Mike's Industry View - Issue #167
AI / Creativity
Google acquires holographic glasses startup North — venturebeat.com Alphabet has confirmed that it's acquiring North, a Canadian augmented reality (AR) wearables company backed by Amazon and Intel.
Head uses Minecraft to show new pupils around school — www.tes.com
A headteacher has found a way of showing new students around his school during the lockdown by recreating it brick for brick on the game Minecraft.
Business/Marketing/Adv
To keep shoppers coming back, Nike is testing a new experiential store format — www.modernretail.co
As Nike seeks to boost its direct-to-consumer sales, it not only has to convince customers to buy more products from its store, but also to visit its stores more frequently, as well as to use more of Nike’s services like its app that will give Nike more data about the customer.
Face Cover "one of the most rapidly produced products we've ever made" says Adidas — www.dezeen.com Adidas developed its face cover in response to the coronavirus pandemic in less than a month, making it one of the quickest products it has ever made.
Interestingness
Millions of Americans Have Moved Due to Coronavirus — www.bloomberg.com Young adults are most likely to have relocated, new data show.
The “New Normal” Is a Myth. The Future Won’t Be Normal at All — www.bain.com
The companies that most aggressively adapt and extend new ways of operating will turn this crisis to their advantage.
Wellness
Is the Five-Day Office Week Over? — www.nytimes.com The pandemic has shown employees and employers alike that there’s value in working from home — at least, some of the time.
No, Really, Your Boss Wants You to Take Vacation—Now — www.wsj.com Companies’ latest memo to workers: Take a vacation already! Businesses want workers to use their paid time off to stave off burnout and avoid a year-end vacation crunch. But fewer workers appear to be doing so.
Platform News
TikTok’s self-service platform launch is perfectly timed to kick Facebook while it’s down — digiday.com
Experts suggest the current market conditions set TikTok up as a worthy challenger to Facebook’s ad dominance, fairly early into TikTok’s existence.
Twitter Is Considering a Subscription Service; Shares Rise — www.bloomberg.com
Twitter shares rose as much as 12% amid speculation that the social media company is building a paid subscription-based service.