The technology, media, and telecom (TMT) sector is constantly evolving. Working in such an industry means one has to be tech savvy to keep up with the latest technologies and quickly adapt to the changes. Corporate counsel from different fields talk of what trends are hitting their industry segment, how they cope with the changes, and how they can better prepare themselves for the new challenges.
The TMT sector covers a wide range, from Internet, digital media to mobile. They are all heavily shaped by technological development - be it big data, 5G network or digital television.
While part of the legal work remains largely business-as-usual, in-house lawyers from the TMT sector must keep learning and stay alert to the rapid changes to provide legal services that cater to the tech-sensitive sector, drafting up-to-date templates for contracts and understanding the legal implications of new changes. To keep up with the technological advancement is challenging, yet exciting, the counsel say.
Li Yuan
General Counsel
Autohome
What are some of the most prominent trends and changes you’re seeing in the technology, media, and telecom (TMT) industry, and how is your team coping with them?
Technology has been leading our business growth. With big data, our consumers can now enjoy customized content and recommendations tailored to their needs, while automakers can also accurately position their advertisement to more targeted audience. Another example is AR/VR.
For the legal team, this means we need to ensure our agreements and terms will reflect the new technology requirements. We need to update our knowledge of these new technologies and do research on the legal issues in these fields.
We have also been updating our IT infrastructure and digital platforms to improve efficiency. In order to facilitate the contract renewal with dealers nationwide, my team upgrades the contract management system and the stamp and seal management system, such as introducing e-stamp and timestamp.
What are your responsibilities, and what does your team focus on?
We support our core businesses by drafting and negotiating advertising agreements, software licensing agreements and technology service agreements, while we also support our emerging businesses such as online marketplace, data product, auto financing by providing advice and assistance and navigating the legal framework to facilitate the implementation of our new services.
Other tasks include drafting and negotiating the legal documents for the M&A projects, managing corporate records and compliance, monitoring registration and use of Autohome’s intellectual property, and handling labor disputes, consumer complaints, copyright disputes. And last but not least, compliance with SEC rules and relevant filing, advising disclosure and internal procedures.
The work is highly diversified and also demanding, as we have to keep up with the evolving internet-related laws and regulations due to the rapid growth of both the TMT industry and the company.
Who are your external counsel, and what kind of support you require from them?
We do a lot of in-house work on the business and operational level. As to corporate matters and compliance issues, we work with our US counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. We also instruct PRC firms, such as Junhe LLP for intellectual property, disputes, M&A and certain specific local law matters when specialized knowledge is needed.
What are some of the biggest opportunities and challenges you’re currently facing?
One driving force of our growth is innovation of content and our platform growth in high quality traffic. Also, Internet regulatory activities are taking place in China and worldwide. It is crucial to have an internal system to review, edit and supervise all the contents and advertisements published through our websites and mobile applications. Our team leads the standard making process and updates the standards timely to avoid misleading or inappropriate advertisement or content. We sometimes need to rely on the opinion from experienced lawyers for the interpretation of evolving laws and regulations.
As an in-house lawyer, how is working in the TMT industry different from working in other industries?
New business models and practices are emerging everyday as the regulatory environment develops. Staying aligned with the business units and informed of the regulatory development is fundamental. It also requires knowledge and an understanding of the TMT industry to be a proficient in-house lawyer. We have provided training opportunities by organizing workshops and seminars held by the operational team. We can acquire specialized knowledge that can only be learned from the people in this business.
How can in-house lawyers in the TMT industry prepare themselves for the rapid changes?
Firstly, the rapid growth of TMT industry requires the in-house counsels to be updated with the latest trends and development of the industry, as well as the regulatory developments. There remains uncertainty in the interpretation of TMT laws and regulations, especially the new rules and circulars for which we do not have many cases for reference. In such case, we need constant communication with external counsels and enforcement authorities. Secondly, legal knowledge training by TMT in-house lawyers is more common. We organize workshops on information privacy, cyber security, advertising laws, FCPA, and anti-unfair competition laws, and issue newsletters on the Dos and Don’t summarized from the findings in our daily operation. Our colleagues could benefit from the specific instructions and advice when they have to decide how to handle details in daily operations.
Per Hoffman
Head of Legal Affairs and Compliance & Sourcing, Market Area North East Asia, Ericsson Group Legal Affairs and Compliance
Ericsson (China) Communications Co. Ltd.
What are some of the most prominent trends and changes you’re seeing in the technology, media, and telecom industry, and how is your team coping with them?
Within TMT, both new technologies and regulatory changes are impacting us. The introduction of the new 5G radio standard will have an impact, as this technology will further increase the integration and convergence between different industries. In the case of 5G, this will be heavily used by for machine to machine communication, and not only for mobile phone. This will lead to new challenges in how we contract with both customers and suppliers.
What are your responsibilities, and what does your team focus on?
I am responsible for all legal and compliance support for the Ericsson Group with Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. My team is doing almost all type of legal support. The only areas we routinely outsource are litigation and HR legal support.
Who are your external counsel, and what kind of support you require from them?
We work with one or twos firms in each market we operate. Except for litigation and HR Legal support, I have one firm which supports me with general advice and compliance related advice.
What are some of the biggest opportunities and challenges you’re currently facing?
We see a lot of opportunities related to the new 5G radio standard. There is a severe price pressure within telecom and hence having enough resources is a challenge.
How can in-house lawyers in the TMT industry prepare themselves for the rapid changes?
As a lawyer within TMT, I believe you need to be curious and interested to learn about technology. This makes you being able to adjust contract temples to changes in technology and behaviours from customers.
As an in-house lawyer, how is working in the TMT industry different from working in other industries?
Probably the phase of changes is faster within TMT, compared to other industries.
Tonell Liu
Legal Director
StarTimes
What are some of the most prominent trends and changes you're seeing in the technology, media, and telecom industry, and how is your team coping with them?
The trends and changes are disruptive, diffusive as well as converging.Transformative technology is bringing drastic and fundamental changes in all respects to the TMT industry - in a non-linear and disruptive way. Media, telecom, broadcasting and e-communications all have to be redefined within new parameters. Business models are susceptible to changes.
Conventionally companies played a dominant role in the business world. People's needs were entertained in a passive way, thereby resulting in the definition of "consumerist". The conventional benchmark to measure a company's success was how much it had sold to consumers. Now consumers are assuming the front roles, creating and sharing whatever they like. This gives rise to the new word "creativist". Companies are shrinking and diminishing because of the creativists. The survival and success of companies in the TMT sector will have to depend on how well they serve the creativists.
As a legal team, we have to keep abreast of the disruptive and diffusive TMT. New legal issues are springing up, requiring our unconventional and innovative thinking in light of a growing knowledge as to the technology, industry and business. The dynamics of the modern TMT compels us lawyers to be forerunners as well, otherwise we would be left behind.
What are your responsibilities, and what does your team focus on?
We undertake most of the responsibilities to structure and safeguard our investment interests. We focus on corporate governance, statutory compliance as well as transactional advising.
Who are your external counsel, and what kind of support you require from them?
We normally engage the top law firms over the world to address the most challenging legal issues like the OTT regulation and VIE structuring.
What are some of the biggest opportunities and challenges you're currently facing?
On one hand, the boundary between telecom and broadcasting is disappearing. On the other, mega platforms are growing to be monopolies. How to regulate them and how to transaction with them is different to answer.
How can in-house lawyers in the TMT industry prepare themselves for the rapid changes?
They have to be multi-faceted and versatile and to keep an open eye to the evolution of technology, business and legal regime. For instance, Internet platform economy is pervasive, and if you are attentive, you can notice laws are being created, varied and applied on a case-by-case basis.
As an in-house lawyer, how is working in the TMT industry different from working in other industries?
It becomes increasingly and apparently a chaotic and dynamic sector insofar as TMT is concerned. We have to gain new knowledge. Without it, it would be hard to analyze legal issues or to create and apply rules when seeking solutions.
Richard Pu
Deputy General Counsel
Tencent
What are some of the most prominent trends and changes you're seeing in the technology, media, and telecom industry, and how is your team coping with them?
We see the disruptive technologies, globally fast-changing regulations and policies, as well as the heating competitions as the most striking trends in TMT industries. Innovation and technology disruptors like artificial intelligence, blockchain and Internet of Things are taking momentum in recent years, transforming the industry significantly.
Our teams have been keeping alerted and abreast of these trends constantly to develop new lawyering skill set in these areas.
The global regulatory environment in which we operate are changing fast in the meantime.
For example, the recent EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has deeply changed the way in which companies approach personal data protection in the EU. We need to thoroughly evaluate its impact on our products to ensure compliance.
We are seeing continuously strong public and private investments in TMT industry as well.
These trends demand our team to get out of their comfort zone to keep up with them. Participating and close involvement with open-mindedness are probably the better way to cope with the changes.
What are your responsibilities, and what does your team focus on?
Our team is made of a group of transaction lawyers, technology and commercial specialists and corporate experts, and we are able to provide a combination of services where the business team can consult with the experienced professionals in one-stop-shop relating to M&A deals, cross-board technology transaction, corporate financing, global data privacy protection, listing compliance as well as products and business development in various jurisdictions.
We also provide our business partners and portfolio companies with value-added services and take initiatives to share our experiences and sources with them, providing a forum for the leading internet legal teams to interact with each other.
What are some of the biggest opportunities and challenges you're currently facing?
We are an internet service provider, covering a broad range of subdivision industries, such as social network, online games, online videos, advertising, cloud, online payment, etc. We have a great opportunity to connect everything and become a key infrastructure of this new space.
However, changes will bring us into unchartered and untested territories, where laws and regulations may not be able to catch up. One of our biggest challenges is how to manage compliance uncertainties and risks in these new areas. We know that we have to be creative, vigilant and prudent, not to just rely on past practices.
How can in-house lawyers in the TMT industry prepare themselves for the rapid changes?
Be open-minded and prepared to embrace new changes with great passion. Most importantly, we are trying best to keep up with our learned peers in private practice so that our in-house lawyering skills can stay updated and refreshed to cope with the rapid changes.