ASIA IN BRIEF It’s not often The Register writes about a cryptocurrency outfit being on the right side of a scam or crime, but last week crypto exchange Binance claimed it helped Indian authorities to investigate a scam gaming app.
India’s Enforcement Directorate in August announced [PDF] it had arrested four people – one of them named “Joseph Stalin” – for assisting Chinese nationals to run a scam gaming app called Fiewin.
The app promised gamers the chance to play for real money, but was allegedly a front for a money laundering operation.
The alleged perps operated accounts on Binance, and the crypto outfit wrote that it offered “deep cooperation” to help Indian authorities to learn “the app had been part of a cross-border criminal network.” Apparently it “used various methods to obfuscate the origin and movement of illicit funds by utilizing bank accounts of ‘mules’ and cryptocurrency wallets, creating a complex web of transactions to hinder detection and tracing.”
– Simon Sharwood
SpaceX wants to invest 1.5 million in Vietnam
The Vietnamese government revealed last Wednesday that SpaceX wants to invest $1.5 billion in various projects in the country. The government said it was studying the investment proposal, which was raised at a meeting between Vietnam president To Lam and SpaceX veep Tim Hughes. SpaceX and Vietnam previously had disagreements over regulatory hurdles and investment timelines – particularly concerning satellite internet deployment and compliance with local laws.
Lam also met with Google vice president Karan Bhatia to discuss expanding Google’s investments in Vietnam – particularly in AI, cyber security, and cloud services.
Singapore launches cable-defending subs
Singapore last week launched a pair of Invincible-class submarines to defend local waters – including the submarine communication cables that connect the island to the world.
Prime minister and minister for finance Lawrence Wong boasted the subs will “fulfil a wide spectrum of operations to safeguard Singapore’s waters, protect its sea lines of communication and contribute to regional peace and security.”
Singapore plans to deploy another two subs for the same missions.
The island nation is a landing spot for at least 18 submarine cables. – Simon Sharwood
Ola’s e-scooter business crashes
The electric scooter business arm of Indian tech company Ola has run into trouble amid reports emerged that many of its two-wheelers are plagued by malfunctioning hardware and glitching software, leading to a backlog of customers waiting for repairs.
One of the biz’s over 500 repair centers reportedly had between 3500 and 4000 Ola Electric scooters waiting for repairs amid a shortage of spare parts and skilled labor.
One scooter owner was so fed up that he lit one of the Ola’s showrooms on fire. He was laterarrested.
Founder and fierce advocate of 70-hour work weeks, Bhavish Aggarwal, on Friday used his LinkedIn account to promise that Ola will double its number of service centers by the end of the year and train an additional 100,000 mechanics.
Additionally, he promised service issues would be resolved within one day and back-up scooters would be provided for owners whose vehicles were being repaired, as well as coupons for its cabs.
Aggarwal also vowed that Ola would incorporate AI to detect vehicle problems before they arise – beginning in October.
E-commerce biz Qoo10’s woes worsen
Singapore-based e-commerce site Qoo10 – already in trouble after South Korean regulators were forced to step in and intervene with a bailout over two of its subsidiaries’ non-payment to vendors last month – has been compelled to suspend payment services by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The order came amid ongoing customer complaints of delayed payments. MAS alleged that Qoo10 failed to resolve significant number of payment delays reported by merchants between April and August 2024.
“This suspension does not prohibit Qoo10 from operating its e-commerce platform, but it may need to engage a third-party payment service provider for transactions on this platform,” stated the regulator.
Yahoo! Japan trumpets its content moderation rates
Yahoo! Japan has released details of its content moderation efforts. The site uses both a 24-hour specialized human patrol team and in-house AI to moderate content. In FY2023, around 115,000 posts (1.2 percent) were removed from an average of 9.27 million posts per month in the Yahoo! Japan news comment section, 59,000 posts (1.3 percent) from 4.69 million monthly posts in Quora-esque Q&A platform Yahoo! Chiebukuro, and 38,000 posts (1.7 percent) from 2.29 million posts on the Yahoo! Finance Bulletin Board. For public chat room LINE Open Chat and social media platform LINE VOOM, launched in late 2023, 799,000 (0.2 percent) and 233,000 posts (1.3 percent) were removed, respectively, from millions of monthly posts.
APAC Dealbook
Recent alliances and deals spotted by The Register across the region last week include:
- Samsung Display announced a $1.8 billion investment to construct an OLED display factory in Vietnam as it seeks to enhance its global manufacturing capabilities. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics will supply [PDF] 1 trillion won ($762 million) worth of 4G and 5G equipment to Vodafone Idea, the carrier’s Indian operation.
- LG Display announced the sale of a 51 percent stake in its Chinese large LCD panel manufacturing company to TCL. The sale is worth around $1.5 billion.
- Indonesia’s GoTo Group announced on Tuesday a collaboration with Google Cloud to launch Dira – an AI-based voice assistant integrated into the GoPay app.
- South Korea’s Naver Corporation – known for its flagship messaging app LINE – is set to establish its Middle East headquarters in Saudi Arabia by the end of the year.
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