SEA
Dutch 3D printing firm Ultimaker sees the Asia Pacific as next frontier. The company expects Asia Pacific to account for 30 per cent of its revenue by end-2019. CEO Jos Burger told KrASIA in an interview that the firm gets 10 to 15 per cent of its revenue from clients in Asia Pacific. (KrASIA)
Longhash Emma Cui on blockchain and the potential of decentralisation. Cui believes that Singapore is positioned to capture the growing deal flow of the sector and sees a strong push for decentralisation among stakeholders in the industry. (KrASIA)
Thai e-commerce enabler Sokochan to expand to Malaysia via joint venture with a local partner. The company is also in the midst of further expansion into other countries in the region like the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore fintech firm Rate raises $15m for blockchain cross-border payments. The company’s initial coin offering (ICO) that ran from April 16 to May 22 hit its hard cap target of 25,000 ether. (Tech In Asia)
China
Alipay adds Pinduoduo-like group feature. Now the Alipay users can form their own groups, invite friends to join, and also join existing groups to enjoy the perks of group discounted buys on the app. (KrASIA)
Rumour: Bytedance discussing potential public listing. The report highlighted that the company could potentially be valued beyond $45b, more than twice its previous reported valuation of $20b in November 2017. (KrASIA)
Shenzhen mech robot start-up wants to take us back to the good old days when robots were fun toys. This start-up is making robots for the hobbyist, but is also hoping to capitalise on educational market. (SCMP)
Chinese tech ‘wolf’ Huawei stalks Apple and Samsung. It surpassed Apple in Q2 to become the world number two smartphone maker, even though it is essentially barred from the critical US market. (Channel News Asia)
Lack of support for young researchers is holding back China’s innovation. To construct a world-leading country, strong basic science research is necessary. But this is lacking as private companies and ventures are not willing to do basic research, as it takes too long to see any impact. (Technode)
Alibaba is said to be merging its China food delivery business to tackle competition. This combined business and additional fundraising are targeted at an intensifying fight with the Tencent-backed Meituan Dianping in China’s food delivery sector. (CNBC)
Rest of Asia
Softbank-backed Appier acquires Indian martech startup, Qgraph, and this acquisition has helped the firm to build Aiqua, an automated content marketing platform. This will also allow Appier to add on Qgraph’s capabilities to its own product suites. (Tech In Asia)
Hong Kong’s Fung Group injects US$35m into India’s B2B e-commerce startup ShopX. The startup that is run by Bangalore-based 10i Commerce Services will use the funds to add new small merchant clients, strengthen its product & technology, and build new offerings covering multiple product verticals. (e27)
World
Google plans to roll out digital wellness features in Pie but Apple has already got them. This feature will allow users to allow users to keep track of time spent on and unplug from a device when needed. (TechCrunch)
Apple, Youtube, and others drop conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, saying that the Infowars author had broken community standards. The infowars app, however, still remains on the app stores of Apple and Alphabet’s Google Play. (Reuters)
Bitcoin’s price remains low, since hitting a $19,000 high in December 2017. However, with the cryptocurrency now regaining market share, Wall Street bull Tom Lee argues that the true sign of return lies in its market share, not low price. (CNBC)
India’s Uber rival Ola is headed to Europe with ride-hailing launch in the UK. The startup ventured overseas for the first time in Australia and is now already in 7 cities. Its move to the UK now signals the plan for further expansion into Europe. (TechCrunch)
Good News Bad News
Technology stocks make up too much of the S&P 500, and the index has a big move planned for Google, Facebook. Tech’s dominance is a big issue for every investor. This move is a sign that the ‘This must be the top tech’ debate is only set to grow. (CNBC)
