Tech & Telecom news — Sep 3, 2018
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Applications
More problems for Tencent, now from the business side. Even if it’s probably too early to jump to conclusions, a new messaging app (Zidan Duanxin) just released in China is growing fast, with 7.2m downloads in only two weeks, and could steal some share from WeChat in part thanks to its better voice-to-text conversion (Story)
Advertising
In one more sign of the challenges from being the leading way for people to get information, Google is now working to “clean up” search results from fraudulent content. An example are firms using search ads looking to masquerade as authorized service agents and defraud customers seeking technical support online (Story)
On a different, but related note, Facebook is facing a serious problem in the coming US midterm elections, as campaign strategists aim to exploit the platform’s efficiency to distribute radical political ads. There seems to be a disconnection between what Facebook wants to be and what its technical platform actually does (Story)
Regulation
Anti-globalization and nationalistic trends across the World could affect Internet giants’ growth perspectives. In India, some politicians want to stop what they see as an undesirable dominance of the Indian internet by American companies like Facebook and Amazon, and are preparing tougher new rules on the tech industry (Story)
HARDWARE ENABLERS
Network regulation
In the Netherlands, the telecom regulator ACM wants to impose the same wholesale access requirements affecting KPN today to the leading cable player VodafoneZiggo, on a view that both companies are “jointly dominant”. The European Commission supports the analysis but questions the remedies proposed (Story)
SOFTWARE ENABLERS
Virtual assistants
Amazon held a press event at the IFA Consumer Electronics fair in Berlin last week, focused on their Alexa virtual assistant, which they are positioning as a “universal” voice interface for connected gadgets (the same role as Android with smartphones) and which is already supported by 20,000 different devices (Story)
Privacy
Apple keeps moving to deliver on its “privacy champion” claims, a key element in their differentiation strategy vs. Google / Android. They’re now tightening up their policies for the App Store and since Oct 2018 they will require all new apps to explicitly provide a link to their developers’ privacy policies (Story)
VENTURE CAPITAL
In China, domestic economic slowdown and “trade wars” vs. US and are creating challenges for the fast-growing startup scene, and for the Chinese tech giants supporting it. E.g. two Tencent-backed firms, Nio (electric vehicles) and Meituan Dianping (food delivery) are preparing their IPOs in an uncertain financial context (Story)
Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley is also facing headwinds, with its lead over other tech hubs narrowing, according to an article at this week’s Economist. Prohibitive real estate and living costs, bad traffic and what some claim is a “toxic culture” are actually drawing people out, and this includes new talent for the next startups (Story)
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability and social responsibility are increasingly important for Fund managers, as some clients consider these issues as a way to differentiate investment options. However, with limited regulations or standards to characterize firms “ethical” behavior, current claims by many Funds are still not much more than words (Story)

