Tag Archive for: kong

SenseTime heads for IPO on Hong Kong exchange

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Artificial intelligence updates

The Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime is going public in Hong Kong, even as mainland peers pull their stock market listing plans in response to Beijing’s widening crackdown on the technology sector. 

The company, whose backers include SoftBank, Alibaba, Tiger Global and Silver Lake, filed documents for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong exchange late on Friday. SenseTime did not indicate how much money it intended to raise but it is one of the world’s most valuable AI start-ups.

SenseTime last raised funds at a valuation of more than $8bn last year, said two people familiar with the matter, but its valuation is now closer to $12bn, one of the people said. 

Despite being blacklisted by Donald Trump’s administration in 2019, SenseTime’s business has grown significantly in the past few years. It is one of the key companies in China’s burgeoning AI industry, a critical facet of President Xi Jinping’s “Made in China 2025” blueprint. 

In the filing, the company said its 2020 revenue rose 14 per cent to Rmb3.4bn ($525m), while revenues for the first half of 2021 grew 92 per cent on the same period last year to Rmb1.6bn. Operating losses grew 13 per cent to Rmb1.8bn in 2020, and losses for the first six months of this year totalled Rmb2.1bn. 

SenseTime’s move comes as China’s regulators have cracked down on the technology sector this year, an assault that has targeted consumer tech including ecommerce, food delivery, lending and gaming companies. 

Cloud Village, China’s second-largest music streaming service, this month scrapped a $1bn IPO in Hong Kong over concerns about the growing regulatory crackdown.

However, AI, as well as the biotechnology and semiconductor industries, has received huge support from Beijing. China’s leader regards companies in this sector as crucial to cutting reliance on US technology and solidifying the nation’s reputation as a tech hub within its own right. 

SenseTime is known for its computer vision technology, which allows machines to analyse visual data. Its facial…

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China’s ByteDance aims for Hong Kong IPO despite tech crackdown

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ByteDance updates

ByteDance, the owner of short-video app TikTok, has revived a plan to go public despite a widening regulatory assault targeting Chinese technology companies, aiming for a Hong Kong listing by early next year.

The Chinese group, which raised about $5bn in December at a $180bn valuation, is planning to list in either the fourth quarter of this year or early 2022, said three people with knowledge of the company’s plans.

After postponing its overseas listing this year, ByteDance has spent the past few months addressing Chinese regulators’ data security concerns, one of the people said, including providing more detail to authorities on how it stores and manages consumer information.

“We are expecting final guidance from ByteDance in September. They are submitting all the filings with Chinese authorities right now and are going through the review process,” the person added. ByteDance declined to comment.

ByteDance, whose video app TikTok is incredibly popular in the west, shelved its plan to list overseas, most likely in the US, this year after Beijing widened a months-long crackdown on the country’s largest tech groups for alleged violations of data security and monopoly laws.

Chinese officials have vowed stricter oversight of overseas listings as part of the government’s focus on national security.

ByteDance’s decision to pause its initial public offering bought it more goodwill than Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing app, which pressed ahead with a $4.4bn New York listing in June despite the country’s internet regulator raising concerns about its data security practices, one of the people added.

The Cybersecurity Administration of China announced an investigation into Didi almost immediately after its IPO, while its main app was ordered to be removed from Chinese app stores.

The regulator then released rules that require any company with more than 1m users to pass a data security review before being approved for an overseas listing to ensure that sensitive user information cannot be obtained by foreign regulators.

ByteDance was “in similar meetings as…

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PRC Spying, Malware and Disinformation Campaigns Push Hong Kong Dissidents to Underground Communications Channels

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Following the anti-extradition protests that spanned from 2019 into 2020, the Chinese Communist Party has stepped up its digital actions against Hong Kong activists and dissidents. A new report from threat intelligence firm Intsights finds that aggressive disinformation campaigns and related measures have forced organizers to move to the digital underground, using encryption and the dark web to keep the PRC from observing and inserting itself into their communications.

Disinformation campaigns, mass surveillance drive “dark web” uptick in Hong Kong

Though the Hong Kong street protests have since dissipated, tensions have nevertheless remained high as the Chinese government has aggressively moved to control the flow of information in the region. It has also made mass arrests of protesters under charges such as “subverting state power.” The PRC has also been conducting blanket surveillance that sweeps up even those that are not politically involved, for example monitoring and censoring Zoom conferences organized by businesses and schools. The country’s national security laws require companies based in its territory to turn over any information requested by the government.

Dissidents have responded to disinformation campaigns and surveillance by moving their communications to encrypted messaging apps and dark web forums. However, the researchers warn that this opens up inexperienced navigators to a new realm of criminal threats; some paid services have sprung up to safely guide activists and dissidents to the clandestine meeting places and resources that they are seeking.

The dark web is best known for the sale of illicit goods, everything from credit card skimming equipment to illegal drugs. This is the world that novices must learn to navigate, generally without assistance (unless they pay for it). And when they do find homes for political discussion, they are not necessarily ideologically friendly. The report finds that the most popular Chinese-language discussion forums on the dark web actually tend to be pro-PRC. And the dark web is not free from the eyes of the government; posts from users indicate that Chinese espionage agents monitor at…

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Hong Kong eyes push on mobile phone SIM cards that could stoke privacy fears, IT News, ET CIO

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HONG KONG: Hong Kong is canvassing public opinion over a real-name registration system for mobile phone SIM cards, in a bid to fight crime in the Chinese-ruled city, it said on Friday, a move that is likely to stoke concerns over privacy.

Many countries have such registration systems, but some people in Hong Kong fear such a change could assist a crackdown on dissent that began with Beijing’s imposition of a sweeping national security law last year.

Currently only mobile users on SIM service contracts must register actual personal details in Hong Kong, though anyone can buy a pre-paid SIM card from most convenience stores.

The rule aims to keep criminals from concealing their identities and put a stop to a “common tool used…in committing serious and violent crimes that threaten public safety,” the government said in a statement.

It has set a Feb. 28 deadline for comment on the proposed compulsory registration, which would require users to furnish full names and an identity document.

In recent months, China has bolstered its security apparatus in the former British colony, creating a security agency with broad powers beyond the scrutiny of the courts.

The tighter measures come despite the promise of a high degree of autonomy from Beijing when Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Hong Kong has one of Asia’s highest smartphone penetration rates, at almost 80% of its population of 7.5 million. Its only regional peers are other developed economies, such as Singapore and South Korea.

In 2019, Hong Kong had about 14.5 million pre-paid SIM card subscribers, an increase of 16.6% on the year, says German database firm Statista.

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