Pakistan’s mass transit is failing. BusCaro thinks it has the solution

By: Zuha Siddiqui and Ananya Bhattacharya

16 December 2024 at 06:00

The day mass transit startup Swvl announced its decision to downsize operations in Pakistan in June 2022, its country general manager Maha Shahzad fully grasped the dire circumstances that female...

Demand for Starlink in Zimbabwe is overwhelming capacity

Rest of World

By: Chris Muronzi

13 December 2024 at 06:00

When Alois Kachere decided to order a Starlink kit after the company’s launch in Zimbabwe in September, he hoped to be the first person in his neighborhood to get the...

Malaysia tightens grip on internet, in blow to online freedom

Rest of World

By: Tashny Sukumaran

12 December 2024 at 06:00

Malaysian digital artist Kitty Misa, like many other creators in the country, had long used the ArtStation site to showcase her work. Since the site was blocked by the government...

Mexico is using an AI-powered app to prevent suicides

Rest of World

By: Lillian Perlmutter

12 December 2024 at 06:00

Last fall, school administrators at the University of Yucatán asked Abraham Slim, a 23-year-old medical student, to fill out a survey on his smartphone. The questions on the survey did...

When disaster strikes, the world opens WhatsApp

Rest of World

By: John Beck

11 December 2024 at 06:00

Fidaa Maksour, a dispatcher with the White Helmets, a volunteer organization that operates largely in the war-torn northwestern region of Syria, was on duty in the early morning hours of...

Movie stars, matchmakers, and aunties: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable cultural force

Rest of World

By: Sonia Faleiro

10 December 2024 at 06:00

It’s a warm September afternoon in Lagos and filming of the Nollywood slapstick comedy Osas and Nosa is delayed for the day. The scene being shot takes place in the...

How WhatsApp ate the world

Rest of World

By: Issie Lapowsky

9 December 2024 at 06:29

Shivika Sabharwal’s nerves kicked in the second she spotted the size of the crowd. It was mid-September, and Sabharwal was standing center stage inside a massive event space at Mumbai’s...

The most surprising tech champions of 2024

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou， Lam Le， Daniela Dib， Damilare Dosunmu and Ananya Bhattacharya

6 December 2024 at 06:00

Lesser-known tech companies were rewarded by changing headwinds outside the West this year. India’s homegrown EV industry, a Chinese video game that became a soft power success, and a U.S.-based...

Small-scale investors are building Vietnam’s EV charging network

Rest of World

By: Lam Le

5 December 2024 at 06:00

Fed up with having to frequently travel several kilometers to charge his electric car, taxi driver Lam Tan Tai installed three charging ports at his homes in Trang Bom in...

Companies in Mexico embrace AI to resurrect the dead

Rest of World

By: Daniela Dib

4 December 2024 at 06:00

When Guadalupe González Rodríguez saw a Facebook post offering people artificial intelligence-generated animated images of their dead relatives, she was instantly interested. “I wanted to give my husband a video...

What we learned from reporting on global tech this year

Rest of World

By: Faisal Mahmud， Stephanie Wangari， Lucía Cholakian Herrera， Michelle Anindya and Zhaoyin Feng

4 December 2024 at 06:00

In 2024, Rest of World covered some of the most unexpected tech stories across the world: the impact of internet shutdowns on startups in Bangladesh, the Chinese app that’s driving...

Uber’s big plan for India: buses

Rest of World

By: Anisha Sircar

3 December 2024 at 06:00

Manvi Singh, a marketing executive in her early 20s, commutes over 20 kilometers to her office on the outskirts of Delhi every day. Until six months ago, this commute would...

How 2024’s tech trends changed our lives

Rest of World

By: Lam Le， Damilare Dosunmu and Viola Zhou

2 December 2024 at 06:00

In 2024, Rest of World covered some of the biggest shifts in the tech industry that have changed lives around the world: the rise of AI, Chinese companies expanding overseas,...

Breaking down the world’s tariffs against China’s tech industry

Rest of World

By: Selina Cheng

27 November 2024 at 06:00

In the 1970s, China became the world’s factory when it started allowing international manufacturers to set up shop and produce goods cheaply within its borders. Initially, Chinese factories made low-end...

India banned a Chinese app four years ago. Government agencies are still using it

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

26 November 2024 at 06:00

In October, a popular YouTuber tweeted out a document issued by the Election Commission of India that had been scanned using CamScanner, a Chinese document-scanning app. CamScanner has been banned...

AI is making Philippine call center work more efficient, for better and worse

Rest of World

By: Michael Beltran

26 November 2024 at 06:00

“Thank you for calling. … You’re speaking with Renzo. This call may be recorded for — uhm — this call may be re—” Renzo Bahala, a customer service agent for...

How Singapore became the ideal testing ground for self-driving cars

Rest of World

By: Sandy Ong

25 November 2024 at 06:00

Singaporean Sharon Ong’s toddler son, like most kids his age, is fascinated by all modes of transportation. On a recent visit to the resort island of Sentosa, mother and son...

The Robobus, a self-driving minibus, makes a loop around the resort island of Sentosa in Singapore.

Courts in Buenos Aires are using ChatGPT to draft rulings

Rest of World

By: Victoria Mendizabal

22 November 2024 at 06:00

In May, the Public Prosecution Service of the City of Buenos Aires began using generative AI to predict rulings for some public employment cases related to salary demands. Since then,...

The Philippine army is recruiting young tech civilians to fight cyber attacks

Rest of World

By: Julia Ornedo

21 November 2024 at 06:00

Earlier this year, the Philippine Army put out an unusual call on Facebook, inviting civilian hackers to join its cybersecurity unit. “We have a greater enemy that wants to devour...

Recruits of the Philippine Army’s Cyber Battalion are seen working on computers at their headquarters on Monday, November 18, 2024, in Manila, Philippines.

New data shows the number of new mobile internet users is stalling

Rest of World

By: Khadija Alam and Russell Brandom

20 November 2024 at 06:00

When Facebook hit 1 billion users in 2012, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that when it comes to getting another billion users, “The big thing is obviously going to be mobile.”...

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