Asia's tech news, weekly: December 20th
In this edition: China's Saudi Arabia EV moves; data localization's false promise; AI and digital sovereignty; Japan's new cyber laws; solar panel farms in Australia; and more.
• Hong Kong: Gov't attempted to pressure Google to remove 'Glory to Hong Kong' protest anthem from search results; Google refused.
• China's Enovate Motors EV firm launches JV with Saudi Arabia's Sumou Holding to establish manufacturing and R&D base with planned annual output of 100K EVs
• Data localization: "...a one-unit increase in an industry’s data restrictiveness is associated with a 0.5% decrease in the following year's trade - a 0.6% decrease in imports and a 0.9% increase in import prices."
"The future is digital, even for face-to-face payments." Report now available to download from Accenture
• South Korea: Bunker Kids raises $1.5M Series A with combined diet recommendations and delivery services, optimizing for personal health goals using data and algorithms
• New Zealand: Partly aims to connect car parts buyers globally, integrating with online marketplaces like eBay with a database of 50M parts from 20K suppliers and OEMs
• Thailand: SPACE-F food-tech startup incubator and accelerator is now accepting applications globally for 4th cohort
• Indonesia: PaperID raises $12M with software-as-a-service platform providing one-stop platform for creating invoices, and managing accounting and inventory
• ‘The geopolitics of artificial intelligence and the rise of digital sovereignty’, looking at the European Union, the United States and China
• Japan: Gov't to intro new laws allowing it to engage in offensive cyber operations, 'monitoring potential attackers and hack their systems as soon as signs of a potential risk are established'
• Download: 'The Metaverse in Asia - Strategies for Accelerating Economic Impact' from Deloitte, with 12 individual country reports
• Australia and Vanuatu ink wide-angle security agreement, spanning defense, cybersecurity, humanitarian support and more, in the wake of Vanuatu hack
• China: More than 30 tech firms to be added to US blacklist, including YMTC semiconductor firm found to have breached Huawei supply sanctions
• Japan: Kansai Startup Mashups brand launches, backed by Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, to support startups from the Kansai region
• Fiji: Leaders demand recount following vote-counting mobile app glitch that showed opposition ahead before, but second once data was re-uploaded
• India: Cricket start Shikhar Dhawan launches $75M VC fund focusing on sporting tech and innovation
• Philippines: CoinsPH digital wallet and crypto exchange platform gains central bank Advanced Electronic Payment and Financial Services license
• Thailand: Huawei, Ministry of Commerce and Office of Commercial Affairs launch digital training with 'Digital Bus' to boost knowledge in local gov't and community
• India: MoneyyApp, platform for SMEs, digital solo-preneurs and creators, raises pre-seed funding with sights on services for India's 100M creators and 63M MSMEs
• Australia & TikTok: "...Chinese law stipulates that domestic organisations must 'support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence work'
• Singapore: Plugo secures $9M Series A with full-spectrum e-commerce services for direct-to-consumer brands, from website creation to warehousing and logistics
• Alipay+ cross-border digital payments giant rolls out year-end promo with e-wallet partners from Hong Kong, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia
Facebook: "…a major milestone in our enforcements against covert influence operations...disrupted more than 200 global networks...from 68 countries...in at least 42 languages..."
• Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, subsidiary of Foxconn, to sell off minority stake in Tsinghua Unigroup, China's semiconductor giant
• India: Ministry of Electronics and Info Tech Startup Hub and Google unveil Appscale Academy, and multi-city roadshow to engage 1000+ startups in emerging hubs
• Download: The Startup Economy Report 2022, from India's StrideOne (pdf)
• Australia's 5B lands BP funding with rapid-deployment solar panel farms capable of covering the size of a soccer pitch in a single day
• New Zealand: Futureverse merges 8 Web3 firms to form single company of 300 people across 16 countries, aiming to create an open metaverse ecosystem
• Australia: CSIRO ON Accelerate program unveils 10 deep-tech startups selected from Australia's universities and research, working in biotech, IoT, nutrition and more
In other news…
Wider-world technology news providing larger points of reference.
» Major accounting firm suspends all work on proof-of-reserves assessments for crypto clients including CryptoCom, KuCoin and Binance
» Apple to make major change to App Store, working to 'allow alternative app stores' on the iPhone and iPad, potentially launching with next year's iOS 17 release
» Nillion closes oversubscribed round of over $20M, with network allowing nodes in a decentralized network to work in a unique way, without blockchain
» Cross Chain Coalition Web3 Demo Day is set for January 11th, a TechCrunch event