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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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Chinese Autonomous Cargo Drones Fill the Skies ⛅️
If you happened to be standing in a field in northwest rural China last Friday and looked up into the sky, you would have seen China’s largest delivery company SF Holdings complete its very first autonomous cargo drone flight. This was a major milestone in unmanned air drones operating with major capacity. The SF Holdings cargo drone was said to be able to fly with a payload of up to 1.5 tonnes. The target markets for these new drones are rural areas in China that struggle to receive deliveries given their geography.
In the US, Amazon has presented their own delivery drones that have the ability to transport packages weighing 2 kilograms across a distance up to 24 kilometres. Other major drone companies in the US include Sabrewing, Nautilus, and Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet. Drone technology will likely become a major part of logistics and supply chains for countries across the world and the potential market size is pretty huge. There’s enough room for many big drone companies, but the leading technology will likely come from China and America.
Hong Kong Businesses Explore Virtual Solutions 💡
Tourism, Restaurants, and Retail are some of the industries most affected by Covid. In the first half of 2020, visitor arrivals to Hong Kong were down 90% from the previous year. To survive and hopefully thrive through this time period, many of these tourism-related businesses realise that they need to explore digital business models. Cosmetics brand Sasa started livestreaming to Mainland Chinese customers in order to sell their products online instead of relying on tourists visiting from Mainland China. As another example, health and food company AbouThai started hosting online livestreams to sell their products.
Shifting your traditionally physical business online isn’t easy for everyone. For some people, this requires completely new skillsets that might not currently exist amongst their employees. Businesses that understand how to sell their products online will have a competitive advantage in a difficult economy. And for the labour market, digital marketing skills should become even more valuable.
China Opens Doors to More Europeans ✈️
China has eased their travel restrictions on visitors coming from 36 European countries. Earlier this year, almost all foreigners were restricted from entering China, even if they had work permits and family in the country. Travellers to China still have to go through a 14-day quarantine and take mandatory Covid tests and to be specific, it’s Europeans with a valid residence permit who can now apply for a visa to enter China. So there is still a long way to go before travel is normalised.
This incremental step in the direction of progress indicates China’s slow, but steady confidence in the country’s recovery. The idea of easing travel restrictions on a country-by-country basis is something we will start seeing more often. Here in New Zealand, the government is discussing the idea of soon creating travel bubbles — allowing people from specific, low Covid-risk countries to eventually travel to New Zealand. For China, I’m sure the government is making very deliberate steps to decide which countries to open up travel bubbles with. The health of your country will become a more important factor in your ability to travel around the world.
Update #58 - Autonomous Cargo Drones, Hong Kong Tourism, and Incremental Travel