Google has just released a new accessory, google glass for $1,500 dollars. This piece of equipment allows you to take hands-free photos and videos by just simply says “take a picture/video”. It also allows you to listen to music, share what you see, speak to send a message, translate your voice, ask whatever’s on your mind just like searching on google etc, which acts like a smart phone in a more fashion and easy way.

Google Inc. is an American corporation specializing in internet-related services and products. Most of the times we use it, is google engine, and google apps in recent years. The google glass is the first product that google Inc. release in this industry area and it could really become a another competitor to Microsoft, Apples etc, those software, smartphone, and even glasses companies.

Cross-industries competition has now become the most intense competition of all. The competitor of mobiles company like Fido, Rogers are not only each other, their biggest competitors are actually those free internet apps like WhatsApp, Line, Wechat. The emerge of wechat drop the profit of instant messages service of China Unicom and China mobile by more than 50 percent. Moreover, as mentioned in the previous blog, are banks still able to stand, banks are facing huge threats as alipay emerged. Traditional printing media is facing crisis as those digital media, electronic devices release.

Innovators are attacking from one field to another at an unprecedented speed. The world began to divide and combine. What being divide is the possessions of millionaires and what combines is the new business model. In future’s society, a coffee company may not just appears to be a coffee company, a aircraft cabin might also become a social platform. Who knows?  To be competitive, break through the limitations of thinking and create endless possibilities.

Sources:

http://www.google.com/glass/start/

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/16/google-glass-these-astonishing-images-show-how-it-will-change-photography-forever/?__lsa=5eb5-33f7

The popular rubber duck designed by Florentijn Hofman, as lots of people know and follow, has been to a variety of countries since 2007. Every place the rubber duck has been to, those local fans pursue crazily, it really brings surprise and laughter to people, and largely achieved the artists in mind. In fact, it does not only brings happiness, but also huge economic benefits. According to the Wall Street Journal, not including the souvenir income, that revenue of  the rubber duck on display in the two parks in Beijing has roughly reached 33 million dollars.

At the same time, not only the rubber duck swept the whole China, as well as its “friends” all over the country. For example, the “green dream duck” in YuYuantan Park, and all kinds of ridiculous duck models emerge overnight in other domestic cities. More recently, Zhejiang province announced to launch the “goose” aiming to promote the culture. As a result, people feel helpless and satirize that China is always walking in the back, imitating and plagiarizing other people’s creativity.

The creative economy is not accidental growing steedly, explaining with the smiling curve in economic, it is precisely accounted for the highest value-added chain in the two areas of design and sales. Creative Economy holds the exclusive design, technology patents, and stress the brand marketing, customer service, it is at the highest status in the value chain of all industries.  The rubber duck’s huge profit tells us: We can not satisfy with the “big manufacturing country,” because manufacturing is just at the bottom of the smiling curve. To improve China’s quality and efficiency in economy, it is important to change “Made in China” to “Created in China”.

Sources:

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/11/04/china-kick-starts-the-economy-with-a-big-spending-duck/

http://www.florentijnhofman.nl/dev/project.php?id=154

Forbes Media, a family business publishes Forbes magazine and makes digital media and native advertising, which used to be one of the most powerful news brands in business journalism, is now up for sale. Isn’t it unbelievable?

Forbes was facing enormous challenges in competition with Condé Nast, Hearst Corp and Time Magazines and it was devastated In the financial crisis in 2008, and from then on it began to develop into the field of digital media. Forbes, Wealth, Business Week and The Economist are the leading business magazines, influencing the whole world.  and the ranking of billionaires had even become the trend of economic indicators. However, why is such a great magazine selling out right now? This is a question puzzling and surprising people.

Since the sharp decline in advertising revenue, shrinking in circulation and the rise of non-traditional media platforms, news publishing industry/paper media is facing a very difficult period. There has been a number of high-profile magazines chosen to sell in the past three years, including Business Week, Newsweek and Maxim magazines, and many were turnover at a low price. Paper media, as a carrier of traditional media, the news content in paper media in the future may be a form of supplement reading. With the rapid development of technology, release of all kinds of electronic products like ebook and software such as ibook, newsstand, the future generations will likely to read news and magazines on electronic screens. As the graph shown below, in 2013, the percentage US households taking weekday newspaper has reached its minimum since 1940.

Moreover, people’s awareness of environment protection gradually increase over time, increasing number of people would choose the greener living style.

Sources:

Snapchat, a little company with only 20 employees, just rejected a 3 billion buyout from Facebook. What surprise people is that Facebook quoted such a high price offer to a company without any revenue right now. Its users compared to the 12 billion Facebook users is negligible. Many people are asking, “Why on earth would Facebook offer such a high price buyout to a small company?”

Jeff Bercovici posted a blog on why he thinks Facebook tried to buy snapchat for 3 billion cash. On one hand, the kids who are losing their passion for Facebook are pretty much exactly the same ones who are flocking to Snapchat by the millions. One purpose of buying snapchat is to win back the teenagers. On the other hand, snapchat’s revenues are purely notional so were Instagram’s when Facebook bought it last year. Buying snapchat would be a different form of insurance- a somewhat more expensive one.

In addition to agree with Jeff’s point of view, I also think there’re some other reasons why Facebook is doing that. Mark Zuckerberg, actually had a long time crush towards snapchat. In fact, he had even imitated a similar app, Poke. But ended in failure ultimately. This proves how Zuckerberg addicted in snapchat and its high value proposition.  Photo is consider the fuel of social networks. Snapchat handles as many photos as Facebook does every day. As blogger Benedict Evans pointed out in an analysis of it, even though Facebook uploaded 55 million extra photos each day via Instagram, snapchat claimed about 350 million photos each day as of September, the same speed as Facebook does.  Moreover, buying out snapchat helps Facebook monopolize in the market of  phone pictures.

Although many people now think snapchat has a higher value proposition than 3 billion dollars, it is interesting and true what Nikita said in her blog about this. Turning down Facebook’s offer is definitely a risky decision. What happen in the future is unpredictable. the market is highly competitive, other apps more creative and better than snapchat could arise in the future and catch people’s eyes, which could be a threat. Accepting Facebook’s offer would be a safer choice for the company’s future.

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/13/snapchat-facebook-buyout-offer-rejected

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/11/13/facebook-wouldve-bought-snapchat-for-3-billion-in-cash-heres-why/

Why Would You Turn Down a $3 Billion Offer?!

As stated in the blog Alipay, should banks worry? , Alipay.com, China’s largest third party online payment platform in terms of transaction volume, stirred some controversy in June with the launch of a high-profile wealth management product called Yu’E Bao. The cooperation of alipay, Tian Hong Fund has exceeded 100 billion, more than 29 million accounts, which has become the largest and the first fund exceeded 100 billion. Although the Fund just started up for 5 months, it has already ranked no.51 global fund in the world.

With the same ten thousand dollars,  you can only get thirty dollars interest rates each month; however transferring your money in alipay to Yu’E Bao, you are likely to benefits 300-400 dollars each month! Would you still prefer putting your money in the bank? Alipay is just like a banner edge ball, scraping the bank’s monopolization right now.  China’s one day shopping spree, as many people aware of right now, has also benefits Alipay by a huge step. Only after the first ten minutes that day, alipay had already handled 168 million transactions and 500 million dollars.

Is internet banking consider an opportunity or challenge to the bank industry? Comparing to banks and other traditional financial companies, internet banking does have a lot of unique advantages; on one hand, there are hundreds of millions of internet users, making the internet giant populace in financial penetration high, making it easy to realizable advantages into user capacity; on the other hand, the internet banking is more flexible in time, place, amount, it takes better care of those “grassroots demand” which the bank finance are not able to cover. It is not only the competition between banks  and banks in today’s society, people now suddenly go for online banking, this could put a lot of pressure on  those small banks who used to attract deposits with financial products.

Different from the point of view from the author of Alipay, should banks worry?  I think this is actually a great opportunity for both the banks and internet banking. The financial market is large enough that no one can pocketed. Under the pressure of internet banking, the bank industry will become more internet-based and those internet companies will accelerate its financialization at the same time. Bank industry and internet companies will collaborate instead of opposition.

Sources:

Mu, Chong. “Alipay, Should Banks Worry?” – People’s Daily Online. Global Times, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

Wang, Shanshan, and Eric PFANNER. “China’s One-Day Shopping Spree Sets Record in Online Sales.” Nytimes.com. N.p., n.d. Web.

Oliver D.Stocker, a former investment banker moved to Hong Kong from London this month. He has spent many years in Asia before buying the auction house in 2002, and this time he is aiming for galvanizing Asian growth.

Being a good leader or CEO, Oliver ‘s movement to Hong Kong with his whole family expressed an important message to the customers and employees——He is confident of this place, and determined to pay a long-time effort here. This action would also bring confidence to the customers  of Oliver, and the employees enthusiasm towards work will grow at the same time.

A growing number of senior executives from large non-asian companies have now moved to cities with lots of business opportunity like Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai etc.

This phenomenon appears in recent years but the tendency is growing fast because while those western companies are suffer and struggle locally, Asia’s appetite for luxury goods and consumer becomes a key engine for them.

In the past ten years, as the Asian spending power highly improves, auction industry also  transferred their target market to this land. Hong Kong,for example, now ranks alongside New York as a Center for such sales.

For Oliver, Hong Kong will the most important long-time investment market for stamps and money collection.

“But you have really seen Asian buyers picking up steam and momentum over the past decade,” he said. “The region is the fastest growing in the world.”

Asian buyers of collections now account for one-third of the whole world. Not only for auction companies, but also most luxury goods company, like hermes, louis vuitton, Tiffany&Co. changed their vale proposition, their designs are increasingly in line with asian tastes to attract more eyeballs from Asia. Tiffany&Co just had a jewelry appreciation which is equivalent to the ones in New York and Europe in July and almost all those companies opened several new big stores in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai because THIS IS A PLACE WITH HIGH-POTENTIAL.

HONG KONG ‘S Economic Development

Source:

On October 4th, Riot Games company has announced an all-new challenger competition for League of Legends (LOL). This event will run in tandem with the League championship series in 2014 through their partnership with Coke Zero.

Riot Games is a direct-to-consumer video game developer established in 2006. The company’s development is really fast, it becomes one of the leading global developer through launching their debut title, League of Legends. More than one million gamers play League of Legends and log more than half a billion minutes of playtime each month!

More and more teenagers and even adults addicted in video game in today’s society. This has become the opportunity for Riot Games Company. The design of the game LOL and its good reputation, as its strengths, attract more players, not only in North Ameriaca, but in the whole world.The huge Asia market became one of the target segments of Riot. In 2007, Riot cooperate with Tecent, the largest chinese investment holding company. LOL was officially introduced to the Chinese Market, and brought millions of video game players immediately. With the large number of customers, LOL fans, Riot Co. launched the championship every year in California, millions people from different country would stream it online to win the 2 million prize pool, and 11,000 seats were sold out in the arena to watch the game. This also gives the company an opportunity to make large profit.

LOL World Championship (youtube Link)

Work Cited:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/riot-games-reveals-new-league-of-legends-challenger-series/1100-6415344/

Margolis, Jacob. “Take Two.” KPCC. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2013.

Only three days after the releasing of new iphones, Apply announced that it has sold a record-breaking nine million new iPhone, which is the best phone launch in the history.

The official price of iphone 5s is identical to the precious iphone 5, however, the golden iphone 5s’s price went surprisingly high in the grey market in China, US$1,634, which is almost the doubling price of the official price. This happened not only in mainland china, but also in the special region, HongKong. Hundred and thousands scalpers waited outside the Apple store on the launch date of new iphones. Those people who successfully bought gold-colored iPhone 5s were able to resell at a double price immediately. While the golden 5S ordering has been out-of-stock until mid-october only three days after its releasing,  the 5Cs are available to buy in 24hours.

Due to the number of population and consuming ability, Apple has slowly developed a value proposition mainly targeting the chinese market in these several years. Although there are lots of other brands of smart phones which have the similar function to iPhone, there isn’t any gold-color ones so far, chinese people’s enthusiasm towards the color gold make iphone 5s benefits from the market. A new economic bubble (price bubble) formed at the same time. With the similar function and material used for iphone 5 and 5s, 5s is trade in high price which is considerably at variance with intrinsic values.

The situation appears to be very similar to the release of a digital camera of Casio several years before. When the Casio TR-150 was released in 2012, it only sale for 300 dollars, however, the price has now reached 1000 dollars, the price is far higher than it actually worth and the asset price bubble make a lot of people not able to afford for it.

Sources:

http://www.apple.com/ca/pr/library/2013/09/23First-Weekend-iPhone-Sales-Top-Nine-Million-Sets-New-Record.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble

http://www.zdnet.com/gold-iphone-5s-the-only-spark-among-chinese-consumers-7000020980/

Business ethics, which has also being called corporate ethics, is now becoming more and more important in today’s society. There’s a growing emphasis on this issue and it actually reflects in many aspects of a company which include a company’s finance, human resource management, sales and marketing and production. Sometimes, it even involves government rules and laws like tax payments, products’ ingredients.

The Chinese Milk Scandal was one of the world largest food safety incident that shock the whole world in the year of 2008. It was reported that six infants died from kidney stones, and thousands of other infants were being hospitalized.

The report shows that the chemical material which is called melamine was added to the milk and formula. After the case happened, the government of New Zealand says that  Fonterra, the largest shareholder with SanLu company found out the formula milk had problems in August, they tried to talk to SanLu to return all the formula that SanLu produced, however, their efforts did not get any attention from Chinese company and the local government was trying to hide the truth. Fonterra could only directly communicate with the central government of China to solve this problem.  SanLu suddenly faced social criticism and ethical doubts. A company should not only to make profits but more importantly, it should take responsibility of its clients, it is also the behavior of taking responsibility of its credit.

Chinese milk producers putting melamine in baby milk

(Link to Youtube Video)

Without business ethics, a company would not be able to do business for a long time, it is still going to be condemned by the society and will be paying compensation and costs due to its behavior.

Work Cited:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal#Cover-up_allegations