Techmeme: As China cracks down, SoftBank's Vision Fund has lost $4B on its Didi investment, as its 20.1% stake bought for $11.8B in 2019 is now worth $7.8B (Financial Times)

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July 26, 2021, 8:55 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:

China issues regulations for food delivery platforms, mandating minimum wage, respect for worker rights, and more, leading to Meituan shares dropping by 14%+ — - It extended losses after Beijing issued food platform curbs — Meituan is grappling with a broader antitrust investigation

More: South China Morning Post, Reuters, and Livemint

Tweets: @tracyalloway, @armchairdude, @lib_crusher, @saxena_puru, and @davidinglestv

Financial Times:

China's edtech overhaul could eliminate foreign investors from the sector and wipe out billions invested by Sequoia, Tiger, Tencent, and SoftBank's Vision Fund — Tutoring businesses feared ‘virtually uninvestable’ under plans to curb private capital — China's sweeping overhaul …

Tweets: @benpatrickwill and @primroseriordan

Financial Times:

As China cracks down, SoftBank's Vision Fund has lost $4B on its Didi investment, as its 20.1% stake bought for $11.8B in 2019 is now worth $7.8B — Japanese group's heavy investments in Chinese tech have left it exposed to a regulatory crackdown — The single largest bet on Chinese tech …

Tweets: @alex, @therealjoshye, @therealjoshye, @therealjoshye, and @therealjoshye

Bloomberg:

In a blow to the edtech sector, China orders tutoring companies teaching the school curriculum to go non-profit, bans them from IPOs and raising foreign capital

More: Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Tech in Asia, Reuters, and Forbes

Tweets: @luluyilun, @andrewbatson, @wolfiezhao, @willrocklin, @davidinglestv, @danmcohen, @carnage4life, @guptpiy, @benpatrickwill, @ngkabra, and @luluyilun

Noah Smith / Noahpinion:

China's tech crackdown has focused on consumer-facing internet companies, perhaps because Xi believes hard tech like chipmaking is more geopolitically important

More: Bloomberg and ABC

Tweets: @ruima, @ruima, @ruima, @ruima, @ruima, @noahpinion, @aja_cortes, @prasannavishy, @noahpinion, and @mosharrafzaidi

Max Fisher / New York Times:

Analysts and US officials say the disinformation-for-hire industry is booming, as influencers get approached by back-alley firms to spread falsehoods — Back-alley firms meddle in elections and promote falsehoods on behalf of clients who can claim deniability, escalating our era of unreality.

New York Times:

FTX and Binance will curb highly leveraged cryptocurrency trading, a practice that can vastly multiply losses; FTX offered 101x leverage, now down to 20x — The moves would reduce the size of the bets that investors can make by drastically cutting the maximum leverage offered.

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Ex-Google employee recounts how Google abandoned a redesign attempt of Chrome on Android, which was similar to iOS 15's Safari, with the URL bar at the bottom — Apple's mobile web browser is the main lightning rod of this year's iOS 15 beta period and it remains to be seen whether it will actually launch in the fall.

Source: Chris Lee. More: XDA Developers and phonearena.com

Tweets: @viticci, @ismh, @ismh, and @snazzyq

Elizabeth Dias / New York Times:

As part of its expanded outreach to US churches, Facebook is offering subscription tools for exclusive content and donation tools during live streams — The company is intensifying formal partnerships with faith groups across the United States and shaping the future of religious experience.

More: Insider and Slashdot

Tweets: @shiraovide, @elizabethjdias, @tylerhuckabee, @emilybethhill, @jeffchu, @tomsimpsonphd, @writerguyfromla, @fugapericulum, @notreallyjcm, @terratindle, and @itsjina

John Newman / ProMarket:

A look at some of the metrics that FTC can use to define Facebook's alleged monopoly in its refiled antitrust suit, including time on-site and “active users” — Despite some compelling allegations, a federal judge dismissed the FTC's antitrust complaint against Facebook due …

Tweets: @asherschechter, @promarket_org, and @johnmarknewman

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:

FTC asks a federal judge for an extension until August 19 to file an updated antitrust suit against Facebook and says Facebook has agreed to the proposal

More: Reuters and US District Court for the District of Columbia. Tweets: @b_fung

Roger McNamee / Wired:

Biden has to play hardball with platforms like Facebook that amplify disinformation in order to prioritize Americans' wellbeing over Big Tech's whims — The president needs to prioritize Americans' wellbeing over Big Tech's whims to begin a path to restoring democracy, privacy, and competition.

Tweets: @repdesaulnier, @jason_kint, and @jason_kint

Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:

Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, YouTube, and others will now add content from white supremacist and far-right militias to a key counterterrorism database — A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest U.S. tech companies including Facebook (FB.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) …

Tweets: @erinsaltman

Bloomberg:

Sources: Indonesia's GoTo, created by the Gojek and PT Tokopedia merger, is in talks to raise $1B-$2B at a $25B-$30B valuation, as it plans an IPO — - Merged entity of Gojek and Tokopedia is seeking dual listing — Funding round could value the firm as high as $30 billion

More: Tech in Asia

Priya Anand / Bloomberg:

Parking apps in the US have seen a new wave of customers amid a surge in car ownership spurred by people avoiding mass transit and ride sharing due to COVID-19 — During the depths of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic, cars sat idly in driveways, city streets were deserted, onetime commuters worked from bed …

Tweets: @bw

Theo Wayt / New York Post:

Now-deleted job listings suggest Citizen is paying people in NYC and LA up to $250 for a ten-hour shift live streaming crime scenes and other emergencies — Want to make $200 a day in New York City? Rush to the scene of a murder, a three-alarm fire or a traffic accident — then pull out your phone and start shooting.

More: Insider. Tweets: @theo_wayt and @theo_wayt

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From Mediagazer

Alex Isenstadt / Axios:

The White House launches White House Wire, a website that looks similar to the Drudge Report, to promote pro-Trump news stories

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Steve Doocy says he will move to a new role as the dedicated host of Fox & Friends remote assignments; the show will continue to be hosted from its NYC studios

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

BBC Studios and the Agatha Christie estate partner to launch a writing course on education streaming service BBC Maestro, using AI to recreate Christie's voice

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More News

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:

Byju's says it will acquire Singapore-based professional training and higher education service Great Learning for $600M in cash and stock

More: Tech in Asia, The Economic Times, and Livemint

Jing Yang / Wall Street Journal:

As China ramps up testing of its digital yuan, its call for help from Ant and Tencent has led to an awkward dynamic, as Alipay and WeChat Pay are rivals

Tweets: @wsjmarkets, @timcohn, and @wsj

Yinka Adegoke / Rest of World:

Kenyan tech founders say there is a funding bias toward North American and European expats in the country; analysis: only one Kenyan founder raised $1M+ in 2019

Tweets: @restofworld, @yinkawrites, @sarawahedi, @claudinemoore, @stephenpaduano, @restofworld, @restofworld, @restofworld, and @yinkawrites

Sami Fathi / MacRumors:

Mark Gurman: Face ID on the Mac is likely coming within a couple of years, and all iPhones and iPads will transition to Face ID within that timeframe, too

Source: Bloomberg. More: 9to5Mac, MacRumors, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, Trusted Reviews, BGR, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, iMore, 9to5Mac, Pocketnow, BGR India, phonearena.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, FrontPageTech.com, mobilesyrup.com, iClarified, IT Management, iThinkDifferent, Patently Apple, Wccftech, iPhone Hacks, and AppleTrack

Tweets: @samifathi_, @samifathi_, @justinflood, and @anshelsag

Earlier Picks

Che Pan / South China Morning Post:

Chinese chip manufacturer Tsinghua Unigroup, which is saddled with ~$30.8B in liabilities, is seeking a huge bailout from investors amid bankruptcy proceedings

More: New York Times, Verdict, and Nikkei Asia

Tweets: @lordfusitua, @mytechmusings, and @fintechfrank

Bloomberg:

Mobile game publisher Jam City is no longer going public via a SPAC merger, announced in May, that would have valued the company at $1.2B

More: Business Wire and Los Angeles Business Journal

Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:

WhatsApp CEO says they had recorded an attack against 1,400 users over a two-week period in 2019, casting doubts on NSO's defense against Pegasus project claims

More: ZDNet, Axios, CNN, phonearena.com, TNW, 9to5Mac, PCMag, Insider, Gizmodo, VICE, Engadget, AppleInsider, and Washington Post