Alibaba challenger Pinduoduo is bringing imported goods to rural homes – TechCrunch

Pinduoduo, the latest challenger to China’s ecommerce dominators Alibaba and JD.com, wants to bring affordable, imported items to shoppers in China’s smaller cities and rural areas. The three-year-old Tencent-backed ecommerce upstart is recruiting importers to set up shop on its marketplace, shows a message on its website. The business is known for offering cheap, sometimes…

Microsoft CEO defends work on half-billion-dollar HoloLens military contract – TechCrunch

Microsoft won’t stop its work on a nearly half-billion-dollar government contract designed to bring HoloLens augmented reality tech to the U.S. Army. “We made a principled decision that we’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy,” Satya Nadella told CNN in an interview.…