Scooters in SEAsia!
Month: April 2019
Singapore Isn’t Waiting for Facebook to Crack Down on Fake News – Bloomberg
I don’t have opinions on this but it feels like an overreach.
However it is sad the big platforms have let this happen to the point that the governments want to step in.
My guess is we are gonna hear a lot more about this in Singapore and other countries.
Singapore Isn’t Waiting for Facebook to Crack Down on Fake News – Bloomberg
Andreessen Horowitz Is Blowing Up The Venture Capital Model (Again)
Their new move is intense.
Andreessen Horowitz Is Blowing Up The Venture Capital Model (Again):
And so Andreessen and Horowitz, who rank 55th and 73rd, respectively, on this year’s Forbes Midas List, intend to be disagreeable themselves. They just finished raising a soon-to-be announced $2 billion fund (bringing total assets under management to nearly $10 billion) to write even bigger checks for portfolio companies and unicorns the firm missed the first time. More aggressively, they tell Forbes that they are registering their entire firm—all 150 people—as financial advisors, renouncing Andreessen Horowitz’s status as a venture capital firm entirely.
Why? Well, venture capitalists have long traded a lack of Wall Street-style oversight for the promise that they invest mainly in new shares of private companies. It was a tradeoff firms gladly made—until the age of crypto, a type of high-risk investment the SEC says requires more oversight. So be it, says Andreessen Horowitz. By renouncing its venture capital status, it’ll be able to go deeper on riskier bets: If the firm wants to put $1 billion into cryptocurrency or tokens, or buy unlimited shares in public companies or from other investors, it can. And in doing so, the thinking goes, it’ll again make other firms feel like they have one hand tied behind their back.
Startup Segment Is Worth $1.5 Billion, Thanks to Companies’ Troves of Customer Data – Bloomberg
One of my fav products. I think there is a few of us in the region that pulled this product in and were some of there first customers.
You know who you are.
Monster round!
Congrats.
Startup Segment Is Worth $1.5 Billion, Thanks to Companies’ Troves of Customer Data – Bloomberg
The MacBook keyboard fiasco is way worse than Apple thinks – Signal v. Noise
The keyboard suck and the Touch Bar is interesting but serves no amazing purpose.
Lyft and the bet on the millennial mindset – Colin Charles Agenda
I suspect more nuttiness is on the cards…
I’ve been following Lyft going public, and its clearly nuts. For an analysis of the S1, do read some Fred Wilson: The IPO Price and the S1. My belief is that
— Read on www.bytebot.net/blog/archives/2019/04/02/lyft-and-the-bet-on-the-millennial-mindset/amp
Teflon Thailand
Linked to this yesterday :: https://seedvc.blog/2019/04/01/thai-election-gives-businesses-incentive-to-invest-abroad-bloomberg/
This is another good one :: https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Teflon-Thailand-feels-the-heat
As stated yesterday – Thailand is underperforming and it could soon affect all aspects of Thailand.
This is the most alarming stuff:
Domestic strains abound, too. Household debt is, officially, an alarming 78% of gross domestic product. Officially, because this figure only reflects money owed to financial institutions. It does not account for a sprawling “gray economy” awash in curb-side lending that often comes with extortionate interest rates. Indonesia’s ratio, by comparison, is about 17%. In South Korea, a byword for household debt, it is 100%, but Korea is a much richer and more developed country.
As of August, roughly a quarter of households had trouble making repayments on car loans, credit-card debt and in other areas. This ranks among the most obvious barriers to Thailand raising GDP growth rates to the 5%-6% needed to reach middle-income status. Domestic consumption drives more than 50% of GDP. The more debt households take on, the greater the drag on growth.
Another problem the junta has not addressed: a demographic clock that is speeding up. Last month, the Bank of Thailand warned its “aging society” could be one of the first developing nations with an over-65 population of 14% or more by 2022.
As long as I have been in Asia Thailand has had and largely acted like Teflon.
It may not last folks.
Richard Lloyd Parry · The Story of Thaksin Shinawatra: Class War in Thailand · LRB 19 June 2014
Old article but I have never read it and it’s good.
Thai politics is unlike anything this modern era has seen.
Sometimes it is not clear the motives or that almost everyone is to blame for the current debacle.
This article explains it all pretty well and is still quite relevant.
Richard Lloyd Parry · The Story of Thaksin Shinawatra: Class War in Thailand · LRB 19 June 2014
Thai Election Gives Businesses Incentive to Invest Abroad – Bloomberg
I wonder if these issues are also now showing up in the startups stats. I see less and less interesting stuff from Thailand and the overall stats for new companies is down. Of course startups play out over a longer period in some sense but the same issues that are forcing Thai corporations overseas have to somehow affect entrepreneurs and their desire to incorporate in Thailand.
Thai Election Gives Businesses Incentive to Invest Abroad – Bloomberg
Asia Tech Review: April 1 2019 | Revue
I really want to know how this OMG stuff turns out.
Apart from that – another good roundup from Jon.
Dreampipe's Blog 