Author: Newley

Hi. I'm Newley Purnell. I cover technology and business for The Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong. I use this site to share my stories and often blog about the books I'm reading, tech trends, sports, travel, and our dog Ginger. For updates, get my weekly email newsletter.

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Newley's Notes

NN336: Captivated Canines

Sunset

Sent as a newsletter on June 30, 2025. Not on my list? Sign up here.

👋 Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a newsletter containing my recent Bloomberg News stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

Image above: Beach Scene at Sunset (c. 1865–1870), James Hamilton

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

I’m behind in sharing my recent Bloomberg stories! Here’s what I’ve been up to:

1) 🤖 On Friday I participated in a Live Q&A with my colleagues Annabelle Droulers, Shery Ahn and Saritha Rai on the topic of China, the US, and the race to dominate the future of artificial intelligence. You can listen to a recording here.

2) 🚗 A scoop-let from earlier this month: Uber emailed riders and drivers here in HK to say it’s worried that regulators might cap its service in the city. 🎁 <– Gift link

3) 💻 And a few weeks back, I wrote in our Tech in Depth newsletter about experimenting with a hot new agentic AI service, Manus. What’s agentic AI? Give the piece a read. 🎁 <– Gift link

4) 👉 You may recall our story from April about Microsoft-backed AI startup Builder.ai hiring auditors to investigate inflated sales. Well, the latest, by my colleagues Yazhou Sun and Mark Bergen: Builder.ai Files for Bankruptcy After Creditors Seize Accounts. 🎁 <– Gift link

5) ✍️ And another scoop-let from last month: Meta’s new head for Asia-Pacific is its longtime Southeast Asia exec. 🎁 <– Gift link

6) 🌏 And finally, I wrote a bigger-picture story about how countries across Asia are reining in social media services like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. 🎁 <– Gift link

Got all that?

7) 🎥 Meanwhile, in other news: Denis Villeneuve, of “Blade Runner 2049” and “Dune” fame, will direct the next James Bond movie.

8) 📻 D.J. Barry Hansen, aka Dr. Demento, is retiring after 55 years.

9) ✈️ Fun BBC TV clip from 1953: How to travel from London to Tokyo in just 36 hours.

10) 🦴 Dog-related video of the week: “this is so pure.”

•••

🤗 What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of canines soaking up gorgeous sunsets on the beach.

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Categories
Hong Kong Journalism Tech

China’s Didi Recruits Ride-Hailing Drivers in Hong Kong Push

China’s Didi Recruits Ride-Hailing Drivers in Hong Kong Push

That’s the headline on my latest story, a scoop out April 25 with my colleague Luz Ding.

It begins: <– 🎁 Gift link:

China’s Didi Global Inc. is quietly recruiting new drivers in Hong Kong as it looks to grow outside of mainland China.

The move sets the Chinese ride-hailing pioneer up for close competition with Uber Technologies Inc. in a financial hub where regulations governing the sector are still in flux, providing a window for rivals to win market share. Didi has been offering limited taxi services in Hong Kong for some time, but lacks a ride-share option.

An advertisement viewed by Bloomberg News invites prospective ride-share drivers to scan a QR code and download an app called KayGo Driver.

KayGo is recruiting drivers for Didi, according to a person familiar with the matter. KayGo’s drivers will gradually start providing their service to Didi users in Hong Kong, the person said.

Click through to read the rest.

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Newley's Notes

NN335: Horror-Struck Huskies

Easter Procession, St. Marks (1898), by Maurice Prendergast

Sent as a newsletter on April 22, 2025. Not on my list? Sign up here.

👋 Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a newsletter containing my recent Bloomberg News stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

Image above: Easter Procession, St. Marks (1898), by Maurice Prendergast

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 👉 My latest, an exclusive out Thursday with my Bloomberg colleagues Eric Fan and Paige Smith: US Agency Probes Workers’ Bias Claims Against India’s TCS <– 🎁 Gift link. The lede:

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating dozens of American workers’ allegations that India’s biggest IT outsourcer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., discriminated against them based on their race, age and national origin.

2) 🙏 RIP, Pope Francis.

3) 🚢 A helpful Bloomberg feature: “Tracking Every Trump Tariff and Its Economic Effect.”

4) 🇭🇰 Related: This week’s Schumpeter column in The Economist. The headline: “The trade war may reverse Hong Kong’s commercial decline.”

5) 🔭 “Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.”

6)🚦 Some Seattle crosswalk buttons were hacked to play what sounded like Jeff Bezos saying “Please, please don’t tax the rich.”

7) ⛵ “The Techno-Utopians Who Want to Colonize the Sea.”

8) 📺 What I’m watching: “The Last of Us” is back for season two. One word on the action so far: wow.

9) 📖 What I’m reading: Last weekend I completed a months-long quest to conquer the great Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. I loved it. My (joking, but only kind of!) review, which I shared with colleagues, is: TLDR – 19th-century Russian aristocrats: They’re just like us!

10) 🦴 Dog-related video of the week: “That face says it all – he needs some love.”

•••

🤗 What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of traumatized Huskies.

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Categories
Journalism

US Agency Probes Workers’ Bias Claims Against India’s TCS

US Agency Probes Workers' Bias Claims Against India’s TCS

That’s the headline on my latest story, an exclusive out Thursday with my colleagues Eric Fan and Paige Smith.

It begins:

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating dozens of American workers’ allegations that India’s biggest IT outsourcer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., discriminated against them based on their race, age and national origin.

The former employees are largely professionals from non-South Asian ethnic backgrounds over the age of 40, who say the company targeted them for layoffs but spared Indian colleagues, some of whom were working on H-1B skilled worker visas. They began filing complaints against TCS in late 2023.

“Allegations that TCS engages in unlawful discrimination are meritless and misleading,” a TCS spokesperson said. “TCS has a strong track record of being an equal opportunity employer in the U.S., embracing the highest levels of integrity and values in our operations.”

An EEOC spokesperson, citing federal law, said the agency cannot comment on investigations. Complaints, or charges, made to the EEOC are confidential under federal law.

Click through to read the rest. <– 🎁 Gift link

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Newley's Notes

NN334: Autumn’s Haul

Dire wolf puppies?

Sent as a newsletter on April 14, 2025. Not on my list? Sign up here.

👋 Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a newsletter containing my recent Bloomberg News stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

Image above: dire wolf puppies?

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 🐺 Are dire wolves really back from extinction?

2) 📹 Meanwhile: “American YouTuber who left a Diet Coke can for a reclusive island tribe is arrested in India.”

3) 👉 The WSJ’s Jason Zweig on Daniel Kahneman’s death: “The Last Decision by the World’s Leading Thinker on Decisions.”

4) 🗣️ What did you think of the “White Lotus” season finale? And more important, what did you make of Parker Posey’s Southern accent?

5) 📖 Eighty-seven-year-old Thomas Pynchon’s first novel in twelve years will be out in October.

6) 🏄 On surfing in Hong Kong.

7) 🇵🇪 RIP Mario Vargas Llosa.

8) ⚽ My beloved Arsenal beat Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal thanks to two incredible free kicks from Declan Rice.

9) 👏 And speaking of football/soccer, quote of the week: “I’m a Southend fan till I die now.”

10) 🦴 Dog-related video of the week: “Autumn goes home with the best stick during walkies.”

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Categories
Newley's Notes

NN333: The best boi of them all

NYC subway map

Sent as a newsletter on April 5, 2025. Not on my list? Sign up here.

👋 Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a newsletter containing my recent Bloomberg News stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

Image above: New York City’s new subway map. (Read on…)

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) ✍️ My Bloomberg latest: a scoop out Tues. with my colleagues Mark Bergen and Yazhou Sun. The hed: Microsoft-Backed Startup Builder.ai Hires Auditors to Investigate Inflated Sales <– 🎁 Gift link

2) 📉 Following President Trump’s tariff announcements, the S&P 500 Index has fallen to its lowest level in 11 months.

3) 📱 My colleague Oliva Carville, who has done remarkable investigative work on how young people have been harmed by social media, has a weekend essay out. And there’s a new documentary based on her work, “Can’t Look Away.”

4) 🇺🇦 The New York Times’s Adam Entous on “America’s hidden role in Ukrainian military operations against Russia’s invading armies.”

5) 👉 Also in the NYT, my former WSJ colleague Justin Scheck has an important new story out with Abdi Latif Dahir: “Why Maids Keep Dying in Saudi Arabia.”

6) 🎬 RIP, Val Kilmer.

7) 📩 A look at Emily Dickinson’s “envelope poems.”

8) 🍎 For the first time since 1979, New York City’s subway map has a new design.

9) 🎵 What I’ve been listening to: Jason Isbell has a new solo album out, “Foxes in the Snow.” (Thanks for the tip, Wendy!)

10) 🦴 Dog-related video of the week: “The most beautiful dog in the mirror at the moment🥰”

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Categories
Journalism Tech

Microsoft-Backed Startup Builder.ai Hires Auditors to Investigate Inflated Sales

Builder.ai

That’s the headline on my most recent story, an exclusive out Tuesday with my colleagues Mark Bergen and Yazhou Sun.

It begins: 🎁 <– gift link

Builder.ai lowered the sales figures it provided to investors and hired auditors to examine its last two years of accounts, a major setback for the artificial intelligence startup backed by Microsoft Corp. and the Qatar Investment Authority.

The London-based company, which has raised more than $450 million, dropped its revenue estimates for the second half of 2024 by about 25% after some sales channels “did not come through,” according to Manpreet Ratia, the recently appointed chief executive.

Builder.ai confirmed the adjustment, which it began making last summer but hasn’t previously been reported, in response to questions from Bloomberg News about the sales correction and concerns from former employees that the company inflated sales figures.

“It’s probably time to sit back and take pause,” Ratia said in his first interview as CEO of the nine-year-old company, which helps businesses create customized apps with little to no coding. “We need to do a little bit of work making sure we get our house in order.”

The company’s missteps show the risks inherent in the rush to back promising AI startups, as investors seek to replicate the success of companies like OpenAI or Anthropic. After the debut of ChatGPT, the company rode investor enthusiasm for AI startups, raising from backers including Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority, which led a $250 million financing round in 2023.

Click through to read the rest.

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Newley's Notes

NN332: Justice’s Trust Fall

Ginger

Sent as a newsletter on March 31, 2025. Not on my list? Sign up here.

👋 Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a newsletter containing my recent Bloomberg News stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

📸 Image of the week, above

It’s been too long since I shared a photo of our gorgeous Ginger. Here she is. Out on a recent jaunt.

✍️ My Bloomberg latest

For an edition of our Tech in Depth newsletter earlier this month, I wrote about the popularity of DeepSeek here in Hong Kong.

🤖 The hed: DeepSeek Takes Over Hong Kong in ChatGPT’s Absence. 🎁 <– gift link

I wrote:

Hong Kong for a long time felt like an artificial intelligence no man’s land, caught between east and west.

Major American services such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude aren’t offered by their makers here, even though Hong Kong has never been subject to the mainland’s internet restrictions. And many Chinese AI apps have been difficult to access, with companies like Baidu Inc. prioritizing the billion-plus population on the mainland and making signups from Hong Kong complex.

The city’s consumers have largely been watching the AI revolution from the sidelines. They’ve been forced to use workarounds such as virtual private networks to try the most advanced services ushering in generative AI.

No more. Now DeepSeek is here.

⭐ Then on Thursday I had a scoop (scoop-let?) on Meta’s longtime Asia-Pacific business head departing the company.

The hed: Meta’s Asia-Pacific Chief Quits After a Decade-Long Growth Spurt 🎁 <– gift link

It began:

Meta Platforms Inc. is losing its senior-most business executive for the Asia-Pacific, an industry veteran who shepherded some of the social media company’s largest international markets over a decade-long tenure.

Dan Neary, the company’s vice president for the region, assumed the role in 2013 and oversaw the rapid expansion of the company’s user base from Australia to Greater China and Southeast Asia. The Singapore-based executive announced his departure in an internal post. He left for personal reasons, a Meta spokesperson said Thursday.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 💬 A remarkable story that surely you saw, but in case not: “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans” – The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg

2) 🎧 For more on the incident, national security-focused publication Lawfare has had some podcast episodes.

3) 👉 “Oleg Gordievsky, Britain’s most valuable Cold War spy inside the KGB, dies at 86” – The AP.

(If you haven’t read the excellent 2018 Ben Macintyre book about Gordievsky, don’t miss it: “The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.”)

4) 🧬 “Bankrupt 23andMe’s DNA Data Gets Sale Nod as Concerns Linger” – Bloomberg News

5) 📖 Here’s an excerpt from my former WSJ colleague Keach Hagey’s new book, “The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future."

6) 🧠 “Reid Hoffman: ‘Start using AI deeply. It is a huge intelligence amplifier’” – The Guardian

7) 🌍 “Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life” – Live Science

8) 🌞 “Experience the Virtual Sun, our human-centric virtual skylight.” – INNERSCENE

9) 📺 TV Garden: watch TV from countries around the world

10) 🥾 “What I Found on the 365-Mile Trail of a Lost Folk Hero” – Sam Anderson in the New York Times Magazine

🎵 What I’ve been listening to:

🎸 I’ve been enjoying Charley Crockett’s new album, Lonesome Drifter. (Thanks for the pointer, PB!)

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

Justice is what you would call an enthusiastic cuddler.

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Categories
India Journalism Tech

Former Staffers Say India’s Biggest IT Firm Was Gaming the US Visa System

Former Staffers Say India’s Biggest IT Firm Was Gaming the US Visa System

That’s the headline on my most recent story, an exclusive out Tuesday with my colleague Eric Fan.

It begins:

The first time Donald Trump took over the White House, Anil Kini alleges that executives at India’s biggest outsourcing firm ordered him to take part in what he describes as a coverup.

Kini, who was an IT manager working in Denver for Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, or TCS, says his superiors ordered him to falsify internal organizational charts — to make them appear more top-heavy with managers than they really were.

The goal, Kini later alleged in a federal lawsuit and in interviews with Bloomberg News, was to prepare for any heightened scrutiny of the way TCS was using employment visas. It was 2017, and Trump had campaigned on an anti-immigration platform, but his focus wasn’t confined to undocumented immigrants. He’d also assailed a widely used skilled-worker visa program, called H-1B, saying it provided “cheap labor” that hurt US workers. He said US-based companies should instead prioritize hiring Americans.

Kini and two other former TCS employees who filed similar lawsuits say the company repeatedly made improper use of special manager-level visas to hire front-line workers who had no management responsibilities. All three cases, which were filed under the federal False Claims Act, were dismissed before the allegations of visa fraud were examined in court; Kini’s is on appeal. The manager visas, known as L-1As, are easier for employers to obtain and have fewer guardrails; for example, they lack even the minimal pay requirements that Congress has imposed for H-1B holders.

Kini told Bloomberg that as Trump took office eight years ago executives at TCS, an arm of the Indian conglomerate the Tata Group, were trying to make their organizational charts match their visa applications, before any federal inspectors showed up on their doorstep.

While officials in Trump’s first administration continued to criticize employment visas, the anticipated crackdown failed to materialize. Now, with Elon Musk and other tech executives defending the H-1B program, Trump has changed his rhetoric. “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas,” he told the New York Post in December. That flip-flop has triggered pushback from his MAGA base, pitting his nativist supporters against his newer backers from the tech industry.

Although studies have shown immigration has been a net positive for the US economy and for government budgets, Kini’s story along with allegations in the other lawsuits, internal company documents, emails and federal data obtained by Bloomberg, suggest TCS has used L-1A manager visas in ways that echo Trump’s earlier concerns about undercutting American workers. The data, which is previously unreported, shows that the number of L-1A approvals the company has received far exceeds the number of managers it disclosed employing in mandatory federal reports to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It also shows that TCS, which works with some of the largest US tech companies, has obtained far more manager visas than any other employer in recent years.

In response to detailed questions about the allegations and Bloomberg’s data analysis, a company spokesperson sent a statement denying any wrongdoing: “TCS does not comment on ongoing litigation, however we strongly refute these inaccurate allegations by certain ex-employees, which have previously been dismissed by multiple courts and tribunals. TCS rigorously adheres to all U.S. laws.” The company declined to provide further details.

Click through to read the rest (🎁 gift link):

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Newley's Notes

NN331: Happy 2025!

Newley Purnell

Sent as a newsletter on January 6, 2025. Not on my list? Sign up here.

👋 Hi friends,

It’s been too long since I’ve last written. WAY too long!

My apologies for the radio silence.

Since my last dispatch, I’m excited to say I’ve joined Bloomberg News here in Hong Kong! (The image above is from my first day, a few months back.)

Longtime readers may recall that I was a summer news intern at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York many years ago. I’m thrilled to return, this time on the other side of the world.

I’m grateful for all I learned at The WSJ, and for the incredible colleagues and friends I made during the decade I was there.

At Bloomberg, I’m helping our outstanding tech team with coverage of tech across Asia, with a focus on U.S. titans and broader themes.

Newley’s Notes will continue, though I’m still mulling over the frequency and the format.

I’ll certainly be sharing, in one form or another, my Bloomberg stories, much as I did with my Journal pieces.

A sampling of what I’ve been working on so far:

💻 From August: US Firms Warn Against ‘Unprecedented’ Hong Kong Cyber Rules <– 🎁 Gift link

🤖 From our Tech Daily newsletter in September: This Global Financial Capital Is an AI No Man’s Land <– 🎁 Gift link

💵 Also that month, an exclusive with my excellent colleague Kiuyan Wong: Hong Kong Considers Rules for AI Use in Finance <– 🎁 Gift link

📲 And from November, collaborations with my colleagues Ben Westcott and Angus Whitley: Australia to Ban Social Media for Children Under Age 16 and TikTok, Meta Brace for Australian Social Media Ban Fallout. <– 🎁 Gift links

📺 Meanwhile, it’s been fun to get back into live TV work. Here’s a recent clip I posted on LinkedIn.

As ever, you can find me on LinkedIn, X/Twitter (@newley), Threads (@newley) and, most recently, Bluesky (@newley.bsky.social).

And all of my my stories are on the Bloomberg site here.

Stay tuned for much, more more!

📖 What I’ve Been Reading:

From my blog: The Best Books I Read in 2024. TLDR: a fantastic Pitchaya Sudbanthad novel, and diving into John Williams.

📸 What I’ve Been Photographing:

Also from my blog: My 12 Favorite Photos of 2024. In short: soaking up Hong Kong street life.

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

The Dogs of 2024 (YouTube/WeRateDogs)

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley