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News feed
Bite-sized news updates on China’s tech world
Thursday, April 7
- Chinese tech giant Tencent announced on Thursday that it will shut down its esports events-focused streaming platform Egame. The platform has already stopped new user registration and plans to halt all services by June 7. Tencent has offered compensation to existing users, mostly in the form of tokens, and has committed to paying streamers’ salaries up until the platform closes. The company has also stated that user data will be deleted in accordance with China’s Personal Information Protection Law. Tencent already owns major esports-focused streaming platform Huya, but failed to acquire rival platform Douyu after regulators blocked the deal due to monopoly concerns. [Tencent press release]
- Digital paper display maker E Ink released its new ePaper color display product, the Kaleido 3, on Thursday, saying it offers color 30% richer than previous models. Digital paper only consumes power when making any changes to the content. These displays require extra light from the environment to show content, making them ideal for e-readers like Kindle. Based in Taiwan, E Ink earned NTD 19.7 billion ($680 million) in revenue last year, with NTD 5.2 billion yearly net profit, according to its annual report. [E Ink press release]
- Tesla has issued a recall for 127,785 Model 3 vehicles, including 93,578 China-made sedans from model years 2019 to 2022 over what has been described as faulty inverters, according to a statement published Thursday by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s market regulator. The EV giant said that these vehicles have a manufacturing issue with the inverters, a part of the power system, which could shut the car down while driving and increase the risk of a crash. The recall involves an over-the-air software update for all the cars and, in some cases, the replacement of faulty components. [SAMR release, in Chinese]
- Zhang Jianyong, an associate VP of autonomous driving at Nio, is stepping down to join a local chip startup, after serving as an engineering leader for more than seven years, Chinese media 36Kr reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Zhang had led Nio’s autonomous vehicle efforts, such as the development of sensors, the integration of hardware and software systems, and operations regarding testing vehicles. The team of nearly 400 employees that works in the autonomous driving sector at Nio will mostly be merged into other divisions, according to the report. [36Kr, in Chinese]
Friday, April 8
- JD’s president Xu Lei has been appointed as CEO of the company to succeed its billionaire founder Richard Liu, the online retailer announced Thursday. Xu will join the company’s board of directors as an executive director while Liu will remain as board chairman. Liu will focus on guiding the company’s long-term strategies, mentoring younger management, and leading the revitalization of rural areas, the statement says. Xu was named president of the company in September, paving the way for Liu to step back from daily operations. Liu joins a slew of Chinese tech tycoons including Pinduoduo’s Colin Huang and ByteDance’s Zhang Yiming to leave CEO roles in the companies they founded in the past year. [JD press release]
- Li Auto, a major Chinese EV maker, announced on Wednesday that it will delay the release of its new L9 model SUV, which was scheduled for April 16, due to surging Covid cases in China. The L9 is Li Auto’s second model and is designed for the family market. The company has pledged that the new model will have a host of entertainment features, including high-spec display screens, stereo sound, and connections for Nintendo Switch devices. [Li Auto, in Chinese]
- China’s biggest messenger app WeChat announced on Wednesday that it has added the ability to pay with China’s digital currency to its wallet function in all of the 23 regions where the digital yuan is being trialed, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Users need to apply for accounts with Tencent’s WeBank before they can use the digital currency. Payments options via the national digital currency are now available in the Tencent-owned super app’s wallet interface. Tencent’s major rival Alibaba has been testing digital currency in its payment app Alipay since May 2021, Yicai reports. [ITHome, in Chinese]
- Leading Chinese semiconductor maker SMIC announced on Wednesday that it will donate RMB 10 million ($1.6 million) to the city of Shanghai as it battles a major Covid outbreak. The eastern Chinese financial hub has seen rapidly rising case numbers of the Omicron variant in recent weeks and has implemented a city-wide lockdown. Shanghai-based semiconductor businesses such as SMIC and TSMC have said that they won’t stop production despite the measures and even though the neighboring city of Kunshan has shut down dozens of semiconductor-related firms due to the outbreak. [SMIC, press release]
- Intelligent Terminal Golden Seal Alliance (ITGSA), an alliance formed by Alibaba, Baidu, OPPO, Tencent, Vivo, and Xiaomi, announced on Thursday that it will push to drop support for 32-bit apps. The processing power of these apps is slower, older, and less secure, while newer 64-bit apps run faster and are the current mainstream choice for mobile devices. Beginning in April, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi app stores will cease supporting all 32-bit apps, except for gaming apps. Google Play dropped 32-bit apps last year, while Apple began phasing out 32-bit apps with the launch of iOS 11 in 2017. [ITGSA]
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