H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (16 January 2019) – Info Edge: Getting the job done; Naukri.com has worked wonders for the company. But can its success be replicated at the its other ventures? + AOM Podcast #473: The Solitude of a Fire Watcher + Lazy Prices by Lauren Cohen et al

January 16, 2019 Leave a comment

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (16 January 2019) – Info Edge: Getting the job done; Naukri.com has worked wonders for the company. But can its success be replicated at the its other ventures? + AOM Podcast #473: The Solitude of a Fire Watcher + Lazy Prices by Lauren Cohen et al

Companies

  • Another Xiaomi Stock Sale Adds to $31 Billion Rout (Bloomberg)
  • Trend Micro Increases Commitment To Secure The Connected World at Pwn2OwnT 2019 (BW)
  • Chin-Poon cautious about automotive PCB demand in 2019, citing unfavorable global trade conditions and a slowdown in demand for emerging applications such as electric vehicles and ADAS (Digitimes)
  • Kakao likely to show strong growth this year (Investor); Kakao puts carpool beta service on hold indefinitely (Investor)
  • Info Edge: Getting the job done; Naukri.com has worked wonders for the company. But can its success be replicated at the its other ventures? (Forbes)
  • Hub24, Netwealth and Praemium are benefiting from a structural shift in fund flows away from the big banks towards smaller operators due to advancements in digital technology and regulators putting to an end to the “vertical integration” model used by the big banks (MF)
  • Semiconductor veteran Ricky Lee back for S$13.2m IPO; Grand Venture provides manufacturing solutions and services for the semiconductor, analytical life sciences, electronics and other industries (BT)

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

  • China’s social app to rule them all wants to judge you for your purchases; Tencent has a new social credit system tied to WeChat Pay (Abacus); WeChat blocks three social networking challengers within one day (Technode); Tencent Bolsters Enterprise Business With Siri-Like Assistant And WeChat Add-Ons (Forbes)
  • Tencent plugs holes, and boosts profits, with 163 new investments; In the third quarter, Tencent’s profit increased 30 per cent mainly due to gains from investment-related items (SCMP)
  • Alipay now supported in Beijing prisons (Technode)
  • Alibaba’s ‘City Brain’ is slashing congestion in its hometown (CNN)
  • The way SoftBank invests in startups just doesn’t work, says Khosla Ventures’ Keith Rabois (Recode)

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

  • Facebook to invest $300 million to help local news survive (Reuters, Axios)
  • Instagram tests tapping instead of scrolling through posts (TC)
  • AWS makes another acquisition, grabbing TSO Logic (TC)
  • Fund Manager: Why Amazon Could Double (Barron’s)
  • Smart assistants talking their way into every gadget in our homes (Age)
  • Microsoft and Walgreens Team Up to Fight a Common Rival: Amazon (Barron’s)
  • Apple, Intel Persuade U.S. Patent Office to Enter Qualcomm Fight (Bloomberg)
  • This Apple Analyst Has a Prescription for the Company’s Woes (Barron’s)
  • Netflix reaps the dividends of its dominance (Reuters); Netflix’s Simplicity Is Its Secret Weapon; Sure, it spends like crazy, but its product is deceptively appealing. (Bloomberg); Netflix Raises Prices on All of Its Subscription Plans; The streaming service’s most popular plan will increase to $13 a month, while the basic plan will go up to $9 (WSJ); Netflix raises prices to stockpile for the streaming wars; Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is facing a growing collection of competitors, from Amazon to Disney. (Wired)
  • Google Loon Balloon Web Service Taps Board to Lift Business (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

  • China’s Ke.com tops list of Asia’s fastest growing tech companies (Nikkei)
  • ai launches ride-hailing platform for autonomous vehicles (Technode)
  • Everybody Wants to Be the Next Elon Musk (at Least in China) (SCMP)
  • China’s Insta360 shoots high with one of the world’s best 360 cameras, taking on GoPro and Ricoh; Insta360 has received plaudits for its innovative software features and easy-to-use app (SCMP)
  • AI startup Horizon Robotics to raise $600 million in Series B funding (Technode)
  • American Express acquires Japan-based restaurant booking service Pocket Concierge (TC)
  • Mobility services platform operator SoCar receives W50b funding from VCs (Investor)
  • No more games on TV: Streaming services replacing TVs in sports broadcasts; Changing viewer trends, easier access boost streaming services’ presence in sports broadcasts; lack of funds, infrastructure remain major barriers (KH)
  • Conference app leader Symflow to break even this year (Investor)
  • Grab forays into SEA’s digital insurance space as part of superapp goal; The launch of the insurance platform is part of the company’s goal of becoming an everyday “superapp” in the region. (KRA, TC)
  • India Wants Access to Encrypted WhatsApp Messages; Country makes a new attempt to constrain global tech giants (WSJ)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Airbnb says profitable for two straight years amid IPO talks (Reuters)
  • Workforce management solution Quinyx raises further $25M (TC)
  • Bringg, a delivery logistics platform used by Walmart, McD’s and more, raises $25M~ (TC)
  • iPhone On Rails: How Finnish Elevator Maker Kone Is Using Technology To Reach The Next Floor (Forbes)
  • Why Salesforce And Workday Joined The $33 Million Raise For A Procurement Software Startup (Forbes)
  • Lyft has provided 30,000 autonomous rides since its trial service began in Las Vegas last May (SCMP)
  • Software Maker PagerDuty Files Confidentially for IPO (Bloomberg)
  • In CEO Search, Intel Still Hasn’t Found What It’s Looking For (Bloomberg); Will Headless Intel Woo AMD’s Lisa Su? (EE Times)
  • Semiconductor Demand Outlook Is Worsening, Says Morgan Stanley (Barron’s)
  • Banking Is Part of WeWork’s Future (Barron’s)
  • Venture-Capital Money Is Flowing Like It’s 1999 (Barron’s)
  • NBA Inks Billion-Dollar Deal With Maker of 2K Videogame; Agreement is more than double the value of the partners’ previous licensing deal for sports games (WSJ)
  • The bogan cartoon business taking on Dreamworks and Disney (Age)
  • Industry must rein in spend on electric, self-driving cars: Magna CEO (Reuters)
  • Nike’s big bet on the future of connected shoes; Nike’s new $350 Adapt BB shoe doesn’t just collect data about your training. It adapts itself to fit your foot at a moment’s notice. (FastCo)
  • Knock Raises $400M To Simplify Home Buying (Crunchbase)
  • What separates leaders from laggards in the Internet of Things (McKinsey)
  • Addiction to a Language-Learning App Can Be Good for You; Duolingo learns from gaming companies how to keep users coming back. (Bloomberg)

Life

  • Podcast #473: The Solitude of a Fire Watcher (AOM)
  • Lazy Prices. Using the complete history of regular quarterly and annual filings by U.S. corporations from 1995-2014, we show that when firms make an active change in their reporting practices, this conveys an important signal about future firm operations. Changes to the language and construction of financial reports also have strong implications for firms’ future returns: a portfolio that shorts “changers” and buys “non-changers” earns up to 188 basis points in monthly alphas (over 22% per year) in the future. Changes in language referring to the executive (CEO and CFO) team, regarding litigation, or in the risk factor section of the documents are especially informative for future returns. We show that changes to the 10-Ks predict future earnings, profitability, future news announcements, and even future firm-level bankruptcies. Unlike typical underreaction patterns in asset prices, we find no announcement effect associated with these changes–with returns only accruing when the information is later revealed through news, events, or earnings–suggesting that investors are inattentive to these simple changes across the universe of public firms. (SSRN)
  • How to Make Money Trading: Hack Into SEC, Peek at 157 Secret Earnings Reports (WSJ)
  • When It’s Time To Do Something (Morgan Housel)
  • The Founder’s Guide to Discipline: Lessons from Front’s Mathilde Collin (FR)
  • What Sweetgreen Can Teach Startups About Scaling Intimacy (FR)

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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