SHANGHAI: Feeling trapped in her “boring” life as a member of China’s modern workforce, “Yaorenmao” escapes online, where she prances and preens in cosplay outfits for her 1.3 million fans.
Her alternative world is bilibili.com, a Shanghai-based video-sharing platform that has attracted more than 150 million Chinese users with its eclectic mix of user-generated videos and animation largely inspired by the Japanese world of ACG (animation, comics and games).
Spurred in part by a shortage of engaging youth-oriented content in China where Facebook and YouTube are blocked, and media and entertainment outlets are heavily censored, Chinese ACG is developing into a multi-billion-dollar industry, analysts say, drawing investment from tech titans such as Tencent and Alibaba.
And with amateur video uploads booming in smartphone-addicted China, platforms like bilibili are fueling and capitalizing on the ease with which the average Chinese armed with a camera can attain viral celebrity.
The twenty-something Yaorenmao, a pseudonym meaning “cat that bites people,” began a few years ago to upload brief DIY videos from her home in the southwestern city of Chengdu in 2011. She dances to saccharine-sweet tunes in the clips, acting out an unfulfilled childhood dream of becoming a dancer.
“I worked like a normal person after graduation (from university), but normal life and work are just too boring,” she said, withholding her real name and occupation to keep her two lives separate.
Fans accumulated, often sending gifts or money, which she plows back into increasingly elaborate costumes and settings, including a 10,000 yuan ($1,500) trip to Japan to shoot videos during the picturesque cherry blossom season.
Her fans approach her amateurish work “with a generous heart and encourage me because they want to see me getting better and better. It’s as if they are getting better and better themselves,” she told AFP.
Based heavily on hugely popular Japanese ACG sites like Niconico, bilibili hooks many with its signature live-comment feature, in which waves of user remarks flow across the screen in real time, often obscuring the videos being commented on.
Bilibili chairman Chen Rui told AFP Chinese millennials born in the Internet age are increasingly inhabiting the virtual world.
“Everyone is afraid of loneliness and everyone wishes for a better world where you can speak your mind and don’t have to see people you don’t like,” Chen said.
“Once you’ve seen the world bilibili created, you can never leave.”
Analysts estimate China’s ACG world has more than doubled in the past four years to around 300 million fans whose spending within the subculture averages more than 1,700 yuan ($255) per year, and some predict the industry could one day rival its Japanese forebears.
Bilibili offers a bewildering array of material — 70 percent of it user-generated — including role-playing, quirky personal videos like Yaorenmao’s, amateur commentary on lifestyle, tech, beauty, fashion and entertainment, games, and of course Japanese anime series.
Even the Communist Youth League has opened a bilibili feed containing videos extolling the ruling party.
Huang Yanhua, an analyst with iResearch Consulting, said China’s online ACG world is in a messy “beginning stage” but she expects it to serve as an incubator for successful original Chinese content.
“Each generation has their own way of entertaining. People born after the 1990s have started working and they are now the main consumption force in China, and as their hobbies become the mainstream it will change the industry landscape.”
Tencent launched its own bilibili-like site, Tencent Comics, in 2012, and is now partnering directly with bilibili to produce animated videos. E-commerce giant Alibaba, through its streaming site Youku Tudou, led a $50 million investment in bilibili rival Acfun in 2015.
Market analysis firm CIConsulting said recently China’s ACG market had become a fast-growing multi-billion-dollar industry.
Bilibili launched an annual Shanghai convention in 2013 that drew just 800 people. This year’s event in July attracted more than 100,000 uploaders like Yaorenmao and fans, most in their teens or early 20s, and many dressed flamboyantly in comic-character costumes.
Zeng Hang, chief executive of a military-themed online program called “Crazy Warfare-Show,” said the virtual realm was rapidly replacing the real world for countless Chinese millennials grappling with the country’s rapid economic, technological and social changes.
“They now live in tall buildings in Shanghai and they may not even know the kid next door,” Zeng said.
Bilibili’s often-frivolous content is a salve, he said.
“People are also under lots of pressure in China so they like these things.”
“They care more about their existence in the virtual world and they are willing to spend on what they like.”
Chinese video site offers virtual escape from ‘boring’ reality
Chinese video site offers virtual escape from ‘boring’ reality
Microsoft’s LinkedIn sued for disclosing customer information to train AI models
Microsoft’s LinkedIn has been sued by Premium customers who said the business-focused social media platform disclosed their private messages to third parties without permission to train generative artificial intelligence models.
According to a proposed class action filed on Tuesday night on behalf of millions of LinkedIn Premium customers, LinkedIn quietly introduced a privacy setting last August that let users enable or disable the sharing of their personal data.
Customers said LinkedIn then discreetly updated its privacy policy on Sept. 18 to say data could be used to train AI models, and in a “frequently asked questions” hyperlink said opting out “does not affect training that has already taken place.”
This attempt to “cover its tracks” suggests LinkedIn was fully aware it violated customers’ privacy and its promise to use personal data only to support and improve its platform, in order to minimize public scrutiny and legal fallout, the complaint said.
The lawsuit was filed in the San Jose, California, federal court on behalf of LinkedIn Premium customers who sent or received InMail messages, and whose private information was disclosed to third parties for AI training before Sept. 18.
It seeks unspecified damages for breach of contract and violations of California’s unfair competition law, and $1,000 per person for violations of the federal Stored Communications Act.
LinkedIn said in a statement: “These are false claims with no merit.”
A lawyer for the plaintiffs had no immediate additional comment.
The lawsuit was filed several hours after US President Donald Trump announced a joint venture among Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, with a potential $500 billion of investment, to build AI infrastructure in the United States.
The case is De La Torre v. LinkedIn Corp, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-00709.
Mittens the cat becomes an accidental frequent flyer after getting mistakenly left on a plane
- A Maine coon cat named Mittens accidentally flew three times between New Zealand and Australia this month after her cage was mistakenly left in the plane’s cargo hold
WELLINGTON: A Maine coon cat named Mittens became an accidental jetsetter this month when her cage was overlooked in a plane cargo hold and she made three trips in 24 hours between New Zealand and Australia.
Mittens, 8, was booked for one-way travel with her family from Christchurch, New Zealand to their new home in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 13. But owner Margo Neas said Wednesday that as she waited for Mittens to be unloaded from the plane’s freight area, three hours passed with no sign of the cat.
It was then that ground staff told Neas the plane had returned to New Zealand — with Mittens still on board. The return trip involves about 7.5 hours in the air.
“I said, how can this happen? How can this happen? Oh my God,” Neas said.
The Air New Zealand pilot was told of the extra passenger during the flight and turned on the heating in the cargo hold to keep Mittens comfortable, she added. Neas was told that a stowed wheelchair had obscured a baggage handler’s view of Mittens’ cage.
“It was not a great start to our new life in Melbourne because we didn’t have the family, we weren’t complete,” she said.
But the saga had a happy ending. The pet moving company that Neas used to arrange Mittens’ travel met the cat on her return to Christchurch and ensured she was back on the plane for another trip to Melbourne — this time just one way.
Mittens had lost weight but was otherwise unharmed.
“She basically just ran into my arms and just snuggled up in here and just did the biggest cuddles of all time,” Neas said. “It was just such a relief.”
Air New Zealand would reimburse all costs associated with Mittens’ travel and has apologized for the distress caused, the airline said in a statement.
“We’ll work closely with our ground handler in Melbourne to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” said spokesperson Alisha Armstrong.
Meanwhile Mittens, not usually an affectionate pet, is “the cuddliest she’s ever been,” said Neas.
“The cat gets as much attention as she wants right now because we’re just so absolutely and utterly relieved to have her back.”
Nintendo says its new Switch 2 console will be released in 2025
- The initial reaction to the Nintendo Switch 2 was lackluster, and the company’s Tokyo-traded shares slumped 4.3 percent on Friday
LOS ANGELES: Gaming giant Nintendo revealed its newest console Thursday in a highly anticipated announcement gamers had been waiting for since rumors of its release first spread years ago.
But the initial reaction to the Nintendo Switch 2 was lackluster, and the company’s Tokyo-traded shares slumped 4.3 percent on Friday. Nintendo’s shares had surged to a record ahead of the announcement.
The successor to the Nintendo Switch system will be released this year, the promotional video says.
In the video, Nintendo showcases a larger version of the Switch that looks similar to its predecessor. It also shows the system’s controllers, or Joy-Cons, will attach to the side of Switch 2’s main unit rather than slide in.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will play Switch 2 exclusive games, as well as both physical and digital Nintendo Switch games. Some Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2, the company said.
The announcement did not provide many details on the console. Nintendo says more information about the system will be available during the company’s April Nintendo Direct event. The Kyoto-based game developer said it will also host “Nintendo Switch 2 Experience” events in several countries, where players can get a hands-on experience with the new system.
Those events are planned for cities such as Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris beginning in April. Ticket registration for those events begins Friday, Nintendo said.
Young gorilla rescued from aircraft hold recovers at Istanbul zoo
- Both gorilla species — the western and eastern gorillas, which populate central Africa’s remote forests and mountains — are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
ISTANBUL: A young gorilla rescued from a plane’s cargo hold is recovering at an Istanbul zoo, officials said on Sunday, while wildlife officers consider returning him to his natural habitat.
The 5-month-old gorilla was discovered in a box on a Turkish Airlines flight from Nigeria to Thailand last month. After a public competition, he has been named Zeytin, or Olive, and is recuperating at Polonezkoy Zoo.
“Of course, what we want and desire is for the baby gorilla … to continue its life in its homeland,” Fahrettin Ulu, regional director of Istanbul Nature Conservation and National Parks, said Sunday.
“What is important is that an absolutely safe environment is established in the place it goes to, which is extremely important for us.”
In the weeks since he was found, Zeytin has gained weight and is showing signs of recovering from his traumatic journey.
“When he first came, he was very shy. He would stay where we left him,” said veterinarian Gulfem Esmen.
“He does not have that shyness now. He does not even care about us much. He plays games by himself.”
FASTFACT
The 5-month-old gorilla was discovered in a box on a flight from Nigeria to Thailand last month.
Both gorilla species — the western and eastern gorillas, which populate central Africa’s remote forests and mountains — are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
As Istanbul emerges as a central air hub between continents, customs officials have increasingly intercepted illegally traded animals.
In October, 17 young Nile crocodiles and 10 monitor lizards were found in an Egyptian passenger’s luggage at the city’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport.
Meta nixes diversity and inclusion program as it prepares for second Trump administration
MENLO PARK, California: Joining companies such as John Deere and Walmart, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms Inc. is getting rid of its diversity, equity and inclusion program that includes hiring, training and picking vendors, a company spokesperson confirmed on Friday.
The move, which was first reported by Axios, comes on the heels of the social media giant’s decision to end its third-party fact-checking program and scale back policies on hate speech and abuse.
Citing an internal memo sent to employees, Axios said the Menlo Park, California-based tech giant said the US Supreme Court “has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI. … The term ‘DEI’ has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others.”
In practice, this means Meta will no longer have a team focused on diversity and inclusion and the company said it will instead “focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background.”
The company will also end it’s “diverse slate approach” to hiring, which meant that a diverse pool of candidates was considered for every open position.
Other companies that have ended DEI programs recently include McDonald’s, automaker Ford, Walmart and farm equipment maker John Deere.
