asia News of 08/21/19

The Urgency For A Vaccine Grows As A Deadly Virus Ravages Asia’S Pig Herds

The Urgency for a Vaccine Grows as a Deadly Virus Ravages Asia’s Pig Herds image (BEIJING) — Scientists are working to develop a vaccine to help guard the world’s pork supply as a deadly virus ravages Asia’s pig herds. Farmers have long contained its spread by quarantining and killing infected animals, but the ...

Baidu Beats Estimates On Strong Video Streaming Growth

Chinese search giant Baidu on Monday posted a revenue of 26.33 billion yuan ($3.73 billion) for the quarter that ended in June, beating analysts’ estimates of 25.77 billion yuan ($3.65 billion) as its video streaming service iQIYI continues to ...

Twitter Says Accounts Linked To China Tried To ‘Sow Political Discord’ In Hong Kong

Twitter says accounts linked to China tried to ‘sow political discord’ in Hong Kong image Twitter says a significant information operation involving hundreds of accounts linked to China were part of an effort to deliberately “sow political discord” in Hong Kong after weeks of protests in the region. In a blog post, the social ...

Shell’S First Electric Vehicle Fast Charger Lands In Singapore

Royal Dutch Shell, the energy giant known for its fossil fuel production and hundreds of Shell gas stations, is creeping into the electric vehicle-power business. The company’s first DC fast charger launched Monday at a Shell gas station in ...

Twitter Is Blocked In China, But Its State News Agency Is Buying Promoted Tweets To Portray Hong Kong Protestors As Violent

Twitter is being criticized for running promoted tweets by China’s largest state news agency that paint pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong as violent, even though the rallies, including one that drew an estimated 1.7 million people this ...

RedDoorz Raises $70m To Expand Its Budget Hotel Network In Southeast Asia

Singapore-based budget hotel booking startup RedDoorz is tiny in comparison to fast-growing giant Oyo. But it is holding its ground and winning the trust of an ever growing number of investors. On Monday, the four-year-old startup announced it has ...

YC-Backed Lokal Wants To Bring Local News, Classifieds To 900 Million Indians In Their Regional Languages

YC-backed Lokal wants to bring local news, classifieds to 900 million Indians in their regional languages image Each month millions of Indians are coming online for the first time, making India the last great growth market for internet companies worldwide. But winning them presents its own challenges. These users, most of whom live in small cities and ...

China’S Transsion And Kenya’S Wapi Capital Partner On Africa Fund

China’s Transsion and Kenya’s Wapi Capital partner on Africa fund image Chinese mobile-phone and device maker  Transsion is teaming up with Kenya’s Wapi Capital to source and fund early-stage African fintech startups. Headquartered in Shenzhen, Transsion is a top-seller of smartphones in Africa that recently ...

Twitter Leads $100m Round In Top Indian Regional Social Media Platform ShareChat

Twitter leads $100M round in top Indian regional social media platform ShareChat image Is there room for another social media platform? ShareChat, a four-year-old social network in India that serves tens of million of people in regional languages, just answered that question with a $100 million financing round led by global giant ...

Huawei Pushes Back Launch Of 5g Foldable, The Mate X

If you were desperately ripping days off of your calendar until you could get your hands on Huawei’s $2,600 5G foldable , the Mate X — which was originally slated to launch next month — it sounds like you’re going to have to ...

YC-Backed Eden Farm Wants To Cut Out The Middlemen Between Farmers And Restaurants In Indonesia

YC-backed Eden Farm wants to cut out the middlemen between farmers and restaurants in Indonesia image Eden Farm is a startup with the ambitious goal of building a food distribution network for Indonesia, where many restaurants currently rely on markets for fresh ingredients. But this means high markups and unreliable supplies for restaurant owners ...

Oyo To Invest $335m In Vacation Rental Business In Europe Push

Indian budget hotel booking startup Oyo will invest 300 million euros ($335 million) in its vacation home rental business, it said Wednesday, as it looks to expand its footprint in Europe and possibly closely compete with global giant Airbnb, one of ...

YC-Backed Startup Binks Can Ship Custom-Made Clothing To Indian Women In Just Three Days

YC-backed startup Binks can ship custom-made clothing to Indian women in just three days image Binks is a custom clothing startup created after co-founder and CEO Aamna Khan realized how frustrating it is to find well-fitting women’s workwear in Indian cities. Currently participating in Y Combinator’s accelerator program, Binks solves the ...

Xiaomi Tops Indian Smartphone Market For Eighth Straight Quarter

Xiaomi tops Indian smartphone market for eighth straight quarter image Xiaomi has now been the top smartphone maker in India for eight straight quarters, becoming a constant headache for Samsung in the key overseas market that continues to show strong appetite for handsets as their shipment slows, or drops pretty ...

WeChat Pay And Alipay Partner QFPay Raises $20 Million To Develop New Digital Payment Solutions

Digital payments startup QFPay announced today that it has raised $20 million in new funding led by returning investors Sequoia Capital China and Matrix Partners. MDI Ventures, the investment arm of state-owned Indonesian telecom Telkom Indonesia, ...

China’S Largest Q&A Platform, Zhihu, Raises $434 Million From Investors Including Kuaishou, Baidu And Tencent

Zhihu , the largest question and answer platform in China, has raised a $434 million Series F. This is not only the company’s biggest round since it launched in 2011, but also one of the largest secured over the past two years by a Chinese Internet ...

India’S Reliance Jio Inks Deal With Microsoft To Expand Office 365, Azure To More Businesses; Unveils Broadband, Blockchain, And IoT Platforms

India’s Reliance Jio, which has disrupted the local telecom and features phone businesses in less than three years of its existence, is now ready to aggressively foray into many more businesses. In a series of announcements, the subsidiary of ...

India’S Meesho Raises $125m To Expand Its Social Commerce Business

India’s Meesho raises $125M to expand its social commerce business image Meesho, a Bangalore-based social commerce startup, has raised $125 million in a new financing round to expand its business in the country and change the way millions shop online. The Series D round was led by Naspers, and existing ...

Y Combinator-Backed Trella Brings Transparency To Egypt’S Trucking And Shipping Industry

Y Combinator has become one of the key ways that startups from emerging markets get the attention of American investors. And arguably no clutch of companies has benefitted more from Y Combinator’s attention than startups from emerging markets ...

Autonomous Air Mobility Company EHang To Deploy Air Shuttle Service In Guangzhou

China’s EHang, a company focused on developing and deploying autonomous passenger and freight low-altitude vehicles, will build out its first operational network of air taxis and transports in Guangzhou. The company announced that the Chinese ...