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Didi Chuxing planning Hong Kong IPO; India's Reliance Jio eyeing European entry

TOP NEWS

* Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co. Ltd. is considering a Hong Kong listing in the second half of this year, which is estimated to value the company between US$70 billion and US$80 billion, South China Morning Post reports, citing Hong Kong Economic Times. Didi has reportedly been in pre-listing consultations with investment banks since April.

* Indian telco Reliance Jio is planning to expand overseas by setting up a subsidiary in Estonia, two people with knowledge of the company's plans told Mint. Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd., an investment holding company and a wholly owned unit of Reliance Industries Ltd. will provide Jio's Estonian arm with a loan of 122 million Indian rupees to start its operations.

* In other Jio news, Vice President and Head of Data Science Debarag Banerjee, Executive Vice President of Networks-Technology Nikos Katinakis and Assistant Vice President of Algorithm and 5G Development Parwiz Shekalim, left the company in quick succession, The Economic Times (India) reports. Several expatriates holding senior roles in the company also recently resigned. The departures take place as the Indian telco focuses on expanding beyond mobile phone services and venturing into areas such as the internet of things.

* A ban on ZTE Corp.'s imports from the U.S. is estimated to result in at least 20 billion Chinese yuan of losses as clients opt out of deals and expenses continue to ramp up, Bloomberg News reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The U.S. Commerce Department in April prohibited businesses and individuals in the U.S. from selling components to the Chinese telecommunication gear-maker, accusing it of repeatedly making false statements and violating international sanctions. The company relies on U.S. components to build its smartphones and networking gear.

PAN-ASIAN NEWS

* SK Group unit SK Telecom Co. Ltd., NavInfo Co. Ltd. of China, and Pioneer Corp. of Japan formed the OneMap Alliance with HERE Technologies to create a global, standardized, high-definition map, to be offered from 2020. The alliance aims to offer the map to autonomous car manufacturers and geolocation service companies in the future.

JAPAN

* Sony Corp. CEO Kenichiro Yoshida laid out a long-term plan of developing artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles for future growth in his first press briefing since taking the helm in April, shortly after the company released its midterm management plan, The Nikkei reports. He said innovative products and services will be fundamental to Sony's strategy as it seeks to continue the recovery launched under his predecessor Kazuo Hirai. Sony reported operating income of ¥734.86 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, up from ¥288.70 billion a year ago.

* NTT Data Corp., the IT solutions arm of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., is teaming up with CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd., owner of digital navigation service MapmyIndia, to develop India's first large-scale 3D map data sets.

SOUTH KOREA

* Alphabet Inc.-owned Google Inc. and LG Corp.'s LG Display Co. Ltd. unveiled an ultra-high resolution organic light-emitting diode panel for virtual reality headsets at the Display Week 2018 in Los Angeles, ZD Net Korea reports. The 4.3-inch glass display panel comes in 4,800 x 3,840 pixels and is currently at thee prototype stage.

* KT Corp. developed a blockchain-powered smart contract technology to settle roaming charges with overseas carriers in real time, News 1 reports. The new technology allows telcos to cross-check and verify roaming-related data and, unless there is an error, proceed to calculate the fee. The telco is planning to standardize the service for global use.

* The South Korean police arrested the owner of Bamtoki, the biggest pirate website for web comics in South Korea, after about four months of investigation, IT Chosun reports. Naver Corp.'s crackdown program Toon Radar was used in the process to identify illegal duplication and distribution of the content in real time.

CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN

* U.S.-based news publication Politico LLC entered into a content partnership with Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. that will see both publications gaining access to each other's content. The partnership also offers future opportunities for journalists in both newsrooms to jointly produce original stories.

* Tencent Holdings Ltd. is working on a voice interaction-based WeChat service for connected cars, Netease News reports. The service is expected to launch in June with the auto model GX4 from Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group Co. Ltd.

* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Alibaba Machine Intelligence Technologies launched a smart ordering system that allows customers at restaurants and cafés to place orders using their voice.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* Pakistan's PTCL selected Qwilt Inc.'s open caching solution for content delivery, in an effort to enhance its network and video streaming quality for subscribers of its over-the-top streaming services.

* Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc. rolled out its first lending product in India, in partnership with lending platform Krazybee. The product will be formally announced in the coming weeks, a person aware of the development told The Economic Times (India).

* India's Union Cabinet approved an investment of 140.25 billion Indian rupees for the installation of towers in left-wing extremism-affected states, the implementation of a telecom development plan in the state of Meghalaya and an enhanced fund for the telecom development plan for the country's North East region, The Economic Times (India) reports.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Thailand's Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha invoked Section 44 executive powers to impose a three-year moratorium on digital TV license fee payments and a 50% reduction on multiplexer rental fees for 24 months, Krungthep Turakij reports. The move comes just in time for digital TV operators, many of whom could not pay the fifth installment of the license fee by its original May 23 deadline.

* Indonesia's South Jakarta District Court gave a court schedule regarding a lawsuit filed by the Indonesia ICT Institute and the Institute for the Development of Indonesian Information Society Empowerment against Facebook Inc. following the data leakage affecting Indonesian users, Bisnis reports. The hearing will be held on Aug. 21.

* Singapore-based livestreaming provider Bigo launched Cube TV, an application for mobile gaming livestreaming, esports and online games shop in Indonesia, according to CNN Indonesia. Bigo will partner with mobile game apps such as "Mobile Legends" to support Bigo's services in the region.

* Indonesian ride-hailing provider PT Go-Jek Indonesia struck a partnership with PT MRT Jakarta to develop MRT's nonfare box and mobile payment service, Bisnis reports. The collaboration aims to integrate MRT's infrastructure with Gojek's service coverages in Jakarta.

* Thailand's state-owned CAT Telecom PCL launched a significantly reduced-price version of its my 4 Mbps and 8 Mbps mobile and wireless broadband services. Customers can claim reductions of up to 90% off the usual monthly cost if they sign up for the service for more than six months.

* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission approved TrueVisions' plans to screen live coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2018 on cable channels True Sport HD3 and True Sport HD4, Krungthep Turakij reports.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Singtel Optus Pty. Ltd has decided to phase out its Virgin Mobile brand within the next two years, The Australian reports. About 36 Virgin stores are expected to be shuttered and 200 jobs cut by 2020.

FEATURED NEWS

Irish Prime Minister: Challenge of GDPR is to balance regulation with innovation: The European Union's incoming General Data Protection Regulation should not be feared as it will help boost Ireland's digital community, the country's prime minister has said. Finding the right balance between regulation and innovation is key.

Upfronts 2018: Analysts anticipate mid- to high-single-digit CPM price gains: Opinions differ on level of volume increase ahead of the 2018-2019 TV season.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Economics of Internet: Q1 viewing places Hulu and Netflix far ahead of competition: ComScore Video Metrix data shows that Hulu had some 80% of viewing coming from over-the-top (game consoles, streaming media players, smart TVs, etc.) in the first quarter and more than 60 million average monthly unique viewers.

Multichannel Trends: Q1'18 broadband-only homes near 20 million mark: Broadband-only homes logged another quarter of mid-single-digit gains in the first quarter, sending the segment to another record high.

Joji Sakurai, Myungran Ha, 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. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.