What retailer wants, retailer gets. And in the UK this rule applies in the same way it does as in France, the States or anywhere-else (most money-driven economies) where Wal-Marts, Carrefours or Mercadonas have managed to completely destroy the local grocery-shop businesses. Remember the 80-20 rule? or was it the 90-10? In any case in the “10% retailers = 90% of retail sector revenues” maxim also applies to Tescopoly.
The third largest global retailer based on revenue & operating in more than 15 countries (after those Wal-Marts & Carrefours), has become to many here in the UK, some kind of nightmare…. A highly diversified portfolio of shops to meet all kinds of demand… from supermarkets to soft & hard discount …. Tesco Metro, Extra, Superstores, Express, One Stop, Homeplus…. any format you can imagine, they either have it or are about to launch it. And in the same way their competitors do, food is not enough. Tesco is now synonym of banking services, mobile phone services, petrol stations…. and like most companies, they really wish your whole life could be summarised with their brand… the “Tesco way of life”.
Today, Tesco controls over 30% of the grocery market in the UK, a position other global retailers haven’t quite reached yet, even in their home countries and that certainly gives big T that price-negotiating (nearly monopolistic) power every company desires.
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It’s more than famous that Western civilization longs for universal equality, freedom a perfect world in the end… according to its own conceptions. Those conceptions have been spread all across the glob e, updated, resculpted in order to fit every single different culture…… at least in theory.
Freedom of speech has entered most of western countries’ constitutions. It’s now an established right and for many of those countries it even is a fundamental right when not the main one. Basically, this legislation is absolute : it affects everyone of us, on every single subject…. like it or not. Once again, this is in theory… and it can pertinently be proved.
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Not many people saw it coming, but it was probably the most logical move for Google to make. They’ve been trying very hard for the past few years to succeed in the attractive yet ultra competitive social networking environment…. and all their previous attempts (Orkut, FriendConnect, flirts with Facebook, twitter…) never got them anywhere.
Seems like the social grail was right in front of them! It was as simple as packing several of their current successful services together (gmail, reader, maps, profiles, picasa…) in a single box: Google Buzz.
G Buzz (which ironically enough takes the name from Yahoo’s social news tool: Y Buzz) was unveiled last Tuesday causing big stir and hype amongst techie blogs, community (mashable, techcrunch… who are btw giving it a big push with their homemade “buzz it” buttons) and on-line newspapers. Even many other direct competitors such as Microsoft or Yahoo had some (not very positive) official reactions minimizing the buzz effect to a mere “copy of what they’ve already been doing for the past few years”.
Google's latest social shot
Google simply got tired of messing around with the big social duopoly Facebook (400m users) and Twitter (75m users) represent and decided that their 176 million Gmail accounts is a high enough number to automatically create a social buzz. Still far away from Microsoft’s 500m hotmail+IM users, but recirculation and integration of their services & mail users had to be made sooner or later; in this way Google can keep monetizing and engaging customers within their own network (and forget, for a minute, about those horrifying ad contracts with other big players)….
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We’ve been expecting this album for 5 years. A lustrum in which Kieran Hebden hasn´t stopped creating for a single bit…. The Exchange Sessions, Tongues, NYC…. all collaborations with free-jazz drummer Steve Reid, a 12″ vinyl with his friend Burial, a song for Quantum of Solace’s OST with David Arnold….. as if he couldn’t find the next inspiration for his usually “harmonious” solo albums.
Once considered as the “enfant terrible” of the British electro scene, one of those “talented young artists”, his style and identity have ended up being diluted in the sea of unclassified musicians (although in England anyone that excels a minimum is automatically “talented”). Unclassified in the electro universe, but who needs a tag when you can stand out in so may different (yet connected) styles?
If a few weeks ago we catalogued Avner’s “Lyssna” as a retro-futuristic travel to Blade Runner’s land, today we shall consider Four Tet’s latest album as a hippy trip to an uncertain futuristic utopia.
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