Chinese EV upstarts to battle Japanese heavyweights for Thailand’s pickup truck market

Toyota and Isuzu have long dominated Thailand’s pickup truck market. As they prepare to launch EV trucks, they face competition from Chinese firms.

By Jitsiree Thongnoi

A photograph showing a group of women standing around a laptop, one of them is indicating towards it explaining what is visible on the screen. They are indoors in a large hall space with people around.

The Rise of AI

Bhutan’s first AI startup is seven college kids in a dorm

NoMindBhutan services prominent clients like the Bhutan National Bank and Drukair - Royal Bhutan Airlines.

By Lhakpa Quendren and Ananya Bhattacharya

Global

Support Our Global Journalism

Nearly four billion Internet users live outside the West, building and using tech products & platforms that most Americans have never heard of.

By Rest of World Staff

Exporter Newsletter

How Apple’s India gamble paid off

India’s growing middle class is fueling a billion-dollar sales surge.

By Russell Brandom

A collage illustration showing various rectangles and square images of Meta app logos, illustrated artworks with text in Spanish, a prompt generator with a heavy blue tint.

The Rise of AI

Meta is training its AI with public Instagram posts. Artists in Latin America can’t opt out

Latin America lacks robust data protection laws that would allow Meta users in the region to prohibit the company from using their content.

By Lucila Pinto

A photo showing men scattered at a road intersection with their hands raised in their air, their faces covered with helmets and scarves. — Wang Guansen Xinhua/eyevine/Redux

Silicon Valley in Rest of World

Kenya’s biggest protest in recent history played out on a walkie-talkie app

More than 40,000 Kenyans have downloaded Zello since protests began against the government’s plan to raise taxes.

By Stephanie Wangari

Exporter

Gaze far beyond the Silicon Valley bubble. Our new newsletter offers a global view of the U.S.’s biggest tech companies. Be the first to get Russell Brandom’s latest analysis sent straight to your inbox.

Digital Nomads >

A photo of a 100-year-old Portuguese mansion in Goa which is converted to a co-working space.

India’s beach paradise Goa is overrun with digital nomads

Rents are up, startups are setting up all over the state, but locals can’t get jobs easily.

By Sanghamitra Kar P

People work at a cafe in La Condesa neighborhood, Mexico City

Digital nomads now come first for Mexico City’s gig workers

Workers say they’re learning English and cooking less spicy food to suit the tastes of wealthy newcomers.

By Samuel Burleigh and Stephania Corpi Arnaud

Dubai is a paradise for “digital nomads”— and hell for low-wage gig workers

The UAE has eased visa requirements for white-collar freelancers, but migrant gig workers struggle.

By Meaghan Tobin and Roohan Ahmed

What's up with WhatsApp >

A collage of a two hands holding their phones on either side of the screen. In between them are whatsapp and imessage chat boxes in green and blue. The collage is set against a green and pink grid background with checkerboard squares.

The most important news from Apple isn’t about AI

Reuniting the world’s text messages — one app at a time.

By Russell Brandom

A collage of images taken from a group on WhatsApp, showing a man holding a candle against a purple background. The images are set against a green background used on WhatsApp.

Inside the BJP’s WhatsApp machine

An analysis of thousands of messages reveals how India’s ruling party uses the app to campaign free from public scrutiny.

By Srishti Jaswal

A phone wireframe showing a Whatsapp chat with the encryption message featured at the top. The background of the image is a pattern of small green and pink squares.

WhatsApp gives India an ultimatum on encryption

Tracing the origins of messages is more complicated than it sounds.

By Russell Brandom

Mauricio Bustos (right) together with his brother Marcelo Bustos (left) who wears a white robotic mask. Both are sitting on the bed in the small room they share in Santiago, Chile, sunlight shining through one side.

Features

The AI artist who used Bad Bunny’s voice — and shot to fame

Meet the Chilean artist who made it big using others’ voices.

By Charis McGowan

Humans of the internet >

A collage of three phone screenshots showing fake Russian influencers on Douyin social media application.

Fake Russian influencers are going viral on Chinese social media

They are bolstered by growing pro-Russia, nationalist sentiment on the Chinese internet.

By Caiwei Chen

A collage of African content creators with elements of the Brazilian flag against a green background.

Meet the Portuguese-speaking African creators making it big in Brazil

Influencers from Africa are moving to the largest Latin American country, where the creator economy is booming.

By Matheus Andrade and Daniela Dib

An illustrated collage of screenshots from social media showing a mother and son, with Chinese text as subtitles, against a red background with floating red hearts.

Meet the “digital parents” giving millions in China a vision of family love they never had

Creators Jiang Xiuping and Pan Huqian, a viral Douyin duo, act as fictional parents, providing solace to young adults and adolescents amid economic inequalities and a scarcity of mental health support in China.

By Viola Zhou

Scammers gonna scam >

Vigilantes for views: The YouTube pranksters harassing suspected scam callers in India

Los Angeles-based Trilogy Media took “scambaiting” to a new level, but some claim they’re gaining viral fame at others’ expense.

By Andrew Deck and Raksha Kumar

A community healthcare volunteer interacts with residents of Mukuru Kayaba.

M-Pesa has been huge for Kenya’s economy — and for scammers

Nearly half of the country that uses the ubiquitous mobile money service has fallen victim to fraud.

By Martin K.N Siele

A close up photo of a pixelated female face. An X (Twitter) post frame placed over left eye with blue verification checkmark inside it.

Chinese sextortion scammers are flooding Twitter

Scammers are targeting Chinese-language users, harassing political dissidents and influential figures.

By Caiwei Chen

The Rise of AI

Rest of World’s 2024 AI elections tracker

As more than two billion people vote, we’re monitoring the way AI is being used in political campaigns, memes, and misinformation.

By Rest of World Staff

The Graying Gig Workers

Forget retirement. Older people are turning to gig work to survive

Rest of World spoke to 50 older workers around the world who see gig work as a lifeline — or a last resort.

By Laís Martins, Kimberly Mutandiro, Lam Le and Zuha Siddiqui

Chinese EV upstarts to battle Japanese heavyweights for Thailand’s pickup truck market

How Apple’s India gamble paid off

Bhutan’s first AI startup is seven college kids in a dorm

Kenya’s biggest protest in recent history played out on a walkie-talkie app

Meta is training its AI with public Instagram posts. Artists in Latin America can’t opt out

The role of trust in building fintech for Africa

The Northeast Indian YouTubers challenging cultural stereotypes through mukbang

How Microsoft and the UAE got caught in the crossfire of the U.S.-China tech war

Bringing the Philippines’ beloved mom-and-pop stores into the 21st century

Why Africa’s tech talent makes it an attractive investment destination

The AI artist who used Bad Bunny’s voice — and shot to fame

Conservative evangelicals use social media to sway Brazil election

Chinese EV upstarts to battle Japanese heavyweights for Thailand’s pickup truck market

Bhutan’s first AI startup is seven college kids in a dorm

Support Our Global Journalism

How Apple’s India gamble paid off

Meta is training its AI with public Instagram posts. Artists in Latin America can’t opt out

Kenya’s biggest protest in recent history played out on a walkie-talkie app

Exporter

India’s beach paradise Goa is overrun with digital nomads

Digital nomads now come first for Mexico City’s gig workers

Dubai is a paradise for “digital nomads”— and hell for low-wage gig workers

The most important news from Apple isn’t about AI

Inside the BJP’s WhatsApp machine

WhatsApp gives India an ultimatum on encryption

The AI artist who used Bad Bunny’s voice — and shot to fame

Read more features:

How Modi and the BJP turned WhatsApp into an election-winning machine

Inside TSMC’s struggle to build a chip factory in the U.S. suburbs

How governments are using facial recognition to crack down on protesters

Fake Russian influencers are going viral on Chinese social media

Meet the Portuguese-speaking African creators making it big in Brazil

Meet the “digital parents” giving millions in China a vision of family love they never had

Vigilantes for views: The YouTube pranksters harassing suspected scam callers in India

M-Pesa has been huge for Kenya’s economy — and for scammers

Chinese sextortion scammers are flooding Twitter

Rest of World’s 2024 AI elections tracker

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