We need your help to create Season 2 of Digitally China! Just got a few short questions for you here: https://radiichina.com/digitally-china-2019-wrap/ As many of our loyal listeners might have felt, Digitally China has been taking a short break. But don't worry, we'll be coming back with Season 2 in no time. Throughout the 26 episodes of Season 1 we've really appreciated all the support and feedback from our fantastic listeners who have tuned in to the bi-weekly series. Thanks to this feedback,...
Dec 30, 2019•11 min•Ep. 1
This episode of Digitally China is about Brian Wong, his experiences from being part of the early days of Alibaba but at the same time also a story about how it was to first-hand be part of how China grew from almost nothing to the largest internet market in the world. The location is a hotel in San Francisco, the year is 1999. The internet hype is in its peak. United States at this moment have over 100 million internet users, 10 times more than the much larger country in the East, China. While ...
Sep 26, 2019•43 min•Ep. 2
In the latest Digitally China we’re looking back on history. Meituan-Dianping is China’s clear market leader within group buying, offline discovery and online-offline services today. But it wasn’t that clear a few years back. In fact, the opposite was true, with the American giant Groupon entering China backed by a powerful partner in Tencent . In a hyper-competitive environment, there were suddenly thousands of group-buying services all fighting for the position that Meituan has today. For a se...
Sep 16, 2019•45 min•Ep. 3
In the latest episode of Digitally China, Tom is joined by Jill Tang, co-founder of Ladies Who Tech, an influential Chinese organization focusing on entrepreneurship and gender diversity in China. As someone who works in the unique cross-section of tech, diversity, multinational companies, and market-entry in China, Jill shares her observations and thoughts on how multinational companies can be more gender inclusive in China, and how China's younger and more international workforce is changing w...
Aug 16, 2019•29 min•Ep. 4
Companies around the world are latching onto social commerce, but in China, where mobile payments are ubiquitous and consumers are extra wary of fake goods, the integration between social media and online shopping has been especially fast. That doesn’t mean it’s a silver bullet for brands though -- or even the multi-billion dollar internet celebrity industry, where influencers are tasked with advertising products without appearing too commercial. In this episode of Digitally China, we’ll discuss...
Aug 16, 2019•30 min•Ep. 5
In China’s fast-growing tech industry, it’s easy to focus on exciting new products and businesses while overlooking one of the most important elements of any company: the talent. Inthis episode, we look at how the recruiting process at Chinese tech firms does -- and doesn’t -- differ from that of multinational firms, and how China's new wave of tech professionals view their career options. EpisodeOutline: Incentives/disincentives for working at multinational firms vs. Chinese internet companies ...
Aug 16, 2019•40 min•Ep. 6
Together with Jonas Leijonhufvud and Sven Carlsson, the authors of a new book telling the inside story about Spotify and the fight for global dominance in music streaming we are discussing if ByteDance actually have a shot at beating the giants. ByteDance, the company behind the huge International success TikTok, or Douyin as its called in China is really on the offense. Fueled by the position as the 3rd most downloaded app in the world 2018 and a valuation of 75 billion dollars, ByteDance have ...
Aug 16, 2019•35 min•Ep. 7
In this special episode of Digitally China Tom is joined by Emmy Teo, co-founder of the New Retail startup FUSE and advisor to up & coming consumer brands in fashion and furniture. Chinese companies have for a long time had access to the best supply chain in the world, enabling scalable production of a wide range of products. But only in the recent years we have seen that unique skillset being combined with what western companies usually see as their differentiator: the ability to create att...
Aug 16, 2019•50 min•Ep. 8
With the recent news of Amazon exiting China with their e-commerce business combined with the departure of Uber a few years ago, many observers' have questioned if a foreign tech company can be successful in China. But then we heard about OYO, an Indian startup having recent success in China hosting thousands of rooms in what is in theory a very hard market to penetrate. In this episode we are discussing OYO with reporter Huizhong Wu, trying to understand why they can be successful in China whil...
Aug 16, 2019•27 min•Ep. 9
Over the past five years, China’s internet industry has seen dizzying growth, with each year hitting record-levels of funding. In the second quarter of 2018, Chinese startups raised more venture capital than startups in North America for the first time. But at the end of last year, the industry started winding down -- fast. Rumors started about mass layoffs at different tech firms, from ecommerce giant JD to Quora-like Zhihu. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs braced themselves for a “capital winter.” So ...
Aug 16, 2019•31 min•Ep. 10
This latest episode of Digitally China has a special format, partly recorded live from D-Congress, one of the largest e-commerce conferences in Europe where co-host Tom Xiong and producer Jacob Lovén moderated panels with Chinese e-commerce experts. In this episode we’ll listen to excerpts from Shenyi Wu (former CFO of Pinduoduo and RED) and Julie Chen (former Sequoia Capital China) that have founded the new western-focused e-commerce platform Flamingo.shop. Together with them we discuss how the...
Aug 16, 2019•23 min•Ep. 11
In a country where WeChat rules supreme, Bytedance is attempting the impossible. Last month,the Beijing-based startup launched its own social networking app called Duoshan. It wouldn’t be the first time Bytedance has made larger, more established tech companies nervous. It runs TikTok, a video-sharing app that has quickly grown popular worldwide -- a rare feat for a Chinese tech firm -- inspiring Facebook to launch its own competing app called Lasso. The startup has also already started butting ...
Aug 16, 2019•29 min•Ep. 12
With DJI's recent 150 million USD embezzlement scandal we are investigating what happens when Chinese tech companies grow too fast. What compromises are made to enable a fast growth that also increases the risk of embezzlement and internal fraud? Together with our external guest Alex with in-depth experience from both Accenture and large Chinese e-commerce companies we are discovering: - How embezzlement and internal fraud are being done in Chinese tech companies? - Is there any difference betwe...
Aug 16, 2019•32 min•Ep. 13
One of the most hyped up words of 2018, AI or Artificial Intelligence has lately been portrayed as something that can enslave the human kind by everything from tech founders (Elon Musk) to tv shows (Black Mirror). This week’s episode we have a special guest, Nicholas Young, to talk about this topic. Understanding what AI actually is, what it is used for currently, how the future will look like and discussing if we actually already are enslaved to AI. Nicholas Young is an entrepreneur running the...
Aug 16, 2019•34 min•Ep. 14
A few weeks ago, in December 2018, Tencent Music did their highly anticipated IPO on the New York Stock Exchange valuing the company to $21.3 billion. Often being described as the "Spotify of China", we're looking into what Tencent Music actually is and what they might represent for the future of music, globally. With a user base of more than 800 monthly active users and revenue of around $2 billion the detail that has impressed the most is their profit margin of 20%. Or actually even the fact t...
Aug 16, 2019•30 min•Ep. 15
When it comes to buzzwords in the tech industry, "new retail" ranks high on the list. For the past few years, Alibaba has popularized the catchphrase to describe smarter, more high-tech ways of serving customers in brick-and-mortar shops -- by linking online and offline data -- from facial recognition-powered payments to smart mirrors that lets customers "try on" cosmetics before buying them. But beyond the shiny add-ons that consumers see, the real impact of new retail - especially for physical...
Aug 16, 2019•27 min•Ep. 16
A "new social" is on the rise led by TikTok. But despite soaring user numbers, will they survive the competition from giants like Facebook and Tencent? In this episode, we look into TikToks journey from startup to half a billion users. Hosts: Eva Xiao and Tom Xiong. Production: Jacob Loven. Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educa...
Aug 16, 2019•34 min•Ep. 17
When you think of ecommerce in China, Alibaba is probably the first name that comes to mind. And no wonder - the internet giant has built a multibillion dollar empire off a sophisticated ecommerce, logistics, and payments trifecta. But WeChat, China's most ubiquitous and popular messaging app, often goes unnoticed. Thanks to built-in payments, the app's social newsfeed, and one-on-one chat, these 'micro' shopkeepers are able to operate lucrative businesses from their phone -- and connect with cu...
Aug 16, 2019•33 min•Ep. 18
In this pilot episode we are checking out the business model of Luckin Coffee. Is the "digitalisation of coffee" just a hype or actually something that has value? With guest expert Greg Savarese. Thoughts on the episode? Do not hesitate to give us your feedback podcast@digitallychina.com Hosts: Eva Xiao and Tom Xiong. Production: Jacob Loven. Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out...
Aug 16, 2019•23 min•Ep. 19
