After the semi-annual report was released, Tencent made a major official announcement late at night: Tencent announced that it would invest 50 billion to promote common prosperity

On August 18, Tencent disclosed its first-half financial report. The overall operating income in the first half of the year was 273.562 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23%. The net profit in the first half of the year was 90.354 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46%. Although Tencent's performance growth rate has slowed down overall, its revenue and net profit data have exceeded market expectations. In the second quarter, Tencent's net profit was 42.6 billion yuan, and its net profit attributable to the parent company far exceeded the market expectation of 30.769 billion yuan. In the same period last year, it was 33.107 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29%. Since the beginning of this year, under the national anti-monopoly and stricter supervision, Hong Kong stocks including Tencent and other Internet giants have been under pressure to fall in stock prices. Tencent has fallen 22.45% this year, and its overall market value has shrunk by 1.15 trillion Hong Kong dollars.

Tencent's official WeChat account showed on the evening of August 18 that after investing 50 billion yuan to launch the "Sustainable Social Value Innovation" strategy, Tencent announced today that it will increase funds by another 50 billion yuan to launch the "Common Prosperity Special Plan" and deeply combine its own digital and technological capabilities to provide continuous support in people's livelihood areas such as rural revitalization, increasing income for low-income people, improving the primary medical system, and balanced development of education.

In four months, Tencent has continuously planned to invest 100 billion yuan. The first phase of 50 billion yuan invested in April is the "Sustainable Social Value Innovation" project, which focuses more on forward-looking exploration in the fields of basic science, educational innovation, carbon neutrality, FEW (food, energy and water), elderly care technology and public welfare digitalization. (Daily Economic News)

The joint statement of NIO owners was ridiculed as "Wei Lai Army", and the joint statement was opposed by nearly a thousand people. The fan circle user operation caused heated discussion

On August 18, five days after the public opinion broke out, more than 500 NIO owners issued a joint statement saying that NIO owners are clearly aware that NIO’s current NOP/NP is an assisted driving system, not an autonomous driving system or an unmanned driving system; NIO’s introduction and promotion of NOP/NP did not cause confusion or misleading to car owners.

According to reports, the initiator of this statement is the car owner Lin Wei, who said that the statement has not been communicated with the official NIO. Due to platform restrictions, only 500 car owners signed it, and the purpose of initiating it was to show the rational image of NIO owners to the outside world. It is reported that this lawyer Lin Wei has been elected as a director of the NIO User Trust for two terms. His personal homepage certification shows that he is an intellectual property and Internet lawyer, and is also a NIO 2020 car owner volunteer. It is rumored that Lawyer Lin is the second person in the NIO User Trust Fund (the number one person is NIO founder Li Bin).

After the joint statement was released, it quickly went viral. Many netizens ridiculed "a big laugh", "why not promote autonomous driving at this time?" "These car owners are like joining a cult", and some netizens commented on the "fan club type car company". In the relevant Weibo comment area, some netizens even made up the hot words "Wei Zhongxian" and "Zi Wei Army". In addition, more car owners posted the topic of "opposing the joint statement of car owners" in the Weilai APP, and quickly gained the secondment of a large number of car owners in a short period of time. At present, the topic of "opposing the joint statement of car owners" has been participated by nearly a thousand car owners. Most of the car owners said that they were not clear about the specific situation of the above "statement", did not participate, and did not want to be represented.

A company boss banned employees from having hot meals online: Either eat cold or have someone deliver it

According to Weibo users, 22 Network's boss Xu Yuandong suddenly began to crack down on the issue of employees bringing their own meals to heat up. He seemed very dissatisfied with the time employees spent on cooking and heating up meals, and asked the administrative department to throw away the company's microwave oven and no longer allow employees to heat up meals in the company. Xu Yuandong said that those who want to continue to bring their own meals should either eat cold ones themselves or ask someone to deliver them. He also said that having someone deliver hot meals is also a symbol of strength.

Regarding his opposition to employees bringing or heating up their own meals, Xu Yuandong believes that modern society emphasizes specialized division of labor, and if the time spent on cooking and heating meals was used for work, it would probably not have been necessary a few years ago to save a few dollars. Regarding employees' possible rebuttals, such as cooking for oneself is healthier, Xu Yuandong even prepared a rebuttal, saying why not work hard to make sure they can afford a healthy meal every time.

According to Qichacha, Erer Network is an Internet service company in Zhejiang, with 75 subsidiaries and a registered capital of 22 million yuan. Xu Yuandong is the ultimate beneficiary, holding 49% of the shares. He serves as the legal representative of more than a dozen companies and controls 82 companies. (Fast Technology)

Bruce Lee shares exclusive feature of Huawei phones: Press the screen with two fingers to hide WeChat chat history avatar and nickname

On August 18, Huawei's vice president of mobile phone product line, Li Xiaolong, shared a unique feature of Huawei phones on Weibo that helps protect the privacy of WeChat chat records. Specifically, in WeChat chat records, press the screen with two fingers and select chat privacy protection to automatically hide the chat record avatar and nickname screenshots. Li Xiaolong also emphasized that only Huawei phones have this feature at present.

It is understood that in addition to this function, Huawei mobile phones also have very useful privacy protection functions such as mobile file safe, privacy space, and limiting advertising tracking.

Tencent Video sued Douyin for infringement and claimed 100 million yuan. The Beijing Intellectual Property Court has filed the case. Douyin responded

On August 18, Tencent Video sued Douyin for copyright infringement and unfair competition because Douyin copied and edited the popular TV series "Sweeping Dark Storm" without authorization. Tencent Video requested that Douyin be ordered to delete, filter, and block the infringing videos of "Sweeping Dark Storm" on the platform, and stop the behavior of seeking improper benefits by spreading the infringing videos involved in the case through Douyin. At the same time, it required Douyin to compensate for economic losses and rights protection expenses totaling 100 million yuan. Tencent learned that the Beijing Intellectual Property Court had accepted the case on August 17.

Regarding Tencent Video's lawsuit against Douyin for infringing the copyright of "Sweeping Dark Storm" and demanding compensation of 100 million yuan, the relevant legal affairs director of Douyin responded: We have not received any notice from the court. "Sweeping Dark Storm" has previously established cooperation with Douyin. The third party that cooperated with Tencent to produce the drama opened an official account on Douyin for the work, published 80 works and received nearly 10 million likes, and is still updating. The cooperation requires Douyin to plan hot topics and other operational activities for the drama. Douyin has promptly handled Tencent's previous complaints about the drama and will actively respond according to the specific circumstances of Tencent's lawsuit. (21st Century Business Herald)

Tencent's Q2 financial report revealed for the first time that primary school students' game revenue accounted for only 0.3%

Tencent disclosed for the first time in its second-quarter financial report the share of game revenue from players under the age of 12. Tencent said that in the second quarter of 2021, minors under the age of 16 accounted for 2.6% of its online game revenue in China, of which minors under the age of 12 accounted for only 0.3%.

In this quarter's financial report, Tencent specifically mentioned measures to protect minors. These include reducing the gaming time for minors to one hour per day on non-legal holidays and two hours per day on legal holidays; prohibiting players under the age of 12 from spending in Tencent games; and cracking down on minors impersonating adult accounts and third-party platforms buying and selling adult accounts. (Source: Titanium Media)

Honor is building a new headquarters and a brand new production line in Shenzhen

Honor is building a new headquarters and a new production line in Shenzhen, and its production capacity will be further improved in the future. At present, Honor has signed supply agreements with suppliers such as AMD, Intel, Micron, Samsung, and Microsoft, and the supply chain has 100% resumed cooperation. Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd., said that in the near future, Honor itself will also differentiate into new sub-brands and assume the original role of "Internet mobile phone". (Source: Economic Information Daily)

Tencent's major shareholder triggered a huge amount of trading, and the South African Stock Exchange was forced to delay opening on Wednesday

According to the JSE, a record-breaking total of 145 billion South African rand (about 9.7 billion U.S. dollars) of trading volume was recorded on the exchange on Tuesday, causing "serious delays" in some of the exchange's systems, resulting in the inability to open normally in the early trading on Wednesday. The main reason for this phenomenon was the huge volume of transactions encountered by Naspers, a major shareholder of Tencent, on the previous trading day. The company closed down 8.1% on the day. In addition to the negative impact of Tencent's share price decline on Tuesday, Naspers' announcement on Monday that it had completed a cross-shareholding arrangement with its subsidiary Prosus also triggered a substantial adjustment of institutional investors' positions. Through this complex transaction, Prosus will increase its stake in Naspers to 49%, while Naspers owns a total of 57% of Prosus' shares, and the two companies share a board of directors. (Cailian Press)

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on 43 apps that did not make thorough rectifications: WeChat, Tencent Video, iQiyi, Ctrip, etc.

On August 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on "reviewing" issues such as apps illegally accessing contact lists, location information, and pop-up windows harassing users. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that in response to the three prominent issues that users have strongly reported, such as apps illegally accessing contact lists, location information, and pop-up windows harassing users, it has organized a "review" and found that 43 apps still have problems that are not completely rectified, technical means are used to resist, and the same problem is rectified inconsistently in different regions.

The above apps should complete rectification before August 25. If rectification is not completed or incomplete, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will deal with it in accordance with the law. The list of problematic apps announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology includes WeChat, Tencent Video, iQiyi, Ctrip Travel, Enterprise WeChat, Tencent Maps, Sohu Video and other apps. (IT Home)

Evergrande Vice Chairman Xia Haijun reduced his holdings in two subsidiaries and cashed out nearly 100 million yuan

Xia Haijun, vice chairman and president of China Evergrande, recently reduced his holdings of shares in Evergrande Property and Evergrande Auto, subsidiaries of the group, cashing in nearly 100 million yuan. According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's corporate director and chief executive equity declaration records, Xia Haijun sold the Hong Kong shares on the market on August 11 and declared them on August 16. The night before his transaction, China Evergrande, Evergrande Property and Evergrande Auto made a joint announcement, disclosing that the group was seeking to sell assets to the market, including but not limited to part of the equity of these two subsidiaries.

According to the declaration, Xia Haijun reduced his holdings of 10 million shares of Evergrande Property at an average price of HK$7.3026 per share, involving HK$73.026 million; and sold 3 million shares of Evergrande Auto at an average price of HK$14.1785 per share, involving HK$42.536 million. Xia Haijun cashed out a total of about HK$116 million, or about RMB 96.1727 million, through the two transactions. (Caixin.com)

Several domestic independent game manufacturers issued a joint statement against Taobao piracy: calling for support for genuine products

On August 18, several domestic independent game manufacturers issued a "Joint Statement of Domestic Independent Games Against Taobao Piracy". The statement said that Taobao platform allowed infringing merchants to sell unauthorized game products and even pirated game products without review, causing huge losses to game production teams and related practitioners. This is also a huge harm to the game industry, especially the domestic stand-alone game industry.

The statement pointed out: We call on relevant government departments to regulate similar behaviors on the platform and protect the legitimate rights and interests of game rights holders; we call on platforms to set thresholds for uploading game products and prevent products that are not officially authorized by game rights holders from being put on the shelves for sale; we call on players in the whole society to respect the legitimate rights and interests of developers. (IT Home)

Weibo's second quarter net profit of US$81 million, diluted earnings per share better than expected

Weibo Inc. (NASDAQ: WB) today released its unaudited financial report for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 ending June 30. The financial report shows that according to the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Weibo's total net revenue in the second quarter was US$574.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 48%, and a year-on-year increase of 34% at a constant exchange rate; the net profit attributable to Weibo was US$81 million, a decrease of 59% from US$198.4 million in the same period last year.

Data compiled by Yahoo Finance showed that Weibo's second-quarter revenue and adjusted diluted earnings per share were both better than analysts' consensus expectations, pushing its stock price up more than 5% in pre-market trading. (Source: Phoenix Technology)

CATL plans to build a new battery production base in Shanghai

CATL (300750.SZ) plans to build a new battery production base in Shanghai, and also plans to build an innovation center and international functional headquarters. On August 18, the official microblog of "Shanghai Release" announced that the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and CATL signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on the same day.

According to the agreement, the two parties will comprehensively deepen cooperation in the field of new energy and promote the implementation of related projects such as the CATL (Shanghai) Innovation Center and the international functional headquarters, high-end manufacturing base, and future energy research institute. On the same day, the Lingang New Area Management Committee and Lingang Group also signed a production base investment agreement with CATL, while the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, Minhang District Government, Shanghai Jiaotong University and CATL jointly signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement for the Future Energy Research Institute. (Source: Jiemian News)

Beijing once again made it clear that it will not develop shared electric motorcycles

According to the official website of Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission, Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission issued the "Notice on the Operation Supervision of the Internet Rental Bicycle Industry in the First Half of 2021", which once again made it clear that Beijing "will not develop electric bicycle rental". As of the end of June this year, the Municipal Transportation Commission has imposed administrative penalties on Internet rental electric bicycle operators that refused to rectify 9 times, involving 8 brands. The transportation department reminded citizens that traffic violations such as driving unregistered electric bicycles on the road will be investigated and punished.

It is understood that the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission, the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, the Municipal Cyberspace Administration, the Municipal Public Security Traffic Management Bureau and the local governments have repeatedly interviewed the operators of Internet rental electric bicycle brands in Beijing. As of June 30, 2021, the Municipal Transportation Commission has imposed administrative penalties on Internet rental electric bicycle operators that refused to rectify 9 times, involving 8 brands. At the same time, the governments of various districts organized a comprehensive cleanup of Internet rental electric bicycles on the road. (Source: CCTV News)

Ministry of Transport: Will set an upper limit on the commission rate of online car-hailing platforms

Li Huaqiang, head of the Ministry of Transport's Transportation Services Department, said that it is necessary to further regulate the operating behavior of platform companies, requiring online car-hailing platform companies to regulate their own pricing behavior, reduce excessive commission rates, strengthen communication and consultation with drivers, set an upper limit on the commission rate, and announce it to the public. (Source: Titanium Media)

Apple to produce AirPods 3 in China

According to MacRumors, Apple had previously planned to move part of the AirPods headset production line to Vietnam and planned to produce AirPods 3 locally. But according to a recent report, affected by the epidemic, Apple had to mass-produce the third-generation AirPods in China.

Apple will reportedly start mass production of its latest AirPods headphones in China, rather than in Vietnam as previously planned. However, Apple still hopes to transfer about 20% of AirPods production to Vietnam in the future. In addition, Apple's plan to produce some MacBooks and iPads in Vietnam has also been temporarily shelved. (Source: Pinwan)

Wafer foundry GlobalFoundries secretly files for U.S. IPO with valuation of $25 billion

Beijing time, August 19th, people familiar with the matter said that the US wafer foundry GlobalFoundries has secretly submitted an application to US regulators to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in New York, with a valuation of approximately US$25 billion.

According to people familiar with the matter, GlobalFoundries is working with Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Credit Suisse Group to prepare for the IPO. GlobalFoundries is expected to release its IPO prospectus in October and go public at the end of this year or early next year, depending on how quickly the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) processes its application. (Source: Phoenix Technology)

Nvidia releases second quarter earnings with revenue of $6.51 billion

Nvidia released its second-quarter financial report today. According to the report, Nvidia's second-quarter revenue reached US$6.51 billion, a year-on-year increase of 68%.

According to the financial report, Nvidia's net profit in the second quarter was US$2.374 billion, a year-on-year increase of 282%. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share were US$1.04, a year-on-year increase of 89%. By business division, Nvidia's gaming business revenue reached US$3.06 billion in the second quarter, a year-on-year increase of 85%. Data center business revenue reached US$2.37 billion, a year-on-year increase of 35%. Professional visualization business revenue reached US$520 million, a year-on-year increase of 156%. Autonomous driving business revenue reached US$150 million, a year-on-year increase of 37%. (Source: Pinwan)

Musk claims Tesla recycles 100% of used batteries, experts refute: Impossible

Tesla recently pointed out in its 2020 Impact Report that the company has mastered one of the most difficult environmental challenges in electric vehicle manufacturing and can recycle 100% of used lithium-ion batteries. Kyle Wiens, CEO of foreign professional dismantling agency IFixit, said that no modern battery can be 100% recycled, at least adhesives and sealants are non-recyclable materials. Although the battery recycling industry is innovating, it will take a lot of research and development to reach the standard of 100% recyclability. (Source: Tencent Technology)

Goldman Sachs: NHTSA's investigation into Tesla's autonomous driving could last months or even years

After the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began a formal investigation into Tesla's autopilot on Monday, Goldman Sachs said that the NHTSA investigation may last for months or even years. A Goldman Sachs research report believes that the investigation into the autopilot system may be resolved soon and is optimistic. They also pointed out that for L2 autopilot systems, the solution may be to strengthen the driver monitoring system to ensure that drivers comply with Tesla's terms of use. (Source: Cailianshe)

Electric car maker Rivian could get $440 million in tax breaks for building factory in Texas

Last week, documents from the city of Fort Worth, Texas, reportedly showed that the emerging electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian is considering investing at least $5 billion to build a new manufacturing plant near the city. The plant will cover about 2,000 acres and is expected to create at least 7,500 jobs by 2027. According to local media reports, the city council approved Rivian's $440 million tax incentive plan. (Source: TechWeb)

US operator T-Mobile: User data leaked is about 50 million, not 100 million

T-Mobile, a U.S. carrier, said on Sunday it was investigating allegations made in an online forum post that personal data of more than 100 million users had been compromised. T-Mobile recently released preliminary findings, confirming that information on nearly 50 million accounts, including existing or potential customers, had been stolen by hackers.

Initial analysis suggests that approximately 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customer account information was compromised, along with more than 40 million records of existing or potential customers who applied for credit with T-Mobile. The compromised data does include customer names, dates of birth, SSNs, and driver's license/ID information for postpaid and potential T-Mobile customers. However, no phone numbers, account numbers, PINs, passwords, or financial information was compromised in these files.

At this time, T-Mobile was able to confirm that approximately 850,000 active prepaid customer names, phone numbers, and account PINs were stolen, and has proactively reset all PINs on these accounts to protect these customers and sent them notifications. (Source: IT Home)

Amazon's retail sales surpassed Walmart for the first time, ranking first outside of China

Amazon's retail sales surpassed Walmart's in the past 12 months, making it the largest retail seller outside of China. According to FactSet estimates, customers spent more than $610 billion on Amazon (AMZN.O) in the past year, while Walmart (WMT.N) had revenue of about $566 billion. Despite this, they are still not the largest retail seller worldwide, with Alibaba (BABA.N) being the number one.

Stimulated by the epidemic, Amazon's revenue has increased significantly in the past year. In the most recent quarter, Amazon's revenue reached $113.1 billion, easily beating technology giants such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, with a year-on-year growth of 27%. In the past year, Walmart's revenue increased by $24 billion, while Amazon's revenue increased by a crazy $200 billion. (Source: Titanium Media)