4 minutes estimated reading time
Taobao models
Modelling for Taobao, what a way to make a living｜WantChinaTimes.com – Taobao models face a number of challenges in their working lives. Their work is unstable by nature. More surprising, was poor social opinion of Taobao models in China. All of which add up to personally challenging roles for the young women who are Taobao models. It all sounds very hard for people who are essentially 21st century catalogue models
Business
Chinese corporate debt in charts | Quartz
China
David Cameron comes under fire in China – FT.com – The Cameron administration should acknowledge that the UK is not a big power in the eyes of the Chinese. It is just an old European country apt for travel and study – ouch got to love the Global Times
Consumer behaviour
The west is losing faith in it’s future | FT.com
Digital Trends: UK consumers chose specialist social networks – Media Week<
Information Geographies – really great slideware resource
Economics
Energy costs dragging Europe down
U.S. Renters Face Growing Affordability Problems — MacArthur Foundation
How to bet against the bitcoin megabubble (Stephen Gandel/Fortune) – yes, but it’s an expensive trade.
By George, Britain’s Austerity Experiment Didn’t Work! : The New Yorker
Standard Chartered warns 2014 is ‘make-or-break’ for China – a lot rides on economic reform
Britain’s Autumn Statement: The butterfly effect? | The Economist – UK looks to screw over Chinese and other property investors
Finance
Bitcoin isn’t banned in China, only legally defined. – interesting posting on Bitcoin in China. I can’t see this status quo lasting as the Chinese government likes to use monetary controls
How to
How To Display Real-Time Like Counts For Your Facebook Page On An Ipad – Locations such as retail outlets that want to display real-time like totals can use Fliike from French startup Smiirl if they opt for a stand-alone counter device, or LikeScreen from Pretty.
Ideas
Toys and Games: Trends, Developments and Prospects Global Briefing – Euromonitor International
Knight Lab’s Joe Germuska: “We have to find room for the big experimental ideas” | IJNet – interesting experiments going from publishing to search and visualisation
Ireland
Are we getting back to work? | The Irish Times – Sat, Dec 07, 2013 – the brain drain is likely to cripple future economic growth
Japan
Kawaii Culture: Don’t Underestimate the Power of Cuteness – Euromonitor International – soft power in progress
Twitter’s Dorsey Vies With SoftBank’s Son for Japan Shops: Tech – Bloomberg – my money is on SoftBank unless Square gets a heavy hitting JV partner in Japan
Korea
EU takes hard stance on Samsung
Luxury
Moët & Chandon appoints Fan Bing Bing as its brand ambassador | Marketing Interactive – interesting that a wine brand needs a muse, but what a muse ;-)
America’s 20 per cent who are affluent
Samsonite sets its sights on acquisitions in China – FT.com – interesting mid-market rather than luxury play (paywall)
Media
Yahoo! Very dependent on Microsoft search revenue
Dutch Digital Market Overview October 2013 – comScore, Inc – There are 13.3million Dutch internet users & 11.5million online video viewers. What are they doing online?
Facebook social share declines
Language Data Reveals Twitter’s Global Reach | MIT Technology Review
Academia.edu slammed with takedown notices from journal publisher Elsevier
Inside Story Of Yahoo Acquisition Ptch – Business Insider – not terribly surprising, interesting that it wasn’t an acquhire
Jessica Lessin talks about paywalls, The Information and the virtues of knowing who your audience is – professionals will pay for useful content (i.e. media as a work tool), which increases competition on analyst firms
The Meaning of China’s Crackdown on the Foreign Press : The New Yorker – it’s about internal image and the failure of soft power to deliver results
Retailing
Alibaba invests in logistics know-how
Security
Software
Netflix open sources its data traffic cop, Suro (Derrick Harris/Gigaom) – Netflix is open sourcing a tool called Suro that the company uses to direct data from its source to its destination in real time.
Enormous world exploration sim ‘No Man’s Sky’ announced from ‘Joe Danger’ creator Hello Games | The Verge – the procedural generation aspect of the game is interesting
Wireless
Chinese smartphone firms fear ‘patent troll’ litigation｜WantChinaTimes.com – insiders worry that in the wake of the acquisition, Nokia may cash in on its patent assets in an even more radical manner, alleging that the company may become a “patent troll” by recklessly suing mobile-phone firms worldwide, in a bid to maximize its royalty income
3G mobile phone licence controversy looms for Hong Kong regulators | South China Morning Post – China Mobile, the world’s biggest telecoms operator with 750 million subscribers, is the only party interested in obtaining a new 3G licence in Hong Kong.The big four Hong Kong 3G mobile operators – HKT (PCCW), SmarTone, CSL (One2free) and 3 Hong Kong (Hutchison Telecom) – I was advised against China Mobile when getting my phone because it’s network was supposed to be poor, so not surprised it wants another licence (paywall)