United Airlines caused an uproar among its customers in China by forcefully removing a Chinese-American doctor. But calls for a boycott be understandable, but hard to execute, says business analyst Shaun Rein to BuzzFeed.Read More →
Kweichow Moutai, China’s favorite booze, passed on Friday with US$71.5 billion Johnny Walker owner Diageo as the world’s most valuable drink despite its dependency on the China market. They have made all the right moves, tells business analyst Shaun Rein to CNN, despite president Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive.Read More →
Superinvestor Warren Buffett made a surprise appearance on CoCa-Cola’s Cherry Coke’s can during their China launch. A good move, says business analyst Shaun Rein to AP. Business leaders like him are more popular than sport starts.Read More →
Pleasing the China consumer has always been a challenge, but – as Tsingtao and Wanda discovered – consumers have become harder to get. Retail expert Ben Cavender nevertheless sees a lot of room for growth, he tells Reuters.Read More →
Competition in China is bloody and fierce, but as the Chinese internet companies go global, also China’s internet wars go global, says William Bao Bean, partner at SOSV to FTChinese. Didi taking on Brazil’s 99, its home-grown taxi-hailing app, it a telling sign.Read More →
Alibaba teamed up with brick-and-mortar retailer Bailian, in the latest effort to combine the best of two worlds. But while the idea seems to make sense, the results up to now have been meager, tells retail analyst Ben Cavender to Reuters.Read More →
Asahi is selling its minority stake in Tsingtao beer as the beer market in China is not giving it the gain it expected since it entered in 2009, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg. “Tsingtao is in trouble,” said Rein. “It’s not premium enough, and it’s not cheap enough.”Read More →
Austerity marked the luxury goods industry, triggered off by the anti-corruption drive by president Xi Jinping. But the growth figures are back on track, says Rupert Hoogewerf, based on research by his Hurun China Rich report, released on Thursday, he tells the China Daily. Purchases are back on the 2013 level.Read More →
Chairman Jack Ma of Alibaba promised US president-elect Donald Trump a million US jobs, but what he might get, says retail analyst Ben Cavender at CNN, are very, very few real jobs. “I don’t see a lot of job creation happening.”Read More →
The decision to sell a controlling stake of McDonald´s to private investors in the Carlyle Group, Citic Capital and Citic Group triggered off mixed reactions among analysts. Retail analyst Ben Cavender says the new investors can help to refurbish and expand the chain. Peking University business professor Jeffrey Towson sees a different management style, that makes competitor KFC run for its money. But business analyst Shaun Rein sees to end to the inevitable decline of McDonald´s.Read More →
Internet giant Alibaba paid US$2.6 billion for the retailer Intimate group, another sign Alibaba wants to leverage its online presence to brick-and-mortar retail operations, says retail analyst Ben Cavender to Reuters. Earlier it bought also leading retailer Suning.Read More →
In line with expectations, McDonald´s has sold a controlling stake of its China and Hong Kong operation to private investors, after competitor Yum did the same last year. With the new financial resources, the China operation can improve fast, says Shanghai-based retail analyst Ben Cavender to Bloomberg.Read More →