Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has launched an AI-powered smart helmet for its food couriers, integrating a voice assistant and camera to enhance safety and efficiency. This initiative follows similar roll-outs by rivals Alibaba and Meituan, aiming to minimize distractions and improve navigation for riders.
UBS analysts forecast strong June quarter results for Alibaba, citing improved e-commerce margins, reduced food delivery losses, and accelerated cloud growth. The market is expected to refocus on Alibaba's valuable AI assets, with AI model services projected to reach 10 billion yuan in annual recurring revenue.
Shenzhen-based startup Even Realities secured $150 million in pre-Series B funding, valuing it at $1 billion. The company focuses on display-first smart glasses emphasizing privacy, unlike competitors prioritizing cameras and AI.
Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan, and Xiaomi are initiating large share buy-back programs to counter low stock prices and investor skepticism. Analysts suggest the sector may be nearing a bottom, with companies using buy-backs and leadership appearances to restore market confidence.
Meituan officially launched LongCat-2.0, a 1.6-trillion-parameter AI model, confirming its prior anonymous operation as Owl Alpha. The model excels in cost-effectiveness, outperforming competitors like GPT-5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 in pricing, while demonstrating strong performance on coding benchmarks.
Chinese food delivery giant Meituan has open-sourced LongCat-2.0, an AI model with 1.6 trillion parameters. It claims to be the country’s largest AI model trained entirely on domestic hardware for both pre-training and inference, marking a significant step towards China's self-sufficiency in chip technology.
Chinese tech companies like Meituan and Baidu are reportedly implementing 'optimization' measures, which employees fear are increasingly driven by AI replacing human roles. This follows widespread rumors of significant layoffs.
Meituan, China's food delivery leader, is accused of paying merchants to spread negative information about rival Taobao Shangou, a unit of Alibaba. This comes amid intensified competition and regulatory scrutiny in the sector.
Microsoft is selling OpenAI's advanced AI models to major Chinese tech firms like ByteDance, despite US warnings about China's AI capabilities. This business, growing rapidly in China, generates over $1 billion annually from customers like ByteDance, raising concerns about intellectual property theft and model distillation.
Meituan reported a net loss of 4.97 billion yuan for Q1, its third straight losing quarter. However, a 7.6 billion yuan gain from investments, notably in Zhipu (Z.ai), offset the loss. Meituan's shares rose over 9% following the announcement.
Meituan reported a 5.6% year-on-year revenue increase to 91 billion yuan (US$13.45 billion) for the first quarter. CEO Wang Xing highlighted overseas expansion, particularly the Keeta food delivery business in the Middle East, and AI initiatives.
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI has raised about US$2 billion in a new funding round, boosting its valuation to more than US$20 billion as it navigates Beijing’s new listing rules for companies registered overseas. The funding was led by Meituan and involved China Mobile. Over the past six months, Moonshot had raised a total of US$3.9 billion, according to a statement by the deal’s financial adviser HF Capital on Thursday. The Beijing-based company, best known for its Kimi...
China's market regulator fined seven tech platforms 3.6 billion yuan (US$528 million) after an antitrust probe revealed obstruction tactics. Investigators at Pinduoduo discovered a hidden office area, while PDD's security head led a group that stormed the site, hospitalizing an official with a head injury. A PDD employee was also caught passing and then swallowing notes with instructions to stay silent during questioning.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has levied more than 3.6 billion yuan (US$527.3 million) in fines on seven e-commerce and food delivery platforms and their representatives following an investigation, the regulator announced on Friday. SAMR said the seven platforms, which included retail and food delivery mainstays Pinduoduo (PDD), Meituan and JD.com, failed to properly verify food vendor licences and knowingly allowed unverified “ghost” catering services to operate. The...
