Protect Hong Kong heritage + more

2 minutes estimated reading time

Officials in unprecedented move to protect Hong Kong’s heritage by creating new system to save modern buildings from developers’ wrecking ball | South China Morning Post – potentially big move, it would be interesting to see how this goes down with the developers. Protect Hong Kong heritage as a concept has picked up momentum over past few years. A point of inflection was the demolition of Queen’s Pier in 2007 as part of land reclamation work in Central. The bigger issue is that the support to protect Hong Kong heritage would be seen by the mainland authorities as an inherently political movement looking to cling to old colonial ways. More on Hong Kong here.

Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club upended the shaving industry — then conglomerates snapped them up – Axios – former Treasury secretary Larry Summers quotes on Twitter were very interesting. They reflect on a challenge that European tech start ups have faced for decades: “This article is as vivid an example as I have seen of the need for an overhaul of US antitrust. If this can be happening in shaving industry, problems may be pervasive even outside technology. The interesting question is how much of the problem is failed enforcement of existing law and how much is that existing law needs to be altered. I suspect the former. You do not have to have a broad new theory of antitrust to be appalled by these developments. They look terrible for consumer welfare.”

Google may decide to charge for Google My Business listings – Search Engine Land – you have to wonder about this. Google for years beat up Yahoo!, Kelkoo etc over paid inclusion

Analysis: Edelman ‘Undaunted’ Amid Perfect Storm | Holmes Report – interesting read, if a rather naive view of what ad agencies do now

Planning tool: 100 Ideas On Tiny Budgets – Planning Dirty – something that I helped out on. Handy for planners (Google Slides)

A Mysterious Hacker Group Is On a Supply Chain Hijacking Spree | WIRED – surprised that this hasn’t happened more often

Opinion | Nike Told Me to Dream Crazy, Until I Wanted a Baby – The New York Times – of course Nike hates women, look at their manufacturing practices, this sponsorship story should be no surprise as it fits into a wider narrative. But they love female consumers who buy Nike

A History of Competition: The Impact of Antitrust on Hong Kong’s Telecommunications Markets | Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal – I’ve only got part way through this but interesting reading for anyone working on clients in the Hong Kong mobile provider market (PDF)

K-pop’s rise in China is fueling fears of a masculinity crisis | Quartz – I suspect that a lot of this is government agenda driven. A bit like the notion of ‘leftover women’. ‘Masculine’ hiphop culture also poses a problem

SoundCloud » Share new music on SoundCloud directly to Instagram Stories – this makes a lot of sense when you think about how music marketing has become much more data centric and meme driven. Old Town Road: The Best Entertainment Case Study of 2019 Lil Nas X being the poster child of this