H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (29 September 2018) – Infibeam: WhatsApp Message Destroys 71% of Indian E-Commerce Firm’s Value

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (29 September 2018) – Infibeam: WhatsApp Message Destroys 71% of Indian E-Commerce Firm’s Value

Companies

• Ahead of its IPO, TouchPal co-founder says the company has 180 million users (Technode)
• Kakao Page invests W40b in 3 comic publishers (Investor)
• Getac announces new F110-Ex tablet, for exceptional productivity in hazardous environments (RPCR)
• Infibeam: WhatsApp Message Destroys 71% of Indian E-Commerce Firm’s Value (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• How long can Hong Kong ride the IPO wave before it turns into the dotcom tsunami of 2000? (SCMP)
• The Little Red Book is a social e-commerce platform that’s not an e-commerce platform at all (Technode)
• Chinese Home-Sharing Platform Xiaozhu.com In Talks To Raise Over $200M (CMN)
• Bytedance to raise money from SoftBank at $75bn valuation; News and video app group is one of few Chinese tech giants to succeed overseas (FT)
• 450,000 Hong Kong bank customers to benefit from instant QR-code-based money transfer system from Sunday (SCMP)
• I still give Flipkart an edge over Amazon: Naspers CEO (Forbes)
• Law Enforcement Agencies In India Are Using Artificial Intelligence To Nab Criminals — Here’s How (Forbes)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Shares of Pet Insurer Trupanion Are Overvalued (Barron’s)
• Hulu Is the Next Front in the Battle Between Disney and Comcast (Barron’s)
• Why Sirius Wants Pandora (Barron’s)
• Slack Actively Preparing for Early 2019 IPO; Messaging company, recently valued at roughly $7 billion, aims to debut in the first half (WSJ)
• A Tesla Without Elon Musk Would Threaten Electric-Car Maker’s Future; Securities regulators’ lawsuit against the CEO raises the specter of an exit that could have dire consequences (WSJ)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (28 September 2018) – Daifuku targets motor industry with automated robotic parts system + How Winning Organizations Last 100 Years

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (28 September 2018) – Daifuku targets motor industry with automated robotic parts system + How Winning Organizations Last 100 Years

Companies

• Daifuku targets motor industry with parts system (LM)
• XentIT Teams with Trend Micro and Qualys to Offer New Healthcare Cloud Security Stack for Microsoft Azure (DJ)
• Nintendo: test of character; Games group has shown the survival skills of any video game immortal; ‘Super Mario Run’ disappointed last year mainly because Nintendo charged mobile users to play higher levels (FT)
• How Ctrip’s James Liang is turning China into a nation of tourists (AFR)
• After IPO, Liulishuo CEO says marketing expenses are necessary (Technode)
• Koh Young to Demo True 3D Inspection for a Smart Factory at SMTAI (iconnect)
• Delta Electronics becomes EV100 member promoting low-carbon transportation (Digitimes)
• Leica Geosystems unveils new tablet solution with Getac (ITP)

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

• Baidu strengthens ‘super app’ foothold with 100 million monthly active mini-programmes users (SCMP)

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

• Facebook Bets Big on ‘Stories.’ What If They’re a Fad?; The social network has been here before with live video. (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Big-data trading platform to launch in Japan next month (Nikkei)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Ultrasound Startup Joins Unicorn Ranks With Latest Cash Infusion (Bloomberg)
• Musk suit could uncover Tesla’s true value (Reuters); U.S. regulator sues Musk for fraud, seek to remove him from Tesla (Reuters)

Life

• How Winning Organizations Last 100 Years (HBR)
• Fosun’s Folli Follie: $1bn of fake sales, and what to learn from the debacle (FT)
• The annoying habits of highly effective people: Be wary of taking life lessons from chief executives (Economist)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (27 September 2018) – Tencent Music, bound for U.S. IPO, profits from social savvy + Howard Marks – How to Invest with Clear Thinking (Tim Ferris podcast #338)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (27 September 2018) – Tencent Music, bound for U.S. IPO, profits from social savvy + Howard Marks – How to Invest with Clear Thinking (Tim Ferris podcast #338)

Companies

• Tencent Music, bound for U.S. IPO, profits from social savvy (Reuters)
• Uniqlo parent enlists Google to make fast fashion faster; Fast Retailing taps AI to streamline processes and quickly respond to trends (Nikkei)
• Nintendo Bets on Dragons in First Built-From-Scratch Mobile Game; Title co-developed by lucrative mobile games maker CyberAgent (Bloomberg)
• Citadel-IX is a modular SaaS platform designed to provide both domestic and international customers with secure, flexible options to manage their enterprise information. It is deployable within one hour, highly scalable, and has the latest technology and software to support cloud-first strategies (MF)
• Alleged Forgery At A Promoter Entity Adds To 8K Miles’ Woes (Bloomberg)

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

• Tencent & Alibaba chase remittances in battle for Southeast Asia (Reuters)
• Baidu CEO Robin Li says artificial intelligence will have much bigger impact on society than the internet (SCMP)
• Tencent adds eye protection function to videos after Beijing calls for action to prevent myopia in children (SCMP)
• Masayoshi Son, SoftBank, and the $100 Billion Blitz on Sand Hill Road; The Japanese dealmaker says he’ll raise a new $100 billion fund every few years. Silicon Valley’s disruptors are struggling to keep up. (Bloomberg); SoftBank Invests $400 Million in Home-Selling Startup Opendoor; Japanese firm’s Vision Fund is amping up its bet on real estate (WSJ); Didi drives into Japan, setting up head-on collision with Uber in world’s third-largest taxi market (SCMP); Softbank’s ARM unveils dedicated chip design for autonomous cars (Reuters)

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

• Apple, Salesforce team up to bring Siri to more business apps (Reuters)
• Amazon turns to toys, home goods in latest brick-and-mortar trial (Reuters)
• The new echo show hints at Amazon’s vision for TV (Wired)
• Amazon Prime Day: What the real lessons are (McKinsey)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Hong Kong IPO Roulette Has Top Money Managers in a Spin; Tempting Chinese tech offerings now look like a trap. (Bloomberg)
• Investors are becoming more discerning as they look beyond growth and market share. “It used to be the case that people were chasing all these unicorns”. Now, they want to know whether the company will eventually be profitable (WSJ)
• CareVoice, China’s TripAdvisor-style health insurance start-up, launches in Hong Kong as it eyes Asian expansion (SCMP)
• China tech IPO boom to continue for at least another year, says China Renaissance CEO (SCMP)
• How China Systematically Pries Technology From U.S. Companies; Beijing leans on an array of levers to extract intellectual property-sometimes coercively (WSJ)
• Chinese millennials’ ‘buy now, pay later’ mentality fuels thriving micro loan industry (SCMP)
• China Claims More Patents Than Any Country-Most Are Worthless (Bloomberg)
• By Plowing Millions Into Uber, Toyota Eyes Future of Cars (Bloomberg)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• TomTom plans fleet-management sale to focus on maps battle with Google (Reuters)
• Payment Startup Stripe Is Now a $20 Billion Company; The fast-growing startup has raised $245 million and signed on new customers. (Bloomberg, Reuters)
• JPMorgan in talks to lead Lyft’s IPO – sources (Reuters)
• Boohoo bucks brutal British clothing market with online growth (Reuters)
• Darktrace hits $1.65 billion valuation after latest funding round (Reuters)
• Disney’s First Streaming Service Tops 1 Million Subscribers (Fox)
• Sirius XM’s $3.5 billion Pandora deal is a bet on the future of streaming – here’s how its largest shareholder, ‘cable cowboy’ John Malone, came to be worth $9 billion (BI)

Life

• Howard Marks – How to Invest with Clear Thinking (Tim Ferris podcast #338) (Tim Ferris)
• Hong Kong’s sudden equity collapse syndrome (FT)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (26 September 2018) – Vista Group’s Veezi Signs Deal with CanalOlympia, Vivendi’s Pan African Cinema Network + This Is How To Quit Bad Habits Without Willpower: 3 Secrets From Research

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (26 September 2018) – Vista Group’s Veezi Signs Deal with CanalOlympia, Vivendi’s Pan African Cinema Network + This Is How To Quit Bad Habits Without Willpower: 3 Secrets From Research

Companies

• Popular Japanese cosmetic portal @cosme gaining foothold in Asia (Japan Times)
• Ferrotec Launches Customized Thermoelectric Module Technology for Cooling and Heating Applica (PR News)
• Murata to invest $354m in new plant as iPhones drive parts demand (Nikkei)
• New Teledyne AES Investments in Main Production Facility Delivers Faster Response Times, Quality Enhancement to Customers; AES chose to make this investment in equipment upgrades with machinery manufactured by Koh Young Tech (BW); Koh Young Solutions on Display at Repstronics Open House in Guadalajara (iconnect)
• Vista Group’s Veezi Signs Deal with CanalOlympia, Vivendi’s Pan African Cinema Network (BW)
• Afterpay comes to dentistry as Smiles Inclusive targets Millennials (AFR)

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

• Alibaba and the Future of Business (HBR)

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

• Apple’s purchase of Shazam is $400 million well spent; Especially if it makes Apple Music a more compelling product. (EG)
• Is Amazon Investing Enough in Autonomous Driving? (Barron’s)
• Amazon Comes Up With Another Way to Get Alexa Into Your Home (Bloomberg)
• Facebook’s Terrible Year Hits a New Low; The departure of Instagram’s founders is a particularly painful sting during a truly rotten year. (Bloomberg); Instagram’s Kevin Systrom on the Platform He Built for One Billion Users (WSJ); Facebook at risk of smothering its golden goose (Reuters)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• After Huami, another Xiaomi partner Viomi IPOs within one year (Technode)
• Online tour booking site Klook wants to tackle its next big challenge: converting walk-ins (KRA)
• Circle K chief on adapting to digital shift: keep up, or die (SCMP)
• Slack has made its biggest acquisition to date (qz)
• This 24-Year-Old Built a $5 Billion Hotel Startup in Five Years (Bloomberg)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• One Analyst Thinks Square Should Be a Part of the FANG Group (Bloomberg)
• Shopify CEO Says Amazon Is Encroaching on Its Turf (Bloomberg)
• SurveyMonkey Raises $180 Million in U.S. Initial Public Offering (Bloomberg)
• Chip Stocks Tumble as Raymond James Is Latest to Sound Alarm (Bloomberg)

Life

• This Is How To Quit Bad Habits Without Willpower: 3 Secrets From Research (Barker)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (25 September 2018) – Krista Tippett podcast with Seth Godin: Life, the Internet, and Everything

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (25 September 2018) – Krista Tippett podcast with Seth Godin: Life, the Internet, and Everything

Companies

• Hamamatsu to Distribute Energetiq’s LDLST Products (BI)

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

• SoftBank moves to lock up lithium, the lifeblood of electric cars; Investment in Canadian miner part of broader energy resource strategy (Nikkei)

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

• Technology is dead, long live FAANG (II)
• Google Looking to Future After 20 Years of Search (AFP); Google tunes search for prescience and pictures (Japan Times); Google introduces new ‘Discover’ feature as Search turns 20 (Age)
• Smart TVs get smarter as Google Assistant support rolls out (Age)
• Making Sense of Amazon’s Alexa Spaghetti Strategy (Bloomberg)
• Amazon made two moves for Deliveroo, one nine months ago – Telegraph (Reuters)
• Snapchat ties up with Amazon for point-and-buy (Reuters)
• Microsoft Rolls Out Additions to Office, Security and Cloud Offerings; Agreement with SAP, Adobe lets customers move data among platforms. (Bloomberg, Reuters)
• Apple, Salesforce team up to bring Siri to more business apps (Reuters)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• ‘Made in China 2025’: how new technologies could help Beijing achieve its dream of becoming a semiconductor giant (SCMP)
• Bringing smart electronics into Chinese homes, Roome completed nearly 100 million RMB in Series A+ (KRA)
• China’s liquor B2B commerce startup Yijiupi raises $200m and becomes a unicorn (KRA)
• Regulation-hit Airbnb and rivals refresh with rural Japan listings; Countryside offers new opportunities three months after law wiped out properties (Nikkei)
• Can the Philippines produce a great social media platform? The country had been considered the world’s social media capital, but we have yet to see a major social network emerge from Filipino founders (e27)
• Hong Kong shirtmaker Esquel turns to robots to beat US tariffs (SCMP)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Ancestry creates you a custom Spotify playlist for $99 and some spit (TNW, qz)
• Symantec ends accounting probe without major revision to results (Reuters)
• What Dropbox has learnt from Atlassian (Age)
• How Dr Squatch’s 31-year-old founder makes millions selling soap online (AFR)
• Augmented reality start-up looks to recreate the shopping trip; FT Future 100 UK start-up in fast growing market for interactive consumer experiences (FT)
• Pandora Has Only Itself to Blame for Sirius Sale; The company always spent more than it made and failed to shift its business model. (Bloomberg); Sirius Steps Into Lion’s Den of Silicon Valley With Pandora Deal (Bloomberg); A Pandora Sale to SiriusXM Is Music to Investors’ Ears (Barron’s); Sirius Plunges Most Since 2011 After $3.5 Billion Pandora Deal (Bloomberg)
• What Apple and Airbnb have in common – intangible assets that power their profit margins (SCMP)
• Big Tech’s Business Model Is Broken, Report Says; Industry giants deserve tougher regulation, including scrutiny of deals that let them suck up more data (WSJ)
• Snapchat Teams Up With Amazon to Offer Image-Based Shopping (Bloomberg)
• Comcast $40 bln lunacy gives Disney shot at sanity (Reuters)

Life

• Krista Tippett podcast with Seth Godin: Life, the Internet, and Everything (On Being)
• Winner Takes it All: How Markets Favor the Few at the Expense of the Many (Farnam Street)
• a16z Podcast: Technological Trends, Financial Capital, and the Dynamics of Disruption (a16z)
• Charlie Munger Interview: China’s Weekly on Stocks (MF); Li Lu – Himalaya Capital Interview: China’s Weekly on Stocks (MF)
• Stock manipulators, beware the MAS AI arsenal (BT); MAS Outlines Enforcement Approach to Deter, Detect and Investigate Breaches of Rules and Regulations (Hubbis, MAS)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (24 September 2018) – Why the Best Things in Life Can’t Be Planned

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (24 September 2018) – Why the Best Things in Life Can’t Be Planned

Companies

• Chinese Maker of TouchPal Keyboard CooTeck Lowers US IPO Target To $57M (CMN)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Chinese Video Tech Start-Up Moviebook Raises $29.2M In Extended Series D Round (CMN)
• To Find China’s Best Driverless Technology, Look in Silicon Valley; The talent needed to give Chinese startups an edge in autonomous vehicles can’t be found in Beijing or Shanghai. (Bloomberg)
• Pioneer’s woes echo those of earlier Japanese audio legends: What became of Sansui, Nakamichi, and Akai? (Nikkei)
• Japanese smart wheelchair Whill secures $45M to expand into North America, Europe (Bridge)
• Paytm has a new strategy to beat the competition: snitching (qz)
• Singapore competition watchdog fines Grab, Uber $9.5 million over merger (Reuters)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• A Shoemaker Turns Billionaire With Luxury Goods Online Retailer Farfetch IPO (Bloomberg)
• Tech index refresh could give under-the-radar names their day in the sun (Reuters)
• Cyber security legend Ken Xie slams Fortinet’s rivals Cisco and Juniper’s attempts to buy success (AFR)
• Vox Media On Pace to Miss Revenue Target as Digital Advertising Disappoints; Other digital-media firms have struggled to live up to ambitious growth goals in a challenging online ad market (WSJ); Global spending on digital marketing nears $100 billion: study (Reuters)

Life

• Why the Best Things in Life Can’t Be Planned (Medium)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (22 September 2018) – Sinbon Electronics has unveiled its new plant in Hungary for the development and manufacturing of connectors and cables, components for new-energy vehicles and smart IoT automobiles + A 6-Part Tool for Ranking and Assessing Risks

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (22 September 2018) – Sinbon Electronics has unveiled its new plant in Hungary for the development and manufacturing of connectors and cables, components for new-energy vehicles and smart IoT automobiles + A 6-Part Tool for Ranking and Assessing Risks

Companies

• Sinbon Electronics has unveiled its new plant in Hungary for the development and manufacturing of connectors and cables, components for new-energy vehicles and smart IoT automobiles (Digitimes)
• In Korea, the Korea Credit Bureau and NICE Information Service assign everyone a credit rating between 1 and 10 based on their debt levels and overdue payments on loans, with 10 being the worst credit rating. (JA)
• The ASX’s small tech revolution. The explosive share price performances of the likes of Wisetech, Appen, Altium, Afterpay and Xero have lifted hopes of a new vanguard of ASX-listed tech names to be added to well-established icons such as digital classified businesses REA Group, Carsales and Seek. These young Turks have even earned their own acronym: the WAAAX stocks.(AFR)

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

• Meet the new Ant Financial, a technology services company (Technode)

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

• Amazon wants Alexa to hear your whispers and frustration (Wired)
• Facebook’s new dating service wants to find you love (TNW)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars; Supersmall electric vehicles are taking over roads in some parts of China-no driver’s license needed (WSJ)
• Anant Goenka’s digital strategy has put the Indian Express Group website firmly among the top three news sites in the country (Forbes)
• Archit Gupta, founder and CEO, ClearTax, facilitate about 4 million tax filings and incorporates 200-odd companies a month. About 5% of its users pay for the assisted filling service (Forbes)
• Girish Mathrubootham: The Sa(a)Sy entrepreneur; Chennai-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup achieved an annual recurring revenue (ARR, which is subscription based) of $100 million (Forbes)
• Paytm alleges Google Pay breaching India privacy rules amid surge in digital payments; Google Pay says it shares information as per laws and after user consent (Nikkei)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Airbnb Proposes Giving Hosts a Stake in the Company; Home-sharing platform wants SEC to consider reforming shareholder eligibility rules (WSJ)
• Einstein Voice gives Salesforce users gift of gab (Techcrunch)
• Digital Freight Startup Convoy Raises $185 Million, Surpasses $1 Billion in Value; CapitalG, investment arm of Google parent Alphabet Inc., led a funding round aimed at backing the business in the growing field of digital freight booking (WSJ)
• This startup wants to become the Facebook of death (TNW)
• Is the podcast bubble bursting? (CJR)
• Billionaire Robert Smith’s Vista Equity Makes $3 Billion Selling Marketo (Forbes)

Life

• A 6-Part Tool for Ranking and Assessing Risks (HBR)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (21 September 2018) – Daifuku introduces advanced airport facility + Podcast: Rocky Marciano’s Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (21 September 2018) – Daifuku introduces advanced airport facility + Podcast: Rocky Marciano’s Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World

Companies

• Daifuku introduces advanced airport facility (Yahoo)
• Japan clothing magnate Maezawa chases spot in business firmament (Reuters)
• Low-end e-commerce platform Pinduoduo enters high-end grocery delivery (Technode)
• Wang Xing, founder of Meituan Dianping, has seen his net worth surge to $5.3 billion after the initial public offering of the food delivery giant (Bloomberg); Meituan IPO shows how to tempt investor appetites (Reuters); Wang Xing: the graduate school dropout behind China’s Meituan Dianping meal-delivery empire (SCMP)
• Getac announces the K120 fully rugged tablet for public safety agencies (Digitimes)
• PCB firm Zhen Ding subsidiary starts trading on SZSE (Digitimes)
• Diode firm Eris puts increased focus on protection components (Digitimes)

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

• Alibaba’s AI Unit To Launch Hospitality Robots In October (CMN)

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

• Amazon’s New Promise Is ‘Alexa Everywhere’ (Barron’s); Amazon’s New Microwave: ‘Alexa, Please Defrost My Chicken’; New offerings include Alexa-enabled chip that manufacturers can install to control basic appliances (WSJ); Amazon Unveils New Devices to Power Smart Home With Your Voice (Bloomberg); Amazon adds Echo devices for home and car in bid to dominate voice gadgets (Reuters)
• Apple and Amazon at a Trillion $: Looking Back and Looking Forward! (Damodaran)
• Amazon Prime Video’s India mantra: “Variety is what sticks with viewers” (qz)
• How Amazon plans to battle Walmart in India (CNN)
• The Prime Effect: How Amazon’s Two-Day Shipping Is Disrupting Retail; The quest to offer fast, free delivery has triggered an arms race among the largest retailers (WSJ)
• Amazon Investment in India Ties Into Retail Chain; Deal could give the online retailer a claim to the more than 500 stores of Aditya Birla Retail (WSJ)
• Amazon’s Delivery Drones May Not Hurt UPS and FedEx After All (Barron’s)
• Amazon Could Spend $3 Billion on ‘Go’ Stores, Analyst Says (Bloomberg)
• Instagram is the most harmful social network for your mental health; Only YouTube had a net-positive effect among the respondents (qz)
• Apple Watch Should Pave Way for More Medical Gadgets, FDA Says (Bloomberg)
• Alphabet Backs GitLab’s Quest to Surpass Microsoft’s GitHub (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• China’s Cross-Border E-Commerce Payment Platform PingPong Raises $102M Series C Round (CMN)
• President and CTO of internet data analysis company iResearch “disappear” for investigation about fabricating market data, especially in TV ratings. (Technode)
• A peek into China’s fast-changing mobile marketing scene (Technode)
• Twitch confirms it’s been blocked in China (TNW)
• Is Chinese E-Commerce Moving Down Market? (Forbes)
• China’s rising memory chip leader won’t try to ‘crash the market’; State-backed Yangtze Memory at vanguard of Made in China 2025 says ‘We are no copycat’ (Nikkei)
• Japanese e-payment startup Origami adds UnionPay as investor (Nikkei)
• Market Kurly operator secures W67b investment (Investor)
• Buffett’s Indian pick Paytm aims to build financial-services empire; Digital payments startup looks to profit by bringing small shopkeepers online (Nikkei)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Today’s Hot Eventbrite IPO Is a Bet on the ‘Experience Economy’ (Barron’s); Eventbrite Surges in Market Debut; Gain gives ticketing and event-services company a valuation near $3.4 billion on fully diluted basis (WSJ)
• Square is considering offering investment and savings products through its Cash App (Recode)
• Smart Showers, Brainy Tubs: The Rise of the High-Tech Bathroom (WSJ)
• Online Luxury Goods Hub Farfetch’s IPO Raises $885 Million (Bloomberg)
• Medtronic Agrees to Buy Mazor Robotics in $1.6 Billion Deal (Bloomberg)
• At This High-Tech Farm, the Boss Is an AI-Powered Algorithm; Bowery Farming says its proprietary software can top the intuition of a seasoned farmer. (Bloomberg)
• Chip Stock Anxieties Revived After Micron Sales View Falls Short (Bloomberg)
• This Is the Weirdest Driverless Vehicle You’ve Ever Seen (Bloomberg)
• Yelp Soars to Three-Year High as Wall Street Warms Up to Brand (Bloomberg)
• Uber in talks to buy food delivery firm Deliveroo: Bloomberg (Reuters)
• Robocall infestation demands robot solution (Reuters)
• Adobe to buy marketing software firm Marketo for $4.75 billion (Reuters)
• Silicon Valley Waits as China’s Unicorns Race to Public Markets (Bloomberg)

Life

• Podcast #442: Rocky Marciano’s Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World (AOM)
• The decline and fall of Chinese Buddhism: how modern politics and fast money corrupted an ancient religion (SCMP)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (20 September 2018) – Koh Young Technology Highlighted Meister System at Semicon Taiwan + 14 lessons from Steve Jobs for all startup founders

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (20 September 2018) – Koh Young Technology Highlighted Meister System at Semicon Taiwan + 14 lessons from Steve Jobs for all startup founders

Companies

• Trend Micro address regional challenges with managed security service launch (CNA)
• 111 Inc.’s Xu Weihao: Online Healthcare Platform With Govt To Tackle China’s Medical Problems (CMN)
• Xiaomi CEO on the ‘life-and-death’ changes he’s making (TIA)
• Unit Of Debt-Ridden HNA Faces ‘Uncertainties’ In Buying China’s E-Commerce Site Dangdang (CMN)
• Looking back on the eve of Meituan IPO; Meituan’s ups and downs, and its eventual success. (KRA); Downbeat stock market dampens retail enthusiasm for Meituan Dianping’s US$4.2 billion IPO in Hong Kong (SCMP); Meituan IPO Fact-Checks Mobike’s Fanciful Numbers; The prospectus paints a much different picture. (Bloomberg)

• Southeast Asia’s production gains speed as China slows; Delta Electronics plans to turn affiliate Delta Electronics (Thailand) into a subsidiary to spread out its production bases, which are concentrated in mainland China and vulnerable to U.S. tariffs (Nikkei); NTU and Delta Electronics to expand joint research efforts in smart technologies (Eureka)
• Getac launches new tablet for public safety agencies (AMAR)
• Koh Young Technology Highlighted Meister System at Semicon Taiwan (iconnect)
• Workforce management software company Damstra is readying for an ASX listing next year. (AFR)
• Financial technology business Iress has integrated its Xplan financial advice software with Moneyinfo. (FTA)

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

• Jack Ma sets out his New Manufacturing vision as Alibaba announces dedicated chip unit (SCMP)
• Foreign, Korean Investors Duke It Out Over Samsung Electronics (Bloomberg)

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

• Amazon Forecast to Be No. 3 Digital Advertising Player in 2018; Tech giant expected to surpass Verizon’s Oath and Microsoft, according to new eMarketer estimates (WSJ); Amazon Increases Ad Market Share at Expense of Google, Facebook (Bloomberg)
• Amazon’s Shadow Continues to Loom Over Auto-Parts Retail (Barron’s)
• Amazon Thinks Big, and That Doesn’t Come Cheap; If the e-commerce giant goes ahead with thousands of cashierless stores, it will cost a fortune. Still sure about those profit forecasts? (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• AI will drive next wave of development in human civilization: SenseTime CEO Xu Li (Technode)
• Hong Kong’s appeal as tech hub hammered by spiralling office rents and high salaries (SCMP)
• India’s Livspace raises $70M for its one-stop-shop for interior design (Techcrunch)
• Go-Jek acquires Indonesian adtech startup Promogo, introduces Go-Vend and Go-Ice; The acquisition enables Go-Jek drivers to earn extra income by having brands advertise on their vehicles, and even provide product samples in cars (e27)
• Indonesian B2B marketplace Ralali raises US$7M for Thailand expansion; Led by Japan’s SBI Group, the round also saw participation from Addventures and startup incubator-cum-investor Digital Garage (e27)
• Indonesia’s Newest Unicorn Eyes Top Slot With Help From Kiosks (Bloomberg)
• Cotton On learns secret to online payments in Malaysia; Online sales now represent about 10 per cent of total sales of $2 billion and online penetration is as high as 15 per cent for brands such as Cotton On Kids. (AFR)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Strap on the Fitbit: John Hancock to sell only interactive life insurance (Reuters)
• Why Yelp Could Rise 200% (Barron’s)
• How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Companies Surf the Wave of Big Data (Barron’s)
• Broadcom Stock Is a Cash Machine and Might Belong in Your Portfolio (Barron’s)
• Expedia Group is working with the Thai government to list more hotels outside the country’s biggest tourist hot spots on its platform, encouraging tourists to venture beyond places like Bangkok and Phuket. (Nikkei)

Life

• 14 lessons from Steve Jobs for all startup founders (TIA)
• The Demise of Blockbuster, and Other Failure Fairy Tales; When big companies collapse, the story is never simple (Medium)
• How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives: Annie Dillard on Choosing Presence Over Productivity (BP)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (19 September 2018) – Delta Electronics Shrinks Power Supply with Transphorm’s High-Voltage GaN FETs + Seneca quote on endurance

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (19 September 2018) – Delta Electronics Shrinks Power Supply with Transphorm’s High-Voltage GaN FETs + Seneca quote on endurance

Companies

• Trend Micro Launches Managed Detection and Response Service in Singapore and APAC (BI)
• Illinois-Based Daifuku Wynright Picks Hobart for Manufacturing Complex and Growth (OAOA)
• Kakao Games calls off IPO (Investor)
• Taiwan government mulls additional incentives for Taiwanese manufacturers to leave China; Delta Electronics, New Kinpo Group, and Merry Electronics have began to switch some of their Chinese manufacturing to Southeast Asia. (Taiwan News)
• Innodisk Moving at Full Speed towards IoT Integration at InnoTrans 2018 (PRNews)
• Sigurd enjoys strong high-end chip probing demand (Digitimes)
• Delta Electronics Shrinks Power Supply with Transphorm’s High-Voltage GaN FETs (Business Wire)

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

• Alibaba’s incoming chairman puts data at heart of business (Nikkei)
• What Alibaba’s investments say about its plans for the future (TIA)
• Jack Ma says it’s his responsibility to let Alibaba go, warns of protracted US-China trade war (SCMP)
• Of the 10 companies worth more than $100 billion that analysts predominantly rate as buy, Tencent has by some distance had the worst 2018 (Bloomberg)
• Tencent releases open platform to help drive AI projects at other companies (SCMP)

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

• Microsoft introduces HoloLens to businesses through Dynamics 365 apps (Reuters)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• China Tech Inc.’s Annus Horribilis: Fully Charged (Bloomberg)
• China’s tech boom leaves wide rich-poor chasm (Nikkei)
• China’s Waymo challenger Pony.ai hits the accelerator to speed up to a robotaxi fleet of 200 (SCMP)
• Luxury e-commerce in China has loads of room to grow, thanks to the country’s tech-savvy, cash-rich millennials (SCMP)
• Octopus’ transport payment monopoly under threat? – 8 in 10 passengers would pay by e-wallet or QR code if they had the option, claims Visa (SCMP)
• Indian patient-doctor platform DocPrime gets $50M for city expansion (Techcrunch)
• China Goes for Broke in Indonesian E-Commerce: Mainland tech giants are snapping up online-retail startups, but it’ll be hard to make a profit. China’s internet giants have stakes in four of Indonesia’s five largest e-commerce operators (Bloomberg)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Why Zillow Addicts Can’t Look Away; Brokers say that Zestimates can be off base, but that doesn’t stop sellers from obsessing over what the website says their home is worth. (NYT)
• Walmart is borrowing luxury’s playbook to gain an edge on Amazon in fashion (qz)
• Food delivery start-up Postmates cracks $1bn valuation; Unicorn status reached after latest $300m fundraising. Postmates expects its footprint to grow from about half of US households now to 70-75 per cent by year’s end (FT)
• The 3D fine print (Forbes)
• The Tension Is Building Between Spotify and the Music Industry (Bloomberg)
• World Economic Forum Takes On China Tech Regulation; Its Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution will serve as a think tank and testing ground for emerging-technologies policy (WSJ)
• Indigo Raises $250 Million to Bring Tech to Big Agriculture (Bloomberg)
• Set Free by Naspers, African TV Giant MultiChoice Plots Path (Bloomberg)
• Zalando’s Real Problem Isn’t Sun. It’s Amazon: Reliance on third-party labels leaves it vulnerable to comparison shopping. (Bloomberg)
• ASML optimistic about litho equipment demand in China (Digitimes)
• Microcontroller Fortunes Rise with IoT (EETimes)

Life

• Lessons From Da Vinci on Work and Life. (Medium)
• Predicting the Future with Bayes’s Theorem (Farnam Street)
• Seneca quote on endurance (VIW)
• Seeking unpredictable value creation (II)
• Future Founders, Here’s How to Spot and Build in Nonobvious Markets (First Round)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (18 September 2018) – UUUM: The importance of change in accordance with the times + Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox…How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (18 September 2018) – UUUM: The importance of change in accordance with the times + Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox…How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean

Companies

• UUUM: The importance of change in accordance with the times (Techcrunch)
• For Lifull president Takashi Inoue, emerging tech and a touch of altruism are key to success (Japan Times)
• Hikvision – Sanctions Threaten to Shoot Down China’s Spyware Star: A rare homegrown global leader runs into a U.S. backlash. (Bloomberg)

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

• Alibaba says New Retail strategy is paying off as Hema shopper data shows bigger average spending (SCMP)
• Fund transfers between Alipay and WeChat Pay around the corner as Hong Kong launches faster payments service (SCMP)

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

• Amazon Insiders Are Doing Business for Themselves; Employees are stealing internal company information for their private gain. Sound familiar? (Bloomberg)
• Nvidia Going All Robot, All the Time (EETimes)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Speculative funds repeatedly trigger circuit breakers as Chinese start-ups endure volatile Wall Street trading (SCMP)
• ‘Made In China 2025’: a peek at the robot revolution under way in the hub of the ‘world’s factory’ (SCMP)
• AI has far-reaching consequences for emerging markets (SCMP)
• India’s Ola forays into New Zealand in latest overseas push (Reuters)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Twitter Sinks After Analyst Flags Accounting ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ (Bloomberg)
• How Pinterest Became an $11 Billion Company by Organizing the World’s Hobbies (PH)
• Zalando cuts guidance after summer heatwave lingers (Reuters)
• IKEA’s services platform TaskRabbit expands to Canada (Reuters)
• Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow; To help autonomous vehicles solve inclement conditions, WaveSense will sell a sensor that can see below the ground. (Bloomberg)
• Naspers Plans New Listing of Pay-TV Unit to Focus on Internet (Bloomberg)

Life

• From lab to leader: How consumer companies can drive growth at scale with disruptive innovation; In the era of “fast products” and digital disruption, delivering growth requires putting in place new predictive consumer-growth capabilities, including innovation, based on speed, agility, and scale. (McKinsey)
• Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox…How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean (Amazon)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (17 September 2018) – 8K Miles & the Minority Shareholder + The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (17 September 2018) – 8K Miles & the Minority Shareholder + The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture

Companies

• Tencent-backed news app Qutoutiao triggers circuit breaker five times as it jumps 128 per cent in volatile Wall Street debut (SCMP)
• Grahamites Reflections on JD.com: Lessons learned from my investment (GF)
• As its trading debut looms, China’s Meituan locked in battle of super-apps (Reuters)
• 8K Miles & the Minority Shareholder (Kimi)

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

• EM technology sector cut down to size as BATs reclassified; Index revamps will see IT stocks scattered as financials reclaim pole position (FT)

• Alibaba’s Taobao jumps on short video bandwagon, launches stand-alone app to drive e-commerce (SCMP)

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

• AI, VR and fintech in focus as Microsoft takes on its first Aussie start-ups (AFR)
• AI chip war heats up as Nvidia targets smart farm machinery; US company partners with Yamaha Motor as battle with Intel grows beyond car chips (Nikkei)
• Apple Plans Another Death Blow to the Phone Carriers; Even if they don’t come in this week’s iPhone launch, virtual SIMs look inevitable. (Bloomberg)
• Google Knows Where You’ve Been, but Does It Know Who You Are? (NYT)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• China’s Silicon Valley Dream Bumps Against Reality; Integrating Hong Kong and mainland cities won’t be easy. (Bloomberg)
• ‘Winter is coming’ for China’s private market investors as economy slows, forcing many to adjust strategies (SCMP)
• China bet big on quantum computing. Now the US races to keep up. (CNN)
• Automation fails to win China convenience store war (Nikkei)
• Chatbots helping pull Hong Kong insurers into the digital world. Just don’t ask them for sympathy (SCMP)
• India Should Let Data Roam Free: Forcing companies to store locally will only hurt consumers and startups. (Bloomberg)
• Taking Offline Online: Paytm Mall aims to rival Amazon and Flipkart by offering competitive pricing and fast deliveries from offline stores in small cities (OB)
• Go-Jek in Talks to Raise at Least $2 Billion in Funding (Bloomberg)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Uber to Invest Over $150 Million in Toronto Driverless Car Hub (Bloomberg)
• An Estonian Startup Is Undercutting Billion-Dollar Gaming Stores (Bloomberg)
• Time Magazine Acquired by the Benioffs, Founders of Salesforce.com (Bloomberg)
• Michael Burry: Where the Value Isn’t: Investor talks about accounting tricks used by tech companies (GF)
• Robinhood Investing App Secretly Makes Millions Selling Millennials’ User Data To HFT Firms (ZH)
• Tesla’s Biggest Investor Lacks Conviction in its Courage: Baillie Gifford’s endorsement of Tesla isn’t quite as glowing as you might expect. (Bloomberg)

Life

• Scott Belsky – How to Conquer the Messy Middle (#336) (Tim Ferris); The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture Hardcover – October 2, 2018 (Amazon)
• The Trust Battery: My Interview with Shopify Founder Tobi Lütke [The Knowledge Project Ep. #41] (Farnam Street)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (15 September 2018) – The next phase of semiconductor growth will not depend on smartphone sales: Tokyo Electron CEO + Leadership and Life Lessons from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (15 September 2018) – The next phase of semiconductor growth will not depend on smartphone sales: Tokyo Electron CEO + Leadership and Life Lessons from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

Companies

• The next phase of semiconductor growth will not depend on smartphone sales: Tokyo Electron CEO (CNBC)
• Taiwan flexible PCB firms expand market presence. Through the upcoming debut of its China-based subsidiary Avary Holding on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), Zhen Ding is expected to raise CNY3.6 billion (US$527.2 million). Flexium Interconnect has been engaged in the development of new technologies and products associated with 5G communication applications, and has obtained new orders for such high-margin products including communication management modules and high-frequency wireless transmission modules from both the notebook and handset sectors (Digitimes)
• Citadel is a technology business that offers secure enterprise management software that helps people working in security, defence, healthcare and education make decisions with the right information. (MF)

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

• How Jack Ma went from English teacher to tech billionaire (CNN)

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

• Which Apple Suppliers Win, and Lose, From New iPhones (Barron’s)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• ByteDance to enter China’s long-form streaming video market, challenging iQiyi, Tencent Video (SCMP)
• IT home service company ShanXiuXia hauls in 80M RMB Series B; Founded in 2015, ShanXiuXia is currently providing IT home repair services in 30 cities. (KRA)
• Rare billion-dollar beast: Aussie tech unicorn Canva makes a profit (Age)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Here’s Why Yelp and Grubhub Could Keep Rising (Barron’s)
• This $2 Billion HR Startup Wants To Humanize How Small Businesses Pay Their Staff (Forbes)
• With no true competitive threats, wide-moat commercial real estate data provider CoStar Group is a borderline monopoly. (Morningstar)
• MoviePass Woes May Be Opportunity for Competitors; Rivals seek to satisfy newfound demand for theatrical subscription option (WSJ)
• Inside Deliveroo’s dark kitchens, the food delivery fight’s new front (Age)

Life

• Leadership and Life Lessons from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: Make three good decisions a day and no meetings before 10 a.m. (WSJ)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (14 September 2018) – UUUM enters Instagram and acquires Lemonade’s Influencer One for 500 million yen + Munger and the Power of Persistence: The guru’s life has been full of tragedy, but this hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (14 September 2018) – UUUM enters Instagram and acquires Lemonade’s Influencer One for 500 million yen + Munger and the Power of Persistence: The guru’s life has been full of tragedy, but this hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams

Companies

• UUUM enters Instagram and acquires Lemonade’s Influencer One for 500 million yen; the number of Instagram creators who are registered to Influencer One is 2,800. Together with the 6,570 YouTube channels that UUUM currently supports, UUUM will support nearly 10,000 creators in the future. The number of monthly viewing times of UUUM’s YouTube channels has surpassed 4 billion times (August 2018) and boasts overwhelming strength in the field of YouTuber management. (Techcrunch)
• iQiyi hopes to capture a slice of China’s silver economy with short video app Jin Shi (SCMP)
• Chinese online chemist 111 looks beyond lacklustre Nasdaq debut to strong growth at wholesale unit (SCMP)
• Tencent-Backed Personalized News App Qutoutiao’s IPO Downsized To $86M (CMN)
• China’s Nio may be facing the same issues as Tesla, according to analysts; Chinese electric-car maker burns through a lot of cash and has ‘ambitious’ sales goals (MW); NIO’s Wild Ride May Blaze Trail for More U.S. IPOs From China (Bloomberg)

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

• Ant Financial rolls out China’s first blockchain-powered electronic medical prescription service (Technode)
• Alibaba-backed internet car startup Banma secures RMB 1.6 billion in first financing round (Technode)
• What Taobao makers tell us about today’s China (Technode)
• Tencent, Lego look to pull China’s games market out of the doldrums with new offering (SCMP)

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

• The iPhone Franchise (Stratechery)
• Why it’s smart for Apple to be the Christian Dior of tech (CNN); New Apple watch could take bite out of Swiss market (Reuters)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Asia Tech Stocks Diverge From U.S., With Biggest Gap Since 1998 (Bloomberg)
• Dashed hopes and expectations: Israeli startups view China with a wary eye (Technode)
• China’s tech is addicted to debt (Technode)
• Japan’s HiNative Q&A app for language learning hits 3.4M registered users, raises $6M (Bridge)
• Epharmacies: Click to heal; The market for epharmacies is substantial but evolving a profitable business model will take time (Forbes)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• How Procore Built The Cloud’s Hottest Unicorn By Bringing Software To Low-Tech Construction Sites (Forbes)
• Is Software Eating Value Investing? (Ben Carlson)
• Walmart’s purchase of Mexico food delivery app set to spur e-commerce (Reuters)
• Spotify attracts eyes as well as ears with video ads (Reuters)

Life

• Munger and the Power of Persistence: The guru’s life has been full of tragedy, but this hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams (GF)
• 21 Quotes That (If Applied) Change You Into a Better Person (Medium)
• M&A costs to rise under proposed change to global accounting: Asian and European companies face billions of dollars in goodwill amortization (Nikkei)
• Profitable, difficult, or important? (Seth)
• Warren Buffett on P/E ratios and the future looking different from the present (VIW)
• How Self-Reflection Can Help Leaders Stay Motivated (HBR)
• Pixar’s Braintrust — Why It‘s Important for a Creative Culture (Prototypr)
• Mental Models: Make Decisions You Don’t Regret (DF)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (13 September 2018) – Kakao injects W513b into new contents subsidiary Kakao M + Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most Hardcover

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (13 September 2018) – Kakao injects W513b into new contents subsidiary Kakao M + Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most Hardcover

Companies

• Shanda Games to sell online gaming affiliate to Shenzhen-listed company at $4.4 billion (Technode)
• Pinduoduo stock soars 19 per cent as it aligns with genuine brands to clean up counterfeit image (SCMP)
• Kakao injects W513b into new contents subsidiary Kakao M (Investor)
• Backend firm Kingpak expanding capacity for auto CIS (Digitimes)
• LG Display struggles for footing after LCD forecasting error leads to crisis (Reuters)
• Xero to hero: Accounting platform finds its feet as Rod Drury steps back (Age)

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

• Alibaba-backed apparel-sharing company YCloset brings sharing economy to a new level (KRA)

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

• Apple’s new innovation: tap fear as well as greed (Reuters); The new Apple Watch is going to have more of your health data than your doctor (qz); Apple Adds Heart-Monitoring, Fall-Detection Features to Its Watch; Addition of medical apps broadens appeal of device originally marketed as fitness and fashion product (WSJ)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Coffee pod company iCapsulate collapses into administration after being offered biggest ever Shark Tank deal (SmartCo)
• Driverless cars are coming as on-demand Intellicar prepares to hit Perth streets (AFR)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Goldman Sees Only Headwinds for Semiconductors (Bloomberg); Semiconductor Pricing Woes May Linger, Prompting Cuts at Goldman (Bloomberg)
• ‘Expedia of Latin America’ Could Jump 140% (Barron’s)
• Wayfair: Without a Clearer Path to Profits, the Stock May Be ‘Topping Out’ (Barron’s)
• How Tech is Drawing Shoppers Back to Bricks-and-Mortar Stores; Innovative dressing rooms. Apps to choose clothes in advance. Introducing the digitally enhanced shopping trip (WSJ)
• Opendoor Acquires Open Listings To Make Buying A Home Easier (Crunchbase)
• The global smartphone supply chain needs an upgrade: Its vulnerabilities are smartphone saturation, weak firms and protectionism (Economist)

Life

• Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most Hardcover – September 4, 2018 (Amazon)
• a16z Podcast: Seeing into the Future – Making Decisions, Telling Stories (a16z)
• How to Be a Person Who Can Make a Damn Decision (MM)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (12 September 2018) – Vision-automation technology is taking over the factory floor + Fear, Joseph Campbell noticed, often reveals itself as a purpose

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (12 September 2018) – Vision-automation technology is taking over the factory floor + Fear, Joseph Campbell noticed, often reveals itself as a purpose

Companies

• See Food: Why Robots Are Producing More of What You Eat; Vision-automation technology is taking over the factory floor, a testing ground for adoption in self-driving cars, drones. While vision sensors are good at scanning images for what’s missing, robotic eyes face a wall in inspecting objects from multiple angles, according to engineers at Kyoto, Japan-based Omron Corp. Their proposed solution: big data. To teach a sensor to distinguish a chocolate chip from a burned bit in a cookie, for example, Omrom is using AI to analyze thousands of inspection results. (WSJ)
• This Big Chip Deal May Be Small Enough to Win: No major red flags for Renesas’s IDT acquisition in politically risky climate for chip deals (WSJ)
• In Tesla’s shadow, China’s NIO prices IPO at low end of target: source (Reuters)
• Delta Electronics August revenues hit record (Digitimes)
• Leading taxi-hailing app providers in Japan and South Korea – Japan Taxi Co. and Kakao Mobility Corp – to collaborate (JT)

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

• Alibaba takes a 10% stake in one of Russia’s biggest tech players Mail.Ru Group for $484m (WSJ)
• Hong Kong’s first pure digital insurance venture, Tencent-backed Blue, to start selling policies (SCMP)

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

• New Way to Play FANG Stocks Falls Short for Some Investors; ‘Auto-callable’ notes tied to tech stocks are gaining in popularity but aren’t always delivering large payouts (WSJ)
• US-made iPhones would cost $150 more, supplier says as tariffs loom; Trump’s dig at Apple underscores challenge for assemblers of rethinking China supply chain (Nikkei)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• China suspends carpool services following murders (AsiaOne)
• Didi falls way behind Uber on road to IPO (Reuters)
• Got a problem? Ask China’s online agony aunts (Tribune)
• Funding squeeze to deflate China’s startup ‘bubble,’ says US incubator (Nikkei)
• How a Taoist Temple Scion Grew His Quirky Online Retailer 1,600%; The 486 founder has built a cult following with Youtube advice (Bloomberg)
• Telehealth apps rise in Southeast Asia due to doctor scarcity (Nikkei)
• Personal finance portal MoneySmart Group aims to equip consumers with the tools to become their own best financial advisers. (BT)
• India’s top digital payments firm bets on local expertise to fend off rivals (Reuters)
• More than a hotel-listing platform: Zuzu Hospitality Solutions also acts as a consultancy, helping small independent hotels manage their operations and marketing. (BT)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Roku: A Premium Is ‘Warranted’ as the Company Grows (Barron’s)
• More Enterprise-Tech Ventures Going Public (WSJ)
• SEC Seeks Software To Monitor Market-Moving Social-Media Posts (ZH)

Life

• Fear, Joseph Campbell noticed, often reveals itself as a purpose, a trade, or an occupation. These are endeavours that rapture the individual, but are, perhaps, looked upon by the ego and society as disagreeable for many reasons. The dragon is everything that you fear. It holds your anxieties, your lack of confidence, the expectations of others and also your own limiting expectations of yourself (Medium)
• How to Maintain a State of Creative ‘Flow’ (Medium)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (11 September 2018) – Trend Micro and HITRUST Launch New Company to Provide Cyber Risk Management as a Service to Select U.S. Enterprises + Where the wild things are. It’s a law of the universe: Creativity always starts at the edge

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (11 September 2018) – Trend Micro and HITRUST Launch New Company to Provide Cyber Risk Management as a Service to Select U.S. Enterprises + Where the wild things are. It’s a law of the universe: Creativity always starts at the edge

Companies

• Trend Micro and HITRUST Launch New Company to Provide Cyber Risk Management as a Service to Select U.S. Enterprises (BW)
• Renesas to Acquire U.S. Chipmaker IDT for $6.7 Billion (Bloomberg)
• Altaba Will Raise $4.3 Billion by Exiting Yahoo Japan Stake (Bloomberg)
• China’s Ctrip in talks to invest $100m in Zomato’s $400m round (KRA)
• Video streamer iQiyi signs deal with India’s Eros to bring Bollywood blockbusters to China (SCMP)
• Gentrack launches AWS cloud integration services for utilities (Reseller)

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

• Why Jack Ma thought about quitting Alibaba in 2001 (TIA); Jack Ma: A Showman Who Has Shown China a New Way to Do Business; Alibaba’s executive chairman has helped light his nation’s tech boom and inspired countless followers (WSJ); Alibaba’s New Boss: The Finance Vet Who Quietly Shook Things Up (Bloomberg); Jack Ma’s exit plan just raises more questions (Reuters)
• Hitachi and Tencent team up on ‘internet of things’ (Nikkei)
• Samsung and Hyundai Investing in Solid-State Battery Producer (Bloomberg)

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

• Facebook and Its Users Are Telling Different Stories (Bloomberg)
• Amazon’s Trademark Applications Hint at More Fashion (Bloomberg)
• Apple becomes the most shorted stock in the US as iPhone Xs launch looms (AFR)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• ZhouPu Data creates ERP system with a sharing economy in warehousing to increase supply chain efficiency in retail (KRA)
• China’s Didi Chuxing rolls out in-car audio recording as part of safety overhaul (SCMP)
• China’s games industry at a turning point amid regulatory crackdown, with Korea offering a vision of its future (SCMP)
• Indonesia is suffering from early stage fatigue (KRA)
• Indian Shopping Sensation Finds Online Retailing Is Rabidly Competitive (Forbes)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• How Airbnb structures its data to help users find relevant search results (TIA)

Life

• The Hong Kong Researcher Pointing Out Red Flags at Chinese Firms (Bloomberg)
• Where the wild things are. It’s a law of the universe: Creativity always starts at the edge. (Perell)
• Disruption By Design (Prototypr)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (10 September 2018) – Japan’s Recruit employs AI to stop workers from quitting

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (10 September 2018) – Japan’s Recruit employs AI to stop workers from quitting

Companies

• Digital media upstarts step up assault on Japan’s news business; Uzabase’s NewsPicks’ paid subscriber base has been growing fast, though it still comes to only about 74,000 (Nikkei)
• Japan’s Recruit employs AI to stop workers from quitting (Nikkei)
• Taiwanese firms losing interest in China: MOEA; a string of Taiwanese electronics firms including Delta Electronics, New Kinpo Group, and Merry Electronics have began to switch some of their Chinese manufacturing to Southeast Asia (Taiwan News)
• Xero to hero: Accounting platform finds its feet as Rod Drury steps back (Age)

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

• As Jack Ma Prepares to Move on, Here’s a Look at Alibaba’s Journey (Bloomberg); Jack Ma’s Letter to Staff on His Retirement: Full Text (Bloomberg); Alibaba’s Jack Ma: Smart People Need a ‘Fool’ to Lead Them (Bloomberg); Jack Ma to unveil Alibaba’s succession plan, paving the way for younger talent to take over (SCMP); Meet Daniel Zhang, the ‘free and unfettered spirit’ who will succeed Jack Ma as Alibaba’s chairman (SCMP)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Online insurance start-up OneDegree raises HK$200 million to fund push to cover Hong Kong’s dogs and cats (SCMP)
• OKEx blowout exposes soft underbelly of lightly regulated cryptocurrency transactions (SCMP)
• A short history of the QR code in China and why Southeast Asia is next (Technode)
• They’re the king of lock-screen advertising. Next stop: world domination (TIA)
• Go-Jek fuels digital content strategy by backing online media firm Kumparan (KRA)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Former Coles Myer CEO Dennis Eck says the rise of e-commerce giants such as Amazon has reshaped the retail landscape and paved the way for the rise of micro-brands in consumer goods that are able to build a presence very quickly. (AFR)

Life

• The Shadow Side of Greatness: Many of the qualities that make people great have shadow sides as well. (James Clear)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (8 September 2018) – Sinbon Electronics hits record sales for the sixth consecutive month + The current tech bubble is a Chinese import: A raft of tech IPOs have arrived on U.S. shores from China, with minimal operating histories and convoluted corporate structures

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (8 September 2018) – Sinbon Electronics hits record sales for the sixth consecutive month + The current tech bubble is a Chinese import: A raft of tech IPOs have arrived on U.S. shores from China, with minimal operating histories and convoluted corporate structures

Companies

• Jinri Toutiao rival Qutoutiao reduces IPO financing volume by nearly 50% (Technode)
• Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) Co., which makes Wi-Fi modules for products such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone, expects earnings to improve in 2019 as the squeeze from surging component costs and lackluster shipments eases. (Bloomberg)
• Mechanical motion control component and industrial robot maker Hiwin Technologies posts strong August revenues (Digitimes)
• Leica Geosystems has selected Getac’s fully rugged ZX70 Android tablet for the new Leica Zeno GG04 Plus Tablet package, designed for utilities, public services, transportation and construction. (GPSW); Getac sees August revenues increase 17% on year (Digitimes); Toledo police have selected Getac to provide 305 body cameras for all field officers after technical problems with previous cameras led to their return (MJN)
• Cable assembly and connector maker Sinbon Electronics has reported consolidated revenues of NT$1.471 billion (US$47.9 million) for August, hitting a record for the sixth consecutive month with growth of 3.18% sequentially and 21.07% on year (Digitimes)

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

• Alibaba Invests Undisclosed C1 Round In Chinese Mobile Phone Recycling Firm Huishoubao (CMN)
• Alibaba’s Jack Ma to retire as chairman on Monday (Nikkei)
• Goldman Sachs, Tencent Leads $450M In Chinese Fresh Produce E-Commerce Platform MissFresh (CMN)
• After just a few weeks, WeChat’s new challenger is fading away (TIA)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• The current tech bubble is a Chinese import: A raft of tech IPOs have arrived on U.S. shores from China, with minimal operating histories and convoluted corporate structures (MW)
• Thailand’s aCommerce to go for IPO in 2020; expansion to Vietnam on the anvil (e27)
• Lippo tycoon looks to young-gun grandson to build digital empire; Mochtar Riady’s heir apparent, John Riady, makes mark in Indonesian e-payments (Nikkei)
• Food fight! The battle for the food delivery market; With so many players battling it out, is the food delivery business model viable? (BT)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• The Story of Box: A Unicorn’s Journey to Public Success (Barron’s)
• How E*Trade CIO Faces Obstacles to Agile; ‘It’s all well and good until you run into cultural barriers,’ Lance Braunstein says (WSJ)

Life

• Why great leaders seek out uncomfortable truths; Individual and group biases make us blind to risks and our own weaknesses. (MT)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (7 September 2018) – Japan’s Nidec sees electric vehicles driving profits as it plans for future

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (7 September 2018) – Japan’s Nidec sees electric vehicles driving profits as it plans for future

Companies

• Japan’s Nidec sees electric vehicles driving profits as it plans for future (Reuters)
• Daifuku exhibits top logistical technology in Thailand (AN)
• Tencent Music will reportedly file for its US-based IPO on September 7. The company hopes to raise $2 billion at a valuation of up to $31 billion (Technode)
• Meituan wants to help restaurants manage better with $4.4bn IPO (Nikkei)
• Billionaire Founder Locked Up? JD.com’s Board Can’t Meet Without Its Mighty Boss; Corporate clause shows Liu Qiangdong’s tight control of his company; many tech firms have structures that give founders a viselike grip (WSJ); At JD.com, CEO Richard Liu has an iron grip and no clear successor (Reuters)
• Touch and fingerprint sensor supplier Elan Microelectronics hit record revenue for 2nd consecutive month (Digitimes)
• Realtek posts record August revenues (Digitimes)
• Himax teams up with MediaTek, Megvii for 3D sensing solutions (Digitimes)
• KakaoTalk users look forward to more improvements (Investor); Kakao Mobility taps Japanese taxi market (Investor)
• Nearmap Ltd wants $70 million to fund its international expansion plans (Yahoo)
• HDFC Bank’s fintech footprints; The private sector lender was one of the earliest to partner fintech firms for digital solutions (Forbes)

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

• Alipay opens unmanned apparel shop in Hong Kong; Ant Financial looks to promote mobile payments in city (Nikkei)
• Billionaire Jack Ma Prepares for Life After Alibaba (Bloomberg)
• Tencent signs partnership deal with coffee startup Luckin in challenge to Alibaba-Starbucks tie-up (SCMP)
• SoftBank Is Seeking Loans From Banks Pitching for Big IPO (Bloomberg)

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

• Apple: A Media ‘Bundle’ Worth $37 Billion? (Barron’s)
• In Apple’s Third Act, the iPhone Plays Supporting Role; Wearables are today a relatively tiny business for Apple, but they could someday be the company’s biggest driver of revenue and customer retenti (WSJ)
• Facebook’s Shrinking Margins Top List of Woes Weighing on Stock (Bloomberg); 1 In 4 Facebook Users Delete Facebook App As Millennial Exodus Continues (ZH)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Didi admits RMB 4 billion net loss in the first half of 2018 (Technode)
• China’s 5G Bonanza May Leave Investors on Hold (Bloomberg)
• China’s bike sharing industry is ‘immature and unreasonable’, needs regulation, says state media commentary (SCMP)
• Roger Yuen is the CEO of Clozette, an online lifestyle and social network that has a collective reach of more than 450 million eyeballs, drawn to the content created by the platform’s 3,000 content creators. (BT)
• GIC still sees gems in tech sector despite stretched valuations; Fund has found firms with substantial technology capabilities that trade at ‘old economy’ valuations (BT)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Innovation to drive future semiconductor market growth, says Morris Chang (Digitimes)
• Mutual Fund Giants Make DevOps Startup PagerDuty a Unicorn (Bloomberg)
• Everybody Wants to Take a Bite Out of Big Tech (Bloomberg)
• Waymo, Uber Driverless Projects Make Scanning Sensors Cheaper (Bloomberg)
• Car-Sharing Boom Gets An Unlikely New Entrant (Bloomberg)
• As Tech Selloff Worsens, Options Traders Brace for More Bleeding (Bloomberg)
• MasterClass Has Celebrity Instructors and $136 Million. Will Students Show Up? Would you pay $90 for a video cooking lesson from Gordon Ramsay? (Bloomberg)
• Financial software maker SS&C to buy Intralinks in $1.5 billion deal (Reuters)
• Elastic, a search-focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Files To Go Public (CrunchBase)
• Insight Venture Partners buys content management platform Episerver for $1.1 billion (Techcrunch)
• Short seller Andrew Left sues Tesla and Elon Musk, claiming stock manipulation (CNBC)

Life

• Stop Wasting Time on the Unimportant: 7 Questions to Eliminate the Non-Essential and Focus on the Critical (Medium)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (6 September 2018) – Are Robots All Hype? One Company May Have the Answer; Japanese motor maker Nidec, a bellwether for manufacturing trends, has been investing heavily in automation + Friedrich Nietzsche: Why Life Isn’t Meaningless

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (6 September 2018) – Are Robots All Hype? One Company May Have the Answer; Japanese motor maker Nidec, a bellwether for manufacturing trends, has been investing heavily in automation + Friedrich Nietzsche: Why Life Isn’t Meaningless

Companies

• Are Robots All Hype? One Company May Have the Answer; Japanese motor maker Nidec, a bellwether for manufacturing trends, has been investing heavily in automation. (Bloomberg)

• Alipay partners with Yahoo Japan to expand mobile payments reach (Nikkei)
• China’s Tesla Wannabe Is Asking Investors to Pay for Potential; NIO seeks market cap above $8 billion with limited production. Tencent-backed NIO among 5 local EV makers considered unicorns (Bloomberg)
• Meituan Dianping to halt ride-hailing expansion in China amid crisis at industry leader Didi (SCMP)
• Chinese e-commerce portal Yunji Weidian taps banks for U.S. IPO – source (Reuters)
• Kakao to link Korea-Japan taxi-hailing apps; South Korean company will invest $14m in JapanTaxi (Nikkei)
• Xero launches open API for banks to integrate (AFR)

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

• Tencent Bets $1 Billion on China Housing Boom With Stake in Property Brokerage; The fundraising is likely to value the Beijing-based company, which has plans for an IPO, at about $13 billion (WSJ)
• Deal-shy chipmaker TSMC says it’s open to memory acquisition; Apple supplier under pressure to diversify as demand shifts beyond phones (Nikkei); TSMC founder Chang warns of Chinese dominance in chip industry; Industry icon sees 6% growth in sector over 20 years, double that of global GDP (Nikkei)

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

• The End of Amazon: How, when and why the e-commerce giant will fall. (BOF)
• Amazon enters Japan’s cashless payments fray; US conglomerate sees opportunity to sway reluctant Japanese consumers (Nikkei)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Online home leasing platform Ziroom caught in scandal after death of tenant (Technode)
• AI powerhouse SenseTime shifts focus to cars and medicine; Hong Kong unicorn will reach beyond surveillance, says co-founder (Nikkei)
• ‘Social buyers’ deal Japanese goods to online shoppers in China (Nikkei)
• Zomato acquires $18m online catering marketplace (TIA)
• Two Years Ago, India Lacked Fast, Cheap Internet-One Billionaire Changed All That; Mukesh Ambani’s national 4G network for Reliance Jio, which charges pennies for data, is bringing hundreds of millions online for the first time (WSJ)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• The Tension Is Building Between Spotify and the Music Industry (Bloomberg)
• Airbnb for Work expands to include experiences, offsite meeting services (AFR)
• Technology delivered: Implications for cost, customers, and competition in the last-mile ecosystem (Mckinsey)
• Booming technology stocks are testing the limits of investors’ appetite for one sector (CNBC)

Life

• Friedrich Nietzsche: Why Life Isn’t Meaningless (Medium)
• The State of Your Attention Determines the State Of Your Life (Medium)
• Concealed Emotions (Morgan Housel)
• Thriving in a Digital World: My Conversation with Stratechery’s Ben Thompson [The Knowledge Project Ep. #40] (Farnam Street)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (5 September 2018) – Trend Micro adds analytics capabilities to Deep Discovery + Our Crisis of Heart: How compassion can strengthen our emotional responses, our minds — and our tech

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (5 September 2018) – Trend Micro adds analytics capabilities to Deep Discovery + Our Crisis of Heart: How compassion can strengthen our emotional responses, our minds — and our tech

Companies

• Trend Micro adds analytics capabilities to Deep Discovery (TP); Trend Micro Teams Up with Moxa to Secure and Accelerate Industrial Internet of Things Applications (BW); Trend Micro Emphasizes Importance of IoT Security at Pwn2Own Tokyo 2018 (BI)
• Line to upgrade mobile payment with $1.3bn bond issuance; Chat app provider will allocate money to fintech and AI development (Nikkei); Japan’s Line raising $1.3 billion via convertible bonds for money businesses (Reuters)
• China’s iQiyi Sports gets more cash to expand football, tennis and golf video streaming (SCMP)
• China’s AI-Powered English Teacher LAIX Files For US$100M US IPO (CMN)
• Chinese mobile games player CMGE seeks Hong Kong listing after quitting Nasdaq (SCMP)
• Meituan updated prospectus reveals huge losses in Mobike ahead of HK IPO (KRA); Meituan’s war footing helps keep it on top in tough Chinese on-demand services market (SCMP)
• ASE COO sheds light on future IC development (Digitimes)

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

• Samsung Joins Race to the Bottom for Global Smartphone Prices; South Korean company targets India to fend off Chinese companies trying to dominate market for inexpensive phones (WSJ)

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

• Facebook thinks it can make social video happen where Netflix couldn’t (qz)
• Instagram building a standalone shopping app for users: The Verge (Reuters)
• Amazon Joins Apple in Climb to $1 Trillion Market Value (Bloomberg); Amazon at $1 Trillion Is More Dream Than Reality; Its market value is a vision of the future, not the present. (Bloomberg); Always ‘leaning into the future,’ Jeff Bezos rockets to richest person on the planet, worth $166 billion (JT); Jeff Bezos: Customer Trust ‘Is What Allows You to Expand’ (Barron’s); At $1 Trillion, Amazon Is Still Not Its Stock Price (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• China’s tech ecosystems and the barriers between them (Technode)
• In China, a new app is taking on WeChat (TIA)
• Who Wins and Loses If China Creates a New Mobile-Phone Giant (Bloomberg)
• GoGoVan founder gets a crash course in management after expanding into mainland China (SCMP)
• Morris Chang to deliver speech at forum marking 60th year of IC development (Digitimes)
• Indonesia’s Go-Jek to partner with peer-to-peer lending firms (Reuters)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Morgan Stanley’s Long Romance of Palantir Pays Off as IPO Nears (Bloomberg)
• Zara owner Inditex to sell all its brands online by 2020 (Reuters)
• Tesla’s RoboTaxi Worth a Fraction of Waymo, Morgan Stanley Says (Bloomberg)
• How Slack’s Content Strategy Expanded from a Single Page to a Media Company (Medium)
• Pinterest and Grubhub’s Former Growth Lead on Building Content Loops (FR)

Life

• 12 Brutally Honest Lessons about Life and Entrepreneurship (Medium)
• A Few Principles for Thinking Clearly (Medium)
• The Decision Matrix: How to Prioritize What Matters (Farnam Street)
• Here’s how to learn absolutely anything, according to a world expert (qz)
• How Two Designers Created Airbnb-and Turned It Into a $30 Billion Company (PH)
• Our Crisis of Heart: How compassion can strengthen our emotional responses, our minds — and our tech (Medium)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (4 September 2018) – Delta Electronics cumulative LED streetlamp shipments reach over 600,000

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (4 September 2018) – Delta Electronics cumulative LED streetlamp shipments reach over 600,000

Companies

• Shin-Etsu to boost silicone output by 50% as new rules and trade war hit China rivals; Japanese chemicals major to spend 110bn yen to disperse production (Nikkei)
• Tencent-Backed movie ticketing service Maoyan files for Hong Kong IPO (Technode)
• Chinese home improvement platform Tubatu heads for $200M HK IPO (KRA)
• JD CEO’s arrest steps on governance landmine (Reuters); Richard Liu, high-flying CEO of JD.com, has fostered ‘clean’ reputation (Reuters); JD goes into ride-hailing (Technode)
• ‘Made in China 2025’ companies slump as subsidies taper; Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. and BOE Technology Group — the world’s largest producers of automotive batteries and liquid crystal displays — reported sharply lower profit (Nikkei)
• Delta Electronics and GM want to speed up electric-car charging (DT); Delta Electronics cumulative LED streetlamp shipments reach over 600,000 (Digitimes)

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

• Alibaba Cloud to scale down US expansion efforts (Technode)
• Alibaba-Backed Souche Raises $578 Million in New Financing; The online car-trading service is valued at almost $3 billion; Souche is trying to build a software suite for car dealers (Bloomberg)

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

• In India, Google races to parry the rise of Facebook (Reuters)
• Amazon’s pricing tactic is a trap for buyers and sellers alike; The retailer’s behaviour parallels financial groups’ lending practices pre-2008 crash (FT)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• A look at Toutiao’s $75b valuation: Warranted premium or overpriced stock? Is Toutiao’s $75b valuation justified or just a hype? (KRA)
• South Korea allots first money from $9bn start-up fund: Seoul aims to boost growth areas including drone tech and AI to stay competitive (FT)
• Berkshire Hathaway’s Deal With Paytm Is A Game Changer For India’s E-Commerce (Forbes)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• The Risk of a Vicious Funding Circle in Fintech; High hopes and valuations have a habit of bumping into reality. (Bloomberg)
• PayPal disrupts $2.5b gift card market with digital shopfront (AFR)

Life

• John Malone: ‘I told Warren Buffett not to invest in Bill Gates before Microsoft went public’ (Telegraph)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (3 September 2018) – Appen targets new sectors, but doesn’t need new customers for growth + How to Be Brave When You’re Feeling Scared: The Secret to Performing Under Pressure (

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (3 September 2018) – Appen targets new sectors, but doesn’t need new customers for growth + How to Be Brave When You’re Feeling Scared: The Secret to Performing Under Pressure (

Companies

• Nidec to buy 5 German robotics makers for $450m (Nikkei)
• China’s Meituan Dianping said to price Hong Kong IPO, valuing services platform at up to US$55 billion (SCMP)
• JD’s FMCG B2B unit partners with China Mobile on convenience store project (Technode)
• 10 questions with TechnologyOne chief Ed Chung (AFR)
• Afterpay and the US: a match made in heaven, or a potential disaster? (AFR)
• Appen targets new sectors, but doesn’t need new customers for growth (AFR)

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

• Alibaba leads China’s drive to secure new blockchain technologies; Tech companies forge ahead in patent applications for alternative uses (Nikkei)
• Alisports CEO says e-sports to move away from violent content as it seeks Olympics inclusion (SCMP)
• Tencent’s AI aided diagnosis can indentify people with Parkinson’s diseases in three minutes (Technode)
• QQ, the grandaddy of China’s social media scene, gains new life by appealing to Generation Z (SCMP)

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

• Apple’s next big product will be computer glasses, mounting evidence suggests (AFR)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Apple Music taps Douyin to boost subscriber base in China (KRA)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Quantum computing: the power to think outside the box; With potential applications in healthcare and finance, the technology promises an exponential gain in computing power (FT)
• Women turn to podcasting to have their voices heard; from comedy to controversial topics, medium offers a platform away from traditional male-led media (SCMP)

Life

• How to Be Brave When You’re Feeling Scared: The Secret to Performing Under Pressure (Medium)
• What Einstein teaches us about founding a startup (TIA)

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (1 September 2018) – Tech Stocks Could Be Winners in Big Sector Shift + 100 Inspirational Quotes from the World’s Best Business Leaders

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (1 September 2018) – Tech Stocks Could Be Winners in Big Sector Shift + 100 Inspirational Quotes from the World’s Best Business Leaders

Companies

• Renesas chases $6bn deal for IDT to enhance self-driving chips: Once-troubled Japanese chipmaker is on the hunt in US (Nikkei); Renesas steps into fabless future to lead self-driving age; Acquisition plan reflects industry’s shift from production to chip design (Nikkei)
• China’s Meituan Dianping sets HK IPO valuation at up to $55 billion: sources (Reuters)
• Delta Electronics to develop extreme fast EV charger with subsidy from US Department of Energy (Digitimes)
• Touch panel supplier General Interface Solution (GIS) is expected to kick off shipments of its third-generation ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensors in the second half of 2018 for premium smartphone models be launched in 2019 (Digitimes)
• Taiwan suppliers of network communication chips are busy ramping up their shipments to fulfill increasing orders from web giants, cloud service providers and datacenter operators mainly in the US and China (Digitimes)
• Serko is a technology company that develops software to help client firms better manage their business travel expenses. (MF)

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

• China’s Latest Step to Curb Games and Play Wallops Tencent (Bloomberg); Can China’s Government Really Limit How Long Kids Play Games? (Bloomberg)

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

• Warren Buffett: Apple investing in Tesla is a ‘very poor idea’ (MW)
• What the hell is going on with Apple? There’s a creeping undercurrent of discontent among its customers as quality control and customer service seem to be slipping from their previous heights. (qz)
• A Market Shakeup Is Pushing Alphabet and Facebook Out of the Tech Sector (Barron’s)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Chinese tech giants burn cash and users are paying for it (Technode)
• Audio sharing platform Ximalaya FM launches smart speaker to aid Communist Party members with studies (SCMP)
• Payments via QR codes slowly becoming more widespread in Japan (JT)
• Buzzvil acquires No.1 lockscreen app in India, Pakistan (Investor)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Tech Stocks Could Be Winners in Big Sector Shift (Barron’s)

• Salesforce Duo Makes the Case for Co-CEOs in Tech (Barron’s)
• Mobile App Allows Users to Invest in Classic Cars (Barron’s)
• Why Walmart Shoppers are Finding More Items ‘Out of Stock’; Retailer has changed e-commerce system so that it doesn’t fulfill orders it deems too expensive to ship (WSJ)
• SEC Shouldn’t Open Up Unicorn Hunting to Mom and Pop; The private market’s ability to limit hype and investment is a feature, not a bug. (Bloomberg)
• Medtech firms get personal with digital twins (Reuters)

Life

• 100 Inspirational Quotes from the World’s Best Business Leaders [Infographic] (Medium)