Ged Carroll

Category: china | 中國 | 중국 | 中華

Ni hao – this category features any blog posts that relate to the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese communist party, Chinese citizens, consumer behaviour, business, and Chinese business abroad.

It is likely the post will also in other categories too.  For example a post about Tong Ren Tang might end up in the business section as well. Inevitably everything is inherently political in nature. At the moment, I don’t take suggestions for subject areas or comments on content for this category, it just isn’t worth the hassle.

Why have posts on China? I have been involved in projects there and had Chinese clients. China has some interesting things happening in art, advertising, architecture, design and manufacturing. I have managed to experience some great and not so great aspects of the country and its businesses.

Opinions have been managed by the omnipresent party and this has affected consumer behaviour. Lotte was boycotted and harassed out of the country. Toyota and Honda cars occasionally go through damage by consumer action during particularly high tensions with Japan.

I put stuff here to allow readers to make up their own  minds about the PRC. The size of the place makes things complicated and the only constants are change, death, taxes and the party. Things get even more complicated on the global stage.

The unique nature of the Chinese internet and sheltered business sectors means that interesting Galapagos syndrome type things happen.

I have separate sections for Taiwan and Hong Kong, for posts that are specific to them.

  • Native materials + more news

    As Tastes Mature, Chinese Crave Native Materials | Global Currents | BoF – also mirrors a desire to look less flashy and moving away from tu hao jin products. Native materials also reflect a growing pride in China and what it means to be Chinese

    Photographer Bill Cunningham left the fashion world some brilliant advice on how to dress millennials – “I think what they should really think about, and be fearful [of], is the high-tech, and the high-tech kids,” he tells the interviewer, fashion consultant Fern Mallis. “They’re no longer dressing the outsides of their heads. This generation are dressing the inside of their heads.” 

    Asked by Mallis to clarify what he meant, he continued: “The whole country is electronically connected. They’re educating the insides of their heads, as they should do! Not the outside, with a fancy hat or a dress. Simple clothes… That’s the key. I think that’s what the fashion world should really think about.”

    BlackBerry has not informed Verizon or AT&T that BlackBerry 10 devices have been discontinued | CrackBerry.com – being a BlackBerry user must feel like being a Mac user circa 1996, though I don’t expect there will be any salvation with those few keeping the faith. In Senate, Blackberry Era Officially Over | bomble.com – the West Wing will start to look dated pretty darned quick once this goes through. More on BlackBerry here

    Brands who are part of Beijing’s Hutong Neighbourhoods – SocialBrandWatch – interesting the way Nestle has built a quality Chinese brand

    After Brexit, British scramble for foreign passports | HKEJ Insights – really good read on the change in dynamic between Britain and Ireland

    Chinese smartphone brands are dying off fast as market consolidates | Techinasia – Xiaomi’s diversifying strategy may look smart

    Private Equity Has a Crush on Tech – WSJ – recurring subscriptions, but cloud may disrupt traditional packaged enterprise software and is cycle resistant only insofar as the clients stay in business

    Amazon Is Quietly Eliminating List Prices – The New York Times – “When Amazon began 21 years ago, the strategy was to lose on every sale but make it up on volume,” said Larry Compeau, a Clarkson University professor of consumer studies. “It was building for the future, and the future has arrived. Amazon doesn’t have to seduce customers with a deal because they’re going to buy anyway.”

    Pollster who called the EU referendum right: No late Leave swing after all • The Register – interesting descriptions about errors in poll design

    Sony chief Hirai places faith in AI | FT – interesting move given Sony’s relatively lack of prowess in software and services

    DriveTribe social network founded by the former ‘Top Gear’ presenters is launching this year – Business Insider – interesting that they’ve set up a passion based network.

    Remarks at the SASE Panel On The Moral Economy of Tech – really interesting essay

    EU regulations on algorithmic decision-making and a ‘right to explanation’ by Goodman & Flaxman – potential impact of the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation on the routine use of machine learning algorithms. The problem revolves around the ‘right to explanation’ (PDF)

  • WWDC 2016 – what did it all mean?

    I watched the few hours of keynotes at Apple’s WWDC 2016 (Worldwide Developers Conference). I also read some of the resulting analysis and wondered if we’d been watching the same event.
    Cómo ver la WWDC 2016 en vivo en iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV
    So thought I would think about the event carefully and come up on my take of what it all meant. This is a bit later than I originally planned to publish it.

    Firstly, there was no change in direction for Apple from a strategic point-of-view. Apple has been clear about its direction, it is the ‘how’ which is the mystery. WWDC 2016 was a major unveiling of ‘the how’.

    Over the past few years, Apple has focused on the integration of its devices. The reason why there isn’t one OS*, a la Windows 10, is that the different form factors have different contexts. Cross-pollination of services only takes place where it makes sense, which is why Siri has taken a while to roll out.

    The first big thing is APFS – a new file system for all of Apple’s devices. This builds on upon the feature set of ZFS which was a file system developed by Sun Microsystems for its Solaris UNIX operating system. Apple had experimented with implementing ZFS in OSX Leopard, but then didn’t follow through. Solaris runs on large enterprise computers where the prevention of data corruption and handling a large amount of file changes simultaneously is very important. Like ZFS, APFS supports encryption, granular time stamping, fast file management and has improvements in data integrity. When it’s fully finished it should make encryption on devices easier to manage and provide the user with more control. It should also help with syncing data across devices and the cloud.

    The interesting thing is how this technology will scale over time handling multiple devices and form factors working seamlessly from a common database. Like many of there other technologies this is an extension of Apple’s Continuity offering and future integration with a wider IoT offering.

    When Steve Jobs launched Mac OSX 10.0 in 2001 he described it as being the OS for the next 15 years. At the time the original MacOS was showing its limits. The UI was colour but hadn’t really moved on that much since System 7.5. The operating system wasn’t multi-tasking. The internet felt kludgy even though it performed well on the hardware at that time. Looking at OSX / macOS now, the operating system it feels fresh. The tweaks and changes under the hood keep the performance hub and the features comparable with the rest of the Continuity eco-system. macOS also doesn’t seem to be seriously threatened by iOS ‘pro’ devices.

    iOS 10 was important to me for its embrace of messenger-as-a-platform. Apple innovates within its own Messages apps with some UI gimmicks. More importantly, notification real estate that was once the exclusive preserve of the Apple dialer. This allows you to accept calls from the likes of Skype, WeChat or Slack from the lock screen. This follows Apple’s model of using it’s own apps to work things out and then open up the function once it is mature. Apple’s own Messages app includes a number of features including:

    • Simple chat bot-like functionality
    • Swipe to read on messages to prevent shoulder surfers from reading messages
    • Messages app takeover emotions
    • More emoji / sticker like icons

    Apple Pay roll-out – continued geographic roll-out makes sense. Apple Pay isn’t about building a rival payment system a la PayPal. Instead, Apple is trying to build more touch points with the user. The level of usage doesn’t matter too much from that perspective. Geographic roll-out to Hong Kong and more European countries makes sense. The more exciting development is two-factor authentication for e-commerce payments on compatible sites using the Apple Pay infrastructure. This is big for shopping on both Mac and iOS-powered devices.

    Thinking differently about intelligence. Unless you have been living under tech industry equivalent of a stone, you’ll be aware of cloud companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google or Baidu using artificial intelligence techniques to drive device function. Apple hadn’t been as visible in this space up to WWDC. The reason for this is due their rigorous approach to user and device privacy.  There were two approaches to this:

    Having the mobile devices GPU to perform relatively simple neural-network computing. This can learn user preferences or intent over time and be more helpful

    Making Siri more intelligent by looking at the behaviour of users encrypted, salted with false data and aggregated up. Differential Security is the process of acquiring this data. In the second world war, the Allies cracked the cryptography derived from the Enigma machine. But that was only the first part of the challenge. In order for it to be useful the Enigma team used statistics to hide any usage of the intelligence hiding reactive activity in the midsts of statistically expected ‘normal’ behaviour.

    Differential security is kind of similar to this. All the data is encrypted, the phone sends a mix of false data and real data. When Apple looks at aggregated data they can see the false data as being false, but can’t tell which users data is false at a given time.

    Apple’s WatchOS 3 is interesting because of the performance boost it gives the wearable. The difference is really noticeable. The boost in performance is due to Apple having more memory to use than it had originally allowed for. This provides a more refined experience. Much of the UX enhancements were focused on fitness.

    From a developer perspective there were a few things missing:

    • Apple had no new pro-level hardware announcements
    • Apple later walked away from Thunderbolt displays, saying that 3rd parties were now making great displays. This reminded me of when Apple stopped making printers, it felt permanent, though there is a lot of speculation about a forthcoming Apple 5K display – we’ll see
    • Apple still needs to do more work on integrating its Swift programming language throughout its OS’
    • Given Twitter’s peak in growth, Apple didn’t show how Siri would cope in a post-Twitter world

    Finally the two-hour keynote was a love letter to China. At every opportunity Tim Cook mentioned the Chinese market, support for China-specific items like language and called out Chinese apps like WeChat.

    * From a technical point-of-view; tvOS, iOS, and macOS all share underpinnings based on NetBSD and a Mach micro-kernel.

    More information
    Apple Pay supporting banks | Apple Support Documents
    Apple finally opens Siri to third-party developers | TechCrunch
    Apple rolls out privacy-sensitive artificial intelligence | MIT Technology Review
    What is Differential Privacy? A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering
    Digging into the dev documentation for APFS, Apple’s new file system | Ars Technica
    Apple File System Guide | Apple Developer documentation
    Mac & iOS Continuity | Apple

    More articles on Apple WWDC through the years here.

  • Divorce talks + more

    Britain, EU at odds over timing of divorce talks – The Boston Globe – The markers of European decline are not hard to find. For the first time in modern history, Asia has more private wealth than Europe, the Boston Consulting Group said last year. And China will account for 70 percent of Asia’s growth between now and 2019, the group said. – It is of course more complex than ‘because China’. Rampant deindustrialisation, a loss of pride, crushing austerity. Intractable economic problems. A loss of identity and loss of empire. A collective hallucination all contributed to the non-binding vote that has resulted in divorce talks. Just wait until these divorce talks get on to fishery issues, free trade and state aid.

    How a Former Apple Designer is Updating Huawei’s Look — The Information – trying to crawl out of the commoditisation trap. More on Huawei here

    How ‘Deleted’ Yahoo Emails Led to a 20-Year Drug Trafficking Conviction | Motherboard – this has interesting privacy implications, i.e. you don’t have any with Yahoo! or probably most other email services

    Earned Brand 2016 – Edelman – interesting research into consumer brand relationships across a range of brand categories

    Chinese Company in Patent Dispute With Apple Barely Exists – WSJ

    Something doesn’t add up in Nikesh Arora’s sudden exit from SoftBank | Techinasia – it’s rather cast a shadow on Nikesh

    Universities and startup factories are fuelling a rise in UK startups like Magic Pony, the AI business Twitter bought for $150 million – While the Magic Pony exit is likely to be seen as a positive step for the UK AI scene, it does raise questions about whether the UK will ever be able to produce a really big AI company if Silicon Valley keeps preying on the country’s most promising startups. – This rather reminded me of the role that lower division clubs like Tranmere Rovers used to play for top sides. Feeding talent through and not profiting by the talent development themselves.

    Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid | The Verge – you could argue the same about removing floppy disks on the original iMac, though I am inclined to agree with this

    BNNS – Apple Developer Documentation – Apple’s API that allows the GPU to run a simple neural network that helps the iPhone be smarter about preferences

    Jack Ma’s Counterfeit Comments Shed Light on Taobao’s ‘Legal’ Fakes | Jing Daily – Alibaba throws a grenade at the luxury industry

    Y Combinator’s Xerox Alto: restoring the legendary 1970s GUI computer – amazing when you think about how long ago it was and how little forward we have come from it by comparison in subsequent years

    RIMOWA – Electronic Tag – interesting, but looks like tech, for tech’s sake

    Social influencers now more popular for brand campaigns than traditional celebs | PR Week – so the survey data is self serving but it also might say something about client budgets

    Survival on the Wirral | Culture | The Independent – if you want to know why the poor are voted for Brexit, its because scenes like this haven’t changed

    Brexit and Trust – Edelman – this has been a long train running in the UK for decades not years, but otherwise an interesting read

    RA: Real estate, gentrification and nightlife in New York – pretty much the same story as London

  • TAG Heuer + more things

    TAG Heuer Pushing Brand in China, as Rivals Scale Back | Business of Fashion – it makes sense given the lower price point of TAG Heuer watches. TAG Heuer is in an interesting place. Due to the government clampdown on corruption, the market for ostentatious watches has been curtailed for the time being.

    You could dispute whether TAG Heuer is even in the luxury space. Its range competes with the likes of Tissot on the bottom end and touches on Omega at the top end. The positioning that gives it a (temporary) tactical advantage in the Chinese market, leaves it vulnerable to the Apple Watch, which seems to have devoured the mid-market aside from rugged models. More on luxury here.

    iPhone Future — Monday Note – great piece of analysis

    Death to the Mass — Whither news? — Medium – the article proposes that content no longer king, and neither is distribution. Obviously if true, it would have major implications for the media sector. Jeff talks about conversation being more important now, which is an interesting framing of the challenge. I’d look at the opportunity as filtering or curation, and possibly social. Though in these times trust has declined alongside distribution.

    This Company Might Make Apple and Google Irrelevant — NewCo Shift — Medium – dramatic title but interesting write up on Viv. Viv seems to be a ‘Wildfire’ type personal assistant proof of concept. The idea is that it would displace the intelligence of Siri or Google on the devices. Viv hopes to upend the current platform model. Just because it’s good technology doesn’t guarantee success. It is interesting to reflect again on how mobile carriers went from having the platform business in their hands to poorly compensated dumb pipes for the likes of Facebook, Google and Tencent. And why they are now starting to retreat from the nascent global empires that they built in a fit of hubris.

  • Wednesday Campanella

    Haruka introduced me to WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA『桃太郎』

    The videos are pretty far out but draw on Asian culture, hence peaches. More on Japan related topics here. The song writing is absolutely top notch as well. Well worth keeping an eye on WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA for the future. There’s more to Japan than idol groups than the identikit model of K-pop, of which WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA is a prime example of distinctiveness.

    Interesting video on entrepreneurial opportunities in China. Probably a bit optimistic as Credit Suisse is on the sell side of opportunities for foreign investors – just saying…

    Interesting way to approach content for a travel portal and a great bit of storytelling.

    The mag that captured 60s countercultural Japan | Dazed – check these photos out from Provoke magazine, Showa era FTW. These are just tremendous and shows a side of the counterculture revolution that was seldom seen here in the west. Its gives a bit of context of the scene that Yoko Ono came out of.

    I am not the greatest fan of Wired UK and prefer its US counterpart, but this documentary on Shenzhen is quite nice. It captures all the main elements of note about Shenzhen:

    • The Blade Runner type skyline of the Shenzhen central business district (CBD). You add in the hyper humid haze and it looks like a piece of Syd Mead architectural paintings. Buildings are lit up with massive LED screens advertising offices available for lease or cosmeticals and smartphones
    • The standard workshop-of-the-world tropes with factories that look aged in the tropical heat of southern China
    • Maker culture – this is notable in itself because of Chinese people generally not having hobbies which are often seen as a waste of time. But enough of that for another time
    • Business to business and business to consumer bazaars

    You can almost taste the South China humidity. If you liked this video its well worthwhile checking out Scotty Allen’s Strange Parts YouTube channel.