SEA
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) ordered Grab Philippines to pay a P10-million fine for charging passengers additional fees. (Rappler)
Indonesia has removed its ban on Tik Tok, the Chinese video streaming app operated by Toutiao, after the company agreed to censor negative content. (Reuters)
Singapore Telecommunications plans to start an esports league this year and seeks to eventually sponsor its own team in a bid to bolster its presence among millennials. (Deal Street Asia)
China
JD’s finance arm JD Finance has raised at least $1.96 billion from investors. Its valuation doubled ahead of a much-anticipated IPO. (Reuters)
Chinese self-driving startup Pony.ai has raised the country’s biggest Series A round by an autonomous driving startup, pulling in US$214 million. (SCMP)
Xiaomi passed JD in market capitalization for the first time. Shares of Xiaomi rose as much as 4% to a high of HK$19.8 on Wednesday morning and its market cap reached US$56.4 billion, above JD’s US$55.4 billion. (SCMP)
Chinese bike-sharing startup Xiaoming has begun its bankruptcy proceedings. The startup was one of the six bike-sharing startups that have bitten the dust last year. (Technode)
The European Commission is expected to issue a multibillion-euro fine to Alphabet for the company’s actions that allegedly thwarted competition. (WSJ)
Bytedance, the operator of China’s largest news aggregator Jinri Toutiao and one of the most popular video streaming apps Tik Tok, is reportedly considering a HK IPO, fetching a valuation of over $45 billion. (Technode)
Live-streaming companies, including YY and Momo, are adjusting their products to better cater to women in China, adding sections such as gaming, outdoor sports, anime, and good-looking men. (SCMP)
Ex-Apple employee ZHANG Xiaolang was accused of stealing self-driving car secrets. ZHANG was planning to go back to China and work for autonomous driving startup Xpeng Motors. (Reuters)
Tiger Broker, an online stock brokerage serving Chinese clients, said its valuation has topped US$1 billion after raising its latest funding round. (SCMP)
Luckin Coffee, a coffee chain startup, said on Wednesday that it has raised a $200 million round that values the startup at $1 billion. GIC participated in the round. (Reuters)
Foxconn has set up a new AI company in Silicon Valley to expand its AI-based industrial capabilities. (CMN)
Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao Network has made a strategic investment of US$290 million in Dianwoda, a logistics service provider based in Hangzhou, to become its controlling shareholder. (CMN)
Rest of Asia
WhatsApp introduced a new feature to control the spread of misinformation in countries like India by allowing users to identify the origin of information in the app. (TC)
World
Tesla reached a deal with Chinese authorities to build its first overseas factory in Shanghai, doubling the EV maker’s global manufacturing. (Reuters)
Gadgets
Google has launched Google Pay Send, a peer-to-peer payments service allowing users to send money or pay a request. (Gadgets Now)
Good News Bad News
Shanghai will speed up the cancellation of foreign investment in the auto manufacturing sector. The country has previously said it would halt foreign ownership caps in 2018 for companies making EVs or plug-in hybrid vehicles. (Reuters)
