Megvii
Company type | Privately held |
---|---|
Industry | Technology |
Genre | Artificial intelligence |
Founded | 2011 in Beijing, China |
Total equity | USD $4 billion (2019) |
Number of employees | 2,349 (2019) |
Website | megvii |
Megvii (Chinese: 旷视; pinyin: Kuàngshì) is a Chinese technology company[1] that designs image recognition and deep-learning software.[2] Based in Beijing, the company develops artificial intelligence (AI) technology for businesses and for the public sector.[3] In 2019, the company was valued at USD $4 billion.[4] Megvii is the largest provider of third-party authentication software in the world,[4] and its product, Face++, is the world’s largest open-source computer vision platform.[5]
Megvii was sanctioned by the U.S. Government, and added to the Entity List of the US Department of Commerce on Oct 9th, 2019.[6]
History
The company was founded in Beijing[1] with Megvii standing for "mega vision."[7] The company's core product, Face++, launched in 2012 as the first online facial recognition platform in China.[8] In 2015 Megvii created Brain++, a deep-learning engine to help train its algorithms.[2]
Megvii raised $100 million in 2016,[7][1] $460 million in 2017[9] and $750 million in May 2019.[10]
In 2017, Megvii marketed authentication and computational photography functions to smart phone companies and mobile application developers, then smart logistics. Megvii’s AI-empowered products include personal IoT, city IoT and supply chain IoT.[11][12] In 2017 and 2018,[12] Megvii beat Google, Facebook, and Microsoft in tests of image recognition at the International Conference on Computer Vision.[13]
In May 2019, the Human Rights Watch reported finding Face++ code in the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), a police surveillance app used to collect data on, and track the Uighur community in Xinjiang.[10] Shortly after the report, the Trump administration reportedly considered adding Megvii to a blacklist of banned Chinese entities.[12] Human Rights Watch released a correction to its report in June 2019 stating that Megvii did not appear to have collaborated on IJOP, and that the Face++ code in the app was inoperable.[3]
In June 2019, Megvii had 2,349 employees,[14] and was valued at over $4 billion,[3] as the "world’s biggest provider of third-party authentication software",[4] with 339 corporate clients in 112 cities in China.[14] The Chinese government employs Megvii software.[12]
References
- ^ a b c Qingqing, Chen (August 12, 2017). "Beijing-based tech start-up has a big edge on facial recognition". Global Times. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ a b Sun, Yiting (August 11, 2017). "Meet the Company That's Using Face Recognition to Reshape China's Tech Scene". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ a b c Dai, Sarah (June 5, 2019). "AI unicorn Megvii not behind app used for surveillance in Xinjiang, says human rights group". South China Morning Post. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ a b c Dai, Sarah (May 29, 2019). "Rising Chinese AI star Megvii gets caught in the US-China tech war". South China Morning Post. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ Barrett, Eamon (October 28, 2018). "In China, Facial Recognition Tech Is Watching You". Fortune. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ "Addition of Certain Entities to the Entity List". Federal Register. 2019-10-09. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
- ^ a b "Ever better and cheaper, face-recognition technology is spreading". The Economist. September 9, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ Feifel, Fan (January 12, 2017). "Megvii gives a digital meaning to face-reading". China Daily. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ Jacob, Harrison (July 8, 2018). "Inside the creepy and impressive startup funded by the Chinese government that is developing AI that can recognize anyone, anywhere". Business Insider. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ a b Liao, Rita (May 8, 2019). "Alibaba-backed facial recognition startup Megvii raises $750 million". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ (Chen, Avery) "AI unicorn plans HK$3.9b stock sale ", The Standard, September 9, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Bergen, Mark (May 24, 2019). "Trump's Latest China Target Includes a Rising Star in AI". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ Yang, Yuan (November 1, 2017). "China pours millions into facial recognition start-up Face++". Financial Times. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ a b (Li, Isabelle and Zhanqi, Ye) "Risks Mount for Chinese AI Firm as It Heads for IPO", Caxin Global, September 9, 2019.