TikTok

TikTok is set to pour US$12.2 million over the next three years into supporting more than 120,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, as it pushes into the e-commerce business in the region. However, it will not be smooth sailing as TikTok will need to contend with regional e-commerce titans GoTo, Shopee and Lazada.

After TikTok’s recent high-profile congressional hearing, the question on everyone’s lips is what happens next — is a total ban likely? But the larger issue, says academic Sarah Kreps, is whether the US risks winning the battle of ideas and ideals but losing the war.

Lee Huay Leng, editor-in-chief of SPH Chinese Media Group, observes that the spotlight cast on Singaporean TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi at a US Congress hearing recently is a good entry point for us to think about the role that Singapore can play in the new world order, besides the larger topics such as TikTok and China-US relations.

While China-US relations have an impact on the US lawmakers’ scrutiny of TikTok, the intense questioning of the social media platform’s data security issues by the US Congress has sparked major global attention, especially towards the threat to the authority of sovereign states globally.

Heng Kim Song has been the freelance editorial cartoonist

The US House Committee on Foreign Affairs has advanced a bill in Congress potentially giving the Biden administration power to ban TikTok in the US. Zaobao’s China Desk weighs up the various opinions discussing the issue.

Former journalist Jessie Tan muses over the phenomenon of those in need transitioning from begging on the streets to selling goods on Douyin. While the poor or disabled have been given a more dignified and effective source of income, this is just one aspect of the good that comes with social media and technology.

In the second of a seven-part Lianhe Zaobao-Business Times series on China and ASEAN, Zaobao senior correspondent Chew Boon Leong looks at the strategies adopted and challenges faced by China’s tech companies in Southeast Asia.

In recent years and since the pandemic led to the surge in livestreaming, e-learning and other online activities, the demand for cloud computing and related services has increased significantly. Chinese companies led by frontrunners Huawei, Tencent and Alibaba are launching into all-out competition in the cloud services sector. While Huawei has been fiercely climbing the ranks with the injection of talent and funding, Alibaba and Tencent are not resting on their laurels either. What could be their winning war chests? And are they ready to take on the world? Caixin journalist Zhang Erchi finds out.