China's biggest tech stories of 2015

Qualcomm's antitrust suit, Alibaba's fake products, ridesharing regulation, air pollution - these are some of the highlights of 2015 in China, finds Tech in Asia

Qualcomm settles monopoly charges with massive payout

Qualcomm’s massive antitrust suit, a big tech story at the end of 2014, ended in 2015 with the American chipmaker paying out a massive $975 million fine as penance for violating China’s monopoly laws.

 

The case has had far-reaching (though sometimes subtle) effects on China’s smartphone industry, as many of the country’s smaller smartphone makers were reliant on Qualcomm chips and the patent-sharing agreements the company mandated. With those gone, smaller companies like Xiaomi have this year been forced to sink more money into developing their own patents, while larger companies like Huawei – which already owned a lot of its own patents – have been able to push their advantage.
 

Pollution documentary goes viral online, then gets censored

China’s most important viral video of the year centred around what might be China’s most significant health problem: pollution. Under the Dome, an air pollution documentary produced by a well-known state TV news anchor, went very viral in March, sparking discussion. Originally, that was allowed to proceed relatively freely, but after a few days censors began cracking down on online comments about the film, and the video itself was eventually scrubbed from China’s top online video services. But despite the crackdown, smog and pollution remained a hot topic (one that other Chinese tech companies also started promoting).
 

In the end, with over 200 million views before it was taken down, the video was almost certainly the most influential piece of content to hit China’s web in 2015.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.