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)