China is racing to regulate AI... and cracking down on AirDrop
Plus, ATR's first piece of original content, on the Sequoia breakup
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
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
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
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