China calls for Internet front to fight hacking, cyber ‘arms race’

By Paul Carsten WUZHEN, China (Reuters) – China's President Xi Jinping laid out his vision for the Internet on Wednesday, calling for a new status quo where Internet sovereignty rests in the hands of nations controlling the flow of information. “Each country should join hands and together curb the abuse of information technology, oppose network surveillance and hacking, and fight against a cyberspace arms race,” Xi told China's second World Internet Conference. Since Xi took China's helm in early 2013, he has presided over a centralization of domestic Internet governance and broader efforts to control, and often censor, the flow of information online, experts say.

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‘Fintech’ expansion lures foreign banks to Israel

By Tova Cohen TEL AVIV (Reuters) – A five-minute chat with an executive from Israeli start-up MyCheck was enough to spark the interest of Mariano Belinky, managing partner at Banco Santander's venture capital division. After more formal follow-up meetings, the Spanish bank made its first foray into Israel, investing an undisclosed sum in MyCheck, which develops customized mobile payment apps for restaurant chains such as The Cheesecake Factory. With many clients in the hospitality sector, Santander was intrigued by the possibility of providing “a new and better solution for our clients,” Belinky told Reuters at a financial technology (fintech) event hosted by Santander in Tel Aviv last month.

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Google aims for China launch of Google Play app store next year: sources

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Google, part of Alphabet Inc, aims to launch the China version of its Google Play smartphone app store next year, according to people familiar with the matter, its first major foray in the market since ending localized product support in 2010. The Google Play app store would be set up specifically for China, and not connected to overseas versions of Google Play, two of the people said.

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Welcome to Facebook, Taiwan poll candidate tells Chinese as posts flood in

Tens of thousands of posts apparently from China have flooded Taiwan presidential election front runner Tsai Ing-wen's Facebook account, demanding that the island return to China – and her response on Wednesday was to welcome mainland interest in democracy. The surge in posts, nearing 70,000 by Wednesday, is all the more astonishing because Facebook is generally blocked in Communist Party-ruled China, although there are ways of getting around firewalls.

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Alibaba to pay about $3.7 billion for ‘China’s YouTube’

It is also a vote of confidence in China's economy by Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma, who has said investors should not overreact to his country's slowing growth. Youku Tudou's American Depositary Shares rose 10 percent to $26.80 in premarket trading on Friday, below Alibaba's offer of $27.60 per ADS. Alibaba held 18.3 percent of Youku Tudou as of Oct

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China consumers to spend more in November 11 ‘Singles Day’ shopping spree: Nielsen

Most online consumers in China will spend more during the Nov. 11 “Singles' Day” shopping promotion this year than they did last year, according to the results of a survey by consultancy Nielsen Holdings made available to Reuters on Wednesday. In a survey of more than 1,000 internet users in China this month, 56 percent said that they would spend more on Singles Day this year compared to 2014

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Messaging software firm Slack plans mass-media push to boost growth

By Eric Auchard DUBLIN (Reuters) – Slack, the group messaging platform valued at nearly $3 billion, plans to accelerate its growth by spending some of its $250 million cash pile on mass-market advertising, founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield said. “We are switching from trying to keep up with growth to trying to generate growth,” Butterfield said in an interview at Web Summit, Europe’s biggest conference for start-ups

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PayPal’s China, Europe transaction volumes hit by strong dollar

Payment processor PayPal Holdings Inc , spun off from eBay Inc reported quarterly revenue slightly below analysts' expectations as a strong dollar hurt its transaction volumes in China and Europe. Shares of PayPal, which listed for the second time on the Nasdaq in July, fell 5.6 percent in extended trading on Wednesday.

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Soccer-Player receives death threat ahead of Brazilian Cup tie

By Andrew Downie SAO PAULO, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Fluminense are “taking all the appropriate precautions” to ensure the safety of their squad after one of their players received a death threat ahead of Wednesday night’s Brazilian Cup tie against Palmeiras. A spokesman for the club said the threat to midfielder Vinicius came via a private message on Instagram that told him to think twice before helping Fluminense defend their 2-1 first-leg lead.

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