Ford Trend Report + more news

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Ford trend report

2014 Ford Trend Report – The Ford Motor Company’s inhouse futurist pulled the Ford Trend Report together. At my most cynical I could see it as a cost effective PR stunt. The Ford Trend Report could also be used mostly about consumer attitudes and behaviours

Economics

Davos wrap: beware the EM middle class | beyondbrics – next black swan is emerging markets middle classes?

A global tour of the emerging-markets currency crunch

Finance

WeChat creates a social game for giving away New Year Lucky Money. WeChat Payment will be the biggest winner. – interesting commerce play, putting the pieces together

Keeping the taxman on the other sideof the mountains | South China Morning Post – a commentary in praise of Chinese tax evasion

BBC News – HSBC imposes restrictions on large cash withdrawals

Chinese Travelers Can Now Use Alipay Wallet For Hong Kong Retail Shopping – ChinaTechNews.com

How to

A Quick Guide to Baidu PPC Keywords Quality Score

Indonesia

WeChat overtakes Facebook in Indonesian market|WantChinaTimes.comIndonesia is a unique marketplace. Big on Twitter, a huge market for Path

Marketing

Device recognition technology advances marketing suite Experian incorporates 41st Parameter’s device recognition technology, AdTruth

Media

Digital Intelligence :: Internet ad spend up 32% globally- TV up just 4% – Internet, outdoor and television advertising saw the greatest increases in spend throughout the first three quarters of 2013, while TV rose just 4%, according to new global figures via Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report

China Clamps Down on Internet Video Industry – The Hollywood Reporter – micro-film makers need to register their identity

Online

TelecomTV | News | Message Wars: are operators really ready to fight back? against WhatsApp, WeChat/Weixin, LINE or Kakao Talk

Reappearance of Google.cn site spurs speculation of internet giant’s return | South China Morning Post – (paywall)

How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love – Wired Science

Retailing

8 Retail Trends In China – WPP – (PDF)

Can McDonald’s Hot Coffee Help Put It Back on Top? – but can McDonald’s hack it as a third space

Answers to a Puzzling Deal at Alibaba Remain in the Shadows | New York Times Dealbook – (paywall)

Will Retailers Make the Right Choice on Mobile Tracking? | DataWorks – Advertising Age atores have a choice: keep quiet about mobile data tracking technology, OR define its tangible benefits to consumers

Fast Retailing to list in Hong Kong

CCTV exposes unlicensed and fake goods at Chinese Walmarts|WantChinaTimes.comfeatured around 200 alleged company documents from as far back as 2006 showing that company managers signed off on more than 600 products that lacked the requisite paperwork for distribution. The unlicensed products even included fake products, including counterfeit versions of the Feitian Moutai, Chinese liquor made by Kweichow Moutai – interesting that the fakes highlighted were copies of Chinese brands. CCTV does have an agenda but there appears to be error with Wal-Mart

Software

China’s Tencent WeChat App Targets U.S. Users – WSJ
ott

微信与全球最大互联网公司谷歌“联姻”——正式进军美国市场  – WeChat gets serious on expansion

Technology

AMD Delivers With ARM | EE Times

Intel’s voice recognition will blow Siri out of the water—because it doesn’t use the cloudThere’s a problem with today’s voice recognition systems: They’re just too slow. Anyone who has waited in frustration while Siri or Google Voice “thinks” about even the simplest commands knows what I’m talking about

Wireless

Tim Cook: iPhone 5c popular among first-time iPhone buyers, but not as popular as expected | 9to5Mac – the iPhone 5C says as much about how scalable the manufacture of the mono-body chassis of the 5 and 5s was as anything else. (It wouldn’t scale that well). The 4 and 4S had more of an advance because they still look classier designs

How did the Korean wave start? | The Korea Blog – Korea was tired of cash outflows to Hollywood and realised the revenue from media could be as big as ‘hard’ goods

Kantar: Android Accounted For 70% Of Smartphone Sales In Q4, But Samsung Is Now “Under Real Pressure” | TechCrunch

Data pick of the day: Android dominance in Asian markets