A day before TikTok and WeChat were due to be taken off app stores in the U.S., both apps were saved from the ban — TikTok by Trump’s “blessing” of a restructuring deal, and WeChat by a free speech lawsuit. The future of both apps is hard to predict.
The Trump administration is poised to implement a Chinese Great Firewall–style block on WeChat starting on September 20, with downloads of the app barred and network interruptions ordered. Downloads of TikTok will also be blocked, but the company has until November 12 to strike a deal with Oracle before also suffering technical freezes.
A subsidiary of China Evergrande, a real estate conglomerate, is charging ahead with new big name investors and new electric cars despite multiple failures over the past two years.
Tech giant Tencent, owner of China’s must-have messaging-and-everything app WeChat, has confirmed today that the death of a WeChat user on August 15 was suicide. He had jumped off the roof of an 11-story office building rented to the company in Shenzhen.
Ant Group, the Alibaba-affiliated financial technology giant, filed yesterday for a massive IPO on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai STAR stock markets. It is estimated to be worth more than $200 billion, meaning its listing could be one of the biggest in history.
The internet giant behind WeChat — the app you need to complete almost every commercial and legal transaction in China — had an enormous windfall from COVID-19 lockdowns that supercharged internet use. But can the good times last as the U.S. government goes on the attack?
President Trump signed two executive orders, one reiterating that he wants TikTok banned (unless Microsoft buys it), and another launching a new attack against WeChat. Depending on how the WeChat order is implemented, it could have massive implications for the parent company, Tencent, and the future of the internet.
China’s ecommerce market is complex, massive, and highly competitive. Its companies and their business models are completely different from those in other markets, and none of the big American and European players have any real presence. This is a guide to the major Chinese players and their offerings.
Within days of U.S. Congress questioning American Big Tech companies in an antitrust probe, it looks like China may investigate its own tech giants for anticompetitive practices.
Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent and the country’s most beloved chili sauce brand Lǎo Gàn Mā 老干妈 are officially back on good terms, after a highly public feud that ended with a dramatic twist.