How China Tamed The Internet, Amazon’s Go-Local Strategy In India
How China Tamed the Internet
This is no longer the China of the 1990s, a nation of shoe factories and fake bags. The U.S. wants to believe that the scourge of Chinese censorship thwarts online innovation but China is challenging the idea in ways that frighten and confound. This Washington Post article delves into how Chinese are innovating behind the Great Firewall with mobile apps, on-demand services and accelerators galore.
Five Reasons Why China is a Role Model for Mobile Innovations
China is leaping ahead as a hub for tech innovation centered on mobile social commerce, omnichannel market and virtual reality. ClickZ cites five factors why China is getting ahead in digital marketing: integration of mobile and on-demand services, the success of WeChat in China for branding and social commerce, the combination of online and offline marketing across multiple channels, a boom in Chinese e-commerce, a turn toward China for technology leaps in consumer adoption of new mobile innovations.
China Not (Yet) About To Overtake the U.S. As Biggest Movie Marke
While Chinese money and moviegoers reshape Hollywood, China’s box-office growth is slowing down. That’s knocking China off its stride in overtaking the U.S. as the world’s largest movie market, reports the WSJ.
Baidu’s AI Innovation for Composing Music From Artwork
Baidu has developed a futuristic artificial intelligence application that combines music and artwork. In case your own mind lacks imagination, Baidu’s AI analyzes painting and then composes original music inspired by the image. Check out the UCCA exhibit in Beijing to see/hear how this works, to the tune of two Robert Rauschenberg paintings.
China Investors Proving They Love European Soccer
GSR’s chairman and notable Chinese venture investor Sonny Wu is reportedly behind a deal for an investor group powered by Chinese money to buy Italian soccer club AC Milan. The deal at a valuation of $827 million has Wu teaming up with Italian investor and sports business consultant Nicholas Gancikoff to acquire 80% of the sports club from media tycoon and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The deal, writes the WSJ, is an example of China investment push into fields far afield such as soccer and Hollywood.
Chinese electric vehicle and battery maker BYD has received a $450 million investment from Samsung, which is taking a 2 percent stake in the Warren Buffet-invested company that has a factory in the Los Angeles vicinity.
ZestFinance, a six-year-old, L.A.-based startup that blends machine learning with big data analysis to pinpoint more accurate credit scores, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from the Chinese search juggernaut Baidu. Fortune has more here.
INDIA
Amazon’s Go-Local Strategy In India
Amazon’s entry into India reads like a classic Harvard Business Review case study. The e-commerce leader had to figure out how to get over several hurdles. Two-thirds of the Indian population lives in rual areas, only about one-third are connected to the Internet, and cash rules. Moreover, Amazon had to get around India’s restrictions on foreign multi-brand retailers selling online directly to Indian consumers. The solutions were all related to a go-local strategy for Amazon.
India’s enterprise tech startup Freshdesk may get $60 million in new funding from Sequoia Capital and Temasek, according to the Times of India, which reports a valuation of $600 million. Freshdesk last raised capital in 2014 and is taking in new funds to compete in a India’s promising e-commerce market loaded with rivals. Freshdesk has been ramping up from Chennai and San Francisco since bringing on board Nishant Rao from LinkedIn India as its COO.
Treebo Hotels, a Bangalore-based startup in the online budget-hotel aggregator market in India, has raised $17 million led by Bertelsmann India Investments, with participation from earlier backers SAIF Partners and Matrix Partners India.
JAPAN
Fast Japan, a young, Tokyo-based online chat concierge technology that provides consultation services on Japan-related topics through Facebook Messenger, Line and its own chat function on its website, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from TLM and KLab Venture Partners.
MyWish Marketplaces, an online financial product marketplace, has raised $15 million in VC funding from Franklin Templeton.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Golden Gate Ventures is a co-investor, and return backer, in Bangkok-based payment service Omise. Participating in this new $17.5 million round were SBI Investment of Japan, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures in Indonesia, and Thailand’s Ascend Money.