Ruction

A disturbance or quarrel.

The Ruction is a weekly rundown of the top ten emerging issues from the past seven days shaping commerce + culture.

The Ruction is for communication strategists and global business executives.

#TheRuction #Caracal #Samsung #GoldmanSachs #JPMorgan #Telehealth #Facebook #Apple #Niantic #AR #DigitalCurrency #Volvo #Netflix #MTV #Finland #Happiness

The Ruction | Edition 16 | April 9, 2021

1. Samsung Electronics said profits likely rose by 44% in Q1 of this year, as the pandemic led to a surge in smartphone sales.

2. Workers are returning to the London offices of investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Roughly 16% of workers at the banks are commuting into the office.

3. Telehealth companies raised a record $10.5 billion across nearly 600 deals in 2020.

4. Facebook, Apple, and Niantic bet people are ready for augmented-reality glasses: WSJ reports tech companies are accelerating their development of computerized glasses for consumers, in a competition between Facebook, Apple, and others proponents say will usher in a new way for consumers to use technology.

5. China creates its own digital currency, a first for major economy: A cyber yuan stands to give Beijing power to track spending in real-time, plus money that isn’t linked to the dollar-dominated global financial system.

6. Volvo has announced a generous new parental-leave scheme for all of its 40,000 employees, wherever they are in the world. The staff of either gender will receive 24 weeks of paid leave at 80 percent of their base salary.

7. Netflix is heavily invested in the voice dubbing business, having lined up 170 dubbing studio partnerships to produce dialogue for translated programming in at least 34 languages.

8. MTV says its mental-health portrayals are sometimes damaging in a rare admission: The network and its sister ViacomCBS channels will implement a comprehensive program to correct it.

9. Phone numbers, personal data for 533 million Facebook users exposed online, report says: Facebook said the leak involved “old” data stemming from a problem resolved in 2019, but the news still sparked renewed scrutiny of a social media giant previously dogged by concerns about data privacy.

10. The 10 happiest countries in the world, according to the 2021 World Happiness Report:

1. Finland

2. Denmark

3. Switzerland

4. Iceland

5. The Netherlands

6. Norway

7. Sweden

8. Luxembourg

9. New Zealand

10. Austria