Information/Technology - 51. page

Beijing News reported that, since China launched the first satellite of the BeiDou 3 system on November 5, 2017, on July 29, it successfully launched the ninth and tenth satellites from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province. Before the end of this year, China plans to launch eight more satellites so it will have a total of 18 satellites to complete the BeiDou 3 basic system which will provide service to countries along the Belt and Road project. According to the article, the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology developed the satellites and the launch system used in the recent launch. By 2020, China will complete the BeiDou system and will have 35 satellites with the ability to provide navigation service worldwide.

Source: Beijing News, July 29, 2018
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2018/07/29/497213.html

Well-known Chinese news site Netease recently reported that Jesse Hong, a former employee of the Huawei U.S. branch, Futurewei Technologies in Santa Clara, sued the company for firing him due to the fact that he thought it was wrong to spy on Huawei competitors. According to Hong, in 2016 Huawei sent people twice to steal information from competitors and transmit the stolen technical information back to Huawei’s Chinese headquarters. Hong warned his colleagues that these activities were not legal and later he was fired. Hong asked for US$105 million in damages in his suit. Huawei said the company never collected any of the information that Hong described.

Source: Netease, July 15, 2018
http://tech.163.com/18/0715/08/DMOBH60F00097U7R.html

Huanqiu reported that, as Apple Pay or Samsung Pay become more popular outside of China, China is still the world’s leading country in the mobile payment industry. It was estimated that in 2017 the net income in China’s mobile payment industry was $98 billion and its mobile payment transaction volume exceeded the volume worldwide for Visa and MasterCard transactions combined. Alipay and Wechat pay are the two leading mobile payment companies in China. Each of them has a monthly transaction volume greater than US$451 billion which was what PayPal made in the full year of 2017. As more Chinese tourists travel overseas, these companies are also expanding their business overseas. According to Nielsen Marketing Research firm data, 65 percent of Chinese tourists use mobile pay while traveling overseas. These mobile payment companies are also reshaping the online marketing channel. Some companies have started to use the mobile payment platform to market their products rather than traditional online marketing. Successful examples include Starbucks, restaurant delivery, and online Taxi services.

Source: Huanqiu, July 23, 2018
http://tech.huanqiu.com/internet/2018-07/12555533.html

RFA reported that China has expanded its Internet surveillance technology overseas. Zhongkedianji Beijing Technology (http://www.zkdj.com), a big data firm in Beijing disclosed that a software it developed called “junquanyuqun” (http://junquan.com.cn) is capable of detecting more than 8,000 “sensitive” websites in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. In addition, it has established 18,000 information outlets in China which can monitor news, forums, blogs, microblogs, pictures, and videos. It can even collect information in 53 languages including English, French, Spanish, and the languages of ethnic minorities in China. According to the company’s website, the surveillance system can carry out public opinion analyses, information warnings, and hot spot analyses. It can collect negative public opinion, public opinion trends, briefings, analyses, forwarded information, and do statistical analyses for the government. It can monitor news, forums, blogs, Weibo, pictures, videos, QQ groups and it has search and documentation capabilities. According to YicaiGlobal.com, Zhongkedianji Beijing Technology was founded in 2007. Its customers include a wide range of industries such as state-owned enterprises, governments, military organizations, and private companies. Recently, in November 2017, it secured US$15.15 million in financing. The company is worth US$150 million.

The RFA article also reported that, during the recent 2018 Procuratorial Technologies and Equipment Exhibit held on May 15 in Beijing, a scanner that Beijing HiSign Technology Company developed could recover Facebook and Twitter messages that had been deleted from a mobile phone. Meiya Pico from Xiamen City claimed that their handheld scanner could break into a mobile phone within seconds to retrieve customer data. The RFA article reported that, because of the latest technological developments, overseas Chinese have become very concerned that they could be subjected to retaliation if they publish any opinions that criticize the Chinese government.

Sources:
1. Radio Free Asia, June 28, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/ql2-06282018100614.html
2. Yicai Global.com, November 24, 2017
https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/big-data-firm-zhongkedianji-bags-usd15-million-round-financing-valued-usd150-million

National Business Daily (NBD), a Chinese national daily newspaper which reports business news, recently reported that the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index announced on May 4 that it would remove Lenovo from its index of constituent stocks. Since Lenovo was included in Hang Seng’s index of constituent stocks in 2013, Lenovo has lost 56 percent of its value. According to Bloomberg, of 171 global technology stocks, Lenovo had the worst stock performance. In the past five years, it appears the Lenovo Group could not manage to sustain a healthy growth in its core business of PC manufacturing as well as the growth of its business of mobile devices. A large number of competitors in China grew at a much faster pace. In 2017, on a global level, the U.S. company HP took back its number one PC manufacturer title from Lenovo. As the Motorola brand owner, Lenovo was China’s number one smartphone vendor in 2014. However, by the end of 2017 Lenovo had only one percent of China’s smartphone market share. Lenovo responded to press inquiries saying the company is entering a new growth era, and Hang Seng’s poor rating will not have a concrete long term negative impact.

Source: National Business Daily, May 5, 2018
http://m.nbd.com.cn/articles/2018-05-05/1214319.html

Global Times recently reported on a recent study of the status of the deployment of global broadband. The study showed that, by the end of first quarter, China’s fiber-based broadband customers held an 85.3 percent share of all landline broadband markets in China. This percentage surpassed previously leading countries Japan and South Korea to make China the number one in the world. The average download speed of overall Chinese landline broadband reached above 20 mbps (megabits per second). This marks a year-over-year growth of 54.9 percent. In addition, China’s 4G cellular network now has around 3.4 million 4G base stations, which makes the Chinese 4G network the largest in the world. China’s 4G market is still expanding rapidly.

Source: Global Times, May 3, 2018
http://tech.huanqiu.com/internet/2018-05/11965927.html