Enterprise
Alibaba’s Jack Ma hasn’t been seen in two months, what’s happening?
China is also clamping down on big tech
Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, hasn’t been seen in public for the last two months. Since October, he hasn’t made a public appearance or posted anything on social media.
He was also supposed to appear on a TV show as a judge, but even that didn’t materialize. The last Ma was seen publicly was in Shanghai, where he criticized China’s regulatory system amid Ant’s IPO. Soon after the speech, Chinese regulators blocked the world’s largest IPO that was valued at a whopping US$ 37 billion.
Ant is a financial company that leverages Alipay’s reach to offer loans and investment options to the average user. Lending in China is a cumbersome process, and Ant was able to find a middle-way by using technology and user data to ease automated lending. However, it’s now ordered to overhaul large swaths of its business to prevent monopolistic behavior.
A CNBC report says that Ma is lying low, but not missing. The revelation comes after the internet was abuzz with Ma’s disappearance, and many thought China’s opaque law had gobbled him. Even though it sounds like an exaggeration, incidents like these are commonly reported in China, and the disappearances are usually state-backed.
While American lawmakers are trying to curb the growth of big tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, Chinese authorities are also pursuing their own big tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent.
The crackdown on Ma’s businesses has wiped more than US$ 10B from his net worth and knocked him into second place on the list of China’s richest people.
While Ma has been out of the spotlight, his companies have made it clear that they are listening to Beijing. Both Alibaba and Ant are cooperating with the regulator, and a few steps have already been taken, like closing down music streaming app Xiami. We expect more announcements in the coming months.
Read Also: Everything you need to know about the congressional big tech hearing
Enterprise
Cebu Pacific becomes 1st SEA low-cost carrier with Starlink Wi-Fi
Rollout expected to begin in 2027
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.
Enterprise
Google ordered to pay EUR 4.1 billion in fines
The EU alleges that Google uses its apps to establish an unfair dominance.
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.
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.
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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