SEA
Shopee, Lazada announce results for 9/9 online shopping sale. This 24-hour shopping festival run by these two companies began at midnight on September 9. (KrASIA)
While Asian entrepreneurs and business luminaries have often looked up to top schools in the US or Europe, they are now apparently heading east to China. Beijing’s Tsinghua University has just kicked off its Belt and Road (B & R) EMBA programme for Southeast Asia. Grab’s Anthony Tan is one of those who is attending the programme. (KrASIA)
Lendela raises $943K in a seed financing round. This firm is a part of the fintech group Zentro Finmarket and is still in a beta testing phase in Singapore and Malaysia. Investors of this round include the likes of Cocoon Capital and IMO Ventures. (KrASIA)
China
Alibaba-backed YCloset is a Chinese apparel-sharing company that offers affordable luxury, professional, and designer brand clothing. It has gradually shifted from one-time supplier purchase to brand partnerships with clothing companies. (KrASIA)
China is fully embracing blockchain technology. ZhongAn Tech, the technology arm of ZhongAn Online – China’s online insurer-, sets up China’s first blockchain-based diamond traceability alliance. (Technode)
Ant Financial commits RMB 1 billion to launch its mini-program business unit as it plays catch-up to Tencent’s WeChat. Alipay mini-programs will be gradually be opened to individual developers in the coming six months. (SCMP)
The radical government shakeup has left China’s $28b gaming market in a limbo. The once-booming industry has been paralyzed since March. It is illegal to launch a video game in China without government approval and there has been a short-term freeze in gaming licenses. (Tech In Asia)
Ofo denies claims that it was not able to pay all of its staff salaries last month. This news comes after Ofo’s international retreat and its latest RMB 60 million loan from Alibaba. (e27)
Food delivery continues to be a pivotal market for the likes of Alibaba and Meituan-Dianping. Alibaba’s new overarching company – a combination of Ele.me and Koubei – may acquire more funding to fight the battle as compared to the upcoming IPO of archrival Meituan. (Technode)
Elsewhere
The new Tesla T4 GPUs are the successors to the current batch of P4 GPUs that most major major cloud computing provider now offers. Nvidia claims that it designed these chips especially for AI interference and also launched a refresh of its TensorRT software in addition to the Tesla T4 GPUs. (TechCrunch)
Apple’s new iPhone lineup is getting more expensive. But this iPhone XR that brings futuristic features from iPhone X for hundreds less will have mass appeal. This will allow Apple to keep its average selling price high but attract new buyers who have sat out last year’s high-end. (CNBC)
Adobe is negotiating a deal to buy Marketo Inc, a cloud-based marketing software company. While no details of the amount were given, Adobe is expected to pay much more for this deal. (Reuters)
Consumers’ desire to engage with content is likely to be the highest in the morning, lowest in the afternoon, and moderate during the evening – in accordance with how the human working memory varies across different times of the day. This is how biology can be used to boost the earnings of social media firms. (HBR)
