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Abstract

The case discusses the challenges Chinese Artificial Intelligence (AI) giant SenseTime Group Inc (SenseTime) faced in the Chinese AI surveillance market which was dominated by established players such as Hikvision and Dahua. Though the company had garnered some success in the AI surveillance market with its facial recognition technology in the initial years, it later started facing competition in the market. To add to its woes, the company was added by the US to the 'Entity list' for having a surveillance on Uyghurs, an ethnic minority group from Xinjiang province. This restricted exports from the US to the company. The company's problems were compounded by the fact that in December 2021, the US banned American investors from investing in the firm. According to British daily newspaper the Guardian, while the US investment ban did have some impact on the company, it was short-lived since SenseTime managed to secure USD512 million in non-US funding in 2021. Amidst these challenges, the company's Generative AI segment contributed 60% of SenseTime's total revenues for the half year ended June 2024. The growth was attributed to SenseTime's Large Language Models. Going forward, what strategy should SenseTime adopt for growing in the intensely competitive and saturated AI-based surveillance technology market in China? Should it look beyond China as the global AI video surveillance camera market was growing? The Chinese Generative AI segment was intensely competitive with several established players such as Alibaba, Baidu, and ByteDance dominating the market. Should SenseTime focus on this market? These were the questions Xu was grappling with while mulling over the FY23 financial results.

Time period

The events covered by this case took place in 2024.

Geographical setting

Region:
Asia

Featured company

SenseTime Group Inc
Employees:
1001-5000
Type:
Public company
Industry:
Technology & communications
Other keywords:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Hikvision; Megvii; CloudWalk; Yitu; Dahua Technology; Alibaba; Baidu; JD.com; Nvidia Corporation

Featured protagonists

  • Xu Li (male), CEO and Co-founder
  • Tang Xiao'ou (male), Co-founder

About

Abstract

The case discusses the challenges Chinese Artificial Intelligence (AI) giant SenseTime Group Inc (SenseTime) faced in the Chinese AI surveillance market which was dominated by established players such as Hikvision and Dahua. Though the company had garnered some success in the AI surveillance market with its facial recognition technology in the initial years, it later started facing competition in the market. To add to its woes, the company was added by the US to the 'Entity list' for having a surveillance on Uyghurs, an ethnic minority group from Xinjiang province. This restricted exports from the US to the company. The company's problems were compounded by the fact that in December 2021, the US banned American investors from investing in the firm. According to British daily newspaper the Guardian, while the US investment ban did have some impact on the company, it was short-lived since SenseTime managed to secure USD512 million in non-US funding in 2021. Amidst these challenges, the company's Generative AI segment contributed 60% of SenseTime's total revenues for the half year ended June 2024. The growth was attributed to SenseTime's Large Language Models. Going forward, what strategy should SenseTime adopt for growing in the intensely competitive and saturated AI-based surveillance technology market in China? Should it look beyond China as the global AI video surveillance camera market was growing? The Chinese Generative AI segment was intensely competitive with several established players such as Alibaba, Baidu, and ByteDance dominating the market. Should SenseTime focus on this market? These were the questions Xu was grappling with while mulling over the FY23 financial results.

Settings

Time period

The events covered by this case took place in 2024.

Geographical setting

Region:
Asia

Featured company

SenseTime Group Inc
Employees:
1001-5000
Type:
Public company
Industry:
Technology & communications
Other keywords:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Hikvision; Megvii; CloudWalk; Yitu; Dahua Technology; Alibaba; Baidu; JD.com; Nvidia Corporation

Featured protagonists

  • Xu Li (male), CEO and Co-founder
  • Tang Xiao'ou (male), Co-founder

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