Category Archives: Business

The block chain is the underlying technology behind Bitcoin and is being recognized by the major banking and finance industries out there. Bank of America is the latest of the large banks to go ahead and begin experimenting with using the block chain to foster financial trade transactions. The idea behind this is to see if the technology is feasible for use in real world applications such as distributed ledger technology. Currently this would be seen as a leap forward for the financial industry because they would be going away from transactions based on the manual input from paper trades.

Jason Tiede who heads the innovation for global transactions at Bank of America had a lot to say on the matter. He said that at the company they are focusing on working on a block chain for trading in the financial sector. He said it is an interesting idea to take the trade finance from paper based manually submitted transactions and put them into a digital distributed ledger. He disclosed that they are testing it with a bank they did not name and it should be out on the real space being tested by late spring of 2016.

Bank of America’s Push

The news came after there was a request of multiple crypto-currency patents in the past year made by the financial institution. The first patent that Bank of America filed for was one dealing with wire transfers that involved crypto-currency. This was released back in September 2015 but was originally filled with 10 other applications originally filed back in June of 2014.

At the same time Bank Of America is not yet finished and is in the process of making up 20 more patents that should have been submitted in January of 2016.  Bank of America is also part of a coalition of 42 of some of the largest banks spread throughout the world working on developing block chain to add to the current day process of banking.

This could be seen as a great step in putting out an experimental technology and new way of doing things and getting it not only recognized by the establishment already, but giving it much needed weight and confidence to be utilized and used. After all without the public opinion this would not be at the place it is today.  Bank of America is following the lead of some banks that got on the block chain bandwagon before itself but it is significant for them as a company because of their vast size and large market capitalization in the financial sector.

Bank of America’s incursion into the industry for developing block chain technology comes off the heels of other smaller banks who have done the same thing. There was a bank in London, Standard Chartered that began to do this a while back, as well as one in Singapore called DBS. The two of these banks are releasing it out into the public eventually and have already tested the technology between each other as a proof of concept.

Surprising no one, technology dominates the top brands on the list. And guess who’s number one?

Here are the top four most valuable brands in the world right now:

• Apple

The tech empire is still the reigning ruler, spanning the globe with its products. The brand stays relevant by focusing on more commercially-successful applications of pre-existing tech, making the features useful to the average consumer.

Apple has consistently released a new product approximately once a year since their rise in the tech markets through their Mac PC computers, laptops, early iPods, iPhones, and iPads. With wise investments and marketable products, Apple remains top banana.

The company’s brand value is estimated at $145.3 billion.

2. Microsoft

Trailing behind Apple is another tech giant. But the gap between brand value is a staggering one, with Microsoft sitting at an estimated $69.3 billion next to Apple’s $145.3 billion. Microsoft also spends about $1 billion more in advertising and marketing costs than Apple, who relies more on hype, word of mouth and social media to take care of their marketing.

Microsoft has to work harder to stay relevant, and it reflects in the brand value gap. But Microsoft’s technology departments are far-reaching, with sectors devoted to multiple technological applications. Their diversity is one of the reasons that they frequently sit towards the the top of the most-valuable-brands list, and earned them the number two spot for 2015.

3. Google

Google sits close behind Microsoft at the number three spot. Google is currently valued at $65.6 billion, a gap shy of $4 billion separating the two tech companies.

Google’s recent bids in the mobile tech sectors has made them a closer competitor to Microsoft and Apple, releasing new products that have been favorably received by critics and the public. Like Microsoft, Google devotes much of their manpower to the development of new technological innovations with a broad spectrum of innovations, recently beating Facebook tech researchers to an artificial intelligence milestone several decades in the making.

The tech company’s contributions and partnerships with other valuable corporations has worked in their favor, with other brands being supported by Google software and tech; avoiding the exclusivity of Apple and remaining one of the most valuable brands at the close of 2015.

4. Coca-Cola

While soft drink sales have slightly declined in recent years following backlash from health advocacy groups, Coca-Cola remains strong throughout the years, and sits firmly as the world’s fourth-most-valuable brand with an estimated value of $56 billion.

For a beverages company (even a titan like Coca-Cola) to follow so closely behind the world’s top three most valuable tech brands is a testament to Coca-Cola’s marketing department and financial expertise. Their constant presence on a global scale is difficult to disrupt, regardless of current market trends; the brand remains stable and valuable.

Coca-Cola spends more than any three of the top-valued brands with an advertising fee of $3.5 billion in 2015. But because the product rarely changes, the brand’s success relies heavily on consistently strong marketing and advertising, securing its overall value.