#tencent-wechat

#tencent-wechat

Japan is one of the most sophisticated mobile markets in the world. With AppArena, we're not just adding another icon to the Home Screen - we're bringing a new, AI-driven layer on top of the existing app ecosystem.

The competitive landscape among AI apps in China is fierce. Companies have been dumping money into the market to try to win customers and show them how AI is useful in everyday life, in particular, for buying stuff.

Richard Yu promises that Huawei will expand satellite connectivity to lower-priced devices, ensuring that it won't be confined to high-end models only. This initiative marks a new chapter in the company's journey, addressing the connectivity struggles that persist due to insufficient mobile network coverage.

Chinese users rushed to install OpenClaw on their devices, even forming long lines outside Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen and Baidu's headquarters in Beijing to get engineers to help install the AI agent. Others paid strangers online to set it up for them.

Revenue rose 8% year-over-year to $1.19 billion, topping the analyst consensus forecast of $1.16 billion. Adjusted earnings per ADS came in at 28 cents, topping the analyst consensus estimate of 17 cents. The Chinese video-sharing platform also saw continued momentum in user engagement with average daily active users climbing 10% Y/Y to 113 million during the quarter.

In an unprecedented Chinese New Year marketing blitz, Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings spent an estimated 8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) to turn their artificial intelligence assistants into household names, according to Morgan Stanley.

WhatsApp is now rumored to be soon introducing a premium tier. This will be called WhatsApp Plus. It's said to offer several additional customization options to change the app theme, app icon, and accent colors, including 14 new icons and multiple color choices and interface elements.

The Seller Assistant, which you canaccess by tapping the sparkle icon in the lower right-hand side of the screen, enables users to ask questions related to their product listings, providing quick answers in-stream. As per TikTok: With Seller Assistant, help is never more than a click away. From quick answers and real-time performance insights to personalized recommendations and live agent support, it brings guidance, data, and action together in one seamless experience. Start the conversation, and discover how your 24/7 business adviser can help you grow with confidence on TikTok Shop.

Available for a one-time payment of the equivalent of $1.15 in US dollars, the app - with the evocative name of "Are You Dead?" - is basically a large countdown timer that you have to reset regularly, and which alerts an emergency contact if you let the time run out. As the BBC reports, the app's counter is set to two days by default. After downloading, a user simply has to open the app and tap a large button to reset it.

It took Rebecca Yu seven days to vibe code her dining app. She was tired of the decision fatigue that comes from people in a group chat not being able to decide where to eat. Armed with determination, Claude, and ChatGPT, Yu decided to just build a dining app from scratch - one that would recommend restaurants to her and her friends based on their shared interests.

ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, recently established a separate American entity to run the app's U.S. operations. This restructuring aims to separate U.S. TikTok from its Chinese parent, addressing concerns about data privacy and foreign control. The move came after years of pressure from lawmakers, who feared the Chinese government's potential access to Americans' data. In 2024, Congress enacted a law, mandating that TikTok's U.S. operations be separated from ByteDance.

Mobile game developers have largely been locked into app store distribution as the primary way to reach players. RCS games live in the messaging inbox, the stickiest surface on mobile, where people are already spending huge amounts of time talking to friends and family. We're building on an interaction pattern people already use every day.

The Smart Promotion Program, launching Jan 20, 2026, replaces Co-funded Promotion, using TikTok's algorithms to co-invest in marketing, guaranteeing a 5x ROI and driving GMV growth (+70% during Black Friday). Benefits include simplified 3.5% fees, automatic points rewards, enhanced product exposure, and time savings. 5x ROI is a heck of a guarantee, though as you might expect, that kind of guarantee can only come with various provisos to back it up.

We've made significant progress in recovering our U.S. infrastructure with our U.S. data center partner. However, the U.S. user experience may still have some technical issues, including when posting new content. We're committed to bringing TikTok back to its full capacity as soon as possible. We'll continue to provide updates. Thanks for your patience.

Telegram has announced that it's rolling out a fully redesigned interface for its Android app, making navigation and search quicker and more intuitive. The most notable change this redesign brings is the new bottom bar, which lets you quickly switch between the Chats, Settings, Profile, and other tabs. In addition to the UI redesign, Telegram "completely rebuilt" the interface code to maximize efficiency and increase responsiveness. You can head to the Settings > Power Saving menu to maximize performance and extend battery life.