TOP NEWS
* After media reports of a possible ban on Chinese companies selling shares in U.S. equities markets caused a stock-market swoon on Friday, Sept. 27, the U.S. Treasury denied on Sept. 28 that the Trump administration is considering forcing Chinese companies to delist from U.S. exchanges. "The administration is not contemplating blocking Chinese companies from listing shares on U.S. stock exchanges at this time," Treasury spokeswoman Monica Crowley said. The reports of a possible delisting order caused shares in Chinese companies, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Baidu Inc. and iQIYI Inc. to fall between 2% and 4% in Sept. 27 afternoon trading.
* After briefly breaking up, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. reached an agreement to produce a third Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland, Variety reported, citing a statement from the companies. Marvel Studios LLC and its president, Kevin Feige, will produce the third film in the "Spider-Man: Homecoming" series. The news comes about a month after Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios appeared to part ways amid a dispute over revenue sharing between Disney and Sony Corp.
* Apple Inc. is considering doubling its planned investment in Japan Display Inc. after Chinese investment fund Harvest Tech Investment Management reportedly withdrew from a financial bailout plan for the Japanese company, The Wall Street Journal reported. Japan Display is expecting to receive a US$200 million investment from one of its customers, which is believed to be Apple, sources said.
JAPAN
* SoftBank Group Corp. is tapping its COO Marcelo Claure to help turn around and oversee WeWork Cos. Inc. by identifying revenue and cost-saving opportunities for the coworking giant whose CEO resigned last week amid the delayed IPO of its parent The We Co., Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. SoftBank Group is the largest investor of WeWork.
* Walt Disney signed a content distribution agreement with Sony's PlayStation Vue to deliver its lineup of sports, news and entertainment content to PlayStation Vue customers.
* Nippon Telegraph And Telephone West Corp. invested an undisclosed sum in Alpha Code, a Tokyo-based virtual reality solutions company. Under the deal, the two companies will seek to expand the music live streaming business through Alpha Code's virtual reality and mixed reality-streaming platform Blinky.
SOUTH KOREA
* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. denied that it plans to build a factory in Vietnam's northern province of Hoa Binh after a provincial official said the tech giant has been looking to lease land in the area, Reuters reported.
* SK Telecom Co. Ltd. is upgrading the application programming interface of its T map navigation service to improve its accuracy, Financial News reported. As part of the update, the company made improvements to the service's multiple stops function, new image routes and advanced transportation management system functions.
* KT Corp. is set to launch a new blockchain-based internet of things security solution called GiGA Stealth, iNews 24 reported. The solution aims to improve the security of IoT devices at a network layer by issuing one-off tokens for all packets that communicate with the devices and having GiGA Stealth platform check their verification information.
GREATER CHINA (MAINLAND CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN MARKETS)
* China Literature Ltd. agreed to buy a 20% equity interest in OBU for US$10.5 million via its wholly owned subsidiary Cloudary Corp. OBU, a provider of online literature and digital lifestyle content in Thailand, has Tencent Holdings Ltd. as its controlling shareholder.
* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. took smartphone manufacturer Shenzhen Transsion Holdings Co. Ltd. to court for patent infringement, Securities Times reported. The lawsuit comes amid Transsion's listing on the STAR Market board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Sept. 30.
* In more Huawei news, the company opened its first global flagship store in Shenzhen, China. According to PingWest, the 1,300-square-meter store will showcase Huawei's latest products and enhanced 5G connection.
* Alibaba is launching its mini-app platform for vehicles in a partnership with Guangzhou Xiaopeng Automotive Technology Co. Ltd. The tech giant's in-car mini APP platform will debut in the electric vehicle maker's upcoming sedan called Xpeng P7.
* Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. Ltd. started allowing external companies to access ByteAir, the company's recommendation algorithm used in its apps such as short video platform Douyin and content aggregator Jinri Toutiao, TechNode reported. The algorithm can use big data and machine learning, as well as the company's experience in news, livestreaming, social and e-commerce, to create customized recommendation services for Bytedance partners.
* Youku Tudou Inc. launched a new platform for interactive content distribution and supporting developers with guidelines on production. The company also set up a 1 billion yuan fund to attract content creators.
* The government of Shenzhen rolled out a subsidy policy to foster the development of 5G-related industries in the Futian area, Securities Times reported. The government will provide a maximum of 10 million yuan subsidy for 5G research, innovation platform setup and the opening of brick-and-mortar stores.
INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA
* Netflix Inc. is making the first episode of its latest Indian original series, "Bard of Blood," available to non-subscribers in India in a bid to attract potential subscribers amid growing competition in the country, The Economic Times (India) reported. The episode, available for a limited time, can be accessed via Netflix's homepage and can be viewed across all web browsers on desktop and Android devices.
* Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said Taiwanese electronics giant Wistron Corp. offered to increase its investments in mobile and hardware manufacturing in and around Bengaluru. According to The Economic Times (India), the iPhone contract manufacturer also showed an interest in setting up a research and development facility in the Indian city.
* Chinese handset brand OnePlus Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. entered the Indian smart TV market with the launch of OnePlus TV. According to Television Post, OnePlus Play's dashboard offers content from media platforms Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Eros International PLC and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.'s ZEE5. Other content partners include Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video, Star India Pvt. Ltd.'s Hotstar, SonyLIV and YouTube LLC.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is preparing to launch a new range of mobile network price restrictions and quality indicators by the end of 2019, Prachachat reported. These will include more detailed cell tower assessments, price standardization across frequencies and price ceilings on voice calls and data fees.
* Thai telco Advanced Info Service PCL signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei to cooperate on developing new 5G services and technologies. The two companies will focus on areas such as enhanced mobile broadband, ultra-reliable low-latency communication and enhanced machine-type communication.
* Indonesia-based mobile operator PT Telekomunikasi Selular plans to build 1,800 base transceiver stations in Kalimantan by the end of this year, CNN Indonesia reported. The development aims to support a plan to move the Indonesian capital city to Kalimantan.
* Singaporean media and entertainment company MediaCorp Pte. Ltd. is collaborating with local production studio Weiyu Films to broadcast a domestic drama titled "128 Circle," Channel News Asia reported. MediaCorp will also launch an original comedy podcast related to the series on its digital audio destination, MeRadio.
* Southeast Asian travel app Traveloka Holding Ltd. is teaming up with Visa Inc. and Indonesian lender PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk to issue a credit card linked to Traveloka's booking app, Merdeka reported. The credit card can also be used for online and offline transactions at more than 53 million partner merchants of Visa.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
* Facebook Inc. has started trialing the removal of the likes count on its platform in Australia, ABC News reported. The social media giant will also conceal the number of reactions and video counts, with the metrics to remain visible to the author of the post. Mia Garlick, policy director at Facebook Australia, said the company is exploring how the user experience could be enhanced by removing the visible like count.
The Daily Dose will not appear tomorrow due to the National Day holiday in Hong Kong. The next Dose will be sent out Oct. 2. Please visit our website for the latest news updates, or check us out at https://twitter.com/SPGMarketIntel.
FEATURED NEWS
Data Dispatch: 'Abominable' to leave its footprint on box office: With comic book blockbuster "Joker" kicking off October, studios seemed hesitant to launch a competitive title, leaving animated film "Abominable" to roar over the weekend.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Global Multichannel: Global markets update — Malaysia: Kagan has recently updated Global Multichannel and Broadband analyses for Asia-Pacific country Malaysia, as well as analyses for related operators Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd. and Telekom Malaysia.
Nozomi Ibayashi, Myungran Ha, Emily Lai, Kevin Osmond and Patrick Tibke contributed to this report. The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. Hong Kong time. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.
