As Beijing releases unprecedented restrictions on gaming in China, Adeh and Kevin chat with their friend "Pidou" from one of China's biggest gaming companies.

Your co-hosts get the inside story of how this and other recent changes are affecting the industry. They also examine a few clues and guess at which industry will be impacted next.

• China bans minors from video games for more than 3 hours per week  
• Shares of Tencent and NetEase fell last month after release of Chinese state media article calling online gaming “opium.”
• China gov releases guidelines to control addictive algorithms
• China tech world's infamous 996 work schedule becomes illegal

This week Kevin and Adeh discuss Tencent's continued domination of mobile games, and then delve deep into the Chinese governments newest policies and actions, all of which aim to rein in China's tech sector.

China's newest personal data privacy law is a good step for the people of China, and begs the question; now that the EU, China, and the state of California all have basic data privacy laws, when will the United States as a nation get one?

• Tencent's PUB-G and Honor of the Kings are top two grossing mobile games globally
• Chinese Gov takes 1% stake in Bytedance
• China's new personal data privacy security law
• More on new policy around data infrastructure
• Tim Hortons China making separate China entity to go public

This week your co-hosts analyze China's tech world's new norm; strong government regulation. There hasn't been too much in the news, why? Tech in China is all going quiet. IPOs are being cancelled, partnerships on hold, and more. When uncertainty abounds, China prefers to lay-low until the dust settles.

Also, Kevin has a chat with JinYao Desandies, Adeh's 14-year old son. JinYao has a great balanced perspective because he speaks eloquently in English, but spends most of his days speaking Mandarin with his local friends. Jinyao provides his views on the private education crackdown, and what kids in China are thinking about in regards to tech.

• Meituan fined 1 billion
• Tencent Sued
• It's not over yet...
• Douyin food delivery function
• Education - VIPkid to stop offering "foreign-based" tutoring courses
• Bytedance slashes ed tech headcount

This week we discuss the directorate that has upended China's private education sector. For decades, private tutoring sector had been a hotbed for investment, since the pandemic began it has become one of the fastest growing sectors in China.

The new directorate dumps all of investment heat into a big bucket of ice cold water. It's not game-changing, it's game-ending. This is woeful news for investors, but likely welcome news for parents and kids across China.

We also touch on the latest from China's digital yuan and answer some listener questions about Huawei and China's cloud.

Links:

• New directorate upturns private education sector
• e-CNY hits 5.3B in transaction volume
• e-CNY whitepaper (Chinese)
• Alibaba / Tencent face the e-CNY

This week your co-hosts delve deep into the anti-monopoly crackdown which continues in both China and the US. Each side's government commonly say they are helping the 'little guys', but is this actually good for start-ups? Is it good for the respective nations as a whole? What will be the repercussions?

Then we touch on the interesting other US-China affair of Chinese companies listing on US stock markets. Lastly we end on XiaoMi - the 'little' start-up is back and bigger than ever.

The anti-monopoly end game:

• Alibaba and Tencent opening up walled gardens
• Alibaba, Tencent, Bytedance and 33 others sign anti-trust self discipline agreement

US IPO? No, no, no.

• China tightens cybersecurity review process on overseas IPOs
• XiaoHongShu (RED) suspends US IPO thoughts

XiaoMi is a buy!

• XiaoMi becomes second largest seller globally of smartphones

Last week, Adeh and Kevin guessed that the end was nigh for China tech's notorious 996 work schedule, they just didn't realize how quickly it would happen.

Their guesses were a little less accurate with Didi. Beijing continues to increase scrutiny of overseas investment and Didi is caught in an awkward place as competitors start to swoop in to take advantage of the situation.

Lastly Beijing blocks a Tencent-backed merger in live-stream gaming and a quirky Microsoft AI spin-off in China is taking off.

• Bytedance ending 996 work schedule
• Meituan ends weekend work 
• China tightens security on overseas IPOs after Didi
• Bytedance shelves IPO ambitions
• Meituan relaunches ride-hailing app amid Didi investigation
• China gov blocks Tencent-backed merger of video-game live streaming platforms Huyu and Douyu
• XiaoIce closes series A above $1bn mkt value

This week your co-hosts go for the Didi hatrick as the car-hailing company finds itself in the middle of a geo-political tik-tok match. Adeh explains the nuance of the term 内卷 neijuan, or involution, and Kevin tells us what went on during those long long hours working at WeChat.

• Didi gets pulled from App stores as Beijing probes their security practices.
• Two other recent US IPOs, Full Truck Alliance and BOSS Zhipin get hit in the same way.
• And now shareholders are filing lawsuits against Didi - putting them between a rock and a hard place.
• Big tech is also dealing with their workforce pushing back against the 996 culture.
• Today's graduates are becoming increasingly disillusioned about the future.
• BONUS: China's Glassdoor

This week Adeh and Kevin discuss Ant Financials' talks to share data for credit-scores with state-owned banks, and how this reflects trends we're seeing globally. They also talk about Didi's IPO which was not as big as expected, and the latest tea craze as tea brands score an increasing amount of investment and consumer interest.

• Ant Financial (Alibaba) to share data with banks (and gov)
• Didi lackluster IPO at $62 billion, but still a big player
• Tea mania in China!
• HeyTea new round of funding at $9.27 Billion USD
• Tea brand 椿风 pre-A funding at tens of millions RMB
• Tea brand CHALI茶里 latest funding round hundreds of millions RMB, led by GGV

This week your co-hosts deep dive into the Didi IPO. What can we expect? Will Didi outshine Uber? What sets Didi and Uber apart? In any case, Adeh is ready to welcome our robotaxi overlords, and Kevin wants to serenade them. 

• Didi looking to raise up to 10 billion USD in a US IPO
• China's rover takes a selfie on mars
• BONUS: A startup already stole Kevin's idea to democratize pre-IPO investing

This week your hosts Adeh and Kevin discuss the impact (or lack there of) of the 3-child policy, then delve into the latest in AI, Huawei's herculean effort to develop a new operating system, and Bytedance and Tencent's squabbles. 

They also examine the competitive industry of 3rd-party server infrastructure which has become more like 'castles in the sky' rather than 'the cloud'.

• China sets 3 child policy
• Chinese AI researchers release a new multi-modal that's even bigger than PanGu
• Tencent and Bytedance squabble; Bytedance's big post on WeChat, and Tencent calls short-videos "pig feed"
• Alibaba Cloud investing 1$ billion USD in APAC (mostly SEA)
• Huawei making moves; aims to unroll HarmonyOS on hundreds of millions of phones by end of this year