Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, April 25

• Ofo's Zhang Sees China Bike Bubble But Says Startup Will Survive: The co-founder of Ofo Inc., China’s biggest bike-sharing startup, sees a bubble in the industry but says his multibillion dollar business has the scale needed to survive any bust. Ofo plans to expand to 20 countries this year and 200 cities across China, Zhang Siding said Saturday in a Bloomberg Television interview in Zhengzhou, China. He said the company is valued at more than $2 billion.Ofo’s ubiquitous canary-yellow bikes are among more than 25 services now crowding China’s sidewalks. None are seen as profitable thanks to subsidies and low costs, yet together they’ve raised billions of dollars from venture capitalists hoping to cash in on the craze. China’s bike-sharing pioneers are gearing up to compete globally, with arch-rival Mobike previously telling Bloomberg News it wants to enter 100 cities with several foreign locations already in the works. But the flood of bikes has led to angst among China’s local governments and anger from residents. The services typically allow users to park the bikes wherever they like, jamming up the sidewalks. Ofo’s daily revenue is about 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) and it has raised about $650 million since its inception, co-founder Dai Wei said last week in remarks confirmed by the company. Zhang said Ofo is profitable in two cities, but added this wasn’t a major goal for the company. Instead, the priority is to improve the user experience and boost its brand. "There will be a bubble for the industry," he said. "But as long as we continue to do practical things, then there won’t be a bubble.”

• Microsoft's Nadella banks on LinkedIn data to challenge Salesforce: Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is rolling out upgrades to its sales software that integrates data from LinkedIn, an initiative that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Reuters was central to the company's long-term strategy for building specialized business software. The improvements to Dynamics 365, as Microsoft's sales software is called, are a challenge to market leader Salesforce.com (CRM.N) and represent the first major product initiative to spring from Microsoft's $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, the business-focused social network. The new features will comb through a salesperson's email, calendar and LinkedIn relationships to help gauge how warm their relationship is with a potential customer. The system will recommend ways to save an at-risk deal, like calling in a co-worker who is connected to the potential customer on LinkedIn. The enhancements, which will be available this summer, will require Microsoft Dynamics customers to also be LinkedIn customers. The artificial intelligence, or AI, capabilities of the software would be central, Nadella said. "I want to be able to democratize AI so that any customer using these products is able to, in fact, take their own data and load it into AI for themselves," he said. While Microsoft is a behemoth in the market for operating systems and productivity software like Office, it is a small player in sales software. The company ranks fourth - far behind Salesforce.com and other rivals Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) and SAP (SAPG.DE) - with just 4.3 percent of the market in 2015, the most recent year for which figures are available, according to research firm Gartner.Nadella is under pressure to show that the pricey LinkedIn acquisition in mid-2016 was worthwhile. R "Ray" Wang, founder of analyst firm Constellation Research, said LinkedIn-powered features, combined with popular programs like Office and Skype, could help.

• Tesla’s big Model 3 bet rides on risky assembly line strategy: Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk took many risks with the technology in his company's cars on the way to surpassing Ford Motor Co's market value. Now Musk is pushing boundaries in the factory that makes them. Most automakers test a new model's production line by building vehicles with relatively cheap, prototype tools designed to be scrapped once they deliver doors that fit, body panels with the right shape and dashboards that don't have gaps or seams. Tesla, however, is skipping that preliminary step and ordering permanent, more expensive equipment as it races to launch its Model 3 sedan by a self-imposed volume production deadline of September, Musk told investors last month. Musk’s decision underscores his high-risk tolerance and willingness to forego long-held industry norms that has helped Tesla upend the traditional auto industry. While Tesla is not the first automaker to try to accelerate production on the factory floor, no other rival is putting this much faith in the production strategy succeeding.