Newsletter: Baidu COO Lu Qi Resigned for “Personal and Family Reasons”
Check out this week’s newsletter about some intriguing BAT news and many more.
Tech Giants
On May 22, Baidu announced the spinoff of its global business unit, and just days before that, its COO Lu Qi resigned from his current position for “personal and family reasons”.
Alibaba is partnering with artificial intelligence startup Sensetime to establish a not-for-profit artificial intelligence lab to foster tech talent in Hong Kong.
Compared with Facebook, Tencent seems to have a much more diversified revenue stream, and is much less dependent on ad revenue for growth.
On the other hand, Xiaomi announced its official entry to the French market on May 23, which marks another milestone in Xiaomi’s expansion into the Western European market after it entered Spain last November.
Market Briefings
Toutiao entered the industry of online English courses for children by launching of a new educational product branded “gogokid”.
Dai Wei, the CEO of bike-sharing platform ofo, turned down a potential takeover by Didi Chuxing and called on employees to “fight until the end”.
On May 18, CowaRobot, known as the unmanned ground sweeper company, received 135 million yuan ($21 million) in its Series B financing led by Softbank China and China Creation Ventures (CCV).
Canaan Inc., a Chinese bitcoin mining company, applied to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 15. While two days later, Haidilao International Holding Ltd., one of China’s most popular hot pot chains, also submitted its prospectus.
New Releases
The so-called “next generation performance beast” Mi 8 is to launch on May 31st, with in-display fingerprint sensor.
Meitu T9 will be released on May 22 and will support AI body-slimming functions.
Incidents
Luckin Coffee is intending to file a lawsuit against Starbucks for its monopolistic practices causing unfair competition in the market.
A new HTML5 campaign video by Douyin encountered an unusual social media ban by WeChat after its launch on May 18.
Didi Chuxing has recently announced six security measures that requires the checks of ID photos and facial recognition from both drivers and passengers after the tragic murder last week. Will the company win back the people’s trust with this Hitch 2.0?
China’s first private commercial rocket successfully launched
On May 17, Chinese space company OneSpace Technology launched the country’s first private commercial rocket, marking the success of the first commercial sub-orbital rocket from a private enterprise.
Podcast
This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, our hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talks all about the happenings of the auto industry in China. There is a good news and bad news, which one do you want to hear first? Listen now on SoundCloud or iTunes Podcast.
