Also, WeChat hits 1 billion users and Kakao makes a blockchain play

Singapore plans to let bike-sharing companies ban serial bike-litter offenders — [ChannelNewsAsia]

Anyone who has spent a few hours in Singapore knows the city is covered with ‘bike litter’ — which isn’t technically litter but rather inconsiderate, rude or vandalised bike parking practices via the sharing companies ofo, MoBike and ofo.

According to Channel News Asia, changes, proposed by the Land Transit Authority, would leverage QR-codes to essentially force people to park in designated geo-fences before they can end their trip. The system is an ‘end scan’ that is a similar idea to how locals buzz their bus cards before and after taking their ride.

The the government would also review the fleet size every six months and force the bike-sharing companies to ban serial parking offenders.

Also Read: Meet the 63 badass startups pitching at the Echelon TOP100 Singapore roadshow!

Singaporeans can expect these rules to be implemented in the second half of 2018.

WeChat crosses the 1 billion monthly-active-users metric — [South China Morning Post]

WeChat has entered the rarified billion-users number, and thus prompting this humble writer to wonder if we should us the word ‘unicorn’ for this statistic rather than valuation, according to the South China Morning Post.

Regardless, the number means WeChat is one of only three, and technically two, social media companies that have crossed the 1 billion user mark. Facebook has 2.13 billion active users while WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) has 1.5 billion. WeChat comes in third.

For some context, Google claims to have seven products with over 1 billion active users.

However, the 1 billion mark is especially remarkable because the app has largely failed to catch on outside of China and the ethnically-Chinese diaspora. So while Facebook and WhatsApp have higher numbers, they are spread far more thinly than WeChat.

Numbers like these point to how important the app has become to function in day-to-day China.

Go-Jek heading for an IPO? — [Reuters]

Go-Jek is reportedly concocting plans to head for an IPO, according to the company’s President Andre Soelistyo in a Reuters report.

The company hasn’t confirmed any details (like the float and timing) but Soelistyo did meet with Indoneisa’s Stock Exchange chief over what it takes to list on the bourse.

Go-Jek is considering a duel-share listing and has not yet found an underwriter.

Ofo receives lifebouy investment from Alibaba — [The Paper]

Ofo has reportedly received a a US$280 million investment from two subsidiary companies, according to The Paper.

Recently, rumours have been swirling about the health of the company. The US$280 million is seen by some as a necessary cash injection for the company. According to Bloomberg, ofo and its competitor MoBike were on the verge of merging — which would give it dominant market-share (for now) in China.

Bike-sharing has become one of the most expensive startup battles across Asia and has turned into a boon for traditional bike manufacturers.

Kakao makes move into blockchain — [Reuters]

South Korea’s largest messaging platform, Kakao, announced today it is launching a new coporate unit to explore blockchain integration, according to Reuters.

One potential plan for Kakao is to leverage a business strategy called a reverse-ICO. Basically, a reverse ICO works by compensating users who generate value for the company with blockchain tokens.

Also Read: How coworking space operator UnionSPACE plan to support fintech startups in Indonesia

It’s a strategy to help increase user engagement as they are incentivised to participate on the platform because they are basically getting paid to do so. Kik pioneered the idea and from a business perspective, the hope is the increased engagement generates far more revenue than the cryptocurrency payout.

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