Image by Zingaro. I am a gipsy too. via Flickr The sudden closure of Mattel‘s Barbie store in Shanghai seems to have nobody apart from Mattel, says retail analyst Paul French in the LA Times, today. He is sceptical about the firm’s announcement they are merely changing plans. The closureRead More →

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Foreign firms in China currently make fat margins, showing the strenght of the economy, Shaun Rein tells Bloomberg, despite high profile failures like Barbie, Home Depot and BestBuy. Inflation might still be a huge problem, but there is no bubble in the making, he argues.Read More →

Image by Fantake via Flickr Even though Chinese consumers are spending more on expensive products like Apple, they shunned the Best Buy stories, explains Shaun Rein in CNBC. The economy of scale did not pay off: According to our research, Best Buy in China was perceived as being too expensive,Read More →

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Home Depot and BestBuy were just two of the foreign companies in China that failed, while the consumer market is reaching record heights. Shaun Rein explains what they were missing in CNBC. First, they get China’s middle class wrong: For one, Western brands needRead More →

Annette Nijs Executive Director Global Initiative of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) Annette Nijs led earlier this week a signing ceremony for a partnership between her school and the Dutch multinational Philips, a partnership focusing on health care and innovation. From the CEIBS-website: Annette Nijs called the eventRead More →

Former flagship in Xujiahui, Shanghai The decision by US electronics retailer BestBuy to close its outlets in China hardly comes as a surprise, says retail analyst Paul French in USA-Today. “They were ahead of the consumer.” Unlike the warehouse style of top Chinese electronic chains Gome and Suning, where salesRead More →

US senator Charles Schumer via Wikipedia Is China closing its doors, as companies like GE, BASF and Siemens say, or is it more open than ever, as the country’s officials say? It’s a matter of perception, writes Shaun Rein in CNBC, especially now America’s economy is in trouble and politiciansRead More →

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Shaun Rein recalls in CNBC a proposed investment of US§ 50 million in a Chinese internet venture that did not exist, and was only cancelled after some solid due dilligence was done. The investor “had only been to China once, when the CEO ofRead More →

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr US investors should be very cautious spending their money on Chinese companies like bookseller Dangdang or video hosting company Youku who have no clear business model or otherwise a hard time to show a profit, warns Shaun Rein in this debate on CNBC. WhileRead More →

Kaiser Kuo via Wikipedia Baidu’s spokesperson Kaiser Kuo initiated the idea of an English-language weblog to offer the outside world a window on China, he tells the Voice of America. Baidu is China’s largest search engine. The VOA: Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo said he came up with the idea forRead More →

Kaiser Kuo via Flickr Baidu spokesperson Kaiser Kuo triggered off many comments, as he wrote during the visit of Facebook‘s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Beijing, that the largest social platform should also come to China. Zuckerberg visited Baidu‘s headquarter and had lunch with its CEO Robin Li. Kaiser Kuo (in theRead More →

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Derided as the eternal bull on China, Shaun Rein now warns US investors (and others) in Forbes against a dangerous bubble emerging from China: the IPO hype from anything coming from China, including video hosting companies Youku and Tudou. A mania about China hasRead More →