Asia Tech Review

Share this post

China is racing to regulate AI... and cracking down on AirDrop

www.asiatechreview.com

Discover more from Asia Tech Review

A weekly newsletter to keep up with tech news across Asia.
Continue reading
Sign in

China is racing to regulate AI... and cracking down on AirDrop

Plus, ATR's first piece of original content, on the Sequoia breakup

Jon Russell
Jun 12, 2023
5
Share this post

China is racing to regulate AI... and cracking down on AirDrop

www.asiatechreview.com
Share

Welcome back,

Last week’s biggest news was Apple’s entry into AR/VR, promoting a pretty major split between those impressed by a gen-1 product and the potential of future versions, and others who can’t get over the $3,500 price tag. 

Nothing quite so revolutionary happened in Asia tech, but we did see a new CEO at GoTo, China crack down on the seemingly innocuous AirDrop file sharing channel, Binance get into a whole heap of (expected) trouble in the US and a whole load of hacking stories from North Korea.

I wrote about Sequoia's historic split which will see the firm’s China and India/Southeast Asia funds breakaway from their US sibling and rebrand. Things look particularly challenging for India/SEA—the interestingly named Peak XV Partners—as I explained. Expect to see more original content in the newsletter soon so make sure you’re signed up for that. 

That’s all for now, see you next week,

Jon

Btw, if you’re not already following ATR on Telegram, you can find the news channel here or follow on LinkedIn for updates if that’s more your style. 


Stories in focus

Image via Midjourney

Apple’s AirDrop and similar file-sharing programs that were used by protesters in China and Hong Kong in recent years face tighter controls under rules proposed by Beijing, the latest communications technology to fall foul of a broadening national-security clampdown link

China plans to draw up AI regulation in 2023 as Beijing races against the EU, US and others to roll out new laws covering the technology—as I said before, what exactly can AI regulation look like, especially in China… link

GoTo Group is replacing its CEO Andre Soelistyo, seeking fresh leadership to reverse years of losses and tackle intensifying competition. Soelistyo will be replaced by Patrick Walujo, managing partner of private equity firm Northstar Group, who has always loomed large in the executive team albeit not fully hands-on until now link


China

Binance suspended its US-based exchange business after the company and founder/CEO Zhao were sued by the SEC over alleged mishandling funds, lying to regulators link

The EU is considering a mandatory ban on member states using companies deemed to present a security risk in their 5G networks, including Huawei link

The UK will remove Chinese-made surveillance equipment from sensitive govt sites, following pressure around the sale and use of security cameras made by Hikvision and Dahua link

Microsoft is moving some of its best AI from China to Canada in a move that threatens to gut an essential training ground for the China’s tech talent link


Hong Kong

Following the Binance lawsuit, and another focused on Coinbase, Crypto.com has suspended its US institutional business due to apparent low demand link

Meanwhile, a Hong Kong legislator—fresh from seeing the special administrative region of China overturn a ban on retail investor crypto trading—invited Coinbase and others impacted by the SEC to go East, touting also the potential for stock listings there link


India

An insightful look at how Meta’s global team botched WhatsApp’s payment potential in India link

India’s open e-commerce network has expanded to cover B2B transactions link

India’s internet economy is tipped to reach US$1 trillion by 2030, according to a Google report link

Byju's is suing “'predatory” lenders behind a $1.2B term loan, and it says it won't make further payments link

Google is adding more Indian languages to its services and looking into making Android smartphones cheaper as it aims to win more users in the world’s most populous country. link

Forget Ola, its controversially funded scooter maker sibling Ola Electric is reportedly planning to kick off investor meets for a proposed IPO link

India's financial crime agency has sent notices to Xiaomi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Citigroup over alleged illegal remittances link


Southeast Asia

ASEAN's VC 'funding winter' worsens as bellwether giants Grab and GoTo continue to see slow down link

Image via Midjourney

That said, Singapore-based Thunes just raised $60M to grow its cross-border payments business link

Powered by growth in Southeast Asia, TikTok reportedly aims to more than quadruple the size of its global e-commerce business to as much as $20B in sales this year link

Vietnam is grappling with a severe power shortage during an early summer heat wave that is causing problems for manufacturers who picked it as an alternative to China—a number of Apple suppliers are among those being inconvenienced and having to make requests to local energy suppliers link


Taiwan

TSMC’s “brutal” employee culture is apparently making it harder to hire for its Arizona plant link

At TSMC's annual meeting, geopolitics took centre stage for the first time, as CEO Mark Liu defended the US expansion, saying the plans were "not all downside" link


Japan

TuSimple has started testing its self-driving truck tech in Japan link

TSMC's first Japan factory is having to contend with crazy traffic as the location, formerly known for farming, surfers growing pains while turning into a semiconductor hub with modest infrastructure and housing options link


South Korea

South Korea pledged support for its chip sector on Thursday, with President Yoon Suk Yeol describing competition in the industry as an "all-out war" amid heightened China-US tension link


North Korea

North Korean hackers are spoofing venture capital firms in Japan, Vietnam and US link

North Korean hacking group Kimsuky is targeting regional experts and news outlets in new attacks link

North Korean hacking group Lazarus linked to $35M cryptocurrency heist link

A look into the bizarre reality of getting online in North Korea link


You just finished reading Asia Tech Review, the weekly newsletter for keeping up with the tech industry across Asia.

If someone sent this to you, you can sign up for free at Asiatechreview.com

5
Share this post

China is racing to regulate AI... and cracking down on AirDrop

www.asiatechreview.com
Share
Comments
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Jon Russell
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing