The most controversial news of the week went almost entirely unnoticed, covered under a plethora of COVID-19 articles: Donald Trump issued an order to block the sale of the cloud-based suite of hotel management solutions, StayNTouch, to Chinese Goliath, Shiji, on the ground of "national security."
According to the President, there would be "credible evidence [Shiji] might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." Now, Trump IS a hotelier; that we know, so we may think he's still got an interest in hotel tech. Could be. Yet, something doesn't quite add up to me.
The Silicon Valley is known for its democratic sympathies, yet, what you may not know (but you should), is that Oracle's CTO and co-founder, Larry Ellison, is a fervent Trump supporter. Just last month, to name one, he hosted a Golf Outing and Reception fundraiser for the President, where guests (with tickets being sold at hundreds of thousands of dollars) could play golf and take a picture with the Nation leader.
Some of Oracle's employees even launched a petition (now closed, but still accessible here and signed by 9,576 people ) on the ground that the fundraiser represented a breach of corporate ethics.
Another fact you may not know (but you should, again) is that, on March 1, Oracle and Shiji ended an almost-20-year-long partnership: "Effective June 1, 2020, all sales of Oracle Hotel and Food & Beverage software, hardware and Cloud Services in China shall occur through one of our other authorized China resellers, Hangzhou GreenCloud Software Co Ltd ("GreenCloud") or Ai Wei Information Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd ("Hospitality and Retail Systems China")."
I may be paranoid, but the timing seems convenient, to say the least: with Shiji growing and expanding outside China at an extraordinary pace, the Chinese group is becoming a real menace to Oracle, already threatened by new, disruptive, cloud-native PMS, such as MEWS or Apaleo. Personally, I had my share of difficulties with Oracle when I published a long piece on the current state of PMSs and received some, well, let's say "mixed" feedbacks from the company.
A journalist I had the privilege to know and work with on a few occasions, Phil Butler, wrote a heated piece on the topic and, even though I tend to be more cautious than him, especially when it comes to commenting on intricate stories like this one, I cannot help but be, at least, intrigued by some of his speculations.
Property Technology
Simone Puorto boasts a career spanning over two and a half decades, during which he has established himself as a leading consultant for the travel and hospitality industry, a keynote speaker, and the author of a dozen books on marketing. His influence spans multiple domains, including business consulting and academic research. He is also known for organizing Polybius, a groundbreaking 24-hour event in the metaverse that redefined benchmarks in the travel industry.Academically, Simone has earned accolades as an MBA lecturer at prestigious institutions such as ESSEC, Les Roches, Swiss Hotel Management School, 24ORE Business School, LUISS, and IMHI. His expertise is sought after in advisory roles for innovative companies, including Sleap.io, RobosizeME, KIRE, BWG Strategy, and GAIN.In 2023, he co-founded Rebyū, a GPT start-up designed to automatically respond to hotel reviews while respecting the brand's style and tone. As a techno-philosopher, prolific writer, and podcaster, Simone also founded Travel Singularity, a consultancy at the intersection of technology and the travel industry, focusing particularly on the implications of Web3 for hospitality and the innovative roles of GenAI and spatial computing in tourism.His most recent book, "We Are The Glitch," serves as a manual for hoteliers aiming to navigate the transition to what Simone terms "posthuman hospitality." This work emphasizes how artificial intelligence and machines can take on operational roles, allowing hoteliers to focus on the essence of their profession: caring for guests.A vegetarian, anti-speciesist, crypto-anarchist, and biohacker, Simone is also recognized for his dedication to transhumanism and anti-deathism, animal rights, cyborg rights, and the ethical use of AI. An effective altruist and a scholar of Sōtō Zen Buddhism, he self-identifies as a "digital bodhisattva."Since 2023, he has actively supported Shout 85258, a free and anonymous mental health support SMS service based in the United Kingdom.He divides his time between Rome and Paris, working to shape the industry's future with innovative and sustainable solutions.
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