Xi’s Sign-Off Deals Blow to China Inc.’s Global Spending Spree – WSJ – China Inc. a mix of brands from those that aren’t known in the property development space to the owners of House of Fraser or Weetabix. I was speaking to a technology start-up who talked about raising their funds and getting them in just in time from investors representing a large China Inc. name, right before ‘the door shut’ (paywall)
Consumer behaviour
One Family, Many Revolutions: From Black Panthers, to Silicon Valley, to Trump – NYTimes.com – interesting reading (paywall)
Design
The Dark Side Of “Friendly” Design | Fast Co. Design
Economics
In China, Herd of ‘Gray Rhinos’ Threatens Economy – NYTimes.com – Chinese conglomerates who have grown based on cheap bank loans. It hasn’t been said yet, but there must be similar implications for Chinese businesses who have benefited from state bank supported vendor financing to win customers abroad (paywall). More related content here.
Gadget
Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Are More Popular Than Older Models | Fortune.com
Hong Kong
Twenty years,20 visualisations | SCMP – great step back to pre-internet living
Japan
In conversation with Japan’s 82-year-old porn star | This Week In Asia | South China Morning Post – What motivates you to continue this work? Tokuda: It’s very simple; I feel very grateful when I get a request to work on a particular film and when a director requests me to be the male lead. I take pride in my work and whenever I have an offer for a part I try my best to make sure I am available and to give a good performance. It is very nice to feel wanted for my skills and I will continue to work for as long as I am wanted
Korea
Korean Broadcasters Launch U.S. Streaming Service, Taking on Warner Bros.’ DramaFever | Variety – and Netflix is running great K-drama like Secret Forest aka Stranger
Legal
The government should fight ‘corporate villainy’ in tech, Senator Cory Booker says | Recode – this isn’t the Silicon Valley that I grew up with and supported through the early part of my career
Media
Why Vinyl’s Boom Is Over – WSJ – not exactly but it does go into the foibles of mastering vinyl and overcompression of mastering for Spotify et al
Retailing
Three Reasons Abercrombie Has (Finally) Jumped on E-Commerce in China | AdAge – paywall
Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture – The Agency Review – interesting and disturbing read
Software
Inside Andy Rubin’s Quest to Create an OS for Everything | Wired – wasn’t that a historical Windows vision, there is a tension between general purpose and specialist
A Privacy Choice | Rands In Repose – on browsers
Marcel Is Just a Baby Compared to JWT’s Pangaea | Agency News – AdAge – narrow usage case versus Marcel’s ambitious general purpose platform. It also provides an idea of the steep ramp that Publicis will have to climb from the development perspective, let alone the degree of culture change required