Livestream shopping offers brands and all those concerned with e-commerce to showcase and advertise their products to a live, online audience that can interact in a live experience. Brands can directly interact with consumers through online videos, chats, and or other ways of live communication.

Due to the live element of shopping, there is little to no room for manipulation of imagery and settings which enables customers to be able to confidently trust the brand. In the same breath, brands can build excellent rapports with their customers as well as actively engaging with customers without the added pressures of time management.

Livestream shopping originally took flight in China as Chinese influencers and celebrities were producing live video content via social media to present to their mass followings; Livestream shopping has received endorsements from the Chinese government as they label it as “the new engine of e-commerce”.

The Chinese government are hopeful that the introduction of live-stream shopping will tend to the solution of unemployment in China which rose during the plight of the pandemic. The e-commerce phenomenon has now spread across the pond to American and Europe and is estimated to have an industry worth $66 billion.

Platforms in Europe and the U.S such as Facebook and Amazon have already introduced live-stream shopping into their branding; Facebook marketplace and Instagram shopping are seemingly growing channels. Amazon has announced ‘Amazon Live’ where products are being live-streamed 24/7 in multiple different categories.

Forbes claims that ‘Amazon Live’ is the future of e-commerce; Kiri Masters states that Amazon Live will play a substantial role in online shopping in the future. Additionally, Facebook and Amazon could arguably pave the way for other brands to follow suit with live-stream shopping. With this innovation reaching considerable heights in China, other international businesses are very likely to implement this for their branding.

As for the future of e-commerce, the projection of live-stream shopping and the escorting of e-commerce is mostly centred around acceleration. Due to the pandemic, the shopping experience for consumers has been largely affected by not being physically being able to shop and thus consumers opting to engage in mass online shopping. The supported social commerce through the apps and websites such as TaoBao has only further enabled the success of live-stream shopping and has largely contributed to the future success of e-commerce.

In a world of lockdowns and being unable to experience physical shopping, consumers are now able to consume in real-time and in the comfort of their own homes; consumers can watch people try products and comment which allows brands to be able to get instant feedback.

Conclusively, live-stream shopping is the future of e-commerce and the implementation of this will largely aid brands in gaining traction with future customers and build better rapports with existing customers. As live-stream shopping has taken off so quickly in China, it is no surprise that other countries have sought to introduce the future of e-commerce to their platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and Instagram.

With the plight of the pandemic and most countries still recovering from the mass spread, some countries are still having to implement nationwide lockdowns which further hinders the consumer shopping experience which could arguably reach new heights with customers being able to live-stream products and decipher between products from the comfort of their own homes.

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South Korea have very stringent inheritance tax laws which are also escorted by high rates, which has resulted in the family receiving a hefty bill. The inheritance is more than half the value of the late Lee’s estate as South Korea can charge up to 60% of inherited shares for large shareholders. Said shares are inclusive of Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life, and Samsung C&T as well as some real estate.

The majority of the late chairman’s stakes in Samsung affiliates are likely to go to his younger son as the eldest is currently serving a prison sentence for bribery, embezzlement, stock manipulation, and other offences. Lee had apologised last May for some things he had said regarding governance and pleaded that there would no longer be any more controversy regarding the succession.

The family are intending on paying back the bill over six instalments which are said to have already started. The legal deadline for the family to file for tax return was the 30th of April 2021; the amount of arguably the biggest inheritance tax bill in South Korea and internationally.

The majority of the remaining assets left behind by the late chairman are consistent of artwork which is estimated to be around 23,000 pieces; these are inclusive of pieces by Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Joan Miro, and Salvador Dali.

The collection is also inclusive of Korean artists such as Kim Thanks, Park Soo-Keun, Jung Scop, and Chang Urchin. All of the pieces will be donated to South Korea’s national museum for modern art and other national organisations. Reports note that the donation of art pieces are said to reduce the family’s tax liability.

The Lee family are also said to be donating around 1 trillion won (approx. $902 million) to a variety of philanthropic causes; around 700 billion won (approx. $631 million) of the bill will be spent on efforts to help and respond to the rate of infectious disease; 500 billion won (approx. $451 million) will be spent on efforts to build specialist hospitals; 200 billion won (approx. $360 million) will be spent on a laboratory to support and research into vaccines and treatments for sicknesses and diseases. The remainder of the money will be spent on medical expenses for children who are battling cancer and rare diseases.

Although the family have been given more than a hefty fine, it is admirable that the money is going to be used to help those who need it most. A large proportion of the money is being used to help those who are struggling with their physical health and to those who are opting to contribute to the betterment of those who are in need.

Conclusively, this is the largest inheritance tax bill South Korea has ever seen and arguably the world. The strict inheritance laws and the high rates are ultimately what led to the family getting fined such a huge amount. The assets left behind by the late electronics chairman are variant in real estate, art pieces, and equity, which is now being distributed amongst differing national South Korean organisations to reduce the family’s tax liability and to also aid those who are in need.

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The Restore Fund was launched in partnership with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs. The initiative has been funded by Apple with $200 million having already been put into it by the company. The aims of the initiative are to set out to remove a minimal figure of 1 million metric tonnes of Co2 from the atmosphere whilst also illustrating a financially viable model that can help weigh up investment in forest restoration.

Apple is also hoping to encourage other corporations to further invest in carbon removal: “through creating a fund that generates both a financial return as well as real, measurable carbon impacts, we aim to drive broader change in the future”.

This effort contributes to the broader goal for Apple which is becoming carbon neutral across its entire value chain by 2030. The company aim to reduce 75% of its emissions through its supply chain and products by 2030. The remaining 25% of emissions will be acknowledged by removing carbon from the atmosphere through the aid of this fund.

To assure that the carbon stored in the forests is being diligently quantified, the Restore Fund will use robust international standards which have been developed and recognised by organisations such as Verra, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the UN Climate Convention. The priorities of the investments aim to improve forest biodiversity through the production of buffer zones and natural set-asides.

The Restore Fund builds on Apple’s legacy of work in forestry conservation. For three years running, Apple has responsibly sourced fibres in the packaging of its electronic items and have improved the management of over one million acres of forests globally to date. Apple has also established ground-breaking carbon projects with Conservation International that projects and restores grasslands, wetlands, and forests.

Conservation International is a co-investor in the fund and is making sure that projects meet the strict environmental and social standards. Goldman Sachs is managing the fund, and the three aforementioned parties – Verra, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the UN Climate Convention – are said to be curating new projects to develop later this year.

Progress in Apple’s responsibly sourced fibres can be exhibited through the latest iPhone 12 after launching the first iPhone with a dominant proportion of the packaging being made from fibre-based materials. The phone now arrives at customers in packaging that compromises 93% of fibre-based materials. This is inclusive of the fibre-based screen protector that has since replaced the once plastic-covered film.

Apple has remodelled and revolutionised personal technology to a degree other tech companies are not able to achieve. Apple takes the lead in global innovation with devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV with all of the aforementioned devices having been installed with seamless iOS software which aids in a seamless experience for all of those involved.

Having acknowledged Apple’s innovation in the world of technology, their investment in reducing Co2 emissions is a further illustration of their global impact. The lengths Apple have gone to contribute to climate change through having fibre-based packaging and replacing plastic packaging is an indication of the environmental change they can incorporate not only within their business but globally.

Ultimately, the threat of climate change is moving quicker than before, and the hope is for other organisations to do their part in encouraging positive and impactful environmental change.

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Many of the billionaires on the list did not attend university or dropped out before being able to attain a diploma; among the five richest people in the world is Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg who both dropped out of Harvard before graduating. However, among the billionaires who did complete an undergrad, there a few schools which stand out.

Harvard is ranked number one in terms of the university to produce the most billionaires with the figure being at 29 billionaire alumni. The university is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and estimated to have a net worth of $207 billion.

The billionaire alumni are inclusive of Bitcoin twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and former CEO of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein. However, among the richest of the Harvard alumni is Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer whose $68.7 billion fortune is premised on his time at Microsoft. Another billionaire attendee is Jorge Paulo Lemann, a Brazilian investment banker whose fortune is premised on good decision making in the food and drink industry.

Ranked at joint second is University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. Both universities have produced a total of 28 billionaires with the University of Pennsylvania having a net worth of $284.8 billion and located in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania’s billionaire alumni include former US President Donald Trump and the founder of Tesla Elon Musk.

This year the university has produced two new billionaires: CEO of JG Summit, Lance Gokongwei and venture capitalist Gary Lauder is has inherited a large proportion of his wealth from cosmetics empire Estee Lauder which was established by his grandmother.

Stanford University, located in California, has a current net worth of $124.4 billion and is the university which as of this year has the most newly attained billionaires in comparison with any other school. The new attained billionaire alumni append with David Velez who built Nubank into the world’s most valuable digital bank; Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev whose no commission non-profit platform Robinhood was at the forefront of the Gameshop short squeeze.

At number four of the top ten universities to produce billionaire alumni is Yale University. Located in New Haven, Connecticut and with a net worth of $140.8 billion, Yale has produced a total of 21 billionaires. Amongst the 21 billionaires are the likes of John, Valerie, and Victoria Mars, in addition to oil heirs Lee, Edward, Robert, and Sid Bass.

Following Yale University in the top ranking is India based university, Mumbai University. With produce of 20 billionaires and a net worth of $162.8 billion, Mumbai University has had its billionaire alumni inclusive of Asia’s richest billionaire, Mukesh Ambani – whose fortune is mostly inherited – runs Reliance Industries which is a conglomerate with activity in oil and gas, petrochemicals, and telecommunications. Coming in second as Mumbai’s richest alumni is Uday Kotak who founded and operates one of India’s largest banks in the private sector.

At number six is Cornell University. Located in Ithaca, New York and with a net worth of $65.1 billion, Cornell University has had 18 billionaires graduate from its university. Said graduates are said to be former Citigroup head Sandy Weill, private equity titan Robert F Smith, and Software Engineer David Duffield.

The remainder of the universities in the top ten are inclusive of the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University tied with the University of California Berkley (all listed in chronological order).

USC has had the likes of George Lucas and Marc Benioff in the billionaire attendees; MIT has produced billionaires such as the Koch brothers and Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston; Princeton’s billionaire alumni are inclusive of the richest man in the world Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott whose combined wealth make up 80% of Princeton’s total billionaire graduate wealth; the University of California Berkley has seen billionaires such as Timothy Springer and Robert Langer whose fortune has been attained through stakes in vaccine maker Moderna.

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White-collar crime is commonly associated with the wealthy and the educated ever since 1949 when the term was first coined by Edwin Sutherland who defined white-collar crimes as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation”.

As technology and new financial products & arrangements have evolved, so has how white-collar crimes are committed. High profile individuals who have been convicted of white-collar crimes in recent decades include Bernard Ebbers, Michael Milken, and Bernie Madoff.

Some definitions of white-collar crime are defined on the basis that the crime is committed based on self-interest, however, the FBI defines white-collar crime as being inclusive of large-scale fraud which is executed via a corporate institution.

A large proportion of corporate fraud cases involve accounting schemes that are premised on deceiving the investor, auditor, and or the analysts. The deception lies in exaggerating the true financial condition of a corporation or business. In such cases, manipulation of the financial evidence, share prices, or other valuation measurements of said business or corporation are adopted to make the financial performance of the business appear better than the reality.

Corporate fraud also includes cases whereby one or more employees of a company act in the name of self-interest at the expense of the investors or other parties. Self-dealing is when a fiduciary acts in their own best interest instead of putting said clients interests before their own.

The reason behind acting on self-gain is down to a conflict of interest which in turn is an illegal act and can result in litigation, penalties, and termination of employment for those who are involved.

The most common white-collar crimes committed come under insider trading cases. This is where individuals act upon or dissect information that is not public knowledge yet. This undisclosed information usually affects the share price and things such as company valuation once it becomes known to the public.

Insider trading becomes illegal when buying or selling securities based on material and non-public information which in turn is premised on a said person(s) having an unfair advantage to aid in financial gain.

Money laundering is another example of white-collar crime. Money laundering is the process of taking cash that has been acquired from illicit activities i.e., drug trafficking and making the cash appear to have been acquired from legal business activity.

The money from the illicit activity is often labelled as ‘dirty’ money and the laundering process is to make the money look ‘clean’. More often than not, where money laundering is concerned, the investigation is one of two. The initial investigation examines the money laundering and escorted by that is the investigation which examines how the ‘dirty’ money was acquired.

Criminals who engage in money laundering attain their cash in a variety of different ways which are inclusive of human and drug trafficking, healthcare fraud, public corruption, and terrorism. Alternately, with the change and advancement in finance, some criminals use a ‘dizzying’ number to launder the money by other means such as real estate, precious metals, international trade, and virtual currency such as bitcoin.

Conclusively, it is apparent the prevalence, the frequency, and the magnitude of which white-collar crime occurs. The advancement of technology and financial tools has aided criminals in being able to mix and match how they launder money or commit fraud and has widened the pool of ways in which a cover-up can be developed i.e., through real estate. The definitions of white-collar crime continue to differ in accordance with the institution.

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