Space Industry and Business News  
INTERNET SPACE
Unfriended abroad, China's tech giants seek home comfort
By S�bastien RICCI
Beijing (AFP) Sept 16, 2020

China's tech titans can rely on their massive home market to ride out a Donald Trump-led campaign against them overseas, and in the long-term their global prospects remain strong, analysts say.

Tech firms from China have stormed to success in the global market with everything from video-sharing apps and mobile games to smartphones and sophisticated telecom infrastructure.

But the United States, Australia, Britain and India are among the huge markets where they have taken a hit because of espionage concerns or diplomatic feuds, tethering their international ambitions -- for now.

"Technology is increasingly becoming a geopolitical issue" and "a strategic priority" for a growing number of countries, Dexter Thillien, an analyst at Fitch Solutions, told AFP.

However, Chinese firms have a massive market at home to focus on even if they are unable to pursue international goals -- some 900 million users are up for grabs, more than the United States and Europe combined.

While the Chinese internet is tightly controlled with the "Great Firewall", the ecosystem provides companies the opportunity to roll out China-specific apps for potentially huge customer bases.

TikTok, for example, is one of the most popular Chinese-made apps in the world but is not available in the country.

Instead, its parent ByteDance offers a similar app called Douyin, which Bloomberg News said surpassed 600 million daily active users in August and yielded $6.1 billion in revenue over a 12-month period. And ByteDance China's CEO said it aimed to double that over the next year.

- 'Techno-nationalism' -

The Trump administration has claimed that the wildly popular short video-sharing app TikTok could be used by China to track users and conduct espionage, effectively forcing the sale of its US unit.

Washington has demanded that the next owner of TikTok's US operations satisfy security requirements.

Countries "see innovation and technology as having a direct impact on national security, the economy and social stability", said Alex Capri, a researcher for the Hinrich Foundation, an independent organisation that monitors world trade developments.

He described the phenomenon as "techno-nationalism".

Trump has also targeted Huawei with sanctions and asked allies to shun the firm's 5G equipment, alleging it could be used as a spying tool by the Chinese government.

The campaign has had an impact, with Huawei frozen out of lucrative 5G rollouts in big markets like Britain.

Separate tensions between New Delhi and Beijing have also led to a ban on TikTok and other Chinese apps in India, a massive market with hundreds of millions of potential customers.

Huawei, TikTok and the Chinese government have all denied the allegations.

But while Chinese app makers and tech firms have complained about being unfairly targeted, they remain huge players on the global tech scene.

Despite the security allegations, TikTok was the most downloaded app in the world outside of video games last month, according to SensorTower, a research firm.

Huawei remains one of the biggest makers of smartphones in the world, and is one of the top manufacturers of sophisticated 5G equipment needed to build next-generation high-speed communication networks.

- 'Harsh reality' -

And like ByteDance and Huawei, other tech giants in China are eyeing growth areas within the world's second-largest economy, including autonomous vehicles, quantum computing and biotechnology.

ByteDance competitor Tencent, meanwhile, has been looking to create a game streaming service similar to the Amazon-owned Twitch, with potentially 300 million users in China, Bloomberg reported last month.

Tencent -- whose WeChat messaging app has been targeted by the US -- said Tuesday it was opening a new Singapore office to serve as a regional hub "to support our growing business in Southeast Asia and beyond".

International punishments and suspicion still hurt, however, with the large size of the Chinese market not enough to offset the damage.

The Trump administration has blacklisted Huawei, for example, from sourcing US technology, dealing a potential body blow to its supply chain, including for its smartphones.

China does not make its own microchips -- the key component of all electronics -- and Washington wants to choke off supply as it tries to kneecap the country's tech sector.

"The harsh reality is that these US measures have teeth and Huawei is having to fundamentally rewire its business to deal with them," said Trivium China, a Beijing-based research firm, in a recent note.

Further, loose intellectual property protection and corruption in China "hardly nurture the innovative energy necessary for cutting-edge success", said Larry Ong, senior analyst with risk consultancy SinoInsider.

burs-sbr/apj/qan/dan

Tencent


Related Links
Satellite-based Internet technologies


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


INTERNET SPACE
ByteDance in talks with US to avoid selling TikTok: report
San Francisco (AFP) Sept 9, 2020
Chinese internet giant ByteDance is in talks with the US about ways it might avoid having to sell its TikTok operations here, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. TikTok has been at the center of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing, and President Donald Trump gave Americans a deadline to stop doing business with TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance - effectively compelling a sale of the app to a US company. Walmart has joined forces with Microsoft in negotiations to bu ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

INTERNET SPACE
Future Rocket Engines May Include Large-Scale 3D Printing

Expanding ESTEC's Test Centre

Microsoft says small Xbox S game console on the way

Next artificial intelligence mission selected

INTERNET SPACE
Lockheed Martin to build Mesh Network of 10 smallsats

Lockheed, York nab $281.6M for new military satellite network

New US Space Force technology beats satellite jamming attempts in recent test

Airbus to build BADR-8 satellite for Arabsat

INTERNET SPACE
INTERNET SPACE
Tech combo is a real game-changer for farming

Launch of Russia's Glonass-K satellite postponed until October

GPS 3 receives operational acceptance

Air Force navigation technology satellite passes critical design review

INTERNET SPACE
China airshow 'will be held' in November, say backtracking organisers

How the US Air Force is making it easier for aircraft maintainers to see at night

AFRICOM begins B-52 training missions in North Africa

University of South Carolina redefining aircraft production process

INTERNET SPACE
SoftBank Group selling Arm to NVIDIA for up to $40 billion

DARPA Selects Teams to Increase Security of Semiconductor Supply Chain

New technology lets quantum bits hold information for 10,000 times longer than previous record

Pentagon: It's time to bring microelectronics manufacturing to the U.S.

INTERNET SPACE
China launches new optical remote-sensing satellite

Machine-learning nanosatellites to monitor global trade

Momentus awarded NASA TROPICS Pathfinder mission

ESA launches small Belgian satellite carrying VTT's remote sensing technology into space

INTERNET SPACE
Smog blankets US West Coast as deadly wildfires rage

In EU, 1 in 8 deaths linked to pollution: report

Bolsonaro slams 'cancer' of environmental NGOs

Mauritian citizen becomes powerful voice for oil spill anger









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.