Today’s top tech news also includes updates from Didi Chuxing, Facebook, and Twitter

Japan to tax cryptocurrency investors for up to 55 per cent – Bloomberg

Japan’s national tax agency now required investors in crytocurrency to declare their profits in annual tax filings due February 16 to March 15, having ruled capital gains from such transaction as a form of “miscellaneous income” last year.

The country’s levy on profits from virtual money runs from 15 to 55 per cent, with the top amount applied to investors with annual earnings of JPY40 million (US$365,000).

Some parts of the new tax process in the country is said to “remain unclear.”

Didi Chuxing, SoftBank Group to launch ride-hailing service in Japan – Reuters

Didi Chuxing and SoftBank Group announced that they are planning to launch a ride-hailing service in Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Tokyo as part of the Chinese ride-hailing startup’s international expansion.

In a statement, the companies said that they aim to trial the services this year.

The service launched in Japan will be in form of a taxi fleet and passengers matching service, as regulations in the country prevent non-professional drivers to offer taxi services.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, February 8: JD.com launches Australia regional office

Facebook is testing a downvote button – TechCrunch

Facebook confirmed that it is testing a downvote button on a limited set of public Page post comment reels for users in the US.

The company’s spokesperson said the downvote button aims to create “lightweight way” for users to inform the platform if a comment is inappropriate, uncivil, or misleading. When tapped, the button hides a comment and give users additional reporting options such as offensive, misleading, and off-topic.

The company also stressed that the button is not the long-rumoured “dislike” button.

Twitter reported first profitable quarter – Recode

Twitter has finally recorded its first ever profitable quarter in Q4 2017, reporting profits of US$91 million on US$732 million in revenue.

This is the first time the company reported year-on-year revenue growth in the past four quarters.

However, it is also reported that the platform’s user base did not grow “at all” in the quarter. It recorded 330 million monthly users; up four per cent from a year ago but remain stagnant over Q3.

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