Abacus

Abacus is the home of the best coverage of China's tech scene, from insights to gadget reviews.

Magazines

Flips

Star Trek: Picard
Professor X helps boost His Dark Materials in China, but the country is baffled by Picard
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
While Trekkies in the West are rejoicing at the return of Sir Patrick Stewart to the iconic role of Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard, TV fans in …
Tencent
There’s a new Pokémon game being made by China’s Tencent
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
Guess who’s making a Pokémon game? Tencent’s Timi Studio. The studio behind Arena of Valor and Call of Duty Mobile has just signed a contract with …
Online Life
China more excited for Thor and Doctor Strange than Shang-Chi
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
After nearly two dozen films spanning over a decade, Marvel Studios is finally working on a film with an Asian superhero in the lead role. But …
Tencent
How Douyu won the live-streaming war to become China’s Twitch
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
Since raising US$775 million on the Nasdaq, Douyu has the largest IPO of any Chinese company on Wall Street in 2019. With 160 million monthly active …
Emoji
How to properly use three popular emoji on Chinese social media
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
It’s been 20 years since the first emoji were created in Japan, and they’re now used by 92% of the world’s online population. In a way, it’s a …
Online Life
AI-generated fake porn featuring female celebrities is sold in China
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
At first glance, graphic videos circulating online in China show some of the country’s most prominent female stars engaged in sexually explicit acts. …
Online Life
New Total War campaign draws on obscure history and impresses Chinese fans
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
A new campaign for Total War: Three Kingdoms portrays China at its most corrupt and vulnerable… and Chinese gamers are thrilled. The Eight Princes …
Neuralink
Elon Musk’s Neuralink is exciting and terrifying to people in China
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
Two years after the world learned about Elon Musk’s venture into merging computers with human brains, the entrepreneur finally showed off what his …
Online Life
China prepares to send its own astronauts to the moon 50 years after Apollo 11
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
Fifty years ago this week, Neil Armstrong became the first person ever to set foot on the moon. Since then, no country besides the US has …
Online Life
Marvel's Shang-Chi casting rumor reopens debate about the racist Fu Manchu caricature
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
China loves Marvel, and the huge success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in the country has made it an important market for the Disney-owned …
Marvel Comics
Mavel's Shang-Chi casting rumor reopens debate about the racist Fu Manchu caricature
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
China loves Marvel, and the huge success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in the country has made it an important market for the Disney-owned …
Pokémon Go
This Chinese Pokémon knockoff is beautiful because almost everything is copied
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
A new game called Let’s Go Pokémon Mobile has Pokémon fans buzzing with excitement online. There’s only one problem: It has nothing to do with …
Apps
Apple settles App Store dispute after outcry from digital doctor apps
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
Update: Headline and story updated to reflect Apple’s response. There’s a cost to selling things in iOS apps. For more than a decade now, Apple has …
Technology (China)
Huawei’s first TV is a ‘smartphone that’s 100 times bigger’
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
We give hours of attention to our smartphones every day, making it the most important personal device in most people’s lives. Huawei has taken note, …
WeChat
WeChat provides clues for why people 'pay it forward'
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
Every now and then, we come across one of those feel-good stories about people receiving generous gestures from complete strangers and then paying it …
Online Life
China hands out location-tracking smartwatches to school children in southern city
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
For parents looking to keep track of their kids’ whereabouts, there’s no lack of gadgets designed to do the job. Now parents will be able to do it …
Tencent
Tencent finally lets you play Teamfight Tactics on mobile, but only at home
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
If you’ve been waiting to play Teamfight Tactics on mobile, Tencent now lets you do it. But it’s probably not in the way you hoped. The Chinese …
People's Bank of China
Facial recognition payments are a privacy risk, says China central bank official
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
In China, it’s already common to see people paying for stuff using only their face through facial recognition both in smartphone apps and at properly …
Online Life
Why Lion King’s opening in China tops Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
When it comes to cashing in on millennial nostalgia, what works in the West doesn’t always translate in China. But Disney’s latest live action remake …
Online Life
China has a censored search engine just for kids from state news agency Xinhua
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
In a country with censorship as strict as China’s, it can be hard for authorities to ensure every trace of anything deemed inappropriate is expunged …
Assassin's Creed
Calls for an Assassin’s Creed in ancient China inspired by hit TV show
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
In the past ten years, Ubisoft has taken its popular Assassin’s Creed game franchise to many historical settings: Classical Athens, ancient Egypt, …
The Future
Move over humans, this startup is making facial recognition for pets
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
If you’re a dog lover, you probably don’t need convincing that your furry friend is like no other. But just how exactly can you tell two pups apart? …
Nintendo Switch Lite
Chinese gamers are underwhelmed by the Nintendo Switch Lite
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
Console gaming is gaining steam in China, which already has a huge PC gaming population. But judging by social media, they’re not that excited for …
Online Life
Five things that could land you on a social credit blacklist in China
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
China’s social credit concept has garnered a lot of negative attention based on how it seems to want to engineer what the government considers good …
Esports clubs are teaming up with Twitch-like streaming sites to enter China
abacusnews.com - Josh Ye
Gaming is serious business, as any esports team could tell you. That’s why expansion is important, and why the largest esports teams in the world are …
Huawei
Chinese brands thrive in a slowing smartphone market
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
If you happen to have just bought an expensive Android phone, chances are you waited more than two years before upgrading. Around the world, people …
Online Life
China’s social credit system is becoming a reality
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
In China, you can tell that a government project is a big deal when it gets its own theme song and music video. This year, that honor goes to the …
China Telecom
China is racing to ramp up 5G connections in its biggest cities
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
At first glance, it looked like the car was driving itself. A backup driver was sitting behind the wheel, but his hands laid idle as the vehicle …
Online Life
The top 10 things you need to know from China Internet Report 2019
abacusnews.com - Karen Chiu
Our new China Internet Report brings you insights into the most important trends shaping the world’s largest internet population. You can click the …
Fake Reviews
Apple called out for fake reviews on iOS App Store by Chinese state media
abacusnews.com - Xinmei Shen
Looking at the comments on any app on China’s iOS App Store, it’s not hard to spot lengthy reviews that don’t actually have anything to do with the …

Abacus

Abacus is the home of the best coverage of China's tech scene, from insights to gadget reviews.