China Tech News

China Mobile has completed its VoLTE network deployment, covering over 300 cities and five million active users.

According to China Mobile's Vice President Sha Yuejia, by the end of May 2016, the company's 4G base stations had exceeded 1.3 million and it had more than 400 million 4G users, making it the carrier with the most 4G users in the world. By device sales, China Mobile sold over 580 million 4G devices; and for network speed improvement, the company had deployed its conditional access technology in over 300 cities in China.

Sha said that during the second half of 2016, China Mobile will actively promote 4G+ and accelerate the full commercial use of VoLTE to provide higher-quality voice service to users.

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Passengers whisking through Beijing's subway tunnels and trying to ignore the pressures, smells, and sounds around them can now turn to fast Internet.

The Beijing Subway Information Development Co., Ltd. has signed agreements with China Mobile Beijing and China Unicom Beijing for 4G services on new subway lines. This will bring total 4G services to all of Beijing's underground mass transit.

Beijing Subway Information Development signed maintenance service contracts with China Mobile Beijing and China Unicom Beijing for several subway lines, including the second phase of Line 6, Line 7, the western section of Line 15, the second phase of Line 8, and the Airport Express. The contracts cover 83 new stations and all stations of above lines realize civilian communications system coverage. Financial terms of the agreements were not released.

Early in 2014, Beijing Subway started 4G mobile network development. On May 13, 2014, Line 9 and Line 4 became the first subway lines in China to have the full coverage of China Mobile 4G's signal.

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Alibaba's reach into online finance, Internet commerce, streaming movies, and gaming just expanded to include mobile apps.
China's independent mobile application distribution platform SnapPea announced that the company has signed an acquisition agreement with Alibaba and its app distribution business will merge into Alibaba's mobile business unit.

The joining of SnapPea will help Alibaba mobile expand its app distribution market share and further improve Alibaba mobile's market layout. Financial terms fo the deal were not immediately available.

According to Alibaba mobile, SnapPea's mobile distribution business will maintain independent development after merging with Alibaba.
Yu Yongfu, president of Alibaba's mobile business unit, told local media that SnapPea is a well-received brand among Chinese users and it attaches great importance to user experience. It can help Alibaba mobile expand market share in the app distribution sector. In the future, the two parties will work together in big data and content areas.

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Though facing setbacks in the smartphone market, the Taiwanese company HTC has gained public attention again with virtual reality. And the company now plans to build over 10,000 VR experience sites in mainland China by the end of 2016.

Due to its previous bad performance in the smartphone market, which led to the decline of its share price, HTC's chairman Cher Wang once had to kowtow to shareholders to apologize. However, with the excellent sales of its new VR product HTC Vive, the company has regained public attention and it now plans to shift its focus to the VR sector.

Taiwan-based HTC is making great efforts to promote its VR concept. To better introduce its product into the Chinese mainland market, HTC also contacted retailers Suning and Gome for strategic cooperation deals. Relying on the influence of those two companies, HTC expects to attract more consumers to purchase HTC Vive devices, which are priced at more than RMB8000.

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Taobao.com's power is cutting into the revenue of traditional offline retailers in China, so two electronics retailers have decided to join forces to increase their appeal to online shoppers.

Gome's e-commerce website Gome.com.cn and Rt-Mart's e-commerce business Feiniu.com will join forces to sell more online products. The two parties are currently implementing background system docking which will allow the two companies' websites to merge products. All products on Feiniu.com are expected to be officially available on Gome.com.cn in late July 2016. By then, Gome.com.cn will release more details about the cooperation between the two parties.

The cooperation of the two parties will be divided into stages. To begin with, they will connect the background ordering system and data of Gome.com.cn and Rt-Mart. Rt-Mart will open and operate a supermarket channel on Gome.com.cn. Meanwhile, Gome.com.cn will launch and operate a 3C and home appliances channel on Feiniu.com. In mid or late July, the system and background connection of the two parties will formally started.

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The leading Chinese online payments provider is seeking worldwide partners to establish a mobile service ecosphere with overseas airports, department stores and dining scenes as its nodes.

Chinese Internet payment service provider Alipay took steps in this direction as it announced plans to launch a new program named "Alipay+" in Singapore.

The first batch of organizations that joined this program included South Korea's KICC, Japan's Orix, and Singapore's Singeat.com, covering the markets of Asia, Europe, and North America.

Alipay will recruit partners from all over the world and open technologies and resources, covering payments, big data, and cloud computing, to them. By integrating technologies, services, and local operating strength, the Chinese company plans to establish a mobile service ecosphere with overseas airports, department stores and dining scenes as its centers to serve more Chinese outbound tourists.
Outbound Chinese tourists spend lots of time at airports, department stores and restaurants, so the establishment of an ecosphere centered on those three scenes is a key step to connect outbound tourists to the local services in those countries.

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Hong Kong is a financial mecca, but it has few well-funded powerhouse technology companies.

This may be changing, as a DotC United, a Hong Kong-based mobile application developer, has announced a new cash infusion of CNY300 million from a group of venture capital firms including Banyan Capital, Chengwei Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, BAI and Lightspeed China Partners.

China Money Network reports that DotC United claims to have 200 million users for its global apps.

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China Music Corporation and Tencent Group joint announced that they have reached an agreement to implement a digital music business merger.

According to the agreement, Tencent will integrate its QQ Music business with China Music Corporation. With asset replacement equity, Tencent will become a major shareholder of the new China Music Corporation and support the listing of the new China Music Corporation.
This music deal puts online music service growth in China even further out of reach of rivals like Apple Music, whose related services have recently suffered government-backed shutdowns in China.

Tencent will combine its QQ Music with the company's Kugou and Kuwo apps to boost the Internet giant's music market share to around 60% from 16%, according to media reports. But Tencent stated in a public report that its QQ Music, Kugou, and Kuwo products and brands will maintain independent development and existing services of users will not be impacted.

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Chinese mobile marketing platform Mobvista announced that the company will invest USD11.72 million to acquire a 90.01% stake in GameAnalytics, a mobile game data analysis company in Europe.

GameAnalytics' major business is providing behavioral data analysis of free players to mobile game developers, and the information is then used for retaining and monetizing players.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Denmark, GameAnalytics' teams are working in Copenhagen and London. GameAnalytics' network has over 22,000 games with 350 million monthly active users. It also formed partnerships with major gaming engines and development platforms, including Unity, Fabric, Unreal, Marmalade, Corona, and Xamarin. The acquisition will not change the service nature of GameAnalytics and this platform will continue to provide mobile game developers with free-of-charge data analysis services.

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Chinese mobile phone retail chain D.Phone will invest CNY23.53 million to acquire a 40% stake in Guangzhou Jinjiaxin Communications.

According to local media, D.Phone signed an equity transfer agreement with shareholders of Jinjiaxin. Under the agreement, D.Phone will purchase a 40% stake in Jinjiaxin for a consideration of CNY23.53 million.

Jinjiaxin is mainly engaged in the mobile phone sales business and its other businesses cover accessories, smart wearable devices, computers, and home appliance 3C products. At the same time, the company is also involved in value-added service, carrier business, and e-commerce sectors.

D.Phone is seeking O2O transformation within its services. The company is making huge investments in store upgrades to add experience areas and coffee areas. Since the second half of 2015, D.Phone required that all renovated old stores and newly decorated stores should have an experience area covering over 60% of store area and a coffee area covering over 30% of the store area. In addition, the company completed the building of 200 coffee areas through some of its stores.
D.Phone will establish a whopping 200,000 offline physical stores and kiosks over the next three years and its market share is expected to reach between 15% and 20%, covering various tiers of the market in China.


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