HAINAN STRIVING FOR CREATING A NEVER-ENDING "CONSUMER EXPO"

HAIKOU, China, May 11, 2021 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/--

The first China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) is to close on Monday. With the mission to promote new Haikou to the world, Hainan is striving for creating a never-ending "Consumer Expo".   The four-day Expo was co-organized by the Ministry of Commerce and the Hainan Provincial government, covering a total exhibition area of 80,000 square meters, attracting nearly 1,500 domestic and foreign exhibitors from about 70 countries and regions.   Haikou, the venue of the Expo, planned and organized the Expo which featured the gathering of world's top-notch products with its utmost care and provided a full range of services, and also showed the world the new image of the provincial capital city of Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP).   In recent years, Haikou has been constantly optimizing the business environment, making great efforts to improve infrastructure and the well-being of the local people. It has been awarded the titles such as China's charming city, China's happiest city, one of China's top ten cities of beauty.   In Haikou, people can experience marine sports at the National Sailing Base Public Pier and Holiday Beach, or play golf at Mission Hills Resort; explore the strange crystal lava at the World Geological Crater Park, or experience Chinese history and culture at Haikou Qilou Old Street and Wugong Temple Scenic Area.   Haikou is also a "gathering place for delicacies". The night market is full of lights and aromas, and local specialties such as Hainan noodles, rice with spicy soup, old salt lemonade and coconut chicken have long-established reputation among tourists.   It is the desire of Chinese consumers to "travel around Haikou and Shop around the world". There are now four duty-free stores in Haikou, with a wide range of products which are good in quality and cheap in prices, and can be picked up quickly and conveniently at the airport, railway station and docks after shopping.   With the acceleration of the construction of Hainan FTP, Hainan is planning to build a globally influential consumer boutique center in Haikou to enhance the effect of the Consumer Expo, give full play to the policy advantages of the FTP as well as its unique geographical and business advantages to realize its goal "buy globally and sell globally". http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=40024

ZYNGA TO BUY MOBILE MONETISATION PLATFORM, CHARTBOOST

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Bernama) -- Zynga Inc, a global leader in interactive entertainment, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Chartboost, a leading mobile programmatic advertising and monetisation platform. 

Based on a statement, Zynga will acquire 100 per cent of Chartboost for approximately US$250 million in cash. (US$1 = RM4.117)

The final upfront transaction consideration will also include customary closing adjustments and is expected to close in the third quarter this year.

Zynga and Chartboost possess all the elements of a complete, next generation platform, offering high-quality content, direct player relationships, massive reach and full-stack advertising technology that can be applied across Zynga’s game portfolio and Chartboost’s advertising partners.

Chartboost is a unified advertising platform that includes a Demand Side Platform as well as Supply Side Platform and mediation capabilities delivered through an SDK solution.

By leveraging advanced machine learning and data science capabilities, Chartboost brings together premium inventory, global scale and audience-based targeting to optimise programmatic advertising and yields.

“By combining Zynga’s high-quality games portfolio and first-party data with Chartboost’s proven advertising and monetisation platform, we will create a new level of audience scale and meaningfully enhance our competitive advantage in the mobile ecosystem,” said Zynga Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Frank Gibeau.

“We are thrilled to join with Zynga to further build and expand our full stack advertising platform that will serve Zynga and the entire mobile ecosystem,” said Chartboost CEO, Rich Izzo.

UBS Investment Bank acted as the exclusive financial adviser and Orrick served as legal adviser to Zynga.

-- BERNAMA

QREDO SECURES US$11 MILLION FOR DECENTRALISED DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Bernama) -- Qredo, a decentralised digital asset management infrastructure and product suite, has announced a US$11 million seed round led by a diverse group of investors. (US$1 = RM4.117)

The investors include G1 , Gumi Cryptos, Maven 11, Spartan Group, 1kx and Kenetic.

Qredo network will enable institutional clients to transfer, swap and settle on a decentralised network - access liquidity pools, securely participate in new decentralized finance (DeFi) innovations.

“The next generation of DeFi players will be institutions that actively look for ways to enter the crypto market in a secure and compliant manner without sacrificing their ability to respond to economic opportunities,” said Qredo Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Foy.

Qredo uses a novel blockchain protocol that enables users to access cryptocurrencies on Layer 1 blockchains, such as Bitcoin, and Ethereum over a Layer 2 network.

According to a statement, this innovation allows users to securely participate in new DeFi innovations such as accessing ‘cross-chain’ liquidity pools, trading collateralised derivatives, and executing cross-chain atomic swaps.

This funding will fuel the next stage of Qredo’s growth, which includes doubling its R&D team and bringing in additional world-class talent at the C-suite level, and Qredo’s anticipated version 2 launch. 

With version 2, Qredo will move closer to achieving its goal of transitioning to a decentralized autonomous organization.

Validators on version 2 are able to earn QRDO governance tokens as incentives, through a revenue-sharing mechanism within the network.

-- BERNAMA

INVESTORBRANDNETWORK HIGHLIGHTS 2021 GROWTH MILESTONES

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Bernama) -- InvestorBrandNetwork (IBN), an innovative corporate communications agency and diversified content distributor, has announced significant growth milestones early this year.

The milestones involved expansion of Active CORE Client Partners to include over 85 public and private companies as well as media partnerships with 93 events, bolstered by re-engagements and supported by IBN’s portfolio of brands targeting specific market sectors.

According to a statement, IBN also achieved over 685 corporate profiles publication for companies presenting at partner events.

In addition, syndication of IBN’s 80,000th editorial article, represents more than a decade of original content that reaches an expanding audience of prospective investors.

The company also introduced IBN Spotlights, offering up-to-the-minute coverage of the market’s most in-demand companies.

IBN has also expanded its Podcast Solutions by collaborating with well-known hosts and producers that have sizeable existing audiences, further increasing recognition for IBN clients.

“IBN is already reaching incredible growth metrics early in 2021, and our team will actively build on this momentum in the months to come,” said IBN’s Director of Communications, Jonathan Keim.

“We are uniquely structured to help clients and event organisers more effectively communicate with the investment community using our proprietary digital distribution network.”

-- BERNAMA

CSOP HANG SENG INDEX ETF LISTED ON HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Bernama) -- CSOP Asset Management Limited (CSOP) has announced the listing of CSOP Hang Seng Index ETF (stock ticker: 3037.HK) on Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 

According to a statement, 3037.HK will enable global investors to grasp investment opportunities brought by the largest and most liquid stocks listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

With listing price at around HKD28.40 per unit, trading lot of 100 units, and management fee as low as at 0.1 per cent per annum (same as total expense ratio), 3037.HK will start to trade today. (HKD100 = RM53.049)

Upon inception, 3037.HK has received about HKD162 million initial investment.

Launched on Nov 24, 1969, Hang Seng Index (HSI) was one of the earliest stock market indexes and the most representative index in Hong Kong.

As the most widely quoted indicator of the performance of Hong Kong stock market, HSI is also the benchmark index of Hong Kong equity market. 

As a leading ETF manager in Hong Kong, CSOP has already been dedicated to providing ETFs/ETPs to global investors for over eight years.

As of April 1, five out of 10 top traded ETPs (ranked by three-month average daily turnover) are issued by CSOP. 

With half of the top traded ETFs/ETPs in Hong Kong from CSOP, CSOP has already established its brand as a reliable ETF issuer in Hong Kong and even Asia.

-- BERNAMA

BLOCKCHAIN PIONEER SPEAKS ON PRIVATE USER BLOCKCHAIN POTENTIAL

KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 (Bernama) -- Hamburg-based GSB Blockchain Power Haus has developed G999 Blockchain technology, a spam-hacker-free email service, a voice & chat system in compliance with environmental regulations.

This innovation is needed to manage personal data in a completely secure and risk-free space, away from the mainstream web network through a de-centralised data centre as well as to protect privacy.

Against this background, Josip Heit, a proven business manager and blockchain pioneer as well as Chairman of the Board of the GSB Gold Standard Corporate, was interviewed on the topic of blockchain by Deutsche Tageszeitung - Ressort Technik.

Based on the preview of the interview, Heit was asked whether blockchain or G999 Blockchain technology was only something for business sectors or if private users could also benefit from blockchain.

“Well, at the moment, according to a Deloitte study I have, mostly large companies are taking a leading role in the implementation of blockchain technologies.

“I am of the opinion that soon medium-sized companies will also be able to participate in the success of the technology and here, in particular, the private user will benefit from the blockchain,” Heit replied.

Deloitte is an international company in the business sector and provides services in the areas of auditing/editor's note, according to a statement.

More details at https://www.gsb.gold.

-- BERNAMA

Wasabi raises US$112 million Series C financing

KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 -- Wasabi, the hot cloud storage company, has announced US$112 million in Series C funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company with participation from existing investors. (US$1 = RM4.098)

According to a statement, the round follows Wasabi’s US$27.5 million in debt financing announced in January. The C round brings Wasabi’s total equity financing to S$219 million.

The valuation of the C round was roughly triple the valuation of the company’s most recent equity round, which closed almost exactly a year ago.

Wasabi’s revenue and storage under management has also tripled in the last year with deployed storage recently passing one exabyte.

Proceeds from this funding will be used to expand the company’s network of resellers, technology alliance partners, and distributors, open data centres in many new international markets, and to significantly grow its internal team across all fronts.

The company will also use the proceeds to make further investments in building its brand internationally and providing additional marketing support for its channel partners.

Wasabi’s rapidly expanding customer base stores every imaginable type of data ranging from backups, DR and archiving to surveillance, medical imaging, big science, education, genomics, AI/ML data lakes, television, movies and government data.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as lead placement agent and Lincoln International served as a co-placement agent to Wasabi in connection with this funding. Foley & Lardner served as counsel to the company.

-- BERNAMA