Krypton Evening Post | SF Express: "Intelligent Solution for SF Express Logistics Network Planning" Has Been Fully Implemented; OpenAI: The performance of GPT-4o and 4o-mini models has declined and is under investigation.
Big Companies:
RuiXin Medical's product RuiXin-FFR officially enters the Hong Kong market
36Kr has learned that recently, RuiXin Medical's product RuiXin-FFR has officially entered the Hong Kong market and has begun to be put into use in Hong Kong hospitals. Recently, RuiXin Medical has released the newly upgraded RuiXin-FFR 2.0 version, which adds key lesion parameters such as FFR, APS, and WSS, and can evaluate the development and rupture risk of coronary artery plaques from multiple dimensions, while also facilitating clinical application and scientific research.
The number of 1688PLUS members has exceeded 10 million
It is learned from Alibaba 1688 that as of the end of December 2024, the number of 1688PLUS members has exceeded 10 million. PLUS members are a paid membership product launched by 1688 for buyers in June 2022. By opening a card, members can enjoy commodity price discounts, platform red envelope subsidies, and official exclusive services. In March 2023, the number of 1688PLUS members exceeded 1 million, and in less than 2 years, it has exceeded 10 million, achieving a 10-fold growth in 2 years. At the end of December 2024, the number of post-00 member buyers increased by 12 times year-on-year.
SF Express: "SF Express Logistics Network Planning Intelligent Solution" has been fully implemented
36Kr has learned that the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) has officially announced the final shortlist for the 2025 Franz Edelman Award, and SF Express has been shortlisted with the "SF Express Logistics Network Planning Intelligent Solution" project, becoming the only Chinese representative to be shortlisted for the finals this year. It is reported that this intelligent solution has been fully implemented in SF Express and supports the overall network planning including the operational decision-making of the Ezhou hub. Since its application, the solution has improved the timeliness of more than one billion packages.
ExxonMobil and Chevron's huge acquisition cases have cleared the antitrust concerns of the US FTC
On January 20, it was reported that last week, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved consent decrees addressing antitrust concerns regarding ExxonMobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources and Chevron's acquisition of Hess. According to the order for ExxonMobil's $60 billion merger, the company is prohibited from nominating, appointing, or designating Scott Sheffield, the former CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, to its board of directors. Sheffield is also prohibited from serving as any advisor to ExxonMobil's board of directors or management team. According to the order for Chevron's $53 billion acquisition of Hess, Chevron cannot allow Hess CEO John Hess to join its board of directors. With certain exceptions, Hess will also be prohibited from serving as an advisor to Chevron's board of directors or management team. (Jiemian)
36Kr has learned that SHEIN has announced the establishment of the SHEIN Foundation. As a non-profit organization, the SHEIN Foundation aims to foster more inclusive and sustainable communities in all regions where SHEIN operates, and the foundation will become the charity of the SHEIN company. The SHEIN Foundation has committed to donating 5 million euros ($5.3 million) to the African Collect Textiles (ACT) Foundation, whose African Collect Textiles (ACT) has launched a pilot program for the collection and recycling of used textiles in Kenya.
ByteDance releases an AI Chinese development environment IDE for overseas
On January 19, ByteDance officially released a new AI Coding product Trae (trae.ai) for professional developers, achieving an evolution from Copilot to Autopilot. This tool can be selected in Simplified Chinese or English, and the built-in GPT-4o and Claude-3.5-Sonnet models are available for free use. (Jiemian)
36Kr has learned that AliExpress, Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce platform, recently announced that in February this year, it will further expand the scope of local currency payments in the African market after already supporting mobile payment methods such as M-Pesa in Kenya and Opay and Verve bank cards in Nigeria last year. This local currency payment will expand to cover multiple countries including Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, and Uganda, providing local consumers with a more convenient and secure online shopping experience.
Investment and Financing:
"Fuyuan New Materials" completes tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing
36Kr has learned that "Fuyuan New Materials" recently announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing. This round of financing is led by Guangkai Linghui Fund under the Guangzhou Development District Fund Group, with the existing shareholder Kaifeng Ventures following the investment. The funds raised will be focused on key aspects such as capacity expansion, innovative product research and development processes, and promoting commercialization. Fuyuan New Materials is a provider of high-performance fluorine-containing film solutions, and its designed and developed green building film materials, pharmaceutical packaging materials, photovoltaic front panel films, and semiconductor release films have all achieved mass production.
"Yuanqi Mart" completes nearly 100 million yuan in Series C financing
36Kr exclusively learned that Yuanqi Mart has completed nearly 100 million yuan in Series C financing. This round of investment is led by CICC Capital, with Anhui Cultural Investment and Baohe Venture Capital following the investment. Yuanqi Mart is a trendy toy sales platform, and its game product - Hope City will be publicly tested in the middle of 2025. In the future, it will build China's first AI virtual-real combined trendy toy distribution platform.
"Qingcheng Jizhi" announces the completion of Pre-A round financing
36Kr has learned that according to Zhongke Chuangxing, recently, the intelligent computing system software service provider "Qingcheng Jizhi" announced the completion of Pre-A round financing. This round of investors includes the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Zhongke Chuangxing, and Koala Fund. The funds raised in this round will be focused on key links such as product research and development, ecological improvement, and team building, to further accelerate Qingcheng Jizhi's in-depth development in the field of AI infrastructure. Original Link
"AromeManpo" completes consecutive Pre-A and Series A financings
36Kr has learned that the aromatherapy emotional skin care brand "AromeManpo" has recently completed Pre-A and Series A financings with a total amount of tens of millions of yuan. The Pre-A round investor is Neixiang Fund and Kaihui Fund, and the Series A investor is Challenger Venture Capital. Mumian Capital serves as the long-term exclusive financial advisor and continues to provide strategic and capitalization support to AromeManpo. In 2025, AromeManpo plans to focus on developing offline channels and has already formulated a specific store expansion plan.
New Products:
Kuawei Intelligence releases the first embodied intelligent robot DexForce W1
36Kr has learned that recently, Kuawei Intelligence has released a humanoid robot - DexForce W1 defined based on the Sim2Real embodied intelligent engine. W1 adopts a highly humanoid structure with 34 power units, which can achieve high flexibility and multi-scenario versatility. Coupled with Kuawei's pure visual spatial intelligent sensor for real-time perception and precise control, it becomes a deployable general-purpose embodied intelligent robot, achieving an end-to-end closed loop from simulation to data, to model, and then to the real machine.
Today's Views:
Mercedes-Benz CEO: The EU should encourage Chinese automakers to build factories in Europe
On January 20, it was reported that Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, said in a recent media interview that the EU should encourage more Chinese automakers to open factories in Europe. He said that decades ago, China invited European automakers to invest in China to enter the Chinese market, and "this approach can be part of the solution to the current trade dispute." Källenius mentioned: "No one denies that a fair competitive environment is a legitimate topic of discussion. The question is what tools you use? Don't accelerate protectionism, as we may lose a lot of benefits." (Jiemian)
US startup AI company Perplexity proposes to merge with TikTok's US business
After a brief service suspension, the short-video social media platform TikTok resumed service in the US on the 19th. However, it is reported that earlier on the 18th, before TikTok suspended service, the US artificial intelligence startup Perplexity submitted an acquisition proposal to TikTok's parent company ByteDance. According to the US financial portal Investor’s Business Daily, the proposal suggests merging Perplexity, TikTok US, and new capital partners into a new entity. This merger plan allows most of ByteDance's existing investors to retain their equity. (The Paper)
OpenAI: The performance of GPT-4o and 4o-mini models has declined and is being investigated
OpenAI issued an incident report stating that it is currently experiencing a performance decline in the GPT-4o and 4o-mini models and is currently conducting an investigation and will release the latest news as soon as possible. (Caixin)
Other News Worth Noting:
36Kr has learned that the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Data Bureau have issued a notice on establishing a price formation mechanism for the authorized operation of public data resources. It is mentioned that the pricing procedure should be standardized. The development and reform department, in conjunction with the data management department, will verify the maximum allowable income of the operating agency to formulate the operating service fee standard for public data; within the scope of the maximum allowable income, the authorized entity will formulate the upper limit charging standards for various products and services, and report them in writing to the development and reform department and the data management department; the operating agency will determine the specific charging standards within the range not higher than the upper limit charging standards.