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Visa Data Shows Boost in Spend from Asia Pacific at Olympic Games Paris 2024

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Biggest spend came from Australia, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Mainland China and Singapore cardholders[1]Significant increase in spending from Visa cardholders in many areas of commerce including apparel, retail goods, department stores, restaurants, and in contactless purchasesIncrease in travellers to neighbouring Greece, Italy and Switzerland

SINGAPORE, Sept. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Visa, the Official Payment Technology Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, today shared new data revealing consumer spending patterns from Mainland China, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore.

The world leader in digital payments has identified the positive impact that the Olympic Games Paris 2024 is having in boosting commerce in France and across Europe. Top spending patterns[2] by Visa cardholders from Asia Pacific include:

Asia Pacific cardholders spent more in France than in the previous year[3], with Australia recording over 100% increase in their spending, followed by Mainland China (over 80%) and Hong Kong SAR (over 70%)Within France, the biggest share of daily spend[4] comes from Hong Kong SAR (over US$230) Singapore (over US$160), Mainland China (over US$140)Asia Pacific cardholders[5] made twice the number of contactless purchases compared to the previous year’s averageOver 80% of total visitors used Contactless as the payment method[6]Over 30% of cardholders conducted their first international purchase in the last 12 months during their tripFivefold increase in spending on SMB merchants[7] compared to the previous year’s averageOver 50% of spend in shopping, lodging and dining (apparel & accessories, retail goods, department stores and restaurants)Increased spending beyond France in other parts of Europe, including Greece (over 250%), Italy (over 100%) and Spain (over 90%) 

Top Asia Pacific Travel Patterns

France saw an increase of over 70% in number of Asia Pacific travellers during the Olympic Games Paris 2024, with over 60% of total visitors travelling to Paris[8]Other Olympic Games Paris 2024 host cities also benefitted from the Olympic Games with 10% of total visitors travelling to Nice, 5% to Marseille, and 4% to LyonTravel beyond France to other parts of Europe, including Greece (over 170%), Italy (over 80%) and Switzerland (over 60%) 

“The Olympic Games Paris 2024 has not only showcased athletic excellence but also demonstrated the power of global events to drive economic growth and digitalisation especially for small and medium businesses,” said Prateek Sanghi, Head of Visa Consulting and Analytics, Asia Pacific. “What’s really exciting is how contactless payments have doubled during the Olympics — a sign that people are embracing new ways to pay with ease, speed and convenience. We’re seeing the future of payments unfold in real time, uplifting everyone from local businesses in Paris to tourists from across Asia Pacific.”

Prior Visa data from the Olympic Games Paris 2024 revealed significant growth in international visitorship and spending. U.S. cardholders led with a 72% year-on-year increase, followed by Latin America (+62%) and Asia Pacific (+57%). This boost extended beyond Paris to other Olympic host cities. Similarly, Asia Pacific visitors to France increased by over 70%, with a rise of over 80% in overall tourism spend. These figures underscore the Games’ potential to stimulate host-country economies, aligning with Visa’s purpose to uplift everyone everywhere.

Visa’s responsibility to provide payment systems for the Olympic and Paralympic Games requires a robust and venue-specific plan combined with large-scale operations. Working hand-in-hand with the Organising Committee for the last three years, Visa has built a custom payment network across Paris and beyond, which ensures Visa contactless payments are accepted at 3,500 points of sale across 32 Olympic venues and 16 Paralympic venues.

About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com. 

Disclaimer:
Case studies, statistics, research and recommendations are provided “AS IS” and intended for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for operational, marketing, legal, technical, tax, financial or other advice. Visa Inc. does not make any warranty or representation as to the completeness or accuracy of the Information within this document, nor assume any liability or responsibility that may result from reliance on such Information. The Information contained herein is not intended as legal advice, and readers are encouraged to seek the advice of a competent legal professional where such advice is required.

[1] Based on Visanet data: Cardholders from these five countries and territories form the highest number of Olympic ticket buyers from the Asia Pacific region.

[2] Figures compare the period from 1 July to 11 August 2024 with monthly average of last 12 months.

[3] Figures compare the period between 1 July to 11 August 2024 and the monthly average spends (per cardholder, by market) between of last 12 months, VisaNet.

[4] Figures describe in-person transactions in France between 1 July to 11 August 2024, VisaNet.

[5] Cross-border visitors to France: (1) international cardholders, and (2) have made CP International transactions in France; time period: 1 July to 11 August 2024.

[6] In-person contactless transactions in France between 1 July to 11 August 2024, VisaNet.

[7] AP Visa cardholders and spend increase in France comparing 1 July to 11 August 2024 and last 12 months’ average.

[8] Figures describe the number of Asia Pacific Visa cardholders in France between 2024-07-01 to 2024-08-11, VisaNet

 

 

 

 

 

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SOURCE Visa Worldwide Pte. Ltd

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commercetools Named a Leader in 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce as AI Reshapes the Market

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commercetools is a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce for the seventh consecutive year.commercetools has been driving AI innovation on how enterprises build, operate and sell, including capabilities like Sphere, Commerce MCP and commercetools for Builders.commercetools is helping global enterprises modernize complex commerce operations and prepare for a future where both people and AI agents discover, shop and transact.

BOSTON, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — commercetools, the digital commerce AI company, today announced it has been positioned as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce. This marks the seventh consecutive year commercetools has been recognized as a Leader in the report.

As AI reshapes commerce, commercetools is expanding how it supports the enterprises who build and operate commerce experiences, and the shoppers who use them. Global enterprises including JD Sports, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Chemist Warehouse and Mirion Technologies are using commercetools to modernize complex digital commerce, accelerate growth and adopt new AI-powered ways of operating and selling.

“Commerce is moving from systems that simply respond to human instructions toward systems that can increasingly understand, decide and act,” said Doug McNary, Chief Executive Officer at commercetools. “We’re proud to be named a Leader for the seventh consecutive year. Enterprises shouldn’t have to choose between the flexibility they need today and the autonomy they’ll need tomorrow. Our focus is giving them the technology to support both.”

Over the past year, commercetools has introduced new products and capabilities designed to bring AI across the commerce lifecycle:

Sphere: Brings together commercetools’ AI-native infrastructure and agent governance through Commerce MCP into a unified platform for enterprises to build, operate and sell with AI.commercetools for Builders: Helps anyone build, extend and evolve enterprise commerce faster with AI.AgentSphere: Lets enterprises build and manage AI agents to run commerce operations and agentic shopping, with appropriate guardrails to do so safely and at scale.Modular commerce offerings: Gives enterprises the flexibility to start with the capabilities they need and expand over time, accelerating time to value without requiring a full commerce transformation upfront.Commerce Integration Layer: Centralizes integration logic behind customer-facing experiences. Storefronts, mobile apps and AI agents connect through a unified layer hosted and maintained by commercetools.Smart Data Modeler: Uses AI to accelerate product data modeling, helping teams build the right foundation faster and reduce time-to-launch.

commercetools’ customers include large enterprises across retail, manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare and telecommunications in markets around the world.

To learn more about commercetools’ position as a Leader, download your complimentary copy of the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant report today.

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce Platforms, Aditya Vasudevan, Penny Gillespie, Sandy Shen, Jason Daigler, Mike Lowndes, 19 October 2026

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates.

Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About commercetools

commercetools, the global digital commerce AI company, helps enterprises transform commerce for the AI era. Built API-native from the start and AI-first by design, our technology enables agentic shopping experiences, automates commerce operations and gives businesses the agility to modernize faster, innovate continuously and operate more intelligently.

More than 500 global brands, retailers and enterprise companies rely on commercetools to power their digital commerce. Together, they process more than $100 billion in annualized GMV, over 700 million orders and more than one billion customer records on our platform.

Media Contact: comms@commercetools.com 

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SOURCE commercetools

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Phylo’s Biomni Lab to expand the use of AI agents in scientific research at Bayer

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Phylo, Inc. announced today a partnership with Bayer to deploy Biomni Lab, Phylo’s agentic AI platform to accelerate scientific research and evaluation. 

Under the agreement, Phylo will provide Bayer with full access to its agentic platform that helps Bayer scientists bring together scientific literature, biomedical data, and analytical methods in one environment, reducing the manual effort required to assemble and assess evidence. The platform’s inspectable workflows preserve the context behind each result, allowing researchers to review the underlying sources, methods, and execution and apply their own scientific judgment. Bayer scientists will gain access to Biomni Lab for workflows focused on assembling literature and omics evidence for drug discovery.

“This partnership reflects our belief that AI should expand scientific curiosity, not just speed up routine work. Giving our scientists an AI partner that brings rigor to every step lets them explore more ideas, ask bolder questions, and find the insights that move drug discovery forward, ultimately accelerating the pace at which we can bring new medicines to patients,” said Sai Jasti, Senior Vice President, Head of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Bayer Pharmaceuticals R&D.

“For agentic AI to matter in research, it has to earn the trust of the scientists doing the work. Bayer’s selection of Biomni Lab is a strong endorsement of the scientific rigor and AI capabilities we’ve built into the platform,” said Kexin Huang, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Phylo. “Our vision is an AI-native operating system for biopharma, where every scientist can direct a team of AI agents to pursue complex research questions. With Bayer, we aim to show what becomes possible when AI capabilities meet deep scientific expertise: more hypotheses explored, more discoveries made, and new possibilities for medicine.”

About Phylo

Phylo’s mission is to bring the best agentic intelligence to every biomedical scientist. Its enterprise-grade AI platform, Biomni Lab, is the first Integrated Biology Environment—a unified workspace where scientists collaborate with AI agents across literature research, experimental design, biological data analysis, and scientific decision-making.

Biomni Lab is now used by leading global biopharma, including Bayer, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Ono Pharmaceutical. Phylo is based in South San Francisco, backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Menlo Ventures.

For more information, visit phylo.bio. To learn more about Biomni Lab, visit biomni.phylo.bio.

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SOURCE Phylo, Inc.

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Sandler Partners Welcomes Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region

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New Hire Announcement | Independent Technology Distributor Sandler Partners grows its Sales Engineering team, adding Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sandler Partners, the leading independent Technology Solutions Distributor, announces the addition of Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region, further strengthening its dedicated sales engineering team and the technical support available to Partners in the West Region.

Bryan brings more than two decades of experience designing and delivering complex technology solutions, including enterprise and Cloud architecture roles at Lumen/Savvis and IBM focused on infrastructure modernization and customer success. His expertise spans automation, edge computing, disaster recovery, application performance monitoring (APM), and DevSecOps. In his role, Bryan will support Partners across the West Region, aligning early with them on strategy and leading thoughtful discovery to help them find the right fit for each client.

For Bryan, strong relationships and solid values guide his life and form the foundation of his professional success, a perspective that fits naturally within the Sandler Partners community. When he is not working, Bryan spends time with his family, including his wife, three sons, and a grandson, RVing, boating, and biking, along with pursuing his passion for freediving.

“Bryan brings the kind of hands-on experience our Partners value: he’s been in the room on complex deals and knows how to turn a customer’s needs into the right solution,” says Justin Marano, Chief Revenue Officer, Sandler Partners. “He came to Sandler for the freedom to work across best-of-breed Providers, and our Partners in the West will feel that right away. He’s collaborative, grounded, and focused on helping Partners win. I’m excited to have him on the team.”

“I’m excited to get to work alongside our Partners, helping them navigate complex opportunities and bring clarity to technical decisions,” says Bryan. “For me, it all comes back to relationships. When you build them on trust and shared values, the results follow for our Partners and their clients. That’s something that the Sandler community really embodies, and I look forward to getting to work with our Partners!”

About Sandler Partners
Sandler Partners helps empower its network of leading independent Sales Partners to deliver a comprehensive range of technology solutions to organizations worldwide, including Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Connectivity, Cloud, Colocation, Mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), and Continuity. Its community-focused approach enables Partners to identify the right solutions for customers quickly and objectively from a diverse portfolio of 220+ Providers. Partner sales agents, VARs, and MSPs gain access to an innovative suite of sales tools within the Sandler Portal—including SCOUT, Solutions Finder, Scout for Solutions, and the Marketing Center—several of which are AI-powered, all backed by a robust support network, dedicated Sales Engineering expertise, and rich marketing resources. Together, these tools and resources empower Partners to focus on what they do best: delivering quality, value, performance, innovative solutions, unmatched expertise, and exceptional service to their clients. Members of the Sandler Partners community also benefit from the industry’s strongest negotiated agreements and a dedicated team committed to ensuring commissions are accurately identified, tracked, and paid. For more information, visit www.sandlerpartners.com.

Sandler Partners – Media Contact
Tina S. Dyksterhouse
tina@sandlerpartners.com
310-861-2295

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SOURCE Sandler Partners

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