January, February, March 2020
Each link below leads to the original China startup news article for that headline, gathered from online China tech news coverage across the first quarter of 2020 – the months of January, February and March of 2020.
Our quarterly China-focused startup news listings provide a one-page at-a-glance listing of the startup headlines for China as a quick reference on the country’s early-stage startup scene and, where applicable, as coverage of China’s many startups making in-roads overseas.
Startup News Asia’s quarterly summaries can also be ordered online in hardcopy, printed, bound and delivered. Our hardcopy publications feature scan-able links to connect you from print to each headline’s online news article using the Startup News Asia mobile app, or any similar app you already have on your device.
January 2020 | February 2020 | March 2020
China: January 2020
- 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”
China: February 2020
- China: “…creating an elaborate, digital system of governance since Xi Jinping came to power. This year, the social credit system is set to cover all corners of China.”
- China: A brief intro to WiFi Master’s LinkSure app, providing users with user-submitted WiFi connections
- Download: Tracking Operation Wocao, one of China’s state-run hacking groups tasked with obtaining information for espionage purposes
- China: “Apple’s transparency report really ends up creating more questions than providing answers”
- China: TCL loses all rights to design, manufacture, trademark and sale of new Blackberry brand mobile devices
- German news report alleges gov’t has ‘smoking gun’ evidence that Huawei cooperated with China’s state intelligence, proving the firm an unsafe 5G partner
- A look at the central role of Huawei in the growing tech collaboration between China and Russia
- China: Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo partnering on platform for developers outside China to upload apps onto all of their app stores simultaneously
- China: Pinduoduo group-buying platform launches test for Duoduo Video, incentivising shoppers to watch videos to collect virtual coins
- China’s Shaanxi Heavy Duty Automobile Co partners Israel’s Innoviz Technologies LiDAR startup to deploy up to 600 autonomous trucks in one of China’s biggest ports
- In the WSJ: “We have evidence that Huawei has the capability secretly to access sensitive and personal information in systems it maintains and sells around the world”
- US Dep’t of Justice adds racketeering charges against Huawei and its CFO, accusing the company of conspiring to steal trade secrets from 6 tech firms
- Webinar: Digital Marketing in China – The Power of Key Opinion Leaders set for February 18th at 7pm, Beijing time
- People’s Bank of China has filed more than 80 patents related to plans to launch a digital currency, giving an outline to Beijing’s ambitions
- US considering changing regulations to allow blocking of chip shipments to Huawei from companies including Taiwan’s TSMC, world’s largest contract chipmaker
- Huawei…is not a normal business that has broken the law; it’s an organized criminal enterprise. They’re right, and unprecedented misbehavior calls for an unprecedented response
- A brief intro to 5 of China’s women entrepreneurs
- According to 2018 Internet Development Statistics, China’s cybercrime underground was worth more than $15BN, nearly twice the size of its information security industry
- China: As the CCP continues suppressing coronavirus reporting, online tools turn to new methods to help social media users get around automated censorship
- China’s WeChat Pay gains UAE growth with agreement between Tencent and UAE’s Network International providing access to merchant network
- China: Laiye raises $42M with robotic process automation services, allowing companies to assign repetitive tasks to computer-managed systems
- Apple may be made to reveal censorship requests from China, as 2 major shareholder groups back proposal to force company to make human rights commitments
- ICYMI: Apple shareholders to vote on proposal criticising the company’s decision to remove VPN apps from App Store at Chinese government’s request
- China: Kuaishou, second-largest short-video platform after TikTok, announces reaching 300M daily active user mark, now hosting over 20BN videos
- China: A brief overview of the more than 20 firms now identified as part of the country’s central bank digital currency moves
- Tech giants including Google, Facebook seek alternatives to Hong Kong as global data hub due to security concerns around China partner firm
- Huawei launches Y7P device in Sri Lanka, the first to be launched with Huawei AppGallery, the company’s application store replacement for Google services
- Silicon Valley Bank releases 11th edition of Startup Outlook Report, based on survey of 1100 founders and executives in the US, UK, China, and Canada
- US Gov’t steps up effort to develop 5G alternative to Huawei, with Dell, Microsoft, AT&T and others joining effort to create 5G architecture and infrastructure
- Hong Kong: 5 winners unveiled from the recent Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund/HSBC Jumpstarter 2020 pitch competition
- Peter Thiel-backed Layer1 Technologies begins bitcoin mining in Texas, aiming to secure 30% of global hash rate and offset China’s current dominance in Bitcoin mining
- Taiwan: An intro to BaconTok, app allowing users to share photos, voice, documents and calls without having to cross the Great Firewall or rely on a VPN in China
- Forbes unveils 2nd annual Blockchain 50 List, compiling the top 50 companies and organizations adapting decentralized ledgers to operating needs
- ICYMI: Members of China’s People’s Liberation Army charged over hacking campaign to steal sensitive personal information of near 150M Americans
China: March 2020
- 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”
