MasterCard’s MasterPass simplifies online shopping

It’s been a banner year for online shopping in Canada as the industry experienced 20% growth in online sales in 2015. The combined online share sales in November and December of last year totaled 9.84%, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse. Both months bested last year’s 8.6% record as online sales in November reached 9.7%, the highest in Canadian e-commerce history; that is until December came in a retail sales climbed up to 9.9%.

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Budweiser's “Tackle Impossible” is a hackathon that champions designated driving

Budweiser launched the  Tackle Impossible Road Safety Challenge and is calling on young adults to join together to create smart innovations that help stop preventable drinking and driving related crashes. The initiative will ignite the entrepreneurial spirit of young adults to tackle global road safety and help find solutions that champion designated driving. The initiative is part of Budweiser’s global commitment to make roads safer around the world.

Young adults of legal drinking age can visit TackleImpossible.com to learn more about Tackle Impossible and find out how to get involved.

“Budweiser believes in a world where everyone is free to follow the life of their dreams,” says Andrew Oosterhuis, Director of Marketing, Budweiser Canada. “Whether it’s in a car, on a bicycle, or on foot - every road we choose should be open and safe. 

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Canadian designed yoga mats incorporate artistic elements

Yoga Design Lab launches it’s eye-catching yoga mats in Canada. The innovative yoga brand has been shaking up the industry south of the border with yoga mats described by Harper's Bazaar and Fitness Magazine as 'stunning works of art’. Designed in Bali by a Canadian surfer/yogi named Chad, who sold all his stuff and moved there to launch the idea in 2014. "I was seated in the back of a packed yoga class while on vacation in Ubud, Bali. Looking around, all I saw was a sea of unoriginal, massed produced, solid colored mats. My thinking was, there must be a way of creating a highly functional product that was also aesthetically beautiful. So the journey began.

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Microsoft to donate $1 billion in cloud services to nonprofits and university researchers

We will donate $1 billion in cloud computing resources over the next 3 years to 70,000 non-profits and NGOs worldwide. - Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft

On the softer side of technology news, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella just announced that Microsoft Philanthropies, with support from MSR and Business Development, will donate $1 billion in Microsoft cloud services to nonprofits and university researchers over the next three years, including serving 70,000 nonprofits with this technology in the same timeframe.

"Philanthropy is a start," Nadella said in a blog post, "but to truly harness the public cloud for public good, businesses, governments and NGOs must come together with a shared vision and relentless passion to improve the human condition and drive new growth equally."

Source: Microsoft