What You Missed This Week#1: Top Articles that Resonate with our Audience

January 7, 2017
Hot Topic

XNode Blog

What You Missed This Week#1: Top Articles that Resonate with our Audience

A list of the week wrap up articles which intrigued and interested our readers.

Topics range from marketing, innovation, to what’s hot in the startup tech scene, in China and abroad.

Second of the series.

Marketing/Sales

How to Sell Combs to Monks

How shift in mindset and attitude can really make a difference. In terms of sales, similar technique can bring out different results. Examples of how customer demand, creating a demand, sales techniques and presence of mind can be worked around in various ways which changes the outcome of sales.

Venture Capital/Investment

Chinese Bike-Share Start-Up Mobike Raises $215 Million In Fresh Funding

Mobike, aims to tap demand from Chinese white-collar workers seeking an alternative to congested roads and public transport in the country's largest cities. Bike-sharing apps have flourished in the past year, even as investment in other Chinese sharing economy start-ups has cooled.

Human Resources​

Ask These Questions To Gauge An Employee’s Management Potential

There are few questions to ask to find out if your employee is ready to be promoted especially in small businesses where multitasking is a regular thing. Questions such as if the person at all wants a managerial role or a promotion, can the person teach others as well as learn quickly along the way etc can set a framework for hiring process.

If Your Boss Could Your Job, You Are More Likely To Be Happy At Work

The technical competence of a boss, being a real expert in the core business can serve a higher purpose apart from productivity. The employees are more focussed and fare better, learn quickly and later on lead better.

Market Strategy​

Baidu and KFC’s New Smart Restaurant Suggests What To Order Based On Your Face

China’s Google, Baidu has partnered with KFC to open a ‘smart restaurant’ which uses facial recognition to recommend customers order. It evaluates factors such age, gender and facial expression. It also has a built-in recognition system for return customer and can remember and recommend based on your past order.

How Uber Used a Simplified Business Model to Disrupt the Taxi Industry

Uber made the whole cab hailing process easy by connecting it to technology. It Simplified the payment process, making the whole experience hassle free and transparent. Its features like tracking, reducing uncertainty on which car will arrive, rating system of the driver makes the whole experience complete. And its universality, that a single App can be used an most parts of the world makes it highly accessible.

Market Entry​

How WeChat App Is Changing Restaurant Business in China

QR Codes which is installed in most of the chinese restaurants can access Wechat. Tables have their own unique QR code. Immedialtely after scanning the code, Wechat opens a menu the user can browse through. The Payment App is not only expanding its features to other areas of customer service.

Focus Industry​

Why The Largest Insurance Companies Are Pouring Into Silicon Valley

With the customers evolving quickly and adapting to new products and services, providers cannot afford a slow response time or clunky interfaces. Big players are keen to take and execute ideas from startups that are using technology for all kinds of user interface, like video chat for instant claim processing or using chatbots for customer service.

Innovation

China Going Cashless, Thanks To Fintech Boom

The Fintech industry in China is rapidly expanding and more and more chinese are using mobile wallets to pay. With a deep internet penetration and smartphone users in the country majority of people are using their smartphones to pay for goods and services, primarily through Alibaba’s Alipay or WeChat’s payment service.

Buzz News

Completing Our Transition To Becoming a Digital Currency Company (Not Just a Bitcoin Company)

The demand for Bitcoin is surging and it appears to be reserve currency of the digital currency space. An opportunity has emerged in the form of digital currency to fill the payment network gap. It conti nues to attract engineers to work on protocols and build applications.

The Ad Tech Renaissance

The Internet needs a change in strategy for AdTech beyond publishers like Google and Facebook which is absorbing all of the digital advertising. Some people have pointed to the dominant share of advertising dollars going to social and search as a sign of the apocalypse for ad tech.There is a need for more publishers that can deliver ads without compromising user experience.

Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality Are About to Transform Business. Here's How to Be Prepared.

Mass Adoption of Chatbots are a great expmple of shift brought by AI. From Virtual Reality offices to customer support centre, the business of the future will be more fluid, flexible, collaborative and well networked. Digital technology is evolving quickly, Apps, websites etc may start diminishing with more relevant and convenient technology.