Thousands and thousands of green glow sticks are waving, the crowd is cheering. Then a blue light gleams in the darkness when a sound of spaceship whooshes up. This reveals the opening of Hatsune Miku live concert in Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles, in October 11, 2014.

On stage, Miku is around 20 feet tall and looks like a young girl with long turquoise bigtails, dressed up in a black skirt and gray thigh-high tights. She is 16 years old according to the data sheet released by Crypton Future Media, Sapporo Japan, while the company launched this program.

The phenomenon may look the same to any concerts you have been to, except for the singer is not real. Hatsune Miku is a virtual character voiced by a singing synthesizer application. But she can move and dance like a real pop star on stage by using projected holograms. [Read more…]

Mergers & Acquisitions in 2014 have reached their highest point since the turn of the century — the $1.5 trillion in M & As recorded this year is the most since 2000, according to financial information firm Thomson Reuters.

The theme continued this past Monday, with more than $100 billion in M & As accounted for between Allergan being bought out by Irish pharmaceutical company Actavis  and Halliburton acquiring oil company Baker Hughes.

For Allergan, the bio-tech company based in Irvine, the deal was especially sweet. The firm best known for making Botox was the target of a hostile takeover from hedge fund manager William Ackman and Valeant Pharmaceuticals for several months. Not only did Actavis pay more for Allergan — $66 billion, or $219 per share compared to Ackman/Valeant’s reported ceiling of $209 — but vowed to cut funding for research and development much less than the previous offer. Ackman still made out ok, though, since he had been accumulating shares since they were in $120s earlier this year. His 10 percent stake in Allergan saw $2.3 billion in paper gains this Monday.

Halliburton, on the other hand, was already the second biggest oil services company before buying Baker Hughes — which was the third largest. Despite a mixed reaction from shareholders so far, Halliburton believes the deal will lead to “cost synergies” of $2 billion per year and increase the company’s product line , according to Forbes.

Monday’s activity highlights how commonplace the practice has become. The Economist cautioned 20 years ago about the potential pitfalls of combining companies, and that was after a “mere” $210 billion had been registered by September, 1994.

Critics of large M & As point to several potential issues. First, many workers often lose their jobs when companies merge. This was evident when Sprint fired thousands of employees when they were acquired by Japanese telecommunications firm Softbank last year. The deal hasn’t found a way to make the company more of a threat to AT&T and Verizon yet, with Sprint recently announcing 2,000 more people would be losing their jobs.

And in many cases, there are reservations about M & As creating conglomerates that are too powerful — leading to monopolies and oligopolies. The Halliburton – Baker Hughes connection will certainly draw scrutiny from regulators concerned about antitrust violations. Although the deal will not be formalized until next year, shareholders may already be wary — with the company’s shares falling two percent a week after the deal was announced.

This isn’t unique to Halliburton, though. In general, mergers aren’t well received by the shareholders of the company buying out another firm. However, for investors of the company being bought, the opposite is true, because they are normally being bought at a premium. Allergan was bought for a five percent markup of the current share price on Monday, after they had already skyrocketed since the beginning of the year.

Lastly, the tech industry has been a hotbed for buyouts of late, and the exorbitant prices companies are paying for startups has many thinking this is the second coming of Dot-Com Bubble. What makes these purchases especially tricky is that many times the companies being bought aren’t publicly traded, so deciding on a market value for the business is rather arbitrary. Facebook buying messaging platform WhatsApp for more than $19 billion raised eyebrows for its seemingly over-the-top price. And even though the deals are worth billions of dollars, they can seemingly happen on a whim. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly said he “must have” virtual reality tech company Oculus earlier this year, and closed the $2 billion deal so fast that several high ranking executives at Oculus didn’t even know it was in the works until they showed up for work and found out they had been bought.

 

While there are red flags to consider when companies merge, recent activity suggests it won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

 

Ten P.M. in Pyongyang, all street lights went out. I shined a torch to penetrate the darkness. Two patrolmen spotted the light source and shouted at my direction. In a jitter, I responded in Chinese. After realizing I’m a foreign visitor, they softened their tone and let me pass by. Pyongyang citizens are not allowed to go outside at night. Another thing prohibited by North Korean government is foreign visitors exchanging for Korean People’s Won.

 

Then how can a foreign traveler make a purchase in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea?

In the past, a separate currency for foreign visitors, also known as foreign exchange certificates, was issued by North Korea’s central bank, including two types — “red won” for visitors from socialist countries and “blue won” for visitors from capitalist countries. Foreign exchange certificates has been abandoned since 2002.

When you travel to North Korea now, in theory, you are not allowed to have North Korean won, but if you want to take something from North Korean back home, you can shop at state-run stores held in hard currency. Goods’ description labels are in English and Chinese, and goods are priced in dollar, Chinese yuan and euro there.

But that is only in theory. In fact, you can trade for Korean People’s won after street lamps going out — in the black market. I have traded Chinese Yuan for Korean People’s Won twice out of three attempts. I first traded 10 yuan ($1.6) for 10 won with two North Korean basketball players. At that time, the official exchange rate of yuan to won was 5:1, and the exchange rate in black market was about 570:1. They knew they made a killing by doing this deal with me — getting around 5,700 won by giving me 10 won.

North Korea did and does tightly control exchange rate. The iconic rate of 2.16 won (Kim Jong-il’s birthday is Feb.16) to U.S. dollar was abandoned in 2001, but the Korean government still extremely overvalues won. That’s why North Korean won in the black market is worth much less than what North Korean government wish it to be.

Then I went to a street shop in the same decoration with other shops distributed sporadically on the street. Bread displayed on the shelves comes from one single place with an identical package. Yellow neon casted dim but warm hue on the shop assistant. The moment I tried to start a conversation, she took a glance over my dangling Nikon D7 and kicked me out.

Last I stepped into a grocery store inside a residential district, which looked very different from prior street shops. A variety of commodities were set at random. I didn’t know whether I was an uninvited guest to this little store or not. But the salesman stood up when he saw me and he seemed to know he could get RMB from me. He was even willing to take the risk of being caught because I obviously offered a good deal. I bought a carton of cigarettes and 5,00 won with 50 yuan ($8.2). 

I made my “official” purchase in North Korea at a state-owned store especially running for foreign visitors — I bought an exact same carton of cigarettes as last time in 100 yuan ($16.3). They make won at least looks valuable by over-highly pricing goods to foreigners.

I’ve heard our North Korean tour guide chiding today’s China as faded socialism for dozens of times. And that was the one and only occasion when I thought “faded” was a positive word.

It happened. The San Francisco Giants clinched the World Series for the third time in five years. A miracle? Perhaps, but also astounding is the economic impact its local baseball team has brought to the city.

The even-numbered years were the golden years, as the Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012, and 2014. San Francisco experienced a drought of national sports championships until the Giants took reign, consequently bringing in larger crowds for local businesses.

In 2010, the city embraced the worldwide brand recognition of San Francisco as a new sports hotspot. Advertising costs during home games skyrocketed, and local tourism was at an all time high. From hotel and other sales taxes, the city felt the economic boon of winning its first World Series since 1954. According to Staci Slaughter, the Giants spokeswoman, sales at the ballpark store were about 150 percent higher than normal.

The exposure of the 2010 title also caught the attention of Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle, to choose San Francisco as the host city of America’s Cup – the sailing event of the year. To everyone’s surprise, this baseball fame was not a one-time event, as the city geared up for yet another wave of Giants fans in 2012.

The San Francisco Giants “swept” the Detroit Tigers to take the 2012 title – and during the two days the city hosted the World Series games, baseball fans added about $17.3 million into the local economy. Local restaurants were better prepared for the massive crowds, and the city embraced the incoming visitors with open arms. Although the numbers aren’t in for the 2014 winning season, it is expected that San Francisco was successful in bringing in record-breaking revenue.

Hosting World Series games is bound to bring in large profits, but it is still important to consider the costs associated with such an event. There is a parade put on by the winning city to celebrate the World Series title, and this is no cheap affair. For the 2012 celebration parade, the Giants dished out approximately $1 million for the set up, and the city itself paid $225,000 for security and transportation costs. Because of the excitement of the parade, attendance at local schools dropped 20 percent, resulting in a loss of $150,000 from the state (educational funding). This does not begin to cover the costs of damage to the city from rowdy crowds, or the cost of a large portion of its labor force on “sick leave” to watch the game; however, in San Francisco’s case, the benefits seem to outweigh the costs.

In addition to the crowd-drawing holiday season, San Francisco has persistently accumulated profits during “Orange October,” a phenomena that will hopefully continue throughout the Giants legacy. The baseball team is also riding their wave of success, as plans for a new enticing neighborhood near the ballpark is in the works. The $1.6 billion “Mission Rock” project would bring in thousands of new jobs, and another outlet for retail stores and restaurants to expand.

The Giants have put San Francisco on the map as a sports celebrated city, and the profits provide evidence for this success. Just a tip – because of increasing costs, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for fans to start booking their hotel rooms for 2016.

In Hollywood, there’s a luxurious hotel that provides three levels of modern and stylish suites, spa and wellness center, spacious playground and chauffeur service with luxurious vehicles like Ferrari, Lamborghini Gallardo, Bentley, Porsche or Rolls Royce. But it’s different from Hilton in that the customers here are all dogs.

The D Pet Hotel, opened 7 years ago, is one of the first luxurious dog hotels appeared in Los Angeles. Now it has developed into a chain hotel with two branches each locates in New York City and Scottsdale, Arizona.

The growing of luxurious dog hotel business, as an example of the pet grooming and boarding industry, is only one aspect of the overall prosperity of pet industry. According to American Pet Products Association (APPA), the total U.S. pet industry expenditures has grown continuously during the past few years. Even during the Great Recession, the sales in this section didn’t come across a decline.

The increasing number of pet ownership, the rise of household disposable income and pet parents’ willingness to pamper their pets, are the three main factors that drive the prosperous trend. As the second graph shows, bird, cat, dog and freshwater fish are the four main popular pets in households. The number of pets outweighs the number of households also shows that some families owns more than one pet. According to Alissa Cruz, the owner of D Pet Hotel, one of her customer has seven dogs in her family, and there are several others have 4-5 dogs.

Single-person households and aging population are the major forces to drive up the pet ownership. Gay couples and middle-aged housewives are also two demographics that tend to have a pet companion, the general manager of D Pet Hotel said. For gay couples, a pet is the perfect alternative to a kid. For middle-aged housewives, a pet can keep their life busy when their children are pursuing college education in another city. In July 2014, IBISWorld Industry Research Division released a study report on Pet Stores in the U.S., in which it predicts the number of pets ownership will increase at an average annual rate of 2.1% during the next five years, which also benefits the revenue of pet industry.

The same report shows that major spending in pet stores industry are made on the following sections, pet food, pet supplies, pet services, and live animals.

Live animals accounts for the smallest percentage as a pet is one-time purchase, but products in other segments will be purchased repeatedly during the whole pet’s life. In addition, more and more people choose to foster or adopt a pet instead of buying them from stores.

Although pet services only account for 13% percent of the total revenue, they “have been the fastest-growing product segment for the industry over the past five years”, says the IBIS report. Pet services include grooming, haircuts, baths, toenail trimming, tooth brushing, training, boarding, daycare and etc.

Thanks to the notion that pets are family members, pet parents are becoming increasingly indulgent. The rise of disposable income also enables pet owners to pamper their animal companions. That is how D Pet Hotel came into being.

Pet supplies include over-the-counter medicines, food bowls, collars and leashes, pet clothing, crushes and combs and various accessories for pets. According to IBISWorld report, this segment is mainly driven by the rising spending on over-the-counter medicine products, for the cost of pharmaceuticals and the standards of routine care has increased during the past five years.

As the largest segment in pet store industry, pet food has been experiencing a trend towards premium standards. All-natural and organic can no longer satisfy indulgent pet parents’ needs, various premium pet foods like raw diet food, weight-control food, specialized formulas for sensitive stomachs, and freshly baked cakes and cookies as treats have appeared in the market. The increasing number of pet numbers also contribute to the large chuck of revenue.

However, pet supplies and pet food segments are highly competitive. Supermarkets and mass merchandisers, like Walmart and Costco are selling  similar pet products  at more affordable price and offer the convenience of one-stop shopping, so customers are lured from specialty stores. IBISWorld report shows, from 2009 to 2014, due to the competition from supermarkets, and department stores and some online retailers, “the number of industry operators contracted at an average annual rate of 0.6% to an estimated 13,195 companies”.

Generally speaking, the pet store industry is mature. The estimated product saturation will be reached in 2019. But as pet owners tend to humanize their pets more and more, services will be further diversified and become premium. The estimated revenue annual growth in pet store industry will be 2.3% from 2014 to 2019.

Have you ever heard of “Double 11?” Double 11, which is on November 11^th, is well recognized as Bachelor’s Day in China. However, during the past few years, it was given a new definition of shopping carnival by Alibaba Group, the company that recently went public with the largest IPO in history.

In 2009, Alibaba’s B2C website, Tmall, started to offer flash sale and huge discounts on its various products. Although at first, Alibaba was just trying to take advantage of Bachelor’s Day to generate hype over its event, it soon became a national celebration for online shopping websites. Now, e-commerce giants in China like Jindong and Amazon also joined Double 11. So did some brick-and-mortar retailers in China.

This year, Alibaba Group announced that it would implement the strategy of “Buying anything from anywhere” by providing huge discounts on certificated foreign products and offering free shipping service to overseas customers. Alibaba’s unprecedented movement on the global market shows its determination to become an international e-commerce company. In addition, it’s also a great opportunity for Alibaba to showcase its potential to the shareholders after its going public in New York.

Double 11 is the most important profit-generating moment for Tmall. Last year, Tmall created a one-day sales record of $ 5.7 billion on Double 11. You can hardly imagine how passionate people are towards Double 11. Usually, they add their favorites in shopping cart in advance, then when the time comes, all they need is to hit the purchase button and pay for it. Since hot items always run out so fast, some people even stay up until 00:00 a.m. in the morning in order to get the products they want. Moreover, retailers and logistic companies are also under high pressure of cooperating with Tmall to address customer service issues and the shipping of the goods.

This year, Tmall’s goal for the transaction value on Double 11 is expected to reach $8.16 billion. There are mainly two ways for Tmall to achieve the expectation. First, Tmall has been making efforts to attract international brands to open online stores under its website. Brands like Prada, Burberry, Estee Lauder, Costco and even Tesla opened flagship stores in Tmall, and are also going to join the celebration of Double 11 by providing cheaper price and faster logistics. For example, Costco will offer 50% discount for selected products on November 11^th, 2014.

Secondly, CaiNiao, the logistic company owned by Alibaba, is expanding its business to the global market by cooperating with local postal service in over 200 countries, including America, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany. By doing so, Tmall will be able to send goods to customers all over the world for free, which will absolutely attract more foreign buyers and overseas Chinese customers.

Now, although there is still two weeks before Double 11, Tmall and retailers, logistic companies have already begun preparing for the biggest promotion. If Tmall could hit the sales expectation again this year, the globalization of Alibaba will definitely be much more easier. After all, those shareholders in New York are always alert of signals like this.

Five times a week he gets on the Metro bus and heads to work. The 30 minute ride from West Hollywood to Downtown LA isn’t all bad. It gives him time to read for school or listen to music, but there’s one major drawback.

“It stinks. Like, the bus literally stinks,” said David De La Cruz, when describing his trips to work.

The 19-year-old has come to deal with it, since he can’t afford any other way to get around town. No car, no motorcycle, no bike. And no Uber.

De La Cruz makes minimum wage as a cashier at Taco Bell, where he works between 30-40 hours each week. The increase in Metro fees from $1.50 to $1.75 (or from $75 to $100 for monthly passes) doesn’t seem life-altering, but when you’re on a tight budget like De La Cruz, every quarter matters.

“It isn’t much, but it adds up. When the bus driver told me I was like ‘ah, man!’” laughed De La Cruz.

His paychecks are spent each month on the basics: helping his older brother pay rent for their apartment, schoolbooks, and food. Finding a way to get by on $9 an hour is a grind, but he’s gotten used to it.

As a four-year-old, De La Cruz’s single mom brought their family to Los Angeles from Mexico. Even with his mom having to work several low-paying jobs to keep their heads above water, De La Cruz is certain it was the best move for the family long-term.

“Everyone says it all the time, but it really is the Land of Opportunity,” said De La Cruz when describing the United States.

De La Cruz is an English major at Cal State University, Northridge, and hopes to become a language arts teacher after he graduates. Having a Dream scholarship helps assuage his financial burden somewhat, but De La Cruz has to clock his hours each week at Taco Bell to make ends meet.

There are simultaneous initiatives in motion that aim to help people like David. While there is a ballot being circulated to raise it to $15 by 2017, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposal to raise minimum wage to $13.25 over the next three years has gained the most traction.

You would think if anyone would be in favor of Garcetti’s proposal to increase minimum wage in LA over the next three years, it would be De La Cruz, right?

“I’m not an economist or anything, but I really don’t think it’s a great move,” said De La Cruz. “For me it might help, but I think it would hurt just as many — or more –people than it helps.”

De La Cruz argued the customers at Taco Bell are dependent upon the prices being low, since many of them pay with their EBT cards. If Taco Bell had to pay its workers more, De La Cruz felt the prices would increase and the customers would suffer.

“And they would probably cut our hours, too!” said his co-worker Jessica as she walked by. (It was at this point I started to wonder if Taco Bell had really awesome employee benefits)

De La Cruz echoed the same sentiment, fearing a decrease in customers would lead to less hours for him and everyone else. For him, the fear of potentially losing his job outweighs the benefit of a potential increase in his hourly wage.

Critics of Garcetti’s plan have similar concerns. The LA Chamber of Commerce said on Tuesday an increase in minimum wage would “reduce, not increase the number of jobs” in the city.

Others claim if the mayor is successful it would push businesses out of LA and into neighboring cities.

Still, the reality is that for more than half of the fast food workers in America, the pay isn’t enough to get by. A joint study from UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois last year showed 52 percent of fast food workers were on government assistance, compared to 25 percent for the workforce as a whole.

“I could definitely use the extra couple bucks an hour – just to help with rent and gas,” said Walter, cashier at a local Jack in the Box who did not want to give his last name. “I hope [the increase in minimum wage] happens.”

Those in favor of the increase believe it is necessary to assist in paying for everyday items. While gas, rent and groceries have all seen price increases, wages have been static for several years.

Despite being against the Mayor’s plan, even De La Cruz had to admit he could see a benefit to an increased minimum wage. “It’d help me pay for all these bus rides,” said De La Cruz.