Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is investing US$200 million in photo-messaging app Snapchat, following a string of prior investments in U.S. tech companies.The companies did not publicly comment on the deal. But a person familiar with the matter confirmed the investment on Thursday.The e-commerce firm has been funding both U.S. and Chinese tech companies, as a way to grow the company’s global ecosystem, the source said.Previous deals made in the U.S. include investing in messaging app Tango, online retail site ShopRunner, and ride-sharing service Lyft.The activity has sparked speculation that the Chinese e-commerce company is preparing to buy its way into the U.S. market. Last week, Alibaba announced it was opening its first data center in Silicon Valley to target the U.S. cloud computing sector.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Baidu’s efforts to bring its own customized Android ROM to Chinese smartphones appears to be fizzling out as the company shifts resources away from the project.On Wednesday, the team behind the Baidu Cloud OS, a suite of tools and interfaces designed for Android phones and incorporated into the company’s Android ROM, announced it was saying goodbye to the platform.“Because of a company business adjustment, we have no choice but to painfully decide to suspend updates and support to the Baidu Cloud OS,” the team said in an official forum posting.While the rest of Baidu’s consumer cloud business will still be in operation, the Cloud OS and ROM design unit has been folded into a new company, the team added in another posting. It did not offer details about the new company.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
To reach more Chinese consumers, Amazon.com has opened an imported goods store on an Alibaba Group site.The new store will officially launch next month on Alibaba’s Tmall.com site, and will function as a pilot project, Amazon said Friday.Amazon already has its own e-commerce site geared for the country, but its share of China’s online retail market is only 0.8 percent, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.Alibaba, in contrast, controls three quarters of the market through its Tmall and Taobao Marketplace sites, and has 265 million monthly active users.The Chinese market is fiercely competitive, as Amazon is not only competing against Alibaba, but also scores of other smaller e-commerce providers routinely offering promotional deals on products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
China seeks to help the country’s Internet firms gain a bigger foothold in the international market, and is preparing to pour more state funds into its emerging tech sector, according to one of its top leaders.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made the statement in his opening address to the country’s annual parliamentary session on Thursday. He added that China is establishing an “Internet Plus” plan to promote its mobile Internet, cloud computing, and e-commerce sectors, as part of a push to support the country’s emerging industries.“The country has already established a 40 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion) emerging industry innovation investment fund, and more capital will be brought in and integrated,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
China is scratching its head over why the U.S. is opposing a new anti-terror law relating to cybersurveillance when the U.S. and other countries have also requested that tech companies hand over data to help stop terrorists.On Wednesday, China’s parliamentary spokeswoman tried to play down the impact the proposed legislation might have on foreign tech businesses, in the face of U.S. fears it would require companies to hand over sensitive data to the country’s government.The anti-terror law is still under review, but if passed, it would require tech companies to give encryption keys to the authorities, and create “back doors” into their systems for government surveillance access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is making a push into the U.S. cloud computing market, where it’s expected to run into competition from Amazon.com, Google and Microsoft.Alibaba subsidiary Aliyun is already the biggest cloud player in its home market, and on Wednesday, it opened a data center in California, its first data center outside of China.The U.S. business will first focus on attracting Chinese enterprises based in the country, before it expands to international customers in this year’s second half, Alibaba said in a statement.No doubt Alibaba will face intense competition in the U.S., where Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are major players. But opening the data center in Silicon Valley sends another message that it wants to be a global company, said Charlie Dai, an analyst with Forrester Research.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
President Barack Obama isn’t happy with new rules from China that would require U.S. tech companies to abide by strict cybersecurity measures, but on Tuesday the country was quick to defend the proposed regulations.“All countries are paying attention to and taking measures to safeguard their own information security. This is beyond reproach,” said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying in a news briefing.She made the statement after Obama criticized a proposed anti-terror law that he said could stifle U.S. tech business in China. The legislation would require companies to hand over encryption keys to the country’s government, and create “back doors” into their systems to give the Chinese government surveillance access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Chinese demand for smartphones is leading to a surge in app downloads from the country—so much so that five of the leading app stores in the world are now from China.Apple and Google still run two of the biggest app stores on the planet, but in China local app stores are pulling in billions of downloads, just by targeting the home market, according to Juniper Research.China itself accounted for 59 percent of all app downloads made last year, which in total reached close to 185 billion. In contrast, the U.S. market only accounted for 8 percent of all app downloads.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Even as China continues to block its services, Google has started a localized YouTube channel for developers in the country, aiming to bring more Chinese-made apps to its platforms.The new YouTube channel, announced on Monday, will serve up videos discussing Google technologies such as Android, either translated with subtitles, or spoken in Mandarin Chinese.The company announced the channel about four months after it opened Google Play to developers based in mainland China.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple’s iPhone 6 has been a hit in China, but according to one account, rival Xiaomi still reigns as the country’s largest smartphone vendor.In last year’s fourth quarter, Android handset maker Xiaomi had a 13.7 percent share, while second place Apple only had a 12.3 percent share, research firm IDC said Monday.The rankings are, however, different from those of another research firm Canalys, which put Apple as the top vendor, and Xiaomi second.Apple achieved in the fourth quarter its highest quarterly market share in China over the past two years, and it came from strong demand for its newest iPhone, said Xiaohan Tay, an IDC analyst.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Asustek Computer isn’t exactly known for smartphones, but the Taiwanese PC maker is aiming to bring more Android phones to U.S. and European markets this year.A year ago, Asus introduced its ZenFone line, a range of Android handsets, and demand for the phones is growing.In the fourth quarter, Asus shipped 4.5 million smartphones, up from a mere 200,000 units in the first quarter of 2014.The shipments are still small compared to those of leading vendors such as Apple and Samsung Electronics, but Asus is among the PC makers hoping to break out from the notebook market by releasing more mobile devices. In 2017, Asus expects revenue from its mobile business to surpass that of its PCs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has forced its suppliers to end a form of “bonded labor” that saddled assembly line workers with unnecessary hiring fees, and put them in debt to third-party recruiters.The requirement went into effect starting this year, the company said on Wednesday in its latest supplier responsibility report, which examines the labor conditions at factories that produce Apple products.Many of these factories are based in mainland China, where suppliers are hiring thousands of local workers. But in periods of labor shortages, Apple suppliers have at times relied on third-party recruitment agencies to bring in more temporary workers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Michael Kan