Tech Buzz China by Pandaily
85 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsTech Buzz China by Pandaily is a biweekly technology podcast that is all about China's innovations. It is co-hosted by Rui Ma and Ying Lu, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in China. They share and discuss the most important tech news from China every week, and include commentary from investors, industry experts, and entrepreneurs.
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Episodes
Ep. 84: 2021 China Internet Report with SCMP CEO Gary Liu
November 15, 2021 14:55 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MBEpisode 84 of Tech Buzz China features co-host Rui Ma in conversation with Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post on the hottest five trends shaping the China internet industry in 2021: tightening regulations, bumpy roads for IPOs, overseas expansion plans, shifting demographics, and growing private domain traffic. SCMP is a leading news media company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century with global impact. If you would like to read the full 2021 Chin...
Ep. 83: Acquired crossover — 2021 China tech trends
May 07, 2021 22:28 - 1 hour - 69.3 MBThe Acquired podcast puts out some of the very best business and technology content out there, and is one of our co-hosts’ favorite listens. Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal are inspirations, and so we’re always flattered to be referenced as the “Acquired of China tech”! We had a lot of fun recording this episode together. Here at Tech Buzz, we typically write out our scripts ahead of time, and this was a rare chance to go unscripted. Let us know how we did! As Tech Buzz continues ...
Ep. 82: Q1 China ecommerce update with BigOne Lab
April 23, 2021 22:30 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MBOne of Tech Buzz China’s partners is leading alternative data firm BigOne Lab, who is one of the best sources on detailed operational data for large Chinese tech companies. In Tech Buzz's quarterly update, BigOne's head of research, Robert Wu, joined Rui for a live webinar going over everything interesting among the big China ecommerce players, which are now Alibaba, JD, Meituan, Pinduoduo, Douyin, and Kuaishou. We begin with the latest in community group buying, the group-buying ...
Ep. 81: What it takes to win in China - Rui Ma with Karl Ulrich
February 12, 2021 18:37 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBEpisode 81 of Tech Buzz China continues our series of audio experiments, and features co-host Rui Ma in conversation with Wharton professor Karl Ulrich on his latest book, Winning in China. The book was co-authored with Wharton Global Fellow Lele Sang, and presents 8 carefully researched case studies of successes and failures, from Amazon to Sequoia Capital. The episode is a recording of a conversation that was broadcast live on the Clubhouse app on February 1. As Tech Buzz contin...
Ep. 80: Community (grocery) group buying: The next must-win market in China?
December 22, 2020 18:06 - 46 minutes - 42.1 MBIn episode 80 of Tech Buzz China, Rui and Ying talk about community group buying 社区团购 shèqū tuángòu, or CGB, which is the hottest thing in China tech right now. In addition to startups raising crazy funds — one just raised $700 million — the internet giants have all gone in with guns blazing, and investors are bullish. Listen and follow along with us as we explore what exactly CGB is, and what makes it so special — and controversial. Listeners will also hear from one of our favori...
Ep. 79: Yatsen Group: Cosmetics ecommerce superstar and China’s L’Oreal for the digital age?
December 08, 2020 22:18 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MBIn Episode 79 of Tech Buzz China, Rui and Ying talk about a company that aspires to be “China’s L’Oréal” for the digital age: Yatsen Group, owner of smash hit cosmetics app Perfect Diary (完美日记) among other brands. Though we at Tech Buzz have never directly covered the company, we have mentioned it, including in Episode 70 with Lauren Hallanan; as well during last week’s Q3 Market Trends call (link available through Dec. 9) with BigOne Lab’s Mengyao Ren. Yatsen recently listed on the...
Ep. 78: China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) dreams
November 20, 2020 22:17 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBEpisode 78 of Tech Buzz China features our co-host Rui Ma in conversation with Yán Xiāo 肖妍 on the timely topic of China’s proposed national digital currency. Yan is a San Francisco-based Project Lead at the World Economic Forum with deep experience in fintech, having worked as senior legal counsel at Ant Group. She is also a lawyer by training and holds both American and Chinese legal licenses. Her current work focuses on digital payments and cross-border payments. Yan’s opinions on...
Ep. 77: The next thing in China ecommerce? Consumer to manufacturer (C2M)
October 30, 2020 22:12 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBIn episode 77 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu tackle a topic that has become the next big thing in China ecommerce: C2M, or consumer to manufacturer. Although the acronym itself is not new, the term has been redefined within the past two years, driven by the choices of a handful of key founders and companies. Listen to learn about why Rui and Ying think this new iteration is at once innovative and transformational, why both factories and brands stand to benefit, and ...
Ep. 76: Lufax IPO and the end of P2P lending in China
October 19, 2020 19:08 - 24 minutes - 22.4 MBIn episode 76 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu take advantage of the recent Lufax IPO filing (Chinese name: 陆金所 lùjīnsuǒ) to talk about the P2P lending industry in China, which has been an oft-requested topic! We get into China’s (lack of) regulation of the nontraditional form of financing, drivers behind the industry’s quick boom and bust, and some of the reasons Lufax is one of the few, and biggest, survivors. We have started uploading all of our past episodes ont...
Ep. 75: China ecommerce SaaS: Youzan, Weimob, and WeChat mini programs
October 02, 2020 22:12 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBIn episode 75 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu talk about China ecommerce SaaS (software as a service), which currently primarily refers to WeChat ecommerce as it takes place through mini programs. Listen to learn about major players Youzan and Weimob, the difference between public and private traffic, and what Alibaba’s and Tencent’s future strategies might be given their actions up to this point. How accurate are the various players’ much-sought comparisons to Shopi...
Ep. 74: Ant Group: The biggest IPO…ever?
September 11, 2020 22:29 - 55 minutes - 50.4 MBIn episode 74 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu talk in depth about Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial affiliate, ahead of its upcoming mega-IPO. Media reports that the company — which already holds the record for “largest-ever single private fundraise” for its $14 billion raise in 2018 — seeks to raise $30 billion. That figure would indeed make it the largest public offering the world has ever seen. We first covered Ant Group over two years ago in Episode 11, titled “Af...
Ep. 74: Ant Financial: The biggest IPO…ever?
September 11, 2020 22:29 - 55 minutes - 50.4 MBIn episode 74 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu talk in depth about Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial affiliate, ahead of its upcoming mega-IPO. Media reports that the company — which already holds the record for “largest-ever single private fundraise” for its $14 billion raise in 2018 — seeks to raise $30 billion. That figure would indeed make it the largest public offering the world has ever seen. We first covered Ant Group over two years ago in Episode 11, titled “Af...
Ep. 73: KE Holdings: China’s second largest platform?
August 28, 2020 19:19 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBIn episode 73 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying Lu return to the typical deep-dive format you’ve come to expect, with a timely look into recently listed real estate tech platform Beike 贝壳, or KE Holdings (BEKE). In addition to talking about the two-year-young company, we explore the realities of the Chinese real estate industry, which operates completely differently from (and is arguably messier than) the industry here in the U.S. We cover KE Holdings’ founder story, the ...
Ep. 72: What makes TikTok tick: A dialogue with Eugene Wei
August 14, 2020 20:30 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBEpisode 72 of Tech Buzz China features product expert Eugene Wei in conversation with our co-host Rui Ma on the timely topic of TikTok and the mechanics of what makes the app so successful. Tune in to learn why Rui calls TikTok an “algorithmic entertainment platform” and why Eugene terms TikTok’s algorithm the “Sorting Hat.” You’ll also learn why the app was well situated in coming out of China, and what the future ownership and trajectory of TikTok in the U.S. might be. This is a s...
Ep. 71: Industry trends in China’s COVID-19 recovery, with Mu Chen
August 04, 2020 22:05 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBEpisode 71 of Tech Buzz China features Mu Chen in conversation with our co-hosts Ying Lu and Rui Ma, on the topic of digital and consumption trends in China. Mu is the founder and CEO of BigOne Lab (百观Lab), a data intelligence firm for investors. He discusses recent data and trends from key industries such as delivery, recruitment, logistics, travel, online spending, and gaming to illustrate how China’s economy is recovering from the downturn caused by COVID-19. This is the fourth...
Ep. 70: Livestreaming ecommerce with Lauren Hallanan
July 20, 2020 19:30 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBEpisode 70 of Tech Buzz China features Lauren Hallanan in conversation with our co-hosts Ying Lu and Rui Ma on the topic of livestreaming ecommerce. In addition to being a former China-based livestreamer herself, with over 400,000 followers, Lauren is a fellow SupChina podcaster at the China Marketing Podcast. Go check it out! Today, Lauren gives a fascinating overview of China’s livestreaming ecommerce industry, including its history, key traits and differentiators, common conten...
Ep. 69: China AI with Jeff Ding
June 22, 2020 20:49 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MBEpisode 69 of Tech Buzz China features our co-host Rui Ma in dialogue with Jeff Ding, a Rhodes Scholar and D.Phil Researcher at Oxford in the Future of Humanity Institute. He is also the creator of a free weekly newsletter called China AI. For his talk, Jeff focuses on artificial intelligence in China, specifically, some of the “unsexy” technical applications of AI across several industries. This is the second in a series of experimental, non-scripted episodes that we will be relea...
Ep. 68: Entertainment livestreaming outside of China with Shang Koo of M17.asia
June 08, 2020 20:38 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBEpisode 68 of Tech Buzz China features our co-host Rui Ma in dialogue with Shang Koo, the CFO of M17 Entertainment, or M17.asia, which is a livestreaming company popular in Taiwan and Japan. Listen to learn more about entertainment livestreaming and how the industry has developed throughout Asia. Shang goes into the dynamics of gifting, critiques of various business models, and the impacts of COVID-19 on the sector both within China and in markets that M17 serves. This is the first...
Ep. 67: TikTok’s siblings: ByteDance’s other video apps
May 22, 2020 21:02 - 44 minutes - 40.6 MBIn episode 67 of Tech Buzz China, hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu discuss the ByteDance family of video apps outside of TikTok, including Xigua, Huoshan, and Pipixia. Most listeners know by now that ByteDance is very good at video, and these other apps provide noteworthy — though not comprehensive — examples of just how good it is. Listen to learn about ByteDance’s extensive video portfolio. In particular, will Xigua win versus Bilibili for the title of China’s YouTube? Is ByteDance’s...
Ep. 66: Beyond TikTok: Bytedance’s ambitions in gaming and education
May 01, 2020 20:25 - 34 minutes - 31.4 MBIn episode 66 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu talk about Bytedance’s forays into gaming and education — moves that have been well covered and are eagerly anticipated by Chinese media. Notably, in multiple interviews, CEO Zhang Yiming says that he only wants to go into fields where he feels he is better than the incumbent. While Zhang believes, and we agree, that edtech has a lot of room for improvement, we wonder if Bytedance’s moves in gaming could be more effe...
Ep. 65 (Extra Buzz Special): Luckin’s luck ran out
April 13, 2020 21:56 - 29 minutes - 26.6 MBEpisode 65 of Tech Buzz China is a special one — a reading of the seventh issue of Extra Buzz, our new biweekly newsletter written by co-host Rui Ma. Listen (and read along) to follow Rui’s thoughts on the biggest story in China tech last week: the alleged fraud of China’s on-demand coffee company, Luckin Coffee 瑞幸咖啡. At its core, we at Tech Buzz believe Luckin is a story of information asymmetry, with voices on either side of the Pacific at times seeming to be telling different sto...
Ep. 64: Telemedicine in China in the time of COVID-19: Part 2
April 03, 2020 19:31 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBEpisode 64 of Tech Buzz China is the second of two episodes on the Chinese telemedicine sector, which is closely watched in the wake of COVID-19. This week, on the heels of episode 63’s discussion of Ping An Good Doctor, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu talk about other experiments, such as Chunyu Yisheng 春雨医生, WeDoctor 好大夫, and Dingxiangyuan 丁香园. We also give overviews of telemedicine efforts by some of the large internet companies, including Alibaba, Baidu, and JD Health. The ov...
Ep. 63: China telemedicine in the time of COVID-19: Part 1
March 23, 2020 13:33 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBEpisode 63 of Tech Buzz China is on the Chinese telemedicine sector, which has quickly evolved to become one of the most interesting businesses in China, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu focus on the underlying drivers within the complex healthcare industry. They cover topics such as the size of the Chinese healthcare system, the shortage of doctors and reasons why, and challenges for telemedicine. Companies mentioned include Ping An Good Doctor...
Ep. 62: Real pain for Chinese real estate startups
March 07, 2020 16:48 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBEpisode 62 of Tech Buzz China is on co-living and co-working, two of the formerly hottest — and now possibly coldest — sectors in China tech. Co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu discuss how real estate startups have been hit hard by the coronavirus against a backdrop of how the real estate sector is big business in China. From rental startup companies Danke and Ziroom to co-working giant Ucommune, which failed to list last year, listeners will join a whirlwind tour of the biggest pla...
Ep. 61: Getting educated on China K-12 tutoring edtech
February 21, 2020 21:57 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBEpisode 61 of Tech Buzz China is on K-12 edtech entrepreneurs, who are seeing their businesses grow instead of shrink in the wake of the coronavirus. Co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu discuss top trends and the key players before the virus hit, and how they are responding now. In 2018, the raging headline was that half of the venture capital deployed in edtech that year went to Chinese companies. In the past three years alone, 25 Chinese education companies have gone public. It’s a...
Ep. 60: Wuhan Coronavirus: Impact on China Tech
February 07, 2020 22:22 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBEpisode 60 of Tech Buzz China is a special on the Wuhan coronavirus and its impact on China tech, as seen by co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu. As we produce this episode, all of China is still pretty much on lockdown in response to the virus — it’s a transformative time. We talk about the impact on a range of sectors such as grocery ecommerce, remote work, philanthropy, video gaming, entertainment, education, fitness, and healthcare. Which changes are short term, and which ones mi...
Ep. 59: China Tech 2019 in Review
January 24, 2020 18:54 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBEpisode 59 of Tech Buzz China takes a retrospective look at 2019 in China internet culture and business happenings. Co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu review their top picks of the need-to-know trends, occurrences, and players that shaped the landscape in 2019. From the saturation of Chinese mobile internet users to the rise of the rural consumer and a decline in funding for tech companies, listen and decide for yourself: do you agree with our analyses and predictions as we enter the ...
Ep. 58: China grocery ecommerce: Bloodbath or gold mine?
January 10, 2020 21:52 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBIn Episode 58 of TechBuzz China, our first episode of the new decade, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu talk about grocery ecommerce, or buying fresh food over the internet. The sector, which in China is sometimes taken to include “new retail” concepts such as Alibaba’s Hema, is seen as one of the few remaining “blue ocean” ecommerce opportunities in China. Thus, it is growing rapidly and attracting a lot of investment and interest. Listen to find out: Given the amount of action in...
Ep. 57: Bilibili — the YouTube of China?
December 13, 2019 20:42 - 37 minutes - 34 MBHere at TechBuzz, we have been busy preparing for our second Investor Trip for March 2–6, 2020. If you are a full-time investor with at least 10 years of experience, consider applying for the trip by writing to us at [email protected]. During our inaugural Investor Trip in October, Bilibili was one of the companies we visited, and it turned out to be one of our most highly rated meetings! We hope you enjoy what we’ve prepared today. In episode 57 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma ...
Ep. 56: Not just TikTok: A short history of Chinese short video abroad
November 22, 2019 23:23 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBEpisode 56 of TechBuzz China is all about short video, which our co-hosts comment should by now be considered one of China’s “New Four Great Inventions.” It’s sweeping the world, and has become an arena in which Chinese companies’ battle for users and revenue is extending abroad. Most of our listeners will have heard of Bytedance’s product TikTok, and likely even of Kuaishou (see TechBuzz #55), but what about other players such as Likee — what is their story? Short videos shot in ...
Ep. 55: Kuaishou: The Anti-Douyin/TikTok?
November 08, 2019 14:48 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBEpisode 55 of TechBuzz China is about a company we have admittedly relegated to a “supporting role” thus far here on TechBuzz: Kuaishou, which is rightfully known as the original Chinese short-video app. Rui and Ying-Ying explain that while Bytedance and its Douyin and TikTok products seem to be clear stars today, that trend was not always obvious. It is true that Kuaishou is experiencing declining market share and experimenting with new, hard-charging avenues of growth, but our co-...
Ep. 54: Influencers, KOLs, idols, and the future of China ecommerce
October 25, 2019 20:34 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBTechBuzz China is back from China! We are happy to say that the week of back-to-back meetings we had in our first-ever Investor Trip was a great success. We were able to visit a host of companies we’ve previously covered on the podcast, like Ximalaya, Xiaohongshu, Ruhan, Xiaomi, China Renaissance, Tiger Brokers, and more, as well as new ones such as Ctrip, Mogujie, Qutoutiao, and Bilibili, which we hope to talk about in more detail soon. Thank you to everyone who hosted us, and a sp...
Ep. 53: NetEase — Developing Pigs, Games, and People
October 04, 2019 20:49 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBTechBuzz China is going to China! As part of our inaugural invite-only TechBuzz China Investor Trip for public market investors taking place right after Golden Week, we will be hosting a live meetup in Beijing’s Sanlitun at Taco Bar on Tuesday, October 8, and in Shanghai at Hotel Indigo on Thursday, October 10. Both will begin at 8:30 p.m. If you are in either of those cities, do come out and have a beer on us! Episode 53 of TechBuzz China is about NetEase. Listen to learn about t...
Ep. 52: Zhihu and Kuaishou — Has China’s Quora Found Its Prince Charming?
September 20, 2019 22:15 - 34 minutes - 32 MBTechBuzz China is going to China! As part of our inaugural invite-only TechBuzz China Investor Trip for public market investors taking place right after Golden Week, we will be hosting live meetups. These will take place in Beijing’s Sanlitun after dinner on Tuesday, October 8, and in Shanghai after dinner on Thursday, October 10. If you are in either of those cities, do come out and have a beer on us! Check our Twitter (@techbuzzchina) for updates on the exact locations and times. ...
Ep. 51: Overview of China Tech: Rui Ma on SupChina Access
August 30, 2019 21:38 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MBEpisode 51 of TechBuzz China is our second consecutive show that is in a unique format. It features a replay of TechBuzz co-host Rui Ma’s recorded call on SupChina Access, which was originally aired live on July 23. The conversation is moderated by Jeremy Goldkorn, editor-in-chief of SupChina. As longtime listeners know, we are proudly one of the most long-standing podcasts within SupChina’s Sinica Podcast Network. In this episode, Jeremy prompts Rui to speak on some of the hottest ...
Ep. 50: TechBuzz Live: The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future
August 16, 2019 21:52 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBEpisode 50 of TechBuzz China is unique: it’s our first live recording! It features co-host Rui Ma in conversation with author and journalist Matt Sheehan, currently a fellow based at the Paulson Institute’s MacroPolo think tank. It was recorded at the August 13 launch of Matt’s new book, The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future. As our co-hosts have commented on previous episodes, we respect Matt as one of the smartest and most tho...
Ep. 49: China’s Gen-Z and its newest poison: sneakers
August 02, 2019 21:50 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBIn episode 49 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma continue their exploration of the converging trends between the U.S. and China’s ecommerce sectors, this week covering the topic of the resale market for sneakers and streetwear. Notably, entrepreneurs in the U.S. and in China, such as the founders of smash-hit sneaker site Pozion, seem to have discovered this space at roughly the same time. Perhaps, our co-hosts muse, due to the tech-savvy nature of the Gen-Z demograp...
Ep. 48: Three Squirrels: The Nutty World of Chinese D2C Brands
July 20, 2019 02:34 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBIn episode 48 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma take a look at the direct-to-consumer, or D2C, brands in China. Specifically, they highlight one of the early winners of the business model: Three Squirrels, a Chinese internet snack brand that started off with selling nuts and went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange last week with a market cap of close to $2 billion. Though the company has not been covered much in English, it has been all the buzz in China’s tech c...
Ep. 47: Chinese K12 English EdTech: VIPKid and How Learning is Earning
June 21, 2019 19:53 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MBIn episode 47 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into a topic they have been wanting to cover for a while now: Chinese educational technology (edtech). Specifically, they focus on VIPKid, a company that has an incredible number of competitors but is by far the largest in terms of scale for its cross-border model of English-language instruction. Notably, 8 of the 12 startup unicorns categorized as edtech by CBInsights are from China — and this does not include th...
Ep. 46: Futu, Tiger, and the trillion-dollar overseas online brokerage business from China
June 07, 2019 20:28 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBIn episode 46 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma take a look at the market for China’s overseas online brokerages, which help Chinese people to invest in securities outside of mainland China. Of note, two Chinese fintech startups, Futu (富途 fù tú, or “path to riches”) and Tiger Brokers, went IPO in quick succession in March. This episode tells the stories of Futu and Tiger against a backdrop of relative volatility for U.S.-listed Chinese equities, as compared with the...
Ep. 45: Totally Lit or Just Hot Air? The Rise of E-Cigarettes in China
May 24, 2019 20:53 - 32 minutes - 30 MBIn episode 45 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the rise of what has been touted as “the next big trend” in China tech: electronic cigarettes. Despite being criticized as a trap for entrepreneurs and investors alike, as well as concerns around ethical considerations, a large number of high-profile hardware entrepreneurs and consumer internet executives in China have jumped into the fray. Although China has yet to birth a decacorn in this sector like U.S.-...
Ep. 44: So young, more beautiful — the allure of China's plastic surgery market
May 10, 2019 21:23 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBIn episode 44 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about So-Young, an internet company that markets and facilitates plastic surgery and other medical cosmetic procedures to Chinese customers. The six-year-old company has a stated mission of bringing “health and beauty” to everyone, and its stock priced at $13.80 per American depositary share (ADS) last week but is now trading at about $20. Prior to listing, So-Young had raised over $250 million in venture capital ...
Ep. 43: Douyu’s IPO, Panda.TV’s Death — Let the Gaming Livestreaming Games Begin
April 26, 2019 21:07 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBIn Episode 43 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into the world of gaming live streaming, which is a pretty big industry in China. Specifically, our co-hosts focus primarily on two companies, Douyu and Panda.TV. The former has just filed to go public on the NYSE at a valuation of $500 million, and the latter officially shut down on March 30 of this year. Notably, these and several other players mentioned in today’s episode have all received Tencent investment at...
Ep. 42: To 996, or Not to 996, That is the Question
April 12, 2019 20:20 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBIn Episode 42 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma turn their attention to the developer-led movement 996.icu, one of the few viral China tech topics in the past few months that has made it to Western media in real time and gotten a good bit of coverage. The movement is so named because there is a popular saying that to work “996,” or at least 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — as many tech sector employees do in China — is to end up in the ICU. Listeners will also he...
Ep. 41: IPO is for Influencers: The Company Behind China’s Kylie Jenner is Going Public
April 02, 2019 17:47 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBIn Episode 41 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Ruhnn (RUHN), a relatively small yet significant company that filed for IPO a few weeks ago in the U.S. on the Nasdaq. Ruhnn has become the clear leader in China’s fast-growing influencer marketing sector, an area in which — our co-hosts agree — China should be considered world-leading. Lauren Hallanan, a Chinese social media marketing expert focusing on influencer marketing, and a former livestreamer in Chi...
Ep. 40: China’s Newest Stock Exchange Experiment: Shanghai’s Technology Innovation Board
March 15, 2019 22:16 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBIn Episode 40 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the new “Technology Innovation Board” on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which formally announced its first set of rules last week. Rui and Ying-Ying explain that given its recent trajectory, this registration-based NASDAQ-style board could be launched in a few months, if not weeks — much more quickly than skeptics have assumed. With this news as the backdrop, this week’s episode serves as a quick primer into t...
Ep. 39: Podcasting in China — the Myth and the Reality
February 26, 2019 22:21 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBEpisode 39 of TechBuzz China is on a topic of special interest to our co-hosts, Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma: podcasting in China! It was sparked by two recent pieces of news within the podcasting industry. The first was the acquisition of Gimlet Media, a podcasting network, by the newly IPOed music-streaming service Spotify for $200 million; the second was the $100 million raised by the podcasting platform Himalaya. In fact, Himalaya’s main investor, China’s Ximalaya FM, boasts 23 millio...
Ep. 38: Battle of the Red Packets
February 19, 2019 13:50 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBIn episode 38 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into this year’s Battle of the Red Packets. The name refers to the custom of money-giving, which is an important part of the Chinese New Year experience. It has also been taken over by Chinese internet companies as one of their main user acquisition events of the year. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by sharing the history of hongbao, or “red packet.” In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the traditional gift was simply a stack...
Ep. 37: The WeChat Mini Program — The End of Apps or Not?
February 01, 2019 23:15 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MBIn episode 37 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into the world of WeChat Mini Programs. Arguably some of the biggest innovations to come out of the Chinese internet, Mini Programs have no real Western equivalent. Ever since it was launched three years ago on January 9, 2016, the Mini Programs function, which is still in an experimental stage, has been touted as a key direction for WeChat. Rui and Ying-Ying begin by exploring the origin story of Mini Programs. T...
Ep. 36: China Tech is Risky Business - Pinduoduo’s Hack and DJI’s Corruption Scandal
January 25, 2019 20:49 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBIn episode 36 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the dirty, risky, and more unseemly aspects of China tech, primarily focused on two stories that grabbed headlines recently: the “hack” at the ecommerce company Pinduoduo, and the corruption scandal at the drone designer DJI. Although the incidents differ greatly from each other, they have come on each other’s heels, so our co-hosts decided to bundle them together for an episode, reflecting what’s buzzing wi...