ByteDance prepares for a push into Tencent-dominated gaming kingdom – Bloomberg
TikTok proprietor Bytedance has built a full gaming division, preparing to launch its entry into the gaming industry in China which has long been seen as a “Tencent fortress”, according to a Bloomberg report.
The company has also reportedly bought gaming studios, distribution rights, while hiring talents from rival companies, building a team of more than 1,000 headcounts. Bytedance’s aims to launch two games by spring of 2020, worldwide.
Even as Tencent partners with gaming company Garena, which boasts ownership over top games such as Call Of Duty, League Of Legends and Point Blank, the world’s most valuable startup is forecasted to be the one company which can challenge its status quo, having already survived the orbit of Alibaba Group.
Future Group lays off employees, scales down e-commerce venture – DealStreet Asia
Future Group has fired 350-450 employees as part of its effort to scale down its digital strategy for e-commerce, as told by four former employees to DealStreet Asia on conditions of anonymity.
The company also closed down 140 EasyDay stores in November, according to The Economic Times, after the failure of its EasyDay grocery app.
Additionally, the two anonymous former employees also confirmed that layoffs across roles in sales, product development, marketing and ground operations were carried out in the last few months.
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“With the latest Amazon and Future Group tie-up, it’s clear that the new strategy for Future Group is getting into an omni-commerce model. But they are unlikely to stop with just this model; since they are very adaptive to new technologies, one could expect them to come out with newer models to sell online sooner,” added Harminder Sahni, managing director at Wazir Advisors, on Amazon becoming the authorised online sales channel for Future Retail Ltd stores and Future Retail.
Corporate training platform Yunxuetang raises US$100M in Series D round – DealStreet Asia
Yunxuetang, an enterprise-focused training platform, has raised US$100 million in a Series D round led by Centurium Capital, according to DealStreet Asia. Existing shareholders of this company include Jack Ma backed YF Capital and Susquehanna International Group (SIG) who were also seen as participants in the new round.
The added capital will mostly be used towards creating better content, that targets at delivering professional corporate training, mentors and institutes in order to build more personalised and smarter content.
The corporate training market is worth around 100 billion yuan (US$14.58 billion), while the employee training segment is “one of the few verticals” in the field that represents “a rigid market demand,” said Xia Xiaoyan, managing director of YF Capital, in a statement to DealStreet Asia.
Los Angeles, Women’s March catalyst for tech apps that aim to incite action – TechCrunch
Tech apps such as SameSide and Mark were part of a new experiment by local Women’s March organisers in bringing technology into the movement, according to TechCrunch.
As March organisers look for a way to incorporate art and artists into the event in a manner that is respectful to the public spaces, a new app called Mark allows participants to do this via their augmented reality feature. This allows participants to take pictures with permanent installations of digital street art.
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The Women’s March Foundation in Los Angeles is also doing the same with Sameside which offers push notifications and reminders of important dates, as well as a database of engaged activists who could be organised around social events.
“It’s kind of like a politically focused ‘Meetup’ with the added ability to message members about important dates and include calls to action for future activity,” says TechCrunch.
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Image Credit: Fredrick Tendong
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