Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, August 7

InMobi ties up with Amazon and Paytm for India launch of discovery-led mobile commerce platform: SoftBank-backed mobile ad technology company InMobi Pte Ltd has joined hands with Amazon India, mobile wallet Paytm and others for the India launch of Miip, its new platform for discovery-led mobile commerce. Miip, which has an animated green monkey as mascot, engages users by suggesting products to buy across apps. It was launched in the US three weeks ago. InMobi, which competes with Facebook and Google for a pie of burgeoning mobile advertising market, will launch Miip in China on August 18. Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO of InMobi said Miip will aid “serendipitous discovery” of products across thousands of mobile apps. “Today merchants have tough time getting users to discover and explore their products. Miip will create personalised shopping experiences to enable discovery of products from more merchants,” he said. The company has forged a partnership with Amazon.in to initiate a pilot on the Miip platform. Kishore Thotta, head of digital marketing, Amazon India said platforms such as InMobi’s Miip will facilitate cross-app shopping experiences. Miip will facilitate seamless payment and checkouts within the discovery sessions through the “Buy with Paytm” button. Miip will soon be launched in beta version with several partners across e-commerce and app developers such as Magzter, Moneyview, Nestaway, Shopclues, Swiggy, Urban Ladder, Vozpop, Wooplr and Zimmber.

Practo raises $90M from China’s Tencent, Sofina, Google Capital, Yuri Milner, others: Practo, a web-based clinic management software developer and medicare listings provider, has raised $90 million in Series C funding led by Chinese media and technology conglomerate Tencent Holdings. Marquee institutional investors such as Sofina, Sequoia India, Google Capital, Altimeter Capital, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Russian investor Yuri Milner also put money in this round, as per a press statement. Practo will use the money to expand product lines, acquire more startups and enhance headcount. “We are hard at work building a single health app that helps people live healthier by making better healthcare decisions for themselves and their loved ones. We are excited to partner with some of the best investors on the planet. Our global partners will give us the edge to continue building global healthcare products that our users love,” said Shashank ND, founder and CEO of Practo. A few months ago, Practo had raised $30 million in Series B round from Sequoia India and Matrix Partners. Three years ago, it had raised $4.6 million from Sequoia Capital in Series A funding. Recently, Practo acquired product outsourcing firm Genii Technologies Pvt Ltd for its capabilities in building bespoke e-commerce portals and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms. Practo offers services like helping patients find relevant doctors online, compare them and schedule appointments. It also sells PractoRay under a SaaS model for primary clinics, which enables doctors to schedule and manage patient records. Practo already lists over 8,000 hospitals on its platform and will expand this to over 20,000 by end of this year. Recently, it launched a new feature that allows users to find diagnostic labs in their vicinity. It competes with the likes of Lybrate, HelpingDoc, Praxify and AllizHealth.

Tesla Plunges 9% as Musk Grapples With SUV’s Second-Row Seats: Elon Musk can’t make an SUV without seats. Tesla’s chief executive officer dialed back his forecast for 2015 vehicle deliveries, saying that getting the new sport utility vehicle’s middle-row seats just right is proving thornier than expected. The added threat of not having enough of other interior parts puts the original sales plan at risk, he said. “Our biggest challenges are with the second-row seat,” Musk said Wednesday during a conference call with analysts. “It’s an amazing seat, a sculptural work of art, but a very tricky thing to get right.” He added that some interior trim components could become roadblocks, but the so-called falcon-wing doors weren’t going to be a problem. Assembly snags on the Model X, Tesla Motors Inc.’s first SUV, could also slow output of the Model S sedan, Musk said. So now the company may deliver 50,000 to 55,000 autos in 2015, down from an initial target of 55,000. Tesla shares fell 8.9 percent to $246.13 at the close Thursday after plunging as much as 13 percent for the biggest intraday decline in 21 months. While lowering the bar for this year and next, Musk said he remains “confident” that Tesla will produce about half a million cars in 2020. He’s said that’s when investors should be able to expect the company to become profitable. Musk pointed out Tesla made 600 cars annually five years ago. “Now we can produce 600 cars in three days,” he said. As production of the SUV increases, the company will become free cash-flow positive, probably near the end of this year and “certainly” for the first quarter of 2016, Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja said. Tesla has drawn down $50 million of a $750 million credit line, and left open the possibility of going to Wall Street for additional money.

Apple Music attracts more than 11 million trial members: Apple said on Thursday its new music streaming service has attracted more than 11 million members during its free trial period, a response that music industry experts called respectable but not overwhelming. Apple Music rolled out with a three-month free trial period on June 30. Nearly 2 million people opted for the free trial family plan, which will cost $14.99 a month for up to six family members, the company said. The service costs $9.99 a month for individuals. Apple’s iTunes Store helped revitalize the music industry a decade ago, but digital downloads have slumped in recent years amid a shift toward streaming. Unlike popular streaming services from rivals such as Spotify, Apple’s offering does not include a free on-demand tier, a decision praised by some in the music industry. Apple shares were down 4 cents at $114.84 in early afternoon. Based on typical conversion rates in the industry, it would be impressive if Apple convinced 20 percent of the trial members to become paying subscribers after the free trial ends, he added. Spotify has more than 20 million paid subscribers worldwide, the company has told Reuters.

HTC Plummets to Decade Low on Loss Forecast Five Times Estimates: HTC Corp. plunged by the daily limit after its forecast for a quarterly loss five times greater than estimates spurred analysts to slash their valuations of the stock. Shares dropped 10 percent to NT$63 in Taipei on Friday, heading for their lowest price in more than a decade. The smartphone maker’s third-quarter loss will be NT$5.51 to NT$5.85 per share, compared with expectations for a loss of NT$1.17 per share. Its sales forecast given Thursday is as much as 48 percent below estimates. HTC plans to cut staff, reduce spending and slim down its product catalog as cheaper phones from Huawei Technologies Co. and competition from Samsung Electronics Co. further erode its market share. Founder, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer Cher Wang has stated she won’t consider mergers, even as the company fell off the global list of top 10 phonemakers. Sales this quarter will be NT$19 billion ($600 million) to NT$22 billion, the company said, compared with estimates for NT$36.8 billion. Revenue at the bottom end of that range would be the lowest in a decade when figures were reported at the parent level. HTC will change its product strategy to produce fewer models over longer time intervals while focusing on a greater share of industry profits instead of shipments, Chief Financial Officer Chang Chialin said Thursday. Cost reductions will start this quarter, with the result of those cuts being shown in the first quarter, he said.

Nvidia's gaming, auto chips drive surprise rise in revenue; Shares rise 10%: Nvidia reported a surprise rise in second-quarter revenue and gave a better-than-expected revenue forecast for the current quarter, helped by strong demand for its graphic chips used in gaming and cars. The company's shares rose nearly 10 percent in extended trading on Thursday. Nvidia's revenue increased 4.5 percent in the quarter ended July 26 to $1.15 billion , while analysts on average were expecting revenue to decrease about 8 percent. Nvidia gets a majority of its revenue from its graphic chips made for personal computers, and there were fears that the fall in PC sales would hurt Nvidia just like it has Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. But, Nvidia said gaming revenue rose 59 percent, helped by strong sales of its popular GeForce series of gaming chips. Nvidia has also been increasing its focus on making chips that allows people to play graphics-heavy games over the internet and chips used in a car's dashboard display and in self-driving cars. Automotive revenue rose 76 percent in the quarter and accounted for only 6.2 percent of total revenue. The company said 8 million cars on the road were using its chips and that it was working with more than 50 companies for its DRIVE chip for self-driving cars. However, revenue in Nvidia's enterprise business fell 14 percent. The business, which makes chips used for software such as AutoCAD, accounted for 16.2 percent of total revenue.