Why do I blog?

Over time, this blog has built up traffic, but revenues are still almost zero.

So why blog? (Hint: The final reason and note from Candy Chan is what prompted this posting.)

1- Revenue: I do make some money. I would characterize it as “liquor money”. A few dollars a month from Amazon when people buy a book I recommend and a few dollars a month from Lexis/Nexis. I once tried putting up Google advertising, but pulled it down after seeing the type of ads it felt appropriate for my blog. (I did make US$20 in a few days time, but it is not the way I want to earn money!)

2- Community: Through this blog I have met and interacted with a wide range of people both online and many eventually in the real world. These have included some of the smartest people about the topics that interest me. (Social Media and Asia)

3- Knowledge: The knowledge held by the community following my blog is incredible. That is why I sometimes seem to post incomplete postings. They are incomplete because I am hoping to get further insight and information from the people who read this blog.

4- Helping people: I often get asked if I know anyone appropriate for a range of jobs, particularly in journalism and Social Media. Rather than search for the right individual, I have started posting the job ads online. The result is that quite a few people have got jobs thanks to my blog, including the person below.

When I graduated from journalism school in the States in early 2009, I was desperately searching for a journalism-related job in China.

For days and nights I browsed hundreds of foreign media websites and checked their “career” pages. Sadly, most sites do not post their vacancies and even when some media do, most of the listed jobs are non-journalism related like “auditor” or “webmaster”. At that time, I think the best way to look for my dream job is to find an “agent” that is well connected with the media.

By chance, I found the Foreign Correspondents Club of Facebook and the creator, Thomas Crampton. I am was so excited to see the list of jobs posted by freelancers and foreign media there. One day, Mr Crampton posted a note on FCC FB about a researcher job in Shanghai for a German media. I applied for it and a few months later got the job!!!

I really love my job now and I would say, this site is of paramount importance for those graduates like me, who are not well connected, to get to know more about the news of different media in the Asia pacific region.

Now, whenever someone asks me how do I got this job, (it is not common for Hong Kong journalists to work for foreign media in China) I say via Facebook!

People are stunned, but I tell them it is a group set up by Mr Crampton. I tell them: Please, do not look down the power of social media. You can dig out something incredible if you make good use of it.

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Sustainable Models for News Media

Check the video out below. It's striking to learn that how much people spend time on newspaper websites vs. on facebook!

Attending Hong Kong University’s International Media Conference today. Below are some snippets from a panel I took part in on the sustainable models for journalism. (We did not find the answer). Impressive team from HKU has been throwing up multimedia as it happens. Behind the team has been Diane Stormont using Cover it Live as the way to aggregate and quickly publish.

More on the conference via Twitter hashtag: #IMCHK

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Evolution of Asia’s Luxury Obsession

The role of luxury goods in Asian societies is a fascinating topic. Among those from whom I have learned most about the subject are Asian luxury specialist Radha Chadha and co-author of the book The Cult of the Luxury Brand.

Ipsos, the research firm, recently presented their take on the progression towards luxury by various markets.

The description of Japan highlights the unique way that Japanese relate to luxury, relative to the rest of Asia (and perhaps the world).

Ipsos describes Japanese as “Locked into Luxe habits”. Others speak about Japan as an example of “Mass Luxury”. Both concepts are apparent contradictions in terms - luxury is supposed to be something special, not everyday - but how else can you explain the obsession by Japanese consumers for luxury goods?

According to Ipsos, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are headed the direction of Japan.

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Demographics of China’s Wealthy

Interesting research report from McKinsey & Company about the wealthy consumers of China.

In addition to concluding that 80 percent of China’s wealthy are below the age of 45 - think about that for a second! - they also demarcated seven kinds of wealthy Chinese consumers.

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