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News feed
Bite-sized news updates on China’s tech world
Monday, April 25
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Kuaigou Dache, the logistics platform operated by Chinese classifieds giant 58.com, on April 24 reported a widening loss for 2021 despite record revenues as it struggles to secure a bigger market share. The carrier, which also operates in Hong Kong as GoGoX, posted a RMB 873 million ($133 million) loss in 2021, an increase of 32.7% from the previous year, while revenues grew 24.6% to RMB 661 million, according to an updated IPO prospectus issued by the firm. In contrast, rival Full Truck Alliance made a profit of RMB 450 million last year while revenues jumped 80.4% to RMB 4.7 billion. [Kuaigou prospectus, in Chinese]
Tuesday, April 26
- ByteDance has hired Julie Gao, a prominent name in the legal sector, as its new chief financial officer, filling a role that had been vacant for months after the TikTok owner put its IPO plan on hold last year. The appointment of a new CFO has revived market speculation about a potential ByteDance IPO, although a spokesperson for the company denied any imminent listing plans when Bloomberg inquired about the matter. Gao, former head of the China practice at international law firm Skadden, led the IPOs of internet giants including JD, Baidu, and Didi. She also worked with ByteDance for its acquisition of TikTok predecessor Musical.ly and game developer Moonton. She will work out of ByteDance’s offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, according to the company. [Bloomberg]
- Nio has resumed operations at its research and development center on the outskirts of Shanghai after a month-long shutdown due to the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in the city, according to a report by Shanghai Oriental Television on Monday. The electric vehicle maker has called back 26 out of around 100 workers to the Shanghai research facility, where engineers work remotely on production planning for its manufacturing plant in Hefei in Eastern China. On Tuesday, the company also announced that its 200,000th vehicle rolled off the assembly line at its Hefei plant. [Shanghai Oriental Television, in Chinese]
- US auto chipmaker Onsemi is preparing to restart operations at its distribution center in Shanghai after a weeks-long suspension due to the city’s Covid-19 lockdown measures, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported on Tuesday. The Arizona-based chip powerhouse has secured a permit for business resumption from the Shanghai government, a spokesperson said, while also confirming that the company had transferred resources to its two other delivery centers in Singapore and the Philippines during the lockdown. [Caixin, in Chinese]
Wednesday, April 27
- NetEase Cloud Music released a statement on Wednesday accusing Tencent of unfair competition, including imitating features, copying user interface design, and pirating songs. NetEase said it has filed formal charges against Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), urging the latter to “stop all unfair competition practices.” It’s not the first time the two rivals have tussled over music streaming. In February 2021, NetEase accused Tencent-owned Kugou Music of imitating its features, while in 2014, Tencent sued NetEase for allegedly infringing on streaming rights. [NetEase statement, in Chinese]
- Chinese drone maker DJI said that the company will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine as it reassesses “compliance efforts in light of current hostilities” in a Tuesday announcement. The company is also engaging with affected customers, partners, and stakeholders. DJI and some of its retailers were flooded with negative comments on social media after Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, said Russian troops were “using DJI products in order to navigate their missile” in a March 16 Twitter post. German consumer electronics retail brand MediaMarktSaturn stopped selling DJI’s products a week later. [DJI press release]
- The amount of venture capital funding invested in Chinese tech companies dropped by 76.7% year-on-year to $3.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022, according to a Tuesday report from a government-backed think tank, China Academy of Information and Communication Technology. In addition, the amount of venture capital funding in the first quarter of this year decreased by 42.6% from the fourth quarter of 2021. Enterprise services, e-commerce, and medical healthcare are the most popular categories, representing more than half of the funding cases in the reporting period. The drop in tech venture funding comes amid a more complicated business environment due to regulatory crackdowns and coronavirus outbreaks. [CAICT, in Chinese]
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