Need to Know
23 : 01 : 19

Shanghai – Tingtai Teahouse offers a more modern setting for China’s next generation of tea drinkers.

Designed by Linehouse, the large space is made up of private tea rooms that are elevated above the café, giving customers the option to sit in a more secluded area. While Chinese teahouses traditionally rely on the country’s heritage for design inspiration, the Tingtai Teahouse uses a contemporary colour palette of grey and green and features a ‘floating’ metal structure staircase.

Customers are able to try a selection of rare teas, including Pu’er, a tea that is matured through a fermentation process like wine. ‘Guests to the Tingtai Teahouse will spend a few hours drinking tea to really appreciate the different stages of the tea leaves and brews,’ Linehouse founder Alex Mok tells Dezeen.

Tea culture is more relevant than ever in China, as consumers flock to aesthetic-driven tearooms and even choose to stay in tea hotels.

US – The device connects the pill packet to an app to track when the user has taken her birth control.

The MIT Sloan start-up Aavia has launched a beta version of its device, a pouch that is designed to carry a blister pack of pills and automatically sense when pills are removed. With time a factor that affects the success of many birth control pills, Aavia will remind users to take their pill via push notifications to their device until it has been removed from the pack.

The app also responds to changing time zones and offers the option to customise the pill notification to less explicit reminders such as ‘your latte is ready’. According to the founders, no company has yet to address the misuse of oral contraceptives, which contribute to more than one million unintended births a year.

Smartphone apps that take initiative and help consumers manage their personal health are booming, as consumers look to technology for everyday guidance.

US – The streaming service is creating unique playlists for each of the 12 zodiac signs in collaboration with astrologer Chani Nicholas.

Launched last week, the star sign-specific playlists are available to users in the US and can be streamed via Spotify’s Pop Culture hub. The Cosmic Playlists will update every month to reflect each of the 12 signs' themes at that time, based on Nicholas’ astrological readings, which will also accompany each song list.

‘Astrology is about a specific moment in time,’ says Nicholas. ‘Each moment has a specific astrological mark, or archetype associated with it, that defines it. Spotify and I have come together to take the theme of the moment for each sign and curate a playlist that reflects that.’

With these thematic collections of music, Spotify is tapping into the modern-day resurgence of astrology among consumers, who are turning to New Age rituals to reflect and find direction in their lives. To find out why spirituality and folk religion are becoming more mainstream, read our Alternative Spirituality microtrend.

New data compiled by App Annie shows that emerging markets accounted for three out of the top five markets for app downloads in 2018. India, Brazil and Indonesia’s app downloads increased by 165%, 25% and 55% respectively. These numbers were driven by the rise in mobile adoption in these markets and new device owners discovering and experimenting with apps.

In Indonesia, mobile users spent more than four hours a day using apps in 2018 – or 17% of their day. This is an hour more than markets such as the US and Canada, where the average user spent around three hours a day in mobile apps. And while these developing markets played little role in consumer spend on apps, this is expected to increase as engagement climbs and the markets mature.

For a closer look at growth opportunities in India and other emerging markets, explore our Youth vertical.