The ACT team hand-picks the most watchable news of the day. Don’t miss out on these headlines:
Uber invests USD 9.9 million in Wuhan operations centre, first outside USA
Uber China has announced it will invest USD 9.9 million (RMB 63 million) to build its first operations center outside the US in Wuhan. Uber only has two operations centers so far, in Chicago and Phoenix. The new operations center will provide tech support and operations management for all of Greater China, and Uber will also build a big data analysis center, a customer support center and a R&D center in the center. Uber has plans to go public in China, and it has taken steps to comply with new Chinese regulations, including its new insurance policy for passengers.
All online music without copyright authorization may be taken down tomorrow
China’s National Copyright Administration issued a policy in July demanding that unlicensed music be removed from all online music service platforms with a 2-3 month transition period, which ends tomorrow. This policy is China’s first step to pave the way for a paid digital music sector, with more efforts to come. Tencent affiliate QQ Music, with 800 million registered users, has already taken action to dominate the online music market, striking a deal with NetEase Cloud Music earlier this month.
Chinese broadband speeds up by 93.15% since last year
According to a new report from the Broadband Development Alliance, the average fixed broadband download speed in China has reached 7.90 Mbps, a year-on-year increase of 93.15%. Based on research from Akamai Technologies in 2013, South Korea has the fastest broadband speeds with 23 Mbps download speed, Japan is second with 12.9 Mbps and the US comes in third with 10 Mbps. Earlier this year, Premier Li Keqiang put pressure on internet providers to reduce their fees, and in early May, the ministry deployed its “Broadband China” strategy, building 600, 000 new 4G bases and providing 4G coverage for counties and towns.
Baidu achieves revenue of USD 2.89 billion in Q3, YOY net profit loss of 26.7%
According to Baidu’s Q3 financial report, the company achieved a total revenue of RMB 18.383 billion (USD 2.89 billion), a year-on-year increase of 36%. Baidu’s net profit totaled RMB 2.84 billion (USD 447 million), net profit year-on-year loss of 26.7%. Notably, Baidu Nuomi, Baidu Waimai and Qunar transactions pulled in RMB 60.2 billion (USD 9.5 billion), a 119% increase from last year. The company forecasted a Q4 revenue of between RMB 18.2 billion and 18.7 billion (2.8 billion USD to 2.9 billion), a 29.5-33.4% increase from last year.
Ele.me introduces vegetable delivery service
Food delivery giant Ele.me on Thursday introduced its new ingredient delivery platform Youcai, or We Have Veggies, to provide fresh ingredients to small and medium-sized restaurants. The service aims to serve 500 Chinese cities and to maintain about three million daily orders. In the wake of Dianping and Meituan’s merger, Ele.me was left in a spiral of rumors about whether it would perform a merger of its own. Instead, Ele.me says it will continue to develop on its own.
Huawei to take on Apple with Mate 8
Huawei will launch the Mate 8 smartphone at the end of the year, and it’s being billed as a phone with superior photo-taking capabilities, comparable to Apple’s iPhone 6s. Huawei’s consumer business CEO said that Huawei is borrowing from Apple’s sales strategy to market the Mate S and the Mate 8 together. The Mate S is Huawei’s first smartphone priced above RMB 4000, and its poor sales performance marked a setback for Huawei in its aims to compete with Apple as a high-end smartphone maker. Huawei just surpassed Xiaomi to take top spot as China’s largest domestic smartphone vendor.
New family-planning policy will further expand maternity, child-related market
China’s new family-planning policy is expected to further expand China’s maternity and child-related market. The maternity tech industry exploded after China relaxed its one child policy in 2013, and a similar boost can be expected this time. According to figures from Huatai Securities and Founder Securities, if the policy is implemented, one to two million new births can be expected each year and 20 million by 2018. The industries affected include maternity and infant products, online education platforms, and medical services.
(Top photo from Baidu Image)
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