July, August & September 2019
July 2019 / August 2019 / September 2019
China’s startup news:
July 2019
- China: Sichuan province, bitcoin mining powerhouse, preps for boost driven by rainy-season drop in hydro power costs
- 2019 SLUSH Shenzhen Pitch Competition applications open for August event
- China: Alibaba marketplace Tmall aiming to attract international brands looking to sell in China with introduction of English language website
- HP, Dell, Microsoft and Amazon all set to shift substantial production capacity out of China, joining a growing exodus
- China: Border authorities install surveillance app on tourists’ phones entering Xinjiang, gathering personal data
- China: NIO electric vehicles startup recalls near 5K SUVs after battery fires
- China’s Ucommune cowork space operator reportedly planning $200M US IPO as soon as 2020
- China: Cailu blockchain-backed media company secures $10M pre-A funding with focus on smart cities
- Citcon cross-border payments firm expands to Europe to provide merchants with payment options focusing on China’s e-wallets and app-based payment services
- China: Baidu search giant looks to early stage autonomous-vehicles income via valet parking concept, noting drivers spend 30% of their time seeking parking
- China: MassChallenge Nanjing launched by MassChallenge zero-equity accelerator network and Qixia District of Nanjing City
- China: Geek+ raises $150M for warehouse robotics and automation
- China: Synyi medical AI startup raises $36.3M
- China: Tencent-backed Douyu livestreaming startup raises Nasdaq IPO target to $629M
- China: Baidu’s autonomous cars have now driven 1.2M miles across 13 cities in-country
- China: NIO EV startup recently started supercharging station trial in Suzhou, charging from 20% to 80% in 30 minutes
- The China Internet Report 2019 now available to download
- China: Social credit system is becoming a reality as local governments scramble to implement Beijing’s coercive, carrot-and-stick vision
- China: Illicit bitcoin miners arrested and 4000 mining rigs siezed over $3M of stolen electricity
- China: A look at Megvii AI firm’s facial-recognition mobile app for tracking lost dogs using their nose prints – with uncomfortable social credit implications
- China: Huayang Search search engine aimed at brainwashing children and teens – state-run, sanitized results, heavily censored, limited site referrals
- China: BJEV electric vehicle unit of BAIC recalls near 1400 minivans following battery overheating issues
- China: Cyberspace Administration pulls 26 audio apps in clean-up around audiobooks, anime, podcasts and more
- China: Semptian revealed to be selling mass surveillance tech via front company to authoritarian regimes from ME to Africa, alongside aiding citizen surveillance
- UK’s MQA partnered by Alibaba’s Xiami Music to bring lossless audio streaming to China
- China: CloudMinds files for $500M listing on NYSE with cloud-based robotics system
- US tech supplier announces ban on sales of software compatible with Chinese drones to clients in law enforcement and public safety, citing security concerns
- China: 17000 students across 60 schools in Guangzhou now monitored via GPS, backed by multiple gov’t agencies
- How China’s WeChat users unwittingly aid censorship as the platform analyses, categorizes and learns from images sent in one-to-one and group chats
- China’s DouYu live-streaming platform for gamers launches IPO with $775M target
- China’s SenseTime AI and facial recognition startup to open development hub in Abu Dhabi
- China: Huishoubao gadget recycling startup preps for 5G boom, expecting 5G-ready smartphone sales to hit 110M units by 2021
- China: An intro to Kuaishou short-video giant – 300M monthly active users, valuation nearing $25BN, and now looking at game livestreaming and long-form video
- China: WeChat Pay launches in-flight payments trial with Spring Airlines – as long as flyers have a high-enough rating on WeChat’s own social credit program
- Toyota to invest $600M in China’s Didi, plus JV to develop connected and electric vehicle tech
- China’s Douyu live-streaming platform sets sights on Japan’s burgeoning esports market via JV with Mitsui trading house
- China: Joy Capital closes $700M fund focusing on early-stage investments
- An overview of the state of play in China’s burgeoning self-driving car industry – has it been overestimated?
- Xinjiang Victims Database is seeking crowdfunding support for their important work
- A detailed look at China’s moves into genome editing of food crops using CRISPR
- China’s ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, preps for smartphone launch as part of potential broad infrastructure and ecosystem play
- China: A brief look at 15 of the country’s fast-growing wealth-tech and fintech startups
- India: MPs accuse China’s TikTok short-video app of redirecting user data into China, alongside spreading fake news and malicious content in India
- ByteDance planning to replicate its China playbook in India by investing in local content startups, creating a suite of everyday apps
- Japan’s Itochu trading house partners China’s Citic state conglomerate for $1.8BN VC fund to introduce Japanese startups into China
- A brief look at how robotics startups from China and India are capitalizing on Japan’s labor and logistics challenges in responding to online shopping’s growth
- Lagos’ Flutterwave partners China’s Alibaba for digital payments between Alipay and African merchants
- Australia: Major universities announce reviews over links to surveillance tech used by Chinese Government
China’s startup news:
August 2019
- A deep dive into China’s advantages, and challenges, in the race to 5G
- China: Xinchao Media elevator-ad firm lands JD-led $142M investment, with 100-city coverage and 700K elevator ad spaces
- China’s Transsion Future Hub to partner Kenya’s Wapi Capital to source and fund early-stage African fintech startups
- China: Jinri Toutiao, Bytedance-owned news aggregation app, launches upgraded Lingquan AI tool to identify content deemed inappropriate by regulators
- China: Sogou search engine partners Zhangyue Technology for video-based AI novel readers which look like authors, aiming at online literature market
- China: WeRide autonomous driving startup launches robotaxi company with Guangzhou’s Baiyun Taxi company, which owns a 10K-strong taxi fleet
- China: Neolix robovan startup aims to grow from theme park robo-stores in 11 cities to full city-street transport option
- A look at China’s AutoX, fast-growing autonomous vehicle startup and one of only four to receive a California robotaxi license
- China: A look at MYbank, Jack Ma’s online bank focusing on small-business lending – $290BN lent to 16 million SMEs with applications approved in 3 minutes
- Standard Chartered and Linklogis complete deep-tier supply chain financing transaction for Digital Guangdong using Tencent’s WeQChain blockchain platform
- China: Cryptocurrency ban appears to have boosted bitcoin use, in part seen as a ‘safe haven’ thinking in response to trade war worries
- ICYMI: Hangzhou Internet Court ruled that cryptocurrency should be considered virtual property as it is ‘valuable, scarce, and disposable’
- China: Government mandates digital currency research in new guidelines on the scope of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone
- China: Head of People’s Bank announces blockchain-backed digital currency is now ready
- China: QFPay digital payments firm secures $20M to grow beyond 13 primarily Asian markets
- China: A brief overview of facial recognition tech risks in digital payments
- China: Yijiupi e-commerce platform gains follow-on funding of $80M from Tencent with goal of diversification across e-commerce supply chains
- China: Face-scanning entrance gates installed in 13 public housing communities, with roll-out to all 59 neighborhoods in Beijing expected in October
- ICYMI: Huawei partners NetEase gaming company for 5G cloud-based gaming lab
- Google shuts 210 YouTube channels acting as part of ‘coordinated’ disinformation campaign about Hong Kong protests, following similar actions by Twitter, Facebook
- Why YouTube continues to demonetize videos of the Hong Kong protests, preventing coverage of this and other important global events
- China: A look at what you need to know about the Huawei Ark Compiler, and how it ports Android apps to Huawei’s new Harmony OS
- China: Huawei to open $1.4BN R&D centre in Shanghai, aiming to house 30-40,000 employees across 1km complex
- Is Huawei’s Harmony a ‘national OS’ in the making? ‘Microkernel architecture is the future of OS and Huawei is the first major OS vendor to adopt it on a larger scale’
- Cashless payment booms in China and India likely to spell the end of the ATM
- China: CareVoice insurtech secures 8-figure US$ funding with tool suite aimed at health insurance providers
- China: Zhiketong secures $42.5M with direct marketing services for upscale hotels using WeChat
- China: Xiaohongshu social commerce mobile app pulled from China’s app stores, likely due to volume of fake reviews on products
- China: The top 25 mobile apps by monthly-active-users to June 2019
- 4 key growth challenges loom for China’s hugely-successful TikTok social app
- China: ByteDance to create app-embedded search engine business to compete with Baidu
- China: Baidu App daily active users hit 188M, up 27% year-on-year; in-app search grew 20% year-on-year; and mini program MAUs hit 270M
- China: Chengdu’s home fitness startup Fiture secures $6M with a combination of hardware, AI-driven feedback, and downloadable content
- China: A broad collection of technology, startup and funding news, as reported in the English-language online press in the month past
- China: Report details APT41, prolific cyber-threat group that carries out state-sponsored espionage in parallel with financially-motivated operations
- A look at some of the tech in Huawei’s HongMeng OS, set for China launch this year and internationally in 2020
- Report finds that China is on track to have one surveillance camera for every 2 citizens by 2020
- Snap renews partnership with Baidu search giant in pursuit of ad dollars in China, Japan and South Korea – despite being banned in China
- China: Huawei commences 6G research in Canada, and in talks with university researchers
- China: Huawei reportedly to unveil Map Kit, Google Maps competitor, in October, covering 150 ‘countries and regions’ and available in 40 languages
- China: Zhihu Q&A site lands $434M investment, with Baidu planning incorporation into its search engine
- China’s universities implement facial recognition scans to expedite the registration process, following trials around attendance and campus security
- The Uyghur women fighting China’s surveillance state in Xinjiang with digital resistance
- WeChat and Samsung partner, allowing users WeChat mini-program access on Samsung home screens without opening the main app – effectively like a mobile OS
- China: Wanwu Xinxuan raises $20M with e-commerce platform selling children’s apparel, and providing young mothers with options for their own online store
- China: Hexiaoxiang online Chinese language-learning platform for children secures $28M
- ‘Developing countries that are more sensitive to cost will find the Chinese 5G price-point difficult to turn down, especially…with..incentives like the Belt and Road…”
- Twitter reports ‘significant state-backed information operation’ from within the China targeting Hong Kong; removes 936 accounts and suspends 200,000
- An overview of the 8 startups selected for Accenture’s 2019 FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific program
- China’s Xiaomi mobile phone giant to enter India’s consumer lending space with launch of Mi Credit instant personal loan service
- Australia: Instagram censors Melbourne artist’s work commenting on Beijing’s influence in Australia but permits ongoing death threats
China’s startup news:
September 2019
- ICYMI: China’s LuxCreo secures $30M with patented LEAP technology, enabling 3D-printing speeds 100x faster than traditional 3D printers
- China Telecoms reveals plans for a 5G Mobile SIM card that can participate in a mobile-focused Ethereum blockchain
- China: Vendors in August sold 291K 5G phones – less than 1% of the country’s overall mobile phone shipments
- US Secretary of Defense urges NATO to block China’s 5G tech – “every Chinese company has the potential to be an accomplice…to steal technology”
- China: Playing videogames with robots – just one way technology is reshaping elderly health care
- China: Government orders online platforms to use AI to recommend only ‘approved material’
- China: YI Tunnel secures $25M with AI-driven retail technology spanning vending machines, check-outs, unmanned stores and more
- China: Evolver secures $71M and partners Qingdao local government around Fabo, AI-backed teaching robot
- China: HiScene augmented reality firm secures $35M with sights set on AI and big data moves
- China: PlusAI self-driving vehicles tech startup to JV with FAW Jiefang, China’s oldest and largest truck manufacturer, to develop autonomous trucks
- China: Chinese K-Car fully solar-powered vehicle completes road-testing, claiming 20km daily charged under sunlight, for 30 days without pole-charging
- China: Mercedes-Benz joins PlatOn blockchain firm’s Vehicle Residual Value Management Platform to store data and calculate pricing of used business cars
- China: Weibo’s Instagram competitor, Oasis, was reportedly to offer decentralized token rewards as incentives, ‘water droplets’ that ‘evaporate’ after 3 days
- China: Sinochem Group state-owned oil/gas giant subsidiary to launch blockchain platform with Shell and Macquarie
- Binance publishes first-look analysis of China’s soon-to-launch central bank digital currency – in part a digitalization and internationalisation move for the RMB
- People’s Bank of China to issue first round of state-backed digital currency to Alibaba, Tencent and 5 others as distributors
- People’s Bank of China digital currency team now working in closed-door isolation in bid to beat Facebook Libra to market
- China: Mars Finance, Chinese-language cryptocurrency and blockchain news website, backed by Binance crypto exchange, creating $200M valuation
- China: “Of the first 25 companies…on the STAR Market, at least 16 receive investment by state-affiliated funds and research institutions, while 6 have ties to the military.”
- China: Plum e-commerce platform for second-hand luxury goods raises $20M on the back of claimed 5-fold growth
- China: A quick look at subscription-based services – from music and video streaming to tangible consumer goods like clothing, bicycles, cosmetics and flowers
- China’s Singles Day this year processed $45BN of goods and services in 24 hours – 3 times Black Friday plus Cyber Monday combined – and 90% of it via mobile devices
- China: “The post-2000 generation accounted for 15.8% of online fraud victims in 2018, surging from just 0.7% in 2014”
- China: Eight years of huge changes to the world’s biggest internet population, visualized by @AbacusNews
- CEO of high-growth electric vehicle startup Byton quit due to Chinese government interference, following state-backed investment
- China: Female esports professionals turn to other forms of e-celebrity to boost their career prospects in the face of gender discrimination
- Michigan State University faces criticism after computer research scientist gives keynote speech at China’s largest biometrics conference
- China: Tencent reportedly to launch FenFu credit service to offer credit and small loans to WeChat Pay’s huge user base and to compete with AliPay’s Huabei service
- China: Huimei Healthcare raises $30M with AI-based clinical decision support system
- ICYMI: Huawei launches AI chip focused on data centers, potentially pitting it against US tech companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia
- US State Dep’t official: “Firms such as Huawei, Tencent, ZTE, Alibaba, and Baidu have no meaningful ability to tell the Chinese Communist Party ‘no'”
- From the recent MAST Conference: Huawei and its siblings, the Chinese tech giants: National security and foreign policy implications
- An overview of the Huawei Mate 30’s launch without Google apps and services
- China: Antwork aims to improve last-mile deliveries by using drones instead of delivery drivers and couriers, gains China’s first approval for trials as first step
- China’s Meditool gains high-Euro funding from Germany’s Evonik with 3D printed neuro and spine surgery implants
- China: An intro to Ximalaya FM podcasting platform, serving the country’s 425M listeners last year
- China: Alibaba’s AI-powered ‘Bus Brain’ calculates number of buses needed and optimal route for Shanghai service, allowing commuters to plan quickest trips
- China: Weibo’s Instagram-clone app, Oasis, disappears from app stores just two days after launch due to copied logo
- China now has no specific launch date in mind for digital currency, central bank has said in fresh comments contradicting previous statements
- China: A collection of just some of the country’s tech, startup, crypto and mobile news from the month past, via Startup News Asia
- China: Bytedance pushes new online reading platform as regulators clamp down on content
- China: ZAO video app lets users swap faces with celebrities, sports stars or anyone else goes viral, but swiftly sparks privacy and identity concerns
- China Pharmaceutical University deploys facial recognition, responds to privacy concerns: ‘classrooms are considered public spaces where it is free to capture data’
- China: A dive into the country’s 4 facial-recognition giants
- China’s new generation of tech startups – Insta360, SIVGA and Huami, upcoming market leaders in action cameras, premium headphones and fitness trackers
- China: Catering service robots become an appealing option for restaurants struggling to find waiting staff
- China: “In Kyrgyzstan, facial recognition…is being introduced by a Beijing-based defense equipment supplier whose technology was used to subdue…Xinjiang”
- China: ‘Cyber-dissident’ sentenced to 12 years for website reporting on topics including human rights, the Tiananmen Square massacre and earthquake victims
- China: Against a backdrop of increasingly-restricted internet access, Zoom video-conferencing app is blocked
- China: Government regulators to expand social credit blacklists to include online platforms and users, aiming to punish ‘untrustworthy conduct’
- China: Huawei launches laptops with Deepin, China-produced Linux-based OS, pre-installed
- China: A look at how power-bank sharing startups are proving skeptics wrong, with an expected 150M user base this year
- ICYMI: Footage of China’s Hikvision cameras monitoring a concentration camp in Xinjiang, as covered in a BBC segment, alongside forced rote-learning
- ICYMI: US Senate passes the bipartisan Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act
- China: Kuaishou, fast-growing short-video startup, reportedly aiming for $1BN fundraise on $25BN valuation in move to maintain competition with ByteDance
- China: The top web browser on PC? Google Chrome, with 45.19%. The top home-grown browser? QQ, built on Google’s Chromium
- China: Government officials to be placed inside 100 private companies, including Alibaba and Geely, adding to concerns about state direction of technology
- ICYMI: China Tech City, an intro to the country’s major technology players
- China: Shouyue, state-owned ride-hail startup, challenges Didi Chuxing’s dominance with state contacts, high-end service, regulatory compliance and profitability
- China: Trifo’s advanced robot vacuum includes sensor and vision tech for home-security monitoring – 3d mapping, voice recognition, AI-based learning and more
- Everledger blockchain-backed supply chain startup from the UK gains $20M Series A led by China’s Tencent
- China: 7invensun unveils new eye-tracking module designed to support all of HTC’s VR headsets, past and present
- Alibaba unveils Hanguang 800 AI inference chip, claiming dramatic machine learning improvements – 1-hour categorization of 1BN images cut to 5 minutes
- ICYMI: Coders detail how Huawei’s Ark Compiler is ‘not even half-finished’ and unable to port Android apps to Huawei’s new HarmonyOS – even its own demo
- Although funding data make China appear to be a global leader in AI, funding…is significantly concentrated in…computer vision and natural language processing
- China: Deepexi startup providing big data and AI-powered enterprise digitization solutions secures $35M Series A
- China: DeepRoute self-driving vehicle solutions provider secures near $50M pre-Series A
- China: Alibaba’s Ant Financial to expand collaboration with Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger open-source blockchain project to develop ‘cross-blockchain’ tech
- …the cost of restricting Huawei and ZTE is minor to Europe. However, the benefit in reduced risk and increased security and network resilience is tremendously high
- China: TikTok launches in-video search function, allowing users to identify people via facial recognition tech, alongside e-commerce uses like identifying clothing
- China: 13 presentations from Alibaba Investors Day 2019, covering TMall, Ant Financial, FreshHippo, Taobao and more
- China: Pix Moving auto-tech startup sets sights on trade war tariff dodge – 3D printer car blueprints, cloud-shared with US team to print components in-country
- China: “This year, online retail sales are expected to swell to $1.5 trillion”, from McKinsey’s digital consumer report
- China: 10K reporters and editors in Beijing to take ‘pilot tests’ on loyalty to President Xi Jinping using Xuexi Qiangguo mobile app
- China: DT Dream cloud computing and big data services provider secures $84M, valuing at $1.5BN, with enterprize and government focus
- China: Xpeng Motors’ P7 becomes the first smart car to implement Alibaba In-Car Mini App tech, initially with driver focus but aiming for broader in-car use
- China: ‘Private’ sector concerns grow as tech giant CEOs resign, and CCP sends officials to private companies to insert Party direction
- South Africa’s rain network implements 5G in parts of Johannesburg and Tswane, in partnership with China’s Huawei
- Hong Kong protestors turn to Bridgefy Bluetooth-based app for ‘mesh messaging’ that the CCP can’t block, communicating using no persistent managed network
- Tweeting through the Great Firewall: Preliminary Analysis of PRC-linked Information Operations on the Hong Kong Protests
- Hong Kong: “In recent days, China has more aggressively stirred up nationalist and anti-Western sentiment using state and social media…to undermine the protesters”
- China’s UCWeb to launch e-commerce service in India, focusing on content platforms to build on browser’s 120K bloggers and 700 media outlet partners
- India: China’s Oppo signs MoU with Kerala Gov’t to boost startup and mobile tech ecosystems
- A brief intro to the 15 startups competing in Rabobank’s SustainableAg Asia Challenge
- Japan: NTT Data partners China’s CloudPick for smartphone-based, cashier-free solutions for retailers to address labor shortages
- Philippines arrests 277 Chinese nationals running cryptocurrency investment scam aimed at mainland China
- JD Digits, fintech affiliate of China’ e-commerce giant JD com, partners Central Group, Thailand’s biggest retailer, to launch Dolfin digital wallet app
