H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (12 January 2019) – Apple’s Next Big Move? It Should Buy Nintendo + Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don’t

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (12 January 2019) – Apple’s Next Big Move? It Should Buy Nintendo + Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don’t

Companies

• China’s Ctrip faces turbulence in journey to the top; Online travel giant forced to fend off rising tech rivals in uncertain economic times (Nikkei)
• CES 2019: iFLYTEK’s Translator 2.0 works with 63 languages (Neowin)
• No end in sight to Xiaomi’s woes as outlook dims (Nikkei)
• Apple’s Next Big Move? It Should Buy Nintendo (Barron’s)
• LG Chem lifts China battery investment by $1bn, eyeing exports; Company looks to Western electric-car markets as Beijing favors local suppliers (Nikkei)
• Infosys increases revenue growth forecast amid upbeat technology spending trend (Nikkei)

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

• WeChat takes on Ant Financial with new, integrated credit scoring system (Technode); WeChat pins future on Chinese users’ growing penchant for video, photo (Technode); WeChat creator gives marathon talk on super app (Investor); WeChat’s ambitious plans to reshape daily lives (Investor)
• Alibaba launches ‘A100’ initiative to drive its evolution into a global enterprise tech provider (SCMP)

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

• What Amazon’s Alexa microwave teaches us about interacting with AI assistants (TNW)
• What Amazon’s Rise to No. 1 Says About the Stock Market (WSJ)
• Amazon Is Becoming More Powerful Than You Realize; Retail and Alexa are just the start of the path toward total domination (Medium)
• Apple Maps is finally getting turn-by-turn navigation in India (TNW)
• Apple Watchers Are Already Looking Toward the Next Next iPhones (Barron’s)
• Google vs Amazon At CES: The Battle For The Future Of Voice (And Computing) (Forbes)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• World’s most valuable AI startup SenseTime unveils self-driving center in Japan (Techcrunch)
• China’s proptech space and 3 key takeaways (Technode)
• Giant CES fair in Vegas shows US remains too big to ignore for Chinese tech firms even as trade war swirls (SCMP)
• 2018: a boom year for Chinese apps in India; ByteDance and co. are a massive new force in India’s app ecosystem. (KRA)
• Taiwan tech struggles to find growth path in fog of trade war; Onetime highfliers sink into the red — or bankruptcy (Nikkei)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Don’t overestimate AI’s understanding of human language (TNW)
• A New Vision for the Future of Driving; At CES, car companies are showcasing new designs that will fundamentally alter the automotive experience (Medium)
• Bose brings its noise-cancelling tech to cars; Unfortunately the vehicle won’t actually be wearing headphones (TNW)
• This Reclusive Engineer Is Plotting The Death Of Blockchain (Forbes)
• Postmates Adds $100 Million In Funding As Food Delivery Co. Prepares For Potential IPO (Forbes)
• This Obsbot Tail Is An A.I. Camera Can Track And Identify Faces Even In A Crowd (Forbes)
• Slack Sets the Stage for an Unusual Year of IPOs (Barron’s); Slack Plans to Follow Spotify on Unconventional IPO Route (WSJ)
• What Disney’s Streaming Service Means for its Box Office Strategy (Barron’s)
• What I Saw at the Consumer Electronics Show (Barron’s); 3 Ways Tech Will Do the Walking for You in 2019; Urban commutes can be tedious. To the rescue: Segway’s new suite of self-balancing ‘micro-mobility’ transporters released at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (WSJ)
• Beyond Machine Learning: Capturing Cause-and-Effect Relationships; On the horizon: Pre-defined AI models delivered as a service. (WSJ)
• Corporate investors pile into electric vehicle startups (Reuters)

Life

• Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don’t (HBR)
• The key to effective goal-setting is a little theory called “Pain + Reflection” (qz)
• The High Cost of Financial Panics: Roman emperors and American presidents alike have struggled to deal with sudden economic crashes (WSJ)