Apple Invests USD 1 Billion in China-Based Ridesharing Company.

In a day where the legendary Warren Buffet invested in Apple there are two things we know now about Apple: First, the company is serious about cars. Second, it’s ready to start looking beyond the iPhone.

Apple and cars

While it has remained mum on just about every rumor about its ambitions to build a proprietary car, Apple made an unprecedented decision to invest $1 billion in the “Uber of China,” Didi Chuxing.

So why would Apple put a billion dollars into a non-tech, non-consumer electronics company? Autonomous vehicles.

China has moved surprisingly rapidly to get autonomous cars on the streets. The country’s government recently released a draft proposal that would allow driverless cars on the country’s highways in 2020 and on city streets by 2025. Since Apple wants to create its own driverless cars, where better to invest than the largest car market on earth, which also happens to be the most progressive market in terms of getting driverless cars on the streets?

Apple’s product slowdown

We’ve said it before. Apple invests and has finally reached a plateau in terms of innovation. Despite releasing several new products and services over the last few years — i.e. Apple Music, Beats Music, Apple Watch, Apple TV etc. — there hasn’t been anything compelling enough to turn into one of the company’s next big things. The trifecta of the iPhone, the iPad and the Mac is no longer what it once was. And the iPhone made up 65% of the company’s revenue during the latest quarter.

Considering Apple has never really invested in startups — if it sees something it likes, it just buys it to add it to its own fold — it sounds like Tim Cook is finally ready to admit that the Apple as we knew it is gone. Now it’s time for Apple to start using its cash to invest and hopefully insulate the company enough in case of an iPhone slowdown too.

Wooing China

Another potential reason for the investment is for Apple to get back on China’s good side. After all, why not just invest in Uber, which recently entered the Chinese market?

Apple has had some challenges in China recently. With smartphone sales for the company shrinking in the country, it lost an iPhone trademark dispute and has had some of its online entertainment services suspended following pressure from the Chinese government.

Of course, Apple’s not the only U.S.-based company struggling to cozy up to Chinese government officials. Dropbox, Google, Twitter and Facebook have all been banned from the country, likely due to the fact that they compete with Chinese tech companies.

Thus, one of Cook’s strategies could show that Apple is willing to get its own skin in the game in favor of China-based companies to show its dedication to the country’s own economic success. Whether that move makes a difference or not, of course, remains to be seen. As we’ve all seen before, the Chinese government is quite arbitrary in its decisions when it comes to U.S.-based tech companies.

One thing is for certain, however: Apple has entered a new frontier.

Mkt Adm

Understanding the Association of Risk When Investing in Bitcoin

Bitcoin has become an exciting new cryptocurrency. Well, it’s not new anymore, but it does provide users lower international trading costs. Are there risks when investing in bitcoin? Yes. Bitcoin is also a cross-border cryptocurrency unit which many traders believe could have exponential advantages for the purpose of international business to be more specific, business conducted online. However, for many people, Bitcoin has proved to be an alternative to the everyday banking system and the printing of money by the central bank like it’s going out of fashion.

From the perspective of an investor, Bitcoin’s price has increased over the years, which means that if you owned Bitcoins, you could have beaten other investments nine time out of ten. Various investment analysts comment that if Bitcoin allows itself to come out of the fringe geek circles, which has considerably pushed its value upwards over the years, and is made accessible to the general public more easily, there is a lot of potential for it in terms of price increase.

But it is important to remember that investing in Bitcoin is not for the fainthearted. This is mainly because there are a lot of risks associated with Bitcoin investments and trades. For example, the value of Bitcoin can fall abruptly after an increase. And the volatility levels in the Bitcoin market in 2013 should be enough for you to realize that. However, those volatility levels have died down.

Fortunately, you can do a number of things to hedge against risk when investing in Bitcoin and mentioned below are some of them:

Invest in Alternative Digital Currencies

There is no doubt that Bitcoin has given birth to a strong ‘proof of concept’ when it comes to powerful cryptocurrencies. However, you have to understand it is not the only cryptocurrency out there and definitely not the last. There are various cryptocurrencies you can invest in, a majority of which are now dubbed as ‘alt coins’, and that is solely to differentiate them from Bitcoins.

Many of these alternative coins in the market are simply hopping around, moving from one speedy bandwagon to another, and have little to offer to users in terms of value. However, there are some which have genuinely progressed to compete against Bitcoin in terms of reliability, speed, security, efficiency and costs. If you are an avid digital currency investor, you must consider investing in other digital currencies as well to be diverse.

If Bitcoin prices increase, there is also a strong chance the price of other currencies will increase, although by a lesser margin, because Bitcoin will always take point in creating a new market in which all cryptocurrencies can thrive. And so far, alt currencies have also proven to be fairly lucrative in relation to the Bitcoin.

However, there is also another fundamental aspect you should understand. If, because of any legal or security issue, the price of Bitcoin falls, and you see that the problem can be solved by another digital currency, or if other currencies have features that can gain an even bigger market share, you could well see an exponential increase in the prices of these ‘alt currencies’.

Buy Apple Shares

If you think about, and you won’t have to think hard, Apple is the number one long-term threat to this innovative technology. Believe it or not, the threat from regulators and hackers is minimal compared to the smartphone giant, especially from one that is reputed to be a ‘great innovator’.

Although if you look at it, Apple has never invented anything even if everybody thinks it is an innovative company, what it does is or rather its modus operandi is to search for new technologies invented by different companies and produce the ultimate spinoff version of the same invention to capitalize on the market by launching it just before the original invention is about to hit the market, a product which becomes instantly successful. Apple did the same with MP3 players, tablet computers and high-tech smartphones. However, they are also considering to the same with cryptocurrency.

So, if you think this from a logical and a more financially inclined perspective, it may be a good idea to invest in Apple shares and hedge against the risks posed by investing in Bitcoin. Investing in Apple is safe regardless of what happens to Bitcoin and if they succeed in promoting and creating iMoney, consider yourself lucky.

To conclude, it is important that you consider the aforementioned options if you want to make sure you don’t suffer any hefty losses by investing in Bitcoin.

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