The advancements coming out of China’s tech industry every moment have the potential to reshape our world as we speak. Every day, the ACT team brings you our hand-picked selection of breaking news, financial transactions rocking the industry, big people making big waves, and the coolest new gadgets. Don’t miss these headlines:
Didi’s investment in leading food delivery startup Ele.me confirmed
Didi Chuxing’s investment in leading food delivery app Eleme has been confirmed and will be announced next week, according to TechWeb. Eleme and Didi will cooperate on deliveries, with the new operation already in testing in Beijing. It will be in full operation in December. Eleme has already held many rounds of funding prior to this one, with its F-series funding in August raising USD 630 million. One of Eleme’s funders Dianping merged with Meituan in October, but Eleme has said that it will continue to develop independently.
Sohu CEO denies sharp decline of video services
Due to recent BAT capital movements in the video sector and Sohu’s slashed rights acquisition budgets, rumors that Sohu is being left behind have been proliferating in the industry. In response, Charles Zhang, Sohu’s CEO, said Sohu video still benefits from solid traffic growth and its audience is merely better distributed, not in decline. He says Sohu video remains among leading industry members. He also added that Sohu’s core competitiveness and new profit source lies in professional generated content (PGC) in the future.
Alibaba announces Spring Festival shopping fiesta to target rural China market
As T-mall set another world record for overall transactions on this year’s Double 11 shopping day, Alibaba has announced that it will launch a spring festival shopping fiesta in order to target China’s countryside, Sina Tech reports. The commercial sector has been eying the rising population of China’s internet users and the vast rural villages. “To the countryside” was a slogan for many e-commerce sites in 2014.
Bill Gates meets China’s premier Li Keqiang to discuss clean energy cooperation
Bill Gates visited China and met China’s premier Li Keqiang on Thursday afternoon to discuss clean energy plans on behalf of his nuclear energy company TerraPower. TerraPower will collaborate with state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation on traveling wave reactors upon an agreement signed in September. Bill Gates reported earlier this year that he will invest USD two billion in renewable energy projects to seek breakthroughs in the sector.
Leading online game provider Shanda Games considers listing on China’s main board
Chinese online game provider Shanda Games is considering listing on China’s main board. Shanda is currently listed on NASDAQ, but announced that it has signed the last private acquisition agreement in April. Shanda will hold a shareholder’s meeting on private delisting on Nov. 18, and it will buy back all public stocks and American Depository shares (ADS) totaling USD 1.9 billion.
Deloitte survey: 58% of Chinese check their phones twice an hour, a sign of potential mobile addiction
Deloitte has released its 2015 Global Mobile Consumer Survey. It found that in China, 58% of those surveyed checked their phones 11-50 times a day, equivalent to one to two times per hour. 20% check their phones over 50 times a day, or about three times an hour. Deloitte’s report says users are “stuck” to their phones. Whether for social interaction or for other purposes, phones have become a crucial everyday tool.
Rent installment website receives USD 8.6 million
On Friday, 58fangdai.com, an online to offline platform providing rent installment services received RMB 55 million (USD 8.6 million) in its D-series fundraising, led by an investment fund headed by Zhang Liang, CEO of Shenzhen-based real estate company Seedland. Founded in January 2015, the company aims to alleviate the financial burden of college graduates by paying their three months’ rent plus deposit up front. Students then pay the app on a month-to-month basis. The company provides service to multiple large cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing. It claims to have generated RMB 150 million income per month.
(Top photo from Baidu Image.)