The Latest from Rita Liao
ByteDance’s Slack-like tool generated $100M in 2022
Feishu, ByteDance’s workplace collaboration app, surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue last year, Xie Xin, the chief executive of Feishu, told staff Thursday, according to a person
SoftBank joins game-focused blockchain Oasys as validator
As many observers question what real value blockchain can bring to video games, a conglomerate is vouching for the space. SoftBank Corp., the telecom operator arm of SoftBank Group, has joined Oasys,
China’s games industry shrinks for the first time in years
Over the past decade, China’s games industry has seen explosive growth, overtaken the U.S. in market size and given rise to global publishing giants like Tencent and NetEase. The boom is in part
Amid merger and bankruptcy in the West, lidar maker Hesai nails $190M IPO
Last week, China’s lidar maker Hesai raised an upsized IPO in the U.S. at a time the industry is reeling from layoffs, bankruptcy and consolidation. The Shanghai- and California-based company, w
Two-year-old Zeekr raises $750M at $13B valuation
At a time when venture capital funding is slowing in China, EV is one of the few sectors still keeping investors excited. Case in point, Zeekr, the luxury electric vehicle brand of China’s large
Low-code database APITable is another Airtable challenger
Airtable’s whopping $11 billion valuation attained in late 2021 has lured a raft of ambitious entrepreneurs into the low-code database space. They covet even just a small slice of the pie enjoye
Amid ChatGPT frenzy, a hundred followers bloom in China
Technological breakthroughs in the U.S. never fail to inspire challengers, followers and opportunists in China. It’s ChatGPT’s turn to capture the imagination of the world’s largest
Singapore’s PixCap draws $2.8M to power web-based 3D design
A clutch of startups is trying to topple Adobe’s dominance in three-dimensional modeling and do more than Canva. A freshly funded player is PixCap, which is entering the fray with a no-code, we
China’s globalizing startups could be a boon to US cloud giants
After quarters of rapid growth fueled by remote work, the cloud market is cooling down as businesses look for ways to curb cloud spending in post-COVID times and an uncertain economy. AWS saw its grow
Damus pulled from Apple’s App Store in China after two days
Damus, one of the fastest-growing Twitter alternatives, has been pulled from China’s App Store just two days after the app was approved by Apple. The app, which runs atop the Jack Dorsey-backed
China’s EV upstart Xpeng ready to take off with flying permit
Xpeng, a Chinese electric vehicle upstart, is gearing up to launch its eVTOL into the air as it secures a key regulatory green light. AeroHT, owned by Xpeng and Xpeng founder He Xiaopeng, just obtaine
Would Baidu’s answer to ChatGPT make a difference?
Baidu, China’s top search engine provider and robotaxi developer, is apparently working on its own counterpart to ChatGPT. The news, first reported by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, sent
China smartphone market slumps to 10-year low in 2022
After a decade of frantic growth, China’s smartphone market is hitting a speed bump as COVID-19 roils the world’s second-largest economy. The country’s smartphone shipments dropped 1
Share Creators wants to solve asset management mess for game developers
Finding a product-market fit isn’t always easy, but when you are the end-user experiencing a real pain point, the solution might be more obvious. That’s the case for newly funded Share Cre
Shein valuation reportedly plummets by a third as it seeks $3B
Shein, the fast fashion behemoth that has swept across the world, is raising a significant down round as the startup world braces for a funding crunch. The e-commerce platform known for jaw-dropping o
Wristcheck wants to make used luxury watches more affordable
In an age when almost everything can be bought online, watch resale is done in a surprisingly archaic way, namely, face-to-face with little price transparency. Wristcheck, a startup based out of Hong
Didi gets China’s approval to relaunch after 18-month security probe
Eighteen months after its app was suspended in China, ride-hailing giant Didi made a comeback on Monday. The move came as China showed signs of easing up its sweeping regulatory clampdown on the inter
Clouds might be scattering in China’s venture capital world
The outlook of investing in China is suddenly brightening up as the country gradually phases out its draconian zero-COVID policy, which has caused disruptions in businesses of all kinds and kept the c
Kleiner Perkins-backed Vylo thinks the future of news is video commentary
TikTok has revolutionized the way people consume and share information. Now a startup called Vylo wants to take the short video format a step further and let users share their thoughts about sports, c
This startup brings Southeast Asia’s vacant hospital rooms into the sharing economy
Uber and Airbnb have long been the poster children for the sharing economy. In other realms of society, entrepreneurs are also trying to match demand with untapped assets and services. HD, a startup b