Also, South Korea to ban anonymous bank accounts from participating in cryptocurrency trading

Netflix is now worth over US$100 billion – [TechCrunch]

Netflix’s market value has surged to over US$100 billion, putting the internet company in the same league with conglomerates such as Qualcomm. Last quarter, the video streaming giant added 6.36 million new subscribers globally and earned US$3.29 billion.

Despite these impressive growth figures, Netflix continues to haemorrhage more money as it ramps up spending on original content. This year, it expects to spend between US$7.5 billion to US$8 billion on content.

The company also lost money — US$39 million — on content it did not “move forward with”; one of which was its acclaimed series House of Cards, which had to be cancelled due to its lead actor’s sexual misconduct.

Indonesia to launch satellite on a SpaceX rocket – [The Jakarta Post]

State-owned telecommunications company Telkom Indonesia is set to launch its new Telkom 4 satellite on Elon Musk’s Space X rocket. The satellite is manufactured by Space Systems Loral (SSL).

The satellite, which has not be named, will be placed in the same orbit as the Telkom 1 satellite and will have a 15-year lifespan.

South Korea to ban anonymous bank accounts from participating in cryptocurrency trading – [Reuters]

The South Korean government will ban anonymous bank accounts from being used in cryptocurrency trades. This is to prevent cryptocoins from being used to launder money or for other criminal activity.

According to Kim Yong-beom, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, local cryptocurrency traders will only be able to use their bank accounts to make deposits into their cryptocurrency wallets if the names on their bank and cryptocurrency exchange accounts match.

Also Read: Blockchain tech is innovating education, and schools are catching up to the trend

This month has proved to be tumultuous for South Korea’s cryptocurrency scene. The government announced it was drafting a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading, only to u-turn on that plan a day later.

GTRIIP raises 7-figure Series A – [Press Release]

US-based AI & biometrics startup GTRIIP has closed a 7-figure round to expand its AI tech, which is targetted at the hospitality industry.

GTRIIP’s APAC office is headquartered in Singapore. Its tech allows users to link their photo ID and memberships to their smartphone, enabling them to check in to hotels, clubs and offices without having to provide additional documents.

GTRIIP’s app was featured as part of the Smart Hotel Technology Roadmap in Singapore. The company’s future plans for Asia include hiring new talent, expanding to new markets, as well as building an R&D centre in Singapore

Circles.Life hires new Head of Engineering – [Press Release]

Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Circles.Life has brought on board Harshwardhan Mittal as its new Head of Engineering.

Mittal was the Head of Engineering at the Innovation Group of Reliance Jio, a major Indian telco with over 140 million customers. He also led engineering for the Payments and Data platform at Flipkart, one of largest e-commerce player in India.

At Circles.Life, he will lead the development and delivery of Circles’ cloud platform Circles-X. “It’s great to have Harsh onboard. He brings the best of telco and the internet worlds together and has scaled systems seamlessly to hundreds of millions of customers,” says Rameez Ansar, Co-founder and Director of Circles.

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