As previously flagged by iTWire last year, credit card giant Mastercard has finally opened its previously announced Global Tech Hub in Sydney, its first in the Southern Hemisphere, bringing together 550-plus company employees in one location.

Chinese smartphone brands OPPO, Xiaomi and vivo have achieved their highest quarterly shipments in the third quarter of 2018, despite the overall shipments showing a drop of 3% year-on-year, the technology analyst firm Counterpoint Research claims.

Meanwhile, smartphone sales for the full-year 2018 are forecast to drop by 1.3% year-on-year, making it the first time that the market for these devices has contracted two years in a row.

A week ahead of announcing its first-quarter results for fiscal 2019-20, the NBN Co has announced new plans for its wholesale satellite customers which will not count data used for email, Web browsing and critical software updates towards monthly data allowances.

Chinese Internet and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group increased sales by 27% over last year, generating total sales valued at US30.8 billion (RMB213.5 billion) at its Global Shopping Festival on one day last weekend – with sales of Australian lamb increasing 775% from 2017 in the first hour.

And of course, there's plenty more so for all the news visit www.itwire.com.

Have a great day!

Stan Beer, Editor in Chief, iTWire

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