Tech Giants Become 'Gatekeepers' Under DMA; Sequoia Capital China Edges into SEA

by Grace Dillon on 11th Jul 2023 in News

In today's ExchangeWire news digest: seven tech giants acquire 'gatekeeper' status under the DMA; Sequoia Capital's China unit sets up an office in Singapore; and Google informs users that public data will be used for AI training.

Tech giants gain EU ‘gatekeepers’ status

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft, and Samsung have informed the European Commission that they meet the threshold to be considered ‘gatekeepers’. Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a company with annual revenue of at least €7.5bn (~£6.4bn) for the past three financial years or a fair market value of or above €75bn (~£64.3bn) in three or more EU member countries, and which has served over 45 million active users monthly and over 10,000 active business customers in the last year is considered a ‘gatekeeper’.

The DMA, which came into force last November, will ban large companies from promoting their own services above those of competitors and from forcing users to remain within their ecosystem, including for in-app or on device transactions. Firms with ‘gatekeeper’ status will also be required to make their services interoperable with those of other companies, and to allow users to uninstall default apps.

Sequoia’s China unit shifts attention to Singapore

Sequoia Capital’s Chinese unit, HongShan, is reportedly preparing to expand into Singapore. According to the Financial Times, several sources have said that HongShan has already established an office in the country, and plans to explore investment opportunities in southeast Asia (SEA).

The move poses a challenge to the venture capital giant’s India and SEA arm, Peak XV Partners, which is already active in Singapore. With Sequoia Capital set to spin off both units, alongside its US operations, into separate companies by next year, it could spark tension between HongShan and Peak XV Partners in the future.

Google may use public information for AI training

Google has updated its privacy policy to permit the use of public online information for training its artificial intelligence (AI) protocols. Prior to the change, which was made on 1st July, the tech giant had stated that public data would be used to refine “language models”, namely Google Translate.

The move signals Google’s intention to bolster its AI offering, which includes chatbot Bard, in order to capitalise on users’ and investors’ interest in the space However, it is also expected to stoke concerns over web users’ data privacy rights, and could infringe on online publishers’ copyright.