4 minutes estimated reading time
Buy now, pay later
Paidy considers listing as ‘buy now, pay later’ catches on in Japan | Financial Times – Japan is a microcosm of what’s happening in terms of buy now, pay later on the web. Japan is notable, because like Germany, historically it has been a heavy cash focused consumer payments market. Mobile payments were mainly used for daily expenses like commuter travel or shopping at the combini. Many consumer e-commerce sites now have Klarna involved. Even Amazon is getting in on the buy now, pay later theme:Amazon Enters the ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Space Through Affirm – All of this looks like a consumer credit iceberg that might catch bankers et al by surprise. The buy now, pay later model itself isn’t new. Its payment by instalments model was used by catalogue businesses to furniture stores. It is lay away for more impulsive times.
Business
Strategising for Success in Winner-Take-All Industries | INSEAD Knowledge
Ethics
Cantopop star Denise Ho flagged by law enforcement agencies: Sing Tao | The Standard – a few things are interesting which are further evidence of the maximalist interpretation of the Hong Kong National Security Law. Going after Ho is an indication that none of the pro-democracy movement will be tolerated, even as a Potemkin village type construct.
Chinese Official Dismisses Wave of Emigration From Hong Kong — Radio Free Asia – “Neither Beijing nor Hong Kong officials are willing to admit that there is a crisis in Hong Kong,” Cheng said. “Hong Kong residents lack confidence in the future and can’t tolerate the current situation, so a considerable number of people are choosing to emigrate.”
“I think the central government must care about that, because it will affect how its policies in Hong Kong are perceived in the international community,” he said. Cheng, who has himself recently emigrated, said the feelings of the people of Hong Kong are no longer being taken into account by Beijing. – I honestly think the Xi administration doesn’t care
Why are these state media artists disrespecting the CCP? – by Kevin Carrico – I have been hearing about this from other people as well. I am surprised Twitter is blue ticking them. YouTube and Twitter are building up bad reputations for enabling Chinese and Russian state directed propaganda
Legal
Hong Kong censorship law to check old films for national security breaches | Yahoo! Singapore News – guessing that this would rule out a lot of the old police and triad films from Infernal Affairs to Election and pretty much the whole of the John Woo back catalogue
Luxury
The new threat to China’s luxury boom: What to know | Vogue Business – Xi Jingping’s push to a less rich society
Xi Jinping’s call for wealth redistribution threatens luxury groups’ China boom | Financial Times – A small group of ultra-wealthy people — Jefferies reckons they number about 110,000 and each spend more than €100,000 a year on fashion and jewellery — account for almost a quarter of luxury sales to Chinese consumers
Chinese gold jewellery sales shine amid demand for traditional designs and national pride among young consumers | South China Morning Post – modern simplicity is out and tradition is in when it comes to jewellery. The idea of guo chao seems to be moving into the luxury sector with an interest in ‘heritage gold’ jewellery designs
Media
Chinese government fines surrogacy controversy actress Zheng Shuang US$46.1 million for tax evasion | South China Morning Post – is it me or can anyone else understand how these stars are pulling down such huge sums? No explanation as China’s billionaire actress Zhao Wei blacklisted from Chinese internet | South China Morning Post
Philippines
Accused of harassment, Gigil co-founder files libel complaint | Advertising | Campaign Asia – the Philippines might have its #metoo moment thanks to Deng Teng
Retailing
Urban Outfitters Is Launching an Online Thrift Store This Fall | Business Insider
Security
From Pearl to Pegasus: Bahraini Government Hacks Activists with NSO Group Zero-Click iPhone Exploits – The Citizen Lab – these are bought in services from the likes of NSO rather than homegrown hacking skills
Tailoring Deterrence for China in Space | RAND
Chinese state hackers: Huawei data centre built to spy on PNG
Beijing drafts rules to rein in the algorithms used by Big Tech to push videos and popular apps in widespread crackdown | South China Morning Post – new rules will ‘regulate algorithm-empowered recommendation activities on the internet’ – this is an interesting development and will likely impact TikTok overseas as well
Technology
Google confirms it’s pulling the plug on Streams, its UK clinician support app | TechCrunch – interesting that Google Streams is being abandoned now. Worthwhile reading this essay on Google’s messaging apps as well: A decade and a half of instability: The history of Google messaging apps | Ars Technica – both seem to be part of endemic behaviour at the heart of the Googleplex
Data Stolen in Microsoft Exchange Hack May Have Helped Feed China’s AI Project : NPR