Domestic News

Suning: There are no capital considerations for acquiring Wanda Department Store

According to news on February 27, Suning.com announced at the National Renewal Festival media conference that this year’s 315 National Renewal Festival will focus on the launch of new products in categories such as home appliances, 3C, home decoration, kitchen and bathroom, household appliances, department stores, supermarkets, etc. It will also invest 1 billion yuan in trade-in subsidies for home appliances. For users who intend to trade-in old products, they will be subsidized first and then recycled.

It is worth mentioning that at the meeting, regarding the recent high-profile acquisition of Wanda Department Store, Gong Zhenyu, president of Suning Fashion Department Store Group, responded that the acquisition of Wanda Department Store is an important part of Suning's efforts to create a full-scenario and full-category puzzle. There are no capital considerations and it is an arrangement that fully meets the development needs of the entire group.

Ele.me’s word-of-mouth recruitment: looking for 5,000 new employees to create 1 million jobs

According to news on February 27, Wang Lei, a partner of Alibaba Group, president of Alibaba Local Life Services Company and CEO of Ele.me, said that Ele.me Koubei plans to recruit more than 5,000 new employees in 2019.

Not long ago, Alibaba Group CEO Zhang Yong made it clear at an internal management meeting that Alibaba will not lay off employees. On the contrary, it will continue to open recruitment, increase talent training and training plans, and invest more platform resources to help create more job opportunities for the society. Zhang Yong said, "Not only will we not lay off employees this year, we will also vigorously play the role of the Alibaba platform to stimulate consumption and drive more manufacturing and service industry orders. When the economy is bad, the greatest value of the platform economy is to create jobs." Alibaba's latest financial report shows that the total number of employees of Alibaba Group and Ant Financial has exceeded 100,000 for the first time.

Foreign News

Facebook will provide fans with a paid subscription service, with a share of 30%

It was reported on February 27 that Facebook will soon provide a “fan subscription” function similar to Patreon, a fundraising platform for content creators, allowing users to pay monthly to obtain exclusive content produced by KOLs and artists.

According to reports, Facebook will take a 30% share of subscription revenue. In comparison, Patreon’s cut is 5%, YouTube’s is 30% (including fees), and Twitch’s is 50%. Facebook also reserves the right to provide free trials to subscription users, and this part of the service does not provide compensation to content creators. Still, distrust of Facebook may deter content creators. In addition to charging high commissions, Facebook may also take away creators’ content and reuse it. If Facebook wants to win the trust of creators and drive fan engagement, it may need to offer a more competitive product and limit its rights.

FTC’s new working group to oversee competition in U.S. technology markets

According to news on February 27, members of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (Federal Trade Commission) announced today that the commission will establish a special working group to oversee competition in the U.S. technology market.

The working group will include current officials from the bureau’s Competition Bureau to “increase the bureau’s focus on technology-related sectors of the economy, including markets where online platforms compete.” It also includes 17 full-time lawyers who will be responsible for investigating anti-competitive behavior in the technology industry. "Technology plays an increasingly important role in the economy and in our lives," said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. “As I have stated in the past, it is necessary for us to carefully study technology markets to ensure that consumers benefit from free and fair competition. ”

NASA plans to conduct drone flight tests in urban environments in Nevada and Texas

According to news on February 27, NASA plans to conduct a drone flight test in an urban environment to test its drone traffic management (UTM) system.

Because densely populated urban areas will be filled with drones in the future, NASA wants to fly drones in urban environments.Run the test. NASA has successfully connected with the Autonomous Systems Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Lone Star Drone Center of Excellence and Innovation in Corpus Christi, Texas, to collaborate on drone flight testing. Drone flights are scheduled to take place in downtown Reno, Nevada, in March and June. Additional testing events will take place in Corpus Christi, Texas, in July and August.

Financial Investment

Tide App, a physical and mental health application, completed Pre-A round financing of nearly 10 million from Panda Capital

According to news on February 27, Tide App, a physical and mental health application that helps users focus, relax, meditate and sleep, recently announced the completion of nearly 10 million in Pre-A round financing, with the investor being Panda Capital. Previously, Tidal App’s angel round investment came from Dexun Investment.

Tide App was founded in 2016. It is a physical and mental health app based on audio content such as natural sounds and meditation exercises. It integrates natural sounds such as rain, waves and forests into daily life scenes such as concentration, stress reduction, relaxation and sleep, helping people gain a healthy, peaceful and happy life experience in fast-paced urban life.

Providing live streaming tools, Lightstream received US$8 million in Series A financing

According to news on February 27, Chicago-based Lightstream recently announced that it has received US$8 million in Series A financing. This round of financing was led by Drive Capital, with participation from MK Capital, Pritzker Group and Silicon Valley Bank. The company has raised US$9.8 million so far, and the funds will be used to add new features to its cloud product, Studio, one of its two flagship products for consumers.

Lightstream co-founder and CEO Stu Grubbs said the company is developing tools to allow Studio users and creators to better understand their audiences so that content can be monetized. The company said it currently has servers in North America and Europe and plans to expand to Southeast Asia and South America this year. It also intends to provide developers and brands with new tools and increase its headcount.