While messages from the coronavirus are mixed, to put it mildly, the current economic crash course might only be over by April/May, in the most optimistic scenario. Numbers of infected people and deaths by COVID-19 still vary to much to support any scenario at this stage, while it is also unclear whether the rest of the world can contain the virus.

Footage from metro subways still show empty carriages, as the central government tries to encouraged migrant workers to return to their workplaces, local governments – including the big cities –  advise returning migrants to put themselves in a social quarantine for two weeks to be sure they do not carry the virus. The dilemma is obvious: different government make different choices when it come to prevent major economic damage or keeping their cities save from the virus. Read More →

Gamers are increasingly becoming a group of luxury buyers in China, overlapping other segments, says marketing expert Arnold Ma at OZY. “Chinese luxury buyer demographics overlap with hobbies normally associated with a younger audience, such as gaming,” Arnold Ma says.Read More →

Private companies in China have become more important than sometimes appreciated, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of the Hurun Research Institute in its latest report, according to the South China Morning Post. They have grown eight times in the past decade, pay most taxes and create most jobs. “Creating value is more than making sales,” says Rupert Hoogewerf.Read More →

Getting customers in the China market was already expensive and the 2019 capital winter makes live for startups even harder, says William Bao Bean, managing director of the Shanghai-based SOSV. That might be bad news initially, but makes them more competitive in the longer run, he says according to Pymnts, quoting the Financial Times.Read More →

Brands focus too much on social media platforms and generic influencers, and forget often they need to get closer to their customers, says marketing expert Arnold Ma in the McKinsey Report on the 2020 State of Fashion. In China and the rest of Asia consumers are faster to adopt new trends and increasingly guinea pigs for Western brands.Read More →

China’s internet companies are moving fast into India, but find a very different situation, says William Bao Bean, managing director of the Shanghai-based Chinaccelator and founder of the MOX SOSV’s Mobile-Only Accelerator. India is very diverse, offering a more competitive environment. Read More →

2019 is nearing its end, and some of our speakers look back. Arnold Ma, CEO of Qumin, got some raving reviews of speeches he gave this year, and he would like to share. We gladly support him in sharing those client views with you.Read More →

Tencent’s WeChat has been an unprecedented success story on the China internet. But new platforms are undermining the dominance of WeChat, says marketing expert Arnold Ma, CEO of London-based Qumin, at  CBBC. Short-video medium Douyin is one of them.Read More →