Also, Indonesian travel site Tripvisto shuts down

Amazon Echo’s Alexa for India can speak Hinglish

Amazon will start shipping its Amazon Echo speakers to India this week — with a fully localised Alexa assistant, according to a Bloomberg report. 

It can speak and understand Hinglish — a mix of English and Hindi — with an Indian accent; recognise important dates in the Indian calendar, including Diwali and Independence day; and label things as they are referred to in the Indian culture (for example, a living room in India is called the ‘drawing room’).

The Indian Alexa also comes loaded with Indian content such as popular Indian children stories, and is even able to tell Indian jokes.

Besides having a fully localised personality, the Indian Alexa also works with over 10, 000 Indian app extensions such as taxi-booking app Ola.

To further entice customers, these localised Amazon Echo speakers will be priced at a 30 per cent discount.

With deep localisation features and significant discounts,  Amazon Echo may prove to be a hit in India and help Amazon gain an upper hand on its major Indian e-commerce rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal.

Apple may ditch hardware partner Qualcomm

For many years, Qualcomm’s chips has been powering most of Apple’s iPhone and iPad units. But that partnership may come to an end, amidst an escalating legal battle, according a report by the Wall Street Journal. 

If Apple terminates its deal with Qualcomm, it will use only modem chips from Intel and possibly MediaTek, the report said. Apple has already been incorporating Intel chips in some of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models.

Also Read: Apple Watch Series 3 rollout hits speed bumps in China as carriers still not ready

Apple has accused Qualcomm of charging inflated licensing fees and engaging in anti-competitive practices, while Qualcomm denied the charges and filed countersuits, claiming that Apple is infringing on its patent copyrights. Qualcomm also wants to block the imports of selected iPhone and iPad models.

Indonesian travel site Tripvisto closes shop

Tripvisto, a Jakarta-based online platform for booking travel packages, activity tickets and interest-focussed trips, has announced it has ceased operations.

According to a report by Tech in Asia, CEO Bernardus Sumartok pinned unsustainable unit economics as the main cause of the shut down. Tripvisto has been experiencing difficulties hitting operational targets since May 2017 and all of its employees have left.

Tripvisto received funding from East Ventures in 2014, and a US$1 million Series A from Gobi Partners in 2015.

Fintech startup WishFinance expands globally

WishFinance, an alternative lending platform for SMEs, has announced it wants to expand globally, beyond its main markets of Singapore and Hong Kong.

The decision was made based on investors’ requests during an ICO presale.

“WishFinance token presale indicated a strong public as well as investor’s interest in the project. At the request of our significant investors we decided to move beyond Asian markets to global extension,” said Eugene Green, CEO and Founder of WishFinance, in an official press statement.

WishFinance’s blockchain platform offers business loans with interest rates that are scored on businesses’ cash flow. It is able to track these financial transactions in real time by connecting to businesses’ POS (Point-of-Sale) terminals.

The platform is able to issue a loan in 24 hours, and has a model for automatic repayments collection – it places a rule into acquiring and deducts a few per cents of the merchant customers’ payments until a loan is repaid. All customer data is stored on the blockchain so it cannot be altered.

Beauty marketplace Vaniday launches new SaaS platform

Rocket Internet-backed beauty marketplace Vaniday has launched an improved version of its salon management software for businesses.

Called my.Vaniday, the new software includes a spruced up user dashboard, which allows users to gain an instant overview of their daily schedules, upcoming and cancelled appointments, and business analytics.

Also Read: soCash wants to turn merchants into ATMs; raises Series A from Vertex

It also has a POS system, email marketing tools, customer notification, customer list import and export functions, and inventory and staff management.

Salons can join the Vaniday marketplace and use my.Vaniday for free. A premium version of my.Vaniday, which offers more in-depth sales and customer reports, is available through a paid subscription.

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Image Credit: karneg / 123RF Stock Photo

The post Captain’s Log, October 31: Amazon has created an Indian Alexa, Apple may ditch Qualcomm appeared first on e27.