H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (8 January 2019) – Amazon is getting more serious about Alexa in the car with Telenav deal

January 8, 2019 Leave a comment

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (8 January 2019) – Amazon is getting more serious about Alexa in the car with Telenav deal

Companies

  • iFlytek: The Biggest Voice Assistant and AI Company from China You’ve Never Heard Of (VB); iFLYTEK, Asia’s AI Leader, Unveils iFLYTEK Translator 2.0, iFLYREC Series Voice-to-Text Products, AI Note and iFLYOS at CES 2019 (BW)
  • Lenovo: Western Tech Is Ready to Name the Next Red Menace; Huawei isn’t the only Chinese company that’s likely to be labeled a global security threat. (Bloomberg)
  • Meituan breaks own record with 2m hotel room nights booked on one day (KRA)
  • Trend Micro’s Venture Fund Doubles Award Money of Pitch-off Competition for the Most Innovative Startups at CES 2019 (BW)

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

  • China’s Baidu says its answer to Alexa is now on 200M devices (Techcrunch)
  • Samsung Shows Off Robots for Health Care and Retail Stores (Bloomberg); Samsung Electronics flags first profit drop in two years on weak chip demand (Reuters); Samsung Feels Apple’s Pain as Technology Slowdown Hits Sales (Bloomberg)
  • SoftBank Plans Reduced $2 Billion Investment in WeWork (Bloomberg)

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

  • Amazon is getting more serious about Alexa in the car with Telenav deal (Techcrunch)
  • Amazon Becomes Most Valuable Company, Inching Past Microsoft (Bloomberg)
  • Apple’s trillion dollar market cap was always a false idol (Techcrunch); Apple’s Errors (Stratechery)
  • Apple’s Latest TV Team-Ups Highlight a Shifting Growth Strategy (Barron’s)
  • Intel working with Facebook on AI chip coming later this year (Reuters)
  • Microsoft’s new groove; Once dismissed as a hidebound has-been, Microsoft is flying high. CEO Satya Nadella’s secret: A cultural reset that has lowered the gates to the software maker’s fortress-and cloud, cloud, cloud (Forbes)
  • Nvidia dives into a new business segment with Drive AutoPilot (Techcrunch); Nvidia says new self-driving platform to hit streets next year (Reuters)
  • The app-store war between Netflix and Apple is heating up (WaPo)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

  • CES 2019: Chinese tech companies keep low profile amid trade tensions (MW)
  • Chinese voice recognition startup AISpeech releases its first custom chip1 min read (Technode)
  • Will fintechs sink or swim when floats are regulated? (FT)
  • Toyota’s safety technology guardian to be available in the 2020s (Reuters)
  • LG says its AI can detect home appliance problems before they happen (Techcrunch)
  • E-mart partners with ThorDrive for self-driving delivery services (Investor)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Robot delivery dogs deployed by self-driving cars are coming (Techcrunch)
  • Qualcomm’s Cockpit Platform promises to make cars smarter (Techcrunch); Qualcomm expands car computer chip lineup, adds music from Amazon (Reuters)
  • Twitter Influences Markets More than Traditional Media (Barron’s)
  • A Maker of Smart Light Switches Just Got a Boost From Apple (Barron’s)
  • Tile to embed trackers in range of consumer electronics; Users will be able to trace headphones and other devices through Bluetooth (FT)
  • Machine learning is helping auto lenders make better decisions, which is likely more accurate than using humans who are unpredictable and prone to bias. (Bloomberg)
  • zGlue pitches ‘chiplets’ to make custom chips for startups (Reuters)
  • German supplier unveils new self-driving car computer, adds Xilinx chips (Reuters)
  • Apple supplier AMS develops behind-screen optical sensor for phones (Reuters)
  • Ride-Pooling Gets a Social Makeover With New App From HERE (Bloomberg)
  • Roku Jumps Most in 14 Months, Buoyed by 40% Gain in Active Users (Bloomberg)

Life

  • Why great leaders seek out uncomfortable truths (MT)

Filed under Innovation

About bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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