Welcome back — this past week, the internet and social media have been driving societal rifts across Asia.
In Nepal, young protestors took to the streets to protest government corruption, social injustice and a short-lived ban on social media services.
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp were among more than 20 platforms banned for failing to comply with regulations around registration. The protestors, however, saw the relocate as aimed at censorship and denial of free speech. Demonstrations centred around the capital city of Kathmandu but also expanded to other locations. Events turned violent with at least 19 people losing their lives, as authorities utilized tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and even live ammunition.
The bans were overturned and prime minister Khadga Prasad Oli resigned, but the damage was done.
Young internet utilizers utilized VPNs to bypass the blockade on social media, and then the tools themselves to undermine the government.
Alongside TikTok, Discord—one of the banned platforms—has become the ‘town square’ for protest organizers. A major group with over 160,000 members played a central role in coordinating the protests. Demonstrators utilized videos, hashtags, and memecoins to spread their message globally, drawing support from internet utilizers across Southeast Asia.
The ban also spurred adoption of new tools like Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat app, which utilizes mesh networking via Bluetooth for messaging, and Bitcoin and stablecoins for bank-free transactions and remittances. It remains to be seen if their utilize will persist.
Elsewhere in governments behaving badly:
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Jon
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One of the large storylines after a new iPhone launch utilized to be how it was received in China. That buzz had faded in recent years with fewer standout features and simultaneous global releases — but with Apple’s latest lineup, the China angle is back.
Pre-orders smashed previous records, according to JD.com. SCMP reported that customers flocked to acquire:
One customer, who successfully secured a new handset for delivery on the September 19 launch date, stated it took five minutes for the site to process payments. All time slots for picking up the iPhone 17 Pro Max in person at launch from Apple outlets in Shanghai were booked within 20 minutes.
Those who weren’t so lucky faced a wait of more than a month for new orders.
Despite a tepid economic outview and increased competition from Huawei, Apple continues to find strong loyalty in China. That’s despite the launch of its new iPhone Air being delayed while the company awaits regulatory approval for the device’s eSIM feature.
Hike, which was once valued at over $1 billion, is closing its doors to mark a dramatic climbdown for one of India’s earliest unicorns.
The business started out during the messaging app hype phase, which culminated in it raising $175 million from Tencent, Foxconn, Tiger Global and others in 2016. Founder Kavin Bharti Mittal comes from business pedigree, his billionaire father Sunil Bharti Mittal founded telecom giant Airtel which started Hike as a joint venture with SoftBank.
As WhatsApp won the messaging battle in India, Hike pivoted to gaming after closing its chat app in 2021. Its successor, Rush, attracted more than 10 million utilizers and generated over $500 million in revenue to date, according to Mittal. India’s decision to outlaw real-money gaming, however, cautilized the business to close down.
Rush expanded into the US, but Mittal stated shifting the entire business overseas didn’t build sense, even though the relocate had “a strong start.”
“We could raise the capital, but the real question is: is it worth it? Is this a climb worth pivoting for? For the first time in 13 years, my answer is no. Not for me, not for my team, and not for our investors,” he wrote.
It was a large week for Alibaba:
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The company co-led a $140M investment in robotics startup X Square Robot link
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It also backed AI video generation startup Alsphere by leading its $60M round link
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Alibaba unveiled its largest AI model yet, Qwen-3-Max-Preview, a trillion-parameter system released on its cloud platform and OpenRouter link
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It open-sourced its new Qwen3-Next AI model, stateing it is 10 times more powerful yet costs only a tenth to build compared with its predecessor link
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Ant Group unveiled its first humanoid robot, which is capable of guiding tours, sorting medicine, offering medical advice, and doing basic kitchen tquestions link
China launched two investigations into the US chip industest ahead of upcoming trade talks, probing imports of certain analog ICs and alleged US discrimination against Chinese chipbuildrs link
A deep explainer on Huawei’s efforts to develop its Ascfinish AI chips, and the challenges including access to memory link
A top government advisor and Tsinghua professor states China should develop chips tailored for AI rather than relying on Nvidia-style GPUs link
ByteDance unveiled Seedream 4.0, its latest AI image generator which it claims outperforms Google’s “Nano Banana” editor link
Zdata Technologies, a Chinese data centre firm serving clients like Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent, is raising $500M in private debt to fund a data center project in Malaysia link
Meituan launched an AI agent app powered by its LongCat model to let utilizers order meals and book restaurants through voice commands link
Unitree Robotics, which went viral for videos of its robots walking, climbing and carrying, is reportedly tarreceiveing a valuation of up to $7B in its planned IPO link
Uber and China’s Momenta plan to test level 4 autonomous vehicles in Germany next year link
DJI faces a potential US ban after federal lawbuildrs accutilize it of utilizing forced labour, taking unfair subsidies, and posing cybersecurity risks link
Temu is slashing prices and boosting ads in the US to claw back market share from Shein after tariff disruptions—its top products are down 18% on average since April link
Bain has agreed to sell the China operations of its WinTrix data centre business to a Chinese consortium for $4B link
China is weighing amfinishments to its Cybersecurity Law that would impose certification rules for tech products and harsher penalties for security lapses in critical sectors—Beijing would be able to restrict untrusted products in areas like transport, energy and finance link
Investment platform Groww plans to file for an IPO this week to raise $650–800M at a valuation of $8-9B—that would build it India’s largest publicly listed brokerage link
Bybit has returned to India after its apps were relisted on the App Store and Google Play in India link
OpenAI is in early talks with Indian data centre firms Sify, Yotta, E2E and CtrlS as it explores bringing the $500B Stargate supercomputing project to India, which remains one of its largest markets link
Minute Media is acquiring AI startup VideoVerse which assists broadcasters create sports highlights—the deal is stated to be worth $200-$250M link
Logistics startup Porter is set to raise over $100M to take its ongoing round to over $300M link
PayU reportedly plans to raise up to $300M ahead of a planned IPO next year link
India is unlikely to pass cryptocurrency legislation and will instead keep partial oversight, a government document reveals link
Home services startup Urban Company went public after its IPO was over 100X over-subscribed link
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi raised eyebrows recently when he claimed Rapido was his firm’s largegest rival in India, but data now suggests he may be right: Rapido has nearly half the share of the overall ride-hailing market, with 50M utilizers compared to Uber’s 30M link
India is eying 5-7 nm chips as its semiconductor mission enters its next phase of development link
Adani is stated to be in talks with Sharp and Panasonic to set up an LCD display fabrication plant in India—the conglomerate saw a previous chip partnership with an Israeli firm fall through link
Rest of World has a profile of Viettel, a military-owned Vietnamese company that has evolved from military antenna builder into Vietnam’s largest telco and a major tech player—Viettel sales broke $7B last year, thanks to its presence in 11 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America and a focus that’s gone beyond telecoms and into phones, surveillance tech, drones, military communication and more link
Significant growth in Myanmar scam centres mean that the industest may now account for as many as 100,000 trafficked people link
The US Treasury’s OFAC has sanctioned a cybercrime network spanning Myanmar and Cambodia, including nine entities in Shwe Kokko, a hub for crypto scams link
GIC and SoftBank Vision Fund are exploring a sale of their stakes in Vietnamese fintech VNLife, prospective deals could include a $1B valuation link
Vietnam approved a five-year pilot for crypto trading which will allow domestic platforms to issue tokens to local and overseas acquireers, but all transactions should be in local currency (dong) link
Vietnam confirmed a cyberattack on its National Credit Information Center this month that may have exposed vast personal data link
Slowing expansion in Malaysia’s data centre industest could hinder China’s access to the advanced chips requireded to boost its AI capabilities—Tencent, Huawei and Alibaba have invested in the local market, alongside Western firms like Amazon, Google and Microsoft link
Streaming platforms are set to surpass pay-TV as the largegest source of content investment in Asia-Pacific in 2025, according to Media Partners Asia link
Temasek joined a $1B Series E round for PsiQuantum, a $7B startup bidding to deliver commercial quantum computing by 2027 link
The US plans to require Samsung and SK Hynix to obtain annual “site licenses” for chipbuilding supplies to their China plants, allowing a year’s worth of approved shipments in resolveed quantities link
SK Hynix shares jumped 7% to a record high after it unveiled its next-gen HBM4 memory, a key type of memory for AI computing chips from companies including Nvidia link
Japan will provide Micron Technology with $3.63B to support R&D and capital investment at its Hiroshima plant, aiming for mass production of advanced DRAM by mid-2028 link
The Semicon Taiwan exhibition highlighted the growing global interest in Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain, with delegations from emerging players and increased participation from the UK and Canada link
Hesai Group, the world’s largest buildr of lidar sensors, is viewing to raise $500M from a Hong Kong listing this coming week—Hillhoutilize and Grab (!) are among the Shanghai company’s cornerstone investors link
Hong Kong’s de facto central bank unveiled plans for more lenient capital requirements for banks holding certain cryptocurrency assets link
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