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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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UK Bans Huawei 5G Technology 🗼
The British government has now banned Chinese company Huawei from participating in building equipment for the UK’s 5G networks. Without a doubt, part of this decision will have direct influence from the UK’s political allies in the United States, who already have a hard-line policy of banning Huawei from the US. In the UK, Huawei currently has over 1,600 employees and sponsors research at universities around the country.
5G is critical communications infrastructure for every country in the world. There are high stakes in governments deciding who can work on 5G for security reasons, but there are also major considerations in ensuring the high technological quality of 5G networks. Without Huawei, who has already built part of the UK’s 3G and 4G infrastructure, the UK will have to look elsewhere.
Prior to Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister David Cameron was considered one of the most ‘China-friendly’ leaders in the West, encouraging major increases in both bilateral trade and diplomatic relations. With this latest move by Prime Minister Johnson, the relationship between China and the UK will enter a new phase. Whether it’s right or wrong, Boris Johnson has made the assessment that the UK’s current relationship with China needs to change.
Bilibili Launches Matchmaking Platform For Influencers ✨
Bilibili is the Chinese video platform similar(ish) to Youtube, focused on a younger audience and the ACG sub-culture (Anime, Comics, Gaming). They just announced the new launch of a matchmaking platform for brands and content creators called Sparkle. Bilibili has 1.8 million active creators and the number of content creators with 10,000 fans or more has doubled over the last year.
Rival platforms such as Douyin (the TikTok of China) already have a similar platform to Sparkle and TikTok has their own equivalent called Creator Marketplace. Linking creators with brands is a critical business model for all stakeholders, including the platform hosting the content.
Bilibili is a publicly listed company with around 170 Million monthly active users and ad revenue coming from brands makes up around 10% of their total revenue. Sparkle should help increase Bilibili’s ad revenue by making it easier for brands to connect with creators and access data on creator engagement, reach, and other metrics. In a broader context, Bilibili is also looking at a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Currently the company is listed on the Nasdaq with a market cap around $16 Billion.
Jio’s Latest Investor, Google 🚀
Over the last few days, Google announced both a $10 Billion investment in India and a potential $4 Billion investment in Indian company Jio. Jio is owned by Reliance, which is one of India’s largest companies and owned by the richest man in Asia, Mukesh Ambani. When I wrote about Jio on June 10, the company had received $13 Billion in investment from Facebook, Paypal, private equity firms, and sovereign wealth funds. Since then, the company has also received $600 Million from TPG, $250 Million from L Catterton, $1.5 Billion from Saudi Arabia’s PIF, $253 Million from Intel, and $97 Million from Qualcomm.
It seems that Jio has become the default beneficiary of the Chinese-US trade war. Jio is a 13-year-old company and has received more investment in a shorter time period than any other company in the world. Jio’s telecommunications/digital services have 388 Million subscribers, providing a gateway to Indian consumers. That is an attractive investment to all international companies, with the latest being Google. And considering what has happened over the last few weeks, Google surely will not be the last. There’s likely more to come.
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