Morality
One in 10 Brits admits to lying pretty much all the time | Quartz – great PR story. How else do you build an empire over a third of the world by guile and a selective approach to morality? The UK tried to establish a common morality with the Empire as mother and the Anglican church as the compass on morality.
Any student of empires knows that the catholic church gave tacit approval to terrible things that happened in the Spanish empire and so is no paragon of morality itself.
Leninism, Stalinism and the Communist Party of China looked to bypass morality all together. If the party said it was good, that was it. China experienced a morality deficit due to the cultural revolution that looked to sweep away history.
Global Views on Morality | Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project – really nice interactive infographic
Business
Why Apple has stopped growing | Quartz – interesting analysis, the last thing I need is a larger iPad or phone though
China Inc joins the big league in oil and gas services | SCMP – (paywall)
Consumer behaviour
How Bad is China’s Moral Crisis? | New Republic – not convinced given that western society tends to view things in black and white and traditional Chinese morals tend to be more nuanced and contextual
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens – Gilens & Page – (PDF file)
Europe’s Eurosceptics more united than many think: poll | Reuters – this is going to go horribly wrong
Generation Z | Charlie Stross
A Third of Americans Think Technology Is Going to Ruin Their Lives | Motherboard – and they are probably right
Jing Daily: 9 key ways Chinese consumer habits are rapidly changing right before our eyes
Culture
Read the Obamas’ tribute to Frankie Knuckles | Dazed – great vintage Warehouse set embedded in this post.
Design
Lightweight 3D Printed Breathable Cast with Ultrasound Therapy – I so wish I had this when I broke my arm
High-Efficiency Hiking: What the Heck Is Ultralight? – Core77
Economics
The eurozone’s creeping danger | HSBC Global
First BRICS. Then PIIGs. Now, The Formidable 5 | The Financialist
A Taxonomy Of The Collaborative Economy –And What Brands Are Doing About It. | Jeremiah Owyang
Inflation in Europe: The Price is Wrong | INSEAD
Ideological Segregation Online and Offline | Quarterly Journal of Economics by Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro (paywall)
Why more governments should offer their citizens a one-in-a-million chance to win | Quartz – China does a similar thing with restaurant receipts, though some restaurants will offer you a free drink or dessert to get out of giving it
In America, Spending Cuts Are Driven by the Rich | Mother Jones – no real surprise, given that research showed that they thought taxes were fair and the rich thought that they were excessive
FMCG
China Leads the Way in Average Household Spending | Euromonitor International
Brits consume more MDMA than energy drinks, survey finds | Dazed
LeBron James Is Lovin’ McDonald’s — in China | Time – tapping into Chinese love of basketball to pimp burgers
Gadget
Nike Fuelband: Simple math, cultural imperative, might’ve killed it – interesting take on Nike’s recent movements with its Fuelband team, of course we won’t know the true score until Nike makes their next moves or telegraphs them through supply chain leaks or tame executive leaks (a la Huawei’s strategic leaking)
The Wearable Wheel | Visual.ly – interesting but a bastard to read
Daring Fireball: No One Said Following Is Easy – what John Gruber misses is that Nokia’s Symbian phones also had touch for instance the Nokia E90 Communicator had both a qwerty keyboard and resistive touch screen
Youku Tudou, Huawei Launch Internet TV STB | Marbridge Consulting – (paywall)
Sony 4K Ultra HD Media Player – FMP-X10 Review – Sony US – I wonder about the kind of broadband and infrastructure required to support a 4K Apple TV style device
Hong Kong
Squeeze on international-school locals | SCMP – I don’t understand why schools are so expensive in the first place, and if I had a kid starting them off in school I would want to put them into the local school system to learn Cantonese (paywall)
Fear and loathing at the cinema: new films reflect modern tensions in Hong Kong | South China Morning Post – (paywall)
How to
What is Baidu & How to Advertise on Baidu | Reload Digital
#OwnTheMoment – handy forward events calendar
Japan
I heart cherry blossoms, the rise of Japan’s petit nationalism | The Japan Times – more Japan related content here.
Luxury
Louis Vuitton changes the celebrity spokesperson calculation | FT.com – because nothing says affluent luxury like a bunch of old guys in conservatively tailored suits and safe style choices. Especially when YUMMY’s are the new luxury marketing demographic to go after
Hermès encourages app sharing with two-screen content | Luxury Daily
Calvin Klein asks users to flash their underwear online | Marketing Interactive – this could go so wrong
How Luxury Can Move Ahead In China’s Tricky E-Commerce Market | Jing Daily
Rolex Gets a New CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour – Gear Patrol – these are big shoes to fill, I just hope that Mr Dufour doesn’t decide that luxury equals fashion and starts cycling Rolex models like SKUs at H&M
This Is How Travelers Are Using Their Smartphones And Tablets — And How The Industry Is Adapting
How Paul Smith Stands Apart In China’s Ultra-Competitive Retail Market | Jing Daily
Jing Daily: ‘Brand-tagging’ mobile apps: China’s next selfie sensation
Media
Here’s why Apple will bring iTV to China first | Quartz – really? – not so sure. Media is a strategic industry and online video is coming under increasing regulation as the Chinese government tries to ensure the continued relevance of state-run channels
Marketing
Digital Intelligence :: What clients want from their agencies: Mobile marketing ‘changing ad relationships’ – really interesting piece of research
‘Baby surprise’ tourism promo video could have been done better: STB | Straits Times – video aimed at one market gets slammed elsewhere around the world
A new way to make brands | Wolff Olins
Tencent to Launch Self-service WeChat Ad Platform | Marbridge Consulting – (paywall)
How Advertisers Are Using Snapchat, Kik, Tango, Line, WeChat | Digital – Advertising Age – campaigns on the platform
FDA Publishes First Piece of Long-Awaited Social Media Guidance: Focus is on Accountability
The downsizing of brand building | Guardian Professional – PRs should read this article and burn its words into their hearts
Online
Users Actually Seem To Like Facebook’s Auto-Play Videos | FastCompany – not that convinced
Chat Wars | n+1 | Apr. 19, 2014 – interesting reading to compare and contrast with the current OTT messenger race
WeChat surges past Weibo as China’s top social sharing platform. | Resonance China – not terribly surprising Weibo is so last year
Philippines
Analitika to turn Philippines as analytics hub by 2015 | Marketing Interactive – this makes more sense than you would think. The Philippines enjoys and English speaking, well educated workforce with technical skills and a closer familiarity with American and Latin cultures. It has great core network links, being a focus for a number of trans-Pacific cables (unlike India) and is cost effective
Bad news for Samsung: 85% of people in Philippines willing to buy homegrown smartphone brands | Techinasia – good news for prospective tier 2 manufacturers in Shenzhen who would be doing the badge engineering work on to reference design for Filipino brands
Retailing
Lidl beats Tesco to 10m Facebook fans | BrandRepublic – oh the shame! Seriously Facebook is probably more relevant for Lidl customers
15 ways for companies to increase customer lifetime value | eConsultancy – good marketing data points
PWC: 14% Chinese Shopping Online Everyday | China Internet Watch
Tesco hit by further sales decline as it turns to digital Clubcard and social network | Brand Republic – why would you want to join Tesco’s social network?
Thousands of Chinese spent their “best years” making Nike shoes and now have no pensions | Quartz
Direct selling companies see phenomenal growth in China | WantChinaTimes – Nu Skin apparently grew 10-fold in a year, it also looks like a potential car crash
Security
Behind the Machine’s Back: How Social Media Users Avoid Getting Turned Into Big Data | The Atlantic
Japan’s indigenous stealth fighter to fly this year amid arms race worries | South China Morning Post – many of the technological advances that Japan had shared with its ally on the FSX later appeared on US aircraft – US defence complex ripped off Japanese technology (paywall)
Software
AppleSeed– Apple’s new public beta programme
Personal and Professional Productivity: The Next Frontier for Mobile Apps | Flurry
Samsung Galaxy sofware features not good enough for users, study says | BGR
Amazon partners with Samsung to launch custom Kindle e-Book service for Galaxy devices – looks like Flipboard didn’t get the deal it wanted…
Technology
Big Data is the new Artificial Intelligence | I, Cringely – interesting and disturbing all at the same time
Add ultracapacitors to the list of devices that could benefit from grapheme | GigaOM
Telecoms
The state of the internet is under attack (but it’s also faster) | GigaOM – interesting Akamai data
China Mobile’s profit falls as competition bites | TotalTelecom – including the likes of WeChat
Web of no web
Does Google Glass Have An Optics Problem? And Does Google Care? | Forbes – dog by any other name is still a dog
Emperor of the Glassholes Finally Feels Shame | ValleyWag – the cool has completely gone if Scoble won’t even wear his in public
Among Venture Capital’s Largest Exits, Consumer Tech Dominates | CB Insights
This Bank Ad Hilariously Mocks Google Glass | TIME.com – Google Glass is now the comedy equivalent of the Mother-in-Law