Biden drops plan to ban Chinese-owned apps TikTok, WeChat

President Joe Biden on Wednesday revoked executive orders from his predecessor Donald Trump seeking to ban Chinese-owned mobile apps TikTok and WeChat over national security concerns, the White House said.

A statement said that instead of banning the popular apps, the Biden administration would carry out a "criteria-based decision framework and rigorous, evidence-based analysis to address the risks" from internet applications controlled by foreign entities.

Trump had claimed the apps posed national security risks and had sought to force the sale of TikTok, which is owned by China-based ByteDance and remains one of the world's most popular social media apps, to US investors.

The effort by the Trump administration prompted a series of legal challenges which delayed the efforts to ban or force the sale of the applications, which heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing.

There was no immediate comment from the two companies.

Biden issued a new executive order citing an "ongoing emergency" related to "the continuing effort of foreign adversaries to steal or otherwise obtain United States persons' data" and calling for a four-month review.

University of Texas law professor Bobby Chesney, who follows national security issues, called the Biden order "a good middle path."

"They affirmed the nature of the threat and the propriety of using sanctions to address it, and they have held the door open for reimposing some version of these sanctions... but likely with a far stronger and more defensible record," Chesney tweeted.

But officials said that Biden's order stopped short of rescinding a review of the 2017 acquisition of TikTok forerunner Musical.ly by ByteDance.

"It would be premature to celebrate; Bytedance remains subject to an entirely separate CFIUS divestment order," Chesney said in a blog post, referring to the intergovernmental Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is carrying out the review.

"Today's action by President Biden does nothing to change that. Of course, it could be that this too will change," he added.

Finding 'unacceptable risks' -

Biden's order seeks to identify any "connected software applications that may pose an unacceptable risk to US national security and the American people" including "applications that are owned, controlled, or managed by persons that support foreign adversary military or intelligence activities, or are involved in malicious cyber activities, or involve applications that collect sensitive personal data."

The new order calls for the Commerce Department and other federal agencies to develop guidelines "to protect sensitive personal data... including personally identifiable information and genetic information" from misuse.

TikTok is believed to have some one billion users worldwide including more than 100 million in the United States, and is especially popular with young smartphone users.

Last September, US District Judge Carl Nichols issued a temporary injunction at the request of TikTok blocking the effort to ban downloads of the app in the United States.

Trump had given his blessing to a plan that would have given TikTok to US tech giant Oracle with investments from retail powerhouse Walmart, but that deal failed to win approval in Beijing.

WeChat, part of the Chinese tech giant Tencent, is a massively popular "super app" which includes social networking, messaging, e-commerce and more.

The ban on WeChat was also delayed by a lawsuit from users based in the United States claiming the ban infringed on their rights.

The Biden move comes a day after the US Senate passed a sweeping industrial policy bill aimed at countering the surging economic threat from China and pumping more than $170 billion into research and development.

The package, a key provision of which addresses a shortage of semiconductors that has slowed US auto production this year, will help American industry bolster its capacity and improve technology, in an effort to avoid being outmaneuvered by Beijing as the adversaries compete for tech leadership.

Agence France-Presse

China's super rich got $1.5 trillion richer during pandemic: report

BEIJING— China's super wealthy have earned a record $1.5 trillion in 2020, more than the past 5 years combined, as e-commerce and gaming boomed during pandemic lockdowns, an annual rich list said Tuesday.

An extra 257 people also joined the billionaires club in the world's number 2 economy by August, following 2 years of shrinking membership, according to the closely watched Hurun Report.

The country now has a total of 878 billionaires. The US had 626 people in the top bracket at the start of the year, according to Hurun in its February global list.

The report found that there were around 2,000 individuals with a net worth of more than 2 billion yuan ($300 million) in August, giving them a combined net worth of $4 trillion.

Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce titan Alibaba, once again topped the list after his wealth surged a whopping 45 percent to $58.8 billion as online shopping firms saw a surge in business owing to people being shut indoors for months during strict lockdowns to contain the virus.

He was followed by Pony Ma ($57.4 billion), boss of gaming giant and WeChat owner Tencent who made an extra 50 percent despite concerns about his firm's US outlook after it was threatened with bans there over national security fears.

First-time list member Zhong Shanshan, 66, best-known for his bottled water brand Nongfu, parachuted into third spot with $53.7 billion after a Hong Kong IPO in September, the report found.

'NEVER SEEN THIS MUCH WEALTH'

"The world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year," Hurun Report chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said in a statement.

This year's list shows China was "moving away from traditional sectors like manufacturing and real estate, towards the new economy," he added.

Wang Xing, founder of food delivery app Meituan, quadrupled his wealth and jumped 52 places to 13th in the list with $25 billion, while Richard Liu, founder of online shopping platform JD.com, doubled his money pile to $23.5 billion.

Health care entrepreneurs also moved up the list on the back of the pandemic, with Jiang Rensheng, founder of vaccine-maker Zhifei, tripling his value to $19.9 billion.

China shut down major cities around the country in late January and February to contain the virus that first emerged in Wuhan, causing an unprecedented economic contraction in the first quarter.

With infections appearing to be under control, the country is on track to become the only major economy to expand this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

On Monday, data showed the economy expanded 4.9 percent in the third quarter but away from the glittering figures as many ordinary workers and fresh graduates are struggling to find jobs.

The urban jobless rate inched down to 5.4 percent in September, although analysts have warned of higher unemployment than officially reported this year.

Agence France-Presse

Twitter, TikTok discuss potential combination: WSJ

NEW YORK, United States - Twitter is in preliminary discussions for a possible combination with TikTok, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, after US President Donald Trump said he would ban the app, calling it a threat to national security.

Trump declared Thursday that the popular Chinese video app TikTok and social network WeChat "threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

In an executive order, Trump gave Americans 45 days to stop doing business with the platforms, effectively setting a deadline for a sale of TikTok by its Chinese parent firm ByteDance.

He has also demanded that a significant portion of the sale go to the US Treasury.

Microsoft has been the primary suitor for TikTok, saying it was in talks to buy the company's US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand operations.

The Financial Times reported Thursday that Microsoft has expanded negotiations and was now after the app's entire global operations.

As a smaller company, Twitter would have a long-shot bid for TikTok, but the social media platform believes it would come under less antitrust scrutiny than larger corporations such as Microsoft, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the talks.

Twitter, however, would likely need the support of other investors to complete the combination.

While Twitter does allow for the sharing of videos, most posts contain short text messages and photos or GIFs. 

In 2012, Twitter acquired the platform Vine, which allowed users to share short videos, but shut down the service in 2016.

Agence France-Presse

Shares in WeChat parent plunge 10 percent after Trump issues ban order

HONG KONG - Shares in the parent of Chinese social media giant WeChat tanked in Hong Kong on Friday after United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning Americans from doing business with the platform, citing national security concerns.

Tencent plunged as much as 10 percent in morning trade before paring losses and ending the session down 6.75 percent at HK$518.00, dragging the broader Hang Seng Index down more than two percent.

The sweeping restrictions on the firm, which come into effect in 45 days, also cover ByteDance, the owner of popular app TikTok. 

The move wiped almost $50 billion off Tencent's market capitalization, with the firm having surged about 70 percent since March as global tech titans benefited from stay-at-home orders aimed at containing the coronavirus.

It also adds to a laundry list of issues that have ratcheted up tensions between the superpowers, including Hong Kong, Huawei and the spread of the virus.

"The US government is expected to follow up with more measures targeting Tencent," Steven Leung, at UOB Kay Hian (Hong Kong), said.

"Tencent's overseas expansion map now looks a bit uncertain, since some M&A deals, especially if its targets are based in the US, will face challenges."

The move rippled around Asian markets, with investors concerned about increasingly bitter relations between the economic titans that some fear could lead to a renewal of their painful trade war.

Officials from both sides are due to meet next Saturday to review a trade deal signed earlier this year.

"Apart from the obvious fallout to Tencent and ByteDance, Washington DC's moves are sure to ratchet up geopolitical tensions with Beijing once again," said OANDA's Jeffrey Halley.

- With reports from Bloomberg News 

Agence France-Presse

TikTok denies sharing Indian user data with Chinese govt

NEW DELHI — TikTok denied Tuesday sharing Indian users' data with the Chinese government, after New Delhi banned the wildly popular app in a sharp deterioration of relations with Beijing two weeks after a deadly border clash.

"TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and have not shared any information of our users in India with any foreign government, including the Chinese government," TikTok India chief Nikhil Gandhi said in a statement.

"Further if we are requested to in the future we would not do so. We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity," he said, adding that it had been invited to a meeting with the Indian government "for an opportunity to respond and submit clarifications".

TikTok is owned by China's ByteDance and was one of 59 Chinese mobile apps banned late Monday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.


There are estimated to be about 120 million TikTok users in India, making the South Asian nation of 1.3 billion people the app's biggest international market.

The Indian ministry of information technology said that the apps "are engaged in activities... prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order".

The announcement came after 20 Indian soldiers were killed on June 15 in hand-to-hand clashes with Chinese troops in the first deadly violence on their disputed Himalayan border in 45 years. Chinese casualties are unknown.

Amid mutual recriminations, the nuclear-armed Asian giants have reinforced the border between the Ladakh region and Tibet with thousands of extra troops, aircraft and hardware.

The deaths have triggered outrage on social media with calls to boycott Chinese goods, with Chinese flags set on fire at scattered street protests.

Last week, one of Delhi's main hotel associations said that its members were barring Chinese guests and would stop using Chinese-made products.

Chinese electronic firms also have a major presence in India, with cellphone brands like Xiaomi and Oppo enjoying an almost 65-percent market share.

E-commerce giants including US giant Amazon -- which sell huge volumes of Chinese gadgets -- have agreed to display the country of origin of goods on their platforms, according to media reports.

Modi's government has also ordered all sellers to do the same on its GeM portal, which is used for tens of billions of dollars' worth of state purchases.

Goods made in China, including some raw materials vital to Indian pharmaceutical firms, are also starting to pile up at Indian ports and airports because of more stringent customs checks, media reports said.

Despite long-prickly relations, India and China have steadily built up strong economic ties in recent years.

Annual bilateral trade is worth some $90 billion, with a deficit of around $50 billion in China's favour.

Agence France-Presse 

Amazon leads, Chinese firms gain in Global 500 brand ranking

MANILA -- Amazon, Apple and Google held on to the top three spots as the world's most valuable brands, with Chinese companies gaining the most in the top 20, according to rankings released by international monitor Brand Finance.

Amazon's brand value in 2019 rose 24.6 percent to $187.9 billion, followed by Apple with $153.6 billion and Google with $142.8 billion. Microsoft rose to the fourth spot, valued at $119.6 billion, according to Brand Finance's Global 500.

Chinese electronics giant Huawei and super app WeChat were the biggest gainers in the top 20. Huawei rose to 12th from 25th while WeChat rose to 20th from 47th.

China's ICBC construction rose to 8th from 10th, China Construction Bank advanced to 10th from 11th, Ping An rose to 14th from 29th while Agricultural Bank of China rose to 16th from 26th.

Chinese electronic marketplace Taobao debuted on the 55 list at the 23rd spot with a $46.6 billion brand value.

Facebook, roiled by privacy scandals, was steady at the 7th spot. Samsung, which is battling slumping sale fell to 5th place.

Here are the top 50 brands in Brand Finance's Global 500:

1. Amazon
2. Apple
3. Google
4. Microsoft
5. Samsung
6. AT&T
7. Facebook
8. ICBC China Banking
9. Verizon
10. China Construction Bank China Banking
11. Walmart
12. Huawei
13. Mercedes-Benz
14. Ping An
15. China Mobile China
16. Agricultural Bank of China
17. Toyota
18. State Grid China
19. Bank of China
20. WeChat
21. Tencent
22. Home Depot
23. Taobao
24. T (Deutsche Telekom)
25. Disney
26. Shell
27. Volkswagen
28. NTT Group
29. BMW
30. Wells Fargo
31. Starbucks
32. YouTube
33. PetroChina
34. Bank of America
35. Tmall
36. Citi
37. Chase
38. Coca-Cola
39. Marlboro
40. IBM
41. Nike
42. Boeing
43. McDonald's
44. UnitedHealthcare
45. Moutai
46. Deloitte
47. Porsche
48. UPS
49. Sinopec
50. Intel

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Asia's Silicon Valley redefines 'Made in China' phones for the world

SHENZHEN, China - A motley of smartphone logos light up an entire street lined with electronics shops one balmy afternoon, another day in Asia's Silicon Valley, which continues to thrive notwithstanding what the West sees as heavy state controls on the internet.

In the last three decades, this port city was transformed from farmlands to a major research and manufacturing hub for consumer electronics, hosting regional hubs of Chinese giants Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent.


At Huawei's service center in the downtown area, there's a steady stream of clients who cling to the promise of swift one-hour service. People from all over the mainland come to Shenzhen to score bargains, with factories located no more than an hour's drive away.

"We are working hard in this town," Clement Wong, director of product marketing at Huawei consumer business group, told reporters. "We call Shenzhen China's Silicon Valley."

Huawei maintains a two-square kilometer campus here, where a man-made lake is home to black swans that its founder, Ren Zhengfei, imported from New Zealand to remind employees of the need to innovate. 

Some buildings also have design inspiration from the Tang Dynasty, in a nod to the company's goal to lead the market. Huawei overtook Apple for the first time in June and July to become the world's second LARGEST-SELLING smartphone brand next only to Samsung, according to industry tracker Counterpoint. 

Huawei is leading the barrage of Chinese-made phones that offer features comparable to Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy, but at considerably lower price points, and at the same time, redefining perceptions on Chinese-made electronics.

Buildings and sidestreets in Futian district house rows upon rows of unofficial Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi stores. Startup One Plus, which built its brand around word of mouth on the web, is also headquartered in this city.

Shenzhen is also a showcase of life inside the "Great Firewall of China." Anything from convenience store purchases to bike rentals can be paid for using a built-in electronic wallet on WeChat, a messaging app that has developed into a social media and e-commerce suite, where Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are unavailable. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple App Store suffers 'worst' malware attack

WASHINGTON, United States - Hackers infiltrated the vaunted Apple ecosystem by injecting malicious software into popular Chinese mobile apps, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of users and raising security concerns as the US tech giant prepares its newest iPhone launch.

The company said Monday it had removed tainted applications from its App Store, days after security researchers revealed the breach of Apple's normally secure system which aims to weed out infected applications.

In China, more than 300 apps including the hugely popular instant messaging service WeChat and ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi were infected with the "XcodeGhost" malware, potentially allowing access to private user data including passwords, Chinese state-run media said.

The reports were a blow to the US firm, which has Greater China as its second-largest market.

Apple told AFP that it had removed the affected apps from its online store.

"To protect our customers we've removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software and we are working with the developers to make sure they're using the proper version of (Apple software) Xcode to rebuild their apps."

"To protect our customers we've removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software and we are working with the developers to make sure they're using the proper version of (Apple software) Xcode to rebuild their apps."

Apple's reaction came days after US-based cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks uncovered the flaw, saying the malware came from computer code uploaded to Baidu's cloud file-sharing service used by Chinese app developers.

Anti-censorship group Greatfire.org, which tracks Chinese Internet restrictions, called the news "the most widespread and significant spread of malware in the history of the Apple app store, anywhere in the world."

Apple, which reviews and approves each application, has generally kept its apps malware-free, analysts say.

But Alan Cockerill at the US security firm Lookout said "there are no perfect systems."

In a blog post, Cockerill said that "while Apple has traditionally done an excellent job of keeping malware out of its App Store, malicious actors are always looking for new ways to break through."

"The malicious code may have hundreds of millions of victims," Cockerill said.

Apple checks failed

Johannes Ullrich at the SANS Technology Institute said that "the real problem here is this malicious code made it past the Apple App Store check-in process."

"Apparently there is some trust between Apple and some of these developers of large applications like WeChat so these applications aren't necessarily tested as carefully if they are coming from a name-brand company," Ullrich said.

Palo Alto Networks said the malware was hidden in the Xcode software required for apps and made its way into applications without the knowledge of developers.

But once installed, the malware could allow a third party to gain access to private and personal information on an Apple device.

The malware can issue a fake dialog alert to gain access to passwords, or hijack a browser to direct users to a fake website. It can also read and write data in the user's clipboard, which could be used to get passwords, according to Palo Alto.

Only Chinese apps were known so far to have been infected -- although some of those, including WeChat, are also used outside China.

Chinese apps are thought to be vulnerable because developers often bypass the official, more secure, Apple channels, which can be slowed by Chinese Internet monitoring.

Tencent, which makes the WeChat software -- used by 500 million in China -- said it had repaired the flaw and that there had been "no theft (or) leakage of users' information or money."

The makers of app Didi Kuaidi, which claims 200 million regular users, also reported a fix and said no user privacy was compromised.

Bad timing

Independent security consultant and researcher Graham Cluley said the incident is not all bad for Apple.

"It suggests that Apple's security is pretty good," Cluley said in a blog post.

"After all, this was quite a complicated way to get malware into the App Store."

Cluley said Apple "has a much much better track record than Google's Android one for security."

But Thomas Reed at the software firm Malwarebytes said it may hurt Apple at a delicate time.

Apple is set to release its new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus handsets on Friday in the US, China and several other key markets.

"There is little doubt that there will be some revision of the app review process at Apple as a result, but it's also certain that this incident will erode consumer confidence in the App Store as a (mostly) unassailable malware-free fortress," he wrote in a blog.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

WeChat adds games in latest version

MANILA – China’s hot messaging app WeChat recently launched its newest version in the Philippines, which includes three games, more animated stickers and an expanded group chat feature.

WeChat 5.1 hopes to attract more casual gamers with the side-scrolling race game “Gunz Dash” and the puzzle games “2 Day’s Match” and “Craz3 Match,” which are all available for iOS, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone and BlackBerry users.

Steve Zheng, WeChat’s senior business development manager, noted that bulk of their users in the Philippines are university students and young professionals, who usually like playing games on their smartphones.

“University students are our biggest users here,” Zheng told ABS-CBNnews.com, not citing figures. “They like to share photos and they use our talk feature every day.”

“The university students and young professionals, they are happy to introduce WeChat to their friends so they can talk to each other,” he added. “WeChat has developed a lot of features such as animated stickers. We made a lot of new stickers to engage them so they can better express their emotions.”

WeChat 5.1 can now accommodate up to 100 users in its group chat service from the previous limit of 40.

Zheng said those who have downloaded the app can also “save” their favorite messages and photos, as well as share their experiences more creatively via an exclusive app called “StoryCam.”

“We’re more focused on how to improve the user experience,” he said.

WeChat has almost 500 million users as of July last year, with 100 million of them coming from China.

Citing Google Trends, Zheng said their app is one of the Top 3 searched apps in the Philippines.

“We have yet to expand to other countries,” he said, noting that they are now available in some parts of Southeast Asia.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.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

Line, WeChat move to conquer Europe

PARIS -- Move aside Facebook and Skype. Asian social networks, already hugely popular on their continent, have set their sights on Europe where they could prove stiff competition for their US rivals.

China's WeChat and Japan's Line, which let users make free calls, send instant messages and post funny short videos and photos, take attributes from Facebook, Skype and messaging application WhatsApp and roll them all together.

This week, Line executives traveled to France and Italy for a public relations offensive aimed at raising awareness of the mobile app, which already counts some 230 million users around the world including 47 million in Japan alone.

The social network has already taken root in other parts of Europe.

In Spain, for instance, Line has forged heavyweight partnerships with football clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, brands such as Coca-Cola or tennis star Rafael Nadal.

FC Barcelona, for instance, has a home page on the app where it posts photos that has already drawn more than 8.2 million friends.

Line even has a permanent office in Spain, where it counts some 15 million users already.

A French version of the mobile app, meanwhile, is to be launched before the end of the year.

One of the main selling points for Line, which was launched at the beginning of 2011, is its "stickers" -- funny, cartoon-like figures that express emotions in a way deemed far more original and fun than traditional emoticons.

On WeChat, users can post figures that move about dancing, blowing kisses or punching the air. Both social networks also supply a selection of "stickers" that users have to pay for.

"We're betting a lot on this new form of communication with stickers," Sunny Kim, assistant director general of Line Europe and America, told AFP on a trip to Paris.

This part of the business represents 30 percent of Line's overall turnover and in July alone, users bought eight million euros ($10.8 million) worth of stickers.

The company makes the rest of its money on the sale of games integrated in the mobile app (50 percent) and from partnerships and products on the side.

Line's logo is green with a conversation bubble inside, and looks remarkably similar to the icon of WeChat, which began in January 2011.

Already translated into 19 languages, the social network has 500 million users, including 100 million outside of China, and plans to launch in France towards the end of the year.

While Line has Real Madrid, WeChat has enrolled the help of Argentinian football star Lionel Messi, who has become ambassador of the brand and has filmed a commercial for the social network.

But WeChat -- which belongs to China's web giant Tencent -- is also banking on the huge Chinese diaspora to expand.

"The French of Chinese origin or the Canadians of Chinese origin, for instance, are the bridge between China and the rest of the world," said Renaud Edouard-Baraud, who heads up an Asia consulting branch of the BNP-Paribas bank and advises WeChat.

Many brands keen to tap into the giant China market also have a presence on WeChat.

Companies can for instance use geolocalization to pinpoint the exact location of Chinese users when they are visiting Europe, and send them promotional offers to lure them into their shops.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com