The March 2020 month-end collection of China’s startup news, from Startup News Asia.
Each month, we gather China’s startup news, along with venture capital funding items and tech news to produce a monthly summary, in this case for March 2020. Items are drawn from our daily news feeds, which collect startup news in China from online news sources, tech news channels and China-focused news services; and each item linked here will take you to the original news source.
- ICYMI: US Senate passes ‘rip and replace’ bill to remove Huawei and ZTE equipment from networks, backed by $1BN in funding
- China: Slush Shanghai 2020 set for October 15 and 16, aiming to gather 15K attendees, 1500 startups and 1K investors
- Documents surface showing Huawei was, in fact, directly involved in sending prohibited US computer equipment to Iran’s largest mobile operator
- China: A round-jup of the country’s startup, technology and funding news from February 2020, from Startup News Asia
- China: “…in order for iOS games to go through the approval process and get that ISBN, they will have to sign over their copyright to a Chinese partner”
- China: A video look at tech firm TCL’s prototype for a world-first rollable smartphone
- China: in 2019, Ministry of Education approved applications for 180 more colleges to offer majors in artificial intelligence, up from 35 in 2018
- China: MAD Gaze raises $19M with augmented reality smart glasses range, online app marketplace and more
- China: Hunan Province to create first provincial blockchain special zone in area already home to 788 blockchain-related companies
- China: Chengdu University of Information Technology gains approval to open the country’s first undergraduate blockchain engineering major
- China: Geely, country’s largest auto maker, is building a satellite network and production ecosystem, aiming for low-orbit connectivity for autonomous vehicles
- China: With hundreds of millions of employees told to work from home, workplace collaboration apps have become essential
- China: Ant Financial to open AliPay platform to 40M service providers in a bid to become a one-stop platform for ‘digital lifestyle’ services
- China: Beijing gov’t announces that the city now has 26000 5G base stations with 800K users; central gov’t aims to build 550K 5G base stations nationwide in 2020
- China: A look at moves by Jinri Toutiao, created by TikTok owner ByteDance, to join the super-app ranks, a one-stop do-everything platform like WeChat
- China: Alibaba e-commerce giant to establish research lab for the development of 5G technologies
- What exactly is the Blue Dot Network, and how does it contrast with China’s Belt and Road Initiative?
- China: “…consider China’s National Security Law and Cyber Security Law…Huawei must abide by these two laws, significantly blurring the distinction between privacy and security”
- China: Lingumi secures $5M Series A with pre-school English learning platform
- China: Fenbeitong secures $36M with online expense management platform, mobile app and associated corporate products
- China: Xiaomi smartphone maker ad campaign sends latest device’s 100-megapixel camera into space via cubesat to capture images from orbit
- China: “Getting into one’s apartment or workplace requires scanning a QR code, writing down one’s name and ID number, temperature and recent travel history”
- China: NIO fast-growing electric vehicle startup partners Xiaomi electronics giant for wearable remote car communication app
- China: Toyota partners Momenta autonomous driving startup to commercialize high-definition mapping system, aiming for centimetre-level mapping precision
- ICYMI: China’s Hebei province has established a $7.1BN special financing vehicle, aiming to get the local economy running following coronavirus disruptions
- China: A look at Unified Operating System, Linux-based OS now running on China-made chips with sights set on replacing Windows
- China: Coolhobo launches Hobose, AR app giving personalised food and dietary advice while users shop for groceries
- China: A look at the boom in online learning, an impact of COVID-19
- China: An advance look at the National Blockchain Network, set to launch in 100 cities in April and aiming to establish 200 nodes by year-end
- China: Xpeng and Byton electric vehicle majors join to establish Qingyan Huake New Energy Institute for research and development of new energy technology
- China: Yuanfudao online education platform, backed by Tencent, reportedly close to completing financing round that would value it near $7.5BN
- Tencent releases Voov Meeting cloud-based conferencing to over 100 markets, free and capable of hosting 300 attendees simultaneously, as part of COVID-19 move
- China: Pinduoduo social e-commerce company launches Knock, enterprise communication app, stepping into workplace collaboration and WFH market
- China: “One major consequence…has been a noticeable performance gap between schools, students and families based on income or location”
- China: Alibaba e-commerce giant to move to blockchain via Koala digital traceability platform in bid for total transparency across supply chain
- China: Weibo social media giant confirms 538 million user records leaked and found listed for sale online – ID numbers, emails, real names, phone numbers and more
- China: Wearable device shipments grew by over 25% to 27.61M units in Q4 2019, led by Xiaomi and Huawei
- China: Tencent rolls out Fuxuema tracking mini-app for WeChat aimed at students returning to school, ostensibly a coronavirus monitor
- ICYMI: US prepares further limits on Huawei with rule change requiring foreign companies using US chipmaking gear to obtain licensing before supplying
- Merck Accelerator China applications close May 17th for startups in healthcare, life science, performance materials and more
- China: Shenzhen reportedly following Beijing and Shanghai with approval for road tests of autonomous vehicles carrying passengers
- China: Hikvision launches MinMoe face recognition terminals for building access control and employee attendance monitoring
- Australia: Former SA senator Xenophon should sign on foreign influence register due to legal work for China’s Huawei, says Intelligence and Security Committee chair
- ICYMI: US Republican lawmakers call for Twitter to ban Chinese Communist Party accounts citing “massive propaganda campaign to rewrite the history of COVID-19”
- Hong Kong: China’s ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance the first to launch in HK with virtual banking licence under Za Bank brand
- India: China’s Oppo smartphone maker steps into financial services in India with launch of Oppo Kash, aiming for 10M customers in 5 years
- Japan: China’s Didi Chuxing ride-hailing giant preps to launch food delivery services in Osaka in April, building on cab services already in 20 cities
- Tradition cybercrime goals “…joined by an increasing desire to sow disruption and conflict among institutions and…populations alike, with political and economic gain the ultimate driver”
Tech news: By subject
Other subject-specific news from across Asia-Pacific in March 2020:
• Blockchain news across Asia-Pac
• Artificial Intelligence news, Asia
• Cybersecurity and data security news
Asia’s tech news, daily
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