Hong Kong’s New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (New CIES) received 3,166 applications in its first two years, InvestHK announced Monday, with anticipated investment of approximately HK$95 billion (US$12.15 billion). Of those, 1,762 applicants completed their investments and received formal approval from the Immigration Department. Year two alone produced 2,248 of those applications, up 145% from…
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, has finalised a deal to establish a majority US-owned joint venture company to avoid a ban on the popular social media app used by more than 200 million Americans. The deal is a milestone for the short video app after years of battles that began in August 2020, when US President…
Starting as a lifestyle trend in the 2010s, the ‘sober curious’ movement has encouraged a substantial societal shift toward more mindful alcohol consumption, driven by people’s growing focus on longevity, mental well-being, and productivity. According to the annual consumer sentiment survey by NCSolutions, 49% of Americans have been actively trying to drink less in 2025,…
A nightclub in eastern China has teamed up with local authorities to offer a marriage registration service, with electronic music festival tickets as a special gift. The Huangpu district civil affairs bureau in Shanghai has partnered with the nightclub INS Land to offer marriage registration and appointment services during two weekends starting on November 14….
Topline Threads, Meta’s text-based social media platform that launched in 2023 as a challenger to the Elon Musk-owned X, for the first time beat X in global daily active mobile users for the month of October, according to data shared with Forbes by market intelligence company Similarweb. Threads surpassed X in the number of daily…
An explosion of digital channels has created a complex ecosystem for fashion and beauty brands to navigate when looking to engage customers today. But it has also unlocked new, unprecedented opportunities to enhance consumer connectivity for the brands willing to reimagine their approach. Early adopters of AI-powered personalisation are already seeing conversion rate increases of…
Designed to simulate up to 40 years of skin aging under various lifestyle, dietary and environmental conditions, the tool offers a new visualization layer for stakeholders across wellness, nutrition and dietary supplement sectors. “This visualization turns abstract health advice into undeniable reality, motivating action today for a longer, healthier tomorrow,” Anastasia Georgievskaya, CEO and co-founder…
After years of pandemic-accelerated digital transformation, fashion and beauty consumers are more digitally connected than ever before — yet meaningful engagement with these consumers feels increasingly elusive. Customers increasingly expect seamless integration between digital and physical touchpoints — where online behaviour informs their in-store experience, and vice versa. However, these functions and data learnings remain…
Algorithms, viral moments and AI platforms now shape how billions of people discover, talk about and connect with fashion brands. A single TikTok trend can ignite global demand. A celebrity sighting can dominate search and social conversation. And AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini are shaping how customers discover and learn about fashion. Yet many…
Fashion and beauty retail stands at a critical inflexion point where digital transformation meets physical retail demand. With 70 percent of retail sales now digitally influenced, according to The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company’s The State of Fashion 2025 report, the industry faces unprecedented complexity in managing customer relationships across the shopping journey….