July, August & September 2020
The Startup News Asia third quarter 2020 round-up of China’s startup news from July, August and September.
Each news headline listed below deals with a technology or startup news item from Q3 2020 connected with China’s startup ecosystem in some way, whether an announcement by a startup around a service, pivot or venture capital investment, or an article covering something likely to impact on China’s startup ecosystem, such as a government or corporate startup or technology program.
The focus is obviously on China’s startups, but wider-world technology and startup news headlines are included where useful as points-of-reference, food for thought for China’s startups, or to deliver wider industry knowledge.
September 2020 | August 2020 | July 2020
China’s startup news: September 2020
- China Construction Bank soft-launch of central bank digital currency wallet service quickly disabled following large-scale user interest
- China: Recent launch-and-removal of China Construction Bank CDBC app included mention of separate hardware wallets for digital currency and electronic payments
- China: Nreal augmented reality headset maker and Magic Leap rival raises $40M led by Kuaishou, fast-growing Tencent-backed video startup
- China: United Rumour Debunking Platform launched by Cyberspace agency and Xinhua, mini-programs to run inside Chinese apps including WeChat, Alipay and Baidu
- China: DiDi Chuxing given green light to conduct autonomous car road testing by Anhui Province government
- ICYMI: Huawei to invest over $60M in building a technology park in Angola, Central Africa, aiming for 2021 opening
- China: NIO EV maker and Hefei gov’t planning to co-build 40 electric vehicle battery swapping stations under ‘batteries as a service’ subscription model
- China: Ant Technology Group IPO “raises a number of risk concerns for prospective investors…notably those associated with national security and human rights.”
- China: Huawei aiming to roll out Harmony operating system on its smartphones in 2021, replacing Google’s Android
- China: Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous taxi service launches in Beijing, starting with 40 vehicles, but maintaining a human driver presence during testing
- Video: Should Chinese Diplomats be Banned on Twitter? 1 question, 2 opinions, 30 minutes
- ICYMI: US Commerce Department to prohibit WeChat and TikTok transactions from Sunday 20th, citing data protection and national security concerns
- China: Singapore’s VeChain joins China Animal Health And Food Safety Alliance to provide blockchain tech for members, allowing logging of food product lifecycles
- China: State-run Blockchain-Based Service Network infrastructure project to bring public chains to Chinese users – but monitored by regulators
- China: A video look at Baidu Apollo’s automated driving and 5G-powered remote driving service
- China: Human Horizons auto startup unveils ‘self-learning SUV’, capable of data analysis towards independent decisions and featuring cloud connectivity
- China: Pinduoduo e-commerce company partners China Post to boost fresh groceries sales, and aiming for 150 agricultural produce stations inside 3 years
- China: Anhui Easpeed Technology raises $8.63M Series A with interactive, no-contact hologram technology
- Cybersecurity: “Huawei’s Russian research and development team said it will join the development of [the] Harmony operating system and apps based on it.”
- China: Ant Group launches Trusple cross-border trading blockchain platform focused on SMEs selling overseas
- China: “Online gaming is strategically critical for China not least because it forms the financial backbone of one of its largest tech companies, Tencent.”
- China: FITURE home fitness brand gains $65M funding with tech-driven services spanning courses, equipment, interactive classes and more
- 5G: “Chinese strategic competition is about much more…If people think that by banning Huawei, networks have been made safe – that’s not true…”
- China: Alibaba’s Tmall Haofang set to disrupt real estate industry by taking the entire sales process online, from viewings to payment
- China: Sina Corp internet giant, parent of Weibo, to delist US shares and go private, merging with Cayman Islands firm controlled by Sina CEO
- Hunting the Phoenix: The Chinese Communist Party’s global search for technology and talent, a policy brief from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
- India: Government bans 118 China-connected mobile apps including PUBG Mobile, Alipay and Baidu, citing concerns over “stealing and…transmitting users’ data”
- India: Following ban of China’s PUBG game, nCore Games launches FAU-G multiplayer game based on scenarios faced by Indian soldiers at the Indo-China border
- India: China’s Tencent relinquishes rights to PUBG Mobile in India, transferring publishing responsibility to Korea’s PUBG Corp in bid to sidestep Chinese apps ban
- Philippines: Dito Telecommunity Corp telco startup partners US cybersecurity firm Fortinet over concerns around China Telecom investment
- Singapore: China’s ByteDance, owner of TikTok, to invest billions and recruit hundreds of employees in Singapore, focusing on it as SE Asia regional HQ
- Thailand 5G Ecosystem Innovation Center opens in government’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency headquarters in partnership with Huawei
- TikTok’s loose moderation on ‘For You’ page finds it filled with dubious apps, malware, products and services, troubling as 1/3 of users are aged 14 and younger
- India: Confederation of All India Traders seeks gov’t probe into 141 Indian startups over concerns around Chinese investments, including “in-built spying capacity”
China’s startup news: August 2020
- China: Video-focused cloud services market estimated to increase 48.67% year-on-year in 2020, following video cloud solutions market reaching $4.62BN in value in 2019
- China: 4DAGE launches camera that can produce 3D images, initially focusing on applications in real estate
- China: Fast-growing Xpeng Motors electric vehicle firm reportely in talks to raise additional $300M, following July’s $500M funding round
- China: SenseTime, US-blacklisted facial recognition tech firm, reportedly considering IPO on China’s STAR market to build on $10BN valuation
- A look at how ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, became the world’s most valuable unicorn
- ICYMI: China CEO of Arm Ltd, semiconductor chip designer owned by SoftBank, fired but refuses to depart, refuses communication, refuses firm’s representative access
- Microsoft aims to complete acquisition deal for TikTok’s US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand operations by September 15th, in part a digital advertising growth move
- The TikTok saga gives us a glimpse into a techno-nationalist future
- Donald Trump signs Executive Order banning transactions with China’s TikTok, WeChat and parent companies ByteDance and Tencent
- ICYMI: Trump administration proposes ban on Chinese firms from listing on US stock exchanges if they do not comply with US accounting standards, alongside forced delisting
- China: Beike Zhaofang online property platform backed by Tencent aims to raise to raise $2BN in US IPO, largest float by Chinese company on US exchanges since 2018
- China: “…Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay control the majority of the digital payments across the whole country while banks have been left far behind in the ongoing competition”
- Report on Huawei’s development of Papua New Guinea National Data Centre “…is the first to document its complicity in Beijing’s cyber espionage activities
- China: An overview of the current state of play in autonomous vehicles – piloting robotaxis as a first step whist regulations and technology issues are addressed
- China: Moka HR tech firm gains $43M with software approach to streamlining human resources processes, boasting clients including Xiaomi and McDonald’s
- China: Major central bank digital yuan testing expansion set for Hebei province, Yangtze river delta, Guangdong province, and Beijing, Tianjin, Hong Kong and Macau
- China: iQiyi, Baidu search giant’s Netflix-style service, the latest firm under investigation by US SEC over allegations of fraudulent reporting of inflated earnings
- China: Tencent’s merge of Huya with DouYu aims for e-sports giant providing online games, live tournaments and streamers on one platform
- China: A brief look at Sananbio, leader in vertical, indoor farming systems with sights on potential $9.9BN market, post-2025
- China: Aiways builds out factory to produce hydrogen fuel cells based on reformed methanol, seeking alternative to conventional electric and hydrogen cells
- China: OPPO smartphone giant reportedly working on devices to support Li-Fi technology, a much faster alternative to Wi-Fi based on ‘light fidelity’
- China: Xpeng Motors, fast-growing electric vehicles firm, registers Hangzhou subsidiary to work on charging infrastructures, intelligent power transmission and more
- China: Coding-focused Notepad++ text editor downloads banned in-country over naming of updates ‘Stand with Hong Kong’ and ‘Free Uyghur’
- China: DeepRoute autonomous driving startup partners Cao Cao Mobility ride-hailing platform aiming for robotaxi fleet on the streets of Hangzhou by 2022
- China: Over $50BN in cryptocurrency found by Chainalysis to have moved from in-country digital wallets to other parts of the world in the last year, much of it via Tether stablecoin
- China: Singapore’s Conflux to revamp Hunan provincial gov’t information architecture using blockchain solutions; and initiate blockchain research and training facility
- An overview of the rise of plant-based meat in China, in part driven by gov’t plan to cut the country’s meat consumption by half by 2030
- NYT – A TikTok Ban Is Overdue: “The privilege of full internet access – the open internet – should be extended only to companies from countries that respect that openness themselves
- Beyond TikTok: “”For instance, what of WeChat parent company TenCent’s holdings in American companies like Spotify?””
- China: Tencent launched WeStore, mini program for creating and managing online stores on WeChat, open to enterprises, businesses, and individuals
- China: Over 20 crypto mining farms stripped of electricity perks, including China Telecom branch and Bitmain subsidiaries, due to concealment of mining activities
- China: Dodo decentralized finance startup secures $600K
- China: Huawei Cloud launches Go Cloud Festival in enterprize-focused bid to help companies migrate operations to the cloud
- China: A brief look at developments in courts-focused tech, combining private and external networks, internet, mobile and confidential information networking with AI and OCR
- China: Tech Ministry eyes home-grown Gitee to build ‘independent, open-source code hosting platform’ as alternative to GitHub
- An overview of how the Trump administration’s WeChat ban may impact China’s Blockchain Service Network’s plan to be the only global blockchain enterprise infrastructure provider
- The FBI assesses that the cyber-actors’ persistent attempts to silently remove the malware is not a sign of resignation. Rather, it is an effort to hide their capabilities.
- India: China’s Alibaba Group ceases innovation initiatives in India, citing the challenges of the current geopolitical environment
- Singapore’s Plano health tech startup partners China’s YOOZOO to address myopia in Singapore, SEA and beyond
- NASA contracts for Elon Musk’s SpaceX under review as potential national security risk due to China’s financial support for electric car company, Tesla
- Subsidiary of Lufax, China’s retail fintech, partners Thailand’s Kasikornbank to jointly build digital wealth management platform
- Vietnam: VNG online media platform sues TikTok, alleging copyright infringement and “”very complicated business model to avoid copyright compliance”
China’s startup news: July 2020
- China: Xpeng Motors electric vehicle firm becomes first automaker to use AI chip for autonomous driving – developed by US tech company Nvidia
- China: Binance blockchain research institute partners state-run Zhongshan Beidon supply chains firm to jointly develop digital infrastructure for SMEs
- China: Beijing municipal gov’t unveils 20-point plan to boost development and deployment of distributed ledger tech, aiming for global and national blockchain hub status
- China: Cyberspace Administration recently penalized major live-stream platforms over ‘vulgarity and lowbrow content’ and ‘unhealthy values’
- ICYMI: China’s tech, startup and funding news from across June 2020, drawn from Startup News Asia’s daily tech news updates
- China: Didi Chuxing, owner of Uber China, to design and run trial of China’s central bank digital currency on its platform
- China: Cosco Shipping, Shanghai-based logistics giant, to trial Ant Financial’s Ant Blockchain in move to streamline operations and documentation
- ICYMI: Google scraps Isolated Region cloud services plan in China, in part due to regulation requiring foreign companies to JV with local partner
- China: Kuaidian secures $100M with storytelling app operating through dialogue-based text-message format
- China: WeRide becomes country’s first firm to trial fully driverless cars on the open road, and with 5G-enabled remote control system in test cars
- Wells Fargo directs employees to remove TikTok from company mobile devices over concerns around the app’s privacy and security controls and practices
- China: Meishubao online art tutoring platform raises $40M led by Tencent with 5 targeted products and 10M users globally
- China: An intro to Syrius Robotics, autonomous mobile robots firm focused on e-commerce warehousing and now working towards a subscription-based model
- China: Baidu MediaGo advertising platform now provides direct access to premium Microsoft MSN ad placements to partners in China
- China: Beijing municipal gov’t releases 145-page blueprint outlining plan to become blockchain innovation hub over next 2 years, building on Action Plan released in June
- China: Xpeng, fast-growing EV startup run by former Alibaba exec, raises $500M to focus on the country’s rising middle class consumer market
- China: SmartAHC, firm focused on AI and IoT efficiency solutions in pig farming, gains funding from BASF Venture Capital, group’s corporate VC arm
- China Unicom and Singapore’s Singtel to streamline enterprise eSIM deployment for IoT via Bridge Alliance mobile telco association tie-up
- China: “But do STAR [Market] figures add up? A quick scan of key indicators such as price-to-book or price-to-earnings ratios can seem like something from a random number generator…”
- China: State-run Blockchain Service Network integrates with 6 public chains including Tezos, NEO, Nervos, EOS, IRISnet and Ethereum, aiming for global infrastructure lead
- China’s Gobi Partners unveils 64 startups to launch SuperSeed Championship II, Asia’s first sudden death pitching competition
- ICYMI: Morgan Stanley has blocked interns in China from logging on remotely to the bank’s virtual network, citing concerns about cybersecurity rules and system vulnerability
- China: Suzhou City, a pilot location for digital yuan, inks MOU with Cypherium blockchain firm to aid city’s development of blockchain Infrastructure
- Australia: China’s TikTok may be ‘a data collection service disguised as social media’, says deputy chair of Foreign Interference through Social Media inquiry
- ICYMI: United States bans export to Hong Kong of US-made dual-use equipment and technology that could be used for military purposes
- Hong Kong: Telegram messaging app to temporarily refuse data requests from HK authorities until international consensus emerges over new security law concerns
- Hong Kong: “…dramatic decline of…a free and open internet…sets it apart from mainland China where Facebook, Twitter, Google and most major foreign news sites are blocked”
- ICYMI: Indian gov’t bans 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, Helo and WeChat, deeming them ‘prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity…defence…security of state and public order’
- India: Following TikTok ban, Roposo emerges as one of its successors with new instals reaching as high as 500K an hour and expectations of 100M users by month-end
- India: Government bans additional 47 Chinese apps, identified as clones or variants of 59 apps previously banned
- Alibaba Cloud to launch 3rd Indonesia-based data center, aiming to capitalize on corporate moves towards cloud-hosted IT systems
- British government looks to Japan to help build 5G wireless networks without Huawei, naming NEC and Fujitus as potential alternative suppliers
- China’s Oppo smartphone giant, 2nd to Huawei, to sell 5G devices in Japan via KDDI and SoftBank mobile carriers, aiming for global growth as Huawei grapples with US sanctions
- Pakistan Telecommunications Authority issues ‘final warning’ to TikTok and blocks Bigo Live streaming app over ‘immoral, obscene, and vulgar content’
- ICYMI: US House Oversight committee wants Apple and Google to step up security on apps with foreign ties, and warn users about associated privacy risks
- ICYMI: UK alters Huawei decision; firm’s equipment to be removed from 5G networks by 2027, and no new equipment purchases permitted from year-end
