A rising post-90s generation is emerging as a strong engine of consumption, in one of four important new trends in the Chinese consumer landscape.If you’re looking for evidence that Chinese consumers are confident, look no further than the one-day online-sales phenomenon known as Singles Day, which falls every year on November 11. Singles Day has morphed from being a day dedicated to lonely si...

Bitcoin futures debuted in Chicago last night, which could make it easier for institutional investors to embrace the digital asset. It was a widely watched event, and the website of the company launching the derivative, Cboe Holdings, was overwhelmed and inaccessible for a time. Even infamous rogue trader Nick Leeson was watching:Bitcoin futures—which allow traders to speculate on what an asse...

Using biometrics, two architectural researchers think they can help architects and planners design better cities.Architects know best, as they often claim. With conviction, they’re sure certain details will make a space more hospitable, more beautiful, more preferable, and more enjoyable. There’s rarely any empirical evidence to back up those assertions. But an emerging field of research is n...

Over the past two decades, advertisers have gradually shifted their budgets away from traditional media (e.g. TV, newspapers and magazines) towards online ads. The rise of the smartphone has only accelerated this shift, as smartphones have fundamentally changed the way that people consume content. Ad dollars have always followed eyeballs and thus it doesn’t come as a surprise that mobile ad sp...

Average price of lithium-ion battery pack: $209/kilowatt-hour. Prices are set to fall below below $100/kWh by 2025: BNEFThe kind of battery that powers electric vehicles is now the cheapest it’s ever been thanks to a global ramp-up in production.Lithium-ion battery packs are selling at an average price of $209 a kilowatt-hour, down 24 percent from a year ago and about a fifth of what it was in...

In recent years, water-based exercise classes have been making waves, providing a low impact, muscle building workout. As the boutique-fitness scene grows, specialty swim classes are diversifying, offering more dynamic options for pool time than swimming laps or water aerobics.Mindtravel Underwater MindTravel has been offering live-to-headphones “silent” musical experiences in settings like C...

I’m excited and also a little sad to present to you Aurélien Salomon’s vision of the Macbook. Excited because it does such a marvelous job of streamlining Apple’s two product and experience lines (the desktop and mobile lines), and sad because this is purely conceptual.Following the latest smartphone trend, the Macbook also opts for a charming bezel-less display. Obviously, it has no notch,...

After a challenging stretch, has fashion turned the corner? Things are looking up, but the rebound may be uneven, says this year’s The State of Fashion report.There is general agreement that 2016 was one of the most challenging years the fashion industry has ever seen. But we are now detecting glimmers of hope: executives report optimism (even amid uncertainty), and the McKinsey Global Fashion...

Terrifying or exciting? Ultra violet could be either.It’s the color Prince crooned about, the color of royals, the color of clairvoyants–and the color Pantone has anointed as the embodiment of the coming year. The official color of 2018 is a saturated, intense, blue-toned shade of purple called Ultra Violet, also known as Pantone 18-3838.“Purple is a complex color,” Lee Eiseman, executive d...