Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by FAMNIG HJARTA

Squid Game = K entertainment 30 years in the makin

FAMNIG HJARTA — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 09:12:22 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.businessinsider.com/squid-game-part-of-k-wave-years-in-the-making-2021-10

Netflix's 'Squid Game' is part of a surge in Korean entertainment '30 years in the making.' Here's what's next.

Netflix
's "Squid Game," a Korean-language series about hundreds of people who participate in deadly games for a cash prize, is the streaming giant's biggest TV series ever.

The company said on Tuesday that it was watched by 142 million members in its first month, well ahead of its No. 2 show, "Bridgerton."

"Squid Game" highlights how far ahead Netflix is in international content compared to streaming rivals, but it's not just the Netflix effect that turned the show into a phenomenon.

Alvin Foo, a Netflix marketing exec, attributed the show's success partly to the "K-wave," or a surge in popularity of South Korean content that also includes the Oscar best picture winner "Parasite" and the music group BTS. This week, "My Name," another South Korean series, is among Netflix's most popular titles.

This Korean wave has been about "30 years in the making," said Robert Ji-Song Ku, an associate professor of Asian and Asian-American studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Ku, who was born in South Korea, said that the roots of it can be traced back to the 1990s, when the region aggressively tried to become a "soft power" in culture after facing a financial crisis, easing up on censorship as a result.

"There was an effort to turn music, cinema, and TV into exportable commodities," he said. "The Korean wave begins in the '90s in places like China and Japan. From 2000 onward, there was a steady but increased consumption of Korean pop culture, starting in neighboring Asian nations and branching out."

The period birthed young Korean filmmakers — such as "Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho and "Oldboy" director Park Chan-Wook — who found international fame and were "bold in the way they approached genre to convey the complexities of Korean society," said Jason Bechervaise, a Seoul-based professor in the entertainment and arts management department at Korea Soongsil Cyber University.

Another reason "Squid Game" became such a phenomenon, according Foo, the Netflix marketing exec, is that it's about "widening economic inequality," which "strikes a chord around the world." Ku noted that there is an "increasing economic gap" in South Korea that both "Squid Game" and "Parasite" tackle.

'Squid Game' could spark a streaming content war
Netflix was quick to capitalize on Korean content and it committed $500 million to the region this year. Other companies, such as Amazon and Disney, are also ramping up their efforts. And that won't be the only competition. Local studios "will have to respond in order to compete," Bechervaise said.

"The industry is entering a new phase with streamers coming in and this will ultimately shape how the industry will look for the coming decade or more," Bechervaise said. "There are local players like Showbox and there are American content providers like Netflix, and with Korean content in such demand, it's going to get extremely competitive."

Ku thinks that the Korean wave is only going to grow. He noted that the Korean actor Seo Jun Park is starring in Marvel Studios' upcoming movie "The Marvels." And he thinks that Korean game and talk shows that are big with audiences throughout Asia will grow in popularity on Netflix and other streaming platforms.

"The wave is always evolving," he said. "It started out like the Gremlins. A cute little thing and then water was thrown on it. This is just the beginning of a tsunami."

Musk: You cannot sue your way to the Moon

FAMNIG HJARTA — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 07:56:53 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/30/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-space-feud

‘You can’t sue your way to the moon’: Elon Musk intensifies Bezos space feud

Elon Musk intensified the feud over lawsuits and rocket sizes with space rival Jeff Bezos this week, kicking off the latest round in the billionaire battle over humanity’s return to the moon.

The SpaceX founder, who in April won a contract from Nasa to build the next-generation spacecraft to take astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time since 1972, took a jab at Bezos for suing the US government when his company lost out on the deal.

“You cannot sue your way to the Moon, no matter how good your lawyers are,” Musk said during an interview with the journalist Kara Swisher at the Code conference.

Bezos’ Blue Origin sued Nasa in August after the agency handed a $2.9bn moon lander contract to Musk’s SpaceX. Amazon, founded by Bezos, filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FEC) that same month urging the regulator to dismiss SpaceX’s proposed plans to expand its constellation of satellites in its satellite broadband internet venture.

Amazon is working on its own satellite internet called Project Kuiper.

Musk said at Code he had “not verbally” spoken to Bezos about the legal battles, but had sent “subtweets, if you will”.

Amazon said on Wednesday SpaceX had its own long history of suing the US government, releasing a 13-page long list of lawsuits, government petitions, and other legal action SpaceX has filed over the years to the Verge .

“It is difficult to reconcile their own historical record with their recent position on others filing similar actions,” Amazon said in a statement to CNBC.

The lawsuits in the document shared with the Verge include 39 actions that date as far back as 2004, just as Musk’s startup was still taking off.

Musk responded shortly after on Twitter, and wrote: “SpaceX has sued to be *allowed* to compete, BO is suing to stop competition.”

The billionaire race to space took another surreal turn at the conference in LA, when Musk joked the Amazon founder’s rocket “could be a different shape”.

“Could you explain from a technological point of view why it’s that shape?” Swisher pressed Musk during the live interview.

“If you are only doing suborbital, then your rocket can be shorter, yes,” he said.

Musk later said he would be sending Bezos a giant statue of the number 2 along with a silver medal, to mark the fact he had surpassed him as world’s richest person, worth $200.7bn.

The decision on the lunar lander lawsuit by Bezos’ Blue Origin is expected early November. Nasa has halted work with SpaceX until then.

Spiderman + Netflix = ?

FAMNIG HJARTA — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:52:24 +0800

QUOTE

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/tom-holland-reportedly-signs-huge-deal-with-netflix/

Tom Holland Reportedly Signs ‘Huge’ Deal With Netflix

When it comes to the rising film talent of today it’s hard to look past Tom Holland. The 25-year-old has quickly built up an impressive catalog of roles with his most beloved and iconic being his appearances as Peter Parker in Disney Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise.

While the actor is set to reprise this role later this year in the third installment Spider-Man: No Way Home, to secure longevity in the acting spotlight branching out and taking on other film roles may be the right move and according to a new report, this is exactly what the star has done.

According to a report by Giant Freakin Robot, trusted and proven sources of theirs revealed that Holland has struck a major film deal with the streaming service Netflix. The source did not provide the outlet any further details on the specifics of this deal or anything outside of its existence.

Netflix has been known to spend huge amounts of money locking down stars for content on their service and a rising star like Tom Holland would be a huge catch for Netflix that would surely bolster their audience over time.

In the past Holland has worked on projects with Netflix, namely his appearance in the Netflix-distributed film The Devil All the Time (2020) alongside Robert Pattinson and Sebastian Stan.

Right now there has been no public announcement from Tom Holland nor Netflix regarding any deal that has been made and if the report is to be true we’ll likely not hear anything until after the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home later this year.

Victoria Sung: Theranos’ tests sucked

FAMNIG HJARTA — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:49:34 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22701542/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-celgene-bickering

A GRUELING DAY IN ELIZABETH HOLMES’ TRIAL ENDED WITH EVIDENCE THAT THERANOS’ TESTS SUCKED

After a tedious day of bickering, Victoria Sung appeared like manna from heaven — to tell us that Theranos’ tests sucked.

Sung worked at Celgene when it contracted with Theranos. Her testimony was brief and to the point: Celgene had not “comprehensively validated” Theranos technology, she said. That would have taken more work than what she did with Theranos’ tests. The work she showed the court from 2012 demonstrated Theranos performed dismally compared to standard testing — often returning results that were “out of range.”

We’ll get to the bickering in a minute, I promise, but Sung is a teaser for a big part of US v. Elizabeth Holmes we haven’t explored much: Theranos’s relationship with pharmaceutical companies. One allegation prosecutor Robert Leach made in his opening statement was that Holmes had deceived Walgreens about its relationship with drug companies. During former employee Surekha Gangakhedkar’s testimony a little over a week ago, she said that she didn’t think pharma company GlaxoSmithKline’s report on Theranos tech “comprehensively validated” it.

This phrase felt familiar, and today I realized from where: Bad Blood, John Carreyrou’s book about Theranos. In the book, Carreyrou wrote that documents Theranos gave Walgreens “stated that the Theranos system had been ‘comprehensively validated over the last seven years by 10 of the largest 15 pharma companies.’”

GSK and Celgene’s acquirer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, certainly rank among the largest pharma companies. They did have contracts with Theranos; in fact, Celgene was Theranos’ largest pharma customer. But neither of the studies those two companies did count as comprehensive validation, according to Sung and Gangakhedkar.

I imagine we will work through Theranos’ other pharma partners later in the trial; Sung’s testimony was brief. She was only on the stand because former lab director Adam Rosendorff had a childcare commitment at 2PM and couldn’t continue his cross-examination, which took most of the day.

Rosendorff had previously testified that Theranos’ tests were bad, even saying he didn’t understand the clinical value of one test.

Lance Wade, Holmes’ attorney, set out to undermine this testimony, and that was the source of a great deal of bickering. Rosendorff could be persnickety about details; for instance, Wade kept mixing up “proficiency tests” with “precision tests,” and Rosendorff kept correcting him. At one point, the two got into a fight about whether Rosendorff had forwarded an email or replied to it. At least, I think that’s what they were arguing about.

We revisited the lab inspection by the California Department of Public Health, where Theranos employees got instructions not to go in or out of the “Normandy” lab, where the Edison machines were kept. In a previous inspection in New York, bulletin boards had been covered with paper so the inspector couldn’t see what was on them. Wade asked if that was to protect trade secrets. Rosendorff asked who would pin trade secrets to bulletin boards.

But we did find out the results of the audit: some minor deficiencies, which upset Holmes and Balwani, Rosendorff testified. Later, Wade quipped that supervising quality control tests and making sure laws were followed was “why you get the big bucks, right?”

“Not as big bucks as you get paid,” Rosendorff replied.

While he was among the highest-paid employees at Theranos, making $240,000 a year, The Wall Street Journal noted that partners at Wade’s firm made an average of about $1.5 million a year. Given the problems at Theranos, as well as lawyers’ fees that stemmed from his time there, he should have been paid more, Rosendorff said. That bit of testimony was struck from the record.

Bickering aside, Wade did make some progress. He put some of the emails Rosendorff had been asked about on direct examination in chronological order with documents Rosendorff had signed, showing that whatever reservations Rosendorff had didn’t stop him from approving tests.

Crucially, Wade got Rosendorff to revise his testimony about proficiency testing, which is required by law. Though proficiency testing wasn’t run on the Edison devices, Rosendorff said, it had been run on the FDA-approved machines in the lab. Wade produced documents from the American Proficiency Institute that graded Theranos “acceptable.”

This is a significant narrowing of Rosendorff’s testimony from the direct examination. Unlike Wade’s attempted “gotcha” moment yesterday, this did make me reconsider how I felt about Rosendorff’s direct testimony on proficiency testing. It is far less damning to say that proficiency testing had been done everywhere except the Edison, which was used for only seven tests. Rosendorff was testifying to plans for proficiency testing on the Edison machines when he had to leave for the day. (This was when the email dispute occurred.)

Remarks made by counsel after the jury left suggested we have at least one more day of listening to Rosendorff and Wade squabble, which I am not especially looking forward to. But Sung’s testimony did give me something to get excited about: What is the rest of Big Pharma going to say about Theranos?

Evergrande investor confront staff with knife

FAMNIG HJARTA — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:39:38 +0800

Weibo video sauce: https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4686804914470973

QUOTE

https://www.businessinsider.com/evergrande-investors-confronting-staff-weibo-videos-2021-9

Videos shared to China's Twitter appear to show desperate Evergrande investors confronting staff, with one woman pulling out a knife in a boardroom and threatening to kill herself

A video compilation circulating this week on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, appears to show desperate Evergrande investors confronting the company's staff.

In one clip in the compilation, a woman can be seen picking up a knife in the middle of what appears to be an investors' meeting with Evergrande Wealth staff and threatening to kill herself in the meeting room. The video shows roughly fifty other people in the same meeting room.

"I don't want the interest on my investment, I just want my money back," the woman can be heard saying as she brandishes the knife. "So here's what I have to say to you. If Evergrande Wealth doesn't give me my money today, I'll kill myself right here."

"If this isn't handled today, I'll die right here, right in front of you," the woman adds. "My retirement savings are all in that investment. I have nothing left to live for."

The compilation was shared to Weibo on September 29 by local citizen news site Xing Tai Shen Bian Shi, a verified account that has 1.6 million followers on Weibo. Xing Tai Shen Bian Shi did not specify where in China the videos were recorded and did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Another clip in the video compilation appears to shows several people attempting to block a vehicle outside an Evergrande office building. It is unclear who was in the vehicle or why investors were trying to prevent the car from leaving.

"They have to give me an explanation," a crying woman can be heard saying in the clip.

"I don't have any choice but to do this, and I won't listen to you," the woman says. "All my money is gone."

Evergrande has more than $300 billion in liabilities, making it the most indebted company in the world. Some analysts have called the Evergrande crisis China's Lehman Brothers moment after the company's failure to pay off its debts caused tremors across regional and international markets. Beijing is currently working behind the scenes to pull the real-estate giant out of danger but many of its properties, including a $1.8 billion lotus-shaped football stadium in Guangzhou, remain partially built.

The crisis extends beyond real estate. The company's wealth management arm, Evergrande Wealth, is also in trouble, and investors fear they will lose the money they funneled into its wealth management products. The risky, uninsured financial products sold by Chinese banks offer high interest rates, though their terms are usually opaque, meaning investors might not know what projects their money is funding.

Protests against the company have been going on for weeks. Reuters reported that on September 13, around 100 investors poured into the company's Shenzhen offices to demand Evergrande return their money. In response, security personnel formed a human chain around the building to keep the investors out.

An estimated 80,000 people — including Evergrande staff and their friends and families — hold around $6 billion worth of the company's wealth management products.

Evergrande did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Elizabeth Holmes != Steve Jobs

FAMNIG HJARTA — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 15:20:53 +0800

But she sure look like related to Zuck.

QUOTE

https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/the-painfully-obvious-reason-elizabeth-holmes-isnt-anything-like-her-idol-steve-jobs.html

The Painfully Obvious Reason Elizabeth Holmes Isn't Anything Like Her Idol Steve Jobs

Yesterday, during the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the now-defunct Theranos, her attorney made the case that she was like Steve Jobs, quoting from Walter Isaacson's biography of the late founder of Apple. It's not the first time Holmes likened herself to Jobs. In his book, John Carryrou, whose reporting for The Wall Street Journal brought down Holmes and Theranos, wrote about how she had modeled herself after the iconic Jobs.

Except, as should be obvious to everyone, Holmes isn't at all like her idol. One of them built what would become the most valuable consumer electronics company in the history of the world. The other now stands trial for what now appears to be Silicon Valley's biggest example of "fake it till you make it."

In Homes' case, however, it was all faking. It's not entirely clear the company she started was ever going to "make" anything resembling the promises it made to investors. I suppose you could argue that Holmes mastered what Apple observers have long called Jobs' "reality distortion field."

Apple's founder was famous for his ability to convince people of the greatness of things that they weren't even sure they understood. Of course, in Jobs' case, the thing he was referring to was actually great. Yes, he was a great marketer--maybe the best ever--but he also cared so deeply for the reputation of the company he led that he oversaw one of the greatest periods of industrial innovation and product design of his generation.

Steve Jobs made big promises, but he had the benefit of a company that was actually able to make great products. Like the iPhone.

The iPhone is not only Apple's most valuable product, it's almost entirely responsible for the company's $2 trillion market cap. It's also the standard by which every other smartphone is measured. Its announcement event is easily the most-watched tech company product launch each year.

But, imagine if, after Jobs' famous 2007 keynote introduction of the iPhone, where he described it as a "widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone," and "a breakthrough internet communications device," the thing Apple shipped was none of those things. Imagine it shipped customers a box with an iPod-like device that had to be plugged into a phone line to connect to the internet or make phone calls.

The iPhone, as Jobs described it, was better than what people could imagine when they held a Blackberry or Palm Pilot in their hands. It was a complete rethinking of the smartphone in a way that made it more functional and dramatically easier to use. Those are two things that aren't easy to pull off in combination. The original iPhone, in fact, seemed too good to be true. The difference is that it was very good, but it was also true.

Theranos, was also too good to be true. If you've ever had blood drawn, you know that having a needle stuck in your arm while a lab tech fills a series of vials is both invasive and uncomfortable. Holmes' promise was the ability to run tests on a blood sample much smaller than what was required by the traditional diagnostic equipment used in traditional labs. It was supposed to be more functional, and dramatically easier to use.

The problem is, it didn't work. Most of the tests run by Theranos either produced inaccurate results or were run on traditional testing machines. That's not "too good to be true," it's just not true at all.

That's important, because the reason Holmes isn't like Jobs isn't just because he succeeded and she failed. There are plenty of incredible entrepreneurs who failed. Jobs himself was kicked out of Apple, and would have been considered a failure if that was the end of the story. Holmes' problem is that she wasn't building a "reality distortion field," she was just making it up.

That, of course, is the obvious reason Holmes isn't anything like her idol--she wasn't a marketing genius, she was just making things up and hoping she could figure out a way to make it come true. That never works, by the way. It certainly isn't a viable business strategy, and it gets legally precarious when you take other people's money without telling them that the thing you're trying to figure out isn't actually real yet.

Whether Holmes committed fraud--in the legal sense--is for other people to decide. There's a reason we have trials and require prosecutors to prove their case to a jury with evidence. It certainly seems likely that Holmes will be held legally responsible for her actions, but even if not, the lesson here is obvious: character matters.

That, by the way, isn't to say that Steve Jobs was perfect--no founder (or person) is. It is, however, to suggest that the promises you use create expectations. Character is the relationship between your promises and your actions. It's the answer to the question "do you do what you say you're going to do?"

Keeping your word is everything. At least, it's the difference between Holmes and her idol.

Chinese influencers + Evergrande = good vibes only

FAMNIG HJARTA — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 14:53:48 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-stock-market-influencers-helping-quell-social-media-backlash-evergrande-2021-9

Chinese stock market influencers are helping to quell Evergrande-related protests by pushing positive messages about the company's future

The financial troubles of Chinese real-estate juggernaut Evergrande are likely far from over, but social media influencers in China may be helping to calm the storm.

Evergrande has more than $305 billion in liabilities — more than any other company in the world, per Markets Insider. Its failure to pay off its debts has caused jitters across Asian and international markets, prompting some analysts to term it China's "Lehman Brothers moment."

That Evergrande Chairman Xu Jiayin remains immensely wealthy amid Evergrande's financial struggles has angered Chinese social media users on the country's Twitter-like platform, Weibo. Weibo users were up in arms about a letter Xu sent to employees on September 21 that said the company would soon "walk out of the darkness" and encouraged staff to rally and work hard to make that happen.

Insider saw the Evergrande-letter topic thread, which is comparable to a subreddit, rake in more than 100,000 comments within the first 30 minutes of it being posted. Some posters on the topic thread called Xu "delusional" and even accused him of cheating workers of their paychecks.

However, in the week since that letter was published, Xu and Evergrande have managed to avoid being listed on Weibo's top trends, suggesting that chatter about the company has dropped off.

That may be, in part, thanks to a concerted campaign by prominent Chinese financial influencers to quell the panic.

Weibo finance influencers provide financial advice to their followers and post periodic updates on the stock market

One Weibo topic thread created by three stock-market influencers garnered around four million clicks at press time. Titled "Evergrande settles with Guangfa Bank," the thread appears to push the false message that Evergrande has fully settled on a repayment schedule with all the banks to which it owes billions of dollars. This is only half-true — Evergrande has agreed to settle interest payments on a domestic bond, but still owes billions of dollars to other banks.

However, this topic thread has spawned hundreds of discussion threads, with people reassuring each other about the state of Evergrande's financial situation despite the company teetering on the verge of collapse.

"It seems like Evergrande will be completely fine, and can pull through! Xu Jiayin has used his leverage to really rescue the company, and I'm guessing the storm will pass soon," wrote Weibo finance and tech influencer Chu Di Shaozhu, who has 196,000 followers on the platform.

Another Weibo user, Jing Chu Gong Zi, was also seen pushing a message this week that Evergrande, despite its liabilities, still bore a lot of investment potential, positing that the company still had ways of "squeezing out some money" to deal with its crisis. Jing has 950,000 followers on the platform and brands himself as a finance news commentator.

Another top poster on positive Evergrande topic threads is Hu Jiangbo, a Beijing-based financial stock market influencer with over 500,000 followers on the platform. From September 15, Hu made five different blog posts about Evergrande, including one about Evergrande investors potentially getting returns on their investments, and another about Evergrande working hard to settle its debts with Chinese banks.

Hu, Chu, and Jing did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Giles Coghlan, chief currency analyst at trading firm Henyep Capital Markets, told Insider that social media influencers are capable of swaying public opinion, but only to some extent.
"Social media influencers can sway public opinion on Evergrande at the margins, but the main drive will come from the Chinese government. The government's pivot to pushing for 'common prosperity' is very real and extends far beyond Evergrande," Coghlan said.

Common prosperity refers to Chinese leader Xi Jinping's push for wealth distribution and criticism of "excessive incomes."

Coghlan added that influencer accounts posting reassuring messages would undoubtedly help to quell discontent and pacify smaller investors who might be less in the know about the state of the market.

The currency analyst said he wasn't sure whether the Chinese government was directly involved in promoting these finance influencers or massaging their messages, but noted that "ultimately, the government will encourage this posting of positive messages."

Coghlan believes the government will do everything it can to prevent a total Evergrande implosion.

"It will divide, cut debts, and manage the situation as best as it can without allowing a full market collapse," he said, because ultimately, "the idea of 'common prosperity' does not sit well as a message if bringing it about results in a market collapse. Stability is in everyone's best interests."

SpaceX Inspiration4 magical images

FAMNIG HJARTA — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 14:23:43 +0800

[twt]https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1438716982564696065[/twt]

QUOTE

https://www.cnet.com/news/spacex-inspiration4-mission-delivers-first-magical-images-from-orbit

The crew of the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission, which departed Earth on Wednesday, has spent a full day in space, sleeping, eating and, strangely, even betting on sports matches. But besides a teaser video of the transparent cupola outfitted on the Crew Dragon's nose, we haven't seen too much from inside the cramped confines their temporary orbital home.

Thankfully, images from the crew's first day in orbit have arrived to give us a glimpse of life in the Dragon.

The images, posted to the Inspiration4 twitter account on Thursday evening, show the crew members making full use of the cupola, with mission specialist Chris Sembroski keenly focusing his camera from within the cupola and medical officer Hayley Arceneaux seemingly floating upward toward the Earth.

Not sure how these photos are free of happy tears, to be honest. I feel like I would be bawling my eyes out floating around in the cupola.

The mission, the first to feature a crew composed entirely of private citizens, was bankrolled by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, also features Sian Proctor, geology professor and the fourth African American woman in space, who serves as the mission pilot.

The Crew Dragon orbits the Earth at an altitude of around 364 miles (585 kilometers), which is the furthest humans have traveled since the STS-103 flight of the Space Shuttle in 1999. The team will be exposed to higher levels of radiation than the astronauts stationed in the International Space Station or China's Tiangong space station and their health is being constantly monitored so scientists and researchers can learn more about the effects of spaceflight on "ordinary" humans (rather than those superhuman astronauts).

You can expect to see plenty more from "ordinary citizens" in the future, too. In January 2022, SpaceX plans to send four people to the International Space Station in collaboration with Axiom Space, and Tom Cruise is scheduled to fly to the station for a movie project some time next year.

Google + Microsoft = Most Vulnerabilities H1/2021

FAMNIG HJARTA — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 09:39:41 +0800

QUOTE

https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/16/google-and-microsoft-had-the-most-vulnerabilities-in-the-first-half-of-2021/

Google and Microsoft had the most vulnerabilities in the first half of 2021

Google and Microsoft accumulated the most vulnerabilities in the first half of 2021, according to findings from Atlas VPN. Although not all exposures can cause critical damage, hackers could exploit some of them for severe attacks.

Google had 547 accumulated vulnerabilities throughout the first half of 2021. Exploiting Google products like Chrome is popular among cybercriminals. More than 3 billion people use the browser, meaning that more internet users can become victims of the exploits.

Next up, the second most exposures were found in Microsoft products — 432. State-sponsored threat actors from China abused Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities to carry out ransomware attacks. Other attackers would drop cryptocurrency miners from the post-exploit web shells.

Oracle registered 316 total vulnerabilities in the first six months of 2021. Usually, the exploits are found in Oracle WebLogic Server, which functions as a platform for developing, deploying, and running enterprise Java-based applications. The exploited flaws could give access to the affected system for remote attackers.

Some vulnerabilities stand out due to their particular relevance or danger. For example, in the first half of 2021, there were 1,023 vulnerabilities found with a risk level of 10. One of the exploits that applied to such a level is CVE-2021-22986, with a score of 9.8. The vulnerability was found in the security company’s F5, BIG-IP, and BIG-IQ services. Successful exploitation of the flaw allowed to take complete control of the system.

Vulnerabilities with lower scores are either not dangerous or hardly exploitable. However, abusing flaws in Google or Microsoft products allow cybercriminals to probe millions of systems.

The data is based on Telefonica Tech Cybersecurity Report 2021 H1. The report analyzes mobile security and the most common vulnerabilities in today’s cybersecurity landscape.

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 no support Apple M1

FAMNIG HJARTA — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 08:08:48 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/10/windows_11_m1/

Microsoft releases new Windows 11 builds, confirms running on an Apple M1 'is not a supported scenario'

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 11 on Apple's M1 is not "a supported scenario" for the OS that stands to bring so much joy to OEMs.

The confirmation was given to The Register by a Microsoft spokesperson as the super-corp unleashed an ad campaign for the Windows 11 operating system, due in less than a month, and continued tweaking the preview code for Windows Insiders via the Dev and Beta Channels.

We noted last week that a Windows 11 Virtual Machine running on an M1 Mac with Parallels Desktop 17 had begun throwing a hardware compatibility error on a Dev Channel Windows Insider build. It is a shame, since we found the performance more than acceptable.

However, in what a punster might call an Arms race [groan – ed.], Parallels has since emitted version 17.0.1 of its software, which seems to resolve the issue (for now, at least), allowing Windows 11 to run on M1 silicon.

The Reg asked Parallels what it had done to persuade the Windows 11 preview that all was well. It has yet to explain the trick. We asked Microsoft whether running Windows 11 on an M1 Mac in Parallels is supported, and were told it's an unsupported scenario. Running the OS directly on the hardware isn't supported, either.

(Instructions on how to run Windows 11 for Arm on Apple M1 Macs with Parallels can be found here.)

Away from the world of unsupported scenarios, Microsoft has churned out a new 60-second spot featuring the wonders of Windows 11, although strangely this does not include a shot of a customer having to drop a substantial amount of cash on new hardware having found Windows turning its nose up at their existing kit.

The company has also sought to make amends for last week's Insider release, which left some users with severely borked taskbars and Start Menus (stemming from what Microsoft delicately termed a "server-side deployment") with new builds.

Build 22000.184, aimed at Beta Channel and commercial PCs in the Release Preview Channel, was relatively light on changes, as one would hope with the release date for Windows 11 now less than a month away (although we still hold out hope that some of the more egregious user interface changes might yet be softened.)

However, a number of worrying known issues still remain, including bugchecks for some Surface Pro X (Microsoft's own Arm-based flagship) users and ongoing problems with disappearing taskbars and non-functional Start Menus.

Dev Channel users, with build 22454 available, also shared in the Pro X woes, but got many more changes, including the arrival of a modern context menu on the recycle bin and a variety of taskbar and settings fixes.

With general availability imminent, it is a bit of a worry to see bugchecks still cropping up as known issues. Then again, with Microsoft not supporting the scenario of Windows on Arm in a VM atop the Apple M1, if only Pro X users are impacted, will anyone really notice? ®

Stadia’s director of games has left for Google Clo

FAMNIG HJARTA — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 09:48:53 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/9/22665805/google-stadia-jack-buser-games-cloud

Google Stadia’s director of games has left for Google Cloud

Before he helped build Stadia, he oversaw PlayStation Now and PlayStation Home

Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service appears to have lost another top video game industry veteran — kind of. Jack Buser, Stadia’s Director for Games and a former PlayStation exec, is moving to the company’s Google Cloud division to head up “Gaming Solutions,” according to a ZDNet report.

Google confirms Buser is leaving the Stadia group for Google Cloud, providing this statement to The Verge:

Gaming is an incredibly important vertical at Google and we’re seeing huge momentum across all products and services. Jack’s new role will allow us to better bring customers the best of Google across our Cloud services, Stadia, YouTube, and more. Stadia continues to be led by its GM Phil Harrison, and Stadia’s business development and partner management teams will continue to be led by Michael Abbattista, who took over the role in 2020.

While it’s easy to think Google’s just trying to spin a loss for Stadia as synergy for Google’s bigger gaming goals, it might make a lot of sense for Stadia’s future. As I wrote in February when the company axed its own game studios, the writing’s on the wall — Stadia boss Phil Harrison sent a clear message that the future of Stadia is to run it as “a technology platform for industry partners,” not a Netflix-of-games or a place to build groundbreaking games of its own.

And now, it sure sounds like Buser’s going to work on that overall technology platform for Google’s partners, which it already sells as Google Cloud.

If Google does eventually decide to add Stadia to its Google graveyard, it might be easier to swallow if the company manages to turn it into a different kind of business first. But it could also be that Google has decided to invest more, not less in gaming, by taking it a different route. ZDNet quotes a Google Cloud spokesperson that gaming “is one of the key verticals we are investing in,” and writes that the idea behind Buser’s move “is to connect with players through a holistic suite of products and services.”

“The tech giant could offer, for instance, end-to-end collaboration solutions that include YouTube as a streaming partner for live broadcasts or e-sporting events,” ZDNet adds.

Some of that brings to mind the 70-page confidential Google document we unearthed from the Epic v. Apple trial last month, which describes a plan to make Google “the world’s largest game platform” by 2025, starting by bringing roughly 100 Android games to Windows PC, and later expanding to Mac, smart displays, and TVs, all bolstered by Google’s cloud services. The document suggested cloud gaming might be part of that vision too, and that the platform would “super-premium” games as well, with Shadow of the Tomb Raider as a representative example.

Buser has plenty of experience trying to attract premium games at both Google and at Sony, where he headed up Sony’s own cloud gaming service PlayStation Now, and soon he might have a more attractive pitch to bring those games in.

While Stadia has had some serious struggles, it’s also been steadily trying to make the service more attractive, recently slashing its revenue share to hook more developers, adding a direct touchscreen control option, and finally bringing Stadia to the Chromecast with Google TV.

Tech Firms Wade Into Abortion Politics in Texas

FAMNIG HJARTA — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 09:39:09 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.wired.com/story/tech-companies-wade-into-abortion-politics-in-texas/

FIRST CAME THE statements from reproductive organizations. Then came the tech companies.

The day after the US Supreme Court decided not to block a law in Texas banning most abortions after six weeks, Dallas-based Match Group, which owns Tinder, OkCupid, and Hinge, sent a memo to its employees. “The company generally does not take political stands unless it is relevant to our business,” CEO Shar Dubey wrote. “But in this instance, I personally, as a woman in Texas, could not keep silent.” The company set up a fund to cover travel expenses for employees seeking care outside of Texas. Bumble, headquartered in Austin, set up a similar fund.

Senate Bill 8, which took effect last week, enables private citizens to sue anyone “aiding and abetting” an abortion, including providers, counselors, or even rideshare drivers providing transportation to a clinic. Uber and Lyft, which are based in California, said they would cover legal costs for drivers implicated by the law. “This law is incompatible with people's basic rights to privacy, our community guidelines, the spirit of rideshare, and our values as a company,” Lyft wrote in a statement to drivers. The company also said it would donate $1 million to Planned Parenthood.

“We are deeply concerned about how this law will impact our employees in the state,” wrote Jeremy Stoppelman, the CEO of Yelp, which has some employees in Texas. Stoppelman had previously signed a 2019 open letter calling abortion bans “bad for business,” along with the CEOs of Twitter, Slack, Postmates, and Zoom.

Such overtures have become more common in recent years, particularly among prominent technology companies. Businesses in 2021 are required to have a point of view, it seems, and have used their platforms to advocate for policies on immigration, gay rights, and climate change. Last summer, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, nearly every major tech company put out a statement denouncing racism and vowing to support anti-racist work. “To be silent is to be complicit,” the official Netflix account tweeted. (Speaking out has not shielded companies from criticism of their own records, particularly on diversity and inclusion.)

One could say that corporate opinions have become the norm, at least among a certain kind of company. Companies that have remained silent on SB 8—including a number of major Texas-based employers—have been criticized for not taking a stand. Hewlett-Packard, which moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Houston last year, encouraged employees “to engage in the political process where they live and work and make their voices heard through advocacy and at the voting booth.” Abortion rights have become one of the most divisive issues in the United States: Six in 10 Americans say it should be legal in all or most cases, according to a recent Pew survey; nearly 4 in 10 believe the opposite.

Few major companies have come out with full-throated praise of the Texas law, which is among the most restrictive in the country. (On Thursday, the Justice Department sued Texas to stop it.) When the head of Georgia-based video game company Tripwire Interactive tweeted in support of the Supreme Court’s decision, he was criticized by thousands online, including some of his own employees. He soon stepped down from his role; the company issued a statement apologizing and committing to fostering “a more positive environment.”

For a tech company, a strong stance on social issues can be an extension of its brand, and even a recruiting tool. One LinkedIn survey, from 2018, found that the majority of people would take a pay cut to work somewhere that aligned with their values.

Pushing certain values as a priori can backfire. Conservative employees at Google have complained that the company is an “ideological echo chamber.” Some companies have tried to ban political conversations altogether, to avoid internal division on polarizing issues. In October, the CEO of Coinbase instituted a policy of “political neutrality” at work. Basecamp, which makes project management software, created a similar policy this spring. “Today's social and political waters are especially choppy,” CEO Jason Fried wrote in a blog post. “These are difficult enough waters to navigate in life, but significantly more so at work. It's a major distraction.” About one-third of Basecamp’s employees left the company after its ban on political conversations.

Tech employees have taken a mixed view of such policies. This summer, the Information surveyed 1,500 technologists based in Silicon Valley and found that 54 percent wouldn’t work at a company that banned political speech at work—but the other 46 percent didn’t have a problem with it. “It used to be that tech in particular was pretty liberal, and so a ban on expressing liberal views would almost be like a curtailment of freedom of speech, and people would be outraged,” Martha Josephson, a recruiter, told the Information. “Today, people I talk to are sort of relieved to have politics be a no-no, and that’s because things have become so divisive."

This division is at least partly responsible for some technologists leaving Silicon Valley, which they see as too politically homogeneous for their liking. Elon Musk, who moved to Texas last year for its laxer regulations, has become a poster boy of this movement. Texas governor Greg Abbott has even held Musk up as an example of why Texas is poised to gain more tech talent. “They are leaving the very liberal state of California,” he said on CNBC. “Elon had to get out of California because of the social policies in California. Elon consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas.” Musk responded on Twitter: “In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness,” he wrote. “That said, I would prefer to stay out of politics.”

'Learn to Code' Was Default Career Advice

FAMNIG HJARTA — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 08:34:32 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/382953

A Couple of Years Ago, 'Learn to Code' Was Default Career Advice. Here's Why You Don't Need to Bother.

A couple of years ago, I came across the echoes of a curious internet drama.

“Learn to code” was the war cry of trolls attacking laid-off journalists from BuzzFeed and Huffington Post. The saga goes back to countless earlier articles about coding as a solution for other people who lost their jobs, and it hasn’t quite ended. But now there’s a plot twist. As one developer disappointed by the rise of codeless software services told me, “Learn to code, they said. It will pay off, they said.” His sentiment raises the question: In our digitized era, should everyone learn to code?

Covid-19 left all of us stranded at home, often with more free time than usual. Understandably, many used this time to learn something new, with the popularity of massive online courses skyrocketing. Whether through platforms like Coursera or bootcamps and other learning programs, coding turned out to be one of the key skills of choice that learners pursued.

It goes without saying that coding is a very useful skill to have, not just for the job market, but sometimes to just be able to make your life a bit easier. With even basic Python, you can write scripts that will save you time on tedious and repetitive tasks, be it generating reports or sorting through your downloads. But even though we often hear how everyone will have to learn to code in the future, the reality may in fact be a little different.

Building blocks for adults
As software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms place their bets on being “coding-free” as a major selling point, a clear trend shapes up in the high-tech sphere these days. What this often means is that you will not be required to write much code when integrating these solutions with your existing processes and workflows, or even when using them. While coding is usually still an option for more advanced users, such platforms most often grant the user various graphical interfaces and automated tools to work with.

Such solutions are often aimed at fields that traditionally require at least a certain amount of coding skills, even if coding is not necessarily at the core of the job. Solutions like CRFT, for example, allow companies to automate a major share of cybersecurity operations, such as deploying new apps and monitoring their cyber defenses. For cybersecurity people, coding is not always necessary unless they are specifically hunting for zero-day vulnerabilities in the code. Languages like Python, though, are popular in the field precisely for automating routine operations.

In data, too, coding-free is rapidly becoming a prominent selling point. Some companies grant businesses a chance to build up their data flows without having to write custom scripts to collect and process data. The idea is to make tidy data immediately accessible without having to burn through massive amounts of time and money on a data-engineering operation. Data scientists have to spend a lot of time pulling and cleaning the data, which usually involves having to send out several SQL queries before wrangling through the results until you can properly read them into the tool you are using for the analysis.

This does not have to stop with simply pulling the data in, as the most common next step for enterprises — using the data to train AI models — can also be performed without coding these days. Traditionally, this process takes some time and involves modifying the dataset to engineer new features as well as training different models, but no-coding solutions simplify it in many ways. While some companies specialize in niche machine-learning fields such as natural language processing, others offer broader solutions.

Are the tides changing on the job market?
The above list only scratches the surface. Companies can do many more things without coding these days, from building websites and web applications to developing chatbots. As the no-code trend picks up the pace, it makes sense to expect some changes in how businesses are hiring and what skills they value.

Both businesses and job seekers must recognize a key takeaway here: Such platforms allow companies to put more value into deep expert knowledge. Companies can focus on retaining people with the strongest skills in statistics, design, marketing or other highly-sought fields without having to worry too much about whether the applicant has the coding skills to back those up. This in itself dents the learn-to-code argument, as failure to do so will remove obstacles for someone with strong expertise in an in-demand field.

At the same time, the value of specialists with an in-depth IT skillset is unlikely to take a significant hit. A custom-built website does not need to limit its design to the list of features determined by vendors. A tailored AI solution, and one built with an in-depth understanding of why this specific machine-learning method is ideal for this specific dataset, will get you further than an off-the-shelf solution.

The key audience for the coding-free solutions are thus not necessarily the tech giants like Google, which are more than capable of handling their own innovation, but smaller businesses and legacy enterprises looking to short-cut their way into the digital era while keeping their business focus in place. And as they do, the rise of the coding-free platforms seems to make things a bit more egalitarian for the workforce: Not everyone will have to learn to code, after all.

MILLENNIALS are giving up on the stock market

FAMNIG HJARTA — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 09:38:44 +0800

QUOTE

[youtube]UW_ZhIOhavQ[/youtube]

After the GameStop saga, 39% believe the Stock Market is a GREAT WAY to make money quickly, while 20% believe the stock market is TOO RISKY. Additionally, only HALF of young adults felt like the stock market “is a good thing” for ordinary people, and even more surprising….37% said they would NOT INVEST, AT ALL…even if they were given money specifically FOR that purpose.

BankRate conducted a SEPARATE study across ADULTS throughout the United States…and THEIR findings suggest that nearly 50% of Americans feel like the STOCK MARKET IS RIGGED AGAINST THEM.

They also found that more than 39% of American adults had NO MONEY invested in the stock market either before the pandemic, or currently…and, even YAHOO FINANCE found that 43% of millennials aren’t investing, either, for these 5 reasons:

1. 56% said they simply didn’t have the money to invest.
Money isn’t necessarily the most important component of investing…instead, it’s time. The longer you keep your money invested, the more time it has to grow…so, by that logic…it’s much better to invest a little bit now, than wait until you have more money, later.

2. 32% say they don’t understand stocks.
For the VAST MAJORITY of investors out there, it could really be as simple as signing up for a free stock trading brokerage in less than 5 minutes, and then - consider throwing all of your money into a total stock market index that tracks a little bit of everything…like, VTSAX, SWTSX, or FZROX…and that’s it.

3. 13% say they’re more comfortable with SAFER investments…like savings.
Now, this is probably one of THE most DANGEROUS assumptions, because it plays into the mindset that - IF you invest - you could LOSE MONEY….where, in reality - this couldn’t be further from the truth, if you stick with a few basic rules:
-Invest Long Term
-Diversify
-Protect Against Inflation

4. 13% of Americans say they won’t invest in the stock market because it’s “rigged against them.”
Usually…those factors tend to be short lived, and across a wide spectrum of the market - those factors can only influence a stock for so long before, eventually, things return to normal and stabilize.

5. 11% of Americans are not investing because of volatility.
Even though the day-to-day could appear to be a wild ride of ups and downs…when you zoom out to a larger picture, year by year - you’ll see that those graphs quickly level out, and overall - the trend continues higher, even if the market is volatile on a daily basis.

So, overall…even though most Americans believe the market is Rigged against them…the BEST way to rig the markets in your favor…is to simply KEEP INVESTING, LONG TERM…and that’s it. No, it’s not a “quick way to make money,” like 39% of young adults believe….but, it can be a solid way to preserve your wealth, and grow it SAFELY, long term.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption shit show

FAMNIG HJARTA — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 19:12:27 +0800

QUOTE

https://thenextweb.com/news/el-salvador-bitcoin-adoption-timeline-analysis

A short timeline of El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption shit show

On Tuesday, El Salvador became the first country in the world to officially adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender. But the much-touted rollout didn’t go as expected, and faced plenty of obstacles and snags.

Here’s a quick recap of what happened:

1. President Nayib Bukele started building up the hype on Twitter, as the country announced Bitcoin as a legal tender on September 7.

2. The country bought 200 Bitcoin, making it’s holding a total of 400 Bitcoin.

3. To promote the app, and adoption of the cryptocurrency, Bukele promised each user $30 worth of Bitcoin.

4. While the hype was building up, the country’s official Bitcoin wallet app, Chivo Wallet, wasn’t available on Apple, Google, and Huawei’s app stores.

5. When the app became available on the Huawei store, it couldn’t handle the number of users registering simultaneously. So the government had to unplug its servers for a while to increase handling capacity.

6. A bunch of users later tweeted about being able to pay with the cryptocurrency at outlets such as McDonald’s and Starbucks.

7. While the celebratory chest-thumping was going on, people were protesting in the Supreme Court premises. Their point was that the cryptocurrency might not be useful for folks like bus drivers and shopkeepers.

8. By the end of the day, Bitcoin‘s value had tumbled by more than 10%.

El Salvador‘s Bitcoin adoption program didn’t start the way the country intended it to. However, Bukele noted that “Like all innovations, El Salvador‘s bitcoin process has a learning curve. Not everything will be achieved in a day, or in a month.”

Is Nissan Back?

FAMNIG HJARTA — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 09:06:19 +0800

[youtube]sqwWLDwNesg[/youtube]

Why Hamilton Lies About His Tyres

FAMNIG HJARTA — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 08:50:42 +0800

[youtube]3GMvfGhB9yY[/youtube]

Billionaire Investor: Crypto Is a 'Worthless' Bubb

FAMNIG HJARTA — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:11:10 +0800

QUOTE

https://gizmodo.com/billionaire-investor-who-predicted-the-2008-housing-cra-1847583462

Billionaire Investor Who Predicted the 2008 Housing Crash Says Crypto Is a 'Worthless' Bubble

John Paulson, the billionaire investor who accurately predicted (and bet against) the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007, has some kind words for cryptocurrency: mainly, that it is a vacuous financial bubble bound to eventually collapse.

“I wouldn’t recommend anyone invest in cryptocurrencies,” Paulson told Bloomberg during a recent interview.

The financier, who is retired from the hedge fund business, made close to $4 billion in 2007 when he bet against the subprime mortgage lending market—a decision that reportedly made him “one of the biggest fortunes in Wall Street history.”

During his recent talk with Bloomberg, Paulson described the crypto industry’s tokens as devoid of any actual value except that they exist in limited supply. The industry will ultimately prove “worthless” in the long run, he said. When asked whether he was a fan of crypto, he put it this way:

No, I’m not. And I would say that cryptocurrencies are a bubble. I would describe them as a limited supply of nothing. So to the extent there’s more demand than the limited supply, the price would go up. But to the extent the demand falls, then the price would go down. There’s no intrinsic value to any of the cryptocurrencies except that there’s a limited amount.

Cryptocurrencies, regardless of where they’re trading today, will eventually prove to be worthless. Once the exuberance wears off, or liquidity dries up, they will go to zero. I wouldn’t recommend anyone invest in cryptocurrencies.

Paulson further added that the crypto market was too volatile to effectively bet against as he did with the housing market in 2007.

The reason we shorted subprime in size was because it was asymmetrical — shorting a bond at par that has a limited duration that trades at a 1% spread of Treasuries. So you can’t lose more than the spread in the duration. In crypto, there’s unlimited downside. So even though I could be right over the long term, in the short term, I’d be wiped out. In the case of Bitcoin, it went from $5,000 to $45,000. It’s just too volatile to short.

So there you have it. Some high praise.

To be fair, Paulson is not the only one to have made this prediction. Lots of other big important business people (see: Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett, for instance) share the “supply of nothing” view of crypto—with similar theories about a coming token-fueled financial meltdown. Such professionals opinions have not stopped a recent surge in interest in the coins.

China slashes kids’ gaming time to three hours

FAMNIG HJARTA — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:09:36 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.engadget.com/china-cuts-kids-gaming-time-132539606.html

China further slashes kids’ gaming time to just three hours a week

China has announced a further crackdown on the amount of time children can play online video games, with the new limit set to just three hours per week. Bloomberg, reporting from local news sources, says that platforms like Tencent can now offer gaming to kids between the hours of 8-9pm on Friday, weekends and public holidays.

It’s a significant and notable reduction from the previous rule, which had been generally capped at 1.5 hours per day in 2019. Earlier this month, Tencent was forced to cut the amount of time minors could play the smash hit mobile title Honor of Kings to just an hour on weeknights and two hours on the weekend. The added restriction is likely to impact the share price of companies in this space, which has seen recent instability.

Historically, China has always had an aversion to video games, albeit with more nuance than most people believe. The country has, however, amplified anti-game rhetoric in recent years, and on August 3rd, a key state-owned news outlet described video games as “spiritual opium.” The piece, as reported by The New York Times, went on to outline all of the ways in which gaming could harm Chinese kids.

As well as the time limit for online gaming (and we’ve asked our colleagues to clarify if any of this can also apply to offline and console gaming), authorities want all titles hooked up to some form of anti-addiction system. Other new rules include companies keeping (real) name data for all users, more reporting on the use of in-game transactions, and more regulatory scrutiny more generally.

It’s not clear how much of an impact this will have in the real-world since Tencent says minors make up a very small part of its overall business. But given the country’s continued assault on various parts of the tech industry, it’s likely that there will be more hoops for businesses to jump through in future. A week ago, meanwhile, South Korea declared that it would ditch its infamous "Cinderella Law," banning video gamers from playing between midnight and 6am, saying that it is respecting children's rights.

PayPal + Stock Trading = ?

FAMNIG HJARTA — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:08:23 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.engadget.com/paypal-stock-trading-platform-report-182141165.html

PayPal may offer a stock-trading platform in the US

PayPal is “exploring” the idea of allowing its users to trade individual stocks. Per CNBC, the company recently hired TradeKing co-founder Richard Hagen to head up a new unit at the company called Invest at PayPal. “Leading PayPal’s efforts to explore opportunities in the consumer investment business,” Hagan says of his new job on his LinkedIn profile. The outlet reports PayPal has also had discussions with potential brokerage partners.

Moving into retail trading wouldn’t be out of character for PayPal. The company has spent much of the last year expanding into the cryptocurrency market. It all started last October when PayPal announced it would let US users buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman also recently told investors the company could partner with different financial institutions to expand the number of services it offers. He even mentioned “investment capabilities” as one possibility. Either way, it’s a move that would make sense in the context of all the recent interest in retail trading that came out of the GameStop saga.

A PayPal spokesperson declined to comment on the report.

Should PayPal decide to offer stock trading, it may take some time before it’s available to US users. CNBC reports PayPal is unlikely to roll out the service this year. And if the company decides it wants to operate as its own brokerage firm, it would need approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). That’s a process that can take more than eight months.