top mobile apps in q1 (1)

Author

Elaine Wong
May 23, 2024

CIW News is a free email newsletter on China tech trends.

This mid-year retail bonanza, initially started by JD.com, has evolved into a crucial battleground for e-commerce dominance.

For the first time, both Alibaba and JD.com have abolished the pre-sale mechanisms that have been a staple of past 618 festivals.

The pre-sale model, while beneficial for brands in securing early sales, often led to consumer frustration due to complicated purchasing processes and prolonged delivery times.

The cancellation aims to simplify the shopping experience and enhance satisfaction by emphasizing immediate availability and competitive pricing.

The short drama industry in China has seen remarkable growth, with the market size reaching 37.4 billion yuan (US$5.2 billion) in 2023, a staggering 268 percent increase year on year, according to data from Sensor Tower.

This surge is expected to continue, with projections suggesting the market could reach 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion) by 2027 according to CGTN. This growth is largely attributed to the widespread habit of watching short videos among Chinese online users, who spent an average of 2.5 hours daily on such content in 2022.

Mini-dramas, with their short, smartphone-optimized episodes, cater to this audience’s preferences for quick and engaging content. These dramas typically run for less than ten minutes per episode, making them perfect for on-the-go viewing and filling short breaks throughout the day.

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One of the most notable changes is the rebranding of ByteDance’s AI models. The previously known “Lark” models are now unified under the “Doubao Model Family” name.

In terms of performance, Doubao models are impressive, according to data shared at the conference.

Currently, these models process an average of 120 billion tokens of text and generate 30 million images daily.

Volcano Engine, ByteDance’s cloud computing business, also announced a groundbreaking pricing strategy, setting the cost at 0.0008 yuan per thousand tokens. This is significantly lower than competitors, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4o, which charges approximately 0.035 yuan per thousand tokens for input and 0.1 yuan per thousand tokens for output.

BRIEF BLASTS

🌐 Alibaba Cloud has cut the fees for using its Qwen family of commercial and open-source large language models by as much as 97%. Baidu is offering two lighter version of its LLMs for use free of charge, days after ByteDance launched a low-cost rival service.

🤝 Baidu is strengthening its relationships with U.S. tech companies like Apple and Tesla. China's restrictions on overseas data transfers are pushing U.S. companies towards these partnerships.

📦 China's AI-in-a-box products are challenging Big Tech's cloud services. Huawei leads the trend by partnering with over a dozen AI start-ups. These products allow companies to run AI applications on their own premises. The market for all-in-one AI machines in China is expected to reach Rmb16.8bn in 2024.

By the end of 2023, pure electric vehicles (BEVs) from China constituted a quarter of the global EV exports. This significant shift not only underscores China’s central role in the electric revolution but also highlights the rapid evolution of the global automotive landscape.

  • 📈 In 2023, pure electric vehicles from China made up 25% of global EV exports.

  • ⚡ Six years ago, EVs were less than 5% of global automotive imports, now over a third

  • 🚀 The rise in EV demand reflects changing consumer preferences and technological advancements.

Also read Chinese tech giants’ quarterly highlights: