asia News of 10/23/19

Dara Khusrowshahi Says Uber Remains Committed To India But Offers No Concrete Plans

Uber said on Tuesday that it has won a bid to work with subway system in India’s capital in one of its rare announcements in India, a key overseas market where it is facing an upheaval battle with local giant Ola. The ride-hailing giant said it ...

India Moves Closer To Regulating Internet Services As It Fears ‘Unimaginable Disruption To Democracy’

India said on Monday that it is moving ahead with its plan to revise existing rules to regulate intermediaries — social media apps and others that rely on users to create their content — as they are causing “unimaginable disruption” to ...

Is There Room For A U.S. Equivalent To China’S #1 News App?

In China, Toutiao is literally big news. Not only has its parent company ByteDance achieved a $75 billion valuation, two of its apps — Toutiao, a news aggregator, and Douyin (Tik Tok in China) — are chipping into WeChat’s user engagement ...

Gojek Founder And CEO Nadiem Makarim Resigns To Join Indonesian Cabinet; Soelistyo And Aluwi To Be New Co-CEOs

Nadiem Makarim, founder and CEO of Gojek, said on Monday he has stepped down from his role at the ride-hailing startup to join Indonesia president Joko Widodo’s cabinet. The announcement, which has taken many by surprise, comes a day after Widodo ...

China Roundup: Tencent’S NBA Test, TikTok Parent Deepens Education Push

China Roundup: Tencent’s NBA test, TikTok parent deepens education push image Welcome to TechCrunch’s China roundup, a digest of events that happened at major Chinese tech companies and what they mean to tech founders and executives around the world. The talk about U.S.-China relationships over the past two weeks has ...

Japan Will Participate In NASA’S Lunar Gateway Project For The Artemis Program

Japan has officially announced that it will participate with NASA’s Lunar Gateway project (via NHK ), which will seek to establish an orbital research and staging station around the Moon. The Lunar Gateway is a key component of NASA’s ...

TikTok Makes Education Push In India

China’s TikTok today launched an education program in India as the popular short-video app looks to expand its offering and assuage local authority in one of its biggest markets. TkTok, owned by the world’s most valued startup Bytedance ...

MyGate Raises $56m To Bring Its Security Management Service To More Gated Communities In India

MyGate, a Bangalore-based startup that offers security management and convenience service for guard-gated premises, said today it has bagged more than $50 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand its footprint in the nation. Chinese ...

Amazon Pay Users In India Can Now Pay Their Utility, Mobile And Cable Bills With Alexa

Amazon Pay users in India can now use voice command with Alexa to pay their utility, internet, mobile, and satellite cable TV bills, the e-commerce giant said on Wednesday. This is the first time, the company said, it is pairing these functionalities ...

Booqed, A Hong Kong-Based Platform For On-Demand Work Spaces, Raises $1.675 Million In Seed Funding

Booqed , a Hong Kong-based platform for booking short-term work spaces, announced today that it has raised $1.675 million in seed funding. Participants included Colliers International, the commercial real-estate management company, Techstars and ...

The Station: A New Self-Driving Car Startup, Inside Tesla’S v10 Software, Lilium’S Big Round

The Station: A new self-driving car startup, Inside Tesla’s V10 software, Lilium’s big round image If you haven’t heard, TechCrunch has officially launched a weekly newsletter dedicated to all the ways people and goods move from Point A to Point B — today and in the future — whether it’s by bike, bus, scooter, car, train, truck, flying ...

Google Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL Not Launching In India

The Pixel 4 and Pixel XL smartphones , that Google just unveiled at a press conference in New York, won’t launch in India, one of the company’s key overseas markets, the Android-maker said on Tuesday. The bottleneck lies in the headline feature ...

Walmart’S Flipkart Confirms It Is Entering The Food Retail Business In India

India’s Flipkart is entering the food retail business as the e-commerce giant looks to expand its reach in the nation, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Flipkart, which sold majority stake in the company to Walmart for $16 billion last year ...

True Balance Raises $23m To Bring Its Payments App To More Small Cities And Towns In India

True Balance raises $23M to bring its payments app to more small cities and towns in India image South Korean startup True Balance, which operates an eponymous financial services app aimed at tens of millions of users in small cities and towns in India, has closed a new financing round as it looks to court more first time users in the world’s ...

South Korea-Based Mathpresso, Developer Of Tutoring App Qanda, Raises $14.5 Million Series B

Seoul-based education technology startup Mathpresso announced today that it has raised $14.5 million in Series B funding. The company’s flagship app is Qanda, which provides students with math and science help and tutoring. Participants in the ...

India’S Reliance Jio Unveils Video Call Assistant To Help Businesses Automate Customer Support

India’s Reliance Jio unveils video call assistant to help businesses automate customer support image Before Google moves to bring its human-sounding robot calling service Duplex to help users automate their interactions with businesses to international markets, an Indian giant is deploying its own solution to get a jumpstart on the local market. ...

State-Run IRCTC Delivers India’S Best Trading Debut In 2 Years

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a state-run firm that offers train ticketing and catering services in India, more than doubled on its first day of trading in what was the best public debut for a local firm in two years. The ...

Club Factory Raises $100m To Expand Its Lifestyle E-Commerce Platform In India

Club Factory raises $100M to expand its lifestyle e-commerce platform in India image Club Factory, a Chinese e-commerce platform that sells fashion and beauty items and electronics accessories, has raised $100 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand its footprints in India. The new financing round — Series D ...

India’S Vahdam Teas Raises $11m To Grow Its Tea-Commerce Business In The US And Europe

Vahdam Teas, an India-based e-commerce startup that sells fresh tea in international markets , has closed a new financing round as it looks to expand its presence in the U.S. and Europe. The three-year old startup said it has raised $11 million ...

China Attacks Apple For Allowing Hong Kong Crowdsourced Police Activity App

Apple’s decision to greenlight an app called HKmaps , which is being used by pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong to crowdsource information about street closures and police presence, is attracting the ire of the Chinese government. An ...