As well, the African e-commerce platform Jumia still suffered losses in the third quarter of 2019; thanks to the content localization strategy, Netflix India’s revenue soared; Facebook launched a full-line payment service Facebook Pay.
India
WeWork India CEO said it would not change the company’s investment plan. According to KrASIA, the company said that despite the net loss of $10 million in FY18, all shared offices have now achieved profitability within six months of starting business. According to CEO Karan Virwani, the Indian real estate development company Embassy Group has obtained the autonomy of WeWork India by paying a license fee to WeWork. Currently, no other WeWork franchisee enjoys the same degree of independence and ownership.
Indian takeaway platform Zomato reduces “burning money”. According to ET Tech, senior executives of Indian Internet giant Info Edge said on Tuesday’s analyst conference call that Zomato’s burns have been cut by more than half, while also focusing on improving profit margins and lowering distribution costs. It is reported that as a key strategic investor of Zomato, Info Edge holds a 26% stake in Zomato. Info Edge executives also said that when growth is very fast and focused on core business growth, there is usually no focus on cost growth. As a result, many cost inefficiencies have taken shape. Now, Zomato is solving this problem.
Netflix India’s revenue has soared thanks to content localization strategies. According to KrASIA, Netflix’s revenue in India increased eightfold to $65 million in the fiscal year ending March 2019. At the same time, its profits soared 25 times to $71 million. For the past year and a half, Netflix has been investing heavily in dialects and original content creation in India.
B2C Business Platform Niki wants to raise $30 million. According to ET reports, the company said on Tuesday that it has raised funds from the US financial technology fund EMVC, the amount has not been disclosed. Company founder Sachin Jaiswal said the company also hopes to raise $20-30 million in funding early next year. Through artificial intelligence and machine learning, Niki allows users to execute commands in voice. Currently available languages include: Hindi, MengaLa and Tamil. Thanks to business growth in small towns, the company’s GMV has exceeded $100 million in March this year.
Southeast Asia
Smarten Spaces, a Singapore-based smart office system provider, completed a $12 million Series A round of financing. According to Tech in Asia, this round was led by Southeast Asian investment company Symphony International Holdings. Founded in 2017, Smarten Spaces aims to increase the space utilization of commercial real estate, corporate, shared office space, shared rentals and warehouses through its end-to-end artificial intelligence platform. With this platform, the office can implement visitor management, meeting room reservations, and company announcements.
Indonesia OTA Platform Traveloka teamed up with Thailand Studios Major Cineplex to launch a movie booking service in Thailand. According to Tech in Asia, users can book and purchase movie tickets through Traveloka Xperience, and can also make payments using multiple channels available on Traveloka. Earlier this year, Traveloka launched Traveloka Xperience, which entered the lifestyle service and competed with Airbnb’s Airbnb Experiences.
Latin America
Quickly announce the Creator Recruitment Program in Brazil . It was learned that on November 8th, the fast-hander announced the “Creator Recruitment Program” in Brazil, recruiting for YouTuber, Ins Reds, folk artists and amateur shooters, and plans to complete the 1,000-person creator team in the future. Co-construction, bringing traffic support to the talented local people in Brazil. Quickly announced that from July 21st to early November, the fast-track overseas version of Kwai has repeatedly topped the list of Brazilian applications, and the other product VStatus ranked second in the Brazilian total.
Amazon launches voice assistant Alexa in Brazil. According to Latamlist, this is part of Amazon’s Brazilian market expansion plan. Earlier in September, Amazon launched Amazon Prime and Amazon Music in the Brazilian market.
Africa
African E-commercePlatform Jumia is still losing money in the third quarter of 2019. According to WeeTracker, the company lost $55 million in the third quarter of this year, up from the same period last year. In the first three quarters of this year alone, Jumia lost $180 million. The situation with GMV is more complicated. In the third quarter, Jumia’s GMV increased to $300 million, up from the same period last year, but it was down from the second quarter, and the reason for the decline is unclear.
Other
The survey said that Asia will surpass North America as a global venture capital center by 2020. According to Sina Financial News, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek’s subsidiary Xiangfeng Investment and UK research firm Preqin jointly conducted a survey showing that as of the end of 2018, the investment assets of Asian-oriented venture capital funds reached $323 billion. Close to $397 billion in venture capital funds for North America. Preqin’s Asian operations director said, “There are analysts who believe that by the end of 2020, the amount of assets for Asian-oriented funds will exceed that of North American funds.”
Facebook launched a full-line payment service Facebook Pay. According to Sina Technology, Facebook announced on Tuesday that it will launch a new payment service, and users will soon be able to use the service in a range of applications within the company. Facebook posted a blog post on Tuesday saying the new service, called Facebook Pay, allows users to securely pay for others. Prior to this, Facebook has allowed users to send money through the Messenger app, but after Facebook Pay is online, users will be able to send money through other apps in Facebook.
文 | 郭沈@出海;云晞@出海
编 | Zhao Xiaochun@出海
图 | Oriental IC
