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Glory Star expected to further increase profitability

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Glory Star New Media Group, a Nasdaq-listed digital media platform and content-driven e-commerce company in China, is expected to be able to further increase its profitability with its growing market share and economy of scale.

The company reported a 15.8% growth in its Non-GAAP net income to US$16.9 million for the six-months ended June 30 from US$14.6 million in the same period of last year.

During the first half of this year, the company’s total revenues grew 144.6% to US$71.9 million from US$29.4 million, thanks to the increase in advertising revenues and Cheers e-Mall marketplace service revenue, primarily attributable to the development and promotion of its mobile and online businesses.

Income from operations surged 40.9% to US$16.2 million from US$11.5 million.

During the first half year of 2021, the company successfully grew its top and bottom lines as it allocated more resources to sales and marketing to augment its brand equity and fuel its long-term growth engine.

The company’s rising economy of scale will allow it to gradually reduce operating expenses and capitalize on the rising popularity of video content and deliver lasting shareholder value.

At the end of June 30, the number of downloads of the company’s Cheers App reached 215.6 million, up from 121 million a year earlier. The increase in the number, a key indicator of the attractiveness and usability of its Cheers App and its e-Mall platform traffic, showed that it had successfully converted viewers of its content to its Cheers App.

Average daily active users (DAUs) of the app grew to 7.1 million from 4.5 million for the same period. Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) on its Cheers e-Mall platform jumped to 231,630 from 19,984.

Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of the Cheers App reached US$181.2 million in the first six months of this year, compared with US$20 million in the same period of 2020. The increase in GMV was driven significantly by its ability to attract and retain users to its Cheers App through its professionally produced content and its ability to further enhance its product offerings.

The company has a strong commitment to its corporate mission, meticulous execution of growth strategies, methodical expansion in both overseas and domestic markets, proactive engagement of Generation Z users through innovative products, and prudent investment in sales and marketing initiatives. It plans to refine its competitive edge in content-driven e-commerce of premium lifestyle, deepen our expertise in integrating quality content with lifestyle commerce, and expand our brand influence among Generation Z consumers on a global basis.

During the first half year, the resurgence of Covid-19 and its Delta variant caused the Chinese government to impose travel restrictions within mainland China, particularly in the southern regions of the country.

The company temporarily suspended the production of its traditional “Cheers Series” TV programs, thus resulting in a decline in its cost of revenues during the first six month of 2021. Once the travel restrictions are eased, the company will resume its content production activities in the second half of this year.

As of June 30, 2021, the company had cash and cash equivalents of US$20.3 million, compared with US$17.7 million at the end of last year.

Blockchain and AI technologies

Since its establishment in 2016, Glory Star has pioneered a unique, new business model integrating e-commerce services with premium video content. With the use of blockchain and AI technologies in its systems, the company has become a leading online digital media and entertainment company in China, with a strong track record both in terms of viewership and production capabilities. The company launched its Cheers App in 2018 to integrate e-commerce services with professionally generated content (PGC).

During the first half, the company produced many more live streaming shows and started to provide title sponsor advertising services at a higher price point. It also spent substantially on the development of the Cheers Chat and Cheers Car.

The company plans to provide more user-generated content (UGC) by forming partnerships with other platforms. It will allow global users to upload their content to its video platforms in the fourth quarter of this year while users will receive advertising revenue or get rewards from viewers directly.

The company will also allow content providers to use its software-as-a-service (SaaS) supply chain system with the blockchain technology that will help them match with relevant merchandisers. Content providers will be able to share the revenue from the sales of products on their video accounts.

The company’s ability to integrate premium lifestyle content, including short videos, online variety shows, online dramas, live streaming, its Cheers lifestyle video series, e-Mall, and mobile app, along with innovative e-commerce offerings on its platform enables it to pursue its mission of enriching people’s lives.

Its large and active user base has created valuable engagement opportunities with consumers and enhanced platform stickiness with thousands of domestic and international brands.

Non-fungible token

Glory Star’s Naschain platform offers one-stop solutions, which include smart contract, multichain universe and cross-chain consensus mechanisms, to users with its blockchain technology. It can help e-shoppers trace the origins of the products, avoid buying counterfeit goods, lower their logistics costs and protect their privacy.

The company has signed an agreement with the Beijing Minsheng Art Museum to use the company’s non-fungible token (NFT) technology, which can be used in copy-rights’ registration, verification, transaction and valuation, to protect the intellectual property of the museum’s artworks. The company will be able to boost its market share by acquiring some NFT service providers.

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Press Release

ForumPay Expands Payment Infrastructure with New Card and Bank Transfer Acceptance Solution

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Milton, Georgia, August 11th, 2026, Chainwire

Businesses are increasingly looking for ways to offer more payment options without adding operational complexity. ForumPay, a crypto payment infrastructure company, enables merchants to accept crypto payments across online, in-store, and in-app channels, with instant conversion and next-day settlement.

ForumPay has recently announced a new payment flow that it says could meaningfully alter how payments are processed. Customers can now initiate purchases using any Visa or Mastercard and bank transfers in selected markets, with funds routed automatically through ForumPay’s infrastructure. Merchants can now offer card and bank payments without registering as a card acceptance businesses, sidestepping chargeback liability and PCI-DSS compliance costs while still receiving precisely the amount invoiced. 

This latest ForumPay release represents one of the more ambitious developments yet to bridge the gap between traditional payment rails and crypto infrastructure. 

Built for Modern Payment Acceptance

Businesses increasingly want to offer customers greater flexibility at checkout, but additional payment methods tend to bring additional operational and cost burdens. Card acceptance, in particular, can introduce chargeback exposure, compliance requirements, fraud management responsibilities, and more complex settlement processes, challenges that only grow more acute for organizations operating across multiple markets.

ForumPay’s innovative new payment flow is designed to solve these issues. Customers can initiate payments using any Visa, Mastercard, or bank transfer in selected markets, with those funds automatically used to purchase crypto and processed through ForumPay’s existing crypto payment infrastructure, with all of the inherent features and benefits, and converted and settled as per the preferences a merchant has already established on their account. Merchants will receive exactly the amount invoiced. For example, if a customer is billed $100, then $100 is what arrives in the merchant’s preferred bank account.

Critically, ForumPay will pass the additional card and bank transfer costs directly to the payer, meaning merchants pay only their usual crypto acceptance fees that would apply to any transaction processed through the platform. The approach allows businesses to expand the choice of available payment methods at checkout without taking on the compliance architecture, risks and costs that card acceptance would ordinarily require.

More Payment Options, the Same Operational Footprint 

Businesses increasingly want to offer customers greater flexibility at checkout, but incorporating additional payment methods tend to bring with it additional operational burdens. Card acceptance, in particular, can introduce chargeback exposure, compliance requirements, fraud management responsibilities, and more complex settlement processes, challenges that only grow more acute for organizations operating across multiple markets. 

ForumPay’s new payment flow is being designed to address this friction. Customers will be able to initiate payments using any Visa, Mastercard, or bank transfer in selected markets. Those funds are then automatically used to purchase digital assets and processed through ForumPay’s existing infrastructure, allowing merchants to continue receiving funds according to their established settlement preferences without having to overhaul their operations to accommodate the new options in the process. The approach, ForumPay says, allows businesses to expand what they can offer at checkout without taking on the compliance architecture that card acceptance would ordinarily require.

About ForumPay

ForumPay is a complete cryptocurrency-to-fiat payment technology firm; its core processing technology helps businesses attract new customers, optimize customers’ ability to spend, and increase revenue. ForumPay’s wallet-agnostic solution enables crypto consumers to spend their preferred cryptocurrency, from any wallet for everyday goods and services to luxury goods, automobiles, real estate, and private jets. ForumPay eliminates merchant exposure or risk by processing transactions with instant crypto-to-cash conversion. ForumPay merchants receive payments in the currency of their choice directly into their bank account. The transactional experience is similar to accepting other popular payment methods, including cash, credit cards, and bank transfers, but simpler, faster, and more secure.

Contact

Director Global Account Management
Paul Wordsworth
ForumPay
paul@forumpay.com

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Press Release

Counter-UAS Market Set to Triple by 2030 as Defense Companies Position for Growth

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Naples, FL, USA, August 11th, 2026, FinanceWire

Drones have become a growing security problem, and the market to stop them is expanding just as quickly. MarketsandMarkets estimates the global counter-unmanned aircraft systems market will grow from $6.64 billion in 2025 to $20.31 billion by 2030, representing a 25.1 percent compound annual growth rate. Within that forecast, AI-powered counter-UAS is the fastest-growing technology layer, projected to expand from $0.9 billion in 2025 to $6.2 billion by 2030. As governments and critical infrastructure operators look for ways to detect, track, and defeat increasingly sophisticated drone threats, defense companies are racing to build the next generation of counter-UAS technology. Several public companies are already staking positions in counter-UAS, approaching the opportunity from different angles.

Change Agents Corp. (Nasdaq: CHGA) has joined the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, or IDGA, and will take part in the organization’s Counter UAS Summit. Now in its eighth year, the summit runs August 25 to 26 at the MGM National Harbor in Maryland under the chairmanship of retired General Glen VanHerck, former commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command. IDGA expects more than 500 senior decision-makers, acquisition leaders, and program managers from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Customs and Border Protection, and law enforcement, placing Change Agents in direct contact with the buyers and technology developers shaping counter-drone procurement.

The summit role builds on the company’s August 4 launch of Autonomous Air Defense LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary formed to identify, evaluate, acquire, and develop autonomous air defense and counter-UAS technologies. That announcement also brought retired Major General Malcolm Frost onto the advisory boards of both Change Agents and the new subsidiary. Frost served 31 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a two-star general after commanding the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division and serving as Deputy Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division. He is a West Point and Army War College graduate who deployed to Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and he advises public and private companies across the defense and technology sectors.

Change Agents built its business in agentic AI software, pairing an AI search optimization platform called Beacon with an autonomous content creation platform called Catch-Up, both sold on a subscription model. Management frames the counter-drone move as an outgrowth of that work rather than a break from it. Director Michael Mathews called the formation of Autonomous Air Defense LLC “a natural extension of the company’s broader artificial intelligence strategy” and tied the IDGA engagement to positioning the company to “capitalize on the significant long-term opportunities within the global counter-UAS market. ” Frost, in joining, pointed to the convergence of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and next-generation counter-drone technology as one of the most important developments in modern defense.

That convergence is the opening Change Agents intends to pursue, and the sequence so far has been deliberate. In roughly a week the company has stood up a dedicated subsidiary, added a decorated defense advisor, and secured a place at the sector’s principal U.S. gathering. The company has said Autonomous Air Defense is evaluating multiple acquisition and partnership opportunities involving AI-enabled counter-drone technologies serving defense, homeland security, and critical infrastructure customers, and that it expects to provide further updates as developments occur. 

Change Agents is entering a field already populated by well-funded public companies attacking the drone problem from different angles.

Ondas Inc. (Nasdaq: ONDS) is the closest analog to what Change Agents describes. Its Iron Drone Raider is an autonomous net-based interceptor built to neutralize hostile drones without jamming, paired with its Sentrycs platform for cyber and radio-frequency detection and identification, together mirroring the detect, identify, track, and intercept sequence Change Agents has said it wants to reach. Ondas posted first-quarter 2026 revenue of $50.1 million against a pro forma backlog of $457 million and in July raised its full-year 2026 revenue target to at least $525 million. In February its Airobotics subsidiary secured a multi-million-dollar order from a European customer in a NATO country following an Iron Drone Raider deployment at a major international airport, one of the few operational uses of an interceptor drone in a live civil-aviation setting.

AeroVironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) approaches the market as an established contractor. Its acquisition of BlueHalo, valued at roughly $4.1 billion and completed in May 2025, added directed energy, electronic warfare, and counter-UAS capabilities to a portfolio already known for the Switchblade family of loitering munitions. BlueHalo had delivered its 1,000th Titan radio-frequency counter-UAS system before the deal closed and was the first to operationally field a laser weapon system with LOCUST. The combination turned a former drone specialist into a diversified defense technology platform spanning radio-frequency, directed energy, and kinetic defeat, and it marks the scaled version of the category Change Agents is entering.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (Nasdaq: KTOS) anchors the autonomous systems end of the field. Best known for the jet-powered XQ-58A Valkyrie, Kratos reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $458.8 million, up 30.5 percent year over year and 19.1 percent organically, and raised full-year 2026 guidance to a range of $1.75 billion to $1.81 billion. Total backlog stood at $2.084 billion against a bid pipeline of $15.0 billion, a measure of how much defense money is now moving through unmanned and autonomous programs, and of the budgets, Change Agents is positioning to reach.

Ondas, AeroVironment, and Kratos map the opportunity from interceptor specialist to diversified prime, and they mark out the market Change Agents Corp. (Nasdaq: CHGA) has chosen to enter. What CHGA has established is a subsidiary, an advisor with two-star command experience, and access to the procurement community setting counter-drone requirements. What remains prospective is the technology itself, and the company has said it expects to report further developments as it works through the acquisition and partnership opportunities in front of it.

Disclaimers: RazorPitch Inc. “RazorPitch” is not operated by a licensed broker, a dealer, or a registered investment adviser. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investment advice. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides investors a safe harbor in regard to forward-looking statements. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions, or future events or performances are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on expectations, estimates, and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those presently anticipated. Forward-looking statements in this action may be identified through the use of words such as projects, foresee, expects, will, anticipates, estimates, believes, understands, or that by statements indicating certain actions & quote; may, could, or might occur. Understand there is no guarantee past performance will be indicative of future results. Investing in micro-cap and growth securities is highly speculative and carries an extremely high degree of risk. It is possible that an investor’s investment may be lost or impaired due to the speculative nature of the companies profiled. RazorPitch has been retained and compensated by Change Agents Corp to assist in the production and distribution of content related to CHGA. RazorPitch is responsible for the production and distribution of this content. It should be expressly understood that under no circumstances does any information published herein represent a recommendation to buy or sell a security. This content is for informational purposes only; you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in this article constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by RazorPitch or any third-party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments. All content in this article is information of a general nature and does not address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in this article constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the article constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. RazorPitch is not a fiduciary by virtue of any persons use of or access to this content.

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Mark McKelvie
RazorPitch
mark@razorpitch.com
585-301-7700

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Press Release

HoneyBook Included in CNBC’s 2026 List of the World’s Top Fintech Companies

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San Francisco, California, USA, August 11th, 2026, FinanceWire

The ranking validates HoneyBook’s growing reputation as an innovator accelerating the digital transformation of independent businesses globally 

HoneyBook, the leading AI-native client relationship platform for small business owners, has been recognized as one of the world’s most significant financial technology firms in CNBC’s 2026 list of the World’s Top Fintech Companies. Its inclusion in the prestigious global list within the Enterprise Fintech category underscores the impact that HoneyBook’s software has had in helping individual business owners to cultivate strong customer relationships.  

Produced in partnership with Statista, CNBC’s list is a recognized annual ranking that serves to highlight the world’s most innovative and forward-thinking financial software firms. As part of its assessment process, CNBC evaluates thousands of eligible firms, ranging from startups to established enterprises, based on key performance indicators such as revenue and user growth, transaction volume, business impact and technological innovation. HoneyBook’s debut on this year’s list reflects growing recognition of its platform.

HoneyBook is noted for accelerating automation in the customer relationship management software niche, helping business and freelancers to better manage their day-to-day dealings with clients. Its platform frees users from spending hours on critical business tasks such as capturing and verifying inquiries, drafting proposals, obtaining signatures on contracts, sharing files with customers and processing transactions. With HoneyBook, business owners can manage their administrative and financial operations in a unified platform, making use of autonomous AI agents to perform work they once spent hours on. By linking client communications with financial operations, HoneyBook helps business professionals to work more efficiently and get paid promptly. 

CNBC’s recognition of HoneyBook follows the rapid expansion of its client relationship platform into new verticals. Last month, HoneyBook launched a dedicated version of its CRM platform for professional photographers, featuring specialized tools for client bookings, creating schedules, managing their galleries and collaborating with clients on projects. With HoneyBook, photographers get more time to focus on their clients and their work instead of worrying about the administrative side of their business. 

“I’m extremely proud that our endeavors to enhance and simplify client relationships have led to HoneyBook being recognized by CNBC as one of the world’s best fintech companies,” said Oz Alon, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of HoneyBook. “By enabling business owners to nurture relationships with clients in the same place as they manage their finances, HoneyBook significantly reduces the complexity they face when using multiple fragmented tools. CNBC’s recognition validates our ability to empower independent entrepreneurs with innovative tools that streamline the day-to-day aspects of business management.” 

About HoneyBook

HoneyBook is the leading AI-powered customer relationship management (CRM) platform for independent business owners, making it easy to sell and deliver their services online. Offering powerful tools for communication, contracts, invoicing, payments and more, the platform puts independent professionals in control of their process and client experience. HoneyBook is trusted by over 100,000 service-based businesses in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom that have booked more than $10 billion in business on the platform. The company has offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, with remote staff worldwide. Learn more at HoneyBook.com.

Contact

Dan Edelstein
InboundJunction
pr@inboundjunction.com

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