In 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 that China should be considered world-leading. Lauren Hallanan, a Chinese social media marketing expert focusing on influencer marketing, and a former livestreamer in China with over 400,000 fans, joins us with insightful commentary on Ruhnn and other influencer incubators.

Rui and Ying-Ying begin by explaining that Ruhnn, known in Chinese as Ruhan 如涵, is “China’s No. 1. KOL Facilitator”-- with “KOL” standing for Key Opinion Leaders, or the rough equivalent of what in the U.S. are known as influencers. Unlike influencers in the U.S., however, the term KOL has its roots in the advertising industry and is a more professional term that usually implies that the individual is an expert, has a distinct personal brand, and is ready to represent some business interests. In China, one can be  KOL in a variety of subjects, such as business or books. The KOLs on Ruhan are mostly in beauty and fashion; as of filing time, Ruhan represented 113 of these influencers-- including now-megastar Zhang Dayi, or Dayi, who also serves as the current CMO of the company.

Listen to find out: Who are the founders of Ruhan, and how did they get the idea to create such a platform in 2012? How does the fact that the current Ruhan CEO’s wife is an influencer herself tie in to the founding story? How is it that the Nasdaq IPO is technically not Ruhan’s first public listing? How do influencers in China monetize, and what exactly are the so-called Platform Services provided by the company? How large is the role of ecommerce on Ruhan, and how does its team use audience preferences and purchasing behavior to guide product development from the start?

As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Do let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina! Thank you also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.

We are grateful for our wonderful producers, Shaw Wan and Kaiser Kuo; and for our intern, Wang Menglu.

Our sponsor this week is the University of San Francisco. USF’s new Masters in Applied Economics is a STEM-designated program that combines economics training with the practical skills in data analytics needed to understand today’s new digital economy. To learn more, visit usfca.edu/techbuzz.

In 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 the differences between China and the U.S.’s capital markets, as well as how these contrasts may explain some of the differences in Chinese tech entrepreneurship and capital versus those in the U.S.

Rui and Ying-Ying begin by walking through a brief history of Chinese domestic capital markets, which had a total market cap of $6 billion late last year and are still really young compared with those in the U.S.; in fact, both the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the larger Shanghai Stock Exchange were founded in 1990. Notably, prior to last fall, foreigners were unable to invest in A-shares on either exchange. Even after loosening controls earlier this year and doubling the amount foreign investors can invest, China still enforces a total quota of $300 billion, shared globally.

Our co-hosts cover a range of core questions in this episode. Listen to find out: How does the fact that the Chinese exchanges are approval-based, and not registration-based, affect listings? What role does the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or CSRC, play? Why are there only 3,500 publicly listed companies in China? Why did the Shenzhen Stock Exchange create two additional avenues for listing, in the form of the SME Board and ChiNext? How does the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), or New Third Board, fit into all of this? Why is it that most of China’s best internet companies are listed abroad, and how does that fact play into the new Technology Innovation Board’s intentions and potential for impact? From the perspective of a company preparing to list, what are the pros and cons of listing in mainland China versus abroad?

As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Do let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Thanks also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.

Special thanks to our awesome producers, Shaw Wan and Kaiser Kuo. Our intern is Wang Menglu.

Our sponsor this week is the University of San Francisco. USF’s Masters in Applied Economics combines economics training with the practical skills in data analytics that you really need to understand today’s new digital economy. To learn more, listeners can visit usfca.edu/techbuzz.

Episode 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 million daily active users and is rumored to be going for an IPO soon. 

In contrast to our typical coverage here at TechBuzz, the above subject barely made a splash in Chinese media — but it was a big deal in English-language news, with quite a few articles mentioning China as a leader in the podcasting industry. One often-referenced article stated that the Chinese government estimated the “pay-for-knowledge” economy to be about $7.3 billion in 2017, with the bulk of it coming from paid podcasts. However, Rui and Ying-Ying ask: Is this an accurate reflection of the industry in China? Is it true that the notoriously frugal Chinese just love paying for podcasts? In fact, why are our co-hosts doing an English podcast and not a Chinese one? 

Rui and Ying-Ying begin by taking our readers on a short journey covering the history of podcasts in China. First, how do we define the “podcast” industry and how does it relate to markets such as the “pay-for-knowledge” sector, which is seeing explosive growth in China? Why has this market taken off? How does the expert-celebrity mentality fit in, as well as knowledge anxiety and the concept that information is money? Who are some of the top audio content creators in China today, and how have they generated such incredible revenue streams? How has the threat of censorship affected how content is created and distributed, and which platforms win out? Other than Ximalaya, what are some of the other companies in this space? What do Rui and Ying-Ying think is the future of the industry? 

As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Do let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Thanks also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com. 

Special thanks to our awesome producers, Shaw Wan and Kaiser Kuo. Our intern is Wang Menglu. 

In 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 of coins tied up with red string. With the popularity of paper money came the introduction of the red envelopes we see now. The so-called Battle of the Red Packets emerged in 2014, when WeChat fundamentally changed the rules of the game by allowing users to send digital red packets to the chat groups they are in within the app. WeChat essentially gamified the experience, coining the term 抢红包, or “grabbing red packets.” In the first year, 5 million users grabbed 20 million WeChat red packets 75 million times, from New Year’s Eve to 4 p.m. the next day.

Since 2014, the yearly phenomenon has taken on a life of its own. Listen to hear Rui and Ying-Ying discuss: Why has Jack Ma likened the WeChat tactic to the attack on Pearl Harbor (as politically incorrect as those words are)? What additional features has WeChat added to the red packets’ function? What was the link between WeChat and the CCTV Chinese New Year’s Gala? How does WeChat’s approach contrast with those of other platforms, such as Alibaba’s Alipay? What moves has Baidu made in all of this, and especially this year? What about relative newcomers Douyin and Kuaishou? Finally, in what way do red packets reflect real-life social concepts in China, such as reciprocity and hierarchy (so much so that a Tsinghua University professor has characterized WeChat red packets as a form of social capital accumulation)?

As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Do let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Thanks also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.

We’d like to give a shout-out to our friends over at Panda Club Stories, a bilingual children’s podcast with a big vision: to help raise multilingual and multicultural children through storytelling. Season 1 features well-known tales (and some lesser-known stories) of Chinese mythology. For our listeners who have kids: Join Panda Cub as she dives into the seas of dragon kings and explores jade palaces in the sky!

In 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. They explain that, back in 2016, it was not immediately clear to the WeChat team what to do with the product after its launch. WeChat was observing that while the Official Accounts system was taking off, the main issue was that these accounts were not built to properly handle transactions. So Allen Zhang and his team began to ask themselves if there was something heavier than an Official Account but lighter than a native app that they could make to help businesses transact online, inside of WeChat. The goal was to create something “small and light, fast and beautiful.”

Listen to find out: Did the team succeed at building the above mantra into the evolving product of Mini Programs? In what ways are mini programs superior to native apps? For users, what are the various means in which individuals can access the programs within WeChat? From a small-business owner point of view, what are the benefits of launching a mini program? What about the drawbacks? What are mini games and how do they fit into the picture? What about AI — what is its role in all of this? And, finally, which other Chinese internet giants are getting into micro apps, and do our co-hosts believe their efforts will lead to the success that WeChat Mini Programs are experiencing?

As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Do let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Thanks also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.

Episode 37 is our final one before the Pandaily team takes off for Chinese New Year. We’ll be back in two weeks, likely kicking off with a fresh look at the New Year’s red packet feud between Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT). Happy Year of the Pig!

In 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 Pinduoduo, and the corruption scandal at DJI. Although the incidents differ greatly from each other, they have come on each other’s heels and our co-hosts decided to bundle them together for an episode, reflecting what’s buzzing within the tech community in China right now.


Rui and Ying-Ying begin by focusing on the Pinduoduo story. This past week, the company lost millions of dollars to hackers who redeemed coupons for about $15 for about $0.06. At one point, it was rumored that the platform lost over $3 billion in just a few hours, and users wondered if the company would go bankrupt. Pinduoduo has denied these rumors and insists that actual losses will be less than $1.5 million. However, what exactly happened? How did Pinduoduo decide to handle the issue, and what were the ramifications of these actions? How extensive was the damage to both the company and its stock price?


Next, our co-hosts shift their attention to a scandal that has rocked Chinese tech this week: the unearthing of over $150 million in losses due to internal corruption at leading drone maker DJI. Incredibly, the “chain of corruption” was unearthed by accident while the company was upgrading its management process late last year. One by one, Rui and Ying-Ying list and review the methods by which employees colluded and completed their dirty deeds. They share about how DJI handled the situation: very publicly, by sending out a letter to its 14,000 staff around the world. Why did they take this approach?


Listen to find out: How unusual-- or not-- are these two stories in the landscape of China tech? How are businesses getting scammed by China’s “black-gray” industry, in which people are committing fraud at a massive scale? How was it that DJI, a decacorn known for its world-class quality, with anti-corruption systems in place, was able to be brought to its knees by a group of criminal employees? Are there more scandals these days… or is there simply more transparency around events when they do get reported or disclosed? What are some of the other high profile cases that have come up recently? As an investor or entrepreneur in China, what do you need to know about these risks?


As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Do let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Thanks also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.

In episode 35 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about competitors to the reigning Chinese social media champion, WeChat. Specifically, they focus on three apps that all decided to launch on Tuesday, January 15, 2019, two weeks before Chinese New Year: Bytedance’s Duoshan, Wang Xin’s self-proclaimed “anti-WeChat” Toilet, and Bullet Messenger 2.0. Following their releases, WeChat promptly blocked links to all three. Our co-hosts ask: Does WeChat have a reason to be scared? Why was it so defensive? Is there truly a chance for any of these companies to topple Allen Zhang’s miraculous creation? And if so, how would that come about? 

Rui and Ying-Ying begin by giving their perspective on WeChat’s two main weaknesses. The first is its decreasing representation of young users, specifically, teenagers — a challenge that many other social networks that have been around for a while, including Facebook, also face. The second is the emergence of WeChat Moments as a battleground for user time. This development is a function of the intermingling of personal and professional relationships within one app, and the ensuing messy social graph that WeChat has accumulated. 

Our co-hosts go on to explain that all three of the apps that were launched this week tried to capitalize on one of the opportunities WeChat leaves open. They describe each product in more detail, delving into them in descending probability of success. Rui and Ying-Ying’s top pick is Bytedance’s Duoshan. They discuss: In what ways has the product stayed true to its short-video roots? How accurate is the Toutiao insider description of the app as a combination of “Snapchat’s framework” plus “Instagram and Messenger’s GIF function” and “Apple Watch’s heartbeat”? Does it truly solve an organic user problem? 

As for Toilet, which proudly calls itself “the social network dark web,” just how reminiscent is it of the bygone Secret app in the U.S.? What is the opportunity that its founder sees in anonymous social networking, which, in fact, already exists in China, including in QQ itself?  

In third place is celebrity-investor-backed Bullet Messenger’s 2.0 version. It has renamed itself Chat Treasure (聊天宝 liáotiān bǎo) and rebranded with a new logo, an image of a smiling gold ingot. The ingot serves as an apt reflection of the app’s new positioning as a portal for poorer users who seek to make some money or find great deals. Rui and Ying-Ying argue that its main competitive advantage is its marketing and aggressive, gamified user acquisition tactics. 

Listen to find out: What do Rui and Ying-Ying conclude about each of these new entrants, and why? As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Do let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Thanks also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com. 
Finally, TechBuzz listeners in the Bay Area may sign up for Silicon Dragon’s Silicon Valley event, taking place this week on January 24. You can find more information and sign up here: https://silicondragonvalley2019.eventbrite.com. Please use code SDValley2019Buzz for 50 percent off!

In episode 34 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the latest version of WeChat, which first came out on iOS the third week of December 2018, and on Android a few days later. It has been over four years since WeChat released an update this large, and since then, it’s added on over half a billion monthly active users. The latest updates included several widely expected features, namely, enhanced sharing of both video and content, which overlap with Bytedance’s core strengths — definitely not a coincidence. What’s the latest behind what is still arguably the most influential internet product of the past decade? And what has been the impact of WeChat's founder on its product development?


Rui and Ying-Ying share that WeChat was created by Zhang Xiaolong, or Allen Zhang, who joined Tencent via the internet giant’s acquisition of Foxmail. He was originally tasked with heading up the Tencent R&D center and leading the QQ Mail team. As the now legendary — and publicly confirmed — story goes, Allen had a flash of insight, inspired by the traction the Canadian Kik Messenger had amassed in just 15 days. He sent a late-night email to Tencent CEO Pony Ma about the opportunity and the potential threat to existing Tencent products from this kind of mobile-based instant messaging. Pony agreed, and entrusted Allen to execute the release of Tencent’s own version. Just a few months later, Allen’s team released the WeChat version 1.0.


Our co-hosts explain that, though hard to imagine today, WeChat had an extremely rocky start and experienced several shaky periods during its growth. Looking back, it was by no means a sure-bet product from the beginning. Rui and Ying-Ying take listeners on a journey through the app’s turbulent history, through its various version iterations, and up to the present day. Throughout, they explain the impact of Allen Zhang’s ethos: Our co-hosts argue that he is an artist and a philosopher at heart who cares more about the user experience than about business metrics. How have these values shaped WeChat’s most recently stated primary missions: to be a great tool for the users it serves, and to constantly evolve and change in order to do so?


As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Do let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Thanks also to our listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.


Finally, TechBuzz listeners in the Bay Area may sign up for Silicon Dragon’s Silicon Valley event, taking place soon on January 24. You can find more information and sign up here: https://silicondragonvalley2019.eventbrite.com. Please use code SDValley2019Buzz for 50 percent off!

In episode 33 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Tencent Music (TME), which finally completed its $1.2 billion IPO after a two-month delay due to market volatility. The company rose 9 percent on its first day, but has traded below the initial offering price ever since. This episode covers the business model of TME, its market potential, and our co-hosts’ thoughts on its future outlook. Though often compared to Spotify, to what extent are these two companies truly similar?


Rui and Ying-Ying begin today’s story by reviewing Tencent Music’s corporate history. The entity is comprised of four apps: QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music, and WeSing, which today account for a combined 70 percent of China’s music market. However, once upon a time these were disparate products that sometimes competed; in fact, they only came together together through an entity known as China Music Corporation (CMC), which was formed in 2012 by Xie Guomin. CMC acquired Kuwo in 2013 and Kugou a few months later; Tencent turned its minority stake in the entity into a majority position when it injected the QQ Music and WeSing assets for over 60 percent ownership at a valuation of $2.7 billion. At this point, the company was renamed to Tencent Music Entertainment.


From here, Rui and Ying-Ying contrast the strategies of China- and US-based music player apps. They delve into the reasons for these divergent paths, including China’s unique business environment, its domestic user behavior and cash-giving habits, the impact of new categories such as mobile livestreaming… and even Chinese people’s deep love for karaoke. Notably, the legally-trained and opportunistic Xie Guomin was first spurred to found CMC to capitalize on the government’s changing policies around copyright and intellectual property. Listen to find out: How has this “race to own copyrights” affected the industry and its major players? How do Alibaba and Baidu fit into the picture-- or not? Why is it that paying for music is a behavior TME still needs to cultivate in its users? What does all of this mean in today’s competitive landscape, and what does betting for or against TME really entail?


As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Finally, we would like to welcome our new listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.


Our co-hosts will be on a two-week break for the holidays but we look forward to releasing a new episode the second week of January. Happy Holidays!!

In episode 32 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Luckin Coffee, the hybrid online-offline coffee chain unicorn startup that’s turning heads in China with its rapid expansion and innovative business model. In fact, immediately after we completed recording of this episode, news broke that the year-old company has raised another $200 million in fresh funding, upping its valuation to $2.2 billion. Throughout, the dominant Western media narrative has remained that of direct comparisons to Starbucks, describing Luckin as the “Starbucks challenger.” But, just how accurate is this juxtaposition? Additionally, how has now-celebrity CEO Qian Zhiya, or Jenny, been able to attract tremendous amounts of venture capital and to instill strong investor confidence as a first-time founder?

Rui and Ying-Ying begin today’s story with Jenny’s background. At 43-years-old, she was previously best known as one of the hidden weapons of China’s leading transportation companies, the operations-heavy Ucar, where she rose from an administrative role to become COO and EVP of the rental division in 2014. At Ucar, Jenny oversaw the rapid growth in mobile-enabled on-demand services from the ridesharing business-- valuable expertise for envisioning and executing on Luckin’s marriage of offline storefront expansion and an on-demand experience on the smartphone. The companies’ ties do not end there: Jenny started Luckin with a loan from Ucar CEO Lu Zhengyao, and many of Luckin’s investors had also invested in Ucar.

Rui and Ying-Ying continue by comparing Luckin to Starbucks, and then explaining why that comparison doesn’t make much sense. Complete with vivid stories and analysis, our co-hosts’ thesis is that Luckin’s rise is a prime example of how brands are increasingly using offline presence to acquire online customers, and that the company’s technology and digital-first F&B business model innovations can be exported and applied to other businesses and in other locales.

Listen to find out: which startups, both in China and here in the U.S., can we more accurately consider to be the chain’s “cousins”? What role does data play in optimizing aspects such as delivery, inventory management, personalized deals, and expansion? It’s too early to tell if Luckin will succeed, but what factors may tip the odds in one direction or another? How is this Chinese company using technology to successfully reimagine F&B-- faster than Starbucks ever has-- beginning with one of the oldest and seemingly simplest markets, grabbing a cup of coffee?

As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, liking our Facebook page, and tweeting at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag! Finally, we would like to give a shoutout to our new listeners over at our partner, dealstreetasia.com.