Asia Startup Pulse

What has contributed to WeChat’s massive growth all over the world? What features make WeChat so instrumental for people’s life?  

Our guest today is Stephen Wang, who co-founded Rotten Tomatoes, a leading entertainment website focused on movie reviews and news, and most recently led the user growth and engagement at WeChat in the past 6 years until 2019. At WeChat, he managed a team of product managers and engineers to help scale WeChat from 300M to 1B users in China and around the world.  

In todays’s episode, Stephen will give us a deep dive into WeChat as a product and the mobile-only mentality behind it. As a product head in a product-centric company, Stephen shares the metric he cares the most. We will also take a look at the major shift of product management philosophy in China by using Bytedance as an example.

Show Notes:

2:15 Welcome Stephen Wang

2:50 How different WeChat is as a product from the western perspective

5:37 What makes WeChat instrumental for people’s life

12:42 Innovation inspired by Tencent team culture

16:10 Product design in China (Examples: Douban, Weibo and Xiaomi)

21:50 What makes China a special ecosystem for digital product development

25:30 WeChat’s killer features: WeChat payment, Red Packets, Mini program

32:35 Balance privacy protection and user growth

39:20 Skills needed for talents in Tencent

43:35 Are Chinese companies hiring more international talents

49:10 The major shift of product management philosophy in China

Many thanks to our guest Stephen Wang; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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With China having the highest number of internet users in the world with more than 750 million users, it is hard to imagine a time when there were only a few hundred users.  

Fortunately, we do not have to leave much to the imagination. Our guest for today, Demopoulos, has witnessed firsthand the rapid rise of internet development and adoption in China. 

Before the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s and well before China became the dominant internet economy it is today, Fritz came to China and is one of a handful of experts, who has not only led multinational businesses but also established successful businesses of his own. Fritz Demopoulos has been an entrepreneur and investor in the media and internet industry for over 15 years. He co-founded and exited Qunar.com, China’s largest travel internet company; and Shawei.com, China’s largest sports internet company. Fritz has also held senior positions at Neteast and The News Corporation.  

In today’s episode, Fritz dives deep into the early days of the internet in China. He shares his experience working in the media industry in China in the early days when people were still figuring out what the internet was. We also discuss the first-generation of internet entrepreneurs in China: how they started, what made them different, and more. We then move onto his own entrepreneurial journey in China. Starting a business in China as a foreigner is not easy, let alone a successful one. Fritz talks about how he managed to build his business in China by staying ahead of the curve, something that all entrepreneurs can learn from.

Episode Notes:

02:30 Introduction to Fritz Demopoulos

03:05 Internet in China in 1997

05:15 How Fritz decided to come to China

05:44 What stood out in the Chinese business environment

07:33 The Dotcom Bubble and its Impact on China

09:12 The Major Driver of Business Growth in China

12:13 The Evolution of Early Internet Businesses in China

13:42 Appetite for Monetization

17:00 Value Addition over Monetization

18:41 User Interface in early 2000s

21:36 The First Generation of Chinese Internet Founders

24:35 Fritz's leap into entrepreneurship

26:48 Differentiating a Business and Standing Out of the Crowd

31:03 Raising Capital as a Foreigner in China

32:58 Inflection Point for China Internet that Changed Everything

35:11 China's Role in Global Tech

39:04 What keeps Fritz busy now

40:00 Fritz's Investment Thesis and Areas of Investment Interest

41:30 How to contact Demopoulos

41:55 Advice to Everyone

Many thanks to our guest; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Today we’re bringing you the final episode of our Chinaccelerator 8x8 Global Speakers Series where we invite some of the most accomplished members of the China startup ecosystem to share key lessons for startups in eight minutes or less. 

Our theme for this episode is entrepreneurship insights. Our two speakers today bring with them a plethora of experience to share with our listeners. Stay tuned for the insights from Yaw Yeo, General Manager for International Product and Business for Alibaba Cloud, and Cheryl Goh, Founding CMO at Grab.

[01:51] Yaw Yeo

[17:30] Cheryl Goh

Yaw Yeo is the General Manager for International Product and Business for Alibaba Cloud. Prior to Alibaba, Yaw was responsible for new market expansion in the Asia-Pacific region for Twilio （NYSE:TWLO）. Yaw started wong with Twilio as an investor in 2012. He joined Twilio as employee #1 in Asia-Pacific in 2014 and witnessed Twilio’s growth from a startup of 50 employees to a publicly-traded company of 2,500 employees.

Cheryl Goh is part of the founding team at Grab. Starting in Kuala Lumpur as a one-man marketing team, she has set up the marketing practise across Southeast Asia for Grab over the last six years. Today, she leads marketing in over 300 cities, covering all of Grab’s business verticals including transport, food, payments and logistics. She oversees Grab’s marketing efforts across the region, leading a team of over 500 marketers across Southeast Asia. In 6 years, Cheryl has built the Grab brand into a household name across Southeast Asia, and played a critical role in the company’s growth and progression from ride-hailing, into the region’s leading superapp. Under her leadership, the marketing team has led the development of demand shaping platforms which drives Grab’s growth using technology and automation. She also manages Grab’s social impact programme and published Grab’s first social impact report earlier this year.

Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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This is the second episode from our Chinaccelerator 8X8 Global Speakers Series, where we bring 8 influential speakers to share their insights and experiences in 8 minutes. We have some great speakers lined up for this episode.

[02:50] Patrick Lee

[11:48]  Fritz Demopoulos

[21:54] Patrick Riley

Patrick Lee is a serial entrepreneur best known for being a co-founder and former CEO of Rotten Tomatoes (rottentomatoes.com), a leading entertainment website focused on movie reviews and news. He is an advisor to a number of startups including Casetify, ChargeSPOT, Instaread, Kiwibot, Oishii, WePloy, and Zeuss Technologies; and a mentor at a number of organizations including SOSV, Berkeley SkyDeck, Blue Startups, and Founder Institute.

Fritz Demopoulos has been an entrepreneur and investor within the media and internet industries for over 15 years. He co-founded Qunar.com, China’s largest travel internet company; and Shawei.com, China’s largest sports internet company. Fritz also had senior positions at Netease and The News Corporation.

Patrick Riley is the CEO at GAN and Managing Partner and Co-Founder of GAN Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund. Most recently, he was on the executive team at Techstars, where he oversaw its business development. He started his career working for W.L. Gore and Associates and moved into the leadership of the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. Patrick left the Red Cross to manage the West Coast sales and operations for a venture-backed healthcare company that had an exit before joining Techstars and GAN.

Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Welcome everybody to another episode of the China Startup Pulse. We have a special one today. We are back with our Chinaccelerator 8x8 Speaker Series this year with eight influential speakers from all over the world to share their insights for startups in eight minutes.

In this week’s episode, our speakers will share their experience and insights as to how startups can weather through the storm that is the Coronavirus pandemic. Our three guests bring different perspectives given their diverse backgrounds.

[02:13] Edith Yeung

[11:47] Yiying Lu

[18:36] Abel Zhao

Edith Yeung is a General Partner at Proof of Capital and advisor to 500 Startups. Previously, she was the GM at Dolphin Browser where she helped the company grow from 0 to 150 million app downloads. She has also led operation roles at several Fortune 500 companies.

Yiying Lu is one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. She is the artist behind the globally celebrated Twitter Fail Whale and the dumpling emoji. She has worked with hundreds of tech startups and entrepreneurs around the world, sharing her experiences and educating them about creative innovation.

Abel Zhao is the co-founder and CEO of TravelFlan, an award-winning AI and big data solutions company, empowering Fortune 500 companies including Samsung and China Mobile. 

Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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With 1.3 billion people, mobility is a massive challenge in china, not just about the intension between traditional petrol cars and new energy vehicles, but also delivery services and mid-volume logistics. What makes China as an early adopter in technology-focused mobility sectors, especially in Electric Vehicles (EVs)? What impacts the adoption of new energy vehicles (NEVs)? 

Our guest for today, Tu Le is the founder and Managing Director of Sino Auto Insights, a Beijing-based business intelligence and advisory firm that specializes in helping mobility companies develop tech-focused and innovative products and services. With over 20 years of experience in the industry from pure automotive to pure tech and finally combine both experiences together in China, he has very interesting insider perspectives to share with us. 

During our discussions with Tu Le, we will take a look at how the government has focused on developing NEVs in the past 10 years, analyze the brutal competition between traditional automotive players and new technologies-powered EV brands. We also want to remind everyone that there’s another party who is joining this battle - big tech giants like Apple and Xiaomi. In the end, we shed the spotlight on startups by discussing the new opportunities.

Episode notes:

02:03 Introduce Tu Le

03:04 Define Mobility

03:45 How mobility impacts other industries

05:20 How China becomes one of the largest markets for mobility

08:40 More adoption of electric motorcycles in China

12:54 The brutal battle between the traditional automakers and new technologies-powered EV brands

17:53 Xiaomi and Apple to join the competition

20:25 Will few leading players occupy the whole EV market in the end?

22:40 Tesla gets massive support from the Chinese government

24:55 Supply Chain for production

29:00 Startups that traditional automotive players like to work with

34:55 Opportunities to achieve profitability

37:30 Contact Tu Le

Many thanks to our guest Tu Le; host Oscar Ramos; producer Eva Shi; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Today’s guest Sam Cai is a legal and policy expert in Internet-related legislation, intellectual property rights and WTO rules, involved in different Chinese and international institutions. Currently he acts as Deputy Director and Chief Researcher of Cyberlaw Center at one of the largest tech companies in China.

Episodes Notes:

02:00 Introduce Sam Cai

02:45 What is Prism Think Tank

03:20 How China Internet Policies have evolved

04:53 Three approaches to make policies

08:02 Why China takes a relatively open approach for new things

09:47 What is “Internet +”

12:00 Are policies different for foreigners and local players

13:30 E-commerce cases

15:30 Legal and policy issues around data privacy and Artificial Intelligence

19:04 GDPR’s impact on the industry globally

23:15 Opportunities for foreign companies

26:30 A license-based regulation model

29:10 Future regulations and policies in Europe, the US and China

20:15 New government plan in China - “New Infrastructure”

31:00 The role of regulations in the internationalization of Chinese companies

31:56 Suggestions for foreign companies coming to China

34:34 How to contact Sam

Many thanks to our guest Sam Cai; host Oscar Ramos; producer Eva Shi; editors David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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The general public is increasingly becoming more aware of the value of sustainability. How is the investment world reacting to that? Impact investing - investment that generates positive social or environmental impact alongside financial returns.

Today, we have a great conversation about impact investing with Paul Meyers, an Asian digital veteran with over 25 years of experience, who helped set up ADBVentures, the Asian Development Bank’s first emerging market impact fund.

Paul explains what impact investing specifically means in emerging markets and extend the conversation to how the current COVID-19 outbreak will make a difference. He also introduces startup cases to illustrate what impact investors are looking at when making decisions.

Episodes Notes:

01:50 Impact investing in emerging markets

04:20 How COVID-19 impacts the impact investing

09:48 How COVID-19 impact entrepreneurs to adjust their business

12:30 How startups get the attention from impact investors

15:48 SE Asian startups tend to solve their local Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) problems first

16:53 Impact investing from China to Southeast Asia

18:31 What startups deliver social impact

20:51 Asian organizations with a global vision of gender equality

23:00 What encourages the changes for female entrepreneurs

26:25 How to contact Paul Meyers

*About Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

“The SDGs, as they’re known, set quantitative and qualitative targets and delivery timelines for impact-focused action through 2030. From eradicating poverty (Goal 1) to ensuring the availability and management of clean water access (Goal 6) to combatting climate change (Goal 13) and others." (Paul Meyers)

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos; our guest Paul Meyers; producer Eva Shi; editors David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Venture Capital is about venture and investing in startups that are doing something that has never been done. Still, a lot of investors think more about the risks associated with new technologies and business models that potentially will work.  

Today’s guest clearly looks at the risky opportunities, not just as best for investment but the only ones worth considering. Peter Mao is Co-founder and Partner at Panda Capital. During his over 12-year experience in the venture capital firms, he has been part of the investment team behind companies like Xiaomi and more recently Mobike, a bike-sharing company where he led the Series B and eventually exited it at USD 2.7billion within just 18 months. 

In this episode, Peter will talk about Panda Capital’s three preferred risky areas for investment, their data-driven investment approach and how he evaluates both external factors (e.g. market) or internal ones (e.g. team) during the Due Diligence process. He will also share the most common deal breakers he saw in the past for Series A companies.

EPISODE NOTES

01:46 Introduce Peter Mao

03:11 Introduce Panda Capital

05:35 The geographic focus for investment

06:17 How to react to the current downturn

07:49 Is it now a bad timing for deep technology companies?

11:07 The industries that can thrive from the COVID-19 crisis

12:51 The risky companies to invest

14:22 Three types of companies that are risky but full of opportunities

19:17 Are Chinese VCs looking for more obvious winners?

22:21 How to evaluate risks

25:30 How Peter evaluates founders and teams

27:20 The business metrics Peter care about

30:00 Deal breakers for Series A companies

35:50 Why Panda Capital has a different investment strategy

41:05 How to contact Peter

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos; our guest Peter Mao; producer Eva Shi; editors David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared.

Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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You don’t need to code to launch a unicorn startup. Through a non-code or low-code MVP (Minimum Viable Product), entrepreneurs can easily validate the assumptions, understand customers’ real pain points and test whether the business model will work or not. That simple lesson is ignored by many founders and is behind the failure of countless business initatives. 

Today’s guest Timothy Yu, founder and CEO of Snapask, an on-demand tutoring platform labeled as “Uber for Tutors” which just raised $35M in Series B, did not know about low fidelity prototyping. But he used the concept before he went through the SOSV Chinaccelerator’s Batch 8 program. 

In today’s conversation, Tim will share how the company has grown from a simple Facebook page to an arising edtech company with over 100 employees, operating in 8 Asian markets and reaching almost 300million users. Tim will also give us a deep analysis on its two users - tutors and users and the data-driven strategies to acquire and retain both of them. Is technology shaping the future education industry? “How people can attain the ability of self-learning and apply them in life is going to be one of the most important skills in the future”, this is what Timothy believes and what Snapask is trying to offer.

EPISODE NOTES

02:26 Welcome Tim

03:08 What is Snapask

06:08 The tutorial market and how Snapask got started

06:27 Snapaks operates in 8 markets

07:00 How the COVID-19 impacts the remote education

08:10 The vision and the first version of Snapask

11:28 Finding the profiles of users

12:30 The stereotypes of asking questions in Asian culture

14:00 Targeting at parents or students?

20:00 The tutors on Snapask

25:00 Investors care about the supply-demand balance

29:00 What is the next for Snapask

31:30 How will COVID-19 impact the future of education

35:00 How to contact Timothy Yu

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos; our guest Timothy Yu; producer Eva Shi; editors David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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