May 15, 2021
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. forecast better-than-expected revenue and pledged to invest in new growth arenas, signaling its intention to move past a Chinese antitrust probe that triggered its first loss in nine years.
Jack Ma’s flagship e-commerce firm swung to a 5.5 billion yuan ($852 million) net loss its first since 2012 after the company swallowed a $2.8 billion fine for monopolistic behavior imposed by Beijing. It now intends to refocus on its business, plowing “all incremental profit” back into technology and hotly contested areas like community commerce, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang pledged on Thursday. Its shares fell more than 6% in Hong Kong after Citigroup and CICC slashed their price targets on fears that prioritizing growth will hammer profits.
Virtual tours keeping travel alive and well By HE WEI in Shanghai | China Daily | Updated: 2021-05-14 10:01 Share CLOSE Tourists visit the Louvre Museum on its reopening day after months of closure due to COVID-19 related lockdowns, in Paris, on July 6, last year. [Photo/Agencies]
Overseas tourist spots get Chinese attention despite COVID restrictions
While the COVID-19 pandemic has severely hampered international travel, would-be Chinese tourists still managed to get a glimpse of France s iconic Louvre Museum via their mobile phones.
The virtual tour last year took nearly 400,000 online audience members to the art museum s famous masterpieces－such as the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa as well as areas off limits to the general public.
Regulators May Be Doing Alibaba a Favor After All
May 14 2021, 8:11 AM
May 13 2021, 7:38 PM
May 14 2021, 8:11 AM
(Bloomberg Opinion) Itâs hard to put a positive spin on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.âs $2.8 billion antitrust fine, but Iâll try.
(Bloomberg Opinion) Itâs hard to put a positive spin on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.âs $2.8 billion antitrust fine, but Iâll try.
That penalty, announced last month and recognized in the March quarter, pushed the Chinese e-commerce giant into its first operating loss in eight years. Even without that one-off expense, the companyâs profit breakdown wasnât looking particularly solid. Although operating income, excluding the fine, climbed 48%, that benefited from comparison with the disastrous March quarter last year, when it was slammed hard by the global pandemic that originated in China. It was only 21% higher compared with results in the same period two years earlier.
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Facebook plans campaign in India to fight COVID-19 related misinformation
Facebook on Thursday said it will roll out a new campaign in India in the coming weeks to educate and inform people about how to detect misinformation related to Covid-19, and encourage users to check the information they receive against an authentic source. The social networking giant has removed over 12 million pieces of harmful misinformation on Covid-19 globally from Instagram and its own platform during the pandemic, including falsehoods about approved vaccines.
COVID-19 crisis: Indian, South African variants detected in Americas, says WHO expert
The newest variant, the Indian B.1.617 variant, has been detected in cases in eight countries of the Americas, including Canada and the United States. The four most worrying coronavirus variants have been detected in virtually all countries and territories of the Americas, but although they are more transmissible there is no evidence th