Amazon launched its Android app store in China over the weekend, becoming the first Western technology company to offer paid-for Android apps in China. (Google’s Chinese store offers only free apps.) The update effectively launches a new version of Amazon's app store built in Chinese in the form of an Android app, along with a Chinese-language site for developers.

It’s a promising alternative to Google Play for Chinese developers like Tencent and Sina. TechCrunch notes that Amazon's app store provides easier access for developers, who previously had to sell through third-party stores, a global customer base and an "attractive revenue sharing model."  

Currently, there are home-grown services that offer paid apps to the Chinese market, the worlds largest in mobile, but many local versions are pirated or have malicious software issues. The Amazon store promises "quality and safety testing" and may very well be the prelude to the launch of its Kindle e-readers in China.Continue reading...

Chase offers a lot of financial products and services, and typically its marketing has focused on spotlighting one or the other. Now, in a new marketing campaign launching today, Chase is taking a more holistic approach by casting itself as a financial problem-solving brand for its customers across the many needs and challenges of life.

"So You Can" is the tag line for the campaign, which is a creative refresh that Chase will use for its existing ad-buy schedule. It's the first comprehensive effort launched by Claire Huang, a bank-industry veteran who recently became JP Morgan Chase's first CMO.

"It's really about giving customers options, telling the story around what we're delivering in a more integrated fashion," Huang told brandchannel. "We have many different products. This has a focus on everyday life, everyday moments. It's a holistic way to show how Chase is delivering for our customers because of what they need.Continue reading...

It hasn't been a good year for meat eaters. Dozens of reports of horse meat being marketed as beef streaked across Europe, affecting retailers like Bird's Eye, Taco Bell, Ikea and Tesco. Most recently, six people have died in China from an avian flu outbreak, which led to the execution of thousands of chickens and has ultimately caused Chinese consumers to swear off poultry, dragging down grocers and QSR chains like KFC, which have seen double digit declines in sales. 

However, the meat wars aren't over. Trader Joe's is now the focus of an effort by the Consumers Union, which took the grocer to task with a full-page ad in The Los Angeles Times saying that the company is “selling meat from animals fed a steady stream of antibiotics,” the L.A. Times reports.

The funky grocer, whose majority of products are private label brands (its own) responded, noting that it “also sells a selection of antibiotic-free chicken, beef, turkey, ham and lamb,” and that it “also offers private label goods that shun genetically engineered ingredients.” However, Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, says that the privately owned grocer has refused to meet to discuss the issue.Continue reading...

Chevrolet has just released a video extolling the most recognizable name in baseball’s craftsmanship: Louisville Slugger, which refreshed its branding in time for Major League Baseball's opening day this season. 

Interbrand Cincinnati, based in the same city the first professional baseball team called home, was honored to be selected to celebrate that craftsmanship by redesigning the iconic logo, marking its first update in 33 years. Find out more here.

More than 50 million Americans are “food insecure,” according to a 2011 US Department of Agriculture study. In its latest designer collaboration, Target is partnering with FEED Projects to help change that. 

Target is joining forces with Lauren Bush Lauren's FEED Projects, which has previously partnered with Gap, Bergdorf Goodman and Pottery Barn, but the Target partnership is the largest to date. The collection is due to launch June 30. The duo just wrapped up a five-city tour of Feeding America programs that took them to food banks and local pantries in San Francisco, Minnesota, New York City and more. Target and FEED are hoping the partnership will generate 10 million meals for Feeding America.

"Target (has) such a massive reach that we just don't have," Lauren told USA Today. "So it's wonderful when we can partner with Target to really just blow it out and have such a big impact in a short amount of time."Continue reading...

20 dead children is the kind of PR disaster from which no product category could flourish—except for one. In the wake of the Dec. 2012 Newtown school shooting, gun makers are reporting record profits. Sturm, Ruger & Co. just recorded a 53 percent increase in post-Newtown Q1 profits.

Ironically, the exact same publicity that is boosting profits is creating a fraught sales environment. Post Newtown, small individual errors that may have been ignored a year ago are now huge potential PR crises, like when a gun made for kids kills them. While gun makers have been on the messaging defensive for months, they are just waking up to the fact that they have to also be offensive.Continue reading...

YouTube close to launching paid subscription channels, reports say. 

Amazon launches first Android app-store in China, ahead of Google. 

Pfizer lets bashful buyers get Viagra online.

Al Jazeera America plans to open Detroit bureau.

Asustek plans to make small Windows 8 tablets.

Audi considers doubling production at Mexico factory under construction.

Berkshire Hathaway provides peek at era after Buffett.

BuzzFeed takes steps to expand foreign news.Continue reading...

Former pro cyclist George Hincapie made his name for being one of the sport’s top domestiques, the riders that work alongside the eventual winners of the big events such as the Tour de France. Hincapie rode with three of that race’s big winners, including Lance Armstrong, a man he found himself testifying against last year as the Armstrong Myth crumbled.

In the midst of all that, the 39-year-old Hincapie admitted that he had used performance-enhancing drugs at some point in his career and accepted a six-month ban from the sport. Not a big deal since he had already announced his retirement. 

But after 19 years of cycling, Hincapie didn’t just spend his time eating whatever he wanted to and watching TV. Nope. The guy decided to open a hotel—for cyclists. Later this summer, Hincapie will open Hotel Domestique, a 13-room high-end hotel in South Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. According to Forbes, the hilltop retreat will feature a “small bike shop with onsite mechanic, preset suggested ride routes, and high-end rental road and mountain bikes from Hincapie’s last team sponsor, Switzerland’s BMC Racing.”Continue reading...