#30. What COVID-19 impacted, and the resilient - Trends IV

Trade relationships, funding rounds, travel bans, online harassment, and 3 recommended articles.

Welcome! If you want to know:

• How are funding rounds in Africa and trade relationships in Latin America? 💸🌎

• The headwinds of COVID-19 in Japan, and how women in Ugandan politics deal with social media? 🗾📴

• Read 3 great Emerging Market articles… 🚢💻

Keep reading…

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International trade, VC deals, and the big tech crackdown

One of the pillars of soft power in China is its commercial relationships worldwide. Below, its trade relationships with Latin America, which multiplied x25 in 20 years and were not as affected by the pandemic.

Oliver Stuenkel 🇧🇷 @OliverStuenkel

The resilience of China - Latin America+Caribbean trade during the pandemic follows an impressive 20-year trajectory between 2000 and 2020. During this period, bilateral trade grew more than 25 times. americasquarterly.org/article/how-la…

The VC deal flow rhythm doesn’t seem to stop this year. Below, TechCabal gathers the most relevant rounds in Africa this week.

TechCabal Insights @TC_Insights

This week, Francophone Africa produced its first unicorn as Senegalese fintech, @WaveSenegal raised $200m in a Series A round to reach a valuation of $1.7 billion. The round was led by payments giant @stripe , Sequoia Heritage, @foundersfund, @RibbitCapital,& other investors.

The big tech crackdown continues: Chinese regulators are forcing Ant Group to separate payment from loans. It will break one of the strongest competitive advantages of Ant Group: taking advantage of financial data for other banking products. This is a double edge sword, as there is room for conflict of interest.

Rui Ma 马睿 @ruima

Beijing to break up Ant’s Alipay and force creation of separate loans app This seems in line with government stance that payment apps should only do payment, but I’m interested in your reactions!

ft.comBecome an FT subscriber to read | Financial TimesNews, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

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Failure story: travel bans, semiconductor crisis and online harassment

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and each government is dealing with it to the best that it can. In Japan, their conservative approach banning international travel is costing them business and reputation; while not being as effective to halt the virus in the current situation.

Nikkei Asia @NikkeiAsia

This was our most read opinion piece for the week. Japan should rethink its ineffective travel ban　#COVID19

s.nikkei.comJapan should rethink its ineffective travel banRules limiting foreign visitors no longer serve their intended purpose

The COVID-19 infections in Southeast Asia, on the other hand, have impacted the supply of in-vehicle semiconductors, due to the suspension of production in plants. This has caused automakers to cut production up to as much as 10%.

Nikkei Asia @NikkeiAsia

GLOBAL CHIP CRUNCH | A MILLION VEHICLE PRODUCTION CUT Toyota and five other Japanese automakers have lowered their production targets by a collective 1 million units largely because they cannot get their hands on necessary chips.

s.nikkei.comJapan automakers slash production plans by over 1 million unitsResurgent pandemic in Southeast Asia wreaks havoc on chip supplies

Women in Ugandan politics were almost absent on Twitter campaigning. The reason? The online violence they experience in the platform mixed with sexism; causing them to avoid being so present online and stop pursuing a high reach.

Rest of World @restofworld

Uganda’s case is a clear example that equipping women in public life with digital skills is not enough. There’s also an urgent need to equip women with ways to deal with the violence they experience in digital spaces

restofworld.orgIdeas | How harassment keeps women politicians offline in UgandaA new study suggests Ugandan women in politics use social media far less than their male counterparts, which could be related to the abuse they experience across platforms.

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Source recommendations: Emerging Market articles

Amaia @amaiagb__

When I started my NL, I committed to showcasing sources of information about #business in #EmergingMarkets: - To break the Silicon Valley echo chamber - To help creators grow their audience There are a lot of exciting stories out there! Here is a running thread of favorites:

I continued with the thread of sources (long time, no see!) yesterday with a few faves:

Emerging World - The Workhorse of Globalization: The Container Ship. Behind our reality of “Buy Now”, a reflection of the most interesting element of this infrastructure: the container ship.

The Workhorse of Globalization: The Container Ship

Frontier Fintech: The Global Digital Wallet Opportunity.

A global analysis of wallets, from incumbents in the US like CashApp to Tinkoff in Russia and Kuda in Africa; including the example of M-Pesa in Kenya and the challenges that regulations will pose for wallets.

Samora just hit 1,000 subs and he’s onto something bigger… so don’t miss out!

The Global Digital Wallet Opportunity

Rest of world: In Argentina, cheap government-issued netbooks sparked a musical renaissance.

I’m a big fan of music, and as you know, of stories in Emerging Markets. In this article, rest of world tells the stories of Argentinian artists that I enjoy like L-Gante, who produced their first music hits on government-issued laptops. That’s the coolest side-effect I can think of in a program like that.

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