Nearly two-thirds in a recent survey of technology leaders globally believe the innovation center of the world will move from Silicon Valley within the next four years. This shouldn't be too surprising to those following the global trend of many hubs rising to the Valley's gold standard for innovation.
But where will the next center be?
New York ranks as top of the list of cities that could be the next Silicon Valley, the survey by
KPMG found. The poll was taken before
Amazon backed out of plans to have a headquarters in Long Island City. Still, the survey underscores a trend of the Big Apple gaining as a tech town as more technology multinationals call the city home, including
Google.
Shanghai has been ranking tops in this annual survey as most likely city to displace Silicon Valley, but slides to 5th place now.
15 Seconds of Fame
TikTok is really rocking it in the world of short video apps that sprung up in China and are now taking off in the U.S., thanks to Chinese tech innovator
ByteDance. These 15-second videos set to music feature clips of users dancing, lip-syncing, acting, performing silly stunts and doing gymnastics, often with special effects like stickers that are edited in by creators. Clips are personalized to a user's video feed through artificial intelligence algorithms. Followers can like and comment on the clips.
Millennials and Gen Z love this new social media outlet of creating, sharing and viewing short videos. With few voiceovers, this content easily travels globally. Launched in September 2016,
TikTok
and its Chinese version
Douyin
have reached more than 500 million users across 150 countries, in the same league as
Instagram, Facebook Messenger
and
Twitter
.
ByteDance has created the first global digital media app that is succeeding both inside and out of China.
Read more of my article about
TikTok.
DEALS
A new business model for shared kitchens from
Panda Selected has attracted $50 million in Series C funding led by
Tiger Global along with existing investors
DCM and
GenBridge Capital.
The concept of shared kitchens is catching on in China. It's another first invented in China business idea, and it hasn't taken hold in the U.S. yet, although former
Uber CEO
Travis Kalanick is working on a similar idea with his LA-based
CloudKitchens.
This new delivery-only restaurant model extends the trend of a shared economy that has worked for office spaces and bicycling. The traditional restaurant model is being disrupted in China as mobile orders and on-demand food delivery have gone mainstream.
Read more about
shared kitchens deal at
Forbes.
Video creation platform
90 Seconds nabs $20 million
SIG, Airtree Ventures and Sequoia India, as short video app trend expands to India.
China's intelligent driving startup
JIMU brings in $15 million in Series B financing led by
Translink Capital.
Urban courier
Lalamove, known as a Chinese
Uber for logistics, raises $300 million in late round and joins unicorn club. The funding was led by
Hillhouse Capital Group and
Sequoia Capital China.
Qiming Venture leads $20 million 3rd round financing of pet product startup
PETKIT.
DEALS
Uber Eats is in talks to sell out to local Indian leader
Swiggy, echo of
Uber deal to back out of Southeast Asia with
Grab takeover in Singapore
.
FUNDS
Entrepreneur First marks first close of global deep tech fund at $115 million for India.