In 1968, Stanley Kubrick famously highlighted the promise of emotionally-aware artificial intelligence. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the sentient robot, HAL 9000, acknowledged a fellow crew member’s anguish by stating, “Look, Dave, I can see you’re upset about this.” At the time, this display of acute understanding of complex human emotion by a machine was, […]
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Alibaba Cloud aims to connect 10 billion devices by 2023
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, announced that it aims to build an IoT network with 10 billion connected devices within the next five years. The announcement was made at this year’s Cloud Computing Conference held in Shenzhen on 28 March 2018. At the conference, Alibaba’s operating system AliOS also announced a major […]
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Didi thanks Meituan for its competition and draws attention to its ‘catastrophic risks’
Didi regional director Sun Shu has thanked Meituan for the competition it has brought to the ride-hailing market in a message on his WeChat moments (in Chinese), but his message is a vehicle for pointing out safety concerns of Meituan Dache’s new operations. Didi Chuxing has become the leader for ride-hailing across China with around 95% […]
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First licence for drone deliveries in China goes to SF Express
A subsidiary of SF Holdings, which owns giant courier firm SF Express, has been granted the first license for delivering goods via drones. Testing of drones for logistics is already underway by several companies in China including retailer JD.com, which opened its own first UAV distribution center the previous day, but this is the first […]
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China’s over-50s love WeChat and can’t get enough chicken soup for the soul
Fascinating details of internet use among the over 50s have emerged, including how they access the internet, what they’re listening to online, and even how they arrange dances in public squares. This growing demographic has some serious skills but also faces unique problems ranging from fraudsters to simply topping up their phones. Tencent has co-produced […]
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The world’s first blockchain toothbrush lets you mine coins by brushing your teeth
Blockchain is the biggest buzzword of the year. However, we are just now beginning to see what silly creative ways will this technology be applied. The newest example from China is a blockchain-based toothbrush by Shenzhen-based 32Teeth, currently crowdfunding the project through the JD Finance platform. The company aims to make your teeth really clean by […]
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One of China’s biggest live streaming platforms applies for listing in Hong Kong
Popular live streaming platform Inke (映客) has submitted its first edition of an IPO prospectus to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The company didn’t indicate how much funds it plans to raise. Inke is one of more than 300 live streaming companies that have mushroomed during China’s live streaming boom. Many of them have by […]
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China’s central bank institute launches first blockchain platform
A research institute under the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has launched a blockchain-based platform, the first of its kind to be launched under China’s central bank. The Hangzhou Blockchain Research Institute, also known as the Zhongchao Blockchain Research Institute, presented its Blockchain Registry Open Platform (BROP) at the Global Financial Science and Technology Summit […]
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Merchants accuse Ele.me of unfairly deducting money from orders
Merchants are accusing food delivery startup Ele.me of forcing to deduct RMB 3 per order for promotion fee for a bid ranking, Tencent News is reporting. When food & beverage businesses and Ele.me cooperate, Ele.me deducts 6% of every single order. Adding the RMB 3 to original 6% deduction, it will become money-losing deals for […]
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Explainer: Why Taiwan is slow to adopt mobile payments
As China makes headway to becoming the world’s first cashless economy—and other markets follow its footsteps—Taiwan is dragging its heels. For an average person who lives in Taiwan, paper money and plastic bank cards are still an indispensable part of daily routine. Currently, only 13% of the population in Taiwan uses mobile payment, lagging significantly behind its […]