China’s startup news from January 2020,
as covered online in English-language media.
China’s startup news in January 2020 covers items across a huge range, from central bank digital currency developments to the internet of things, venture capital funds and startup funding, artificial intelligence and beyond.
China’s startup news from other months and quarterly news collections are also available to read online.
- China: Xiaomi smartphone giant to invest at least $7.2BN in 5G and artificial-intelligence-of-things – AIoT – tech across 5 years, building on ‘All in AIoT’ strategy
- China: Shenzhen Stock Exchange launches index tracking performance of 50 blockchain firms, set for twice-yearly update
- China: Alibaba rolls out new Taoxiaopu function in Taobao app, allowing its 693M active users to set up stores listing other merchants’ goods in dropshipping growth move
- China suspends planned cross-border listings partnership between Shanghai and London Stock Exchanges amid political tensions over Hong Kong protests
- “…Beijing appears to be seeking to exploit the global reach of Chinese technology companies as a new vector for influence in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.”
- China: Baidu search engine giant overtakes Google and Microsoft in AI competition around machine understanding of human language
- Report: China Consumer 2020 – The rise of the ‘Young Free Spenders’, from McKinsey
- China: An overview of Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s Blockchain 50 Index, and its initial impact – initial filtering of experimental blockchain firms for investors to choose from
- ICYMI: China’s Hainan island opened its doors to foreign investment and crypto exchanges – offshore digital-asset lab, policy testing ground, sandbox?
- China: Baidu internet giant launches blockchain-based service for developers and SMEs to build decentralized applications, part of Xuperchain enterprise network
- China: Shanghai’s Putuo district launches trial of 25 5G applications across subjects including shopping, traffic, garbage and medical services, served by 700 base stations
- China: An intro to 0glasses’ RealX augmented reality smart glasses
- China: DataCloak startup secures $13M Series A with focus on network data leaks, rather than on intrusion
- China: Man arrested for selling VPN software, providing circumvention of the country’s online censorship system
- China: Tencent and state-owned UnionPay to merge QR code systems for mobile payments, with testing already underway on Android devices in Fuzhou city
- US Senator introduces bill to stop US companies from sharing intelligence with countries which choose to use China’s Huawei in 5G systems
- China: Xiaohongshu, fast-growing social media and e-commerce startup reportedly in early talks to raise funds at a valuation near $6BN
- China’s Digital Silk Road: “…Huawei building smart cities in over 200 cities across 40 countries…and ZTE building smart cities in over 170 cities across 60 countries”
- China: WeChat mini programs growing fast in importance to Tencent, with users spending $115BN via mini programs in 2019
- China extends cross-border e-commerce pilot program from 35 to 59 cities, with new additions now including most of China’s largest cities
- China: WeChat monthly active users exceeded 1.15BN in 2019, an increase of 6% YoY; mini programs hit transactions value of over $115BN
- China: Shenzhen court rules that AI-generated articles are entitled to copyright protection, ruling in favour of item written by Tencent’s Dreamwriter AI system
- China: People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, claims top-level design of national digital currency has been completed
- China: A look at HeartDub, creating virtual fabric samples for clothing manufacturers based on textile data, mimicking properties of the real item
- ICYMI: US Senators propose $1BN plan to outpace Huawei in 5G. The problem? Huawei already spends 15 times as much on research.
- China’s Huobi crypto exchange partners Fäm Properties for cryptocurrency payment options in real estate in United Arab Emirates
- China: Provincial government of Anhui unveils plan to adopt blockchain and AI tech across government service centers
- Huawei unveils $26M investment in bid to attract British and Irish developers to make apps and ecosystem for Huawei App Gallery
- China: Another huge unsecured online database – facial recognition details of 1.3M people, including students, teachers, cleaners and security staff
- China’s DPhone, one of the country’s largest smartphone retailers makes blockchain move with minority stake acquisition in US’ Monsoon Blockchain firm
- China: Short video industry becomes major player as video sites draw in more online advertising revenue than news platforms across 2019
- China: Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link the first 5G-enabled high speed rail line to be rolled out, backed by 300 base stations
- China: Shanghai outlines 5-year fintech action plan built around 25 major tasks covering five key areas, aiming for global finance center status
- China: US Interior Dep’t reportedly planning to halt civilian drone program over concerns around made-in-China security risks
- China’s Tencent leads $45M Series B in Lydia, French mobile payments platform with 3M users
- China projected to drive mobile spending to a record $380BN in 2020, as world moves into a mobile-first decade
- China: Xiezhu secures $37M with smart property management solutions for 8000 hotels, covering around 350K rooms
- China: Megvii AI startup reportedly blunders server security, making facial recognition data from millions of surveillance cameras accessible online
- China Telecom’s new ad shows 5G delivering facial recognition for neighborhood watch, pitching 5G networks as making it even easier to snitch on your neighbors
- China: Winreal Investment hits first close of 5G industry fund at $146M, in part government-backed
- China’s Huawei signs deal with Netherlands’ TomTom for maps and services alternatives to Google
- China: Pharmacists and patients in Shanghai soon to be required to have faces scanned before obtaining controlled medicines
- China: Xiaomi gains regulator approval to establish consumer finance firm in Chongqing
- Tesla switches partnership from Tencent Maps to Baidu Maps as provider of in-car mapping data services in China
- China: “APT groups…have a common blueprint: contract hackers and specialists, front companies, and an intelligence officer…multiple areas each have their own APT.”
- China: Mulan coding language, claimed to have been entirely homegrown and ‘fully autonomously designed’ found to be a fork of open-source Python language
- China: An intro look at Conflux Technology, tackling blockchain scalability, one of technology’s three bottlenecks
- China: “Bytedance collaborates with public security bureaus…including in Xinjiang where it plays an active role in disseminating the party-state’s propaganda”
- ICYMI: Canada’s Bluedot AI-powered health monitoring platform reportedly spotted and warned of Wuhan coronavirus outbreak December 31st
- University of Minnesota student arrested on return to China, sentenced to 6 months in prison for tweets posted while in US
- China: “Rural e-commerce is a huge success story – unless you’re a farmer.” An overview of what’s at risk, and lost, as technology takes hold
- ICYMI: Dubai’s Mara Group taking on China’s smartphone dominance in Africa with handsets entirely made in South Africa and Rwanda
- South Australia’s health department to remove all closed-circuit television cameras made by China’s Hikvision due to security concerns
- Don’t rush into 5G’ – A concise look at why India needs to be wary of China’s technology presence in its communications network
- Japan’s Shiseido opens Beauty Innovation Hub in Shanghai, to facilitate close collaboration with China’s startup ecosystem
- China’s TikTok partners Malaysia’s Iflix to bring short video content to streaming video-on-demand service across Asia
- Singapore: China’s Zall Smart Commerce joins digital bank license race, partnering Japan’s Marubeni trading company and Singapore-based Global eTrade Services
- Facebook sets Singapore team for China advertising, regardless of China’s “track record of violating human rights like privacy or freedom of expression”
