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)