China’s Q3 2021 tech news
• July, August and September of 2021
• Tech news headlines at a glance
• Quick reference for a time-poor audience
• One-click access to each full tech news article
• Online and drawn from daily tech news
July 2021 | August 2021 | September 2021
Get daily tech news from Asia and beyond, as it happens, from our social, mobile and email channels
September 2021
- Download: China Internet Report – How the platform business model is powering China’s digital economy, from Bain & Co, AliResearch and Baidu (pdf)
- China’s UnionPay card network and US payments giant Stripe deepen partnership allowing Stripe sellers to take payments from UnionPay cardholders, including in Chinese currency
- SCMP China Internet Report 2021, available to download now
- China: Banking officials now working with fund managers and insurers to explore CBDC use beyond low-value daily retail payments
- China: LLVision Tech releases eyewear that converts speech into text in real-time for hearing-impaired people, using augmented reality and artificial intelligence
- China: The CareVoice health insurtech firm gains backing with services including plug-and-play open platform allowing insurers to manage their own ecosystem and create their own solutions
- China: Beijing municipal gov’t reportedly has proposed consortium investment in Didi Global, giving state-run firms control of the world’s largest ride-hail company
- China: Economic planning body approves national grid operator trials using blockchain for green power trading
- ICYMI: In July, China’s first blockchain-based carbon offset certificate was issued, the first of the country’s steps towards building a national carbon trading platform
- China’s Bitmain bitcoin mining giant inks deal with data center and power partners Bit5ive and ISW Holdings to house 56000 AntMiner units in US state of Georgia
- China: WeRide unveils its first autonomous cargo van, partnering for mass production with JMC
- China: Xiaomi tech giant reportedly to debut its first electric vehicle in 2024, following recent acquisition of DeepMotion autonomous driving firm
- China: Sanya, tourist destination in Hainan province, to hand out 28K e-CNY red envelopes worth $1.55M through lottery
- China: DeepRouteAI autonomous driving technology firm gains $300M backing from Alibaba Group and others with focus on medium-duty trucks and robotaxis
- China: Tencent partners Dunhuang Academy for NFTs of UNESCO world heritage site wall paintings of Mogao Caves – on a blockchain that demands real-name ID verification
- China: Alibaba launches new dropshipping solution and $500K grant program to boost SME e-commerce capabilities
- China: A look at the winners from TechNode’s recent OTEC-Emerge Technology Awards, working in electric and autonomous vehicles, fintech, blockchain and more
- China: Shanghai Maritime University and Conflux blockchain startup launch finance-focused research lab, in part to look at offshore digital yuan transactions
- China: Didi ride-hail giant soon to launch in Lagos, Nigeria, building on presence in 17 countries globally
- China: Pinduoduo launches 10 Billion Agriculture Initiative to boost sustainable agri-tech and digitization of the country’s farming industry, backed by $1.5BN fund
- China: JPMorgan to process US credit card payments for Alibaba’s B2B sales unit based in China, working with Alipay to facilitate transactions
- China: Bytedance to roll out music streaming app with team behind Douyin overseeing the build-out and incorporating copyright managment, licensing and distribution
- China: ByteDance imposes 40-minutes-per-day time limit for under-14s on Douyin, in-country version of TikTok video app
- China: Oppo Communication Lab unveiled, with sights on end-to-end 5G research and development in partnership with Ericsson and others
- China: NIO electric vehicles major sets sights on completion of 1230km battery-swapping network touching on 5 north-south expressways by Chinese New Year 2022
- China: General Motors to invest $300M in Momenta autonomous driving startup, aiming for mass-production self-driving vehicles running on real-time data
- People’s Bank of China announces that virtual currencies “are not legal and should not and cannot be used as currency in the market”
- China: Lithuania National Cyber Security Centre urges citizens to replace Xiaomi and Huawei phones following research finding risk of remote censorship and data transmission
- China: Black Sesame Technologies approaches $2BN valuation with artificial intelligence-based self-driving vehicle computing chips
- China: Geely auto giant steps into high-end consumer devices space with launch of new company, in part aiming to build on in-car services and supporting data ecosystems
- Vietnam: Homefarm e-commerce focused imported food chain gains backing from Alibaba eWTP Technology and Innovation Fund
August 2021
- China: Beijing Ubox reportedly mulling Hong Kong IPO, targeting up to $500M, with smart retail devices using facial recognition and artificial intelligence
- e-news, latest issue: China’s smart retail, Indian student fund, Philippines’ vegan leather…
- China: 3-year plan unveiled by 10 gov’t bodies, outlining goal of 560M 5G mobile subscribers by end of 2023, alongside wireless tech boost in industrial enterprises
- China: Ju short-video ‘content incubation’ platform raises near $1.5M backing, using blockchain to verify content as authentic intellectual property
- Huawei to invest $100M in Asia Pacific region via Spark Program over 3 years, adding four new startup hubs in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam
- China: Tencent tightens gaming controls for children after state media takes a swipe, labelling gaming as ‘electronic drugs’
- China: “Despite the trials, lotteries, and promotional campaigns by government and banks for China’s digital currency, few people see a reason to jump on board.”
- e-news, latest issue: China’s digital yuan, NFTs for India, SPACs, ed-tech in Singapore…
- China: Anxinsec Technology network security firm raises $15 Series A, benefiting from gov’t tightening of data security and 3-year action plan to build cybersecurity industry
- China: A video look at the publicly-available, fully-driverless AutoX RoboTaxi Service in action on the streets of Shenzhen
- China: Didi ride-hailing giant reportedly in talks with state-owned infosec firm Westone to handle data management and monitoring in bid to appease regulators
- China: Xi’an city orders Didi Chuxing to ban unlicensed vehicles, affecting more than half its fleet and with just 30% of vehicles on the platform meeting regulatory requirements
- Download: Cryptocurrency and China – Analyzing China’s Historic Cryptocurrency Activity Amidst Government Crackdowns, from Chainalysis (pdf)
- China: A brief overview of the state of play in the country’s microprocessor space, as China’s startups race to gain an advantage in the artificial intelligence chip market
- China: Shanghai Pateo raises over $128M with focus on intelligent vehicle service systems, providing vehicle networking products and services to automakers
- China: Alipay, country’s second-most popular payments app, moves to limit speculation with NFTs, adding mandatory 180-day no-trade period after purchase
- China’s semiconductor supply: “Some small chip distributors are ‘holding back inventories’ which ‘gives another layer of complexity to the supply chain’”
- China: A look at the rise of social media influencers in the country’s electric vehicles marketing space
- China: A brief look at Baidu search giant’s moves into autonomous vehicles, following recent glimpse of 2-seater ‘robocar’ produced in partnership with Geely
- China: Shenzhen offers cross-border e-commerce merchants $300K subsidy to move activities from Amazon as e-commerce giant cracks down on review fraud
- China: Tencent’s QQ Music streaming arm steps into non-fungible tokens, selling out of its first NFT featuring singer Tiger Hu
- China: TikTok partners Audius, a blockchain-based music streaming protocol, potentially resulting in better royalties for artists with Audius’ user-centric model
- e-news, latest issue: Music NFTs in China, Korean food-tech, India’s 19min deliveries, Facebook’s NOVI digital wallet…
- China: Dao Foods Incubator unveils 2nd cohort of 5 Chinese and China-focused alt-protein startups
- e-news, latest issue: China’s alt-protein space, Indonesia’s Digital LookBook, Filipino startups, artificial intelligence in India…
- China: Hozon Auto’s Neta EV startup to use Huawei IoT, cloud computing, lidar and big data technologies to develop smart vehicles
- e-news, latest issue: Huawei EVs, Korean gaming curfew, blockchain in Indian finance, Thailand’s digital asset news…
- China: WeChat and UnionPay to recognize each other’s QR codes, marking a major step in continuing consolidation of the country’s mobile payments industry
- e-news, latest issue: Singapore’s restaurants, China’s digital payment QR codes, India’s deep-tech initiative, Australia’s AI Action Plan…
- China: Xiaomi smartphone giant to acquire Deepmotion, absorbing digital mapping technology for autonomous vehicles
- China: New rules proposed to ban companies with large amounts of consumer data from listing overseas, with internet, telecoms and education seen as political or national-security risks
- e-newsletter, latest issue: Korea & cybersec, Visa India’s offline payments, China’s datasec moves, Xiaomi and autonomous vehicles…
- China to limit the amount of time online gaming will be available to minors to just 3 hours most weeks, from 8-9 pm on Fridays, weekends and public holidays
- e-news, latest issue: India’s e-RUPI, AliPay and NFTs, Indonesia’s insurtech, the micropayments myth…
- Singapore’s Plano partners Huawei to boost myopia prevention, with addition of Plano app to Huawei apps gallery on devices
- Singapore-based Chope partners Alipay to accelerate digitisation of F&B businesses across Asia
- e-news, latest issue: Healthtech in Taiwan, open banking, Baidu’s robocar, AI artists…
- e-news, latest issue: Indian fintech, China’s ride-hailing, Australia’s Cyber Ambassador, Indonesian giant IPO…
- e-news, latest issue: Vietnam e-commerce, Singapore blockchain, gaming in China…
July 2021
- ICYMI: Huawei partners Saudi Arabia’s Technical and Vocational Training Corp for initiative to train tech up to 20K Saudi students in free program built around Huawei tech
- ICYMI: JPMorgan bank to exclude Huawei dollar bonds from some investment indices from the end of August, responding to US sanctions on Chinese tech firms
- China: Tencent had invested in 62 gaming companies by the end of June, a new deal every 3 days, seen in part as defensive move against ByteDance’s gaming growth
- Video: ‘In China, The Future of Shopping Is Already Happening’ a 10-minute dive into livestreaming e-commerce from Bloomberg Quicktake
- China’s TikTok short video platform moves into longer-format territory with 3-minute video option rolled out, taking cues from YouTube’s growth strategy
- China: Freetech autonomous driving firm lands $100M Series A with 40-plus OEM partnerships in place for scale, and current trial of self-driving minibuses
- China-ASEAN New Smart City Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition 2021 edition applications open now, looking for smart city solutions to implement in Nanning
- China: Tech giant Tencent to roll out facial recognition to stop young gamers playing between 10pm and 8am, with ban requiring ID registration linked to national database
- Download: Digital China 2021 from We Are Social and Hootsuite, a look at data, trends and insights on China’s internet, mobile, social media and e-commerce spaces (pdf)
- Download: Unchaining Blockchain in China – From Wild West cryptocurrenciest o strategic technology, via MERICS, March 2021 (pdf)
- China: An overview of Wisdon, using cloud-based AI and Internet of Things tech to make city infrastructure ‘smarter’, automating water, electricity and gas meter processes
- China: Alibaba e-commerce giant to launch $257M venture fund to invest in startups in the Greater Bay Area, with Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund as anchor
- China: Government publishes new regulation around cyber vulnerability disclosure, preventing private sector experts from on-selling serious breach information
- China: AutoX self-driving vehicles startup unveils Gen5 self-drive system designed for robotaxis, built on NVIDIA DRIVE auto grade GPUs
- China: TikTok has now been downloaded more than 3 billion times around the world, a number previously only reached by Facebook and its apps
- China: Shanghai announces municipal Artificial Intelligence plan to look at rule changes around digital tech, technical standards risk monitoring
- “Out of China’s 34 provinces and province-level cities, 33 have enacted policies to accelerate blockchain innovation…”
- China: Bianlifeng cashierless stores firm set to IPO in the US, targeting $500M, with QR code based technology
- China: Central bank claims ‘digital yuan’ reached $5BN transaction value by end of June, across 70.5M transactions, 21M personal wallets and 3.5M enterprise wallets
- China: WeRide autonomous driving firm acquires MoonXAI autonomous trucking startup, widening focus from driverless cars and taxis
- China: A deep-dive look at Xiaohongshu aka Little Red Book, social shopping platform with more than 100M users and a focus on fashion, luxury, health and beauty
- China: A look at the trials of Tsinghua Unigroup, highlighting the complexity of China’s state-directed capitalist model in its quest to achieve microchip self-sufficiency
- China: Ping An subsidiary in Shenzhen launches COVID-19 insurance plan for medical staff in which users who pay premiums in ‘digitial yuan’ receive discounts
- China: InferVision gains $139M with platform AI to screen, diagnose and treat cancers, and cardiovascular and infectious diseases
- “China wants its online tutoring companies to go non-profit. This…could not only destroy its $100BN edtech market but also benefit countries like India…”
- China’s digital currency moves: “… Bloomberg estimates the e-CNY could capture about 9% of China’s market by 2025.”
- China’s Ant Group likely to sell 5% of 30.33% stake in India’s Paytm parent company, in bid to to comply with Securities and Exchange Board requirements
- South Korea’s Sandbox Network, country’s largest multichannel network, makes major expansion in China, establishing local entity, Shanghai Sandbox Media
- South Korea’s SK Group holding company partners China’s Joyvio Group food firm to create $86.7M fund for food-tech startups, focusing on the growing alternative foods market
- Thai financial regulators hit Binance cryptocurrency exchange with criminal complaint around digital asset trading, adding to issues in UK, Germany, Japan and the US
- “Nestled between the two global powers, geographically and strategically, South Korea is already a major player in chip manufacturing and it’s not going to give up its position without a fight.”
- e-news, latest issue: Antler Demo Day, Australian crypto tax, Indian HRtech, China’s semiconductors…
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