Tuesday Tech Briefing: New WeChat Feature Resembles Instagram’s ‘Stories’

1.Qunar Staff Pursue Arbitration Over 36-Hour Dismissals

Online travel agency Qunar.com Inc. has sacked more than 100 employees, and several are pursuing arbitration against their dismissals.

A former Qunar employee said the company had informed him on Dec. 11 that his contract would be terminated in 36 hours. Chinese labor regulations require firms to inform employees in writing 30 days before terminating a contract.

The end of the year is a peak period for layoffs in China, as elsewhere. But this year could be tougher than most. Early this month, Beijing announced it would hand out cash to employers who lay off fewer workers, signaling the growing unemployment fears amid slowing domestic growth and an ongoing trade war with the U.S. (Caixin)

2.Tech Mogul Shares Hookup Tip After Richard Liu Cleared of Rape

Li Guoqing, co-founder of popular online bookstore Dangdang, has been criticized for calling fellow tech mogul Richard Liu’s alleged rape of a woman in the U.S. an “affair.”

Earlier this week, prosecutors in Minnesota said they will not file sexual assault charges against Liu, the CEO of JD.com, four months after a college student there accused him of rape. Liu then published a letter of apology on Weibo.

Li commented that Liu’s case may be “off-color,” but that it was an “affair,” not sexual harassment, and as such, it would have only a minor negative effect on society and Liu’s wife.

Dangdang wasn’t happy about Li’s comments. On Sunday the company clarified that Li is no longer a decision-maker at the firm, and that his opinions do not represent Dangdang. Li later apologized on Weibo, saying his comments “caused trouble for everyone, especially women.” (Caixin)

3.WeChat’s Major Updates Include Short Videos

WeChat, China’s biggest social network, released a major update Friday that includes a feature similar to the Instagram Stories function.

The feature, called “Time Capsule,” allows users to post videos that disappear a day later.

Another new feature, “Top Stories,” will recommend content shared by a user’s friends based on the user’s personal interests — a feature similar to one on ByteDance’s news app, Jinritoutiao.

WeChat 7.0 comes four years after the release of the Tencent-owned app’s previous major upgrade, version 6.0. (Caixin)

4.Tesla Cuts Model 3 Prices in China

U.S.-based Tesla has cut the prices in China of certain Model 3 cars by up to 7.6%, Reuters reported. The starting price for a Model 3 in China now is 499,000 yuan ($72,300).

This is the third time in the last two months that Tesla has reduced its prices in China. In November, the company cut the prices of its Model X and Model S cars by 12% to 26% respectively.

China said in December it would suspend additional tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles for three months as of January, lowering the cost of selling U.S.-produced Tesla cars in China. (Reuters)

5.Luckin Coffee Opens 2,000th Store

Luckin Coffee, the new Chinese brand that hopes to challenge Starbucks, has reached its goal of opening 2,000 stores in 2018 with the opening of its latest store in Shanghai, Luckin announced Tuesday.

Starbucks has opened about 3,600 stores in China over the past 20 years. Luckin, which officially launched in January, offers app-only ordering and products at lower prices than Starbucks.

The Chinese company so far has sold 85 million cups of coffee to 12 million Luckin app users. (Caixin, link in Chinese)

6.Chinese Girl Group Uses AI to Build Digital Copies of Themselves

Chinese girl-idol group SNH48 has released what it claims is the world’s first commercially released music video co-starring human singers and their artificial intelligence-created 3D avatars, the South China Morning Post reported.

Tencent-backed artificial intelligence startup ObEN used computer vision, natural language processing, and speech technology to create the avatars.

“Human idols are hardly perfect. They have their limits in terms of age, and there may be gossip about their love affairs. None of these will be an issue for virtual idols,” SNH48’s vice-president said. (SCMP)

Compiled by Shen Xinyue