Jack Ma’s stock may have taken a beating over the past year, but it appears he has a promising second income to keep him afloat. A painting by the Alibaba Chairman and Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi went for $42.2 million HK ($5.4 million USD) on Sunday at Sotherby’s auction in Hong Kong. According to Sotherby’s, the sale […]
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Huawei Joins Forces With Google & ZTE Cries Copycat
Those of us on holiday in China this week may have missed the launch of the latest Nexus devices from Google on Thursday, and the subsequent Weibo trends that ensued. Among the new Nexus range was a first-time entrant Huawei. Google’s newest flagship phablet, the Huawei Nexus 6P, is the first collaboration project between Huawei and […]
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Funeral Platform Yiko Tackles Skyrocketing Cemetery Prices With 3D Printing
China’s burgeoning O2O industry is tackling some of the biggest challenges in urban life, and now it’s tackling the problem of urban death. The price tag for a space in Beijing’s major graveyards has risen as high as 400,000 RMB, double price for the same size area in a high-end residential flat, but China’s funeral industry […]
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Student Micro-Loan Startup Fenqile In Investment Talks With Tencent
Fenqile, one of China’s leading student micro-loan startups, is in talks with Tencent hoping to seal their next round of investment, according to sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. The latest round could potentially value the young company at the $1 billion USD mark. The site offers loans to college students who are then able […]
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Korean Messaging App Kakao Partners With Tencent & eBay To Launch Online Bank
Kakao, the owner of South Korea’s largest mobile messaging app, has confirmed that both Tencent and eBay will join their bid for a coveted online banking license. The license is expected to be released by the government later this year. Tencent and eBay will each take a stake in the new bank of no more than […]
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Tsinghua Puts Up $3.8B for 15 Percent Stake In Western Digital
The flop of Tsinghua’s $23 billion USD bid for memory chip maker Micron clearly hasn’t dulled their appetite for U.S. hardware makers. Unisplendour Corp., a branch of Tsinghua Unigroup group, has inked a deal with U.S.-based hard drive company Western Digital, agreeing to hand over $3.8 billion in return for a 15% percent stake, reports Bloomberg. The […]
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176,000 Japanese Stores Will Soon Support Alipay
Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Financial announced that Alipay will soon support the smart POS network owned by Recruit Lifestyle, a subsidiary of the Japanese business giant Recruit Group. That means Chinese tourists will be able to make offline payments with their Alipay Wallet when travelling in Japan, instead of exchanging for local currency beforehand and running the risk […]
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Ex-Hyatt Staff Launch Food Delivery Service In Shanghai
In the past year, the marriage of food and tech has received a boost as innovative thinkers come out of the woodwork to combine two of the world’s biggest passion areas. Saucepan is a ready-made food delivery service launched by three Hyatt employees who are looking to tap this market. Co-founders Simon Vogel and Wolfgang Illing had served […]
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Baidu Adds Former Uber CFO & Lenovo Chairman To Board
During their last public earnings call in July, Baidu CFO Xinzhe Li said the company would have to “basically double down” on investment in O2O if they were to stay competitive in the market. They’ve certainly made a financial commitment, slashing into their last quarter earnings with multiple billions US invested in O2O platforms including […]
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Apple Opens Apple Music, iTunes Movies & iBooks To China
China has often been left out by foreign internet giants when they are launching new services. Apple first debuted Apple Music this April, but China is dropped from the first batch of 100 countries open to Apple Music this June 30. But the American company has finally announced a delayed launch of Apple Music in China today. […]