U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc will launch self-inspection and address customer service issues in China, it said on Weibo late on Tuesday.
The statement comes after an unhappy customer clambered onto a Tesla car at the Shanghai Auto Show on Monday over a dispute with the company, creating a social media stir and criticism of Tesla from state media.
Luckin Coffee, the scandal-plagued Chinese coffee shop chain, secured a $260 million investment from existing shareholders Centurium Capital and Joy Capital. It also replaced its independent auditor.
This will help Luckin satisfy a $180 million settlement struck last year with the SEC, which had accused Luckin of faking retail sales figures. The company went public on the Nasdaq less than two years ago at a $4.3 billion valuation but was later delisted because of the accounting fraud.
The investment is structured as convertible preferred stock, with an option for Centurium and Joy to invest an additional $150 million.
The bottom line, Luckin was supposed to be China’s answer to Starbucks, but so far has been closer to China’s answer to Enron.
America’s Citigroup will exit 13 international consumer banking markets, including Vietnam, to shift its focus to four wealth centers.
The move is part of the bank’s strategic decision to direct investments and resources to businesses with the greatest scale and growth potential, it stated, adding its main markets will include Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and London.
Apart from Vietnam, 12 other markets to be affected are Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan and Thailand.
“While the other 13 markets have excellent businesses, we don’t have the scale we need to compete. We believe our capital, investment dollars and other resources are better deployed against higher returning opportunities in wealth management and our institutional businesses in Asia.”
The bank has not specified when it would leave Vietnam.
Citigroup in 1994 became the first U.S. financial institution licensed to open a branch in Hanoi. It opened its second branch in Ho Chi Minh City in 1998.
Piaget, the luxury watch brand from Switzerland, will be opening more stores in 2021, especially in the Middle East and China, Chief Executive Chabi Nouri has told Reuters.
“We’ll open more stores this year. We’ll reopen a flagship store in Beverly Hills and also have projects in the Middle East and China,” Nouri noted in an interview at the Watches and Wonders online event held last week.
Piaget, with its array of well-known sleek and slim timepieces, has opened 130 brand-specific outlets and has a network of 300 retail partners.
Piaget said in a January statement that high demand from China had driven sales to increase by five percent in the last quarter of 2020.
Nouri noted that Piaget, which also creates watches encrusted with gems, diamonds, and jewelry, had bolstered its e-commerce presence while remaining focused on its own outlets, retail partnerships, and online selling to assist the distribution process.
Nouri stated that in the wake of the coronavirus disease pandemic, Piaget was left with no choice but to reassess its strategies on connecting with its customer base and partners, though not impelling it to make adjustments to its product line.
At the Watches and Wonders event, Piaget displayed timepieces, including the Limelight Gala Precious Rainbow gold model that is bedecked with colorful rainbow-hued sapphires and is priced at $106,922.99.
Chinese lenders are increasingly closing down branches as online and mobile banking penetration continues to rise.
Mainland lenders have closed 430 branches in the first three months of 2021, according to data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s (CBIRC) annual report.
This marks an accelerated reduction after the industry closed 1,300 branches in 2020.
As a major leader by digital penetration of its population, China saw strong growth for transactions not executed via physical bank locations – or «off-counter rates.
Such transactions, which include online and mobile banking, rose 12 percent to 2,308 trillion yuan ($352.5 trillion), according to the CBIRC report.
Mobile banking transactions alone soar 31 percent to 439.2 trillion yuan – nearly one-fifth of total off-counter transactions.
In addition to growing digital adoption, the branch cuts are part of a broader industry move to reduce costs especially after a year of concessions where borrowers were offered cheap loans, deferred payment options, and top Beijing officials even called for a 1.5 trillion yuan sacrifice of profits.
Mainland lenders are also rebalancing the mix of their remaining branch network with a focus on maintaining brick-and-mortar locations in counties or rural areas as part of Beijing’s goal to promote financial inclusion.
China’s market regulator, fresh from fining e-commerce giant Alibaba US$2.75 billion, said on Tuesday it warned nearly three dozen internet companies to stop using any banned practices such as forcing vendors to use their platform exclusively.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said it summoned 34 companies including Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com for a meeting, where it ordered them to conduct self-inspections within one month, warning of “severe punishment” for any that still violated the rules.
In February, China issued new anti-monopoly guidelines targeting internet platforms.
On Saturday, SAMR hit Alibaba with a record 18.2 billion yuan fine, and on Tuesday told the other Internet firms to heed that lesson. The regulator is beefing up staff and other resources in order to strengthen antitrust enforcement, Reuters has reported.
In the statement issued on its website, SAMR described the overall development of China’s platform economy as improving but said no time should be wasted in correcting the way companies operate to ensure they comply with the law.
China’s cyberspace regulator and tax administration were also represented at the meeting, SAMR said.
In addition to Tencent, JD, and ByteDance, search giant Baidu and food delivery platform Meituan were among the firms called in by SAMR. None provided immediate comment.
“The regulators are not aimed at a single enterprise, but the whole platform economy, as it is growing more and more powerful,” said Keso Hong, an independent analyst in Beijing.
“I believe the companies will be more prudent in the future. Meanwhile, I think it is good for the regulator to give them a reminder to prevent them from ending up like Alibaba.”
SAMR also criticized abusive practices in community group buying, when companies offer aggressively low prices to woo users, and warned against abuse of big data and tax-related violations.
In particular, the regulator warned against the practice of forcing vendors to operate on only one platform, a tactic known as “choose one from two”.
“It is extremely harmful and must be corrected from the root,” the SAMR statement said.
Chinese regulators have fined Alibaba 18 billion yuan ($2.75 billion) – around 4 percent of its revenues in 2019 – for violating anti-monopoly rules and abusing its dominant market position.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said that after an investigation launched in December, it had determined that Alibaba Group had been “abusing market dominance” since 2015 by preventing its merchants from using other online e-commerce platforms.
It said the practice violates China’s anti-monopoly law by hindering the free circulation of goods and infringing on the business interests of merchants.
The SAMR ordered Alibaba to make “thorough rectifications” to strengthen internal compliance and protect consumer rights.
The company said in a statement posted on its official Weibo account that it “accepted” the decision and would resolutely implement SAMR’s rulings. It said it would also work to improve corporate compliance.
The practice of preventing merchants from listing on rival platforms is a long-standing one. The market regulator spelled out in rules issued on February that it was illegal.
Alibaba has also been under heavy scrutiny since its founder Jack Ma criticized China’s regulatory system in October.
Ant Group, Alibaba’s fintech arm, also saw its $37 billion listing plans dramatically suspended by authorities in November.
Cameras in Tesla cars are not activated outside of North America, the U.S. automaker said on its Chinese social media page on Wednesday, seeking to assuage security concerns in the world’s biggest car market.
Tesla faces scrutiny in China where the military in March banned Tesla cars from entering its complexes, citing security concerns over cameras in its vehicles, sources told Reuters.
“Even in the United States, car owners can freely choose whether to turn on its (the camera system’s) use. Tesla is equipped with a network security system with world-leading security levels to ensure user privacy protection,” the electric carmaker wrote on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media site.
At a virtual forum in Beijing in March, held not long after reports of the ban surfaced, Tesla founder Elon Musk emphasized the company’s business motivations for protecting user privacy.
“There’s a very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information,” Musk said.
“If Tesla used cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will get shut down.”
China is a key battleground for electric vehicles. In 2020 Tesla sold 30% of its global total in the country.
Citi appoints a senior corporate banker for China, amid growing expansion in the mainland market.
Luke Lu has been named head of corporates coverage for China, reporting to Citibank China CEO Christine Lam and APAC head of corporate banking Kaleem Rizvi.
A spokesperson for the bank confirmed the new appointment.
Lu has 20 years of banking experience and was most recently head of Citi Commercial Bank in China after rejoining the American lender in 2019. Previously, he was with MUFG Bank China where he was the head of its global corporate bank for two years.
Lu’s appointment occurs in the midst of increasing growth at Citi’s corporate banking unit in China.
According to the note, Citi is serving an increasing number of companies in the mainland market and last year alone, it raised over $30 billion for Chinese clients in global capital markets across debt and equity.
China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Groups, a global mobility technology group has plans to set up a commercial aerospace company, as announced by the local government.
The company will develop and advance satellite and communications technologies in Guangzhou, by building low-orbit satellites to deliver high-speed connectivity. Geely will also be partnering with other rocket companies in Guangzhou.
Geely owns Volvo Cars and 9.7 percent of Daimler AG. Last month, Geely posted a profit of US$850 million in 2020, representing a 32 percent drop in net profit as compared to the previous year as auto sales took a hit amid the pandemic.
China announced new import cuts this week to boost the nation’s semiconductor industry. This follows after US sanctions on some Chinese companies including tech giant Huawei and chipmaker SMIC to ease the impact on the industry.
According to China’s finance ministry, chipmakers producing high-end 65-nanometer technology or smaller chips can import raw materials and machinery tax-free through 2030.
Totaling more than $300 billion annually, China’s processor chips and other semiconductors form the country’s largest single import. Despite the country’s strong chip industry, China still relies on Taiwan, the US and Europe for certain parts. In China’s fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) held in early March, the party pledged to build up self-reliance in science and technology.
Ningbo is a time-honored international port city in east China’s Zhejiang province. Its port, the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, is the largest port in the world. Recently, the port worked with China Mobile Ningbo and Huawei to showcase the hybrid platooning of 5G smart and traditional container trucks. The platooning is a stride towards realizing the goal of becoming a world-class port. With this solution, in berth 8 of its busy Meishan container terminal, 13 5G smart container trucks run automatically and smoothly, greatly improving automation and safety in the port.
Due to the collaboration of Zhejiang Seaport Group, China Mobile Zhejiang, Huawei, and other leading players, the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port has been transformed into a smart 5G port. To date, the port has reached a number of milestones, becoming the first in the industry to integrate 5G automated rubber-tired gantry (RTG) cranes into routine operation and implement 5G network slicing and 5G Super Uplink in port businesses.
Smart container trucks represent a new breakthrough in the smart port transformation. Their scaled application offers an effective solution to driver shortage and fatigue while improving efficiency and reducing safety risks. They will play an important role in replacing intensive labor in the port with unmanned, automated, and intelligent operations.
Smart container trucks require real-time 5G smart sensing, truck-road and truck-truck synergy, and video transmission. One container truck requires an uplink bandwidth of 20 to 30 Mbps and a low latency of below 20 ms. During peak hours, more than 40 container trucks will be working at the same time. This requires the network to ensure an uplink bandwidth of 1,200 Mbps.
5G can provide better network support for these applications. Based on 3GPP Release 16, China Mobile and Huawei have developed a 5GtoB solution for port applications. Ample verification tests have been conducted, with results showing that the solution meets the requirements of smart container trucks on both network performance and stability. With CPEs deployed to support dual feeding and selective receiving solution, the network further improves the quality and latency stability of smart container trucks’ signal transmission. As such, 5G has become a preferred network solution for full-function applications of smart container trucks.
In the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, container trucks no longer have drivers — an important indicator of the automated logistics of 5G smart trucks in modern ports. Powered by 5G and AI, upon detecting that containers unloaded from bridge cranes are properly loaded, container trucks automatically power on to move the containers to their destinations. During this process, they automatically identify nearby objects, machinery, and lighthouses and respond intelligently, such as decelerating, braking, steering, bypassing, and parking. They can also accurately move to the RTG-specified positions along optimal routes provided by the smart dispatching system, meeting the demand for horizontal transfer in closed areas.
Looking to the future, the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port will continue to work with China Mobile Ningbo and Huawei as well as other industrial partners to further integrate upstream and downstream resources and promote the pilot and promotion of remote device control, smart tallying, unmanned driving, online AI port monitoring, and trunking communication based on 5G networks so as to build a comprehensive benchmark of 5G smart port.
DBS will seek to further its expansion in mainland China with a focus on three areas: its securities joint venture, consumer finance and Greater Bay Area opportunities. DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta unveiled details about its China plan during the latest annual general meeting held virtually yesterday.
We are convinced that China’s opening-up in the capital account is going to present tremendous opportunities, Gupta told shareholders.
We’re already seeing some benefits of that, as institutional investors from China come out and international investors go into China. So that’s hopefully a big area of growth for us. According to Gupta, the bank’s new securities joint venture in China, announced last September, is expected to go to market in the coming few weeks.
On consumer finance, the bank will also launch a wholly-owned business in China, in addition to its existing 15 percent ownership in a consumer finance joint venture with Postal Savings Bank of China.
And on Greater bay Area, Gupta said DBS’ Hong Kong presence is expected to support deeper integration into the area with «good momentum» observed last year, especially from its supply chain solutions.
Gupta also commented on DBS’ takeover of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) last November and stressed that the deal was not a forced marriage.
People have asked whether this was a forced marriage or if we were forced to do this deal,» he said, noting that the bank long had an interest in organic and inorganic expansion. This the last thing from a forced marriage.
DBS highlighted an opportunity through the LVB takeover to accelerated its digital push in South India with an eye on two segments with huge opportunities: retail and small-to-medium-sized enterprise clients.
Post-acquisition, the bank has added 125,000 corporate and 2 million retail customers with the latter figure boosting its retail share of deposits from 23 percent to 48 percent. Gupta also said that he expects no more incremental cost of credit from the LVB portfolio and expects the merged entity to become profitable in the next 12 to 24 months.
ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, together with China Unicom and Shandong Energy Beidou Tiandi, today has completed the first 5G local traffic offloading pilot in the mining industry in Shandong Province, China.
With private network coverage as the test target, the pilot employs “5G+NodeEngine” base station-level local offloading, customized for China Unicom Shandong Branch, to bring the mining services a private network. The pilot, in bid to ensure data transmission security and nearest local access, has tested and verified two major functions of ZTE’s NodeEngine solution: local traffic offloading of base station and local inter-connection with eBridge.
The video monitoring data is sent to the underground integrated control center directly through the intelligent offloading module, so as to reduce the latency by more than 50%. At the same time, ZTE’s NodeEngine solution, combined with the air-interface keep-alive strategy, ensures that the core production services will not be affected when the underground and ground optical fibers are disconnected. Moreover, local inter-connection with eBridge can realize control and equipment management among production devices and between the control end and remote terminals.
By virtue of ZTE’s NodeEngine solution, ZTE’s 5G base station has been empowered with powerful computing capability to offload the local traffic. Meanwhile, the NodeEngine solution helps further strengthen the data transmission security, safeguard the production when the optical fibers are disconnected, and realize the fast and low-cost service provisioning.
Moving forward, the three parties will be committed to the customer and demand-oriented innovation investment, expecting to accelerate the in-depth development and expansion of 5G technology in the mining industry and assist enterprises achieve fast deployment of digital application.
Popeyes has its sights set on China. On Monday, the American fried chicken chain officially announced that it would open its first China-based store right here in Shanghai sometime next year.
But that’s just the beginning. Popeyes has big plans to become China’s most popular fried chicken joint. No easy feat considering KFC – the world’s most successful fried chicken brand – currently holds the top spot.
“I think we can be the no.1 chicken brand here in China and all around Asia,” said Jose Cil, CEO of Restaurant Brands International (RBI).
Popeyes aims to open 1,500 restaurants in China over the next 10 years. KFC currently has a whopping 6,300 branches in over 1,300 cities across the country.
Popeyes is all the rage in the US right now, after its latest spicy fried chicken sandwich went viral. The sandwich proved to be so popular it sold out and was removed from the menu a few weeks later due to lack of supply.
The good news is that the famous spicy chicken sandwich will be offered at the Shanghai branch. The bad news is you’ll just have to wait until 2020 to try it.
Popeyes will be the last of RBI’s major brands to enter the Chinese market. Burger King and Tim Hortons have both proven to be immensely popular in China. Since 2012, Burger King has opened 1,100 stores in China and Tim Hortons has expanded to 28 stores in just one year.
Hence, Popeyes lofty expectation to take on KFC here in China.