Chinese have spent last year 13 billion US dollar on luxury goods, but only 40 percent in China itself, says Shaun Rein in CNBC. Because of the high tariffs luxury goods, including cars, are 20-30 percent more expensive on the mainland. “They are shooting themselves in the foot.”Read More →
Is China becoming an innovative force? Arthur Kroeber belongs to the bears in this debate, he tells Reuters, as the academic climate in the country is too much constrained. Not only lack of intellectual property protection and a failing educational system holds innovation back.Read More →
China’s economy is not under threat of a bursting property bubble, says Shaun Rein in CNBC. Property is being sold to people who can afford those assets, and can even stand a severe drop in value, unlike home owners in the US.Read More →
As growing crowds of mainland Chinese visit Taiwan, curious to see how pre-revolutionary China could have looked like, the island could capture a major share of the luxury good purchases, says Shaun Rein in CNBC. Sixty percent of those goods are bought now in Hong Kong or Europe. Shaun Rein isRead More →
Bill Fischer When you are looking for smart ideas in China, go to Beijing, rather than Shanghai or Guangzhou, writes IMD business professor Bill Fischer of technology management in the Business Times, exploring the strategy for idea hunting. Interested in Web 2.0? Go to Silicon Valley. If you go anywhere else,Read More →
Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr China’s government is placing its bets on increasing domestic spending by consumers, tells Arther Kroeber in The Guardian. But the inflation seems to be undermining the confidence among those consumers. The 11.7% rise in food costs reflected growing demand, a shrinking pool of youngRead More →
Rupert Hoogewerf The number of Chinese millionaires has increased in one year time by almost 10 percent, to 960,000. The number of super rich, those have over US§15 million in assets, went up 9 percent to 60,000, according to the latest Hurun Report, produced by Rupert Hoogewerf. From eFinancialNews: WhereRead More →
Kaiser Kuo “No comment.” Few of our speakers have been quoted so often by the mainstream media saying nothing. Kaiser Kuo easily made it into the top-position of most-sought speakers for April as he was – and still is – unable to say anything about a possible cooperation between hisRead More →
Hong Kong: too small via Wikipedia The new-to-built Shanghai Disney park should learn from the mistakes that have been made in the Hong Kong park, says Shaun Rein in Reuters. First, size matters. Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research said the problem with the Hong Kong park isRead More →
Image via Wikipedia What foreign companies, trying to tap into the China market, regularly forget is that there is no need for their services, tells retail analyst Paul French at Marketplace Public Radio. Home Depot is an example. Paul French responds to Raymond Chou, president of Home Depot China: CHOU: The HomeRead More →
Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr The luxury goods market in China is growing fast, says Shaun Rein in CNBC, but retailers often focus on the wrong kind of customers. The rich grab a visa and shop in Milan and Hong Kong. Aspiring young buyers still want their Gucci bags,Read More →
Toyota SUV in trouble via Wikipedia The effects on trade between Japan and China cause by the Fukushima nuclear disaster is bigger than expected, warns Shaun Rein at CNBC, as Chinese consumers not only stop buying Japanese food, but Japanese products like Toyota‘s SUV cannot reach the Chinese market. Rein is bullishRead More →