A range of food scandals with milk powder for babies has caused a wild-west market for mainly foreign instant formula, doing good business in China. Lawyer Mark Schaub warns that regulators are catching up, and new tough registration rules have a deadline for October 1, hard to manage for import products, he writes in Lexology.Read More →
Whether China is copying or innovating is a useless discussion, says VC William Bao Bean to the South China Morning Post. Everybody is building on previous experiences, he says, but certainly in social commerce, how to sell online, China is way ahead compared to other parts of the world.Read More →
The new rules on taxation of cross-border e-commerce have caused fear the government is trying to kill an increasingly lucrative industry. It was inevitable the government would start to regulate – not kill – this booming business, says Shanghai-based lawyer Mark Schaub in Lexology. The timing was a surprise, and unfortunately, regulations are not very clear, he adds.Read More →
The e-commerce industry is still relatively young, and on the corporate battlefield to two, three big players, many smaller companies will succumb, predicts retail analyst Ben Cavender in the China Daily. What does it need for companies to survive in China?Read More →
China has slapped tax on cross-border e-commerce, a trade that went previously under the tax radar. Especially the smaller operations could be hurt, tells retail analyst Ben Cavender the China Daily, while the larger ones can avoid damage.Read More →
There has been too much negativity about Alibaba, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg. While commodities like steel and coal have a hard time, consumer spending it going up in the 3-4th tier cities, and Alibaba will profit from it, even more than competitor JD.com.Read More →
Shanghai introduced in January a compensation scheme for investors who lost money on their investments, hoping to trigger more innovations. By doing that China´s second-largest city funds faulty investment deals, tells VC veteran William Bao Bean the BBC.Read More →
Kaiser Kuo is leaving China after twenty years, and internet giant Baidu after six year. On May 4 he will get an award of the Asia Society Northern California, where he will settle down to work professionally on his Sinica Podcast. For Asia Society Kaiser looks back, on the internet and foreign correspondents.Read More →
Facebook is trying to copy many elements from Tencent´s WeChat, but has a hard time in overtaking the dynamic Chinese service, says innnovation expert William Bao Bean at MumBrella.”“WeChat – whether they’re good or bad – the bottom line is they are about 18 months ahead of Facebook.”Read More →
The USTR, the United State Trade Representative, has qualified the Chinese Great Firewall, blocking and filtering internet traffic, as a trade barrier. Analyst Sara Hsu is not that sure, and suggests more research to find this our, in the Diplomat.Read More →
Much or the outside world sees China still as the copy-cat country it was in the past. But those people are missing the boat, warns business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia, in the Australian Financial Review, as China becomes fast the word´s most successful innovator.Read More →
Taipei-based startup accelerator MOX has been taking off, bringing a piece of Silicon Valley and jobs to Taiwan. Chinaccelator Managing Director William Bao Bean explains in the Taipei Times why Taiwan offers a good breeding grounds for mobile only startups.Read More →