SenseTime, the Chinese AI giant blacklisted by Trump, sees demand surge during coronavirus
- The Hong Kong-based start-up’s 2020 sales are projected to reach US$1.3 billion, up 80 per cent from a year ago
- The company is close to completing a US$1.5 billion funding round that values it at about US$8.5 billion
The Hong Kong-based start-up’s revenue surged 147 per cent to 5 billion yuan (US$720 million) in 2019 and its customer base increased by about 500 to 1,200 clients, according to co-founder Xu Bing. Sales are on track to climb 80 per cent this year to about 9 billion yuan and gross profit could double, according to people familiar with the matter.
“We see business demand for ways to mitigate the virus outbreak on the rise,” Xu said in a phone interview. He and SenseTime declined to comment on revenue projections in an emailed statement.
That momentum has SenseTime contemplating an initial public offering.
The company is close to completing a US$1.5 billion funding round that values it at about US$8.5 billion pre-money, paving the way for a stock sale, people familiar have said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been extremely controversial ever since infections emerged in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, eight months ago. Countries such as the US blame Chinese authorities for censoring information about the outbreak that could have helped slow the spread. Now China’s economy is recovering quickly from the crisis, while the US and many others struggle to get back on track.
Chinese authorities have succeeded by using laws and technologies that governments like the US have resisted. When a cluster of Covid-19 patients flared up in northeastern China, the government installed sensors to guard the city’s subway entrances. The cameras provided by SenseTime detect whether the passengers are wearing masks, their temperature and even their identities with their faces covered.
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China’s facial recognition technology identifies people wearing masks amid the Covid-19 epidemic
In the case of facial recognition, concerns about privacy are taking a back seat, while the country militantly traces and tracks outbreaks. Hardline measures adopted by Beijing allow provincial governments, companies and residential complexes to deploy facial recognition devices with little resistance.
The temptation to use such technology more broadly against the coronavirus has fuelled privacy concerns. In April, more than 130 human rights groups published a letter cautioning against an expansion of surveillance powers. “States cannot simply disregard rights such as privacy and freedom of expression in the name of tackling a public health crisis,” it said in the letter.
China AI champions like SenseTime are scrambling to survive Trump’s blacklist
Passengers can opt to register with the cities’ subway apps to pay their transport fee using face scans. That can allow them to be identified even with their masks on. The company declined to disclose how many people have selected the program, because the data sits with the respective city governments.
The technology is possible in part because SenseTime zooms in on data points on a person’s face not covered by a mask to enable identification, said Xu. And it is not the only one working on such technology. Wuhan University, for example, said it has developed competing software with 90 per cent accuracy, according to a local media report.
“It’s data gravity that nobody can stop. China is pushing facial recognition across the nation during this pandemic,” said Isaac Mao, an angel tech investor. “In the US, there are roadblocks including civil society, privacy regulations and governance structure to push back on facial recognition and companies profiting from it are facing a backlash, but in China this is what’s missing.”
