Asia tech news roundup – Dec 8

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo credit: Uber

It was a busy end to the week as Uber signed a major deal with a Singapore taxi firm and Lazada opened an official online Apple store. There was plenty of funding news too.

Transportation

Uber and ComfortDelGro join forces in US$474 million deal (Singapore). The Singaporean taxi company will acquire a majority stake in Uber’s local car-leasing subsidiary. Uber app users will be able to directly book ComfortDelGro taxis. The deal looks to be a victory for US ride-hailing firm, which has faced mounting competition as well as a number of regulatory and legal issues in the region. (Tech in Asia)

Didi planning Mexican expansion (China). The ride-hailing company is expected to launch its first service outside of China in the first quarter of next year. Key rival Uber also operates in Mexico. Didi shelved prospects of a US expansion several weeks ago when it recommended its users to hail rides with strategic ally Lyft in the country. (Reuters)

Grab gets central bank’s green light for electronic payments (Malaysia). Bank Negara Malaysia granted the ride-hailing firm an e-money license, giving it regulatory approval to launch its GrabPay mobile wallet service in the country. GrabPay was rolled out in Singaporean stores and restaurants last month, with expansion to other Southeast Asian countries slated for next year. (Grab)

A UAV, as depicted in TV show Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Image credit: Fox Shows

M1 and NTU to co-develop drone traffic control system (Singapore). Nanyang Technological University (NTU) ad telco M1 agreed a three-year research partnership to build a traffic management system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)  – otherwise known as drones – using 4G mobile networks. It is hoped this will “one day enable hundreds of drones to safely deliver parcels, or survey and inspect a given area, along predetermined routes at the same time.” (Today)

SenseTime partners with Honda on autonomous vehicles (China/Japan). The Beijing-based facial and image recognition startup will work with the Japanese auto giant to build self-driving cars and carry out robotics research. SenseTime reportedly secured US$227 million in investment from Alibaba last week, and has also raised funds from Qualcomm. (China Money Network)

Ecommerce

Lazada opens online Apple store (Southeast Asia). The “shop-in-shop” – which will obtain stock directly from Apple – went live today in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines, with Malaysia following on Monday and Vietnam to join at a later date. The opening is a boost to Lazada’s efforts to get more major brands to set up storefronts on its site. (Tech in Asia)

Photo credit: Lazada

Meanwhile, Lazada’s owner Alibaba is poised to plow US$300 million into Bigbasket (India). The deal – which could also include capital from Alibaba-backed online retailer Paytm Mall – would give the Chinese company ownership of about a third of groceries site BigBasket. Alibaba is vying for influence in India’s booming ecommerce market with US competitor Amazon. (The Economic Times)

Ezbuy says sorry for service disruption, and points a finger at Alibaba’s Taobao (Singapore ). Around 30,000 orders placed through Ezbuy’s China Buy-For-Me service, which assists Singaporeans to purchase items from Chinese ecommerce sites, were delayed last week. Ezbuy today apologized for the disruption, saying that many of the purchasing accounts it uses to place orders with Taobao were suspended without an explanation. (Ezbuy)

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