East West Hurricane

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪

We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️

Shenzhen Becomes World’s First 5G City 🗼

* The Chinese city of Shenzhen claims it has become the world’s first city to achieve stand-alone 5G coverage. This means that you can receive 5G cell phone service and high speed wireless internet across the entire city. Chen Rugui, Shenzhen’s mayor, made this announcement in a press conference earlier this week. There are apparently 46,000 5G stations in the city, more than any other city in the world, and 5G tech providers Huawei and ZTE are both headquartered in Shenzhen.

* Shenzhen’s history symbolises the ascent of modern China. From becoming a special economic zone in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping to now being called Silicon Valley of China, Shenzhen may be home to the new forefront of 5G technology. China has prioritised developing 5G infrastructure and applications as a national policy, with most other major Chinese cities already aiming to achieve similar levels of 5G coverage as Shenzhen very soon. Apart from making everything faster, there are many ways (some hard to predict) that the power of 5G technology could change the way many parts of society operate. However it changes things, we might see it first start to happen in Shenzhen.

Bytedance’s Other Ventures in Education 🎓

* While Bytedance might be best known as the Chinese company that owns TikTok, many people don’t realise that Bytedance is a multi-faceted tech holding company that operates several diversified business ventures. And with all the scrutiny TikTok faces, Bytedance may need to double down on their other companies. One major area of focus for Bytedance right now is education. The company has launched two new online learning apps in China—Xuelang and Qingbei Xiaoban.

* Xuelang offers one to three hour long livestream classes for K-12 students and also courses for professionals. Qingbei Xiaoban focuses on small online classes run by a teacher with a limited number of concurrent students. These are just the latest in dozens of apps launched by Bytedance over the last few years, including other education apps. As I have written about before and has been profiled in publications like the FT, edtech (education technology) startups have really benefitted from the coronavirus, especially in Asia. It makes sense for Bytedance to treat education as a strategic priority. People have described Bytedance as an App Factory, so launching several edtech experiments at once is a typical strategy for them.

Live Chinese E-Sports, Back in Business 🎩

* Many people across China have been attending large social gatherings in the relative aftermath of the coronavirus, including places like Wuhan, which hosted a packed music festival in a water park just a few days ago. This week, Honour of Kings, one of China’s and the world’s biggest competitive e-sports games, hosted the Honour of Kings World Champion Cup 2020. This was the first live, physically attended e-sports event of the year since the coronavirus outbreak. Things have changed, however.

* While the event took place in a stadium in Beijing with a capacity of 19,000, only 2,000 tickets were available for fans. As has become the norm, attendees had their temperature checked and mobile health codes scanned before entering the event. In fact, you could only purchase tickets to the event if you had a level 30 Honour of Kings account, which means you are a high ranked player in the top percentile of gamers and most likely a superfan. Whether you like these ideas or not, they present some pretty interesting options for stadium attendance and ticketing that could also be utilised in other countries around the world.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪

We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️

Chinese Fitness Post-Covid 🏋️‍♀️

* One of the biggest shifts in fitness due to the coronavirus is the shift online - virtual classes, digital personal training sessions, recorded workouts, and more. In China, health and fitness influencers have adjusted their content to target the at-home audience of people trying to stay fit. On video platform Bilibili, workout videos accumulated 660 Million views during the lockdown, which was a 200% year-on-year increase in number of views and a 164% year-on-year increase in total viewing time. On average, fitness creators have also experienced a 240% year-on-year increase in new followers.

* Many people appreciate the fact that virtual fitness gives them more flexibility and convenience, often at a lower cost. These growth trends have been consistent across many Chinese fitness apps, virtual gyms, and health training programs. Not every company can easily switch to digital models, especially if they have a traditional approach to business. Whether you like it or not, digital fitness is a new worldwide reality and the post-Coronavirus era is a land grab for the platforms who can quickly take advantage of this trend.

China’s E-Sports Industry: Best Year Ever 👾

* The China Game Industry Research Institute released a report on the performance of China’s game industry over the first half of 2020. There were 484 Million Chinese E-sports players (roughly 35% of the population), which was a 10% year-on-year increase. The esports industry generated $10 Billion in revenue, which was a 55% year-on-year increase. Out of revenue from the overall gaming industry, 75% came from mobile games.

* These numbers are very impressive. While many industries are struggling to survive as the world is on fire, the gaming industry is clearly thriving. China’s overall adoption of gaming is generally at higher levels than most of Asia and the West, but the data from other countries on the growth of gaming is pretty similar.

Amazon Hits New Milestone in India 📊

* Last week, Amazon hosted their annual sales holiday in India called Prime Day. Over two days, Amazon India processed a record $600 Million in sales. The biggest selling products were smartphones (including Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi and OnePlus), consumer electronics, and appliances. Amazon launched their Prime service in India two years ago, and over one million Indian Prime subscribers participated in this recent sales event.

* 91,000 small business sellers participated in Prime Day 2020, which was another record for the company. Overall, Prime Day was a major success for Amazon and signals broader consumer confidence amidst the coronavirus. Or at the very least, people are moving their purchases online out of necessity. We have already seen Chinese online sales holidays set new records, like JD’s 618 Festival in June. We are now seeing new records in Indian online sales holidays. Will we see similar recoveries once we get to Cyber Monday in the US? We will have to wait and see.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪

We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️

Louis Vuitton’s Physical Fashion Show 👚

* Luxury brand Louis Vuitton partnered with media publication GQ China to create the Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2021 Menswear show in Shanghai. Several Chinese celebrities like singer/actor/model Kris Wu played important roles during the show and in the promotion leading up to the event. Virgil Abloh, the global artistic director of Louis Vuitton Menswear, was unable to attend in person so he broadcasted a virtual message to the audience. GQ China was responsible for the show’s promotion on Chinese social media channels like Weibo and Douyin.

* As I’ve been writing over the past weeks, China has already been recovering and hosting several physical events like last week’s gaming & entertainment conference China Joy. This Louis Vuitton show is the first luxury fashion show to physically take place in China post-Covid. Compared to their Western counterparts, GQ China is taking a more active role to diversify into other ventures like GQ Lab to take on digital projects. This collaboration between a fashion brand and a media brand is pretty unique. Look to see more of that.

Chinese EV Giant XPeng Motors Plans an IPO 🚙

* XPeng Motors is one of Tesla’s biggest competitors in electronic vehicles (EV). The Chinese company targets mid- to high-end EVs and has raised a combined total of $900 Million in investment this year from a group of investors that includes Alibaba and the Qatar Investment Authority. Last week, the company made a filing with the US SEC to prepare for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. XPeng currently has two electric vehicles on the market, one of which competes directly against Tesla’s Model 3. They plan to launch a third electric vehicle in 2021.

* XPeng was founded in 2015 in Guangzhou, China. The electronic vehicle market is huge and competitive, as XPeng competes against other EV makers like Tesla, Li Auto, Nio, Fisker, Lucid Motors. Tesla has been increasing their Chinese presence with a new Shanghai factory and Li Auto is another Chinese OEM that listed on the Nasdaq last month, raising $1.1 Billion. XPeng currently does not export vehicles to the US, but anytime a major Chinese company plans US listings, you have to expect that US regulations and tariffs will need to be a serious consideration in doing business.

Pinduoduo’s Deepening Relationship With Manufacturers 🏭

* Chinese social commerce giant Pinduoduo has been making a lot of moves recently. After a $200 Million strategic investment in Chinese electronics retailer GOME, they have now started major livestreams of electronics products under the fast growing category of flash sales. Pinduoduo has opened up a new wholesaling program for its merchants and also partnered with a Singaporean food agency to develop better ways of testing fresh produce for pesticides.

* As the third-largest e-commerce company in China, Pinduoduo is definitely poised to take advantage of the coronavirus’s effects on Chinese consumption. Their consumer to manufacturer (C2M) model paired with social commerce makes them in my opinion one of the most interesting Chinese companies. By investing in retailers, working with governmental agencies, and going even deeper into a manufacturer relationship, their level of vertical integration is pretty intense vs. more lightweight e-commerce companies and I’m pretty bullish on their future.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪

We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️

How Google Helps Indian Students 🏫

* Google plans to create digital classroom programs in the Indian state of Maharashtra, which will reach 23 million students and teachers across 190,000 schools. Maharashtra, like most of India, has been affected by Covid and most physical schools have shut down. Google will partner with the Maharashtra government to provide new digital classroom tools and services free of charge. This includes products like G Suite for Education, Google Forms, Google Meet, Google Classroom, and more. Google has already started working with India’s national governmental body that regulates secondary schools (Central Board of Secondary Education) and has helped fund a grant for the Kaivalya Education Foundation to provide educational opportunities for underprivileged children.

* This fits within Google’s broader announcement earlier this year that they will be investing $10 Billion into India across a series of different programs and partnerships. As the world’s second most populous country, India is an important and huge market for Google’s products and services. Google’s investments in the country go all the way from government to schools to infrastructure to startups to non-profits and more. Of course, since Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai is originally from India, that adds an extra layer of prioritisation Google has for the country.

Can Samsung Ride the Anti-China Wave? 📲

* The political tensions between India and China have made it harder for Chinese companies to operate in India. Samsung, as a Korean company, has been able to use this to strengthen their position in the Indian market. In Q2 of this year, Samsung moved up to become the country’s number two smartphone maker with 26% market share. In Q1, Samsung was the number three smartphone maker with 16% market share. Since June, Samsung has launched seven new smartphones. These are lower-priced smartphones, with the cheapest one priced at $75.

* This could be an important turning point for Samsung. Over the last few years, Samsung was losing market share in India to the newer, lower priced Chinese smartphone brands like Oppo and Xiaomi. These Chinese smartphone makers are still major players in the market, but they will need to aggressively change their marketing strategy given the current geo-political climate. India’s importance will only increase as the population and economy grows, so smartphone makers from all countries will continue prioritising India. There are so many second and third order consequences of this Chinese-Indian political tension, it’s kind of mind-blowing.

Grab’s Next Priority: Financial Services 🏦

* After raising $856 Million earlier this year focused on expanding payments and financial services, Singaporean ride hailing company Grab has now announced a set of new consumer-facing financial products. Grab has already been providing B2B financial services to drivers and small businesses, but will now start offering consumer products like micro-investments, loans, and health insurance. One of these products is Autoinvest, which allows users to invest small amounts of money through the Grab app.

* Financial services has always been a priority for the company. Over the last couple of years, Grab has partnered with several financial services companies and acquired the startup Bento in order to provide investment and wealth management products. Similarly, ride-hailing companies around the world like Gojek, Uber, and Careem have all expanded into financial services as a logical next step on their strategic roadmap. Covid has actually unleashed increased consumer demand for digital financial services, which is especially important in a place like Southeast Asia. So Grab, eager to capitalise on this demand, is going to be moving fast to expand their product offering.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪

We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️

Chinese Real Estate Company Beike to Raise $2 Billion in US IPO 🏘

* Beike Zhaofang is a Chinese online property platform backed by Tencent and Soft Bank that was last valued at $10 Billion. The company was launched by one of China’s biggest real estate companies Lianjia as an online property brokerage platform. Last Friday, they made a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $2 Billion in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. This would be the largest Chinese IPO in the US since iQiyi raised $2.4 Billion in March 2018.

* Over the last few months, several Chinese tech companies (JD, Netease, Ctrip, etc.) have chosen the opposite path. They have either delisted from US stock exchanges or chosen to list in Hong Kong instead. While the US government still continues to pose financial restrictions on both individual Chinese companies and Chinese firms more broadly, Beike is accepting these risks while some of their peers are not.

The Thousands of Newly Banned YouTube Accounts 🚫

* YouTube announced last week that they have banned thousands of Chinese accounts on their platform for engaging in “coordinated political influence” on political issues. For more detail on the scale of the ban, 2,596 Chinese accounts were taken down in Q2 of this year versus 277 in Q1. Google’s message came from their publicly available Threat Analysis Group Bulletin.

* This news implies that there is a significant increase in pro-Chinese spam and propaganda on YouTube. The research firm Graphika posted a full report outlining their analysis on the proliferation of pro-Chinese spam across not only YouTube, but other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Even outside of purely China-related spam, Google has reported a uniquely busy year for taking down threatening political channels. Whoever is behind content we see on social media, there are many people who would benefit from enhancing the tensions between the US and China on platforms like YouTube.

An Indian Hypergrowth Startup Story = WhiteHat Jr. 🚀

* WhiteHat Jr. is an Indian edtech startup founded 18 months ago that offers online coding classes for students in India and the US. Another Indian ed tech firm Byju just acquired WhiteHat Jr. for $300 Million, which makes WhiteHat Jr. the fastest, largest startup exit story in Indian history. The company hosts live online coding classes that assign one teacher to each student and cost around $10 per class.

* This is a wonderful success story for India’s tech ecosystem. One of the most important parts of building a startup ecosystem is having successful exits, which increases the startup community’s number of role models, strengthens psychological belief, and theoretically allows ‘alumni’ from those startups to invest in the next generation of founders. And to double down on the specific vertical, ed tech is a very hot space right now given the move to virtual/remote education because coronavirus. It’s estimated that 250 Million students in India have had their schooling disrupted over the last few months. Byju has raised $400 Million this year and other Indian competitors like Unacademy and Vedantu have received similarly large recent funding rounds.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪

We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️

The Struggles of Jollibee 🐝

* If you are Filipino or have any familiarity with the Philippines, you will probably know Jollibee. Jollibee is a Filipino fast food chain and one of the most successful companies ever produced by the Philippines. The 42-year-old Jollibee Foods Corporation controls 56% of the Philippines’ fast food market and also owns other brands like Smashburger and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Jollibee operates around 6,000 stores globally, half of which are in the Philippines and the rest are spread across Southeast Asia, North America and the Middle East.

* Unfortunately, Jollibee has reported a net loss of $240 Million over H1 2020 and saw a decrease in market cap of $2.2 Billion dollars. During the recent lockdowns, Jollibee had to shut down half of their total stores worldwide. While many have reopened at this point, recovery still seems distant as the Philippines has just surpassed Indonesia as the Southeast Asian country worst hit by Covid. The company still maintains optimistic goals of getting back into profitability in 2021 and achieving a growth rate of 15% in 2022.

Chinese Banks Testing Digital Yuan 🏦

* The Chinese government has talked about the idea of testing a digital yuan currency for a while. Earlier this year, China’s central bank announced pilot programs with a specific group of banks in select cities around the country. This new Digital Currency/Electronic Payments (DCEP) project has begun and these whitelisted banks have already started using the digital yuan to transfer money and pay for services.

* Customers of these approved banks have to download digital wallets and see if they have been approved to try out the new digital currency. There are still many details to be determined but the Chinese government announced their intention to host a widespread test during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Zoom Restricts Sales in China 🤳

* Given all the controversy between the US and China, the video-chat technology company Zoom has made the decision to suspend direct sales in China. At the end of August, Zoom will stop services, sales, and updates for users with a billing address in Mainland China. Previously, Zoom operated in China through direct sales, online subscription, and partner sales. Mainland Chinese users can still join Zoom calls as participants but users can now only buy Zoom products through authorised local Chinese partners. The company has said in a recent statement that these localised partners should be able to provide better localised services.

* Zoom was founded by Chinese-born Eric Yuan, but was built and is currently headquartered in the US. The company was temporarily blocked in China last year and earlier this year, Zoom admitted that some calls had been “mistakenly” routed through Chinese data centers, leading some people to believe Zoom was sharing user data with the Chinese government. Given this track record, it’s likely that Zoom has preemptively made these recent announcements to calm some fears from their users and the US government.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

I was sitting in the audience at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the biggest conference venue in the city. It was 2017 and I was attending my fourth annual Facebook sales conference.

Mark Zuckerberg had just given us a rousing talk about the future of Facebook. Each year, ‘Uncle Zuck’ comes to our annual GMS (Global Marketing Solutions) conference to answer questions directly from Facebook’s global sales and marketing organisation.

That year, around five thousand people had flown into California from every single office—from Facebook Colombia to Facebook Ireland to Facebook Thailand.

Towards the end of his speech, it was time to open up for an audience Q&A. I got up from my seat and started making my way to the microphone. I was walking through a crowd of thousands, but felt completely alone.

Despite being a relatively seasoned Facebook veteran at that point, I still felt the lump in my throat and the heaviness in my legs as I mustered up the courage to ask Mark Zuckerberg a question.

I was 26 years old and filled with imposter syndrome. Despite having worked at Facebook for four years, it still felt like a dream and I always joked about having snuck through the application process.

I was the youngest person on Facebook’s Global Partnerships team and often thought I didn’t deserve to be there.

Step by step getting closer to the microphone, that voice in my head kept saying, “What the hell do you know? What kind of valuable question do you even think you’re capable of asking Mark Zuckerberg? You should turn around and sit back in your seat.”

I pushed those doubts away and finally got in line for the microphone. After hearing two other people ask their questions, it was finally my turn.

I felt like I was about to black out. The nerves turned into adrenaline and I finally managed to say it:

“Hi Zuck, my name is Anthony. I used to work in the New York office but am now on the Global Accounts team in London—”

Some people in the audience started cheering and whooping. I paused for a second, let out an awkward chuckle, and then continued.

“Considering that an increasingly large percentage of our user base is outside of America, don’t you think we should have more engineering offices outside the US. Shouldn’t Facebook be building more product teams in places like APAC (Asia-Pacific) in order to have better empathy for our global users?”

Zuck tilted his head to the left, looked away into the distance for a brief moment, and then replied,

“That’s a great question. I think it’s definitely true for the sake of our users that we need to make sure products are not only built in MPK [our California Headquarters]. And if a team is being stubborn about this, we will make sure to move them to get them out of that mindset. For example, I know a team that we moved to Seattle despite them wanting to be in MPK.”

I don’t know if he misunderstood my question, but I felt disappointed with his answer. I thanked him for the response, turned my back and started walking away from the microphone.

I felt frustrated that Zuck’s answer was a cop out. I felt that something was missing.

I remembered my friends at Facebook Dubai, who told me how overstretched they were covering clients literally across all of Middle East and North Africa.

I remembered my friends at Facebook Japan, who would have to be on team calls at 10PM because it was 9AM in New York.

I remembered my friends at Facebook Singapore, who cynically joked around at dinner saying how the biggest part of their job was fighting for attention from California.

I remembered colleagues from New York who were turning down job offers to transfer to a “remote” foreign office, fearing the move would harm their career progression by being even further from headquarters.

Facebook’s world-class executive leadership team consisted of Americans living on the West Coast. Clearly, they have succeeded beyond their wildest imagination and are very very good at their jobs.

But how much can they really develop a sense of empathy for someone in India or Brazil or Nigeria?

I’ve always had this nagging feeling that Silicon Valley is too culturally complacent and ignorant about what is happening around the world, especially in Asia.

Facebook started off as an app for American college students that was being built by American college students.

Now Facebook is a truly international platform, with the vast majority of its user base in emerging markets. Even Facebook’s marketing materials constantly emphasise stories about small business owners in places like Indonesia or India using the app.

Facebook builds products at the bleeding edge of technology, hires some of the world’s best people and fosters an incredibly progressive culture. But after working there for several years, I still felt that Facebook had a cultural blind spot around Asia.

So I thought…if even Facebook has an Asian blind spot, maybe other companies and other people do as well.

Twenty years ago, Silicon Valley honestly didn’t need to care about a place like India or China. In 2020, the most consequential issues for Silicon Valley companies usually come from places like India or China.

But what could I do about that..?

Two months ago, a friend reached out to me and said she really liked what I was writing in my other newsletter Venn Diagrams.

She asked me to write more about what’s happening in Asia, because she had no idea about the stuff going on there. I took note when she said that, because about a dozen other people had told me the same thing over the last six months.

I thought back to when Mark Zuckerberg answered my question in 2017, and I wished I could send him and all my friends some kind of overview explaining why I’m so excited about Asia.

Then it hit me…

Why don’t I translate my feverish rants about emerging markets, my obsessive reading about Asia, and my bold claims about underestimated companies…into an actual newsletter about Asian tech, media, and business?

And so this newsletter, East West Hurricane, was built out of the feelings that stirred when Mark Zuckerberg disappointed me three years ago and the realisations that crystallised when a friend asked me to write more about Asia two months ago.

Through creating this newsletter over the past 50 days, I’ve learned a lot about Asia. And I hope by reading East West Hurricane, you have also learned a lot.

Several people who have reached out to me giving positive feedback have been Asian-Americans.

They have told me how much they have learned and also even reconnected with a part of the world where they have ties. Whether or not you fit into that category, I hope this newsletter provides you with value.

I don’t know everything about Asian tech, but I am committed to this lifelong journey of learning.

I especially look forward to learning more from people like Andrew Baisley, whose career already resembles an East West Hurricane.

I have several more interviews planned for the weeks ahead from people whose careers in tech have swirled from East to West. Please let me know if you can think of other people who would be great to interview!

For about a million different reasons, it’s a scary time in the world right now.

To single one out specifically, I’m scared that people will hate and fear what they don’t know.

If we can highlight some of the cool, interesting things we can learn from Asia, and then make the world more international—in even just the smallest way—I would call this a success.

So please, share this post with a friend you think will benefit from learning more about Asian tech, media, and business.

Let’s share these stories that you and I have been reading. Let’s find others to go on this adventure with us together.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪

We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️

President Trump Escalates Chinese Bans 👀

* President Trump made a new announcement yesterday affecting the use of TikTok and WeChat within the US. Trump issued an executive order giving a 45-day deadline for TikTok to be acquired by Microsoft. If a deal is not confirmed, TikTok will be banned from the US. Trump also issued a similar order for (Tencent-owned) WeChat, China’s largest messaging app that he accuses of threatening US national security. The implication is that WeChat will also need to be sold within 45 days. Tencent shares went down 5% in the aftermath of the announcement.

* The TikTok news is nothing new, just another layer of official government emphasis on top of an already ongoing acquisition process. The announcement regarding WeChat comes more as a surprise. While WeChat is one of the most consequential and influential Chinese mobile apps, they have managed to hide from most US controversy and don’t even have a large number of US users. Most analysts predict that Chinese government will soon issue some kind of retaliation and the political theatre on both sides will continue.

China’s Largest Gaming Conference Resumes 🕹

* ChinaJoy is China’s biggest annual gaming and digital entertainment conference, which usually features headlining companies such as Tencent, Microsoft, and Blizzard. Amidst concerns around the coronavirus, the conference organisers still decided to go ahead and physically hosted the event in Shanghai last week. Gaming and entertainment are two industries that have excelled over the last few months, so companies were still able to celebrate their recent successes at ChinaJoy. Chinese video game revenue from January to July increased 23% year-on-year.

* To enter the conference, attendees needed to scan their face, national ID card, and digital health codes. Guests had to have their Alipay mobile app checked to ensure they had the “green” health codes that indicated the person had not traveled to high-risk parts of the country. Last year, 365,000 people attended ChinaJoy in person and this year, people could also attend virtually through online livestreams that ended up reaching 600 million viewers over the four-day event. ChinaJoy is an example of a huge annual conference that has been able to adapt in the world of Covid and might be a peek into the future of conferences more broadly.

Cloud Kitchens from Singapore 👩‍🍳

* In 2019, Singaporean billionaire R. K. Kishin launched Tiffin Labs, a virtual food & beverage brand. They recently announced major plans to expand to 1,000 cloud kitchens worldwide amidst the coronavirus opportunity. Cloud kitchens are a concept where a restaurant brand has an online presence, but no physical restaurant location. Customers usually order from a virtual restaurant online and the actual food is made in a commercial kitchen. Cloud kitchen companies usually operate several restaurant brands simultaneously from the same commercial kitchen location. Each Tiffin Labs kitchen can serve eight virtual restaurants from a 16 square metre kitchen area. The company uses data to analyse customer demand and then a delivery partner like Grab, Foodpanda, or Deliveroo to bring the food to the customer.

* Cloud kitchens are a trend that has accelerated because of the coronavirus. Research firm Euromonitor predicts that the global cloud kitchen market will reach $1 Trillion by 2030. Market research firm DataSpring reported that the online food delivery market in Asia has accelerated by 10 years because of the coronavirus.

* Many cloud kitchen companies around the world have raised huge multi-million dollar funding rounds over the last few months and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s latest venture is a cloud kitchen. Restaurant is one of the world’s most disrupted industries right now. Cloud kitchens provides a new, potentially more efficient structure that cuts out many traditional costs to bring you a delivery-only model.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪

We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️

India’s Ban of Chinese Apps Goes One Step Further

* After banning 59 Chinese Mobile apps last month, the Indian government has gone one step further by announcing a new list of Chinese mobile apps to be banned. This week, China’s largest search engine Baidu and social media platform Weibo were blocked and removed from app stores in India. This brings the total number of banned Chinese apps to 106.

* The first list of 59 banned Chinese apps came out on June 29, then a second list of 47 Chinese apps came out on July 27. The actual delisting and blocking of apps has been staggered over the last two months. We can expect this kind of government policy to continue so long as political tensions remain high between China and India.

East West Trends = Mukbang 🍲

* Have you heard of Mukbang? It’s a popular online trend where people record videos of themselves eating large quantities of food. Mukbang first began in Korea, where the word translates into ‘eating broadcast’ and has grown into a huge global phenomenon over the last few years. The most viewed ‘Mukbang’ video on Youtube has over 400 Million views and is of two young Korean girls eating a variety of food dishes.

* Mukbang performers are a new type of food influencer. They’re geared towards a modern need - the videos generally target young, single people who live alone and are looking for companionship. Mukbangers use livestreams to showcase their eating and often promote food products during their shows. This mini-documentary from Technode shows the life of a professional Mukbang influencer in China who has ten million fans and several partnerships with major food brands.

* While Mukbang is now more widespread in the West amongst food influencers, the trend was definitely born in the East. And whenever you have a type of content that generates an audience of millions, people can always find ways to monetise the millions of eyeballs.

Tencent to Create New Streaming Giant Through Merger 🎞

* Tencent is leading discussions to merge Huya and Douyu, two of China’s largest video game streaming platforms. Tencent currently owns a 37% stake in Huya and 38% of Douyu. Combining Huya and Douyu would create a streaming company with 300 million combined users and $10 Billion in market value. So having a Huya-Douyu merger, which is the equivalent of creating a Chinese Twitch, would allow Tencent to strengthen their position in the world of video.

* Tencent is the leading Chinese company when it comes to entertainment, with the largest investment in gaming (Riot Games, Epic Games, Supercell, etc.), social media (WeChat), and music (Warner, Universal, Spotify, etc.). One of their biggest competitors is Bytedance, the company that owns Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese equivalent). In the quest for the attention of Chinese consumers looking for entertainment, Bytedance apps are Tencent’s biggest competitor. A merger to create a streaming giant between Huya and Douyu would be a chance for Tencent to fight back against their rival Bytedance.

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Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba, Summoned to Indian Court 👩‍⚖️

* A former Indian employee of Chinese company UC Browser has filed a lawsuit against Alibaba, UC Browser’s parent company. He claims that he was wrongfully fired after bringing up issues of censorship and fake news on the company’s apps. The employee, Pushpandra Singh Parmar, alleges that UC Browser censored content unfavorable to China and promoted fake news that caused “social and political turmoil.” As a result, an Indian court has summoned Alibaba and specifically founder Jack Ma to appear before an Indian judge.

* UC Browser is a web browser that was the second most popular browser in India with over 130 million users. The Indian government banned UC Browser last month, along with 58 other Chinese mobile apps. The allegations made by the employee will add to the current political tensions between the two countries. While Jack Ma was the face of Alibaba for many years, he has been retired since 2018. At this point, summoning him to court is more a symbolic gesture.

Burberry + Tencent Launch World’s First ‘Social Retail’ Store in China 🧣

* Luxury fashion brand Burberry has worked with Chinese tech giant Tencent to launch what they are calling the world’s first ‘social retail’ store in Shenzhen, China. What makes this store unique?

* Every single product has an associated QR code you can scan with your mobile phone to learn more information about the product. When you enter the store, there’s an interactive window that mimics a runway and displays a shape resembling your body movement. Pretty much every element of the store is interactive, doubles as a social space, or is part art-installation. If you use Burberry’s WeChat mini-program, you can unlock exclusive content and receive personalised offers. This includes a type of Burberry special ‘social currency,’ a kind of next generation rewards program. The store delivers an exciting new way to look at physical + digital retail innovation in China. By testing this new concept, Burberry and Tencent should learn a lot about what works or what doesn’t work in the future of retail.

Bilibili’s Push for Exclusive League of Legends Rights 🥇

* League of Legends (LoL) is one of the biggest e-sports on the globe. The 2019 LoL World Championship drew 100 million viewers and the 2020 World Championship is still scheduled to take place in Shanghai in September.

* Riot Games, the developer behind League of Legends, just announced a three-year deal granting the exclusive streaming rights of LoL events to Chinese video platform Bilibili. Bilibili is one of these Chinese Youtube-ish equivalents, but it has the youngest audience out of all the major video platforms and is focused on the Anime-Comics-Gaming (ACG) sub-culture. In a press release, Bilibili COO Carly Lee said that the number of views of esports videos on Bilibili reached 44 Billion in 2019.

* This is a really big move for Bilibili. It’s the equivalent of getting exclusive rights to broadcast the Super Bowl of E-Sports. In traditional sports, these rights deals are usually the most lucrative revenue for a league and the rights are usually granted for multiple years. With these rights, Bilibili is also creating more content around League of Legends like documentaries and other commentary videos. There are plenty of other ways they can monetise these rights. If there’s an industry that is growing, it’s E-sports. By buying the exclusive rights now, Bilibili is making a shrewd bet on what’s the fastest growing sports industry.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com