Beyond the Valley: Nine companies hit hard by the global tech crash

From El Salvador to China, the tech industry looks very different than it did a year ago.

Rappi’s latest service: publicity stunts

The Colombian super-app’s latest partnership shows what hides behind its long list of services.

Investors told Latin American startups to bank with SVB. Then it collapsed

Why founders from emerging markets were advised to seek safety at Silicon Valley Bank.

The data startup helping businesses navigate climate change

Karen Wang, founder and CEO of Climind, on how climate data analysis can help businesses make better decisions.

Tech’s very bad year, in numbers

Reduced investment and large-scale layoffs have created dark times for tech globally.

Leaked law proposal would give Cambodia expanded powers to censor critics

Rest of World has obtained a previously unseen draft of a new cybersecurity law that experts say is ripe for abuse.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Reports

This fascist clothing company hopes you’ll tweet about how offensive it is

“Make Mexico Great Again”: A flop on Facebook, the brand is going viral on Twitter.

By Daniela Dib

A customer care specialist helps out with services during the new Sim Card registration outside Safaricom (one of the leading mobile telephone network providers in Kenya) customer care shop.

Reports

Faster, cheaper: How ending the government monopoly improved Ethiopia’s internet

Africa’s second-most populous nation ended its telecomms monopoly in 2022. Businesses are already seeing the benefits.

By Natalie Donback

Global Tech’s Very Bad Year

60 days to find a job or leave the country

Amid mass layoffs, tech workers in the U.S. on H-1B visas are scrambling to find new roles.

By Varsha Bansal

A person taking a piece of sushi off a conveyor belt at a restaurant.

Bento 🍱

“Sushi terrorism”: Viral pranks have caused an all-out panic in Japan

Twitter antics have led to three arrests, and fears over the end of the sushi train tradition. Here's how the terror escalated so fast.

By Andrew Deck

Global Tech’s Very Bad Year

Nigeria’s tech workers got used to good salaries and high demand. Then came the crash

Laid-off employees are scrambling to adjust their lifestyles as funding crunches hit the already struggling economy.

By Ope Adetayo

Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Global Tech Downturn

How the global startup economy is reacting to SVB’s crash

Entrepreneurs and investors in India, Mexico, Morocco, Singapore, and China are worried about the fallout of the crisis on the funding and regulatory environment.

By Nilesh Christopher, David Adeleke, Ee Ming Toh, Daniela Dib, José Luis Peñarredonda and Viola Zhou

Our South Asia newsletter

The future of global tech will be determined outside the West. Subscribe to our biweekly South Asia newsletter to find out how the region is inventing the future.

Features

The tech workers exiled from Europe’s last dictatorship

Ruthless political repression has decimated Belarus’ once-thriving tech scene.

By Clément Girardot

Take me to (virtual) church >

At the intersection of ancient traditions and the digital age

A woman prays at a Sufi Muslim mosque inK Kashmir.

Demystifying Sufism — and gaining millions of YouTube viewers

As YouTube becomes a meaningful platform for some Kashmiri Sufis, it also raises many eyebrows.

By Adil Rashid

Who’s really behind the Bible app going viral around the world?

Christians are flocking to the King James Version Bible app, and the digital trail leads to a Hong Kong shopping district and a Beijing-based developer.

By Andrew Deck

The cleric has uploaded a new video

Turkish clerics on YouTube attract millions of viewers — but perhaps no one is watching them as closely as the Erdoğan government.

By Kaya Genç

Love, sex, and identity in the digital world >

From cam shows to dating apps

Same-sex couples from China are getting married in Utah over Zoom

Utah County introduced weddings over Zoom during the pandemic, unintentionally providing a valuable service for China's LGBTQ+ community.

By Viola Zhou

To survive, China’s biggest gay dating app became a pharmacy

Focusing on HIV prevention and sexual health care has helped BlueCity navigate a precarious environment for LGBTQI organizations.

By Andrew Deck and William Yang

Meet the off-screen workers who keep the adult webcam industry running

In Colombia, camming monitors train models, translate chats, and provide tech support.

By Sophie Foggin and Vittoria Elliott

Customers are seen shopping at the street stalls, outside Sham Shui Po station exit.

Tech Markets

Inside the world’s biggest tech bazaars

You can tell a lot about a big city from its electronics district(s) — its technological peaks and troughs, consumer culture, demographic quirks, entrepreneurial spirit.

By Cengiz Yar, Sarah Hilton, Anna Rasshivkina, Katherine Lee, Jane O'Donoghue, Lily Lou and Munira Mutaher