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CES 2024: Chinese tech giants Alibaba, ByteDance lead China’s return to premier consumer electronics show in Las Vegas

  • AI is the major trend this year in the wake of ChatGPT, with many companies touting how they are integrating the tech into their products
  • The return of Chinese tech giants comes even as geopolitical tensions have barely budged from where they were last year

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Attendees arrive at the CES Unveiled event before the start of the CES tech show, January 7, 2024, in Las Vegas. Photo: AP
Matt Haldanein Las Vegas, United States
Chinese companies have returned to Las Vegas for CES in full force this year, with more than double the number of exhibitors compared with last year, including big names like ByteDance and Alibaba.com, as companies try to shake off Covid-era blues with overseas growth.
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CES lists 1,115 companies registered from China on its website, a 126 per cent increase over the 493 listed at the beginning of the 2023 show. That does not include many of the biggest names on the list, which joined using international addresses.
ByteDance and its subsidiary TikTok, along with big hardware brands from last year like TCL and Lenovo are registered under their US offices. Even Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post, has a presence through its subsidiary Alibaba.com Singapore.

“You have big exhibitors coming back, really showcasing that this is a platform that really pushes for consumers and enterprises and maybe [can] combat some of these major challenges that we’re facing,” Brian Comiskey, director of consumer programmes at the CTA, said after his opening remarks on Sunday afternoon.

This marks a stark reversal from 2023, when China had just started to reopen its borders but restrictions did not fall fast enough for many companies to make it to the show in the first week of January.

“Some of the largest Chinese companies that have signed up for participation this year … will all have a large presence at the show,” John Kelley, vice-president and show director for CES at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), told the Post in an interview on November 29. “But where we’re really seeing growth on the Chinese side is smaller companies.”

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Kelley said the CTA was anticipating numbers to reach pre-Covid levels, and it looks like the show has pulled it off. The number of Chinese companies is more than the 1,000 that state-run tabloid Global Times reported for the 2020 show. CTA said the show has attracted around 4,000 exhibitors, although numbers are not final yet. Kelley said CES expects to see 130,000 attendees.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to be the major trend at the show this year, playing an even larger role since ChatGPT ignited a generative AI arms race over the past year. Smart homes, green tech and electric vehicles were other areas highlighted during the show’s opening remarks to the media.
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