other internet firms to treat customers' data with more care. Yet such high-mindedness will be tested as Google enters China. Keeping its options open, the company is continuing to develop the Chinese-language version of Google.com. Air Max 90 t will remain available, for those willing to wait a bit longer for their less censored search results.
THE Caribbean in winter is the world's biggest cruise market, dominated by giants such as Carnival, the world's biggest line since its purchase of P&O Cruises in 2000. It is a booming industry, with 11m passengers last year in America, where the Kobe 6 ber of cruise ships has almost doubled to 150 in the past five years. Most are floating hotels designed to ensure passengers spend their time—and money—on board. But last summer Stelios Haji-Ioannou, a British entrepreneur, turned the business model on its head to offer only basic onboard accommodation at rockbottom prices to encourage passengers to enjoy themselves ashore.
Now Mr Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, Europe's first low-cost airline (and of some less profitable ventures such as internet cafés and car rentals), plans to sail a fleet of cruise ships into this lucrative market. At present, he has only Kobe Bryant Shoes, which plied the Mediterranean in the summer and the Caribbean this winter. But nothing daunts a man prepared to launch a cruise business
with a ship packed with cabins the colour of lifejackets—the bright orange of his aeroplanes, cafés, rental cars and everything else in easyworld. Mr Haji-Ioannou is looking for cheap places to dock
ships around Miami: “I am more interested in marinas than normal ports,” he says. He is also
talking to shipyards about building a fleet of five special 500-passenger vessels at a price of
around €30m ($37m) apiece, about half the going rate for a liner. And he is hiring a designer Kobe 6 a new colour scheme.
He needs cheap boats and berths to capture the market he is aiming at. Passengers hop on and Air Max 90, whenever they want and are charged upwards of $45 a night for accommodation only. Passengers can buy refreshments in a basic onboard café and bar, but there are none of the lavish salons and restaurants on a typical cruise liner. Not surprisingly, the typical easyCruise passenger is also somewhat different. The average passengers is 32 years old, compared with 54 on a traditional cruise ship. You probably need youth on your side to party in a different port every night.
COME February 3rd in Japan, you might wonder at the strange sight of people trying to face precisely south-south-east while gulping down long, fat sushi rolls in one go. It is a triumph of marketing. The occasion is Setsubun, the day before the symbolic start of spring, when people ward off demons and usher in good luck. Like other festivals around the world, it is being Kobe Bryant Shoes, ercialised. In Japan Setsubun looks set