Tag: asia

  • Apple to raise App Store prices in some countries in Europe, Asia

    Apple to raise App Store prices in some countries in Europe, Asia

    Apple Inc said on Tuesday it will raise prices of apps and in-app purchases on its App Store from next month in all of the euro zone and some countries in Asia and South America.

    The new prices, excluding auto-renewable subscriptions, will be effective as early as Oct. 5, Apple said in a blog post.

    The U.S. tech giant periodically adjusts its prices in different regions and reduced prices for euro zone countries last year to adjust for currencies and taxes,dropping starting prices for many apps to 99 euro cents from 1.09 euros.

    The latest price rise increases those starting prices to 1.19 euros.

    A rapid rise in inflation, interest rates and energy prices this year has hammered the yen, the euro and most emerging economy currencies. The euro has dropped to two-decade lows this year and has been languishing around parity against the dollar for weeks.

    Apart from euro zone countries, the price increases will hit Sweden and Poland in Europe; Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea and Vietnam in Asia; and Chile in South America.

    For some countries like Vietnam, the price increase was due to new regulations relating to collecting tax from consumers, Apple said.

    Apple, which launched its latest generation of iPhones earlier this month, has been developing its services business to reduce dependency on its mainstay smartphones.

    Revenue from Apple’s services business, which includes the App Store, has been growing at a rapid pace in the last few years and now hovers around $20 billion per quarter.

  • Huawei Unveils Upgraded Intelligent Cloud-Network to Drive Digital Innovation

    Huawei Unveils Upgraded Intelligent Cloud-Network to Drive Digital Innovation

    At the summit entitled “Huawei Intelligent Cloud-Network, Leading Digital Innovation,” Huawei unveiled the upgraded capabilities of its Intelligent Cloud-Network Solution. Held during HUAWEI CONNECT 2022 Bangkok, the summit highlighted its capabilities covering three major scenarios — CloudFabric, CloudWAN and CloudCampus — which were created in an effort to meet customers’ changing requirements.

    Huawei also unveiled several new data communication products, such as the industry’s first Wi-Fi 7 AP, AirEngine 8771-X1T; the 400G-ready next-generation campus core switch, CloudEngine S16700; and the 4-in-1 universal-service intelligent router, NetEngine 8000 M4.

    As digital transformation advances, enterprise services pose a set of new requirements on data communication networks. First, massive numbers of IoT connections demand ultra-broadband and ubiquitous connectivity. Second, enterprise branch services are gradually moving to the cloud, requiring networks to provide flexible deployment and fast cloudification capabilities. Third, new services need to be rolled out on a large scale and services need frequent adjustments, requiring networks to be agile, secure, and efficient. Finally, video conferencing is becoming commonplace, meaning that networks have to provide deterministic experience assurance.

    Vice President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, Sun Liang, noted that Huawei Datacom had developed the Intelligent Cloud-Network Solution through continuous innovation to address the preceding challenges. This solution provides key capabilities such as ultimate access experience, ultra-fast cloud access by branches, deterministic experience and efficient and simplified deployment.

    Liu Jianning, president of Huawei’s Global Enterprise Network Marketing & Solutions Sales Department, also released the “Wireless Intelligent Network Architecture White Paper.” Liu noted that one of the most important changes to campus networks is fully wireless.

    The future adoption of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 poses new requirements on network bandwidth, architecture and O&M. To meet these new requirements, Huawei proposes the next-generation campus network architecture — wireless intelligent network architecture. This apparatus has seven unique features: fully-wireless, hyper-converged, ultra-broadband, simplified, low-carbon, secure and intelligent.

  • AirAsia offers 5 million free seats to celebrate its rapid comeback

    AirAsia offers 5 million free seats to celebrate its rapid comeback

    Asia’s low-fare carrier, AirAsia, is reportedly offering five million free seats to its passengers to celebrate its rapid comeback. The airlines launched a sale on tickets on September 19. The customers can buy tickets with offers till September 25.

    The report further said that the offers will be valid if the travel dates lie between January 1, 2023, and October 28, 2023.

    The offer can be availed on the airline’s website and mobile application. It can be availed by clicking on the “Flights” icon on the app or website.

    “ We wish to thank our loyal passengers who have had our back through thick and thin with the biggest ever FREE Seats* campaign. Not only have we resumed many of our much-loved routes, but we’re also introducing new and exciting ones for greater value and choice,” Karen Chan, group chief commercial officer, AirAsia.

    “This extra special sale was also put together to celebrate our 21st birthday and the gradual reopening of borders worldwide. With all of that, we encourage everyone to take advantage of our Big sale and commitment to always make air travel accessible to everyone. As always, we expect the best value fares will be snapped up fast, which is why we urge value seekers to get in quick,” Chan added.

    The offer is available to travelers from several ASEAN countries like Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

    Two months ago, AirAsia gave away free trips to passengers.

  • Vietnam coffee chain Trung Nguyen Legend makes international debut

    Vietnam coffee chain Trung Nguyen Legend makes international debut

    Vietnam-based coffee chain Trung Nguyen Legend is expanding its footprint in the international market opening its first store in China.

    The coffee shop, which is situated at 699 Nanjing Street in Shanghai, has been in the works since 2018 and intends to provide Chinese clients with a variety of coffee products as well as serving fresh coffee drinks, including the Robusta obtained from one of Vietnam’s well-known highland regions, Buon Me Thuot.

    Trung Nguyen Legend sees the store as a place for artistic and cultural coffee “where the three most prevalent world coffee civilisations come together”. Customers can experience the three coffee cultures the company has identified and showcases in its flagship Vietnam stores: Ottoman, Roman and Zen.

    The Shanghai location recreates a Vietnamese-themed coffee shop, through its architectural style, display graphics, and menus that combine elements of Vietnamese and local culture.

    The store features some well-known designs and traditional materials from Vietnam, such as ceramics, bamboo and rattan kitchenware, volcanic rock, red basalt soil, and typical conical motifs of Vietnamese culture.

    A renowned household name in Vietnam since its establishment in 1996, Trung Nguyen Legend FMCG products are available in more than 60 countries. The brand claims China is its second-largest market in the online coffee business, and Legend’s G7 has become the most well-known instant coffee brand due to its distinctive flavour.

    The Trung Nguyen brand has appeared on cafes outside Vietnam before, with stores in Singapore prior to the advent of the Legend brand extension. This is the company’s first foray as a premium cafe brand.

    Research from Statista shows the number of coffee chains entering China has increased in recent years, with their market share likely to grow. Starbucks is by far the largest fresh-ground coffee seller in China, with more than 5000 locations across the country.

  • Gap eliminates 500 corporate jobs amid shrinking margins

    Gap eliminates 500 corporate jobs amid shrinking margins

    Gap Inc is eliminating about 500 corporate jobs, the apparel chain said on Tuesday, as it struggles to protect margins and battles weak sales of outdated clothes at brands including Old Navy.

    The company is laying off staff and eliminating positions that are currently open across a range of departments, it said. The eliminated roles are mainly at its offices in San Francisco, New York and in Asia.

    Shares of the Banana Republic parent declined about 3 per cent in afternoon trade, taking the year-to-date decline to 48 per cent.

    Late last month, the company withdrew its annual forecasts due to an inventory glut and weak sales.

    Gap is in the middle of a CEO transition after Sonia Syngal stepped down earlier this year, and is currently led on an interim basis by Executive Chairman Bob Martin. The company had a workforce of about 97,000 employees as of Jan. 29, with around 9 per cent of employees working at its headquarters locations, according to a regulatory filing.

  • South Korea’s franchise BHC Chicken to enter Malaysia and Singapore

    South Korea’s franchise BHC Chicken to enter Malaysia and Singapore

    South Korea’s second-largest chicken franchise by sales, bhc Group, said Tuesday it will open its third store in Malaysia next month as part of its strategy to expand into Southeast Asia.

    The new restaurant, which is set to open in a shopping complex located inside the capital of Kuala Lumpur, will be operated by a local logistics company under a master franchise agreement, it said.

    This is the third overseas restaurant by the South Korean chicken franchise company. The group operates two bhc chicken restaurants in Hong Kong. The chicken franchise also said it is in talks with a retail company in Singapore to open a bhc chicken restaurant in the city-state by April next year.

    “With our bhc chicken taking the lead, our ultimate goal is to promote Korean food and culture globally by bringing our various restaurant brands to other countries,” an official from the company said.

    Bhc operates a host of restaurant brands including the fried chicken franchise bhc chicken, Korean barbecue franchise Chango 43 and Outback Steakhouse.

    The company is also the South Korean operator of San Francisco-based Super Duper burgers, which is set to open the first Seoul store in October.

  • Primark to stop sourcing from Myanmar after fresh probe

    Primark to stop sourcing from Myanmar after fresh probe

    UK fast fashion retailer Primark will make a “responsible exit” from the country following the Ethical Trade Initiative’s (ETI) latest report on human rights and responsible business conduct within the country.

    Primark described the situation in the country as “extremely concerning and very complex”, with international stakeholders holding differing views as to the best course of action for the garment sector.

    Last week, ETI urged companies involved in garment manufacture for export to reassess their presence in Myanmar as there has been “evidence of forced labour and exploitation at a sector level”, with evidence of workers facing long hours, low wages, unpaid overtime, and harassment.

    “This poses significant challenges to our ability to ensure the standards we require to protect the safety and rights of the people who make our clothes and products,” Primark said in a statement.

    The fashion retailer said its only option was to begin working towards a responsible exit from Myanmar. The company will work closely with its partners and stakeholders both there and internationally to make sure the exit follows the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

    “We will continue to monitor for compliance with our Code of Conduct as we work through this, and as an immediate priority, we are looking at what additional measures we can put in place to support workers in our supplier factories through this interim period,” the company said.

  • A new leak suggests that WhatsApp might soon let you edit your sent messages

    A new leak suggests that WhatsApp might soon let you edit your sent messages

    If you do a lot of typing on your phone, you know how embarrassing it is to send a message with misspelled words. Sometimes you see that you have typed the wrong key after you have sent the message. There are even instances when the autocorrect feature might replace some of your words without you even noticing. This is why every messaging app should have an edit message feature.

    The latest messaging app that has received such a feature is iMessage. With iOS 16, Apple added the functionality for iPhone users to edit their already sent messages, and — soon — another widely used app might also enable you to do the same.

    Back in June, we reported that WhatsApp is working on a new way to let you edit already sent messages. Now, a new leak from WABetaInfo suggests that WhatsApp hasn’t abandoned the project.

    In version 2.22.20.12 of the WhatsApp beta for Android, the folks from WABetaInfo found that WhatsApp is currently working on a way to let the app replace your sent messages with their edited counterparts. Furthermore, in order to read a received edited message, WhatsApp will prompt you to install the latest version of the app — once the edit function comes out, of course.

    At the moment, it’s still a mystery how much time WhatsApp will give you to edit your already-sent messages. We should also note that the feature is currently in development, and sadly, there is no information on when WhatsApp will release it to the public. However, we can be sure that it is coming.

  • Goldman Sachs Unloads 30 Bankers in Asia

    Goldman Sachs Unloads 30 Bankers in Asia

    As many as 30 bankers have left Goldman Sachs in Asia, as part of a global exercise to trim workers.

    Up to 30 investment bankers have left Goldman Sachs in Asia, sources said, across teams in equity capital markets, healthcare as well as technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), especially those involved in Greater China deals.

    Every year globally we conduct a strategic assessment of our resources and calibrate headcount to the current operating environment, said a spokesperson for the bank. We continue to remain flexible while executing against our strategic growth priorities.

    According to a source familiar with the matter, the job cuts are part of a yearly practice that has been paused for two years during the pandemic.

    Separately, a Reuters report last week said that Goldman’s annual exercise typically results in a 1-5 percent reduction of staff each year with 2022 expected to result in the lower end of that range. Globally, the bank’s headcount reached 47,000, as of end-June, up 15 percent year-on-year.

  • Goldman Sachs Expands Services to Swiss Clients

    Goldman Sachs Expands Services to Swiss Clients

    Goldman Sachs is expanding its investment banking services in Switzerland and Europe as it chases stable revenues on the continent.

    Goldman Sachs is offering transaction banking services to corporate clients in the EU, adding services outside of its investment bank’s core areas of trading and advisory, it said in a statement Tuesday.

    Rolled out from Goldman Sachs’ hubs in Frankfurt am Main and Amsterdam, the offering will address the day-to-day payments and cash management needs of businesses and be available to corporates in Europe and Switzerland, a spokesman from the bank confirmed.

    Transaction banking was named as one of Goldman Sachs’ key focus areas in the bank’s 2020 investor day presentation and was introduced in the US in the same year.  The additional service could help fill holes from deal-making losses within the investment bank this year, resulting from lower stock prices, rapidly accelerating inflation and interest rates as well as an energy crisis.

  • UBS is Hiring a Team to Filter Chinese Research

    UBS is Hiring a Team to Filter Chinese Research

    UBS has reportedly hired a team of «content reviewers» in order for its Chinese research publications to be free of any sensitivities.

    UBS is hiring a team of content reviewers for its Chinese research publications, according to a report citing a job ad from the bank’s wealth unit posted in July.

    You will ensure that all our Chinese language publications are   free of any sensitivities, the ad said, underlining that the «language, tone and content will need to be appropriate and adhere to regulatory and internal guidelines.

    The team will sit alongside the research editing team. Thus far, one reviewer has been hired in Hong Kong and the bank is seeking to recruit more people in Singapore, according to a source in the report.

    The recruitment of the team follows three years after UBS’s wealth arm suspended its global chief economist Paul Donovan over comments made in a research report about pigs during a swine fever outbreak which was perceived as distatestful and racist.

    UBS would suffer blowback with Hong Kong-based Chinese brokerage Haitong International Securities cancelling all work with the bank and self-regulatory body Securities Association of China telling members not to quote Donovan’s research or invite him to events.

    Donovan would eventually be reinstated four months later after issuing an apology for having unwittingly used hugely culturally insensitive language.

  • SingPost names new CEO for international

    SingPost names new CEO for international

    Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) has elected Mr Li Yu as CEO for its international business with effect from 12 September 2022.

    Mr Yu possesses over 17 years of experience spanning across Engineering, Operations, Project Management, Customer/Sales support, Strategy, and Technology implementation. He joins SingPost’s management team from United Parcel Service (UPS), where he was most recently responsible for its APAC Global Logistics and Distribution.

    Yu also has experience in transformational P&L and commercial leadership under his belt. He had led an eCommerce portfolio as part of the broader logistics line of business, and grew businesses including those in the eCommerce, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail sectors in previous posts.

    Mr Yu will be establishing long and short-term business strategies for the International businesses, strengthening its corporate and board governance focusing on operational excellence, transformational growth, social responsibility, and sustainability.

    He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science, Industrial Engineering from University of Toronto in Canada. He has lived and worked in North America, Shanghai, and Singapore.

  • Guide to Myanmar Online Casinos

    Guide to Myanmar Online Casinos

    Over recent years, Burmese casino players have had several options to help them enjoy the thrill of online gaming. With the number of online casinos available in Myanmar, it may not be easy to pick the right choice. Let’s take a look at the dynamics of online gaming in Myanmar.

    How to Open an Online Casino Account in Myanmar

    Although signing up for an online casino account in Myanmar is one of the most straightforward things to do, it doesn’t mean you should register on the first one on your browser. When you search for online casinos Myanmar, most sites will be dying for your attention. This allows you to find incredible offerings and promotions.

    Before you create an account, ensure you have met these requirements:

    • Have a valid email address
    • Be at least 18 years of age
    • Read, understand, and agree to the terms and conditions of the online casino site.

    Once you have all these, you are ready to create an online casino account in Myanmar. You will then need to deposit money into the account and begin having fun in no time.

    Benefits of Online Gambling in Myanmar

    There are a lot of benefits you can expect to accrue from playing casino games online. They include:

    Online Gambling is Safe

    Online casinos in Myanmar are safe, so players don’t have to worry about losing critical information shared on these websites. Most websites are protected from hackers.

    Multiple Games Available

    There might be days when you feel like you only want to play slots and not other card games. Whatever online casino game you fancy playing, you will have a chance to play it anytime. Therefore don’t hesitate to explore your options.

    Some of the incredible games to consider include:

    • Baccarat
    • Roulette
    • Slot games
    • Sports betting
    • Keno

    No Need to Leave the Comfort of Your Home or Office

    In the past, Burmese players had to travel long distances to play at land-based casinos. However, modern technology has made anything possible. Besides preserving your data, online gambling allows you to enjoy your favorite games anytime. You no longer have to leave your home to enjoy the thrill of casino games.

    Accessibility

    With only a laptop, smartphone, or tablet and an internet connection, you can play live games and slots whenever you want! The best thing is that these casinos are available 24/7 and have staff ready to offer a helping hand whenever you encounter challenges.

    Entertainment

    Online casino games in Myanmar provide seamless digital entertainment to several players around the country. Unlike land-based gambling, online casinos have a set of popular games. Besides, most online casinos partner with the best software developers to ensure players have an outstanding gaming experience.

    Conclusion

    Thanks to modern technology, you can enjoy your favorite game and earn real money anywhere and anytime. There are limitless opportunities for you to enjoy your online casino games in Myanmar. You only have to browse the web, find the most suitable online casino and begin playing!

  • JD Airlines secures air carrier certificate

    JD Airlines secures air carrier certificate

    Jiangsu Jingdong Cargo Airlines, or JD Airlines, an affiliate of JD Logistics, received the air carrier certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on August 31.

    The carrier will have its principal base at Nantong Xingdong International Airport as it plans to develop its domestic network in China around the key cities of Nantong, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Wuxi.

    The airline said it will extend its reach to Chengdu and Chongqing and will gradually cover major cities in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea and later in Europe, Middle East and North America by the end of 2025.

    JD Airlines plans to open up its capacity to the market with a single trip able to transport as much as 23 tonnes. The carrier aims to cater to high-value goods, high-end manufacturing, medical, and fresh produce.

  • Hong Kong-based LF Logistics now part of Maersk

    Hong Kong-based LF Logistics now part of Maersk

    Maersk completed its US$3.6b acquisition of LF Logistics in late August, taking control of the Hong Kong-based contract logistics company, which will now be rebranded to Maersk.

    Maersk will add 223 warehouses to the existing portfolio, bringing the total number of facilities to 549 globally, spread across a total of 9.5 million square meters.

    LF Logistics, part of supply chain manager Li & Fung, employs 10,000 people, operates an extensive pan-Asia network and specializes in B2B and B2C distribution solutions within retail, wholesale, and e-commerce. It offers premium omnichannel fulfillment services, e-commerce, and inland transport in the Asia-Pacific region.

    As part of the transaction to acquire LF Logistics, Maersk has entered a strategic partnership with Li & Fung to develop a comprehensive range of end-to-end global supply chain services with Li & Fung focusing on the upstream supply chain and Maersk focusing on the downstream supply chain.

    “Historically, our focus has been on origin logistics or exports out of Asia, but now the region has transitioned into a large consumer market in its own right,” said Ditlev Blicher, Regional Managing Director of Asia Pacific at A.P. Moller – Maersk.

    Blicher noted that the combined team will provide strong omnichannel fulfillment capabilities that will enable exports into Asia and connect with the Asian consumer directly.” The parent company of Li & Fung will retain and continue to build its carved-out global freight management or GFM business.