Daily Briefing: What you need to know about CapitaLand-Alibaba deal; Why you should still invest in malls

And check out these smart home ideas.

From Shares Investment via Yahoo!:

On 23 August, CapitaLand announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Asia’s largest e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba. Without disclosing any commercial terms, CapitaLand stated that the new agreements involve managing Alibaba’s new Shanghai headquarters and launching an online mall on Lazada Singapore (Lazada).

Alibaba holds a majority stake of 83 percent in Lazada, which the latter is Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce player. Alibaba have invested over US$2 billion in Lazada.

Read more here. 

From Dollars and Sense via Yahoo!:

Many of you may have come across frequent news articles detailing how malls in many countries, including the USA, China and Singapore, are starting to fizzle out. Once vibrant and busy storefronts are now deserted, and many shopkeepers are struggling to stay open at all.

The rise of e-commerce and the sharing economy as well as the unpredictable economic environment have been the main culprit for these shuttered malls.

Read more here.

From PropertyGuru via Yahoo!: 

In his recent National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong highlighted three issues that are important to Singapore’s long-term success, one of which is making us a Smart Nation.

“Smart Nation is about Singapore taking full advantage of IT to make this an outstanding city in which to live, work and play,” he said.

Interestingly, property developers have been integrating smart home technology into their local projects since the early 2000s. City Developments Limited (CDL) is considered one of the pioneers, having introduced the internet-ready i-Home concept in The Equatorial condominium at Stevens Road in 2001.

Read more here.