Daily Archives: June 9, 2022

When the UK Government first introduced the Online Safety Bill (the "Bill") to Parliament, it lauded the Bill as creating "world-leading online safety laws" which "marked a milestone in the fight for a new digital age".1 The Bill is currently at committee stage, where it is being scrutinised by MPs who have heard evidence from tech giants including TikTok and Twitter, alongside online safety advocates like the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

If enacted, the Bill will create a new regulatory and enforcement framework requiring Online Content Providers ("OCPs") to tackle illegal and other harmful content on their services. It mirrors laws recently proposed in the EU and US, and has the potential to be a leading legislative model for other countries seeking to improve online safety by regulating OCPs.

This OnPoint summarises the main elements of the UK Bill and examines the global trend towards increased regulation of OCPs, and how that will impact OCPs who provide online services around the World.2

New Regulatory Obligations

As a minimum, the Bill will impose statutory duties of care on social media platforms, online forums and search engines that host user-generated content as well as sites featuring adult content ("OCPs") to:

The Bill also requires the Secretary of State to pass regulations specifying threshold conditions by which OCPs services will be categorised as Category 1, Category 2A or Category 2B. Additional duties will be imposed on OCPs providing Category 1 services, including an enhanced duty to carry out and record risk assessments, a duty to protect adult users online safety, a duty to empower users to take greater control over their exposure to harmful content, and duties to protect content of democratic importance and journalistic content.5 The threshold conditions will be set with reference to the OCPs number of users and the functionality of its services.6

The Bill also imposes various duties relating to transparency, reporting, user identity verification and payment of fees. The administrative burden on OCPs will be substantial, and the Government estimates that it expects OCPs collectively to spend anything from 50 million to 95 million on transition costs, followed by an estimated 290 million in annual costs thereafter.7

Investigation, Enforcement and Penalties

The Bill appoints Ofcom, the UK regulator responsible for regulating communications services including TV, radio and post office, with responsibility for enforcement and oversight of the regime. It gives Ofcom new criminal investigatory and enforcement powers including the power to compel OCPs to provide information and witnesses to attend interviews. It also gives Ofcom new powers of entry, inspection and audit.8 It creates criminal offences relating to failure to cooperate with Ofcom investigatory measures, and provides for the possibility of joint liability for parent and subsidiary companies in certain cases where Ofcom deems it appropriate.9 It will also allow Ofcom to apply to the English courts for "business disruption orders" requiring OCPs to withdraw services or, in extreme cases, blocking access to non-compliant OCP services.10

The Bill stops short of imposing criminal liability on OCPs for failing to comply with their statutory duties, but in such cases Ofcom may impose financial penalties of up to 18 million or 10% of the OCPs qualifying worldwide revenue in the most recent complete accounting period, whichever is the greater.11 Where two or more entities are jointly and severally liable for a penalty, the maximum penalty will be the greater of either 18 million or 10% of the qualifying worldwide revenue for the group.12

Separately, the Bill updates some of the existing communications offices in England and Wales, creating three new communications offences for (i) sending online threats and harassment, (ii) sending false communications with intent to cause psychological or physical harm, and (iii) sending unsolicited sexual pictures and videos. The purpose of the new offences is to enhance the protection of vulnerable users and to reduce online abuse. The offence of sending false communications will require prosecutors to show that the person sending the message knew at the time of sending that the message was false, and that it was likely to cause non-trivial psychological or physical harm to its audience.13 The offence cannot therefore be committed by OCPs whose users publish false information on their platform, unless the prosecution could show that the OCP knew at the time the message was sent that it was false and likely to cause non-trivial psychological or physical harm to its audience.

Public Response

The response to the Bill has been varied. Gill Whitehead, the head of the UK Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, a new group created to streamline internet regulation expressed concern that the law could "weigh down small businesses with new costs" and stifle important innovation.14 Others believe it does not go far enough. The End Surveillance Advertising to Kids coalition flags that the Bill does not restrict OCPs powers to collect and use data to aim targeted advertising at children, unless the advertising in question falls within the definition of harmful.15 Whichever side of the argument you agree with, there is no denying that the Bill will impose additional administrative and financial burdens on the OCP market.

Global Outlook

The UK is not alone in legislating to regulate OCPs. In April, the EU agreed the text of a new Digital Services Act ("DSA") which, similarly to the UK Bill, aims to increase accountability for online platforms regarding illegal and harmful content.16 Separately, the EU has agreed the text of a new Digital Markets Act ("DMA") which will increase competition by forcing companies who provide browsers, social networks and search engines designated as "gatekeepers" (in that they have at least 45 million monthly end users and at least 10,000 yearly active business users in the EU) to allow users greater flexibility in terms of uninstalling pre-installed apps, achieve interconnectivity between different apps and services, and curtailing targeted advertising.17 The DMA and DSA will be enforced by the European Commission, and are currently awaiting formal approval by the EU Parliament and Council, later this year.18

Further afield, the US is also making inroads in this area, following criticism that it has historically failed to regulate big platform companies operating in its own backyard.19 In February 2022, US senators introduced the Kids Online Safety Act to Congress, seeking to impose a duty on OCPs to prevent the promotion of harmful and criminal activity, and limit exposure to harmful behaviours like suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and substance abuse. In fact, the US Bill goes further than the UK Bill, in that it will require OCPs to give parents greater control to opt out of data mining and algorithmic recommendations.20

Concluding Remarks

Some critics of the EU and UK legislators argue that the trend leans towards protectionism but, as the US introduces its own draft legislation at a federal level, that argument is falling away. Whatever your perspective, it is clear that OCP regulation in the near future is a legal certainty, and OCPs need to start preparing quickly. The financial costs and administrative burden will be significant. The UK Government intends to raise the funds to cover the costs of regulation in the UK from industry in the form of fees.21 Add to that the costs of risk assessments, implementation of mitigation measures, transparency reporting and cooperating with regulatory investigations, the financial cost to OCPs will increase sharply as and when these Bills become law. OCPs are already feeling the pinch as investors get nervous about the potential impact of the proposed laws on OCP profitability.

Footnotes

1) Press Release World-first online safety laws introduced to Parliament, 17 March 2022.

2) Unless specified, all provisions cited are taken from the Online Safety Bill, Bill 4, 53/8.

3) Section 53.

4) Online Safety Bill Explanatory Notes, Bill 258-EN (Explanatory Notes), paragraph 19.

5) Part 3, ss 12 16.

6) Schedule 10, Paragraph 1.

7) Online Safety Bill Impact Assessment, Full Economic Assessment, Page 2, see here.

8) Schedule 11.

9) Section 161 and Schedule 14.

10) Explanatory Notes, paragraph 573.

11) Section 122(4)(1).

12) Section 122(5)(2).

13) Section 151.

14) Financial Times, Online safety bill risks stifling start-ups, says UK tech regulator chief, 28 April 2022, see here.

15) End Surveillance Advertising to Kids coalitionwritten evidence to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee inquiry into Digital Regulation, dated October 2021 (DRG0017), see here.

16) See here.

17) See here.

18) See here.

19) For example see Brookings online article U.S. regulatory inaction opened the doors for the EU to step up on internet, 29 March 2022.

20) See here.

21) See here.

Link:

Online safety and social media regulation gains momentum on both sides of the Atlantic are tech giants ready? - JD Supra

Teal members have found jobs with top companies, such as Google, Apple, TikTok, Spotify and Bumble.

The United States is heading into uncharted waters. After nearly two years of a steadily improving job market, better economy and optimism, it feels like America is losing some of the gains it has made. There have been a number of tech companiesranging from startups to big tech giants that have announced hiring freezes and layoffs. Its disconcerting that after talking about the Great Resignation and war for talent, workers are worried about holding onto their jobs.

On the positive side, there are still around 11.4 million jobs open, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Department of Labor also announced on Friday that the U.S. added 390,000 new jobs in May, and the unemployment rate is at 3.6%, a little higher than the 50-year low back in February 2020, prior to the pandemic.

Despite low unemployment and more jobs available than people to fill them, there are economic concerns. Runaway inflation, supply chain disruptions and the possibility of being sucked into a World War emanating from Russias invasion of Ukraine all create future uncertainty. When corporate executives are faced with the unknown, it's easier to hold off on doing anything, hunker down and wait for better clarity. This is the prime time when people need help and guidance.

Looking for a new job sometimes feels like a lonely pursuit. The companies have talent acquisition teams, the latest software, internal recruiters, human resources and a plethora of other personnel. You have to basically go it all alone. The matchup doesnt feel as if the odds are in your favor. However, there is a startup that can help level the playing field.

David Fano, founder and CEO of Teal, created a machine learning and AI- based careertech platform to help job seekers and people who want to advance their careers. Fano said, In the future of work, the employee is the enterprise."

As the head of a platform that offers the tech tools to empower people to take control over their career journey, the chief executive added, "Companies have HR teams, recruiters and sophisticated technology to manage their pipelines, but all that most job seekers have is a spreadsheet. Were leveling the playing field by building the infrastructure that helps people grow their careers with confidence.

To help professionals, Teal offers a free suite of web-based career tools.

To help professionals, Teal offers a free suite of web-based career tools. These features include a job tracker, rsum builder, Chrome extension and other tech tools. Members will receive prompts and guidance on the site to help with their career journey. There wont be any pushy salespeople, as the job seekers take control over their future.

More than 65,000 people have signed up to the program to help fast-track their careers. Fano shared that Teal members have found jobs with top companies, such as Google, Apple, TikTok, Spotify and Bumble.

Catherine Daneliak, a Teal member, said about her experience, Teal has brought all aspects of the job search together in one platform, which has enabled me to organize my job search and keep track of the status of each potential job.

Before Fano started Teal, he was on paternity leave when his then-employer, WeWork, conducted its first round of mass layoffs. At the time, Teal was an aspirational idea. Fano felt that he needed to help his former colleagues. Along with a group of ex-WeWorkers, Fano put together a career day. They offered free rsum reviews, networking opportunities and other career assistance.

He recognized that even experienced, knowledgeable professionals need resources to navigate layoffs and strategies on how to find a new job. Fano wrote in a LinkedIn post, For me, that was the big bang moment of why Teal needed to existto provide employees with the tools and infrastructure to take control of their careers. It was his big aha moment.

In light of the economic and geopolitical events that pushed both tech giants and startups to cut costs and enact hiring freezes, downsings and in the case of Coinbase, rescinding job offers, venture capital funding wont be as prolific for the foreseeable future. Teal fortunately raised a $6.3 million seed round before the window of opportunity started to close.

The latest funding will be used to develop Teals next phase of product initiatives. This will include a recommendations engine, matching members with relevant skills-based online courses to help them further their careers through upskilling and learning. The job hunters and career-focused individuals will be able to easily find and sign up to well-known online coursework with notable organizations, such as Coursera, General Assembly, Udemy and LinkedIn Learning.

"Teal is building the tools to help people navigate the future of work where career agility is more important than ever," said Jeff Rinehart, partner at City Light Capital and former chief marketing officer at 2U. We need a new category of technology that champions the candidatenot the companyempowering users to take control of their careers and develop the skills they need to excel long-term. Teals business model positions them to both do good and do well, and we couldnt be more excited to back them at this pivotal moment.

Teals seed round was led by City Light Capital with participation from Rethink Education, Human Ventures, Gaingels, Pareto Ventures, Basecamp Fund, Zelkova Ventures and angel investors, like Tom Willerer (former chief product officer at OpenDoor and Coursera). Previous investors include Flybridge, Lerer Hippeau and Oceans.

See original here:

Teal Is Revolutionizing The Career Journey With Tech, AI And Machine Learning - Forbes

As is the case with the Apple Watch line-up, Apple puts a lot of effortto focus on the health and safety features they build in, on their wearables. The watchOS 9 reflects that, with a dedicated FDA approved AFib History system and more thorough options to customize your workouts.

More Watch Faces and Complications

Apple is going to introduce four new watch faces with the update. The Lunar watch face will let you keep track of both the Gregorian and Lunar calendar, which is used in cultures such as Chinese, Islamic and Hebrew.

The second face called Playtime, has been created with artist Joi Fulton. The third, Metropolitan, is a classical looking watch face, which changes style when you rotate the digital crown, and Astronomy, which features a full star map and cloud data.

Also Read:Apple WWDC 2022 | Multitasking and productivity is at the heart of Apple's upcoming software updates

Along with the new faces, come modernised complications for older watch faces. Utility, Simple and Activity Analog, and options for background editing on faces like Modular, Modular Compact, and X-Large. The Portraits face has been updated to showcase more depth effect on photos, including cats, dogs and landscapes.

Chinese scripts have been added for the California and Typograph faces. Focus mode will also allow you to change watch faces, depending on which profile you have selected on your iPhone.

More options in the Workout App

The Workout app has been updated to provide even more detailedstatistics, and metrics to gauge your performance. The in-session display can now be controlled using the Digital Crown, to move between workout views.

New Heart Rate Zones can be manually created or calculated using existing Health data, and custom workouts allow you to fine-tune a specific workout, according to your liking. There are new alerts as well, like pace, power, hear-rate and cadence. Apple has redesigned the summary page for its Fitness app, to account for all the changes.

Also Read:Apple WWDC 2022 | Apple unveils next generation M2 silicon, now with an 18% faster CPU

Running and Swimmingenhancements

Running has been updated with new form metrics, including stride length, ground contact time and vertical oscillation. These also appear on the Fitness and Health apps, allowing users to see their patterns over time.

Users can now choose to race against their best time, on frequently or recently used routes, and watchOS will update you when you are behind the pace or go off the path.

A new Pacer mode will allow users to dial a distance and goal for the time they want to complete the run in, and the device will provide pace alerts with metrics.

For Swimming, Apple has added kickboard detection for pool workouts, which allows Apple Watch to detect when swimmers are using a kickboard to swim.

There is also a new SWOLF score, which is a stroke count, counted out in seconds, that tells you how long you take to swim one length of the pool. SWOLF counts can be recorded per set.

Sleep insights updated with Sleep stages

The Apple Watch will now be able to detect various sleep stages - REM, Core or Deep Sleep. This data will shared in the Sleep app with detailed information and metrics.

More information has also been added to the metrics, like time asleep, heart rate, respiratory rates and sleep comparison charts in the Health app.

New Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) History

Apple watch can already detect potential signs of AFib, but with watchOS 9, Apple has introduced a AFib history feature that takes into account how often a users heart rhythm shows signs of AFib.

Along with this, you will also get weekly notifications, and detailed history metrics on the Health app, which can be shared privately with your doctor.

Track your doses and medicine requirements with Medications

Medications allows users to manage and schedule their medicational requirements, like medicine, supplements or vitamins. These can be organized in a medications list, that you can then use to schedule for refills.

You can also set-up reminders, and view detailed information on the Health app. Medications will also alert you if it finds a potentially critical interaction between two drugs, which can cause severe side effects.

Other Improvements

Notifications have been redesigned to be less intrusive, and have new slimline borders when displayed.

More quick actions added to Apple Watch, like phone calls, taking photos, playing music, start or stop a workout and pause or play media files.

The QWERTY keyboard now supportsFrench, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Mexico, Spain, Latin America).

Here is the original post:

Apple's watchOS 9 emphasises the tech giant's focus on cutting-edge health features - Moneycontrol

Oleksandr YaroshenkoContributor

For more than three months, Ukraine has been engulfed in the flames of a war with Russia. That might look like a red flag from an investors point of view, but everything is not so black and white in the countrys tech sector.

Tech companies with Ukrainian roots and core markets in the U.S. and Europe continue to operate uninterrupted after making sure their teams and data are completely safe abroad or in the west of Ukraine. Also, foreign embassies are returning to Kyiv, indicating that Ukraines capital could soon be safe enough for companies to reopen offices.

IT companies have demonstrated their resilience and ability to deliver results amid the worst of challenges. It is one of many reasons that make Ukraine a successful hub for future unicorns.

Lets look at six reasons to invest in tech startups that hail from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian IT sector has shown unprecedented resilience, flexibility and ability to withstand any conditions during these months of war. Having prepared emergency plans in advance, many tech companies quickly relocated their teams to safety during the first days of the war or even before the fighting broke out.

Currently, many companies have spread their teams between offices in the west of Ukraine and abroad to ensure operations continue uninterrupted. They have minimized risk while maintaining discipline and access to the talent pool.

Nearly 90% of IT specialists havent seen any changes to their job or workload since the war began, according to a survey by DOU. This indicates that Ukrainian IT companies have reliable cushions.

More importantly, they continue to hire talent both to support their business and help the economy. The IT sector is the third-largest attractorof foreign currency into the economy in the country, which makes the sector vital for economic stability.

As the development of the IT sector is integral to the maintenance of the countrys GDP, the government fully supports it. For example, during the war, safe regions in the west of Ukraine turned into new hubs for IT companies.

Ukraine is one of the most popular centers for the development of IT. Its where EPAM, Luxoft and other outsourcing giants have gathered a significant number of software engineers, business analysts and other technical specialists.

The number of IT specialists has also increased steadily in the last 10 years. For example, in the first half of 2021, the 50 largest Ukrainian IT companies grew their headcounts by 10,000 professionals. Its also home to tech startups that are leading in their respective sectors Jiji, Taimi, Reface, MacPaw and Headway, to name a few.

Ukrainians want to go back home, and some have already done so. Of the nearly 7 million Ukrainians who had crossed the border since the start of the war, 2 million have returned, and more are on the way back. These people are showing they are ready to work hard to rebuild the country.

Another thing to consider is that the world is supporting Ukraine economically, providing a necessary resource base for an economic rebound. Combine that with Ukrainians willing to do their best to live better in their country, and you get very promising prospects for post-war development.

Todays startups will become a foundation for a new layer of technology companies that will add significant value to the Ukrainian economy.

Ukraine is one of the best countries for running a tech business due to its cost-efficient tax regime for IT companies and cost of living, per research byDoing Business.

The country also has a strong educational infrastructure for the study of tech, mathematics, finance and economics. And due to the increased demand for IT specialists, many large companies are opening their own educational centers and organizing internships. These trends are only gaining momentum.

Ukraine has been an underdog in Europe for a long time, and it lacked access to the capital it needed to get on par with its more developed neighbors. As a result, an array of bootstrapped tech companies have been growing rapidly without external capital.

This has helped founders become disciplined when allocating funds or scaling operations for their customers in other countries.The combination of such discipline and export-oriented product development is a fail-proof mix for sustainable growth. It also offers a strong opportunity that can be accelerated with investment.

At the same time, Ukraines international partners are providing necessary resources for the countrys economic rebound, so companies will have even more potential for global growth. The EU is standing in full solidarity with Ukraine not only by providing its people with humanitarian, political and financial support, but also by setting up a Ukraine Solidarity Trust Fund for rebuilding Ukraine after the war.

The current inflow of international investments, a favorable tax regime and a strong talent foundation combined with the Ukrainian peoples desire to come back to their home makes Ukrainian companies desirable investment targets.

See the rest here:

6 reasons to invest in startups from Ukraine - TechCrunch

It still feels like yesterday that Jack Ma announced the debut of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group at the New York stock exchangein 2014.

The Chinese billionaire invited eight Alibaba customers and employees to ring the bell that has traditionally marked the open and close of trade each day, as a symbol of gratitude to his company's frontline workers and customers.

Those bell-ringers wore matching T-shirts with a quote from Mr Ma printed on the front: "Keep your dream, in case it comes true".

Jack Ma's American dream of being listed on the US stock market has been widely shared by Chinese entrepreneurs over recentdecades.

Currently, there are 261 Chinese companies listed on the New York stock exchange, with a combinedcapital worth approximately $1.9trillion.

But some of them may be about to lose this dream.

In May, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that more than 80 companies including Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com and video platform Bilibili faced the risk of being delisted.

They joined a growing list of Chinese companies from tech front-runner Baidu to fast food chain Yum China that the SEC says will be expelled from the US capital market in 2024 unless theycomply with new auditing standards over the next two years.

"This is part of the larger context of US concerns about Chinese companies' operations in the United States," said Professor Andrew Walter, who specialises in international finance at the University of Melbourne.

While the SEC warnings are the Biden administration's latest action in the ongoing US-China financial war, the move can be traced back to a financial saga that began two decades ago.

In 2001, the financial world was rocked by a scandal that took down energy giant and Wall Street darling Enron Corp, then widely considered among the largest and most innovative companies in the US.

After it was revealed that Enron had used creative accounting to cover up corporate fraud and corruption, the company filed for bankruptcy, resulting in $US11 billion in shareholder losses.

In response, the US introduced the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, requiring all publicly listed companies, both domestic and international, to allow US regulators to inspect their audits.

However, for years, China and Hong Kong haverejected requests from the SEC on national security grounds, which has left regulations in a state of limbo for decades.

While the administration of Donald Trump and the ongoing US-China trade war have pushed US authorities to tackle the issue, the straw that broke the camel's back was the fraud perpetrated byLuckin Coffee.

Founded in 2017, the chain launched almost 2,400 coffeehouses across China within two years, and began trading on the Nasdaq in 2019, raising $US645 million through its initial public offering.

It was one of the biggest listings by a mainland Chinese company in the US that year.A rising star, it looked set tocompete with the likes of Starbucks and Costa.

But soon Luckin Coffee was accused of inflating revenue. In 2020, an internal investigation revealed its leadership faked $US310 million in sales for the previous year.

The company has now been delisted by the Nasdaq, and it emerged from bankruptcy proceedings last month. However,its fall has alerted US regulators who had already begun scrutinising Chinese companies.

At the end of 2020, US Congress passed a bill that prevents Chinese companies from listing on the New York stock exchange if they refuse to comply with US auditing processes.

The Biden administration also appointed Gary Gensler as the chair of the SEC, which Professor Walter described as "probably one of the most important Biden administration appointments".

Widely known for his pledge toincrease reporting transparency, Mr Gensler has proposed a mandatory climate risk disclosure for public companies.

"Gensler would probably say, 'Look, what we're doing is really just trying to increase reporting transparency for US investors'," Professor Walter said.

"[And the measures will] reduce concerns that Chinese companies might, in some cases, be hiding information from investors that might create market volatility and bad outcomes for US investors."

Many Chinese corporations may actually be willing to comply with the US standards, according to Jeremy Mark, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former Wall Street Journal reporter.

"Most Chinese companies are quite open to having their books audited," he said."They want to be a listed company in good standing in the United States, largely for the access to capital."

Mr Mark said Chinese entrepreneurs' hunt for US capital could be traced back to the 1990s, when economic reforms and privatisation of state enterprises opened the floodgates for Chinese investors looking for somewhere to grow their money.

Beijing even encouraged corporations to reach out for foreign investments, becausethere was a lack of capital flow in the domestic market.

Today, despite China's rapid economic growth, Chinese entrepreneurs still see Wall Street as their dream land for global reputations and more flexible access to capital.

"[Many Chinese corporations] don't want to just be large Chinese enterprises, they want to be large global enterprises," said James Fok, veteran financial analyst and author of Financial Cold War.

Mr Fok said some Chinese entrepreneurs were also concerned about their private property rights and protections offered by the domestic market, which pushed them to choose listing overseas rather than in China.

However, Beijing has begun tocrack downon billionaires and tech giants for "common prosperity", with the government targeting overseas-listed companies whose wealth it is unable to trace.

China is also worried that allowing the US to audit materials of Chinese companies could be used against Beijing in the next stage of the US-China trade war.

In July 2021, after a meeting with Beijing officials, Tiktok owner ByteDance scrapped its plan to list in the US.Regulators had asked the company to "focus on data security risks".

"So, for all these sorts of reasons, the Chinese [authorities] would prefer to see those companies listed in the domestic market," Mr Fok said.

"It's not necessarily the choice of a private businessman, but it is the desire of the state."

One could expect Beijing totakea firm stance against the US on this issue but that's not happening, yet.

Over the past few weeks, China's financial watchdog said it was willing to change the secrecy laws that prevent US regulators from inspecting Chinese companies listed in New York.

It announced that foreign regulators mightrequest to "investigate" or "inspect" overseas-listed Chinese companies and their auditors.

However, the Atlantic Council's Jeremy Mark said there were still questions about the level of access that China would give to US regulators, as it also signalled it would prefer some Chinese companies to be delisted rather than opening the audit book.

Beijing also encouraged Chinese companies to turn to Hong Kong rather than the US to access foreign capital.

Last week, Didi, known as China's Uber, announced it would delist from the US and relist in Hong Kong, just a year after it made its New York debut.

Mr Fok who served as a senior executive at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing for nine years said Hong Kong could give Chinese companies the same access to foreign capital as New York, while insulatingthem from the geopolitical risks they would face in the US.

However, Hong Kong's National Security Law may raise doubts from international investors over the city's future as a global financial hub, according to Professor Walter.

"I think non-Chinese global companies probably see Hong Kong as far less attractive today than they would have five years ago," he said.

"But Chinese companies don't have a lot of choices here."

In a speech at the International Council of Securities Association in May, YJ Fisher, the director of the SEC's Office of International Affairs, stressed that the SEC's inspection of Chineseand Hong Kong companies' audit papers did "not raise national security issues".

Ms Fisher also emphasised the necessity of resolving auditissues with China and Hong Kong to protect US investors with a growing interest in the Chinese market.

She also said time was "running out" to resolve the issues.

"Even if the [US regulators] and Chinese authorities reach an agreement on proceeding with inspections and investigations, we still have a long way to go," she added.

While the Australian SecuritiesExchange(ASX) is also a popular choice for Chinese companies seekingforeign investment, over the years there has been a huge drop from 55 ASX-listed Chinese companies in 2017 to just 15 this year.

A spokesperson said the ASX had tightened its admission rules over the past eight years, and the number of companies being delisted or rejected was "indicative of the steps ASX is taking to ensure standards are kept high".

"Every company listed on ASX, from whichever country they come [from] including from emerging markets, which includes but is not exclusively China must satisfy ASX admission requirements and then meet ongoing compliance obligations," they said in a statement.

Tim Murray co-founder of J Capital described the US-China audit dispute as the new reality that foreign investors, including Australia's, should be aware of.

"In the heyday of the China growth story, everybody was willing to look the other way in terms of compliance to normal standards of reporting and transparency, because everything was growing," he said.

"It's not like that anymore. "

Posted9h ago9 hours agoWed 8 Jun 2022 at 11:43pm, updated6h ago6 hours agoThu 9 Jun 2022 at 1:52am

Link:

US financial regulators threaten to delist Chinese companies but will Beijing compromise to save their American dream? - ABC News

How much do some of the nations largest and most prominent tech companies pay their employees? The data might surprise youthanks to their respective employee mixes and business lines, some of these tech giants might not pay as much as you think.

This data comes from a new Wall Street Journal analysis of median salaries for companies in the S&P 500 (for some inexplicable reason, it excludes Microsoft). Weve isolated tech companies from that overall list; as you can see from the chart below, many pay their employees handsomely:

Hold on, you might say: How can Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and IBM pay their employees so little compared to Facebook/Meta, Twitter, Netflix, and others? In the cases of Apple, Amazon, and Tesla, the answer is a simple one: warehouse, retail, and factory workers. These employees make less than highly compensated technologists, pulling down the companies median salaries in the process.

IBM is a bit harder to explain, since it doesnt have massive retail or manufacturing footprint of these other companies. One possible conclusion is that IBMs consulting and business-services divisions dont pay employees nearly as much as they might earn at other firms (other consulting firms such as Accenture pay similar amounts as IBM, backing up this idea).

By contrast, companies largely filled with technologists and executivessuch as Alphabet/Google, Salesforce and Facebook/Metaoffer extraordinarily high median salaries. Even at companies with lower median pay, its important to remember that technologists with the right mix of skills and experience can earn quite a bit; earlier this year, for example, Amazon raised the maximum base pay for its technologists and other corporate employees to $350,000.

With tech unemployment notably low, and demand for many tech roles so high, technologists everywhere have more leverage to negotiate for the pay and benefits they want. Even if a company cant pay you a Google-level salary, chances are good theyd be willing to talk about other kinds of compensation, including stock options, money for training, and flexible schedules.

Membership has its benefits. Sign up for a free Dice profile, add your resume, discover great career insights and set your tech career in motion. Register now

Original post:

What 19 Big Technology Companies Pay Their Employees - Dice Insights

Vodafoneplaced the UKs first cellular phone call. Its CEOwants to keep taking risks even as the companynears its 40th birthday.

At Vodafone Group Plc headquarters in west London, a sign hangs near the office of Chief Executive Officer Nick Read,telling passers-by: Its OK to make mistakes.

Three-and-a-half years into his tenure as CEO, with activist investors and hedge funds on alert, 57-year-old Read deflects media reports of pressure and doesnt actually admit to making any big mistakes himself.My view is every FTSE CEO has pressure, Read said in an interview with Bloomberg.It just comes with the job.

Read has worked at Vodafone for 21 of the companys 38-year existence.Nevertheless, the middle-aged CEO of a middle-aged company says he wants to embrace tech-style risk, eschewing traditional telecoms cautionin a bid to boostreturns on capital.

Vodafones challenges are different, though, from thosefacedby Silicon Valley tech giants. Instead of pivoting to the metaverse, Read has been busy cutting costs,standardizinginternal information technology systems and sellingoff units inNew Zealand and Malta. Hehas also carved out and listed the groups mobile masts operation, aiming to tap into high valuations for infrastructure and to pay down debt.

Vodafone was founded in 1984 and sees itself as a pioneer. Yet as it approaches its fifth decade,many of its stellar achievements are now reminders of a distant past. Its network carried the first cellular telephone call in the UK, on Jan. 1, 1985. The company thenled the rollout of out text-message technology, and was quick to expand globally.

Its sharespeaked during the dotcom boom, giving it amarket capitalization of214 billion in March 2000.Today theylanguishnear 20-year lows, down 20% even since Read started as CEO in Oct.2018.

Vodafonespent the last decade retrenching andis now squeezed between former state monopolies like Deutsche Telekom AG, newer, price-cutting entrants such as Iliad SA, Big Tech and regulators. In the UK, key rival EE, owned by BT Group Plc, ismaking a return on capital, while Vodafone may not be, according to regulator Ofcom.

Against that backdrop activist investorsand hedge funds are now stirring, with some implying that the company could find better leadership.

The only regret Read will admit to is that he did not move faster to standardize technology.He doesnt regret speeches sinceNovemberin whichhe outlined ambitions to strikedeals in the UK, Italy, Spain and Portugal. That surprised even company insiders, who worried their CEO might be weakening Vodafones negotiating position, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Reads speech increased expectations foroperational mergerswith rivals that could boost returns in Europes saturated and heavily regulated mobile telecoms industry.Sevenmonths on, no deals have materialized andthe background noise is getting louder.

P. Schoenfeld Asset Management LP, a New York hedge fund, was quoted in the Financial Times in Aprilcriticizing managements missed opportunities. Jupiter Corporate Bond Fund also called for faster deals. Cevian Capital AB, Europes biggest activist fund, has built an undisclosedstake in Vodafone and is keen to see deals and less centralization at the company, according to people familiar with the discussions. All three investors declined to comment.

Read remains unapologetic. My view is a lot more about: Do you feel you have a clear vision of where youre going? he said.Sometimes with media, you get a couple of hedge funds with very small positions being very noisy, because theyre event-driven, he added. So its in their interest to stoke up media.

He clarified he wasnt talking about Cevian: To be fair to them, I have yet to see them quoted on anything.

Investors hope that regulators caution which saw deals like Threes bid for O2 blockedin the UK in 2016 is now a thing of the past. The question is why Vodafone hasnt already struck some deals.

In February, it negotiated an agreement betweenVodafone Espana with private-equity owned carrier Masmovil, according to two people familiar with the matter only to see Masmovil and Orange SA announce a merger of their own days later, leaving Read on the sidelines. Vodafone and Masmovil declined to comment, and a representativefor Orange didnt respond to requests for comment.

Read also turned down an 11.3-billion euro Februaryoffer for Vodafone Italia from Iliadand Apax Partners, saying it wasnt in shareholders interests. Talks with CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd about a deal withThree UK have yet to yield results. British landline provider TalkTalk Telecom Group Ltd is another option,but on a recent earnings call, Read implied that a UK mobile deal was a higher priority.

Read says top investors, such as Emirates Telecommunications Group Co. PJSC, now known ase&, are confident.Run byformer colleague Hatem Dowidar, e&bought9.8% of Vodafone shares in May and offered a full-throated endorsement.Abdrn plc, the companys 8th-largest holder with 1.7%, also stands by Read.We are supportive of Nick Reads strategy and in favor of giving him time to execute on it, said Andrew Millington, its head of UK equities.

Read is also working on other options. Buried in Vodafones full-year results presentation earlier this month was a new plan to spin out the companys fast-growing internet-of-things business, now pulling in 900 million euros in revenue. The company also owns Africas huge mobile money service, M-Pesa, and has made heavy investment in 5G networks,which could underpin smart cities and factories.

Read has other complaints to fend off.Centralization of decision-making and technology has left leaders outside of Vodafones UK headquarters less autonomous and accountable, three people familiar with the company said. That couldmakeit harder for outsiders to break up the group, one suggested.Three years after an 18.4 billion-euro deal,Vodafone Deutschlandwhich makes as much profit as the rest of Reads European units put together has neededtechnology upgrades.Once again, though, there are no regrets.

A very small minority of certain people have been trying to argue theres complexity in our model, Read said, saying that Vodafones model offers local autonomy with shared service centers.We never use the word centralize.

Read has occasionally shocked investors. In 2018, weeks into the CEO job, he pledged to keep the dividend, only to cut it six months later. A year agoshares plunged after Read announced unexpected network investments. The company also had to overhaul its board after Olaf Swantee, the former CEO of EE, lasted just two months.

A number of people familiar with Reads management style described him as nice, calling him a good listener anda good leader. However, three people pointed fingers at his top team. They wondered whether Read has surrounded himself with the strongest talent.

Read said his executive committee is excellent, though he did alsosay thatsome are asked to leave across the business. Were a performance culture. So I am nice to an extent.

View post:

Vodafone Mobile Phones Were the Future Once. Now What Happens? - HT Tech

They stopped providing EarPods? And the charger? An Apple Pencil costs how much?

Its a running joke that every year, Apple charges more and more for less and less. And while its fun to scoff as the cost of a new iPhone inches up each year, many of us know that we will continue to buy Apple products.

There are myriad reasons why we do, such as Apples beautiful and simple design, top-of-the-line specifications or premium branding. But an undeniably critical component to Apples dominance and its ability to keep users has been its ecosystem.

Today, the tech powerhouses line-up of devices, services and unifying software serves as the most comprehensive and dominant ecosystem of the 21st century. Apple is very much aware of a consumers cost of leaving it, as well as how closely the brands products work together within it. It is why the company doesnt worry when you laugh at the new iPhone price, complain about a US$129 (RM419 locally) Apple Pencil or rant about its omission of chargers and earbuds; very few people will actually leave its walled garden.

However, as will become increasingly clear as the decade progresses, there is a new addition to the tech ecosystem the electric vehicle, or EV. Cars are becoming robots on wheels, differentiated increasingly by software instead of traditional car metrics. Eventually, most EVs will have great range and performance at affordable prices. As we approach autonomous driving, people will focus less on the driving experience and more on what they can do, entertainment-wise or productivity-wise, while being robotically chauffeured from point A to B. In 2030, consumers will care more about what apps are available in their cars than the cars zero-to-60 mph time.

It is in this sense that the need for the upcoming Apple Car to be successful is greater than it seems. A failure to offer a great EV would leave Apples once-complete product ecosystem with a dangerous hole one that top EV manufacturers could capitalise on by entering the smartphone industry and beyond. The Apple Car is not only a major growth prospect; it may also be critical to the survival of Apples entire business.

When software is a critical aspect of a product, as will be the case with EVs, sharing the same operating system with other products can greatly improve a users experience. This practicality is a major reason why people buy Apple products today, but if Apple cannot deliver a great EV, it loses this competitive advantage. The longer the tech giant takes to do so, the more consumers may be tempted to do the unthinkable and leave Apple for more complete ecosystems ones with great cars and phones that were designed for each other.

Crucially for Apples business, the iPhone is the gateway device into the Apple ecosystem. If a consumer chooses a competitors phone over an iPhone, Apple not only loses a phone sale but also potential MacBook, AirPods and Apple Watch sales, too.

To some extent, the threat of EV companies infiltrating Apples kingdom of smartphones is self-induced. Apples reputation for technological brilliance and its access to exorbitant amounts of capital and talent suggest the Apple Car will be a highly competitive EV. But most importantly for EV competitors, the Apple Car will integrate seamlessly into the Apple ecosystem. Apple will be sure to make the car highly appealing for users to unlock synergies between the Apple Car and other Apple products.

If by 2025 an (Apple Car) is released and 60% or more of NIOs users use Apple phones, NIO has no defence at all. If NIO doesnt do something today to prepare, its not going to be fun at that point, said William Li, CEO of NIO, one of Chinas premium EV brands.

Put simply, even if EV companies are able to match Apple or outperform it in an EV versus EV battle, consumers may still be highly incentivised to choose the Apple Car due to the convenience of having both a car and phone in the same ecosystem. An iPhone and Samsung Galaxy may have similar specs, but if you own a MacBook and AirPods along with the rest of your family, the choice becomes pretty easy.

Although this is an incredible competitive advantage that Apple should tap into, the danger for Apple is that EV companies have time.

The victors of the EV age will be companies that can provide world-class personal devices (smartphones, laptops, etc) and EVs at scale first. That is to say, in the same way that Apple has already mastered the first half of the pie with its product lineup today, soon there will be multiple EV companies selling millions of EVs, dominating the second half. Its a race to the top, and the race is closer than one might think.

Although the Apple Car is slated for release in 2025, from there, Apple will still need to scale rapidly and reach volume production. EV startups struggles in the first quarter of 2022 have highlighted the difficulties of transitioning from creating an amazing EV prototype to pumping out millions of them a year. Last quarter, Rivian and Lucid produced 2,553 and 700 cars, respectively. More mature manufacturers include XPeng, which has cumulatively delivered more than 100,000 cars in four years, and Polestar with nearly 40,000 in two years. In addition, some EV manufacturers are highly technology-focused, already designing their own chips, operating systems and software. They would not be starting from zero if they decided to enter the smartphone industry.

The EV will be the next integral piece of tech in our daily lives, and therefore Apple must make sure it offers a world-class model soon and at scale. If not, it risks weakening its overall ecosystem and loosening its grip on its loyal customers. Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service

See the rest here:

Opinion: A lot is riding on the success of the Apple Car, the tech giant's electric vehicle - The Star Online