Krypton Evening News | Meituan Takeaway launches "Spring Festival Gift Giving", allowing users to send takeaway gift packages via WeChat group. Xiaomi Motors recalls a total of 30,931 SU7 standard version electric vehicles. HTC sells part of its XR business to Google.
Big Companies:
MINISO LAND, A New Store Format of MINISO, Debuts in Beijing
36Kr learned that on January 24, the MINISO LAND Beijing No. 1 Store of MINISO officially opened. The store has specially set up a new product area for the debut of "Black Myth: Wukong", and also gathers more than 40 globally renowned IPs such as Harry Potter, Disney, GEEKIWAA, Zootopia, Identity V, etc., covering nearly 2,000 IP co-branded products.
Building A Joint Venture Display Module Factory in India? HKC Responds: False
On January 24, it was reported that Indian company Dixon Technologies recently announced at the earnings conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2025 that it has collaborated with HKC to select a site for its display module factory. The factory plans to start production at the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 (June or early July 2025). In response, a relevant person from HKC responded: "This news is false."
36Kr exclusively learned that recently, there have been the following management changes in Zhipu, one of the "Six Tigers" of China's AI large models: Wang Yueting, the former Vice President of Midjourney Asia, has joined Zhipu, mainly responsible for multimodal products and the market; Zhang Kuo, the Chief Strategy Officer of Zhipu, and Qu Teng, the Vice President, have recently left. Regarding the above information, as of the time of publication, Zhipu has not responded yet. Wang Yueting, who has newly taken the position of the person in charge of multimodal products and the market of Zhipu, previously served as the Vice President of Midjourney in Asia for the AIGC star company Midjourney with a valuation of over $1 billion, responsible for the operation of Midjourney in the Chinese region.
BEA China Becomes the First Foreign Bank to Enter Ant Group's Financial Education Base
36Kr learned that recently, Bank of East Asia (China) Limited has reached a cooperation with Ant Group's Financial Education Base and has become the first foreign bank to enter this education base. Both sides stated that they will deepen cooperation in the fields of financial education and consumer rights protection.
36Kr learned that Meituan Takeout has launched the "Giving Gifts During the Spring Festival" section. This is the Spring Festival integration page of Meituan Takeout's God Snatcher product gift-giving gameplay, and it has already launched multiple categories such as tea drinks, cakes, pastries and snacks. In terms of gameplay, a new "one-to-many" gifting method has been added. Users can place an order for up to 20 gift vouchers of different prices at one time and send them to a WeChat group, inviting group members to "try their luck" to grab the vouchers. Users who receive the gift vouchers can redeem the corresponding meals at nearby merchants and have them delivered to their homes immediately.
Recently, a "research record" about the cooperation between Hand Enterprise Solutions and Volcano Engine has been circulating in the stock community. The research stated that "Hand Enterprise Solutions and Volcano Engine have jointly created intelligent entities based on marketing, such as dozens of intelligent entities like smart shopping guides, intelligent customer service, channel assistants, store assistants, etc. It is highly likely to achieve tens of millions in 2024, and the plan is to achieve AI intelligent entity revenue of 400 - 500 million yuan in the next two years." In response, the relevant person in charge of Volcano Engine said, "The rumors are exaggerated, and the actual cooperation scale with Hand Enterprise Solutions is much smaller than the market rumors."
36Kr learned that on January 24, the State Administration for Market Regulation disclosed that recently, Xiaomi Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. has filed a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation. It has decided to recall some SU7 Standard Edition electric vehicles produced from February 6, 2024 to November 26, 2024, totaling 30,931 units, starting from now.
Netease Cloud Music May Remove SM Entertainment's Copyrighted Songs
36Kr learned that on January 24, Netease Cloud Music released a "Letter to Korean SM Fans", stating that due to the unilateral notice from the copyright owner not to renew the contract, Netease Cloud Music may have to remove all the song contents of South Korea's SM Entertainment from the platform on January 31, expressing deep regret and reluctance. Netease Cloud Music stated that the platform has always cherished these excellent music works and is well aware of the irreplaceable value of SM's copyrighted content for the majority of fans. It is still making the greatest efforts through multiple channels and aspects to strive for the possibility of renewing the copyright.
36Kr learned that Jiyue Automobile posted on the WeChat official account that it plans to resume the SIMO voice feedback and Jiyue App feedback channels after the Spring Festival. Then, problems can be submitted by waking up SIMO through the vehicle machine or submitting them in the Jiyue App.
New Products:
Midea Launches New Petal IH Pressure Rice Cooker G3
Recently, Midea has newly launched the Petal IH Pressure Rice Cooker G3. This product adopts the industry's pioneering Petal IH technology, breaking through the IH coil disk form that has lasted for more than twenty years after the heating of the rice cooker's self-heating disk, and upgrading the single bowl-shaped coil disk at the bottom of the rice cooker to a unique four-petal shape. Through the Petal IH technology, Midea's rice cooker solves the problems of uneven heating and raw rice in the early heat plate rice cookers. Midea has continuously invested and innovated in the research and development process. Up to now, Midea has successively invested more than 12 million yuan to establish a healthy and delicious research laboratory, and has formed a rice cooker R & D team of more than 200 people, with the proportion of master's and doctoral degrees in the R & D personnel exceeding 80%.
Investment and Financing:
36Kr learned that Tianyancha App shows that recently, the Yunnan Provincial Plateau Characteristic Agricultural Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) was established, with Yunnan Chantou Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. as the executive partner, with a contribution of 3.001 billion yuan. The business scope includes engaging in activities such as equity investment, investment management, and asset management through private equity funds. Partner information shows that the fund is jointly contributed by Yunnan Provincial Industrial Investment Fund Co., Ltd., Yunnan Provincial Key Industrial Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership), and Yunnan Chantou Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd.
HTC Sells Part of Its XR Business to Google
On January 23, HTC announced that it has signed an agreement with Google. Google will pay HTC a transaction price of $250 million, and some members of HTC's XR R & D team will join Google. In this agreement, HTC's non-exclusive license (IP) for XR intellectual property will be granted to Google for use. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025. In the eyes of the outside world, this seems to mean that Google is acquiring HTC's XR business. However, according to media reports, Lu Jiade, HTC's Vice President and General Counsel, said: "This is not an acquisition, nor is it an exclusive license. In the future, HTC will still retain the ability to use, utilize and even further develop it without any restrictions."
"Tiantian Baiying" Completes Pre-A Round Financing of Several Ten Million Yuan
36Kr learned that the enterprise service O2O platform "Tiantian Baiying" has recently completed the Pre-A round financing with an amount of several ten million yuan. The information of this round of investors will not be publicly disclosed for the time being. This round of funds will be used for system and company operations, market expansion, supporting services and supply chain upgrades.
Today's Views:
36Kr learned that Xiaomi Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. has filed a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation in accordance with the requirements of the "Regulations on the Recall of Defective Automobile Products" and the "Implementation Measures for the Regulations on the Recall of Defective Automobile Products". In response, Wang Hua, the General Manager of Public Relations of Xiaomi Group, said, "The main information is about our initiative to file the Xiaomi SU7 Standard Edition OTA recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation today. If your vehicle is among the planned vehicles, you can just upgrade after receiving the OTA prompt."
Other News Worth Noting:
According to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg, in an interview with Fox News Network broadcast on the evening of January 23 local time, US President Trump said that he would rather not impose tariffs on China, while insisting that tariffs are a "huge power". Reuters reported in December last year that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York also believes that tariffs imposed on China hurt US companies, with companies that have trade ties with China bearing the brunt. At present, China has repeatedly stated its position on this: There are no winners in a trade war or a tariff war.