☕️ Good morning friends, 

If you're looking for a better-paying job in 2026, we've got an idea for you:

In Japan, savvy entrepreneurs are turning the tourism boom into a business. While parents enjoy sushi or relax in the onsen, others look after the kids.
Hourly rate: a whopping $115.

P.S. The entire asiabits team wishes you an amazing start to the new year!

🇭🇰 Hong Kong kicks off the year at full throttle: The Hang Seng jumps up to 2.8% at the start of 2026. Tech leads the charge, with Baidu and Alibaba out front. After closing 2025 up 28%, many are now betting on the bull run to continue.

🇰🇷 Strong start in Seoul: The KOSPI hits a new all-time high at the start of the year. Samsung surges more than 7% as foreign investors step up aggressive buying.

🇯🇵 Tokyo looks higher, yen remains a risk: AI, chips and government policy are driving markets, but a further weakening yen could fuel inflation and turn into a headwind.

TOP BIT

🚗 Tesla dethroned: BYD is the new EV king

BYD officially overtook US pioneer Tesla as the world's largest electric vehicle seller in 2025.

But the triumph has a catch: in China itself, BYD is only growing at a snail's pace—the weakest growth in five years.

Details 

📉 Home market collapses: BYD sales in China grew just 7.73% in 2025. In December, sales plunged 18%. Domestic market share fell from 35% (2023) to 29% (2025).

🌍 Overseas saves the balance sheet: BYD's foreign sales exploded 150% to 1.05 million units. The 2026 target: 1.6 million cars outside China—especially in Europe, where BYD has already significantly overtaken Tesla.

💰 Price war takes its toll: BYD slashed prices for over 20 models drastically in May—triggering a stock market crash across China's entire auto sector.

• Great Wall Motor publicly warned of an "unhealthy state" in the industry.
  

🤖 Technology lead melting: BYD CEO Wang admitted that their technological leadership is fading. Competitors like Xiaomi offer autonomous driving in budget models starting at $9,555. BYD promised "major innovations" for 2026 without providing details.

📊 Tesla suffers from Musk: Tesla suffered massively from the elimination of the $7,500 US tax credit and growing backlash against Elon Musk's political ambitions.

Pride comes before the fall 

We dug through the archives for you and unearthed Elon Musk's 2011 reaction to BYD. Definitely worth watching!

📊 All details & data: Al Jazeera, CNBC, Asia Financial, CNN

OUR PARTNER

Your competitors are already automating. Here's the data.

Retail and ecommerce teams using AI for customer service are resolving 40-60% more tickets without more staff, cutting cost-per-ticket by 30%+, and handling seasonal spikes 3x faster.

But here's what separates winners from everyone else: they started with the data, not the hype.

Gladly handles the predictable volume, FAQs, routing, returns, order status, while your team focuses on customers who need a human touch. The result? Better experiences. Lower costs. Real competitive advantage. Ready to see what's possible for your business?

See it in action

NUMBER OF THE DAY

That’s the export volume of South Korea in 2025.

📦 Record year for trade: With this milestone, South Korea broke the US$700 billion mark for the first time. Exports rose 3.8%, and the trade surplus hit US$78 billion, the highest level since 2017.

🧠 Chips power the boom: Semiconductor exports jumped 22.2% to US$173.4 billion, driven by AI data centers. Cars, ships, and niches such as cosmetics and agro-food also posted new highs.

Watch: Less reliance on the US and China, more ASEAN, the EU, and the Global South. South Korea’s export engine is not just running faster, but broader. Especially, the global K-culture boom added extra momentum in 2025.

MARKET BIT

🥘 $934m merger: Yum! franchisees combine KFC & Pizza Hut in India

🍔 Supersize me: Yum! Brands franchisees Devyani International and Sapphire Foods are merging, creating a fast-food franchise giant in the world’s most populous country through a $934m deal.

📦 3,000+ outlets under one roof: The combined group will operate KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell across India as well as parts of Africa and South Asia, taking aim at McDonald’s and Domino’s.

📉 Merger under pressure: Rising costs, weak same-store sales and margin squeeze are weighing on the sector. Both companies are loss-making, with scale long seen as the core challenge.

🔄 Synergies over growth dreams: Devyani expects annual cost savings of 2.1–2.25 billion rupees (≈ $23–25m) from year two, targeting profitability through purchasing power, logistics and leaner structures.

📈 Market reaction turns positive: Devyani shares rose as much as 5% after the announcement, while Sapphire came under pressure – a classic consolidation trade.

Background

Yum! Brands is the US fast-food group behind KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. In India, Yum! does not operate the brands directly, instead licensing them to franchise partners – namely Sapphire Foods and Devyani International, which are now merging.

India is Yum!’s third-largest market globally after the US and China, but competition is intensifying. Consumers are cutting back, while international chains continue to push aggressive expansion strategies.

👉🏻 Full Story: Reuters, CNBC, DealStreet Asia

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WORD OF THE DAY

🇯🇵 Miai 見合い

In Japan, miai (見合い) or omiai (お見合い) refers to a traditional, formal meeting between potential marriage partners, usually set up by a matchmaker.

Think of it as love with a little guidance. Families are usually involved, every detail is planned, and chemistry gets a helping hand.

In Japanese culture, thoughtfulness often counts more than passion or emotion. The concept of miai reinforces the idea that the best relationships are sometimes the ones carefully arranged.

OUR PARTNER

HIGHLIGHTS 

⚠️ Trump blocks chip deal over security fears: US President Donald Trump has halted a sensitive semiconductor deal between HieFo and Emcore, citing national security concerns linked to Chinese ownership. The roughly $3 million transaction involved chip design and wafer production assets. HieFo has been ordered to unwind the deal within 180 days, highlighting Washington’s growing push to keep advanced chip technology out of China’s reach.

🧸 Toy boom despite fewer kids: Japan’s child population is shrinking and the economy remains sluggish, yet the toy market is booming. Nostalgic ’90s icons like Tamagotchi and Tomica are driving strong demand among adults and tourists, with updated versions, limited editions, and themed stores fueling the hype. Toys have become collectibles and souvenirs, making the sector one of the few bright spots in Japan’s consumer economy.

⚡ BYD bets on Brazil: Chinese automaker BYD is launching what it claims is the world’s first flexible-fuel plug-in hybrid in Brazil, letting drivers freely choose any mix of gasoline and ethanol for maximum flexibility. The move strengthens BYD’s foothold in South America’s largest and fastest-growing auto market. It also puts the company clearly ahead of rivals like Toyota, Honda, and Volkswagen in combining hybrid tech with local fuel needs.

COUNTRY READS

🇻🇳 Vietnam kicks off a new era in cybercrime prevention as its Personal Data Protection Law takes effect. More on this.

🇰🇷 South Koreans can now read North Korea’s newspaper, ending a decades-long ban once deemed seditious. More on this.

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka launches criminal probe after school syllabus for 11-12-year-olds directed students to a gay chat site. More on this.

BITS TO DO

✅ Treat yourself and make authentic Indian butter chicken at home.
✅ Learn how to pronounce Huawei correctly.
✅ Start learning Chinese by watching a Chinese Drama on Netflix.
✅ See why Anna woke up extra early this Sunday.
✅ Turn your 2026 moments into memorable videos with CapCut.*

_{* Yes, it’s an affiliate link. No, you won’t pay more. But it helps support asiabits. Thanks ;)}

FORTUNE COOKIE

Wishing you an active start to the week. 💪

MORE ASIABITS

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