56% of China’s online shopping is mobile
China’s mobile shopping gross merchandising volume (GMV) surged 124 per cent last year to CNY2.1 trillion ($324 billion), according to iResearch.

Mobile GMV accounted for 56 per cent of the total online shopping market, up from 34 per cent in 2014. Growth in China’s online shopping market slowed to 36 per cent.

Alibaba expanded its lead in the mobile segment to 84 per cent, while JD.com was a far second with a 5.7 per cent share.

Thai regulator sets standard price caps
Thailand’s telecoms regulator plans to impose a single tariff ceiling for 3G and 4G services that will be lower than the existing caps imposed.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said the move, which will go into effect in September, is to make mobile data service more affordable and to reduce consumer confusion.

The standard ceiling will be THB0.69 ($0.02) per minute for voice and THB0.26 per megabyte of data. The current ceiling on 3G voice is THB0.82 per minute, while the 3G data cap is THB0.28 per megabyte.

China sets ambitious robotics targets
The Chinese government is aggressively pushing its robotics industry and aims to have a robot density of at least 100 industrial robots installed per 10,000 employees by 2020, with the high-end manufacturing sector having a robot penetration rate of 45 per cent.

As part of its recently announced five-plan for 2016-2020, China aims to have three to five internationally competitive domestic robotics companies in five years, according to research from TrendForce.

As wages rise and its workforce ages, the government sees robotics as a future growth driver of the country’s overall economy. Spurred by a series of government initiatives, more than 500 robotics-related companies are registered in China.

Globe invests $500M to expand corporate data network
The Philippines’ second largest operator Globe Telecom has earmarked investing more than $500 million over the next five years to expand its corporate data network to meet the growing bandwidth requirements of corporate and enterprise clients.

With more enterprises using software applications delivered via the cloud, Globe acting CFO Rizza Maniego-Eala said it needs to deploy fibre in key areas to boost efficiency.