Today in News are brief updates by the BEAM team of what's happening in the business, finance, and technology space around the world (as well as in China). Download the BEAM App to get curated news like these from over 100 sources.

Around the world:

• Apple sold an estimated 600,000 HomePod speakers in Q1 2018, equals 1/4 of Google Home Speaker’s and 15% of Amazon Echo
  
• Google acquired Cask Data to beef up his tools for building and running big data analytics
  
• Walmart Q1 financial report http://s2.q4cdn.com/056532643/files/doc_financials/2019/Q1/Q1FY19-Earnings-Release-Final.pdf
  
• Twitter is going to limit the visibility of tweets from people behaving badly
  
• Intel's Mobileye gets self-driving tech deal for 8 million cars
  

China:

• Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and other Internet giants may become Foxconn’s strategic investors
  
• Haidilao 海底捞 submitted IPO application in HongKong
  
• Zhihu 知乎 disclosed that they have over 160 million users
  
• Hainan Airlines will build a global aviation hub in Hainan, adding more routes and code sharing.
  
• SAIC Motor is trying to do car-hailing business
  
• Meituan’s new offline retail store 小象生鲜
  
• 泛阿网络 OneMena (Target Middle East, News and content platform) raised tens of millions USD led by IDG, followed by 快手 kuaishou and DotC.
  
• OneSpace北京零壹空間 (China's SpaceX/Blue Origin) just launches the country's first private rocket
  

Blockchain:

• Ofo set up a blockchain research institution
  
• French Finance Minister: I hope France will become a blockchain and cryptocurrency center