H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (22 December 2018) – ‘Canada’s Warren Buffett’ Drives His Own Pickup Truck: On the road with billionaire Jim Pattison

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (22 December 2018) – ‘Canada’s Warren Buffett’ Drives His Own Pickup Truck: On the road with billionaire Jim Pattison

Companies

• Line Man, the assistant service under Line Thailand, expects online ordering and delivery to become mainstream by 2023, thanks to urbanisation and the digital lifestyle. (BP)
• Sony’s turnaround will be an activist casting call (Reuters)
• Foxconn plans $9bn China chip project amid trade war (Nikkei)
• Info Edge invests more in ed-tech startup NoPaperForms (VCC)

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

• Baidu Maps tests traffic alarm for emergency services (Technode)

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

• ‘Kill your foster parents’: Amazon’s Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment (Reuters); Here’s How Amazon’s Alexa Hooks You (SUP)
• Nvidia’s 54 percent plunge this quarter makes it the biggest loser in S&P 500 (CNBC)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Chinese bike-sharing startup Ofo went global. Now it may go bust (CNN)
• Short video app Kuaishou doubles down on domestic e-commerce (Technode)
• HNA Group is in discussions to sell Ingram Micro, one of America’s largest distributors of personal computers and other technology products, for $7.5 billion (Nikkei)
• What Will Happen to Chinese Solar Stocks as Beijing’s Support Dims? (Barron’s)
• AI head hunting service “scouty” raised 300 million yen (Techcrunch)
• Japan’s Farmnote, developer of wearables and SaaS for dairy cows, raises $3.5M (Bridge)
• SoftBank’s Vision Fund nearing $1.5 billion investment in SE Asia’s Grab: source (Reuters)
• Woowa Brothers becomes ‘unicorn’ after raising US$320m (Investor)
• Indonesian e-wallet OVO sees 75 times transactions growth in 2018 amidst local mobile payment momentum (KRA)
• Singapore’s RedDoorz Is Building A Standard For Business And Domestic Travel Across Southeast Asia (Forbes)
• India’s Biometric Feat: Big Boon or Big Brother? (WSJ)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• How apps like Fitbit, Waze, and Duolingo use gamification in their design (TNW)
• Existential education error: Failing to train students on software (Techcrunch)
• California lets self-driving startup Zoox offer autonomous rides (Reuters)
• The Competitive Landscape of AI Startups (HBR)
• Zynga buys Empires & Puzzles gamemaker in largest deal to date (Reuters)
• As FAANG stocks falter, fund managers make bets on survivors (Reuters)
• Twilio Is Up 400% Since Its IPO and That Provides Hope for the Unicorns (Barron’s)
• What’s Next for Silicon Valley? Our VC Roundtable Points the Way (Barron’s)
• Why Investors Should be Wary as the Unicorns Finally Seek IPOs (Barron’s)
• Chat Startup Discord Tops $2 Billion Valuation; The company plans to spend $150 million to move into new areas, including selling videogames online (WSJ)
• Online clothing retailers hunt for better fit to cut costly returns (Reuters)
• Payment Stocks Are Poised for a Sunny 2019 (Bloomberg)
• Delivery Businesses Had A Good 2018. What’s Next? (Bloomberg); Delivery Hero Divests German Business To Dutch Rival As Food Delivery Matures (Crunchbase)
• com Pushes the Limits of SoftBank’s Approach (Bloomberg)
• The Sinclair POCO: Build your own and start gaming (Reuters)
• How Fortnite Triggered an Unwinnable War Between Parents and Their Boys; The last-man-standing videogame has grabbed onto American boyhood, pushing aside other pastimes and hobbies and transforming family dynamics (WSJ)
• SEC Goes After Robo Advisers for the First Time; Wealthfront Advisers and Hedgeable misled customers, agency says; they will pay $250,000 and $80,000, respectively, to settle claims (WSJ)

Life

• ‘Canada’s Warren Buffett’ Drives His Own Pickup Truck: On the road with billionaire Jim Pattison. (Bloomberg)
• The Laws of Human Nature with Robert Greene (Kaufman)
• How to Motivate Yourself to Do Things You Don’t Want to Do (HBR)
• The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy Hardcover – September 11, 2018 (Amazon); Mariana Mazzucato on who creates value (FT)
• New PCAOB rules direct auditors to pay more attention to addressing potential management bias in accounting estimates such as fair-value measurements and goodwill which involve subjective assumptions by managers (WSJ)
• Goodwill Impairments Continue to Climb Despite Strong Economy; U.S. companies slashed $35.1 billion in goodwill from their balance sheets last year, with 2018 on track to exceed those totals (WSJ)