FinTech firms in ASEAN have raised a record total of US$3.5 billion from January to September this year, growing more than 300% when compared to the whole year of 2020, according to the latest FinTech in ASEAN 2021 report co-released by United Overseas Bank (UOB), PwC Singapore and Singapore FinTech Association (SFA).
New trends and tech advances are emerging from the horizon of blockchain technology. On the second day (Nov.13th, Taipei time) of the 2021 U.S. Taiwan High-Tech Forum (UTHF) hosted by the North America Taiwanese Engineering and Science Association (NATEA), Blockchain experts including Edward Chang, adjunct professor at Stanford University, Andrew Tang, chair of the executive committee at Draper University, Clara Tsao, founding officer and director of Filecoin Foundation shared insights in new technologies and latest trends.
Almost six years after its establishment in Europe, Belgian company IOT Factory is paving the way for its future development in Asia, avid for serving the Equipment as a Service (EaaS) market with its strength in IoT applications. The company joined Garage+, an incubation project for startups initiated by the Epoch Foundation, to unlock the door to the Asian IoT market.
Thailand's gaming industry raked in more than US$1 billion in revenue last year amid COVID-19, according to Thailand Business News citing data from NewZoo, with the number of gamers increasing to 32 million in the country.
India's huge population and potential economic growth have attracted investments from foreign IT enterprises, such as Samsung, Netflix, and Oppo, while local large enterprise groups such as Tata and Reliance have been pushing for innovations across industries in India with increasing investments as well.
China's software industry consisting of 40,609 companies generated total revenues of CNY5,971.005 billion (US$921.81 billion) in January-August 2021, growing 20.8% on year, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Tech companies in India are switching courses from mobile payment to financial services as the Indian authority imposes tight regulations over mobile payment services.
Mobile payment services are more commonly used in Asian countries than in other regions in the world. According to Statista's digital market outlook report, China has the highest percentage of mobile payment users in its total population - about 500 million users.
Is there any way out for Huawei, which has been cornered by the US government? It used to be able to ship 200 million handsets a year, and it remains to be seen whether it can make it to 40 million units in 2021. Is Huawei going to give in? Will China let Huawei fight alone? By no means!
Digital multimedia software developer CyberLink saw second-quarter revenues from the B2B business, which is mainly consisted of bundled software such as PowerDVD for new PCs that come with an ODD, slip 11% on year and expects the corresponding revenue proportion to keep decreasing as global PC demand has started decelerating and ODD's penetration in PCs is dropping, according to company chairman and CEO Jau Huang at a July 27 investor conference.
5G subscriptions are growing at a rate of about one million per day. 5G is expected to become the fastest adopted mobile generation in history, compared to 4G LTE. It is estimated that by the end of 2021, 5G subscriptions will reach 580 million, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report 2021. However, the penetration rate of 5G in Asia still varies greatly from country to country and now many countries are aiming to win in this 5G rollout competition.
Banks in Vietnam are pushing to digitalize their services with releases of smartphone apps amid the lingering coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by Vietnamnet.
The Philippines' Globe Telecom created revenue growth of more than 60% of revenue in seven years, with its almost 9% in average annual growth higher than the average of 6.53% for 16 telecom firms that NYU Stern School of Business tracks around the world. Through its 100%-owned subsidiary Kickstart Ventures, Globe Telecom has successfully built a digital ecosystem that offers a variety of value-added services to generate substantial revenue.
The number of 5G communication service users in Thailand is expected to exceed five million by the end of 2021, the Bangkok Post has cited a Ericsson report as indicating.
Zalo remained the most popular instant messaging app in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2021, according to a Vietnamese-language Zing News report citing figures from Adsota.
Apple has previewed new privacy protections in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS 8, which help users better control and manage access to their data.
China's software industry consisting of 39,719 companies generated revenues totaling CNY1,902.955 billion (US$293.65 billion) in first-quarter 2021, growing 26.5% on year, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Wistron has partnered with AppWorks to activate an accelerator program, aiming to recruit startups particularly from the AI, cloud computing and cyber security industries.
Window of opportunity has opened up for Polish startup IS-Wireless, which was nominated for DigitalEurope's Future Unicorn Award 2021, having won several other awards in Europe with its innovative 5G mobile communications technologies. They have joined the Garage+ accelerator of the Epoch Foundation in Taiwan, hoping to find hardware partners from Taiwan to deliver their new model of 5G communications at lower cost and better performance.
International Games System (IGS), a Taiwan-based developer of PC and mobile online games as well as arcade game machines, has posted consolidated revenues of NT$8.426 billion (US$300 million), gross margin of 96%, operating profit of NT$4.223 billion and net EPS of NT$57.68 for 2020, all hitting records.
MWC Shanghai 2021 has kicked off today with the exhibition being presented partly online and partly in physical venues in the wake of the pandemic. The organizers expect some 20,000 patrons to visit the showground in the 3-day event.
A Taiwan-based startup is ready to launch terminal simulation systems and 5G vertical applications to help local companies accelerate related efforts to develop, build, operate and maintain the 5G private networks.
Startups are often carried away by their tech prowess, over-designing their products beyond the actual needs of their customers, according to Singapore-based AImazing founder Jun Ting. In an interview by Digitimes, Ting, whose company helps stores analyze offline data, reveals how the pandemic has taught him a lesson about understanding customers' needs. In China, handset vendors are ready to launch new 5G phones in a bid to make up lost ground from Apple, who has made major gains in the Chinese market in fourth-quarter 2020 thanks to strong sales of its iPhone 12 family. Demand for products and services across all semiconductor segments have tightened capacity supply or sent prices rising. For some Taiwan-based IC testers, they have an alternative to directly raising their service quotes: they have their clients shoulder part of the costs of components needed to process their orders.
AImazing, founded in 2015, was groomed by Taiwan-based accelerator AppWorks. AImazing, which set up its headuqarters in Singapore and R&D base in Taiwan in 2017, was about to take off with its acoustic application when regulation changes in the Southeast Asian city state curbed its mobile payment services.
