Daily Archives: May 18, 2021

TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As one of the most important tech summits globally, COMPUTEX Forum and its discussion topics have always garnered great attention. To facilitate the discussion on future technology trends, the COMPUTEX Forum on June 2 and 3 will evolve around the theme of The New Era of Intelligence. TAITRA announced the lineup of speakers to discuss key applications of 5G, AI, IoT, and electric vehicles, deep diving into business strategies in the post-pandemic era.

The Four Topics to Focus on IT Applications and Development

In the morning of Wednesday, June 2, COMPUTEX Forum will address the topic of AIoT Evolution. Leading semiconductor giants such as Intel, Micron, NVIDIA and Supermicro, will explore how they accelerate business opportunities in the 5G era.

In the afternoon, NXP Semiconductors will kick off the AI Empowerment session by sharing its vision and lead the Secure Edge and AI Empowerment discussions in fields. As AI rises in various applications, Arm, Delta Electronics, Micron and Check Point Software will elaborate their latest solution in different scopes.

Thursday, June 3 morning session, will be on "Critical Technology," with speakers from global companies, including Quanta Cloud Technology, Siemens, and WIN Semiconductors, as well as the mobile operator, Far EasTone Telecom. This session will talk about the development of potential 5G applications in the manufacturing, healthcare, and automotive industries that will redefine the 5G landscape in the future.

On June 3, the topic of the last session in the afternoon will be Tomorrow Tech. IBM, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm will take part in an in-depth discussion on the emerging applications of quantum computers, AI fueling future work and collaboration, and self-driving cars.

COMPUTEX Forum Will Be Livestreamed on the #COMPUTEXVirtual Platform

Every year, COMPUTEX presents invaluable information on the industrys supply chain and trends around the world. This year, the global audience will have a front row seat to discover and see the latest technology. All COMPUTEX Forum sessions will be livestreamed on the official #COMPUTEXVirtual platform on June 2 and June 3.

COMPUTEX Forum is co-organized by the Bureau of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). COMPUTEX Forum is now open for registration:https://virtual.computextaipei.com.tw/events

For more updates:COMPUTEX website: https://www.computextaipei.com.tw/ InnoVEX website : https://www.innovex.com.tw/

About COMPUTEX TAIPEI (also called COMPUTEX):

Established in 1981, COMPUTEX is one of the leading global ICT, IoT, and startup tradeshows with a complete supply chain and IoT ecosystems. Co-organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Taipei Computer Association (TCA), COMPUTEX, based upon Taiwans complete ICT clusters, covers the whole spectrum of the ICT industry, from established brands to startups and from ICT supply chain to IoT ecosystems. With strong R&D and manufacturing capabilities and IPR protection, Taiwan is a strategic destination for foreign companies and investors looking for partners in global technology ecosystems. Follow COMPUTEX on its website at http://www.computextaipei.com.tw and Twitter @computex_taipei using the hashtag #COMPUTEX.

About COMPUTEX 2021 Hybrid:

As a pioneer in technology, COMPUTEX has been on the forefront in embracing digital transformation. COMPUTEX will launch the Online-Merge-Offline (OMO) exhibition platform "COMPUTEX 2021 Hybrid" in 2021. As the event organizer, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) aims to deliver an exceptional exhibition experience by combining #COMPUTEXVirtual with the onsite exhibition. In collaborating with the Taiwanese unicorn startup, Appier, TAITRA is introducing AI computing capabilities to the exhibition to shape COMPUTEX as a global model.

About TAITRA:

Founded in 1970, TAITRA is Taiwan's foremost nonprofit trade promoting organization. Sponsored by the government and industry organizations, TAITRA assists enterprises to expand their global reach. Headquartered in Taipei, TAITRA has a team of 1,300 specialists and operates 5 local offices in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as 63 branches worldwide. Together with Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) and Taiwan Trade Center (TTC), TAITRA has formed a global network dedicated to promoting world trade.

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2021 COMPUTEX Forum Brings Tech Giants Together to Unlock the Secret of Future Technologies - Business Wire

A group of tech giants, echoing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the CEO of Lyft, is pushing for something companies almost never ask for: higher taxes.

The Chamber of Progressa group of Silicon Valley companies that launched in March to counter some of the anti-tech undercurrents on Capitol Hill by courting Democratsis advocating for a higher corporate tax rate, which President Joe Biden recently proposed hiking to 28% from 21%.

This isnt what corporate trade groups are expected to do. But the Chamber, whose corporate partners are Amazon, Google, Uber, Lyft, Facebook, Twitter, and a handful of startups, describes itself as not just another business group.

It is generally an easy stance for them to take, corporate tax professionals say, noting that these companies often dont pay anything remotely close to the statutory rate now. That is thanks to the substantial losses that most tech startups incur in their early years, the ease with which the sector can shift intangible property like patents abroad, and ample credits for research and development, among other benefits that whittle down the companies effective rates.

While these companies may publicly back a corporate rate hike, they will likely combat other White House corporate tax proposals on the back end, tax professionals say. Those proposals include a tax on the income reported on financial statements, a minimum tax on global income, and changes to the 2017 tax laws international regime that eliminate the carrots and sharpen the sticks.

Companies might, at the end of the day, have figured this is the path of least resistance: Well accept the tax rate increase, which will make us look good for public consumption, but then were going to fight like hell to narrow or reduce the tax base, Robert Willens, a New York-based tax consultant, said.

The effective tax rate is the actual rate at which a company is taxed after a series of adjustments to its balance sheet, like dollar-for-dollar reductions in taxes from credits for research and taxes paid to overseas jurisdictions, or deductions of income so that its no longer taxable. The effective rate can differ from the statutory corporate rate of 21%, which the 2017 law lowered from 35%.

I believe that if you ask the average Silicon Valley leader if theyre willing for their company to pay slightly more in taxes in order to support investments in clean energy, broadband, job training, and manufacturing, most of them would say thats a fair dealand good for the country, said Adam Kovacevich, the founder and CEO of the group, whos worked for Google, Lime, and former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Kovacevichs comments, first published in a Medium post in April, come as large corporations are picking their corporate tax battles among an array of punitive proposals from Democrats.

Of the groups members, spokespeople for Instacart, Lime, and Twitter declined to comment. Lyft, Uber, Amazon, Automattic, DoorDash, and GrubHub, also members, didnt respond to multiple requests for comment.

Spokespeople for Facebook and Getaround expressed in separate statements that the companies are affiliated with external groups like the Chamber, but they dont necessarily endorse their positions on public policy issues.

Jos Castaeda, a spokesperson for Google, said in an emailed statement that the White House tax proposals merit further discussion and that the search giant wants a continued focus on U.S. competitiveness globally and favors U.S. leadership for a new international tax agreement that supports much-needed investments for Americas economic future. He declined to comment further.

Bank of America analysts estimated that the full Biden tax plan would cause the after-tax earnings of a handful of internet companies including Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Twitter to fall by around 7% on average. Major factors for those four included the elimination of a write-off for foreign-derived intangible income and the tax on financial statement income, the analysts wrote in a late April report.

When companies have large amounts of unused tax benefits they carry forward year to yearknown as deferred tax assets and often composed of losses and creditsan increase in the corporate tax rate makes those assets more valuable. A $100 million loss deduction is worth $21 million in reduced taxes under the current corporate rate, for instance, and $28 million in fewer taxes under the rate proposed by the White House.

In its most recent annual filing, Uber reported federal losses it shifts from year to year of $13.6 billion, while Lyft reported $6.2 billion. Zillow, another member of the Chamber, reported $1.7 billion as of the end of 2020. Twitter reported $2.19 billion in federal losses. Googles parent company, Alphabet, disclosed $3.1 billion.

Even when startups become profitable, they tend to have huge historical losses they shift forward year after year to offset their taxes. Some companiesincluding Alphabet, Zillow, Lyft, Uber, and Twitterestablish whats called a valuation allowance, which is essentially accounting jargon for storage of tax benefits a company doesnt think it will be profitable enough to ever use.

When companies make changes to their valuation allowancesadding to or releasing some of the tax benefits they have put away because they dont think they will make enough profits to use themthis can lead to huge fluctuations in their effective tax rates, as has been the case for Twitter.

The statutory rate does not really matter for unprofitable companies, said Patrick Badolato, a senior lecturer in the accounting department of the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.

Companies with large deferred tax assets, Badolato said, dont have to pay taxes until theyve made enough profits to offset their historical losses, and it could be quite a few years and even different legislative bodies before many of these companies are paying any meaningful amount of taxes.

Companies like Facebook and Google have flexibility as to where to locate their intellectual property and their use of tax credits, which can push down their effective tax rates, Badolato noted. Amazon, flush with credits for research and development and deductions for stock-based compensation, has low profit margins and reinvests what it makes in R&D and expansions each year, driving its tax rate to depths that have made the e-commerce giant a target of progressive ire.

A higher corporate rate could even help Amazon by hitting its brick-and-mortar retail competitors, which tend to pay closer to the statutory corporate tax rate, said Andrew Silverman, a Bloomberg Intelligence tax policy analyst.

A higher corporate tax rate makes it a lot harder for a medium-sized retailer to stay in business, he said.

Facebook, Uber, and Google have reported lobbying on international tax issues since the crafting of the 2017 tax code overhaul, disclosure forms show, indicating that they have an interest in swaying Democrats who plan on tightening that international regime as part of an infrastructure plan.

It would be surprising if Amazon, Uber, and Facebook, and to a lesser extent Twitter and Lyft, didnt approach the House committee responsible for tax policy in the next few months to talk about how the White House proposals affect them, said a House staffer, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Companies dont like to come off as unreasonable by rejecting proposals outright, the staffer continuedthey want to offer some kind of solution, depending on their financial profiles.

When tax legislation is afoot, companies are always around the corner and want to be heard, said Todd Simmens, a former legislative counsel to the Joint Committee on Taxation who is now a national managing partner for accounting firm BDO.

I can imagine that these firms are going through some sort of calculus, said John Gallemore, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who focuses on corporate taxation.

Gallemore added that he sees the group of companies as pandering to politicians.

If they just come out and say theyre behind a higher rate, theyre able to maybe negotiate or lobby behind the scenes, or push back on some of these changes theyre maybe less enthused or excited about, he said.

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New Tech Lobby Curries Favor With Rare Embrace of Higher Taxes - Bloomberg Tax

Issued on: 15/05/2021 - 16:56

The leaders of France and New Zealand warned that social media continued to be a driving force to propagate hate, two years after a white supremacist live-streamed the killing of 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch.

President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern were speaking Friday at a virtual summit, co-hosted by their countries, aimed at battling extremist content on the internet.

Ardern said efforts to stamp out the spread of harmful content would need to stem from a better understanding of the social media algorithms driving suchcontent.

The existence of algorithms themselves is not necessarily the problem, it's whether or not they are being ethically used, she said, adding that tech companies had shown a real desire to use algorithms for positive interventions.

Macron said the internet had been used as a tool in recent attacks in the US, Austria, Germany and elsewhere adding that new European regulations against extremist content would help coordination efforts.

In a post on Twitter, he saidit was up to "democracies and defenders of freedoms" to find the solutions that would enable afree and secure internet.

Widespread support

More than 50 countries have joined the initiative, known as the Christchurch Call,along with tech giants including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Amazon.

The United States gave its support earlier this week in a shift in policy that cametwo years after former president Donald Trump declined to participate citing concerns overfree speech.

Since Christchurch Call was launched, governments and tech companies have stepped upcooperationto identify violent extremist content online.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK had taken down more than 300,000 pieces of terrorist material from the internet over the past decade.

Terrorist content is like a metastasising tumour within the internet, he said in a pre-recorded video shown at the summit.

If we fail to excise it, it will inevitably spread into homes and high streets the world over.

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Macron, Ardern rally nations and tech giants in battle to stamp out online hate - RFI English

The Associated PressMay 18, 2021 09:27:25 IST

Sophie Zhang worked as a Facebook data scientist for nearly three years before was she fired in the fall of 2020. On her final day, she posted a 7,800-word memo to the companys internal forum such farewell notes, if not the length, are a common practice for departing employees. In the memo, first published by Buzzfeed, she outlined evidence that governments in countries like Azerbaijan and Honduras were using fake accounts to influence the public. Elsewhere, such as India and Ecuador, Zhang found coordinated activity intended to manipulate public opinion, although it wasnt clear who was behind it. Facebook, she said, didn't take her findings seriously.

Zhangs experience led her to a stark conclusion: I have blood on my hands.

Facebook has not disputed the facts of Zhangs story but has sought to diminish the importance of her findings.

We fundamentally disagree with Ms Zhangs characterisation of our priorities and efforts to root out abuse on our platform," Facebook said in a statement. As part of our crackdown against this kind of abuse, we have specialised teams focused on this work and have already taken down more than 150 networks of coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Around half of them were domestic networks that operated in Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, and in the Asia Pacific region."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why were you fired from Facebook?

Ive made the news for much of the work I have done protecting elections. This might sound very important to the average person, but at Facebook I was a very low-level employee. In addition, this work was not my official job. I was conducting it entirely in my spare time, with the knowledge and acquiescence of leadership, of course. At first, the company was supportive of this. But gradually they lost patience with me. I was underperforming.

In your memo, you wrote that you have blood on your hands. Why did you say that?

Whether something was acted on was, as far as I could tell, entirely a function of how much I yelled, how much I made noise.

I know that many of the decisions they have made have had impact in the countries that they worked on. The US is still deeply affected by what happened in 2016 with Russian manipulation on Facebook. For many countries like Honduras or Azerbaijan, this is their own Russia. But its done not by a foreign power, but by their own government and without even bothering to hide.

I tried my best to make decisions based on the information I had at the time. But of course I am just one person. Sometimes I waited on something longer than I should have. At this level of responsibility, your best is often not enough.

How did you get into the work you did?

When I joined the company I was, like many people, deeply affected by Russia 2016. And I decided to start looking for overlap between inauthentic activity and political targets. And I started finding many results in many places, particularly what we call the global South, in Honduras, Brazil, India.

Honduras got my attention because it had a very large amount (of inauthentic behaviour) compared to the others. This was very unsophisticated activity we are talking about. Literal bots. And then I realised that this was essentially a troll farm being run quite openly by an employee of the president of Honduras. And that seemed extraordinarily awful.

Then what did you do?

I talked about it internally. Essentially everyone agreed that it was bad. No one wants to be defending this sort of activity, but people couldnt agree on whose job it was to deal with it.

I was trying desperately to find anyone who cared. I talked with my manager and their manager. I talked to the threat intelligence team. I talked with many integrity teams. It took almost a year for anything to happen.

Youve said there is a priority list of countries. What happens to countries that aren't on that list?

Its not a hard and fast rule. Facebook does takedowns in small countries, too. But most of these takedowns are reactive, by which I mean they come from outside groups tips from opposition groups, tips from NGOs, reporter investigations, reports from the CIA, etc. What happened in this case was that no one outside the company was complaining.

Given the resources Facebook has, why it cant prioritise every country?

The answer that Ive seen at Facebook when I was there, when these questions were asked, was that even though Facebook has a ton of money, human resources are different. Even if you have infinite money, you cant expand its size by a factor of 10 every night. It takes time to train people. It takes time to grow.

And it was willing to believe that for a while when I was there. But I think in retrospect, if they genuinely believed that it was important, they would be taking steps that they arent. They would be focussing very highly on retaining talent in the integrity teams. And they would certainly never have fired me.

How do people still at Facebook try to change this?

Like most employees, theyre just average people who want to do the 9-to-6, want to go home at the end of the day and sleep.

Theres also a self-selection bias. If you think that Facebook is evil, you aren't likely to join Facebook.

But there are many people also who joined Facebook because they wanted to make it better. I was very upfront with them when I joined. I dont think Facebook is making the world a better place. And I told them I wanted to fix it.

Is there a concern among employees about the companys image?

I think employees have gotten more pessimistic over time. But there's also a very strong insularity and perhaps paranoia toward the mainstream press. People are skeptical of what the press says about the company.

I dont want to diminish that Facebook has been very open historically. We had regular access to the CEO. I was able to, as a very low level employee, be involved in our discussions with a company vice president. But its also been changing over time because of fear and worry about employee leaks.

Who is doing the work you did now?

I dont know. I was the only person who was going out on my own to look for this behaviour rather than waiting for people to tell us that something was going on. The reason I found so many things so easily was because there was so much low-hanging fruit.

Facebook says it's taking down many inauthentic accounts and has sought to dismiss your story.

So this is a very typical Facebook response, by which I mean that they are not actually answering the question. Suppose your spouse asks you, Did you clean up the dishes yesterday?" And you respond by saying, I always prioritise cleaning the dishes. I make sure to clean the dishes. I do not want there to be dirty dishes." Its an answer that may make sense, but it does not actually answer that question.

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'Dont think Facebook is making the world a better pl..rmer employee on tech giant's role in global politics - Firstpost

Renderings of Amazon's $2.5 billion HQ2 planned for Arlington were met earlier this year with jeers that the building dubbed The Helix kind of, sort of looks like the poo emoji.

Can you imagine that thing in the Navy Yard or University City's Schuylkill Yards? That's where Philadelphiahad pitched the tech giant to set up shop for its second location outside Seattle.

And in a new book by Brad Stone, author of "The Everything Store" and therecently published "Amazon Unbound,"it appears Philly's proposal was among the top finalists to be considered. One of the hangups, apparently, was thatsoon-to-be Amazon CEO Andy Jassyis a New York Giants fan.

Here's a tidbit from Mashable, which examined some interesting details from Stone's book and what they reveal about Amazon founder and outgoing CEO Jeff Bezos:

Philadelphia made an aggressive push to court Amazon when the HQ2 search was unveiled late in 2017, offering an enticing tax incentive package that would have amounted to about $5.5 billion, including Pennsylvania's $1 billion tax break. Mayor Jim Kenney touted the city's geography as the "Goldilocks zone" of logistics and talent for an East Coast Amazon hub, which might have brought some 50,000 jobs to the city.

And while Amazon's HQ2 search team was impressed with what Philadelphia had to offer, Stone's book details how the personal wishes of Amazon executives largely dictated the ultimate decision to choose a two-site plan in Northern Virginia and Queens. The New York site was abandoned amid major political pushback, prompting Amazon to opt for a 25,000-employee site in Arlington and a plan to distribute another 25,000 across its other U.S. offices.

Amazon also selected Nashville as the site of its "Operations Center of Excellence," touting 5,000 jobs and an investment of $230 million.

For Philadelphia residents, the consolation of missing out on Amazon HQ2 is that its arrival likely would have been a mixed bag. If Seattle's rising rents over the past decade are any indication, Amazon would have changed housing economics in Philadelphia. One study from Zillow estimated that Philly's median rentcould have jumped as high as an additional $138 within a year of Amazon landing here.

In the long-run, it appears that Amazon probably will invest heavily in the Philadelphia area, anyway. The company has added multiple warehouses in recent years and eventually may have its sights on the redeveloped site of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery that was closed after an explosion in 2019.

It's hard to imagine that an NFC East rivalry truly influenced Amazon's decision not to move to Philly, but it's still amusing to consider that the Eagles were in the thick of their Super Bowl LII run during the early stages of the company's HQ2 search.

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Eagles-Giants rivalry may have helped nix Philly's Amazon HQ2 bid - PhillyVoice.com

Creators are the new currency. And they are a commodity in increasingly high demand.

As digital influencers keep gaining in popularity, companies like YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok are increasingly leaning in and betting that their pathway to growth lies with these independent content producers.

From our standpoint, the velocity of the creator economy today has made things completely undeniable to the rest of the world, YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl tells The Hollywood Reporter. We see this as a completely new space that got opened up, that has brought incredible creativity that was not something we could really imagine previously.

And the tech giants are putting their money where their mouths are, committing hundreds of millions of dollars to support, create and entice creators to produce for their platforms.

At the Interactive Advertising Bureaus virtual NewFronts marketplace from May 3 to 7, presentations were a stark contrast to just a few years ago, when YouTube was betting its future on scripted fare like the Karate Kid sequel Cobra Kai (which has since landed at Netflix), and Snapchat unveiled a slate of a dozen scripted shows spanning the genres drama, horror and fantasy.

Why the shift? TikTok, the red-hot mobile app, explained it in a sizzle reel that ran during its May 6 presentation. As Olivia Rodrigos song drivers license played (a song propelled to the top of the Billboard charts in part due to its success on the platform), some of the years viral TikToks filled the screen, alongside a message: Traditionally, a select few have defined culture. But not anymore. Enter TikTok.

The power of TikTok is in our community, and how they engage with brands and creators. Brands want to be a part of the cultural moments, said Sandie Hawkins, GM of U.S. business solutions for TikTok. And as shoppable technology proliferates, creators arent just about making content that drives users to the grocery store or Amazon, but about getting them to buy products within the app or video ecosystem at the same moment they tout them.

[Ecommerce] is massively important to the success of any client that is in business right now. Period, says Cond Nast global chief revenue officer Pamela Drucker Mann. In many cases, this can be their number one distribution channel. Show them an option that helps them unlock ecommerce revenue, whether that is in video or anywhere else, that is going to be a priority for them.

Cond Nast is in the midst of a shoppable push of its own on platforms like TikTok. In its presentation, TikTok highlighted how it drove sales of Ocean Spray cranberry juice and American Eagle exercise pants alongside the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt.

Craig [Brommers], the CMO of American Eagle, told us the leggings sell out every time they restock, says Sophia Hernandez, the head of TikTok U.S. business marketing.

Its a message that is clearly resonating with marketers. Snapchat used its May 5 event to unveil a Creator Marketplace that ultimately will connect brands to the platforms creative talent.

We want to give creators a chance to enjoy a living on the platform, says Snap Inc. vp sales for the Americas Peter Naylor. And for Snap, it means more advertising partners can produce and execute compelling creative on Snapchat without the need for extensive resources.

YouTube, meanwhile, sought to retake control of the creator narrative, leaning into its history and sheer scale to secure marketing dollars earmarked for creators.

It is something that we just feel incredibly proud to have pioneered, and continue to lead in, Kyncl says of the creator economy.

The focus on creators continues even to the original programs commissioned by the video platforms. Scripted shows were mostly sidelined this year in favor of unscripted fare, and prominent creators were front and center.

Snapchats new shows were fronted by Grammy-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion as well as popular creators Charli and Dixie DAmilio. YouTubes originals included a kids show led by creator Guava Juice, and one from environmentalist Jack Harries. YouTubes biggest new show, Best Shape of My Life, stars Will Smith, a world-famous celebrity but also a YouTube creator with 9.3 million subscribers, as the company was eager to highlight.

We love anybody who embraces the platform, Kyncl says. They can come from anywhere, it can be someone like [creator] Liza Koshy, or someone like Will Smith. It is about their attitude and their leaning into the platform and connection to the audiences.

But in a world with multiple scaled platforms, creators cant be taken for granted, and even digital juggernauts have to fight for the next generation of talent.

A version of this story first appeared in the May 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.Click here to subscribe.

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YouTube, Snapchat Move to Bring Influencer Economy In-House - Hollywood Reporter

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After a blockbuster year for e-commerce boosted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinas JD.com is seeking to raise up to $3.4 billion by listing its logistics arm.

JD Logistics is an integrated supply-chain player in China, offering services from warehousing to distribution, from manufacturer to end customer. Its initial public offering is set to be one of the largest in Hong Kong this year.

Shares in the e-commerce giant JD.com closed less than 1% lower in Hong Kong, while its Nasdaq-listed U.S. shares similarly fell less than 1%.

The back story. JD.comone of Chinas internet giants established its in-house logistics division in 2007. The group built out warehousing and delivery infrastructure and supply-chain technologies through this division for a decade, before formally spinning out the company in 2017. Since then, JD Logistics has continued to serve JD.com, alongside offering services to external clients.

The company operated more than 900 warehouses across China by the end of 2020, with its logistics network using high-tech tools like self-driving vehicles and autonomous robots. Its 32 smart mega warehouses across China include a fully unmanned center in Shanghai.

Since being spun off in 2017, JD Logistics has grown quickly, with revenue growth of 32% between 2018 and 2019 and 47% from 2019 to 2020. It recorded net losses of more than 2 billion yuan ($300 million) in both 2018 and 2019, and a net loss of 4 billion yuan in 2020. The group expects its net loss for 2021 to increase significantly compared with 2020, in part due to lower profit margins from a decrease in government support related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

JD.com floated its pharmaceutical and health services division, JD Health, in Hong Kong in December 2020, raising $3.5 billion, and itself listed in Hong Kong in June 2020 after years of its shares being traded on the Nasdaq.

Also:China Cracked Down on Its internet Giants. The Rebound Will Be Slow.

Whats new. JD.com said on Monday that it would seek to raise up to 264,132 million Hong Kong dollars ($3.4 billion) through the listing of JD Logistics. The IPO would be the second-largest in Hong Kong in 2021, since Tencent-backed video-sharing app Kuaishou floated in February to raise $5.4 billion.

JD Logistics intends to issue 609.2 million sharesaround 10% of its stockwithin an expected price range of HK$39.36 to HK$43.36, according to filings. The company is slated to retain more than 64% of the total shares. An overallotment option, or green shoe, would allow for the sale of another 91 million shares to raise up to a further $510 million.

Cornerstone investors including Softbanks Vision Fund, Tiger Global, Blackstone, and Temasek HoldingsSingapores state-backed investment companyhave committed to buying around $1.5 billion worth of shares. The final pricing for the IPO is expected on Friday, before the shares begin trading on May 28. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Chinese investment bank Haitong are the joint sponsors of the IPO.

In its prospectus, the group made the case that it was a tech-driven supply-chain and logistics expert, with proprietary tools allowing it to substantially improve the operational efficiencies of customers supply chains. The key risks to JD Logistics business, according to the filings, include intense competition in the e-commerce and services space, Chinese macroeconomic conditions, and the fact that a significant portion of its revenue has historically come from JD.com.

Plus:Chinese Retailer JD.com Beats Sales Estimates. The Online Boom May Be Here to Stay.

Looking ahead. Investors can view JD Logistics going public as a way to play a few familiar high-tech trends, including artificial intelligence and 5G-linked breakthroughs in autonomous vehicles and robots. These technologies have serious implications for supply chains. More broadly, JD Logistics would be another way to gain exposure to the e-commerce sector as consumer spending ramps upin China and around the worldwith the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

But investors must be aware that the group would go public into a tough regulatory environment, with Chinese regulators cracking down on tech companies. Last month, regulators warned 13 groups, including a JD.com subsidiary, over antitrust issues, and share prices in the sector have faced headwinds since February amid rising interest rates and regulatory concerns in both the U.S. and China.

And the market has had recent cause for concern about the Chinese tech and logistics sector more broadly. One of JD Logistics competitors, SF Holding, saw its stock price crash more than 44% from highs in February after it posted a surprise quarterly loss. That prompted questions about lofty valuations beyond SF, which is Chinas largest listed courier group. Expect JD Logistics to face similar scrutiny.

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Chinese Giant JD.com Seeks $3.4 Billion in Logistics IPO. Heres What to Know. - Barron's

In the past year,onlinebuying has skyrocketed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,vastly acceleratinge-commerce andcondensinga growth dynamic that would have otherwise taken a decade into a matter ofmonths.As a result, warehouses are operating at some of the highest capacity levels weve ever seen.The need for additional space and productivity is so great that some companies,such as Amazon,have eventurned to abandoned malls and golf coursesto developnew warehouse facilities.This surge of e-commerce growth, coupled with the critical demand for warehousing space of any kind, hasplacednew demands on logistics and warehouse operationsnamely,a substantial increase in workers, space and transportation efficiency. Since most operations cannot scale resources proportionally with demand increases, this has exacerbated an ongoing needfor innovative solutionsthat canincrease worker productivity, asset usage and space utilization.To do more with less, many operators are looking at all new technologies to help, including the drive towards automation. Becoming a fullyautomated warehousehas become theultimate goalformany logisticsand warehouse operators. While this remains an ambitious end goal,the reality is that automated technologies are not there yet, and costs are far beyond most operators capital budgets.In fact,even Amazon has statedthat it would take at least 10years before thetech giantcould entirely automate its fulfillment processes.Our takeaway is that if a company like Amazon, with effectively unlimited resources, doesnt see full automation in the near term, the rest of the industry will need even more time for technologies to mature and costs to become manageable.Thepast year has exposed the inability of current approaches to handle higher outputs without significant workforce and facility investments.So how can logistics and warehouse operators make changes to increase operations and productivity in the near term?Smarter warehousesstartwith connectivityAs operators look for both near and long-term ways to enhance productivity, they must start by setting the groundwork for those operations with connectivity. Currently, the vast majority of warehouses have limited to no connectivity infrastructure and those that do tend to have the bare minimum to perform required operations. The good news is there are many different wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi, 5G and various Internet of Things protocols, that operators can leverage to deploy devices that fit each of their specific needs.While some high-end facilities have advanced connectivity infrastructures, they are the exception rather than the rule.Existing facilities will need to evolve to a fully connected warehouse to support the new wave of technology needed to boost productivity within their existing footprints.Operators will first need to build the infrastructure that any new technology will depend on.Its all about the dataAs the transition from a fully worker-driven facility to a highly automated facility takes place, a critical success factor will be the ability of humans and automated material handling equipment (MHE) to efficiently work within the same facility. Strictly relying on spatially unaware systems, such as warehouse management systems (WMS), wont solve this problem. Rather, the solution lies in providing automated devices, humans and WMS with the necessary spatial context of the entire facility and its contents to correctly identify the optimal resource required to perform each task efficiently.With the increase in automated MHE deployments, such as AS/RS systems,cobotsand AGVs, the key test of their usefulness will be how adaptable they can be within their environments. While most of these technologies can navigate locally with the help of lidar, vision systems and/or sensors, they typically lack the facility-level spatial awareness needed to co-exist with human workers, ever-changing inventory location, and other legacy materials handling systems. This added level of detail will be critical for optimal productivity, efficiency and safety.The same goes for WMS. Most of these systems have no idea where an inventory item is in relation to the worker picking an order, let alone any autonomous vehicles. Combining WMS data with spatial data for the facility will increase operational visibility to enable slotting enhancements and optimized workforce and asset allocation.To achieve spatial awareness and its benefits, operators can easily integrate their different data silos into warehouse spatial intelligence (WSI) solutions. WSI is a new category of software solutions that have emerged to address urgent market needs amid the pandemic, pulling data into a common interface and analyzing the multiple data sources to provide clear visibility and productivity metrics. Because WSI solutions sit on top of existing data silos, there is considerably less risk and cost versus upgrading an entire WMS or hiring dedicated personnel to continuously optimize robots.WSI solutions integrate the real-time location of workers, status of docks, legacy materials handling and new automated material handling equipment with facility layouts and inventory location for seamless interoperability.Beyond improving productivity and efficiency of day-to-day operations, WSI solutions can improvesafetyby providingdetailed congestion analysesto improve routing and movement within the warehouse, helping to preclude collisions and improve overall safety.WSI canalsobe integrated with forklifts to assess and improve driver behavior and set up alerts to identify common points of unsafe interactions between forklifts and workers.This is all made possible by starting with a foundation of connectivity and spatial context that supports a range of applications and technologies to create a truly smart warehouse.The interface of the connected warehouse is WSIWSI solutions are the glue of the connected warehouse because they create a single interface between different siloed applications and data sources. WSI bridges the many distinct data sources together and provides a spatial and analytical lens through which operators form actionable insights on how they can improve workforce scheduling, optimize inventory layout, increase physical space usage, and reduce facility maintenance and operational costs. In doing so, warehouse operators can make data-driven process changes and measure results as they implement swift remediations to optimize their operations.By evolving fromthe traditional four walls and a roof model to a fully connected warehouse, operators can increase the efficiency and productivity of their facilities by 20-30%. Although logistics operators haveestablishedanend goal of becoming fullyautomated,even the industry giants recognize it will takeat least a decade to get there.By implementing innovative solutions such as WSIto bring together data from independent siloes, connected warehouses will lay the groundwork for continuous improvement through technological innovation for decades to come.

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Evolving into Connected Warehouses: The First Step Toward Long-Term Success - DC Velocity

Large foreign IT companies that refuse to open offices and have official representation in Russia could be completely banned from having advertisements on their websites and could be prevented from accepting any form of payment.

Thats according to Alexander Khinshtein, an MP for the ruling United Russia party, who says his proposed bill would not infringe on users interests but would force companies to be accountable to the countrys laws. As things stand, foreign tech companies often avoid demands from the Russian authorities, as they have no physical base inside the country, and ignoring legal requests typically goes unpunished.

READ MORE:Russian Foreign Ministry says Twitter no longer independent social media, but a tool of 'digital diktat' under control of West

Our bill would oblige owners of large information resources with a daily audience of more than 500,000 people in Russia to open official representative offices to fully represent their interests and be responsible for their activities, including in the government and courts, he wrote on messenger app Telegram, noting that refusal to comply would see sanctions imposed, including a complete ban on accepting payments and restrictions on advertising.

Unfortunately, many of the IT giants openly abuse their monopolistic position by violating the requirements of our legislation, he explained.

According to Khinstein, the way to get compliance from foreign IT companies is to create economic incentives for them to comply with Russian legislation.

In recent months, a number of social media companies have been targeted by the Russian authorities for refusing to comply with demands to remove content. In particular, Twitter attracted the attention by Roskomnadzor, the countrys media regulator, for ignoring requests to delete thousands of posts with illegal material, including child pornography and incitements to commit suicide.

In February, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed Twitter as a tool of Western countries to impose a global digital diktat, after the website removed 100 accounts it alleged were linked to the Kremlin.

On March 5, Roskomnadzor announced that it would fine not just Twitter, but foreign-based networks Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Telegram for failing to delete posts that called for teenagers to attend unauthorized protests. Two Russian websites VKontakte and Odnoklassniki were also fined.

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Foreign tech giants to be forced to open offices in Russia as officials look to stop companies ignoring demands from regulators - RT