Eastly: Asia Tech News Direct From The Source

Welcome to Eastly, your weekly infusion of all the top tech stories from the world’s innovation powerhouse: East Asia!

Every Sunday we’ll bring you a short, sharp roundup of the biggest stories our team in China have spotted – the kind of stuff that takes a few weeks for the Western media to notice.

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There can be no doubt that the EV (electric vehicle) market’s hotting up – nowhere more so than in China. But, despite the amount of innovation going into building these eco-friendly road runners, it seems that the same legacy ‘issues’ associated with their petrol counterparts persist – Li Auto’s mass recall being a prime example.

When the company tried to dupe the public into thinking it was an upgrade, there was a big backlash – resulting in a sharp drop in Li Auto’s stock. With more and more EV players emerging, what lessons can we learn?

Jack Ma Questioned, Shanghai Stock Exchange Stops Ant Group IPO

Biggest IPO stopped

Date: 03 November, 2020

The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) recently halted Ant Group’s planned IPO.

Following the announcement, Ant Group, the financial arm of Alibaba, suspended its Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO listing too.

The reason cited by SSE was the fact Ant's actual controller, chairman, and CEO – including Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, were summoned for a compulsory talk by financial regulators, following Ant’s proposed regulatory environment change.

Source: https://en.pingwest.com/a/7959

Baidu Boosts Consumer Cloud With Virtual Smartphone Launch

Why have a real thing when you can have a better virtual thing?

Date: 04 November, 2020

Baidu, the Chinese search giant, recently released what’s being billed as a ‘virtual cloud smartphone’ for the consumer market.

The virtual phone enables users to run Android apps in the cloud through their own physical device – the benefit being that as the software runs in the cloud hardware limitations are eliminated; freeing them to play games, use work apps, and even VR, with ease.

Source: https://en.pingwest.com/w/7970

TikTok Rival Confirms Hong Kong IPO

$5 billion bid to compete with TikTok

Date: 06 November, 2020

Kuaishou, the TikTok rival platform owned by Tencent, submitted its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the evening of November 5.

The short-video platform – which has grown 48% year-on-year – claims to be the world's largest live streaming platform in terms of virtual gift rewards and average monthly paying users.

According to reports, the company aims to raise $5 billion in its IPO.

Source: https://en.pingwest.com/w/7978

Shares Plummet As Li Auto Faces Fire For Passing Recall Off As ‘Upgrade’

Li Auto says SUVs produced after June 1 have already been equipped with an upgraded version of the faulty component. Photo: Handout

Return after using

Date: 06 November, 2020

Electric car manufacturer, Li Auto is facing a backlash against its recent recall of 10,469 Li ONE sport utility vehicles – half the company’s output since June 1 this year.

According to reports, the company released a statement on November 1 offering to ‘upgrade’ a suspension component. Critics were quick to point out that the announcement did in fact constitute a product recall. Li Auto subsequently released a public apology ‘accepting the criticism’ saying it would replace the component for free over the next three months.

However, this didn’t stop the company’s shares from dropping by some 7% in the aftermath.

Source: https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3108852/nasdaq-listed-chinese-electric-carmaker-li-auto-apologies

100 kWh ‘Battery-as-a-Service’ Unveiled

BaaS after SaaS?

Date: 06 November, 2020

Chinese electric car manufacturer, Nio has launched a 100kWh battery – and is to offer it as part of a ‘Battery As A Service’ (BaaS) solution, which has been available to customers since August.

As well as new car owners, existing BaaS customers can now upgrade their 70kWh car batteries to the newer CATL-built model – or can opt to buy it outright or pay ($130) monthly or ($1190) annually for the switch.

Nio claims that BaaS customers who opt for 100 kWh battery-powered cars will pay $19,300 less upfront with a $220 monthly subscription.

Source: https://www.electrive.com/2020/11/06/nio-launches-100-kwh-battery-also-as-battery-as-a-service/

Notes:

Li Auto: Founded in 2015 by Li Xiang, the Beijing-based company manufactures extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), which can be powered by either electricity or gasoline.