N.L. government demands VRBO remove I’se the By from ‘derogatory’ commercial

A VRBO commercial that uses I’se the B’y as its soundtrack has images of undesirable rental accommodations. (VRBO/YouTube) A commercial for the vacation rental site VRBO has both Newfoundland and Labrador’s tourism industry and government calling for its removal. The video ad uses the traditional folk song I’se the B’y as its soundtrack, along with images of … Read more

APC’s Ehindero emerges winner of by-election in Ondo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ifeoluwa Ehindero, winner of the Akoko North-East and Akoko North-West Federal constituency by-election in Ondo State. Johnson Fasinmirin, a professor, of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), the Returning Officer of the election, declared Mr Ehindero winner after the counting … Read more

TikTok may lose Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and more as licensing dispute grows

Universal Music Group, which represents artists including Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, says that it will no longer allow its music on TikTok now that a licensing deal between the two parties has expired. UMG said it had not agreed to terms of a new deal with TikTok, and plans to … Read more

Can Beethoven, Bach and Mozart help iPhone sales in China? Apple to launch classical music app on mainland amid sluggish demand for its flagship product

Apple will soon make its classical music app available in mainland China, expanding the US tech giant’s digital services offering in the world’s largest smartphone market where sales of the iPhone are seeing a deepening decline. The Apple Music Classical app, which was launched in most markets globally in March last year, will make its … Read more

Jack Ma-backed fishery-and-agriculture company 1.8 Meters starts sale of seafood products via Alibaba’s Freshippo and Tmall

Dozens of orders had been placed for those two seafood products on Tmall as of Tuesday noon, which could be viewed by some as a lukewarm performance on the platform. Taobao and Tmall have more than 800 million monthly active users as of November. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Dozens of orders had … Read more

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, Huawei to build HarmonyOS-based Alipay app amid growing adoption of home-grown operating system

The collaboration between Ant, the fintech affiliate of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, and Shenzhen-based Huawei is expected to benefit consumers who use Alipay and the Chinese tech firm’s devices across different scenarios, according to a statement by Ni Xingjun, president of Alipay China business group and chairman of Ant’s technology strategy … Read more

McDonald’s China pushes development of native apps based on HarmonyOS, as adoption of Huawei’s mobile operating system accelerates

The Chinese arm of McDonald’s – with a network of more than 5,500 restaurants and over 200,000 employees serving more than 1 billion customers each year – is part of the first batch of multinational food companies on the mainland that have committed to develop native apps on HarmonyOS, according to a statement by the … Read more