China’s Double 11 consumer festival has kicked off for its longest edition ever with five weeks. Consumption expert Ashley Dudarenok looks at this year’s trends for Campaign Asia. Dudarenok, author and China digital expert predicts that countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea—now part of the “free shipping zone”—will see a sharp rise in new users.Read More →

The metaverse is poised to grow fast in the coming three years, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, who published a report about the industry, according to the state-owned China Daily. Technology giant Huawei tops the list with the greatest potential in the metaverse for the first time, followed by Alibaba, Baidu, China Telecom and China Mobile.Read More →

Former Alibaba executive Sharon Gai explains how AI is changing the retail industry beyond recognition. Amazon was the pioneer in this field, although now nobody can ignore the change AI is causing globally.Read More →

US sanctions on China make it harder for Chinese companies to develop large-scale AI systems because they lack access to finance and computing power, says Winston Ma, adjunct professor of law at the New York University School of Law. But they will focus on AI applications and their commercialization rather than developing the big systems, he tells CNBC.Read More →

E-commerce expert Sharon Gai started her career at Alibaba and now explains to the rest of the world how consumer platforms in China work differently from the West, and why also newcomers like Shein and Temu work differently. A discussion on Retail TouchPoint.Read More →

Sharon Gai, a China-born Canadian who is an expert in e-commerce, digital transformation, and AI, and worked as head of Global Key Accounts at Alibaba. She explains what lessons she learned about cultural fluidity in business and society to IKNS Conversations That Matter, in places where different cultures meet, and how cultural intelligence can help.Read More →