This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 8, 2022 - August 14, 2022

In an effort to liberalise the ownership of the Langkah Sheraton painting, artist and Damansara MP Tony Pua will be releasing the artwork in a series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Aug 31 in commemoration of Merdeka.

The NFT is a recreation of his 120cm x 160cm oil painting depicting the gathering of errant parliamentarians on Feb 23, 2020, at the Sheraton Hotel in Petaling Jaya that eventually led to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan federal government, after barely 22 months in power.

NFT project is a novel and innovative venture to enable fans to own the critically acclaimed artwork, says Pua. All proceeds will go towards funding DAP’s next general election campaign.

The Langkah Sheraton NFTs will mint for 45 $MATIC each and buyers can purchase up to 250 NFTs per transaction. MATIC, which is also known as Polygon, is an Ethereum token that powers the Polygon Network, a scaling solution for Ethereum.

Completed in January 2021, the painting took nearly 10 months to complete. It was part of a curated project to celebrate veteran lawmaker Lim Kit Siang’s 80th birthday on Feb 20, 2021. 

Initially, Pua wanted to sell Langkah Sheraton directly to art collectors. He felt, however, that this was not the best approach because paintings are usually stored away in a collector’s private gallery. 

The advent of NFTs has opened a world of possibilities. A multitude of people can now purchase the painting and it can be collectively owned by thousands of Malaysians. 

“After analysing NFTs, it made sense to go into it, as it allows mass participation in the project, which would not be possible in the physical world. It allows everyone to be part of the project,” Pua told Digital Edge. 

“With this project, we are able to introduce NFT technology to the real world instead of as a novelty for a limited group of people while also raising funds for the cause.”

The NFTs will be minted and randomly allocated with 6,000 originals, 2,400 limited, 400 rare and 88 ultra-rares. The NFTs also provide an avenue for Pua to unlock a higher value and raise more funds for his cause. 

The physical painting is currently on display at Theatre Impian — named in honour of Lim’s Malaysian Dream — in Bukit Jalil. 

Meraque Services Sdn Bhd, a local digital transformation and technology company, has partnered with Malaysia Debt Ventures (MDV) Bhd, a subsidiary of the Minister of Finance Inc under the purview of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. 

This new venture is to facilitate Meraque’s operations in Asean, focusing primarily on agriculture, plantation, infrastructure and telecommunication sectors through MDV’s specialised financing facility.

Meraque also plans to increase its drone production, as the drone technology industry is thriving and has a steadily rising audience in the global drone market. Meraque says the potential financing from MDV will be instrumental in this effort.

Cybersecurity company Surfshark found that the data of 665,200 Malaysian users were breached between April and June, making the country the 11th most breached in the world in the second quarter of this year.

The breach rate in Malaysia was 733% higher in 2Q2022 than in 1Q2021, rising from one to five breached accounts per minute. 

Russia was ranked first in the world for leaked accounts of 28.8 million users, followed by India (4.4 million), China (3.4 million), Brazil (3.2 million), the US (2.3 million) and South Korea (1.8 million).

According to Surfshark data researcher Agneska Sablovsjaka, every second person — or 64 out of 100 people — in Southeast Asia has been affected by data breaches. In this region, Japan had the biggest spike in breached users by experiencing a 14-fold rise in victims (1,442%) compared with the last quarter and had 1.3 million breached users. This is followed by China (1,092%), South Korea (1,013%), Brazil (770%) and Malaysia (733%). 

Surfshark’s research is based on its interactive Data Breach World Map, which shows how every country in the world is affected by breaches, according to 27,000 leaked databases.

Google’s parent, Alphabet Inc, is pushing back its plans to phase out third-party cookies in Google Chrome to 2Q2024, a year’s delay from its initial plans, announced Anthony Chavez, vice-president of Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative, in a blog post.

A recent cover story by Digital Edge (“That’s the way the cookie crumbles”, Issue 1431, July 25) addressed the problems caused by third-party cookies, which predominantly raised concerns about the data privacy of users surfing the web. Industry players were left in disarray as they scrambled to find alternative ways to ensure user privacy while providing personalised ads to users.

Meta Platforms Inc was among the big tech companies that were part of the privacy-enhancing technologies programme to develop standards and technologies that will be the foundation of digital advertising in the future, specifically how data will be shared and processed, as well as how to ensure privacy protection.

Google’s delay is to allow for alternative ad tools, such as those present in its Privacy Sandbox initiative, to be refined and tested. Feedback received from ecosystem players is that more time is needed to evaluate and test these new technologies before depreciating third-party cookies.

“This feedback aligns with our commitment to the CMA (the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority) to ensure that the Privacy Sandbox provides effective, privacy-preserving technologies and the industry has sufficient time to adopt these new solutions. This deliberate approach to transitioning from third-party cookies ensures that the web can continue to thrive, without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques like fingerprinting,” says Chavez.

Boost Holdings, Exabytes and Jirnexu have been named the three leading emerging unicorns in Malaysia in “The Emerging Giants in Asia Pacific” report by HSBC and KPMG.

The report identified 100 leading emerging giants in Asia-Pacific that are fast-growing, influential and innovative, with ambitions to achieve unicorn status.

While there is no specific formula to classify what constitutes an “emerging giant”, the companies identified were standout players in a wide variety of disciplines, including superior technology and/or technical knowledge; hyper-localised businesses; mastery of logistic channels and supply chain operations; successful adaptations of their business model(s) based on correct identification of market gaps; and a winning culture that attracts and retains talent. 

Citing data from the Securities Commission Malaysia, the report states that funding is starting to reach a significant level — total committed venture capital (VC) funds hit US$1.2 billion in 2021, up 20% from 2020, and nearly five times more than Malaysian start-ups raised in 2019.

A total of US$319 million has been invested in Malaysian start-ups in 1Q2022 versus US$101 million in 2020 and US$121 million in 2019. The local leading companies received a record of US$532 million in investments in 2021.

Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on e-commerce platform eBay have exported to an average of 30 international destination markets, says the latter in its “Southeast Asia Small Online Business Trade Report July 2022”.

The top markets are the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Canada, Italy, France, Japan, China and Spain. 

The top five product categories exported by Malaysian sellers on eBay were auto parts, home and garden, health and beauty, cell phones and accessories, and collectibles. 

Malaysian sellers on eBay saw strong business growth in several categories in 2021. In the auto parts category, the sales of wheels, tyres and parts grew 29% and sales of electrical and ignition parts rose 76% last year.

There was also an increase in sales in the cell phones and accessories category, with smartwatches rising 24%; headsets, 33%; and smartphones, 15%. Meanwhile, Sports Trading Card Singles — individual trading or game cards sold by hobby stores — in the collectibles category increased exponentially to 109%. 

eBay has screened six Southeast Asian markets for the report: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. According to the report, 68% of eBay-enabled small businesses exported to at least 10 global markets.

SAS, a leading analytics company, has launched the SAS Skill Builder programme as part of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation’s (MDEC) Let’s Learn Digital initiative.

The programme is designed for higher education students to learn analytical skills and acquire certifications sought by employers. Four certifications awarded by the programme are endorsed under the MDEC Digital Skills Directory.

The programme is free and available globally, with a 24/7 virtual learning portal that offers access to SAS software, e-learning and certifications. The programme also offers career advice and ways to connect with employers. 

SAS announced it would be working with customers to provide job and internship opportunities for SAS-certified graduates through its Talent Connection Programme.

The SAS Skill Builder for Students programme helps Malaysian students develop necessary skill sets and secure data science jobs through access to free cloud-based software, e-learning courses, exclusive certification exam discounts, career resources and more.

To access the SAS Skill Builder for Students, an academic email domain is required for students to enrol. For more information, visit www.sas.com. 

GroupM’s outcome media specialist, Xaxis, has appointed Ji Young Jung as its new country head. Jung previously served as the programmatic trading lead and oversaw advertising operations in the company.

Jung now spearheads Xaxis’ vision, strategic direction and continued growth. She brings experience from renowned companies such as The Trade Desk and A1 Media Group for programmatic advertising. 

Just like memories, photos fade over the years. Canon vows to keep photos from fading — for 100 years at least — with its SELPHY CP 1500 compact photo printer.

Users can print personalised, high-quality images that Canon says will remain in pristine condition for more than a century when preserved in an album. 

The photo printer enhances the vividness of portrait prints through the use of dye sublimation technology, which allows smoother colour tones and richer gradations. It also comes with an automatic correction function that adjusts brightness, saturation, contrast and tones in pictures for an immaculate finish.

After printing, a special overcoat is applied to protect the photo from impurities, colour fading and fingerprints.

The printer is not only compact but also seamless to operate. Users will be able to directly print images from their smartphones, camera and computer or even by directly inserting an SD card or USB flash drive into the printer.

SELPHY Photo Layout 3.0 is the upgraded smartphone app that allows users to print using their mobile devices and is supported on iOS, iPad OS and Android. Users can customise and personalise their prints by adding QR codes via the smartphone app to leave a message, send a location or even link it to other pictures or videos. 

The printer allows up to eight smartphones to be paired by scanning a QR code with the smartphone app to share and print images. Its postcard prints take 41 seconds to print and card-size prints take 23 seconds.

It is expected to be released in Malaysia in September.

In this thought-provoking book, Kai-Fu Lee argues powerfully that because of the unprecedented developments in artificial intelligence (AI), dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected.

Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power.

Most experts already say AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a strong impact on white-collar jobs as well.

Is universal basic income the solution? Lee says probably not, but he provides a clear description of which jobs will be affected and how soon, which jobs can be enhanced with AI and, most importantly, how we can provide solutions to some of the most profound changes in the future of human history. — Amazon

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