Self-service snack bars have become popular these days in China, seeing companies from big names like Alibaba, Cheetah Mobile, and SF Express, to a fleet of startups like Xiaoe Weidian, weighing in.
Kr-ASIA Daily is a five-minute read to brief you everything you need to know to start your day. We only choose the latest tech & startup news that is worth your time, with a focus on Southeast Asia and China.
Southeast Asia:
Cambodia: Grab has forayed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, marking the ride-hailing firm’s entry to an eighth country in the region. Grab now operates in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia: Ezbuy has ended its buy-for-me services on Taobao, after alleging publicly on WeChat that Jack Ma being a bully. (Strait Times)
Singapore: Global Logistics Properties (GLP) and Bank of China Investment have poured $70 million strategic investment in Hong Kong-based G7 Networks, a fleet management firm. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Clearbridge Health, a city-state-based healthcare firm, debuted on the Catalist. The firm is valued at S$134.7 million ($99.8 million) post-listing. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: The country’s central bank warned against investments in cryptocurrencies, while speculations have lifted bitcoin to an all-time high. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: GIC, the city-state’s sovereign wealth fund, is set to acquire a 43% stake in a 34-storey office tower in Tokyo for JPY62.5 billion (around $558 million). (Deal Street Asia)
Vietnam: The private lending arm of the World Bank Group, International Finance Corporation (IFC), together with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, have announced a $110 million syndicated senior loan to Vietnam’s An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank to boost lending to SMEs. (Deal Street Asia)
Vietnam: Vietnam saw robust private equity activities in 2017, with the deal amount of the first eight months of 2017 surpassed 2016 figures. (Deal Street Asia)
China:
The stock price of Ping An Insurance Company has surged by 99% and its total capitalization hits $189 billion, marking the company become the third-largest companies in China by market value after Tencent and Alibaba, among non-state controlled companies. (Bloomberg)
Suning partnered with Wanda to expand into the new retail business, poised to open 11000 more stores in the next three years. (36Kr)
Alibaba inked a partnership with Midea, entering in the self-service snack bar business. (egsea)
Cheetah Mobile’s has already placed 5000 staff-less convenience snack bars in over 1000 companies, with a plan to expand to 10,000 by the end of this year. (36Kr)
NetEase Cloud Music has reached a partnership with Alibaba’s food delivery arm, Koubei, allowing customers to choose what music would a store play. (36Kr)
Live streaming platform YY enters the mini-KTV industry, focusing on features of social networking. (36Kr)
Tencent teamed up with domestic service platform 58.com to establish a digital house rental platform. (36Kr)
UrWork and WeWork have settled trademark lawsuit, seeing UrWork withdrawing trademark applications and rebranding. (Technode)
Ctrip seeks new partners to counter Meituan’s expansion and develop high-end travel services. (36Kr)
Alibaba’s affiliates, second-hand goods platform Xianyu and credit scoring system Zhima credit, launched a new service allowing sellers with credit scores more than 600 to get paid before the commodity being received. (Sina)
ZTE reached a partnership with Saudi Arabia’s energy department to develop high-speed broadband in the country. (Sina)
TCL has finished 49% equity transaction of its fully-owned subsidiary to three strategic investors. The company appointed Li Dongsheng as the new CEO at TCL Communication. (Sina)
Rong360 CEO Ye Daqing said: China is to benefit the most from AI development. The commercial use of AI in the financial sector is expected to come before the commercialization of autonomous driving. (Sina)
World:
Youtube signed a new long-term agreement with Universal Music and Sony Music, paying the way for a new paid service while promising stronger regulation on copyright infringement. (Bloomberg)
India’s ride-hailing company Ola has acquired food delivery marketplace Foodpanda India, pushing into the on-demand food delivery business. (Reuters)
South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchange Youbit has filed for bankruptcy, as it suffers a loss worth 17 percent of its total assets following a second hack this year. (Reuters)
India’s Income tax Department is urging around 500,000 cryptocurrency buyers to pay tax on their digital token holdings. (Inc42)
Founder of Bitcoin.com, one of the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, claimed to have sold all his bitcoin holdings as he is sceptical about the future. (36Kr)
Walmart and Kroger have launched a service to fight Amazon. Customers will be able to order online and pick up in the parking lot. (Venture Beat)
Airbnb has made profit continuously in the previous 17 months, poised for an IPO. (Tencent)
Apple has received a downgrade of its stock from Nomura Instinet, as the analyst at Nomura Instinet believes the stock’s gains for the iPhone X supercycle are in the late innings. (Business Insider)
UPS has ordered 125 Tesla Semi, marking the largest order for Tesla truck. (leiphone)
The U.S. blamed North Korea for the WannaCry ransomware attack and claimed Microsoft, Facebook, and other companies have worked to disrupt the attack. (Bloomberg)