Big Brother's watching: Chinese facial recognition firms woo investors

Hong Kong

BUOYED by China's plans to build a ubiquitous CCTV surveillance network, Chinese and some foreign investors are pouring money into startup technology firms that specialise in facial recognition software.

At stake for firms such as SenseTime Group, Face++ and DeepGlint, is a multi-billion dollar global public and private market for facial recognition technology that can quickly identify individuals by measuring major elements of their faces, such as the distance between the eyes and the curve of the cheekbones.