Krypton Evening News | SK Hynix expects HBM products to account for more than half of its total sales this year; Gong Yu of iQiyi: The number of episodes and duration of TV dramas will be reduced; Luxury brand Lanvin responds to rumors of exiting China: Store closures are strategic adjustments.
Large Companies:
Recently, according to multiple Xiaohongshu users, Xiaohongshu's backend has been continuously acquiring users' location information at a high frequency. Some users were accessed up to 17,000 times within 3 days, including location, photos and videos, device status, schedules, clipboard, etc. There were still high - frequency operations even during the early morning when the software was not in use, raising concerns about privacy and security. In response, a relevant person from Xiaohongshu said that it will not read users' location information without authorization. The frequency of reading is related to users' usage scenarios.
Taotian Group Fully Upgrades Its AIGX Technology System
36Kr learned that Zheng Bo, the vice president of technology at Taotian Group, the person in charge of algorithm technology, and the CTO of Alimama, for the first time fully presented Taotian Group's large - model family at the 2025 Tmall Super Brand Private Event and detailed the AIGX technology system closely integrated with Taobao and Tmall's business scenarios. Taotian Group's AIGX technology system has a complete chain of basic research, application development, and industrialization, covering all scenarios required for e - commerce business operations, such as AIGI (Index), AIGR (Recommendation), AIGB (Bidding), AIGA (Auction), AIGC (Creativity), and AIGD (Data).
Luxury Brand Lanvin Responds to Rumors of Exiting China: Store Closures Are Strategic Adjustments
The French luxury brand Lanvin has recently closed a number of offline stores in China, including those in high - end commercial projects such as Nanjing Deji Plaza, Hangzhou Tower, and Beijing SKP. Lanvin's brand team responded that it has recently adjusted the brand's overall strategy and retail layout, so it has temporarily closed some offline stores. It also stated that the rumor that the brand is about to exit the Chinese market is untrue, and it will continue to invest in the Chinese market in the future.
36Kr learned that Taobao officially issued new regulations today, taking the lead in launching the governance of AI - generated fake images, severely cracking down on the illegal acts of using AI - generated fake images to deceive consumers and infringe on the rights and interests of original brand merchants, and protecting the rights and interests of original merchants and consumers. At the same time, Taobao issued an initiative to the whole industry: standardize the use of AI - generated images, ensure the authenticity of product information, and jointly participate in the comprehensive governance of AI - generated fake images. As of now, the platform has intercepted nearly 100,000 fake images that are over - PSed or exaggerated by AI.
SK Hynix Expects HBM Products to Account for More Than Half of Total Sales This Year
SK Hynix CEO Koo Kwang - mo said at the general shareholders' meeting on Thursday that with the expansion of the diverse artificial intelligence ecosystem and the additional demand brought by new generative artificial intelligence models such as China's DeepSeek, the demand for HBM will continue to grow. He predicted that compared with 2023, the HBM market will grow 9 times this year, and the enterprise solid - state drive (eSSD) market will grow 3.5 times. Therefore, SK Hynix expects the proportion of HBM products in its total storage chip sales to rise from 40% in 2024 to more than 50% in 2025.
Pet Fresh Opens Ten Stores Simultaneously and Launches Three Differentiated Store Formats
36Kr learned that after the opening of its first store in Shanghai on February 22, from the end of March to the beginning of April, Pet Fresh will open ten stores in a row and launch three differentiated store formats: pet - friendly stores, mall stores, and community stores. It is reported that if conditions permit, Pet Fresh is expected to expand to first - and second - tier cities across the country this year.
New Products:
Shen Dou of Baidu: Baidu's Cluster of 30,000 Kunlun Chips Is About to Be Launched
36Kr learned that at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2025, Shen Dou, the executive vice president of Baidu Group and the president of Baidu Smart Cloud Business Group, revealed that Baidu is about to launch a cluster of 30,000 self - developed domestic Kunlun chips and is also continuing to iterate its models.
Investment and Financing:
"Cheng Tian Technology" Completes Nearly 100 Million Yuan in Series B Financing
36Kr learned that according to Cheng Tian Technology's official WeChat account, recently, "Cheng Tian Technology" announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan in Series B financing. This round of financing was led by Wuxi Venture Capital Group, and Hao Yue Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds will be mainly used for the R & D and iteration of embodied intelligent exoskeleton technology, the R & D and registration of new brain - machine products, the expansion of the production base, and the global market expansion, further promoting the application of embodied intelligent exoskeleton wearable robots in the rehabilitation, elderly care, and consumer markets, accelerating the expansion of domestic and overseas channel networks, and building a globally leading exoskeleton technology enterprise.
It is reported that Nvidia plans to acquire Lepton AI, a startup founded by former Alibaba Cloud vice president Jia Yangqing, for hundreds of millions of dollars. Lepton was founded in 2023 by Jia Yangqing, a well - known figure in the AI field known as the "Father of Caffe", after leaving Alibaba. Its main business is to rent Nvidia GPU servers and develop software to help startups build and manage their own applications in the cloud. The company completed a $11 million (about 79 million yuan) angel - round financing in May 2023. It is speculated that Nvidia's acquisition of Lepton aims to enter the cloud and enterprise software market and compete with major cloud service providers such as AWS and Google.
Today's Views:
Gong Yu of iQiyi: Will Shorten the Number and Duration of Episodes
36Kr learned that Gong Yu, the founder and CEO of iQiyi, said at the 12th China Network Audio - Visual Conference that iQiyi will focus on the new needs of viewers, meet the diverse needs of viewers for entertainment and culture by personally producing short dramas, continuously deploying high - quality head - content, and shortening the number and duration of episodes.
Chen Rui, CEO of Bilibili: More Than 80% of Users Who Watch AI Videos Are Post - 95s
36Kr learned that on March 27, the 12th China Network Audio - Visual Conference officially opened in Chengdu. Chen Rui, the chairman and CEO of Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as "Bilibili"), delivered a speech on the theme of "High - quality Content in the AI Era". Chen Rui said that in any era, high - quality content is what viewers ultimately need. AI is essentially a tool, and creative humans are the main body of creation. It is reported that on Bilibili, more than 80 million users watch AI - related content every month. In 2024, the playback volume of AI - related content on Bilibili exceeded 30 billion, and the number of submissions of AI - related content doubled. More than 80% of the users are post - 95s.
Other Noteworthy News:
36Kr learned that on March 25, Zhu Hexin, the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and the head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, met with Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of the US - based Blackstone Group, who was on a visit. The two sides exchanged views on topics such as global economic and financial trends, and opportunities and challenges in China's economic development. Li Hongyan, the deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, accompanied the meeting.
The State Issues a Plan to Support Employment of Key Groups
On March 27, the Leading Group for Employment Promotion and Labor Protection of the State Council issued the "Implementation Plan for Strengthening Job Creation in Key Areas, Key Industries, Urban and Rural Grass - roots, and Small and Medium - Sized Enterprises to Support Employment and Entrepreneurship of Key Groups". According to the plan, China will promote the implementation of a job development plan from seven aspects: tapping the employment potential of new productive forces such as advanced manufacturing, transforming new consumption hotspots into new employment channels, magnifying the employment increment of major engineering projects, promoting employment around ensuring key people's livelihood services, broadening the service space for workers in urban and rural grass - roots, improving the employment attractiveness of private enterprises and small and medium - sized enterprises, and stabilizing the recruitment scale of government agencies, public institutions, and state - owned enterprises. It will increase support for employment and entrepreneurship of key groups from six aspects: increasing support for burden reduction and job stability, encouraging enterprises to absorb more employment, strengthening policy support for self - employment, improving the quality and efficiency of employment services, carrying out large - scale vocational skills training, and effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of workers.