Go-Jek to cover entire Singapore with ride-hailing service

Gojek extends ride-hailing service covering entire Singapore starting from today 

In an official statement shared yesterday, Gojek has announced that it will extend its ride-hailing service covering the whole area of Singapore effective today, January 2, 2019. Users now can ride with Gojek anywhere in the country.

Gojek said that the island-wide rollout is the continuation of the app’s beta phase in partnership with DBS/POSB Bank customers, who were prioritised users of the app.

Reported by The Strait Times, Gojek allows dynamic pricing on its apps just before new year’s eve, letting the price for its service increase or decrease based on demand – for its ride-hailing services in the country.

In Singapore, the moniker of the iconic green company has omitted its dash between the word “Go” and “Jek”, becomes known for Gojek.

China finally stops the freeze on video game licensing

Nearing the new year’s eve, China finally lifts the ban on video game licensing, approving 80 new video game titles for the first batch of granted licenses. The licenses were granted by the media regulator, putting a stop at the nine-month-long freeze.

However, the list showed mostly local video-game publishers and doesn’t include names of giants like Tencent Holdings Ltd. or Netease Inc. The approvals notice was posted by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television online.

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The move by the country in 2018 to freeze approval process for new games significantly threw big names like Tencent off of its profit scoring. It is said to experience loss for about US$200 billion off its market value.

Singapore prepares for cyber attacks with a bug bounty program

Singapore’s agency for public sector digital transformation, GovTech, and Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) have agreed to work alongside HackerOne in developing a second strategic bug bounty program.

Bug Bounties offer experts in the field a chance at monetary rewards (the ‘bounty’) for reporting valid vulnerabilities to GovTech. This results in a wider testing field, so to speak, with the aim towards strengthening cyber defences.

The bug bounty will be run over a period of three weeks from December 2018 to January 2019 with the goal of finding security flaws in five public-facing government systems and websites.

The initiative is part of the government’s movement towards building a secure and resilient Smart Nation.

Bill Gates’ nuclear energy venture is forced to abandon China’s deal

TerraPower LLC, Bill Gates’ nuclear energy venture, is forced to look for a new partner for its early-stage technology trials. This happened after the new U.S. rules that keeps with a broader plan by the Trump administration to limit China’s ability to access U.S-made technologies back in October.

Initially, TerraPower reached an agreement with state-owned China National Nuclear Corp in 2017 to build an experimental nuclear reactor in south of Beijing. Not long after that, Gates published an essay late last week that TerraPower is unlikely to follow through on its plans because the company has found it too restrictive to allow the reactor prototype to be built domestically.