Webcam images
UK spy agency intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users (Guardian) – UK spy agency intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users — • Optic Nerve program collected Yahoo webcam images in bulk — • 1.8m users targeted by GCHQ in six-month period alone – the cynical may draw a comparison to 1984 and the unblinking eye of Big Brother in every home, on balance it must make for deeply boring content. Webcam images every five minutes is probably not useful except for presence and building up a set to train a neural network
Business
Babel Street picks up $2M to serve as your international data interpreter | VentureBeat
Cheung Kong profits up 10% | RTHK
China’s internet giants eye acquisitions to plug service gaps | SCMP – (paywall)
Elon Musk’s giga factory dependent on two high-risk assumptions | Quartz
6 Industries That Will Profit From Global Warming | Wired
Seniors left stranded as China’s cab drivers prefer app subsidies | WantChinaTimes
Why WhatsApp’s Founder Hates Being Called An Entrepreneur | BusinessInsider
Japan’s Line denies report of talks to sell stake to SoftBank | Reuters
Qantas and its ilk are losing the Asian skies to oil money and penny pinchers – Middle Eastern airlines on international routes and discount airlines on short haul routes
Consumer Behaviour
Web changes the way women shop for consumer goods | CampaignAsia
GlobalWebIndex: China Had The Highest Mobile Internet Penetration – data showed that 65% of netizen worldwide accessed internet via mobile phone, while the percentage was even higher in specific country-China had 83% mobile internet penetration with approximately 383 million netizens. China had the highest tablet internet penetration as well
The Rise of Mother-Daughter Team Shoppers – The Cut
Men Open to New Brands; W-O-M and Ads Key for Awareness | Marketing Charts – More than 6 in 10 men aged 18-49 said they’re open to choosing new brands across several categories when shopping for the household, according to a new report from Defy Media
Culture
Economics
It costs 5 times more than it did in 1970 to visit Disney World | Quartz
Euro zone, employment and inflation stable | Time.com
The Eurozone’s Economy Slow to Recover | Euromonitor – moderate shocks could push the eurozone into another recession
Ethics
Samsung Reportedly Tried to Suppress a Film Critical of Its Safety Record – like as if you need more proof to show what a nasty piece of work Samsung can be
FMCG
Trouble in China’s food service sector | Euromonitor
The Billion Dollar Divorce: Kraft and Mondelez Two Years On | Euromonitor
Why instant coffee is so hot in Columbia? | Quartz
How America fell out of love with orange juice | Quartz
Gadget
Nokia X hands on: An ugly but surprisingly functional $120 smartphone
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Triads Have Lower Profile | TIME.com
How to
Google Analytics – from Classic to Universal | Hong Kong Web Analytics
Xiaomi Mi2 price cut to just $212 in China | Gizchina – Xiaomi’s popular Snapdragon 600 phone, the Xiaomi Mi2S has had it’s price slashed from 1699 Yuan to just 1299 Yuan!
xkcd: Now – great time hack just refresh
Innovation
New Mg-air Fuel Cell Developed for Emergency Use | Nikkei TechOn – by The Furukawa Battery Co Ltd
Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375 Billion Industry: Freight – Bloomberg – interesting move, however are crews really that expensive?
Korea
Korea is Asia’s key test market for global tech companies, including Facebook | VentureBeat – There has been much talk about Facebook’s inability to crack the tough, localized Asian market, but in an interview with Facebook’s top brass in Korea, this situation seems to be improving – but KakaoTalk is still way ahead of Facebook
Legal
U.S. Companies in China Cite Corruption Challenges in Survey | BloombergBusinessweek – the most common problems: sales kickbacks to customers, followed by employee fraud
Luxury
Shanghai Tang CEO: why Chinese luxury for Chinese consumers isn’t a hard sell | Jing Daily
Hilton claims it is taking share from rivals in China | Jing Daily
Cheaper luxury brands gain appeal in China | SCMP
Marketing
Cheil UK creates camera bot for Samsung
Delta Changes Rewards to Dollars Spent, Not Miles Flown | Bloomberg – achieving elite status in a carrier’s loyalty program has come to reflect customers’ revenue yield, not how many miles they fly
CIC 2014 China Social Media Landscape – Where to Play & How to Play? – brilliant for social media landscape
Media
Time Inc. Taps Google For Programmatic Sales | MediaPost – The new platform, powered by Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange, will give advertisers programmatic access to brands including Time, People and Sports Illustrated
Hong Kong marketers to boost spending for online, new free-TV options: HK2A and Nielsen – Forty-two per cent of advertisers indicated they will increase advertising spending in 2014, with internet advertising accounting for much of the growth, according to the latest survey on advertising spending projections by the Hong Kong Advertisers Association (HK2A) and Nielsen
Chinese video sites fight for exclusive rights to US dramas | WantChinaTimes.com
Retailing
The mobile Internet’s consumer dividend | McKinsey & Company
Why China is 10 years ahead in social commerce | Marketing-Interactive – social media platforms are moving to e-commerce, and e-commerce players are developing their own social platforms in an epic clash of the titans between heavyweights Alibaba and Tencent
adidas Goes High Concept in China to Get an Edge On Nike’s Trashy Strategy
Security
At the RSA Security Conference, Things Get Testy and Then They Get Awkward – NYTimes.com
Tor is building an anonymous instant messenger | daily dot
Apple readies improvements for TouchID | VentureBeat
How a Hacker Intercepted FBI and Secret Service Calls With Google Maps | Valleywag
Inside the Army’s First Field Manual for Cyber Electromagnetic War | DefenceOne – The Army’s first-ever electromagnetic warfare field manual shows that, for the military, IEDs and spam have a lot in common
360 million newly stolen credentials on black market: cybersecurity firm | Reuters
Less Than Half Of IT Pros At RSA Conference Say NSA Went Too Far – DarkReading – it is a pity that an aggregate nationality break down wasn’t run on this survey to see what US versus foreign IT professionals thought
Software
Facebook Messenger for Windows will Shut Down on March 3 – the future is mobile for Facebook
Hands-on with Samsung’s Tizen OS: An impressively capable Android clone | Ars Technica
Nokia Hopes Developers Write for Its Branched Android – Now that it has adopted Android, Nokia hopes that developers will come running to create apps for its new smartphones. Nokia claims that for app creators to adjust their existing apps to work on the Nokia X, X+, and XL will be no big deal
Technology
Pantech looks to restructure debt – Pantech have done some innnovative things such as gesture control years before Samsung
Telecoms
Telcos to lose $386b from OTT VoIP: Ovum | TelecomAsia
Web of no web
Stolen from tech writer, Google Glass dutifully records the suspect | VentureBeat – Sarah Slocom shouldn’t have been recording the general public like this anyway, the violence was uncalled for, but I have little sympathy for Sarah Slocom either
Wireless
China Smartphone Shipments Dropped Slightly in Q4 2013 – According to IDC quarterly report on China smartphone shipments, PRC smartphone shipments dropped for the first time in Q4 2013 after 9 quarters of consecutive explosive growth
The party’s over: IDC predicts sharp decline in smartphone market growth, with no replacement in sight – hence the commotisation and fight at the bottom, probably with Apple maintaining some premium share