H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (8 March 2019) – RPA is shifting from ‘dumb automation’ to business value creation: Infosys + Why Wall Street is betting on business software

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (8 March 2019) – RPA is shifting from ‘dumb automation’ to business value creation: Infosys + Why Wall Street is betting on business software

Companies

• Alibaba-backed e-commerce KOL facilitator Ruhnn aims to raise $200m via US IPO (KRA)
• The end of gas-powered cars is sending this Japanese spark plug maker to the moon (qz)
• Nintendo to smartphone game makers: You can only gouge our players so much (ATN)
• Spy fears spread to power cords, driving shift from China; Taiwan server suppliers move off mainland at US customers’ request (Nikkei)
• Machine tool demand to rebound in May, says Hiwin chairman (Digitimes)
• The City of Pueblo outfits their police, fire and public works with Getac devices (PO)
• RPA is shifting from ‘dumb automation’ to business value creation: Infosys (Forbes)
• Appen 1,000+ Seat Facility in the Philippines Achieves ISO 27001 Accreditation for Secure Collection and Annotation of AI Datasets (BW)

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

• Bytedance launches external search in Jinri Toutiao, creeps into Baidu territory (Technode); Robin Li Down $2.4 Billion In A Year As Baidu Faces Tougher Competition (Forbes)
• AlipayHK gained 2 million users and 50,000 merchants its first year (Technode)

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

• Why did Facebook lose an estimated 15 million users in the past two years? (MW)
• Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s future and what scares him most (Wired)
• Amazon abruptly stopped buying goods from third-party sellers (qz)
• Amazon won’t spin-off Amazon Web Services (FT)
• Watch out, Alexa. Artificial voices are starting to sound just like humans (CNN)
• 8 Reasons Why Apple Won’t Buy Netflix (Medium)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Chinese AI companies brace for winter as technology and market face bottleneck (Technode)
• Bytedance planning a Slack rival for international markets (Technode)
• KFC Owner Defies China Slowdown With AI Menus and Robot Servers (Bloomberg)
• Chinese pig farms are using AI solutions to fatten profits (KRA)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Why Wall Street is betting on business software; Investors hope that fast-growing but mainly lossmaking apps can become essential office tools; ServiceNow, Atlassian, Salesforce, Shopify and Workday are among the biggest ‘software as a s service’ businesses (FT)
• Brodmann17 nabs $11M for its automotive computer vision tech that runs on any CPU (TC)
• Machine learning is helping unsigned artists make Spotify pay; Usually only artists that are already quite successful can access an advance on royalties, but Swedish startup Amuse wants to help level the playing field (Wired)
• Airbnb To Buy HotelTonight As It Pushes Deeper Into Hotel Booking Business (Forbes)
• S. Telehealth Startups Offer Cures To Healthcare Challenges (CB)
• Cloud Computing Storms Ahead (EE Times)
• Trade Desk CEO Talks Growth, Asia, and Advertising in a New Age (Barron’s)
• How Munchery’s high hopes led to its decline and fall (FastCo)
• Would you rent pillows and blankets? Rent the Runway is betting on it (FastCo)

Life