Telenor Tech

Tencent ADR falls nearly 10% pre-market after its largest shareholder announces plan to reduce stake

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 17:50:00 +0000

The ADR of US-traded Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent Holdings fell nearly 10 percent pre-market after its largest shareholder Prosus announced plans to sell HK$114.1 billion worth of its holdings.

The Amsterdam-listed firm said Wednesday it will sell 191.9 million Tencent shares, equivalent to 2 percent of Tencent’s issued share capital, at an asking price of HK$575-595 per share through subsidiary MIH TC Holdings.

After the sale is completed, Prosus’ stake in Tencent will drop from about 30.9 percent to 28.9 percent, remaining the company’s top shareholder.

Prosus said it intends to use the proceeds of the sale to increase its financial flexibility to invest in growth, plus for general corporate purposes.

Prosus has committed not to sell any further Tencent shares for at least the next three years, in line with its long-term belief in the potential of the business, the company said.

In response to the move, Tencent said Prosus had informed it of its intention to sell its stake, which was understood and supported.

On March 22, 2018, Prosus’ parent company Naspers had reduced its position in Xun at $405 per share, cutting its stake from 33% to 31%, with a commitment not to reduce its stake for three years.

Now that the 3-year period has passed, Naspers has chosen to continue its placement to reduce its holding in Tencent shares.

Naspers’ subsidiary MIH entered China in 1997. From 2001 to 2002, MIH acquired 45.5% of Tencent from Tencent’s major investors, making it the largest single shareholder of Tencent and the most successful investment by MIH Group overseas to date.

MIH’s investment in Tencent cost approximately $32 million and brought a total return to shareholders (including dividends) of nearly 7,200 times in US dollar terms.

MIH’s stake has since declined due to factors such as equity issuance, but it remains Tencent’s largest shareholder. In the decade or so since Naspers’ investment, Tencent’s business has continued to expand and its share price has soared.

Tencent’s Q4 revenue up 26% year-on-year to RMB 133.67 billion, in line with expectations

GAC expected to unveil battery technology with range of up to 1,000km on Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 16:55:00 +0000

Chinese auto giant GAC announced Wednesday that it will showcase its super-fast-charging battery technology as well as its silicon cathode battery technology at the annual GAC TECH DAY event on April 9.

Earlier this year, GAC released a teaser image of its new battery showing that its graphene-based super-fast-charging battery can charge up to 80 percent in 8 minutes, making charging as convenient as refueling.

On top of that, its silicon negative battery can give EVs an NEDC range of 1,000 kilometers.

With its annual event coming up, the company is expected to announce details of both technologies at that time.

GAC previously mentioned its battery technology in a vague way, saying it could achieve an 8-minute charge to 80 percent and a range of 1,000 kilometers.

This was subsequently seen as an exaggeration and accused by industry experts of being impossible to achieve.

In the face of questioning, GAC AION general manager Gu Huinan responded that graphene-based super-fast-charging batteries and long-range silicon cathode batteries are two different battery technologies.

GAC also said at the time that the so-called “fast charging” and “long-range” features would be reflected in the two batteries separately, not in one battery with both features.

Graphene-based fast-charging technology will be the first to be used in the Aion V model, and can achieve 80% charging in 8 minutes and a range of 500km, and is expected to go into production in September.

The silicon anode technology battery is expected to be used in the Aion LX model, which can achieve a range of 1,000km and is expected to go into production this year.

Top Chinese academic suggests GAC’s graphene battery a scam

Chinese cryptocurrency firm Ebang surges pre-market after denying short-selling allegations

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 14:35:00 +0000

A short-selling report on Tuesday caused Chinese cryptocurrency company Ebang International’s ADRs traded in the US market to plunge about 13 percent. Now, the company has refuted the allegations and its shares surged in pre-market trading.

On April 6, short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report claiming that Ebang transferred funds illegally through insider trading.

As a result, the US blockchain sector plunged. By the close of trading, Ebang was down 12.91% at $5.53 per share, Marathon Patent was down 7.27% and Riot Blockchain was down 4.92%.

Notably, just a day before Hindenburg released its short-selling report, Ebang announced the establishment of a cryptocurrency exchange.

On Wednesday, Ebang said Hindenburg’s report contained numerous errors, unsubstantiated speculation, and inaccurate interpretations of events.

“The company’s board of directors has also been made aware of the events of the Hindenburg shorting report. The board and its audit committee will further review these allegations and false information and will take all necessary and appropriate actions to protect the interests of shareholders,” the company said.

Hindenburg said Tuesday that Ebang has raised about $374 million from US investors through four share offerings since it went public in June 2020.

While the company had said it would use most of the IPO financing to grow its business, an investigation found that Ebang moved money out of the company through a series of unusual transactions with insiders and unidentified buyers, the report said.

You can view the full Hindenburg report here: here.

At one point in Wednesday’s pre-market trading session, Ebang was up nearly 12.6% and is now up 6%.

Geely's Zeekr brand's first model could be unveiled this month and go on sale in August

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 14:24:00 +0000

The Zeekr 001, the first model of Geely’s premium electric car brand Zeekr, will be unveiled on April 15 and go on sale in August-September, local media Pcauto.com.cn said Wednesday.

The model, previously known as the Lynk ZERO, is priced between RMB 300,000 ($45,838) and RMB 500,000 and will open for pre-sale at the Shanghai Auto Show on April 19, the report said.

The car’s pricing makes it a potential competitor to the NIO ET7, which is priced from RMB 448,000 before subsidies for delivery in the first quarter of 2022.

The car features a fully automatic air suspension, hidden door handles, frameless power doors and cut-through taillights.

As an electric luxury coupe, the car uses a suspended dashboard, widescreen HUD and eco-friendly seats inside.

The Zeekr 001 has a length of 4950mm, a wheelbase of 2999mm and is equipped with Bosch’s braking system.

The Zeekr 001 is equipped with dual front and rear electric motors with a combined maximum power of 400kW and peak torque of 768N⋅m.

The acceleration time from 0-100km/h is 3.8s and the top speed is over 200km/h.

The vehicle has a maximum charging voltage of 800 volts, a range of 120km in 5 minutes of charging and a combined NEDC range of over 700km.

Zeekr is jointly invested by Geely Automobile Holdings and Geely Holding Group, with the former holding a 51% stake and the latter a 49% stake.

Geely announces new firm to focus on forward-looking EV technologies

Auto expert now expects chip shortages to take nine months to a year to ease

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 11:54:00 +0000

From traditional car companies like Volkswagen to emerging car companies like NIO, all are facing the impact of chip shortages this year. Now it seems that the supply and demand imbalance may last longer than originally expected.

Li Shaohua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, previously expected the shortage of automotive chips to be eased in another six months, but now he expects the time to be extended to nine months to a year.

The Beijing News quoted him as saying on April 7 that multiple factors have combined to cause the conflict between supply and demand for chips to erupt during this period, but there is no need to panic too much and should be treated calmly.

For China’s auto production and sales this year, the first half of the year was relatively more affected, and the situation will gradually ease in the second half of the year, Li said.

COVID-19 led to an information mismatch between the automotive industry and the chip industry, so that manufacturers have a very large deviation in future expectations, which led to the chip shortage, Li said.

The tight capacity of 8-inch wafers in recent years is also a chip shortage inevitable factor, he said.

Li believes that because automotive chips account for a relatively small proportion of the overall cost of the car, the shortage of chips will not cause an increase in the price of automotive end products.

This chip shortage provides a very good opportunity for the development of China’s local automotive chips, giving manufacturers the opportunity to catch up with foreign companies, Li said.

The chip shortage has led to a cumulative production cut of 1.157 million units in the global auto market, and the global auto market is expected to cut production by more than 2 million units this year because of it, according to AutoForecast Solutions.

William Li, the founder, and chairman of NIO, said earlier Wednesday that the current supply-demand imbalance in automotive chips involves mostly basic chips, which pose short-term pressure on the industry.

He expects the chip shortage to be more challenging for NIO in the second quarter and will ease by the third quarter.

SAIC reportedly cutting production by 200,000 vehicles due to chip shortage

NIO's William Li says confident that sales in Chinese market will exceed 1 million

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 09:29:00 +0000

William Li, founder and chairman of NIO, said he is confident that the Chinese electric car maker will become the smart electric car brand with sales exceeding 1 million in China.

Li made the remarks at a media event at the Hefei plant on April 7, when NIO is expected to see its 100,000th mass-produced vehicle roll off the production line.

He also mentioned that Jianglai, a joint venture with JAC, was not established to create a new brand, but to solidify the existing cooperation model with a new mechanism to make it easier to manage the supply chain.

Li said the current capacity of NIO’s Hefei manufacturing base is 400 units per day, and based on 25 working days per month, the monthly capacity can reach 10,000 units.

But affected by the supply chain of chips and batteries, there is now pressure to achieve a monthly production capacity of 7,500 units, he said.

Li said the auto chips that are currently experiencing a supply-demand imbalance are mostly basic chips, which pose a short-term pressure on the industry.

He expects the chip shortage to be more challenging for NIO in the second quarter, and will be eased by the third quarter.

Li also said that the pressure on 100-degree battery pack capacity is expected to ease in June and July.

NIO expects to see its 100,000th production vehicle roll off line on April 7

(Photo: CnEVPost)

Holiday economy, Dingdong Maicai secures $700 million round: Retailheads

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 09:29:00 +0000

A three-day weekend witnessed increased spending on domestic travel and entertainment. Online grocery delivery platform Dingdong Maicai secured a hefty $700 million round. Re-commerce site Zhuanzhuan received $390 million in funding, while rival Xianyu expects gross merchandise volume to surge 70% year on year in 2021. A merger between power bank companies Jiedian and Soudian will create the largest player in the sector.

Retail
headlines

China’s e-commerce and retail market offers a fire hose of products, choices, business models, rapidly changing content, and more. Here’s what you need to know about China’s online retail market for the week of April 1–7.

Holiday economy

Data from China’s Ministry of Culture and tourism shows that tourist sites received 102 million domestic visitors during the Tomb-Sweeping Day three-day weekend, which ended April 5. This marks a 144.6% year on year increase, and a 94.5% recovery from the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. Domestic tourism revenue during the period increased 228.9% year on year to RMB 27.2 billion ($4.2 billion), or 56.7% from the same period in 2019. (21th Century Business Heard, in Chinese)

Travel orders made through online travel platform Trip.com surged over 300% year on year during the three-day holiday, on par with figures for the same period in 2019. (Jiemian, in Chinese)

China’s box office takings topped RMB 821 million during the holiday. (Xinhua)

Community group-buy cash-in

China’s online grocery delivery platform Dingdong Maicai has secured $700 million D round led by DST Global and Coatue to invest in business expansion, supply chain and team. The other investors joined the round include Tiger Global Management, General Atlantic, CMC Capital Partners, and Sequoia Capital. (International Finance News, in Chinese)

Dai Shan, a partner of Alibaba Group, says in an internal letter that the core mission of Alibaba’s “MMC” department is to support the digital upgrading of China’s more than 6 million “mom and pop” stores. The newly established unit is widely regarded as the e-commerce platform’s response to the red-hot community group-buy model. The company has not said what, if anything, MMC stands for. While the most popular group-buy businesses rely on “group heads”—usually owners of offline stores, housewives, or white collars workers with a side gig—to promote products to their neighbors, MMC focuses on providing product souring and supply chain management to owners of small stores, according to Dai. (Donews, in Chinese)

Chinese fresh food chain operator Qiandama is heading for an Hong Kong initial public offering as soon as this year, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. One of the sources says the offering could raise $400 million to $500 million, in addition to a planned pre-IPO round of about RMB 2 billion. (Bloomberg)

Crossing the streams

Alibaba is planning to bring its re-commerce service Xianyu, or Idle Fish, on Tencent’s WeChat mini-app platform, shortly after embedding bargain app Taobao Deals in the rival app. (Jiemian, in Chinese)

Re-commerce platforms

Zhuanzhuan, there-commerce platform owned by classifieds giant 58.com, has raised a combined $390 million funding from Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund and Qingyue Fund. This is the first funding the firm received since its merger with electronics recycling platform Zhaoliangji in April last year. The company says its revenue has increased over 200% year on year in 2020, making it the third straight year to double its revenue. (Shanghai Morning Post, in Chinese)

Alibaba-backed re-commerce platform Xianyu expects to record RMB 500 billion gross merchandise volume (GMV) this year, local media reported. That will be a nearly 70% year-on-year surge based on the business’ RMB 200 billion GMV from last year as revealed by Alibaba’s annual earning report. (Lanjing, in Chinese)

READ MORE: China re-commerce faces tug of war between growth and trust

When our power banks combine…

Power bank rental companies Jiedian and Soudian announced a merger Thursday, the same day rival Energy Monster went public on the Nasdaq market. The new company says it will have a combined 360 million users—which is more than Energy Monster’s 219 million. (Ebrun, in Chinese)

Logistics

Alibaba logistics arm Cainiao announced Tuesday an agreement with US-owned air cargo company Atlas Air to launch a flight operation program linking Hong Kong, China to Bogota, Colombia and Lima, Peru, with Santiago, Chile or Sao Paulo, Brazil as the connection point. (Cainiao statement)

XPeng said to be developing its own chip, expected to tape out as early as year-end

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 07:09:00 +0000

XPeng Motors has launched its own chip project several months ago, working simultaneously in China and the US to focus on a dedicated chip for autonomous driving, 36kr reported Wednesday.

“The team is currently small, under 10 people,” industry sources with access to XPeng executives said, adding, “If things go well, XPeng’s chip is expected to tape out by the end of this year or early next year.”

On the fourth-quarter earnings call, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng said “in 2021, we will invest more in R&D, including hardware that is closely related to autonomous driving.”

In North America, the chip project is led by XPeng North America COO Benny Katibian, while the domestic lead is XPeng co-president Xia Heng, 36kr said.

Chip development is a complex project, and it is normal practice to conduct it in multiple locations, said the industry source mentioned above.

EV makers vie for autopilot ‘crown’ as NIO reportedly plans to develop self-driving chip

Katibian is from chip giant Qualcomm, as is XPeng’s vice president of autonomous driving business, Wu Xinzhou.

Since joining XPeng, Katibian has been responsible for hardware, architecture, and system design in the autonomous driving center, as well as maintaining XPeng’s partnerships with chip companies such as Nvidia and Qualcomm.

In China, XPeng is also actively recruiting chip technology talents. The 36kr report quoted industry sources as saying that some chip engineers have received invitations from XPeng and that “the position requires full process management of chip projects from inception to implementation (deployment).”

In October last year, media reports said NIO was planning to develop its own computing chip for self-driving and the program was in its early stages and was being driven primarily by NIO chairman and CEO William Li.

In line with the plans, NIO has also set up a separate hardware team, internally called “Smart HW (Hardware)”. According to the reports, Li has been looking for a technical leader with a silicon-based background since a few months ago.

Bai Jian, former OPPO hardware director, and general manager of Xiaomi’s chip business, reportedly joined NIO as vice president of hardware, reporting to Li. NIO was later quoted Wednesday by Sina Tech as saying that this is true.

Prior to joining Xiaomi, Bai worked at OPPO as director of hardware. Bai joined Xiaomi in September 2018 as general manager of its chip and foresight research division.

Bai graduated with a PhD from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, specializing in cryptography and communications engineering.

NIO confirms former Xiaomi chip chief is on board

Deutsche Bank comments on XPeng 3,000km NGP expedition: Setting the standard for consumer autonomy

Li Auto to issue up to $750 million in convertible notes, shares fall 4% after hours

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 04:46:00 +0000

Chinese electric car maker Li Auto announced plans Monday to issue up to $750 million in convertible senior notes due 2028 , its first capital markets financing so far this year.

The initial conversion rate, interest rate, and other terms of the notes have not been finalized and will be determined at the time of pricing of the offering, according to an announcement.

The company intends to grant the initial purchasers in the offering a 13-day option to purchase up to an additional $112.5 million aggregate principal amount of the notes, Li Auto said.

The notes will mature on May 1, 2028, and holders may convert any or all of their notes at their option at any time on or after November 1, 2027.

Li Auto said it plans to use the net proceeds from the offering for (i) research and development of new vehicle models, including BEV models, (ii) research and development of leading technologies, and (iii) working capital and other general corporate purposes.

After the announcement, Li Auto’s ADR was down about 6 percent in after-hours trading, before narrowing to 4 percent at press time.

In December, Li Auto offered an additional 47 million ADSs.

Li Auto said the funds will be used to develop next-generation electric vehicle technologies, including high-voltage platforms, batteries, and fast charging technologies, as well as next-generation BEV platforms and future vehicle models.

In addition, the funds will be used for automated driving technologies and solutions, as well as for general corporate purposes, the company said at the time.

Li Auto files for additional 47 million ADSs, putting further pressure on stock price

Another Chinese tech giant gets in! Didi has reportedly launched car-building project

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 02:19:00 +0000

For Chinese tech giants, there seems to be no one who doesn’t want to enter the car-building arena, lured by the huge popularity of car-making newcomers, including NIO.

Citing multiple independent sources, LatePost said Tuesday Chinese car-sharing giant Didi Chuxing has launched a car-building project headed by Didi Vice President Yang Jun, who is also the chief product officer for Didi’s D1, a custom car for the ride-hailing market launched in conjunction with BYD.

The team has already started poaching talents from car companies, the report said, adding that the exact form and path of Didi’s car-making is currently unknown.

Zhu Jiang, who was formerly vice president of user development at NIO, could join Didi, a person familiar with the matter said, adding that he has years of experience working at car companies, including BMW Brilliance, Lexus, NIO, and Ford China.

In November 2019, Didi established Good Travel (Hangzhou) Automotive Technology Co. as a joint venture with BYD, with BYD holding a 65% stake and Didi a 35% stake.

The two have since partnered to launch the customized online car D1 in November 2020.

In June 2020, Didi’s subsidiary Didi Autonomous Driving announced a partnership with BAIC, in which the two companies will jointly develop a high-level self-driving customized model specifically for RoboTaxi operations.

And this Didi launch to build a car is likely to be a further exploration of a customized car along with the D1, the report said.

Several industry sources say Didi’s new car-building plan will be different from the car-company-dominated approach used in the previous launch of D1. This time Didi will have a much higher level of capital investment and participation. This echoes Didi’s signal when it launched the D1, emphasizing that it was the “first” customized online car.

(Didi D1)

Analysts say China's smart car industry's 'Warring States Era' has just begun

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 23:59:00 +0000

The “Warring States Era” in China’s smart car industry has begun in 2021 with the entry of a large number of technology giants, according to a report released by China Industrial Secs on April 5.

Since 2014, the new energy smart car industry, represented by XPeng, NIO, and Li Auto, has been on the rise in China, with the three companies raising more than RMB 100 billion from their founding to their IPO in the US.

Chinese Internet giants including Baidu, Didi Chuxing, Alibaba, and Huawei have all entered the new energy smart car industry in recent months in the form of sole proprietorship or cooperation, as mentioned by China Industrial Secs analysts Jiang Jialin and Chen Xin.

China’s new energy vehicle industry has experienced the “first year of development” in 2014 and the “first year of delivery” in 2018, and with the addition of these technology companies, the “Warring States Era” of China’s industry has begun, according to the report.

At present, the penetration rate of China’s intelligent networked vehicles is still low, and the future sales and ownership of new energy vehicles still have greater room for improvement, the report said.

According to iResearch Consulting, China’s new energy vehicle sales are expected to reach 5.3 million units by 2025, and the ownership of new energy vehicles will be around 20 million units by then.

Xiaomi has been in the automotive industry since 2013 and holds many patents, the report said. The company’s CEO Lei Jun visited Elon Musk in Silicon Valley twice in 2013 and became a Tesla car owner.

Xiaomi invested in local e-map maker Careland in 2014, NIO in 2015, XPeng in 2016 and 2019, and connected car company Pateo in 2020.

China National Intellectual Property Administration’s website shows that Xiaomi has 834 patents in automobiles, mainly focused on smart cockpits and driving safety.

According to a CCTV report in February, William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, said that NIO is targeting the market of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi and hopes to see if there is any chance that it can become one of the major players in five years or more.

Referring to this goal, NIO’s Li quoted the famous Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history, which, if translated accurately, means “the world is divided into three kingdoms, and we want to be one of them.”

This expression is already used in Chinese as a metaphor for ambition, so a more accurate English expression of Li’s meaning would be “wishing to be one of the most dominant players.

For those who do not know Chinese history, it is necessary to further explain China’s Three Kingdoms era, a time of warlords and rivalries, much like the current phase of China’s new energy vehicle market, where ambitious people want to gain their own territory.

During the stable times of the Three Kingdoms era, three military generals, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan, each occupied a large amount of land to establish their own kingdoms.

There are many Chinese novels that describe this exciting time for entrepreneurs, the most successful being Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, born around 1330.

NIO’s William Li says the EV maker hopes to have its own piece of market, citing China’s Three Kingdoms era

(Photo: CnEVPost)

OPPO, Vivo said to be working on foldable phones with in-fold design

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 22:09:00 +0000

Chinese phone makers OPPO and Vivo are developing foldable phones with an infolded design, a tech blogger said on Weibo on April 6.

Weibo user @数码闲聊站 says OPPO is developing two foldable phones, one with an 8-inch infolded screen and the other with a 7-inch top and bottom infolded screen.

Development of both phones is progressing quickly, but the latter launched a closer-to-production prototype in January and could be available sooner than the former, the blogger said.

Vivo’s foldable phone features a high refresh rate screen with an in-fold design that measures around 8 inches when unfolded and 6.5 inches when folded, the blogger said, adding that it “uses a very good hinge design.

Last month, reports said the first foldable phone in the Honor Magic series is expected to be released this year.

After Samsung and Huawei, Xiaomi released its first foldable phone, the Mi Mix Fold, and it is believed that more manufacturers will also launch this form of cell phone products.

Market research firm Display Supply Chain Consultants recently released a report showing that about 2.2 million folding screen smartphones were shipped last year, up 1,000 percent year-on-year.

It is worth noting that a report by Omdia also shows that both OPPO and Vivo will launch foldable phones with internal folding screens from BOE.

Among them, the OPPO device has an internal screen of 7.1 inches and an external screen of 1.5-2 inches; the Vivo device has an internal screen of 8 inches and an external screen of 6.5 inches.

Xiaomi unveils its first foldable phone, MIX FOLD, starting at around $1,520

(Xiaomi’s first foldable phone MIX FOLD.)

Xiaomi says its cars will be priced in RMB 100,000-300,000 range

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 21:38:00 +0000

Xiaomi’s phones are highly competitive for their strong performance at low prices, and now its fans want the company to bring that tradition to the car segment as well. The company seems inclined to heed this user suggestion.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said Tuesday that the results of a poll he launched on Weibo showed that fans want the company to make mid- to high-end cars, so the first Xiaomi car will be in the price range of RMB 100,000 yuan ($15,271) to 300,000 yuan ($458,200).

The first Xiaomi car will be a sedan or an SUV, and the exact model will be discussed again, he said.

Lei held a personal live broadcast on April 6 at 20:00 to announce the Xiaomi car, and launched a survey poll on Weibo before the broadcast.

His Weibo followers voted on whether the Xiaomi car business should use the Xiaomi brand, and the vast majority of participants chose to use the brand.

The poll also included what model users expected Xiaomi’s first car should be, with the most people choosing a sedan, followed by an SUV.

In terms of price range, 38 percent of users want a Xiaomi car to cost less than RMB 100,000, 27 percent want the price range to be between RMB 100,000 and RMB 150,000, and only 7 percent want it to cost more than RMB 300,000 ($458,200).

Xiaomi announced its entry into the smart electric car market on March 30, with an expected investment of $10 billion over 10 years, with the first installment of RMB 10 billion, and Lei will also serve as CEO of the smart electric car business.

Lei Weibo fans are expecting the same price as analysts.

Analysts at Pingan Securities said on March 31 that Xiaomi’s cars will primarily target the sub-RMB200,000 ($30,525) price band range.

The analyst said Xiaomi has strong supply chain management and cost control capabilities and will launch a very cost-effective model.

In addition, Xiaomi has a certain brand influence and user base, strong user operation and management capabilities, and an integrated online and offline sales model.

Analysts expect Xiaomi cars to target price range below $30,525

Chinese engineer cracks Apple M1 processor, upgrades MacBook's 8G RAM to 16G

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:32:00 +0000

A Chinese engineer has recently cracked the M1 processor MacBook, upgrading 8GB of RAM to 16G and 256GB of SSD to 1TB.

The engineer, who is from a cell phone repair training institute in Guangzhou, China, showed four images in his WeChat Moments and said, “In times of change, victory belongs to those who adapt to change.”

The M1 chip is in the red box in the picture, and the two memory sticks are on the right.

Since Apple has packaged the processor, graphics card, and memory in the M1 chip, users can only choose higher capacity memory and SSD before purchasing the MacBook.

After purchasing, users cannot upgrade the memory and can only upgrade storage through an external hard drive.

Chinese team finds security vulnerabilities in Apple M1 chip devices and iPhone 12 Pro

If you think NIO is good at user operations, then take a look at its Chinese peer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:25:00 +0000

Chinese electric car company NIO is envied by all other car companies as a model for being good at user operations. Its local counterparts are trying to learn how to acquire loyal customers, and now one of them has come up with a very innovative approach.

IM Motors, the premium car brand created by SAIC in partnership with Shanghai’s Pudong New District and Alibaba, Tuesday unveiled details of its user operation program, which combines initial coin offering (ICO), cryptocurrency mining, and user relationship maintenance.

The company calls the program the CSOP (Customer Share Option Plan), in which it puts up 4.9 percent of the equity proceeds from its founding round of RMB 10 billion investment as backing for the issuance of 300 million digital tokens known as “Original Stones”.

These digital tokens map the asset returns and dividends corresponding to this equity, and users can participate in the mining of these digital tokens in a variety of ways and use them to pay for services or products in the future.

IM Motors allows users to get these digital tokens in two ways.

In the first way, the more miles a user drives, the more of these digital tokens he or she can earn.

Users can authorize the company to access “vehicle and driving behavior data” to obtain these digital tokens, which account for 70% of the total number issued.

The issuance of these tokens is reduced by half every four years, although the company did not disclose the number of initial issuances.

This means that users are in mining mode from the moment they drive the brand’s cars.

During the use of the vehicle, the “Original Stones” will fall at a random rate, based on blockchain technology.

The remaining 30 percent of the digital tokens will be distributed through user participation in the company’s interactive activities.

The company said that the total number of “Original Stones” to be placed is fixed at 300 million, and no additional ones will be issued.

Predictably, in the early years of the CSOP’s user data entitlement program, the chances of receiving the tokens will be higher when the number of the “Original Stones” is high and the number of users is low.

Prior to this program, there was no precedent in the global automotive industry for using blockchain technology to determine the value of user data.

It is difficult to judge how effective this operational scheme, which incorporates cryptocurrency mining, will be, but if it is initially successful, more car companies will undoubtedly copy it and introduce blockchain technology into their own user management.

SAIC’s high-end EV brand IM Motors announces two EVs with wireless charging and 1,000 km range

BYD sells 24,218 NEVs in March, up 134% from February

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:49:00 +0000

(Graphic by CnEVPost)

Warren Buffett-backed Chinese electric car company BYD’s new energy vehicle sales in March were 24,218 units, up 134% from February and 98% year-on-year.

BYD’s cumulative new energy vehicle sales from January to March were 54,751 units, an increase of 146.72% year-on-year, data released by the company showed.

BYD sold 23,386 new energy passenger vehicles in March, up 99% from 11,763 units in the same month last year.

Among them, 16,301 units of pure electric vehicles were sold, up 56% from 10,433 units in the same month last year. Sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were 7,085 units, up 433% from 1,330 units in the same period last year.

BYD’s total installed capacity of new energy vehicle power batteries and energy storage batteries in March was about 2.149 GWh, and the total cumulative installed capacity for the year was about 5.258 GWh.

BYD said it will hold a new car launch in Chongqing on Wednesday.

The company has already released the Qin Plus DMi, Song Plus DMi, and Yuan Pro this year.

BYD is expected to release the Qin Plus EV, Song Pro, and the 2021 Tang EV, all with its signature blade battery.

Chinese appliance giant Joyoung says it has started using Huawei's HarmonyOS for some of its products

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:37:00 +0000

Chinese home appliance giant Joyoung said in an answer to an investor question on April 6 that some of its products have started using Huawei’s HarmonyOS.

At last year’s Huawei Developer Conference, Huawei unveiled HarmonyOS 2.0, and Wang Chenglu, president of the company’s consumer business software division, said at the time that Chinese appliance makers including Midea, Joyoung, and Robam would soon release HarmonyOS-equipped appliances.

More than 20 products and 12 million third-party products already supported HarmonyOS at the time, Wang said, adding that hundreds of millions of devices would be running the system a year from then.

In February, Midea, another Chinese home appliance giant, said it would work more with Huawei this year to launch more HarmonyOS-powered appliances starting in April.

From last November to February, nearly 20 Midea products were equipped with HarmonyOS.

Chinese phone brand Meizu said to integrate Huawei HMS Core in case Google GMS unavailable

Xiaomi applies trademark for its car business

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 14:29:00 +0000

Xiaomi, the smartphone giant that announced its entry into the car-making business last week, applied on April 1 to register the 小米汽车 (Xiaomi Motors) trademark, an international classification for handcrafted instruments, according to data provider Tianyancha.

The status of the trademark is currently under application.

It is noteworthy that the trademark 小米汽车 was applied for registration on March 12. The applicant was Shaoxing Jixiang Textile Co., Ltd. and the international classification is advertising sales, means of transportation, and the current status is under the application.

However, this pre-emptive registration is likely to be rejected.

Xiaomi has previously won a number of judgments in trademark infringement cases, receiving compensation ranging from RMB 400,000 to RMB 50 million ($7.63 million).

Many other manufacturers have failed to register trademarks for other products with the word Xiaomi on them.

According to a policy issued by the China National Intellectual Property Administration on March 24, the scope of the crackdown includes “maliciously seizing others’ trademarks or other commercial marks that are highly known or distinctive, to the detriment of others’ prior rights and interests.”

Xiaomi announced its entry into the smart electric vehicle market on March 30, with an initial investment of RMB 10 billion and an expected investment of $10 billion over the next 10 years.

Lei Jun, the company’s founder, will also serve as CEO of the smart electric vehicle business.

NIO learned from Xiaomi in its early days, and now the student has become the teacher

Chinese firm says its high-end etching equipment already used in customer's 5nm chip production line

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 13:57:00 +0000

Chinese semiconductor equipment company AMEC said its high-end etching equipment has been used in its customer’s 5nm chip production lines.

Gerald Yin, AMEC’s chairman, and managing director, revealed the development during a presentation of its 2020 annual results on April 6.

He said the company’s plasma etching equipment has been used in an international tier-one customer’s manufacturing lines from 65 nm to 14 nm, 7 nm, and 5 nm and other advanced IC processing lines and advanced packaging lines.

The company’s 12-inch high-end etching equipment has been used on the most advanced lines of a leading international customer and for several key steps in the processing of 5nm, sub-5nm devices, Yin said.

AMEC did not specify who this customer is, but currently, the only ones with 5nm FinFET process mass production capability in the world are TSMC and Samsung, with the former having significantly more capacity.

Plasma etchers are a key piece of equipment used in chip manufacturing to perform microscopic engraving on chips with a precision of a few thousandths to tens of thousandths of a hair’s diameter.

AMEC said in February that this company had etching equipment revenue of RMB 1.289 billion ($197 million) in 2020, up about 58.49 percent year-on-year.

AMEC’s revenue for MOCVD equipment in 2020 will be RMB 496 million, down about 34.47% year on year.

China makes breakthrough in a key step in chip manufacturing

(Photo: AMEC)

China registers 9.66 million new motor vehicles in Q1, record high for the same period

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 12:09:00 +0000

China registered 9.66 million new motor vehicles in the first quarter of 2021, a record high for the same period, according to data released Tuesday by the country’s Ministry of Public Security.

In the first quarter, 8.39 million people received new licenses to drive, the data showed.

As of March 2021, China had 378 million motor vehicles, including 287 million cars.

The number of motor vehicle drivers in China reached 463 million, including 425 million car drivers.

China’s new energy passenger car sales expected to reach 2 million units this year

INSIGHTS | Antitrust push in China tech

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 09:18:00 +0000

On March 12, China’s top antitrust regulator said it had issued fines to 12 Chinese companies over 10 investment deals in the internet sector that were in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) disclosed the 20 companies that were involved in those deals.

Nearly all of the companies mentioned were Chinese companies considered “big tech,” or their subsidiaries. They include Alibaba, Tencent, Didi Chuxing, Baidu, JD.com, ByteDance, Meituan, and Suning. Those firms were fined for failing to report merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in advance, which is considered a violation of China’s antitrust law.

Bottom line: The penalties—RMB 500,000 (around $76,095) each—were trivial for companies of such size. But the regulator’s move was a warning: China’s tech antitrust campaign, which began in November, has not ended and will only grow in scope and severity.

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Hiring an Electrical Contractor for Your New Generator: 7 Strategies to Follow

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 23:39:00 +0000

If you are in the process of building a new house, then one of the most important decisions you will make is deciding what kind of generator to install. The same is true for current homeowners as well. Generators are necessary for many reasons, such as power outages and natural disasters. However, there are many different options on generators, that it can be challenging to choose which one is best for your situation. This blog post will discuss strategies you should follow when hiring an electrical contractor to get precisely what you need.

The first step in hiring an electrical contractor for your new generator is to do your research. Searching online and asking friends, family members, or colleagues who have had a generator installed before are two good resources for finding qualified contractors.

Once you’ve found three or four potential candidates, you should interview them and find a quality one by following the following strategies:

Prepare Your Questions

Before your meeting, make sure to have a list of questions that will help narrow down which contractor is right for you. You should ask about their experience in installing generators and offering warranties on installation work or parts installed during construction. Ask them how long it takes from start-to time finish when working with other contractors who are doing different aspects such as excavation/foundation preparation, electrical wiring inside walls, etc., so there are no surprises later. Be clear, upfront, and determine whether this person needs an operating license by state law since some states require one while others don’t need any qualification at all. Finally, be specific. Find out things such as do they provide customer service after hours? Can they be reached easily via phone?

References

The electrician should be able to provide references. If they are unable or unwilling, it may indicate a lack of professionalism and competence, which is not something you want in your home when dealing with electrical work! The potential contractor must have legitimate referrals from people who can speak about how well this person does business as an indication for what type of service one might expect if hired by themself too – so ask around before making any decisions here (or anywhere else).

Customer Reviews

References are essential, and so are the reviews previous customers have written about the potential electrician. One of the first things to check is, do they have a website or social media pages? If so, what are the customers saying about them? What’s their star rating? What’s important is to check that friends of theirs don’t just post these reviews. You should check their Google Reviews, as well as any other major review platforms. We do, however, recommend that you do not check yelp. Yelp is notorious for leaving negative reviews if the business owner does not want to pay yelp for ads. So for all intents and purposes, yelp should always be avoided when searching for anything really.

Get Quotes

Get a written estimate from at least four contractors. The estimate should include the cost of labor, materials, and any other fees. The contractor you choose to work with will make a more accurate quote after they have inspected your property in person, so this must be done before making an appointment for them to come out on site.

Research Requirements

Research your local licensing requirements for electrical contractors in your area before you hire one. Live in a state like California, for example. The licensing requirements are strict, and there is no reciprocity with other states; your contractor must have their license before they start work on-site to avoid any issues down the line.

Negotiation

It’s essential to negotiate the project’s price, terms, and time frame before hiring an electrical contractor. It’s necessary to know your budget and how much time they will need on-site for this particular job so that there are no surprises down the line. Cost overruns or delays in completing work due to a lack of resources from their side could have been avoided if you negotiated these details beforehand with them. Such things can be worked out during negotiation sessions. Both parties come together at one table instead of having all communication happen over email back-and-forth between two different parties without any misunderstandings.

Proposal Review

Once you’ve received a proposal, you must review it thoroughly before you make a decision. It’s crucial that when you receive a proposal that you understand what you and the contractor agree with before signing off on anything or making any payments upfront to avoid being taken advantage of by unscrupulous contractors looking only out of their interests. Failure to read everything twice can lead to some very costly mistakes down the line when things don’t go as planned because there was no clear understanding from both parties at first about expectations in the future.

While the 7 tips we provided above may not cover every situation, it’s a great starting point for most homeowners. Let us know what other things you may have done when hiring a contractor or installing solar in your house.

Review: Carnival atmosphere at world’s first ‘major’ NFT exhibit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 09:09:00 +0000

As we followed the Shenzhen-based digital artist Niko Edwards toward the back wall of the gallery, the enthusiast who had introduced us leaned in and told me in a stage whisper: “He is obsessed with the universe because he believes himself an alien.”

That was the tone of “the world’s first major exhibition” of blockchain-registered crypto art on show at UCCA Lab in Beijing’s 798 gallery district: absurd, but frank enough to be charming. It’s an art gallery as a carnival, complete with a claw game for souvenirs, rather than gallery-as-high-culture-church.

Artist Niko Edwards designed the lighting for the NFT exhibit. He told TechNode he is believes he lives in a simulation controlled by aliens. (Image credit: TechNode/Eliza Gkritsi)

The show, titled “Virtual Niche: Have You Ever Seen Memes in the Mirror,” gathered blockchain-related art, mostly sold as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFT mania has soared since a collection of 5,000 Instagram posts by digital artist Beeple sold for $69 million at Christie’s on March 11. NFTs are essentially deeds, often for publicly available image or video files. They’re not a style or school of art, any more than climate-controlled Swiss free ports are.

READ MORE: CHINA VOICES | What China thinks of NFTs

So when we went to see NFTs on display, I had a simple question: is the art any good? With a show themed around a financial instrument, frankly, I didn’t have very high hopes.

But the show was a pleasant surprise! The art worked, and the exhibit was dense and well-curated, packing a good number of pieces into a compact exhibition space. It scores high on playfulness but low on context—the pieces are presented with no interpretation whatsoever. It’s not all NFTs, mixing in a good amount of traditional meatspace art you have to go to a gallery to see.

An NFT in an art gallery is a digital screen showing a picture or video that you can view right now from the comfort of the same screen on which you’re reading this review. Provided your screen has a high enough resolution, what you’ll see, pixel-for-pixel, is identical to the piece on the gallery wall.

‘First Supper’ exhibited through a projector at UCCA Lab. The artwork is composed of 22 pieces, each individually encoded as a NFT. (Image credit: TechNode/Eliza Gkritsi)

As a result, the big name pieces in the show didn’t hold the most attention. A rotating selection of Beeple “Everydays” on five TV-sized vertical screens was jammed into a hallway, while the collective project “First Supper” hovered over the main space on a larger screen. “The First Supper” is a collection of mismatched cartoon figures gathered around a MySpace-ish rendition of Leonardo’s “Last Supper” table. The gimmick here is that each figure in the composition is sold separately, potentially to a different collector; the collectors can then modify some aspects of the figures.

The dumbest stuff in the show tried to make the abstract world of computing concrete by printing a lot of 1s and 0s and claiming it represented something to a computer. This is about as effective as writing down a sequence of DNA elements and calling it a portrait, but it seems to be required by statute that every computer-themed show include at least one of these.

A visitor takes a photo of Robert Alice’s ‘Portraits of a Mind’ at UCCA Lab. (Image credit: TechNode/Eliza Gkritsi)

Block 8 of 40 in Robert Alice’s ‘Portraits of a Mind’. (Image credit: TechNode/Eliza Gkritsi)

The show’s most charismatic piece also used untranslated numbers. “Block 8,” from Robert Alice’s series “Portraits of a mind,” presents a sequence from the source code of Bitcoin in hexadecimal code. It’s printed on what I first thought was a disk of stamped metal. In fact, it’s carefully treated canvas. It looks like a vintage magtape wheel would if it were redesigned by Jony Ive, or a high-tech version of the huge stone rings used as ceremonial currency on the islands of Yap. (Much like NFTs, Yapese Rai stones are often immobile and left in public places, while people around them negotiate and renegotiate whom to call their owner in ritual exchanges).

It feels immutable and infinitely reproducible, and in fact it is one of a set of 40. It conveys the majesty blockheads see in the technology—but it also illustrates what a tangible thing can do that a block can’t.

Bitmain’s Antminer S9 cryptocurrency mining machine exhibited at a NFT art exhibition at UCCA Lab in Beijing. The exhibition was financed by Bitmain, Digital Finance Group and Winkcrypto. (Image credit: TechNode/Eliza GKritsi)

At the other end of the gallery, by the entrance, there was a slice of a blockchain mine—something most blockheads at the event, even the investors, had never seen up close. A bank of old Bitmain Antminer S9s—a slightly obsolete model of the specialized computers that power blockchain which saw its heyday in 2017—likewise gives you a tangible sense of blockchain as a physical thing.

Curator Sun Bohan also projected an unlabeled financial chart on the wall about five feet high, showing the kind of screen crypto traders presumably spend much of their days looking at.

Digital shows do come with glitches, and I didn’t fully understand at least one piece as a result. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Cows” by Chen Baoyang is a small glass labyrinth with an associated virtual reality program. The VR set was not working while we visited, so I did not learn how it related to the labyrinth. Walking through a transparent labyrinth is enjoyably trippy, however, and I did walk nose-first into one pane of glass.

Visitors talk next Chen Baoyang’s artwork composed of a plexiglass labyrinth and VR UCCA Lab in Beijing. The headset wasn’t working on March 25, 2021. (Image credit: TechNode/Eliza Gkritsi)

The screens also occasionally went to screensaver, inviting viewers to make the digital gallery equivalent of mistaking a fire extinguisher for a piece of modern art. I asked the name of the artist behind a cascading wave of silver needles, and was told “It’s actually a Mac screensaver, but it is quite beautiful.”

READ MORE: World’s first ‘major’ NFT exhibition to open Friday: producer Q&A

Lastly, some of the show was pure novelty items. A bank of four actual claw machines offered logo plushies and a sort of simple construction toy as souvenirs. Both I and my colleague managed to get a prize, so I suspect the machines are fixed in the user’s favor. One work attributed to an AI and hidden in a niche in the wall melted and blended faces in weird ways but left me wondering how much of the work the AI had done versus its human collaborator.

BlockCreateArt created a physical coin, much like artists create NFTs, to be used at claw machines with custom-made prizes, pictured on one of said claw machines. (Image credit: TechNode/Eliza Gkritsi)

Bottom line: It’s not every day you get to win a prize at a claw machine. The show is well worth RMB 80 if you’re in Beijing.

“Virtual Niche: Have you ever seen memes in the mirror?” is on display at UCCA Lab until April 4. Tickets are RMB 80.

Chinese weblebrity builds electric car that looks like spaceship and can go sideways with his bare hands

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 15:09:00 +0000

Isn’t it cool to have an electric car that looks like a spaceship and can go sideways like a crab, in addition to forward and backward? A Chinese web celebrity has created such an electric car with his bare hands.

Geng Shuai, 33, known among Chinese Internet users by the username “Shougong Geng” (Craftsman Geng), posted a video Saturday unveiling his latest creation – an electric car.

The car looks like a spaceship, with stainless steel panels enclosing its entire body. According to Geng, “the design has no raised areas, not even mirrors, to reduce wind resistance while driving.”

The electric car is independently driven by four-wheel motors, and four universal wheels allow the vehicle to travel in any direction.

According to his video, the tires are motorcycle tires that Geng bought at a junkyard.

Welding the skeleton of the car, laying the wooden floor, and installing the control buttons were all done by him alone, finally completing the basic driving functions.

In terms of range, Geng added nine large batteries to the car. For long-distance driving, the back of the vehicle can also be hooked up to a battery depot with dozens of large batteries that look like oil drums.

The interior is made mostly of recycled materials, i.e., used cardboard boxes, and LED light strips have been added.

It also has a 32-inch TV as the center screen, so you can listen to and watch TV, and even navigate.

Geng also installed a reverse radar for this vehicle, enabling a back-up camera. It even added a second steering wheel at the rear of the vehicle to drive directly to the rear of the vehicle when backing up.

What’s even more amazing is that there is a metal arm at the front of the car that enables turn alerts and gestures with other drivers.

You can see his video here: Bilibili.

Geng is one of the most famous and useless inventors in China today. His inventions are all built with his bare hands, many of which are creative but basically useless. He is also known as “The Useless Edison” by his fans.

Born in 1988 in Baoding, Hebei, Geng now has over 5 million followers on Bilibili and millions more on other platforms including Kuaishou and Weibo.

All along, Geng has been bringing joy to his fans with his useless inventions. His own story is also a story of a poor man’s comeback.

His current annual income is reportedly in the millions of RMB, while just a few years ago he was one of the lowest-income earners in Chinese society.

Geng did not continue his education after graduating from junior high school, choosing instead to become a welder like his father and brother.

He then followed his village master to Beijing, where he worked as a welder of pipes.

It was a job he did for 13 years, and like most people from the countryside, his wife and children were back home, while he worked in the big city with his father, and his brother.

“Beijing never belonged to me,” he lamented, according to Chinese media previously describing him.

In 2017, Geng, 29, decided to stop working outside the home and do something he loved.

His friends suggested he learn to make videos and sell something along the way, and Geng quickly took the advice and spent more than 10,000 yuan on the equipment he needed, a third of his savings at the time.

His initiative was strongly opposed by his mother, who couldn’t understand why her son was making useless videos instead of working.

At first Geng didn’t have a clear plan of what to do and what to sell, he didn’t even know. Until he saw a machine gun ornament made from scrap steel pipes on the Internet for as much as RMB 3,000, he was tempted.

He thought, if he also made these decorations and can sell for this price, it is also much better than work.

So he decided to target the male population, making some stainless steel metal handcrafted products.

But the result was that his products did not sell, but the video documenting the manufacturing process began to be popular.

He then focused his energy on using video to record his inventions, and each invention brought a lot of laughter to the audience.

Below is a screenshot of some of his video screen content posted in Bilibili, with the titles automatically translated.

Where firms are looking to fill China’s chip talent gap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 08:59:00 +0000

On March 9, Taiwanese prosecutors raided two local recruiters that allegedly broke the law by recruiting semiconductor workers from the island to work for a Chinese chipmaker.

The New Taipei Prosecutors Office said the two firms, WiseCore Technology and IC Link, had illegally hired “hundreds of Taiwanese engineers” through a joint venture set up with a Chinese chip design company over the past three years, according to local media reports. A 1992 Taiwanese law forbids Chinese firms from doing business on the island without government approval.

The action by the Taiwanese government is a response to a long-term trend of deep-pocketed Chinese firms coming to Taiwan for semiconductor engineers.

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INSIGHTS | Antitrust push in China tech

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Hiring an Electrical Contractor for Your New Generator: 7 Strategies to Follow

Review: Carnival atmosphere at world’s first ‘major’ NFT exhibit

Chinese weblebrity builds electric car that looks like spaceship and can go sideways with his bare hands

Where firms are looking to fill China’s chip talent gap

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