H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (28 January 2019) – Tencent Music Co-Presidents Cross Into Billionaire Terrain + Charlie Munger on learning to be a great investor

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (28 January 2019) – Tencent Music Co-Presidents Cross Into Billionaire Terrain + Charlie Munger on learning to be a great investor

Companies

• Tencent Music Co-Presidents Cross Into Billionaire Terrain (Forbes)
• iFlytek: China looks to built ‘smart courts’ with AI; The platform can recognize verbal commands to display relevant information. It can also transcribe speech while identifying speakers. (Technode)
• As Demand Stagnates, China LED Lighting Giant Feels the Heat (Bloomberg)
• Sensor maker Cub Elecparts to integrate radar systems subsidiary (TT)

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

• ByteDance and Tencent squabble over social media “clean-up” (KRA)

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

• The fall of Facebook has only begun. The platform is broken and neither human nor machine can fix it. Even after losing roughly a third of its market cap, it still may prove one of the great shorts of all time. (Medium)
• Amazon is everywhere, and companies can’t stop talking about it (qz)
• Amazon to ‘revolutionise’ shopping with ‘virtual changing room’ app (Telegraph)
• Google, Amazon Seek Foothold in Electricity as Home Automation Grows; Tech companies look to expand their reach, reap consumer data as smart-home ecosystem expands (WSJ)
• Google Memo on Cost Cuts Sparks Heated Debate Inside Company (Bloomberg)
• Steve Jobs Never Wanted Us to Use Our iPhones Like This; The devices have become our constant companions. This was not the plan. (NYT)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Ofo’s demise highlights risks of Chinese tech model; How subsidising consumers to win market domination bled bike-share service dry (FT)
• Why do people in China spend so much on livestreamers? (TIA)
• Autonomous service vehicles gaining ground (China Daily)
• Drone maker DJI eyes enterprise business in transformation from hardware maker to platform operator (SCMP)
• China created a unicorn every 3.8 days in 2018 (SCMP)
• Asian tech suppliers brace for prolonged downturn (Nikkei)
• Japanese AI startup Cinnamon closes series B round with $13.7M in funding (Bridge)
• Going walletless: Korea’s mobile payment market diversifies as competition grows (Investor)
• Korean gaming industry faces deeper Chinese invasion (Investor)
• India’s Ola slashes its budget for Foodpanda (TIA)
• Singaporean online parenting startup theAsianparent to raise new round led by Fosun (KRA)
• Five of the eight films nominated for the best picture Oscar for 2019 last week were made using products from a relatively unknown Australian company. (Age)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Another tech bubble could be about to burst; We are in the late stages of a credit cycle, with too much money chasing too little value (FT)
• Philips lights on AI to target growth in healthcare; Predictive data from devices will be used to avert medical crises (FT)
• How AI, blockchain, and wearables are changing the face of healthcare (TNW)
• Airbnb acquires Denmark’s Gaest to expand in bookings for meetings and offsites (TC)
• A New, Faster Approach To Data Science And Machine Learning (Forbes)
• Is The Direct-To-Consumer Bedding Business Turning Into A Bad Dream? (Forbes)
• New Job for Robots: Taking Stock for Retailers; As retail supply chains get more complicated, stores are looking at mobile data collection to track inventory levels (WSJ)
• Munchery Becomes the Latest Casualty of the Food Delivery Shakeout; Employees in tears, leftover food and unpaid bills marked the final days of a once-buzzy on-demand darling. (Bloomberg)
• BuzzFeed, and the bursting digital media bubble (Age)

Life

• Charlie Munger on learning to be a great investor. “The trouble with the Wrigley Gum-type investments is that everybody can see that they’re wonderful businesses. So you look at it and you think, My God! The thing’s at eight times book value or something. And everything else is at three times book value.’ So you think, ‘I know it’s wonderful, but is it wonderful enough to justify that big a premium?'” The ability to answer such questions explains why some people are successful investors and others are not. “On the other hand, if it weren’t a little difficult, everybody would be rich,” Munger insisted. (VIW)
• In Search of the Canary Tree: What a Disappearing Ancient Forest Can Teach Us About Resilience and Grace in a Changing World (BP)
• US$369.6 million in defaults at apparently cash-rich firms expose flaws in mainland Chinese auditing practices (SCMP)
• SGX to get tougher on auditing of listed companies with proposed new rules (ST); SGX RegCo teams up with professional body of valuers to tackle problem of questionable valuations (Edge)