隨著人工智慧（AI）原生的α世代逐漸成為消費主力，同時50歲以上年齡層對於過往的懷舊需求也愈加濃厚，整體消費市場呈現兩極化的趨勢。 α世代指的是2010年至2024年間出生的孩子，他們擁有與AI高度親和的特質，並且在真實與虛擬世界間無縫切換。他們強調創造力、成果導向，且擁有豐富的語彙與知識，這一代的消費需求更多元且深具個性化。
隨著人工智慧（AI）原生的α世代逐漸成為消費主力，同時50歲以上年齡層對於過往的懷舊需求也愈加濃厚，整體消費市場呈現兩極化的趨勢。
α世代指的是2010年至2024年間出生的孩子，他們擁有與AI高度親和的特質，並且在真實與虛擬世界間無縫切換。他們強調創造力、成果導向，且擁有豐富的語彙與知識，這一代的消費需求更多元且深具個性化。
Generation Alpha, also known as the Alpha generation, is the demographic cohort that comes after Generation Z: - Researchers and popular media generally identify the early 2010s as the starting birth years and the mid-2020s as the ending birth years.
- Generation Alpha is the first generation to be born entirely within the 21st century. They are immersed in technology and have grown up in a fully digital world.
Generation Alpha, also known as the Alpha generation, is the demographic cohort that comes after Generation Z:
- Researchers and popular media generally identify the early 2010s as the starting birth years and the mid-2020s as the ending birth years.
- Generation Alpha is the first generation to be born entirely within the 21st century. They are immersed in technology and have grown up in a fully digital world.
‘Alphabet,’ From Ancient Greece to Google
By betting on ‘Alphabet’ as the name for its new parent company, Google is relying on a word that has only existed in English for about five centuries
English borrowed the Latin ‘alphabetum,’ which in turn came from the Greek ‘alphabetos,’ derived from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, ‘alpha’ and ‘beta.’ ILLUSTRATION:MATT CHASE
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When Google announced this week that it was creating a parent company called Alphabet, tech and business observers were left scratching their heads. Why would such a distinctive brand subsume itself under a rubric as generic-sounding as “Alphabet”?
Google chief executive Larry Page shared the news by explaining, “We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search!” Beyond that, the name has a hidden meaning for potential investors. “We also like that it means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for,” Mr. Page added.
By betting on “Alphabet,” Google is relying on a word that we all learn as children but has only existed in English for about five centuries. In Old English, if you wanted to refer to the alphabet, you would use a word formed from the first four letters: “a-be-ce-de.” In Middle English this was shortened to “a-be-ce,” or as we would now spell it, “ABC.”
Around 1500, when classical scholarship was all the rage, English borrowed the Latin “alphabetum,” which in turn came from the Greek “alphabetos,” derived from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, “alpha” and “beta.”
Those names can trace their lineage back to the ancient Phoenician writing system. The “alpha” equivalent was shaped like a cow’s head, named after the Phoenician word for “ox.” Similarly, “beta” meant “house” and was shaped like one. In the alphabetic system, those characters came to stand for the initial sounds of the pictured words.
As “alphabet” shed its Greek classical sound in English, “alpha” and “beta” developed their own particular meanings as “primary” and “secondary” in order of importance. Astronomers, for instance, use the letter names for the brightest and second-brightest stars in a constellation.
In the late 1930s, zoologists began talking of “alpha” and “beta” animals, referring to the first- and second-ranked individuals in a community, typically males. The words have been applied more wryly to professional hierarchies, such as Silicon Valley types getting categorized as “alpha” or “beta” geeks.
The most common use of the letters in tech circles is in software testing. Initial in-house “alpha testing” of a product is followed by more public “beta testing” of a “beta version.” Google, notoriously, likes to keep many of its products in “perpetual beta,” continually tinkering with them.
Mr. Page’s allusion to Google’s “alpha-bet” illustrates a new business-minded trajectory for the letter names among quantitative financial analysts, or “quants.” As Journal reporter Scott Patterson wrote in his 2010 book “The Quants,” “alpha” signifies a return on investment that outperforms a benchmark index, while “beta” is “shorthand for plain-vanilla market returns anyone with half a brain can achieve.”
Achieving “alpha,” Mr. Patterson explains, carries the “ephemeral promise of vast riches.” Google has, of course, reaped more-than-ephemeral riches for its investors so far, and the alpha geeks are betting that their latest “alpha-bet” will continue to pay off.
