company:tencent holdings ltd

Chinese chatbots apparently re-educated after political faux pas
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-robots-idUSKBN1AK0G1

A pair of ’chatbots’ in China have been taken offline after appearing to stray off-script. In response to users’ questions, one said its dream was to travel to the United States, while the other said it wasn’t a huge fan of the Chinese Communist Party. The two chatbots, BabyQ and XiaoBing, are designed to use machine learning artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out conversations with humans online. Both had been installed onto Tencent Holdings Ltd’s popular messaging service (...)

#Tencent #QQ #bot #algorithme #censure #web #surveillance

Uber’s China Rival Close to Raising $2 Billion in New Funding - Bloomberg
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-06/uber-china-rival-said-close-to-raising-2-billion-in-new-funding

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/ieofnWTYriz0/v1/-1x-1.jpg

Didi Kuaidi is close to raising about $2 billion in its latest round of funding, as China’s largest ride-hailing service battles Uber Technologies Inc. for dominance in the world’s biggest market, according to people familiar with the matter.
Uber’s largest competitor plans to close the round in the next few weeks with a valuation of about $25 billion, said the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. That would make it the fourth-most valuable startup in the world after Uber, Xiaomi Corp. and Airbnb Inc., according to the research firm CB Insights.

Didi and Uber are competing for preeminence in China as the ride-hailing market surges. Didi, backed by top Internet companies Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., jumped out to lead the market. But Uber is spending heavily to catch up and has said China could eventually become its largest market. Both need capital to pay for recruiting drivers and subsidizing customer fares.

“You have to be large players with significant scale, they’re the ones able to continue to raise capital at the expense of the smaller guys,” said Chi Tsang, an analyst at HSBC Securities Asia Ltd. “The smaller guys are dying.”

#Taxi #China #disruption