China’s Alibaba continues to see slowing expansion in the latest quarter, but the e-commerce giant’s effort to spur new growth from new arenas have started to bear fruit. The Hangzhou-based firm rang up $17 billion in revenue during the third quarter of 2019. That’s a 41 percent increase from the previous year but it also […]
View More Alibaba’s growth slows to lowest in 3 yearsCategory: alibaba group
Chat app Line’s mobile payment service is getting its own Visa card
Brown, Cony and the gang are coming to a credit card near you in Japan. Line, the messaging app company behind the cute sticker characters, announced today that it is bringing its payment service to plastic through a tie-in with Visa. Line is Japan’s largest chat app with an estimated 50 million registered users. The cards […]
View More Chat app Line’s mobile payment service is getting its own Visa cardAlibaba’s alternative to the app store reaches 230M daily users
WeChat isn’t the only one doubling down on lite apps. Ever since China’s messaging titan introduced “mini programs” two years ago, a handful of its peers including Alibaba and Baidu have followed with their own manifestations. Alipay, the payments solution affiliated with China’s ecommerce juggernaut Alibaba, today announced it surpassed 230 million daily active users and […]
View More Alibaba’s alternative to the app store reaches 230M daily usersGo-Jek makes first close of $2 billion round at $9.5 billion valuation
Southeast Asia-based ride-sharing firm Go-Jek is making progress with its plan to raise up to $2 billion in fresh capital to fund its battle with close rival Grab . Indonesia-headquartered Go-Jek has closed an initial chunk of that round after a collection of existing investors, including Google, Tencent and JD.com, agreed to invest around $920 million […]
View More Go-Jek makes first close of $2 billion round at $9.5 billion valuationMomo, Vietnam’s top payment app, lands big Series C investment led by Warburg Pincus
Fintech in Southeast Asia continues to pique the attention of global investors. Alibaba, Tencent and others have jumped into the region and deployed hundreds of millions of dollars, and now Warburg Pincus is joining them. The U.S-headquartered PE firm has led a Series C investment in Vietnam’s Momo, which claims to be the company’s largest mobile […]
View More Momo, Vietnam’s top payment app, lands big Series C investment led by Warburg PincusIndonesian e-commerce unicorn Bukalapak raises $50M
The chances are you may be familiar with Tokopedia, especially after it commanded a $7 billion valuation last November when it raised $1.1 billion from investors like Alibaba and SoftBank’s Vision Fund, but fewer people outside of Indonesia are aware of another sizable local online retail unicorn: Bukalapak. Smaller than Tokopedia in size, the company is […]
View More Indonesian e-commerce unicorn Bukalapak raises $50MNew policy puts revenue squeeze on China’s payments giants
The era that saw China’s mobile payments providers making handsome interest returns on client money has officially ended. Starting this week, non-bank payments companies must place 100 percent of their customer deposit funds under centralized, interest-free accounts as Beijing moves to rein in financial risks. In the past, third-party payments firms were allowed to hold […]
View More New policy puts revenue squeeze on China’s payments giantsWeChat is quietly ranking user behavior to play catch-up with Alibaba
Over one billion people leave behind trails of information on WeChat every day as they use the messenger to chat, read, shop, hail rides, rent umbrellas and run many other errands. And the Tencent app has quietly started using this type of signal to determine whether a user is worthy of perks such as deposit-free […]
View More WeChat is quietly ranking user behavior to play catch-up with AlibabaAlibaba acquires German big data startup Data Artisans for $103M
Alibaba has paid €90 million ($103 million) to acquire Data Artisans, a Berlin-based startup that provides distributed systems and large-scale data streaming services for enterprises. The deal was first announced by European media, including EU-Startups, before being confirmed by both Alibaba and Data Artisans through blog posts. Data Artisans was founded in 2014 by the team leading […]
View More Alibaba acquires German big data startup Data Artisans for $103MChina’s Baidu says its answer to Alexa is now on 200M devices
A Chinese voice assistant has been rapidly gaining ground in recent months. DuerOS, Baidu’s answer to Amazon’s Alexa, reached over 200 million devices, China’s top search engine announced on its Weibo official account last Friday. To put that number into context, more than 100 million devices pre-installed with Alexa have been sold, Amazon recently said. Google just […]
View More China’s Baidu says its answer to Alexa is now on 200M devicesMoney is no object: China’s Luckin sets sights on rivaling Starbucks
A one-year-old Chinese startup called Luckin is busy waging war against Starbucks as the new year unfolds. At an event on Thursday, Luckin announced that it aims to be the largest coffee chain in China by number of cups sold and outlets by 2019. Caffeinated drinks are taking off in the tea-drinking nation. Average coffee […]
View More Money is no object: China’s Luckin sets sights on rivaling StarbucksLightspeed announces new $560 million fund for China
Global investor Lightspeed is starting 2019 with its largest-ever fund for China, where it has backed a number of new internet challengers. The firm announced this week that its fourth China fund has closed with a total capital commitment of $560 million. The firm had a massive 2018, with no fewer than five of its portfolio holding IPOs […]
View More Lightspeed announces new $560 million fund for China