The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
"Alibaba Raises $21.8 Billion in Initial Public Offering" (Dealbook)
"The Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet juggernaut, raised nearly $21.8 billion in its initial stock sale on Thursday, as investors flocked to buy a piece of the company that is poised to continue dominating China's burgeoning e-commerce industry."
"Rocket Internet Prices Shares at Market Capitalisation of €6.2Bn" (The Financial Times)
"Rocket Internet, the German start-up conglomerate, has priced shares for its initial public offering at a midpoint market capitalisation of €6.2bn, in what is set to be the largest flotation for a European technology company in years."
"Macy's Aims To Become Retail Tech Powerhouse With Latest Moves" (Fortune)
"Macy's has spent hundreds of millions of dollars beefing up its e-commerce firepower in recent years. That has given Macy's a big head start over rivals such as J.C. Penney and Kohl's, in terms of having the ability to use stores to fill online orders or orders from other stores, as well as the ability to offer customers the option of ordering online before coming in stores."
"New York's 'E-Commerce' Companies Are More Fashion Than Tech. But That's A Good Thing" (Pando Daily)
"Is it a worry that some of the more promising New York companies are still in the ecommerce category in the wake of Gilt and Fab's struggles? Not necessarily, said Bessemer's Jeremy Levine. Companies like Warby Parker and Bonobos are more fashion than anything else– and there's some good news in that as he explains in the clip below."
"The Fashion Industry Has Finally Woken Up" (Dezeen)
"Fashion and technology: sports brands like Nike and Adidas have been leading "technological innovation" in shoe design but the fashion industry is finally beginning to wake up to the possibilities of digital technologies, says Rem D Koolhaas, co-founder of footwear brand United Nude (+ interview)."
The nature of livestream transactions makes it hard to identify and weed out counterfeits and fakes despite growth of new technologies aimed at detecting infringement.
The extraordinary expectations placed on the technology have set it up for the inevitable comedown. But that’s when the real work of seeing whether it can be truly transformative begins.
Successful social media acquisitions require keeping both talent and technology in place. Neither is likely to happen in a deal for the Chinese app, writes Dave Lee.
TikTok’s first time sponsoring the glitzy event comes just as the US effectively deemed the company a national security threat under its current ownership, raising complications for Condé Nast and the gala’s other organisers.