Editor’s note:
Last September, Tencent-backed Meituan-Dianping integrated Mobike’s service into its app, signifying a deeper partnership down the road.
The duo has both rolled out their ride-hailing services, making Didi, the No.1 ride-hailer in China, as their shared rival.
Kr-ASIA Daily is a five-minute read to brief you everything you need to know to start your day. We only choose the latest tech & startup news that is worth your time, with a focus on Southeast Asia and China.
Southeast Asia:
Singapore: ComforDelGro Corp is spending RMB 71.6 million (S$15 million) to acquire 217 taxi licenses and vehicles from Shenyang Tian Wen Taxi Co. to expand its taxi business in Shenyang, China. Shenyang is the capital of China’s Liaoning Province, according to a media release. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Hewlett Packard Enterprise has opened its Global IoT Innovation Lab – APAC in Singapore. The HPE Global IoT Innovation Lab – APAC is one of four globally that offers immersive Edge Experience Zones to demonstrate practical IoT use cases for industries such as oil & gas, manufacturing, engineering, healthcare, retail, smart cities and more. (e27)
Singapore: Singapore’s central bank has been studying the potential risks posed by cryptocurrencies, but there is as yet no strong case to ban trading of the digital coins in the city-state, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said. (Reuters)
Singapore: City-state-based insurer Great Eastern Holdings, the insurance arm of OCBC Bank, is in discussions with Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) regarding the sale of a minority stake in the latter’s Malaysian insurance unit. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has announced a collaboration with the Bursa Malaysia (BM) on jointly developing their capital markets through a stock market trading link. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Singapore-based insurtech venture fundMyLife (fML) has acquired rival ConsultWho.sg (CW), according to an account by e27. Both companies provide a Q&A platform for users seeking financial advice and connecting financial advisors to potential clients. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Global Logistic Properties (GLP) has sold logistics assets and solar panels worth $278 million (JPY30.5 billion) to its Tokyo stock exchange listed Japanese real estate investment trust (J-REIT). (Deal Street Asia)
The Philippines: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) posted a net income of Php825 million ($16 million) for the full-year 2017, an increase of 18 per cent from the Php702 million it generated in 2016, according to the unaudited consolidated financial statement posted on its website. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia: A-BIO Sdn Bhd has entered into a strategic collaboration through an RM20 million ($5.1 million) investment in Ain Medicare Sdn Bhd that will see it venture into the manufacturing of higher value bio-based products. A-BIO, which is led by Dr Norida Abdul Rahman, is an investment company that was established by the Malaysian government in 2009 to foster high-growth enterprises in Malaysia, with a focus on biotechnology and other emerging technology domains. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia: Malaysian retail pharmacy chain RedCap Pharmacy, owned by private equity firm Creador, has merged with local pharma retailer BIG Pharmacy, this portal has learnt. The merger is said to have been completed in January this year. The combined entity is now being rebranded as “BIG Pharmacy” and has a total of 34 outlets located in Klang Valley and Johor. (Deal Street Asia)
China:
China’s leading ride-sharing company Mobike is soon to close a Series E round led by Meituan-Dianping, a Chinese lifestyle app, with participation from existing and new investors, poised to best China’s No.1 ride-hailing app Didi together. (KrASIA)
Chinese billionaire WANG Jianlin’s Wanda Group, a real estate to entertainment conglomerate, is selling 12.77% shares worth USD 1.2 billion (RMB 7.8 billion) in its movie-theatre chain Wanda Film to e-commerce giant Alibaba and state-backed Beijing Cultural Investment Holdings, in a bid to shore up its balance sheet. (KrASIA)
After three years of operations under the mask of Kuaidi Taxi in Hong Kong, Didi has finally decided to up its game in the city, launching the Didi branded service in replace of Kuaidi. Didi users in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will be able to tap into their Didi app for taxi-hailing in the special administrative region of China. (KrASIA)
Chinese internet giant JD plans to expand to Europe by 2019 and hopes to be “ubiquitous” in the region in a few years. It will begin by launching its e-commerce and logistics services; it plans to use US$1 billion to build a logistics network in France, and launch a European research centre in Cambridge in the UK. (e27)
China’s leading bike-sharing company Ofo has reached a partnership with CAICT to promote technological standardization. (36Kr)
WeChat is cracking down mini-programs that violate its regulations, including those dedicated to micro-loan, pornography and e-commerce stores selling counterfeit products. (WeChat)
WeChat is testing a feature that allows users to delete themselves from unwanted friends’ contact list. (36Kr)
Alipay is reportedly launching a WeChat red envelop-like feature which allows users to send each other money. (36Kr)
Alipay and Tencent QQ plans to give respectively RMB 200 million and RMB 500 million as lucky money to users during Chinese Spring Festival. Suning, one of the largest retailer in China, will also roll out a red envelop-like feature in its app and WeChat H5. (36Kr)
IPRdaily China and incoPat issued a ranking of companies by the number of patent in blockchain technology. Alibaba ranks first while archrival Tencent ranks twenty-second. (wallstreetcn)
Baidu reached a partnership with Xinhuanet to cooperate in areas including content distribution, AI technologies and search optimization. Baidu will introduce content from Xinahuanet to its content platform Baijiahao. (China News)
Gogolook, a Taiwanese startup that develops the caller ID app Whoscall, today announced it has raised NT$345 million (approximately US$ 11.7 million) in funding from “well-known institutional investors active in the technology and internet industries”. (e27)
World:
Spotify generated a billion euros ($1.2 billion) in revenue in the third quarter of 2017, according to two investors briefed on the numbers. That puts it on track for full year revenue of more than four billion euros, up about 40% from 2016. And it would continue a streak of fast growth as Spotify readies for one of the highest-valued tech public listings in recent years. (The Information)
SpaceX launched its new Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, a major milestone in the company’s quest to grow its customer base and fund Elon Musk’s vision of making life multiplanetary. (Bloomberg)
Google begins rolling out ability to book flights and hotels directly from search results. (Techmeme)
South Korea’s spy agency has begun investigating the possibility that North Korean hackers orchestrated the theft of about $500 million worth of digital coins from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc., said a lawmaker who attended a meeting with the head of the intelligence service. (Bloomberg)
The two people who hacked ride-hailing firm Uber’s data in 2016 were in Canada and Florida at the time, a company security executive told a U.S. congressional committee on Tuesday. (Reuters)
Financial services workers will be among the first to be hit by the rise of automation while women will feel the effects earlier than men, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. (Bloomberg)
Qualcomm’s stock fell on a day when its would-be purchaser, Broadcom Ltd., offered shareholders a 17 percent higher price. (Bloomberg)
India is planning steps to ensure cryptocurrencies are illegal within its payments system, while at the same time appointing a regulator to oversee unregulated exchanges that trade in “crypto assets,” a finance ministry official said on Monday. (Reuters)
Google parent company Alphabet has tapped Dinesh Jain, former chief operating officer at Time Warner Cable, to lead up its Access division, which includes the Google Fiber unit and internet service provider Webpass. (The Verge)
Apple has seen “strong demand” for replacement iPhone batteries and may offer rebates for consumers who paid full price for new batteries, the company said in a Feb. 2 letter to U.S. lawmakers made public on Tuesday. (Reuters)
