asia News of 04/09/20

Disney+ Hotstar Has About 8 Million Subscribers

We finally know just about how many subscribers Hotstar has amassed over the years in India. “Approximately 8 million.” Disney said on Wednesday that its eponymous streaming service now has  over 50 million subscribers , nearly 8 million of ...

Outrunning COVID-19 Twice

Outrunning COVID-19 twice image Editor’s note : Our writer Rita’s journey from China to the US and back again was planned months before the coronavirus pandemic descended on the world. That descent ended up turning a simple trip home into a kind of epic journey. The ...

India’S Oyo Furloughs Thousands Of Employees As Revenue Drops By Over 50%

Oyo has placed thousands of employees on leave and furloughs for up to three months in the U.S. and several other markets as the Indian budget lodging firm contends the coronavirus outbreak that has cut its revenue and demand by over 50%. The ...

Rakuten Mobile’S Low-Cost Data Plan Fully Launches In Japan

Rakuten Mobile announced the full commercial launch of its low-cost data plan in Japan today. Priced at 2,980 yen (about $27) per month, the plan gives users unlimited calls and data where Rakuten has its own networks. The company also raised the ...

Hong Kong Fintech Startup Neat Raises $11 Million Series A To Give Small Companies More Banking Services

Neat , a Hong Kong-based fintech startup, announced today that it has raised a $11 million Series A to help small businesses do cross-border banking. The round was led by Pacific Century Group, with participation from Visa and MassMutual Ventures ...

Samsung Earnings Guidance Stays Upbeat Despite Global Macro Crisis

Samsung earnings guidance stays upbeat despite global macro crisis image Samsung overnight released its earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2020, stating that it expected sales of $45.4 billion and an operating profit of roughly $5.3 billion. The company’s fiscal year is aligned to the standard calendar year, ...

Taiwan’S Government Bars Its Agencies From Using Zoom Over Security Concerns

Taiwan’s Executive Yuan issued an advisory on Tuesday barring the country’s government agencies from using Zoom and other video software with “associated security or privacy concerns.” Instead, the government said alternatives, ...

Korean Grocery Startup Kurly Raises $150m

Kurly, a startup that operates a grocery delivery service in Korea , has secured $150 million in a new financing round months after reports claimed that the firm might be heading to an acquisition. Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital and Digital ...

Agritech Startup DeHaat Raises $12m To Reach More Farmers In India

Agritech startup DeHaat raises $12M to reach more farmers in India image DeHaat, an online platform that offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers, has raised $12 million as it looks to scale its network across India. The Series A financial round for the eight-year-old Patna and Gurgaon-based startup was led by ...

The U.S. Is Formalizing Team Telecom Rules To Restrict Foreign Ownership Of Internet And Telecom Assets

It has the simplest name but the sort of shadowy overtones that national security writers lust after. Team Telecom, a mostly informal working committee of the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice (along with affiliated agencies) ...

Luckin Coffee’S Alleged Fraud Has Some Silver Linings (And Even More Bad News Too)

Luckin Coffee’s alleged fraud has some silver linings (and even more bad news too) image Chinese coffee chain super-brand Luckin Coffee has been in the spotlight the past week after the company revealed in an SEC filing that it has undertaken an internal investigation into an alleged $300 million fraud on the part of its former COO . ...

Uber Partners With Flipkart And BigBasket In India To Deliver Essential Items

Uber is resuming some services in India as it looks to help other firms deliver grocery and other essential items in select parts of the country, nearly two weeks after New Delhi ordered a three-week lockdown for its 1.3 billion people. The ...

India’S Swiggy Raises $43m To Expand To New Businesses

Indian food delivery startup Swiggy has bagged an additional $43 million as it looks to expand to new businesses. Existing investor Tencent and new players Ark Impact, Korea Investment Partners, Samsung Ventures and Mirae Asset Capital Markets ...

How Homage Is Tackling Southeast Asia’S Growing Eldercare Need

The world’s population is aging, but the needs of elderly people are still being underserved. A United Nations report found that older people make up more than one-fifth of the population in 17 countries, and by 2100, a majority of the world’s ...

Virgin Orbit Announces New Plans For First Asian Spaceport In Oita, Japan

Virgin Orbit may be focusing its production efforts right now on making ventilators to support healthcare workers battling COVID-19, but it’s also still making moves to build out the infrastructure that will underpin its small satellite ...

Luckin Coffee’S Board Initiates Investigation Into $300m Potential Fraud

China-based Luckin Coffee, the fastest growing growing coffee brand in the world, has dazzled VCs, public market investors and frankly us over the years with its dizzyingly high growth, expanding from a handful of stores and delivery kiosks to ...

Google To Shut Down Its India-Focused Q&A App Neighbourly

Google is shutting down Neighbourly, a Q&A social app that it launched in select parts of India two years, the company has informed users. The app, developed by company’s Next Billion Initiative, aimed to give local communities an outlet to ...

Mobile Payments Firms In India Are Now Scrambling To Make Money

Mobile payments firms in India are now scrambling to make money image Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of India’s most valuable startup, Paytm , posed an existential question in a recent press conference. “What do you think of the commercial model for digital mobile payments. How do we make ...

Spotify And Warner Music Group Renew Their Global Licensing Deal, Resolve Issue In India

Spotify and Warner Music Group have renewed their global licensing partnership, the two said on Wednesday, confirming that the giant music label’s songs will now be available on the Sweden-headquartered firm’s platform in India.  In a ...

Grab Hires Peter Oey As Its Chief Financial Officer

Grab announced today that it has hired Peter Oey as its new chief financial officer. Prior to joining Grab, Oey was the chief financial officer at LegalZoom, an online legal services company based near Los Angeles. Before that, he served the same ...