eXp World Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPI) is a fully-immersive estate brokerage that operates through a cloud office environment. The company offers 24-hour access to a range of training and tools, creating a sociable, 3-D platform that offers quality services to consumers. Cloud service brokers work as third-party providers who help strengthen and even sometimes build a relationship with consumers. The idea is to provide a service through the internet so that physical offices are no longer necessary. With the ongoing advancements in internet technology, EXPI adopted cloud-based tools and technologies that enable it to allocate its resources in more appropriate areas than in physical brick and mortar shops or unnecessary staffing costs. This said, eXp World Holdings, Inc. works toward “the goal of being the first truly agent-owned, cloud-based, full service, global real estate brokerage company that delivers around-the-clock access to collaborative tools and professional development for managing real estate brokers and agents.” This, in turn, means the company’s agents work toward more than just a financial goal. They are given the opportunity to be part of a team with a higher level of responsibility.

The days of shopping in stores, visiting supermarkets, and physically meeting with real estate agents are becoming less frequent. Today, people can shop for food, clothing, and everything in-between online. The property market is also veering toward the virtual world. Gartner Inc., the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, predicts the worldwide public cloud services market will climb to $204 billion this year. Sid Nag, research director at Gartner, said, “The market for public cloud services is continuing to demonstrate high rates of growth across all markets and Gartner expects this to continue through 2017.” He continued, “This strong growth continues to reflect a shift away from legacy IT services to cloud-based services, due to increased trends of organizations pursuing a digital business strategy.” EXPI has focused its efforts on embracing cloud-based technologies in order to not be burdened by some of the physical investments faced by traditional real estate offices.

In a blog post titled ‘The State of the Market: Salesforce Powered Real Estate CRMs’, Active Rain, the largest online real estate community, said that its surveys showed that the more successful real estate agents were those who spent six times more on technology than those who are less successful.

EXPI’s efforts do not stop at staying up to date with the latest technology. The company continues to focus its efforts on its agents. Its view remains that “The greatest asset of any real estate brokerage is the group of agents and brokers who are a part of it”. This is why, at eXp World Holdings, Inc., the brokers and agents are also the owners. The company views its agents and brokers as a family and continues to provide regular training, strategy development, team building, and much more in order to ensure that its agents and brokers always have the right systems and tools in place to grow their international, publicly-traded company.

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

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Demand for vacation accommodations that escape the bounds of traditional hotels and resorts is on the rise. According to a 2015 consumer study by Travel Weekly (http://dtn.fm/wqJe5), awareness of collaborative or sharing-economy services, such as Airbnb and HomeAway, has skyrocketed in recent months. In 2014, nearly two-thirds of survey respondents were unfamiliar with these services, but, in a survey completed just 12 months later, roughly 60 percent of people reported familiarity with the growing trend. Last week, the growing focus on alternative accommodations in the vacation rental sector was reiterated when travel giant TripAdvisor (NASDAQ: TRIP) acquired UK-based HouseTrip for an undisclosed fee (http://dtn.fm/ZI2v3).

Since its founding in 2009, HouseTrip has successfully secured nearly $60 million in funding, but it has struggled to compete with more established brands in the burgeoning sector. In 2014, HouseTrip replaced its chief executive officer and laid off roughly a third of its workforce ahead of a planned restructuring. The magnitude of these struggles is echoed by a look at HouseTrip’s booking numbers. Since its launch, the platform has generated approximately eight million bookings. For comparison, Airbnb records about 37 million bookings annually.

When considering HouseTrip’s difficulties in gaining market share in the alternative lodging space, its acquisition points toward the importance of another factor for booking platforms – inventory. When commenting on the benefits of the acquisition of HouseTrip, Dermot Halpin, president of TripAdvisor Vacation Rentals, highlighted the addition of the platform’s 130,000 properties to TripAdvisor’s existing property listings, which currently include nearly 800,000 unique properties. With the recent consolidation in the rental sector – including Expedia’s (NASDAQ: EXPE) $3.9 billion acquisition of HomeAway last December (http://dtn.fm/iS9Xh) and Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) subsidiary Booking.com’s distribution agreement with Wyndham Vacation Rentals (NYSE: WYN) (http://dtn.fm/msl5H) – companies with innovative plays and sizable property inventories are well-positioned to capitalize on the forecast growth of the $240 billion vacation rental sector moving forward.

One company that’s likely to catch the attention of travel industry giants in the near future is Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI). In February, the company launched NextTrip.com, a fully comprehensive booking engine that includes conventional lodging, alternative lodging and unused timeshare and resort inventory. Since its launch, Monaker has added an alternative lodging inventory of more than 250,000 units to its new platform, and the company reports approximately one million alternative lodging units currently under contract. This amount of alternative lodging inventory already positions Monaker as one of the largest players in the rapidly growing alternative lodging industry.

Last week, Monaker highlighted the marketability of NextTrip when it unveiled its proprietary timeshare booking engine, NextTrip Resorts. The integration of NextTrip Resorts positions Monaker on the cutting edge of the alternative lodging industry, giving it access to a largely untapped market including an estimated 19 million rooms, of which 25 percent regularly go unused. The company is now focused on aggressively pursuing timeshare resort owners, developers and property managers in order to expand its inventory in high-demand vacation markets around the globe. This growth will undoubtedly benefit users of the NextTrip platform, but it could also play a key role for Monaker’s shareholder base as the travel industry experiences further consolidation.

For more information, visit www.monakergroup.com

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Before the opening bell, Laguna Blends, Inc. (OTC: LAGBF) announced the appointment of Ray W. Grimm Jr. as its new president, replacing Stuart Gray. Gray will continue to hold the positions of chief executive officer, chief financial officer and director. Grimm has worked with Laguna as a consultant since January, and his experience, leadership and credibility are expected to play a key role in the company’s ongoing efforts to expand its network of independent affiliates by attracting dedicated network marketing professionals.

“I am excited to be a part of Laguna Blends’ executive team,” Grimm stated in this morning’s news release. “My focus will be to assist in building the culture, bring in new business builders, assist in product development and help generate sales growth over the next 5 years as we establish the Laguna Blends brand worldwide. My near term goal for Laguna Blends is having the Company become one of the Network Marketing Industry’s top 100 Companies.”

In total, Grimm brings more than a quarter century of experience building some of the world’s leading direct sales businesses targeting nutritional and weight loss categories. Notably, in 2011, he created and co-founded a weight loss brand that produced roughly $10 million in sales during its first year of operation, positioning it as one of the fastest growing weight loss brands in history. Grimm is also credited with building a number of additional multimillion dollar businesses in the sector, including three that topped $50 million in sales within their first five years. With a proven track record of success in the direct sales industry and extensive experience in managing operations, sales, training and marketing of fast-growing businesses, Grimm’s presence on the Laguna management team is expected to help drive the company’s innovative, affiliate-based sales model to new heights.

“It’s been a pleasure working closely with Ray as a consultant and advisory to Laguna the past three months,” Stuart Gray, CEO of Laguna Blends, stated in this morning’s news release. “Ray brings vast experience, leadership and credibility to Laguna and has already attracted Network Marketing professionals whom have joined the Laguna business as Affiliates.”

Since its initial launch in early March of this year, Laguna’s affiliate network has exceeded all growth projections by attracting independent affiliates from all corners of the United States and Canada. Last month, the company reported that its network had grown to include more than 700 affiliates focused exclusively on generating retail sales of its initial products to market, Caffe and Pro369. Both Caffe, an instant hot coffee beverage, and Pro369, an instant hemp protein powder, capitalize on the nutritional health benefits derived from hemp while also targeting the expansive coffee and sports nutrition markets.

For more information, visit www.lagunablends.com

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Before the opening bell, OurPet’s Company (OTCQX: OPCO) highlighted the recent success of its ongoing growth initiatives when it reported record financial results for the first quarter of 2016. The company’s net revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2016, was $6.17 million, an increase of more than 10 percent from the same period of 2015. Similarly, OPCO’s net income for the quarter was up 24.7 percent over the previous year, coming in at a record total of $266,581.

According to Dr. Steven Tsengas, chairman and chief executive officer of OPCO, these results highlight the company’s “continued ability to successfully execute [its] business strategy.” The strength of this business strategy is echoed by the strong performance of OPCO’s e-commerce and retail channels, which led the way with year-over-year growth of 14 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Despite the strength of the U.S. dollar having a negative impact on international sales for the quarter, OPCO was able to achieve strong performance in all of its major product categories, including a 64 percent increase through its waste & odor category, a 10 percent increase through its toys/accessories category and a 9 percent rise through its bowls/feeders category.

Benefitting from a sharp increase in sales, OPCO’s profitability was up almost 25 percent, as compared to 2015. This result can be partially attributed to the company’s focus on tightening cost controls, as illustrated by its one percent decrease in selling, general & administrative expenses as a percentage of total sales. Other financial highlights from the first quarter of 2016 include:

• Income from operations increased 16.5 percent over the previous year to $415,269 due primarily to increased sales
• Inventory declined to roughly $7.44 million from $7.91 million at the beginning of the year as the result of an ongoing initiative to reduce inventory below $7 million by year end
• Gross profit margin declined slightly to 29.7 percent from last year’s 30.3 percent due to product mix
• Earnings per diluted share remained flat at $0.01

In addition to the company’s impressive financial results, Dr. Tsengas used this morning’s news release to highlight OPCO’s presentation at the Global Pet Expo in March.

“One of our highlights every first quarter is the Global Pet Expo international trade show held in Orlando, Florida where we present our new, innovative products to the market,” he stated. “This year we presented our new Intelligent Pet Care™ product line that features BlueTooth® and wireless connectivity for three products: our SmartScoop® – Intelligent Litter Box, our SmartLink™ Feeder – Intelligent Pet Bowl and our SmartLink™ Waterer – Intelligent Water Fountain.”

In line with its goal of fostering a healthy relationship between pets and their owners, OPCO’s Intelligent Pet Care™ product line allows pet owners to easily monitor various activities that could have an inherent link to pet health, such as drinking, feeding and elimination behavior. By incorporating Bluetooth and wireless connectivity technology and enabling transmission of data directly to pet owners’ smartphones and mobile devices, the company is reaffirming its position as an innovator in the pet industry while strategically positioning itself to build on its strong start to 2016.

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

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Halitron, Inc. (OTC: HAON), an equity holding company, seeks and acquires distressed companies for the purpose of adding to its existing operations. Halitron rolls these companies into efficient businesses that can either benefit from existing holdings or bring additional services to the collective, making it even stronger. The company’s foundation rests on two strategic business units: the sales and marketing division and the manufacturing division. According to Halitron CEO Bernard Findley, “Overtime, this structure will benefit the group, including Halitron shareholders, and should create shareholder wealth through increased sales and net income.”

The company’s sales and marketing branch focuses on holdings that run marketing services with brand potential opportunities. In January 2015, Halitron acquired Newtown Digital Group (NDG) Holdings, Inc., which brought onboard digital marketing tactics and services that could benefit future acquisitions. Early 2016, the company saw the acquisitions of Pieces In Places, a seller of vinyl file folders; Archival Museum Supplies, a vendor of archival storage products; and Archival Photo Pages, a seller of scrapbook supplies. Together, these businesses offered client lists featuring more than 300,000 potential customers to Halitron.

The second division includes interests in the manufacturing industry. In February 2016, Halitron acquired PRD Holdings, Inc., which has many factory investments in Mexico. These factories deal mostly with the print and plastics industry. PRD Holdings could add 35 percent gross margins by manufacturing the paper or plastic products of Pieces In Places, Archival Museum Supplies, and Archival Photo Pages. Therefore, the relationship between both of these divisions is vital to success.

Furthermore, the post-acquisition strategy formulated by Halitron involves delivering new products to current customers while creating inventive marketing solutions to attract new ones with help from NDG Holdings.

With 20 years of experience in building and rolling-up businesses, it’s no wonder that Halitron CEO Bernard Findley can execute this smart business strategy. He sees the strengths in each fledgling company and leverages them to be more effective. The company expects to acquire more manufacturing businesses not only to add synergy to existing verticals, but also to add more flexibility to compete within the market while increasing profits to shareholders.

For more information, visit www.halitroninc.com

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We tend to think of technology in terms of gadgetry. If it isn’t as complex as rocket science, then it’s not tech. However, in the well-known Macroeconomics text co-authored by the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman, the point is made that technological progress, the factor most responsible for economic growth, has depended on rather mundane innovations such as the flat-bottomed paper bag (patented in 1870) and the Post-it note (introduced in 1981). Technology is not all about bells and whistles; it’s about ideas. And innovative ideas make up the foundation on which OurPet’s Company (OTCQX: OPCO) was built.

In a recent MissionIR OPCO interview (http://dtn.fm/uZK5M), co-founder Dr. Steve Tsengas remarked that one of the main rationales behind the founding of OurPet’s Company in 1994 was the lack of innovation in the pet industry at that time. In fact, so intent on the knowledge-based aspect of the enterprise were its co-founders, Dr. Steve Tsengas and Dean Tsengas, that they decided to focus on generating new, improved solutions for pet owners and ways of getting product to market rather than manufacturing. So, on the one hand, OurPet’s Company concentrates on innovation and design, and, on the other, on marketing and distributing its product line.

OurPet’s Company began as a one-product company. Its OurPets® Big Dog Feeder® was introduced at a classic pet show in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1994. After sales of $6,500 in three days, the founders realized that their insight of the need for innovation in the industry was right on point. The OurPets® Big Dog Feeder® makes it easier for big dogs to eat by elevating the feeding bowl. It is also a much healthier way for them to eat. Feeding from a bowl at ground level may compromise their physical structure, leading to arthritis at the joints.

Since then, OurPet’s Company has gone from a start-up with one product and annual sales of $100,000 to a publicly-traded company with over a thousand products and annual revenues reaching for $30 million. The company also has a potent IP pipeline of some 30 or so products and an IP portfolio of about 160 patents.

The confluence of ideas that has created such experimental and operational energy at OurPet’s Company is derived from two main streams. First, Dr. Steve Tsengas must confess to being a serial entrepreneur. He has been elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, to be a member of which ‘the inventor must have had a U.S. patent that has improved the welfare of humanity and promoted the progress of science and technology’. He has started seven other companies, all, save one, successfully, and has, in the process, accumulated a rich variety of experience and expertise in engineering, electronics, plastics and rubber technologies. Second, his love of pets has driven an academic interest in the pathologies that, unfortunately, accompany their aging. He holds a PhD in naturopathic medicine with a specialty in pet geriatrics and animal behavior. The combination of Dr. Tsengas’s engineering expertise with his knowledge of animal physiology is exploiting market opportunities.

In spite of its successful launch with the relatively low-tech OurPets® Big Dog Feeder®, OurPet’s Company is just as much high-tech. In July 2015, OurPets® Catty Whack® received the Best New Cat Product Showcase Award at the pet supply industry trade show, SuperZoo. OurPets® Catty Whack® is an unpredictable game of hide and seek designed for cats of all ages. Cats love the electronic RealMouse® sound and the erratic movement of the feather keeps the cat guessing as it darts in and out at random. On the top of the Catty Whack® there is a carpeted scratching area where cats can groom their claws on a texture that they find satisfying. The bottom of the toy has non-skid rubber feet, which keeps the toy from sliding. There is also an auto-shut off feature and a replacement feather prey wand is included.

Building on this progress, last month, OurPet’s Company introduced its Intelligent Pet Care™ product line at the Global Pet Expo. Intelligent Pet Care™ products use Bluetooth technology to communicate information to pet owners’ smartphones about their pets. The company also displayed its Whirling Wiggler™ Spinner Toy, new waste management products, and new designs for its bowl and feeder line. With all of this in mind, it’s clear that OurPet’s Company is not high-tech or low-tech. OurPet’s Company is all-tech.

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

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On Thursday, Elio Motors, Inc. (OTCQX: ELIO) announced the completion of the fourth and final stage of engineering for its highly-anticipated E-Series vehicles, including the finalized chassis design. This milestone is significant in Elio’s progress toward the commercial launch of its three-wheeled vehicle, as it opens the door for real-world vehicle validation and ride dynamics testing and calibration. Moving forward, the company will depend on a seasoned, eight-person build team to hand craft vehicles from its newly-established Pilot Operations Center in Livonia, Michigan, in order to complete a variety of aerodynamic, safety and durability tests ahead of the start of commercial production.

“Once our E-Series vehicles emerge from the pilot build, the Chassis team will conduct ride and handling development tuning to refine the vehicle’s driving characteristics prior to commercial production,” Jeff Johnston, vice president of engineering for Elio, stated in yesterday’s news release.

The design of Elio’s E-Series includes a number of innovative features meant to reduce noise and vibration while increasing the comfort of the ride for both drivers and passengers. In particular, Johnston highlights the vehicle’s independent suspension system, which consists of unequal upper and lower control arms incorporating a coil-over shock absorber that’s reminiscent of the suspension systems used in some of the world’s leading performance vehicles. This suspension allows Elio to maintain a lower profile for improved aerodynamics and lighter weight.

“This achievement, which is the final step in our engineering process for the E-Series of vehicles, further validates the flexibility and agility of our Elio Motors-supplier product development process,” Paul Elio, founder and chief executive officer of Elio Motors, stated in yesterday’s news release. “Roush, which joined the team in January, has done a tremendous job on the design of the chassis and suspension, as well as managing the overall engineering process working at what seems like lightning speed.”

In recent months, Elio has been aggressive in pushing toward production of the E-Series. In January, the company launched its first national advertising campaign to increase awareness and generate additional vehicle reservations. To date, Elio has recorded more than 52,400 reservations for its E-Series, capitalizing on a host of marketable features such as record fuel economy of 84 miles per gallon and a targeted base price of just $6,800.

These efforts have had a noticeable impact on the company’s financial position. During a busy first quarter of 2016, Elio successfully raised nearly $17 million in a Regulation A+ stock sale on the StartEngine Crowdfunding platform. Regulation A+, a ruling stemming from the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, allows businesses to raise up to $50 million in funding from both accredited and non-accredited investors. With this move, Elio became the first U.S.-based organization in history to raise capital using Regulation A+, as well as the first to have its shares publicly traded when it listed on the OTCQX Best Market back in February.

For more information, visit www.eliomotors.com

In October 2015, the highly respected Pew Research Center (PRC) published ‘Social Media Usage: 2005 – 2015’ (http://dtn.fm/C2jEp), which showed that the boundary between our online and offline lives is disappearing. One way in which this development is manifesting itself is in the proliferation of social media sites. The number of online platforms that offer social interaction is large and growing. Wikipedia’s ‘List of Social Networking Sites’ (http://dtn.fm/9b8OX) lists over two hundred. The usual suspects, Facebook (1,280,000,000), Flickr (32,000,000), Instagram (300,000,000), LinkedIn (200,000,000), Pinterest (176,000,000), Tumblr (226,950,000), and Twitter (645,750,000) are there. So are Academia.edu (18,000,000) for academics and researchers, aSmallWorld (550,000) for ‘European jet set and social elite world-wide’, DeviantArt (26,000,000) for art lovers, English, baby! (1,600,000) for English as a second language, and Vampirefreaks.com (1,931,049), which seems to be for vampires and freaks. Registered user statistics are enclosed in parentheses.

The PRC report found that the number of adult users of social networking sites has climbed from 7 percent in 2005 to 65 percent in 2015. The report also stated ‘over the past decade, it has consistently been the case that those in higher-income households were more likely to use social media. More than half (56%) of those living in the lowest-income households now use social media, though growth has leveled off in the past few years. Turning to educational attainment, a similar pattern is observed. Those with at least some college experience have been consistently more likely than those with a high school degree or less to use social media over the past decade.’

In 2005, the PRC found that 4 percent of those living in households earning less than $30,000 used social media, compared with 12 percent of those living in households earning $75,000 or more. In 2015, 78 percent of those living in the highest-income households used social media, compared with 56% of those in the lowest-income households – a 22-point difference.

Use of social media in 2005 was 4 percent for those with a high school diploma or less schooling, 8 percent for those with some college and 12 percent for college graduates. The comparable figures for 2015 were 54 percent for those with a high school diploma or less, 70 percent for those with some college and 76 percent for those with college or graduate degrees.

An earlier PRC survey titled ‘Frequency of Social Media Use’ (http://dtn.fm/gi6EP) found that 80 percent of internet users have a social media account and that ‘more than half of internet users (52%) use two or more of the social media sites measured (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn).’

The ‘mix’ of social media use is interesting. If Facebook can be used as ‘marker’ because of its widespread acceptance, it appears that about one-third of Facebook users will use another of the most popular sites: Twitter 29%, Instagram 34%, Pinterest 34%, and LinkedIn 33%. Instagram users were most likely to also have Facebook accounts (91%); LinkedIn users were the least likely (86%). Four percent of internet users use five or more social media sites. That number is likely to grow in the coming years as awareness of the range of platforms and their merits (and demerits) grows.

Agora Holdings, Inc. (OTC: AGHI), parent company of Geegle Media, is poised to capitalize on this burgeoning growth of social media activity. Earlier this year, the company launched FRAME, an organization tool for the management of social media and subscription-based accounts. FRAME is designed to meet the needs of consumers who use multiple social media websites and platforms on a daily basis by providing a dashboard from which they are all accessible.

At its launch, CEO Dan Terziev had this to say:

“Imagine FRAME as a single door that leads to many rooms. Each room represents a website that we log into several times each day. Rather than signing in several times, logging once into FRAME is sufficient to bring together all your social media accounts, making a far more organized and engaging social media experience.”

Agora Holdings will offer free access to FRAME for non-commercial users in a strategy that is expected to add users quickly. The company is already incorporating functionality with the main social media platforms.

For more information, visit www.agoraholdingsinc.com

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At the heart of Oakridge Global Energy Solutions, Inc.’s (OTCQB: OGES) operations lies a deep commitment to innovation. Since its establishment, the company has been innovating to achieve commercial success, and, over the course of three decades, it has come to lead the innovation, development, manufacturing and marketing of disruptive energy storage technology (primarily lithium-ion batteries) for civilian, medical and military uses.

Oakridge is an integrated energy storage solutions company that employs state-of-the-art technology in designing, developing and manufacturing high-quality cells, batteries, and energy storage systems. The company is a leading supplier and manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries, and a dedication to research and development has led it to create some of the world’s longest-lasting rechargeable power sources, including a battery system that holds its charge up to three times longer than its foreign-manufactured equivalents.

To become a leader around the globe, Oakridge has widened its scope. At the end of 2015, the company transitioned from being a primarily research and development-focused company to being a fully-developed battery manufacturing company. The company embraced the vision, capability and technology it needed to implement its expansion strategies. Then, it broadened its presence and relationships in the battery business significantly. Finally, it secured a much higher quality of equipment and raw materials to build its groundbreaking battery systems while still offering reliability and affordability to its customers.

In the first quarter of 2016, Oakridge began operating the only lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in the United States, a move that gives it even more control over the quality of its energy storage systems. Backed by an investment of over $40 million into research and product development since 2013, the 70,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Palm Bay, Florida, went into full commercial production immediately.

The company also began fulfilling commercial orders. Oakridge has been shipping its cutting-edge lithium-ion batteries to manufacturers of unmanned maritime vehicles, the golf cart and motorcycle markets and other custom and semi-custom markets. In a significant move and for the first time, the company has been operating a regular, indefinite commercial production schedule to fulfill its existing pipeline of orders, which is currently valued at approximately $24 million.

The U.S. market for lithium-ion batteries represents over 35% of worldwide demand, and, as the sole domestic manufacturer of these batteries, Oakridge is in an enviable position and exclusively capable of leveraging that position. The company’s projected revenues for the first quarter of the year (its first revenue-producing quarter ever) are thus strong and expected to exceed $250,000.

For more information, visit www.oakridgeglobalenergy.com

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With the GMIC (Global Mobile Internet Conference) 2016 going down this week in Beijing and O2O (online-to-offline) having been such a conference-defining subject last year, there is a great deal of buzz again this year on the subject, especially with the Chinese equivalent of ecommerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), known as Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), having confirmed its $1.25 billion investment in the rapidly growing food delivery service Ele.me early last week. This is a big move by the Chinese ecommerce titan to grow its footprint in an (increasingly vital for retailers) O2O market that currently dominates much of the retail horizon in China and was valued late last year by HSBC at around $150 billion-plus on a mere four percent internet penetration, even as the online segment of this market jumped 80 percent YOY to around a third of that figure in the first half of last year alone.

Seen by many analysts as a counter play to Alibaba rival Tencent’s (OTC: TCTZF) sizable foothold in what is the merged result of China’s top two “local deals” outfits, Dianping-Meituan, which Alibaba divested its $900 million stake in – the Ele.me deal could be BABA’s ticket to locking down the brick and mortar side of the equation via O2O. Food delivery to residences is a model that has been a long time coming, but revolutionary O2O platforms that let traditional retailers with a physical location tap into the burgeoning internet/mobile traffic space around them could be just the rocket engines needed for the model to finally reach escape velocity. O2O could provide the kind of tight customer engagement needed to seal the deal and BABA is banking on localization to keep the costs down. At any rate, Alibaba is likely going for a sole source play here, one that could see the company end up owning startup Ele.me, and so it makes sense to look at the broader O2O space given such auspicious events/timing.

Customer engagement is the core of the entire O2O puzzle, but it’s a tricky animal and it requires the right mix of features for the consumer and the retailer alike, if one is to get the implementation truly humming. That’s why a company like Moxian, Inc. (OTCQB: MOXC) is so interesting in this space right now, where the majority of the players are conventional retail and online services like Alibaba, who are branching out. As a startup with the proprietary apps, platform/server access methodologies and virtual currencies needed to make it all happen, which cut its teeth and put the entire framework through its paces in Asian markets, Moxian is in the pole position when it comes to exploiting the ongoing Chinese O2O surge. With a strategy to geographically target prime metropolitan areas and leverage boots on the ground sales forces in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, Moxian’s story is an extremely compelling one.

Without the trappings of the other sector players, who are encumbered by legacy service architectures, Moxian is able to focus on simply growing the number of merchants in its platform’s network, ensuring that its Moxian+ User App and Moxian+ Business App (for Android and iPhone) remain feature-rich, and that the kind of high-value big data needed for premium business analytics is generated. By providing consumers with a robust social networking toolset that allows them to easily search for things like friends, interest groups, profiles and topics, as well as chat/share within social circles, all via a framework that also allows them to find nearby merchants using geo-location and earn spendable virtual currency (MO-Coin and MO-Points) or other rewards through gamified content, Moxian is able to also offer brick and mortar retailers ready-made access to the largest mobile-using population on the planet.

With nearly a mobile phone for every person in China (around 95 percent market penetration as of 2015), retailers have to be crazy not to tap into the virtual channel and drive traffic to their stores. The good news is that Moxian has made it all too easy, with a unique SCRM (Social Customer Relationship Management) toolkit available via the business app that covers everything from automated data capture-driven analytics and user-base profiling to loyalty/customer retention program development and advertising. Customer engagement tools like notification pushes, online marketing efforts and even online payments round out the package and create a closed-loop O2O ecosystem based on logistical realities and social interactions. The company even provides consulting services to retailers who are new to dealing with the ecommerce and social media ends of the spectrum, and who want to get it right.

With the rise in China of novel online entities such as the hybridized Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR)-like microblog social network, Sina Weibo, owned by Sina Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA), which is trouncing majors like Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) and Tencent at around 86 percent microblogging market share (based on the highly correlative metric of browsing time), it is very clear that Chinese social media is every bit the ever-changing and unstoppable freight train that it is in the U.S. and Europe. Understanding how important O2O will continue to be for brick and mortar, which still constitutes the lion’s share of all retail transactions, is essential for investors who want to ride the wave.

Moxian is in a good position here to exploit the underlying trend with its proprietary technologies, an expertly crafted approach to the space driven by field-based leg work, and the potential to set itself up on multiple revenue sources (merchant fees, advertising, consulting, virtual currency sales, etc.). Investors should keep an eye on the company for mounting merchant subscriptions as it rolls out its sales footprint throughout this year. O2O services like those made available through group-buying sites like Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) and other platforms that offer tangible, real-world deals on products, or events like concerts, movies and restaurants, are gaining favor every year with consumers – even as social media becomes a more and more prominent part of our lives.

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

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