The price of bitcoin surged to an all-time high in the last month of 2017. But the cryptocurrency starts the year by tumbling, seeing a 6.1% decreased on Jan 1st from Friday. Many would be interested to see where the cryptocurrency frenzy would lead us to.
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:
The Philippines: semiconductor company Cirtek Holdings Philippines plans to acquire a 49% stake in marketing company Multipay. (Deal Street Asia)
The Philippines: Payroll automation platform Salarium teamed up with Unionbank of the Philippines to use the latter’s digital bank platform EON to develop the blockchain wallet SALPay 3.0. (e27)
China:
Following Chinese regulators’ tighter control over online content, Jinri Toutiao shut down its social news channel and has removed or banned 1101 self-media accounts from Dec 31 2017 to date. (Sina)
Alibaba’s UC Browser outflanked Google’s Chrome in some Asian countries, with 51% of India’s mobile browser market vs Chrome’s 30%. (wsj)
Wife of Faraday Future’s CEO, Jia Yueting, comes back to China after China’s regulators urged Jia to fulfil his responsibilities as former CEO of LeEco. (Techweb)
Tencent’s QQ e-wallet is set to charge 0.1% fees for money withdraws. (Techweb)
Xi’an city has teamed up with Ant Financial to launch app-based payment service for tube commuters. (Techweb)
High labor cost in the UK restrains the expansion in the local market of China’s two bike-sharing companies namely ofo and Mobike. (Techweb)
Beijing’s first Maglev train starts its trial operation. (Techweb)
World:
Bitcoin started the year by tumbling, traded at $13,440 as of 3:55 p.m. on the Jan 1st in New York, down 6.1% from Friday. (Bloomberg)
South Korea’s export has seen a record high in six decades in 2017, thanks to decent shipments of semiconductors, machinery and petrochemicals, according to the country’s trade ministry. (Bloomberg)
Iran blocks access to Instagram and Telegram apps as the anti-government protests escalate. (Indepedent)
Smart lock maker Otto suspends operations after unveiling its first product in August. (TechCrunch)
Climate change deniers are gaming Google’s largely automated ad system to find a mass platform for misleading claims. (The New York Times)
UK’s Chair of parliamentary committee urged Facebook and Twitter to hand over information about Russian misinformation campaigns. (The Guardian)
Germany is poised to start enforcing a hate speech law that demands social networks move quickly to remove hate speech, fake news, and illegal material. Companies that failed to do that could face fines of up to 50m euro(£44.3m). (BBC)
Microsoft announced it would stop upgrading Windows 10 Mobile, marking the end of the Windows Phone. (Techweb)
The world’s largest paid image gallery Shutterstock bans photos of ape taken in an unnatural circumstances. (IT Home)
WhatsApp’s service temporarily went down for an hour on the first day of 2018. (Sina)
Marvel is set to launch the app, Marvel Create Your Own, which allows users to create super hero based on given models. (IT Home)
AT&T gave layoff notices to 600 employees before Christmas. (Techweb)
India-based online micro-loan platform Cash Suvidha secured a $2.7 million debt financing from six institutions. (Tuoniao)
India’s Peer to Peer lending platform Any Time Loan announced $1.95 million equity financing from Spice Mobility. (Tuoniao)
Australia’s major banks reported freezing bank accounts of cryptocurrency traders without prior notice. (CNN)