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Bonne nouvelle pour les voyageurs allemands... et pour le climat ! Les prix des billets de trains longues distances diminuent à la suite d'une baisse de la TVA, décidée par le gouvernement, pour lutter contre le dérèglement climatique. Les trajets de plus de 50 km des lignes Intercity-Express de la compagnie ferroviaire publique allemande, la Deutsche Bahn, coutent environ 10% moins cher qu'auparavant, indique The Guardian, jeudi 12 janvier.Cette baisse généralisée des prix intervient après que la TVA a diminué de 12 points, passant de 19% à 7% pour le trafic ferroviaire. En France, le taux de TVA est de 10% sur les billets de train. Des offres spéciales sont aussi mises en place en Allemagne, notamment concernant le transport de vélos. L'objectif est de rendre le train plus intéressant financièrement que d'autres moyens de transports plus polluants comme la voiture individuelle ou l'avion. 

Après le feu connecté, Cosmo Connected présente sa dernière nouveauté en matière de micro-mobilité : un écran connecté. Destiné aux cyclistes, il se fixe sur une armature de lunettes. Grâce à ce dernier, l’utilisateur peut accéder à des informations telles que leur vitesse, la direction à suivre ou bien encore la distance parcourue sans avoir à baisser les yeux. En effet, les informations apparaissent directement devant les yeux du cycliste grâce aux lunettes. En plus de cet écran connecté, la jeune pousse avait dévoilé il y a peu un casque destiné également aux cyclistes. Équipée du feu de freinage, la barre de LED fixée à l’arrière du casque s’illumine automatiquement pour prévenir les usagers à proximité en cas de ralentissement du cycliste. Cosmo Connected propose également une télécommande qui permet d’indiquer tout changement de direction sans que le cycliste n’ait à lâcher le guidon.Des innovations qui laisse à penser que la micro-mobilité attire de plus en plus d’entrepreneurs et que la technologie permet d’améliorer considérablement la sécurité des voyageurs en milieu urbain.

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Telegram isn’t willing to disclose financial documents and answer questions that would’ve shed more light on the disposition of investor funds. The SEC wants the information before the testimony of three Telegram employees, including CEO Pavel Durov, scheduled for next week. The regulator believes it’s relevant to the case it filed against the operator of the popular encrypted messenger in October.On Thursday, the commission asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to order Telegram to provide the documents, including bank records. These, the SEC hopes, will demonstrate how much Telegram has spent from the funds it collected in two token sales conducted in early 2018. The money was to be used for the development of the Telegram Open Network (TON) project and the integration of the Telegram messenger and other applications with it. In its letter to the court, the SEC notes:Plaintiff respectfully moves to compel Defendants to answer questions and provide documents regarding the amounts, sources, and use of funds raised from investors in connection with the unregistered sale of securities at issue in this case.Telegram delayed the launch of the TON blockchain, for which it received support from investors, when the SEC took the company to court claiming that its ICO constituted an unregistered offering of securities. The company insists that the Gram (GRM) token is a currency. In the two private sales, between January and March 2018, Telegram sold the rights to 2.9 billion coins to 171 investors worldwide for $1.7 billion, including $424.5 million to 39 U.S. residents.

Qui aurait cru que des stars comme Cristiano Ronaldo pourrait contribuer à l’augmentation de la visibilité de la blockchain ? Et pourtant grâce à son image, les Juventini ne s’arracheront plus uniquement les maillots du club mais, pourraient également se ruer sur sa toute nouvelle crypto : la $JUV.En effet, c’est le 2 décembre 2019, que la Juventus annonce qu’elle a lancé sa propre cryptomonnaie ($JUV) permettant à ses détenteurs de voter sur un large éventails de décisions relatives à la vie du club.La Juventus emboîte ainsi le pas au PSG qui avait pris la même initiative. Sauf que la sortie de la $JUV a devancé celle du $PSG et de celle d’autres crypto-foots, qui devraient bientôt voir le jour.$JUV, de clients à fansPermettre aux supporters détenant des $JUV de voter sur des décisions relatives à la vie du club : C’est l’objectif affiché par la Juventus en lançant sa crypto-foot, fruit de son partenariat avec Socios.20 000 000 $JUV seront émis à termes, le prix de lancement de la crypto-foot a été fixé à 2 EUR le fan token. Les Juventini peuvent s’acheter des $JUV avec du Chiliz (CHZ), la crypto native de Socios. Environ 150 000 USD de $JUV ont déjà trouvé preneurs à l’heure actuelle.Les crypto-foot devraient redonner aux supporters le sentiment d’être des fans et non uniquement des clients, dans leur relation avec leur club. 

It seems businesses are very happy to talk the talk of user-friendly digital, without really walking the walk.One of the ironies in the whole process of my cancellation was that I got an automated phone call not long after I had spoken to the call centre (but before I received my cancellation email). The automated call was a customer feedback mechanism, asking if I was satisfied.I must admit I hung up before I could hear much of what was required. At the time I was very satisfied with my experience. However, if I had been asked for feedback after I had received the email above, I think I would have taken the time to explain my concerns.Do I have a point here? I am still happy with my experience. I would use the website again.But if we are really serious about sectors such as travel moving away from offline channels, and if we really believe that customer-centricity is important for brand-building and loyalty, we need to keep shining a light on these awkward compromises in user experience – what many might call a ‘dark pattern.’Travel is a tricky sector. Look at British Airways, for example. Consultant Dan Barker shared a screenshot of a booking screen on Twitter recently and wrote: “Some odd things going on here from British Airways: 1. It presents being able to buy food on board as a benefit of Economy Plus (of course, you can also buy it with basic). 2. The Business ‘dedicated check-in area’ doesn’t actually exist.”The Competition and Markets Authority has taken enforcement action already this year against some holiday booking sites that employed tactics such as pressure selling and misleading discounts. All sorts of businesses are trumpeting lines about the customer when there is clearly work to be done. And if we cannot trust businesses to weed out dark patterns online, what else might we be missing?It seems businesses are very happy to talk the talk of user-friendly digital, without really walking the walk. To get back to more prosaic advice for marketers and their C-suite seniors, being familiar with your product and its many customer journeys is more important than ever.Short-term growth may just be too good to be true.

la transformation est profonde, la désaffection de la possession, la croissance du marché du luxe accessible et la diffusion plus large du luxe ont poussé à l’émergence du luxe de seconde main. Ces mêmes facteurs ont entraîné l’apparition de nouveaux business models, comme ceux du « déjà porté », des biens remis à neuf, réhabilités ou de la location. Le cabinet britannique Deloitte estime que les transactions entre particuliers connaissent aujourd’hui un véritable boom : le marché pourrait atteindre en 2019 un chiffre d’affaires supérieur à 100 milliards de dollars. Dans la mode, les solutions de location de vêtements de luxe, afin de répondre aux usages de consommation actuels : désir de maîtriser son budget, tout en s’inscrivant dans un engagement durable, se multiplient. Le site américain Rent the Runway, lancé en 2009, compte ainsi 6 millions de membres**, a ouvert cinq magasins aux États-Unis et génère plus de la moitié des revenus des marques affiliées (estimés à 100 millions de dollars en 2016). Depuis sa création, Rent The Runway a levé 210 millions de dollars (dont 20 millions de la société d’investissement de Jack Ma et Joe Tsai, d’Alibaba). La consultation du site permet de choisir le vêtement convoité à sa taille, la durée de location étant flexible. Le service comprend la livraison, le retour et le pressing. La plateforme, qui ambitionne de devenir « l’Amazon Prime de la location » a annoncé en novembre 2018 un nouveau modèle économique à destination des marques appelé RTR Platform. Plutôt que d’acheter la pièce en amont, Rent The Runway propose à la marque de la mettre à disposition et de percevoir un pourcentage sur la location. Une idée pertinente qui peut assurer au site une augmentation très rapide de son catalogue ! Une quarantaine de marques ont déjà rejoint le programme. Aux États-Unis, le portail de dépôt-vente d’articles de luxe américain The RealReal est également un grand succès. Il a levé 50 millions de dollars en 2017, et aurait atteint 710 millions de dollars de ventes en 2018.

« Là, on pense qu’il y aura plutôt 300 entreprises, ce qui est une preuve de  maturité », assure-t-il. « Il y a une réduction de la voilure à plusieurs niveaux qui s’explique par une rationalisation des investissements, la volonté d’avoir une meilleure sélection », abonde Olivier Ezratty, qui table sur 20% des startups françaises de moins qu’en 2019.« En 2014-2015, c’était important que la French Tech montre ses muscles »« En 2014-2015, c’était important que la French Tech montre ses muscles parce qu’elle n’existait pas sur le radar de la tech mondiale. Il y a sans doute eu des excès, c’est un peu un retour de balancier », estime de son côté Frédéric Rossi, directeur général délégué de Business France.L’agence gouvernementale de promotion des entreprises françaises à l’étranger accompagne une vingtaine de startups chaque année à Las Vegas et fédère les délégations françaises présentes sur le salon. Cette année, « on a souhaité mettre un petit peu de rationalisation dans le village gaulois où on avait une présence française qui était très éclatée », explique ce responsable.

Welcome to the Hotel CaliforniaPreviously dominated by the likes of newspapers, magazines, gyms, utilities, and telcos, more products and services are being offered to more people through subscriptions.In the B2B world, the likes of Adobe now have a monthly subscription model for Photoshop and Amazon Web Services for its cloud model. You cannot buy a perpetual licence or boxed copy. You could argue that WeWork is a subscription model (and I am sure it did!).Even the world of sex toys has got in on the (ahem) act. For example, Teaser Box offers a variety of options based on gender and sexual orientation with the contents remaining a mystery until you unbox them. Not that I knew this myself of course – a friend told me!Royal Mail forecasts that the value of the subscription box market in 2022 will be up 72% versus 2017. Some 27.4% of shoppers are apparently currently signed up to a subscription service – skewed heavily towards 25- to 34-year-olds.The biggest news in the subscription services game is that Disney is now taking on Netflix and Apple TV with Disney+. The launch was a success by one metric: signups. In little more than a day, Disney Plus registered more than 10 million people.Why I love and hate subscription-based businessesAs a marketer, I would argue that subscription-based businesses are a tad easier than, say, most retail or FMCG businesses, where each day is a new one. Not for these folks the Monday morning meeting with all eyes staring at you wondering what you are going to do about sales that week.Sadly for me, I have only worked for businesses where every day is a new day, without a guarantee of revenue from subscriptions. So, yes, I am jealous!Subscription business are attractive to investors for one reason: predictable revenue. Here is the proof: Disney shares are at an all-time high since Disney+ launched.Why do investors love them? Three letters – ‘CLV’ or customer lifetime value. This is when you know the revenue of a customer and margin, and the number of people who stay, you can calculate their full value.CLV is also more technically known as the net present value of the future cash flows attributed to the customer during their relationship with a brand. Conveniently, this also happens to be very close to the description of one of the ways that investors work out the value of a company: operating free cash flows.I appreciate that for many people they’re convenient. You don’t have to worry about your service or membership lapsing. That’s not a bad thing.But let’s look at this another way; here’s a list of brands. Think about how you feel about them:Netflix. Spotify. Amazon Prime. Audible. Your gym.Here’s another list of companies. Think about how you feel about them:Your water utility. Your mobile operator. Your mortgage bank.My guess is you love the first set of companies; you might not hate the second, but they are something you would discard if you could.‘You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!’

Yet India—the most populous democracy on earth—recently shut down the internet in the state of Assam (population: 31 million) after citizens protested a highly controversial citizenship law passed at the end of 2019. Services were then cut in Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and elsewhere. This comes after India led the world in web shutdowns in both 2018 and 2019. India’s case highlights how internet repression isn’t confined to dictatorships.Contrary to long-standing narratives about the “borderlessness” of cyberspace, the internet can absolutely be controlled by the state. Talk of “cyberspace” and the “digital domain” might invoke images of some imaginary space up in the air (or the cloud), but the internet is still composed of undersea cables, server farms, endpoint devices—all physical things. The internet isn’t always easy to control. Governments might need to build or purchase sophisticated technical capabilities to do so. But it’s certainly possible.To this end, various regional governments in India have exerted control over parts of the internet in their borders to execute internet shutdowns. Riots and misinformation have been driving forces here, with problematic interplays between the two—a rash of cases where misinformation went viral on WhatsApp in India and subsequently led to violence. A September 2019 court decision, for instance, ruled that national security concerns could permit Indian authorities to shut down the internet despite concerns about free information access.As WIRED has reported, the Indian government has asked WhatsApp for the ability to track and stop certain messages, conveniently “failing to sufficiently address underlying issues of intolerance, weak policing, caste divides, and nationalist rhetoric that has fueled violence again and again.” WhatsApp has denied these requests, so various governmental entities have turned to internet shutdowns as a result.That said, it’s unclear if network shutdowns actually work to halt the spread of misinformation—further study is needed on the issue. Absent desired capabilities to monitor the internet within their borders, governments may want to at least do something (i.e., shut down web services) in light of misinformation-fueled riots; there could be legitimate motivations in certain cases.But this doesn’t mean internet shutdowns aren’t repressive. To kill communications systems upon which citizens, businesses, emergency personnel, and others depend is an affront on the global and open internet and likely exacerbates ongoing violence. Even if protesters can still communicate and organize by word-of-mouth, shutdowns (in the eyes of authorities) may serve to at least disrupt mass organization and prevent outsiders from looking in.India’s ongoing communications blackouts are a prime example of this blunt form of digital repression applied with highly questionable motivations. And despite a high court ruling about a week later that the Assam government must restore communications in that part of India, officials appear to have ignored the decision. The deferral of this issue to the courts may create additional problems given the presently high costs of network shutdowns and the long review process of the judicial system.

It was squandered, as many writers have pointed out, by engineers and CEOs who opted for profit over people at every turn with seemingly no consequences. As these people’s role in creating a physical and digital world built on surveillance, harassment, and child labor has become more clear, we’ve seen a wave of pseudo apologies for the tools and decisions that got us here. For the past few years, the men (and it’s almost entirely men) who built this digital hellscape have been on a veritable atonement tour.Chris Wetherell fessed up to the RT button on Twitter’s being perhaps a bad idea. Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes admitted that Facebook had become too powerful. Another former Facebook employee, Sandy Parakilas, admitted that the company had no real interest in protecting user data. Ethan Zuckerman took credit, and blame, for his role in building an ad-supported internet (and coding the first popup ad). Guillaume Chaslot, a former YouTube engineer, revealed just how bad and biased the site’s algorithm has become. Loren Brichter, who helped invent the infinite scroll, made his regrets public. Even Mark Zuckerberg uttered the words “I’m sorry” in congressional testimony.Yet none of it feels satisfying. Perhaps it’s because many of these apologies only happen when these men have something else to promote, like a book, a TED talk, or a new company. (Writer Audrey Watters has termed this lucrative side business the “regrets industry.”) Perhaps it’s because most of these men are still incredibly wealthy, thanks in large part to the decisions they’re theoretically apologizing for. Perhaps it’s because, Zuckerberg aside, they almost never actually say the magic phrase that every child learns: “I’m sorry.” Or perhaps it’s because it would be impossible for one person to apologize for the current state of the internet.