Weekly News Roundup: Week of 8/19
China top internet firms pump 45% more into R&D
China’s top 100 Internet companies invested 45% more into R&D in 2018 comparing to in 2017, according to stats released by the Internet Society of China reported on ZDNet. Led by Alibaba, the top internet companies have increased investment mainly in cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. Together the top 100 internet companies have obtained almost 80,000 patents.
The chief engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Zhang Feng said that the top 100 companies would see continued revenue growth this year as online technologies becoming crucial components of China’s digital economy.
Government official urges investment in network security
As 5G technologies and the Internet of Things continue to flourish, the network security infrastructure construction has become more urgent than ever. Zhaoxiong Chen, the vice-minister of Industry and Information Technology, said more efforts should be made to speed up the construction of the network security protection system and improve monitoring and warnings, as well as emergency response capabilities.
According to a recent report from International Data Corp, while the US and Western Europe will comprise two-thirds of the total security spending in 2019, the largest growth in security spending will be in China, where security purchases are by three industries – state/local government, the central government and telecommunications.
Chinese robot market sees rapid growth
The Chinese robot market has reached $4.25 billion in the first half of 2019, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences during the 2019 World Robot Conference held in Beijing. Chinese robot market has been in rapid growth, and its industrial robot market has been the world’s largest application market for seven years straight, according to the Report on Chinese Robotic Industry Development 2019 released at the conference.
Statistics show the Chinese market for service robots in 2019 has grown 33.1% year-on-year, higher than the world’s growth average. By 2021, as robots will be used in more scenarios, including in parking lots and supermarkets, the service-robot market in China will hopefully approach $4 billion.
Top 10 cities with the strongest GDP in H1 2019
Shanghai, registering a GDP of 1.64 trillion yuan (approximately $230 Billion USD) in the first half of this year, delivered the strongest economic performance among Chinese cities, according to a report by 21st Century Business Herald. In addition to Shanghai, five other cities have also witnessed their GDP exceeding 1 trillion yuan (approximately $140 Billions USD): Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Tianjin. Suzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Hangzhou also made to the list with GDP ranging from 695 to 955 billion yuan (from approximately $98 Billion to $135 Billion USD).