H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (30 April 2019) – Meet Matt Calkins: Billionaire, Board Game God And Tech’s Hidden Disruptor; he runs Appian which sells software to help businesses build apps more quickly; What Buddhism Taught Me About Product Management

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (30 April 2019) – Meet Matt Calkins: Billionaire, Board Game God And Tech’s Hidden Disruptor; he runs Appian which sells software to help businesses build apps more quickly; What Buddhism Taught Me About Product Management

Companies

• Tantan, owned by Beijing-based Momo, was suspended from multiple app stores in the country (SCMP, Technode)
• Most Loved China Drug Stock Sells Hormones to Make Kids Taller; Changchun Technology will not be affected by the Chinese government’s ongoing move to drive down generic drug prices through a centralized bulk procurement program as its products are not on the list of the national medical insurance reimbursement list (Bloomberg)
• Xiaomi’s Lei Jun gives Lakala founder a 1kg gold bar to celebrate successful IPO; Lakala, a Beijing-based company that offers online and offline payment channels, remittances, and credit rating services, went public at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange after a failed previous attempt in 2017 (KRA)
• China’s Sohu Stock Sees a Win as Its Game Subsidiary Returned a Fat Dividend (Barron’s)
• China’s latest tech export: an Arabic-speaking, AI-powered news anchor from Sogou; Deal marks first time Sogou’s AI news anchor technology is being adopted by an international media organisation (SCMP)
• China’s electric car boom doubles BYD’s quarterly sales; Automaker faces profit squeeze with Beijing slashing green-vehicle subsidies (Nikkei)
• Trend Micro boosts channel partners’ business through its new channel program in India (CRN)
• Meet Senzar: The Moto Blind Spot Detection System that comes from Cub ElecParts which has branched out into aftermarket blind spot detection for RVs, trailers, and motorcycles (RA)
• China’s Trade War Is Taiwan’s Opportunity to Bring Cash Home; Delta Electronics has applied to invest $1.8 billion in production, research and design in Taiwan (Bloomberg)
• Webcash: Bookkeeping leaps into the 21st century; Entrepreneur connects accounts with banks for small companies (JA)
• WiseTech Global wants its acquisitions to be leaner (AFR)
• Pentamaster could benefit from rising Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) adoption in smartphones, which is projected to drive global VCSEL sales volume by 5x over 2017-23F (Edge)
• Shopee Indonesia adds flight ticket feature in partnership with Traveloka (KRA)

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

• Google purges Baidu-affiliated app developer from Play Store after ad fraud accusations (KRA)
• Taobao testing social e-commerce platform Taoxiaopu (Technode)
• Alibaba to pay $250 million to settle lawsuit over concealing pre-IPO warning on counterfeiting (Reuters)
• Alipay app ends menu translation mystery for Chinese (Age)
• Samsung profit tumbles 57% amid Galaxy Fold woes (MW)
• SoftBank’s cash has poured out — it’s starting to come back; Shares up 41% since December as ‘conglomerate discount’ finally begins to narrow (FT); SoftBank-backed WeWork to go public; Money-losing shared-office provider joins pool of tech startups preparing IPO (Nikkei, Bloomberg)

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

• Google Reminds Investors Rapid Growth Isn’t Guaranteed (Bloomberg); Alphabet’s Other Bets shows the cost of starting three businesses (qz); Google parent’s shares dive as YouTube changes, competition hurt revenue (Reuters); Alphabet revenue dented by cooling Google ad business (FT)
• Why the Apple card is the gleaming future of money (Wired)
• Amazon’s One-Day Shipping Is Hitting Trucking Stocks. It Shouldn’t. (Barron’s)
• Microsoft Forms Pact With VMware to Keep Up With Amazon (Bloomberg)
• How Microsoft learned from the past to redesign its future (Verge)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Startup set to launch China’s first commercial autonomous taxi; Beijing backing means vehicles can build safety record on open roads (Nikkei)
• China’s rocket start-ups go small in age of ‘shoebox’ satellites (Reuters)
• Swingvy looks to automate manual and cumbersome HR practices for small and mid-sized businesses by connecting HR, payroll, and employee benefits on a mobile-first online platform (KRA)
• Grocery delivery startup Honestbee hits cash crunch, eyes sale (TIA)
• Tiger Global has invested in NinjaCart, as well as Facilio, Fyle and CleverTap, all of which are B2B startups (LM)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Makes Disney Invincible in 2019. Then What? The blockbuster film and other highly anticipated releases will make this year difficult to repeat, especially in the age of streaming. (Bloomberg); Disney’s stock rockets toward best month in 30 years as ‘Avengers’ adds to buying frenzy (MW); ‘Avengers’ Can’t Power Movie Theater Stocks Because We’re Living in a Streaming World (Barron’s); The ‘Endgame’ for Disney Stock Is a Netflix-Like Valuation (Barron’s)
• Uber Pitches Expansions While Investors Question Losses (Bloomberg)
• Autonomous vehicles make congestion pricing even more critical (TC)
• Here’s what investors need to know about how unicorn IPOs are really priced (MW)
• Toy-robot startup Anki, maker of Cozmo, shutting down (MW)
• PayPal and 3 Other Stocks to Play the Growing Mobile Commerce Trend (Barron’s)
• Adobe Stock Will Soar as Earnings Grow, Morgan Stanley Says (Barron’s)
• Roku Stock Slips and Recovers Ahead of a ‘Mixed Bag’ of Competitive Launches (Barron’s)
• Big Tech’s health fixation spreads into private areas; Recent years have seen problematic revelations about usage of data; Surveillance of healthcare data is big business (FT)
• Spotify has reached 100m paying subscribers faster than Wall Street expected, while diversifying from music into podcasts as it searches for a path to long-term profitability (FT, Reuters)
• Marriott to expand further into luxury home-sharing, hoping to vie with Airbnb (JT)
• Walmart’s AI-powered store of the future is nothing like Amazon Go; There are cameras. There is AI. And the similarities end there. (FastCo)
• EDA Finds a Common Framework for AI (EET)
• Bosch signs pact with Sweden’s Powercell to mass produce fuel cells (Reuters)
• Which Tech Company Is Uber Most Like? Its Answer May Surprise You (NYT)

Life

• Meet Matt Calkins: Billionaire, Board Game God And Tech’s Hidden Disruptor; he runs Appian which sells software to help businesses build apps more quickly (Forbes)
• What Buddhism Taught Me About Product Management (Medium)
• Marcus Aurelius: 3 Rules For Life (DF)
• The $13 Billion Lesson from Salesforce That Any Business Can Apply (Medium)
• Why We Believe in Magic (BC)
• Everyone’s Worried About a Bear Market. Here’s How to Spot One. (Barron’s)
• Emotional Fitness: 3 Essential Habits for Better Mental Health (NW)
• The Lies We Tell: We make up stories in our minds and then against all evidence, defend them tooth and nail. Understanding why we do this is the key to discovering truth and making wiser decisions. (FS)
• Decoding Difficult Conversations: My Interview with Negotiation Expert, Sheila Heen [The Knowledge Project Ep. #57] (FS)
• Has Warren Buffett got too big? For 30 years the billionaire investor outpaced the market but that all changed in the past decade. (AFR)
• Interview: The Qualitative Genius of Sean Stannard-Stockton (MF)
• Deloitte seen facing ban over IL&FS accounting fraud (DB)