Rita Liao

Rita covers Asia for TechCrunch, with a special interest in Chinese companies going global.

Before her previous writing stints with Tech in Asia and TechNode, Rita managed communications for SOSV’s accelerators in Asia. At one point, she worked for a documentary production company and a mindfulness retreat center in New England.

She studied political science and visual arts at Bowdoin College.

Contact: ritaliao@pm.me

Disclosures: None

The Latest from Rita Liao

China reminds US that it can and will kill a forced TikTok sale

China pushed back against the U.S. government’s proposal to force a sale of TikTok on Thursday, rejecting the possible solution to ongoing national security concerns around the app. TikTok CEO S

Bears abound, but none in sight at Denver’s crypto fest

Many entrepreneurs and investors believe the market downturn is constructive to the long-term health of the web3 space.

TikTok’s hearing in Congress is a reminder of Chinese startups’ identity crisis

TikTok, which now boasts more than 150 million monthly active users in the U.S., is set to testify before Congress on Thursday morning. Over in China, home to TikTok’s parent ByteDance, many sta

Tencent profit grows after a year of aggressive cuts

China’s internet industry is undergoing a major mood shift amid economic headwinds, a slowdown after years of frantic growth and heightened regulatory scrutiny. Companies of all sizes are respon

Aspecta nabs $3.5M to build AI-vetted coder profiles

While LinkedIn is helpful for displaying people's educational and professional achievements, there exists a world of self-taught tech talent whose skills are not so easily reflected.

China’s ChatGPT rival Baidu Ernie is off to a rough start

Following on the heels of GPT-4’s buzzy debut and the announcement of Microsoft 365’s AI makeover, Baidu, China’s search engine giant, introduced its Ernie Bot. Since ChatGPT blew th

Backed with $3M, Soul Wallet aims to bring self-hosted crypto wallets to the next billion

If you own a non-custodial crypto wallet like MetaMask, you know the headache of keeping your 16-word seed phrase safe. That’s the responsibility that comes with having full control over one&#82

KuCoin and Circle back Chinese yuan-pegged stablecoin in $10M round

Circle Ventures, the venture arm of the USDC issuer Circle, has invested in an offshore Chinese yuan-backed stablecoin project, CNHC. It’s hard to overlook the timing and strategic significance

Once scammed for ten grand, this VC is building a crypto security vault

One of the barriers to bringing cryptocurrency into the mainstream is the frequency of fraud in the space. Last year alone, more than $3.9 billion worth of crypto was “lost,” according to an indus

China’s robotaxi upstart WeRide confidentially files for IPO

WeRide.ai, one of the most funded Chinese robotaxi operators, has confidentially filed to go public in the U.S., Bloomberg reported on Monday. The company declined to comment when reached by TechCrunc

Founder of troubled crypto asset unicorn Babel launches new DeFi project, stablecoin

Flex Yang, the former CEO and founder of Babel Finance, is leading efforts to restructure the now embattled crypto asset unicorn while introducing a new decentralized project with hopes to avoid some

SVB’s debacle is causing panic in China’s startup industry

The panic sparked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is spreading to China, the world’s second-largest venture capital market. Across social media platforms, investors and startups are rushi

Crypto-friendly bank Silvergate to wind down after FTX blow-up

Silvergate Capital Corporation, the holding company of crypto-focused Silvergate Bank, announced Wednesday its intent to wind down operations and voluntarily liquidate the banking unit. The move came

Ant veteran turns to NFT verification for SXSW festival VIP feast

As funding into web3 projects cools down during the crypto winter, startups in the space are increasingly focused on building bridges for mass adoption and exploring revenue opportunities to stay aflo

Meet UniUni, Shein’s last-mile solution delivered by gig drivers

When we talk about e-commerce logistics, we think of an industry controlled by entrenched players like Amazon, FedEx and national postal systems. At the start of the pandemic in 2019, a brave startup

This e-bike brand by Lime and Didi vets pedals into the US with $12M raised

The e-bike market in America is getting a brave new player. Off the back of its $7.4 million Series A funding close, Velotric announced this week that it will be doubling down on U.S. expansion with

Tencent is finally joining the web3 wild west

China’s web3 community is rallying around the news of Tencent’s march into the decentralized land. On Wednesday, the social and gaming giant held its first global web3 summit in Singapore,

Baidu to deploy conversational AI across search, in-car entertainment and more

Baidu today revealed more details about its much-anticipated intelligent Ernie Bot, widely seen as the search giant’s counterpart to ChatGPT. Ernie Bot is built atop Baidu’s large language

Kempus wants to be the ultimate app for sharing college hacks

Remember poring over reviews on Rate My Professors to find out which prof is good-looking and who gives easy As? The professor and class ratings site is one of the few web 1.0 sites that are still wel

Hong Kong shows desire to be crypto hub with new regulation

As the U.S. government continues to rein in the crypto industry with a spate of regulations, other places are emerging as new hubs for the virtual asset industry. On Monday, Hong Kong proposed rules t
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