Last Week in Chinese Tech with CTI China Tech Insights

Today’s Headlines Include:

LeEco/Vizio deal falls through, attracts funding for sports
AI bots Alpha Go Libratus make further strides in gaming competitions
Alibaba + Tencent further expand payments in SE Asia
Meituan and Tujia both introduce new models in home sharing space

Today’s Headlines Include:

AI Startup Mobvoi partners up with Volkswagen
Tencent now one of the world’s biggest companies
Further rumors swirl between Airbnb and Xiaozhu
Toutiao blows up to 11 billion
Xiaomi turns 7 launches new retail store
Ofo implements local GPS alternative in new smart locks

Today’s headlines include:

Baidu confronted with another executive departure
Tencent expands investment in e-vehicles
Wechat to push further into EU/US
Didi considering 6B in new investment from SB
Smaller Didi rival Shouqi considering new partnership
Bike-sharing startups team up with their backers to upgrade warfare

Chinese internet giants go all-in on AI:
Tencent’s Go-playing AI bot Fineart picks up 11 wins in at comp in japan;
Baidu suffers an important loss of personnel;
Lenovo joins the race with new lab under Lenovo Corporate Resarch;

Tencent & Alibaba both see content as an entrance point for users taking the lead from toutiao in the midst of slowed smartphone growth;

Further bad news for LeEco as another round of executive departures is announced.

TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK

Chinese companies made their debut at this year’s SXSW. Heated bike-sharing venture Mobike, China’s Quora-equivalent Zhihu, among others, shared their view on how Chinese technology is establishing new tech trend.

Airbnb is said to have received investment from Chinese state-backed firm CIC(China Investment Corporation) in its latest funding round but will this be enough for it to make a dent in the Chinese market?

Google may be another step closer to being unblocked in China. Chinese lawmaker reveals that Google Scholar could be the first among Google’s services for re-entry into China if negotiations go through.

Premium electric car maker NextEV, another Tesla rival in China, has landed USD nine-digits from lead investors Tencent and Baidu.

LeEco, the Chinese conglomerate in trouble is seemingly trying to sell the property in Silicon Valley it bought from Yahoo no more than a year ago to ease its financial crisis.

LimeBike, a dock-less bike-sharing startup set up by two Chinese in Silicon Valley, is said to have taken inspiration from the model created by Chinese players.

·Companies featured in this week’s newsletter include Xiaomi, Didi, ofo, Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei, Alibaba, and social media companies Douban and Momo:

·Xiaomi CEO says he will launch AI products within half a year

·Chinese entrepreneurs are now enabling citizens to rent scooters for their commute

·Didi is said to have set up an AI research lab in Silicon Valley

·Bike-sharing startup ofo introduces a new bike and a fare free campaign has been initiated by the industry

·Lenovo introduces three top execs from the telecom industry in an attempt to reboot its smartphone business

·ZTE agrees to pay USD 892 million in fines to the US government because of unlawful dealings with Iran

·Huawei now occupies 14.3% of the premium smartphone market in Europe

·Social media company Douban launches paid content service

·Momo stock price soars as a consequence of its live streaming service