哈囉 – here you’ll find posts related to Hong Kong. That includes the territory, the culture, business, creativity and history. I lived and travelled to Hong Kong a number of times, so sometimes the content can be quite random.
In addition, I have long loved Cantonese culture and cuisine, so these might make more appearances on this category. I am saddened by the decline in the film and music production sectors.
I tend to avoid discussing local politics, and the external influence of China’s interference in said politics beyond how it relates to business and consumer behaviour in its broadest context.
Often posts that appear in this category will appear in other categories as well. So if Apple Daily launched a new ad format that I thought was particularly notable that might appear in branding as well as Hong Kong.
If there are subjects that you think would fit with this category of the blog, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment in the ‘Get in touch’ section of this blog here.
7 Eleven Hong Kong convenience stores have a nice sideline in phone charms. This video is one of a series that they have put together to promote the Old Hong Kong series of phone charms. The precision of their manufacture reminds me of the toys in Japan’s capsule machines. There is a wider trend of nostalgia in the city which 7 Eleven Hong Kong is tapping into.
It is interesting because it reflects a widely held view that the bright new future offered by mainland China isn’t bright, attractive or desirable. This will likely cause trouble in for China and Hong Kong in the future, if it roles out into political aspects of Hong Kong life. In the meantime, enjoy the precision cast Old Hong Kong phone charms from 7 Eleven Hong Kong.
InMobi advertising removed – Dabr blog – interesting publisher feedback. InMobi is part of a new generation of ad tech firms. InMobi is an Indian multinational mobile advertising technology company, based in Bangalore, India. InMobi was founded in 2007 under the name mKhoj by Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta and Abhay Singhal.InMobi started off in SMS-based search engine and in 2008 refocused on mobile advertising and rebranded as InMobi. InMobi is backed by Soft Bank and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. InMobi one of India’s first unicorn companies. InMobi provides advertising services via over 30,000 app developers.
The Cheapest Generation – The Atlantic – possessions like cars and big televisions no longer of interest for younger people – reminds me a lot of early gen-x to be honest with you
Fantasy Apple TV | Monday Note – interesting that this is coming up whilst Hulu owners aren’t sure what to do with the business. I suspect the AppleTV speculation is more about media industry shadow boxing
Nokia Cuts U.S. Price of Flagship Phone in Half – WSJ.com – gives an indication of how Windows 8 Phone is hurting Nokia. Clear the inventory press reset and hope that Windows 8 phone does the business for them. Windows 8 phone requires a Qualcomm reference board and components. This had a higher bill of materials than Nokia’s phones and meant that Nokia couldn’t take advantage of their highly automated production lines, compounding 3rd party expenses for Nokia in building the Windows 8 phone
Windows Phone 8 Fallout: Impact on Nokia & Developers | tech-thoughts.net – Windows 8 phone has seen a massive drop off in the developer community who had previously supported Symbian and Maego. Nokia’s advantage in developer tools has been lost. Carriers won’t be happy with the bundling of Skype with Windows 8 phone.
China manufacturing contracts again: HSBC – last month this data looked questionable because of the smaller panel size than similar PMI index measures. Is this a pattern?
The Korean Film Archive who have put many of the most prominent works in Korean cinema on YouTube free for you to watch. Google has gone to the trouble of putting English sub-titles on all of the films. If you thought Korean culture was Old Boy and saccharin-sweet looking girl groups think again.
Luxury spending slowdown drags on HK – hmmm declining HSBC PMI index, declining luxury spending in Hong Kong – seems like China may have hit a speed bump
MSNBC.com Renamed to NBCNews.com as Microsoft and NBC Divorce – NYTimes.com – reading this brought back memories of my last year in college. Our house had cable and I remember watching Soledad O’Brien and a CGI character Dev Null on The Site which was one of the first products from the MSNBC joint venture. The web seemed new and exciting then in a way that acid house and rave had seen just a few years previously
What Happened to Silicon Values? – The Atlantic – really interesting article, because these values then affect concepts like quality and design decisions. However companies like Oracle also feel customer exploitative to me
Hewlett-Packard could lose billions as General Motors takes over own IT – San Jose Mercury News – interesting that HP is losing out as GM takes the work inhouse. A few things stand out: software in product development and service provision is important for consumer brands like GM – it becomes a core requirement. Secondly, large corporates are prepared to roll deals back when they don’t get service like the alleged corner cutting at IBM
Black boxes’ to monitor all internet and phone data – Channel 4 News– so if this encryption can be broken and clever enough people know a box exists, what is to stop it being used for violating credit card details, industrial espionage and behavioural advertising. What is the betting that the BPI will be lobbying for all that data?
Ellen Pao, the protagonist in the Kleiner Perkins law suit doesn’t sound like the typical kind of person one would think of in terms of coercion and harassment. She is the child of middle class Taiwanese immigrants to the US. Ellen Pao has an educational background in law and technology topped with an MBA – so a high achieving executive. All were from Ivy League schools. According to the egalitarian myth of Silicon Valley Ellen Pao should have been an insider. Pao had worked in legal and strategy at various blue chip Silicon Valley firms before she started at Kleiner Perkins. Instead Ellen Pao was past over for roles and dragged through the mud for a relationship that she was coerced into continuing by Ajit Nazre.
Spotlight turns on Hong Kong graft agency – FT.com – (paywall) the ICAC is the jewel in the crown of Hong Kong. It is unfortunate that there isn’t a similarly robust service to fight corruption and graft in other countries like the UK and Ireland – we wouldn’t have needed the Mahon and Leveson investigations
Why Microsoft Killed Windows Live – It’s basically admitting that “Windows Live” branded products cannot compete with Facebook, Twitter and other successful online services. (So why did Microsoft launch a new social network this month, named So.cl? Yes, exactly…)
Google+ wants to be your new Flickr | VentureBeat not likely to happen whilst I have 1000s of photos on Flickr, use it for my blog image hosting service and Google+ doesn’t offer similar things cheaper. Also Flickr’s APIs continue to enjoy developer usage
Ferdinand A. Porsche, 76, Dies – Designed Celebrated 911 – NYTimes.com – Butzi Porsche dead. Butzi Porsche came from a family of engineers. His grandfather led the original team behind the Volkswagen Beetle. His father had been part of that engineering team and went on to found what we now know as Porsche. However, Butzi Porsche wasn’t engineer but a designer with technical chops. After an infamous meeting of the Porsche family, no members were allowed to work at Porsche. Butzi Porsche didn’t get to do more after he designed the 911. Instead Butzi Porsche started Porsche Design. Butzi Porsche did product design for other companies. Porsche Design also came out with its own products with Butzi Porsche designing watches, glasses and more. Butzi Porsche resigned from Porsche Design in 2005 due to ill health.
Why Are So Many Americans Single? : The New Yorker – single living was not a social aberration but an inevitable outgrowth of mainstream liberal values. Supported by modern communications platforms and urban living infrastructure: coffee shops, laundrettes
Kraft break-up yields marketing shift: Warc.com – the break-up is ironic when you look at the trouble they went to, in order to buy Cadburys and then break their business down broadly into Cadburys + Jacobs Suchard vs Kraft US.
HK’s rich hesitate to have babies | SCMP.com – interesting takeaways: didn’t want the emotional commitment, time poverty, financial stability / too small a living space and concerned about the local environment not being suitable for children. It was interesting that the education system was given such a hard time, given that it’s better than the UK system (paywall)
agnès b. | VICE – great interview with French fashion designer agnés b
Marketing
Fueling the hunger for The Hunger Games – The New York Times – really interesting comment: …during the 1980s you bought the poster and once a year went to a convention and met your people for something like Star Trek (and Star Wars). It misses out the fact that you are likely to have had real-world friends that you would have talked about it with as well – marketers now seem blindsided to the real-world
