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  yichanliu 6:04 pm on November 17, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  comment 2 

  After reading Lingyi Xing’s blog post on the success of “no brand goods”, I became interested in how did Muji become such a successful brand. One of the main reasons of Muji’s success would be its unique brand proposition. The brand prides itself on being high quality, simple, and affordable. Best of all, Muji uses as little packaging as possible. There aren’t layers of packaging hiding the product; instead, you can immediately see what it is (even though the labels are in Japanese). Simplicity has never looked so good. Though the brand does not have a corporate tag line, it occasionally comes out with the tag line “Simple. Functional. Affordable”. This is to ensure that the message is engrained in the customers’ minds. Muji goes to the extent of recycling or reselling the unsold products in the same condition, using natural fiber material, and including very minimal and informational manuals, with minimal packaging. All these activities in totality contribute to Muji’s image of a brand that is against the “branded world”. Besides being simple and eco-friendly, Muji’s products are also user-friendly. They do market research in regular intervals to learn about consumers’ habits and preferences, and make corresponding change to the design of their products.

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  References:

  blog 5–The success of “no brand goods”

  http://www.venturerepublic.com/resources/Muji_The_Japanese_No-Brand.asp

  http://nubbytwiglet.com/2007/09/26/muji-japanese-perfection-in-simplicity/

   

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  yichanliu 3:57 pm on November 17, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  comment 1 

  In Yao Chen’ blog post on online video industry in China, she talked about the competition between the TV industry and the online video industry, and the Youku–Tudou merger issue. In my opinion, the merger of Youku and Tudou is beneficial to both of the two companies, but they will face challenges in the long run. The merger endows Youku Tudou Inc the absolute advantage in terms of user base, therefore helps to increase its media value substantially. With simplified media choice, Youku Tudou Inc. (the new name of the company) will get more budgets for video, and be more attractive to direct customers such as large brand advertisers. After the merger, Youku Tudou Inc takes a stable lead in the industry, while other companies with abundant cash flow and aggressive pose, such as iQIYI, Sohu, LeTV, and Tencent take the second place. In addition, the competition arising from copyrights of some popular videos is among the above companies as well. Therefore, iResearch considers that although the merger uplifts Youku Tudou’s bargaining power in the copyright market, there will still be extraordinarily fierce competition in the copyright market, and the cost of hot videos will not drop dramatically in the short run.

  As for the prospect of the merger, the revenue of the Youku Tudou will be definitely increased and cost cut in the short term. However in the long run, the biggest challenge for Youku and Tudou is how to integrate their resources. Due to the overlap of human resources and operational resources, how to rationally allocate these resources is the first challenge in front of the management. iResearch believes that the position of Youku Tudou in the online video market will be directly determined by the efficiency and results of the resource integration in the future.

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  References:

  Online video in China

  http://www.iresearchchina.com/Views/4076.html

   
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  yichanliu 11:15 pm on November 16, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  blog post 10 

  Home sales dip in October as market cools since hot summer

  Last month, Canadian home resales dipped for the first time since February, and many see this as a signal that a so-called correction in the housing market remains in place. The Canadian Real Estate Association reported Friday that the number of transactions fell 3.2 per cent in October from September on a seasonally adjusted basis. That still leaves an 8.3 per cent increase from October 2012, when sales were dipping following to a tightening of federal mortgage rules in July of that year. Analysts say the monthly results, while only a snapshot, suggest that the underlying market is soft and that fears of a bubble, voiced during the summer’s strong housing rally, were exaggerated. October’s month-over-month dip can also be evidence that the recent sales spurt came largely from homebuyers with pre-approved mortgages jumping into the market before rates headed higher. Some analysts believe with prices so high, Canada may be due for a sharp correction in prices. However, that scenario has yet to materialize. Soft-landing proponents argue that the two markets are very different because regulations in Canada require a greater degree of equity held by homeowners, high-leverage purchases must be insured, and financial institutions are more prudent in their lending practices.
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  References:

  http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/home-sales-dip-in-october-as-market-cools-since-hot-summer-1.1544674

   
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  yichanliu 11:14 pm on November 16, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  blog post 9 

  Forbes Media exploring sale

  Forbes Media, controlled by former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes, is up for sale. CEO Mike Perlis said Forbes has received indications of interest from investors for the company, which includes Forbes magazine and Forbes.com. The company is looking to sell for about $400 million, according to a report by Bloomberg News. The Forbes family still controls the company after selling a 45% stake to investment firm Elevation Partners in 2006. Forbes Magazine has been focusing heavily on the digital side of its editorial operations to make up for the sluggishness in print ad sales. The company has also focused on diversifying the revenue streams to complement its advertising-based businesses. In an early experiment in native advertising — advertising that resembles the look and feel of a publication’s editorial content — Forbes also began selling access to the publishing platform, allowing corporate sponsors to post their own material on Forbes.com. With a flood of material available, Forbes.com’s traffic grew from about 12 million unique monthly visitors in 2010 to about 26 million. This year, digital advertising surpassed print ads sales for the first time, and now makes up about half of total advertising revenue. To diversify the revenue base, Perlis has expanded the company’s conference business and begun licensing the brand name to office buildings. The publishing software is also licensed to publishers that want to replicate the contributor-submission model of content creation.

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  References:

  http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/11/15/forbes-media-for-sale/3579419/

   
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  yichanliu 2:48 am on November 16, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  blog post 8 

  Profit bonanza eludes companies chasing obesity business

  Soaring diabetes rates, driven by increasing obesity, have fuelled profits at the Danish company for two decades, but now the company wants to tackle obesity head on by launching a treatment specifically to help patients lose weight. Obesity rates suggest a booming market. Yet it is proving surprisingly difficult for both drug makers and food companies to develop businesses directly addressing the problem.

  In a global economic downturn, modestly effective weight-loss drugs and special diet foods are turning out to be a tough sell when a cheaper alternative is to eat less – or do nothing. Weak economies have curbed demand for pricey, specialist dieting schemes just as competition has exploded from a host of electronic apps that count calories for free – and securing insurance reimbursement has been an uphill fight for new drugs that cost around $160-$200 a month in the United States. Global sales of obesity drugs have halved in the last five years, and even though they are expected to climb again they will remain dwarfed by therapies to treat diabetes, as rates of type 2 disease – the kind linked to obesity – soar.

  Weight Watchers, the leading weight loss company in the United States, is finding the going increasingly tough. Revenue has been roughly flat or down during six of the last seven quarters and the outlook for the next four is even worse. Last month, the company said that despite progress on cost-cutting, it expected full-year revenue to fall at a low double-digit percentage rate if recruitment trends failed to improve. Weight Watchers is battling a declining membership base, growing membership at rivals, and the rise of cheap or free smartphone applications and activity monitors.

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  References:

  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/european-business/profit-bonanza-eludes-companies-chasing-obesity-business/article15462073/

   
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  yichanliu 10:35 pm on November 15, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  blog post 7 

  China ‘Cyber Monday’ sales smash record

  Cyber Monday (Nov. 11), which began as a holiday for singles and morphed into an online retail frenzy, has become China’s busiest online shopping day. On that day, nearly all the sellers on Tmall.com (China’s version of Amazon, run by Alibaba) would offer a 50% discount on thousands of brands including Microsoft, Gap and Clarins, while competitor Tencent’s 51buy.com offer promotions on products from Apple, Samsung, Sony and more. Sales on Tmall reached $163 million in the first few minutes of the day. By the end of the day, sales on Alibaba’s shopping sites clocked in at $5.7 billion–nearly double last year’s total of $3.1 billion. Retailers have slashed prices to woo customers, and sales this year were expected to be bigger than ever, said Barclays analyst Alicia Yap prior to the Nov. 11 holiday.

  China’s Cyber Monday reflects the rapid growth in the country’s online shopping market. A growing number of China’s 1.3 billion consumers are paying ever fewer visits to brick-and-mortar stores. A consumer said that she now makes 90% of all her purchases online–anything from blouses to mattresses and lamps. Therefore, holding the discount event on the singles’ holiday would be a wise decision for Tmall, as they are able to sell much higher quantities at that day, and thus make more profits and stay competitive in the industry.

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  References:

  http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/10/news/economy/china-cyber-monday/index.html

   
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  yichanliu 10:14 pm on November 10, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  blog post 6 

  Intel may sell Internet TV business to Verizon

  Chipmaker Intel Corp is reported in talks to sell all parts of its Internet television venture to Verizon Communications Inc., reflecting its will of focusing on developing intelligent system and uphill battle in securing content for the pay-TV service. Earlier this year, Intel decided to launch an Internet TV service with live and on-demand content in a bid to find an alternative revenue stream as its core business of providing chips to computer makers erodes. The service, called OnCue, has been in the works for the past two years and would stream TV channels over the Internet. Intel also developed a set-top box that company employees were said to be testing in their homes. The field of players competing for in-home entertainment audiences is increasingly crowded. Apple Inc, Google Inc, Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp are jockeying for position to own the living room through TV, while Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc’s streaming video services have millions of subscribers. Verizon already has a streaming product as part of a joint venture with Redbox, which focuses mostly on streaming movies and not on TV shows, according to its website. That product competes with Netflix. Intel has struggled to reach content deals with media companies even though it offered to pay sizeable premiums over traditional cable rates. Several news reports indicated Intel is now discussing a potential deal with Verizon to hand over control of Intel Media, the unit responsible for building the subscription TV service.

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  References:

  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/intel-in-talks-to-sell-internet-tv-business-to-verizon/article15159016/

  http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2013/10/31/reports-intel-may-sell-internet-tv-project-to-verizon/

   
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  yichanliu 9:44 pm on October 29, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  blog post 5 

  What’s next for Google?

  Google, which runs the world’s most popular internet search engine, recently conducted a crazy plan that is to send Google balloons into the stratosphere. This project fits Google’s evolving strategy, as Google has always been changing how people find information and do business. The initial mission of Google is to organize the world’s population, and now it’s making efforts to automate and simplify people’s daily interactions. There is a serious business purpose behind this project. Although Google is the most successful internet company and has dominated the web search, it relies on advertising to pursue revenue at a large extent. However, internet advertising businesses are facing long term challenges. Last week, Google posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, with revenue of $14.9-billion, sending its stock price soaring past the $1,000-a-share mark. The solid results masked some troubling trends. Google received a large boost in ad volume, which itself was due to a surge of mobile advertising, but while such ads are quickly becoming a major portion of all Internet advertising, they tend to generate less revenue. Actually, the ads at the very heart of Google’s business model for the past 15 years are slowly losing value, and no company has figured out how to reverse that trend. At the Google campus in Mountain View, there’s a sense that virtually all these projects are part of a wider, more ambitious effort by the company to expand its role as the chief middleman of Internet search into a variety of other areas. That takes new technology, a stomach for risk and big ideas. According to the director of engineering at Google Canada, the unifying theme at Google is the bigness of it all, and it makes huge bets in areas that can be dramatically impactful in the future. Indeed, part of the lure of the company to engineers is the deep uncertainty and grand potential of Google’s many big bets – with little indication which will fail, and which will end up transforming parts of society.

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  References:

  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/growing-plans-inside-googles-expanding-world/article15096740/

   
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  yichanliu 3:00 pm on October 6, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  blog post 4 

  Social networks in a battle for the second screen

  After “Breaking Bad” drew 10.3 million viewers to one of the most crowd-satisfying finales in television history on Sunday, Twitter and Facebook raced to tell the news media about the throngs who shared their instant reactions to the show on the social networks. They both see the social conversation around television is a good way to increase use of their sites and win a bigger piece of advertisers’ spending. Sorting out which site deserves the crown, however, is tricky. Each company uses its own standard for determining social TV conversation, and unlike other types of Internet traffic, there is no neutral arbiter. Twitter said about 600,000 people had posted more than 1.2 million messages, or tweets, while Facebook said three million people had chimed in on its service.

  Still, there is little question that television is a favorite topic for users. About half of Americans visit social networks while watching TV, and one in six Americans posts comments about shows during their broadcasts, according to a coming report by eMarketer, which found that people in some countries like China and India are even more active in their chatter. The research firm has found that the average audience for Twitter messages about a TV show is 50 times the number of people posting messages about the show. If 2,000 people are posting messages about a show, for example, an average of 100,000 people are seeing those messages. Also, it appears that heavy Twitter activity around a popular broadcast can drive more people to both the show and Twitter.

  Twitter, considered by many to be the leader in social conversation around live TV, has spent much of 2013 courting networks like Fox and MTV and consumer brands like Heineken. Such partnerships have created a significant new revenue stream for Twitter. Facebook, whose social platform is built more around each individual’s web of relationships than rapid-fire conversation, has a more complicated relationship with TV.

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  References:

   
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  yichanliu 5:35 pm on October 5, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  blog post 3 

  Canada’s middle class feels the brunt of the income inequality squeeze

  After Canadian income inequality getting worse in the 1980s and 1990s, it remained stuck at a relatively high level during the 2000s. Median family income has increased since 1998, leading some commentators to reach the conclusion that the middle class is doing better now than in the late 1990s. However, that is only part of the story. The increase in median income masks the shifts occurring in and among different income ranges. Dividing the population into five income groups, real average after-tax income grew most strongly in the top group – those with the highest income levels. The bottom group grew second fastest, while the middle group – the true “middle class” in statistical terms – grew the most slowly. In fact, this middle 20 per cent of Canadians receive less of the total income pie today than it did in the late 1990s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the gap between the top and the bottom income groups increased the most. The top 20 per cent got relatively richer, and the bottom 20 per cent got relatively poorer. The gap between richest and poorest groups grew more slowly in the 2000s, but it clearly did not shrink. The top income group increased its share of total after-tax income from 43.4 per cent in 1998 to 44.3 per cent in 2010. The share going to the bottom income group remained the same (4.8 per cent), while the share going to the three groups in between (which could be broadly defined as the middle class) fell. It is statistically accurate to say that the middle class – at least as defined by having a mid-range income – is being squeezed in Canada.

  There is no easy solution to income inequality. Investment in education – from early childhood through postsecondary – offers the greatest potential payback. Increasing access to the labour market also needs consideration. Both measures would also bolster Canada’s already good record on income mobility – the ease at which people can move among income groups. However, a good record on income mobility does not override the social issues associated with high income inequality. Thus, measures to reform the tax system should focus on improving the incentives to work for people trying to get off social welfare support – by lowering the “welfare wall” currently preventing entry into the work force. A guaranteed annual income system merits examination as a way to meet these goals.

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  References:

  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/canadas-middle-class-feels-the-brunt-of-the-income-inequality-squeeze/article14635779/