China Roundup: ByteDance’s top backer to sell $500m stake, and more (Updated)

Update (October 21, 8.08 p.m. SGT): Updates news on ByteDance and HT Aero

ByteDance’s top backer to sell US$500 million stake

• The move by Susquehanna International Group, a US-based investment firm and one of ByteDance’s largest investors, reportedly comes amid a state crackdown that has hit ByteDance and other tech giants.
• Susquehanna previously failed at selling the stake at a higher price, which valued TikTok’s parent firm at US$400 billion, sources told Bloomberg.
• Another investor also allegedly sold shares recently at a price that valued Bytedance at between US$360 billion and US$370 billion.

Flying car firm HT Aero raises US$500 million in series A money

• DG Capital, 5Y Capital, and XPeng jointly led the funding round, while Sequoia China, Eastern Bell Capital, GGV Capital, GL Ventures, and Yunfeng Capital also took part.
• HT Aero claims the new round is Asia’s largest single-tranche in the low-flying vehicle sector.
• The company will use the fresh funds for research and development, talent acquisition, and regulatory certification.

China expels Caixin from official list of news outlets

• Caixin can no longer have its stories appear on online platforms like Sina.com, where citizens usually get their news fix from.
• Caixin has previously published critical stories that tackle subjects such as corruption, pollution, and public sentiment against government actions.
• The news outlet has reportedly been an outlier among Chinese media as the publication receives private funding. The latest move by the government may also reduce the support Caixin gets from advertisers.

Alibaba Cloud launches AI-powered meeting assistant

• Tingwu, an AI-powered meeting assistant, transcribes speech to text in real-time with up to 98% accuracy. It can distinguish between the voices of up to 10 different participants.
• The program can also organize its transcript according to topics discussed through keywords, and generate meeting summaries and follow-up lists.
• The AI assistant works with English, Mandarin, and 14 other Chinese dialects.