China Tech News

Augmented reality for education and play has received a seal of approval from New Horizon Capital, which led a RMB250 million series B funding round in Yangshu Wenhua (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Founded in 2009, Yangshu Wenhua develops interactive smart hardware and AR education products targeted at children between two and ten years old. It is the company behind augmented reality children's science and education brand NeoBear.
GGV Capital, Qualcomm, and other Chinese investors also participated in the round.

Yangshu Wenhua's key products include AR early education product Dream Box and Pocket Zoo, a NeoBear cartoon series, and AR painting books. The Pocket Zoo product, which helps children learn about animals in an AR enabled environment, has sold 150 million sets since its launch earlier this year.

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Google's Android Pay has formally entered Hong Kong and will be available in many local banks and retail stores catering to the nearly eight million residents living in the Chinese Special Administrative Region.

Android Pay is a "one-click payment" service launched by Google. It features NFC communications technology and can be used on devices starting with the KitKat 4.4 Android system.

Android Pay is similar with Apple Pay, which supports rapid and convenient payment functions via smartphones. Apple Pay launched in Hong Kong and mainland China earlier this year.

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Two years ago, it looked like China's Xiaomi was on the top of the world as one of China's upstart smartphone leaders. But with tight margins and little differentiation among Android-based phones, cheaper phones have overtaken Xiaomi in China.

Research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor shows the demand for smartphones in China grew 8% annually and 7% sequentially in the third quarter of 2016.

Oppo and Vivo became the number one and two smartphone brands in China capturing 17% and 16% share, respectively. The two brands share the same owners BBK Group, and they now control almost one-third of the China smartphone market, reports Counterpoint.

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Simtoo, a Shenzhen-based drone manufacturer, has reportedly closed a RMB72 million funding round.
Chinese social networking company Renren Inc co-led the series B round in Simtoo along with Beijing Infinitas Interactive Media Co., Ltd. and Hanking Family Office.

Founded in April 2015, Simtoo launched its debut product called Dragonfly Drones priced at RMB2,999 last August.
Simtoo claims to have sold 20,000 Dragonfly Drones via online and offline channels and expects to realize a profit this year, according to a statement.

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Chinese telecom operator China Mobile's financial details for the first three quarters of 2016 show its operating revenue increased by 4.3% year-on-year to CNY542.7 billion and its net profit attributable to shareholders increased by 3.1% year-on-year to CNY88.1 billion.

Of the total operating revenue, China Mobile's communications service revenue was CNY481.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%. Meanwhile, the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were CNY200.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.3%.

China Mobile had a total of 844 million mobile users by September 30, 2016, marking a net increase of 17.42 million during the first three quarters of 2016. At the same time, the company's 4G users reached 481 million, a net increase of 168 million during the reporting period. In addition, China Mobile's rapid development of 4G business promoted the continuous fast growing of data business and its mobile Internet data business realized an increase of 131% compared with the same period of last year.

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360 Cloud Disk published a notice on its official website stating that they will stop providing cloud disk services to individual users from November 1, 2016.

360 Cloud Disk explained in the notice that some criminals used 360 Cloud Disk to store and spread illegal documents, pirated contents or *****graphic information which seriously harmed the lawful rights and interests of copyright owners and "brought huge harm to the society".
However, 360 Cloud Disk did not state they will "permanently terminate" the services in the notice and they said they will not consider recovering the services until the legal and security problems of contents stored and transmitted on Internet disks are fully solved.

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Artificial intelligence, big data, virtual reality, drones, robots, Internet of Things and aerospace projects are the focus of a new alliance and incubator among venture capital firms in China.

Chinese media report the alliance still has no name, but it is comprised of Zhen Fund, Innovation Angel Funds, CAS Star, Ever Venture Capital, Geek Founders, Tsinghua Digital Innovation Center, Power Cloud Venture Capital, and a few other unnamed parties.
The accelerator will organize project roadshows, innovation competitions, innovation forums, experts speeches and entrepreneur camps.

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Maternity and baby products online shopping site Mia.com is adding equity to its coffers, according to Chinese media.
Mia.com's founder Liu Nan reportedly sent an internal memo to employees detailing the closing of the latest round and that the company is nearing over RMB1 billion in cash reserves, but he failed to provide details of the exact amount of funding raised.

Mia.com last raised US$150 million series D financing round led by Baidu Inc. in September 2015.
Before that, it raised US$60 million in series C round led by H Capital in December 2014, and US$20 million series B round led by Sequoia Capital in July that year.

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Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry will formally enter the semiconductor development and design space by cooperating with UK's ARM Holdings, a professional manufacturer in this area, to jointly establish a semiconductor chip development and design center.

Hon Hai believes that there is demand for semiconductors in the Internet of Things sector and the company plans to make it a new growth point.

ARM was just acquired by SoftBank Group in September 2016 and Hon Hai has been maintaining a close relationship with SoftBank. The Taiwanese company is also the manufacturer for SoftBank's humanoid robot Pepper.
Hon Hai and ARM have reached an agreement to set up a semiconductor development and design center in Shenzhen. Apart from using semiconductors on smartphones assembled by Hon Hai, the company may also sell semiconductor products to other companies.

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Just weeks after its rival Tujia.com consolidated power with online travel companies Ctrip.com and Qunar, Xiaozhu.com has now said it has closed a new round of investment.

Beijing-based short-term vacation home sharing website Xiaozhu.com says it completed a series C+ and D round, raising a total of US$65 million from private equity firm Capital Today, Joy Capital, Bertelsmann Asia Investments and others.

Capital Today led its series C+ round, while Joy Capital and BAI led the series D round, with participation from Morningside ventures, Capital Today and Heyu Capital, the company said in an announcement.
Xiaozhu.com also revealed its latest operation numbers. It currently has listings of 100,000 lodging units in 301 cities in China. Active users has increased to nearly 10 million.

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