Enterprise
YouTube Shopping affiliate program now in the Philippines
YouTube Shopping completes Southeast Asia expansion to six countries
YouTube Shopping, in partnership with Shopee, is now in the Philippines. This solidifies YouTube Shopping’s Southeast Asia footprint, completing its expansion in the region to six countries total.
The YouTube Shopping affiliate program also had launches in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Philippines became the last stop to complete the expansion.
With video commerce flourishing in the region, YouTube Shopping tying up with one of the major ecommerce players in Southeast Asia in Shopee elevates the purchase experience.
It also creates more opportunities for content creators and even advertisers to earn income by leveraging their influence through promoting products to their subscribers.
To get started, eligible local creators will need more than 10,000 subscribers, according to the YouTube Shopping affiliate program. Their channel must also be part of the YouTube Partner Program.
Moreover, the channel should not be set as “Made for Kids”. It should not be a music or Official Artist channel either.
If qualified, creators simply have to open YouTube Studio, tap Earn, and then tap Get Started on the affiliate program section.
Tagging products is likewise simple. Creators can either search by name or paste the link of the Shopee product. They can place up to 30 products in one video. They can also see how much commission they can earn from a specific product.
For consumers, YouTube Shopping streamlines the purchasing process. It eliminates the old-school way of having to look for the link to products in the description of the YouTube video. Or worse, users opening multiple tabs and having to search for those products.
For instance, cosmetics products while watching makeup reviews or sports apparel from recreational athletes with YouTube channels.
Video commerce, creator economy on the rise
YouTube Shopping’s expansion to Southeast Asia isn’t a leap of faith. The ASEAN region has the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce markets, with video commerce accounting for 20% of all e-commerce gross merchandise value in 2024.
That means one in every five products sold online was purchased from watching a video of that product.
Internet users from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand also spend more time on social media than the global average.
The partnership is seen to drive sales like never before while accelerating product discovery, brand reach, and conversion rates.
YouTube undoubtedly still remains a top content consumption social media platform. That’s in spite of the rise of TikTok over the past few years, and Meta introducing reels for Facebook and Instagram. Shopee also remains one of the most trusted e-commerce apps in the region.
Enterprise
AMD poised to lead agentic AI era with high-performance CPUs
AMD is prepared to lead the industry in its agentic AI era with their high-performance CPU strategy.
As the industry pivots from simple AI models to agentic AI systems that are capable of independent planning and decision-making, the CPU is reclaiming its role as the critical “head coach” of the data center.
This was noted by AMD CEO and Chair Dr. Lisa Su during the AMD Advancing AI event last year. The rise of autonomous agents has transformed inference into a complex and multi-step workflow that demands sophisticated logic and orchestration.
And while high-performance GPUs are necessary to generate insights in real time, the surrounding infrastructure is just as important.
This is where CPUs enter the picture. Their performance and efficiency are more important than ever in the overall performance of modern AI infrastructure.
And AMD delivers an advantage with their offerings. In recently published data, a 5th Gen AMD EPYC CPU-based system is estimated to perform up to 2.1x better per core against an NVIDIA Grace Superchip-based system.
The same system AMD-based system also delivers up to 2.26x uplift on SPECpower, measuring operations per watt.
The x86 CPU architecture gives customers the advantage of a broad, proven software ecosystem that can run existing workloads natively.
This avoids the costly refactoring and code-base duplication often required when switching to Arm-based alternatives.
Looking ahead, AMD is doubling down on the balanced system philosophy. Future architectures such as the “Venice” CPUs will power the “Helios” rack-scale AI design.
By integrating EPYC CPUs with Instinct GPUs and the ROCm software stack, AMD aims to maximize cluster-level performance and lower the total cost of ownership in the agentic era.
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? After a year of wrestling through tariffs from the current American administration, Nintendo has decided to sue the United States.
Last year, the Trump administration was trigger-happy with implement tariffs on countries everywhere. Though the controversy mostly circulated around geopolitics, major corporations also found themselves on the receiving end of Trump’s ire. All over the world, the tariffs sparked product delays and price hikes.
Nintendo is no exception. As a result of the fiasco, the company had to delay the launch of the Switch 2, in anticipation of disruptions caused by the tariffs. First reported by Aftermath, the Japanese gaming giant is now going after the American government over refunds associated with the tariffs.
Now, the tariffs aren’t a big issue anymore. Notably, the Supreme Court scratched off the White House’s implementations that the former found illegal. While a big sigh of relief for future business, corporations like Nintendo have already paid duties and deposits in the past. As a result, Nintendo is now looking for recompense for what they paid before.
Nintendo isn’t the first company to seek restitution over the illegal tariffs. Others, including FedEx and Revlon, are also asking for refunds. However, the Japanese giant is certainly one of the biggest names to cross the government’s path. After all, the company is notoriously litigious over anything it considers as an affront to its business, including small streamers using Pokémon on their broadcasts.
With all its global resources, Nintendo likely won’t just give up without a fight.
SEE ALSO: The Nintendo Switch is now Nintendo’s best-selling console ever
Enterprise
Paramount wins bid for HBO Max, plans to merge streaming apps
It’s all part of the deal to acquire the Warner Bros. library.
Last year ended with the bombshell announcement that Netflix might buy the entire Warner Bros. library. However, after some finagling and a rocky start, Paramount has now emerged as the main suitor for the lucrative library.
At the end of last year, it seemed all but confirmed that the gigantic Warner Bros. library was coming to Netflix as part of a huge buyout deal. This became even clearer when Warner Bros. Discovery rejected Paramount’s initial bid to counter Netflix. However, Paramount recently revised its offer to an astounding US$ 110 billion, or US$ 31 per share, which Warner Bros. Discovery signed off on. Netflix passed on the opportunity for a counteroffer, making Paramount the sole bidder.
Today, Paramount has announced that, if the deal pushes through, they will merge Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service. This means that Paramount’s CBS, Comedy Central, and MTV will be under the same roof as DC, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Mission: Impossible.
The value of the above names alone makes this into one of the most lucrative deals for Paramount. However, it’s not without its drawbacks. The combined entity will reportedly carry US$ 79 billion in net debt for both purchasing Warner Bros. and refinancing the newly purchased property.
Currently, the deal is expected to go through regulatory approval ending in the second half of 2026.
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