Megvii

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Megvii Technology Limited

logo
legal form Limited
founding 2011
Seat Beijing , China
Number of employees 2000 (2019)
Branch Technology company
Website megvii.com

Megvii Technology Limited is a Chinese technology company specializing in image recognition or machine vision and deep learning .

The Beijing- based company develops AI or AI technology , i. H. Authentication software for private customers and authorities.

Its Face ++ product , which is part of the state CCTV program called Skynet , is used in public places in 260 Chinese cities, among other things for surveillance and crime prevention by the Chinese police .

In May 2019 had Megvii Technology Limited an enterprise value of four billion US dollars .

Company history

The company was created in 2011 from a cooperation between three graduates from Tsinghua University . They decided on the name Megvii , which should stand for "Mega Vision".

The core product of the company, Facebook ++, which reportedly next to the sex , the age identified, a motion profile create and features may as detect liver spots, shape of the ears and the eyes color, was in 2012 as the first online facial recognition introduced in China.

The software is used by the Chinese payment provider and smartphone manufacturer Lenovo , among others , to digitally identify customers.

Megvii claims to have processed more than 400 million identity checks for payments, banking and other customers using facial recognition by May 2019.

In 2015 Megvii created Brain ++, a deep learning engine that is used to further develop the algorithms .

Megvii raised $ 100 million in 2016 and a total of $ 460 million in investment capital in 2017 .

In 2017 and 2018, Megvii beat Google , Facebook and Microsoft in image recognition tests at the International Conference on Computer Vision .

In 2019, in the wake of the trade conflict between the United States and the People's Republic of China , the US administration led by Donald Trump considered putting Megvii on a blacklist of banned Chinese products.

In August of that year, the company announced its IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Two months earlier, the company received an additional $ 750 million through its shareholder Alibaba .

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Chen Qingqing: Beijing-based tech start-up has a big edge on facial recognition . In: Global Times , August 12, 2017. 
  2. a b Yiting Sun: Meet the Company That's Using Face Recognition to Reshape China's tech scene . In: MIT Technology Review , August 11, 2017. 
  3. Sarah Dai: AI unicorn Megvii not behind app used for surveillance in Xinjiang, says human rights group . In: South China Morning Post , June 5, 2019. 
  4. ^ A b Sarah Dai: Rising Chinese AI star Megvii gets caught in the US-China tech war . In: South China Morning Post , May 29, 2019. 
  5. In China, Facial Recognition Tech Is Watching You. Retrieved September 5, 2019 .
  6. Zak Doffman: Hong Kong Exposes Both Sides Of China's Relentless Facial Recognition Machine. Retrieved September 5, 2019 .
  7. In China, Facial Recognition Tech Is Watching You. Retrieved September 5, 2019 .
  8. a b Ever better and cheaper, face-recognition technology is spreading . In: The Economist , September 9, 2017. 
  9. Felix Lee: Social Scoring in China: In the realm of monitored steps . In: The daily newspaper: taz . February 10, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed September 5, 2019]).
  10. Biometrics: Big Brother made in China - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Video . In: Spiegel Online . February 9, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 5, 2019]).
  11. Fan Feifel: Megvii gives a digital meaning to face reading . In: China Daily , January 12, 2017. 
  12. a b c https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-24/trump-s-latest-china-target-includes-a-rising-star-in-ai
  13. ^ Harrison Jacob: Inside the creepy and impressive startup funded by the Chinese government that is developing AI that can recognize anyone, anywhere . In: Business Insider , July 8, 2018. 
  14. Yuan Yang: China pours millions into facial recognition start-up Face ++ . In: Financial Times , November 1, 2017. 
  15. a b Mark Bergen: Trump's Latest China Target Includes a Rising Star in AI . In: Bloomberg , May 24, 2019. 
  16. Chinese AI start-up Megvii files for Hong Kong IPO of at least $ 500 ... In: Reuters . August 26, 2019 ( reuters.com [accessed September 5, 2019]).
  17. Rita Liao: Alibaba-backed facial recognition startup Megvii raises $ 750 million . In: TechCrunch , May 8, 2019.