Jeremy Liang's Blog

Anything is possible in this technology dominated era. Stores in Japan use a camera with the function of recognizing customer’s face and recording data. The machine can record the time a customer visits the store, the gender, and the total number of customers that have visited the store. This technology gives the owners a better way to collect data and measure how efficient is the store. One useful function of the machine is that it can record the age of the customers. This can help the owner to find out the age groups that the company can focus on. Furthermore, some potential problems do come along with this technology. Some customers might feel that their privacy is violated since the store can now track down the information of customers. While countries like the United States and Canada really stress on privacy, this technology might have a hard time entering the market in North America. Besides privacy, this machine is still an useful innovation that can help every store to record down important data.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/11/facial-recognition-service-tracks-shopping-habits.html

As Janice Chan mentioned, market research is critical before a company enters a new market. Starbucks does a great job locating its first store in the business centre of Mumbai. Despite the higher prices of the coffee, customers will still enjoying buying coffee from Starbucks. As I mentioned in my previous post, the franchise brand name has a strong effect on customer’s preference. Starbucks is welcomed by many new markets not mainly because of their coffee quality, but the renowned name that the company has in the world.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/janicechan/2012/10/21/first-starbucks-store-in-india/

Justin Chan mentioned the question for the reason of apologizing. I agree with Justin that this is the company’s strategy to create a positive image. But, the use of a case from two decades ago is just not a good choice for IKEA. First, many customers will be indifferent to this case since it does not affect them in any ways. Second, the case might bring IKEA a negative image instead of a positive one. Despite apologizing, IKEA might now be seen as a company who once has used prisoners as labours to reduce cost. A company’s manager should never demonstrate the company’s image as unethical. Even the company is under the pressure of UOKG, the victim’s group, for an apology, the company should take an alternative way instead of exposing its unethical past to the media.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/justinchan123/2012/11/17/23/

With the most e-commerce market share in China, Alibaba would risk to take a step further by planning to buy 15-20% percent stake in China’s biggest online social network, the Sina Weibo. With the power of Sina Weibo, which is similar to Twitter, Alibaba will have a better chance advertising itself through the social network and even create many more opportunities by reaching out to millions of Sina Weibo users.

If Alibaba succeeds in this trade, it will have a superior dominance over China’s e-commerce market by owning the biggest online shop, Taobao, and the biggest online social network, Weibo. When a company owns this much of a market share, competitors will have a extremely high barrier to entry. Since Alibaba has high supplier power, they revenue is most likely to increase in the near future.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/alibaba-plans-stake-buy-chinas-most-popular-microblogging-030852828–sector.html

Which tablet should I buy, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, or others? This is now a problem for tablet fans out there. Few years ago, iPad was named to be the best tablet in the world. Today, new competitions appears one after another. Not only Samsung has the technology to compete with Apple, but Microsoft also has the strong brand name to gain market shares. We can see how fast technology and the business world is moving everything.

While Apple is like the pioneer for technology inventions, other companies are now able to catch up to Apple’s foot steps. Apple is at the point where its growth begins to slow down. On the other hand, companies like Microsoft still has the potential to expand since not many new products were announced the last few years. In the business world, competition is extremely intense. Despite the fact the Apple was once dominating the market, other companies are striving to invent and innovate while Apple still stays on its own ground.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/technology/which-tablet-to-buy-among-dozens-confuses-shoppers.html?ref=business&_r=0

As a dedicated gamer to the Call of Duty franchise, I am very familiar with it breaking records every year. Every year, the new Call of Duty game is crowned to be the “best-selling game of all time,” breaking the record of the previous Call of Duty game. Why is Call of Duty so successful? The major reason is not because of its outstanding performance, but the brand name it has established. Over the years, Call of Duty has earned deep customer loyalty. Players are falling into the trend of buying the game regardless of its content. Similarly, consumers will still go to a McDonald’s restaurant despite its bad quality. If a person can only choose between a Call of Duty game and another First Person Shooting game, he or she is most likely to choose the former since it is a well-known brand. The example of the Call of Duty Franchise emphasizes the importance of customer loyalty to a company. The company earns guaranteed revenue when it has a strong customer base, just like Call of Duty breaking its own selling record every year. Thus, establishing a brand name is one of the major goals for a company.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/377480/black-ops-2-could-be-the-best-selling-game-of-all-time-activision/

Many people begin their success from YouTube, and YouTube itself is a also a huge success. Do you know Psy? Do you know Justin Bieber? Will you actually know them if YouTube does not exist? After reading the article about Gangnam Style setting a Guinness world record for YouTube likes, I just cannot believe that the power of YouTube is overwhelming. Simply letting users upload videos to the internet freely, YouTube succeeds by having users themselves as advertisement, such as Justin Bieber and many more stars, who persuades more people to post videos. Understanding the trend of the wide use of internet, YouTube is one of the first website to have this interesting idea to let users post videos onto the internet. Today, YouTube earns millions of dollars simply by inserting advertisements before a video. In addition, YouTube provides money for users who have high view counts, attracting users to become a full-time “YouTuber.” On the other hand, YouTube gains money from having advertisements posted before the videos. Therefore, a small partnership is created between YouTube and a single user. Today, YouTube is successful thanks to its organized business plan between itself and the users.

source: http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/entertainment/gangnam-style-sets-guinness-world-record-for-youtube-likes

Louis Vuitton is certainly one of the most luxurious product that a person could ever get. Yet, in China, a LV bag is not luxurious enough to satisfy a normal consumer; instead, it is too common. Since the living standard for the Chinese families in the urban area has risen significantly in the recent years, most people have more than enough money to purchase a LV bag which has once seemed unapproachable. Nowadays, people even try to avoid carrying a LV bag. The major reason is not the rise in living standard, but the increase of the amount of forged products. Louis Vuitton does not seem that invaluable when a lady can one from a market place for less than 20 Canadian dollars. When Louis Vuitton products become common, consumers’ taste preference changes and consumers start to look for brands with differences, such as Chanel or the more expensive brand Hermes. Similarly, iPhone now is too common throughout the world that consumers might change their preference to a Samsung, just to be different from the ordinaries with iPhone.

Source:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/chinese-consumers-shun-louis-vuitton-and-gucci-for-being-too-common/story-fnb64oi6-1226490441221

Last month, when I accidentally broke my iPhone 4’s screen, the image of a brand new iPhone 5 hit my mind instantly. “It’s time to get the coolest phone in the world,” I was very excited about the new iPhone 5 until I was a video from YouTube. The video, which is posted as an advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy S3, criticizes the upcoming iPhone 5 while implying that the Samsung smartphone is a better choice. This market strategy reminds me of the Pepsi versus Coke advertisement, which indirect demonstrates that one is better than the other in a humorous way. I believe that this video changes many people’s mind set, including myself. People will actually start pondering if the Samsung Galaxy S3 is actually better. Apple’s dominance in the smartphone industry might eventually come to an end if their arch rival company, Samsung, keeps announcing advanced innovations, while Apple could only respond with the phone of insignificant new features. In my opinion, this video is a win for Samsung because it implies that Galaxy is better than iPhone, while avoiding Samsung from law suits with no mentions of the words “Apple” or “iPhone.”

http://www.latinospost.com/articles/4394/20120920/apple-vs-samsung-why-new-galaxy-s3-iphone-5.htm

Is retaining business ethics more important than maximizing the profit in a business? When I mention the word “business,” I certainly implied to the purpose of a business – money. But should a company violates its business ethics in order to maximize the profit?

Today in China, many grocery products are “recycled.” A typical example is oil, which can be used for several days or can be reused after a special method of refining. Of course, this type of oil is too cheap, that a restaurant can earn a much larger profit. On the other hand, the oil is detrimental to people’s health, causing many common health issues. My dad, who is a restaurant owner in China, always concerns about customer’s health as his responsibility. While earning a small profit from the expensive cost of high quality food the restaurant has imported, he still persist to provide his best to the customers. After a few years, his restaurant’s brand name became noted, and the resource of customers only grew larger and larger.

In my opinion, morality always goes before money, because morality might bring you fame and wealth, while money cannot give you the wealth to buy success and fame.