Twitter is now facing lots of threats and weakness in the market. One of their threats is the existing competition, there are a lot of more appealing programs such us Whatsapp, Line, Snapchat, Facebook etc. An example is Whatsapp, which has 300 million active users while Twitter has 218 million. Twitter has been recently loosing money due to all this new innovative programs. First of all, people who sign up for twitter don’t really get or understand the meaning of it. Moreover, users don’t really know what are they suppose to post. Furthermore, twitter has been wasting their time on facing engineering problems that were crashing the network and they haven’t concentrate on what’s more important: innovation.

Although, the company haven’t succeeded as much as they would like, they are trying to improve their revenue streams and they are also trying to develop a more appealing network. Twitter has newly introduced new features to the web; they are now showing users suggestions of movies according to other users interests. They have also bought Vine and We are Hunted and now users can watch videos in Vine and find different types of music through We are Hunted. Additionally, the social web is already aligned with Apple in order to implant their services in mobile devices.

Overall, Twitter is trying to become more appealing for people and it’s also trying to create more profit by providing new services. In my opinion Twitter has to be even more innovative and develop a better techniques in order to have a competitive advantage among others.

 A load factor is the quantity of seats an airline is able to fill. Air Canada and West Jet have been increasing their load factor over the years. In 2011 Air Canada had a load factor of 81% and it increased in 2012 by 1.7%. West yet started with a 79.7% and it increased by 3.1% in 2012.

The airlines are now applying new methods to create fuller planes and bigger profits. They are adjusting their prices according to the time of the flights and there are analyzing more their capacity management. Airlines analyze and modify the number of flights they offer in order to match demand. First, they investigate and look at regular last minute demand and leave enough room for these last-minute fliers. Unfortunately, these costumers will pay the high fares. After they have left some room for last-minute fliers, the company offers seats at different prices for people who book flights ahead of time. This is helping the company to make profit, since the airlines are charging these last-minute fliers a higher fee than other costumers. This is also helping the company’s revenue streams since the demand for last-minute flights are usually higher. The airlines are still improving their strategies to increase their load factor since they are aware that empty seats do not create revenue.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/the-science-of-filling-seats-airlines-chart-path-to-fuller-planes/article6995096/

Starbucks is trying to enter to the Chinese market by approaching consumers with new marketing strategies. One of the company’s goals is to create a rapid expansion in the country. Furthermore, they want to appeal consumers by following their culture. In order to succeed the company has created several marketing strategies.

Firstly, they have realized that Chinese people enjoy space and couches to sit down. As of right now they are re-decorating some of their stores making them bigger and also hiring local graffiti painters to give the stores a better look.

Secondly, they’ve understood that China is not a coffee-drinking nation; therefore the company is trying to increase their popularity by offering new drinks with Chinese-inspired flavours and also introducing more Chinese type food.

Lastly, the company has created new techniques to keep their employees. They’ve come to comprehend that the culture in China is totally different; Chinese parents want their children’s to be working on a company that can help them for a better future. Starbucks has created a family forum, where parents are invited to go and listen to managers who have worked their way up in their career life.

On the other hand, Starbucks is facing a lot of competition, which is a threat for success. They are competing with local companies and also with stores such us Costa Coffee and Paris Baguette. Moreover, Starbucks is identified by a western image; one of the risks they might face is loosing their brand identity by trying to go by local cultures.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324784404578142931427720970.html

On the 24th of April 2013, the Rana Plaza factory, an eight-store building collapsed in Bangladesh. Mohammed Shoel, the owner of this factory was approved to construct a five-store building, but added three more floors illegally. Mohammed was arrested with the engineers who helped him with the construction of this building. Apparently the building was in really bad conditions, which lead to the collapse of the construction and hundreds of deaths. The factory produced top international brands and it is said that there was poor working conditions; employees were paid twenty-five pounds monthly.
Primark a major retail store in the UK owned the second floor of the building. The company said they were going to pay compensation for all the victims and that they were going to provide financial aid for those injured.

Nevertheless, the big question is: Are retail stores fully aware of this? For example, Primark is known as a cheap retail store, which has been dealing with problems related with child labour. In my opinion companies like this one are aware of what is happening, but they fail to do anything about it because they are interested on meeting the consumers needs of buying cheap clothes and they also want to make profit. This retail stores often forget whether their company is being ethical or not.

http://news.sky.com/story/1084619/bangladesh-disaster-primark-payouts-for-victims