Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu compete with the electric car
Nio, Xpeng and WM Motor can count on the financial and technological support of Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu, which also battle on the road
The world of electric cars goes beyond the production of battery cars . The game, at least in China (but not only), is not played only between a handful of promising start-ups and car manufacturers but also between big tech and software that these start-ups support and finance.
And so, behind Nio, Xpeng and WM Motor, Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu are fighting equally intensely. All the details.
EV: THE COMPETITION IS TECHNOLOGICAL
Let's start with the trend. The most promising electric car start-ups, despite not being really profitable yet, have raised billions of dollars from online tech giants as they leverage their skills and programs to improve and connect vehicles.
“At the end of the game, it's a competition of technological strength that is played out in the electric vehicle sector,” said Cao Hua, partner of the private equity firm Unity Asset Management. "It's important for start-ups to have powerful supporters who can offer both financial and technological support."
TENCENT SUPPORTS NIO
The social media giant, Tencent, is one of the first supporters of Nio, an electric car start-up in China: even before Nio's initial public offering, which took place in 2018, the tech giant had invested 510 million dollars in the company . And this investment was followed by others: in June 2019, before Nio's finances were put to the test, says the newspaper South China Morning , Tencent had invested another 10 million dollars in the start-up, coming to own a stake. of 16.3% in Nio (it is the second largest shareholder behind the founder and CEO William Li).
In addition to helping Nio's finances, Tencent is also focusing its efforts on developing an advanced driver assistance system, actively contributing to vehicle development.
ALIBABA AND THE PARTICIPATION IN XPENG
Alibaba, the e-commerce giant, owns the second largest stake in Xpeng, a company it came into contact with in 2014 when it acquired UCWeb, the Chinese mobile Internet service and software provider co-founded by He Xiaopeng (manager who since 2017 is president of Xpeng).
Alibaba owns 13.3% of Xpeng, which debuted on the stock exchange in August, and through the development of YunOS aims to create a developed autonomous driving system.
BAIDU SHARE OF WM MOTOR
Baidu, on the other hand, is one of the largest shareholders of WM Motor, which has yet to go public. In September, Baidu was part of a group of investors that injected 10 billion yuan into the electric car start-up.
The big tech and the car manufacturer, writes South China Mornin, collaborate on the Apollo project, an open platform for the development of an autonomous driving system, born on the initiative of the Chinese search engine in 2017.
MCKINSEY: CHINESE BIG TECH WILL DOMINATE CAR CONNECTIVITY
According to a 2019 study by McKinsey & Co, these initiatives pave the way for the rise of Chinese big techs: Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu will dominate in-car connectivity operating systems in the near future and develop the industry standard.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/emobility/tencent-alibaba-e-baidu-si-sfidano-con-lauto-elettrica/ on Sat, 09 Jan 2021 08:04:55 +0000.