Smart speakers and the news in Portuguese: consumption pattern and challenges for content producers

The voice assistants popularized by smartphones are now the driving force behind a device that is making its way into homes in recent years: smart speakers. Since 2018, these devices are available in Brazilian Portuguese. These devices are also a new platform for news distribution and consumption. How does the platform define the content that will be delivered to the user? What challenges do content producers face? How does the user access this news? To try to find the answers to these questions, we conducted a literature review, a market situation point through business reports, developed an online survey with smart speaker users and also interviewed content producers. The answers show that there is influence of algorithms and the business model. An extra challenge for Portuguese content producers is the language itself. The voice assistant systems still have difficulty understanding words and expressions in Portuguese for users. This work may be helpful for content producers, especially Portuguese-speaking ones, to find ways to reach their audience.Os assistentes de voz popularizados pelos smartphones são agora o motor de um aparelho que está entrando nas casas nos últimos anos: os smart speakers. Desde 2018, Esses equipamentos estão disponíveis em português do Brasil. Tais aparelhos são também uma nova plataforma para distribuição e consumo de notícias. Como a plataforma define o conteúdo que será entregue ao usuário? Quais os desafios que os produtores de conteúdo enfrentam? Como o usuário acessa essas notícias? Para tentar encontrar as respostas a essas questões, fizemos uma revisão de literatura, um ponto de situação do mercado através de relatórios empresariais, desenvolvemos um inquérito online com usuários de smart speakers e também entrevistamos produtores de conteúdo. As respostas mostram que há influência dos algoritmos e do modelo de negócio. Um desafio extra para os produtores de conteúdo em português é a própria língua. Os sistemas dos assistentes de voz ainda apresentam dificuldade de compreensão de palavras e expressões em português para os usuários. Este trabalho poderá ser útil para produtores de conteúdo, especialmente de língua portuguesa, encontrarem maneiras de chegar ao público

Systemic rivalry and balancing interests: Chinese investment meets EU law on the Belt and Road. CEPS Policy Insight No 2019-04 /21 March 2019

For years, the EU has refrained from criticising China’s attempts to shape globalisation according to its own interests. Member states have allowed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to tip the balance of power towards the companies that China owns or subsidises. Alarmed by recent Chinese takeovers in strategic industries, the EU has flagged up its intention to toughen rules on foreign investment flows into Europe. The brand-new EU Strategic Outlook on China adopts a multifaceted approach and defines the ‘Middle Kingdom’ simultaneously as a cooperation and negotiation partner with whom the Union needs to find a balance of interests, an “economic competitor” in pursuit of technological leadership, and a “systemic rival” promoting alternative models of governance. This CEPS Policy Insights paper takes stock of BRI investments in Europe and of member states’ concerns about economic and national security. It examines the EU-wide legal bulwarks and regulatory responses that are intended to hedge against unfair practices. It concludes that while a more realistic and assertive European approach toward Chinese market behaviour is welcome, the EU should take China up on its pledge to embolden the BRI with ‘soft connectivity’, i.e. legal infrastructure, rather than risk mutual harm by adopting too protectionist a stance. This should benefit not just the EU and China but also the other ‘16+1’ countries along the central corridor of the BRI, which passes through the Caucasus, the Balkans and Eastern Europe – all in the spirit of the EU’s 2018 connectivity strategy with Asia

The Big Tech versus the Nation-States: Clash of Economic Interests and Struggle to Compete on a Global Scale

The growth of the internet and technology has been nothing short of exponential. Latest developments in computer and telecommunication technologies, as well as emergencies such as COVID-19, are hastening the adoption of such technologies into every part of our lives. Currently, internet technologies are an essential part of daily life, which are expected to remain open and free for everyone to connect and exchange information freely and fairly on a global scale. Since its beginnings, the internet has been designed as an open platform that is not governed by a single entity, resulting in numerous parties and a wide range of interests among those parties. This landscape, however, is not the same as it was three or two decades ago. Currently, Big Tech companies play increasingly dominant roles in the development and evolution of internet technologies, making them influential on the rules of the game on a global scale. By definition, big, powerful private corporations are expected to pursue their interests, which may differ significantly from those of other parties. Governments, on the other hand, may have divergent interests in areas such as finance, taxation, market competitiveness, use of personal data, data protection, information security, intellectual property, cybersecurity, state espionage, copyright, free speech, censorship, and many others. Nevertheless, the current market power of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple is greater than the annual GDP of some small or medium-sized countries, particularly underdeveloped or developing countries. From a theoretical perspective, this global transcendence of influence and economic power is putting great pressure on the state and its self-centric viewpoint conveyed through the realism theory. There are also great powers with strong cyber capacities whose legacy reigns supreme in the information technology sector. As a result, in globally open cyberspace, there are clear power disparities between various involved parties. This study will investigate the friction points caused by the disparate parties' differing interests and determine whether some of these disparities can ever be reconciled or reduced. One of the main goals of the study is to determine the viability of developing potential solutions to those problems. Qualitative research and case studies will be utilized in the conduct of this study

Digital economy and internationalization

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Stimulating China’s foreign trade in the post-pandemic period

Rongyue, L. Stimulating China’s foreign trade in the post-pandemic period = Стимулювання зовнішньої торгівлі Китаю в післяпандемійний період : master's d ; specialty 051 "Economics" / L. Rongyue ; Head of work G. V. Efimova. – Mykolaiv : NUS, 2022. – 118 p.Станом на 10 березня 2022 року в більш ніж 200 країнах і регіонах по всьому світу коронавірусна хвороба 2019 (COVID-19) заразила понад 451 мільйон людей і спричинила 6 мільйонів смертей. Половина випадків зараження в усьому світі виявлено в Сполучених Штатах, Бразилії, Індії, Великобританії, Росії та Франції. Вперше COVID-19 був діагностований в Ухані, Китай, наприкінці 2019 року. Кількість випадків інфікування стрімко зросла до кінця січня 2020 року в Ухані та решті Китаю, але стала стабільною до кінця лютого 2020 року. Вірус був виявлений у всьому світі на початку березня 2020 року. Станом на 26 січня 2021 року кількість випадків зараження в усьому світі перевищила 100 мільйонів, а до 4 серпня 2021 року ця цифра зросла до 200 мільйонів. У першому кварталі 2022 року глобальна пандемія все ще нестримно розвивалася в багатьох країнах за межами Китаю після двадцяти п’яти місяців спалаху, а деякі країни страждали від другої, третьої та наступних хвиль серйозного зараження. Найбільш постраждалі країни перемістилися з Ірану, Італії до Іспанії, Франції, Великобританії, а потім до Сполучених Штатів, Бразилії та Індії. Китай почав сприяти впорядкованому відновленню роботи та виробництва після того, як наприкінці лютого 2020 року пандемію було ефективно стримано. У травні 2020 року відновлення роботи та виробництва в Китаї відбувалося впорядковано. Навпаки, COVID-19 спалахнув у країнах Америки та Європи без своєчасного контролю. Транскордонні повітряні перевезення та глобальні ланцюжки поставок тоді серйозно постраждали або навіть були перервані. Через торговий протекціонізм, геополітичні конфлікти та деглобалізацію світова економіка та міжнародна торгова система зазнали серйозного тиску та загрози. Вплив пандемії на торгівлю привернув увагу. Болдуін (2020) зазначив, що пандемія може призвести до більш серйозного торговельного спаду, ніж спалах світової фінансової кризи в 2008–2009 роках, оскільки пандемія є як шоком попиту, так і шоком пропозиції, тоді як рецесія 2008–2009 років була здебільшого спричинена шоком попиту. Подібне та провокаційне дослідження Лю та ін. (2021), також використовуючи дані про щомісячне річне зростання торгівлі Китаю. Лю та ін. (2021) виявили, що карантинні обмеження вплинулина імпорт сильніше, ніж прямі наслідки самої пандемії для здоров’я та поведінки. Ця стаття зосереджена на аналізі та фіксації змін у торгівлі Китаю, а потім представлено деякі політичні рекомендації щодо розвитку торгівлі Китаю.China has been one of the world's largest trading economies for many years in a row. As one of the "troika" driving China's economic growth, foreign trade has provided a strong driving force for steady growth. According to the Ministry of Commerce, in 2019, China's net export of goods and services contributed 11% to its GDP growth. Nearly half a million foreign trade enterprises have created about 200 million direct and indirect jobs, accounting for 25 percent of the total employment. The tax revenue of the import link contributed 11.6% of the total tax revenue of the country. The trade surplus in goods was US $421.5 billion, up by about 20%. It was an important source of current account surplus and strongly safeguarded the international balance of payments. However, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019 posed severe challenges to China and the world economy. While the epidemic has been effectively contained at home, it is spreading rapidly overseas. According to the World Health Organization, as of the end of May 2020, the number of confirmed cases abroad reached 3 million, and the worst-hit European and American countries are China's major trading partners. Due to the need of epidemic prevention and control, European and American countries have been forced to declare a state of emergency, implement personnel quarantine, border blockade and port closure, and take strict quarantine measures on ships and cargo from China to slow the spread of the virus. China's foreign trade enterprises have been hit by the double impact of domestic work stoppage and the current international spread of the epidemic. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, affected by the epidemic, in the first quarter of 2020, China's total import and export volume was 6.57 trillion yuan, down by 6.4% year on year, among which the export volume decreased by 11.4%, the import volume decreased by 0.7%, and the trade surplus decreased by 806% year on year. Among them, exports to traditional markets such as the United States, the European Union and Japan decreased by 23.6%, 14.2% and 14.1%, respectively. The diploma work is devoted to the study of the the impact of COVID－19 pandemic on China’s foreign economic and trade cooperation ， and to explore effective corresponding countermeasures．6 The topicality of this work is to analyze the foreign trade of the world and China under the relevant pneumonia epidemic, compare the experience with the previous SARS epidemic, and summarize the latest key points of promoting foreign trade in the post-epidemic era. In order to do this, we must understand the methods and measures to mitigate or stop the related pneumonia outbreaks, and the policy measures that the government has done without economic recovery. The foreign trade cooperation between China and Ukraine during and after the COVID-19 era is also an important aspect of our research. The goals and objectives of the diploma is to devoted to analyze the impact of the epidemic on China's foreign trade (economy) and how China should stimulate foreign trade in the post-epidemic period. The object of the research is to focus on the impact of the pneumonia on China's foreign trade. The subject of my diploma work is specific measures to stimulate foreign trade in the post-pandemic period（political actions for economic recovery in the post-pandemic period ） Survey method, Data collection, Information research Methods, Information research method, observation method are used in this research. The scientific novelty of my research focuses on the analysis of the development trend of China's foreign trade under the background of the novel coronavirus pneumonia. The countermeasures to promote China's foreign trade in the post-epidemic era are introduced. At the same time, it can be concluded that under the background of RCEP, Healthy Silk Road and Digital Silk Road, the development of China's foreign trade has made greater progress In terms of the practical value, the government, enterprises and financial institutions should respond quickly and work together to help foreign trade enterprises to resume production and tide over the difficulties smoothly. The structure of the diploma work is as follows: Introduction, Chapter 1 "Theoretical foundations and scientific trends of foreign trade during the pandemic", Chapter 2 " Analysis of the state and trends in the development of foreign trade ", Chapter 3 " Proposals for improving international economic relations", Conclusions,7 List of cited literature. Among the published research results, the article titled "PREREQUISITES FOR THE STUDY STIMULATING CHINA'S FOREIGN TRADE IN THE POST- PANDEMIC PERIOD" mainly tells about the severe impact of the global novel coronavirus epidemic on China's foreign trade, aims to analyze how to stimulate China's foreign trade in the post-epidemic period, and summarizes the measures to promote foreign trade in the post-epidemic period. The article titled "Changes in Imports and Exports During the COVID-19 in China" told us that the impact on imports and exports was large at the beginning of the pandemic, as it was difficult to ensure that domestic output in the region remained stable. But the economy recovered quickly in the middle of the year and export production picked up. From the historical data, there is an objective phenomenon that China's import scale and export scale change in the same direction