Al Bilad newspaper The launch of the Saudi International Luxury Week 2024 – 2024-04-25 00:47:07

The Saudi International Luxury Week is set to dazzle attendees once again, as it returns to the Kingdom with a display of luxury in watches and jewellery. This prestigious event, a highlight in the Kingdom’s calendar, will extend to multiple cities, starting in Jeddah from April 27 to 30, 2024, before… Moving to Riyadh from May 5 to 9 next.
Saudi International Luxury Week 2024 offers an unparalleled opportunity to explore an incredible collection of rare gemstones, loose diamonds, natural pearls and unique pieces, and many of these luxury items are being introduced to the Saudi market for the first time. The event also includes a carefully selected collection of handcrafted Swiss-made watches, unique fine jewelry and bridal sets, in addition to innovative luxury jewelry.
More than 100 brands from around the world will witness the event, bringing with them a wealth of diverse design philosophies, centuries-old expertise, and exceptional craftsmanship. These brands come from countries as diverse as the Kingdom of Bahrain, Australia, Brazil, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Qatar, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, and of course the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia itself.

Al-Bilad newspaper alerts various profitable electronic news platforms to the need to be careful, as stipulated in the law concerned with protecting intellectual property rights, regarding the illegality of transferring or quoting the content of this journalistic material, even if the source is indicated.

The TikTok Lite App Faces⁣ Scrutiny in the EU

The recent⁤ launch of the light version of the TikTok app in two EU countries introduced⁤ a ⁣reward feature that compensated users⁢ with a small daily amount for engaging with videos. This move prompted European regulators to initiate an ​inquiry due to concerns about the potential addictive nature of ⁣the feature, especially among young individuals. In response to the investigation, TikTok ⁤has decided to suspend the feature ⁣in the EU.

TikTok Lite: ​A Brief ​Overview

TikTok Lite serves as ​a streamlined alternative to the main TikTok app, catering to users with slower internet connections. While it⁤ has been accessible in⁤ certain Asian regions for some time, its availability expanded⁤ to⁤ France and Spain recently. Within the app, ⁢there exists a rewards system that offers users “coins” for various activities such as logging in, viewing advertisements, and liking videos. These coins can be ⁣exchanged ‌for rewards like Amazon vouchers and PayPal gift cards. ‌However, the earnings from ​engaging with the app are relatively modest, with​ an hour of video watching only yielding around ⁤36‍ euro cents.

Regulatory Concerns and Actions

Related

Yahoo line homepage.

Naver, the main Korean Internet company, is in a position to lose the management rights of its Japanese affiliate Yahoo. Line Yahoo is a company half-owned by Naver and Japan’s Softbank, and is a company that serves Japan’s national messenger ‘Line’ developed by Naver and the largest portal site ‘Yahoo ‘ operated by Softbank. After Naver’s cloud (virtual server), which manages Line’s customer information, was hacked in November last year, the Japanese government is demanding that Naver liquidate its shares in Yahoo’s Line. This is because “Korean companies exercise control rights, so their response to hacking is insufficient.”

According to local Japanese media on the 24th, Softbank Japan is said to have asked Naver to sell shares of ‘A Holdings’, a holding company that holds a 64.5% stake in Line Yahoo. Naver and Softbank each own 50% of ‘A Holdings’ shares. Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued administrative guidelines to Yahoo Line last month regarding the hacking incident and pressured the company to end its equity relationship with Naver on two occasions. Japan’s Kyodo News reported, “If Softbank acquires even a few additional shares of A Holdings (from Naver), it may take over the management of Line Yahoo.”

Usually, when a hacking incident like this happens, the government demands supplementary measures and imposes fines and other penalties, but it is extremely rare to request the cancellation of shares in this way. This is why some interpret this measure as “the Japanese government’s intention to change the situation where the country’s representative platform is owned by a Korean company.”

Just as the US government and Congress are recently pursuing a policy of forcing the sale of the US business of the Chinese video app TikTok, there is a move to expel the platforms of hostile companies due to the possibility of “misuse of information.” However, Naver Line is noted to have a completely different personality. Korea and Japan may have conflicting diplomatic interests, but basically they are friends. In particular, since its establishment, the Yoon Seok-yeol government has worked with the United States to improve bilateral relations in order to respond to China’s expansion. In this situation, there are concerns that targeting Korean companies and threatening their management rights by raising concerns about ‘leaking information’ could become a diplomatic issue.

Graphics = Lee Cheol-win

Line Yahoo was created through a merger of leading IT companies from Korea and Japan. It is known that in 2019 Softbank Chairman Masayoshi Son first proposed cooperation with Naver’s Line, the No. 1 messenger service at the time, saying it would complete a platform covering online business such as search , shopping, courier, and simple payment.

Line is the most used messenger app in Japan. Monthly active users (MAU) reach 96 million. 80% of Japan’s population (about 122 million people) are Line users. Line was developed and launched by NHN Japan, a Japanese subsidiary of Naver, in 2011. The background to the development of the line is the Great East Japan Earthquake, which terrified the people of Japan. After the earthquake in March 2011, a tsunami wreaked havoc in Japan, with no one knowing if their friends or family were alive or dead. Lee Hae-jin, chairman of Naver’s board of directors at the time, suggested, “Let’s create a service that connects valuable people through a ‘hotline,’” and the service was launched three months later.

Graphics = Lee Cheol-win

◇ Ignoring the joint management agreement and putting pressure on the sale of shares.

With the merger of Line and Yahoo, Naver and Softbank equally divided 50% of the shares in the holding company, A Holdings. Both companies hold exactly the same number of shares, without the usual ‘50% + 1 share’ to ensure control rights for one side during mergers and acquisitions between companies. The two companies agreed to merge at the end of 2019 and agreed to ‘jointly exercise management rights’ when the integrated corporation is launched in 2021.

Graphics = Lee Cheol-win

Despite the agreement at the time, the Japanese government’s administrative leadership was behind Softbank’s request to sell its shares. Last month, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued administrative guidelines to Yahoo Line for over 510,000 leaks of personal information that occurred in November last year. Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications defined the cause of the personal information leak as ‘due to excessive reliance on Naver for system work’ and issued administrative guidelines to the effect of ‘preparing improvement measures, including a review of the shareholding relationship with Naver. ‘ Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications recently issued a second administrative guideline ordering Line Yahoo to submit an improvement plan again by July 1, although it recently introduced a measure to prevent a recurrence, ‘reduce and terminate the scale of the system load with Naver ‘. Softbank was asked to ‘further strengthen its capital participation in Line Yahoo.’ In fact, the Japanese government is asking for a change in the ownership of private companies. Japan’s Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, Takeaki Matsumoto, said, “We expect LINE Yahoo to take the situation seriously and respond thoroughly.” That’s why some say the Japanese government intends to completely exclude Korean companies from the control of Line, which is used by more than 96 million Japanese people every month, under the pretext of ‘cyber security measures’.

Administrative guidelines are an act in which Japanese government departments request cooperation from individuals or companies to achieve administrative goals, and it is not legally binding. However, in Japan, where bureaucracy is strong, it is difficult to find a precedent where companies such as NTT, KDDI, and Softbank did not follow the administrative lead of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

◇ “Interference with the management of companies in friendly countries is unusual.”

Naver is considering various countermeasures, including strengthening service security and revisiting equity relationships. However, it is known that there is strong internal resistance to forced sales of shares for irrational reasons. An official from a domestic platform company said, “Japan is putting pressure on foreign platforms because of its own ‘data sovereignty,’” and added, “Since Naver is at the forefront of technology, it will not be pushed out unilaterally .”

In the IT industry, there is a reaction that it is very unusual to put pressure on a company in a friendly country that collaborates with a domestic company to sell its shares. This is because there is almost no possibility that Naver will use the information of Japanese customers for purposes other than commercial purposes. It is noted that if this situation is prolonged, it could pour cold water not only on the economic exchanges between the two countries but also on improving diplomatic relations. An IT industry official said, “The expulsion of foreign platform companies is essentially a message that no one trusts the country in question.”

☞ LINE

It is a Japanese national messenger with 96 million users in Japan, and was developed by NHN Japan, the Japanese branch of Naver, in 2011. It is currently operated by ‘Line Yahoo (LY Corporation)’ , a Japanese company whose largest shareholder is a holding company (A Holdings) in which Naver and Japan’s Softbank each have a half share.

#dealing #hostile #country.. #Japan #encourages #Korean #companies #sell #shares #leave

Related