What tech reckoning?

[Bloomberg] [Fully Charged]( From [Bloomberg](   [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]( [Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]](  Hi, it's Pavel. America’s tech giants are [back-pedaling]( in the face of intense public scrutiny, their every move [dissected](for signs of monopolistic or privacy abuses. But just the opposite is happening in Japan, where I am. Here, the biggest internet companies are pushing ever deeper into people’s everyday lives unquestioned. Line is the closest thing to a tech monopoly in Japan, where half the people use the messaging app daily. It’s expanding its lineup of AI-powered speakers, launching its own bank, and plans to introduce a cryptocurrency token to reward people for contributing to their services. The company’s announcement in November of a service that’ll generate credit scores from users’ activity on the app raised few alarms. There’s Rakuten, Amazon’s biggest local rival with more than 100 million registered users and a portfolio of more than 80 services from banking and insurance to mobile payments and ads. In October, it will launch its own mobile phone network and gain the ability to track users in ways that even the American giants can’t. And it has the full-backing of a government keen to increase competition among carriers. Finally, consider Mercari, which rose to prominence in 2016 when it became Japan’s first unicorn. It operates a second-hand goods marketplace used by more than 12 million Japanese and in February launched mobile payments. Mercari now plans to share the data gathered from the app and real-world store transactions with third parties to develop new businesses. Japan’s Fair Trade Commission last month said Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon need to be examined for possible abuse of their market dominance. But Japanese tech companies seem to be off the hook for now. It’s ironic that companies in strait-laced Japan seem to enjoy more leeway for experiments that may no longer fly in the U.S. But it may be just a matter of time before the inevitable backlash — and the current lack of scrutiny or self-examination simply leaves the Rakutens and Lines of the world ill-prepared to face the consequences. —[Pavel Alpeyev](mailto:palpeyev@bloomberg.ne)  And here’s what you need to know in global technology news Google gets into gaming in a big way. The internet giant's new game streaming service, [Stadia](, marks a major foray into the $180 billion industry. Shares in Nintendo and Sony [fell](.  Another Chinese internet giant tightens its belt. Tencent is planning to [clear out]( about 10 percent of its existing managers to make room for younger executives as it confronts a slowdown in growth, according to people familiar with the matter.  The world just got another centibillionaire. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has again eclipsed the $100 billion threshold, joining Amazon’s Jeff Bezos in an ultra-[exclusive](club.  Learn to code. Less than a decade after stunning workers at Rakuten with an edict to learn English, billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani [wants](his more than 17,000 employees to know how a computer compiles a program.  Another one is born. Millennial makeup company Glossier just became New York’s latest tech [unicorn](.   Sponsor Content by Masterworks.io Who says art has to be subjective? When it consistently outperforms the S&P 500, we’re feeling pretty objective about art as an investment. Want in? [Masterworks.io]( lets you buy shares in high-end art (think Warhol and Monet). [Check it out](.   You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Technology newsletter Fully Charged. You can tell your friends to [sign up here](.  [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022