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| February 17 · Issue #144 · View online |
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Welcome back, As the Coronavirus outbreak continues, travel plans are being iced. At least three events I had planned to attend in the coming month and plot more travel around are postponed. Last week, the tech industry’s Big One – Mobile World Congress – finally bowed to the inevitable and cancelled this year’s show. The impact is huge. MWC typically attracts over 100,000 attendees and it is a key place to get business done, but the organizer’s position became untenable as all the biggest names dropped out one-by-one. In the end, the cancellation came less than two weeks before the show was scheduled to start. That’s so late that the continued uncertainty likely inconvenienced many, even though it was the correct call: better be safe than sorry. As for me, Bangkok’s pollution is lifting and having spent more than a month on road around the end of last year, I can say I’m happy to be ‘stuck’ at home for a while. See you next week. Jon
You can get Asia tech news as it happens by subscribing to the ATR Telegram channel. It’s totally free and there’s no catch, just follow 👉🏻 https://t.me/asiatechbulletin
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Hundreds of Chinese businesses have reportedly applied for $8B+ in loans to deal with coronavirus impact
Those include Xiaomi, which is said to have applied for 5 billion yuan ($716 million) in loans, as well as top tech firms including Meituan Dianping, Didi Chuxing, Qihoo 360 and facial recognition start-up Megvii. Meanwhile, analysts have lowered their smartphone sales estimates in Q1 2010 by 20% – overall numbers aren’t clear but offline says could fall by 50% year-on-year link
The government has launched an app to help check on the risk of catching Coronavirus link
And, finally, yes of course… because this is China, citizen journalists documenting the crisis in Wuhan from the ground have disappeared link
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Four members of China’s military were indicted by the US government on charges of hacking into Equifax link
A profile of Epoch Times, a news organization set up by practitioners of Falun Gong that has been on an advertising blitz and has a large pro-Trump presence in the US link
US officials say Huawei can covertly access telecom networks and they want their allies to enforce a ban link
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Coinbase, Polychain and Paradigm invested $2M in crypto trading startup Amber link
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Amazon is challenging India antitrust probe
Amazon has had quite the year in India, and we’re only in February. It also joined hands with rival Flipkart and others to demand India scales back a proposed tax on third-party sellers on their platforms link
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A think tank filed an application to stop WhatsApp’s mobile payment trial in India link
SoftBank is reportedly in talks to buy a minority stake in Mahindra Electric Mobility – the Japanese firm is already a key investor in Ola Electric link
Speaking of Ola, it launched a service in London – it began operations in the UK last year and holds a London operating license link
Sequoia is reportedly raising a new $1.3B fund for India and Southeast Asia link 🔒 GitHub launched an Indian subsidiary link
India’s smartphone market grew just 8% in 2019 – 152.5m units shipped link
Yamaha is reportedly in talks to lead a $35M round for self-drive car rental startup Drivezy link
Online furniture retailer Pepperfry raised $40M from adhesive maker Pidilite Industries – last year it put $30M into online interior design company Home Lane link
Vedantu raised an extended $24M for its online tutoring service link
Simsim, a new social commerce startup founded last year, raised $16M link
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SoftBank profit wiped out by Vision Fund losses as second fund is scaled back
The fund recorded an $8.9 billion operating ‘loss.’ The apostrophes are there because there are not paper losses, this is all assumed value through investments. But the fact that SoftBank itself is deeming the value to have depressed so significantly is obviously terrible news for the fund, and plans for a second, follow-up fund. But, at the same time, it’s hardly a surprise given recent news.
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Rakuten sold its stake in Pinterest ($1.4B) due to concerns of over-valuation among tech companies link
Rakuten was also raided by anti-monopoly officials in response to complaints from merchants about the company’s free shipping policies link
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North Korea’s secret Coronavirus crisis is scary
The border with China is a vital and forbidden gateway for North Korea. The regime hasn’t acknowledged any cases, but it did cancel its annual military parade. The level of hospital and poverty of the country appears to make this a potential crisis in waiting.
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A look at Facebook's 'double-edged sword' in the carnage of the mall shooting in Thailand
Some usage of Facebook, the media and social media were widely (and rightly) criticized for giving away vital rescue attempt information to the shooter, an army soldier who stole weapons and went on a shooting killing more than 20 people. But this story looks at how some Facebook influencers were able to help police connect with those stranded in the mall before the situation was neutralized.
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Vietnam’s top e-commerce firms Tiki and Sendo reportedly held exploratory merger talks, but details appear vague at this point link 🔒 Warburg Pincus made an undisclosed investment in Singapore telco Circles.Life link
Sea bought (and rebranded) a Singapore-based football club link
Grab’s escooter rental division, GrabWheels, raised $30M from Taiwanese auto-maker KYMCO as part of an “ongoing” Series A round link
Facebook banned a network of two dozen fake pages and accounts linked to Vietnamese telco Viettel, its Myanmar franchise and a marketing firm for “corporate disinformation” link 🔒 Thailand auctioned 5G licenses ahead of a planned rollout later this year link
OYO is apparently considering closing its co-living business in Indonesia link, although it has denied the claim link
Report estimates Grab’s move into advertising could bring in nearly $250M in revenue per year – confession: not something I’ve studied in depth but Grab needs all the extra money it can make to reach profitability link
Vietnam dropped a proposed 49% foreign ownership cap on e-payment firms link
Tourkrub is reportedly raising a $5M Series B round led by King Power Click, the digital arm of travel retail group King Power link
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Behind Signal’s efforts to make its privacy-focused messaging service mainstream – importantly, a $50M investment from departed WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton has grown the team from 3 to 20 link
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