Corporate bits | Jacky Cheung to perform at the Venetian

Hong Kong actor and singer Jacky Cheung will perform on August 11, 12, 18 and 19 at The Venetian Macao as part of “Sun City Group Presents: A Classic Tour Jacky Cheung World Tour Macau.”

Dubbed the Cantonese “God of Songs”, Cheung has sold more than 25 million records. He is regarded as one of the “Four Heavenly Kings” of the Chinese music industry, according to a press release issued by The Venetian.

His last tour was five years ago, which set Guinness World Records for the highest number of tickets sold and for the most concerts held by a Chinese singer within a single tour.

For his upcoming tour, Cheung plans to combine his past, present and future to create a new international extravaganza of Chinese music. He plans to use fire as a major visual element in symbolizing eternity, as well as representing his own classic songs.

Tickets go on sale today at Cotai ticketing box offices and are priced at MOP1680, MOP1280, MOP780 and MOP380.

Google will stop reading your emails for gmail ads

Google is stopping one of the most controversial advertising formats: ads inside Gmail that scan users’ email contents. The decision didn’t come from Google’s ad team, but from its cloud unit, which is angling to sign up more corporate customers.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google Cloud sells a package of office software, called G Suite, that competes with market leader Microsoft Corp. Paying Gmail users never received the email-scanning ads like the free version of the program, but some business customers were confused by the distinction and its privacy implications, said Diane Greene, Google’s senior vice president of cloud. “What we’re going to do is make it unambiguous,” she said.

Ads will continue to appear inside the free version of Gmail, as promoted messages. But instead of scanning a user’s email, the ads will now be targeted with other personal information Google already pulls from sources such as search and YouTube. Ads based on scanned email messages drew lawsuits and some of the most strident criticism the company faced in its early years, but offered marketers a much more targeted way to reach consumers.