SHOPEE IS PREPARING TO LAUNCH ITS PLATFORM IN INDIA
Southeast Asian e-commerce giant Shopee, which recently expanded to several Latin American nations, appears to be preparing to launch in another international market: India.
The service, which was seen as a late entrant in Southeast Asia, is already onboarding sellers in India and says on the website that they can start to accept orders from customers. Shopee representatives provided no comments for now.
BAD BOTS GENERATE 39% OF ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC
The Barracuda Networks report reveals that 64% of Internet traffic in January – June 2021 was generated by automated means. In this, 39% of traffic was generated by bad bots, 25% — by good bots, and 36% — by real people.
The report also included a breakdown of bad bot traffic by location. North America accounts for 67% of bad bot traffic, followed by Europe (22%) and then Asia (7.5%).
ALIBABA IS TO STOP SELLING BITCOIN MINING MACHINES ON ITS PLATFORM
The e-commerce giant must go for it after the renewed China ban of Bitcoin. Alibaba will close two categories of its platform, “Blockchain Miners” and “Blockchain Miner Accessories.” Merchants that attempt to sell bitcoin miners or associated products in Alibaba’s platforms will face penalties.
The changes will take effect on October 8 and will affect all Alibaba platforms, including Aliexpress, Lazada, Taobao and Xianyu.
GOOGLE RELAXES ITS BROAD BAN ON ADS THAT MENTION CORONAVIRUS
Google said it started blocking ads related to coronavirus in January under its “sensitive events policy.” That policy was designed to block ads attempting to capitalize on shorter-term events such as natural disasters.
Items of clothing, testing kits and household goods that were previously rejected will now be allowed to be shown. The change will affect both product ads and free-of-charge information about products.
NEW CHROME EXTENSION RULES COULD HOBBLE AD BLOCKERS
Google is preparing to switch to the new browser extension platform Manifest v3. It will allow IT companies to earn more from advertising and prevent developers who block banners. After switching to Manifest v3, the browser will limit the number of filters in blockers, which will significantly affect their effectiveness.
Chrome browser extensions written to conform only with its outgoing Manifest V2 specification may no longer function come January 2023.
NEW PAYMENTS RULES IN INDIA MAY STRIKE AGAINST IT GIANTS
Apple, Sony, Google, Zoom, PayPal and several other tech companies as well as scores of banks have cautioned customers and partners in India to expect a surge in declined transactions.
The Reserve Bank of India’s directive requires banks and payment gateways to obtain additional approval for auto-renewables transactions worth over 5,000 Indian rupees ($67) from users by conducting notifications, e-mandates and Additional Factors of Authentication (AFA).
GOOGLE ADS WILL TIGHTEN MEASURES AGAINST ADULT CONTENT
Google Ads said that from December 2021, any violations of the rules regarding sexual content will be considered serious. This means that if they are detected, the account will be blocked without warning.
This change will take effect on December 1 and will begin to be fully applied within approximately four weeks after that date.
CRYPTO EXCHANGE GIANTS CUT BACK ON CHINA USERS
Exchange operators Huobi and Binance have stopped letting traders use mainland China mobile numbers to register new accounts, after the People’s Bank of China said Friday all crypto-related transactions will be considered illicit financial activity. New sign-ups are still available for Hong Kong users on both platforms, however. Huobi has also announced plans to close existing accounts by year-end.