Google Restricting Huawei’s Use Of Android: The E-Commerce Side of the Trade War?

Even though security concerns on Huawei products has been around since 2006, does Google’s latest move now makes Trump’s trade war with China now has a e-commerce front?

By: Ringo Bones

Back around 2006 to 2007, tech-savvy Gen-X’ers’ primary reason for “boycotting” Huawei and ZTE gear was primarily due to the Tibetan Freedom Movement and how Beijing kept incrementally ratcheting their crackdown on Uyghurs since the 1990s. Sadly such concerns were largely forgotten or dipped below the radar of activist social media since a relatively unknown senator from Illinois got elected to The White House. Then and now, no major news correspondent manage to ask Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei about what he thinks about consumers who chose to boycott Huawei products because of Tibetan Freedom Movement and Uyghur crackdown concerns. But recently in February 2019, the Huawei issue surfaced yet again – and in a way bigger manner – after the company faced growing backlash from Western countries, primarily lead by the Trump Administration, over possible risks posed by using Huawei products in next-generation 5G mobile networks.

Back in Friday, May 17, 2019, the U.S. Commerce Department said it was considering scaling back restrictions to Huawei to “prevent the interruption of existing network operations and equipment.” It was not immediately clear on Sunday whether Huawei’s access to mobile software would be affected. On May 20, 2019, Google decided to start restricting new designs of Huawei smartphones access to some Google apps. This move comes after the Trump Administration added Huawei to a list of companies that American firms cannot trade with unless they have a “special license”. In a statement, Google said it was “complying with the order and reviewing the implications”. At the moment, Huawei declined to comment. The extent to which Huawei will be hurt by the US government blacklist is not yet known as its global supply chain assesses the impact. Chip experts have questioned Huawei’s ability to continue to operate without U.S. help.

At the moment, existing Huawei smartphone users will still be able to update apps and push through security fixes, as well as update Google Play services, but when Google launches the next version of Android later this year, it may not be available on Huawei devices. Future Huawei devices may no longer have apps such as YouTube and Google Maps. Even though Huawei has already a so-called Plan B to prepare them from such scenarios brought about by the Trump Administration’s “Trade War”, the company probably must now abandon its plan to overtake Samsung to become the world’s best-selling smartphone brand by 2020.

Beyond Meat’s Recent IPO Surge: Are the Wolves of Wall Street Now Going Vegan?

With both environmental and health concerns may be driving its recent IPO surge, will Beyond Meat eventually make the Wolves of Wall Street go vegan?

By: Ringo Bones

During the company’s first day of trading at Wall Street back in Thursday, May 2, 2019, the share price of Beyond Meat surged 163 percent, thus signaling surprising interest in a new generation of companies that are creating plant-based alternative to meat. Beyond Meat, which makes vegetarian burgers and sausages, began trading at $25 a share on the Nasdaq stock exchange and ended the day at $65.75. The stock’s first-day pop is one of the biggest in recent IPO history. In the last decade, only two other companies – both of them biotech start-ups – had bigger increases on their first days of trading on major American stock markets, according to the data from the University of Florida professor Jay Ritter.

Beyond Meat is the first ever plant-based meat-alternative company to go public, but it is part of a growing industry of start-ups looking to replace animal agriculture. And in recent weeks have provided several indications that the business is gaining traction largely because of growing environmental and health concerns in both the raising and the consumption of meat. A study conducted back in 2005 have shown that if all Americans reduced their overall meat consumption by just 10-percent, the resulting reduction in overall carbon footprint is akin to taking 20 million cars off the road.

Beyond Meat’s biggest competitor, Impossible Foods, teamed up with Burger King to roll out a meatless-version of the Whopper sandwich last month. Burger King announced this week that it would offer the sandwich at all of its restaurants in the United States, after a trial in the company’s St. Louis restaurants exceeded expectations. A day after Burger King’s announcement, McDonald’s chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, told analysts that his company was “paying close attention” to the trend and considering whether it will develop a meatless alternative to its hamburgers. In the lead-up to the Beyond Meat IPO, the poultry company Tyson Foods said it sold its early stake at Beyond Meat, in part because the food conglomerate is developing its own plant-based protein.

Like many high-tech companies that are debuting on Wall Street this year, Beyond Meat is losing money - $30 million last year – but revenue grew faster than last year’s losses, increasing 170 percent to $88 million. And like its competitors, Beyond Meat pitched investors on the idea that its plant-based burgers and sausages can appeal to traditional meat eaters and break out a niche market that vegetarian alternatives have traditionally occupied.

The start-up, based in the Los Angeles area, has tried to mimic the texture and taste of meat with ingredients like pea protein and beet juice. But it has also argued for the environmental and health benefits of moving away from meat. “I see it as a movement,” Beyond Meat’s chief executive, Ethan Brown, said in an interview back in Thursday, May 2, 2019. “We’re tapping into something within customers – within the human race – that is important.” Beyond Meat’s products are available in 15,000 supermarkets and several fast-food chains.

Leading up to the IPO, Beyond Meat steadily increased the number of shares it planned to sell and the price where it projected the shares to begin trading. The company ended up raising around $240 million in the public offering, which is more than it had raise from private markets. When it last raised money from its investors last fall, the company was valued at $1.35 billion, according to Pitchbook. Beyond Meat manage to finish the Thursday May 2, 2019 trading day to be worth $3.8 billion. The holdings of Beyond Meat’s founder Ethan Brown, are now worth more than $200 million.