H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (15 November 2018) – Language and search data provider Appen has upgraded its full-year guidance, as demand from the tech giants for information to power their artificial intelligence algorithms continues to boom

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (15 November 2018) – Language and search data provider Appen has upgraded its full-year guidance, as demand from the tech giants for information to power their artificial intelligence algorithms continues to boom

Companies

• Quartz plans paid-for business coverage and new app; New services are digital publisher’s first moves since it was bought by Uzabase (FT)
• Fixstars Announces The Release of Expansion Microscopy Studio Including The World’s Fastest Deconvolution Software (PR Newswire)
• Koei wins China lawsuit over pirated ‘Three Kingdoms’ games; Operator of website 3DM forced to end distribution and pay $230,000 (Nikkei)
• Appen upgrades guidance as demand for data grows, shares jump (AFR)

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

• Now’s Not the Time to Celebrate Tencent Earnings; Games remain a problem, while one-time items and new businesses propped up numbers for the Chinese internet company. (Bloomberg); Tencent Longs for The Good Old Days for Games; Beijing will need to show more leniency on approving new videogames if the Chinese tech giant’s shares are to recover (WSJ); Tencent: funny games; Plans to reduce a dependence on gaming make sense (FT); Tencent’s WeChat Giant Is Still Quick on Its Feet; Revenue from its social advertising unit helped prop up sales, helping ease concern about a weaker games business. (Bloomberg); Tencent’s Big Beat Falls Flat With Analysts Pining for New Games (Bloomberg)
• Tencent in Talks to Join Group Bidding for Amer Sports (Bloomberg)

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

• Google wants its virtual assistant in every room of your house (CNN)
• Google and Facebook Still Rule Search, but Amazon’s Catching Up (Barron’s)
• Amazon to See Soaring Profits From Cloud Computing, Evercore Says (Barron’s)
• A matter of volume – threat from ascendant Chinese phones hangs over Apple (Reuters); Apple’s Longest Sell-Off Since April Has Cost Investors $107 Billion (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• China’s artificial intelligence ambitions hit hurdles; Investment drops as momentum fades (FT)
• Inside food delivery in China, and its implications for the SEA market; Across China, hundreds of millions of VC dollars are transforming the way people eat. A snapshot. (KRA)
• China’s Tech Giants Are Primed for More Pain; An awful year for the country’s national champions may have been just a warmup. (Bloomberg)
• Tik Tok operator ByteDance passes Uber as No.1 unicorn; Chinese developer behind popular 15-second video app valued at $75bn (Nikkei)
• China Is About to Shake Up the World of Electric Cars (Bloomberg)
• How to Top the Charts in China; Foreign brands and celebrities need to figure out the country’s unique, and insanely obsessive, fan culture. (Bloomberg)
• Behind China’s Startup Surge: Meritocracy and ‘Growth Hacks’; ‘No monopoly is safe’ in China, says Ben Harburg, managing partner at MSA Capital (WSJ)
• Vehicles offering mobile ATMs and other financial services increasingly in demand in Japan after disasters (JT)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Software for Plumbers and Electricians Is a $1.7 Billion Business (Bloomberg)
• Tempted to Expense that Strip Club as a Business Dinner? AI Is Watching; Algorithmic auditors are exposing employee expense fraud. (Bloomberg)
• Uber: a global busyness; Flurry of expansion has come at a cost to revenue growth (FT); Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1 Billion (Bloomberg); Uber Announces Rewards Program for Ride-Hailing, Food Delivery (Bloomberg)
• Digital legal papers give greater access to justice; Secure systems will lower cost barriers and extend the rule of law (FT); Legal tech uses AI to help business to help itself; Start-ups, established law firms and big organisations are racing to transform professional services (FT); Algorithms tame ambiguities in use of legal data; Machines learn to understand meaning in order to assess contracts and extract trends (FT)
• Language matters: the real meaning of Big Data; ‘Etymology can give a startling new perspective on many of the phrases we frequently toss around in business’ (FT)
• Resideo Still Looks Like a Smart Smart-Home Play (Barron’s)
• Citrix Stock Is Surging This Year With a New CEO (Barron’s)
• SAP chief confident investors will eventually laud Qualtrics deal; The $8bn acquisition shows how serious European group is in challenging Salesforce (FT)
• AI Edges to Factory Floor (EE Times)

Life

• How to Weigh Your Options and Decide Wisely: Benjamin Franklin’s Pioneering Pros and Cons Framework (BP)
• 50 Successful Companies With Minimal Funding (Crunchbase)