🌍 TikTok to invest billions in Southeast Asia

Hi there Intriguer. Celebrities say sorry for all kinds of stuff these days: spamming your iTunes with bold yet vulnerable Irish rock; sending back two all-yolk omelettes in NYC; even firing an actor for having “dead eyes”. So is it Beyoncé’s turn to say sorry now? Her world tour reportedly caused higher-than-expected inflation in Sweden.

Today’s briefing is a 4 min read:

• ⏰ TikTok sets its sights on new markets in Asia.

• 🐠 EU fishing crews go on strike.

• ➕ Plus: Brazilians in Beirut, how the papers are covering a major shipwreck in the Mediterranean, and an ancient quiz.

1. 🇨🇳 China: Canada has suspended its ties with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank after the bank’s global comms director (a Canadian) resigned and said the institution was “dominated by the Communist party”. China launched the bank in 2016 as an alternative to the Western-led World Bank.

2. 🇩🇪 Germany: Chancellor Olaf Scholz presented Germany’s first National Security Strategy on Wednesday, aimed at guiding the country’s response to emerging threats. Inter-party and ministry disputes had delayed its release.

3. 🇦🇺 Australia: Canberra has passed new laws to block Russia from building a new embassy close to Australia’s parliament. The legislation took five minutes to be introduced and passed.

4. 🇬🇹 Guatemala: High-profile journalist and government critic José Rubén Zamora has been sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering. Critics say the case was politically motivated.

5. 🇳🇬 Nigeria: The naira, Nigeria’s currency, dropped by more than 36% on Wednesday as the central bank ended its multiple-exchange rate regime. Economists have long argued that the pegged naira regime created foreign currency shortages.

🇪🇺 Southeast Asia | Tech

TikTok to pour billions into Southeast Asia

TikTok, the social media app that’s taken the world by storm, has announced it’ll invest billions in Southeast Asia over the next three to five years. The move is aimed at developing the app’s e-commerce branch.

The path from social media platform to online vendor is short and well-travelled. Facebook, Instagram, and Weibo (popular in China) all allow users to shop for obscure Nicholas Cage memorabilia without leaving their app.

It’s a lucrative strategy, too: last year, TikTok sold $2.5B of merchandise in Indonesia alone and has plans to get its global e-commerce sales up to $20B by the end of this year. And it makes sense to focus on Southeast Asia:

• 👶 It’s young – half the region’s population is under 30

• 📱 Tech-savvy – 80% of folks there are already online, and

• 💸 Getting richer – median salaries are set to grow 6% this year.

Intrigue's take: So there are solid pull factors in Southeast Asia. But TikTok is responding to push factors, too. In its largest market (the US), many merchants are reluctant to put effort into TikTok due to concerns about the app’s future: Montana has already banned it on national security grounds. Others may follow.

And it’s best not to put eggs in baskets threatening to go vegan.

Also worth noting:

• The global e-commerce market reached $17T in 2022 and could hit $70T by 2028.

• TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said Indonesia is the app’s second largest market with 125 million users, out of 325 million users in Southeast Asia.

• The company’s CEO was recently called to testify before the US Congress on his platform’s links to China’s government.

📰 How newspapers covered…

A deadly migrant shipwreck in the Mediterranean.

Get our special edition: How the world is changing

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… as a thank you, we’ll give everyone in the Intrigue community access to our brand new pocket guide written by two of our very own former diplomats, John Fowler and Jeremy Dicker. The guide covers:

1. 🌍 Why the world is getting more volatile

2. ⚡️ How your energy bill shapes your future

3. 💣 What the end of the Russo-Ukraine War could look like

4. 💻 Why semiconductors might trigger (or prevent) WWIII, and

5. 🔎 Which countries can steer us away from (or towards) disaster.

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🐠 European Union | Business

EU fishing practices are in the spotlight

Over 2,000 Senegalese and Ivorian tuna fishermen working for EU firms went on strike last week.

While it was suspended after four days, the strike halted 80% of EU-based fishing in the Gulf of Guinea and the Indian Ocean. Why’d they do it?

• Low pay: some are reportedly paid $219/month (the International Labour Organisation sets a minimum of $658/month), and

• Low sustainability: the firms were allegedly violating EU fishing pacts with the countries in whose coastal waters they operate.

One European fishing industry body has denied the allegations.

Intrigue’s take: A big reason why these allegations went unnoticed for so long is that fishing firms spend a lot to lobby the EU. In fact, more than half of the EU’s delegation to a recent crucial tuna summit was reportedly made up of fishing industry lobbyists.

But it’s hard to keep looking the other way when 80% of your operations go down.

Also worth noting:

• The fishing companies reportedly settled the strike by agreeing to pay crews a new interim wage of ~$500/month.

• Yellowfin tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean may be depleted by 2026 without more sustainable practices.

🎧 Today on Intrigue Outloud

Why is the US so eager to host Indian Prime Minister Modi?

➕ Extra Intrigue

Try your hand at this multilateral-themed crossword

Across

• 2 – Just another […] in the wall.

• 4 – Famous for its bureaucracy, and cuisines.

• 5 – A remote, beautiful and imaginary place, also a hotel.

Down

• 1 – Ten friends in the East.

• 3 – Offers council but little security.

• 5 – The world’s largest regional organisation in terms of geographic scope. A Chinese city is involved.

• 6 – Not the Davos one.

🏡 Embassy of the day

The Brazilian Ambassador’s residence in Beirut, Lebanon opened to the public for the first time this week (13-16 June) since it was built in the 1950s. The building seamlessly blends elements of Brazilian modernist architecture, like exposed concrete, with vast walls of Lebanese tiles.

And fun fact: there are more than 7 million people of Lebanese origin in Brazil!

💡 Quiz time!

Answers: 1-d, 2-a, 3-c.

Crossword answers:
– Across: 2: BRICS, 4: EU, 5: Shangri-La
– Down: 1: ASEAN, 3: UN, 5: SCO, 6: IMF