A veteran TV maker just got a notable refresh as it enters the age of connected devices. Xiaomi, the Beijing-based firm best known for budget smartphones, has bought 65.2 million shares, or 0.48 percent, of Chinese home appliance maker TCL, said TCL in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Sunday. Shares of TCL, the world’s third-largest […]
View More In major TV push, China’s Xiaomi buys 0.5% stake in TCLCategory: Beijing
The end of China’s ride-sharing gig
Over the last few years, millions of Chinese workers managed to earn extra money by being ride-hailing drivers. Many picked the gig because of its flexible schedule. For those who could not otherwise afford to own a car in China’s pricy metropolises, driving around is also a status symbol, even if they are paying off […]
View More The end of China’s ride-sharing gigEpic Games, the creator of Fortnite, banked a $3 billion profit in 2018
Epic Games had as good a year in 2018 as any company in tech. Fortnite became the world’s most popular game, growing the company’s valuation to $15 billion, but it has helped the company pile up cash, too. Epic grossed a $3 billion profit for this year fueled by the continued success of Fortnite, a […]
View More Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, banked a $3 billion profit in 2018Winter is ending: China to restart game approvals
As 2018 draws to a close, China’s gaming industry — which has been beaten by a nine-month-long freeze in license approvals — woke up to exhilarating news as officials announced that they have started to review new titles again. The much-coveted game licenses are essential for developers to legally monetize their work in China. “We’ve […]
View More Winter is ending: China to restart game approvalsTikTok parent ByteDance sues Chinese news site that exposed fake news problem
There’s worrying news from China’s online media world as ByteDance, the $75 billion company behind popular video app TikTok is taking a news site to court for alleged defamation after it published a story about ByteDance’s fake news problem in India. U.S. tech firms have come to rely on media to help uncover issues, but Chinese […]
View More TikTok parent ByteDance sues Chinese news site that exposed fake news problemChina’s JD.com teams up with Intel to develop ‘smart’ retail experiences
Months after it landed a major $550 million investment from Google, China’s JD.com — the country’s second highest-profile investor behind Alibaba — has teamed up with another U.S. tech giant: Intel. JD and Intel said today that they will set up a “lab” focused on bringing internet-of-things technology into the retail process. That could include […]
View More China’s JD.com teams up with Intel to develop ‘smart’ retail experiencesGoogle invests in Japanese AI and machine learning startup ABEJA
Google has made a rare investment in Japan after the company led a follow-on round for AI and machine learning startup ABEJA. The deal amount is undisclosed but a little digging suggests that it is likely a single-digit million US dollar figure. That’s because six-year-old ABEJA did confirm that it has now raised JPY 6 billion ($53 […]
View More Google invests in Japanese AI and machine learning startup ABEJAChina’s Infervision is helping 280 hospitals worldwide detect cancers from images
Until recently, humans have relied on the trained eyes of doctors to diagnose diseases from medical images. Beijing-based Infervision is among a handful of artificial intelligence startups around the world racing to improve medical imaging analysis through deep learning, the same technology that powers face recognition and autonomous driving. The startup, which has to date raised $70 […]
View More China’s Infervision is helping 280 hospitals worldwide detect cancers from imagesWeWork is getting serious about China
Since its entry into China in 2016, WeWork has extended from four to around 60 locations across the country’s megacities like Shanghai, Beijing, and most recently, Shenzhen. That’s one-sixth of WeWork’s 360 locations worldwide. It’s also equivalent to what WeWork has achieved in its early five to six years globally, Sern Hong Yu, regional head of project […]
View More WeWork is getting serious about ChinaKorean e-commerce firm Coupang raises $2 billion from SoftBank’s Vision Fund
Just days after a CIA report concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, SoftBank’s Vision Fund — the gargantuan investment vehicle anchored by a $45 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s PIF sovereign fund — is back in check-writing action. Coupang, Korea’s largest e-commerce firm, revealed today that it has […]
View More Korean e-commerce firm Coupang raises $2 billion from SoftBank’s Vision FundChina’s hottest news app Jinri Toutiao announces new CEO
You may not have heard of ByteDance, but you probably know its red-hot video app TikTok, which gobbled up Musical.ly in August. The Beijing-based company also runs a popular news aggregator called Jinri Toutiao, which means “today’s headlines” in Chinese, and the app just assigned a new CEO. At a company event on Saturday, Chen Lin, an […]
View More China’s hottest news app Jinri Toutiao announces new CEOAlibaba and Amazon move over, we visited JD.com connected grocery store in China
The arms race to build the future of grocery stores is heating up in China. To no one’s surprise, the main contestants are the country’s ecommerce titans Alibaba and JD.com, which are turning offline for growth. Online retail has flourished in China, but it still accounts for less than 20 percent of the nation’s overall consumption, according […]
View More Alibaba and Amazon move over, we visited JD.com connected grocery store in China