In the earlier days of the Internet, tech companies relied on free content to attract users. As the volume of digital content surged, however, quality did not necessarily keep up. It was a struggle to weed through low-quality content, and the time-poor, money-rich in China were willing to pay someone else to do the curating. This was when Ximalaya invited users to become hosts themselves and began to leverage their reputation to charge a fee for their content. With high accessibility, a growing awareness of intellectual property among Chinese netizens, and the convenience of mobile payments Ximalaya got the Chinese to pay for digital content. Ximalaya now has over 5 million hosts who curate and advertise their content, driving sales for the company as a result.Continue Reading

HOOQ, a premium video-on-demand streaming service, is a joint venture between Warner Media, Sony and Singtel (Asia’s leading communications group). Sony and Warner Media provide a library and develop customized content while Singtel provides captive access to its mobile subscriber base in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. The challenge HOOQ faced was much of their subscriber base would view content on mobile devices, which under current networks can take hours to download or have high latency, Continue Reading

On February 17th 2020, the richest man alive announced that he will donate about 8% of his fortune to fighting climate change. Jeff Bezos, the founder and one of the current shareholders of Amazon, made this announcement through his Instagram account saying that he will donate 10 billion USD to fund “scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world.” After seeing that post, many people had the same question in their mind: Where exactly will this money go?Continue Reading