I’m up visiting Hanoi, Vietnam this weekend to check out the startup scene, where there’s clearly a very strong community looking at mobile. But, without further ado, let’s get into the top news of the week.
Steven’s pick: Alibaba Explores Online Mapping, Takes Stake in Autonavi For $294 Million
Yesterday was the final day for Alibaba founder Jack Ma in his role as CEO. He want out with a bang with this major new stake in Autonavi, which comes just two weeks after taking a sizable interest in Sina Weibo.
Charlie’s pick: Baidu Acquires PPS for $370 Million, Claims It’s Now China’s Biggest Video Platform
This one’s kind of a no-brainer. A new acquisition for Baidu that could reshape the streaming video market in China. They don’t get much bigger than this.
Youshen’s pick: How Alibaba Saved Weibo and Chinese Society (Maybe)
The man who stands for the Alibaba brand – Jack Ma – has earned my respect. With reference to Alibaba’s recent investment in Sina Weibo, Ma was able to acknowledge Weibo’s existing user community and had wanted to avoid being “condemned by its users and…history”. He clearly recognized the important balance between user appeal and commercial gains. My teammate C. Custer also highlighted Ma’s possible interest in maintaining Weibo’s transparency for Chinese society. If this is true, I take my hats off to the man himself.
Emily’s pick: Line’s Revenue for Q4 2012 Was $58 Million
It’s certainly some impressive revenue growth for LINE from last quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013! And with the recent introduction of more services to the mobile messaging platform, such as the e-book service Line Manga, a Japanese animated series, and even a toy smartphone, we can probably see bigger growth later this year – especially in Japan!
Minghao’s pick: If More Than Half the Population of the World Lives in This Circle, Asia is the Future of Startups
There is certainly a rise in entrepreneurial activities in Asia. Therefore, in my opinion, many disruptive and highly profitable startups will come out of this region within the next decade. Why so? Besides Asia being most populated, the other factor is the many problems that clouds this region. Though Asia is one continent, the cultures and languages are so diverse; each country has its own language, and even within the same country there might be hundreds of different languages being used. The region also has other issues related to infrastructure, logistics, payment problems. With these many barriers, there are so many opportunities for entrepreneurs to work on.
Enricko’s and Minh’s pick: Two Serious Problems That Plague Tech Companies in Vietnam
Enricko: This is a thought-provoking article by Minh, and some might argue that the two problems he addressed also exist in other Asian countries as well. The other thing I loved from the article is about the level of discussion people dedicated inside the comments section. What I’m curious now after reading it is to see examples of good Vietnamese startups that entrepreneurs should look up to. Now we know the problems, who has managed to overcome them?
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