China's favourite 'ugly' products celebrated with exhibition
The 'Era of Uglies Has Arrived' exhibition, organised for the first time this year by Alibaba-owned e-commerce giant Taobao, spotlights more than 300 products that have won or been shortlisted for the platform's annual Ugly Stuff Competition, also known as the Uglies Award.
People visit the exhibition 'Era of Uglies Has Arrived' by Alibaba's Taobao, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China August 13, 2025. REUTERS/Nicoco Chan
Yu Hu, project lead for the Uglies Award, said the Era of Uglies attracted more than 3,000 visitors a day during its run from late July to mid-August.
"Ugly" products on Taobao have generated more than 100 million yuan (RM58,803,880) in sales since 2020, according to Alibaba, with Yu estimating current growth rates for the sector in the "double or triple digits."
People visit the exhibition 'Era of Uglies Has Arrived' by Alibaba's Taobao, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China August 13, 2025. REUTERS/Nicoco Chan
Younger consumers are fuelling the popularity of these unprepossessing products because they want to express their individuality, Yu added.
As the economy languishes, they are also looking for affordable luxuries, a phenomenon known as emotional consumption.
"In recent years, emotional consumption has become more and more of a 'blue ocean', meaning it's becoming increasingly popular, turning into a new (spending) track," Yu said.
People visit the exhibition 'Era of Uglies Has Arrived' by Alibaba's Taobao, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China August 13, 2025. REUTERS/Nicoco Chan
Ugly-cute accessory Labubu is a well-known example of the phenomenon, sparking a global buying frenzy with its wide eyes and toothy grin, and winning celebrity fans including Rihanna and David Beckham.
For some visitors, the exhibition was a reflection on the meaning of beauty, while others saw it as a lesson in creative thinking.
"Ugliness is another form of beauty," said exhibition visitor Mei Duo, 55. "There's so much creativity, (it's) a special type of beauty." – Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
World's largest computer game fair, Gamescom, breaks its own record
People play in the Phantom Blade Zero booth during Gamescom 2025, a computer and video game industry event, in Cologne, Germany August 20, 2025. -- Photo: REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler COLOGNE (dpa): Gamescom, the world's largest computer games fair, has emerged bigger, opening to larger crowds in Cologne on Wednesday. There's something for everyone, be it strategy games, shooter battles or fantasy adventures. Following an opening show on Tuesday evening, at which 5,000 fans were shown new game trailers, the computer and video game fair opened its doors in the morning. More than 1,500 exhibitors are presenting their offerings to the public until Sunday, including studios such as CI Games, Keen Games and Bethesda. This year's record number of exhibitors surpasses the 1,462 exhibitors in 2024, when 335,000 visitors streamed to the Cologne exhibition halls. A similar turnout is expected this year. Nintendo is there too, promoting its Switch 2 console. Such handheld devices with small displays are a growing trend. They allow for a good gaming experience on the go or from the comfort of your armchair, without being hooked up to a large display. A person plays in the EVA Esports Virtual Arena during Gamescom 2025, a computer and video game industry event, in Cologne, Germany August 20, 2025. -- Photo: REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler Tuesday evening's big-screen show featured action-packed and dark content themes. The first-person shooter game "Call of Duty - Black Ops 7" sends a team of up to four players into a post-apocalyptic future, where they must overcome the psychological terror of dark forces. In "World of Warcraft - Midnight," the focus is on a battle between elves and brutal creatures, while "Bloodlines 2" revolves around vampires. The horror classic "Resident Evil" returns with a remake titled "Requiem", showcasing the fight for survival against the undead. The games showcased are set to be released in the coming months or 2026, with the previews designed to build excitement and attract spending by computer games enthusiasts. - dpa
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Analog Devices forecasts upbeat results on strong industrial demand
An Analog Devices logo appears in this illustration taken August 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters) -Analog Devices forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analysts' expectations on Wednesday, as the company anticipates stable demand for its products despite tariff uncertainty. The chipmaker has benefited from increased demand in its industrial segment, resulting in healthy bookings trends and growth in its order backlog, as manufacturers pulled forward shipments amid shifting U.S. tariff policies. Shares of the Wilmington, Massachusetts-based company rose about 4% in premarket trading. The company forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $3.00 billion, plus or minus $100 million, above analysts' estimates of $2.82 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. On an adjusted basis, the company expects fourth-quarter, profit per share to be $2.22, plus or minus 10 cents, above analysts' estimates of $2.03. "We closed the third quarter with continued backlog growth and healthy bookings trends, notably in the Industrial end market," said CEO Vincent Roche. Industrial revenue, which accounts for 45% of the company's total sales, rose 23% to $1.29 billion in the third quarter. The industrial segment focuses on providing advanced semiconductor solutions that power automation, sensing and control systems across various industries. Sales in the automotive segment grew 22% to $850.6 million for the third quarter. The company posted third-quarter revenue of $2.88 billion, above analysts' estimates of $2.77 billion. (Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
AI agent startup TinyFish raises $47 million in ICONIQ-led round
Words reading "Artificial intelligence", miniature of robot and toy hand are pictured in this illustration taken December 14, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters) -AI startup TinyFish has raised $47 million in a Series A funding round led by ICONIQ Capital to scale its platform for building and deploying AI-powered web agents, the company told Reuters. The round included participation from USVP, MongoDB Ventures and Sheryl Sandberg's Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners. The company plans to use the capital to invest in products and expand its go-to-market operations. Founded in 2024, TinyFish is building web-based agents to automate repetitive and complex online tasks for enterprises. Its technology simulates human-like browsing to perform actions and gather data at a massive scale. The company is initially focusing on the retail and travel sectors. Its primary use cases include dynamic price surveillance, where AI bots track prices, promotions, shipping times, and inventory levels across competitor websites in real-time. These tasks were traditionally handled by large, offshore teams performing manual data entry or by custom software scripts that would often break when a website's design changed. Palo Alto, California-based TinyFish has a team of about 25 people. The new funding provides TinyFish with a runway of three to four years, according to CEO Sudheesh Nair. The AI agent space is experiencing a gold rush, with a flurry of offerings onautonomous software. Big tech companies and startups are racing to capitalize on the shift from static large language models (LLMs) to dynamic agents capable of performing complex, multi-step tasks. TinyFish says its technology could help solve the problem of efficiently and reliably gathering critical data from the dynamic and messy environment of the internet. "If you can turn the internet into analyzable data, it will fundamentally give businesses advantages that others don't have," Nair told Reuters, adding that the goal is to help businesses "make more money," not just save on costs. Its system uses advanced AI models for reasoning and exploration, and then codifies that knowledge for high-speed, deterministic execution at scale, according to Nair. Amit Agarwal, partner at ICONIQ, said the decision to invest was driven by TinyFish's success with early pilot customers, including tech giant Google. "They had operationalized it, productionized it at a very large scale for two large-scale customers who have all the development resources in-house to build these types of things themselves," Agarwal said. (Reporting by Krystal Hu; Editing by Stephen Coates)
