Every fortnight we compile a list of important news updates and events covering the Chinese FINTECH, MFGTECH, CLNTECH, and AGRTECH sectors.

For a downloadable copy of China’s Issue #40

FINTECH

HKMA unveils Fintech 2025 strategy
Hong Kong Monetary Authority announces Fintech 2025 strategy to promote the development of fintech in Hong Kong. The strategy aims to encourage the full adoption of fintech in the financial sector by 2025 to benefit Hong Kong people and the economy.

The Internet Finance Association to standardize financial products related to medical cosmetology.
The Internet Finance Association of China has released a proposal to regulate financial products and services related to medical cosmetology. It is proposed that financial institutions shall not cooperate with any illegal medical cosmetology institutions or provide relevant financial products and services to any clients of illegal medical cosmetology institutions.

Ali Cloud is adding two new data centers in Indonesia and the Philippines
Ali Cloud is adding two new data centers in Indonesia and the Philippines, and plans to invest more than 6 billion CNY in infrastructure expansion within three years to support localized ecological development. Ali Cloud’s scale in overseas markets has grown more than tenfold in three years.
Chris Tung is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alibaba Group

ByteDance makes a full foray into cloud computing IaaS services
ByteDance’s Volcano Engine division will officially release cloud computing IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) comprising computing, storage and networking in September and October this year. In addition to the completed data center in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. ByteDance is also planning to build large data centers in or around Shanghai, Shenzhen and other cities to provide external IaaS services.
Laura Wu is the General Manager at ByteDance East Region

Zhuiyi Technology has received strategic investment of hundreds of millions of CNY
Zhuiyi Technology, an AI company, has announced a strategic investment of hundreds of millions of CNY from China Internet Investment Fund and China Mobile Innovation Industry Fund. Five sources of capital, Gao Rong capital and other continue to increase investment.
Jie Cheng is the Chief Strategy Officer at Zhuiyi Technology

Zhoubang Tech finished ten million angel round financing
Zhoubang Technology, a provider of industrial intelligent lean production and big data solutions, completed the 10-million-CNY angel round financing led by Guangdong Baolong Capital. Zhoubang Technology is committed to providing intelligent manufacturing solutions for industrial enterprises with data-driven production.

“Fu Bei” obtained hundreds of millions of CNY of financing from Ant Group
Ant Group holds 20 percent Shares. The hundreds of millions of CNY of strategic investment will be used to improve the company’s market and product strategic map, improve the quality of service, in order to help customers better reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Alan Wang is the General Manager at Ant Financial

China’s government cloud market grew by 42.3% year on year in 2020
In 2020, the scale of China’s government cloud market reached 65.36 billion CNY, with a year-on-year growth of 42.3%. The market size of IaaS was 52.09 billion CNY, accounting for 79.7% of the total market. Inspur, Huawei and China Telecom are the top three in terms of market share. By 2023, the scale of China’s government cloud market will reach 149.73 billion CNY.

The first application scene of “Blockchain + Digital RMB” was launched in China
Bank of China recently realized the first “on-chain” digital RMB wage agency payment in the Xiongan New Area. Through the “Blockchain Fund Payment Platform” in Xiongan New Area, salaries were paid to the builders of spring forestation projects in the form of digital RMB. This is the first application scene of “blockchain + digital RMB” in China

IFlytek open platform generates most of its revenue from digital advertising
iFlytek open platform provides AI core capabilities to the entire industry. With free + support strategy, the basic ability is free and personalized customized service charge. IFlytek’s open platform currently generates most of its revenue from digital advertising.
Kaiser Chen is the Senior Vice President at iFlyTek

Fintell completed tens of millions of dollars of B+ round financing
Fintell, Fintech service provider, has raised tens of millions of dollars in a B+ round of financing. This round of financing was led by Yushan Capital, and the amount of financing was mainly used for technology research and development, big data research and development investment and product and service system upgrading.
Jing Wang is the CEO at Fintell

The scale of China’s Internet insurance market exceeds 290 billion CNY
In recent years, China’s Internet insurance industry has experienced explosive growth, with a market size of over 290 billion CNY and a penetration rate of 6.4% in 2020, according to the Foresight Research Institute.

AGRTECH

Guangdong Unicom cooperates with Jieyang City for rural revitalization
Guangdong Unicom and Jieyang Municipal Government will cooperate to implement the rural revitalization strategy. The two sides will cooperate in digital agriculture, digital countryside, talent science and education, rural e-commerce and other fields. Guangdong Unicom will build a digital agricultural industry cloud application service platform, an agricultural IoT perception platform, and an agricultural digital operation and management platform to promote the agricultural digital construction in Jieyang City.

Hema signed a cooperation to promote country specialties
This year, Alibaba will promote agricultural products from 100 counties (districts) across the country to enter Hema. With the support of digital technology and sales channels, Alibaba will reduce the cost of matching supply and demand information and boost the branding of characteristic agricultural products. The first batch of 10 characteristic counties have signed contracts with Alibaba to obtain its digital support and promote the building of a new supply and marketing system.
Chirs Tung is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alibaba Group