Tobias

Meituan’s Pinhão delivery platform launches the “Million Kitchen Showcase” to enhance food safety and transparency. The initiative partners with 200,000 merchants, providing consumers real-time kitchen access via images, texts, and live streams. Meituan aims to encourage one million merchants to adopt “open kitchen” setups, offering support and subsidies for live streaming. Pinhão now features storefront, dining area, and kitchen images alongside menus. Nearly 300,000 merchants already uploaded these visuals. Pinhão, with over one million merchants and 35 million daily orders, features more than 5,000 established restaurant brands.

Tickets for Jackson Yee’s Shanghai concert sold out instantly on Damai, a Chinese ticketing platform, triggering frustration among fans. Demand was astronomical, with over 3.3 million users vying for only around 7,000 tickets, a 463:1 ratio. Damai cited high traffic for website slowdowns, attributing successful ticket acquisition to “pure luck.” The event highlights the challenges of managing high demand, combatting scalping, and ensuring positive fan experiences in China’s live entertainment market.

Fuyao University, founded by Fuyao Group’s Cao Dewang, successfully completed its 2025 undergraduate admissions, admitting 50 students with impressive scores, exceeding some established universities in certain provinces. Headed by Professor Wang Shuguo, the university’s high admission scores have sparked debate among netizens questioning the choice of a new institution over prestigious, well-established universities. One admitted student defended his decision, citing the unique educational approach and the reputation of the faculty, despite online criticism and falling short of his initial top choice, Zhejiang University.

Cotton Secret, founded by Xinba and with $465M in sales, faces allegations of health risks. Reports link its sanitary napkins to thyroid cancer in over 30 women, with thiourea, a Group 3 carcinogen, found in samples. Cotton Secret insists its products meet national standards and that internal assessments show no health risks under normal use. Independent testing by regulatory bodies support the company’s claims of adherence to safety standards.

Huawei’s MatePad Pro 12.2-inch, powered by HarmonyOS 5, introduces desktop-grade video editing with a full port of CapCut Pro. This advancement moves beyond feature-stripped mobile versions, offering professionals a powerful, portable editing experience. HarmonyOS enhances workflows with drag-and-drop functionality and AI-powered tools for subtitle generation, intelligent color grading, and AI sticker creation. This signifies a leap in tablet capabilities and a growing ecosystem synergy for HarmonyOS.

China’s “996” work culture (9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week) is gaining traction in the U.S., particularly among Silicon Valley AI startups. Some companies openly advertise or require this demanding 72-hour workweek, with a readiness for “996” becoming a pre-screening factor for candidates. New York-based Rilla, an AI startup, explicitly requires over 70 hours per week. While extended hours are rising globally, American companies show more enthusiasm for this model than European ones, with some arguing even “996” is insufficient.

As extreme heat intensifies, Chinese businesses are integrating employee health and safety management. Companies like Haier and JD.com are providing cooling measures – drinks, medicine, and protective gear – to factory workers, delivery riders, and service personnel. This shift from summer perks to systematic support, driven by rising temperatures and government guidelines aims to protect workers, maintain productivity and mitigate risks of heat-related illnesses, ultimately impacting supply chain resilience and operational efficiency.

SK Hynix reported a record-breaking Q2 2025, driven by high demand for its memory solutions, especially HBM. Revenue surged 35% YoY to ₩22.232 trillion, with operating profit up 68% to ₩9.2129 trillion. This performance was attributed to strong DRAM and NAND flash memory shipments, particularly advanced HBM3E products benefiting from the AI boom. SK Hynix anticipates continued growth in H2 2025, focusing on server modules, high-capacity SSDs, and 321-layer NAND flash technology to solidify its market leadership.

ByteDance launched Seed LiveInterpret 2.0, an end-to-end simultaneous interpretation model excelling in Chinese-English translation. It offers ultra-low latency (2-3 seconds) and accuracy rivaling human interpreters, exceeding 70% in complex scenarios and 80% in single-person speeches. Key features include zero-shot voice cloning and intelligent balancing of translation quality, latency, and speech cadence. Evaluations show it surpasses other systems, marking a significant advancement in AI translation.

A report indicates a 72.2% drop in DeepSeek’s monthly downloads in Q2 2025. However, this decline is attributed to DeepSeek’s integration into third-party platforms and its focus on open-source LLM development for AGI advancement. Users are being diverted through these channels, impacting direct app downloads. While specialized AI tools like “AI+office” and “AI+education” platforms are gaining traction, DeepSeek remains a key AI player, despite facing challenges like delayed updates and user experience concerns.