A Thursday article from the official People’s Daily’s website questioned international online brokerage Tiger Brokers and Futu for their ability to protect Chinese customers’ information. The article asked whether the brokers’ collection of personal data will be compliant with China’s newly passed Personal Information Protection Law, which will take effect next month. Tencent-backed Futu and Xiaomi-backed Tiger give mainland Chinese users a platform to invest in stocks listed outside China. Both Futu and Tiger are listed in the US. On Thursday, shares of Futu fell 12% on the news, and Tiger shares slumped more than 21%. [People’s Daily website, in Chinese]

Jia Yueting, founder of troubled streaming platform Leshi, and four companies, are being sued by a subsidiary of China’s state utility company, according to enterprise database site Qi Chacha. Yingda Capital Management, a Beijing-based subsidiary of China’s state grid, sued Jia Yueting and four other companies — LeSee, Smart Technology Holdings, FF Global Holdings, and Beijing Bairui media company — for unspecified contract violations (our translation). The case has been scheduled to have the first hearing in a Beijing intermediate court on Nov. 10. In addition to founding Netflix-like Leshi, Jia is the former CEO of electric car company Faraday Future. He declared personal bankruptcy in the US in 2020. [IT Home, in Chinese]

Chinese online home rental platform Ziroom has appointed founder and CEO Xiong Lin as the new chairman to assume the role of the late founder Zuo Hui. Zuo passed away in May. Xiong Lin has served as CEO of Ziroom since 2011. Ziroom has named Zuo as honorary founder and chairman to commemorate his contribution to the company. Zuo, a Chinese tech billionaire, founded Chinese real estate brokerage Lianjia and KE Holdings. Ziroom was an internal unit of Lianjia before May 2016. [The Beijing News, in Chinese]

Shareholders of Chinese e-commerce firm Vipshop Holdings Ltd. has filed a class-action lawsuit against Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in New York for trading on inside information. Investors of the New York-listed Vipshop alleged that the two banking companies had sold large amounts of Vipshop shares in late March after confidentially learning troubles from Archegos Capital Management, which held positions in Vipshop. The complaints said the sell-off had saved the two banks billions of dollars in losses. Vipshop shares fell over 37% between March 22 to 29. Archegos is a multi-billion dollar family office of Tiger Management analyst Bill Hwang. [Global Newswire]

KE Holdings, or Beike, a Chinese online real estate brokerage backed by Tencent and Softbank, has reportedly laid off an entire research and development team in Shanghai. The company attributed the layoff to “drastic changes in the industry.” China’s housing market is cooling down in recent months, partly due to increased curb on lending. The US-listed firm said it will comply with labor laws and make proper arrangements for affected employees. [The Economic Observer, in Chinese]