We need your help to create Season 2 of Digitally China!

Just got a few short questions for you here:https://radiichina.com/digitally-china-2019-wrap/

As many of our loyal listeners might have felt, Digitally China has been taking a short break. But don't worry, we'll be coming back with Season 2 in no time.

Throughout the 26 episodes of Season 1 we've really appreciated all the support and feedback from our fantastic listeners who have tuned in to the bi-weekly series. Thanks to this feedback, Season 2 of Digitally China will see a few changes. We will fine-tune the format a bit and use each episode to deep-dive even more into the exciting Chinese tech ecosystem.

If you've listened to the “The War of a Thousand Groupons” or “From 8 to 800 Million Internet Users,” these episodes give you an idea of the direction we want to take for the new Season 2 — but we still want to hear your thoughts and ideas on what topics to cover and how we can do better.

This episode of Digitally China is about Brian Wong, his experiences from being part of the early days of Alibaba but at the same time also a story about how it was to first-hand be part of how China grew from almost nothing to the largest internet market in the world. 

The location is a hotel in San Francisco, the year is 1999. The internet hype is in its peak. United States at this moment have over 100 million internet users, 10 times more than the much larger country in the East, China. While his friends are leaving school to join the company that seems to be the next big thing, Google, Brian is instead meeting a fairly unknown entrepreneur at that time with the first name Jack who enthusiastically is talking about his company, Alibaba.

As many of his friends on the west coast of the US, he believes that technology will change the world. But instead of staying in his hometown and the Middle Kingdom of innovation, Palo Alto, he moves to Hangzhou to work with e-commerce in country that barely have internet users.

In this episode we’re listening in on Brian’s story, reflecting on the learnings from the growth of the Chinese technology sector, what we can learn from it and how it will impact the rest of the world.

Guests:

· Brian Wong, VP at Alibaba

Hosts: Tom Xiong & Eva Xiao

Producer: Jacob Lovén & Katarina Andersson

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

In the latest Digitally China we’re looking back on history. Meituan-Dianping is China’s clear market leader within group buying, offline discovery and online-offline services today. But it wasn’t that clear a few years back. In fact, the opposite was true, with the American giant Groupon entering China backed by a powerful partner in Tencent. In a hyper-competitive environment, there were suddenly thousands of group-buying services all fighting for the position that Meituan has today.

For a sense of what that time was like, we interviewed Tim He, who was a senior executive of Gaopeng, the Chinese subsidiary of Groupon when they entered the market. Tim, who took a break from Harvard to go back to China to take on the daunting task of trying to win in such an enormous, sprawling market, takes us through some of the incredible stories from that exciting period.

As a seasoned investor at one of Europe’s most renowned venture firms, Kinnevik, Tim also reflects on learnings from the Chinese technology sector as well as the success factors behind today's “super apps” of China.

Topics covered in this episode

How Groupon entered the Chinese market

The group-buying industry

How to operate in a market with thousands of competitors

What lessons can you learn from China that are applicable for Western markets?

The success factors behind super app companies such as Meituan-Dianping, Alipay and more

Guests:

· Tim He, investor at Kinnevik and previous senior executive of Gaopeng, the Chinese Groupon.

Host: Tom Xiong

Producer: Jacob Lovén & Katarina Andersson

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered "Fair Use". Digitally China Is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

In the latest episode of Digitally China, Tom is joined by Jill Tang, co-founder of Ladies Who Tech, an influential Chinese organization focusing on entrepreneurship and gender diversity in China.

As someone who works in the unique cross-section of tech, diversity, multinational companies, and market-entry in China, Jill shares her observations and thoughts on how multinational companies can be more gender inclusive in China, and how China's younger and more international workforce is changing work culture in the country.

Topics covered in this episode:

- Ladies Who Tech & gender diversity at companies in China

- Entrepreneurship, different types of entrepreneurs and startups

- What multinational companies in China do well and can be better at

- Market-entry for foreign brands to the complex Chinese market

Guests:

· Jill Tang, co-founder Ladies Who Tech

Host: Tom Xiong

Producer: Jacob Lovén

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

Companies around the world are latching onto social commerce, but in China, where mobile payments are ubiquitous and consumers are extra wary of fake goods, the integration between social media and online shopping has been especially fast.

That doesn’t mean it’s a silver bullet for brands though -- or even the multi-billion dollar internet celebrity industry, where influencers are tasked with advertising products without appearing too commercial.

In this episode of Digitally China, we’ll discuss Xiaohongshu or RED, which is often compared to Instagram and Pinterest.

The fast-growing app, which is popular among young, female urbanites in China, has over 85 million monthly active users and is valued at $3 billion following a $300 million funding round last year led by e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba.

But the e-commerce side of RED is still behind more price-conscious competitors like Pinduoduo — and the app hit its latest roadblock earlier this week, when it was pulled from Chinese app stores.

We’ll cover some of the challenges the app is facing as it tries to grow its e-commerce business – monetizing its vibrant user community -- and manage the thousands of influencers on its platform.  

Episode summary:

· Xiaohongshu backstory and introduction

· Xiaohongshu vs. competitors

· Xiaohongshu’s content quality problem

· Success cases of brands working with influencers

· Cosmetics: an industry where Chinese brands have really optimized social media and ecommerce

Guests:

· Elijah Whaley, chief marketing officer at Parklu, an influencer marketing tech firm in China

· Huo Qiu, a fashion and cosmetics influencer with over 1 million followers on Weibo and about 30,000 followers on Xiaohongshu

Hosts: Eva Xiao and Tom Xiong

Producer: Jacob Lovén

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

In China’s fast-growing tech industry, it’s easy to focus on exciting new products and businesses while overlooking one of the most important elements of any company: the talent.

Inthis episode, we look at how the recruiting process at Chinese tech firms does -- and doesn’t -- differ from that of multinational firms, and how China's new wave of tech professionals view their career options.

EpisodeOutline:

Incentives/disincentives for working at multinational firms vs. Chinese internet companies

The importance of 996 or working overtime

Probation and the concept of “hire fast, fire fast”

Unstructured vs. standardized hiring practices

China’s gender discrimination proem

Guests:

Vincent Wang, a senior associate at executive recruiting firm Atkins & Associates

Ben Jiang, who runs the India bureau of Krasia, an Asia-focused tech media platform 

A Zhen, a product manager and team leader for front-end development at a Shanghai-based internet company

Hosts: Eva Xiao and Tom Xiong

Producer: Jacob Lovén

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII （www.radiichina.com）, an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

Together with Jonas Leijonhufvud and Sven Carlsson, the authors of a new book telling the inside story about Spotify and the fight for global dominance in music streaming we are discussing if ByteDance actually have a shot at beating the giants.

ByteDance, the company behind the huge International success TikTok, or Douyin as its called in China is really on the offense. Fueled by the position as the 3rd most downloaded app in the world 2018 and a valuation of 75 billion dollars, ByteDance have recently both announced plans to enter messaging to directly compete with Tencent and Facebook as well as launching a smartphone.

And now, reported first by Bloomberg ByteDance seem to have far advanced plans on getting into music streaming to compete with Spotify, Tencent Music and Apple Music. Already positioned among hundreds of millions of teens around the world with a short video and music app - this actually doesn’t seem that crazy.

In this episode of Digitally China we are discussing:

TikTok’s current position on the market

The challenges of monetizing through music streaming, learnt from Spotify and Apple Music

How music streaming companies work with record labels and how that would impact TikTok’s ambitions

The validity of TikTok’s presumed music streaming service and how their position among teenagers around the world could support that

Host: Tom Xiong

Producer: Jacob Lovén

Guests: Jonas Leijonhufvud and Sven Carlsson, reporters at Dagens Industri and authors of the book Spotify Untold

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

In this special episode of Digitally China Tom is joined by Emmy Teo, co-founder of the New Retail startup FUSE and advisor to up & coming consumer brands in fashion and furniture.

Chinese companies have for a long time had access to the best supply chain in the world, enabling scalable production of a wide range of products. But only in the recent years we have seen that unique skillset being combined with what western companies usually see as their differentiator: the ability to create attractive brands, especially in the lifestyle sector. In this Digitally China episode we are discussing domestic brands, how much they have progressed and the possibility of them overtaking established brands such as Zara or IKEA.

Topics covered in this episode:

Up & coming Chinese fashion and furniture brands

The future of lifestyle segment

The current and future differences between modern domestic brands and western equivalents

Host: Tom Xiong

Guests: Emmy Teo

Producer: Jacob Lovén

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

With the recent news of Amazon exiting China with their e-commerce business combined with the departure of Uber a few years ago, many observers' have questioned if a foreign tech company can be successful in China.

But then we heard about OYO, an Indian startup having recent success in China hosting thousands of rooms in what is in theory a very hard market to penetrate.

In this episode we are discussing OYO with reporter Huizhong Wu, trying to understand why they can be successful in China while so many western brands fail.

Topics covered in this episode of Digitally China:

- What is OYO?

- What's the difference between an Indian startup and a Western?

- What are the usual challenges of foreign brands entering China?

Hosts: Eva Xiao and Tom Xiong

Guests: Huizhong Wu

Producer: Jacob Lovén

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

Over the past five years, China’s internet industry has seen dizzying growth, with each year hitting record-levels of funding. In the second quarter of 2018, Chinese startups raised more venture capital than startups in North America for the first time. 

But at the end of last year, the industry started winding down -- fast. Rumors started about mass layoffs at different tech firms, from ecommerce giant JD to Quora-like Zhihu. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs braced themselves for a “capital winter.”

So is China’s startup scene finally facing the music after years of cash-burning growth? Is this just a market correction or a sign of worse things to come?

In this episode, we will cover:

Stories from the good old days of China’s startup industry 

Factors contributing to the slowdown

The impact on China's tech industry and human cost of market correction

Guests: 

Gu Xi, marketing partner at Higgz, a Beijing-based AI education startup focusing primarily on improving high school students’ learning capabilities.

Chauncey Jung, a freelance writer based in Canada who focuses on technology, politics, and current affairs in China.

This latest episode of Digitally China has a special format, partly recorded live from D-Congress, one of the largest e-commerce conferences in Europe where co-host Tom Xiong and producer Jacob Lovén moderated panels with Chinese e-commerce experts.

In this episode we’ll listen to excerpts from Shenyi Wu (former CFO of Pinduoduo and RED) and Julie Chen (former Sequoia Capital China) that have founded the new western-focused e-commerce platform Flamingo.shop. Together with them we discuss how the Chinese e-commerce market have become the global leader, what the secret sauce behind social e-commerce is and how this has a potential to disrupt Amazon.

We also get to listen to Tingting Fang, Brand Director of JudyDoll which is one of the fastest growing cosmetics brands in China. Just founded 18 months ago, they have already surpassed established companies such as L’Oreal by utilizing social e-commerce and the new ways to both engage and sell products online.

Topics this episode covers:

What is Social E-commerce?

Why was Pinduoduo able to grab market-share from much larger players such as Alibaba?

Guests: Shenyi Wu, Julie Chen and Tingting Fang.

Hosts: Jacob Lovén and Tom Xiong.

Production: Jacob Loven.

Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China ispowered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.