H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (12 March 2019) – Lasertec: iPhones Are Improving Every Year Thanks to an Obscure Japanese Company; Lasertec is the world’s sole maker of mask blank equipment that tests glass squares slightly bigger than a CD case that act as a stencil for chip designs + India Fights Diabetic Blindness With Help From A.I.

March 12, 2019 Leave a comment

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (12 March 2019) – Lasertec: iPhones Are Improving Every Year Thanks to an Obscure Japanese Company; Lasertec is the world’s sole maker of mask blank equipment that tests glass squares slightly bigger than a CD case that act as a stencil for chip designs + India Fights Diabetic Blindness With Help From A.I.

Companies

  • Tencent-Backed Meituan’s Losses Balloon in Duel With Alibaba (Bloomberg, Nikkei)
  • Lasertec: iPhones Are Improving Every Year Thanks to an Obscure Japanese Company; Lasertec is the world’s sole maker of equipment that tests glass squares slightly bigger than a CD case that act as a stencil for chip designs. (Bloomberg)
  • How Sony Sped Up A Factory With These Tiny, $35 Computers (Forbes)
  • Flipping the Switch: What’s next for Nintendo? Investors are keen for the next hit console, but some are losing patience (Nikkei)
  • Airtac sees strong growth as IA looks poised to pick up (TT)
  • ReadyTech, set, go; first chunky IPO hits the streets; ReadyTech provides mostly cloud and SaaS-based payroll and human resource software systems. It targets the education and employment sectors (AFR)
  • Appen turbocharges AI growth (AFR)

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

  • Baidu’s mini programmes now have more than 150 million users (KRA)
  • Baidu, Chery launch electric car with face-scanning payment, AR navigation features; A new smart version of Chery’s Exeed TX electric sports utility vehicle will run Baidu’s AI platform, DuerOS (SCMP)
  • Ant Financial reportedly preparing to IPO on Shanghai tech board (Technode)
  • Samsung smartphone chief: 5G jolt will revive market; Koh Dong-jin says leaps in virtual reality and AI will beckon ‘renaissance’ (Nikkei)

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

  • Facebook’s pivot must be viewed with scepticism; The company has to overhaul its business model to protect user privacy (FT)
  • Amazon’s Alexa has 80,000 Apps-and No Runaway Hit; The advent of the smartphone triggered an app gold rush. So far that hasn’t happened with Alexa. (Bloomberg)
  • Amazon domain battle rages on as internet overseer postpones decision (Reuters)
  • Amazon Investment in Yankees Network Could Threaten Sports TV Bundling (Bloomberg)
  • Amazon eases price restrictions on third-party vendors; Concession comes amid growing criticism of power wielded by big tech platforms (FT)
  • Alphabet’s Waymo seeks outside investors: The Information (Reuters)
  • Apple sets date for next ‘show time’; The iPhone maker is expected to unveil a renewed push into news and video services (FT)
  • Microsoft moves into biological computing with Platform B; Tech giant rolls out new system to analyse vast volumes of biomedical data (FT)
  • Microsoft is suing Foxconn unit over unpaid royalties (Axios)
  • Nvidia’s Mellanox Buy Begs the Questions: Who’s Next? (MW)
  • Netflix dives deeper into anime as Disney readies streaming rival; Video giant partners with trio of Japanese producers on original content (Nikkei)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Traders Are Paying Close Attention As Farmers Become Live-Streaming Stars; Video clips on Kuaishou monitored for tips on sentiment (Bloomberg)
  • China’s authorities propose to keep minors out of live streaming (TC)
  • Hong Kong’s theDesk to open Shanghai project as China’s shared workspace providers shut up shop, scale back (SCMP)
  • SoftBank-backed Japanese startup Uhuru considering London listing (Reuters)
  • OYO China CFO: We’ll have clear models for hotel operation and profitability (KRA)
  • India’s biggest news app in spotlight as elections near; Dailyhunt has 206m monthly users and a big Chinese investor (FT)
  • Indonesia’s online P2P loan sharks are driving people to suicide; There’s a dark side to Jakarta’s embrace of the digital revolution: unchecked online lending services with increasingly aggressive debt-collection methods (SCMP)
  • ‘Airbnb for playdates’: Motherhood app draws on Tim Fung’s expertise (Age)
  • India Fights Diabetic Blindness With Help From A.I. (NYT)
  • Indian invasion of Chinese social media apps like TikTok, SHAREit and Helo sparks fear and loathing in New Delhi (SCMP)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Jeffrey Katzenberg’s vision for the future of TV is snackable movies (qz)
  • Quantum computing could change the way the world uses energy (qz)
  • OpenAI turns itself into a for-profit enterprise; Research group backed by Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman seeks to build ‘safe’ AI (FT)
  • Farfetch to merge China sales platform with JD.com; Move aimed at improving offering in world’s largest luxury market (FT)
  • Web inventor calls Tim Berners-Lee for drastic changes to the internet amid concerns over data privacy hacking, misinformation; Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Foundation are advocating for a universal online social contract (SCMP)

Life

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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