Headlines From China: Spring Festival Holiday First Day Pre-Sale Reaches $15.56 Million

First Day of Spring Festival Holiday Pre-Sale Has Reached $15.56 Million

As of 12pm on Jan 30, nine blockbusters have achieved pre-sale of 100 million yuan ($15.56 million) for the first day of Chinese Spring Festival holiday, according to ticketing platform Maoyan. Among these films, “Detective Chinatown 3”, which was originally scheduled to release last Spring Festival but postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic, was far ahead of the runner-up film and raked in 74.695 million yuan already. The runner-up comedy film “Hi, Mom” has accumulated 12.997 million in pre-sale, while the action film “A Writer’s Odyssey,” which came in third on the pre-sale chart, has raked in 4.54 million yuan. Read more CGTN

And The Winner Is? WeChat, Of Course!

Xiaomi has decided to cut its losses and shut down its messaging app MiTalk. According to MiTalk, the app’s servers will close permanently on February 19. Ironically, on the same day Xiaomi announced the shutdown, Tencent disclosed “an ambitious vision for WeChat,” according to Pandaily. Competition is stiff in each of China’s market sectors. And yet, in the last decade WeChat has managed to achieve market dominance, continuing to expand its services and revenue — all the while competitors were accused of violating antitrust laws and building monopolies. Read more Jing Daily