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Huawei's source code; HTC, Alibaba investment in Bitmark; Xiaomi's share buyback

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Huawei's source code; HTC, Alibaba investment in Bitmark; Xiaomi's share buyback

TOP NEWS

* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. offered to make its source code available to the Japanese government to alleviate security concerns, Kyodo News reported, citing a Japanese official. Huawei Senior Vice President John Suffolk said that if necessary, the company would make its source code available to other nations as each country should validate the security of Huawei's products and services by themselves.

* HTC Corp. led a US$3 million funding round for Bitmark Inc., a Taiwanese digital property rights startup. The series A round also saw participation from existing and new investors including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., venture capital firm WI Harper Group and crypto-focused investor Digital Currency Group.

* Xiaomi Corp. plans to repurchase about HK$12 billion of the company's shares in the open market from time to time. Depending on market conditions, the Chinese company's board may repurchase more shares.

JAPAN

* Sony Corp. will shut down its Sony Mobile Communications AB office in Sweden as part of a plan to merge all the company's consumer electronics divisions, Lowyat reported. The company is cutting 60 positions on top of the 200 employees that were made redundant earlier. Some of the remaining employees will reportedly be offered positions at the brand's general European unit, Sony Nordic.

* Tokyo-based IT services company SCSK Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. have established a corporate venture capital fund called Presidio SCSK Digital Fund in the Silicon Valley. The two companies plan to invest in startups involved in core technologies that will assist in promoting digital transformation of businesses. Financial details were not disclosed.

* CyberAgent Inc. created a new business division for artificial intelligence. The AI tech studio, which has about 250 engineers, will seek to strengthen AI-based advertising development and create new businesses.

SOUTH KOREA

* Netflix Inc. said it is working on its latest South Korean original series, a drama called "Round Six," to be produced by director Hwang Dong-hyuk. The show will be about people who have experienced failure but receive an invitation to participate in a survival game to win US$10 million.

* Amid the controversy over voice data collection, NAVER Corp. said it listens to and transcribes less than 1% of the voice data collected via its artificial intelligence speakers and that there is no privacy violation because it has measures in place to prevent listeners from learning the full context, Yonhap News Agency reported. The company added that it plans to introduce a function to let users decide whether or not to allow voice storage.

* The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT allocated 100 billion won to new 5G projects for 2020, ZDNet Korea reported. New projects include 5G-powered equipment devices, media services, network slicing-based convergence services, autonomous driving and security.

* LG U+ and Seoul Metro opened a 5G-enabled art space called U+5G Gallery in Gongdeok metro station in Seoul to offer visitors an augmented reality-enabled art experience, Newsis reported. The telco also partnered with Google LLC to present some of the art pieces by applying Google Lens and its U+AR app.

CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN

* Huawei denied accusations reported in The Wall Street Journal that it stole technology from a Portuguese inventor and instead accused him of "taking advantage of the current geopolitical situation." The latest controversy involves Portuguese inventor Rui Pedro Oliveira, who claims Huawei met him in 2014 and ripped off his design for a smartphone camera.

* In more Huawei news, the company is ready to spend over US$300 million annually to fund university researches, Reuters reported, citing William Xu, president of Huawei's institute of strategic research.

* China Mobile Ltd. partnered with Huawei to launch a 4G+5G collaborative multilayer network to promote the seamless coverage of 5G, Sina reported. The network consists of a basic coverage layer, a capacity experience layer and an indoor coverage layer to provide comprehensive coverage.

* Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s Tencent Games rebranded its cloud gaming platform CMatrix to Tencent GameMatrix to emphasize its focus on the gaming industry, Yicai reported.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* ALT Digital Media Entertainment Ltd. plans to produce about 60 web shows through a joint venture over the next two years, Bloomberg News reported. That new content would add to the 42 shows already owned by the company, which is the online streaming unit of Balaji Telefilms Ltd.

* India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is set to start consultations with representatives of over-the-top platform operators, members of civil society, technical community, media, internet service providers and legal experts to discuss ways of regulating and certifying online content, according to The Economic Times (India).

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Police in Vietnam accused two former communication ministers of taking bribes in connection with a deal between state-owned telco MobiFone and private firm Audio Visual Global JSC. According to Viet Nam News, retired minister Nguyễn Bắc Son and his successor Trương Minh Tuấn have been charged with bribery along with MobiFone executives Lê Nam Trà, former chairman of the members council, and former CEO Cao Duy Hải.

* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is considering a three-year grace period on payments for 5G spectrum licenses, which are expected to be sold in two multiband auctions in 2020, Krungthep Turakij reported. The regulator said the waiver may be necessary to accelerate the launch of 5G in Thailand and ease the investment burden on telecom operators.

* Advanced Info Service PCL unit AIS Fibre launched Super Mesh WiFi, a new home broadband package that comes with a Nokia Corp. WiFi Beacon 1 router that can reach speeds of up to 1Gbps. AIS also announced that it will be Thailand's exclusive official broadcast partner of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, allowing it to stream the games on mobile, internet protocol TV and online.

* PT Indosat Tbk is open to sharing telecommunication infrastructure to develop telecom networks in the new capital region of Indonesia, Bisnis reported.

* Malaysia's Transport Ministry reiterated that the cabinet has not made a decision on allowing Indonesian ride-hailing app PT Go-Jek Indonesia to operate in the country, New Straits Times reported. Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the cabinet only approved a motorcycle e-hailing system to operate, but not a specific company.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Spark New Zealand Ltd.'s data, analytics and artificial intelligence business Qrious Ltd. agreed to acquire NOW Consulting, the New Zealand-based data consulting division of WhereScape Inc. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

* The merger of QMS Media Ltd.'s out-of-home, digital media and production business in New Zealand with Mediaworks Holdings Ltd. has been completed. The merged entity also agreed to acquire ETC Media's Christchurch digital billboard portfolio to add twelve large format digital billboards to its existing national digital portfolio.

* Kogan.com Ltd.'s prepay mobile service Kogan Mobile is now available in New Zealand. Kogan Mobile will provide unlimited voice calls and SMS to New Zealand and Australia as standard on all voice plans, data inclusions and annual prepay payment options. Similar to its service in Australia, Kogan Mobile is using Vodafone New Zealand Ltd. as its network provider.

FEATURED NEWS

Data Dispatch: S&P 500 earnings for the week of Sept. 2: For the second quarter, 496 S&P 500 companies have posted earnings as of Aug. 30. Of those, 74% reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence's analyst polling.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Economics of TV & Film: KBOX Week 34: Summer box office still trailing 2018 with one week to go: Weekly box office declined for the third week in a row, dropping 0.8% from $167.0 million in 2018 to $165.6 million in 2019. The summer season is also down 0.8% to $4.27 billion in 2019 compared to nearly $4.31 billion in 2018.

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.