Hey I’m Domm, it’s Thursday 2nd August 2018, and this is your daily precap of the latest and greatest technology, startups, and business news.

 

Silicon Valley is hot on China at the moment.  Just last week Facebook was granted a licence to operate there, which was quickly revoked by the government, as soon as the media found out.  

 

Now a leak has exposed plans of Google to launch in China, apparently they will launch a censored version of the search engine that will blacklist websites and filter search.

 

For those not familiar, in China there is a company called Baidu, which is basically a Chinese clone of Google, which runs a number of similar services, including a YouTube clone, which is losing a tonne of cash by the way.

 

So, it looks like the search giant has succumbed to the strict conditions of the Chinese government to get its foot in the door of the massive Chinese market.

 

This eagerness of US tech companies is one that should be mirrored and actually accentuated by Australian companies.  

We are already in the Asia Pacific, we are quite close trading partners with China, setting aside recent spats between our governments, and with our domestic population that is too small for us to dedicate our startups too, the Chinese market should be a key attraction.

 

Reddit, the website dubbed the front page of the internet, has been compromised and has leaked some user data.  This is concerning, but the way in which the site was compromised is more concerning.

The breach was made by intercepting text messages used for 2 factor authentication for the website admins.  

SMS Intercepting, especially for 2 factor authentication is becoming a very popular way for hackers to breach user accounts, and very concerningly apparently its actually quite easy, and as many as 90% of all mobile operators all over the world are unprotected because of the “holes” in the SS7 protocol, which isnt the only method of intercepting SMS.

 

Knowing this, its very concerning this is still the primary method of 2 factor authentication for most services we use online, with every from social networking sites, to our banks.

 

Clearly, there needs to be a solution, and maybe it is a physical token to replace passwords, such as the recently launched Google Titan security key.

 

Melbourne based startup Matrak Industries says they are the Construction Industry's first Materials and Delivery Tracking network, simplifying Project Management, Defecting, Procurement, Progress Claims and more.

And they have just raised a $765k from high profile Aussie investor Simon Yencken, which was a lot more than the $450k they went looking for.

They are eyeing more domestic growth, plus they have just landed their first client in the US, and after the pending upgrades they will be eyeing more growth domestically and internationally.

 

Snap has launched some new Snapchat lense feature that no one will use so I wont bother going into detail.

 

Now, I’m getting excited about this.  Bird, my favourite of the electric scooter sharing startups in the US, who recently landed a $100M round to fund growth, has announced they are about to drop 100 scooters in Paris in what I think is their first international launch, and will shortly thereafter launch in Tel Avi.

 

Well Bird, we want your scooters here in Brisbane. Let us be your first opening in the Asia Pacific region.  We have the biggest single council in Australia looking covering Brisbane, a population of 2.4M, and its pretty flat.

You couldn't ask for a better testing ground, reach out let's get these scooters on the ground!

 

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That was your daily precap, I am Domm, thanks for listening.