On Wednesday, mining stocks dropped after China announced it would release metal reserves to restrain commodity prices. China is the world’s largest consumer of raw materials. It fears that an increase in metal prices, and with it the extra costs that would be passed onto its consumers, could pose a serious threat to its economic recovery post-pandemic. Following the announcement, major mining stocks weighed heavily on the FTSE 100. Anglo American dropped 2%, Rio Tinto 0.9%, Antofagasta 1.5%, and Glencore 2.8%. 

China has said it will release its major industrial metals reserves, which include copper, zinc, and aluminium, in steady batches in the near future. They will be available to non-ferrous metal processing firms and manufacturing firms via a public bidding process. However, China is yet to disclose the quantities of the batches, the auction process, or the specific manufacturers that will be welcomed to bid.

China’s stockpiling body, the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, said that the country’s decision would ensure price and supply stability of bulk commodities. 

China’s economy grew a record 18.3% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, new data has shown. Growth was also up from 6.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The results mark the biggest jump in Chinese GDP since quarterly records began in 1992. However, the economy’s growth fell short of the 19% mark predicted by a Reuters poll of analysts.

China, which boasts the second largest economy in the world, was the only major nation to experience economic growth in 2020 amid a strong bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining high retail spending and exports.

European stocks were boosted by the news, with the FTSE 100 rising 0.5% after opening on Friday morning – rising above the 7,000 points level for the first time since February 2020. France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX also rose 0.2% and 0.3% respectively.

Asian stocks were also lifted by the news, with Japan’s Nikkei climbing 0.1% while the Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 0.6%.

US futures, however, saw a slump as European trading opened. S&P 500 futures were down 0.1%, Nasdaq futures were down 0.2%, and Dow futures were flat. The indexes’ gloomy outlook followed a day of near record highs as US economic data indicated a solid global recovery from the pandemic-induced recession.

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“The national economy made a good start,” a spokesperson for China’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday, attributing the spike in GDP to “incomparable factors such as the low base figure of last year and increase of working days due to staff staying put during the Lunar New Year” holiday.

"We must be aware that the Covid-19 epidemic is still spreading globally and the international landscape is complicated with high uncertainties and instabilities,” the Bureau cautioned.

Amsterdam-based tech investor Prosus NV netted $14.6 billion overnight from the sale of a 2% stake in Tencent, the company announced on Thursday.

A filing from Tencent at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange revealed that Prosus had sold 191.89 million shares at HK$595.00 per share.

“Our belief in Tencent and its management team is steadfast, but we also need to fund continued growth in our core business lines and emerging sectors,” Prosus Chairman Koos Bekker said in a statement on Thursday, hours after the completion of the deal.

Prosus is majority owned by Naspers of South Africa. The Wednesday night sale lowered its stake in Tencent from 30.9% to 28.9% -- a level which the company has committed to not reducing any further for the next three years.

“The proceeds of the sale will increase our financial flexibility, enabling us to invest in the significant growth potential we see across the group, as well as in our own stock,” Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk said in a statement.

Tencent Chairman Pony Ma acknowledged the sale and reaffirmed that he viewed Prosus as having been a “committed strategic partner over a great many years”. He also stated that “Tencent respects and understands” the firm’s decision to sell.

Tencent Holdings, headquartered in Shenzhen, is one of the largest companies in China. The conglomerate focuses primarily on internet-related services and products, including video games and social media.

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Though not a household name outside of China, the company made international headlines as it butted heads with the Trump administration over an executive order banning US firms from doing business with its social media subsidiary, WeChat.

Hong Kong is a highly banked, wealthy region which enjoys excellent digital and physical infrastructure. To hear about the financial hub’s payment evolution, we hear from leading ePayment technology and eCommerce management company Payment Asia which provides customised all-around payment strategies to more than 10,000 Asian and multinational companies.

We speak with Lance Lau, Head of Sales at the Hong Kong Team of Payment Asia. Established in 1999 in Hong Kong, Payment Asia has over 20 years’ experience in providing eCommerce payment solution services to local and international markets. Taking the lead in the ePayment technology and eCommerce management market in Asia, the company helps merchants to continue to grow in the wave of technological development.

Over the last two decades, Payment Asia has expanded its business from Southeast Asia to the international market, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Tell us a little bit about the current payments environment in Hong Kong?

The current payments environment has been very interesting as we’re witnessing a stage of transformation - from cash transactions to the digital era with traditional cashless payment such as credit and debit cards being replaced by eWallets, mobile payments, virtual banking and the future usage of cryptocurrencies.

What payments trends do you expect to see in Hong Kong in 2021? How is Payment Asia going to respond to these?

With the pandemic still affecting everyone across the globe, most merchants are finding ways to improve the purchase experience for their clients while also implementing the online/eCommerce elements to their business.

At Payment Asia, we have designed and self-developed a mobile payment application called PA Pay - specifically for merchants - which integrates multiple payment channels, including credit cards, debit cards, UnionPay and a variety of eWallets, and can be applied to POS or smartphone operating systems.

We offer various online payment solutions including Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, Alipay and WeChat Pay, which integrate with online stores, H5 web pages and applets through API. We can also guide merchants and personal clients in the process of setting up international bank accounts (IBAN) for payment settlements and operate as an offshore virtual bank.

On top of payment processing solutions, Payment Asia’s services also cover online and offline eCommerce payment strategies, payment gateways integration, eCommerce management, artificial intelligence, big data and more.

Payment Asia’s mobile payment application - PA Pay which can be applied to POS or smartphone operating systems

What is Hong Kong’s current position in China’s payment evolution?

Over the last decade, China has been a pioneer in implementing ePayments, propelled by China UnionPay, Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay.

The FinTech industry is taking off amid a backdrop of growing consumption and the large, tech-savvy millennial generation. China’s FinTech Explosion explores the transformative potential of the country’s financial technology industry, covering subsectors such as digital payment systems, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, credit card issuance and internet banks, blockchain finance and virtual currencies, and online insurance.

In 2014, the People’s Bank of China established the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China where a specialist research team discusses technical and regulatory issues in relation to the development of Digital Currencies in China.

Since August 2020, the People’s Bank has been carrying out pilot trials of Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) in various cities across China. The estimate is that 30%-50% of cash will be replaced by the DCEP within two to three years.

Features and capabilities of DCEP:

• DCEP uses digital tokens and blockchain technology to represent a country’s official currency. DCEP differs from cryptocurrencies in that it has the status of legal tender and is centralised and regulated by a country’s monetary authority.
• DCEP is a digital version of the Renminbi (RMB).
• DCEP is a sovereign currency issued and backed by the People’s Bank of China and controlled by the Chinese Government which will be able to track the currency moving through its economy and monitor its usage.
• DCEP is said to be secure, have controllable anonymity and prevent counterfeiting. It also addresses the high costs of cash issuance and handling, and difficulties in tracking and fraud.
• Like cash, the DCEP cannot be refused as payment. The People’s Bank will exchange DCEP with commercial banks and payment operators, which can then distribute DCEP to their customers via eWallets.
• The use of DCEP will be convenient for the public and provide more efficiency in the financial system, helping China bring its unbanked population into the mainstream economy and accelerate the move to a cashless society.
• DCEP also helps to internationalise the RMB’s use in trade settlements and presents an attractive alternative to the established international funds-transfer system, SWIFT, with lower transaction fees.

On 4^th December 2020, Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), announced that HKMA and the Institute are discussing the technical pilot testing of using DCEP for making cross-border payments and are making the corresponding technical preparations.

How is Payment Asia contributing to this?

Payment Asia has always delivered the advantage of being in Hong Kong to our merchants. We are now implementing blockchain technology to our payment platform and are actively developing an emerging cryptocurrency gateway. This can be seen as a baby step but is still an efficient and effective way to get merchants to warm-up and be ready for the new payment era.

At present, 36% of the SMEs in the United States accept Bitcoin (BTC), whereas Wikipedia, Microsoft, Expedia, AT&T, Burger King, KFC and Subway have also started accepting BTC. Our value proposition is to provide merchants with a familiar payment gateway experience while bridging the gap between digital and fiat currencies. Customers will be able to have this new option as their payment method while merchants will be protected on the cryptocurrency’s fluctuation.

Features of Payment Asia’s Crypto Gateway:

• Acceptance of major digital currencies (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, BCH, Stellar, USDT etc.) for online and offline payments.
• Instant locking of rate to minimise merchants’ risk.
• Withdrawal of funds in less than a business day.
• Payment to merchant’s suppliers in 200+ countries with digital currencies.

Payment Asia’s Crypto Gateway bridges the gap between digital and fiat currencies

What does the future hold for Hong Kong’s payments industry?

With its status as a key Asian financial hub, Hong Kong will always be an important part of the global payments industry.

Supporting this, Hong Kong's Stock Exchange raised $51 billion from 154 new listings in 2020.

Numbers like this make Hong Kong irresistible for many investors, according to Tara Joseph from the American Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong.

"The flow of money that comes in and out of Hong Kong on a daily basis, that goes into mainland China and comes out, is very hard to replicate," she said during an interview with BBC's Asia Business Report.

A city with attractive tax rates and a business-friendly environment is the natural successor to Hong Kong. Being the gate into the Chinese market, a lot of international businesses will still prefer Hong Kong as the processing hub for their B2B and B2C activities.

How can Payment Asia help merchants with digital transformation?

One of Payment Asia’s strengths is based on creating a landscape for merchants and businesses in order to generate traffic and convert this into sales through our payment technology.

As transactions are made, we are implementing big data for our merchants, through our secure system and a robust business intelligence system.

We use this data to create inbound and outbound digital marketing strategies for merchants, in order to increase their conversion rates.

In addition, we have also developed a chatbot platform that uses artificial intelligence to realise real-time conversations to strengthen the interaction between brands and consumers.

What’s on Payment Asia’s agenda for 2021?

With our extensive experience in the market, moving forward into the post-COVID world, we aim to redefine the benchmark of online/offline and mobile payments - not just in Hong Kong but on a global scale.

For more information on the work we do, you can follow our  blog on our official website: www.paymentasia.com.

US investment banks are set to delist Hong Kong-listed structured products linked to companies sanctioned under a recent executive order from President Donald Trump.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan will delist a total of 500 Hong Kong-listed structured products, according to filings from the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday. These structured products are linked to telecom companies China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicorn.

The executive order that prompted the delisting bans US citizens from investing in firms that the government has deemed to be linked with the Chinese military. 35 firms were targeted in the order as enabling “the development and modernisation” of China’s armed force and which “directly threaten” US security.

From 11 January at 09:30 EST, US investors will be prohibited from owning or trading securities in the banned companies. This extends to pension funds and share ownership.

Transactions made for the purpose of divesting ownership in the firms will be permitted until 11 November.

Bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing released a statement saying it was “working closely with the relevant issuers to ensure orderly delisting, and facilitate buyback arrangements being arranged by the issuers.”

The operator added: “We do not believe this will have a material adverse impact on Hong Kong’s structured products market, the largest in the world with over 12,000 listed products.”

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In a separate statement, US custodian bank State Street confirmed that an ETF it manages which tracks the Hang Seng Index would no longer make investments in sanctioned stocks, though it would maintain its existing shareholdings.

The statement also noted that, according to information published by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control last week, the fund was no longer appropriate for US firms or individuals to invest in.

With the dust finally settling on the US presidential election, reactions from world leaders have been largely predictable. Heads of state have rushed to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden almost as soon as the vote swung his way in key states, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron being among the first to call the former US Vice President on 7 November. More followed soon afterwards, seeking to reaffirm alliances and build early ties with the next head of the nation.

This has not been the case for all world leaders. China’s President Xi Jinping conspicuously refrained from congratulating President-elect Joe Biden on his election victory, apparently waiting until the confirmation of his winning Arizona on 13 November – and therefore depriving Trump of any conceivable comeback – to finally extend a hand. Xi’s reticence speaks to the Chinese government’s deep distrust of the US, and perhaps of the incoming administration more than the one outgoing.

Though the CCP has remained largely silent on Biden in official statements, it has made its opinions known elsewhere. "China should not harbour any illusions that Biden's election will ease or bring a reversal to China-US relations, nor should it weaken its belief in improving bilateral ties,” read an editorial published in the state-run tabloid Global Times on Sunday. “US competition with China and its guard against China will only intensify.”

To an observer, this hardly makes sense at first glance. In many respects, a Biden presidency is likely to prove beneficial to the Chinese government and economy. One of the main planks of the Trump administration’s foreign policy has been the imposition of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods, sparking a trade war that Biden has slammed as “the wrong way” of confronting China and is likely to be rolled back during his term. The Trump administration’s severe restrictions on Chinese student visas are all but certain to be lifted as well, as are more minor swipes made by the outgoing government. Most of all, a Biden administration will not be prone to the same unpredictable outbursts as its predecessor, sometimes hailing Xi Jinping for his “hard work” and “transparency” and sometimes condemning him as “totalitarian”.

“US competition with China and its guard against China will only intensify.”

However, Biden’s administration will differ from Trump’s in one crucial respect: its willingness to embrace cooperation on the world stage – and, consequently, leave fewer openings for China’s ambitions. Though the Trump administration was characterised by an unpredictable foreign policy, this did not always manifest in the form of sanctions and tariffs; several abrupt policy shifts have had the effect of ceding leadership to China in key political and economic areas.

We have seen shades of this occurring recently in the White House’s refusal to join the 170-nation-strong COVAX alliance on the grounds that it was “influenced by the corrupt World Health Organisation and China”, leaving a leadership vacuum that China gladly filled. The administration’s earlier move to withdraw the US from the WHO and the United Nations Human Rights Council, both also pitched as repudiations of Chinese influence, gave the CCP further room to increase that same influence.

These are the splits that have had an obvious net positive effect for China and its image, but there have been other divergences from the international norm that have driven a wedge between the US and the international partners it ordinarily relies on in trade and diplomacy. A prominent example of this was the fracturing of the Iran nuclear deal, a high-profile break from diplomatic consensus that left allies scrambling to save trade agreements built up in the deal’s aftermath. Another was the Trump administration’s systematic blocking of nominees to the WTO Appellate Body, which renders it unable to form the quorum required to hear and resolve international trade disputes. While both of these departures were less concerned with rebuking China, they confounded America’s allies and eroded efforts to present a unified international front against threats like China’s growing economic dominance.

The chances of this erosion continuing under the Biden administration, which has posited the explicit aims of “working with our allies to stand up to China” and restoring the United States to a “position of global leadership”. Foreign leaders’ rush to build ties with Biden, even as Trump contends that the election is not over, illustrates even further that the old alliances are looking for a return to form. China is right to be wary; despite outside appearances, its economy is not an unstoppable machine. Even prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, its GDP growth in 2019 fell back to the lowest levels seen since the early 1990s, and the continual exodus of its young professionals is an albatross on its development.

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As it moves to expand trade with other nations through agreements like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – a free trade pact spanning a third of the global economy, formed in the aftermath of the US withdrawal from the rival Trans-Pacific Partnership a year after Trump took office –  and pledges to open its economy even further, China will thrive in the void of competition left by America. It remains to be seen how long this void will be maintained.

The outgoing Trump administration has unveiled an executive order banning US investment in Chinese firms that it says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military, adding further economic pressure on Beijing.

The order has the potential to impact some of the largest Chinese companies, including telecom companies China Mobile Ltd, China Telecom Ltd and surveillance equipment producer Hikvision.

From 11 January 2021, the order will prohibit US investment firms and pension funds from purchasing the securities of 31 Chinese companies that the Defense Department identified as backed by the People’s Liberation Army earlier this year. However, transactions made for the purpose of divesting ownership in these companies will be permitted until 11 November 2021.

“China is increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernisation of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses,” the order said.

It is not yet clear how much impact the order will have. The affected companies do not appear to include publicly traded Chinese tech giants, while several other tech firms (including Huawei) do not trade on the stock market. Some of the firms said to be affected are state-owned companies with no foreign stockholders, such as China Electronics Technology Group, though others – such as CRRC Corp – do have foreign investors.

According to investment strategist Andy Rothman of fund manager Matthews Asia, US investors own around 2% of the value of the companies traded on the Chinese stock market, meaning that the order is unlikely to be greatly consequential to the Chinese economy.

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As the order allows ownership in the listed companies to be retained until 11 November, there is a significant possibility of the incoming Biden administration rescinding the order before it can affect US shareholders.

ByteDance, the Beijing-headquartered owner of TikTok, is set to meet its advertising revenue goal for the year, which will place it firmly as the second-largest giant in China’s digital advertising market.

According to Reuters, the tech company is on track to make at least 180 billion yuan (or $27.2 billion) in annual advertising revenue, making up the bulk of its $30 billion revenue goal for 2020. In terms of ad revenue, it is beaten only by Alibaba.

Though TikTok is ByteDance’s flagship product internationally, the social media app contributes little to its parent company’s overall cashflow. Of ByteDance’s ad revenue, nearly 60% comes from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. A further 20% comes from ByteDance’s news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, and less than 3% from its long-form video platform Xigua.

These final numbers will be adjusted by the end of the year, as many of the company’s most important campaigns – including year-end sales – have not yet been officially launched.

ByteDance continues to struggle with an order from the Trump administration ordering it to divest its US operations of TikTok by this Thursday. While a deal between ByteDance and Oracle appears to have been settled, the company lodged a petition with a US Appeals Court late on Tuesday challenging the administration’s order and seeking an extension to the deadline.

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Outside of TikTok, ByteDance is looking to other avenues of growth, with plans to invest 10 billion on its Xigua platform next year. The company intends to increase Xigua’s count of daily active users to over 100 million, while its Douin eCommerce platform is expected to reach roughly 150 billion in gross merchandise value by the year’s end.

The worst of the COVID impact on the major economies does seem to be over. Many of the economic activity indicators point to a V-shaped recovery from the slump in output and consumer spending back in March and April. Indeed, equity markets responded to the swift and unprecedented global and monetary stimulus at the time by quickly moving out of bear market territory with US equity markets going on to make new highs in early September before making a sudden 10-12% correction. US tech stocks are very over-valued and a ‘dot-com2’ cannot be ruled out. A stock market crash and bursting of the ‘Everything Bubble’ would come at a very unfortunate time. Otherwise, you will recall that early on in the pandemic, economists went through letters of the alphabet in trying to determine the shape of the prospective economic recovery. Optimists went for V; two-handed economists went for W and pessimists went for an L. The optimists have been right so far.

However, in these uncertain times, it is not difficult to come up with a long list of reasons to join the pessimists. These include the threat of fresh lockdowns in response to rising COVID infections through a more muted increase in the fatality rate. The advice to governments must be to avoid widespread lockdowns and to make sure that we do not end up in a disastrous economic slump. Unemployment still remains high and there may well be further job losses post-COVID as employers cut headcounts and understand that during the lockdown, they could operate their businesses in most part with a more productive workforce. Unfortunately, it is those people that don’t work in an office and can’t work from home that have been the most affected by the COVID-recession. The pandemic has also worked as an accelerator of ‘disruptive’ technologies as well as potential changes in working practices, though it will be interesting to see whether there is push-back from ‘working at home’.

Other uncertainties include the outcome of the 3^rd November US Presidential Election. The opinion polls and betting odds (see electionbettingodds.com) point to Joe Biden winning the White House with a relatively high probability of the Democrats winning a ‘clean sweep’ of the House and the Senate. A key feature of Democrat economic policy is to overturn the President’s tax policies, in particular, an increase in the US corporate tax rate to 28% and the imposition of a wealth tax. More likely is a badly needed infrastructure program that can support growth and jobs.

Central banks won’t admit it, but their actions are what used to be called debt monetisation. Welcome to the world of MMT (Modern Monetary Theory or the Magic Money Tree, take your pick).

However, in the current economic environment, tax increases may end up being deferred. The US economy needs to secure a sustainable recovery and policymakers should not make the mistake of implementing a fiscal squeeze even though US fiscal settings are regarded by the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as being ‘unsustainable’. The same advice applies to other governments. Fiscal ‘austerity’ is exactly that and delivers economic ‘austerity’. The Eurozone is a classic case of wrong economic policies where the recovery is already faltering and where the Eurozone is experiencing mild deflation despite ‘excess liquidity’ from the European Central Bank (ECB) amounting to €3 trillion, a doubling in a period of only 6 months, and an ECB balance sheet that has exploded to above 50% of GDP (compared to nearly 35% for America’s Federal Reserve). Much fanfare greeted the EU’s Recovery Fund back in July but most of the measures do not come into effect until next year thus mitigating any direct fiscal impact on growth. The Eurozone is turning ‘Japanese’ and looks as though it is stuck in a liquidity and debt trap. No wonder that the Stoxx600 Bank share index just recently made a record low. That is mostly thanks to the effect of negative interest rates which are deadly for bank profitability as well as denting savings which are an important fuel for providing investment. Which brings us to Brexit and the ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’. Unless you are a remainer and a firm believer in the worst prognostications of ‘Project Fear 2’, you could not be blamed for thinking that it is the Eurozone that is the loser from Brexit and a ‘no-deal’ scenario. A ‘deal’ only works, as in life, if the deal is mutually beneficial and not coercive. At the time of writing, the odds of a deal characterised by zero tariffs and zero quotas is about 50-50. For what it is worth, I favour Brexit both from a political and economic perspective and see the prospect of favourable opportunities globally going forward.

Back to the US. The cost of the recession and the various fiscal programs enacted so far are likely to show up in a US budget deficit in this fiscal year that amounts to 16% of GDP with US federal deficit hitting 100% of GDP. The CBO warn that on existing policy trend that the federal debt could end up being nearly 200% of GDP by 2050. Of course, if this is not sustainable, it won’t be. The history of US fiscal policy shows that actually it is Democrat Administrations that end up reversing Republican fiscal profligacy.

More interesting is what the Fed does. Monetary policy entered the so-called ‘uncharted territory’ some time ago. Zero-interest rates, negative rates, QE are now all a matter of course. Central bank independence has become an illusion and central banks have become funders of Treasury debt issuance. Central banks won’t admit it, but their actions are what used to be called debt monetisation. Welcome to the world of MMT (Modern Monetary Theory or the Magic Money Tree, take your pick). With global debt-GDP at a record high, the risk is that policymakers covertly rely on an increase in inflation to reduce the real value of debt. At the moment, the major government bond markets think that there will be no inflation. The increase in the gold price suggests that some investors think otherwise. Bond yields are still near historic lows and market-based measures of longer-term inflation expectations remain subdued. The US dollar has not collapsed though the emergence of the ‘twin deficits’ is a currency-negative for the longer term.

In the meantime, it is back to China. So far so good. The economy is recovering, admittedly propelled by significant credit expansion and some measures to promote infrastructure spending. Exports are starting to recover which is good for the Asian region, and the Chinese currency has appreciated thus helping the export competitiveness of its Asian trading partners. There are risks with Chinese corporate debt especially in the real estate sector, but the central bank has big pockets. Relations with the US still remain tense and President Trump’s trade dispute with China has not been to America’s trade disadvantage as the trade gap with China has not improved. A win for President Trump in the election cannot be ruled out given previous unreliability of the opinion polls, and fresh tensions with China could easily emerge. Some geopolitical experts warn that there are other risks related to the relationship between China and Taiwan for example. The shape of the global economy and shape of the international financial system has changed and will continue to change, but it is the US and China that will determine the pace of such changes.

Ericsson announced on Wednesday that it had been selected by BT Group to provide 5G radio equipment in major UK cities including London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

The completion of the contract will see 50% of BT’s 5G communications transmitted via the Ericsson Radio System kit, the telecommunications company estimated. The move will allow BT to ditch Huawei without becoming fully reliant on Nokia, its other radio access network equipment provider.

In addition to providing 5G radio equipment, Ericsson said it would “modernise BT’s existing 2G and 4G Radio Access Network” to improve its performance for BT customers.

“BT has a clear direction in how it wants to drive its 5G ambitions in the UK,” Ericsson president and CEO Börje Ekholm said in the press release, adding that the contract would strengthen the relationship between the two countries. “By deploying 5G in these key areas, we are yet again demonstrating our technology leadership in population-dense and high-traffic locations.”

Ericsson’s equipment has been used widely as part of 5G infrastructure. The company has said that it currently holds 113 commercial 5G agreements and contracts with communication service providers worldwide.

In July, following the imposition of US sanctions against Huawei, ministers announced that UK providers must stop purchasing 5G-related equipment from the Chinese telecom giant after 31 December, and must completely remove its technology from their infrastructure by 2027.

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Huawei has denied that its equipment poses a threat to national security. Earlier on Wednesday, it released a report claiming that its UK ban could cost the country thousands of jobs and upwards of £100 billion in economic benefits resulting from a slower rollout of 5G.

Details of Ericsson’s contract with BT have not been disclosed.

According to new data compiled by AksjeBloggen, the world’s ten largest unicorn companies reached a collective valuation of $563.3 billion as of September 2020.

Topping the list was the Chinese fintech Ant Financial, with a valuation of around $150 billion. The company, which offers clients a range of financial services from lending and payments to investing and insurance using a platform business model, recorded revenue of $10.5 billion in the first half of 2020 – a 38% increase year-on-year, with a net profit that rose almost 11 times to £3.26 billion during the same period.

Ant Group filed for its hotly anticipated IPO in August, and will be listed on both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai’s STAR Market.

ByteDance ranked as the second-most-valued unicorn. The parent company of Chinese social media giant TikTok gained a valuation of $140 billion as of September, representing an increase of 86% from the start of 2020.

Didi Chuxing, another Chinese company, ranked third among global unicorns with a $62 billion market value. An app-based transportation service provider with over 550 million users, the company facilitates ride-sharing, bike-sharing and taxi-hailing services, among numerous others.

US unicorns Infor and SpaceX rounded off the list of the top five global unicorns with respective valuations of $60 billion and %46 billion. America represented the largest unicorn market in the world, according to CBInsights data, with 236 private companies valued at over $1 billion. China ranked second with 182.

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When the term “unicorn company” first came into usage in 2013, there were only 40 private companies in the world that held a valuation of over $1 billion. Now there are 12.5 times as many unicorns currently in business, with around 500 existing as of September this year.

73 new unicorns were minted in 2020. Taken together, the world’s unicorns are worth a collective $1.5 trillion as of September. A full third of currently operating unicorns are involved in the fintech sector.

Digital sales from outlets like Target enjoyed an unprecedented 275% growth in recent months, according to the US Census Bureau. It seems that this is not an isolated case as businesses, especially ecommerce companies, are experiencing the same growth. With global currencies having taken a hit during the pandemic, it was uncertain as to what direction fintech would take. As it turns out, the world is now sprinting toward financial inclusiveness and eCommerce diversity.

The Need for Financial Inclusiveness in the International Market

Prior to the pandemic hitting, online transactions with cash-on-delivery (COD) options were highly popular for consumers around the globe. This, however, is no longer feasible in places like India and China where COD options are now disabled in order to minimise risk moving forward. As such, new avenues were needed and fintech answered the call. Fintech has long been regarded as a great enabler of financial inclusion by providing a reimagining of business models and processes, according to the World Bank. They believe that it is through fintech that suitable alternatives to COD will be found like crowdfunding, cashless transactions, and even peer-to-peer lending options.

Fashion Ecommerce Embracing Diversity, Accessibility, and Inclusivity

While ecommerce is not a new concept in the fashion industry, consumers are now more discerning, especially about diversity and inclusivity. Nearly 34% of respondents in an Adobe survey said that they boycotted a brand due to a lack of diversity in advertising, while another 61% said diversity is the key to good advertising. This isn’t surprising, as high fashion brands have had their share of controversies like D&G’s “Eating with Chopsticks” or Gucci’s balaclava jumper. As such, fashion brands that are enlarging their ecommerce presence are actively reforming their advertising and marketing to emphasise inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity. One method that fashion eCommerce is trying out is redesigning their websites to be more accessible to a wider audience. Another is using a diverse sample of models for visual ads on their ecommerce platforms.

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Mobile Phone eCommerce Developments

A survey by Merchant Savvy found that nearly 70% of all eCommerce is conducted through mobile phones. While that number is high, retailers report that conversion rates vary as consumers still express concerns over security and user experience. In worst-case scenarios, not even 1 out of 10 successful transactions occurs via mobile phone. To combat this, brands are aiming to develop hybrid apps to work well with browsers as regular apps take up too much memory on devices. There is particular emphasis on making phones a universal digital wallet for frictionless and seamless transactions. This, however, requires better security, infrastructure, and devices capable of supporting the whole concept. As such, more mobile phone eCommerce development is being planned by large brands like Amazon, Apple, and others.

With the world impatient to move on from the effects of the pandemic, the fintech industry is striving to make sure that they have what it takes to meet demand. The upcoming months can expect a lot of additional emphasis on financial technology development. With eCommerce now the norm in transactions, it is exciting to see how else financial inclusiveness, diversity, and online transactions shall take root and bloom.