作者：Flipboard

Sifted / Marie Mawad, Mimi Billing, Maija Palmer /
Sep 7, 2020
https://sifted.eu/articles/musk-tesla-rivals-europe-1/

At $390bn, Tesla is worth a lot to investors. In fact, it’s worth more than all of Germany’s carmakers combined.

Europe started out as the birthplace of the automobile, but it has become the laggard — and not just as far as stock market valuations go.

In the 12 years since Elon Musk released his first full-electric sports car, he’s expanded into battery production at Tesla’s Gigafactory, deployed dedicated charging infrastructure worldwide and developed products that let consumers generate and store energy. His Roadster has become the reference for super-fast travel on a battery and his electric sedans have climbed the rankings to compete with Nissan for the world’s most sold electric car.

In that time frame, prestigious brands in Europe, the likes of Volkswagen and Daimler in Germany but also Renault and Peugeot in France, have mostly struggled with a diesel emissions scandal and displayed a sluggish attitude to shifting to battery-powered cars.

Pessimists say the fate of European carmakers shows the region’s inability to transform even the most brilliant ideas and finest engineering talent into disruptive innovation at scale.

“It’s not lack of vision that is plaguing Europe — carmakers like Renault have long had the vision of a future with electric, connected and autonomous vehicles,” says Francois Veron, the cofounder of investment fund Newfund. “But they failed at industrialising that vision, at adapting their production and supply chains to the new business models of electric cars.”

“Real disruption is more likely to come from an independent player than from the incumbents,” says Veron. “A heavily financed independent player.”

But while Europe does not have a single Tesla equivalent, it does have several companies doing parts of what Tesla does and in many cases doing it better.

Without the media might of the Musk empire, they are less well known, but there are companies such as Rimac making faster electric roadsters, companies like Skeleton Technologies making more powerful ultracapacitors and Einride making electric self-driving trucks.

Here’s part one of our series looking at Elon Musk’s empire and the European technology companies emerging as its rivals. Part one is focusing on cars and batteries, part two on space and part three on hyperloop.

Part one: vroom

Cars are one of the most visible parts of Tesla, and make up the majority of its revenues. In the second quarter of 2020, car sales accounted for 86% of its reported $6bn sales. A newly launched Model Y has got car pundits salivating.

But perhaps the most emblematic of Tesla’s successes lies in its ability to deploy a wide-spanning network of dedicated, ultra-fast chargers called superchargers. They’ve played a key role in helping Tesla’s cars stand out from the rest, by addressing consumers’ fear of running out of juice in an electric vehicle.

In fact, infrastructure that allows for a relatively short charging pit stop along the way is perhaps the only segment where Tesla truly has no equivalents in Europe.

The company boasts nearly 2,000 stations in Europe and the Middle East. Alternatives, even added together and helped by state subsidies, form a smaller network of disparate chargers that are all less powerful — hence slower to refill a battery — and are often faced with compatibility issues.

Every other part of the electric car ecosystem has Europeans in the ring, battling it out with Tesla. Here are the names worth knowing:

Tesla’s hypercar challengers in Europe

Rimac (Croatia)

Tesla’s Roadster makes claims on being the quickest car in the world. According to the company, it’s able to go from 0-60 mph in just 1.9 seconds, and has a top speed of more than 250 mph.

Croatia’s Rimac may be able to just pip Tesla’s record, with claims that its C_Two electric hypercar can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 1.85 seconds, a whisker faster than the Roadster. And the C_Two claims a top speed of 258 mph.

Mind you, Rimac’s C_Two isn’t in production yet. Any prospective customers will have to wait for 2021 to take delivery, and there are likely to be only a very limited number of vehicles made. Your likelihood of owning a C_Two is probably a lot lower than owning a Roadster.

Rimac, which began with Mate Rimac trying to pimp up his own very beat-up 1984 BMW when he was just 19, is clearly a very different (and much smaller) business than Tesla. But its mission to build electric motor cars that are, well, super fast, is having a surprisingly big reach across the car industry.

Porsche owns around 15% of the company, and Hyundai Motor Group recently invested €80m as part of a new partnership which will see the two companies collaborate on a range of performance electric cars. A number of other carmakers, including Aston Martin and Pininfarina already use Rimac’s battery packs for their own electric supercars.

With serious investors coming in now, Rimac is professionalising and gearing up to go much bigger. Plus, it just recently hired ex-Tesla engineer Chris Porritt as CTO.

Forbes / John Koetsier / Sep 7, 2020
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/09/07/87-of-tiktok-users-instagram-reels-is-basically-the-same/#4cb0a6ea6967

Watch out, TikTok.

Almost nine in ten TikTok users who have used Instagram Reels say that Facebook’s TikTok competitor is basically the same as TikTok. And 61% said they’ll be spending more time in Instagram as a result.

“This strong number for Instagram is driven by the fact that TikTok users who have used Instagram Reels do not think that TikTok is inherently special,” says Tommy Walters, research and insights managers at social media content company Whistle.

That is my sentiment exactly.

TikTok, of course, is being forced to sell to an American company by the Trump administration, although the company is contesting that order in court. That controversy doesn’t have appeared to hurt TikTok: it is still the third most-downloaded app in the United States, according to AppFigures data.

But the controversy is also helping other apps.

Instagram usage is up, but so is Snapchat and other apps.

34% of TikTok users say they’ll spend more time on Snapchat, which is currently the ninth most-downloaded app in the U.S. Only 10% say they’ll spend more time on Triller, a TikTok competitor, and another 10% say they’ll spend more time on Byte.

Interestingly, people don’t seem more worried about Chinese companies getting and using their personal data, which is ostensibly driving the government ruling requiring TikTok’s sale.

Rather, they don’t like it across the board.

“75% are worried about an American company obtaining their personal data,” Whistle says while 67% are very or somewhat worried about a Chinese company obtaining their personal data,” Whistle says, adding that TikTok users aren’t super-happy about copycats. “63% agree that larger social media companies like Facebook, who owns Instagram, should not be allowed to copy newer social media companies like TikTok.”

The sample size is not huge — 686 18-34 year olds — but Whistle says it is nationally representative.

Ultimately, the results cast doubt on whether any company that buys TikTok, if a sale proceeds, will be able to maintain the company’s incredible growth rate, or if that growth might be captured by existing market players like Facebook and Instagram.

And, of course, the news shows once again that no publicity is bad publicity. Even though Tiktok has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, usage is up.

“Since a TikTok ban has been discussed in the news, 44% of daily or weekly TikTok users have been spending more time on the platform, with only 10% reporting spending less time on the platform,” says Tommy Walters.

Bloomberg /  Jennifer Jacobs, Nick Wadhams, and Katya Kazakina / September 6, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-06/trump-ended-2018-france-trip-having-art-loaded-on-air-force-one

After Donald Trump’s planned trip to a French cemetery for fallen Marines was canceled in November 2018, the U.S. leader had some extra time on his hands in a mansion filled with artwork. The next day, he went art shopping — or the presidential equivalent.

Trump fancied several of the pieces in the U.S. ambassador’s historic residence in Paris, where he was staying, and on a whim had them removed and loaded onto Air Force One, according to people familiar with the matter. The works — a portrait, a bust, and a set of silver figurines — were brought back to the White House.

The decision to cancel Trump’s visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris is under new scrutiny after the Atlantic magazine on Thursday published a bombshell report that Trump belittled the American servicemen buried there, part of a broader history of disparaging certain people who’ve served in the military. Trump has vehemently denied making the comments about “suckers” and “losers” in the armed forces.

Never previously reported is Trump’s spur-of-the-moment art caper before leaving the ambassador’s residence.

The incident was met with a mixture of amusement and astonishment at the time, but caused headaches for White House and State Department staffers, according to several people familiar with the episode who asked not to be identified due to its sensitivity.

Chic Mansion

The story unfolded like this: While in Paris with other world leaders to commemorate the centennial of the end of World War I, Trump stayed at the official residence of U.S. Ambassador Jamie McCourt, the palatial Hôtel de Pontalba. The mansion, in Paris’s chic 8th arrondissement, dates to 1842. It has served as a flagship of the State Department’s “Art in Embassies” cultural diplomacy program, and is open to tours.

The president’s planned visit to the Belleau Wood cemetery was canceled when rainy weather grounded the presidential helicopter, according to a redacted email the White House released to rebut the Atlantic story. The U.S. Secret Service ruled out a motorcade for the 56-mile drive, according to two people familiar with the matter.

That left Trump with about six hours of free time in the ambassador’s residence.

The next day, Trump pointed out a Benjamin Franklin bust, a Franklin portrait and a set of figurines of Greek mythical characters, and insisted the pieces come back with him to Washington.

The People’s House
McCourt, the ambassador, was startled, but didn’t object, according to people briefed on the incident. Trump later quipped that the envoy would get the art back “in six years,” when his potential second term in office would be winding down.

The art, worth about $750,000 according to one of the people familiar with the episode, was loaded aboard Air Force One while Trump visited another cemetery before the flight back to Washington.

“The President brought these beautiful, historical pieces, which belong to the American people, back to the United States to be prominently displayed in the People’s House,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in response to questions from Bloomberg News.

Trump’s move prompted some hair-pulling and a furious exchange of emails back home between the State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations and White House officials who organized the art transfer. Ultimately, because the art is U.S. government property, the move was deemed legal.

Purchase Policy

Trump, who once used his charity to purchase a large portrait of himself, is known to display in his private West Wing dining room mementos from various official trips and encounters. Over time that’s included a pair of shoes gifted by musician Kanye West and an Ultimate Fighting Championship belt.

A senior White House official said presidents are permitted to display personal gifts from Americans or heads of state while they’re in office, but must purchase them if they want to keep the presents after they depart.

The figurines that caught Trump’s eye found a new home on the fireplace mantel in the Oval Office. Depicting Greek gods, they date to the early 20th century and were made by Neapolitan artist Luigi Avolio, who was trying to pass them off as sculptures from the 16th or 17th centuries, according to London-based art dealer Patricia Wengraf.

Portrait Gallery

In an “Antiques Roadshow” moment, Wengraf described the figurines as “20th century fakes of wannabe 17th century sculptures,” and of little value.

The French art-collection episode comes with a curious footnote. After White House art curators examined the pieces Trump brought home, the president was told that the Franklin bust was a replica. He joked that he liked the fake better than the original, two people familiar with the episode said.

The Franklin portrait snagged from Paris was also a copy — of the one Joseph Siffred Duplessis painted in France in 1785, which was then held by the National Portrait Gallery a mile from the White House.

The curators removed a different portrait of the founding father from the Oval Office and borrowed the original Duplessis from the gallery. That one now hangs in the Oval, not the replica Trump ferried out of France.

Reuters / Mari Saito, Ju-min Park, Antoni Slodkowski
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-suga-insight/how-abes-right-hand-man-made-his-play-for-japans-top-job-idUSKBN25U38C

TOKYO (Reuters) – In the days leading up to Shinzo Abe’s surprise resignation last month as rumors of his ill health swirled in Japan, the prime minister’s right-hand man, Yoshihide Suga, was courting a ruling party boss whose backing could make him king.

In a secluded dining room in an upscale Tokyo hotel, Suga met with Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), for a traditional Japanese meal. They shared stories from their youth when they both worked as secretaries for powerful politicians, according to a columnist who dined with them.

The dinner, Nikai’s third with Suga in as many months, came little over a week before Abe stepped down as Japan’s longest-serving premier and highlighted the kind of alliance-building that has made Suga the leading candidate to replace him.

At the dinner, Suga thanked Nikai for keeping a firm grip over the LDP, saying it had allowed Abe’s administration to execute its policies with ease, according to Fumiya Shinohara, the political columnist who was there with them.

Two weeks later, Nikai’s group was the first among the party’s factions to endorse Suga for the top job, support that makes him almost certain to be Japan’s next prime minister.

“In an environment where human relationships are paramount, that has been Mr. Suga’s best weapon,” said Shinohara, adding that their exchange over dinner cemented an alliance now poised to control the ruling party.

Suga’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the dinner. Suga has said, when asked on television about their discussion, that he and Nikai share a similar background and that he had introduced him to various people.

Nikai could not immediately be reached for comment.

For the past eight years, Suga, 71, has been the public face of the Abe administration as the government’s top spokesman but long kept a relatively low profile. He became better known to the public when he unveiled the name, Reiwa, of the new imperial era last year, a celebratory moment that marked the ascension of the new emperor and went viral, earning him the nickname “Uncle Reiwa”.

Behind the scenes, associates and analysts say Suga has been instrumental in shifting elements of decision making from Japan’s sprawling bureaucracy to the premier’s office and taming factional rivalries within the ruling party.

Suga is widely expected to stay the policy course set out by his predecessor, maintaining the “Abenomics” pro-growth stimulus policies aimed at pulling Japan out of deflation and keeping the economy afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Suga will carry on the vision Abe is handing over to him,” said Takashi Ryuzaki, a political analyst and former TV journalist. “So there is no need for Suga to have his own vision.”

‘SOMEONE YOU WOULDN’T NOTICE’

In contrast to Abe, the scion of a political dynasty in Japan who staked his career on constitutional reform, Suga began his political career an outsider and rose through the ranks in local politics.

At a news conference on Wednesday where he officially announced his bid, Suga spoke about growing up in a farming community in Japan’s northern Akita prefecture.

“He was very quiet,” said Hiroshi Kawai, a former high school classmate who still lives in Suga’s hometown of Yuzawa and works as a local tour guide. “He was someone you wouldn’t notice if he was there or not.”

Suga left town soon after finishing high school and worked in a cardboard factory in Tokyo to save money for university. After graduation, he worked as a secretary for a prominent national lawmaker from Yokohama, home to Japan’s busiest port.

During his time in local politics, Suga pushed an ambitious project to redevelop Yokohama’s waterfront, according to Isao Mori, an author who published Suga’s biography in 2016. In the eight years he spent in the city assembly, Suga rose to be known as Yokohama’s “shadow mayor,” Mori said.

‘ACTOR ON A STAGE’

Suga has said he begins most days at 5 a.m., checking the news before doing 100 sit-ups and taking a 40-minute walk. Even among staffers used to the grueling schedules of politicians, he was seen as an outlier for his relentless work ethic.

Daisuke Yusa first met Suga in 2004 when he was working as a salesman for a garbage company. Suga soon recruited him to work as his secretary.

“He used to say, think of yourself as an actor on a stage and think objectively about what position you’re in now,” Yusa said, when asked about perceptions that Suga is more of a lieutenant than a leader.

Yusa, now a local politician, said Suga always emphasized the importance of doing one’s best no matter what the job.

“I think he’s been able to remain in such a position without school ties or political faction because he doesn’t try to stand out,” he said.

Under Abe’s first administration in 2006, Suga headed the ministry of internal affairs where he introduced a hometown tax program, offering tax deductions for those who donate money to local municipalities.

Matsushige Ono, who served as a vice minister under Suga, said the program met fierce resistance from some bureaucrats, who opposed introducing a novel tax scheme without precedent.

“He continued to make his case because he saw how this would help rural communities,” Ono said.

NAVIGATING BUREAUCRACY

When Abe regained the premiership at the end of 2012, he again tapped Suga.

In 2016, facing an ever-stronger yen, Suga created a framework for joint Bank of Japan, finance ministry and banking regulator meetings to signal to investors Tokyo’s alarm over spikes in the yen.

Officials had wanted to create such a framework for years, but friction between ministries prevented it from being implemented.

Mitsumaru Kumagai, chief economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research who frequently speaks to Suga, said Suga has been particularly adept at navigating Japan’s complex bureaucracy.

“He is aware of who and where the key person is in any ministry and he understands how to move organisations by instructing that person,” Kumagai said.

This year, support for the administration went into freefall as the coronavirus pandemic battered an already slowing economy. When Abe’s health began to visibly falter, speculation grew over Suga’s ambitions.

Shinohara, who joined the August dinner between Suga and Nikai, said the two men had bonded over their similar backgrounds.

“There are a lot of politicians now who can give good speeches and others from bureaucracies who can manage policy, but he’s the kind of professional politician who has his own distinct smell,” he said.

After dinner, the men left the hotel separately as journalists snapped pictures. A day later, Suga was asked on a TV programme whether he was interested in running for the prime minister’s job. Laughing, he said: “Not at all.”

「花有限的钱把酒店设计得更有美感。」他说，「美感不一定要用钱去堆砌。」汉庭 15 周年，我们和著名空间设计师兼华住集团首席产品官周光明聊了聊经济型酒店和汉庭3.5的故事。本月，汉庭酒店迎来了品牌创建的十五周年。自2005年首家汉庭酒店在昆山开业，从最初的1.0版本到如今的3.5版本，汉庭始终坚守初心，坚持经济型酒店的定位，为每位用户提供优质体验。7月初，首家汉庭3.5版本的西南旗舰店在成都武侯祠永丰酒店开业，8月18日，西北首家旗舰店也在兰州落地。在华住集团首席产品官周光明看来，汉庭作为华住的主力品牌，此次的3.5版本是华住集团的“王者归来”——面对经济型酒店的巨大市场，汉庭3.5无论从智能化体验还是美感升级，都足够让人眼前一亮。

汉庭3.5：坚持服务大众经济型消费

从最初的1.0版本到如今的汉庭3.5，在周光明看来，产品的持续迭代是自然且必需的，而大众生活方式的改变始终是迭代的首要驱动力。

“一个品牌如果想要永续地经营下去，就必须持续为用户创造价值，满足用户的需求。”周光明说道，“而并不只是‘昙花一现’。”因为大众的需求始终在改变着。如今，人们早已习惯了互联网时代，从生活方式到知识结构，从思考模式到生活习惯，这一切都在飞速变化。所以，汉庭也随着人们的步伐坚持迭代创新，来满足持续变化的市场需求，为大众提供更好的体验。

提到市场需求，周光明认为，经济型酒店在中国有将近10亿人口需求量，但对于如此巨大的市场需求，大家似乎并不十分关注。这背后的原因，则是五六年前开始被全面热议的“消费升级”——“几乎所有的酒店品牌，无论经济型还是高端型，都往中档酒店‘砸重兵’。“周光明说，“越来越少的人去关注经济型酒店，它们的迭代就渐渐变成了一个刚需。”

在经济型酒店日渐缓慢的发展过程中，汉庭3.5犹如新型的火箭升空，承担了引领市场转折的重任：为需要经济型酒店的大众创造了更优质的体验。“华住集团之前叫汉庭酒店集团。”周光明说道，“汉庭是华住的主力品牌，这次的汉庭3.5版，就是华住集团的王者归来。”

智能化体验：人的服务越少越好

汉庭3.5版本中，“智能化体验”和“美感升级”是让这一“新型火箭”升空的两个关键动力。

“智能化不是个噱头。”周光明说，“智能化的加入不仅可以控制和节约人力成本，还能让酒店住客拥有更高效、更方便的入住体验。”首先，智能化的自助check in、订房选房等环节，不仅保护个人隐私，还能让入住登记更加快速便利：手机上就能完成一切，脸部扫描后就能快速入住。入住酒店后，还有送外卖、送水、送物的机器人随时服务，在为住客提供便捷体验的同时，还大大降低了酒店服务员的人员配比。

当酒店减少人工服务，住客获得的服务也会更优质。“智能化的加入，让酒店能够更有效地对住客服务。”周光明说。首先，智能化服务的出错率极低，不会因为人工延误而消耗住客的时间。另外，酒店的智能化机器人可以同时为几百位住客拨打电话进行服务，而店长只用一部手机就能完成智能化管理，可以看到所有房间的状态，更加全面和完善。对于住客来说，可以通过房间内的智能化产品来呼叫前台、控制灯光、选择想看的节目在房间投屏等，都会让住客的体验得到提升。

不过，也会有人产生疑问：当汉庭3.5版本中增加了更多的智能化应用，人的服务也相对减少了，那么，入住酒店的体验会不会因此少了些“人情味”，住客会因此觉得不习惯？

周光明谈道，其实这就像十几年前人们对智能手机的争议一样：我们会不会用不惯智能手机？答案当然是不会的。时至今日，当智能手机被大量普及，我们已经被培养成为一种习惯，从而获得了快速习惯智能化生活方式的能力。当我们享受到智能化工具带来的便捷，就可以获得更自由、更惬意的生活体验。

“其实人的服务在经济型酒店的设计里越少越好。”周光明说，“当我们没有预算去请高端的服务人员提供接近完美的服务时，智能化机器的服务可以让住客感到更加的舒服——这样的服务简单又明确、不掺杂个人情绪、住客也不需要看其他人的脸色。”这样一来，住客无疑会获得更好的体验。

美感并不是金钱的堆砌

除了智能化产品的加入，汉庭3.5另一个让人眼前一亮的地方就是其美感的升级，即“颜值的提升”。

但对于经济型酒店而言，花有限的钱还要把酒店设计得更有美感，这是一件在外人看来非常有难度的事情。但周光明认为，花钱做颜值没有任何意义。“美感不一定要用钱去堆砌。”周光明解释道，“何况，一旦需要花钱去把酒店打造的很漂亮，它就不符合经济型的状态。”

在控制成本的同时，还能利用审美来增加记忆点，对于周光明而言，这像是于一滩沉寂的水面上制造波澜，无疑需要很大的力量。但这是汉庭3.5的使命——让人记住、让人眼前一亮。于是，周光明团队用心设计，尽心努力，终于做到了这点：利用非常有限的材料完成最佳的设计，用恰当的色彩、温柔的弧形角与温暖的灯光等，让住客处处能感受到酒店贴心的细节设计与空间美感。

“不加价的消费升级”：让每个人都能获得美好的入住体验

除了“智能化”与“高颜值”，汉庭3.5版本还成功做到了在不加价的情况下实现消费升级，诠释了中国经济型酒店的新标杆。

周光明告诉记者，能做到这点主要通过两种方式：第一，量足够大，薄利多销。“我们以前一年能做出一百家店，现在我们用设计实现了复制加速，一年可以开出五百家店，相当于多了五万个房间。”周光明解释道。

第二，三个维度的成本控制让汉庭3.5实现了“不加价”的消费升级：首先，工厂模组化的使用为物业节省时间，还可以大量减少装修时间，提前了开业时间；第二，因为有工厂化的制作，产品制作周期大幅提升，所以产品造价会降低，于是节约了造价成本；第三，人的管理成本因为“智能化机器人”的应用而大大降低。“这个机器人不是长得像人，而是一台可以跟人沟通的电脑。”周光明说道。这样的机器人在服务时无需“人的判断”介入，从而节约了服务时间，还减少了抱怨投诉。毕竟，投诉越多，就需要花费更多时间去处理。

所以，当在这三个维度都做到了降低、控制成本，就做到了不涨价，汉庭3.5让消费者可以用同样的价格，享受到好产品和好体验。

如今，汉庭在全国已拥有2600多家门店，遍布300多座城市，未来三年里，汉庭也将进一步拓展下沉市场。“汉庭有信心做到让三四线城市的用户享受跟一线城市一模一样的产品和服务。同时，在智能化工具的旁边，我们永远会准备一个人工服务，这样一来，无论在几线城市，会不会用智能产品，每位用户都能享受同样优质的酒店服务。”周光明说道。

中式设计哲学：人和空间的关系

除了贴心的服务，酒店的设计细节也对提升住客体验十分重要。此次汉庭3.5版本的设计中，周光明在细节里融入了许多以中国传统哲学为框架的设计思路，这些思路无疑会让国内消费者感觉到更舒服、更自在。

“中国人特别注重隐私、偏好私密，不喜欢接触，但又想要看到别人。”他说道，“我们在设计中很注意这点。比如，汉庭3.5中一些公共区域也采用了隔断式的设计，座位是背靠背的，而非一组大沙发，这样的空间设计会让人觉得舒服。”

周光明认为，唯有理解这样的用户心理，做出的空间才会令人倍感舒适。“而不是违背这种心理只为了设计一个好看、漂亮的空间。”周光明解释道，“就像在公共卫生间放置一个很贵的马桶，但却远不如实在的蹲坑让人用着安心和舒服，那种设计就是徒劳。”

谈到设计，每个设计师都会遭遇的难点是：如何平衡自己的设计理念与客户的需求。对于这点，周光明说，解决问题的关键在于彼此观念的沟通。“大家需要通过沟通来统一观念，在观念一致的情况下再进行大量的资源投入。”他解释道，“这样启动起来才能不同凡响，也更容易成功。第一家店一定会花费超出预期的预算，但可以等它发动起来，再控制成本。”

坚持初心：让更多消费者回归品牌

不仅在设计上尽心细心，周光明面对市场也始终有所坚持——汉庭3.5版本需要维持住性价比，让消费者回归到“汉庭”这一经济型酒店品牌。

“3.5版本一定会维持住卖价。”周光明说，“希望用性价比来重新地收拢客户对我们的信心。”汉庭希望能让消费者花相对少的价钱，得到好的产品的体验跟感受，所以，旧版本的酒店会迅速升级，来让3.5版本遍地开花。“当1.0的产品跟3.5的产品同样都叫‘汉庭’，一定会伤害消费者的感受，也会伤害他对品牌的印象。”周光明说。

另外，一旦当酒店拥有出色的性价比时，就能够吸引更多客人。“我们要让全季的客人住到汉庭，也没有任何违和感，也不会觉得不好。”周光明说，“当把全季的客人引导到汉庭，也可以推着全季继续往前跑。”

在未来两年之内，汉庭计划淘汰大部分2.7以下的产品，将3.5版本在全国铺开，形成网络并会进一步下沉布局三四五线城市，在三年内计划开到5000家左右，计划在2028年将酒店数量扩至1万家。

在“千城万店”宏伟战略的指导下，汉庭将进一步焕新本土消费者和投资商的品牌认知。凭借华住集团平台优势和高效运营模式，汉庭也将继续让住客用优惠的价格享受高效、安心、舒服、友好的住宿体验，成为全球最大的单一酒店品牌，重新定义经济型酒店的深刻内涵。王者归来，从此刻开始。

My Modern Met / Jessica Stewart
https://mymodernmet.com/skydrive-flying-car-japan/

We’ve all seen old science fiction films where, in the future, people are zipping around on their flying cars. Well, the future is now! In Japan, the Toyota-backed startup SkyDrive conducted the first public run of their flying vehicle. Whizzing around the Toyota test field, the single passenger flying car made quite an impression.

Looking like an enormous drone, the vehicle was manned by a pilot and hovered several feet above the ground while maneuvering around the test field. Though the flight lasted just four minutes, it is an incredible achievement for SkyDrive. Designed to be the world’s smallest electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicle, SkyDrive’s SD-03 model takes up the space of just two parked cars. The sleek cabin is surrounded by eight rotors powered by individual engines, which ensures safety during emergency situations.

While the test drive is certainly a breakthrough, there’s still work to be done. SkyDrive is hoping to complete enough test flights in the enclosed area to meet safety provisions that will allow the team to take it for flights outside the test field. Currently, this futuristic mode of transit can only fly for just five to 10 minutes. SkyDrive president Tomohiro Fukuzawa hopes that this can be expanded to 30 minutes, which would make the vehicle helpful in exports.

“We want to realize a society where flying cars are an accessible and convenient means of transportation in the skies and people are able to experience a safe, secure, and comfortable new way of life,” says Fukuzawa.

The aim of SkyDrive is to have its flying car on the market by 2023. To do so, the company will be making a big push in the coming years, helped in part by Toyota’s funding and the expertise of its engineers. Whatever hurdles it faces, one thing is for certain, they’ve brought us one step closer to living out our Jetsons fantasy.

The New York Times / Raymond Zhong
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/technology/tiktok-walmart-ecommerce.html?action=click&block=more_in_recirc&impression_id=0535c833-eb3b-11ea-af23-17b0514b0966&index=4&pgtype=Article&region=footer

Walmart’s late entry this week into the scramble to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations left some people with a question.

Two questions, actually:

Walmart? Really?

But the proposed teaming up of the giant retailer and Microsoft to run the video app in the United States makes more sense in light of the direction TikTok’s owner has taken its sibling app in China, its home country.

That version of the app, Douyin, which works much like TikTok but is available only in China, has become not only a platform for goofy videos but also an e-commerce destination with the kind of reach among young buyers that Walmart would love to have.

The Chinese social media giant that runs both apps, ByteDance, began testing e-commerce features on Douyin in 2018. That was well before the company rolled out a “Shop Now” button on TikTok in recent months that redirects users to shopping sites.

Smartphone users in China have taken, in a big way, to buying things while they watch people hawk the products — think QVC and late-night television infomercials reinvented for the mobile age. Chinese e-commerce platforms have for years been adding livestreaming to their apps, and video apps have been adding shopping functions. In all, $140 billion in merchandise could be sold in China this year via livestreaming, more than double last year’s amount, according to estimates by the research firm Bernstein.

The sheer size of the Chinese consumer market has created a vast field for retail experiments of other kinds as well. One of the country’s newest e-commerce giants, Pinduoduo, has turned internet shopping into something more like a surreal video game. For Pinduoduo’s fans, the process of stumbling across strange new products, at ludicrously low prices, is a big part of the experience. Actually receiving those products is almost secondary. Currently, nearly 570 million people use Pinduoduo’s app every month.

Douyin started out by allowing video creators to post links to their stores on China’s largest online bazaar, Alibaba’s Taobao platform. Eventually, it allowed users to set up storefronts within the Douyin app itself, and now it is more aggressively pushing creators to sell through those native stores instead of on outside sites.

For most Chinese consumers, Douyin is not about to replace Taobao and other full-fledged shopping sites entirely. The design of the app means the products that sell best are cheap impulse buys, said Fabian Bern, the head of Many, a marketing company that works with creators on Douyin and TikTok.

“You’re scrolling very quick through content,” Mr. Bern said, which means that few people on the app are going to buy, say, a pricey wristwatch. “You will think twice about it, then basically the video is gone already.”

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“That’s why I think the Walmart thing is pretty interesting,” he added. “They can sell their cheaper products directly to that audience in TikTok.”

Bargain-bin prices do not guarantee customer satisfaction. Last year, an anonymous author wrote a widely shared account of buying a half-pound of dried shrimp on Douyin and feeling cheated. The app showed plump, palm-size specimens that had supposedly been grilled at home by a kindly-looking lady. But the shrimp that came in the mail were tiny and smelly, the person wrote. Then, when the person tried to get a refund, little information was to be found.

Mr. Bern acknowledged that ByteDance had much to learn when it came to customer service in retail. He said that if TikTok’s e-commerce features were not yet as advanced as Douyin’s, it was in part because Chinese influencers were more entrepreneurial about trying to convert their appeal as video stars into sales of physical products.

TikTok’s more global audience has also forced ByteDance to be more cautious about making changes to the platform than it is with Douyin.

“We’ve seen that TikTok is going to be exactly like Douyin. It’s just a little bit slower,” Mr. Bern said. “There’s nothing unique to TikTok that was not on Douyin.”

VICE / Simon Childs
https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/bv8byv/female-leaders-dealt-with-covid-better-than-men

Countries with women leaders suffered half as many COVID deaths on average compared to countries with male leaders, academics have found.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have received praise for their countries’ response to coronavirus, while US President Donald Trump has been criticised. But even with the best and worst outliers removed, statistical analysis of 194 countries by the University of Liverpool still showed that women leaders performed better.

Professor Supriya Garikipati said: “Our results clearly indicate that women leaders reacted more quickly and decisively in the face of potential fatalities. In almost all cases, they locked down earlier than male leaders in similar circumstances.

“While this may have longer-term economic implications, it has certainly helped these countries to save lives, as evidenced by the significantly lower number of deaths in these countries.”

With only 19 countries out of 194 led by women, researchers created “nearest neighbour” countries based on a number of factors, such as GDP, population, population age, health expenditure, equality and openness to travel. So Leo Varadkar’s Ireland was compared to Jacinda Ardern’s New Zealand; Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh was compared to Pakistan, led by Arif Alvi; and Ana Brnabić’s Serbia was compared to Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Professor Garikipati said: “Nearest neighbour analysis clearly confirms that when women-led countries are compared to countries similar to them along a range of characteristics, they have performed better, experiencing fewer cases as well as fewer deaths.”

Researchers found that women leaders tended to lock their countries down earlier. Rather than an example of gender stereotypes around risk aversion, the researchers argue that women leaders were willing to risk their economies to preserve human life.

The researchers argue that “having a clear, empathetic and decisive communication style made a significant difference to immediate outcomes of the COVID pandemic in women-led countries”.

Professor Garkipati said: “Our findings show that COVID outcomes are systematically and significantly better in countries led by women and, to some extent, this may be explained by the proactive policy responses they adopted. Even accounting for institutional context and other controls, being female-led has provided countries with an advantage in the current crisis.”

The authors hope that the paper will serve as a “starting point” in the debate about how national leaders affected the pandemic.

CNBC / Monica Buchanan Pitrelli
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/21/where-to-find-international-travel-info-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.html

Travel planning has changed — and not in a good way. In addition to booking a flight and hotel, travelers are faced with questions that were unthinkable just six months ago.

Where can I go? Do I need a negative Covid-19 test result to enter? Must I quarantine upon arrival?

If I’m allowed in, should I go? Are Covid-19 infections on the rise? Will the holiday be what I want — or will shops, restaurants and beaches be closed?

Cutting through the chaos
A new website answers all but one of these questions (whether you should go is on you).

Launched in May, Covid Controls was developed by a team who met while working at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology (SMART), a research center created in 2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in partnership with the National Research Foundation of Singapore.

“We were a team conducting research at the intersection of big data, design and travel,” said Mohit Shah, who along with three colleagues launched the website four months after leaving SMART.

“We created it because we saw there was no comprehensive Covid-19 dashboard specifically geared toward travelers,” he said, “especially at a time when the situation is changing so rapidly.”

What the site can tell you

Covid Controls tracks travel restrictions and Covid-19 data from around the world to provide “everything a foreign visitor needs to know” before traveling, said Shah.

Information is presented in color-coded maps, and countries can be clicked or searched by name to determine which places are allowing tourists (and which are banning them), whether airports are open, and whether documentation and medical testing are required to enter.

Lockdown details, if any, are also provided, allowing travelers to check whether curfews are in effect and if restaurants, bars, shops and tourist attractions are open — with or without restrictions.

The Covid-19 data is particularly helpful to understand the extent of a country’s current outbreak. Travelers can review new daily cases, the number of people presently sick, containment statistics and outbreak trends, the latter being Shah’s favorite part of the site.

“It shows where the curve is flattening, growing or declining,” he said.

Data can be found for each of the 50 states of the United States, Canada’s 13 provinces and territories, Russia’s eight federal districts, and Australia’s six states plus two major territories.

At the bottom of each destination page, a list of sources is available, followed by links to recent media coverage of the area. For example, you can see that while the Dominican Republic is open to tourists, the Miami Herald reported that hospitals there reached capacity with Covid-19 patients about two weeks ago, which may affect your decision to travel there.

The website added a new feature this week. Users can now indicate where they live (or have recently traveled) to see which countries they can visit.

“This way you’ll be able to visualize, for example as an American resident, exactly which countries you are allowed, allowed with restrictions, or completely prohibited,” said Shah.

The designation of some countries as “partially allowed” is based on how welcoming the government is to tourists. Factors for that determination include: the number of entry points, limits on tourist activities (such as closed regions or attractions) and quarantine and entrance requirements (such as medical tests, tracing apps, insurance or other documents).

What the site can’t tell you

Not every country is covered. Information for some small nations, such as Bermuda and Vatican City, aren’t included on the site (yet), though countries like Monaco and the Marshall Islands are.

Separately, it’s difficult to obtain accurate information from some areas, particularly African countries that are not popular tourist destinations, Shah said.

Some U.S. states and the U.K. do not report recoveries. The team now uses a methodology to estimate that data; if a case is not marked as a death or hospitalization after six weeks, they assume it to be a recovered case. Those assumptions will be clearly marked as estimates, Shah said.

How does the website work?

Covid Controls tracks over 500 official sources, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, various tourism boards, official foreign travel advisories and local news agencies. It’s updated daily, and information is curated both algorithmically and manually.

Medical data comes from the World Health Organization, The Covid Tracking Project (a volunteer organization launched from The Atlantic) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Users are also instrumental in fine tuning the website, Shah said. When a Singapore-based CNBC editor pointed out that Singapore households can accept up to five guests per household, not 10, Shah sent the newspaper article that his team relied on for that information.

“We will update this right away,” he said (which they did). “This is exactly why we have added a chat button on the website. People can quickly point out if something has changed in their country.”

My Modern Met / Margherita Cole
https://mymodernmet.com/tati-moons-mona-lisa/

Portraits commemorate people as well as a moment in time. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is often considered the archetype of Renaissance portraiture. Similarly, Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring is sometimes referred to as the “Mona Lisa of the north.” Even today, these two masterpieces continue to inspire generations of young creatives. Spanish artist Tati Moons reimagines the enigmatic sitters of these paintings as contemporary women in trendy digital portraits.

“I was planning on painting the Mona Lisa just for fun for a few years as I really enjoy doing fan arts, and one day I was kinda bored and I just did it,” Moons tells My Modern Met. Not only did Moons modernize the Mona Lisa‘s wardrobe with a black sleeveless dress, but she also gave her shimmering makeup and an assortment of whimsical tattoos. Beneath Mona Lisa‘s collarbone is typography that reads, “Timeless,” and an illustration of Adam and God’s hands from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. Then, on her bare shoulder is an image of a square in a circle and the phrase, “OG Muse.”

“At first I wasn’t planning on publishing it and keeping it to myself like many other artworks, (I knew some people could find it disrespectful for the tattoos and so on) but I don’t know why I went ahead and posted it,” Moons tells us. “It got a pretty good response regardless and people motivated me to paint the Girl With a Pearl Earring, and by now I have plans on keeping up with the series!” Just like the Mona Lisa fan art, the artist updated the clothing and hairstyle of the Girl With a Pearl Earring. So, instead of Vermeer’s yellow headdress, this modern version sports a stylish high pony. She also wears sparkling makeup and a tiny heart tattoo underneath her eye.

You can commission your own digital portrait by visiting Moons’ website, and keep up to date with the artist’s latest creations by following her on Instagram.

Similarly, Moons reimagined the Girl With a Pearl Earring with glittery makeup and a high ponytail.