Editor’s note:
Alibaba-backed bike-sharing startup Ofo plans to keep GoBee’s brand for future operations, a source told SCMP. Last month, Ofo just raised US$866 million in a round led by Alibaba.
KrASIA 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:
Singapore: Singapore’s competition watchdog on Friday outlined a number of interim measures as it continued investigation into ride-hailing firm Grab’s deal to buy Uber Technologies’ business in the city-state. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: In the not too distant future, surveillance cameras sitting atop over 100,000 lampposts in Singapore could help authorities pick out and recognize faces in crowds across the island-state. (Reuters)
Singapore: ELECTRIFY, a Singaporean startup that is using the blockchain to allow people to trade electricity on a peer-to-peer marketplace, announced today the signing of an MOU with TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), Japans largest utility company. (e27)
Indonesia: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says the next battle for technology companies will be fought in Indonesia, because of the Asian country’s huge population, high economic growth and “untapped market potential.” (Deal Street Asia)
Indonesia: Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Element Inc has secured a $12 million funding from a Series A round led by Indonesia’s GDP Venture and US-based PTB Ventures. (Deal Street Asia)
Vietnam: The number of fintech companies in Vietnam will continue to rise sharply in the near future, attracting heightened investor interest, a top executive at Ernst & Young (EY) said. (Deal Street Asia)
Vietnam: Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) launched on Friday the nation’s biggest IPO that aims to raise as much as $922 million and has attracted global funds as cornerstone investors, a term sheet of the deal showed. (Deal Street Asia)
Thailand: Thailand’s iTruemart, a unit of mobile phone operator True Corp Plc, said on Saturday it has fixed a data leak that led to information on some of its customers, including their ID and passport data, becoming public. (Reuters)
China:
Ofo, the Beijing-based dockless bicycle-rental company, plans to take over the operations of Hong Kong-based GoBee Bike, according to people familiar with the matter. (SCMP)
China’s Sina Weibo will remove gay and violent content, including pictures, cartoons and text posts, during a three-month clean-up campaign, the microblogging platform said. (Reuters)
Hellobike, China’s third-largest bike-sharing company by MAU, raised as much as US$700 million in a Series E1 round from investors including Ant Financial and Fosun, marking the largest fundraising of the startup to date, local media Yicai reports on Friday. (KrASIA)
Jinri Toutiao, the operator of China’s largest news aggregator, has invested in a Series B round in Shimo, the Chinese equivalent of Google Docs, in 2017, local media Pintu reported on Thursday. (KrASIA)
Chinese social media giant Tencent Holdings will bid for a stake in the company that provides WiFi services on China’s bullet trains in a deal worth more than RMB3.05 billion (US$485 million). (China Money Network)
Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has set up a joint venture with Chinese automobile manufacturer Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. to co-develop autonomous driving technologies and connected vehicle platforms. (China Money Network)
Shares of American action camera manufacturer GoPro Inc. jumped 8.8% in New York today on news reports that Chinese electronics and software company Xiaomi Inc. is considering making an offer for the U.S. company. (China Money Network)
Black Shark, a start-up established in August last year with backing from Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, said it has received more than 100,000 registrations from users expressing interest in its new smartphone specifically targeted at gamers. (SCMP)
Anbang Insurance Group Co., the troubled Chinese insurer seized by the government, is interviewing investment banks to advise on potential asset divestments, people with knowledge of the matter said. (Deal Street Asia)
Hong Kong-based PAG is planning a new Asia private equity fund, adding to a massive pool of private equity money readied for acquisitions in the region, six people with knowledge of the plan told Reuters. (Deal Street Asia)
World:
A Russian court on Friday ordered that access to the Telegram messenger service be blocked in Russia, heralding possible communication disruption for millions of users in the latest clash between global technology firms and Russian authorities. (Reuters)
The chief executive of the Telegram messenger service, Pavel Durov, said on Friday the application will use built-in systems to circumnavigate a ban in Russia imposed by a court earlier on Friday. (Reuters)
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s compensation rose 53.5 percent to $8.9 million in 2017, a regulatory filing showed on Friday, largely due to higher costs related to the 33-year old billionaire’s personal security. (Reuters)
Tesla Inc will be profitable in the third and fourth quarters of this year and will not have to raise any money from investors, billionaire Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday, driving shares in the electric carmaker higher. (Reuters)
Nintendo Co. is teaming up with San Francisco-based Scrum Ventures to scout startups working on new ways to play or use the Japanese company’s hit gaming console, the Switch. (Bloomberg)
Apple Inc. warned employees to stop leaking internal information on future plans and raised the specter of potential legal action and criminal charges, one of the most-aggressive moves by the world’s largest technology company to control information about its activities. (Bloomberg)