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Category: General

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest General Retail news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Asian Sports Betting Market

    Asian Sports Betting Market

    Asia has a huge betting market compared to other continents. But, it has poor coordination. The Asian market led in global betting in 2017. It comprises established sportsbooks like Betway88. Statistics show that about 40 percent of bets placed in the world are from Asia. Besides, many sports fans from other regions have a murky understanding of Asian gambling. Here is an insight into the Asian sports betting market.

    Asian Betting Odds

    An Asian handicap sport betting is popular all over the world. Each soccer match has a particular handicap. There are some common Asian handicap odds:

    1. Hong Kong Odds

    Most gamblers who wager at Asian bookmakers often choose Hong Kong odds. They resemble decimal odds. But, betting firms don’t factor in your original stake into the multiplier. For instance, if you place a $200 bet with 1.70 Hong Kong odds, you will get a return of $540. Thus, Hong Kong odds of 1.70 are equal to decimal odds of 2.70.

    1. Decimal Odds

    Bookies often display decimal odds as 1.70, 3.20 and 2.50. The figures reflect the return you will get from a bet. It includes your initial stake. For instance, you will receive $510 in total if you place a $300 bet at 1.70 odds. So, your profit will be $210. Punters can visit https://www.betway98.com/  to place soccer bets with decimal odds.

    1. Malay Odds

    Malay odds resemble Hong Kong odds. They are displayed as decimals and have a negative or positive sign. Bets with a 50 percent winning probability appear as 0.00. You will get a 1-unit payout for each 1 unit you wager. For example, you will get a $700 payout if you place a $100 wager at Malay odds of -0.70.

    1. Indonesian Odds

    Indonesian odds are often displayed the same as American odds. They can have a negative or positive sign at the front. A negative sign shows that that is the favorite bet. For instance, you need to wager $170 to get a $100 payout if the Indonesian odds are -1.70.

    Factors to Consider When Selecting an Asian Sportsbook

    Many Asian punters struggle to find the right bookmaker. Here are four factors that will help you find a nice Asian sportsbook:

    • Currencies and online payment options: It is advisable to choose a betting firm that offers different payment options. Pick a bookie that accepts different currencies as it allows you to bet while in different countries.
    • Safety: Safety is paramount in sports betting. Bookies should protect client data and stakes. Many Asian bookmakers have sophisticated software that prevents hackers from accessing your data and transaction history.
    • Favorable handicap odds: Bookies offer different odds for the same sports event. Choose a betting firm with high odds to get a bigger profit margin.
    • Promotions and bonuses: At times, Asian sportsbooks offer bonuses and promos to new and existing clients. You can use bonus bets to wager without using real money.

    Millions of Asians spend huge sums of money on sports betting. They wager on sports such as athletics, basketball, cricket, football, golf, tennis, volleyball and rugby. Some Asian betting firms have a lower margin compared to European bookies. It provides pundits a high chance of winning in the long run. You can place different types of bets at Betway88.

     

  • Macau casinos reopen – how bad was the damage?

    Macau casinos reopen – how bad was the damage?

    Coronavirus hit the world out of the blue and as for now, more than 75,000 people are infected with the deadly virus worldwide. The death toll currently stands at 2012, as France recorded the first one in Europe last week. Macau, one of the world’s largest gambling hubs is also under a great threat due to its proximity to China. In total, 10 people were infected in the city after the outbreak began. However, there has not been a newly recorded case after February 4th.

    The government pushed for the suspension of the casino operations of February 5th in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus in the city. The decision was made after it turned out that 2 out of 10 infected in Macau were casino employees. However, it was now announced that the casinos will be able to go restart operations on Thursday, after an unprecedented 15 day-long shutdown. The ban remains in place for a number of entertainment venues, including cinemas, pubs and karaoke bars. At the same time, casino visitors will have to wear facemasks before entering and will also be scanned for the temperature at the entrances.

    A shutdown is a historical event since the industry generates a significant portion of wealth in the city. Besides being the longest in history, it will likely have a major economic impact on Macau.

    In fact, the shutdown was such a major event for the whole gambling industry that betting options started appearing on multiple foreign platforms on how much the city would lose before the re-opening.

    One of the weirdest platforms that these options appeared on were Norwegian bookmakers, or NYE bookmakere as they’re originally referred to in the Nordics. Due to the extremely restricted environment in the country about sports betting, a wagering option for Macau’s closing was perceived as a small loophole. Similar cases can be seen almost all over the world.

    It was indeed a big hit

    The City’s 41 casinos along with the gaming industry employ an estimated 56,000 people, 8% of its population. Besides them, non-resident workers commuting from mainland China are affected as well. The estimates

    A member of the legislative assembly of Macau Au Kam-san asserted on the matter, stating that the end of suspension was anticipated: “Gaming industry is too important to Macau. The government could not afford to let it close for too long. There could also be pressure from the casino operators. Because they are still paying the staff while the casinos are closed.”

    It has also been said that the workers from mainland China will have to go through special procedures before re-entering Macau. This again is to reduce the risks of further spread of coronavirus. However, the long incubation period requires a 14-day long quarantine, which is very unfeasible for every side. On this, Kam-san commented: “Some 60,000 to 70,000 people travel across the border every day to work in Macau. Your business just can’t operate if they have to be quarantined for 14 days when they enter Macau”.

    high profile Macau health officials also stated that the city’s residents would also have to go through similar procedures if the risks arise. Under such circumstances, the city’s gambling industry would be even under a bigger threat, since the shortage of Chinese workers is already making an outstanding economic impact on Macau’s economy.

    Macau’s casinos took in roughly $37,6 billion in 2018 as total revenues hit historic records. Gambling tourism represents up to 50% of the city’s economy, making it a crucial field for its financial stability. It is difficult to project an exact impact of a 15-day long closure on Macau and its residents, but it is clear that the final outcome will not be positive for the city’s gambling industry this year.

     

  • Philippine retailers experiencing coronavirus-related sales slump

    Philippine retailers experiencing coronavirus-related sales slump

    The Philippines’ largest retail landlord SM Supermalls says retailers’ sales have dropped both at home and in China due to the coronavirus crisis.

    According to ABS-CBN, local sales of the group fell by 10-20 percent in the first few weeks of the coronavirus outbreak as people avoid shopping and eating out in the Philippines for fear of exposure.

    In Mainland China, where SM operates malls, sales have slipped by up to 50 percent in tenant’s stores.

    At the same time, other Philippine retailers have witnessed a 30-50 percent decline across the “total retail environment”, according to Roberto Claudio, vice chairman of the Philippine Retailers Association.

    “That drop will go down into billions (of pesos) in terms of lost sales and revenues,” said Claudio. “If this goes on toward the end of the year, it is going to be devastating for most retailers and malls.”

    The Philippines has confirmed three coronavirus cases, all visitors from Wuhan City in the central province of Hubei.

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  • Don Don Donki to expand after success of debut store in Thailand

    Don Don Donki to expand after success of debut store in Thailand

    Don Don Donki Thailand will expand its retail network this year after a positive trading performance of the first outlet.

    In partnership with Saha Pathana Inter-Holding (SPI), the holding company for consumer product conglomerate Saha Group, Don Don Donki Thailand plans to open its second outlet on Ratchadamri Road, which is three times bigger than the first store.

    President and executive director at SPI, Vichai Kulsomphop, said the venture aims to open 10 branches across the country. Each of the stores will cost THB500 million and occupying a space of between 5000 and 6000sqm.

    “Saha Group is also willing to be an overseas partner of Donki if the Japanese firm really wants to expand its business in Asean,” said Vichai.

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  • Philippine airlines are losing Chinese tourists amid coronavirus outbreak

    Philippine airlines are losing Chinese tourists amid coronavirus outbreak

    When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pursued closer foreign relations with China, he helped attract planeloads of Chinese tourists to the Southeast Asian nation. Now, the coronavirus outbreak is reversing the trend, much to the chagrin of airline companies.

    Budget carrier Cebu Pacific has put its expansion plans into the Chinese market on hold after the Covid-19 disease triggered the biggest health scare in the region since the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2003. Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines have both canceled all China-related flights until the end of March, and both stocks have taken a beating along the way.

    The country has reported three infection cases, and recorded the first death outside China on February 2. After that, Duterte imposed a sweeping ban on travels to and from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to protect the country in one of the most drastic reactions by regional governments. Approvals for visas on arrival have also been tightened.

    “Traveller volumes on China-Philippines routes have fallen,” said Jose Enrique Perez De Tagle, vice-president of corporate communications at PAL Holdings, which owns Philippine Airlines. Mainland Chinese account for about 10 percent of its global passengers, he added.

    Global travel restrictions on Chinese travelers as airlines cut flights to mainland
    15 Feb 2020

    Since Duterte won the presidential election in June 2016, the combative president has embraced closer ties with Beijing despite territorial disputes in the South China Sea. He has also distanced the country from the US, including a decision last week to end the Visiting Forces Agreement, a 21-year pact that allowed US troops to be based in the country for bilateral exercises.

    Mainland Chinese tourists have since become the nation’s second-largest source of tourist arrivals in the Philippines, according to government data. They made up more than one-fifth of the 7.5 million arrivals in the first 11 months of last year, versus 9.1 percent in 2013.

    The Philippines received 1.26 million Chinese tourists in 2018 versus 491,000 in 2015, according to Colliers, citing government data. They spent US$1,130 per person on average, boosting the retail and tourism sectors. In January to November last year, arrivals jumped 40 percent year-on-year, faster than the national average of 10-15 percent, Colliers said.

    Ending Philippines-US military pact will affect South China Sea disputes: analysts
    16 Feb 2020

    The coronavirus outbreak has claimed more than 1,800 lives and infected more than 71,000 people worldwide, mostly in mainland China.

    Before the outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, local carriers were emboldened by the surge in Chinese visitors to consider adding more routes in China to take advantage of the growth.

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  • Vietnam IT recruiting firm raises million dollars from South Korean investor

    Vietnam IT recruiting firm raises million dollars from South Korean investor

    IT recruitment firm TopDev has secured a million-dollar investment from South Korea’s leading recruitment company Saramin HR.

    The Ho Chi Minh City-based company said in a statement Monday that the deal, whose exact value it did not reveal, would be used to increase the supply of developers through training programs for graduates.

    Saramin HR, which is listed on South Korea’s KOSDAQ, said the investment is part of its global development plan and would support TopDev’s potential expansion in Southeast Asia.

    TopDev said Vietnam has 350,000-400,000 developers now but 500,000 would be needed by 2021 as the country remains a popular outsourcing software destination for multinationals.

    Vietnam is seeing increasing investment in tech startups.

    Last year the total investment in Vietnamese tech startups surged 2.5 times to $741 million, second only to Indonesia in Southeast Asia.

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  • Malaysian retailers hit by coronavirus

    Malaysian retailers hit by coronavirus

    Malaysian retailers operating in tourist zones have seen sales plunge in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

    Locally headquartered leathergoods retailer Bonia says sales have fallen by as much as 77 percent in one location and were down overall as fewer Chinese traveled to Malaysia and locals avoided crowded locations to reduce their exposure to the virus.

    Besides its own brand, Bonia also operates stores under the Braun Buffel, Sembonia, Renoma and Valentino Rudy banners.

    Aa Bonia spokesperson said sales had dropped 30 percent overall in the first 17 days of February, the peak, so far, of the virus outbreak.

    “Our Genting Highlands outlet has been tremendously affected,” he said. “The key factor is Covid-19, which has made tourist numbers decline, while local consumers are shying away from crowded malls during their weekend outings.”

    Sales at the Genting Highlands store were down 77 percent and at the Pavilion shopping center in Kuala Lumpur by 35 percent, year on year.

    Stores in Johor Bahru and Penang have also been hit.

    Another retailer, Corn In a Cup, has experienced a drop in sales of between 15 and 40 percent, with the worst-affected store the one at Zoo Negara, where daily sales usually run from 200 to 300.

    “We have been operating at the zoo for over 10 years,” he told The Edge. “Never before in history have we only sold one cup of corn in a day.”

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  • Global franchise operators eye Thai growth

    Global franchise operators eye Thai growth

    Franchise brands from the US, France and China are eyeing opportunities in Thailand which has become a strong drawcard for offshore companies, according to consultants.

    Southeast Asian specialist VF Franchise Consulting is holding a franchise-business matching event in Bangkok next week, with local partner Gnosis which has drawn businesses keen to establish a presence in Thailand.

    Among the companies participating who are seeking local partners are retailers Ace Hardware, Delifrance and Little Caesars. Others include technology-focused language education company Qooco and Scholastic World of English.

    “Thailand continues to be of strong interest from our clients,” said Sean T Ngo, CEO of VF Franchise Consulting. “Whether it is food and beverage, education, retail, fashion or services, all of these sectors are attractive in the Thai market.”

    Ngo says the key to succeeding in Thailand’s ultra-competitive market is offering clear and sustainable value and differentiation.

    “We believe the brands that we are taking to Thailand fit that extremely well as they are all leaders in their respective franchise segments.”

    On February 25 in Bangkok, some of the franchisor executives from the brands will meet one-on-one with invited franchisees and investors.

    US-based Little Caesars Pizza is the world’s third-largest pizza franchise and now operates in 26 countries, including Singapore and the Philippines.

    Delifrance is the world’s largest French bakery and cafe chain and has more than 400 stores serving millions of customers in 15 countries across the globe.

    Ace Hardware is the largest home-improvement franchise in the world with more than 5300 stores worldwide, including more than 200 stores in the Philippines and nearly 200 stores in Indonesia.

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  • Cebu Pacific, PAL to resume Taiwan flights after travel ban lifting

    Cebu Pacific, PAL to resume Taiwan flights after travel ban lifting

    Two local airlines will again mount flights to and from Taiwan after the government lifted the travel ban on the territory.

    Cebu Pacific flights will resume February 17.

    In an advisory, the airline will have one flight from Manila on Monday and only arrival flights from Taiwan beginning February 18.

    On February 21, there will be two flights from Manila and two from Taiwan.

    “We are notifying passengers both on those flights on the resumption of scheduled flights starting Monday,” said Cebu Pacific spokesperson Charo Logarta- Lagamon in a phone patch interview.

    Lagamon said the airline has carried out safety measures since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

    “Ever since the situation with the COVID-19 broke out, we have implemented precautionary measures — disinfection of aircraft, measures for personnel — and we try as best as we could to keep them in place all through these weeks,” she said.

    Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines announced in an advisory that Taiwan flights will begin February 21. Trips will initially be four times weekly — Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday — until February 29.

    Daily flights will resume March 1.

    “Passengers originally confirmed on canceled MNL-TPE and TPE-MNL flights now have the opportunity to book on the restored PR890 and PR891 flights,” said PAL.

    Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo earlier said that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases lifted the travel restriction given Taiwan’s strict security protocols against the COVID-19.

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  • Beta version of popular Google app gets Dark Mode for all Android users

    Beta version of popular Google app gets Dark Mode for all Android users

    Another reason to use Dark Mode is to preserve the battery life on handsets that sport an AMOLED display. That’s because such panels create the color black by turning off the pixels in the appropriate area of the screen. Pixels that are turned off do not draw on the phone’s battery, saving some power. Dark Mode has become so popular that both iOS and Android now allow users to enable it system-wide.
    To become a beta tester for the Google app, head over to this Google support page and follow the directions. You can only have one version of the Google app installed at one time, and if you’re unhappy being a beta tester you can always return to the public version of the app.
    Once you sign up as a beta tester for the Google app on your Android phone, you can turn on Dark Mode by going to Settings > General > Theme > select Dark or System Default. On phones running Android 10, this means that you can choose to have the Google app in Light Mode all of the time, Dark Mode all of the time, or have it match the system setting. On phones running an earlier version of Android, go to Settings > General > Theme > select Dark or Set by Battery Saver. On pre-Android 10 phones, this will give you the option of running the Google app in Light Mode, running the app in Dark Mode, or running the app in Dark Mode once the Battery Saver is turned on.
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  • Vietnam winning greater share of US apparel imports

    Vietnam winning greater share of US apparel imports

    Vietnam’s share of US apparel imports has benefited as China’s share in the market is slipping in the wake of the Sino-US trade war.

    According to the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel, Vietnam’s share increased to 14.26 percent last year, up from just 7.72 percent in 2010.

    Michelle Russell, an apparel correspondent at GlobalData, says Vietnam’s garment sector has clearly benefited from the ongoing tit-for-tat trade spat between the US and China during the last two years as producers and buyers diversify their supply chains.

    Brands have chosen Vietnam and Bangladesh as its alternative sources as additional tariffs are imposed on most garments imported from China.

    China’s share of the market slipped from 41.9 percent in 2018 to 39.9 percent last year, on top of a year-on-year decline in the unit prices of apparel imported into the US.

    “Despite China remaining the cheapest of the top-10 garment supplier countries, the country’s share of US imports declined last year. Meanwhile, Vietnam is becoming something of a global manufacturing powerhouse and has clearly reaped the benefits thanks to its younger and lower-wage workforce, its preferential trade policies and its logistics – the country boasts 14 major ports,” said Russell.

    The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) between Vietnam and the European Union, which will remove most tariffs between the two parties over the next 10 years, has been approved by the European Parliament this week. However, Vietnam still faces challenges ahead that will require Vietnam to gradually change the structure of its economy.

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  • Lotte Shopping closing 200 stores as losses mount

    Lotte Shopping closing 200 stores as losses mount

    Lotte Shopping plans to shut down as many as 200 department stores and large-format supermarkets in South Korea, marking one of the biggest retail network culls in the nation’s history.

    Lotte Group operates more than 700 stores under its Lotte Mart, Lotte Department Store, Lotte Super and drug-store chain LOHB banners, which means its closure plans will affect almost one in three stores.

    There are no reports that Lotte will scale back its international business, which is largely in Southeast Asia after it began withdrawing from China last year.

    “The focus of our business strategy in 2020 is a heavy downsizing to enhance efficiency and profit,” the company said in a statement.

    “The food sections at underperforming small- and mid-sized department stores will be changed into supermarkets selling fresh groceries.”

    The rationalization plan follows news that South Korean convenience stores are outperforming supermarkets and hypermarkets in financial terms.

    Lotte Shopping’s net loss grew by 83.6 percent year on year to US$721 million last year, on an operating profit down 28.3 percent to $361.7 million. Sales slipped 1.1 percent to $14.9 billion, largely driven by a 5.8-per-cent decline in supermarket sales. Department-store sales dropped by 3.1 percent.

    Kang Hee-tae, who heads Lotte Shopping, said its major stores were performing poorly and market conditions remain tough. He cited an increase in the minimum wage and falling Chinese tourist arrivals as contributors to the poor result. But analysts in Seoul say Lotte Shopping’s problems are in part caused by a shift to online shopping, where consumers can often pay less for goods.

    According to Yonhap, South Korean retail sales rose 4.8 percent last year, with online sales growing 14.2 percent based on a sample of 13 e-commerce players. Overnight fresh-food deliveries were a contributor to the online growth.

    “The top priority at Lotte Shopping is to resolve fundamental problems and deliver clearly positive results,” said Kang.

    Besides store closures, the company plans to restructure some of its operations. For example, the fashion zones at its Lotte Mart stores will in future feature stock curated from the company’s department stores and likely feature more branded apparel rather than discount garments.

    The company also plans to use big data to refine and personalize its services to customers instead of running hundreds of too many loss-making branches.

    Lotte Shopping is not alone with its challenges in a changing South Korean market. Last August, rival Emart posted its first-ever loss, of $24.7 million, for the June quarter, its worst result since it was spun off from Shinsegae Group in 2011. It reported a 53-per-cent drop in full-year net profit to $189 million.

    The company said it planned to raise $820 million by selling assets and will buy back stocks to boost shareholder value.

    Emart has since embarked on a plan to downsize its Electro Mart gadgets chain and its Boots drugstore franchise and it is closing all it’s discount Pierrot Shopping stores, which are modeled on the Don Don Quijote concept from Japan.

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  • South Korea’s CU fined US$1.4 million for unfair trading

    South Korea’s CU fined US$1.4 million for unfair trading

    South Korean convenience-store operator BGF Retail has been fined for pushing exorbitant sales promotion costs onto its suppliers.

    The firm was ordered to pay KRW1.67 billion (US$1.4 million) for its breach of the Act on Fair Transactions in Large Retail Business, according to a report in The Korea Times.

    While the act forbids any retailer from forcing its supplier to shoulder more than half of any promotional cost, BGF was found to have run “two-for-one” promotional events from early 2014 to late 2016 at its CU-branded stores and passed on the majority of expenses.

    The firm pushed KRW2.39 billion ($2 million) in costs on 79 suppliers to pay for 338 promotions conducted during the period at more than 13,000 CU locations. It also failed to sign written agreements with suppliers prior to holding sales events in 76 cases.

    “This is the first time that the FTC has punished a company for forcing suppliers to shoulder more than 50 percent of the cost for two-for-one events,” said an official at Korea’s Fair Trade Commission. “The FTC will enhance monitoring and punishments for similar violations.”

    CU is currently in second place among Korea’s leading convenience store chains, with a 31.14 percent market share.

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  • FTC to investigate Google’s purchase of Waze years after the deal closed

    FTC to investigate Google’s purchase of Waze years after the deal closed

    Just a few days ago we told you that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had requested information from Google parent Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. The regulatory agency is investigating acquisitions made by the five between Jan. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2019. These are transactions that were small enough to escape scrutiny by antitrust agencies.
    In June 2013, Google acquired the Israeli company behind the crowdsourced navigation app Waze for $1.1 billion. While Google already offered its Google Maps app with turn-by-turn directions, Waze was different. Users exchanged traffic information about accidents, police speed traps, construction and inclement weather conditions that could cause a delay to fellow drivers motoring in the same vicinity. Some considered Waze to be a navigation app and a social media site where drivers could communicate with each other. Most of this still holds true today, although Google has been adding Wave’s best features to Maps. More on that below.
    At the time of Google’s announcement that it was buying Waze, the latter had very minimal U.S. revenue which is why the merger did not have to be reported under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The HSR Act requires that the DOJ and the FTC receive a pre-merger notification. The deal is not allowed to close for a period of 30 days while the regulatory agencies investigate. If the agencies don’t take any action after 30 days, the merger can then close.
    It appears that the U.K. gave a more thorough examination to Google’s acquisition of Waze than U.S. regulators did. While investigating the transaction, the U.K. asked Google to keep Waze separate from the rest of its operations. In December 2013, the final report from the Office of Fair Trading said that with the purchase, Google was eliminating the closest competition to Maps. Waze CEO Noam Bardin agreed; just two months before Google announced the deal to buy Waze, the executive said, “We’re the only reasonable competition to [Google] in this market of creating maps that are really geared for mobile, for real-time, for consumers — for the new world that we’re moving into.”
    At the time, many figured that Google would move over some of Waze’s features to Google Maps and shut down Waze since they seemed to compete with each other. Others figured that Google was simply buying Waze to keep it out of the hands of another company. When the deal was announced in 2013, RBC Capital Market analyst Mark Mahaney said that the “move eliminates Waze as a potential acquisition target for competitors who could use the app’s collection of data and 50 million users to bolster their own location-based products.”
    There was some truth to the idea that Google was buying Waze to keep it out of the hands of a competitor. Before Google came in with its bid, Waze was reportedly close to a deal to have its app pre-installed on phones made by an unnamed company. In addition, Waze could have worked out a deal with Facebook that would allow users to meet up at certain locations using Waze’s turn-by-turn directions. The U.K. regulator decided to approve the deal noting that with Apple Maps, there already was a strong competitor to Google Maps in the marketplace.
    Not everyone believes that the merger should have been allowed to go through. Sally Hubbard, director of the enforcement strategy at the Open Markets Institute says, “It was literally Google acquiring its number one competitor in maps. It was a bad deal that should have been blocked.” Google has kept Maps and Waze separate but it has used data collected from Waze to improve the delivery of its ads. As RBC’s Mahaney told clients last September, “New ad formats in Google Maps have clear similarities to existing formats in Waze (coincidence?). Google has now collected enough data through Waze to effectively roll out broader solutions for advertisers in Google Maps and provide them attractive returns on investment without severely impacting the user experience.”
    Google has moved over many of Waze’s best features to Google Maps. Users of the latter can now report accidents, detours and police speed traps with the press of a button. And with a feature taken straight from Waze, Google Maps will now warn you when you are exceeding the speed limit.
    Former Justice Department antitrust official and Yale University economist Fiona Scott Morton believes that the FTC might be interested in the Waze purchase years after the deal closed because the location data Waze collects makes Google’s search advertising more precise. The FTC does have the ability to examine acquisitions made years ago although it isn’t clear what kind of punishment it could impose on Google.
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  • Convenience stores in South Korea outperform supermarkets

    Convenience stores in South Korea outperform supermarkets

    The slump in fortunes at large discount stores is continuing and the growth of convenience stores in South Korea is accelerating in line with social changes, including an increase in the number of single-person households and the rising popularity of online shopping.

    Amid such circumstances, convenience stores in South Korea made more money than large supermarkets last year.

    GS25 posted record operating profits of 256.5 billion won (US$217 million) last year, while CU also reported record-high operating profits of 196.6 billion won.

    The operating profit to sales ratio also rose to 3 percent for both GS25 and CUs, an increase on last year.

    On the other hand, Emart Inc, the operator of South Korea’s largest discount-store chain, saw its operating profit plunged 67.4 percent to 105.7 billion won last year, trailing behind GS25 and CU.

    In 2018 alone, GS25’s operating profit stood at 192.2 billion won, CU at 189.5 billion won and E-Mart at 462.8 billion won, an indication of how the retail landscape is changing.

    Homeplus Co, the second-largest retail giant in South Korea, is also struggling, though the company has yet to release its financial report from last year.

    Meanwhile, Lotte Mart, the country’s third-largest retailer, announced it was closing a number of stores last year and posted an operating loss of 24.8 billion won.

    The boom at convenience stores in South Korea is attributed to an increase in single-person households, growth of the simple meal market and the trend of convenience stores transforming into a lifestyle platform despite the overall decline in offline distribution.

    “Although there is still a big difference in sales volume, this is the first time that operating profit has caught up with Emart,” said a source from the convenience-store industry.

    The source further added that “it is a clear indicator that large discount stores are waning while convenience stores are flourishing.”