According to new research, the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region accounted for the lion’s share of the mobile gaming market, coming in at 60%.
It’s not uncommon for many games to debut in China or other APAC countries, much to the disappointment of US and European games. According to research from GlobalData, however, companies are just following the money.
GlobalData’s study found that China alone accounted for 35% of mobile gaming revenue. The US came in second with 20%. Combining the rest of the APAC region with China, however, accounted for a whopping 60% of the entire market.
“Boasting a huge proportion of both mobile and 5G subscribers, it is certain that the APAC region will continue to lead the mobile gaming market in the 5G era,” Rupantar Guha, Associate Project Manager for Thematic Research at GlobalData says. “This is especially considering the presence of established market players such as Tencent being joined by popular non-gaming companies such as Byetedance, which is anticipated to continue making gaming acquisitions in the coming years.”
“The APAC region’s dominance in the mobile gaming market is primarily attributable to its nearly four billion consumer mobile subscribers, which represents more than 50% of total mobile subscribers globally,” Guha continues. “Further, access to 5G networks is also supporting the growth of mobile gaming in the region.”
As 5G has increasingly become a geopolitical issue, Ericsson is warning it will likely be caught in the crossfire in China.
Countries around the world are racing to deploy 5G networks. Once one of the leading equipment providers, Chinese firm Huawei has been under siege for the last couple of years as the US and its allies have leveled sanctions against the company, accusing it of being a national security risk.
One of the countries that banned Huawei from participating in its 5G networks is Sweden, the home country of Ericsson. Huawei challenged the ruling, but lost on appeal.
Ericsson is now warning that Beijing may retaliate, excluding the company from participating in 5G network deployments in China. Even if Ericsson is allowed to participate, it does not believe it will maintain the same market share as in times past.
While Ericsson is invited to various ongoing tender processes in China, the final outcome remains uncertain and it is the company’s current assessment that the risk has increased that Ericsson will in those tenders be allocated a significantly lower market share than its current market share.
The company sees the issue having “a material and potentially lasting adverse impact on our business, including sales, market share, market access and supply chain and R&D activities, our financial condition and results of operations.”
TikTok is once again under scrutiny for its data practices, with the EU warning that some data may be making its way to China.
TikTok claims that EU user data is sent to the US, not China. But according to the EU, some of that data may be accessible to engineers based in China, reports Bloomberg.
“TikTok tells us that EU data is transferred to the U.S. and not to China, however we have understood that there is possibility that maintenance and AI engineers in China may be accessing data,” said Helen Dixon, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner.
The claim is the latest in a long string of privacy issues the social media company has faced. The most recent saw the company settle a lawsuit for some $92 million. TikTok’s privacy practices also led the Trump administration to try to ban the app, although it’s unclear if the Biden administration will continue pursuing those efforts.
Tesla is poised to become the next $1 trillion company, thanks to potential demand in China, according to one analyst.
Tesla has been growing at an incredible pace, recently passing Facebook as the fifth most valuable US company. China has been a big part of that growth, helping it nearly hit its goal of shipping 500,000 vehicles in 2020.
According to Wedbush’s Dan Ives, China’s demand for electric vehicles will likely propel Tesla to its next milestone, shipping one million units in a year.
“If China stays on its current path for Tesla, Musk & Co. could hit one million delivery units globally by 2022. This speaks to our thesis that Tesla will hit a trillion dollar market cap in 2021 despite this risk-off moment for EV stocks with the bears coming back to life after a long hibernation in their caves over the past year,” Ives said.
As part of its meteoric rise, Ives believes Tesla will pass the $1 trillion market capitalization threshold in 2021, making it one of only a handful of companies to do so.
Baidu is the latest company to receive permission to test self-driving cars in California.
Self-driving and autonomous vehicles are considered one of the next big steps in the automotive industry. Virtually every manufacturer is working on some kind of autonomous software, with varying degrees of success.
Baidu is the latest to company ready to test its self-driving tech, and California has granted it a permit to test three autonomous cars, without a driver behind the wheel, according to Reuters. Baidu is the sixth company to receive a permit to test without a driver, with a total of 58 companies cleared to test self-driving cars with a backup driver.
As Reuters points out, Baidu is currently testing some 500 self-driving vehicles, although most are in China. The company has also mostly tested vehicles with a backup driver, and has yet to announce when it will start testing vehicles with no driver.
Apple has obliterated estimates, posting an all-time record revenue for its Q1 earnings report.
Analysts were expecting the company to post $103.3 billion in revenue, far less than the whopping $111.4 billion Apple reported. That represents a 21% increase, year-over-year, coming in at $1.68 per share, an increase of 35%.
The company says international sales accounted for 64% of the company’s revenue, with China sales contributing a big portion. Sales in China increased 57%, coming in at $21.3 billion.
iPhone revenue reached an all-time high of $65.5 billion, rising 17%, driven by demand for the 5G iPhone 12. Apple’s diversification strategy is paying off as well, with the company’s services revenue hitting $15.8 billion, an increase of 24.2%. The company says it now has 620 million subscribers to its services, beating its goal of having 600 million at the end of 2020.
“This quarter for Apple wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless and innovative work of every Apple team member worldwide,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re gratified by the enthusiastic customer response to the unmatched line of cutting-edge products that we delivered across a historic holiday season. We are also focused on how we can help the communities we’re a part of build back strongly and equitably, through efforts like our Racial Equity and Justice Initiative as well as our multi-year commitment to invest $350 billion throughout the United States.”
“Our December quarter business performance was fueled by double-digit growth in each product category, which drove all-time revenue records in each of our geographic segments and an all-time high for our installed base of active devices,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “These results helped us generate record operating cash flow of $38.8 billion. We also returned over $30 billion to shareholders during the quarter as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”
Samsung is considering a $10 billion factory in Texas, its most advanced to date in the US.
Samsung is the largest smartphone maker, as well as the largest memory chip maker, but the company lags behind rival TSMC as a semiconductor maker. While Samsung has been working to catch up for some time, there are a number of current factors that could be driving Samsung’s considerations.
US officials have shown increased interest in revitalizing the US semiconductor business. The early days of the pandemic illustrated the potential shortcomings of being so reliant on China and overseas companies for critical tech components, as multiple companies and industries were paralyzed when China went into lockdown. There has also been increased concern over the security implications of relying on China.
As a result, there’s never been a better time to invest in the US semiconductor industry. Adding to the opportunity is Intel’s recent troubles, including its decision to outsource production of some of its chips to TSMC, although Samsung was also part of the negotiations.
According to Bloomberg the company is locking to establish a factory in Austin, one that will eventually be able to fabricate 3 nanometers processors. If the deal moves forward, construction would begin this year, with manufacturing starting as early as 2023. The project could end up costing more than $10 billion.
Ajit Pai has stepped down as Federal Communications Commission Chairman (FCC), but he had some parting words of warning regarding China.
For the last few years, the US and China have been engaged in a devastating trade war. US officials have also targeted a number of Chinese companies over cybersecurity and national security concerns.
In an interview with Reuters, Pai warned of “injection of malware into networks here in the United States or around the world. There are a number of bad things that can happen when insecure equipment is used to handle sensitive information.”
Those concerns led the Trump administration to ban Huawei and ZTE, as well as take action against China Telecom. US officials pressured allies to take similar action, many of whom did. It remains to be seen if the Biden administration will continue to restrict Chinese telecom firms, but Pai is warning against taking Beijing lightly in this arena.
“The Chinese Communist Party has a very determined world view. They want to dominate this space and exert their will — even beyond their own borders,” Pai said Tuesday. “That is a serious threat not just to internet freedom but to national security for us and for many of our allies.”
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has finally resurfaced, after being out of the public view for months.
Ma’s absence sparked concern, largely because of his recent criticism of China’s regulatory system. There was swift backlash, with Chinese authorities blocking the IPO of Alibaba’s Ant Group, estimated at $37 billion.
According to CNN Business, Ma was spotted in a video posted by Chinese state media. The billionaire was seen in rural China, speaking to teachers as part of his philanthropic work.
Alibaba’s stocks were up in both the Hong Kong and New York exchanges on the news.
At the same time, not all investors are convinced everything is ok. Just because Ma made an appearance doesn’t mean Alibaba, or Ma himself, are in the clear.
“What his actual state is will be completely up to Beijing to reveal to us,” Leland Miller, CEO of U.S.-based consultancy China Beige Book, according to Reuters. “What we do know is whether Jack is running around, Jack is hiding or something else, Alibaba is not in the clear. There is a lot more of the story still to see.”
A Swedish court has dismissed Huawei’s appeal of a ban preventing it from participating in the country’s 5G network.
Huawei has been under pressure around the globe, as a result of its perceived ties to the Chinese government and intelligence community. The US, in particular, has been vocal in accusing the company of being a security risk. A number of countries have banned Huawei from participation in their 5G networks, including Sweden.
Huawei appealed the ban, but a Swedish court has struck down the appeal, according to U.S. News & World Report, despite Huawei reportedly being willing to meet any demand the Swedish government might have.
“A ruling by the Administrative Court of Appeal in a case relating to the law on electronic communication is final and therefore cannot be appealed,” the Supreme Administrative Court said. “The appeal should thus be dismissed.”
This is just the latest in a string of defeats for the Chinese company that has seen it cut off from its primarychipmakers and forced to sell its smartphone business.
Concern is mounting over Jack Ma’s status, amid a months-long absence from the public’s eye.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma is one of the most well-known businessmen in the world, and the highest-profile entrepreneur hailing from China. Recently, however, Ma has been critical of China’s regulatory system. As a result, an estimated $37 billion IPO of Ant Group, Alibaba’s fintech venture, was suspended.
Traditionally, Chinese authorities have a low threshold for dissent, even from popular and successful businessmen, further fueling concern. Since Ma’s criticism, he even missed the final episode of a TV show where he was scheduled to appear as a judge.
“I think he’s been told to lay low,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based tech consultancy BDA China, reports CNBC. “This is a pretty unique situation, more linked to the sheer scale of Ant and the sensitivities over financial regulation,” he said.
It remains to be seen if Ma is laying low, or if there is something more serious going on. Either way, given how respected he is, it’s a sure bet the industry will be watching closely for any sign of Ma’s reappearance.
Chinese drone maker DJI is the latest company added to the US trade blacklist, throwing its future into uncertain territory.
The US and China have been locked in a costly trade war, one that has involved casualties on both sides. The US has blacklisted Huawei and ZTE, claiming the telecom companies represent a threat to national security.
Now the US has added DJI to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List, according to Digital Trends. Being on the Entity List means that US companies can’t do business with DJI without a special license. The US is concerned about data Chinese companies could collect on US citizens, as well as drone technology being used in China’s persecution of ethnic minorities.
DJI says customers can still purchase its drones, as being on the Entity List primarily impacts the company’s ability to sell to other businesses.
Demand for Teslas in China could help push the company over its 2020 goal of selling 500,000 vehicles, according to one analyst.
Many were skeptical that Tesla could achieve the goal it set for itself when it announced it was planning on shipping 500,000 vehicles in 2020. Undeterred, the company reiterated its goal during its third-quarter earnings call.
According to Business Insider, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives believes China is the key to Tesla’s goal. In November, Tesla sold some 22,000 vehicles in China. If that demand continues in December, it should be enough to push the company past the 500,000 mark.
“We believe the company is tracking to another strong month of December in China which could be the tipping point to get Musk & Co. to hit/exceed its 500k annual delivery target, an achievement not even on the map for the Street going back to the late spring/summer timeframe,” Ives said.
Ives believes Teslas stock could increase as much as 56% to $1,000 a share, in part as a result of China’s demand.
“The China growth story is worth at least $100 per share in a bull case to Tesla as this EV penetration is set to ramp significantly over the next 12 to 18 months, along with major battery innovations coming out of Giga 3 and elsewhere throughout the China EV supply chain,” Ives added.
China is looking to expand its weather control program, making it possible to trigger artificial rain or snowfall in over half the country by 2025.
Weather control involves “seeding” clouds with silver iodide or liquid nitrogen to trigger precipitation. The concept of cloud seeding was initially discovered in 1946 by a General Electric chemist in the US. While a number of countries have weather control programs, China’s is the largest. The country has used antiaircraft guns and military aircraft to seed clouds, although usually on a local level.
As ecological problems continue to escalate, however, weather control has increasingly been looked as a way to combat drought, wildfires and more. As a result, according to The Guardian, the Chinese government plans to rapidly expand the program to cover roughly 56% of the country by 2025.
The government wants to take it a step further, expanding the program to reach an “advanced” level by 2035, one that would allow it to “focus on revitalising rural regions, restoring ecosystems and minimising losses from natural disasters.”
As The Guardian points out, however, China’s plans are not likely to be welcomed by its neighbors. The scale China is working towards could impact weather on a regional level. It remains to be what fallout there may be.
The US Commerce Department has signaled it will not enforce the order to shutdown and ban TikTok.
The Trump administration has been trying to force Chinese-owned TikTok to offload the American portion of its business to an American company. Oracle, partnering with Walmart, emerged as the leading candidate, although the terms of the deal were not what Trump had stipulated.
Rather than taking full ownership, the terms of the deal stipulated that Oracle would take a 20% stake. In the meantime, China indicated it may not approve the deal as it doesn’t want to be seen as weak, giving up one of its star companies.
As the involved parties continued to negotiate, however, TikTok filed with a US court of appeal to have the order forcing a sale overturned. The company cited the extraordinary efforts it had gone through to comply, only to hear radio silence from the Trump administration.
Now the Commerce Department has said “it wouldn’t enforce its order that would have effectively forced the Chinese-owned TikTok video-sharing app to shut down, in the latest sign of trouble for the Trump administration’s efforts to turn it into a U.S. company,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
It remains to be seen how the TikTok saga will ultimately turn out, and what impact a Biden presidency could have on the deal.
Luxury online retailer Farfetch, where product prices start at around a thousand dollars, had a breakout IPO on Thursday, raising $885 million while setting a valuation of $6.2 billion for the company. Then on Friday the stock surged 53 percent above their initial offering price and it’s up again this morning valuing the enterprise at $7.4 billion.
Farfetch plans to use their IPO windfall to dramatically improve their technology which they see as the best way to improve the consumer experience.
Farfetch Founder and CEO José Manuel Ferreira Neves recently discussed Farfetch and the online luxury brand industry on Bloomberg:
Online Luxury is Growing 25 Percent a Year
It’s a very unique opportunity. You have this amazing global industry. It’s $300 billion, the personal luxury goods industry and only 9 percent is online. There are two opportunities here really. One is the growth of online luxury which is going to grow to 25 percent a year for the next seven years. This is a $100 billion opportunity shift in online luxury.
The big question is how is technology going to help brands and retailers really improve the consumer experience in the physical store. This is something at Farfetch that we are very passionate about.
China is an Incredible Opportunity for Online Luxury
China is a very exciting opportunity. Chinese citizens are at the onset of the luxury industry, whether they shop at home or when they’re shopping abroad. Online penetration is very low in China so this means that there is an incredible growth runway for Farfetch in the territory.
That led to our partnership with JD.com where we have our own team. We have the Farfetch China app and website, we have local customer service, local payment systems, and local marketing. It’s a truly localized service. That is what’s driving incredible growth to the Farfetch brand in that region.
José Neves, founder and CEO of @farfetch, told us about the company’s grand ambitions for China at the WWD’s Men’s Wear Summit this week. https://t.co/MrMj7y5VCG
WeChat is an amazing app with over 900 million users. It is the Instagram, plus WeChat, plus PayPal, etc. of China in one app. That is very powerful and very interesting. Now with our acquisition CuriosityChina we are powering the retail presence of 80 luxury brands. We think that is very interesting for the industry and we think that is probably something that we will see for the western world.
Brands Now Using Social and Digital Marketing Extensively
I think brands move cautiously and they choose their marketing channels very carefully. As these newer channels have developed the brands have adapted to them and their now using social media and digital media extensively to create desire, to drive discovery of new products obviously transactions as well.
It’s a gradual pace but it’s really exciting that were at that inflection point where the brands see this as a tremendous opportunity.
The US-China trade war has escalated as China sanctions multiple companies in retaliation for weapons sales to Taiwan.
The US and China have been locked in a trade war, with each side taking shots at the other. The US has banned ZTE and Huawei, and urged its allies to do the same. The administration altered the Entity List and Foreign Direct Product Rule to cut Huawei from any chip suppliers that use US technology, including TSCM, one of its prime suppliers. The Trump administration is also pushing for a ban of WeChat and TikTok.
In response, China passed new regulations limiting the technologies that could be exported. In particular, the new regulations target the algorithm TikTok uses, thereby putting in jeopardy any deal that might avert a US ban by selling TikTok’s US operations to another company.
Now China has gone even further, sanctioning Lockheed Martin, Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) and Raytheon over weapons sales to Taiwan.
“As China pointed out on multiple occasions, the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan severely violate the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, and seriously undermine China’s sovereignty and security interests,” said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian in a press conference. “China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it.
“To uphold national interests, China decides to take necessary measures to sanction U.S. companies involved in the arms sales to Taiwan including Lockheed Martin, Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) and Raytheon, as well as the U.S. individuals and entities who played an egregious role in the process.”
It’s unclear what long-term impact the sanction’s will have on the US companies. In the short term, the news caused a sharp sell-off of those specific stocks, dragging down industrial stocks in general Monday.
Alibaba today announced it will invest $3.6 billion in Sun Art Retail Group, a huge hypermarket and supermarket operator in China. Sun Art is the largest retailer in China and competes head to head with Walmart. The transaction will give Alibaba a 72% controlling interest in the China-based brick and mortar retailer. Alibaba says that this purchase furthers its ‘New Retail’ strategy of integrating online and offline retail in China.
“Alibaba’s strategic investment in Sun Art in 2017 was an important step in our New Retail strategy,” says Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang. “The alliance we formed with Auchan Retail and Ruentex was instrumental in building a robust infrastructure to create opportunities and value in China’s retail sector. Led by Chief Executive Officer Peter Huang, Sun Art has achieved impressive results in its digitalization and pursued promising synergies with businesses across the Alibaba digital economy. As the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the digitalization of consumer lifestyles and enterprise operations, this commitment to Sun Art serves to strengthen our New Retail vision and serve more consumers with a fully integrated experience.”
In 2017 Alibaba entered into a strategic alliance to digitalize and introduce New Retail solutions at Sun Art stores. The company says that since then “Sun Art has made significant progress in the digital transformation under a fast-changing market environment by leveraging resources and technology from the Alibaba ecosystem, to capitalize on the growth opportunities in China’s hypermarket and supermarket space.”
This acquisition reflects a growing retail trend in China. Euromonitor International said in a report earlier this year that merger and acquisition activities are expected to continue in the forecast period. As China’s retailing industry modernizes it is undergoing a drastic digital transformation. The forecasting firm also said that sun Art held a 14.1% share of the country’s hypermarket sales last year. That compares to Walmart’s 10.3% market share in that category.
As of June 30, 2020, Sun Art operates 481 hypermarkets and 3 mid-size supermarkets in China, with a focus on strengthening its position through small and offline community stores.
Here is the official joint announcement of the acquisition.
China has fired the latest shot in the ongoing trade war with the US, passing legislation to restrict exports of sensitive technology.
The US has been working to isolate Chinese firms it deems as a threat to privacy and security. Huawei and ZTE have both been banned, with US officials pressuring allies to do the same. The US has also used export controls to cut Huawei off from its chipmaking suppliers, such as TSMC. The Trump administration also threatened to ban TikTok, unless the social media app was sold to a non-Chinese company.
In retaliation, China threatened to block the sale of specific technologies, including the algorithm that is at the heart of how TikTok functions. Now, according to Bloomberg, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee has passed a law prohibiting the export of sensitive technology, including by companies that have foreign investors. The law goes into effect on December 1.
It remains to be seen how widespread the impact will be, as there is very little information available about the law’s reach. We will continue to monitor and update as the story develops.
“When are the rest of the countries in the world going to catch up to China?” asks IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond. “When is Hollywood going to feel comfortable releasing their blockbuster movies globally where the rest of the world is like China. In China, people feel safe and in fact, they are safe. They really want to resume their lives. They want to go back to the movies. They want to go back to restaurants. They want to do a lot of things. China in particular, but Asia in general, is ahead of the western world.”
Richard Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, says that China and Asia, in general, are ahead of the rest of the world in feeling safe and resuming their lives including going to the movies:
When Is The Rest Of The World Going To Catch Up To China?
It’s remarkable that cinema capacity is constrained to 75% yet we did 25% better than our best year which was last year. That’s clearly an indication that people feel safe and in fact, they are safe. They really want to resume their lives. They want to go back to the movies. They want to go back to restaurants. They want to do a lot of things. China in particular, but Asia in general, is ahead of the western world. It hasn’t gone as smoothly in a lot of businesses as it’s gone in China but the indications are quite good that they want to get back to normal.
I don’t think that the message in the rest of the world is survival. From the China experience, we know that there’s a pent-up demand for going to the cinema. We know that when people feel safe and healthy they’re going to go. In the United States, on the other hand, that’s the other end of the spectrum, where people just don’t feel comfortable at this point in time. I don’t believe it’s an existential issue.
The lessons of China, not just from the National Day this weekend, you go back a few weeks ago to when the ‘The Eight Hundred’ came out and that did $115 million dollars in its opening weekend. That is in the top 10 Chinese local language movies of all time. The proof points are there. The question is when are the rest of the countries in the world going to catch up to China? When is Hollywood going to feel comfortable releasing their blockbuster movies globally where the rest of the world is like China.
China Is Largest IMAX Market In The World
We’ve done very well in China. We have about 700 plus screens open. We have another 300-ish in backlog. We’ve also signed a few deals this year in China, one with Wanda Cinemas and another one with a number of other operators. There’s great demand in China and as we speak we’re opening new screens there. There’s also a lot of dialogue going on. China is our largest market in the world for IMAX. It’s about 40% of our screens globally even though we’re in 82 countries. As a reference point, in North America, we have 400 screens.
In China, we have 700 screens with several hundred still to go. So the demand is growing there. The Chinese consumer really wants to go to the movies. The Chinese consumer is also brand conscious. They also want something innovative, the next forward-looking thing. It’s a terrifically promising market for us.
Saudi Arabia Is A Rapidly Growing Market
Japan is another market that has gone very well for us in recent years. We have about 30 to 35 theaters open with a backlog opening. In Korea, we just signed a large deal with CGV, the largest cinema operator there. We have 16 open now and we’re opening another eight or ten in Korea. Saudi Arabia is also a rapidly growing market. There was no cinema in Saudi Arabia until about a year ago.
Since it’s opened it’s been very successful. We have 25 theaters slated to open in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, we can’t build them fast enough. Western Europe, also once it starts to feel safe again and cinema gets back to normal, that’s a very good market as well.
Non-IMAX Cinemas Have Short-Term Cash Issues
What happens between now and the vaccine? For IMAX, we have a very strong balance sheet. We have over $315 million in cash and our cash burn is less than $9 million a month. But now that China’s open it’ll be significantly less than that. So for us, we have a long runway and a lot of staying power. For cinemas, in general, they tend to be much more levered than we are so there will be some short-term cash issues.
What they’re going to have to do is just manage their spend rates until there’s a vaccine and Hollywood releases more films so they can come back in a direct way. Most of the major ones have raised capital during the last several months with the financial markets being very amenable. So I suspect a lot of them will make it through it but it’s a matter of cost control and how soon they reopens.
America Didn’t Open Theaters Up As Quickly As China
In China, there is a lot of local content as well as in Japan. IMAX has been in China since around the year 2000. We have lots of relationships with filmmakers and studios in China. We have 10 local language films available between now and the rest of the year. So there’s a lot of content going on there. I think movies got pushed because, in North America, it didn’t open up as quickly as China opened up.
There are a few reasons for that. One is people just don’t feel as good about the virus and they’re leerier about going to out-of-home experiences. It didn’t happen the same way it happened in China. Also in China, they were very intelligent about the way they reopened. They opened about a month before some of the blockbuster movies came out so people got comfortable going to theaters. Then when the movies opened it was just a natural progression.
In the US, because of local regulation, it happened very suddenly and then the movies came out right away. People really weren’t conditioned to go. A lot of people, if you read the polling data, didn’t even know the cinemas were open. In terms of Disney’s Mulan, the results were not as good in China as was expected but I think that probably had more to do with how the movie played rather than any safety concerns.
IMAX CEO: When Is The Rest Of The World Going To Catch Up To China?
China state-affiliated media says that the Chinese government will not approve the current TikTok deal with Oracle and Walmart. The editor of a communist party paper, Global Times, tweeted this:
Based on what I know, Beijing won’t approve current agreement between ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, and Oracle, Walmart, because the agreement would endanger China’s national security, interests and dignity.
Based on what I know, Beijing won't approve current agreement between ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, and Oracle, Walmart, because the agreement would endanger China's national security, interests and dignity.
For instance, American citizens will take up four of the five board seats for TikTok Global and only one can be Chinese. The board of TikTok Global would include a national security director, who will have to be approved by the US.
Oracle will have the authority to check the source code of TikTok USA and updates. As the TikTok and Douyin should have the same source code, this means the US can get to know the operations of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok
TikTok Global will control the business of TikTok around the world except China. It will block IP from the Chinese mainland to access it. This means the Americans can take control of the global business of TikTok and reject Chinese to access it.
Source: Global Times
The Global Times editor says that “the US suppresses it with all its national strength and forces it to sign a deal under coercion.” The editor added that “China, also a major country, will not yield to US intimidation and will not accept an unequal treaty that targets Chinese companies.”
