PC maker Lenovo returns to profit in third-quarter on strong performance across business groups

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd said on Thursday it swung to a net profit in the three months through December, beating market expectations, due to strong performance across its major business groups.

FILE PHOTO: A Lenovo ultrabook and a tablet are displayed during a news conference in Hong Kong, China May 21, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo

Profit for the quarter reached $233 million, versus a loss of $289 million in the same period a year earlier when the world’s largest personal computer (PC) maker by shipments took a one-off hit due to U.S. tax reform.

The result was ahead of the $207 million average of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.

Revenue rose 8.5 percent to $14.04 billion, the highest in four years and in line with analyst estimates.

Lenovo’s mobile phone business also recorded a pre-tax profit - of $3 million - for the first time since it bought Motorola in 2014 for $2.9 billion. Revenue nevertheless declined 20 percent, with Lenovo attributing the fall to a strategy of focusing on core markets.

The firm said revenue in its PC and smart devices business rose 12 percent, and that its global PC market share was 24.6 percent.

Industry tracker Gartner last month said worldwide PC shipments fell 4.3 percent in the December quarter and 1.3 percent in 2018, but that the biggest three vendors - Lenovo, HP Inc and Dell Inc - expanded their market share in the quarter to 63 percent of total shipments from 59 percent.

Loss in Lenovo’s data center business narrowed to $55 million from $86 million a year earlier, while revenue grew 31 percent.

Lenovo, which bought IBM Corp’s personal computer and server businesses, is dual-headquartered in Beijing in China and North Carolina in the United States, with manufacturing in both countries.

It said in its earnings statement that it was “well prepared for geographic political and macroeconomic volatility” with its worldwide manufacturing capabilities.

Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Blown away by innovation or price? Samsung's foldable phone opens up debate

(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has wowed the smartphone industry with the first mainstream foldable screen, accompanied by a nearly $2,000 price tag that generated heated debate as to whether it may prove too expensive to revive slumping sales.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold phone is shown on a screen at Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s Unpacked event in San Francisco, California, U.S., February 20, 2019 REUTERS/Stephen Nellis

The South Korean tech giant unveiled the Galaxy Fold which resembles a conventional smartphone, but which opens like a book to reveal a second display the size of a small tablet at 18.5 cm (7.3 inches). It will go on sale on April 26.

At its launch event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Samsung upped the surprise factor by briefing analysts and journalists on widely anticipated aspects ahead of time, such as 5G versions of its existing top-end Galaxy S phones.

The unveiling of the foldable device came as a shock to many in the auditorium.

“I am blown away,” said Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy, adding the phone could help Samsung rejuvenate its mobile business, whose lead is under attack from China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

“I believe you can innovate your way out of a mature market,” he said, noting that when Apple Inc launched the iPhone in 2007, most industry watchers believed the market had matured for $100 “candy bar” phones without touch screens.

Bob O’Donnell of TECHanalysis Research said the work Samsung had done with Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Microsoft Corp to adapt applications to the new screen was important.

He said though Samsung had teased the folding phone before, “to see it in action, to see the software – I was like, Wow. It’s hugely important that the software experience be good.”

The phone, which can operate three apps simultaneously and boasts six cameras, also challenges the notion of what a phone can cost, debuting at nearly twice the price of current top-of-the-line models from Apple and Samsung itself.

“Due to price, it’s likely to be sold mainly to early adopters. Prices are key to expanding sales,” said former Samsung mobile executive Kim Yong-serk, who is now a professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea.

“It will help Samsung burnish an image as an innovative company, but it is unlikely to be profitable. I expect Apple to wait say for one year and come up with foldable phones with more features, as they did with the smartwatch,” he said.

Brokerage Hana Investment & Securities expects Samsung to sell 2 million foldable phones this year, with the price keeping the volume relatively low, while another brokerage expects shipments to reach 1 million. That would be less than one percent of the 291 million smartphones Samsung sold last year.

Online, social media users were divided over the price, the features, and whether consumers would even need such a phone.

“Innovative? Sure. Needed? Not sure. 6 cameras, 2 screens and 2 batteries at $1980?!?,” wrote Twitter user @JackPhan.

Reddit user AmazedCoder took a more positive view.

Slideshow (2 Images)

“The fact that people are only complaining about the price should tell you that a lot of people actually want this, but can’t get it. Second gen of this thing is gonna sell like hotcakes.”

While most analysts expect Apple to wait until 2020 to match the foldable phone, Samsung has set new price standards in the premium category as it seeks to revive consumer interest in an industry which posted its first-ever sales decline last year.

“$1980 dollar for a #galaxyfold no thanks... watch...now the next iPhone will be $1999,” Twitter user @zollotech said.

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in SAN FRANCISCO, Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL and Ambar Warrick in BENGALURU; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Qualcomm urges U.S. regulators to reverse course and ban some iPhones

(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc is urging U.S. trade regulators to reverse a judge’s ruling and ban the import of some Apple Inc iPhones in a long-running patent fight between the two companies.

FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is seen during the China International Import Expo (CIIE), at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

Qualcomm is seeking the ban in hopes of dealing Apple a blow before the two begin a major trial in mid-April in San Diego over Qualcomm’s patent licensing practices. Qualcomm has sought to apply pressure to Apple with smaller legal challenges ahead of that trial and has won partial iPhone sales bans in China and Germany against Apple, forcing the iPhone maker to ship only phones with Qualcomm chips to some markets.

Any possible ban on iPhone imports to the United States could be short-lived because Apple last week for the first time disclosed that it has found a software fix to avoid infringing on one of Qualcomm’s patents. Apple asked regulators to give it as much as six months to prove that the fix works.

Qualcomm brought a case against Apple at the U.S International Trade Commission in 2017 alleging that some iPhones violated Qualcomm patents to help smart phones run well without draining their batteries. Qualcomm asked for an import ban on some older iPhone models containing Intel Corp chips.

In September, Thomas Pender, an administrative law judge at the ITC, found that Apple violated one of the patents in the case but declined to issue a ban. Pender reasoned that imposing a ban on Intel-chipped iPhones would hand Qualcomm an effective monopoly on the U.S. market for modem chips, which connect smart phones to wireless data networks.

Pender’s ruling said that preserving competition in the modem chip market was in the public interest as speedier 5G networks come online in the next few years.

Cases where the ITC finds patent violations but does not ban the import of products are rare. In December, the full ITC said it would review Pender’s decision and decide whether to uphold or reverse it by late March.

In filings that became public late last week ahead of the full commission’s decision, Apple for the first time said that it had developed a software fix to avoid running afoul of Qualcomm’s patent. Apple said it did not discover the fix until after the trial and that it implemented the new software “last fall.”

But Apple said that it would need six months to verify that the fix will satisfy regulators and to sell its existing inventory. Apple asked the full commission to delay any possible import ban by that long if the commission reverses the judge’s decisions.

In a filing late on Friday, Qualcomm argued that Apple’s disclosure of a fix undermined the reasoning in Pender’s decision and that the Intel-chipped phones should be banned while Apple deploys its fix.

“Pender recommended against a remedy on the assumption that the (Qualcomm) patent would preclude Apple from using Intel as a supplier for many years and that no redesign was feasible,” Qualcomm wrote. “Apple now admits—more than seven months after the hearing—that the alleged harm is entirely avoidable.”

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

With a Single 10-Word Tweet, Elon Musk Just Made a Stunning Announcement About How He Spends His Time

In this episode, I"ll start by sharing a tweet that Musk posted on Twitter Monday afternoon.

I will then explain the insane background of the story from two crucial angles--one about the tweet itself, and one about the insane thing it says about Musk.

In case that didn"t embed for some reason, it"s Musk tweeting simply, "Did meme review last night with Justin Roiland from @RickandMorty."

Here are your promised two angles:

"Did meme review"

Okay, if you"re not initiated in what I"m about to explain, just know that this part of the story is going to seem like a creative writing class dropped acid before doing a group project.

There"s a Swedish YouTuber named Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, who is 29 years old and goes by PewDiePie, and who is basically the most successful single YouTuber of all time.

Forbes estimated then that he he was making $12 million a year. A lot has happened since, but two key things for our purposes stand out:

Second, he"s locked in an epic battle with a giant Indian music company called T-Series, over which can get more YouTube subscribers. As I write this late on Tuesday evening, the score is:

• PewDiePie 86,303,046 


• T-Series 86,250,944

It"s neck-and-neck, and it seems as if almost any tiny little edge could give PewDiePie or T-Series the victory.

If only there were an eccentric billionaire who might provide that edge...

Hi, I"m Elon Musk

Okay. In telling that story, especially the part about the battle for YouTube subscribers, I"m reminded of an old quote: "Academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small."

Kind of the same thing here. But, you also need to know that PewDiePie hosts a YouTube show called Meme Review. That"s the show Musk was saying he took time from his schedule to do.

There"s actually a whole debate right now online about whether Musk actually did the show, or if he"s just trolling everyone. But for our purposes, whether he did or not is more a matter of degree.

Because for someone like Musk, who is the CEO of one public company and at least two private ones, his time should be at a premium.

We"d be saying that even if Musk hadn"t laid off 7 percent of Tesla"s workforce less than a month ago.

Or if he hadn"t tweeted his way into an SEC oversight investigation, or a lawsuit over calling a British cave diver who helped rescue that Thai soccer team last year, a "pedo guy."

The most important resource

And yet, here we are, talking about whether Musk really did Meme Review (along side Roiland, who as Musk points out is the creator of the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty), as part of what is almost certainly the effort to help PewDiePie get more subscribers.

The alternatives here aren"t great. Either Musk is serious, in which case he"s taking time away from his most important responsibilities to do a show that"s controversial to say the least.

Or, the whole thing is just a trollish joke, in which case: why is Musk even involved in talking about this? How does he even have time to know about it?

I wrote recently about how Jeff Bezos explained in one sentence that he realizes how much of a distraction the National Enquirer blackmail scandal could have been -- and how much more important his time is than any other resource.

For Musk, the same is true. Time is what matters most. So why is he wasting it here?

And if we can"t come up with a good answer to that question, here"s another: Why would you still be willing to buy a Tesla?

Microsoft expands political security service to 12 European countries

Silhouettes of laptop users are seen next to a screen projection of Microsoft logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Wednesday said it will offer its cyber security service AccountGuard to 12 new markets in Europe including Germany, France and Spain, to close security gaps and protect customers in political space from hacking.

Microsoft had recently detected attacks, which occurred between September and December 2018, targeting employees of the German Council on Foreign Relations and European offices of The Aspen Institute and The German Marshall Fund, the company said here in a blog post.

The attacks, which targeted 104 employee accounts in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Serbia, are believed to have originated from a group called Strontium, the company added.

The AccountGuard service will also be available in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovakia.

Ahead of a critical European Parliament election in May, German officials are trying to bolster cyber security after a far-reaching data breach by a 20-year-old student laid bare the vulnerability of Europe’s largest economy.

Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Why You Should Let Chatbots Do Your Marketing

Ahead of the Super Bowl in 2017, Domino"s Pizza took a step into the future by enlisting their first chatbot as a PR tool. Their decision to take advantage of their active Messenger users, with a focus on the experience over the ROI, was a smart and innovative move - and exactly what we are going to talk about today.

Money Makes the Product Launch

As much as I hate to be the one to tell you this, it costs to play today.  Product launching is not a fast return on investment, at least not in the way most launchers think, and there is going to be an investment first, no matter what. But there are things you can do to make the most of those dollars, especially when it comes to teaming up your marketing with the latest technology. While I was in Hong Kong giving a speech, marketing veteran Michelle Barnum Smith  blew me away with her knowledge and expertise. I knew she would be the perfect person to bring you everything you need to know about leveraging chatbots as a marketing tool, and the power in Facebook messenger. My disclaimer: I"m not a huge Facebook fan and I really don"t love Messenger, but the stats are undeniable.

Getting Intimate with Chatbots

Bots are really just a computer program that can automate certain tasks for a business, in a conversational manner, allowing businesses to reach customers more plus faster than ever before, with low cost impact and without removing the "human" element. It"s basically automated marketing, that isn"t a boring or bothersome email, and meets the consumer right where they already are. The bottom line is this: Any business can use Facebook Messenger, especially for eCommerce whether you"re selling direct or you"re selling through Amazon. It"s a massive opportunity to be able to use Messenger marketing for your business.

Read This Twice: Don"t Put Your Audience Last

"For so many sellers, building a list or having a launch audience becomes something that they think of down the road instead of being part of the core."  Marketing changes constantly; it"s always new, adapting, and growing and product launchers need to be thinking about that as part of their launch strategy, not something that comes after. One of the things we do at Product Launch Hazzards is focus on a strategy that builds the audience first:

• For example, if I want to make and build this innovative, cool juicer blender, I would go find a juicer and a blender that already exists and sell that first.

• I would build that audience while developing on my end, so my product development process is being supported, and I"m getting real time feedback on what works and what doesn"t.

• I would consistently work to build conversations and connections with that community, because those are my "right people" and I would leverage that with future product launches.

• Once I have this audience, just like an email list that I have access to, I can also use that platform to bring value and educate. Not just to constantly sell, but to offer juice recipes, eBooks, blog posts, podcasts, and anything else that is relevant to my community of juicers.

What"s Different About Facebook?

First, let"s talk numbers, because there is a really significant shift here. For your traditional email list, you could never have success with a list that sits around two thousand. In fact, due to the twenty percent open rate, you would need ten times that minimum at the very least. On Facebook, right now, there is a ninety percent average open rate.

Employing Great Marketing Practices

Barnum Smith pointed out her frustrations with email marketing and also pointed out what Facebook is doing to prevent the same tactics from funneling onto their platform. "I subscribed to Bath & Body Works because I like their deals, but I cannot handle how many emails they send me. They send five emails a day. They have to do that because I might only open one every ten days. Facebook"s trying to prevent that level of spamming on their platform. They want to make sure that it"s protected as an engagement platform, so users don"t disengage from their Messenger."

One Billion Strong

Facebook has over a billion users just on Messenger. And with Messenger, because it has way more of a social and engagement focus, most people still have their notifications open and they want to know when they get a message.

• There"s an average read time of three seconds.

• Messenger is the biggest chat platform, aside from WeChat in China.

• "The reality is that with your content on social media platforms like Facebook, the algorithm will only feed your story to their newsfeed two to five percent of the time organically. If you boost a post, it goes up to fifteen to twenty percent. If you get somebody as a Messenger subscriber, they will see your content one hundred percent of the time."

Avoid These Chatbot Mistakes

A lot of Barnum Smith"s expertise comes in handy for clients when she is helping them understand what not to do. You don"t want to be banned from Messenger because you didn"t know the rules to play by, so let"s do a quick overview.

1. Do not spam. I mentioned this above, but as a reminder: if it feels more like harassment and less conversational, you"re doing it wrong. Be intentional and aware of each point of contact.

2. Focus on value. Chatbots are a tool you can leverage to add value to the lives of your followers and lists. Keep that at the center of everything you are doing. Marketing can get into some gray territories if you aren"t focused on adding value and transparency.

3. Avoid lengthy stories. That"s what email is for. Messenger is the quick and dirty, the nitty gritty - "We"ve got a new post up, check it out".

4. Let them go easy. Permission marketing is a concept I really like. Make it easy for people to opt out of your notifications and sharing. If they don"t want to be there, you don"t want them there anyway. Make it easy for people to unsubscribe so they don"t block or delete your conversations because then Facebook will flag those. You get too many of those and you get banned.

Chatbots are going to be a massive piece of the marketing puzzle in the near future. Launchers tend to steer clear of Facebook Ads and Messenger, and if this is you- you"re leaving a lot on the table. If you can"t seem to make the leap, go to an expert like Barnum Smith and take advantage of the hands-on help. No matter which way you get there, you need to get there. With a ninety percent click through and open rate, you can"t afford to not have a Chatbot working for you.

Tech

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

With a Single 10-Word Tweet, Elon Musk Just Made a Stunning Announcement About How He Spends His Time

In this episode, I"ll start by sharing a tweet that Musk posted on Twitter Monday afternoon.

I will then explain the insane background of the story from two crucial angles--one about the tweet itself, and one about the insane thing it says about Musk.

In case that didn"t embed for some reason, it"s Musk tweeting simply, "Did meme review last night with Justin Roiland from @RickandMorty."

Here are your promised two angles:

"Did meme review"

Okay, if you"re not initiated in what I"m about to explain, just know that this part of the story is going to seem like a creative writing class dropped acid before doing a group project.

There"s a Swedish YouTuber named Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, who is 29 years old and goes by PewDiePie, and who is basically the most successful single YouTuber of all time.

Forbes estimated then that he he was making $12 million a year. A lot has happened since, but two key things for our purposes stand out:

Second, he"s locked in an epic battle with a giant Indian music company called T-Series, over which can get more YouTube subscribers. As I write this late on Tuesday evening, the score is:

• PewDiePie 86,303,046 


• T-Series 86,250,944

It"s neck-and-neck, and it seems as if almost any tiny little edge could give PewDiePie or T-Series the victory.

If only there were an eccentric billionaire who might provide that edge...

Hi, I"m Elon Musk

Okay. In telling that story, especially the part about the battle for YouTube subscribers, I"m reminded of an old quote: "Academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small."

Kind of the same thing here. But, you also need to know that PewDiePie hosts a YouTube show called Meme Review. That"s the show Musk was saying he took time from his schedule to do.

There"s actually a whole debate right now online about whether Musk actually did the show, or if he"s just trolling everyone. But for our purposes, whether he did or not is more a matter of degree.

Because for someone like Musk, who is the CEO of one public company and at least two private ones, his time should be at a premium.

We"d be saying that even if Musk hadn"t laid off 7 percent of Tesla"s workforce less than a month ago.

Or if he hadn"t tweeted his way into an SEC oversight investigation, or a lawsuit over calling a British cave diver who helped rescue that Thai soccer team last year, a "pedo guy."

The most important resource

And yet, here we are, talking about whether Musk really did Meme Review (along side Roiland, who as Musk points out is the creator of the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty), as part of what is almost certainly the effort to help PewDiePie get more subscribers.

The alternatives here aren"t great. Either Musk is serious, in which case he"s taking time away from his most important responsibilities to do a show that"s controversial to say the least.

Or, the whole thing is just a trollish joke, in which case: why is Musk even involved in talking about this? How does he even have time to know about it?

I wrote recently about how Jeff Bezos explained in one sentence that he realizes how much of a distraction the National Enquirer blackmail scandal could have been -- and how much more important his time is than any other resource.

For Musk, the same is true. Time is what matters most. So why is he wasting it here?

And if we can"t come up with a good answer to that question, here"s another: Why would you still be willing to buy a Tesla?

Exclusive: China regulator stops accepting new video game applications to clear backlog - sources

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s top content regulator has asked local authorities to stop submitting requests to monetize new video games, while it processes a backlog of applications built up after a lengthy pause last year, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

FILE PHOTO: A man plays a computer game at an internet cafe in Beijing,China May 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) issued the notice this week, the people said, indicating the impact on gaming stocks of the nine-month hiatus could continue and dulling hopes raised by the recent resumption of approvals.

The regulator’s notice has not previously been reported.

Shares of industry leader Tencent Holdings Ltd were up 0.3 percent at midday, pulling back from the 2.2 percent gain they were trading at before the Reuters report. Shares of smaller players also slid, with a decline of as much as 5 percent at Yoozoo Games Co Ltd.

China stopped approving the monetization of new titles last March amid a regulatory body reshuffle triggered by growing criticism of games for being violent and addictive, as well as concern over the increase in myopia among young people.

Gaming firms such as Tencent - China’s most valuable listed company - were able to continue filing applications, building up a backlog. They could also distribute new titles but were unable to earn any income from them, such as through in-game purchases.

The regulator resumed processing applications in December, with industry insiders estimating at least 5,000 games awaiting approval. In China, game companies file applications to local authorities which in turn submit them to the regulator.

“The regulator asked local authorities to stop submitting applications because there is too much of a backlog for it to deal with at the moment,” said one of the people, whose company was informed about the matter by its local authority. The person said the request was made to local authorities nationwide.

Game companies will still be able to file applications to local authorities but they will no longer be passed on to the central regulator while it deals with applications already in hand, said a second person.

The people declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media on the matter.

Tencent, GAPP and the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, which oversees GAPP, did not respond to requests for comment.

“BIG LET DOWN”

The approval freeze dragged down shares in Tencent and wiped billions of dollars off its market value. Among titles for which Tencent is awaiting a license to monetize is “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile”, which industry insiders estimated could generate annual revenue of up to $1 billion.

The freeze has also hit many smaller companies that rely on a number of game releases each year.

“It will be a big let down to a revitalized industry if the delay to licensing continues for any significant period of time,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of video games consultancy Niko Partners. “Hopefully the halt is merely procedural and the licensing process will return to normal swiftly.”

FILE PHOTO - People play computer games at the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Shanghai, China July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

The regulator approved 1,982 domestic and foreign online games during January-March last year before the freeze, government data showed. That came after approving 9,651 domestic and foreign online games in all of 2017.

GAPP has approved 538 games since December. It is likely to approve just 2,000 to 3,000 titles in 2019, said Jefferies analyst Karen Chan in a note to clients.

“Generally speaking the whole industry is frightened. There is no sign that regulators will loosen their control,” said Beijing-based tech analyst Li Chengdong. “Investors are worried about the red line and risks here.”

Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Microsoft expands political security service to 12 European countries

FILE PHOTO: General view of Microsoft"s logo at Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Wednesday said it will offer its cyber security service AccountGuard to 12 new markets in Europe including Germany, France and Spain, to close security gaps and protect customers in political space from hacking.

Microsoft had recently detected attacks, which occurred between September and December 2018, targeting employees of the German Council on Foreign Relations and European offices of The Aspen Institute and The German Marshall Fund, the company said here in a blog post.

The attacks, which targeted 104 employee accounts in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Serbia, are believed to have originated from a group called Strontium, the company added.

The AccountGuard service will also be available in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovakia.

Ahead of a critical European Parliament election in May, German officials are trying to bolster cyber security after a far-reaching data breach by a 20-year-old student laid bare the vulnerability of Europe’s largest economy.

Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Exclusive: China regulator stops accepting new video game applications to clear backlog - sources

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s top content regulator has asked local authorities to stop submitting requests to monetize new video games, while it processes a backlog of applications built up after a lengthy pause last year, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

FILE PHOTO: A man plays a computer game at an internet cafe in Beijing,China May 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) issued the notice this week, the people said, indicating the impact on gaming stocks of the nine-month hiatus could continue and dulling hopes raised by the recent resumption of approvals.

The regulator’s notice has not previously been reported.

Shares of industry leader Tencent Holdings Ltd were up 0.3 percent at midday, pulling back from the 2.2 percent gain they were trading at before the Reuters report. Shares of smaller players also slid, with a decline of as much as 5 percent at Yoozoo Games Co Ltd.

China stopped approving the monetization of new titles last March amid a regulatory body reshuffle triggered by growing criticism of games for being violent and addictive, as well as concern over the increase in myopia among young people.

Gaming firms such as Tencent - China’s most valuable listed company - were able to continue filing applications, building up a backlog. They could also distribute new titles but were unable to earn any income from them, such as through in-game purchases.

The regulator resumed processing applications in December, with industry insiders estimating at least 5,000 games awaiting approval. In China, game companies file applications to local authorities which in turn submit them to the regulator.

“The regulator asked local authorities to stop submitting applications because there is too much of a backlog for it to deal with at the moment,” said one of the people, whose company was informed about the matter by its local authority. The person said the request was made to local authorities nationwide.

Game companies will still be able to file applications to local authorities but they will no longer be passed on to the central regulator while it deals with applications already in hand, said a second person.

The people declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media on the matter.

Tencent, GAPP and the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, which oversees GAPP, did not respond to requests for comment.

“BIG LET DOWN”

The approval freeze dragged down shares in Tencent and wiped billions of dollars off its market value. Among titles for which Tencent is awaiting a license to monetize is “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile”, which industry insiders estimated could generate annual revenue of up to $1 billion.

The freeze has also hit many smaller companies that rely on a number of game releases each year.

“It will be a big let down to a revitalized industry if the delay to licensing continues for any significant period of time,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of video games consultancy Niko Partners. “Hopefully the halt is merely procedural and the licensing process will return to normal swiftly.”

FILE PHOTO - People play computer games at the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Shanghai, China July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

The regulator approved 1,982 domestic and foreign online games during January-March last year before the freeze, government data showed. That came after approving 9,651 domestic and foreign online games in all of 2017.

GAPP has approved 538 games since December. It is likely to approve just 2,000 to 3,000 titles in 2019, said Jefferies analyst Karen Chan in a note to clients.

“Generally speaking the whole industry is frightened. There is no sign that regulators will loosen their control,” said Beijing-based tech analyst Li Chengdong. “Investors are worried about the red line and risks here.”

Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Exclusive: China regulator stops accepting new video game applications to clear backlog - sources

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s top content regulator has asked local authorities to stop submitting requests to monetize new video games, while it processes a backlog of applications built up after a lengthy pause last year, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

FILE PHOTO: A man plays a computer game at an internet cafe in Beijing,China May 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) issued the notice this week, the people said, indicating the impact on gaming stocks of the nine-month hiatus could continue and dulling hopes raised by the recent resumption of approvals.

The regulator’s notice has not previously been reported.

Shares of industry leader Tencent Holdings Ltd were up 0.3 percent at midday, pulling back from the 2.2 percent gain they were trading at before the Reuters report. Shares of smaller players also slid, with a decline of as much as 5 percent at Yoozoo Games Co Ltd.

China stopped approving the monetization of new titles last March amid a regulatory body reshuffle triggered by growing criticism of games for being violent and addictive, as well as concern over the increase in myopia among young people.

Gaming firms such as Tencent - China’s most valuable listed company - were able to continue filing applications, building up a backlog. They could also distribute new titles but were unable to earn any income from them, such as through in-game purchases.

The regulator resumed processing applications in December, with industry insiders estimating at least 5,000 games awaiting approval. In China, game companies file applications to local authorities which in turn submit them to the regulator.

“The regulator asked local authorities to stop submitting applications because there is too much of a backlog for it to deal with at the moment,” said one of the people, whose company was informed about the matter by its local authority. The person said the request was made to local authorities nationwide.

Game companies will still be able to file applications to local authorities but they will no longer be passed on to the central regulator while it deals with applications already in hand, said a second person.

The people declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media on the matter.

Tencent, GAPP and the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, which oversees GAPP, did not respond to requests for comment.

“BIG LET DOWN”

The approval freeze dragged down shares in Tencent and wiped billions of dollars off its market value. Among titles for which Tencent is awaiting a license to monetize is “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile”, which industry insiders estimated could generate annual revenue of up to $1 billion.

The freeze has also hit many smaller companies that rely on a number of game releases each year.

“It will be a big let down to a revitalized industry if the delay to licensing continues for any significant period of time,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of video games consultancy Niko Partners. “Hopefully the halt is merely procedural and the licensing process will return to normal swiftly.”

FILE PHOTO - People play computer games at the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Shanghai, China July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

The regulator approved 1,982 domestic and foreign online games during January-March last year before the freeze, government data showed. That came after approving 9,651 domestic and foreign online games in all of 2017.

GAPP has approved 538 games since December. It is likely to approve just 2,000 to 3,000 titles in 2019, said Jefferies analyst Karen Chan in a note to clients.

“Generally speaking the whole industry is frightened. There is no sign that regulators will loosen their control,” said Beijing-based tech analyst Li Chengdong. “Investors are worried about the red line and risks here.”

Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Microsoft expands political security service to 12 European countries

FILE PHOTO: General view of Microsoft"s logo at Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Wednesday said it will offer its cyber security service AccountGuard to 12 new markets in Europe including Germany, France and Spain, to close security gaps and protect customers in political space from hacking.

Microsoft had recently detected attacks, which occurred between September and December 2018, targeting employees of the German Council on Foreign Relations and European offices of The Aspen Institute and The German Marshall Fund, the company said here in a blog post.

The attacks, which targeted 104 employee accounts in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Serbia, are believed to have originated from a group called Strontium, the company added.

The AccountGuard service will also be available in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovakia.

Ahead of a critical European Parliament election in May, German officials are trying to bolster cyber security after a far-reaching data breach by a 20-year-old student laid bare the vulnerability of Europe’s largest economy.

Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Microsoft expands political security service to 12 European countries

FILE PHOTO: General view of Microsoft"s logo at Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Wednesday said it will offer its cyber security service AccountGuard to 12 new markets in Europe including Germany, France and Spain, to close security gaps and protect customers in political space from hacking.

Microsoft had recently detected attacks, which occurred between September and December 2018, targeting employees of the German Council on Foreign Relations and European offices of The Aspen Institute and The German Marshall Fund, the company said here in a blog post.

The attacks, which targeted 104 employee accounts in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Serbia, are believed to have originated from a group called Strontium, the company added.

The AccountGuard service will also be available in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovakia.

Ahead of a critical European Parliament election in May, German officials are trying to bolster cyber security after a far-reaching data breach by a 20-year-old student laid bare the vulnerability of Europe’s largest economy.

Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Exclusive: China regulator requests pause in new game applications to clear backlog - sources

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s top content regulator has asked local authorities to stop submitting requests to monetize new video games while it processes a backlog of applications built up after a lengthy pause last year, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

FILE PHOTO: A man plays a computer game at an internet cafe in Beijing,China May 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) issued the notice this week, the people said, indicating the impact on gaming stocks of the nine-month hiatus could continue and dulling hopes raised by the recent resumption of approvals.

The regulator’s notice has not previously been reported.

Shares of industry leader Tencent Holdings Ltd, which were up 2.2 percent in morning trading, pared back gains to trade about 1 percent higher after the Reuters report was published. Shares of smaller players also slid.

China stopped approving the monetization of new titles last March amid a regulatory body reshuffle triggered by growing criticism of games being violent and addictive, as well as concern over the increase in myopia among young people.

Gaming firms such as Tencent - China’s most valuable listed company - were able to continue filing applications, building up a backlog. They could also distribute new titles but were unable to earn any income from them, such as through in-game purchases.

The regulator resumed processing applications in December, with industry insiders estimating at least 5,000 games await approval. In China, game companies file applications to local authorities which in turn submit them to the regulator.

“The regulator asked local authorities to stop submitting applications because there is too much of a backlog for it to deal with at the moment,” said one of the people, whose company was informed about the matter by its local authority.

Game companies will still be able to file applications but they will no longer be passed on to the Beijing regulator while it deals with applications already in hand, said a second person.

The people declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media on the matter.

GAPP and the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, which oversees GAPP, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The approval freeze dragged down shares in Tencent and wiped billions of dollars off its market value. Among titles for which Tencent is awaiting a license to monetize is “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile”, which industry insiders estimate could generate annual revenue of up to $1 billion.

The freeze has also hit many smaller companies that rely on a number of game releases each year.

The regulator approved 1,982 domestic and foreign online games during January-March last year before the freeze, government data showed. It approved 9,651 domestic and foreign online games in all of 2017.

It has approved 538 games since December.

Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Exclusive: China regulator stops accepting new video game applications to clear backlog - sources

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s top content regulator has asked local authorities to stop submitting requests to monetize new video games, while it processes a backlog of applications built up after a lengthy pause last year, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

FILE PHOTO: A man plays a computer game at an internet cafe in Beijing,China May 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) issued the notice this week, the people said, indicating the impact on gaming stocks of the nine-month hiatus could continue and dulling hopes raised by the recent resumption of approvals.

The regulator’s notice has not previously been reported.

Shares of industry leader Tencent Holdings Ltd were up 0.3 percent at midday, pulling back from the 2.2 percent gain they were trading at before the Reuters report. Shares of smaller players also slid, with a decline of as much as 5 percent at Yoozoo Games Co Ltd.

China stopped approving the monetization of new titles last March amid a regulatory body reshuffle triggered by growing criticism of games for being violent and addictive, as well as concern over the increase in myopia among young people.

Gaming firms such as Tencent - China’s most valuable listed company - were able to continue filing applications, building up a backlog. They could also distribute new titles but were unable to earn any income from them, such as through in-game purchases.

The regulator resumed processing applications in December, with industry insiders estimating at least 5,000 games awaiting approval. In China, game companies file applications to local authorities which in turn submit them to the regulator.

“The regulator asked local authorities to stop submitting applications because there is too much of a backlog for it to deal with at the moment,” said one of the people, whose company was informed about the matter by its local authority. The person said the request was made to local authorities nationwide.

Game companies will still be able to file applications to local authorities but they will no longer be passed on to the central regulator while it deals with applications already in hand, said a second person.

The people declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media on the matter.

Tencent, GAPP and the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, which oversees GAPP, did not respond to requests for comment.

“BIG LET DOWN”

The approval freeze dragged down shares in Tencent and wiped billions of dollars off its market value. Among titles for which Tencent is awaiting a license to monetize is “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile”, which industry insiders estimated could generate annual revenue of up to $1 billion.

The freeze has also hit many smaller companies that rely on a number of game releases each year.

“It will be a big let down to a revitalized industry if the delay to licensing continues for any significant period of time,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of video games consultancy Niko Partners. “Hopefully the halt is merely procedural and the licensing process will return to normal swiftly.”

FILE PHOTO - People play computer games at the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Shanghai, China July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

The regulator approved 1,982 domestic and foreign online games during January-March last year before the freeze, government data showed. That came after approving 9,651 domestic and foreign online games in all of 2017.

GAPP has approved 538 games since December. It is likely to approve just 2,000 to 3,000 titles in 2019, said Jefferies analyst Karen Chan in a note to clients.

“Generally speaking the whole industry is frightened. There is no sign that regulators will loosen their control,” said Beijing-based tech analyst Li Chengdong. “Investors are worried about the red line and risks here.”

Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Qualcomm urges U.S. regulators to reverse course and ban some iPhones

(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc is urging U.S. trade regulators to reverse a judge’s ruling and ban the import of some Apple Inc iPhones in a long-running patent fight between the two companies.

FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is seen during the China International Import Expo (CIIE), at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

Qualcomm is seeking the ban in hopes of dealing Apple a blow before the two begin a major trial in mid-April in San Diego over Qualcomm’s patent licensing practices. Qualcomm has sought to apply pressure to Apple with smaller legal challenges ahead of that trial and has won partial iPhone sales bans in China and Germany against Apple, forcing the iPhone maker to ship only phones with Qualcomm chips to some markets.

Any possible ban on iPhone imports to the United States could be short-lived because Apple last week for the first time disclosed that it has found a software fix to avoid infringing on one of Qualcomm’s patents. Apple asked regulators to give it as much as six months to prove that the fix works.

Qualcomm brought a case against Apple at the U.S International Trade Commission in 2017 alleging that some iPhones violated Qualcomm patents to help smart phones run well without draining their batteries. Qualcomm asked for an import ban on some older iPhone models containing Intel Corp chips.

In September, Thomas Pender, an administrative law judge at the ITC, found that Apple violated one of the patents in the case but declined to issue a ban. Pender reasoned that imposing a ban on Intel-chipped iPhones would hand Qualcomm an effective monopoly on the U.S. market for modem chips, which connect smart phones to wireless data networks.

Pender’s ruling said that preserving competition in the modem chip market was in the public interest as speedier 5G networks come online in the next few years.

Cases where the ITC finds patent violations but does not ban the import of products are rare. In December, the full ITC said it would review Pender’s decision and decide whether to uphold or reverse it by late March.

In filings that became public late last week ahead of the full commission’s decision, Apple for the first time said that it had developed a software fix to avoid running afoul of Qualcomm’s patent. Apple said it did not discover the fix until after the trial and that it implemented the new software “last fall.”

But Apple said that it would need six months to verify that the fix will satisfy regulators and to sell its existing inventory. Apple asked the full commission to delay any possible import ban by that long if the commission reverses the judge’s decisions.

In a filing late on Friday, Qualcomm argued that Apple’s disclosure of a fix undermined the reasoning in Pender’s decision and that the Intel-chipped phones should be banned while Apple deploys its fix.

“Pender recommended against a remedy on the assumption that the (Qualcomm) patent would preclude Apple from using Intel as a supplier for many years and that no redesign was feasible,” Qualcomm wrote. “Apple now admits—more than seven months after the hearing—that the alleged harm is entirely avoidable.”

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Exclusive: China regulator stops accepting new video game applications to clear backlog - sources

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s top content regulator has asked local authorities to stop submitting requests to monetize new video games, while it processes a backlog of applications built up after a lengthy pause last year, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

FILE PHOTO: A man plays a computer game at an internet cafe in Beijing,China May 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) issued the notice this week, the people said, indicating the impact on gaming stocks of the nine-month hiatus could continue and dulling hopes raised by the recent resumption of approvals.

The regulator’s notice has not previously been reported.

Shares of industry leader Tencent Holdings Ltd were up 0.3 percent at midday, pulling back from the 2.2 percent gain they were trading at before the Reuters report. Shares of smaller players also slid, with a decline of as much as 5 percent at Yoozoo Games Co Ltd.

China stopped approving the monetization of new titles last March amid a regulatory body reshuffle triggered by growing criticism of games for being violent and addictive, as well as concern over the increase in myopia among young people.

Gaming firms such as Tencent - China’s most valuable listed company - were able to continue filing applications, building up a backlog. They could also distribute new titles but were unable to earn any income from them, such as through in-game purchases.

The regulator resumed processing applications in December, with industry insiders estimating at least 5,000 games awaiting approval. In China, game companies file applications to local authorities which in turn submit them to the regulator.

“The regulator asked local authorities to stop submitting applications because there is too much of a backlog for it to deal with at the moment,” said one of the people, whose company was informed about the matter by its local authority. The person said the request was made to local authorities nationwide.

Game companies will still be able to file applications to local authorities but they will no longer be passed on to the central regulator while it deals with applications already in hand, said a second person.

The people declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media on the matter.

Tencent, GAPP and the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, which oversees GAPP, did not respond to requests for comment.

“BIG LET DOWN”

The approval freeze dragged down shares in Tencent and wiped billions of dollars off its market value. Among titles for which Tencent is awaiting a license to monetize is “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile”, which industry insiders estimated could generate annual revenue of up to $1 billion.

The freeze has also hit many smaller companies that rely on a number of game releases each year.

“It will be a big let down to a revitalized industry if the delay to licensing continues for any significant period of time,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of video games consultancy Niko Partners. “Hopefully the halt is merely procedural and the licensing process will return to normal swiftly.”

FILE PHOTO - People play computer games at the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Shanghai, China July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

The regulator approved 1,982 domestic and foreign online games during January-March last year before the freeze, government data showed. That came after approving 9,651 domestic and foreign online games in all of 2017.

GAPP has approved 538 games since December. It is likely to approve just 2,000 to 3,000 titles in 2019, said Jefferies analyst Karen Chan in a note to clients.

“Generally speaking the whole industry is frightened. There is no sign that regulators will loosen their control,” said Beijing-based tech analyst Li Chengdong. “Investors are worried about the red line and risks here.”

Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Microsoft expands political security service to 12 European countries

Silhouettes of laptop users are seen next to a screen projection of Microsoft logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Wednesday said it will offer its cyber security service AccountGuard to 12 new markets in Europe including Germany, France and Spain, to close security gaps and protect customers in political space from hacking.

Microsoft had recently detected attacks, which occurred between September and December 2018, targeting employees of the German Council on Foreign Relations and European offices of The Aspen Institute and The German Marshall Fund, the company said here in a blog post.

The attacks, which targeted 104 employee accounts in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Serbia, are believed to have originated from a group called Strontium, the company added.

The AccountGuard service will also be available in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovakia.

Ahead of a critical European Parliament election in May, German officials are trying to bolster cyber security after a far-reaching data breach by a 20-year-old student laid bare the vulnerability of Europe’s largest economy.

Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

With a Single 10-Word Tweet, Elon Musk Just Made a Stunning Announcement About How He Spends His Time

In this episode, I"ll start by sharing a tweet that Musk posted on Twitter Monday afternoon.

I will then explain the insane background of the story from two crucial angles--one about the tweet itself, and one about the insane thing it says about Musk.

In case that didn"t embed for some reason, it"s Musk tweeting simply, "Did meme review last night with Justin Roiland from @RickandMorty."

Here are your promised two angles:

"Did meme review"

Okay, if you"re not initiated in what I"m about to explain, just know that this part of the story is going to seem like a creative writing class dropped acid before doing a group project.

There"s a Swedish YouTuber named Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, who is 29 years old and goes by PewDiePie, and who is basically the most successful single YouTuber of all time.

Forbes estimated then that he he was making $12 million a year. A lot has happened since, but two key things for our purposes stand out:

Second, he"s locked in an epic battle with a giant Indian music company called T-Series, over which can get more YouTube subscribers. As I write this late on Tuesday evening, the score is:

• PewDiePie 86,303,046 


• T-Series 86,250,944

It"s neck-and-neck, and it seems as if almost any tiny little edge could give PewDiePie or T-Series the victory.

If only there were an eccentric billionaire who might provide that edge...

Hi, I"m Elon Musk

Okay. In telling that story, especially the part about the battle for YouTube subscribers, I"m reminded of an old quote: "Academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small."

Kind of the same thing here. But, you also need to know that PewDiePie hosts a YouTube show called Meme Review. That"s the show Musk was saying he took time from his schedule to do.

There"s actually a whole debate right now online about whether Musk actually did the show, or if he"s just trolling everyone. But for our purposes, whether he did or not is more a matter of degree.

Because for someone like Musk, who is the CEO of one public company and at least two private ones, his time should be at a premium.

We"d be saying that even if Musk hadn"t laid off 7 percent of Tesla"s workforce less than a month ago.

Or if he hadn"t tweeted his way into an SEC oversight investigation, or a lawsuit over calling a British cave diver who helped rescue that Thai soccer team last year, a "pedo guy."

The most important resource

And yet, here we are, talking about whether Musk really did Meme Review (along side Roiland, who as Musk points out is the creator of the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty), as part of what is almost certainly the effort to help PewDiePie get more subscribers.

The alternatives here aren"t great. Either Musk is serious, in which case he"s taking time away from his most important responsibilities to do a show that"s controversial to say the least.

Or, the whole thing is just a trollish joke, in which case: why is Musk even involved in talking about this? How does he even have time to know about it?

I wrote recently about how Jeff Bezos explained in one sentence that he realizes how much of a distraction the National Enquirer blackmail scandal could have been -- and how much more important his time is than any other resource.

For Musk, the same is true. Time is what matters most. So why is he wasting it here?

And if we can"t come up with a good answer to that question, here"s another: Why would you still be willing to buy a Tesla?

With a Single 10-Word Tweet, Elon Musk Just Made a Stunning Announcement About How He Spends His Time

In this episode, I"ll start by sharing a tweet that Musk posted on Twitter Monday afternoon.

I will then explain the insane background of the story from two crucial angles--one about the tweet itself, and one about the insane thing it says about Musk.

In case that didn"t embed for some reason, it"s Musk tweeting simply, "Did meme review last night with Justin Roiland from @RickandMorty."

Here are your promised two angles:

"Did meme review"

Okay, if you"re not initiated in what I"m about to explain, just know that this part of the story is going to seem like a creative writing class dropped acid before doing a group project.

There"s a Swedish YouTuber named Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, who is 29 years old and goes by PewDiePie, and who is basically the most successful single YouTuber of all time.

Forbes estimated then that he he was making $12 million a year. A lot has happened since, but two key things for our purposes stand out:

Second, he"s locked in an epic battle with a giant Indian music company called T-Series, over which can get more YouTube subscribers. As I write this late on Tuesday evening, the score is:

• PewDiePie 86,303,046 


• T-Series 86,250,944

It"s neck-and-neck, and it seems as if almost any tiny little edge could give PewDiePie or T-Series the victory.

If only there were an eccentric billionaire who might provide that edge...

Hi, I"m Elon Musk

Okay. In telling that story, especially the part about the battle for YouTube subscribers, I"m reminded of an old quote: "Academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small."

Kind of the same thing here. But, you also need to know that PewDiePie hosts a YouTube show called Meme Review. That"s the show Musk was saying he took time from his schedule to do.

There"s actually a whole debate right now online about whether Musk actually did the show, or if he"s just trolling everyone. But for our purposes, whether he did or not is more a matter of degree.

Because for someone like Musk, who is the CEO of one public company and at least two private ones, his time should be at a premium.

We"d be saying that even if Musk hadn"t laid off 7 percent of Tesla"s workforce less than a month ago.

Or if he hadn"t tweeted his way into an SEC oversight investigation, or a lawsuit over calling a British cave diver who helped rescue that Thai soccer team last year, a "pedo guy."

The most important resource

And yet, here we are, talking about whether Musk really did Meme Review (along side Roiland, who as Musk points out is the creator of the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty), as part of what is almost certainly the effort to help PewDiePie get more subscribers.

The alternatives here aren"t great. Either Musk is serious, in which case he"s taking time away from his most important responsibilities to do a show that"s controversial to say the least.

Or, the whole thing is just a trollish joke, in which case: why is Musk even involved in talking about this? How does he even have time to know about it?

I wrote recently about how Jeff Bezos explained in one sentence that he realizes how much of a distraction the National Enquirer blackmail scandal could have been -- and how much more important his time is than any other resource.

For Musk, the same is true. Time is what matters most. So why is he wasting it here?

And if we can"t come up with a good answer to that question, here"s another: Why would you still be willing to buy a Tesla?

With a Single 10-Word Tweet, Elon Musk Just Made a Stunning Announcement About How He Spends His Time

In this episode, I"ll start by sharing a tweet that Musk posted on Twitter Monday afternoon.

I will then explain the insane background of the story from two crucial angles--one about the tweet itself, and one about the insane thing it says about Musk.

In case that didn"t embed for some reason, it"s Musk tweeting simply, "Did meme review last night with Justin Roiland from @RickandMorty."

Here are your promised two angles:

"Did meme review"

Okay, if you"re not initiated in what I"m about to explain, just know that this part of the story is going to seem like a creative writing class dropped acid before doing a group project.

There"s a Swedish YouTuber named Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, who is 29 years old and goes by PewDiePie, and who is basically the most successful single YouTuber of all time.

Forbes estimated then that he he was making $12 million a year. A lot has happened since, but two key things for our purposes stand out:

Second, he"s locked in an epic battle with a giant Indian music company called T-Series, over which can get more YouTube subscribers. As I write this late on Tuesday evening, the score is:

• PewDiePie 86,303,046 


• T-Series 86,250,944

It"s neck-and-neck, and it seems as if almost any tiny little edge could give PewDiePie or T-Series the victory.

If only there were an eccentric billionaire who might provide that edge...

Hi, I"m Elon Musk

Okay. In telling that story, especially the part about the battle for YouTube subscribers, I"m reminded of an old quote: "Academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small."

Kind of the same thing here. But, you also need to know that PewDiePie hosts a YouTube show called Meme Review. That"s the show Musk was saying he took time from his schedule to do.

There"s actually a whole debate right now online about whether Musk actually did the show, or if he"s just trolling everyone. But for our purposes, whether he did or not is more a matter of degree.

Because for someone like Musk, who is the CEO of one public company and at least two private ones, his time should be at a premium.

We"d be saying that even if Musk hadn"t laid off 7 percent of Tesla"s workforce less than a month ago.

Or if he hadn"t tweeted his way into an SEC oversight investigation, or a lawsuit over calling a British cave diver who helped rescue that Thai soccer team last year, a "pedo guy."

The most important resource

And yet, here we are, talking about whether Musk really did Meme Review (along side Roiland, who as Musk points out is the creator of the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty), as part of what is almost certainly the effort to help PewDiePie get more subscribers.

The alternatives here aren"t great. Either Musk is serious, in which case he"s taking time away from his most important responsibilities to do a show that"s controversial to say the least.

Or, the whole thing is just a trollish joke, in which case: why is Musk even involved in talking about this? How does he even have time to know about it?

I wrote recently about how Jeff Bezos explained in one sentence that he realizes how much of a distraction the National Enquirer blackmail scandal could have been -- and how much more important his time is than any other resource.

For Musk, the same is true. Time is what matters most. So why is he wasting it here?

And if we can"t come up with a good answer to that question, here"s another: Why would you still be willing to buy a Tesla?

Exclusive: China regulator requests pause in new game applications to clear backlog - sources

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s top content regulator has asked local authorities to stop submitting requests to monetize new video games while it processes a backlog of applications built up after a lengthy pause last year, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

FILE PHOTO: A man plays a computer game at an internet cafe in Beijing,China May 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) issued the notice this week, the people said, indicating the impact on gaming stocks of the nine-month hiatus could continue and dulling hopes raised by the recent resumption of approvals.

The regulator’s notice has not previously been reported.

Shares of industry leader Tencent Holdings Ltd, which were up 2.2 percent in morning trading, pared back gains to trade about 1 percent higher after the Reuters report was published. Shares of smaller players also slid.

China stopped approving the monetization of new titles last March amid a regulatory body reshuffle triggered by growing criticism of games being violent and addictive, as well as concern over the increase in myopia among young people.

Gaming firms such as Tencent - China’s most valuable listed company - were able to continue filing applications, building up a backlog. They could also distribute new titles but were unable to earn any income from them, such as through in-game purchases.

The regulator resumed processing applications in December, with industry insiders estimating at least 5,000 games await approval. In China, game companies file applications to local authorities which in turn submit them to the regulator.

“The regulator asked local authorities to stop submitting applications because there is too much of a backlog for it to deal with at the moment,” said one of the people, whose company was informed about the matter by its local authority.

Game companies will still be able to file applications but they will no longer be passed on to the Beijing regulator while it deals with applications already in hand, said a second person.

The people declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media on the matter.

GAPP and the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, which oversees GAPP, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The approval freeze dragged down shares in Tencent and wiped billions of dollars off its market value. Among titles for which Tencent is awaiting a license to monetize is “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile”, which industry insiders estimate could generate annual revenue of up to $1 billion.

The freeze has also hit many smaller companies that rely on a number of game releases each year.

The regulator approved 1,982 domestic and foreign online games during January-March last year before the freeze, government data showed. It approved 9,651 domestic and foreign online games in all of 2017.

It has approved 538 games since December.

Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

With a Single 10-Word Tweet, Elon Musk Just Made a Stunning Announcement About How He Spends His Time

In this episode, I"ll start by sharing a tweet that Musk posted on Twitter Monday afternoon.

I will then explain the insane background of the story from two crucial angles--one about the tweet itself, and one about the insane thing it says about Musk.

In case that didn"t embed for some reason, it"s Musk tweeting simply, "Did meme review last night with Justin Roiland from @RickandMorty."

Here are your promised two angles:

"Did meme review"

Okay, if you"re not initiated in what I"m about to explain, just know that this part of the story is going to seem like a creative writing class dropped acid before doing a group project.

There"s a Swedish YouTuber named Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, who is 29 years old and goes by PewDiePie, and who is basically the most successful single YouTuber of all time.

Forbes estimated then that he he was making $12 million a year. A lot has happened since, but two key things for our purposes stand out:

Second, he"s locked in an epic battle with a giant Indian music company called T-Series, over which can get more YouTube subscribers. As I write this late on Tuesday evening, the score is:

• PewDiePie 86,303,046 


• T-Series 86,250,944

It"s neck-and-neck, and it seems as if almost any tiny little edge could give PewDiePie or T-Series the victory.

If only there were an eccentric billionaire who might provide that edge...

Hi, I"m Elon Musk

Okay. In telling that story, especially the part about the battle for YouTube subscribers, I"m reminded of an old quote: "Academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small."

Kind of the same thing here. But, you also need to know that PewDiePie hosts a YouTube show called Meme Review. That"s the show Musk was saying he took time from his schedule to do.

There"s actually a whole debate right now online about whether Musk actually did the show, or if he"s just trolling everyone. But for our purposes, whether he did or not is more a matter of degree.

Because for someone like Musk, who is the CEO of one public company and at least two private ones, his time should be at a premium.

We"d be saying that even if Musk hadn"t laid off 7 percent of Tesla"s workforce less than a month ago.

Or if he hadn"t tweeted his way into an SEC oversight investigation, or a lawsuit over calling a British cave diver who helped rescue that Thai soccer team last year, a "pedo guy."

The most important resource

And yet, here we are, talking about whether Musk really did Meme Review (along side Roiland, who as Musk points out is the creator of the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty), as part of what is almost certainly the effort to help PewDiePie get more subscribers.

The alternatives here aren"t great. Either Musk is serious, in which case he"s taking time away from his most important responsibilities to do a show that"s controversial to say the least.

Or, the whole thing is just a trollish joke, in which case: why is Musk even involved in talking about this? How does he even have time to know about it?

I wrote recently about how Jeff Bezos explained in one sentence that he realizes how much of a distraction the National Enquirer blackmail scandal could have been -- and how much more important his time is than any other resource.

For Musk, the same is true. Time is what matters most. So why is he wasting it here?

And if we can"t come up with a good answer to that question, here"s another: Why would you still be willing to buy a Tesla?