Tech
Chinese media hail consumption boost even as caution spurs rentals, not buying
China’s domestic demand is gathering pace as cautious consumers increasingly choose to rent items from cameras to handbags rather than buy them, the official People’s Daily said, though government data tell a different story.
The rise of the “rent, not buy” model has injected new impetus into the world’s second-largest economy, the paper said in an upbeat commentary on Monday, flagging a trend that provides businesses with a “new perspective”.
As China’s domestic demand weakened this year, reluctance to spend has fed a boom in rentals, with internet platforms letting consumers hire a drone, for example, at 1 yuan (14 cents) a day, versus a typical cost of more than 5,000 yuan ($685).
For 35 yuan, one can get a “99% new” Louis Vuitton handbag, a listing on a popular app showed.
New forms of demand are giving rise to new consumption formats with “huge” potential, the paper said.
State media typically talk up China’s consumption outlook even when government data flag a more sobering trend.
Retail sales of consumer goods grew just 3.5% in the period from January to November compared with a year earlier, statistics show, as a low-base effect that helped boost 2023’s post-pandemic retail sales by 7.2% faded.
The bleak retail landscape stretches beyond small towns and cities to the capital, Beijing, which reported a fall of 2.8% in retail sales from January to November, far below the national figure.
And upcoming Taiwanese TV drama ‘Zero Day’ promises to show Taiwanese audiences what a war with China might look like.
To spur consumption, China launched a trade-in scheme this year offering subsidies for purchases when consumers trade in old appliances, bicycles and even cars.
Officials say sales surpassed 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) this year under the programme, “unlocking” a wave of consumption yet to show up in government data.
China has leaned heavily on manufacturing and exports this year, with household demand deep in the doldrums as a years-long real estate slump depressed consumer wealth and confidence.
Economists have urged Beijing to take a more consumer-focused turn in its policies.
At a meeting this month, top officials of the ruling Communist Party said China ought to “vigorously” boost consumption next year and seek to expand domestic demand “in all directions”.
“With the development of (China’s) economy and society, the trend of consumption upgrading is obvious,” the People’s Daily said. “But both are not advancing in step.”
OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank (9984.T) will each commit $19 billion to fund Stargate, a joint venture to develop data centers for artificial intelligence in the U.S., the Information reported on Wednesday.
The ChatGPT maker will hold a 40% interest in Stargate, and would act as an extension of OpenAI, the report said, citing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking to colleagues. His comments imply SoftBank would also have a 40% interest, the report added.
OpenAI and SoftBank did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank Group and Oracle (ORCL.N) will unveil Stargate and invest $500 billion over the next four years to help the United States stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race.
Stargate will initially deploy $100 billion and the rest of the funding is expected over the next four years. The project is being led by SoftBank and OpenAI.
Taiwan’s HTC (2498.TW) said on Thursday it will sell part of its unit for extended reality (XR) headsets and glasses to Google (GOOGL.O) for $250 million and transfer some of its employees to the U.S. company.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year, HTC said.
The two companies will also explore further collaboration opportunities, HTC added.
Google said in a separate statement that the deal will accelerate the development of the Android XR platform and strengthen the ecosystem for headsets and glasses.
Lu Chia-te, HTC vice president and general counsel, told reporters the company had granted its intellectual property rights to Google as a non-exclusive license.
“Therefore, this is not a buyout nor an exclusive licence. In the future, HTC will still retain the ability to use, utilise, and even further develop it without any restrictions,” he said.
Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) LinkedIn has been sued by Premium customers who said the business-focused social media platform disclosed their private messages to third parties without permission to train generative artificial intelligence models.
According to a proposed class action filed on Tuesday night on behalf of millions of LinkedIn Premium customers, LinkedIn quietly introduced a privacy setting last August that let users enable or disable the sharing of their personal data.
Customers said LinkedIn then discreetly updated its privacy policy on Sept. 18 to say data could be used to train AI models, and in a “frequently asked questions” hyperlink said opting out “does not affect training that has already taken place.”
This attempt to “cover its tracks” suggests LinkedIn was fully aware it violated customers’ privacy and its promise to use personal data only to support and improve its platform, in order to minimize public scrutiny and legal fallout, the complaint said.
The lawsuit was filed in the San Jose, California, federal court on behalf of LinkedIn Premium customers who sent or received InMail messages, and whose private information was disclosed to third parties for AI training before Sept. 18.
It seeks unspecified damages for breach of contract and violations of California’s unfair competition law, and $1,000 per person for violations of the federal Stored Communications Act.
A lawyer for Prince Harry on Wednesday said the Duke of Sussex had reached a settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s news conglomerate.
LinkedIn said in a statement: “These are false claims with no merit.”
A lawyer for the plaintiffs had no immediate additional comment.
The lawsuit was filed several hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a joint venture among Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Oracle (ORCL.N) and SoftBank (9984.T), with a potential $500 billion of investment, to build AI infrastructure in the United States.
OpenAI, SoftBank each commit 19bn dollars to Stargate AI data center
Taiwan’s HTC to sell part of XR unit to Google for 250mn dollars
Microsoft’s LinkedIn sued for disclosing customer information to train AI models
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