H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (20 March 2019) – Tibber, a Norwegian AI to smartly manage energy + His Bosses Rejected His Idea. Then Hans Langer Became A Billionaire From His Plan For Giant 3-D Printers

March 20, 2019 Leave a comment

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (20 March 2019) – Tibber, a Norwegian AI to smartly manage energy + His Bosses Rejected His Idea. Then Hans Langer Became A Billionaire From His Plan For Giant 3-D Printers

Companies

  • With 23% annual revenue growth, Tencent-backed China Literature wants to be the next Marvel (KRA)
  • Xiaomi has lost almost 30 percent since its highly anticipated trading debut in Hong Kong last July, hampered by plateauing smartphone demand globally and especially in its home market, where it still generated more than half its revenue (Bloomberg); Xiaomi calls on home AI devices for post-smartphone growth (Nikkei); In India, Xiaomi joins the mobile wallet war (TIA)
  • Sony and Nintendo shares drop on Google gaming plans; Internet giant announced launch of cloud-based gaming service (FT)
  • Trend Micro CFO Mahendra Negi expects jump in revenue from India (TO)
  • Rakuten Billionaire Has a New Goal for His 17,000 Workers: Learn to Code (Bloomberg)
  • Atlassian’s Trello aims for the enterprise (TC); Atlassian customer problems behind $US166m AgileCraft acquisition (AFR); Atlassian founders worth $10 billion each after record stock rise (Age)
  • Mindtree founders ‘condemn’ L&T’s hostile bid, call it a ‘grave threat’ (Forbes)

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

  • TikTok operator Bytedance buys gaming start-up in move likely to sharpen rivalry with Tencent (SCMP)
  • Tencent clawing its way back from cliffhanger year, winning rave analyst reviews ahead of earnings (SCMP); Tencent to demote 10% of middle managers as game sector falters (Nikkei); Tencent Music meets profit estimates in first earnings report, shares fall (Reuters)

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

  • Can Google Create the Netflix of Gaming? (Bloomberg); Google’s new Stadia gaming platform is all about streamers (TC); Google’s Stadia game-streaming platform kills downloads and lets you play anywhere (TC); Google skips the console and launches Stadia video game streaming service (CNN, FT)
  • Facebook Live Has Got to Go; The social-media giant may be doing more harm than good with live video (WSJ)
  • Instagram launches shopping checkout, charging sellers a fee (TC); You can now buy products directly on Instagram (CNN); Instagram launches in-app online shopping feature; Facebook-owned platform partners with 20 vendors including Adidas, Burberry and Zara (FT)
  • Teams, Microsoft’s Slack competitor, says it’s signed up over 500k organizations, adds whiteboard and live events support (TC)
  • Apple’s Big Spending Plan to Challenge Netflix Takes Shape (NYT)
  • Why Netflix is diving deeper into interactive storytelling; Netflix announces that Bear Grylls will front its next choose-your-adventure experiment-and there’s more to come in horror, adventure, and romance. (FastCo)
  • Nvidia Stock Will Rise Because of Its Expanding Ecosystem, Analyst Says (Barron’s); Toyota taps Nvidia simulator to develop self-driving cars (Nikkei)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Chinese AI start-up Megvii said to plan IPO in either Hong Kong or New York to raise up to US$800 million (SCMP)
  • How AI, facial recognition technologies are revolutionising physical security in Asia (SCMP)
  • Beauty is the new buzzword in China’s tech world; From virtual makeovers to 3D nail polish printers, companies take makeup to the future (Nikkei)
  • China’s tech giants leap over ‘Great Firewall’ to spread message; Huawei uses Facebook and Twitter to counter Trump’s narrative on security risk (Nikkei)
  • Forget Tesla, It’s China’s E-Buses That Are Denting Oil Demand (Bloomberg)
  • Bytedance forms internal platform to support live-streaming business (Technode)
  • In bid to up its monetization game, Q&A site Zhihu expands membership program (Technode)
  • Singapore’s Pine Labs acquires gift card tech company Qwikcilver in $110 million deal (Forbes)
  • Bunnings to launch full e-commerce service (AFR)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Founders Fund invests in Tibber, a Norwegian AI to smartly manage energy (TC)
  • AI has become table stakes in sales, customer service and marketing software (TC)
  • Camera maker Insta360 raises $30M as it eyes 2020 IPO (TC)
  • Glossier started as a beauty blog and is now valued at $1 billion (CNN)
  • Digital health start-up Doctolib raises €150m at a €1bn+ valuation; French online medical appointment management service cements its ‘unicorn’ status (FT)
  • A Chat About The PagerDuty S-1 (CB)

Life

  • Basecamp CEO and co-founder Jason Fried gives us a peek behind the scenes of his company and discusses his philosophy on doing great work, making a positive difference, and learning to breathe in the fast paced culture of today’s workplace (FS)
  • His Bosses Rejected His Idea. Then Hans Langer Became A Billionaire From His Plan For Giant 3-D Printers. (Forbes)
  • Podcast #491: Everything You Know About Passion is Wrong (AOM)

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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