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With gold surpassing USD 5,000 per troy ounce, Chinese consumers are turning fandom into investment, buying character-themed gold jewelry such as Hell…

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With gold surpassing USD 5,000 per troy ounce, Chinese consumers are turning fandom into investment, buying character-themed gold jewelry such as Hello Kitty and Chiikawa pieces as both collectibles and stores of value. Gold ownership among those aged 18–24 reached 62% in 2025, while the central bank extended its gold purchases to a 15th consecutive month.

DBS Group has entered a three-year partnership with Granite Asia to offer investment products to its wealth clients and financing support to Asian growth companies. The tie-up begins with the close of a USD 110 million <a href="/industry/ai">AI</a>-focused IPO fund, managed by Granite Asia and distributed exclusively to DBS clients.

<a href="/company/bytedance">ByteDance</a> is recruiting nearly 100 US-based staff for its Seed unit, with roles spanning LLMs, image and video generation, and drug discovery research. The hiring push follows its TikTok divestment deal and comes as Hollywood studios challenge its new Seedance model over alleged copyright violations.

Restaurant online operations provider Zaihui has filed for a dual listing in Hong Kong and Singapore after reporting RMB 494.9 million in 2024 revenue, up from RMB 378.5 million in 2023, while net loss narrowed to RMB 235.3 million. It said proceeds will fund <a href="/industry/ai">AI</a> development, cooking robots, overseas expansion, and working capital.

<a href="/company/tencent">Tencent's</a> Yuanbao surpassed 50 million DAUs and reached 114 million MAUs, the company reported on February 18. The disclosure came a day after Tencent reported that Yuanbao's RMB 1 billion "red packet" campaign logged more than 3.6 billion cumulative draws.

Lufax acknowledged breaching Hong Kong listing rules and restated its 2022 and 2023 reports, disclosing 59 previously unreported wealth product subscriptions totaling over RMB 45 billion. Four transactions worth RMB 2.1 billion required shareholder approval. The moves follow auditor warnings over possible related-party transactions.

<a href="/company/bytedance">ByteDance</a> is in advanced talks to sell Moonton, creator of <em>Mobile Legends: Bang Bang</em>, to Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group for USD 6–7 billion. The companies have reached broad agreement on terms and could seal a deal this quarter. ByteDance bought the studio in 2021 at a roughly USD 4 billion valuation.

More than 130 million people tried using Qwen’s AI for shopping for the first time during the Lunar New Year holiday, according to data released by the app’s operator on February 17. Ticket orders rose 22-fold in two days, transport bookings climbed more than sevenfold, and movie ticket purchases jumped 372-fold, with nearly half of orders coming from county-level areas.

Robot orders jumped 150% in the first two hours of China’s televised Lunar New Year gala, with <a href="/company/jd">JD.com</a> searches rising more than 300%. Unitree, which showcased humanoid robots performing complex routines, is targeting 10,000–20,000 shipments in 2026. Galbot’s RMB 700,000 model reportedly secured hundreds of orders within 24 hours.

<a href="/company/byd">BYD</a> and <a href="/company/geely">Geely</a> have reportedly made the final shortlist to acquire a vehicle factory in Guanajuato, Mexico. The plant produces the Mercedes-Benz GLB and Nissan Sentra, and has established production capacity and supply chains, offering access to North and South American markets.

<a href="/company/bytedance">ByteDance</a> has launched Doubao 2.0, upgrading China’s most widely used AI chatbot with complex reasoning and multi-step task execution capabilities. The company said the Pro version matches <a href="/company/openai">OpenAI’s</a> GPT 5.2 and Google’s Gemini 3 Pro while cutting usage costs by roughly an order of magnitude.

A Pop Mart storefront in Bangkok, Thailand.

Pop Mart, a Chinese company, designs and sells toys, figurines, and collectibles, primarily in a blind box format.

The founder reflects on a “dreamlike” 2025 for Pop Mart.

Pop Mart’s Wang Ning urges restraint amid global Labubu surge

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Margin pressure in the smartphone market is one factor behind the move, but not the only one.

Smartphone makers Vivo, Oppo among new contenders targeting DJI’s Pocket 3

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Doubao and Seedance featured across key parts of the broadcast.

Fandom gold lifts China demand

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Pop Mart’s Wang Ning urges restraint amid global Labubu surge

Smartphone makers Vivo, Oppo among new contenders targeting DJI’s Pocket 3

ByteDance turns Lunar New Year gala into an AI bonanza