Showing 1 - 10 of 36
What's wrong with China's national champions?
News, Adam Minter, Published on 05/03/2019
» A year ago, Didi Chuxing Inc, China's largest ride-sharing company, looked like a quintessential "national champion". It had driven Uber Technologies Inc from the local market, attracted investment from Apple Inc and was contemplating a Hong Kong IPO worth as much as US$80 billion (2.5 trillion baht). State media coverage was fawning, government support was all but assured and the company's near-monopoly looked unassailable.
Old phones may pose a 'security risk'
News, Adam Minter, Published on 12/11/2018
» That obsolete smartphone stashed away in a drawer or closet may not look like a national security risk, but the Trump administration is contemplating treating it as one.
Grindr holds a mirror to China's subtle evolution
News, Adam Minter, Published on 11/09/2018
» Grindr, the world's largest gay social-networking site, told the Shenzhen stock exchange recently that it plans to IPO overseas. Its owner, Beijing Kunlun Technology Co, a games developer, didn't give a date or location. But the announcement revived concern in the gay community locally and worldwide about the app's Chinese ownership.
Southeast Asia's 'fake news' laws are a fake solution
News, Adam Minter, Published on 26/05/2018
» In the waning days of Malaysia's recent election campaign, then-opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad was investigated under the country's anti-fake news law. Had he been charged and convicted, he could have spent as much as six years in prison. Instead, Dr Mahathir was elected prime minister with a pledge to repeal the law.
Latest Google China bid will end like before
News, Adam Minter, Published on 20/12/2017
» In 2006 the Chinese government allowed Google to establish Google.cn for Chinese internet users. In return, Google agreed to scrub results of content that the government found objectionable. The deal held until 2010, when Google decided it could no longer agree to such terms. Within hours, the site was blocked and Google's search business on the mainland was dead.
China trashes its recycling industry
News, Adam Minter, Published on 10/10/2017
» For 30 years China has recycled more cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and old computers than any other nation. By doing so, it's saved millions of tonnes of resources and indirectly funded thousands of recycling programmes and companies globally. But now it wants to stop. In July, China notified the World Trade Organisation that it will soon prohibit the import of many types of recyclables. As a result, recycling programmes and companies around the world are scrambling to find new destinations for the junk they once sent to China. In an increasing number of cases, that destination is a landfill.
China bent on carving a space for itself in the skies
News, Adam Minter, Published on 26/09/2017
» Last week, the Commercial Aviation Corp of China (Comac) announced that the C919, China's first homemade large passenger jet, had chalked up its 730th pre-order. Those numbers won't necessarily make Boeing or Airbus SE quake; Boeing estimates Chinese airlines alone will require 5,420 new single-aisle planes by 2036. Ultimately, though, they could herald the end of global aviation's great duopoly.
Why Uber's losing out to locals in Southeast Asia
News, Adam Minter, Published on 28/07/2017
» By any measure, the April 2016 decision by Uber Technologies Inc to sell its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing was a defeat. The brief but spectacular battle between the two ride-hailing behemoths had cost Uber at least $2 billion and earned it little more than the enmity of the Chinese government. The only silver lining seemed to be that Uber, free of an expensive price war, could focus its resources on other markets, including rapidly growing Southeast Asia.
China's cashless revolution is likely to spread afar
News, Adam Minter, Published on 20/07/2017
» On a recent trip to Shenzhen, in southern China, I came across a subway busker with two tip jars. The first was a cardboard box filled with coins and bills; the second was a small QR code taped to the box that allowed passersby to leave a tip by smartphone. On one level, this was simply smart business: Chinese made around $5.5 trillion in e-payment transactions last year. But it also offered a glimpse of the future.
Has China now raised the 'Great Firewall' too high?
News, Adam Minter, Published on 13/07/2017
» Will it be RIP for China's VPNs? On Monday, Bloomberg News reported that the Chinese government had ordered telecommunications providers to block access to individual virtual private networks by Feb 1. VPNs are popular and widely utilised services that allow internet users to bypass web restrictions. In effect, the new rules would block the most popular means for Chinese netizens to see beyond the so-called "Great Firewall".