Alibaba’s ‘New Retail’ Revolution: What Is It And Is It Genuinely New?
At a private dinner with Michael Evans, President of Alibaba, he told a personal story which also helped to illustrate the concept. Evans was returning a jacket to a physical store, which he had purchased via e-commerce. The store was not able to recognize the item and make the connection between online and offline inventory, and wouldn’t accept the return. “That’s when I realized what New Retail is and what it isn’t”, said Evans.
He went on to talk about the intersection of the “consumer value proposition” and the “merchant value proposition” inherent when online and offline are properly integrated. From a consumer’s point of view, it’s just easier to shop and the store flexes to the shopper’s individual needs. From an operator’s perspective, when everything is connected and data is visible and plentiful, efficiency and productivity is maximized.
I didn’t totally "get it" until I toured Freshippo. As a customer, I can interact with the supermarket as the mood and need takes me, all driven by the Freshippo or Taobao apps on my phone (integrated with Alibaba’s Alipayplatform of course). I can shop traditionally in store. I can “click and collect”. Or I can order and have products delivered (in 30 minutes or less within 3km – about 1.8 miles of my home). (Quick side story – VMLY&R* Asia co-CEO Yichung Tay was cooking at home, and realized he was out of garlic. No problems – he ordered on his mobile, and Freshippo delivered the ingredient in time for him to finish making the meal. With that kind of service, no wonder proximity to a Freshippo store is starting to factor into people’s real estate choices.)
So this is “New Retail” in action. And it doesn’t stop at supermarkets. Alibaba’s New Retail platform is being used to digitize hundreds of thousands of stores across China. Via their Ling Shou Tong (“Retail Integrated”) program, mom-and-pop convenience stores are being digitally upgraded, plus selected locations for RT-Mart, Intime shopping malls and Easyhome all had a New Retail makeover for the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbird1/2018/11/18/alibabas-new-retail-revolution-what-is-it-and-is-it-genuinely-new/#7ec6620a6ad1
Activision Alums Raise $16 Million to Build EOS-Focused Blockchain Game Studio
Mythical Games is “a next-generation game technology studio.” Their focus is online games where players own the assets they develop or acquire in the game – true digital ownership powered by the blockchain, as opposed to managed digital ownership backed by centralized servers. It’s an important difference.
When a player acquires assets in a game like World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, or Runescape, they are at the whim of the company to stay in business and keep servers online. A decentralized game built on the blockchain can keep in operation, with assets retaining value, for as long as users desire them to. Not to mention how much easier it is to transfer assets when blockchain-connected accounts are involved.
The company has yet to release a game, but today announced that it had raised $16 million in funding from five different venture capital firms including Galaxy Digital’s EOS VC fund and OKCoin.
“We believe that gaming – and specifically players’ interaction with in-game economies and virtual goods – will play a key role in how the masses first discover the true potential of the blockchain. Mythical’s experience building rich and immersive game worlds will be invaluable to this mission.”
See the full story here: https://www.ccn.com/activision-alums-raise-16-million-to-build-eos-focused-blockchain-game-studio/
AT&T Reveals Winners of First Magic Leap Hackathon
Among the 31 submissions, judges selected three winners, with the grand prize winner taking home $5,000, the runner up pocketing $3,000, and third place securing $2,000.
The grand prize winner was Lifescope, makers of a platform that visualizes a users' online transactions and captured content. The company submitted XR Time Machine, an app that allows users to explore their digital timeline via WebXR.
"Lifescope is a tool for connecting your services into an API of you. Individuals can choose which aspects of their life to track and improve. From an individual data wallet, anyone can spin up their own 'gallery' a time machine portal to re-live their past and retell their story, or project the future and test-run their concepts," wrote developer William Collins-Broza in a Devpost describing the project.
Coming in second was Dr. Dodgy's Intergalactic Augmented Reality Circus. Developed by a former circus juggler, the experience presents users with a cosmic circus via interactive 3D content in the user's space.
"This project uses augmented reality to augment a real live story based circus performance. What is reality and what is augmented will blend together as you watch the circus show interact with spaceships, inter-dimensional portals, asteroids, robots, machines, lightning, and more," said creator Andrew Towl, who hand-modeled the 3D content and animations with Blender, with Unity and Vuforia used to create the AR experience.
The third place winner was Magic Ideation, an interactive spatial ideation tool that mixes the tactile canvas of a whiteboard with the multimedia capabilities of a desktop PC and a mobile device.
Since AT&T has committed to being the exclusive retailer of Magic Leap's first consumer-focused device (whenever it arrives), the company has a vested interest in helping grow Magic Leap's developer community. And, as an internet service provider, AT&T also stands to benefit from the consumption of future AR apps that will need 5G speeds to push high-quality 3D content at low latency.
See the full story here: https://magic-leap.reality.news/news/at-t-reveals-winners-first-magic-leap-hackathon-0189915/