China Digital Trends: Recent Episodes
Rocky Fu
China Digital Trends podcast by Rocky Fu covers the latest digital landscape in China including the popular applications, technology updates, social media, etc.
Baidu to build 5 million intelligent cloud servers by 2030, China has seen fast growth in its livestreaming industry over the past years, ByteDance made $5.6 billion in Q1, Alibaba Pictures to delist from Singapore Exchange, Huawei to get green light for $500m R&D center in UK, China’s TZTEK Technology to buy German chip tester for USD20.4 million
Xpeng files for US IPO, online marketplace for artists and collectors filed for IPO, Netease aims to raise $2-$3 billion in Hong Kong listing, Alibaba's online market to sponsor 100,000 influencers worldwide, TikTok user spending hits USD 78 million in April, Amazon unveils its first solar power project in China
NASDAQ to delist China's biggest Starbucks rival Luckin Coffee, Bytedance is forming a car infotainment team, Zoom suspends new free user registrations in China, Ant Financial’s MYbank to extend USD1.4 billion in interest-free loans to small businesses
Chinese e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo has overtaken rival JD.com to become China’s second most valuable online retailer after Alibaba, following a 5.26% rise in its shares on Tuesday
ChinaJoy Game Anime Expo to Go Ahead, BMW to invest $620M in Shenyang, cloud computing company Kingsoft surges 40% on IPO day, Dior unveils AI skin-testing tool, China to Give Foreign Banks’ Local Branches Access to Fund Custody Licenses
Alibaba's Double Five shopping festival in Shanghai, grocery e-retail brand Hema Fresh, U.S. drafts rule to allow Huawei and U.S. firms to work together, Bilibili’s market capital increased USD 480 million in one day, Inspur wades into Japan’s USD 5 billion market
China has overtaken Japan to emerge as the second-largest wealth market, with an estimated 2.3 million high net worth individuals
Huawei's Hisilicon chip unit overtook U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm to be the biggest mobile phone chip supplier in China for the first time, Chinese brands accounted for about 61% of global 5G smartphone shipments in Q1, Tencent buys 5% stake in Australian buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay, Chinese mobile games accounted for 19 of the top 100 highest-grossing games in the US, Didi Chuxing has reopened all of its mobility services in Wuhan, Tesla unveils new price cuts
MYbank, a digital bank under Ant Financial Services Group, served 20.87 million small and micro businesses (SME) in China as of the end of 2019, an increase of 70% YoY, according to its annual report.
Smartphone maker Transsion profit up 173% in 2019, Bitcoin-mining machine maker Ebang files for U.S. IPO, JD.com files for secondary listing in Hong Kong, China is expanding listing reforms, Alibaba Cloud 3rd biggest global provider for IaaS, Tencent to take over China’s game livestreaming market
AutoX trialing its “robotaxi” service in Shanghai, Tesla escalates battle against Chinese EV maker Xpeng, Starbucks has entered a strategic partnership with Sequoia Capital China, ByteDance ordered to suspend office app Feishu
JD.com and Volkswagen collaborate for vehicle-mounted smart system, Shanghai has become a major force behind the adoption of e-commerce live-streaming, China will launch an online shopping festival
iFlyTek reported a loss in Q1, Online education firm sees spike in userbases, China plane tickets fall 30%, Alibaba & JD offer bookings for COVID-19 tests
Tencent invests USD17M in Navinfo, Shanghai’s free-trade zone will accelerate digital infrastructure push with 5G, IoT and AI tech, Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus to compete in China, Huawei Q1 revenue grows 1.4%, Baidu introduced an updated version of Baidu Hi, 4.9 billion online office hours logged in March
The gross domestic product (GDP) of China was 20,650.4 billion yuan (US$2,908.74 billion) in the first quarter of 2020, a year-on-year decrease of 6.8%
Megvii unveils virtual makeup solution FaceStyle to boost sales for cosmetics retailers, China’s largest utilities will spend $570m on charging stations this year, Revenues of Chinese mobile game providers hit record-high of US$7 billion during Q1, a new committee tasked with setting up national standards for blockchain, e-commerce platform Jumei Youpin exit NYSE, 7,000 car-related live-streaming sessions in a single day,
Lenovo Group managed to increase its market share of PC sector in Q1, Jack Ma tops Fortune China’s list of influential business leaders in 2020, China to extend cross-border e-commerce scheme, Tencent becomes majority shareholder in Chinese game live-streamer Huya, Chinese telcos try to replace WeChat with launch of 5G messaging service, China’s AI startups already raised $420 million in April, Tesla's China sales hit record high in March, Bilibili announces 400 mln USD investment from Sony
Alibaba blocking Pinduoduo employees personal Taobao accounts, Huawei unveils its latest smartphone P40
Tencent, Baidu gain ground on Alibaba as China’s cloud market, Q4 performance of Douyu, Huya, YY, Bilibili
Apple Pay to support Alipay, WeChat and Mobike selected for the 100 Great Designs of Modern Times, Carrefour China owner Suning reports 17% drop, Pinduoduo launches enterprise collaboration tool Knock, TransferWise and Alipay team up for international money transfers, Xpeng gets green light to test autonomous vehicles in U.S., China's Nio to release car control app on Xiaomi's smart watch, TikTok moving its content moderation outside China, BYD starts engine on mask production, JD.com to arrange Hong Kong secondary listing, Tencent’s set for fastest growth since 2018, Starbucks to build up roasting capacity in China
Tencent-backed WeDoctor going $1 bn IPO in HK, TikTok testing podcasting, Cainiao pilots food delivery locker program, China using AI for earthquakes
L'Oreal sales revenue hits 15-year high, Oyo is cutting 60% of its China staff, Ride-hailing and food delivery plummet due to coronavirus, online grocery shopping sees uptick, Apple's main iPhone maker Foxconn resuming production capacity, China's sharing economy market exceeds 3.2 trln yuan in 2019, China expects over 550,000 5G base stations running by 2020
Weibo misses analyst expectations, TikTok took the crown in Jan, Netease revenues up 9%, e-commerce platform Jumei to go private, Alibaba testing new social app, Toyota leads Pony.AI funding
WeChat Pay gets approval to start Hong Kong-Macao cross-boundary mobile payments services, Huawei 2019 revenue up 18%, Hillhouse Capital to launch RMB 10 billion fund for startups in China, Smartphone sales tank in Jan, Skechers resumes building distribution center, China is postponing plans for massive autonomous vehicle (AV) deployment
Xiaomi backed robot vacuum cleaner manufacturer, has started to trade on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-like Star Market on Friday
WeChat Pay owner Tencent and Chinese state-owned card scheme China UnionPay are reportedly integrating their QR code systems for mobile payments.
As China continues to fight the coronavirus, remote working is no longer an option but a necessity for many. Communication and collaboration platforms are essential to remote workers; Alibaba’s DingTalk, a.k.a. Dingding in the Chinese version, has seen a spike in demand in China.
Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA) by Xiaomi, Huawei, Vivo, Oppo. AI apps from Alibaba and Baidu to fight the 2019-nCoV.
I also briefly shared my opinion about Bytedance, its uniqueness as a tech company in China
Some quick stats about China retail and online retail in 2019 and a quick comparison of how TikTok and Kwai works (content distribution part).
TikTok's setback in Australia, Huawei R&D investment, China AI industry, WeChat's new beta feature
Walmart to build 500 stores, mobile phone shipments down 6.2% in 2019, Huawei to set up new business group for AI, China finalizing rules for digital banking
Top China digital news from the last week: Alibaba Taobao has officially rolled out a new app called Taoxiaopu to leverage social e-commerce, Baidu has beaten Microsoft and Google in an ongoing natural language processing competition, Baidu among the first batch of companies to launch autonomous driving tests with real passengers in Beijing, a consortium led by China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd. agreed to buy 10% of Universal Music Group from French media company Vivendi SA, Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) cut the starting price for its China-made Model 3 sedans by 16%, Xiaomi will invest over CNY50 billion (USD7.2 billion) in 5G & AIoT, The health care subsidiary of e-commerce giant JD.com was ranked as the most valuable among 22 new unicorns
Cross-border e-commerce pilot zones expanded; China's Ministry of Public Security busted 15 cases of illegal payments, involving US$7.73 billion
Xiaomi announced its partnership today with crowdfunding platform indiegogo for its e-commerce platform Youpin to promote Chinese products and brands overseas
TikTok, Likee made it to world's most downloaded non-game app in 2019; Lenovo founder stepping down; Tencent increased its stake in Vipshop
new rules governing video and audio content online, including a ban on the publishing and distribution of “fake news” created with AI VR technologies
Top 4: Alibaba, ByteDance, Baidu, Tencent. Listen in for a brief introduction of each company.
More Chinese men using facial moisturizer than in any other country (64% compared with a 10% global average) and face wash (63% compared with 25% globally).
3 Chinese brands made it to top 5 global smart speakers by shipments. A brief introduction to WeChat's new ad format for SME retailers.
In the recent “Double 11 2019” shopping festival in China, Apple’s official flagship store on Tmall “Singles Day” transaction exceeded 7 times of last year’s full day sales in just 10 minutes.
There were 299 brands who reached RMB 100 million in GMV on Tmall, including Apple, Nike, Estee Lauder and Giorgio Armani.
In China, users can also access services such as paying for taxis, hotel room bookings, and movie tickets, directly within the app. However, because access typically requires a local phone number and Chinese bank account, short-term international visitors previously could not use mobile payments in China
Over 200,000 brands are participating, one million new products are on offer and more than 500 million users are expected to participate in this year’s festival – about 100 million more than last year.
PayPal becomes the only foreign company in China to hold licences to provide domestic and cross-border online and mobile payment services in China. A quick overview of China mobile payments market is included.
In 2018, Taobao’s live broadcasting platform Taobao Live delivered more than 100 billion yuan sales of products, a year-on-year growth rate of nearly 400% according to Alibaba.
A quick overview of China's search engine market and where users conduct searches in addition to Baidu.
E-commerce growth on top of social media continues fast growth in China; this episode gives an introduction to the four typical models.
This episode gives you a brief introduction to China's Golden Weeks and National Day celebrations.
Top Chinese internet companies are building their own content ecosystem such as WeChat's Official Account. In this episode, I'd give you a quick introduction to six of the top platforms.
An introduction to China's mini-program platforms represented by WeChat, Alipay, and Baidu.