Showing 1 - 10 of 23
Video game competitions should be in Olympics
News, Adam Minter, Published on 30/09/2023
» The hottest sports ticket in the Asia-Pacific right now isn't for a soccer match, an NBA exhibition game or even a swim meet. It's for the medal event debut of competitive video gaming, or esports.
Marriage in China breaks the bank
News, Adam Minter, Published on 01/10/2018
» Getting married isn't cheap in China. In Da'anliu, a small farming village outside Beijing, the local "bride price" -- the fee that a groom's family pays to a bride's in advance of their nuptials -- recently breached the US$30,000 mark (972,000 baht). That's extreme for a village where incomes average $2,900 per year. So, this summer, local officials decreed that bride prices and associated wedding expenses shouldn't exceed $2,900. Violators will be treated as human traffickers.
Big Brother is now creating two Chinas
News, Adam Minter, Published on 27/09/2018
» Even for Chinese authorities, who have long tried to limit the influence of foreign media and ideas, last week marked an escalation. In the span of a few days, authorities blocked access to Twitch, the video-game live-streaming platform owned by Amazon.com Inc; ordered a purge of foreign content from school textbooks; and proposed restricting foreign programming -- especially current-events shows -- from television and online streaming sites.
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.
Streaming service gives voice to rural folks in China
News, Adam Minter, Published on 29/12/2017
» Yang Yang, a 22-year-old Chinese corn farmer, spends two to three hours a day streaming video of life in his cliffside village to smartphones across China. He spends lots of time clinging to a cliffside ladder, one hand on his selfie stick, while he banters with fans about village life.
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.
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.
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".
China's anti-addiction drive may ruin video games
News, Adam Minter, Published on 11/07/2017
» Shareholders of Tencent Holdings Ltd, the world's biggest video game company, panicked last week. People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, singled out Honour of Kings, Tencent's biggest game, for an unusually high-profile criticism.
China's 220 million seniors may reshape the world
News, Adam Minter, Published on 31/05/2017
» For decades, Nestle SA has tried to get its infant milk powder into the hands of China's new mothers with promises of brighter, healthier babies. Now it's trying to do the same for the elderly. Last week, the company launched "Nestle YIYANG Fuel for brainTM senior milk powder", a formula designed to help China's seniors "refuel their brains and start a new smart life".