Search results for: “iOS”

  • Avios rewards

    I have over 106,000 Avios, enough to get me from Heathrow to Hong Kong first-class and still have some left over. These are frequent flyer points given out by British Airways. I have a lot of them and wanted to spend them. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to cash them in the four times or so that I have tried. In fact I wasn’t able to book a Heathrow to Hong Kong flight in any class of travel. I admit,   I was more than a little disappointed. But my curiosity was bigger than my disappointment and so my last failed Avios experience got me thinking.

    In fact when I went forward a month or so I still couldn’t get a Heathrow to Hong Kong flight, apart from one flight which required a stopover in Riydah, Saudi Arabia. The Riydah stopover isn’t really an option at all, unless one is:

    • A Saudi national
    • Part of the tour group (of four or more) with a Saudi visitors visa
    • In possession of a Saudi business visa, which requires an invitation from a Saudi company
    • In possession of a Saudi employment visa

    If you don’t fit into any of those categories, you aren’t allowed to transit through a Saudi airport, this would include the lions share of the BA customer base.  In other words, I had two hopes: Bob Hope and no hope.

    So I did an unscientific survey amongst my contacts and found that they’d managed to spend their Avios (and their predecessor Air Miles)  on trans-Atlantic flights occasionally, but mostly for short-haul European flights.  They like me had found it hard to book longer haul flights.

    This time I tried going through customer services who checked and told me that there were no reward flights available when I wanted to go. I enquired via the British Airways Twitter account about trading options and they said how would one put a monetary value on Avios?

    So bear with me whilst  I break this down:

    There are a limited number of rewards seats, how many on the journey I want to go? I don’t know. Where they go or when they are, apart from searching via the British Airways site. It isn’t exactly a transparent process, what proportion of seats could notionally qualify? This sounds to me like the start of a game of chance, rather than the traditional rewards scheme like my local coffee shop, Superdrug or Boots cards.

    Why are there a limited number of seats? Presumably to reduce the redemption rate down to an ‘acceptable’ level. Given that Avios are earned in proportion to transactions:

    • Airline flights
    • Promotional partner purchases
    • Credit card transactions

    This implies that there is some form of monetary value exchange by the affiliate marketing parter, there is some from of monetary value to British Airways and by implication there is some form of monetary value (after BA has taken it’s cut) to the consumer (me).

    So how do we derive a value? I suspected it is likely to vary according to route. Here are some examples based on single flights from London (all airports) on December 1, 2012, versus how many Avios the trip requires. I have taken out taxes from the flight price to make the comparison between the payment methods fair. I have also not included the credit card surcharge and picked the cheapest flight shown. All data has been provided from the British Airways website with a currency setting in pounds:

    Destination | class Avios Price in pounds Avios/Pound
    Hong Kong (1st) 91,000 7,312.01 12.4453
    Hong Kong (business) 60,000 4,709.01 12.7416
    New York (1st) 60,000 6,822.71 8.7942
    New York (business) 40,000 4,199.71 9.5245
    Dubai (1st) 60,000 3,627.01 16.5426
    Dubai (business) 40,000 2,755.01 14.5190
    Helsinki (1st) 22,500 439.95** 51.1422
    Helsinki (business) 15,000 439.95 34.0948
    Manchester (business) 4,500 2.60* 1,730.7692

    *  Avios lists a business class option to Manchester, the ticket booking system only offers economy. The price is minus the airport tax.

    ** Avios lists a first-class option to Helsinki, the ticket booking system only offers business and economy class

    So this is a very small sample size, but there seems to be some sort of pricing strategy at work, which implies that British Airways has some sort of notional value on the Avio as a currency unit and they are trying to elicit customer behavioural change and maximise the Avios/pounds price that they get for flights.

    I presume that they would probably move around reward seats to use Avios iron out gaps in demand. But given that Avios price can alter, why does British Airways need to also restrict demand with ‘reward seats’ availability?

    Given this research there are a number of attributes that I think would go into deriving a the notional value of an Avios if it was to be traded:

    • Where I want to go and when I want to go which dictate a probability of getting hold of a reward seat
    • How long the Avios are needed for. If you want to fly next week, it doesn’t matter whether the Avios you are buying the flight run out in a month or four years time. If you are buying Avios to use in 12 months their expiry date matters more

    Some of these attributes start to make Avios look like a derivative, so an algorithm similar to the Black-Scholes equation would factor in:

    • The risk that you wouldn’t be able to spend the Avios
    • The notional value of the Avios based on where market players actually want to go to rather than where British Airways wants to game their flight plans to go

    In a market like Points.com, were Avios to be floated as currency or against other rewards programmes, one maybe able to see their true value. A massive deflation in their value would support my hypothesis of Avios not being rewards per se, but more analogous to a lottery ticket.

    And such a situation would be counterproductive to customer  loyalty, because the gamed nature of the programme would become more readily apparent. Imagine if you were told you can enter a game of maybe getting on some flights for free (excluding airport taxes), but more points doesn’t necessarily increase your chances of winning. British Airways Avios customer loyalty scheme wouldn’t seem so attractive, would it?

    I’d leave the final words to John Lydon:

    Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? Good night!

    which he apparently said at the end of the last Sex Pistols concert, Winterland Theater, San Francisco, California January 14, 1978. More marketing related content can be found here.

  • Consumer interest in iOS etc.

    If you’re like me you read far more journalist analysis of the wireless phone market than is good for you. I thought that it would be instructive to have a look at what consumers are looking for instead and look for any patterns. After sales availability and visibility consumer interest is probably the biggest determinator of success. My weapon of choice was Google Insights for Search. My research was based on a few assumptions about consumer interest in the wireless space and some limitations in the tool that I was using:

    • Consumers know what type of smartphone that they want
    • Consumers decisions aren’t carrier loyal
    • Consumers used Roman script to search for the brand
    • Search is a good proxy for consumer interest – it hasn’t been disrupted by Facebook in this regard yet despite what others may tell you
    • China despite being the world’s largest market isn’t going to be providing meaningful data because Google Insights for Search doesn’t cover that market
    • The Russia sample is indicative of overall consumer sentiment in Russia (Yandex is a big search player in Russia)

    Consumer Interest in platforms
    Some of the biggest interest in handset brands is in the developing world. In many respects this is their PC revolution. In developed Asian markets like Hong Kong and Singapore there is a much higher interest than EU countries – partly because of on-the-go lifestyles and partly because of the economic cataclysm that the western world is facing. The iPhone still attracts the most interest, but what is interesting is the acceleration that Android seems to have in terms of increasing interest. Microsoft’s efforts, whilst lauded by critics haven’t yet turned into consumer interest.  Research In Motion’s Blackberry platform seems to be down but not out yet in the consumer stakes.

    Nokia

    I took a snapshot of consumer interest in Nokia over the past three months to try and see what effect the global launch campaign for Nokia’s Windows phones are doing to consumer interest in the brand.

    I deliberately didn’t compare them to the iPhone because Nokia themselves acknowledge that they are competing against Android handset makers like HTC and Samsung. Nokia launched the Lumia phones with their biggest marketing campaign ever and had a lot of column inches written about the brand alongside a gamut of marketing commnications tactics from experiential events and advertising to point of purchase.


    Whilst Nokia’s new range of Lumia phones have had a substantial marketing budget put in place, but it doesn’t seem to have significantly affected search interest: it’s not quite living up the Amazing Everyday billing yet. This is also the case for Windows Phone with interest remaining consistently low in comparison to the Nokia brand. I think that the stubborn consumer disinterest in Windows Phone is a big challenge.

    More wireless related content can be found here.

  • Donkey Bong and other curios

    I’ve had a number of links sent to me that were too good not to share with you all: Donkey Bong, Graff Jewellery, PBS on porn and more.

    Donkey Bong

    JoeCartoon clogged up many networks in the late 90’s with his un-PC and puerile flash animations, creating characters like the Cheech & Chong ‘Stoned Fly’ and Gerbill. The most memorable animations like the frog in the blender and gerbil in the microwave allowed office workers to unleash the passive sadism that lies beneath us all and put the phrase Who’s ya Daddy? into popular English usage. His work has defined what a viral campaign is. He is back with another dollop of surreal weirdness and ultraviolence in Donkey Bong. More on it here.

    Graff Jewellery

    No not Graffthe most fabulous jewels in the world, but graffiti enabled by the reverse setting on a diamond ring by Tobias Wong. Get caught making use of your ring to make your mark on the world by tagging car and train windows, luscious pearlescent paint work on a TVR or your boss’ computer screen. You can see Tobias’ diamond project here.

    PBS On Adult Entertainment industry

    OK, we are currently pitching for a UK-based adult entertainment orientated television channel and web site, this this website designed to complement a PBS Frontline documentary on the adult entertainment industry was useful for research into the business . Seriously though, looking at this, there are some scary people out there, interesting facts – a starlet in the industry has an average career lifespan of just 12 months. Sombre, disturbing and yet compelling reading here. Glamourous like Boogie Nights it ain’t.

    Supercharged Records

    Email text from Supercharged Records: “Click on the link below to hear an exclusive preview of all the tracks from the forthcoming Freestylers ‘Raw As F**k’ album!

    Turn audio off on the front page and click on ‘album info’ and then ‘preview album’

    http://www.thefreestylers.com/

    We would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you how have purchased Push Up. Thank you!

    The album is out in the UK on the 5th July, contact you local record store to pre-order a copy!”

    More culture related posts here.

  • May 2025 newsletter

    May 2025 introduction – two little ducks (22) edition

    Welcome to my May 2025 newsletter, this newsletter marks my 22nd issue. 22 is known in bingo halls and the Spanish national lottery as two little ducks.

    Double Duck

    In France, 22 is the equivalent of 5-0 in the English speaking world as slang for the police. 22 is an important number for people who believe in numerology. In Hong Kong, 22 is associated with good fortune. This is down to the number sounding similar to ‘easy’ or ‘bright’ in Cantonese.

    I hope that you are tricked into thinking I am bright based this newsletter, so let’s jump in. Inspired by catching up with my old DJing partner Griff, this month I enjoyed the unashamedly joyous pumped-up sounds of Blackpool’s AZYR at the Boiler Room x TeleTech Festival in 2023. In particular the transition at the end of the set between Frankyeffe – Save me and Infectious! – I need your lovin’. (Extra trainspotter points if you knew that Infectious! is a homage / remake of N.R.G’s The Real Hardcore from a year earlier). Wear your headphones, it might be divisive playing the set out loud in the office. More bangers from AZYR here.

    New reader?

    If this is the first newsletter, welcome! You can find my regular writings here and more about me here

    Strategic outcomes

    Things I’ve written.

    • Predicting market share through share of search volume and what the rise of AI likely means.
    • Reaching a precipice in hydrogen power and trends in Chinese skincare amongst other things.

    Books that I have read.

    • Careless People by Sarah Wynn Williams. Williams account of her time in Facebook had become the most discussed book of the spring in my social circle. I wrote a long review of it here.
    The Road to Conscious Machines
    • The Road to Conscious Machines by Michael Wooldridge examines the profound cultural impact of generative AI, which is currently experiencing a surge in both its cultural influence and practical applications. Drawing parallels to the internet’s transformative impact in the mid-to-late 1990s, where it permeated various aspects of society and fostered rapid adoption, Wooldridge traces the evolution of generative AI as a phenomenon that emerged gradually over the past half-century. Throughout the book, Wooldridge provides a comprehensive historical overview of AI, including the periods of research stagnation known as AI winters. This historical perspective equips readers with a nuanced understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of AI, enabling them to approach AI adoption with a well-informed perspective.
    • As I finish this newsletter during the bank holiday weekend, my light reading is Rogue Asset by Andy McDermott. McDermott comes from a long line of British authors like Jack Higgins, Len Deighton, Frederick Forsyth and Mick Herron who provide novels aimed at a shrinking pool of readers – men. At least, if one is to believe what’s said in the media. Rogue Asset hinges on the premise that the UK has a unit which assassinates the countries enemies on a regular basis. Think somewhere between The Troubles era Det and the modern deep state trope. Our hero is snared into the plot by being discovered on the run thanks to his online behaviour – which is attributed to GCHQ; (but isn’t as mysterious as it sounds because of the programmatic advertising technology stack). So far so good for what it is. I will let know if it goes downhill as a read next month.

    Things I have been inspired by.

    Mmrytok

    Limitations are often the mother of invention. That seems to be the theory behind mmrytok. Mmrytok allows you to do one post a day. It doesn’t support HTML formatting, it doesn’t allow you to link out and doesn’t have a newsfeed. So it’s easy-to-use because it’s less sophisticated than Geocities was. In this respect it is to social media and blogs what Punkt is to smartphones. In an always-on social time, I have found it liberating to use. You can see my page here. I heard of Mmrytok thanks to Matt Muir’s great newsletter Web Curios.

    No, AI isn’t making you dumber

    Australian documentary maker ColdFusion put together an interesting video essay on How AI is making you dumber.

    Yes, you could argue that under certain attributes the population isn’t as smart as they have been in the past. Just last month I shared an article by John Burn-Murdoch. In the article he shared data of a longitudinal trend across countries and age-groups struggling with concentration, declining verbal and numerical reasoning. The problem with Burn-Murdoch’s article vis-a-vis the ColdFusion video is the timeline.

    His article charts a decline further back than the rise of generative AI services. Mia Levitin in an essay for the FT attributed the decline in reading to the quick dopamine hits of social media content.

    A college professor interviewed by The Atlantic put the decline in reading amongst his undergraduate students put it down to a practice in secondary education of atomising content. Pupils in high schools were assigned excerpts, poetry and news articles to read, but not complete books. This has impacted the size of vocabulary and grasp of language that students starting university now have.

    James Gleick

    This isn’t new territory, James Gleick in his book Faster documented the massive acceleration of information through the late 20th century and its effects on the general public. The underlying accelerant was described by Kevin Kelly in What Technology Wants as the technium – a continuous forward progress due to a massively interconnected system of technology.

    There were concerns in research as far back as the late 1980s that television could be adversely affecting children’s reading comprehension and attention spans.

    TL;DR – with generative AI you could become dumber, if you use it unwisely – but the problem lies with all of us and what we chose to do with our personal agency.

    CIA advertise for Chinese spies

    The CIA commissioned a couple of high production value adverts that they’ve been running on social media channels. The adverts are designed to encourage Chinese government employees to come forward as an agent. The sales pitch is about taking control.

    CIA China advert

    A translation of the Chinese tagline: ‘The reason for choosing cooperation: to become the master of (one’s own) destiny‘. More details from the FT about the campaign here, and here’s the two executions currently running on YouTube.

    It remains to be seen if the campaign will be effective. The Chinese Ministry of State Security managed to roll-up the CIA’s spy network back in 2010-2012. Up to 30 informants in China were executed.

    Montirex

    montirex

    Merseyside sports-inspired lifestyle brand Montirex have published a film telling the brand story from its origins to the present day. The brand is expanding beyond its Merseyside roots to get national and international sales.

    Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence

    A 2025 global study covering some 48 countries was conducted by KPMG in association with the University of Melbourne. Some key insights from the report. Consumer generative AI is being used instead of enterprise options by workers. Generative AI adopters still have self-perceived low AI skills but that doesn’t slow their adoption. There is higher adoption and trust rates in emerging markets than in developed markets.

    Pro and anti-trust AI issues solidifying

    Year-on-year we are seeing an increase in both distrust and trust for specific AI use cases, indicating that it is becoming a polarising subject. The lowest trust levels is in tech-savvy Finland. More here.

    Chart of the month. 

    McDonald’s Restaurants saw a decline in sales. This was down to low income consumers spending less, while middle class earners still weren’t going into McDonalds. Normally when there is a recession, McDonalds should benefit from the more well-off trading down to McDonalds. Instead, fortunes have diverged into a ‘k-shaped’ recession. Lower income earners are hit, while middle classes aren’t. What Axios called the ‘McRecession‘.

    McDonald's quarterly sales growth

    Things I have watched. 

    Tony Arzenta (also known as Big Guns). The film is an early 1970s gallo film. French star Alain Delon appears in this classic retribution story based in Milan. As Tony Arzenta, Delon exacts revenge on the former bosses who killed his family by accident in a botched assassination attempt to prevent him from retiring.The film uses a wintry Milan as a good atmospheric backdrop for the action that plays out in a series of shoot-outs and car chases. It’s John Wick before it was even conceived. Delon brings a tension that other stars of the era like Charles Bronson failed to do in similar roles. As Arzenta’s targets flee across Europe, he goes through Germany and Denmark to catch up with them.

    Sansho the Bailiff – as a film Sansho the Bailiff comes encumbered with a weight of praise. It is highly rated by film critics and Martin Scorsese had it as one of his must-watch films for young film makers. Director Kenji Mizoguchi assembled an ensemble cast of Japanese actors to tell a story of family hardship and poverty. Kazuo Miyagawa is key to the the production, providing a signature look to the cinematography. There is a tension between the emotional rollercoaster of the story and the reflective nature of the scenes portrayed – I don’t want to say too more, except that even the character actors like Kikue Môri (who plays a pivotal role in the plot as a priestess) are amazing in the film.

    Warfare – I was a bit leery of watching Alex Garland’s Warfare after watching Civil War which was strong on aesthetics and emotion, but weak in terms of the creative conceits involved in making the story work. Warfare is the collective accounts of a US military unit during a two-hour fire fight. The story is told from multiple perspectives in real-time. The film captures the stress and boredom of inaction as well as what you would normally expect from this kind of film.

    Useful tools.

    Reddit Answers

    Reddit Answers – alternative to Gigabrain that I recommended back in March. Like Gigabrain, Reddit Answers looks like the kind of knowledge search product that we failed to build at Yahoo! twenty years ago (or NORA as Microsoft has been calling the concept for the past few years). Reddit Answers is powered by Google Vertex AI.

    Process online data like its peak web 2.0 all over again

    While WordPress installations come with RSS enabled as standard and is something that can then be disabled, many types of sites aren’t RSS enabled. And where they are the web devs will often disable it just because. RSS app will create an RSS feed for websites that don’t have it. This allows you to pull it into data processing using something like Pipes. RSS app starts at $9.99 per month and goes up to $99.99 a month. Pipes starts at free and goes up to $79 per month.

    The sales pitch.

    I am currently working on a brand and creative strategy engagement at Google’s internal creative agency.

    now taking bookings

    I am now taking bookings for strategic engagements in Q4 (October) – keep me in mind; or discussions on permanent roles. Contact me here.

    More on what I have done here.

    bit.ly_gedstrategy

    The End.

    Ok this is the end of my May 2025 newsletter, I hope to see you all back here again in a month. Be excellent to each other and onward into spring, and I hope you enjoyed the last bank holiday until August.

    Don’t forget to share if you found it useful, interesting or insightful.

    Get in touch if there is anything that you’d like to recommend for the newsletter.

  • Hydrogen power + more things

    Hydrogen power

    Hydrogen power and hydrogen fuel cells have been around for decades. Hydrogen power fuel cells as an invention were invented in the 19th century. The modern hydrogen fuel cell was refined before the second world war and have been used in NASA’s space programme since Project Apollo. The space programme’s use of hydrogen power inspired General Motors to create a hydrogen fuel cell powered van in 1966. By the late 1980s, BMW had developed a hydrogen-powered engine which it trialled in its 7-series vehicles a decade later.

    2016_Toyota_Fuel_Cell_Vehicle (11)

    By the mid-2010s there were four hydrogen power passenger cars using fuel cells: Honda Clarity, Toyota Mirai, Hyundai ix35 FCEV, and the Hyundai Nexo. BMW is collaborating with Toyota to launch another four models next year.

    2021 Toyota Mirai

    In addition in commercial vehicles and heavy plant Hyundai, Cummins and JCB have hydrogen power offerings. JCB and Cummins have focused on internal combustion engines, while Hyundai went with hydrogen fuel cells. The aviation industry has been looking to hydrogen power via jet turbines.

    Hydrogen power offers greater energy density and lower weight than batteries. Unlike batteries or power lines, hydrogen can be transported over longer distances via tanker. So someplace like Ireland with wind and tidal power potential could become an energy exporter.

    The key hydrogen power problem has been investment in infrastructure and an over-reliance on batteries. Batteries bring their own set of problems and a global strategic dependency on China.

    Toyota is now warning that if there isn’t imminent international investment, that China will also dominate the supply chain, exports and energy generation in the hydrogen economy as well. It feels like me reaching a historic point of no return.

    Swiss Researchers May Have Solved Hydrogen Storage | Hackaday

    Aviation industry calls for UK investment in hydrogen fuel | FT

    Hydrogen, take two | Axios What’s Next

    Hydrogen-powered drones could fly longer, farther | Axios

    The Japanese Companies Pursuing a Hydrogen Economy – The Diplomat

    Japan Recommits to the Hydrogen Society – Akihabara News

    A Chicken and Egg Problem: How Germany’s Hydrogen Boom Stalled – DER SPIEGEL

    Lex in depth: the staggering cost of a green hydrogen economy | Financial Times

    UK at risk of falling behind in race to become green hydrogen global leader, Johnson Matthey says | Business News | Sky News

    Alexander Brown on how industrial policy adds momentum to China’s push into hydrogen | Merics

    Hyundai Rolls out Big Hydrogen Truck – The Chosun Ilbo

    Japan Announces Roadmap for Hydrogen Introduction | Nikkei TechOn

    Beauty

    Skincare you can wear: China’s sunwear boom | Jing DailyA jacket with a wide-brim hood and built-in face shield. Leggings infused with hyaluronic acid to hydrate while shielding skin from the sun. Face masks with chin-to-temple coverage. Ice-cooling gloves designed to drop skin temperature. In China, UV protection apparel isn’t just functional — it’s fashionable, dermatological, and high-tech. Once a niche category for hikers or extreme sports enthusiasts, China’s sunwear market has exploded into a $13 billion category blending climate adaptation, anti-aging culture, and the outdoor lifestyle wave. While other apparel segments slow, the sunwear sector is projected to reach nearly 95.8 billion RMB ($13.5 billion) by 2026 expanding at a CAGR of 9%, according to iResearch.

    Business

    Online disrupters challenge traditional MBA providers | FT

    What’s the winning strategy in China’s “low-trust” society? – low trust driving a lack of M&A and vertical integration

    China

    China is trying to kneecap Indian manufacturing – Asia Times – China trying to starve India and the Philippines of inbound investment through coercion on Chinese and multinational companies

    Collapse of Chinese-built high rise spurs wave of anger in Thailand

    Consumer behaviour

    Have humans passed peak brain power? | FT

    Buy European: a new shopping movement takes hold | Trendwatching

    Hot girl economy | Substack

    Bachelors Without Bachelor’s: Gender Gaps in Education and Declining Marriage Rates – interesting US-focused paper, but I expect that the findings would be mirrored far more widely

    AI and the New Impostor Syndrome | Psychology Today & Overreliance on AI tools at work risks harming mental health | FT

    Culture

    An unexpected link between Hong Kong’s Louis Cha ‘Jin Yong’ and Labubu doll | South China Morning Post

    Design

    Volkswagen reintroducing physical controls for vital functions | Autocar – VW’s design chief commits to “never” repeating the “mistake” of relegating essential controls to touchscreens

    Economics

    U.S. Tariffs: China shows the Rare Earth Nuke, the Detailed Rules; EU keeps Worst Projects out; Carester’s numbers don’t tally; Victory’s Self-Defeat; and more.

    Why does Britain feel so poor? – by M. F. Robbins

    The Three Tariff Problem – by Doug O’Laughlin & American Disruption – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

    White House slams Amazon tariff price display “hostile and political” | Axios

    FMCG

    TVB News| 29 Apr 2025 | Soft meal of classic HK dishes launched for people with chewing difficulties – YouTube – Hong Kong’s aging population is promoting innovation in FMCG categories including food

    Finance

    Y Combinator founders raising less money signals a ‘vibe shift,’ VC says | TechCrunch & A quarter of YC’s latest startups are letting AI write 95% of their code | This Week In Start-ups (TWIST)

    Daring Fireball: Costco Only Accepts Visa Credit Cards

    Portrait of the Trader as a Young Rebel | Jacobin

    Gadgets

    iRobot made Roomba into an icon. Now, it’s in a huge mess – Fast Company

    Health

    China’s obesity crisis is big business | FT

    Zyn and the New Nicotine Gold Rush | The New Yorker

    Hong Kong

    MACAU DAILY TIMES 澳門每日時報Beware of Li Kashing’s supersized value trapBut as the initial excitement starts to fade, investors are growing nervous, wary of a billionaire family that has a poor track record on shareholders’ returns. The Li clan takes pride in the myriad of businesses and markets it operates in. But what kind of value-add can a diversified conglomerate offer when globalization is out of favor and geopolitical risks are on the rise? CK’s de-rating has accelerated since Trump’s first term, with the stock trading at just 35% of its book value even after the recent share bump. The complex business dealings have made enterprise valuation an impossible task. In a sign of deep capital market skepticism, CK seems to have trouble monetizing its assets. Its health and beauty subsidiary A.S. Watson is still privately-held, a decade after postponing an ambitious $6 billion dual listing in Hong Kong and London. Softer consumer sentiment in China, once a growth market, has become a drag. Last summer, CK Infrastructure did a secondary listing in the UK, hoping to widen its investor base. – Rare direct criticism of CK Hutchison’s conglomerate discount.

    Why some mainland Chinese turn their back on HK after getting top talent visas | Hong Kong Free Press

    McDonald’s Admiralty Station location just got a vibey redesign – Fast Company

    Innovation

    DeepSeek founder says China AI will stop following U.S. – Nikkei Asia

    US Weather Agency Websites Set to Vanish With Contract Cuts – Bloomberg – NOAA Research related content. Sites were housed on Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and WordPress

    Japan

    Ghost in the Shell’s Creator Wants to Revisit the Anime, But There’s One ProblemProduction I.G’s CEO Mitsuhisa Ishikawa—who produced both Ghost in the Shell films—spoke at the event. Ishikawa revealed a key obstacle preventing a third film: finances. He explained that Innocence had an enormous budget, estimated at around 2 billion yen (approximately $13 million), with profits reaching a similar figure. However, the film was planned with a ten-year financial recovery period, and even after 20 years, it has yet to break even.

    Jargon watch

    Typing loudly, wearing AirPods: ‘taskmasking’ is how gen Z pretends to work at the office | US work & careers | The Guardian – One example of taskmasking: moving quickly though the office while carrying a laptop or clipboard – straight out of a West Wing walk-and-talk. Another example: typing loudly, like a DMV employee having a bad day, even if what you’re typing has no relevance to your job.

    The Mainframe Vocabulary Problem (And Why It Matters) | Mainframe Society

    Is DEI a Racial Slur? Rise in Term Outrages Black Americans | Newsweek

    Luxury

    Rolex, A Love-Hate Relationship – Watches of Espionage

    ‘Gucci’s 25% sales collapse should shock no one’ | Jing Daily“Gucci is so boring now.” “They’ve lost all their confidence.” “It feels desperate — just influencers and celebrities.” Comparing Gucci’s bold, visionary eras under Tom Ford and Alessandro Michele and today’s safe, uninspired iteration reveals a stark contrast. That classroom moment reflected a broader truth: Gucci’s Q1 2025 is not a temporary dip. It’s the result of a deeper structural identity crisis — arguably one of the worst brand resets in recent luxury history.

    Online

    Common Crawl – Open Repository of Web Crawl Data

    AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5% | Ahrefs

    ‘We Were Wrong’: An Oral History of WIRED’s Original Website | WIRED

    Security

    EU: These are scary times – let’s backdoor encryption! • The Register

    Rafts of Security Bugs Could Rain Out Solar Grids

    Suspected Chinese snoops hijacking buggy Ivanti gear — again • The Register – cracked VPN appliances

    An Open Letter to Third-Party Suppliers | JP Morgan Chase

    Software

    Amazon can now buy products from other websites for you | The Verge

    Technology

    China-developed EUV lithography could trial in 2025 | EE News Europe and China’s EUV breakthrough: Huawei, SMIC reportedly advancing LDP lithography, eye 3Q25 trial, 2026 rollout | DigiTimes

    IBM plans US$150 billion spend to catch quantum computing wave EE News Europe

    Thailand

    Travel and T-pop fuel Thai beauty boom in China | Jing Daily – one of the brands doing well is Mistine.

    Wireless

    How our stolen mobile phones end up in an Algerian market | The Times and The Sunday Times – interesting that they are going to Algeria rather than China