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  • Mom’s Touch Sees Strong Singapore Debut with Sales More Than Doubling

    Mom’s Touch Sees Strong Singapore Debut with Sales More Than Doubling

    Korean fast-food chain Mom’s Touch has reported strong initial performance for its first store in Singapore, with opening sales more than doubling its target. The outlet, located on South Bridge Road in Singapore’s Central Business District, launched last Friday and attracted over 200 diners on its opening day.

    This Singapore debut marks the first venture under a master franchise agreement between Mom’s Touch and FairPrice Group, Singapore’s largest retailer. FairPrice Group operates a diverse portfolio including supermarkets, food outlets, convenience stores, and pharmacies. Despite having a capacity of 90 seats, the store has maintained queues before opening each day, consistently exceeding its daily sales target by more than twofold during its first five days of operation.

    Local Adaptations and Expansion Plans

    Mom’s Touch dedicated over two years to developing ingredients, sauces, and a supply chain to meet halal dietary requirements and cater to local tastes in Singapore. The company ensured its signature items, such as the Thigh Burger, maintained their quality equivalent to those offered in Korea. The Singapore menu features market-specific items, including a spicy pepper-sauce burger, a fish fillet burger, and a burger with Australian Angus beef, egg, and cheddar cheese. Morning options like egg toast were also introduced to suit the store’s office district clientele. Prices for menu items range from 3.95 to 6.95 Singapore dollars.

    Dennis Quek, General Manager for Mom’s Touch Singapore and General Manager of FairPrice Group’s Kopitiam division, highlighted the aim of offering local customers a distinctive dining experience. Following this successful launch, Mom’s Touch plans to open a second store in a residential area of Singapore later this year, with broader expansion across the country slated for next year. The brand has been actively expanding its international footprint, having entered Thailand in 2022 and subsequently establishing a presence in Japan, Mongolia, Laos, and Uzbekistan. The company aims to operate 220 overseas stores by 2027.

    Asia’s Growing Fast Food Market

    Mom’s Touch’s strategic entry into Singapore, partnering with a retail giant like FairPrice Group, reflects a common approach for international brands seeking rapid market penetration and local relevance in Asia. Other global and regional fast-food chains have similarly adapted menus and forged local alliances to succeed in diverse Asian markets. RetailNews Asia has observed this trend across various F&B sectors, where localization and strong distribution partnerships are key to overcoming operational challenges and appealing to distinct consumer preferences in a competitive landscape.

  • Apple takes on Netflix and cable with TV+ streaming service

    Apple takes on Netflix and cable with TV+ streaming service

    Hours before the “It’s show time” event, Apple began streaming a Car Play footage of someone driving from Los Angeles to Cupertino, in a not-so-subtle hint that we are about to see a lot of Hollywood honchos arriving for the announcement of its new Apple TV+ video service against formidable competition. Existing cable packs plus original content – it marks the first time Apple is jumping into a new and established industry in, well, forever. –

    The Apple-goes-Hollywood move is just the next in a long line of reorientations of Apple as a service company, concocted a few years back when CEO Tim Cook started to prepare for the inevitable commoditization of the bread-and-butter iPhone product. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook loves to brag at conference calls with investors that the revenue and profits from its “services” business is growing leaps and bounds, far outstripping the revenue growth in the iPhone department. The App Store alone is now a Fortune 100 company by itself, raking in more than, say, the whole McDonalds franchise.

    On the hook for billions of losses, however, after streaming services like Netflix or Spotify balked or circumvented the 15%-30% cut Apple takes from subscriptions sold via the App Store, the team from Cupertino decided to futureproof its revenue stream from services by taking the fight directly to the competition. Last year, streaming subscriptions outpaced cable, and Apple just went in, announcing its own TV+ video service.

    Apple TV+ streaming and Channels service price, features, markets, and platforms

    Instead of outing an actual TV set, Apple now aims to become an alternative to cable by mixing shows from renowned names like HBO or Showtime with dozens of its own TV+ original series, all from the comfort of the new Apple TV app, online or offline. With the new Channels service there, Apple will bundle your existing subscriptions, and personalize and curate the shows you might like, gleaning from the subscriptions or preferences you already have shown by renting iTunes movies and TV shows. Those will now also be folded into the new Apple TV app, coming in May.
    The Apple TV channels will sport such juggernauts like HBO, Starz, SHOWTIME, CBS All Access, Smithsonian Channel, EPIX, Tastemade, Noggin and some new ones as MTV Hits, with more down the pipe. All of this can be accessed within one app – Apple TV – no separate logins any more.

    TV+ and Channels will be available from the new Apple TV app

    The service would be reaching 100+ global markets and will be available not only on Apple iOS devices but also coming to the Mac, Roku streamers, and even Samsung, LG, Sony or Vizio smart TVs. How much? Well, separate subscriptions for HBO or Showtime will run you $9.99/month each, and you can subscribe with a single click. The Apple TV+ release date is scheduled for some time in the fall, with an “ad-free” price yet to be announced.

    With an installed base of more than a billion potential viewers who are used to paying for media, Apple could immediately become the next big thing on the trendy “what to watch” block. Unlike Netflix, however, whose stratospheric rise is fueled by copious amounts of debt, Apple reportedly took a more measured approach, earmarking “just” a billion for testing the original content streaming waters. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, piled on today:

    We’re honored that the absolute best lineup of storytellers in the world — both in front of and behind the camera — are coming to Apple TV+. We’re thrilled to give viewers a sneak peek of Apple TV+ and cannot wait for them to tune in starting this fall. Apple TV+ will be home to some of the highest quality original storytelling that TV and movie lovers have seen yet.

    That’s not to say that the team from Cupertino is not ambitious, though – Eddy Cue is on record saying that they want to acquire or produce shows on the level of Game of Thrones, and, knowing Apple’s money, they could very well do so. For comparison, HBO spends two billion on original programming, and Apple could easily double or triple the amount invested if the shoe fits.

    Netflix is way ahead with $11 billion earmarked for spending on own shows and content this year, though there is a lot of fluff in it, while Apple usually takes a more targeted approach when it comes to quality, regardless of what one might think about shows like Planet of the Apps. In any case, it will have way fewer movies and TV shows than the rest of the competition at launch, though, as you can see from the stats below, having the most content doesn’t make for the most popular such service.

    Apple TV+ new original shows list at launch

    Apple has already poached plenty of entertainment industry names, too, so it finally seems bent on building a proper media empire. Here are all the shows Apple said its streaming service will be launching with:
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  • Suzuki Access 125 Drum Brake With CBS Launched

    Suzuki Access 125 Drum Brake With CBS Launched

    Suzuki Motorcycle India has introduced the Combined Braking System (CBS) on the drum brake version of Access 125 scooter. The Suzuki Access 125 CBS on the drum brake version is priced at ₹ 56,667, about ₹ 500 more than the non-CBS model and is now a standard feature on the scooter in compliance with the upcoming safety norms. The new regulations mandate CBS on all two-wheelers below 125 cc and ABS for everything with a larger displacement. The deadline for the norms is March 31, 2019. The Access 125 already gets CBS on the disc brake variant, which was introduced last year and has received positive feedback from the customers, according to the company.

    Commenting on the development, Suzuki Motorcycle India – Vice President, Sales, Marketing & After-Sales, Devashish Handa said, “It gives us immense pleasure to introduce the CBS equipped Access125 drum brake variant. Suzuki Motorcycle is committed to improving and innovating its products for better riding experience and introduction of CBS to Access125 drum variant is a step further to fulfilling this promise. Suzuki now has standardized its complete range of scooters with this safety feature. We are confident that with the new enhancements, we will be able further add to the riding experience provided by our products.”

    The Suzuki Access 125 drum brake CBS variant will enable riders to operate the front and rear brakes by only pressing left brake lever. CBS helps reduce the braking distance with a good balance between front and rear brake forces. Apart from CBS, the Access 125 gets no changes to the styling or powertrain. Power comes from the 124 cc single-cylinder air-cooled engine tuned for 8.5 bhp and 10.2 Nm of peak torque. The motor is paired with an automatic transmission.

    The retro styling on the Access remains unchanged, and the scooter continues to use telescopic forks up front and hydraulic shock absorbers at the rear. The Access can be had with a front disc brake as an option, with 130 mm drum brakes available at either end as standard. The Suzuki Access continues to be one of the best-selling 125 cc scooters despite competition from the Honda Activa 125, Aprilia SR 125, Vespa LX, and the TVS NTorq among others.

  • Netflix, Amazon top spenders on programming

    Netflix, Amazon top spenders on programming

    Netflix and Amazon have ramped up their investment in programming, spending $7.5 billion last year—more than CBS, HBO, Turner and most countries, including South Korea and Australia.

    According to IHS Markit, Netflix and Amazon more than doubled their annual expenditure on programming between 2013 and 2015.

    Amazon spending jumped from $1.2 billion in 2013 to $2.7 billion in 2015. In the same timeframe, Netflix spending rose from $2.4 billion to $4.9 billion.

    “The levels of investment we are seeing from Netflix and Amazon are only topped by Disney ($11.8 billion) and NBC ($10.3 billion),” said Tim Westcott, senior principal analyst at IHS Technology.

    Other online platforms like Hulu in the US and China’s Youku Toudu, iQifyi and Tencent have also increased their investment in original programming and acquisitions.

    “In what Netflix calls the era of internet TV, more and more consumers are watching content online, shaking the foundations of the traditional TV industry,” Westcott said. “However, it’s premature to declare that the era of linear TV is already over, and Netflix and Amazon have come hard on the heels of a boom in production of original drama and comedy by the likes of AMC and FX in the US.”

    After the US, the mature Western European region is the next most important, investing $38.6 billion, or just under one-third of the total. The biggest markets in Western Europe were the United Kingdom with $10.7 billion, Germany ($7.3 billion), France ($6.6 billion) and Italy ($4.6 billion).

    “Notably, China is now the second-largest market in the Asia-Pacific region, with $8.4 billion invested last year,” Westcott said.

    Japan is the largest in the region with $9.8 billion, followed by South Korea ($2.6 billion), Australia and India—both on $2.4 billion. Leading Latin American markets are Mexico ($1.5 billion) and Brazil ($1.4 million). Canada invested $3.4 billion last year. Russia and Turkey were both around the $900 million mark.

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