Major industries like travel, retail, automotive, telecom and others see their traditional business models changing very fast. At Shanghai-based SOSV managing director William Bao Bean helps startups to make money in new ways, based on data, and capture fast emerging markets, he tells at the Phocuswright Europe conference in Amsterdam last week. Companies should not cling to melting margins, but identify where money can be made, he argues.Read More →

Facebook is struggling to remain relevant for its users and had a good look at China’s WeChat where group interactions are more private than the chaotic mess Facebook offers. But business analyst Ben Cavender wonders if the Chinese approach works at Facebook, he tells the South China Morning Post.Read More →

China might have most internet users of the world, but getting an email to them is often hard, as most communicate through domestic social networks like Tencent’s WeChat. Email, unlike WeChat, did not offer tools to make money, explains China veteran Kaiser Kuo as one of the reasons for thatRead More →

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has implicitly admitted he wants to learn from China’s WeChat. Marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok sees here a pivotal moment where a leading US platform starts to learn and copy from China’s success story, she explains in the South China Morning Post. Ashley Dudarenok: There are keyRead More →

Growing used to be easy for Tencent and other Chinese IT giants, as mobiles proliferated and consumers got used to the internet. But, as the limited growth by Tencent showed last week, the company has to diversify its key games asset into other industries and global expansion, says Tencent watcher Matthew Brennan to the South China Morning Post.Read More →

Chinese apps like Tiktok and WeChat make inroads into the US, and American companies start to copy their features. Fintech analyst Sara Hsu says fierce domestic competition makes those apps better than what we know outside China, as younger generations like their lives through apps. So, if they do well, they can cater for much more than only chitchat, se tells at CGTN.Read More →

WeChat is one of the largest social platforms in the world, and an example of what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to do with his platform. WeChat expert Matthew Brennan is one of three avid WeChat users explaining to the Jing Daily what WeChat means for his daily life, including their mini-programs.Read More →

For years the business community feared China’s central government would kill the so-called VIE’s (variable-interest entity). The tool to circumvent the country’s strict ownership regulations was never endorsed by the government but has also never been in serious trouble, tells China veteran and lawyer Mark Schaub to Bloomberg. The ban even did not show up in the draft foreign investment law, last week.Read More →