Coindesk – President Xi Says China Should ‘Seize Opportunity’ to Adopt Blockchain
Dots to connect: cryptocurrencies banned in China, digital renminbi developed by PBOC, other countries following up, surges in cryptocurrency prices, “Blockchain+” in education, employment and food & medicinal safety, etc.
Full report is here.
NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES)’s e-learning unit, Youdao (有道) reduced its fundraising target to $116 million from $300 million IPO on October 15. Founded in 2006, Youdao provides online dictionaries, online classrooms and language courses, with 100 million monthly average users in China in the first half of 2019. The company set a price range of $15 to $18 for its American Depositary Shares (ADSs) and will be listed under the symbol “DAO”. // reuters | SEC
TikTok (by Bytedance) launched an education program in India on October 17, as the popular short-video app looks to expand its offering and assuage local authority in one of its biggest markets. TikTok has been working with Indian partners in the edtech sector ahead of the campaign launch. TikTok claims to have 200 million users in India, of which 120 million are active every month. // TechCrunch | FT
6th World Internet Conference (or “Wuzhen Summit”) opened in China’s Zhejiang Province (10/20-22). Executives from major tech companies from home and abroad such as Microsoft, Qualcomm, Alibaba Group and Huawei attended the conference. // xinhua | scmp
Cyber-security has been a hot space for investments and acquisitions. With Thoma Bravo buying Sophos Group for $3.8 billion this week, here is a roundup of selected corporate M&As happened since 2018.
cloud services infrastructure protection – Palo Alto Networks to acquire Evident for $300 million (2018.3)
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) – Palo Alto Networks to Acquire Secdo for $100 million (2018.4)
unified access security and multi-factor authentication – Cisco to acquire Duo System for $2.35 billion (2018.8)
Cloud Security – Check Point to Acquire Dome9 for $175 million (2018.10)
Operational Technology (OT) network security – Forescout to acquire SecurityMatters for $113 million (2018.11)
AI based endpoint cybersecurity – Blackberry to acquire Cylance for $1.4 billion (2018.11)
network and endpoints protections – Carbonite to acquire Webroot for $618.5 million (2019.2)
security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) – Palo Alto Networks to acquire Demisto for $560 million (2019.2)
enterprise security – Broadcom to acquire Symantec’s enterprise business for $10.7 billion (2019.8)
Paypal (NASDAQ: PYPL) is becoming the first foreign payment platform to provide online payment services in China. The license is obtained by acquiring 70% of GoPay (国付宝). The transaction is approved by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on September 30. // Crunchbase ｜ GoPay PR
Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) launched self-driving service Apollo Robotaxi for the general public in Changsha China on September 27. The initial fleet has 45 autonomous cars. // cnet | SCMP
Shake Shack (NYSE: SHAK) opened its 2nd store at Kerry Center (嘉里中心) in Shanghai on September 26. Its first store in mainland China launched in January 2019 in Shanghai Xintiandi (新天地). // PR Newswire Asia | Jiemian
Xiaomi (HKSE: 1810) is entering the smart fridge segment (pricing starts at RMB 999) and completing its major appliance offerings comprised of TV, A/C, washing machines and fridges. Users can modify the temperature and mode of the cabin via voice control. Xiaomi has been trying to diversify from its smart phone business with smart home/IoT products. // gizmochina | 36kr
WSJ – Mastercard, Visa, eBay Drop Out of Facebook’s Libra Payments Network
The first official meeting of the Libra Council is scheduled for October 14th in Geneva.
Dots to connect: future governance of cryptocurrency, possibility of a global cryptocurrency network run by companies, China can move into global crypto payments if supported/approved
5G is the buzzword that nearly every industry is talking about. Higher download speed, AR/VR, autonomous driving, industrial IoT – 5G is the future, powering the global economy over $12 trillion by 2035, according to an IHS study.
With 5G, we are marching into new radio frequencies, subdivided into Sub-6 (<6 GHz) and mmWave (a wavelength range of 10 mm at 30 GHz decreasing to 1 mm at 300 GHz).
4G radio waves ranging from 700 MHz to about 2.5 GHz range from roughly 40 to 12 cm in length. In contrast, a 5G NR wave at 28 GHz are just 1 cm long. And that’s the lowest end of the mmWave frequencies; 60 GHz signals are just 5 mm in length. [edn.com]
This is perhaps the most common issue cited with upcoming 5G networks and it’s true to some extent. Most building materials, such as cement and brick, attenuate and reflect very high-frequency signals with a big enough loss you’re unlikely to receive a very useful signal moving from inside to outside. Even the air produces signal loss, which limits frequencies above 28GHz to about a kilometer anyway. Wood and glass attenuate high-frequency signals to a smaller degree, so you’ll likely still be able to use 5G mmWave next to a window. [androidauthority]
https://players.brightcove.net/c54a08de-3d27-4a61-b362-8c3251c67445
Apple included glass back since 2017 models.
AT&T has introduced its 5G+ service in December 2018 with 12 cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Fla., Louisville, Ky., Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, N.C., San Antonio and Waco, Texas.
And later added 7 cities to that list in April 2019 – Austin, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose, with Las Vegas the 20th in June and New York City the 21st in August.