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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Given its status as the world’s most populous country – and the nation’s often much-maligned pollution problems – it’s great to see that China’s commitment to electric vehicle adoption is on an upward curve. Could it be that the nation has turned a corner on its fossil fuel reliance in other areas too?

Didi Launches First Electric Vehicle Tailored For Ride-Hailing Service

time-lapse photography of city buildings

D1 vs Uber

Date: 18 November, 2020

Chinese ride-hailing giant, Didi Chuxing, has rolled out the D1 – its first electric vehicle tailored specifically for its ride-hailing service.

Co-developed with China’s biggest electric vehicle maker BYD, the D1 will be dispatched to drivers via its leasing partner in Changsha, where BYD is building the vehicle.

D1 models will also be used across Hunan province in December – and later cities across China not too long afterwards.

Source: https://en.pingwest.com/w/8019

Chinese TikTok To Offer New Small Loans Service

ByteDance Cements E-Commerce Presence With New Small Loans Service

‘Spend now, pay later’

Date: 19 November, 2020

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has made another clear move towards establishing itself as a true eCommerce platform – by introducing small loans into short-form video platform, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

The move aims to capitalise on the high volumes of traffic that pass through ByteDance’s sites. While positioned as a ‘spend now, pay later’ offer, sources claim that the new service is not designed to be profit-generating.

Source: https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/bytedance-increases-footprint-in-e-commerce-with-small-loan-service-

Xiaomi Announces Newly Established Wearables Department

person wearing space black Apple Watch with black strap

Expect new wearables from Xiaomi soon

Date: 20 November, 2020

Tech giant, Xiaomi, has doubled down on customer demand for wearable tech and created its own department.

In the first quarter of 2020, global shipments of wearable devices reached 72.6 million units – a year-on-year increase of 29.7%.

Xiaomi’s own continued success in and outside of China puts the brand in a good position for growth in the wearables sector.

Source: https://tech.163.com/20/1120/18/FRT7FK6400097U7R.html

Xiaopeng Motors To Add LiDAR Technology From 2021

Cars with LiDAR for better AI

Date: 20 November, 2020

Xiaopeng Motors issued a statement at the Guangzhou Auto Show stating that the company will upgrade its autonomous driving software and hardware systems with LiDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technology for all models produced from 2021.

The technology – which operates similar to radar is said to greatly improve performance, and enhance each vehicle's object recognition performance.

Source: https://36kr.com/newsflashes/975974582304263

Shanghai’s New Energy Vehicle License Policy Set To Last To 2022

Plate-betting

Date: 21 November, 2020

EV owners in Shanghai can continue to be exempt from the city’s infamous license plate auctions. As part of an initiative to encourage electric and other new energy vehicles, the city of Shanghai is extending the current arrangement, which began in until 2022.

It seems to be working. 2019 figures showed that the number of NEVs in the city rose to nearly 240,000 -- up from 35,000 in 2015.

Source: https://www.shobserver.com/news/detail?id=313741

Notes:

Shanghai License Plate Auction: Like many major Chinese cities, Shanghai imposes severe restrictions on vehicle ownership. It does this by limiting the number of city licence plates issued every year, ownership of which is necessary to buy a car. Despite costing around 90,000 Yuan on average, competition remains fierce.