China’s hottest app Douyin has lured more than 150 million Chinese watching dozens of short videos every day. Its reach has also influenced and promoted the development of urban cultural tourism. During the Spring Festival holiday in 2018, Xi’an received more than 12.69 million visitors, a year-on-year increase of 67% – much of the growth considered a result of popular Xi’an videos on Douyin. Tourism revenue exceeded ¥10.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 137%. During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in 2018, Chongqing Hongyadong received more than 170,000 visitors, an increase of 143% over the same period last year, much of the grow a result of Douyin.

Few people who have been sick in China will look back at it fondly. Crowded, noisy establishments serviced by understaffed and overworked hands, and full of other frustrated sick people who look disturbingly contagious. Not exactly where you want to be with a fever on an excessively humid 38 degree (100°F) summer day in Shanghai.

Alibaba announced last week that it has recruited one million convenience stores in China, around one-sixth of the total market, to use its LST (Ling Shou Tong) system as their ‘one-stop solution for digital transformation’, embracing New Retail and offering better services to their local neighbourhoods.

Chinese spend more than three hours a day on WeChat versus the 20 minutes a day Americans spend on Facebook. There is no other app globally that has become more integrated in consumers’ everyday lives than WeChat has in China, being a primary source of information, communication, entertainment and increasingly commerce.

Chinese spend more than three hours a day on WeChat versus the 20 minutes a day Americans spend on Facebook. There is no other app globally that has become more integrated in consumers’ everyday lives than WeChat has in China, being a primary source of information, communication, entertainment and increasingly commerce.

WeChat Official Accounts are now available to overseas business!

Steps how to register an WeChat Official Account for overseas businesses.

Flicking through the channels on Chinese TV or the well-known online video sites, you won't find any signs of prolonged or provocative kissing scenes, a hint of sexual freedom, one-night stands, extramarital affairs, wife swapping, eating bananas sexily or even homosexuality. But pop down to the local convenience store and right at the counter, by the tea eggs and pork buns, you'll have you pick from a liberal display of contraceptives, lubes and battery-operated accessories.

Chinese consumers have long been known as the world's most promiscuous consumers. For years foreign brands have hoped to win their loyalty employing initiatives that worked in western markets, but had little effect halting Chinese shoppers' infidelity. One of the best known case studies is Tesco, which announced its successful Clubcard from the UK would be its "secret weapon" in conquering the China market. Instead, it turned out to be another valuable lesson about the need for foreign brands to understand and localise for Chinese consumers.China's retail sphere has vastly evolved since Tesco retreated from China in 2013, but some characteristics remain.

If there is one country where blockchain will succeed, it is China. Nowhere is there a larger, more underdeveloped or fragmented amount of data to manage in logistics, supply chains and other areas. There are also the ever-present counterfeit scandals from fine wine to condoms to vaccines filling social feeds and state media, reinforcing doubt amongst Chinese consumers.

For decades Starbucks has stood atop the pecking order in China undisturbed by the comings and goings of coffee houses and tea shops squabbling below them. Yet as widely documented, the once smooth sailing turned somewhat turbulent in 2018.

The brains trust at Amazon are likely to be scratching their heads wondering how that happened. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars and 14 years to wrestle market share from the almighty Alibaba and JD-Tencent-Walmart syndicate, they have managed just a meagre 0.7% share of ecommerce retail in China. Ebay suffered an even worse fate after throwing hundreds of millions at China before effectively giving up on the market in 2006. Yet in less than three years, ex-Google engineer Colin (Zheng) Huang has managed to defy all odds with his ecommerce platform Pinduoduo.

A quick quiz to start this week's Skinny: What is the most valuable marketing company in the world? Most people probably couldn't care less, but there are a few folk in the industry who would say WPP. Whilst the company hasn't had a great year, it remains the largest marketing company in the world measured by billings and revenue.

The last few weeks have been abuzz with tech chatter in China. You’re probably thinking that’s nothing new, but the significant change in tone has piqued our interest. IPOs for Xiaomi and Tencent Music and the expansive 2018 China Internet Report have been grabbing headlines, but beneath all that many experts are starting to ask the question: has China taken the mantle from Silicon Valley as the leader in tech?

Out for a lunchtime stroll in most Chinese cities, you may not get that refreshed feeling you get elsewhere in the world. China’s carbon dioxide emissions have grown almost 150% since 2000. Although growth has flattened out this decade, emissions have crept 17% higher than in 2010 when Chinese power plants emitted as much nitrogen oxide as the rest of the world’s cars combined.

Only in China. At the beginning of the year Luckin Coffee hadn't sold a single cup of coffee. Less than six months and 500 stores later, the coffee chain is valued at more than a billion dollars with over 1.3 million users of their app.

There's no shortage of coverage about China's New Retail revolution, its mouthwatering rise of shared bikes and its 227 million active users, along with WeChat, ecommerce, mobile payments and other uniquely China trends such as cream cheese tea and face-kinis.

The use of online social media in the West sees a clear separation between professional and personal in the form of LinkedIn vs. Facebook/Instagram/etc. In China, the lines are much more blurred, particularly on WeChat.