Newsletter: ZTE and U.S. Government Settled Deal of $1.4 Billion to End ZTE Ban

Here is this week’s roundup of technology & innovation stories in China.

First up, we have scoured the internet to consolidate a list of top 5 companies you should be keeping a close watch for in the CES Asia 2018. For all you techies out there, this is definitely something for you! The swankiest and most state of the art technologies produced by over 500 companies from 80 countries has been showcased in this year’s event. Which FIVE companies do you think made the cut?

As for U.S. and China relations, there have been huge developments too. A new agreement between ZTE and the U.S. government has finally brought an end to the long-winding chronicles of the ZTE ban. On top of that, we have Dawei Chen offering his insights on the topic of visa restrictions that have been imposed on foreign STEM students by President Trump.

Last but not least, we have gathered some IPO news (both rumored and confirmed) regarding live-streaming platform Douyu TV, Foxconn and Xiaomi. Congrats to them all!

Editor’s Pick

Top 5 Companies to Watch in CES Asia 2018
The Asian edition of the popular Consumer Electronics Show has opened its doors for the 4th time in Shanghai this year. CES Asia 2018 span three days from June 13 to 15 and here are the top five companies that we think are making big waves at the show, so do pay close attention to them!

Market Briefings

EV startup Byton announced the successful completion of their Series B financing round of up to $500 million, and has officially opened its global headquarters in Nanjing.

Ant Financial has raised approximately $14 billion in the Series C equity financing round.

Tiger Global Management has recently led Chinese long-term apartment leasing firm, Danke Apartment in a US$70 million series B+ funding round.

It is rumored that ofo, the Beijing-based bike-sharing platform, has a 1.5 billion yuan ($234.2 million) deficit with only 3.5 billion yuan left in user deposit.

IPOs

The popular live-streaming platform Douyu TV, is rumored to go public in Hong Kong next month at a valuation of $700 million.

Foxconn made a record debut by raising 27.1 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) on Friday, and is now the most valuable tech company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange as well as in the entire mainland China.

Xiaomi is going to be the first foreign company to issue Chinese Depositary Receipts (CDRs) in mainland China, as revealed in its prospectus released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Partnerships

Walmart China and Tencent jointly sign an in-depth strategic partnership in future digital retail. It is reported that they will cooperate in the areas of shopping experience optimization, payment innovation, marketing, membership system and collaborations with WeChat Work.

Chinese video game developer, Perfect World announced that it will be working with U.S. counterpart, Valve Corporation in order to bring gaming platform Steam to China through latest project “Steam China”.

U.S. and China Relations

Trump administration will start to deploy a visa restriction on targeted foreign STEM students starting as early as this week. The new visa policy will reduce the duration of stay of foreign scientists – Chinese in particular – to one year for the sole purpose of protecting American intellectual property.

As an end to the entire ZTE ban incident, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced a new agreement with ZTE Corporation that will replace the earlier suspended denial order.

Podcast

This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma explain the fight between Bytedance and Tencent as sparked by the war in short-video apps. They trace it back to the humble beginnings of short-video apps and talk about the major players such as Xiaokaxiu, Musical.ly, and Kuaishou who had their 15 mins of fame along the way.