Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, is partnering with Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to deploy advanced cloud and AI technologies for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. Building on deployments at Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022, and Paris 2024, the collaboration marks […]
The rise of Retail Media in the advertising landscape has been speedy. Its global advertising spend is poised to reach $128.2 billion (€121.3bn) this year, forecasts WARC Media, with Amazon the biggest winner. Up 10.2 per cent year-on-year, ad investment is forecast to rise to $141.7 billion in 2024 and is on track to overtake […]
Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba Group is to split into six separate units. Each of the new divisions will have its own executive team, CEO and board of directors. The Holding company reported revenues of $134 billion (€123.4bn) in 2022. SoftBank Group is a 23.9 per cent shareholder. The entertainment division will contain its film studio, […]
China’s tough crackdown on certain technology sectors, including Jack Ma’s Alibaba and Tencent, has resulted in Tencent being the world’s worst stock-market performer. Tencent lost 23 per cent of its value in July, wiping out some Rand 2.5 trillion (€143bn) of market value. Nine of the top ten losers in market value during July were […]
China’s State Council has made some substantial interventions on internet businesses, and in particular the education sector. The rules for private education companies including a ban on profits, a ban on raising capital or going public with tutoring at weekends and vacation banned for the sector. The fresh rules have severely impacted China-based internet businesses […]
A mooted merger between two videogame streamers, Huya and DouYu, has been blocked by Chinese authorities on antitrust grounds. The planned merger, announced by Tencent which wanted to bring together the two businesses in which it held stakes, could have resulted in Tencent controlling some 80 per cent of the Chinese market already worth an […]
Tencent, the South African and Chinese-backed web-giant, says it has fired staff and named and shamed 37 supplier companies in an anti-corruption drive. Tencent Holdings is China’s biggest social media and videogames company, said in a statement February 3rd that it had reported 40 staff to the authorities since it commenced its anti-corruption drive in […]
Tencent is the leading player in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the tech, media and telecom (TMT) sector with nine deals of value greater than or equal to $50 million(€41m) worth $6.6 billion in 2020, according to data and analytics company GlobalData. M&A activity declined during the first half of 2020, especially in Q2 […]
China’s Alibaba and Tencent groups have each held separate talks with Baidu about acquiring video streaming service iQIYI, according to Reuters. But reports say negotiations have stalled on a valuation of around $20 billion (€16.7bn) by Baidu. Both companies, which have their own video streaming services, are also nervous of heightened scrutiny from China’s antitrust […]
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is reportedly looking to sell or restructure its stake in UK chipset maker ARM. The WSJ reports that ARM has already announced plans to restructure itself by shifting two of its Internet of Things businesses into SoftBank. SoftBank acquired ARM some 4 years ago paying $32 billion for the business but is […]