Krypton Evening News | China Railway 12306 launches a "pet shipping" service; Porsche's global deliveries in Q1 dropped by 8%, and its sales in China decreased by 42%; Amazon signs an agreement with Airbus to provide in-flight connectivity services.
Large Companies:
Amazon Signs Agreement with Airbus to Provide In-flight Connectivity Services
Airbus announced on April 8 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Amazon to use the latter's Kuiper satellite internet network to provide in-flight connectivity services (IFC) to enhance the in-flight experience of passengers and optimize flight operations.
Porsche's Global Deliveries Down 8% in Q1, Sales in China Down 42%
German luxury sports car manufacturer Porsche said on Tuesday that affected by the decline in demand in China and Europe, the company's global vehicle deliveries in the first quarter decreased by 8% year-on-year to 71,470 units. Among them, deliveries in the Chinese market decreased by 42% year-on-year, and those in Europe decreased by 10%. In its home market of Germany, deliveries dropped by 34% to 7,495 units. However, deliveries in the North American market increased by 37% to 20,698 units, partly due to the postponement of deliveries of some models related to imports in the same period last year.
36Kr learned that Tianyancha App shows that recently, Aerospace Satellite Super Factory (Hainan) Co., Ltd. was established. The legal representative is Dong Guanghong, and the registered capital is 500 million yuan. Its business scope includes the production and manufacturing of microsatellites, scientific research and testing of microsatellites, inspection and testing services, integrated circuit design, sales of electronic special equipment, sales of electronic products, etc. It is jointly held by the Wenchang International Aerospace City Administration and the Commercial Satellite Co., Ltd. of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
Kugou Music Reaches In-depth Cooperation with DeepSeek to Launch a Series of Innovative Features
36Kr learned that Kugou Music announced an in-depth cooperation with artificial intelligence company DeepSeek to launch a series of innovative features and promote the transformation of the music platform into a "smart entertainment hub". This upgrade includes a weekly music listening report system, which constructs a three-dimensional portrait covering style, emotion, and scene through multi-modal analysis of music listening data to realize the social application of data assets, as well as AI daily recommendations and intelligent search, AI playlist management, AI design tools to generate dynamic covers, UGC ecological AI content upgrade, etc. It also launches an "AI comment officer" with character settings to realize a human-machine collaborative ecosystem.
Apple Stores across the US are Crowded as Consumers Fear Tariffs Will Drive up iPhone Prices
The Trump administration's threat to impose large-scale new tariffs has caused Apple's stock price to plummet, but it has also brought a short-term benefit: consumers are flocking to retail stores to snap up iPhones. Employees at Apple stores across the US said that the stores were crowded with customers over the weekend - many consumers are worried that once the tariffs are implemented, product prices will rise significantly. An employee who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly said that their store was almost "overwhelmed" by customers buying phones: "Almost every customer asked me if the prices were going to go up soon."
12306 Launches a "Pet Shipment" Function
Learned from China Railway Express Co., Ltd., starting from April 8, the railway department will pilot a high-speed rail pet shipment service of "isolated transportation, separation of people and pets, and special care" on some trains on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. 12306 will simultaneously launch a "pet shipment" function. Passengers can make an online reservation at least 2 days in advance. After a successful reservation, they can ship one cat or dog pet that is domestically raised, in good health, weighs no more than 15 kilograms per pet, and has a shoulder height of no more than 40 centimeters on the same train. Starting from April 8, the high-speed rail pet shipment service will be piloted on 10 trains such as G119/118, G121/122, G127, G134, G183/184, G195/196 between 5 stations including Beijing South, Jinan West, Nanjing South, Shanghai Hongqiao, and Hangzhou East on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.
New Products:
Xim Computing Releases the "Government and Enterprise AI+" Agent
36Kr learned that the press conference for Xim's Kyushu large model and a series of intelligent agent products for government affairs and public procurement was held in Guangzhou. At the conference, the "Huangpu Government Affairs Service Large Model Agent" and the "Colorful Wings Public Procurement Intelligent Agent Collaborative Management Platform" and a series of intelligent agents jointly developed by Guangzhou Xim Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. with the Huangpu District Government Affairs and Data Bureau of Guangzhou and the Guangzhou Government Procurement Center, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Trading Group, were officially launched, creating personalized intelligent agent application services for citizens' government affairs services and public procurement services respectively. This press conference is also the result of the cooperation between Xim Computing and the two units, using open-source computing power + industry large models to realize the implementation of end-to-end large model intelligent agent application scenarios.
Pre-sale Price of the New XPeng X9 Announced: Starting from 399,800 Yuan
36Kr learned that on the afternoon of April 8, XPeng Motors announced that the pre-sale price of the 2025 XPeng X9 starts from 399,800 yuan. Now the exhibition cars have arrived at more than 500 stores in 214 cities across the country one after another. It is understood that the 2025 XPeng X9 not only comes standard with Turing AI intelligent driving across the entire series but also has 496 parts upgraded and 35% of parts renewed, fully meeting the needs of mid - to high - end users for "family", "electric", and "intelligent". It is a new technological flagship for global families.
Investment and Financing:
"Zhongqing Robot" Completes a New Round of Financing
36Kr learned that "Zhongqing Robot", an enterprise invested by Honghui Fund, completed a new round of Pre - A round of financing with a total financing amount of nearly 200 million yuan. This round of financing was led by Stone Venture, and a group of old shareholders such as Shangtang Guoxiang Capital and Honghui Fund continued to increase their investment. The funds from this round will be mainly used to accelerate the R & D and upgrading of humanoid robot bodies, cerebella, and embodied intelligence, further promote large - scale production, and expand domestic and foreign markets, helping Zhongqing become a globally leading humanoid robot enterprise.
Today's Views:
Ken Griffin, the founder of the American financial giant Citadel Investment, said that Trump's latest tariff measures are equivalent to imposing heavy taxes on families and are a "huge policy mistake" by the government. Griffin said that it is wrong to tell a middle - class or economically struggling family with an annual income of $50,000 that "you have to pay 20%, 30%, or 40% more for daily necessities, toasters, new vacuum cleaners, and new cars." "Even if the dream of bringing jobs back to the US comes true, it's a 20 - year dream. Not 20 weeks. Not two years. It's decades."
Other Noteworthy News:
As of the End of March, a Total of 346 Generative AI Services Have Completed Filings
To promote the innovative development and standardized application of generative AI services, the Internet information department, together with relevant departments, has been continuously carrying out the filing work for generative AI services in accordance with the requirements of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative AI Services. As of March 31, 2025, a total of 346 generative AI services have completed filings with the National Internet Information Office; for generative AI applications or functions that directly call the capabilities of the filed models through API interfaces or other means, a total of 159 generative AI applications or functions have completed registrations with local Internet information departments.