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Category: Living

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

  • Playphone Game Store Expands into Asia With GASH Prepaid Game Cards at 114000 Retail Outlets

    Playphone Game Store Expands into Asia With GASH Prepaid Game Cards at 114000 Retail Outlets

    Playphone®, Inc., a global leader in mobile social gaming and recently acquired by premier game developer GungHo, announced today a partnership with Gamania Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. (GASH), a leading Asian online game publisher based in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Playphone and GASH are partnering to offer Asian gamers a revolutionary new social gaming experience with the world’s most popular games, a unique set of advanced social features, and GASH prepaid game cards − the preferred local payment method for the region.

    Playphone develops and operates social game stores worldwide, offering mobile gamers a single engaging app to discover, download, play and share thousands of their favorite games with friends. Playphone Game Stores are deeply integrated with social features throughout the gaming experience, easily connecting gamers with friends to recommend games, challenge or invite to play, brag leaderboard ranks, and more. Playphone’s gaming platform, with games from over 3,000 global developers, is rapidly expanding distribution in emerging markets.

    GASH is the largest online game publisher and digital entertainment platform in Taiwan, and its prepaid card platform is the most widely used game payment system in the region. GASH prepaid cards facilitate mobile purchases of paid games or in-game items without the need of a credit card. Gamers purchase GASH prepaid game cards in varying denominations at over 114,000 retail outlets in Asia. The GASH digital entertainment platform supports over 10 million active users, and current GASH users can now use their prepaid GASH cards to purchase paid games and in-game items from the Playphone Game Store.

    “Our partnership with GASH perfectly aligns with Playphone’s vision of providing the best social gaming experience in Asia, where gamers are hesitant to input credit card information into their mobile apps,” said Ron Czerny, CEO and Founder of Playphone. “As a gaming leader in the region, GASH has provided an invaluable contribution to our efforts to tailor our gaming experience to local Asian gamers.”

    “We are very excited to partner with Playphone to offer GASH gamers a technically-advanced, personalized gaming experience,” said Simon Lu, Chief Operating Officer of GASH. “And our partnership is a huge win for game developers, who simply upload games to the Playphone Developer Portal for instant access to Asian distribution and the GASH payment solution.”

    Game developers add games to the Playphone Game Store simply by uploading their existing Android game file (APK) to Playphone’s Developer Portal (developer.playphone.com). Playphone’s technology automatically integrates the game into the Playphone platform, providing the game with instant access to Playphone’s global distribution channel, preferred local payment solutions including GASH prepaid game cards, and world-class social features.

     

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  • Bank Rakyat Indonesia launches country’s first floating bank

    Bank Rakyat Indonesia launches country’s first floating bank

    Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) has launched a floating bank to make banking accessible to people residing in remote islands or coastal areas.

    The bank which has been named Teras BRI Kapal will currently provide its services to the Thousand Islands regency off north Jakarta. Its services would cover six islands including Pramuka Island, Tidung Island, Kepala Island, Untung Jawa Island, Harapan Island and Panggang Island, reported the Jakarta Post.

    The banks plans to introduce additional boats eventually to further expand its services to other remote islands.

    BRI president director Asmawi Syam was quoted a saying: “We want to provide services for people in coastal areas who previously did not receive optimum banking services.”

    The boat that will comprise 11 staff members including crew, guards and four BRI officers, a teller, a customer service officer and two account officers will provide services including savings, loans and money transfers. It will operate from Monday to Friday.

    As per plans, the bank will launch a new floating boat branch every year and will invest $1.11m (£710,872, €1.02m) on each branch.

    It also plans to cover areas including Ternate in North Maluku, Bau-bau in Southeast Sulawesi and Tanjung Selor in North Kalimantan in the future.

  • Big differences in Asian travel spending

    Big differences in Asian travel spending

    Koreans travel abroad most frequently, Chinese spent the most money and Japanese visit the most faraway places most often.

    Those are findings from a study by Visa card, 2015 Survey on Travel Plans, in which 13,603 people from 25 different countries shared information about their travels.

    According to the results, Koreans traveled an average of five times during the past two years, ranking the highest in travel frequency – well above the global average of three times.

    Around 90 percent of the Korean respondents answered they had travelled abroad within the past two years. But as travellers, Koreans seem to be of frugal mind when it comes to expenses. They spent an average of $1808, which was way below the global average ($2281). They also have a tendency to set a budget and stick to it. Korean travelers paid 46 per cent of their expenses before departure, and 75 per cent of the payments were made by credit card.

    On the other hand, the average travel expense for Chinese travelers was $4780 – more than double the global average. Unlike Koreans, Chinese people had a tendency to decide what they wanted to do on the trip first and then calculate the expenses.

    While 36 per cent of Korean travelers and 34 per cent of Chinese travellers visited Japan, 36 per cent of Japanese travellers visited the US, showing their preference for long distance travel. The average time taken to get to the destination was longer for Japanese travelers (nine hours), compared to eight hours for Chinese travellers and six hours for Korean travellers.

    The average travelling expense for Japanese was $3165, which was less than the average of Chinese.

    In terms of accommodation, 41 per cent of Korean travellers and 62 per cent of Chinese preferred hotels with more than four stars, while 49 per cent of Japanese preferred one to three star hotels.

    The portion of Koreans who preferred package tours (47 per cent) was similar to the portion of those who liked to travel freely (52 per cent). However, more than half of the Chinese (65 per cent) and Japanese (77 per cent) preferred tour packages.

    Ian Jamieson, head of Visa Korea, said it was impressive that Korean travellers prepare well and frequently go on trips and the purchasing power of Chinese travellers was also interesting.

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  • Alibaba drive perks up China sperm donations

    Alibaba drive perks up China sperm donations

    Alibaba has used the internet to revolutionise China’s retail, banking and transport markets, and now the ecommerce juggernaut has turned its attention to the country’s sperm shortage.

    Amid spiralling infertility rates, sperm banks across China have been running dry. Worsening environmental conditions and hectic work schedules have taken their toll on male fertility in China, experts say.

    According to a 2012 study by the China Population Association, a state agency, 12.5 per cent of Chinese couples are infertile.

    Enter Alibaba, whose Groupon-like website Juhuasuan markets everything from underwear to insurance. The ecommerce group’s move into boosting sperm donation features a banner advertisement with a phallic cartoon candle exploding into a white cloud, bearing the Chinese character for “semen” in bold lettering.

    “Avid concentration” the ad reads, with a pun on the character jing which in Chinese means both mind and sperm. During the donation drive, Alibaba offered payments of up to $800 for successful sperm donations.

    Posted between July 15-17, the campaign garnered 22,000 new registrants for the seven participating provincial sperm banks — equivalent to nearly a year’s worth of traffic for some of the centres.

    “This exceeded all expectations,” said Wang Zhiqiang, director of the state sperm bank for Guanxi province. “On average, we get about 300 donors a year, but during the three days of the Juhuasuan event, more than 1,000 people signed up. Assuming 20 per cent of them will donate, that is 200 new donors.”

    The mismatch in supply and demand for sperm has prompted donation centres to overcome many taboos in tradition-bound China. In April, the shortage had become so dire in Hubei province that the regional sperm bank turned to Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, to broadcast: “Stop wasting all that tissue paper!”

    “Under-achievers! This is your opportunity! Hubei Sperm Bank is badly in need of sperm,” it said.

    The shortage of sperm donations is partly caused by stringent requirements for donors — roughly one in five is acceptable — but mainly because men in China have “shyness about such topics”, according to Mr Wang. “We mainly try to get recruits by passing out flyers and holding awareness seminars, but we do not get enough qualified men.”

    But Alibaba has made a speciality out of taking dysfunctional markets and overcoming everything from supply bottlenecks to onerous government regulations to low demand — it has done so in areas such as finance and taxis.

    Matching sellers with the masses of online traffic is the company’s speciality, usually combining with a bit of fun, marketing savvy, big data and, most importantly in the case of sperm donation, anonymity.

    “People feel shy and embarrassed when we meet them face-to-face,” said Mr Wang. But he said that marketing via the internet added a layer of privacy that makes previously forbidden topics acceptable.

    “Online, when they don’t have to face a human being, they are more comfortable, and this is a major reason why this project is a success,” he said, adding: “We don’t know whether they will actually come in or not.”

  • MasterCard expands in Myanmar

    MasterCard expands in Myanmar

    MasterCard has just launched yet another prepaid card in Myanmar, this time with Myanma Apex Bank Limited (MAB Bank).

    Its launch comes exactly three years on from the lifting of sanctions in Myanmar and affirms MasterCard’s commitment to  provide safer and easier ways for Myanmar residents to pay for their travels.

    The new prepaid card is also timely given the latest MasterCard survey on consumer purchasing priorities in travel indicates that three out of five Myanmar consumers surveyed intend to travel within the next 12 months (either as much, or more than they did in the past 12 months).

    The MAB Travel Prepaid MasterCard provides a secure way for consumers to make payment when travelling overseas for leisure, business or education, and also when shopping on e-commerce sites.
    “We know that leisure travel and shopping are on the rise among Myanmar citizens and we hope this product will help to meet their needs,” said Win Min Khine, managing director, Myanmar Apex Bank.

    MasterCard country manager, Thailand & Myanmar, Antonio Corro said: “Myanmar’s gradual opening up presents many opportunities for entrepreneurship and commerce to flourish, and their progressive participation in the global payments system that MasterCard enables not only aids the development of the local payments landscape, but also facilitates global connections.”

    Since 2012, MasterCard has launched prepaid cards together with Co-operative Bank, Kanbawza Bank, Ayeyarwady Bank and Myanmar Citizen Bank with 2C2P, the last of which was also Myanmar’s first smartphone-enabled Prepaid Card.

    At present, more than 2,000 restaurants, retail outlets and hotels in Myanmar accept payment cards.

  • Onions-for-One Help Korea’s GS Retail Survive Depressed Markets

    Onions-for-One Help Korea’s GS Retail Survive Depressed Markets

    Convenience store owners love people like Bae Moon Sung. The 34-year-old finance worker lives alone and shops for almost everything at his local minimart.

    “Onions, cucumbers, they come in compact packages at convenience stores, which is more suitable for a single-person household like me,” he said. “They’re open 24 hours and they’re everywhere.”

    People like Bae are driving an expansion in convenience store chains that’s helping them outperform in depressed markets. Shares of GS Retail are up 112 per cent this year through Wednesday versus a 13 per cent slump in a gauge tracking consumer companies on the MSCI Korea Index. The risk the operator of GS25 outlets won’t pay its debt on time has fallen to 0.08 per cent from 0.14 per cent at the end of 2014, according to a Bloomberg default-risk model. Shares in CU store operator BGF Retail have risen 165 per cent.

    The chains’ popularity is in stark contrast to the overall industry in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Department store sales fell 3.9 per cent in the first quarter, and that was before a deadly respiratory virus sapped confidence. Smaller households in Seoul as the population ages and family sizes shrink means consumers aren’t buying in bulk at supermarkets.

    “Retailers are suffering from low economic growth and online price competition,” Yu Jung Hyun, an analyst in Seoul at Daishin Securities, said. “But convenience stores have their own market. People still need to buy basic items close at hand.”

    Sales at the four main convenience store chains — CU, GS25, 7-Eleven and Buy the Way — have risen every quarter since at least the second three months of 2013, Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy data show. In May, sales were up 31.5 per cent from a year earlier thanks to more outlets and an increase in the price of cigarettes. Discount store sales meanwhile have dropped every quarter since the second quarter of 2012, the ministry’s data show.

     

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  • Identifying Asia’s regional bank champions

    Identifying Asia’s regional bank champions

    Bank of China is seen as the strongest challenger for Asian leadership

    A swelling population, exponential economic growth and broad financial development are transforming Asia ex-Japan into a global finance hub.

    It is the opportunity to service retail and wealthy clients in Asia that has fired banks’ ambitions to extend their regional networks and boost their distribution power.

    But the odds are stacked against them. They have nowhere near the scale of the international players Citi, HSBC and Standard Chartered. This trio has resources, customer networks and relationships acquired from a century of operations in Asia.

    Asian banks, on the other hand, face constraints in their ability to expand cross-border, including fierce domestic competition and national protectionism.

    Nevertheless, they have become increasingly vocal about their regional ambitions, centred around expanding their wealth management businesses.

    Our leading contenders come from China, Malaysia and Singapore. Hong Kong banks appear content to focus on Greater China, where they will seek to be facilitators of trade flows rather than competitors in regional distribution.

    “From a geographical standpoint, the footprint of the Singaporean banks is wider,” said Michael Wu, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. “They might be in a better position to access Asia.”

    Bank of China is seen as the strongest challenger for Asian leadership. It has the balance sheet and is willing to suffer in the short term to expand, notes CLSA.

    BOC has a network of 11,514 offices, although 10,693 are onshore. Overseas, it has 628 offices in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and in 37 other countries.

    It was first to offer private banking onshore in 2007 and now manages Rmb720 billion ($116 billion) for 74,000 private banking customers, with more than 7,000 wealth management centres and 34 private banking hubs. It has private banking operations in Singapore and Hong Kong and has ambitions to grow in Asia, including Australia, where it opened a branch in 2010.

    Singapore’s largest lender, DBS, has 280 branches across 15 markets in Asia. But Singapore and Hong Kong remain its major markets, despite its attempts for regional leadership. As CLSA points out, its operations in the growth markets of China, India and Indonesia have remained sub-scale.

    DBS is building wealth management/private banking operations. Its private banking business was bolstered by its $220 billion acquisition of Société Générale’s private banking business in Asia last October, boosting its AUM 22% to S$133 billion ($97.4 billion) as of December 2014. DBS’s total wealth management AUM stood at S$141 billion and its private bank AUM at S$95 billion.

    Maybank was a late-comer to private banking, but has been building a solid Asean network. Its regional operation only started 18 months ago, with Singapore as its hub. But it has been hiring aggressively and expanding its proposition, including launching a discretionary portfolio management service.

    Steven Seow, Asia head of wealth management at Mercer, pointed out that Maybank has succeeded in converting long-time Asian corporate banking entrepreneurs to its wealth management business. In terms of private banking assets, Maybank has S$6 billion in overall AUM, having added S$2 billion in new assets over the past year.

    Historically OCBC has focused on Southeast Asia. It has a strong position in Singapore and is one of the largest foreign banks in Malaysia, providing conventional and Islamic finance. Last year it acquired Wing Hang Bank in Hong Kong for $5 billion.

    That increased OCBC’s branches in Greater China from 25 to 120 and deepened its operations in the Pearl River Delta, although it paid a high premium given Wing Hang’s operations in Hong Kong and China were marginal.

    In private banking and wealth management, OCBC’s 2009 acquisition of ING Private Banking (renamed Bank of Singapore) for $1.46 billion has given it the scale to compete with DBS and global banks. The acquisition trebled its private banking AUM to $23 billion.

    As of March this year that AUM had since doubled to $51 billion. It enjoyed 15% year-on-year growth in wealth management income in 2014.

    Among Singaporean banks, UOB’s focus is on Southeast Asia, with universal banking operations in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. But outside of Singapore its strength in Malaysia – it has the largest foreign bank network in the country with 45 branches – is not replicated in Thailand and Indonesia.

    Without the help of an international acquisition, UOB has invested in building its wealth management and private banking capabilities out of Singapore.

    It saw the combined AUM of wealth management and private banking grow 67% to S$80 billion in the four years to 2014, during which time the profit contribution of wealth management doubled to 47%.

    But while it has plans to offer private banking outside of Singapore, its current proposition is acknowledged as behind city-state peers DBS and OCBC.

    The full article appears in the July 2015 edition of AsianInvestor magazine

  • Aldi targeted by Clean Clothes Campaign

    Aldi targeted by Clean Clothes Campaign

    German discounter Aldi is taking the heat from the latest campaign over fair working conditions at suppliers to major retail brands.

    The Clean Clothes Campaign is lobbying both Aldi and the Bangladesh government to take immediate action to ensure more than 1000 workers employed at the Swan Garment and Swan Jeans factories are provided with months of unpaid wages and bonuses they were allegedly deprived of following “the sudden and illegal closure of the factory” in April.

    Swan workers have been engaged in a sit-in outside the Dhaka Press Club since July 11 to demand action from the Bangladesh government and are due to meet with the Minister of Labour later this week to discuss their demands.

    The CCC says Swan Garments and Swan Jeans are both owned by the Swan Group, who also own a further three factories in the Dhaka area. The Swan Group websites lists a number of European brands as long term buyers from the Group including Lidl, Next, Bestseller, Dunnes and Walmart. Workers claim they were producing for Aldi, Piazza Italia and Motivi in the months prior to closure.

    “After almost three decades of operating in Bangladesh it appears the Swan Group started facing difficulties in 2014, when many of its long term buyers pulled their orders and the factories began to rely on subcontracting to maintain their business. In January 2015 the factory suddenly stopped paying salaries,” CCC said in a statement.

    “The Chinese owner of Swan Group, Ming Yuen Hon (Toby), attempted to flee the country on April 9, but was prevented from doing so by workers who confronted him at the airport and brought him back to the factory. This action forced Hon to pay one month salary to the workers, but on April 10 the two factories were illegally declared closed. According to his family Hon committed suicide some time in the following weeks.

    Workers have been engaged in various demonstrations since April 19 to demand their salaries and the reopening of factories.

    “Concerned that their fate will be the same as the Tuba Group workers who last year were forced to go on hunger strike to demand the wages and bonuses they were owed, several hundred Swan workers have been participating in a permanent sit down protest outside the Dhaka press club since July 12, and a number of workers have been injured by police using force to attempt to disperse protesters. In response the Ministry of Labour and the BGMEA have been promising that steps would be taken to resolve the issue of unpaid wages, but as the Eid holiday passed workers continued to wait for the money they are owed.”

    Joly Talukder, joint general secretary of the Garment Workers Trade Union Centre in Bangladesh said, the government is ignoring the protest, and the state of workers, and has not taken any step to meet the genuine legal demand to pay the arrears.

    CCC says the problem of sudden and illegal closures of garment factories is growing in Bangladesh, in part due to changes in the industry triggered by the Rana Plaza collapse.

    “These closures are leaving thousands of workers unemployed and deprived of their legally owed severance pay. To date little action has been taken by the Bangladesh government or international brands and retailers to ensure workers are not left without the wages and benefits they are owed.

    “Swan Garments is one of many factories that has closed illegally in Bangladesh over the last year. As in the majority of cases it is workers who are left with nothing – not even the wages and severance payments they are owed” says Samantha Maher of the Clean Clothes Campaign. “It is unacceptable that once again workers are being left to pay the price for bad factory management, impossible buyer demands and government inaction and we urge Aldi and the Ministry of Labour to ensure justice for the Swan workers.”

    The CCC did not define a “legal closure” of a factory, or explain where they expected the money to come from if the company was insolvent.

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  • Osim Q2 sales hit by weak retail scene

    Osim Q2 sales hit by weak retail scene

    A weak retail scene hit second-quarter sales at Osim International.

    Revenue for the three months to June 30 was down 12.7 per cent to $159.5 million, while net profit declined 25.5 per cent to $21.9 million.

    Despite soft retail sales across its core countries, “our dominant brand has enabled us to maintain a stable gross margin and cash-generative business”, the company said yesterday.

    Osim operates in 23 countries. Its main markets are in North Asia, with 58 per cent of revenue, and South Asia, with 38 per cent.

    The company has 560 Osim outlets in all. “China continues to be our No. 1 market where we are in 45 cities with 251 outlets.

    New products, including uMagic, uInfinity Luxe, uDiva, uHip, uSqueez Air, uTrek and uShape Music, have sustained our dominant position in the market,” the company said.

    It has a further 220 GNC/RichLife outlets in its subsidiary ONI Global, and is growing sales through new product launches, it added. It shed 13 outlets in the second quarter.

    Subsidiary TWG Tea has 47 outlets and the company is targeting to open about 11 new outlets in the second half of the year, it said.

    “We remain optimistic on the prospects for the remainder of the year following the launch of uMagic in key markets and upcoming planned product launches,” it said.

    The company bought back $29 million in shares during the quarter. It declared an interim dividend of two cents per share, similar to a year ago, to be paid on Oct 7.

    Net asset value was 56 cents as at June 30, unchanged from Dec 31 last year. Earnings per share was 2.95 cents, down from 3.87 cents a year back.

    The firm said its balance sheet had strengthened with consolidated net assets at $487 million, and total cash and cash equivalents and fixed income investments of $443 million as at June 30.

    “We are continuing to invest for growth, supported by a strong balance sheet,” it said.

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  • Ayala snaps up drug store stake

    Ayala snaps up drug store stake

    The Philippines retail and property conglomerate Ayala Group has bought a 50 per cent interest in local franchised healthcare chain Generika Drugstore.

    Ayala’s subsidiary Ayala Healthcare Holdings completed the deal, acquiring the stake from the family of Julien Bello.

    The chain has more than 500 stores across the Philippines. Co-founder Teodoro Ferrer, and the Bello family, will retain the other 50 per cent and Ferrer retains his role as president and CEO.

    Ferrer left Ayala’s employ in 2003 after more than 30 years for create Generika, which specialises in generic medicines for Filipinos unable to afford branded drugs.

    In a statement, Ayala president and COO Fernando Zobel de Ayala said the company was looking forward to furthering Generika’s goal of closing the gaps in affordable retail healthcare in the Philippines.

    “We believe this is an excellent platform for Ayala to reinvent the space and it will serve as foundation for our emerging healthcare portfolio,” he said. “

    With the combined strengths and management capabilities of Ayala and Generika, we believe we can raise the level of efficiency and accessibility of this platform to better serve Filipino families by providing a wide range of quality medicines at affordable prices.”

    Ayala will add the new business venture to a growing portfolio of companies in the healthcare arena. Last year it bought QualiMed, the Ayala Land subsidiary’s chain of hospitals and medical clinics, in partnership with the Mercado medical group.

  • King Living Singapore opens showroom

    King Living Singapore opens showroom

    International furniture designer, manufacturer and retailer, King Living has opened a showroom in Singapore.

    The Australian based, family-owned company, founded in 1977, focuses on contemporary furniture design, especially sofas and King Living says it plans to offer Singaporeans “new ideas, inspiration and solutions for all areas of their home” now it has debuted in the city state.

    The showroom, at 22 Kallang Ave in the Hong Aik Building, offers a large collection of King Living designs, as well as a range of Italian beds, coffee and dining tables, chairs and storage systems from leading Milan furniture designer and manufacturer Former Italy, stocked exclusively by King Living.

    “King Living is incredibly proud to introduce its wide range of furniture solutions to Singapore residents,” said Renata Bayer-Volf, the company’s GM.

    “This showroom is inspiring and contemporary, displaying some of the latest King Living releases in beautiful lifestyle settings that help customers visualise the potential of each design in their own home.

    “Including a wide selection of pieces from Former Italy, with Italian design and styling, we are confident Singaporeans will embrace our modern and luxurious furniture that complements the urban lifestyle.”

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  • Keepers pop up showcases Singapore design

    Keepers pop up showcases Singapore design

    Singapore Designer Collective has opened a pop up store at Singapore Changi Airport to showcase local design.

    The 21 sqm Keepers store, in Changi Airport’s Terminal 1 departure hall, features works from 11 Singapore designers and will remain open until January 7.

    A previous pop up was located at Orchard Green.

    On display are fashion items from Ayesha and Matter; jewellery from Carrie K, Saught and Marilyn Tan Jewellery; handmade candles from A Dose of Something; leathergoods from Lingwu, Gnome & Bow and Extreme Exotic; and watches from HyperGrand.

    “Having a second location at the airport will help to fast-track our local designers’ footprint to a global audience,” said Carolyn Kan, founder and designer of Carrie K and co-organiser of Keepers.

    Lynette Lee, who is CEO of Textile & Fashion Federation and another co-founder of Keepers, said the group chose Changi after noticing about half its customers at Orchard Green were tourists.

    “This is very encouraging as it shows that tourists and local shoppers alike are keen on purchasing items by Singapore designers,” she said.

    “With Keepers at Changi Airport providing an accessible platform for local designers to showcase their work, we hope more overseas visitors will become advocates of Singapore designers.”

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  • Uniqlo denies video role

    Uniqlo denies video role

    Beijing police have arrested five people they say played a role in the filming of a video of a couple having sex in a Uniqlo fitting room in China’s capital.

    The sheer number of people involved in the video, which has gone viral on social media networks around the world, has raised speculation the apparel retailer was somehow involved behind the scenes in engineering the video as a publicity stunt.

    But the company has strenuously denied it had anything to do with the one minute long production, or endorses it. And such a viral campaign certainly does not fit with the company’s ethical positioning or its record of community involvement and sponsorships.

    Some Chinese media say the police “suspect that the case may possibly be a publicity stunt by Uniqlo”, one going so far as to quote a Beijing lawyer saying the company could face a fine of between 200,000 and 1 million RMB (US$32,000 and $165,000) and have its trading licence revoked if it was found to be involved.

    In a statement (not issued through Uniqlo’s normal media media channels) Uniqlo reportedly condemned the filming.

    Since the video was uploaded, attracting attention from news organisations worldwide, the Sanlitun flagship in which it was filmed has become something of a tourist attraction, with people posing for photographs outside.

    The young couple who had reportedly “only just met” were quickly identified via social media and have become celebrities on Chinese social media networks, albeit they have now reportedly been arrested and charged with indecency.

    From censored stills posted online by news media outlets, the video appears to have been filmed entirely by mobile phone. So the involvement of an additional three people is puzzling unless they were responsible for its spread or reposting, rather than production as reported in China.

    Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have summoned representatives of Tencent and Weibo to discuss how the video was so widely shared and viewable on its networks. Chinese law prohibits pornography.

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  • Swiss Skin Care Product K.Diamond Now Available in China

    Swiss Skin Care Product K.Diamond Now Available in China

    K.Diamond is a revolutionary skin care product that comes from the house of Swiss Lausanne Research and Development Center, which is a world leader in cell technology research. Recently, the Switzerland based lab decided to distribute and sell its products directly through its authorized agent in China. The product has reached China and it can be found in retail stores. The creators of the breakthrough skin care product have maintained that they have reinvented fundamentals of skin care that were used during ancient times.

    Swiss Lausanne Research and Development Center bears a 53 year old legacy of manufacturing skin care products. A lot of their skin care products are used in the five-star hotels of Switzerland. However, the manufacturers have always focused on research and innovation rather than marketing and promotion. In 2010, the research lab came up with a series of micro-plastic applicators that were introduced in the Chinese market. The creators have claimed that K.Diamond is a value-for-money product which is gradually picking up in popularity across Chinese mainland. The developers have claimed that the skin care products that are now being available in China can have miraculous effects.

    One of the senior researchers from Swiss Lausanne Research and Development Center recently met the press here in Beijing and he talked about the future plans and objectives of his lab at great length. He said, “We are more of a research and innovations lab than a skin care products manufacturer. We know consumers in China have always been waiting for a truly beneficial product like K.Diamond and we must say that the huge demand in Chinese market can now be successfully met by our China based general suppliers. All products are shipped directly from our Switzerland based lab and our local supply chain managers and distributors are doing a commendable job in taking the products to the Chinese retail market.” He also indicated that the K.Diamond product distributor network would be expanded in the near future.

     

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  • KBank, Aeon connect in Laos

    KBank, Aeon connect in Laos

    Both parties are also ready to jointly develop payment channels and other innovative services in a bid to assist Thai investors in Laos.

    Suwat Techawatanawana, KBank’s first senior vice president, said Aeon Leasing Service (Lao) had been granted kip-denominated loans by the bank’s Laotian unit to be used for its retail and motorcycle-loan businesses.

    Aeon Group is a successful financial conglomerate in Thailand, offering personal-loan and credit-card services. Given the promising trends in Laos, the group’s business expansion into this marketplace is expected to bring fruitful results.

    Aside from financial support, KBank will cooperate with Aeon to develop products and services such as innovative payment channels to facilitate its customers in Laos.

    Shiro Kitano, managing director of Aeon Leasing Service (Lao), said this cooperative effort with KBank would be supportive to the company’s business, making it more flexible in its operations.

    Aeon Group now centralises its business management of the Asean region in Thailand. After branching out into the Laotian market, the conglomerate may contact KBank. The one-stop service will help reduce the number of relevant procedures and time needed.

    The cooperative endeavour between the two companies to develop complete payment channels will not only provide greater convenience to customers in Laos, but also assist in modernising transactions in this market.

    Having its headquarters and first branch in Vientiane, Aeon Leasing Service (Lao) is now expanding its services in other major cities in that country.

    Amid slowing economic conditions, loans extended during the first half of 2015 accounted for 30 per cent of this year’s target of 50 billion Lao kip (Bt208 million).

    The company plans to launch more marketing activities to boost its business during the second half of the year, wherein the overall economy is expected to benefit from the advent of the Asean Economic Community.

    Suwat said KBank had operated its locally incorporated institution in Laos since last December, offering loans and financial-transaction services to both individual and corporate customers there, including Thai businesses that have invested in the country.

    Providing credit, KBank assesses their business potential in Laos, plus their company outlook in Thailand. Such risk assessment is conducted to evaluate the entire group prospect. Therefore, the bank can better underwrite credit and give other supporting services to the businesses.

    Amid Laos’ high economic-growth potential, some Thai operators may wish to cash in on growing business opportunities. KBank says it stands ready to support Thai businesses in advisory services, business matching activities and diverse financial services.

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