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SoftBank leads $535M funding in DoorDash; Chinese media firms complete merger

TOP NEWS

* A SoftBank Group Corp.-led group of investors committed US$535 million in Series D funding for San Francisco-based food delivery service DoorDash Inc. The financing round also included existing investors such as Sequoia Capital, Singapore's GIC Pvt. Ltd. and Wellcome Trust. DoorDash's board of directors will now include SoftBank's Jeffrey Housenbold and GIC's Jeremy Kranz, who will join Sequoia's Alfred Lin and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers' John Doerr.

* Shanghai United Media Group-backed Jiemian (Shanghai) Network Technology Co. Ltd. and Blue Whale Media-owned Cailian Press completed a merger via a share swap agreement at the end of 2017, China Money Network reports, citing an announcement. The merged entity, to be named Jiemian·Cailian Press, will reportedly reach 100 million users at a valuation of 5 billion Chinese yuan. The merged company is reportedly aiming to create "China's Bloomberg."

* Tencent Holdings Ltd. led an investment of US$818 million in Che Hao Duo, a Beijing-based business-to-consumer car dealer, Sina reports. The Chinese tech giant also led an investment of US$115 million in Indian music streaming service Gaana, The Economic Times (India) reports.

Mobile World Congress

* Xiaomi Inc. is planning to expand into more European markets after debuting in Spain in late 2017, Reuters reports, citing Huawei's Senior Vice President Xiang Wang at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

PAN-ASIAN NEWS

* Facebook Inc. announced it is ending the Explore Feed test that it started in October 2017 in six countries, including Cambodia and Sri Lanka, after concluding that users do not want two separate feeds. The social networking giant also said it was discontinuing the Explore Feed bookmark globally this week, saying it "isn't an effective way for people to discover new content on Facebook."

JAPAN

* NTT Docomo and Panasonic Corp. announced plans for a joint pilot experiment to develop systems for Internet of Things-based home appliances using low-power wide-area technologies. Tests are expected to begin in the fall in Tokyo, Osaka and Shiga Prefecture.

* KDDI Corp. selected Canadian IoT solutions company Sierra Wireless Inc.'s AirPrime HL78 cellular module for LTE-M Internet of Things applications including gas smart meters, logistics and wearables.

* Nokia Corp. and Marubeni Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding to develop next-generation IoT services for the Japanese multinational's enterprise customers.

SOUTH KOREA

* Naver Corp. is set to enter the telecommunications market by adding voice call and text messaging functions to its AI platform Clova, The Korea Economic Daily reports.

* SK Telecom Co. Ltd. plans to open a startup campus, tentatively called "Open Collabo House," in Seoul in the first half of this year to bolster collaboration with tech startups in the 5G ecosystem, Yonhap News Agency reports. SK Telecom also joined hands with South Korea-based global startup accelerator SparkLabs to help more local companies compete in the global market.

* LG Electronics Inc. had a video clip of its next potential flagship smartphone G7, codenamed Neo, leaked via Israeli news site YNET, Money Today reports. According to the report, the device was not officially displayed at the company's Mobile World Congress 2018 booth, but was located in a separate space likely for overseas buyers. The gadget appeared to have a notch on top, which seemed to be removable from settings.

CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN

* China plans to raise up to 200 billion yuan to invest in Chinese chip companies, as part of a plan to achieve a leading position in the global semiconductor industry, Bloomberg News reports, citing "people familiar with the matter." The plan is to start deploying capital in the second half, focusing on a wide range of sectors from processor design and manufacturing to chip testing and packaging.

* Chinese self-driving vehicle developer Xiaopeng hired Gu Hongdi as its president, 36kr reports. Former chairman of JPMorgan Chase Asia, Gu will be in charge of fundraising and manufacturing.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* Indian IT consulting and business process services company Wipro Ltd. agreed to acquire a minority stake in Texas-based independent application security provider Denim Group Ltd. Wipro said the combination will enhance its ability to help clients mitigate cybersecurity risks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

* TV18 Broadcast Ltd. completed the acquisition of a 1% stake in Viacom 18 Media Private Ltd. With this acquisition, TV18 Broadcast has acquired and now holds 51% of the equity share capital of Viacom 18.

* Idea Cellular Ltd. is launching VoLTE services in more than 30 Indian cities across four circles in the first half of March, IANS reports, citing a company statement.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Microsoft Corp. agreed to purchase solar power in Singapore under a deal with solar energy system operator Sunseap Group, the companies said. Microsoft will buy 100% of the renewable output generated from Sunseap's new 60-megawatt rooftop solar project over a 20-year period. The tech giant will use the energy output to power its data centers in Singapore, which support cloud services such as Microsoft Azure and the Office 365 suite.

* Iflix Sdn. Bhd.'s Thailand unit partnered with GMM Z Trading Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of media conglomerate GMM Grammy PCL, in a deal, which will see the iflix app installed on GMM Z Stream set-top boxes. Iflix will be the first digital entertainment service available locally on the GMM Z Stream set-top box for TV viewing.

* Indonesia's unicorn startups PT Go-Jek Indonesia, Traveloka Holding Ltd. and Tokopedia are in advanced talks to invest in insurance technology startup Pasar Polis, according to Deal Street Asia. PasarPolis provides multiple insurance products, including health, accident, vehicle, property, travel, and life.

* Indonesian state-owned telco operator Telkomsel, together with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., commercially launched CloudAIR 2.0 technology, a result of the two companies' Joint Innovation Center 2.0. Using this technology, Telkomsel will be able to more effectively allocate and adjust the required spectrum for 4G and 2G services based on demand.

* Thai telecom conglomerate True Corp. gained a net total of 2.7 million new customers last year, bringing its total number of service users to more than 27.2 million. True made a 4.4-billion-baht net profit in last year's fourth quarter, and an annual net profit of 2.3 billion baht in 2017.

* Thailand's CAT Telecom Public Co. Ltd. said it aims to increase the number of subscribers using its C Internet fiber broadband from 140,000 to over 220,000 this year, Prachachat reports. CAT Telecom also plans to introduce a new pay-as-you-surf package in the next 2-3 months.

* Singapore-based mobile virtual network operator Circles.Life launched a daily-rated unlimited mobile data add-on for S$3, The Straits Times reports.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Australian logistics software company Getswift Ltd. confirmed it was under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which according to The Sydney Morning Herald comes after the company admitted that the majority of its customers do not pay for its services and are presently in a "pre-revenue generating phase".

* Radio New Zealand Ltd. will not launch a stand-alone TV channel, Stuff reports. RNZ Chairman Richard Griffin told the New Zealand Parliament's Finance and Expenditure select committee on Thursday that it was not the company's vision that the newly dubbed RNZ+ would be a TV channel. Instead, RNZ Chief Executive Paul Thompson said RNZ intends to provide an expanded range of "high-quality content", which includes delivering content on TV, but not as a stand-alone free-to-air TV channel.

* Huawei appointed Lance Hockridge, former managing director and CEO of freight operator Aurizon Holdings Ltd., to the local board of its Australian operations, The Australian reports.

FEATURED NEWS

The Daily Dose: Cineworld closes Regal deal; NBCU to cut original prime-time ads by 20%: Cineworld completed its acquisition of Regal Entertainment Group, while NBCU plans to reduce the number of ads it airs within commercial pods by 20%.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Global Multichannel: EPL auction: Sports subscriber slowdown driving rights value decline: Final valuations for the new English Premier League TV deal looks likely to fall due to a slowdown in premium U.K. sports subscriptions, a spike in the number of available live games and irresolute tech giants during the auction.

Technology: Comcast and Sky share similar technology goals: Yesterday, Comcast announced an offer of £22 billion for pay TV provider and programmer Sky plc of the U.K., which is also being courted by both Disney and Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox.

RECENT EARNINGS

Virtual providers help AMC Networks boost sub base by 3% in 2017: Programmer saw domestic ad revenue decline nearly 10% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2017 behind lower 'Walking Dead' deliveries.

Joji Sakurai, Myungran Ha, Frances Wang, Ed Eduard 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.