In my last post, I wrote about how Vietnamese families treat gold like a savings account. But something interesting is happening as Vietnam gets richer. Gold is slowly moving from the drawer to the wrist. The same metal is starting to play a second role: not just protection, but self-expression. To me, this shift says […]
When Coca-Cola first reached China, shopkeepers “translated” the name Coca-Cola themselves. They picked any characters that sounded roughly like “Coca-Cola,” and some signs ended up reading as nonsense like “bite the wax tadpole.” Coca-Cola later took control and registered 可口可乐 (kě kǒu kě lè), which sounds like the original and means roughly “tasty fun” (Quartz). […]
If you want to understand a consumer market, start by asking a simple question: where do people keep their money? In the US, the answer is a bank account, a 401(k), maybe some index funds. In Vietnam, for millions of households, the answer is a gold bar tucked away at home. Honestly, it’s one of […]
Almost everyone has heard of Alibaba, but not everyone realizes how much it has changed the way businesses approach international sourcing. Recently, I was talking with a friend who owns a small business, and he mentioned that he had made his first purchase through Alibaba. Although he was skeptical at first, he said the experience […]
In May 2026, Klarna, the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, launched the Klarna Shopping Search application (app) in ChatGPT. The search app allows consumers to describe the types of products they are looking for and see visual results with current prices, availability, and offers from various merchants. The Klarna Shopping Search app then […]