H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (10 August 2018) – NHN to acquire online fashion platform LA Showroom + “The more one forgets himself — by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.”

NHN to acquire online fashion platform LA Showroom + “The more one forgets himself — by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.”

Companies

• Ximalaya secures $580m ahead of 2019 Hong Kong IPO; Ximalaya FM raises funds, after reconstructing its VIE structure. Ximalaya’s 1.195 per cent penetration rate of weekly active users surpassed rivals such as Qingting FM (at 0.468 per cent) and Irts FM (0.323 per cent). Details in an iMedia Research report indicates that as at January 2018, Ximalaya posted a 5.12 per cent penetration rate, ahead of competitor Qingting FM at 2.29 per cent, Yu Jianjun, Ximalaya FM’s co-founder, revealed to IPO 早知道 the long-term goal of shifting from operating as an audio app to offering an audio ecosystem encompassing smart hardware to access professional audio content. (KRA)
• NHN to acquire online fashion platform LA Showroom (Investor)

BATTSS – Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, TSMC, Softbank, Samsung

• Alibaba and Tencent in battle for China’s food delivery crown; Apps backed by rivials offer subsidies while fears rise over strategy and environment; Tencent and Alibaba are squaring off for control of China’s lucrative food delivery market (FT)
• SoftBank to Shun Tesla Deal as It Focuses on Other Car Bets, Sources Say (Bloomberg)

FAANNMG – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Netflix, Microsoft, Google

• Google-Facebook Dominance Hurts Ad Tech Firms, Speeding Consolidation (NYT)
• Zuckerberg’s failures must be your lessons (TNW)
• Google Woos Partners for Potential China Expansion; While its search engine and Gmail remain blocked, the tech giant provides tools to app developers, manufacturers and advertisers in the region (WSJ); Ask Google? How to win in China … without being evil (SCMP)
• Google’s Targeted Ads Are Coming to a Billboard Near You; The next big thing is matching promotions to people by harvesting mobile data. (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• What China’s history of overseas tech IPOs says about the current wave (Technode)
• Beijing struggles to defuse anger over China’s P2P lending crisis (Reuters)
• How Co-Working Space Operator Kr Space Is Going To Beat WeWork In China (Forbes); WeWork China Rival Raises $120 Million in Hillhouse-Backed Round (Bloomberg)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Three theories on why MoviePass failed (WaPo)
• How movie theaters are surviving big tech (Axios)
• IAC, the internet giant that owns Angie’s List, is on fire (CNN); Match Dates May Not End Well, But They Helped IAC Hit a Record (Bloomberg)
• Sensors to Smartphones Bring Patent Wars to Diabetes Monitoring (Bloomberg)

Life

• “The more one forgets himself — by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.” (Medium)
• The Challenge For Those With A Creative Mind (Medium)
• Investors are desperately trying to cut through the glut of information in search of meaning and knowledge. (13d)