One of China’s most controversial entrepreneur, Jia Yueting, seemed to have a finally laid back Christmas as his EV company Faraday Future reported to have finally landed $1 billion investment to break the ice. Despite rumors about the reliability of the investment, employees at LeSEE (Leshi Super Electric Car Company), former EV company built by Jia, finally received their promised performance bonus of 2016.
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:
[Uber]
Singapore: The proposed merger between Uber subsidiary Lion City and transport company ComfortDelGro is being reviewed by The Competition Commission of Singapore, given the highly competitive nature of the car rental industry in the city-state. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: SGX-listed South Korea’s Spackman Entertainment plans to acquire the entire issued and paid-up shares of talent firm Constellation Agency for S$16.6 million ($12.3 million), as the company seeks to generate stable revenue through business diversification. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: City-state’s largest integrated logistics solution provider, GKE, have set up a JV with Logistics provider Kleio One-Solution, aiming to strengthen the group’s hazardous chemical storage and logistics capabilities. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia: Dialog Axiata, Malaysian-owned Sri Lanka’s leading telecom service provider, has announced a $15 million fund for startups in the island nation. (Deal Street Asia)
SE Asia: ID Capital, a city-state-based VC capital has partnered with Asian Development Bank and the government of Australia to launch an Agritech startup accelerator to promote startups in the Mekong region including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam. (e27)
China:
LeEco former chairman Jia Yueting posted a photo of the so-called FF91 made by his EV company Faraday Future on Weibo on the Christmas morning. (All Weather TMT)
Faraday future reported having secured $1 billion investment while the funding can only support the company to break the ice, not to say there are still uncertainties in the deal. (Yicai)
Employees of LeSEE (Leshi Super Electric Car Company) are to be transformed to Faraday Future. They are also said to have received the performance bonus of the year 2016. (Tencent)
Beijing regulators freeze LeEco’s asset worth ￥167 million ($25.4 million). (Sina)
China issued its first digital ID card in Guangzhou, allowing citizens to go digital when ID verification is needed in Nansha Police Station. Tencent, China Construction Bank, and Nansha Police Station also formed an alliance to facilitate digital e-government services. (oeeee)
Alibaba urged regulations on fake news with the same level of attention we paid to the haze, given the disastrous impact they could bring about. (Weibo)
Central Bank of China tightened regulations on digital payment, revoking 19 third-party payment licenses and giving out 98 tickets to companies including Alipay and Tenpay worth￥25 million ($3.8 million). (Sina)
Tencent messenger QQ’s membership feature QQ Vip partners with Hotel chain Atour Hotel, planning to share membership data. (36Kr)
JD’s relaunched second-hand marketplace Paipai reached a partnership with used car platform Taoche. Taoche is backed by automotive transaction platform Yixin Group. (21jingji)
China Mobile Communications Corporation has been rebranded as China Mobile Communications Group Co.,Ltd, marking the telecommunication operator becoming a wholly state-owned company. (Sina)
Fresh goods e-commerce company MissFresh has finished the spin-off of its subsidiary, a staff-less snack bar operator, seeing big names among investors. (China Venture)
Ant Financial poured ¥200 million (around $30.6 million) investment in smart transport payment solution provider Xiaoma Liancheng. (36Kr)
Overseas short-video video platform RR.Tv closed its Series B+ round joint by Baidu and SAIF. Starting with American Series streaming, the platform now boasts 60 million registered users and 10 million DAU. (36Kr)
Cashback shopping guide 55haitao has acquired Ebates.cn which is the world’s largest cashback website acquired by Japan’s Rakuten in 2013. (36Kr)
Beijing regulators urged Jia Yueting to return to China before the end of the year to fulfill his responsibility in the company LeEco. (Sina)
Xunlei’s OneCloud announced a price increase of ¥100 per PC starting from Jan 1st 2018. (IT Home)
There will be 100 Vending machines in Japan that enable users to pay with WeChat Pay by the summer of 2018. (Techweb)
Yonghui Superstores plans to acquire a 12% state in Chengdu Hongqi Chain for ¥947 million (around $114.8), as part of its plan to expand its presence in Sichuan province. (Tuoniao)
Jack Ma-led fund invested in Internet financial service provider Suning Jinrong, lifting the latter’s market value to ¥32.3 billion (around $4.94 billion). (21jingji)
HiWiFi is poised to roll out a blockchain- powered WiFi. (IT Home)
World:
Spotify is reportedly poised to get listed within a year. The music streaming company could skip the IPO as it has raised an adequate amount of money. (Huanqiu)
Analysts have lowered iPhone X shipment projection for the first quarter of 2018, as the demand at the end of the Christmas season was lackluster. (Bloomberg)
Two groups of iPhone users suede Apple for throttling their phones by a software update. (Bloomberg)
YouTube’s extend its dominance as the world’s largest video platform in 2017, while the company was accused of its lack in protection against hate speech and inappropriate videos on its kids’ app. (The Verge)
Uber’s new COO plans to make the company more efficient by introducing promotions, discounts and reducing ride drop rates. (Financial Times)
Apple is said to be working on its first model for 5G iPhone as part of its plan to prepare for the commercial use of 5G in 2019. (Huanqiu)
Google has former chip engineer at Apple John Bruno, who was at an essential position, joined the company with experiences accumulated at Apple. (Huanqiu)
Google unveiled a draft of Android Wear which is likely to incorporate iPhone X’s TrueDepth-like camera. (IT Home)
Israel is to ban exchange of cryptocurrencies on its Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. (IT Home)