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The first Indonesia-Japan Friendship Day (IJFD) 2023 was held in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture on January 28 and 29 in welcoming the 65th anniversary of Indonesia-Japan bilateral relations.
Indonesian Deputy Ambassador to Japan, John Tjahjanto Boestami in Hamamatsu said that 2023 will be an important year for Indonesia and Japan with regard to 65 years of bilateral relations of both countries. Hamamatsu City is special, because it is the venue for the first IJFD series.
Deputy Ambassador John also explained that 2023 is also the year that marks the leadership of Indonesia and Japan in a region where Indonesia held the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Japan held the presidency of the G7 (group of seven).
According to Deputy Ambassador John, ASEAN and the G7 are world organizations that are influential in world politics and the economy. In 2023, both countries commemorate 50 years of relations between ASEAN and Japan. 2023 is a year full of dynamics which is expected to further strengthen the relationship between Indonesia and Japan.
IJFD Hamamatsu, which is a collaboration between the Indonesian Embassy and Japanese business partners and community groups, was enlivened by an Indonesian cultural festival and culinary bazaar with the performance of the Plate Dance, Jaipong Dance, Wonderland Dance, Lengser Dance, Ballet, Angklung and Bajidor Kahot, performed by the Indonesian student association (PPI) Hamamatsu and Shizuoka as well as the Indonesian Friendship Institute – Hamamatsu.
Japanese citizens also witnessed the performance of Balinese shadow puppets presented by Professor Umeda Hideharu, an Indonesian friend from Shizuoka University of Art and Culture (SUAC).
Umeda Hideharu, who performed the Balinese shadow puppet show, said he was happy to be able to participate in IJFD Hamamatsu.
The Indonesian Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan initiated its activities to promote the Indonesian economy in 2023 by holding a batik fashion show. The embassy in its statement on Thursday (26/1) stated that Indonesian Batik Exhibition and Culture activities to demonstrate modern batik clothing and to display typical Indonesian handicrafts was held at the Diplomatic Hall of the Indonesian Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan on Tuesday (24/1). Indonesian Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam, Sujatmiko pointed out that in January 2023, his side started promoting economic activities and it received appreciation from the family of the Sultan of Brunei.
According to the information from the Indonesian Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan, the Sultan of Brunei's family and foreign diplomats were impressed by the performance of some motifs, colors and styles of batik clothes which were displayed at the event. Ambassador Sujatmiko on the occasion also conveyed that batik is one of the art works originating from Indonesia and has been recognized by the UNESCO since 2 October 2009 as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
He further pointed out that batik has entered the international market and he also emphasized the importance of the batik industry for Indonesia's national economy. Besides the family of the Sultan of Brunei and foreign diplomats, business people, media representatives and Friends of Indonesia in Brunei, they also witnessed the fashion show featuring works of batik by Indonesian designer, Frida Nursanti.
Moreover, the invitees also had the opportunity to see handicraft products, food and herbal drinks from Purwakarta Regency, West Java. The promotional activities for Indonesian products in Brunei were also enlivened by performances of thePendet dance, Payung dance,andSaman dancewhich were performed by the Indonesian people in Brunei. In addition, there was also the launch of a children's story book entitled ”the Legend of Bagendit Lake”, a collaboration between the Indonesian Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan and the Reading Literacy Association of Brunei Darussalam (RELA). The book tells the story of the legend ofSitu Bagendit, namely one of the national tourism sites in West Java Province.
Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Teten Masduki along with Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Muliaman Hadad inaugurated the Indonesia Trading House or ITH which is located at the Pasar Indonesia store in Aargau, Switzerland. In a statement received last Tuesday (24/1), Minister Teten Masduki gave high appreciation for the efforts to establish ITH in Switzerland, because this opens up opportunities for Indonesian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to enter foreign markets.
Minister Teten also paid attention to the use of digital market platforms or marketplaces for marketing Indonesian MSMEs’ products and connectedness with ITH networks, Indonesian diaspora, and domestic markets.
Minister Tetan also remarked that there are many MSMEs’ products that ITH can collaborate with, such as those sold at Mbloc, Pos Bloc and Sarinah. The government is also pushing the sale of spices so that they are no longer selling spices.
Minister Teten further said that the inauguration of the establishment of ITH was a follow-up to the signing of the establishment of ITH which was officially signed by the Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Arsyad Rasyid on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum event on 24 May 2022.
Ambassador Muliaman hopes that the inauguration of the Indonesia Trading House (ITH) in Aargau, Switzerland can be a door for the flow of Indonesian products, both food and non-food products, to the Swiss and European markets. Ambassador Muliaman also expressed that Indonesia must think about and take advantage of Switzerland's opportunities as a doorway for Indonesian products to the European market, especially by utilizing the issue of tariffs in the Indonesia-EFTA CEPA Agreement.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chairperson for Coordinator I, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Yukki Nugrahawan Hanafi said that this ITH is the first in Europe and will continue to be developed. He also appreciates the support from the Indonesian Embassy in Bern and the Indonesian Ministry of Trade. Yukki Nugrahawan also hopes that there will be a joint solution regarding the issue of quite high logistics costs. The Indonesia-EFTA CEPA agreement that has been reached also needs to be put to good use, especially regarding tariffs.
The Indonesian Embassy (KBRI) in Bangkok in collaboration with Chulalongkorn University and Ang Thong College of Dramatic Arts held an Indonesian Festival at the Hall of the Ang Thong College Building, in Bangkok, Thailand from 18 until 19, January 2023.
Indonesian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand and UNESCAP, Rachmat Budiman through a press release in Jakarta on Friday (20/1) conveyed that his side would like to emphasize the importance of increasing bilateral cooperation in all fields, particularly in the arts and social culture. He further pointed out that the cultural exchange of people-to-people contact must reach not only the upper class, but also all groups of the general public, involving academicians, young people, artists, students, athletes, media-people, and entrepreneurs. Besides, Ambassador Rachmat explained that the Indonesian Festival is a manifestation of efforts to improve relations between the people of both countries. This event is a forum for the younger generation of Thailand and Indonesia to get to know each other better.
Meanwhile, Director of Ang Thong College of Dramatic Arts, Associate Professor, Sompob Kheawmanee expressed his appreciation to the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok for organizing this activity. It allows students to learn some kinds of Indonesian art and culture, such as how to make batik, traditional dance, Indonesian songs and music from Indonesia. He hopes that the festival will be the first step for students to be interested in and get to know more about the richness of Indonesian art and culture in the future.
The activities participated by around 800 students offline and online consisted of Indonesian dance, Indonesian language, Indonesian song workshops, Indonesian music as well as introductions to Indonesia and basic knowledge quiz about Indonesia. Moreover, there was also an Indonesian booth exhibition for 2 days to be visited by the students and university students at Ang Thong College Building.
The Teaching and Education Science Faculty of Muhammadiyah University (Unismuh) Makassar explorescooperation on education development with the US Consulate and the Global Initiatives Northern Illinois University, U.S.
The cooperation exploration was marked by a visit of the US Consulate and Executive Director of Global Initiatives Northern Illinois University USA,Prof. Eric Jones to Unismuh. The two-day visit on 19-20 January 2023 discussed every detail of the cooperation.
Dean of Unismuh Teaching and Education Science Faculty, Erwin Akib in a statement said that on 19 January, he met the U.S. Consul, Clint Shoemake.Both of them agreed to continue international relations by signing the MoU soon. Next, on 20 January, Erwin received a visit from the Executive Director of Global Initiatives Northern Illinois University for the educational cooperation development.
Executive Director of Global Initiatives Northern Illinois University,Prof. Eric Jones saidthathe will return to sign the MoU with Unismuh Teaching and Education Science Faculty. Erwin welcomed that. He schedulesanother meeting between the two to follow-up the cooperation agreement signing meeting officially.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi paid a working visit to New York, the United States. During the visit, she held meetings with a number of parties to discuss support for education in Afghanistan and Indonesia's candidacy for the Human Rights Council on Thursday (19/1).
As quoted from the kemlu.go.id, on Thursday (19/1), Minister Retno Marsudi met the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Rina Amiri. They discussed the follow-up of the International Conference on Afghan Women's Education (ICAWE).The International Conference which was held in Bali on 9 December 2022 resulted in political commitment and concrete support for the education and empowerment of Afghan women.
Minister Retno Marsudi further conveyed the importance of exploring alternative educational methods, such as online education, empowerment of Afghan women through informal education, and dialogue between religious leaders of Islamic countries and Afghanistan.
Minister Retno Marsudi also met the Permanent Representatives of countries that are influential on the Afghanistan issue at the United Nations, including representatives from the United States, Britain, Russia and China, who are also permanent members of the UN Security Council. She also held meetings with a number of Islamic countries, such as Pakistan and Turkey, as well as donor countries like Germany and Switzerland.
Separately, Minister Retno Marsudi also met the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. The purpose of the meeting was to ensure that the international community continues to provide vital humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.
Minister Retno also met the Permanent Representatives of Botswana, Burundi and Rwanda. They discussed Indonesia's candidacy for the Human Rights Council for the 2024-2026 period. During the meeting, Minister Retno Marsudi conveyed the bilateral closeness between Indonesia and each of those countries and Indonesia's track record on human rights issues.
Apart from discussing humanitarian assistance and support for women's education in Afghanistan, Minister Retno Marsudi also shared Indonesia's leadership priorities in ASEAN in 2023, namely developments in Myanmar and the Indo-Pacific region.
A total of 19 students from the Yamanashi Gakuin University (YGU) at Faculty of Business and Administration introduced Indonesian products to Japanese society, ranging fromIndonesianbatik to coffee.
One of the students, Sudo Shinya, in Tokyo on Thursday (19/1) said that he was happy to know about and introduce Indonesian spices which he then processed into Japanese cuisine. He and other students tried to make Japanese fast food, such as ginger rose ebi fried rice and Amarayaki by using spices from Indonesia. 20 dishes they made were sold out.
Meanwhile, Suzuki Hitoha introduced various types of Indonesian coffee to the Japanese people. According to Suzuki, Indonesian coffee is very good. Different aromas and tastes are characteristics that Japanese people really like. Apart from selling, he also organized a kind of Indonesian coffee workshop so that Japanese people get to know Indonesian coffee better.
The participants in the "Introduction to Seminar I & II" course with the theme of ‘Indonesia and seven participants’ from various campuses in Indonesia who are members of the student exchange program presented their efforts to introduce Indonesian products to the Japanese public, ranging from batik, instant cooking spices, fried rice, snacks to coffee.
They sold these products to the Japanese public in a festival at YGU and also in shopping centers outside the campus. Each group was accompanied by students from Indonesia.
On this occasion, Lecturer of Yamanashi Gakuin University, Higashi Hidetada explained that this activity was a collaboration with Indonesian students who took part in the "YGU Short Program".
Meanwhile, Deputy Ambassador to Japan, John Tjahjanto appreciated YGU's efforts in encouraging its students to learn about Indonesia. He added that 2023 is an important year for Indonesia and Japan because both countries celebrate 65 years of bilateral relations. To celebrate the relations, the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo is going to hold "Indonesia–Japan Friendship Day 2023" in a number of cities in Japan.
Turkey has the potential to be the non-traditional source of supply for Indonesia’s main weapon system tools due to their advanced technology. Turkey is currently the second largest power in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO after the United States.
It was an important note from the Indonesian Ambassador toTurkey, Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, during Kompas Talks dialog theme: “Silaturrahmi Virtual Diaspora Jelang Tahun Baru 2023” at Ankara on Thursday, 29th December.
In addition to Ambassador Iqbal, the Ambassador of Indonesia to Australia, Siswo Pramono, The Head of Indonesian Trade Promotion Center in Sydney, Cristophorus Barutu, and The Head of Export School, Handita Joewono, also attended the event.
According to Ambassador Iqbal, Turkey made use of their neutral position to be more assertive and to accentuate their role in the International sphere. He referred to the role of Turkey in the Russia-Ukraine war, which was accepted by both sides.
He stated that Indonesia could learn from Turkey in terms of utilizing the situation by maintaining a non-aligned stance.
Furthermore, as the largest Moslem country in the world, Indonesia needs to make use of the halal label for embracing the global halal market. One of the halal certification collaborations has been agreed with Turkey’s institution.
In terms of trade, the trade transactions between Indonesia and Turkey in the first 10 months of 2022 have surpassed the amount of the previous year’s total trades. The number itself became the highest record of USD 2,6 billion with an increase of export by 56,7 percent. Meanwhile, imports decreased to 13,9 percent, which was lower than 2021 of 46,4 percent.
For the sector of tourism, the arrival of Indonesian tourists to Turkey was higher than the opposite. The country, which is led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was one of the first countries who have opened their borders while their neighbors haven’t done a similar thing.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) received ASEAN Secretary General Dato' Lim Jock Hoi and his delegation at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Friday. As quoted on the Antara page (30/12), Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi after accompanying President Jokowi said that Dato' Lim Jock Hoi's visit was to express his gratitude for Indonesia's support to ASEAN while Dato' Lim served as Secretary General of ASEAN. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi disclosed that the most visible and most beneficial support was Indonesia's contribution to the development of the new ASEAN Secretariat.
The construction of the new building, is expected to improve the performance of the ASEAN Secretariat. Now ASEAN meetings can be held in Jakarta, at the ASEAN Secretariat Building.
According to Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, during the meeting, the Secretary General of ASEAN Dato' Lim Jock Hoi expressed confidence that Indonesia could play a good role as Chair of ASEAN 2023. The theme for Indonesia's chairmanship namely the Epicentrum of Growth, is considered appropriate to be the focus of discussion. .
Minister Retno Marsudi explained that the Secretary General of ASEAN conveyed that economic development in each ASEAN country was quite promising. With this promising economic development, the theme of the Indonesian Chairmanship is very appropriate to put forward. She also explained that last week Dato' Lim Jock Hoi officially ended his duties as Secretary General of ASEAN and the position will be handed over to the new Secretary General of ASEAN.
Support for Indonesia's chairmanship in ASEAN 2023 was also conveyed by Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dato' Seri Zambry. Quoting the Cabinet Secretariat website, Dato' Sery Zambry conveyed this support when President Joko Widodo received him at the Merdeka Palace, last Friday (30/12).
Malaysia believes that under Indonesia's leadership, ASEAN will continue to make progress in building a safer, inclusive and sustainable region for the benefit of ASEAN.
According to Retno Marsudi, during the meeting Malaysian Foreign Minister Dato' Seri Zambry expressed his support and trust in Indonesia taking the chair of ASEAN in 2023. The Malaysian Foreign Minister said that Indonesia's chairmanship was a very strong chairmanship in the midst of quite a number of global challenges.
The new year 2023 becomes a moment for the Indonesian Embassy in Astana to welcome the 30th anniversary of Indonesia-Kazakhstan diplomatic relations.
Indonesian Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, Fadjroel Rachman said that for the next one year, the activity of the Indonesian Embassy in Astana will be related to the diplomatic relations celebration.
Amid the New Year's Eve party joined by Indonesian citizens in Astana, Ambassador Fajdroel said that the embassy's vision in the diplomatic relations' 30th anniversary was bringing forward the service, innovation, and collaboration. Then, he invited those in Indonesia and Kazakhstan to join in implementing the diplomatic vision both in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
One of the collaborations is the logo for the 30th anniversary as designed by Akhri Jetendra Djachrir. This logo symbolizes the 30 years of Indonesia-and-Kazakhstan diplomatic relations. There were Garuda and Samruk joining as one, representing the unity between Indonesia and Kazakhstan. The Garuda and Samruk also mean power and dynamic motion that is ready to soar, representing a spirit of development for both Indonesia and Kazakhstan.
The 30th anniversary of Indonesia-Kazakhstan diplomatic relations was also commemorated with the signing of several MoUs namely between the Nusantara Capital City and Astana, Indonesian Youths & Sports Ministry and Kazakhstan Sports & Culture Ministry, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KADIN) and Chamber of Commerce of Kazakhstan (Atameken) as well as Agreement on the Promotion and Protection of Investments and Indonesia-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (I-EAEU FTA).


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Life will soon look a whole lot more normal again. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just announced that fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks outdoors and in most indoor settings. And come Memorial Day, Pennsylvania will be fully reopened, excluding Philadelphia, which has its reopening planned less than two weeks later, on June 11.
Here’s what the reopening means, and what rules remain in place until then.
Pennsylvania reopening: May 31
As soon as the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. on Memorial Day, all COVID-19 restrictions related to gatherings, restaurants, and other businesses will be lifted in Pennsylvania.
This means places such as salons, gyms, theaters, bars, and stores can all return to full capacity, restaurants no longer need to space out their tables, and there won’t be any crowd-size limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings. Cleaning, sanitizing, and distancing mandates for business owners are also lifted, the Pennsylvania Department of Health recently announced, but all are encouraged to follow CDC guidance.
Schools also no longer need to report their coronavirus prevention measures to the state, but the updates don’t prevent municipalities and school districts from implementing stricter mitigation efforts, says the Department of Health.
As for masking, currently the state’s mask mandates match the CDC’s recently updated guidance, meaning if you’re fully vaccinated, you can stop wearing masks in outdoor and most indoor settings. Everyone is still required to wear a mask on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation, and you’ll need to follow the guidance of workplaces and local businesses. If you’re unvaccinated, you remain required to wear a mask when you’re away from home until 70% of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated.
Leading up to the full reopening, Pennsylvania will begin to relax current restrictions. Starting May 17, indoor-capacity limits will increase to 50%, doubling the current level, and to 75% for outdoor events, up from 50%.
Philadelphia reopening: June 11
Eleven days after Pennsylvania reopens, Philly will reopen, too, lifting all COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings, restaurants, and other businesses. Masking requirements remain in place. The Public Health Department says it’s currently reviewing the CDC’s updated guidance on mask use for people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Starting May 21, a few changes will go into effect that relax current restrictions, including the lifting of all capacity limits on offices, stores, museums, and libraries.
Restaurants, which are allowed to operate at 50% capacity (or 75% capacity if they can meet enhanced ventilation standards), will be allowed to reduce the distance between tables from six to three feet. And you’ll no longer need to purchase food if ordering alcohol.
Indoor catered events can take place at 25% capacity of the venue’s occupancy limit, with a maximum of 250 people, including staff, if there’s no music, dancing, or alcohol, and a maximum of 150 people, including staff, if there is music, dancing, and/or alcohol.
Outdoor catered events can take place at 50% of the venue’s occupancy limit, with no maximum cap on the number of people.
Gyms and indoor pools can open at 75% of their occupancy limit, or 15 people per 1,000 square feet. Exercise classes will be capped at 25 people. There are no capacity limits for outdoor pools.
Indoor gatherings and theater performances are allowed to operate at 50% of the venue’s occupancy limit. Social distancing must be maintained at a minimum of three feet between people or groups.
Outdoor venues can operate at 50% of their occupancy limit if they have fixed seating. If there isn’t fixed seating, a maximum of 33 people per 1,000 square feet is allowed. This includes sporting venues, such as Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies announced that they will increase capacity from 11,000 to 16,000 and are planning for a full reopening on June 12, when they take on the New York Yankees. Social distancing must be maintained at a minimum of three feet between people or groups.
Casinos can operate at 50% capacity, or at 75% capacity if they can meet enhanced ventilation standards. Social distancing must be maintained at a minimum of three feet between people or groups. Alcohol can now be sold at gaming machines.
New Jersey (partial) reopening: May 19
Beginning May 19, New Jersey will remove limits on outdoor gatherings, and indoor gathering limits will increase from 100 to 250 people.
Stores, restaurants, salons, gyms, theaters, and other businesses will be allowed to operate at full capacity as long as people can remain six feet apart. The same goes for places of worship.
Masking requirements remain in place for everyone, vaccinated or not, when indoors in a public place. If you’re vaccinated and outside, you don’t need a mask. If you’re unvaccinated and outside, you need to wear a mask when in close proximity to others.
» READ MORE: More Philly tips: Read our most useful stories
Feeling nervous about the reopening?
It’s natural to feel a little overwhelmed right now. We have guides to help you deal with the anxiety, whether you’re nervous about returning to a normal social life or can’t shake the fear of getting COVID-19, despite being vaccinated and in low-risk situations.
How do the mask guidelines work?
Here’s a breakdown of the CDC’s guidance.

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Sri Lanka’s Mobile Phone Shipments!
Sri Lanka’s mobile phone sales reached one million unities in the third quarter of 2014 while smart phone shipment up by 100 percent which accounts for 20 percent of the total sales, a market report said.
“Sri Lanka mobile handset shipments continue to show consistent growth in both the Feature phones as well as Smartphone segments, making it among very few South East Asian markets where growth was seen in both segments,” said CyberMedia Research, a Market Intelligence and Advisory firm in its report.
The report says the market grew 11 percent in unit shipment terms, quarter-on-quarter (3Q CY 2014 versus 2Q CY 2014), and 43 percent growth year on year. Smart phones segment up 100 percent to 0.2 million units while feature phones up by 33 percent to 0.8 million units year on year.
In the overall Sri Lanka Mobile Handsets market, Nokia retained leadership position with a 22 percent share, followed by Micromax at second position with 19 percent and E-Tel at third position with 12 percent, in terms of sales (unit shipments) during third quarter of 2014.
“The leadership positions are somewhat volatile and we see an ongoing tussle for the top slots every quarter,” Tanvi Sharma, Sri Lanka Telecoms Analyst at CMR was quoted in the media release.
“This indicates that the market is still adjusting to evolving user wants and preferences, and whichever brand serves the purpose best achieves the feat,”
“However, it is worth noting that the local brand E-Tel is in leadership positions for both the segments – featurephones as well as smartphones.”
In the smartphone market segment, Samsung leades with a 20.6 market share followed by E-Tel with 17.7 percent market share.
Huawei accounts for 14.3 percent in the market.
Sri Lanka feature phone shipments reached 0.8 million units in the quarter. Nokia had a market share of 25.7 percent in the quarter, followed by Micromax (20.1 percent) share.
“Though featurephone shipments have stagnated in the quarter, yet the market is heavily skewed towards them in terms of sheer numbers,” Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst for Telecoms at CMR was quoted.
“Therefore, it is markets like Sri Lanka where handset vendors should introduce low cost smartphones based on OSs like Android One and Firefox,”
“I am very optimistic that the entry of low-cost OS-based Smartphones will bring about a strong increase in the sales of Smartphone in Sri Lanka.”
About 6.8 million people in the world use smart devices and about 20 percent of the population use smart devices in Sri Lanka data showed.


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U.S. manufacturing experienced growth for the first time in a year and a half in March, with production seeing a significant rebound and new orders on the rise. However, employment in factories remained subdued, and input prices continued to increase.
“The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its manufacturing PMI rose to 50.3 last month, marking the highest reading since September 2022 and the first time above 50 in 1.5 years,” the report stated.
This rebound comes after 16 consecutive months of contraction in manufacturing, which represents 10.4% of the economy. The stretch of decline was the longest since the period between August 2000 and January 2002.
A PMI reading above 50 indicates growth in the manufacturing sector. The ISM and other factory surveys had previously exaggerated the weakness in manufacturing, which increased borrowing costs.
However, government data released last Thursday showed manufacturing output rising at an annualized rate of 0.9% in the fourth quarter of the previous year. It grew by 1.6% in 2023 compared to 0.8% in 2022.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had anticipated the PMI to increase to 48.5. Despite a shift in consumer spending towards services, demand for goods remained strong.
The ISM survey’s forward-looking new orders sub-index rose to 51.4 last month from 49.2 in February. Factory output also saw a rebound, with the production sub-index jumping to 54.6 from 48.4 in the previous month.
Despite concerns over supply chain disruptions due to attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi militants, the survey’s measure of supplier deliveries only slightly decreased to 49.9 from 50.1 in the prior month, indicating slightly faster deliveries.
However, inflationary pressures at the factory gate increased, with the survey’s measure of prices paid by manufacturers climbing to 55.8 from 52.5 in February.
Factory employment continued to shrink, albeit at a slower pace. The survey’s measure of manufacturing employment rose to 47.4 from 45.9 in February.
Nonetheless, this measure has not been a reliable predictor of manufacturing payrolls in the government’s closely watched employment report.


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Check out this week’s roundup below:
- Truckers will soon be traveling to Ohio to test out the states new ‘smart’ highways. Truck platooning semi-autonomous technology allows for trucks to drive closely together, in order to limit fuel waste. Read about it here!
- Soon companies like Walmart will begin to source from women-owned suppliers as an initiative to diversify and enhance the global supply chain.
- Has the expansion of the middle class increased demand for cold chain products? Fresh Plaza reports how disposable income has led to a boom in cold chain investments.
- Is a fully autonomous trucking industry realistic? The Brookings Institution weighs in on how regulatory hurdles and a complex set of labor concerns will deter the automation of trucking.
Make sure to share on social media using the hashtag – #SupplyChainGeek!


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Too many people start a business without considering obtaining skills that’ll help the business succeed. The requirement goes beyond dedication to sustain a successful business. You can achieve business success by planning out all the necessary steps you need to achieve success. According to Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first […]
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A typical state lender who has about N20 million capital is targeting the working class Nigeria, targeting loan sizes of N30,000 to N150,000. Knowing they stand no chance of growing the business if they demand their borrowers come to an office, they invariably would need technology, such as a mobile or website, to reach their […]
May 30, 2022
When starting as a digital lender, one is often faced with a big decision: Is an app a must-have or a pass? However, to truly hit it big, you need a loan app, and we have the reasons to guide you.
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Earlier this month, Peloton launched a featured artist series of Elvis Presley Peloton classes (Elvis Run, Elvis Ride, Elvis Yoga). However, it appears Peloton was not done with that partnership. Last night, Peloton quietly dropped a series of Elvis Presley Remix classes to the on-demand library. This morning, Peloton shared more details on their blog. These Peloton Elvis Remix classes feature exclusive remixes of Elvis songs by Chromeo, Big Boi and Dillon Francis.
The big news here might be the “exclusive” part. In the past, Peloton has teamed up with many artists for their featured artist series classes to have special classes around the launch of an album or new single. However, this appears to be the first time where brand new songs have been launched and only been available on the Peloton platform. These songs were commissioned & created just for Peloton
Because the New Year is the perfect time to get a fresh perspective on things, we asked three global artists, Chromeo, Big Boi and Dillon Francis, to create their takes on three classic Elvis songs, giving you a new way to experience them in four custom-built classes.
This is a big win for Peloton, especially if they can get more of these exclusives, as it is likely to drive people to at a minimum sign up for the Peloton digital free trial who might be very interested in those artists.
Each remix has been created with your best workout in mind. Dillon Francis, who’s a Peloton Member himself, says, “Music is super important when I exercise. I’m always finding music on Peloton, which is one of my favorite things because music is what makes me work out harder.” His remix, “Do the Vega,” promises you’ll feel that motivation and more in the Remix classes.
As part of that, Peloton also announced they are temporarily increasing their free trial from 30 to 60 days.
Elvis Presley Remix Peloton Featured Artist Series Classes & Workouts
- 20 minute Elvis Presley Peloton Remix Outdoor Run with Matty Maggiacomo – 12/29/20 @ 7:00pm ET
- 10 minute Elvis Presley Peloton Remix Yoga Flow with Denis Morton – 12/29/20 @ 7:00pm ET
- 10 minute Elvis Presley Peloton Remix Core Strength with Emma Lovevwell – 12/29/20 @ 7:00pm ET
- 10 minute Elvis Presley Peloton Remix Arms & Shoulder Strength with Ben Alldis – 12/29/20 @ 7:00pm ET
This is yet another example of how Peloton is pushing for more music collaboration under their SVP of music Gwen Bethel Riley, who was promoted this summer. You can read more about her and some of the behind the scenes of artist series classes on this Rolling Stone interview from earlier this year. Peloton had previously been dealing with a lawsuit with music publishers, but that was settled earlier this year, so it appears now they have more time to focus on collaborations than lawsuits.
Want to be sure to never miss any Peloton news? Sign up for our newsletter and get all the latest Peloton updates & Peloton rumors sent directly to your inbox.


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Amazon Fire TV is one of the most featured media devices which has been getting great results by the people in the market also it is also known as the micro-console remote made by Amazon. therefore before buying this, it is very important to know how does this device works. According to the reports we came to know that first, we have to start with, connect the power adapter to Firestick. Now plug the other end of Fire Stick into HDMI port available on your TV. Switch on the TV and now select the HDMI input channel for the port you used to connect your Fire TV Stick. You will now see a loading screen with the Fire TV Stick logo. The above-mentioned procedure will definately help you when you will buy.
With this, the most interesting thing which the users should know is that Amazon has been playing enough for the market and has been added an upgraded version of Alexa voice remote and that too without increasing the amount of it. Amazon has made it completely clear and has made the price of just $39.99. One more option which Amazon has added in this is that it is giving a chance to the people by replacing it will users old and basic remote.
The company itself said that the new remote which will be coming in the market will be full of features comparing to another device. The feature which has been added is the power, volume, and mute on your TV without having to fumble around for another remote, thanks to the inclusion of IR blasters as answered by the reports.
Earlier Amazon was out with many price updates of Stick and Cube, the Fire TV Stick 4K was available for just $49.99 whereas they made a cost of $119.99 for the users who will buy Fire TV Cube. One thing which Amazon has decided and made it really is that has compulsory added $29.99 for the regular owners of Fire TV stick. You can also check on the official website of Amazon for more updates.


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Nike To Continue Investing In China, Plans To Double Sales In Country By '15
Nike Brand President Charlie Denson yesterday said that the company “will continue to invest heavily in the world's most populous country, as the world's top sportswear maker plans to double sales in China by 2015,” according to XINHUA. Denson said, "We certainly will continue to invest in China, and very aggressively. We are very excited about the growth opportunities here." With more than 7,000 retail stores in China, Nike “plans to expand distribution to second and third-tier cities.” Denson said, "We will move west. ... We will continue to grow as we move into the lower tier cities -- athletes still want the same products." He did not confirm reports that Nike “will build a new campus in Shanghai, but stressed the company will certainly increase its presence there by recruiting more and developing more locations” (XINHUA, 10/11). Nike CFO Don Blair said that the company “hopes to roughly double China sales by 2015 to reach a target of $4 billion annually.” The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Laurie Burkitt noted in order for Nike to reach that figure, the company “plans to open more stores, put a renewed focused on recreational sports such as running and snowboarding, and emphasize its stable of local endorsers," including Gold Medal-winning hurdler Liu Xiang and tennis player Li Na. Nike already has “tapped into China's basketball craze, sponsoring NBA stars like LeBron James who are popular in China.” The company indicated that it “can build Chinese sales on its existing basketball fans, but its growth could be juiced if it can replicate an individual and team-sports culture like the one that exists in North America.” Burkitt noted the company last month “launched a running-gear collection inspired by Mr. Liu ... in hopes that he will inspire consumers to buy merchandise" such as the $141 Nike LunarGlide LiuXiang Storm Fly running jacket. To “build an appetite for snowboard apparel, it is planning in 2012 a snowboarding competition at a snowpark outside of Beijing and will build its own course” (WSJ.com, 10/11).
LI NING FALLING BACK: The FINANCIAL TIMES' Patti Waldmeir reported Li Ning in the latest rankings of the richest people in China “has tumbled from 64 last year to 291,” and the decline in fortune “mirrors that of the Olympic gymnast’s self-named brand, which last year had overtaken Adidas for second place in the Chinese sportswear market.” Li Ning CEO Zhang Zhiyong last year “was predicting it would be a top-five global sportswear brand by the end of the decade.” But Li Ning since has “seen its profits and share price plunge and is rethinking its ambitious branding strategy.” With “so few successful Chinese brands in the global marketplace, the trials and tribulations of Li Ning can be seen as a proxy for the fortunes of brand China.” The company's net profits “fell 50 per cent in the first half year on year, and its share price has fallen 57 per cent since the beginning of the year.” The company last year “unveiled a new logo, and a plan to reposition the brand as a near-direct competitor with global brands” such as Nike and adidas. But with many consumers “unwilling to follow a local brand upmarket, Li Ning appears to be returning to its cheap-and-cheerful roots.” It still holds a “slight advantage over Adidas in the China market led by Nike, but market analysts expect it to slip back to third place soon.” Zhang admitted that Li Ning “had lost loyal customers when it raised prices.” Meanwhile, Waldmeir noted adidas is “expanding aggressively into Li Ning territory in smaller Chinese cities, and aims to boost its presence from 550 to 1,000 cities by 2015” (FINANCIAL TIMES, 10/11).


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Alibaba raised $21.8 billion in its initial public offering. The company's stock begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under the symbol BABA.
The breach at the DIY chain is larger than the one suffered by Target last year.
The Associated Press/ABC News -
Made, an online furniture retailer, sent out an email celebrating Scottish independence when it should have sent out one congratulating its customers on the country remaining part of the U.K.
The Telegraph -
Struggling chains, including Sears and Toys "R" Us, are offering space in their stores to other retailers in an attempt to turn profits.
The Street -
Kroger's initiative takes its lead from Harris Teeter's "click and collect" program. Kroger acquired the Teeter chain earlier this year for $2.5 billion.
Cincinnati Enquirer -
Yum Brands' new Vietnamese street food concept, Banh Shop, sported a logo with a red star. This did not go over well with Vietnamese immigrants who have no love for the communist government of their homeland.
USA Today -
Oasis Beverages, a Russian brewer and beverage distribution company, and TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm, have joined together to purchase Pabst Brewing.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (tiered sub.) -
Microsoft has let go 2,100 people, including 750 in the state of Washington, as part of its previously announced plan to cut 18,000 jobs.


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India Post expects to collect Rs 1,500 cr through CoD in FY16
Had already collected Rs 1,000 cr through cash-on-delivery till December
The Department of Posts, which has tied-up with top e-commerce companies, expects to meet the target of Rs 1,500 crore collection through cash-on-delivery this fiscal. The Department of Posts has already collected Rs 1,000 crore through cash-on-delivery (CoD) till December. "The Postal Department has collected Rs 1,000 crore so far through CoD and this figure is likely to cross Rs 1,500 crore by the end of the current fiscal," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told PTI. The Department has partnered with e-tailers, including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, YepMe, Shopclues, for delivering pre-paid as well as CoD orders. Amazon is its largest business partner in e-Commerce. The Minister said complete revival of the postal department is his top-most priority. "I want to see India as a big hub of ecommerce, delivery and digital services," Prasad said. Average business provided per month by major players including Amazon is 3 lakh articles, Snapdeal 80,000 articles, Myntra 50,000 articles, Flipkart 30,000 articles and Yepme 60,000 articles.


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Dong Jun / SHINE
ChinaJoy, or the China Digital Leisure Expo and Convention, Asia’s greatest gaming truthful, is being held in Shanghai till Monday.
About 400 exhibitors, together with prime recreation corporations comparable to Tencent, NetEase and Excellent World, are attending the convention to debate the newest developments within the trade.
“The epidemic has pressed the accelerator for the digitalization of the entire society. The digital transformation of the gaming trade is a pattern,” Xiao Hong, CEO of the Excellent World, stated throughout a convention occasion.
Shenzhen-listed Excellent World goals to construct a “digital tradition innovation ecosystem” protecting recreation, eSports and movie, embracing new applied sciences comparable to 5G, cloud and VR, Xiao added.
In July, Excellent World launched its first flagship cloud recreation “Forsaken World,” permitting customers to play video games with out downloading consumer ends. Within the first half, it additionally revealed 10 TV sequence, two leisure exhibits and one on-line movie.
Within the first half, China’s cloud recreation income hit 403 million yuan (US$57.6 billion), up 79.5 p.c yr on yr and greater than tripling the expansion of the entire gaming market, in line with the China Sport Trade Report launched throughout ChinaJoy.
Shenzhen-listed Hangzhou Shunwang Expertise additionally launched new cloud recreation product “Cloud Taking part in,” which has already provided 40 cloud video games for gamers.
Shunwang adopted the product with its personal fog computing know-how, an structure utilizing edge gadgets to hold out computation and storage. By means of teaming up with cloud companions together with Huawei Cloud and Tencent Cloud, Shunwang can present cloud recreation providers nationwide with low latency and certified recreation expertise.
“Cloud gaming is the pattern within the gaming trade, identical to NetFlix and iQiyi within the video-streaming class,” stated Xu Jun, vice chairman of Shunwang.
E-commerce large Tmall and short-video streaming agency Kuaishou are taking large-scale cubicles with recreation derivatives and livestreaming providers throughout ChinaJoy, representing the combination between recreation and different companies.
A dozen of smartphone manufacturers, together with Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Lenovo, additionally participated, taking an entire E4 corridor throughout the ChinaJoy to supply cellular recreation and eSports expertise and merchandise.
Oppo displayed recreation optimization merchandise like super-fast chargers as much as 125W fashions, which may cost 25 p.c battery capability inside 5 minutes and with out overheating. It additionally launched a voice adaption instrument throughout ChinaJoy for gamers to enhance recreation expertise.
Dong Jun / SHINE
Throughout ChinaJoy, numerous measures are taken to guard guests throughout the epidemic.
In every exhibition corridor, masks and sterilization merchandise are offered. Guests are usually not crowded as earlier ChinaJoy occasions, with house for social distances.
The exhibitor quantity is lower than earlier years’ degree as many abroad exhibitors can’t go to China due to the COVID-19 outbreak, organizers stated.
This introduced challenges to ChinaJoy however the outcomes, in exhibitor quantity and exhibition house, are “a lot better than anticipated,” stated Shunwang, which can be the organizer and proprietor of ChinaJoy.
Dong Jun / SHINE


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Sony Pictures Consumer Products and Lafig Belgium/IMPS have teamed up with Rubie’s Costume Company to produce a line of costumes inspired by the film Smurfs: The Lost Village.
Rocket Licensing has signed a number of U.K. licensing partners for Sony’s upcoming movie Smurfs: Lost Village, which will launch in U.K. theaters March 31, 2017.
IMPS, the Smurfs’ brand owner, has tapped PMS International to launch range of products in anticipation of Sony Pictures’ new film, Smurfs: The Lost Village, in theaters March 2017.
Ubisoft has released a new mobile game featuring the Smurfs, in partnership with brand owner IMPS.
"LingoZING!," an app that uses digital comics to teach foreign languages, has signed a deal with IMPS to feature The Smurfs brand when it launches later this year.
Sony Pictures Consumer Products and LAFIG Belgium, the official licensor of the Smurfs brand, have renewed Jakks Pacific's as the master toy licensee for the franchise.
Turner CN Enterprises has been appointed by IMPS to rep The Smurfs for the UK and Eire.
©2017 UBM. All rights reserved. A UBM Company.


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South African owned but globally operated internet and entertainment group Naspers has announced that it has sold one of its internet companies Allegro, for US$3.253bn. Though initially intimated earlier in the year that either Alibaba or Ebay would buy, Allegro was sold to a consortium of private equity firms that includes Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa.
If you don’t know who Naspers is, the best way to describe them is that you’re probably already a customer if you use any of these brands: DSTV, News24 or (though a slim chance if you’re in Zimbabwe) WeChat.
As for Allegro, it s a group of ecommerce sites headquarters in Poznań in Poland and which founded in 1999, later to be was acquired by Naspers in 2008. Naspers says about this that they built it into a “successful and respectable brand” between that time and now. e-commerce site it operates include Allegro.pl and Ceneo.pl, both eBay type classifieds sites where business and consumers can sell to consumers.
Allegro reportedly has over 14 million users. It competes with other Naspers owned startups such as OLX Poland as well as other global brands like eBay and Amazon which have local operations in Poland.
Allegro was the largest e-commerce investment for Naspers, if you don’t consider WeChat’s heavy ecommerce play that is. And quickly, to put that $3.25b in perspective, it’s almost equivalent to Zimbabwe’s total $4 billion annual budget!
Naspers is currently worth US $69.7 Billion.


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When the average person runs out of money in their wallet, they hit up a local ATM and withdraw some cash. Jeff Bezos is not the average person. After shelling out $250 million in cash to buy The Washington Post in October, Bezos went to his personal billionaire ATM: his Amazon.com shares. In a Form 4 filed on Monday, the Amazon founder and CEO reported that he cashed out of exactly 1 million shares. The net gain after taxes should come to just over $270 million — enough to replenish Bezos’ piggy bank, and then some.
If there’s a sentence that sums up Amazon, the weirdest major technology company in America, it’s one that came from its own CEO, Jeff Bezos, speaking at the Aspen Institute’s 2009 Annual Awards Dinner in New York City: “Invention requires a long-term willingness to be misunderstood.”
In other words: if you don’t yet get what I’m trying to build, keep waiting.
Four years later, Amazon’s annual revenue and stock price have both nearly tripled, but for many onlookers, the long wait for understanding continues. Bezos’s company has grown from its humble Seattle beginnings to become not only the largest bookstore in the history of the world, but also the world’s largest online retailer, the largest Web-hosting company in the world, the most serious competitor to Netflix in streaming video, the fourth-most-popular tablet maker, and a sprawling international network of fulfillment centers for merchants around the world. It is now rumored to be close to launching its own smartphone and television set-top box. The every-bookstore has become the store for everything, with the global ambition to become the store for everywhere.
via The Atlantic.


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File this one under “trade war casualties.” Volvo Cars will hold off on an IPO this year (h/t the global trade war).
… But, Geely became worried that investors (many of which were expected to be Swedish pension funds) might lose money if Volvo stock plummeted after it rang the bell.
- “Conditions right now are not optimal to give certain upside for the investors,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson told the FT.
Zoom out: Volvo’s one of many large car manufacturers concerned a global trade war could upend business, especially given the Trump administration’s threat to slap a 25% tax on EU auto imports.
Remember, Volvo’s already moved some manufacturing to Sweden from China to avoid tariffs.


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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s annual inflation rate was 5.84 percent in August, barely changed from 5.83 percent a month earlier, the state Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
The July annual rate was the highest since September 2014. Contributing to inflation this year have been higher petrol prices and four devaluations of the rupee since December, one of which was in July.
On a month-on-month basis, prices increased 0.21 percent in August. The July on-month increase was 0.94 percent.
Food items such as tomatoes, onions and potatoes, as well as gas cylinders, car prices, and bus fares, were the main reason behind July’s slight price increases month-on-month.


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Laymen news-watchers might have seen the term “global chip shortage” being attributed to a variety of performance issues in a variety of companies. A “chip shortage”, also referred to as “semiconductor shortage” or “chip famine”, is a phenomenon in the integrated circuit industry, when demand for silicon chips outstrips supply.
With this article, we seek to provide a quick overview behind this phenomenon and how it affects some of the hottest stocks underpinning our products.
The manufacturing of semiconductors used to be a fairly distributed sector, with the US and Europe accounting for more 70% of all production. Since then, however, almost three-quarters of all production have moved to Asia.
This highly-concentrated scenario was heavily impacted by the pandemic: mandated lockdowns ushered in across Asia to combat the Covid-19 outbreak caused disruptions in the supply chains and logistics systems chipmakers depended upon to maintain production. On the other hand, since people began spending more time at home, there was a boom in demand for consumer electronics such as game consoles, smart TVs and laptops.
It bears noting, though, that this crisis was not solely due to the pandemic. It had been forecasted for quite some time that a shortage was in the cards since developing economies continued to ramp up consumption of electronics over the past decade.
Europe accounts for less than 10% of global chip production, although that is up from 6% five years ago. The European Commission wants to boost that figure to 20% and is exploring its intentions to invest 20-30 billion euros reach this target. While Intel has expressed interest in establishing a factory in Europe, it reportedly wants 8 billion euros in public subsidies in return.
The U.S. in particular has been hit hard by the shift in production: it has been increasingly more dependent on Chinese imports to satisfy its chip needs while its demand has consistently risen. Simultaneously, Chinese chip imports face increasingly stringent sanctions since the US government maintains that Chinese chip production in China has primarily military purposes.
To satisfy domestic demands, Intel announced in March that it intends to spend $20 billion on two new chip plants in Arizona, which would come online in the next 2-3 years.
With at least 1,400 chips needed per modern automobile, it was bound to impact car production. The current chip shortage is estimated to have caused a loss in production of nearly 4 million vehicles globally for 2021 alone. The problem is exacerbated by another issue: car manufacturers don’t use the most advanced — or “bleeding edge” — chips. Since the older chips are made using older manufacturing processes and chipmakers are moving towards producing higher-revenue “bleeding edge” products, filling orders from car makers would get pushed to the back of the queue.
In terms of “total” chip manufacturing leadership, the market is highly fragmented. However, Samsung and TSMC are the leaders in this field.
Consequences for Tesla, AMD and NVIDIA
Consulting firm Alix Partners announced that automakers will face the major brunt of the chip shortage, with the industry estimated to lose about $110 billion of sales this year on account of lost production. Adding further woes to this was Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s claim that the work and study-from-home trends during the pandemic have led to a huge strain on global supply chains.
During the earnings call in April, Tesla CEO Elon Musk likened the crisis to the toilet paper shortage that had affected many American states during the early outbreak of Covid-19 in the U.S., opining that manufacturers are ordering more microcontrollers than what they actually need. Citing global supply chain pressures, Tesla has repeatedly hiked the price of its Tesla 3 and China-built Model Y models over the past few months.
With both TSMC and Intel warning that chip supply issues could last through 2022, Nvidia stated that it expects demand for its new RTX 30-series GPU to outstrip supply for the same time period during an investors call in April. The company was also well underway to challenge Intel’s dominance in the chip maker space by announcing plans to acquire Arm Limited from SoftBank for $40 billion as well as Xilinx a $35 billion all-stock transaction in Q4 2020.
While AMD CEO Lisa Su gave a more measured response to the crisis in May by saying that the chip shortage was part of a “megacycle” and assuring investors that the industry is “really good at managing these things”, she also announced that the company would be prioritising higher-end commercial and gaming SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) over lower-end CPU components.
Micron Technology reported during its fiscal 2021 Q2 update that it’s operating near full capacity to keep up with its customers’ needs due to surging demand for electronic devices. It estimates that tight supplies of DRAM memory chips (a staple feature in most smartphones, gaming consoles, etc.) coupled with strong demand would cause the semiconductor industry to fall short on filling orders for DRAM throughout 2021 and possibly beyond. It bears noting that over 70% of the company’s business in Q2 came from DRAM memory alone.
It further streamlined its operations by buying out Intel’s 49% stake in its 3D XPoint (a new type of architecture for memory chips) joint venture to end a $400 million-a-year drag on its profits. Micron’s Utah plant that made these chips is scheduled to be sold.
The chip shortage has foisted a peculiar conundrum on the auto industry: while Tesla might be pricier and possibly affected in its production targets, other carmakers are similarly affected (if not worse) and thus unable to capitalize on its shortfall. NVIDIA and AMD, on the other hand, are moving to benefit from more-expensive products in their respective catalogues under their confident estimation that sales will leave them with very low levels of unsold stock, owing to a shortage in cheaper alternative in the consumer electronics space.
If Tesla remains unaffected by virtue of everybody else being affected too, the company’s stock performance will likely not have the chip shortage be a huge factor. If consumers will purchase consumer electronics regardless of the higher prices being command, NVIDIA and AMD will do well.
If, however, other economic conditions such as inflation, job loss, reduced spending trends, etc. seep into the equation over the course of the year, all three companies will be affected, as will their peers. On the question of whether these companies will do well relative to their peers, your guess is as good as ours.
Violeta è entrata a far parte di Leverage Shares nel settembre 2022. È responsabile dello svolgimento di analisi tecniche e ricerche macroeconomiche ed azionarie, fornendo pregiate informazioni per aiutare a definire le strategie di investimento per i clienti.
Prima di cominciare con LS, Violeta ha lavorato presso diverse società di investimento di alto profilo in Australia, come Tollhurst e Morgans Financial, dove ha trascorso gli ultimi 12 anni della sua carriera.
Violeta è un tecnico di mercato certificato dall’Australian Technical Analysts Association e ha conseguito un diploma post-laurea in finanza applicata e investimenti presso Kaplan Professional (FINSIA), Australia, dove è stata docente per diversi anni.
Julian è entrato a far parte di Leverage Shares nel 2018 come parte della prima espansione della società in Europa orientale. È responsabile della progettazione di strategie di marketing e della promozione della notorietà del marchio.
Oktay è entrato a far parte di Leverage Shares alla fine del 2019. È responsabile della crescita aziendale, mantenendo relazioni chiave e sviluppando attività di vendita nei mercati di lingua inglese.
È entrato in LS da UniCredit, dove è stato responsabile delle relazioni aziendali per le multinazionali. La sua precedente esperienza è in finanza aziendale e amministrazione di fondi in società come IBM Bulgaria e DeGiro / FundShare.
Oktay ha conseguito una laurea in Finanza e contabilità ed un certificato post-laurea in Imprenditoria presso il Babson College. Ha ottenuto anche la certificazione CFA.


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Pacific Pearl is to retire from the P&O Cruises Australia fleet in April 2017, by which time she will have sailed 294 cruises and carried more than half a million passengers in her seven years with the brand.
The 63,786gt ship became New Zealand’s first superliner after joining the P&O Cruises Australia fleet in December 2010. Her final New Zealand cruise – a four-night voyage to the Bay of Islands – will depart Auckland on 23 March 2017, while her final P&O Cruises journey will be a 16-day cruise to Singapore departing Auckland on 27 March.
“In becoming a much loved passenger favourite, Pacific Pearl made a huge contribution to building the cruise category in the region particularly in New Zealand, introducing thousands of holidaymakers to the joys of cruising,” said Sture Myrmell, president of P&O Cruises Australia. “In addition to contributing to the growth of cruising in Australia, Pacific Pearl played a big part in growing the New Zealand season by more than 20% over the past four years. Following Pacific Pearl’s farewell in 2017, Pacific Jewel will become New Zealand’s ship and will sail from Auckland for two months from September 1 offering fantastic holidays to the Pacific Islands before returning again in 2018.”
Pacific Pearl will be transferred to another unnamed operator as part of P&O Cruises Australia’s ongoing fleet expansion and renewal programme.
“Farewelling Pacific Pearl is a natural progression in which we are increasing the size of the fleet while redefining modern cruising in this part of the world,” said Myrmell. “This is a very exciting time for P&O Cruises and our guests and is part of our long-term commitment to grow the cruise market.”
Relatively few guests’ forward bookings will be affected by the ship’s departure, but P&O Cruises will offer those who are the chance to rebook on an equivalent or near-equivalent cruise on another P&O Cruises Australia ship, or if this is not possible, a choice of alternative cruises on its other ships. Guests will also be entitled to a full refund if there is no suitable alternative cruise.


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Facebook said Tuesday that it has more than 2 million active advertisers, double its amount from a year and a half ago.
“Our mission is to make the world more open and connected, and an important part of that is helping people connect with businesses,” said Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a blog post.
Facebook has tried to woo small businesses, encouraging them to pay to promote their posts on the social network, narrowing their audience by interests, location and age. In 2013, it got complaints from small businesses upset that the network’s algorithms made it harder for their posts to be seen on Facebook’s news feed without paying for an ad.
Facebook continues to grab global digital ad revenue. Last year, it had nearly 8 percent market share in this category, up from about 6 percent in 2013, according to research firm eMarketer.
Its latest growth in advertisers is “impressive,” said Rob Enderle with the advisory services firm Enderle Group. But Enderle warned that Facebook does face challenges from smaller, niche social networks such as Nextdoor, which focuses on neighborhoods, or LinkedIn for business people.
“Those are the kinds of things collectively that can create a risk for Facebook,” he said.


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Big news today in the technology space. Microsoft will buy popular business networking company, LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion, making it one of the largest technology acquisitions in history. It’s also Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever.
Microsoft says LinkedIn, which has 433 million users, will retain its brand, culture and CEO after the sale. (The transaction has already been approved by both boards, but it must still get regulatory and other approvals.) LinkedIn will become a part of Microsoft’s productivity and business processes segment.
What’s In It For Microsoft?
The Digital Essentials, Part 3
Developing a robust digital strategy is both a challenge and an opportunity. Part 3 of the Digital Essentials guide series explores five of the essential technology-driven experiences customers expect, which you may be missing or not fully utilizing.
This acquisition is in line with a trend set by CEO Satya Nadella, who led Microsoft to purchase email app newcomer Acompli in 2014. Microsoft shortly thereafter replaced its own mobile email with that of Accompli.
Enhancing Office Productivity
Nadella has called Microsoft a “productivity and platform company for a mobile first and cloud-first world.” The company is trying to solidify and protect its hold on the office technology market, helping it to compete against companies like Salesforce. It will also give Microsoft something business users want: social networking services and professional content.
Social Graph for CRM
Microsoft can use LinkedIn’s social graph as a sales tool within its existing CRM products. You can be logged into Microsoft’s Dynamics and instantly get data from LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator “to transform the sales cycle with actionable insights” — essentially lots of background information about users that can help find leads, open conversations and close deals.
Help Customers Move to the Cloud
This is also a huge cloud play. Cloud spending in 2015 reached $175 billion and is projected to top $315 billion by 2019, according to Gartner. For Microsoft, acquiring LinkedIn helps to further position them to serve customers who want to move software, content and data to the cloud.
What’s In It For LinkedIn?
New Features and Functionality
LinkedIn will now have more resources at their disposable to try new things. And the massive amounts of data in these 433 million users’ professional profiles will potentially someday integrate with the tools they’re using daily for office productivity and collaboration.
“In a presentation, Microsoft showed how a member’s LinkedIn profile would be at the center of other Microsoft-centric aspects of daily work life using products such as Outlook, Excel and Skype. Microsoft plans to link the professional network with its digital assistant Cortana and its customer relationship software”.
Microsoft’s LinkedIn buy escalates cloud wars, Jessica Guynn, USA Today, June 13, 2016


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Samsung’s latest smartphones, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, are apparently drawing less attention from consumers than was initially thought, industry data showed this week, casting cloud over the previously upbeat sales estimate of 50 million units this year.
Galaxy S6 sales could be weaker than expected
The tech giant from South Korea has already sold more than 200,000 units of the two phones in the country since launch on April 10, which was short of the 300,000 preorders according to data, suggesting that earlier sales forecasts were somewhat exaggerated.
The Galaxy S6 has Samsung’s first wireless charging batteries, and the Galaxy S6 Edge model has been getting a lot of attention as it’s the first phone with a screen that curves on both sides of the display.
The market has been praising such cutting-edge tech, and industry pundits have been painting quite a rosy picture of the two new phones, with industry tracker Counterpoint saying that the two will sell more than 50 million this year, and some predicting even 70 million units.
The new phones have been out just a little over ten days, so the lower than expected figure is not cause for concern yet, especially when considering that South Korea’s phone market is already saturated. But previous estimates have been very positive, and Samsung had said that it couldn’t keep up with demand for the Edge model in particular (possibly because yield rates are low due to the difficulties in manufacturing the special screens).
The telecom watchdog in that country have been trying to bring more transparency by stopping mobile phone companies from paying huge subsidies that exceed the legal limits to tempt subscribers away from the competition.
Mobile operators do pay subsidies of nearly $200 for the Galaxy S6 models, but they expanded the amount recently due to sluggish sales.
“We expect sales will improve soon, as the mobile carriers decided to increase subsidies on the Galaxy S6 series”, a local retailer said.
SOURCE: Korea Herald


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The biosecurity rules intended to keep the stink bug pest out of New Zealand are ineffective and inconsistent, an international car shipping company says.
Brown marmorat-ed stink bug. Photo: Wikicommons
The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, a crop pest that poses a significant biosecurity threat, could have a devastating effect on the fruit, vegetable and wine industries if it took hold in New Zea-land.
With 127 ships, Scandinavia's Wallenius Wilhelmsen dominates global vehicle movements by ship, and its vessels have been among five turned away from New Zealand ports at huge cost af-ter stink bugs were found.
The company's chief commercial officer, Simon White, said only 16 countries, classified as 'high risk,' have to have their goods treated for stink bug infestation before they could be shipped to New Zealand.
Mr White said the criteria for defining a country as 'high risk' had also been not been clearly de-fined, and the regulations needed to be strengthened.
"We will of course make sure all of the cargo we are loading is in accordance with the regula-tions, and in fact we go over and above that," he said.
"The fact that stink bugs are still being found on cargo when it ultimately arrives in New Zea-land, is to us a clear sign that the regulations as they stand today are not fully effective, and in that sense that more countries should be included in that regulation," he said.
Mr White said unless regulations improve there would be a continued risk to the agricultural sec-tor, as well as delays of cargo essential to the rest of the economy.
The Minister for Biosecurity, today visited biosecuirty staff in Tauranga who had been complet-ing precautionary trapping work over the summer, after a lone male stink bug was detected in the area in December.
In a statement Damien O'Connor said he had asked Biosecurity NZ to investigate new ways of dealing with the increasing threat posed by the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.
Mr O'Connor said this included taking a fresh look at the facilities where containers of imported goods were initially emptied and checked for biosecurity risks.
"We will do what it takes to keep pests like the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug from establishing here," he said.


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We had exclusively reported three months ago that Samsung’s next-generation flagship tablet will come in two sizes, the Galaxy Tab S7 and the Galaxy Tab S7+. The two tablets are also expected to come in variants with cellular connectivity. Now, traces of the Galaxy Tab S7+ have been found on Samsung’s own website, confirming the impending launch of the high-end tablet.
A support page for the Galaxy Tab S7+ 5G (SM-T976B) is listed on Samsung Germany’s website. While the webpage didn’t reveal the tablet’s design or features, it confirmed the existence of the tablet. The webpage is still live. The renders of the Galaxy Tab S7 and the Galaxy Tab S7+ were recently leaked.
Galaxy Tab S7, Tab S7+ Leaked Specs
The Galaxy Tab S7 will sport an 11-inch Super AMOLED screen, while the Galaxy Tab S7+ is expected to come with a 12.4-inch Super AMOLED screen. Both tablets will reportedly have 120Hz refresh-rate screens with QHD+ resolution. Benchmark listings have pointed towards the existence of the Snapdragon 865+ processor in these tablets.
Previous reports and leaks also claim that the Galaxy Tab S7 and the Galaxy Tab S7+ will run Android 10 out of the box with One UI 2.5, dual-camera setup on the rear, and support for S Pen. The Galaxy Tab S7 will come packed with a 7,760mAh battery, while the Galaxy Tab S7+ will be powered by a 10,090mAh battery. The Galaxy Tab S7+ will also come in a 5G variant in a few markets.


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More than half of Munster businesses surveyed by KPMG said they see multiple new opportunities for their companies in the next 12 months, as they adapt to the current challenges associated with Covid-19.
The poll found that 66% of respondents have implemented spend reductions to ensure the viability of their businesses, while 50% have implemented a range of actions to deal with the current pandemic including a partial closure of certain services or areas, and renegotiations with banks, lenders and/or landlords.
The poll was conducted among 66 Munster based businesses during a recent KPMG Covid-19 impact and business recovery webinar.
21% of respondents have decreased their workforce. 61% expect revenue to drop by less than 25% in the next six months, while 36% of respondents are confident of a return to pre-crisis levels within 12 months with 45% having some confidence.
Barrie O’Connell, Partner, KPMG in Ireland said that despite the unprecedented uncertainty facing businesses, the poll demonstrates the ability of these Munster companies to respond and adapt to the challenges they face, to ensure their long-term viability and resilience.
"While the short-term impact of Covid-19 has been negative, these businesses are now focused on how they can survive and thrive into the future, including through diversification and changes in business models.”
As businesses face a ‘new reality’, the Munster companies that took part in the poll have identified a range of changes they anticipate over the next 12 month including the diversification of products or services (36% of respondents), change in business models (34%), restructuring of businesses to focus on more profitable areas (24%), and mergers and acquisitions activity (21%).


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- Brands have hit the brakes on marketing efforts large and small after a mob incited by President Donald Trump stormed the nation's capital Wednesday to protest his election loss, according to multiple media reports.
- Announcements slated for Thursday from at least three major companies have been postponed in reaction to ongoing volatility in Washington, DC, Ad Age reported. More regular activities, including paid social advertising and TV campaigns on news networks, have also been paused by brands, Ad Age, Digiday and Business Insider said.
- Brands and their agencies partners are better prepared for this moment after weathering the pandemic and mass civil unrest last year, media buyers told Digiday. But total silence carries its own risks, as marketers have recently been criticized for taking brand safety measures too far.
Brands were put through a gauntlet in 2020, with many having to pause or cancel campaigns at the last minute in reaction to the novel coronavirus, protests for racial justice and a deeply acrimonious presidential election. The new year is so far bringing little reprieve, as a Trump-incited mob storming the Capitol to protest the president's election loss represents a significant test of the fortitude of U.S. democracy and another media minefield for marketers to navigate. Trump on Thursday committed to "an orderly transition of power" come Jan. 20, while still qualifying that he disagreed with the outcome of the election.
As chaos continues to roil Washington, marketers appear to be adopting an air of caution, freezing activity on channels like paid social and TV where ads might appear alongside distressing news developments, while also holding off on big news announcements. Most reports suggest the quiet period for brands could last between 24-48 hours, but might stretch on longer if unrest persists.
Moving quickly to pull consumer-facing campaigns and communications reinforces how brand safety continues to be a top item for companies looking to preserve a positive public image and sidestep controversy. The role of the brand safety officer has become more common, and nonprofit industry organizations like the Brand Safety Institute (BSI) have gained traction as societal volatility becomes the norm. BSI graduated its inaugural class of Certified Brand Safety Officers last May, with blue-chip marketers, publishers and agencies like Bank of America, GroupM and NBCUniversal among the ranks.
But some critics think brand safety measures can go too far, with advertisers ducking media outlets covering critical stories and ultimately hurting publisher revenue. Vice Media Group last summer called on brands and agencies to reassess their brand safety strategies to support coverage of current events, including contentious topics. The call-to-action arose in the wake of protests for racial justice after the police killing of George Floyd, as many marketers added words like "Black Lives Matter," "Protest" and even "Black people" to their keyword blocklists. Marsha Cooke, senior vice president of impact at Vice Media Group, has referred to this phenomenon as "the brand-safety paradox," where advertisers are so stringent in where they appear that they end up eschewing quality journalism altogether.
"As we learned throughout 2020, overblocking and pausing campaigns during situations, like a democratic crisis, can cause more harm than not," Ben Plomion, chief growth officer at GumGum, said over email. "Quality journalism relies on advertising revenue and brands need to be front and center with their consumers throughout challenging times."
The issue could be replicated around the storming of the Capitol and with ongoing concerns around a peaceful transition of power. A handful of brands directly reacted to the riots Wednesday to mixed effect. Bagel Bites tweeted and then quickly deleted a message reading "all this for someone that hates them." in reference to the Trump supporters. A handful of CEOs, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Marc Benioff, condemned the rioting, per The Wall Street Journal.
Even as consumers increasingly expect brands to tackle complex societal issues, many companies have learned the hard way that this desire stretches only so far. Gap was excoriated on social media for a tweet around the November election that pleaded for red and blue voters to set aside their differences and come together. The message featured a half-red, half-blue hoodie getting zipped up in a show of unity between the political parties — a sentiment that clearly has not manifested in the U.S.


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By Alyssa Girardi
Entirely East Lansing staff writer
To some people, Fridays during Lent mean struggling to find meatless meal options that will please an entire family.
But for Katie Diller, it means a trip down memory lane.
“There’s something nice and familiar about having a soup and grilled cheese, because that’s what a lot of Catholics grew up eating on Fridays,” Diller, director of student outreach at St. John Catholic Church and Student Center, said.
Lent is a period celebrated by many Christians spanning about 40 days before Easter — not including Sundays — depending on the denomination.
During this time, Christians repent, fast and pray, but practices vary based on individual and church beliefs.
In the case of Catholics, many members give up eating meat every Friday during Lent, choosing fish or vegetarian options instead, and numerous East Lansing restaurants and establishments are altering their menus to help Catholics in this tradition.
Some restaurants ensure year-round fish and vegetarian items are available on Fridays, but Beggar’s Banquet bartender Bart Karrigan said the restaurant has certain specials only served during Lent, such as lake perch.
The Rev. Mark Inglot of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, 955 Alton St., said it’s also typical to see chain fast food restaurants make finding meatless options easier, noting some Taco Bell menu changes.
“It’s one of the ways the culture acknowledges the church,” Inglot said.
Inglot said the tradition to not eat meat on Fridays during Lent evolved in the early centuries because people were able to catch fish instead of having to buy food, making for a cheap option.
Diller said in the weeks leading up to Easter, she likes when the money she spends on fasting is going toward charitable causes.
To achieve this, she attends a fish fry every Friday sponsored by the East Lansing Knights of Columbus Council 7816, 955 Alton St.
The tickets for the fish fry are $8.50 for adults, $5 for children five- to ten-years-old and free for children under 5-years-old, according to the East Lansing Knights of Columbus Facebook page. There also is an early bird special for $7.50 from 4-5 p.m., and drive-through for $8.
Diller said the fish fries get anywhere from 350 to 500 people, depending on whether or not students are in town.
“The Knights of Columbus do a ton to support St. Thomas Elementary School,” Diller said. “They also do a lot of outreach for those with disabilities. It’s really a great social organization, so you know the $8.50 you spend, a majority of that is going to charity.”


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The economy appears to be stabilizing, despite the fragile global market and problems remaining with domestic development, analysts say.
Recently BGI, one of the world's biggest genomics companies, settled in Qingdao.
The 2016 International Graphene Innovation Conference (GRAPChina 2016) is set to open on Sept 22 in Qingdao.
Qingdao, a leading economic hub on the coastline of East China, is home to a number of globally-recognized brands.
Singapore and China's Shandong province signed 11 Memorandum of Understanding at the 19th Singapore-Shandong Business Council meeting.
In June, Haier Group, a leading maker of home appliances headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong province, completed the purchase of GE Appliances for $5.58 billion. Sixty percent of the purchasing fund was backed by China Development Bank's Qingdao Branch.
As G20 leaders meet in Hangzhou to discuss potential reforms to the global financial system amid the current economic slowdown, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province could provide them with plenty of material for discussion.
The future of Chinese-German business ties will be based trade in high-end goods, and investment in the fields of infrastructure projects, hightech manufacturing and multimodel logistics services, said officials and business leaders from both sides.


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Provided the Canada-EU trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership are brought into force and the Liberal government pursues bilateral negotiations with China — all of which, it needs to be said, are very far from certain — Canada would have free trade with its 13 biggest trading partners.
As uncertain as that scenario may be, a new study conducted for the Business Council of Canada uses it to contemplate a future in which there’s little left to be gained by negotiating and enforcing agreements with smaller economies.
So what to do then? it asks.
The title of the study alone, Freeing Trade: Why a unilateral approach makes sense for Canada, gives a pretty big hint.
Carried out by Dan Ciuriak, previously deputy chief economist at the department of foreign affairs and international trade, and his colleagues at Ciuriak Consulting Inc, Ali Dadkhah and Jingliang Xiao, the study uses what’s called a Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model to explore the impact of what they call a “tabula rasa” trade policy.
That is, one in which all tariffs on imports are immediately removed without asking foreign governments to do the same (the exception being the supply managed sectors, which get a 10-year phase out), services are liberalized, and restrictions on foreign direct investment are largely eliminated.
Both Hong Kong and Singapore have adopted the approach, so it’s not without precedent.
“The results are striking: the free trade version of the Canadian economy would be considerably more efficient and more prosperous than our current reality. Canadian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be higher in real terms by almost 1.7%,” they write.
By 2035, that means an estimated $61 billion a year in GDP growth.
On the goods side, they find major gains in shipments in all the major industrial sectors – with metal products, automotive, and the chemicals-rubber-plastics complex leading the way, accompanied by a shrinking, however, of the protected agricultural sectors along with textiles, clothing, and leather goods.
The services liberalization model used isn’t quite as comprehensive — they simulate using the most liberal regime per sector currently applied among the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
“We identify some 38 sector-specific measures on which Canada is less open than either the United Kingdom or Australia. New Zealand did not make the cut. Of these measures 10 relate to public procurement restrictions; another 12 relate to licensing of professionals (architects, lawyers, engineers, etc.); the remaining measures cover a range of issues,” they write.
Adopting them wouldn’t make Canada “a services export powerhouse”, they conclude: financial services do well, but the primary beneficiary is the industrial economy, which would find itself with lower cost inputs.
Nor would foreign direct investment gains be enormous.
“This result reflects the already-highly open Canadian investment regime,” they write.
“However, the strong export response in the simulation may be interpreted as Canada receiving new export mandates for the large number of foreign subsidiaries already established in Canada.”
Overall, the study finds Canadian households would be better off “by an amount equal to C$47 billion in income” per year by 2035.
That isn’t to say there aren’t any downsides.
This study builds on work done on the same subject by Ciuriak and Xiao in 2014, which found the federal government would lose $4 billion a year in revenue by eliminating all remaining tariffs unilaterally — saving only $75 million in reduced costs associated with collecting border taxes and managing free trade agreements.
But as Western University business professor Mike Moffatt highlighted in a paper for the Mowat Centre in March, there are only a few products — cars, clothing and shoes among them — that bring in the majority of revenue. Half of all active tariffs, in fact, bring in only around $100 million a year.
And there are significant compliance costs that come with them.
Exporters and importers accessing NAFTA’s preferential tariff regime, as one example, are estimated to spend one per cent of the value of goods sold just ensuring compliance.
For smaller companies trying to navigate Canada’s different tariff regimes, it can get quite complicated and expensive.
Nonetheless, unilaterally removing tariffs would negatively impact Canada’s trade balance — a constant preoccupation of Canada’s opposition parties.
The study estimates a $2.64 billion deficit in 2018, rising to $2.75 billion by 2025, and declining to $2.22 by 2035.
“The trade balance does decline,” the study acknowledges. “However, this reflects to a significant extent the increased demand in Canada for imports from increased growth and investment, which boosts capital inflows and, thus, expands the surplus on Canada’s capital account.”
Ciuriak, Dadkhah, and Xiao are unequivocal that the outcome in the aggregate of unilateral liberalization would ultimately be a boon the Canadian economy.
But perhaps for the same reasons agreements like the TPP are in doubt and the Republican nominee for President of the United States is actively campaigning against free trade, they don’t pretend there aren’t losers when protected sectors are suddenly exposed to competition.
“This study should not be interpreted as a call for laissez faire economic policy in general. It makes the case that the current trade policy, as it stands following the negotiation of Canada’s current portfolio of FTAs (which have gained Canadian exporters preferential access in most of Canada’s major markets), is less effective policy than the tabula rasa we simulate,” they write.
“Canada at the time of the signing of the Canada-United States FTA…went through a painful initial decline before gradually recovering. Armed with an understanding of that experience, hopefully a more effective policy implementation could be crafted – especially in view of the fact that Canada would not be constrained by international commitments, but would be making choices on its own.”


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Frustration among Starbucks workers who say their hours and pay have been slashed took an ugly turn this week as it spilled awkwardly onto forums at Reddit used by employees to “venti” about the coffee giant.
You might recall this summer’s controversy, as workers complained that labor cutbacks left many scrambling for hours. Some baristas said shifts were cut to 4 or 5 hours, which still required an hour’s commute. An online petition got 7,000 signatures (now 17,000) and the attention of headquarters in Seattle, which promised changes.
This week, someone posted a note on Reddit which reminded Starbucks “partners” that working at the chain is a “privilege,” and urged them to put a happy face on the situation. It was titled “Why Labor Went Down.” The author claimed to a be a worker making his or her first Reddit post.
“How can you get more customers in the store, thereby earning your labor,” the post read. “Make every moment right. Smile! Put a little extra into cleaning and doing your tasks…
“It is a privilege …to live a life striving to make others happy…don’t abuse that privilege. Thanks for reading fellow partners,” it concluded.
The post was quickly removed, but not before commenters accused Starbucks of “gaslighting,” suggesting the post was written by some in Starbucks corporate office, not a store worker.
“Part of me wishes I would just not have seen it altogether. How humiliating,” wrote one. “I’m sorry Corp, you trained to hire people who THINK. But now you threaten us.”
A Starbucks media relations representative told me the post did not come from the firms’ corporate offices.
“There’s nothing that we can tell you about the deleted post, as it did not come from us,” said company spokeswoman Maggie Jantzen.
It’s possible the post post was a “troll” designed to tap into worker frustration; or an attention-getting stunt designed timed for Labor Day weekend. It’s probably impossible to determine its origin and real intention. But reaction to it shows Starbucks workers are still plenty frustrated.
Starbucks does occasionally use social media and other tools to communicate with workers, she said, but always identifies itself.
“While we have occasionally responded to our partners (employees) on Reddit, we are transparent when we do so and it is not our primary method of communicating with partners,” she wrote.”We use several channels to engage and respond to our partners including our Partner Hub (an internal company-wide platform) and social channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat, and direct communications to our stores.”
I did find another instance where it appears Starbucks talks to its workers via Reddit. When a worker complained about lids on cold coffee being clunky, this response was posted:
“Please don’t joke about the sourcing of Starbucks products on a public forum like this is (sic) you are a partner. It makes Starbucks as a whole look bad and obviously we don’t want that :),” the post says. “Something I like to think about is, “how can I create an inspired moment outside of work?” Ask yourself “am I creating an inspired moment right now? Or am I helping to foster negativity towards a company that is ranked one of the best companies in the world to work for?”Just something to keep in mind! :)”
Whatever is happening at Starbucks, those who are excited about the reappearance of Pumpkin Spice Lattes this week at Starbucks should take a fresh look at the folks who are serving up those pricey drinks. Their situation is complex, and pressures are coming from multiple directions — beginning with higher wages demanded by minimum-wage law changes.
In this summer’s petition, a Starbucks barista explains that the popularity of the Starbucks app has cut into worker take-home pay.
“The tip situation has also drastically changed,” she says. “Before the implementation of a Starbucks Reward program (MSR), tips were higher. Now, with a growing percentage and majority of customers using the app, and their registered cards, tips are in major decline. When you factor that in with actual take home pay, it’s a scary place to be.”
The Starbucks app does include an easy way for consumers to tip when the order electronically. And Starbucks is well-known as a chain that treats workers well. It offers health benefits and a generous “free college” program. But the chain is facing myriad pressures: market saturation, minimum wage rate increases are just the beginning.
As it wrestles with keeping consumers happy and workers happy, it’s no surprise that frustration would spill out onto the Internet. Whoever wrote the Reddit post, it’s degrading tell workers their job is a privilege.
Meanwhile, if you have been converted into a Starbucks app user — 25% of store transactions are now digital — leave the same tip you did when paying in cash. It’s easy to forget when paying so quickly, but the tips really do matter to workers.
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