Alibaba looks to Beijing’s OTC market for emerging retail opportunities
In the space of one month, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, and its related affiliates, have invested more than RMB 3 billion ($432.1 million) in two emerging new retail players.
On November 19, Shanghai Yunxin, the company wholly owned by Ant Financial, said it would invest RMB 1.2 billion in vending machine solution provider UBox.
On October 17, Alibaba agreed to invest RMB 2 billion in…
Briefing: Ping An Good Doctor to roll out hundreds of thousands of AI-powered mini clinics in China
Ping An Good Doctor blazes trail in developing unstaffed, AI-assisted clinics in China - SCMP
What happened: Ping An Good Doctor, a leading online health care service provider in China, plans to build hundreds of thousands of unstaffed clinics across the country over the next three years. Each AI-powered clinic, which is said to be about the size of a telephone booth, is capable of…
Cainiao delivers the first 100 million Singles’ Day parcels in 2.6 days
(Image Credit: Alibaba)
Although the curtain has dropped on the Singles’ Day shopping festival, for courier services and delivery workers in China, the real madness has just started.
To meet the surge of demand during annual shopping frenzy, e-commerce and logistics companies have cranked up parcel delivery efficiency and capacity.
Alibaba’s logistics affiliate Cainiao today announced that the…
Don’t miss Huami, HTC’s VR and blockchain phone, and Seeed Studio at TechCrunch Shenzhen’s Main Stage
Technological breakthroughs have no doubt nurtured new opportunities for development. In recent years, we saw the integration of hardware, the internet, and cloud computing bring about phenomenal advances in the form of wearable devices, smart cities, smart transportation, unmanned systems, and much more. In the upcoming TechCrunch 2018 International Innovation Summit in Shenzhen, innovative…
Lenovo catching up new retail trend with launch of a cashier-less store
Image credit: Lenovo
Lenovo has launched its first-ever AI-powered cashier-less store, the Lecoo Unmanned Store, in Beijing after four months of pilot operation, our sister site TechNode Chinese is reporting.
After a quick registration through WeChat, users can enter the store through facial recognition. No smartphone operations will be needed at the cashier because the charges will be deducted…
JD.com logs RMB 6 billion in sales within the first hour of Singles’ Day campaign
The world’s biggest annual online shopping festival Singles’ Day is just around the corner. JD.com, the second biggest e-commerce company in China, kicked off the Flash Deals campaign yesterday as a run-up to the actual festival that takes place every year on November.
According to figures provided by JD.com (in Chinese), its shopping platforms logged a record RMB 6 billion in sales within the…
Alibaba launches China’s biggest robotic warehouse ahead of Singles Day
Image credit: Alibaba
E-commerce giant Alibaba is preparing for the rush of the upcoming Singles Day, which falls on November 11, by opening what is said to be the country's biggest robotic warehouse.
On October 25, Alibaba's logistics affiliate Cainiao Network opened the warehouse, which is located in Wuxi, in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu. The facility will help cope with increasing…
Briefing: Autonomous driving startup JingChi sets up 5G partnership with China Unicom Guangdong
景驰科技与广东联通达成5G战略合作 共建创新实验室 - Tencent Tech
What happened: JingChi has announced a 5G partnership with China Unicom's Guangdong branch. The branch has already established a full-coverage 5G network for JingChi's test fields at its' Guangzhou headquarters. The partnership also includes an innovation lab which will look into the remote control for L4-level unmanned driving.
Why it's important: The…
Announcing the winners of Asia Hardware Battle 2018 Bangalore!
The 2018 Asia Hardware Battle Bangalore competition was a huge success.
After several rounds of fierce competition, we finally selected the top three hardware startups to represent Bangalore at the India finals in Delhi before selection to enter the grand final round of Asia Hardware Battle in Shanghai.
In this competition, the three startups rose above seven other startups, and proved…
China’s ride-hailing resurgence is just another step into the future of mobility
Image credit: Jens Schott Knudsen via Flickr
China’s ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing earned the title of “Uber Slayer” in 2016. By selling its China business to its rival, Uber confirmed that the Chinese market was not only full of potential but peril. These days, however, things are changing with new arrivals challenging Didi’s dominance.
Meituan Dianping, the Tencent-backed O2O service…