Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 12/3

Overseas:

1. Tesco, Volkswagen to develop UK electric vehicle charging network

2. Facebook adds free TV shows Buffy, Angel, Firefly to redefine Watch

3. Sheryl Sandberg asked to research George Soros’s financial interests in the wake of his high-profile attacks on tech companies

4. AT&T details its streaming service plans as it weighs a sale of its Hulu stake

5. SoftBank becomes first Japan firm to forgo IPO price range, keeps view at Y1,500

6. Instagram’s new feature allows users to share stories with smaller group

7. Asana, a work management platform, nabs $50M growth round at a $1.5B valuation

8. PayPal: Black Friday & Cyber Monday broke records with $1B+ in mobile payment volume

9. Microsoft’s market value overtakes Apple’s to close out week

10. Shuttle business Via could add scooters to its lineup

11. Lawmakers say Amazon’s facial recognition software may be racially biased and harm free expression

12. Amazon tests cashierless tech for stores with bigger spaces

13. Amazon bet on Arm could weaken Intel’s hold on data centers, which make up one-third of its business

14. Uber said to be negotiating a multibillion-dollar takeover of scooter-sharing startup Bird or Lime

15. Fintech company Calastone to shift fund network to blockchain

16. Floom, the online marketplace and SaaS for florists, receives $2.5M seed

17, Brazilian long term rentals service QuintoAndar raises $64M Series C

China:

1. Tencent cancels ‘drift bottle’ WeChat feature citing ‘pornography’ and ‘prostitutes’ in clean-up action

2. Tencent’s WeChat to deploy AI tools in education in push into industrial internet

3. ByteDance fined by Chinese regulator over illegal medical advertisements

4. Toutiao is continuing to develop their e-commerce segment

5. Founders exited Mobike and Wang Xing (Founder of Meituan) is the current biggest stake share holder of Mobike.

Cross-border:

1. China is open to approving renewed Qualcomm-NXP deal, White House says, potentially breathing new life into the scuttled $44B deal

2. Hong Kong’s Steadview Capital joins Indian startup UrbanClap’s US$50M funding

Emerging Market:

1. Singapore tests on-demand buses to ease congestion, as Asian cities watch

2. Vietnam inks agreement with Ericsson to open IoT Innovation Hub

3. Go-Jek arm in talks to invest US$30M Indian e-sports gaming startup Mobile Premier League

4. Malaysia’s alternative education provider Me.reka raises US$380K in crowdfunding via pitchIN

5. Grab is in discussion to invest US$100M in India’s budget hotels aggregator OYO

Cover picture credits from e27.