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Hello readers,
Indonesia has struck gold – but not the kind many of us are used to. In fact, it exists as a bunch of pixels on our phone screens, until we cash it out or ask for it to be delivered to our doorsteps. That’s right, we’re talking about digital gold.
What’s more? The country’s most prolific unicorns are offering Indonesians a way to invest in the precious metal for as low as 100 rupiah (US$0.0069) and every single one of Indonesia’s 82 million mobile phone users counts as a potential investor.
Scroll down for a quick summary or read the full story here.
Here are your quick bytes for today:
1️⃣ Ride-hailing major Grab has submitted a proposal to the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore to introduce a S$0.32 platform fee to all transport rides in the city-state. If approved, Grab says it will reinvest the money into the safety and security of its rides service.
2️⃣ Instagram is offering financial incentives to TikTok users with millions of followers to persuade them to use Reels, a new competing service that Facebook Inc. is launching next month. The potential payments for some would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
3️⃣ Chinese online travel giant Ctrip is in talks with potential investors about funding its delisting from Nasdaq because of rising US-China tensions and the coronavirus-driven hit to its business. Back in February, Jane Sun, CEO of the Trip.com Group, which also owns Ctrip, told Tech in Asia that she believed “demand [for] travel will come up again after the outbreak is over.”
4️⃣ Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing is hitting a road bump in Japan. It will have to cut back on operations due to stiff regulations in the country that have also affected other Chinese sharing services. The situation is rosier back in China, however. In May, Didi president Jean Liu shared that its “core business is profitable.”
5️⃣ Tencent, Sogou’s biggest shareholder, has made a preliminary US$2.1 billion offer to buy out China’s second largest online search engine. The acquisition could help Tencent compete against Bytedance’s Toutiao Search and China’s largest search engine Baidu.
6️⃣ Huawei has slashed its India revenue target for 2020 by up to 50% and is laying off 60% to 70% of its staff, excluding those in research and development and the Global Service Centre. The move comes as the company battles plunging demand for its equipment and services amid border hostilities between China and India.
There’s digital gold in these hills
Optimists are saying that Indonesia could be on the verge of an e-gold rush as tech startups are democratizing gold investment across the country by offering easy access to trades at affordable rates via mobile apps.
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