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)