Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/313171604?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
World Bank, U.N. join hands in conflict zones but face hurdles
By Anna Yukhananov
(Reuters) - When the heads of the World Bank and the United Nations flew into the violence-wracked African city of Goma on a cloudy day last month, it was the first time the giants of international development had joined forces in the struggle to help the world's most fragile regions.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon traveled to three countries in the Great Lakes region in East Africa to cement a new partnership, tying $1 billion in bank money to the U.N. peacekeeping efforts in the region.
They announced the funding in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), even as mortar shells were falling in the country's eastern edge in Goma. But the men, both born in South Korea, pledged to continue their trip.
"We're going there because our belief is that peace, security and economic development are intertwined," Kim said in Kinshasa. "We're going with a very specific purpose in mind: there must be a peace dividend."
The organizations admit the effort to work together faces hurdles. Both have vast, unwieldy bureaucracies that have historically competed with each other, and the bank had been wary of loaning to fragile states with shaky governments and murky institutions.
Further, development analysts warn that no one has yet figured out a surefire way to bring lasting development to countries caught in cycles of violence.
But with half the world's poorest people set to live in conflict-torn regions by 2018, the institutions can ill afford to do nothing, the World Bank and analysts say.
COMPETING FOR CREDIT
The organizations have already cooperated in some countries including Liberia and Bosnia. They even signed a framework agreement in 2008, vowing to work together in nations experiencing crises or just emerging from them.
But other efforts have fizzled, or been limited to one-off attempts in specific countries or situations, analysts say.
"There wasn't any kind of systematic, organizational way for the two institutions to work together," said Steven Radelet, a professor at Georgetown University. "Sometimes it has worked well, and sometimes there have been big gaps."
The United Nations and World Bank often have similar goals. But their approaches diverge and they use different vocabularies, with the bank focused on economics and the United Nations steeped in notions of security and human development.
Even on the trip to the Great Lakes, logistics officers grew frustrated trying to familiarize themselves with each other's protocols.
Competition over who gets credit for programs also has stymied efforts at cooperation.
Aid agencies tend to jump in to help countries, duplicating efforts and complicating matters for governments that have limited capacity to deal with so many organizations, said Laurence Chandy, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank.
"There's a subtle but massive distinction ... between coordinating and cooperating," he said. "The truth is, we really struggle even to coordinate.
"Cooperation is a whole new paradigm."
ELEPHANTS COOPERATE
The joint mission to Africa, which included visits to the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, was meant to signal from the top that this time would be different, Kim said.
"There's this African saying, 'When the elephant fights, the grass suffers,'" he said in an interview in Entebbe, Uganda. "I've been the grass for most of my life, watching these powerful organizations fight each other on the ground."
Kim has spent most of his career in public health, unlike the diplomats and bankers who preceded him as head of the bank.
His work at the World Health Organization, a U.N. agency, gave him an insider's view of the United Nations' strengths and foibles, said Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, a development group.
The idea behind the Great Lakes campaign is that development cannot exist without security, and security cannot last without giving people incentives to keep the peace, which development projects can offer.
On his trip to the region, Kim announced $1 billion in new funds for infrastructure projects, cross-border trade, and health and education services. It will be contingent on all countries in the region abiding by a U.N.-brokered peace deal from late February.
Researchers like Chris Blattman at Columbia University say there is evidence that large infrastructure projects like roads and power plants - a strength of the bank - can help stabilize a country and boost the economy.
But combating poverty in fragile states has been notoriously difficult. Those countries lag behind the rest of the world in standard measures of health, education and infant mortality, and are vulnerable to relapse when conflict returns.
Dealing with security is also a new thing for the World Bank, which in the past largely avoided fragile states.
"I'm not doing this just because I want to be the Kumbaya guy," Kim said, in reference to working with the United Nations. "I'm doing this because if we are to have any hope of ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity, there's just no question we have to work with everybody."
"To me, not to work with the U.N. means that you're admitting up front that you're going to have low aspirations."
As he approaches his one-year anniversary at the helm of the bank, Kim has made collaboration with development organizations, including the United Nations, a top priority. Kim and Ban have talked about doing another joint trip, this time to Africa's Sahel.
Several factors have driven the bank's shift in focus to countries in turmoil.
First, of the 82 countries qualifying for loans and grants from the bank's fund for the poorest nations, 31 are classified as fragile states. The bank now proposes that about 20 percent of such funds go to those states, up from 8 percent in the late 1990s.
The nature of fragility has also changed. The number of conflicts around the world is falling, but they now tend to last longer, blurring the distinction between humanitarian aid that rushes in when a crisis erupts, and long-term development.
Finally, the realities of population growth mean that half of the world's poorest people will live in conflict-torn regions by 2018, and more than two-thirds by 2030, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.
That suggests the World Bank cannot achieve its goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 without focusing on conflict areas.
The DRC, where violence has repeatedly displaced people and hampered programs, could prove to be a particularly tough test case. More than 70 percent of its 67 million people live below the poverty line, despite billions of dollars in development aid over the past decade.
"It's easy to write off the chances in these sorts of situations. But it's really about what the alternative is," Chandy said. "If the bank isn't going to be there, who is?"
(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Xavier Briand)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-bank-u-n-join-hands-conflict-zones-051034839.html
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Saturday, June 15, 2013
Domestic Violence: It's assuming epidemic proportions - Effah ...
By Ishola Balogun & Aderonke Adeyeri
Not many know that relationship or marriage is meant to bring out the better person in a spouse. But, the reverse is the case in our society today as many people especially married women suffer different kinds of domestic violence.
It is a paradox that a love relationship being nurtured by spouses would suddenly turn to a theater of absurdities, leading to several injuries and scattered homes.? What kind of a person resorts to domestic violence against the spouse or domestic intimate partner? What kind of a person thinks it is right to continually humiliate or talk down a life intimate partner?
Domestic Violence
Chioma Obi, 35, got married to her loving husband Daniel in Abia State but three years after, it became a an undesirable relationship.? She was beaten and battered most times to coma. Chioma is currently suffering from partial blindness.? The story is not different from that of Tomilola Akinrogbe, who courted her husband for four years but little did she know that the day she signed her wedding certificate was like signing her death warrant when her husband, Adewale Akinrogbe stabbed her to death after an argument ensued between the couple at their residence, Ijaiye, Ogun State.
Apart from physical battering, once a spouse is physically or emotionally abused,? he or she is no longer free, no longer valued, respected or safe.? What can be more violent than living under such circumstance.
When Saturday Vanguard sought the opinions of experts on the issue, they expressed worry over the dangerous trend in our society.
Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, the Executive Director, Project Alert,? a non-governmental women?s rights organisation set up to promote and protect the rights of women and young girls who share his view on the issue opined that the current? rate of domestic violence in Nigeria can not be established, as there has not been a national survey to that effect. However, she said that following the current trend, one in five Nigerian women is a victim of domestic violence. ?As according to the 2012 Gender in Nigeria Report, one out of every five Nigerian women and girls aged 15-24 years, has been a victim of one form of violence or the other.?
She said while poverty and social economic challenges could be considered to be one of the numerous reasons for domestic violence, they are not the main reason for the act. ?Domestic violence, as indeed other forms of violence against women/young girls, is a power relationship. It is more about men and boys feeling they have power and control over women and young girls, and physically and sexually assaulting them into submission. Putting them (i.e women/girls) in their place (below men) as its often said.
This idea was corroborated by Pa? Aderibigbe Olofin, an octogenarian and sociologist based in Lagos. He stated that violent behaviour often originates from a sense of entitlement which is often supported by sexist, racist, homophobic and other discriminatory attitudes of a person, mainly the man. ?Male privilege operates on an individual and societal level to maintain a situation of male dominance, where men have power over women and children.?
Olofin added that violence at homes could be as a result of avoiding important issues out of fear of angering your partner or? excessively jealous and possessive or domineering attitudes.
?When your partner control where you go or what you do, limit your access to money, phone or car;
destroy your belongings or property; threatens to hurt you or kill you if you opt and of the relationship or marriage could be possible cause of domestic violence.
Effah-Chukwuma however stated that culture and religion play a major role in the continued perpetration of violence against women in general, and domestic violence in particular. ?This is because people hide under the guise of both, to justify acts of domestic violence. You here people saying things like ??its our culture??; ??the African culture allows it??; ??the Bible says a woman should be submissive, and if she is not, she should be beaten??; ??a foolish woman breaks her home?? etc. All these add up to keep women in abusive relationships, while encouraging their husbands to continue their abusive acts.?
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She expressed worry over the increase in the trend, adding that her NGO receives an average of eight cases of domestic violence per week. ?At Project Alert, we receive an average of 8 cases weekly. In 50% of these cases, we are able to settle the matter, after several counselling sessions with both parties individually and then together. We mediate and help them arrive at a mutual agreement, especially where there has been no physical injury, on either parties. In 25% of the cases, the extended family members come in, and take over the matter, with the consent of the couple, and try to resolve the matter. In the remaining 25%, the violence and threat to life is so severe that the woman, states clearly that she does not want to go back to the marriage, for fear of dying, and as such wants a separation or divorce. Thus our first response is typically to try mediating,? she noted.
Effah-Chukwuma also stated that both domestic violence which includes physical battering, threat to life etc and sexual violence (rape, gang rape, incest, defilement, sexual abuse) are the two commonest forms of violence against women and young girls in Nigeria. ?In fact sexual violence against children (especially little girls) is becoming very prevalent. Hardly can a day go by, without one newspaper reporting a case of defilement and incest against a young girl, some times as little as two years of age. It is in my opinion, that it is assuming epidemic proportions,? she stressed.
On how stigmatization has been affecting agencies intervention and prosecution, Effah-Chukwuma agreed that stigmatization is one of the factors that cause victims to remain silent.
?Yes, stigmatization is an issue, as it causes victims to keep silent, and not cry out for help. The greatest challenge however is the poor response from the criminal justice system (police and courts) and social service providers (hospitals, social welfare) to victims and their families/friends. Police insensitivity to and unprofessional handling of sexual violence cases due to poor training and lack of logistics, has resulted in low reporting rates of sexual violence cases especially.?
?Lack of logistics for the police means that victims of crime have to fund the process of seeking justice, starting from providing transportation to investigating police officers, going to hospital, paying for medical tests, pay for telephone calls, etc. Very few victims can afford all these costs, and as such their cases never get prosecuted. The courts on the other hand are also insensitive to the plights of victim, with the frequent adjournments and delays. Justice delayed it is said, is justice denied.?
?The Domestic Violence Law of Lagos state, which was enacted in May 2007, is a relatively new law that Lagosians are just getting to know about. It requires aggressive mass sensitization and awareness creation by government, targeting the public, the police and the judiciary. My organization Project Alert, in 2008 and 2009, bought copies of the law from the Ministry of Justice, and donated to all police divisions in Lagos, during the tenure of Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo as Commissioner of Police in the state. We also conducted some trainings for officers. However there is a need for a sustained public awareness campaign on the law, if it is to make impact, and help prevent acts of violence in the domestic sphere. Presently it is not very functional, as so many people are yet to know about it, and understand how the law works.?
She advised that government at all levels should stop playing politics with the lives of women and young girls, and take seriously the issue of domestic violence and sexual violence. Effah-Chukwuma maintained that more and more women are suffering various health implications and even dying from these twin problems. ?Relevant agencies charged with responding and providing support services to victims, should be well trained and well equipped to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. Government, NGOs and the private sector need to partner to end all forms of violence against women and young girls,? she stated. Shedding more light on the issue, Pa? Aderibigbe Olofin, said: ?Domestic violence includes assault with weapons such as knife, gun, matchet, burning or killing, pushing, throwing, kicking, slapping, grabbing, hitting, punching, beating, biting, restraining, confinement to hurt and cause emotional imbalance in a person.?
?When your partner control where you go or what you do, limit your access to money, phone or car;
destroy your belongings or property; threatens to hurt you or kill you if you opt and of the relationship or marriage could be possible cause of domestic violence.
According to him, other causes include, ?when your partner forces you to participate in an unwanted, unsafe or degrading sexual activity;? is domestic violence.
He opined that although it is most times caused by men.? ?It is as a result of the inequalities between men and women, rooted in patriarchal traditions that encourage men to believe they are entitled to power and control over their partners.?
He added that alcohol and other chemical substance may contribute to violent behaviour. ?A drunk or high person will be less likely to control his violent impulse at the slightest provocation by a spouse.
He advised that people should acquaint themselves with the existing prohibitive laws to seek redress.
Olofin urged spouses to take note of signs of an abusive relationship which according to him is the first step to ending it. He added that it is absurd to live in fear of the person you love.
Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.
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Thursday, June 13, 2013
3DTV Is Officially Never Going to Happen
That was it. That was 3DTV's best chance. ESPN just decided to discontinue its push for 3DTV sporting events
ESPN giving up on 3D is crippling in a way that seems almost impossible for 3DTV to overcome. That's because if anyone ever really wanted 3D on their TV for anything but movies, it was for sports. In a survey from 2010, around the time 3DTVs were first becoming widely available, 61 percent of people polled
It's hard to imagine a more perfect canvas for 3D on your television than sports. That makes sense on a few cascading levels. For one, sports are played three dimensionally, with depth and perspective that simply isn't necessary or utilized on traditional programming. Shows like the evening news and How I Met Your Mother are scripted or staged in ways that make 3D, essentially, superfluous. It would be nice, more or less, but wouldn't really add much in the end.
To go with a debatable improvement to traditional programming, it also poses some unique technical headaches. Taking advantage of 3D is complicated, because a lot of the visual tricks you can use with a regular display?depth of field, odd framing, etc?can look positively dreadful in 3D. As Mark Wilson wrote for Gizmodo's review of Avatar
Then there's just the purely visceral experience of watching sports. LeBron James flashing into the frame, delivering a dunk like lightning from a god. Lionel Messi whirling through the penalty box, whipping a pass to a teammate at the far post, as the depth and the angle of that teammate's run shows through in 3D just a little more clearly. Adrian Peterson making very fast men seem impossibly slow. You want to see moments like this in 3D. Or, well, you would if you had any interest in 3D to begin with.
It's possible that the way we watch TV now?or at least how the tech-forward vanguard that would adopt the technology and introduce it to the world?just doesn't mesh with 3D, or more specifically, 3D glasses. We text and tweet and trawl through Twitter lists looking for GIFs, in real time, as we're watching games or episodes of touchstone shows like Game of Thrones. It's just a different experience than it was just a few years ago, when 3D was making its renewed push. And while 3D glasses might be something you're willing to endure when sitting down to watch a movie?an act that still, blessedly, common etiquette keeps second screening out of?no one wants that mess while peeking down at a phone or tablet or laptop in between plays, or while folding laundry and half-paying attention to True Blood.
Maybe now, if like ESPN everyone else finally gives up the ghost, we can finally start seeing some more practical advancements in TV tech. There's 4K, of course, though that's a ways off, and who knows when it'll come off of its gaudy price points. There any number of attempts at smell-o-vision tech,which hey, why not. And there's also the stuff we just haven't thought of yet, or haven't taken seriously enough to try in earnest. Transparent displays that can live in the center of a room as sort of windows, that become screens. Or bendable displays that we can fold up in our pockets, or that compress down onto a shelf. Maybe some weird tech that makes massive screens an affordable thing. The point is, if we put our energy into everything that isn't 3D, maybe we end up with something more useful.
It's tempting to say that burying 3DTV, or being plainly against the idea, is an anti-technology sentiment, that we're shoving off progress in favor of our comfortable old viewing habits. Rejecting sabermetrics for box scores, basically. But often we confuse a way forward for the way forward. 3D as we have it now is a progressive technology only in that it's different, not because it's an imperative for furthering how we watch TV.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/3dtv-is-officially-never-going-to-happen-512905205
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Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Get the newest version of the Android Central App before anyone else
Join our beta test group and move yourself to the front of the line
We love beta testing. We love playing with things that might break, will break and need some testing. To that end, Google recently introduced proper beta testing of applications through Google Play, and we're going to start using it.
Want to get the latest version of the newest Android Central App before anyone else? Want to help us test things out and squash bugs? Here's how to order:
- Join the Android Central App Beta group.
- Sit back and wait for us to start pushing beta builds.
It's that simple. We'll start with the beta builds in the coming weeks. Thanks for your help!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/5otgsKIgZPI/story01.htm
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China's E-Commerce Companies Go Global - CKGSB Knowledge
E-commerce retailer VANCL?s English language website is tailored to western customers. Will this be enough for VANCL to make it in international e-markets? (Source: en.VANCL.com)
Can China?s e-commerce companies like Jingdong Mall and VANCL replicate their success in international markets?
Just a few weeks before stepping down, Jack Ma, the founder and former CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, addressed the students of Stanford University. While talking of his humble start in China?s e-commerce industry and his rise to the top, he made a remarkable statement: ?I am thankful for the inspiration that Silicon Valley gave me.?
Back in China, Ma explained, he started working in the internet business in 1995 obsessed with how to catch up with Silicon Valley.
And catch up he did.
Fourteen years after its founding, Alibaba is the world?s largest online business-to-business (B2B) platform delivering e-commerce solutions for small businesses worldwide. There are others following in its footsteps?such as business-to-consumer (B2C) players like VANCL, China?s biggest fashion e-tailer, and Jingdong Mall (JD.com, which till recently was called 360buy.com), the second-largest B2C online retailer in China. Jingdong and VANCL account for 16% and 0.9% of the B2C market respectively, whereas market leader Tmall (owned by Alibaba) has 44.10% (owned by Alibaba).
During his speech at Stanford, Ma said he never wrote a business plan. Instead, he embraced what he saw as the best plan: change.
Change, Now the Only Constant
Today, China?s e-tailers are embracing change like never before. McKinsey & Company predicts that by 2020 China?s e-commerce market will equal that of the US, Japan, the UK, Germany and France combined today. To stay competitive in such a huge market these companies need to be nimble. For many, internationalization will help strengthen their brand and create new value.
VANCL and Jingdong have hundreds of millions of active users but they are by no means global giants yet. Venturing abroad will boost their reputation and help balance the already squeezed profit margins in the increasingly overcrowded home market. Ajing-mao, an analyst at e-commerce research institute Analysys International, agrees. ?Going abroad is the only way for a company to grow and develop fast, especially for e-commerce enterprises that have certain inherent advantages due to the internet. That?s the case, for example, of the rapid growth of B2C e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon.?
Jia Jia, Associate Vice-President responsible for the overseas business of VANCL, explains that the global push was ?a response to the pressure posed by global e-commerce brands aiming at China?. ASOS is one such site. The popular UK-headquartered fashion e-tailer recently announced ambitious plans of launching a Chinese website in October. ASOS was following in the footsteps of other companies like online luxury fashion outlet Net-a-Porter that entered China a few months ago.
But Chinese companies will only be able to compete globally if they offer global consumers unique value proposition. To achieve that and to move up the value chain, they will need to invest in brand-building.
It is early days still and the pioneers have done precious little on that front. Jia Jia, VANCL?s Associate Vice-President responsible for the overseas business, acknowledges that for his company, ?it?s too early to do branding?. ?We don?t have any advantage yet compared to other e-commerce websites especially in the US, or in Spain with Zara,? he says.
Casting the Net Wide
VANCL debuted its international website in 2010. But it wasn?t until March this year that the company started to invest more resources in their global strategy. Roughly 10% of their target consumers include overseas Chinese, but VANCL has ambitious plans of expanding into new areas with the help of teams familiar with the tastes of the specific target markets. Additionally, it is testing different business models to see how to tap in markets such as Russia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Interestingly, one year after it launched its global site, it made it available in three additional languages?Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.
Jingdong, on the other hand, doesn?t have a diversified market yet and only 30% of their customers are from outside the US. The global website (in English) was launched in October 2012 to embrace the opportunities created by the already developed Western e-commerce market. Shipping the 400,000 products on offer to more than 30 destinations, Jingdong intends to reproduce in an international setting its model of a company that creates value for consumers by selling ?Made in China? products from China. ?Our advantage is low prices and we will keep that. Our team is based in China but people can buy from other markets and then we ship from China,? says Shi Tao, Vice-President (Retail), Jingdong.
But will these sites disrupt international markets?
The Acid Test
Even though companies like Jingdong have gone global, it appears as if they are really catering to overseas Chinese. This strategy might help them gain momentum abroad while testing their models and progressively diversifying their target markets. But the real test for these companies? global forays will be gaining acceptability with non-Chinese consumers.
A.T. Kearney?s report ?E-commerce is the Next Frontier in Global Expansion?? recommends localization of websites, and development of new business models, shipping options and payment methods as the key to success. Superior costumer experience and not underestimating local players are high on the list of recommendations.
This recipe, however, brings with it a set of challenges that fuel skepticism among some industry watchers with regard to the potential success of these ambitious companies. According to Ajing-mao, among the issues of concern are ?a lack of understanding of user demand in international markets and the customers? distrust toward the quality of Chinese products, coupled with a blind international expansion?.
VANCL and Jingdong are still in the first stages of their global expansion. They are using their websites to experiment with products, categories, shipping and payment solutions, customer service and website design. Jingdong?s Shi says that it?s a wait-and-watch strategy. ?We launch the website first, then we see the behavior of the people: what they like, what pictures they click on, etc. In the future, if we notice a given country likes red color, we will then switch the color of the website to red.? In a way, how the global customer reacts to this constant optimization and customization of the website will eventually determine their business strategy as well as their key target markets.
?Categories would be our main ?strategy?,? says Shi. Since the launch of the global website, Jingdong has been trying to learn about the global market, the culture of these consumers, their preferred categories and payment options. As a result, the site has undergone a few changes here and there: books, for instance, is now at the top of the categories menu, the less popular categories have been removed and there?s a bigger offer of domestic products.
But this alone won?t do the job. User experience and search engine optimizion (SEO) play a crucial role in their chances to compete in globally. Doug Pierce, Founder and CEO of analytics at Cogney SEO agency, reckons that compared to Amazon, China?s e-tailers lag behind in determinant factors of search engine rankings, such as like organic keywords, ad keywords and referring domains. Also, in terms of localization of the websites, ?they must be in perfect English, allow photoshopping of products and open links in new tabs?, he adds.
On the other hand, accurate customization of their websites also implies a thorough understanding of the data generated by user transactions of international users, something that will also help companies figure out the shopping behavior of target consumers. Li Yang, Assistant Professor of Marketing at CKGSB, says, ?Most Chinese firms lack enough understanding of the Big Data concept, let alone of using it in a foreign environment.? Which is why, these companies will find it difficult to deal with important aspects of Big Data, such as data security or privacy protection since they are used to their domestic business models where they can make profits without taking into account consumers? privacy, he adds.
The China Advantage
For Jingdong, the fact that Chinese books are one of the top sales items is an indicator that the site is well received by the global Chinese community. Nonetheless, if Jingdong wants to reach a wider pool of consumers it will have to urgently deal with inconsistencies of the English site, where many product categories and specifications are only in Chinese and ads and banners are mostly targeting the global Chinese consumer.
Shi thinks it wouldn?t be smart to confront giants like eBay or Amazon. Instead, he aims at wining other markets by building trust with customers, always without losing sight of their very-low price advantage. The company?s self-built logistics network in China will give them an advantage when shipping Chinese goods from their own warehouses in the country. In the future, given the importance buyers give to speedy delivery, Jingdong plans a combined strategy where the most popular products will be stored in local warehouses to cut delivery times, while the rest will be shipped directly from China.
Nevertheless, both options pose great challenges. Domestically, Chinese e-tailers are used to extremely low shipping costs that allow them to remain competitive in the domestic market by offering next-day deliveries and free (or very low price) delivery services. CKGSB?s Li says that overseas they will find it hard to achieve the same efficiency. They?ll have to rely on third-party delivery companies that charge higher fees. On the other hand, local players will enjoy an advantageous position making it hard for Chinese companies to compete against such cheap shipping options.
Li says, ?The delivery cost for Amazon is already low as Amazon is able to leverage its negotiating power with shipping companies. When Chinese internet firms go to these countries, I doubt these new players would get cheap shipping as Amazon does.?
Connecting and Localizing
As they go global, China?s e-commerce players need to increasingly localize their offering to suit different country contexts.
Jingdong?s site, for example, now offers the option of checking prices in currencies like Euros, Pounds, Australian Dollars and Hong Kong Dollars, a part from US Dollars. Shi explains that providing wider currency choices helps non-US consumers avoid the inconvenience of going to Google to check the price of the goods they want to buy in their own currency.
Moreover, VANCL?s Jia Jia thinks the strategy of building a strong relationship with the user also helps overcome the negative perception often associated with ?Made in China? products and brands. In addition, investing in social networking through sites like Facebook or Twitter will help ?strengthen the exchanges with the local consumers, narrow the psychological distance with the overseas consumer and keep track of their needs,? notes Ajing-mao. VANCL?s global site, for instance, has a style guide book, a blog and an affiliate program. Combined with other social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, they are used as critical channels to get closer to the new market.
Local partnerships appear as a key strategy to build trust and create higher value. Last year, VANCL launched its first country-specific website in Vietnam. As a B2B2C platform, the Vietnamese partner is responsible of developing its own inventory of VANCL products that the company later sells to the local consumer through VANCL?s Vietnamese web portal. It might try this model in other markets in Southeast Asia in the future. Jingdong is also working in a similar partnership with a Russian site. In this case, the Russian platform would handle costumer service, delivery and payment solutions, whereas Jingdong would take care of the website, provide the products and ensure the low prices are maintained.
The model of company cooperation and platform cooperation gives a dramatic advantage in terms of localization because it provides companies a bigger margin in terms of offering a better service to international costumers and earn their trust. According to Shi, ?In the future, this will probably be a better strategy to land into different markets. Amazon chose to acquire or set up their company and their own team. I think in the future this won?t be the only way to do this kind of businesses.?
Source: http://knowledge.ckgsb.edu.cn/2013/06/03/china/chinas-e-commerce-companies-go-global/
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What It's Really Like To Be A Google Intern - Business Insider
Rohan Shah
Rohan Shah just finished a semester interning at Google. To become a Google intern, Shah took a leave of absence from his school in Illinois.
In early January, 20-year-old Rohan Shah got an email from Google.
The search giant ? the best company to work for in the world! ? was interested in interviewing him for one of its coveted internship positions.
It had been weeks since Shah filled out the online application following a career fair at his college, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He had already accepted another summer internship at Qualcomm one month prior.
But this was Google! And Shah couldn't let the opportunity slip by.
A Google spokesperson says Google accepts only 1,500 interns out of 40,000 applicants every year in the United States. Earning a spot at Google is competitive, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn just made a movie about it.
Shah went through with the interview process, which spanned more than one month. By the end of January, he was offered a position.
Instead of canceling his summer plans with Qualcomm, Shah called his school and took a leave of absence. He flew to Mountain View, California and became one of about 50 interns this past spring.
What was the interview process like? And what's it really like being a Google Intern? Shah and other interns recount their tales.
Getting The Interview: A Slow And Tedious Process
The Google interview process, whether you're applying for an internship or a full-time position, begins with an online application. The hopeful candidate fills out forms that inquire about his or her grade point average, past experiences, extra curricular activities and more.
Shah didn't do anything fancy with his resume to attract attention. But he can speak three languages, he has received a volunteering medal of honor, and he's on his school's Dean's List. In addition, he's been a teaching assistant, held previous internships and, just for fun, he creates Android apps.
Still, it took multiple weeks for Google to respond to his November application. When Google finally did, it sent him an email.
Another intern candidate, Evan Carmi, said he waited a month and a half before hearing from Google HR when he applied in 2010.
The email correspondence between Google HR and the candidate leads to two phone interviews with current Google employees.
That's when the process really begins.
A Series Of 'Highly Technical' 45-Minute Interviews
Google was once infamous for asking tough brainteasers during its interview process. After a bout of negative press, Google forbid its staff from asking candidates questions like "How many cows are in Canada?"
Still, the interviews ? even for interns ? are highly technical.
"It was essentially applying your knowledge in a very practical situation," Shah explains, which is about as in-depth as Google will let him go. Google has a strict policy against sharing company information, although it allowed our interview with Shah.
"It's figuring out if you can scale a system, or you can make something much more efficient," he says. The best applicants are able to apply those concepts quickly throughout the entire 45-minute process.?
Carmi's interviews were equally technical, and he wrote freely about them in a 2010 blog post. His first of the back-to-back calls was from a Site Reliability Engineer at Google. He asked Carmi?questions pertaining to Python, such as "Write a function with the following specification: Input: a list. Output: a copy of the list with duplicates removed."
Carmi's second interview was with a Carnegie Mellon graduate on Google's Webmaster Tools Team who asked him to write actual code. A single question took up the vast majority of the 45-minute slot and caused Carmi to all but break a sweat.
Carmi was asked to do a third technical phone interview and his dreams of becoming a Google intern died there.
Shah was more fortunate. One week after his two phone interviews, he received an email from HR: "You did well in the interviews, we want to continue the process," he was told.
The Google recruiter then helped him figure out which department he'd like to intern for, and more interviews followed.
"I had interviews with around five different teams," he says.
Unlike the phone interviews, the team interviews aren't technical. They help the potential interns get to know the different groups within Google and?learn if they'll like working in one over another.
By late January ? three months after submitting his application ? Shah was officially a Google intern. He'd be joining Google's Android department.
His next stop: Mountain View.
Housing, Roommates, And Commute, All Covered By Google
It may seem impossible to get an internship offer across the country and start working there two weeks later.
But if you're a Google intern, the company solves all of your housing and travel logistics for you. Shah was put up in Google-paid corporate housing, in San Jose's North Park, with fellow Google interns for roommates.
Shah was assigned three roommates, two from Argentina and one from Ukraine. "I got to meet people from a completely different culture. I got to learn from them and picked up a bit of their languages as well," says Shah. "It was a great housing experience for me."
Shah describes the apartment as "very nice" with a train station close by for easy access to most places in Silicon Valley.
There's no need for a car or a bike when you're a Google intern. Google sends free shuttles throughout the entire Bay Area, including San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto and Berkeley, to take employees to work and home at night.
Bikes are available on Google's campus for long-term rent, or for hopping from office to office around the 'Plex.
A Week And A Half Of Orientation
The intern orientation process goes on for a week and a half. Interns are taught how the data centers work, how the company functions, and what Google's goals are. They also meet all the other new Googlers.
"Just in the first week you feel like you've been an employee for a year," Shah says. "You get acclimated with the company very quickly."
From the moment he stepped onto Google's grassy campus, Shah was in love.
"My first day was amazing," he says.
Making The Money
Google interns get paid more than most full-time employees across the country. According to Glassdoor, the average Google intern makes $5,678 per month, or $68,136 per year.
Shah's pay was slightly more at about $6,100 per month or $80,000 per year.* Take into account all of the perks, including free rent, transportation, gym membership and food, and a Google intern is living large.
"I didn't find myself wasting any money, except on weekends when I went exploring," says Shah. "It was a great semester."
So, What Do Google Interns Do All Day?
A lot of work, and a lot of team building activities.
Shah recalls trips to museums, movies, hiking and biking excursions, as well as several trips to San Francisco, all organized by Google. He was the only intern on his Android team, and there were a lot of team dinners, including one on his 20th birthday.
Unlike most other internships, where the underlings send faxes and grab coffees, Google interns work on real products that will be used by the world.
Each intern is assigned a project within his or her group. They're also assigned a mentor who will chat with them weekly, or as frequently as the intern needs, and give feedback on their progress.
YouTube Kitt Vanderwater, a former Google intern and current Google software engineer. |
"It was a great sense of satisfaction," Shah recalls.
A current Google software engineer, Kitt Vanderwater, had a similar experience when she interned in the Google+ department. "I had a lot of responsibility," she says. "It was a little overwhelming because I was doing all these things I had never done before. I was the one who was driving a lot of the decisions we were making, I ended up making the page for signed-out search, which was the first experience anyone got in the new Google+ search. So basically I owned this page that tons of people were going to land on when Search was actually launched."
What Googlers Are Really Like
Googlers aren't a bunch of social misfits, although that's how they're occasionally portrayed. Shah was surprised how normal and non-geeky everyone at Google was, engineers included.
"One thing that really surprised me working at Google was that every single employee is extremely creative and extremely active," Shah says. "There's a very clear divide between work and life. Google engineers are very well-balanced. I have evidence that people really are the best thing at Google."
"I have evidence that people really are the best thing at Google."
Meeting Sergey Brin
Interns aren't all introduced to Google's top executives. Nor are they allowed to test out all of the cool-new devices that Google is building. Shah never zipped around in a driverless car or wore Google Glass while he was there. But he did run into Google co-founder Sergey Brin once.
"The one time I did meet Sergey, three intern friends and I were going bowling," Shah explained. (But not bowling off campus, of course. Google has its own alley.) "Sergey happened to be passing by, showing his friend around the place. That's actually as much as I saw of Sergey."
The Perks: 24 Cafes, Multiple Gyms, A Wellness Center And More
You won't starve working for Google. Like most Googlers, Shah says the food was "probably the biggest perk."
He estimated the Googleplex had 24 cafes with a wide variety of cuisines to choose from: Mexican, American, Indian, salad bars, pizza shops and burger joints. Gyms are located close to cafes for anyone feeling over-fed.
The gyms are well equipped and are often completely full, says Shah.
If you get sick, you just go to Google's wellness center. Feel a knot in your back? Go to the on-campus masseuse. All are available for interns as well as employees.
"Free food and refreshments, free gym membership, laundry, dancing lessons, etc,"?Paul Baltescu, a two-time Google intern, rattles off perks on Quora. "Intern events are also loads of fun: you may go to paintball, laser tag, watch a SF Giants game and all summer interns go on a luxury boat trip on the San Francisco Bay. Also, depending on your team you may attend other fun events like white river rafting, a three days trip to Lake Tahoe or may get to visit other Google offices."
The Cons of Being A Google Intern? There Are None
If there are any downsides to being a Google intern, Shah can't recall any. His only complaint is more of a frustration with himself.
Shah wasn't as experienced an Android developer as Google's full-time engineers, so it took him some time before he could fully contribute to the team. But he says his co-workers were understanding and his mentor was always there for encouragement.
Like Shah, Baltescu can think of only pros when he recalls his internship experience.
"Both internships helped me develop basic software engineering skills that I wouldn't have otherwise learned from school projects (how to code search efficiently, how to unit test properly, how to use version control systems, etc.)," he writes on Quora. "I also learned some new technologies like python and App Engine and brushed on my JavaScript and C++. I'm very grateful for what I've learned at Google and I strongly recommend their internship program to any student wishing to become a software engineer in the near future."
Life After A Google Internship
For Shah, one internship led right into another. When we contacted him he was getting ready for his first day at Qualcomm. But he had already interviewed for a full-time job at Google after graduation and was waiting to hear back. Interns can interview before their departure, and their mentors can help them prep.
Shah has a good shot. Jenna Wandres, Google's Communications Associate who oversees all things culture, tells us: "We rely heavily on those interns when we're thinking about hiring."
Shah's advice to other hopeful Google interns?
"Google is really looking for experience," he says. "They want to find engineers who are motivated, so activities outside of school really help. At the same time, you need to know your basics. You need to understand simple algorithms and how to apply them. Google is all about application."
The best piece of advice comes from Shah's Google mentor: Stay calm.
"I know every interviewer says that, But Google interviews are kind of unnerving because they're highly technical. Calming down was what really helped me through."
And if you don't get the internship?
You'll probably end up alright.
"I ended up with an internship at The New York Times that summer, and returned there the summer after as a Interactive News Developer," Carmi, the candidate Google rejected, tells us. "I graduated last week from Wesleyan University."
*The story originally reported that Shah's salary was less than the average Google intern, but it turns out his was actually more and was equivalent to an $80,000 annual salary.?
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-really-like-to-be-a-google-intern-2013-5
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