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A Spotlight on Businesses That Soared By Not Having to Start from Scratch

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Growing a new business from the ground up can feel like a daunting prospect. For start-ups in hugely competitive markets, it’s a big challenge to lock horns with well-established businesses and brands with strong partnerships, contacts and workforces.

However, some new businesses have managed to leverage existing expertise, assets and partnerships to hit the ground running and scale quickly.

There are many instances of successful spin-offs and strategic acquisitions which have thrived without starting entirely from scratch. Below, we’ll discuss three impressive examples, as well as the learnings from these success stories.

Alphabet

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is another prime example of a spin-off business that didn’t start from scratch. While Google was already a tech giant by 2015, its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, sought to create a broader structure for their growing portfolio of ventures. Thus, Alphabet was born as a parent company overseeing Google and its other subsidiaries, such as Waymo, specializing in self-driving cars, Verily, focused on healthcare technology, and DeepMind, the experts in artificial intelligence.

The creation of Alphabet allowed Google’s core business to focus on search engines and advertising while giving its other projects the independence to innovate and grow. Alphabet’s approach has facilitated rapid advancements in cutting-edge technologies, solidifying its reputation as a leader in multiple industries, from AI to autonomous vehicles.

Rather than starting new businesses independently, Alphabet leveraged Google’s resources, reputation, and revenues to create a thriving ecosystem of innovation.

Games Global

Founded in 2021, Games Global is an upstart online casino game provider that’s made a real splash in the last few years. What’s been the secret of their success and why are they now a dominant force in the supply of state-of-the-art casino games online?

You may not know that Games Global is a spin-off company from Microgaming. It was founded by a group of iGaming industry veterans, including some major figureheads from the Isle of Man-based Microgaming. Their first mission was to gain exposure. In 2022, they acquired Microgaming’s Quickfire platform, which consisted of a suite of 3,000+ casino games, plus access to the content of many of Microgaming’s partnered studios.

This move helped the Games Global name gain overnight credibility and exposure, effectively piggybacking off the Microgaming portfolio. It’s a move that’s worked well in some of the fastest-growing iGaming markets, not least in Canada. At Betano, which is one of the leading online casino Canada-licensed brands, Games Global has now surpassed Pragmatic Play as the biggest supplier of slot games – 739 titles to be precise.

PayPal

PayPal is one of the most successful companies to emerge from a spin-off strategy. Originally a part of eBay, PayPal started out as the online marketplace’s primary payment platform. However, in 2015, PayPal was spun off as an independent entity to capitalize on the rapidly growing digital payments market.

With eBay’s global reach and PayPal’s established user base, the company didn’t need to build a customer network from scratch. Instead, it could focus on expanding its services and becoming a leader in the fintech industry. Today, PayPal operates in over 200 countries, offering everything from peer-to-peer payments to merchant services and cryptocurrency integration.

This strategic separation allowed PayPal to grow rapidly, attract investors, and innovate in ways that may not have been possible under eBay’s umbrella.

Whether it’s leveraging existing networks, intellectual property or active customer bases, this trio of firms avoided the plethora of pitfalls of starting from scratch, better positioning themselves for long-term sustainability. These firms show that it’s possible to succeed without reinventing the wheel, leaning on solid foundations to achieve greatness.

Earn with USDT: 3 Ways for Freelancers to Care About in 2025

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Financial stability and efficient payment solutions are the backbones of successful freelancing and remote workers. USDT has become very trustworthy among stablecoins, offering a secure and flexible means for freelancers to manage their earnings. In this article, you will find how a freelancer can earn with USDT.

Why Choose USDT TRC20?

USDT runs on a number of blockchain networks, each having different advantages. Among them, the TRC20 protocol on the TRON blockchain has become efficient and cost-effective for crypto users and investors. Here’s why USDT TRC20 is awesome among competitors like Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Polygon:

  • Low transaction fee. For one, transaction fees on the TRON network are very small compared to Ethereum’s ERC20 or Bitcoin’s Omni Layer. Sending 100 USDT on Ethereum can cost up to $4-$6 in ETH if the network is not very busy, while a similar transaction on TRON normally costs significantly less, sometimes even half as much.
  • Faster transaction times. Another critical advantage of USDT TRC20 is speed. The TRON blockchain processes blocks faster than Ethereum, hence allowing faster transactions.
  • Reduced network congestion. TRON network was optimized for high throughput. This helps minimize delays and keeps fees low, even in high demand. This makes TRC20 one of the most efficient virtual currencies for seamless and cost-effective transactions.

Of course, you can use USDT on Ethereum, Solana, or other blockchains if it is more comfortable for you. But to save on commissions, we advise TRON blockchain.

Ways to Earn USDT Effectively

So, let’s talk about more complicated ways to earn USDT effectively.

Yield Farming

Another very popular alternative is yield farming. It promises good returns, although this method is inherently very complex and often even scary for complete beginners.

You will need to deposit USDT into a DeFi liquidity pool. It is basically a protocol rewarding LPs with some kind of reward. There are normally two kinds of liquidity pools: lending and trading ones. You could receive an APY as an LP by providing liquidity for such pools.

In some cases, APYs from yield farming can reach as high as 30%. However, this strategy comes with significant risks:

  • Impermanent loss. The value of your deposited assets may fluctuate compared to their value at the time of deposit. If this happens, withdrawing your funds could result in a financial loss.
  • Understanding liquidity pools and how they function requires highly advanced knowledge and continuous monitoring. Yield farming is anything but passive.

Molecula has an optimized solution for those seeking a user-friendly interface requiring minimal technical expertise. Earn up to 10% APY on your USDT with Molecula. You don’t have to bridge or stake your assets. The platform does all the heavy lifting for maximum return with daily payouts.

Lending Platforms

If you’re looking for ways to earn USDT consistently, lending platforms can be a practical choice. These platforms typically offer returns between 3-8% APY via established protocols. This approach especially appeals to beginner crypto investors, who often hold less than $500 in USDT and are unsure where to allocate their funds. However, while some platforms advertise double-digit APYs, it’s crucial to be cautious and conduct thorough research.

Popular lending platforms include Wirex, Nexo, and Yield App, which function similarly to traditional financial systems. You select a platform, deposit your tokens, and earn interest on them. Though this sounds straightforward, successful lending requires more than passive participation.

Here are some challenges to consider:

  • Fluctuating interest rates. Rates can change rapidly due to market volatility, turning a high yield today into a much lower one tomorrow.
  • Security risks. Online platforms are vulnerable to hacking and other cyber threats. Additionally, the platforms themselves may face financial instability or regulatory issues.
  • Active management. To safeguard your investment, you must regularly monitor the platform and stay informed about any updates or changes, which can be time-intensive.

While lending platforms can provide attractive returns, understanding these risks is essential before investing your USDT.

Trading USDT

Trading USDT TRC20 is another viable option, entailing the classic approach of buying low and selling high. This goes down well when exchanging USDT for fiat currencies or other cryptocurrencies.

However, successful trading requires:

  • Market expertise. A deep understanding of the market conditions and its current and future trends.
  • Continuous monitoring. Prices can change without warning, so attention should be kept continuously to avoid losses.

The trading in USDT may indeed be quite rewarding.

Conclusion

As a freelancer, choosing the right approach depends on your financial goals, risk tolerance, and ability to manage time and resources effectively. With the right strategy and tools, USDT can become a powerful ally in diversifying your income and achieving greater financial independence. Take the first step today and unlock the potential of cryptocurrency earnings in the freelance economy!

BIO: Oliver Smith is a writer and editor. Oliver is a freelance guest post writer and an enthusiastic blogger who helps B2B companies reach their audiences more effectively. When he isn’t writing, you can find him at the gym, snowboarding, or doing some other sports activities. Oliver is a husband and the father of two cute girls. You can reach him at: guestpostingninja@gmail.com.

HSBC Shuts Down International Payments Platform Zing, One Year After Launch

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HSBC, one of the largest banking and financial services institutions in the world, has announced the shutdown of its international payments platform Zing, one year after launch.

The closure of Zing comes amid strategic business priorities and cost savings efforts by the banking giant, which will see about 400 jobs affected, including a significant number of non-HSBC staff contracted for customer support roles.

Speaking on the shutdown of the payments platform, a spokesperson at Zing said,

“Following a strategic review of Zing within the HSBC Group and after careful consideration, we have made the decision to close Zing and integrate its underlying technology platform into HSBC. HSBC is focused on increasing leadership and market share in the areas where it has a clear competitive advantage, and where it has the greatest opportunities to grow and support our clients”.

On its website, Zing notified customers that the app is no longer accepting new customers. Existing customers will be able to keep their accounts until April 2, 2025, with all accounts officially closing on May 22, 2025.

Part of the message reads,

“Thank you to all our Zing members for your support, we’ll miss serving you. We will unfortunately be closing the Zing app in the coming months due to changes in strategic business priorities. Our mission has always been to enable Zing members to live their best international lives and we’re proud of all that we have achieved in service of that mission. Zing members have been at the heart of everything we’ve built, giving us your trust, support, and feedback to shape Zing into an award-winning international money app.”

The closure of Zing is coming after it was launched in 2024, to ease cross border payments, competing with giant fintech companies like Wise (formerly TransferWise) and Revolution. Through Zing, HSBC looked to replicate the explosive growth of fintech companies. Zing poached staff from Wise and Revolut, as well as other top fintechs to bolster its early team.

The platform which was developed to enhance HSBC global money offering, enabled customers to hold money in their account in 10 different currencies – GBP, EUR, SGD, USD, CAD, JPY, NZD, HKD, AUD, and AED. Zing was fast-tracked at a sizeable cost to HSBC, as internal document revealed that Zing gained 30,000 customers in the six months after its launch.

According to Financial Times, Zing employees contacted disclosed that the closure is more a result of HSBC’s internal politics and management style than the app’s own performance.

“This isn’t a story about operational failings, it is a story about what happens to so many of these fintechs that are incubated in a big bank,” one former employee said. “They’re not given the chance to live the life that they could live if left unencumbered.”

The closure of Zing highlights the difficulties traditional banks face in developing sustainable fintech ventures. Similar initiatives by other banks, such as NatWest’s digital bank Bó, Santander’s small business bookkeeping app Asto and Barclays’ mobile payments service Pingit, have also been discontinued after brief periods.

This trend underscores the challenges traditional banks encounter when attempting to innovate within the rapidly evolving fintech landscape. Factors such as internal politics, compliance requirements, and competition from more agile fintech startups contribute to the difficulties in creating sustainable fintech solutions.

Practical Guide to Supply Chain Cyber Risk Mitigation

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Over the years, supply chains have become overly complex where firms have become dependent not just on third parties, often fourth and beyond. That has made supply chains a favorite target of cybercriminals.

Supply chain attacks, such as those witnessed in the recent breach of the 3CX desktop application, clearly highlight the vulnerabilities of these connected systems.

The breach involved more than 600,000 companies, exposing sensitive information and hackers gaining remote access to systems from top brands such as American Express, BMW, McDonald’s, and Ikea. Research estimates that 64% of ransomware attacks emanate from third-party breaches. Meanwhile, almost half of the organizations faced supply chain-related business interruptions during the past two years.

These statistics thus detail the need for proactive adoption of third-party vendors to keep vulnerabilities at bay and protect operations. The following post outlines the best ways to prevent cyber risks in your supply chain, regardless of size. Please continue reading this guide to find out more.

1. Mapping and Prioritizing the Supply Chain

Organizations that rely on hundreds of third parties, which outsource to additional layers of suppliers, should identify all parties in front. Security teams try very hard to get complete visibility into their supply chains, often introducing blind spots when assessing certain risk areas. Mapping will, therefore, involve identifying vendors, categorizing their criticality, and then implementing tiered security based on their importance.

A dynamic cyber supply chain risk management system with fluctuating cloud services and continuous vendor onboarding further emphasizes this point. In this regard, qualitative risk scoring will help prioritize the risks correctly by providing appropriate scores based on data from risk assessments, compliance history, and past incidents. This is how organizations prioritize high-priority vulnerabilities.

2. Continuous Monitoring of Third-Party Risks

Continuous monitoring is real-time monitoring that provides defense against rapidly changing cyber threats. Automating this process ensures that potentially dangerous vulnerabilities are brought to the organization’s notice with enough time to take effective remedial action. Examples of such tools include vendor inventories, custom management questionnaires, security ratings, and third-party risk management solutions.

3. Effective Onboarding and Offboarding Processes

Proper vendor onboarding and offboarding contribute much to the security posture of the supply chain. Organizations should define the relationship purpose at onboarding, align compliance expectations, and perform rigorous security screenings. That way, the vendors will be guaranteed to meet internal and regulatory standards before starting collaboration and mitigate potential risks.

Onboarding will involve defining the business purpose, assessing security, and negotiating contracts. These would outline security responsibilities, compliance expectations, and rights to audit vendor systems. Even more important is the offboarding process, usually understood as a secure termination of the vendor relationship. An organization should review the contract, properly dispose of shared data, and invalidate access to the vendor’s internal systems. Furthermore, there may be some security audits and inspections to validate compliance, especially for those vendors who deal with sensitive data.

4. Mandating Security Controls Through Contracts

Vendor contracts are effective instruments in the enforcement of supply chain security. The contract will provide the requirements to adhere to one or more specific security frameworks, including ISO/IEC 27001 and NIST Cybersecurity Framework, CIS Controls, among others. The security frameworks present a proactive way of consistently ensuring security and compliance. Continuous monitoring will make sure that the controls which have been implemented operate effectively while those needing improvement are improved.

Contracts should also include rights to audit vendor systems and, when necessary, rights to enforce remediation plans. Consequently, clear communication of expectations and legally granted rights instills accountability and trust between the organization and its suppliers.

5. Apply AI-Driven Cybersecurity Questionnaires

A very traditional way of preparing the questionnaire is time-consuming and prone to many human-generated errors.

AI-powered questionnaires smoothen this process and automate answering to reduce discrepancies within them. It pulls data from previously conducted assessments for better accuracy with speed in evaluations. It cross-references internal documents between parties involved in order to verify responses for their reliability within organizations. This means that companies can identify potential risks much earlier and, thus, mitigate them much faster. This is how integrating AI-driven tools into their risk management practices can significantly improve an organization’s supply chain security.

6. Ensuring Compliance with Industry Regulation

Supply chain security comes largely from a regulatory standpoint, probably as its biggest backbone. Global frameworks like the General Data Protection Regulation, the Digital Operational Resilience Act of DORA, and even NYDFS set some rather broad accents on active risk management subjects within a supply chain theme close to working with third parties. This includes something such as, for instance, GDPR-mentioned explicit consent over data shared in the EU while actually providing that requirements extensions to a vendor composition included in its supply chain.

DORA focuses on the operational resilience of the financial sector, which requires organizations to map out third-party assets and their criticality. The NIS2 Directive has requirements for sound risk management and significant incident reporting across industries. In addition to the reduced legal risks, the cited regulation adds value to the credibility of an organization by building trust.

Concluding Thoughts

The best security practices in the supply chain are those that realize not only immediate benefits but also long-term ones. Proactively, they keep organizations away from fines and risks associated with cyber-attacks, ensuring operational continuity.

Over time, the best practices will provide an organizational behavior of cybersecurity awareness, improved relations with suppliers, and increased customer satisfaction. They will enable one to steer modern supply chains confidently and focus on priorities such as ensuring enterprise visibility, continual monitoring of operational activities, and robust management of vendors.

Secure and resilient systems guarantee for an organization the ability not just to protect critical operations but also to achieve growth on a sustainable basis in today’s interconnected world.

Do Not Distort My Analysis on Trump-Biden-Harris 2024 Election

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Comment: You said Trump will not win and you were a supporter of Kamala Harris. I am surprised you are praising Trump now.

My Response: Those comments on my Trump-Biden-Harris analysis are fake news. I just hope our community takes time to read me well. Let me share samples of my analysis. Visit tekedia as I archive everything I write here:

Sample #1: “Ndubuisi is not biased in this election. More than 6 months ago, I called the election for Trump and wrote that he would be sworn in next year. I repeated that many times. That was even before Trump and Biden debated. Of course when they debated, I called that Trump WON big time.” Sept 2024.

Sample #2: “Fast forward to 2024. I called the election for Trump here even before the game began. Personally, I made up my mind that I was not going to vote since I could not vote for Biden; he had served and should retire.” – August 2024

That I said that Kamala won the debate did not mean I said she would win or that I supported her. That I wrote that she raised tons of money within 24 hours did not mean I said she would win or that I was supporting her. An analysis that made her promising did not mean it was a support for her. That I wrote that she raised more money from small donors did not mean I said she would win.

My position remains that Trump will do great, but by 2028, the US will likely have a recession mainly because of overheating of the economy and expected tax cuts.  When a husband and wife can create new coins within hours, it will end in bad ways for the economy.  This is consistent with Republican governments: we had recessions under George Bush Snr, George Bush Jr and Trump 1.0. I expect Trump 2.0 to end with a recession!

I am a teacher and my role is to write and analyze but I do not take positions!

Comment on Feed

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw Prof.’s piece on how Trump uses his name as a brand to woo investors and global leaders. Even though Prof. wasn’t spot on with his election prediction, as he was seemingly rooting for Kamala, I cannot recall a time when he suggested that Kamala Harris was a better leader or businessperson. So, they can be mutually exclusive.