Tech Buzz China by Pandaily
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Tech Buzz China by Pandaily is a biweekly technology podcast that is all about China's innovations. It is co-hosted by Rui Ma and Ying Lu, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They share and discuss the most important tech news from China every week, and include commentary from investors, industry experts, and entrepreneurs.
Available episodes
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Oldest first
Nov 15, 2021
Ep. 84: 2021 China Internet Report with SCMP CEO Gary Liu
Episode 84 of Tech Buzz China features co-host Rui Ma in conversation with Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post on the hottest five trends shaping the China internet industry in 2021: tightening regulations, bumpy roads for IPOs, overseas expansion plans, shifting demographics, and growing private domain traffic. SCMP is a leading news media company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century with global impact. If you would like to read the full 2021 China Internet Report, download it at https://sc.mp/cir-2021, and it's free!
Also, Tech Buzz China is growing! We have a Livecast series of interviews with entrepreneurs and investors in China tech — TBC Livecast. It's mostly recorded live in front of our new paid community Tech Buzz China Insider. For TBC Insiders, we have an active Discord server, a forum, and regular members-only events. If you're really into China tech, join us starting with the quiz. And finally, if you’re an accredited investor, consider applying to our investment syndicate, more information is available at techbuzzchina.com/invest.
In addition, you can follow us at techbuzzchina.com, subscribe to our YouTube channel, tweet at us at @techbuzzchina, and write to us at team@techbuzzchina.com. As always, our transcripts are available on our website, as well as at pandaily.com.
Thank you to our teams at SupChina and Pandaily, and especially to Bryce Ye, and Kaiser Kuo. If you enjoy our work, please leave us an iTunes review! They do matter and we appreciate it so much!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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May 7, 2021
Ep. 83: Acquired crossover — 2021 China tech trends
The Acquired podcast puts out some of the very best business and technology content out there, and is one of our co-hosts’ favorite listens. Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal are inspirations, and so we’re always flattered to be referenced as the “Acquired of China tech”! We had a lot of fun recording this episode together. Here at Tech Buzz, we typically write out our scripts ahead of time, and this was a rare chance to go unscripted. Let us know how we did!
As Tech Buzz continues to broaden our content formats, you can follow us at techbuzzchina.com, subscribe to our YouTube channel, join us in the Inside Asia group on Clubhouse, tweet at us at @techbuzzchina, and write to us at rui@techbuzzchina.com & ying@techbuzzchina.com. As always, our transcripts are available on our website, as well as at pandaily.com and supchina.com.
Thank you to our teams at SupChina and Pandaily, and especially Bryce Ye, Kaiser Kuo, and Jason MacRonald. If you enjoy our work, please leave us an iTunes review! They do matter and we appreciate it so much!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Apr 23, 2021
Ep. 82: Q1 China ecommerce update with BigOne Lab
One of Tech Buzz China’s partners is leading alternative data firm BigOne Lab, who is one of the best sources on detailed operational data for large Chinese tech companies. In Tech Buzz's quarterly update, BigOne's head of research, Robert Wu, joined Rui for a live webinar going over everything interesting among the big China ecommerce players, which are now Alibaba, JD, Meituan, Pinduoduo, Douyin, and Kuaishou.
We begin with the latest in community group buying, the group-buying next-day pickup business model that is sweeping over China. We go over market shares, warehousing efficiencies, and best-selling items and explain what that means in terms of strategy across the big players. We also talk about how much progress the Douyin and Kuaishou platforms have made in ecommerce, but point out their weaknesses vis-a-vis Alibaba, who is still the towering giant in the space. We touch upon what GMV breakdowns look like across the platforms, and finally end up with some interesting observations you might not have expected regarding creator engagement in Douyin and Bilibili.
If you are new to these companies, we highly suggest checking out episodes 28, 55, 57, and 80 on ByteDance, Kuaishou, Bilibili, and community group buying, respectively.
Although we edited the audio to make it easy to follow along, such events in the future are best experienced live, as much of the data is presented visually! To sign up for future events like this, please go to www.techbuzzchina.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Feb 12, 2021
Ep. 81: What it takes to win in China - Rui Ma with Karl Ulrich
Episode 81 of Tech Buzz China continues our series of audio experiments, and features co-host Rui Ma in conversation with Wharton professor Karl Ulrich on his latest book, Winning in China. The book was co-authored with Wharton Global Fellow Lele Sang, and presents 8 carefully researched case studies of successes and failures, from Amazon to Sequoia Capital. The episode is a recording of a conversation that was broadcast live on the Clubhouse app on February 1.
As Tech Buzz continues to broaden our content formats, you can follow us at techbuzzchina.com, subscribe to our YouTube channel, join us in the Inside Asia group on Clubhouse, tweet at us at @techbuzzchina, and write to us at rui@techbuzzchina.com & ying@techbuzzchina.com. As always, our transcripts are available on our website, as well as at pandaily.com and supchina.com.
If you are a Tech Buzz listener and would like a free copy of Karl and Lele’s book, please email us at ying@techbuzzchina.com.
Thank you to our teams at SupChina and Pandaily, and especially Bryce Ye, Kaiser Kuo, and Jason MacRonald. If you enjoy our work, please leave us an iTunes review! They do matter and we appreciate it so much!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Dec 22, 2020
Ep. 80: Community (grocery) group buying: The next must-win market in China?
In episode 80 of Tech Buzz China, Rui and Ying talk about community group buying 社区团购 shèqū tuángòu, or CGB, which is the hottest thing in China tech right now. In addition to startups raising crazy funds — one just raised $700 million — the internet giants have all gone in with guns blazing, and investors are bullish.
Listen and follow along with us as we explore what exactly CGB is, and what makes it so special — and controversial. Listeners will also hear from one of our favorite China tech writers, Lillian Li of the Chinese Characteristics newsletter, who just wrote two issues on this topic.
Yup, Rui is still researching and writing on ByteDance for her ebook. You can get updates on it and our other work by subscribing to her newsletter, at techbuzzchina.com. Be sure to also check out the Tech Buzz China YouTube channel, which has some video-only content. Our transcripts are available on our website, as well as at pandaily.com and supchina.com.
If you enjoy our work, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review (drop us a note saying you did, and we’ll send you an Extra Buzz newsletter subscription), and by tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina. We also read your emails, at rui@techbuzzchina.com and ying@techbuzzchina.com.
Thank you to our teams at SupChina and Pandaily, and especially Caiwei Chen, Kaiser Kuo, and Jason MacRonald.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Dec 8, 2020
Ep. 79: Yatsen Group: Cosmetics ecommerce superstar and China’s L’Oreal for the digital age?
In Episode 79 of Tech Buzz China, Rui and Ying talk about a company that aspires to be “China’s L’Oréal” for the digital age: Yatsen Group, owner of smash hit cosmetics app Perfect Diary (完美日记) among other brands. Though we at Tech Buzz have never directly covered the company, we have mentioned it, including in Episode 70 with Lauren Hallanan; as well during last week’s Q3 Market Trends call (link available through Dec. 9) with BigOne Lab’s Mengyao Ren. Yatsen recently listed on the NYSE, and it’s got a nearly $12 billion market cap.
Listen and follow along with us as we explore Yatsen’s founding story, their evolving strategy, reasons for their success, and the role of clever marketing. We’ll also talk about how the company’s various tactics speak to the evolution of China’s content ecommerce ecosystem. Finally, listeners will hear from Mark Tanner, the founder and Managing Director of Shanghai-based marketing and research firm China Skinny.
Yup, Rui is still researching and writing on ByteDance for her ebook. You can get updates on it and to our other work by subscribing to her newsletter, at techbuzzchina.com. Be sure to also check out the Tech Buzz China YouTube channel, which has some video-only content. Our transcripts are available on our website, as well as at pandaily.com and supchina.com.
If you enjoy our work, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review (drop us a note saying you did, and we’ll send you an Extra Buzz newsletter subscription), and by tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina. We also read your emails, at rui@techbuzzchina.com and ying@techbuzzchina.com.
Thank you to our teams at SupChina and Pandaily, and especially Caiwei Chen, Kaiser Kuo, and Jason MacRonald.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Nov 20, 2020
Ep. 78: China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) dreams
Episode 78 of Tech Buzz China features our co-host Rui Ma in conversation with Yán Xiāo 肖妍 on the timely topic of China’s proposed national digital currency. Yan is a San Francisco-based Project Lead at the World Economic Forum with deep experience in fintech, having worked as senior legal counsel at Ant Group. She is also a lawyer by training and holds both American and Chinese legal licenses. Her current work focuses on digital payments and cross-border payments. Yan’s opinions on this episode are her own thoughts, and do not reflect those of the Forum in any way.
Rui was an early observer of the cryptocurrency space, and has witnessed the rise of Bitcoin and other technologies unfold concurrently in the U.S. and China. Listen to their conversation to find out: What does Yan think about the prospects for China’s proposed digital currency, which is typically called digital yuan or digital RMB? How are these prospects affected by the existing payments and digital landscape in China? What are the key features of digital RMB? What technologies form its backbone? What are other countries doing -- what is the global landscape for this type of national initiative?
Yup, Rui is still researching and writing on ByteDance for her ebook. You’ll want to get front-row updates on it and to her other work by subscribing to our newsletter, at techbuzzchina.com. You’ll also want to check out the Tech Buzz China YouTube channel, and can view all of our past transcripts on our website, as well as at pandaily.com and supchina.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Oct 30, 2020
Ep. 77: The next thing in China ecommerce? Consumer to manufacturer (C2M)
In episode 77 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu tackle a topic that has become the next big thing in China ecommerce: C2M, or consumer to manufacturer. Although the acronym itself is not new, the term has been redefined within the past two years, driven by the choices of a handful of key founders and companies. Listen to learn about why Rui and Ying think this new iteration is at once innovative and transformational, why both factories and brands stand to benefit, and what this all means for the future of manufacturing and commerce -- in China and globally.
Rui is still researching and writing on ByteDance for her ebook. You’ll want to get front-row updates on it and to her other work by subscribing to our newsletter, at techbuzzchina.com.
We have finished uploading all of our past episodes onto the new Tech Buzz China YouTube channel and putting them together into playlists by sector — check them out! As always, our past transcripts are viewable on our website, as well as at pandaily.com and supchina.com.
If you enjoy our work, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review (drop us a note saying you did, and we’ll send you an Extra Buzz newsletter subscription), and by tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina. We also read your emails, at rui@techbuzzchina.com and ying@techbuzzchina.com.
Thank you to our ever-talented producers, Caiwei Chen and Kaiser Kuo, as well as to Jason MacRonald at SupChina.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Oct 19, 2020
Ep. 76: Lufax IPO and the end of P2P lending in China
In episode 76 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu take advantage of the recent Lufax IPO filing (Chinese name: 陆金所 lùjīnsuǒ) to talk about the P2P lending industry in China, which has been an oft-requested topic! We get into China’s (lack of) regulation of the nontraditional form of financing, drivers behind the industry’s quick boom and bust, and some of the reasons Lufax is one of the few, and biggest, survivors.
We have started uploading all of our past episodes onto the new Tech Buzz China YouTube channel and putting them together into playlists by sector — check it out. You’ll soon be able to find this and other relevant episodes under the “fintech” category.
Yes, Rui is still researching and writing on ByteDance, for publication as an ebook! You’ll want to get front-row updates on it by subscribing to our newsletter, at techbuzzchina.com. As always, our past transcripts and other content are also viewable at pandaily.com and supchina.com.
If you enjoy our work, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review (drop us a note saying you did, and we’ll send you an Extra Buzz newsletter subscription), and by tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina. We also read your emails, at rui@techbuzzchina.com and ying@techbuzzchina.com. Thank you to our growing community for your always valuable feedback!
Thank you to our ever-talented producers, Caiwei Chen and Kaiser Kuo, as well as to Jason MacRonald at SupChina.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Oct 2, 2020
Ep. 75: China ecommerce SaaS: Youzan, Weimob, and WeChat mini programs
In episode 75 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu talk about China ecommerce SaaS (software as a service), which currently primarily refers to WeChat ecommerce as it takes place through mini programs. Listen to learn about major players Youzan and Weimob, the difference between public and private traffic, and what Alibaba’s and Tencent’s future strategies might be given their actions up to this point. How accurate are the various players’ much-sought comparisons to Shopify, and how closely do the companies truly compare with that platform in their journeys to becoming China’s dominant ecommerce solution provider?
Yes, Rui is still writing her e-book on ByteDance! You’ll want to get updates on it by subscribing to our newsletter, at techbuzzchina.com. As always, past transcripts and other content are also viewable at pandaily.com and supchina.com.
If you enjoy our work, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review (drop us a note saying you did, and we’ll send you an Extra Buzz newsletter subscription!), and by tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina. We also read your emails, at rui@techbuzzchina.com and ying@techbuzzchina.com. Thank you to our growing community for your always valuable feedback!
And thanks to our ever-talented producers, Caiwei Chen and Kaiser Kuo, as well as to SupChina’s Production Associate Jason MacRonald.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Sep 11, 2020
Ep. 74: Ant Group: The biggest IPO…ever?
In episode 74 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu talk in depth about Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial affiliate, ahead of its upcoming mega-IPO. Media reports that the company — which already holds the record for “largest-ever single private fundraise” for its $14 billion raise in 2018 — seeks to raise $30 billion. That figure would indeed make it the largest public offering the world has ever seen.
We first covered Ant Group over two years ago in Episode 11, titled “After Alibaba, Team Jack Ma’s Newest Centacorn: Ant Financial.” At the time, Ant had said it planned to transition from the payments business, which accounted for over half of revenues, into a company that would rely mostly on “technical services” for revenue. Looking back, we can see that Ant has achieved that — and more. This year, its revenues total $20 billion with a 30% net margin, and it has several diversified, significant, and growing revenue streams. But can it sustain this grow…
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Aug 28, 2020
Ep. 73: KE Holdings: China’s second largest platform?
In episode 73 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu return to the typical deep-dive format you’ve come to expect, with a timely look into recently listed real estate tech platform Beike 贝壳, or KE Holdings (BEKE). In addition to talking about the two-year-young company, we explore the realities of the Chinese real estate industry, which operates completely differently from (and is arguably messier than) the industry here in the U.S. We cover KE Holdings’ founder story, the company’s relationship to traditional real estate brokerage business Lianjia 链家, and the role of government policies in developing China’s real estate sector.
Listen to find out: What are Beike’s core value propositions to its users? How does it make money, and in what ways is it similar to Redfin or Zillow? How apt is the statement “Alibaba is to retail as KE Holdings is to real estate”? Why does this opportunity exist in China, is it even more massive than meets the eye, and what f…
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Aug 14, 2020
Ep. 72: What makes TikTok tick: A dialogue with Eugene Wei
Episode 72 of Tech Buzz China features product expert Eugene Wei in conversation with our co-host Rui Ma on the timely topic of TikTok and the mechanics of what makes the app so successful. Tune in to learn why Rui calls TikTok an “algorithmic entertainment platform” and why Eugene terms TikTok’s algorithm the “Sorting Hat.” You’ll also learn why the app was well situated in coming out of China, and what the future ownership and trajectory of TikTok in the U.S. might be. This is a special episode for Tech Buzz — so tune in!
We recorded today’s program on the heels of President Trump’s executive order banning “any transactions” with TikTok or its parent company, ByteDance, by any U.S. resident. Though Tech Buzz usually covers Chinese tech companies in China — for example, our popular episode on ByteDance’s overall rise does just that — this headline was too significant for us to pass without a comment. After all, TikTok is the first non-utility app and con…
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Aug 4, 2020
Ep. 71: Industry trends in China’s COVID-19 recovery, with Mu Chen
Episode 71 of Tech Buzz China features Mu Chen in conversation with our co-hosts Ying Lu and Rui Ma, on the topic of digital and consumption trends in China. Mu is the founder and CEO of BigOne Lab (百观Lab), a data intelligence firm for investors. He discusses recent data and trends from key industries such as delivery, recruitment, logistics, travel, online spending, and gaming to illustrate how China’s economy is recovering from the downturn caused by COVID-19.
This is the fourth in a series of experimental episodes that we will be releasing this summer. Today’s is a lightly edited version of a live webinar that Tech Buzz held in July. To hear these — and more! — as they happen live, you can sign up for free at techbuzzchina.com/events. Note that the unedited version of this track can be found on our Tech Buzz China YouTube channel.
As always, past transcripts and other content are viewable at pandaily.com and techbuzzchina.com. If you enjoy our work, please do let u…
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Jul 20, 2020
Ep. 70: Livestreaming ecommerce with Lauren Hallanan
Episode 70 of Tech Buzz China features Lauren Hallanan in conversation with our co-hosts Ying Lu and Rui Ma on the topic of livestreaming ecommerce. In addition to being a former China-based livestreamer herself, with over 400,000 followers, Lauren is a fellow SupChina podcaster at the China Marketing Podcast. Go check it out!
Today, Lauren gives a fascinating overview of China’s livestreaming ecommerce industry, including its history, key traits and differentiators, common content formats, and product design and features. Throughout, she helps us answer these questions: Why has livestreaming, specifically in ecommerce, become so explosively popular in China? How has it continued to evolve post-COVID? Can — and will — we see the same level of success here in the West?
This is the third in a series of experimental, non-scripted episodes that we will be releasing this summer. Today’s episode is a lightly edited version of a live webinar that Tech Buzz held on June 4. To hea…
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Jun 22, 2020
Ep. 69: China AI with Jeff Ding
Episode 69 of Tech Buzz China features our co-host Rui Ma in dialogue with Jeff Ding, a Rhodes Scholar and D.Phil Researcher at Oxford in the Future of Humanity Institute. He is also the creator of a free weekly newsletter called China AI. For his talk, Jeff focuses on artificial intelligence in China, specifically, some of the “unsexy” technical applications of AI across several industries.
This is the second in a series of experimental, non-scripted episodes that we will be releasing this summer. Today’s episode is a lightly edited version of a live webinar that Tech Buzz hosted on June 5. To hear these (and more) as they happen live, you can sign up for free at techbuzzchina.com/events.
As always, past transcripts are viewable at pandaily.com and techbuzzchina.com. If you enjoy our work, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review, and by tweeting at us @techbuzzchina. We also read your emails, at rui@techbuzzchina.com and ying@techbuzzchina.com. Thank you to our…
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Jun 8, 2020
Ep. 68: Entertainment livestreaming outside of China with Shang Koo of M17.asia
Episode 68 of Tech Buzz China features our co-host Rui Ma in dialogue with Shang Koo, the CFO of M17 Entertainment, or M17.asia, which is a livestreaming company popular in Taiwan and Japan. Listen to learn more about entertainment livestreaming and how the industry has developed throughout Asia. Shang goes into the dynamics of gifting, critiques of various business models, and the impacts of COVID-19 on the sector both within China and in markets that M17 serves.
This is the first in a series of experimental, non-scripted episodes that we will be releasing this summer. The recording originally took place in late April in the form of an online webinar. To hear these (and more!) as they happen live, you can sign up for free at techbuzzchina.com/events.
As always, past transcripts are viewable at pandaily.com and techbuzzchina.com. If you enjoy our work, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review, and by tweeting at us @techbuzzchina. We also read your emails, at rui@techbu…
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May 22, 2020
Ep. 67: TikTok’s siblings: ByteDance’s other video apps
In episode 67 of Tech Buzz China, hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu discuss the ByteDance family of video apps outside of TikTok, including Xigua, Huoshan, and Pipixia. Most listeners know by now that ByteDance is very good at video, and these other apps provide noteworthy — though not comprehensive — examples of just how good it is. Listen to learn about ByteDance’s extensive video portfolio. In particular, will Xigua win versus Bilibili for the title of China’s YouTube? Is ByteDance’s strategy too scattered and unfocused, or is it thoughtful and comprehensive?
A reminder — check out Tech Buzz’s ongoing online events series, including webinars and happy hours, all of which are free! Our next event spotlights John Oliverius of the China Esports Business News Digest. John will be talking about the most interesting events taking place in gaming and esports in China, and what we can learn from the companies that are leading in this space. You can sign up at techbuzzchina.com/…
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May 1, 2020
Ep. 66: Beyond TikTok: Bytedance’s ambitions in gaming and education
In episode 66 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu talk about Bytedance’s forays into gaming and education — moves that have been well covered and are eagerly anticipated by Chinese media. Notably, in multiple interviews, CEO Zhang Yiming says that he only wants to go into fields where he feels he is better than the incumbent. While Zhang believes, and we agree, that edtech has a lot of room for improvement, we wonder if Bytedance’s moves in gaming could be more effective if it defended itself against Tencent. What do you think?
Thanks to some of your feedback on Rui’s special Luckin episode, we have changed the format of this one. Listeners should expect more experiments coming up soon!
A reminder to check out Tech Buzz’s new events series for investors (open to all), as well as our interactive Virtual Happy Hours with listeners like you! Both are free. Our next Happy Hour is titled “From FAANG to BAT,” and we’ve invited a product manager who went…
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Apr 13, 2020
Ep. 65 (Extra Buzz Special): Luckin’s luck ran out
Episode 65 of Tech Buzz China is a special one — a reading of the seventh issue of Extra Buzz, our new biweekly newsletter written by co-host Rui Ma. Listen (and read along) to follow Rui’s thoughts on the biggest story in China tech last week: the alleged fraud of China’s on-demand coffee company, Luckin Coffee 瑞幸咖啡. At its core, we at Tech Buzz believe Luckin is a story of information asymmetry, with voices on either side of the Pacific at times seeming to be telling different stories altogether. Rui explains why investors and other observers who did the proper digging would never have been bullish, or mistaken Luckin for Starbucks.
Tech Buzz is holding a Virtual Happy Hour with a special guest, Dan Grover, this Thursday, April 16, 3:00–4:00 p.m. PST / 6:00–7:00 p.m. EST. We have a few spots left, over at techbuzzchina.com/community. Our discussion will center on how Chinese internet companies came together to create initiatives that helped combat COVID-19, and h…
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Apr 3, 2020
Ep. 64: Telemedicine in China in the time of COVID-19: Part 2
Episode 64 of Tech Buzz China is the second of two episodes on the Chinese telemedicine sector, which is closely watched in the wake of COVID-19. This week, on the heels of episode 63’s discussion of Ping An Good Doctor, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu talk about other experiments, such as Chunyu Yisheng 春雨医生, WeDoctor 好大夫, and Dingxiangyuan 丁香园. We also give overviews of telemedicine efforts by some of the large internet companies, including Alibaba, Baidu, and JD Health.
The overarching story is that healthcare tech is a clear market opportunity in China, and within the narrow space of telemedicine, there are a lot of companies trying to solve the same set of problems. Listen to find out: How did these players all converge on telemedicine, and what are the factors — some currently missing — that must be in place to drive a serious uptick in adoption?
You can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. If you enjoy our content, please do let us know b…
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Mar 23, 2020
Ep. 63: China telemedicine in the time of COVID-19: Part 1
Episode 63 of Tech Buzz China is on the Chinese telemedicine sector, which has quickly evolved to become one of the most interesting businesses in China, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu focus on the underlying drivers within the complex healthcare industry. They cover topics such as the size of the Chinese healthcare system, the shortage of doctors and reasons why, and challenges for telemedicine.
Companies mentioned include Ping An Good Doctor, as well as the internet hospitals that the government has approved and that have been in operation for a few years now. Listeners will also hear from Irene Hong, an experienced dealmaker who has worked in China for 20 years and is the founding partner of investment bank CEC Capital Group, where she leads the healthcare group.
You can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. If you enjoy our content, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review and tweeting at us @techbuzzchina. We also read…
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Mar 7, 2020
Ep. 62: Real pain for Chinese real estate startups
Episode 62 of Tech Buzz China is on co-living and co-working, two of the formerly hottest — and now possibly coldest — sectors in China tech. Co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu discuss how real estate startups have been hit hard by the coronavirus against a backdrop of how the real estate sector is big business in China.
From rental startup companies Danke and Ziroom to co-working giant Ucommune, which failed to list last year, listeners will join a whirlwind tour of the biggest players and must-know trends in the space (pun intended). Listen to find out: How accurate are the comparisons between WeWork and Ucommune, and their respective founders Adam Neumann and Mao Daqing? How has China’s development in the co-working sector derived from, among other things, the role of the government and its push for innovation? Why do our co-hosts encourage Western entrepreneurs looking to solve problems in co-living to look toward China, where 2,000 companies have already given it a shot?…
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Feb 21, 2020
Ep. 61: Getting educated on China K-12 tutoring edtech
Episode 61 of Tech Buzz China is on K-12 edtech entrepreneurs, who are seeing their businesses grow instead of shrink in the wake of the coronavirus. Co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu discuss top trends and the key players before the virus hit, and how they are responding now.
In 2018, the raging headline was that half of the venture capital deployed in edtech that year went to Chinese companies. In the past three years alone, 25 Chinese education companies have gone public. It’s a massive market, but what are the common misconceptions held by Western investors? Listen to hear context on China’s education system and the resulting influence on edtech business models, as well as the stories behind selected companies GSX and Yuanfudao.
You can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. If you enjoy our content, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us! You can also email rui@techbuzzchina.com and ying@techbuzzchina.com f…
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Feb 7, 2020
Ep. 60: Wuhan Coronavirus: Impact on China Tech
Episode 60 of Tech Buzz China is a special on the Wuhan coronavirus and its impact on China tech, as seen by co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu. As we produce this episode, all of China is still pretty much on lockdown in response to the virus — it’s a transformative time.
We talk about the impact on a range of sectors such as grocery ecommerce, remote work, philanthropy, video gaming, entertainment, education, fitness, and healthcare. Which changes are short term, and which ones might be more long-lasting? Importantly, we also provide context on the city of Wuhan, which is located just 500 miles west of Shanghai and plays an underrated yet important role in China’s technology ecosystem and the country’s economy as a whole.
For more analyses, including a piece that we wrote on the virus and its impact on China tech, you can subscribe to our Tech Buzz newsletter at bit.ly/techbuzzextrabuzz. As promised last week, we have donated a month’s worth of Extra Buzz gross revenue,…
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Jan 24, 2020
Ep. 59: China Tech 2019 in Review
Episode 59 of Tech Buzz China takes a retrospective look at 2019 in China internet culture and business happenings. Co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu review their top picks of the need-to-know trends, occurrences, and players that shaped the landscape in 2019. From the saturation of Chinese mobile internet users to the rise of the rural consumer and a decline in funding for tech companies, listen and decide for yourself: do you agree with our analyses and predictions as we enter the New Year of the Golden Rat?
You can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. If you enjoy our content, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us! We truly appreciate your feedback and support. Thank you also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.
We are grateful for our talented producers, Caiwei Chen and Kaiser Kuo.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#…
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Jan 10, 2020
Ep. 58: China grocery ecommerce: Bloodbath or gold mine?
In Episode 58 of TechBuzz China, our first episode of the new decade, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu talk about grocery ecommerce, or buying fresh food over the internet. The sector, which in China is sometimes taken to include “new retail” concepts such as Alibaba’s Hema, is seen as one of the few remaining “blue ocean” ecommerce opportunities in China. Thus, it is growing rapidly and attracting a lot of investment and interest.
Listen to find out: Given the amount of action in the industry, why is the penetration rate still at less than 5 percent? What main challenges within the industry have made it difficult for the various players to scale up? Within the current landscape, what are the differences between purely online services, versus hybrid online-offline, and what have been the growth patterns for both? Finally and perhaps most importantly, what daily habits and cultural factors surrounding grocery shopping in China form the foundation for these realities today…
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Dec 13, 2019
Ep. 57: Bilibili — the YouTube of China?
Here at TechBuzz, we have been busy preparing for our second Investor Trip for March 2–6, 2020. If you are a full-time investor with at least 10 years of experience, consider applying for the trip by writing to us at rui@pandaily.com. During our inaugural Investor Trip in October, Bilibili was one of the companies we visited, and it turned out to be one of our most highly rated meetings! We hope you enjoy what we’ve prepared today.
In episode 57 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu talk about Bilibili, a Chinese company that has no easy Western comparable — even as it sells a narrative of being “the YouTube of China.” Bilibili was in the headlines last week for paying $113 million for the Chinese broadcast rights for the next three League of Legends championships. Today, its core businesses include mobile games, livestreaming, advertising, and ecommerce.
Listen to find out: How was Bilibili founded? In what ways is its founder, hardcore anime fan Xu Yi,…
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Nov 22, 2019
Ep. 56: Not just TikTok: A short history of Chinese short video abroad
Episode 56 of TechBuzz China is all about short video, which our co-hosts comment should by now be considered one of China’s “New Four Great Inventions.” It’s sweeping the world, and has become an arena in which Chinese companies’ battle for users and revenue is extending abroad. Most of our listeners will have heard of Bytedance’s product TikTok, and likely even of Kuaishou (see TechBuzz #55), but what about other players such as Likee — what is their story?
Short videos shot in China, or on apps made in China, are increasingly common sights on social media feeds around the world. Indeed, chuhai (出海 chūhǎi), which literally means “going beyond the seas,” has come to mean “doing business abroad,” and it is going to be a bigger and bigger trend in China tech. The stories of how these short-video companies got started, the mistakes they made and turning points along the way, and how that shapes company DNA and long-term strategy can guide you as to how thes…
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Nov 8, 2019
Ep. 55: Kuaishou: The Anti-Douyin/TikTok?
Episode 55 of TechBuzz China is about a company we have admittedly relegated to a “supporting role” thus far here on TechBuzz: Kuaishou, which is rightfully known as the original Chinese short-video app. Rui and Ying-Ying explain that while Bytedance and its Douyin and TikTok products seem to be clear stars today, that trend was not always obvious. It is true that Kuaishou is experiencing declining market share and experimenting with new, hard-charging avenues of growth, but our co-hosts argue that its role in today’s content ecosystem has generally been understated by Western observers.
To that end, this week, we delve into the history, leadership, business models, shareholders, and self-proclaimed mission of the Kuaishou app. Listeners may decide for themselves: Do Kuaishou and Douyin really serve different demographics with decidedly different products? Or does a large 46.5 percent user overlap mean that this doesn’t matter — that it is, in fact, a battle to the death,…
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Oct 25, 2019
Ep. 54: Influencers, KOLs, idols, and the future of China ecommerce
TechBuzz China is back from China! We are happy to say that the week of back-to-back meetings we had in our first-ever Investor Trip was a great success. We were able to visit a host of companies we’ve previously covered on the podcast, like Ximalaya, Xiaohongshu, Ruhan, Xiaomi, China Renaissance, Tiger Brokers, and more, as well as new ones such as Ctrip, Mogujie, Qutoutiao, and Bilibili, which we hope to talk about in more detail soon. Thank you to everyone who hosted us, and a special thanks to all of our listeners who came out for our happy hours!
Episode 54 of TechBuzz China is about the rise of the influencer and idol economies in China, which is a major trend that has created an entirely new ecosystem online. Indeed, one-third of China’s total retail sales are taking place online, and its ecommerce platforms are some of the most innovative and advanced in the world. Listen to learn about phenomena such as live-streaming ecommerce (直播电商), multi-channel networks (MC…
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Oct 4, 2019
Ep. 53: NetEase — Developing Pigs, Games, and People
TechBuzz China is going to China! As part of our inaugural invite-only TechBuzz China Investor Trip for public market investors taking place right after Golden Week, we will be hosting a live meetup in Beijing’s Sanlitun at Taco Bar on Tuesday, October 8, and in Shanghai at Hotel Indigo on Thursday, October 10. Both will begin at 8:30 p.m. If you are in either of those cities, do come out and have a beer on us!
Episode 53 of TechBuzz China is about NetEase. Listen to learn about the company’s founder, William Ding, and how he built a $33 billion empire based on a unique business style as well as on his belief that a company doesn’t need a direction or specific labels. Today, NetEase’s offerings range from email to publishing and developing games, and from breeding pigs to educating people.
You can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. If you enjoy our content, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us! We do…
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Sep 20, 2019
Ep. 52: Zhihu and Kuaishou — Has China’s Quora Found Its Prince Charming?
TechBuzz China is going to China! As part of our inaugural invite-only TechBuzz China Investor Trip for public market investors taking place right after Golden Week, we will be hosting live meetups. These will take place in Beijing’s Sanlitun after dinner on Tuesday, October 8, and in Shanghai after dinner on Thursday, October 10. If you are in either of those cities, do come out and have a beer on us! Check our Twitter (@techbuzzchina) for updates on the exact locations and times.
Episode 52 of TechBuzz China is on a topic from back in August, when Kuaishou, Baidu, Tencent, and Capital Today invested a collective $434 million into the Q&A site Zhihu 知乎. The site, which literally means “Do you know?” in Chinese, is comparable to Quora in its core services. Its 220 million monthly active users (MAU) is also comparable with Quora’s 300 million MAU. In typical TechBuzz fashion, our co-hosts, Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu, dive into Zhihu’s founding story, the company’s busine…
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Aug 30, 2019
Ep. 51: Overview of China Tech: Rui Ma on SupChina Access
Episode 51 of TechBuzz China is our second consecutive show that is in a unique format. It features a replay of TechBuzz co-host Rui Ma’s recorded call on SupChina Access, which was originally aired live on July 23. The conversation is moderated by Jeremy Goldkorn, editor-in-chief of SupChina. As longtime listeners know, we are proudly one of the most long-standing podcasts within SupChina’s Sinica Podcast Network. In this episode, Jeremy prompts Rui to speak on some of the hottest topics, trends, and companies covered in past TechBuzz episodes: Luckin Coffee, e-cigarettes, Baidu, Bytedance, EV carmakers, real estate platforms, and 996 work culture. Overall, it serves as a great intro to the past TechBuzz episodes, if you haven’t already listened to them!
In addition, listen in to hear Rui share her expertise on: What is the current macro environment for venture capital and startups in China — is the “tech winter” really coming? What is the status of the STAR market that…
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Aug 16, 2019
Ep. 50: TechBuzz Live: The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future
Episode 50 of TechBuzz China is unique: it’s our first live recording! It features co-host Rui Ma in conversation with author and journalist Matt Sheehan, currently a fellow based at the Paulson Institute’s MacroPolo think tank. It was recorded at the August 13 launch of Matt’s new book, The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future. As our co-hosts have commented on previous episodes, we respect Matt as one of the smartest and most thoughtful voices on U.S.-China topics. Though his book covers content and industries that we at TechBuzz usually do not, these topics are crucial to understanding the greater context that defines U.S-China tech today — especially given today’s geopolitical situation.
Listen to find out: What does Matt think are some of the long-term repercussions of the Chinese education system, and how they may ultimately impact the decisions and preferences of Chinese tech talent? What does Matt mean when he wri…
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Aug 2, 2019
Ep. 49: China’s Gen-Z and its newest poison: sneakers
In episode 49 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma continue their exploration of the converging trends between the U.S. and China’s ecommerce sectors, this week covering the topic of the resale market for sneakers and streetwear. Notably, entrepreneurs in the U.S. and in China, such as the founders of smash-hit sneaker site Pozion, seem to have discovered this space at roughly the same time. Perhaps, our co-hosts muse, due to the tech-savvy nature of the Gen-Z demographic, differences across the two countries are far less than we think. Globally, this and other ecommerce platforms thus far have catered only to women; Poizon and other brands are showing the way to a category in which men are the primary consumers. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by explaining the impetus for this episode: the fact that two unicorns of roughly the same valuation, the same business (selling sneakers and other streetwear to urban youth), and the same lead investor (DST) were born in this space t…
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Jul 19, 2019
Ep. 48: Three Squirrels: The Nutty World of Chinese D2C Brands
In episode 48 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma take a look at the direct-to-consumer, or D2C, brands in China. Specifically, they highlight one of the early winners of the business model: Three Squirrels, a Chinese internet snack brand that started off with selling nuts and went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange last week with a market cap of close to $2 billion. Though the company has not been covered much in English, it has been all the buzz in China’s tech community, and is a story that our co-hosts think is good for demonstrating both the similarities and the differences in the rise of D2C in the U.S. and China. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by explaining what they mean by the “snack market” in China. Though estimates differ on the market size, as well as the definitions of the market itself, our co-hosts agree that the market is enormous as well as highly fragmented. Enter CEO Liaoyuan Zhang (章燎原), whose background prior to founding Three Squirrels…
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Jun 21, 2019
Ep. 47: Chinese K12 English EdTech: VIPKid and How Learning is Earning
In episode 47 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into a topic they have been wanting to cover for a while now: Chinese educational technology (edtech). Specifically, they focus on VIPKid, a company that has an incredible number of competitors but is by far the largest in terms of scale for its cross-border model of English-language instruction. Notably, 8 of the 12 startup unicorns categorized as edtech by CBInsights are from China — and this does not include the number of publicly listed Chinese education companies in the U.S. Our co-hosts explain that edtech (alongside the recent TechBuzz topics of online brokerages, e-cigarettes, plastic surgery, and e-sports livestreaming) is yet another example of an industry that is thriving in China but is either not widely reported on or would not work well in other markets. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by exploring the landscape for English learning in China, in the context of edtech. They remind our listeners that while ov…
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Jun 7, 2019
Ep. 46: Futu, Tiger, and the trillion-dollar overseas online brokerage business from China
In episode 46 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma take a look at the market for China’s overseas online brokerages, which help Chinese people to invest in securities outside of mainland China. Of note, two Chinese fintech startups, Futu (富途 fù tú, or “path to riches”) and Tiger Brokers, went IPO in quick succession in March. This episode tells the stories of Futu and Tiger against a backdrop of relative volatility for U.S.-listed Chinese equities, as compared with their NASDAQ and NYSE peers. Join us as we explore the potential links between the rise of overseas online brokerages and this volatility, including the large pops — and subsequent bursts — of companies such as NIO, Luckin, and Qutoutiao that have listed in the U.S. in the past year. Indeed, Reuters has cheekily called the seesawing prices “trading with Chinese characteristics.” For listeners who are new to this topic, we recommend that you press the pause button and first listen to episod…
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May 24, 2019
Ep. 45: Totally Lit or Just Hot Air? The Rise of E-Cigarettes in China
In episode 45 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the rise of what has been touted as “the next big trend” in China tech: electronic cigarettes. Despite being criticized as a trap for entrepreneurs and investors alike, as well as concerns around ethical considerations, a large number of high-profile hardware entrepreneurs and consumer internet executives in China have jumped into the fray. Although China has yet to birth a decacorn in this sector like U.S.-based Juul, which is now valued at $38 billion, our co-hosts bet that at least one unicorn will emerge. After all, a recent research report by China’s Sinolink Securities projected the size of the domestic e-cig market to reach over $4 billion in the next four years — in many ways, we are only at day zero as measured against the market potential. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by explaining that since smartphone purchases in China have slowed, a lot of the wealth and entrepreneurial talent that was focu…
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May 10, 2019
Ep. 44: So young, more beautiful — the allure of China's plastic surgery market
In episode 44 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about So-Young, an internet company that markets and facilitates plastic surgery and other medical cosmetic procedures to Chinese customers. The six-year-old company has a stated mission of bringing “health and beauty” to everyone, and its stock priced at $13.80 per American depositary share (ADS) last week but is now trading at about $20. Prior to listing, So-Young had raised over $250 million in venture capital funding, including some from Tencent. Last year, it claimed to have made $8 million in net income, plus a market share of 82 percent based on user time spent on similar apps. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by giving an overview of the scale of the plastic surgery market in China. In China, the industry is broadly known as “医疗美容” (yīliáo měiróng) or “医美” (yī měi), roughly translated as “medical cosmetology,” which includes procedures such as hair removal, hair transplants, and vari…
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Apr 26, 2019
Ep. 43: Douyu’s IPO, Panda.TV’s Death — Let the Gaming Livestreaming Games Begin
In Episode 43 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into the world of gaming live streaming, which is a pretty big industry in China. Specifically, our co-hosts focus primarily on two companies, Douyu and Panda.TV. The former has just filed to go public on the NYSE at a valuation of $500 million, and the latter officially shut down on March 30 of this year. Notably, these and several other players mentioned in today’s episode have all received Tencent investment at one point or another — not a surprise, since gaming is in Tencent’s lifeblood. Our co-hosts, while both not gamers, acknowledge that the topic of today’s episode is interesting because it is one of the most global ones out there, with plenty of opportunities for cross-border capital. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by launching into the history of the industry, and by giving some topline stats about the current game-centric live-streaming platforms in China. They share that while Douyu claims to be #1, and…
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Apr 12, 2019
Ep. 42: To 996, or Not to 996, That is the Question
In Episode 42 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma turn their attention to the developer-led movement 996.icu, one of the few viral China tech topics in the past few months that has made it to Western media in real time and gotten a good bit of coverage. The movement is so named because there is a popular saying that to work “996,” or at least 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — as many tech sector employees do in China — is to end up in the ICU. Listeners will also hear from Arman Zand, a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. This episode is dedicated to the latest cohort of students from his international business course on China — who, by the way, are all TechBuzz listeners, debated the concept of 996 incessantly while on a recent immersion trip, and met with Pandaily CEO Kevin Zhou over dinner in Beijing. Thanks, all, for your support! Rui and Ying-Ying explain that what has widely been hailed in the West as one of China’s secret weapons t…
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Apr 2, 2019
Ep. 41: IPO is for Influencers: The Company Behind China’s Kylie Jenner is Going Public
In Episode 41 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Ruhnn (RUHN), a relatively small yet significant company that filed for IPO a few weeks ago in the U.S. on the Nasdaq. Ruhnn has become the clear leader in China’s fast-growing influencer marketing sector, an area in which — our co-hosts agree — China should be considered world-leading. Lauren Hallanan, a Chinese social media marketing expert focusing on influencer marketing, and a former livestreamer in China with over 400,000 fans, joins us with insightful commentary on Ruhnn and other influencer incubators. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by explaining that Ruhnn, known in Chinese as Ruhan 如涵, is “China’s No. 1. KOL Facilitator” — with “KOL” standing for Key Opinion Leaders, or the rough equivalent of what in the U.S. are known as influencers. Unlike influencers in the U.S., however, the term KOL has its roots in the advertising industry and is a more professional term that usually implies tha…
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Mar 15, 2019
Ep. 40: China’s Newest Stock Exchange Experiment: Shanghai’s Technology Innovation Board
In Episode 40 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the new “Technology Innovation Board” on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which formally announced its first set of rules last week. Rui and Ying-Ying explain that given its recent trajectory, this registration-based NASDAQ-style board could be launched in a few months, if not weeks — much more quickly than skeptics have assumed. With this news as the backdrop, this week’s episode serves as a quick primer into the differences between China and the U.S.’s capital markets, as well as how these contrasts may explain some of the differences in Chinese tech entrepreneurship and capital versus those in the U.S. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by walking through a brief history of Chinese domestic capital markets, which had a total market cap of $6 billion late last year and are still really young compared with those in the U.S.; in fact, both the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the larger Shanghai Stock Exchange were foun…
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Feb 26, 2019
Ep. 39: Podcasting in China — the Myth and the Reality
Episode 39 of TechBuzz China is on a topic of special interest to our co-hosts, Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma: podcasting in China! It was sparked by two recent pieces of news within the podcasting industry. The first was the acquisition of Gimlet Media, a podcasting network, by the newly IPOed music-streaming service Spotify for $200 million; the second was the $100 million raised by the podcasting platform Himalaya. In fact, Himalaya’s main investor, China’s Ximalaya FM, boasts 23 million daily active users and is rumored to be going for an IPO soon. In contrast to our typical coverage here at TechBuzz, the above subject barely made a splash in Chinese media — but it was a big deal in English-language news, with quite a few articles mentioning China as a leader in the podcasting industry. One often-referenced article stated that the Chinese government estimated the “pay-for-knowledge” economy to be about $7.3 billion in 2017, with the bulk of it coming from paid podcasts. Howe…
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Feb 19, 2019
Ep. 38: Battle of the Red Packets
In episode 38 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into this year’s Battle of the Red Packets. The name refers to the custom of money-giving, which is an important part of the Chinese New Year experience. It has also been taken over by Chinese internet companies as one of their main user acquisition events of the year. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by sharing the history of hongbao, or “red packet.” In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the traditional gift was simply a stack of coins tied up with red string. With the popularity of paper money came the introduction of the red envelopes we see now. The so-called Battle of the Red Packets emerged in 2014, when WeChat fundamentally changed the rules of the game by allowing users to send digital red packets to the chat groups they are in within the app. WeChat essentially gamified the experience, coining the term 抢红包, or “grabbing red packets.” In the first year, 5 million users grabbed 20 million WeChat red packe…
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Feb 1, 2019
Ep. 37: The WeChat Mini Program — The End of Apps or Not?
In episode 37 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into the world of WeChat Mini Programs. Arguably some of the biggest innovations to come out of the Chinese internet, Mini Programs have no real Western equivalent. Ever since it was launched three years ago on January 9, 2016, the Mini Programs function, which is still in an experimental stage, has been touted as a key direction for WeChat. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by exploring the origin story of Mini Programs. They explain that, back in 2016, it was not immediately clear to the WeChat team what to do with the product after its launch. WeChat was observing that while the Official Accounts system was taking off, the main issue was that these accounts were not built to properly handle transactions. So Allen Zhang and his team began to ask themselves if there was something heavier than an Official Account but lighter than a native app that they could make to help businesses transact online, inside of WeChat. The g…
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Jan 25, 2019
Ep. 36: China Tech is Risky Business - Pinduoduo’s Hack and DJI’s Corruption Scandal
In episode 36 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the dirty, risky, and more unseemly aspects of China tech, primarily focused on two stories that grabbed headlines recently: the “hack” at the ecommerce company Pinduoduo, and the corruption scandal at the drone designer DJI. Although the incidents differ greatly from each other, they have come on each other’s heels, so our co-hosts decided to bundle them together for an episode, reflecting what’s buzzing within the tech community in China right now. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by focusing on the Pinduoduo story. This past week, the company lost millions of dollars to hackers who obtained millions of $15 coupons and sold them for as little as $0.06. At one point, it was rumored that the platform lost over $3 billion in just a few hours, and users wondered if the company would go bankrupt. Pinduoduo has denied these rumors and insists that actual losses will be less than $1.5 million. However, what exactly…
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Jan 18, 2019
Ep. 35: Everybody was WeChat Fighting: Bytedance Duoshan, Toilet App, and Bullet 2.0
In episode 35 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about competitors to the reigning Chinese social media champion, WeChat. Specifically, they focus on three apps that all decided to launch on Tuesday, January 15, 2019, two weeks before Chinese New Year: Bytedance’s Duoshan, Wang Xin’s self-proclaimed “anti-WeChat” Toilet, and Bullet Messenger 2.0. Following their releases, WeChat promptly blocked links to all three. Our co-hosts ask: Does WeChat have a reason to be scared? Why was it so defensive? Is there truly a chance for any of these companies to topple Allen Zhang’s miraculous creation? And if so, how would that come about? Rui and Ying-Ying begin by giving their perspective on WeChat’s two main weaknesses. The first is its decreasing representation of young users, specifically, teenagers — a challenge that many other social networks that have been around for a while, including Facebook, also face. The second is the emergence of WeChat Moments as…
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Jan 11, 2019
Ep. 34: WeChat’s 7.0 Update and Allen Zhang, the Man Behind the App
In episode 34 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the latest version of WeChat, which first came out on iOS the third week of December 2018, and on Android a few days later. It has been over four years since WeChat released an update this large, and since then, it’s added on over half a billion monthly active users. The latest updates included several widely expected features, namely, enhanced sharing of both video and content, which overlap with Bytedance’s core strengths — definitely not a coincidence. What’s the latest behind what is still arguably the most influential internet product of the past decade? And what has been the impact of WeChat's founder on its product development? Rui and Ying-Ying share that WeChat was created by Zhang Xiaolong, or Allen Zhang, who joined Tencent via the internet giant’s acquisition of Foxmail. He was originally tasked with heading up the Tencent R&D center and leading the QQ Mail team. As the now legendary —…
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Dec 26, 2018
Ep. 33: Tencent Music - Totally Not China’s Spotify
In episode 33 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Tencent Music (TME), which finally completed its $1.2 billion IPO after a two-month delay due to market volatility. The company rose 9 percent on its first day, but has traded below the initial offering price ever since. This episode covers the business model of TME, its market potential, and our co-hosts’ thoughts on its future outlook. Though often compared with Spotify, to what extent are these two companies truly similar? Rui and Ying-Ying begin today’s story by reviewing Tencent Music’s corporate history. The entity comprises four apps: QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music, and WeSing, which today account for a combined 70 percent of China’s music market. However, once upon a time, these were disparate products that sometimes competed; in fact, they only came together through an entity known as China Music Corporation (CMC), which was formed in 2012 by Xie Guomin. CMC acquired Kuwo in 2013 and Kugou…
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Dec 12, 2018
Ep. 32: Luckin Coffee: Starbucks Challenger or a New Breed of F&B for the 21st Century?
In episode 32 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Luckin Coffee, the hybrid online-offline coffee chain unicorn startup that’s turning heads in China with its rapid expansion and innovative business model. In fact, immediately after we completed recording this episode, news broke that the year-old company has raised another $200 million in fresh funding, upping its valuation to $2.2 billion. Throughout Luckin’s existence, Western media has had a habit of comparing Luckin to Starbucks, and describing Luckin as the “Starbucks challenger.” But just how accurate is this juxtaposition? Additionally, how has now-celebrity CEO Qian Zhiya, or Jenny, been able to attract tremendous amounts of venture capital and instill strong investor confidence as a first-time founder? Rui and Ying-Ying begin today’s story with Jenny’s background. Now 43 years old, she was previously best known as one of the hidden weapons of China’s leading transportation companies,…
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Dec 5, 2018
Ep. 31: Alibaba and the Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu): Powering Ecommerce With Content
In episode 31 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Xiaohongshu, also known as RED, which had received a $300 million investment from Alibaba. Though the money was injected in June, the two companies have recently announced an additional cooperation that links them at the product level — an integration with Alibaba’s Taobao. What is the significance of these developments, and what is the story of Xiaohongshu? Listeners also hear from Elijah Whaley, the CMO of the Chinese influencer marketing platform PARKLU, which counts RED as a client. Rui and Ying-Ying share that Xiaohongshu’s tagline is “The world’s best lifestyle at your fingertips,” and people often refer to the site as “Instagram and Pinterest sprinkled with a dose of Taobao.” The site’s founders, Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu, are only 33 this year. They first met a decade ago in a U.S. mall, though Xiaohongshu did not exist until Charlwin attended a Tencent-sponsored entrepreneurship ca…
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Nov 21, 2018
Ep. 30: The Greatest Train Wreck of the Chinese Internet: Renren, China’s Facebook
In episode 30 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Renren Inc., the closest Chinese analogue to Facebook. The company — which once had a near-monopoly on the Chinese social networking space, and had raised $800 million in its 2011 IPO — recently announced that it would sell all of its Renren.com social networking assets to Beijing Infinities Technology, a holding company, for a mere $20 million in cash and $40 million worth of stock. This episode explores the question: What happened? Rui and Ying-Ying follow the winding history of Renren, starting with the background of its founder and CEO, Joe Chen, through its acquisition of Wang Xing’s Xiaonei social network and then to its NYSE listing — which, by the way, Rui’s investment banking firm at the time played a small role in. Though the public offering was successful, even hailed as a “prelude to Facebook’s IPO,” things started going downhill from there. By 2016, total revenues had dropped by ha…
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Nov 16, 2018
Ep. 29: Alibaba Singles’ Day $30.8 Billion Extravaganza — The Real Deal, or Not?
In episode 29 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about China’s version of “Black Friday,” the biggest ecommerce shopping festival of the year which Alibaba invented out of thin air in 2008 and now falls yearly on November 11. Rui and Ying-Ying delve into the history behind the “Double 11 Shopping Festival,” as Chinese media title it. How did it get started? Why does it have such mindshare in the world of China’s internet? How did it go this year? After reviewing the evidence, our co-hosts conclude that despite the large sales figures floating around, this single holiday is not an accurate reflection of the state of the ecommerce sector in China. Rui and Ying-Ying share that the original iteration of Singles Day was launched in 2008 by Daniel Zhang of Alibaba, who has since been promoted to CEO. His intent was to promote Tmall, Alibaba’s business to consumer (B2C) platform that was then known as Taobao Merchants. Since the selected date, November 11,…
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Nov 7, 2018
Ep. 28: The World’s Most Valuable Startup: Bytedance, maker of TikTok & Toutiao
In episode 28 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the Chinese AI company that recently toppled Uber to become the highest-valued startup in the world: Bytedance. Having just closed on a $3 billion funding round led by SoftBank, the company is currently valued at $75 billion. Though our co-hosts have mentioned Bytedance across several previous episodes, including a focus on the company’s war with Tencent in episode 9, today’s episode is the first to delve into its founding story, and to give a snapshot of its key strengths and weaknesses. Bytedance’s parent company was founded in 2012 with the buzzy mandate to “combine the power of AI with the growth of mobile internet to revolutionize the way people consume and receive information.” Six years later, the company’s two main apps, news-oriented Toutiao and video-based TikTok, have over 260 million and over 500 million monthly active users, respectively. In fact, TikTok, which is just a bit over two y…
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Oct 31, 2018
Ep. 27: Poking at the Hornet’s Nest: Fake Reviews in China Tech
In Episode 27 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma discuss the latest scandal to come out of the Chinese internet — fake reviews on one of China’s leading travel websites, Mafengwo. Mafengwo had $1.5 billion in sales last year, 63k transactions, and over 100 million monthly active users. It’s already backed by some of the best investors in the business, including Temasek, Hillhouse, General Atlantic, and Capital Today, and in August, it was leaked that it was in the middle of raising $300 million at a valuation up to $2.5 billion. A controversy then blew up when analytics firm Shenzhen Hurui and a Wechat official account known for their exposés of the tech industry published a blog post that claimed 85 percent — 18 out of 21 million — of Mafengwo’s user reviews were faked or plagiarized from other sites. Outrageously, some of them were so poorly plagiarized that they still retained the original website’s URL, or in other cases, scripts indicating that th…
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Oct 23, 2018
Ep. 26: The O2O Local Services War: Alibaba vs. Meituan? Part 2: Koubei
In episode 26 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma discuss Koubei, rounding out a two-part deep-dive into the local services space in China. An Alibaba subsidiary, Koubei recently merged with ele.me, another Alibaba-owned (via acquisition) entity which was covered in episode 25 last week. Listeners will also hear from Ed Sander of ChinaTalk, a China trip leader and prolific writer on the topic of ecommerce and China. Rui and Ying-Ying tell the story of Koubei. Though the brand was started in 2004 by an early Alibaba employee, it was left for dead in 2011 before being revived in 2015 — for the explicit purpose of going after the local services market. The O2O market had reached only 4.4 percent penetration at the time, but already presented massive opportunity. When reborn, Koubei began with the F&B (food and beverage) restaurant business, but it always had grander ambitions — in fact, its very first press release said that it was eventually going to go into healthca…
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Oct 17, 2018
Ep. 25: The O2O Local Services War: Alibaba vs. Meituan? Part 1: ele.me
In episode 25 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Alibaba’s recent moves to firm up its strategy around local services, putting pressure on Meituan-Dianping to defend itself. This war of “O2O,” or online-to-offline, is shaping up to be intense, with the latest battle round seeing the merger between food delivery rival ele.me (which Alibaba acquired for $9.5 billion in April) and Alibaba’s new retail subsidiary, Koubei. This episode of TechBuzz is the first in a series of deep dives into the local services space in China. Rui and Ying-Ying begin with some background on Meituan’s “unstoppable roll” on its way to becoming the “Amazon of services” for China: the gargantuan super app is currently dominating several verticals including food delivery, movie ticket sales, bike sharing, and travel. However, its dominance is being challenged by Alibaba, and in the food delivery space this shows up in the form of the ecommerce giant’s support for a…
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Oct 10, 2018
Ep. 24: The Man and the Firm Behind China’s Tech Renaissance
In Episode 24 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about China Renaissance Group, a tech-focused investment bank founded and led by one of the country’s most famed rainmakers, Bao Fan. While the episode covers the firm’s recent Hong Kong IPO, as well as some of its top deals, its culture, and several of its business lines, the episode really focuses more on Bao Fan himself — after all, his career in many ways is the China tech industry. It is often said that everyone who's anyone in China tech is connected to Bao Fan or has done business with him. How has this man, who describes himself as a “bald Shanghainese dude who loves F1 and MMA,” applied massive amounts of ambition and aggression to succeed? Rui and Ying-Ying share that Bao, who is probably not the tallest man in China tech, was born into a diplomatic family in Shanghai and sent off to boarding school early. He attended high school in the U.S., college in China, and graduate school in Norway, and w…
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Sep 25, 2018
Ep. 23: Update on Meituan, the Super App that Won Against a Thousand Clones
Happy Holidays, TechBuzz listeners! That’s right, it’s Mid-Autumn Festival, followed closely by Golden Week for the Pandaily team back in Beijing. In honor of the holidays — and to commemorate *almost* six months since we released our first episode of TechBuzz back in April of this year — co-hosts Rui and Ying-Ying are taking off as well! We will be back with a new original episode on October 9. In order to not leave you hanging, and in recognition of Meituan-Dianping’s recent IPO in which it raised a healthy $4.2 billion from investors, we share our first ever replay. If you haven’t already, have a listen to Episode 10, which we produced back in back in June when Meituan-Dianping was first rumored to be preparing to go public. We talked about its founder, Wang Xing 王兴, and heard from guest James Hong, an angel investor who has known Wang for decades. Thank you for being a loyal listener, and enjoy! As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Let…
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Sep 19, 2018
Ep. 22: NIO — The Road Ahead for ‘China’s Tesla’
In episode 22 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about electric carmaker NIO, which went public on September 12 on the NYSE. This episode covers how NIO got started, its purported business model, and how it differs from its competition. Listeners will also hear from Elliott Zaagman, a writer covering Chinese tech as well as an organizational development consultant for Chinese tech firms. Rui and Ying-Ying start their story with Li Bin, or William Bin Li, who is NIO’s celebrity Founder, Chairman, and CEO. Li Bin, only 43 years old this year, is known as the “godfather of the transport sector” in China: not only did he have his first IPO in 2010 for a car-related internet company named BitAuto, but he has also invested in at least 32 companies in the transportation sector, including 5 unicorns. Indeed, Li Bin is widely recognized for being a master at both making and raising money. However, Li Bin and NIO’s path in the electric vehicle (EV) industry has not…
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Sep 12, 2018
Ep. 21: Is WeChat Bulletproof?
In Ep. 21 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the new messaging app, Bullet Messenger, which took the Chinese internet by storm and reached five million registered users in just eleven days. The key question: is this a true challenger to WeChat? Or is it more of a short-lived, false alarm without real long-term potential? Listeners will also hear expert analysis from Matthew Brennan, a speaker and writer focused on Chinese mobile internet who can be found at @mbrennanchina and on the podcast China Tech Talk. Rui and Ying-Ying start by delving into a crucial quality about Bullet which has been overlooked in English language coverage: the incredible power and reach of its angel investor and best spokesperson, Luo Yonghao. Luo is a former English teacher who gained a cult following thanks to his entertaining sayings and charisma in the classroom. He took his cultural capital and went into smartphones, creating the brand Smartisan, which released its first phone…
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Sep 5, 2018
Ep. 20: Are Startups Behind the Rising Rents in Beijing?
In episode 20 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma look into the alleged causes behind the recent 22 percent year-on-year increase in rent prices in Beijing, a rise which has sparked outrage in citizens. In addition to blaming real estate startups, some headlines have also proclaimed that the influx of venture capital and private equity into the tech sector is at the root of the problem. In the episode, Rui and Ying-Ying take an analytical approach to break down the factors affecting the rental market — or rather, largely the middle range of the rental market — in Beijing. They start by giving an overview of the market, including citing average rental and purchase prices as a percentage of take-home pay — and the numbers aren’t pretty. Unaffordable housing is a destabilizing factor for cities everywhere, but especially in China, where overpopulation is still a nationwide challenge and home ownership is particularly prized. Our co-hosts then focus on the impact o…
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Aug 29, 2018
Ep. 19: Tencent and the Case of the Missing $140 Billion
So far in 2018, Tencent’s stock price has continued to tumble from analysts’ price targets. Today, it sits at $430 billion, a far cry from its $570 billion market cap in January. Some commentators blame the decline on Tencent’s Q2 results, which showed a 2 percent drop in earnings and was the company’s first fall in profit in nearly 13 years. What is really going on here? What is the real cause? And what does it all mean for what is arguably still China’s leading internet company? In this episode of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma take a close look at Tencent. TechBuzz first covered Tencent in episode 5, and again in episode 9. Fittingly, those episodes focused on public perception of Tencent’s ability to innovate, as well as the robustness of Tencent’s overall strategy — including against the likes of rising behemoth Toutiao. This week’s episode takes a more holistic view of the internal and external factors that may have contributed to Tencent’s p…
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Aug 22, 2018
Ep. 18: China vs. Google: Rematch?
On August 1, The Intercept broke a story that Google was planning to enter China with a censored search engine. Within hours, the same news was all over Chinese tech media. In this episode of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma tell the story of Google in China — or rather, its 2010 departure and oft-rumored return. Though Chinese tech media love speculating, how likely is this to actually happen? What role does the U.S. government play? What factors need to be in place for Google’s return to occur, and is this even what the company’s leadership really wants? The story of search in China is not complete without also discussing Baidu, which dominates over 70 percent of the domestic online search market in the country. In fact, on the day Google left China in 2014, Baidu’s stock went up 12 percent on the news. However, has Baidu truly maximized its opportunities? Is there truth to the complaint that Baidu’s search results are heavily skewed towards commercial resu…
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Aug 7, 2018
Ep. 17: Pinduoduo: From Zero to $23B in Three Years
In this episode of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma tell the story of ecommerce company Pinduoduo, the fastest-growing app in the history of the Chinese internet, from its founding in 2015 to its recent listing on the Nasdaq. What does the company’s IPO prospectus reveal about the intentions and vision of its founder, Colin Huang? In what ways is the app a combination of “Costco and Disneyland” — or not? The episode concludes by revisiting the insights of Mark Pols, currently Corporate Development at Facebook and previously an investor with GGV Capital, whose comments were originally played in Episode 2, in which Pinduoduo was briefly covered. Few in the West realize that Pinduoduo started as two parallel entities: Pinduoduo, which was a marketplace, and Pinhaohuo, which sold fruit and other perishable items via direct sales. The former was intended to be a side project, with the purpose of testing which items would be best for group-buying, but ended up generat…
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Jul 31, 2018
Ep. 16: Bike Sharing in China, Part 2: Mobike and the Future of Personal Transportation
This episode of TechBuzz China is our second of two focused on bike-sharing in China. In it, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma tell the story of the rest of China’s bike-sharing industry beyond Ofo, focusing on major players Mobike and Hellobike. They cover Mobike’s founders, fundraisings, current reach, and distinctive approach to its bike-sharing business, as well as fast-growing latecomer Hellobike’s entrance to the scene. Guest speaker Karl Ulrich, the Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Wharton School, weighs in for the second week in a row, giving macro-level predictions about the global impact of new solutions for personal transportation. With 29 percent of all internet users in China now making use of bike-sharing services, what is the real impact of these services on metrics such as number of trips taken via subway, bus, and car? How have investors Alibaba and Tencent-backed Meituan taken strategic positions in this race, and how do their positions affect…
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Jul 24, 2018
Ep. 15: Bike sharing in China, Part 1: Ofo’s Wild Ride
The internet age has brought with it what China's state media calls the country's “New Four Great Inventions”: high speed trains, scan-and-pay mobile payments, bike sharing, and ecommerce. This week’s episode is the first in a two-part story on bike sharing — told against a backdrop of Ofo, one of the two major Chinese players, pulling out of international markets. What happened? And most importantly, what is happening now? Listen to this week’s episode of TechBuzz China by co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, for a history lesson on Ofo! Guest speaker Karl Ulrich, the Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Wharton School, weighs in as well. TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast focused on giving you a peek into what’s buzzing within the tech community in China. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They uncover and contextualize uniqu…
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Jul 18, 2018
Ep. 14: Xiaomi: Bull or Bear? A Post-IPO Debate
Xiaomi’s recent IPO in Hong Kong was the world’s biggest tech IPO since Alibaba’s in 2014, but will it soar in the stock market and become the Apple of China? Listen to the first ever debate on TechBuzz China and take your position as a bear or a bull on the new stock. TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast focused on giving you a peek into what’s buzzing within the tech community in China. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They uncover and contextualize unique insights, perspectives, and takeaways on headline tech news that don’t always make it into English language coverage. Our co-hosts Ying-Ying and Rui take opposite positions on the future of Xiaomi, an eight-year old company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Lei Jun. They battle it out on whether Xiaomi is an internet company with hundreds of companies within its ecosystem and lots o…
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Jul 10, 2018
Ep. 13: JD, Google, and the War for the Rest of the World
On June 18, JD.com concluded its annual shopping festival with a transaction volume of roughly $24.5 billion. On the same day, the ecommerce platform also announced an investment from Google of $550 million. What does this new alliance mean? Listen to the latest episode from TechBuzz China to find out! TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast focused on giving you a peek into what’s buzzing within the tech community in China. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They uncover and contextualize unique insights, perspectives, and takeaways on headline tech news that don’t always make it into English-language coverage. This week on TechBuzz China, Ying-Ying and Rui give a thorough breakdown of China’s second-largest ecommerce platform, from its history and recent ventures abroad, to the power couple behind the behemoth who have celebrity statuses akin to A…
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Jul 3, 2018
Ep. 12: Bitmain - the Most Valuable Crypto Company in the World?
As a TechBuzz China listener, you must be at least a little bit crypto-curious. This week on TechBuzz China, we talk in-depth about Bitmain, the most valuable company in the cryptocurrency space, which happens to be from China. TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast focused on giving you a peek into what’s buzzing within the tech community in China. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They uncover and contextualize unique insights, perspectives, and takeaways on headline tech news that don’t always make it into English-language coverage. This week, TechBuzz China's very own Lu and Ma, along with guest co-host Joyce Yang, talk all about cryptocurrency - more specifically, the biggest crypto company in the world, Bitmain. With profits of $3 billion to $4 billion last year, how did Bitmain manage to hold 70-80 percent of the market share of bitcoin mining…
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Jun 26, 2018
Ep. 11: After Alibaba, Team Jack Ma's Newest Centacorn: Ant Financial
What do you call a unicorn worth more than $100 billion? A centacorn, of course! This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma discuss a newly minted centacorn — Ant Financial. TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast focused on giving you a peek into what’s buzzing within the tech community in China. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They uncover and contextualize unique insights, perspectives, and takeaways on headline tech news that doesn’t always make it into English language coverage.Alibaba Group, the owner-turned-affiliate-turned-shareholder of Ant Financial, was valued at $140 billion when it went public in 2014. Now, Alibaba's spinoff payment platform Ant Financial was valued at more than $150 billion in their pre-IPO round in June 2018. What does Ant Financial do that makes it such a highly valued company? What is…
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Jun 19, 2018
Ep. 10: Meituan, the Super App that Won Against a Thousand Clones
This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma tell you how Wang Xing, the legendary Chinese serial entrepreneur who started out with “copy to China,” is now standing behind one of the largest unicorns in the world, Meituan-Dianping. TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast focused on giving you a peek into what’s buzzing within the tech community in China. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They uncover and contextualize unique insights, perspectives, and takeaways on headline tech news that don’t always make it into English language coverage. Meituan-Dianping has dipped its toes in almost EVERY aspect of any Chinese person’s life — including food delivery, payments, ride hailing, movie tickets sales, and travel booking. The unicorn is the result of a $15 billion merger between the Groupon-clone Meituan and the Yelp-pr…
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Jun 12, 2018
Ep. 9: Tencent vs. Toutiao
Earlier this month, Tencent sued Bytedance, better known as Toutiao, for 1 yuan and Toutiao fought back by suing Tencent for 90 million yuan. What sparked the feud between the David and Goliath of the Chinese tech world? Listen to this week's episode of TechBuzz China by Pandaily to find out! TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast focused on giving you a peek into what’s buzzing within the tech community in China. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They uncover and contextualize unique insights, perspectives, and takeaways on headline tech news that doesn’t always make it into English-language coverage. This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, Ying-Ying and Rui explain the fight between Bytedance and Tencent as sparked by the war in short-video apps. They trace it back to the humble beginnings of short-video apps and talk about the major players such a…
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Jun 5, 2018
Ep. 8: Lu Qi and Baidu: The Breakup That Broke China’s Heart
This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma look at the resignation of Baidu's COO and tech genius Lu Qi and how the move sparked wave after wave of speculation, commentary, and reaction in the Chinese tech world. TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast that is all about China’s innovations. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They share and discuss the most important tech news from China every week with commentaries from investors, industry experts, and entrepreneurs. What is Lu Qi's story and where is he going next? What did Lu Qi do to have Baidu stocks rise by 58 percent during his tenure? Why did his departure strike a strong chord, while previous departures of top Silicon Valley execs such as Huge Barra from Xiaomi and Andrew Ng from Baidu resonated less with the Chinese tech world? Rui and Ying-Ying answer these questi…
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May 29, 2018
Ep. 7: Live Streaming in China: How to Win Fans and Influence Losers
When Dale Carnegie wrote his magnum opus almost a century ago, he was most certainly not prepared to address social phenomenons such as live streaming in our ever-evolving digital era. This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, our hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma look at the Chinese live-streaming industry, the true darling of the Chinese internet age unbeknownst to the West. They trace back the origins of this industry, whose market cap grew by almost 250 times in half a decade, explain the psychology of the ordinary Chinese involved, and break down companies such as HUYA, Inke, and M17, which are the forerunners in this arena. How did it all start? Why are people so hooked? What's the business model, and is it sustainable? Find out these answers and more by tuning in to the latest episode of your favorite weekly China tech podcast. TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast that is all about China’s innovations. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both se…
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May 22, 2018
Ep. 6: Murder on the Didi Express, and China’s Love Affair with EVs
This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, our hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk all about the happenings in the auto industry in China. There is bad news, and then there is good news. The bad news that made waves all across China was the alleged rape and murder of a female passenger by a Didi Hitch driver. Rui and Ying-Ying talk about how the design of the Hitch product is partially responsible for the tragedy and the steps Didi Chuxing has taken to address this issue. The good news is that China has loosened policies toward foreign new-energy vehicle carmakers. Tesla was the first to take advantage and has set up a wholly owned venture in Shanghai. Ying-Ying and Rui share their take on China’s established and upstart new-energy vehicle brands, and even make predictions on how things might play out in the world’s largest EV market. As always, you can find these stories, including the latest developments of the Didi story, at pandaily.com. Let us know what you think of the show, a…
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May 15, 2018
Ep. 5: Has Tencent Lost Its Mojo?
This week on TechBuzz China by Pandaily, our hosts, Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, talk in-depth about a story that sparked great controversy across China’s technosphere — the debate on whether Tencent has still got its mojo. TechBuzz China by Pandaily is a weekly technology podcast that is all about China's innovations. It is co-hosted by Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They share and discuss the most important tech news from China every week with commentaries from investors, industry experts, and entrepreneurs. The subject of today's story is Tencent, the T of the Chinese technology trio “BAT,” and whether or not Tencent has a dream. Why? Well, when a veteran tech journalist writes a 13,000-word piece titled “Tencent Has No Dream,” leading to thousands of responses and a #fakenews scandal involving Tencent CEO Pony Ma, the topic is definitely worthy of discussion. Rui and Ying-Yin…
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May 8, 2018
Ep. 4: Xiaomi's Record-Breaking IPO, and Baidu's New Finance Spinoff
This week on TechBuzz China, our hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu discuss two major stories in China tech. Rui talks about the upcoming initial public offering of Xiaomi, which will be the world's largest since Alibaba's debut in 2014, and Ying-Ying shares the news of Baidu's new financial services spinoff, called Du Xiaoman Financial, which is already valued at $4 billion. Rui and Ying-Ying take you back through the history of Xiaomi, and in for a close-up look at its legendary founder and CEO, Lei Jun. Why should Lei Jun be compared to Elon Musk instead of Steve Jobs, and why is Xiaomi going public just eight years after its founding? Ying-Ying then gives you the inside dish on the new Du Xiaoman Financial that's raising $1.9 billion at a $4 billion valuation. Rui shares how Alibaba and JD.com have done the same in the past, and explains that these moves skew the capital raising data from China. What does the decision really mean for Baidu, and how does it echo the disaster of LeEco? T…
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May 1, 2018
Ep. 3: The U.S. Sanctions ZTE, and Sexism in China’s Tech Sector
This week on TechBuzz China, our hosts tackle two ambitious stories. First, Rui talks about the seven-year ban the U.S. government announced on sales of American components to Chinese telecom equipment and systems company ZTE, and the overwhelming response from Chinese tech media, which has called the ban a "very rude awakening." China has earmarked billions of dollars for semiconductor R&D and investment, but what impact do these funds have? What is going wrong, and what does this all mean for China's place on the global tech stage? Ying-Ying covers responses to the report released by Human Rights Watch about sexist hiring practices in China's tech sector. The Western media response lies in stark contrast to reactions from within China, and our hosts speculate as to why that is. Given that hiring is only one aspect of gender equality, what does this story say about the current state of gender norms in China's tech industry and how easily things will change? Why is this significant for…
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Apr 24, 2018
Ep. 2: The Rise of Social Commerce, and The Future of Co-Working in China
Pinduoduo is the fastest growing ecommerce platform that you have never heard of. It is behind only Taobao and JD.com in the number of users, exceeding JD.com in their monthly gross merchandise volume, and even surpassing Taobao in the penetration rate of users from lower tiered cities. To understand this phenomenon, Rui not only downloaded the app to give us a sense of why it is so popular, but also shared comments by Kathy Xu of Capital Today, an early investor in JD.com, on why she chose not to invest in Pinduoduo. We also had Mark Pols, a former investor from GGV Capital and Morgan Stanley, share his thoughts on how Pinduoduo has tapped into “an enduring human need.” Another trend that is sweeping China is the real estate side of the sharing economy: coworking spaces and offices. Is it a fundamentally real estate business, or does it belong to the service sector? Is WeWork’s purchase of NakedHub a sign that foreign startups can overcome barriers and succeed in China, or is it…
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Apr 17, 2018
Ep. 1: Toutiao's Apology, and Mobike's Acquisition by Meituan
TechBuzz China is a short weekly podcast that talks all about China’s innovation, co-hosted by Rui Ma, who is an angel investor and entrepreneur, and Ying-Ying Lu, who is also an entrepreneur. The two hosts are both China experts who lived and worked in the technology space in China for many years. This week on TechBuzz China, Rui and Ying-Ying talk about the recent news involving three Chinese unicorns: Toutiao, Didi, and Meituan. Toutiao was recently under fire for posting fake ads on their flagship news app, but their punishment came in the form of a permanent ban on their jokes app, Neihan Duanzi, which you can read more about here. Rui compared the Toutiao CEO’s open apology with the Facebook CEO’s congressional hearing happening concurrently in the U.S. Ying-Ying shared news about Didi’s move into food delivery and what it means for the on-demand sector, which you can read about here. She also shared her thoughts and a personal story related to the recent acquisition of…
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