Viewpoint

04.22.19

The Messy Truth About Social Credit

Shazeda Ahmed from Logic
Almost every day, I receive an email from Google Alerts about a new article on China’s “social credit system.” It is rare that I encounter an article that does not contain several factual errors and gross mischaracterizations. The social credit...

Alibaba's ‘Digital Free Trade Zone’ Has Some Worried about China Links to Malaysia

Nyshka Chandran
CNBC
Alibaba e-commerce platform in Malaysia raises concerns over impact on local firms.

Online Sales of Illegal Opioids from China Surge in U.S.

Ron Nixon
New York Times
Nearly $800 million worth of fentanyl pills were illegally sold to online customers in the United States over two years by Chinese distributors who took advantage of internet anonymity and an explosive growth in e-commerce, according to a Senate...

It's Not Just Amazon: Chinese Tech Giants Are Selling Groceries Too

Sherisse Pham
CNN
Amazon (AMZN, Tech30)'s move to swallow Whole Foods for $13.7 billion grabbed attention in the U.S., and the internet giant has also been dabbling in cashier-less grocery stores. But experts say China is already ahead of the curve.

Holes close in China’s ’Great Firewall’ as Apple and Amazon snub apps to bypass censors

Los Angeles Times
Moves by business giants Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to stop people from using censorship-skirting apps in China have renewed questions about the extent to which U.S. companies are willing to work with authorities to operate in the vast but...

In China, Shoppers Buy Bad Loans Online with Their Groceries

Bloomberg
Among the sneakers, diapers, and pet food for sale on Taobao, China’s biggest e-commerce platform, is a listing that may take up a little more space in the online shopping basket.

Alibaba Is Coming to Detroit to Sell Small Businesses the Chinese Dream

Josh Horwitz
Quartz
The Chinese e-commerce giant is pulling out all the stops to impress America at Gateway ’17, its biggest-ever public event in the United States.

Trump Lies. China Thrives.

New York Times
We underestimate China — and attribute all of its surge in growth to unfair trade practices — at our peril. China has been fast and smart at adopting new technologies, particularly the mobile internet.

Alibaba Predicts Strong Sales in a Sign of Strength from China

New York Times
The Alibaba Group signaled on Thursday that for all the global worries about China’s rising debt and bloated state industries, its economy still enjoys a strong pillar of support: online shoppers.

China Throws out More Trade and Business Offers to Trump’s America

South China Morning Post
A report issued by the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday said China may buy further goods from the U.S., including crude and refined oil products, cotton and machine tools.

Books

05.02.17

China’s Mobile Economy

Winston Ma
China’s Mobile Economy: Opportunities in the Largest and Fastest Information Consumption Boom is a cutting-edge text that spotlights the digital transformation in China. Organized into three major areas of the digital economy within China, this ground-breaking book explores the surge in e-commerce of consumer goods, the way in which multi-screen and mobile Internet use has increased in popularity, and the cultural emphasis on the mobile Internet as a source of lifestyle- and entertainment-based content. Targeted at the global business community, this lucid and engaging text guides business leaders, investors, investment banking professionals, corporate advisors, and consultants in grasping the challenges and opportunities created by China’s emerging mobile economy, and its debut on the global stage.The year of 2014-15 marks the most important inflection point in the history of the Internet in China. Almost overnight, the world’s largest digitally-connected middle class went both mobile and multi-screen (smart phone, tablets, laptops, and more), with huge implications for how consumers behave and what companies need to do to successfully compete. As next-generation mobile devices and services take off, China’s strength in this arena will transform it from a global “trend follower” to a “trend setter.”Understand what the digital transformation in China is, and impact on global capital markets, foreign investors, consumer companies, and the global economy as a whole.Explore the e-commerce consumption boom in the context of the Chinese market.Understand the implications of the multi-screen age and mobile Internet for China’s consumersSee how mobile Internet use, its focus on lifestyle and entertainment is aligned with today’s Chinese culture.Learn about the mobile entertainment habits of China’s millennial generation and the corresponding new advertisement approaches.The development of China’s mobile economy is one of the most important trends that will reshape the future of business, technology, and society both in China and the world. China's Mobile Economy introduces you to the digital transformation in China, and explains how this transformation has the potential to transform both China and the global consumer landscape. —John Wiley & Sons, Inc.{chop}

Alibaba Acts on Vow about 1m U.S. Jobs

Paul Welitzkin
China Daily
Jack Ma announced on Tuesday that Alibaba will host a two-day conference in Detroit in June to teach U.S. businesses how to sell to the company’s 443 million customers in China on the world’s biggest e-commerce site.

Why Is EBay Returning to China?

Adam Minter
Bloomberg
EBay recently announced that it’s partnering with Ningbo, a major port and manufacturing hub, to help boost the city’s e-commerce with the rest of the world. That’s a farsighted move.

Why Chinese People Won’t Boycott Trump Fashion

BBC
In a week that saw a political storm after Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump fashion lines and reports in the U.S. media that her younger sister Tiffany Trump was “shunned” at New York Fashion Week, there was one unlikely win for the first family.

For Couriers, China’s E-Commerce Boom Can Be a Tough Road

Ryan McMorrow
New York Times
The Chinese e-commerce industry has been built on the backs of couriers—called kuaidi, or express delivery, in China. They number 1.2 million, and online retailers like Alibaba use them to zip packages to customers by scooter or three-wheeled...

Alibaba Looks to Bricks and Mortar With Bid for Mall Operator in China

Amie Tsang and Paul Mozur
New York Times
Alibaba is pushing further into the very sector that it helped to disrupt with a $2.6 billion bid for Intime Retail, a department store and mall operator in China.

Though Awash in Fakes, China Rethinks Counterfeit Hunters

Sui-Lee Wee
New York Times
As China grows and matures, and moves to protect brands and ideas, it still struggles with how to get rid of fakes. Enter Mr. Ji.

Swinging Singles' Day: Alibaba Holiday Drives Shoppers in China

Eva Dou
Wall Street Journal
China’s online-retail giant once again broke its sales record on the shopping day it helped create

How Alibaba Turned China’s Singles Day into the World’s Biggest Shopping Bonanza

Amanda Lee
Forbes
Sales this 11/11 are expected to reach $20 billion–-a 40% year-over-year surge

Alibaba Earnings Show It Again Defying China’s Slowdown

Paul Mozur
New York Times
Amid concerns about a slowdown of Chinese economic growth, China’s largest e-commerce company is showing that business on its platforms is holding steady

Amazon Delivers Prime Program to China

Alyssa Abkowitz and Laura Stevens
Wall Street Journal
The U.S. e-commerce behemoth hopes to capitalize on Chinese consumers’ desire for overseas products

Sinica Podcast

08.08.16

Clay Shirky on Tech and the Internet in China

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
The Internet expert and author of “Here Comes Everybody” gives his take on China's successes and challenges in the online world. In an hour-long conversation Shirky delves into the details and big-picture phenomena driving the globe’s largest...

Uber Positions Its China App as More than a Ride-Hailing Service

Megan Rose Dickey
TechCrunch
Uber’s new vision for China includes two new offerings, UberLIFE and Uber + Travel, which will roll out across China this year.

Alibaba Faces Backlash Over Promises on Counterfeits

Kathy Chu
Wall Street Journal
E-commerce giant has said it would spare no expense in cracking down on sellers of fake goods on its sites; Ma’s latest comments irk brands.

Media

05.31.16

Will China’s ‘Taobao Villages’ Spur a Rural Revolution?

from chinadialogue
The province of Shanxi, in northern China, is famous for coal mining, and the industry’s impact is etched across the landscape. But the province’s southern counties, which lie near the Yellow River, are known for a very different commodity—red dates...

Books

05.05.16

Alibaba

Duncan Clark
In just a decade and half, Jack Ma, a man from modest beginnings who started out as an English teacher, founded and built Alibaba into one of the world’s largest companies, an e-commerce empire on which hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend. Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the largest global IPO ever. A Rockefeller of his age who is courted by CEOs and Presidents around the world, Jack is an icon for China’s booming private sector and the gatekeeper to hundreds of millions of middle class consumers.Duncan Clark first met Jack in 1999 in the small apartment where Jack founded Alibaba. Granted unprecedented access to a wealth of new material, including exclusive interviews, Clark draws on his own experience as an early adviser to Alibaba and two decades in China chronicling the Internet’s impact on the country to create an authoritative, compelling narrative account of Alibaba’s rise.How did Jack overcome his humble origins and early failures to achieve massive success with Alibaba? How did he outsmart rival entrepreneurs from China and Silicon Valley? Can Alibaba maintain its 80 percent market share? As it forges ahead into finance and entertainment, are there limits to Alibaba’s ambitions? How does the Chinese government view its rise? Will Alibaba expand further overseas, including in the U.S.? Clark tells Alibaba’s tale in the context of China’s momentous economic and social changes, illuminating an unlikely corporate titan as never before. —HarperCollins{chop}

Yes, China E-Commerce Is Huge

Andrea Fenn
Quartz
Here’s What Not To Do If You’re A Foreign Company Trying To Get in

With Help from 007's Daniel Craig, how Alibaba Turned 11-11 into China's Biggest Shopping Day

Julie Makinen
Los Angeles Times
Online shopping and entertainment fused into a consumerist juggernaut.

Media

07.23.15

Why Taylor Swift’s 1989 Merchandise Is Not Going to Get Her Banned in China

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
On July 20, one of China’s largest e-commerce websites, JD.com, announced that it is partnering with popular American singer Taylor Swift to become the first authorized retailer of her merchandise in China. That news likely wouldn’t have turned...

China's Alibaba to Remove Listings with Confederate Flag Imagery

John Ruwitch and Jane Lanhee Lee
Reuters
Alibaba pledged to pull down links to products with Confederate flag imagery in the wake of the shooting in South Carolina.

Alibaba is Selling US E-Commerce Site 11 Main Just a Year After it Opened

Josh Horwitz
Quartz
Alibaba’s been more tentative in the U.S. than it has in China, because it is a latecomer in a mature market.

Why India’s E-Commerce Boom Will Look Nothing Like China’s

Shelly Walia
Quartz
In five years, the number of Indians with internet access is estimated to reach the level of China back in 2012.

Caixin Media

02.25.15

Apple Pay Stalled, Frustrated in China

The central bank, UnionPay bank card service, and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are standing up to Apple Inc.'s effort to bring the Apple Pay no-card, no-cash payment system to iPhone users in China."Apple is seeking to...

Alibaba Smashes Its Sales Record On China’s Singles’ Day Shopping Bonanza

Jon Russell
TechCrunch
In case you missed the media hype and have no idea why November 11 (11/11) is significant, it’s China biggest e-commerce sales day. Think of it as an amalgamation of all of North America’s biggest online retail days into one… on steroids.

Books

10.15.14

China’s Super Consumers

Savio Chan and Michael Zakkour
China has transformed itself from a feudal economy in the 19th century, to Mao and Communism in the 20th century, to the largest consumer market in the world by the early 21st century. China's Super Consumers explores the extraordinary birth of consumerism in China and explains who these super consumers are. China's Super Consumers offers an in-depth explanation of what's inside the minds of Chinese consumers and explores what they buy, where they buy, how they buy, and most importantly why they buy.The book is filled with real-world stories of the foreign and domestic companies, leading brands, and top executives who have succeeded in selling to this burgeoning marketplace. This remarkable book also takes you inside the boardrooms of the people who understand Chinese consumers and have had success in the Chinese market.A hands-on resource for succeeding in the Chinese marketplaceFilled with real-world stories of companies who have made an impact in ChinaDiscover what the Chinese consumer wants and how to deliver the goodsThis book is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants a clear understanding of how China's Super Consumers are changing the world and how to sell to them. —Wiley {chop}

County-Level E-Commerce: Next Driver of China’s Online Shopping

Chen Zulong
Huxiu
From 2003 to 2013, the number of county-level e-commerce merchants grew from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, and to millions.

Meet ‘Crazy Jack,’ China’s E-Commerce Titan

Alexa Olesen
Foreign Policy
A former employee says Jack Ma sees himself as an artist, not a businessman.

China’s Mobile Commerce Spending to Surpass $50 Billion in 2014, Nearly Double Last Year’s Total

Steven Millward
Tech in Asia
Now that smartphones account for over 80 percent of China’s new phone sales, it’s inevitable that the m-commerce sector is growing faster than the ecommerce industry itself.

Morgan Stanley's Latest Alibaba Estimates Suggest It's Worth $66 Billion-$168 Billion

Eric Jackson
Forbes
The most relevant comparison is to Tencent which is still the biggest Chinese Internet company still experiencing rapid growth – albeit at a slightly slower pace than Alibaba.  (Tencent did $1.88 billion in the last year and is currently...

Caixin Media

08.16.12

Rise Of The Online Titans

China’s titans of online retailing have unsheathed their marketing swords for a war in cyberspace that industry watchers say will decide the future of everyday shopping habits for nearly a billion consumers.Dozens of retail companies have staked out...