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| May 25 · Issue #151 · View online |
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Welcome back, The newsletter lapsed into a hiatus – apologies for that – but we are back with plenty to catch up on today. In China: ByteDance is on a roll with TikTok after it hired a big name CEO from Disney. All the while its valuation is surging in private sales, apparently to over $100B, which indicates pent up interest in a potential IPO. But it isn’t clear where such a listing might take place. Increased tension with the US means that public China companies face potential delisting from US exchanges. Some are already fleeing the US—both on their own initiative or for scandals. Hong Kong may be an early winner. It has already seeing two major listings come its way, although none are on ByteDance’s level yet. In India, Reliance is hoovering up billions for its services platform as the average startup in the country teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. Over in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is leading the way into a post-Covid world. That’s all for this week, see you again next Monday, Jon
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TikTok hires Disney's head of streaming as CEO and more
It’s been quite a month for ByteDance/TikTok, which finally hired the US-based CEO it was reportedly seeking – he was Disney’s head of streaming, no less. It has reportedly has seen its valuation pass $100B in private share sales link – that’s an impressive feat even though it looks like a planted story. ByteDance has even done early stage investing after it joined a $6M round for digital debt collection startup Lingxi link
And it is reportedly setting up an in-car entertainment business link
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The Senate passed a bill that may delist Chinese companies from US stock exchanges link
Baidu is, for one, said to be considering delisting from the Nasdaq itself link
Luckin Coffee, meanwhile, is being forced to delist its US shares following a sales fraud scandal link
Alibaba saw online sales jump thanks to Covid-19 link—obvious, yes, but it beat even analyst expectations link
Xiaomi enjoyed a similar boost as China’s economy rebounded link
Investments to startups has also shown a “promising” bounce back link 🔒 Speaking of which: MissFresh, a delivery service back by Tencent, is reportedly close to securing $500M in new capital link
Fitness startup Keep, which offers apps, offline gyms and sports equipment, raised an $80M Series E at a valuation of over $1B link
The UK is now plans to reduce Huawei’s role in its 5G network link
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Hong Kong lands two big IPOs from China
NetEase will reportedly IPO on June 11, with JD.com set to follow a week later. Hong Kong has wooed Chinese tech firms on its potential following Alibaba’s blockbuster listing in late 2019, and tensions with US – many of which are above – have played in its favour.
Related: JD is apparently planning other affiliate IPOs link
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VPNs saw a download spike after China announced a new law for Hong Kong link |
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The New York Times and others apply to station in Taiwan
The newspaper plans to move reporters to Taiwan after a number were forced to leave posts in China.
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Live-streaming firm M17 sold off its dating business Paktor thereby unwinding a merger from April 2017—the deal value was not disclosed link
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Reliance Jio is sucking up investment for nationwide e-commerce
Following a landmark $5.7B investment from Facebook, Jio Platforms, the service division of India’s top operator, has hoovered up billions more from the likes of PE firms KKR, Vista, Silver Lake and General Atlantic. In total it has raised around $10B to digitise services like e-commerce, investors believe it can be as transformative as it was when it launched cheap 4G in 2016. For Facebook, it may help finally launch a payment service in India and give the social network, among other things, the benefits of a strong local partner. Already it has rolled out a WhatsApp commerce service link
And JioMart is available in 200 locations link
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Despite billions pouring in for Jio, the average Indian startup is said to have just 3 months of runway left link
Amazon has finally launched a long-rumoured grocery delivery service in India link
Ola laid off 1,400 staff on account of the pandemic’s hit on business link
Swiggy let go of 1,100 staff link
BigBasket is said to be raising up to $200M as it eyes a boost for its e-grocery service during India’s lockdown link
Khatabook, which helps digitise book keeping and finances for SMEs, raised $60M link
iSeed is a new early-stage fund backed by Angel List and a bunch of top entrepreneurs link
Paytm has launched its games business in South Asian markets link
Chinese investors are coming under close scrutiny in India link
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Japan's defence ministry reportedly investigates alleged hack of next-gen missile details
Japan’s defence ministry is investigating a possible leak of details of a new state-of-the-art missile in a large-scale cyber attack on Mitsubishi Electric Corp, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.
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SoftBank’s “Unicornonsense” link
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Korea's chip and display makers have turned to homegrown chemicals after Japan imposed export curbs 🔒
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Sony is said to have increased its focus on VR technology link 🔒 |
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Vietnam nets supply chain deals
One benefit of Vietnam’s strong response to Covid-19 – it has recorded no deaths—and early reopening of its economy has been its continued rise as a supply chain destination. It has has reportedly netted a manufacturing deal from Panasonic, which is moving 800 jobs from Thailand. While Apple is also said to have picked Vietnam as the place to develop a “brand-new” headphones product link 🔒 Vietnam is also pushing ahead of post-Covid tourism link
And, in e-commerce, it is predicting $35B in annual by 2025 – that would be 10% of all retail sales link
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An insightful look into the battle for Southeast Asia between US and Chinese cloud services link 🔒 There’s more evidence of a merger between Tiki and Sendo, Vietnam’s two largest e-commerce services, after Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority confirmed it has received a notification of a potential deal link
Uber is closing its Singapore office, and last presence in Southeast Asia, as a result of global costcutting measures link
Thailand has delayed the implementation of a new data law due to the pandemic link
PropertyGuru says sales grew 24% but it expects growth to slow due to the pandemic link
The Philippines hopes to raise coronavirus relief funds by taxing internet companies link
Grab Thailand’s CEO resigned to work on personal projects link
Indonesia-based capsule hotel Bobobox raised $11.5M link
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A moving story of a business owner who became a delivery driver in Covid—and found a new appreciation for service workers link
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There’s a lot more here than usual as we are playing catch up on newsletters:
- Many arms, weak core. Zilingo’s unravelling “octopus strategy” link (free read)
- Vickers Venture’s deep tech and shallow returns link
- The Covid-19 inflection point for Singapore’s SMEs link
- Teleport-ing AirAsia out of Covid-19 link (free read)
- Sayurbox, Tanihub offer fix for Indonesia’s flawed food supply link
- The Covid wedge for Alibaba, ByteDance’s productivity tools in Southeast Asia link
- OYO, RedDoorz vs ZEN and the art of pandemic perseverance link (free read)
- Backs to the wall, Singapore’s SMEs see a saviour in alt lending companies link
- Charting the step-by-step collapse of India, SEA’s travel and tourism link
- Carro, Carsome jumpstart SEA’s post-Covid used car race link
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