13 Jun 2024

Author

Elaine Wong
June 13, 2024

CIW News is a free email newsletter on China tech trends.

The world’s largest lender, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), has released a comprehensive report on the rapid evolution and diversity of digital currencies. The report compares Bitcoin to gold and Ethereum to “digital oil,” highlighting their unique roles in the digital currency ecosystem.

  • Bitcoin's Scarcity and Asset Status:

    • Bitcoin (BTC) is likened to gold for its scarcity, achieved through a mathematical consensus mechanism.

    • Despite diminishing monetary attributes, Bitcoin's status as a solid asset is reinforced.

  • Ethereum's Versatility and Challenges:

    • Ethereum (ETH) is termed “digital oil” due to its capacity to power numerous applications within the web3 ecosystem.

    • Ethereum’s Turing completeness allows complex smart contracts and applications, making it vital for DeFi and NFTs.

    • Challenges include security vulnerabilities, scalability, and energy consumption.

    • Solutions being explored include the Proof of Stake (POS) consensus mechanism, sharding technology in Ethereum 2.0, and Layer 2 solutions.

  • Role of Stablecoins and CBDCs:

    • Stablecoins bridge the gap between digital currencies and traditional assets, providing stability in the volatile crypto market.

    • Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) digitize fiat currencies to improve payment efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance monetary policy.

    • CBDCs also aim to streamline cross-border transactions and increase financial inclusion.

A recent report by Xinhua Daily Telegraph highlights the growing concerns around the proliferation of unauthorized medical care services being offered through online platforms.

The report sheds light on the risks posed by third-party nursing platforms that recruit medical personnel to provide in-home care services, often in violation of regulations.

In the age of digital convenience, patients confined to their beds in China can easily find nursing services with just a few taps on their mobile phones…

TikTok parent company ByteDance is expanding its data center footprint in Malaysia as it spends RM10 billion ($2.13bn) on an AI hub.

Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Malaysia’s investment, trade, and industry minister, revealed the news following a meeting with Helena Lersch, the vice president of TikTok.

Johor is one of Malaysia’s biggest data center markets, and last week it was announced that real estate firms UEM Sunrise and Logos plan to build a 360MW campus on a 30-hectare site in Gerbang Nusajaya, Johor.

China's regulators have asked Tencent Holdings to reduce the market share of its WeChat app in the mobile payment sector, particularly for in-person payments using QR codes.

While no specific target was mentioned, Tencent is reportedly cautious about expanding further.

In China's cashless society, the mobile payment market is mainly dominated by WeChat Pay and Alipay, despite the presence of around 185 non-bank payment institutions.

Estimates suggest WeChat holds a market share advantage over Alipay, with a higher transaction volume due to numerous small-value transactions. WeChat remains highly popular, even among older users in remote areas, and had 1.36 billion monthly active users as of March.

BRIEF BLASTS

🌐 Meituan’s revenues for the first quarter surged by 25% to RMB 73.3 billion, up from RMB 58.6 billion during the same period last year. This growth was driven by strong performances across both its core local commerce and new initiatives segments.

🤝 Chinese internet giant Baidu to provide map service for Tesla EVs, as US carmaker eyes mainland launch of self-driving system

📦 LVMH and Alibaba have cemented a deal that will help the luxury conglomerate increase its omnichannel, data and digital capabilities in China, while the tech giant will benefit from LVMH’s halo effect, signalling a buckling down in the region as sales continue to slump.

🚀 in 2023, the ByteDance-owned company Douyin achieved a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of approximately RMB 2.7 trillion (USD 375 billion). The GMV target for its e-commerce business in 2024 is set at RMB 4 trillion (USD 556 billion), indicating a nearly 50% increase.

Saudi Arabia is the latest country to join a multi-country initiative for central bank digital currency (CBDC), amid increasing interest from the Gulf state in futuristic forms of money. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia is joining Project mBridge as a “full participant.” The project explores a multi-central bank digital currency platform to enable cross-border payments, the bank said in a press release on Wednesday.

Kuaishou Technology launched its text-to-video model "Kling" to compete with OpenAI's Sora, producing 1080p videos up to 2 minutes long. Kling is in invitation-only testing and showcases realistic and surreal videos like "an astronaut running on the Moon."