BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY Would You Have To Pay More For A Driverless Taxi? Baidu has been authorized to start charging for its autonomous robotaxi service in Beijing with a safety driver, after providing the service free of charge with 67 vehicles since October 2020, since when more than 20,000 people made around ten trips per month. It’s been possible for some time now to find autonomous robotaxi services with a […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK How Spotify Has Quietly Expanded Its Content Platform An interesting article in Fast Company, “More than Joe Rogan: Inside Spotify’s audio revolution”, looks at Spotify’s success with podcasts, a phenomenon that has been growing in popularity since 2005, but has not yet become the next big thing many predicted. In 2005, three young Silicon Valley industry veterans, Ev Williams, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, created Odeo to try to […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY Amazon Go Will Revolutionise Retail Since it launched in beta format in 2016, and then opened to the public a year later, Amazon Go, the online retail giant’s stores without checkout lines, provides a textbook illustration of the use and development of technology. Amazon’s plans to expand its network of stores, formulated before the pandemic, were ambitious: more than 3,000 by 2021 in locations […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The Retail Revolution In China China’s dominance in manufacturing has made it the factory of the world. The subsequent economic growth enriched an ever-expanding middle class, and the country’s retail industry has quickly adapted to supply a growing appetite for consumption. Some of these developments in the way people spend their money, powered by the latest technology, will soon be appearing on […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK MONEY & FINANCE TECHNOLOGY The Problem With Stablecoins Cryptocurrencies have had an exceptional year, reaching a combined value of more than US$3 trillion (£2.2 trillion) for the first time in November. The market seems to have benefited from the public having time on their hands during pandemic lockdowns. Also, large investment funds and banks have stepped in, not least with the recent launch of the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK MONEY & FINANCE TECHNOLOGY Why Open-Source Banking Is The Future I really enjoyed this article, “Open source is finally coming to financial services”, and the corresponding 25-minute lecture by Angela Strange of Andreessen Horowitz on the future of banking services, in which she predicts a scenario that is very much in line with what I have been envisioning for quite a few years: banks where software developers will have […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Facebook Metaverse: What Could Go Wrong? Facebook’s plans to create a so-called metaverse, which according to the company would include everything from major investments and hiring thousands of people in Europe, to eventually changing the company’s name to reflect its focus in that area. What are some of the problems we might see emerge in a Facebook metaverse. One of the first books to explore the idea of a […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK The Global Supply Chain Debacle Is Just Beginning There is mounting evidence of an unprecedented global supply chain crisis stemming from an uneven economic recovery as demand revives in the wake of a subsiding pandemic, that has hit many countries hard as they struggle to cope with bottlenecks and shortages of workers and goods. Few of us ever give much thought to supply chains: they usually function well, with […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY This New Kind Of Rocket Is Disrupting The Space Industry With a launch scheduled in 2024, Relativity Space will have accomplished something not even SpaceX has yet been able to do. The company has managed to create a new vision for spaceflight, transforming the aerospace industry and making their rockets strong competitors for Blue Origin and SpaceX in just 6 short years. But they’re also […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK STRATEGY TECHNOLOGY Siri: Apple’s Missed Opportunity A highly critical article in The Verge, “Hey Siri, what happened?”, discusses an issue many of us have been observing for some time: that Apple’s home assistant is noticeably less intelligent and more limited than its competitors such as Alexa or Google Assistant. The usage test confirms it: ten years after Siri’s introduction, if you […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Spotify Has Quietly Expanded Its Content Platform An interesting article in Fast Company, “More than Joe Rogan: Inside Spotify’s audio revolution”, looks at Spotify’s success with podcasts, a phenomenon that has been growing in popularity since 2005, but has not yet become the next big thing many predicted. In 2005, three young Silicon Valley industry veterans, Ev Williams, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, created Odeo to try to […] Written by Enrique Dans November 24, 2021November 24, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Amazon Go Will Revolutionise Retail Since it launched in beta format in 2016, and then opened to the public a year later, Amazon Go, the online retail giant’s stores without checkout lines, provides a textbook illustration of the use and development of technology. Amazon’s plans to expand its network of stores, formulated before the pandemic, were ambitious: more than 3,000 by 2021 in locations […] Written by Enrique Dans November 22, 2021November 22, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Retail Revolution In China China’s dominance in manufacturing has made it the factory of the world. The subsequent economic growth enriched an ever-expanding middle class, and the country’s retail industry has quickly adapted to supply a growing appetite for consumption. Some of these developments in the way people spend their money, powered by the latest technology, will soon be appearing on […] Written by Mark Greeven November 20, 2021November 23, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Man Who Was Struck By A Particle Accelerator If you ask a physicist what would happen if you were to stick any part of your body into a particle accelerator, you will be met with the same answer time and time again: they don’t know. They may have some vague notion of how it would affect your body, but not a single clear […] Written by Ella Alderson November 19, 2021November 19, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Methane Mystery The methane mystery Methane on Mars is really interesting – and really hard to explain. On Earth, methane signals microbes: they produce it, lots, as they break down organic matter. Although there are other, non-living sources of methane, such as some geological processes, it is generally considered a useful biomarker: i.e. if you find methane, you […] Written by Things We Don't Know November 18, 2021November 18, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
