October 2021: The Latest from Tech Buzz China
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October 2021 Tech Buzz China Newsletter
Hey everyone, it’s getting colder, and hope you are all well. Keep warm and cosy! A few days ago, we launched a LIVE webinar on Alibaba & eCommerce with our partner BigOne Lab, a leading alternative data firm in China. If you are looking to attend such members-exclusive events, join our Insider community, where we have a forum and active Discord channel. Start by taking our Quiz or getting a fellow Insider to refer you.
Tech Buzz China Livecasts are usually recorded live in front of our Tech Buzz China Insider audience, and later edited and made available to the public. They are conversations with investors and operators in China tech, and think of them as our effort to open-source our network so you can be a part of the conversations that we would typically have when we do our research! Don’t miss these! Please subscribe below!
Livecast #13: Raymond Huang, ex-CSO of MOGU, the 1st livestreaming ecommerce company in China
Raymond Huang was most recently the Chief Strategy Officer of MOGU (蘑菇街), a publicly listed Chinese eCommerce company, and the FIRST one to launch livestreaming eCommerce or live shopping in China, which accounted for an estimated $150Bn USD in GMV last year. He used to be an investment banker in Hong Kong, and worked closely with Chinese tech firms e.g. JD, Bilibili. In 2018, he decided to join Mogu as Chief Strategy Officer. Learn about:
Why Mogu began experimenting with livestreaming eCommerce back in 2016;
What is Mogu's technology lab and how it helps beginner influencers to start;
Why is the 24x7 supply chain throughout China essential to the rapid growth of livestreaming eCommerce;
What is the difference between QVC (TV shopping) and livestreaming shopping, and why livestreaming eCommerce hasn't taken off in the west;
What are the major differences between western influencers and Chinese influencers;
What niche business models, special products are a good fit in livestreaming eCommerce;
What are the strengths of each of the major livestreaming eCommerce firms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Alibaba and Wechat, and their challenges;
Why DTC brands are fond of building private traffic, and why Ray is skeptical about it.
Livecast #12: Andy Tian of Asia Innovations, Copy from China, Exporting Live Social Apps Globally
Andy Tian is the founder of Asia innovations group, a company that has a suite of live social apps, e.g. Uplive, Lamour, SupreFans with more than 410 million registered users located in over 150 countries and regions worldwide. Andy has strong opinions about what's the best way to take the most interesting things he has seen in China and throughout Asia, and export them to the rest of the world. Hear about:
How China's uniquely firewalled off environment created a different ecosystem, thus resulted in different revenue models of social apps in China;
What is Operation aka Yunying (运营) in China, and how it works differently in western countries;
The twin trends of globalization & localization in social apps;
Why Andy implemented multi-regional operations from the start;
What he believes are the unique catalysts for the explosion of livestreaming eCommerce in China, and why it hasn't taken off just yet in the U.S. or anywhere else.
Join our paid, premium community for serious China tech nerds Tech Buzz China Insider! Designed for investors and operators, we go in depth on China tech analyses that don’t typically make it into English language coverage. If you want to join us, click here to take our Insider Quiz or get referred by a current Insider! Insider has multiple posts per week, and we’ll be sharing with you at least two selections every month. If you like this content, you know what to do, join us!
As widely expected and as Bloomberg reported on October 18, MIIT is apparently pressuring Tencent, ByteDance et al. to open up their content to other search providers, such as Baidu, which seems to have caused a mini surge of ~5% in the stock.
A few things I wanted to bring up for discussion:
The whole "walled garden“ affair actually started way back in September 2008 when Alibaba blocked Baidu (and Google), because they wanted users to start their merchandise search journey on Alibaba, not Baidu. Of course, they claimed they were doing it in the name of user experience... merchants were "abusing paid search results on external websites." Baidu's rationale was that it was because Alibaba was scared of the C2C Taobao competitor that they were about to launch. Either way, we know what happened... Alibaba won this war. Click here to read the full article.
Alibaba has always been one of the most innovative companies in China (and probably the world, I just don't know enough to say with confidence!) when it comes to everything commerce related, digital or otherwise. It has also, frankly, been one of the most willing to experiment with its organizational design, famously re-organizing a year or so (definitely not for executives who are faint of heart). Despite being one of the first to launch live shopping and the first to really make this category into a real business, it has been ceding its early advantage more and more quickly the past few years. Sure, Taobao Live's GMV was still the sector's largest at about $60Bn in 2020, but Dou/Kuai are catching up quickly and may surpass it this year. Annualizing Kuaishou's Q2 2021 numbers would give a $90Bn run rate, and ByteDance is targeting much the same this year, as we know from previously leaked information. Taobao Live was tracking +55% at the 618 Shopping Festival in June. Click here to read the full article.
Besides these posts, we also wrote about up the Single’s Day, coming unicorns, NFTs in China, and community members contributed their thoughts on topics such as Algorithm Governance and Xi's Essay on Common Prosperity. Want to learn more? Join us!
As you know, we are regularly featured in media. Here is a selection of our appearances in the last month! Take a read or listen and let us know what you think!
CNBC, October 27, 2021. Why China Is Cracking Down On Tech With New Regulations.
A16Z Future, October 19, 2021. The Brazen Strategy Behind China Tech’s Growth.
Rest of World, October 15, 2021. All Risk, No Reward: Why Microsoft Gutted LinkedIn in China.
Rest of World, September 15, 2021. Beijing’s Breakup of Alipay was Inevitable.
Business Insider, October 24, 2021. Microsoft's LinkedIn shutdown in China is a cautionary tale for US tech companies following Reid Hoffman's playbook on how to survive in the country.
TechCruch, October 19, 2021. China’s changing regulatory environment isn’t stopping a venture capital frenzy.
Bloomberg, October 12, 2021. Apple’s China Balancing Act Get Trickier During Xi’s Crackdown.
Business Insider, October 4, 2021. TikTok owner ByteDance is building an international shopping platform, taking on Alibaba and Amazon.
BBC, October 2, 2021. Rape claim sparks fury over China's work drinking.
That’s all everyone! Thanks for reading this October issue of our newsletter. Let us know if you have any questions or comments, and we’ll see you in a few weeks!