Fapiao
China’s New Weapon Against Tax Cheats | The Diplomat – the fapiao would be ideal for many European countries like Italy and Greece that suffer from massive under-taxation. A fapiao is a legal receipt that serves as proof of purchase for goods and services, you’ll get them when you shop or eat out in a restaurant. China’s tax authorities require businesses to use fapiao to compel companies to pay tax in advance on their future sales. So the fapiao invoice system serves as a paper warranty against tax evasion, unlike other countries where invoices serve as a tax receipt. There are two different types of fapiao that cover ‘normal’ and ‘special’ sales tax. When I was in China restaurants would offer you a discount if you didn’t ask for the fapiao. The government gave a free ticket with the fapiao that you would win cash prizes with, so citizens were incentivised to ask for it.
Consumer behaviour
Why Behavior Change Apps Fail To Change Behavior | TechCrunch
The Believer – Wanted: Macho Men with Mustaches – interesting cultural study
What cool means to China’s youth | Marketing-Interactive.com
Economics
Bernanke says Fed may taper QE in 2013 but monetary policy is not on a preset course
China to Promote Technology, Energy-Saving in Restructuring Push – Bloomberg – similar to what the west did by globalisation
China Govt Advisor Says Economy In Crisis As Debt Costs Spiral | MNI – Arguments about whether China will grow at 7% or 7.5% are “pointless” because the economy is already in a financial crisis which may only worsen if the government doesn’t address the country’s crippling debt problem
Analysis: As China’s economic pain increases, so does reform effort | Reuters
Finance
Hedge Funds Are for Suckers – Businessweek – not quite. But the their time in the sun is over (at least for the time being). GLC; one of the UK’s oldest hedge funds shuttered its doors last year
FMCG
Japanese Fans Mourn Demise of ‘Potato Snack’ – WSJ.com – great demonstration of brand loyalty
Colgate forced to scrap #brushswap promotion after Waterloo debacle – Brand Republic News
How to
How to Set Up New Facebook Reports – Search Engine Watch (#SEW)
Ideas
Social Connectivity in America: University of Toronto – don’t worry the web doesn’t isolate us
Do Things that Don’t Scale – do them as they have valuable lessons for design etc
Innovation
Sign Of The Times? Investments in Asia Increase, Investments In Silicon Valley Decrease – is this really surprising when engineering has been outsourced by visas and offshoring and hard innovation doesn’t happen in Silicon Valley any more to the same extend that it used to
Marketing
Confessions of an e-commerce director, | Marketing-Interactive.com
Marketing, Confidence tumbles on economic slowdown | Marketing-Interactive.com
Media
Re-imagining Segmentation In Analytics To Help You Make Better Decisions, Faster – Analytics Blog
BBC News – Apple conspired to fix e-book prices, judge rules
Facebook Has Banned Ad Price ‘Arbitrage’ – Business Insider
Online
The Companion Web: The Internet And How We Use It Is Evolving
Family albums fade as the young put only themselves in picture – Telegraph – phenomena of selfies
Which? finds trust in comparison sites low – July – 2013 – Which? News – not terribly surprised by this
AltaVista is dead. Here’s why it’s so hard to compete with Google. – interesting interview with the DuckDuckGo people
Retailing
Presence in Digital Space | IGI Global – great whitepaper on digtial marketing particularly as it pertains to brand and e-tailing
Search Trumps Social Media: Department Stores Edition | L2’s The Daily – no real surprise, social delivers just 1.9 per cent of traffic
Software
Nokia’s struggles suggest consumers are ‘content’ with iOS and Android duopoly – consumers might be, but carriers are also influencers in this process
The History of App Pricing, And Why Most Apps Are Free – downward spiral
Chrome for iOS adds improved Google apps integration, ‘experimental’ data compression | The Verge
Apple’s ‘Zombie Apps’ Cloud App Store’s Birthday – Survey shows nearly two thirds of the 888,856 apps available in Apple’s App Store receive little or no downloads:
iOS 7 Implications for Marketers:
Elop explains: why Nokia didn’t choose Android to replace Symbian | guardian.co.uk
Leaked Line Document Sheds Light on One of Its Monetization Models – for Naver LINE
Why mobile web apps are slow | Sealed Abstract
Style
Empire Ave | A chat with Shawn Stussy – Pt I
Technology
Microsoft Windows 8 tablet criticism: too flawed to recommend | BGR
Can Jack Ma’s Cainiao project deliver on its promise? | South China Morning Post – interesting that Cainiao is providing a technology layer to increase efficiencies and integration of logistics companies with e-commerce
Microsoft: Kinect costs almost as Xbox One to make | BGR – the inevitable teardowns once it’s launched will be interesting
PC Shipments Fall for a Fifth Quarter Even as U.S. Decline Slows – Bloomberg
If tardy chip-baking fix fails, this Frenchman can help • The Register
Wireless
TelecomTV | News | Just in case you thought Nokia had turned a corner… it hasn’t
Nokia Earnings Analysis Q2 2013: Smartphone ASP plummeting | BGR
Nokia Earnings Preview Q2 2013: The moment of truth | BGR
Nokia: dumping hardware, opening up software – Rethink Wireless
Nokia can’t rely on megapixels alone | TechEye – A large problem facing Nokia is branding. It’s “no longer seen as cool or premium in Europe,” Gleeson says, “and the brand essentially doesn’t exist in North America at all”. So much the same problems that affected the Nokia brand prior to Mr Elop coming on board
Transitioning To a Mobile Centric World | Above the Crowd | By Bill Gurley
“Everybody has got a smartphone” | asymco – no they haven’t