Outside of China, we also have updates from Indonesia, India, and the Southeast Asian region in general

China to target apps that obtain personal information illegally – SCMP

Chinese cyberspace authority announced on Friday a joint campaign with three regulatory agencies to vet the privacy policies of “some of the country’s most popular apps”, as part of a campaign to crack down illegal gathering of personal information.

According to South China Morning Post, the one-year campaign will start this month, with the goal to protect the security of personal information.

This new campaign followed a previous six-month crackdown that aims to eradicate “vulgarity” in internet content.

Tencent shares jump three per cent after games approval – Reuters

Tencent Holdings saw its shares jump more than three per cent on Friday, following regulators’ approval of the company’s mobile games titles, Reuters reported.

The Chinese government froze approvals for new game titles in March last year, which had costed the firm roughly 20 per cent of their market value since.

But in December, the government began to approve new game titles in batches, in which Tencent’s are coming in the fourth batch. The fourth batch included 95 titles, with two of them belonging to Tencent.

Also Read: Grab joins China’s ZhongAn Insurance to build digital insurance marketplace

Sequoia launches accelerator programme in India, Southeast Asia – Dealstreet Asia

Venture capital firm Sequoia launched its new accelerator programme for startups in India and Southeast Asia, called Surge, Dealstreet Asia wrote.

The programme planned to invest US$1.5 million in each participating startups and aimed to have around 10-20 companies in each cohort.

Selected companies will have the opportunity to be mentored by prominent names in the Indian and Southeast Asian startup communities.

The programme will also include five modules hosted in China, India, Silicon Valley and Singapore in order to provide global exposure.

Indonesian gaming startup Agate acquires Ekuador Games – Hybrid

Indonesian game developer and publisher Agate announced that it has acquired fellow gaming company Ekuador Games for IDR5 billion (US$355,000), Hybrid reported.

Following the acquisition, Ekuator Games Cipto Diguno will hold the position of Vice President of Consumer Games at Agate. Ekuator will also become its own unique division within the company.

Rumours about the two Bandung-based companies have spreaded since the end of 2018, as they had often collaborated together.

The majority of Ekuator Games founders were former employees of Agate.

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