In a recent news release, WRIT Media Group, Inc. (OTCQB: WRIT) outlined intentions to integrate its Pelecoin blockchain technology, which was picked up as part of last month’s Pandora Venture Capital Corp. acquisition, into a variety of products and applications that can be used to make spending cryptocurrencies simpler. When complete, the company aims to combine the benefits of digital currencies with the ease-of-use of fiat currencies, effectively introducing Pelecoin and other digital currencies into the physical world through the use of debit cards and mobile phone payment applications.

“Our goal is to create the industry standard for Blockchain-based, secured payments solutions,” Eric Mitchell, president of WRIT, stated in the news release. “The Company has been in discussions with several market-leading, best-in-class industry players to engage an initial and formative partner that will invest in, and help develop, our Pelecoin technology into a proprietary, transparent, digital payment system that become the market standard.”

Differentiating itself from the current digital currency landscape, Pelecoin strays away from the widely-used ‘rules of emission’, which generate new coins on a set schedule that effectively undermines the currency’s market value, in favor of a simple, proprietary algorithm designed to promote increased distribution and use. While Bitcoin generates five coins per minute to hardcore ‘miners’ with a deep knowledge of software programming and costly computer equipment, Pelecoin generates new units based upon a unique set of rules and events that increase the currency’s worth, such as new user registration, acceptance of Pelecoin for goods and services, and trades between Pelecoin and fiat currencies. When users participate in these simple ‘value’ events, their accounts are automatically credited with the newly-generated funds.

“There are several advantageous ways Pelecoin differs from other digital currencies on the market, and we’re excited to be part of the many advances taking place in cryptocurrency,” added Mitchell.

To better understand the growing demand for digital currency options, it’s best to study Bitcoin, which is often referred to as the first cryptocurrency. In a January report (http://dtn.fm/MJl58), a contributor for Wired suggested that 2016 could be the year that the digital currency moves into the mainstream. In September 2015, daily Bitcoin transactions hit a record high, and usage remained up more than 100 percent year-over-year into early 2016. Of this usage, roughly 20 percent was attributed to payments or usage as a currency, as major retailers such as Dell and Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) continue to test the waters with Bitcoin payments.

With consumer usage of cryptocurrencies hovering at near-record levels, WRIT’s entry into the digital currency space comes at an intriguing time. Look for the company to benefit from a newly-assumed, skilled management team with backgrounds in payments, telecom and digital currency acquisition as it seeks to establish a sustainable foothold in this burgeoning market.

For more information about the company, visit www.writmediagroup.com

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There are many reasons companies today are opting for a more technological approach to their operations. Many are operating on fully cloud-based platforms. Cloud-based environments offer businesses the chance to explore new business models, experience less operational issues and costs, gain access to more regular system upgrades, have more flexibility, cut out a number of capital expenditures, increase security, and create less of an impact on the environment, among other benefits.

Cloud computing is helping all forms of businesses to collaborate more widely. This means that retail stores, services pages, and technological businesses can work with anyone, no matter where they are in the world. Of course, the key difference between cloud-based and on-premise offerings is the fact that on-premise operates primarily within four walls (or more). Though offering certain advantages, on-premise can also limit offerings or make processes slower and more expensive. It also equates to higher staffing costs, as a physical office or warehouse takes people to run it.

Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI) is a travel company that runs through its flagship: NextTrip.com. The company has multiple divisions and offers an array of travel services to its customers. Monaker Group, Inc. aims to become a ‘one stop’ shop for vacation bookings. MKGI does not stop at offering holiday bookings. The company offers a search engine for alternative lodging, as well as a variety of airlines, car rental services, hotels, resorts, cruises, concierge services, and tours.

Monaker’s ability to pull together an all-inclusive booking platform for its customers has enabled it to decrease its expenses and overall costs by 43 percent in just one year, according to the company’s Form 10K. Most importantly, this large decrease in expenses was due to a decrease in all expense categories. Thanks to Monaker Group’s ability to function through its flagship and other online companies, personnel requirements were reduced, cutting associated costs by over $600,000. In addition to this, the company has deferred some selling and promotional costs, and it has reduced general administrative costs until the platform is fully complete, saving the company even more money since early last year.

For more information, visit www.monakergroup.com

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Brits who wanted the U.K. to remain in the E.U. are scratching their heads now. How could so many of their compatriots be persuaded to vote leave? Naturally, those in the leave camp are equally perplexed at the actions of the ‘remainers’. Well, psychology offers one answer: social influence. Social influence, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, is ‘any process whereby a person’s attitudes, opinions, beliefs, or behavior are altered or controlled by others’. Now, to harness and focus this powerful force, Agora Holdings (OTC: AGHI) offers FRAME. FRAME is the lens through which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can see and be seen by their customers and target markets, and, like any lens, FRAME has the power to magnify.

There is no doubt that our purchasing decisions are shaped by traditional media, by social media and by our peers. Equally influential on our purchasing decisions are the opinions of our heroes. That’s the reason that brand spoke-persons and celebrity endorsements are so widely employed in advertising campaigns. Social influence occurs at different levels. At the most personal level, there is the influence of our peers, which was limited to just a small circle of friends and family with whom we interacted physically. Now, because of the internet, ‘peer pressure’ is greatly more extensive. At the most public level is the influence exerted by the traditional media channels of print, radio and television. This is all changing with the advent of social media, which combines elements of the personal and the public.

Through social media platforms, which offer a confluence of the traditional channels of mass media and personal interaction, a rich menu of possibilities arise. Customers can all be brand spoke persons. Working in conjunction with celebrity endorsements, customers’ tweets and posts can make or break a brand. Now, customers can respond and talk directly to a movie star, politician or other public figure through a post or tweet, find out what their opinion on a subject is, and see if their likes and dislikes gel with their own. And our peers no longer have to be those we have met physically. They could be living thousands of miles away from us. We meet them in chat rooms, in forums and on social media platforms. As a result, marketing messages are easier and less costly. A tweet doesn’t require the formal and technical apparatus of a traditional promotional event.

The power of social influence is not to be underestimated. The website internships.com saw their public profile boosted immeasurably in 2011 after Charlie Sheen tweeted he was looking for an intern. The tweet received 95,333 clicks in the first hour. The reach of the tweet was astoundingly extensive with applications, which eventually totaled 82,148, coming in from 181 countries.

In addition, clever marketers like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) have been exploiting social influence even before social media platforms became quite so ubiquitous. Over the close to 200 years P&G has given us Gillette, Tide, Vicks and a hundred other products, the company has learned a thing or two about how consumers behave. In 2001, it launched a marketing division to explore the potential of ‘word of mouth’ marketing, which was the turn of the century moniker for social influence marketing. Tremor, as it was called, targeted teens with the objective of determining to what extent gossip influenced purchasing decisions.

Tremor discovered how trends developed and categorized the hundreds of thousands of teens who joined their network into Trend Setters and Trend Spreaders. Trend Setters are those who like to differentiate themselves from others. Typically, when too many others copy their style, they will abandon it and seek further means of differentiation. Trend Spreaders, on the other hand, adopt a style to signal their inclusion. All too often, it signals quite the opposite. Nevertheless, for marketers, these are the most valuable.

FRAME from Agora Holdings offers a platform to take the marketing efforts of SMEs to a much higher level. The platform was enhanced earlier this year and is particularly optimized for public relations (PR) and investor relations (IR) agencies. FRAME’s unique technology allows companies to use a single dashboard to publish brand-relevant messages to all of an organization’s corporate social media accounts. This enables the company to build campaigns in a faster, more efficient, and easier way. FRAME also features several advanced functions such as engagement and customer care tools, measurement of campaign success via social media performance and comprehensive reporting, which provides insight into how many times content is reposted by monitoring social media mentions and brand-related conversations.

For more information, visit www.agoraholdingsinc.com

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Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK) has moved well beyond its original model as a premier online discount seller of excess inventory. Overstock, founded in 1999, now has over a million on-site products, ranging from furniture and home décor to automobiles, all controlled by 1,500 employees. The shift in strategy is seen in the company’s 2011 acquisition of a new URL (www.O.co), which is especially suited to Overstock’s growing mobile presence. The company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, has succeeded by offering a balanced mix of superior customer service and associated innovation.

Recognizing the developing demand for consumer-friendly mobile access, Overstock developed a mobile shopping experience for customers that was recently named the Web Marketing Association’s Best Shopping Mobile Application at the 2015 Mobile Web Awards, the fourth consecutive year in which the company’s mobile app has been honored. Today, 76 percent of Overstock’s mobile users become repeat customers, with the company’s app being downloaded over five million times.

Overstock’s growing operational success shows in its financials, with last year’s revenues coming in at $1.7 billion, an 11 percent increase over the previous year, and feeding a net income of $2.4 million. The company has seen profitable results for the past four years and reports cash and cash equivalents of $170.3 million.

The company is now moving into the use of blockchain technology, the key that enables bitcoin transactions, and has announced plans, through majority-owned subsidiary t0.com, to complete the world’s first public offering using this technology. Earlier, the company was the first to issue a private blockchain crypto-bond.

For more information, visit http://dtn.fm/6IroP

Last month, International Stem Cell Corp. (OTCQB: ISCO) published the results of its 12-month pre-clinical, non-human primate study demonstrating the safety and efficacy of its proprietary human parthenogenetic stem cell-derived neural stem cells (ISC-hpNSC™). These findings highlighted the efficacy of transplanting ISC-hpNSC into non-human primates induced with moderate to severe clinical Parkinson’s disease symptoms, as well as serving as the basis of ISCO’s application to the Australian regulatory authorities to move forward with clinical trials, which was approved in mid-December.

“The publication of the data in the peer-reviewed and highly-respected journal, Cell Transplantation, brings to conclusion the preclinical stage of ISCO’s Parkinson’s disease program,” Russell Kern, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of ISCO, stated in a recent news release. “The data provides further evidence that parthenogenetic neural stem cells can be effective in treating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.”

In recent weeks, ISCO has looked to build on this progress through the commencement of a phase I clinical trial of ISC-hpNSC for the treatment of moderate to severe Parkinson’s disease. The company announced the start of enrollment for this trial in early March, and it expects to present preliminary clinical data from this study as early as the fourth quarter of this year.

ISCO has also continued to make strides from a financial standpoint. In the first quarter of 2016, the company announced entry into definitive agreements with two institutional healthcare investors and management for the private placement of $6.3 million of ISCO’s convertible preferred stock, as well as purchase warrants covering up to $25.7 million of common stock. When combined with the revenues generated from its two wholly-owned subsidiaries, both of which remain profitable according to first quarter operating results, ISCO is in a favorable financial position as it moves toward the start of its phase I clinical trial at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Hospital.

If clinical trials prove successful, ISC-hpNSC will address a currently underserved indication that affects more than seven million people worldwide. According to data from the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, the combined direct and indirect costs associated with the management of Parkinson’s is estimated at $25 billion per year in the United States alone. Currently, medication costs for an individual living with the neurodegenerative disease average roughly $2,500 annually, despite the fact that there is no available cure.

“We are very pleased to start the first human study of ISC-hpNSC’s for the treatment of this debilitating disease,” Andrey Semechkin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of ISCO, stated in a news release late last year. “There is a large unmet medical need for new treatments that may halt or reverse the progression of Parkinson’s disease and we believe our human neural stem cells may fill this need for the millions of people with this disease.”

For more information, visit www.internationalstemcell.com

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Before the opening bell, Laguna Blends, Inc. (OTC: LAGBF) announced the execution of a non-binding letter of intent with Cannaceuticals of California, USA (Canna) through which it plans to enter into a definitive manufacturing and exclusive license agreement for Canna’s cannabidiol (CBD) skin care line. The two parties have agreed to an exclusivity period running through July 29, during which additional negotiations and signing of the manufacturing and license agreement are expected to take place.

“Canna has spent a tremendous amount of time and financial resources to create what we believe is the highest quality CBD skin care line available on the market today,” Stuart Gray, founder and chief executive officer of Laguna Blends, stated in this morning’s news release. “By combining the known benefits of CBD’s into a skin care product, we anticipate that Laguna is poised to become a direct sales leader in the skin care industry.”

According to this morning’s news release, the terms of the letter of intent outline Laguna’s future purchase of the entirety of Canna’s existing inventory, including roughly 4,500 units of each of the eight existing Canna products. Laguna is expected to pay $250,000 on a monthly payment schedule over a six-month period, as well as a license fee of $100,000 in common shares upon final entry into the binding manufacturing and exclusive license agreement. In exchange for these payments, Laguna will be granted an exclusive license to sell Canna products in the United States and Canada for an initial period of two years, as well as the rights to sell Canna products in Asia, Europe and Mexico, pending regulatory approval and Laguna’s expansion into these markets.

Moving forward, Canna will continue to contribute its research and development expertise in CBD-derived skin care products while manufacturing additional units of its current products, as necessary to meet the inventory requirements of Laguna.

For members of Laguna’s affiliate program, the letter of intent with Canna could open the door for considerable sales growth in the coming months. According to a report by Market Research, the global skin care industry is expected to surpass $120 billion in 2016, with the U.S. market alone climbing to $10.7 billion by 2018. Pending due diligence and necessary approvals, Laguna expects to offer Canna products to its affiliate base as soon as August of this year, with expansion into Canada expected to occur before the end of 2016.

“By offering the Cannaceuticals skin care line of products to our affiliates, the Company anticipates an increase in product sales and recruitment of new affiliates,” concluded Gray.

For more information, visit www.lagunablends.com

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The June issue of Energy Times Magazine gave readers a look into the potential health benefits associated with use of the SugarChecked app from Content Checked Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: CNCK). The publication’s editor gave SugarChecked a stellar review, noting its utility as a tool to manage obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.

“If you’re looking to lose weight, one way is to avoid sugar,” reads Energy Times’ June ‘Wellness Watch’ spotlight. “It isn’t always easy to find added sweetness in packaged foods, though, given that there are dozens of ways to say “sugar” on food labels. One way to uncover these hidden sources is to download a free phone app called SugarChecked. Created by a team of nutritionists, this app lets you quickly scan product barcodes for sugar content.”

To view the full article, visit http://dtn.fm/LD1vO

For Content Checked, securing coverage in Energy Times is expected to play a key role in broadening the company’s brand recognition throughout the health and wellness community. Energy Times is available at health food stores around the country, and it boasts a circulation of more than 400,000 subscribers. The magazine is also available at newsstands across the United States.

In recent months, Content Checked has been successful in securing coverage of its suite of mobile apps in a number of widely read publications, including Forbes, USA Today, ABC, CBS, NBC, Los Angeles Business Journal and Yahoo, among others. The company has also entered into strategic partnerships with companies such as ATLETO, a social sports app that connects everyday athletes, and Leaner Creamer, the only all-natural powdered coffee creamer that promotes weight loss and appetite suppression, in an effort to broaden its presence in the roughly $13 billion U.S. food allergy and intolerance market.

Kris Finstad, CEO of Content Checked, gave some insight into the Company’s success in building brand recognition during a recent interview with the UPTICK Network Stock Day Podcast. He noted that Content Checked’s suite of dietary apps has a combined userbase of approximately two million people in the U.S. and Norway, and that figure is expected to grow following the impending launch of ContentChecked, SugarChecked and MigraineChecked in Canada, the U.K. and Australia. Likewise, Finstad gave some insight into the upcoming release of an updated version of the Company’s apps, which is expected to include new features and improved usability for users.

To view the company’s full financials, visit the following link: http://dtn.fm/sIJ7M

For more information, visit www.contentchecked.com

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A study completed at Oxford University in the U.K. (http://dtn.fm/X1kBb) on jobs that were most likely to be replaced by computerization placed real estate brokers at number 40 out of the 702 positions surveyed, with a 97 percent chance of losing out to computers. Digital technologies are disrupting many industries, particularly those whose raison d’être is the reduction of information asymmetries. Upstarts like Airbnb and Uber Technologies have revolutionized business paradigms, and the waves of disruption are already lapping on the shores of the real estate domain. The real estate industry will have to keep up or give up. With its Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage, eXp World Holdings (OTCQB: EXPI) is offering brokers and agents the opportunity to keep up.

Disruption is the new buzzword, but it’s a reality as well. Now, homeowners can list a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) on ListingDoor, which Forbes has called the ‘Uber for Real Estate Sales’. If that is not alarming enough, the ListingDoor site proclaims that it has ‘Everything you need to sell and market your home FSBO, without the hassle of a real estate agent’. ListingDoor gives home sellers a complete market analysis with an Intel Report, which removes any information advantage a broker may have. A property owner is given a custom website to list his or her property. The best of the property can be highlighted in up to 24 images. He is provided with listing brochures and a colorful ‘For Sale’ yard sign printed and delivered next day by courier. In addition, the listing is syndicated to popular real estate sites such as Zillow (NASDAQ: Z), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) Homes, and Trulia (NYSE: TRLA).

The revolution has not quite deposed real estate agents and brokers, however. A recent research report (http://dtn.fm/nW6aM) on eXp World Holdings, issued by Fundamental Research in April 2016, points out that, for most Americans, the purchase of a home involves the largest financial outlay. It also cites statistics published by the National Association of Realtors:

‘…approximately 87 percent of buyers recently purchased their home through a real estate agent or broker (up from 69 percent in 2001), 8 percent purchased directly from a builder or builder’s agent, and 5 percent directly from previous owners. In the case of sellers, approximately 89 percent of sellers used a real estate agent when selling their home. For-Sale-by-Owner (FSBO) sellers accounted for just 8 percent, and such properties are typically sold to someone the seller knows.’

The changing landscape offers not just threats, but opportunities, as well. There are many advantages to working with a real estate agent, as this Forbes article (http://dtn.fm/e7X0C) points out. First, don’t try this at home; selling or buying a property is not as easy as it looks on TV. It will take you time to track down the specific information you require, and, even then, information is not knowledge. Only experience will allow you to use that information wisely. Second, a middleman focuses the negotiation on the factors that matter. Direct contact between buyer and seller risks bringing personality issues to the forefront. A deal can fall apart because the buyer doesn’t like the seller, even though he likes the house, or because the seller can’t bear the thought of his home falling into the hands of ‘someone like that’.

Thirdly, how up-to-speed are you on the legal issues? These can be notoriously arcane. Wouldn’t it be better to let a professional handle them? Fourthly, in a one-on-one deal, the maxim caveat emptor applies, whereas agents and brokers must follow regulatory guidelines and rules when conducting business. It’s possible, depending on state law, that a fiduciary relationship may arise, which means that the agent or broker is bound to put your interests ahead of his or her own. Fifth, for the buyer, monetary costs may go down before the sale but go up after the sale. The greatest danger for the lone ranger is not knowing what he does not know.

The Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage offered by eXp World Holdings’ wholly-owned subsidiary, eXp Realty, is a full service national real estate brokerage platform. Its cloud-based format reduces the costs associated with operating a brick-and-mortar office, yet, through a 3-D environment, provides all the services offered by traditional brokerages. In addition, agents can draw on services that include training and education, coaching and mentoring, and transaction and technical support. eXp Realty has already added over 1,100 agents and brokers operating in 40 states and Canada to its platform.

For more information, visit the company’s website at http://investors.exprealty.com

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In a recent article by Jeffrey Friedland, titled ‘The Coexistence of FDA Approved Cannabis-Based Drugs and Medical Marijuana Provided through State-Licensed Businesses’ (http://dtn.fm/PV2e6), the author addresses some important concerns relating to the evolving role of the federal government in dealing with the rapidly growing cannabis industry, especially as it pertains to the potential effects on the use of medical marijuana (MMJ).

Specifically, the article points to the anticipated approval by the FDA of Epidiolex (generic name cannabidiol, or CBD), a cannabis-based drug produced by GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH) for the treatment of Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy. In addition, the article mentions concerns related to the FDA’s anticipated rescheduling of cannabis products from a current Schedule I status to a level acknowledging the drug’s medical benefits.

In the case of Epidiolex, the article describes fears that Dravet patients have about possibly being forced to switch to the drug if it becomes approved and no longer being allowed to purchase from state-licensed MMJ businesses, as they have done in the past. Friedland makes it clear that, if Epidiolex does gain FDA approval “it should not directly affect state-licensed medical marijuana businesses,” since the drug will not be sold through these businesses, but rather through normal distribution channel pharmacies. Moreover, the article indicates that the FDA has avoided regulating state-licensed marijuana businesses. However, it does suggest that GW Pharmaceuticals, the drug’s producer, could take action to restrict MMJ businesses producing or selling a marijuana-based medicine specifically for Dravet Syndrome.

As far as the possible rescheduling of cannabis products is concerned, apprehension has been expressed that such rescheduling by the FDA might lead to the closure of state-licensed dispensaries and suppliers. Again, Friedland emphasizes that such fears are unwarranted, saying that “forced closures will not occur as a result of a rescheduling of marijuana,” since “the existence of state-licensed marijuana programs is not based on marijuana’s schedule.”

All of this is good news for YiLoLife, Inc., a producer and distributor of high-quality MMJ edibles and associated products. The company has grown to its current standing by distributing its products throughout Arizona, and it has recently opened the state’s first MMJ superstore in Phoenix. YiLo was founded to provide consumers with a true alternative to the typical cannabis-infused edibles that offer little in the way of taste or clearly-labeled and dependable quality ingredients. In addition to snacks, candies, brownies, and chocolates, including sugar-free options, the company offers medicated drinks, along with a range of MMJ support products, all with the company’s distinctive logo, which continues to build brand recognition. The growing assurance that existing state-based MMJ businesses are not threatened by planned federal policy adjustments supports increasing investment in the industry.

For more information, visit www.yilo.com

Coming off of another quarter of record-breaking financials, with Q1 FY16 net revenues and net income up 10.3 and 24.7 percent respectively YOY, OurPet’s Company (OTCQX: OPCO) chairman and CEO Dr. Steven Tsengas recently told Austin, Texas-based IR/PR/SMR firm DreamTeamNetwork in an audio interview (http://dtn.fm/5z69S), that he thinks 2016 international sales could be one the biggest positive surprises from the company moving forward. This just after an extremely strong showing of the company’s new OurPets® Intelligent Pet Care™ line of smart products at the industry’s premier event, the Global Pet Expo, which is presented every year by the American Pet Products Association (APPA) and Pet Industry Distributors Association (PIDA).

Tsengas tipped his hand about international market traction horizons to DreamTeamNetwork in the aforementioned interview, explaining that the company’s OurPets and the PetZone brands were already seeing very strong floor play in China, Japan and South Korea, where the company has localized its initial efforts, and built up a tight rapport with consumers. With around 11 million dogs and 10 million cats (Japan Pet Food Association), Japan is a market that is noted for appreciating good design and should be prime development territory for OPCO, which should have no trouble adding to its position here. The same is true over in South Korea, where a similar cultural taste for ingenious design predominates, and where the pet population is on track to hit one million for the first time this year (http://dtn.fm/v0Vew).

The global pet market is a nice, stable growth environment for an innovator like OPCO, which is growing its retail footprint/consumer exposure via both its pet parent/prosumer OurPets brand and its mass market brand, PetZone. The latest Packaged Facts report that looks closely at the bullish scenario developing in the sector, with increasing interest by private equity and other M&A activity on the rise, lays out the case pretty well as to how there is plenty of room for growth. The continued strength of operators such as the country’s biggest rural lifestyle retailer, Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ: TSCO), with its 1,500-plus stores and third consecutive year hosting Nestle’s (OTC: NSRGY) Purina Days last month, offers clear indication to the investment community about the true bedrock potential, and upper-limit scope of this market.

Underlying market dynamics like those driving the rise of TSCO have made other retailers and sector majors, such as Petco and PetSmart, hot properties for investors who are looking to cash in on people’s growing obsession with their pets. These same dynamics should also help propel lower-hanging investment fruit in the midcap range on down to new-found securities stardom. The market for pet products and services is currently on track to hit upwards of $91 billion in annual sales by 2019 (http://dtn.fm/vJ2I5), and you can bet your bottom dollar that the smart money out there is hard at work injecting further consolidative forces into this seemingly recession-proof consumer market.

OurPet’s Company is a great hidden gem type valuation story amid all this, and the company also has the IP/visionary design capability to surf the momentum with style, capitalizing on sector buzz in order to bring its exceptional product designs to light before the eyes of eager, pet-loving consumers. In the U.S. alone we have around 163 million or more cats and dogs, and the tendency to treat these pets like fully-fledged members of the family is steadily on the rise. This is a trend that OPCO is poised perfectly to benefit from with their OurPets brand of premium offerings like gorgeous, heavy-duty stainless steel feeding bowls that have a proprietary, patented, permanently-molded rubber ring on the bottom that prevents sliding and noise when the animal eats. Similarly elegant looking, yet robust and functional designs, each of them engineered with careful consideration of the animal’s needs, as well as the owner’s décor, have come to typify the OurPets brand in the minds of high-end and not-so-high-end consumers alike.

This dual brand approach by OPCO is ideal for courting the more lucrative high-end pet parent prosumer, and, as more people gravitate into this fold, OPCO will continue to shine more and more brightly as a design shop through the OurPets brand. The tendency for people to treat their pets like bonafide family members is on the rise globally as per capita incomes rise, and, in part, this may be due to the phenomenon of people who (as a country becomes more affluent) typically wait longer to have their first child, in which case the pet fills an emotional void.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ourpets.com

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