Masatoshi Ito, the Japanese billionaire behind 7-Eleven's global success, passes away at 98

Masatoshi Ito, the Japanese billionaire who transformed 7-Eleven convenience stores into a global retail empire, has died at the age of 98. Ito’s company, Seven & I Holdings, operates over 83,000 stores worldwide, including 7-Eleven shops in 19 regions and countries, and the Speedway convenience store chain in the United States. Ito was influenced by his friendship with the late management consultant Peter Drucker, who described him as “one of the world’s outstanding entrepreneurs and business builders.”

In a 1988 interview, Ito spoke of his experience travelling to the US in 1960, where he witnessed America’s vast consumer society and distribution techniques. He believed that people in different cultures had the same desires and that Japan’s distribution system would become more like America’s as the Japanese consumer society grew bigger.

Ito's career began in 1958 when he became the president of a small apparel store in Tokyo run by his family. He later renamed the company Ito Yokado and started selling food and daily necessities. He turned the business into a US-style supermarket, and in 1974, Ito Yokado opened Japan’s first 7-Eleven in Tokyo after forging a deal with the Southland Corporation, the owner of 7-Eleven. His firm then acquired a controlling stake in Southland in March 1991. A year later, Ito resigned as president of Ito Yokado “to take responsibility for alleged payoffs to racketeers by company officials,” according to NHK.

Ito's success was a combination of hard work and luck, according to him. He made 7-Eleven a global brand that sells everything from yoghurt to ready-made meals and medicine, through a series of acquisitions and expansions between the 1970s and 1990s. Today, 7-Eleven is a household name in Asia, and the convenience store chain is synonymous with Japanese convenience store culture.

Calling all developers! Bring your AI ideas to life with this Google’s new prototyping tool!

Google has announced new AI-powered features in Google Workspace and a new prototyping environment called MakerSuite, which makes it easy, safe and scalable for developers and businesses to start building with Google's best AI models through Google Cloud. For developers experimenting with AI, Google has introduced the PaLM API, an easy and safe way to build on top of their best language models. The API comes with an intuitive tool called MakerSuite, which lets developers quickly prototype ideas and has features for prompt engineering, synthetic data generation, and custom-model tuning. Trusted testers can access the PaLM API and MakerSuite in Private Preview today.

Google is also bringing new generative AI capabilities to their Google Cloud AI portfolio to help developers and organizations access enterprise-level safety, security, and privacy, as well as integrate with their existing cloud solutions. Google Cloud customers will have the ability to discover models, create and modify prompts, fine-tune them with their own data, and deploy applications that use these powerful new technologies. Additionally, Google is expanding its AI ecosystem and specialized programs for technology partners, AI-focused software providers, and startups.

Google Workspace will now have a limited set of trusted testers who can try new generative AI features that make the process of writing even more effortless. In Gmail and Google Docs, users can simply type in a topic they’d like to write about, and a draft will be instantly generated for them. This includes writing job descriptions, onboarding new employees, and more. Google is committed to being bold and responsible in its approach and partnering with others to improve its AI models so they’re safe and helpful for everyone.

The Space Race Heats Up as Amazon Takes on Starlink with Project Kuiper

Amazon is gearing up to launch its Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation and compete with other services such as SpaceX's Starlink and OneWeb. Amazon plans to launch its first internet satellites into space in the first half of 2024 and offers initial commercial tests shortly after.

The company intends to launch more than 3,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit in the next few years, starting with a beta test with commercial customers in 2024. Amazon plans to make "three to five" satellites per day to meet its goal of launching half of its entire Kuiper network of 3,236 satellites by 2026.

The company will also manufacture millions of terminals needed to connect customers and compete with SpaceX's Starlink network, which already has roughly 4,000 satellites in space. Amazon's "standard customer terminal" will cost the company less than US$400 each to produce and provide internet speeds of 400Mbps for customers, making it more affordable than SpaceX's terminals.