12 tech stories that rocked China this year

China’s tech world marked another eventful year into the history books in 2017. Here are 12 of the biggest tech stories (in no particular order):

1. Wannabe Tesla crashes and burns

Once a billionaire at the helm of a sprawling tech empire, LeEco founder Jia Yueting found himself scrambling to sell assets and raise funds earlier this year. In just six years, Jia burned through more than US$7 billion.

Today, the tech magnate’s two electric car businesses – Faraday Future and LeSee, once positioned as Tesla rivals – are struggling to get financing and laying off staff.

“The philosophy of LeEco is either to be great or to die, but never to be mediocre,” said Jia in an interview with Chinese media after slashing his salary to US$0.15.

LeEco, which started as Le.com in 2004, made its fortune as an early mover in the video streaming market. And then it moved into cheap hardware, such as smart TVs, that were subsidized by paid software subscriptions.

2. ICOs banned

After a spring and summer of wild valuations and rapidly raised capital, the Chinese government put the brakes on “initial coin offerings” or ICOs – a new way to crowdfund projects using cryptocurrency – in September.

The ban forced many Chinese blockchain startups to refund backers of their ICOs. Others moved overseas and registered new entities in countries like Singapore, where token crowdsales aren’t illegal yet.

Not long after China’s ban on ICOs, OkCoin, Huobi, BTC China, and other major cryptocurrency exchanges in the country halted their trading business. However, the global ICO and crypto-trading industry hasn’t slowed down. While China’s cryptocoin trade volume has dropped, exchanges in Japan and elsewhere have picked up the slack.

3. Chinese phones dominate India

That Chinese smartphone makers have been eyeing India’s large and fast-growing group of smartphone users is not new. In 2015, Xiaomi opened its first manufacturing unit in India.

But this year is when their efforts have really paid off. For the first time ever, more than half of smartphone shipments in India came from Chinese companies: Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Lenovo.

4. IPO boom

5. Bikes go global

6. Bike-sharing collapses

7. Data clampdown

8. Apple submits to Beijing

9. WeChat faces off with Apple (and wins)

10. Sharing gets sexy

11. Alibaba plunges billions into offline retail

12. Tech giants shower Southeast Asia with money