Tadashi Yanai, the founder and CEO of Fast Retailing Co., and its subsidiary UNIQLO, recently expressed his desire to have a woman as his successor and the CEO of his Company.
Tadashi Yanai, who owns 44 % stake in the popular retailing company Fast Retailing, was ranked the 31st richest person in the world by Forbes in June 2019. Yanai is also the richest person in Japan, with a net worth of $ 24.9 billion. He founded Fast Retailing in 1984, which grew to become the third largest clothing retailer in the world with an annual revenue of $ 18.9 billion in 2018.
During an interview, Tadashi Yanai told Bloomberg Japan he believes women are more suitable for the job of CEO as they are “ persevering, detail oriented and have an aesthetic sense.” Yanai’s statement was welcomed by everyone because it was seen as a shift from the male focused corporate world. Yanai also discussed about the future CEO of the Company and named Maki Akaida, who is currently the CEO of UNIQLO Japan, as a possible candidate.
Yanai also shared he plans to increase the ratio of female executives to more than half in his Company. The Company, in 2018, fulfilled its goal of filling 30 % of the Company’s managerial positions with women employees. It has 6 women in executive positions. Yanai also added women are reluctant to join managerial positions due to a fear of lifestyle change.
Tadashi Yanai and his Company’s efforts to ensure gender diversity have been praised heavily as latest reports show Japan is still behind when it comes to employing women in managerial positions. According to a report published by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranked 110th in its Global Gender Gap Index 2018 report. The Country has a wage gap of 24.5 % between women and men in similar positions.
This issue led Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addressing Japan’s shrinking workforce, a part of which is to provide better quality of work and senior positions to working women.
Although it is unclear when Yanai plans to step down from his position, the effort put in by him and Fast Retailing is a positive step for women working in the corporate sector in Japan as well as globally.
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Mumbai-based fashion tech startup ZILO has raised $4.5 million in seed funding, with Info Edge Ventures and Chiratae Ventures co-leading the round. Founded in 2025 by ex-Flipkart and Myntra executive Padmakumar Pal and entrepreneur Bhavik Jhaveri, ZILO aims to transform urban fashion retail by delivering products from over 250 brands—including Levi’s, Louis Philippe, and Puma—within 60 minutes of order placement. The new capital will be used to strengthen ZILO’s hybrid supply chain, deepen brand partnerships, and expand operations beyond Mumbai into other major metro cities by year-end.
ZILO’s quick commerce model stands out by combining the convenience of online shopping with the efficiency of offline retail. The platform operates through a network of dark stores and brand outlets to ensure fast delivery of fresh, in-season fashion items. Customers benefit from scheduled home trials, allowing them to try multiple sizes upon delivery with the option for instant returns, and receive AI-powered style recommendations for a more personalized shopping experience.
The funding comes amid surging investor interest in ultra-fast fashion delivery startups, as rapid fulfillment becomes a key differentiator in India’s competitive ecommerce landscape. With plans to expand its product range to include footwear, bags, and accessories by the festive season and scale up to nearly 100,000 styles, ZILO is positioning itself to meet the growing demand for speed, personalization, and reliability in fashion retail.
Meta Platform is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire PlayAI, a Palo Alto-based startup renowned for its cutting-edge voice cloning technology powered by artificial intelligence. While the deal is not yet finalized, sources indicate that Meta aims to acquire both PlayAI’s proprietary technology and a significant portion of its staff. Though financial details remain confidential, industry insiders estimate the acquisition could be worth between $300 million and $500 million.
PlayAI has made a name for itself by developing tools that generate highly realistic voice clones, with applications spanning customer service, virtual assistants, and conversational AI agents. A key differentiator for PlayAI is its low-latency, edge-computing architecture, allowing for near-instant, natural-sounding voice responses. The startup has attracted over $23 million in funding from notable investors such as 500 Startups and Kindred Ventures, positioning itself as a leader in the rapidly growing field of voice AI.
For Meta, this potential acquisition fits squarely within CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s broader strategy to make artificial intelligence central to the company’s future. Integrating PlayAI’s advanced voice technology could significantly enhance Meta’s AI assistant, smartglasses, and other hands-free devices, helping the company keep pace with competitors like Google and OpenAI. The move also follows Meta’s recent multi-billion dollar investment in Scale AI and its aggressive recruitment of top AI talent, signaling Zuckerberg’s commitment to leading in the next wave of AI innovation. Both Meta and PlayAI have declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations.
Elon Musk has announced that, starting June 27, 2025, hashtags will be banned from all promoted posts on X (formerly Twitter). This policy applies exclusively to paid advertisements, meaning regular users can still include hashtags in their personal posts. Musk described hashtags in ads as an “esthetic nightmare,” emphasizing that the change is intended to create a cleaner, less cluttered feed where advertisements blend more seamlessly with organic content.
The ban reflects Musk’s long-standing criticism of hashtags, which he has called “ugly” and unnecessary. He argues that with the platform’s advanced AI tools, such as the Grok chatbot, hashtags are no longer essential for content discovery or categorization. Instead, X’s algorithms can now surface and organize relevant content and ads without relying on manual tags, signaling a broader industry shift toward AI-driven content curation.
For advertisers, this marks a significant departure from traditional social media marketing strategies, where hashtags have been key for engagement and campaign tracking. Brands will now need to adapt by focusing on compelling visuals, concise copy, and leveraging X’s AI-powered targeting. The move has sparked debate among marketers and users, with some supporting the cleaner look and others lamenting the loss of a familiar engagement tool.
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May 25, 2025 at 8:46 am
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