Chinese crypto promoter apologizes after postponing Warren Buffett charity lunch

SHANGHAI - Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun issued a lengthy public apology on Thursday for the manner in which he promoted his $4.57-million charity lunch with Warren Buffett, raising questions over whether the event will go ahead.

The 29-year-old was scheduled to dine with the American billionaire investor on July 25 in San Francisco after winning an annual auction. He said he hoped the meal would "bridge the gap between institutional and traditional investors and the realm of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology."

He aggressively promoted the lunch on social media only to postpone it earlier this week, saying he had fallen ill with kidney stones.

Such high-profile events are unusual in China's cryptocurrency industry which has been under heavy regulatory scrutiny for the past 2 years. Authorities have warned about speculation risk and banned initial coin offerings, prompting many industry players to keep a low profile.

Amid the publicity surrounding the event, reports in Chinese media suggested Sun's businesses were involved in illegal activities and that he had been barred from foreign travel. Sun denied all allegations.

In Sun's Thursday statement posted on his Weibo microblog account, he said he had been immature and "over-marketed" himself, and that his original good intentions to arrange the lunch with Buffett had resulted in unexpected consequences that led him to neglect his social and public responsibilities.

"This has resulted in a bad influence on the public, and incited the worries of the regulatory bodies which care for me," he said.

He did not specify what prompted the apology, nor did he state when or whether the lunch will be rescheduled.

Sun's company, the Tron Foundation, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. US investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which Warren Buffett chairs, did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

Buffett offered the lunch by auction to raise money for anti-poverty charity Glide, which has said it has received Sun's donation.

Sun said he would actively cooperate with regulatory agencies to discuss his businesses' structure and plans, and that he places great importance on financial stability and curbing risk.

His Weibo post was one of the top trending topics on the microblogging site, attracting over 3,800 comments.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

WeChat parent plans to open PH office

MANILA -- A major Chinese Internet company plans to establish a local office “soon” as it beefs up its presence in the county.

Justin Sun, director of international WeChat operations of China's Tencent Holdings Ltd., said the company is bullish on the prospects of WeChat in the Philippines because of the growing number of users of smartphones in the country.

“The Philippines right now is our most important market in Southeast Asia,” Sun said in an interview with ABS-CBNnews.com at the sidelines of the Mobile Festival 2013 at the SMX Convention Center.

“The Philippines has a big population and the economy continues to grow,” he added.

Sun remarked that the local office will focus in marketing and operations, while the research and development will be led by the head office in China.

“We will also be leveraging our partners’ experience and experience to promote WeChat,” said Sun.

Developed by Tencent, WeChat provides mobile text and voice messaging communication services. The app is available on several platforms such as Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Symbian.

WeChat also supports various languages like traditional/simplified Chinese, English, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Malay, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Hindi and Russian.

It runs on wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), second generation (2G), third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) networks.

Founded in 1998, Tencent has grown into one of China's largest and most used Internet service portals. It has maintained steady growth under its user-oriented operating strategies.

In 2004, Tencent Holdings Ltd. went public on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Sun noted WeChat also plans to explore partnership with major business organizations in the country such as Jollibee Food Corp. and ABS-CBN Corp.

“We are currently talking with ABS-CBN on how to develop a solid business partnership,” he said.

Major Philippine telecom companies Smart Communications, Inc. and Globe Telecom have launched their own WeChat-based promotions to their subscribers.

WeChat is also creating waves in social networking through shared streaming content feeds using “Moments” and location-based social plug-ins -- “Shake,” People Nearby” and Hold Together -- to connect and organize chat up sessions with WeChat users around the world.

Sun said WeChat subscriber’s data is protected through an on-demand contact list backup and retrieval to/from the cloud to protect every multisensory experience with app.

Registration is completed through Facebook Connect, mobile phone SMS/VM, or Tencent QQ. The application was initially launched as Weixin in China in January 2011, with international language support in October 2011, and re-branded as WeChat in April 2012.

The app is available in the app store for iTunes, Google play store for Android, BlackBerry app world and Marketplace for Windows Phone.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com