News Digest 09.08.2021
HUAWEI CHAIRMAN SAYS THE ‘AIM IS TO SURVIVE’ AS REVENUE SLIDES 29%
The Shenzhen-headquartered company, which was put on the U.S. trade blacklist in 2019, announced Friday that it generated 320.4 billion yuan ($49.6 billion) in revenue in the first half of 2021. It’s a significant fall from the 454 billion yuan that Huawei recorded in the first half of 2020.
Huawei said it recorded a 9.8% profit margin, which is its highest since 2019, and added that the overall performance was in line with forecasts.
WECHAT SUSPENDS NEW USER REGISTRATIONS
Tencent temporarily suspended the registration of new users in the messenger WeChat. Such a move immediately sparked rumors of increased pressure from regulators.
Tencent shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange fell 8.9% over the day, the biggest drop for the company in a decade.
FACEBOOK BANS ACADEMICS WHO RESEARCHED AD TRANSPARENCY AND MISINFORMATION ON FACEBOOK
Facebook says the group violated its term of service by scraping user data without permission. But the academics say they are being silenced for exposing problems on Facebook’s platform.
The researchers were part of NYU Ad Observatory, a project created to examine the origin and spread of political ads on Facebook.
GOOGLE ACCUSED IN SUIT OF FIXING AD RATES WITH A FACEBOOK DEAL
Alphabet Inc.’s Google was accused in an antitrust lawsuit of giving itself the edge in online advertising by cutting a cozy deal with Facebook that gives the social network an advantage in virtual auctions which determine whose ads appear where.
The deal has allowed Google to retain its dominance in online advertising while keeping other advertisers on the sidelines and limiting revenue for online publishers.
BUSINESS INSIDER: ADVERTISING PRICES ARE RISING ON ALL MAJOR SOCIAL PLATFORMS
Amazon's CPC rose 20%, Facebook's CPM jumped 89%, YouTube's Consumer Price Index rose 108%, Snap's CPM rose 64%, and TikTok's CPM jumped 92%.
The main reasons: changes in Apple's tracking system, the transfer of money to new effective advertising locations, and increased spending on advertising in general.
FACEBOOK RESEARCHERS HOPE TO BRING TOGETHER TWO FOES: ENCRYPTION AND ADS
Facebook is bulking up a team of artificial intelligence researchers, including a key hire from Microsoft, to study ways of analyzing encrypted data without decrypting it.
The research could allow Facebook to target ads based on encrypted messages on its WhatsApp messenger, or to encrypt the data it collects on billions of users without hurting its ad-targeting capabilities.
CHANGES IN IOS 14.5 DO NOT REDUCE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ADS IN GAMES
According to new data from Apptopia, since the release of iOS 14.5, there is no clear trend affecting game downloads.
Moreover, in June 2021 iOS 14.5 has already been installed by 70% to 75% of users, but since then the effectiveness of monetization of games has remained virtually unchanged.
INDIAN AUTHORITIES SUSPECT BINANCE CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE OF LAUNDERING CHINESE MONEY
Indian authorities investigated the illegal activities of online betting applications controlled from China. The cryptocurrency exchange Binance also fell under suspicion of cooperating with them.
App operators have laundered 10 billion rupees ($134 million) in the past 10 months, and some of that money is believed to have gone through the WazirX exchange, which has been owned by Binance since 2019.
U.S. SEC SAYS CHINESE IPO HOPEFULS MUST PROVIDE ADDITIONAL RISK DISCLOSURES
The SEC is drafting rules for Chinese companies to disclose country-related risks: in 2020-2021 shares of Chinese tech companies collapsed because of the new laws.
The Commission will prescribe rules for delisting from U.S. exchanges Chinese companies that do not meet U.S. auditing requirements. Until the rules are published, applications for listing by Chinese companies will not be accepted.