Google launches music streaming service in Japan

Google has launched a music streaming service in Japan, becoming the latest tech giant to push into the world's number two music market, despite mixed results among earlier arrivals. 

PHOTO: AFP

SEP 4, 20151:27 PM

[TOKYO] Google has launched a music streaming service in Japan, becoming the latest tech giant to push into the world's number two music market, despite mixed results among earlier arrivals.

The US company said that its Japanese edition of Google Play Music features more than 35 million tunes available at a cost of 980 yen (S$11.3) a month.

The launch, announced Thursday, came after similar services debuted in Japan this year by Apple, popular messaging app Line, and a joint venture by IT firm CyberAgent and Japanese music giant Avex Group.

Japan is the world's second largest music market, estimated to be worth US$2.6 billion in 2014, after the US$4.8 billion US market, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

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But packaged media such as CDs account for about 80 per cent of Japanese music sales, contrasting sharply with the US market markets where digital downloads are soaring.

Many Japanese production companies have focused on established retail channels for CDs, while issues over licencing have also hampered growth in the streaming business.

Sony and Japanese games giant DeNA have terminated their music streaming services in recent years.

Some industry experts have also put the blame on free online services such as YouTube for discouraging consumers from paying for digital music.

Global streaming titan Spotify has yet to make its foray into the Japanese market, partly due to protracted talks with record labels.

E-books are also making slow progress among Japan's book-loving population, while online video streaming firm Netflix, which boasts 65 million users in about 50 countries, came to Japan only this month.

AFP

    
 

UN calls for up to 200,000 refugees to be shared among EU states

"People who are found to have a valid protection claim... must then benefit from a mass relocation programme, with the mandatory participation of all EU member states," Antonio Guterres said in a statement. 

PHOTO: AFP

SEP 4, 20152:05 PM

[GENEVA] The UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on Friday on the European Union to admit up to 200,000 refugees as part of a "mass relocation programme" that would be binding on EU states.

"People who are found to have a valid protection claim... must then benefit from a mass relocation programme, with the mandatory participation of all EU member states," Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

"A very preliminary estimate would indicate a potential need to increase relocation opportunities to as many as 200,000 places," he added.

His call came ahead of a meeting later Friday of EU foreign ministers to discuss the continent's refugee crisis, of which Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body was found face down in the surf on a Turkish beach on Wednesday, has become a searing symbol.

Referring to the pictures of the dead child, which "had stirred the hearts of the world public", Mr Guterres said: "Europe cannot go on responding to this crisis with a piecemeal or incremental approach." "No country can do it alone, and no country can refuse to do its part," he declared.

His appeal tallied with a call by France and Germany for binding EU quotas to share the burden of the influx of migrants and refugees, which has hit Greece, Italy and transit countries in southeastern and central Europe the hardest.

A European source told AFP that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker would next week unveil a plan for the relocation of at least 120,000 more refugees.

AFP

    
 

China punishes three firms blamed for stock volatility

SEP 4, 20152:48 PM

[SHANGHAI] China's market regulator has fined three companies, including Alibaba-linked Hundsun, a combined 453 million yuan (S$100.9 million) for conducting "illegal securities business", which has been blamed for volatility on the plunging markets.

The moves come as Chinese authorities mount broad attempts to shore up share prices after the benchmark Shanghai index plunged 30 per cent in three weeks from mid-June following a debt-fuelled rally which sent the market up 150 percent in a year.

The continuing falls come alongside worries about slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy that have sent shudders through global bourses.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) also confiscated a total 151 million yuan in "illegal income" from Hangzhou Hundsun Network Technologies Service Co, Mecrt Corp, and Hithink RoyalFlush Information Network Co, it said in a statement.

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The three firms developed systems which enabled investors to trade stocks without giving their real identities, allowing the firms to profit by "knowingly" providing the software to unqualified clients, the CSRC statement said.

They "severely disrupted security market order", it said.

Earlier this week, China's main state broadcaster paraded a financial journalist "confessing" to causing the stock market "great losses" as authorities seek to rein in the rout.

Wang Xiaolu, a journalist with the respected business magazine Caijing, was held after writing a story in July saying the regulator was studying plans for government funds to exit the market.

The CSRC started investigating the three companies in July, and its statement late Wednesday said it also fined and warned their top executives personally.

E-commerce giant Alibaba's affiliate Ant Financial - a financial services provider focused on serving small companies - holds a 20 per cent stake in Hundsun Network's parent company Hundsun Technologies.

Hundsun Technologies closed down 3.14 percent on the Shanghai exchange and Hithink RoyalFlush Information Network gained 2.19 per cent in Shenzhen trading on Wednesday, the last day of trading this week before a market holiday.

AFP