TOP NEWS
* Bain Capital LP finalized its tender offer for Asatsu-DK Inc., acquiring 87.05% of Japan's third-largest advertising agency. Asatsu's largest shareholder, U.K. public relations company WPP Plc, had originally opposed the takeover bid as too low. But it agreed to a deal Nov. 21 and other shareholders followed suit.
* The Japanese Supreme Court ruled the payment of public broadcasting fees to support the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) mandatory, The Wall Street Journal reports. In a 14-to-1 ruling, the Supreme Court denied a complainant's legal challenge against the broadcasting fee, saying the funding "was adopted with the aim of effectively fulfilling the people's right to know under the freedom of speech guaranteed by Article 21 of the constitution."
* The Korea Communications Commission plans to strike down on profane content by revising relevant laws this year, applying DNA filtering technology by 2018, and develop artificial intelligence-based real-time review technology by 2019, IT Chosun reports. The Commissioner Lee Hyo-sung reportedly said Tumblr Inc. has not responded to their request to delete profane content and the Commission is determined to take action.
* SoftBank Group Corp., through its Vision Fund, has agreed to invest US$450 million in Compass, a New York-based real estate technology company. The investment brings the total capital raised to US$775 million. The multimillion-dollar investment from the Japanese conglomerate's massive tech fund is the largest real estate technology investment in U.S. history.
PAN-ASIAN NEWS
* Hooq Digital PTE. Ltd. is making a push for same day release of U.S. TV programming, which include "The Big Bang Theory," "Gotham," "Supergirl," "Lucifer," "The Flash" and "Arrow," all of which are distributed by Time Warner Inc. unit Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.'s Warner Bros. Television Distribution. According to Television Post, new episodes of these shows will be available within 12 hours of their US premiere on Hooq.
JAPAN
* Sharp Corp. CEO Tai Jeng-wu, who planned to step down upon Sharp's return to Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section, said he intends to stay in charge to see through his three-year business plan announced in March, The Nikkei reports. Sharp is owned by Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., also known as Foxconn Technology Group.
* Dentsu Inc. promoted Satoshi Matsuoka to be head of Dentsu Inc. Chubu, the Japanese advertising giant's central Japan regional Chubu operation. He replaces Naoki Tani, who became an executive officer from Jan. 1, 2018.
* Japanese telecom operator KDDI Corp. tapped Israel-based Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.'s LTE cellular backhaul solution to drive its voice over LTE service in Japan.
SOUTH KOREA
* The Ministry of Science and ICT announced a 10-year roadmap to grow and innovate autonomous vehicles and drones, Yonhap News Agency reports. According to the roadmap, the Ministry plans to develop various purpose drones and autonomous vehicles by 2030, and increase the global market share to 10%. The government will spend 12 billion Korean won in R&D next year.
* SK Telecom Co. Ltd. went through organize restructuring to become an ICT power. The company has reshuffled to 4 business units: MNO, Media, IoT/Data and Service Platform. The company also newly created an AI R&D center to secure core AI technologies.
* Naver Corp. will adopt algorithm and AI technologies to pursue a fair arrangement of news articles by minimizing human involvement, Kyunghang Biz reports. The company was previously criticized for arranging news articles in favor of a certain political party.
CHINA
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co. have signed a three-year agreement to explore opportunities in retail experiences and technology. Ford will collaborate with four Alibaba units: Operating system developer AliOS, cloud computing arm Alibaba Cloud, digital marketing unit Alimama and online marketplace Tmall. The two companies will focus on areas including mobility services, connectivity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital marketing.
* Alibaba Group is reportedly investing in the latest fundraising round of Chinese bike-sharing service ofo worth US$1 billion, Yicai Global reports. Meanwhile, ofo officially launched in Paris.
* China Telecom Corp. Ltd. is testing 5G base stations in 6 cities, Lanzhou, Xiongan, Shanghai, Suzhou, Chengdu and Shenzhen, NetEase news reports.
* Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing plans to launch its services in Mexico in 2018, two sources familiar with the plans told Reuters.
* U.S.-based conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. is picking up a 25% stake in Chinese software provider Flux Information Technology, as well as forming a joint venture with Flux that will serve customers outside China.
* Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd., China's top state silicon chipmaker, hiked its shareholding in Dialog Semiconductor Plc, now holding an 8.15% voting stake, Reuters reports.
* Meitu Inc. picked up a minority stake in PressLogic, a Hong Kong-based media company that specializes in native advertising, but declined to give financial details, South China Morning Post reports, citing Stephen Shiu Jr., a shareholder of PressLogic.
* Li Daren is now vice president for technology at Zhihu, a Chinese Q&A platform similar to Quora, Tencent news reports. Li, who was working at Baidu Inc. on natural language processing, will be in charge of AI models, search engine optimization and content marketing for Zhihu.
INDIA
* Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon Web Services became the first global cloud service provider to deliver public cloud services to government customers in India, The Economic Times (India) reports. Amazon Internet Services Pvt. Ltd., an Amazon subsidiary, received full CSP empanelment by the country's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
* Christian Hedelin, head of strategy, business and business area networks of Ericsson, told The Economic Times (India) that 5G in India will improve network performance at a lower cost per gigabyte produced.
* Xiaomi Inc.'s Indian subsidiary became profitable in the fiscal year ended March 2017, its third year in India, as sales grew seven-fold, The Economic Times (India) reports. Xiaomi Technology India saw its sales jump 696% to 83.79 billion Indian rupees, with a net profit of 1.64 billion Indian rupees during the financial year 2017.
* Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.'s Zee TV is adding three fictional shows – "Kalire," "Aapke Aa Jaane Se" and tentatively titled "Ishq Pakeezah" – to its lineup in 2018, Television Post reports.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek aims to expand to the Philippines by early 2018 and to all Southeast Asian countries within the next 12 months, Reuters reports.
* Go-Jek signaled a possibility for an IPO in the next few years, CNN Indonesia reports. However, Go-Jek prefer to focus on developing and licensing its electronic money solution GoPay before going public.
* Siemens AG's Indonesian arm PT Siemens Indonesia appointed Prakash Chandran as its new CEO and President Director. Prakash was previously the CEO of Siemens Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. since 2009.
* Thailand's State Enterprise Workers' Union sent a letter to the president of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission urging him to approve telecom operator TOT Public Co. Ltd.'s business plan for the 2300MHz band, Krungthep Turakij reports.
AUSTRALIA
* Village Roadshow Ltd.'s Roadshow Films Pty. Ltd. wants a piracy-facilitating app and associated website blocked by Australian internet service providers and is seeking action in the Federal Court of Australia, ZDNet reports.
* Telstra Corp. Ltd. expanded its international roaming coverage to 17 more countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and Russia, upgrading the list to 75 countries, CRN Australia reports.
FEATURED NEWS
CAPITAL Letters: Media-driven Peloton and Zumba are reshaping the fitness industry: The Peloton-networked stationary bike and Latin dance-inspired Zumba workout are having an outsized impact on the American fitness industry, which generated $27.6 billion in 2016.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Technology: Global spending on FTTH gear up modestly in Q3, while DSL spending slows again: After an improved second quarter, service providers continued to ramp their purchases of combined digital subscriber line, or DSL, and fiber-to-the-home, or FTTH, equipment in the third quarter, though only modestly.
Global Multichannel: Video woes continue to weigh on Canadian multichannel revenue growth in Q3'17: Much like their U.S. counterparts, IP-based services lifted Canadian multichannel video programming distributors amid ongoing transition in the operating landscape in the third quarter.
Joji Sakurai, Nicole Shiwon Kim, Frances Wang, Patrick Tibke and Kevin Osmond 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.
