What did you do on Black Friday? Did you fight to the death over a $300 laptop? But did I mention we specialize in laptops fixed? However, if you shopped online this weekend, Jeff Bezos thanks you. Because Black Friday makes Jeff Bezos $100 billionaire.
He’s also the first person to be worth 12 digits since Bill Gates did it in 1999. This makes Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world, well, financially. If Amazon shares soared Friday, then so did online sales. In fact, his stock helped him earned over $32 billion in 2017 alone. And now he has the nerve to ask us little people what he should do with that $100 billion?
But I will give Bezos credit. He’s asking the public for help from a philanthropist standpoint. I have a few ideas I’ll share with you soon. In a tweet, Bezos says he wants to help people short term and make a lasting impact. Then he ended the tweet with “requesting ideas”. Bezos seems to be inspired by his $100 billion predecessors, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Buffet has The Giving Pledge, Gates has the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Needless to say, Bezos is having the best year ever. His Amazon just acquired Whole Foods, and his voice-assistant Alexa devices are on many a Christmas list. That’s just for starters.
But to fulfill Bezos’ request. One thing he could do is to help the homeless population. Because I read one news article that made me very sad. It states that homelessness in 2017 is now as bad as it was in the 1930s Great Depression. For most people alive today, that’s means we’ve never seen homelessness this bad. I would love to see Jeff Bezos do something about this, whether it’s job creation, building affordable housing, or raising salaries of his company. In fact, I’d love to see all leaders in IT support do something. Black Friday makes Jeff Bezos a $100 billionaire. What should he do with it?
It looks like Amazon has company (thank goodness!). Because there is a Chinese e-commerce company that is making unbelievable profits. Not only that, but Alibaba smashes records wherever they go.
In one day, they sold over $25 billion online. That’s a new record. However, that’s just in American gross dollars. Then take China’s currency, Renmenbi. In just one day, they made over $163 RMB, which equals to over 25 billion US dollars. This also includes international sales, marketplaces, and all their brands. Furthermore, this is a nearly 40 percent increase from their best day last year. That was just a measly $17.79 billion.
So how much is $25 billion a day in sales? Well, our biggest shopping days are Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Their records are $3 billion and $3.45 billion, respectively. Then this makes Alibaba’s best day more then?eight times greater than any US retailers’. Yes, this includes giants like Amazon, Walmart and Ebay, or any IT support backed retail company, for that matter. And if that wasn’t enough, $18 billion of Alibaba’s sales came in just 12 hours! And Alibaba smashes records some more. Because now, 90% of their sales were mobile. Of course, this is according to Alibaba leaders. Just two years ago, 69% of their sales are mobile.
So like I said, Amazon isn’t the only candy store in town. That’s a good thing. Free enterprise is based on competition. If you don’t like one outlet, you can go to the other one for better goods and/or services. We constantly keep that in mind at our computer service shop. Now, Amazon, Walmart, and other American online retailers need to keep in mind. I checked out Alibaba. I haven’t shopped on their website, yet, but I see the appeal. Also, I see why they’re making so much money. Now rarely do I sing the praises of international companies, especially those from China. But for those of us who are Walmart and Amazon weary, we just got another choice. Would you shop at Alibaba?
Over the years, I covered some crazy and huge IT service mergers. We had Yahoo and Verizon. We also had Dell and EMC. However, one merge is about to come out. It’s even bigger than the infamous Comcast-NBC Universal merger. It’s the merge between AT&T and Time Warner.
This merger would be worth $85 billion. I can’t even wrap my head around that. Then look at what AT&T already has: Direct TV. That’s the world’s largest satellite provider. Now they want Time Warner, one of the largest entertainment corporations in the world. This deal is not yet official because they have to wait for the US Dept. of Justice to permit this. Let’s hope they don’t.
So what? Why should you care? Because if you have AT&T, the world’s largest telecommunications company, and the US’s second largest cell phone provider, this affects you. Also, if you have Time Warner Cable, the US’s largest cable company, it affects you. Because AT&T’s customer base is four times the number of Comcast’s. We can thank Direct TV for that. Can you imagine what it will be if Time Warner merges? Then there is the entertainment quality. My concern is if this merger happens, then the corporate bigheads decide what gets on their cable empire. That not only stifles entertainment, but leads to censorship.
However, some may argue, “But we need someone to compete against Comcast/NBC-Universal”. Some in our computer service shop say the same thing. And apparently, so did T-Mobile and Sprint. They talked about merging, but it looks like those talks stopped, for now. Thank goodness! In a twisted way, this would increase competition. But only for the mega conglomerates. There is no way a start-up company or small business can compete against this. Then there are the costs. Do you really think this $85 billion is going to fall from the sky? I expect customer cost will sky rocket. But there’s hardly any competition to turn to. So the customer is trapped. That’s the problem with these mega mergers. Should the merge between AT&T and Time Warner ever happen?
Around ten years ago, Amazon introduced Kindle. This changed the book and IT service game forever. Then, Kobo and Barnes stepped up the game. This stepped up the game with app stores and color screens. But now, they’re introducing Kindle Oasis.
Actually, it came out last year. However, they insists on tooting their own horn as the premier e-reader. They may be right . Because their high resolutions and larger screen and a very first for Amazon Kindle, a waterproof e-reader. But that’s just the beginning. The Oasis has an aluminum backing. Keep in mind only high-cost top of the line smartphones have that. Yes, it looks nice, but in my experiences, aluminum backing proves more durable.
Also, after years of scorn, the Oasis has physical page-turn buttons. They went this way because touchscreens are, well, very complex. For example, physical buttons are a lot better for traveling, or being in public. It’s a little bigger. Some may complain about that, but when you read your next book, you get more words per page. When they say waterproof, they kinda mean it. The Kindle Oasis will still work under under 9 feet under water. Ever try reading an e-reader while swimming in an Olympic size pool? It would be fun to try.
Now there is another side to introducing Kindle Oasis…introducing the price. The cheaper version costs $270. However, the more expensive ones cost around $350. And for the sake of a cheap promotion, we have done screen replacements on Kindles before. But the Amazon Kindle system has come a long way in the last 10 years. Yes, that’s because of hard work and innovation. But maybe it’s also because they have very little competition. This is where I should encourage other tech leaders to please, give Amazon from competition. With all they are into, couldn’t they use some competition right now?
Some call Elon Musk the Leonardo of tech and??IT support. However, some others call him the mad scientist. Now, he’s building a tunnel series to help companies transport goods. So let’s look at the Elon Musk tunnel.
The city of Los Angeles gave Musk and his company, Boring Co. backing to build the tunnel, near his SpaceX headquarters. He wasted little time because one tube already stretches so far you can’t see it with human eyes. This tunnel also includes tracks, wall panel, cables, and lighting. But apparently,? the Elon Musk tunnel in LA is just the beginning. They got approval to build a second underground tunnel in Maryland. In fact, these two tunnels will be part of Musk’s underground Hyperloop.
So why is the Boring Co. doing this? Because he believes these tunnels are a better way for corporations to transport their goods. Furthermore, he wants to build him at a lower cost than other tunnel builders. Musk hopes to provide American cities and states with alternative ways to deliver goods and services. But don’t go making plans to use this tunnel yet. Because this project is very much in the beginning stages. Musk also has even bigger ideas for this tunnel.
Eventually, the Elon Musk tunnel could even transport people. I’m not sure if this will be for local commutes, or transcontinental travel. If Musk can pull this off, I’m sure it will cut down on road travel pretty well, especially in the major cities. I know what traffic looks like. Our Boston computer service shop is in the middle of one of the worst traffic cities in America. And Musk can probably pull it off. Let’s not forget; this is a man that wants to send people to the moon and Mars. He wants to build colonies so people can live there. So if his Moon and Mars dream eventually comes true, will his dream of a tunnel?
This past year in Silicon Valley was not a rosy one. Issues from sexual harassment to wealth inequality to racial discrimination to outsourcing showed their ugly heads. There are also issues like fake news, tax cheating and even AI worship. So what’s going on? This is the Silicon Valley moral meltdown: How bad is it?
If you ask venture capitalist and activist Frida K Klein, then she would say it’s real bad. In fact, she asked, “Does anyone even have a moral compass…”. Ouch! But she would know; she began her tech career in Boston in the 1980s. Back then, IT service didn’t control our lives like it does now. There lies part of the problem.
The other part of the problem, at least according to Klein, is greed. I understand where she’s coming from. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, information technology led the way in forward thinking. But since tech is the dominant norm, there is hardly a need for forward thinking. It’s just a race to dominate by any means necessary. Then there is ignorance. Yes, tech leaders are among the most intelligent in the world. But I see common sense is lacking. Because it’s obvious, to me, the future work force is more diverse than ever before, especially the iGeneraton (those born after 2000). But yet Silicon Valley leadership insists on being lily white and mostly male. Ignorance at best, but is there a more sinister motive here?
I agree with Frida K Klein. We are having a Silicon Valley moral meltdown. In fact, some tech companies are leaving Silicon Valley because of this. But they’re not the first one to go through this. Every industry before it had these struggles. Now it computer servicing’s term. It’s Silicon Valley’s turn. Will they learn? Will Silicon Valley ever learn?
