Tag: wechat

China Announces Two-Hour Daily Limit on Children’s Phone Screen Time, Tech Shares Tumble

China’s cyberspace regulator said on Wednesday children under the age of 18 should be limited to a maximum of two hours a day on their smartphones, sending shares in tech companies tumbling.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it wanted providers of smart devices to introduce so-called minor mode programs that would bar users under 18 from accessing the internet on mobile devices from 10 pm to 6 am.

Providers would also have to set time limits under the proposed reforms, the CAC said.

Users aged 16 to 18 would be allowed two hours a day, children aged eight to 16 would get one hour while children under eight would be allowed just eight minutes.

But the CAC said service providers should allow parents to opt out of the time limits for their youngsters.

Investors were not impressed.

Shares in Chinese tech firms mostly fell in afternoon trade in Hong Kong after the CAC published its draft guidelines, which it said were open to public feedback until Sept. 2.

Bilibili and Kuaishou slid 6.98 percent and 3.53 percent respectively while Tencent Holdings, which operates the social network app WeChat, closed 2.99 percent lower.

Xia Hailong, a lawyer at the Shanghai Shenlun law firm, said the rules would be a headache for the internet companies.

“A lot of effort and additional costs to properly implement these new regulatory requirements,” he said.

“And the risk of non-compliance will also be very high. So I believe that many internet companies may consider directly prohibiting minors from using their services.”

Authorities have in recent years grown increasingly concerned about rates of myopia and internet addiction among young people.

In 2021, the government imposed a curfew for video game players under the age of 18. That dealt a huge blow to gaming giants like Tencent.

Video-sharing platforms like Bilibili, Kuaishou and ByteDance have since 2019 offered “teenage modes” that restrict the users’ access to content and the duration of use.

ByteDance’s TikTok-like app Douyin bars teenagers from using it for more than 40 minutes.

The proposed rules come after signals from Beijing that a years-long regulatory crackdown on its technology industry has ended. Authorities have said they will look to support the development of tech giants. 

© Thomson Reuters 2023 

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China Cracks Down on ‘Self-Media’ Accounts, Deletes 1.4 Million Social Media Posts

China’s cyberspace regulator said 1.4 million social media posts have been deleted following a two-month probe into alleged misinformation, illegal profiteering, and impersonation of state officials, among other “pronounced problems”.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement on Friday it had closed 67,000 social media accounts and deleted hundreds of thousands of posts between March 10 and May 22 as part of a broader “rectification” campaign.

Since 2021, China has targeted billions of social media accounts in a bid to “clean” its cyberspace and make it easier for authorities to control.

The latest crackdown targeted accounts on popular Chinese social media apps including WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo that fall under the category of “self media,” a term that broadly refers to accounts that publish news and information but are not government-run or state-approved.

Beijing frequently arrests citizens and censors accounts for publishing or sharing factual information considered sensitive or critical of the Communist Party, the government or the military, especially when such information goes viral.

Of the 67,000 accounts that were permanently closed, almost 8,000 were taken down for “spreading fake news, rumours, and harmful information,” according to CAC.

Around 930,000 other accounts received less severe punishments, from being removed of all followers to the suspension or cancellation of profit-making privileges.

In a separate campaign, the regulator recently closed over 100,000 accounts that allegedly misrepresented news anchors and media agencies to counter the rise of online fake news coverage aided by AI technologies.

The CAC on Friday said its latest campaign had targeted almost 13,000 counterfeit military accounts, with names such as “Chinese Red Army Command”, “Chinese Anti-terrorist Force” and “Strategic Missile Force”.

Some 25,000 other accounts were targeted for impersonating public institutions, such as disease and prevention control centers and state-run research institutes.

Almost 187,000 were punished for impersonating news media businesses, while over 430,000 allegedly offered professional advice or educational services without having relevant professional qualifications.

Around 45,000 accounts were closed for “hyping hot issues, clout-chasing and illegal monetisation.”

The regulator said it had “actively coordinated with public security, market supervision and other departments, to deliver a heavy blow and rectify illegal ‘self-media’.”

“At the same time, (we) also call on the majority of netizens to actively participate in monitoring and reporting (illegal ‘self-media’), provide clues … and jointly maintain a clean cyberspace,” it added.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Tencent to Maintain Cost-Cutting Measures Amid First Drop in Annual Revenue

Tencent Holdings on Thursday said it would restrict its focus to its core business, while maintinaing cost-cutting and improving efficiencies, as it reported its first drop in annual revenue to date.

The world’s largest video game company and operator of the WeChat messaging platform posted revenue of CNY 554.55 billion yuan (nearly Rs. 6,65,600 crore) for 2022, down 1 percent from a year earlier, after China’s economic slowdown due to the pandemic and a long-running regulatory crackdown dented profits.

Tencent Chair and CEO Pony Ma told reporters on a call the company would focus this year on getting more out of existing core businesses, rather than on “trying to do everything” and on operating in “red ocean markets”, where competition is intense.

“We hope that our entire business management team and technology will be more focused,” he said. “I think this is very important because we can see that focus and making breakthroughs are very key to overall development.”

The business outlook is uncertain in the world’s largest gaming market after two years of regulatory crackdowns, but sector participants are hopeful of a recovery as regulators have resumed granting publishing licences since late last year after a months-long freeze.

Unlike in most other countries, video games need approval from regulators before release in China.

The crackdown has changed the operating environment for China’s tech giants as regulators have tightened scrutiny over monopolistic behaviour and companies’ handling of user information.

Martin Lau, president of the company, told a later call with analysts that regulations are being normalised and support for platform companies should improve this year.

“[Chinese president Xi Jinping recently] mentioned supporting platform companies to show competence, creating employment, driving consumption and international competition,” he said, “The premier also highlighted the private sector would have a significant potential in the China economy.”

Advertising business picks up

Helping to offset the losses in domestic gaming and fintech, Tencent‘s online advertising business showed a surprisingly strong recovery in the fourth quarter, with revenue for the segment rising 15 percent, and contributing to a 1 percent rise in the group’s revenue overall for the quarter ended December.

China’s city lockdowns intensified in the weeks to early December when the country abruptly ended its zero-COVID policy, unleashing a wave of infections, which heavily disrupted the economy and caused many deaths.

Charlie Chai, an analyst with 86Research, said Tencent’s performance as a whole was “lukewarm”, but the advertising segment “shrugged off the COVID-19 challenge and delivered industry-beating growth”.

During the media call, Lau also spoke about the company’s forays into generative artificial intelligence, which has seen a surge in global interest, driven by the popularity of Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI‘s chatbot ChatGPT.

Reuters reported last month that Tencent was working on a ChatGPT-like chatbot named the “HunyuanAide” that will incorporate Tencent’s Hunyuan AI model.

Lau said the company was rapidly advancing its proprietary foundation model Hunyuan and planned to gradually roll out its own AI foundation models.

Tencent’s chief strategy officer James Mitchell said that Tencent was ready to bear the large cost associated with training AI models even though it is focused on cost-cutting in other areas.

The United States in October announced export controls on high-end computer chips to China to try to contain AI development in the country, but Mitchell said Tencent has enough chips ready to develop its AI models.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

 

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Tencent-Owned WeChat Adds In-App Support for China’s CBDC, Here’s Why

WeChat has added in-app support for China’s e-CNY CBDC in order to get more nationals to use the digital currency. Owned by tech giant Tencent, WeChat is China’s equivalent to WhatsApp, offering an array of social networking mediums as well as a bank-to-bank payment option. As per statistics tracker Oberio, WeChat is estimated to have had over 827 million users in China, all of whom will now have the choice to give the Chinese CBDC a try for facilitating day-to-day payments.

China is accelerating its efforts to drive the adoption of its CBDC in various ways, aiming to onboard currently unbanked nationals onto its financial systems.

WeChat users will now be able to use the digital yuan to pay for eatables and bills via the multi-purpose app.

Those interested to try this feature will have to authorise their WeChat phone numbers with the government-controlled digital yuan wallet operator to activate the service, Chinese media reported.

Built on blockchain networks, CBDCs like the digital yen register permanent and un-alterable transactional records that makes the financial system more transparent.

Other nations like India, Japan, and the US among others are also in advanced phases of their CBDC R&D, to diversify people’s choices in-terms of financial settlements.

China is among the first countries in the world alongside Nigeria and India to roll out its CBDC to the masses.

In September 2022, the country released its CBDCs for public testing in four of its most dense regions. In the present day, the e-CNY digital yuan is available for use with select merchants across 26 Chinese cities and provinces.

For now, China has limited the value of each CBDCs transaction to be as high as $290 (roughly Rs. 23,790). For the daily quota restriction, Chinese CBDC users cannot process CBDC payments exceeding $700 (roughly Rs. 57,430), Bitcoin.com reported citing China’s Global Times.

By August last year, CBDC transactions amounted to $13.9 billion (roughly Rs. 1,140 crore) in China.

The Chinese Municipal Bank also issued its first eCNY loan to a manufacturing plant last year.

In fact, WeChat is not the only popular app that has integrated the e-CNY as part of its services. Recently, Alibaba-owned Ali Pay also added support for CBDC payments in the Asian nation.

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Tencent Is Bringing Content Creators to WeChat to Challenge TikTok’s Dominance

On a hot summer’s day last year, the 90’s boy band Backstreet Boys clambered on to a stage in Pennsylvania and belted out hits as 44 million viewers tuned in from thousands of miles away for the online concert hosted by China’s WeChat Channels.

The show is just one of many events held by WeChat owner Tencent to promote the app’s short-video platform – described by the tech giant’s founder Pony Ma as “the hope of the company”.

Tencent Holdings Ltd has tapped other entertainers too like Taiwan’s Jay Chou and Irish boy band Westlife for livestreamed concerts and, according to a source, has set up a team to build a community of content creators as it seeks to challenge the dominance of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and Douyin, and Kuaishou in the short-video business.

“Tencent hopes it can turn Channels into the next WeChat Pay. It has a shot at it. But it is also going to be difficult,” said Liao Xuhua, a senior analyst at research firm Analysys.

WeChat Pay became the second-biggest player in China’s mobile payment market within a year of its 2013 launch, behind Alipay which is owned by Jack Ma-founded Ant Group.

Two sources familiar with Tencent said the importance of Channels has been repeatedly communicated within the company.

The two-year old platform has been a bright spot for Tencent in an otherwise dismal 2022 when revenue for its other products, such as games and payment services, were slammed by tighter gaming regulations and strict COVID-19 curbs.

The total number of views on Channels surged more than three-fold last year, Tencent said this week as it revealed its latest growth figures for the platform.

Daily active creators and video uploads more than doubled.

Gross merchandise value (GMV) from livestreaming e-commerce, where telegenic personalities hawk goods online in real time, jumped more than 800 percent on Channels, the company said.

It did not disclose absolute figures.

A LatePost report says Channels’ daily transactions from livestreamed sales pitches reached more than CNY100 million ($15 million, or roughly Rs. 122 crore) in September 2022 for the first time, indicating an annual rate of about CNY36 billion (roughly Rs. 43,000 crore).

But Douyin was already aiming to bring its GMV to over 1 trillion yuan ($155 billion or roughly Rs. 12 lakh crore) in 2021, a six-fold jump from 2020 levels, sources said at the time. ByteDance does not publicly disclosee official GMV numbers.

Integrating products

Tencent has been integrating many of its products, ranging from Tencent Meetings to WeChat Mini Program, with Channels to help creators livestream content just like the U.S. band Backstreet Boys.

Tencent Meetings is a Zoom-like teleconference service while mini programs are like apps on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems but less data intensive and run within WeChat.

An integration would allow, for example, a podcast host to conduct an interview on Meetings and livestream it on Channels. If the host recommends a product during the chat, a link can pop up on the screen to take viewers to a Mini Program where they can buy the product using WeChat Pay.

Tencent has also slashed the threshold for monetisation on Channels, allowing users with as few as 10 followers, versus 1,000 earlier, to start making money through advertisements.

TikTok requires content creators to have more than 10,000 followers to start monetising.

Channels has also opened up ad opportunities “like never before”, said Li Yikai, general manager of Americas and EMEA at ad agency Nativex, versus WeChat that pushes a few ads a day.

“When you are already scrolling and come across an ad, you don’t think twice about it. So naturally you come across a lot more ads with short videos,” Li said.

In November, Tencent President Martin Lau said Channels’ advertising revenue was on track to reach 1 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2022.

For TikTok and Douyin, research firm Insider Intelligence estimated in April last year that ad revenues would together reach more than $30 billion (roughly Rs. 2.4 lakh crore) for 2022.

Channels has also started charging e-commerce merchants a 1 percent to 5 percent commission fee from this month.

Douyin has been charging 1 percent to 10 percent since 2020.

Rivalry

While some analysts see Channels as Tencent’s best chance to catch up with ByteDance, others believe it will be tough for it to become as big as Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

“When you have to start from being a social network app and then enter into the short-video space, you have to build up a whole e-commerce system to support it … I won’t say they can’t get there but it’s very difficult,” Analysys’ Liao said.

But Shawn Yang, managing director at research group Blue Lotus Capital Advisors, is bullish on Channels given the potential of WeChat’s traffic.

WeChat, China’s most popular chat app, has more than a billion active users.

“For example, in Douyin or Kuaishou, you won’t be able to ask your viewers to add you on WeChat. But on Channels, you can quickly add somebody on WeChat,” Yang said.

“This is very beneficial to those who already have their own private traffic on WeChat,” he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Elon Musk Wants to Make ‘Everything App’: Here’s All You Need to Know About It

Why is Elon Musk suddenly thinking about creating an “everything app,” and what does that even mean?

The question arose after the billionaire Chief Executive of Tesla earlier this month reversed course on his decision not to buy Twitter.

Musk completed his $44 billion (nearly Rs. 3,62,300 crore) acquisition of Twitter on Thursday, but provided little clarity on how he will achieve the ambitions he has outlined for the influential social media platform.

The concept of an everything app, often referred to as a “super app,” is massively popular in Asia and tech companies across the world have tried to replicate it.

What is a Super App?

A super app, or what Musk refers to as an “everything app,” has been described as the Swiss army knife of mobile apps, offering a suite of services for users such as messaging, social networking, peer-to-peer payments and e-commerce shopping.

These mega apps are widely used in Asia because mobile is the main form of access to the internet for many people in the region, wrote Scott Galloway, a New York University professor of marketing and co-host of tech podcast “Pivot,” last year.

What are some examples of Super Apps?

Chinese super app WeChat has more than 1 billion monthly users, according to one estimate, and is a ubiquitous part of daily life in China. Users can hail a car or taxi, send money to friends and family or make payments at stores. In 2018, some Chinese cities began testing WeChat for an electronic identification system that would be tied to users’ accounts, according to the South China Morning Post.

Grab, a leading super app across Southeast Asia, offers food delivery, ride-hailing, on-demand package delivery and financial services and investing.

Why does Elon Musk want to make a Super App?

During a question-and-answer session with Twitter employees in June, Musk noted there is no equivalent to a super app like WeChat outside of Asia.

“You basically live on WeChat in China,” he said, adding he saw an opportunity to create such an app.

Adding more tools and services to Twitter could also help Musk reach his lofty growth goals for the company. During the Q&A with employees, Musk said he wanted Twitter to grow from its 237 million users to “at least a billion”.

Musk and members of his inner circle texted multiple times about the idea of adding digital payments to Twitter, according to messages released in the discovery phase of litigation between Musk and the social media company.

In the text messages, Musk discussed the possibility of placing Twitter on the blockchain, though he later appeared to decide such a move would not work.

However, crypto exchange Binance, which has invested $500 million (nearly Rs. 4,100 crore) into Musk’s buyout of the social media firm, is creating a team to work on how blockchain and crypto could be helpful to Twitter, a company spokesperson said on Friday.

Have other US companies tried this? 

Yes, Snapchat parent Snap previously introduced peer-to-peer payments called Snapcash, but ended the feature in 2018. It also made a push into mobile gaming and recently ended that venture as part of cost-cutting plans.

Meta Platform’s Facebook and Instagram have also tried to expand beyond social networking and messaging into e-commerce.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

 

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Tencent, Alibaba Have Submitted Details of Algorithms Used in Their Products, Says China Regulator

China’s top internet watchdog said on Friday that tech giants such as Tencent and Alibaba have submitted details of algorithms used in some of their products, complying with a drive by authorities to tighten oversight of platform algorithms.

The rules are part of a broad regulatory crackdown by Beijing against its once free-wheeling technology sector. State media had accused internet platforms of using algorithms to invade user privacy and influence their choices.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published a list of 30 algorithms used in some of the country’s most popular apps, including Alibaba‘s Taobao, Tencent‘s Wechat, Meituan, and ByteDance‘s Douyin, with brief descriptions of their use and gave them classification numbers.

It was the first list published since China in March passed new regulations for algorithm recommendation services and launched a filing system requiring firms and companies to disclose what they used in their apps.

The CAC’s list, for instance, said the Taobao app had logged with it a recommendation algorithm that crunched each user’s visit and search history to recommend them products and services, while Meituan had provided details of the algorithm it used to estimate delivery times and match riders.

Other companies on the list included Chinese online search giant Baidu, short video platform Kuaishou and microblogging site Sina’s Weibo.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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US Senators Seek Report on Security Review of TikTok a Week After Data Transferred to Oracle

A group of six Republican senators on Friday asked the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about an ongoing Biden administration national security review of social media platform TikTok.

The US government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, in 2020 ordered Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that the US user data could be passed on to China’s communist government.

Last week, TikTok said it has completed migrating information on its US users to servers at Oracle, as it seeks to address US concerns over data integrity.

Senators Tom Cotton, Ben Sasse, Mike Braun, Marco Rubio, Todd Young and Roger Wicker asked Yellen numerous questions saying the administration “has seemingly done nothing to enforce” the August 2020 divestiture order.” They noted “the results of the security reviews, likewise, have not been publicly released after one year.”

The senators want to know “will TikTok be locally managed in the United States?” and “Will the US government have the ability to routinely access and inspect the algorithm’s source code?” It also asks “what assurances does the US government have that TikTok will store US data and adopt privacy policies with adequate protections?”

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former President Donald Trump attempted to block new users from downloading WeChat and TikTok and ban other transactions that would have effectively blocked the apps’ use in the United States but lost a series of court battles.

President Joe Biden in June 2021 withdrew a series of Trump’s executive orders that sought to ban new downloads of the apps and ordered the Commerce Department to conduct a review of security concerns posed by the apps.

The senators said the proposal for TikTok to store its US users’ information without ByteDance access “would do little to address the core security concerns.”

CFIUS has been in extensive discussions with TikTok on security issues, sources have said. A spokesman for Yellen declined to comment Friday.

TikTok is one of the world’s most popular social media apps, with more than 1 billion active users globally, and counts the US as its largest market.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

 

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