Tech news, China
July 2018
- Tikin Media marketing startup secures $17.6M for elevator projection advertising method
- Yitu AI startup to aid new Beijing airport with facial recognition technology for security screenings
- China’s Alibaba unveils AI copywriter which can produce up to 20,000 lines of copy a second; passes Turing test
- An overview of Alibaba’s City Brain project, aiming to help governments manage cities domestically and beyond
- A look at APEX Technologies, state-backed China Internet Weekly’s top AI company
- Bad ‘social credit’ rating? Your kids won’t get into college.
- An intro to Zhongwei city, aiming to become a big data hub
- TRON blockchain startup to acquire BitTorrent for $140M
- China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom partner for industry-level blockchain applications
- Xiongan New Area gov’t partners Ethereum’s ConsenSys to develop blockchain innovation hub
- Nanjing city launches $1.5BN blockchain fund aiming to support public projects
- Chain Future Digital FinTech launches blockchain incubator and accelerator
- An intro to VeChain’s blockchain-based building supply chain solutions, backed by PwC
- Nervos Network blockchain startup secures $28M for enterprise-level solutions
- Bilibili animation streaming apps the latest to be struck by state ban for ‘vulgar’ content
- An intro to Makeblock, startup teaching coding and robotics to kids worldwide
- WeWork coworking space operator secures $500M, aiming for 6-city growth
- OKCoin cryptocurrency exchange launches fiat-to-crypto trading services in the US
- Alibaba to launch Global E-commerce Talent Network, aiming to train 1M students and 200K SMEs inside 5 years
- Haoyiku social commerce startup raises ‘hundreds of millions of RMB’ in Tencent-led round
- An intro look at Robot.He, automated restaurant in Shanghai
- China’s Pinduoduo ecommerce platform files for $1BN IPO in the US
- Zuoyebang online tutoring startup secures $350M, claiming over 70M users
- The China Internet Report 2018
- A look at Futu, enabling Chinese investors to trade overseas stocks via their bank accounts abroad
- Approximately 118 P2P lenders have failed so far in July in response to financial risk clampdown
- China’s Tencent aiming to expand WeChat Pay payments footprint in the US
- Snowball Finance fintech startup secures $120M for ‘social investment platform’ approach
- Tiger mobile securities broker secures valuation of US$1.06BN
- WeChat expands service fee for ‘card repay’ in digital wallet, aiming for sustainable payments model
- Google launches its first WeChat mini program as China experiment
- noon, Middle East digital marketplace, launches China and Hong Kong operations
- Ganesh Ventures to launch $250M India-focused fund
- An infographic look at China’s tech stats, mid-2018
- Tuya Smart one-stop AI-driven IoT firm secures $200M
- Toutiao news app to implement partial paywall, allowing outlets to monetize content
- An intro to Yingtan, a benchmark city for how government can use technology
- An intro to Guangzhou’s tech-driven smart city ambitions
- Keep fitness app secures $126M for social focus
- Bolome startup uses social media stars to sell Japanese goods to 80 million followers
- An intro to Ratio, robot-powered cafe chain
- Zhihu Q&A platform reportedly secures $300M for Quora-like approach
- Douyin short video platform to launch Star Map Platform matching service for key opinion leaders and businesses
- An overview of the recent TechCrunch Hangzhou 2018 conference
- China’s Cango, online marketplace for new and used cars, aims for $300M IPO in the US
- Washlava wins Electrolux Future of Laundry Challenge in China
- A look at Chengdu, Nanjing, and Xiamen, tier 2 cities aiming to reinvent themselves as future tech hubs
- Megvii, owner of Face++ facial recognition system, reportedly raising $600M
- A look at China’s use of facial recognition and other technologies
- An overview of Alibaba’s Dingtalk, China’s largest enterprise messenger app with 100M users
- 3 multi-billion-dollar companies dominate the internet landscape, from news media to AI
- Meitu selfie app aims to build a full ecosystem – and empire – around beauty
- WeChat now has over 1.5M third-party mini-apps from 1M developers
- Toutiao news aggregator app aims for much more – live game streaming, money lending and beyond
- A look at how Chinese authorities shapes the country’s tech industry
- A look at Peking University’s installation of a facial recognition system
- China Creation Ventures raises $200M fund to focus on tech, media and telecomms
- China Merchants Group and SPF Group partner UK’s Centricus to launch $15BN fund to invest in technology companies
- Why web, tech and mobile people need to pay attention to China, from the China Internet Report 2018
