Tag: Baidu

Chinese search giant Baidu to launch ChatGPT-style bot

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Baidu Inc. is planning to roll out an artificial intelligence chatbot service similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to a person familiar with the matter, potentially China’s most prominent entry in a race touched off by the tech phenomenon.

China’s largest search engine company plans to debut a ChatGPT-style application in March, initially embedding it into its main search services, said the person, asking to remain unidentified discussing private information. The tool, whose name hasn’t been decided, will allow users to get conversation-style search results much like OpenAI’s popular platform.

The company’s shares rose as much as 5.8 percent after Bloomberg’s report, the largest intraday gain in almost four weeks.

Baidu has spent billions of dollars researching AI in a years-long effort to transition from online marketing to deeper technology. Its Ernie system — a large-scale machine-learning model that’s been trained on data over several years — will be the foundation of its upcoming ChatGPT-like tool, the person said. A Baidu representative declined to comment.

Also Read: Gautam Adani is hooked on ChatGPT, says race for AI to get complex as chip war

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tool, has lit up the internet since its public debut in November, amassing more than a million users within days and touching off a debate about the role of AI in schools, offices and homes. Companies including Microsoft Corp. are investing billions to try and develop real-world applications, while others are capitalising on the hype to raise funds. Buzzfeed Inc.’s shares more than doubled this month after it announced plans to incorporate ChatGPT in its content.

Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. control much of China’s internet. The search company has been trying to revive growth in the mobile era, after increasingly lagging its larger rivals in arenas such as mobile advertising, video and social media. Apart from research in AI, the search giant is now also developing autonomous driving technology.

Baidu Chief Executive Officer Robin Li raised ChatGPT as an example of where the tech giant can take the lead during an internal talk in December, according to a transcript viewed by Bloomberg News. 

Also Read: Chat platform maker Gupshup launches Auto Bot Builder powered by GPT-3

“I’m so glad that the technology we are pondering every day can attract so many people’s attention. That’s not easy,” he said. He warned that the commercialisation of generative AI by making it a “product that everyone needs” could be challenging though.

ChatGPT also piqued the interest of Chinese internet users, who like people elsewhere shared screenshots of surprising conversations with the AI bot on local social media. That’s despite a heavily censored domestic internet largely walled off from the rest of the world, a model that’s helped companies like Baidu thrive as local equivalents to Google, Amazon and Facebook.

Apart from Baidu, several Chinese startups are also exploring generative AI, and have attracted investors such as Sequoia and Sinovation Ventures.

Also Read: Davos 2023: CEOs buzz about ChatGPT-style AI at WEF

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Baidu, Pony.ai start driverless robotaxi tests in Beijing

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Baidu Inc and Toyota Motor Corp-backed startup Pony. ai said on Friday they been granted the first licences to test fully autonomous vehicles without safety operators as a backup in Beijing.

Baidu and Pony.ai said they would begin testing 10 driverless vehicles each in a technology park developed by the Beijing government as a step towards commercial robotaxi services in China’s capital.

Beijing-headquartered Baidu, which generates most of its revenue from its internet search engine, has focused on self-driving technologies over the last five years as it looks to diversify.

It started to charge fees for its robotaxi service Apollo Go last year. It has predicted a robotaxi ride would eventually cost about half as much as one in a commercial car with a driver. The company said it would add another 200 robotaxis to its network across China in the coming year.

Apollo Go, which operates in Wuhan and Chongqing without a safety driver, delivered a total of 1.4 million driverless rides by end of the third quarter, Baidu has said.

Rival Pony.ai, which has operations in China and the United States, has been testing autonomous drive systems in Guangzhou, where it operates a taxi service. It is also testing autonomous drive vehicles in California and Arizona, where it employs safety drivers in the cars as a precaution.

While Chinese companies are pushing for self-driving cars, automakers outside China have retreated from the ambitious rollout schedule predicted a few years ago and regulatory roadblocks have appeared.

Also Read:Ather Energy likely to unveil its first sub-Rs 1 lakh e-scooter on January 7

Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” system requires a human behind the wheel ready to take control, three years after CEO Elon Musk predicted the company was on track to deliver a fleet of a million robotaxis.

Tesla has been under criminal investigation in the United States over claims that the company’s electric vehicles can drive themselves.

Cruise, General Motors Co’s robotaxi unit, has said it plans to add thousands of autonomous vehicles in the coming year and to expand its service across San Francisco and other US cities.

US auto safety regulators said earlier this month they had opened a safety investigation into the autonomous driving system used by Cruise after incidents where the vehicles braked inappropriately or became immobilised.

In October, Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG shut down their shared self-driving startup, Argo AI, after concluding that the mass deployment of a commercial autonomous drive system would take more time and money than the companies predicted when they joined forces in 2019.

In March, Pony.ai agreed to repair a version of its autonomous driving software in the United States after an informal inquiry by the National Highway Traffic Safety concluded a defect had caused a test vehicle to crash into a traffic median in California.

Also Read:From Renault Duster to Volkswagen Polo and Hyundai Santro, cars that got discontinued in 2022

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

In a first, China grants driverless taxi permits to Baidu and Pony.ai

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China has granted Chinese internet services company Baidu and a rival autonomous car company, Pony.ai, permits to provide driverless ride-hailing services to the public in Beijing, a significant regulatory step in the country’s pursuit of driverless technology.

The permits given to Baidu and Pony.ai allow them to offer rides without a safety driver behind the wheel to take over in cases of an emergency. The new permits still require a safety supervisor to be seated in the front passenger seat.

Baidu said 10 such autonomous cars began offering rides to passengers within a 60-square-kilometer (23-square-mile) area in suburban Beijing from Thursday. Baidu already operates an autonomous fleet of taxis in Beijing under its Apollo Go ride-hailing services, but they must have a safety driver behind the wheel.

China has ambitions to lead autonomous driving technology globally but lags the US in introducing such services. Alphabets Waymo began offering driverless taxi services in Phoenix, Arizona in 2020.

Also Read: Bajaj Auto shares take a hit after 2-wheeler sales decline amid weak demand and chip shortage

In 2020, Beijing set a goal for 70 percent of cars sold in 2030 to have Level 2 and Level 3 self-driving technology. Level 2 is partial driving automation, which means the vehicle can control steering and speed. Level 3 automation means that the car can detect what’s going on around it and drive itself.

Baidu, best known for its search engine and online advertising services, has in recent years invested heavily in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence technology, including automated personal assistants and AI chips.

The company said in a statement that it has accumulated over 27 million kilometers (16 million miles) of road testing over the last nine years with no traffic accidents.

Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous taxi services operate in nine cities across China, including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Also Read: Government summons chief technology officers of electric vehicle manufacturers; seeks explanation on quality assurance systems

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Startup Digest: Ashneer Grover resigns as BharatPe MD & Director, BigBasket completes 5.8 Cr deliveries in 2021, & Google, Meta face penalties in Russia

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Here are the top headlines from the startup space.

Ashneer Grover resigns as BharatPe MD and Director

Ashneer Grover has resigned as Managing Director and Director of the Board of fintech firm BharatPe on Tuesday, March 1.

Embroiled in a boardroom battle after a spate of controversies, Grover’s resignation comes days after the services of his wife Madhuri Jain Grover as head of controls were terminated on allegations of misappropriation of funds.

In a scathing letter of resignation to the board, Ashneer wrote, “I write this with a heavy heart as today I am being forced to bid adieu to a company of which I am a founder. I say with my head held high that today this company stands as a leader in the fintech world. Since the beginning of 2022, unfortunately, I’ve been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks on me and my family by a few individuals who are ready not only to harm me and my reputation but also harm the reputation of the company, which ostensibly they are trying to protect.”

Writing further in the resignation letter, Grover said, “From being celebrated as the face of Indian entrepreneurship and an inspiration to the Indian youth to build their own businesses, I am now wasting myself fighting a long, lonely battle against my own investors and management. Unfortunately, in this battle, the management has lost of what is actually at stake — BharatPe.”

Earlier, Grover had lost an arbitration that he had filed against the company’s investigation against him, with an emergency arbitrator holding that there was no ground to stop governance review at the fintech firm.

Infibeam acquires payments-focused Uvik Tech for Rs 75 Cr

Infibeam Avenues, a listed fintech company, has acquired the payments-focused Uvik Technologies for Rs 75 crore in a cash and stock deal. Venture capital fund Season Two Ventures will get an exit through the deal, as per a statement.

Uvik is in the contactless payments space and has developed a technology that converts any smartphone into a payment device.

Bengaluru-based Uvik’s co-founder and chief executive Rahul Hirve termed the deal as a strategic step for the company which will drive growth to the next level.

BigBasket completes 5.8 Cr deliveries in 2021; aims to expand physical retail network

Tata Group-owned etailer BigBasket has announced that it completed 5.8 crore deliveries to the family of over 3 crore basketeers, and added 65 lakh new members to it in 2021.

The startup said this year it would be entering Tier 3 and 4 markets and making available products to customers through order-from-app-and-pick-up-at-the-store option.

Releasing its 2021 performance report, the company claimed it received 120 orders and onboarded 15 new customers every minute. The BigBasket users availed discounts worth Rs 2200 crores and 3.7 crores free home deliveries, it said.

The firm also forayed into offline retail with its integrated Fresho brand outlets. “We are aiming to expand our online portal’s coverage as well as the physical retail network to bring these regions under our coverage in 2022 and beyond,” said TK Balakumar, COO, BigBasket.

Through its Diversity & Inclusion initiative, the number of women working with the company has doubled from 2000 to 4000 in the last 18 months.

BigBasket also claims to have employed close to 700 differently abled people in their warehouses.

Nutreat Life goes phygital; aims to open 10 offline stores pan India by FY23

Handcrafted and customised foods brand, Nutreat Life has made its debut in the offline retail market with the opening of its first brick-and-mortar store in Bengaluru.

The store introduces the ‘Café Shop’ concept, wherein, people can hang out and have a hands-on experience with the products as well as shop all the healthy options available at Nutreat Store. The store is around 230 sq feet in area and has a seating area of about 8 people, it said in a statement.

As part of an expansion strategy to develop phygital channels and propel growth, the company intends to open more than 10 offline stores across India by the financial year 2023.

“After receiving a great response from Bangalore, Vizag and Mumbai, we have set a goal of doubling the number of stores by the end of this year,” said Jyothi Sri Pappu, Founder, Nutreat Life.

Rooter ties-up with Orange Rock Esports team as exclusive broadcast partner

Rooter, a game streaming and Esports platform, has partnered with Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) team, Orange Rock Esports (OR Esports), as its official broadcast partner.

The two will join forces to offer Esports fans uninterrupted access to the hottest BGMI action. As sponsors, Rooter will also support exclusive streaming of their gaming events/tournaments on the platform and have its logo presence on all OR Esports merchandise and associated handles, the company said in a statement.

The deal will see each of OR Esports’ BGMI roster of professional players, spanning multiple domestic esports titles, stream their gaming events on Rooter, starting March 1.

“OR Esports has already taken the Indian BGMI space by storm with their fiercely talented, playfully unpredictable crew of content creators, and living legends of Esports. Teaming up with them will help us build a fun, massive, and competitive community of streamers and influencers on our platform,” said Piyush Kumar, Founder, and CEO of Rooter.

Instahyre looking to quadruple revenue in one year

AI-based advanced hiring platform, Instahyre, has announced its plans to grow to 3X in employee strength and increase revenue by 4X in the next year.

The expansion will be a part of the company’s strategic move to onboard 20,000 accounts from enterprises to mid-market SMBs, serving a candidate base of 80-90 million, it said.

Instahyre is a platform for technology and non-technology hiring for internet companies. It has launched pilots with Amazon, Walmart, Cargill, Freshworks and several enterprises and 120+ companies for 700+ drives to test its technology.

Rural commerce startup Hesa to onboard 1.5 lakh microlevel entrepreneurs

Hesa, a technology-enabled rural commerce platform, said it will onboard over 1.5 lakh microlevel entrepreneurs by the end of 2022.

The rural-tech startup will empower entrepreneurs across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and plans to expand into five additional States.

Hesaathis onboarded at Hesa will be in charge of the supply chain at a local level, facilitating village level mapping, surveys, campaigns, and promotions for the company’s brand partners, it said in a statement.

Hesaathis also help rural consumers with everyday transactions on the platform like utility bill payments, buying and selling of products across sectors and more

Established in 2020, the company today enables over 30,000 microlevel entrepreneurs (Hesaathi), allowing them to earn Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000 income monthly.

How VC firms can reduce the gender gap in investing: WinPE-BCG Report

The private equity and venture capital industry have become an increasingly significant part of economic activity across the world, yet female representation in the alternative investment industry continues to be amongst the lowest.

This issue is becoming more urgent in Asian markets, where the number of companies with PE/VC funding has risen sharply and will continue to do so in the next several years, as per a report released by WinPE in partnership with Boston Consulting Group.

Limited Partners (LPs) have also started asking questions about diversity, with many requiring periodic reporting on DEI from General Partners (GPs), the report added.

Titled, Closing the Gender Gap in Investing – how Indian PE/VC firms can bridge the diversity divide, the study claims that the representation of women in PE/VC firms grew from 16% in 2018 to 25% in 2021.

90% of women feel safe in voicing their opinion at work and 80% say they feel valued and heard, it added.

As per the report, initiatives to promote gender diversity broadly targets four areas:

• Culture: Flexible working hours/locations and support for equal maternity/paternity benefits were rated as highly effective interventions by the women surveyed and offered by over half the firms surveyed. However, women need senior role models to feel more comfortable taking advantage of these initiatives and policies.
• Recruitment: Increasing focus on recruiting women via a variety of initiatives was perceived to be highly effective.  Firms that are making progress in this dimension are doing so by widening the ‘top of the funnel’ – i.e., increasing the number of women they interview for entry-level roles, and widening the aperture to hire women laterally from adjacent industries for mid-to-senior level roles.
• Advancement: According to the firms surveyed, the top reason for attrition of women was a life event such as maternity, with working hours and company culture not far behind. Active talent management for high-potential women and a conscious focus were cited as highly effective interventions to retain and support the advancement of women
• Leadership: It is important to offer senior role models to women (within/ outside the geo or business) and it is critical for senior men to champion and jointly drive the gender diversity agenda within their firms.

83% of Indian BFSI leaders believe AI top driver for customer experience: PwC-FICCI report

Enhancing customer experience is the top business driver for Indian financial services organisations to implement AI.

A report by PwC-FICCI showed that 82 percent of the survey respondents say that they have deployed chatbots to make customer servicing easy.

65 percent of them have deployed fraud detection AI engines, making it the second most common use case in the FS industry, followed by 56 percent who have deployed virtual assistants, it added.

Improving productivity (57 percent) and increasing revenue (56 percent) were the other main goals for adopting AI.

34 percent of respondents said they had independent centres of excellence for AI-led innovation, followed by 21 percent who listed business units as the drivers of AI implementation in their organisations.

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS

Google, Meta face penalties in Russia as deadline passes to open local offices

Google and Meta Platforms are among internet companies facing possible punitive measures in Russia after failing to open local offices and take other measures required by a communications law.

Russian legislation signed by President Vladimir Putin has obliged foreign social media companies with more than 500,000 daily users to open local offices since July 2021 or be subject to restrictions as severe as outright bans.

In November, state communications regulator Roskomnadzor listed 13 companies it wanted to set up officially on Russian soil and last month said it would start imposing restrictions by the end of February.

Ahead of Monday’s deadline, only a few had complied. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week has added to pressure on Western businesses to push back on Putin in any way possible.

The new rules also require companies to register with Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor and have a system for fielding user complaints.

Netflix will not add state-run channels to Russian service, defying regulation

Netflix said that in the current circumstances it has no plans to add state-run channels to its Russian service, despite a regulation that would require the streaming service to distribute state-backed channels, Reuters reported.

“Given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service,” said a Netflix spokesman in a statement, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Politico first reported that Netflix, which launched its service in Russia in October 2020, would fall under the new Russian regulations requiring compliance on March 1.

The regulations, overseen by Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, require audiovisual services with more than 100,000 subscribers in that country to distribute 20 free-to-air news, sports and entertainment channels.

YouTube to block channels linked to Russia’s RT and Sputnik across Europe

YouTube is blocking channels connected to Russian state-backed media outlets RT and Sputnik across Europe effective immediately, due to the situation in Ukraine, the company operated by Google, said.

“It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement seen by Reuters.

The company’s actions follow that of Facebook parent Meta Platforms, which on Monday said it will restrict access to television network RT and news agency Sputnik on its platforms across the European Union.

Twitter has also said that it would label tweets containing contents from the Russian state-controlled media and reduce their visibility.

Ukraine gets Starlink internet terminals

Ukraine said it had received donated Starlink satellite internet terminals from SpaceX, but an internet security researcher warned these could become Russian targets.

“Starlink — here. Thanks, @elonmusk,” Ukraine’s vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, tweeted, days after asking SpaceX’s billionaire chief executive officer Elon Musk for help. Fedorov’s tweet included a picture of the back of a military-looking truck, loaded with terminals.

Musk tweeted back, “You are most welcome”.

The terminals look like home satellite television dishes and can provide relatively fast internet service, by residential standards, by connecting to a fleet of satellites in low orbit, as per Reuters.

Musk said on Saturday that Starlink is available in Ukraine and SpaceX is sending more terminals to the country, whose internet has been disrupted due to the Russian invasion.

Gaming giant Nexon’s founder Kim dies at age 54

The billionaire founder of gaming giant Nexon, Kim Jung-ju, has died at the age of 54, Reuters reported.

Tokyo-listed Nexon was founded by Kim in 1994 and became one of the biggest game developers and publishers, with hit online games such as MapleStory and KartRider.

“Kim Jung-ju, the director of NXC and founder of Nexon, passed away in the United States late last month,” the company said. It said Kim “had been receiving treatment for depression and it seemed to have worsened recently” but did not elaborate on the cause of death.

Baidu beats quarterly revenue estimates on AI, cloud services

Chinese search engine giant Baidu beat quarterly revenue Wall Street estimates on Tuesday powered by growth in its artificial intelligence (AI) cloud business.

Revenue grew to 33.09 billion yuan ($5.24 billion) for the fourth quarter to Dec. 31, beating the 32.22 billion forecast by analysts, IBES data from Refinitiv Eikon showed.

Revenue from Baidu’s core businesses, which include search engine and AI cloud services, rose 12% to 25.98 billion yuan.

Advertising revenue grew 1% to 19.1 billion yuan, while non-ad revenue, mainly driven by AI cloud, jumped 63% to 6.9 billion yuan.

Baidu has also been doubling down on self-driving vehicles by leveraging the company’s capabilities in artificial intelligence as it looks for alternative revenue streams to maintain its blistering pace of growth.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Startup Digest: Paytm plunges in market debut, Zomato a good investor in us: Grofers CEO, Google’s new initiatives for India & Alibaba profit falls 81%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Here are the top headlines from the startup universe.

Paytm plunges in market debut; VSS says share price not a true reflection of Co’s scale

Even as shares of One97 Communications continued to trade sharply lower after a weak market debut, Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that today’s stock price is not a true reflection of the company’s opportunity and scale.

“Today’s share price or any day’s share price will actually never be a true reflection of our opportunity and our scale. It is simply an opinion of few buyers and sellers of that day,” Sharma said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

The CEO said that while people know about the Paytm ‘product’, they may not necessarily understand the company’s business model.

“People will take time to understand the business model. The fact that a payment company can do financial services like private insurance and wealth is something new to the Indian stock market… Over the period it will show up what this business model and scale is,” Sharma said.

Also Read | Startup Street: Grofers’ Albinder Dhindsa on opportunities, challenges in India’s quick commerce space

Paytm shares fell sharply after they made a weak market debut at a discount of 9 percent to the issue price. At the time of writing, the stock was trading 26.37 percent lower at Rs 1583.10 on the BSE.

Zomato a very good investor, will always keep dialogue open, says Grofers CEO Albinder Dhindsa on merger reports

E-commerce firm Grofers’ co-founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa tells CNBC-TV18 that “Zomato is a very good investor in us and will always keep the dialogue open (on potential merger).”

Dhinsa’s comments come amid reports of food delivery giant Zomato investing approximately $500 million in the e-commerce firm.

The investment will likely value Grofers at around $1.5 billion, up from $1 billion when Zomato first invested in the startup earlier this year with a $100 million cheque, ET reported.

The big bet on Grofers comes after Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal a few weeks ago announced the company’s investments in startups such as Curefit, Shiprocket and Magicpin, and said the company will invest another $1 billion into more companies over the next couple of years.

Cryptocurrency should not end up in wrong hands, can spoil youth: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that democratic nations need to work together to ensure that cryptocurrency does not go in the wrong hands. The remarks came during his keynote address at The Sydney Dialogue on the theme of India’s technology evolution and revolution.

“It is important that all democratic nations work together and ensure it does not end up in wrong hands, which can spoil our youth,” PM Modi said on cryptocurrency or bitcoin.

Also Read | VIEW: RBI concerns on bitcoin valid, but official cryptocurrency a silly idea

Modi said India is building the world’s most extensive public information infrastructure, adding that the country has created a robust framework of data protection, privacy, and security.

PM’s speech comes as the government is considering a regulatory framework to manage and oversee investments made in cryptocurrency.

Google steps up product focus to drive digital inclusion in India

Google on Thursday announced a slew of new product features and partnerships as part of its efforts to drive digital inclusion in the country.

The tech giant announced the first-ever Google Assistant-enabled, end-to-end vaccine booking flow in India which will guide users through the process of booking a vaccination appointment on the Co-Win website with voice guidance in English and eight Indian languages at each step. This feature will be available in Chrome on Android and will begin rolling out in early 2022.

In order to help local language speakers find high-quality information by translating the best results from across the web, Google launched a new feature in ‘Search’ that will give users an option to access web pages from other languages and view it in their preferred local language.

It also announced the launch of 100,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships and joins hands with leading companies to drive the hiring of Google certified professionals.

The announcements underline Google’s growing focus on product innovations that will help new Internet users in India.

“Last year, we launched the USD 10 billion Google for India Digitisation Fund. Today’s announcements aim at bridging more gaps and further broadening the inclusive base of India’s digital economy so that the advantages of this crucial transformation are accessible to everyone,” said Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & Vice President, Google India.

Accenture, Microsoft expand Project Amplify to support 10 startups, social enterprises in India

Accenture and Microsoft will support 10 startups in India that focuses on social impact and sustainability, by helping them to scale their emerging solutions and business models. The joint initiative ‘Project Amplify’ is Asia Pacific-wide and accelerates the growth of 33 startups from across the region.

The initiative extends activities launched in South Asia in 2020 welcoming business ventures from Singapore, Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka, and other countries.

Also Read | Defy raises $5.5 million to build India’s first social crypto exchange

The initiative has a long-term goal of accelerating Asia’s potential and improving millions of lives in the region and globally, by addressing diverse societal challenges, the companies said in a statement.

Purpose-driven startups from India participating in Project Amplify include Jaljeevika, eKutir, Everwell, Fluxgen, Docturnal, BrainSight AI, Fresh On Table, FreshR, Rocket Learning and Blink Foundation, it added.

Through Project Amplify in India, all 10 startups will have the opportunity to access the latest technologies, as well as know-how, expertise and mentoring from both Accenture and Microsoft. The companies will help startups test and validate proof-of-concepts to re-envision and expand the impact and social benefit of their solutions.

Antler launches fellowship programme worth $20K for student founders in India

Global venture capital firm Antler India has launched a fellowship programme in the country that will provide student founders an equity-free grant of $20,000 to turn their startup ideas into a business.

The fellowship aims to fuel the growing entrepreneurial talent by providing a platform for experimentation, building, and scaling with the support of equity-free capital, mentors, and a peer network. The grant will be equity-free, the company said in a statement.

Fellows can use the grant to scale their startup idea or pay off their student loans should they choose to pursue entrepreneurship full-time. They can also gain access to a hands-on programme by domain experts and founders, spanning idea validation, user research, product, engineering, and marketing, the firm said.

Antler India will select 10 student founders for the 16-week programme that will offer workshops, mentorship with top founders, and a peer community for them to lean on during and after the programme.

Nandini Vishwanath, Programme Director, Antler India said that the organisation spoke with hundreds of college students in the past year and realised the immense potential of student entrepreneurs that is yet to be unlocked. “Indian students want to start up but end up not pursuing their ideas because of the lack of guidance and mentorship,” Vishwanath added.

Post the programme, fellows will be provided an opportunity to raise pre-seed funding from Antler India and will receive support in raising subsequent funding rounds thereafter.

Social commerce platform Frontier Markets partners with U.P govt to promote rural women entrepreneurship in the state

Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM) a registered society promoted by the state government, mandated to implement the National Rural Livelihoods Mission has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rajasthan based social commerce company Frontier Markets to support rural women with livelihood and income generation.

UPSRLM collaboration with Frontier Markets will help rural women entrepreneurs earn enhanced income as sahelis. The partnership will focus on institution and capacity building with technical and implementation support to promote women entrepreneurship, accelerate financial independence through job creation at scale and facilitating door-step delivery of rural friendly products and services.

Also Read | Startup Street: Accel’s portfolio companies set for D-Street; growth story of Belora Cosmetics

The partnership also aims to onboard 2000 rural women as Frontier Markets Sahelis with Self Help Groups (SHGs) and train them to leverage technology through the Frontier Markets e-commerce platform “Meri Saheli” and generate an income of Rs 50,000 – Rs 60,000 per annum, a statement said.

Leveraging Banking Correspondent Sakhi (BCs), the organic part of the SHGs trained in conducting financial transactions will be trained to generate sales leads and data collection. These women entrepreneurs will also support the implementation of government’s schemes and programs in the catchment areas.

“We are on a mission to onboard 1 million sahelis. Rural women are trusted influencers of the community driving change and development and through this expansion we are focusing on enhancing livelihood with our gender centric approach,” said Ajaita Shah Founder and CEO Frontier Markets.

Northern Arc Capital partners with Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO

IPO-bound debt financing platform Northern Arc Capital has partnered with Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO.

Through this deal, Northern Arc Capital will support FMO by providing services including research on macro trends, assessment of the financial landscape, transaction monitoring, performance reporting, and modelling support for securitisation of transactions in sub-Saharan Africa and countries neighbouring Europe, for all transactions guaranteed by FMO under the NASIRA programme, the company said in a statement.

NASIRA is a risk-sharing facility provided by FMO for local financial institutions lending to underserved segments. The programme aims to allow local financial institutions to provide loans to young women and COVID-19-affected and migrant entrepreneurs, who financial institutions normally would perceive as too risky.

Northern Arc Capital filed its DRHP with the market regulator Sebi to raise funds through an IPO. The company will issue fresh equity shares of up to Rs 300 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 36.52 million equity shares by existing shareholders and promoters.

Mumbai Angels Network collaborates with FreeFlow Ventures as a part of The Co-investment Program

Startup investment platform for early-stage venture investments Mumbai Angels Network has partnered with FreeFlow Ventures, a startup incubator and accelerator to co-invest in select startups that display a high growth potential.

Also Read | Funding Rundown: Disprz raises $13 mn in Series B round, Foodlink secures $8 mn

Startups chosen for the co-investment program will receive benefits, including being a part of Mumbai Angels Network’s outreach for next-level investment conversations with eminent VCs, Strategics, and Family Offices. Additionally, the startups will be included in Mumbai Angels Network’s Multiplier Program, a new, exclusive marketplace for its portfolio companies. The co-investment program will also offer startups the chance to raise their next round of funding from Mumbai Angels Network, depending on their performance and capital efficiency, the company said in a statement.

“This partnership will offer an unrestricted pass to startups for co-investment deals from both Mumbai Angels Network and FreeFlow Ventures, allowing them to scale their business and reach greater heights,” said Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Founder & CEO – Mumbai Angels Network.

Entropik Tech launches beta version of its conversational intelligence platform ‘Decode’

Entropik Tech,a  SaaS-based Emotion AI company, has announced the beta launch of its new conversational intelligence platform, Decode.

This new platform gathers conversation data and creates a layer of intelligence on top to turn conversations into actionable insights that will increase the efficiency and productivity of organizations, the company said.

Users will be able to host, record and upload conversations, avail playback with transcription capabilities, index videos, tag conversations and get access to Emotion AI and sentiment analysis. Additionally, users will have the ability to integrate with video conferencing platforms, including Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, the firm added.

Entropik Tech helps brands understand their customer experience from the lens of their emotional behaviour. It tracks their facial expressions and eye movements as they scroll through and record engagement levels as well as reactions like happy, sad or excited.

The firm’s clients include Procter & Gamble, Flipkart, Tata Consumer Care, Accenture and ViaCom18 to name a few.

92% SMBs in 48 countries reported jump in cloud usage during peak of pandemic: DigitalOcean Survey

65 percent small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) have reported an increased dependency on cloud solutions due to Covid-19, as per a report by Cloud computing company DigitalOcean.

The finding was based on the company’s research report involving 2,400 interviews in 48 countries, including 300 from India. The report added that 92 percent respondents who switched to cloud solutions reported a jump in cloud usage during the peak of the pandemic that continued to increase in 2021.

The report noted that apart from the challenge of having limited technical staff to manage cloud solutions, cost, technical training and education, and time required to manage services were the barriers to cloud adoption. Lack of cloud knowledge among SMBs was also reported in the report.

For example, 48 percent of respondents from traditional SMBs were not familiar with the term “cloud-native,” compared to the 5 percent of respondents from enterprises who are not familiar with the term. Also, 56 percent of respondents from traditional SMBs were not familiar with the term “digital native,” compared to 18 percent of respondents from enterprises who are not familiar.

As per the report, the Covid impact has led to an increased reliance on the cloud. Of the respondents who reported increased cloud usage in 2020 due to Covid-driven digital acceleration, 82 percent of traditional SMBs, 82 percent of tech SMBs, and 92 percent of enterprises said their cloud usage has continued to increase this year. 69 percent percent of respondents believed the cloud has helped their business recover from the ongoing pandemic.

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS

Alibaba says profit falls 81% as China tech crackdown bites: Report

Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group said that its profit for the most recent quarter tumbled 81% as a government crackdown on the country’s big tech champions bites.

According to AFP, Alibaba said its profit came in at 5.37 billion yuan ($833 million) for the July-September period.

The company’s revenues, generated mainly by its core e-commerce operations, reached 200.7 billion yuan, up 29 percent, roughly in line with previous years’ growth rates.

Alibaba’s earnings results have been keenly anticipated for a gauge of how one of the country’s highest-profile companies was faring under the government’s drive to rein in big tech.

US FTC says court should allow antitrust lawsuit against Facebook to proceed

The US Federal Trade Commission said that a federal court should allow an antitrust lawsuit it filed against Facebook to go forward as the company has “interfered with the competitive process by targeting nascent threats through exclusionary conduct.”

In August the FTC refreshed its antitrust case against Facebook, now Meta Platforms, adding detail on the accusation the social media company crushed or bought rivals and asking a judge to force it to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.

As per Reuters, in a filing with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the FTC said that for more than a decade, Facebook’s market share – for example, more than 70% of daily active users – exceed the levels needed to establish monopoly power.

It said that Facebook sought to maintain its monopoly position by buying photo-sharing app Instagram and secure messaging app WhatsApp. However, Meta disagreed.

“The FTC has once again brought a monopolization case without a monopolist. Its claims ignore the reality that people have more choices than ever before in how they share, connect, and communicate, and its second complaint should be dismissed just like the first,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

Apple to sell spare parts to consumers to repair iPhones, Macs

Apple said it will for the first time start selling spare parts and tools to the general public to perform their own repairs on some iPhones and Mac computers, according to Reuters.

The self-service repair program comes after years of pressure from consumer groups have resulted in Apple providing greater access to repair manuals and genuine parts.

In 2019, Apple started a program where independent repair shops can buy its parts, tools and manuals. Apple said there are now 2,800 independent shops in its program in addition to its 5,000 directly authorized repair providers.

Under the self-service program, Apple customers will be able to buy those parts directly to perform their own repairs after reading a manual. Apple said the online store will start with about 200 parts and tools aimed at fixing the most common issues with displays, batteries and cameras on iPhone 12 and 13 models.

The program will eventually extend to Mac computers that use Apple’s M1 chip and later to less common repairs. Customers will be offered the same pricing on parts and tools as independent repair shops and will be able to return their used parts to Apple after completing a repair to receive a discount.

Apple said the program will begin early next year in the United States and expand to more countries later in the year.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk exercises more options, sells $973M for taxes

Tesla boss Elon Musk sold another $973 million in stock to pay taxes after exercising options on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Musk acquired 2.1 million shares worth $2.2 billion at the Tuesday closing price and sold 934,091 for $973 million to pay taxes, the SEC filings showed.

In a sector surge spearheaded by Rivian Automotive Inc and Lucid Group Inc, Tesla Inc rose 4.1% to close at $1,054.73, leaving its market capitalization down about $187 billion since before Musk began selling shares last week.

Over the past week, Musk has sold about 8.2 million Tesla shares for around $8.8 billion. Those sales fulfill almost half of his pledge on Twitter to sell 10% of his stake in Tesla.

Musk began selling shares last week after floating the idea in a Twitter poll.

With electric-car makers increasingly in demand on Wall Street, Tesla’s stock has surged more than 150% in the past 12 months.

Bezos’ Blue Origin hires lobbyist with ties to Obama administration after space tax proposal: Report

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space tourism company has hired a lobbyist with ties to former President Barack Obama’s administration after a Democratic congressman proposed a tax that could make traveling to space a little more expensive, according to CNBC.

Bezos’ Blue Origin recently hired Mac Campbell from Capitol Counsel to lobby on behalf of the company to “monitor and evaluate proposed changes to the Internal Revenue Code being considered by Congress as part of the budget reconciliation process,” according to a lobbying registration form. Campbell registered to lobby for the company in October.

Campbell was an assistant U.S. trade representative for congressional affairs while working in Obama’s executive office before moving on to the powerful Senate Finance Committee. His other clients include Lockheed Martin, Las Vegas Sands and Pacific Mutual, as per data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Blue Origin has already spent over $1.3 million on lobbying this year alone. In 2020, the space company invested nearly $2 million trying to influence lawmakers.

China’s WeRide to launch robotaxis on GAC’s Ontime ride-hailing app

China-based autonomous driving startup WeRide plans to make its robotaxis available for booking by the public on Guangzhou Automobile Group’s Ontime ride-hailing app by next year, as per Reuters.

Backed by Nissan Motor, WeRide said in a statement it plans to offer test rides for the public at the Guangzhou Auto Show, which begins in the southern Chinese city on Friday. It added that its robotaxi has been integrated into the Ontime platform and they were conducting testing.

Automakers and technology firms are investing billions of dollars in autonomous driving, aiming to take an early lead in what many consider the future of mobility.

On Tuesday, Chinese autonomous vehicle startup AutoX, which is backed by Alibaba Group said it had expanded its robotaxi zone in China’s southern city of Shenzhen to become the country’s largest fully driverless robotaxi zone, at 65 square miles (168 square km).

China’s Baidu wants to launch its driverless robotaxi service in 100 cities by 2030: Report

Baidu plans to launch its driverless taxi service in 100 cities by 2030, as the Chinese search giant looks to diversify its business beyond advertising.

According to CNBC, currently, Baidu operates its Apollo Go robotaxi service in five Chinese cities. Users can hail an autonomous car via an app. The company wants to expand Apollo Go to 65 cities by 2025 and then 100 cities by 2030, Baidu CEO Robin Li said in an internal letter that was made public.

Baidu’s driverless car announcement comes after the company reported revenue of 31.92 billion yuan ($4.95 billion) for the third quarter, which was ahead of market expectations.

Amazon may drop Visa as partner on US credit card

Amazon is considering dropping Visa as partner on its US co-branded credit card after earlier confirming it would stop accepting Visa credit cards in the United Kingdom as a dispute over payments intensified, Reuters reported.

The e-commerce giant is in talks with several payment networks including Mastercard Inc, American Express Co and Visa as part of what it called its standard process for reviewing its co-branded credit card agreement, a spokesperson said.

Earlier, shares of Visa closed 4.7% lower after Amazon said it would stop taking payments from Visa credit cards in the UK from January 19, 2022. In a statement, it said such charges should be “going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise.”

In recent months, Amazon has introduced surcharges on customers using Visa credit cards in Singapore and Australia, citing high fees, as the relationship between the two firms deteriorated.

Amazon customers can still use Visa debit cards, Mastercard and Amex credit cards, and Eurocard, in the UK, Amazon said in a note to customers.

EU lawmakers agree on rules to target big tech- FT

European Union lawmakers have reached a deal on how to target big tech companies, as part of a move to limit anti-competitive practices in the digital economy, the Financial Times reported.

The European Parliament’s main political parties agreed to a deal that would apply to companies with a market capitalisation of at least 80 billion euros ($91 billion) and offering at least one internet service, such as an online search.

The rules would draw more companies than previously thought into the EU’s planned Digital Markets Act (DMA), the newspaper said, adding that the EU plans to implement the act next year.

The DMA, proposed by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager last year, aims to curb the powers of big tech companies with a list of dos and don’ts.

The act will also help national competition authorities scrutinise tech companies’ acquisitions of smaller rivals, amid fears of them acquiring competitors cheaply, according to the FT.

Companies including Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft would fall under its scope, along with China’s Alibaba Group Holding and Netherlands’ Booking.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon, Baido lead as Smart Displays sales hit 9.5 million units in Q3

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Move beyond smart speakers as smart displays have come of age and in Q3, the sales of smart display speakers rose by 21 percent (on-year) to reach 9.5 million units while sales of basic smart speakers (without a display) fell by 3 percent over the same period.

According to a report by market intelligence and research firm Strategy Analytics, Amazon and Baidu lead the market for smart displays. The best-selling devices in Q3 were the Amazon Echo Show 5 and the Baidu Xiaodu Zaijia 1c.

Smart speaker users are switching increasingly to display-based devices or Smart Displays and a growing range of smart display apps and services as well as lower device prices are key factors in their success.

“Like many sectors, smart speakers have had a difficult year for well-rehearsed reasons,” said David Watkins, Director, Smart Speakers and Screens.

“But the shoots of recovery are beginning to show, and vendor commitment is evident from the many new products and improved technologies now being introduced,” he added.

The share of all smart speaker sales incorporating a display was 26 percent in Q3 2020, compared to 22 percent a year earlier.

In the overall smart speaker market, Amazon retained first place in Q3 with a 28.8 percent share of global shipments, although its sales fell slightly compared to a year earlier.

Amazon’s main rivals all increased sales and market share, with the exception of Xiaomi, which had a disappointing quarter, the report noted.

The 2020 smart speaker market was badly hit in Q1 by pandemic-driven supply issues, but has steadily recovered since then.

Q4 is expected to be a strong period following the launch of new models by the three major US vendors and continued improvement in economic and consumer sentiment in many countries.

“Barring any further major economic disruption, we expect 2021 to be marked by further healthy growth in the smart speaker business,” Watkins said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

To prevent potential infections, China turns to artificial intelligence, data to fight coronavirus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A man who had travelled to Wuhan — the central city at the heart of China’s coronavirus crisis — was surprised when police showed up at his door after he returned home, asking to check his temperature.

The man, who had quarantined himself at home in Nanjing, eastern Jiangsu province, said he had not told anyone about his recent trip to the city.

But by trawling through travel data from Wuhan, local authorities were able to identify him and dispatch officers to his home last week, according to a newspaper article posted by the Nanjing government.

As Chinese authorities race to contain the spread of a new virus, which has infected more than 34,000 people and killed more than 700 in China, Beijing is turning to a familiar set of tools to find and prevent potential infections: data tracking and artificial intelligence.

Several Chinese tech firms have developed apps to help people check if they have taken the same flight or train as confirmed virus patients, scraping data from lists published by state media.

In Guangzhou, southern Guangdong province, robots at one public plaza have even been deployed to scold passersby who are not wearing masks, according to the state-run Global Times.

And in Beijing, one neighbourhood committee responsible for an apartment complex of about 2,400 households said they used flight and train data to keep track of everyone’s recent travel record.

“Use big data technology to track, screen priority (cases), and effectively forecast the development of the epidemic in real-time,” China’s National Health Commission (NHC) told local governments in an online statement Tuesday.

“Strengthen the information link between… public security and transportation, and other departments,” it said, urging them to share train, flight, communication, and medical data.

As Chinese authorities search for potential infections, a point of focus has been detecting fevers, a common symptom of the disease.

While neighbourhoods and office buildings rely primarily on hand-held thermometers, public transport hubs are also trialling fever detection systems that use artificial intelligence and infrared cameras.

In Beijing, a system developed by Chinese search giant Baidu screens travellers at the Qinghe railway station using infrared and face detection technology, which automatically photographs each person’s face.

If someone has a body temperature of 37.3 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) or above, the system sets off an alarm — prompting a secondary check by station staff.

On Thursday, railway personnel, clutching red-and-white megaphones, ordered passengers arriving from northern Shanxi province to slow down as they passed by Baidu’s system.

According to the company, its system can check more than 200 people a minute, far faster than the thermal scanners used at airports.

Megvii, an AI firm that was blacklisted by the US in October over alleged rights abuses, has developed a similar system, which is currently being used at a subway station in Beijing.

“Having a team of nearly 100 people working together remotely from home hasn’t been easy,” said a spokesperson at Megvii in an emailed statement.

“All of them are working around the clock during Lunar New Year public holidays,” said the company, adding that the team had to optimise its models to “effectively detect temperature with only the forehead exposed.”

Besides fever detection, Chinese tech firms have raced to develop a wide variety of services to help with epidemic control efforts, from preparing drone deliveries of medical supplies to mapping the spread of the virus from Wuhan.

Although the city has been under effective quarantine since January 23, some five million travellers left Wuhan during the Lunar New Year festival, according to the city mayor — galvanising a nationwide search for recent Wuhan visitors.

Still, the majority of tracking carried out by local authorities in China requires a lot of manpower, though some are entering data online to help with registration, especially as residents return after the holiday.

In Beijing, some neighbourhoods are prompting residents to scan a QR code to fill out personal details, such as their phone number and hometown address.

One form also prompted participants to fill out details on their modes of transport, such as their licence plate or flight number, if they had travelled.

It also asked if they had “recently” visited central Hubei province — where Wuhan is located — or come into contact with anyone from the hard-hit region.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

How China’s Baidu is uniting missing persons with families

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A search engine company that searches and unites missing persons with their long-lost families?

Well, that is one of the facets of the Chinese search engine company Baidu which is using Artificial intelligence (AI)-based facial recognition technology.

“Our Baidu ‘AI Xunren’ has reunited about 10,000 missing persons with their families,” in China, a company official told IANS on the condition of anonymity recently here.

According to the official, Baidu’s AI programme can identify missing people from old pictures of a person regardless of his/her age.

In other words, even if the photo of a person is taken during his childhood, it can be matched with the same person’s photo taken several years later, through Baidu’s AI programme.

The company official said a person can upload his/her picture or the picture of the missing person in the family, regardless of the year the picture was taken.

The photo can be uploaded on China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs’ website for missing persons or on other channels like the Baidu ‘AI Xunren website, the Baidu AI Xuren Smart Mini Programme on the Baidu App or through various non-governmental organisations (NGO) working in the field, the official said.

Baidu’s ‘AI Xunren’ then takes over and compares the pictures that are uploaded and identifies a suitable match.

The accuracy rate for Baidu’s facial recognition technology has reached 99.7 percent.

Remarkably, Baidu’s cross-age facial recognition technology can identify missing people from old photos, so it can find people who went missing a long time ago, even if their appearances have changed significantly, the official said.

The official said there was a case where a boy was lost at the age of four and when he was 25 years of age, he was identified as a missing person.

Baidu also uses AI to help visually-impaired people in massage parlours.

The Baidu ‘Xiaodu’ smart speakers are there in several massage parlours and the massage therapists who are visually impaired can use voice to control air conditioning, control the curtains and a lot of Internet of Things (IoT) devices which makes their life easier.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Google removing 100 apps from Chinese developer

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Suspecting malicious cyber attacks and data breach possibilities, Google is removing apps from a Chinese Android app developer – DO Global – which holds roughly 100 apps in the Play Store with over 60 crore installs and is partly owned by Internet major Baidu.

46 apps from DO Global have already been removed from the Play Store and the company intends to ban DO Global overall with more app removals that would follow, BuzzFeed News reported on Friday.

“We actively investigate malicious behaviour, and when we find violations, we take action, including the removal of a developer’s ability to monetise their app with AdMob or publish on Play,” the report quoted a Google spokesperson as saying on Friday.

The search engine giant is further extending the ban to the Internet giant’s ad products appearing on Android as well.

“DO Global apps no longer offer ad inventory for purchase via Google’s AdMob network,” the report said.

The Chinese company claims to have more than 25 crore monthly active users for its apps and the reach of nearly 80 crore users through its ad platform on Android.

“Their removal from the Play Store marks one of the biggest bans, if not the biggest, Google has ever instituted against an app developer,” the report noted.

DO Global was a subsidiary of Baidu until it was spun out earlier in 2018. Baidu retains a 34 percent stake in the company.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow