Social connectivity has become crucial for life and business in China. “If you want to do well as an internet company today, you need to be strong on the social aspect, otherwise you won’t be able to gain any traction,” tells business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, to the South China Morning Post.Read More →

Chinese brands like Alibaba, WeChat and JD.com still face the perception they deliver inferior products when going global, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order. They mainly focus on Chinese consumers who know better, but the barrier exists for global expansion, he tells the South China Morning Post.Read More →

WeChat, Tencent’s mobile platform, is now reaching 900 million users in China, and in four year time it has become an indispensable tool for anybody living in the country, says WeChat expert Matthew Brennan at InTheBlack. “WeChat is not a social media. Think of it as an operating system for your life in China’,” says Brennan.Read More →

Chinese consumers love to follow their friends’ recommendations for buying, and with a mobile at hand, social commerce has become a leading force, says business analyst Shaun Rein and author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, at the South China Morning Post. Fun in shopping hasRead More →

When Tencent started during the 2014 CCTV New Year show to promote giving red envelopes online, few realized it was the successful kick-off what is now known as WeChat Pay, says WeChat expert Matthew Brennan to the JingDaily. Some luxury brands did not like the concept though: “The idea of a discount communicates value and is generally not an incentive that luxury brands want to be associated with.”Read More →

Private companies in China can only survive when they team up with Tencent or Alibaba, creating a business scene that is unprecedented, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order  to the South China Morning Post. “They basically have a gun to your head and you have to choose which of the two companies you want to work with.”Read More →

Cash was king, not so long ago in China. But as wealth and the middle class increased, mobile payments had an advantage, says business analyst Ben Cavender. Because other payment tools like cards did not have a solid footprint, eager smartphone users adopted mobile payments quickly, he tells That’s Magazine. But: “Realistically, I don’t think cash will go away entirely, but it will certainly be relegated to a less important role.”Read More →

Tencent’s WeChat has been a winner in China in terms of users but might even beat its Western competitors in terms of functionality, writes WeChat analyst Matthew Brennan at the China Channel. The bigger question is will the tech giants outside China ever be able to catch up?Read More →

Coming weeks China’s lawmakers will flood Beijing for the country’s annual gathering of its law makers. Favorite past time or media: counting the rich. Although China gets weekly four new billionaires, both conference will see fewer rich, although their average wealth went up, says Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun who just released the 2018 Global Rich list, to AP.Read More →

China is leading the way in digitalizing the consumer experience in retail, but both major competitors – Alibaba and Tencent – have different retail strategies, says WeChat expert Matthew Brennan to the News Lens. Alibaba focuses on the offline experience, Tencent’s WeChat will stay online. In 2018 the battle will be on mobile payment, he adds.Read More →