Business of Sport -- TV Eyeballs

(10/30/2014) When I was a kid, I used to watch baseball in Taiwan. I had plenty of time and was never bothered by slow pace of baseball. Now, I am an adult living in the US. I now watch football on TV and never pay attention to baseball games. My friends say, "what is the whole point to watch so many baseball games during the regular season? Even during the World Series, you have at least four games to watch..."

San Francisco just won 2014 World Series in Game 7. But the TV rating of the World Series is getting worse and worse. The following analysis tells you how bad the baseball games on TV in the US. Do you have any solution to save MLB?

Apple Pay or CurrentC?

(10/29/2014) Recently, CVS and Rite Aid announced that they will not support Apple Pay. The reason of not-supporting Apple Pay was revealed by New York Time: several retailers (including Walmart, Best Buy, CVS...) are working on a mobile payment platform CurrentC. Supported by these retailers, CurrentC (based on MCX, Merchant Customer Exchange) can save those supporting retailers 2%~3% of commission, which the retailers pay to credit card companies.

Well, it turns out that CurrentC is not that safe at all. They have sent out email to users that "unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of you." (Did Apple do that? just kidding.) In Chinese, we have a saying "三個臭皮匠，勝過一個諸葛亮," which means "Two heads are better than one." However, if most retail heads are incompetent in data security, no matter how many head they form an alliance, they will not be competent either.

What platform will you support? I don't think CurrentC will back off anytime soon because 2% saving is too good to let go.

West Coast Container Congestion Again in 2014

(10/27/2014) And this time the problem is not easy to solve. Unlike the past importing container congestion in the LA-LB ports were caused by labor strike, this year, the container congestion in the west coast is due to shortage in equipment (chassis) and carrier capacity. So, some of U.S. retailers that rely on holiday shopping to turn profit may get hurt this time. A freight consulting company, flegenheimer.com,  concludes several factors (and they look hard to solve):

• Import surge explains terminal congestion, capacity shortages in both rail and drayage trucking sectors. 
• Since most carriers no longer provide chassis, trucker has to make arrangements for their own chassis pick up and wait in line. 
• Raildroad delays in providing railcars and equipment; thus, containers that cannot leave as scheduled create further congestion. 
• ILWU goes on vacation and lesser experienced dock workers are assigned, it affects productivity. 
• Some terminals require appointment of 24 hours prior to pick up.

The equipment shortage will take a long time to solve. 

UPS and Fedex Seek Solutions for Holiday Shipping

(10/25/2014) Did your Christmas online shopping got screw in the last two years with delay?
This is a great article about demand management of Fedex and UPS dealing with holiday shopping. Look what UPS and Fedex ask for online retailers to commit some agreement earlier. The online retailers cannot promise you last minute shopping with on time delivery anymore without 'consulting' with UPS and Fedex. If you are last-minute shopper, you better know what retailers have 'agreement' with Fedex and UPS for last minute shipping.

(2015/10/26) FedEx says that this coming shopping season (from Black Friday to X'mas) will have 317 millions of packages shopping through them. As online become a major economic indicator, it shouldn't be too shocking to know it's another record year (up 12.4% over last year). One day after, UPS estimates that their holiday shipping will be 630 millions of packages. Other than expanding temporarily with more workers , I wonder how FedEx and UPS handle the shipping contract with the major retailers.

Driver Shortage Hits Critical Level

(10/22/2014) Truck driver shortage has been a long term issue for the US domestic logsitics. Long working hours, more strict regulations and drug tests, worsen congestion in metro areas, separation from family,... all attribute to shortage of truck drivers. This drive shortage might hit a critical level such that truck carriers has to say 'No' to shippers who need trucking. Due to shortage, the truck carriers will either have to increase transportation charges to shippers or drop shipments that have bad margins.

When the last-mile transportation is more difficult, we will see transportation cost increase in the long run.

(2015/10/27) The industry keeps warning us, but we only hear warnings. Here is another one. For an industry that needs 800K truck drivers, a 48,000 shortage is a serious problem. They say pay gap is one of the reasons. I think people really need to wait for self-driving trucks to solve this problem.

Apple's One SIM to rule them all

(10/21/2014) One thing inconvenient to cell phone users in the US now is that the cellular phone often works for only one or two wireless service provider. Your Verizon iPhone won't work on AT&T network. This limitation seriously damage the 'portability' of devices when users want to switch to another service provider for various reasons (fee, coverage, service quality...). Now Apple silently wants to remove this limitation and take back the control back to users (and Apple, of course).

Two month ago, if you buy an iPad and want to be always connected, you have to decide which wireless provider (AT&T, Verizon or Sprint...) you have. Now in Apple iPad Air 2 available in the US and UK, you don't have make this decision anymore since it has Apple SIM card embedded.

Apple says "you can choose the plan that works best for you — with no long-term commitments. And when you travel, you may also be able to choose a data plan from a local carrier for the duration of your trip"

Definitely the wireless service provider won't be happy about Apple's move since they will gradually lose grips on their users. It's a victory of Apple and Apple's users.

An Umbrella Shooting Air

(10/20/2014) It's creative, a new idea of umbrella. I think someone will give this new product a different application.

An umbrella like this for Florida downpour? I think we probably need to wait for a while.

Air Umbrella Demo(video)

Germany's Austerity Obsession Could Take Down The Global Economy?

(10/13/2014) This is a news about Germany's recent recession. Did Germany dig into this current problem by pushing austerity in other debt-laden countries in Europe?

Let me try to derive the causal relationship:
EU pushed austerity in countries with huge national debt to stabilize EURO and european's economy --> Countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal cut spendings --> Those debt-laden countries above don't buy equipments or other imports from Germany (since Germany is the behemoth of exporting) --> Germany economy fell into recession.

But will other options to cope with European debt issue work better?

Social media messages speak louder than CVs

(10/10/2014) As titles, you just have to click the following link (and answer three questions if you are not FT subscriber) to know what Financial Time's survey say.  Wait for several days, we may be able to get this survey from another website.

The conclusion is:
48% of employers use social media to check applicant's background information.
12% of employers plan to do so.
40% have not planned to do so.

What are most important parts that employers are looking? (sorted by ranking)
1. Posts about drugs and drinking
2. Negative comments about work
3. Improper photos and text
4. Lies about qualification (like the school of graduation, age...)
....

I bet quite a lot of young people will be shot down in top three.

Amazon Will Sell YOU to Advertizers.

(10/9/2014) What and how often do we shop in Amazon? The items we views, the reviews we read, the movies we watched... Next, our personal data of all information above might be up for sale by Amazon.  Don't be scared, it's not all your credit card information will be flying on the Internet. It will not be much different from the Ads, that google and other online advertisers know about us, you views in your browser. I am not surprised by this move at all. If Amazon cashes in our personal information, think about all other smaller websites or online retailers we have visited. No wonder now the bank hacking or data breaches are not news anymore because we (as consumers) are all "FOR SALE".

Bezos: Let me know more about you.

Redbox Instant Video Streaming To Shut Down

(10/5/2014) There is Netflix. There is Amazon Prime. There is Hulu. There is no room for others..... That is the rule of the Internet. The joint venture between Redbox and Verizon -- Redbox Instant Video -- will be shut down soon.  I tried their service once and the list of its content is just bad. No wonder it will be closed.

Two Container Ship Collided in Suez Canal (Caught on Video)

(10/3/2014) It is an amazing footage of two container ship collision in Suez Canal. Three containers fell into the water but there was no casualty from this accident.