China’s tech, startup and funding news: August 2020
The China startup news collection below is drawn from online coverage of China’s tech, startup and venture capital funding news across August of 2020, as covered in English-language media.
China’s startup news items here are a collection of the headlines; each China tech headline is linked to the online article behind each startup news headline, giving both an at-a-glance overview of recent China startup news, and allowing you to instantly read any article in full.
Our monthly news collections are drawn from Startup News Asia’s daily startup news updates – delivered on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and by app – which gather technology news from across 17 locations across Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
- China: Video-focused cloud services market estimated to increase 48.67% year-on-year in 2020, following video cloud solutions market reaching $4.62BN in value in 2019
- China: 4DAGE launches camera that can produce 3D images, initially focusing on applications in real estate
- China: Fast-growing Xpeng Motors electric vehicle firm reportely in talks to raise additional $300M, following July’s $500M funding round
- China: SenseTime, US-blacklisted facial recognition tech firm, reportedly considering IPO on China’s STAR market to build on $10BN valuation
- A look at how ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, became the world’s most valuable unicorn
- ICYMI: China CEO of Arm Ltd, semiconductor chip designer owned by SoftBank, fired but refuses to depart, refuses communication, refuses firm’s representative access
- Microsoft aims to complete acquisition deal for TikTok’s US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand operations by September 15th, in part a digital advertising growth move
- The TikTok saga gives us a glimpse into a techno-nationalist future
- Donald Trump signs Executive Order banning transactions with China’s TikTok, WeChat and parent companies ByteDance and Tencent
- ICYMI: Trump administration proposes ban on Chinese firms from listing on US stock exchanges if they do not comply with US accounting standards, alongside forced delisting
- China: Beike Zhaofang online property platform backed by Tencent aims to raise to raise $2BN in US IPO, largest float by Chinese company on US exchanges since 2018
- China: “…Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay control the majority of the digital payments across the whole country while banks have been left far behind in the ongoing competition”
- Report on Huawei’s development of Papua New Guinea National Data Centre “…is the first to document its complicity in Beijing’s cyber espionage activities
- China: An overview of the current state of play in autonomous vehicles – piloting robotaxis as a first step whist regulations and technology issues are addressed
- China: Moka HR tech firm gains $43M with software approach to streamlining human resources processes, boasting clients including Xiaomi and McDonald’s
- China: Major central bank digital yuan testing expansion set for Hebei province, Yangtze river delta, Guangdong province, and Beijing, Tianjin, Hong Kong and Macau
- China: iQiyi, Baidu search giant’s Netflix-style service, the latest firm under investigation by US SEC over allegations of fraudulent reporting of inflated earnings
- China: Tencent’s merge of Huya with DouYu aims for e-sports giant providing online games, live tournaments and streamers on one platform
- China: A brief look at Sananbio, leader in vertical, indoor farming systems with sights on potential $9.9BN market, post-2025
- China: Aiways builds out factory to produce hydrogen fuel cells based on reformed methanol, seeking alternative to conventional electric and hydrogen cells
- China: OPPO smartphone giant reportedly working on devices to support Li-Fi technology, a much faster alternative to Wi-Fi based on ‘light fidelity’
- China: Xpeng Motors, fast-growing electric vehicles firm, registers Hangzhou subsidiary to work on charging infrastructures, intelligent power transmission and more
- China: Coding-focused Notepad++ text editor downloads banned in-country over naming of updates ‘Stand with Hong Kong’ and ‘Free Uyghur’
- China: DeepRoute autonomous driving startup partners Cao Cao Mobility ride-hailing platform aiming for robotaxi fleet on the streets of Hangzhou by 2022
- China: Over $50BN in cryptocurrency found by Chainalysis to have moved from in-country digital wallets to other parts of the world in the last year, much of it via Tether stablecoin
- China: Singapore’s Conflux to revamp Hunan provincial gov’t information architecture using blockchain solutions; and initiate blockchain research and training facility
- An overview of the rise of plant-based meat in China, in part driven by gov’t plan to cut the country’s meat consumption by half by 2030
- NYT – A TikTok Ban Is Overdue: “The privilege of full internet access – the open internet – should be extended only to companies from countries that respect that openness themselves
- Beyond TikTok: “”For instance, what of WeChat parent company TenCent’s holdings in American companies like Spotify?””
- China: Tencent launched WeStore, mini program for creating and managing online stores on WeChat, open to enterprises, businesses, and individuals
- China: Over 20 crypto mining farms stripped of electricity perks, including China Telecom branch and Bitmain subsidiaries, due to concealment of mining activities
- China: Dodo decentralized finance startup secures $600K
- China: Huawei Cloud launches Go Cloud Festival in enterprize-focused bid to help companies migrate operations to the cloud
- China: A brief look at developments in courts-focused tech, combining private and external networks, internet, mobile and confidential information networking with AI and OCR
- China: Tech Ministry eyes home-grown Gitee to build ‘independent, open-source code hosting platform’ as alternative to GitHub
- An overview of how the Trump administration’s WeChat ban may impact China’s Blockchain Service Network’s plan to be the only global blockchain enterprise infrastructure provider
- The FBI assesses that the cyber-actors’ persistent attempts to silently remove the malware is not a sign of resignation. Rather, it is an effort to hide their capabilities.
- India: China’s Alibaba Group ceases innovation initiatives in India, citing the challenges of the current geopolitical environment
- Singapore’s Plano health tech startup partners China’s YOOZOO to address myopia in Singapore, SEA and beyond
- NASA contracts for Elon Musk’s SpaceX under review as potential national security risk due to China’s financial support for electric car company, Tesla
- Subsidiary of Lufax, China’s retail fintech, partners Thailand’s Kasikornbank to jointly build digital wealth management platform
- Vietnam: VNG online media platform sues TikTok, alleging copyright infringement and “”very complicated business model to avoid copyright compliance”
In Other news
Other subject-specific news from across Asia-Pacific:
• Blockchain news across Asia-Pacific
• Artificial Intelligence news, Asia
• Cybersecurity and data security news
Asia’s tech news, daily
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