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2015 DIGITAL STATSHOT FOR CHINA: THE STATE OF DIGITAL, SOCIAL MEDIA, MOBILE AND eCOMMERCE

The latest report in our series of studies into Digital, Social & Mobile use around the world shows that the pace of digital adoption in China shows few signs of slowing.

You can read the full report in the SlideShare embed above (or download it here), but numbers don’t mean much on their own, so we’ll use this post to dig into the significance of the data and their associated trends for marketers.

China Digital, Social and Mobile By The Numbers

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To get us started though, here are the key data headlines:

• Internet Users: 668 million, a 6% year-on-year increase
• Social Media Users: 659 million – more than the USA and Europe combined
• Unique Mobile Users: 675 million, responsible for 1.3 billion mobile subscriptions
• Mobile Internet Users: 594 million, accounting for 89% of all China’s internet users
• Mobile Social Media Users: 574 million, up 15 million since this time last year

The year-on-year growth rates tell interesting stories too (note that the mobile figures in this slide represent the growth in mobile subscriptions, not unique users):

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We’ll examine each of these in detail in the sections below.

Internet in China

Roughly 100,000 people in China started using the internet every day over the past year – that’s more than one every second.

Much of this growth is being driven by improved mobile access, with close to 90% of the country’s netizens using mobile devices to access the internet. It’s worth noting that this is often in addition to PC-based usage too, but an increasing number of the country’s internet users are mobile-only, especially in rural areas.

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When it comes to the total volume of web traffic, PC-based access still dominates, with 56% of the web pages served to China’s netizens in the past month going to laptop or desktop computers. However, this figure is down 29% year-on-year, while the number of web page requests from mobile devices has jumped 136% to 42%.

These trends suggest that mobile usage will account for more than half of all China’s web activity by early 2016.

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Despite mobile’s promise of ubiquitous internet access, however, internet usage still isn’t evenly distributed in China, and a marked difference remains between urban and rural usage rates. Nearly two-thirds of China’s urban population now uses the internet every month, but barely 3 in 10 of China’s rural citizens are online:

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The good news is that connection speeds are up considerably on last year, with the average fixed-connection access speed up 17% year-on-year according to Akamai. It’s worth noting that the average mobile connection speed is considerably higher than that of fixed connections though, with the average connection in China now considered ‘broadband’ (i.e. 4Mbps or above).

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Social Media in China

The overall number of social media users in China grew more slowly than we expected over the past year, but this is more likely due to a change in behaviour, rather than a waning of interest in social media. 

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It’s also worth noting that social media usage in China is already at a very high level, with the numbers suggesting that 99% of China’s internet community uses social media of some description.

The numbers for individual platforms tell the more interesting story though. QQ, Tencent’s ever-popular instant messaging service, still claims the country’s top position in terms of monthly active users (MAUs), and despite the vast majority of its users residing in China, it also claims the second-place spot in the worldwide rankings behind Facebook (click here to read more about the global picture).

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It’s worth noting that more people sign in to QQ via mobile devices each month than sign in to WeChat, but WeChat offers more varied services and functionality for both users and marketers.

User numbers suggest that QZone still dominates when it comes to traditional ‘social networking’, but WeChat (or Weixin, as it’s know in China) is quickly catching up, and is the platform that most users claim to use on a regular basis (note the difference between ‘use’ and ‘sign in’, the latter being the metric many of the platforms use to measure ‘active’ users).

For those who are still relatively unfamiliar with Chinese social media, Baidu Tieba may be a new discovery. Tieba, or “Post Bar” as the platform calls itself in its English literature, is a community that has grown up around specific areas of user interest related to the searches that people conduct on Baidu, China’s largest search engine.

Meanwhile, readers of our previous China reports (2013, 2014) will notice the absence of Tencent Weibo in this ranking. Tencent stopped publishing monthly active user figures for Tencent Weibo a number of months ago, and we have interpreted this to mean that the company has de-prioritised the platform in favour of its three larger ‘products’, QQ, Qzone and WeChat. Tencent Weibo appears to remain popular with many users though, with 38% of China’s internet users claiming to have used the platform in the past month (see below).

Research from GlobalWebIndex suggests that more than 6 in 10 internet users in China used WeChat in the past month. Sina Weibo comes in second, with 54% of survey respondents claiming to have used the service in the past 30 days.

It’s interesting to note that Facebook, Google+ and Twitter all appear in this list too; they may be officially ‘blocked’ by the Great Firewall, but GlobalWebIndex’s research suggest that a considerable number of China’s netizens are getting round these blocks to access non-Chinese social platforms.

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87% of China’s social media users now access via mobile devices at some point each month, with platforms like WeChat helping to drive overall numbers up 77 million over the past 12 months – a year-on-year increase of 15% that equates to more than 200,000 new users every day, or almost 2.5 new users every second.

At 1 hour and 43 minutes per day, social media accounts for just under half of all the time that people spend online in China. The country’s social media users spend 23% longer using social media than they do watching TV each day, although it’s worth noting that much of this time overlaps, with many TV viewers engaging in ‘second-screen’ social media use at the same time.

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It’s worth noting that use of tablets appears to be down slightly year-on-year though, with 22% fewer web page requests coming from tablet devices in the past month compared to this time one month ago.

Mobile in China

With 675 million unique subscribers in China, almost half the country’s population now owns a mobile phone, and we fully expect to see the country pass this milestone before the end of 2015.

The number of mobile subscriptions in China rose significantly in 2014 too, with three new subscribers every second contributing to annual growth of 94 million – an 8% year-on-year increase.

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The number of mobile subscriptions in China is now very close to the number of people living in the country, which suggest that the average user still maintains close to 2 active connections.

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However, we expect that this ratio will reduce over the coming months as more and more people upgrade from feature phones to smartphones; the main reason why individuals operate more than one mobile contract is to benefit from intra-network deals, but data-powered communications such as chat apps and VOIP are more efficient and effective ways of achieving the same benefits.

Smartphones are clearly the must-have devices in China today, accounting for 90% of new handset sales. They already account for just less than two-thirds of all handsets in active use, and we expect their overall share to increase steadily over the coming months as more people renew their devices.

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When it comes to internet-powered activities on mobile devices, Chinese netizens appear to be particularly interested in checking the weather. 

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China’s mobile users also appear to have embraced m-commerce, with reports suggesting that 20% of the country’s population have made a recent online purchase via their mobile device.

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E-Commerce in China

E-commerce more generally appears to be thriving in China, with almost one in three internet users buying online each month. 

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The country’s consumer e-commerce market was worth more than a quarter of a trillion US dollars in the six months to June 2015, with the year’s biggest shopping event – Singles Day – still to come. Sales on Alibaba’s various sites exceeded US$9 billion in just one day last November, and there’s every chance that number will pass $10 billion on 11th November this year.

Conclusions

So what does all this mean for brands? Here are our three key tips, designed specifically for non-Chinese marketers looking to make sense of the world’s largest consumer market:

China’s Different: it’s obvious that the platforms that dominate in China are markedly different to those that marketers are familiar with elsewhere – even those in their Asian neighbours. However, it’s not just the platforms that are different; the ways that Chinese netizens use social channels is also markedly different, and marketers need to carefully adapt their approaches for China’s cultural and societal idiosyncrasies as much as for its technological differences. One size does not fit all when it comes to China, and marketers would do well to engage the expertise of a partner who understands the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’.

1-to-1 Social: The numbers in this year’s report highlight the growing popularity of chat apps – a trend that we’ve seen elsewhere in the world too. The growing popularity of chat apps presents a new set of opportunities for marketers, as many of the conversations that take place on these platforms are more private in nature, taking place between individuals and small groups (versus the public environments that Western marketers will know from Facebook and Twitter). In order to take advantage of the ‘intimate’ nature of these one-to-one conversations, however, marketers will need to explore new approaches to social media and content marketing, ensuring that the tactics they employ make it easy for audiences to find and consume content on one platform (e.g. video-sharing services like Youku or Tudou), and then share that content proactively via chat apps. This will require greater emphasis on highly engaging content and organic sharing, rather than an approach that relies on paid media to push mediocre content to the masses.

Social Selling: China’s netizens are already very comfortable buying things online, whether that’s through their PCs or via their mobile devices. The next big opportunity for marketers is to understand how the dynamics of social referral work in China, and use that to move from social engagement to social conversion.

COMMENTARY:  If you have been looking for information on the state of China's growing digital, mobile, social media and e-commerce for 2015, this is a great source thanks to the nice guys at We Are Social. 

Courtesy of an article dated August 18, 2015 appearing in We Are Social

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THE QUALITY OF LIFE AROUND THE WORLD IN ONE NEAT INFOGRAPHIC

Came upon this infographic designed by Movehub for Business Insider.  Its quite revealting.  The USA is not No 1 in quality of life.  We rank No 10.  Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Finland and Sweden are the Top 5.  These are followed by Saudi Arabia, Oman, Australia, Norway and the USA.  Hope you find the information useful.  

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Courtesy of an article dated June 15, 2015 appearing in Business Insider

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CHINA SURGES AHEAD OF THE U.S. IN APPLE APP STORE iOS DOWNLOADS FOR THE FIRST TIME

 

China has been #2 in iOS downloads for a while, but just last quarter, it took the top spot. In our recent Q1 2015 Market Index, we noted this landmark event. However, we feel the news is big enough to deserve its own report. This deep-dive investigates the numerous dynamics related to China’s rise to the top.

 

Just in time for GMIC Beijing (taking place April 28-30, 2015), we’re excited to announce our latest free report, China Surges Ahead of the United States in iOS App Store Downloads. Inside you can find the market forces, categories, apps and publishers that played a role in this major shift. And you can bet we’ll be on the expo floor at GMIC ready to answer your questions about how this can impact your mobile app business in this fast-growing country.

1. China Snags the Top Spot

China’s iOS Quarterly Downloads Grew 30% Between Q1 2014 and Q1 2015

Apple has been clear about China’s importance in its overall strategy. At various events, including its Q1 2015 earnings call and March 2015 "Spring Forward" event , the company has specifically noted China’s importance.

In terms of app downloads, China had been the iOS App Store’s second largest market behind the United States since Q1 2011. Four years later, China’s quarterly iOS downloads grew by approximately 30% year-over-year in Q1 2015, while remaining relatively flat in the United States. This allowed China to overtake the United States as the largest country in terms of quarterly iOS downloads.

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2. China Overtakes the United States in Downloads With Faster Growth in iOS Installed Base

China's move past the United States for iOS downloads in Q1 2015 was possible thanks to large growth in the adoption of iOS devices, rather than an increase in downloads per device.  According to IDC, the installed base for iPhone and iPad combined grew 40% in China during 2014, compared to 13% growth in the United States.

As we discussed in our Q1 2015 Market Index , the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus may have played an important role in the rise of iOS App Store downloads in China. These devices are significantly larger than previous versions and deliver increased screen size and battery life. This is particularly important in China, a mobile first country where smartphone adoption exceeds PC adoption and many consumers carry out more tasks on mobile devices rather than desktop devices. This leads to higher demand for large screen smartphones with longer battery life, even if portability is sacrificed.

Expanded distribution also played a role in the success of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.  A pple has invested heavily in growing its retail presence and, as of April 2015, mainland China has 19 Apple Stores across 10 cities, up from just 8 in only Beijing and Shanghai in October 2013. During its Q1 2015 earnings call, Apple said it is on track to reach 40 stores in Greater China by mid2016.
Moreover, the iPhone 6 launch was the first time that Apple released a new iPhone on all three of China’s major mobile carriers at the same time, increasing its distribution network by thousands of stores.

3. Entertainment, Photo & Video and Lifestyle Apps Rode the Wave

In China, Games continues to be the largest category on the iOS App Store by both downloads and revenue by a large margin. However, three other categories experienced even higher yearoveryear
absolute download gains in Q1 2015: Entertainment, Photo & Video and Lifestyle. This aligns with three of the most popular activities for Chinese consumers on their smartphones: enjoying entertaining apps, capturing memorable life moments and shopping.

Entertainment Apps Get a Boost From Increased Content

Some of the Entertainment category’s impressive growth can be attributed to the proactive content strategies of China’s key video streaming providers, including internet giants like Tencent ( Tencent Video ), Baidu ( iQIYI ) and Sohu ( Sohu TV ), as well as online video services like Youku Tudou ( Youku , Tudou ) and LeTV ( LeTV ). Over the past few years, these services evolved from YouTube like usergenerated content video platforms to Netflix like providers of professional shows. They have successfully attracted audiences from traditional broadcasting TVs by offering the content on omniplatforms including desktop, mobile, settop boxes and digital TV. They have also enticed users to their platforms by securing rights to a broad range of foreign and domestic premium content including drama series like House of Cards and The Wife’s Lies , hit TV shows like Voice of China and Happy Camp, recent movies like Interstellar and Gone With the Bullets and live broadcasting of premium sports like the English Premier League and the NBA, as well as making their own exclusive content. Mobile video streaming delivers significant value to consumers by enabling them to consume content anytime and anywhere on devices that are more affordable than TVs and PCs. Recognizing this huge opportunity, traditional TV networks in China like Hunan Broadcasting System have also joined the competition for mobile audiences by launching their own apps like ImgoTV. 

iOS 8’s ‘App Extensions’ Help Photo & Video Apps Go Viral

Photo & Video’s explosive growth in Q1 2015 was helped by Apple’s own iMovie , which it has
offered for free since September 2014. The category also received a boost from newly released camera and photo editing apps like FotoPlace and Pitu . The upward trajectories of these new apps have outpaced previous leaders in this category. This is partially due to iOS 8’s new App Extensions feature which allows onetap photo and video sharing from camera and photo editing apps to any social platform. In previous iOS versions, consumers could only do one click sharing with a few social networks selected by Apple. The launch of iOS 8 in September 2014 extended this functionality to WeChat,  China’s largest social network, and the seamless sharing experience helped new camera and photo editing apps go viral.

MCommerce Hits New Heights

In the Lifestyle category, mcommerce apps — which include apps for online shopping, shopping guides, service ordering, daily deals, local business reviews and classifieds — experienced massive growth in 2014. Among the China iOS App Store’s top 20 Lifestyle apps by downloads, 17 are mcommercerelated.  From Q1 2014 to Q1 2015, total downloads of these 17 apps grew by 85%, showing that mcommerce is booming from an app perspective.  According to Alipay, China’s largest online payment platform and the backbone of ecommerce in China, mobile payments accounted for 54% of all of its transactions in the first 10 months of 2014, up from 22% for all of 2013. It will be interesting to see how mcommerce further develops as the potential of one billion customers is unleashed.

4. iOS’ Bright Future in China

Download Growth Paves the Way for Monetization

In mature markets, such as United States and Japan, we have seen explosive download growth lay the foundation for significant revenue growth that follows. We expect to see this repeated in China in the near future. Furthermore, the iOS App Store's potential size in China may be even higher than it initially appears since downloads per active iOS device is significantly higher in China than in the United States.

As we mentioned in our 2014 Retrospective , China is appealing for its monetization potential as well as its expansive smartphone user base. In Q1 2015, it was the #3 country (behind only the United States and Japan) by total quarterly revenue on the iOS App Store. From Q1 2014 to Q1 2015, revenue in China grew 90% compared to roughly 30% in the United States and approximately 50% in Japan. Although the United States leads China in terms of revenue per iOS device, China grew even more quickly to narrow that gap from Q1 2014 to Q1 2015.

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One category that demonstrates the future revenue potential for iOS in China is the Entertainment category. In Q1 2015, it experienced 385% year-over-year revenue growth.  Video streaming apps aided this revenue leap to a major extent. All the video apps mentioned in the previous section were among the top 30 apps outside of games by revenue in the China iOS App Store, 3 of them among top 5. By steadily adding new premium content to their easy to access libraries, Chinese video streaming services have increased their perceived value and helped expand Chinese consumers’ willingness to pay for content, even on a smaller screen. In addition to advertising, these services are gradually increasing their monetization via premium memberships, program subscriptions and pay-per-view models, which are partially collected through the app store channels.

5. Recap

The iOS App Store has experienced phenomenal growth in China. In Q1 2015, quarterly iOS
app downloads increased approximately 30% year-over-year resulting in China surpassing
United States to become the largest market by iOS app downloads. Some key insights related
to this impressive growth:

• IDC figures show that the installed base for iOS devices in China experienced higher growth than that in the United States over the span of 2014. This was the key driver that helped China surpass the United States by iOS App Store downloads.
• The launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus may have played an important role aswell. In addition to addressing China’s particularly high demand for smartphones with larger screens, it also benefitted from Apple’s expanded retail presence and broader carrier support.
• The Entertainment, Photo & Video and Lifestyle categories especially benefitted from the increase in iOS App Store downloads in China. Entertainment was helped by key video streaming providers’ content strategies, Photo & Video was assisted by enhanced sharing capabilities from iOS 8’s new App Extensions feature and Lifestyle was aided by mcommerce and related apps.

The continued growth of iOS device installed base and iOS App Store downloads in China may be laying the the foundation for significant revenue opportunities in the near future. We are excited to watch the mobile app market develop in this key market for Apple.

COMMENTARY:   As reported in an article dated April 27, 2015 appearing in TechCrunch, Apple is tearing it up in China. During its second quarter 2015, the company saw 71 percent revenue growth in the locale, and the company is widely thought to have sold more iPhones there than in the United States.

Notably, the company’s Chinese revenue came in second place to Europe’s during the first quarter, losing $17.2 billion to $16.1 billion. In the most recent quarter, the second of 2015, Apple’s Chinese revenue grew to $16.8 billion, while its European top line, measured on a sequential-quarter basis for now, fell to $12.2 billion. The company’s European revenue grew on a yearly basis, further underscoring how important China is to Apple.

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The technology company posted revenue gains in the Americas, Europe, Greater China and the ‘rest of Asia Pacific.’ Japan declined for Apple, something that should not surprise after Microsoft unloaded on the country as a slipping zone of demand. 

The Apple Watch, with its high-end options, has been discussed as a potential play for the Chinese luxury market. That aside, it seems that the company has no issues selling its products in the location. As such, Watch aside, it seems that Apple has a winning formula in place.

Courtesy of an article dated April 28, 2015 appearing in App Annie and an article dated April 27, 2015 appearing in TechCrunch

THE INSANE OPULENCE OF THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PALACE UNDER ITS FORMER DICTATOR

WHEN YOU'RE ROBBING STATE COFFERS TO GILD YOUR TOILETS, TASTE BECOMES SECONDARY

During the summer of 2011,  Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych opened up his modest home to six television reporters, revealing what a journalist with the AP described as "a cozy place with a small office just big enough for his grandchildren to play in." Except even at the time, it was pretty obvious that he didn't live there. The same AP story went on to detail "strong evidence he actually lives in very different digs: a luxurious, marble-columned mansion with a golf course, a helipad, and even an ostrich enclosure."

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Yanukovych's critics were right. When the public finally got a glimpse of the leader's true housing situation after he fled Kiev a week and a half ago and found refuge in Russia (just before Ukraine's parliament voted him out of power) they found all of the above, plus a replica galleon floating on an artificial waterway, elaborate statuary on neatly manicured lawns, garages filled to the brim with vintage cars and motorcycles, bathrooms the size of studio apartments with gilded toilets, and more.

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The Ukrainian presidential palace has a dining room that is nothing short of overwhelming. The mansion wouldn't look out of place as the country abode of an oil baron or a Hollywood starlet, perhaps, but this is the private resident of a public official, who for most of his career made a salary in the realm of $2,000 a month.  Yanukovych is currently missing (hiding out in Russia, thanks to that other crook Putin) and wanted on charges of mass murder related to the killing of Euromaidan protesters, who for the past three months have been protesting Yanukovych's policies, including rejecting an accord with the European Union in favor of strengthening ties with Putin's Russia. How Yanukovych's grand residence came to be is a baffling tale of corruption, secrecy, and questionable design choices. Now vacated and overrun by journalists and citizens hoping for a glimpse of the president's secrets, the palace remains an architectural tribute to the fantastic wealth and power wielded by its owner. And yeah, it's pretty ugly.

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Mezhyhirya, as the residence is called, was, up until 1923, the home of a monastery. In 1935, the 350-acre estate was taken over by the government and turned into a park with summer houses for Soviet officials. In 2007, Yanukovych privatized the property in his final days as Prime Minister, demolishing the Soviet-era buildings and erecting a five-story palace built by Honka, a Finnish company that specializes in log houses.

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In Yanukovych’s final weeks as Prime Minister, his government illegally privatised  Mezhyhiriya. No money was paid to the state for its sale; instead, a couple of semi- derelict buildings in Kyiv were handed over in return (they have continued  to fall down ever since).

Mezhyhiriya, meanwhile, was acquired, without any competitive tendering process, by a Donetsk company called ‘MedInvestTraid’, which immediately resold it and a few years later filed for bankruptcy.

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COMMENTARY:   What is it with these Russian and Ukrainian presidents presidential palaces. Vladimir Putin's presidential palace is also very over the top and opulent.  But former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych went way over the top with his presidential palace. No wonder he was overthrown. 

Courtesy of an article dated March 5, 2014 appearing in Fast Company Design

EUROZONE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HIT 11.8% IN NOV 2012, WAS 12% IN FEB 2013, AND 23.9% OF EUROZONE YOUTH ARE STILL UNEMPLOYED

Scene of unemployed workers outside a Spanish unemployment office in Madrid in December 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge) 

The eurozone unemployment rate has hit a record high at 11.8% in November 2012 with 18.8 million people out of jobs according to Eurostat and youth unemployment at a new high of 24.4%.

The eurozone unemployment rate rose to 11.8% in November 2012 - the highest rate on record according to official figures out today.

Up from 11.7% in October, the latest figure has caused some concern in the eurozone. Graeme Wearden wrote on October 31, 2012:

"Today's unemployment data rather takes the shine off recent claims that the eurozone crisis is over. The immediate threat to the single currency has receded, but politicians and policymakers still face an ailing economy. Initiatives such as a banking union or the ECB's bond-buying programme may hold the eurozone together, but they don't deliver the hope of immediate growth."

Once again the highest rate was seen in Spain at 26.6% followed by Greece at 26% (recorded for September 2012). According to Eurostat, the unemployment rate increased in 18 of the EU member states, fell in seven and remained stable in both Denmark and Hungary.

Unemployment rates vary slightly between the EA 17 (European nations adopting the EURO as their currency) and the EU 27 or European Union.

EA 17 and EU 27 Unemployment Rates - 2000 through Q1 2012 - EuroStat (Click Image To Enlarge)

The latest figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, also show the EU27 unemployment rate stood at 10.7% in November, stable compared with the previous month.

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Eurostat figures also show youth unemployment and the latest figures suggest the situation has got worse. The youth unemployment rate for November 2012 was 23.7% in the EU, up from 22.2% in November 2011.

The eurozone recorded a youth unemployment rate of 24.4%, up from 24.2% the previous month. Greece and Spain reported the highest rates at 57.6% (September 2012) and 56.5% respectively.

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Germany, Austria and the Netherlands had the lowest youth unemployment rates at 8.1%, 9% and 9.7% respectively.

The latest release shows that 26.06m people in the whole European Union were unemployed in November 2012 - an increase of 154,000 people on the previous month. Compared with November 2011, unemployment has risen by 2.012m.

Despite the latest release displaying the November 2012 seasonally adjusted rates for most EU countries, there are still some gaps. The latest recorded figures for Greece are from September 2012.

Austria and Luxembourg had the lowest unemployment rates at 4.5% and 5.1% respectively. Germany (5.4%) and the Netherlands (5.6%) also recorded low rates of unemployment.

The table below shows the seasonally adjusted unemployment rates by country and month. There is also a table showing youth unemployment by country. Breakdowns by gender can be found in our downloadable spreadsheet. What can you do with this data?

Eurozone Unemployment Rate Hits Record High in February 2013

Unemployment rose to a record high of 12 percent in February 2013 in the Eurozone, according to the latest data released by the EU's official statistics agency.

The Belgium-based Eurostat said on Tuesday that some 19.07 million people in the 17-member currency bloc are looking for jobs, up by 1.01 percent from the same month last year.

Laszlo Andor, a spokeswoman for EU Employment Commissioner, said.

"Such unacceptably high levels of unemployment are a tragedy for Europe.  The EU has to mobilise all available resources to create jobs...young people in particular need help."

The figures and a weak manufacturing sector report added to the gloom after data earlier this year had encouraged some hope the European economy might finally have touched bottom.

Analysts suggested Tuesday's reports pointed instead to worse to come, with the jobless queues likely to grow as the debt crisis continues to sap the economy.

Youth Unemployment

The highest unemployment rates in February 2013 were found in Spain with 26.3 percent and neighbour Portugal, on 17.5 percent.

Greece was put at it 26.4 percent but this figure is for December, the latest available.

The lowest rates were 4.8 percent in Austria and 5.4 percent in Germany, Europe's biggest economy.

With youth unemployment a huge cause of concern, Eurostat said that the jobless rate for under-25s ran at 23.9 percent in the Eurozone and 23.5 percent in the EU.

Among the countries with the highest youth jobless levels, Spain was on 55.7 percent, followed by Portugal on 38.2 percent and Italy with 37.8 percent.

Greece was the highest with 58.4 percent but this was also for December.

In the United States, the youth unemployment rates for teens (16-19 yrs) and young adults (20-24 yrs) are at historical highs, peaking at 26.75% for teens and 17.5% for young adults in early 2009 as a result of the Great Recession.  

U.S. Unemployment Rates - Teens (16-19 yrs), Young Adults (20-24 yrs) and Adults (25+ yrs) - 1948 through 2012 - Bureau of Labor Statistics (Click Image To Enlarge)

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistis, the youth (ages 16-24 yrs) unemployment rate stood at 16.2% at the end of March 2013.  This is more than double the U.S. unemployment rate.  By contrast, the Eurozone youth unemployment rate was 23.9% -- +47.5% higher than the U.S.

When you breakdown the U.S. unemployment rate by age and race, it is obvious that Hispanic and Black youth are having a difficult time finding employment.

U.S. Unemployment Rates - Teens, Young Adults and Adults Over 25 yrs - By Age and Race - March 2013 - Bureau of Labor Statistics (Click Image To Enlarge)

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said the figures marked a "dismal landmark" at 12 percent -- already very close to the official EU 2013 forecast of 12.2 percent.

COMMENTARY:   As you can readily see, although the U.S. unemployment rate as of March 2013 was 7.6%.  At the height of the Great Recession, the official U.S. unemployment rate exceeded 10%.  If you factor in individuals who gave up looking for work and under-employed individuals (part-time workers and temps) the U.S. unemployment rate was 22%.  

Three Measurements of U.S. Unemployment Rates - Official, Official+Workers No Looking For Work, and Official+Workers Not Looking For Work+Underemployed Workers - 1994 through April 2009 - BLS  (Click Image To Enlarge)

In a blog post dated November 6, 2011, I prepared a detailed analysis of the U.S. unemployment rate, and I explained the three key factors as to why the unemployment rate will continue to remain high, and why no President, not even Barack Obama, is likely to do much about it.   I believe that the Eurozone is in a similar fix.

To put things into perspective, the present Eurozone unemployment rate of 12% is probably closer to 25% when you factor in individuals who gave up looking for work and under-employed individuals (part-time workers and temps).  As a resu;t of these horrific unemployment statistics, the Eurozone is suffering through a recession similar to what the U.S. experienced just recently.  

Courtesy of an article dated October 31, 2012 appearing in The Guardian and an article dated April 2, 2013 appearing in Aljezeera and an article dated April 5, 2013 appearing in Center For Amerian Progress 

FACEBOOK REACHES 1 BILLION USERS, BUT GROWTH HAS PEAKED IN DEVELOPED NATIONS, SO WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE SOCIAL GIANT?

 

Not complacent at a billion users, Facebook is parachuting into markets all over the globe. But overseas growth that once seemed to come so easily is slower now.

 In just eight years, Facebook signed up more than half the world's Internet population.

Now it's going after the rest.

Click Image To Enlarge

Facebook wants to reach every single person on the Internet whether they are logging on from a laptop in Santa Monica, an iPhone in Tokyo or a low-tech phone with a tiny screen in Nairobi.

It's parachuting into market after market to take on homegrown social networks by currying favor with the locals and venturing where many people have spotty — if any — access to the Internet.

In Japan, it lets users list their blood types, which the Japanese believe — like astrological signs in the Western world — give insight into personality and temperament. In Africa, Facebook markets a stripped-down, text-only version of its service that works on low-tech mobile phones.

Sitting below flags from around the world, growth team member George Lee, left, speaks with Vishu Gupta at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters. The company is pushing its global reach. (David Butow, LA Times) - October 31, 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)

International growth is crucial to maintain its dominance as the world's largest social network. The company's scorching pace of growth has cooled especially in the United States. Facebook must coax users to sign up — and make sure it remains popular with the users it already has — or risk being knocked from its lofty perch.

Click Image To Enlarge

Chris Cox, Facebook's vice president of product says.

"We're not a company that is just trying to add more people.  What we are trying to do is build a service that everyone in the world can use."

But overseas growth that once seemed to come so easily is slower now. Facebook has already saturated most major markets around the globe. Eight out of 10 Facebook users are outside of the U.S.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said.

"I don't think that Facebook has a chance of attracting another billion users." 

Inside Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters is a small army out to prove naysayers wrong. Above their desks they have hung flags from around the world that represent their nationalities. They obsessively scan screens that track user growth around the world.

They cheered and popped open champagne in September when the number of active Facebook users crossed 1 billion. But the moment of jubilation quickly passed as they redoubled their efforts to spread Facebook around the globe.

Naomi Gleit is the soft-spoken, headstrong 29-year-old product manager in charge of growth at Facebook. She says Facebook's future is on mobile devices, the medium by which most people will experience the Web in coming years. Facebook now works on more than 2,500 different phones, helping it gain a foothold in emerging markets. And it is forging relationships with mobile phone operators around the world.

Naomi Gleit is director of product for user growth and engagement at Facebook, where she manages programs like internationalization intended to break adoption barriers, as well as the data-driven optimization of flows like registration, new user experience, and friend finding. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in science, technology and society.(Click Image To Enlarge)

Gleit's 150-member team has boots on the ground in far-flung places armed with low-tech phones and cheap data plans. Even team members here carry Nokia phones alongside their iPhones to update their status or check their News Feed.

Gleit said. 

"We originally built a product for ourselves.  This is different.  Now we need to understand the experience of users who are not like us."

Analysts say Facebook already has established an impressive track record of uprooting entrenched competitors.

• In Britain, it displaced the dominant social network Bebo, forcing AOL to sell it at a huge loss. 
• In Germany, Facebook overtook the homegrown StudiVZ. 
• Facebook even broke Google social network Orkut's stranglehold on Brazil and India.

In 2009, it launched a clever tool to help Facebook users find their Orkut friends on Facebook and instantly send them friend requests. Two years later it swiped Google's top executive in Latin America, Alexandre Hohagen. Facebook sprinted ahead of Orkut one year ago, and now has 61 million active users in Latin America's largest country.

Facebook is treating India as a test lab for how it can spread in other emerging markets such as Indonesia. Facebook, which has offices in Hyderabad, India, has grown from 8 million users in 2010 to 65 million users today. It is aggressively targeting India's youth. A few hundred young Indian programmers recently jammed a Facebook hackathon at a Bangalore convention center to chug chai and brainstorm new apps that would appeal to their friends.

 

But Facebook has its eyes on a much bigger prize beyond the country's 100 million Internet users: the 900 million-plus Indians on mobile phones. Some analysts predict India will have more Facebook users than any other country including the United States by 2015.

The company also faces significant challenges in India.

• It must make the service captivating on low-tech mobile phones with unreliable Internet connections. 
• It must gingerly navigate demands from the Indian government to remove objectionable content without alienating users.

Facebook is making some of its biggest moves in Russia, South Korea and Japan, the only major markets where it operates but has penetration of less than 50%, according to research firm ComScore.In October, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg traveled to Russia, Europe's largest Internet market, to meet with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev. Facebook also cut a deal with one of Russia's mobile phone operators, Beeline, to provide a free Facebook application to subscribers.

 
Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev, left, met with Mark Zuckerberg, chief of Facebook, at Mr. Medvedev's Gorki residence outside Moscow (Click Image To Enlarge)

And Facebook is making headway in South Korea, where it's battling local social network Cyworld for the time and attention of people there.

In Japan, Facebook has pulled off its biggest coup. Even as Facebook took hold in other parts of Asia, it grew slowly in Japan, where people aren't as comfortable sharing personal information — even their real names — on the Internet. Local social networks such as Mixi allow — and sometimes encourage — the use of pseudonyms. The earthquake and tsunami in 2011 changed a lot of minds about the value of using real names on the Web as Facebook became an important tool to reunite families and disseminate reliable information in the disaster's aftermath.

As of September, Facebook had amassed 18 million users in Japan at the expense of local social networks and Twitter. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg touted the social network's growth in September when she traveled to Japan to target the country's massive advertising market.

Facebook's toughest challenge by far is that it's cut off from a third of the world's population. The Chinese government, which censors most major U.S. social media websites, has blocked Facebook since 2009. It's a major blind spot for a company intent on global domination. China's more than half a billion Internet users spend a huge chunk of their days on Chinese social media sites.

Chinese Social Media Fast Facts (July, 2012) from Digital Jungle

Zuckerberg has said he would like to find a way to enter China, but even with the recent leadership change there — ushering in the Chinese Communist Party's first new chief in the social media era — most analysts say it's unlikely.

Many investors are far more interested in how Facebook plans to cash in on the users it already has than how it plans to sign up more of them, especially in poorer parts of the world where it will be much harder for Facebook to make money.

Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser said.

"Does getting to 2 billion users matter? The answer is no." 

Gleit says growth isn't just a numbers game. Her team focuses on building products that encourage users to be more active on Facebook and spend more time there. Last year Gleit took the lead on a popular feature that lets users subscribe to News Feeds without having to become Facebook friends.

Those kinds of efforts are crucial especially in markets where Facebook's growth has slowed just as the company comes under intense pressure from Wall Street to ramp up its advertising business.

Gleit said.

"I have this deep faith in the power of the vision and in the impact we can have.  We still haven't achieved anything near what I think we can."

COMMENTARY:   Mark Zuckerberg is obsessed with connecting the entire world so that users can engage and share content anywhere on the planet, 24/7, 365.  My main criticism of Facebook is just how big can you become before you are so bloated that the user experience is negatively impacted.  My other criticism is advertising.  Facebook is aggressively expanding its advertising products including paid ads within a users news feed and promoted posts for brands willing to pay for the privilege.  Invasion of privacy continues to be a huge issue with many users, and Facebook's excursions into every facit of our private lives really destroys the Facebook user experience even further.   It is no secret that employers and insurance companies are now using Facebook to screen prospective workers and patients and spy on the social media activities of existing employees.   The U.S. government, through the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and CIA, now use the information in social networks to track terrorists and criminals, but the Patriot Act provides just too much leeway into how much these agencies can invade our private lives.  

Facebook believes that it can add another 1 billion users to its user database, but I have a feeling that it will be unable to meet that goal unless China opens its doors to the social giant, and I don't think it is going to do this, in order to protect its Chinese social networks.   If you are curious as to the number of users and penetration rates for Facebook users by country below is checkfacebook's Facebook Map of the World:

Facebook Statistics - Source: checkfacebook.com

Click Image To Enlarge

Courtesy of an article dated  December 1, 2012 appearing in the Los Angeles Times 

APPLE'S CONTROVERSIAL SUPPLIER FOXCONN AGREES TO CUT WORKING HOURS FOR ITS FACTORY WORKERS, WORKERS ASK WHY

Workers walk outside Hon Hai Group's Foxconn plant in Shenzhen, China.  Foxconn manufacturers the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod (Click Image To Enlarge)

When Chinese worker Wu Jun heard that her employer, the giant electronics assembly company Foxconn, had given employees landmark concessions her reaction was worry, not elation.

Wu, 23, is one of tens of thousands of migrants from the poor countryside who staff the production lines of Foxconn's plant in Longhua, in southern China, which spits out made-to-order products for Apple and other multinationals.

Foxconn International plant assembly workers working on the Apple iPad (Click Image To Enlarge)

Foxconn's concessions, including cutting overtime for its 1.2 million mainland Chinese workers while promising compensation that protects them against losing income, were backed by Apple, which has faced criticism and media scrutiny for worker safety lapses and for using relatively low-paid employees to make high-cost phones, computers and other gadgets.

But at the Foxconn factory gates, many workers seemed unconvinced that their pay wouldn't be cut along with their hours. For some Chinese factory workers - who make much of their income from long hours of overtime - the idea of less work for the same pay could take getting used to.

Apple CEO Tim Cook tours Foxconn's iPhone plant in Zhengzhou, China accompanied by the Foxconn plant manager - MIC Gadget (Click Image To Enlarge)

Wu, a 23-year-old employee from Hunan province in south China said.

"We are worried we will have less money to spend. Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean less money." 

Foxconn said it will reduce working hours to 49 per week, including overtime.

Chen Yamei, 25, a Foxconn worker from Hunan who said she had worked at the factory for four years said.

"We are here to work and not to play, so our income is very important." 

Chen said she now earned a bit over 4,000 yuan a month ($634) and added.

"We have just been told that we can only work a maximum of 36 hours a month of overtime. I tell you, a lot of us are unhappy with this. We think that 60 hours of overtime a month would be reasonable and that 36 hours would be too little."

Foxconn is one the biggest employers of China's 153 million rural migrants working outside their hometowns. Compared to smaller, mainland-owned factories, workers said, its vast plants are cleaner and safer, and offer more recreation sites.

But even so, for most employees at the Foxconn plant in Longhua, a part of Guangdong province's vast industrial sprawl, life is dominated by the repetitive routine of the production line.

Outside the Foxconn plant, off-duty employees crowded a small shopping mall. Their tightly packed apartment blocks are hemmed by hair salons, snack stores, gaming arcades and Internet "bars", where many while away leisure hours by playing computer games or watching Korean and Hong Kong soap operas.

Huang Hai, a 21-year-old man who said he had worked at Foxconn's factory for about two years said.

"I don't go out that much as there is nothing much to do. I do go out for a meal once in a while.  This is a good company to work for because the working conditions are better than a lot of other small factories."

Huang was waiting for a friend lined up outside the recruitment centre for prospective Foxconn employees.

Huang said.

"I didn't like my first job at Foxconn because it was very repetitive. It was mainly manual work and I had to hammer nails everyday.  Now it's better because I work with computers."

COMMENTARY:  It's very difficult to separate fact from fiction after reading the above quotes from Foxconn workers, because Foxconn has been known to fire employees who spoke negatively about the company, criticized working conditions in the press or demonstrated against the company in the past.  

This still does not explain the 13 Foxconn plant suicides that occurred since 2010 and two separate plant explositions due to dangerous chemicals that killed nearly a dozen plant workers and injured hundreds more, and reports by China's environmental protection agency that Foxconn and numerous other Chinese plants are not properly disposing of chemical wastes and have created an environmental pollution hazzard on a massive scale.  

One needs to understand that Chinese factory workers like those at Foxconn are from China's countryside where the people work long hours in the fields growing rice and vegetables, are very poor and not very well educated.  Many are willing to tolerate sweat shop working conditions and make about $3.00 a day to help their poor families back home.  To these workers, working at a company like Foxconn is a welcome change.

The fact is abundantly clear that Apple has been very slow in responding to the sweat shop working conditions of Foxconn and other Chinese manufacturers.  In two recent blog posts dated March 30, 2012, I reported on former Apple CEO Steve Jobs comments about Foxconn during an interview in 2010, and March 29 2012, I reported on Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent visit to Foxconn's plant in China.   Tim Cook wanted to meet with Foxconn officials and observe firsthand the changes that Foxconn has made to improve plant working conditions, worker pay and benefits, improve plant safety, dispose of hazardous wastes and comply with Apple's Code of Suppliers. This was mostly a publicity visit, to show that Apple cares about the plant workers of many of its outsourced suppliers in China and to appease the press.

Courtesy of an article dated March 30, 2012 appearing in Reuters

EMARKETER: FACEBOOK FACES TOUGH COMPETITON IN RUSSIA, RUSSIAN SOCIAL NETWORKS OWN 77% SHARE OF SM MARKET

Click Image To Enlarge

Site’s worldwide expansion buzz at an all-time high, but local social networks in Russia still hold on to their lead

Facebook may be the world’s largest social network, with a user base predicted to top 837 million in 2012, according to eMarketer estimates, but the social giant isn’t the leader everywhere; it still trails local incumbents in several emerging markets, including Russia.

According to data from comScore, in October 2011, Facebook was the fourth most popular social network in Russia, reaching just over 20% of internet users in the country. It trailed three domestic sites: VKontakte (VT), Odnoklassniki.ru and Mail.ru (My World).

In addition to dominating Russia in total reach, the top two native social networks dwarfed Facebook by more than 10 to one in average time spent per user.

eMarketer forecasts the number of Facebook users in Russia will increase 62% in 2012, whereas overall social network user growth in the country is only predicted to rise 11.1%. The figures suggest that local social networks will not be able to hold onto their dominance much longer. The real question may not be whether Facebook will overtake local social networks there, but when.

For more information on social network user behavior and trends outside the US, watch for a forthcoming eMarketer report on worldwide social network usage.

COMMENTARY:   I took the opportunity to look into the top 3 Russian social networks: Vkontake, Odnoklassniki and My [email protected].   Vkontakte is the big cahuna in Russia, but the key reason they are so hot over there is because they are a platform for spam and 40% of its users are students and younger Millennials.  But what really sets Vkontakte apart from Facebook is that it offers a file-sharing system that allows users to easily find pirated movies (dubbed in Russian), and illegally download music for free.  Does that sound familiar?  Apparently, the latter is enough to keep its users from switching to other social networks.

Vkontakte

Vkontakte is the social network created by Pavel Durov in 2006.  They state they have more than 150 millions of users from all around the world (83 millions just from Russia and Ucraina), but just 28 millions are active every day. The main reason between this big divide is the usage of Vkontakte as a platform for spam, which forces users to be really suspicious: we must consider this crucial aspect when we want to plan a the brand presence on this social network. It’s also curious to notice how it’s relatively easy to access to all the names an profiles, displayed in chronological order based on subscription, completely ignoring any sort of privacy.

Another element we should consider is the massive presence of teenagers, a segment with low buying power; despite Vkontakte vice-president Ilya Perekopskyi stated that more than 60% of users are over 25 and not students, it’s quite hard to believe so by using the platform on daily basis (to know more read this). And our idea is confirmed by an analysis of the brands that can actually show some successful case histories on this social network. As an example we can mention Clearasil, a brand of anti-acne body detergent owned by Reckitt Benckiser.

Clearasil created a Vkontakte app that allowed users to create videos based on the product benefits. Everything was aimed to make the user-generate-content go viral inside the platform, aided by some others collateral micro-campaigns and online and offline PR. The impressive results (more than 13,000 contents created and a total reach of half a million people) caused sales to go up by 30% compared to 2009. To have a more precise idea of the results, here is the campaign report on Vimeo.

In a country like Russia, where the average time spent on Social Media is double the American one, how can we explain the success of Vkontakte over Facebook?

The answer is pretty easy: VK, apart from being the first comer in the tight national market, offers a file-sharing system that allows users to easily find pirated movies (dubbed in Russian), and illegally download music for free. For many people this is apparently enough to decide to not switch from VK to FB, but it’s also a characteristic we should think of when we decide our target for a brand campaign.

When Facebook arrived in Russia, VK lost a relatively small amount of users (less than 6 millions users according to Ogilvy). But these users were more open towards the brand communication (mainly to emphasize their social status) and they were representing ahigher cultural level compared the average Vkontakte users.

Anyways, it’s interesting to notice the effort Vkontakte put into an evolution towards a professional standards: they adopted some anti-spam policies and in April of 2011 they introduced the possibility to open Brand pages, and to launch video advertising campaigns.

In fact, like in many countries in the world, online videos are a crucial tool to increase the awareness of a brand; let’s just take a look at this viral campaign to launch in the Russian market a set of sea salts to cleaned the nose, called Aqua Maris. An agency called Novocortex created the “World Championships of Nose Cleansing”, together with a number of fictional characters and fake-websites, generating big buzz around this pretty funny hoax. This made the campaign bounce on several blogs and newspapers, both in Russia and abroad.

And this clearly shows how the Russian audience is reactive and easy to involve, when contents are well structured (to know more, read here).

Odnoklassniki

This social network has less registered users than Vkontakte: 43 millions between Russia and Ukraine. But it showed an big increase, after VK decided to re-establish the invitation-only subscription, another anti-spam move. This way Odnoklassniki was able to win the Kazakistan, which was owned by the competitor just months before. It’s also very popular in Kyrgyzstan, and it’s the n.2 most visited website in Armenia.

The main usage of this platform (which used to be a paid service) is to get back in touch with old friends and classmates, and it’s not really considered by brands, that usually choose alternative social networks like VK or FB.

Odnoklassniki is part of the Mail.ru group, the biggest Internet corporation in Russia: they also own [email protected] and a 33% share of di Vkontakte, and two huge instant messaging platforms (ICQ and Mail.ru Agent, with more than 80 million registered email accounts). Even though they basically share the same ownership, it’s curious to notice there have been fight between different social networks: as an example, Pavel Durov (the VK founder) defined Mail.ru “a tasteless warehouse of viruses”, blocking links directing to Mail.ru on Vkontakte.

My [email protected]

This network, born in 2007, counts almost 4 million users amongst Russia and Ukraine, most of them teenager and kids according to Ogilvy. The main goal of the platform is to incentivate the creation of connection between young users, offering several platforms to communicate between users. This makes it one of the most relevant network in the Russian panorama.

“My World” members can send private messages, give and get gifts, share their desires, publish pics and videos, listen to music and manage personal blogs. But the most important thing to the young audience is the possibility to know what their friends are doing in real time.

For quite a while I've predicted that Facebook would encounter problems gaining traction in Russia.  Looks like I am right.   I'm not sold that Facebook's user base in Russia will increase by 62%.  That's just too optimistic.  Maybe 30% is more like it.  A big maybe.  

If you look at the average number of minutes Russians spend on the top 3 Russian social networks with the time they spend on Facebook, you get the feeling that Facebook has not fully sold Rooskieland.   Will Zuck break some rules allowing pirated movies and music files?  I say he does, cause he has no real values.  He also said about the Chinese, that maybe Facebook should become political and adopt to local Chinese custom. Translation: allow Chinese censorship.  China turned down Facebook, but Zuck is not quitting. He's scheduled to make another try later this year. He needs China to get to 1 billion users.  

Courtesy of an article dated February 27, 2012 appearing in eMarketer and an article dated October 19, 2011 appearing in Young Digital Lab

HARRODS OFFERS HIGH-FASHION ABAYAS FOR MUSLIM WOMEN THAT RIVAL GUCCI SHOES AND HERMES SCARFS AND HANDBAGS

 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates.  Fashion designer Hind Beljafla makes abayas to match the Gucci shoes and Hermes handbags of high-spending women in the Gulf.

 

Incorporating local tradition with influences from high-end fashion, Hind Beljafla and her sister Reem run successful fashion label Das. Based around the Abaya, Hind has continued to be avant-garde in everything from material application to her pursuit of inspirational locations around the world. While the influence from abroad is something they embrace, the Abaya in itself is a specialty piece looking to incorporate the sensibilities of high-fashion. 

Now these women can buy her elegant versions of the black Islamic robes, which obscure the contours of a woman’s body, when they head to London this summer to escape the Arabian Peninsula’s sweltering heat. Harrods started selling abayas by Beljafla’s DAS Collection in June, a month after Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund bought the landmark store.

Muslim women are like any women around the world: They love fashion and love shopping, Beljafla, 24, said in her store here.

Fashion houses in Milan and Paris are waking up to the commercial potential for Muslim women’s clothing that respects religious values and sets new standards for style.

Gas exporter Qatar ranks among the world’s wealthiest nations, with a gross domestic product per capita of $121,000, while Saudi Arabia sits on a fifth of the planet’s oil reserves.

Last year, John Galliano was among 21 designers who participated in a Paris show at Hotel George V, owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. The made-to-measure abayas displayed there were worth up to $10,000.

Saks Fifth Avenue, which hosted the event, then put designer abayas on sale for as much as $12,000 at its stores in the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Jeddah. The abayas are displayed alongside designer evening gowns on the women-only floor of a shopping mall in Riyadh’s glass skyscraper, the Kingdom Center, owned by Alwaleed.

Saudi Arabia, which follows a strict interpretation of Islam, forbids mixing in public between unrelated men and women.

Clients have asked DAS to make abayas to match the color of their designer bags and high heels by brands such as Christian Dior, Hermes, Channel, and Gucci, Beljafla said.

Four years ago, Christian Dior SA had one store in the Middle East, in Dubai. It has since opened 10 in the region, in locations including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Kuwait.

 

Paris-based Jean-Claude Jitrois has made abayas for several Saudi princesses as well as a collection of 40 for sale at Saks Fifth Avenue.

He said. 

"There is no contradiction between the modernity of European fashion and modernity of Middle Eastern women.  Every culture has its traditions, and you have to respect this while giving it a twist."

Abayas have proved popular at Harrods in London, where summertime visitors from the Gulf throng the streets of the upscale Knightsbridge district.

COMMENTARY:  

Those abayas are so beautiful and ornate.  They look almost royal.  

There are 600 million muslim females, and they definitely have a passion for designer jewelery, accessories and handbags.  Especially handbags.  I can clearly understand why so many designers are flocking to target and design abayas for them.   It's a no-brainer.   I wonder why this has taken so long. 

There are some very extraordinary abayas like the above.  Abayas spelled backwards is SayAba.  Could be a neat name for an Abayas designer line.  

Courtesy of an article dated July 14, 2010 appearing in The Boston Globe    

 

APPLE FINALLY DISCLOSES THE WORKING CONDITIONS AT THE PRODUCTION PLANTS OF ITS MAGICAL DEVICES AND ITS ABOUT TIME

Apple Inc. disclosed a comprehensive list of its major suppliers for the first time, along with a detailed report on factory inspections, moving to combat an array of criticism about working conditions in its supply chain and the company's transparency about it.

The report said Apple found continued problems in areas such as working hours, overtime pay and handling of hazardous waste. For example, the report said Apple's suppliers were in compliance with the company's code of a maximum of a 60-hour work week only 38% of the time. The company said factories fared better in other areas like fair treatment.

In one of his first interviews as Apple Chief Executive, Tim Cook said the Cupertino, Calif., company has long aimed to be more transparent and believes the steps it is taking—including nearly doubling the number of supplier audits it does—are "raising the bar" for the industry.

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, and previously Apple's chief operating officer who oversaw its supply chain said. 

"I have spent a lot of time in factories over my lifetime and we are clearly leading in this area.  It is like innovating in products. You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem."

Apple's list of 156 companies came along with a major report—one of the company's largest ever—divulging the results of its recent factory inspections. While the company has long revealed some of its top suppliers, the new list covers those that represent 97% of its materials and manufacturing spending.

Apple Production Suppliers List 2011

Click Image To Enlarge

The list includes a range of global technology companies, such as Sony Corp. to Intel Corp., along with niche regional businesses such as Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co. Ltd.

 

Apple Production Supplier Report - 2012 Progress Report

View more documents from turk5555.

 

The report makes several references to one of Apple's biggest manufacturing partners, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. The company, also known as Foxconn, combated a spate of employee suicides at a facility in Shenzen, China, in 2010 and an explosion that killed four workers at plant in Chengdu, China, last year. Apple said it has put in place new requirements for firms dealing with combustible dust.

 The report found 108 facilities didn't pay proper overtime wages and 93 facilities had records that indicated more than 50% of their workers exceeded the 60-hour work week. The audits also found 5 facilities had incidents of underage labor.

Tim Cook said.  

"Working hours is a complex issue.  I am confident the company can improve in the area by monitoring these plants at a very, very micro level.  I know this is a journey."

The report also found 24 facilities conducted pregnancy tests and 56 didn't have procedures to prevent discrimination against pregnant workers. Apple said that at its direction, the suppliers have stopped discriminatory screenings for medical conditions or pregnancy.

Mr. Cook said Apple has been sharing more of its findings about working conditions in its factories over time, but this year's update represents its most detailed. It comes as the drumbeat of criticism against practices across the company's ballooning supplier footprint has grown from prominent Chinese environmental activists and others. Many of those have taken aim at the company's prior unwillingness to disclose all the suppliers it works with.

The report said Apple has taken new steps to better monitor and improve conditions at factories, including increasing audits in Malaysia and Singapore and expanding its worker education program.

Apple said it found 112 facilities that weren't properly storing, moving or handling hazardous chemicals and 69 weren't recycling or disposing of hazardous waste as required by law, including one that had a pipe dumping waste into a nearby farm.

The Fair Labor Association, a prominent labor standards non-profit, also said that Apple would join the group, opening it up to independent monitoring.  In a statement, Apple's senior vice president of operations Jeff Williams said it was "extremely proud to be the first technology company admitted into the group."

COMMENTARY:   In a blog post dated October 12, 2011, I introduced you to Foxconn International, one of Apple's major Chinese production suppliers for the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Foxconn has been in the news quite a bit over reports of how it treats its production workers, appalling working conditions, 15-20 hour work days, and 11 employees committing suicide in 2010.  

In a blog post dated October 15, 2011, I reported that Foxconn International planned on replacing workers with one million robots over the next three years.  Rising labor rates in China are the culprit, and its better to replace human beings with robots because they don't complaint, and you can work them 24/7, 365 days a year if you need to.  Labor problems solved.

In a blog post dated November 7, 2011, I reported on the findings of China's Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) , the equivalent of America's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about  dozens of heavy metal poisonings that have occurred in China since 2009.  According to the IPE, after several months investigating these environmental poisonings throughout China, Apple's suppliers came up again and again.  The head of IPE saod.  

"We found violations of wastewater standards and water pollution, air pollution, air emissions problems, and hazardous waste disposal problems.  The volume of hazardous waste generated by the supply chain is amazing.  In one case, we found that a single factory generated 110,000 tons of hazardous waste a year."

When the IPE confronted Apple directly about these violations of hazardous wastes, it refused to confirm that the guilty production suppliers even produced Apple products.  Apple has always been very secretive about its product producers, and its policy was to refuse to disclose its suppliers.  The IPE largely knew who Apple's suppliers were (from talking to locals, following delivery trucks with outgoing shipments, and monitoring media reports).  

I was so pissed off at the hazardous wastes being spewed by Apple's Chinese production suppliers into the environment, rivers and canals, that I called Apple's headquarters and was given a "no comment."  That's what prompted me to write the above blog post, and I am glad that I did.

It is apparent that IPE's aggressive investigation of Apple's Chinese production suppliers has forced Apple's hand, and the above Apple Production Supplier List for 2011 and Apple Production Supplier Report - Progress Report For 2012 are the result.

I have always been impressed with the simple, minimalist design and elegance of Apple's products. That has been its trademark and secret to success.  However, you would think that a company that prides itself on product quality would take adequate measures to insure that its production suppliers are complying with local labor laws, fair labor standards and disposing of hazardous wastes properly and taking proper measure to protect the environment against pollution.  Apple has been growing so rapidly, that it apparently ignored all these bad signals until now and the magnitude of violations listed in its Apple Production Supplier Report is clear indication of this.

Courtesy of an article dated January 13, 2012 appearing in The Wall Street Journal