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Economic growth of the UK "UK growth upgraded, but OECD warns of deepest economic scar in G7"

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Economic growth of the UK "UK growth upgraded, but OECD warns of deepest economic scar in G7"

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The economic growth of the Uk risen in 2021 by 7.2%. Fell by 9.8% in 2020 due to Lockdown and covid pandemic. GDP is not back up to a stable percentage yet but is forecasted to keep rising, even though we are leaving EU,Pandemic.

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The UK economy faces deeper economic scarring than other G7 economies because of the impact of Covid-19 and Brext despite being on track for its fastest growth since the second world war, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has predicted.

In its latest economic outlook, the Paris-based thinktank sharply upgraded its view for UK growth, thanks to the success of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

It forecasts that UK GDP will rise by 7.2% in 2021, the fastest growth since 1941, after a 9.8% contraction in 2020 - the worst in almost 300 years. That would outpace other advanced economies, including the US. Back in March, the OECD had forecast UK growth of 5.1% this year. For 2022, growth has been revised significantly higher, too - to 5.5%, from 4.7% three months ago.

However, the OECD also warns that the UK could suffer more longer-term economic damage than other G7 industrialised nations, with the impact of leaving the EU adding to the disruption of the pandemic.

The OECD examined how much potential output has been lost because of the coronavirus crisis, by comparing the latest projections for national income levels in 2025 with pre-pandemic forecasts.

It found that Japan, Canada and the US will only suffer limited scarring, with the US economy expected to be larger than previously forecast in four years' time because of massive government stimulus.

However, major eurozone members could experience a 0.3% annual decline in potential economic output, while the UK's growth rate could be 0.5% a year lower than previously expected. The OECD said this was partly down to the impact of leaving the EU, as well as Covid-19.

"The United Kingdom could suffer the biggest reduction among G7 countries (a decline of 0.5 percentage point per annum), in part reflecting the additional adverse supply-side effects from 2021 following Brexit."

The report also warns that "increased border costs following the exit from the EU single market will continue to weigh on foreign trade".

The OECD said: "Trade contracted in early 2021 as a consequence of leaving the EU single market and containment measures, but will recover slowly." It added that a closer relationship with the EU, particularly for the trade in services, would improve the UK's medium-term economic outlook.

Official figures last week showed that UK-EU goods trade fell by almost a quarter at the start of 2021, compared with 2018, following the end of the transition period.

The OECD predicted the UK's services sector would rebound briskly this year as retailers, pubs, restaurants and other hospitality businesses reopened after the lockdown.

"The progressive easing of public health restrictions will allow for a solid rebound," the OECD explained. "Consumption will bounce back sharply as hard-hit hospitality services and retail trade reopen."

Households are expected to spend some of the savings accrued during the lockdown - but the OECD cautions that less well-off families have suffered more from the coronavirus pandemic.

"Some additional spending by wealthier households with secure jobs and excess savings during the crisis is projected to be counterbalanced by households in lower-income brackets who saved less during the crisis and are set to be more affected by a weak labour market and the winding-down of Covid-19 supports."

Photograph: OECD

The UK's unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 6.1% by the end of the year as the furlough scheme ends, up from 4.8% in the first quarter of 2021.

The OECD has also raised its forecast for the world economy this year, with widespread vaccination deployment allowing firms to reopen and the US president Joe Biden's stimulus plans boosting global demand. It predicts global growth of 5.8% this year and 4.4% in 2022, up from 5.6% and 4.0% respectively back in March.

The US is forecast to grow by 6.9% this year, up from the 6.5% forecast in March, while eurozone growth has been upgraded to 4.3%, from 3.9%.

However, the OECD's chief economist, Laurence Boone, said that the recovery was uneven, with "lots of frictions". She warned that new Covid-19 variants could derail the recovery, underlining the importance of ensuring that emerging economies are vaccinated too.

"It is very disturbing that not enough vaccines are reaching emerging and low-income economies. This is exposing these economies to a fundamental threat because they have less policy capacity to support activity than advanced economies," Boone said.

As long as the vast majority of the global population is not vaccinated, the whole world remains vulnerable to the emergence of new variants, she added.

"Confidence could be seriously eroded by further lockdowns and a stop-and-go of economic activities. Firms, so far well protected but often with higher debt than before the pandemic, could go bankrupt. The most vulnerable members of society would risk further suffering from prolonged spells of inactivity or reduced income, exacerbating inequalities, across and within countries, and potentially destabilising economies."

Scientists have warned UK ministers that a third wave of coronavirus may have already begun in Britain, which could affect plans to lift England's lockdown restrictions in three weeks' time.

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UK growth upgraded, but OECD warns of deepest economic scar in G7

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The UK economy faces deeper economic scarring than other G7 economies because of the impact of Covid-19 and Brext despite being on track for its fastest growth since the second world war, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has predicted.

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Macroeconomic Outlook Report: The United Arab Emirates

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Macroeconomic Outlook Report: The United Arab Emirates

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How the pandemic has effected the growth of the UAE's GPD as well as future forcasting.

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UAE potential emerging market for expansion for VB

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UAE potential emerging market for expansion for VB

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United Arab Emirates - Sector Overview, Market Size & Forecast to 2025

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Effects of the pandemic in the UAE, this report lays out how the UAE as a country has not likely chnaged their consumer habits as their lockdown period lasted 2 weeks. Further to this the UAE economy will recover quickly due to consumer spending being higher.

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Singapore potential emerging market for expansion for VB

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Singapore potential emerging market for expansion for VB

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Singapore - Sector Overview, Market Size & Forecast to 2025

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The UK economy faces deeper economic scarring than other G7 economies because of the impact of Covid-19 and Brext despite being on track for its fastest growth since the second world war, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has predicted.

In its latest economic outlook, the Paris-based thinktank sharply upgraded its view for UK growth, thanks to the success of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

It forecasts that UK GDP will rise by 7.2% in 2021, the fastest growth since 1941, after a 9.8% contraction in 2020 - the worst in almost 300 years. That would outpace other advanced economies, including the US. Back in March, the OECD had forecast UK growth of 5.1% this year. For 2022, growth has been revised significantly higher, too - to 5.5%, from 4.7% three months ago.

However, the OECD also warns that the UK could suffer more longer-term economic damage than other G7 industrialised nations, with the impact of leaving the EU adding to the disruption of the pandemic.

The OECD examined how much potential output has been lost because of the coronavirus crisis, by comparing the latest projections for national income levels in 2025 with pre-pandemic forecasts.

It found that Japan, Canada and the US will only suffer limited scarring, with the US economy expected to be larger than previously forecast in four years' time because of massive government stimulus.

However, major eurozone members could experience a 0.3% annual decline in potential economic output, while the UK's growth rate could be 0.5% a year lower than previously expected. The OECD said this was partly down to the impact of leaving the EU, as well as Covid-19.

"The United Kingdom could suffer the biggest reduction among G7 countries (a decline of 0.5 percentage point per annum), in part reflecting the additional adverse supply-side effects from 2021 following Brexit."

The report also warns that "increased border costs following the exit from the EU single market will continue to weigh on foreign trade".

The OECD said: "Trade contracted in early 2021 as a consequence of leaving the EU single market and containment measures, but will recover slowly." It added that a closer relationship with the EU, particularly for the trade in services, would improve the UK's medium-term economic outlook.

Official figures last week showed that UK-EU goods trade fell by almost a quarter at the start of 2021, compared with 2018, following the end of the transition period.

The OECD predicted the UK's services sector would rebound briskly this year as retailers, pubs, restaurants and other hospitality businesses reopened after the lockdown.

"The progressive easing of public health restrictions will allow for a solid rebound," the OECD explained. "Consumption will bounce back sharply as hard-hit hospitality services and retail trade reopen."

Households are expected to spend some of the savings accrued during the lockdown - but the OECD cautions that less well-off families have suffered more from the coronavirus pandemic.

"Some additional spending by wealthier households with secure jobs and excess savings during the crisis is projected to be counterbalanced by households in lower-income brackets who saved less during the crisis and are set to be more affected by a weak labour market and the winding-down of Covid-19 supports."

Photograph: OECD

The UK's unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 6.1% by the end of the year as the furlough scheme ends, up from 4.8% in the first quarter of 2021.

The OECD has also raised its forecast for the world economy this year, with widespread vaccination deployment allowing firms to reopen and the US president Joe Biden's stimulus plans boosting global demand. It predicts global growth of 5.8% this year and 4.4% in 2022, up from 5.6% and 4.0% respectively back in March.

The US is forecast to grow by 6.9% this year, up from the 6.5% forecast in March, while eurozone growth has been upgraded to 4.3%, from 3.9%.

However, the OECD's chief economist, Laurence Boone, said that the recovery was uneven, with "lots of frictions". She warned that new Covid-19 variants could derail the recovery, underlining the importance of ensuring that emerging economies are vaccinated too.

"It is very disturbing that not enough vaccines are reaching emerging and low-income economies. This is exposing these economies to a fundamental threat because they have less policy capacity to support activity than advanced economies," Boone said.

As long as the vast majority of the global population is not vaccinated, the whole world remains vulnerable to the emergence of new variants, she added.

"Confidence could be seriously eroded by further lockdowns and a stop-and-go of economic activities. Firms, so far well protected but often with higher debt than before the pandemic, could go bankrupt. The most vulnerable members of society would risk further suffering from prolonged spells of inactivity or reduced income, exacerbating inequalities, across and within countries, and potentially destabilising economies."

Scientists have warned UK ministers that a third wave of coronavirus may have already begun in Britain, which could affect plans to lift England's lockdown restrictions in three weeks' time.

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UK growth upgraded, but OECD warns of deepest economic scar in G7

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The UK economy faces deeper economic scarring than other G7 economies because of the impact of Covid-19 and Brext despite being on track for its fastest growth since the second world war, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has predicted.

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Lists top influencers that connect with the an Asian audience.

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Top 30 Influencers in Singapore for 2025

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Looking for top influencers in Singapore? We do the work for you and compile a curated list of the top 30 influencers in Singapore!

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The film Crazy Rich Asians 2
-How VB dressing stars of the film could attract the asian market. The market also adores marvel films so offering VB to dress that female stars of the film could be worth while.

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In Singapore, the state is attempting to govern the ungovernable.

Chris McGrath / Getty

The movie Crazy Rich Asians, adapted from Kevin Kwan's best-selling novel, has been widely celebrated in the United States as a big step toward diversity: It's a Hollywood movie with an Asian cast. But in Singapore, some people are complaining that the film doesn't capture their country's actual diversity. That's even granting the film's focus on people who are crazy rich (not-to avoid confusion-crazy and rich, though some are both). "The focus is specifically on characters and faces of East Asian descent, which plays into issues of racism and colorism that still exist, not only in the US but in Asia," the Singapore journalist Kirsten Han writes in Vox. The film's "all-Asian boast," in her view, is "nothing more than a perpetuation of the existing Chinese dominance in mainstream media and pop culture." Sangeetha Thanapal, an Indian Singaporean writer and activist, takes issue with the way the movie is being sold as "this big win for diversity, as this representative juggernaut," telling a New York Times reporter, "I think that's really problematic because if you're going to sell yourself as that, then you bloody better actually have actual representation."

To be fair, Kwan's novel-which was satirizing his Chinese players more than celebrating them-wasn't meant to cover the Singaporean waterfront. But the way Singapore handles national identity and ethnic difference makes for a fascinating comparison with the United States. It's a bold experiment in ethnic engineering, and, since Singapore has existed as an independent country for little more than half a century, that experiment has been witnessed in its entirety by many of its inhabitants. (It boasts the third-highest life expectancy in the world; the United States is 31st.) The national project was always to be, in a sense, multinational. It's worth taking notice of how this was achieved, and at what cost.

First, a caveat. Singapore itself may be crazy rich in that it has the highest concentration of millionaires in the world (152,000 households qualify), and a strikingly high per-capita GDP, but it's not like Liechtenstein or Qatar; it's no theme park of bling. In fact, it's a largely middle-class country where most people live in public housing (Singapore's solution to the housing-cost problem that blights San Francisco), although they generally own their flats. But here, as in so many aspects of Singapore, you can see the vigorous engineering of what its officials like to call "racial harmony."

Those public-housing blocks are subject to the Ethnic Integration Policy, which enforces quotas; the government doesn't want single-ethnicity enclaves, and the housing authority won't approve sales that violate its ethnic ratios. This is big. Ethnicity is often territorialized; that's why in America, inner city became a synonym for black, and in France, say, the banlieues signal beur. When a French prime minister decries the phenomenon as apartheid, though, it's because he sees it as an impediment to national unity. So you might think that the Singapore state's commitment to integration involves a commitment to assimilation-and you'd be deeply mistaken.

The Lion City ( singa is Malay for "lion," pura is Sanskrit for "city") has always defined itself, in part, by its ethnic heterogeneity. Its citizenry is about 76 percent Chinese, 15 percent Malay, and 7.5 percent Indian. And the trauma that shapes its domestic policies to this day took place in the summer of 1964, when a Malay procession celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad was beset by interethnic clashes and, with startling speed, race riots scourged the island. A similar riot took place not long afterward. "Our diversity is our strength" would have been a hard sell. So when Singapore's national independence was certified in 1965, its leaders saw the place as supremely susceptible to violence among groups of varied descent. Its National Pledge, formulated that year, begins, "We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion." Race, language, and religion were considered the three lethal fault lines. The question was how to stabilize them.

One strategy would have been erasure. And an earlier version of the pledge began, "We, as citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves to forget differences of race, language, and religion and become one united people." The shift in language was significant. Lee Kuan Yew, the country's prime minister for its first three decades, and members of his circle had made a calculation. If Malay families or Indian families thought the state was hostile to their heritages (notably, those of language and religion), they would be hostile to the state, in turn.

At independence, the ruling party decided that all citizens would be categorized, for government purposes, into one of four "racial" groups: Chinese, Malay, Indian, or Other, in what came to be called the CMIO system. Choosing a language of government that was associated with any of the major groups would have significantly disadvantaged the other two major groups. So the government made the same decision that had been made in many other parts of the former British and French empires in order to avoid ethnic conflict: It stuck with the colonial language as the official language of government. Lee also calculated that being Anglophone would help Singapore enlarge its role in global trade, the lifeblood of a port city.

At the same time, the government adopted the following complex of policies. Malay was designated as the national language, recognizing the status of Malays as the indigenous people of the region. The national anthem is in Malay, as are the parade commands of the Singaporean armed forces. All citizens would learn English in school. If you were Chinese or Indian, you would also learn Mandarin or Tamil, respectively. (More than half of the island's Indians were of Tamil-speaking ancestry.) If you were Malay, you would study Malay. Everyone had to be at least bilingual, with your second language to be determined by your ethnic origin. And if you ever felt that you had been discriminated against or derogated because of your origins, the government had your back.

What's not to like? In America, minority groups have always pursued rights, respect, and recognition through exemptions and accommodations. Religious groups could invoke the First Amendment's "free exercise" clause against rules that burdened them. Catholics sought a sacramental-wine exemption from Prohibition; Native American groups later sought a waiver from drug laws forbidding the use of peyote. The agricultural Amish have asked to be exempt from laws that determine school-leaving age. Observant Jews and Muslims ask that public facilities, such as prisons, accommodate their dietary requirements. Sikhs in the U.S. Army have asked for exemptions to wear turbans and beards.

Especially with more populous groups, accommodations can involve significant provisions from public institutions-sometimes local, sometimes national. A Glendale school district, for instance, has established a holiday for the commemoration of the Armenian genocide. On a national level, the NAACP advocates for affirmative action, positive discrimination to undo the effects of past discrimination; the more rigorous enforcement of civil-rights laws; and a national holiday to commemorate the emancipation of the slaves. Bilingual education, after many setbacks, had a big win in California a couple of years ago. School districts there must provide the option of bilingual education if 30 parents (or 20 from one grade level) ask for it. That's what liberal accommodation looks like.

If you're an advocate for ethnic minorities, continually battling for every advance, Singapore's proactive approach can look like a dream come true-crazy woke. But we should be careful what we wish for. Here's the critical difference: Singapore's program of ethnic management isn't about accommodation; it's closer to entrenchment. Parents aren't safeguarding the transmission of cultural identities; the state is. It's almost as if UnidosUS, the NAACP, the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, and the like were state-run enterprises. And when identity politics becomes a matter of statecraft, it takes on some rather odd features.

Take bilingual-education policy, which has generally grown more stringent over the decades. It's not an option, as it is in the United States. It's compulsory; you have to learn a language associated with your ethnic group. But which? For most of Singapore's history, even non-Tamil Indians (about 48 percent) had to learn Tamil, which typically left them unable to communicate with grandparents who might speak only Hindi.

Then there's the fact that the ethnic Chinese were taught Mandarin as their "mother tongue." In fact, the Chinese immigrants who came to Singapore over the centuries spoke Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, and Hainanese; only 2 percent spoke Mandarin as a first language. To go by the numbers, it's a little as if the United States had required Latino kids to learn Portuguese. Lee Kuan Yew himself didn't learn Mandarin until he was in his 30s, but he evidently thought that Singapore's Chinese majority could use some unification, and blithely dismissed their actual mother tongues as mere "dialects." (Like a lot of American parents today, he figured that knowing Mandarin would have practical advantages, too.)

The implicit assumption that ethnicity is unitary also runs up against the fact that people sometimes marry across the CMIO lines. Their children have a decision to make-as they do on Racial Harmony Day, when school kids are supposed to wear traditional garments that reflect their heritage. Meanwhile, the one distinctively Singaporean language-the English Malay Chinese Tamil creole called "Singlish"-has been subject to official disapproval. In short, it's not the language you or your ancestors actually spoke but the identity the state has settled on for you that determines which language is yours. There's no denying that the CMIO system reflected existing ideas about ethnic identity in Singapore: If it hadn't, it would not have worked at all. But it entailed a radical simplification of a highly complex ethno-linguistic reality.

And the promotion of racial harmony in Singapore isn't simply a matter of gentle suasion. Under Singapore's Sedition Act, it's a crime to "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore." That's a potent prohibition; after all, given our human clannishness, commentary on differences always carries some risk of creating ill will. In 2012, a senior staff member of the National Trades Union Congress, who was a permanent resident of Chinese ancestry, was fired for complaining about a Malay wedding held in the public space of her apartment building. Her profanity-laced Facebook posts suggested that Malays were cheap (if they paid "for a real wedding," she groused, "maybe then the divorce rate won't be so high") and inconsiderate. "How can society allow ppl to get married for 50 bucks?" she went on.

These are not, plainly, the sentiments of someone who has a fair and balanced view of Malays (whose divorce rates, for the record, appear to be lower than average). So it's not surprising that her posts, which were widely circulated, prompted outrage, or that complaints to her employer cost the woman her job the next day. But things could have gone much worse for her. Three years earlier, a Christian evangelical couple in Singapore was sent to prison for violating the Sedition Act (and the Undesirable Publications Act) when they mailed out tracts that denigrated Islam and Catholicism as false religions. In the wake of the bad-tempered Facebook posts, law-enforcement officers visited the offending party and issued a warning; taking the hint, she moved back to Australia, where she was born. This is a high price to pay for an irritable posting on the web. As you'd expect, sometimes remarks about other groups that seem less obviously bigoted can also land you in trouble.

There's a complex bargain here: If the state helps protect ethnic identities in Singapore, it also polices them. Last year, an imam was expelled from Singapore for insulting Jews and Christians, and two Christian preachers were banned for denigrating Islam and Buddhism. The country has a minister in charge of Muslim affairs who issues strenuous warnings to his coreligionists against "self-radicalization." The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act provides for the state to issue restraining orders against clerics who promote hostility between religions-or, yes, disaffection with the government.

Singapore's extraordinary efforts to avoid internal cleavages, through a national project of respect for racial and religious differences, embody the promise and perils of what the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has called the "politics of recognition." (He's from Montreal, so for him Quebecois language politics is front of mind.) In this influential model, the benevolent state is to confer public acknowledgement on various identities. And state recognition is certainly a way of being respected; the trouble is that it's also a way of being reified. I've called this the Medusa Syndrome: When the state gazes at us-with its identity cards, educational stipulations, and other instruments of recognition-it invariably fixes and rigidifies a phenomenon that's neither fixed nor rigid. The strategy is never going to be adequate to the real-world complexities, to compound identities that can grow as pleated as an accordion. But it may be the only strategy that such a managerial city-state has.

In later years, Lee Kuan Yew's speeches became less focused on values and aspirations and more on policy, precisely because the Singaporean identity had been to some degree stabilized. If the state he created was watchful and intrusive by the standards of a Western liberal democracy, it had also convinced most of its citizens that they were engaged together in a meaningful national project. A friend who spent much of her childhood there once put it like this: The people of Singapore felt watched but also seen. The death of Lee in 2015 produced a vast and genuine outpouring of grief in Singapore. There was a week of national mourning with flags at half-mast. Nearly 450,000 people paraded past his coffin in Parliament over three days and nights, with public transportation running 24 hours a day to enable their visits. But the state-imposed silence about intergroup difficulties remains. Someone is still always watching; younger Singaporeans may not any longer be quite so glad to be seen.

Westerners tempted by the Singapore strategy might note that even there, racism has proved recalcitrant to the statecraft of identity. In a sequel to Crazy Rich Asians, Kwan has a scion of one of his Chinese dynasts observe that his parents and their crowd have "always been racist and elitist to the extreme." When he decided to marry an Indian woman, he relates, his father told him, "If you don't care about your own future, think about the children you will have with that woman. For eleven generations, the blood will never be pure." When it comes to entrenching ethnic difference, there are ways and there are ways.

The truth is, to set out to govern identities is to set out to govern the ungovernable. Whatever the state does, ordinary people will ignore the boundaries it sets. In the first decade of this millennium, interracial-marriage rates roughly doubled in Singapore. Now a quarter of new marriages cross those boundaries between C, M, I, and O. The point isn't that the government of Singapore should ignore the ethnic and religious identities of its citizens. But it will have to acknowledge that it's no longer just the society that's multiracial; more and more of its citizens are, too.

Maybe some future Singapore-set rom-com will take that on.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Kwame Anthony Appiah is a professor of philosophy and law at New York University and the author of The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity.

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In Singapore, the state is attempting to govern the ungovernable. The movie Crazy Rich Asians, adapted from Kevin Kwan's best-selling novel, has been widely celebrated in the United States as a big step toward diversity: It's a Hollywood movie with an Asian cast.

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Article details how well Marvel films do in the Asian market. Potenial for VB to do product placement to connect with asian audience.

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" Avengers: Endgame" is on the fast track to becoming Hollywood's most successful title ever in China, having already raked in RMB1 billion ($148 million) in just 45 hours - more than the Chinese earnings for "Wonder Woman" and "Once Upon a Deadpool" combined. It made as much in a single hour as the entire opening weekend in China of new U.S. animated release "Wonder Park."

Since "Iron Man" debuted in the Middle Kingdom in 2008, the Marvel films have developed a huge, devoted fan base in China as no other foreign franchise has done. It has 5.79 million followers on its official Weibo account (China's version of Twitter). The nearly two dozen installments released in China have amassed more than $2.23 billion (RMB15 billion), accounting for about 12% of the films' global gross.

Industry watchers attribute the franchise's success in part to timing. It began tapping into audiences just as multiplexes began proliferating across the country, as disposable income continued to grow, and as a cohort of young people exposed to the original Marvel comic books became eager consumers.

Sky Shi, a freelance producer, noted that the Marvel films entered China at a time when there were fewer Hollywood films. The series bombarded its way into people's hearts with numerous releases a year, creating a constant, cumulative brand presence over more than a decade. "I don't think there's another franchise that started so early and has had such a stable product quality and quantity," Shi said.

By contrast, the "Star Wars" series has never gotten traction in the Middle Kingdom, since the earlier films were never released there and did not have a chance to build up a following.

Shi said also that the Marvel franchise has largely avoided the trap of overtly pandering to Chinese audiences by adding superfluous Chinese characters or elements, except for tiny roles for Chinese actors Fan Bingbing and Wang Xueqi in a special Chinese version of "Iron Man 3." "People love Marvel precisely because it's so different from local content," said Shi.

Many fans are millennials born into one-child families at the height of China's reform-and-opening-up period. They "spent their formative years reading Marvel comic books and admiring, even adulating Marvel superheroes" who suited their increasingly individualistic mindset, said a commentary on CGTN, China's English-language state broadcaster. "Robert Downey Jr. acquired the status of a spiritual guru," the commentary added, and "watching Marvel films, in throngs and in costumes of their admired characters, was like a ritual, a sort of coming-of-age party."

Film critic Yu Yaqin said that the series has been boosted by its marketing, although there have been missteps, such as last year's "Infinity War" premiere, which angered fans by featuring local singers with no connection to the film more prominently than the actual stars. "I think this is the franchise that has done the best marketing in China, which has made each release a trendy event," Yu said. "Once it's a trend, people are willing to chase after it whether they personally like it or not."

"Endgame," in particular, has also benefited from the lack of competitive Chinese content. Local production slates have been especially weak this year due to new tax regulations and a consequent lack of investor optimism in the entertainment industry.

China has rapidly built thousands of new movie theaters, but is now struggling to fill them with attractive content. "There are more and more theaters but fewer and fewer ticket sales, which makes the programming a total mess," said former Wanda executive Jack Gao. "If the theaters don't play these few hits, they're dead."

As one source joked: "Who would think that Marvel would benefit most from Chinese film regulations?"

The franchise's incredible fan base has led Chinese movie theaters to schedule "Avengers: Endgame" screenings every 15 minutes around the clock, with 99% of all tickets sold in the entire country through Sunday projected to be for the Avengers.

"Endgame" has been highly rated across all Chinese user review platforms, including Maoyan, where more than 400,000 people gave it an aggregate score of 9.2 out of 10. "Watching this last film, I couldn't help crying. It really feels like the end of an era!" one exclaimed in a common refrain, while another wrote: "A decade of Marvel - it represents my entire youth!"

Diehard devotees showed up at midnight screenings in costume. "I'm so excited my whole body is sweating!" said a Deadpool wannabe in full face-covering regalia.

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How the Avengers Became Such a Marvel in China

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" Avengers: Endgame" is on the fast track to becoming Hollywood's most successful title ever in China, having already raked in RMB1 billion ($148 million) in just 45 hours - more than the Chinese earnings for "Wonder Woman" and "Once Upon a Deadpool" combined.

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Why it is no longer cool to be a crazy rich Asian in China

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Netizens are outraged by the sky-high incomes of some people in China amid a gaping wealth gap.

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Brand- Victoria Beckham
Emerging market- Singapore
How this will be done- Through Singapore influencers, product placement through movies etc.

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Singaporean culture through the lens of the 6-D Model© (Singapore is a multi-ethnic society with Chinese around 77%, Indian around 6%, Malay around 15% and expatriates around 2%), we can get a good overview of the deep driving factors of Singaporean culture relative to other world cultures.

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Singapore scores high on this dimension (score of 74). With a Confucian background (the Chinese) they normally have a syncretic approach to religion, which is also the dominant approach in Singapore. One of the key principles of Confucian teaching is the stability of society, which is based on unequal relationships between people. Confucius distinguished five basic relationships: ruler-subject; father-son; older brother-younger brother; husband-wife; and senior friend-junior friend. These relationships are based on mutual and complementary obligations. Here we can see the high PDI as a consequence.

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Singapore, with a score of 20 is a collectivistic society. This means that the “We” is important, people belong to in-groups (families, clans or organisations) who look after each other in exchange for loyalty. Here we can also see the second key principle of the Confucian teaching: The family is the prototype of all social organizations. A person is not primarily an individual; rather, he or she is a member of a family. Children should learn to restrain themselves, to overcome their individuality so as to maintain the harmony in the family. Harmony is found when everybody saves face in the sense of dignity, self-respect, and prestige. Social relations should be conducted in such a way that everybody’s face is saved. Paying respect to someone is called giving face.

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Singapore scores 48 and is in the “middle” of the scale but more on the Feminine side. This means that the softer aspects of culture such as leveling with others, consensus, sympathy for the underdog are valued and encouraged. Being modest and humble is seen as very important; thus showing that one knows it all and therefore has come to educate the counterparts is not liked. Conflicts are avoided in private and work life and consensus at the end is important. During discussions being cautious is important, not to being too persistent. We can also see the feminism in the governments defined five “shared values” again: 3) Community support and respect for the individual.

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Singapore scores 8 on this dimension and thus scores very low on this dimension. In Singapore people abide to many rules not because they have need for structure but because of high PDI. Singaporeans call their society a “Fine country. You’ll get a fine for everything”.

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Singapore scores 72, this high score is refelcted in Singapore which shows cultural qualities supporting long-term investment such as perseverance, sustained efforts, slow results, thrift; being sparse with resources, ordering relationship by status and having a sense of shame (see also again the Confucian teaching). Singapore has also become one of the five dragons with an immense economic success.

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One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the degree to which small children are socialized. Without socialization we do not become “human”. This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called “Indulgence” and relatively strong control is called “Restraint”. Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained.

Is it not possible to determine a preference on this dimension because of Singapore’s intermediate score of 46.

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Brainstorming ideas

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Wechat is a huge social media platform in Asia that is a multi purpose app for its consumer. WeChat has become the most used app in Asia having 1.2 Billion users, becoming popular with its range of features that they offer. From messegin, social network and payment services, this do it all app helps its consumer have a semeless service when they are out and about in their daily lives.

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In 2019 Sin Weibo had already 480 million usersb and is seen as the most influential social network in China. Very similar to twitter in it's format but enables you to post short sentences with a maximum of 2000 characters. Weibo stands for microblog so its a platform for self expression for it's consumer. The main demographic it appeals to is Gen Z who loves it keep up with trends and promotions they have found through the app via the infleuncers and promoters.

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Up and coming app in Asia, I feel VB could benefit from partnering with a new brand like SNOW that is very similar to Snapchat, but incorprates augmented reality for it's consumer to experience.

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Youku is extremely similar to Youtube, Netflic and video streaming network that launched in 2006 with 580 million active users since 2019 user retention is at 60% which is a lot higher then its competitors.