Ged Carroll

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  • Angela Merkel + more things

    Angela Merkel

    The elections in Germany marks the end of 16 years run with Angela Merkel as the Chancellor of Germany. Helmut Kohl was in office for only slightly longer. It feels like the end of an age, and in one sense it is.

    Most Germans believe their ‘golden age’ is over, poll finds – “These findings suggest that, while Angela Merkel has cemented Germany’s position as a great European power, the cornerstones of her legacy – neutrality and consensus building – will not be enough to defend the unity of the EU, and its place in the world, in the years to come.” Germans will head to the polls on September 26 to elect a new parliament and choose a successor to Mrs Merkel, who has served as chancellor since 2005. Her own party, the Christian Democratic Union, is lagging its coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrat Party, in polls. Mrs Merkel’s SPD finance minister, Olaf Scholz, is likely to become the next chancellor.  

    Angela Merkel’s legacy is complex. She struck up relationships that were bad for Europe and strategic rivals of Germany:

    • The Other Side of Angela Merkel’s 16 Years as German Chancellor | Foreign Policy – Far more troubling was the substance of many of her policies, which we can simply label “Merkantilism,” defined as the systematic prioritizing of German commercial and geoeconomic interests over democratic and human rights values or intra-EU solidarity. From her coddling of Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban as he built the EU’s first autocracy to her active courting of Europe’s geostrategic rivals in Russia and China, Merkel has tended to place German profit and expediency above European principles and values
    • Handel mit China: Braucht Deutschland eine Wende? | Frankfurther Allgemeine Zeitung – there are more important things than doing good business in China. Germany’s foremost business paper editorial swipe at Angela Merkel and selected big German enterprises (Daimler Benz, Deutsche Bank, T Systems and Volkswagen Audi Group)
    • Germans Demanding New China Policy. Will the Next Chancellor Deliver? | National Review – no matter who wins, German public opinion, pressure from the United States, and the strong possibility of having to partner with the Green Party in a coalition government make it likely the victor will be pushed in a more hawkish direction. The same hardening found among the German public is also happening in Parliament and the foreign ministry. Conservatives in the United States rightfully lament how bureaucracies often influence policy outcomes against the wishes of the principals leading them, not the other way around. When it comes to the future of Germany’s China policy, those bureaucratic exertions might not be such a bad thing

    Democratic capitalism in crisis

    Angela Merkel helped facilitate the rise of Viktor Orban in Hungary and facilitated similar a populist movement in Poland. Not actively, but by inaction. Which makes this interview with Martin Wolf of the FT all the more pertinent. More related content here.

    60 minutes on Hong Kong

    The Hong Kong government finished its engagement with a PR agency called Consolum. This agency came up with messaging for a campaign to relaunch Hong Kong. Quite how these messages would work effectively, when there is so much material ripe for the media to work against their measurement.

    Some of it is surreal. Trade unions are considered subversive. Providing allowed allowed gifts to prisoners such as shower gel and packets of M&Ms became a natural security threat.

  • Tom Ford + more news

    Tom Ford

    The panellists look back to Tom Ford, in particular his notorious, provocative advertising campaigns during his tenure as creative director of Gucci, while wondering whether his present day collections have the same impact. The glamour of the Tom Ford tenures at YSL and Gucci including the old collections is also dissected. The analysis of the Tom Ford legacy is timely as Gucci has looked to relaunch some of his old signature pieces.

    The debate doesn’t touch on Tom Ford and his impact on culture beyond luxury such film making. The outtake for me is that Tom Ford may have a longer and more relevant career than Karl Lagerfeld.

    Business

    Soho China shares plunge 40% after Blackstone deal collapses | Financial Times – this isn’t just about a property sector rout, but also about the founders wanting to be independent of China moving forwards

    Macau casino stocks shed $16bn as government seeks greater oversight | Financial Times – the Chinese territory opened a 45-day public consultation on revising its gaming law, which is expected to step up scrutiny of operators in the world’s biggest gambling hub. Casino groups’ 20-year concessions to operate in Macau are set to expire next year. The authorities’ move to tighten control of casinos is also proceeding as Beijing embarks on a broad campaign to reshape the country’s business, political and cultural landscape in a bid to stamp out inequality and promote “cultural prosperity”. Chinese regulators have imposed stringent conditions on the country’s biggest companies in the tech, online education and video gaming sectors, and authorities have targeted social behaviours perceived as harmful

    EXCLUSIVE Didi co-founder Liu told associates she plans to leave – sources | Reuters – Reuters claims that Jean Liu ‘told some associates that she expected the government to eventually take control of Didi and appoint new management, said the two sources.’ – its a shame Liu seemed to be one of a new breed of execs in China

    A decade of the Tim Cook machine — Benedict Evans – it will carry on making a certain kind of product for a certain kind of customer. That’s been the plan ever since the original Macintosh, and in some ways all that’s changed is how many more of those customers there are. The original Mac sold a few hundred thousand units in 1984, but Apple now sells half a million iPhones every day. Apple and the market grew into each other

    In Depth: How Evergrande Hid Its Debt – Caixin Global – A source familiar with the capital market in Hong Kong said that Evergrande had raised a lot of money overseas at interest rates higher than 15%, which one source found to be perplexingly high. “How could Evergrande make a profit borrowing at such high interest rates?” the source asked. – I don’t think Lehman Brothers is the right analogue, but maybe Enron or MCI Worldcom are?

    Consumer behaviour

    Why Is America So Bad at Keeping People Alive? – The Atlantic 

    China cold war nothing to do with us, say European Union voters | The Times – heads in the sand

    Kids who grew up with search engines could change STEM education forever – The Verge – It’s possible that the analogy multiple professors pointed to — filing cabinets — is no longer useful since many students Drossman’s age spent their high school years storing documents in the likes of OneDrive and Dropbox rather than in physical spaces. It could also have to do with the other software they’re accustomed to — dominant smartphone apps like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube all involve pulling content from a vast online sea rather than locating it within a nested hierarchy. “When I want to scroll over to Snapchat, Twitter, they’re not in any particular order, but I know exactly where they are,” says Vogel, who is a devoted iPhone user. Some of it boils down to muscle memory.  But it may also be that in an age where every conceivable user interface includes a search function, young people have never needed folders or directories for the tasks they do. The first internet search engines were used around 1990, but features like Windows Search and Spotlight on macOS are both products of the early 2000s. Most of 2017’s college freshmen were born in the very late ‘90s. They were in elementary school when the iPhone debuted; they’re around the same age as Google. While many of today’s professors grew up without search functions on their phones and computers, today’s students increasingly don’t remember a world without them

    Finance

    Financial blogger crackdown leaves China investors scrabbling for data | Financial Times – it gives you an idea how opaque things already were that these blogs were a source of information to institutional users on management changes, regulatory investigations and arrests – key sources of information for institutions buying debt issues

    Germany

    Germans Demanding New China Policy. Will the Next Chancellor Deliver? | National Review – no matter who wins, German public opinion, pressure from the United States, and the strong possibility of having to partner with the Green Party in a coalition government make it likely the victor will be pushed in a more hawkish direction. The same hardening found among the German public is also happening in Parliament and the foreign ministry. Conservatives in the United States rightfully lament how bureaucracies often influence policy outcomes against the wishes of the principals leading them, not the other way around. When it comes to the future of Germany’s China policy, those bureaucratic exertions might not be such a bad thing

    Most Germans believe their ‘golden age’ is over, poll finds – “These findings suggest that, while Angela Merkel has cemented Germany’s position as a great European power, the cornerstones of her legacy – neutrality and consensus building – will not be enough to defend the unity of the EU, and its place in the world, in the years to come.” Germans will head to the polls on September 26 to elect a new parliament and choose a successor to Mrs Merkel, who has served as chancellor since 2005. Her own party, the Christian Democratic Union, is lagging its coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrat Party, in polls. Mrs Merkel’s SPD finance minister, Olaf Scholz, is likely to become the next chancellor.  

    More related content here.

    Innovation

    British Airways operates passenger flight using recycled cooking oil | The Guardian – biodiesel makes a lot of sense for jet turbines because of energy density

    Mossad Used Remote-Controlled Machine Gun to Kill Iran Nuke Expert: NYT 

    Japan

    Japan urges Europe to speak out against China’s military expansion | Japan | The Guardian

    Legal

    Hong Kong Police Arrest Three Student Activists For ‘Inciting Subversion’ – Police say snacks and personal items stored for donation to prisoners are intended to incite ‘hatred’ of the government.

    Foreign Office ‘warned UK-based Hong Kong critics about extradition risk abroad’ | Hong Kong | The Guardian – Hong Kong government figures list 19 extradition agreements with other nations including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Portugal. In response to the law, several countries including the UK, Australia, Germany, France and the US, tore up their Hong Kong agreements. Chinese authorities record at least 59 extradition agreements, including with countries across Asia and Europe, although not all are ratified. Several countries including France and Australia have indicated they will not ratify their agreements

    Luxury

    Explained: The Chinese take on DIY luxury | Vogue Business

    Marketing

    How China’s ‘996’ culture is changing | Advertising | Campaign Asia – brands should be “non-judgmental and show empathy and kindness towards the young generations.” By doing so, they can keep momentum going even after “lying flat” no longer trends. “If brands can even help young people to achieve their personal goals, that would help build the loyalty of the younger consumers in the long term,” she advised. brands should be “non-judgmental and show empathy and kindness towards the young generations.” By doing so, they can keep momentum going even after “lying flat” no longer trends. “If brands can even help young people to achieve their personal goals, that would help build the loyalty of the younger consumers in the long term,” she advised.

    Media

    An interview with Bella Poarch on her move from TikTok to… – The Face – social is an on ramp, not a replacement for the media industry

    Retailing

    FamilyMart preps 1,000 unmanned stores in Japan by 2024 – Nikkei Asia – this makes a lot of sense. A lack of young people to be part time staff, a high trust society and a clear use case from automated stores that were trialled in China by Mukbang

    Pandemic Shoppers Are a Nightmare to Service Workers – The Atlantic 

    Security

    Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns | Reuters – The National Cyber Centre’s report also said the Xiaomi phone was sending encrypted phone usage data to a server in Singapore. A security flaw was also found in the P40 5G phone by China’s Huawei (HWT.UL) but none was found in the phone of another Chinese maker, OnePlus, it said. – given the closeness of Russia and China, at least some of the concern will about their mutual help of each other in the cybersecurity realm

    Taiwan

    On TECRO’s proposed name change: China, Taiwan, and the ruse of pragmatic moderation – by Kevin Carrico – NSL can’t cancel me 

    Technology

    Report: Fake chips flood in to exploit supply shortage – Oki Engineering has opened a chip verification service. And after opening the service in June, Oki had received 150 inquiries by August. After studying about 70 cases it found problematic chips in about 30 percent of them. With constrained supplies customers are prepared to buy from “unconventional sources,” the report said. Industrial and medical equipment manufacturers are amongst those to have subscribed to Oki’s chip verification service

  • Content in the online realm

    The nature of content in the online realm

    To think about content in the online realm it makes sense to go back to 1964.

    Internet history

    In 1964, the idea of being online and exposed to hypermedia was the stuff of information theory papers and the fevered dreams of researchers on government projects trying to build working packet networks.

    The medium is the message

    Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan published his book Understanding Media[1] introduced a concept in the title of the first chapter of his book, that would become common cultural currency. This was that ‘The medium is the message’. The expression neatly captures the idea that the communication being used— email, podcast, social media post, documentary film, white paper etc.—will affect how the message is perceived. Even, if the same message is communicated with different media. That is why an article printed on the salmon pink paper of the FT seems to carry more weight literally and figuratively than content in the online realm.

    ‘The medium is the message’ is often used in the context of media considered influential on society, including forms of media that are thought to have changed how people experience the world. An area that online communication fit neatly into, just in the same way that television and video cassettes would have in the 1980s, as illustrated by this scene from the movie Back to The Future.  

    When we think of content, particularly in the online realm, the medium itself helps dictate our thinking. From a marketers perspective, at least in theory, every action in the online realm is trackable. So marketers think that they can use content in the online realm to take the audience through a curated journey to adoption and beyond.

    The marketer will have mapped out paths that customers will receive content on like a hunter baiting a trap. The idea clearly meshes with concepts like the sales funnel. Marketers would be able to track the audience through a journey and prompt them to take the next step through emails and advertising retargeting.

    This cajoling might be triggered on customer responses through the power of artificial intelligence, that dynamically adapts to each customer, or a sales rep in a follow-up to conversation. This is would be considered to be part of the marketing function’s digital transformation. 

    Digital transformation

    If you are reading this article, chances are you’ve read about digital transformation, seen internal presentations, listened to podcasts, been to the webinars and possibly in person conferences about the subject area.

    Digital transformation typically offers an efficient technology-centred approach, but consider for a moment if it’s a consumer-centred way? 

    Which begs the question: As marketers and creators, what should we be doing for the estimated 95% of the time when the audience isn’t in a frame of mind to move towards adoption? 

    The sales funnel

    The sales funnel is one of the most enduring ideas in sales and marketing. A recent article by strategist Tom Roach described it as ‘the cockroach of marketing concepts’[2]. It appears in various designs in the smart art function of Microsoft® PowerPoint® – such is its importance in the business world. The importance of the sales funnel is recognised by Mark Ritson, who believes in their use to marshal the thoughts of marketers in terms of periodisation, rather than its literal application[3].

    In his article Roach makes the point that the sales funnel started out as the AIDA model. AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) in turn came out of door-to-door personal selling in the late 19th century. It was a way to teach sales people how to navigate buyers to make a purchase in a single conversation on their doorstep. 

    The book Bond Salesmanship[4] in 1924 used a ‘funnel’ metaphor with the AIDA model to encourage a consumer to make a purchase. 

    One interesting aside by Roach was Bond Salesmanship was about facts being ‘forced down’ the funnel rather than people. The generally accepted use now is to convey customers through, stage by stage. All of which is completely divorced from its original use in a personalised single session. 

    When I had been in college the sales funnel was only mentioned in passing in foundational modules on consumer behaviour. The lecturer used it as way of conceptualising how marketing worked as a visual accompaniment to the AIDA model rather than being used in a literal sense. At the time, my lecturer felt that consumers were too post modern in nature to apply it.

    The popularity of the funnel seems to have grown again with the rise of advertising technology and marketing automation platforms. Historically enterprise technology companies have relied on personal selling to their business customers. This may have had something to do with the model’s adoption and application in a multi-session customer journey by adtech development teams as their ‘model’. 

    A model is handy as a mental framework to simplify the understanding of a concept, but it often falls down in a real-world environment. The sales funnel is no exception: 

    • The perfect customer fallacy. Customers will remember what you’ve told them in the previous stages, in the order that you told it to them. This point is a complete fiction, people often don’t remember what they’ve been told. Which is why a lot of work has been put into consumer memory encoding and revival as a subject area. It is why reach and frequency are important aspects of any paid media plan[5].
    • As designed, the sales funnel has no concept of memory. Is this a product that you’ve bought before? What was your experience like? Are you happy to use it again? Do you actively seek it out as a product that you want to use? 

    The reason for both of these limitations is that the sales funnel was originally developed for single session selling opportunities, not the kind of relationship that brands typically have with stakeholders today. 

    McKinsey came up with a circular journey that had been called the loyalty loop to allow for customer memory.[6]

    McKinsey loyalty loop
    McKinsey

    James Hankins of Vizer Consulting came up with a conceptual model[7] that better addresses the perfect customer fallacy. Hankins model also implies the role of brand building as well as brand activating content in the customer buying process. 

    Hankins' conceptual model
    James Hankins

    What does all this have to do with content in the online realm?

    We know that we have a desired journey for content, that is often designed around the sales funnel. But we also need to build content around that. If the consumer journey is storytelling, then the content around it is more akin to world-building. 

    This has been called content continuity by others.[8] Content continuity supports the web of interactions that aren’t a purchase in the James Hankins model. 

    The storytelling provides our core content, the content continuity builds around that. Content continuity provides supporting information. 

    How do we think about content in the online realm in order to create content continuity? The key to thinking about this content is to think about it in two dimensions. The first dimension is around content themes. What are the content themes that the content journey relies on and what is the content areas that are tangential to these areas? This will vary based on the product, service or campaign. 

    The second thing to consider is how this content affects the audience in terms of exposure to the brand, exploration, evaluation and experience. With this in mind consider how your content themes fit into the following six areas that impact exposure, exploration, evaluation and experience. Are there any obvious gaps that need to be plugged? 

    20210922 - content in the online realm
    The author’s own creation

    If you are marketing to a well-understood category with a well-understood idea of what is good, that your product or service fits into then you probably not need to consider market shaping or market attitudes. Otherwise, it makes sense to see how the content themes cover: market authority, market shaping, marketing attitudes, product awareness, product relevant and product proposition / support. 

    Tonality

    The tone of content needs to be appropriate to the job that needs to be done. Safety instructions or a list of allergens in the product could do without a touch of levity. However, in other areas it is worthwhile thinking about how emotion could be used appropriately. Research shows that emotional priming content aids long term sales uplift.[5]

    Remix, re-edit and reuse

    Once you’ve created great content, the next thing to think about is how it can be put to the best use with necessary tweaks, expansions or modifications. A webinar can be turned into video on demand content. A presentation script can be turned into an opinion piece or white paper. 

    Think about how it connects with other content. This means connecting content together and treating your digital presence as an ‘embassy’.[9] This embassy approach facilitates audience exploration and evaluation. 

    Ignoring the digital dictatorship of the marketing automation black box

    All of the processes that we’ve outlined take a human-centred approach, this means that they may not fit in with the algorithmic driven ‘black box’ approach beloved of marketing automation platforms. This means doing content for the right reasons, not just for the right numbers. It takes bravery to ignore the hectoring and dictatorial nature of the ‘black box’, but who should your organisation put its faith in, its marketing staff or a ‘one-size fits all’ algorithm? I would argue that data and metrics should inform, but not dictate an approach. 

    You can find similar content to this essay here.

    [1] McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Kiribati: New American Library.

    [2] Roach, T (September 11, 2021) Why the sales funnel is the cockroach of marketing concepts. United Kingdom: Marketing Week

    [3] Ritson, M. (September 18, 2020) ‘Funnel juggling’ is the answer to marketing effectiveness. United Kingdom: Marketing Week

    [4] Townsend, W. W. (1924). Bond Salesmanship. United States: H. Holt.

    [5] Field, P., Binet, L. (2013). The Long and the Short of It: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies. United Kingdom: Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

    [6] Court, D., Mulder, S., Vetvik, O.J. (June 1, 2009) The consumer decision journey. United States: The McKinsey Quarterly

    [7] Hankins, J. (February 2, 2021) Forget funnels, here’s a new model for the path to purchase. United Kingdom: Marketing Week

    [8] Kuperman, D. (October 8, 2012) The Importance of Content Continuity. United States: The Effective Marketer

    [9] Armano, D. (October 1, 2010) Digital Embassies: A Blueprint for Community Engagement. Germany: FutureLab.

  • Walk Walk Walk Home + other things

    Walk Walk Walk Home

    Tokyo based digital experiential agency teamLab came up with an interesting installation in the basement of GINZA 456. But the exhibition was live-streamed so that viewers from around the would could enjoy Walk Walk Walk Home. Walk Walk Walk Home was designed to provide a COVID-safe experience, that still fostered community.

    Consumers were invited to colour one of a range of characters and upload it. The characters that consumers submitted walked in real time on the YouTube Live Stream. When a character is touched, the character reacts, sometimes stopping temporarily interrupting Walk Walk Walk Home. When a new character walked out, the name of the town where the character was contributed from is shown. teamLab did Walk Walk Walk Home for Japanese telecoms provider KDDI. It runs until the end of the COVID-19 epidemic. More related content here.

    Anita Mui biopic

    Anita Mui was a giant in the world of Cantopop, she was often considered to be its Madonna. But the Madonna analogue doesn’t really do Anita Mui’s career justice. Given that most things have become political in Hong Kong; it seems like the right time to reflect on Hong Kong’s historic role at the centre Asian popular culture for much of the 20th century and the Anita Mui biopic sits at the centre of it. Mui kept performing up until the last prior to her dying of cancer. Judging by the trailer the CGI of Hong Kong up to the early 2000s is amazing. Mui remained at the top of her game from 1982 to 2003, when she died at the age of 40.

    Greater Bay Airlines

    Cathay Pacific has been bleeding like a stuck pig due to COVID. But that also means now is an ideal time to set up a new airline. Greater Bay Airlines looks to connect Hong Kong with other cities in China and some parts of the belt-and-road. It looks like it might be a discount airline judging by the planes. The have started with a fleet focused on Boeing 737s. What is obvious is that there hasn’t been much money spent on the GBA brand. It’s almost like non-branding, see for yourself. That sea green looks its a tint lighter than Cathay Pacific’s palette but otherwise the same.

    Matrix Resurrectons

    Since the entertainment industry has been riding on the success of the John Wick franchise, it made sense for the media to return to The Matrix. Matrix Resurrections is the fourth instalment of the series. It is hard to judge from the trailer, but it doesn’t seem to be a neat take-up from the third instalment.

    Rethinking Chinese politics

    This is a great discussion with the author of the book Rethinking Chinese Politics. In his book and the interview the author Joseph Fewsmith discusses the challenge of power transition in China. He doesn’t discuss the rumoured assassination attempt against Hu Jintao during a PLA Navy inspection visit to Shanghai. More information on the book here.

  • RISC V + other news

    RISC V

    There is heat starting to generate (finally) behind RISC V: Marvell founders back data centre RISC-V chiplet startup | EE News Europe  and Apple is doing their due diligence with a RISC V code port: Apple is Reportedly Designing Various Embedded Subsystems across all Operating Systems using RISC-V – Patently Apple  – is now exploring and developing various embedded subsystems across all Operating Systems using RISC V. The emerging Open Source RISC V architecture is now being used by companies like Nvidia, Google, Oculus, Qualcomm, Rambus and others for IoT devices to supercomputers, smartwatches and autonomous vehicles. Amazon and Alibaba are currently designing their own cloud and data center chips. This week Apple was shown to be recruiting RISC V “high-performance programmers. More specifically, Apple is currently seeking out experienced programmers with detailed knowledge of the RISC V instruction set architecture (ISA) and Arm’s Neon vector ISA for the Vector and Number Group (VaNG) of its core operating system group. Apple’s VaNG is responsible for the development and improvement of various embedded subsystems running on iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. – Not surprising that Apple will be keeping its options open for porting across architectures including RISC V, like it did with Intel and ARM respectively. Apple has taken a similar approach for decades. Apple had the Rosetta Stone version of Intel instructions years before it moved the Mac to Intel. RISC V came out of a research requirement for an open-source computer system and was started in 2010. RISC V was originally thought of as a fun 3 month research project… RISC V designs and specifications were released under a BSD and Creative Commons licence. The foundation overseeing RISC V is based in Switzerland to get around US trade sanctions against potential adoptees like China (or North Korea)

    Business

    Corporate America fights uphill battle against anti-China push – POLITICO – there will come a point where this starts costing them sales in the home market and I see that day coming soon

    Australia’s education industry facing US$15 billion loss as frustrated, worried students ponder futures | South China Morning Post  – Australia’s international education sector was worth around A$40 billion (US$29 billion) in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic. But students, the majority who come from China, are considering their options as Australia’s borders remained closed – on balance this could be good for Australia as it would also remove a lever of soft power that China has in Australia with subverted academia. This also makes you wonder about the craven nature of UK universities: Universities hire planes to fly in China students | News | The Sunday Times  – There are about 220,000 Chinese students studying in the UK. Across the Russell Group, one in every ten students is Chinese, and they provide nearly a fifth of all tuition fee income, worth an estimated £1.3 billion every year. In Glasgow, about a third of the university’s tuition income comes from Chinese students. At Liverpool University, one in five of its students in 2019 was Chinese — these 5,550 students were worth an estimated £90 million to the university. Experts warned that universities were at risk of overlooking the needs of British youngsters as they fretted over the potential loss of fee income from their overseas students, who pay up to £35,000 a year in fees, nearly four times the fees paid by their British counterparts

    China Evergrande bonds suspended as prices plunge | Reuters  – The Shanghai Stock Exchange said in a statement that it had temporarily suspended trading in China Evergrande Group’s 6.98% July 2022 corporate bond following “abnormal fluctuations.” The exchange had also suspended trading in the bond on Friday. Shanghai exchange data showed the bonds sliding more than 25% to a low of 40.18 yuan after the resumption of trade on Monday afternoon. The company’s 5.9% May 2023 Shenzhen-traded bond , which was also suspended, fell more than 35% after trading resumed – read with Soho China shares plunge 40% after Blackstone deal collapses | Financial Times  – this isn’t just about a property sector rout, but also about the founders wanting to be independent of China moving forwards

    Deutsche Telekom deepens bet on US market with SoftBank deal | Financial Times

    In the driver’s seat: China’s electric vehicle makers target Europe | Merics – Government subsidies for China-based manufacturers could distort global markets. That China has become the leading EV market is the result of substantial government support. But Chinese exports are also directly supported by central and local governments sponsorship of new production plants, R&D centers and overseas acquisitions

    China

    Zheng Yongnian on “the death of China Studies” – by Kevin Carrico – NSL can’t cancel me – well worth a read. Chinese warfare on the study of China abroad

    Chinese Power and the State-Owned Enterprise | International Organization | Cambridge Core – The results suggest that China uses FDI by prominent state-owned enterprises as an instrument to promote its foreign policy. – Which makes willing stooges like Vodafone look even worse

    BlackRock Raises $1 Billion for First Chinese Mutual Fund Run by Foreign Firm – WSJ

    Consumer behaviour

    Rejected internal applicants twice as likely to quit | Cornell Chronicle 

    Feeling the 2019 Hong Kong anti-ELAB movement: emotion and affect on the Lennon Walls: Chinese Journal of Communication: Vol 0, No 0 – The walls are able to marshal the resources of the minds and bodies of those who created and sustained them and give rise to political passions and movement actions.

    Effect of Financial Incentives and Environmental Strategies on Weight Loss in the Healthy Weigh Study: A Randomized Clinical Trial | Lifestyle Behaviors | JAMA Network – comparative ineffectiveness of a couple of nudge strategies for treating obesity

    A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’ – WSJ – At the close of the 2020-21 academic year, women made up 59.5% of college students, an all-time high, and men 40.5%, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit research group. U.S. colleges and universities had 1.5 million fewer students compared with five years ago, and men accounted for 71% of the decline, the Journal analysis found. – this looks like a political and demographic time bomb waiting to go off. Think about the potential wasted at a time when the US needs more engineers, technologists and innovators of both genders. The deficit of hope scares the crap out of me and should scare you

    Culture

    Taste of the East: How The British Fell In Love With Chinese Cuisine | Newham Chinese Association – Until the 1940s, the majority of customers in the restaurants were not English but Chinese immigrants. In the aftermath of World War II Chinese food began to grow in popularity. British servicemen returned from various parts of the Empire and the Far East with a willingness to try different foods and cuisine and a new enthusiasm for Chinese food and restaurants. This in turn saw the rise of the restaurant trade in Soho. Chinese people entered the catering trade because of the downturn in shipping and the closing of laundries, traditional areas of employment. In the 1950s and early 1960s there was an influx of Chinese from Hong Kong who provided the necessary workforce. The restaurants served Cantonese food because of Britain’s old colonial links to Hong Kong

    Design

    Modern Woods: A Herman Miller Story | YLighting Ideas 

    Hong Kong mulls regulating ‘flight deck’ mobile phones on vehicle dashboards – Hong Kong Free Press HKFP – iconic interior feature on Hong Kong taxis

    Economics

    Tech Crackdown Is a Cloud Over China Economy, Ex-WTO Chief Says – Bloomberg

    Is China uninvestable? | Financial Times  – The problem the party has to solve is almost the opposite: investment is so high that much of the capital is malinvested. As a result, debt is growing faster than gross domestic product. The irrelevance of foreign investors to China key problems doesn’t mean Chinese stocks might not go up, “but you have to get both the valuations and the politics right, and that’s just really hard” – soft innovation and rent seeking investments versus the hard innovation desired – Cathie Wood’s Ark cuts China positions ‘dramatically’ | Financial Times – I think strategic alignment wit CPC agenda is a greater predictor than how much of a sycophant the company has been, which is what Ms Woods relying on

    Interview: Larry Summers, economist – by Noah Smith – Noahpinion – interesting interview on economics

    China offers $31m in emergency aid to Afghanistan – BBC News – aid in kind rather than cash to maximise leverage over the Taliban, its a smart play

    Chinese Industrial Policy: How A City Turned Itself Into a VC Fund – by Jordan Schneider – ChinaTalk – interesting to read this. New Structural Economics seems to be very similar to the processes outlined by Joe Studwell in How Asia Works. I was surprised to see that they weren’t trying to learning from Japanese agricultural policies given the mountainous land similarities and instead focused on US agricultural poliicies which have less clear cut lessons for China

    Ethics

    Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt. – WSJ

    Finance

    Investment banks accelerate efforts to automate junior ‘grunt work’ | Financial Times – how much ‘skills’ and ‘learning’ will be lost through this process?

    FMCG

    Subscriptions: recurring revenue model best suited to expensive items | Financial Times – not terribly surprising, I know that Unilever and Chlorox leant into this hard

    ‘Unprecedented influence’: Hong Kong prisons chief accuses inmates held for national security, protest offences of stirring rebellion behind bars | South China Morning Post – Hong Kong inmates held for offences related to the national security law and the 2019 protests are exercising “unprecedented influence” in the city’s prisons, leading to round-the-clock monitoring usually reserved for high-profile criminals such as triad leaders – it is probably down to chocolate and candy scandals that threatened Hong Kong and China’s national security. Apparently the Hong Kong government felt threatened by excessive amounts of gummy bears and M&Ms among prisoners

    Germany

    Opinion: Germany must call off Angela Merkel′s Chinese love affair | Business | Deutsche Welle – interesting that this ran in Deutsche Welle before Chancellor Merkel’s last call with Xi Jingping

    Hong Kong

    American lawyer imprisoned in Hong Kong speaks out about his treatment – The Washington Post – Sam Bickett’s case is instructive

    How to

    Nilesh Ashra on his digital toolbox, worthwhile digging into via Iain Tait

    Innovation

    JCB heir Jo Bamford launches hydrogen fund | Financial Times – they’ve done some really interesting work around hydrogen powered internal combustion engines in a way that contrasts with Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell approach

    Technique bonds copper foil and PTFE for better 5G 

    UK orders national security review of graphene firm’s takeover by Chinese scientist | Competition and Markets Authority | The Guardian 

    Chinese air force may have cracked how to land a hypersonic drone | South China Morning Post

    Superior MEMS sensors from cavity silicon-on-insulator wafers | EE News 

    Robotics pioneer Yoky Matsuoka’s Panasonic venture debuts personal assistant service in Seattle – GeekWire – what’s interesting about this is that its a concierge service a la Amex Black Card and similar. The tech is on the back end supporting the human operator. I presume that this is also going to build massive data sets on human problem solving

    Ireland

    Galway in line for Intel megafab | EE News Europe – A former military firing range in Oranmore near Galway in the west of Ireland is the Industrial Development Agency’s “preferred site” for an Intel chip foundry that would employ 10,000 people, according to reports. This is more than twice the 4,900 people Intel employs at its established facility in Leixlip, Ireland on the outskirts of Dublin. Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO, visited Leixlip last week and met with Ireland’s prime minister, Taoiseach Michael Martin. The site in Galway is a 216-hectare rifle range, owned by the Irish Department of Defence. The project would involve the building of eight factory modules on the campus, the reports said

    Korea

    South Korea shatters national debt taboo to tackle inequality | Financial Times – really interesting article

    South Koreans sour on China ahead of Wang Yi visit – Nikkei Asia – Survey results released in June by Sisain, a current affairs magazine, and pollster Hankook Research indicate a souring of South Korean public opinion toward China, particularly among the young. Only 26% of respondents had warm feelings toward China, compared with 57% who felt warmly toward the U.S. Even Japan, South Korea’s traditional rival, came out ahead of China with 28%. “Dislike of China is arguably emerging as the spirit of our times,” Sisain wrote in an accompanying article. “The question ‘what kind of country is China to us?’ is changing to ‘why and how much do we dislike China?”

    Legal

    China Unveils New Rules Targeting Anticompetitive Practices by Internet Companies – WSJ

    Was the ‘surveillance state’ a price worth paying? – The Law and Policy Blog and How the War on Terror Supercharged State Power – worthwhile reading both together

    Luxury

    The four fashion personas of China’s Gen Z | Vogue Business – Despite the youthfulness of Gen Z consumers, their understanding of fashion and luxury culture is as mature as older generations. – there is so much in the way that they picked their sample which makes this research something to be approached with caution. Shanghai is not representative of high growth lower tier markets.  Gen Z believes that to qualify as true luxury, a brand needs more than high price points, heritage and craftsmanship. It must also convey an elevated sense of aesthetics, with unique qualities and character. – and this has been an issue that luxury brands have been struggling with. Male Gen Z shoppers are outspending women by 20 per cent on fashion and luxury goods. Not every Gen Z consumer in China is obsessed with celebrities and influencers. – this surprised me as many men are having to save up to impress their girl and get the requisite items needed for a partner to say that they would marry you. The men surveyed are likely to be princelings. Interestingly, many Gen Z are critical of them and the culture that surrounds them. – this mirrors the wider Chinese government criticism of culture. More sophisticated marketing campaigns may, therefore, work effectively with Gen Z shoppers. For example, they appreciate exhibitions that mix brand stories with art and culture. They also like brands with creative crossover collaborations. Finally, they appreciate word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and families. Among those celebrities who do impress Gen Z, the key names include Yibo Wang, Mi Yang, Wen Liu and Yangqianxi Yi (also known as Jackson Yee). Key opinion leaders (KOLs) include Mia Kong and Fil Xiaobai.

    Opinion: Finally, a Chinese car brand to take seriously in Europe | Autocar – interesting that Autocar thinks electrification will disrupt the premium car sector

    Chinese star calls time on Swiss watch brand after CEO says Taiwan is a ‘country’ | South China Morning Post – Audemars Piguet CEO referred to Taiwan as ‘a very tech-oriented country’ in a video conversation months ago. Actor-singer Lu Han and team had wanted the watchmaker to apologise on global platforms in Chinese and English – effeminate looking showbiz star tries to save career and look masculine by leaning into Chinese nationalism

    Foreign brands criticised in China for misleading shoppers | Reuters – move after Canada Goose might be due to it being from Canada or a prelude to an attack on the luxury sector

    Chinese debts unravel historic fashion stores | Business | The Times – Troubles in China are putting some of the oldest names in British fashion in a precarious position, with Aquascutum quietly pulling out of the UK entirely and Gieves & Hawkes battling a winding-up order. The trenchcoat maker and the tailor are owned by Shandong Ruyi, which has come under increasing pressure over its bloated $4 billion debts after an acquisition spree intended to turn it into China’s answer to LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate

    Marketing

    Rewarding loyalty helps brands make gains in Hong Kong’s top local brands ranking | Country Rankings | Campaign Asia – I find this fascinating as it is at odds with marketing science findings from the likes of the Ehrensberg-Bass Institute

    The Paradox Of Buying Influence. “You keep using that word. I do not… | by Faris | Medium

    Media

    China Bans ‘Cissy Idols’ and ‘Effeminate Men’ in Entertainment Sector – Variety – Chinese government’s crackdown on the tech and entertainment sectors has now turned to “sissy idols,” “effeminate men” and all things “overly entertaining.”

    Hong Kong media group Next Digital says it aims to wind down, board quits | Reuters – the Hong Kong government has never indicated which articles published by Apple Daily allegedly violated the national security law, and the uncertainty created a climate of fear, resulting in many resignations including those responsible for the regulatory compliance duties of the publicly traded company. “We observe that the events affecting the company and its people following the invocation of the National Security Law occurred despite there having been no trials and no convictions,” it said. “Under this new law, a company can be forced into liquidation without the involvement of the courts.” “As Apple Daily often observed, Hong Kong people have a collective memory of what life was like elsewhere when freedom of speech was denied: No other rights are safe” – the Hong Kong government response to this was Kafta-esque

    China uses anti-fraud app to track access to overseas financial news sites | Financial Times – The app was launched in March by the public security ministry’s National Anti-Fraud Center and blocks suspicious phone calls and reports malware. Police said it was needed to combat a surge in fraud, often perpetrated by overseas operations managed by Chinese and Taiwanese nationals. The ministry recommended that the app was downloaded but numerous local government agencies made it mandatory for their employees and individuals with whom they work, such as students and tenants. One Shanghai-based user told the Financial Times he was contacted by police after accessing a US financial news service. He was also asked whether he had contacts abroad and regularly visited overseas websites. The user, who asked not to be identified, said police seemed genuinely concerned about foreign scams. “But the questions they raised about whether I have contacted foreigners made me feel like they don’t want me accessing foreign websites,” he added. “I deleted the app after the meeting.” A second user in eastern Shandong province said police called him on four consecutive days after the app showed he had visited what it labelled “highly dangerous” overseas information providers, including Bloomberg – if I was Bloomberg or the FT Chinese service I would be concerned

    Online

    Why Instagram’s creatives are angry about its move to video | Instagram | The Guardian

    Some of the most iconic 9/11 news coverage is lost. Blame Adobe Flash – CNN

    Former UK hedge fund partner plots return of Trump-era social network Parler | Financial Times

    Retailing

    Typical CVS Shopper Is Urban Gen Xer, Earns High Income – In addition to OTC pain medication and cough remedies, the typical retail shopper often prefers to buy candies, chocolates, and bottled water. Their favorite sweets brands at CVS are M&M’s and Reese’s, and they also buy a lot of Hallmark cards. Just 1.6% of a CVS shopper’s total dollars are spent at CVS, compared with 6.8% of their spending on Amazon. At other retailers, the CVS shopper buys more fresh garlic, hand sanitizer, bar soap, and non-dairy milk alternatives than the national average shopper. They’re also big fans of fast-food chicken nuggets

    Security

    Normal-looking USB cable logs everything you do and can be radioed from more than 1 mile away | Boing Boing 

    U.S. to Include Korea in ‘Five Eyes’ Spying Pact – The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea – World 

    Chinese hackers behind July 2021 SolarWinds zero-day attacks – The Record by Recorded Future

    Malware found preinstalled in classic push-button phones sold in Russia – The Record by Recorded Future 

    Billions of devices impacted by new BrakTooth Bluetooth vulnerabilities – The Record by Recorded Future

    Pro-China misinformation operation attempting to exploit US Covid divisions, report says – CNNPolitics – worth while reading Reuters take as well – Pro-China social media campaign hits new countries, blames U.S. for COVID | Reuters  – synopsis from the China Research Group: According to research published on Wednesday by Mandiant and Alphabet’s Google unit, thousands of accounts across dozens of social-media platforms—including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter —and online forums have urged Asian-Americans into the streets to protest against racial injustice in the US. The network of fake social media accounts is “almost certainly supported by a government sponsor, either directly through a government agency or a third-party contractor”.

    China Is OK With Interfering in Guinea’s Internal Affairs – the inconsistency it demonstrates—nonintervention but only when it works for China—risks undermining the validity of China’s promises to potential partners, among whom only the “irredeemably corrupt or terminally naive” take Beijing’s “win-win” rhetoric seriously. Indeed, Beijing’s mercurial wielding of noninterference risks further exposing the ugly underbelly of China’s fiercely realpolitik foreign policy. China’s pitch to leaders the world over is straightforward: Beijing offers vast sums of development funds (and political support) and expects certain goods—natural resources, ports, military bases, and international political support—in return. Many developing world leaders sign up for this bargain not out of authoritarian solidarity but for Chinese money; it solves problems, and there is no obvious Western alternative. Where poverty and underdevelopment are the most pressing issues, leaders will not say “no.” But with Chinese money, leaders often lean more autocratic – coup messed with China’s access to bauxite (which it doesn’t want to buy from Australia) and its ability to make aluminium which is a strategically important metal

    Hackers leak passwords for 500,000 Fortinet VPN accounts | Bleeping Computer 

    Japan is belatedly recognising the risks of cyber war | Financial Times 

    Indonesian intelligence agency compromised in suspected Chinese hack – The Record by Recorded Future – and this is what China does to its ‘friends’ in ASEAN….

    Web of no web

    Avatar overload: my trip through the Burning Man metaverse | Financial Times 

    Wireless

    Why 5G may be taking longer than we thought – Arup – roll-out of 5G networks commenced in earnest in 2019, and is now well underway in many countries, this is largely being driven by the commercial mobile network operators. This has led to a focus on serving major cities and towns, where the service is deemed to be commercially viable and attractive to do so. In addition, much of the focus of these deployments has been on delivering enhanced mobile broadband use cases for public consumers (such as high definition video streaming, VR/AR and gaming). The focus isn’t initially on delivering the lower latency and higher network reliability that would be needed for industrial automation and autonomous vehicles

    Starlink is a global ISP built at ZERO COST to SpaceX, enabling NASA’s Artemis launch | I, Cringely