China – Page 8 – Impact Lab

China, government, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

China reportedly made an app to show people if they’re standing near someone in debt — a new part of its intrusive ‘social credit’ policy

January 31, 2019

A province in northern China developed an app to tell users whether they are within a 500-meter radius of someone in debt, state media said.

It’s called a “map of deadbeat debtors,” the China Daily state-run newspaper reported.
It hopes to get citizens to monitor the so-called debtors and report them to authorities if they seem “capable of paying their debts.”

It’s part of China’s invasive “social credit” system, designed to judge a person’s trustworthiness. People have already been punished by it.

Continue reading… “China reportedly made an app to show people if they’re standing near someone in debt — a new part of its intrusive ‘social credit’ policy”

China, Internet, Science & Technology News, Tourism

Millions of Chinese tourists are spurring the growth of mobile pay overseas

January 29, 2019

Just as overseas luxury stores have hired Mandarin-speaking staff to serve Chinese tourists, more tourist destinations may feel the need to accept Chinese mobile payment such as Alipay and WeChat Pay.
Three-fourths of supermarkets and convenience stores in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand now accept Chinese mobile payment, according to a Nielsen survey released Monday in cooperation with Alipay.
The adoption rate has increased rapidly in the last two years, and last year more Chinese tourists used mobile pay abroad than cash, the report said.

Continue reading… “Millions of Chinese tourists are spurring the growth of mobile pay overseas”

China, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Medicine

Ping An Good Doctor launches commercial operation of One-minute Clinics in China

January 25, 2019

Ping An Good Doctor’s first One-minute Clinic in Wuzhen, outside of Shanghai. Credit: Ping An Good Doctor.

The company announced last week then it had placed its One-minute Clinics across 8 provinces and cities in China and signed service contracts for nearly 1,000 units.

Last year, Ping An Good Doctor, a one-stop healthcare ecosystem platform from China, piloted unstaffed clinics that employ artificial intelligence called “One-minute Clinics” in the Wuzhen Scenic Area outside of Shanghai, which connect patients with a clinician on Ping An Good Doctor’s in-house medical team. Just last week, the company announced that it had placed its One-minute Clinics across 8 provinces and cities in China and signed service contracts for nearly 1,000 units, providing healthcare services to more than 3 million users.

Continue reading… “Ping An Good Doctor launches commercial operation of One-minute Clinics in China”

Analysis, China, Economy, Future

Chart: The World’s Largest 10 Economies in 2030

January 21, 2019

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

Today’s emerging markets are tomorrow’s powerhouses, according to a recent forecast from Standard Chartered, a multinational bank headquartered in London.

The bank sees developing economies like Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, and Egypt all moving up the ladder – and by 2030, it estimates that seven of the world’s largest 10 economies by GDP (PPP) will be located in emerging markets.

Continue reading… “Chart: The World’s Largest 10 Economies in 2030”

China, Electric Automobile, Transportation

Chinese company unveils ‘World’s cheapest electric car’ for under $9000

January 20, 2019

Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. arguably has one of the most affordable lines of electric vehicle, but that all could change as a Chinese company just unveiled what is now dubbed as the “World’s Cheapest Electric Car.”

Great Wall Motors, an automotive company based in Baoding, China, pulled the veil on its cheapest electric vehicle called the ORA R1, which is being marketed with a price of $8,680 according to the company, Express reported.

“As a new market entrant, ORA R1 delivers an unprecedented experience to drivers,” general manager of the Ora line and vice president of Great Wall Motors, Ning Shuyong, said in a statement.

Continue reading… “Chinese company unveils ‘World’s cheapest electric car’ for under $9000”

Agriculture, China, Space, Space Flight

Giant leaf for mankind? China germinates first seed on moon

January 18, 2019

A photo of the cotton sprout. ‘This is the first time humans have done biological growth experiments on the lunar surface,’ said Xie Gengxin, who led the design of the experiment. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

A small green shoot is growing on the moon after a cotton seed germinated onboard a Chinese lunar lander, scientists said.

The sprout has emerged from a lattice-like structure inside a canister after the Chang’e 4 lander touched down earlier this month, according to a series of photos released by the Advanced Technology Research Institute at Chongqing University.

Continue reading… “Giant leaf for mankind? China germinates first seed on moon”

China, Elon Musk, Tesla

Tesla CEO Musk breaks ground at Shanghai Gigafactory to launch China push

January 17, 2019

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) broke ground on Monday for its Shanghai Gigafactory where it plans to begin making its Model 3 electric vehicles (EV) by year-end, a first step in localizing production in the world’s largest auto market.

At a ceremony at the site of the plant on the outskirts of Shanghai, Chief Executive Elon Musk joined the city’s mayor and other local government officials to formally begin construction of a factory that Tesla has said will cost around $2 billion.

“We think with the resources here we can build the Shanghai Gigafactory in record time and we’re looking forward to hopefully having some initial production of the Model 3 towards the end of this year and achieving volume production next year,” Musk said at the event.

Continue reading… “Tesla CEO Musk breaks ground at Shanghai Gigafactory to launch China push”

China, Electric Automobile, Green Friendly, Transportation

Giving up gas: China’s Shenzhen switches to electric taxis

January 14, 2019

SHENZHEN, China (AP) — One of China’s major cities has reached an environmental milestone: an almost entirely electric-powered taxi fleet.

The high-tech hub of Shenzhen in southern China announced at the start of this year that 99 percent of the 21,689 taxis operating in the city were electric. Last year, it still had 7,500 gasoline-powered taxis on the roads. A few can still be found, but electric ones far outnumber them.

Continue reading… “Giving up gas: China’s Shenzhen switches to electric taxis”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, China, Machine Learning, Science & Technology News

AI competition is the new space race

January 7, 2019

The technology still has a long way to go despite progress in 2018. The EU, U.S. and China are all determined not to be left behind.

It’s been another year of relentless artificial-intelligence hype and incremental AI achievement. Machines still beat humans only in carefully constructed environments or at narrow tasks. The good news is that, as the technology progresses, the race for leadership is still wide open, and even Europe, where politicians fret that the continent is lagging behind China and the U.S., is still quite competitive.

Continue reading… “AI competition is the new space race”

China, Internet, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Rise of foreign stars in Chinese social media marks the beginning of a new trend

January 5, 2019

China’s internet celebrity economy has expanded exponentially in recent years. According to a report released by iResearch, the number of online celebrities in China with more than 100,000 followers has increased by 57.3 percent since 2016.

With a single embedded ad in a WeChat post worth up to $145,000 USD for influencers with dedicated followings, and a total market estimated at $14 billion USD in 2018 by Beijing-based research agency Analysus, it’s a sizeable, attractive market for internet personalities.

Chinese internet celebrities have capitalized on these huge audiences and lucrative businesses, but foreigners have started to realize they can join in the fun.

Continue reading… “Rise of foreign stars in Chinese social media marks the beginning of a new trend”

China, Farming, Science & Technology News

Some of the biggest livestreamers in China are not teenagers, but farmers

January 5, 2019

When most people think about countryside life, they envision plowing fields, feeding farm animals, and other grueling work. But China is seeing a new type of farm work becoming popular: livestreaming.

Yes, farmers livestreaming their work has become a hit in China – so much so that one of the country’s biggest ecommerce platforms has set up a special program to train them. Alibaba has announced that it’s planning a special poverty alleviation program for Taobao sellers in the countryside, including incubating 1,000 farmer livestreamers.

Continue reading… “Some of the biggest livestreamers in China are not teenagers, but farmers”

China, Inventions, Record Breaker

A Chinese company said it created a photo with such a high resolution that you can zoom from thousands of meters away to see people’s facial expressions

December 24, 2018

You might call this the pinnacle of high-resolution images.

The image, the brainchild of a company called Jingkun Technology, or BigPixel, was taken from atop the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China.
The company said the photo’s resolution is a mind-blowing 195 gigapixels.
The resolution of digital cameras and smartphones is often measured in megapixels, or 1 million pixels — so a 12-megapixel camera, for example, can produce images with 12 million total pixels. But in this case we’re talking about gigapixels, or 1 billion pixels.

Click the link below to try the zoom feature yourself.

Continue reading… “A Chinese company said it created a photo with such a high resolution that you can zoom from thousands of meters away to see people’s facial expressions”