Jollibee, the Pride of the Philippines

I just recently studied and invested into the stock market. The most basic suggestion depending on what your goals were was to invest into the blue chip stocks. Since I didn't have much money to place into stock I am only able to choose a few stocks and Jollibee is one of the stocks I chose. Here are some of the reasons I chose this stock:

1. Brand recall. They are the most dominant quick serve restaurant (QSR) chain in the Philippines today is one of a few local companies with a vision to go global.
2. As mentioned, they are going global. They have already purchased several local companies like Mang Inasal and Chowking. They are slowly opening branches where there are a huge number of Filipinos abroad. They have recently purchase some foreign brands. At that time I bought into the market Smash Burgers were one of the purchases. A week or so ago the bought Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
3. I am a consumer of their products. While McDonald's is my go to fast food I would eat Chicken Joy and Chowking is a favorite as well.
4. Since I have no plans of playing the market JFC (as listed in the stock exchange) was a logical pick.

My stock picks were doing great for the first six months until Jollibee started pulling it down by a few percentage points. After doing some research (Google) it seems the purchases didn't look that good since these companies were essentially bleeding. But as the articles pointed out, it's hard to purchase companies that are doing well and as a growth strategy to get foothold in different global markets you have to make strategic moves that can move the company forward in the future while taking short term losses.

After doing research in the stock market and given that my investment in Jollibee is a long term play, I still believe it's a good stock pick. Since I didn't know how to read the market my timing probably wasn't the best. As a first timer though, I believe that he who hesitates loose. If I didn't invest in stock at that time I probably wouldn't ever. If I had more money, now may be a good time to buy since it's down.

Here's a video about Jollibee.

 

WeWork - Will it Work?

Aspiring entrepreneurs are very luck to live at a time where it's encouraged and there are people and entities will to fund and take a chance on a great business idea or concept. We are now surrounded by what are known as "unicorns" such as Facebook, Google and Uber. The latter however isn't making money...yet. Based on it's recent IPO where it tanked it may take a long time before it becomes profitable. WeWork is expanding or maybe pivoting to create more businesses around it's core business. I don't think it's going to work though. I just want to place it here to see whether I'll be right or wrong.

Is Your Smartphone Actually Making You Unproductive?

Smartphones has literally made people live in the present. Something that's happening halfway around the world can be viewed conveniently on your smartphone. People working in different locations and time zones can easily work together as a team. But can these benefits also make people unproductive. Send out a message or an email and the person you are sending it to will get it in less than a second. In the case of instant messaging you will even know if it has been sent, received and read - which adds to the paranoia depending on what type of message you are sending. With all these messages or notifications which can come from different social groups going into one device - can these make people more stressed?

Facial Recognition: The Good and The Bad

Here's an interesting episode of BBC Click, it's actually about artificial intelligence and machines but it delves into facial recognition. The UK has placed a lot of cameras in their cities to prevent crimes and it has the ability to identify people. Based on the episode San Francisco has decided against it. A few years back Facebook actually implemented some form of facial recognition technology wherein it automatically identifies the people who are included in the photos you post. I found the technology quite scary and creepy that it can easily identify your pictures. For some reason probably because of clamor against it it didn't push through with the implementation. Obviously the technology works very well. From what I gather the rationale of Facebook was that it will use the facial recognition technology to warn you if other people will use your pictures to create fake profile. It needed your permission to use the technology - given that it's no longer coming up they probably shelved implementation. I'm quite sure though that they use and experiment on the software constantly.

The BBC Click episode is quite interesting showing the good and the bad of the facial recognition technology.

Google I/O

For those wondering what Google I/O means it's Google Input Output, from what I gather it's an event Google does to showcase new developments in their platform. Because we all probably use Google in some form or another we will all be affected by these new developments. The 3D Google maps interface would be a particular interest since it's hard to orient yourself while walking and looking at the map. Makes me wonder though if it has features which shows inside of structures - at least malls, museums or other such public places.