Daily Archives: December 7, 2021

The Big Tech reckoning gained momentum in 2021, as U.S. regulators accused behemoths like Google and Facebook of abusing their market power to gain an illegal edge over competitors.

But one major name in tech avoided not only the ire of the public but also the reach of antitrust regulators in 2021: Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo Finances Company of the Year and the second-largest company in the U.S. by market capitalization after Apple (AAPL).

Microsoft is indisputably a giant even among its massive peers. It has the worlds dominant desktop operating system in Windows and is second in cloud market share behind Amazon (AMZN); it also owns the planets biggest professional network, LinkedIn, and Slack rival Microsoft Teams.

So, why havent antitrust regulators pursued Microsoft recently? To be an illegal monopolist, a company has to have a dominant market share and engage in anti-competitive practices. And several antitrust experts say they just havent seen signs that Microsoft has violated antitrust law. Perhaps Microsoft learned its lesson from an epic antitrust lawsuit the Justice Department filed nearly 25 years ago. Since then, Microsoft has gotten bigger but it appears to be playing by the rules.

[See also: What we get right, and wrong, with our Company of the Year]

Size does not make any difference. We dont go after firms because of their large size, Herbert Hovenkamp, one of the worlds leading antitrust scholars, told Yahoo Finance. For example, Walmart is bigger than Amazon, but nobody is talking about major public antitrust litigation against Walmart.

Later, Hovenkamp added, You have got to identify some product where there is both dominance and an exclusionary practice and its kind of hard to find one [with Microsoft]. Thats, I think, the bottom line.

The same cannot be said of other tech giants, if antitrust claims against them are true.

Google (GOOG, GOOGL) has the biggest target on its back: The search and advertising giant faces three pending antitrust lawsuits from state attorneys general and one from a coalition of AGs and the Justice Department. The latest government lawsuit, filed in July, targets Googles app store, Google Play. The others focus on Googles massive search and search advertising business: When the Justice Department filed its suit in October of last year, then-Attorney General Bill Barr called the company "the gatekeeper of the internet.

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Meanwhile, Facebook parent Meta Platforms (FB) is still defending itself against claims from the Federal Trade Commission that it scoops up rivals like Instagram and WhatsApp to destroy its competition.

For its part, Amazon got hit with an antitrust suit from the Washington, D.C. attorney general in May, while the FTC is considering whether to block its $8.45 billion acquisition of movie studio MGM. Even Apple, which is less maligned than other tech giants, reportedly faces an imminent antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department over its control of the iPhone.

[See also: How Microsoft saved itself from social media scrutiny]

In antitrust cases such as these, the government may begin an investigation because competitors or customers sound the alarm over allegedly anti-competitive behavior. For example, Fortnite maker Epic Games sued both Apple and Google over their app store fees; meanwhile, Yelp waged a years-long campaign to get antitrust regulators to go after Google.

The victims of anti-competitive behavior are not lying on the ground outside of a building. Its not like street crime. They have to come into the enforcement agencies and complain or else the enforcement agencies dont really know about it, said Harry First, co-director of the Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program at NYU Law.

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella speaks at the Viva Tech start-up and technology summit in Paris, France, May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

In the case of Microsoft, experts said they havent seen evidence that competitors have complained of antitrust violations. One exception is Slack, which filed an antitrust complaint in the EU claiming Microsoft unfairly bundled Microsoft Teams into its market dominant Office productivity suite. Still, that case appears to be an outlier.

Microsoft simply may be maintaining its market share by being a good competitor, says John Lopatka, an antitrust expert and professor at Penn State Law.

The Justice Department accused Microsoft of being a bad competitor back in 1998. Thats when the U.S. sued the company for allegedly engaging in a broad pattern of anticompetitive conduct. The case focused largely on Microsofts Internet Explorer browser, which it bundled into Windows for free arguably at the expense of competing browsers like now-defunct Netscape.

Then-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates didnt appear to help the case with an evasive deposition where he reportedly declined to answer many of the governments questions. Stephen D. Houck, then a federal prosecutor in New York, compared Gates and other executives to arrogant professional athletes, The New York Times reported in 1998.

"Emboldened by success and wealth, Microsoft executives felt they could break the rules with impunity," he reportedly said.

404302 04: Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates arrives at U.S. District Court with his wife Melinda April 22, 2002 in Washington, DC. Gates is taking the witness stand to give his first live testimony since the antitrust case was filed against the software giant in 1998. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The dispute dragged on for nearly five years, until 2002, when a judge signed off on most of a settlement between Microsoft and the Justice Department. As part of that deal, Microsoft agreed to make it easier for consumers to use rival software on Windows computers, among other concessions.

Microsoft has, it seems, followed both the letter and spirit of that settlement. For years prior to that settlement, the company had resisted opening up its software to other devices, as my colleague Dan Howley reports. But now it pushes to make its software available on other hardware and vice versa.

The Windows Operating System is absolutely open. Its like a bazaar. Microsoft doesnt limit choices the way that Apple does in the App Store, says Hovenkamp, the antitrust scholar.

Microsoft appears to have learned its lesson after fighting a costly antitrust battle often mentioned in the same breath as Standard Oil or AT&T. The years-long case, tough as it was for the company, was crucial for its development, Microsoft President Brad Smith said in 2008, a decade after the trial.

When I look back at it from Microsofts perspective, it did mean many things, but I also think when I try to prioritize it in my own mind, it meant one thing more than any other, he said in a speech at Harvard University. It was a part of the maturing of Microsoft.

Erin Fuchs is deputy managing editor at Yahoo Finance.

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Why Microsoft avoided antitrust scrutiny that plagued other tech giants in 2021 - Yahoo Finance

Bruce Liu, CEO of Esoterica Capital talks to CNBC's Arjun Kharpal at the annual East Tech West event in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China on Dec. 1, 2021. Liu laid out a framework for investing in Chinese tech firms as Beijing continues to tighten regulation on the sector.

Bruce Liu, CEO of Esoterica Capital talks to CNBC's Arjun Kharpal at the annual East Tech West event in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China on Dec. 1, 2021.

GUANGZHOU, China Beijing's regulatory crackdown sent jitters through the market, but one fund manager has come up with an investment framework to navigate the uncertainty.

China has tightened regulation on its domestic tech sector in many areas, from data protection to antitrust, over the past year. The swift moves have caught international investors off guard, wiping billions of dollars off the value of the country's giants.

Bruce Liu, CEO of Esoterica Capital, said investors should take an approach that syncs with China's goals of "common prosperity," growing national champions, social responsibility and state-led investment. "Common prosperity" refers Chinese President Xi Jinping's push for moderate wealth for all.

During a panel discussion at CNBC's annual East Tech West conference in south China, Liu said "common prosperity" is not a "zero-sum game" and it's "actually about growing the pie bigger, and the slice is better and more fairly." That could benefit several companies.

The investor says that companies tapping into so-called lower tier cities and lower income citizens in China, which he estimates to be around 1 billion people, should see growth.

He said e-commerce company Pinduoduo, short video app Kuaishou and food delivery service Meituan are key names to play this theme.

Pinduoduo and Kuaishou are very focused on tapping into users in rural areas of China, particularly farmers. Both companies have sought to help farmers sell goods on their platforms to users across China. Meituan has a so-called group buying business which allows members of the same residential community or area to group together and buy goods in bulk at a discount. This is seen as key to attracting lower-income users in smaller Chinese cities.

"These [companies] are following the lower-tier cities that are underserved. This fits into the blueprint of central government. It is about getting the pie larger. That is coming from lower-tier cities," Liu said, in a separate interview on the sidelines of East Tech West.

Liu said that China is looking to boost its national power and that requires so-called national champions companies representing innovation.

"We need companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, to be there to represent the top notch of technologies," Liu said, naming some of his favored tech giants.

"They are still the benchmark for Chinese tech," Liu added.

The investor said that beyond their core businesses, both Alibaba and Tencent are investing in key areas of strategic priority for Beijing including cloud computing and semiconductors.

Liu also advocated backing companies that tie in with areas that China is investing into.

"China is taking a top-down approach, versus in a Western style, bottom-up approach to support national goals of, you know, important things like smart infrastructure, even semiconductors," Liu said.

China's regulatory tightening was a key theme of CNBC's East Tech West conference. During another discussion, Ben Harburg, managing partner at MSA Capital, said there are a lot of misinterpretations of regulatory moves.

"I think a lot of dangerous generalizations are being made, and misunderstandings promoted, that are affecting the way they invest in this market. And so as I say, that can drive down valuations for all of us," Harburg said.

"The reality is that these businesses are actually much healthier, and that the framework for understanding regulation is far more predictable than is being espoused in a lot of these Western media sources."

Liu said many of the technology companies that have been sold off by investors are "all very cheap now."

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This is how to play China's tech crackdown and these are the potential winners, according to one investor - CNBC

Tech giants are expecting utmost protection and safety from the Personal Data Protection Bill

The governmental intervention in deciding the mode of data generation and protection, it seems, has created a disturbance in the Information Technology (IT) sector. There is a perception that the draft report adopted on 22 November by the Joint Committee (JPC) on the Personal Data Protection Bill, if it finally turns into an act, may lead the dominant tech firms and Internet service providers to approach the judiciary for grievance redressal. The draft was not adopted unanimously as it induced seven members of the 31 member-strong committee to present the note of dissent. But the point remains that most members approved it.

The bone of contention is the social media. The committee has a proposal to designate social media platforms as publishers and this does not go well with the high tech firms. Their objection is made on the ground that the protection and safety provided to them regarding the content generation by the Information Technology Act (2000) will be nullified if this proposal is accepted by the Parliament. There is no prize for guessing that the aggrieved parties include the firms which matter most Facebook (now Meta), WhatsApp, Twitter, and YouTube.

The main source of agitation is that such sweeping change is recommended by a committee on its own without taking into confidence the major stakeholders in the information technology domain. Apart from the aforementioned issue, there are several other issues as well. They are the inclusion of non-personal data in the privacy law, provisions for certifying hardware devices and the clause stipulating that sensitive personal data and critical personal data have to be stored locally. If this is not all, media reports also suggest that the JPC is determined to exert greater compliance of the companies also by way of reporting instances of data breach within seventy-two hours, mandatory disclosure of instances of transfer of information from principal data owner to someone else, and compulsory appointment of senior managers as data protection officers with the liability of lapses or violations of data laws.

The companies are no less agitated over another issue: that regarding certain functions like maintaining law and order the State has been relieved of the mandatory clause of disclosing third party sharing need to the data principal. This leads to the allegation of unequal treatment privileging the State not just by the corporate giants but also by the civil society organizations. On the whole, the way to legalize the Right to Privacy, a fundamental right since 2017, seems to be somewhat jerky.

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Personal Data Protection Bill Agitates the Tech Giants - Analytics Insight

Dec 4th 2021

A DECADE AGO the relentless expansion of American internet giants promised world domination. With their vast home market affording them economies of scale, the likes of Amazon, PayPal and Uber looked destined to monopolise the screens of everyone from Californian charmers to Kalahari farmers.

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Today America still rules the global tech industry, broadly defined, accounting for 71% of the market value of listed firms. Nonetheless a different pattern has emerged in the part of the technology industry that focuses on providing internet services to consumers. Here, activity is more dispersed and less American. The trend has been highlighted this year by a rush of flotations of emerging-market internet firms.

Instead of a few monoliths, three different categories of business have formed. Using a taxonomy first drawn up by Asia Partners, an investment company, you can define the first group as the global platforms. These still dominate in services where minimal physical presence is required, in particular search, social media and cloud computing. Giants like Alphabet and Facebook (now Meta) generate just over half their sales outside America and are among techs most international businesses.

A second category has become important in some places: the protected national champion. Chinas tech giants are keen to expand abroad, but their profitable home markets are largely sealed against international competition and they are subject to increasingly heavy-handed guidance from their own government. This protected model of tech is becoming popular in other authoritarian countries. Russia has favoured home-grown outfits in e-commerce and fintech, and in the past year has cracked down on the activity of Silicon Valley firms.

The third digital typelocal heroesis prevalent across much of the rest of the world. In Asia and Latin America local and regional companies often rule in e-commerce, gaming, digital payments, ride-hailing, food delivery and other app-based services. Examples from South-East Asia include Sea, Grab and GoTo; South Korea has Kakao and Coupang; and Argentina has MercadoLibre. In India giants including Reliance and Tata aim to promote super-apps that provide a range of services, even as specialists, such as Zomato, a delivery firm, are scaling up.

Typically, these firms operate in markets where it is useful to be on the ground, or where local tastes are what count. In South-East Asia supply chains are highly decentralised, rewarding such knowledge. In fintech regulatory differences make it harder for international groups to thrive. Activity is booming. Indias Unified Payments Interface, a system which connects banks and non-banks to make cheap and immediate payments, recorded about $100bn of transactions in October, more than four times the amount in the same month two years ago. Mynt, a startup that provides mobile payments and loans, has just become the Philippines first-ever unicorn, meaning that it is valued at over $1bn.

These businesses have been helped by a surge in the availability of capital, especially as global investors search for alternatives to China, where President Xi Jinpings tech crackdown will mean lower profits. Of the $342bn spent on takeovers of emerging-market tech firms so far this year, 71% came from economies outside China, the highest share in 11 years. Emerging-market tech companies outside China issued $53bn in equity markets so far in 2021, more than twice the previous record. Venture-capital outfits that once focused on America, and maybe China, are scouring the planet looking for startups.

The success of the third type of internet firm is cheering. They boost competition and innovate to solve local problems, such as mapping cities without registered property. In contrast to American and Chinese firms, they come with little to no geopolitical baggage and are creating clusters of software developers and seasoned investors around the world who may go on to create another generation of startups. Local pension funds no longer have to put money to work on Wall Street in order to get exposure to the digital economy.

Inevitably, there are risks. Some countries may be tempted to shelter their local heroes from competition, or limit how much outsiders can disrupt vested interests at home. Local expertise may not travel well. Capital markets can be unforgivingshare prices in Indias Paytm, a payments firm, have tumbled after a botched listing last monthand rising interest rates will make capital more expensive. When the supply of capital dries up, groups still struggling to make money could be in trouble.

Even so, the odds have receded of a global army of smartphone users all tapping an identical set of apps on their screen. Variety should flourish instead, and that is to be welcomed.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "Local heroes"

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For vibrant, competitive internet businesses, look to emerging markets - The Economist

ORO VALLEY, Ariz., Dec. 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tautachrome (OTC: TTCM) today predicts the way its ARknet Platform will play in the approaching, inevitable Metaverse.

The coming Metaverse promises to be a colossal virtual version of the internet consisting of a massively scaled and interoperable network of immersive worlds where unlimited numbers of people and businesses continuously interact. It will consist of a large ecosystem of providers, developers and content creators generating the content on and collecting the revenues built on underlying platforms. (https://www.matthewball.vc/all/forwardtothemetaverseprimer.)

The Metaverse does not yet exist. But it is on its way. The tech giant Facebook has changed its name to "Meta," and Microsoft and Nvidia are both working on their own Metaverse related activities. When the Metaverse comes, as we are certain it will, the Companys ARknet Platform is preparing to supply it with real-world information that it will need. We are currently working to develop relationships with one or more of these tech giants to move our visions forward.

Despite its promise of unending virtual reality, the Metaverse must live in a real world with users living in the real world. User activities that take place in the real world will reflect into the Metaverse in ways that make sense and have value to the Metaverse. This will include AR information that people use to ply the real world. We intend to be a primary supplier to the Metaverse of such real-world AR information, some of which we expect to be AR information from our our own ARks, and some of which will be AR information flowing from others.

Last week we announced a new advanced Platform feature, the Portal AR feature that allows users to enter through a Portal into a virtual space created by a different user. The Platform aims to use advanced versions of this Portal AR feature to let users observe events inside the Metaverse like outside observers peering in.

Dr. Jon N Leonard, Tautachrome CEO said today The way we see it whatever the Metaverse winds up becoming and whatever shape it takes, we want the ARknet Platform to act on the Metaverse from the outside, feeding real-world data in, and extracting virtual information out. The Portal feature could give users a cool way to see into the Metaverse without having to be inside it.

Download ARknet for Androidhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.honeycombarchive.arknet

Download ARknet for iOShttps://apps.apple.com/us/app/arknet/id1466870072

About Tautachrome, Inc:Tautachrome, Inc. (OTC: TTCM) is an emerging growth company in the Internet applications space. The company has licenses, patents, and patents pending in augmented reality, smartphone image authentication, and imagery-based social networking. The company is leveraging these technologies to develop privacy and security-based applications for global business and personal use.

Tautachrome, Inc. posts important information and updates through tweets from the official Company twitter page https://twitter.com/Tautachrome

Forward-Looking Statements:Statements made in this press release are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, general business conditions, risks of raising money sufficient to achieve the Companys objectives, risks of managing growth, governmental regulatory risks, technology development risks, schedule slippage risks, and political and other business risks. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this paragraph and the risks and other factors detailed in Tautachrome's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Tautachrome undertakes no duty to update these forward-looking statements.

Press and commercialization contact:David LaMountain, COODlamountain@Tautachrome.com

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Tautachrome (OTC: TTCM) Predicts ARknet's Role in the Metaverse - GlobeNewswire

A QR code for digital payment services WeChat by Tencent and Alipay by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, is displayed at a parking lot on December 27, 2020, in Yichang, Hubei province of China.

Wang Jianfeng | Visual China Group | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China Barriers between China's tech rivals like Alibaba and Tencent are coming down as Chinese companies rush to comply with Beijing's crackdown on alleged monopolistic practices.

Mobile pay took off in the last decade to become the dominant form of consumer payment in mainland China, surpassing cash and credit cards. Tencent's WeChat Pay and Alipay run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Group are the most popular, covering the majority of the mainland population of 1.4 billion people.

But fierce rivalry between the companies meant that for years, consumers buying products on Alibaba's Taobao e-commerce app could only pay with Alipay. That's about to change, according to a Tencent executive.

"As for payment, we also hope in the near future, in all places, users can freely choose. It's also a show of fairness," Lei Maofeng, vice-general manager of WeChat Pay, referring to more platforms in China.

He was speaking in Mandarin Wednesday at CNBC's annual East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China.

Lei did not name specific apps or share a specific timeframe, and did not respond directly to a question on whether WeChat Pay was in discussions with Alibaba.

However, Lei pointed out that WeChat announced Monday that users can now share links from external sites, including Taobao.

Previously, users of WeChat the ubiquitous social messaging app in mainland China could not directly share a link to a product on Alibaba-run Taobao. Instead, users could only copy and paste a jumble of keyboard symbols from a Taobao product page into WeChat. Copying and pasting the same combination of symbols into Taobao would bring the user to the product page.

A test by CNBC on Thursday found that the share function on Taobao now allowed users to send a product page link to WeChat along with some promotional text.

WeChat is looking for other ways to keep users engaged with its app beyond mobile pay and messaging. These functions include automatically deducting a shipping charge once a courier has retrieved a package for shipment, eliminating the need for the user to pay manually, Lei told CNBC.

Several Alibaba apps, including food delivery app Ele.me and video platform Youku, have already started allowing WeChat Pay. Alipay was still the only payment option on Taobao and Tmall as of Thursday morning local time.

JD.com's e-commerce app supported WeChat Pay, a domestic version of Apple Pay, and a number of Chinese credit cards as of Thursday morning. Tencent has a nearly 17% stake in JD, according to S&P Capital IQ.

Small business owners in China have complained in the past that an e-commerce site or food delivery app from one company would not allow them to operate simultaneously on another platform. Even if they managed to do so, the businesses might face higher fees.

Since late last year, the Chinese government has sought to limit alleged monopolistic practices by internet technology companies, notably by slapping a record $2.8 billion fine on Alibaba for such behavior.

CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.

Correction: The headline has been changed to accurately reflect that the executive who spoke to CNBC was from WeChat Pay. An earlier version misrepresented his title. Lei also said he hopesits payments business can be available on more platforms in future.

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WeChat Pay exec says he hopes payments business can be in all places, as rivalry with Alibaba eases - CNBC

India has, in the past, been called the next China for possessing some of the same growth potential andinvestment opportunities. The truthfulness of this claim was supported recently when Chinese authorities began cracking down on its tech sector giants, promptinginvestorsto look elsewhere for a more reliable home for their money. Coincidently,Indian tech companies are currently experiencing a boom, with Paytm (NSE: PAYTM) andZomato(NSE: ZOMATO) going public in 2021 and producing some of the countrys largest IPOs to date.

While opportunities can be found outside Indias stock exchanges, I want to explore these regulated markets and upcoming IPOs in this article.

Indias stock exchanges

India is home to eight stock markets with itslisted companiesworth a combined US $3.46 trillion. To put this into perspective, UK listed companies are worth a total of US $3.59 trillion, less than US $100 billion more than the former British colony. By 2024, Indian listed companies are projected to surpass the value of UK companies value and hit approximately US $5.00 trillion.

Hosting these companies are the countries well-known exchanges, including the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE), and the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX)

3 Indian IPOs to watch in 2022 Snapdeal IPO

Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce platform catering to the countrys growing middle class, similar to the USs Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) or Chinas Alibaba (HKG: 9988).

The Company is said to be ready to file preliminary documents signalling its intent toIPOnext year at a valuation of approximately US $1.50 billion.Snapdealis currently backed by Japans Softbank (TYO: 9984) and Chinas Alibaba Group, which are expected to continue to hold significant stakes after the Companys IPO.

Data Patterns (India) IPO

Data Patterns has developed a vast array of electronic systems for the defence and aerospace sectors for the past 35 years.

The Company filed toIPO with regulators in September 2021, expecting to raise 700 crores, or US $100 million, to help it repay debt and aid expansion. The funds will assistData Patternsto deliver on its order book, which has grown by 40.7% over the past four years.

Data Patterns is seeking a valuation of US $340 million when it goes public. However, no official date has been scheduled for its IPO.

MapMyIndia IPO

The digital mapping company, headquartered in Delhi,MapMyIndia, develops mapping technology used by some of the worlds largest companies.

The Company has received approval (as of the last week of November) from the countrys financial authority to go public. MapMyIndia is perhaps the highest-profile Company on this list, with business relationships with US tech giants Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER), among others.

MapMyIndiais seeking a valuation of US $825 million when itIPOs, which it could do before the end of the year. The Company has expressed that the funds will, in part, be used to lift its marketing, helping it compete with the likes of Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Dutch-based TomTom (AMS: TOM2).

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3 Indian IPOs To Watch In 2022 - Benzinga