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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has set a new sales record during the world’s biggest online shopping spree known as Singles’ Day, as the event has brought in more than $37 billion.

The new milestone was reached nearly 17 hours after the online shopping festival kicked off on Monday at midnight with a performance by American pop star Taylor Swift. There are still seven hours to go to reach new highs.

The 24-hour Chinese retail extravaganza, similar to Black Friday, generated more than $1 billion in the first minute alone, Alibaba reported. In the first nine hours, sales jumped 25 percent compared to the same point last year.

After 15 hours, the gross merchandise volume was on track to reach $30 billion, nearly half of US rival Amazon’s net sales in the entire third quarter, and already nearing last year’s record sales. The number of delivery orders for 2019 Singles’ Day already surpassed the total for 2017.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Singles’ Day, also known as ‘Double 11’, as it falls on November 11. The tradition originates from Chinese college campuses where students have a tradition dating back to the 90s of celebrating being single.

Last year’s 11/11 Singles’ Day generated a record $30.8 billion (213.5 billion yuan), a massive jump over the $25 billion in sales in 2017. The event has broken sales records every year, already beating both US shopping holidays Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

At half the cost of their human counterparts, sex worker robots at a Swiss brothel are becoming the choice of hard-up punters. One expert claims sex with a robo-doll is a fetish among men, just like a preference for leather.

The beautiful and civilized Swiss city of Lucerne is renowned for its setting below snow-capped mountain peaks on the banks of Lake Lucerne, with its medieval architecture, picturesque Altstadt (Old Town) and brothel full of sex robots instead of real prostitutes.

That’s right, the nation that brought us cuckoo clocks and Toblerone chocolate has gone hi-tech in the sex industry with Lucerne brothel, Arsenal 51 (I don’t know either), introducing 90 Swiss francs ($90) an hour sessions with their sort-of real-looking love mannequins for those punters who fancy a little less conversation, a little more action, as Elvis would put it.

They’re half the price of genuine human female company and proving popular among the sophisticated demographic that frequents such houses of pleasure.You can meet Zoe, Mimi (pictured online looking like a partly-dressed giant Barbie) or Nina (think plastic Britney Spears wearing a military cap) for 30 minutes of familiarisation for 60 Swiss francs.

Of course, for those not prepared to go totally virtual, a combination of a real woman and a ‘Sexpuppe’ for half an hour at 150 Swiss francs is also available. How the client divides the time is up to them.

The Arsenal 51 website excitedly exclaims: “Free drinks of course! Like a
Jack (Daniels) or Martini!” It doesn’t say whether the drinks are compulsory.

It does however offer the customer reassurance that “all our girls take a shower before they go to your room.” With smart phones and Apple watches only recently offering water resistance, there is no mention how the recharging sockets on the sex robots are kept watertight while they rinse off the soap.

If there is a malfunction, then there should be no concerns about lost time, as the management at Arsenal 51 assure their esteemed clients that they won’t lose a minute’s pleasure because the billing clock only starts once all parties are showered, dried and ready for some robo-romance. If only the dolls could talk, what tales they would tell.

With prostitution legal in Switzerland they have seemingly now got to the point where sex between two consenting adults is, yawn, a little humdrum. And all this time we’ve been thinking the Swiss were boring!

A survey by men’s health organization ‘Praeventionsangebot fuer Freier Don Juan’ of 9,000 men claimed that sex with a robot was a simple fetish of some men, like a preference for leather, according to spokesman Felix Neuenschwander.

No mention if it’s the same guys who still live at home with their parents while aged in their forties, love comic books, and blush furiously and have to leave the room when a tampon advert comes on television.

Who knows? This could be a massive growth industry. While the world’s first sex doll brothel opened in Barcelona in 2017 to last only a month, the market has rebooted to the extent that the Lumidolls franchise, featuring the rubber rather than real variety of woman, now has bordellos in Moscow, Nagoya and Turin.

For those Brits who feel they might be missing out on something, good news arrived for them this week in the shape of a UK-made transgender sex doll with a detachable penis, retailing at just £1,300 ($1,660), and called ‘Alondra’.

The doll was created, says a spokeswoman with a straight face, “because we have listened to popular demand and delivered a transsexual doll onto the market.”

Sitting atop the privilege pile, men rarely get awareness campaigns aimed directly at them. Movember is one of the few, yet now a brand of women’s razors wants that for itself, too. Why?

Prostate and testicular cancer are, obviously, men’s issues. So too, predominantly, is suicide, which kills one man every minute of every day around the world. In the Western world, men are three to four times as likely to die by suicide as women. 

Since 2004, men worldwide have been growing their mustaches out for ‘Movember,’ all in the name of promoting men’s health and raising cash to tackle these problems. Until this year, when one women’s grooming company came along, took a look at Movember and decided it needed a good dollop of feminism.

“Women have mustaches too,” a hirsute model tells viewers in a new ad by razor company Billie.

“We’ve been hiding them all our lives. But newsflash: we’ve got them,” another fuzzy-lipped model says, before exhorting the women of the world to join them and kick in funds to their Movember campaign.

To be fair, these funds do go towards tackling the men’s issues mentioned above. And Billie will match all donations up to $50,000. But you wouldn’t know this from the ad. Instead, it looks like yet another piece of woke posturing, deliberately released during Movember to remind us, in case we forgot for a split second, that women have problems too.

And, if women do want to grow out their mustaches – thus rendering them completely unattractive to the patriarchal ‘male gaze’ that feminists spend so much time complaining about – then that’s their prerogative. After all, the days of ‘bearded ladies’ being paraded as circus freaks are long gone.

But can’t we just for one month be spared the relentless onslaught of corporate wokeness? Men are rarely treated to awareness campaigns and fundraising drives, so can’t we at least have Movember?

Of course, nobody should be compelled into silence: woman, man, or hip corporation. But while certain groups promote awareness of male breast cancer, male razor companies generally don’t put out ads during Breast Cancer Awareness Month reminding women that “hey, newsflash, we get it too you know!”

It would be completely tone-deaf if a crowd of unwashed incels raised money for National Domestic Violence Month, then put out an ad blasting the women who’ve spurned their advances.

By all means, contribute to Movember if you support the cause. But remember that the cause is men’s health, and the month shouldn’t be a soapbox for a completely unrelated message about body image and the empowerment of the female mustache.

New fuel specifications are set to send shockwaves through oil markets, but a new wave of low-sulphur fuel oil coming online could create a new market-crippling glut.

The refining industry around the world has carefully planned to boost compliant fuel production in the back end of the year, expecting windfall from the IMO-effect in the months immediately preceding the shipping rules change.

But as January 1, 2020, is fast approaching, the previously expected refining margins bonanza could turn to bust as the disruption is now expected to be much less dramatic than previously thought.

According to the new rules by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), only 0.5-percent or lower sulfur fuel oil should be used on ships beginning January 1, 2020, unless said ships have installed the so-called scrubbers – systems that remove sulfur from exhaust gas emitted by bunkers – so they can continue to use high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO).

To be sure, the new fuel specifications are set to send shockwaves through the entire supply chain in the shipping industry – from crude oil producers, to refiners, to traders, to shippers, to end-consumers of everything traded on ships.

However, supply of compliant low-sulfur fuel could be just as sufficient, while demand may be subdued, due to the global economic and trade growth slowdown and at least some non-compliance from shippers, which analysts at Wood Mackenzie put at around 10 percent for 2020.

Russia is one of the countries set to delay the IMO rules implementation, but only in its territorial waters including rivers, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said, responding to questions sent by Bloomberg. Russia will still comply with the rules in international waters. Due to its predominantly high-sulfur oil, Russia is set to be one of the biggest losers in the new marine fuel rules.

The new regulation will lead to low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) displacing HSFO demand, but the change looks less dramatic now than it did several months ago.

The shipping industry consumes 3.5 million bpd of HSFO, while refiners around the world are set to provide 1.5 million bpd of IMO-compliant very-low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO), according to WoodMac’s Head of Oils Analysis Alan Gelder. There will still be demand for HSFO – from the ships with scrubbers installed, and from some non-compliance, including shippers prepared to cheat in markets with limited controls, and non-compatibility of VLSFO. Around 1 million bpd of marine fuel demand would be for marine gasoil (MGO), a middle distillate similar to diesel, WoodMac reckons.

VLSFO is cheaper than marine gasoil, but some conservative customers could still prefer MGO, Sharon Weintraub, Chief Executive Officer for Supply and Trading, Eastern Hemisphere, at BP, told Reuters in September.

Supply of VLSFO looks to be greater than initially thought, Matt Stanley, an oil broker with StarFuels in Dubai, told Reuters.

With relatively adequate supply of compliant fuel, refiners may not see the refining margins boom they were expecting earlier this year.

As 2020 is drawing nearer, LSFO storage around the world’s key bunkering port, Singapore, is piling up. As at end-October, 7.3-7.5 million tons of LSFO and blendstocks were sitting in floating storage on board 29 supertankers offshore Singapore, up from 7 million tons at the start of October, according to Refinitiv analysts quoted by Reuters.

Japanese refiners are ready to supply LFSO but they will keep up HSFO production and supply because Japan hasn’t banned discharging of water from open-loop scrubbers at ports, according to S&P Global Platts.

Regardless of the marine fuel that the shipping industry will use, demand for each of those could be much lower than expected in view of the global economic slowdown and seaborne trade growth slowdown.

In its September Oil Market Report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the trade slowdown weighs on fuel oil demand and allows for a less disruptive switch to IMO-compliant fuel. In March, the IEA expected gasoil shortage of 200,000-300,000 bpd in 2020.

“With fewer than four months left before the rule kicks in, we believe that the oil market is likely to be better supplied than we thought,” the IEA said in September.

Refining capacity has increased globally, while bunker demand is now lower due to the ongoing contraction in global trade, the agency noted. In addition, US light oil supply has increased, and US grades are in demand with refiners who process them into VLSFO fuels. These recent developments “now point at the likelihood of an even smoother start to the implementation,” the IEA said.

• The Swiss bank agrees to fully compensate about 5,000 clients HK$200 million
• This is second major fine imposed on UBS this year after being penalised fined HK$375 million in March for lapses in its IPO sponsor duty

Hong Kong’s regulator on Monday imposed a HK$400 million (US$51.06 million) fine on UBS – the second this year – for overcharging bond trading clients for nearly a decade, with the Swiss bank agreeing to offer a compensation of HK$200 million to 5,000 customers affected by its conduct.

It is the joint-highest fine imposed by the Securities and Futures Commission, matching the penalty imposed on HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) in 2017 for misconduct related to the sale of risky Lehman Brothers-linked structured products to customers with low-risk appetite.

In March, two UBS units were ordered to pay a combined HK$375 million for failing in their duty as IPO sponsors to conduct proper due diligence on the quality of listing candidates in three initial public offerings. UBS was also banned from acting as an IPO sponsor for one year.

“The SFC expects all intermediaries to uphold high standards of integrity when managing trades for clients. UBS fell far short of these expectations by systematically overcharging a very large number of clients over many years,” said Ashley Alder, chief executive of the SFC.

“Although each overcharge represented a fraction of each trade, UBS’s misconduct involved deception and a pervasive abuse of trust resulting in significant additional revenue for UBS to which it was not entitled.”

The SFC has stepped up its policing efforts across the board to clean up malpractices by investment banks and companies to assist the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s bid to make the city Asia’s top fundraising hub.

Between 2008 and 2017, UBS Wealth Management’s client advisers and assistants overcharged customers when trading bonds or structured notes by increasing the spread charged. In addition, the bank also charged fees higher than its disclosed rate, the SFC said.

These 5,000 Hong Kong clients were involved in 28,700 such transactions and will receive a notice about the compensation within a month.

“The SFC considers that these malpractices involved a combination of serious systemic failures for a prolonged period of time including inadequate policies, procedures and system controls, lack of staff training and supervision, and failures of the first and second lines of defence functions of UBS,” the regulator said in a statement, adding that UBS had failed to “act honestly, fairly and in the best interests of its clients”.

A UBS spokesman said it was the bank that reported the malpractice to the SFC.

“After a comprehensive review, UBS self-identified and reported this matter to the relevant regulators. The self-reporting included a plan to fully reimburse the affected wealth management clients … The behaviour of the individuals involved is unacceptable and in strong contrast to the behavioural principles of our firm,” a UBS spokesman said in a statement.

Chinese consumers collectively spent 268.4 billion yuan (US$38.4 billion) for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day, setting a new record for the 24 hour shopping extravaganza.

The final tally for this year’s Singles’ Day was up nearly 26 per cent compared to last year’s figure of 213.5 billion yuan, as consumption during the festival remained robust despite a protracted US-China trade war, now in its 17th month, and a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shopping festival, which falls on November 11 every year, is the world’s largest of its kind, where shoppers scoop up everything from consumer electronics to luxury items and even cars.

“Singles’ Day is becoming more recognised worldwide … but since it is still very much a domestic holiday and event, it is a true test of Chinese consumer power,” said Benson Ng, EY Greater China digital advisory leader.

While the company’s e-commerce marketplaces Tmall and Taobao are traditionally the mainstays of the annual shopping extravaganza, this year’s festival includes business-to-business e-commerce platforms like AliExpress as well as Lazada, Alibaba’s Southeast Asian e-commerce subsidiary, as the company taps international consumers.

2019/11/12
半导体的电路线宽越细，运算处理和存储容量的性能越好，耗电量也将下降，因此半导体厂商一直竞相开发微细化技术。自2010年前后起，技术发展开始停滞，但极紫外线（EUV）光刻这一新技术问世，作为打破目前极限的突破口而受到期待。

极紫外线光刻设备由荷兰的ASML垄断，价格被认为每台约合150亿日元，要建立生产线，需要数千亿日元规模，没有资金实力和技术实力难以启动投资。

世界第3大代工企业美国格芯（Global Foundries）难以承受巨额负担，放弃了电路线宽14纳米以后的开发。排在第4位的台湾联华电子（UMC）也没有取得进展。

有能力展开巨额投资的仅限于三星、台积电（TSMC）和美国英特尔这“半导体3强”。

极紫外线光刻：在硅基板上形成半导体微细电路的光刻技术之一。光源采用波长13.5纳米这一极短的极紫外线（EUV）。光源的波长越短，越能形成微细的电路，能进一步提高半导体的性能。不过，技术门槛很高，只有荷兰ASML一家企业能制造设备。佳能和尼康已放弃开发。

2019/11/12

韩国三星电子在半导体代工领域向台湾积体电路制造（台积电，TSMC）发起正面挑战。三星将每年投资1万亿日元，确定采用新一代生产技术“EUV（极紫外光刻）”的量产体制，用10年左右挑战台积电世界首位的宝座。三星与台积电这2强展开竞争，将促进广泛行业的技术革新。

三星10月31日发布的财报显示，2019年7～9月的合并营业利润同比大幅减少56%至7.78万亿韩元，销售额减少5%至62万亿韩元。主力半导体业务的营业利润为3.05万亿韩元，同比大幅减少78%，不过环比减少10%，减幅收窄。

SK海力士、原东芝存储器等全球半导体存储器企业的业绩恢复迟迟没有进展，而三星呈现出复苏的迹象，这得益于三星年销售额达1.3万日元的代工生产业务。7～9月，该业务的销售额比上季度增长14%，持续保持2位数增长。在存储器价格下跌背景下，代工生产业务支撑了三星的业绩。

率领三星的副会长李在镕强调，“继存储器之后，在包括代工生产在内的系统半导体业务领域也必将成为世界第一”。李在镕表明，每年会在该领域的生产设备和研发上投入1万亿日元。作为比肩半导体存储器业务的收益支柱，三星计划把代工生产业务打造为世界第一。

三星正在扩建首尔郊外的半导体工厂（图片由三星提供）
　

代工生产的尖端竞争正迎来新的局面。能够使半导体性能飞跃性提升的全新生产技术EUV进入普及期，三星可以应用通过存储器业务培育的技术。另外，预计今后为应对5G，高性能半导体的需求将急剧扩大，三星认为这是良机。

在位于首尔郊外三星华城工厂的新厂房内，EUV曝光设备的投产准备工作正在推进之中。三星计划2019年1年内向半导体设备投入约2万亿日元，最早将于2020年初正式投产。据业内相关人士透露，预计将量产美国高通的最尖端智能手机用CPU（中央处理器）。

三星已在自身智能手机的CPU上使用EUV技术，还将把该技术应用于代工生产。据称，和现有生产方法相比，使用EUV技术后，CPU处理速度和省电性能将提高2～3成左右。

不过，在代工生产领域，台积电握有世界一半市场份额，将量产活用EUV技术、电路线宽为7纳米的半导体。10月17日，台积电还宣布把2019年内的投资额增加50亿美元，这正是对自身技术有信心的表现。此外，台积电还确定获得美国苹果新一代iPhone用尖端半导体订单。

台积电的CEO魏哲家表示，我们的下一代半导体在行业内最先进，能够更加吸引顾客。透露出扩大市场份额的自信。

台积电的强项不仅只有量产技术。该公司还拥有几千名技术人员，这些人为客户设计线路提供支援，起到了确保量产的桥梁作用。另一方面，三星以存储器为主力业务，缺少的是应对多品种的设计技术。

三星把成为世界第一代工企业目标的实现时间设定在2030年。计划用10多年培育设计技术，目前正以美国硅谷的基地为中心招募技术人员。

另一个令三星不安的因素是日本政府加强对韩国的出口管制。成为限制对象的3种产品中，EUV用光刻胶不可缺少且难以找到替代采购地。虽然目前仍能够稳定采购，但是未来采购可能变得困难。

三星和台积电均主张“自身用EUV技术实现7纳米半导体的量产”，显示出对自身技术实力的强烈信心。半导体2强火花四溅的竞争将持续下去。

日本尤妮佳近期发售了一款纸尿裤，宝宝排尿后，纸尿裤遇水发生反应，显现出日语的“谢谢”、“最喜欢你”的字样。尤妮佳希望通过这些积极的信息，对父母容易产生孤立感的新生儿时期的育儿提供支援。该纸尿裤作为使用有机棉花的高附加值商品“Natural moony”系列销售。有望获得双职工家庭等的需求。

遇水显示文字的“Natural moony”纸尿裤

纸尿裤外侧采用素净的花朵图案。设想用于新生儿至6个月左右的婴儿，共有3个尺码。可以用到6个月左右的S码一包58片，不含税售价1280日元左右（约合人民币82元）。一包中的一半左右为带有“谢谢”、“最喜欢你”字样的纸尿裤。

越来越多的父母在婴儿出生到6个月左右的时期怀有孤立感和不安情绪。尤妮佳着眼于这一点推出新款纸尿裤。据尤妮佳表示，从试用了该纸尿裤的消费者那里收到了“感觉像是孩子在和我们说话，很开心”等很多积极反馈。

Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shopping festival, which falls on November 11 every year, is the world’s largest of its kind

Chinese consumers have collectively spent 213.5 billion yuan so far for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day, breaking last year’s total with less than eight hours to go before the end of the 24 hour shopping extravaganza.

Alibaba’s annual 11.11 Countdown Gala Celebration for 2019 was broadcast live from the Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Arena. Photo: Handout

Chinese consumers have collectively spent 213.5 billion yuan so far for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day, breaking last year’s total with less than eight hours to go before the end of the 24 hour shopping extravaganza.

Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shopping festival, which falls on November 11 every year, is the world’s largest of its kind, where shoppers scoop up everything from consumer electronics to luxury items and even cars. The festival is being closely watched this year as a barometer for consumer sentiment 16 months into a US-China trade war and amid a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

“Singles’ Day is becoming more recognised worldwide … but since it is still very much a domestic holiday and event, it is a true test of Chinese consumer power,” said Benson Ng, EY Greater China digital advisory leader.

While the company’s e-commerce marketplaces Tmall and Taobao are traditionally the mainstays of the annual shopping extravaganza, this year’s festival includes business-to-business e-commerce platforms like AliExpress as well as Lazada, Alibaba’s Southeast Asian e-commerce subsidiary, as the company taps international consumers.

Hong Kong, the US, Taiwan, Australia and Japan were the top five overseas buyers 12 hours in.

“The digital consumption among Chinese consumers is still very high,” said Ng, adding that the demand for imported goods in the country is still strong despite the US-China trade war.

“The origin of the [imported] goods sold in China come from Japan and the US, and this is very good news.”

Opening sales were brisk, hitting US$10 billion in just under 30 minutes, half the time from the previous year.

Gross merchandise value (GMV) for the Double 11 Global Shopping Festival is the total value of orders settled through Alipay on Alibaba’s consumer-facing core commerce platforms, as well as Lazada and AliExpress, within a 24-hour period on November 11. It is reported on a real-time basis and includes shipping charges paid, according to Alibaba.

Apart from Alibaba, rival sites such as JD.com and Pinduoduo have also launched their own Singles’ Day campaigns, to entice buyers to spend on their platforms. JD.com reported that its sales, which started on November 1, had reached 165.8 billion yuan by 9am on Monday November 11.

Singles’ Day got its name from its date. Written numerically as 11/11, the date looks like “bare branches”, a Chinese expression for the single and unattached. As a kind of antidote to the societal pressures of being in a relationship, many of China’s singles began splurging on themselves on Singles’ Day, which became seen as a type of anti-Valentine’s Day.

Alibaba held its first Singles’ Day shopping event in 2009 as a promotional campaign, but these days it has morphed into a show of China’s collective consumer spending power. Last year, consumers spent 4,000 times more than they did during the first ever Singles’ Day event.

Ahead of this year’s shopping extravaganza, consumers seemed to be as eager as ever to snap up deals. Prior to the beginning of the festival on Monday, 64 brands, including Apple, Dyson, Lancome and L’Oreal, had already achieved 100 million yuan in pre-orders, Alibaba said.

Eager consumers also snapped up over 15,000 bottles of Kim Kardashian’s KKW Fragrance perfume, after the reality TV superstar conducted a live-streaming session on Tmall last Thursday to promote the brand.