German chauffeur service Blacklane will be integrated with Chinese travel site Qunar in mid January, allowing travellers to access the service in Mandarin. The partnership comes as Baidu makes a large strategic investment in US car-hailing giant Uber, as well as an investment in local Chinese car service YongChe this August. Despite their close proximity in the market, […]
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Qunar or Alitrip: Which Will Be China’s Travel Taobao?
In yet another expansion into new markets, Alibaba launched Alitrip (or Qu’a (去啊) in Chinese) in late October. Like the e-commerce giant’s other market places, Alitrip is a platform for travel agencies big and small to set up online storefronts. Vendors on Alitrip have the same resources as Taobao and Tmall retailers, such as Alipay […]
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Voice Search Developer Mobvoi Launches Made-for-China Android Wear System Ticwear
As most Google services are blocked in mainland China, China’s tech industry has benefited by developing customized Android ROMs, Android app stores or alternative services. Therefore it’s not surprising to see Chinese developers beginning building customized operating systems or services for Android Wear. Mobvoi, a Chinese-language voice search service developer, today unveiled Ticwear, a customized Android […]
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Baidu Joins China Cab-Hailing Market With Uber Purchase
China’s top three internet companies are competing by proxy through their stakes in the domestic car services market following Baidu’s undisclosed investment in Uber earlier this week. Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent are already backing taxi-apps Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache respectively. Users of Chinese taxi-apps are expected to number 45 million by 2015, and local […]
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Tuliu: Leveraging China’s Rural Land Reform
It’s only in recent times that Chinese peasants have been allowed to mortgage, lease or sell their rights to agricultural land or land occupied by their homes. Taking advantage of the easing of these restrictions, Tuliu.com (“land transfer” in Chinese), providing information and web & mobile applications for trading or leasing rural land, is one of the first […]
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Qihoo 360 Forms JV with Chinese Smartphone Maker Coolpad
Qihoo 360 (NYSE:QIHU) today announced a joint venture with Chinese phone maker Coolpad (HK:02369). Qihoo has invested US$409.05 million for a 45% stake in the mobile manufacturer. Smartphones shipped by the JV will be under brand Dazen, a sub-brand of Coolpad. Qihoo 360’s mobile services, including security, app store and mobile search, will become the default options onthe full […]
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SparkLabs Graduates 4th Batch of Eight Startups in Seoul
SparkLabs, a startup accelerator for companies seeking global expansion, presented its fourth batch of eight startups in its demo day held in Seoul, South Korea, with over 700 people attend the demo day. With its vision of developing South Korea and Asia’s startup ecosystem, SparkLabs’ accelerator program is known to be one of the most effective ways […]
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Xiaomi to Invest US$200M into Chinese Home Appliance Giant Midea
Xiaomi and Midea, a leading Chinese home appliance maker, today announced a strategic partnership in which the former would acquire a 1.29% stake in the latter for RMB1.266 billion (about US$200 million). Xiaomi plans to invest in 100 hardware product companies and sell their products on its online store. Some 25 companies have got on board, […]
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Oculus VR Technology Makes Your Hands The Controllers
Virtual reality company Oculus VR has purchased hand tracking technology company Nimble VR, bringing Oculus Rift a step closer to consumers. The skeletal hand tracker will be mounted on the existing Oculus VR goggles, according to Nimble’s Kickstarter campaign. With Nimble’s depth-sensing infrared 3D cameras, users will be able to use hand movements to direct the […]
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YY Acquires Two Online Education Companies
YY, the interactive video platform, announced today it would acquire two business divisions of Shanghai Global Career Education Science & Technology Holding Company which operate edu24ol.com, an online school for vocational education and English training, for approximately RMB120 million (just under US$20m). edu24ol.com has about 700,000 registered users. Over half of its total revenues comes from […]