Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) yesterday said it plans to rein in content on WeChat (微信) by culling the number of public accounts on the platform, responding to the latest in a series of Chinese government cleanups that have rattled the Internet sector.
WeChat is cutting limits on “official accounts” — akin to verified Twitter accounts through which individuals and companies share news and information — to just one per person and two per company, the social media service said on its Web site.
That is down from five per company in the past, a reduction intended to comply with regulations on maintaining “healthy” content.
China’s cyberspace watchdogs have in the past year come down hard on its most prominent tech giants, seeking to eradicate content they deem destabilizing.
They have targeted companies such as news aggregator Bytedance Ltd (字節跳動).
WeChat, the go-to everyday app for nearly 1.1 billion people, became one of several platforms to shut 9,800 social media accounts this month.
The cap on accounts marks another setback for Tencent, which has shed more than US$200 billion in market value since peaking in January.
The company relies on content to draw users to WeChat and bolster its appeal to advertisers, and it is already facing intense competition from upstarts such as Bytedance.
On the gaming front, Tencent this week said it had no updates on when regulators would lift a freeze on licensing approvals that has hampered its ability to make money off its biggest games.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
RSS