State of North East Asia & Taiwan with Catherine Shu

Catherine Shu (@catherineshu) from TechCrunch shares with us her perspectives on the state of Northeast Asia (China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan & Hong Kong) from interesting companies to startups. In the discussion, we analysed the BAT (Baidu-Alibaba-Tencent) companies in China and the emerging Xiaomi gearing to step out globally out of China. We also deep dived into the startup and venture capital ecosystem in Taiwan and how the country is moving upstream to be a force in hardware startups. Lastly, we take a quick run through on the remaining countries in North East Asia.

Here are the interesting links for the discussion:

The story of Catherine Shu, from Wall Street Journal Online, Barrons online, Taipei Times to TechCrunch.
Reflections on the coverage of the North East Asia technology scene, with how ideas from Asia have penetrated into the west: phablets (pioneered by Samsung, followed by Apple, Xiaomi & other OEMs), messaging apps as lifestyle platforms (WeChat, stickers), and selfie sticks.
China: (a) the rise of Xiaomi with US$1B funding, and discussing Ben Thompson’s “Xiaomi’s Ambition“, (b) the Baidu-Alibaba-Tencent (BAT) companies: (i) who’s in the lead, and (ii) the problem of alliances between Chinese and Western companies (Groupon and Tencent) and can Baidu’s investment in Uber work? (iii) Tencent and their partnerships in media (Re/Code), (c) new startups on the rise: EHANG
Taiwan: (a) Notable startups: iFIT, LIVEHouse.in, Gogoro – The Tesla for Motorbikes, Flux, Jumpy (with a partnership with FoxConn), Pinkoi, Appier, PicCollage (b) Notable Angels, VCs and Accelerators: Lee Kai-Fu (CEO at Innovation Works), AppWorks, TMI – Taiwan Mobile Innovation
South Korea: Samsung’s roadmap for Tizen and the rise of Korean startups: Coupang.
Japan: Everything about LINE – LINE Pay.
Hong Kong: Nest Venture Capital and AIA Accelerator, GogoVan.

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw) and is sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn).