News

China’s Tech Sector ‘self-correct’ in fear of repercussions

China’s tech sector hustles to free itself from trustbusters’ noose by self-correcting its behavior in a bid to get ahead of any impending regulatory rage from Beijing.    The country’s tech sector has played its latest card in what seems to be a never-ending battle between authorities and the industry. Some of China’s biggest companies […]

Beijing axes Pony.ai's IPO plans

China has allegedly terminated independent driving startup Pony.ai’s efforts to go public on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) amidst Beijing’s endeavors to enforce regulations on numerous sectors in China’s tech industry, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The California-based company was expected to go public via a special-purpose acquisition with a blank-check company in the U.S. that would have […]

PUBG maker share prices drop 20% on IPO debut

South Korean developer of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds’ (PUBG), Krafton, initial public offering recorded a 20 percent drop on Tuesday following a crackdown due to a state-led media attack on the gaming industry.   This is considered the biggest initial decline of a South Korean IPO after LG Philips LCD collapse in the same market 17 years ago. Krafton’s loss came after it reduced its IPO target by more than 10 percent last month following regulatory demands […]

King of the hill: TikTok is officially the most downloaded app in 2020

Step aside Facebook, as TikTok just got crowned the most downloaded social media app in the world as of 2020, according to survey conducted by digital analytics company App Annie.  Launched in 2016, The Chinese video-sharing platform has since overtaken Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, all of which make up Facebook’s ecosystem. This isn’t a milestone to overlook, as Facebook-owned apps have held the top spot since the survey began in […]

COVID-19 misinformation rate rises amid strong U.S. Delta wave

The U.S. ranked the second highest country worldwide with 54,615 CoV-2 Delta variant cases on Monday, according to Statista, amid a similar wave of virus misinformation that spiked noticeably between June and July.  Rates of COVID-19 misinformation and its vaccines increased significantly from June to July, according to U.S.-based AI intelligence cloud that tracks relevant phrases on social media and news outlets, Zignal Labs.  Among the most common falsehoods according to the AI media firm, 437 percent claimed that vaccines don’t work, 156 percent […]

What's inside the Senate's bipartisan infrastructure bill

The Senate has passed a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan plan to rebuild roads and bridges, modernize public works systems and boost broadband internet, among other improvements to the nation’s infrastructure. The White House is projecting that the investments will add, on average, about 2 million jobs per year over the coming decade. Senate Democratic Leader […]

Parched Mendocino, California, implores guests to save water

Tourists flock by the thousands to the coastal town of Mendocino for its Victorian homes and cliff trails, but visitors this summer are also finding public portable toilets and signs on picket fences pleading: “Severe drought. Please conserve water.” Hotels have closed their lobby bathrooms and residents have stopped watering their gardens in the foggy […]

Sony acquires Crunchyroll, leaving anime fans with unanswered questions

AT&T has officially sold Crunchyroll to Sony, bringing two of the world’s biggest anime streaming competitors in Sony’s hands. For the increasingly growing anime fan base, this is game-changing news. In an attempt to close the company’s $170 million debt, the telco sold its largest anime streaming platform for a sum amounting to $1.175 billion. […]

Alibaba fires manager over suspected sexual assault

China’s largest e-commerce company, Alibaba, said Monday it fired a manager accused of sexual assault and pledged to strengthen its anti-sexual harassment policy, after a female employee accused the company of suppressing her report of the assault. The unidentified female employee went public Saturday with an internal post detailing the alleged sexual assault by her […]

China upholds Canadian's death sentence as Huawei case looms

A Chinese court on Tuesday rejected a Canadian drug convict’s appeal of a death sentence in what appeared to be an effort to step up pressure on Canada to release a detained executive of tech giant Huawei. The Canadian government condemned the ruling and appealed to China to grant clemency to Robert Schellenberg. His sentence […]