Category: Fashion

A quick overview of Buffett’s “successor” at the 2024 shareholder meeting

A quick overview of the 2024 Buffett Shareholders Meeting

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At 18:00 on April 28, Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 (601360. SH), auctioned his personally owned 2015 Maybach S600 on Tiktok Live. At present, the manufacturer’s guidance price is 2.888 million yuan, and the final deal on the spot was 9.9 million yuan.

According to the reporter’s understanding, the proceeds from today’s auction and live broadcast room tipping, after deducting corresponding taxes, will be donated to the 93 Wang Xuan Care Foundation. In addition, the auction buyer (the bidder who buys the auction object at the highest bid) will receive an opportunity to have a meal with Zhou Hongyi once a year in the next three years.

On site, Zhou Hongyi first responded to recent traffic controversies, then had second-hand car dealers from various provinces present at the auction introduce themselves to the camera, and finally entered the auction stage. Within a few minutes, the starting price skyrocketed from 600 yuan to a transaction price of 9.9 million yuan. The final buyer of the auction was Chu Zhenliang. According to his personal page of Tiktok, Chu Zhenliang is currently the executive chairman of Beijing Automobile Circulation Industry Association.

When it comes to traffic controversies, many new energy vehicle manufacturers have recently sent cars downstairs to 360 Company for Zhou Hongyi to experience. Zhou Hongyi expressed his gratitude to the colleagues who brought the cars. Some said it was hype, while others said it was riding on traffic. However, “I am not for any particular car dealer, but I hope to make consumers realize that the spring of domestic new energy vehicles and domestic intelligent connected vehicles has truly arrived.”.

Zhou Hongyi’s recent popularity reached its peak on the first day of the Beijing Auto Show on the 25th. He visited several car brand booths, including Nezha Motors, NIO, Ideal, and Jike, to exchange ideas with several car brand founders. At the scene, Zhou Hongyi even climbed directly onto the roof of an off-road vehicle, was photographed and spread online, and was mocked by netizens as the “oldest car model at the auto show.”.

On the 25th, at the end of the auto show, Zhou Hongyi went straight to the Zhongguancun Forum. In an on-site interview, Zhou Hongyi responded to his actions at the auto show and the online discussions it sparked, saying that “top stream” is to promote domestic new energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles, hoping that consumers can see the progress of domestic cars in recent years, including the success of Xiaomi Motors. “So I want to sell my luxury car from a foreign brand, which is actually a symbolic meaning that I want to support the domestic automotive industry, so it can’t be called ‘top tier’. Everyone is curious and interested in this matter.”

(‘Second hand car dealers participating in the auction on site’,)

As for the specific feelings about new energy vehicles at the auto show, Zhou Hongyi said, “My requirements are actually very low because I don’t drive, so it’s difficult for me to experience the pleasure of driving. My requirements for cars are to have a large and comfortable rear seat space, a safe and intelligent car. As for the appearance, in my eyes, all cars look similar.”

Overall, Zhou Hongyi said that after taking a quick look at more than a dozen booths at the auto show, he had several feelings: firstly, the proportion of intelligence in cars will continue to increase in the future. The so-called domestic cars have now obtained the password to make cars, and refrigerators, color TVs, sofas, and other items that used to only appear on luxury cars with millions of yuan in the past have now become standard equipment for domestic cars. The true differentiation or determination of domestic cars to defeat foreign luxury car brands in the future will definitely be intelligence, including both intelligent cabins and autonomous driving.

Secondly, Zhou Hongyi stated that after the digitization of automobiles, the thinking is very similar to that of fast-moving consumer goods or digital products, and the research and development speed is also accelerating. Domestic cars are slowing down with speed, and innovation will continue to increase in the future, which will also be more closely related to the various detailed needs of users.

Recently, Zhou Hongyi has made intensive live broadcasts, focusing on the evolution of new energy vehicles and large model technologies in the industry. At the “Investment in Beijing” conference of the Zhongguancun Forum, Zhou Hongyi spoke that there are two paths for the development of large models. In addition to growing bigger, they can also become more specialized. The big model is not a foam and will lead a new round of industrial revolution.

Up to now, Zhou Hongyi has 11.517 million Weibo fans and 5.744 million Tiktok fans.

On April 19th, 360 Group released its 2023 financial report, which showed that the company’s revenue in 2023 was 9.055 billion yuan, a decrease of 4.89% compared to 2022; Net loss of 492 million yuan, a decrease of 77.65% compared to 2022; The net operating cash flow was 924 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 65.84%; R&D expenses amounted to 3.104 billion yuan, accounting for 34.28% of revenue; The gross profit margin of the main business is 60.35%. At present, the stock price of 360 is 8.35 yuan, with a total market value of 59.664 billion yuan.

According to CCTV News, at the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Tesla CEO Musk arrived in Beijing on the afternoon of April 28th. President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Ren Hongbin met with Musk to exchange ideas on topics such as future cooperation.

In an online video, Musk said, “I’m glad to see progress in electric vehicles in China, and in the future, all cars will be electric.”

When Musk arrived in Beijing, it was the Beijing Auto Show, but Tesla did not participate in this world’s largest auto show.

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Tesla did not respond to First Financial reporters regarding Musk’s specific itinerary for his visit to China. However, based on Musk’s previous statements on social media, it is expected that his visit will promote the implementation of fully automated driving (FSD) software in China, as well as issues such as cross-border transmission licenses for autonomous driving data.

Musk replied to netizens on social media platform X this month about when FSD will be launched in China, saying, “Tesla may soon provide FSD to Chinese users.”

However, in order for FSD to be implemented in China, the first step is to address the compliance issue of cross-border transmission of automotive data. As early as 2021, Tesla said that all data generated by Tesla’s vehicles sold in the Chinese Mainland market will be stored in China and will not be transferred overseas. Only in extremely rare cases where spare parts need to be ordered from overseas, individual data will be transferred after obtaining relevant approval.

At the time of Musk’s visit to China, Tesla’s global sales are experiencing a significant decline, and the company announced this month that it will lay off 10% of its workforce globally to cope with the decline in sales and the intensifying price war for electric vehicles led by Chinese brands. Tesla’s stock price has fallen by nearly one-third since the beginning of this year.

Tesla also faces a series of investigations into the safety of autonomous driving. The US automotive safety regulatory agency announced last Friday that it has begun an investigation into whether Tesla has taken sufficient safety measures after a series of car accidents. Last December, Tesla recalled over 2 million cars in the United States.

Last week, Musk announced at the financial report press conference that Tesla will use its existing electric vehicle platform and production line to launch new and cheaper models, and will provide a new type of “Robotaxi” that uses autonomous driving technology. He posted on X this month stating that Tesla’s Robotaxi will be launched on August 8th.

This Spring Festival, Professor Zhu Jun, Vice Dean of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University and co-founder and chief scientist of Shengshu Technology, was disturbed by the video model Sora launched by OpenAI. He said that the reason for saying “alarmed” is partly due to the outstanding performance demonstrated by Sora, and partly due to concerns about the unopened technology and uncertain future breakthroughs of OpenAI. At that time, many people asked: When will there be a mechanism for generating long videos like Sora?

Recently, at the Zhongguancun Forum, Zhu Jun, on behalf of Tsinghua University and Shengshu Technology, released China’s first long duration, high consistency, and high dynamic video model Vidu. Zhu Jun stated that Vidu’s joint research and development can be regarded as the latest achievement of full stack independent innovation, achieving technological breakthroughs in various dimensions. This includes the ability to simulate the real physical world, have imagination, and understand multi shot languages, no longer just simple camera push-pull, but can generate videos up to 16 seconds with just one click.

Previously, the industry had discussed that there were only two models in the field of video generation: the OpenAI Sora model and other models that were not Sora. Now, this topic has been broken by Vidu. In the view of many industry insiders, the field of video modeling has not yet formed a pioneer monopoly, and latecomers, after being familiar with algorithm principles and accumulating rich engineering experience, are fully likely to catch up with Sora.

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Vidu’s Birth Process

Before Sora, companies such as Runway, Pika, Google, and Meta had already launched related products in the field of cultural and educational videos. The launch of Vidu this time also faces a comparison of related products.

In Zhu Jun’s demonstration, apart from Sora, which is currently unable to be tested online, Vidu was compared with popular online systems such as Pika and RunwayGen-2. The latter two systems generated a maximum of 4 seconds of short videos. In comparison, Vidu can generate 16 seconds of videos. Zhu Jun believes that Vidu’s performance in semantic understanding is more prominent.

Zhu Jun stated that the team has conducted extensive research in areas such as diffusion models and Bayesian deep learning. After Sora came out, the team happened to find that their technical roadmap was highly consistent with Sora, so they firmly pushed for further research. In September 2022, the team launched the first Fusion and Transformer integrated architecture U-ViT, while the Sora team released the DiT architecture three months later.

On this route, Zhu Jun stated that the team has been conducting large-scale training. In March 2023, the team opened up the world’s first fusion based large model, UniDiffuser, which was the first to verify the rules of large-scale training and expansion. Subsequently, Sora’s appearance stimulated the team’s speed, and they urgently initiated the research and reported to the leaders of Haidian District, receiving a lot of support at that time. Two months later, Vidu was able to showcase.

Zhu Jun said on the scene that some people may have asked why a breakthrough could be achieved within two months after the release of Sora? Is it technically simpler than Sora? Did you just make a cheap knockoff product?

“By sorting out the timeline, it can be seen that the key time nodes of Vidu and Sora are staggered.” Zhu Jun said that during the process of doing Vidu, he also encountered many difficulties, such as in terms of computing power. In 2023, due to limited computing power, the team focused on investing in graphic design, while in 3D design, the focus was relatively on the development of larger models with smaller computational costs, with a focus on verifying the behavior of the models after scaling up.

Zhu Jun stated that Sora’s technology roadmap is different from the big language model, mainly focusing on the Diffusion Model, with Transformer being just a part of it. There are many misconceptions that it is a branch of Transformer, but in reality, it is not. Therefore, the team needs to fully understand the different algorithmic principles. In addition, there are many experiences and insights on how to master the patterns of model architecture, including the implementation of large-scale engineering.

“When training the first version of UniDiffuser at that time, the computing power used was nearly 40 times that of training the same model in mid year last year. The team reduced the computing power requirement by 40 times in half a year. In other words, the team could train a model 40 times larger with the same computing power. In addition, the consumption of computing power by long videos and the transmission of network bandwidth in distributed systems all brought new challenges, which required a little bit of tackling. At the same time, the support of computing power and the governance of high-quality data were also needed.” Zhu Jun said that the team’s accumulated experience in images and short videos in the past, combined with various factors, contributed to the final effect.

In January of this year, the team achieved the generation of 4-second videos, which can achieve the effects of Pika and Runway. Breaking through to 8 seconds at the end of March. Although there was only a few seconds of improvement, in Zhu Jun’s view, it was a huge progress and confirmed that the technical route was correct. In April, the team further intensified its efforts. Nowadays, Vidu is showcasing 16 second results to the public, but Zhu Jun believes that in the near future, Vidu will iterate at a faster speed.

In addition, the reason why it is called Vidu is partly due to the abbreviation of Video, which represents video, that is, the big model of video. On the other hand, its pun is We do, which shows the determination to be made to the outside world. “The current progress is still preliminary, and we hope to cooperate with high-quality domestic units to jointly promote technological progress,” said Zhu Jun.

Vidu’s valuation has reached $100 million

The R&D team behind Vidu, Shengshu Technology, was officially established in March 2023, jointly incubated by RealAI, Ant, and Baidu Venture Capital of Ruilai Intelligence. Former Vice President of Ruilai Intelligence, Tang Jiayu, was appointed as CEO. In June 2023, the company completed an angel round of financing of nearly 100 million yuan, led by Ant Group and co invested by BV Baidu Ventures and Zhuoyuan Capital. The post investment valuation reached 100 million US dollars.

Zhou Zhifeng, a partner of Qiming Venture Capital, stated that the current big model has gradually shifted from pure language mode to multimodal exploration. Since its establishment, Shengshu Technology has chosen the multimodal track and is the earliest and most deeply accumulated team in this field in China. A large amount of work has been cited by OpenAI and Stable Diffusion teams.

The core members of the Shengshu Technology entrepreneurship team come from the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University, with Zhu Jun, Vice President of the Institute, serving as the chief scientist; CEO Tang Jiayu studied for a bachelor’s and master’s degree in the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University, and is a member of the THUNLP group (the Natural Language Processing and Social Humanities Computing Laboratory of the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University); CTO Bao Fan is a doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University and a member of Professor Zhu Jun’s research group. He has long been interested in the field of diffusion models and has led the completion of both U-ViT and UniDiffuser tasks.

After completing the financing in 2023, Tang Jiayu stated in a media interview that globally, research on multimodal large models is still in its early stages and the technological maturity is not yet high. This is different from the hot language models, as foreign countries have already taken the lead by an era. Therefore, compared to struggling with language models, Tang Jiayu believes that multimodality is an important opportunity for domestic teams to seize the big model track.

Regarding the pursuit of OpenAI, Tang Jiayu stated that currently, it is relatively easier for China to catch up with Sora compared to last year’s ChasGPT. Sora is equivalent to the GPT-2 stage and has not formed a clear first mover or monopoly advantage. And the underlying architecture generation team is very familiar with it. So once the team accumulates enough engineering experience, it is definitely possible to catch up with Sora.

As for the separation and operation of Shengshu Technology, Tang Jiayu stated that there are two main considerations: firstly, from a business perspective, Ruilai Intelligence’s business direction focuses on secure and controllable artificial intelligence solutions, such as improving the security and reliability of AI technology and applications, serving B-end customers, while Shengshu focuses on multimodal large models and application development, mainly involving C-end products, with different business positioning; The second reason is that there is a huge demand for resource investment in the early stage of large-scale model entrepreneurship, and independent and separated operations are more suitable.

In January 2024, Shengshu Technology launched a short video generation function on its visual creative design platform PixWeaver, supporting 4-second high aesthetic short video content. After the launch of Sora in February, Shengshu Technology established a formal research and development team to accelerate the development progress of the original video direction. In March, it achieved 8-second video generation internally, and in April, it exceeded 16 second generation, achieving breakthroughs in both generation quality and duration.

On the technical roadmap, Vidu adopts a fusion architecture of Diffusion and Transformer that is completely consistent with Sora. Unlike the multi-step processing method of inserting frames to achieve the generation of long videos, Vidu adopts the same route as Sora, which directly generates high-quality videos through a single step. From the bottom layer, based on a single model, it is completely end-to-end generated, which can be achieved in one step, does not involve intermediate frame insertion and other multi-step processing, and the text to video conversion is direct and continuous.

(‘Up: Vidu Down: Sora’,)

Racing AI Long Track

In February of this year, the video model Sora released by OpenAI caused a shock in the market. At the Zhongguancun Forum, Huang Tiejun, Chairman of Beijing Zhiyuan Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, said that in the past two months, everyone has been flooded with Sora, but there are problems with this phenomenon. Dozens of videos have caused everyone to rush forward like chasing stars, which is not a good phenomenon. The successful emergence of any technology is the result of long-term accumulation. Even if artificial intelligence develops so quickly, it is difficult to achieve excellent results without previous accumulation.

Putting aside the hustle and bustle, Sora has become a new catch-up target in the field of video modeling after ChatGPT. Although Sora has shown far superior capabilities compared to its peers, it has not chosen to be open to the public like Pika and Runway. Instead, it has adopted a conservative strategy similar to Google and Meta, first announcing it, slowly conducting internal testing, and waiting for a suitable time before opening it to the public.

Chen Chen, partner of Analysys Research, stated that Sora’s failure to open up to the public is mainly due to several reasons: firstly, considering whether cultural video technology will be abused and the security issues it may cause, OpenAI may need to conduct a series of security tests and optimization adjustments; Secondly, due to business strategy considerations, GPT underwent 4-6 months of internal testing before gradually opening up, which may be due to the need for OpenAI to conduct preliminary evaluations of the actual operating costs of the model. At present, the operating cost of ChatGPT is already very high, and if Sora is added, the cost may increase by an order of magnitude. Therefore, OpenAI needs to develop a corresponding commercialization route before the product is launched.

At present, many domestic enterprises are successively laying out video models. According to Chen Chen’s observation, they are mainly divided into three categories: the first category is traditional big factories, such as ByteDance, which has been laid out in the video field for a long time. Previously, the high-definition Wensheng video model MagicVideo-V2 was released. In addition, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, Baidu, iFLYTEK, etc., in addition to continuing to work on multimodal big models in general technology, they are also developing some big models for industry applications in the vertical field. The second type is manufacturers specializing in visual analysis, such as Hikvision, who have started investing in the development of video models. The third category includes some manufacturers that focus on content development and creative marketing, such as Kunlun Wanwei and Wanxing Technology, which have also developed their own video big models.

Chen Chen told reporters, “From the perspective of the generation effect, Vidu’s understanding of semantics, video duration, quality, consistency and other aspects have reached a leading position in the field of domestic cultural videos. In addition, Vidu is similar to Sora in its technical route, and adopts a single model end-to-end generation method, which is also the reason why video fluency and visual performance look good.”

However, it should be noted that Chen Chen stated that compared to Sora, Vidu still has gaps in terms of duration, richness of visual elements, and detail expression. However, Vidu is a phased product, and the breakthrough in model capabilities is only a matter of time. At least Sora has not yet opened up, possibly due to the need for integration of practical task processing capabilities, as well as issues with resources, business models, and other aspects. From this perspective, compared to big language models, the development of visual models in China started relatively early, with deep accumulation of technology and experience. What is needed is to leverage the advantages of domestic industrial chain collaboration, and be able to apply multimodal capabilities to the rich application scenarios of the B-end and C-end.

Regarding the issue of domestic AI companies hoping to achieve corner overtaking through multimodality, Chen Chen told reporters that the technological breakthrough of video big models will inevitably accelerate the process of AGI. However, the key to AGI still lies in whether it can spontaneously handle infinite tasks and whether it has a cognitive architecture consistent with humans. In addition, there have been different voices regarding Sora recently, and some experts do not believe that Sora is a true path to AGI. However, the current relatively independent technological routes may not necessarily merge in the future, creating truly intelligent and flexible AGI models.

As for who comes first and who comes last, Chen Chen said that at the current speed of model iteration, talking about who surpasses others is actually temporary. The development of AI is not a trade-off, it will definitely be the result of common progress.

On April 27, there were local tornadoes and heavy hail in Guangzhou, with widespread heavy to rainstorm, local heavy rainstorm, and strong lightning. In addition, around 15:00 on the 27th, a tornado appeared near Liangtian Village in Zhongluotan Town, Baiyun District, Guangzhou. The Guangzhou Meteorological Observatory predicts that rainfall in Guangzhou will continue to be frequent in the coming days, with obvious characteristics of strong convection, including local hail and tornadoes, short-term heavy rainfall, lightning and strong winds. It is necessary to defend against heavy rainfall and strong convection weather, as well as secondary disasters caused by them.

First Financial learned from multiple logistics companies that some areas of Guangzhou’s distribution are currently affected, and the overall transportation capacity is still online.

The relevant person in charge of Zhongtong Express Guangzhou told First Financial that the Guangzhou management center has taken a series of practical and effective measures to ensure the continuity and stability of express logistics services. Before the arrival of rainstorm, China Telecom Express Guangzhou Management Center also guided local outlets to set up temporary warehouses in areas not affected by the flood through weather warning to transit express, minimizing the impact of logistics interruption.

On the front line, facing the waterlogged area, employees of Zhongtong Express, wearing rain boots, waded through the waterlogged area safely and delivered the package to customers. In some areas of northern Guangdong with deep waterlogging, Zhongtong has adjusted its transportation routes and even used non-traditional transportation vehicles such as ships to ensure the safe and timely delivery of parcels.

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Shentong Express stated that Shentong Guangdong Province has launched an emergency plan for extreme weather, which enables real-time monitoring of heavy rainfall in various regions through various channels and synchronized warnings. It also conducts investigations and follows up on whether transportation centers and branch companies have been affected by disasters, site operations, and personnel on duty. For those who have not arrived and have not taken leave, personnel safety will be assessed one by one through phone; The transfer center strengthens the promotion of typhoon weather precautions and strengthens employee care through pre shift meetings and other forms. Ren Qiangqiang, the person in charge of the Guangfo Operation Management Office of Shentong Express in Guangdong Province, stated that Shentong Express actively ensures timely delivery of parcels to customers while ensuring employee safety and operational safety.

In terms of material support, the relevant person in charge of Guangzhou Xiaoxiang Supermarket told First Financial that the purchase volume of dishes in Xiaoxiang Supermarket has increased significantly recently, mainly seafood and fruit and vegetable products. Among them, crayfish and crayfish sell the best, doubling in growth, and the daily necessities of vegetables and fruits generally increase significantly. At present, the supply of goods at Guangzhou Xiaoxiang Supermarket is normal and there is sufficient inventory. In terms of delivery timeliness, the goods can be delivered in about 30 minutes. During the rainstorm, there is a delay of about 10 minutes, and orders can be fulfilled normally.

In order to cope with adverse weather conditions, Meituan Elephant Supermarket has increased its overall stock supply, with a focus on increasing the supply of table items such as vegetables and meat, poultry, and eggs to avoid shortages caused by weather conditions.

In terms of delivery, Meituan Elephant Supermarket specially organizes safety training for riders to ensure safe delivery. In addition, measures such as extending delivery time, eliminating negative reviews over time, and increasing order subsidies are taken to ensure that riders can deliver orders with peace of mind. Xiaoxiang Supermarket will timely allocate goods according to weather conditions, increase service station sorting, packaging, and distribution side forces, and fully meet the real-time delivery needs of citizens.

Guangzhou continues to experience heavy rainfall, and many measures have been taken to provide protection for riders. While ensuring safety, efforts have been made to serve the needs of citizens in various aspects such as daily life and materials. At the same time, delivery services will be adjusted in a timely manner based on local requirements and actual regional conditions.

The Ele.me platform currently provides riders with pre prompts, including slowing down, avoiding wading, and avoiding standing water. At the same time, the platform has also optimized routes and protected delivery orders, providing riders with more flexible delivery times, shortened delivery distances, and implemented penalty free measures and abnormal declaration and removal measures in relevant situations.

Before the arrival of bad weather, Ele.me provided riders with waterproof bags, raincoats, and other shelter equipment. At ordinary times, Elemo continued to carry out safety knowledge courses such as typhoon and rainstorm protection. The site also prepared ginger soup, hot tea, cold medicine and medicine boxes for riders to provide logistical support.

From the perspective of transportation capacity, the person in charge of T3 travel in Guangzhou stated that currently, ride hailing services can operate normally. On the one hand, T3 travel in the Guangzhou area has reminded drivers and passengers to pay attention to weather and road conditions information through APP reminders, voice broadcasts, and other means. If the driver encounters an unexpected situation, the platform will provide assistance to the best of its ability. On the other hand, under the premise of ensuring safety, the platform has also adjusted relevant reward policies for drivers who insist on ensuring the travel of citizens to ensure their income.

After the official launch of the 2024 International Consumer Season and the 5th Shanghai “May 5th Shopping Festival” last night, the “2024 Shanghai Double Product Online Shopping Festival and Digital Life Festival” has also kicked off, which will continue from April 28th to May 12th.

During this period, local e-commerce platforms, enterprises, bases, and commercial districts will launch more than 80 content rich consumer promotion activities around the four major sectors of “digital products, digital services, green consumption, and digital commercial districts”, promoting the formation of a higher level of supply and demand dynamic balance in the field of digital consumption.

Digital Consumption Trends

In the process of economic fluctuations and consumer recovery, online consumption has maintained a good growth trend, which has also attracted attention to the activity of Shanghai that focuses on online shopping and digital consumption.

According to statistics from Shanghai, the total retail sales of consumer goods in the first quarter of this year reached 461.435 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.1%. Looking at different business models, the retail sales of non stores above the designated size increased by 9.5%, with online stores above the designated size increasing by 8.3%. According to statistics from key e-commerce enterprises in Shanghai, the city achieved an e-commerce transaction volume of 897.89 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%. According to the monitoring of business big data by the Ministry of Commerce, Shanghai achieved an online retail sales volume of 361.45 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%, accounting for 11% of the national total.

In the process of continuous upgrading of consumption, new online consumer brands that provide new products and services have achieved rapid development through the adoption of new technologies, new marketing, new platforms, and other means. At the launch ceremony of the 2024 Shanghai Double Product Online Shopping Festival and Digital Life Festival on the 28th, the Shanghai Online Shopping Chamber of Commerce selected and released the “Top 50 New Consumer Brands in Shanghai for 2023”, covering popular fields such as cosmetics, skincare, clothing, personal care, pets, home furnishings, mother and baby, food, and beverages. The list highlights the themes of health, aesthetics, pleasing oneself, environmental protection, China-Chic, etc., and also presents the trend characteristics of obvious online sales growth, brand innovation and going to sea. According to data, 88% of brands with annual sales of more than 100 million yuan account for 88%, and 18% of brands with annual sales of more than 1 billion yuan account for 18%; The total number of patents for the listed brands is close to 2000, a year-on-year increase of 41%; Overseas brands account for 34% of the list.

The Big Data Laboratory of the Consumer Market at Fudan University also released a report on the characteristics and trends of digital consumption development in Shanghai on site. The report shows that digital consumption in Shanghai presents four major characteristics: live streaming releases attention economy and the emergence of a massive number of dynamic entities; The digitalization process of physical commercial districts is accelerating, with two-way interaction with social media; The cultural tourism and entertainment industry has successfully attracted traffic to the commercial district, resulting in significant economic benefits; Digitalization supports brand growth, surpassing domestic products on new tracks.

Close linkage between government and enterprises

During the 2024 Shanghai Double Product Online Shopping Festival and Digital Life Festival, Shanghai will focus on industries such as home appliances, new energy vehicles, and rapidly growing beauty and daily chemical products, electronic products, sports apparel, and outdoor products, using digital innovation sales models to expand sales scenarios; Leveraging the advantages of international cooperation in the Silk Road e-commerce industry, we aim to assist in the introduction of high-quality products from overseas, as well as the export of domestic brands and new online consumer brands.

In terms of expanding the experience of digital services, Shanghai plans to launch new consumer formats, models, scenarios, and services around areas such as instant retail, lifestyle services, sports services, cultural and tourism services, and automotive services. Digitization will also drive the integration of business, tourism, and cultural activities, innovating integrated, immersive, interactive, and experiential consumer scenarios. At the same time, a full scenario digital RMB joint marketing promotion will be launched.

In order to promote the transformation of green consumption, Shanghai will focus on the “trade in” of household appliances and other consumer goods during this period, and introduce multiple subsidy and preferential measures from the government, enterprises, and other sources, as well as convenient recycling services such as sending new and taking old; Carry out green consumption activities such as “CD experts”, carbon accounts and low-carbon consumption activities, and green life festivals. In the field of innovative digital business district applications, Shanghai will also launch AR interaction technology, AI digital employees and other smart application innovations in the business district, creating a new consumption experience that integrates data and reality, links online and offline, and promotes consumption of goods and services.

Recently, Shanghai has issued a series of policies to stimulate consumer vitality. Among them, the “Several Measures for Shanghai to Further Promote the Linkage of Business, Tourism, Culture and Sports Exhibitions to Attract and Expand Consumption” clearly states that internationally renowned or domestically first-class large-scale concerts, music festivals, excellent plays, cultural, museum and art exhibitions held in Shanghai will be rewarded according to the different scales of audience flow; For major domestic and international sports events held in Shanghai, rewards will be given based on the different sizes of spectators or participants; For internationally renowned exhibition projects or large-scale exhibition projects held for the first time in Shanghai, rewards will be given based on the exhibition area or daily average attendance; Rewards will be given to international cruise tourism routes, visa free transit tourism products, and online tourism management platforms based on the number of international cruise voyages and inbound tourists.

The action plan for further improving payment facilitation in Shanghai and the special action plan for exchanging old for new consumer goods in Shanghai, which were launched simultaneously, have also formulated 16 and 21 specific measures, respectively. According to public reports, Shanghai will increase the number of registered wild card POS machines to 80000 this year, based on 45000 registered last year.

As a new e-commerce platform born in Shanghai, Pinduoduo will invest a total of 4.5 billion yuan in consumer subsidies for the May 5th Shopping Festival this year. Users in Shanghai can receive various subsidy vouchers by entering the special area. JD’s May Day price increase focuses on a full range of household appliances, partnering with over 500000 stores and numerous brands to invest a total of 1 billion yuan in subsidies in Shanghai. Taotian has established an online “trade in” zone, which provides a maximum subsidy of 10% on top of government subsidies, with a single transaction not exceeding 1000 yuan. Seven mainstream shopping malls, nearly 20 well-known brands and time-honored brands participated in the Nanjing Road pedestrian block. During the activity, nearly 50000 coupons were issued online and offline, and the overall profit margin exceeded 10 million.

Since the implementation of the three child policy in our country, the intensive measures to encourage childbirth have had an increasingly positive impact, creating a fertility friendly atmosphere throughout society. At the same time, in the current process of building a fertility friendly society, it is also necessary for multiple parties in society to form a joint force.

Currently, while local governments are intensively issuing measures to encourage childbirth, many enterprises and individual private universities have also joined the ranks of encouraging childbirth.

According to the news released by Qiqihar Engineering College, on April 10th, Qiqihar Engineering College held a fertility reward conference, at which 50000 yuan was awarded to faculty and staff members who gave birth to a second child. On March 5th, when her son was seven years old, Zhao Tingting gave birth to her second daughter. According to the school’s regulations on a reward of 50000 yuan for families with a second child and 100000 yuan for families with a third child, Cui Xiaodong and Zhao Tingting were the first to receive the school’s reward for having a second child.

Professor Cao Yong’an, the founding president and chairman of the school, stated at the meeting that population is the prerequisite for the reproduction and growth of the nation, and the foundation for the development and growth of the country. The school has implemented a “people-oriented” concept of giving birth to multiple children as a reward system. Teachers and staff who give birth to a second or third child are rewarded with 50000 yuan and 100000 yuan respectively, which is a major event that benefits the rights and interests of teachers and staff.

Qiqihar Engineering College is a private ordinary university. The school has announced that it encourages young faculty and staff to actively give birth, setting a precedent for universities in the city and even in the province to distribute second child birth rewards to faculty and staff. It is hoped that more faculty and staff will receive this reward in the near future.

At the same time, more and more enterprises are joining the ranks of encouraging childbirth.

In March of this year, Miniso released the “Marriage and Childhood Reward Plan”, which showed that it would invest 10 million yuan for the first time to distribute marriage and childbearing rewards to officially employed employees who have been in the company for over a year. The plan shows that employees who complete marriage registration procedures during their employment will enjoy a marriage gift of 10000 yuan per household unit. In terms of employee childbirth gifts, the first to third child childbirth gifts are 10000 yuan, 20000 yuan, and 30000 yuan, respectively. The plan also states that: every

Since 2021, more than ten enterprises have issued measures to encourage employees to have children, including many well-known enterprises such as Mingchuangyoupin, Ctrip, Qunar, Dabeinong, Qiaoyin Shares, Kwai, Qiaolong Emergency, etc. The measures taken by these enterprises mainly focus on providing cash subsidies for childbirth employees and extending maternity leave.

Among them, in 2023, Ctrip Group announced the launch of a maternity subsidy policy for global employees – “Cheng Second Generation”

In the same year, the listed company Qiaoyin Co., Ltd. (002973. SZ) issued a notice on improving employee fertility benefits, which stipulated that after giving birth, Qiaoyin Co., Ltd. employees can enjoy quarterly reimbursement benefits of 4200 yuan, 3150 yuan, and 1500 yuan for milk powder and diaper expenses when their first child is 0-1 years old, 1-2 years old, and 2-3 years old, respectively. After giving birth to a second child, in addition to enjoying reimbursement benefits for one child’s milk powder and diapers, the company will also bear the tuition fees for the second child to attend a public kindergarten; If the second child enrolls in a non-public kindergarten, subsidies will be provided according to the tuition fees of the public kindergarten in the street where the employee’s family resides. After giving birth to three children, in addition to enjoying the benefits of having one or two children mentioned above, the company will also give employees a one-time reward of 100000 yuan.

Professor Jiang Quanbao from the Institute of Population and Development at Xi’an Jiaotong University analyzed that the whole society is actively building a fertility friendly society, and some companies have introduced measures to encourage employees to have children, which is conducive to forming an atmosphere of encouraging childbirth in the whole society. At the same time, in this process, some companies are doing well, while others may face significant operational pressure and lack sufficient resources. Therefore, it is crucial to establish more mechanisms for sharing reproductive costs.

In the context of a general downturn in the national real estate market, Chengdu, which once emerged from “alternative” and “independent” markets, has also begun to converge with the national market since the beginning of this year. Chengdu has decided to cancel the long-standing real estate purchase restriction policy.

On April 28th, the Office of the Leading Group for the Stable and Healthy Development of the Chengdu Real Estate Market issued a notice on further optimizing policies and measures for the stable and healthy development of the real estate market (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”), which stipulates that housing transactions throughout the city will no longer be subject to the review of purchasing qualifications.

The housing purchase restriction policy in Chengdu began in October 2016, during which it underwent multiple adjustments and gradually relaxed. On September 26th last year, Chengdu issued a new policy, which stipulated that except for the “5+2” areas (namely the Tianfu New Area Direct Management Zone in Sichuan, the Southern Park of Chengdu High tech Zone, Jinjiang District, Qingyang District, Jinniu District, Wuhou District, and Chenghua District), housing purchase restrictions will continue to be implemented, and other areas will no longer be eligible for housing purchase. At the same time, purchasing properties of 144 square meters or more in restricted purchase areas will no longer be eligible for purchase.

The implementation of this new policy completely abolished the housing purchase restriction policy.

The policy question and answer issued by Chengdu Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau clearly stated that “the purchase conditions such as registered residence registration and social security will not be reviewed for housing transactions throughout the city, and there will be no restrictions on the number of units purchased.” This means that the purchase restriction policy implemented for more than seven years has been completely lifted.

The policy interpretation released by Sichuan Company of Zhongzhi Research Institute believes that the comprehensive lifting of purchase restrictions is conducive to the active release of effective real estate demand in Chengdu that is “qualified, capable, and willing”. On the one hand, it directly injects new customer groups into the “5+2” region’s new housing market, and on the other hand, it attracts new demand to accelerate the digestion of second-hand housing. By promoting the sales of old to buy new chains, local improvement oriented demand is more actively released, which has a positive effect on stabilizing the scale and prices of Chengdu’s new and second-hand housing markets.

Last year, the transaction volume and price increase of Chengdu’s real estate market ranked among the top in the country. Despite the general downturn of the national real estate market, it emerged as an independent market trend, especially in March and April last year, the transaction volume of Chengdu’s real estate market set a record for many years. However, since the beginning of this year, the increase in the quantity and price of the Chengdu real estate market has slowed down, and the quality of the “little spring” is insufficient. Recently, there has been a wave of price reductions in the second-hand housing market.

In March, a total of 27698 housing units were sold in Chengdu. Among them, 8925 new commercial housing units were sold, an increase of 67.6% compared to the previous period; 18773 second-hand houses were sold, with a month on month increase of 101.4%. However, compared to March last year, the transaction volume of new houses in Chengdu decreased by 6525 units, a decrease of 41.9%; The transaction volume of second-hand houses decreased by 9415 units, a decrease of 33.4%.

In addition, the main statistical indicators of real estate development in Chengdu have also significantly decreased. From January to March, investment in real estate development in Chengdu decreased by 12.9%. The newly started construction area of commercial housing decreased by 29.1%, and the sales area of commercial housing decreased by 30.7%.

Su Yu, Research Director of Sichuan Company of Zhongzhi Research Institute, told First Financial that the market volume in Chengdu has declined in the first quarter, but the transaction volume of commercial housing still ranks first in the country. The overall inventory of newly-built commercial residential buildings in Chengdu remained stable, with a saleable area of 21.97 million square meters as of the end of March. The clearance period (calculated as 6 months) is 17.7 months, an increase of 1.2 months from the same period last year and an extension of 0.5 months from the previous month.

The sales price index of newly-built commercial housing in 70 large and medium-sized cities released by the National Bureau of Statistics in March showed that the price of newly-built housing in Chengdu decreased by 0.1% month on month, but increased by 2.7% year-on-year, and increased by 3.5% year-on-year from January to March. Both year-on-year increases ranked third among the 70 cities. The second-hand housing price index has decreased both month on month and year on year, but still ranks among the top in the country.

Before Chengdu announced the cancellation of purchase restrictions, cities such as Zhengzhou and Nanjing also introduced a “trade in” policy. Not only that, Nanjing has also issued a new policy, allowing individuals who have legal and stable residences (i.e. have obtained legal property rights housing) in urban areas of the city to apply for their own household registration to move into the housing, as well as their spouses and unmarried children

Su Yu stated that whether Chengdu will further introduce the policy of exchanging old for new depends on whether the effectiveness of the new policy can be clearly demonstrated in the second quarter today. After two years of policy adjustments, the chain of exchanging old for new in Chengdu has become smooth and low-cost, and it has already provided a good channel for exchanging old for new.

On the evening of April 26th, Air China (601111. SH) announced that it had signed an agreement with COMAC to purchase 100 C919 aircraft from the latter.

This is the second domestic airline to place a one-time order for 100 domestically produced C919 aircraft.

In September 2023, as the world’s first user of C919 large passenger aircraft, China Eastern Airlines (600115. SH) signed the first batch of 5 C919 aircraft in 2021 and ordered an additional 100 C919 aircraft from COMAC. At that time, it was also the largest single order received by C919.

Nowadays, Air China has also placed the same number of orders with COMAC, which means that domestically produced C919 aircraft will receive more support from domestic airlines.

The C919 aircraft was only put into commercial operation in May 2023, and currently there are a total of 5 flying in the fleet of China Eastern Airlines, mainly operating three commercial routes in China.

It was also around 2023 that orders for C919 aircraft began to explode.

At the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2022, COMAC signed an order for a total of 300 C919 aircraft with seven aircraft leasing companies, including Guoyin Jinzhu, ICBC Jinzhu, Jianxin Jinzhu, Jiaoyin Jinzhu, CMB Jinzhu, Puyin Jinzhu, and Suyin Jinzhu.

In April 2023, Hainan Airlines Group signed an order for 60 C919 aircraft with COMAC. In September 2023, COMAC received a large order of 30 aircraft from Brunei Qiji Airlines, including 5 C919 aircraft.

In 2024, Xizang Airlines, which has the most experience in plateau operations, also signed an order with COMAC for 50 domestic large aircraft plateau aircraft, including 40 C919 plateau aircraft and 10 ARJ-21 plateau aircraft.

At the main forum of the 2023 Pujiang Innovation Forum held in September last year, Chairman He Dongfeng of COMAC revealed that the latest order quantity for C919 has reached 1061 units.

According to the author’s understanding, not all C919 orders with over a thousand aircraft are confirmed orders, but the newly signed C919 orders in the past two years have all been confirmed orders with a deposit paid. Paying the deposit also means that the delivery work of C919 must be effectively fulfilled, and COMAC’s production capacity must start to ramp up.

In 2023, COMAC only delivered 5 C919 aircraft to China Eastern Airlines. In March of this year, another one was delivered, which means that last year’s annual production was 5 aircraft, which is still far from the delivery volume of Airbus and Boeing, which often delivers 100 aircraft.

Regarding this, COMAC officials have revealed to the author that the delivery rhythm of any newly developed aircraft is from small batch delivery to large batch delivery, and the increase in production will also be a slow process. Therefore, the delivery volume of the C919 in the first year will not be too much, and it will increase year by year in the future.

So, how many C919 aircraft will COMAC deliver to domestic airlines this year? How far away is the large-scale commercial use of C919 in the civil aviation market?

According to the author’s understanding, China Eastern Airlines, the first user of C919 aircraft, plans to increase the fleet size of C919 aircraft to 10 this year. The other two airlines, Air China and China Southern Airlines, among the three major airlines, also mentioned at this year’s internal work meeting that they will introduce the first C919 aircraft this year. They are required to do a good job in C919 resource reserves and personnel training to ensure the smooth introduction and safe operation of the aircraft.

Jinpeng Airlines, a subsidiary of Hainan Airlines Group, recently made it clear that it will receive its first C919 passenger plane in the fourth quarter of this year.

This means that COMAC will produce at least 8 C919 aircraft this year, doubling its production from last year.

Regarding the future production capacity planning of the C919 aircraft, Zhang Yujin, Deputy General Manager of COMAC, revealed last year that the plan for the C919 is to have an annual production capacity of 150 aircraft over the next five years.

If calculated based on this, it is not very far from the large-scale commercial use of domestically produced C919 aircraft.

However, some industry insiders have pointed out that the C919 also faces the following pressures in order to deliver in large quantities.

One is from supply chain management. Many systems of the C919 aircraft rely on a global supply chain to ensure safety, including the engine, landing gear, air conditioning, flight control systems, etc. Currently, the global aviation supply chain is still very tight, and it is expected to ease in the next year or two.

The second is the maturity of COMAC’s own production process, including the quality correction of various components and systems in production, and the need for system upgrades and personnel training to increase production capacity.

The third is product maturity. Airplanes may face various problems during operation, especially new ones, which is a common growth concern faced by every new model. Even mature models still need continuous improvement and optimization.

The fourth is the level of market acceptance. Few airlines are willing to bear the potential risks brought by new manufacturers and models, which is also one of the important reasons why it is relatively difficult to open up the market after the development of a new aircraft.

However, as Li Yangmin, General Manager of China Eastern Airlines, said, “A good airplane is made by flying, and it needs to be constantly practiced, revised, and improved during the flight process.” We believe that the C919 aircraft will also continuously improve its performance with the cooperation of the airline and manufacturer, ensuring safety while improving economy. This is also the most important support for the large-scale commercial use of domestic aircraft.

“Super fusion is the mainstream form for quantum computing to become practical in the future,” Wang Zhen, Deputy General Manager of China Telecom Quantum Group, told First Financial in a recent research and exchange event.

Superfusion refers to the fusion of supercomputing and quantum computing. As the main force of China Telecom (601728. SH) in the quantum technology sector, China Telecom Quantum Group is currently actively promoting the industrialization of quantum communication and the practicality of quantum computing, and plans to invest 1.9 billion yuan to acquire 23.08% equity of Guodun Quantum (688027. SH).

Tianfeng Securities believes that considering the construction of quantum communication commercial and computing power centers, China is expected to be led by central state-owned enterprises in the future, through professional integration and forward-looking layout, to create a leading enterprise in quantum information.

Starting from the practice of excessive integration

At present, China has made many explorations in “super fusion”, and the “Tianyan” quantum computing cloud platform of China Telecom Quantum Group is a preliminary practice of super fusion.

It is reported that the “Tianyan” quantum computing cloud platform has achieved the fusion of “Tianyi Cloud” supercomputing capability and 176 qubit superconducting quantum computing capability, making it a super fusion cloud platform with “quantum superiority” capability.

By accessing quantum computing resources through cloud platforms, it is possible to achieve practical application in key scenarios, greatly reducing the threshold for quantum computer usage, accelerating the integration of quantum computing into quantum chemistry research, new drug and material development, energy and meteorological simulation, and other scenarios. It is reported that Guodun Quantum has assisted in the integration of the “Tianyan” quantum computing cloud platform and China Telecom’s “Tianyi Cloud” supercomputing platform.

“In terms of excessive integration, we first focus on capacity building, and secondly, we should conduct research and exploration for industry applications.” Sun Hantao, a quantum computing researcher at China Telecom Quantum Group, told First Financial. “In terms of capacity building, we have formed a joint research and development team with Tianyi Cloud, and have research layouts and corresponding application function development in areas such as excessive and scheduling, and excessive integration strategy centers. In terms of computing power center construction, we have also provided sufficient support for the ‘Tianyan’ quantum computing cloud platform, including the construction of integrated quantum computers and Tianyi Cloud computing power strategy centers. In terms of application, based on our construction capabilities, we have already developed corresponding applications in chemical molecule simulation, meteorological prediction, machine learning, and other areas.” Collaborate with the industry. At present, we can only say that we are in the layout and hope to release significant results by the end of the year

In addition, the Super Fusion Computing Center project in Hefei, known as the “Quantum Capital,” has recently been officially launched. According to the website of Hefei Public Resource Trading Center, Hefei Big Data Asset Operation Co., Ltd. will deploy two superconducting quantum computers and one ion trap quantum computer based on the “Chaohu Mingyue” supercomputer of Hefei Advanced Computing Center. The project is divided into three sections, with the winning bidder being companies such as Guodun Quantum and Guoyi Quantum Technology Co., Ltd.

“After the completion of the project, it will focus on ‘excess fusion computing’ as the core, accelerate the development of downstream ‘excess fusion computing’ application industry, and promote the continuous upgrading of upstream domestic quantum computing supply chain industry.” The relevant person in charge of Hefei Big Data Asset Operation Co., Ltd. introduced that it will explore the application of excess fusion computing in meteorological prediction, biomedicine, materials science, intelligent vehicles, high-end scientific research and other fields, and promote technological breakthroughs and industrial development in related industries. As the “strongest brain” of Hefei, Chaohu Mingyue will also become a heterogeneous computing power unified service platform that integrates supercomputing, artificial intelligence computing, and quantum computing, laying a solid foundation for the development of China’s digital economy.

“Xiaohong” breaks the record for the number of bits in China’s superconducting quantum chips

In recent years, China’s innovation capability in the field of supercomputing has received much attention, and it is also in the world’s top tier in quantum computing hardware level, producing leading achievements such as the “Nine Chapters” and “Zuchongzhi” quantum computers.

Recently, the Institute of Quantum Information and Quantum Technology Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the “Quantum Innovation Institute”) delivered a 504 bit superconducting quantum computing chip “Xiaohong” to Guodun Quantum to verify its self-developed kilobit measurement and control system. This chip has broken the record for the number of superconducting quantum bits in China, and plans to open it to the world through the “Tianyan” quantum computing cloud platform of China Telecom Quantum Group in the future.

Measurement and control systems and quantum computing chips are the core hardware of quantum computers. Among them, the measurement and control system needs to interact with quantum computing chips to achieve precise signal generation, transmission, and processing, which will greatly affect the overall performance of quantum computers. The most direct way to verify the overall performance and various indicators of large-scale measurement and control systems is to customize dedicated chips for comprehensive and systematic testing. To this end, the Quantum Innovation Institute has customized and developed the 504 bit quantum computing chip “Xiaohong”.

Thanks to the excellent R&D and processing capabilities of the Quantum Innovation Institute in superconducting quantum computing chips, this customized chip integrates over 500 bits while meeting key indicators such as quantum bit lifespan, gate fidelity, gate depth, and read fidelity. It is expected to meet the chip performance of international mainstream quantum computing cloud platforms such as IBM, and can fully meet the verification needs of kilobit measurement and control systems.

However, Gong Ming, a researcher at the Quantum Innovation Institute, emphasized that the main purpose of the “Xiaohong” chip is to promote the development of large-scale quantum computing measurement and control systems, and more attention is paid to integrating more bit numbers and achieving various individual indicators to meet the needs of measurement and control system verification. However, the comprehensive performance of the “Xiaohong” chip still lags behind the “Zuchong-2” chip, which has previously set a world record for quantum entanglement numbers, and does not have the ability to achieve “quantum computing superiority”.

Wang Zhehui, the person in charge of Guodun Quantum Computing, introduced that the “Xiaohong” chip will undergo single bit gate, double bit gate, read operation, and measurement and control system performance testing on the Guodun Quantum Thousand Bit Measurement and Control System. The testing work is expected to be completed before August this year. The integration level of the new measurement and control system has increased by more than 10 times compared to the previous generation of products. The core components are designed domestically, which significantly reduces costs while improving control accuracy. In the future, Guodun Quantum will further develop new measurement and control systems suitable for error correcting quantum computers on a scale of tens of thousands of bits.

“Developing this chip is not difficult,” said Peng Chengzhi, a professor at the Quantum Innovation Institute, the chief scientist of China Telecom Quantum Group, and Guodun Quantum. Superconducting quantum computing chips can reuse more mature semiconductor chip processing technology and have special advantages in expanding the number of bits. “The most difficult thing is how to synchronize the quality and quantity of quantum bits, thereby truly improving the performance of chips and regulating large-scale quantum bits more precisely. This is something that mainstream international scientific research teams are working on.” He said that the superconducting quantum computing team of the Quantum Innovation Institute is currently developing 1000+bits, high-quality superconducting quantum computing chips, and striving to achieve fault-tolerant quantum computing. “Quantum computing is a long journey, and we need to overcome many peaks to truly move towards practicality. What we need to take next is the more crucial step.”.

The 2024 Beijing International Automobile Exhibition will be held from April 25th to May 4th, marking the second time in four years that the exhibition has been held. There are 117 global first cars (including 30 global first cars from multinational corporations), 41 concept cars, and 278 new energy vehicle models. During the Media Day on April 25th and 26th, participating companies held a total of 163 press conferences, setting a new historical high.

In addition to various new car displays and releases, the automotive related software industry is also receiving attention. Under the wave of intelligent connected vehicles, the concept of software defined cars has gradually become a consensus. The future will determine the personalized differences in automobiles through dimensions such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing technology, and the automotive operating system that carries out all of these provides the foundation for implementation.

Elektrobit, a supplier of embedded interconnect software products and services for the automotive industry, recently announced the launch of the world’s first open-source operating system solution that complies with automotive functional safety standards, EB corbos Linux for Safety Applications, for functional safety applications. This innovative solution has received active technical evaluation from SEooC (Independent Security Unit) and complies with two safety standards, ISO 26262 ASIL B and IEC 61508 SIL 2. A press conference was held during the Beijing Auto Show. It is reported that this solution can provide up to 15 years of maintenance to ensure the safety of the product throughout its entire lifecycle.

Mike Robertson, chief product officer and managing director of Elektrobit, said that the solution launched this time can help automobile manufacturers and suppliers to use Linux in safety related high-performance computing (HPC) functional areas such as Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle (AV), and users will soon see more and more advanced software defined cars on the road.

According to McKinsey’s data, by 2030, the global market size of automotive generalized operating systems can reach $50 billion, and there is significant growth potential for the automotive operating system market in the future. The automotive operating system, as the underlying infrastructure for managing and controlling intelligent automotive hardware and software resources, provides the operating environment, mechanism, communication mechanism, and security mechanism for automotive software, and is the most fundamental infrastructure for achieving automotive intelligence.

Currently, China’s production of intelligent vehicles and new energy vehicles has ranked among the top in the world, and the expansion of scale has also posed challenges to the domestic intelligent vehicle software industry chain. In the field of open source operating systems for automobiles, in addition to multinational suppliers, domestic related industries are also actively researching and developing. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has released the China Automotive Operating System Open Source Plan in 2023. At this year’s Beijing Auto Show, several local related companies also showcased their products for developing automotive operating systems.

Today, the Shen-17 and Shen-18 crew held a handover ceremony and handed over the keys to the Chinese space station. As of now, the crew of Shenzhou-17 astronauts has completed all scheduled tasks and will soon return to the Dongfeng landing site on the Shenzhou-17 manned spacecraft. The landing site and various test systems are busy preparing to welcome astronauts home. (CCTV News)

Recently, the People’s Bank of China held a meeting on payment and settlement work for 2024. The meeting requires us to do a good job in payment and settlement work for 2024, effectively improve our political stance, establish a sound long-term mechanism, and do a good job in the second half of the article on inspection, audit, and rectification. We must adhere to the principle of “payment for the people”, focus on bottlenecks and difficulties, and continuously improve the convenience of payment services. We must conscientiously implement the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Non Bank Payment Institutions, comprehensively strengthen payment supervision, strengthen regulatory capacity building, firmly hold onto the red line of reserve fund supervision, and build a healthy and orderly payment market. We need to balance risk prevention and control with optimizing services, and steadily promote precise governance of the “fund chain” involved in fraud and gambling. Payment infrastructure should focus on its main responsibilities and businesses, ensure the performance of the central bank, and maintain a safe bottom line. We need to deepen international cooperation and openness in the payment field, and optimize RMB cross-border payment services. (Central Bank)

On the afternoon of April 28th, Jingke Energy (688223. SH) issued a notice on the occurrence of a fire accident in a wholly-owned subsidiary, explaining the impact of the fire accident on the company and the corresponding measures.

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The latest announcement shows that around 3:00 pm on April 26, 2024, a fire broke out on the roof of the first phase slicing battery workshop of Shanxi Jingke Energy No.2 Intelligent Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shanxi Jingke”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jingke Energy, causing a fire accident.

Jingke Energy stated that with the help of local fire emergency departments, the relevant fire situation has been controlled and extinguished. At present, the specific cause of the fire accident is being investigated and verified.

When it comes to the impact on the company, Jingke Energy stated that the accident did not cause any casualties, and the factory buildings, equipment, and inventory at the accident site were damaged to a certain extent. The specific loss situation is being verified and evaluated,

Jingke Energy also stated that the damaged assets of the company have been insured with property insurance and have been reported to the insurance company. The relevant insurance loss assessment and claims work is being carried out in an orderly manner.

The explanatory announcement states that as of the date of this announcement, the production and operation of other subsidiaries of Jingke Energy are normal. The company will fully cooperate with relevant departments to investigate the accident and carefully identify the cause of the accident,

It is reported that Jingke Energy’s “Annual Production of 56GW Vertical Integration Base Project” has a total investment of 56 billion yuan and is a major transformation project introduced and implemented in Shanxi Province. It plans to build an annual production capacity of 56GW single crystal pulling rods, 56GW slicing, 56GW high-efficiency battery cells, and 56GW components.

On March 26th of this year, the first production line of the project was fully connected, and the first phase of the project’s 14GW integrated production capacity was fully ignited and operated. The fourth phase of the project is expected to be completed and put into operation by 2025, with all projects reaching full capacity and capable of providing employment for approximately 30000 people.

Looking towards 2024, Jingke Energy has stated that according to its business plan, the company will maintain a cautious pace of expansion in 2024, prioritize the landing of advantageous production capacity such as Shanxi’s large base, and accelerate the elimination of outdated production capacity.

By the end of 2024, Jingke Energy expects the production capacity of silicon wafers, batteries, and modules to reach 120GW, 110GW, and 130GW respectively, with N-type production capacity exceeding 100GW.

The Chinese rice wine intoxicated Irish sea crayfish, and the Spanish pork was doused with red rot milk. This was the dish served by European Union Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski to entertain guests in Shanghai.

The intention of using such a combination, in Vojchekhovsky’s own words, “demonstrates that food and beverages from Europe and China can be perfectly combined, and it is also a real case of us jointly safeguarding the culinary tradition.”.

Wojchekhovsky is a member of the European Commission responsible for agricultural affairs and made his first visit to China during his tenure from April 21 to 26. For the purpose of this trip, he stated in an interview with First Financial reporters that increasing the EU’s agricultural product exports to China is an important purpose of this trip, and also hopes that agricultural trade between the two sides will not be affected by other factors.

(‘EU Agriculture Commissioner Wojchekhovsky Visits China (Source: European Commission)’,)

EU Accelerates Agricultural Exports to China

According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on April 17th, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated during a regular press conference that “China agrees to lift restrictions on German beef and apple exports to China.”. On April 16th, the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced the lifting of the mad cow disease ban on boneless beef from Germany under 30 months of age, which was issued in 2001.

On January 12th of this year, the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs also announced the lifting of the ban on African swine fever in Belgium. By the end of March, 51 tons of Belgian pork products were successfully cleared from Tianjin Customs, marking the return of Belgian pork products to the Chinese market since the suspension of exports to China for more than five years in September 2018.

In this regard, Vojchekhovsky told First Financial that strengthening the EU China trade relationship is of great significance. China is a very important partner of the EU, and open food trade is very important for both the EU and China. The signals released by both sides in reducing trade barriers are positive.

He further told First Financial that pork exports are very important for EU agriculture, but not all EU countries can now export pork to China. He expressed full understanding of China’s attitude on the African swine fever issue. “The EU currently only has some regions facing this issue, and has very strict policies to prevent the spread of diseases within the EU. We hope that China can trust the EU’s regulatory system and reduce the number of affected regions and countries.”.

Spain and Germany belong to the first tier of pork production in the European Union,

Wojchekhovsky believes that in addition to pork, the EU’s share of beef exports to China is very small, and the EU can also provide high-quality poultry meat for the Chinese market. In addition, there is room for improvement in dairy products, wine, and olive oil from the European Union.

There is still room for improvement in agricultural trade between China and Europe

When it comes to China’s agricultural exports to the European Union, Wojchekhovsky told First Financial, “I myself am a consumer of Chinese cuisine. I have visited Chinese restaurants many times because I can eat food that Europe does not have. We have an open attitude towards Chinese food, understand Chinese food, and understand its value. We hope that European food can also be welcomed and understood in China.”

Regarding the potential for trade between China and Europe, he stated that based on last year’s statistics, EU consumers consume approximately 20 euros (approximately 155 yuan) of Chinese food annually, while Chinese consumers consume 10 euros (approximately 77.5 yuan) of EU food during the same period. Therefore, there is still room for growth in EU trade with China.

He further introduced to the reporter from First Financial that during his visit to China, he brought 73 representatives of large European food companies with a total market value of 350 billion euros. They are all very interested in sales in China and hope to bring benefits to trade between China and Europe.

He also stated that sometimes there may be problems in the bilateral trade relations between China and Europe, which is normal in commercial exchanges. However, he believes that “problems encountered in other areas should not affect food trade, as open food trade is crucial for ensuring global food security and deepening trade relations.” However, Vojchekhovsky did not provide a detailed explanation of “other areas.”.

At the same time, EU agriculture has also encountered its own crisis. In recent months, farmer groups in several European countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Poland have launched a series of protests, demanding that the EU and their governments improve the agricultural market environment and provide more support to agricultural operators.

Although the specific demands of farmers vary from country to country, most of the protests focus on the EU Common Agricultural Policy and the European Green Agreement. The goal of the EU Common Agricultural Policy is to unify agricultural subsidies among EU member states and balance agricultural competition among countries, but many farmers believe that their interests have been harmed.

Wojchhovsky explained to China Business News that the COVID-19 epidemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, natural disasters and cost increases have all caused the current difficult situation of EU farmers. As an EU member, he also held multiple talks with protesting farmers in his own country Poland.

He further stated that the EU plans to modify its common agricultural policy, simplify and relax some standards, and hopes that EU farmers’ protests can be eased and stopped in this regard. It is worth noting that on April 24th during Wojchekhovsky’s visit to China, the European Parliament passed a revised plan for the EU Common Agricultural Policy, but the plan still needs to be approved by each member state of the EU.

Climate change is closely related to some consumer industries.

According to the latest news from the Central Meteorological Observatory, there are still heavy to rainstorm in the border area between Guangdong and Fujian today, and a new round of rainfall will be launched tomorrow, which will be more intense and more extensive.

Energy and power supply are the first to bear the brunt. At around 14:50 on April 27th, the Zhongluotan area in Baiyun District, Guangzhou City was hit by thunderstorms, strong winds, and local tornadoes. Large floating objects caused multiple power supply lines to trip, affecting the power supply to users in Taihe Town and Zhongluotan Town in Baiyun District. In addition, there have been cases of trees falling over electric poles and wires in Guotang Village, Jianggao Town, Baiyun District.

Guangdong Power Grid Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Guangdong Power Grid”) Guangzhou Power Supply Bureau announced in the early morning of April 28th that it is fully organizing efforts to carry out emergency repairs of faulty equipment based on weather conditions. It has now launched a three-level emergency response for wind and flood prevention, dispatched over 300 emergency repair personnel to the scene, dispatched 45 vehicles, equipped with 5 laser clearing devices, 4 sets of large lighting equipment, arranged 15 generator cars to provide temporary power support, and quickly restored power supply to most affected users through power transfer and other methods.

During this heavy rainfall, Guangming Village and Jinpan Village in Zhongluotan Town, Baiyun District, Guangzhou City were significantly affected. The Guangzhou Power Supply Bureau promptly activated the emergency response mechanism and organized 3 tethered lighting drones, 2 large lighting vehicles, and 10 emergency power generation vehicles to cooperate in emergency response and power supply guarantee work at the rescue site.

According to the introduction of Guangzhou Power Supply Bureau, since 14:00 on April 27, due to the influence of strong thunderstorm clouds, Zengcheng District of Guangzhou has experienced heavy rain to rainstorm, with local heavy rainstorm, and hail in Zengjiang Street, Licheng Street, Lihu Street, Zhucun Street and other towns and streets, resulting in power failure or emergency shutdown of some power supply equipment. Guangzhou Zengcheng Power Supply Bureau organized emergency repairs as soon as possible. As of 20:31 on the same day, users affected by the tornado in Zengcheng District, Guangzhou have basically resumed power.

The power supply department of Guangdong Power Grid reminds citizens to always turn off electrical power when going out during thunderstorms. When walking outdoors, do not approach electrical facilities such as poles, meter boxes, transformers, charging stations, street lights, advertising light boxes, etc. to prevent water related electric shock accidents. If the power supply line is found to be disconnected or the power supply equipment is submerged, it should be kept away and the 24-hour power supply repair service hotline should be called in a timely manner.

Under heavy rainfall, Baiyun Airport has recently launched multiple large-scale flight delay responses. At 22:26 last night, there were 51 passenger flights at Baiyun Airport that were delayed for more than an hour and had not yet departed. The blue emergency response for large-scale flight delays was immediately activated. (For specific reports, please refer to

The transportation has also affected some of the outings. According to an interview with a reporter from First Financial, there is currently no clear data showing the recent situation of Guangzhou’s tourism returns and changes, but performance estimates have a certain impact on travel. “From the weather forecast, the rainy weather in Guangzhou almost runs through the ‘May Day’ holiday. On the one hand, the heavy rain may cause flight cancellations and delays, which will inevitably affect both long-term travelers departing from Guangzhou and traveling to Guangzhou. On the other hand, some amusement facilities in tourist attractions and resorts will be temporarily suspended on rainy days. Even if tourists come in the rain, their gaming experience will be affected. However, there are still a few days left until the ‘May Day’ holiday, and we still need to see the situation at that time.” Zhang Zhining, CEO of Reliable Tourism, told First Financial reporters.

The rainstorm weather also affected the business of some catering enterprises. On April 28, insiders of Jiumaojiu Group replied to China Business News that the continuous rainstorm in Guangzhou recently had a certain impact on the company’s store orders. The head of another chain restaurant in Guangfo region told First Financial reporters that its Guangzhou store orders are expected to decrease by 15%. As for whether the upcoming May Day holiday will continue to be affected, it remains to be seen.

According to CCTV News, on April 28th, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan met with the visiting delegation of Kuomintang representatives, Fu Kunchi, in Beijing. Both sides have conducted in-depth exchanges on strengthening cultural and tourism cooperation between the mainland and Taiwan. Rao Quan stated that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has always supported exchanges and cooperation in various fields across the Taiwan Strait, including tourism. Fujian residents will be the first to resume tourism to Mazu, and after the resumption of sea passenger direct flights from Pingtan to Taiwan, Fujian residents will resume team tourism to Taiwan.

According to the same journey travel data, as of 2:00 p.m. on April 28, 2024, Mazu’s travel search popularity has increased by more than seven times over the same period the day before yesterday, and Taiwan, China’s travel search popularity has increased by 47% over the day before yesterday. Guangdong residents are most concerned about information related to traveling to Taiwan, and residents in southeastern coastal provinces and cities such as Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai also search for relevant information more frequently.

On April 28th, the Cross Strait Shipping Exchange Association urged Taiwan to resume direct sea passenger transportation across the Taiwan Strait through existing channels. The cross-strait maritime passenger routes are an important channel for people to travel between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Restoring the full normalization of direct maritime passenger transportation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is conducive to normal exchanges between compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. (CCTV News)

On April 28th local time, the Thai Constitutional Gazette website announced the cabinet reshuffle, which took effect immediately. The main restructuring content includes Thai Prime Minister Seth no longer serving as Minister of Finance, and the current Prime Minister’s advisor Pichai serving as Minister of Finance; Song Sak succeeded Chong Lanan as the Minister of Public Health; The current advisor to the Thai Prime Minister, Pitcher, serves as the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office. (CCTV News)

On April 27th, Keep’s heavyweight cycling event “Good Riding Festival” welcomed the first offline event of its second season in Shanghai. Cycling enthusiasts in Shanghai gathered at the World Expo Celebration Square to enjoy this large-scale event specially designed for cycling. The event site not only features a rich interactive experience and a dynamic cycling event, but also a 100 person cycling team led by the two time Olympic women’s cycling champion Zhong Angel from Tokyo and Rio, to experience the beauty of Shanghai and pass on the joy of cycling.

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New gameplay for popular event IP, Good Riding Festival takes you to stay curious

The 2024 Sports Trend Guide reveals that 2023 is a year of explosive outdoor sports, and cycling has maintained its popularity from the previous year, ranking among the top 3 in the online exposure index. With the popularity of cycling, the demand for content from sports enthusiasts is also growing rapidly: from January to October 2023, the number of notes related to cycling on social media platforms increased by nearly 400%, with over 1.8 million notes and nearly 1.3 billion views on the topic of cycling. In this trend, cycling related activities and competitions are becoming increasingly popular.

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In the golden autumn of 2023, Keep Cycling Festival was launched for the first time. Through an autumn cycling carnival, indoor and outdoor cycling scenes were connected, bringing together family dynamic bicycle users, outdoor cycling users, and daily commuting users, bringing more possibilities for cycling. The event attracted over 6.5 million cycling enthusiasts upon its launch, with nearly 1 million core users cycling for over 7 consecutive days, covering 350 large, medium, and small cities across the country. With such enthusiasm, Keep will once again launch the second season of the Good Riding Festival in 2024, with a variety of activities centered around four major theme stages, bringing cycling enthusiasts a whole year of fun.

The first stop of the Good Riding Festival in 2024 was jointly launched by Keep and Uni President Green Tea, with the vitality of brands such as JD 3C Digital, Yizimei, and Yongjiu Bicycle. The event lasts for one month and is themed around the Spring Riding Treasure Hunt Plan. Users can redeem “Good Riding Vouchers” by completing indoor and outdoor cycling, participating in topic interactions, and completing designated tasks. They can participate in daily lucky draws, and the prizes include nearly 600 Keep bicycles, Uni President Joint Gift Boxes, Keep B4 wristbands, Uni President Green Tea, etc., with a maximum value of 1999 yuan. In addition, this Good Riding Festival also encourages users to discover cycling routes during cycling, setting up four directions: city top routes, city hidden routes, natural wilderness routes, and hardcore challenge routes. Finally, 12 routes were selected, including “Beijing style Night Riding Palace Museum”, “Fatong Avenue Hidden Treasure Route”, and “Riding Along the Yangliu River in Meishan”, providing reference for cycling enthusiasts nationwide.

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In addition to a variety of online activities, the 2024 Good Riding Festival will also incorporate a large-scale offline carnival, with each stage featuring an offline cycling carnival as a Happy Ending, bringing cycling enthusiasts a joyful cycling social experience. The second season of Keep Good Riding Festival, the first offline event in Shanghai, with the theme of “Spring Riding Treasure Hunting Plan”, starts with a smile warm-up exercise led by Keep celebrity coaches, and reaches its climax in the cheers of the 100 person cycling team’s urban parade. The Hundred People Cycling Team is composed of four famous cycling teams in Shanghai: Zhong Angel Cycling Club, PLAYER, MFSH, and W ò Men Ride Club. They tour four popular local cycling routes in Shanghai, delivering the joy of cycling to the streets and alleys of Shanghai in spring, attracting passersby to stop and cheer for photos.

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From I to E, Keep breaks down indoor and outdoor cycling barriers

Keep’s first intelligent dynamic bike C1 was launched in 2019, advocating to help users move professional dynamic bike rooms home. They immediately submitted an excellent answer sheet: on the following year’s Double 11, the single product won a 24% market share in the Tmall dynamic bike category. Subsequently, Keep successively launched C1 Lite, C1 Pro, and C1 Mini that were adapted to different user needs. Throughout 2022, the Mini alone sold 100000 units in Keep’s smart bike lineup, becoming the first smart and dynamic bike product in China to exceed 100000 units in sales.

With the continuous enrichment of the product matrix, Keep has launched live broadcasts, 17 Cycling Days, Real Feeling Cycling Series special topics, and 88 Day Check in cashback activities. This not only drives the intelligent hardware of dynamic bicycles to quickly become the first choice for ordinary family sports from professional equipment in the gym, but also inspires the industry. By deeply cultivating online immersive courses, users can improve their sports experience.

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In 2023, with the rise of outdoor sports, Keep has also launched an intelligent bike Mini self generating version based on user needs and market insights. The wireless plug free design allows you to ride anywhere, without worrying about socket positions or cable lengths. Whether it’s watching TV in the living room, enjoying the breeze on the balcony, taking care of babies in the nursery, or going out for a real and realistic ride, it can be easily satisfied and practiced at any time. The release of the self powered version of the bike, the rich real-life experience brought by realistic riding, and the online and offline rule setting of the Good Riding Festival, Keep rushes out of the living room door and opens up a deep layout for outdoor cycling.

In March of this year, Keep held an 8.0 version launch event and announced that it will invest more resources in outdoor scenes. As the first large-scale cycling event after the launch, the second season of the Good Riding Festival will also integrate various elements such as cycling content, routes, experts, clubs, dynamic bicycles, realistic riding, and lifestyle, breaking space limitations and bringing more interesting interactions and immersive experiences to cycling users, becoming a highly anticipated and popular cycling event.

Cross brand collaboration adds points to a healthy lifestyle

In recent years, people’s pursuit of health has become increasingly strong, from the strong milk cap in milk tea to returning to the fragrance of tea itself, a green and healthy lifestyle has become a new trend. As a leading brand advocating a healthy lifestyle, Keep and Uni President Green Tea’s collaboration not only advocates for a positive sports lifestyle and conveys the brand concept of Uni President Green Tea adding phenols to health, but also calls on the public to smile at life during sports, smile at partners in communication and interaction, smile at the city when shuttling through streets and alleys, and smile at the earth when using cycling instead of private cars for travel. Through the linkage between brands and the interaction between brands and users, the relay of larger, farther, and happier smiles.

Nowadays, as an effective way to enhance brand influence and reach a wider audience, there are numerous cases of brand collaboration. The cooperation between Keep and Uni President Green Tea’s Good Riding Festival not only allows more people to feel the joy of cycling, but also drives cyclists to slow down and experience the different scenery of the four seasons through city shuttles in the current tense and fast-paced life, enjoying the beauty of life, relaxing their body and mind, and obtaining a healthier physical and mental experience. The physical and mental health of the general public is the cornerstone of a healthy society, and it is also an important part of every company’s practice of corporate social responsibility.

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Li Dong’an, a senior researcher at Keep Sports Research Institute, said, “The rapid growth of cycling not only enhances people’s physical fitness and improves the overall health level, but also drives the vigorous development of the cycling economy. From coffee shops on cycling routes to new leisure and vacation options with a focus on cycling behavior, to the localization of international cycling events, as well as employment and investment in related industries, the cycling economy holds broad development prospects. In the future, Keep will continue to explore new growth points of cycling, provide users with high-quality products, courses, competitions, and cooperation, and let cycling – the most familiar sport for Chinese people – show greater charm.”

It is understood that the first stop of Keep 2024 Good Riding Festival in Shanghai is just the beginning. On May 18th, June 22nd, and August 3rd, there will be cycling races, carnivals, and other activities to meet everyone in the three popular cities of Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, and Wuhan. In the upcoming May Day holiday, the second season of the Good Riding Festival – “So You Are Such a Cycling Youth” will take over the “Spring Riding Treasure Hunt Plan” and log in to Keep App. On May 18th, a fun cycling race will be held in Zhengzhou, bringing cycling enthusiasts a richer sports experience and igniting the charm of Zhengzhou with cycling passion.

The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Japan answered questions from reporters regarding Japan’s negative actions related to the Diaoyu Islands.