Asia Tech Review: January 15 2018

Hong Kong continues to emerge as a tech IPO destination.

A new platform might seem like support for bike-sharing startups, but this is Didi’s effort to exert control and keep apps like Ofo and Bluegogo as features inside its app not full-blown competitors.

Apple’s move to migrate users to a local iCloud data host saw it include international accounts. It later apologized for sending requests “in error.”

Maoyan Weying, whose backers include Shenzhen-listed film producer Beijing Enlight Media, was formed in September through the merger of two rival ticketing platforms. Its other investors include Tencent Holdings Ltd., the biggest Chinese internet company, as well as Meituan Dianping, the country’s largest group-buying and restaurant reviews service. 

Now authorities are taking aim at online platforms and mobile apps that offer exchange-like services, according to sources.

Bitcoin mining could be on its last legs in China. The country’s top internet-finance regulator, the Leading Group of Internet Financial Risks Remediation, issued a notice asking local governments to “guide” bitcoin-mining operations to make an “orderly exit” from the business, according to a leaked document online.

Nearly two years to the day after its majority investment in Grindr, Kunlun now owns the whole company.

Citiesocial is a Taipei-based startup that helps emerging brands break into Asia’s e-commerce market.

Well of course…

The service entered the country via Pune and in partnership with Paytm.

The company has been linked with forays into Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the past. Some recent reports even said Ola’s CEO had met the London Major about a potential UK move, but that is apparently inaccurate.

Investors include US-based Social Capital.

In a move right of out the Alibaba playbook, Paytm Money is in the process of seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to act as an investment advisor

The firm is looking to integrate cryptocurrencies into its messaging platform, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

Cryptocurrency investors have until the end of the month to convert their virtual accounts into real-name ones, according to authorities.

The news organization has been critical of President Duterte as part of its focus on independent reporting. That’s created few friends in the government and now the Philippines’ SEC is investing its ownership. Rappler claims it is 100% owned by Philippines execs, per law, via a special investment vehicle, but the SEC believes its American investors own a piece of the business.

Grab also took money from Toyota as part of its newest $2.5 billion funding round.