vc Page 15

The world of digital currency is always not peaceful, and now the fire has burned to the "currency central mother" Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The grudges between him and "China's richest man" Zhao Changpeng are related to the life and death of FTX.

On November 2, a report on Alameda Research was leaked, implying that Alamada would fall into a bankruptcy crisis and FTT would fall into a liquidity crisis. SBF could not sit still and came out to clarify in a high-profile manner that everything was normal. However, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) immediately issued a statement saying that he was worried about the recurrence of Luna’s “death spiral” and would sell off all FTT on the book.

At this time, Alameda jumped out and said that as long as Binance sells, they will buy it at the market price of $22 per coin that day. The war of words on Twitter is about to break out, and the war between Binance and FTX has entered a fever pitch.

The market is beginning to think. There are currently about 60 million FTTs circulating in the market. If Binance throws more than 23 million FTTs directly to the market at this time, how will Alameda respond? Will FTT’s market value return to zero? As of November 8, FTT has fallen from the previous $25.9 to $17.97, a drop of more than 30%.

The beginning and end of the story

On November 2, the cryptocurrency news website CoinDesk disclosed the business relationship between the hedge fund Alameda Research and the FTX cryptocurrency trading platform successively founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The market’s concerns about Alameda’s operating conditions and the liquidity of the FTX platform’s digital token FTT emerged vividly, adding fuel to the already uneven currency circle.

Coindesk's report stated that in Alameda's balance sheet, FTT is its largest single asset, holding approximately 140 million coins. FTT-related assets are US$5.8 billion, accounting for 88% of its net assets. At the same time, 140 million coins account for 70% of FTT's 200 million coins in circulation. The news instantly detonated the currency circle.

He Yi, the co-founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, which has had many "love-hate disputes" with FTX, insinuated FTX's operations on November 5, saying:

Binance does not give unsecured loans, does not participate in transactions, does not blindly buy companies, and does not spend blindly on sponsorships. 20% of FTX's equity has been sold.

On November 6, Alameda Research co-CEO Caroline Ellison finally responded on Twitter, stating that the balance sheet disclosed by CoinDesk was only a portion of the company’s assets, and that more than $10 billion in assets were not reflected, and said that most of the loans had been repaid. She said:

Given the tightening of the crypto credit space this year, we have now returned the majority of our loans and we obviously have portions that were not disclosed by Coindesk.

On November 6, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) tweeted that he was worried that FTT would suffer an instant collapse like Luna, and would sell off all FTT on the books in the next few months. The 23 million FTT previously transferred to the Binance account was only part of what was obtained after withdrawing from FTX equity.

After hearing what CZ said, Alameda couldn't sit still and immediately expressed his willingness to spend 22 US dollars per coin to buy all the FTT that Binance wanted to sell. However, many people expressed doubts about whether FTX could really spend 580 million US dollars to repurchase the tokens. The war between FTX and Binance has entered a fever pitch.

Is Alameda on the brink of bankruptcy?

As the friction between the two sides intensifies and the war of words heats up, will Alameda go bankrupt? It has also become a hot topic in the market.

According to a CoinDesk report, as of June 30, Alameda Research had $14.6 billion on its balance sheet, of which FTT accounted for the largest share at $5.8 billion, accounting for 88% of its net assets. On the liability side, Alameda Research has $8 billion in liabilities, including $2.2 billion worth of loans guaranteed by FTT.

This, coupled with the company’s alleged exposure to illiquid altcoins, prompted some analysts to predict future bankruptcy.

Mike Burgersburg, an independent market analyst at Dirty Bubble Media Substack, said Alameda will never be able to repay its debt by cashing out the majority of its FTTs, stating:

There are few buyers, and the largest buyers appear to be the companies most closely associated with Alameda, whose market value will quickly approach $0 in the event of a massive sell-off of FTT.

Although Caroline Ellison responded that more than 10 billion US dollars in assets were not reflected and said that most of the loans had been repaid, some analysts pointed out that Ellison’s simple reply did not respond to related transactions and capital transactions with FTX, which was difficult to dispel external doubts.

However, as the encryption industry has developed to this day, some analysts have pointed out that both Binance and FTX have developed into a situation of "too big to fail". The analysis said:

CZ and SBF have also become very important leaders in the encryption industry. But no matter how we quarrel, there are only eternal interests. We believe that the encryption industry will continue to move forward driven by the common interests of all parties.

Will FTT fall into a death spiral like Luna?

With the revelation of the balance sheet on November 3, FTT has plummeted by more than 30%, and concerns that it may fall into a "death spiral" like Luna are gradually spreading.

Terra (Token Luna) is a public chain ecosystem built around stablecoins. Luna's goals include two points: on the one hand, promoting the prosperity of the Terra public chain, and on the other hand, promoting the large-scale adoption of its stablecoins represented by UST.

Therefore, Luna is essentially an invisible collateral for stable coins such as UST. Terra stipulates in the system that UST is minted by destroying Luna. When UST is higher than 1 US dollar, Luna will be destroyed to create UST, thereby accelerating the supply of UST to reduce the currency price. When UST is lower than 1 US dollar, UST will be destroyed to generate LUNA, which stabilizes the currency price by reducing the flow of UST.

On May 9th and 10th, UST experienced a serious de-anchoring incident due to capital hunting and debt crisis. Do Know, the founder of Terra, said that he had enough assets to absorb the decline in UST's exchange rate. However, the market soon discovered that UST's exchange rate continued to decline, falling as low as $0.6.

When UST's currency value fell and was sold off heavily, a large amount of Luna supply was created instantly. In the sluggish atmosphere of the currency market itself, a "death spiral" of LUNA/UST was created. It is known as the first large-scale "Thai Baht + Lehman" incident in the history of encryption development.

Therefore, some people believe that if CZ continues to liquidate more FTT tokens, it will force Alameda's FTT loans to be sold as collateral on a large scale, and the FTX trading platform will close FTT trading to avoid any losses that will occur in exchange for stablecoins and altcoins. If this happens, this will cause a sell-off of FTT in the entire crypto market, which will undoubtedly lead to a death spiral.

Additionally, a scan of the blockchain confirmed that FTT ownership is highly concentrated, with 10 addresses holding 93% of the tokens. According to blockchain analytics company Messari, only about 180-200 addresses are actively trading in FTT tokens. This further indicates that the number of individual FTT holders is very small, and the overall demand for the token is low.

FTT’s trading volume also further points to its lack of popularity. According to Messari data, in October, FTT's daily trading volume ranged from US$6 million to US$42 million, equivalent to 0.1% – 0.8% of Alameda's total holdings in FTT. The actual trading volume of LINK ranges from US$25 million to US$173 million, which is approximately four times that of FTT.

Clara Medalie, head of research at analytics firm Kaiko, said FTT is a relatively illiquid token on the open market, saying:

Overall, in my opinion, FTT is less liquid on the open market, so Binance’s plan to liquidate all of its holdings of FTT tokens is a fairly significant market event.

Media previously reported that FTX had admitted that it was an active buyer of FTT tokens and claimed that it spent 33% of the fees generated by the FTX market to purchase FTT every week.

According to CoinMarketCap, Solana, ChainLink, and BNB prices have all turned bearish due to the FTT sell-off.

Nonetheless, independent market analyst Satoshi Flipper believes FTT prices may rebound in the future, with the current decline signaling a retest of long-term support ranges.

How FTX quickly became an “Internet celebrity” in the currency circle

Media information shows that before founding the FTX exchange, SBF worked at Jane Street, a quantitative trading company on Wall Street.

In 2017, Bitcoin skyrocketed from US$2,500 to nearly US$20,000 in six months. The 25-year-old SBF sensed an opportunity and resolutely quit his high-paying job on Wall Street, founded Alameda Research, a crypto quantitative trading company, and began a life of profit-seeking in the cryptocurrency industry.

Regarding the reasons for entering the digital currency market, SBF is also blunt:

When I entered the cryptocurrency space, I had no idea what cryptocurrencies were. I just feel like there are a lot of good trading opportunities out there.

In an interview with the media, SBF said that its first pot of gold came from Bitcoin arbitrage in the US and Japanese markets. At its peak, it could earn as much as 25 million US dollars per day through arbitrage. After continuous accumulation of capital, SBF established FTX in May 2019.

Unlike Coinbase and other platforms for novices to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, FTX is known for providing complex derivatives. Under the digital currency trend, FTX has grown from a small cryptocurrency exchange to a leading company in the crypto industry in just a few years. Daily trading volume has climbed from $50 million in 2019 to $2 billion currently.

In addition to innovative products, low transaction fees, and a large number of currency options on its platform, gaining market share through acquisitions is also a strategy that FTX has been adopting. Previous analysis pointed out that SBF is taking advantage of the chaos in the cryptocurrency market to expand his empire, and has so far completed the acquisition of troubled Japanese exchanges Liquid, BlockFi, and Voyager Digital.

After gaining market share, FTX needs to further gain its compliance in the cryptocurrency market, and to do this it needs to expand its political influence step by step.

According to media reports, SBF spent nearly $40 million to support the Democratic Party in this midterm election and has become one of the largest donors to both parties.

Previously, according to data from Open Secrets, SBF contributed a total of $39.8 million in the 2021-2022 cycle, making it the sixth largest political contributor.

During the 2020 presidential election, SBF donated approximately $5.2 million to President Joe Biden's campaign.

SBF has said in interviews that he plans to spend up to $1 billion to help the 2024 presidential campaign.

Yang Mindao, founder of dForce, analyzed that although Binance has ten times the users and profits of FTX, FTX’s political influence in the United States is far more than ten times that of Binance. He said:

The difference between Binance and FTX in terms of strategic routes: Binance takes the Mainstreet route, where users are fully leveraged and do whatever is needed. FTX, on the other hand, is an elite route started by a group of professional traders, and in the later period, political leverage was added (K Street). SBF once satirized CZ on this, alluding to 'I can enter and exit Washington, D.C. at will, can CZ? '

The love-hate relationship between FTX and Binance

Some analysts believe that Binance can successfully use FTX's political influence and compliance in the U.S. cryptocurrency market to promote its development in the U.S. currency circle. A conflict will not be beneficial to either.

Last year, Binance announced its withdrawal from FTX. “After the divorce,” the relationship between the two parties began to take a turn for the worse.

On December 20, 2019, less than half a year after FTX was launched, Binance announced a strategic investment of US$1 billion in FTX. Binance stated that in addition to its equity investment in FTX, it will also hold FTT for the long term to help the sustainable development of the FTX ecosystem and keep it abreast of the development of the Binance ecosystem.

At that time, the derivatives market was firmly dominated by BitMex and OKEx, and Binance, which started with altcoins, had just launched its contract business. Binance hopes to expand its ecological layout by investing in FTX and help it catch up from behind in the derivatives market. The two parties also spent a harmonious honeymoon period at this time. FTX has also lived up to Binance’s expectations and shined in derivatives products and innovation.

One year after investing in Binance, SBF revealed that FTX’s latest valuation has reached US$3.5 billion. In just one and a half years, the valuation has increased from US$100 million to US$3.5 billion.

By July 2021, FTX completed a US$900 million Series B financing with US$18 billion. About two years after its establishment, FTX’s valuation increased from US$100 million to US$18 billion. CZ also stated at that time that Binance had completely withdrawn from FTX’s equity investment.

The exit was part of the normal investment cycle, was done under good conditions and we remain friends.

If Binance invests $18 billion to exit at a valuation of $1 billion, the return on Binance’s investment in FTX will be ten times. To a certain extent, it can be confirmed that Binance made approximately US$1.6 billion by investing in FTX.

Although there was no direct conflict between Binance and FTX around July 2021, the businesses of both parties have already highly overlapped and directly competed. After that, a period of friction entered.

Some analysts pointed out that the friction between Binance and FTX is caused by many factors. On the one hand, the two parties conflict in the market share of core businesses such as spot and derivatives. On the other hand, there is competition in the ecological layout. But the more important conflict comes from the competition between the two’s strategies and cultures. The analysis said:

The genes of being a Trader determine that SBF has a strong style of opening up situations through trading, and has a very high risk appetite. FTX is more like a large 3AC, running funds with high leverage all year round and making extremely risky strategic choices.

CZ, who is a Chinese engineer, understands human nature well and has a very high risk appetite, but Binance dares to compete and expand in non-compliant and casino ways instead of increasing leverage.

TikTok content style analysis

Why choose TikTok for brand marketing?

Before making any marketing investment, we need to judge the value of the platform first. Judging from data and trends, TikTok already has the following marketing value:

Users are growing rapidly and are still expanding

TikTok exceeded 1 billion monthly active users in just 4 years, much faster than Facebook and Instagram. Especially in emerging markets such as Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, user activity continues to increase.

Fair traffic distribution brought by “interest algorithm”

TikTok’s For You Page recommendation mechanism makes each video likely to become popular and is not strongly tied to the number of fans, which is a great benefit for new brand accounts.

The content e-commerce ecosystem is mature and the conversion path is short.

The integrated path of “planting grass + placing orders” has taken shape in the TikTok ecosystem. Data shows that TikTok e-commerce shopping users will increase by 40.5% year-on-year in 2023, and will still be growing rapidly in 2025.

The platform encourages participation in brand-native content

Compared with traditional platforms, TikTok prefers native videos over hard advertising. As long as brand content is "down-to-earth", it can obtain a virtuous cycle of likes, comments and reposts.

Case reference: The beauty brand elf Cosmetics launched the #eyeslipsface challenge, which received more than 500,000 UGC submissions in a short period of time, ultimately driving sales to increase by nearly 300% year-on-year.

How to register a TikTok business account?

If you want to use TikTok for marketing work, the first step is to create a business account. Compared with personal accounts, business accounts have more marketing functions.

Advantages of enterprise account:

Can be connected to the advertising delivery system

Can be bound to third-party tools (such as Sprout Social)

Official website link can be added

Data analysis dashboard available

Can open TikTok store or product display window

Registration process diagram (5 steps):

1️⃣ Download TikTok App and register a new account

2️⃣ Click the upper right corner (three horizontal menu) to enter settings

3️⃣ Select Settings & Privacy > Account Management > Switch to Business Account

4️⃣ Choose a classification according to the industry (it is recommended to choose the vertical field that best fits the product)

5️⃣ Fill in brand information, upload avatar, and add official website link (optional)

Tips: It is recommended to simultaneously register corporate Instagram and YouTube accounts and bind them to the TikTok homepage to form a "social media matrix."

TikTok content style analysis

Many novice brands mistakenly believe that TikTok is a "dancing platform" or "exclusive for Generation Z." In fact, TikTok content forms are highly diversified, covering many fields such as food, tourism, finance, mother and baby, B2B, etc.

TikTok content style keywords:

Content Type Typical Forms Suitable Brands

Situational interpretation of comedy skits, oral broadcasts imitating local life, catering, and beauty

Knowledge and skills teaching, science popularization, assessment education, tools, electronic products

Follow the hot trend category challenge, hot sound second-generation fashion, cultural creativity, fast moving consumer goods

Native records of daily factory life, behind-the-scenes manufacturing, handicrafts, and brand stories

Platform content suggestions:

Try to use native shooting + the platform’s built-in editing functions, which are more likely to be recommended than content that is “edited and uploaded”;

The optimal video length is 21 to 34 seconds;

Maintain an update frequency of 2 to 4 times a week to build algorithm awareness;

Use trending music + relevant hashtags to increase your exposure.

Case reference: The Washington Post interpreted serious political topics in the form of "role playing + light comedy" and gained more than 1.5 million fans and a highly sticky audience.

Summary: Three steps to get started with TikTok marketing

Step 1: Clarify the value and potential of TikTok as a brand growth channel

IT House News on February 25, according to Bloomberg, Aneel Bhusri, CEO of Workday, an American financial management and human capital management software company, said that leading artificial intelligence companies such as Anthropic, which investors fear will disrupt the software industry, are actually using his company's products.

"To be honest, Anthropic, Google and OpenAI are all using Workday's systems," Bhusri said in a conference call with analysts on Tuesday local time.

According to IT House, Workday mainly develops office software such as payroll accounting and employee management. Investors are increasingly concerned that artificial intelligence tools will simplify such tasks, thereby eliminating demand for related products. Workday's stock price has plummeted by about 40% this year, and the stock prices of peer companies such as Salesforce have also experienced similar declines.

Workday co-founder Bhusri returned as CEO earlier this month. He stepped down as co-CEO in 2024 but continues to serve as chairman. In a conference call after the company released its earnings report on Tuesday, Bhusri spent a lot of time explaining why Workday's software still has irreplaceable value in the era of artificial intelligence.

"These are truly core systems of record that must process transactions with absolute precision and speed, enforce complex security models, and comply with laws and regulations around the world," he said. "No amount of atmospheric coding can produce a human resource management system or an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system." ERP refers to enterprise resource planning software that consolidates multiple underlying business processes into a single system.

Still, Workday shares fell 9% in after-hours trading.

On July 17, Eastern Time, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "National Innovation Act to Guidance and Establishment of U.S. Stablecoins" (referred to as the "Genius Act" or "Stablecoin Act") with a vote of 308 in favor and 122 against, aiming to carry out major legislative reforms to cryptocurrency regulation.

According to CCTV News, a month ago, the U.S. Senate passed the aforementioned "Genius Act" with a rare overwhelming majority. This was also the first time that the Senate passed crypto-asset legislation. After passing the House of Representatives, the bill will be submitted to President Trump, who will sign it into law.

The bill clearly requires stablecoin issuers to hold U.S. dollar asset reserves at a ratio of 1:1, and the purpose of issuance is payment or settlement, rather than securities or commodities. It also restricts technology giants from issuing stablecoins and mandates federal or state-level license management.

The analysis pointed out that this marks that the entire cryptocurrency market will enter a more standardized but more competitive stage, and will also have a profound impact on the digital asset landscape and financial markets in the United States and even the world, including further helping to strengthen the status of the U.S. dollar while further weakening the sovereign currency credit of some countries, which may face greater trade challenges.

The biggest feature of traditional cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin is that their prices fluctuate violently. Stablecoins, as a cryptocurrency anchored to stable assets (such as legal currency and gold), exist to solve this problem and require cryptocurrency to use 100% of legal currency as a reserve value.

Entering 2025, stablecoins will usher in a major breakthrough. The current global scale has exceeded US$250 billion, exceeding the combined transactions of VISA and MasterCard for the first time. U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent recently predicted that this scale may reach 2 trillion U.S. dollars in the future, which will significantly increase the demand for the U.S. dollar and U.S. debt, thereby directly strengthening the U.S. dollar monetary system.

In addition to the United States, since 2018, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the European Union, Hong Kong, Cayman Islands, Panama and other countries/regions have successively issued or announced regulatory bills to promote stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. Among them, the European Union, the United States, and Hong Kong, China, all have statutory reserve ratios for banks close to 0%, but stablecoin issuers require a reserve ratio of 100%.

In addition, the U.S. House of Representatives also passed a broader cryptocurrency market structure bill, the Clarity Act, on July 17, which will be submitted to the Senate for consideration.

The Clarity Act aims to clarify the division of responsibilities between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the regulation of digital assets. The bill covers all digital assets associated with blockchain systems, including mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Ripple, and divides these digital assets into two categories: securities assets (still regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission) and commodity assets (regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission).

Zhitong Finance APP learned that the U.S. encryption industry ushered in a major victory on Thursday. The House of Representatives passed a landmark bill with a vote of 308 in favor and 122 against to formulate regulatory rules for "stable coins." This marks that digital assets are gradually entering the mainstream financial system.

The bill, called the Genius Act, was passed by the Senate as early as June, and the White House said on Thursday that President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday.

The bill has been a core target of years of lobbying by stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) and crypto trading platform Coinbase (COIN.US). The passage of the bill is the epitome of the crypto industry’s years of political mobilization and donations to support lawmakers with pro-crypto stances.

Crypto supporters generally believe that this bill and several other crypto legislation being considered by Congress will open up broader development space for the industry, especially attracting more institutional investors.

News of the bill comes as Bitcoin prices have been essentially flat over the past 24 hours, trading around $119,400. However, most other mainstream cryptocurrencies rose, with Ethereum rising by 1.5% and Ripple rising by 9.4%. Dogecoin gained 2%, while Solana was flat. In the past seven days, ETH and XRP have gained 23% and 33% respectively, while Bitcoin has also gained 6.4%.

Although the "Genius Act" is expected to be implemented soon, the encryption industry still has many unfinished ambitions. In particular, market structure legislation for crypto exchanges, brokers and tokens is the focus of the industry in the next stage.

It is worth noting that the House of Representatives also passed a broader “Market Structure Act” (CLARITY Act) on Thursday by a vote of 294 to 134 to establish complete regulatory rules for the crypto market. Among them, 78 Democratic congressmen voted in favor, exceeding the number of Democrats who supported a similar bill last year (71), showing that support is rising.

However, unlike the stablecoin bill, the market structure bill has not yet been voted on in the Senate. Analysts say the Senate is still some way off from assembling the bipartisan coalition needed to break through the filibuster.

TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote in a research note this week: "The passage of the bill is very important in a symbolic sense, but the real key is what kind of language the Senate will ultimately pass it." He does not expect the Senate to have a clearer draft bill before the end of this year or even early next year.

There are two reasons for the slow progress in the Senate. The first is the issue of consensus. While some senators have been pushing legislation for years, the Senate as a whole lags far behind the House in building consensus. Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman and Democrat Sherrod Brown has long been skeptical of encryption and has repeatedly blocked related bills from advancing.

The second is substantive differences. Several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, worry that the bill will undermine existing investor protection mechanisms and hand enforcement responsibilities to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which is severely understaffed and inexperienced. They believe that existing securities regulations are sufficient to regulate the industry.

Additionally, Trump’s own involvement in the crypto industry casts a shadow over the legislation. The stablecoin bill was nearly stalled in the Senate because some Democratic lawmakers were concerned that the bill failed to prohibit the president or other government officials from profiting from it. According to ethics disclosure documents, the Trump family holds shares in crypto company World Liberty Financial, which has brought it more than $57 million in revenue from token sales and launched its own stablecoin this year. In the future, some Democratic lawmakers may push for additional restrictions in the new bill to prohibit the president and his relatives from benefiting from it.

The new chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Republican Tim Scott, began holding hearings on the relevant legislation last week, but it is expected to take several months to write a bill that can win the support of at least seven Democratic lawmakers and thereby bypass the obstruction process.

At the same time, the U.S. House of Representatives also passed another important bill, the “Anti-CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act.” The bill seeks to prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing or testing a central bank digital currency without congressional approval. The final vote was 219 votes in favor and 217 votes against.

Central bank digital currency is different from decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. It is directly issued and managed by the central bank and is programmable and highly controllable. Some critics worry that it will become a means for the government to strengthen currency and citizen privacy control.

Other news pointed out that Trump is preparing to open the US$9 trillion US retirement market to cryptocurrency investment, gold and private equity. This move will stimulate a fundamental change in the way Americans manage their savings.

Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week to open up 401k plans to alternative investments beyond traditional stocks and bonds, three people familiar with the president's plans said. The investments will span a wide range of asset classes, from digital assets to metals, as well as funds focused on corporate buyouts, private loans and infrastructure deals. The executive order will direct Washington regulators to investigate remaining obstacles needed to allow such alternative investments to be included in professionally managed funds used by 401k savers, people familiar with the matter said.

IT House reported on September 5 that the Washington Post published a blog post yesterday (September 4), stating that judging from the initial feedback from 10,000 users, although the SearchGPT search engine from OpenAI, regarded by many as the "Google killer", has many bright features, it still has a long way to go before it can shake up Google's search status.

Some features are excellent

Note from IT House: SearchGPT does not simplify the user's search experience by providing concise and organized answers instead of a list of search results.

SearchGPT compiles answers using data from Bing and other sources, which OpenAI views as a comprehensive resource for information users search for.

SearchGPT's initial user feedback has been mixed. In terms of specific queries such as planning activities, programming, and summarizing information, SearchGPT performed relatively well.

insufficient

Ananay Arora, a software engineer, believes that SearchGPT does not pose a threat to Google at this stage. It performs well in searching for local restaurants, but the search image results are poor, and the way of labeling the source is confusing.

Technology expert Daniel Lemire thinks it's better than Google's AI Overviews but not as impressive as Perplexity.

Artificial intelligence enthusiast Matt Berman posted a video on YouTube, saying that SearchGPT performed better than Google in event planning and programming, but there was an "illusion" problem and the speaker information given was incorrect.

At the beginning of 2025, TikTok experienced a dramatic shutdown and restart in the United States, and every move it made attracted global attention. This regulatory tug-of-war across the Pacific not only highlights the severe challenges TikTok faces in overseas markets, but also reveals its difficulty in surviving in the international environment.

Although regulatory pressure from Europe and the United States continues to increase, TikTok's global popularity continues to rise, and downloads have grown rapidly, demonstrating its strong market appeal and user base.

KJ123 learned that the latest data from AppFigures showed that in January 2025, TikTok took first place in the global application download rankings, ending Instagram’s dominance for more than a year. Among them, the explosive growth of the Southeast Asian market has become a key engine, especially Indonesia, which contributed the largest share of TikTok's new global downloads in a single month.

As the largest economy in Southeast Asia, the importance of the Indonesian market to TikTok is self-evident. Official data shows that by continuing to increase investment in localization, TikTok has provided total advertising credit to Indonesian government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and small, medium and micro enterprises in 2024. It has reached 15.3 billion Indonesian rupiah (approximately US$940,000), an increase of 6 times from the initial stage.

What is more critical is its layout in the e-commerce field. After experiencing policy fluctuations, TikTok invested in the acquisition of local e-commerce giant Tokopedia. It not only successfully resolved the regulatory crisis in Indonesia that prohibited direct transactions on social platforms, but also relied on Tokopedia's mature logistics network and user base to deeply integrate live streaming e-commerce with the traditional shelf model, further consolidating its market position.

In addition to Indonesia, TikTok e-commerce also performed well in the Thai market. Data shows that from January to August 2024, TikTok Shop's product purchase volume increased threefold, and the amount of cooperation between brands and creators increased fourfold, driving more than 3 million local users to earn income through content creation.

With the vigorous development of Southeast Asia's digital economy, the e-commerce industry is facing unprecedented opportunities for transformation and growth. According to the "2024 Southeast Asia Digital Economy Report" jointly released by Google, Temasek and Bain, the scale of Southeast Asia's digital economy is expected to reach US$263 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Among them, short videos and live broadcasts have become important driving forces for the growth of e-commerce. More than 40% of Southeast Asian online shoppers rely on video content when making purchasing decisions.

With the right time, place and people, TikTok Shop successfully seized the opportunity of social e-commerce and quickly emerged as a force that cannot be ignored in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market. Surveys show that TikTok Shop has become one of the most popular shopping channels in Southeast Asia, thanks to the strong appeal of short videos and live broadcasts. It is expected that TikTok Shop’s e-commerce market share in Southeast Asia will reach 15% by 2024, an increase of 5% from 2023.

According to KJ123, TikTok Shop’s global site layout has expanded to 6 regions, among which Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in Southeast Asia have become the first key markets for TikTok e-commerce.

In order to take advantage of the e-commerce boom in Southeast Asia, TikTok is accelerating its e-commerce layout and launching a series of innovative measures. For example, the "refund without return" function has been effective since January 8, and the "Resumption of Work and Production Task Competition" launched last year for the Southeast Asian market.

According to the official announcement of TikTok Shop Southeast Asia, this "Resumption of Work and Production Task Competition" will cover the five major markets of Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore. In order to motivate platform merchants, TikTok Shop has launched a number of support policies, including a GMV growth incentive plan from January 1 to March 31, a Spring Festival resumption support plan, and advertising investment growth incentives, aiming to help merchants achieve business growth at the beginning of the new year.

However, it is worth noting that TikTok’s development in the e-commerce field in Southeast Asia has not been smooth sailing, and it still faces multiple challenges.

In order to protect local enterprises, Southeast Asian countries have strengthened their supervision of the e-commerce market, especially the supervision of cross-border enterprises. For example, the Vietnamese government has tightened regulations on taxation and counterfeit products. Recently, Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce has united 16 government agencies and major e-commerce platforms to jointly crack down on the online sales of substandard and illegal products. According to a statement from Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce, they have implemented a “removal from shelves at notice” policy. Once goods are deemed substandard, they will be removed immediately to ensure that consumers are protected from low-quality products.

In addition to the challenges of government regulation, TikTok also needs to deal with fierce competition from established e-commerce giants such as Shopee and Lazada. These platforms not only have a huge user base and mature operating systems, but are also actively exploring new areas of social e-commerce to enhance their competitiveness. Taking the Shopee Malaysia site as an example, during the Spring Festival this year, Shopee live shopping experienced explosive growth. The number of buyers on Shopee Live surged 116% year-on-year, holiday food searches increased by more than 3,000%, and orders from local merchants increased by 240%.

In addition, TikTok also faces challenges from other platforms in the field of social e-commerce that TikTok is good at. For example, YouTube has partnered with Shopee to launch YouTube Shopping services in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Since YouTube has a deep user base in Southeast Asia, this will undoubtedly bring greater competitive pressure to TikTok.

Although the road ahead is full of challenges, TikTok has shown momentum to compete with e-commerce giant Shopee in the Southeast Asian market. Although its fate in the United States is still unresolved, in Southeast Asia, the future development of TikTok e-commerce is worth looking forward to. In the future, we will wait and see whether TikTok can further enhance its status in the Southeast Asian market.

——– END ——–

https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli

In order to allow developers to use "human language" to work with AI, Gemini CLI reduces the complexity of traditional programming interfaces and is very easy to use:

You can ask questions, edit files, or run commands directly.

For best results, it's best to describe your needs as specifically as possible.

Enter "/help". More information is also available.

In addition to Gemini CLI, in the field of programming, Google has also deployed tools such as Gemini Code Assist and asynchronous AI assistant Jules.

At the press conference, Google senior software engineer Taylor Mullen said: "Using Gemini CLI, you can use natural language to talk to computers, solve problems, and integrate complex workflows to accomplish things that were impossible in the past."

This is seen as a head-to-head confrontation with OpenAI and Anthropic.

OpenAI and Anthropic have already joined the terminal AI tool track:

OpenAI launches open source Codex CLI;

Anthropic launched Claude Code, etc., which are favored by developers for their lightweight, easy integration, and fast response.

Technically, Gemini CLI has the same origin as the Google AI coding assistant plug-in Gemini Code Assist.

In VS Code, just enable agent mode in the chat window to enter your requirements, and Code Assist will work tirelessly:

Write test cases, fix bugs, develop new features, and even complete code migration…

This means that whether developers are users of the free version, standard version or enterprise version, they can enjoy AI-driven coding functions in VS Code and the terminal environment.

This kind of cross-platform thinking allows developers to avoid the "difficulty of choice".

This time Google has made such a big move that Ai2 scientist Nathan Lambert began to long for: the free premium version of Gemini is just around the corner!

More than just writing code

The functionality of Gemini CLI goes far beyond writing code and supports more common task scenarios.

It is designed to be very versatile and can perform tasks such as generating content, solving problems, and conducting research.

While most users will use Gemini CLI for programming, Google says the tool supports a variety of other uses as well. For example:

Ryan J. Salva, senior director of product at Google, thinks this is how work will be done in the next 10 years.

At the press conference, he said:

We believe that over the next decade these tools will dominate the way developers and creators of all kinds work.

Whether you're a student, hobbyist, freelancer or developer, you should have the same tools.

It seems that this time Google is really here: from programming to video shooting, AI is used to inspire all kinds of creativity!

References:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-25/google-debuts-gemini-ai-coding-tool-in-bid-to-entice-developers

https://x.com/googleaidevs/status/1937861646082515205

https://blog.google/technology/developers/introducing-gemini-cli-open-source-ai-agent/

Gemini CLI: Google brings AI smarts to the terminal

Google unveils Gemini CLI, an open source AI tool for terminals

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7343640552640344069/

At the "Belt and Road" Science and Technology Exchange Conference held in Chongqing, my country proposed the "International Science and Technology Cooperation Initiative" for the first time, advocating and practicing the concept of international science and technology cooperation that is open, fair, just and non-discriminatory, adhering to the principle that "science knows no borders and benefits all mankind", and jointly builds a global science and technology community.

China for the first time proposed an international science and technology cooperation initiative at the Belt and Road Conference on Science and Technology Exchange in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. The initiative calls for advocating and practicing the concept of open, fair, just and non-discriminatory international cooperation in science and technology, adhering to the principle that "science has no borders and benefits all mankind," and joining hands to build a global community of science and technology.

A corner of the venue of the first "Belt and Road" Science and Technology Exchange Conference taken on November 6, 2023. Image source: Xinhua News Agency

【Knowledge Points】

At present, the world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century and is accelerating. Human development is facing more and more major challenges. Human society needs international cooperation and open sharing more than ever before. Through scientific and technological innovation cooperation, we can explore and solve global problems, jointly respond to the challenges of the times, and promote peaceful development. Scientific and technological cooperation is an important part of cooperation in jointly building the "Belt and Road". Over the years, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China has worked with partners from various countries to consolidate and deepen bilateral and multilateral scientific and technological cooperation between governments, continue to expand exchanges and exchanges in the scientific and technological community, continuously improve the level of joint research and development, vigorously promote technology demonstration, promotion and application, jointly support innovation and entrepreneurship, and contribute positively to enhancing the scientific and technological capabilities of various countries, serving the economic and social development of various countries, and deepening friendship between countries.

The "International Science and Technology Cooperation Initiative" includes six specific contents including adhering to advocating science, innovative development, open cooperation, equality and inclusiveness, solidarity and collaboration, and universal benefit and win-win, such as improving global science and technology governance and strengthening intellectual property protection; strengthening global science and technology innovation collaboration to jointly build a global innovation network; adhering to scientific and technological innovation personnel and resources flow freely around the world, strengthen talent exchanges and cooperation; advocate all countries and scientific research entities to participate in international scientific and technological cooperation on an equal footing; strengthen in-depth collaboration and mutual learning among scientific and technological innovation entities; explore mutually beneficial and win-win new models of global scientific and technological innovation cooperation, and promote mutual benefit and mutual sharing of scientific and technological innovation achievements, etc.

【Important speech】

We deeply realize that only win-win cooperation can accomplish things, do good things, and do great things. As long as all countries have the desire to cooperate and coordinate actions, natural chasms can be opened up, "land-locked countries" can become "land-linked countries", and lowlands of development can become highlands of prosperity.

We have learned that win-win cooperation is the sure way to success in launching major initiatives that benefit all. When countries embrace cooperation and act in concert, a deep chasm can be turned into a thoroughfare, land-locked countries can become land-linked, and a place of underdevelopment can be transformed into a land of prosperity.

——On October 18, 2023, Xi Jinping’s important speech at the opening ceremony of the 3rd “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Summit Forum

【Congratulatory message】

At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation are developing in depth. To solve the problem of common development, mankind needs international cooperation and open sharing more than ever before.

As a new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation continues to evolve, mankind needs international cooperation, openness and sharing more than ever in order to address common development problems.

——On May 25, 2023, Xi Jinping’s congratulatory letter to the 2023 Zhongguancun Forum

【Related vocabulary】

Global Science and Technology Innovation Collaboration

global collaboration on technological innovation

Global Technology Governance

global science and technology governance

global science and technology community

global scientific and technological community

china daily website english commentary studio

(This article was first published on the "Study Powerful Nation" learning platform)

Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin fell as investor expectations for a rate cut from the Federal Reserve weakened. Bitcoin fell to $115,100, its lowest level since July 11. At the same time, Ethereum fell by about 2% and Ripple fell by more than 5%.

Bitcoin rose to an all-time high of $123,200 last week, continuing a steady upward trend driven by optimism about an improving U.S. regulatory environment and massive inflows into crypto investment products. However, Rachael Lucas, an analyst at cryptocurrency trading platform BTC Markets, said: “While the overall upward trend remains intact, momentum has weakened and traders have become more cautious.”

Data released on Thursday showed that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits in the United States for the week ended July 19 was 217,000, falling for the sixth consecutive week and still the lowest level since mid-April, lower than market expectations of 226,000 and the previous value of 221,000. In addition, the number of people filing for unemployment benefits in the United States fell slightly to 1.955 million in the week ended July 19, which was lower than market expectations of 1.96 million and the previous value of 1.956 million. Although weak hiring has made it difficult for many laid-off workers to find new opportunities, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, indicating that labor market conditions remain stable. Better-than-expected employment data also provided reason for the Fed to continue to act cautiously.

In addition, the market's bearish sentiment is also reflected in the derivatives market. According to prime broker FalconX, an unidentified speculator paid approximately $5 million in option premiums on the Deribit exchange to purchase a batch of Bitcoin put options expiring on August 8 with a strike price of $110,000.

IG Australia analyst Tony Sycamore said: “We expect Bitcoin prices to continue to consolidate before remaining below the current monthly trend line resistance of approximately $125,000.” He said that this trend line was the key technical level that prevented Bitcoin from continuing to rise last week.