VC

Venture Capital

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capital

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A3%8E%E9%99%A9%E6%8A%95%E8%B5%84

Luxus cars and their parent companies

I realized the luxury cars and their parent companies after searching it today.

Lexus is the luxury brand of Toyota, Acura is the luxury brand of Honda, and Infiniti is the luxury brand of Nissan. These companies are three major Japanese car manufacturers in the world, and their cars are most popular in America.

The interesting thing is, Infiniti is an Americanized name, and I alwas think it is an American brand.

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Different colors in Chinese and U.S. stock market

In China, red means happiness, and that is good for the stock market, therefore, red stands for stock rise, and green stands for stock fall.

Contrary to this, green stands for rise in U.S. stock market, and red stands for fall.

I think the difference in this point is based on the distinct culture background. Different culture generates different understanding and interpretation to the same natural things.

The lowered car insurance premium

A good news for today is that my car insurance premium has been lowered to less than $500. I thought this trend would continue if I can keep myself off from accidents, however, the insurance manager told me that this is the least possible premium discount, and there would be no lower premium according to this company's policy. Maybe I can change the insurance later someday.

Had AAA auto service yesterday

It was the first time to use the AAA auto service. The reason is simple: my battery was out. Why? I forgot to turn off the lights. Therefore, the light was on from morning to evening. I think no battery can keep working for such a long time even if it is for lights only.

 

The response was not slow. I called the customer service, and left my contact information. Since I am close to home, I told them that I could go back home and wait for their call before they come to my place. During that time, I took shower, and took a little break.

 

The AAA man came in a pickup. I was surprised that the man gave me a bottle of water. I thought that he just want me to keep it for him in the first place. However, he said that it is mine at last. Wow, I was really touched by that. The service deserves the money I paid. Good, I will keep purchasing the service.

 

Helped the coffee shop to close today.

Why the direct selling man choose me?

This is an useful lesson for me since the first day I came to America. I was thinking about why that the direct selling man choose me as his potential "customer" (or prey?) from the day my uncle told me about the Direct Selling.

Here are some points I analyzed.

1. I have been in the US for a short period, and this makes me surely not familiar with the businesses in America. Therefore, the man has the chance of cheating me. Indeed, he is intentially to make this decision. For example, he asked that how many year have I been in America, and how many year I have been educated, etc. Everything indicates that he wanted to know the possibility of having me as his branch.

2. Keep his information secure, this can also raise the interest of the potential "customer". In fact, he knew that he might lose the potential of getting a new branch if he tells me the fact of this kind of business. That's why he said "you should go and listen". Look, such a funny way of communicating.

From now on, I got that point, and I will not take part in it since I know the fact of it. What is useful to me is, be smart and recognize the truth of this kind of business and stay secure from it.

又新学了一个商业相关的名词

"老鼠会"就是这个新学到的词。你别说，不是遇到这么回事我还真的不知道呢。其实这就是金字塔式的传销，主要是让下面的人来发展人员，越往上越占便宜。上线的人什么都不做，只发展下线就能赚钱了，只有下层的下下下下线最苦，收益低还在不停地为上面的人出力。





幸好有人指点，要不然我又上去上当了。

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Got my first credit card in America

This is the Bank of America Platinum Plus card. Since Bank of America is the biggest bank in America, I am glad to use the service provided by the most powerful bank. The only disadvantage is the purchasing APR is almost 20%, and it is a little bit too high, and it is beyond my expectation. Perhaps I need another card that has a lower APR. If the APR is too high, it will be inefficient to use such an expensive card.

Called Bank of America for credit card today

I really want a credit card, therefore, I checked many cards online, and I applied the Bank of America Student Platinum Card in March. However, there is no response since they did not get my utility bill which indicates my current address. I applied for the Citi Bank credit card in the morning, and called the card  department of Bank of America. The credit specialist asked me to provide my Wochovia Bank statement in order to show that I am currently living in the address I provided. When I was in my lunch break, I thought I should use the Comcast bill instead of the bank statement because I do not want my private financial information goes to public. Then, I met a little problem while calling for that person. However, I finished the process in the afternoon.

By the way, I did not that the Copy Center has the fax machine until today.

Although I might have a creidt card now, the APR is too high, I think I should just use it for the grocery stores, not gas and telephone and something like that. The first step is always difficult, especially for the credit card.

Exchange for US dollar

That is so funny. Over 10,000 RMB just get 2000 dollars. My god, how thin it is. No one knows that I have money from my appearance if I put it in my pocket. I should try to learn the skills of distinguishing US notes later.

The similarity of circling mode in business.

I was enlightened by the facts in IT industry. One idea came to me for many times but I forgt it for many times, too. This time, I got the chance to write it down.

The initiative was the standard of websites, W3C. Nowadays, most Personal Computer users use Microsoft Windows as their Operating System, and use IE as the main browser. What happened to other web browsers? Since Microsoft has asked the websites to adapt their websites under the standard fo IE series, the non-IE browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, etc. could not display the content on the websites properly (The non-IE web browsers are complied with W3C standard).What happened then? Regular competitors are in disadvantage because they follow international standards! Isn't it ironic? International standars are less powerful than the standard of a company? The whole thing is contributed to the large amount of users of Microsoft Windows. To the two sides, one who gets the large amount of users will be in precedence of controling the whole game. Presently, Microsoft controls the large amount of users, and such standards that produced by themselves formed an inwarded circle. Only the members inside the circle are rewarded under the regulation. If the members of the out circle form a sinmilar enclosed circle, tehy become worse and the inwarded members gain more profit throughthe enclosed circle.

This mode is similar to the situation in today's telecom industry. As is well known, China Mobile, the biggest telecom company in China, has formed an inwarded circle through pricing, and China Unicom has formed another enclosed circle. Apparently, china Unicom is in disadvantage.

What will happen consequently? Fortunately, the government has ordered the telecom corporations to follow the unified price between two different companies, therefore, the boundary has crashed, and the competition will come back to normal competition soon. In IT industry, there is only one circle-the Microsoft circle. The members outside the Microsoft circle are always opened, there, Microsoft is shortening itself through circling since the open-sourced software industry is booming not only in China but also in other places around the world.

These two industries are not the same with each other, however, the business strategic modes are the same: enclosing the territory through technique methods and squeeze competitors out. There are more cases following this mode such as IM software, QQ, MSN, GTalk.

How funny the market is!