Asia Startup Pulse

Rapid urbanization and population concentration are challenges for many cities, especially in Asia’s fast-growing economies. Technology and data are helping to make our cities more efficient and sustainable. We are building smart cities, which integrate technologies to optimize every aspect that impacts every individual’s life, from waste management, utilities, transportation, education, food access and more. 

Today’s guest Bruce Bateman is a technology veteran, a serial CEO and CTO, who has seen the technology from hardware to new media, or the most advanced networking protocols. He has been involved in the launch of nine startups. Today, he is leading the drive for Smart City technologies as Chief Technical Advisor at Lite-On Technology, a leading player in the smart city space.  

In this episode, Bruce will talk about how he helps city planners deploy the appropriate technologies to build smart cities, specifically in terms of transportation, education, and aging populations. Bruce will also share the role of technology and why solving real problems is something that really matters. “It won’t happen without involving people”, this is why Bruce is more willing to call them “smart communities” rather than “smart cities”.

Show Notes:

02:13 Who is Bruce Bateman

09:54 Starting up in Asia is different from that in Silicon Valley

12:00 Design for manufacture and its challenges

14:30 The coronavirus outbreak is pushing forward the technologies

15:20 What will smart cities look like in the future

19:50 The cars industry is working on their intelligent innovation for smart cities

23:06 Transportation is one of the easiest problems to solve today

23:44 The education demands of different people

28:00 “The technology we are developing today will develop the smart city in the future”

29:34 The overhyped concept of “smart city”

35:00 How will technologies help to take care of old people

39:18 How to contact Bruce

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos; our guest Bruce Bateman; 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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“Most of the gamification activities happening in the market are superficial” This is a statement from today’s guest Monte Singman, a game veteran with 33-year industry experience. 

So what’s the real meaning of gamification? How should people include game dynamics into products? Monte has an insider and interesting point of view about games and gamification. In today’s episode, he will address the importance of fun, a key element for the successful gamification which is sometimes overlooked. And the best stage for gamification is when users feel comfortable to spend the time without restrictions. 

Currently Monte is the VP of international business development at iDreamSky Technology, one of the largest independent mobile game publishing platforms in China, and he has brought over 100 mobile games into Chinese markets. We will also talk about his business path from Silicon Valley to China and the technology that he believes will change the game industry.

EPISODE NOTES

01:47 Welcome Monte to the podcast

02:13 How Monte got into gaming

04:01 Transition to business

06:30 What drove Monte to the US

09:30 Adoption of games in Asia

11:57  Drivers behind creating new games

16:15 Asian games focus more on functions

19:50 Playing video games is an easy way to fill in boredom

23:31 Challenges to implement gamification

25:03 “The core asset of gamification is fun”

27:15 Why kids like playing games rather than study

28:30 “Most gamification activities are superficial”

34:29 How to make the process pleasurable

36:50 Is VR a must-have for games?

41:11 The technology that will change the game industry

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

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Today we talk about the global mobility industry with Joseph Constanty, Director of International at NIU Technologies, a Chinese company that produces and sells lithium powered two-wheeler scooters. 

Starting form Zero in 2014, NIU has sold over 810,000 vehicles worldwide and continued their international expansion in 34 countries. NIU also went public on NASDAQ in 2018 which is only 4 years after it was founded. 

Why is e-scooter a good solution for urban transportation problems? How did they get started and what’s the reason behind its fast growth? In today’s conversation, we will address these questions and also talk about how NIU uses data to improve the hardware products and user experience. Stay tuned until the end where we will take a deep look at their unique go-to-market approaches.

Episode Notes

02:12 Introduce Joseph Constanty

03:08 Introduce NIU Technologies

03:37 How Joseph ended up working in mobility

04:40 Urban transportation problems in emerging markets

07:38 The position of China in the global electric vehicles industry

10:45 NIU was firstly launched and sold through online crowdfunding campaigns

13:04 The e-scooter customers

15:08 NIU’s history

18:38 The best practices of bike sharing

21: 23 The “technology” gene of NIU

22:43 How NIU uses data to improve the user experience

25:53 NIU’s playbook of internalization

30:24 Different data policies in different countries

32:00 Challenges when a Chinese brand expand to overseas markets

35:20 Is China a leader in the global mobility industry

38:15 Model to work with overseas distributers

40:13 NIU’s unique go-to-market approaches

43:23 “Cars are the enemy of our cities”

46:40 How to contact Joseph

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

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Email us: [email protected]

When entering new markets, it is crucial to be able to localize the business. There are few startups that have achieved this and one of them is Strikingly - a Series B startup that helps non-coders or designers build beautiful websites that work on both mobile and desktop.

In today's episode, we are happy to have David Chen, CEO and Co-founder of Strikingly to join our podcast China Startup Pulse. David quitted Goldman Sachs and founded Strikingly in the US, which later became the first company to join Y Combinator. After noticing the opportunities in China, David and his team moved the company to China where he has successfully localized the business and continued to serve the global users.

He shared how they have established a strong local presence in China, in terms of product features, marketing channels, and even a Chinese company name.

Show Notes:

02:07 Introduction of David Chen

03:45 Strikingly's experience in Y Combinator

05:00 What is Strikingly

05:30 Why Strikingly went to China and their advantages

08:40 Build a local presence in the Mobile-Only China market

16:31 It took 3 years to launch a local product

17:24 How the name 'Strikingly' was born

21:10 How Strikingly localized in China

26:31 Products’ differences for Chinese and global users

30:30 Special needs from Chinese users - WeChat mini program

35:39 Regulations of building websites and WeChat mini programs in China

36:46 How to hire in Shanghai

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

Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!

Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/

Email us: [email protected]

Selling your product to businesses is tough. Today, we talk to Jonathan Wu, Co-founder and VP of Sales of a fast-growing B2B SaaS Company GrowingIO, to share with you the most advanced B2B sales strategies based on his experience. GrowingIO is a leading data analytics platform provider in China that helps drive business growth through data insights. Their current clients include Bytedance, China Mobile, Tujia, Didi and more. 

He shared very useful strategies and tactics on how to close B2B deals and how to understand clients’ pain points of adoption. As he pointed out, it’s very important to understand your clients, your product and user journey, and also to remember to talk to the decision makers. Later, he used GrowingIO as an example to explain how to classify products for different types of clients, and how GrowingIO has scaled the sales team in the past 5 years.

Show Notes:

01:59 Introduce Jonathan Wu

02:41 About GrowingIO

05:23 Why Jonathan started the company

08:25 How Jonathan decided to take the sales role

09:50 How GrowingIO got the first client, Liepin.com 猎聘

12:50 How to train the sales team

16:13 It takes 12 months for a new sales person to be mature

17:20 How to onboard the clients and understand pain points of adoption

21:05 How to select clients

23:27 Mature Internet companies build their own data platform

26:35 It’s necessary to add services on top of the software

29:26 Classify products and services for different clients

33:12 How GrowingIO has scaled the sales team

36:08 Connect with the decision maker to close the deal

37:38 Contact Jonathan

Many thanks to our guest Jonathan Wu, host Oscar Ramos; ; producers Eva Shi; editors David and Geep; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

If you like us, please give us a 5-star review and share with your friends!

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Social media is one of the most influential means of communication in the world. It helps brands to engage with customers quickly and effectively. However, it also brings potential risks. 

Social media management platform KAWO recently published a report analyzing social media crises in China during the last 10 years. It shows that there were 42 brands crises in 2019 in China, while only 1 incident happened each year from 2009 to 2013. Geographic sovereignty and politics are apparently the dominant causes for these crises.  

We invited Alex Duncan, co-founder of KAWO, in today’s podcast to share his insights about the report, how to manage social media in China, and most importantly how to prevent PR crisis.

Find KAWO’s report here: kawo.com/bcr

EPISODE NOTES

01:53 About Alex and KAWO

02:37 What brought Alex to China

03:45 How Alex started working for a technology company

05:26 What has KAWO achieved

06:28 What makes dynamic social media ecosystem in China

11:06 Challenges that western brands have in China

14:56 Social media is way more influential than it was

19:28 Localization: trust the local team and listen to users

20:01 Brands are also facing risks from publicity

25:40 Startups being impacted by the PR crisis

27:20 The reason why there were more PR crises

29:24 KAWO’s competitors and challenges

Many thanks to our guest Alex Duncan, host Oscar Ramos; ; producers Eva Shi; editors David and Geep; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

If you like us, please give us a 5-star review and share with your friends!

Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/

Email us: [email protected]

Design thinking. Lean startup methodology. Validation. Market Research. These concepts are familiar to every founder, and they are vital to any company’s success, but so few startups are able to do them well. 

Today’s guest, Alvin Chiang, is an exception. A veteran of internet giants NetEase, Alibaba, and Renren, Alvin founded Gululu in 2014. Gululu enhances children’s wellness through smart IoT technologies, and their first creation is a smart water bottle designed to help children cultivate healthy habits. 

In this episode, we discuss the extensive market research that went into the birth of Gululu and the ongoing development of the product. During the course of the conversation, we were thrilled to discover that Gululu is a perfect use case for design thinking.

EPISODE NOTES

[2:08] Introducing Alvin Chiang
[3:13] About Gululu
[4:22] How Gululu chose which problem to solve
[9:40] Design thinking in Chinese internet companies
[10:38] Lean startup methodology and iteration
[12:03] Technology infusion theory and acquiring users
[14:05] How Gululu uses IoT to keep users engaged
[17:00] Gaming vs. gamification
[19:18] Cooperating with parents
[21:43] Bringing Gululu to life and building a team
[23:50] How Gululu acquired their first users
[26:37] What Alvin learned at Alibaba
[28:13] Expat vs. local Chinese users
[29:41] Market education
[32:33] Gululu stickiness
[34:00] What opportunities are out there for entrepreneurs?
[38:01] How to find Alvin and Gululu

Many thanks to our hosts Ryan Shuken and Oscar Ramos; our guest Alvin Chiang; producers Eva Shi and Matthew Wu; editors David and Geep; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

If you like us, please give us a 5-star review and share with your friends!

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What’s next for OTAs? 

The growth of online travel users and transactions in China has slowed in the past two years. Has the online travel market hit a bottleneck? Where will the next opportunities arise? As one of the industry titans, Trip.com Group (formerly known as Ctrip) is at the forefront of experimenting with new initiatives to maintain its competitive position in the market.

As Head of Innovation at Trip.com Group, Margaret Feng, shares how they are exploring new offline products and planning how to acquire more customers in lower-tier cities. More importantly, she explains how Trip.com Group is embracing the concept of open innovation by investing in and collaborating with startups. Stay tuned to learn how Trip.com Group runs pilot programs with startups and tests new concepts and technologies in the market.

Show Notes:

01:16  Innovation in the US and China 

04:39 The landscape of the travel Industry in China

06:54 Chinese innovation with global potential

07:49 Exciting travel innovation practices

10:20 Hype around new technology

11:30 China as the early adopter market

13:40 Exploring offline activities 

14:07 Acquiring customers in lower tier cities 

18:13 From “Ctrip” to “Trip.com Group”

19:30 Ctrip expanding to emerging markets

20:25 The collaboration models with startups

23:12 Running pilots 

26:03 Pilots in B2B space

27:24 User experience

29:40 Early stage investment

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos, our guest Margaret Feng, producers Eva Shi and Matthew Wu, editors David and Geep, organizer Chinaccelerator, and sponsor People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

If you like us, please give us a 5-star review and share with your friends!

Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/

Email us: [email protected]

What factors are RMB investors considering that USD investors are not? What can the difference between Chinese VC firms and American VC firms tell us about the innovation and entrepreneurship lanscape in these countries? As venture capital funding slows down in China, how is this affecting entrepreneurs?

Today we are lucky to have the perfect person to answer these questions: Victor Chao, Partner of the RMB fund at SAIF, a leading private equity firm in China. Victor has lived and worked all over the world, and so he has a great perspective on how understanding VCs can help us understand the state of innovation in a country.

[1:20] Introducing Victor Chao and his journey to the VC world
[6:40] SAIF Partners history and growth
[8:11] Difference between private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investment strategies
[10:20] Difference between American and Chinese PE/VC investment
[14:20] What makes the China market unique: speed, mobility, and more
[16:55] Who are the investors for USD and RMB funds, and how do they impact investment strategies
[22:30] How exits and investing stages differ for USD and RMB funds
[25:15] How do different fund types influence what industries investors are looking at
[27:14] The RMB investment cooldown in China and how it is impacting investment strategies
[30:00] For a PE/VC firm, does size or performance matter more?
[32:10] How should entrepreneurs navigate today’s investment landscape
[35:40] How can entrepreneurs stand out for investment firms like SAIF

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos; our guest Victor Chao; editors David and Geep; producers Eva Shi and Matthew Wu; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

If you like us, please give us a review and share with your friends!

Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/

Email us: [email protected]

This is the third and final episode from our Chinaccelerator 8x8 Speakers Series. Twice a year, we invite some of the most accomplished and thoughtful members of the China startup ecosystem to share key lessons for startups in eight minutes or less.

Our theme for this episode is partnerships and relationships in the startup world. We have three fantastic speakers who will talk about this theme from different angles: Jill Tang, Shameen Prashantham, and Catherine Kang.

Show Notes:

[1:55] Jill Tang, Building Community-Based Startups
[9:55] Shameen Prashantham, "Dancing With Gorillas": How Startups and Large Companies Work Together
[18:29] Catherine Kang, How to Choose a Co-Founder

Jill Tang is a serial entrepreneur, community builder, and business KOL. She is the co-founder of Ladies Who Tech, China’s first and largest community dedicated to promoting gender diversity and inclusion in STEM. She is also the co-founder and managing partner of Cosmic Venture, which combines lean methodology and proprietary algorithm to assess brands with real time market validation.

Dr. Shameen Prashantham is an Associate Professor of International Business & Strategy at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. He previously taught at Nottingham University Business School and Glasgow University Business School, after earning his PhD from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, UK. His research focuses on how new ventures and large multinationals partner with each other.

Catherine is a leading professional in the Health and Beauty, Luxury Goods, High-end Service and Retail industry with more than 20 years of experience in Sales, Marketing and General Management. She is now the founder and CEO of PHISKIN, a leading brand on female anti-aging therapy, functional cosmetics, beauty cosmetology and plastic surgery.

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos; our guests Jill, Shameen, and Catherine; editors David and Geep; producers Eva Shi and Matthew Wu; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

If you like us, please give us a review and share with your friends!

Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/

Email us: [email protected]