The Latest from Rita Liao
China Roundup: A blow to US-listed Chinese firms and TikTok’s new global face
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. It’s been a tumultuous
Xiaomi’s investment house of IoT surpasses 300 companies
Xiaomi, the Chinese comapny famous for its budget smartphones and a bevy of value-for-money gadgets, said in a filing on Thursday that it has backed more than 300 companies as of March, totaling 32.3
China’s Geek+ brings warehouse robots to US via Conveyco partnership
Chinese robots will soon be seen roaming a number of warehouse floors across North America. Geek+, a well-funded Chinese robotics company that specializes in logistics automation for factories, wareho
TikTok parent ByteDance leads $6M round in financial AI startup Lingxi
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has added Lingxi, a Beijing-based startup that applies machine intelligence to financial services such as debt collection and insurance sales, to its ever-expan
With 170M users, Bilibili is the nearest thing China has to YouTube
Bilibili, a Chinese video streaming website that was once regarded as a haven for youth subculture, has been steadily making its way into the mainstream as users age up and content diversifies. The NA
Huawei admits uncertainty following new US chip curbs
Following the U.S. government’s announcement that would further thwart Huawei’s chip-making capability, the Chinese telecoms equipment giant condemned the new ruling for being “arbit
China’s Oppo partners with Vodafone for bigger European push
Huawei is facing an uphill challenge in the overseas market as its upcoming devices lack the full set of Google apps and services. That leaves ample room for its Chinese rivals to chase after foreign
Fitbit’s Chinese rival Amazfit mulls a transparent, self-disinfecting mask
The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a wave of Chinese companies with manufacturing operations to produce virus-fighting equipment: Shenzhen-based electric vehicle giant BYD quickly moved to launch wh
China’s embattled Luckin Coffee adds lifestyle products to its menu
The Luckin saga continues as the Chinese coffee challenger seeks solutions to the undesirable consequences of a $310 million fraud. On Tuesday, the company announced sacking chief operating officer L
93% of Chinese minors are now online
Children and teenagers in China are hyper-connected and using the internet in ways that were unimaginable and inaccessible to earlier generations. As many as 175 million people under the age of 18, or
Tim Hortons eyes China coffee drinkers with Tencent investment
Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons has secured a heavyweight partner to further its China expansion. The company announced on its social media account (in Chinese) on Tuesday that it has l
Tencent Music bets on China’s crowded audio content space
Listeners of podcasts, audiobooks and other audio shows are estimated to number 542 million in China this year, according to a third-party survey by marketing firm iiMedia. It’s a healthy jump f
A Chinese city to pump life into local business with WeChat live streaming
China is showing renewed interest in live streaming. As the coronavirus swept through the country and shut down premises in droves, businesses are turning online to drive sales. Many have adopted live
Snow’s avatar app Zepeto registers 150M users, eyes China market
Some of you may recall the South Korean app Zepeto that went viral among Gen Z users a year and a half ago. The app, which renders selfies into animated avatars and lets people adorn their computer-ge
Chinese startup Rokid pitches COVID-19 detection glasses in US
Thermal imaging wearables used in China to detect COVID-19 symptoms could soon be deployed in the U.S. Hangzhou based AI startup Rokid is in talks with several companies to sell its T1 glasses in Amer
Outrunning COVID-19 twice
On the night of March 13, before my flight from Philadelphia back to China, my Airbnb host stopped by my room to say goodbye.
China Roundup: Enterprise tech gets a lasting boost from coronavirus outbreak
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. This week, a post from Sequ
China Roundup: Apple closes a 4-year-old App Store loophole
This week, Apple made some major moves that are telling of its increasingly compliant behavior in China where it has seen escalating competition, but investors are showing dissatisfaction with how it
China Roundup: Amid coronavirus, tech firms offer ways to maintain China’s lifeblood
The coronavirus outbreak is posing a devastating impact on people's life and the economy in China, but there's a silver lining that the epidemic might have benefited a few players in the technology in
China Roundup: Tencent’s new US gaming studio and WeChat’s new paywall
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. The spotlight this week is b