Overseas:

1. Amazon to close U.S. pop-up stores, focus on opening more book stores

2. Daimler, BMW autonomous alliance seeks to define self-driving rules

3. Fitbit launches lower-cost fitness devices to combat Samsung, Apple

4. Google brings its Duplex AI restaurant booking assistant to 43 states

5. Disney’s streaming service will rival Netflix with 160 million subscribers, JP Morgan says

6. France targets Google, Amazon and Facebook with 3% digital tax

7. Amazon is working with Mexico’s government-backed bank on a mobile payments system

8. Fitbit is partnering with Adidas and Blue Apron for an activity rewards program

9. Omidyar Network spins out its fintech investment arm as Flourish, with up to $300 million

10. Brodmann17 nabs $11M for its automotive computer vision tech that runs on any CPU

11. Wefox Group, the Berlin-based insurance tech startup, raises $125M Series B led by Mubadala

12. Personalized wine? This Milwaukee company just raised $8.5 million to prove it’s the future

13. Medtech startup Milu Labs raises funding from Korea’s Magna Investment, Turret Capital

14. Japanese new retail startup Yo-ren raises US$11 million

 

China:

1. NBA to offer content across all Alibaba platforms in expanded deal

2. Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng finds lessons in ping pong challenge for his upcoming battle with Tesla

3. Shanghai to Build at Least 5,000 5G Base Stations by September

4. Chinese Tesla Chaser Nio Lost USD1.4 Billion Last Year

5. China’s ByteDance Plans Slack Rival Even as Losses Mount

6. Online English platform Hujiang 沪江 denied the news of massive layoff.

7. AI Education company Polestar Ai 北极星 completed Series Pre-A.

 

Cross-border:

1. Uber to expand in Germany in 2019

2. Huawei opens a cybersecurity transparency center in the heart of Europe

 

Emerging Market:

1. A healthcare investment fund aMoon has become one of Israel’s largest with a $660 million close

2. Grab is now valued at $14 billion after landing $1.46 billion from SoftBank’s Vision Fund

 

Cover picture credits from TechCrunch

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