Comments by "shazmosushi" (@shazmosushi) on "Hikvision, Explained: China’s Surveillance Tech Titan" video.

  1. You've mentioned American fabless semiconductor firm Ambarella in recent videos. Given you're starting to profile fabless semiconductor firms like MediaTek (and maybe in the future HiSilicon, THATIC etc), it might be worth covering Ambarella. Unlike even MediaTek and Qualcomm, it's definitely not a household name that a consumer of Android devices would come across when they research the specifications of their next smartphone. Feel free to ignore this suggestion especially because the company not even based in Asia.
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  2. This is an great video. From what I can tell until now Hikvision has not had a large "moat" (some technology that differentiates itself from competitors) other than its manufacturing scale and associated low prices. In contrast, Huawei builds smartphones and deploys its own compatible 5G infrastructure (at least in the absence of external sanctions). What's interesting to me is Hikvision's attempts to develop a moat based on AI + facial recognition. I'm sure it doesn't work too well yet but it might one day (the exact same technology is being tested on Uighers in Xinjiang). Until now it's been possible (for an increased price) to develop trusted IP camera system using components sourced and assembled without any Made In China involvement. For those who don't know, typically IP cameras are just an easily mountable package containing a digital camera module (plus optics) attached to a small motherboard (over eg, an internal high-speed bus such as USB) with a "system-on-chip" that does video compression and provides Ethernet and Wi-Fi networking. The software typically runs Linux, but just like other "Internet Of Things" devices the manufacturers have often unlikely to provide security updates. It would be great if sanctions against Hikvision lead to a more companies emerging with far fewer links to the Chinese Communist Party that produces IP cameras with guaranteed security updates for a competitive price.
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  3.  @Asianometry  I guess Ambarella does have an Asia connection given that founder and CEO Fermi Wang is a Taiwanese immigrant. Though pretty much the entire US fabless semiconductor industry seems to be run by people with Taiwanese heritage (from AMD's Lisa Su to NVidia's Jensen Huang).
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