Editor’s note:
In the past week, Tencent invests in China’s top 2 game-streaming platforms, Douyu and Huya. The latter is the US-Liste YY’s Twitch-like unit and is mulling an IPO to raise over USD 200 million this year to support its expansion in the sector with cut-throat competition.
In Southeast Asia, Uber is close to sell operations in the region to local rival Grab, while Go-Jek, a formidable rival for both Uber and Grab, said it is considering an IPO without framing a timeline for the floating.
KrASIA 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:
Singapore-based ride hailer Grab is close to signing a deal with Uber buying out the latter’s Southeast Asia operations the earliest this week or next, Bloomberg and Reuters reported Thursday citing sources. (KrASIA)
Indonesian ride-hailing and on-demand service startup Go-Jek is considering an initial public offering in Indonesia, said the company president Andre Soelistyo to reporters on Monday without framing a timeline for the floating. The company is said to be in the process of recruiting professionals in Vietnam. (KrASIA)
Nasdaq-listed live-streaming company YY.Inc revealed in its quarterly financial report that the Chinese company seeks to list its game streaming unit Huya (虎牙直播) in the US. The Twitch-like Huya plans to raise over USD 200 million this year to support its expansion in the sector with cut-throat competition. Huya also lands strategic investment worth USD 461.6 million from Tencent. (KrASIA).
Game streaming platform Douyu (斗鱼) will receive $630 million (RMB 4 billion) financing from Tencent and sign a strategic agreement with the company. (Technode)
Major cryptocurrency including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin have all plummeted nearly 10% in the past 24 hours, after facts surfaced about a major hack in the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance. (China Money Network)
Qualcomm Inc. is in talks to settle a dispute with Huawei Technologies Co., which has been withholding a hefty stream of royalty payments from the chip maker, according to people familiar with the matter. (WSJ)
WeChat, the largest Chinese mobile messaging app, just crossed a milestone of 1 billion monthly active users in the past Chinese Lunar New Year, said Tencent’s founder and CEO Pony Ma. (KrASIA)
Amazon announced it will offer a low-cost version of its Prime membership program to qualifying recipients of Medicaid. The program will bring the cost of Prime down from the usual $12.99 per month to about half that, at $5.99 per month. (Tech Crunch)
Indonesia has blocked online blogging service Tumblr over pornographic content, the government said Tuesday, in Jakarta’s latest crackdown on obscenity. (Yahoo.Finance)
Alibaba, Jack Ma’s e-commerce conglomerate, has injected RMB 1.77 billion (approx. USD 280 million) in the country’s major bike-sharing startup Ofo through two subsidiaries, according to a report by Chinese media The Paper. (KrASIA)
In an effort to lure some of its largest overseas-listed tech giants back to the local capital market, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is exploring to allow foreign-listed tech companies to relist in the country through financial certificates, reports South China Morning Post. (KrASIA)
Chinese online anime-streaming platform Bilibili Inc. has filed a F-1 form to raise as much as US$400 million via a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, after being rumored to plan a U.S. IPO for months. (China Money Network)
India’s largest ride-hailing application Ola is in talks with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek and other investors to add $500 million-$1 billion to its war chest, according to people familiar with the development. (The Economic Times)
Best of Kr-Asia Features:
People today still diverge on where China’s AI is heading, all with good reasons. How about Microsoft founder Bill Gates? What does he think of the current AI race? Bill Gates on AI: “China is No. 2”.
Nobel Prize winner Bengt Holmstrom warned that cryptocurrency would lead to catastrophe. In September 2017, China banned ICO and the transaction of all kinds of digital currencies. What does China’s social networking and gaming giants Tencent think of Bitcoin? Tencent CSO: Bitcoin Is An Intrinsically Valueless Asset That Tencent Will Not Bet on.
They used to earn millions of cash per year. They used to be the trending stars. Yet with the downfall of on-live platforms, many vloggers and live-streaming celebrities are now facing tougher challenges to survive. Here is how Chinese vloggers trying to maintain profits: Surviving on Regulatory Shocks.
Blog posts that are worth your time:
Startups in AI, AR, space technology, autonomous driving, and other frontier techs, here is a list of dos and don’ts.
“Set out to do good work. Set out to be fair in your dealings with customers, employees, and reality.” Founder & CTO at Basecamp tells you being a startup entrepreneur doesn’t mean you’re changing the world.
For small startups, how to deal with big deals? Entrepreneurs should better figure that out as it can be a matter of succussing or death.
Cool thing of the week:
With a small tissue from an animal, scientist and startups are working to grow meat in labs instead of on a farm. Some vegans are ok about the idea of clean meat, as it seems to be a more ethical way to treat animals. But, apart from being extremely expensive, some people just want an ordinary ribeye.