This week saw a multitude of messaging app announcements. First was WeChat’s Open Class PRO featuring a four-hour speech from Allen Zhang. Then, on the same day, Bytedance announced their own messaging app (Duoshan 多闪), what appears to be a clone of Snapchat, and Bullet Messenger announced their upgrade and rebrand to Liaotianbao (聊天宝). All three events, and the recent update to WeChat 7.0, raise interesting questions about the messaging market, WeChat’s primacy, and the ascendancy of Bytedance. Links WECHAT FOUNDER’S 4 HOUR TALK: FULL NOTES WeChat pins future on Chinese users’ growing pen ..read more

This week, Matt and John take a look at the stories and trends of 2018, including gaming restrictions, Tencent’s restructuring, the delivery and coffee wars, WeChat mini programs, and Bullet Messenger Links The relevant episodes: Gaming:  18: China’s gaming and e-sports industry with Daniel Ahmad, 39: PUBG and the future of Steam in China with Charlie Moseley Tencent: 45: Tencent vs Alibaba – The battle for China’s offline retail with WSJ’s Liza Lin, 61: How technology has changed music in China Delivery and O2O: 42: China’s mobility and transport market gets ..read more

This week, Matt and John take a look at the stories and trends of 2018, including ZTE/Huawei, AI in China, Bytedance, blockchain, and the death of bike rentals. This is the first of two parts. Links The relevant episodes: Huawei/ZTE: 47: Shenzhen style innovation: IP protection, ZTE, and manufacturing standards with Benjamin Joffe of HAX AI: 62: AI Superpowers with Kai-Fu Lee Bytedance: 66: The next Facebook will be Chinese Blockchain: 38: Trends in early-stage Chinese startups and blockchain with Edith Yeung Bike rentals: 42: China’s mobility and transport m ..read more

This week, John and Matt talk with Shai Oster, Asia bureau chief for The Information, about the rash of Chinese IPOs in a down market, looking at Tencent Music, Xiaomi, Pinduoduo, Meituan Dianping. We also talk about the possibilities for Bytedance and Ant Financial IPOs in 2019. Links China Tech Talk 49: The Xiaomi IPO with The Information’s Shai Oster What China’s history of overseas tech IPOs says about the current wave TechNode IPO coverage Sign up for TechNode newsletters Subscribe to The Information Guest Shai Oster – The Information author page, @beijingscribe  Hos ..read more

Bytedance, formerly known as Jinri Toutiao, is on deck for discussion this week. Beginning from pure textual content and recommendation, Bytedance has seemingly found the key to human attention. While this makes for a great product, and compelling business, whether they can make it in the US market is still unclear. Links Toutiao’s overseas platform is delivering fake news, but its problems run much deeper than that Tencent and ByteDance founders argue on WeChat Moments about Douyin ByteDance rumored to reach $75 billion valuation after closing pre-IPO financing round Bytedance’s teen prot ..read more

Ted Hopkins, Senior Director of Walmart Ecommerce, joins us to talk about mini programs, eliminating lines in stores, and the future of retail in China. Links Briefing: Walmart’s mini program “Scan to Buy” has attracted over 10 million users Guests Ted Hopkins — LinkedIn Hosts John Artman, @knowsnothing, TechNode Matthew Brennan, @mbrennanchina ChinaChannel Podcast information iTunes RSS feed China Tech Talk.com Music: “Theme from Penguins on Parade” by Lee Rosevere, Music for Podcasts 3 The post 065: WALMART CHINA: TED HOPKINS LIVE FROM TECHCRUNCH ..read more

Alvin Wang Graylin, China Regional President at HTC, joins us this week from the sidelines of TechCrunch Shenzhen to talk about the broader potential of VR and the specific outlook for VR in China. Links Real world lessons for the VR-First future: An industry insider’s analysis of “Ready Player One” Guests Alvin Wang Graylin – @AGraylin, LinkedIn Hosts John Artman, @knowsnothing, TechNode Matthew Brennan, @mbrennanchina ChinaChannel Podcast information iTunes RSS feed China Tech Talk.com Music: “Theme from Penguins on Parade” by Lee R ..read more

Wang Boyuan is back! This time we’re talking about Mafengwo and the curious case of extremely unreliable numbers in China. Not only Mafengwo, but also Alibaba, JD.com, and Dianping are mentioned in the discussion. Links TechCrunch中文版 Mafengwo accused of faking 85% of all user-generated content China Tech Talk 61: How technology has changed music in China Guests Wang Boyuan – @thisboyuan Hosts John Artman, @knowsnothing, TechNode Matthew Brennan, @mbrennanchina ChinaChannel Podcast information iTunes RSS feed China Tech Talk.com Music: “Theme from Penguins on ..read more

Kai-Fu Lee joins us this week to talk about his new book, AI Superpowers, and the distinct advantages and differences between the US and China in this increasingly important technology. Links AI Superpowers site Buy the book on Amazon Guests Kai-Fu Lee – Twitter Hosts John Artman, @knowsnothing, TechNode Matthew Brennan, @mbrennanchina ChinaChannel Podcast information iTunes RSS feed China Tech Talk.com Music: “Theme from Penguins on Parade” by Lee Rosevere, Music for Podcasts 3 The post 062: AI SUPERPOWERS WITH KAI-FU LEE appeared first on China T ..read more

Ahead of Tencent Music Entertainment’s IPO, John and Matt are joined by Wang Boyuan, translator and editor of TechCrunch.cn, to take a look back at how the music industry has been influenced by tech as well as the evolving online music market, now dominated by Tencent. Links TechCrunch中文版 048: PROBLEMS WITH CHINESE & WESTERN TECH MEDIA WITH WANG BOYUAN OF TECHCRUNCH.CN Guests Wang Boyuan – Twitter Hosts John Artman, @knowsnothing, TechNode Matthew Brennan, @mbrennanchina ChinaChannel Podcast information iTunes RSS feed China Tech Talk.com Music: “Theme fr ..read more