Temasek takes risky leap
Magic Leap Raises $502 Million, Led by Singapore’s Temasek – Bloomberg – this seems insane. Temasek is Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. It has holdings in DBS Bank, Singapore Airlines, Singtel and Mediacorp. Temasek grew a thousand fold during its five decades of existence. All of which makes the Temasek bet on Magic Leap seem even more odd. More related content here.
Business
WSJ City | A $20 billion startup fuelled by Silicon Valley pixie dust – yep WeWork
In Europe’s digital race, the winner is the United States – POLITICO – this analysis largely rings true
Consumer behaviour
Millennials are no harder to manage than Generation X, according to the commentary of the 1990s — Quartz at Work – basically youth is youth is youth
Brexit – a cry of financial pain, not the influence of the old | VOX, CEPR’s Policy Portal – unhappy feelings contributed to Brexit. However, contrary to commonly heard views, the key channel of influence was not through general dissatisfaction with life; it was through a person’s narrow feelings about his or her own financial situation. There has been a correlation between leave vote areas and rising hate crime
Culture
Thinking about working for a Chinese company? First, find out if it’s a ‘Lenovo’ or a ‘Huawei.’ – SupChina – With Huawei, all business seems to orbit around the company’s central headquarters in Shenzhen, and for the company’s overseas business, it relies on sending employees abroad on a massive scale. It is notoriously untrusting of local staff. “If someone works at Huawei and they are not Chinese, regardless of their title or salary, I guarantee you, they have very little real power or authority, even if they are based in their home country,” said a former Huawei employee. Another former Huawei employee told me, “When we’d work overseas, the Chinese staff would discuss an issue privately, and then agree on how we would communicate that issue to the local staff. Often the message we would give the local staff was very different from the reality of the situation.”
Another industry expert said bluntly about Huawei, “I cannot think of another company in the world that has such a global presence, but pays so little attention to localization and integration.” – This had been doing the social rounds with former colleagues who had worked on the Huawei business, offered here without comment…
Ethics
Too many firms claim social goals they can’t possibly realise | The Australian – what happens when advertising does corporate communications and CSR
Finance
How a Messaging App Challenged Traditional Banks and Captured 45% of the Market – Counterpoint Research – interesting case study. The penetration of KakaoTalk in Korea is almost total
The Transaction Costs of Tokenizing Everything | Elaine’s Idle Mind – this will give me unpleasant flashbacks from launching Enron’s broadband market internationally
FMCG
In 1973, I invented a ‘girly drink’ called Baileys – I looked down at the paper and there was an article about a golf tournament. The Open was being played at Royal Lytham. The headline mentioned R&A, golf’s governing body, and I instantly blurted “How about two initials? How do you like the sound of R&A Bailey? Think golf and the R&A.” “Great” he said, “I love it.” And that was that and I went back to reading the paper.
Marketing
Space: Marketing’s Final Frontier | Agency News – AdAge – 38% of Americans surveyed would be more likely to buy a product if its development was associated with space exploration
Lee Child, British Crime Thriller Author – Xerox – really nice project by Xerox
KLM first airline with verified WhatsApp business account – from September but still interesting
Online
Twitter is working on a feature that lets you save tweets for later | Digital Trends – this is kind of the way I used favourites on Twitter
Retailing
The War To Sell You A Mattress Is An Internet Nightmare | Fast Company – interesting cliquey environment
Security
Dodging Russian Spies, Customers Are Ripping Out Kaspersky | Daily Beast – not that much sourcing on this, but worry nonetheless
Ad Industry Insiders Profited From An Ad Fraud Scheme That Researchers Say Stole Millions Of Dollars – interesting if what it alleges is true – the outcome will be interesting
Software
Google’s Learning Software Learns to Write Learning Software | WIRED – software writing other software
Web of no web
Apple Watch Hits Cellular Snag in China – WSJ – also allows domestic wearable vendors to catch up
Samsung’s 360 Round camera livestreams 3D VR | Engadget – interesting focus on streaming
Microsoft may soon launch its answer to the Amazon Echo – Business Insider – interesting statistics on relative performance of machine learning platforms
Home – Voice Originals – interesting integration with Alexa
Wireless
ZTE Axon M dual-screen phone first look – YouTube – interesting development in smartphone product design
Huawei and LinkedIn: A new way to power your professional relationships | Official LinkedIn Blog – I wonder how this fits with the Google licensing on Android?
