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Weekly Lists
June 8, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
bne:TMT Uber is “over” in
Turkey, Erdogan tells guests at Istanbul dinner
China's WeChat launches its mobile payment service in Russia
The business of ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. is “over” in Turkey, the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly said on June 1.
“There is no such thing anymore. We have our own cab system,” Erdogan said at a Ramadan dinner in Istanbul, according to Bloomberg. “They say Europe has it, who cares? We will decide on this ourselves. Our interior ministry gave the orders. Traffic police will tackle this situation and do what is necessary.”
State-run Anadolu News Agency reported taxi drivers in Istanbul as welcoming the president’s remarks on June 2 with around 100 yellow cabs driving in a convoy to Erdogan’s house in Kisikli to show their support.
WeChat, owned by China's internet giant Tencent, has launched its mobile payment service WeChat Pay in Russia.
WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, is used by 980mn people in China. The launch of its payment app in Russia is aimed at Chinese consumers, the only ones who currently use the service. Russian Amber, a chain of stores in St. Petersburg, is the first chain to accept WeChat Pay thanks to its popularity with Chinese tourists, BMB reports.
Chinese tourism to Russia has taken off in a big way as Chinese consumers find Russia cheap and visit Moscow in particular on shopping trips. Irkutsk is another favourite destination, which serves the northwest territories of China.
Estonian crypto platform Cryptocean is suing Telegram, the mes- senger service of self-exiled Russian digital entrepreneur Pavel Durov, in Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court, claiming a copyright violation during the development of digital identification technology, Tass reported on June 1 citing Cryptocean founder Yuri Myshinsky.
Estonia has been on the avant-garde of cyber confrontations with Russia, and the lawsuit in a Russian court could make an unlikely alliance against Telegram, which is being unsuccessfully blocked by the authorities in a war against communications watchdog Roskomnadzor.
Cryptocean, which seeks to unify fiat and crypto worlds, believes that Telegram is making "a clone of its product" in preparing to launch a digital identification "passport" that would be accepted simultaneously by banks and crypto-services.
Estonian Cryptocean suing Telegram in Russian court for copyright violation