China Tech News

Chinese Internet company Tencent and Sony Music Entertainment jointly announced a strategic cooperation agreement under which Tencent will exclusively manage Sony Music's online music service in mainland China.
No financial details of the agreement were released.

Basing on the agreement, Tencent will recommend Sony Music's artists on its QQ music streaming media website and other platforms. In addition, on behalf of Sony Music, Tencent will negotiate with other Chinese mainland online music service providers about music distribution rights.

Sony Music is a subsidiary of Sony and the cooperation with Sony Music was Tencent's fifth entertainment cooperation agreement over the past five weeks. Prior to this, Tencent formed online distribution partnerships with Warner Music Group, HBO of Time Warner Inc., South Korea record company, and documentary maker National Geographic Channel.


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Chinese search engine company Baidu recently reached an agreement with Nokia to provide map services to Chinese users outside China as Baidu aims to develop international businesses through mobile services.

Nokia's map and navigation business Here announced that it will provide overseas map data to Baidu map, targeting the Chinese outbound tourist market. Here will provide data to Baidu map's desktop, iOS, and Android editions. The new service will first be available in Taiwan and gradually cover other countries and regions.

Baidu currently offers full map services in China; however, it does not have good map data outside China and many users would argue its map data even inside China is poor. Meanwhile, Nokia has been focusing on the Chinese market over the past years and accumulated experience and intellectual property rights in the Chinese-language service sector, which can be used to develop and customize the Chinese-language world map. At present, Here provides map services in nearly 200 countries and regions as well as navigation functions in 118 countries and regions around the world.

The latest quarterly performance showed that Here realized net operating revenue of EUR236 million, which was about USD294 million; while Nokia's total net operating revenue was EUR3.3 billion.

Statistics from China Tourism Association revealed that over the past few years, the number of Chinese outbound tourists saw a significant increase. In 2013, the number of Chinese outbound tourists was 98.19 million, a year-on-year increase of 18% and the related expense reached USD128.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27%. For the year of 2014, the number of Chinese outbound tourists is expected to reach 114 million and the related expense is expected to be USD140 billion.
For those Chinese traveling overseas, they can also use Google Maps in Chinese-language. And because Google has a much better and more transparent mapping service, it may make for a better experience for Chinese users who depart China's censored content regions.


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Taiwanese computer power manufacturer Delta announced that its subsidiary Deltronic B.V. will acquire the entire stake in Eltek ASA, a Norwegian power management and sales company, for NOK3.9 billion, which is about CNY3.3 billion.

Delta's chairman Yancey Hai and chief executive officer Ping Cheng jointly announced the news. Hai said that power electronics is the core business of Delta. As a power design company Eltek ASA mainly develops businesses in Europe, America, and emerging markets like Africa; while Delta focuses on Asia and America. With the acquisition, the two parties will be complementary in channel and sales sectors. According to Hai, acquisition will be one of Delta's development strategies in the future.

Cheng said that Eltek ASA's major product is system power, which is different from the product strategy of Delta. So the two parties can also be complementary in products. Cheng also revealed that the company has been planning acquisitions since last year.

Public files show that the Norwegian power company Eltek ASA is engaged in providing power and energy solutions to industrial users. It has operations in over 100 countries and regions around the world, covering telecom, railway, and infrastructure. The company owns a large amount of power-related patents.


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Xi Guohua, chairman of China Mobile, revealed the company's goal for 2015 during China Mobile Global Partner Conference 2014, stating that China Mobile plans to sell 250 million terminals, including 200 million 4G devices, and they aim to develop 250 million 4G users in 2015.
Xi said the company has surpassed the goals for 4G services in 2014. They not only completed the building of 500,000 4G base stations, but also constructed additional ones; and they expected to have 700,000 4G base stations completed by the end of 2014. For user group expansion, they planned to develop 50 million 4G users; however, the number may reach 80 million by year-end once all calculations are confirmed later this year. In addition, the number of 4G terminals will reach 220 million.

For 2015, Xi revealed that China Mobile plans to build one million 4G base stations, achieve 100% LTE international roaming access, sell 250 million terminals including 200 million 4G devices, and develop 250 million 4G users.

He also revealed that for device development, China Mobile will stick to multi-frequency, wearable devices, and owned mobile phone brands. He emphasized that the owned mobile phone brand does not mean to compete with mobile phone manufacturers; instead, they will try to establish a new framework for pricing and design.


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Letv cloud, the cloud computing-based video open platform of Letv.com, and Microsoft jointly held a press conference in Beijing and announced that the two parties have inked a deal for solution compatibility.

With the cooperation, Letv cloud video-related solutions will be compatible with Microsoft's public cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure in the future. Letv cloud video solution will be like online software and Microsoft Azure will be like a hardware platform which allows Letv cloud solutions to run on Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.

The cooperation of the two parties have big complementary advantages. By supporting Microsoft Azure, Letv cloud can provide more convenient cloud computing services to clients; in return, Microsoft will be able to promote the development of its public cloud business.
Letv cloud video open platform has cloud video-on-demand, cloud live, and content delivery network solutions and those solutions cover various sectors, including broadcasting and TV, e-commerce, education, media, animation, and smart home.

Financial terms of the deal were not released.


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Kingsoft Corporation Limited signed a joint operation framework agreement for games with Huaduo Group.

Kingsoft said that the company and Huaduo Group agreed to establish a long-term business relationship to explore the cooperation in the area of the online games. In order to regulate the joint operation in games, the two parties entered into the joint operation framework agreement for games on December 30, 2014, and set the annual caps of the continuing connected transactions contemplated thereunder for the three years ending December 29, 2017.

Under the agreement, Kingsoft and Huaduo Group will jointly operate the games developed and owned by Kingsoft or the games licensed to be operated by Kingsoft. Kingsoft will provide its game content, relevant updates and technical support; while Huaduo Group will provide operational services, including but not limited to the game distribution, promotion, and operation by way of exclusive licensing or joint operation of games, on platforms such as website, software, PC products and mobile platform.

As a part of the agreement, Huaduo Group will pay up to CNY195 million to Kingsoft over the next three years.


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First International Telecom Corporation, the only telecom carrier that provides low-power communication system services in Taiwan, has announced its bankruptcy and its users will be taken over by other carriers.

Founded in 1997, First International Telecom officially launched its personal handy-phone system business in 2001, making it the only Taiwanese telecom carrier that provides low-power communication system services. In 2008, the company applied for restructuring to the local court in Taipei. At present, the company only has about 600,000 users and 100,000 paid users.

In May 2014, First International Telecom revealed its PHS system upgrade and restructuring process to the public and invited Japan's XGP Forum as its representative to introduce the new XGP system, the next-generation PHS system.

A Taipei local court finally allowed termination of restructuring of First International Telecom Corporation and announced its bankruptcy on December 18, 2014, after the company's failure to execute its five-year restructuring efforts. However, the company said they will try to maintain the normal operation of its 1,900MHz frequency network.


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Chinese Internet portal NetEase.com announced the public testing of its cross-border e-commerce platform Kaola.com, which currently provides maternal and child products, food and health care products, cosmetics and personal care products, and overseas direct mail service.

New users can directly login to the website with their NetEase accounts. The definite date for emergence from the beta testing has not been released.

Kaola.com launched two models: bonded zone delivery and overseas direct mail. With bonded zone delivery, products will be purchased via centralized procurement and stored in bonded warehouses in China. Users will be able to receive the goods in less than three days after order placement. With overseas direct mail, products will be shipped by overseas certified vendors and consumers can receive goods in seven to 30 days.

This new website marks NetEase's latest attempt to gain traction in the e-commerce sector. In September 2012, NetEase launched Huihui.cn, which offered advertising solutions for B2C and C2C partners. In December 2012, the company launched an Internet sales platform for health and nutrition products.

Kaola.com more importantly is a direct response to Alibaba's latest moves to entice buyers both outside of China to purchase goods in China and for buyers in China to purchase goods from international sellers who ship goods to China.


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Xiaomi today launched new devices including the Xiaomi Mi Note, an Android-powered phablet sporting 3D curved Gorilla Glass, a Snapdragon 801 2.5GHz processor, and a form factor that looks like an iPhone 6 clone.

In fact, rumors in the past week that Facebook's planned investment in the Chinese phone maker were scuttled partly because of worries over intellectual property right encroachments by Xiaomi are now more believable with the latest Xiaomi device looking on the surface like an Apple device.

Inside, though, the new Xiaomi Mi Note is different from any Apple device in that the Note houses Dual 4G SIM cards with dual standby capabilities. It also has a Sony 13MP camera with optical image stabilization; a 4MP front camera with large 2-micron pixels; a 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Fi audio system for true sound representation; and a 3000mAh lithium-ion battery.
The Mi Note retails for CNY2299 for the 16GB model and CNY2799 for 64GB.

The company also unveiled the Mi Note Pro, which has a Snapdragon 810 processor and 2k display. It also has 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMC 5.0 Flash and LTE-CAT 9. It retails in China for CNY3299.

The new device was launched today by company CEO Lei Jun along with a set-top box called the Mi Box mini retailing for CNY199 and Mi Headphones.


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Chinese online English learning platform 51Talk has acquired the entire stake in another English learning website 91waijiao, and the two platforms will now merge.

The financial terms fo the deal were not released.

After the acquisition, all 91waijiao businesses will be integrated into 51Talk and users registered on 91waijiao will also be able to enjoy services provided by 51Talk. In addition, employees of 91waijiao will soon move to the offices of 51Talk.
In September 2014, 51Talk completed its third round financing of USD55 million, which was led by Sequoia Capital. Prior to that, the company gained USD12 million investments led by Shunwei Fund in its second round of financing.

51Talk claims to currently have nearly 50,000 paid users, over 2,500 foreign teachers, and nearly 1,000 employees. On the completion of the merger, the company will become one of the online English education brands with the most learners and foreign teachers in China.


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