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China’s Gen Z investors are turning fund managers into social media stars

On a fan community page on Chinese social media platform Weibo, hundreds of users have posted comments and pictures, some covered in little red hearts, to express their admiration for a star they affectionately call Kun Kun. “Kun Kun flies bravely, iKun will always follow him; Kun Kun never gets old, and will remain a blue-chip till the end,” some users wrote alongside the picture. “Kun Kun,” whose full name is Zhang Kun, is neither a pop star nor actor. Instead, he is one of China’s most prominent fund managers who oversees around 120 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) in assets at E Fund Management, an established Chinese asset management firm. Zhang’s followers, who label themselves “iKun,” (“i” is a homophone for the Chinese word love), have also created accounts on Weibo posing as his “global fan clubs.” “Kun Kun, I would like to accompany you for many, many years,” a follower wrote. “Let’s witness both the bull and bear markets, but still return with young hearts.” ...

Oppo announces $143 M fund to woo developers globally, including India

Smartphone maker Oppo on Thursday said it will allocate $143 million in 2020 for supporting developers across the globe to boost its operating ecosystem.

At the OPPO Developer Conference (ODC) in Beijing, the company said: "developer support programme Gravity Plan 2.0, for which OPPO will allocate RMB 1 billion (about $143 million) in 2020, will majorly focus on Asian markets including India."

Oppo Reno 2

The company also announced a $7 billion investment in research and development over the next three years to develop core technologies in hardware, software and system in addition to 5G, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, etc.

"Oppo understands India as their key market and aims to reach out to the large talent pool of innovators, developers and partners," the company said.
The development comes a day after Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei and its sub-brand Honor approached developers in India to boost its own mobile application suite Huawei Mobile Services on the lines of Google Mobile Service.

Oppo has claimed to have made remarkable progress in building a new ecosystem, boasting more than 320 million monthly active users globally on its ColorOS operating system (built on top of Android OS) and accumulating a massive number of users across its applications, services, and content ecosystem.

The company said that more than 120,000 developers have already joined the OPPO's platform till date.

"With the help of ColorOS, which is available in more than 140 countries and regions around the world, the 'Gravity Plan 2.0' will build on last year's plan to provide sustained and all-round support to partners in the four major fields of applications, services, content and going global," said Henry Duan, Vice President, Internet Services, Oppo.

The Chinese smartphone maker also announced $7 billion investment in R&D.

"Oppo plans to invest RMB 50 billion ($7 billion) into R&D spending in the next three years to develop core technologies in hardware, software and system in addition to 5G, AI, AR, big data and other frontier technologies," the statement said.

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