China Tech News

Chinese forum aggregation site Daqi.com formally announced its closure.

Daqi.com published a notice on its official website which says they terminated the offering of content services with immediate effect. They apologize for inconvenience caused and appreciate the understanding of users.

Founded in November 2004, Daqi.com was originally known as ChinaBBS.com and it is one of the earliest media platforms that focused on the research and practice of social media content aggregation and buzz monitoring. Along with competing services like MyRSS.cn which was later acquired by U.S.-based software firm Vocus, Daqi.com formed a niche ecosystem that allowed public relations professionals, marketing managers, and Chinese netizens to have easy access to competitive information and content covering thousands of forum topics across China.


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Chinese telecom device maker Huawei published its semi-annual performance report for the first half of 2015, stating that the company achieved sales of CNY175.9 billion during the reporting period, a year-on-year increase of 30%; and its operating profit rate was 18%.

Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, said that in the first six months of 2015, Huawei gained stable and healthy growth in its three major business sectors. With the company's global balanced layout, they are confident in achieving continuous and effective growth in 2015.

For its consumer business, Huawei's medium- and high-end smartphones such as Mate7 and P8 and its Honor-branded products gained good progress. The company realized quality and sustainable growth for its consumer business.

For its carrier business, Huawei reported continuous and stable growth due to 4G network construction in China, network capacity improvement driven by global data traffic growth, and ICT industrial investment promoted by digital transformation of carriers.


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Tmall Global, the international branch of Alibaba's Tmall.com, has reached an exclusive strategic deal with South Korea's largest duty free store group the Shilla Duty Free and Thailand's largest duty free store group King Power to commence a global duty free project in China.

According to Liu Peng, general manager of Tmall Global, this is an innovation for cross-border e-commerce. By introducing overseas duty free stores to Chinese consumers, Tmall will provide a new model to Chinese tourists who shop in foreign countries.

With the deal, Chinese consumers will be able to order products from Korean and Thai duty free stores on their PCs and smartphones after booking outbound flights. They will be able to track product availability and pricing at the stores. When finishing their tours in those countries, consumers can directly pick up the products they ordered from airport duty free stores by providing messages or barcodes they received. In addition, they can enjoy Tmall Global's special discounts and convenient payments in RMB.

Liu said that Tmall Global's world duty free project is an important focus of Alibaba Group's global strategy. Based on the real consumption scenarios of outbound traveling and outbound purchases, this project was hatched in September 2014.

Liu revealed that Tmall Global is still contacting overseas duty free groups which can cover many countries in Europe and America as well as some of the Chinese duty free groups. They will continue to expand to reach more popular outbound traveling destinations.

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Chinese cloud computing service Aliyun is expanding research into the quantum field of computers.

Alibaba Group's cloud computing subsidiary and the Chinese Academy of Sciences signed a memorandum of understanding n Shanghai to co-found the Chinese Academy of Sciences – Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory.

The new research facility aims to take the study and applications of quantum theory to the next level, heralding new technologies and platforms for information security, connectivity and computing.

Chunli Bai, president of CAS; Jianwei Pan, professor and executive vice president of the University of Science and Technology of China and a CAS member; and Alibaba Group Chief Technology Officer Jian Wang signed the MOU at the ceremony in Shanghai last week.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Laboratory will conduct pioneering research in quantum theory with a view to discovering ground-breaking security techniques for e-commerce and data centers, as well as to enhancing computing performance. Both parties will jointly promote the research, development, dissemination and application of quantum computing to lay a strong and stable technical foundation for China to push the envelope on quantum computing.

Financial terms of total investment and any developments emanating from the collusion were not announced.

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Chinese IT solutions and services supplier Neusoft Group has signed a joint venture agreement with Alpine Electronics and Shenyang Fu Rui Chi to build a joint venture named Neusoft Ruichi Automotive Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
With this move, Neusoft Group will be able to distribute in smart, Internet, and new energy automobile electronics businesses.

Neusoft Ruichi will have registered capital of CNY384.62 million. Neusoft Group will invest CNY157.7 million, accounting for 41% of the total registered capital, which makes it the controlling company of the joint venture; Alpine Electronics will invest CNY150 million, accounting for 39% of the total registered capital; and Fu Rui Chi will invest CNY76.92 million, accounting for 20% of the total registered capital.

The new joint venture will focus on innovations and developments of various automobile-related sectors, including new energy vehicle battery management, key technologies about intelligent charging, advanced driver assistance systems, unmanned driving innovations, and telematics basing on an open cloud platform.

Wang Yongfeng, president of Neusoft Group, said that the establishment of Neusoft Ruichi is an important strategic layout in the automobile electronics business sector for Neusoft, which is promoting business innovation and transformation.

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Former Goldman Sachs Partner and Canadian Olympian Michael Evans has been granted the title of President of Alibaba Group.
The role, which becomes effective this week, puts Evans in charge of leading and executing Alibaba Group's international growth strategy to globalize the company and grow the business outside of China. He will report to Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang.
Evans will continue his service as a management member of the Alibaba Group Board, having previously served as an independent director since the company's initial public offering in September 2014.

Evans' early focus will be on forging close partnerships with key brands, retailers and product owners in Europe, the Americas and Asia to help these important players swiftly and efficiently connect to the large China consumer market.

Prior to joining Alibaba, Evans spent 30 years in global finance, including the last 20 years as a partner of Goldman Sachs, where he served as vice chairman, head of Global Growth Markets, and chairman of Asia. Evans also won an Olympic gold medal for his home country Canada as a member of the men's eights rowing team in the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics.


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China-based ZTE Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia's U Mobile Sdn Bhd for the development of Pre5G mobile broadband technologies.

The partnership will help U Mobile deliver substantial network performance upgrades using ZTE's proprietary Pre5G technologies including Massive MIMO.

The MOU, signed in Shenzhen by Too Tian Jen, Chief Technology Officer of U Mobile, and Steven Ge, Managing Director of ZTE Malaysia, also covers collaboration between the two companies on research and development of 5G technologies, in addition to Pre5G. Financial terms of the deal were not released.


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China-based Tencent led the USD90 million investment in Practo, a health and medical information provider in India.

On the completion of the investments, Practo's total financing amount will reportedly reach USD124 million and its investors include Google Capital, Sofina, Sequoia Capital, Altimeter Capital, Matrix Partners, and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.
This is one of Tencent's few investments in India. Prior to this, the Chinese Internet giant invested in India's leading mobile wallet service provider Paytm.

Practo provides consumers with an online search tool, which can help them find professional information about dentists and doctors. Its website and mobile app can filter information based on locations, consulting fees, and other indicators. The company also provides a paid service named Practo Ray, which can help clinics build digital processing of schedules, inventory, and billing. The company plans to use the financed capital to expand into new markets.

Shashank N.D., founder and chief executive officer of Practo, said that they are striving to develop a medical application that can help people make medical decisions for themselves and their relatives, so as to help them live more healthily.
Practo currently has about 1,500 employees around the world and the company has offices in India, Singapore, and the Philippines. Over the next 12 months, the company plans to add 1,000 employees and expand into more markets in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia.

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China's Lenovo Group announced that they will cut about 3,200 non-manufacturing employees worldwide.
Lenovo announced this decision in its financial report for the first quarter of the 2015/16 financial year. The company said facing the dramatic decline of PC sales, Lenovo Group must continue to improve effectiveness and cut expenses. They will reduce about 3,200 non-manufacturing employees around the world, accounting for 10% of its total non-manufacturing employees and about 5% of its total employees. The company reportedly has 60,000 employees worldwide.

With the employee layoffs, Lenovo Group is expected to save about USD650 million during the second half of 2015/16 financial year.

According to Lenovo's financial report for the first quarter of 2015/16 financial year, the company's operating revenue reached USD10.7 billion, which was about CNY68.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3%; and its net profit attributable to shareholders was USD105 million, which was about CNY670 million, a year-on-year decrease of 51%. During the reporting period, Lenovo's PC sales were 13.5 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 7.1%; meanwhile, its tablet sales were 2.5 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%.

In addition, Motorola contributed 5.9 million units smartphone sales to Lenovo, a year-on-year decrease of 31%.


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The recruitment website 51job.com recently acquired two companies Yingjiesheng.com and Beijing Zhiding Youyuan Management Consulting Co., Ltd. for a combined sum of CNY268.7 million.

51job.com revealed that they invested CNY250 million in the acquisition of Yingjiesheng.com, which is also a recruitment website. Headquartered in Shanghai, Yingjiesheng.com was launched in 2007. The company mainly offers full-time and part-time jobs for graduates and students. At present, the company claims to have eight million registered users.

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