H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (17 August 2018) – Corporate Japan rakes in record quarterly profit + The Ultimate List Of Books To Base Your Life On

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (17 August 2018) – Corporate Japan rakes in record quarterly profit + The Ultimate List Of Books To Base Your Life On

Companies

  • Corporate Japan rakes in record quarterly profit; Led by manufacturers, one in four companies posted all-time highs. Tokyo Electron booked another record profit as sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment grew. Nidec also posted a record thanks to steady sales of motor used in electric vehicles and robots. (Nikkei)
  • Japan’s Start Today gives clothes retailers a glimpse of the future: A million or so Japanese are using the firm’s “Zozosuit” (Economist)
  • Japanese regulators are investigating Apple Inc over allegations it unfairly pressured Yahoo Japan Corp to slow the expansion of its online games platform, which competes with Apple’s App Store (Reuters)
  • China’s leading online parenting firm Babytree Group, backed by Alibaba, plans to raise up to $1 billion in a HK IPO in Oct (ISH)
  • Apple supplier Luxshare plans camera module IPO as next leap; Chinese company’s growth threatens rivals in Taiwan and South Korea (Nikkei)
  • com losses surge on soaring spending and investment (SCMP); China’s JD.com looks to warehousing assets to help revive profits (Reuters)
  • Google to debut display-equipped AI speaker before holidays; Taiwan suppliers told to prepare for hardware blitz to challenge Amazon. Most of the Google Home lineup is produced by Quanta Computer, a key builder of Apple’s MacBooks.(Nikkei)
  • The Makers of iPhones and Laptops Are Prepping for a Trade War. Taiwan’s six largest contract electronics makers — Compal Electronics, Foxconn flagship Hon Hai Precision, Inventec, Pegatron, Quanta Computer, and Wistron — raked in NT$9.11 trillion ($296 billion) of revenue in 2017 (Bloomberg)
  • VGI spearheads regional growth of BTS with modern approach in advertising; VGI boasts of in-building advertisement billing worth about HK$78 million yearly from a total of about 175 buildings (SCMP)

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

  • Alibaba tweaks a controversial legal structure; Jack Ma’s role in the firm’s “variable interest entities” will be reduced (Economist)
  • Tencent Slump Shows What Happens When Beijing Flips the Switch (Bloomberg)
  • SoftBank and Thai telecom firm to launch cheap, fast internet exchange service (JT)

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

  • Amazon could be the next great disruptor in cinema (qz)
  • Nvidia Clears Its Crypto Cloud: A volatile crypto market has been a distraction for the chip maker-and its investors (WSJ1, WSJ2); As Nvidia expands in artificial intelligence, Intel defends turf (Reuters); Nvidia’s Turing Makes Graphics Dreams Come True (EETimes)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Redcore CEO admits ‘100pc China-developed browser’ is built on Google’s Chrome, says writing code from scratch would ‘take many years’ (SCMP)
  • China regulator orders bailout of peer-to-peer lenders by managers of distressed assets (SCMP)
  • Digital payment firms fight for Hong Kong market (Reuters)
  • Indian streaming firm Hotstar sees blended revenues as winning strategy (Reuters)
  • Nazara Tech invests in VR gaming firm InstaSportz; With the acquisition, Nazara enters the offline gaming space with interactive entertainment through VR lounges in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities across India (Livemint)
  • How This Google-Backed Startup Cracked The Code To Hyper Convenience In India (Forbes)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

  • The race is on to dominate quantum computing (Economist)
  • The cautionary tale of Blue Apron’s growth strategy (qz)
  • DoorDash Valuation Nearly Triples to $4 Billion in Six Months (Bloomberg)
  • Why Can’t Europe Do Tech? This is the best moment in decades for the continent to battle its way back to relevance. Its startups need to act like it. (Bloomberg)
  • Battery technologies seen as new class of ‘stranded assets’ as innovation rushes ahead (JT)
  • Monzo poised to join ranks of Europe’s fintech ‘unicorns’; UK digital bank lines up $150m fundraising as it eyes $1.5bn valuation (FT)

Life

  • The Ultimate List Of Books To Base Your Life On (Medium)
  • Innovation renaissance depends on releasing our inner Medicis (AFR)
  • Knowing When Your Investment Process Has Failed (Validea)
  • The Half-Life of Investment Strategies (Ben Carlson)
  • Top Insights from Twilio CMO Sara Varni: Five Tips on Marketing and Life (Medium)
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