H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (13 April 2019) – Salesforce and Other Business-Software Companies Are in a Sweet Spot

April 13, 2019 Leave a comment

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (13 April 2019) – Salesforce and Other Business-Software Companies Are in a Sweet Spot

Companies

  • China’s Ctrip to sell Japan rail tickets via app (Nikkei)
  • Hikvision’s New Business Team To Develop Intelligent Solutions For Fentanyl-Related Substances Regulation (SI)
  • EU clears Nidec purchase of Whirlpool unit subject to conditions (Reuters)
  • Netwealth Group reports the largest quarterly increase in FUA since listing (KKM)

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

  • Alibaba’s AutoNavi commercializes HD map by charging automakers license fee (KRA)

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

  • Google Cloud takes aim at verticals starting with new set of tools for retailers (TC)
  • Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant are changing how we interact with the world by doing it for us (TNW)
  • Google’s AI is growing up (qz)
  • Google sees rays of Sun in new cloud dreams; Tech group takes page out of Java creator as it takes on Amazon and Microsoft (FT)
  • Netflix Just Dropped $8 Billion in Market Value on Disney+ News (Bloomberg)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

  • China to include businesses in credit score database plan; Record of SMEs’ misdemeanours to be included in databank and shared with commercial bank (FT)
  • SenseNets: the facial recognition company that supplies China’s Skynet surveillance system (SCMP)
  • China’s Ant Financial amasses 50 million users, mostly low-income, in new health plan (Reuters)
  • TikTok owner Bytedance said to be planning Spotify-like music streaming app for overseas market; The Chinese company is currently the world’s most valuable unicorn with a valuation of US$76 billion (SCMP)
  • Mobile game developer Kunlun to pay $50M for 3% shares in China’s Waymo rival (Technode)
  • Didi steps up financial drive as it courts car leasing companies (TC)
  • Japan’s quest for display king ends as Taiwan-led group buys JDI; State-directed effort to merge Hitachi, Toshiba and Sony units lacked vision (Nikkei)
  • Kudo’s untold story: how it enabled Indonesia’s unbanked and got acquired by Grab (TIA)
  • Grab faces $2bn payout to Uber if no IPO by 2023 (Nikkei)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

  • Salesforce and Other Business-Software Companies Are in a Sweet Spot, Analyst Says (Barron’s)
  • Marvel, monsters and ‘Mandalorian’ coming to Disney+ app (Reuters); Disney already has a booming streaming service. It’s called Hotstar (CNN); Disney Stock Is Soaring Because Its New Streaming Service Might Be a Better Deal Than Netflix (Barron’s)
  • Password manager Dashlane closes on $30M, adds former Spotify CMO to board (TC)
  • Naspers-owned PayU doubles down on India with $70M deal to buy Wibmo (TC)
  • Fintech Insurer Lemonade Valued At More Than $2 Billion After $300 Million Funding Deal (Forbes)
  • Profits Can Wait As Freshworks Targets A Cloud Market Dominated By SAP And Salesforce (Forbes)
  • Uber’s IPO is a lesson in the true cost of toxic culture (qz); Uber admits its culture is IPO risk (FT); Uber’s conflicting self-driving fleet vision (FT); Uber Freight Is a Surprisingly Big Business. Truckers Take Note. (Barron’s); Uber aims to maintain heavy spending to keep rivals at bay; Ride-hailing app’s ‘winner-takes-all’ strategy will continue to cost billions (FT)
  • How Spotify Saved the Music Industry (But Not Necessarily Musicians) (Ep. 374) (Freakonomics)
  • Why ‘Loot Boxes’ May Unlock Trouble for the Videogame Industry (Barron’s)
  • Italian payments group Nexi to sell €1.3bn shares in IPO; Company to start public trading in Milan next week with initial market cap of €5.4bn (FT)
  • Jumia becomes first African start-up to list in New York; E-commerce company dubbed ‘Africa’s Amazon’ valued at more than $1bn (FT)
  • Pinterest’s myth-busting chief leads his ‘silent unicorn’ to IPO; Publicity-shy founder Ben Silbermann has long defied Silicon Valley stereotypes (FT)
  • The Cash Party Is Almost Over for Unicorns Like Uber; Winners and losers have been determined by who can raise the most money, not necessarily those with the best product or service. (Bloomberg)

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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