Asian Tech Roundup: Uber for Teens arrives in India
Plus: Mexico’s Shein tariff
Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look Uber’s extension of its Teens service to India, plus Mexico’s crackdown on Chinese ecommerce platforms.
Ride sharing app Uber has rolled out its Uber for Teens service in several Indian cities prior to expanding to 35 in total. The service, which launched in the US last year, allows teenagers to hail rides, with their parents’ or guardians’ consent, via a special version of the app. Parents can track their teenager's location in real time and have access to live audio. When the service arrived in the UK it generated a flurry of furious headlines in the tabloids, which worried about 13-year-olds riding on their own. Some drivers were concerned about the prospect of ferrying their young charges too, although comments on subreddit /r/uberdrivers forum suggest these fears were unfounded. “They just play on their phones and behave. No drunks or high drug dealers or hookers or old people who just had medical procedures who are still sedated and could crap all over your car from the colonoscopy they just had,” noted one driver. Kids of today, eh?
Elsewhere, Mexico has joined the tariff craze, imposing a 19% import charge on Chinese online purveyors of fast fashion like Shein, in a move that it hopes will persuade them to expand operations in the country to make up for lost textile jobs.
Australia
- Tesla sales plummeted by more than 70% in Australia in February. Source
- Australia is looking at email-based age verification as it seeks to limit social media access to over-16s. Source
China
- China has warned senior technology executives not to travel to the US over fear of possible arrest and having them leak AI secrets. Source
- China stands to gain if Trump succeeds in killing Biden’s US CHIPS act. Source
- Buyers in Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam are obtaining Nvidia Blackwell chips for their own use and reselling some to companies in China, according to the WSJ. Source
- Reuters reports that China is to encourage manufacturers to use of RISC-V open source chips, which cost less than proprietary silicon and are not tied up with US IP. Source
- Chinese Silk Typhoon hackers are targeting the IT supply chain to obtain initial access to corporate networks says Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence team. Source
- Mexico has imposed a 19% tax on some imports, hitting Chinese ecommerce platforms like Shein, Temu and Alibaba. Source
- China is poised to add more than 200 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity in 2025. Source
- The US has charged 12 Chinese nationals with hacking, data theft and intimidation of dissidents. Source
India
- Uber has begun testing Uber for Teens in several Indian cities, allowing parents and guardians to permit teenagers to request rides using their own devices. Source
- Ransomware gang Hunters International said it stole 1.4TB of data from Tata Technologies in January. It threatened to publish the data in the coming days unless ransom is paid. Source
- The EU has signed a cooperation arrangement with India on 6G technologies plus a deal on skills exchange related to semiconductors. Source
- Video streamer JioStar is to cut more than 1,100 jobs following the merger between owner Reliance Industries Viacom18 and Disney’s India division. Source
- CDIL Semiconductors and Germany’s Infineon are to partner in the creation of chips for EVs and renewable energy systems. Source
- The Madras High Court has said public access to the Tamil news site Vikatan should be restored, except for a cartoon depicting prime minister Modi bound in chains to the USA which led to the site being taken down by the authorities two weeks ago. Source
Japan
- Russia-based Qilin ransomware gang responsible for taking down healthcare facilities in London last year, has claimed responsibility for attacks on a cancer treatment clinic in Japan and a women's healthcare facility in the US. Source
- Japan is to boost its domestic cybersecurity software industry, to avoid being so reliant on foreign suppliers. Source
South Korea
- South Korea is to introduce a new top-tier visa in an attempt to attract skilled techies to the country in areas such as semiconductors and EV batteries. Source
- South Korea and Vietnam are to expand cooperation in areas including ICT, semiconductors, AI and datacentres. Source
Taiwan
- TSMC has announced a $100 billion investment in the US, including plans for five new factories, in an effort to fend off possible tariffs. Source
- But Taiwan has said its most advanced chipmaking tech will remain in country. Source
Vietnam
- Vietnam has allocated 12.8 trillion Dong (US$500 million) to build the country’s first wafer fab, according to reports. Source
- Keen to avoid tariffs on its exports, Vietnam is ready to licence Elon Musk's Starlink to provide satellite internet. Source