Phoenix Network Technology News Beijing time on January 5 th news, what happened in the science and technology circle last night and this morning, the following is a review of the news:
Pay attention to Pinduoduo first:
The sudden death of employees caused controversy. Pinduoduo’s share price fell 6%
The sudden death of a 23-year-old female employee in Pinduoduo has attracted the attention of the industry, while Zhihu’s statement of "trading her life for money" in a certified account in Pinduoduo has caused controversy. CCTV and other media have called on Internet companies to let employees stay up late, not overdraw, and protect strugglers. As of Monday’s close, Pinduoduo’s share price dropped 6.13% to $166.78, with a market value of $204.5 billion.
Pinduoduo apologized for Zhihu’s inappropriate comments on the account: the account control was not strict, which was personally done by the supplier’s employees.
Figure 1: The theory of "exchanging life for money" in Pinduoduo Zhihu account.
After Pinduoduo denied that the official Zhihu account of the company had deleted the reply to the employee’s death, Zhihu officially released Weibo that Pinduoduo was a registered user in Zhihu and his identity was true and correct, and said that Pinduoduo deleted the reply by itself after creating the relevant answer. In this regard, Pinduoduo officials responded that after investigation, the content was released by employees of Pinduoduo marketing cooperative suppliers on personal mobile phones, which did not represent any official attitude of Pinduoduo. At the same time, Pinduoduo apologized for the lax control of official accounts. (Blue Whale Finance)
Pay attention to Apple first:
Guo Ming: Apple will release the first AR device, AirTag and new AirPods this year.
Figure 2: exposed AirTags
Guo Ming, a well-known Apple analyst at Tianfeng International Securities, released a new report on Monday, looking forward to the products that Apple will release this year. He pointed out that Apple will release its first augmented reality (AR) device, AirTag tracker and new AirPods headphones in 2021. Guo Ming did not disclose the details of the AR equipment, but he said earlier that Apple’s first AR glasses will be highly dependent on the iPhone. In addition, Apple will continue the transition to Apple’s self-developed chip. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is expected to become the first iPad model to switch to mini-LED screen. According to media reports, it will be listed in the first quarter. The new AirPods will also be released this year. The rumored AirPods Pro Lite is said to replace the non-Pro version of AirPods, and its design is similar or exactly the same as AirPods Pro.
Britain imposed a nationwide blockade, and Apple closed all 38 retail stores.
Apple will close all British retail stores during the third nationwide blockade in response to the surge in cases and hospitalizations in COVID-19. On Monday, British Prime Minister Johnson reimposed the blockade and adopted stricter restrictions until mid-February. The blockade order requires the closure of non-essential businesses, including retail stores and mobile phone stores selling "electronic goods". Affected by the new restrictions, Apple will temporarily close all 38 retail stores in the UK.
IPhone 13 will be equipped with optical radar, not only Pro model.
Among the iPhone 12 series models released last year, Apple equipped the two models, the iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max, with LiDAR laser radar to provide depth sensing function. According to a supply chain report quoted by foreign media 9to5Mac, Apple will equip the whole iPhone 13 with LiDAR lidar this year, not just the "Pro" model. The report also pointed out that Apple has signed an agreement with Sony to ensure that the LiDAR will be used in the iPhone at least until 2023. (IT house)
Other news:
With 16 days left in Trump’s term, it is increasingly impossible to reform social media immunity.
President Trump and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai have only 16 days left in their terms of office. At present, it seems less and less likely that Pai will take measures to shrink the legal protection that social media companies get under the 1996 Communications Regulation Act. It is still unclear whether the newly appointed third Republican member of the FCC will join this action. On October 15th last year, Pai said that new rules would be formulated to define the platform content immunity enjoyed by social media according to Article 230 of the Communication Regulation Act, in response to the Trump administration’s request in July. However, since October, Pai has not taken any further measures in response to the government’s request. After the Committee meeting in November and December, he cancelled his regular press conference and preferred not to add any discussion on Article 230 to the agenda of the meeting on January 13.
Amazon, Xiaomo and Berkshire Medical Joint Venture, which was founded only three years ago, will close.
Figure 3: Amazon CEO Bezos
In 2018, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced the establishment of a health care joint venture company, Haven Health, seeking to "reform the health care industry" and cut costs for hundreds of thousands of employees by merging the resources and technologies of the three companies. This high-profile company once caused the share prices of major insurance companies to fall. Now, however, Haven Health will stop running in February, failing to achieve the set goal. According to people familiar with the matter, the goal of reforming the medical industry is too difficult to accomplish.
Foxconn: Baiteng Automobile signed a strategic cooperation agreement to promote mass production in the first quarter of next year.
According to the Taiwan Province Economic Daily, Hon Hai Technology Group said that its Foxconn Technology Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Baiteng Automobile and Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone to jointly accelerate the mass production of the first model M-Byte of Baiteng, and strive to achieve mass production of the M-Byte in the first quarter of 2022. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that Foxconn planned to invest $200 million in Baiteng Automobile, a new car-making force that had been shut down before. If the investment is reached, the money will become the life-saving money of Baiteng Automobile. However, Taiwan Province Economic Daily pointed out in the report that the scope of the cooperation agreement signed by the two parties is limited to business cooperation, and there is no direct investment relationship so far, that is to say, there is no investment of 200 million US dollars. (The Paper)
British court refused American extradition of Assange.
The Central Criminal Court in London, England, ruled on the 4th that it did not agree with the US government’s extradition of julian assange, the founder of Wikileaks website. On the same day, British judge Vanessa Barrett ruled that the refusal of extradition was due to Assange’s mental health problems, because there was evidence that Assange had self-injured and suicidal tendencies, and she was worried that the United States would not be able to stop Assange from seeking suicide. "The overall impression he gives is depression, sometimes even despair, and he is afraid of his future." Assange’s lawyer believes that once Assange is extradited to the United States and convicted, he will face up to 175 years in prison. (Xinhua News Agency)
Twitter buys social podcast app Breaker.
Twitter announced that it has acquired Breaker, a social podcast application. Team Breaker will join Twitter to help improve the "public dialogue health" on the platform and develop Twitter’s new audio network project Twitter Spaces. The Breaker app will be closed on January 15th this year.
Google employees founded the first trade union in the company’s history.
According to CNN, hundreds of employees of Google and its parent company Alphabet launched a trade union, which is a rare step in the technology industry and the biggest and most organized challenge to the company’s administrative leadership so far. On Monday morning, local time, the Alphabet Trade Union announced that the organization would be managed by employees and accept full-time employees and contractors of the company. (Interface News)
Didi plans to go to Hong Kong in 2021 with an IPO valuation of about 60 billion to 80 billion US dollars.
LatePost learned exclusively that Didi plans to go public in 2021, and the place of listing may be Hong Kong, with a target valuation of about 60-80 billion US dollars, and is currently in contact with investment banks including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. It is reported that due to the "safety accident on the windmill" and the epidemic situation, the business volume of Didi Travel has dropped significantly. Therefore, in the private equity market, the trading price of some shares of Didi is much lower than the $56 billion valuation obtained in 2017. (Mobile phone China)
Bitcoin once fell below the $28,000 mark.
As of 21: 49 on January 4th, Bitcoin plunged sharply in the intraday trading, with a minimum of $27,777. At present, it is temporarily reported at $30,997.75, down $2,862.61 from the daily high, and once plunged more than 15% in the intraday trading. According to CNBC, HenriArslarian, head of global cryptocurrency at PwC, said that the soaring bitcoin in recent weeks was partly driven by more large institutional investors entering the market. (national business daily (blog, Weibo))