The Icelandverse looks much more enjoyable than Facebook's imaginary metaverse.Iceland released a new tourism ad on Thursday, poking fun at Facebook’s (sorry, Meta’s) recent promises for how we’re all going to live in the future. But Iceland’s version of Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t want to sell you on visiting the sci-fi dystopia that we were all warned about for decades. No, Iceland just want...

After 2020’s sharp reversal, this year the market is likely to be up 1% on its 2019 high.Over the past two decades, the Bain & Company Luxury Study has become a reference point for the industry, but it has never seen a year of surging performance to match 2021. With personal luxury goods sales likely to be up by almost a third, the 20th edition of the study—released in collaboration with...

The Good Glamm Group, South Asia’s largest content-to-commerce conglomerate, has raised $150 million funding in its Series D round, including both primary and secondary sales, co-led by marquee tech and private equity investors Prosus Ventures (Naspers), Warburg Pincus. There was participation from Alteria Capital and existing investors L’Occitane, Bessemer Venture Partners, Strides Ventures,...

The contribution of Chinese travelers to global tourism used to be No. 1 in the world. There were 155 million international trips by Chinese travelers in 2019, spending about US$245 billion in total. But because of COVID-19, Chinese international travelers have almost completely disappeared, and retailers and hospitality players across the globe are anxious to know when they will be welcoming t...

A newly published patent shows designs for a Microsoft Arc-like mouse that bends.As compact as the computer mouse is, it still takes up extra space in your bag. Tech companies have been looking for ways to work around this unyielding gadget that’s stayed relatively unchanged for decades. For instance, Apple recently filed a patent for a keyboard with a removable key that doubles as a mouse.Mic...

Strong third-quarter results for fashion heavyweights LVMH, Gucci’s parent Kering, and Hermès were a confidence boost for the entire global luxury business.Third-quarter results for LVMH, Gucci’s parent Kering, and Hermès were a confidence boost for the global luxury business. Growth continued, yet, in some cases, at a slower rate than earlier in the year. But this was expected since some r...

Double 11, or Singles’ Day, the world’s largest online shopping festival that is bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, has been consistently smashing mind-blowing gross merchandise value (GMV) records year by year since 2009. As the actual promotion period gets longer and longer — Singles’ Day’s 2021 presales moved up from 2020’s November 1 date to October 20 — an even bigg...

Although the Sportsmate 5 can be set to help move the legs while walking, it can also be set to provide resistance when exercisingEnhanced Robotics.While there are now several powered exoskeletons designed for use by specific groups, there are few if any that are aimed at the general public. Hong Kong-based Enhanced Robotics is out to change that, with its Sportsmate 5.The device takes the form...

The New York Times is the biggest English-language news organization in the world, counting almost 8.4 million paid subscribers as of its latest update from last week.How it makes its money has changed — and is changing — quite dramatically.Like many other modern media entities, the NYTimes has been fundamentally changing its business model in two ways. There's the ongoing shift from print re...