5 minutes estimated reading time
Sainsbury Bank
Eye-catching recruits and full bank buyout fast-tracks grocer’s push for supremacy – The Independent – interesting how Sainsbury Bank is going for it whilst the UK banking sector licks its wounds. Don’t forget that MBNA entered and disrupted the UK credit card market at the tail-end of the recession in the mid-1990s whilst the banks worried about underwater mortgages and building society demutualisation. Sainsbury Bank will be able to knit together Nectar loyalty points, retail presence, retail data and payments with its banking business. Sainsbury Bank could even be promoted through the supermarket website and magazine.
Consumer behaviour
Consumption and growth – interesting consumer confidence data
Economics
Remember when the global economy was desperate for steel? That’s over – is building becoming more controlled in its pace? Construction for the Beijing olympics, particularly the Bird’s Nest
Three facts about emerging markets everyone should know
Temporary and part-time jobs are going to kill the global economy – Quartz – vicious circle
How Silicon Valley is Hollowing Out the Economy (And Stealing From You To Boot)
The further you are from London, the more equal the cities are
Study on the great restructure in Europe by Ipsos France and FreeThinking | Publicis Europe – (PDF)
Finance
Older bankers are sticking around longer, making it harder for younger colleagues to get promoted – this should slow down financial innovation
French banks SocGen and Credit Agricole still look dodgy
FMCG
‘Nandos Fergie Time’ on Twitter – chicken restaurant reacts to Manchester United news! #nandosfergietime – nice bit of work by Jonathan Hopkin’s team
How to
Nisus InfoClick – Uniquely Powerful Search for Apple Mail
loads.in – test how fast a webpage loads in a real browser from over 50 locations worldwide
Innovation
A tour of some of Japan’s coolest tech innovations, by Dentsu’s Kei Shimada – 20 years ago this wouldn’t even be needed, Japan as an innovator wouldn’t be questioned
Tech City – believe the hype? | guardian.co.uk – probably not
Chart of the week: China’s patent / royalty disconnect | beyondbrics
Japan
Quality vs cost in Japan ‹ Japan Today – interesting points but look at the comments. More Japan related content can be found here.
Luxury
A Shift in the Goals of China’s Rich Abroad
Media
Localization alone isn’t enough for overseas game studios succeed in China, says App Annie chief
Report shows bit torrent users pay for more content than honest consumers
Master List of Facebook Marketing Links – JonLoomer.com
Online
Ping.it: An RSS reader that lets you create tailored feeds by keywords and popularity
Microsoft’s Bing adds Facebook commenting and Like actions to its social sidebar – interesting move to improve the user search experience, particularly for the under 25s who rely more on social. But it also is an incremental steal in advertising from Facebook
Marissa Mayer Has Turned Yahoo Into ‘A Safe Haven’ For Failed Startups – interesting contrast with 2005? Whilst Flickr broke even, Delicious was barely up and running as a business, blo.gs and Upcoming.org were burning cash (not that was bad then) and Jumpcut was more like an early project
YouTube Blog: New ways to support great content on YouTube
Yahoo’s Mayer Plans Search Revamp to Narrow Google Lead – Bloomberg
BitTorrent introduces Bundles to help creators make money with file sharing — paidContent
YouTube Trends: Introducing the YouTube Trends Map
Yahoo Struggles to Find Way Out of Microsoft Web-Search Deal – WSJ.com
Google services survive if they make money, aren’t social | Ars Technica
Retailing
Shoppers Who Use Mobile In-Store, Spend More [Infographic]
PwC multichannel shopper survey – includes interesting data on China (PDF)
Security
India Outsourcing Under Scanner After $45-mn Global ATM Heist
eBay, The FBI, Shawn Hogan And Brian Dunning – Business Insider
Individuals can be identified despite IP address sharing, BT says
Software
Does Windows 8 RT Have Enough Users for Its Own iTunes App? – does it need to tie this in for Office on the Mac?
Microsoft reveals only 145,000 apps in Windows Phone Store – developer interest slower
The ISS Has Ditched Windows Entirely–For Linux – decided to stop using all Windows computers aboard the ISS, in favour of Linux—to ensure it’s systems are “stable and reliable” – admittedly the ISS was using Windows XP, but this still has to hurt…
Why Adobe’s move to the cloud is a future victory for Apple
Style
True Religion board accepts $835-million takeover bid – latimes.com – no substance behind the brand, and consumer’s requirement for innovation. The product itself, including a lot of the innovation (like many jeans brands such Guess and Arcadia) is done by third parties like Hong Kong headquartered Frontline Clothing
Technology
Most data isn’t “big,” and businesses are wasting money pretending it is – Quartz
EE Times’ Top 15 Hot Technologies for 2013
Telecoms
Facebook aims to knock Cisco down a peg with open network hardware | Ars Technica
Web of no web
Smart metering rollout deadline pushed back to 2020
Tesla CEO Talking With Google About ‘Autopilot’ Systems – Bloomberg
Wireless
Apple, Samsung: Smartphone profit still only a two player game | BGR
Deep inside Intel’s new ARM killer: Silvermont • The Register
Foxconn may be planning to pull a Samsung on Apple
EU Backs Apple in Google-Motorola Patent Fight |IndustryWeek