Tuesday, July 2, 2019
ETtech Top 5: Rise of UPI merchant payments, Flipkart FDI compliance & more
TikTok is being investigated in the U.K. for how it handles children’s data and safety
TikTok is being investigated in the U.K. for how it handles the safety and personal data of underage users. According to the Guardian, information commissioner Elizabeth Denham told a parliamentary committee that the probe started in February, after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission levied a $5.7 million fine against TikTok for breaking children’s privacy law.
Denham told the Guardian that the commission is examining how TikTok collects private data and concerns about the open messaging system, which may allow adult users to contact children. “We are looking at the transparency tools for children. We’re looking at the messaging system, which is completely open, we’re looking at the kind of videos that are collected and shared by children online. We do have an active investigation into TikTok right now, so watch this space,” she said.
The investigation will also examine if the popular app, owned by ByteDance, violates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires companies to put special protections in place for underage users and provide them with different services than adults.
The FTC’s investigation, which began when TikTok was still known as Musical.ly, ruled that the app broke the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by failing to seek parental consent before collecting names, email addresses and other personal information from users under 13. The ruling resulted in an age gate being added to an app that prevents users under 13 from filming and posting videos on it.
ByteDance, the Chinese media startup now valued at $75 billion, told the Guardian in a statement that “We cooperate with organizations such as the ICO to provide relevant information about our product to support their work. Ensuring data protection principles are upheld as a top priority for TikTok.”
200+ companies, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, have called on SCOTUS to allow existing sex discrimination laws to cover LGBTQ workers (Ina Fried/Axios)
200+ companies, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, have called on SCOTUS to allow existing sex discrimination laws to cover LGBTQ workers — More than 200 large businesses, including most of the big technology companies, are calling on the Supreme Court to find …
Kyash, a would-be challenger bank in Japan, raises $14M
The new era of tech-enabled banks is coming, even in regulation-heavy Japan. Kyash, a fintech company with visions on becoming Japan’s first challenger bank, said today it has raised $14 million to continue its expansion.
To be clear, Kyash isn’t a bank. Yet. But it is currently applying for a host of licenses in Japan that could allow it to offer banking-style features including checking accounts, ATM withdrawals and money remittance. Right now, it is a payment app that offers a connected Visa card in the style of Monzo, N26, Revolut (which has a Japan license) and others of that ilk.
The startup was founded in 2015 in Shinichi Takatori, a former banker and management consultant who saw the potential to merge tech and finance.
“I really noticed that information and communication has become ubiquitous but money itself hasn’t changed for a long time,” Takatori told TechCrunch in an interview.
The company took some time — two years — before it released a consumer product, but it quickly tied up with Visa to offer a prepaid debit card that connects to the Kyash app. That provides benefits like instant payment notifications, clear balance and lower fees for overseas spending, while costs are born by merchants rather than users. They might seem elementary today, but they are still not standard among Japan’s traditional banks, Takatori explained.
The company declined to share its user numbers, but Takatori said that this new round of funding — Kyash’s Series B — is a validation of the progress it has made.
The $14 million investment is co-led by Goodwater Capital, a U.S. investor that has backed fintech startups like Monzo, Stash and Toss in Korea, and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, the investment arm of Japan’s largest bank.
Mitsubishi’s involvement means that Kyash counts Japan’s three largest banks as investors, with SMBC, Mizuho having previous put money into the company. Others that took part in this Series B include Toppan Printing, JAFCO and Shinsei Corporate Investment Limited.
So many banks on the cap table might seem like a strange thing for a disruptor — let alone the banks, which tend to behave territorially — but Takatori believes that there’s the potential for cooperation, not to mention that it will help the startup with its licensing efforts. Already, he revealed, Mitsubishi plans to integrate its card with the Kyash app to provide its customers with the best of both worlds.
“We’re not here to win over existing banks, but instead inform [them of] how money should work in next decade,” explained Takatori. “So why not collaborate in some way.”
Kyash has a tie-up with Visa that allows it to offer its customers a connected debit card and also provide issuing services to other fintech startups
There’s also the fact that, even with a license, Kyash and others are unlikely to be able to offer full banking services. That means they will have to serve as complementary offerings to the industry, which would likely mean that cooperation is good — essential — for both sides.
But, beyond the consumer play, a notable piece of Kyash’s business that has investors excited is its B2B payment business.
The company developed its own payment processing system to reduce costs, which is one reason why it took time to launch. Thanks to a tie-up with Visa, it offers both issuing and processing of prepaid Visa cards to fintech companies in Japan that want to go down the payment route.
That’s increasingly popular given the government push to make the country a “cashless society” ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games next year. It could also appeal to crypto companies in Japan, which offers the world’s most robust licensing, who want to follow the example of the Coinbase card in Europe or startups like Crypto.com and TenX which offer similar prepaid cards.
Takatori said Kyash is “in discussions” with crypto companies, but that it has not made a decision on how to proceed yet. The company is also eying potential overseas expansions, although that is some way down the line.
“We have open eyes for globalization, it’s just a matter of when,” he told TechCrunch. “We still have a far way to go [in Japan, but] maybe after the Olympics.”
More pressingly, he sees the company looking to raise a “pretty quick” Series C round to give it acceleration into next year. That’s likely to go to more expansion and user acquisition since the licenses the startup has applied for are unlikely to be granted this year.
Intel and Baidu partner on Nirvana Neural Network AI training processor
At Baidu’s Create conference for AI developers in Beijing today, the company and Intel announced a new partnership to work together on Intel’s new Nervana Neural Network Processor for training. As its name very clearly states, this forthcoming chip (NNP-T for short) is a processor built specifically for the task of training neural networks for the purposes of performing deep learning at scale.
Baidu and Intel’s collaboration on the NNP-T involves working together on both the hardware and software side of this custom accelerator to ensure that its optimized for use with Baidu’s PaddlePaddle deep learning framework, which will complement existing work that Intel has already done to ensure that PaddlePaddle is set up to perform best on its existing Intel Xeon Scalable processors. The NNP-T optimization will specifically focus on applications of PaddlePaddle that focus on distributed training of neural networks, to complete other types of AI applications.
Intel’s Nervana Neural Network Processor lineup, named after ‘Nervana,’ the company it acquired in 2016, is developed by the Intel AI group led by former Nervana CEO Naveen Rao. The NNP-T is tailor-made for training AI (ingesting data sets and learning how to do the job its supposed to do), while the NNP-I (announced at CES this year) is designed specifically for inference (taking the results of the learning process and putting into actions, or actually doing the job it’s supposed to do).
The NNP made its debut in 2017, and the first-generation chip is currently being used as a software development prototype and demo hardware for partners, while the new so-called ‘Spring Crest’ generation are targeting production availability this year.
What's worrying Indians about smart tech
US chipmakers lobbied hard to ease Huawei trading curbs
Telcos may have to spend extra Rs 3000 crore in capex for 5G play: Analysts
Limit import duty on phones above Rs 20,000 to Rs 4000: Handset makers
Flipkart in full compliance with FDI Norms, ready for audit: CEO
How Sony and Dolby are Taking the Home Sound Experience to the Next Level
Redmi Note 7 Pro Set to Go on Sale in India Today via Flipkart, Mi.com
Vivo Z1 Pro to Launch in India Today, Here's How to Watch Live Stream
Myanmar's government forces an internet blackout on parts of the country "for the benefit of the people", raising fears that atrocities will now go unreported (Hannah Beech/New York Times)
Myanmar's government forces an internet blackout on parts of the country “for the benefit of the people”, raising fears that atrocities will now go unreported — RATHEDAUNG, Myanmar — The security forces, with their geriatric rifles, formed a wary patrol, scanning the forested hills …
Grubhub denies allegations that it created websites for restaurant partners without their permission, says the service was included in their contracts (James B. Cutchin/Los Angeles Times)
Grubhub denies allegations that it created websites for restaurant partners without their permission, says the service was included in their contracts — It looked like the perfect David and Goliath story. A tech giant was secretly buying up large swaths of the internet …
Russia's finance minister says Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in international payments to counter Western sanctions (Gleb Bryanski/Reuters)
Gleb Bryanski / Reuters : Russia's finance minister says Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in i...
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Jake Offenhartz / Gothamist : Since October, the NYPD has deployed a quadruped robot called Spot to a handful of crime scenes and hostage...
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