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HAF Picks 28 In-Development Projects and 15 Work-in-Progress Projects, Runs Online for The Third Year

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 9 February 2022 – The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum has shortlisted 28 in-development projects for its 20th anniversary edition (HAF20), which will run online for the third consecutive year from 14 to 16 March in conjunction with the 26th Hong Kong FILMART. 

The projects, selected from 222 submissions from 38 countries and regions, include eight from Hong Kong, 12 debut features, as well as projects from such renowned filmmakers and producers as HUANG Ji, Jun LI, MARIKO Tetsuya, Ida PANAHANDEH, LIM Lung Yin, TSANG Tsui-shan, Michael J. WERNER, Fruit CHAN, Nonzee NIMIBUTR, YANG Chao, DING Yuin-shan, and Jane ZHENG.

“Unfortunately, we won’t have the opportunity to celebrate our 20th anniversary by hosting our usual in-person event due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions,” HKIFF Industry Director Jacob WONG said.  “Nevertheless, based on experience gained from the last two years, we will strive to improve our online booking and meeting system to make it a breeze for all participants.”

Some of the selected HAF20’s in-development projects (IDP) are as follows:

Hong Kong spotlight

HAF20 spotlights eight Hong Kong in-development projects, the most in recent years.  They include I Might Write About Us, a personal LGBTQ+ drama by Jun LI (Drifting, winner of Best Adapted Screenplay at Golden Horse Awards 2021); High Noon, a drama about a cop who unearths the brutal past behind a recent robbery, directed by award-winning film editor WONG Hoi and produced by Michael J. WERNER; and Smashing Frank, a dark comedy about four millennials who rob the rich, by Trevor CHOI, director of a local popular YouTube channel 16:9, with Fruit CHAN attached as producer.

New talent showcase

In line with its continuing support for new talent, HAF20 presents 12 debut in-development projects, many by young filmmakers who have cut their teeth by making short films.   Among them, DUONG Dieu Linh (A Trip To Heaven, winner at Locarno 2020), follows a middle-aged Vietnamese housewife who voodoos her husband back into love in Don’t Cry, Butterfly; In Summer Breeze, HO Yuk-fai (Eternal Sunshine, winner of Best Director at Hong Kong’s Fresh Wave 2020), creates a eulogy to Hong Kong’s young generation through the bittersweet lives of three graduates; Moxie PENG (one of the six directors of “Disney Launchpad: Shorts Incubator” programme) tracks the bleak reality of a family of four in social drama Tender Is The Night, which Jane ZHENG of The Farewell fame produces.

Both WU Lang‘s Absence and ZHANG Yudi‘s The Midsummer’s Voice are based on short films of the same name, which competed in Cannes and Palm Springs International ShortFest, respectively.

Award-winning filmmakers

Several award-winning directors are bringing their latest projects to HAF20.  MARIKO Tetsuya (Destruction Babies, winner of Best Emerging Director at Locarno 2016) examines what a father will do to get his son back in Missing.  Ida PANAHANDEH (Nahid, winner of a promising future prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard 2015) focuses on a gypsy woman temporarily released from prison who is suddenly revered as a saint in Passion.

Meanwhile, XU Zhenhao (Give Me A Ride, Firebird Award for Best Director of Young Cinema Competition at HKIFF43) describes an encounter between a man who accrues huge debts and a bar girl, both of whom are lost in the whirlpool of money and desire in The Millionth Lipstick, produced by YANG Chao.  Jill LI (Lost Course, Best Documentary winner at Golden Horse Awards 2020) makes her narrative feature debut in The Returning Tide, which explores the world of two elderly men as they embark on a final journey to their hometown in Chaozhou.

Impact of COVID-19

The pandemic has found its way into everyday life, bringing filmmakers new experiences and inspirations.  Some of HAF20’s IDP projects are conceived and set in the unique pandemic world, including A Woman Builds by HUANG Ji (Egg and Stone, winner of Rotterdam Tiger Award 2012), which sees a woman return to her hometown to build a house when the pandemic keeps her husband and her daughter from travelling home; and Chifan by TSANG Tsui-shan (Big Blue Lake, winner of Best New Director at Hong Kong Film Awards 2012), which follows a Belgium-born Chinese woman who is rendered an outsider in the eyes of the locals in Antwerp when the pandemic strikes.

Some filmmakers turn to magical realism amid the pandemic, blurring the line between fantasy and reality in their stories.  Projects which carry time travel or supernatural elements include Insectum, by Bhaskar HAZARIKA (The River of Fables, winner at Indian National Film Award 2016), which focuses on an Indian young man who descends into an insect-like state; Colleen KWOK‘s The Stars The Sun The Moon sees two primary schoolmates travel 20 years into the future where one of them has died, and the first-ever Thai-Muslim horror The Cursed Land directed by Panu AREE and Kong RITHDEE and produced by Nonzee NIMIBUTR.

Meanwhile, Malice, by LIM Lung-Ying (Ohong Village, winner of Cipputi Award at Torino 2019), follows three men onboard a boat searching for the almost extinct giant swordfish, and HUANG Ningwei‘s Not Found is a road movie in which a struggling writer meets three characters from his unfinished script.

The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum completes the line-up for its 20th anniversary edition (HAF20) with the announcement of 15 projects shortlisted for the Work-in-Progress (WIP) section, including nine debut features and works by Stanley KWAN, Winnie TSANG, WONG Lina, Matan YAIR, and YANG Heng.

There were 84 WIP submissions from 23 countries and regions this year.  Commenting on the selections, which have become an increasingly significant part of HAF since their introduction in 2017, HKIFF Industry Director Jacob WONG said he was particularly pleased to present BORROWED TIME and The Sunny Side of the Street.

“They are the first projects to have progressed through the HAF eco-system, from Film Lab to In-development projects, and now onto WIP,” WONG said.  “We set out to provide coordinated support across various stages of independent filmmaking, covering every aspect from early-stage project development, financing to post-production and promotion.  It is very satisfying to witness some of these projects coming through.”

BORROWED TIME and The Sunny Side of the Street both won script consultation service awards at HAF Film Lab in 2019.  They participated in HAF’s In-development projects section the following year and are currently in post-production. 

BORROWED TIME, which Stanley KWAN produces for first-time Chinese director CAI Jie, is about a daughter who sets out from Guangzhou to Hong Kong to look for her long-missing father, played by Tai Bo (Suk Suk).  In The Sunny Side of the Street, Anthony WONG (Still Human) plays a taxi driver who forms an unusual father-son relationship with a Hong Kong-born Pakistani child refugee.  Winnie TSANG produces for Hong Kong-based Malaysian filmmaker LAU Kok Rui, making his directorial debut.

Other WIP highlights include Silent Ghosts by YANG Heng (Ghost in the Mountains, Berlinale Panorama 2017), in which a tourist follows a mysterious woman to a small town where he encounters men with different memories of her.  The recipient of an excellent screenplay award and production funding from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, LEE Yi-Fang‘s debut feature Little Blue is an intimate portrayal of female erotic desire.

Bad Rabbit Pictures, the Beijing-based production company founded by cinematographer CAO Yu and actress-producer YAO Chen, has two projects on the shortlist.  WONG Lina, whose A First Farewell won the Firebird Award winner of HKIFF’s first-ever Chinese-language Young Cinema competition in 2019, returns with Village“Senet”, a poetic musical about a boy from a remote village in Xinjiang’s Taklamakan Desert.  QIAO Sixue‘s debut feature, The Cord of Life, explores the notion of hometown through a nomadic electronic musician who brings his Alzheimer-stricken mother back to the Mongolian grassland for her last days.

While Chinese-language projects dominate the field, this year’s WIP line-up still features an Israel-Italy co-production.  A Room of Its Own by Matan YAIR (Scaffolding, Best Film at Jerusalem Film Festival 2017) is about a 17-year-old teenager searching for his path in the world when his mother moves into his room after his father has moved out of the house.  Also making the shortlist are two projects from India: documentarian Rajesh S. JALA‘s first narrative feature, The Spark, is about a victim of violence who creates havoc in the ancient city of Banaras.  He is joined by first-time director Syed Maisam Ali SHAH, whose In Retreat follows a marginalised character who returns home in a dream-like journey.

WIP Open Pitch (Hong Kong Time)

Date: 14 March 2022

Time: 15:30 – 17:30

All accredited FILMART and HAF guests are welcome to attend the online WIP Open Pitch through this link: www.hktdc.com/hkfilmart.  Please refer to Appendix for details on all shortlisted WIP projects.

WIP began in 2017 as a dedicated platform for later-stage projects seeking completion funding, post-production partners, distributors and sales agents, and film festival support, extending the services of the main HAF programme, which is for projects in the pre-production or development stages. 

WIP projects have performed remarkably in film festivals internationally.  As recent as Venice in 2021, Arsalan AMIRI‘s Zalava won the International Film Critics’ Week grand prize, with Kavich NEANG‘s White Building winning the Orizzonti Best Actor award.  GAO Linyang‘s To Love Again and LEI Lei‘s animated Silver Bird And Rainbow Fish both competed in Rotterdam’s Tiger Competition this year, with To Love Again winning the Special Jury and FIPRESCI awards.  Ananta THITANAT‘s documentary Scala will premiere at Berlinale Forum.

Guest Accreditation for HAF

Guest registration for HAF20 is now open to investors, festival programmers and other industry professionals through https://industry.hkiff.org.hk/guest-registration. Accredited guests will receive a complimentary code for registration and schedule one-on-one online meetings with HAF filmmakers to discuss their projects. 

For more up-to-date information about HAF, please visit our official website at https://industry.hkiff.org.hk or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/hkiffindustry/.

About Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF)

The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) is widely recognised as Asia’s premier film financing platform. HAF brings Asian filmmakers with upcoming film projects to Hong Kong for co-production ventures with top film financiers, producers, bankers, funding bodies, sales agents, distributors, and buyers. Around 30 in-development projects (IDP) and ten work-in-progress projects (WIP) are selected annually to participate in the three-day event attended by more than 1,000 filmmakers and financiers from over 35 countries and regions. HAF has the added advantage of being held in conjunction with Hong Kong FILMART, Asia’s largest film market, attracting over 8,000 professionals.

HAF enhances the prospects of the participating projects through close collaborations with international organisations such as iQIYI (Mainland China), Fox International Productions (Greater China), Cinemart (the Netherlands), Asian Project Market (South Korea), Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Taiwan), MIA (Italy) and more. Cash and in-kind awards to the value of around US$250,000 are made with support from Create Hong Kong and Film Development Fund, among others.

#HAF


About Hong Kong International Film Festival Industry Office (HKIFF Industry)

To promote and support the film industry development more effectively, The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society restructured its industry services and set up Hong Kong International Film Festival Industry Office (HKIFF Industry) in 2021. From polishing up projects with a better appeal (HAF Film Lab) to getting them off the ground and finding post-production assistance (Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF)), to exposing the projects in major international platforms (HAF Goes to Cannes), and on to planning the career of finished films (HKIFF Collection), HKIFF Industry offers independent filmmakers comprehensive services and windows to the world.

About The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society Limited (HKIFFS)

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society Limited (HKIFFS) is a charitable, non-profit and non-governmental organisation dedicated to discovering and promoting creativity in film’s art and culture. It organises the annual Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) and the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). Another highlight is the Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival (SummerIFF) held every August. In 2013, HKIFF introduced the repertory HKIFF Cine Fan Programme to enrich and deepen Hong Kong moviegoers’ experience through a monthly programme of contemporary, retrospective, and thematic showcases. In 2021, HKIFFS restructured its film industry services and set up HKIFF Industry to promote and support non-mainstream film industry development through co-production and festival strategies and overseas distribution (HKIFF Collection).

Official website: www.hkiff.org.hk

#HAF #HKIFF #HKIFFS

Compliance Automation Platform for SaaS Companies, Sprinto, Raises $10M Led by Elevation Capital, participation from Accel and Blume Ventures

To Be Used for Team Expansion, R&D; Opening First U.S. Office

BANGALORE, INDIA – News Direct – 9 February 2022 – Sprinto, the compliance automation platform for fast growing SaaS companies, has raised $10M in Series A funding led by Elevation Capital with participation from Accel, and Blume Ventures. The funding will be used for team expansion across key functions and R&D to ensure long-term growth. Earlier, in January 2020, the company had raised $1.5M in seed funding from Blume Ventures. Reflecting this expansion, Sprinto will open its first North American office, in Utah, by this quarter’s end and will ramp up North American hiring.

Publicly launched in mid-2021, Sprinto is a compliance automation platform that helps SaaS companies obtain compliances, such as SOC 2, ISO27001, GDPR, HIPAA etc., in a quick and hassle-free manner. Obtaining these compliances helps Sprinto customers close enterprise deals and pass vendor security assessments easily. It was co-founded by Girish Redekar and Raghuveer Kancherla, who have been colleagues for 15 years.

Developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), SOC 2 (Systems and Organizations Controls 2) is a set of compliance requirements for companies, especially service organizations, which use cloud-based storage for their customers’ data. It is based on five core Trust Services Criteria of security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. SOC 2 audits have become essential in regulatory oversight, vendor management programs, internal governance, and risk management.

As enterprise SaaS continues to grow exponentially, businesses are increasingly relying on compliances like SOC 2 to get assurance that their SaaS vendors keep their data safe. And SaaS vendors need SOC 2 compliance to close high-ticket deals.

Currently, obtaining and maintaining SOC 2 compliance takes 300+ hours of work each year. Sprinto’s SaaS platform makes this process 10x faster. It helps clients create a real time monitoring system that provides visibility into the processes and policies governed by compliance checklists, tracks the status of these systems, and alerts relevant teams if a system is not operating within the required baseline limits or in case of any policy violations.


“As compliance with these standards, including SOC 2, is becoming a critical business need, most companies must rely on infosec consultants and auditors to get the necessary certifications,” explained Sprinto co-founder Girish Redekar. “With a consultant, companies would take around 3-4 months to be ready for SOC 2 assessment. Using Sprinto’s compliance automation platform, companies can complete the SOC 2 readiness assessment in just days. This levels the playing field, helping smaller companies lacking the resources of larger firms.”


Sprinto co-founder Raghuveer Kancherla added, “A decade ago, only large enterprises demanded SOC 2 compliances. With the changes mandated by the AICPA in 2018, all SaaS businesses, irrespective of size, need to be SOC 2 compliant and are required to collect SOC 2 reports from their critical vendors. Thus, being SOC2 compliant has become a revenue concern for SaaS businesses of all sizes. Recognizing this growing need, Sprinto aims to become the infosec OS of choice for SaaS service providers. It’s creating a new product category that’s fundamentally different from existing automation tools. Sprinto is focused on delivering outcomes, not just automation. This is ingrained into the team’s design, outlook, internal processes, and culture.”


“We’re very excited about partnering with Raghu and Girish as they build the future of compliance automation. Sprinto solves a critical business need in a growing market. It has created a world-class product which is already emerging as the compliance automation platform of choice for SaaS companies and generating tremendous customer acclaim,” said Deepak Gaur, Partner, Elevation Capital.

Since its website launch in June 2021, Sprinto has grown rapidly, doubling its ARR over the last 10 weeks alone. Despite competition from a few emerging U.S. companies, Sprinto is proving to be the compliance automation platform of choice. It’s already acquired 100’s of customers, including such enterprise-level accounts as HP and Hackerrank.

About Elevation Capital:

Elevation Capital is a leading venture capital firm which provides seed and early stage capital for emerging companies in India. Elevation Capital has been investing in India since 2002 and is currently investing out of its seventh pool of capital. The firm is led by Co-Managing Partners Ravi Adusumalli and Mukul Arora, along with three Managing Directors Mridul Arora, Deepak Gaur and Mayank Khanduja. The firm has invested in over 150 companies across Consumer Internet, SaaS, Fintech, D2C, Edtech, Healthtech and Web3/Crypto, and has offices in Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Salt Lake City.

#ElevationCapital

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Laos Records USD 1 Billion Trade Surplus in 2021

Laos sees trade surplus in 2021

Laos recorded a trade surplus of USD 1 billion in 2021, with the country’s overall imports and exports, excluding power exports, totaling USD 13 billion.

Colony Coworking Space Signs Largest Contract with Carsome to Build and Manage Carsome HQ

The biggest flexible workspace deal sets in the Malaysia’s coworking space industry

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Media OutReach – 9 February 2022 – Colony Coworking Space, Malaysia’s luxury coworking space provider has signed the largest coworking space deal with Carsome, Southeast Asia largest integrated car e-commerce platform at KYM Tower, Mutiara Damansara. The 6-year deal involves Carsome taking up 41,860 sqft of office space across 4 floors which will be designed, built and managed by Colony to house Carsome’s expanded headquarters.

“We’re honoured to be a trusted partner in Carsome’s journey of growth. Working with them behind the scenes to build out their offices, I’ve been able to witness what makes them who they are,” said Timothy Tiah, Executive Director of Colony.

Carsome Co-founder and Group CEO Eric Cheng said, “To keep up with our office needs and growing workforce, we’ve decided to extend our relationship with Colony to expand our existing headquarters. We appreciate the service and hospitality from Colony, who really helps us take good care of our team stationed here.”

The expansion comes after Carsome became Malaysia’s first technology unicorn after a swap-share deal with Catcha Group in 2021. In addition to this deal, Colony is also providing Carsome an option to further increase their workspace by 33% during this 6-year period.

Carsome has been one of Colony’s anchor tenants in Colony @ Mutiara Damansara since 2019 and has been growing rapidly within spaces managed by Colony.

If you’d like to find out more about Colony, or make a reservation or booking, please visit their official website at https://colony.work

About Colony

Colony is a luxury coworking space and serviced office provider based in the heart of Kuala Lumpur with plans and pricing curated to eliminate hefty set-up costs, maintenance hassle, and long-term rental contracts. Raved over for its chic and Instagram-worthy interior, the company aims to enable guests to focus on their life’s work and reach new heights while all else is taken care of. The company is backed by Oak Drive Ventures, Cornerstone Partners Group and family offices around the region.

Website – https://colony.work
Facebook – https://facebook.com/colony.work
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/colony.work/

#Colony

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Fosun Tourism delivered outstanding performance during the Chinese New Year Holiday, High-quality products lead new trends in ice, snow and island vacations

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 9 February 2022 – Fosun Tourism Group (“Fosun Tourism” or the “Group”, HKEX stock code: 1992), one of the world’s leading leisure-focused integrated tourism enterprises, is pleased to announce that during the 2022 Chinese New Year Holiday[1] – with  the overall recovery of the industry still weak due to the resurgence of COVID-19 and tighter preventive measures, the Group’s core businesses in China, including Atlantis Sanya, Club Med China Resorts and Thomas Cook lifestyle platform, have significantly surpassed their performance during the 2021 Chinese New Year[2], respectively, and have recorded outstanding results.

 

According to the Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China[3], in the seven-day Chinese New Year Holiday, there were in all 251 million domestic tourists in the country, down 2% year-on-year and 73.9% of the number in the pre-pandemic 2019 Chinese New Year Holiday. Domestic tourism revenue for the period amounted to RMB289,198 million, representing a 3.9% year-on-year decrease and 56.3% of the revenue for the comparable period pre-pandemic in 2019. Compared with the industry’s slow pace of recovery, the Group has led the sector in a number of performance indicators.

 

Although some Chinese destinations were affected by the rebound of the epidemic and resultant prevention and control measures during the 2022 CNY holiday, the renowned Club Med China Resorts registered an over 50% increase in Business Volume over the 2021 CNY holiday period. In addition, The Club Med Changbaishan Resort, which newly opened prior to the CNY at 23 January. Benefiting from the steady heating up of “snow and ice travel”, the seven-day average occupancy rate of Beidahu and Changbaishan Resorts was as high as 90%. Atlantis Sanya, which is located on a tropical island, also recorded an average seven-day occupancy rate of nearly 60%.

 

Atlantis Sanya has continued to be the preferred holiday destination for many tourists, owing to its high-quality product, growing word-of-mouth, upgraded IP content and superior geographical location. During the 2022 Chinese New Year Holiday, its Business Volume increased by 46.1% when compared with the 2021 Chinese New Year Holiday. The total number of visitors reached 183,000, representing a 28.4% increase when compared with the 2021 Chinese New Year Holiday. Its occupancy rate was 98.6% and average daily room rate was RMB5,135. To welcome the Chinese New Year, Atlantis Sanya held the “Chinese New Year Holiday Fair” between 15 January and 15 February. The Aquaventure Waterpark, which operates all year round, also held a Chinese New Year Holiday Night Carnival that presented such programs as street beating show, creative graffiti show, BOX acrobatics show, band performance and light show. What is more, The Lost Chambers presented the Chinese New Year Holiday, featuring exclusive mermaid underwater performances on a daily basis and the introduction of an “underwater treasure hunt” event; creating a powerful new year atmosphere on the island, backed by delicious food, a variety of entertainment programs as well as unique Chinese New Year island holiday experiences for customers.

 

Fosun Tourism has built a rich leisure and vacation ecosystem in Sanya, Hainan. Benefiting from the island’s tourism boom, the Albion Residence Haitang Bay Sanya operated by Albion, a professional destination operator under the Group, recorded a seven-day average occupancy rate of 97.9% during the 2022 Chinese New Year Holiday. During the Chinese New Year Holiday, the Group’s Fanxiu Performing upgraded its main series of performances at the Atlantis, enabling business volume to rise 74% when compared with the same period in 2021.

 

The Thomas Cook Lifestyle Platform (“TC China”) is a Group-owned one-stop scenario-based platform which focuses on leisure lifestyle products. As at the end of the Chinese New Year Holiday, the app recorded cumulatively about 2.58 million downloads. Relevant data showed the platform’s Business Volume grew by 107% during the 2022Chinese New Year Holiday against the same period in 2021. Among travel members, repurchase users accounted for 50.6% of memberships. The platform’s key customers mainly come from first-tier and new first-tier cities, with Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu and Sichuan constituting the top four sourcing markets. Sanya continued to rank first among the most popular destinations.

 

Benefiting from the rising popularity of short-haul trips, the Group’s Miniversity, which integrates education, amusement, retail and catering to give one-stop international play and learning experiences, has been widely welcomed by families with children. During the 2022 CNY holiday, its Business Volume increased by 208.0% when compared with the 2021 CNY holiday period. Also, the number of trainees and per capita expenditure have increased, rising by 118.3% and 41.1%, respectively, when compared with the same period in 2021 Chinese New Year Holiday.

 

Fosun Tourism has continued to seize opportunities from the winter sports economy and has expanded the presence of its snow and ice businesses. The spectacular Northland snow scenes in the Changbaishan International Ecotourism Demonstration Area is set to draw patronage of those attracted to ice-and-snow travel experiences. In addition, the main structure of our indoor ski domain of “Alpes Snow World”, a core project in Taicang Foliday Town, was topped out on 21 January, marking a step closer for the Group in completing a world-class benchmark indoor ski resort project. The resort is expected to be in full operation in 2023. On top of popular traditional ice-and-snow travel destinations, tourists from southern China will have more choices of skiing trip destinations to enjoy holidays with a difference. Ice-and-snow tourism is expected to continue to unleash consumption growth potential.

 

References:

[1]  Chinese New Year holiday in 2022: 31 January 2022 to 6 February 2022

[2] Chinese New Year holiday in 2021: 11 February 2021 to 17 February 2021

[3] The State Council of the People’s Republic of China: http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2022-02/08/content_5672479.htm#:~:text=%E6%8D%AE%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E5%92%8C%E6%97%85%E6%B8%B8%E9%83%A8,%E4%BA%BA%E4%BB%AC%E5%87%BA%E6%B8%B8%E7%9A%84%E7%83%AD%E9%97%A8%E9%80%89%E6%8B%A9%E3%80%82

 

About Fosun Tourism Group (Stock Code: 1992)

Fosun Tourism Group is one of the leading leisure-focused integrated tourism groups worldwide. It was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2018. In terms of revenue in 2019, it was the largest leisure tourism resorts group worldwide*. Currently, the Group operates three main businesses including resorts and hotels, tourist destinations, and services and solutions, across various tourism and leisure settings. Within its resorts and hotels business, the Group has sales and marketing operations in more than 40 countries and regions across six continents, and operates over 60 resorts. It also manages and operates Casa Cook and Cook’s Club hotels under a light-assets model. As for the tourism destinations segment, the Group develops and owns Sanya Atlantis and its own brand “FOLIDAY Town”. It is currently building Lijiang Foliday Town and Taicang Foliday Town. The Group owns Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel agency brand, and operates the online “Thomas Cook Lifestyle Platform” in China and an Online Travel Agency in the UK, forming an open internet platform based on vacation and lifestyle products.

Advocating the lifestyle of “Everyday is a FOLIDAY”, Fosun Tourism is committed to integrating tourism and leisure concepts into everyday life, and provides customers with tailor-made one-stop solutions through the FOLIDAY global ecosystem.

* Frost & Sullivan, an independent international research & consulting firm


#WinterOlympics #ski # ClubMed #travelrecovery #FosunTourismGroup

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Year of the Tiger Highlights Urgent Need to Rewild Tiger Populations in Laos

Rewilding the tiger in Laos (Photo: WWF)
Rewilding the tiger in Laos (Photo: WWF)

In the Year of the Tiger, it may be time to bring the iconic big cat back from the brink of extinction in Laos.

Demand for crowdsourced security booms: YesWeHack bug bounty platform continues to thrive

PARIS, FRANCE and SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 9 February 2022 – YesWeHack, Europe’s leading Bug Bounty platform, today announced strong growth, with its annual revenue more than doubling globally. In Asia, YesWeHack revenue grew by a substantial 200%.

YesWeHack’s community of ethical hackers has grown by 75%, with over 35,000 hackers now operating on the platform. On average, 1,200 to 1,300 researchers join YesWeHack each month. This ever-growing popularity confirms it as the preferred platform for ethical hackers looking for Bug Bounty programs.

It was also a successful year for international expansion, with YesWeHack establishing META presence and helping businesses in over 40 countries to improve their security posture across the globe.

Vulnerability minefield

The past 12 months saw a record-breaking year for vulnerabilities. YesWeHack noted a doubling in the number of bugs identified by its hackers. Of these, 35% were considered ‘critical’ or ‘high’, meaning many business systems and applications could have been severely impacted if these bugs were not found and remedied.

The increasing number and impact of vulnerabilities discovered in 2021 such as SolarWind and Log4J has led companies to intensify their investments in crowdsourced security. In 2021, the online aggregator FireBounty.com, created by YesWeHack, counted a total of nearly 24,000 vulnerability disclosure policies.

In terms of the type of vulnerabilities detected, implementation and design flaws (Secure Design, Access Control) remain the leading type of bugs for the second year in a row. This trend can be explained by the increasing complexity of the applications deployed.

Adoption by sector

The adoption of Bug Bounty programs continues to grow across several industries with YesWeHack seeing a 100% increase in the number of active programs available on its platform.

Unsurprisingly, technology continues to be the most prominent sector for YesWeHack. It represents 44% of all programs on the YesWeHack platform, up from 35% last year. This is followed by the financial services and insurance sector, which accounted for 18% of all Bug Bounty programs on the platform in 2021.

As the pandemic continues to disrupt the world, many other sectors have also accelerated their digital transformation journey to meet the changing needs of their users. This is especially relevant in the public sector, where many administrations and local authorities are continuing to digitise their services and have therefore launched Bug Bounty programs to protect their data.

Record year for rewards

Alongside the increase in programs on its platform, YesWeHack has seen a 140% year-on-year growth in the total amount of rewards paid out to hackers.

In 2021, the largest payout amounted to €40,000. Last year also saw YesWeHack release the Swiss Post e-voting public bug bounty program, offering the platform’s largest ever reward available to its hacker community at €230,000.

One of the reasons for YesWeHack’s growing popularity, among ethical hackers and customers alike, is its ongoing commitment to the smooth running and quality of its programs. For example, in 2021, 78% of vulnerabilities were rewarded within 24 hours of being accepted, while 89% were paid within 28 days of submission and 60% of vulnerabilities were remediated within a month.

Crowdsourced security will continue to grow

Romain Lecoeuvre, CTO and co-founder of YesWeHack, warns that the acceleration of digitalisation induced by the pandemic should not lead companies to relax their security efforts. “Many developers are under pressure to deliver applications as quickly as possible in order to maintain or gain a competitive advantage. As a result, speed is prioritised over security. For this reason, it is essential that development and security teams work in tandem, with the help of ethical hackers, to engage in a DevSecOps-like approach.”

Guillaume Vassault-Houlière, CEO and co-founder of YesWeHack, notes that crowdsourced security is a great way for companies to get into data privacy compliance. “Over the years, the general public has become more and more sensitive to how to protect their data. In the interests of transparency, many organisations are now working with ethical hackers to find vulnerabilities in their systems, and to provide assurances to their users. Indeed, unauthorised access to personal data is one of the main risks identified in the programs available on our platform and has traditionally offered the highest rewards. In this context, crowdsourced security is not only the most effective way to discover vulnerabilities in code, but also to reassure consumers about the security of a product or service and the privacy of their data.”

About YesWeHack

Founded in 2015, YesWeHack is a Global Bug Bounty & VDP Platform.

YesWeHack offers companies an innovative approach to cybersecurity with Bug Bounty (pay-per-vulnerability discovered), connecting more than 35,000 cybersecurity experts (ethical hackers) across 170 countries with organisations to secure their exposed scopes and reporting vulnerabilities in their websites, mobile apps, infrastructure and connected devices.

YesWeHack runs private (invitation based only) programs and public programs for hundreds of organisations worldwide in compliance with the strictest European regulations.

In addition to the Bug Bounty platform, YesWeHack also offers: support in creating a Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP), a learning platform for ethical hackers called Dojo and a training platform for educational institutions, YesWeHackEDU. For more information: www.yeswehack.com

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Thailand Talks Travel Bubbles with China and Malaysia

Thailand in travel bubble talks with China and Malaysia
Thailand in travel bubble talks with China and Malaysia.

Thailand will meet with China and Malaysia to discuss travel bubbles this month as part of efforts to ensure faster recovery of its vital tourism sector.