Welcome back to TechCrunchs China Roundup! This digest contains the most recent developments in China's tech landscape, and what these mean for people around the globe.
China's anti-competition tech crackdown continues changing the dynamics among its internet giants. This has led to collaboration between Tencent and Alibaba in the payments race. China's tech giants continue to grow fearlessly all over the globe. TikTok was the first Chinese internet company to surpass 1 billion users overseas. Tesla's battery supplier CATL plans to purchase a Canadian lithium company in order to secure critical components.
Race to Lithium
China's battery-making giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (known as CATL) has made big moves to increase its lithium supply, which is crucial for electric car production. According to Millennial Lithium's Wednesday announcement, the firm agreed to buy Vancouver-based Millennial Lithium for CAD$377million, or $297 million.
The deal will secure lithium, the crucial metal for CATL (one of the largest global automotive battery manufacturers), Millennial Lithium's principal exploration activity is in Argentina. This country, along with Chile, Bolivia and Chile, makes up the largest lithium triangle.
CATL has enjoyed the EV boom, its revenues increasing from 5.7 billion yuan ($880m) in 2015 to more than 50 billion yuan by 2020. It formed a partnership with Tesla to supply lithium-ion battery to the American EV manufacturer from 2022 to 2020, which will undoubtedly increase its revenues.
CATL's vast investment empire includes the Millennial investment. It was announced that it had purchased 8.5% of Pilbara Minerals, an Australian lithium miner. It also owns 8% in Neo Lithium, a Canadian lithium company.
TikTok surpasses 1 Billion monthly users
This is a significant milestone for ByteDance and China's tech industry in general. No Chinese social media platform had ever been able rival the reach of Western giants such as Instagram and Facebook up until TikTok.
As TikTok rose in popularity around the globe, there were many hurdles that had to be overcome. These included PR issues around child safety and threats from the Trump administration to ban it due to national security concerns. Although these deterrents have not seemed to slow TikTok's growth in West, India was a significant market for the app after it was banned from the local government. It's no surprise that ByteDance ranks fourth in the United States for lobbying spending, just behind Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon.
Now the question is how TikTok can maximize monetization of its 1 billion monthly users. TikTok's sister app Douyin in China is already a major revenue driver through e-commerce and ads. TikTok has partnered with Shopify to help its business owners showcase products in their mini-stores within the app.
If successful, TikToks will be a boon for China's many small and medium-sized ecommerce exporters. Many Chinese sellers are looking to diversify their sales channels in light of Amazon's crackdown on black-hat tactics. However, they know that no other marketplace will be able to match Amazon's size.
Integration further
China's government has been urging tech giants in China to open up and allow their services to be more interchangeable. Two weeks ago, WeChat allowed external links to be viewed within the messenger. This was after the government encouraged apps to open their doors.
Users noticed over the last few days that some apps associated with Alibaba, such as Ele.me, a food delivery platform, and Youku, have added WeChat Payment as an alternative payment option to Alipay. Alibaba has not yet allowed its competitors to use its payment system to access its flagship marketplace Taobao.
Some collaborations between giants are reluctant. Users can't make purchases from a Taobao link via WeChat. This is contrary to the purpose of sharing content among apps. Internet giants will undoubtedly find new ways for users to stay on their platforms in the new regulatory environment.
