H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (31 January 2019) – SM Entertainment Enters Into Strategic Partnership Agreement With China’s Tencent Music + What If Unhappiness Contains The Secret To Happiness?

January 31, 2019 Leave a comment

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (31 January 2019) – SM Entertainment Enters Into Strategic Partnership Agreement With China’s Tencent Music + What If Unhappiness Contains The Secret To Happiness?

Companies

  • SM Entertainment Enters Into Strategic Partnership Agreement With China’s Tencent Music (Soompi); Tencent has built a portfolio of music app sthat have fandom culture at their core; whether that be the live streaming, social features and in-app gaming of Kuwo, virtual tipping on KuGuo Live or VIP passes to get access to special virtual gifts in karaoke app Quanmin K Ge (We Sing). (MIB)
  • Zuken to Acquire Vitech; Vitech Corp.’s GENESYS product is a MBSE software tool that incorporates the key components of building a complex system involving people, processes, data, and documentation (TL)
  • Chat app Line’s mobile payment service is getting its own Visa card (TC)
  • Sam Tsai: The pivotal figure behind Taiwanese e-commerce giant PChome’s entry into Thailand’s e-commerce market (e27)
  • Foxconn reconsidering plans to make LCD panels at Wisconsin plant (Reuters)
  • Zomato in talks to sell UAE biz to German co for $200m; Info Edge, an early backer which owns around 28% of the company, called the battle with Swiggy “a hugely capital-consumptive game” (TOI)
  • Bravura Solutions becomes first tech firm to join GRiD (CM)

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

  • Alibaba growth hits 3-year low as shoppers trim big-ticket buys (Nikkei)
  • Even with one more title on China’s gaming whitelist, Tencent still has its cash-cow titles in limbo (KRA)
  • Tencent to power Hong Kong startups amid its shift to enterprise (Technode)
  • SoftBank’s Massive Debt Burden Looks Worse Than It Actually Is (Bloomberg)

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

  • Apple’s new developer guidelines signal that scammy subscription apps’ time is up (TC)
  • Apple reaches ‘defining moment for Cook’ amid weakening iPhone demand; The company didn’t forecast how many iPhones it will sell, something Apple has done since the product first hit the market in 2007 (JT); If Apple is serious about becoming a services company, it should truly go for it (qz)
  • Apple Stock Is Up. Don’t Buy the Suppliers, Says Analyst. (Barron’s); Apple Is Planning 3-D Cameras for New iPhones in AR Push (Bloomberg)
  • Facebook’s Good Quarter Can’t Hide Tough Ones Ahead; It must leverage news feed and Instagram fans into new offerings and figure out how to monetize them. (Bloomberg); Facebook quietly blocked tools that let people see how its ads are targeted (qz); By defying Apple’s rules, Facebook shows it never learns (Wired); Apple bans Facebook from tech tools for tracking teen browsing habits (Reuters)
  • Microsoft’s Azure revenue growth slows, shares fall (Reuters); Microsoft Sales Meet Estimates; Cloud Concerns Hit Shares (Bloomberg)
  • Google disables iPhone app that studied users’ digital habits (Reuters)
  • Why the Netflix Price Hike Should Worry Investors (Barron’s); How Netflix came to dominate Hollywood (Edge)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

  • China’s Online Tutor Startup VIPKid Is Seeking $500 Million at $6 Billion Valuation; The startup saw its losses grow nearly fourfold over a year to almost RMB 1.2 billion ($173 million) in 2017 (TN)
  • China unveils trading rules for new hi-tech board, paving way for bold new market to compete with New York, Hong Kong (SCMP)
  • Passengers could take an autonomous train to Beijing’s new airport starting September (KRA)
  • It’s time to pay serious attention to TikTok (TC); World’s most valuable start-up ByteDance slashes ‘lucky money’ for Year of the Pig as founder warns of challenging 2019 (SCMP)
  • As carmakers go all in for tech, Akebono and suppliers left behind; Toyota and peers demand price cuts to free up cash for future vehicles (Nikkei)
  • Paytm enters hotel booking business, buys NightStay (ET)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Robot valets may soon park your car at this London airport (CNN)
  • AI could run your life in 2030, as consumers look to tech to make lives easier (TODAY)
  • A Tech Firm Far From Silicon Valley Churns Out Billionaires; Shares of payments upstart Adyen have almost tripled since IPO (Bloomberg)
  • AI Tradeoff: Accuracy or Robustness? (EE Times)
  • Home improvement platform Houzz lays off 180, reportedly gears up for public listing (TC)
  • As AMD Stock Soars, CEO Says Its ‘Superior’ Chips Will Win in 2019 (Barron’s)
  • PayPal stock falls after outlook miss, but CEO says Venmo has hit a ‘significant transition point’ (MW); PayPal Sales Miss Estimates for the First Time Since 2015 (Bloomberg)

Life

  • What If Unhappiness Contains The Secret To Happiness? (Medium)
  • The secret of great learners: Focus on the process, not the outcome (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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