H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (13 February 2019) – Pinduoduo’s bid for calm has its limits

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (13 February 2019) – Pinduoduo’s bid for calm has its limits

Companies

• Pinduoduo’s bid for calm has its limits (Reuters)
• Chinese smartphone brands strengthen their grip on India, with Xiaomi displacing Samsung from top spot (SCMP)
• CyberAgent president “regrets relying too much on a single game title” as Dragalia Lost underperforms (PG)
• Rakuten to Invest in Mobile Industry Innovator Altiostar (PN)
• Carrier KDDI to expand financial services with Kabu.com buy; Japan’s second-largest wireless provider hurries to diversify from smartphones. (Nikkei)
• Seoul Semiconductor supplies LEDs to Dutch lighting firm (Investor)
• Tencent Partner Nexon Signals More Weakness in China Games (Bloomberg)
• Chroma to buy 20.5% of Camtek (Digitimes)
• Carsales hit by mixed result at home, but international revs up (AFR)

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

• Tencent’s Supercell posts second consecutive year of falling sales (FT)
• Asian chipmakers’ profits plunge after smartphone downturn; Samsung margins shrink 14 points while SK Hynix cuts investment by 40% (Nikkei)

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

• How Xbox’s ‘Netflix for games’ is expanding players’ horizons (Age)
• Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian: sources (Reuters)
• Amazon gobbles up eero to round out its smart home plan (Wired)
• Your Smart Light Can Tell Amazon and Google When You Go to Bed (Bloomberg)
• Publishers Chafe at Apple’s Terms for Subscription News Service; Apple plans to keep about 50% of subscription revenue from ‘Netflix for news’ service, likely won’t share customer data with publishers (WSJ)
• Google Cloud Chief’s Plan to Catch Amazon and Microsoft: Sales Reps; CEO Thomas Kurian seeks to borrow approach to growth from former employer Oracle (WSJ); Google’s New Cloud Boss Targets Old Issue: Selling to Big Firms (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• How will China’s internet economy develop further? (Part one) (KRA)
• I. Shows Promise as a Physician Assistant; A so-called neural network analyzed the medical records of 600,000 hospital patients in China, diagnosing their conditions as accurately as doctors did in some cases (NYT)
• China has produced another study showing the potential of AI in medical diagnosis (qz)
• Asian investors embrace data centers to ride out property slump; Facilities offer attractive returns amid slowdown, but regulations loom (Nikkei)
• Japanese self-drive cars map developer to buy rival U.S. startup: Nikkei (Reuters)
• Sider of code review support SaaS raises funds and provides enterprise version (TC)
• Trevari runs a subscription-based platform through which subscribers join book clubs that meet in person. A four-month membership ranges from 190,000 won to 290,000 won, excluding the cost of purchasing books. (Investor)
• India’s Swiggy goes beyond food to offer product delivery from local stores (TC)
• Southeast Asia eclipses China as world’s mobile economy hot spot; Thais, Indonesians and Singaporeans are big-time online bankers, shoppers and ride-hailers (Nikkei)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• SaaS Valuations Revisit Record Highs; public SaaS companies are once again worth around ten times their revenue as their share prices recover from December’s disturbance. (CB)
• Ubisoft and Mozilla team up to develop Clever-Commit, an AI coding assistant (TC)
• Voice assistants in use to triple to 8 billion by 2023 (TC)
• What Spotify’s big podcast purchases mean for the future of the medium (Age)
• EA Paid Twitch Gamers to Battle Back Against Fortnite (Barron’s)
• PayPal Can Gain Nearly 60%: Fund Manager (Barron’s)
• Shopify profit forecast misses on higher spending, shares fall (Reuters)
• Antipodes say disruptors distract from main tech game (AFR)
• IBM says Watson AI services will now work on any cloud (Reuters)
• Akamai earnings beat on cyber-security strength (Reuters)
• TV Streaming Apps Can Learn From The Love of Free Shipping; As online shoppers continue to choose free delivery over faster shipping, it’s food for thought for the media industry. (Bloomberg)
• Is Trump’s AI executive order a Sputnik moment for the US? (SCMP)
• Why People Still Don’t Buy Groceries Online (Atlantic)
• Airbnb-style space is the new warehouse trend; “Because customers today demand such fast delivery when they order online, companies need more smaller locations rather than fewer larger locations” (Age)
• Jobvite raises $200M+ and acquires three recruitment startups to expand its platform play (TC)
• The automotive industry often describes a connected vehicle as a “smartphone on wheels.” Nothing, however, is further from the truth. (EE Times)
• Is Globalfoundries seeking a buyer? (DT)

Life