December 2, 2011
Weekly Roundup: Micro-employees, the future of shopping and weird eaters
Posted by: Jessica Vaughn - New York in North America
-Asia is increasingly unable to withstand impact from the West’s economic woes, argues The New York Times.
-The Economist examines economic growth in Africa, reporting that the continent “has a real chance to follow in the footsteps of Asia.”
-JWT‘s Tom Doctoroff argues that China will be an economic superpower only and will continue to lag in soft power, in The Huffington Post.
-Poverty and income inequality in Latin America are steadily declining, according to a U.N. report.
-Occupy Wall Street succeeded in making “We are the 99 percent” a part of America’s cultural and political lexicon, says The New York Times.
-An Economist special report looks at why progress in closing the workplace gap between women and men—with women still lagging in pay and under-represented at the top—looks to have stalled.
-Corruption in India is worsening, according to Transparency International’s annual index of Corruption Perception, as reported by The Christian Science Monitor.
-The Wall Street Journal explores the rise of micro-employees and a trend that takes “the division of labor to once-unthinkable extremes.”
-Time looks at how e-commerce is heating up in India as entrepreneurs ready for an expected boom in Internet users.
-Boston Consulting Group is forecasting that China will become the world’s most valuable e-commerce market within a few years.
-Harvard Business Review outlines the future of shopping as the digital age disrupts traditional retailing.
-Mobile devices are replacing cash registers among a growing group of retailers (one of our 100 Things to Watch in 2011), reports The Wall Street Journal.
-The Telegraph notes the rise of home-selling parties in the U.K., with hosts going well beyond Tupperware in their choice of goods.
-“We’ve become a nation of really weird eaters,” says USA Today in a look at changing eating habits among Americans. And in the U.K., sales of specialty meats—venison, quail and rabbit, etc.—are soaring, reports The Guardian.
-A special report on sustainability from Bloomberg Businessweek includes a look at the race among ranking companies to be “the arbiter of who’s really green.”
-A T-Mobile study finds that confiscating their mobile phone has become teenagers’ most dreaded form of parental punishment, The Telegraph reports.
-With a radical redesign, YouTube moves a step closer to becoming a broadcaster (one of our 100 Things to Watch in 2011), as Fast Company reports.
-ReadWriteWeb kicks off its “Best of” year-end series with a list of the Top 10 Social Web Products of 2011, the Top 10 Consumer Web Products and the Top 10 Mobile Products.
-The Economist looks at three “unconquered” parts of the tech realm that will be battled over in 2012.
-Market researcher IDC released a forecast of 2012 mergers and acquisitions in the tech industry.
-Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research explains in Ad Age why “Social 2012 Is Web 2000.”
-Businessweek reports that “the thrill is gone” for some in the virtual worlds marketed by Zynga and other social game developers.
-A Juniper Research report forecasts e-book sales will triple from this year’s $3.2 billion by 2016.
-The Philippines has quietly overtaken India as a call center hub, according to The New York Times.
-Australia became the first country to introduce plain cigarette packaging.
-Boomers are heading back to the commune, declares The Atlantic.
-An Ad Age columnist looks at the rise of “cord-nevers,” a growing group of viewers who don’t (and won’t ever) pay for TV.
