The new buzzword on many people’s lips as we head into the Christmas period is the Internet of Things or IoT. Experts are predicting that the influence exerted by IoT will fundamentally transform most aspects of our lives. So just what is this all about? The IoT is merely a network of inter-connected devices and machines that can collect and share data with each another via the internet. This is not small news, for it is estimated that from the start of 2015 up to 2020, in excess £4.5 trillion (1) will have been invested in IoT solutions. Further estimates…

Hotel Jen marks a new milestone as the first international hotel brand to use autonomous Relay robots in Asia. Teams at Hotel Jen Orchardgateway and Tanglin Singapore welcome colleagues, Jeno and Jena at their respective properties. The duo will deliver amenities and local favorites from the in-room dining menu to guests, hen an order for them is placed. “Hotel Jen is proud to be the first brand in the Shangri-La group to introduce this technology. The new “colleagues” will be great team players in getting important things done well and delivered in Jen’s distinctive style. Known to curate playful experiences, Hotel Jen, through the…

In last year’s “e-Conomy 2025 Southeast Asia” report, Google and Temasek examined the incredible growth in Southeast Asia’s internet economy. Fast forward 18 months later, it turns out that Southeast Asia’s internet economy growth has exceeded expectations. The region’s internet economy will reach $50 billion in 2017, outpacing earlier growth expectations by 35 percent. In the “e-Conomy Southeast Asia Spotlight 2017” report, we’ve found that the region is well on track to realizing a $200 billion internet economy by 2025. 1.Unprecedented growth for Southeast Asia’s $50B internet economy There will be 330M monthly active internet users by year-end 2017, adding…

IOT Books Must Read: The Internet of Things (IoT), which refers to the networking of physical objects through the use of embedded sensors, actuators, and other devices that can collect or transmit information about the objects, is growing at a very fast pace. By 2019, the global IoT market is projected to be valued at more than 1.7 trillion US dollars, with the number of connected devices worldwide forecast to reach 20.35 billion in the same year. To better understand these emerging technologies and their implications, here are ten must-read books focusing on the IoT. Top 10 IOT Books The…

Cryptocurrencies have surged in value and popularity this year. This month, the combined market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies reached all-time high levels of more than US$445 billion this month. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, has recently soared above US$16,000. The cryptocurrency now has a market capitalization of over US$281 billion and represents more than 60% of the overall cryptocurrency market. Given the growing importance of the cryptocurrency market, it has become primordial for professionals in the finance and fintech spaces to keep up with the rising sector. The following eight books are amongst the top books recently released covering blockchain technology,…

IOT Must Read Books featured by IOT News Asia. The Internet of Things (IoT), which refers to the networking of physical objects through the use of embedded sensors, actuators, and other devices that can collect or transmit information about the objects, is growing at a very fast pace. By 2019, the global IoT market is projected to be valued at more than 1.7 trillion US dollars, with the number of connected devices worldwide forecast to reach 20.35 billion in the same year. To better understand these emerging technologies and their implications, here are ten must-read books focusing on the IoT.…

Fintech Vietnam Meetup is back with the November 2017 newsletter with all you need to know about Fintech in Vietnam. Interesting news this month, Uber-Momo Deal. new Digital Banks coming to Vietnam, Mobile payment is heating up and State Bank of Vietnam is supporting the first Fintech Challenge Vietnam. In case you want to get your online Fintech Certificate in 8 hours check this out: CFTE is releasing the second session of their Fintech Foundation Course – Around Fintech in 8 hours. The course has been designed for professionals interested in understanding how Fintech is transforming finance. Registrations for the second session close on the 10th December.…

Fintechnews.PH picks every Friday for you the top 5 Fintech Philippines News of the week: Here we go: Globe Exec Expects Fintech Unit to Rack Up Revenues in 10 Years GLOBE Telecom Inc. President Ernest L. Cu admitted it may take a decade before the company’s financial-technology (fintech) subsidiary contributes a significant amount of revenues to the telco group, as it first needs to build critical mass in both user base and usage. (Read more) UnionBank Launches 1st Fully Digital Bank Branch, The ARK UnionBank has launched The ARK, the first fully digital bank branch in the Philippines.…

International fleet management application provider, DRVR has selected Tata Communications as its global IoT connectivity partner to help achieve its objective of making Asia’s vehicle fleets the smartest and most cost-efficient in the world. Leveraging Tata Communications’ mobility solution– MOVE™, DRVR can convert information collected from vehicles across Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines and Indonesia into actionable insights to help drive efficiencies and improve cost savings through smarter fleet management. The advent of connected vehicles has led to an exponential increase in consumption and creation of human to machine interface applications and solutions. A Forrester report on the Internet of Things states that fleet management and its…

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) a leading provider of cyber-security solutions globally, today announced that its security researchers have discovered HomeHack – a vulnerability that exposed millions of users of LG SmartThinQ® smart home devices to the risk of unauthorized remote control of their SmartThinkQ home appliances. The vulnerabilities in the LG SmartThinkQ mobile app and cloud application enabled the Check Point research team to remotely login to SmartThinQ cloud application, take over the user’s legitimate LG account, and gain control of the vacuum cleaner and its integral video camera. Once in control of a specific user’s LG…

Voice-powered artificial intelligence (AI) for the home has become a big business for Amazon and its technology rivals Google, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft, which have all put hordes of researchers and business specialists to work, trying to build easy-to-use devices that we can talk with. Alexa is the name of Amazon’s artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to engage with human speech and first used in the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot devices. The intelligent personal assistant is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, and other real-time information,…

Voice-powered artificial intelligence (AI) for the home has become a big business for Amazon and its technology rivals Google, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft, which have all put hordes of researchers and business specialists to work, trying to build easy-to-use devices that we can talk with. Alexa is the name of Amazon’s artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to engage with human speech and first used in the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot devices. The intelligent personal assistant is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, and other…

Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501), today released its key business and technology trends for Asia Pacific in 2018. These trends are jointly predicted by Hubert Yoshida, chief technology officer, and Russell Skingsley, chief technology officer Asia Pacific. The adoption of Internet of Things (commonly referred to as IoT) platforms will dominate enterprise IT strategies in 2018, alongside a number of other areas. Yoshida and Skingsley have identified ten key trends for the Asia Pacific technology market in 2018. #1: IT will adopt IoT platforms to facilitate the application of IoT solutions image via Pixabay IoT solutions…

The two biggest productivity drains for Singapore’s small business owners are chasing overdue invoices and being paid late, according to new research from Xero, the global leader in online accounting software. Small businesses spend an average 25 days each year, or 5 workweeks, chasing overdue invoices — more time than they spend on any other single task. Xero’s research identifies key obstacles to growth and highlights the importance of finding solutions for the island’s small businesses, which the government calls “the heart of Singapore’s economy.” Late payments affect nearly every small business in Singapore, with nine out of 10 saying they…

The financial services industry in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region has seen an increase in fintech adoption fueled by the rapid adoption of technology, supportive regulatory regimes and the large population of financially underserved individuals and businesses, according to a report. The State of Fintech in ASEAN report, produced by the United Overseas Bank (UOB) in collaboration with EY provides an overview of the fintech industry in ASEAN and explores the opportunities and challenges that remain in the region. Fintech, a global phenomenon The global fintech industry attracted more than US$24 billion in investment in 2016…

Fintechnews.PH picks every Friday for you the top 5 Fintech Philippines News of the week: Here we go: Fintech for Financial Inclusion The Philippines and the rest of Asean comprise one of the world’s fastest-growing regions but many Filipinos still struggle to reap the benefits. (Read more) Fintech Rise depends on PH Internet: EastWest CEO MANILA – Financial technology solutions are “inevitable” but will not take off in the Philippines unless internet speeds improve, EastWest Bank CEO Antonio Moncupa said Friday. (Read more) PH urged to adopt Digital Payments to Realize its Cashless Journey INDUSTRY players and…

Intitial Coin Offerings or more popularly known as ICOs has seen tremendous growth and is increasingly seeing mainstream adoption by startups as a method to raise fund. In the last year year alone we’ve witnessed more than 200 ICOs with over $3.3 billion USD raised. A study conducted by FunderBeam has indicated that Singapore is the 3rd largest ICO hub in the world, and the leading hub in Asia. We’ve observer notable deals in recent times, among which, is TenX who raised 80$ million USD through its PAY tokens. In our previous article we’ve also spoken about notable ICO in 2016…

Southeast Asia is the world’s fastest-growing region in terms of Internet users. The region’s Internet economy is expected to be worth US$200 billion by 2025 with the biggest portion going toward e-commerce. Investors are also excited about fintech, which promises to bring financial services to Southeast Asia’s unbanked. Southeast Asian startups like Fastacash, Lenddo, TradeHero and Ayannah have raised millions in funding and gained international recognition. But there are also lesser-known fintech ventures that are worth keeping an eye on. Claim Di (Thailand) Bangkok-based Claim Di has developed a mobile application for facilitating communication and claims between drivers and…

DBS Bank’s managing director and chief innovation officer (CIO) Neal Cross has joined Australian fintech startup PictureWealth as co-founder, a startup in which he also is an investor. Cross is known as one of the top innovation thought leaders across the planet and was named last year the world’s most disruptive CIO/chief technology officer (CTO). Now he is involved in PictureWealth, a young fintech startup from Australia providing a personal wealth management platform. PictureWealth allows users to aggregate information such as bank accounts, expenses, cryptocurrencies and assets to build a snapshot of overall financial position. The snapshot has been dubbed…

Fintechnews.PH picks every Friday for you the top 5 Fintech Philippines News of the week: Here we go: WeChat Pay launches in Philippines with Asia United Bank MANILA – Asia United Bank said Wednesday it launched WeChat Pay in the Philippines, which will allow mobile payments from Chinese tourists. (Read more) Philippine Regulators Eye New Rules for Bitcoin Exchanges and ICOs Regulators in the Philippines are considering new rules for cryptocurrency exchanges and initial coin offerings (ICOs). (Read more) Creeping into our consciousness: Cryptocurrency in the Philippines Cryptocurrency in the Philippines is starting to be…