SEA
Grab will partner with Maybank to foster the usage of GrabPay mobile wallet in Malaysia, set to launch in the coming weeks. (Reuters)
Uber’s SEA’s exit sparked monopolisation concerns, concerns that could be short-lived as transport regulators in Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar and Malaysia have issued new ride-hailing companies with a license to operate. (Deal Street Asia)
Maybank Asset Management Group Bhd, Maybank’s fully-owned subsidiary, has acquired both the fund management firms of Permodalan Nasional Bhd and appointed former CEO of Maybank Asset Management Sdn Bhd (MAMSB), Badrul Hisyam Abu Bakar appointed as CEO of MAMG. (Deal Street Asia)
Vietnam Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank expects its market value to rise to $1 billion after its planned listing of 750 million shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange late third quarter or early fourth quarter. (Deal Street Asia)
China
Ant Financial Services Group is preparing to close a $10 billion funding round that would value the company at $150 billion, setting conditions for investors to not invest or raise their stakes in competitors like Tencent and JD.com. (WSJ)
Online video streaming app iQiyi has opened offline cinemas where users can book private on-demand cinemas to watch movies from its list of titles, with the first such cinema launched in Zhongshan city. (SCMP)
Ofo started selling advertisements on its bikes and apps, as the company is short of cash. Market rumor has it that the bike-sharing startup failed to pay its manufacturers. (Technode)
Mobike, the bike-sharing startup acquired by Meituan-Dianping, will launch its services in India later this week as the Chinese market is currently saturated and is facing a clampdown by local government on the number of bikes deployed on the road. (SCMP)
Hong Kong launched on Monday an AI Lab which is jointly funded by facial recognition startup SenseTime and Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, as the city seeks to boost innovation with AI technologies. (SCMP)
Baidu COO LU Qi, stepped down from his position due to personal reasons. His departure led to the biggest fall in Baidu’s share price in almost three years as LU was the one that helped the company recover from the previous healthcare ad scandal. (Bloomberg)
Tsinghua University’s Fintech Institute established a research center for blockchain technology with the donations from VC firm Gaorong Capital, Tencent and other entities. The research center will focus on the development of blockchain technology and application in the real world. (China Money Network)
China launched on Monday a relay satellite to establish a communication link between Earth and the planned Chang’e-4 lunar probe. (China Money Network)
Microsoft kicked off its first AI conference in China on Monday, launching a platform for AI education dedicated to educate AI talent in the country. (36Kr)
The size of the world’s third-largest battery supplier ATL’s IPO shrank nearly 57%, reportedly raising as little as RMB 5.6 billion in its IPO on the Second-board market. (36Kr)
Didi Chuxing resumed its hitch service while safety concerns among passengers still remain. The ride-hailing company had suspended the service after the murder of a female passenger. (Sina)
Ofo users can use their metro/bus card to pay for rides. Users need to bind its metro/bus card to the Ofo app and then unlock the Ofo bikes with their phones without opening the bike-sharing app.(tmtpost)
Rest of Asia
LG Chairman Koo Bon-Moo died on Sunday, leaving South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate to his adopted son. Koo transformed LG into a global tech and chemical company from a local manufacturer of appliances over two decades. (Bloomberg)
World
Tesla more than doubled the price of its Model 3 to USD 78,000, Elon Musk tweeted during the weekend. The mass production of Model 3 is facing challenges including delays and manufacturing bottlenecks. (SCMP)
Microsoft acquired an AI startup Semantic Machine to beef up its presence in conversational AI. The startup leverages on AI technologies to add context to conversations with chatbots. (CNBC)
Good News Bad News
Lenovo’s troubled mobile business just dipped further. The company’s market share in Chinese smartphone market slid to a negligible 0.4% in the past year. Part of the failure, could be ascribed to the company’s confusing brand strategy, from LePhone, VIBE, K3 to ZUK, it kept changing branding and strategy for its mobile business. (TMTPost)
