The Latest from Rita Liao
Tencent e-wallet is following Alibaba to Hong Kong subways
China’s payments giants have taken their battle to Hong Kong. Less than a week after Ant Financial announced adding QR codes to the city’s MTR public transport network of rail, TencentR
WeWork is getting serious about China
Since its entry into China in 2016, WeWork has extended from four to around 60 locations across the country’s megacities like Shanghai, Beijing and, most recently, Shenzhen. That’s one-six
Walmart in China is now testing same-day grocery delivery from Dada via WeChat
Walmart has just begun testing same-day grocery delivery, called Walmart To Go, in one of its stores in China, months after the American retail titan expanded grocery delivery in its homeland. The ser
China’s hottest news app Jinri Toutiao announces new CEO
You may not have heard of ByteDance, but you probably know its red-hot video app TikTok, which gobbled up Musical.ly in August. The Beijing-based company also runs a popular news aggregator called J
Popular Chinese selfie app Meitu now includes 3D editing
You’ve probably had the experience of posing awkwardly for a photo while everyone else looks great. Now China’s top photo-editing firm Meitu has a solution that helps you resist the urge t
China’s Craigslist continues growth after netting 100 million small-town users
58.com, the Craigslist of China, is making a massive push to pick up rural users as it hedges China’s economic uncertainties. During the third quarter, revenues grew 33.2 percent, to $527 mill
Alibaba and Amazon move over, we visited JD’s connected grocery store in China
The arms race to build the future of grocery stores is heating up in China. To no one’s surprise, the main contestants are the country’s e-commerce titans Alibaba and JD.com, which are tu
Baidu leads $300M investment to bring its search smarts to elevator ads
China’s largest search engine Baidu is getting an offline revenue boost after it led a $300 million strategic round in Xinchao Media, a company that shows people ads when they’re waiting f
Tencent returns to profit growth despite concern around games
Chinese internet giant Tencent bounced back from a disappointing previous quarter, but for once the company didn’t have its gaming business to thank. Tencent may be best known for conjuring up W
The forgotten ‘Facebook of China’ is sold for $20M
Renren, which was once heralded as the ‘Facebook of China’ and later became China’s answer to MySpace after falling out of fashion among its core young users, is selling its social n
11/11 shows biometrics are the norm for payments in China
Chinese consumers were quick to adopt digital payments, and a recent shopping binge showed they are ready for another leap: biometric payments. On November 11, Alibaba wrapped up Singles’ Day &#
Alibaba made a smart screen to help blind people shop and it costs next to nothing
Just a few years ago, Li Mengqi could not have imagined shopping on her own. Someone needed to always keep her company to say aloud what was in front of her, who’s been blind since birth. When s
Alibaba sets new Singles’ Day record with $31B in sales, but growth is slowing
Alibaba scored another blockbuster Singles’ Day after customers around the world shopped in stores and online on the tenth edition of its November 11 shopping festival. That puts this year’
Singles’ Day: China’s $25 billion shopping festival explained
This Sunday is November 11, an auspicious date within the Chinese tech community because it marks Singles’ Day, the world’s largest online shopping day. This year is particularly poignant
WeChat reaches 1M mini programs, half the size of Apple’s App Store
They may not be widely known outside of China, but Tencent’s mini program initiative to develop “apps” that live outside of app stores is bearing fruit after it clocked two notable l
Alibaba rival JD.com plays the long-game on technology investment
China’s JD.com has made it clear recently that it’s venturing into artificial intelligence and automation. Every few months over the past year, the online retailer – China’s second-largest b
China’s obsession with short videos has its internet giants worried
Take a subway ride in China and expect to see a lot of commuters’ eyes glued to TikTok videos on their phones. Video clips like TikTok’s are now consuming nearly nine percent of Chinese pe
China’s frenzy over League of Legends championship sheds light on esports growth
When China’s Invictus Gaming defeated European squad Fnatic in the League of Legends 2018 finals this past Saturday, China’s social media platforms became awash in ecstasy and pride. ̶
Tencent is launching its own version of Snap Spectacles
Some were surprised to see Snap release a second version of its “face-camera” Spectacles gadget, since the original version failed to convert hype into sales. But those lackluster sales &#
Alibaba cuts its revenue forecast as growth slackens
Alibaba’s long stretch of growth finally broke after the Chinese e-commerce giant reported somewhat underwhelming financial results for its Q2 2019 quarter. (A little confusing but Alibaba’