In her post on Forbes, Paula Rosenblum discusses the success of QVC. QVC, which stands for “Quality, Value, Convenience”, originated as a television network that specializes in selling products to consumers in the comfort of their own homes. Their television broadcasts, which they use to market their products, feature live testimonies from customers that call-in. Customers are given the opportunity to hear someone else’s personal experience with a  product before buying it. Regardless of whether or not a potential customer’s taste will match that of the one giving his/her opinion on the product, the fact that he/she already bought the product makes their testimony feel credible.

I agree with Paula Rosenblum’s argument that QVC could be considered the world’s first social network. QVC has been able to cultivate a loyal customer base by creating a social experience for shoppers. Although that shopping experience may not be as personal as one provided by Facebook or Pinterest (which is created with feedback from a customer’s friends), QVC’s  success can be attributed to their efforts in generating community engagement

I just commented on a blog post i found about an interesting wallet that has hidden pockets.

The “Hide & Seek Wallet” is sold online for C$94.95 by a Canadian company called Bellroy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2013/10/01/8-indisputable-reasons-for-why-we-dont-need-offices/

I was browsing the Forbes website, and this article caught my interest. Jacob Morgan offers 8 “indisputable” reasons why modern businesses no longer need an actual office building. While I agree with most of the points made in the article, Morgan’s assumption that employees are more productive at home is debatable. Since work environments and how employees behave in them vary greatly, the point oversimplifies a complicated issue. Whether an employee is more focused working in an office or at home depends on that workers’ tendency to lose focus and the amount of distractions in the office and the home, respectively.

I believe that physical office spaces will remain an important part of businesses for a long time. Although recent technological advancements have made “telecommuting” a viable way for employees to work, there is no actual substitute for face-to-face interaction. When I Skype my parents, I can hear their voices and see their faces, but it still feels different than spending time with them in person. Also, it would be inappropriate to negotiate formal agreements through a screen or a microphone. Personally, I would not like to be fired or promoted over the phone.

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21586344-xiaomi-often-described-chinas-answer-apple-actually-quite-different-taking-bite-out

Founded in 2010, Xiaomi is a rapidly growing smartphone designer and app developer based in China. By offering their flagship smartphone, the Mi-3, Xiaomi has become a serious threat to Apple in the booming Chinese market. According to the article, Apple’s unlocked iPhone costs around $860 in China; Xiaomi’s Mi-3 handset costs only $330. While Apple’s expensive smartphone has the highest margins in the industry, Xiaomi sells the Mi-3 to consumers at or near cost. A co-founder of the company, Lin Bin, explains the reasoning behind the Mi-3’s relatively low price, saying that “the idea is to make a profit from customers as they use the handset, rather than from the sale of the hardware.” Like Apple, Xiaomi sells games and other apps to its costumers through a virtual store; however, they sell their smartphones directly to customers online instead of through retail stores.

I believe that Xiaomi has to the potential to completely dominate Apple in the Chinese market, but I do not think that they have the ability to expand and compete with Apple on a global scale. Xiaomi does not necessarily has to expand outside of China in the near future, because they will not be able to compete with such established brands as Apple and Samsung. Also, Chinese smartphone sales are growing at twice the rate of global smartphone sales. Xiaomi does not even have to leave their home country to capture a significant share of the world market, because China accounts for over one-third of the world’s smartphone sales.

There are several benefits that Xiaomi receives from staying in China. First of all, Xiaomi is a Chinese company, making their products more appealing to domestic customers. Another key point of difference is their pricing strategy. Apple’s unlocked iPhones are wildly more expensive than other smartphones, because American phone companies subsidize the production of locked iPhones, so that more people will pay for their services on a contract. In contrast, Xiaomi sells their handsets at or near cost directly to online customers. This direct sales model facilitates Xiaomi’s strategy of selling a large number of handsets for a low price while making most of their profit from sales made within the virtual store. The Chinese government requires Xiaomi’s smartphones to run on a form of the Android operating system without Google’s own built-in applications. China’s required operating system for smartphones are a double-edged sword for the company; while this makes their product less flexible, Xiaomi can offer efficient replacement services to its consumers. If Xiaomi continues growing at such a rapid rate, they have the potential to dominate the Chinese market, but I do not believe that they have the capabilities of challenging Apple or Samsung on a global level anytime soon.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/brazil-gold-belosun-idUSL2N0H61UN20130911

Belo Sun Mining Corp, a Canadian company, plans to construct what will be Brazil’s largest gold mine along the Xingu river in the Amazon rainforest. As Belo Sun tries to obtain a permit to begin work on the open-pit project, Brazilian federal prosecutors are requesting the state government of Para to conduct a proper study of the environmental impact of the project before making a decision.

A few interesting points made in the article troubled me. There are two communites of indigenous people, the Arara and the Juruna, located near the Xingu river that will surely be affected by the gold mining operation, but the federal prosecutors point out a lack of sufficient studies that accurately estimate the consequences of the project. Belo Sun also seems to be very secretive about the gold mine, refusing to communicate with the federal prosecutors and withholding information about the actual size of the operation.

The massive project, which could actually become twice the size of Belo Sun’s original proposition to state officials, will have a profoundly negative impact on the environment and the native people of the Xingu River. The potential effect on the environment and the dishonest manner in which Belo Sun has tried to obtain the permit leads me to believe that the state government of Para should deny their request.

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