Hangzhou
Featured Article
A huge Chinese database of faces and vehicle license plates spilled online
A massive Chinese database storing millions of faces and vehicle license plates was left exposed on the internet for months before it quietly disappeared in August. While its contents might seem unremarkable for China, where facial recognition is routine and state surveillance is ubiquitous, the sheer size of the exposed database is staggering. At its…
Daily Crunch: Citing ‘uncertain mortgage market,’ Better.com rolls out employee buyout plan
Hello friends and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package.
China’s Zhiyi Tech raises $100M to help fashion brands predict bestsellers
In China, livestreaming promotion is emerging as a popular way for brands and influencers to reach consumers, challenging the traditional e-commerce model where users browse static pictures, read reviews and…
Alibaba shares jump on Jack Ma’s first appearance in 3 months
Alibaba’s billionaire founder resurfaced as he spoke to 100 rural teachers through a video call, three months after his last public appearance in October, sending the e-commerce firm’s shares up…
VESoft raises $8M to meet China’s growing need for graph databases
Sherman Ye founded VESoft in 2018 when he saw a growing demand for graph databases in China. Its predecessors, like Neo4j and TigerGraph, had already been growing aggressively in the…
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…
Luxembourg to get €100M investment from Chinese payments startup Pingpong
For financial services firms looking to enter Europe, Luxembourg has historically been a popular anchoring point because of its political and economic stability, as well as a favorable regulatory environment.…
Ruhnn, a Chinese startup that makes influencers, raises $125M in U.S. IPO
Ruhnn, a company that enables influencers to sell through e-commerce and is plotting to change the face of China’s fashion industry, has raised $125 million after it listed on the…
Alibaba challenger Pinduoduo is bringing imported goods to rural homes
Pinduoduo, the latest challenger to China’s ecommerce dominators Alibaba and JD.com, wants to bring affordable, imported items to shoppers in China’s smaller cities and rural areas. The three-year-old Tencent-backed ecommerce…
Residents of even the tiniest far-flung villages in China may soon be able to pay on their phones to run daily errands as Beijing announced this month that it aims…
As shared kitchens heat up, a China-based startup, Panda Selected, nabs $50 million led by Tiger Global
A few weeks ago, we told you that former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick looks to be partnering with the former COO of the bike-sharing startup Ofo, Yanqi Zhang, to bring…
Amazon is reportedly merging its China import unit with NetEase
You’d be forgiven for not knowing Amazon has operated in China for more than a decade, but perhaps not for much longer. The company is reportedly in talks to merge…
China’s Alibaba continues to see slowing expansion in the latest quarter, but the e-commerce giant’s effort to spur new growth from new arenas have started to bear fruit. The Hangzhou-based…
Over the last few years, millions of Chinese workers managed to earn extra money by being ride-hailing drivers. Many picked the gig because of its flexible schedule. For those who…
FedEx is adding 1,000 Chanje vans to electrify its fleet
FedEx is turning to a relatively new and unknown startup as it ramps up its efforts to electrify its fleet of delivery vans. The company announced Tuesday plans to add 1,000 electric delivery…
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…
Featured Article
The dramatic rise and fall of online P2P lending in China
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on TechNode, an editorial partner of TechCrunch based in China. When Emily Zhang was interning with a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending firm in the Summer of 2016, her main task was to carry out research on other P2P lending firms. She found the rates of return tempting and some underlying…
WeWork China raises $500M to triple the number of cities it covers
WeWork’s China business is getting a fresh injection of capital after it raised $500 million. The company entered China two years ago and today it covers Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu…
Twenty years ago, Zhongguancun was but farming fields and small houses, far from the city center of Beijing. The ‘cun’ at the end of Zhongguancun literally means ‘village’. As with…
