Rita Liao
TechCrunch
China
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Recent articles by Rita:
Alibaba vies for a piece of China’s booming EV market –
There’s no lack of news these days on China’s tech giants teaming up with traditional carmakers. Companies from Alibaba to Huawei are striving to become relevant in the trillion-dollar auto industry, which itself is seeking an electric transition and intelligent upgrade as 5G comes of age. State-owned automaker SAIC Motor, a major player in China, […] → Read More
TikTok’s epic rise and stumble –
TikTok’s rise in the West is unprecedented for any Chinese tech company, and so is the amount of attention it has attracted from politicians worldwide. Below is a timeline of how TikTok grew from what some considered another “copycat” short video app to global dominance and eventually became a target of the U.S. government. 2012-2017: […] → Read More
Google-backed Chinese truck-hailing firm Manbang raises $1.7 billion –
The Chinese Uber for trucks Manbang announced Tuesday that it has raised $1.7 billion in its latest funding round, two years after it hauled in $1.9 billion from investors including SoftBank Group and Alphabet Inc’s venture capital fund CapitalG. The news came fresh off a Wall Street Journal report two weeks ago that Manbang was […] → Read More
The promise and challenge of Roblox’s future in China –
In a much-anticipated move, California-based gaming firm Roblox filed to go public last week. One aspect driving the future growth of the children- and community-focused gaming platform is its China entry, which it fleshes out in detail for the first time in its IPO prospectus. Like all gaming companies entering China, Roblox must work with […] → Read More
How China’s Realme sold 50 million phones in just over 2 years –
Starting a new phone brand in 2018 might seem too late in an already crowded market, but Sky Li was convinced that consumers between 18-25 years old were largely under-served — they needed something that was both affordable and cool. A few months after Li founded Realme in May that year, the smartphone company organized […] → Read More
The crowd goes wild for Yiming –
This excerpt follows a high-growth period for Douyin, detailing how it gained around 200 million daily active users within a year via a loyal creator community, viral memes, algorithmic recommendation and aggressive ad spending. → Read More
China’s smartphone giant Oppo ratchets up AR push –
Tech companies around the world are still identifying the “next big thing” enabled by 5G connections. Some, such as Oppo, are betting it will be augmented reality. The Chinese smartphone firm showcased its progress in AR at a Tuesday event swarmed by hundreds of reporters, analysts, and partners in Shenzhen. Green strobe light, the color […] → Read More
Huawei sells budget phone unit Honor to government, distribution partners –
After weeks of rumors, Huawei confirmed it is selling its budget phone unit Honor to a consortium of companies, including government-backed firms and Honor’s distribution partners, according to a joint statement released Tuesday morning in a local Shenzhen paper. “This acquisition represents a market-driven investment made to save Honor’s supply chain. It is the best […] → Read More
Zilliz raises $43 million as investors rush to China’s open source software –
For years, founders and investors in China had little interest in open source software because it did not seem like the most viable business model. Zilliz‘s latest financing round shows that attitude is changing. The three-year-old Chinese startup, which builds open source software for processing unstructured data, recently closed a Series B round of $43 […] → Read More
Former WeWork China exec launches a ‘startup studio’ for real estate –
The real estate industry has been slow to adopt technology compared to many other sectors. So when Dominic Penaloza left his job at WeWork China as the head of innovation and technology this spring, he decided to focus on proptech in Asia. Instead of building a startup himself or investing in one, Penaloza combines both […] → Read More
The U.S. government sends mixed messages about TikTok’s future –
The fate of TikTok in the United States got even more confusing this week. The U.S. Justice and Commerce Departments sent conflicting messages today about TikTok’s future, which is now up in the air with the upcoming administration transition. The Department of Commerce said Thursday it would abide by an injunction issued October 30 by […] → Read More
China to ship 3 billion parcels during post-COVID Singles’ Day –
China’s e-commerce behemoths Alibaba and JD.com again claimed to have set records during the world’s largest shopping event, Singles’ Day. The figures can often be gamed to paint a rosy picture of perpetual growth, journalists and analysts have long observed, so they are limited metrics for measuring the firms’ performance or Chinese consumers’ purchasing power […] → Read More
China proposes antitrust law ahead of Singles’ Day shopping spree –
Debates over anti-competitive practices amongst China’s internet firms resurface every year in the lead up to Singles’ Day, a time when online retailers exhaust their resources and deploy sometimes sneaky tactics to attract vendors and shoppers. This year, just a day before the world’s largest shopping festival was scheduled to fall on November 11, China’s […] → Read More
Despite global headwinds, Chinese hardware startups remain to take on the world –
Bill Zhang lowered himself into lunges on a squishy mat as he explained to me the benefits of the full-body training suit he was wearing. We were in his small, modest office in Xili, a university area in Shenzhen that’s also home to many hardware makers. The connected muscle stimulator attached to the suit, called […] → Read More
The race to be China’s top fintech platform: Ant vs Tencent –
As Ant Group seizes the world’s attention with its record initial public offering, which was abruptly called off by Beijing, investors and analysts are revisiting Tencent’s fintech interests, recognized as Ant’s archrival in China. It’s somewhat complicated to do this, not least because they are sprawled across a number of Tencent properties and, unlike Ant, […] → Read More
China’s cash-burning video sector: how Kuaishou lost $1B in 6 months –
Rumors have been floating for months that ByteDance is going public with TikTok and Douyin separately. Just last night, Bloomberg reported that ByteDance is seeking a pre-IPO round of $2 billion at a staggering valuation of $180 billion. Before any of that materializes, ByteDance Chinese rival Kuaishou has moved ahead to file for an initial […] → Read More
ByteDance to pump $170 million into e-book reader Zhangyue –
While short videos are what drive ByteDance’s revenues and give the Chinese startup international recognition, the firm is expanding into numerous new areas like other tech giants to fuel growth. It’s dabbled in enterprise software and online learning, and the news came this week that ByteDance will invest in one of China’s largest e-book readers […] → Read More
China postpones Ant’s colossal IPO after closed-door talk with Jack Ma –
The Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges announced postponing Ant Group’s colossal initial public offering, a day after regulators weighed a slew of new fintech rules and summoned Jack Ma and other top executives to a closed-door meeting. The rare talk between the financial regulators and Ant, which revealed “major changes in the fintech regulatory […] → Read More
Tencent claims record 100M daily users on mobile game Honor of Kings –
At its five-year anniversary gala graced by celebrities, esports stars and orchestras, Tencent’s mobile game Honor of Kings said it has crossed 100 million daily active users. The title has not only broken user records but generated other unprecedented accomplishments along the way. For one, it consistently ranks among the top-grossing mobile games worldwide, jostling […] → Read More
Miniso, the Japanese-looking variety store from China, sees shares jump in US IPO –
Investors are jumping aboard a value store chain that is bringing Japanese-inspired lifestyle goods to consumers around the world. The company, Miniso, raised $608 million from an initial public offering in New York on Thursday. It debuted at $24.40, above its pricing range of $16.50 to $18.50, and finished the day up 4.4%. Everything about […] → Read More