TC Roundup: Beijing official says Chinese have no need for blocked websites

Beijing official says Chinese have no need for blocked websites: If Beijing is successful in its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics then foreigners who attend will get uncensored Internet access, but this isn't an issue for Chinese who "don't like" sites like Facebook and Twitter, an official said on Wednesday.

China keeps a tight rein on its Internet. The government has warned that social media, particularly foreign services, could be a destabilising force for Chinese society or even affect the country's security. (Reuters)

Google working on project to let you receive and pay bills directly inside Gmail: Google's mission to organize the world's information is now targeting your physical mailbox.

The company is currently working on a project that will allow Gmail users to more easily receive bills in their email inbox instead of their mailbox. Called Pony Express, the service also is designed to let people pay their bills within Gmail, rather than having to go to a telecom or utility company's website to complete a payment. (Recode)

Amazon says FAA approval to test delivery drones already obsolete: Amazon.com Inc. said the regulatory approval it received last week to test-fly its delivery drones in the U.S. was already irrelevant when it arrived: Regulators approved an aircraft Amazon is no longer testing. (The Wall Street Journal)

GrabTaxi, Uber's SoftBank-backed rival In Southeast Asia, tests courier service: GrabTaxi, the Uber rival backed by SoftBank, is trialling a next-day delivery service as it experiments with logistics-related offerings beyond its core taxi-hailing business in Southeast Asia.

The 'Parcel-Document' service quietly went live in Bangkok, Thailand, this week in partnership with e-commerce company AlphaFAST. GrabTaxi customers can summon a courier inside the GrabTaxi application in the same way that they'd order a taxi (see below). The document will be delivered the next day if booked before 3pm. It is initially charged at a flat rate: paperwork and documents cost 35 THB (just over $1), while parcels are 35 THB to 70 THB based on size. (Tech Crunch)

Why start-ups need to start listening to the Fed: Tech start-ups don't talk much about interest rates. New products, customer acquisition and growth growth growth are top of mind. To the extent that today's emerging companies consider the cost of capital, it's usually while raising a venture round.

Over the next year, that's likely to change. Now that the Federal Reserve has removed the word "patient" from its plan for hiking rates, businesses have to start preparing for the end of the free money era. (CNBC)