China Roundup: Huawei targets cars, ByteDance enters Tencent’s backyard

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of current events shaping the Chinese technology arena and what they mean to individuals in the rest of the planet.

This week, we’ve got many heavy-hitting rumors swirling about, from Huawei’s processors for automobiles to Tencent’s possible buyout of its own video rival iQiyi.

China tech at home

Huawei’s foray into autos

Huawei could be attracting the technology supporting its Kirin smartphone chip into automobiles. Based on Chinese technology book 36Kr, Huawei has signed a strategic deal with national electrical automobile giant BYD, which could use the Kirin processors to digitize the”cockpits” (typically refer to the motorists’ cottages ) in its own automobiles.

The Kirin processors are manufactured by Huawei’s semiconductor subsidiary HiSilicon to hedge against U.S. sanctions and eventually become self explanatory in center smartphone technology.

What is apparent is that BYD, endorsed by Warren Buffet, had formerly declared to embrace Qualcomm’s Snapdragon automotive processors in its own electrical vehicles, a venture which has been set to start in 2019.

Could the possible cooperation with Huawei be a part of BYD’s move to reduce reliance on imported technology?

BYD stated it”doesn’t possess information to disclose in the present time,” while Huawei declines to comment on the rumor.

The prospective alliance wouldn’t be that surprising given the duo has been working together carefully.

In March 2019, the firms, both Shenzhen-based, introduced a strategic partnership to employ Huawei’s AI and 5G technology in BYD’s alternative energy vehicles and monorails.
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Automotive independence

More large moves in BYD — that the automaker is racing to develop into self explanatory from the creation of electrical vehicles.

After raising a 1.9 billion yuan ($270 million) Series A in late May, its chipmaking subsidiary BYD Semiconductor finished a second 800 million yuan ($113 million) collection A+ round this week, seemingly because of investors’ enormous interest in becoming involved in the sole Chinese firm effective at making the center chip component of electrical automobiles known as insulated gate bipolar transistors, or IGBTs.

ByteDance encroaches on Tencent’s turf

ByteDance only paid 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) to get a major plot of land to construct offices in the center of Shenzhen’s Nanshan district, based on public data revealed by the authorities.

Shenzhen is currently home to numerous Chinese technology heavyweights, such as Tencent, Huawei and DJI. Additionally, it houses the China offices of international retail giants like Lazada and Shopify, provided the city’s wealthy logistics and manufacturing tools.

That provides ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, a substantial presence in Tencent’s backyard. ByteDance is proven to possess aggressively enticed talents from the high-tech trio of Baidu, Alibaba and Baidu by providing lucrative packages.

Being in Shenzhen will undoubtedly provide the company more accessibility to Tencent’s talent pool.

This will help it in its own push to video gambling, an area which has been dominated by Tencent, the planet’s largest games publisher.

Meanwhile, the planet’s second-largest games firm — NetEase — is another door in Guangzhou, one hour’s drive from fundamental Shenzhen.

Shakeup in video streaming

Reuters reported that Tencent has approached Baidu to become the largest shareholder in iQiyi, the movie streaming giant controlled by Baidu.

Tencent’s video system opens neck to neck with iQiyi to churn out variety shows and dramas which will convince Chinese viewers to pay for internet content.

Both firms are bleeding cash on movie creation. IQiyi, which drop from Baidu to list on Nasdaq, widened its net loss to 2.9 billion yuan ($406.0 million) in Q1 this season, up from 1.8 billion yuan annually earlier.

Selling iQiyi into deep-pocketed Tencent may further ease the fiscal burden on Baidu, which can be active dealing with ByteDance’s danger to its core advertising business. The two Tencent and iQiyi declined to comment on the report.

Robotics startup Geek+ raises $200 million

Geek+a startup that specializes in manufacturing logistics robots which are similar to those of Amazon’s Kiva machines, only closed a significant Series C round.

The business is one to watch as retail firms in China and North America are increasingly seeking to market their warehouses.
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China tech abroad

China’s gay dating app Blued goes public on Nasdaq

Despite restricted assistance for LGBTQ communities in China, Blued, a Chinese program used by countless homosexual individuals, has been quietly blossoming over the previous couple of decades and can be eyeing to increase $50 million by a U.S. first public offering.

JD’s long-awaited secondary record is here. Several U.S.-listed Chinese businesses have filed to list in Hong Kong due to a new invoice which will inflict more scrutiny on Chinese companies trading over the U.S. stock markets.