Mok-bong – Korean dinner porn as content
Unravelling South Korea’s dinner porn | Dazed – Korean dinner porn is actually about loneliness and vicarious eating for dieters. Korea seems to have spawned this dinner porn on local stream apps. They call it ‘mok-bang’ or literally eating room
Business
TelecomTV | Microsoft names new CEO: guess who gets to advise him? – Bill Gates does a Steve Jobs by using the new CEO as a glorified sock puppet?
Japan Today | Sony to sell Vaio business to Japanese investment fund
KFC’s largest customer base is scared of it’s chicken | Quartz – on China’s relationship with KFC
This Chinese online retailer’s IPO documents could be a bit too candid | Quartz – interesting analysis for JD.com’s IPO filing
China: real estate engine sputters in January | FT – that may not be a bad thing (paywall)
TelecomTV | China’s Third Plenum and its implications for the telecoms sector
Consumer behaviour
China’s educated women power e-tailing: warc.com
Finance
Spending money has never been easier in China’s mobile finance era
Hong Kong
Slower Hong Kong retail sales | RTHK
Democracy in Hong Kong was never Britain’s concern, pre and post 1997 | South China Morning Post – They wanted a smooth transition, with a nice final party, wholly in accord with the elegant management of national decline being enacted elsewhere in the world – (paywall)
Ireland
Ireland goes the extra mile for Chinese visitors | South China Morning Post – Ireland eased its visa restrictions last year, after the UK tightened theirs (paywall)
Japan
Foreign journalists in Japan are “propagating misinformation” about Fukushima | Japan Probe – good to see the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan calling bullshit on these journalists
Luxury
Vivienne Tam’s WeChat partnership delivers New York Fashion Week front row access | Jing Daily
Media
American cable industry plan to survive, make services people want
Papering over the cracks – Excapite on Facebook Paper
Online
Apple CDN: iCloud performance could be vastly improved | BGR – key word here is ‘could’ rumours and speculation.
QQ carried 13.4 billion messages in one day for Chinese New Year
Security
11.6m mobile devices infected with malware | Telecom Asia – inevitable given the connected nature of mobile devices and they are becoming the dominant form of personal computing
Software
How to remove Samsung Magazine UX: officially it’s not possible | BGR
How the ‘value trap’ squeezes Windows PC makers’ revenues and profits | theguardian.com – which explains a lack of innovation, Microsoft getting into hardware and why Apple is better off smaller but more profitable
China Bets on Homegrown OS | EE Times
Web of no web
Adidas Says Under Armour Infringed Its Wearable – Businessweek – patent wars a la Samsung and Apple in progress
Microsoft signs deal to license Foursquare’s location data as it invests $15 million in the company – Microsoft just became a Foursquare investor and the startup’s biggest source of revenue, as noted by The New York Times. – Expect Microsoft’s mapping offering to improve radically
Wireless
Chinese mobile phone manufacturers try to be better than Xiaomi | wantchinatimes.com
Microsoft’s new CEO offers little comfort for mobile – Rethink Wireless
Will Apple find enough consumers in China to buy its iPhone? – Quartz