Recently, I read Parmy Olson’s new post “Here’s Where Teens Are Going Instead Of Facebook” on Forbes. She point out a statement that a growing number of teenagers are less likely to become active on Facebook. Meanwhile, mobile chat services like WeChat and WhatsApp, and photo-sharing apps like Instagram and Snapchat have become more and more popular among the youth. As far as I am concerned, I am in favour of  her views.

According to Parmy’s survey, she found the number of teenagers in 30 countires who are active on Facebook had dropped to 56% in the third quarter from 76% in the first quarter in 2013. And the biggest decline in active usage (by 52%) was in the Netherlands while there was a 16% decrease among American teenagers.

So where are teens going instead of Facebook? Parmy mentioned  mobile chat services like WeChat and WhatsApp, and photo or video-sharing apps like Instagram, Snapchat and Vine.

Despite of  the incredible growth in active users of WeChat, I think most teens in the western countries even never heard  it before. Because it is a popular mobile app among the youth based in Chinese communities, which is owned by the Chinese Internet giant Tencent. WeChat allows people for instant messaging, which works like Facebook  and WhatsApp in the same way.What’s more, there seems a trend that teenagers rely more on mobile messaging through platforms like WhatsApp or Wechat, instead of Facebook. Therefore, Facebook needs to pay attention to this big concern.

Reference:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/11/12/heres-where-teens-are-going-instead-of-facebook/

Recently, I read Ha Neul (Hannah) Chung’s new post “L’Oreal and Management Information System”. She thought L’Oreal was a great example for using MIS. It let me think of what we discussed in Class 17, the Management Information System( MIS). We know that MIS provides managers with available access to information that can be used to make decisions efficiently and effectively. As a result, companies use MIS to more conveniently collect data, analyze and facilitate their strategies and activities.

According to Hannah’s example, besides L’Oreal, I also found  YouTube was an excellent example of using MIS flexibly. Since people create a online account on YouTube, they are able to subscribe channels, upload and like videos. Meanwhile, YouTube will track and record what people watched, and according to what they liked and subscribed before, it will send emails about latest updates of those subscribed videos and make related suggestions on people’s home pages as well. With the information gathered by YouTube online, it  provides a more convenient and efficient way for people to easily find videos they enjoy. Meanwhile, it is also beneficial for YouTube to keep an attraction among individuals.

However, I still have the same question with Hannah, that if the information provided by MIS is always reliable and accurate. Furthermore, with the society changing so rapidly, if a company changes its core value proposition and customer segments, will the given information still available and outdated for itself? Therefore, I believe we need more further study about MIS in order to make sure it is accurate even the society is always changing.

Link:

07.L’Oreal and Management Information System

In Debbie Pai’s blog “L’Oreal Pulled All These Ads Because They Used Too Much Photoshop”, she holds a statement that  nowadays a growing number of companies use a plenty of editing mechanisms such as Photoshop to exaggerate the effects of their products, thereby advertising  products; and L’Oreal is a typical example. She believes that businesses should not use any Photoshop or editing mechanism in their advertisements, because it would be a fraud to individuals. I agree with her view for several reasons.

Firstly, the development of technology has advanced so rapidly and editing mechanisms update so fast as well, which makes advertisements more perfect. We can  perceive more and more visual media in daily life, and it is so hard for us to tell if the product is good as it is shown in the commercials. What’s more, businesses who use Photoshop or other editing mechanisms seem that they fake perfect qualities of products which actually they may not have, thereby  maximizing profits. Finally, it is also business unethical which we discussed in Class 3. Companies should not deceive customers, because it will generate bad influence to their  reputations and people will not chose to believe them any more.

Reference:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/wishcometrue/

Today, we learned the innovation and entrepreneurship in the lecture. Then I read an article about a new mobile healthcare company named Curatio. More exactly, it creates a mobile healthcare app called ThaliMe which is also a  tracking tool designed especially for people with thalassemia. This app enables patients to take a track of their health condition. Furthermore, it is helpful and convenient for clienteles to have a personalized virtual support group and get access to direct connection with healthcare professionals. Currently, Curatio wins $100,000 in the Novartis’ Global Health 2.0 Competition. Obviously it is a good news for  its co-founder, a recent UBC graduate Alireza Davoodi. These two main founders Brown-Ganzert and Alireza Davoodi are really young entrepreneurs, describing the company as ”a collective of like minded individuals, focused on creating beautiful and functional products for the health industry.” ¹

After searching this company,I found that Curatio provides autonomy and entrepreneurship for its employees. In my view, it helps employees fulfill their potential while working for Curatio. And people would hold a responsibility in their careers and emphasize their actions which will influence the business. Besides, this also  helps to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship which is the spirit of innovation and creativity. Curatio encourages employees who like to take risks. All of these features make Curatio more successful.

Citation:

1. “Vancouver’s Curatio Wins $100,000 for Mobile Healthcare App.” EUBC Inspire Create Impact. N.p., 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://entrepreneurship.ubc.ca/vancouvers-curatio-wins-100000-for-mobile-healthcare-app/>.

Reference:

http://entrepreneurship.ubc.ca/vancouvers-curatio-wins-100000-for-mobile-healthcare-app/

http://www.curatiohealthcare.com/

To people’s surprise, the top Chinese e-commerce service Taobao.com reported  the first hour of turnover reached 6.7 billion yuan and more than 25 million transactions in a single day, November 11th. November 11 might be Veteran’s Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Canada, nevertheless it is “double sticks” day in China.

Firstly, let me introduce Taobao, since you may be unfamiliar with the top Chinese e-commerce service. Taobao is a famous Chinese website for online shopping. It is established in 2003 by alibaba group. On the website,  Sellers can post goods on the Taobao marketplace with fair price. What’s more, Taobao is a convenient platform for business and individuals to open online stores.  It is very similar to eBay, but less known in western countries. Because Taobao relies on the huge Chinese market deeply. In china, thousands of  investors regard Taobao as their new opportunities of success. In my view, it’s incredible that Taobao made a giant break through on today,  November 11th. It also shows a huge potential in Chinese e-commerce market, and undoubtedly, it plays an important role as a catalyst to Chinese economy.

Reference:

http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/13/chinese-online-mall-taobao-reports-3b-yes-billion-in-sales-in-one-day-infographic-in-chinese/

Due to the economic depression, the food stamps in America began to be cut by the government. For many common people, hardly will they care about a little cut in food stamps, because without these food stamps, they still can have sufficient good, and won’t suffer from hunger. However in America, for hundreds of the poor who rely on food stamps, decrease in food stamps undoubtedly makes them worse off. It means there are no more enough food for the whole families before the month is over and more poor people begin to beg for food.

“I don’t need a whole lot to eat,” said Leon Simmons, 63, who spends more than half of his monthly $832 Social Security income to rent a room in an East Charleston house. “But this month I know I’m not going to buy any meats.”¹

From the old poor Leon’s experience, we know that for a person who barely wants to utilize a couple hundred dollars to afford  house rent and  enough food to eat, the cut in foods tamps plays an important role in his life. Instead, not only are the food stamps decreased, but also the prices in groceries keep sky-high to those who are unable to afford the loss in food stamps. In my view, it’s high time that government should  make a correct measure to help those poor people.

Citation:

1. Severson, KIM , and WINNIE Hu. “Cut in Food Stamps Forces Hard Choices on Poor.” the new york times. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/us/cut-in-food-stamps-forces-hard-choices-on-poor.html?pagewanted=2&hp>.

Reference:

Recently, the size of smartphone sparks the intense debate among people and then Samsung comes to my mind. It seems that the size of Samsung’s smartphone is endless. With a 6.3-inch screen, the Samsung Galaxy Mega now is the largest smartphone in the world. Thanks to Samsung, people even create a new word, phablet. However, do we need such a big phone? It is not hard-press to imagine that the Mega is un-pocketable, especially for those who tend to wear tight clothing.

The Galaxy Mega’s XXXL screen is the obvious highlight, of course. When a phone gets this close to tablet territory, it opens up entirely new experiences.¹ I agree with the citation’s statement. Because, some people admit that it works great as a tablet, when they used it to watch videos, read books and browse social networks, just as they would use Ipad Mini or Kindle Fire tablet. It cannot be denied that it brings some new experiences, which makes other smaller smartphones seem like unsatisfying.

citation:

Pachal, Pete. “Samsung Galaxy Mega: The Biggest Smartphone Ever.” Mashable. N.p., 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 03 Oct. 2013. <http://mashable.com/2013/09/19/samsung-galaxy-mega-review/>.

As is known to all, Blackberry smartphones were symbols of corporate and political power. We can still remember when the U.S President Obama took office he made keeping his BlackBerry a personal priority, and when BlackBerry service had a hiccup so did business on Wall Street.¹ In spite of its successes, Blackberry has gone through tough times in the past few years.

Recently, BlackBerry claimed that it would lay off 4,500 employees, which is nearly 40 percent of its already reduced work force. What’s worse, it also announced disastrous financial results, including a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion. ² It seems that Blackberry comes to an end.

In my view, Blackberry has lost the dominance of the smartphone market due to Apple’s iPhones and phones running Google Android operating system. It lacks of creativity and fancy appearances compared with Apple and Samsung. The layoffs also suggests that Blackberry has to give up most of its research and development work, further clouding its value.³ However, as the rapid development of technology, Blackberry is supposed to meet individuals’needs and struggle to stay ahead of its competitors.

citation:

1.  AUSTEN, IAN. “BlackBerry to Cut 40% of Work Force After Big Loss.” N.p., 20 Sept. 2013. Web.

2. AUSTEN, IAN. “BlackBerry to Cut 40% of Work Force After Big Loss.” N.p., 20 Sept. 2013. Web.

 3. Gollom, Mark. “Does BlackBerry Have a Future? – CBC News – Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 20 Sept. 2013.Web. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/does-blackberry-have-a-future-1.1862945>.

Last month, Apple released 2 new iPhones, which sparks a buying spree again after the emergence of iPhone5. More specifically, to our surprise, a cheaper and colorful model named iPhone5C came out, which is targeted at less wealthy countries where people cannot afford for an expensive new iPhone.

It seems that Apple wants to express and expand its value proposition to those less wealthy countries. Obviously, with Apple’s profit growth slowing, and smartphone sales surging in countries like China, India and Russia, the cheaper iPhone is meant for what analysts call “aspirational consumers” in those countries — the top 10 to 20 percent who are slightly uncomfortable about spending more money on a fancy brand, but might be convinced at the right price.¹

What’s more, it especially wants to dominate China smartphone market where is now the largest cellphone market in the world. Because in China, the manufacture of smartphones running Google’s Android software system plays an incredible part of the market. Consequently, Apple utilizes the new cheaper iPhones to compete with those cheap Android cellphones.

However, the iPhone5C is not as cheap as it sounds. Because, Apple claims that iPhone5C contains the key parts of high technology, which keeps the same as iPhone5. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Apple’s share is steadily increasing in the world smartphone market.

reference:  CHEN, BRIAN X. Apple Unveils Faster IPhone, and a Cheaper One, Too. N.p., 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 01 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/technology/apple-shows-off-2-new-iphones-one-a-lower-cost-model.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.

Business ethics play a significant role in the business world. When thinking of an issue of ethical business, Foxconn comes to my mind.

Foxconn is a Chinese company whose massive Chinese factories manufacture some of the world’s most popular electronics. As is known to us all, Many Apple products such as iPhone and iPad are assembled in its factories. However, Apple and Foxconn are facing a severe test about business ethics in recent years.

It was not unusual to be reported that some  factories in China exceeded the FLA standard of 60 hour work weeks and the Chinese legal limits of 40 hours a week and a maximum of 36 hours maximum overtime per month according to the FLA. More surprisingly, the number of reported suicides of Foxconn workers died after jumping off buildings in the Foxconn Campus in Shenzhen between 2007 and 2011 reaches eleven.

Admittedly, Apple and Foxconn should be held more responsible of the working conditions of all their employees. What’s more, it is high time that Apple and Foxconn took measures to protect employees’ health and safety, reduce worker hours to legal limits, protect workers’ salaries and establish a comfortable workplace.

Nevertheless, Apple joined the FLA  in 2012 and promised improvements for employees, responding to intense public attention.  Both Apple and Foxconn have agreed to continuous assessments by FLA  so as to ensure that labor practices meet FLA standards. I hope Apple and Foxconn could seriously take social responsibility in the future.

References:

http://business-ethics.com/2012/03/29/1747-apple-foxconn-criticized-in-report-promise-improvements-for-workers/