Page 26 - bne_Tech_06_2018

NIBs
June 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
Eurasia
Menu Group warns of possible exit from home market Armenia
The founder of food delivery service Menu.am has warned his company may have to quit its home market Armenia because of a 16.67% tax on food delivering companies due to come into effect on January 1, 2019.
Menu.am was Armenia’s first food delivery service when it was founded back in 2012. The company has since expanded into Georgia and Belarus, and now has offices in London although its headquarters remain in Yerevan.
However, founder Vahan Kerobyan said on June 15 that it is considering shutting its Armenian operations after the new government under Nikol Pashninian decided not to scrap the planned tax, Arka.am reported.
The tax “would require that restaurants pay an additional tax of 16.67% for food delivery, which means that cooperating with menu.am would be unprofitable for them," the Armenian news portal quoted Kerobyan as saying.
Albania’s Gener 2 selects Avid software solutions to launch CNN affiliate in Tirana
Avid, a provider of software tools and platforms for media, announced that Albania’s Gener 2 has selected a broad set of its solutions to launch its first TV channel, A2 TV, in partnership with CNN.
In February, Gener 2, one of the largest construc- tion and civil engineering companies in Albania, announced that it will launch a CNN Albania af- filiate by the end of 2018. A2 is supposed to com- plement its original programming with selected
programmes from CNN and news translated into the Albanian language.
The channel will be an exclusive CNN affiliate based in a major production hub in Tirana and with supportive news centres.
"A2 TV’s 24-hour news service will cover Albania and reach millions more outside the country," Avid said in a statement on June 15.
“Powered by MediaCentral®, the Avid workflow will bring state-of-the-art news production to A2 TV, which is expected to begin broadcasting later this year,” it added.
Broadband users in Montenegro rise 14.8% y/y in April
The number of broadband connections including ADSL, WiMAX, WiFi and KDS in Montenegro rose 14.8% y/y to 144,136 as of the end of April, accord- ing to data from the country's telecoms agency, the Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services of Montenegro (EKIP).
The number of broadband connections is constantly rising in the Adriatic country, which has a population of just over 600,000 people.
ADSL connections, which had a 38.47% market share, dropped 4.8% y/y to 55,456 at end-April. WiMax connections fell 14.5% y/y to 2,881, and their market share fell to 2% from 2.68%.
The market share of WiFi decreased y/y to 3.64% from 4.31%, while that of KDS connections went down to 29.55% from 33.1%.
At the end of 2017, the number of broadband connections stood at 139,932.