Sharon Gai, a China-born Canadian who is an expert in e-commerce, digital transformation, and AI, and worked as head of Global Key Accounts at Alibaba. She explains what lessons she learned about cultural fluidity in business and society to IKNS Conversations That Matter, in places where different cultures meet, and how cultural intelligence can help.Read More →

Branding expert Ashley Dudarenok, author of Innovation Factory: China’s Digital Playbook For Global Brands (September 2023), discusses with Pascal Coppens what global brands can learn from China. Business models from the USA, Germany, and Japan have left their footprint in business education. Still, the innovations coming from China have been left out of this business learning process, says Dudarenok, especially regarding ways to reach consumers directly.Read More →

Fast food giant McDonald’s is expanding its footprint in China with one-third of its planned 9,000 new restaurants. China is key for McDonald’s expansion, says Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein in FDIntelligence. “McDonald’s actually has a lot of potential because it’s considered cheap, quick [and] convenient,” says Shaun Rein.Read More →

The China Speakers Bureau is happy to announce Sharon Gai is joining its stable of high-profile speakers. Sharon Gai is based in San Francisco and has worked at top management positions in Alibaba and other e-commerce companies.Read More →

China’s consumers are becoming more cost-sensitive, and that means a profound change in the country’s retail, says business analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. “The name of the game for Chinese youth in 2024 is trading down. Instead of Starbucks, youth are buying Luckin coffee,” Rein says.Read More →

Investor William Bao Bean, Managing Director of Orbit startups, explains how he helped artists make money from their music at All That Matters 2023, introducing three successful investments from his portefeuille. Explaining the fast-changing models to generate money, using for example Tiktok/Douyin, and many more new tech models.Read More →

Business analyst Shaun Rein is interviewed by marketing guru Ashley Dudarenok on the most recent developments, as consumer confidence in China is slowly recovering at the end of 2023. But because of the ongoing trouble with the US, and because US firms fear more counterproductive measures by US President Biden, there are still many bears on the road to economic recovery. China focuses more on domestic companies, as US companies retreat, and the global south turns decisively to China for support, he says.Read More →

Single’s Day (11/11) used to be the heyday for China’s consumerism, but this year the consumers went for the cheap stuff, says business analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. Low consumer confidence forced the e-commerce platforms for the whole year to discount products, but Single’s Day was the cheapest event ever for consumers. Alibaba is losing its shine to newer platforms, he adds.Read More →