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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Xiaomi’s US$1B for Digital Content, Poaches Online Media Guru Chen Tong [Updated]
“Content is king”, as they say, and even hardware manufacturers want in on it. Xiaomi, the Chinese smart hardware and internet service provider, announced this afternoon that it is allocating US$1 billion to digital content, especially online videos for the Xiaomi Smart TV and set-top box. The company has hired Chen Tong, editor-in-chief of Sina since […]
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Xiaomi’s WiFi Router-centered Smart Home Plan
Xiaomi, the Chinese smart device maker and Internet service developer, isn’t moving slowly in, apart from smartphone, smart home or wearables. Actually it seems a little bit too fast that angered many Chinese startups in the two sectors. The first activity tracker Xiaomi launched last month is sold at RMB 79 (about US$13), a fraction of […]
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Riding the Internet-of-Things Trends, Solution Providers Emerge in China
We’ve previously written about smart hardware platforms in China, most of which come from the big Chinese internet companies. They all want the newly emerging smart gadgets and home appliances to be compatible with their platform – for instance, WeChat, the leading Chinese mobile messaging app, has released an API for connected hardware that enables users to […]
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Chinese Smart WiFi Router Maker HiWiFi Opens up Its Linux-based Operating System to Developers and Smart Home Appliance Makers
Chinese smart WiFi router developer HiFiWi, announced to open up its Linux-based system, called HiWiFi OS, so that developers will build applications for the platform, and smart devices can get connected and controlled through HiFiWi routers. The company launched yesterday three projects, HiCloud, HiMobile and HiStore. HiStore is an app store for third-party applications. HiWiFi router runs . for which […]
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Ten Chinese Internet-of-Things Startups to Watch in 2015
The Internet of Things, or IoT, emerged as the third wave of internet development and is gradually merging the physical and online worlds. Prompted by the smart hardware boom, this sector is in full bloom in China with repercussions across fields such as smart homes, wearables, connected cities and cars, and beyond. The size of […]
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Portable Steaming Projector Attracting Venture Capital Interest in China: XGIMI Raises $16M in Series A
After set-top box, smart TV and smart routers which are expected to transform the living room in China, the emerging Chinese smart device makers began to make portable streaming projectors in order to replace the conventional TV sets which cannot get connected or carry interactive contents or services. Like HiWiFi, one of the first smart […]
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Smart Router HiWiFi Introduces Investment from Chipset Solution Provider MTK to Tap into Smart Home and Wearables
Smart WiFi router HiWifi announced today tens of millions of dollars in A+ round of funding from investment firm KPCB and MediaTek (or MTK), the Taiwanese system-on-chip solution provider which boosted Shanzhai (knock off) feature phones and then Android phones & tablets in China. What’s interesting is HiWiFi hopes MTK’s involvement will help it develop […]
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Lenovo Launches a Smart Hardware Project, Similar to JD’s
Laptop and smartphone maker Lenovo launched today a project for smart hardware, named New Business Development (NewBD, or NBD), in Beijing. Instead of developing smart hardware products in house, Lenovo chooses to invest in startups or cooperate with them. The products by those startups will be sold on the NewBD site, with Alipay available for payments […]
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[TechCrunch Beijing]IOT, Qualcomm’s Next Opportunity in China?
Qualcomm Technologies is working with some Chinese local companies on solutions for the Internet of Things, according to Rob Chandhok, president of Qualcomm Interactive Platforms and SVP of Qualcomm Technologies took the stage at TechCrunch China/TechNode conference. Mr. Chandhok is responsible for Qualcomm strategies on the Internet of Everything, wearable computing and augmented reality. China is one […]
