Editor’s note:
The Chinese startup space has seen a trend of market consolidation, with companies merging to become new giants. In the past week, Toutiao merged beauty camera app Faceu and Momo acquired Tinder-like rival Tantan.
Companies like Toutiao and Momo, although they are already well established in their respective sector, still seeks to diversify their businesses or revenue streams to keep a healthy growth.
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:
Momo, the Nasdaq-listed mobile social networking company, is acquiring Tantan, China’s Tinder-like app, for a combination of USD600.9 million in cash and 5.3 million newly issued shares, according to a press release by Momo. The move came as Momo looks to entrench its position in Chinese online-dating landscape and diversify its revenue sources. (KrASIA)
Toutiao, China’s largest news aggregator, has reportedly acquired augmented reality-based selfie app Faceu for USD300 million, according to Chinese tech news media 36Kr. The acquisition comes as the algorithm-driven news recommendation app keeps diversifying its service offerings through acquisitions at home and abroad. (KrASIA)
Uber Technologies’s chief executive pledged to continue investing aggressively in Southeast Asia even though the U.S. ride-hailing firm expects to lose money in the fast-growing market due to costly battles with rivals such as Grab. (Reuters)
Meituan-Dianping, the world’s largest O2O lifestyle platform, is poised to extend its ride-hailing pilot to Shanghai soon, according to an announcement we recently spotted on its dedicated Meituan Dache (meaning Meituan ride-hailing) app. (KrASIA)
The largest Chinese ride-hailer Didi Chuxing is reportedly purchasing over one million second-hand vehicles from auto trading platform Renrenche.com, one of its investees, over the following 3 years, highlighting a step further towards a heavy-asset operations model which comes as part of Didi’s plan to become the future generations car-sharing operator. (KrASIA)
Chinese electric car-sharing service Mango Chuxing (芒果出行) recently announced raising tens of millions RMB in a pre-A round from China’s Wenxin Group as local new energy vehicle-sharing market burgeons in China’s push to bring more environment-friendly automobiles to the road. (KrASIA)
Tesla was planning to build a factory in China but has been reportedly grappling with the issue to finalize a plan without the participation of a local partner as required by local laws. (KrASIA)
Amazon plans to open as many as six more cashier-less stores this year, according to a report. The e-commerce giant is considering locations in Los Angeles and hometown Seattle. (Bloomberg)
Best of Kr-Asia Features:
Investors prevailing over entrepreneurs in the startup world bodes ill, and that is happening in the bike-sharing sector in China. An Investor’s Reflection on China’s Bike-Sharing Industry: A Magical Realism.
People worry about the problem of cybersecurity in China. We feel more and more often that we are increasingly becoming mere data generators in a world that’s heavily driven by data. Say Hi to The Age of No Privacy (Part 5)
Do employees at Amazon, Dell, Baidu, JD, and Huawei suffer from midlife crisis? Yes, they do. In Tech Companies, Midlife Crisis Seems to Strike Earlier and Harder (Part 3)
Blog posts that worth your time:
When facing difficult choices in life, such as how to choose the next job, before making the decision, we should ask ourselves What are we optimizing for?
An investor in 9 companies: How and why I started angel investing.
How Duolingo Built a $700 Million Company Without Charging Users.
Cool thing of the week:
“Hey Buddy, come and give me a hand.” We probably will have a robotic dog that can open the door for us soon.