But it isn't "foreign technology" in their eyes. It was re-reveloped by 40-50 Beijing based software engineers supplied wholly or in part by iSoftsone who came under the umbrella of i-Linkall on a 51/49 basis until Netlinkz acquired 80% of i -Linkall. But there is also the wholly owned foreign entity which is separate. Perhaps many staff work in close proximity, but from a patent and revenue perspective the WOFE is legally distinct.
In fact I wouldn't be surprised that some of the networks being developed behind the scenes are prepared by Netlinkz staff as opposed to iLinkall staff especially if there is - as rumoured - another upgrade coming to the VSN. (Apparently the VSN 2.3 is planned to be, or is already pretty special but whether faster, more scaleable or even more secure I have no idea -perhaps all three.)
One factor to consider is the opposing technological camps in China which more or less compares to the Android / Apple split in tthe US but with an extra over-lay around the rivalry between the big cities both in the Party and commercially. A split of work between iSoftstone and the Netlinkz entity would allow iSoftstone to service the Alibaba camp and Netlinkz to service the opposing JD camp. "Chinese walls" would have to apply
I say this as during a few trips to China I was surprised at the both the commercial rivalries and the historic suspicion many have about people from other provinices or cities.. In Guangzhou anyone from Shanghai is assumed to be dodgy and vice versa while Beijing buiness people are not trusted by anyone..
For example, JD.Com keeps referring to "authentic goods" found on its site which implies that if you use the Alibaba platform you are likely to buy a fake watch or a Chanel perfume which isn't Chanel. This is more of an issue in China than we might think as there have been some horrible examples of fake products like the aduleration of infant formula with platsic resin back in 2008 when 9 children died and thousands were hospitalised so a platform which actually knows and checks authenticity of products is a big deal. Alibaba would be acutely consciuous of this issue but inherently its model is harder to police. On the other hands the JD platform is more like a Sainsbury where the retailers stands by a brand or have their own trusted brands rather than promote all brands just on a mark up basis.
JD is very much Beijing based, while Alibaba, now out of favour with President Xi, is Hangzhou based. Hangzhou may not be as far down "the capitalist road" as nearby Shanghai, but nearly. Jack Ma is certainly out of favour for trying to cut across the Chinese payments system.
But the EU is just as pissed off with big US tech for free-loading on their economies and not paying taxes so it is not surprising that an even more socialist Beijing ( but for the elite molto capitalist) is dead set against robber baron style capitalism. China's "common prosperity" sounds much like Roosevelt's "New Deal". Trust busting was an essential reform in the thirties to prevent Rockefeller contolling most of the oil industry.
But to come back to the point the secure home working product developed for the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economics and Information Technology was an iLinkAll product so it is was all Chinese software engineers even if Netlinkz owns 80% of what they developed..
The following comes from an February 2020 edition of CFO Tech.
The Virtual Secure Network (VSN) remote working product was developed to help the Beijing Bureau fight the coronavirus and enable people to work and receive safe and secure information.Far from being disadvantaged by the coronavirus, alongside multiple Chinese software companies including JD.com, We Chat, and a number of Alibaba subsidiaries, iLinkAll is the only majority foreign-owned entity in a consortium of software companies working together to provide innovative solutions to tackle the coronavirus epidemic.
Beijing will roll out the technology first, with the Chinese government investigating a nationwide adoption."We are proud to be supporting the people of Beijing during an extremely difficult period for the city and the people of China," says NetLinkz executive chairman James Tsiolis.
"iLinkAll’s VSN has been selected as the city’s first batch of ‘remote and mobile’ technology solutions to help small to medium-sized companies and their professional workers remotely log into their office and help those businesses get back to work.
"We anticipate a similar program will be initiated nationally to assist other impacted cities and communities," says Tsiolis."We also believe being a selected provider by the Beijing Government will deliver increased visibility of our capabilities to the Chinese business community."
At the time there was work done a health network as well which some sharehodlers believe was prepared for JD Health since a quick check of the 2021 JD Heath annual report sounds very like the network architecture which NET developed. It included procurement of products for Chinese traditional medicine as well as western medicine, and on-line consultation,. (Daily on-line consultations on JD Health are now up to 160,000)
But while it is the platform's revenue is up 25% it's surprising that the Netlinkz connection hasn't become public yet. Perhaps NET has had nothing to do with JD Health, but it certainly does have some connection with JD if only in relation to cloud hosting. If it does have a connection with JD Health confirmation of the fact would be company making. in itself.
JD Health says simply "...our mission is to be come the go-to health platform for everyone in China.".
(The report is worth reading; very clear, perfect English even down to sophisticated punctuation. The only drawback is its plans make our health system look very inadequate)
But more generally many Netlinkz shareholders are bemused by the constipated angst of the hacksters who buzz around Netlinkz threads like narrow bandwidth March flies and don't simply ring Netlinkz to ask management to clarify a few things. There's nothing to lose. Obviously the company is constrained by non-disclosure agreements and the rules about public disclosure, but provided the question is sensible there's likely to be a brief, but sensible answer.
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