Also, Singapore cryptocurrency exchange firm Quoine moves banking operations to Japan, and more
Chinese news
Tencent crosses US$500 billion valuation mark [TechCrunch]
Chinese internet giant Tencent has beat its rivals to become China’s first US$500 billion-valued company.
The company hit the market cap of HK$3.99 trillion (US$500 billion) when its shares hit HK$418.80 (US$53), which comes a week after Tencent posted a revenue of RMB 65.2 billion (US$9.8 billion) with a net profit of RMB 18 billion (US$2.7 billion)
Other half-a-trillion dollar valued companies including American tech giants Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon.
Tencent’s rival Alibaba is valued at US$474 billion.
A look at how Chinese sharing economy culture is spinning out of control [The New York Times]
This is article presents an excellent analysis on the current state of China’s sharing economy culture. The author argues that China’s eagerness to embrace — and foster — all aspects of the sharing economy have caused it to spin out of control.
The consequences are dire — and they go beyond disruption of social mores: tech companies are getting unfettered user data access; obviously-hare-brained ideas are being funded because they are part of the sharing economy.
The author puts part of the blame on China’s socialist ideology.
“Who can blame China for hanging on to the term ‘sharing economy’? It fits with the image that Beijing wants to project: warm, generous, egalitarian. Robin Li, the chief executive of the internet giant Baidu, said last year that ‘the idea of a sharing economy is quite similar to that of a communist society,’ because both focus on ‘distribution according to need.’”
Japanese news
Online pawnshop CASH gets acquired for US$62.2 million [TheBridge]
Japanese online pawnshop CASH has been acquired by Japanese internet giant and service conglomerate DMM.com for 7 billion yen (US$62.2 million).
Created by Yusuke Mitsumoto, the founder of online shop builder Stores.jp, the app CASH allows sellers to take a photo of their items and upload to them to the platform for appraisal. Once a priced has been agreed upon, a sales transaction can be conducted.
Cryptocoin startup Quoine moves banking operations to Japan [Bloomberg]
Singapore-founded and Tokyo-headquartered cryptocoin startup Quoine is now transferring customer payments to its Japanese bank accounts, after its bank account in Singapore was terminated.
The Singapore branch of CIMB Group had terminated Quoine’s account at the end of September. More than 10 cryptocurrency and payments company’s accounts were shut down in Singapore.
Also Read: Blockchain-powered fintech startup Quoine raises US$105M in oversubscribed ICO
Meanwhile, in Japan, the authorities have issued licenses to 11 cryptocurrency exchange operators.
Southeast Asia funding and partnerships
JD.com invests US$44 million in Tiki.vn [e27]
Chinese internet giant JD.com has made a US$44 million investment in Vietnamese e-commerce portal Tiki.vn, making it one of the largest deals in the Vietnam ecosystem.
Tiki will use the newly-raised funding to conduct more training, optimise delivery and logistics processes and market its express service TikiNow.
Tiki was founded in 2010 and initially sold e-books, but it has since diversified to become an all-encompassing marketplace, selling goods such as toys, digital devices, lifestyle and beauty products. Tiki currently stocks over 300,000 different kinds of products.
DeClout teams up with Gobi Partners [Press Release]
Investment firm DeClout Investments and Gobi Partners have partnered up to “accelerate the growth of Southeast Asian startups in their portfolios”.
DeClout Investments was incorporated as a two-tier platform comprising incubation
and fund-raising facilitation for startups and growth enterprises. It was awarded S$10 million (US$7.4 million) by the National Research Foundation (NRF) to co-invest in startups. It is also a partner of of SPRING Singapore’s Startup SG Accelerator
programme.
Gobi Partners was founded 15 years ago and has currently 42 startups in its portfolio. It was recently named “Second Most Active Venture Capital Firm 2016 – 2017” in Southeast Asia by the Asian Venture Capital Journal.
US-based AI firm DataRobot makes S$15 million in Singapore [Press Release]
US-based AI firm DataRobot is investing S$15 million (US$11 million) to build its regional headquarters in Singapore. The company plans to hire 50 employees here by 2019 with 40 per cent of the staff being technical experts and data scientists.
Depending on economic and business performance, DataRobot plans to increase its investment into the Singapore operations by up to an additional S$50 million (US$37 million).
DataRobot’s technology has been used globally to help insurance companies detect fraudulent claims, businesses set competitive pricing, financial institutions predict loan defaults and more.
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The post Captain’s Log, November 21: Tencent hits over US$500B in valuation, AI firm DataRobot invests US$11M in Singapore appeared first on e27.