Infoman

元宇宙超商裡，賣的是什麼？／林士蕙Global Views

01/10/2022

元宇宙，這個既閃亮，卻又讓人丈二金剛摸不著頭腦的世界，到底是什麼樣的運作生態？我們以日常生活中的超商來比喻，試圖讓輪廓變得清晰。

假設，元宇宙裡開了一家超商，要能順利運作，除需元宇宙平台本身，區塊鏈、NFT與Web3，亦是關鍵要角。

元宇宙：不斷網，完美再現實體體驗

首先，元宇宙超商要開張，其中虛擬的店內空間、貨架或商品，都得栩栩如生地展現，還得隨時隨地都能逛，否則難以與實體商店競爭。於是，網速和不卡頓便成為元宇宙讓虛擬世界再現甚至超越實體世界的基本要求。

區塊鏈：自動化程式，擔綱基層工作

此外，實體世界中，超級多元的無敵店員，到了元宇宙，該由誰來擔崗演出？

其中，由於區塊鏈誕生的以太幣、比特幣⋯⋯等加密貨幣，都以自動化程式執行，來取代中間人管理所有事務（包括資料驗證、交易流通代幣，或是NFT等數位資產等）。因此，許多人看好區塊鏈可以導入元宇宙，以幫助維運虛擬金流、數位資產「物流」等諸多日常事務的技術。

NFT：記錄消費足跡及履歷證明

而NFT，這個數位資產證明，在元宇宙超商裡，可

以扮演宛如「商品履歷證明」的重要角色。例如，每個貨架上的商品，目前由誰擁有？定價多少？後來又賣出給誰？另外，店裡的各類陳設，也可使用NFT，

註明是由誰擁有的資產。畢竟，實體世界裡的一花一草，有時出自造物神，而不屬於任何人。但元宇宙裡出現的事物，都是人類創造的，勢必需要資產標註，才不會引起糾紛。

Web3：邀請消費者一起打造商品

至於全名「第三代網際網路」的Web3，是指未來網

際網路的治理模式強調去中心化，注重跟社群共創、價值共享，不會將所有的運行規範，交由店家或開設

網站的企業說了算。於是，將Web3套用在元宇宙超

商，與實體超商最大不同的是，你可以和店家一起決定該上架的商品；也可和店家一起開發全新商品，甚至分享利潤。而這和現行臉書或蘋果等網路平台霸

權，打造的第二代網際網路（Web2）治理模式不同。

總之，元宇宙顛覆了許多實體世界的運作邏輯，但這些願景，能否實現？又得靠哪些技術與治理方式來維穩？仍待時間考驗。（林士蕙）

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別只跟風插旗NFT更要打造成行銷利器／林士蕙Global Views

01/10/2022

當Opensea上的NFT交易量，因幣圈進入熊市，持續下探新低，國內許多企業卻紛紛加入NFT的行列。舉凡通路家樂福、筆電品牌華碩、飲料商黑松等，接力開發相關專案。根據協助企業發行區塊鏈的技術團隊私下表示，接下來，還有國內平價咖啡連鎖業者、年底選舉候選人團隊等，都在商議把NFT納入規劃中。NFT，絕對是今年台灣企業在品牌行銷上的新歡。不過，發行過NFT的業者私下坦承，就是試水溫，

目前難談成效。

NFT成本低，有利企業數位創新

NFT，真的可能為台灣鏈結出新機會嗎？去年起，

內部啟動「全員進入元宇宙」轉型計畫的電通行銷

傳播集團，8月剛協助TOYOTA在台發行GR86車款NFT，在目前的熊市吸引滿滿人氣，證明自身的轉型

經驗，已從客戶案例看到初步果實。

本身經歷過Web1、Web2的電通行銷傳播集團數位長邵懿文指出，「現在看，正是Web2要過渡到Web3的初期階段。」

她進一步強調，不只電通，許多消費性品牌商，都

對NFT、元宇宙有高度興趣。早期切入的好處，一方

面展現品牌上領導地位；另一方面，也能搶先一步，掌握這波趨勢背後的新社群文化與經濟價值。至於幣圈進入熊市，對企業來說反而加分，不論找技術，還是付給區塊鏈礦工的手續費，都變便宜。

NFT成為企業數位升級的小成本創新。

不過，趨勢太新，企業切入時仍有不少誤解。綜合在地第一波實戰經驗的電通團隊、國內元宇宙權威，

以及目前擔任電通集團Web3成長顧問的葛如鈞意

見，整理出以下三大釐清觀念。

觀念1〉

主動創造價值取代妥協，才能贏得新時代鐵粉的心

擔任電通MB副企劃總監的李令德，正是規劃這次TOYOTA GR86車款NFT幕後團隊推手。他分析，由於Web3社群規模仍小於傳統社群，一些企業會期待，在執行NFT專案時，要以廣泛大眾為優先溝通對

象。但他強調，目前國外案例，大多是先滿足Web3社

群，才取得廣大迴響。

由於Web3想要強調的，是社群主動創造價值，因

此，妥協於過去討好所有人的思惟，反而無法贏得新時代鐵粉。

因此，這次TOYOTA NFT不僅邀請Web3知名設計團隊，活動設計更針對Web3社群特性，強調遊戲

化、互動體驗，第一波主題的車庫空間，在第二波活動時，需要網友們完成分享任務，才能停入新車。雖然看似參與門檻不低，但相較於單方向提供贈品，車庫的空間概念，卻讓網友對參與打造虛擬空間，多了想像。

果然原先設定限量發行400個，最後共吸引了超過

5000名網友爭搶。而對於客戶進一步比對資料後，發現高達75％參與者並非集團會員，證實帶來新客群。

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What is happening with interest rates and mortgage deals?

Whether you’re applying for your first mortgage, or you’re already a homeowner, you’ll know there’s a lot of news coverage about interest rates, inflation and mortgage loans right now.

So what’s happening, and why? How it might affect you will depend on what type of mortgage deal you’re looking for, or the type of deal you’re on – and how much longer is left on the term of your loan.

Plus, forecasts on rising interest rates are changing quickly, along with wider economic conditions. No one knows for sure what’s ahead, but we’re still seeing tens of thousands of people requesting to view properties each day, which is the same level that we’ve seen all month.

So if you are thinking of moving, or if your mortgage term is coming to an end soon, here we’ve tried to help answer some of the questions you might have.

Why are mortgage rates rising now? Before this week, mortgage rates had already been increasing throughout the year. The Bank of England sets the ‘base rate’, which lenders use to set their own mortgage rates. In January of this year, the base rate was 0.25%. Since then, it has gone up incrementally and is currently 2.25%.

The Government sets the Bank of England an inflation target of 2%, but the current rate is 9.9%. It’s the Bank of England’s responsibility to make sure inflation is low and stable, so they need to bring inflation back down. The way they do that is by increasing interest rates.

The Bank of England forecasts inflation to rise to about 11% in October, and that it will stay above 10% for a few months before starting to fall.

Rising interest rates have led to an increase in the average mortgage rates that are available. As an example, if you have a 10% deposit and choose to take out a two-year fixed rate mortgage, the typical rate that was available in January was 2%. That increased to an average of 3.9% at the end of August. These rises had been predicted and lenders were able to factor them in gradually.

Mortgage rates have been rising further this week because when unexpected things happen in financial markets, they’re likely to have a direct impact. Last Friday (23rd September), the Chancellor’s mini-budget unveiled the biggest tax cuts for 50 years, including a stamp duty cut for home-movers in England and Northern Ireland.

This has resulted in a lot of speculation about how these cuts might impact the UK’s finances. The value of the pound has seen record falls, which is likely to drive inflation up further. As a result, it’s widely believed that the Bank of England may need to raise interest rates faster and higher than previously forecasted.

At the minute, there’s a suggestion from the financial markets that the bank base rate could rise to 5.8% by next spring. This has impacted the underlying costs of fixed-rate mortgages. This is why some lenders have repriced deals and others have temporarily removed some or all of their products. Some of the lenders who have withdrawn products are expected to return with new deals in the coming days and weeks.

How might increasing interest rates affect my mortgage? If you’re a first-time buyer, moving home, or remortgaging, it’s likely you’ll be impacted by the changes. If you have a fixed-rate deal, the good news is that it will be business as usual, and your monthly repayments won’t change, at least until your current deal ends.

If you don’t do anything, at the end of your deal you’ll automatically move on to the lender’s Standard Variable Rate (SVR). These rates tend to be higher than other mortgage rates and are generally changed to reflect movements in the Bank of England’s base rate.

Take a look at how your repayments would change if you have a 25-year mortgage term and are looking at a fixed-rate for £200,000, based on rates increasing from between 2% to 6%.

Fixed mortgage rate (£200,000 over 25 years) Monthly payments Increase in monthly payments 1% £754
2% £848 +£94 3% £948 +£194 4% £1,056 +£302 5% £1,169 +£415 6% £1,289 +£535 If you’re among the estimated 15% of borrowers with a variable or a tracker mortgage, your monthly outgoings will almost certainly go up. The interest rate paid on tracker mortgages is usually anchored against the bank base rate plus a set percentage. For example, the current base rate of 2.25%, plus 1%, would mean you’d be paying 3.25% interest right now.

Can I still get a fixed-rate mortgage deal now? Some lenders have withdrawn their fixed-rate products, while others have increased their prices in response to the rapidly changing costs of their funding. But it’s definitely worth finding out what your options are.

If you’re on a tracker or a variable mortgage, you could shop around to see if you can find a cheaper option with a fixed-rate mortgage. However, you might have to pay an early repayment charge first. You could speak to a qualified mortgage broker or adviser if you’re unsure which options would be best for your individual circumstances.

I’m on a fixed rate, what are my options when my deal ends? If your fixed-rate deal is due to end within the next six months, you could see what your options are for locking in a deal now.

Many lenders will allow existing customers to apply for new deals up to six months before their current rate ends without having to pay an early repayment charge. This is often called ‘product transfer’ or ‘switching’. This is a relatively easy process as you’re staying with your existing lender, so you won’t need a solicitor or a property valuation, and there’s no need to prove your income.

If you’re looking to move lenders – whether you’re remortgaging or moving home – you may want to start well before your fixed-rate deal ends, as the application process can take several months or more.

There is so much fluctuation in the mortgage market right now, you might want to look at what your lender has to offer or speak to a mortgage broker to find out which deals are available to you.

READ MORE: What is a mortgage broker or mortgage adviser, and what do they do?

Please note: Rightmove is not authorised to give financial advice; the information and opinions provided in these articles are not intended to be financial advice and should not be relied upon when making financial decisions. Please seek advice from a specialist mortgage provider.

Infoman

Large pre-trained language models have been shown to store factual knowledge in their parameters, and achieve state-of-the-art results when fine-tuned on downstream NLP tasks. However, their ability to access and precisely manipulate knowledge is still limited, and hence on knowledge-intensive tasks, their performance lags behind task-specific architectures. Additionally, providing provenance for their decisions and updating their world knowledge remain open research problems. Pre-trained models with a differentiable access mechanism to explicit non-parametric memory can overcome this issue, but have so far been only investigated for extractive downstream tasks. We explore a general-purpose fine-tuning recipe for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) -- models which combine pre-trained parametric and non-parametric memory for language generation. We introduce RAG models where the parametric memory is a pre-trained seq2seq model and the non-parametric memory is a dense vector index of Wikipedia, accessed with a pre-trained neural retriever. We compare two RAG formulations, one which conditions on the same retrieved passages across the whole generated sequence, the other can use different passages per token. We fine-tune and evaluate our models on a wide range of knowledge-intensive NLP tasks and set the state-of-the-art on three open domain QA tasks, outperforming parametric seq2seq models and task-specific retrieve-and-extract architectures. For language generation tasks, we find that RAG models generate more specific, diverse and factual language than a state-of-the-art parametric-only seq2seq baseline.

Infoman

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85224572965?pwd=aXYrelErZSs4TkR6V3dKd2Nuc21pQT09

Infoman

https://community.hmrc.gov.uk/customerforums/sa/cac7b4f4-cb2f-ed11-97b0-00155d3bdc06?fbclid=IwAR31kgDdfpz5BDOrSuahEunQhz-1_8DUQ6nNQLLW-K_4zJG2GEZsJ3QZTss&mibextid=Aptx9d

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Leveraging technology in travel to capitalize on the Experience EconomyThe Insider

24/9/2018

Travel and tourism bookings reached almost US$1.6B in 2017, accounting for more than 10% of the global GDP and making it one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world. Meanwhile, spending continues to shift from material goods to travel, particularly with millennials — a trend that isn’t expected to change anytime soon. Isn’t it a great time to be in the travel business? Absolutely.

But like all good things in life and business, there is always a catch. Everyone wants a piece of the action. There’s a lot of competition in the space now, not only between traditional brands, but with digital disruptors such as Online Travel Associations (OTA) and alternative accommodation providers (the Airbnbs of the world). And in the middle of all this frenzy is a new breed of traveler — a more controlling, more demanding, more informed, and more impatient consumer that holds all the cards.

The days of travelers returning again and again to their favorite brands through the pull of loyalty points are fading fast as more and more consumers flip the loyalty equation upside down. "Successful companies today realize that customer expectations are shaped by the most relevant, real-time, dynamic experiences they encounter across any and all industries. These companies have realized that to be relevant, they must build vitality into all they do. They know it’s not about customer loyalty any longer, it’s about company loyalty to customers."

Omar Abbosh, Chief Strategy Officer, Accenture

Every business is a stage

Back in 1999, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore co-authored, “The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage.” It wasn’t the beginning of the Experience Economy; Disney and others epitomized it decades before. But it did bring the phenomenon under a spotlight that has yet to fade (Will it ever?).

The thing about being in the spotlight is that, while there are some actors (i.e. businesses) that deserve a Tony award for their mastery of marketing in the Experience Economy, others find themselves being booed off the stage.

In the Experience Economy — where time is limited, attention spans scarce (and diminishing), and money disposable — business success is predicated on capturing people’s time and attention. This is where some business executives get confused. They think good customer service is all it takes. Not true.

The differences between service and experience may look small, but in the eyes of today’s consumer, they are huge.

We live in a world of ME generations where no two people share the same experience even when placed in the exact same situation. Everyone experiences things and events in a very personal way.

There have been numerous studies over the past decade that have shown people’s preferences to spend money on experiences rather than material goods. Today, research continues to confirm these findings, but also note that consumers also want experiences to be personal — specially curated for them.

A new global Forrester study found that Experience-Led Businesses (ELB) outperform their contemporaries in terms of customer journey and topline metrics. ELBs have:

• 140% higher revenue growth

• 170% higher retention rates

• 160% higher customer life time value

Customer experience is no longer just a competitive differentiator, it’s a business imperative.

But hasn’t the travel industry always been about experience? In luxury travel, perhaps, but there’s a reason people call an airline’s economy class, “the cattle car” and refer to tolerable economy hotels as having “no surprises.” So how do travel executives transform their businesses from sleep stations to play stations, and from people movers to people pleasers? Here is some food for thought, and hopefully inspiration, from companies who have raised the experience bar to a whole new level.

Not just another economy

Now, I know what many of you’re thinking, “Enough with marketing-speak about another economy out to disrupt our businesses!” And I can’t blame you. We have the digital economy, the knowledge economy, the service economy, the sharing economy, the attention economy, the trust economy, the political economy, the mixed economy, the command economy, and more recently with blockchain, the token economy. This is just the tip of the iceberg and it’s already overwhelming.

But for a moment, put aside your frustration with all of this and make a list of your favorite brands. Now ask yourself, what’s common about them all? Why do you love them more than others?

Now take a look at what the rest of the world chose this year as their favorites.

What do they all have in common? Enviable revenues obviously, but what else?

They are all masters in the Experience Economy. All but one (Disney) are, for the most part, titans of technology. But, as much as Disney is famous for its theme parks and resorts, the media and entertainment conglomerate was at the forefront of technological innovation long before the internet was even invented.

Given the NetBase list was based on social analytics, I decided to take a look at other more traditional sources for comparison. Fortune’s 2018 list of the 15 most admired brands in the world has its share of commonality with NetBase’s, but there’re also brick-and-mortar brands on the list — two of which are favorites of mine — Starbucks and Costco.

Most admired companies in the world 2018 From the outside, Costco looks like a bulk warehouse store offering discounts across a wide variety of goods and services — savings that more than cover the cost of membership for many members. And Costco is all those things.

But walk inside and you’ll immediately see why 90 million people worldwide flock there week after week. A trip to Costco is like a treasure hunt; every day there’s something new to discover — something we may not even need, but can’t resist. Tasting stalls are strategically situated throughout the store, surrounded by curious consumers looking to satisfy a thirst, sweet tooth, or craving.

Meanwhile, Starbucks appears to be the polar opposite of the warehouse giant with its premium-priced coffee and food. But, in fact, both companies are successful for the same reason — they are geniuses in experience economics and their Net Promoter Scores (NPS) prove it.

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info@uniserve.com.hk 邀請您參加排程的 Zoom 會議。

主題：info@uniserve.com.hk的Zoom會議時間：2022年9月22日 03:00 下午香港特別行政區

加入 Zoom 會議 https://zoom.us/j/98747388823?pwd=N3EyZFN5UFZ0SkdrYTMvUEUvd0hpQT09

會議 ID：987 4738 8823 密碼：171630

Infoman

info@uniserve.com.hk 邀請您參加排程的 Zoom 會議。

主題：info@uniserve.com.hk的Zoom會議時間：2022年9月19日 13:45

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Send mass email

https://my.sendinblue.com/dashboard

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xy….

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Extract Email

https://phantombuster.com/4730110319276318/phantoms?extraction=emails

School Website List https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sTm1q9KErEiCtOsO5xHjCSPiN8w11dAWsv6mTq9oQKQ/edit?usp=sharing

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info@uniserve.com.hk 邀請您參加排程的 Zoom 會議。

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Infoman

今日收到英國銀行通知，按揭成功批出喇✌🏻

我哋係用香港收入申請做self-used mortgage，其實之前好多KOL，甚致香港嘅mortgage broker都話新移民/用海外收入係做唔到，要做buy-to-let. 但我哋唔想有任何Integrity嘅問題，亦唔想被銀行發現會好煩，所以唔會做。搵返local mortgage broker，答案係做到，不過個rate 會比本地人高，咁都make sense

香港做mortgage 轉按就做得多，有回贈，要嘅文件亦好straight forward. 英國唔單只冇回贈，仲有一大堆費用要畀，broker 同銀行都要收charges，AML亦check 得仔細好多。坦白講，其實我哋都冇十足把握會獲批，我哋遇著嘅mortgage broker 都算responsive 同有交帶，由一開波contact broker 到今日成功批出大約3個月時間。

依家批咗，就等安排好文件，收樓可以draw loan😊

Infoman

The mighty dollarThe Economist (UK) 10/9/2022 Why the dollar is strong—and what might threaten its supremacy in the long run

The mighty dollar

THE MOST important currency in the world is on a roll. The dollar has climbed by around 20% over the past year against a basket of global currencies, and is at its highest level in 20 years. One euro is worth less than a dollar, and other pretenders to the dollar’s throne as the world’s reserve currency, such as the yen, yuan or even crypto, have slumped. Even as America has used its financial clout to squeeze Russia, others have rushed to the dollar-based financial system as a safe haven. This cyclical strength of the dollar dominates the global financial landscape. But look closer and technological shifts that could eventually challenge it are gathering momentum.

The dollar’s run reflects several forces. Even as Europe and China face a downturn, America’s economy is proving remarkably resilient, with job growth and profits still strong. Inflation is high and the Federal Reserve is raising rates faster and higher than other big central banks. Energy crises are terms-of-trade shocks that favour energy exporters and punish the currencies of importers. Thanks to the shale revolution America became a net energy exporter in 2019 for the first time since 1952. None of these dynamics looks likely to abate soon.

For America a strong dollar has some advantages. It will help bring down inflation, even if it might pose some longer-term competitiveness problems. For much of the world, though, it is bad news. The greenback remains pre-eminent in trade invoicing and cross-border debt. As a result, as the Fed raises rates and capital shifts to America, the finances of emerging markets get

squeezed. So far big economies such as India have held up well, but smaller places with heavy debts, such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are in big trouble.

The endurance of this global dollar-based system, in spite of the resentments it arouses, is testament to America’s staying power. It has been through difficult times in the past 15 years, with a financial crisis, a badly handled pandemic, a widening fiscal deficit and a constitutional crisis in 2021. Nonetheless, even as the greenback soars, two technological developments bear close attention (see Finance & economics section).

First, new state-run digital currency and payments systems are, at last, gaining traction. China’s e-yuan now has 260m users and the technology involved might eventually allow China to run its own global payments network while maintaining capital controls, which it regards as necessary to maintain stability. That could make it all but immune to American sanctions. Elsewhere, state payments systems are exhibiting powerful network effects. India’s upi system is vast and Brazil’s payments system, Pix, has been used by 126m people. Today these payments networks are domestic; tomorrow they could facilitate cross-border transactions as alternatives to the dollar-based system.

Second, if you look beyond the scams and bubbles in cryptocurrencies, decentralised finance technologies continue to improve. Developers are pushing through an upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, on which most DeFi applications are based. On September 15th it will switch to a new mechanism for making collective decisions known as proof-of-stake that is far less energy intensive: the drop in power consumption will be equivalent to Chile being switched off. It could pave the way for Ethereum to become more efficient at handling high transaction volumes—and a more credible global rival to traditional finance.

In the 20th century the dollar eclipsed sterling as the world’s reserve currency, to become widely used as a unit of account, store of value and means of payment. The next change in currency regimes may not be so clear-cut, as new technologies make it possible to separate out some reserve-currency functions—allowing countries to establish autonomy in payments, for example—without contesting the dollar’s role in other areas. The dollar’s reserve-currency status is not changing yet. But technology will change what it means to be a reserve currency. ■

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Technology and covid-19The Economist (UK)

03/9/2022 Zoom fatigue

IN THE EARLY days of covid-19, the tech industry was consumed by a sense of euphoria. With billions of people locked down at home, work and play were shifting online. Many hoped that the new normal would spark a huge productivity boom as firms digitised and workers spent less time commuting. The excitement was most evident in stockmarkets, where any firm related to this trend saw its share price surge. The value of an equally weighted portfolio of five pandemic darlings—call it the “lockdown lunacy index”—increased by 320% from the start of the pandemic to its peak in August 2021. The tech-heavy nasdaq, by contrast, rose by 88%.

The mania has ended. Today the lockdown-lunacy index— which includes Netflix, a streaming service; Peloton, a maker of fancy exercise bikes; Robinhood, a stock-trading app; Shopify, an e-commerce platform; and Zoom, a videoconferencing firm—has fallen by more than 80% from its peak, far exceeding the 18% drop in the nasdaq. Zoom and friends are trading at below pre-pandemic prices.

How worrying is this return to Earth? To be sure, some of it reflects gloomier prospects for the global economy, racked by inflation, war and rising interest rates. And it is disappointing that two years of digitisation and remote work have not provided clear evidence of a productivity boom (see Finance & economics section). Yet there are reasons still to be techno-optimistic. Much of the early enthusiasm may simply have been focused on the wrong types of firm. Though the pandemic darlings have fizzled, the shift towards ever greater digitisation continues. The true winners are not the flashy consumer-tech firms, but the companies that provide the infrastructure to enable this shift.

Much of the decline of our lockdown index reflects shakier business models. On August 22nd Zoom reported that its yearon-year revenue growth had fallen to 8%, the lowest rate since the company listed in 2019. Three days later Peloton reported a nearly 30% fall in its quarterly sales, compared with a year ago. Subscribers are fleeing Netflix for other viewing platforms, such as Disney+. Robinhood is laying off a quarter of its staff as day traders cool on the markets.

The fading work-from-home boom has affected the demand for hardware, too. Worldwide pc shipments are expected to decline by 10% this year; analysts reckon mobile-phone sales will

tumble by 7%. A downturn in spending on video games and a series of crypto implosions have dented the sales of the powerful semiconductors used to mine digital currencies and render computer graphics (see Schumpeter).

Look beyond the boom and bust of consumer tech, though, and you see the real successes. The market for the infrastructure technology that underpins people’s daily lives, such as cloud computing, cybersecurity and digital payments, is thriving. The cloud-computing industry is expected to grow to almost $500bn this year, up from $243bn in 2019 (see Business section). Amazon’s cloud offering, the largest in the world, is still growing at 33% each year. It accounted for three-quarters of the firm’s operating income over the past 12 months, and is propping up the tech giant’s ailing e-commerce business. Its closest rivals are the cloud services of Microsoft and Google. Their annual sales are growing by 40% and 36%, respectively.

Cloudification has created new demands for cybersecurity, another tech winner. The combined revenue at the three largest listed cybersecurity firms has almost doubled since the start of the pandemic. Their market capitalisation has tripled, and has come down only a fraction since the start of the year. Digital payments are another bright spot, thanks to lockdowns and social distancing. Three-quarters of iPhone owners use Apple Pay, up from half in 2019, and nine out of ten American retailers now accept it as a payment method. Almost 200m people in India and China have used some form of digital payment for the first time since the onset of covid. A third of adults in sub-Saharan Africa now have a mobile-money account, up from a fifth in 2017.

Sanity reigns

The bubble may have burst on the pandemic’s darlings, but the drumbeat of digitisation continues. The less eye-catching technologies that provide the underlying infrastructure for the shift are the true beneficiaries of covid. Whether these will fuel a productivity boost one day remains to be seen. But there was more going on during the pandemic than lockdown lunacy.

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