15 tech stories that rocked China this year

Spectators at a robotics contest in Hefei, China. Photo credit: Tech United Eindhoven.

Let’s dive right in…

15. Didi dings Uber

Didi starts 2016 in style, revealing that the year prior saw the ride-hailing app complete 1.4 billion rides from its 250 million users. That eclipses Uber’s grand total of a billion trips during the startup’s life.

It sets the stage for a storming year for Didi.

A month later, Didi is valued at US$20 billion.

14. Xiaomi immediately disappoints

Xiaomi starts the year with a whimper, failing to hit the CEO’s smartphone sales target. At 70 million, it falls short of the startup’s most modest prediction – and way off the grandest 100 million target that it anticipated for 2015.

13. Billion-dollar Ponzi scheme collapses

After months of rumblings that major Chinese money lending startup Ezubao was engaged in fraud, Chinese police in February find “substantial evidence” that the company cheated more than 900,000 investors out of US$7.6 billion.

On the peer-to-peer lending service, 95 percent of investment projects are found to be fake.

After a heated 2015, P2P lending startups have a subdued 2016 as a lack of trust in the industry turns off lenders.

12. VR theme park teasers

“It’s like laser tag on steroids,” writes my teammate, Charlie Custer.

Once open, China’s VR theme park will have real-world sets with elements like steam and smoke added in for a unique atmosphere.

11. Rocket Internet chokes

German startup sausage factory Rocket Internet has never fared well in China, and that is hammered home in March when DeliveryHero quits the country.

DeliveryHero pioneered web-based food delivery in China way back in 2012, but that unraveled in the years to follow as local startups emerged and expanded rapidly.

“The closure is the result of trying to build a sustainable business in a completely insane market,” DeliveryHero China boss Lucas Englehardt tells us.

10. Comedian laughs

China’s most unexpected startup investment of the year goes to a comedian.

Papi Jiang, 29, is believed to be the first viral star to receive VC funding in the country. Her rise to fame was fast – appearing out of nowhere and accumulating millions of fans across social media in just a few months.

9. Man runs

A man going for a jog is not usually tech news. Or, indeed, major international news. But that’s different when you’re Mark Zuckerberg.

With a smile on his face and a spring in his step, he goes for a run in downtown Beijing despite heavy pollution categorized as “very unhealthy,” prompting many observers to wonder why the Facebook supremo bothers to be so diplomatic – to put it diplomatically; or sucking up, to put it a lot less diplomatically – to a country where his site has been blocked for years.

Zuck started the year by vowing to run a mile each day, encouraging everyone to join in via his A Year of Running Facebook group.

8. Over half the population online

The nation hits another major milestone in tech in January. With a record high 688 million internet users, the country has over half the population online for the first time.

China’s internet users have nearly doubled in number since 2009.

7. No slowdown

Fears of a big downturn in the tech industry in 2016 are allayed early on when investment figures from the Tech in Asia database show China funding doubling in the past 12 months.

Investors plowed US$14.5 billion into Chinese tech startups and firms of all sizes in the first three months of the year, with most of the money going to newer startups. VCs soured on older startups, which were left to either become profitable or die off.

However, the full-year data, once available, is likely to be a lot less rosy.

6. Live streaming showdown

2016 is the year of live streaming in China as dozens of apps pop up to meet the demand of millions of online viewers. Amidst the popular fashion bloggers and the zingy storytellers are some shadier characters, whom authorities quickly clamp down on.

Amid some of the new apps, an investigation by the Ministry of Culture finds lewd and sexual content, violence, and even criminal conspiracies.

5. Apple falls from tree

Apple starts the year in China with its best quarter ever – and then ends it with plummeting revenue and tanking iPhone market share.

Me at the start of 2016 vs me at the end of 2016 pic.twitter.com/MJOy9t8mIg

— Joe Cox (@JosephCox) December 15, 2016

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus haven’t yet had time to impact Apple’s earnings, so the start of the new year could see a turnaround – so long as status-conscious Chinese consumers aren’t put off by the minimal design changes in Apple’s phone.

4. Hua-who?

Huawei isn’t the most exciting brand on the planet. Monotone rambler CEO Ren Zhengfei doesn’t help things.

But the huge company lets its phones do the talking in 2016 – and it turns out they’re really good phones. Like the P9, which proved popular with shoppers. Huawei’s tie-up with Leica is an inspired move, challenging the iPhone’s (well deserved) reputation as the best choice for keen snappers.

And when Samsung stumbles with the catastrophic Galaxy Note 7, Huawei is ready to pounce.

The Huawei P9 with its dual rear camera. Photo credit: Andri Koolme.

Once the 2016 data is out, Huawei looks set to topple Xiaomi as China’s top smartphone brand, though Samsung will likely still hold on to its global title.

See: In crisis, Samsung is stalked by a crouching tiger and a hidden dragon

3. AI smartens up

Chinese tech firms take AI very seriously in 2016, investing more than US firms in the kind of smart bots and algorithms that power self-driving cars and put the savvy into voice search results.

“Compared with other countries, the United States and China are spending tremendous research attention on deep learning. But, according to the White House, the United States is not investing nearly enough in basic research,” writes the Washington Post in October.

Spectacular victory for Google’s AlphaGo AI up against Go player Lee Sedol makes it clear to everyone in the tech industry that artificial intelligence is as hugely important as it is complex.

2. Didi picks up Uber

The year’s biggest shocker comes in August when Didi acquires Uber’s China business. It puts an end to a brutal price war and fundraising battle between the two apps, allowing Uber to focus on other markets where it’s not having an easy fight either – like India.

1. Alibaba slides into Southeast Asia

Perhaps not quite as huge a bombshell as the Uber-Didi deal, this is the story with the larger long-term impact.

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma is China’s second richest individual – and its wealthiest tech boss. Photo modified by Tech in Asia; original photo credit: UN Climate Change.

Alibaba in April pays out US$1 billion to take a controlling stake in Lazada, an Amazon clone for Southeast Asia started up by Rocket Internet.

Hailing the region as “the most promising region for ecommerce globally,” Alibaba president Michael Evans makes it clear that the Chinese ecommerce titan now has scope for growth in an area where Amazon is not present.

Also see our post on six reasons Alibaba snapped up Lazada.

This post 15 tech stories that rocked China this year appeared first on Tech in Asia.

from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/china-tech-2016-in-review
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