H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (16 April 2019) – TransInfo: How China’s new highway for self-driving cars will boost its AV ambitions ; You Cannot Talk About Self-Improvement Without Talking About Values

TransInfo: How China’s new highway for self-driving cars will boost its AV ambitions ; You Cannot Talk About Self-Improvement Without Talking About Values

Companies

• TransInfo – How China’s new highway for self-driving cars will boost its AV ambitions (TNW)
• China challenges Samsung’s lead in foldable phone screens; BOE and other aspiring national champions drive rapid capacity expansion (Nikkei)
• Vast elderly, rural population power China’s dialect-related industries; iFLYTEK’s popular input mobile application is able to recognize 23 dialects in China, with more than 3 million users in the country. In the car system installed in many Toyota car models, for example, iFlytek provides a voice recognition system that understands Cantonese. (Xinhua)
• Meitu launches AI platform for developers as it drops phone business (Technode)
• Trend Micro Advances DevSecOps via Kubernetes Integration (CJ)
• Japan’s leading provider of conference rooms TKP is paying approximately 50 billion yen ($446 million) to jump into the shared office market, (Nikkei)
• Mercari’s cashless payment “Melpay” enables QR code settlement of taxi fares (TC)
• Apple supplier Foxconn to shift iPhone production to India (KRA)
• Minwise new business growth … Value of subsidiaries (ED)
• Cochlear shares rally on MRI-compatible hearing implant (AFR)
• Afterpay has steadily been taking over shopping centres over the past few years and the concept of splitting shopping payments into bite-sized chunks is becoming more accepted. (Age); US millennials’ debt fears help Afterpay beat expectations (Age)
• Info Edge India Ltd updates on investment in Etechaces (EB)
• Cyient Launches Solutions for 5G Deployment (EB)

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

• Tencent may launch a phone for its game lovers (KRA)

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

• Amazon Finds It’s Hard to Run a Real Sweepstakes in the Robocall Era (Bloomberg)
• Facebook and Amazon’s AI-selected ads show how businesses can tailor products to consumers in future (SCMP)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Cutthroat competition in China’s co-working office sector will see a survival of the largest (SCMP)
• AI can work to improve Hongkongers’ health, but only with a human touch (SCMP)
• China requiring anti-addiction parental controls for all short video apps (Technode)
• Chinese property-management SaaS vendor Qinlin Technology closes Series B round with funds from JD.com and Xiaomi; It’s a technology that unlocks doors for residents of large apartment complexes and serves them ads and group-buy opportune (KRA)
• China’s SenseTime sells out of Xinjiang security joint venture; Facial recognition group’s move follows scrutiny of treatment of Uighur people (FT)
• China’s Beidou navigation system to go global and create $300 billion market by 2020 (KRA)
• China’s Propaganda Quiz App Is Hiring Hundreds (Bloomberg)
• Toyota leads Japanese charge into tie-ups with Chinese startups (Nikkei)
• Fujitsu technicians finish designing Post-K supercomputer (JT)
• EventHub, an event-specific business SNS company, raises funds from Salesforce Ventures (TC)
• Toyota sells electric vehicle technology to Chinese startup Singulato (Reuters)
• This 25-Year-Old College Dropout Has SoftBank And Grab Backing His Plan For Oyo To Dominate Budget Hotels (Forbes)
• Grab faces local challengers in fast-growing Vietnam market; Ride-hailing groups vie to become ‘super app’ for consumers amid regulatory pushback (FT)
• ReadyTech gets a yellow light from investors for ASX listing (AFR)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• This Software Can Uncover the Questions CEOs Don’t Want to Answer; Amenity Analytics’ founders say their platform can even pick up on potential deceptions on earnings calls. (Bloomberg)
• Smart speakers’ installed base to top 200 million by year end (TC)
• Airbnb officially owns HotelTonight (TC)
• Autumn is coming: Expert says hype cycle will give way to ‘rich harvest’ of useful AI (TNW)
• Conversations with customers are an untapped data goldmine for businesses (TNW)
• The Robots That Manage the Managers; More companies are turning to AI-driven apps that aim to help newer bosses with reminders and tips on how to maintain a well-run office (WSJ)
• com buys Salesforce.org, and that’s the only straightforward part (MW); Salesforce to Buy Public Service Affiliate for New Markets (Bloomberg)
• Africa’s startup ecosystems are at a major turning point (qz)
• Stitch Fix Stock Slumps as Investors Worry About New Amazon Service (Barron’s)
• Spotify Stock Falls On News That Amazon Might Have Bigger Plans for Music (Barron’s); Spotify shares fall on report Amazon in talks to launch ad-supported music offering (Reuters)
• Hulu spends $1.43 billion to buy back AT&T stake, values streaming service at $15 billion (Reuters)
• Pinning a Narrow Moat on the Pinterest Board (Morningstar)
• Vimeo Snaps Up Video Creation Company Magisto For $200M (CB)
• As IBM Faces Falling Revenue, Red Hat Deal May Change Narrative (Bloomberg)
• Israeli Researchers Print 3D Heart Using Patient’s Own Cells (Bloomberg)
• Autonomous machines: industry grapples with Boeing lessons; Although computers may be more reliable than humans, new mistakes can be introduced into systems (FT)

Life

• Viking Saga: The Tale of Tor Hagen And His Voyage From Ousted CEO To Cancer Survivor To Cruise Ship Billionaire (Forbes)
• You Cannot Talk About Self-Improvement Without Talking About Values (Medium)
• The Cash Conversion Cycle Spread. Abstract: The cash conversion cycle (CCC) refers to the time span between the outlay of cash for purchases to the receipt of cash from sales. It is a widely used metric to gauge the effectiveness of a firm’s management and intrinsic need for external financing. This paper shows that a zero-investment portfolio that buys stocks in the lowest CCC decile and shorts stocks in the highest CCC decile earns 5 to 7% alphas per year. The CCC effect is prevalent across industries and remains even for large capitalization stocks. The CCC effect is distinct from the known return predictors. The returns of high-CCC stocks are more sensitive to the health of the financial intermediaries than low-CCC stocks. This suggests that the CCC-based strategy cannot be explained by the financial intermediary leverage risk. (SSRN)