Domestic News

MediaTek and Nokia completed the first round of 5G interoperability testing

On February 21, MediaTek announced that its 5G modem chip Helio M70 has completed the first round of 5G interoperability testing with Nokia AirScale 5G base station.

It is understood that the test based on Helio M70 and Nokia AirScale 5G base station used an independent connection in the 3.5GHz frequency band n78, with a 100MHz channel bandwidth and 30kHz subcarrier spacing, which can achieve the maximum connection capability of each component carrier. The Helio M70 5G modem chip is MediaTek's first-generation 5G solution and the only 5G modem with LTE and 5G dual connectivity (EN-DC). It supports multiple modes of cellular networks from 2G to 5G, Sub-6GHz frequency band, current Non-Standalone (NSA) and future 5G Standalone (SA) architecture.

Alipay credit card repayment will start charging next month, and it will still be free if it is less than 2,000 per month

On February 21, Alipay announced that in order to continue to provide users with better services, starting from March 26, service fees will be charged for credit card repayments through Alipay.

However, there is a free quota of 2,000 yuan per person per month, which means that the amount within 2,000 yuan is still free. For the amount exceeding 2,000 yuan, a service fee of 0.1% will be charged. Because there is a free limit of 2,000 yuan, no matter how much you repay your credit card with Alipay, it will be 2 yuan cheaper than using WeChat. Taking the repayment of 3,000 yuan as an example, the excess is 1,000 yuan, calculated at 0.1%, and the service fee is 1 yuan. Some people in the industry said that there is no eternal free model in any industry. In a fully competitive market, whether to charge or not ultimately depends on whether the services provided by the enterprise are worthy of consumers paying for them, and the level of charges will tend to be reasonable in the competition.

“Special Sale” Vipshop: Revenue growth has declined for nine consecutive quarters, “nothing wrong”

On February 21, Vipshop released its financial report for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal year 2018. Revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2018 was 26.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%. The revenue growth rate has declined for nine consecutive quarters; the net profit attributable to the company's shareholders was 688.7 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%. This is also the 25th consecutive quarter that Vipshop has achieved profitability. In addition, Vipshop’s total GMV reached 41.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15%; active users increased by 13% year-on-year to 32.32 million. As of this quarter, the number of Vipshop’s super VIP members reached 3.15 million, an increase of 38% from the previous quarter.

The number of annual active users of Vipshop has gradually increased since its listing. The first is the impact of the e-commerce dividend period. Second, due to the strong pressure from Alibaba and JD.com and the momentum of Pinduoduo, Vipshop has withdrawn from the top three domestic e-commerce platforms.

Foreign News

Netflix purchases the rights to "The Wandering Earth": the broadcast time has not yet been determined

According to news on February 21, the American streaming video giant Netflix has just purchased the copyright of "The Wandering Earth", which is billed as China's first mainstream science fiction blockbuster. Currently, Netflix has not disclosed the broadcast time of "The Wandering Earth" on the platform. But according to Bloomberg, Netflix will translate "The Wandering Earth" into 28 languages and broadcast it to global audiences.

On the day of its premiere on February 5, the film only ranked fourth at the box office during the Spring Festival, but it later overtook it and currently ranks first. The film is adapted from the 2000 novel of the same name by the famous Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin. It tells the story of people working together to save the earth and push it to another galaxy.

Samsung launches Galaxy Watch smart watch that can measure heartbeat and blood pressure

According to news on February 21, Samsung officially released a number of wearable devices today, including the latest smart watch Galaxy Watch Active. Samsung said the Galaxy Watch Active is designed to "make pursuing health goals more convenient, stylish and fun." The smartwatch can monitor blood pressure and heart rate, which is the biggest feature change in the company's new watch. In addition, the smartThe watch has an aluminum body as well as new strap materials and watch interfaces.

This smartwatch has 4GB of storage space and also supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity and NFC mobile payment functions. It can track 39 sports, monitor sleep, count steps, and has built-in GPS. The company also said that the new S10 smartphone will be able to wirelessly charge the watch. Of course, this watch also supports Samsung’s smart assistant Bixby, which can make calls or send messages through the digital assistant.

Financial Investment

Hong Kong’s “Uber for Logistics” Lala Kuaishou raised US$300 million

According to news on February 21, Hong Kong’s Lala Express announced that it had completed a US$300 million Series D financing, and the company is currently seeking to expand in Asia. Through this round of financing, LaLaQuick Delivery Company has officially entered the unicorn club with a valuation of over one billion US dollars.

Lala Kuaisong stated that the new round of financing was divided into two parts, with Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital leading the "D1" part, and Sequoia China leading the "D2" part. The company did not disclose the size of the two transactions. Other investors involved include new investors East Bell Venture Capital and PV Capital.

Providing a unified machine learning platform for enterprises, Splice Machine completed US$16 million in Series B financing

According to news on February 21, Splice Machine, which claims to be an "operational" artificial intelligence data platform, announced today that it has completed a $16 million Series B financing, led by GreatPoint Ventures (GPV), with participation from Accenture Ventures and individual investor SunBridge Group CEO Allen Miner. According to company CEO Monte Zweben, Salesforce Ventures led a $9 million financing round in December 2017. The inflow of new funds brings Splice Machine's total financing to $58 million, which will be used to further innovate the product portfolio and develop its engineering and sales teams.

As part of this financing, Zweben said it willThe company has invested heavily in its recent collaboration with Accenture to meet the growing global demand for artificial intelligence operations platforms. According to IDC analysts, the global market size of artificial intelligence operation platforms will reach US$60 billion by 2022. Accenture said it will become the global system integrator of choice for the Splice Machine platform.