Dear Reader, welcome to February’s Tech Round-Up, a summary of the companies, people and trends affecting us all. This edition is packed with thought-provoking articles.

Happy reading from our team to yours.

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Fresh Thinking from North Ridge Partners:

If history repeats itself, the Coronavirus will have a short, sharp effect on airline and online travel stocks. Peter Hynd crunches the numbers.

Here’s a worthwhile perspective on the Coronavirus. Roger Sharp reflects on how quickly Asia has recovered from previous scares and predicts this one should be coming to a close by mid-year.

Asia News:

Huawei is now #2 in mobile phone sales: So much for the USA’s attempts to thwart the growth of Huawei - it just outsold Apple.

Softbank’s Vision Fund looks like a train wreck from the outside: Can Masayoshi Son turn its fortunes around? He has escaped from bad scrapes before.

Can Netflix make money in Asia? Subscriber growth is high, but purchasing power is low.

GrabCar Elektrik launches in Indonesia: The company plans to deploy 500 electric cars by this year.

ByteDance could just become the next global gaming giant: The world’s most valuable startup (owner of TikTok) has grown to be the top publisher of hyper-casual games in China.

Meet India’s top 20 Fintech companies: India is a hotbed for FinTech innovation. Tech in Asia ranks Indian FinTechs by funds raised.

Is the anti-fake news legislation in Southeast Asia just censorship in disguise? Some commentators believe that governments across the region have been quick to label any anti-government news stories as “fake news".

From the Scary Department:

WhatsApp is dangerous according to Pavel Durov, the founder of encrypted app Telegram.

Neon’s “artificial human” provides a scary glimpse of the future: We’re accustomed to asking Siri and Alexa to do small tasks for us. But if a Samsung-backed startup has its way, “artificial humans” will soon become your advisors and possibly your closest friends.

Your doorbell is spying on you! Ring isn’t just a product that allows users to monitor their neighbourhood. This Amazon product also snoops on its customers.

In other Tech News:

Laura Ashton visits CES and sees the world created nearly 20 years ago in Tom Cruise’s movie Minority Report. Autonomous vehicles, Smart Cities, touchless hand gestures - it’s all there, in a great read.

The Bank Credit Analysts’s top ten US investment themes for the next decade are heavily influenced by tech themes including new regulation on the FAANG stocks, SaaS, AI, Autonomous Vehicles and Augmented Reality.

Alphabet reaches $1 trillion in market value: The search-engine giant joins Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. Staggering numbers.

Emerging Technologies shaping the future of Logistics: The future of logistics is paved with innovation and technology. Read about the emerging trends driving change.

How Microsoft is preparing to connect 50 billion connected devices: Satya Nadella is looking beyond today’s operating systems to build Azure into “the world’s computer”.

Demand soars for digital banking in the Eurozone: Neobank Revolut forecasts its first full year profit in 2022, with revenues soaring more than tenfold to US$3.4bn.

The US Attorney General is doing his best to banish encryption: The pros and cons of encrypted messaging, seen in a political context.

Mouth tech has arrived: Your mouth may just be the next Tech battleground.

Augmented reality video conferencing will get there sooner or later: It’s taking a long time, but an external force such as pandemics or flight shaming might create a mainstream need for it. Have a look at what the Magic Leap One can do.

Technology and the WuFlu:

How digital health technology can help manage the Coronavirus outbreak: New technologies that were non-existent or poorly developed when SARS struck are now more affordable and widespread.

Coronavirus shakes the world’s tech supply chain - will there be a move to localisation? The global tech supply chain is highly streamlined, with reduced inventory and global interdependencies. The Coronavirus is causing end-to-end disruption and may just force a supply chain rethink.

Misinformation about the Coronavirus is threatening to overwhelm tech platforms: The hoaxes are spreading quickly, and the tech platforms need to be ready.

Video of the week: China builds a 1,000 patient hospital for victims in just ten days.

Stuff we’ve been working on:

Do you need to optimize your business ahead of its next capital raising or exit? In January, North Ridge Partners launched its Transaction-Ready Diagnostic and Deal Accelerator.

Demand is brisk. Click here to get in queue!

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