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We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.
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The Strength of Indian-Chinese Business Relationships 🤝
We are all wondering how business will continue in the aftermath of India’s banning of 59 Chinese mobile apps last week, including TikTok, and the new restrictions on foreign investment targeted primarily at China. While some Indian video apps are thriving because of the ban, several TikTok clones actually scamming users have also appeared, and other Western tech companies like Facebook and Youtube are also stepping up their efforts. It’s a battleground for India, home to 1.3 Billion people.
This KrAsia article outlines the many many ways that India and China are linked to each other through interdependent business relationships. Chinese investors allocated $4.1 Billion in funds to Indian companies in 2019, an increase from only $300 Million in 2018. The US is still the largest provider of foreign direct investment in India, allocating $46 Billion in 2019. For many Chinese mobile apps, like TikTok, India is often their biggest international market. Chinese smartphone companies make up 70% of the total Indian smartphone market and employ tens of thousands of Indian employees. China is India’s largest trade partner behind the US, providing 12% of raw materials, commodities, and components. Whatever the next steps for the Indian government, economic decoupling from China, if that’s even the desired end goal, will be a long and complicated process.
China’s 2020 Internet Report 📊
For the last three years, The South China Morning Post has released a detailed document outlining the major trends in China’s technological transformation. This is like a Chinese version of Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends, which is probably the most famous annual report of data & insights for the global tech industry. The 2020 version came out earlier this week and is packed with great content on post-Covid China, startups, 5G, livestreaming and more.
It’s honestly worth reading through the whole (free) report yourself but here are some great takeaways compiled by a mixture of SCMP reporters. Overall time spent online is up by 30% year-on-year, with the biggest growth from audiences over 40. Online education is expected to grow 62 percent this year to have 420 million online students. Chinese smartphones like Xiaomi and Oppo are gaining global market share. China is aggressively building out 5G infrastructure this year to encourage mass adoption of the technology. And livestreaming is entering a new phase of ubiquity where traditional industries such as luxury goods, real estate, and automotive are now using livestreaming as a standard marketing channel. These data represent already existing trends that the coronavirus has accelerated.
The Death of Stanley Ho, Asia’s Gambling Tycoon 🎲
This week, over 100 politicians and celebrities will be attending the Hong Kong funeral of Stanley Ho, a billionaire gambling tycoon who owned the biggest gaming empire in Asia. Stanley passed away in May at the age of 98 and was largely responsible for turning Macau into the world’s largest gambling destination through his company SJM Holdings, which currently owns nineteen Macau casinos.
Stanley Ho has left a huge legacy. Stanley fled Hong Kong when the Japanese invaded in 1941 and ended up in Macau, which at the time was under Portuguese rule. In 1962, he won the rights to to run a government-granted monopoly of all of Macau’s gambling operations until 2001. He branched out into a set of diversified investments across Asia including real estate, tourism, shipping, banking, and more. After several years of inheritance disputes around Stanley’s fortune, his numerous children are now in leadership roles scattered around the family’s Macau casinos and assorted businesses.
What is something interesting you have read about Asia recently? Let me know in the comments or reply directly to this e-mail!
Update #23 - Business Relationships, Internet Trends and Stanley Ho