There has long been talk about the existence of gaming addiction but now the World Health Organization is seeking to classify it as a mental disorder.

This is not a move that is popular among mental health professionals however, with many wondering whether this is a move that is based more in morality rather than cold, hard scientific fact.

This past Monday the World Health Organization classified “gaming disorder” as a diagnosable condition and in the process giving mental health professionals around the globe a basis not only for diagnosing it, but also treating it.

However, a number of mental health organizations are questioning this stance. “There was a fairly widespread concern that this is a diagnosis that doesn’t really have a very solid research foundation,” said Christopher Ferguson, a psychologist and media researcher at Stetson University, and he is not alone.

The Society for Media Psychology and Technology which is a division of the American Psychological Association, has alerady expressing concern about the WHO’s proposal via its own policy statement earlier this year, saying, “the current research base is not sufficient for this disorder.”

The World Health Organization will be publishing the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases later this month and it will be the first time that “gaming disorder” has been included. When it does, the disorder will be described as “impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.” 

There have unfortunately been a number of deaths worldwide which have been linked to gaming addiction, with the first having been in 2002 when a South Korean man died having played for 86 hours straight.

Source: Redmond Pie

Kuala Lumpur: Alibaba Group on Monday opened its first national office here in Bangsar South which will serve as a one-stop solution centre for local businesses to embark on the digital economy.

The office is also Alibaba’s first establishment in the Southeast Asia and outside China.

Alibaba Group Co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma said that the office opening signified the company’s continuous endeavour to bolster Malaysia’s small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) technology capability and push them further in the digital world.

“This is Alibaba’s commitment. We want our Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) to start here, and we are committed to digitalising and empowering small businesses and let them to go global,” he said during the office launching here.

Also present at the event were Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, Communications and Multimedia Minister, Gobind Singh Deo and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Chief Executive Officer Datuk Yasmin Mahmood.

The Alibaba office will also provide a helping hand for businesses to identify cross-border trade opportunities, as well as to support the country’s technology innovation through cloud computing service.

Ma also announced that Alibaba will launch “Malaysia Week”, a special online promotion initiative to attract Chinese consumers for a week from July 6-12.

The campaign will showcase more than 50 local brands with an array of “must see, must eat and must experience” Malaysian products and tourism.

“Malaysia Week is the result of a fruitful discussion between Alibaba Group and Malaysia since the launch of eWTP last year,” he said. – Bernama

Source: Daily Express Online

HONG KONG: After the giddy heights of January when its shares hit an all-time high, Tencent Holdings Ltd. has shed $82 billion in value as investors price in the costs of the internet giant’s massive spending spree.

Results on Wednesday are expected to show that rising costs and investments will hurt profitability at Asia’s biggest listed company.

While Tencent has said sacrificing margins in the short-term is necessary to anchor future growth, analysts are concerned that the company isn’t yet able to make enough money from its mobile games to offset a decline in the desktop unit, its most profitable platform.

Shenzhen-based Tencent has been expanding into new businesses such as cloud computing and paying for fresh content, a strategy that contributed to a 72 percent surge in costs in the fourth quarter.

Analysts predict gross margin in the latest period dipped below 47 percent for the first time since 2003, the earliest figures available, according to the average of 11 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

While they remain bullish on the stock, Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG are among brokerages that have lowered their sales or earnings expectations in 2018.

“The short-term weak performance in PC games coupled with larger payment-related subsidies and weaker ad seasonality may affect the company’s margin,” China International Capital Corp. analyst Natalie Yue Wu wrote in a May 8 note.

“We see a period of share price weakness due to game business.”

Shares of Tencent have slipped 14 percent since its high on Jan. 23, declining more than twice as much as Hong Kong’s benchmark index.

Tencent ramped up spending this year as it competes with e-commerce rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on most fronts, including online entertainment, payments, cloud computing and even retail, Alibaba’s home turf.

Tencent’s retail-related deals this year include its backing of Carrefour SA’s China unit and leading a $5.4 billion investment in Wanda Commercial Properties Co. It’s also been pumping money into its hottest online games, and fending off competitors in the mobile-streaming and content business.

The battle has been a drag on margins at both Chinese companies. For Tencent, a stake sale from a major holder and a decline in the shares of some of its largest investments have put more pressure on the stock.

The options market is implying a daily move of 2.4 percent either way after the results, which would be the biggest earnings-day reaction in more than two years. – Bloomberg

Source: The Star Online

Lazada rolls out its own Lazada e-wallet, which allows for more seamless purchasing on the e-commerce site – Lazada

Removing more barriers from impulsive shopping, e-commerce site Lazada now allows users to make one-click payments using its new e-wallet.

The e-wallet can be topped up through several methods, including credit and debit cards, payments via 7-Eleven stores and bank transfers.

The maximum the e-wallet can hold is RM4,999.

To incentivise users to adopt the Lazada e-wallet, the site is offering discounts and rebates, in addition to allowing for one-click payments and speeding up refunds.

For instance, it has introduced Wallet Tuesdays which offers 10% cashback for purchases made in app with a minimum spend of RM100. However, the max discount offered will be RM20.

It is not clear at this time if the Lazada e-wallet would be opened up for payments outside the site.

According to Lazada’s promotion page, users can activate the e-wallet by requesting Lazada to issue a confirmation e-mail as a security measure.

Users would also need to confirm their mobile number so they could receive OTP (One Time Password) messages when using Lazada e-wallet.

Source: The Star Online