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Tech

HTC launches $100 million virtual reality fund

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The burgeoning virtual reality industry is all about creating simulated realities, but for VR startups focused on the HTC Vive, things just got a lot more real.

HTC has announced the launch of Vive X, a $100 million fund designed to foster the growth of VR startups around the world.

“Virtual reality is changing the world, yet to do that effectively it needs a healthy ecosystem to expand into the mass market,” Cher Wang, CEO HTC, said in a statement released on Tuesday. “Through HTC Vive, we look forward to enabling global talent to create interesting and compelling content and to help shape the future of this industry.”

With offices in San Francisco, Beijing and Taipei, the fund will be devoted to all manner of VR startups, including accessories makers, content creators and, of course, apps.

The company is framing the initiative as a global VR accelerator and, beyond what it means for existing and new VR startups, it demonstrates that HTC is seriously committed to making real inroads in VR. The HTC Vive isn’t just an also-ran experiment.

And that’s an important distinction.

With heavyweight Facebook…



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China

Tech crackdowns rid China of entrepreneurial capitalism

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East Asia Forum

Abstract

Chinese authorities have recently shifted their approach towards China’s top platform tech companies. The crackdown that began in November 2020 with Ant Group’s cancelled IPO has now transitioned into extending an olive branch. By June 2023, China’s economy was struggling and youth unemployment had risen above 21 percent.

Author: Martin Miszerak, Renmin University

Since early 2023, Chinese authorities have started extending an olive branch to China’s top platform tech companies after over two years of ‘regulatory crackdown’. The crackdown started in November 2020 with the cancellation of the initial public offering (IPO) of e-commerce giant Ant Group — an affiliate of Alibaba.

Besides Ant Group, the ‘rectification’ affected most of China’s large platform companies. Yet by June 2023, a cold was blowing over China’s economy. The post-COVID-19 recovery was faltering. Youth unemployment rose above 21 per cent.

The authorities also likely concluded that they had accomplished most of the objectives of the rectification. At the China Development Forum in March 2023, Premier Li Qiang bent over backwards to assure prominent Western CEOs that China was welcoming the private sector, both foreign and domestic.

There is no consensus among academic and journalistic commentators about the crackdown’s ‘true’ objectives. One view holds that it was a personality clash between the ‘exuberance’ of Jack Ma — Alibaba’s founder and China’s most prominent private entrepreneur — and the fundamentally Maoist orientation of President Xi Jinping.

But a focus on Jack Ma ignores the fact that essentially all platform companies underwent some form of rectification. Another view holds that it was simply a scheme to clip the wings of China’s top private companies, given Xi Jinping’s embrace of the state-owned sector. Yet data showing an increasing penetration of China’s economy by large private companies belied Xi Jinping’s alleged hostility to the private sector.

Others maintain that a ‘great’ rectification was needed to align the mission of platform tech companies with Xi Jinping’s social policy objectives such as ‘common prosperity’ and the drive against ‘disorderly expansion of capital’. But the true objective of the crackdown had little to do with regulation, as authorities’ actions went beyond what might be considered an imposition of a stricter regulation.

Regulatory rectification was only a vehicle to accomplish other objectives. The crackdown was characterised by a spate of shareholder wealth destruction. Ant Group was headed for its IPO in November 2020 at an implied valuation of US$313 billion. Yet in July 2023, Ant Group launched a share buyback at a valuation that was 70 per cent lower. The global ride-sharing leader, Didi Chuxing, conducted its New York IPO in June 2021 at a valuation of US$70 billion. After a forced delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, it is currently trading over the counter with a market capitalisation of about US$16.7 billion.

The other side of the coin was the wealth extraction from platform companies to various state-owned entities. One instrument of extraction was in the form of unprecedented fines. Alibaba was fined US$2.8 billion in April 2021 for alleged abuse of market dominance.

Another method of extraction was through ‘voluntary’ contributions to causes championed by Xi Jinping. Tencent — the global game leader and investor in many start-ups — ‘earmarked’ US$7.7 billion in 2021 to a fund dedicated to ‘common prosperity’.

Another extraction mechanism was carried out through putting a brake on platform companies’ ability to grow. Didi was barred from…

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Companies

Chinese Smartphone Manufacturer Lays Off 3,000 Employees Following Closure of Chip Design Division

OPPO, a major Chinese smartphone maker, announced the closure of its chip design company ZEKU Technology (ZEKU).

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OPPO, a major Chinese smartphone maker, announced the closure of its chip design company ZEKU Technology (ZEKU).

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Ecommerce

Alibaba Empowers Chinese Brands to Grow at Home and Abroad

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Alibaba Group launched “The New Chinese Goods Project” on May 10. Alibaba set five goals to empower Chinese brands, including helping 700,000 Chinese brands to sell overseas through Tmall Global, Lazada and AliExpress.

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