A deep dive into Tencent, its history, core businesses, investment portfolio, and Pony Ma's “outsider CEO” characteristics that led to its success — Part I in a Two Part Series on the Biggest Company We Know the Least About … Hi friends 👋, — Happy Monday!
Enlarge / A Tesla facility in Lathrop, CA. (credit: Andrei Stanescu / Getty)
Tesla's stock closed at a record high of $2,000 on Thursday, pushing the company's market capitalization to $370 billion. Tesla has been on a weeklong rally since announcing a five-for-one stock split. The split will be distributed to anyone who holds the stock tomorrow—Friday, August 21.
A little more than two months have passed since Tesla's stock first reached $1,000 per share. Last month, Tesla announced a solid second-quarter profit of $104 million. It was the fourth straight quarter of profits.
That could qualify Tesla for inclusion in the S&P 500 stock index. If Tesla wins a slot in the S&P 500, funds that track the index would need to buy Tesla shares. That could push the stock price up even further.
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Facebook says it's piloting an effort that will closely watch posts that rapidly gain millions of views to ensure they don't violate community standards — Earlier this week, I wrote about how platforms proved they can stop a piece of health-related misinformation in its tracks.
Medical imaging startup Exo, which is developing AI-powered workflow software and a portable ultrasound device, raises $40M, bringing total raised to ~$88M — Exo, a medical technology startup developing a portable ultrasound device and accompanying AI-powered cloud platform, has raised $40 million in a round of funding.
iQiyi and Tencent’s WeTV, two of China’s most popular streaming services, may be banned in Taiwan next month as the government prepares to close regulatory loopholes that enabled them to operate through local partnerships.
In an announcement posted this week, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said Taiwanese companies and individuals will be prohibited from providing services for OTT firms based in mainland China. The proposed regulation will be open to public comment for two weeks before it takes effect on Sept. 3.
Though Taiwan, which has a population of about 24 million people, is self-governed, the Chinese government claims it as a territory. The proposed regulations means Taiwan is joining other countries, including India and the United States, in taking a harsher stance against Chinese tech companies.
iQiyi and Tencent’s WeTV set up operations in Taiwan through “illegal” partnerships, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in its announcement, working through their Hong Kong subsidiaries to strike agreements with Taiwanese companies.
In April, the NCC declared that mainland Chinese OTT firms are not allowed to operate in Taiwan under the Act Governing Relations between People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. Cabinet spokesperson Kolas Yotaka said at the time that Chinese firms and their Taiwanese partners were operating at “the edges of the law.”
But NCC spokesperson Wong Po-Tsung said the proposed regulation isn’t targeted solely at Chinese OTT operators. According to the Taipei Times, he stated “the act was necessary because the cable television service operators have asked that the commission apply across-the-board standards to regulate all audiovisual service platforms, which should include OTT services. It was not stipulated just to address the problems caused by iQiyi and other Chinese OTT operators.”
Wong added that Taiwan is a democratic country and its government would not block people from watching content from iQiyi and other Chinese streaming services. For example, they can still access them by using cross-border payment services to pay for subscriptions in China.
Once the act is passed, Taiwanese companies that break it will face fines of NTD $50,000 to NTD $5 million [about USD $1,700 to USD $170,000].
In a statement to TechCrunch, a spokeperson from iQiyi International, an iQiyi subsidiary based in Singapore, said it is playing close attention to the draft bill.
“China’s mainland entities have always been allowed to carry out commercial activities in the Taiwan region since the enactment of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area,” she added. “As streaming services are not classified as ‘special industries’ under the Act, such services should not become the specific target of legislation.”
TechCrunch has also contacted Tencent for comment.
Sources: ThredUp, an online marketplace for used clothing is planning to go public, with an IPO targeted for early next year that could raise $200M-$300M — ThredUp Inc., an online marketplace for second hand clothing, is gearing up to go public, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Patricia Cohen / New York Times : How Schneider Electric is using AI in call centers and manufacturing to complement employees' work ...
