Future Techworld

Technology giant Google extended its mega event, Great Online Shopping Festival (GSOF) ends today which was extended for a day after getting a huge response from shoppers with over a million users visiting the site in the first 24 hours.
The second edition of India's Great Online Shopping Festival, which started yesterday, will now go on till Saturday instead of Friday. E-commerce firms said even the initial problems faced by the GOSF site on its launch day has not doused the enthusiasm of the online shoppers and they are witnessing growing numbers on their platforms.
"Great Online Shopping Festival is getting an overwhelming response from shoppers, despite a minor glitch we faced yesterday and to keep up the tempo and give more time to shoppers, we are extending GOSF by a day and will now run till December 14," Google India Industry Director e-commerce Nitin Bawankule said.
Great Online Shopping Festival's first edition last year witnessed over a million people visiting the site, but this time that number has already been surpassed, he added.
"The popularity can be gauged by the fact that Tata Value Homes sold 22 flats (housing units) and 3 cars have also been sold," Bawankule said.
GOSF's website faced issues on the launch day yesterday as the homepage of the website failed to redirect users to the intended pages.
"We're so sorry for the delay in the #GOSF launch. The site will be up soon and you can shop through the deals being offered until 13th Dec (sic)," Google India said in a tweet yesterday.
Despite the initials hiccups, e-commerce firms said that they are experiencing huge response from shoppers. Over 200 partners (e-commerce firms) are participating in the event. GOSF 2013 has started off with a blast on Snapdeal. We have seen 10x increase in sales as compared to last year," Snapdeal.com VP (Marketing) Sandeep Komaravelly said. Similarly, Jabong Co-founder Manu K Jain said from the first day Jabong is seeing a phenomenal increase in traffic and sales.
"Revenue has increased 4-5 times more than a usual day. Coping up with the increasing traffic our IT team is working very hard to keep

Apple is the world's most valuable brand followed by Microsoft, Coca-Cola, IBM and Google, according to Forbes.Apple has topped the 'World's Most Valuable List' compiled by Forbes magazine with a brand value of $104.3 billion, nearly twice other technology major Microsoft, which has a brand value of $56.7 billion.

"... the Apple name is as strong as ever. Apple is the most valuable brand in the world for a third straight time at $104.3 billion, up 20 percent over last year. It is worth nearly twice as much as any other brand on the planet by our count," Forbes said.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's brand value has remained flat over the past three years, as the company struggles to make a transition from PC to the mobile world, the magazine said.

"Growth has slowed, but it is still one of the most profitable brands in the world with operating margins of 34 percent in its latest fiscal year," it said.

With a brand value of $54.9 billion, Coca-Cola was ranked third in the list, followed by IBM ($50.7 billion), Google ($47.3 billion).

Among the top 10 brands, McDonald's, with a brand value of $39.4 billion, was ranked sixth, followed by General Electric ($34.2 billion), Intel ($30.9 billion), Samsung ($29.5 billion) and Louis Vuitton ($28.4 billion).

Brands from US-based companies make up just over half of the list of 100, with the next biggest representation from Germany (nine brands), France (eight) and Japan (seven).

No Indian company features in the list.
Samsung, which came at No.9, had the strongest one-year gain of any brand in the top 100, up 53 percent to $29.5 billion. The company's value soared 136 percent over the past three years.

"Sales for Samsung's Galaxy S4 smartphone have been on fire and the company also benefits from its market leading position with memory chips," Forbes said.

Forbes, however, said the value of a brand can collapse in the complex, fast moving technology world.

Forbes had valued the Blackberry brand at $6.1 billion last year, but this year it stood at just $2.2 billion and has come out of the top 100 brands list.
Forbes valued the brands on three years of earnings and allocated a percentage of those earnings based on the role brands play in each industry. The 100 most valuable brands span 15 countries across 20 broad industry categories.