A new take on stamp collecting: NFT cryptocurrency stamps
15
October
2022
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In September 2022, PostNL launched its first round of sales of its unique Non-Fungible Token (NFT) cryptocurrency stamps. An NFT is a unique digital asset that represents real-world objects (e.g., art, music, etc.) (Conti & Schmidt, 2022). PostNL’s NL Crypto Stamps are unique collectibles, and they are tradeable on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain.
PostNL is not the first company to launch NFT cryptocurrency stamps. The first crypto stamps were issued by the National Post Office of Gibraltar in May 2018. There were only 50.000 miniature sheets of this crypto edition, which were rapidly sold out. Nowadays, one postal stamp sheet is worth no less than €2.000, – (Sieger, n.d.).
On the 8th of June 2021, one of the world’s rarest and most valuable stamps was sold for 7 million US Dollars. One of the world’s oldest stamp dealers, Stanley Gibbons, purchased the stamp (The Digital Philatelist, n.d.).
Due to the hype surrounding NFTs, it is expected that NL crypto stamps are also increasing in worth. The final sale of PostNL’s NFT cryptocurrency stamps took place on the 22nd of September 2022. Fortunately, this round of distribution is quite large, and you can still get the crypto stamp for €9,05. Would you invest in NFT cryptocurrency stamps?
Eating through a different lens: the adoption of VR in the food industry
15
October
2022
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Virtual Reality (VR) has seen a significant rise in popularity in recent years. Many industries, of which the most popular gaming industry, have grabbed the potential of this technology to improve customer experiences or ease business operations (ThisisDMG, n.d.). Now, VR is bringing exciting changes to the food industry.
Restaurants are constantly searching for new ways to surprise their customers. They have recently started experimenting with VR dining experiences, offering millennials more than a meal when they dine. The technology can be implemented in restaurants in various ways.
‘Faux dining’
VR is used to stimulate the same senses while eating and replicating this. Researchers from the National University of Singapore have created a synthesizer that produces the four primary taste components. These signals are transmitted through a silver electrode that touches the tip of the diner. At the same time, the temperature is also regulated to offer the most realistic experience. People eat with their eyes – if something looks appetizing, the food will be tastier. Therefore, VR headsets are used to simulate an environment. In this digital dining room, the mood is set, and the senses are stimulated by the smell and appearance of the food. This promises potential benefits for people trying to reduce calories but still want to enjoy their dining experiences (Inamdar, 2021).
3D design dining
Among VR’s applications for the food industry, transferring diners to an entirely different location is one of the most entertaining. Wearing the VR headset, you can distort reality, transporting yourself to a beautiful Tuscany Garden or an underwater scene (Tatti, 2016). Such extraordinary experiences make people want to talk about and share on social media (Brinkley, 2020).
Employee training and VR
From an operations perspective, the use of VR could also be valuable. Nowadays, VR headsets provide solid training for restaurant employees (e.g., Honeygrow). An example would be KFC’s training simulation, which explains the five phases of frying chicken by letting employees play mini-games while being commanded by Colonel Sanders himself (Inamdar, 2021).
VR is no longer an illusion; it has transformed the dining experience. It is still a novel concept, but as the field develops interest, it has excellent potential to grow in the future (Brinkley, 2020). Are you interested in trying VR dining?
In recent years, three-dimensional (3D) food printing, also referred to as food-layered manufacture (FLM) has gained increasing interest (Nachal et al., 2019). The process combines 3D printing with digital gastronomy, revolutionizing food manufacturing with customized shapes, color, flavors, textures, and nutrition (Sun et al., 2015). This technology could improve nutritional values of meals and even address hunger issues in third world countries (FutureBridge, 2020).
3D food printing in the Netherlands
Dutch food tech company ‘byFlow’ has developed a new, patented technology for 3D personalized chocolate printing after seven years (Innovationorigins, 2021). Chocolate proves to be one of the hardest ingredients to print with, due to its reliant on a precise tempering- and cooling process (byFlow, n.d.). In addition, they also collaborated with Jan Smink by opening a 3D printing fine dining restaurant in Wolvega, Friesland (Coggins, 2018). Here, a portable €3.300, – food printer creates the highly stylized dishes that end up on your plate.
Moreover, Wageningen University and Research and Eindhoven University of Technology founded ‘the Digital Food Processing Initiative (DFPI), an association that combines the latest technological innovations with food science research (TNO, n.d.). They work on 3D food printing solutions for the world’s leading food brands (e.g., unique pasta shapes for Barilla), but also for the Dutch Ministry of Defense (e.g., personalized combat snacks).
No more hunger
There are growing concerns regarding global food security and sustainability, as well as changing consumer demands for personalized food, which have led to the adoption of new technologies, like FML (Crawford, 2019). Worldwide, there is a significant proportion of the world population who lack access to food resources (Flynt, 2021). 3D-printed food could have a great impact on relieving hunger around the world. Optional future 3D printing options could be farming tools, greenhouses, or even alternative meat (Flynt, 2021).
With each innovation and project, we are one step closer to unlocking the full potential of 3D food printing. The ideal scenario would be creating food products efficiently and inexpensively, while allowing consumers to customize them. Thus, leading to offering new business opportunities in the food industry, new value chains, consumer experiences and consumer interactions (Noort et al., 2017). What do you think? Could 3D food printing be the next disruption in the global food industry?
Nachal, N., Moses, J. A., Karthik, P., & Anandharamakrishnan, C. (2019). Applications of 3D Printing in Food Processing, Food Engineering Reviews, 11, 123-141.
Sun, J., Zhou, W., Huang, D., Fuh, J. Y. H., & Hong, G. S. (2015). An Overview of 3D Printing Technologies for Food Fabrication, Food Bioprocess Technology, 8, 1605-1615.
Can you imagine processing 6.9 billion queries a day? I certainly could not, nor would any human-being be able to handle that. But then, Google does it every day. It started back in 1996, with a ranking system that rewarded links that came from sources that were relevant and penalized those that were not (Battelle, 2005). Nowadays, it is one of the leading internet search engines, and only the term ‘Google’ already generates 7.2% of the worldwide search traffic (Mohsin, 2020). But how does this search engine work?
Google Ads
Two years after the launch of Google.com, Google Adwords was created, which has been rebranded to Google Ads in 2018. This platform offers pay-per-click (PPC) online advertising that allows advertisers to display their ads on the search engine results page (SERP). Below is an example of a SERP, which displays two sections of Google ads. The red box represents ads of paid search accounts and are usually recognizable due to the little yellow box next to their link. Companies have paid to appear at the top of the search results (Sukhraj, 2019). This process of advertising directly on Google, is better know as Search Engine Advertising (SEA). The green box represents organic search results, which refer to unpaid listing on a SERP (Randolph, 2020). Google ranks these results according to their quality, relevance to the search words and other factors (Randolph, 2020). SEO includes all activities you engage in to ensure your website scores higher in the organic results (Poorthuis, 2019). Both SEO and SEA rank advertisements using auction mechanisms.
Paid vs. Organic search
How does Google Ads work?
Google Ads work with a PPC model that determines which ads should appear with a lightning-fast ad auction. These auctions take place every time a user enters a search query into Google. To ‘win’ the auction, you will have to optimize your quality score and bid amount. The bids represent the maximum you are willing to pay for your ad to be displayed on the top of the page. In addition, it is possible to set a maximum daily budget for your ad and you will never exceed that amount. Google takes the bid amount and pairs it to your quality score (i.e., assessment of your ad) (Tran, 2020). So, even if your competitor places a higher bid than you did, you can still win a higher position if you have a higher quality score (by using relevant keywords, ads, extension, etc.) (Google Ads Help, n.d.).
Transition of Auction mechanisms
In 2019, Google Ads transitioned from a second-price auction to a first-price auction model (Setupad, 2021). Initially, with a second-price auction, the winner did not have to pay their own bid, but just 0.01$ more than the rate of the second-highest bidder (Setupad, 2021). In the past years, there were several programmatic developments that contributed to the complexity and operational inefficiency in the second-price auction:
Header bidding, which is an advanced method of programmatic ad buying that allows multiple advertisers to participate simultaneously in the auction to win ad space (Tenney, n.d.).
The real-time-bidding (RTB) protocol that enabled buyers to build their own system called a ‘real-time bidder’, which connects to Google servers and generates a constant stream of available ad inventory.
RTB and header bidding made it possible for publishers to allow multiple ad exchanges (SSPs) to bid on their ad inventory at the same time. Thus, creating complexity and operational inefficiencies. Subsequently, there were often hidden intermediary fees taken by SSPs (Setupad, 2021).
Therefore, Google adopted the first-price auction model, where bidders participate simultaneously in the auction and the highest bidder wins. The main difference between these two auctions, is that publishers earn more revenue in the first-price auction model. Also, the model offers more transparency and works better with the developments that were mentioned above.
What impact do you think that the transition from second-price auction model to a first-price auction model will have on Google? Was this a smart decision?
