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Samsung investment; Xiaomi's new products; other businesses of Alibaba

TOP NEWS

* Samsung Group plans to spend 13 trillion won to upgrade its display panel production facilities in South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing industry sources. The investment will cover upgrades in its liquid crystal display production lines at Samsung Display Co. Ltd.'s plant in Asan and at quantum dot display manufacturing facilities.

* Xiaomi Corp. unveiled three new products at an event in Beijing: Mi 9 Pro 5G, MIUI 11, and Mi Full Screen TV Pro. The company's second product in the 5G mobile phone market, Mi 9 Pro 5G provides full coverage on mainstream 5G bands in mainland China and is powered by Qualcomm Inc.'s Snapdragon 855+ processor. The latest update to Xiaomi's user interface, MIUI 11, brings a more polished visual design. The Mi Full Screen TV Pro adopts a 4K panel in an aluminum frame and carbon fiber patterned back with a screen-to-body ratio of up to 97%.

* In his first investor day since taking over from Jack Ma as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s executive chairman, Daniel Zhang hinted at a greater emphasis on other business lines. Beyond e-commerce, Alibaba's interests range from cloud computing to movie production. But Zhang highlighted Alibaba's map service Amap, also known as AutoNavi Holdings Ltd., as a particularly important area for the company.

* Tencent Investment is backing Beijing-based video sharing app Kuaishou in large part because of its popularity in smaller cities and rural areas, managing partner at the Tencent Holdings Ltd. unit Jeffrey Li said.

JAPAN

* WeWork Cos. Inc. co-founder Adam Neumann is resigning as CEO of the coworking giant but will continue as nonexecutive chairman. Neumann said in a release that the scrutiny directed toward him in recent weeks amid the delayed IPO of its parent The We Co. has become "a significant distraction." WeWork board members, which include officials tied to SoftBank Group Corp. — the company's largest investor — had started pressuring Neumann to step down early this week.

* Nintendo Co. Ltd. is set to launch a mobile version of Mario Kart, one of the company's most successful franchises, Reuters reported. Mario Kart Tour will have gameplay familiar to Nintendo fans, but with controls optimized for mobile devices. The game launches globally Sept. 25.

SOUTH KOREA

* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. introduced ISOCELL Slim GH1, a new image sensor that the company plans to mass-produce by the end of the year. The company claims that its new sensor is the first mobile image sensor to adopt the smallest pixel size in the industry at 0.7μm, which minimizes color cross-talk and optical loss to absorb sufficient light information to produce bright and vivid photographs.

* LG U+ unveiled a cooperation program for 12 mobile virtual network operators using its network, ET News reported. Under the program, the Korean telco will aid the MVNOs in their sales operations, infrastructure set-up and marketing activities.

* Kakao Corp. partnered with Sena Technologies Inc. to launch a smart helmet called SENA Hey Kakao, Chosun Biz reported. The smart helmet can be synced with Hey Kakao's app using voice recognition to utilize Kakao's artificial intelligence platform Kakao i.

GREATER CHINA (MAINLAND CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN MARKETS)

* Hony Capital (Beijing) Co. Ltd. agreed to invest 300 million yuan in Xinhua Xuanwen, a mobile news platform operated by Chinese state-owned Xinhua News Agency, DealStreetAsia reported.

* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. CFO Meng Wanzhou is back in British Columbia's Supreme Court as her lawyers argue that Canadian border officers subjected Meng to "extraordinarily serious misconduct," as they acted as covert investigators for the FBI without telling the executive that she was the subject of a U.S. arrest warrant, South China Morning Post reported.

* Jeffrey Vitter, a former chancellor of University of Mississippi with expertise in big data, has joined Baidu Inc.'s research arm, Yicai reported. Dou Dejing, head of advanced integration and mining lab at the University of Oregon, also joined Baidu Research.

* Alibaba quietly rolled out a new social network app called Real Ruwo, KrASIA reported. The new app, which collects users' facial and location information, allows university students to communicate with each other by sending messages, photos and videos.

* Apple Inc. equipped its latest software update, iOS 13, with the ability to detect counterfeit AirPods and disable iPhone connections with them, KrASIA reported, citing Chinese news site 52audio.com. However, some manufacturers are claiming to have found a way to get past Apple's new measures to fight Shanzhai or Chinese knockoffs.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* Bill Barney has stepped down as CEO of Reliance Communications Ltd. but will remain chairman and chief executive of Global Cloud Xchange, an undersea cable subsidiary of RCom, as it goes through bankruptcy proceedings and a corporate restructuring process in the U.S.

* In more RCom news, the embattled telecom operator was granted an additional 90 days to complete its insolvency proceedings, according to The Economic Times (India). Deloitte, the resolution professional overlooking the affairs of RCom and its units Reliance Telecom Ltd. and Reliance Infratel Ltd., will now have to complete RCom's asset sales by January 2020.

* India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is working to finalize a model for the certification of online video streaming content after the Diwali festival in October, Mint reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The move comes after several new shows, which include Netflix Inc.'s "Leila" and ALTBalaji's "Gandii Baat," were flagged for inappropriate content.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Singapore-based NTT Data Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. has acquired Bangkok-based Locus Telecommunication Inc. Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. Through the acquisition, the NTT DATA Corp. unit aims to enhance its digital transformation offerings amid market expansion in Thailand.

* Malaysia will start a nationwide demonstration of 5G projects in October as part of the country's preparations for its planned 2020 rollout of 5G technology, Reuters reported. Huawei has preliminary 5G agreements with Malaysian operators such as Celcom Axiata Bhd., Telekom Malaysia and Maxis Bhd.

* XL Axiata struck an agreement with video-on-demand platform Hooq Digital Pte. Ltd. to give subscribers of the Indonesian telecom operator access to the content library of Hooq, Berita Satu reported.

* Ride-hailing app GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd. is partnering with Microsoft Corp. in a program that will provide training, learning platforms and certifications to university students across Southeast Asia.

* Celcom Axiata is collaborating with CyberSecurity Malaysia to jointly develop telecommunications security capabilities and explore opportunities in the field of internet of things security, The Star reported.

* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission approved the sale of iPhone 11 and Huawei Mate 30 smartphones in the country, Sanook reported. The new iPhone series is rumored to go on sale Oct. 18, while the Mate 30's release date is still unknown.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Seven West Media Ltd. is set to announce a restructuring plan this week that will include job cuts, which is reportedly James Warburton's first major act as CEO of the Australian broadcaster. According to The Australian, expected in the shake-up are a flatter management structure and a push for greater savings across the media company.

FEATURED NEWS

5G Focus: Huawei's launches; NTT Docomo's trials; KT's 5G roaming in Europe: 5G Focus is a weekly global roundup of notable 5G trials, launches, use cases and major equipment supply contracts. It will also feature in-depth analysis of strategies, expansion plans, business models and other related initiatives.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Global Multichannel: Opportunities abound in Malaysia's video sector amid local challenges: Local originals, content partnerships and extensive user knowledge will keep pay TV thriving in Malaysia, as discussed by industry experts at this year's "Malaysia in View" event.

Nozomi Ibayashi, Myungran Ha, Emily Lai, Kevin Osmond and Wil Hathaway 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.