a number of different areas, released its 2018 Best Company Culture list.
• Of the 50 businesses on that list, 29 were tech companies.
• Below, we've compiled the list of 29 companies in tech with the best company culture below. 

Good company culture is one of the most important aspects of any job. 

Sure, beer in the fridge and holiday parties are nice. But having company culture runs deeper than the perks — no matter how over-the-top that holiday party may have been. 

On Monday, Comparably — a website that rates companies across a number of different areas — released its 2018 Best Company Culture list. Of the 50 businesses on that list, 29 were tech companies. 

Here are the 29 big companies in tech with the best company culture: 

SEE ALSO: The 18 biggest tech scandals of 2018

29. Akvelon

Headquarters: Bellevue, Washington

What it does: Business and technology consulting firm

What employees say:"Akvelon is one of the best companies that I have worked for. The overall approach and the focus on having a good work-life balance and proactive engagement with their employees make them an extremely good and efficient organization to work with." 

28. Indeed.com

Headquarters: Austin, Texas

What it does: Job search platform 

What employees say:"The office encourages collaboration and teamwork, to ensure everyone is sharing ideas and working together towards the same mission. I've always felt like I can speak up and my thoughts/ideas are heard and addressed."

27. Adobe

Headquarters: San Jose, California

What it does:Software development company best known for its design and photo-editing solutions

What employees say:"Everybody generally works together and is united." 

• As part of its efforts to focus on "high-value" products, IBM will sell seven software products to the Indian company HCL for $1.8 billion, the company announced Thursday.
• While HCL shares fell 5% following the news, Wall Street is feeling good (or at least, better) about IBM's decision to sell.
• The products were part of a declining division, Cognitive Solutions, which IBM wants to return to profitability.

One month after IBM announced its $34 billion strategic acquisition of Red Hat, the software giant revealed a sale of its own.

IBM announced late Thursday that it would sell a suite of software products to the Indian IT company HCL for $1.8 billion.

In the deal, IBM will sell seven unique software applications in the collaboration, on-premise marketing, and commerce spaces, which altogether have an addressable market of $50 billion, the company said. Those applications were the last products left over from its acquisition of Lotus, which it bought for $3.5 billion in 1995.

IBM and HLC already had intellectual-property partnerships on five of those products.

While HCL's stock price took a 5% dip on Friday following the news, Wall Street was slightly more supportive of IBM's choice to abandon the assets in favor of more cash and a higher-margin software portfolio. Still, IBM shares fell more than 3% in trading on Friday, though the stock was still trading above its low for November.

"We like that IBM continues to sell its non-core software product lines," the UBS analyst John Roy wrote.

The software suite was part of IBM's Cognitive Solutions, a segment that includes IBM Watson Health and other artificial-intelligence businesses — and which has seen revenue declines. The company said it expected to see this segment improve its revenue growth after the sale.

Cognitive Solutions brought in $4.15 billion in the third quarter of 2018 , down 6% from the same period in 2017. Its margins declined by 2.7% in the same period, according to the company filing.

IBM has done similar deals every year over the past 14 years

In a blog post on Friday, IBM explained the sale to investors as being part of a push toward a "high-value model," which essentially means the company would rather invest in higher-yield emerging areas such as AI, cloud, and blockchain than figure out a way to help its declining businesses grow.

Read more:IBM was losing the cloud wars — here's why Wall Street thinks its $34 billion Red Hat acquisition will change that

"Delivering a high-value model also requires ongoing investment prioritization, considering factors such as market attractiveness, differentiation, and importance to IBM’s integrated model," the company said in the post.

But this strategy isn't new for IBM. Roy, the UBS analyst, wrote that IBM had similarly sold off some of its software portfolio over each of the past 14 years. All of those deals, he said, were valued at $740 million to $1.6 billion.

Bottom line: It's not about Red Hat

IBM's $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat in October has created some redundancies in the company's portfolio, but that's not why this sale is happening, Roy wrote.

A "potential issue" for IBM is that once the acquisition closes, there will be some overlap between middleware products, such as IBM's WebSphere and Red Hat's JBoss product lines, he said — but that risk doesn't involve any of the products that it sold off to HCL.

Instead, UBS views this as a straightforward sale of underperforming software products, as it refocuses on the good stuff.

"Mixing away from under-performers is just good business," Roy wrote.

SEE ALSO: Workday surged 19% after earnings — but Wall Street thinks its future success could hinge on a newly public competitor

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. Current subscribers can read the report here.

Trucking is set to transform radically in the coming years, with innovative technologies enabling trucks to take over more and more driving responsibilities, saving time and money for operators and businesses that rely on shipping.

Autonomous trucks are being tested on roads around the world, and systems from startups like Peloton and Embark could make their way into commercial trucks as soon as next year. Fleets will be able to leverage autonomous technologies to cut costs and gain a critical edge over competitors.

But to start planning for, and to eventually implement, those technologies, companies need to know what sorts of systems will be ready and when, and what regulatory hurdles will need to be overcome to get autonomous trucks on the road. 

In The Autonomous Trucking Report, Business Insider Intelligence provides an early glimpse into the emerging autonomous trucking market. First, we look at the trucking market as it stands today, offering a basic profile of the industry and highlighting a number of the challenges and issues it faces. Then, we go through the three waves of autonomous technology that are set to upend the industry — platooning, semi-autonomous systems, and fully autonomous trucks — looking at who is making strides in each of these areas, when the technology can be expected to start making an impact, and what companies can do to get ahead of the curve.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Advanced and autonomous technology will enable operators and shipping firms to eradicate some of the challenges that have long plagued them. Trucks will take over more and more driving responsibilities, saving time and money for operators and businesses that rely on shipping.
• The impact of autonomous technologies on the trucking industry will come in three major waves: platooning or fuel-saving vehicle convoys, semi-autonomous highway control systems, and fully autonomous trucks.
• Change to the trucking industry will be gradual but inexorable. Companies with foresight can start to make long-term plans to account for the ways that autonomous technologies will change how goods and products move from place to place.

In full, the report:

• Analyzes the development of autonomous trucking technology.
• Explains the waves in which advanced and autonomous technologies will start to impact the trucking industry, providing detailed explanations of how a company can take advantage of the disruptive technology transforming logistics at each stage.
• Profiles the efforts of the companies that are at the forefront of new technology in trucking, looking at what they're working on and when their efforts could start to impact the market.

To get this report, subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 275 other expertly researched reports
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• Juul told its employees on Dec. 11 that California-based employees can no longer vape at their desks, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
• The company, based in San Francisco, is enforcing a 2016 California law in which e-cigarettes are banned in the workplace.
• Juul will erect a tent outside of its San Francisco headquarters for vaping. 

Employees at Juul Labs Inc. have created the buzziest e-cigarette on the market. There's no other vape that's also a verb — "juuling."

But now, the employees of Juul can no longer use their company's insanely popular (and insanely controversial) product while working. On Tuesday, chief executive Kevin Burns emailed Juul's staff of around 800 that Juuling at work is no longer allowed, the Wall Street Journal wrote in an article on Friday.

The company, based in San Francisco, is enforcing a 2016 California law in which e-cigarettes are banned in the workplace.

"It may feel nonsensical to prohibit at-work use of the very products we work hard to create and promote," Chief Executive Kevin Burns emailed staff, according to the Journal. "But the bottom line is we need to comply with legal requirements the same as any company."

Read more: Silicon Valley e-cig startup Juul 'threw a really great party' to launch its devices, which experts say deliberately targeted youth

Previously, Juuling was a-okay throughout the office. "Nonstop, in the open, and in virtually every meeting," a current employee told the Journal, "in all parts of the building."

Instead, Juul employees will have to take to a tent that will be erected outside of the headquarters, the Journal reported. Burns wrote in his email that he would explore options for employees at Juul's other locations. 

But while Juul has banned vaping in its own offices, workplace e-cigarette usage has become something of a cultural phenomenon, the Journal wrote.

Some workers who vape do it discretely.

Others are more explicit.

Now, Juul employees will have to take their vape out in the open air.

Read the entire Wall Street Journal report here. 

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NOW WATCH: Meet the 24-year-old who's the youngest female broker in the New York Stock Exchange

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Coffee drinkers are a diverse lot, and if you're going to buy a gift for one of them, you better have the who's who down pat.

There's, of course, the quintessential café brooder, who might need a little pick-me-up. Maybe a chocolate to go along with the dreary cup of black coffee that's always glued to their hand. Or how about the peppy aerobic workout-obsessed early riser? They could probably stand to have a French press in their on-the-go life. The do-it-yourself artisan might fancy a cold brew kit for the home. And so on.

Whatever the temperament of your oh-so-temperamental coffee lover(s), you'll be sorted out below with these 22 fun and useful gifts for coffee lovers.

Still shopping for more gifts? Check out all of Insider Picks' holiday gift guides for 2018 here.

SEE ALSO: 15 fun and unique gifts for tea lovers to spread holiday cheer

DON'T MISS: 15 thoughtful gifts for book lovers to satisfy the bookworm on your list

A paired coffee and chocolate gift box

Bean Box's Deluxe Coffee & Chocolate Gift Box, available at Amazon, $68

Fresh coffee beans paired with fresh chocolate is nothing short of divine, and if the recipient of this trove can't appreciate it, their soul is surely black as coal — which is probably what you should gift them next year.

Read our guide to the best chocolate you can buy online here.

A guide to help them make better coffee

How to Make Coffee: The Science Behind the Bean, available at Amazon, $15.35

Because we could all use a few pointers on our morning cuppa. 

A mokka espresso pot

Bialetti Mokka Espresso Pot (3-cup), available at Amazon, $29.95

This should be a staple in every household. Easy, rich, and oh so crema-y when done right. Also, consider the Bialetti Express Set for two ($44.69).

Check out our full guide to stovetop espresso makers here.

• Voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant, Apple's Siri, and Microsoft's Cortana, are pegged to trigger a widespread transformation across the retail industry in the years to come.
• The current interest in, and adoption of, voice assistants for commerce is being driven by recent technological breakthroughs, advantages of the tech over existing channels, and the development of voice apps.
• As consumer demand for voice technology mounts, brands offering this functionality throughout the entire customer journey stand to gain in three key ways.

Not too long ago, if your friend had a smart speaker like Amazon’s Alexa or Google's Assistant in their living room, it seemed like a rare novelty. Within a matter of months, however, smart speakers have started becominghousehold staples — and they’re still only at a fraction of their growth potential.

One of the biggest drivers of adoption has been increased functionality. Smart speakers aren’t just changing the music and turning on the lights; they’re helping consumers find new products and make purchases — and they’re quickly becoming a preferred method of shopping.

In fact, nearly a quarter of consumers globally already prefer using a voice assistant over going to a company website or mobile app to shop. This share will jump to 40% by 2021, according to Capgemini.

Consumers are on board with the prompt, convenient nature of shopping with smart speakers — and brands who join them stand to reap massive rewards. The Voice in Retail Report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, highlights the value voice brings to the shopping funnel and how retailers can implement it throughout the customer journey.

Here are three ways brands can capture consumers with voice technology:

• Driving product purchases: Voice assistants make spending faster and easier when consumers are unable to use their hands. The ability to make a purchase on any channel and the addition of personalized, intelligent elements to the shopping experience are simplifying the transition from product discovery to product purchase.
• Heightening customer loyalty: Brands can leverage voice assistants in the post-purchase phase to track delivery status, automate part of the return process, interact with customer service, offer feedback, and collect consumer behavioral and transactional data.
• Shifting consumers’ spending behaviors: Smart device ownership has a snowball effect, so as the smart device ecosystem reaches the mainstream, consumers will flock to connected cars, smart home devices and appliances, and connected virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR) headsets.

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Shoppers are interested in using voice assistants for every stage of the customer journey, from initial product search and discovery to post-purchase customer service and delivery status. And retailers that take advantage of consumers’ desire to leverage voice will be in a stronger position to heighten customer engagement, increase conversion times, drive sales, and boost operational efficiency.

The Voice in Retail Report from Business Insider Intelligence examines the trends driving the adoption of voice commerce, details the role of voice throughout the customer shopping journey, outlines how brands can benefit from implementing voice in their strategies, and explores what's ahead for the technology in retail.

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This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

Major logistics providers have long relied on analytics and research teams to make sense of the data they generate from their operations.

But with volumes of data growing, and the insights that can be gleaned becoming increasingly varied and granular, these companies are starting to turn to artificial intelligence (AI) computing techniques, like machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, to streamline and automate various processes. These techniques teach computers to parse data in a contextual manner to provide requested information, supply analysis, or trigger an event based on their findings. They are also uniquely well suited to rapidly analyzing huge data sets, and have a wide array of applications in different aspects of supply chain and logistics operations.

AI’s ability to streamline so many supply chain and logistics functions is already delivering a competitive advantage for early adopters by cutting shipping times and costs. A cross-industry study on AI adoption conducted in early 2017 by McKinsey found that early adopters with a proactive AI strategy in the transportation and logistics sector enjoyed profit margins greater than 5%. Meanwhile, respondents in the sector that had not adopted AI were in the red.

However, these crucial benefits have yet to drive widespread adoption. Only 21% of the transportation and logistics firms in McKinsey’s survey had moved beyond the initial testing phase to deploy AI solutions at scale or in a core part of their business. The challenges to AI adoption in the field of supply chain and logistics are numerous and require major capital investments and organizational changes to overcome.

In a new report, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, explores the vast impact that AI techniques like machine learning will have on the supply chain and logistics space. We detail the myriad applications for these computational techniques in the industry, and the adoption of those different applications. We also share some examples of companies that have demonstrated success with AI in their supply chain and logistics operations. Lastly, we break down the many factors that are holding organizations back from implementing AI projects and gaining the full benefits of this disruptive technology.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• The current interest in and early adoption of AI systems is being driven by several key factors, including increased demands from shippers, recent technological breakthroughs, and significant investments in data visibility by the industry’s largest players.
• AI can deliver enormous benefits to supply chain and logistics operations, including cost reductions through reduced redundancies and risk mitigation, improved forecasting, faster deliveries through more optimized routes, improved customer service, and more.
• Legacy players face many substantial obstacles to deploying and reaping the benefits of AI systems, though, including data accessibility and workforce challenges.
• AI adoption in the logistics industry is strongly skewed toward the biggest players, because overcoming these major challenges requires costly investments in updating IT systems and breaking down data silos, as well as hiring expensive teams of data scientists.
• Although AI implementations are unlikely to result in large-scale workforce reductions in the near term, companies still need to develop strategies to address how workers' roles will change as AI systems automate specific functions.

 In full, the report:

• Details the factors driving adoption of AI systems in the supply chain and logistics field.
• Examines the benefits that AI can deliver in reducing costs and shipping times for supply chain and logistics operations.
• Explains the many challenges companies face in implementing AI in their supply chain and logistics operations to reap the benefits of this transformational technology.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >>Learn More Now
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This is a preview of the Internet of Things (2018) research report from Business Insider Intelligence. To learn more about the IoT ecosystem, tech trends and industry forecasts, click here.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming how companies and consumers go about their days around the world. The technology that underlies this whole segment is evolving quickly, whether it’s the rapid rise of the Amazon Echo and voice assistants upending the consumer space, or growth of AI-powered analytics platforms for the enterprise market.

And Business Insider Intelligence is keeping its finger on the pulse of this ongoing revolution by conducting our second annual Global IoT Executive Survey, which provides us with critical insights on new developments within the IoT and explains how top-level perspectives are changing year-to-year. Our survey includes more than 400 responses from key executives around the world, including C-suite and director-level respondents.

Through this exclusive study and in-depth research into the field, Business Insider Intelligence details the components that make up the IoT ecosystem. We size the IoT market and use exclusive data to identify key trends in device installations and investment. And we profile the enterprise and consumer IoT segments individually, drilling down into the drivers and characteristics that are shaping each market.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• We project that there will be more than 55 billion IoT devices by 2025, up from about 9 billion in 2017.
• We forecast that there will be nearly $15 trillion in aggregate IoT investment between 2017 and 2025, with survey data showing that companies' plans to invest in IoT solutions are accelerating.
• The report highlights the opinions and experiences of IoT decision-makers on topics that include: drivers for adoption; major challenges and pain points; deployment and maturity of IoT implementations; investment in and utilization of devices; the decision-making process; and forward- looking plans.

In full, the report:

• Provides a primer on the basics of the IoT ecosystem.
• Offers forecasts for the IoT moving forward, and highlights areas of interest in the coming years.
• Looks at who is and is not adopting the IoT, and why.
• Highlights drivers and challenges facing companies that are implementing IoT solutions.

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The healthcare industry is facing disruption due to accelerating technological innovation and growing demand for improved delivery of healthcare and lower costs. Tech startups are leading the way by seizing opportunities in the areas of the industry that are most vulnerable to disruption, including genomics, pharmaceuticals, administration, clinical operations, and insurance.

Venture funds and businesses are taking notice of these startups' potential. In the US, digital health funding reached $1.6 billion in Q1 2018, according to Rock Health — the largest first quarter on record, surpassing the $1.4 billion in venture funding seen in Q1 2016. These high-potential startups provide a glimpse into the future of the healthcare space and demonstrate how we’ll get there.

In this report, a compilation of various notes, Business Insider Intelligence will look at the top startups disrupting US healthcare in four key areas: artificial intelligence (AI), digital therapeutics, health insurance, and genomics. Startups in this report were selected based on the funding they've received over the past year, notable investors, the products they offer, and leadership in their functional area.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Tech startups are entering the market by applying the “Silicon Valley” approach. They're targeting shortcomings and legacy systems that are no longer efficient.
• AI is being applied across five areas of healthcare to improve clinical operation workflows, cut costs, and foster preventative medicine. These areas include administration, big data analysis, clinical decision support, remote patient monitoring, and care provision.
  
• Health tech startups, insurers, and drug makers are rapidly exploring new ways to apply digital therapeutics to the broader healthcare market that replace or complement the existing treatment of a disease.
• Health insurance startups are taking advantage of the consumerization of healthcare to threaten the status quo of legacy players. 
• Genomics is becoming an increasingly common tool within the healthcare system as health organizations better understand how to extract the value from patients’ genetic data. 

 In full, the report:

• Details the areas of the US health industry that show the greatest potential for disruption.
• Forecasts the industry adoption of bleeding edge technology and how it will transform how healthcare organizations operate.
• Unveils the top five startups in AI, digital therapeutics, health insurance, and genomics, and how they're positioned to solve big issues that key players in healthcare face. 
• Explores what's next for the leading startups, providing a glimpse into the future of the healthcare space and demonstrating how we’ll get there.

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

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The transportation and logistics industry is undergoing a massive shift as a result of surging deliveries. Daily parcel volumes are higher than ever before — but so are customers’ expectations for cheap and fast fulfillment. 

To keep up with mounting demand, retailers and their logistics partners have been racing to develop more efficient processes with experimental supply chain models like crowdsourced delivery — the Uber model in which customers use mobile apps to connect directly with local couriers for on-demand or same-day fulfillment.

And it’s not just startups like Deliv and Postmates getting in on the action. This year Amazon not only launched its own shipping service to deliver packages for other businesses (“Shipping with Amazon”) but also announced its “Delivery Service Partner” program, which provides capital incentives for people to launch their own delivery companies fulfilling orders on behalf of Amazon itself.

With emerging delivery models like these aggressively stealing away customers, the pressure is on for legacy players like FedEx, UPS, the USPS, and the thousands of businesses who depend on them every day, to respond. But it will take more than just material resources or a large fleet of vehicles to truly compete. These companies need to earn the trust of consumers.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has obtained exclusive survey data to paint the 2018 delivery landscape and the trends of its major players. The findings comprise the team’s latest Enterprise Edge Report, The 2018 Delivery Trust Report, and give transportation, supply chain, and logistics companies the tools they’ll need to win back customers.

Enterprise Edge Reports are the very best research Business Insider Intelligence has to offer in terms of actionable recommendations and proprietary data, and they are only available to Enterprise clients.

In full, the study:

• Uses proprietary consumer survey data to evaluate how the largest delivery companies in the US stack up on customer service, package tracking, package protection, and timeliness of delivery.
• Assesses how at risk these providers are to new challengers entering the space.
• Shares strategies on how delivery companies can achieve feature parity and, ideally, differentiation, in customer experience.

So, which delivery features do consumers care about?

First and foremost, speed. It makes sense that consumers value fast delivery, but did you know just how many of them prioritize this feature? According to a recent survey from Dropoff, it’s 99%. And with millions of packages delivered nationwide every single day, that’s a lot customers with high expectations.

But customers don’t just want their packages delivered quickly; they want to follow the journey from store to doorstep. Another one of the most important offerings delivery companies boast is real-time tracking, with nearly 90% of consumers noting it in the Dropoff survey.

If they can get it right, tracking is a twofold advantage for delivery companies; it entices consumers who want to know when their packages are coming, and it appeals to merchant partners who might be willing to switch delivery service providers for the added visibility and customer benefit.

And the field is still wide open for companies to differentiate on this feature. Among those who had a package delivered from UPS, FedEx, USPS, or DHL in the last year, nearly 30% of Business Insider Intelligence survey respondents couldn't actually say which company offered the best tracking features. Whether it means using mobile apps, SMS texting, or chatbots to communicate with customers, there’s plenty of opportunity for logistics companies to hone and become known for this feature.

Want to learn more?

This is just a snapshot of the Business Insider Intelligence 2018 Delivery Trust Report, which compiles the complete survey findings to dive deeper into the opportunities delivery companies have to engage and delight customers.

The multi-part report also presents actionable insights that transportation and logistics companies can use to fight back against Amazon’s continuous push into deliveries.

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

What is eSports? History & Rise of Video Game Tournaments

Years ago, eSports was a community of video gamers who would gather at conventions to play Counter Strike, Call of Duty, or League of Legends.

These multiplayer video game competitions would determine League of Legends champions, the greatest shooters in Call of Duty, the cream of the crop of Street Fighter players, the elite Dota 2 competitors, and more.

But today, as the history of eSports continue to unfold, media giants such as ESPN and Turner are broadcasting eSports tournaments and competitions. And in 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch, the live streaming video platform that has been and continues to be the leader in online gaming broadcasts. And YouTube also wanted to jump on the live streaming gaming community with the creation of YouTube Gaming.

eSports Market Growth Booming

To put in perspective how big eSports is becoming, a Google search for "lol" does not produce "laughing out loud" as the top result. Instead, it points to League of Legends, one of the most popular competitive games in existence. The game has spawned a worldwide community called the League of Legends Championship Series, more commonly known as LCS or LOL eSports.

What started as friends gathering in each other's homes to host LAN parties and play into the night has become an official network of pro gaming tournaments and leagues with legitimate teams, some of which are even sponsored and have international reach. Organizations such as Denial, AHQ, and MLG have multiple eSports leagues.

And to really understand the scope of all this, consider that the prize pool for the latest Dota 2 tournament was more than $20 million.

Websites even exist for eSports live scores to let people track the competitions in real time if they are unable to watch. There are even fantasy eSports leagues similar to fantasy football, along with the large and growing scene of eSports betting and gambling.

So it's understandable why traditional media companies would want to capitalize on this growing trend just before it floods into the mainstream. Approximately 300 million people worldwide tune in to eSports today, and that number is growing rapidly. By 2020, that number will be closer to 500 million.

eSports Industry Analysis - The Future of the Competitive Gaming Market

Financial institutions are starting to take notice. Goldman Sachs valued eSports at $500 million in 2016 and expects the market will grow at 22% annually compounded over the next three years into a more than $1 billion opportunity.

And industry statistics are already backing this valuation and demonstrating the potential for massive earnings. To illustrate the market value, market growth, and potential earnings for eSports, consider Swedish media company Modern Times Group's $87 million acquisition of Turtle Entertainment, the holding company for ESL. YouTube has made its biggest eSports investment to date by signing a multiyear broadcasting deal with Faceit to stream the latter's Esports Championship Series. And the NBA will launch its own eSports league in 2018.

Of course, as with any growing phenomenon, the question becomes: How do advertisers capitalize? This is especially tricky for eSports because of its audience demographics, which is young, passionate, male-dominated, and digital-first. They live online and on social media, are avid ad-blockers, and don't watch traditional TV or respond to conventional advertising.

So what will the future of eSports look like? How high can it climb? Could it reach the mainstream popularity of baseball or football? How will advertisers be able to reach an audience that does its best to shield itself from advertising?

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled an unparalleled report on the eSports ecosystem that dissects the growing market for competitive gaming. This comprehensive, industry-defining report contains more than 30 charts and figures that forecast audience growth, average revenue per user, and revenue growth.

Companies and organizations mentioned in the report include: NFL, NBA, English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, NHL, Paris Saint-Germain, Ligue 1, Ligue de Football, Twitch, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, ESPN, Electronic Arts, EA Sports, Valve, Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, ESL, Turtle Entertainment, Dreamhack, Modern Times Group, Turner Broadcasting, TBS Network, Vivendi, Canal Plus, Dailymotion, Disney, BAMTech, Intel, Coca Cola, Red Bull, HTC, Mikonet

Here are some eSports industry facts and statistics from the report:

• eSports is a still nascent industry filled with commercial opportunity.
• There are a variety of revenue streams that companies can tap into.
• The market is presently undervalued and has significant room to grow.
• The dynamism of this market distinguishes it from traditional sports.
• The audience is high-value and global, and its numbers are rising.
• Brands can prosper in eSports by following the appropriate game plan.
• Game publishers approach their Esport ecosystems in different ways.  
• Successful esport games are comprised of the same basic ingredients.
• Digital streaming platforms are spearheading the popularity of eSports.
• Legacy media are investing into eSports, and seeing encouraging results.
• Traditional sports franchises have a clear opportunity to seize in eSports.
• Virtual and augmented reality firms also stand to benefit from eSports.  

In full, the report illuminates the business of eSports from four angles:

• The gaming nucleus of eSports, including an overview of popular esport genres and games; the influence of game publishers, and the spectrum of strategies they adopt toward their respective esport scenes; the role of eSports event producers and the tournaments they operate.
• The eSports audience profile, its size, global reach, and demographic, psychographic, and behavioral attributes; the underlying factors driving its growth; why they are an attractive target for brands and broadcasters; and the significant audience and commercial crossover with traditional sports.
• eSports media broadcasters, including digital avant-garde like Twitch and YouTube, newer digital entrants like Facebook and traditional media outlets like Turner’s TBS Network, ESPN, and Canal Plus; their strategies and successes in this space; and the virtual reality opportunity.
• eSports market economics, with a market sizing, growth forecasts, and regional analyses; an evaluation of the eSports spectacle and its revenue generators, some of which are idiosyncratic to this industry; strategic planning for brand marketers, with case studies; and an exploration of the infinite dynamism and immense potential of the eSports economy.

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. Current subscribers can read the report here.

Esports, which is short for electronic sports, refers to competitive video gaming watched by spectators. Esports are not as mainstream as traditional sports in the US, but the number of esports fans globally is still sizable. The worldwide esports audience reached 335 million in 2017, according to Newzoo. 

And there’s still significant room for growth beyond that — we predict that 600 million consumers globally will watch esports in 2023, up 79% from 2017. 

A growing number of brands are acting to capitalize on the growth of esports as the majority of professional gaming fans are millennials and open to brand sponsors. Sixty-two percent of US esports viewers are aged 18-34, according to Activate, while 58% have a positive attitude towards brand involvement in esports, per Nielsen.

Meanwhile, Newzoo anticipates global esports sponsorship revenue to reach $359 million in 2018, up 53% year-over-year. The growing esports audience and brand activity helps explains why high-profile public figures are jumping in to capitalize on the action: In late October, basketball legend Michael Jordan and platinum-selling artist Drake both made investments into separate esports ventures, for example. 

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence will explain the growth of the esports audience and why it presents an attractive advertising opportunity for brands. We'll begin by exploring the key drivers and barriers affecting esports audience growth. Finally, we'll detail the benefits of advertising to esports fans and outline the best practices for implementing a successful esports ad campaign.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Alibaba, Arby's, Audi, Bud Light, Hyundai, Intel, Mastercard, McDonald's, Red Bull, Skillz, and Turner.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• The number of esports fans globally is anticipated to climb 59% over the next five years, but there’s still significant room for growth.
• This expansion will be driven by many factors, including investment from traditional sports leagues, a higher number of broadcast deals, and the expansion of the mobile-based esports scene.
• The majority of esports fans are millennials, while data suggests that Gen Zers are more receptive to nontraditional sports, like esports, than traditional sports.
• Brands can sponsor esports leagues, competitions, and players as well as advertise on digital platforms like Twitch to reach the eyeballs of esports fans.
• Whatever shape a brand's esports ad campaign eventually takes, displaying an authentic commitment to the gaming world is paramount.

 In full, the report:

• Outlines the drivers and potential barriers to esports audience growth.
• Details the various reasons esports fans are a compelling advertising opportunity for brands.
• Discusses the different ways brands can invest spend to reach the eyeballs of esports fans.
• Explains best practices brands advertising to esports fans should adopt in order to make inroads with the gaming community. 

SEE ALSO: The eSports competitive video gaming market continues to grow revenues & attract investors

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The media landscape is almost shifting more quickly than consumers can keep up.

But certain trends have emerged that will carry the media industry into the future.

For the past eight years, IGNITION, Business Insider’s flagship conference, has collected the best minds in media and technology to share what they see as the future. Through unscripted interviews, cutting-edge demos, and insights from industry pioneers, attendees learn what key trends to be aware of and what they need to do to stay ahead.

Henry Blodget opened the latest sold-out IGNITION conference with a presentation entitled 14 Things You’ll Want to Know About The Future of Media. And he should know...Blodget is co-founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Business Insider, one of the most-read business and tech news sites in the world with more than 80 million visitors a month worldwide.

The presentation was put together with the help of the team at BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• We're nearing "peak media" in the U.S.
• This phenomenon will spread to the rest of the world as four billion more people come online
• Digital ad spending is still growing
• Video is not the be-all, end-all of media
• And much more

To get your copy of this FREE slide deck, simply click here.

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• Digital trust is the confidence people have in a platform to protect their information and provide a safe environment for them to create and engage with content.
• Business Insider Intelligence surveyed over 1,300 global consumers to evaluate their perception of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
• Consumers’ Digital Trust rankings differ across security, legitimacy, community, user experience, shareability, and relevance for the six major social networks.

If you feel like “fake news” and spammy social media feeds dominate your Internet experience, you’re not alone. Digital trust, the confidence people have in platforms to protect their information and provide a safe environment to create and engage with content, is in jeopardy.

In fact, in a new Business Insider Intelligence survey of more than 1,300 global consumers, over half (54%) said that fake news and scams were "extremely impactful” or “very impactful” on their decision to engage with ads and sponsored content.

For businesses, this distrust has financial ramifications. It’s no longer enough to craft a strong message; brands, marketers, and social platforms need to focus their energy on getting it to consumers in an environment where they are most receptive. When brands reach consumers on platforms that they trust, they enhance their credibility and increase the likelihood of receiving positive audience engagement.

The Digital Trust Report 2018, the latest Enterprise Edge Report from Business Insider Intelligence, compiles this exclusive survey data to analyze consumer perceptions of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

The survey breaks down consumers’ perceptions of social media across six pillars of trust: security, legitimacy, community, user experience, shareability, and relevance. The results? LinkedIn ran away with it.

As the most trusted platform for the second year in a row – and an outlier in the overall survey results – LinkedIn took the top spot for nearly every pillar of trust — and there are a few reasons why:

• LinkedIn continues to benefit from the professional nature of its community — users on the platform tend to be well behaved and have less personal information at risk, which makes for a more trusting environment.
• LinkedIn users are likely more selective and mindful about engagement when interacting within their professional network, which may increase trust in its content.
• Content on LinkedIn is typically published by career-minded individuals and organizations seeking to promote professional interests, and is therefore seen as higher quality than other platforms’. This bodes well for advertisers and publishers to be viewed as forthright, honest, persuasive, and trustworthy.

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Enterprise Edge Reports are the very best research Business Insider Intelligence has to offer in terms of actionable recommendations and proprietary data, and they are only available to Enterprise clients.

The Digital Trust Report 2018 illustrates how social platforms have been on a roller coaster ride of data, user privacy, and brand safety scandals since our first installment of the report in 2017.

In full, the report analyzes key changes in rankings from 2017, identifies trends in millennials' behavior on social media, and highlights where these platforms (as well as advertisers) have opportunities to capture their attention.

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• Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the pack of potential Democratic presidential candidates, according to a new poll of likely Iowa caucusgoers.
• Poll respondents also ranked Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke as their top picks.
• Just two other people on the list of 20 potential contenders broke 5% support among the poll respondents: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and California Sen. Kamala Harris.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is the leading contender on a list of 20 potential Democratic presidential candidates, according to a new poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa released Saturday evening.

The CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll surveyed 455 people between December 10 and 13, with a whopping 32% saying Biden was their first choice for president.

Here's who else broke 5% support among the respondents:

• Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont: 19%
• Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas: 11%
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts: 8%
• Sen. Kamala Harris of California: 5%

Other prominent names polled among the likely caucusgoers were Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

Iowa is the first state to vote in presidential nominating contests, serving as somewhat of a bellwether for how the primaries could play out across the country.

Respondents to the CNN/Des Moines Register poll were somewhat divided over whether they wanted an experienced politician or a fresh face to challenge President Donald Trump.

Nearly half of the respondents, 49%, said they preferred a "seasoned political hand," while 36% favored a "newcomer," reflected by O'Rourke's relatively high ranking.

"This is obviously a warm welcome to some people who are really familiar to caucusgoers in the state," J. Ann Selzer, the president of the firm that conducted the poll, told The Des Moines Register. "But there's also some welcoming of newcomers who are only now starting to come to the state and get to know the people who could shape their future.

Respondents also largely agreed that the most important priority for them in the Iowa Democratic caucus was voting for a candidate who could beat Trump, rather than a candidate who agreed with them on major ideological issues.

In the poll, 54% of respondents said it was more important the candidate have a strong chance of beating Trump, and just 40% said the candidate should share their positions.

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NOW WATCH: Anthony Scaramucci claims Trump isn't a nationalist: 'He likes saying that because it irks these intellectual elitists'