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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It seems automotive innovation continues to be one sector that’s accelerating at a considerable pace. With the interest in autonomous vehicles on the rise, and new ridesharing/ride-hailing services offering considerable discounts, the big question is: should we bother buying our own cars? How long will actual ownership be cost-effective?
China’s Digital Diet Industry Set To Expand
Diet smarter?
Date: 29 July, 2020
China’s weight loss industry is set to being well catered for, thanks to Weishi – a company developing healthy diet applets online and individually tailoring calorie-controlled meal plans: all through user data.
However, while salads and weight loss products aren’t popular in China, to counter this, Weishi developed a modular, colour-coded ‘Bento box’ system – which divides conventional Chinese food into three essential types: protein, vegetables, and carbohydrates.
Source: https://36kr.com/p/813505800635264
Meituan Taxi Aims To Boost Urban Market Share With Massive Discounts
Big discounts for big competition
Date: 30 July, 2020
Meituan Taxi customers are in for a treat as the company fends off the competition by offering a series of massive discounts.
Users can now get between 20% to 30% off each Meituan fare. The goal is to seize more than 10% of the market share in mainstream cities – but this is not the first time Meituan has used price wars to compete in the highly competitive car-hailing market. In February 2017, Meituan quietly launched in Nanjing, before rolling out in Shanghai a year later.
Source: https://36kr.com/p/816394970666120
Refuelling Service Up 200 Million Yuan
Refuelling new funding
Date: 31 July, 2020
Energy Exchange, the refuelling service has scored another round of funding – taking its Series A total to 200 million yuan.
Energy Exchange attracted a substantial sum in a Series A+ financing round – led by Huihe Capital.
Following this round, Energy Exchange will focus on developing oil production warehouses; addressing the high price of oil in retail channels; the distance between gas stations; the inconvenience of enterprise payment settlement; and the inability to accumulate and manage oil use data.
By directly cooperating with wholesalers – such as Sinopec and PetroChina – Energy Exchange can save about 1 yuan per litre compared with retail oil products: helping commercial vehicle companies significantly scale back costs.
Source: https://36kr.com/p/816697024952321
Baidu Takes A Bolder Step Towards Autonomous Driving
A worthy opponent for Tesla?
Date: 31 July, 2020
Internet giant Baidu, in partnership with auto parts company, Flextronics, has launched the world's first mass-produced autonomous driving computing platform.
Known as ACU, this new hardware will be the first to work in conjunction with Apollo Valet Parking (AVP): an autonomous parking product developed by Baidu and Weimar Motors.
ACU's AI capabilities include high-precision mapping and positioning, environment awareness, planning control, and a whole host of other functions. It is also equipped with cloud update capabilities: enabling real-time closed-loop data iteration, as well as cloud training and upgrade algorithms.
Source: https://36kr.com/p/817359760758147
Smart Home Platform, Orvibo, Sets Sights On IPO
Orvibo vs. Xiaomi
Date: 31 July, 2020
The Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau revealed on its website that Orvibo, the smart home unicorn, has officially registered its intention to conduct an Initial Public Offering.
Orvibo, which launched its HomeAI operating system and Mix Pad hardware last November, plans to list on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, according to reports – around the same time the company secured a pre-IPO round of strategic investment from the Evergrande Group.
Orvibo also received 130 million yuan in Series C financing from Midea Real Estate and Red Star Macalline back in May last year. It seems the brand is going head-to-head with China’s digital hardware giant, Xiaomi. And all being well post-IPO, Orvibo may be in with a chance of taking sizable market share.
Source: https://36kr.com/p/814604115561864
Notes:
Baidu: The name which translates as "a hundred degrees" – is one of the world’s largest internet and AI companies. Founded in January 2000, its search engine is the biggest in China – commanding over three quarters (76%) of the country’s search traffic: some 700+ million users.
Asia Markets
Moody's: Asian banks' profitability to deteriorate
Markets Summary: https://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/world-indexes/asia-pacific
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