Welcome to the latest instalment of Last Week in Asia, our roundup of the key stories and developments from across Asia’s growing technology and Internet spaces.
Disclaimer from the start, you’ll find no mention of the Apple-Samsung US case here. Visit our final verdict post for more, while details of the Korean court ruling that found both companies guilty of infringing patents is here.
China
Top story: Deal done: A Chinese video giant is born as Youku-Tudou $1 billion merger is completed
Chinese video services Youku and Tudou officially closed their $1 billion merger last week. Both companies’ shareholders approved the deal before sending out an official announcement on Thursday, which noted that Tudou would delist from the Nasdaq exchange on Friday.
With completion of the deal, Tudou is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Youku, which has changed its name to Youku Tudou Inc.
Also of note:
- 5 days after launch, Qihoo 360′s search engine leapfrogs Google to place second in China
- iPhone-less China Mobile buys 15% of Siri-like tech maker iFlytek for $215m
- IDC: Smartphone shipments overtake feature phones in China, as Apple’s share halves
India
Top story: Amazon’s Kindle hits stores in India as digital bookstore launches with over 1 million titles
There were plenty of negative stories out of India last week but, to focus on the positives, Amazon finally launched its Kindle e-reader and introduced its digital book store in the country.
The Kindle is now available via retailer Croma, priced at 6,999INR (roughly $125), while the Kindle Store is live and boasts more than 1 million titles, including work from international and domestic authors.
Amazon also opened its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) initiative in the country, allowing Indian writers and publishers to bring their content to the Kindle platform to target local readers and those in international locations.
Also of note:
- Facebook ranks top as India’s Internet users spend 1 in every 4 minutes online on social networks
- Dhingana, ‘India’s Spotify’, introduces ads, snags key Facebook exec as an advisor
- Indian ISP blocks WordPress.com and 25 million hosted blogs
Japan and South Korea
Top story: Sony Mobile to cut 1000 jobs globally, move headquarters to Japan in restructuring move
Following the end of Sony’s association with Ericsson, Sony Mobile moved to lay off 1,000 jobs globally and move its headquarters from Lund, Sweden, to Tokyo, Japan.
The change of office will occur in October and Sony Mobile said that it will lay-off 15 percent of its personnel throughout its fiscal years of 2012 and 2013, effectively completing layoffs by the end of March 2014, in an attempt to “increase operational efficiency, reduce costs and drive profitable growth.
In order to do so, the company has filed for redundancy with Swedish authorities, alerting them to the fact that 650 employees will be affected by its strategic changes, with the remaining cuts being made to consultants it employs in the Swedish city.
Also of note:
- Impressive: Nearly two-thirds of South Koreans now own a smartphone
- Android leads in Japan with 64% smartphone share as market climbs 43% in the first half of 2012
- South Korea scraps law requiring use of real names online
Southeast Asia
Top story: Bubble Motion lands $5m to bring its ‘Twitter for voice’ service to the US, via Hollywood
Bubble Motion, the company behind voice blogging service Bubbly, raised $5 million from Japanese VC firm Jafco to help continues its global expansion and take a shot at the mainstream US market.
Bubble Motion has now raised $50 million, which CEO Tom Clayton told TNW will likely be the end of its funding, and the service — which has 19 million users — is aiming to crack the US by bringing Hollywood celebrities on board.
A larger number of celebrities in India, and other Asian markets, already use the service, which monetises by granting premium users access to the idols’ ‘bubbles’.
Also of note:
- Pic Collage, from 500 Startups alumnus Cardinal Blue, passes 10m iOS downloads
- Inbox backerupper Dropmyemail adds Dropbox-style attachment management
And finally: The low-down on the future of E Ink
The future of E Ink: An enlightening chat with CMO Sriram Peruvemba (video)
TNW’s Europea editor isn’t commonly included in our Asia round-up but this week is an exception. Our ever-travelling Robin Wauters spent last week in Sweden at the Media Evolution conference where he spoke with E Ink executive Sriram Peruvemba about where the industry is headed.
Background: E Ink began as a spin-off from MIT’s Media Lab before it was acquired by Taiwanese display maker Prime View International in 2009. After the transaction was completed, Prime View actually changed its name to E Ink Holdings.
That’s all for this week until next Sunday – you can keep up with all of our Last Week in Asia round-ups here or follow @TheNextWebAsia on Twitter for news as it happens.
Images via: (1) Arnoudm (2) Vipworld (3) Seenful (4) Jamiemc (5) Stellajo1976