Mattel has seen its earlier operations in China falter, but now closed a new deal with Alibaba to sell interactive learning toys on the fragmented Chinese toy market. For Mattel it is now do or die, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Reuters.Read More →

Leading business analyst Shaun Rein has been selected by CPA´s in Australia as on of the top-10 daring thinkers of 2016. Author of The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia, his thoughts on China´s innovative road into the future has triggered off his selection, reports InTheBlack.com.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 →

China is becoming fast one of the most innovative markets, explains Shanghai-based managing director William Bao Bean of the Chinaccelerator. Fintech and mobile will leave their marks on 2017, he explains to a non-Chinese audience. While startups have a hard time to find funding, 9% of the startups in Shenzhen get one million US dollar in funding. In stead of joining foreign multinationals, young Chinese prefer now an entrepreneurial career.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 →

Sino-American China veteran and rock star Kaiser Kuo will return to China in February and March 2017 for several visits. It will be the first time for him to visit after he left his job as communication director at internet giant Baidu earlier this year. He will visit Shanghai for a speech in the third week of March 2017.Read More →

WeChat has been for long the golden grail for marketing to China´s consumers. But those days are over, says innovation expert William Bao Bean, director of the Shanghai-based ChinaAccelerator to TechNode. Marketing needs more platforms than WeChat, although the Tencent tool is still an important center piece.Read More →

Victoria Secret took on China online, but has now decided to open its first offline retail flagship store in Shanghai. They move very cautiously, says retail expert Ben Cavender in AdAge, and they have a fair chance of getting it right in one of the most difficult retail markets in the world.Read More →

China´s consumers have been eager purchasers of foreign products, but getting them at the right price proved to be troublesome. New startups are going to make that choice easier, predicts William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV and managing director of Chinaccelerator, in TechNode, after closing days of presentations by startups.Read More →

Following their Western counterparts, Chinese companies like Alibaba and drone maker DJI turn back to brick-and-mortar retail operations. Chinese consumers are becoming more demanding, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg, and while previously sloppy service was common, now standards are going up.Read More →