Editor’s note:
China’s tech giants Alibaba and Tencent have both set their eyes on overseas markets, as the domestic competition increasingly escalates.
In India, the duo both bet on food delivery firms, given the successful example of Tencent-backed Meituan-Dianping who holds around 60% of China’s food delivery market. Alibaba is now behind Zomato through an investment from its affiliate Ant Financial while Tencent has participated in Swiggy’s latest funding round.
Kr-ASIA Weekly Roundup highlights tech & startup news of the past week, with a focus on Southeast Asia and China. We also pick up the best features from Kr-Asia and the web that are worth your time. Also, there is always something cool for the weekend.
News of the week:
Vinasun, Vietnam’s taxi firm, has sued Grab for unfair competition. The company claimed Grab has caused its revenue to decline and asked for a compensation of VND41.2 billion ($1.8 million). In response, Jerry Lim, Country Head of Grab Vietnam, told Deal Street Asia: “Vinasun has resorted to anti-competitive tactics and legal action as a reaction to their declining market share.” (Deal Street Asia)
Indonesia’s ATM Capital-backed co-working space provider Rework has announced the completion of its merger with local rival GoWork to create a new entity, Go-Rework. (Deal Street Asia)
ComforDelGro Corp is spending RMB 71.6 million (S$15 million) to acquire 217 taxi licenses and vehicles from Shenyang Tian Wen Taxi Co. to expand its taxi business in Shenyang, China. Shenyang is the capital of China’s Liaoning Province, according to a media release. (Deal Street Asia)
Meituan-Dianping, the world’s #4 most valuable startup, participated the latest funding round in Swiggy, India’s top food delivery firm. The Chinese company holds around 60% of China’s food delivery market. (KrASIA)
Zomato, an online restaurant discovery and food delivery company with operations in many parts of the world, including Asia, has secured US$200 million from Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba. (e27)
China’s Alibaba became the biggest shareholder in India’s leading online grocer BigBasket after a $300-million funding round, stepping up its rivalry with Amazon in the country. (Reuters)
Chinese billionaire WANG Jianlin’s Wanda Group, a real estate to entertainment conglomerate, is selling 12.77% shares worth USD 1.2 billion (RMB 7.8 billion) in its movie-theatre chain Wanda Film to e-commerce giant Alibaba and state-backed Beijing Cultural Investment Holdings, in a bid to shore up its balance sheet. (KrASIA)
Chinese ride-hailer DiDi Chuxing announced Wednesday a partnership with a group of 12 automakers from home and abroad to launch an “open new energy car-sharing system” as part of the company’s wider push to ride the wave of the electric vehicle (EV) trend through working closely with traditional automobile makers, which are also carefully exploring the new terrain. (KrASIA)
China’s e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba has just made a significant step forward in its global expansion. Ant Financial, the company’s financial arm, has struck a partnership with ASX-listed Cabcharge, an Australian taxi payments service, to allow Chinese tourists and business travelers to pay their fare with Alipay. (KrASIA)
In what sounds like a prelude to an eventual public market debut, Alibaba’s financial arm Ant Financial plans to raise up to US$ 5 billion at a $ 100 billion valuation, according to Reuters. (KrASIA)
Huami, the world’s largest wearable device brand by shipments, has listed on New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “HMI”, making it the first public company from the Xiaomi ecosystem. Its share price rose from the issue price of USD 11 to 11.25, valued the company at USD 669 million. (KrASIA)
Best of Kr-Asia Features:
We are increasingly becoming mere data generators in a world that’s heavily driven by data. So Say Hi to The Age of No Privacy Part 4 and Part 5.
Blog posts that worth your time:
Should media outlets charge people for their content? From lessons learned from The Information, why not?
How to raise seed capital? Here are crucial steps to follow.
“The defining narrative of our online moment concerns the decline of text, and the exploding reach and power of audio and video.” Welcome to the post-text future.
Cool thing of the week:
In Pyeongchang, the 2018 Winter Olympics is going on. It’s exciting to watch skiers flying in the sky and rotate their bodies. A successful quadruple jump would win skiers a good mark, but have you wondered why is it so difficult or even impossible to do a quintuple jump?