Welcome back,
It’s been a quiet week coming back from Chinese New Year but the US-China still dominates the overall narrative with American tech firms coming under pressure from potential probes in China. Meanwhile Temu and Shein are being scrutinised in the US and also EU.
Elsewhere, India looks like it could mint a new unicorn, Paytm is exploring Latin America with its newest investment and the founder of Uber rival Ola is going big on AI with his newest startup.
That’s all for this week’s issue—have a great week ahead,
Jon
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The US-China trade war is moving into a new domain with China’s antitrust watchdog said to be preparing a probe into Apple’s fees and app store policies—including its 30% commission rate, payment restrictions and approval policies.
That’s a frustration to many companies, including Chinese giants like Tencent and ByteDance according to media reports. Apple is often seen as frustrating with its lack of transparency around approvals for app store updates, frustration at fees and more.
China is also opening an investigation into monopolistic practices from Google, which continues to offer advertising services in China, and the position and dominance of Android in relation to Chinese handset brands like Oppo. Nvidia is already under investigation and potentially Intel may be probed, according to media reports.
Meanwhile the Trump administration has weighed into the Temu forced labour saga by adding the company, which still hopes to go public this year, to a US government list. The EU is also getting involved with plans to probe the firm under consumer law compliance, which could see it hit with a fine for selling illegal products in four member countries.
Trump being Trump, however, has temporarily reinstated the de minimis exemption on goods from China, having removed it without much warning just days earlier. That means that packages valued under $800 will be able to enter the US without paying duty, a move that obviously benefits Temu, Shein and others.
The US may be getting friendly with crypto but Japan’s Financial Services Agency has asked Apple and Google to block five unregistered crypto exchanges—Bybit, MEXC Global, LBank Exchange, KuCoin, and Bitget—from their app stores. This is the first such request made in Japan, where crypto exchanges must operate with a license and within specific regulation laid out by the government.
The use of cash is expected to drop massively in Asia—falling from 47% in 2019 to account for just 14% of transactions by 2027.
That’s according to a study from Worldpay which, to no surprise at all, found that QR payments, smartphone payments and local digital payment systems are driving a move away from cash across the region. Regular ATR readers will be well aware of this trend—they most likely are part of it, at this point, but the study puts some interesting numbers on the trend.
An adviser investigating alleged fraud at Indonesian agritech firm eFishery has urged investors to decide on liquidation or restructuring this month, according to Bloomberg.
The smart fish feeding startup was widely heralded as a long success story and case study for Southeast Asia after it grew to a $1 billion valuation with the backing of high-profile investors such as Temasek. A whistleblower blew the lid on fraud last year, and according to reports in January the startup had kept two sets of accounts which included manipulated figures (and profit) for the eyes of existing and prospective investors.
The whole episode is a very sorry one that comes at a tough time for Southeast Asia, which is under pressure to show startups in the region can genuinely grow and exit.
President Donald Trump has tapped Vice President JD Vance and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz to oversee a possible sale of TikTok, sources say link
TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with senior White House officials last week to propose a joint venture with US investors—the JV, its management and the majority of its board would be US-based link
ByteDance researchers unveiled OmniHuman-1, an AI system capable of creating some of the most realistic deepfake videos yet link
Linwei Ding, a former Google engineer, has been charged with economic espionage for allegedly stealing trade secrets to boost China’s AI industry link
Chinese chip makers and cloud providers have rushed to embrace homegrown AI service DeepSeek link
Huawei’s chairman says its 2024 revenue exceeded $118B, up 22% year-on-year link
Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com has renewed its interest in acquiring German electronics retailer Ceconomy link
Paytm’s cloud business is buying a 25% stake in Brazilian embedded finance startup Seven Technology for $1M link
Trading platform Dhan could become India’s next unicorn according to reports,it is in talks to raise a round of $100M-$150M link
India has relaxed Aadhaar authentication rules, allowing businesses in e-commerce, travel, hospitality, and healthcare to verify customers using the biometric ID system link
Presentations.ai, which uses AI to generate presentation decks, raised $3 million in a seed round led by Accel to scale its software after a successful beta with millions of users link
Amazon and Starlink are among the international firms keen on India’s satellite internet market link
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal is betting big on AI, investing $230Min his startup Krutrim as India pushes to compete with U.S. and Chinese firms—Krutrim plans to raise $1.15B by next year, open-sourced its AI models, and unveiled a partnership with Nvidia to build India’s largest supercomputer link
Zomato plans to rebrand as Eternal to reflect its growing business beyond food delivery, as its quick commerce unit Blinkit continues to drive major growth—its Zomato service will not be rebranded though link
Flipkart plans to expand its quick commerce segment by launching 500-550 dark stores before its Big Billion Days sale, aiming to challenge rivals like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart link
Swiggy’s stock dropped below its IPO price and last private valuation as rising losses and pressure in quick commerce weighed on margins, briefly pushing its market cap below $10B link
Indian payments startup Cashfree, which processes over $80B annually, raised $53M at a $700M valuation to expand internationally with investors including PUBG games publisher Krafton link
Google Maps in India has been blamed for fatal accidents link
India plans to launch new domain name for banks to fight digital fraud link
Thai police arrested a woman allegedly linked to a romance scam that said to have netted over $180M from victims link
Indonesia may be home to the world’s largest nickel reserves but it is struggling to achieve its EV dreams link
Thailand’s securities regulator plans to create a blockchain-based platform for securities firms to trade debentures via digital tokens link
Thailand plans to cut power to Myanmar towns tied to cyber scams, following a high-profile trafficking case involving a Chinese actor link
Thailand has joined the charge for soliciting chip investments as Trump’s trade war with China ramps up link
Samsung chief Jay Y. Lee has been cleared of all charges of accounting fraud and stock manipulation in a case related to the controversial 2015 merger of Samsung affiliates Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T link
But prosecutors will appeal the ruling link
South Korea is planning a $23B investment in battery and biotech to stay competitive amid geopolitical tensions—a state-run fund will provide low-interest loans and equity stakes, while a fast-tracked AI committee aims to place the country among the top three in AI, spurred by the emergence of China’s DeepSeek link
Korea’s state-run nuclear power operator has banned the use of all AI services, including ChatGPT and Deepseek, on account of potential security risks link
SoftBank is nearing a deal to acquire Oracle-backed chip design firm Ampere, according to Bloomberg link
As reported last week, OpenAI is finalising a $40B funding deal led by SoftBank, nearly doubling its valuation to $300B and making it one of the world’s most valuable private companies. link
New US chip export controls are disrupting China’s semiconductor sector more than expected, as TSMC takes a strict compliance approach link
Chip designer MediaTek running simulations for possible US tariffs link
