Category: Asia Travel

China restricts access to foreign literature

Beijing is restricting access to foreign books and publications as it opens a new front in its battle to limit outside influence on Chinese society . Regulators have given verbal instructions to publishers limiting the number of children’s books written by foreign authors to be published within China each year, according to three people with knowledge of the order.

China’s online boycott puts Lotte in cross hairs amid THAAD row

China’s e-commerce platforms are spearheading an anti-Lotte campaign amid Sino-Korean tensions over US-backed THAAD system Lotte, the Japanese-Korean conglomerate with businesses from confectionery to malls, has found itself in the cross hairs of China’s nationalist mobs last week as online shoppers and internet trolls launched a boycott of the brand for allowing a US missile defence system to be placed on a plot of Lotte land in South Korea. Responding to the coordinated boycott, some brick-and-mortar retailers and online shopping platforms have removed everything under the Lotte brand – from cosmetics to candies – from their physical and digital shelves.

Three paradoxes of digitalisation

An e-commerce boom is rapidly unfolding in several Asean member states, including Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. A 2016 report titled “E-Conomy SEA ” by Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek and Google pegs e-commerce in Asean to rise to US$8.78 billion by 2025.

Tuloy po kayo’/ – Dobro Pozhalovat’

Marife Zamora, president of the Management Association of the Philippines , and consul ad honorem of Russia Armi Lopez Garcia, chairperson of the Philippine Russian Business Assembly Inc. , presented in cooperation with the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines a Forum on Business Opportunities in Russia at the Manila Peninsula last Friday, 3 March. NEDA Secretary Ernesto N. Pernia gave a sneak preview of bragging rights for the Philippines as today’s top economic performer.

Satya Nadella meets IT Minister Prasad

New Delhi, Feb 21 – Indian-born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday met Union IT and Electronics Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad here. The details of the meeting and the talks were yet to emerge but Nadella, after visiting Bengaluru on Monday, was scheduled to call on the minister before heading to address Future Decoded –Microsoft’s two-day flagship technology and business conference in Mumbai that kicked off on Tuesday.

Now you can climb Mount Everest in VR

Just last week, I had a great conversation with a Manhattan taxi driver named Sherpa, who, after I asked if his name was connected to Nepal, told me that he had indeed stopped working on Mount Everest to live in New York City . Smiling, he suggested I visit the famed mountain one day, to which I replied, “I’m a fragile city guy, maybe one day I’ll visit it in virtual reality.”

Cross-border e-commerce urged amid easing of retail sector decline

Slide for fourth consecutive year blamed on worldwide economic conditions, while online marketplace may have huge potential for local retailers The struggling retail sector is expected to stabilise following a three-year slump , with an industry head predicting a milder decline of 3 to 4 per cent for 2017, dragged down by unfavourable currency conditions and uncertainty sparked by the possibility of rigid US trade policies. Retail Management Association chairman Thomson Cheng Wai-hung said: “The association and I believe it is unlikely that the sector will see a revival this year.”

Cross-border e-commerce urged amid easing of retail sector decline

Slide for fourth consecutive year blamed on worldwide economic conditions, while online marketplace may have huge potential for local retailers The struggling retail sector is expected to stabilise following a three-year slump , with an industry head predicting a milder decline of 3 to 4 per cent for 2017, dragged down by unfavourable currency conditions and uncertainty sparked by the possibility of rigid US trade policies. Retail Management Association chairman Thomson Cheng Wai-hung said: “The association and I believe it is unlikely that the sector will see a revival this year.”

Alibaba Raises Forecast as Chinese Consumers Continue to Spend

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. raised its full-year sales forecast after quarterly results beat estimates, as Chinese spending stays strong and the company wrings revenue from fledgling areas such as cloud computing, entertainment and search. China’s biggest e-commerce company increased its projection for fiscal 2017 revenue growth to 53 percent, from 48 percent previously. That may help assuage investors concerned that a deceleration in the world’s second-largest economy is curtailing Alibaba’s main online commerce business.

India’s first personalised proximity-based shopping platform to be launched by PinCarts

New Delhi , Jan 20 : PinCarts, a Mumbai-based startup will soon be launching its proximity-based discovery and targeting platform to create a compelling shopping experience for consumers at shopping malls and physical stores in India. This unique one-of-a-kind mobile platform will be focused on providing the smart retailing experience for shoppers from both the worlds, online and offline, starting with virtual catalog discovery to engaging them with location-based personalized targeting in real-time and indoor navigation to post-purchase retargeting and analytics.

Thailand Wants Rich Chinese Tourists, Not Budget Groups

Thailand is nursing a slide in Chinese holidaymakers after cracking down on low-budget tours from the world’s most-populous country, muddying the Southeast Asian nation’s economic growth outlook. Arrivals fell 16 percent in December from a year ago, extending a slide that began after Thailand in September clamped down on operators bringing in large groups from China on cut-price holidays.

Singapore’s Garena Said to Pick Goldman for $1 Billion IPO

Garena, Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup, picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to lead a planned initial public offering that could fetch about $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Singapore-based online gaming portal and e-commerce provider plans to select additional banks as soon as this month, the people said.

Alibaba leads $2.6bn bid for store chain

Hong Kong/Shanghai: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is leading a bid to take department store chain Intime Retail Group Co private for as much as $2.6 billion, as China’s largest online retailer deepens its integration with brick-and-mortar stores. The deal to buy out Intime adds to Alibaba’s burgeoning foothold in physical retail as it pursues growth beyond a slowing online business.

From Goldthorpe to the Great Wall of China – in seconds

Visiting the Queen, or standing on the Great Wall of China in an instant became a possibility for youngsters within a ‘virtual reality’ lesson that fully captured their attention. Google representatives thrilled children at Goldthorpe Primary School when they called by demonstrate what can be done using virtual reality.

First China-U.K. Freight Train Departs as Xi Seeks to Lift Trade

China initiated a rail-freight service to Britain as part of President Xi Jinping’s efforts to strengthen trade ties with Europe. The first train departed Yiwu in eastern Zhejiang province on Jan. 1 and will cover more than 12,000 kilometers in about 18 days before reaching London, China Railway Corp. said in a statement Monday.

Huge rise in e-shopping signals Digital India takeoff

This is going to be music to ears for the Modi government, who, in the last 50 days, stressed that with demonetization going digital is the future for India. A study conducted by industry lobby group Assocham and business consulting firm RNCOS estimates that average wallet spends in retail transactions are likely to move from Rs 500-700 in 2016 prior to demonetization to Rs 2,000-10,000 in the near future.

IPrice gains $4m in Series A funding

IPrice Group, a Kuala Lumpur-based price comparison website, has received US$4 million in a Series A round of funding from a group of venture capitalists. The group was led by Asia Venture Group and includes Gobi Partners, DMP, Econa, Starstrike and a few individual investors.