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ByteDance management reshuffle; Wirecard/Brightstar partnership; HUYA's M&A

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ByteDance management reshuffle; Wirecard/Brightstar partnership; HUYA's M&A

TOP NEWS

* Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. Ltd., owner of short video app TikTok, reshuffled its top executives with a goal to create a third app with more than 100 million daily active users and tackle the stagnating user count of its news aggregator platform Jinri Toutiao, KrASIA reported, citing 36Kr. As part of the reshuffle, Jinri Toutiao CEO Chen Lin will shift focus to ByteDance's new businesses such as social apps Duoshan and Feiliao, workplace tool Lark, and education products Gogokid and aiKID. Meanwhile, former Baidu Inc. executive Zhu Wenjia, who was promoted to take charge of Toutiao, will now report directly to ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming.

* German payments company Wirecard AG signed a memorandum of understanding with SoftBank Group Corp.'s device management business Brightstar Corp. to collaborate in the areas of digital consumer lending, payment acceptance processing and card issuing. Under the agreement, digital financial services via the Brightstar platform are expected to be handled by Wirecard as the preferred payment service provider.

* Chinese livestreaming platform HUYA Inc. struck a binding term sheet with Modern Times Group to acquire a minority stake in the latter's esports business Turtle Entertainment GmbH, or ESL, for US$30 million. HUYA and ESL will also form a strategic joint venture to enable the expansion of ESL's offering into China.

JAPAN

* NTT Docomo Inc. joined the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation, or 5G-ACIA, to promote the use of 5G technology in the manufacturing sector. The 5G-ACIA initiative, which encompasses around 50 companies across diverse industries worldwide, will allow participants to jointly create industrial 5G networks and achieve the reliability and low latency required in factory automation and manufacturing processes.

* U.S. cloud communications platform Twilio Inc. opened an office in Yotsuya, Tokyo, as part of its plans to expand into the Japanese market. The company appointed former Amazon.com Inc. executive Yoshihiro Konno to lead the company's expansion efforts as head of Japan.

SOUTH KOREA

* SK Telecom Co. Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Institute of Construction Technology, Trimble Inc., SK E&C Co. Ltd. and Hyundai Construction Equipment Co. Ltd. to apply 5G and artificial intelligence technologies to construction, ZDNet Korea reported. The five parties will assess and compare the productivity and efficiency of a traditional construction site and a tech-enabled smart site at a field test center in October, as well as cooperate on developing and commercializing 5G-based smart construction technologies.

* KT Corp. and local security software company AhnLab Inc. developed Integrated Threat Intelligence 1.0, a solution that enables proactive action against new hacking threats, Yonhap News Agency reported. The new solution analyzes and processes big data such as IP, URL, pattern information and malware in real time.

* LG U+ launched U+tv Free 2, a portable wireless internet protocol TV device, ET News reported. The new model provides the same channels and video-on-demand services as the company's regular IPTV, but without a separate set top box. It also comes embedded with NAVER Corp.'s artificial intelligence platform Clova.

CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN

* Despite topping the download chart within days of its launch, Chinese face-swap app Zao has courted controversy over its potential violations of data privacy. According to Bloomberg News, an earlier version of Zao's user agreement stated that the app had "free, irrevocable, permanent, transferable, and relicense-able" rights to all user-generated content, which users see as a privacy issue. Following the negative reviews, the China E-Commerce Research Center urged authorities to look into the matter.

* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. launched Arthouse Land, an arthouse film fan interactive online community, Asia Times reported, citing China.org. The online community will provide members with movie news, community interaction, merchandise, as well as rights to participate in various official events of arthouse films.

* HKBN Ltd. completed the integration of its enterprise solutions businesses four months after its acquisition of WTT HK Ltd. Following the integration, WTT has been renamed to HKBN Enterprise Solutions HK Ltd.

* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. plans to launch a new smartphone, the Huawei Enjoy 10 Plus, on Sept. 5 in China, GSMArena reported. The company posted a video of the smartphone, which reveals that the handset would come with a pop-up front camera and a triple rear camera setup.

* SINA Corp.'s Sina Weibo launched Oasis, a photo-based social media app, on Apple Inc.'s App Store for internal testing, National Business Daily reported. Currently, the app is only accessible to users with invitation, and is yet to link up with the Weibo app.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* Bharti Airtel Ltd. launched a converged digital entertainment platform called Airtel Xstream. The platform will offer diverse content, including live TV, video, music, news, and sports across an over-the-top smart stick, internet-enabled set top box and handheld devices.

* Vodafone Idea Ltd. refuted a report saying the telco will close down six existing circles in Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, North East and Assam. According to The Economic Times (India), a Bank of America Merrill Lynch report earlier said the company was likely to exit the six circles where it had been continuously losing revenue market share.

* Google LLC's Play Store has added the Indian government's Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, as a payment option for users in India, XDA Developers reported.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Indonesian online beauty portal Social Bella secured US$40 million in its series D funding round, which was co-led by Singapore's Temasek Holdings (Pte.) Ltd. and venture capital fund EV Growth Fund, DealStreetAsia reported.

* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission paid 372 million baht to Voice TV as compensation for the early return of its digital TV license, Sanook reported. Voice TV stopped broadcasting on Aug 31.

* PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk infused 255 billion rupiah into state-owned digital wallet service PT Fintek Karya Nusantara, Warta Ekonomi reported. The Indonesian bank said there will be another round of capital injection in December but did not disclose the amount of the upcoming investment.

* LinkAja, an Indonesian state-owned digital wallet, partnered with local cashback company Cashbac to allow customers to use LinkAja as a payment method in Cashbac's app, Warta Ekonomi reported.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* U.K.-based Gravity Media Group Ltd. completed its acquisition of Australian live studio and production services provider Chief Entertainment Pty. Ltd. The transaction, pursuant to which Gravity Media agreed to buy Chief Entertainment from Telstra Corp. Ltd., closed on Aug. 30. Chief Entertainment will maintain its existing name and branding until it is fully integrated with Gravity Media's Australia operations.

* Accenture PLC completed its acquisition of Australian big data and analytics consultancy Analytics8 LP for an undisclosed amount. Analytics8 is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture.

FEATURED NEWS

DISH inks ACC deal, but blackouts continue with other providers: Altitude Sports is the latest regional sports network that is dark for the distributor, which also remains at a retransmission-consent impasse with Meredith.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Broadcast Investor: Broadcast Investor: Table of contents for issue No. 648, published August 2019.

Nozomi Ibayashi, Myungran Ha, Emily Lai, Ed Eduard and Patrick Tibke have 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.