Latest news with #affluence
The Guardian
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Look how well-read I am!' How ‘books by the metre' add the final touch to your home
People have always used books to assert their sophistication and affluence. You need only visit the library of a National Trust property to see that. The novelist F Scott Fitzgerald famously critiqued the shallowness of the super-rich via his character, Jay Gatsby, who lined his shelves with books in order to project a cultured image of himself – yet they were 'uncut' and had never been read. To one guest at Gatsby's party, that doesn't matter – he describes the shelves (that he had at first assumed to be cardboard facades of books) as 'a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too – didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?' A century on from The Great Gatsby's publication, it is once again fashionable to decorate using books – and to question the motives of those who do so. In Vincenzo Latronico's International Booker-shortlisted Perfection, a novel that highlights the hollowness of chasing a 'cool', 'curated' life, Anna and Tom's self-consciously chic flat features 'floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with paperbacks and graphic novels … interspersed with illustrated coffee-table books – monographs on Noorda and Warhol, Tufte's series on infographics, the Taschen history of typefaces, and another Taschen on the entryways of Milan,' carefully arranged with 'succulents in cement plant pots,' and 'a waist-level camera' in the place of bookends. Through their home, Latronico writes, the couple has created a picture of a life that is 'clear and purposeful' – whether or not that is actually the case. In an age of constant scrolling, there is social capital to be gained by simply looking as if you are a cultured person who listens to music on vinyl and reads lots of books. And creating an aesthetically pleasing bookshelf is now easier than ever, thanks to an increase in booksellers who trade in 'books by the metre'. Vintage volumes are particularly popular, as they offer an instant way to create the effect of a long-established library made up of books collected over many years. 'My bookshelf is now complete,' reads one customer review on an eBay listing for a metre's worth of 'randomly selected' antique titles, available for £50. Dayna Isom Johnson, a trend expert at Etsy, another website where some sellers offer books by the metre, says the company has 'seen a 19,616% increase in searches for book-lover decor' over the past three months, compared with the same time last year. If you're willing to pay a bit more, sellers will offer a more bespoke service: for example, for £98, the online shop Country House Library will sell you a metre of assorted vintage books that all have orange covers. Madeleine Ovenden is head of non-traditional sales at the publisher Thames & Hudson, which specialises in what might be referred to as 'coffee-table books'. She has seen an increase in interior designers wanting to bulk-buy books with spines in similar colours, 'to fit a room theme'. The company now sells bundles of coffee-table books that all fit a certain colour or aesthetic – a stack of lemon-yellow Thames & Hudson books, for instance, could be yours for £119.90. Customers will also come to the publisher directly, Ovenden says, with 'requests by the metre for certain shelf sizes'. The rise in such requests can be attributed to the popularity of the 'bookshelf wealth' interior design trend on TikTok – an extension of the 'quiet luxury' and 'stealth wealth' aesthetic. A bookshelf that looks like an heirloom family collection, complete with art and ornaments, suggests you care about literature and art – and have time and money to spend on these things. Philip Blackwell curates bookshelves for a living via his company, Ultimate Library, which is used by hotels, businesses and homeowners who want to outsource the task of filling up their bookshelves. Though he is critical of the 'books by the metre' trend – Ultimate Library's selling point is that a knowledgable team will work with the client to select books they might actually read – he acknowledges that, if you're trying to build a library from scratch, you will almost inevitably have a certain amount of space to fill. I'm speaking to Blackwell at 40 Leadenhall, a newly developed office building in the City of London, where his company was commissioned to create a library for workers to use. 'That panel there is 14 linear metres multiplied by 33.' So he and his colleagues have to find 462 metres of books to fill that space, though most will be chosen for more than just their age, size or colour, and will be available to borrow. 'Creating a book collection, certainly for a private client, is all about having a discussion, going on a voyage to discover it, and it should be really good fun,' Blackwell says. He likes to quote Cicero: 'A room without books is like a body without a soul.' Services like his, then, manufacture that 'soul' in places such as offices and hotels that might otherwise be pretty soulless. Blackwell's service might be less superficial than simply using books for wall-dressing, but its appeal is still partly down to clients liking the way that books look. Michael Wood, who works for M&G Real Estate, which owns 40 Leadenhall, says M&G approached Ultimate Library partly because 'we've got a big space in this ground floor to fill and books are a great way to do that'. Aesthetically, the books make the building's lobby look less stark – and the higher shelves, which feature older books arranged by colour, are wholly ornamental. 'As a decorative element, books are great because they add a lot of texture,' says New York-based interior designer Tommy Landen Huerter. 'They add colour in places where it wouldn't be easy to otherwise integrate it. They just make a home look a lot more lived-in.' There have 'definitely been clients I have bought books for that will probably never be opened', who want full bookshelves 'just for the aesthetic', he says. He has been asked, for example, to style books on high shelves that homeowners will 'never be able to reach'. That is partly because books look good, but also because of their value as status symbols, Landen Huerter thinks. 'It's like: 'Look how well-read I am because I have the time to read and I'm educated enough to know these topics.'' The designer himself has 'a weird insecurity' over the fact that visitors to his own home wouldn't know he reads, since he does so exclusively on an e-reader and therefore doesn't have any physical books on display. Through your home, 'you want to show your interests' he says – but you can also show what you would like people to think your interests are, which is the impulse behind clients asking him to buy books in bulk for ornamental purposes. 'I can understand why people would say: 'I haven't read 100 books in the last year, but I would like to have.'' Just as they do via social media or through clothing choices, people are often trying to present the version of themselves that they would like to be true, rather than what actually is. Presenting the image of being a book lover has never been easier – part of the reason that buying books by length has become a trend is that books can be bought very cheaply, says Matt Hubbard, owner of secondhand bookshop Halcyon Books in south-east London. In the UK and the US at least (the market is slightly less populated in continental Europe), books are published in huge quantities: 'We're definitely spoiled for having a hell of a lot of books around.' Hubbard says he could easily take on more books than he would be able to sell, and some 'tatty paperbacks' have such a low value that they end up getting recycled. There is a 'sort of a rag trade side of the book business', where books are bought by weight and sold on 'very cheaply' by retailers such as Amazon, eBay and World of Books. This has 'hugely depressed the prices' of a lot of secondhand books, he says. Selling books by the metre, then, is a savvy way for retailers to get rid of large numbers of titles that would otherwise be difficult to shift. It's not without its downsides, though. 'It promotes this overconsumption of things that don't really have meaning, that are just for the aesthetic,' says Landen Huerter. The interior designer worries about the rise of 'fast-fashion trends' in home decor, similar to what has happened in the clothing industry. When people start to feel they need to follow new trends and constantly change their homes, it creates 'a new level of waste and overconsumption', which 'gets away from the whole idea of having a collected and curated space of things that represent yourself, your story and your interests,' he says. Buying books by length allows people to create a kind of 'knock-off' version of a richly filled bookshelf put together over years of reading for people who 'can't be bothered to choose the books and read them,' Hubbard says – or who can't afford a service like Blackwell's, perhaps. It is easy to be snobby about people who fill their bookshelves in this way – but 'we've all got lots of books on our shelves that we haven't read,' Hubbard points out. In Japan, they even have a word – tsundoku – for acquiring books with the best of intentions but letting them pile up without reading them. Though it's obviously frustrating for true bibliophiles when someone has bought a random selection of books in bulk to decorate their home, the fact there are books in their home at all is a good thing, Blackwell thinks. Having books around means that, at the very least, the opportunity to read one is there. 'In my experience', he says, 'there is always the right time and the right place to read a book.' Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Fast Company
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
How ‘Subway Surfers' has dominated mobile gaming for over a decade
For 13 years, Subway Surfers ' download rate has been consistent: about one million new installs every single day. Half of those downloads come from users upgrading to new devices. The other half comes from children aging into phone usage, and users in less developed countries reaching a level of affluence that allows them to purchase their first smartphones. This steady influx of players has made Subway Surfers the most downloaded mobile game of all time, with 4.5 billion lifetime downloads. Recently, however, Subway Surfers' traffic has arrived in more dramatic waves. In 2020, the app saw a surge of new users after TikTokers discovered a way to 'hack' the game. In 2022, a 10th anniversary social media campaign—combined with a TikTok-viral 'no coin' challenge—once again sent downloads soaring. Mathias Gredal Nørvig, CEO of Subway Surfers' parent company SYBO, understands the vital role social media plays in the game's continued growth. Many of its early competitors have vanished: Draw Something and Zombie Farm are no longer on the app store, and Temple Run (which once inspired Subway Surfers) has stagnated. Through TikTok, though, Subway Surfers has kept its edge. 'The fact that TikTok loves us means we're also being rewarded by Apple and Google, because their algorithms see what trends on other platforms,' Nørvig says. 'It's a flywheel of activation.' Subway Surfers ' social media dominance TikTok is crowded with so-called ' brain rot ' content. These posts typically layer two unrelated videos: one showing a TV show or narrated Reddit post, the other featuring a video game. Also called 'sludge content,' the videos lull the doomscrolling brain into a passive state, watching and listening as the parallel feeds play. It's like 'Cocomelon' for teenagers. Nørvig takes a much sunnier view of these videos, saying they 'give you a moment of zen.' They also frequently feature Subway Surfers, repeatedly bringing TikTok users back to SYBO's IP. There's no clear evidence that these 'brain rot' videos drive viewers to the App Store, but they certainly do keep Subway Surfers in the conversation. '[TikTokers] know we're not going to go after them for posting our content,' Nørvig says. 'We have a very different approach from other companies, where they do a lot more policing of social media.' Subway Surfers' in-house social media channels are led by Celia Zimmermann, SYBO's head of player experience. While the company produces plenty of its own content across platforms, the team also spends considerable time supporting the flow of organically created content. Zimmermann describes the game's openness as 'brave,' noting that many community managers at other gaming companies don't have the same speed for green-lighting. 'We have IP that we're able to be quite flexible with,' she says. This social momentum is especially important for Subway Surfers' young audience. Many tween players gather on platforms like TikTok. SYBO does not track younger players directly, but Nørvig estimates anecdotally that about half of the game's players are under 18. That figure does not account for the many kids playing on adult devices, which could push the percentage even higher. Of course, not all social media trends are positive. In New York City, a TikTok challenge recently encouraged some young people to try hopping between subway cars. At least six people died in 2024 attempting the stunt. Nørvig calls the trend 'unfortunate' and says SYBO would never repost or amplify dangerous content, though the company ultimately decided not to issue a public statement. 'Train surfing has been a thing that people are doing in New York, thankfully very seldom, but we haven't seen with our downloads that people think of it as something they can do in real life,' Nørvig says. 'It's clearly a game, and a silly game at that, and therefore we don't have any direct connection to it.' Can TikTok keep a 13-year-old game on top? Nørvig sees Subway Surfers as part of a standout group of Scandinavian mobile games. There's Angry Birds, launched in 2009, and Candy Crush, which debuted in 2012. Both remain strong performers, though Subway Surfers ' download rate now outpaces them by a sizable margin, according to analysts. It also stands out as the only game in the group embracing such a deeply TikTok-driven strategy—though it remains hard to say whether virality and revenue always go hand in hand. While SYBO declined to share exact revenue figures, Nørvig notes that 80 to 85% of the company's revenue comes from advertising, with the rest generated through in-app purchases. Monthly active users remain relatively steady—aside from viral spikes—at 100 to 150 million. With such a stable user base, revenue shifts at SYBO tend to follow fluctuations in the ad market. Analysts are split on Subway Surfers' future. Samuel Aune, a gaming insights analyst at Sensor Tower, supports Nørvig's view of long-term stability. He describes the game's 10-year download curve as 'really consistent,' especially when compared to its peers. 'Not a lot of games have lived 10-plus years,' he tells Fast Company. Ariel Michaeli, CEO of Appfigures, takes a more skeptical stance. Mobile game downloads have declined across the board on both the App Store and Google Play. 'But Subway Surfers has dropped a little bit more than everyone else,' he says, citing the company's internal tracking. 'It used to be number one for a very long time. Over the last few months, it started slowly going down [the ranking] . . . Subway Surfers has been around for so long that there's fatigue.' And what if TikTok disappeared? That seems unlikely in the U.S. for now, with President Donald Trump having extended the TikTok ban deadline for a third time. But in India, where TikTok is banned, Subway Surfers had to pivot. 'Facebook is their go-to, and so is YouTube, so that's the place where we go to engage with them,' Zimmermann says. For now, Subway Surfers holds its lead. Nørvig argues that among today's top-ranked mobile games, it is the only one growing organically. Its steady stream of downloads continues, driven by strong, recognizable IP and smart social media strategy—not by less transparent forces. 'We're still the most downloaded viral game,' Nørvig says. 'Everyone else has paid for their traffic to get on that list.'
Irish Times
23-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Developers are bluffing when they say lower prices would undermine viability of house building
With full employment and buoyant public finances, Ireland has never been wealthier. Affluence, rather than insufficient home building, is the true source of our housing challenges . Recognising this, and adopting more appropriate policies, is crucial to avoiding a deeper housing crisis. In the popular debate, housing demand simply equals population growth. However, the economic definition of demand is the quantity of housing that society is willing and able to consume at each price. Population growth is relevant to this. It creates competition that influences consumers' willingness to pay. But willingness does not translate into demand unless there is also an ability to pay. This explains why the world's most densely populated cities , which are in countries such as Bangladesh and Somalia, do not have the highest house prices. READ MORE Further emphasising the imperfect relationship between demography and housing demand, Bulgaria and Poland had the EU's hottest housing markets last year, despite contracting headcounts. [ Residential construction fell 10% in first quarter of 2025 compared with last year, says CSO Opens in new window ] In Ireland, rising prices and rents signify that housing demand currently exceeds supply. Contrary to the mainstream view, this does not stem from demographic growth outstripping housing supply. Between 2011 and 2022 the number of households in Ireland rose by 187,000. The housing stock only rose by 117,000, but the perception that this left a backlog of unmet housing need is mistaken, because 67,000 vacant homes were also reoccupied over the same period. Together, these sources provided 184,000 units of accommodation – closely matching the growth in household numbers. Our economic definition helps explain how demand can exceed supply even when we are building enough homes for everyone. This is possible because multiple factors, besides the number of bodies seeking beds, influence a society's willingness and ability to pay for housing. These include consumer preferences and wealth, with rich societies typically preferring, and having the resources, to live in smaller households. All of this suggests that excess capital, rather than insufficient building, is the source of Ireland's housing challenges. This raises fundamental questions about the Government's fixation with increasing housing output. Rather than striving to boost supply, Government should desist from fanning the flames of demand with subsidies such as Help to Buy and the First Home Scheme. The unspoken purpose of these is to incentivise building by driving up property values. This is unnecessary and self-defeating. The State should subtract capital from the market by tightening credit conditions. The Local Authority Home Loan is a flawed concept, while the Central Bank of Ireland 's 2023 decision to relax mortgage rules unnecessarily fuelled demand. As a dominant buyer and renter of property, the State should also exercise its market power to pay less. Government is frightened of flexing this muscle by the tacit threat of a developers' strike. Industry's trump card - which it recently played to have rent controls relaxed – is to scare up a panic that suppressing property values would undermine construction viability, causing the Government to miss its housing targets. This is bluff. Developers only earn when they build, and development costs would adjust to reduced sales price expectations if the Government called it out. Moreover, as outlined above, we are already constructing enough homes – regardless of what the industry-led targets say. Six months ago, nobody was contemplating a global recession or plunging corporation tax receipts. But both are now clearly possible Unfortunately, given the powerful interests that profit from housing development, none of this is likely. For now, the subsidies will remain and the State will continue competing against private households in the property market. Consequently, house prices and rents will rise further. This is clearly negative for consumers. But higher rents and prices will draw out more supply and, somehow, this has become a greater political priority than providing affordable homes. With population growth now slowing, increased housing output will unfold in one of two ways. If the economy remains strong, the additional homes will be occupied. By making sacrifices and taking on bigger mortgages, wealthier tenants and buyers will manage to fund themselves. For the growing remainder, the State will simply increase the subsidies. The cost of this, and the environmental costs associated with excessive building, mean everyone will face higher taxes. In this best-case scenario, the average household size will fall. Ireland currently has the EU's third-biggest households, and some consider this incongruous with our prosperity. [ Median value of homes bought by first-time buyers has risen to nearly €372,000 Opens in new window ] However, while Ireland's citizens aspire to small households like those in other wealthy countries, we also have the EU's highest proportion of children and teens. This makes larger households natural for us. A salutary lesson can be learned from the last time affluence and ambition seduced us into overruling this reality. Between 1996 and 2011, the average household size plunged from 3.14 to 2.73 persons. This was funded by prolific mortgage lending that facilitated a sharply reduced proportion of 18- to 34-year-olds living with their parents. However, the debt proved unsustainable when the economy turned, the banks failed, vacancy surged, the housing market crashed, the boomerang kids returned home and the average household size abruptly stopped falling. We are in danger of repeating this mistake. This time, however, the State, rather than the commercial banks, is bankrolling the appetite for smaller households with its subsidies and schemes. Six months ago, nobody was contemplating a global recession or plunging corporation tax receipts. But both are now clearly possible. In this scenario, the State would be unable to underwrite the occupancy of homes produced by excessive building targets – and we should know what follows. Dr John McCartney is a lecturer in property economics at TU Dublin and adjunct associate professor at UCD
Bloomberg
21-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
How Is the Economic Downturn Affecting Singapore's Rich?
Each week we bring you insights into one of Asia's most dynamic economies. If you haven't yet, please sign up here. This week, Ishika Mookerjee watches the economic downturn hit even the affluent; Reinie Booysen and David Scanlan queue up to get their holiday money in Singapore's currency corridor; and Saira Asher tries a super-salty pizza.
South China Morning Post
12-06-2025
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
China women pay US$14 to unwind with charming men who take them on luxury car rides
Young women in southern China are spending 99 yuan (US$14) to relax with fit, handsome men who treat them to luxury car rides after work. Advertisement According to the mainland media outlet Vista Hydrogen Business, a new trend called 'city ride' is gaining traction in cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Xiamen. This service features so-called 'man bodhisattvas,' who provide companionship rides in expensive vehicles. These men are often affluent university students who use their families' luxury cars during their free time to offer rides to female passengers. These young men are typically wealthy university students who use their families' luxury vehicles during their leisure time to provide rides to women. Photo: Shutterstock Active on social media and confident in showcasing their physiques, they have earned the nickname 'man bodhisattvas' due to their charm and perceived generosity.
