Enterprise

China blacklists the Houston Rockets because of a tweet

Chinese companies have canceled support

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Image source: Keith Allison

As we know now, a tweet can cause utter chaos in the real world. It’s far easier to take a short tweet out of context than a long-form piece. You should always be careful with what you tweet. That said, the world’s biggest basketball organization just caused a Twitter boo-boo.

More specifically, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey recently tweeted a pro-Hong Kong tweet on his personal account. The tweet contained an image and the statement “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” Hong Kong’s current pro-democracy protests are a focal point for international personalities. Morey’s support adds to the millions already supporting the country’s predicament.

Unfortunately, Morey’s tweet immediately sparked a wave of hatred especially from the Chinese Twitter population. Many accounts called for his firing. Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta posted a reply, saying Morey’s opinions are his own and not the Rocket’s as an organization. Instead of calming the seas, Fertitta’s tweet added fuel to the fire. Twitter was divided between people calling for Morey’s firing and people criticizing Fertitta for silencing Morey’s opinion.

Morey has since deleted the tweet and issued an apology tweet, further hammering the disclaimer that his opinions are not representative of the entire NBA. The damage, however, has already been done. China is angry.

Yao Ming, one of the team’s most popular players in history, has revoked support for the team. Yao is currently the president of the Chinese Basketball Association, which previously worked with the Rockets.

Additionally, Tencent Sports, China’s biggest streaming provider for the NBA in the country, has suspended its new five-year deal specifically for the Houston Rockets. As such, the service will not stream games featuring the Houston Rockets. A Chinese sports apparel brand, Li-Ning, has also canceled partnerships with the team and its players.

Currently, there is no plan to punish Morey. During Morey’s tenure as general manager, the Houston Rockets has enjoyed considerable postseason success in the NBA, headlined by superstar guard James Harden.

SEE ALSO: NBA 2K20 Review: A Worrisome Upgrade

Enterprise

Cebu Pacific becomes 1st SEA low-cost carrier with Starlink Wi-Fi

Rollout expected to begin in 2027

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Cebu Pacific has introduced Starlink, making it the first low-cost airline in Southeast Asia to bring Wi-Fi in the sky for passengers.

The rollout is expected to begin in 2027. Starlink delivers an unparalleled broadband experience inflight, with high-speed, low-latency Wi-Fi capable of HD streaming, online gaming, productivity and more.

Beyond enhancing the passenger experience, Starlink will also support improved operational connectivity for Cebu Pacific’s flight crews and operational teams. This enables better operational efficiency.

The collaboration is a significant milestone for Philippine aviation. The rollout forms part of Cebu Pacific’s continued investment in customer experience and digital innovation.

As part of the partnership, Cebu Pacific and Indigo Partners portfolio airlines, Wizz Air, and JetSMART expect to install Starlink on over 1,000 aircraft.

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Enterprise

Google ordered to pay EUR 4.1 billion in fines

The EU alleges that Google uses its apps to establish an unfair dominance.

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European fines have unintentionally become a normal part of doing business in the American technology space. For too long have American companies paid paltry fines to prevent harsher regulation in the European Union. Now, for the first time, Google is about to pay a record-breaking fine that goes beyond “paltry.”

Today, via CNBC, Google has been ordered to pay an astonishing EUR 4.1 billion (or approximately US$ 4.67 billion) in fines. The fine is in response to an anti-competition case.

This has been a long time coming for Google. The original case started in 2018. At the time, the European Union accused the brand of using anti-competitive practices to ensure its dominance in the smartphone market. According to the courts, the company’s bundling of first-party apps for every Android smartphone gives them an unfair advantage in the market and lessens the user’s choice in selecting apps.

For years, Google has fought the fine to seemingly no avail. Now, the company has lost its final attempt, which means that the fine still stands. On the bright side, they did get it reduced from the original EUR 4.34 billion fine.

The European Union is the scourge of every American tech company (and a godsend to consumers). Most notably, the continent’s government forced Apple to adopt USB-C, leading to a more universal experience across brands.

Google’s hefty fine aims to do the same. And it is quite hefty. Whereas previous fines were in the millions (and hence, negligible for most companies), a fine in the billions is more tangible.

SEE ALSO: Google might limit free storage to only 5GB

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Apps

foodpanda relaunches cult-favorite roast chicken brand after 8 years of persistent search queries

Heritage chain Andok’s returns to the platform, driven entirely by long-term user analytics.

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In the world of e-commerce and food delivery, platform algorithms usually dictate what consumers see. But occasionally, consumer behavior is so relentless that it shapes the platform’s strategy.

In a move driven entirely by long-term user analytics, foodpanda has officially relaunched Andok’s, one of the Philippines’ most iconic heritage rotisserie chains, back onto its platform after an eight-year absence.

The search bar as a digital wishlist

The decision to ink the partnership wasn’t just a marketing play. It was a response to an ongoing data anomaly. Despite being offline from the foodpanda platform for eight years, Andok’s consistently ranked as one of the most-searched merchants on the app.

Year after year, users treated the empty search results page as an unofficial wishlist. This persistent search intent gave foodpanda a clear, data-backed signal of pent-up demand.

Prior to the official digital rollout, teaser campaigns on social media validated this demand, generating thousands of organic interactions from users anticipating the return.

Bridging heritage flavor with digital infrastructure

For foodpanda, onboarding a merchant with this level of built-in demand fits its broader strategy of marketplace optimization and hyper-local network expansion, turning a heritage brand into another data point for how legacy retail plugs into delivery infrastructure.

For Andok’s, the integration works as a fast track to digital scale. A legacy quick-service chain skips years of independent app development and reaches customers already using foodpanda’s existing logistics network, on a platform they already check daily.

Andok’s built its following on charcoal spit-roasted chicken, a slow-cooked technique that’s stayed largely unchanged since the brand’s early days, alongside seasoned grilled pork belly.

More recently, the Dokito line extended that following into crispy fried chicken and chicken burgers, broadening the brand’s appeal beyond its original rotisserie format and giving foodpanda a menu with both heritage pull and everyday fast-food convenience.

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