Vanessa Ng's Blog

Honestly, marketing is one of those topics that I have never found myself interested in. I was never one of those ‘creative’ types of people, however, I am good with numbers and I enjoy understanding the process of how people decide on what want. Prior to reading this blog post on Get Busy Media, I would have never though that the time a page load could affect the way consumers think. When I thinking about the process of marketing an item, I don’t think about advertising them on Google, or any…read more

Uber is one of the topics that I am extremely interested as it was one of main modes of transportation whenever I stay in Los Angeles or Las Vegas. From my experience with the company, I’ve always been content with the way that I was serviced.  In Dibleen Grewal‘s post on Uber, they stated that due to the high prices charged by taxis, Uber is becoming a disruptive innovator and I couldn’t agree more. I still remember riding a taxi in downtown Vancouver and the ride at most took five…read more

An internship is one of the many ways to earn experience in a working environment and is popular among undergraduates as it allows students to earn experience without committing to a job for an extended period of time. By earning real-life experience, employers see this as a benefit and prioritize this when recruiting new employees. It’s hard to find a job these days, even with a bachelor’s degree. Looking back a few years, having a bachelor’s degree is a point of differentiation and one of the ways to earn a decent…read more

Almost everyone has heard of the e-commerce company, Alibaba. Similar to their American counterparts, E-Bay and Amazon, Alibaba is a site that allows users and businesses can trade with one another while accepting Escrow as one of their payment methods. Earlier this week, during Stephen Harper’s stay in China, he met with founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, and spoke about including Canadian products on their website and even the possibility of opening up an office in Vancouver. In my opinion, this is a great opportunity for Vancouver as this city…read more

Earlier today, it was announced that a currency hub will be established that enables citizens to directly trade their Canadian dollars to China’s currency, renmenbi, and vice versa. Stephen Harper believes that through this exchange, more Canadian firms will be more willing to work with the Chinese markets. Currently, the only countries that are able to directly exchange their currency to Chinese renmenbi are: Russia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan, Australia, and soon enough, Canada. I believe this is a great move by the Prime Minister to promote globalization and international trade. Not…read more

  Only a little under two weeks ago, the Vancouver Island based First-Nations band,  Huu-ay-aht, have announced that they soon will begin a living wage, one will be able to cover the the costs to sustain a normal standard of living, as opposed to the minimum wage currently imposed by the provincial government. This particular living wage will be seven dollars higher than our current wage making it around $17/hour after taxes. Although a progressive step towards change, this move has garnered both praise and criticism.  I believe that this change should take place…read more

I couldn’t agree more with Peinan Li‘s comments on airline companies charging their customers for bringing carry-on luggages. I believe that it makes sense for smaller companies such as Allegiant Airlines to start charging luggages since the price for a ticket is extremely low. However, since the ticket price is so low, we can already assume the service will not be the best. The reason that I choose to fly with either Air Canada or West Jet is because I know that I can trust they can provide me with…read more

There is no question that small businesses have been deeply impacted by the past recession. In only two years (from 2007 to 2009), roughly 10,000 SME’s (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) have exited the market. Although this may sound upsetting, for the past five years, 80% of new businesses have survived their first year, and 72% of businesses survived their second. Small businesses have slowly been making their comeback, and in all of Canada, they employ over eight million employees and they represent fifty-four percent of the nation’s payroll. Some…read more

Over the past couple of weeks, the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) have been wanting to regulate the online content being broadcasted from companies such as  Netflix and Google. The CRTC has demanded Netflix to turn over their Canadian content and their subscriber information to determine if the company require regulatory intervention. Although after a 1999 ruling, the CRTC has a right to collect data from internet broadcasters, Netflix still refuses to turn over their information as they fear that the CRTC will pass along these sensitive informations to…read more

Who doesn’t enjoy earning money quickly and from the comfort of their own home? We have all heard about the crashing of the stock market back in 2008, but at this moment, the stock market is in a completely different shape. Stocks can be easily bought online and is a rapidly recovering industry as more people are finding jobs. However, how ethical are stocks? With Alibaba soon having their IPO, how many people are looking at this as an opportunity to make short term gains versus how many people are…read more