China cloud market + other news

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China cloud market

Amazon, Microsoft Face Tough New Limits on China Cloud Market — The Information – why aren’t companies lobbying the US (and other governments) to hammer China on the WTO?. It is interesting that the China cloud market is being treated like a strategic industry. The question is what is the Chinese government’s end game with the data in the China cloud market and how will it be weaponised?

Shenzhen civic centre

Business

Yahoo! remainder to rebrand as “Altaba”, CEO resigns – the truly sad bit is David Filo’s resignation, despite being one of the largest shareholders

Sterling’s Plunge Spoils FTSE 100 Record Winning Streak – MoneyBeat – WSJ – sterling’s drop shows that the FTSE gains are mostly illusory

Finance

Alipay User Overview 2016 – China Internet Watch – the spend sounds high given China’s average wage

Gadget

MacFarlane quits Sonos | TechEye – Amazon on the low end and Bose alongside other hi-fi companies now in the market

Media

Journalism, media and technology trends and predictions 2017 – Reuters Institute for the study of journalism – interesting issues that will affect media planning and creative (Facebook Live, VR, AR). Social becomes a policy tool as politicians use social for campaigning and dialogue (PDF)

Apple Sets Its Sights on Hollywood With Plans for Original Content – WSJ – its about competing with Spotify; not Netflix apparently

Collett Dickenson Pearce | BraveNewMalden – how to ruin an ad

Venture capital is going to murder Medium – Business Insider – $132 million in funding…

Online

China’s answer to Quora now worth a billion bucks | Techinasia – it pisses me off that the way this is phrased. Knowledge search Q&A type sites have been a staple of Asian web for over a decade: Naver being a classic example. Baidu has had a version for years.

What Comes Next Is the Future (2016) on Vimeo – great documentary on the history of the web and where it going in the future

Netflix is even more popular than porn in hotel rooms | Quartz – it doesn’t look as douchy on your credit card statement?

Security

Russia’s D.N.C. Hack Was Only the Start – NYTimes.com – interesting if a bit self-serving op-ed by Robby Mook who managed Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 campaign for president. His distinction between leaks versus doxing is a relatively weak argument. Where would he stand on whistleblowers?

Software

WeChat is morphing so Chinese smartphone owners will never have to download an app again — Quartz

Technology

Future Health Index – interesting resource on future of health thinking

Gartner Says 2016 Marked Fifth Consecutive Year of Worldwide PC Shipment Decline – PCs aren’t dead, but they aren’t the general purpose device; instead their are a serious computing device where more computing power, more focus or better ergonomics are required rather than the casual or glanceable computing of mobile and tablet devices

Web of no web

TV anchor says live on-air ‘Alexa, order me a dollhouse’ – guess what happens next • The Register – epic. More related content here.

Google Maps now displays Uber drivers in real-time | TheNextWeb – is this real data though?